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FROM    THE   LIBRARY   OF 


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CHURCH    HISTORY   OF    SCOTLAND. 


THE 


<0&  OF  PB/%v 
^  MAR    7    1932  * 

c> 


CHURCH     HISTORY 


OF 


SCOTLAND 

FROM  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN 
ERA  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 


BY 


JOHN    CUNNINGHAM,    D.D. 

AUTHOR    OF    UTHE    QUAKERS:    AN    INTERNATIONAL    HISTORY."    "A    NEW    THEORY 
OF    KNOWING    AND    KNOWN-*"    ETC,    ETC. 


SECOND    EDITION 

IN    TWO     VOLUMES 
VOL.     I. 


EDINBURGH:     JAMES     THIN 

1882 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/church01cunn 


PREFACE  TO  SECOND  EDITION. 


The  First  Edition  has  now  been  exhausted  for  several  years. 
In  this  Second  Edition  I  have  carefully  gone  over  the  whole 
narrative,  and  by  the  light  of  recent  research  have  been  able 
to  alter  and  amend  many  things.  I  have,  moreover,  continued 
the  narrative  with  a  fulness  proportioned  to  the  rest  of  the 
history  down  to  1843 — the  date  of  the  Free  Church  Secession. 
Beyond  that  date,  and  down  to  the  present  day,  I  have  given 
merely  an  outline  of  ecclesiastical  events,  carefully  avoiding 
living  divines,  as  happily  not  yet  historical  personages. 

J.  c. 

Manse  of  Crieff,  gt/i  May  1882. 


PREFACE  TO  FIRST  EDITION. 


Our  best  Scottish  Ecclesiastical  Histories  are  confined  to 
particular  periods.  Indeed,  so  far  as  I  know,  there  is  not  one 
which  will  conduct  the  student  from  the  epoch  of  Christianity 
to  the  day  in  which  he  lives.  This  is  the  task  I  have 
undertaken  ;  but  in  traversing  this  long  tract  of  time  I  have 
naturally  lingered  longest  on  those  periods  which  are  either 
most  interesting  or  most  instructive. 

Our  ecclesiastical  writers  in  general  appear  to  have  thought 
that  the  Church  in  our  country  before  the  Reformation  was 
only  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  not  the  Church  of  Scotland 
too  ;  and  accordingly  they  have  left  its  history  without  inves- 
tigation and  without  record.  As  well  might  our  political 
writers  have  passed  over  the  history  of  the  kingdom  prior  to 
the  Revolution.  In  the  one  case  our  ancestors  were  living 
under  a  bad  despotism,  and  in  the  other  under  a  debasing 
superstition,  but  still  they  were  our  ancestors.  Though  the 
Church  before  the  Reformation  was  Roman  in  its  architecture, 
still  it  was  built  upon  Scottish  ground,  and  they  were  Scottish 
men  and  women  who  worshipped  in  it.  It  is  impossible  to 
understand  our  Church  History  subsequent  to  the  Reforma- 
tion without  knowing  something  of  our  Church  History 
prior  to  it.  It  is  impossible  to  appreciate  our  present  insti- 
tutions, our  present  habits  of  thought,  our  present  likings 
and  dislikings,  without  reverting  to  our  past  Papistry.  The 
Reformation  in  Scotland  was  certainly  very  complete  —  in 
no  other  country  in  the  world  was  it  so  complete ;  but  still 


PREFACE  TO  FIRST  EDITION.  VI 1 

it  could  not  root  out  every  old  idea,  nor  carry  away  every 
ancient  landmark,  nor  make  us  an  entirely  different  people 
from  what  we  were  before.  The  key  to  many  things  in  our 
character  and  history  is  to  be  sought  for  in  ante-Reformation 
times. 

Though  Scotland    presents    but   a    narrow   field,  yet   the 
ecclesiastical  element  has  there  had  a  fuller  and  freer  develop- 
ment than  in  any  other  country.      What  Egyptis  to  the  man 
who  would  ransack  ancient  temples  and  tombs,  Scotland  is  to 
-'the  man  who  would  study  the  manifestations  of  ecclesiastical 
life.    The  Church  of  England  never  has  had  much  action  as  a 
Church,  and  accordingly  it  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  any 
history,  except  in  so  far  as  its   history  is   bound  up  in  the 
biographies  of  the  illustrious  men  who  have  been  reared  within 
its  pale.     It  has  had  no  General  Assembly  to  concentrate  the 
energy  of  every  individual,  and  to  utter  the  sentiments  of  the 
whole.      The  Church  of  Scotland,  on  the  other  hand,  from  its 
republican  constitution  and  representative  courts,  has  a  well- 
marked  and  peculiarly  instructive  history  of  its  own,  distinct 
from  the  biographies  of  its  individual  ministers,  distinct  from 
the  political  history  of  the  State.      But  besides  this,  peculiar 
circumstances  in  the  history  of  the  country  gave  to  the  ecclesi- 
astical element  peculiar  vigour.    The  weakness  of  the  monarchy 
till  the  Union  of  the  Crowns,  allowed  the  free  expansion  of 
ideas  which  have  never  been  tolerated  in  countries  where  the 
monarchy  is   strong ;  and   during   the   civil  wars,  when   the 
throne  was  laid  low,  they  attained  to  a  fuller  expansion  still. 
For  a  season  the  Church  was  left  to  wield  its  own  powers,  and 
to  work  out  what  it  conceived  to  be  its  own   ends,  free  from 
all  pressure  from  without.    Accordingly,  during  that   period, 
ecclesiasticism  is  to  be  found  in  its  purest  form.    In  truth,  the 
Church  of  Scotland  has  had  within  Scotland  a  history  similar 
to  what  the  Church  of  Rome  has  had  within  Christendom. 
We  see  the  same  laws  in  operation,  though  on  a  smaller  scale, 
and  under  modifying  circumstances.     In  the  career  of  the  one 
we  can  discern  the  blessings  which  flow  from  a  pure  creed  and 
simple  worship,  and  in  that  of  the  other  the  blighting  effects 


Vlll  PREFACE    TO    FIRST    EDITION. 

of  a  baneful  superstition ;  but  with  both  there  has  been  the 
same  union  and  energy  of  action,  the  same  assumption  of 
spiritual  supremacy,  the  same  defiance  of  law  courts,  parlia- 
ments, and  kings.  The  history  of  either  can  be  traced  with 
equal  precision,  sometimes  blending  with  civil  history,  but  at 
other  times  diverging  widely  from  it.  I  know  only  three 
Churches  whose  histories  stand  thus  prominently  out — the 
Jewish,  the  Roman,  and  the  Scottish.  Geneva  had  such  a 
Church  too,  but  it  was  only  for  a  very  little  season. 

In  writing  this  History  I  have  endeavoured  above  all  things 
to  purge  my  heart  of  all  leaven  of  polemical  and  party  hatred, 
and  to  follow  faithfully  both  truth  and  charity.  I  have  not 
concealed  my  own  sentiments,  for  it  had  been  either  hypocrisy 
or  cowardice  to  have  done  so ;  but  I  have  endeavoured  to 
state  them  without  asperity,  and  to  do  justice  to  the  motives, 
the  opinions,  and  the  conduct  of  those  who  differ  from  me. 
Though  I  cannot  hope  that  I  have  arrived  at  perfect  im- 
partiality, I  trust  I  have  never  sacrificed  truth  to  subserve  a 
party  purpose.  I  have  seen  enough  and  read  enough  to  know 
that  worth  and  wisdom  are  not  confined  to  any  Church  or  any 
sect,  and  that  infallibility  does  not  belong  to  Presbytery  any 
more  than  to  Popery.  J.  C. 


CONTENTS    OF   VOL.    I. 


CHAPTER  I. 


Druidism  prevalent  in  Britain  at  Christian  Era,  I.  Druid  a  Celtic 
word,  I.  Druidical  Deities,  2.  The  Druids  offered  Human  Sacrifices, 
and  had  some  notions  of  a  Future  State,  2.  The  Ethics  and  Festivals  of 
Druidism,  3.  Druidical  Circles,  5.  The  Divisions,  Functions,  and 
Science  of  the  Druids,  6.  Destruction  of  the  Druids,  7.  The  Scots  and 
Picts,  8.  Scandinavians  and  Teutons,  9.  Scandinavian  Mythology,  1 1. 
The  Norseman's  Heaven,  13.  Vestiges  of  Druidism  and  Scandinavian- 
ism,  15. 

CHAPTER  II. 

Early  Chroniclers,  17.  King  Donald,  19.  Kirk  Madrine,  19.  Legend 
of  St  Andrew  and  St  Rule,  20.  Rise  of  the  Pelagian  Controversy,  21. 
Writings  of  St  Augustine  and  St  Jerome,  21.  The  First  Evangelist  of 
Britain  unknown,  22.  Constant  Intercourse  between  Rome  and  Britain, 
23.  Missionary  Spirit  of  the  First  Christians,  24.  Christianity  probably 
reached  Scotland  from  the  South,  25.  State  of  Scotland  at  this  time,  26. 
Barbarism  of  both  Picts  and  Scots,  27.  Difficulties  in  the  way  of  Chris- 
tianity, 27. 

CHAPTER  III. 

St  Ninian,  27.  His  Labours  among  the  Galwegians  and  wSouthern 
Picts,  28.  Foundation  of  Candida  Casa,  the  First  Stone  Building  in  the 
Country,  28.  Palladius,  29.  St  Patrick,  30.  St  Columba  and  his  Bio- 
graphers, 31.  Parentage  and  Education  of  St  Columba,  32.  His  Arrival 
in  Iona,  32.  Labours  among  the  Picts,  33.  Reasons  for  selecting  lona 
as  the  Seat  of  his  Monastery,  34.  Monastery  of  Iona  :  its  Recluses, 
Rules,  &c,  35.  Death  and  Character  of  Columba,  36,  ^J.  Troubles  of 
the  Monks  of  Iona  from  the  Incursions  of  the  Norsemen,  37.  St  Mungo 
the  Contemporary  of  St  Columba,  38.  Visit  of  Columba  to  Kentigern  at 
the  Molendinar  Burn,  39.  St  Cuthbert,  39.  Outline  of  General  Church 
History  for  the  First  Six  Centuries,  40,  41.  Rise  of  Diocesan  Episco- 
pacy, 42,  43.  Rise  of  Monachism,  44,  45.  Britain  lost  to  the  Roman 
World  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  Roman  Legions,  46.  Scottish  Mona- 
chism, 47.  The  Scottish  Bishops  subject  to  the  Presbyter-Abbot  of 
Iona,  48. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


Arrival  of  the  Monk  Augustine  in  Kent,  49.  He  converts  Ethelbert, 
King  of  Kent,  and  establishes  himself  at  Canterbury,  50.  Mission  of 
Aidan  to  Northumbria,  51.  He  settles  on  Lindisfarne,  and  begins  his 
apostolic  work,  52.  He  dies,  and  is  succeeded  by  Finan,  53.  Northum 
berland,  Mercia,  and  Essex  Christianised  by  Monks  from  Iona,  53.  Dis- 
putes in  regard  to  Scotch  Presbyters  consecrating  Bishops,  54,  55. 
Controversies  about  Easter,  56.  Council  of  Whitby,  57.  Disputes  about 
the  Tonsure,  58.  Retirement  of  the  Culdees  from  Northumbria,  59. 
Opinions  of  the  Celtic  Monks,  60,  61.  Quarrels  of  the  British  and 
Romish  Clergy,  62.  The  Culdees,  63.  Culdee  Remains,  65.  Queen 
Margaret :  her  Piety  and  Beneficence,  67.  Her  Disputations  with  the 
Culdees,  68.     Her  Death,  69.     Degeneracy  of  the  Culdees,  69. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Wars  of  the  Scots  and  Picts,  70.  Termination  of  the  Pictish  Kingdom, 
70.  Origin  of  Tithes — Charlemagne — Alfred,  71,  72.  Malcolm  Can- 
more —  Margaret  —  and  English  Settlers,  73.  David  I.  erects  many 
Bishoprics  and  Monasteries,  and  reforms  the  Church,  73,  74.  The  Barons 
follow  his  example,  74.  Origin  of  Scotch  Bishoprics,  Parishes,  and 
Abbeys,  74.  Bishoprics  of  St  Andrews,  Glasgow,  and  Dunkeld,  74,  75. 
Division  of  the  Country  into  Parishes,  75.  Orders  of  Monks,  77.  Passion 
to  Endow  Monasteries,  78.  Appropriation  of  Parishes,  79.  Spottis- 
wood's  "Religious  Houses,"  79,  80.  Carthusians  at  Perth,  81.  Hos- 
pitallers and  Templars,  81,  82.  Nunneries  and  Nuns,  83.  Wealth  of 
the  Roman  Hierarchy,  83,  84.  The  Clergy  promote  Agriculture,  84,  85. 
They  preserve  Literature  and  conduct  Business,  86.  The  Chronicles, 
Registers,  and  Chartularies  of  the  Religious  Houses,  87.  The  Monas- 
teries Educational  Institutions,  88.  The  Monasteries  served  as  Inns  and 
Poorhouses,  89.  Nature  of  the  connection  between  the  Church  and  the 
State,  89.  Ancient  Scottish  Liturgies,  90,  91.  Breviary  of  Aberdeen, 
91.  Organs,  Choirs,  and  Music,  92,  93.  Religious  Houses:  their  Archi- 
tects, Builders,  &c,  94-96. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Religion  and  Politics  closely  intertwined,  96.  The  Archbishop  of  York 
claims  the  Primacy  of  Scotland,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  dis- 
putes it,  97.  Turgot  consecrated,  and  dies,  97,  98.  Eadmer  made  Arch- 
bishop*of  St  Andrews,  but  resigns  it  on  account  of  Disputes  about  his 
Consecration,  99.  Thurstin  claims  Obedience  of  Glasgow,  99.  Con- 
secrates Robert  to  See  of  St  Andrews,  100.  Bishops  of  the  Orkneys,  100. 
David's  Church-Reform,  101.  David's  Character  and  Death,  101.  Malcolm 
IV.  and  William  the  Lion,  102.  Council  at  Northampton,  103.  Speech 
of  Gilbert  Murray,  103.  Disputes  about  the  Bishopric  of  St  Andrews, 
104.  The  Pope  excommunicates  William,  105.  Pope  Lucius  sends 
William  the  Golden  Rose,  105.  Clement  declares  Scotland  dependent 
only  on  Rome,    106.     Church  of  Scotland  copies  Anglican  Models,  107. 


CONTENTS.  XI 

The  Crusades,  108.  Rights  of  Sanctuary,  109.  Slavery,  no.  Scotland 
placed  under  an  Interdict,  III.  Bishop  of  Caithness  roasted  alive,  112. 
The  Scotch  Clergy  obtain  Permission  to  hold  Provincial  Councils,  113. 
A  Roman  Legate  visits  Scotland,  and  is  withstood  by  the  King,  114. 
Cardinal  Ottobon  De  Fieschi  attempts  to  raise  a  Procuration,  115.  The 
Twentieth  of  Benefices  granted  for  the  Holy  War,  115.  Benemundus  de 
Vicci  visits  Scotland,  116.  The  Invasion  of  the  Norwegians,  116. 
Arrival  of  the  Mendicants,  117.  Eminent  Scotch  Writers,  117.  Michael 
Scot,  117.'  John  Holybush,  Richard  of  St  Victore,  and  Adam  Scot,  118. 
Thomas  Learmont,  119.  Duns  Scotus,  119.  Death  of  Alexander  III., 
120.  Competition  for  the  Crown,  121.  The  part  taken  by  the  Clergy  in 
the  War  of  Independence,  123.  The  Pope  publishes  a  Truce  between 
Scotland  and  England,  and  excommunicates  Bruce,  124.  The  Estates  of 
Scotland  publish  a  Manifesto,  setting  forth  the  Independence  of  the  King- 
dom, and  Bruce's  Right  to  the  Throne,  125.  Death  of  Bruce,  and  Adventure 
of  his  Heart,  126.  Reigns  of  David  II.,  Robert  II.,  and  Robert  III., 
127.    John  De  Fordun,  Barbour,  Bassol,  Blair,  Dempster,  and  Varoye,  128. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Slow  Growth  of  the  Papacy,  129.  Schism  in  the  Church,  131.  Council 
of  Constance,  and  Rise  of  Wickliff,  131,  132.  Martyrdom  of  Resby,  133. 
Foundation  of  the  University  of  St  Andrews,  133.  James  I.  :  his  Vigour, 
and  Reforms,  134-136.  Martyrdom  of  Craw,  136.  Visit  of  ^Eneas 
Silvius,  137.  Murder  of  James  I.,  and  Troubles  during  the  Minority  of 
James  II.,  138.  Foundation  of  the  University  of  Glasgow,  139.  Character 
and  Services  of  Bishop  Kennedy,  142.  Patrick  Grahame  succeeds  Kennedy 
at  St  Andrews,  and  gets  the  See  erected  into  an  Archbishopric,  144.  Said 
to  have  been  Mad,  145.  Simoniacal  Practices,  146.  James  III.  is  assassi- 
nated, and  is  succeeded  by  James  IV.,  147.  Foundation  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Aberdeen,  147.  Hector  Boethius  its  first  Principal  :  his  Character, 
149.  First  Native  Literature,  150.  Literary  Attainments  of  the  Clergy, 
and  Anecdote  of  Bishop  Forman,  151.  Glasgow  erected  into  an  Arch- 
bishopric, 153.  Archbishop  Blackadder  persecutes  the  Lollards,  153. 
Introduction  of  Printing,  and  its  Influence  on  the  Reformation,  154. 
Death  of  James  IV.  at  Flodden,  and  his  Character,  155. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Leo  X.  ascends  the  Papal  Throne  :  his  Character,  156.  Sale  of  In- 
dulgences, and  the  German  Reformation,  157,  158.  Contest  for  the  See 
of  St  Andrews,  159.  "Cleansing  the  Causeway,"  161.  Administration 
and  Character  of  the  Duke  of  Albany,  and  Queen  Margaret,  161.  Gawin 
Douglas,  162.  Patrick  Hamilton  :  his  Opinions  and  Martyrdom,  162-165. 
Institution  of  the  College  of  Justice,  165.  Visit  of  Antonio  Campeggio, 
as  Papal  Legate,  to  James  V.,  166.  Diffusion  of  the  Lutheran  Opinions, 
166.  Alexander  Seaton,  167.  Martyrdom  of  Forest,  Gourlay,  and 
Straiton,  167.  Laws  against  Heresy  and  the  Importation  of  Lutheran 
Books,  168.  Henry  VIII.  of  England  revolts  against  Rome,  168.  Dr 
Barlow  sent  on  a   Mission  to  Scotland,    169.     James  V.   Marries,   first 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

Magdalene  of  France,  and  afterwards  Mary  of  Guise,  170.  Martyrdom 
of  Forret,  Simpson,  Keillor,  Beveridge,  and  Forrester,  171.  The  Vicar 
of  Dollar  and  the  Bishop  of  Dunkeld,  171.  Martyrdom  of  Russel  and 
Kennedy,  172.  David  Beaton  made  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  172. 
Sadler's  Mission  to  Scotland,  173.  Acts  of  Parliament  against  Heretics, 
176.  Acts  of  Parliament  for  the  Reform  of  the  Church  and  Churchmen, 
I77»  The  Embarrassmeut  of  James,  178.  King  James  dies,  179.  Cardi- 
nal Beaton  claims  the  Regency,  180.  The  Nobles  appoint  the  Earl  of 
Arran  Regent,  181.  Henry  VIII.  projects  a  Marriage  between  Prince 
Edward  and  Queen  Mary,  181.  The  Parliament  authorizes  the  reading 
of  the  Scriptures  in  the  Vulgar  Tongue,  183.  War  between  England  and 
Scotland,  185.  The  French  and  English  Factions,  186.  Law  against 
Heretics,  and  Martyrdoms  at  Perth,  186.  George  Wishart,  186.  His 
Seizure,  Trial,  and  Death,  189.  Conspiracy  to  assassinate  Beaton,  189. 
The  Conspirators  surprise  his  Castle  and  murder  him,  190.  Character  of 
Beaton,  191.     The  Conspiracy  Traced,  191-194. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Romish  Creed,  194.  Religious  Edifices  in  Papal  Times,  196. 
Preaching,  197.  Sunday:  how  spent,  198.  Pilgrimages,  199.  Re- 
ligious Processions,  200.  Mysteries,  200.  Piety  of  Papal  Times,  201. 
Ancient  Oaths,  and  Act  to  prevent  Swearing,  203.  Morality  of  Papal 
Times,  203.  Abuses  in  the  Patronage  of  the  Church,  204.  Licentious- 
ness of  the  Clergy,  207.  Literary  Attainments  of  the  Clergy,  208. 
Revenues  of  the  Clergy,  210.  Influences  leading  to  the  Reformation,  21 1. 
Power  of  Poetry,  211.  Sir  David  Lyndsay's  Poems,  213.  Profane 
Ballads  transmuted  into  Spiritual  Songs,  215.  Proportion  of  the  Nation 
attached  to  the  Protestant  Doctrines,  218. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Hamilton  made  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  219.  Henry  VIII.  of  Eng- 
land assists  the  Castilians,  220.  Knox  joins  them,  220.  He  is  called  to 
be  a  Protestant  Preacher,  222.  Theories  of  Orders,  224.  The  Con- 
spirators surrender  the  Castle  to  the  French  Admiral,  226.  Knox  and 
his  Companions  made  Galley  Slaves,  227.  Somerset  invades  Scotland, 
and  Battle  of  Pinkie  fought,  228.  Queen  Mary  is  betrothed  to  the 
Dauphin,  and  sent  to  France,  228.  Mary  of  Guise  manages  to  supplant 
Arran  in  the  Regency,  229.  Provincial  Council  held,  230.  Adam  Wal- 
lace suffers  Martyrdom,  231.  Controversy  about  the  Pater-noster,  231. 
Another  Council  held,  232.  Catechism  published,  233.  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment levelled  at  the  Reformers,  234.  Edward  VI.  and  Mary  of  Englan  d 
235.  Knox  is  liberated,  and  settles  in  England,  236.  He  retires  to 
Geneva,  and  becomes  acquainted  with  Calvin,  237.  He  returns  to  Scot- 
land, 238.  Knox  preaches  and  administers  the  Sacrament  in  different  parts 
of  the  country,  239.  He  is  summoned  to  answer  for  his  conduct,  but  the 
diet  is  abandoned,  240.  He  returns  to  Geneva,  240.  The  Reformers 
invite  Knox  to  return,  and  then  repent  having  done  so,  242.  The  First 
Covenant,  243.     Protestant  Congregations  formed,  and  Protestant  Barons 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

assume  name  of  Lords  of  the  Congregation,  244.  Resolutions  of  the  Con- 
gregation, 245.  Martyrdom  of  Walter  Mill,  247.  Demands  of  the 
Protestant  Barons,  248.  Policy  of  the  Queen  Regent,  250.  Marriage  of 
Mary  with  the  Dauphin,  251.  The  last  Roman  Council,  252.  The 
Regent  summons  the  Preachers  and  outlaws  them,  255.  Knox  preaches 
at  Perth,  and  the  Mob  destroy  the  Monasteries,  256.  The  Regent 
marches  upon  Perth,  but  consents  to  a  Treaty,  257.  Knox  preaches  at 
Crail,  Anstruther,  and  St  Andrews,  258.  The  Abbey  of  Scone  and  the 
Abbey  of  Cambuskenneth  are  destroyed,  259.  Traditionary  Maxim  of 
Knox,  260.  Francis  and  Mary,  now  King  and  Queen  of  France,  try  to 
detach  the  Prior  of  St  Andrews  from  the  Protestant  Cause,  but  fail,  262. 
Invectives  of  Knox  and  other  Preachers,  263.  Negotiations  with  England 
set  on  foot,  263.  Knox's  Proposals,  264.  Views  of  the  Leaders  of  the 
Congregation,  265.  The  Protestant  Barons  depose  the  Queen  Regent, 
267.  Treaty  of  Berwick,  270.  The  English  besiege  Leith,  270.  Death 
and  Character  of  the  Queen  Regent,  271.  Treaty  of  Edinburgh,  273. 
The  Parliament  meets,  273.  The  Protestant  Confession  is  adopted,  275. 
Acts  against  Popery,  276. 

CHAPTER  XL 

Contrast  between  the  Scotch  and  English  Reformations,  277.  The  First 
Staff  of  the  Protestant  Church,  280.  The  First  Book  of  Discipline,  281. 
The  Office-Bearers  of  the  New  Church,  282.  The  Worship  and  Discipline 
of  the  New  Church,  285.  The  Patrimony  of  the  Old  Church,  and  its  ap- 
propriation by  the  New,  288.  Influence  of  Church  Property  on  the 
Reformation,  291.  Knox  denounces  the  Sacrilege  of  the  Nobles,  292. 
The  Privy  Council  refuse  to  sanction  the  First  Book  of  Discipline,  292. 
First  General  Assembly,  293.  Disputation  between  Romanists  and  Re- 
formers, 294.  Second  Assembly,  294.  Demolition  of  Religious  Houses, 
295.  Embassages  to  France  and  death  of  Francis  II.,  296.  Lesley  and 
Lord  James  Stewart,  297.  Mary  returns  to  wScotland,  298.  The  Mass  at 
Holyrood,  298.  First  Interview  between  Mary  and  Knox,  299.  The 
Holy  Water  of  the  Court,  303.  Disputes  between  the  Protestant  Barons 
and  Clergy,  304.  Scheme  to  pay  the  Protestant  Ministers  out  of  the 
Thirds  of  Benefices,  305.  Dissipation  of  Ecclesiastical  Property,  307. 
Business  of  the  First  Assemblies,  311.  Divided  and  excited  state  of  the 
Nation,  313.  Policy  of  Queen  Mary,  314.  Second  Interview  of  Knox 
and  the  Queen,  315.  Third  Interview  of  Knox  and  the  Queen,  317. 
The  Parliament  passes  an  Act  of  Indemnity,  318.  Knox's  Sermon  on  the 
Queen's  Marriage,  319.  Scene  at  the  Palace,  319.  Knox  summoned 
before  the  Council,  charged  with  Treason,  321.  Knox  marries  his  second 
wife,  322.  Darnley  arrives  in  Scotland,  and  gains  the  heart  of  Mary,  323. 
Acts  of  the  General  Assembly,  324.  Marriage  of  Mary  and  Darnley,  324. 
Knox's  Sermon,  325.  Moray  and  others  rebel,  327.  Murder  of  Rizzio, 
328.  Murder  of  Darnley,  329.  Mary  marries  Bothwell,  and  Nobles 
rebel,  329.  The  General  Assembly  meets,  330.  Moray  made  Regent, 
332. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Moray  passes  Acts  in  favour  of  the  Church,  333.     Mary  escapes  from 
Lochleven,  and  Battle  of  Langside,  335.   Murder  of  the  Regent  Moray,  336. 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

His  Character,  336.  The  Factions  of  the  King  and  Queen,  337.  Knox 
at  St  Andrews,  338.  Archbishop  Hamilton  hanged,  339.  Church  Pro- 
perty— How  to  be  disposed  of?  339.  Concordat  of  Leith,  341.  The 
Assembly  sanctions  it,  343.  Motives  of  the  Ministers,  344.  Views  of 
Knox,  345.  Death  and  Character  of  Knox,  347.  Execution  of  Kirk- 
caldy, and  sudden  death  of  Maitland,  349.  Andrew  Melville  returns  to 
Scotland,  350.  Was  Episcopacy  Scriptural?  351.  Decisions  of  the  As- 
sembly, 352.  The  Regent  Morton  threatens  Melville,  353.  James  VI. 
nominally  assumes  the  Government,  354.  Influence  of  Melville  and  Beza, 
354.  Second  Book  of  Discipline,  356.  Erection  of  Presbyteries,  360. 
D'Aubigne  obtains  the  King's  Favour,  and  is  created  Duke  of  Lennox, 
361.  He  abjures  Popery,  362.  Craig's  Confession,  362.  Execution  of 
Morton,  363.  Montgomery  accepts  Archbishopric  of  Glasgow,  and  is 
brought  before  the  Church  Courts,  364.  Montgomery  yields,  to  escape 
Excommunication,  365.  Disputes  revived,  and  Montgomery  Excommuni- 
cated, 366.  Melville  braves  the  Earl  of  Arran,  366.  Durie  Banished,  368. 
The  Power  of  the  Keys,  368.  The  Raid  of  Ruthven,  370.  George 
Buchanan,  371.  French  Embassage,  373.  Durie  and  Melville  before  the 
Council,  374.  The  Black  Acts  of  1584,  375.  Reluctant  Submission  of 
the  Ministers  to  the  Acts,  379.  Return  of  Exiled  Nobles  and  Ministers, 
and  Flight  of  Arran,  380.  Lord  Maxwell  celebrates  Mass,  381.  General 
Assembly  of  1586,  382.  The  King  orders  Prayers  to  be  offered  for  his 
Mother,  383.  Act  passed  Annexing  the  Temporalities  of  Benefices  to 
the  Crown,  384.  The  Spanish  Armada,  385.  The  Marriage  of  James 
VI.,  385.  The  Assembly  of  1590,  and  the  Speech  of  the  King,  387. 
Death  of  Archbishop  Adamson,  388.  Act  of  Parliament  restoring  Pres- 
bytery, 388. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  General  Assembly;  its  Constitution,  and  the  Sources  of  its  Strength, 
389.  The  Superintendents  discontinued,  393.  Clerical  Costumes  pre- 
scribed by  Act  of  Assembly,  393.  Number  of  Churches  without  Minis- 
ters, 394.  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  395.  Domestic  Devotions,  396. 
Fasts,  397.  Discipline  of  the  Church,  398.  State  of  Society,  399. 
Witchcraft,  399.  Sunday  Observance,  401.  Clerk-Plays,  401.  The 
Robin  Hood  Plays,  Queen  of  May,  &c,  402.  Pageants,  403.  The 
Printing  Press  :  its  Supervision  by  the  Church,  404.  First  Edition  of  the 
Bible  published  in  Scotland,  405.  Ill-usage  of  the  Papists,  406.  Jealousies 
of  the  Papists  and  Protestants,  408.  James  VI.  combats  both  Presby- 
terians and  Papists,  411.  Liberties  of  the  Ministers  with  the  King,  412. 
Bancroft's  Attack  upon  the  Church  of  Scotland,  413.  The  Brownists  : 
their  Rise,  Opinions,  and  Reception  in  Scotland,  414. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Apprehension  of  Ker  at  the  Cumbraes,  416.  The  Spanish  Blanks  found 
in  his  possession,  416.  James  marches  against  the  Popish  Earls  who  had 
subscribed  the  Blanks,  417.  Resolutions  of  the  General  Assembly,  417. 
Meeting  of  the  Parliament,  and  Excommunication  of  the  Popish  Lords  by 
the  Synod  of  Fife,  420.     The  King's  Perplexities,  421.     The  Popish  Lords 


CONTENTS.  XV 

crave  a  Trial,  421.  Demands  of  the  Protestants,  421.  Resolutions  of  the 
Committee  of  Parliament,  423.  Dissatisfaction  in  the  Country,  424. 
Bothwell's  Treasons  and  Rebellions,  425.  Battle  of  Glenlivet,  426.  James 
marches  to  Strathbogie  and  Slaines,  and  compels  Huntly  and  Errol  to  flee, 
427.  The  King  invited  to  Kiss  a  Crucifix,  427.  The  Popish  Lords  leave 
the  Country,  428.  The  Octavians  and  the  Cubiculars,  429.  General 
Assembly  of  1596,  429.  Huntly  and  Errol  return  to  Scotland  in  Disguise, 
431.  The  King  resolves  to  pardon  them,  432.  Violent  Remonstrances 
of  Andrew  Melville,  432.  Ross,  Black,  and  others  defame  the  King  in  the 
Pulpit,  434.  Black  is  Summoned  before  the  Council,  and  declines  its 
Jurisdiction,  435.  Black  is  found  guilty,  and  put  in  ward,  436.  Spiritual 
Independence,  437.  Riot  in  Edinburgh,  438.  The  King  resolves  to  re- 
introduce Episcopacy,  and  circulates  Queries  in  regard  to  Church-Govern- 
ment, 440.  Assembly  at  Perth;  its  Compliances,  441.  Assembly  at 
Dundee  appoints  a  Commission,  443.  Restoration  of  the  Popish  Lords, 
444.  The  Parliament  agrees  to  receive  a  number  of  Ministers,  as  repre- 
senting the  Third  Estate,  444.  Assembly  at  Dundee  agrees  to  appoint 
Representatives  to  sit  in  Parliament,  446.  The  Ordination  of  Bruce,  447. 
Lawsuit  between  the  King  and  Bruce,  448.  James  publishes  the  "  Basili- 
con  Doron,"448.  The  King's  Disputes  with  the  Clergy  about  a  Company 
of  Comedians,  451.  Assembly  at  Montrose  :  its  Resolutions  in  Regard  to 
those  who  were  to  sit  in  Parliament,  452.  The  Gowrie  Conspiracy.  453. 
Erection  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  456.  Assembly  at  Burntisland  in 
1601,  456.     Accession  of  James  VI.  to  the  English  Throne,  457. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Conference  of  English  Divines  at  Hampton  Court,  458.  The  King 
prorogues  the  Assembly  indicted  to  meet  at  Aberdeen  in  July  1604,  461. 
He  dissolves  the  Assembly  indicted  to  meet  at  Aberdeen  in  July  1605  ; 
but  some  of  the  Ministers  constitute  the  Meeting,  fix  upon  a  day  for  a  future 
Assembly,  and  then  adjourn,  462.  They  are  called  before  the  Council, 
and  having  declined  its  jurisdiction,  are  tried  for  treason,  and  found  guilty, 
463.  The  Parliament  meets  and  restores  the  Episcopal  Estate,  464.  The 
King  invites  some  of  the  Scotch  Bishops  and  Presbyterian  Ministers  to 
Court,  466.  He  puts  them  through  a  course  of  Episcopal  Divinity,  466-8. 
Andrew  Melville  writes  an  Epigram  on  the  Anglican  Worship,  468.  He 
is  tried  by  the  English  Council,  found  guilty,  and  sent  to  the  Tower,  469. 
Future  Career  and  Character  of  the  two  Melvilles,  470.  Assembly  held 
at  Linlithgow,  471.  Popular  Dissatisfaction  with  its  Measures,  472. 
Assembly  of  1608,  473.  The  Popish  Lords  relapse,  473.  Two  Courts  of 
High  Commission  erected,  475.  Act  of  Parliament  authorising  the  King 
to  prescribe  Churchmen's  Apparel,  475.  Assembly  of  1610,  and  its  Acts 
setting  up  Episcopacy,  476.  Scotch  Bishops  proceed  to  London  to  receive 
Consecration,  479.  The  Parliament  ratifies  the  Acts  of  the  Assembly  of 
1 6 10,  480.  Vestiges  of  Popery,  481.  Martyrdom  of  Ogilvy,  a  Jesuit,  481. 
Assembly  of  161 6,  482.  James  revisits  Scotland,  483.  The  Parliament 
meets,  484.  The  Protest  of  the  Presbyterian  Ministers,  485.  The  Pub- 
lication of  the  "  Book  of  Sports,"  486.  Assembly  of  1617,  487.  Assembly 
at  Perth  in  August  1618,  488.  The  Five  Articles  of  Perth,  490.  Non- 
conformists, 491.  The  Synod  of  Dort,  492.  Mrs  Welsh  and  the  King, 
493.     Death  and  Character  of  James  VI.,  494. 


