All this was done in seven weeks from the breaking out of the first riot. Both parties were now willing to negotiate, with the view of gaining time; the queenregent expecting aid from France, the Lords expecting it from England.99 But the proceedings of Elizabeth being tardy, the Protestants, after waiting for some months, determined to strike a decisive blow before the reinforcements arrived. In October, the principal peers, headed by the Duke of Chastelherault, the Earl of Arran, the Earl of Argyle, and the Earl of Glencairn, assembled at Edinburgh. A great meeting was held, of which Lord Ruthven was appointed president, and in which the queen - regent was solemnly suspended from the government, on the ground that she was opposed to "the glory of God, to the liberty of the realm, and to the welfare of the nobles."100

In the winter, an English fleet sailed into the Frith, and anchored near Edinburgh.101 In January 1560, the

99 It is stated of the queen-regent, that, in July 1559, "shee had sent alreadie to France for more men of warr." See the curious pamphlet entitled "A Historie of the Estate of Scotland, from July 1558 to April 1560," in Miscellany of the Wodrow Society, p. 63, Edinburgh, 1844. All sorts of rumours were circulated; and a letter, dated 12th October 1559, says, "Summe thinke the regent will departe secretlie. Summe that she will to Ynchkeith, for that three shippes are a preparing. Summe saye that she is verie sicke. Summe saye the devill cannot kill her." Sadler's State Papers, vol. i. p. 499.

100 Tytler's History of Scotland, vol. v. p. 104. This was on the 22d of October 1559. Compare Sadler's State Papers, vol. i. p. 512. "This Mondaye, the 22 of October, was the douagier deprived from her authoritie by commen consent of all lords and barons here present." On this occasion, "Johne Willocke," the preacher, delivered himself of a discourse in favour of her deposition. Among other arguments, he said, "that in deposing of princes, and these that have beene in authoritie, God did not alwayes use his immediat power, but sometimes he used other meanes, which His wisdome thought good, and justice approved. As by Asa, He removed Maacha, his owne mother, from honour and authoritie, which before she had used; by Jehu He destroyed Joram, and the whole posteritie of Achab." Therefore "he" (the orator) "could see no reasoun why they, the borne counsellers, the nobilitie and barons of the realme, might not justlie deprive her from all regiment." Calderwood's History of the Kirk, vol. i. pp. 540, 541; and Knox's History of the Reformation, vol. i. pp. 442, 443.

101 The Diurnal of Occurrents, pp. 55, 272, says, that the fleet arrived on 24th of January 1559-60; "aucht greit schippis of Ingland in the raid of Leith." And a letter (in Sadler's State Papers, vol. i. p. 697), dated the 23d of January, says, "the shippes arrived yesterdaye in the Frythe to the nomber of ix. or x., as yet, and the remanent followith.' The date, there

Duke of Norfolk arrived at Berwick, and concluded, on the part of Elizabeth, a treaty with the Lords of the Congregation, by virtue of which, the English army entered Scotland on the 2d of April.102 Against this combination, the government could effect nothing, and in July, was glad to sign a peace, by which the French troops were to evacuate Scotland, and the whole power of administration was virtually consigned to the Protestant Lords, 103

The complete success of this great revolution, and the speed with which it was effected, are of themselves a decisive proof of the energy of those general causes by which the whole movement was controlled. For more than a hundred and fifty years, there had been a deadly struggle between the nobles and the Church; and the issue of that struggle was, the establishment of the Reformation, and the triumph of the aristocracy. They had, at last, carried their point. The hierarchy was overthrown, and replaced by new and untried men. All the old notions of apostolic succession, of the imposition of hands, and of the divine right of ordination, were suddenly discarded. The offices of the Church were performed by heretics, the majority of whom had not even been ordained.104 Finally, and to crown the whole, in

fore, of the 10th of January, given in a note to Keith's Church and State in Scotland, vol. i. p. 255, is evidently erroneous. Important as the event was, its exact date is not mentioned either by Tytler (History of Scotland, vol. v. pp. 114, 115), or by Chalmers (Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 631).

102 Chalmers' Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 632. Knox's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 57. The Berwick treaty, in February, is printed in Keith's Church and State in Scotland, vol. i. pp. 258-262. So great was the influence of the nobles, that the English troops were well received by the people, in spite of the old and bitter animosity between the two nations. " Especially in Fyfe they were thankfully receaved, and well entreated, with such quietnes and gentle entertainement betwixt our nation and them, as no man would have thought that ever there had beine any variance." A Historie of the Estate of Scotland, from 1558 to 1560, in Miscellany of the Wodrow Society. p. 78.

103 Vpoun the vi. day of Julij, it wes concludit and finallie endit betuix the saids ambassatouris, tuitching all debaittis, contraversies and materis concernyng the asseiging of Leith, depairting of the Frenchemen thairfra, and randering of the same; and the said peax daitit this said day." A Diurnal of Occurrents, pp. 277, 278. See also p. 60; and Keith's Affairs of Church and State in Scotland, vol. i. p. 295.

