Scotland.

THE murder of the cardinal-primate of St. Andrews C H A P. had deprived the Scotch catholics of a head, whofe fe- XXXIX. verity, courage, and capacity had rendered him extremely formidable to the innovators in religion; and 1559. the execution of the laws against herefy began thenceforth Affairs of to be more remifs and gentle. The queen-regent governed the kingdom by prudent and moderate counfels; and as the was not difpofed to facrifice the civil interests of the state to the bigotry or interefts of the clergy, she deemed it more expedient to temporize, and to connive at the progress of a doctrine, which the had not power entirely to reprefs. When informed of the death of Edward, and the acceffion of Mary to the crown of England, the entertained hopes, that the Scottish reformers, deprived of the countenance which they received from that powerful kingdom, would lose their ardour with their profpect of fuccefs, and would gradually return to the faith of their ancestors. But the progrefs and revolutions of religion are little governed by the ufual maxims of civil policy; and the event much disappointedthe regent's expectations. Many of the English preachers, terrified with the feverity of Mary's government, took fhelter in Scotland, where they found more protection, and a milder administration; and while they propagated their theological tenets, they filled the whole kingdom with a juft horror against the cruelties of the bigotted catholics, and fhewed their difciples the fate, which they must expect, if ever their adverfaries fhould attain an uncontrouled authority over them.

A HIERARCHY, moderate in its acquifitions of power and riches, may fafely grant a toleration to fectaries; and the more it abates the fervour of innovators by lenity and liberty, the more fecurely will it poffefs those advantages, which the legal establishments beftow upon it. But where fuperftition has raised a church to fuch an exorbitant height as that of Rome, perfecution is lefs the result of bigotry in the priests, than of a neceffary policy; and the rigour of law is the only method of repelling the attacks of men, who, befides religious zeal, have to many other motives, derived both from public and private interefts to engage them on the fide of innovation. But though fuch overgrown hierarchies may long fupport themselves by these violent expedients, the time comes, when severities tend only to enrage the new VOL. V. fe&taries,

C

CHAP fectaries, and make them break through all the bounds XXXIX. of reafon and moderation, This crifis was now vifibly approaching in Scotland; and whoever confiders merely 1559. the transactions resulting from it, will be inclined to throw the blame equally on both parties; whoever enlarges his view, and reflects on the fituations, will remark the necessary progress of human affairs, and the operation of those principles, which are inherent in hu

Reforma

tion in Scotland.

man nature.

66

SOME heads of the reformers in Scotland, fuch as the earl of Argyle, his fon lord Lorne, the earls of Morton and Glencarne, Erfkine of Dun, and others, obferving the danger to which they were expofed, and defirous to propagate their principles, entered privately into a bond or affociation; and called themselves the congregation of the Lord, in contradiftinction to the establifhed church, which they denominated the congregation of Satan. The tenor of the bond was as follows: We "perceiving how Satan, in his members, the antichrift "of our time, do cruelly rage, seeking to overthrow "and destroy the gospel of Chrift and his congregation, "ought, according to our bounden duty, to strive, in 66 our master's cause, even unto the death, being certain of the victory in him. We do therefore promise, 66 before the majesty of God and his congregation, that we, by his grace, fhall, with all diligence, continually apply our whole power, fubftance, and our very lives, 66 to maintain, fet forward, and establish the most blef"fed word of God and his congregation; and fhall "labour, by all poffible means, to have faithful minifters, truly and purely to minister Chrift's gospel and facraments to his people: We fhall maintain them, nourish them, and defend them, the whole congregation of Christ, and every member thereof, by our "whole power, and at the hazard of our lives, against

66

66

66

66

66

Satan, and all wicked power, who may intend tyranny and trouble against the faid congregation: Unto "which holy word and congregation we do join our"felves: and we forfake and renounce the congregation of Satan, with all the fuperftitious abomination and idolatry thereof; and moreover fhall declare ourselves "manifeftly enemies thereto, by this faithful promise "before God, teftified to this congregation by our subfcriptions....

66

"fcriptions. At Edinburgh, the third of December, CHA P. 66 1557 H."

HAD the fubfcribers of this zealous league been content only to demand a toleration of the new opinions; however incompatible their pretenfions might have been with the policy of the church of Rome, they would have had the praise of oppofing tyrannical laws, enacted to fupport an establishment prejudicial to civil fociety: But it is plain, that they carried their views much farther; and their practice immediately discovered the spirit, by which they were actuated. Supported by the authority, which, they thought, belonged to them as the congregation of the Lord, they ordained, that prayers in the vulgar tongue' fhould be ufed in all the parish churches of the kingdom; and that preaching, and the interpretation of the fcriptures fhould be practised in private houses, till God fhould move the prince to grant public preaching by faithful and true minifters K. Such bonds of affociation are always the forerunners of rebellion; and this violent invasion of the established religion was the actual commencement of it.