XVI  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


Accession  of  Charles  L,  494.  The  beginning  of  his  English  Troubles, 
495.  He  visits  Scotland  and  is  Crowned,  496.  Introduction  of  the 
Anglican  Ritual,  497.  Meeting  of  the  Estates,  498.  Opposition  to  some 
Acts,  499.  Lord  Balmerino  condemned,  500.  Digression  in  regard  to 
Teinds  and  Stipends,  500.  Digression  in  regard  to  Parish  Schools.  506. 
Spottiswood  made  Lord  Chancellor,  511.  Charles  resolves  to  introduce  a 
New  Liturgy,  511.  Notices  of  the  Old  Liturgy,  512.  The  Canons  and 
Constitutions  Ecclesiastical,  513.  Laud's  Liturgy,  514.  Tumult  in  the 
Church  of  St  Gile,  516.  The  Prosecution  of  Alexander  Henderson,  519. 
The  King  rebukes  the  Council  for  suspending  the  use  of  the  Liturgy,  519. 
Riots  in  Edinburgh,  520.  Constitution  of  the  Tables,  523.  The  King 
publishes  a  Proclamation,  524.  The  Presbyterians  resolve  to  bind  them- 
selves together  in  a  Religious  Covenant,  526.  Subscription  of  the  Cove- 
nant at  the  Greyfriars  Church  in  Edinburgh,  527.  Different  Opinions 
about  the  Covenant,  529. 


THE 


CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND 


CHAPTER   I. 

At  the  time  when  the  Great  Founder  of  our  Faith  was 
preaching  his  Gospel  in  the  cities  of  Galilee,  the  inhabitants 
of  this  island  were  practising  Druidical  rites  under  the  shadow 
of  their  ancient  oaks. 

The  elder  Pliny  derives  the  name  Druid  from  the  Greek 
word  "drus"  which  signifies  an  oak;  but  though  there  be  in 
the  words  a  striking  similarity  of  sound,   it  is  much   more 
natural  to  think  that  Celtic  priests  would  be  called  by  a  name 
native  to  the  Celtic  speech.     Druid/i,  signifying  a  sage,  is  a 
word  still  used  in  some  of  the  Celtic  dialects,  and  it  is  evi- 
dently the  name  formerly  applied  to  the  priests.     Caesar  tells 
us,  that  in  his  day  the  Druidical  religion  prevailed  in  Gaul 
and  Britain  ; l  but  he  gives  us  only  some  very  scanty  notices 
regarding  its  nature ;  and  the  knowledge  derived  from  his 
Commentaries  is  not  greatly  supplemented  by  the  information 
to  be  gleaned  from  other  sources.     It  appears,  howrever,  to 
have  borne  some  resemblance  to  that  taught  by  the  Magi  of 
Persia,  the  Brahmins  of  India,  and  the  priests  of  Tyre.     So 
great  a  likeness  is  it  said  to  have  had  to  the  Phoenician  faith, 
that  some  antiquaries  have  imagined  it  must  have  been  com- 
municated to  our  forefathers  by  those  Phoenician  merchants 
who  are  known  to  have  traded  with  our  country  for  tin,  long 
before  the  era  of  Christianity.     The  idea  is  chimerical :  for  a 
solitary  galley  touching  perhaps  once  a  year  upon  the  coast, 
with  a  crew  more  eager  to  make  rich  by  lucrative  barter  than 
to  gain  merit  by  disseminating  truth,  could  never  give  religion 
to  lands  stretching  through  fifteen  degrees  of  latitude.    Besides, 
it   is   needless;    religions,    like   languages,    present   affinities 

1  Caesar.     De  Bello  Gallico,   lib.    vi.      He    imagines   it    originated    in 
Britain  and  was  translated  thence  into  Gaul. 

VOL.  I.  A 


2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CH  U\  I. 

which  point  to  a  common  source  from  which  they  have 
originally  sprung,  and  speak,  moreover,  of  those  religious  in- 
stincts which  are  common  to  every  human  heart. 

There  are  circumstances  which  lead  us  to  believe  that  the 
Druids  had  some  idea  that  there  was  but  one  Supreme  God  ; 
but,  be  this  as  it  may,  if  the  classical  writers  are  to  be  credited, 
they  were  in  the  habit  of  sacrificing  to  a  multitude  of  Gods. 
Their  chief  divinity  they  identified  with  the  sun,  the  most 
glorious    object    in    nature,    the    fountain    of  life    and  light, 
presenting  to  uninstructed  people  the  highest  emblem  of  the 
deity ;   and  which,   therefore,   has  been  worshipped  on  the 
plains  of  Chaldea  and  in  the  golden  temples  of  Peru,  among 
the  ancient  Canaanites,  and  the  ancient  Britons.    It  seems  to  be 
but  too  true  that  they  were  in  the  habit,  occasionally  at  least,  of 
sacrificing  to  their  divinities  human  victims ;  but  we  should  not 
wonder  at  this,  for  it  has  been  characteristic  of  almost  every 
system  of  superstition.     Our  Pagan  ancestors,  in  this  respect, 
were  not  worse  than  others;  and  it  were  a  piece  of  foolish  vanity 
in  us  to  believe  them  to  have  been  better.     The  maxim  of  the 
Mosaic  law,  that  without  shedding  of  blood  there  could  be  no 
remission  of  sin,  was  known  far  beyond  the  limits  of  Judea  ; 
and  it  appears  to  have  been  an  article  in  the  Druidical  creed, 
that  nothing  but  the  life  of  a  man  could  atone  for  the  life  of  a 
man.1     The  victims  in  these  horrid  rites  were  generally  chosen 
from  criminals,  or  captives  taken  in  war,  as  the  sacrifice  of 
these  was  believed  to  be  peculiarly  pleasing  to  the  Gods.     It 
was  common  for  a  private  person  afflicted  with  any  serious 
disease,  or  before  going  to  battle,  to  vow  such  a  sacrifice.     At 
other  times  great  public  sacrifices  were  made ;  upon  which 
occasions  the  priests  formed  huge  images  of  wicker-work,  and 
filling  these  with  living  human  beings,  set  them  on  fire,  as  an 
offering  to  their  cruel  Gods.2 

The  Druids  appear  to  have  had  some  glimmering  concep- 
tions of  a  future  state :  which  they  made  use  of  to  inspire  the 
people  with  a  contempt  of  death.  Caesar  and  Diodorus  say 
that  they  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls : 
Lucan  and  Marcellinus  speak  of  them  as  teaching  that  the 
soul,  after  death,  ascended  to  a  higher  orb,  where  it  enjoyed  a 
more  perfect  repose.3  Perhaps,  they  may  have  combined 
both  ideas,  and  believed  that  the  spirit,  after  leading  a  wan- 

1   ( loesar,  lib.  vi.  2  Ibid. 

3  ibid.  Diodorus  Siculus,  Bibl,  5.  Lucan,  Phars.  i.  Ammianus  Mar- 
cellinus, xv. 


A.D.  1-60.]  DRUIDICAL  MORALS  AND  FEASTS.  3 

dering  life  for  a  time,  and  inhabiting  sometimes  a  human, 
sometimes  a  bestial  abode,  rose  to  their  Flaith-innis}  or  isle  of 
the  happy.  It  is  recorded  of  them,  with  what  truth  we  do 
not  vouch,  that  their  faith  in  a  future  state  was  so  firm,  that 
they  gave  loans  of  money  to  each  other,  to  be  repaid  when 
they  reached  the  abodes  of  the  blessed.  "  I  should  call  them 
fools  " — says  Valerius  Maximus,  who  narrates  this  circumstance 
— "  were  it  not  that  Pythagoras,  in  his  flowing  robes,  believed 
the  same  as  these  men  in  trews."2  We  greatly  doubt  if  the 
Greek  philosopher  would  have  given  such  a  proof  of  the 
strength  of  his  faith. 

The  ethics  of  the  Druidical  system  appear  to  have  been 
purer  than  the  generality  of  pagan  codes.  The  people  were 
taught  "to  reverence  the  Gods,  to  do  nothing  evil,  and  to 
practise  manly  virtue."  3  As  is  the  case  with  all  barbarous 
nations,  they  esteemed  strength  and  courage  in  battle  before 
everything  else.  One  custom  they  had  which  appears  to  us 
not  only  immoral  but  disgusting — it  was  common  for  near 
relatives  to  have  a  community  of  wives.4  All  superstitions  have 
forbidden  some  kind  of  food  to  their  votaries,  either  from  its 
pretended  sanctity  or  its  supposed  uncleanness.  The  ancient 
Briton  refused  to  eat  the  hare,  the  hen,  or  the  goose ;  the  mo- 
dern Briton,  less  scrupulous  and  more  wise,  devours  them  all. ■' 

Druidism  had  its  festivals;  and  of  these,  two  were  regarded 
with  especial  respect.  The  first  was  held  at  the  beginning 
of  May,  and  was  called  Bailtein,  or  fire  of  Bel.  The  chief 
ceremony  of  this  high  day  consisted  in  kindling  a  huge  bon- 
fire on  the  summit  of  a  hill,  in  honour  of  the  summer's  sun, 
whose  return  was  thus  welcomed  to  our  northern  climate. 
The  other  great  festival  was  called  Samhainn,  or  fire  of  peace, 
and  was  held  on  Hallow- eve,  which  still  retains  that  name 
among  our  Celtic  population.  On  this  occasion  justice  was 
administered,  quarrels  adjusted,  disputes  solved;  and  the 
sacred  fire  kindled  by  the  violent  friction  of  two  pieces  of 
wood,  from  which  all  the  fires  in  the  district,  previously  put 
out,  might  be  relighted.6  It  is  probable  that  in  this  ceremony 
we  see  a  friendly  farewell  to  the  sun  for  the  year,  and  some  ol 

1  Flaitheanas  is  still  the  Gaelic  word  for  heaven. 

2  Valerius  Max.,  lib.  c.  3  Diogenes  Laertius,  Prooem.  §  6. 

4  Caesar,  lib.  v. 

5  Csesar,  lib.  v.     Dio  Cassius  adds  that  they  abstained  from  fish  also  ; 
but  this  is  hardly  credible,  especially  of  those  who  lived  on  the  coast. 

6  The  old  Romans  had  a  custom  of  this  kind ;  and  so  had  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Peru. 


4  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  l. 

his  kindly  warmth  brought  down  from  heaven  by  the  priests 
and  given  to  the  people,  to  cheer  and  comfort  them  during 
the  cold  and  gloom  of  the  winter.  Philosophers  and  historians 
have  remarked  how  long  a  religious  practice  may  linger  among 
a  people,  even  after  the  religion  itself  has  been  totally  de- 
stroyed. It  is  easy  to  trace  in  the  Roman  ritual  of  the  present 
day  the  influence  of  the  mythology  of  the  ancient  world. 
Druidical  ideas  are  scarcely  yet  extinct  in  Presbyterian  coun- 
tries. The  kindling  of  fires  at  Beltane  and  at  Hallow-eve  has 
descended  in  some  parts  of  the  country  almost  to  our  time  ;x 
and  many  centuries  after  the  complete  establishment  of  Chris- 
tianity, so  attached  were  the  Highlanders  to  this  usage,  that 
Gaelic  councils  had  to  forbid  it  on  pain  of  death. 

Besides  these  solemnities,  the  Druids  observed  the  full 
moon,  and  also  the  sixth  day  of  the  moon.  They  regarded  as 
sacred,  not  merely  the  oak,  but  the  mistletoe  when  it  grew  upon 
it,  which  it  rarely  does,  as  it  prefers  the  apple  tree.  Its  blos- 
som is  full  about  the  summer  solstice,  and  its  berries  glisten 
white  at  the  winter  solstice.  At  these  sacred  seasons  prepara- 
tions for  feasting  and  sacrifice  were  made  under  the  trees,  the 
holy  herb  was  cut  by  the  Arch-Druid  with  a  golden  bill ;  and 
it  was  universally  regarded  by  the  people  as  an  antidote  against 
poison,  and  a  remedy  for  every  disease.2 

The  Druids  performed  all  their  acts  of  worship  in  the  open 
air,  and  generally  within  the  religious  shadows  of  their  con- 
secrated groves.  Neither  had  they  any  images  of  their  deities, 
saving  those  which  they  found  in  the  heavenly  bodies.  Per- 
haps, like  the  Germans,  they  imagined  that  it  derogated  from 
the  greatness  of  the  immortal  Gods  to  confine  them  within 
houses  made  with  hands,  or  to  liken  them  to  any  human 
form.3  But  a  more  natural,  though  a  less  erudite  explanation 
of  the  fact  may  be  found  in  the  circumstance,  that  the  Britons 
had  as  yet  no  architects  to  rear  temples,  nor  sculptors  to  chisel 
statues.  In  many  districts  of  the  island,  however,  we  find 
circles  of  huge  stones  set  upon  their  ends,  sometimes  with  a 
large  flat  stone  in  the  centre;  and  these  till  lately  were  gene- 
rally regarded  as  Druidical  temples.  But  some  of  our  anti- 
quaries now  maintain  that  they  were  simply  burial  places,  as 
urns  and  calcined  bones  have  been  frequently  found  under  the 

1  Rev.  Dr  Bisset.     Statistical  Account  of  Logierait,  1793. 

2  Pliny,  Hist.  Nat.,  lib.  xvi. 

:i  Tacitus  affirms  this  was  the  reason  why  the  Germans  had  no  temples- 
or  images. 


A.D.  1-60.]  DRUIDICAL  CIRCLES.  5 

stones,  and  as  there  is  no  ancient  authority  for  connecting 
them  with   Druidism.1     But  there  is  nothing  improbable  in 
supposing  that  they  were  at  once  temples  and  cemeteries,  for 
men  have  exhibited  a  very  general  desire  to  bury  their  dead 
where  they  worship  their  God.     Besides,  we  know  that  stand- 
ing stones  were  objects  of  worship,  not  only  in  Scotland  but 
elsewhere.     Whether  temples  or  tombs  they  are  interesting  as 
the  earliest  effort  of  architectural  art  in  the  island.     The  only 
houses  at  that  period  were  a  clumsy  contexture  of  stakes  and 
the  branches  of  trees,  so  flimsy  that  not  a  vestige  of  them  now 
remains.     The  Druidical  circles  are  as  superior  to  these  as  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus  was   superior  to  the  Roman 
villa.     Their  erection,  though  exhibiting  little  art,  must  have 
required   great   force.       The    stones  in  several   cases    stand 
twenty  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  soil,  and  must  be  at  least 
half  as  many  below  it.     They  have  retained  their  stability  for 
more  than  two  thousand  years,  while  the  finest  temples  of 
antiquity  have  fallen  to  the  ground;  and  they  bid   fair  to 
endure  as  long  as  the  Egyptian  pyramids.     It  is  worthy  of 
notice  that  the  two  best  specimens  now  remaining  to  us  occur 
at  the  opposite  extremities  of  the  kingdom — the  one  at  Stone- 
henge,  on  Salisbury  Plain,  and  the  other  at  Stennes,  in  the 
Orkney  Isles. 

The  Druids  evidently  exercised  a  prodigious  influence  over 
the  barbarous  devotees  of  their  worship.  Caesar  tells  us  that 
among  the  Gauls  there  were  only  two  classes  of  any  note,  the 
Druids  and  the  Knights ;  and  of  these  the  Druids  appear  to 
have  been  the  more  illustrious.  Possessed  of  a  more  extensive 
authority  than  the  most  noble,  it  is  not-  surprising,  they  were 
in  general  the  sons  of  the  first  families.  Beside  their  natural 
jurisdiction  in  matters  of  religion,  they  seem  to  have  had  in 
their  hands  the  framing,  interpreting,  and  executing  the  laws. 
If  any  one  proved  refractory,  they  interdicted  him  from  the 
sacrifices  ;  and  their  excommunications  appear  to  have  been  as 
formidable  as  those  afterwards  issued  by  the  priests  of  Rome. 
The  anathematised  person  was  shunned  by  all,  lest  they  should 
catch  the  contagion  of  hisguilt,  and  was  reckoned  an  outlaw, 
incapable  of  enjoying  either  honour  or  redress.2  Although 
this  would  now  be  regarded  as  a  most  unwarrantable  abuse  of 
sacerdotal  power,  there  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  then  it 
was  highly  beneficial.      In  all  probability  the  Druids  were  the 

1  Stuart,  Sculptured  Stones  of  Scotland,  vol.  ii.     Preface. 

2  Caesar,  lib.  vi. 


6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  I. 

wisest  and  most  virtuous  men  in  the  nation ;  and,  in  a  tur- 
bulent state  of  society,  the  terrors  of  superstition  are  more 
effective  than  the  rigours  of  law  in  maintaining  justice  and 
order. 

No  body  of  men  could  possess  such  power  without  appro- 
priating peculiar  privileges  to  themselves.     The  Druids  were 
exempted  from  taxes  and  military  service,  and  their  persons 
were  regarded  as  sacred.1      There  appears  to  have  been  three 
different  classes  of  them — the  priests,  the  prophets,  and  the 
bards.     The  first  waited  upon  the  sacrifices,  the  second  ob- 
served omens  and  augured  events,  the  last  were  the  historians 
and  poets  of  the  time.      They  monopolised  all  the  little  learn- 
ing of  the  period,  and  their  wisdom  was  contained  in  a  great 
number  of  verses,  which  those  who  studied  in  their  schools  got 
by  memory.    These  they  never  committed  to  writing,  although 
they  are  said  to  have  been  acquainted  with  the  use  of  letters.2 
They  were  probably  jealous  lest  others  should  become  ac- 
quainted with  their  sacred  lore,  were  it  contained  in  books ; 
for  all  the  ancient  priesthoods  affected  mystery,  and  thus  in- 
creased their  hold  on  the  people.     They  are  understood,  how- 
ever, to  have  pretended  to  some  knowledge  concerning  the 
stars  and  their  motions ;  concerning  the  earth  and  its  magni- 
tude ;  concerning  the  nature  of  things,  and  the  power  of  the 
immortal  Gods.3     It  were  curious  to  inquire  whether  these 
studies  were  traditional  and  originally  brought  from  the  east, 
or  whether  the  human  mind  has  naturally,  in  so  many  cases, 
put  forth  its  first  strength  on  such  researches. 

Such  was  Druidism  as  described  by  the  Roman  writers  ;  but 
it  is  certain  that  while  such  a  theology  and  such  a  hierarchy  as 
this  may  have  existed  in  the  Romanised  provinces  of  Gaul  and 
Britain,  the  religion  of  the  Britons  of  Strathclyde  and  the  Scots 
of  Hibernia  was  of  a  much  humbler  kind,  and  consisted  chiefly 
in  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  invisible  powers,  whose  malice 
might  be  averted  by  incantations  and  charms.  They  wor- 
shipped wells  and  stones  they  had  set  up,  perhaps  as  rude 
representations  of  their  Gods,  and  at  these  they  made  their 
bargains  and  their  vows.4 

The  Romans,  in  general  tolerant  of  the  religions  of  the 

1  Caesar,  lib.  vi.  -'  Ibid.  3  Ibid. 

4  The  rude  wooden  image  recently  dug  out  of  the  peat  at  Balachulish 
appears  to  throw  doubt  on  the  statement  of  the  Latin  writers  that  they  had 
no  images.  Only  they  may  have  learned  from  the  Romans  this  first  lesson 
in  statuary. 


a.D.  60.]  THE  LAST  OF  THE  DRUIDS.  7 

nations  which  they  conquered,  resolved,  for  some  unascer- 
tained reason,  to  extirpate  Druidism,  and  to  exterminate  its 
priests.  Their  motive  is  said  to  have  been  a  wish  to  put  an 
end  to  the  horrid  cruelty  of  immolating  human  victims ;  but 
the  conquerors  of  the  world  did  not  in  general  exhibit  such 
humanity,  and  it  is  far  more  likely  that  the  patriotism  of  the 
Druids,  and  their  power  over  the  people  in  exciting  them  to 
revolt,  may  have  made  it  a  part  of  Roman  policy  to  destroy 
them.  The  island  of  Anglesey,  off  the  coast  of  Wales,  and 
now  united  to  the  mainland  by  bridges,  which  are  among  the 
marvels  of  modern  art,  was  the  chief  seat  of  the  Druidical 
superstition ;  and  thither  a  great  number  of  its  votaries  had 
fled,  as  to  the  last  asylum  of  their  religion  and  liberties.  The 
Roman  armies  followed  ;  battle  was  joined  on  the  shore  \  reli- 
gious enthusiasm  and  undisciplined  valour  were  unavailing  ; 
and  a  great  slaughter  ensued.1  From  this  fatal  day  Druidism 
declined  in  the  south  of  the  island.  Many  of  its  priests  are 
said  to  have  fled  northwards,  and  some  of  these  are  thought  to 
have  found  a  refuge  in  Iona,  the  earliest  name  of  which  was 
Innis-nan  Druidhneacli,  the  isle  of  the  Druids.2  It  is  singular 
if  this  little  rock  has  been  the  last  home  of  one  religion,  and 
the  first  chosen  seat  in  our  country  of  another  and  more 
blessed  one.  However  this  may  be,  we  may  be  quite  sure 
Druidism  did  not  die  in  a  day.  It  had  struck  its  roots  too 
deep  into  the  soil  to  be  thus  easily  plucked  up.  It  is  pro- 
bable it  lingered  in  Scotland  till  the  sixth  or  seventh  century ; 
and  it  is  certain  that  some  of  its  peculiar  rites  and  beliefs  con- 
tinued to  haunt  the  country  for  centuries  more,  for  vestiges  of 
these  are  to  be  found  at  the  present  hour.3 

But  though  Druidism  was  probably  the  prevailing  religion 

3  Tacitus,  Annal.  xiv.  30. 

2  Origines  Parochiales  Scotiae.  Iona.  There  is  also  pointed  out,  close 
to  the  Sound  of  Iona,  a  green  eminence,  still  called  the  Druids'  Burial 
Place — Claodh  nan  Druidhneach,  literally  the  Druid's  Stone.  See  also 
"  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,"  Kilfinichan  and  Kilvictiien,  1795.  It 
is  not  improbable,  however,  that  Druidh  may  have  been  applied  to  the 
monks,  as  it  was  to  the  Pagan  priests,  and  that  this  may  be  the  origin  of 
these  designations. 

3  Dr  Burton  (Hist.  c.  vi.)  and  Dr  Stuart  (Sculptured  Stones)  deny  that 
Druids  or  Druidism  ever  existed  in  Scotland.  I  cannot  carry  my  scepti- 
cism so  far.  People  of  the  same  Celtic  stock  occupied  the  northern  and 
southern  parts  of  the  island,  and  the  name  of  Druid  came  from  the  Celtic 
speech.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  religion  of  the  Britons  of  Kent  was 
entirely  different  from  that  of  the  Britons  of  Strathclyde.  The  existence 
of  the  same  sacred  circles,  whether  temples  or  tombs,  at  the  two  extremities 
of  the  island,  prove  the  identity  of  the  usages  of  the  people. 


8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  i. 

in  Britain  when  the  Christian  era  began,  it  was  not  the  only 
one.  There  were  other  forms  of  superstition  there  already,  or 
introduced  afterwards  which  have  left  behind  them  a  few 
monumental  stones,  and  more  enduring  proofs  of  their  exist- 
ence in  our  institutions,  our  language,  and  our  habits  of 
thought.  Scotland  gave  shelter  to  more  races  than  one,  and 
accordingly  to  more  religions. 

Tacitus  calls  the  northern  part  of  Britain  Caledonia,  and  its 
inhabitants  Caledonians.  In  the  third  century  we  first  hear  of 
the  Picts,  and  a  century  later  of  the  Scots — the  Caledonians 
are  no  more  heard  of — and  these  two  peoples  begin  to  play 
the  most  important  part  in  the  barbarian  history  of  the  country. 
They  were  continually  harassing  the  southern  Britons,  and  all 
the  armies  of  Rome  could  not  subdue  them.  Who  were  these 
Scots  and  Picts,  and  whence  came  they  ?  The  Scots  came 
from  Ireland,  their  native  seat,  and  settled  along  the  western 
coast.  From  the  fourth  century  onwards  their  fleets  of  frail, 
wicker-work  boats  were  constantly  landing  colonies  on  the 
coast  of  Argyll,  where  they  appear  to  have  easily  acquired 
territory,  and  coalesced  with  the  aborigines,  who  were  pro- 
bably of  the  same  Celtic  stock  as  themselves.  We  may  safely  re- 
gard the  present  Highlanders  as  the  lineal  descendants  of  these 
Irish  Scots  with  a  blending  of  aboriginal  blood.  Shut  in  by 
their  mountain  ranges  and  deep  glens,  their  blood  has  been 
preserved  purer  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  island,  except 
Wales.  Their  Celtic  speech,  their  traditions,  their  form  and 
features  are  the  evidences  of  their  descent.  The  genesis  of 
the  Picts  is  much  more  doubtful.  They  mysteriously  appear 
on  the  stage,  and  as  mysteriously  vanish  after  a  history  of  six 
hundred  years.  They  are  now  thought  by  most  archaeologists 
to  be  no  other  than  the  ancient  Caledonians  with  a  new  name 
— a  name,  as  some  say,  invented  by  the  Romans  to  indicate 
that  they  were  fond  of  war-paint  long  after  their  Romanised 
brethren  in  the  south  had  abandoned  it,  but  it  rather  seems  a 
Latinised  form  of  the  native  Ffichti.  Recent  investigations 
seem  to  indicate,  but  by  no  means  decisively,  that  they  also 
were  of  a  Celtic  stock.1  But  if  so,  they  must  have  had,  even  at 
a  pre-Christian  date,  such  an  admixture  of  Teutonic  blood  as 
already  to  distinguish  them.  Tacitus  tells  us  that  the  Cale- 
donians, unlike  their  southern  neighbours,  were  men  of  large 
limbs  and  fair  hair;  we  learn  from  Adamnan  that  the  Celtic 
St  Columba  required  an  interpreter  when  he  visited  the  Picts  ; 
1  See  Skene's  Celtic  Scotland,  vol.  i. 


a.D.  300-500.]  SCOTS  AND  SCANDINAVIANS.  9 

Bede  speaks  of  the  Picts  as  having  a  language  of  their  own  ; 
and  the  population  of  the  east  and  north-east  of  Scotland, 
where  the  Picts  chiefly  were,  is  clearly  at  this  day  not  of  Celtic 
but  of  Scandinavian  lineage.  From  a  period  beyond  history, 
the  Norsemen  in  their  open  canoes  would  bravely  cross  the 
narrow  sea  which  separates  Scotland  from  Norway  and  Den- 
mark and  take  possession  of  the  land  lying  along  the  shores. 
and  as  love  is  stronger  than  hate,  gradually  intermarry  with 
the  natives,  as  the  Saxons  and  Angles  afterwards  did  farther 
south. 

In  the  sixth  century,  the  age  of  St  Columba,  the  kingdom 
of  the  Scots  appears  to  have  included  the  districts  of  Lorn, 
Argyll,  Knapdale,  Cowal,  Cantire,  Lochaber,  a  part  of  Bread- 
albane,  and  perhaps  the  Western  Isles.  The  Pictish  territory 
included  all  the  rest  of  the  north  of  Scotland,  from  the  Firths 
of  Forth  and  Clyde  to  the  Orkney  Isles — in  which  it  would 
appear  there  were  two  kingdoms,  the  northern  and  the 
southern,  divided  from  one  another  by  the  Grampian  Hills. 
In  the  south-west  of  the  country  stretching  from  the  Clyde  as 
far  south  as  the  Derwent  in  Cumberland,  was  the  kingdom  of 
Strathclyde,  where  the  aboriginal  Britons  still  held  their 
ground,  in  close  contiguity  with  their  hunted  compatriots 
in  Wales.  Galloway  was  peopled  by  Picts  cut  off  from 
their  kindred  and  shut  up  in  this  water-girt  corner  of  the 
country. 

The  stream  of  Scandinavian  blood  early  introduced  into 
the  island  was  afterwards  almost  continuously  augmented  by 
the  incursions  of  the  Norsemen.  As  far  back  as  the  dawn  of 
history,  and  before  it,  when  we  have  nothing  but  traditions  to 
guide  us,  these  sea-warriors  would  seem  to  have  been  per- 
petually sweeping  the  seas,  and  landing  on  the  coast,  some- 
times for  conquest  and  sometimes  for  plunder.  Our  earliest 
poetry,  embodying  the  recollections  of  a  still  earlier  time,  is 
full  of  bloody  battles  fought  upon  the  beach,  and  of  tall  pirates 
driven  back  into  the  wave.  We  have  evidence  that  in  the 
fourth  century,  and  even  before  it,  the  Saxon  pirates  infested 
the  northern  shores  of  Britain.  In  the  century  following 
they  landed  in  England  and  the  south  of  Scotland  in  such 
numbers  as  to  make  themselves  masters  of  the  country.  The 
Northumbrian  kingdom  of  the  Angles  extended  from  the 
Humber  to  the  Forth.  In  the  ninth  century,  as  we  know, 
and  probably  much  earlier,  the  Danes  made  incursions  on  our 
coasts.     At  the  same  period,  Norwegian  pirates  siezed  upon 


I O  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  I. 

the  Orkney  and  Western  Isles,  and  the  Norsemen  kept  their 
footing  in  Orkney  for  centuries. 

The  mythology  of  Scandinavia  must  have  entered  our 
country  with  these  Scandinavian  tribes.  Thurso  in  Caithness 
received  its  name  from  the  god  Thor.  The  nomenclature 
of  our  week  we  derived  from  the  Saxons,  and  at  least  four 
days  are  called  in  honour  of  Scandinavian  divinities.1  The 
colonists  along  the  northern  and  eastern  shores,  if  sprung  from 
Scandinavian  mothers,  must  have  been  of  the  Scandinavian 
faith.  Indeed,  eminent  antiquaries  have  held  that  the  only 
religion  of  Caledonia  was  Scandinavian.  We  think  it  more 
probable  that  during  several  centuries  the  Gods  of  Scandi- 
navia divided  the  country  with  the  Gods  of  the  Druids ;  and 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  in  the  minds  of  an  ignorant  and  bar- 
barous people  the  two  theologies  may  have  been  commingled. 
They  had  several  points  of  resemblance  ;  and  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  all  pagan  nations  have  been  very  tolerant  of 
each  other's  Gods.2  Home  records  furnish  us  with  very  little 
information  in  regard  to  the  religion  of  Pictland  if  it  differed 
from  the  Druidical.  Our  only  knowledge  is  derived  from  the 
life  of  St  Columba,  who  converted  the  northern  Picts  to 
Christianity.  His  biographer  informs  us  that  they  worshipped 
certain  fountains,  and  ascribed  healing  virtues  to  them.  There 
were  other  wells  of  which  if  a  person  drank,  or  washed  in  them, 
he  became  leprous  or  blind.  They  had  their  own  Gods, 
whom  they  thought  stronger  than  the  God  of  the  Christians  ; 
their  priests,  who  could  milk  a  bull,  and  raise  dark  mists  and 
contrary  winds.3  Their  religion,  in  fact,  appears  to  have  been, 
like  that  of  all  savage  tribes,  little  better  than  a  kind  of 
fetichism,  a  belief  in  sorcery,  and  the  existence  of  certain 
invisible  and  dreaded  powers  who  could  do  evil ;  but  it  must 
be  told  the  Christian  faith  when  brought  into  collision  with 
this  low  superstition  is  also  exhibited  simply  as  a  superior 
sorcery.  St  Columba  met  and  beat  the  Pictish  priests  on 
their  own  field,  as  Moses  defeated  the  magicians  of  Egypt. 

1  Wednesday  from  Woden  or  Odin  ;  Thursday  from  Thor  ;  Friday 
from  Freya,  and  Tuesday  (Scottice,  Tyesday)  from  Ty,  a  minor  divinity 
popular  with  the  Angles  ;  Saturday  probably  comes  from  Saetir,  an  almost 
unknown  Teutonic  deity. 

2  So  many  are  the  points  of  resemblance,  that  Borlase,  in  his  Antiquities 
of  Cornwall,  holds  them  to  have  been  the  same. 

3  Vita  Sancti  Columbrc.  Auctore  Adamnano.  An  edition  of  this 
interesting  work  was  published  by  the  Bannatyne  Club  ;  but  the  edition 
of  Dr  Reeves  is  made  still  more  valuable  by  its  preface  and  notes. 


.\.D.  300-500.]  SCANDINAVIAN  THEOLOGY.  l  ■ 

When  we  turn  from  the  scanty  religious  records  of  Pictland  to 
the  Skaldic  literature  of  Iceland,  and  the  ancient  Eddas  of  the 
north  to  learn  something  of  the  religion  which  probably  pre- 
vailed at  least  in  the  north  and  east  of  the  mainland,  and  in  the 
swarm  of  islands  which  were  held  by  the  Norsemen,  we  find  a 
much  more  fully  developed  theology,  but  probably  it  is,  after 
all,  only  the  popular  superstition  ennobled  by  poetry. 

The  primitive  theology  of  the  Scandinavian  tribes  appears 
to  have  embraced  the  doctrine  of  one  Supreme  Deity.  "  He 
liveth  from  all  ages,  He  governeth  all  realms,  and  swayeth  all 
things  great  and  small.  He  hath  formed  heaven  and  earth, 
and  the  air,  and  all  things  thereunto  belonging.  And  what  is 
more,  He  hath  made  man,  and  given  him  a  soul  which  shall 
live  and  never  perish,  though  the  body  shall  have  mouldered 
away,  or  have  been  burnt  to  ashes.  And  all  that  are  righte- 
ous shall  dwell  with  Him  in  the  place  called  Gimli  or  Vin- 
golf ;  but  the  wicked  shall  go  to  Hel,  and  thence  to  Niflhel, 
which  is  below  in  the  ninth  world."  x  It  is  certain,  however, 
that  this  sublime  belief  was  confined  to  the  few  \  and  that  in- 
ferior divinities  monopolised  the  worship  of  the  many,  who 
were  quite  ignorant  of  the  One  Supreme. 