104

“That Knox himself was in priest's orders, is a fact which his bio

the summer of that same year, 1560, the Scotch parliament passed two laws, which utterly subverted the ancient scheme. By one of these laws, every statute which had ever been enacted in favour of the Church, was at once repealed.105 By the other law, it was declared that whoever either said mass, or was present while it was said, should, for the first offence, lose his goods; for the second offence be exiled; and, for the third offence, be put to death.106

Thus it was, that an institution, which had borne the brunt of more than a thousand years, was shivered, and fell to pieces. And, from its fall, great things were augured. It was believed, that the people would be enlightened, that their eyes were opening to their former follies, and that the reign of superstition was about to end. But what was forgotten then, and what is too often forgotten now, is, that in these affairs there is an order and a natural sequence, which can never be reversed. This is, that every institution, as it actually exists, no matter what its name or pretences may be, is the effect of public opinion far more than the cause; and that it will avail nothing to attack the institution, unless

grapher, the late Dr. M'Crie, has placed beyond dispute; and some of the other leaders were also priests; but the greater number of the preachers, and all those who subsequently became ministers, were totally without any orders whatever, not even such as the superintendents could have given them; for their own supposed call, the election of the people, and the civil ceremony of induction to the living, was all that was then 'judged necessary."" Stephen's History of the Church of Scotland, 1848, vol. i. pp. 145, "A new-fashioned sort of ministry, unknown in the Christian Church for all preceding generations." Keith's Church and State in Scotland, vol. iii. p. 204. Compare Argyll's Presbytery Examined, pp. 34-36.

146.

105 66

The thre estaitis of parliament hes anullit and declarit all sik actes maid in tymes bipast not aggreing wt goddis word and now contrair to the confessioun of oure fayt according to the said word publist in this parliament, Tobe of nane avale force nor effect. And decernis the said actis and every ane of thame to haue na effect nor strenth in tyme to cum." Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, 1814, folio, vol. ii. p. 535. This was on 24th August 1560.

108 "That na maner of person nor personis say mess nor zit heir mess nor be pñt thairat vnder the pane of confiscatioun of all thair gud movable and vnmovable and pvneissing of thair bodeis at the discretioun of the magistrat within quhais jurisdictioun sik personis happynis to be apprehendit ffor the first falt: Banissing of the Realme for the secund falt, and justifying to the deid for the thrid falt." Ibid., 24th August 1560, vol. ii. p. 535.

you can first change the opinion. In Scotland, the Church was grossly superstitious; but it did not, therefore, follow, that to overthrow the establishment, would lessen the evil. They who think that superstition can be weakened in this way, do not know the vitality of that dark and ill-omened principle. Against it, there is only one weapon, and that weapon is knowledge. When men are ignorant, they must be superstitious; and wherever superstition exists, it is sure to organize itself into some kind of system, which it makes its home. If you drive it from that home, it will find another. The spirit transmigrates; it assumes a new form; but still it lives. How idle, then, is that warfare which reformers are too apt to wage, in which they slay the carcass, and spare the life! The husk, forsooth, they seek out, and destroy; but within that husk is a seed of deadly poison, whose vitality they are unable to impair, and which, shifted from its place, bears fruit in another direction, and shoots up with a fresh, and often a more fatal, exuberance.

The truth is, that every institution, whether political or religious, represents, in its actual working, the form and pressure of the age. It may be very old; it may bear a venerated name; it may aim at the highest objects; but whoever carefully studies its history, will find that, in practice, it is successively modified by successive generations, and that, instead of controlling society, it is controlled by it. When the Protestant Reformation was effected, the Scotch were excessively ignorant, and, therefore, in spite of the Reformation, they remained excessively superstitious. How long that ignorance continued, and what its results were, we shall presently see; but before entering into that inquiry, it will be advisable to trace the immediate consequences of the Reformation itself, in connexion with the powerful class by whose authority it was established.

The nobles, having overthrown the Church, and stripped it of a large part of its wealth, thought that they were to reap the benefit of their own labour. They had slain the enemy, and they wished to divide the

spoil.107 But this did not suit the views of the Protestant preachers. In their opinion, it was impious to secularise ecclesiastical property, and turn it aside to profane purposes. They held, that it was right, indeed, for the lords to plunder the Church; but they took for granted that the proceeds of the robbery were to enrich themselves. They were the godly men; and it was the business of the ruling classes to endow them with benefices, from which the old and idolatrous clergy were to be expelled.108

In accordance with these opinions, Knox and his colleagues, in August 1560, presented a petition to Parliament, calling on the nobles to restore the Church property which they had seized, and to have it properly applied to the support of the new ministers.109 To this request, those powerful chiefs did not even vouchsafe a reply.110 They were content with matters as they actually stood, and were, therefore, unwilling to disturb the existing arrangement. They had fought the fight; they had gained the victory, and shared the spoil. It

107 As Robertson says, in his measured, and somewhat feeble, style, Among the Scottish nobility, some hated the persons, and others coveted the wealth, of the dignified clergy; and by abolishing that order of men, the former indulged their resentment, and the latter hoped to gratify their avarice." History of Scotland, book iii. p. 116, in Robertson's Works, edit. 1831. The contemporary narrative, in A Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 269, sounds much more vigorous to my ear. "In all this tyme" (1559), kirkmennis goodis and geir wer spoulzeit and reft fra thame, in euerie place quhair the samyne culd be apprehendit; for euerie man for the maist pairt that culd get any thing pertenyng to any kirkmen, thocht the same as wele won geir.

"all

108 "Knox never dreamed that the revenues of the Church were to be secularized; but that he and his colleagues were simply to remove the old incumbents, and then take possession of their benefices." Stephen's History of the Church of Scotland, vol. i. p. 106. "The ecclesiastical revenues, which they never contemplated for a moment were to be seized by the Protestant nobility." Lawson's Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, p. 233.

"There

109 Compare Knox's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. pp. 89-92, with M'Crie's Life of Knox, p. 179. Of this document, M'Crie says, can be no doubt that it received the sanction, if it was not the composition, of the reformer." It called upon them" (the nobles) "to restore the patrimony of the Church, of which they had unjustly possessed them

selves."

110"Making no answer to the last point." Spottiswoode's History of the Church of Scotland, vol. i. p. 327. "Without taking any notice." Keith's Affairs of Church and State, vol. i. p. 321.