BEFORE this league was publicly known or avowed, the clergy, alarmed with the progress of the reformation, attempted to recover their loft authority, by a violent exercife of power which tended ftill farther to augment the zeal and number of their enemies. Hamilton the primate, feized Walter Mill, a priest of an irreproachable life, who had embraced the new doctrines; and having tried him at St. Andrews, condemned him to the flames for herefy. Such general averfion was discovered to this barbarity, that it was fome time before the bishops could prevail on any one to act the part of a civil judge, and pronounce fentence upon Mill; and even after the time of his execution was fixed, all the shops of St. Andrews being fhut, no one would fell a rope to tie him to the stake, and the primate himself was obliged to furnish this implement. The man bore the torture with that courage, which, though ufual on these occafions, always appears fupernatural and astonishing to the mul titude. The people, to express their abhorrence against the

C 2

H Keith, p. 66. Knox, p. 101. 1 The reformers used at that time king Edward's liturgy in Scotland. Forbes, p. 155. K Keith, p. 66. Knox, p. 101.

XXXIX.

1559.

CHA P. the cruelty of the priests, raised a monument of stones XXXIX. on the place of his execution; and as fast as the ftones were removed by order of the clergy, they were again 1559. fupplied from the voluntary zeal of the populace L. It is in vain for men to oppofe the feverest punishment to the united motives of religion and public applaufe; and this was the last barbarity of the kind, which the catholics had the power to exercise in Scotland.

SOME time after, the people discovered their fentiments in fuch a manner as was fufficient to prognofticate to the priests the fate, which was awaiting them. It was ufual on the festival of St. Giles, the tutelar faint of Edinburgh, to carry in proceffion the image of that faint; but the proteftants, in order to prevent the ceremony, found means, on the eve of the festival, to purloin the statue from the church; and they pleased themselves with imagining the furprize and difappointment of his votaries. The clergy, however, framed haftily a new image, which, in derifion, was called by the people young St. Giles; and they carried it through the streets, attended with all the ecclefiaftics in the town and neighbourhood. The multitude abstained from violence fo long as the queen-regent continued a fpectator, but the moment she retired, they invaded the idol, threw it in the mire, and broke it in pieces. The flight and terror of the priests and fryars, who, it was remarked, deserted, in his greatest diftrefs, the object of their worship, was the source of univerfal mockery and laughter.

ENCOURAGED by all thefe appearances, the congregation proceeded with alacrity in openly foliciting fubfcriptions to their league; and the death of Mary of England, with the acceffion of Elizabeth, which happened about this time, contributed to increase their hopes of final fuccefs in their undertaking. They ventured to present a petition to the regent, craving a reformation of the church, and of the wicked, fcandalous, and deteftable lives of the prelates and ecclefiaftics M. They framed a petition, which they intended to prefent to parliament, and in which, after premising, that they could not communicate with the damnable idolatry, and intolerable abuses of the papistical church, they defired, that the laws against heretics fhould be executed by the civil magistrate

1559,

magiftrate alone, and that the fcripture fhould be the fole CHA P. rule of judging of herefy N. They even petitioned the XXXIX. convocation, and infifted, that prayers fhould be faid in the vulgar tongue, and that bishops fhould be chofen with the consent of the gentry of the diocese, and priests with the consent of the parishioners °. The regent prudently temporized between these parties; and as the aimed at procuring a matrimonial crown for her fon-inlaw, the dauphin, fhe was, on that as well as other accounts, unwilling to come to extremities with either of them.

BUT after this conceffion was obtained, the received orders from France, probably dictated by the haughty spirit of her brothers, to proceed with rigour against the reformers, and to restore the royal authority by fome fignal act of power P. She made the most eminent of the proteftant teachers be cited to appear before the council at Stirling; but when their followers were marching thither in great multitudes, in order to protect and countenance them, the entertained apprehenfions of an infurrection, and, it is faid, diffipated the people by a promise, that nothing fhould be done to the prejudice of the minifters. This promife was violated; and a sentence paffed, by which all the ministers were pronounced rebels, on account of their not appearing. A measure, fo rafh and ill-advised, enraged the people, and made them refolve to oppofe the regent's authority by force of arms, and to proceed to extremity against the clergy of the established religion.

In this critical time, John Knox arrived from Geneva, where he paffed fome years in banishment, and where he had imbibed, from his commerce with Calvin, the highest fanaticism of his fect, augmented by the natural ferocity of his own character. He had been 11th May. invited back to Scotland by the leaders of the reformation; and mounting the pulpit at Perth, during the present ferment of men's minds, he declaimed with his ufual vehemence against the idolatry and other abominations of the church of Rome, and incited his audience. to exert their utmost zeal for its fubverfion. A priest

o Keith, p. 78, 81, 82. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 446.

N Knox, p. 123. vil's Memoirs, p. 24. at the end of the volume..

was

P Mel

Q See note