According  to  the  prose  Edda,  there  were  twelve  Gods,  in 
whom  men  wTere  bound  to  believe,  and  to  whom  divine  hon- 
ours ought  to  be  paid.  The  Goddesses  were  equally  numer- 
ous, and  "not  less  divine  and  mighty."  The  first  and  eldest 
of  the  ^Esir  is  Woden.  "  He  governs  all  things,  and  although 
the  other  deities  are  powerful,  they  all  serve  and  obey  him  as 
children  do  their  father."  Thor  stands  next,  and  is  the 
strongest  of  all  the  Gods ;  he  is  the  thunderer,  the  war-god. 
He  wields  a  mallet,  with  which  he  has  split  many  a  giant's 
skull,  for  nothing  can  resist  its  force.  Baldur,  the  good  and 
beautiful,  and  Njord  follow  Thor  in  the  list  of  divinities  \  the 
former  of  whom  appears  to  have  been  the  patron  of  wisdom 
and  eloquence ;  and  the  latter  the  God  of  the  sea — the  Nep- 
tune of  Rome.  Of  the  Goddesses,  Frigga  and  Freya  were 
the  chief.  Frigga  was  the  wife  of  Woden,  and  appears  to 
have  been  no  other  than  an  apotheosis  of  mother-earth. 
Freya  was  the  Goddess  of  generation,  the  Venus  of  the 
ancients ;  and  appears,  like  her  southern  sister,  to  have  been 
possessed  of  resplendent  beauty.  "  She  is  very  fond,"  says 
the  Edda,  "of  love  ditties,  and  all  lovers  would  do  well  to 

1  Prose  Edda.     Translated  in  Mallet's  Northern  Antiquities,  p.  400-1, 
Bonn's  edition. 


1  2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  I. 

invoke  her."  But,  contrary  to  the  usual  softness  of  her  sex, 
though  perfectly  like  a  Scandinavian  woman,  she  followed 
armies  to  battle,  and  claimed  from  Woden  the  half  of  the 
slain. 

Loki  occupies  a  prominent  place  in  this  mythology;  but 
his  position  is  ambiguous.  Of  a  fine  form  and  amazing  dex- 
terity, he  is  generally  in  the  company  of  the  Gods,  but  he 
often  brings  them  into  trouble,  and  is  feared  and  hated  by 
them.  He  is  called  the  reproach  of  Gods  and  men,  and  was 
in  fact  the  devil  of  the  north. 

But  the  Norsemen  peopled  their  invisible  world  with  other 
beings  than  the  Gods.  There  were  the  Frost  giants,  and  the 
mountain  giants,  the  dwarfs,  the  elves  of  light,  and  the  elves 
of  darkness ;  these  giants  being  no  other  than  the  personified 
natural  agencies  which  piled  up  around  them  mountains  of 
ice  and  snow.  Jotunheim  is  their  abode  ;  they  are  described 
as  an  ill-doing  race,  and  against  them  Thor  wages  a  remorse- 
less war.  The  dwarfs  were  originally  maggots,  but,  by  the  will 
of  the  Gods  and  the  law  of  evolution,  they  assumed  the  human 
shape.  They  dwell  in  rocks  and  caverns,  and  brew  mischief. 
The  elves  of  light  dwell  in  Elf-home  ;  but  the  elves  of  darkness 
live  under  the  earth.  "  The  elves  of  light  are  fairer  than  the 
sun,  but  the  elves  of  darkness  are  blacker  than  pitch." 

The  Druids  venerated  the  oak  ;  the  Scandinavians  regarded 
the  ash  as  peculiarly  the  tree  of  the  Gods.  "  It  is  under  the 
ash  Yggdrasill  where  the  Gods  assemble  every  day  in  council. 
It  is  the  greatest  and  best  of  all  trees :  its  branches  spread 
over  the  whole  world,  and  even  reach  above  the  heaven. 
Near  the  fountain  which  is  under  this  ash  stands  a  very  beau- 
teous dwelling,  out  of  which  go  three  maidens,  named  Urd, 
Vernandi,  and  Skuld — the  Present,  the  Past,  and  the  Future. 
These  maidens  fix  the  lifetime  of  all  men,  and  are  called 
Norns." 1 

Courage  was  the  virtue  which  the  Norse  creed  was  designed 
to  foster,  and  accordingly  the  joys  of  the  future  world  were 
reserved  for  the  brave.  Valhalla  is  the  spacious  mansion  of 
Woden,  and  thither  go  all  who  are  slain  in  battle.  It  was 
peculiarly  suited  to  be  the  dwelling-place  of  cut-throats  and 
pirates.  Every  morning  the  heroes  ride  out  to  the  court,  and 
there  hew  each  other  in  pieces ;  but  when  meal-time  ap- 
proaches,  they  remount  their  steeds,  and  return  to  dine  in 

1  Prose  Ed  da.  From  Urd  comes  our  word  weird;  and  the  weird  sisters 
of  Shakespere  are  the  Norns  of  Scandinavia. 


a.D.  -300-500.]  THE  NORSEMAN'S  HEAVEN.  1 3 

Valhalla,  all  the  hungrier  for  the  deadly  wounds  they  have 
given  and  received.  The  entire  carcass  of  a  boar  is  served  as 
the  daily  dinner,  and  the  flitches  of  this  they  wash  down  with 
deep  draughts  of  mead,  which  they  quaff  from  huge  drinking- 
horns  ;  and  so  in  eating  and  drinking,  and  with  boisterous 
merriment,  they  pass  the  night. — The  voluptuous  Mussulman 
has  peopled  his  paradise  with  dark-eyed  houris  of  refulgent 
beauty,  four  of  whom  are  assigned  to  every  believer  who  falls 
in  battle ;  the  Scandinavians,  children  of  a  colder  clime,  have 
introduced  females  into  Valhalla  too,  but  it  is  only  "  to  bear 
in  the  drink,  and  take  care  of  the  drinking  horns,  and  what- 
ever belongs  to  the  table."  "The  heaven  of  each,"  says 
Moore,  "is  just  what  each  desires ;"  and  it  must  be  confessed 
that  no  more  fitting  entertainment  than  that  we  have  described 
could  be  found  for  a  company  of  freebooters. 

The  altars  of  these  rough  Norsemen  were  originally  in  the 
open  air,  and  were  frequently  stained  with  human  blood ;  but 
they  had  afterwards  roofed  temples,  consisting  of  a  nave  and 
shrine,  corresponding  to  the  chancel  of  the  Christian  Church, 
where  were  the  images  of  the  Gods,  ranged  in  a  half  circle.  In 
the  midst  of  them  was  the  altar  with  the  sacred  fire,  the 
blood-bowl  and  the  ring,  on  which  oaths  were  sworn.  Sacrifices 
of  every  living  thing  were  offered,  not  only  of  sheep  and  oxen, 
but  of  horses  and  swine.  The  chief  wras  the  priest.  The 
offerings  being  made,  the  flesh  of  the  victims  was  boiled  in 
kettles  in  the  nave,  or  less  holy  part  of  the  temple,  and  feasting 
began  then  and  there — broth  and  beef  and  horns  of  beer. 
The  priest  was  the  toast-master, — To  Woden  !  to  Njord  !  to 
Frey  !  to  Thor  !  to  the  memory  of  their  departed  kinsmen !  A 
jovial  religion,  but  what  else  could  we  expect ! 1 

Each  year  had  its  three  religious  festivals.  The  first  was 
held  at  the  winter  solstice,  and  was  called  Jul.  This  being 
the  beginning  of  the  Scandinavian  year,  it  was  held  in  honour 
of  Frey,  the  Sun- God,  in  order  to  procure,  from  his  benign 
influence,  propitious  seasons.  The  second  festival  was  in 
honour  of  the  earth,  and  was  fixed  at  the  first  quarter  of  the 
second  moon  of  the  year.  The  third,  and  greatest,  was  cele- 
brated in  honour  of  Woden,  early  in  spring,  and  was  probably 
intended  to  incline  the  battle-god  to  be  favourable  to  them  in 
their  piratical  expeditions  during  the  summer  months. 2 

We  may  well  believe  that  such  a  martial  creed  and  such  a 

1  Dasent's  Burnt  Njal.     Introduction. 
-  Mallet's  Northern  Antiquities. 


14  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  T. 

sanguinary  worship  would  foster  the  marauding  spirit  of  the 
Norsemen,  and  would  lead  them  to  think  plunder  and  murder 
their  proper  trade.  Unswerving  valour  was  the  only  virtue 
which  their  religion  encouraged :  death  in  battle  was  the  only 
doorway  to  heaven.  It  accordingly  sent  forth  a  race  of  rovers, 
who  cruelly  devastated  almost  every  country  of  Europe,  and 
drove  the  monks  who  lived  along  the  coasts  to  introduce  into 
their  litany  the  pitiful  prayer — "  From  the  fury  of  the  Norse- 
men, good  Lord,  deliver  us."1  The  Picts  may  have  carried 
this  creed  into  our  country,  and  it  partly  accounts  for  their 
relentless  wars  with  the  Britons,  and  afterwards  with  the  Scots. 
The  Saxons  brought  over  the  same  Gods  in  their  long  ships  to 
England ;  and  in  their  conflicts  with  the  natives  their  valour 
and  piety  would  be  equally  inflamed  by  the  belief  that  Hengist 
and  Horsa  were  the  lineal  descendants  of  Woden.  The  Nor- 
wegians and  Danes,  who  during  so  many  centuries  infested  the 
northern  seas,  and  kept  their  firm  grip  on  all  the  islands  off 
our  coast,  and  even  on  a  considerable  district  of  the  mainland, 
must  have  left  there  not  merely  the  mark  of  blood,  but  of  the 
superstition  which  caused  them  so  profusely  to  shed  it.  It 
was  the  year  iooo  before  these  corsairs  were  baptized  into  the 
Christian  faith. 

The  Scandinavian  mythology  wants  the  elegance  of  the  old 
classic  myths,  but  it  is  vaster  in  all  its  proportions.  It  is 
like  a  great  Gothic  cathedral  beside  a  Grecian  temple. 
Everything  about  it  is  colossal.  The  body  of  the  giant 
Ymir  was  so  huge  that  it  formed  the  world.  Thor  with 
one  stroke  of  his  hammer  cleaves  a  deep  glen  in  the 
earth ;  and,  challenged  to  drink,  takes  such  a  draught  as 
to  cause  the  ebb  tide  along  all  the  shores  of  the  world.  The 
serpent  Midgard  was  so  long  that,  like  the  snake  in  Hindu 
mythology,  it  encircled  the  globe  ;  and  the  open  jaws  of  the 
wolf  Fenrir  stretched  from  earth  to  heaven.  In  such  a 
mythology  there  were  no  pretensions  to  much  spirituality,  but 
neither  was  there  any  voluptuous  sensuality.  It  was  plainly 
the  religion  of  a  robust  people  and  a  rigorous  clime.  It  was 
the  reflex  of  the  people's  own  thoughts  and  employments.  They 
deified  and  worshipped  what  they  admired.  Man  ever  makes 
his  Gods  in  his  own  image  ;  he  trembles  before  the  enlarged 
shadow  of  himself. 

Paganism  has  now  been  extinct  in  Great  Britain  for  more 

1  A  furore  Normanorum,  libera  nos,  Domine, — Note  to  Malle.'s  Anti- 
quities. 


a. D.  300-500.]  VESTIGES.  J  5 

than  twelve  hundred  years ;  but  it  has  left  behind  it  traces  of 
its  existence,  which  seem  to  be  almost  as  indelible  and  endur- 
ing as  those  fossil  vestiges  which  recall  the  memory  of  former 
worlds,  with  their  strange  types  of  animals  and  plants.  Bel- 
tane, the  title  till  recently  applied  to  our  Whitsunday,  was  the 
name  of  a  Druidical  festival;  Yule,  by  which  Christmas  is  still 
frequently  denominated  in  Scotland,  is  identical  with  Jul,1  a 
Scandinavian  feast  held  at  Christmas  time,  with  joy  and 
rejoicing,  in  honour  of  kFrei.  Every  time  we  speak  of  Tues- 
day, Wednesday,  Thursday,  or  Friday,  we  commemorate  a 
Scandinavian  God.  It  has  sometimes  been  said  that  our  elves 
and  fairies  were  imported  from  the  east ;  they  are  in  truth  the 
creations  of  the  north,  and  it  will  be  many  centuries  before 
they  cease  to  haunt  the  minds  of  our  children,  and  to  give 
merriment  to  all  by  their  gay  and  innocent  gambols.  The 
ghosts  of  Ossian  still  hover  on  the  Highland  hills,  and  walk  in 
lonely  churchyards;  and  many  a  Celt  who  could  fearlessly 
rush  up  the  heights  of  Alma,  would  not  for  worlds  spend  a  U 
night  alone  in  a  haunted  house,  or  approach  and  examine  a// 
moonbeam  flickering  on  the  mound  of  a  grave.  The  bards 
and  senachies  who  once  were  to  be  found  in  every  Highland 
hall  were  the  descendants  of  the  Druids,  all  whose  science  and 
history  were  in  verse;  and  though  poets  are  no  longer  enter- 
tained by  kings  and  chiefs,  yet  the  last  of  our  minstrels  has 
not  sung.  Philosophical  historians  have  regarded  the  enor- 
mous power  possessed  by  the  priesthood  of  Rome  in  Western 
pAirope  as  in  part  an  inheritance  derived  from  their  Druidical 
ancestors,  for  rude  nations  naturally  transfer  from  one  sacer- 
dotal caste  to  another  the  same  veneration,  influence,  and 
respect. 

It  has  been  thought  by  some  that  every  time  we  circulate 
the  wine  at  table  from  right  to  left,  we  have  respect  to  the 
Druids,  who  in  all  their  movements  most  scrupulously  followed 
the  course  of  the  sun.  When  we  drink  healths  we  show  our 
Scandinavian  descent.  The  Norsemen,  as  we  have  seen,  were 
accustomed  to  pledge  their  Gods  in  their  cups,  more  especially 
Woden,  Thor,  and  Freya;  and  when  Christianity  was  at  length 

1  This  becomes  more  apparent  when  we  remember  that  in  the  Germanic 
and  Northern  tongues  the  J  is  pronounced  like  our  V. 

"  The  fire  that's  blawn  on  Beltane  e'en 
May  weel  be  black  gin  Yule  ; 
But  blacker  far  awaits  the  heart 
When  first  fond  love  grows  cule." 

Motherwell's  Jeanie  Morrison. 


1 6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  II. 

introduced,  unable  to  abandon  the  custom,  they  substituted  in 
the  place  of  these  the  names  of  Christ,  the  saints,  and  more 
especially  of  the  archangel  Michael,  whom  they  regarded  as 
the  greatest  warrior  of  the  hosts  of  heaven.  At  these  drinking- 
bouts  they  moreover  pledged  one  another,  and  drank  to  the 
spirits  of  their  departed  heroes. 

Both  the  Scandinavian  and  Druidical  priesthoods  sanctioned, 
in  cases  of  doubtful  guilt,  the  trial  by  ordeal,  in  which  it  was 
understood  there  was  a  direct  appeal  to  heaven  to  clear  the 
innocent.  This  practice  continued  long  throughout  all  Europe 
after  the  reception  of  Christianity.  It  gave  rise  to  the  chival- 
rous tournament,  and  degenerated  into  the  duel,  now  happily 
abolished  as  the  last  vestige  of  a  barbarous  usage,  founded  on 
the  impious  presumption  that  Providence  will  interfere  in  our 
quarrels  to  right  the  wrong. 

Religions  follow  the  universal  law — they  do  not  perish,  they 
change.  Druidism  and  Scandinavianism  gradually  merged  into 
Christianity,  but  traces  of  the  old  faiths  remained  imbedded  in 
the  new.  The  first  missionaries  recognised  and  acted  on  a 
knowledge  of  this.  The  heathen  temples  were  purged  of  their 
images,  and  consecrated  as  Christian  churches.  The  standing 
stones  were  carved  with  Christian  symbols.  The  pagan  festi- 
vals were  converted  into  Christian  holidays,  and  probably  in 
many  cases  the  rude  people  hardly  knew  that  they  had  turned 
from  one  religion  to  another.  It  is  certain  that  under  the 
name  of  Christians  they  practised  for  a  thousand  years  pagan 
rites  without  knowing  what  they  did. 


CHAPTER     II. 

Eusebius,  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  "  Ecclesiastical  History,'' 
frankly  confesses  that  he  was  totally  unable  to  find  even  the 
bare  vestiges  of  those  who  had  travelled  the  way  before  him  ; 
"  unless,  perhaps,"  he  proceeds  to  say,  "  what  is  only  presented 
in  the  slight  intimations  which  some  in  different  ways  have 
transmitted  to  us  in  certain  partial  narratives  of  the  times  in 
which  they  lived  ;  who,  raising  their  voices  before  us,  like 
torches  at  a  distance,  and  as  looking  down  from  some  com- 
manding height,  call  out  and  exhort  us  where  we  should  walk, 
and  whither  direct  our  course  with  certainty  and  safety."  1  The 
1  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Eusebius  Pamphilus,  book  i.  chap.  i. 


a.  d.  600-800.]  EARLY  CHRONICLERS.  1 7 

person  who  undertakes  to  narrate  the  early  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory of  Scotland  must  make  a  similar  acknowledgment.     It  is 
not  that  there  is  any  lack  of  materials  wherewithal  to  build  up 
a   consecutive   and  most    interesting   narrative.      There   are 
ancient  chronicles  and  monkish  legends  in  great  plenty  ;  but  it 
is  very  evident  to  the  searching  eye  of  criticism,  that  in  most 
of  these  falsehood  is  largely  mingled  with  truth  ;  and  that  when 
Memory  failed  to  record  an  event,   Imagination  was  ever  at 
hand  to  supply  the.  deficiency.     In  our  estimate  of  these  docu- 
ments, it  must,  moreover,  be  borne  in  mind  that  few  of  them 
were  written  till  centuries  after  the  period  whose  history  they 
pretend  to  relate,  and  though  some  of  them  probably  proceeded 
upon  documents  more  ancient  than  themselves,  and  which  are 
now  lost,  it  is  certain  that  a  large  number  of  the  circumstances 
they  narrate  must  have  come  to  them  through  the  uncertain 
channel  of  tradition.    Gildas,  our  earliest  chronicler,  lived  pro- 
bably toward  the  end  of  the  sixth  century ;  but  who  or  what 
he  was,  no  one  can  certainly  tell.     The  venerable  Bede  com- 
piled his  valuable  work  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century. 
To  us,  looking  across  the  eighteen  hundred  years  which  have 
elapsed  since  the  birth  of  our  Saviour,  three  or  four  centuries 
at  its  very  commencement  may  seem  to  be  a  short  space ;  as 
when  standing  on  a  high  hill,  and  gazing  over  a  wide  landscape, 
many  miles  at  its  utmost  limit  appear  contracted  into  a  span. 
But  the  former  is  a  mental,  as  the  latter  is  an  ocular  deception, 
both  arising  from  the  same  law,  that  distance  lessens  the  ap- 
parent magnitude  of  objects.     Three  hundred  years  at  the 
beginning  of  our  era  were  quite  as  long  as  three  hundred  years 
now,  and  must  have  had  the  same  effects — removing  ancient 
land-marks,  wearing  out  old  ideas,  and  bearing  down  upon 
their  muddy  waters  the  memories  of  a  myriad  events,  and  de- 
positing them  in  the  depths  of  the  great  sea  of  oblivion.    With- 
out the  aid  of  contemporaneous  history,  and  forced  to  depend 
entirely  upon  unwritten  tradition,  how  little  could  we  know  of 
the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  and  that  little  how  dis- 
torted.    All  experience  warrants  us  to  say  that  no  narrative  is 
worthy  of  belief  which  is  not  vouched  by  a  consecutive  line  of 
writers  who  lived  at  the  time  to  which  the  records  refer. 

It  is  true  that  many  sidelights  are  let  in  upon  the  early  his- 
tory of  our  country  by  the  Latin  writers  who  lived  at  the  time, 
but  their  notices  refer  almost  exclusively  to  political  events. 
The  Fathers  of  the  Church,  also,  sometimes  allude  to  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  into  our  island,  but  they  lived  too 

VOL.   I.  E 


1 8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  EL 

far  from  the  scene  to  be  accurately  informed,  and  some  of 
their  passages  have  the  evident  marks  of  African  warmth  or 
Oriental  exaggeration.  The  monks,  within  whose  cloisters  all 
the  learning  of  Europe  was  for  centuries  locked  up,  and  from 
whom  countless  legends  and  saintly  lives  have  come  down  to 
us,  were  men  of  most  lively  fancy,  who  esteemed  pious  fraud 
to  be  a  virtue,  and  were  equally  ready  to  forge  a  charter,  or 
invent  a  miracle,  if  they  could  thereby  benefit  their  monastery, 
or  glorify  the  Church.  The  truth  is,  we  must  traverse  almost 
a  thousand  years  before  we  get  beyond  the  region  of  fable,  and 
reach  the  known  land  of  historic  truth. 

Although  our  antiquaries  have  spared  no  pains  to  recover 
and  authenticate  every  fragment  of  the  past,  the  mythical  has 
been  steadily  gaining  upon  the  historical,  from  the  severe  tests 
which  every  fact  must  now  undergo  before  we  recognise  it  as 
a  reality.  Buchanan  claims  much  merit  to  himself  for  having 
discarded  those  legends  which  carry  our  history  up  to  Scota, 
the  daughter  of  the  Pharaoh  who  was  drowned  in  the  Red 
Sea ;  and  thinks  that  he  places  our  dynasty  on  a  secure  basis 
when  he  begins  it  with  a  certain  Fergus,  who  is  said  to  have 
reigned  in  Scotland  when  Alexander  the  Great  wras  besieging 
Babylon.  Lord  Hailes  begins  his  Annals  fourteen  hundred 
years  after  this,  with  the  reign  of  Malcolm  III.,  remarking, 
that  "  previous  to  that  period  our  history  is  involved  in  obscu- 
rity and  fable ; "  and  thus  reduces  eighty-five  of  Buchanan's 
kings  to  little  better  than  shadows,  dimly  seen  through  the 
mist  of  years,  albeit  the  grim  portraits  of  some  of  them  still 
adorn  the  walls  of  Holy  rood.  Tytler  begins  his  admirable 
history  two  centuries  later,  at  the  accession  of  Alexander  III., 
knowing  that  from  that  time  he  could  build  his  narrative  on 
unquestionable  muniments.  In  like  manner,  the  critical 
researches  of  the  learned  Niebuhr  have  reduced  the  history 
of  Rome  to  less  than  a  half  of  its  former  bulk.  The  same 
severity  of  criticism  applied  to  the  chronicles  of  Gildas,  Nen- 
nius,  Bede,  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  William  of  Malmesbury, 
Hector  Boethius,  Fordun,  and  the  legendary  lives  of  the  legion 
of  saints  who  crowd  the  calendar,  would  make  whole  chapters 
shrink  into  a  single  page.  But  notwithstanding  this  huge 
mass  of  superincumbent  fable,  we  think  it  possible,  in  many 
cases,  to  separate  the  true  from  the  false ;  as,  besides  collateral 
circumstances,  truth  often  possesses  a  kind  of  internal  evi- 
dence of  its  own.  Many  undoubted  facts  connected  with  the 
history  of  the  Scottish  Church  have  been  floated  down  to  us 


a.d.  300-400.]  WITNESS  IN  STONE.  19 

from  a  very  remote  antiquity,  and  to  gather  these  up,  and 
carefully  preserve  them,  has  always  been  a  labour  of  Christian 
love. 

Seven  cities  of  antiquity  are  said  to  have  contended  for  the 
honour  of  having  been  the  birthplace  of  Homer ;  and  no 
fewer  than  five  of  the  apostles  compete  for  the  merit  of  having 
first  preached  the  gospel  in  Britain.  These  are  St  James, 
Simon  Zelotes,  Philip,  St  Peter,  and  St  Paul.  Besides  these 
five  apostles,  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  who  charged  himself  with 
the  burial  of  our  Saviour,  has  likewise  been  set  up  by  the 
monkish  historians  as  the  first  who  planted  Christianity  on 
our  shores.  Leaving  Apostolic  times,  there  is  a  story  of  a 
certain  Lucius,  King  of  Britain,  who,  in  the  second  century, 
sent  an  embassy  to  the  Pope,  desiring  to  be  converted  and 
baptised.  Not  to  be  far  behind,  Scotland  boasts  of  a  King 
Donald  who,  in  the  third  century,  with  his  whole  kingdom, 
embraced  Christianity.  But  both  stories  are  so  full  of  incon- 
sistencies and  anachronisms,  that  we  need  have  no  difficulty 
in  rejecting  them  as  monkish  myths.  It  is  highly  probable, 
however,  that  the  religion  of  the  Nazarene  had  already  pene- 
trated into  Britain,  and  had  even  been  heard  of  in  the  forests 
of  Caledonia.  Tertullian  declares  that  in  his  day  parts  of 
Britain,  inaccessible  to  the  Romans,  had  been  subdued 
to  Christ,  and  three  British  bishops  are  said  to  have  at- 
tended the  first  Council  of  Aries  in  the  year  314,  and  other 
three  the  Council  of  Rimini  in  359.  It  is  thought  by  some 
there  is  a  witness  in  stone  of  the  existence  of  Christianity  in 
Scotland  in  the  fourth  century.  "  Nowhere  in  Great  Britain," 
says  Dean  Stanley,  "  is  there  a  Christian  record  so  ancient  as 
the  grey  weather-beaten  column  which  now  serves  as  the  gate- 
post of  the  deserted  churchyard  of  Kirk  Madrine,  on  the  bleak 
hill  in  the  centre  of  the  Rinns  of  Galloway,  and  bearing  on  its 
battered  surface,  in  letters  of  the  fourth  century,  the  statement 
that  it  had  marked  the  grave  of  three  saints  of  Gallic  name — 
Florentius,  Viventius,  and  Mavorius."  l  The  rudeness  of  the 
monument  and  its  desolate  site  are  in  fine  keeping  with  the 
future  history  of  the  country's  faith. 

There  is  a  legend  in  regard  to  the  introduction  of  Christi 

1  Lectures  on  the  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  p.  85.  See  also 
Burton's  History,  vol.  i.  chap,  iv.,  and  Stuart's  Sculptured  Stones,  vol.  ii. 
The  inscription  below  an  encircled  +  on  the  one  pillar  is,  Hie  jacent  scl 
et  praecipui  sacerdotes  id  est,  Viventius,  Mavorius — and  on  the  other 
pillar  is  the  name  Florentius. 


20  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  U. 

anity  into  Scotland  too  characteristic   to  be  omitted,  more 
especially  as  it  is  connected  with  St  Andrew,  the  patron  saint 
of  the  nation.     St  Regulus,  better  known  in  our  country  as 
St  Rule,  is  said  to  have  been  a  Greek  monk,  who,  being 
warned   in   a   dream  that  he  should  take  the  bones  of  St 
Andrew,  and  depart  with  them  to  some  unknown  land  in  the 
far  west,  resolved,  after  some  hesitation,  to  obey  the  Divine 
admonition.    He  accordingly  gathered  up  what  relics  he  could 
of  the  apostle,  viz.,  an  arm-bone,  three  fingers,  three  toes,  and 
a  tooth  ;  and,  being  accompanied  by  sixteen  other  monks  and 
three  devout  virgins,  he  set  sail,  not  knowing  whither  to  steer 
his  course.     For  two  long  years  were  this  pilgrim  band  tossed 
about  by  tempests,  as  they  skirted  the  sunny  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean,  passed  the  dreaded  pillars  of  Hercules,  and 
rode  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay ;  but,  at  last  overtaken  by  a  storm 
more  violent  than  any  they  had  yet  encountered,  they  were 
whirled  northward,  and  finally  shipwrecked  on  the  promontory 
of  St  Andrews.     With  difficulty  they  escaped  from  the  waves, 
bearing  with  them  the  precious  relics  of  the  apostle.     But  on 
the  shore  there  were  dangers  as  well  as  on  the  sea.     The 
whole  country  was  covered  with  a  vast  forest,  which  was  in- 
fested by  wild  boars  ;   and  the  Pictish  inhabitants,  painted 
pagans,  were  scarcely  less  to  be  dreaded.     But  the  king  was 
awed  by  the  holy  lives  of  the  saintly- company,  and  in  a  short 
time  he  and  his  subjects  submitted  to  the  rite  of  baptism. 
Hard  by  the  ruins  of  the  once  noble  cathedral  of  St  Andrews 
there  still  stands  a  lofty  tower  of  undoubted  antiquity.     It  is 
called  St  Regulus's  tower.     Some  have  imagined  it  belongs  to 
the  fourth  or  fifth  century ;  but  with  far  greater  probability  it 
is  ascribed  to  the  twelfth,  and  believed  to  be  part  of  the  basilica 
known  to  have  been  erected  by  one  of  the  earliest  bishops  of 
the  See.     The  legend  belongs  to  the  year  369. 

We  cannot  dismiss  this  legend  without  remarking,  that 
many  eminent  historians  are  inclined  to  assign  to  the  British 
churches  an  Eastern  rather  than  a  Roman  origin.  Neander  is 
of  this  number.1  They  are  led  to  do  so  by  the  supposed  fact, 
that  for  many  ages  the  Scotch   Church  agreed  much  more 

1  General  History  of  the  Christian  Religion  and  Church,  vol.  v.  §  I, 
Bonn's  Edition.  No  authority  is  higher  than  Neander's  ;  and  yet  we  have 
doubts  of  the  Eastern  origin  of  the  British  Church.  It  was  more  likely 
that  the  Roman  missionary  would  follow  in  the  steps  of  the  Roman 
soldier  ;  and  the  dependence  was  not  felt,  just  because  it  was  the  twelfth 
century  before  the  Roman  hierarchy  managed  to  stretch  its  dominion  so 
wide. 


A.D.  400-20.]  ST.  JEROME  AND  PELAGIUS.  2  1 

closely  with  the  Greek  than  the  Latin  Church  in  many  of  its 
rites  ;  and  claimed  for  itself  an  Asiatic  origin,  always  appealing 
to  St  Polycarp,  St  Mark,  and  St  John,  as  the  sources  of  the 
traditions  it  enjoyed.  It  is  possible  there  may  be  a  grain  of 
truth  in  the  story  of  St  Rule. 

It  was  in  this  age  a  controversy  arose  in  the  Church  regard- 
ing Grace  and  Free  Will,  than  which  none  is  more  memorable, 
both  from  the  interesting  questions  it  involved,  and  the  illus- 
trious disputants  it  brought  upon  the  field.  This  controversy 
arose  out  of  certain  opinions  published  by  Pelagius,  and  de- 
fended with  great  logical  acumen  by  his  disciple  Caelestius,  one 
or  both  of  whom  are  said  to  have  been  of  British  or  Scottish 
birth.  When  the  controversy  was  at  its  hottest  St  Augus- 
tine, the  great  opponent  of  Pelagius,  was  joined  by  an  invalu- 
able ally  in  St  Jerome.  This  monk  was  perhaps  the  most 
learned  man  of  his  day,  but  certainly  the  worst-tempered  and 
most  vituperative;  and  he  seems  to  have  anticipated  other 
learned  men  in  his  thorough  contempt  for  the  Scotch.  In  the 
abuse  which  he  lavished  upon  Pelagius,  it  is  thought  we  have 
a  clue  to  the  place  of  his  birth.  It  would  appear  Pelagius  was 
a  portly  man,  and  St  Jerome  seizes  upon  this  to  taunt  him 
with  being  swollen  with  Scotch  porridge.  1  The  same  Father, 
in  his  preface  to  his  third  book  upon  the  prophet  Jeremiah, 
again  breaks  out  against  Pelagius,  calls  him  a  Highland  terrier, 
and  declares  that,  being  sprung  from  the  nation  of  the  Scots, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Britons,  he  ought,  like  Cerberus, 
to  be  well  beaten  with  a  spiritual  club,  and,  with  his  master 
Pluto,  consigned  to  eternal  silence. 2  Others  of  his  adversaries 
spoke  of  him  in  the  same  abusive  way.  Orosius  says  he  had 
broad  shoulders,  a  thick  neck,  a  fat  face,  was  lame,  and  blind 
of  an  eye.  3     Augustine  alone  had  the  magnanimity  to  do  him 

1  Nee  recordator  stolidissimus  et  wScotorum  pultibus  pra^gravatus.  (Proof, 
in  lib.  i.,  Com.  in  Hierem.) 

2  "  Hie  tacet,  alibi  criminatur,  mittit  in  universam  orbem  Epistolas  Bibli- 
nas,  prius  auriferas,  nunc  maledicas,  ipseque  mutus  latrat,  per  Alpinum 
[Albinum]  Canem,  grandem  et  corpulentum,  et  qui  calcibus  magis  saevire 
possit,  quam  dentibus.  Habet  enim  progeniem  Scoticae  gentis,  de 
Britannorum  vicinia  ;  qui  juxta  fabulas  poetarum,  instar  Cerberi,  spirituali 
percutiendus  est  clava,  ut  ceterno  cum  suo  Magistro  Plutone,  silentio  con- 
ticescat."  The  persons  indicated  in  this  passage  are  doubtful.  Cardinals 
Norris  and  Baronius  and  Archbishop  Usher  have  thought  that  Pelagius 
and  his  disciple  Caelestius  are  referred  to  ;  other  scholars  hold  that  it  is  to 
Rufinus  (the  master  of  Pelagius)  and  Pelagius  himself  that  Jerome  alludes. 

3  "Latos  humeros  gestantem  robustamque  cervicem,  proferentem  etiam 
in  fronte  pinguedinem,  mutilum  et  fxovb(pda\iAOi>y  (Oros.  in  Apol.  de 
Arbitrii  Liber  :  contra  Pelae.) 


2  2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  II. 

justice.  "He  was  a  good  man,  and  an  eminent  Christian," 
said  the  Bishop  of  Hippo.  "  I  have  loved  him,  and  I  love 
him  still. 1 

I  Augustine  spoke  only  the  truth  when  he  said  Pelagius  was  a 
virtuous  and  pious  man.  A  layman,  and  probably  a  monk,  he 
had  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  seclusion.  Away  from 
Hhe  world  he  had  not  felt  the  power  of  its  temptations  ; 
endowed  by  nature  with  an  easy  temperament,  he  had  scarcely 
known  the  turbulence  of  evil  passions,  and  hence  had  been  led 
J  to  deny  our  depravity,  and  to  think  perfect  virtue  attainable  by 
man.  St  Austin  was  a  man  of  another  mould,  and  had  lived  a 
very  different  life.  Possessed  of  violent  passions,  which  in 
early  youth  he  had  been  unable  to  control,  he  had  run  a  wild 
career  of  debauchery  and  unbelief.  It  was  not  without  an  in- 
ward agony  that  he  had  passed  from  death  unto  life.  He  felt 
it  was  only  the  grace  of  God  that  could  work  such  a  change  ; 
that  it  was  only  the  mercy  of  God  that  could  save  such  a 
sinner.  In  the  heart  and  history  of  these  two  great  men  we 
may  thus  find  the  seeds  of  their  respective  systems.  But 
something  must  also  be  attributed  to  their  marked  diversity  of 
intellect.  The  controversy  is  not  yet  settled.  It  was  revived 
in  many  of  its  essential  points  in  the  contending  tenets  of 
Arminius  and  Calvin  ;  and  probably  it  will  divide  the  Christian 
Church  till  the  end  of  time. 

We  have  now  reached  the  fifth  century  without  being  able  to 
discover  the  footprints  of  the  apostle  who  first  preached  the 
gospel  in  Britain.  Yet  we  have  now  indubitable  evidence  that 
it  had  been  preached,  and  that  many  had  received  it  with  all 
gladness.  History  has  not  recorded  the  event.  The  small 
seed  had  been  sown  in  secret,  which  was  to  become  the 
greatest  of  all  trees,  and  overshadow  with  its  branches  all  the 
nations  of  the  world.  But  though  we  cannot  distinctly  trace 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  to  our  shores,  there  is  no  need 
of  resorting  to  mystery  or  miracle  to  account  for  it.  Within  a 
century  from  the  death  of  the  Nazarene,  He  could  not  but  be 
heard  of  in  Britain  ;  for  the  good  tidings  of  the  new  religion 
had  been  too  much  talked  of  everywhere  not  to  be  heard  of 
here.  It  was  startling  to  see  how  the  old  worn-out  religions 
fell  to  the  ground  before  the  religion  of  Jesus,  as  Dagon  had 
fallen  and  been  broken  to  pieces  in  the  presence  of  the  ark. 
The  Romans  talked  of  this  as  they  sauntered  about  the  Forum, 

1   "Vir,  ut  audio,   sanctus  nee  parvo  proefectu  Christianus,   bonus   ac 
prsedicandus  vir."     (St  Aug.  de  Pcceat.  Mer.) 


A.D.  30-420.]  ROMANS   IX    BRITAIN.  23 

when  they  met  at  the  baths,  and  when,  reclining  at  dinner, 
they  observed  the  old  fashion  of  pouring  out  libations  of  wine 
to  their  Gods.  Even  those  who  despised  the  new  faith,  and 
esteemed  it  an  odious  superstition,  could  not  refrain  from 
speaking  of  it,  for  it  had  become  a  great  fact.  Thus  the 
religion  of  Jesus  flew — His  name  went  out  through  all  the 
earth,  and  His  words  to  the  end  of  the  world. 

At  this  period  there  was  a  constant  intercourse  between 
Rome  and  Britain.  Roman  traders  were  continually  touch- 
ing on  the  coast,  and  penetrating  into  the  interior.  Roman 
legionaries  were  in  the  islands  by  thousands,  from  the  rude 
miles  up  to  the  accomplished  centurio  and  the  all-powerful  im- 
perator.  Roman  colonies  had  been  formed  in  several  districts 
of  the  south.  All  these  must  have  come  into  daily  contact 
with  the  natives,  and  we  know  that  by  that  contact  these 
natives  were  rapidly  civilized.  Amongst  all  these  traders 
legionaries,  and  colonists,  was  there  not  one  Christian,  who 
would  seize  upon  some  propitious  opportunity  to  tell  an  in- 
quiring Briton  of  the  great  prophet  who  had  recently  appeared 
in  Judea  ?  When  everything  else  was  discussed,  was  this  sub- 
ject never  once  mentioned  ?  When  the  naked  barbarians  were 
told  how  to  clothe  their  persons,  and  how  to  plough  their  fields ; 
when  they  were  generously  presented  with  the  seeds  of  many  of 
those  plants  which  now  enrich  our  gardens  with  the  fruits  of 
Italy  and  the  Euxine;  when  Roman  temples,  villas,  and  baths 
began  to  rise,  and  Roman  luxury  to  be  everywhere  introduced, 
was  there  no  channel  by  which  that  new  religion,  which  had 
already  filled  Rome  with  its  martyrs  and  confessors,  could  find 
an  introduction  too  ? 

We  have  reason  to  believe,  that  before  the  expiry  of  the 
second  century  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  Roman  popu- 
lation had  become  Christian.  Many  of  the  soldiery  were  pro- 
fessors of  the  new  faith.  In  a  campaign  against  the  Marco- 
manni,  when  Marcus  Antoninus  was  emperor,  the  army  was 
surrounded  by  the  enemy,  and  reduced  to  the  most  desperate 
condition  for  want  of  water.  They  were  relieved  from  their 
distress  by  a  sudden  storm  of  thunder  and  rain,  which  struck 
terror  into  the  barbarians,  and  gave  refreshment  to  them.  By 
many  this  was  attributed  to  the  prayers  of  the  numerous 
Christians  in  one  of  the  legions,  which  was  ever  afterwards 
known  as  the  thundering  legion}  We  mention  this,  not  to 
claim  it  as  a  miracle,  but  simply  to  prove  that  many  Chris- 

1  Mosheim,  II.  Cent.,  part  i.  chap.  i. 


24  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  II. 

tians  were  in  the  ranks,  and  that,  of  those  who  were  stationed 
in  Britain,  there  may  have  been  some  who,  like  good  soldiers 
of  the  cross,  began  to  subdue  the  island  to  Christ. 

In  order  to  feel  this  fully,  we  must  bear  in  mind  the  dif- 
fusive character  of  Christianity,  and  the  missionary  spirit  which 
animated  all  its  first  converts.      Judaism  was  narrow  and  ex- 
clusive,   and   the    descendant   of  Abraham   rejoiced   in  the 
thought  that  he  and  his  countrymen  alone  had  the  hope  of 
salvation.     Paganism  was  easy  and  tolerant,  and  the  polite 
Roman,    while    himself    preferring   the   worship    of    Jupiter 
CajDitolinus,  had  no  fault  to  find  with  the  Egyptian  at  the 
shrine  of  Ra.     It  was  thought  there  was  even  a  propriety  in 
every  province  having  its  own  divinities  ;  and  as  the  army 
added  country  after  country  to  the  empire,  the  senate  made  no 
scruple  of  admitting  its  Gods  to  the  Pantheon.     But  Chris- 
/tianity  was  a  religion  of  a  different  type  ;  it  still  bore  upon  its 
"l)row  the  old  Hebrew  commandment — "  Thou  shalt  worship 
<-4he  Lord  thy  God,  and  him  only  shalt  thou  serve.',     It  had  no 
'toleration  for  other  Gods  than  the  true  God.     It  had  no 
belief  in  any  other  way  of  salvation  than  the  one  way.     But 
with  this  intolerance  of  other  faiths,  it  combined  a  liberality 
worthy  of  its  divine  Author,  who  makes  His  sun  to  rise  and 
His  rains  to  descend  upon  every  created  thing.     It  did  not 
seek  to  confine  its  benefits  to  a  few ;  it  desired  to  extend  them 
to  all.     It  aimed  at  the  empire  of  the  world.    The  commission 
had  been  given  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,  and 
every  new  disciple  felt  that  a  necessity  was  laid  upon  him  to 
communicate  to  others  the  joyful  secret  himself  had  received. 
The  very  exclusiveness  of  the  system  gave  to  this  diffusive 
spirit  in  its  converts  an  additional  intensity,  for  it  was  believed 
that  men  could  not  escape  if  they  neglected  this  great  salva- 
tion.    The  narrowness  of  the  channel  increased  the  depth  and 
impetuosity  of  the  stream.     Every  Christian  was  in  haste  to 
bring  others  to  Christ,  lest,  through  delay,  they  might  be  eter- 
nally lost.     Thus  this  new  and  divine  religion  united  at  once 
the  earnestness  of  Judaism  with  the  wide  catholicity  of  the 
pagan  creed. 

From  this  we  may  well  believe,  that  if  in  the  crowd  of 
foreigners  who  visited  Britain  there  was  one  Christian,  he 
would  not  be  silent  regarding  the  faith  he  had  embraced. 
Men  did  not  then  wait  till  they  were  invested  with  apostolic 
authority  or  ministerial  character  before  they  would  open  their 
lips  about  the  love  of  Jesus — they  went  everywhere  preaching 


A.D.  30-420.]  CHRISTIANITY  DIFFUSIVE.  25 

the  gospel.  It  is  highly  probable  it  was  some  pious  legionary 
or  some  converted  trader  who  rirst  told  our  ancestors  of  the 
way  to  heaven.  His  name  is  not  written  in  history  but  hfir^ 
influence  is  living  and  operating  still.  The  work  of  conver- 
sion would  at  first  be  slow,  just  as  we  see  it  is  now  in  Africa)* 
India,  or  China.  In  general  it  requires  centuries  to  turn  a 
people  from  an  old  faith  to  a  new  one  ;  and  it  is  rare  indeed 
that  a  nation  is  born  in  a  day.  But  the  work  being  begun 
would  go  steadily  on,  for  Druidism,  with  its  cruel  rites,  could 
not  ultimately  withstand  the  mild  and  merciful  religion  of 
Jesus.  Every  new  convert  gained  would  be  in  reality  a  new 
apostle  set  apart  for  the  preaching  of  the  Word;  and  the 
massacre  of  the  Druids  in  Mona,  like  the  burning  of  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem,  would  remove  a  great  obstacle  to 
the  triumph  of  the  cross.  Thus  strangely  is  the  wrath 
of  man  overruled  to  subserve  the  purposes  of  an  eternal 
Providence. 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  Christianity  made  its  way  to 
Scotland  from  the  south.  With  converts  in  one  end  of  the 
island,  it  could  not  but  be  heard  of  in  the  other.  It  has  been 
supposed  by  many  that  the  persecution  by  Diocletian,  which 
raged  throughout  the  whole  empire  in  the  end  of  the  third  cen- 
tury, would  lead  many  British  Christians  to  take  refuge  in  the 
mountains  beyond  the  Roman  wall,  and  thus  introduce  Chris- 
tianity into  our  country.  There  is  good  reason,  however,  to 
believe  that  under  the  mild  government  of  Constantius,  Bri- 
tain suffered  very  little  from  this  persecution,  and  though  the 
names  of  two  or  three  martyrs  are  preserved,  we  know  that  in 
general,  while  churches  were  thrown  down,  life  was  respected 
and  spared.  There  was  nothing  to  occasion  a  flight  to  the 
north.  But  a  persecution  was  not  required  to  scatter  through- 
out the  island  the  seed  of  the  Word.  The  natural  intercourse 
betwixt  the  north  and  the  south  was  enough  to  effect  it.  We 
may  safely  say  that,  within  fifty  years  after  Christianity  was 
known  in  Middlesex  and  Devon,  it  would  be  heard  of  at  least 
in  Clydesdale  and  Perth.  What  more  likely  than  that  some 
converted  Briton,  burning  with  apostolic  ardour,  would  carry 
to  his  Celtic  brethren  in  the  north  the  message  of  mercy,  and 
make  our  glens  for  the  first  time  to  echo  the  high  praises  of 
God. 

It  is  evident  that,  though  Christianity  was  early  known  in 
Caledonia,  it  was  a  long  time  before  it  made  any  visible  pro- 
gress.    In  the  sixth  century  the  Northern  Picts  are  still  spoken 


26  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  It 

of  as  heathens,1  and  probably  it  was  a  hundred  years  more  ere 
the  bulk  of  the  people  were  baptized  into  Christ.  Instead  of 
wondering  at  this,  we  should  rather  be  surprised  that  it  made 
any  converts  at  all  among  a  people  so  rude  as  our  ancestors, 
all  whose  habits  and  propensities  were  opposed  to  the  peace- 
ful and  forgiving  spirit  of  the  gospel.  In  order  to  understand 
the  difficulties  with  which  it  had  to  struggle,  and  the  beneficial 
change  it  has  wrought,  we  must  try  and  discover  what  we  can 
of  the  state  of  our  country  during  the  first  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era. 

The  central  district  of  the  kingdom  was  covered  with  one 
vast  forest,  called  the  Caledonian  wood,2  vestiges  of  which 
still  remain  in  those  extensive  peat-mosses  we  still  meet  with, 
and  from  which  we  occasionally  dig  huge  trunks  of  blackened 
oak,  the  remains  of  trees  which  stretched  out  their  branches  to 
the  sky  when  the  Romans  were  entrenched  at  Ardoch  and 
Dunglass.  This  forest  gave  shelter  to  enormous  wild  boars,3 
and  formidable  packs  of  wolves,  which  were  not  extirpated  till 
more  than  a  thousand  years  after  the  time  we  refer  to.  Those 
parts  of  the  country  which  were  not  covered  with  wood  were 
either  bare  mountains  or  impassable  fens,  through  which  the 
naked  aborigines  swam  or  waded,  with  the  mud  and  water  up 
to  their  waist,  with  the  same  agility  as  the  wild  duck  splutters 
through  the  reeds  of  a  marsh  ;  but  the  heavy-armed  legionaries 
could  cross  them  only  on  mounds  of  earth,  which  were  formed 
with  infinite  labour  and  expense.  The  population  of  such  a 
country  must  have  been  extremely  sparse ;  and  we  probably 
exceed  the  truth  when  we  estimate  it  at  two  hundred  thou- 
sand, less  than  half  of  the  present  population  of  Glasgow 
alone.  The  soil,  not  yet  subjected  to  the  plough,  could  not 
sustain  more. 

They  had  no  other  habitation  than  miserable  huts  formed  of 
wattles  and  the  branches  of  trees.  They  had  no  clothing  but 
the  skin  of  a  wild  beast  thrown  across  their  shoulders  ;  but 
they  painted  their  naked  bodies,  as  savage  tribes  frequently  do, 
either  from  feelings  of  vanity,  or  to  make  themselves  look  more 
terrible  to  their  enemies  in  battle.  Gildas  declares  they  were 
more  anxious  to  shroud  their  villanous  faces  in  bushy  hair  than 

1  Gentiles  barbari.     (Adamnani  Vita  Columboe.) 

2  "  Ad  occidentem  Vararis  habitabant  Caledonii,  proprie  sic  dicti,  quorum 
regionis  partem  tegebat  immensa  ilia  Caledonia  sylva."  (Ricardi  Cori- 
nensis,  "  De  situ  Britannice,"  lib.  i.  cap.  vi.) 

3  Muckross  was  the  ancient  name  of  St  Andrews,  which  means  the 
"  boars'  promontory." 


A.D.  400.]  ST.   N  INI  AN.  27 

to  cover  other  parts  of  their  bodies  with  decent  clothing.1 
They  lived  by  hunting  and  pasturing  flocks  of  sheep  and 
cattle ;  but  war  seems  to  have  been  their  principal  trade. 
They  led,  in  short,  a  savage  life,  and  savage  life  has  no  varie- 
ties ;  in  all  countries  and  periods  it  is  the  same.  One  of  our 
antiquaries  declares  the  Dalriad  Scots  to  have  been  savages  in 
the  extreme,  with  habits  differing  little  from  those  of  the  Hot- 
tentots ;2  and  St  Jerome,  whose  love  for  our  nation  we  have 
already  seen,  affirms,  that  when  a  young  man  in  Gaul,  he  had 
seen  some  Scots  regaling  themselves  with  human  flesh  ;3  and 
that  it  was  known  they  had  a  fine  appreciation  of  the  most 
delicate  morsels.  He  does  not  explain  how  he  managed  to 
witness  such  a  spectacle. 

Such  was  the  people  among  whom  Christianity  had  now  to 
make  its  way.  It  could  be  no  triumphal  march,  but  a  slow 
and  painful  progress  over  opposing  prejudice  and  passions. 
The  contrast  between  the  present  and  the  past,  to  which 
Christianity  has  largely  contributed,  is  among  the  proudest  of 
the  many  trophies  it  has  won. 


CHAPTER    III. 

St  Ninian4  is  the  first  preacher  of  Christianity  in  Scotland 
whose  name  has  come  down  to  us.  The  time  and  place  of 
his  birth  are  doubtful ;  but,  like  almost  all  the  saints  of  early 
times,  he  is  declared  to  have  been  of  royal  blood ;  and  we 
know  it  was  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  that  he 
laboured  among  the  Galwegians  and  southern  Picts.  He  is 
briefly  mentioned  by  Bede  "as  a  most  reverend  bishop  and 
holy  man  of  the  British  nation,  who  had  been  regularly 
instructed  at  Rome  in  the  faith  and  mysteries  of  the  truth."5 

1  Hist.,  sect.  19.  2  Pinkerton.     (See  his  Inquiry.) 

3  Quid  loquar  de  ceteris  nationibus,  cum  ipse  adolescentulus  in  Gallia 
Scotos,  Britannicam  gentem,  humanis  vesci  carnibus  viderim  ?  Lib.  ii.,  ad 
Jovian  :  cap.  vi. 

4  Frequently  corrupted  into  Rinian,  Trinian,  and  Ringan.  It  is  to  this 
saint  Friar  John  addresses  his  matins  : — 

Awake,  O  Reinian  ;  ho,  awake  ; 

Awake,  O  Reinian,  ho  : 
Get  up,  you  no  more  sleep  must  take  ; 
Get  up,  for  we  must  go. 

Rabelais,  by  Sir  Thos.  Urquhart. 
8  Ecclesiastical  History,  book  iii.,  chap.  iv. 


2&  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAr.  ill. 

His  biography  was  written  by  Abbot  Ailred  in  the  twelfth 
century ;  but  it  is  meagre  of  facts,  and  abounds  with  miracles, 
and  very  little  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  it.  He  is  said  to 
have  gone  to  Rome  in  his  youth  and  studied  there,  and  the 
Pope  learning  that  in  the  western  parts  of  Briton  there  were 
some  people  who  had  not  yet  received  the  faith,  and  others  who 
had  heard  it  from  heretics,  sent  him  back  to  his  native  country 
to  convert  the  heathen  and  confound  the  heretics.  On  his 
way  home  he  visited  St  Martin  of  Tours,  then  at  the  height  of 
his  renown.  When  he  returned,  we  are  told  "  there  was  great 
joy  among  all,  and  wonderful  devotion,  and  the  praise  of 
Christ  sounded  out  on  all  sides."  Straightway  "he  began  to 
root  up  what  had  been  ill  planted ;  to  cast  down  what  had 
been  ill  built;  and  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  true  faith."1 
Having  fixed  his  residence  in  Galloway,  the  holy  man  set  about 
building  a  church  of  stone  on  the  shores  of  the  Solway,  assisted 
by  masons  he  had  brought  from  France.  This  is  said  to  have 
been  the  first  stone  structure  erected  in  the  country,  and  if  so, 
for  this  alone,  Ninian  deserves  the  eternal  gratitude  of  his 
countrymen.  From  its  white  and  glistening  aspect,  seen  over 
the  bay  of  Wigton,  it  was  called  in  Latin  Candida  Casa,  in 
Saxon,  Hwitherne,  a  designation  which  has  survived  in  Whit- 
horn till  the  present  day.  While  the  church  was  yet  building, 
Ninian  received  intelligence  that  his  friend  and  patron,  St 
Martin,  had  migrated  to  heaven,  upon  which  he  piously 
resolved  to  dedicate  his  church  to  his  honour.2  This  enables 
us  to  fix  the  date  of  its  erection,  for  we  know  that  St  Martin 
died  about  a.d.  400. 

Having  set  everything  right  among  the  Galwegians,  he 
resolved  upon  a  mission  to  convert  the  southern  Picts,  who 
are  described  as  still  worshipping  deaf  and  dumb  idols.  It 
was  probably  into  Stirling  and  Perthshire  that  he  penetrated, 
and  he  had  only  to  come  to  conquer.  "  To  the  font  of  the 
saving  laver  run  rich  and  poor,  young  and  old,  men  and 
maidens,  mothers  and  children,  and,  renouncing  Satan  with 
all  his  works  and  pomps,  they  are  joined  to  the  body  of  the 
believers  by  faith,  by  confession,  by  the  sacraments.  "3  Rather 
startling  language  to  be  used  of  the  barbarian  Picts,  who  at 
that  very  time  were  waging  a  relentless  war  against  the  Britons, 
butchering  all,  sparing  none.  "  The  barbarians,"  said  they 
pitifully,  "  drive  us  to  the  sea,  the  sea  drives  us  back  to  the 
barbarians."      It    was    among    such    wild    marauders    Ninian 

1  Vita  Niniani  Auctore  Ailredo  Revallensi,  c.  ii. 

2  Ibid.  c.  iii.  3  Ibid.  c.  vi. 


A.DL  400-30.]  PALLADIUS.  29 

laboured,  and  one  cannot  but  applaud  his  heroism  ;  but  it  is 
evident  that  while  he  may  have  persuaded  many  to  submit  to 
the  rite  of  baptism — sometimes  not  difficult  with  savages — he 
did  not  manage  to  change  their  nature,  or  to  inoculate  them 
with  the  peaceful  spirit  of  the  gospel.  But  the  unhesitating 
biographer  proceeds  to  say  that  "  he  ordained  presbyters, 
consecrated  bishops,  distributed  ecclesiastical  dignities,  and 
divided  the  whole  land  into  parishes." l  It  is  difficult  to 
believe  that  the  rude  Galwegians  were  infected  with  Pelagian- 
ism  early  in  the  fifth  century,  as  is  plainly  insinuated ;  still 
more  difficult  to  believe  that  a  whole  hierarchy  existed  at  that 
period  among  the  Picts.  It  is  evident  the  Abbot  of  Rievaulx 
has  transferred  the  sentiments  and  facts  of  his  own  age  to 
those  of  Ninian,  as  is  plain  from  this  one  circumstance,  that 
parishes  were  not  created  in  Scotland  till  the  eleventh  or 
twelfth  century. 

But  enough  remains  for  the  glory  of  St  Ninian.  Enough 
surely  to  have  been  the  pioneer  of  Christianity  in  Scotland — 
to  have  been  the  first  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  Picts — the 
first  to  teach  the  Galwegians  to  build  their  houses  of  stone. 
We  cannot  but  believe  he  was  a  good  and  heroic  man,  who 
laboured  hard  in  his  Master's  work  among  barbarous  tribes ; 
and  though  he  cast  the  good  seed  on  rough  and  rocky  ground, 
some  of  it  found  root  in  the  crevices,  and  sprung  up,  and  in 
future  years  bore  its  fruit.  His  name  is  for  ever  associated 
with  the  origin  of  Scottish  piety.  Canonized  by  Rome,  and 
celebrated  by  monkish  fables,  he  is  more  to  be  envied  in  that 
his  memory  is  embalmed  in  the  hearts  of  the  Christian 
children  of  those  pagan  barbarians  amongst  whom  he  toiled 
and  died,  and  in  that  he  will  be  kept  in  everlasting  remem- 
brance by  the  villages,  churches,  and  wells  called  by  his  name. 

We  now  meet  with  another  historic  name  ;  but  its  light  is  of 
a  phosphoric  kind,  shewing  itself,  but  nothing  beyond.  "In 
the  eighth  year  of  the  reign  of  Theodosius,"  says  Bede, 
"  Palladius  was  sent  by  Celestinus,  the  Roman  pontiff,  to  the 
Scots  that  believed  in  Christ  to  be  their  first  bishop."  2     This 

1  Vita  Niniani  Auctore  Ailredo  Revallensi,  c.  vi. 

2  "  Ecclesiastical  History,"  Book  I.  chap.  xiii.  The  words  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  are  : — "  A.D,  430.  This  year  Palladius  the  bishop 
was  sent  to  the  Scots  by  Pope  Celestinus,  that  he  might  confirm  their 
faith. "  An  amusing  controversy  has  been  waged  as  to  whether  "  first  "  in 
Bede  is  to  be  understood  in  respect  of  time  or  position.  Some  episcopal 
writers  have  maintained  that  primus  episcopos  does  not  mean  the  first 
bishop  who  ever  entered  Scotland  (or  Ireland),  but  indicates  that  Palladius 
was  sent  to  be  primate. 


30  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

statement  is  confirmed  by  the  "  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle/'  by 
Nennius,  and  other  authorities,  so  that  there  is  no  room  to 
doubt  its  substantial  truth.  But  the  difficulty  is,  as  to  who 
are  the  Scots  referred  to.  Notwithstanding  that  all  our  older 
historians,  and  some  of  our  modern  ones,  appropriate  Palladius, 
we  have  little  hesitation  in  believing  that  his  mission  was  to 
Ireland.  In  43 1  there  was  only  a  small  and  almost  unknown 
colony  of  Scots  in  Argyll.  Hibernia  was  their  proper  seat  ; 
and  it  was  thither  the  Roman  legate  went.  It  must  be  con- 
fessed, however,  that  there  are  strong  traditions  which  speak 
of  his  having  visited  Scotland,  and  of  having  been  buried  at 
Fordoun  in  the  Mearns.  In  the  churchyard  of  that  parish 
there  are  still  pointed  out  the  remains  of  a  building,  which  is 
said  to  have  been  a  chapel  dedicated  to  the  apostle,  and  to 
which  pilgrimages  were  once  made  from  every  part  of  the 
country.  Not  far  away  there  is  a  well,  still  called  Paldy's  well ; 
and  fountains  regarded  as  sacred  may  retain  a  particular  desig- 
nation for  many  centuries.1  From  these  circumstances  we 
are  inclined  to  think  with  Stillingfleet  "  that  Nennius  has  hit 
upon  the  true  account  of  the  matter,  viz.,  that  Palladius  was 
sent  by  Celestine  to  convert  the  Scots,  but  finding  no  great 
success  therein,  he  was  driven  on  the  coasts  of  Britain,  and 
there  died  \  and  after  his  death  St  Patrick  was  sent  on  the 
same  errand.2 

Scotland,  Wales,  and  Picardy  all  claim  St  Patrick  for  a  son. 
It  seems  certain  that  the  great  Irish  apostle  was  no  Irishman. 
Kilpatrick  on  the  Clyde  is  thought  by  many  antiquaries  to 
have  been  the  place  where  he  first  saw  the  light,  and  it  is 
certainly  curious  that  "  Succat,"  a  name  bestowed  on  the  saint, 
is  also  the  name  of  a  property  in  the  district.  The  year  372 
is  given  as  the  date  of  his  birth,  and  wherever  born,  he  is  said 
in  early  youth  to  have  been  kidnapped  and  carried  off  by  an 
Irish  chief,  and  kept  for  years  as  a  swine-herd.  Recovering 
his  liberty,  he  went  to  the  south  of  France,  and  studied 
theology  under  the  famous  St  Martin  of  Tours.  At  the  age  of 
sixty  he  returned  to  Ireland,  the  house  of  his  bondage,  and 

1  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland.     Fordoun,  1795. 

2  Antiquities  of  the  British  Churches,  chap.  ii.  The  words  of  Nennius 
are  : — "During  his  (Patrick's,  in  captivity)  continuance  there,  Palladius, 
the  first  bishop,  was  sent  by  Pope  Celestine  to  convert  the  Scots.  But 
tempests  and  signs  from  God  prevented  his  landing,  for  no  one  can  arrive 
in  any  country  except  it  be  allowed  from  above  ;  altering,  therefore,  his 
course  from  Ireland,  he  came  to  Britain,  and  died  in  the  land  of  the  Picts." 
Hist,  of  the  Britons. 


a.  D.  563.  J  ST.  COLUMBA.  31 

preached  the  gospel  there  with  such  success,  that  he  is  said  to 
have  written  365  alphabets,  founded  365  churches,  and  or- 
dained 365  bishops,  besides  3000  presbyters.1  We  may  safely 
conclude  this  to  be  an  exaggeration,  but,  notwithstanding  the 
fabulous  atmosphere  which  encompasses  his  life,  enough  of 
reality  remains  to  warrant  us  to  rank  him  as  the  first  and 
greatest  of  the  benefactors  of  Ireland.  His  memory  must  once 
have  been  deeply  venerated  in  Scotland  from  the  number  of 
places  which  are  called  by  his  name. 

We  must  now  overleap  another  whole  century,  during 
which  everything  connected  with  the  Christianity  of  Scotland 
is  buried  in  gloom.  We  have  no  traces  of  those  who  suc- 
ceeded Ninian  and  Palladius  in  their  missionary  work,  and 
kept  alive  among  the  Picts  and  the  Britons  the  faith  which 
they  had  received ;  but  we  have  every  reason  to  believe  that 
they  had  their  successors,  and  that  the  altar-fire  which  they 
kindled  was  never  allowed  to  go  out.  Tradition  has  handed 
down  the  names  of  St  Serf  and  St  Ternan,  but  nothing 
authentic  is  known  regarding  them.  Neither  have  we  authen- 
tic records  of  any  others  who,  during  this  period,  may  have 
laboured  in  other  parts  of  the  Scottish  field.  After  St  Ninian, 
Columba  is  the  next  whose  name  has  emerged  from  the  dark- 
ness of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  and  the  still  deeper  darkness 
of  the  ages  which  succeeded.  But  with  this  celebrated  saint 
begins  the  most  interesting  period  in  our  ancient  ecclesiastical 
annals. 

St  Columba,  or  Colum,  is  happy  in  having  two  biographers, 
who  were  both  his  successors  in  the  Monastery  of  Iona,  and 
lived  not  very  far  from  his  own  day.  Cumin  wrote  sixty-nine, 
and  Adamnan  eighty -three  years  alter  the  death  of  Columba,  a 
period  during  which  the  memory  might  easily  preserve  ever) 
important  event  connected  with  a  celebrated  man,  and  which 
gives  us  room  to  imagine  that  both  biographers  may  have  con- 
versed with  old  men  who  could  tell  of  having  seen  Columba 

1  In  the  text  we  have  given  the  stoiy  as  it  is  found  in  Dr  Mackenzie's 
Life  of  St  Patrick,  who  quotes  Nennius  as  his  authority. — Lives  and 
Characters  of  the  Most  Eminent  Writers  of  the  Scots  Nation,  by  Geo. 
Mackenzie,  M.D.  In  Bonn's  translation  of  Nennius,  the  passage  stands 
thus  : — "He  wrote  365  canonical  and  other  books  relating  to  the  faith. 
He  founded  as  many  churches,  and  consecrated  the  same  number  of 
bishops,  strengthening  them  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  ordained  3000 
presbyters,  and  converted  and  baptized  12,000  persons  in  the  province  of 
Connaught."  History  of  the  Britons,  §  54.  We  leave  the  reader  to 
decide  whether  the  365  ABC's  or  canonical  books  are  the  more  likely. 


2,2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  Iir. 

in  their  youth.  Yet  this  short  interval  was  enough  to  surround 
the  life  of  the  saint  with  a  mythical  haze,  so  that  his  bio- 
grapher Adamnan  professes  to  relate  only  the  prophecies 
uttered,  the  miracles  wrought,  and  the  divine  visions  enjoyed 
by  the  holy  abbot.  We  shall  cease  to  wonder  at  this  when  we 
remember  that  in  those  dark  days  the  power  of  working 
miracles  was  thought  essential  to  the  character  of  a  saint ; 
and  probably  some  of  these  good  but  superstitious  men,  by  a 
very  natural  self-deception,  believed  they  really  possessed  the 
power,  as  our  kings  and  queens  once  flattered  themselves  that 
their  touch  would  cure  the  scrofula.  It  was  in  this  very  age 
that  the  Pope  gravely  wrote  to  Augustine  in  England  not  to 
glory  too  much  in  his  miracles. 1 

Columba  was  born  at  Gartan,  among  the  wilds  of  Donegal, 
in  the  north-west  of  Ireland,  in  the  year  521.  His  father  was 
Fedhlimid  M'Fergus,  and  his  mother  Aethnea  M'Nave,  both 
of  whom  were  of  princely  descent.  We  are  told  that  even 
from  his  boyish  years  he  was  addicted  to  the  study  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  He  was  first  of  all  placed  under  the  care  of 
a  pious  presbyter  named  Cruinechan ;  and  he  afterwards 
obtained  a  fuller  knowledge  of  Christianity  from  Finian, 
bishop  of  Clonfert,  and  the  famous  St  Ciaran,  who,  it  appears, 
had  preached  before  this  time  to  the  Dalriad  Scots  in  Argyll, 
and  who  has  bequeathed  his  name  to  the  parish  of  Kilkerran. 
About  the  year  550  he  is  said  to  have  founded  the  ancient 
monastery  of  Durrow.  But  notwithstanding  this  pious  act  he 
was  implicated  in  some  of  the  bloody  feuds  of  his  day,  and 
excommunicated  by  an  Irish  Council.  Thus  cast  out  as  an 
outlaw  and  accursed,  he  left  Ireland  in  563,  being  then  42 
years  of  age,  and  probably  resolved  to  wash  out  the  stain  of 
blood  by  a  life  devoted  to  monastic  and  missionary  work. 
Setting  sail  in  an  open  boat  of  wicker-work  covered  with  hides, 
and  accompanied  by  twelve  companions,  he  reached  the 
Island  of  Iona  on  the  evening  of  Whitmonday,  and  landed  in 
a  little  pebbly  bay  called  Port-na-Churaich,  at  a  spot  which 
tradition  has  preserved,  and  where  an  artificial  mound,  faintly 
resembling  an  inverted  boat,  is  said  to  be  fashioned  after  the 
pattern  of  the  currach  in  which  the  saint  navigated  the  sea.  2 

Conal  MacComgail  was  at  this  time  King  of  the  Dalriad 
Scots,  and  Brude  of  the  Picts  ;  the  former  of  whom  gifted  to 
Columba  the  island  upon  which  he  had  settled  his  colony  of 

1  Bede,  book  i.  chap.  xxxi. 

2  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland — Kilfinichen  and  Kilviceuan,  1795. 


a. a  563-98.]  BRUDE  AND  BROICHAN.  33 

pious  men.  ]  Here  he  founded  his  monastery,  afterwards  so 
famous  in  the  history  of  the  Church.  But  Columba  did  not 
confine  himself  to  the  solitary  rock  ;  he  frequently  visited  the 
mainland,  and  appears  to  have  acquired  a  considerable 
ascendancy  over  its  monarchs.  The  Irish  Scots  being  al- 
ready Christians,  it  was  among  the  Picts  that  he  chiefly  pro- 
secuted his  apostolic  work.  Christianity  appears  to  have 
hitherto  made  no  progress  amongst  them  ;  they  are  described 
as  "  heathen  barbarians  ;"  and  to  Columba  belongs  the  high 
honour  of  having  converted  them  to  the  faith.  Adamnan 
records  a  visit  which  the  saint  made  to  King  Brude  at  his  royal 
fortress  near  Inverness,  to  which  he  probably  travelled  along 
the  romantic  chain  of  lochs  and  streams  by  which  the  tourist 
still  passes  from  Iona  and  Staffa  to  the  banks  of  the  Ness. 
Some  of  the  incidents  in  the  missionary  enterprise  illustrate 
the  superstitions  of  the  Picts,  the  character  of  the  apostle  now 
bent  on  their  conversion,  and  the  love  of  the  miraculous  in 
his  biographer. 

The  king,  in  his  idolatrous  pride,  and  instigated  thereto  by 
his  high  priest  Broichan,  shut  his  gates  against  Columba,  but 
the  holy  man  touched  them  with  his  finger,  making  the  sign 
of  the  cross,  and  this  acting,  like  the  talismanic  open  sesame  in 
the  Arabian  tale  of  Ali  Baba,  they  flew  open  of  themselves. 
On  another  occasion,  while  the  saint  was  celebrating  the 
praises  of  God,  some  Druids  coming  near  endeavoured  to 
hinder  him,  lest  the  sound  of  the  divine  praise  from  his  mouth 
should  be  heard  among  the  pagan  people  ;  but  Columba,  per- 
ceiving this,  began  to  sing  the  forty-fourth  psalm  with  such 
energy,  that  his  voice  appeared  like  thunder,  and  filled  the 
king  and  his  people  with  intolerable  fear.  We  are  further 
informed,  that  in  that  district  there  was  a  fountain,  the  haunt 
of  demons,  in  which  all  who  washed  were  afflicted  with  some 
dreadful  disease,  so  that  the  people  from  superstitious  fear  paid 
it  divine  reverence. 2  To  this  fountain  Columba  repaired,  and 
the  Druids  expected  to  see  him  smitten  with  leprosy.  But  the 
Saint,  having  first  invocated  the  name  of  Christ,  washed  in  its 
waters  his  hands  and  his  feet,  and  the  demons  being  thus 

1  Pinkerton  (see  his  Inquiry)  maintains  that  Columba  got  a  gift  of  Iona 
from  the  Picts,  then  in  possession  of  the  Hebrides.  But  Ritson  and  the 
editor  of  the  Origines  Parochiales  say,  the  grant  came  from  the  Scotch 
king,  and  the  greatest  weight  of  authority  seems  to  be  on  their  side. 

-  It  is  possible  the  reference  here  maybe  to  the  mineral  waters  of  Strath- 
peffer.  It  is  to  be  noted  that,  as  usually  happens,  Adamnan  degrades  the 
deities  of  the  Ticts  into  demons. 

VOL.   I.  C 


34  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  HI. 

driven  out,  it  was  ever  afterwards  as  famous  for  curing  diseases 
as  it  had  previously  been  for  inflicting  them.1  By  such 
miracles  King  Brude  was  converted  to  the  new  faith. 

It  is  difficult  at  first  to  divine  what  could  have  led  Columba 
to  fix  his  monastery  in  lona — a  barren  rock  washed  by  a 
tempestuous  sea.  We  cannot  believe  that  he  was  floated 
thither  by  the  random  winds  and  waves,  and  that  chance  de- 
cided the  spot  whence  letters  and  religion  were  afterwards  to 
be  carried  over  the  whole  country.  Leaving  the  north  of 
Ireland,  and  turning  his  prow  a  little  to  the  east,  he  would 
naturally  have  touched  first  upon  the  coast  of  Wigton  or  the 
Mull  of  Cantyre.  Iona  is  due  north  from  Ireland,  and  is 
distant  from  it  upwards  of  a  hundred  miles.  At  that  period 
there  must  have  been  constant  intercourse  between  the  Scots 
of  Ireland  and  the  Scots  of  Argyll,  and  the  navigation  of  the 
sea  which  separated  them  been  well  understood.  The  truth 
is,  that  though  we  wonder  now  that  such  a  sequestered  isle 
should  be  chosen  for  such  a  purpose,  it  was  in  accordance 
with  the  notions  and  practice  of  the  age.  Religion  generally 
made  her  abode  in  some  island  off  the  coast,  whether  to  give 
greater  safety  to  the  defenceless  priests,  or  more  perfect  seclu- 
sion from  the  din  of  the  world.  Druidism  had  its  chief  seat 
in  Anglesey.  Christianity  found  its  first  resting-place  in 
Iona.  Lindisfarne  was  the  earliest  centre  of  the  Northumbrian 
Church  ;  and  Lismore  was  the  ancient  residence  of  the  bishops 
of  Argyll. 

Iona,  from  first  to  last,  has  borne  no  fewer  than  thirty 
names. 2  Of  these  the  most  common  are  I,  Iona,  and  Icolm- 
kill.  I  is  the  name  generally  used  by  the  natives,  and  signifies 
simply  an  island.  Iona  is  probably  a  form  of  Ii-shona  (pro- 
nounced I-hona)  and  signifies  Holy  Island.  Icolmkill  is  "  the 
island  of  Colum  of  the  Cells."  It  is  about  three  miles  long,  by 
a  mile  and  a  half  broad.  Its  surface  is  in  general  low  and 
uninteresting,  rising  into  a  few  irregular  heights,  and  its  coast 
is  indented  by  small  rocky  bays  with  wonderfully  translucent 
water.  3  It  is  separated  from  the  Island  of  Mull  by  a  narrow 
strait  of  about  a  mile  in  width,  and  from  the  nearest  point  on 
the  mainland  by  about  thirty-six  miles  of  water.     The  almost 

1  Adamnani  Vita  Columba}.  The  word  in  the  original  is  magi,  but 
magi  is  just  the  Latin  equivalent  of  the  Celtic  Druidhs. 

2  Origines  Parochiales  Scotiae  —  Iona,  —  where  the  whole  thirty  are 
recorded  ;  many  of  these,  however,  are  just  different  forms  of  the  same 
word. 

3  Iona,  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  is  an  interesting  monograph  of  the  island. 


a.d.  563-98.]  IONA.  35 

incessant  jumble  of  the  sea,  caused  by  its  currents  and  tides 
being  broken  by  numerous  headlands,  and  lashed  by  squalls 
from  the  hills,  must  have  made  its  navigation  dangerous  in 
open  currachs  in  the  days  of  Columba.  In  our  day,  the 
summer  tourist,  taking  a  steamboat  at  Oban,  can  glide  safely 
and  swiftly  through  the  deep  waters  of  the  Sound  of  Mull ; 
catch  a  glimpse  of  the  ruined  holds  of  the  ancient  Lords  of 
the  Isles,  beetling  on  the  summit  of  lofty  crags  ;  emerge  on 
the  bosom  of  the  wide  Atlantic;  gaze  with  wonder  on  the 
basaltic  columns  and  resounding  caves  of  StafTa ;  and  finally 
feel  himself  " treading,"  with  Dr  Johnson,  "that  illustrious 
island  which  was  once  the  luminary  of  the  Caledonian  regions, 
whence  savage  clans  and  roving  barbarians  derived  the  benefits 
of  knowledge  and  the  blessings  of  religion."1 

In  this  island  Colum  built  his  cell.2  It  must  have  been  a 
very  rude  structure,  formed,  as  we  know  it  was,  of  logs,  and 
thatched  with  reeds  ;  and  we  must  not  confound  it  with  those 
ruins  which  still  give  a  religious  aspect  to  the  island,  and  which 
belong  to  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  Columba  now 
applied  himself  almost  entirely  to  the  government  of  his  little 
community,  and  the  remainder  of  his  life  was  mainly  spent  in 
the  midst  of  it.  The  time  of  his  companions  appears  to  have 
been  divided  between  devotion,  the  copying  religious  books, 
and  the  labours  of  the  field  ;  and  we  read  with  intense  interest 
of  the  Saint,  in  his  old  age,  going  out  in  his  car  to  see  them 
at  work  and  give  them  his  blessing.  His  log-monastery  was 
built,  round  a  court  and  included  a  church  or  oratory,  with  an 
altar  and  recess  ;  a  hospitium,  this  being  either  a  house  for  the 
entertainment  of  strangers,  or  the  common  name  for  the 
separate  cells  of  the  monks ;  a  dwelling-house  for  the  saint 
himself;  and  a  barn  for  laying  up  the  produce  of  the  fields. 
The  whole  was  surrounded  by  a  rude  rampart  or  fence.  The 
recluses  were  called  to  their  devotions  by  a  bell — no  doubt 
similar  to  those  oblong  Celtic  bells  still  to  be  seen  in  anti- 
quarian museums.  Here  for  thirty- four  years  Columba  lived 
and  laboured,  training  men  for  missionary  work  ;  unless  when 
he  occasionally  visited  the  mainland  to  found  churches,  or 
water  those  he  had  already  planted.  So  abundant  were  his 
labours  in  this  field  that  he  acquired  for  himself  the  name  of 

1  Tour  to  the  Hebrides. 

2  We  have  many  names  of  towns  beginning  with  the  syllable  "  Kil," 
which  signifies  that  these  were  anciently  the  cells  or  churches  of  par- 
ticular saints.  Kilmarnock  is  the  cell  of  Marnock,  Kilpatrick  the  cell  of 
Patrick,  and  so  of  Kilbride,  Kilkerran,  Kilninian,  Kilblane,  &c,  &c. 


3^  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

Coiumkille,  which  signifies  Colum  of  the  Churches.  On  the 
last  day  of  his  life,  and  when  he  was  now  seventy-seven  years 
of  age,  he  was  occupied  copying  the  Psalter,  and  finished  his 
earthly  labours  with  the  words  of  the  thirty-fourth  psalm 
— "  They  that  seek  the  Lord  shall  not  want  any  good  thing." 
When  the  bell  sounded  the  hour  for  midnight  prayers,  the 
good  old  man,  rigid  in  the  observance  of  his  own  rules  to  the 
last,  though  suffering  from  an  illness  which  made  him  feel  that 
his  death  was  at  hand,  rose  from  his  dormitory,  hurried  to  the 
church,  and  prostrated  himself  before  the  altar ;  but  the  effort 
was  too  much,  and  he  sunk  to  the  floor.  His  faithful  servant 
Diarmid,  and  others  who  had  come  to  the  church  to  worship 
like  himself,  were  soon  beside  him  and  lifted  him  up,  but  he 
had  only  strength  to  raise  his  hand  in  token  that  he  blessed 
them  before  he  died.  His  sorrowing  followers  wrapped  his 
body  in  clean  linen,  and  committed  it  to  the  dust,  there  to 
rest,  says  his  biographer,  "  until  in  luminous  and  eternal 
brightness  he  should  be  raised  again/'1  His  remains  were 
allowed  to  rest  near  his  monastery  for  a  century,  so  that  Iona 
may  fairly  claim  his  dust — the  first  of  the  much  princely  and 
priestly  dust  afterwards  deposited  in  that  most  ancient  of 
cemeteries — but  his  bones,  or  what  was  thought  to  be  his 
bones,  were  afterwards  carried  to  Ireland,  and  back  again  to 
Scotland ;  and  where  they  now  repose  it  is  impossible  to 
discover. 

Columba  must  have  been  a  very  remarkable  man.  The 
influence  which  he  obtained  over  the  barbarous  kings  of  the 
Scots  and  the  Picts — the  conversions  he  made,  and  the 
churches  he  founded — the  veneration  in  which  he  was  held 
by  his  followers  and  friends — and  the  virtual  primacy  he  pos- 
sessed over  the  Christianity  of  the  whole  country,  are  ample 
evidence  of  the  fact.  He  is  described  by  his  admiring 
biographer  as  "of  angelic  appearance."  Like  some  of  Homer's 
heroes,  he  is  celebrated  for  the  powers  of  his  voice,  which  is 
said  to  have  been  audible  at  the  distance  of  nearly  a  mile. 
The  sonorous  psalm-singing  of  the  saint  would  come  echoing 
down  the  lonely  glens  like  the  noise  of  a  distant  waterfall. 
Next  to  strength  of  arm,  strength  of  lungs  appears  to  have 
been  held  in  repute  in  those  rude  ages ;  and  the  thundering 
commands  of  the  captain,  the  shouts  of  the  warrior,  and  the 
declamation  of  the  preacher,  had    their  strong  influence  in 

1  In  luminosa  et  seternali  resurrect u rum  claritudine.  Adamnani  Vita 
Columbse. 


a.i).  598.]  CHARACTER  OF  COLUMBA.  37 

compelling  obedience  and  generating  awe.  But  we  would 
wrong  the  memory  of  Columba  did  we  imagine  it  was  merely 
by  dint  of  vociferation  that  he  obtained  his  ecclesiastical 
supremacy.  He  was  a  man  of  letters ;  a  hymn-writer ;  he 
spent  a  large  portion  of  his  own  time  in  transcribing  the  works 
of  the  ancients,  and  compelled  his  recluses  to  employ  them- 
selves in  the  same  way ;  and  there  is  a  general  tradition  that 
there  was  within  the  monastery  of  Iona  a  noble  library,  in 
which  the  learned  once  dreamt  there  might  be  found  the  lost 
books  of  Livy.1  The  profound  love  with  which  he  was 
universally  regarded  proves  that  he  must  have  possessed  many 
amiable  qualities ;  and  the  story  of  the  old  mare  that  brought 
milk  to  the  monastery,  coming  and  laying  her  head  on  his 
breast  and  weeping,  a  few  days  before  his  death,  presents  to 
us  in  a  fabulous  form  a  touching  picture  of  the  fact.  But  it 
would  appear  that  the  imperious  and  passionate  temper  which 
had  involved  him  in  feuds  and  battles  in  his  younger  years 
never  entirely  forsook  him.  We  read  of  him  giving  chase  to  a 
robber,  who  escaped  his  wrath  by  rapidly  pushing  off  in  his 
boat  from  the  beach,  but  the  saint  followed  him  till  the  water 
was  up  to  his  knees,  cursing  all  the  while,  and  his  curses  were 
so  effective  that  the  boat  was  upset  in  a  squall.2 

The  death  of  Columba  was  not  followed  by  the  decay  of  his 
religious  community.  For  many  years  Iona  wras  the  light  of 
the  western  world,  and  sent  forth  men,  eminent  for  their  learn- 
ing and  piety,  to  found  bishoprics,  abbacies,  and  universities, 
in  every  quarter  of  Europe.  Beautifully  illuminated  MSS.,  the 
work  of  their  hands,  can  still  be  identified  by  their  Celtic 
interlacings  in  many  monastic  and  college  libraries.  But  the 
monks  did  not  enjoy  that  undisturbed  safety  and  repose  which 
we  might  imagine  they  would  on  their  solitary  rock.  It  is 
recorded  that  in  the  year  744,  a  number  of  the  community 
perished  in  a  violent  storm.  In  801  the  monastery  was  burnt 
to  the  ground  by  the  Norse  pirates.  In  806  the  Vikingr  again 
landed  on  the  devoted  island,  and  cruelly  slaughtered  sixty- 
eight  of  its  inhabitants.  In  985  Iona  was  visited  by  the 
Danes,  who  slew  the  abbot  and  fifteen  of  his  monks.  Hitherto 
these  wild  Norsemen,  who  were  still  worshippers  of  Woden, 

1  Gibbon,  in  a  note  to  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
alludes  to  this.  Boethius  says  that  yEneas  Sylvius  (afterwards  Pope  Pius 
II.),  when  in  Scotland,  intended  to  have  visited  the  library  in  search  of 
the  missing  decades,  but  was  prevented.  Notwithstanding  the  tradition, 
we  may  be  permitted  to  doubt  the  extent  of  this  library. 

2  Vit.  Col.  Adamnani. 


3$  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

burnt  churches  aud  slaughtered  priests  without  mercy  and 
without  remorse.  But  they  received  Christianity  early  in  the 
eleventh  century,  and  in  their  next  descent  on  the  Hebrides 
we  have  evidence  of  its  power.  The  Norse  Sagas  inform  us 
that  King  Magnus  entered  their  church — probably  St  Oran's 
Chapel  in  its  original  form — but  immediately  came  out  again, 
filled  with  religious  awe,  and  gave  orders  that  none  should  dare 
to  violate  its  sanctity. 

In  the  twelfth  century  Rome  was  everywhere  triumphant  in 
Scotland,  and  Iona  passed  into  the  possession  of  Cluniac 
monks.  Its  pure  and  primitive  faith  had  departed  ;  its  renown 
for  piety  and  learning  was  gone ;  but  the  memory  of  these  sur- 
vived, and  it  was  now  regarded  with  greater  superstitious 
reverence  than  ever.  Long  before  this  it  had  been  made  the 
burial-place  of  royalty,  numerous  pilgrimages  were  made  to  it, 
and  now  kings  and  chiefs  began  to  enrich  it  with  donations  of 
tithes  and  land.  The  walls  which  are  now  crumbling  were 
then  reared  :  and  the  voyager  beholds  these  venerable  ecclesi- 
astical remains  rising  from  a  bare  rock  and  in  the  midst  of  a 
wide  ocean,  with  feelings  akin  to  those  with  which  he  regards 
the  temples  at  Thebes  standing  half  buried  amid  the  sands  of 
the  desert. 

Contemporary  with  Columba  was  St  Mungo,  the  patron 
saint  of  Glasgow.  While  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  existence  of 
such  a  person,  unfortunately  his  life  is  involved  in  fable.  He 
is  said  to  have  been  the  son  of  a  British  chief  called  Ewen, 
and  of  Thaney,  a  daughter  of  Leudon,  a  King  of  the  Picts. 
This  royal  lady,  becoming  pregnant  when  she  ought  not,  was 
exposed  on  the  sea  in  an  open  boat  by  her  angry  father,  and 
carried  by  the  wind  and  waves  to  the  coast  where  the  town  of 
Culross  now  stands.  Here  the  infant  Kentigern  was  born. 
St  Serf,  whom  tradition  points  out  as  the  apostle  of  the 
Orkneys,  was  living  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  by  him  the 
little  bastard  was  baptized.  As  the  child  grew  up,  he  gave 
early  indications  of  piety  and  genius,  and  St  Serf  taking  a  par- 
ticular liking  to  him,  carefully  initiated  him  in  the  mysteries  of 
the  faith,  and  being  in  the  habit  of  calling  him  " Mongah" 
which  in  the  Norse  tongue  signifies  "  dear  friend,"  from  this 
arose  the  appellation  of  Mungo,  by  which  the  Saint  is  now 
generally  known.  l 

Such  is  the  legendary  origin  of  St  Mungo,  and  quite  as 

1  Vita   Kentigerni  Auctore  Jocelino,   also  Vita  Kentigerni   imperfecta 
Auctore  ignoto.     See  Forbes' S.  Ninian  and  S.  Kentigern. 


ad.  570-664.]         ST  KENTIGERN  AND  ST  CUTHBERT.  39 

legendary  are  the  monkish  narratives  of  his  episcopal  labours 
and  penances  ;  as  his  standing  in  the  river  every  morning, 
however  cold,  till  he  recited  the  whole  psalter,  and  then 
emerging  as  pure  as  a  milk-white  dove,  and  sunning  himself 
on  the  neighbouring  hill.  But  under  all  this  rubbish  there 
must  have  been  real  worth,  so  that  when  the  lofty  cathedral 
which  now  crowns  the  metropolis  of  the  West  was  reared  six 
centuries  after,  so  precious  was  the  memory  of  his  piety  and 
toils  that  it  was  called  by  his  name. 

Columba  is  said  to  have  visited  Kentigern  "at  the  place 
called  Mellindonor,"  then  a  translucent  stream,  but  now  a 
filthy  city  sewer.  The  monkish  biographer  tells  how  they 
exchanged  pastoral  staffs  when  they  parted.1  The  only  inci- 
dent which  marred  their  perfect  happiness  was  that  some  of 
the  Highland  caterans  in  the  company  of  St  Columba  thus 
early  developed  their  propensity  to  sheep-stealing,  by  catching 
and  killing  a  ram  of  the  southron  saint ;  but  the  theft  was  for- 
given by  the  amiable  Mungo,  and  the  ram's  head  turned  into 
stone  in  memory  of  the  event.2  The  whole  of  the  district  round 
Glasgow  at  this  period,  except  near  the  river,  was  a  forest  of 
wood  and  bush-land  \  and  the  legend  which  represents  St 
Mungo  as  "  compelling  the  wolf  of  the  woods  to  join  with  the 
deer  of  the  hills  in  labouring  in  the  yoke  of  his  plough,"  may 
preserve  a  memorial  not  merely  that  these  animals  then 
abounded  there,  but  that  the  Saint  helped  to  extirpate  them, 
by  felling  the  forests  and  introducing  agriculture.  Many  of 
the  first  missionaries  in  our  own  country  undoubtedly  did  much 
to  foster  the  peaceful  labours  of  the  field,  as  our  modern 
missionaries  teach  the  islanders  of  the  Southern  Seas  to  till, 
sow,  and  reap  \  and  thus  Christianity  and  civilization  went 
hand  in  hand.  There  is  no  record  of  St  Mungo  having  any 
successors  at  the  Molendinar  Burn  till  the  twelfth  century, 
when  the  Cathedral  was  founded,  with  its  bishop  and  canons, 
its  numerous  altars  and  officiating  priests.  But  no  doubt  he 
had  his  successors,  though  there  was  no  historian  to  chronicle 
their  life  and  labours. 

After  another  century  St  Cuthbert  can  be  discerned,  with  a 
saintly  halo  around  him,  amid  the  darkness  of  the  Strathclyde 
and  Northumbrian  kingdoms.  Originally  a  shepherd  boy  in 
Lauderdale,  visited  by  dreams  and  visions  of  angels,  we  after- 
wards find  him  as  a  monk  at  Dull  in  Strathtay,  next  at  Ripon, 
next  at  Melrose,  and  finally  at  Lindisfarne,  where,  about  664 
1  Vita  Kentigerni,  c.  xxxix-xl.  2  Ibid. 


4Q 


CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.  III. 


a.d.,  he  became  abbot.  His  principal  field  of  labour  was 
among  the  shielings  on  the  Cheviot  Hills  and  the  upland 
moors  of  Northumberland.  No  toil  wearied  him,  no  danger 
appalled  him.1  And  as  the  reward  of  his  labours  he  is  now 
honoured  as  the  patron  saint  of  Durham  Cathedral,  and  of 
many  other  churches  both  in  England  and  Scotland.  These 
are  the  lights  which  glimmer  in  the  Cimmerian  darkness  of 
this  period,  and  the  dawn  was  yet  a  long  way  off.  But  it  was 
coming,  and  there  were  faint  indications  of  its  approach.  The 
influence  of  Iona  was  beginning  to  be  felt  both  in  the  north 
and  south.  Already  there  were  churches  at  Abernethy,  Deer, 
and  elsewhere,  which  so  grew  in  reputation  that  they  began  to 
rival  the  parent  monastery ;  and  missionaries  from  the  wave- 
washed  island  in  the  Atlantic  had  gone  to  Northumberland 
and  laid  there  the  foundations  of  a  new  Christianity  in 
England.  But  in  order  to  understand  the  true  character 
of  St  Columba  and  his  successors  at  Iona,  and  in  the  other 
monasteries  they  founded,  we  must  now  glance  at  the  general 
history  of  the  Church,  and  inquire  what  changes  it  has  under- 
gone, and  what  institutions  it  has  fostered  since  it  was  planted 
by  the  apostles  six  centuries  before. 

These  six  centuries,  which  are  almost  a  total  blank  in  the 
history  of  the  Church  in  Scotland,  teem  with  the  most 
important  events  in  the  history  of  the  Church  at  large. 
During  them  the  apostles  had  lived,  and  laboured,  and 
died.  Jerusalem  had  been  sacked,  the  temple  burnt  up 
with  fire,  and  Judaism  for  ever  destroyed.  Gnosticism  had 
sprung  up,  which,  mingling  the  notions  of  the  later  Platonists 
with  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  introduced  into  the  Church 
a  multitude  of  extravagances  which  it  required  many  centuries 
to  eradicate.  A  long  line  of  illustrious  men  had  arisen  as 
apologists  and  defenders  of  the  faith.  Clemens,  Ignatius, 
and  Polycarp  had  well  illustrated  the  Christian  life,  and  then 
heroically  died  the  martyr's  death.  Tertullian  had  devoted 
his  native  energy,  and  Origen  had  put  forth  his  prodigious 
learning,  to  exonerate,  explain,  and  diffuse  Christianity.  The 
Church  had  passed  through  ten  great  persecutions,  and 
emerged  from  the  furnace  purer  and  more  powerful  than 
ever,  with  her  noble  army  of  martyrs  and  confessors,  who, 
under  every  form  of  torture  and  death,  had  exemplified  the 
strength  of  Christian  constancy.  These  days  of  weeping 
were  succeeded  by  a  time  of  rejoicing.  Constantine  obtained 
1  Bede.  Vita.  St  Cuth.     Hist.  Eccles. 


A.D.  100-600.]  RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENTS.  4 1 

the  imperial  purple,  and,  by  a  series  of  edicts,  recognised 
Christianity  as  the  religion  of  the  empire.  Magnificent 
churches  now  began  to  rear  themselves,  and  churchmen  to 
grow  ambitious,  powerful,  and  rich.  But  internal  troubles 
arose ;  the  eternal  divinity  of  the  Son  was  called  in  question  ; 
and  it  required  all  the  quenchless  vigour  of  Athanasius,  and 
all  the  imperial  authority  of  the  Council  of  Nice,  to  settle  the 
Homoousian  doctrine.  Arianism  was  not  extinguished  when 
Pelagianism  arose  ;  and  in  a  battle  of  giants,  the  great  Austin 
maintained  those  opinions  which  are  now  embalmed  as  ortho- 
dox in  our  creeds. 

The  Christian  worship  had  not  existed   so   long  without 
contracting  many  corruptions.     The  rite  of  baptism,  at  first 
so  simple,  now  required  sponsors,   chrism,  the    sign  of  the 
cross,  and  a  number  of  other  superstitious  observances.     The 
bones    of  the  martyrs  began  to  be  regarded  with  religious 
veneration,  and  the  catacombs  were  ransacked  to  find  them. 
As  many  of  the  Jews  who  were  converted  by  the  apostles  still 
fondly  clung  to  the  temple  service,  and  insisted  on  the  efficacy 
of  circumcision,  so  many  of  the  converts  from  paganism  were 
unable  to  shake  off  their  pagan  practices,  or  to  renounce  alto- 
gether their  former  Gods.    It  was  thought  necessary  to  humour 
them,  and  to  assimilate  in  some  degree  the  worship  of  Jesus  to 
the  worship  of  Jupiter.     A  multitude  of  fasts  and  feasts  were 
introduced,  some  of  them  almost  professedly  in  imitation  of 
the  pagan  festivals,  which  had  been  abolished  only  in  name. 
The  splendid  ritual  of  heathenism  was  borrowed,  and  Christian 
churches  became  the  theatres  of  a  sensuous  worship.     Some 
of  the   pagan   temples   had   been    converted    into   Christian 
churches  \  and  Bacchuses,  with  a  little  change  in  the  drapery, 
were  worshipped  as  Virgins.1      The   communion-table   gave 
place  to  the  altar,  and  wax  tapers  shed  their  dim  religious 
light   through    splendid   edifices,  adorned   with    statues   and 
pictures,  and  odorous  with  incense.     The  consecrated  bread 
was  regarded  as  possessing  extraordinary  virtues  \  transubstan- 
tiation,  though  not  defined,  was  virtually  believed;  and  the 
host  was  piously  elevated  as  an  oblation  by  the  priest  in  the 
celebration  of  the  eucharist.     Beatified  saints  were  raised  to 
the  place  of  the  Dii  Minores,  and  solemnly  invoked  by  the 
faithful.     The  cross,  apart  from  the  great  Victim  who  died 
upon  it,  became  the  object  of  worship;  and   the   supposed 
presence  of  a  piece  of  its  true  wood  stirred  up  the   lowest 
depths  of  the  religious  nature. 

1  Dr  Middleton's  Letter  from  Rome. 


42  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

It  was  within  the  same  period  that  diocesan  Episcopacy 
and  Monachism  took  their  rise ;  and  we  must  premise  some 
examination  of  these  institutions,  as  they  are  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  estimate  we  are  to  form  of  the  character  and 
history  of  the  Columbites. 

It  is  now  agreed  by  almost  all  ecclesiastical  historians,  that 
in  apostolic  times  the  presbyter  and  bishop  was  one  and  the 
same  person.  The  two  terms  are  indiscriminately  applied 
to  the  same  persons  in  too  many  passages  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment to  admit  of  a  doubt  in  regard  to  the  matter.  "  Presby- 
ter "  appears  to  have  been  more  peculiarly  a  term  of  respect, 
as  applied  to  the  primitive  pastors ;  and  "  bishop,"  the  name 
indicative  of  their  office  as  superintendents  of  the  Christian 
flock.  The  second  century,  however,  had  not  run  half  its 
course  before  we  discover  traces  of  a  distinction  between 
them.  How  it  at  first  arose  we  are  left  to  conjecture;1  but 
there  are  some  circumstances  which  may  guide  us  to  causes 
not  far  from  the  truth,  and  which  afford  indubitable  evidence 
that  the  distinction,  narrow  at  first,  became  broad  and  well 
defined  only  after  the  lapse  of  ages.  Originally  every  Chris- 
tian congregation  was  governed  by  a  number  of  presbyterian 
bishops?  with  equal  rank  and  authority.  In  process  of  time, 
expediency  would  suggest  the  propriety  of  one  of  these  acting 
as  president,  to  moderate  the  councils  and  execute  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  whole.  An  office  which  at  first  was  probably 
temporary,  subsequently  became  permanent,  and  gradually 
appropriated  to  itself  the  title  of  bishop  ;  while  the  appellation 
of  presbyter  was  left  to  designate  those  other  office-bearers 
who  had  now  sunk  into  a  subordinate  rank.3  But  even  in  the 
third  century,  every  congregation  had  its  own  bishop,  and  very 
generally  that  congregation  assembled  in  a  private  house,  so 
that  its  adherents  could  not  be  very  numerous,  nor  the  power 
of  its  bishop  very  extensive.4 

These  congregations  at  first  almost  invariably  belonged  to 
the  cities  and  towns ;  but  when  the  tide  set  in  more  strongly 
in    favour  of  Christianity,  and    Christian    communities  were 

1  Jerome  says  it  arose  from  quarrels  among  the  presbyters  prompted 
by  the  devil.     (Titus  i.) 

2  Gibbon  calls  them  "  episcopal  presbyters."  (Decline  and  Fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  chap,  xv.) 

3  This  is  substantially  the  account  of  the  matter  given  by  Mosheim,  Gib- 
bon, Neander,  Giesler,  Baur,  and  every  writer  of  any  authority. 

4  Campbell's  Lectures  on  Ecclesiastical  History  may  be  advantageously 
consulted  on  this  point. 


a.d.  100-600.]  RISE  OF  EPISCOPACY.  43 

gathered  in  the  villages,  the  town-bishops,  unable  to  superin- 
tend them  themselves,  appointed  suffragans  to  take  the  spiritual 
oversight  in  their  stead,  and  these  were  called  dwrepiscopi,  or 
country-bishops.  This  was  the  first  great  step  to  diocesan 
episcopacy ;  for  the  country-bishops  were  dependent  on  their 
grander  brethren  in  the  towns  ;  and  when  they  were  abolished 
and  presbyters  substituted  in  their  place,  we  have  the  sub- 
ordination of  the  presbyters  to  the  bishop,  which  modern 
episcopacy  implies.1  The  bishops  now  appropriated  to  them- 
selves some  of  the  most  solemn  functions  of  the  ministerial 
office.  They  alone  could  consecrate  the  baptismal  chrism  ; 
they  alone  could  confirm ;  they  alone  could  convey,  by  the 
imposition  of  their  hands,  the  mystic  virtue  necessary  to  con- 
stitute the  apostolic  priest.  All  this,  however,  was  not  brought 
about  without  a  struggle  and  without  time  ;  and  the  memory  of 
the  original  parity  of  the  offices  long  remained  in  the  churches. 
Even  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  Chrysostom  and 
Jerome  could  assert  the  primitive  equality,  or  rather  identity, 
of  the  bishop  and  presbyter.2 

The  same  causes  which  raised  the  bishop  above  the  pres- 
byter, in  process  of  time  elevated  the  metropolitan  bishop 
above  his  compeers  in  the  provinces  ;  and  led  the  bishop  of 
Rome  to  aspire  at  the  establishment  of  a  monarchy  in  the 
Church.  The  dominating  greatness  of  the  imperial  city,  and 
the  wealth  which  flowed  in  upon  the  Roman  Church,  when 
it  basked  in  the  sunshine  of  imperial  favour,  gave  ground 
upon  which  to  rear  such  a  lofty  ambition.  During  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  the  bishops  of  Rome  were  ear- 
nestly straining  at  this;  encouraging  the  provincials,  when 
they  imagined  themselves  wronged,  to  appeal  the  case  for  the 
decision  of  the  Roman  See,  asserting,  though  at  first  in  mode- 
rate terms,  their  ecclesiastical  supremacy  as  the  successors  of 
Peter ;  and  by  a  dexterous  policy  they  so  managed  it,  that  in 
the  seventh  century,  when  Christianity  was  just  beginning  to 
make  progress  in  Scotland,  their  victory  was  almost  complete. 

The  rise  and  progress  of  mo?iachism  had  an  equally  im- 
portant influence  on  the  destinies  of  the  Church.  The 
ascetic  spirit,  of  which  monachism  was  but  a  development, 
is  peculiar  to  no  age  or  religion.      It  was  exemplified  in  the 

1  Mosheim.  Century  I.  Xeander,  vol.  iii.  sect.  2,  Bonn's  Edition.  It 
was  the  councils  of  Sardica  and  Laodicea  that  abolished  the  rural  bishops. 

2  Chrysostom,  horn,  xi.,  on  Timothy,  at  the  beginning.  Jerome,  in  his 
commentary  on  the  Epistle  of  Titus,  and  Ep.  ioi  ad  Evangelium. 


44  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  in. 

Essenes  of  Palestine  before  the  advent  of  our  Saviour,  and  it 
is  to  be  seen  in  the  devotees  of  Hinduism  in  our  own  day. 
Under  the  Christian  system  Egypt  became  its  fruitful  birth- 
place. Stimulated  by  the  example  and  renown  of  Paul  and 
Anthony,  many  thousands  of  men  and  women  flocked  to  the 
deserts  of  Thebes  and  the  islands  of  the  Nile,  that,  away 
from  the  world,  they  might  soar  to  the  higher  regions  of  the 
spiritual  life.  The  monastic  institution,  though  a  plant 
peculiarly  suited  to  the  climate  of  the  East,  was  transplanted 
to  the  West,  where  it  speedily  took  root,  and  made  most 
vigorous  growths.  Monasteries  were  reared  on  the  banks  of 
the  Tiber ;  caves  found  for  hermits  by  the  lake  of  Subiaco  ; } 
and  Martin  of  Tours,  who  from  a  soldier  became  a  hermit, 
was  followed  to  his  grave  by  two  thousand  monkish  mourners. 
All  the  learning  and  eloquence  of  the  day  were  exhausted 
in  eulogies  on  the  anchorite  life.  Athanasius  first  intro- 
duced Egyptian  monks  into  Rome.  Chrysostom  opened  his 
golden  mouth  in  their  praise.  Jerome  gave  to  the  institu- 
tion the  weight  of  his  own  example ;  and  even  Augustine 
was  so  completely  carried  away  with  the  spirit  of  the  time, 
that  he  wrote  treatises  in  its  defence  and  commendation. 

It  is  impossible  to  doubt  but  that  monachism  in  its  first 
origin  contained  much  that  was  good.  Many  pure  spirits 
fled  to  the  cloister  really  to  escape  the  contagion  of  the 
world.  Many  enthusiastic  spirits  fled  thither,  sincerely  be- 
lieving they  might  there  cultivate  a  sublimer  piety.  The 
extravagances  of  the  East  were  little  known  or  practised  in 
the  West,  and  the  rule  of  St  Benedict,  who  lived  in  the  sixth 
century,  and  to  which  almost  all  the  monasteries  of  Italy 
and  Gaul  submitted,  is  dictated  in  a  liberal  spirit,  consider- 
ing the  age  in  which  he  lived.  Under  this  rule  excessive 
mortifications  were  avoided ;  no  limited  quantity  of  food 
was  prescribed  ;  and  even  a  little  wine,  out  of  consideration  to 
human  frailty,  was  allowed.  The  monks  were  not  suffered 
to  be  idle ;  they  were  to  devote  their  time  to  devotion,  to 
reading,  to  the  education  of  youth,  to  the  labours  of  the 
field,  or  some  useful  handicraft.  Accordingly,  we  will  not 
wonder  that  many  eminent  bishops  emanated  from  these 
Benedictine  schools ;  and  that  enthusiastic  men  left  cloisters, 
where  sober  sense  was  mingled  with  superstition,  to  carry 
the  torch  of  truth  among  idolatrous  nations,  and  proved 
most  useful  and  successful  missionaries. 

1  It  was  by  this  lake  that  Benedict  had  his  first  cell,  and  near  him  was 
the  grotto  of  another  monk  named  Romanus. 


a.d.  100-6C0.J  MONACHISM.  45 

At  first  these  monks  were  all  laymen,  and  belonged  to  no 
ecclesiastical  denomination.  They  were  simply  people  who 
had  bound  themselves  by  a  vow  to  renounce  the  world,  to  live 
in  poverty  and  chastity,  and  to  devote  their  time  to  prayer, 
penance,  meditation,  and  industrial  toils.  The  monastic  life 
was  open  to  the  laity  of  all  conditions  and  of  both  sexes ;  and 
the  sanctity  of  the  cloister  was  frequently  abused  by  the  slave 
fleeing  thither  to  escape  from  his  master,  and  the  legionary  to 
avoid  the  rigours  of  discipline  and  the  dangers  of  the  field. 
But  it  was  impossible  to  debar  the  monks  for  ever  from  ecclesi- 
astical oflices  and  emoluments.  In  the  very  earliest  times  we 
frequently  read  of  some  holy  hermit  reluctantly  brought  from 
his  cell  and  placed  on  the  bishop's  throne,  amid  the  applauses 
of  the  people  ;  and  eventually,  by  the  policy  of  the  popes,  the 
whole  body  was  constituted  into  a  regular  ecclesiastical  order, 
which  ever  afterwards  successfully  competed  with  the  Seculars 
for  the  honours  of  the  Church  and  the  veneration  of  the 
populace.  It  is  needless  at  present  to  trace  the  progress  of 
monachism  farther.  It  was  not  long  before  the  original  nature 
of  the  institution  was  forgotten,  and  vices  of  the  most  odious 
kind  crept  into  the  cloister. 

Such  were  some  of  the  changes  which  early  Christianity 
underwent,  and  some  of  the  institutions  which  sprung  up  in 
the  Church.  It  would,  however,  be  a  violation  of  all  historic- 
probability  to  suppose  that  they  simultaneously  affected  every 
portion  of  Christendom.  It  would  be  absurd  to  liken  them  to 
the  enactments  of  a  legislature,  carried  into  execution  in  every 
part  of  the  kingdom  on  a  fixed  day.  They  were  rather 
customs,  which  generally  require  ages  to  mature,  and  ages 
more  to  spread.  Taking  their  rise  in  particular  centres,  they 
slowly  extended  themselves  towards  the  extremities.  l  Emanat- 
ing from  Alexandria  2  or  Rome,  it  was  only  by  degrees  they 
were  known  and  adopted  in  the  distant  provinces.  In  those 
countries  between  which  there  was  a  constant  intercourse,  the 
contagion  of  the  new  example  would  be  proportionally  rapid  ; 
in  those  which  were  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  it  would 

1  This  is  substantially  the  view  which  has  been  taken  by  Bishop  Light  - 
foot : — "They  show  that  this  creation  (that  of  the  Episcopate)  was  not  so 
much  an  isolated  act  as  a  progressive  development,  not  advancing  every- 
where at  a  uniform  rate,  but  exhibiting  at  one  and  the  same  time  dirk-rent 
stages  of  growth  in  different  churches."  Epis.  to  Philippians.  Essay 
on  Ministry,  p.  225. 

2  It  is,  however,  curious  that  relics  of  Presbyterianism  lingered  in 
Alexandria  till  the  fourth  century.     Hieron,  Ep.  146,  Ad.  Evan. 


46  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  ill. 

be  proportionally  slow.  The  churches  which  lay  along  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  quickly  felt  every  important 
impulse,  heard  the  news  of  every  fresh  heresy  that  was 
broached,  and  had  amongst  them  imitators  of  every  innovat- 
ing practice  that  was  introduced ;  while  the  religious  communi- 
ties that  were  buried  in  the  woods  of  Germany,  or  lost  in  the 
marshes  of  Caledonia,  might  be  unconscious  of  the  changes 
that  were  going  on  in  the  great  world  for  centuries  after. 

Before  the  first  century  was  expired,  Christianity  was 
preached  along  the  whole  northern  coast  of  Africa,  and  the 
southern  coast  of  Europe ;  it  required  nearly  two  centuries 
more  to  come  to  our  country,  and  other  three  centuries  still 
before  it  was  generally  embraced.  During  the  greater  part  of 
this  period,  the  Roman  empire  extended  to  our  island,  and 
thus  an  intercourse  was  kept  up  between  it  and  the  Continent, 
but  that  intercourse  almost  entirely  ceased  when  the  legions 
were  withdrawn.  "The  dark  cloud/'  says  Gibbon,  in  his  own 
eloquent  way,  "  which  had  been  cleared  by  the  Phoenician  dis- 
coverers, and  finally  dispelled  by  the  arms  of  Caesar,  again 
settled  on  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  and  a  Roman  province 
was  again  lost  among  the  fabulous  islands  of  the  ocean."  1 

When  our  country  was  thus  lost  to  the  civilized  world,  and 
its  rude  population  shut  out  from  all  intercourse  with  the  cen- 
tres of  Christian  influence,  we  shall  not  wonder  that  the  wave 
of  innovation,  which  surged  so  rapidly  along  the  Mediterranean, 
took  centuries  before  it  broke  upon  our  shore.  The  impas- 
sable gulph  between  the  presbyter  and  the  bishop  might,  and 
in  fact  must  have  been,  fixed  in  Italy  for  many  long  years 
before  it  was  known  and  believed  in  here.  The  monasteries 
of  Europe  and  the  East  might  have  become  hot-beds  of  super- 
stition and  vice,  and  yet  a  pure  monachism,  once  introduced 
into  Scotland,  might  there  be  preserved.  While  the  marble 
churches  of  Constantinople  and  Rome  were  perfumed  with  in- 
cense, and  adorned  with  images,  incense  and  images  might  be 
alike  unknown  in  the  log  churches  of  Caledonia.  Even  when 
the  Scottish  clergy  learned  the  new  ideas  that  were  abroad, 
they  might  decline  to  adopt  them.  It  is  ever  difficult  to  carry 
new  fashions  from  one  country  to  another,  more  especially 
when  there  is  little  or  no  intercourse  between  them ;  and  all 
the  weight  of  legislation  sometimes  fails  to  abolish  a  custom 
to  which  the  people  have  become  attached. 

These  remarks  may  elucidate  the  controversies  which  have 
1  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  chap,  xxxix. 


A.D.  100-600.]  SCOTCH  MONACHISM.  47 

been  waged  in  regard  to  Columba  and  the  Columbites.  A 
question  has  been  raised  as  to  whether  they  were  monks. 
They  undoubtely  were.  The  life  and  institutions  of  Columba 
and  his  successors  abundantly  attest  this.  But  they  might 
be  monks  without  having  contracted  the  vices  of  mona- 
achism.  Having  embraced  the  system  in  its  purity,  they 
might  preserve  it  pure  in  Icolumkille,  Abernethy,  and  Dun- 
keld,  when  it  had  become  utterly  corrupt  in  the  great  monas- 
teries of  the  Continent. 

There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  so ;  and  that  in 
Scotland,  far  removed  from  Roman  influences,  there  was  a 
form  of  monachism,  with  little  of  its  usual  austerity  and  few 
of  its  prevalent  vices.  The  monastery  at  Iona  appears  to 
have  been  little  different  from  a  college,  in  which  men  wrere 
trained  for  missionary  work;  and  as  occasion  required, 
they  left  its  quiet  cloisters  for  the  active  duties  of  life.  That 
Columba  had  entirely  escaped  those  superstitious  notions 
which  had  arisen  in  Italy  and  the  East  long  before  his  day  it 
were  foolish  to  suppose,  and  his  biographies  will  not  allow  us 
to  believe.  The  rules  by  which  he  governed  his  community  ; 
the  scrupulosity  with  which  he  repaired  to  the  church  at  all 
hours  of  the  day  and  night  to  perform  his  devotions ;  his  pre- 
ference for  celibacy,  if  not  his  entire  prohibition  of  marriage,  are 
not  in  accordance  with  Protestant  ideas  of  what  is  scriptural 
and  right.  The  love  of  the  miraculous  so  conspicuous  in  his 
biographers,  shows  that  this  fond  deception  had  as  deeply 
tainted  the  disciples  of  Columba  as  the  disciples  of  Benedict. 

In  what  school  he  acquired  his  monastic  notions  it  is  impos- 
sible to  determine  ;  but  we  know  that  of  all  ecclesiastical  insti- 
tutions monachism  spread  the  most  rapidly,  and  that  a  hun- 
dred years  sufficed  to  carry  it  from  the  extreme  east  to  the 
extreme  west  of  Christendom.  Both  St  Ninian  and  St  Patrick 
are  said  to  have  been  related  to  St  Martin ;  and  as  we  find  it 
difficult  to  believe  that  the  Bishop  of  Tours  had  such  an  exten- 
sive Scotch  connection  by  matrimony  or  blood,  we  resort  to 
the  supposition  that  the  relation  arose  from  their  having  bor- 
rowed his  ideas  of  the  Christian  life.  As  the  monachism  of 
the  East  was  toned  down  to  suit  the  different  men,  manners, 
and  climate  of  the  West,  so  the  monachism  of  France  would 
naturally  undergo  a  still  further  modification  to  suit  the  rude, 
half-Christianised  population  of  Ireland  and  the  Hebrides. 
The  exotic  from  Egypt  took  root  in  Iona ;  but  with  a  thin 
soil,  and  under  a  northern  sky,   it  never  showed  the  same 


48  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  III. 

prurient  luxuriance  of  fruit  or  of  foliage  as  in  warmer  and 
more  southern  lands. 

The  ecclesiastical  polity  of  Columba  and  the  Columbites 
has  also  been  a  matter  of  dispute,  and  a  passage  in  Bede  has 
brought  the  Episcopal  and  Presbyterian  Churches  into  colli- 
sion. "That  island"  (Iona),  says  the  venerable  historian, 
"  has  for  its  ruler  an  abbot,  who  is  a  presbyter,  to  whose  direc- 
tion all  the  province,  and  even  the  bishops,  contrary  to  the 
usual  method,  are  subject,  according  to  the  example  of  their 
first  teacher,  who  was  not  a  bishop,  but  a  presbyter  and 
monk."  x  That  bishops  should  be  subject  to  a  presbyter  or 
mass-priest,  as  the  "Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle"  styles  Columba,- 
is  abhorrent  to  every  idea  of  episcopal  propriety,  and  accord- 
ingly the  candid  simplicity  of  Bede  has  caused  much  confusion 
in  the  episcopal  camp. 

It  was  indeed  unusual  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries 
for  bishops  to  be  under  the  jurisdiction  of  a  presbyter ;  and  yet 
we  need  not  greatly  wonder  that  such  a  thing  should  have 
occurred  in  a  province  so  far  removed  from  ecclesiastical  in- 
fluence as  Scotland  then  was.  Though  the  bishop  began  to 
rise  above  the  presbyter  in  the  second  century,  many  genera- 
tions lived  and  died  before  the  difference  between  them  was 
well  defined,  and  even  in  the  fifth  century  writers  referred  to 
their  original  and  essential  identity.  In  all  probability,  Chris- 
tianity was  introduced  into  Ireland — whence  it  was  brought  to 
Scotland — before  the  great  gulph  was  fixed  between  the  two 
orders  f  and  if  such  an  ecclesiastical  polity  was  brought  to  the 
country,  it  might  continue  there  unchanged  for  centuries,  un- 
influenced by  the  great  changes  which  were  going  on  from 
without.  Even  in  our  own  day,  notwithstanding  the  ease  and 
rapidity  of  transit,  and  that  men  are  everywhere  passing  to  and 
fro,  and  increasing  knowledge,  some  districts  of  the  Highlands 
are  almost  inaccessible  to  the  ideas  and  influences  of  the 

1  Ecclesiastical  History,  book  iii.,  chap.  iv. 

2  "  a.d.  565.  Columba,  a  mass-priest,  came  to  the  Picts  and  converted 
them  to  the  faith  of  Christ  ;  they  are  dwellers  by  the  northern  moun- 
tains  Now,  in  Iona,   there  must  ever  be  an  abbot,  and  not 

a  bishop  ;  and  all  the  Scottish  bishops  ought  to  be  subject  to  him, 
because  Columba  was  an  abbot  and  not  a  bishop."  (Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle.) 

:}  Nennius  says  St  Patrick  ordained  365  bishops  in  Ireland.  These 
must  simply  have  been  ministers  or  Christian  workers.  In  the  Episcopal 
Church  of  Ireland,  at  present,  there  are  only  12  prelates. 


A.D.  597.]  AUGUSTINE  AND  HIS  MONKS.  49 

south.  The  very  poverty  of  the  country  would  help  to  keep 
the  bishop  on  a  par  with  the  presbyter,  for  it  is  only  in  opulent 
kingdoms,  and  where  the  Church  is  supported  by  the  State, 
that  Episcopacy  has  obtained  its  fullest  development. 

The  fact,  as  narrated  by  Bede,  though  perhaps  unusual,  was 
perfectly  natural  and  likely  in  the  circumstances.  Iona  was  a 
monastic  seminary  for  training  men  for  the  work  of  the  minis- 
try. As  opportunity  presented,  they  left  their  retirement,  and 
took  the  oversight  of  Christian  flocks,  thereby  becoming  vir- 
tually bishops.  That  such  men  should  differentially  look  to 
the  abbot,  under  whom  they  had  been  reared,  for  advice  and 
direction  was  very  natural ;  and  thus  a  kind  of  primacy  would 
arise,  and  that  more  readily  from  the  respect  assigned  to 
monks  in  those  days,  and  the  fact  that  the  monastery  of  Iona 
was  the  parent  of  so  many  of  the  churches  of  Scotland.1 


CHAPTER    IV. 

In  the  year  597  Augustine  arrived  in  the  island  of  Thanet,  off 
the  coast  of  Kent,  with  a  train  of  some  forty  monks.  The 
story  of  the  incident  which  led  to  his  mission,  if  not  true,  is  at 
least  interesting.  Gregory,  before  his  elevation  to  the  pontifi- 
cate, had  observed  some  youths  in  the  Roman  slave-market,  of 
a  complexion  fairer  than  common  ;  and  inquiring  of  what 
nation  they  came,  was  told  they  were  Angles.  "  Not  Angles, 
but  Angels,"  he  replied,  "if  they  were  only  Christianized." 2 

1  Dr  Grub  candidly  and  fully  admits  that  the  early  ecclesiastical  govern- 
ment of  Scotland  was  abbatial  and  presbyterian,  and  not  episcopal. 
Vol.  i.  p.  134-43- 

2  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History,  book  ii.  chap.  i.  The  Pope  appears  to 
have  been  an  inveterate  punster.  The  whole  story  as  told  by  Bede  is  as 
follows  : — "  *  Alas  !  what  pity,'  said  he,  'that  the  author  of  darkness  is 
possessed  of  men  of  such  fair  countenances;  and  that  being  remarkable 
for  such  graceful  aspects,  their  minds  should  be  void  of  inward  grace. '  He 
therefore  again  asked  what  was  the  name  of  that  nation?  and  was 
answered  that  they  were  called  Angles.  '  Right,'  said  he,  '  for  they  have 
an  angelic  face,  and  it  becomes  such  to  be  co-heirs  with  the  angels  in 
Heaven.  What  is  the  name,'  proceeded  he,  '  of  the  province  from  which 
they  are  brought  ?  '  It  was  replied,  that  the  natives  of  that  province  were 
called  Deiri.  *  Truly  are  they  De  iraf  said  he,  *  withdrawn  from  wrath 
and  called  to  the  mercy  of  Christ.  How  is  the  king  of  that  province 
called  ?  '  They  told  him  his  name  was  JElla  ;  and  he,  alluding  to  the 
name,  said,  '  Hallehijah^  the  praise  of  God  the  Creator  must  be  sung 
in  those  parts.'"  We  have  helped  the  pontificial  wit  by  italics;  and 
we  may  remark  that  the  puns  are  nearly  as  pointed  in  the  English  trans- 
lation as  in  the  Latin  of  Bede. 

VOL.  I.  D 


50  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IV. 

When  raised  to  the  chair  of  St  Peter,  he  remembered  the 
nation  of  the  captive  youths,  and  sent  Augustine  to  convert 
them.  For  nearly  a  hundred  years  from  the  time  we  speak  of, 
the  Anglo-Saxons,  incessantly  recruited  by  new  swarms  of  ad- 
venturers, had  been  gradually  gaining  upon  the  Britons  ;  and 
now  they  had  driven  the  miserable  remnants  of  that  people 
into  the  mountain  fastnesses  of  Wales.  With  the  British 
people  had  well-nigh  perished  the  British  Church.  The 
Saxon  invaders  were  heathens,  worshippers  of  Woden  and  Thor ; 
and  now  for  the  second  time  must  the  people  of  England  be 
converted  to  the  Christian  faith. 

Augustine  managed  to  ingratiate  himself  with  Ethelbert, 
King  of  Kent,  and  obtained  permission  to  establish  himself 
in  the  royal  city  of  Canterbury.  The  work  of  conversion 
prospered  in  his  hands,  and  in  due  time  the  Roman  bishop 
constituted  him  primate  of  England,  sent  him  the  pall,  and 
with  it  certain  Roman  wares,  coverings  for  the  altars,  orna- 
ments for  the  churches,  vestments  for  the  priests,  and  relics  of 
the  holy  apostles  and  martyrs.1  On  inquiring  a  little  more 
narrowly  into  the  religious  state  of  the  kingdom,  the  new  Arch- 
bishop discovered  that  the  clergy  of  the  British  Church  who 
still  survived  did  not  keep  Easter  at  the  proper  time,  adminis- 
tered baptism  without  the  consecrated  chrism,  and  in  other 
respects  violated  the  unity  of  the  faith.  He  therefore  held  a 
conference  with  their  bishops  and  doctors  to  persuade  them  to 
conformity,  and  when  his  arguments  failed,  he  wrought  a 
miracle  to  convince  them,  and  when  his  miracle  had  no 
more  influence  than  his  arguments,  he  uttered  some  enig- 
matical words,  to  the  effect  that  if  they  wrould  not  hold  com- 
munion with  their  friends,  they  wTould  bring  down  upon 
themselves  the  vengeance  of  their  enemies.  Soon  after  this 
threat,  or  prophecy,  as  we  may  choose  to  understand  it,  the 
King  of  Northumbria  marched  upon  Chester,  made  a  great 
slaughter  of  the  Britons,  and  mercilessly  massacred  many 
hundreds  of  monks  who  had  come  from  Bangor  to  pray  for 
their  countrymen.  "About  twelve  hundred,"  says  Bede, 
"  that  came  to  pray  are  reported  to  have  been  killed,  and 
only  fifty  to  have  escaped  by  flight." 2  It  was  the  first  act 
passed  against  non-conformists  in  England. 

Meantime,  a  succession  of  learned  and  pious  abbots  ruled 
in  the  monastery  of  Iona ;  and  missionaries  began  to  issue 

1  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History,  book  i.  chap.  xxix. 

2  Ibid.,  book  ii.  chap.  ii. 


A.D.  635.]  CELTIC  APOSTLES.  51 

from  its  cloisters,  to  carry  the  light  of  Christianity  not  merely 
to  Scotland,  but  to  England  and  some  of  the  countries  of  the 
Continent.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  a  close  con- 
nection was  kept  up  between  Iona  and  Ireland,  and  that  the 
religious  colony  still  depended  in  a  great  measure  on  the 
parent  country  for  a  supply  of  students  and  recluses.  The 
populations  of  Ireland  and  the  north-west  of  Scotland  were 
in  fact  identical  at  this  time,  and  were  known  by  the  general 
appellation  of  Scots,  so  that  it  is  often  impossible  to  determine 
to  which  of  them  historical  facts  are  to  be  referred.  Columba 
was  succeeded  by  Baithne,  one  of  the  twelve  who  accompanied 
him  from  Ireland.  After  him  followed  Laisren,  Fergna,  and 
Segenius.  While  Segenius  was  abbot,  Oswald,  King  of  North- 
umberland, who  had  been  recently  baptized  in  Scotland,  sent 
to  the  monastery  a  request  that  preachers  should  be  sent  to 
instruct  his  subjects  in  the  faith.  The  story  of  this  mission  is 
told  by  Bede,  and  we  shall  therefore  follow  his  narrative  :  it 
belongs  to  the  year  635. 

The  first  Celtic  apostle  who  went  to  Northumberland  was  a 
man  of  an  austere  disposition,  and  making  no  progress  in  con- 
verting the  people,  he  returned  to  his  monastery,  and  reported 
that  the  task  was  hopeless,  as  the  Northumbrians  were  uncivil- 
ized men,  and  of  a  stubborn  and  barbarous  disposition.  What 
was  to  be  done  was  now  seriously  debated,  when  an  aged 
monk  named  Aidan  rose  up  and  said,  addressing  himself  to 
the  brother  wrho  had  abandoned  the  missionary  field, — "  I  am 
of  opinion,  brother,  that  you  were  more  severe  to  your  un- 
learned hearers  than  you  ought  to  have  been,  and  did  not  at 
first,  conformably  to  the  apostolic  rule,  give  them  the  milk  of 
more  easy  doctrine,  till  being  by  degrees  nourished  with  the 
Word  of  God,  they  should  be  capable  of  greater  perfection, 
and  be  able  to  practise  God's  sublimer  precepts."  A  speech 
so  sensible  at  once  pointed  out  Aidan  as  the  fittest  person  to 
deal  with  the  barbarous  Saxons,  and  though  said  to  have  been 
well-nigh  eighty  years  of  age,  he  undertook  the  task  with 
cheerfulness  and  alacrity.  He  was  accordingly  ordained  a 
bishop  by  the  presbyter  monks  of  Iona,  and  set  his  face  toward 
Northumberland.1 

Off  the  coast  of  Northumberland  there  is  an  island  called 

Lindisfarne,  or  Holy  Isle.     It  is  about  two  miles  long,  and  one 

broad.     From   its  eastern  side  the  German   ocean   stretches 

farther  than  the  eye  can  reach ;  and  from  the  western  shore 

1  Bede,  Ecclesiastical  History,  book  iii.  chap.  v. 


52  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IV. 

you  gaze,  over  a  narrow  channel,  upon  the  cultivated  coasts 
of  England ;  and  can  easily  discern  towards  the  north  the 
ancient  town  of  Berwick  ;  and  away  to  the  south,  Bamborough 
Castle,  crowning  a  bold  promontory,  which  juts  into  the  sea. 
On  this  island,  which  perhaps  might  remind  him  of  Iona, 
Aidan  determined  to  settle. 

The  aged  monk  at  once  began  his  apostolic  work,  and  in 
this  he  was  powerfully  assisted  by  the  king.  As  Aidan  was 
not  well  skilled  in  the  English  tongue,  his  Majesty  frequently 
condescended  to  act  as  interpreter,  being  well  acquainted  with 
the  Scottish  speech.  The  united  piety  of  the  monarch  and 
the  monk  were  not,  as  we  may  well  believe,  without  their 
reward,  and  conversions  became  numerous.  "From  that  time," 
says  our  venerable  authority,  "  many  of  the  Scots  came  daily 
into  Britain,  and  with  great  devotion  preached  the  Word  to 
those  provinces  of  the  English  over  which  King  Oswald 
reigned  ;  and  those  among  them  that  had  received  priests' 
orders  administered  to  them  the  grace  of  baptism.  Churches 
were  built  in  several  places ;  the  people  joyfully  flocked 
together  to  hear  the  Word ;  money  and  lands  were  given  of 
the  king's  bounty  to  build  monasteries ;  the  English,  great  and 
small,  were  by  their  Scottish  masters  instructed  in  the  rules 
and  observances  of  regular  discipline  ;  for  most  of  them  that 
came  to  preach  were  monks."1 

Aidan  is  celebrated  by  the  Saxon  historian  as  a  perfect 
model  of  apostolic  and  episcopal  purity.  He  was  abstemious, 
continent,  generous  to  the  poor,  humble  to  all.  Austere  in  his 
own  conduct,  he  was  indulgent  to  others.  He  was  wont  to 
traverse  the  town  and  country  on  foot,  and  invite  every  passer- 
by to  embrace  the  faith.  All  in  his  company,  whether  "shaven 
monks  or  laymen,"  were  kept  diligently  employed  in  reading 
the  Scriptures  and  learning  psalms.  If  he  went  to  dine  with 
the  king,  he  took  two  clerks  with  him,  and  having  snatched  a 
frugal  repast,  he  made  haste  to  be  gone  with  them,  either  to 
read  or  write.  Many  pious  men  and  women,  led  by  his 
example,  began  to  fast  upon  Wednesday  and  Friday  till  the 
ninth  hour.  There  was  only  one  spot  on  this  otherwise  spot- 
less character — he  did  not  keep  Easter  on  the  canonical  day. 

After  sixteen  years  of  diligent  labour,  Aidan  died,  and  was 

1  Bede,  Ecclesiastical  History,  book  iii.  chap.  iii.  This  passage  proves 
that  many  of  the  monks  that  came  into  England  had  not  priests'  orders — 
in  other  words,  were  not  presbyters  ;  yet  they  preached.  The  presbyters 
administered  the  sacraments. 


A.D.  635-60.]  CONVERSION  OF  ANGLELAND.  53 

buried  in  Lindisfarne.  He  was  succeeded  by  Finan,  who  had 
likewise  been  reared  among  the  monks  of  Iona.  In  his  life- 
time, Peada,  prince  of  the  Mercians,  sought  in  marriage 
Elfleda,  daughter  of  Oswy,  King  of  Northumberland.  His 
reception  of  Christianity  was  made  the  condition  of  the 
nuptials,  and  the  prince  willingly  received  the  faith  and  his 
bride  together.  He  was  baptized,  with  all  his  retinue,  by 
Finan,  and  four  priests  were  despatched  into  his  kingdom  to 
convert  his  subjects.  Meeting  with  great  success,  Diuma,  one 
of  the  four,  was  ordained  bishop  of  the  province.1  But  the 
missionary  success  of  Finan  did  not  end  here.  The  East 
Saxons  had  for  a  short  time  professed  Christianity,  and  then 
relapsed  into  idolatry.  Their  king  at  this  time  was  Sigebert, 
who  came  to  visit  Oswy  in  Northumberland,  and  while  there 
was  persuaded  to  receive  the  rite  of  baptism.  Returning 
home,  he  invited  Christian  teachers  into  his  kingdom,  and  two 
were  accordingly  sent  him.  One  of  these,  after  a  time,  return- 
ing to  Lindisfarne,  and  relating  to  Finan  how  successful  he 
had  been,  was  ordained  bishop  of  the  East  Angles ;  and, 
going  back  to  his  province  with  more  ample  authority,  he 
built  churches,  and  ordained  presbyters  and  deacons  to  assist 
him  in  "  the  work  of  faith  and  ministry  of  baptising."2  Thus 
were  the  three  great  Saxon  kingdoms  of  Northumberland, 
Mercia,  and  Essex,  constituting  by  far  the  largest  and  most 
important  part  of  England,  converted  to  Christianity  by  the 
preaching  of  monks  from  Iona.3  The  spiritual  conquerors  of 
the  country  became  its  occupants,  and  for  several  successions 
the  Sees  of  York,  Durham,  Lichfield,  and  London,  were  filled 
by  Scotsmen.4 

The  transactions  of  these  missionary  monks  have  given  rise 

1  Bede,  Ecclesiastical  History,  book  iii.  chap.  xxi. 

,J  Ibid. ,  book  iii.  chap.  xxii. 

:}  "  By  the  ministery  of  Aidan  was  the  kingdome  of  Northumberland 
recovered  from  paganisme  (whereunto  belonged  then,  beside  the  shire  of 
North umberlande,  and  the  lands  beyond  it  unto  Edenborrow,  Frith, 
Cumberland  also,  and  Westmorland,  Lancashire,  Yorkshire,  and  the 
Bishopricke  of  Durham)  ;  and  by  the  means  of  Finan,  not  onely  the  king- 
dom of  the  East  Saxons  (which  contained  Essex,  Middlesex,  and  halfe  of 
Hertfordshire)  regained,  but  also  the  large  kingdom  of  Mercia  converted 
first  unto  Christianity  ;  which  comprehended  under  it,  Gloucestershire, 
Herefordshire,  Worcestershire,  Warwickshire,  Leicestershire,  Rutland- 
shire, Northamptonshire,  Lincolneshire,  Huntingdonshire,  Bedfordshire, 
Buckinghamshire,  Oxfordshire,  Staffordshire,  Derbyshire,  Shropshire, 
Nottinghamshire,  Chesshire,  and  the  other  halfe  of  Hertfordshire." 
(Archbishop  Usher  :  Religion  professed  by  the  Ancient  Irish,  chap,  x.) 

4  Of  course  it  will  not  be  understood  by  this  that  these  Sees,  precisely 
as  now  constituted,  then  existed. 


54  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IV. 

to  a  controversy  regarding  their  ecclesiastical  polity.  The 
controversy  is  principally  founded  on  the  narrative  of  Bede, 
both  parties  referring  to  the  language  which  he  uses.  Let  us 
briefly  advert  to  it. 

King  Oswald  having  asked  a  bishop  from  the  Scots  to  ad- 
minister the  word  of  faith  to  him  and  his  nation,  the  inmates 
of  Iona,  after  hearing  the  discreet  sentiments  of  Aidan,  pre- 
viously quoted,  "  concluded  that  he  deserved  to  be  made  a 
bishop,  and  ought  to  be  sent  to  instruct  the  unbelieving  and 
unlearned,  since  he  was  found  to  be  endued  with  singular 
discretion,  which  is  the  mother  of  other  virtues,  and  accord- 
ingly having  ordained,  they  sent  him  to  their  friend,  King 
Oswald,  to  preach." 2  This  language,  we  think,  evidently 
implies,  if  it  does  not  expressly  affirm,  that  those  who  judged 
Aidan  worthy  of  the  episcopate,  both  ordained  and  sent  him. 
If  the  statement  of  Bede  is  to  be  held  authoritative,  it  is  im- 
possible to  resist  the  conclusion  that  it  was  the  Presbyter- 
abbot  of  Iona  and  his  fellow  monks  who  consecrated  the  first 
Bishop  of  Landisfarne.  There  is  no  mention  of  a  bishop 
being  present,  or  taking  part  in  the  proceedings  ;  it  was  the 
old  apostolic  ordination,  by  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the 
presbytery.  Finan  and  Colman  were  ordained  in  the  same 
way  and  by  the  same  men  ;  and  as  they  ordained  many  others 
to  be  bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons,  it  is  almost  demon- 
strable that  the  present  English  Episcopate  may  be  traced 
back  to  a  Presbyterian  source. 

But  it  has  been  said  there  were  bishops  in  Ireland  and  also 
in  Scotland  at  the  time  we  speak  of,  and  that  therefore  there 
might  have  been  one  kept  at  Iona  for  the  purpose  of  per- 
petuating pure  episcopacy,  though  both  Adam  nan  and  Cumin 
are  silent  on  the  subject.  There  undoubtedly  were  bishops 
in  Scotland,  but  they  were  such  bishops  as  acknowledged  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Presbyter-abbot  of  Iona.  Reared  under 
his  care,  and  appointed  by  him  to  the  episcopate  of  their 
respective  congregations,  they  never  dreamt  that  they  be- 
longed to  an  order  higher  than  their  abbot,  or  that  they 
possessed  powers  of  transmitting  the  apostolic  virtue  and  the 
sacerdotal  character  which  were  denied  to  him. 2     In  regard 

1  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History,  book  iii.  chap.  v. 

2  The  two  passages  in  Adamnan's  Life  of  Columba,  which  are  relied  upon 
to  prove  the  recognition  of  special  episcopal  grace  by  Columba,  appear  to 
me  to  prove  the  contrary,  for  the  Saint  cursed  the  episcopal  ordination  of 
Aid  as  "  a  son  of  perdition,"  and  in  the  other  case  Columba  simply  asked 
the  stranger  bishop  to  dispense  the  communion,  as  any  presbyter  might  at 
the  present  day.     (See  Adamnan,  b.  i.,   c.    27  and  c.  35.) 


a.d.  635-60.]  PRESBYTERIAN  ORDINATION.  55 

to  Aidan  and  Finan,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  they  were 
lay-monks,  previous  to  their  being  ordained  as  missionary- 
bishops  to  Northumberland.  If  they  were  presbyters  already 
(for  the  appellation  of  bishop  appears  to  have  been  given 
specially  and  properly  to  those  who  had  the  superintendence  of 
a  flock),  then  we  must  look  for  the  explanation  of  the  pro- 
ceedings at  Iona  to  that  instructive  passage  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  in  which  we  are  told  that  as  the  prophets  and 
teachers  in  the  Church  of  Antioch  "  ministered  to  the  Lord 
and  fasted,  the  Holy  Ghost  said,  Separate  me  Barnabas  and 
Saul  for  the  work  whereunto  I  have  called  them.  And  when 
they  had  fasted  and  prayed,  and  laid  their  hands  on  them, 
they  sent  them  away."  1  We  must  be  content  to  remain  in 
ignorance  as  to  whether  the  Scotch  and  Irish  monks  were 
aware  of  the  distinction  which  had  sprung  up  in  the  Church 
between  the  presbyter  and  bishop  \  it  is  probable  they  were, 
but  that  they  were  ignorant  of  the  great  and  growing  distance 
which  now  separated  them  in  the  south  and  east ;  or,  if  they 
did  know  the  fact  that  peculiar  honours  and  functions  were 
now  reserved  for  the  one  and  denied  to  the  other,  it  is  plain 
they  had  determined  to  ignore  it. 

Christianity  had  entered  Saxon-England  at  its  two  extremi- 
ties. Augustine  and  his  monks  had  landed  in  Kent,  and 
extended  their  teaching  and  influence  over  the  south  and 
south-west  of  the  kingdom.  Aidan  and  his  monks  had  en- 
tered Northumberland,  and  pushed  their  teaching  and  influ- 
ence over  the  northern,  eastern,  and  midland  provinces. 
Rome  and  Iona  met  on  English  ground  and  contended  for 
the  mastery.  There  were  not  wanting  subjects  of  dispute,  for 
there  were  obvious  differences  between  the  Italian  and  Celtic 
missionaries.  But  the  true  day  for  the  celebration  of  Easter, 
and  the  true  form  of  the  clerical  tonsure,  were  the  topics  which 
excited  the  fiercest  controversies,  and  stirred  up  the  strongest 
passions,  and  ultimately  led  to  the  exodus  from  England  of  the 
northern  ecclesiastics. 

It  has  been  supposed  by  some  ecclesiastical  writers  that  the 
British  and  Irish  Churches  agreed  with  the  Churches  of  Asia  in 
regard  to  the  celebration  of  Easter,  and  this  has  been  held  as 
a  proof  of  their  Oriental  origin.  This,  however,  is  plainly  a 
mistake.  Prior  to  the  Council  of  Nice,  the  Asiatic  Churches 
celebrated  Pasch  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  moon,  week-day 
or  Sunday  ;  the  British  and  Irish  Churches  never  did  so,  but 
1  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles,   chap.  xiii.   ver.   2,   3. 


56  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IV. 

with  the  whole  west  kept  the  feast  on  the  Sunday  immediately 
following.  Their  disagreement  with  Rome  simply  arose  from 
the  adherence  to  an  old  almanac,  when  a  new  one  had  come 
into  use. 

The  difference  is  easily  explained.  The  Romans  kept 
Easter  betwixt  the  fifteenth  aud  twenty-first  day  of  the  moon, 
immediately  after  the  21st  day  of  March  or  vernal  equinox, 
when  the  days  and  nights  are  equal.  In  reckoning  the  age  of 
the  moon  they  followed  the  Alexandrian  cycle  of  nineteen 
years,  or  the  Golden  Number,  as  interpreted  and  explained  by 
Dionysius  Exiguus.  The  ancient  British  and  Irish  Churches, 
on  the  other  hand,  kept  Easter  on  the  Sunday  that  fell 
betwixt  the  fourteenth  and  twentieth  day  of  the  moon ;  and 
followed  in  their  computation  of  it,  not  the  nineteen  years 
cycle  of  Anatolius,  but  a  cycle  of  eighty-four  years  attributed 
to  Sulpicius  Verus.1 

We  have  already  seen  the  pains  taken  by  Augustine  to  con- 
vince the  British  bishops  of  their  error,  and  of  their  ill-fated 
persistency  in  it.  Laurentius,  his  successor  in  the  See  of 
Canterbury,  not  only  pursued  the  same  course  at  home,  but 
wrote  a  letter  to  "  his  most  dear  brothers  the  lords-bishops 
and  abbots  throughout  all  Scotland,"  stating,  that  he  had 
expected  they  would  have  been  better  informed  about  Easter 
than  the  Britons,  but  that  he  had  discovered  his  mistake,  and 
that  a  certain  Scotch  bishop  called  Dagan  had  carried  matters 
so  high  as  to  refuse  to  eat  with  him,  or  enter  the  house  where 
he  was.2  About  thirty  years  after  this,  Popes  Honorius  and 
John  IV.  both  wrote  to  the  Scots,  earnestly  exhorting  them 
"  not  to  think  their  small  number,  placed  in  the  utmost 
borders  of  the  earth,  wiser  than  all  the  ancient  and  modern 
churches  of  Christ  throughout  all  the  world ;  and  not  to  cele- 
brate a  different  Easter,  contrary  to  the  Paschal  calculation, 
and  the  synodical  decrees  of  all  the  bishops  upon  earth."3 

Notwithstanding  these  efforts  of  Rome  and  her  emissaries, 
the  good  bishop  Aidan  appears  to  have  escaped  all  serious 
annoyance  from  the  Easter  controversy,  as  Roman  influence 

1  Usher,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Irish,  chap.  ix. 

2  Bede,  Ecclesiastical  History,  book  ii.  chap.  iv. 

3  Ibid.,  book  ii.  chap.  xix.  In  both  these  letters  we  must  understand 
"Scots"  to  apply  to  the  Scots  of  Ireland  as  well  as  to  the  Scots  in  the 
west  of  Scotland — in  fact,  to  all  who  spoke  the  same  Erse  language. 
That  they  include  the  Scots  settled  in  Argyll  is  proved  by  the  circum- 
stance that  Segenus  (Segenius),  the  Abbot  of  Iona,  is  mentioned  by  name 
in  the  pontifical  letter. 


A.D.  664.]  SYNOD  OF  WHITBY.  5  7 

was  still  but  little  known  in  Northumbria ;  only  the  historian 
mourns  that  so  good  a  man  should  have  cherished  so  grievous 
an  error,  but  charitably  imputes  it  to  his  rustic  simplicity.1 
His  successor  Finan  did  not  thus  easily  escape.  The  Queen 
Eanfleda  had  been  brought  up  in  Kent,  and  had  with  her  a 
Kentish  priest,  who  followed  the  new  style  in  the  celebration 
of  Easter ;  and  thus  it  happened,  awkwardly  enough,  in  the 
palace,  that  when  the  king  had  ended  the  time  of  fasting,  and 
kept  his  Easter,  the  queen  and  her  followers  were  still  fasting 
and  celebrating  Palm  Sunday.2  But  Finan  stood  firm,  not- 
withstanding these  courtly  influences,  and  died  in  the  faith  in 
which  he  had  been  educated. 

He  was  succeeded  at  Lindisfarne  by  Colman,  who  had  also 
been  reared  in  Iona.  In  his  time  the  controversy,  which  had 
gradually  been  growing,  came  to  a  head.  Agilbert,  bishop  of 
the  West  Saxons,  came  on  a  visit  to  the  Prince  of  Northum- 
berland, and  advantage  was  taken  of  this  to  hold  a  synod  in 
the  monastery  of  Streoneshalch,  which  overlooked  the  German 
Sea  from  the  cliffs  of  Whitby.3  Thither,  accordingly,  came 
King  Oswy  and  his  son ;  Bishop  Colman,  with  his  Scottish 
clerks  ;  Bishop  Agilbert,  with  the  priests  Agatho  and  Wilfred  ; 
the  queen's  confessor,  who  sympathized  with  the  Romanists  ; 
and  the  Abbess  Hilda,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  religious 
women  of  the  time,  who  took  the  side  of  the  Scots.  Bishop 
Ced  acted  as  interpreter,  and  maintained  an  impartial  neu- 
trality. 

The  king  opened  the  controversy  with  a  prudent  speech,  in 
which  he  counselled  unity  and  peace.  Colman  then  declared 
that  the  tradition  of  his  elders,  which  he  followed,  had  de- 
scended from  St  John,  the  disciple  beloved  of  the  Lord.  Wilfred 
insinuated  that  if  St  John  taught  any  such  doctrine  he  Juda- 
ized,  and  that  St  Peter  had  taught  them  differently.  Colman 
pointed  to  St  Columba,  whose  piety  had  been  attested  by  his 

1  "  As  Christians  they  knew  that  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord,  which 
happened  on  the  first  day  after  the  Sabbath,  was  always  to  be  celebrated 
on  the  first  day  after  the  Sabbath  ;  but  being  rude  barbarians,  they  had 
not  learned  when  that  first  day  after  the  Sabbath,  which  is  now  called  the 
Lord's  Day,  should  come."  "  These  things  I  much  love  and  admire  in 
the  aforesaid  bishop,  because  I  do  not  doubt  they  were  pleasing  to  God  ; 
but  I  do  not  praise  or  approve  his  not  observing  Easter  at  the  proper 
time,  either  through  ignorance  of  the  canonical  time  appointed,  or,  if  he 
knew  it,  being  prevailed  on  by  the  authority  of  his  nation  not  to  follow 
the  same."     (Bede,  Eccles.  Hist.,  book  iii.  chapters  iv.  and  xvii.) 

2  Bede,  Eccles.  Hist.,  book  iii.  chap.  xxv. 

:i  This  synod  is  known  in  history  as  the  Synodus  Pharensis. 


5$  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IV, 

miracles.  Wilfred  scornfully  replied  that  the  Lord  would  say 
to  many  who  boasted  of  having  prophesied  and  having  cast 
out  devils  and  done  wonderful  works,  I  never  knew  you.  But 
charitably  hoping  it  might  not  be  so,  continued  Wilfred,  Is 
Columba  to  be  compared  to  the  most  blessed  prince  of  the 
apostles  to  whom  our  Lord  entrusted  the  keys  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  ?  This  decided  the  controversy.  Is  it  true,  cried  the 
king,  that  St  Peter  keeps  the  keys  ?  This  both  the  disputants 
were  obliged  to  confess,  while  no  such  high  office  could  be 
claimed  for  Columba.  Then,  said  the  king,  I  must  obey  his 
decree,  lest  when  I  come  to  the  gates  there  should  be  none  to 
open. 

But  this  was  not  the  only  question  which  inflamed  eccle- 
siastics, and  disturbed  the  peace  and  unity  of  the  Church. 
There  was  a  controversy  regarding  the  tonsure,  which  ran  as 
high  as  that  regarding  Easter,  and  the  proper  method  of 
shaving  the  crown  of  the  head  was  invested  with  all  the 
solemnity  of  religion.  The  tonsure  appears  to  have  originated 
among  the  earliest  Christian  ascetics,  and  to  have  been  used 
by  them  as  a  distinctive  token  of  their  renunciation  of  the 
world.  Towards  the  close  of  the  fifth  century,  it  began  to  be 
regarded,  both  in  the  east  and  west,  as  a  necessary  mark  of 
the  sacerdotal  caste ;  and  now  the  barber's  razor  was  required 
to  co-operate  with  the  bishop's  hand  to  constitute  the  priest. 
Two  modes  of  shaving  the  clerical  crown — the  circular  and 
semicircular — came  into  use ;  but  who  were  the  inventors  of 
them,  History,  with  blameworthy  carelessness,  has  neglected 
to  record.  The  Roman  clergy  gave  a  preference  to  the 
circular  shave,  which  was  and  is  performed  by  making  bald  a 
small  round  spot  on  the  very  crown  of  the  head,  and  leaving 
it  encircled  by  hair.  The  Scottish  monks,  on  the  other  hand, 
adopted  the  semicircular  mode,  and  shaved  the  forepart  of 
their  head  from  ear  to  ear,  in  the  form  of  a  crescent.  . 

Augustine  and  his  successors  in  the  See  of  Canterbury  were 
much  shocked  at  the  barbarism  of  the  Scottish  clergy,  called 
their  way  of  shaving  the  tonsure  of  Simon  Magus,  and  insisted 
that  henceforward  they  should  perform  the  operation  after  the 
Roman  fashion.  So  far  did  matters  proceed  that  the  tonsure 
was  made  a  test  of  orthodoxy,  and  a  man  was  or  was  not  a 
heretic  according  as  he  made  bare  the  crown  or  the  forepart 
of  his  head.  Discourses  were  preached,  and  arguments  held, 
to  extol  the  one  method  and  reprobate  the  other ;  and  even 
texts  of  Scripture  were  quoted  as  decisive  in  favour  of  the 


A.D.  664.]  THE  TONSURE.  59 

circular  mode.  The  horror  with  which  the  Italian  clergy 
affected  to  behold  the  crescent  crowns  of  the  monks  of  Iona 
is  inadequately  represented  by  the  feeling  with  which  the 
gentleman,  fresh  from  the  capital,  contemplates  the  uncouthly- 
shorn  locks  of  the  rustic.  But  neither  eloquence,  arguments, 
nor  derision  had  any  effect  upon  the  presbyters  of  the  north. 
They  steadfastly  maintained  that  theirs  was  the  better  way, 
and  that  they  would  continue  to  shave  their  heads  as  St  John 
and  St  Polycarp  had  done  before  them. 

The  adverse  decision  in  the  Easter  controversy,  and  the 
continual  taunts  to  which  he  was  exposed  on  account  of  the 
shape  of  his  tonsure,  determined  Colman  to  leave  Lindisfarne, 
and  return  to  Iona.1  He  was  accompanied  by  all  who  were 
of  the  same  mind  as  himself,  and  they  devoutly  carried  away 
with  them  part  of  the  bones  of  the  most  reverend  Father 
Aidan.  Thus  Italian  priests  and  practices  prevailed  in  Eng- 
land, and  drove  out  the  Scots  after  an  occupation  of  thirty 
years.  Neander  laments  the  unfortunate  decision  of  the 
disputation  at  Streoneshalch,  and  remarks,  "  that  the  manner 
in  which  it  was  made  could  not  fail  to  be  attended  with  the 
most  important  effects  on  the  shaping  of  ecclesiastical  rela- 
tions all  over  England ;  for  had  the  Scottish  tendency  pre- 
vailed, England  would  have  obtained  a  more  free  Church 
constitution,  and  a  reaction  against  the  PvOmish  hierarchical 
system  would  have  ever  continued  to  go  forth  from  this 
quarter.2  Mr  Green,  on  the  other  hand,  thinks  that  if  the 
influence  of  Iona  had  triumphed,  England  would  have  been 
isolated  from  the  civilisation,  the  letters,  and  the  laws  of  Con- 
tinental Christendom.3  The  victory  of  Whitby  being  achieved, 
Northumberland  did  not  prove  the  limit  of  Roman  influence. 
Parts  of  our  country  inaccessible  to  Roman  soldiers  were  sub- 
dued by  Roman  priests,  and  in  the  course  of  another  century 
all  the  monks  of  Scotland  shaved  their  heads  in  the  orthodox 
fashion,  and  observed  Easter  on  the  orthodox  day.  Xectan, 
King  of  the  Picts,  was  the  first  to  yield,  and  he  was  followed 
soon  afterwards  by  the  community  of  Iona.4 

It  has  been  thought  by  some  historians,  that  in  the  firmness 
with  which  the  Celtic  monks  defended  their  own  tonsure  and 
their  own  Easter  we  see  something  of  the  Protestant  spirit, 

1  Bede,  Eccles.  Hist.,  book  iii.  chap.  xxvi. 
a  Church  History,  vol.  v.  sect.  i. 

3  History  of  the  English  People,  book  i.  p    57. 

4  Bede,  book  iv. 


60  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IV. 

and  that  even  in  these  foolish  monkish  disputes  we  may  trace 
the  indications  of  a  purer  faith  than  generally  prevailed  at  the 
time.  To  this  it  has  been  replied,  that  the  Celts  shaved  their 
crowns  and  kept  their  Easter  as  scrupulously  as  the  Romans, 
though  in  the  one  case  they  preferred  the  semicircular  to  the 
circular  tonsure,  and  in  the  other  an  old  calendar  to  a  new 
one ;  and  that  the  difference  arose  solely  from  their  being 
further  removed  from  Romish  influences,  and  therefore  a 
century  or  two  later  of  being  affected  by  them.  It  has  been 
said  that  we  may  see  an  illustration  of  the  whole  matter  in  the 
tenacity  with  which  the  rural  districts  of  Scotland  keep  to  the 
Old  Style  in  counting  their  terms,  so  long  after  the  cities  and 
towns  have  adopted  the  New ;  and  it  has  been  somewhat  un- 
fairly insinuated,  that  a  Highland  minister,  in  our  own  day, 
would  feel  as  reluctant  to  allow  his  hair  to  be  trimmed  after 
the  Parisian  mode,  as  his  Columbite  predecessor,  twelve 
hundred  years  ago,  was  to  allow  his  head  to  be  shaved  after 
the  fashion  of  the  friseurs  of  Rome.  Repudiating  the  illustra- 
tion, we  may  allow  the  argument,  for  it  goes  to  prove  that  in 
Scotland,  at  this  time,  there  was  a  more  primitive,  and  there- 
fore in  all  probability  a  purer  faith,  than  in  Italy  or  Gaul. 
In  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries, 
we  see  the  Church  of  Rome  in  the  third  and  fourth.  By 
reason  of  its  isolation,  it  was  behind  the  age  ;  but  that  very 
circumstance  brought  it  nearer  to  the  age  of  the  apostles.  This 
one  thing  we  may  clearly  learn  from  the  controversy  at  Streo- 
neshalch,  that  the  monks  of  Iona  did  not  acknowledge  that 
they  owed  any  allegiance  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  They 
learned  that  lesson  afterwards,  but  it  was  not  yet. 

Some  writers  have  attempted  to  prove  that  the  Columbites 
repudiated  auricular  confession,  the  worship  of  saints  and 
images,  the  doctrine  of  purgatory,  and  the  real  presence  in  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Supper  \  and  have  delighted  to  portray 
them  as  free  from  almost  all  the  errors  and  superstitions  of  the 
Roman  Church,  the  holy  children  in  the  midst  of  Babylon.1 
An  impartial  examination  of  their  history  shows  this  to  be  a 
fond  delusion.  It  is  certain  they  were  always  behind  the 
Roman  clergy  in  the  reception  of  new  doctrines  and  modes  of 
worship ;  and  that  the  Romish  ritual  never  attained  its  full 
splendour  amongst  them ;  but  this  is  to  be  attributed  solely  to 

1  Dr  Jamieson  and  others.  See  Historical  Account  of  the  Ancient  Cul- 
dees,  pp.  198-220.  This  history,  however,  is  full  of  interesting  and  eru- 
dite information. 


A.D.  664.]  LATIN  AND  CELTIC  JEALOUSIES.  6 1 

the  remoteness  of  their  situation,  the  simplicity  of  their  man- 
ners, and  the  poverty  of  their  country.  But  they  gloried  in 
their  miracles ; l  they  paid  respect  to  relics  ; 2  they  had  their 
monasteries,  their  abbots,  and  their  abbesses,  and  lived  accord- 
ing to  a  monastic  discipline  ;  they  performed  penances,  fasted 
on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays,3  ascribed  virtue  to  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  used  a  liturgy,  believed  in  the  intercession  of  saints,4  had 
something  very  like  to  auricular  confession,  absolution,0  and 
masses  for  the  dead.6  But  who  will  doubt  but  that  very 
many  of  them  were  good  and  holy  men,  notwithstanding  they 
were  so  far  infected  by  the  superstitions  of  their  time. 

Though  the  early  Celtic  monks  had  caught  the  contagion  of 
many  of  those  errors  which  are  now  denominated  Roman,  we 
would  do  wrong  to  suppose  that  they  yielded  subjection  to  the 
Roman  See.  Iona  was  their  Rome.  They  were  not  even  in 
communion  with  the  Papal  Church;  and  the  Latin  and  Celtic 
clergy  regarded  each  other  with  mutual  suspicion  and  dislike. 
No  churches  were  as  yet  dedicated  to  St  Peter ;  they  bore  the 
names  of  Columba,  Drostan,  and  other  native  saints.  The 
British  Church  firmly  refused  to  receive  Augustine  as  its  arch- 
bishop. The  Scottish  Church  was  not  moved  by  the  letter  of 
Pope  Honorius  in  regard  to  the  observance  of  Easter ;  and 
when  Colman  lost  the  day  at  Whitby,  rather  than  yield,  he 
took  the  relics  of  Aidan  and  retired  to  lona.  The  Romanists 
retaliated   in  their  own  way, — they   denied   the    validity   of 

1  The  biographies  of  Columba,  Aidan,  Finan,  &c. ,  are  full  of  these. 

2  The  bones  of  Columba  found  no  rest,  and  for  centuries  were  being  per- 
petually carried  hither  and  thither,  from  Ireland  to  Scotland,  and  from 
Scotland  to  Ireland.  The  bones  of  Aidan  (or  rather  a  share  of  them)  were 
carried  away  from  Lindisfarne  by  Colman.     (Bede. ) 

3  Bede  specially  mentions  that  Aidan  induced  many  to  fast  on  these 
days. 

4  Columba,  when  near  his  death,  promised  to  intercede  for  his  brother 
when  he  got  to  heaven.     (Adam.  Vit.  Col. ) 

5  In  Adamnan's  Life  of  Columba,  we  find  one  Fiachna  throwing  himself 
at  the  feet  of  the  Saint  and  confessing  his  sins.  Upon  which  Columba  said, 
"  Rise  up,  son,  and  be  comforted  ;  thy  sins  which  thou  hast  committed  are 
forgiven."  (Lib.  i.  cap.  xvi. )  Adamnan  himself,  the  author  of  this  bio- 
graphy, according  to  Bede,  was  wont  to  confess  to  a  priest,  and  perform 
severe  penances.      (Lib.  iv.  cap.  xxv.) 

6  When  Columba  heard  of  the  death  of  Columbanus,  "  I  must,"  said  he, 
"to-day,  though  I  be  unworthy,  celebrate  the  holy  mysteries  of  the 
eucharist,  for  the  reverence  of  that  soul  which  this  night,  carried  beyond 
the  starry  firmament  betwixt  the  holy  quires  of  angels,  ascended  into  Para- 
dise." (Adamnan,  lib.  iii.  cap.  xvi.)  The  whole  subject  is  dispassion- 
ately and  learnedly  discussed  by  Usher  in  his  "Religion  of  the  Ancient 
Irish." 


62  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IV. 

Scotch  orders.  Accordingly  when  Wilfred  was  chosen  Arch- 
bishop of  York  in  the  room  of  Colman,  he  refused  to  receive 
ordination  at  the  hands  of  the  Scots,  as  being  out  of  com- 
munion with  Rome  \  and  prayed  that  he  might  be  allowed  to 
go  beyond  the  sea,  and  receive  ordination  from  the  hands  of 
catholic  bishops.1  His  prayer  was  granted;  but  as  he  loitered 
in  France,  his  enemies  had  their  revenge,  and  induced  the 
king  to  have  Chad  appointed  to  the  See  of  York  in  his  absence. 
But  this  being  done,  great  difficulty  was  felt  in  regard  to  his 
consecration,  as  only  one  bishop  was  to  be  found  in  all 
England  who  could  be  recognised  as  having  been  canonically 
ordained."2  Consecrated,  however,  he  was,  though  he  after- 
wards required  to  submit  to  be  consecrated  again,  to  make  his 
apostolical  succession  sure.3  Animated  with  this  spirit,  cer- 
tain Saxon  bishops,  who  had  become  the  abettors  of  Rome, 
met  in  conclave,  and  issued  the  following  decree  : — "  Such  as 
have  received  ordination  from  the  bishops  of  the  Scots  or 
Britons,  who  in  the  matter  of  Easter  and  the  tonsure  are  not 
united  to  the  Catholic  Church,  let  them  be  again,  by  imposi- 
tion of  hands,  confirmed  by  a  catholic  bishop.  In  like  man- 
ner also,  let  the  churches  that  have  been  consecrated  by  those 
bishops  be  sprinkled  with  exorcised  water,  and  confirmed  with 
some  service."  The  decrees  of  this  council  go  on  to  declare 
that  baptismal  chrism  and  the  eucharist  were  to  be  denied  to 
all  such  schismatics  till  they  professed  their  adherence  to  the 
one  Church ;  and  that,  on  their  doing  so,  though  baptized 
before,  they  were  to  be  baptized  again.4  Such  were  the  for- 
midable consequences  which  followed  their  stubborn  adher- 
ence to  a  worn-out  almanac,  and  a  Simoniacal  tonsure. 

Such  contumely  on  the  part  of  the  Romanists  had  its  natural 
effect  on  the  minds  of  the  British  clergy,  and  no  doubt  also 
on  the  minds  of  their  brethren  in  the  north,  though  our  infor- 
mation is  confined  to  the  former.  They  repaid  contumely 
with  contumely,  hatred  with  hatred,  and  excommunication 
with  excommunication.  Did  a  Catholic  seek  the  society  of 
the  Welsh  Christians,  he  was  first  put  upon  a  penance  of  forty 
days.5     Did  he  speak  of  his  church  and  his  faith,  he  was  told 

1  Usher,    Religion  of  the  Ancient  Irish,   chap.  x.     He  quotes  as  his 
authorities  Bede,  William  of  Malmesbury,  and  Stephen's  Life  of  Wilfred. 

2  Bede,  Ecclesiastical  History,  book  iii.  chap,  xxviii. 
:5  Ibid.,  book  iv.  chap.  ii. 

4  Concil.,  Tom.  vi.  col.  1877. 

5  Usher,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Irish,  chap.  x. 


A.D.  7C0-1000.]  THE  CULDEES.  6 


J 


he  was  no  better  than  a  heathen.1  Upon  such  religious  heart- 
burnings the  bards  could  not  be  silent;  and  a  lay  of  Talies- 
syn,  honoured  by  the  Welsh  with  the  title  of  "  Ben  Beirdh," 
or  chief  of  the  bards,  has  descended  to  our  time,  in  which  a 
woe  is  pronounced  upon  the  priest  who  does  not  guard  his 
flock  from  Roman  wolves.2 

The  feeble  ray  of  light  let  in  upon  the  ecclesiastical  condi- 
tion of  Scotland  by  the  writings  of  Cumin,  Adamnan,  and 
Bede,  perished  before  the  expiry  of  the  eighth  century,  and 
for  the  next  three  hundred  years  we  are  left  in  hopeless  dark- 
ness. These  centuries  we  know  contained  events  of  vast 
political  importance,  as  it  was  during  them  the  Scottish  and 
Pictish  monarchies  were  merged  in  one ;  and  they  must  have 
witnessed  ecclesiastical  changes  equally  great,  as  such  length- 
ened periods  of  time  always  do.  When  the  light  begins  again 
to  break,  we  meet  for  the  first  time,  in  the  records  of  the 
period,  the  name  "  Culdee  "  applied  to  a  body  of  the  Scottish 
clergy.  The  first  mention  of  them  is  in  the  Chartulary  of  St 
Andrews,  in  which  it  is  recorded  that  Brude,  the  last  king  of 
the  Picts,  according  to  ancient  tradition,  had  given  the  island 
of  Lochleven  to  God,  St  Serf,  and  the  Culdee  hermits  there. 
After  this,  notices  of  these  Culdees  are  not  uncommon  ;  and. 
notwithstanding  the  dark  ages  which  have  intervened  between 
the  landing  on  Iona  and  the  founding  of  the  priory  of  St 
Andrews,  we  need  have  no  hesitation  in  identifying  these 
Culdees  as  the  direct  descendants  of  the  ancient  Columbites.3 
Culdee  simply  signifies  a  monk.4  The  record  in  the  Chartu- 
lary points  back  to  a  time  when  the  Pictish  kingdom  was  still 

1  Bede,  Ecclesiastical  History,  book  ii.  chap.  xx.  "  It  is  to  this  day/' 
says  this  historian,  "  the  custom  of  the  Britons  not  to  pay  any  respect  to 
the  faith  and  religion  of  the  English,  nor  to  correspond  with  them  any 
more  than  with  Pagans." 

2  Usher  gives  the  original  Welsh  of  this  lay,  with  the  translation,  from 
the  Chronicle  of  Wales,  p.  254. 

3  Dr  Grub  in  his  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Scotland  concedes  this  (vol.  i. 
p.  230) ;  Dr  Burton  seems  reluctant  to  allow  it,  but  does  not  expressly 
deny  it,  nor  attempt  to  explain  who  the  Culdees  were  if  not  the  descend- 
ants of  the  Columbites. 

4  Ceal  in  Gaelic  signifies  a  retreat ;  Cealdeach  is  applicable  to  a  person 
fond  of  retirement ;  and  that  Culdee  is  sprung  from  the  same  root  with 
these  words  becomes  more  evident  when  we  look  to  its  Latinised  form, 
Keledetis,  which  probably  preserves  the  ancient  pronunciation.  Dr  Burton, 
following  Dr  Reeves,  thinks  it  is  derived  from  the  Celtic  Cele-de. 
servant  of  God,  the  first  half  of  the  phrase  still  existing  in  the  modern 
' c gilly. ''  The  old  pedantic  derivation  of  Cultores  Dei  is  now  aban- 
doned. 


64  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  IV. 

in  existence.  Moreover,  there  were  Culdees  in  other  countries 
besides  Scotland — they  were  to  be  found  m  England,  in  Wales, 
in  Ireland,  from  which  St  Columba  had  come,  and  we  have 
the  name  there  much  earlier  than  in  Scotland.  They  may 
have  changed  since  the  days  of  Columba — no  doubt  they  had 
— but  they  still  preserved  the  collegiate  life  which  he  founded, 
though  they  had  long  lost  the  missionary  zeal  which  he  in- 
spired. It  is  certain  they  had  struck  their  roots  deep  into  the 
soil;  they  had  religious  houses  at  Dunkeld,  Abernethy, 
Brechin,  Monifieth,  St  Andrews,  Dull,  Deer,  and  the  other 
centres  of  the  ancient  population  •  and  they  were  possessed  of 
immense  tracts  of  land.  Their  abbots  were  frequently  lay- 
men, and  in  this  fact  we  have  either  a  remain  of  the  old  idea 
that  the  monk  need  not  be  a  priest,  or  an  example  of  what 
afterwards  repeated  itself  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  and 
even  before  it — a  powerful  laic  seizing  upon  the  Church's  in- 
heritance, and  holding  it  under  an  ecclesiastical  name.  These 
lay  abbots  ranked  with  the  greatest  nobles,  and  in  the  case  of 
Crinan,  Abbot  of  Dunkeld,  were  connected  with  royalty. 

The  Culdees  never  submitted  to  the  decrees  of  the  Papacy 
in  regard  to  celibacy.  Many  of  them  were  married  men.  St 
Patrick  was  the  son  of  a  deacon,  and  the  grandson  of  a  priest. 
In  a  synod  said  to  have  been  held  by  the  same  saint,  together 
with  Auxilius  and  Isserninus,  there  was  a  special  decree  that 
the  wives  of  the  clergy  should  not  walk  abroad  with  their  heads 
uncovered.1  Mylne  relates  that  the  Culdees  of  Dunkeld  had 
wives,  after  the  manner  of  the  eastern  church,  but  that  they 
abstained  from  them  when  they  ministered  in  their  courses.- 
It  is  thought  that  in  the  Gaelic  names  of  Macpherson,  Mac- 
Vicar,  and  MacNab,  we  have  evidence  of  descent,  it  is  to  be 
hoped  legitimate,  from  some  ancient  parson,  vicar,  or  abbot. 
Indeed,  the  ancient  royal  line  had  Culdee  blood,  for  the 
"  gracious  "  Duncan  was  the  son  of  Crinan,  Abbot  of  Dunkeld, 
who  had  a  daughter  of  Malcolm  II.  for  his  wife.  But  not  only 
did  the  Culdees  marry ;  they  were  frequently  succeeded  in 
office  by  their  sons.  In  the  Registry  of  St  Andrews  there  is 
mention  of  thirteen  Culdees  who  held  their  places  by  inherit- 
ance.3 Giraldus  Cambrensis  informs  us  that,  even  so  late  as 
his  day,  it  was  common  among  the  Culdees  of  Wales  for  "  the 

1  Usher,  chap.  v. 

2  ViUe  Dunkeldensis  Ecclesirc  Episcoporum,  p.  4. 

3  Habebantur  tamen  in  ecclesia  Sancti  Andreoe,  quanta  et  qualis  ipsa  tunc 
erat,  tredecim  per  successionem  carnalem,  quos  keledeos  appellant. 


A.D.  600-1200.]  CULDEE  REMAINS.  65 

sons  to  get  the  churches  after  their  fathers  by  succession,  and  not 
by  election,  thus  possessing  and  polluting  the  Church  of  God."  ] 
The  same  practice  prevailed  in  Ireland,  for  we  find  Pope  In- 
nocent III.  writing  to  his  legate  there,  Cardinal  Salernitan,  to 
use  his  endeavours  to  abolish  the  custom  whereby  children 
succeeded  to  their  fathers  and  grandfathers  in  their  ecclesiasti- 
cal benefices.2  In  like  manner  we  find  Hildebert,  Archbishop 
of  Tours,  stating  that  when  he  was  Bishop  of  Man,  the  canon- 
ries  or  prebends  of  the  church  of  Clermont  were  transmitted 
hereditarily,  so  that  there  the  canons  were  born  canons,  and 
that  none  of  the  clergy  were  elected  except  the  bishop  and 
abbot.3  The  transmitting  of  ecclesiastical  offices  by  inherit- 
ance was  well  nigh  as  great  an  evil  as  the  cutting  off  from  the 
clergy  all  hope  of  doing  so,  by  compelling  them  to  celibacy. 
Our  happiness  in  knowing  that  they  escaped  one  error,  will 
therefore  be  considerably  abated  by  the  discovery  that  they  fell 
into  an  opposite  and  almost  equally  pernicious  one.4 

We  have  the  architectural  remains  of  these  Celtic  monks 
in  the  round  towers  of  Abernethy  and  Brechin,  and  in  a  few 
heaps  of  stones,  found  chiefly  in  the  most  desolate  of  the 
Hebrides.  Almost  formless  when  looked  at  by  themselves, 
they  are  pronounced  by  antiquaries  to  be  of  the  same  type  as 
a  few  more  perfect  ecclesiastical  ruins  which  exist  in  several 
districts  of  Ireland.  There  is  always  a  group  of  buildings — a 
rectangular  oratory  or  church,  with  a  door  at  the  west  end  and 
a  window  at  the  east,  and  a  group  of  bee-hive-shaped  cells 
built  of  unhewn,  uncemented  stones,  and  which  evidently 
were  the  homes  of  the  ecclesiastics.  The  whole  is  surrounded 
by  a  rude  rampart. 

But  the  Books  of  Deer,  of  Lindisfarne,  and  Kells 5  are  much 

1  Successive  quoque,  et  post  patres  filii  ecclesias  obtinent,  non  elective  ; 
hoereditarie  possidentes  et  polluentes  ecclesiam  Dei.  (Illaudabilibus 
Walliae,  cap.  vi.)  He  lived  in  the  end  of  the  12th  and  the  beginning  of 
the  13th  centuries. 

2  Usher,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Irish,  chap.  5. 

3  Epist.  55.  See  Goodall's  Preliminary  Dissertation  to  Keith's  Catalogue 
of  Scottish  Bishops. 

4  The  truth  is,  the  compulsory  celibacy  of  the  Roman  clergy  was  not 
general  at  the  time  when  the  Columbites  were  in  their  prime. 

5  The  Book  of  Deer  (of  which  an  illustrated  edition  is  published  by 
the  Spalding  Club)  has  a  special  interest,  as  it  contains,  written  on  its 
margin  and  blank  leaves,  Gaelic  memoranda  of  grants  to  the  monastery, 
apparently  in  the  twelfth  century.  From  this  it  has  been  inferred  that  the 
language  of  Buchan  was,  at  that  time,  Gaelic  ;  but  the  memoranda  prove 
only   that   there  were  Gaelic  monks   in   the   monastery.     Two  centuries 

VOL.   I.  E 


66  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chai\  IV. 

more  interesting  monuments  of  that  time,  and  their  beauti- 
fully interlaced  decorations,  showing  high  art,  are  in  strange 
contrast  with  the  rude  structures  which  sheltered  the  artists. 
We  must  not  forget,  however,  that  the  carvings  on  the  clubs 
and  other  implements  of  savages  are  artistic  in  the  highest 
degree.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  these  Culdees,  in  the  first  flush 
of  their  zeal,  went  forth  as  missionaries  to  almost  every 
country  of  Europe — to  France,  Switzerland,  Germany,  Italy. 
They  travelled  in  companies,  and  were  marked  by  their  un- 
kempt hair,  their  coarse  cloaks,  their  leathern  wallets,  their 
long  walking  sticks,  like  a  band  of  primitive  apostles.  St 
Bernard  mentions  them,  and  their  handwriting  is  still  to  be 
seen  at  St  Gall  and  many  other  colleges  and  monasteries l  of 
Europe. 

In  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  wre  find  the  Culdees 
struggling  in  the  stream  which  ultimately  carried  them  away. 
The  Church  Reform  of  St  Margaret  and  her  sons  had  begun, 
and  the  modern  order  of  things  came  into  contact  with  the 
antiquated.  They  were  often  at  war  with  the  Roman  bishops, 
though  now  all  but  conformed  to  the  Roman  Church.  The 
disputes,  however,  more  frequently  regarded  tithes,  lands,  and 
privileges,  than  points  of  theology.  At  St  Andrews,  Dunkeld, 
Dunblane,  and  Brechin,  there  had  been  convents  of  Culdees 
from  a  remote  antiquity,  and  when  these  places  were  consti- 
tuted into  bishoprics,  the  Culdees  formed  the  bishop's  chapter, 
and  had  the  election  of  the  bishops.  But  Roman  influence 
was  growing  stronger  every  day,  and  as  married  Culdees  were 
thought  to  derogate  from  the  sanctity  of  a  cathedral,  they  were 
gradually  supplanted,  and  Canons-Regular  substituted  in  their 
room.  They  lingered  longest  at  Brechin  ;  but  with  the  four- 
teenth century  they  vanish.2 

We  get  a  glimpse  of  the  religious  character  of  this,  the  last 
age  of  Culdee  supremacy,  in  the  life  of  Margaret,  the  Saxon 
queen  of  Malcolm  III.,  written  by  Turgot,  her  confessor. 
This  royal  lady,  who  has  been  honoured  with  canonization, 
though  very  superstitious,  and  somewhat  ostentatious  in  her 

afterwards,  Barbour  in  Aberdeen  wrote  in  Anglo-Saxon.  Not  to  mention 
other  circumstances,  it  was  impossible  there  could  be  a  change  like  this  in 
two  hundred  years. 

1  Anderson's  Rhind  Lectures,  1879.  Montalembert's  "  Monks  of  the 
West." 

2  Dr  Ebrard,  in  his  Ilandbuch  der  Christlichen  Kirchen-und-Dogmen 
(leschichte,  gives  a  glowing  theory  of  the  Culdees,  which  facts  scarcely 
bear  out. 


ad.  1070-90.]  QUEEN  MARGARET.  67 

acts  of  beneficence,  nevertheless  possessed  many  eminent  vir- 
tues, and  must  be  ranked  among  the  best  of  queens.     She 
exercised  unbounded  influence  over  her  brave   but   illiterate 
husband,  who,  though  unable  to  read  her  books  of  devotion, 
was   accustomed   fervently   to    kiss    them.       Every   morning 
she   prepared   food   for  nine   orphan   children  ;    and   on   her 
bended  knees  she  fed  them.     With  her  own  hands  she  minis- 
tered at  table  to  crowds  of  indigent  persons  who  assembled 
to  share  in  her  bounty ;  and  nightly,  before  retiring  to  rest, 
she  gave  a  still  more  striking  proof  of  her  humility  by  washing 
the  feet  of  six  of  them.     She  was  frequently  in  church,  pros- 
trate before  the  altar,  and  there  with  sighs  and  tears,  and  pro- 
tracted prayers,  she  offered  herself  a  sacrifice  to  the  Lord. 
When  the  season  of  Lent  came  round,  besides  reciting  par- 
ticular Offices,  she  went  over  the  whole  Psalter  twice  or  thrice 
within   twenty-four  hours.     Before  repairing  to  public  mass, 
she  prepared  herself  for  the  solemnity,  by  hearing  five  or  six 
private  masses ;  and  when  the  whole  service  was  over,  she  fed 
twenty-four  hungry  on-hangers,  and  thus  illustrated  her  faith 
by  her  works.     It  was  not  till   these  were  satisfied  that  she 
retired  to  her  own  scanty  meal.     But  with  all  this  parade  of 
humility,  there  was  an  equal  display  of  pride.     Her  dress  was 
gorgeous,  her  retinue  large,  and  her  coarse  fare  must  needs  be 
served  in  dishes  of  silver  and  gold,  a  thing  unheard  of  in  Scot- 
land till  her  time. 

Fortunate  in  having  obtained  a  good  education,  St  Margaret 
was  particularly  fond  of  showing  her  learning  and  knowledge 
of  the  Scriptures.  "  Often,"  says  her  confessor,  "have  ] 
with  admiration  heard  her  discourse  on  subtle  questions  ot 
theology,  in  presence  of  the  most  learned  men  of  the  king- 
dom." She  soon  found  abundant  opportunities  for  exerting 
her  eloquence  and  erudition  in  attempts  to  reform  certain 
errors  which  had  crept  into  the  Church.  About  two  hundred 
years  before  this  period,  the  Roman  Church  had  altered  the 
time  of  observing  Lent  from  the  day  following  Quadragesima 
Sunday  to  the  Wednesday  before  it ;  and,  as  usual,  the  Scot- 
tish clergy  lagged  behind.  Ignorant  of  this,  the  Queen  ima- 
gined the  Roman  Lent  was  the  most  primitive,  and  that  her 
clergy  had  been  guilty  of  introducing  a  novelty.  "  Three- 
days, "  says  Turgot,  "  did  she  employ  the  sword  of  the  Spirit 
in  combating  their  errors."  But  as  she  did  not  speak  the 
language  of  the  Culdees,  her  husband  was  obliged  to  act 
as    her    interpreter.       Such    a    disputant    was    sure    to    win. 


68  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IV- 

Whether  from  ignorance  of  history,  or  respect  for  their  Queen, 
the  Scottish  ecclesiastics,  though  right,  were  convinced  they 
were  wrong,  and  henceforward  observed  Lent  according  to 
the  Catholic  institution.     Triumphant  in  this,  and  probably 
urged    on   by   her    English    confessor,    the    royal    reformer 
addressed  herself  to  other  abuses.     The  clergy  of  Scotland  at 
this  period  had  ceased  to  celebrate  the  Holy  Communion  at 
Easter,  and  pleaded  their  unvvorthiness  as  an  excuse  for  their 
neglect.1      They  are  accused  also   of  celebrating  the  mass 
with    barbarous    rites,    but    it    has    been    conjectured    that 
rites  which  appeared  barbarous  to  Turgot  may  have  been 
primitive,   apostolic,   and  Presbyterian,   though  not  Roman.2 
The  Sunday,  we  are  also  told,  was  hardly  observed  ;  labour 
went  on  as  on  the  other  days  of  the  week;  and  in  this  respect 
also  it  has  been  thought  the  Scotch  Church  contained  in  its 
matrix   the   petrified   Christianity  of  earlier   times.      A  few 
Scotchmen   moreover  did  then,  what  a  few  Englishmen  are 
beginning  to  do  now  —  they  married  their  deceased  wife's 
sister,  and  some,  with  less  delicacy  and  decency,  married  their 
step-mothers.     The  Anglican  Margaret  corrected  these  real  or 
supposed  abuses,  and  introduced  the  canons  and  usages  of  the 
Roman  Church. 

It  is  melancholy  to  think  that  the  life  of  so  good  a  queen 
was  shortened  by  the  severity  of  her  fasts.  They  gradually 
undermined  her  constitution,  and  brought  on  severe  stomach 
pains,  which  were  removed  only  by  death.  She  had  a  favour- 
ite crucifix,  which  is  celebrated  in  history  under  the  name  of 
the  Black  Rood.  The  cross  was  of  gold,  the  figure  of  ebony, 
and  it  was  understood  to  enclose  a  piece  of  the  true  cross. 
She  was  lying,  wasted  and  dying,  with  the  crucifix  before  her, 
when  her  son  Edgar  arrived  from  the  battle  of  Alnwick. 
"How  fares  it  with  the  king  and  my  Edward  ? "  said  the 
dying  woman.  The  young  man  stood  silent.  "  I  know  all," 
cried  she  ;  "  I  know  all.  By  this  holy  cross,  by  your  filial 
affection,  I  adjure  you,  tell  me  the  truth."  "  Your  husband 
and  son  are  both  slain,"  said  the  youth.  Lifting  her  hands 
and  eyes  to  heaven,  she  devoutly  said,  "  Praise  and  blessing 

1  How  like  is  this  to  revelations  recently  made  in  regard  to  some  High- 
land parishes  in  our  own  day,  in  which  a  large  proportion  of  the  people 
are  said  to  be  unbaptized,  and  a  still  greater  refused  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Supper,  and  for  precisely  the  same  reason. 

2  In  the  Historia  Beati  Reguli  it  is  said,  "  Keledei  namque  in 
angulo  quodam  ecclesice,  qua?  modica  nimis  erat,  suum  officium  more  suo 
celebrabant."     See  also  note,  p.  91. 


a.d.  1100-1300.]         EXTINCTION  OF  THE  CULDEES.  69 

be  to  Thee,  Almighty  God,  that  Thou  hast  been  pleased  to 
make  me  endure  so  bitter  anguish  in  the  hour  of  my  depar- 
ture, thereby,  as  I  trust,  to  purify  me  in  some  measure  from 
the  corruption  of  my  sins  ;  and  Thou,  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
through  the  will  of  the  Father  hast  enlivened  the  world  by 
Thy  death,  oh,  deliver  me  !  "  While  the  words  were  yet  upon 
her  lips  she  softly  expired.1 

This   narrative  makes   it   obvious   that   the   Culdees   had 
degenerated  since  the  days  when  they  carried  the  blessings  of 
Christianity  among  the   Saxons   of  Northumbria,   and  'com- 
pelled Bede,  notwithstanding  his  Roman  predilections,  to  do 
homage  to  the  purity  of  their  lives  and  the  ardour  of  their 
zeal.     They  had  sunk  into  a  state  of  indolence  and  ignorance, 
and  vital  piety  had  given  way  to  a  meaningless  superstition. 
Cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  religious  world,  they  had  become 
like  a  pool  of  water,  left  behind  by  the  tide,  separated  from 
the  wholesome  agitation  of  the  sea,  and  certain  to  stagnate. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Romish  Church  at  this  period  was 
full  of  life  and  energy,  actively  and  earnestly  aggressive.     It 
had  lost  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel,  but  it  had  preserved  its 
proselytizing  spirit.     It  was  ambitious  to  embrace  the  world, 
although  its  ambition  was  rather  Ecclesiastical  than  Christian 
— more  to  make  men  vassals  of  Rome  than  servants  of  Christ. 
It    was    eloquent    in    preaching   good    works.       Nor    had    it 
preached    in    vain.      Cathedrals   were    reared,    monasteries 
founded,  hospitals  endowed.     Every  one  was  in  haste  to  do 
something  or  give   something  for  the  Church  or   the  poor. 
In  St  Margaret  we  have  an  embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  her 
age.     What  ostentatious  humility,  what  almsgivings,  what  fast- 
ings, what  prayers  !     What  piety,  had  it  only  been  free  from 
the  taint  of  superstition  !     The  Culdees  were  listless  and  lazy, 
while  she  was  unwearied  in  doing  good.     The  Culdees  met 
her  in  disputation  ;    but,   being  ignorant,  they  were  foiled. 
Death  could  not  contend  with  life.     The  Indian  disappears 
before  the  advance  of  the  white  man.     The  Celtic  Culdee 
disappeared  before  the  footsteps  of  the  Saxon  priest.     David, 
the  son  of  Margaret — the  saintly  son  of  a  sainted  mother — 
ascended  the  Scottish  throne  ;  and  the  altar-fires  of  Iona,  now- 
smouldering  in  their  ashes,  went  out  under  the  strong  rays  of 
regal  and  pontifical  splendour. 

1  Turgot's  Vita  Margarita? .     wSee  also  Lord  Hailes'  Annals. 


70  CHURCH  HISTORY  OK  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP. 


CHAPTER    V. 

It  is  to  monks  we  are  indebted  for  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity into  our  country,  and  its  preservation  during  several 
centuries  of  barbarity  and  ignorance.  We  have  already  spoken 
of  the  apostolic  labours  of  Ninian,  Kentigern,  Columba,  and 
Cuthbert.  These  and  several  others  have  imprinted  their 
existence  indelibly  on  the  Scottish  memory ;  they  have  towns 
and  churches  still  called  by  their  names  ;  and  the  fairs,  in  those 
villages  where  they  were  once  revered  as  patron  saints,  are 
almost  invariably  yet  held  upon  the  days  set  apart  for  their 
honour  in  the  calendar.1  But  time  and  Christianity  had  as 
yet  done  little  towards  softening  the  ferocity  of  the  Scots  and 
Picts.  |  Having  no  longer  the  Britons  to  fight  with,  they 
turned  their  arms  against  one  another,  and  the  few  stray 
notices  we  have  of  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries  are  all  of 
blood  and  battle.  In  truth,  it  was  impossible  that  a  few 
Culdee  houses,  scattered  over  Scotland,  could  make  any  power- 
ful impression  upon  its  people.  They  may  have  submitted  to 
the  rites  of  Christianity ;  but  it  is  evident  they  wrere  yet 
ignorant  of  its  spirit,  and,  in  all  probability,  with  a  few  excep- 
tions, knew  nothing  whatever  of  the  doctrines  it  embraced. 
One  of  the  last  dim  notices,  however,  which  we  have  of  a 
Pictish  king  is  honourable  to  his  humanity.  It  is  recorded 
that  Brude,  the  son  of  Derili,  gave  his  sanction  to  the  "  law  of 
St  Adam  nan,"  which  exempted  women  and  children  from  the 
butcheries  and  brutalities  of  war.2 

Jn  the  ninth  century  the  Pictish  kingdom  came  to  an  end. 
The  stray  and  dubious  notices  gleaned  from  ancient  chronicles 
give  us  no  certain  information  how  this  came  about,  but  there 
is  some  ground  for  believing  that  a  Scot  king  succeeded  to  the 
Pictish  throne  by  his  female  ancestry,  and  welded  the  two 
peoples  into  one — as  a  Scottish  king,  in  after  ages,  ascended 
the  throne  of  England,  and  formed  the  whole  island  into  one 
empire.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  Picts  have  vanished  from  his- 
tory. It  is  thought  they  were  ignorant  of  the  use  of  letters, 
and  it  is  certain  they  have  bequeathed  us  no  historical  records  : 

1  "  The  fairs  of  towns  and  country  parishes,"  says  the  editor  of  the  first 
volume  of  the  Origines,  "  were  so  invariably  held  on  the  day  of  the  patron 
saint,  that  where  the  dedication  is  known,  a  reference  to  the  saint's  day  in 
the  Breviary  serves  to  ascertain  the  day  of  the  fair." 

3  Robertson's  Concilia.  Eccles.  Scot.,  Pref.  xv. 


A.i).  1 000-1200.]  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  TITHES.  71 

so  that  had  it  not  been  for  others,  we  should  have  been  un- 
aware of  their  very  existence,  though  their  blood  flows  in  our 
veins.  The  Scots  were  probably  as  savage  as  they ;  but  the 
monks  who  came  among  them  from  Ireland  brought  with  them 
letters  and  religion. 

It  is  recorded  in  the  Registers  of  St  Andrews,  and  in  other 
ancient  chronicles,  that  toward  the  close  of  the  ninth  century 
King  Girg  first  emancipated  the  Scottish  Church  from  Pictish 
servitude.  This  would  seem  to  suggest  that  thus  early  the 
Scottish  clergy  had  been  brought  under  some  species  of  Eras- 
tian  bondage,  and  that  they  found  a  deliverer  in  Girg :  but  it 
is  now  thought  the  servitude  referred  to  was  only  the  exaction 
of  certain  secular  services  and  exactions,  as  we  find  exemption 
from  these  carefully  noted  in  some  of  the  most  ancient  church 
charters.1 

Bede  frequently  refers  to  the  "  bishops  "  of  the  Scots  ;  but 
these  were  no  other  than  Culdees,  who,  issuing  from  their  cells, 
laboured  like  itinerant  preachers  among  the  half-naked  bar- 
barians. There  were  no  diocesan  prelates,  and  no  parochial 
clergy  in  Scotland,  till  the  twelfth  century.  But  the  work  of 
constituting  dioceses  and  parishes  having  begun,  went  rapidly 
on.  Within  a  hundred  years,  the  Bishoprics  of  St  Andrews, 
Dunkeld,  Dunblane,  Glasgow,  Moray,  Aberdeen,  Brechin, 
Ross,  Caithness,  Galloway,  and  Argyll,  had  all  been  erected. 
It  is  worth  inquiring  what  was  the  cause  of  this  sudden 
development  of  ecclesiastical  vigour,  if  not  of  spiritual  life. 

The  Christian  clergy  for  many  centuries  depended  entirely 
upon  the  free-will  offerings  of  those  whom  they  had  converted 
to  the  faith.  When  Christianity  became  the  religion  of  the 
empire,  and  when  it  began  to  be  believed  that  the  heavenly 
happiness  of  the  departed  might  be  expedited  or  increased  by 
the  prayers  of  the  priests,  donations  and  bequests  of  money 
and  land  became  frequent,  and  from  this  source  churches  were 
erected  and  benefices  endowed.  When  the  clergy  had  ob- 
tained a  still  firmer  hold  upon  the  people,  they  began  to 
preach  the  divine  right  of  tithes.  The  same  proportion  of  our 
substance  which  was  exacted  for  the  maintenance  of  the  priests 
and  Levites  under  the  law  was  surely  still  more  justly  due  to 
those  who  ministered  at  the  altars  of  the  New  Testament.  It 
was  seldom  at  this  period  that  the  clergy  preached  or  reasoned 
in  vain.  Though  there  is  no  mention  of  tithes  in  the  codes  of 
any  of  the  Roman  emperors,  the  payment  of  them  came  gra- 
1  Chron.  de  Mail,  p.  224.     Wynton,  Chron.  Scot,    Book  of  Deer. 


72  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  V. 

dually  into  use ;  and  in  the  eighth  century,  the  Emperor 
Charlemagne  made  them  compulsory  in  his  dominions,  and 
piously  declared,  in  his  laws,  that  the  devils  had  muttered  in 
the  air  that  the  non-payment  of  the  righteous  exaction  was  the 
cause  of  a  famine  which  had  scourged  the  country.1  Indebted 
to  the  Roman  bishop  for  having  placed  the  imperial  crown 
upon  his  head,  he  still  further  repaid  the  boon  by  the  rich 
offerings  which  he  laid  upon  the  shrine  of  St  Peter ;  and  his 
irresistible  arms  were  ever  at  the  service  of  the  Church,  to 
enforce  baptism  upon  reluctant  pagans,  or  to  free  Rome  from 
troublesome  Lombards.  In  his  time  the  Church  grew  to  a 
greatness  it  never  had  before. 

Alfred  the  Great  appears  to  have  imitated  in  England  the 
policy  of  Charlemagne.  When  he  came  to  the  throne  he  found 
religion  almost  totally  extinguished  by  the  constant  incursions 
of  the  heathen  Danes.  The t  monasteries  had  been  razed  to 
the  ground ;  the  monks  dispersed  ;  in  many  provinces  the 
whole  Church  service  had  been  discontinued  ;f  and  the  king 
laments  that  he  had  found  but  one  priest  south  of  the  Thames, 
and  very  few  north  of  the  Humber,  who  could  understand  the 
Latin  liturgy.  Alfred  set  himself  to  build  up  the  Church 
which  had  fallen  down.  He  invited  learned  ecclesiastics  to 
his  kingdom,  made  his  own  daughter  the  abbess  of  a  nunnery, 
expressly  enjoined  the  payment  of  tithes,  and  devoted  much 
of  his  own  time  to  works  of  piety.2  The  virtues,  learning,  and 
liberality  of  Alfred  had  an  influence  upon  the  whole  king- 
dom ;  religion  became  a  fashion,  and  churchmen  mightily  in- 
creased; so  that  two  hundred  years  afterward,  when  William 
the  Conqueror  made  his  survey  of  the  kingdom,  he  found 
in  it  45,017  ecclesiastics,  with  not  a  little  territory  in  their 
hands. 

This  mania  to  enrich  the  Church,  travelling  northward, 
soon  began  to  infect  Scotland.     In  the  year  1057   Malcolm 

1  Omnis  homo  ex  sua  proprietate  legitimam  decimam  ad  ecclesiam  con- 
ferat.  Experimento  enim  di  dicimus,  in  anno,  quo  ilia  valida  fames  irrep- 
sit,  ebullire  vacuas  unnonas  a  dsemonibus  devoratas,  et  voces  exproba- 
tionis  auditas.  Such  is  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Frankfort.  Selden 
and  Montesquieu  both  regard  Charlemagne  as  the  legal  author  of  tithes. 
(See  Gibbon,  Hist.,  chap,  xlix.)  "The  civil  power  was  first  interposed 
in  support  of  the  right  in  the  reign  of  Charlemagne,  who,  in  778,  intro- 
duced them  into  his  dominions  in  France  and  Germany,  by  the  following 
law  : — *  Ut  unusquisque  suam  decimam  donet,  atque  per  jussionem  epis- 
copi  sui  dispensetur."  (Leges  Longobard.  per  Lindenbrogius.  Connel 
on  Tithes,  book  i.  chap.  i. ) 

2  Asser's  Life  of  Alfred. 


a.d.  1060-1200.]        SAXON  AND  NORMAN  SETTLERS.  73 

Camnore  was  crowned  King  of  Scotland  at  Scone.  In  1066 
the  Normans  landed  on  the  coast  of  Sussex,  and  the  battle  of 
Hastings  was  fought,  which  decided  the  fate  of  England,  and 
placed  a  new  dynasty  on  the  throne.  Many  of  the  Saxons 
fled  into  Scotland  to  escape  from  their  Norman  masters  ;  and 
among  others,  the  royal  Edgar,  with  his  mother  and  two  sisters. 
Malcolm  welcomed  the  refugees,  gave  them  fitting  entertain- 
ment at  court,  and  soon  made  Margaret,  the  elder  of  the 
sisters,  his  Queen.  The  learning,  virtues,  and  piety  of  this 
lady  we  have  already  recorded.  From  this  period  we  find  a 
stream  of  Saxon  and  Norman  settlers  pouring  into  Scotland. 
They  came  not  as  conquerors,  and  yet  they  came  to  possess 
the  land.  With  amazing  rapidity,  sometimes  by  royal  grants, 
and  sometimes  by  advantageous  marriages,  they  acquired  the 
most  fertile  districts  from  the  Tweed  to  the  Pentland  Firth  ; 
and  almost  every  noble  family  in  Scotland  now  traces  from  them 
its  descent.  The  strangers  brought  with  them  English  civilisa- 
tion, and  English  attachment  to  an  ecclesiastical  hierarchy, 
and  it  is  to  their  influence  and  example  we  must  attribute 
the  establishment  and  endowment  of  the  hierarchy  in  the 
country. 

Notwithstanding  the  devout  spirit  which  animated  Malcolm 
and  his  queen,  they  appear  to  have  made  few  donations  to  the 
Church.  The  endowment  of  a  Benedictine  establishment  at 
Dunfermline,  and  a  small  grant  of  land  to  the  Culdees  of  Fife, 
are  the  only,  instances  of  their  liberality  which  have  been 
traced.  The  two  elder  sons  of  Malcolm,  Edgar  and  Alexan- 
der, both  evinced  their  piety  by  founding  monasteries  ;  but  his 
youngest  son,  David,  who  ultimately  succeeded  to  the  throne, 
was  by  far  the  most  liberal  benefactor  of  the  Scottish  clergy, 
and  bought  at  a  great  price  the  honour  of  Roman  apotheosis. 
He  founded  the  Bishoprics  of  Glasgow,  Brechin,  Dunkeld, 
Dunblane,  Ross,  and  Caithness.  A,  bishop  had  been  located 
at  Murtlich;  him  he  translated  to  Aberdeen,  and  bestowed  upon 
him  ample  revenues.  St  Andrews  had  been  raised  to  opulence 
by  his  immediate  predecessor.1  If  the  remaining  Scottish 
Sees  had  any  existence  prior  to  his  reign,  it  is  certain  no  suc- 
cession of  bishops  can  be  traced,  nor  till  now  had  they  any 
grants  of  tithes  and  lands,  so  necessary  to  the  proper  consti- 
tution of  a  bishopric.      The  same  pious  liberality  called  into 

1  The  Bishops  of  St  Andrews  probably  had  some  possessions  before  this 
period,  but  they  must  have  been  inconsiderable.  Alexander  I.  made  them 
a  grant  of  a  large  territory  known  by  the  name  of  the  Boar's  Chase. 


74  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  V. 

existence  a  multitude  of  abbacies,  priories,  and  nunneries, 
and  monks  of  every  order  and  in  every  garb  swarmed  in  the 
land.  He  founded  no  fewer  than  fourteen  or  fifteen  religious 
houses,  and  richly  endowed  every  one  of  them.  "  He  was  a 
sore  saint  to  the  crown, "  said  James  the  First  of  Scotland. 

The  proprietors  of  land  followed  the  example  of  the 
monarch,  and  their  English  culture  predisposed  them  to  do  so. 
Having  acquired  their  feudal  charters  with  the  king's  +  or 
seal  attached,  they  began  to  settle  and  improve  their  manors. 
Perhaps  upon  their  ground  they  found  an  old  religious  house 
already  existing,  but  if  not  they  built  a  church  and  tithed  the 
manor  for  its  support.  It  was  thus  that  tithes,  and  parishes, 
and  a  parochial  clergy,  were  first  called  into  existence.  The 
words  "  parson  ,?  or  "  vicar  "  do  not  occur  in  any  charter  be- 
fore the  time  of  David  I.1 

But  the  rise  of  our  Bishoprics,  the  origin  of  our  Parochial 
System,  and  the  establishment  of  our  Monasteries  are  deserv- 
ing of  a  more  minute  investigation. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  original  ecclesiastical  system 
of  Scotland  was  Abbatial,  and  not  Episcopal — tribal  rather 
than  diocesan.  But  churches  sprung  up  apart  from  the  mother 
monastery,  and  the  clergy  who  took  charge  of  these  were  the 
earliest  bishops.  We  have  traces  of  such  bishops  of  St  An- 
drews from  the  close  of  the  ninth  century,  but  they  had  no 
circumscribed  diocese — they  were  simply  bishops  of  the 
Scots.  It  was  more  than  two  hundred  years  later  before  the 
diocesan  system  of  England  was  introduced  by  Alexander  I. 
He  appointed  to  the  See  of  St  Andrews  Turgot,  his  mother's 
Anglican  Confessor,  and  probably  the  prompter  of  all  her 
Anglican  reforms.  The  transaction  was  brought  out  into  clear 
historic  relief  by  the  rival  claims  of  York  and  Canterbury  to 
consecrate,  and  the  resistance  of  these  by  the  Scotch  monarch 
and  clergy.  The  church  had  not  yet  learned  to  limit  its  pre- 
tensions to  the  boundaries  of  nations.  Bishop  Robert,  the 
third  of  his  line,  erected  the  Church  of  St  Regulus,  and  soon 
afterwards  the  noble  Cathedral  of  St  Andrews  was  begun,  and 
slowly  built  up  during  a  century  and  a  half,  and  finally  conse- 
crated in  the  presence  of  Robert  the  Bruce  in  the  beginning  of 
the  fourteenth  century.  The  See  of  Glasgow  dates  from  the 
year  1116.  In  that  year  David,  Prince  of  Cumberland,  and 
afterwards  King  of  the  Scots,  directed  an  inquest  to  be  made 
regarding  the  See,  which  resulted  in  its  being  put  in  possession 
1  Collections,  p.  230.     Connel  on  Tithes,  book  i.,  chap.  ii. 


a.d.  1100-l:J00.J  DIOCESES  AND  PARISHES.  75 

of  many  valuable  manors  scattered  over  the  whole  south  of 
Scotland.  In  the  same  century  the  Cathedral  Church  which 
still  stands,  the  noblest  architectural  structure  in  the  mercan- 
tile metropolis  of  the  west,  was  begun.  It  was  consecrated  in 
1 197,  and  completed  by  Bishop  Bondington,  who  died  in  1258. 
At  Dunkeld,  as  Mylne,  the  historian  of  the  See,  relates,  Con- 
stantine  III.,  King  of  the  Picts,  instituted  a  Culdee  House 
about  the  year  729  ;  which  was  converted  into  a  cathedral 
church  in  the  twelfth  century,  when  David  I.  was  pushing  on 
his  ecclesiastical  reformation.  The  transmutation  was  facilitated 
by  the  first  mitre  being  conferred  upon  the  old  Culdee  abbot. 
Policy  would  dictate  the  offer,  and  ambition  would  embrace 
it.  Thus  was  the  new  church  system,  erected  on  the  ruins  of 
the  old ;  ancient  Culdee  houses  frequently  forming  the  basis 
of  the  new  cathedral  churches.  It  is  needless  to  trace  the 
origin  of  all  the  bishoprics,  as  those  we  have  given  will 
illustrate  the  origin  of  all. 

The  division  of  the  land  into  dioceses  was  quickly  followed 
by  its  division  into  parishes.  The  lord  of  the  manor,  led 
by  the  example  of  the  monarch  and  his  own  English  ideas, 
erected  a  church  for  the  instruction  of  his  vassals,  and  tithed 
the  soil  for  the  maintenance  of  the  priest.  The  manor 
and  the  parish  were  thus  in  general  identical.  The  parish 
being  thus  made  coincident  with  the  manor,  frequently 
followed  its  future  fortunes.  If  a  detached  piece  of  land 
was  subsequently  added  to  the  original  possession,  it  some- 
times became  also  a  part  of  the  parish,  and  this  accounts  for 
the  divided  and  fragmentary  character  of  some  parishes  at 
the  present  hour.  On  the  other  hand,  when  a  large  manor 
was  subsequently  split  into  several  smaller  ones,  it  sometimes 
was  felt  to  be  desirable  that  each  should  have  a  separate 
church,  and  thus  the  division  of  land  was  followed  by  a 
division  of  parishes.  In  this  way  the  parishes  of  Crawford 
John,  Roberton,  and  Symington  branched  off  from  the 
original  parish  and  manor  of  Wiston.  In  other  cases  a 
thriving  burgh  sprung  up  in  the  midst  of  a  parish,  and  required 
a  church,  a  burial-ground,  and  baptismal  font  for  itself.  It 
was  thus  that  the  parish  of  Edinburgh  was  taken  out  of  the 
heart  of  St  Cuthbert's,  and  Aberdeen  from  the  parish  of  St 
Machar.1  Besides  these,  other  causes  concurred  to  the  erec- 
tion of  new  parishes,  and  the  division  of  old  ones,  and  fre- 

1   Introduction  to  the  first  volume  of  Origines  Parochiales. 


7&  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  V. 

quently  led  to  conflicting  claims  and  bitter  disputes  about 
privileges  and  tithes,  altarage  dues,  and  fees  for  the  baptism 
of  infants,  and  for  the  burial  of  the  dead.1 

In  tracing  the  origin  of  our  parishes,  we  have,  in  fact,  also 
traced  the  origin  of  tithes  and  patronage  ;  for  when  a  parish 
church  was  erected,  the  tithes  of  the  soil  were  required  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  priest,  and  the  lord  of  the  manor 
very  naturally  assumed  the  right  of  presenting  to  the  bene- 
fice. The  system  was  the  growth  of  circumstances  rather 
than  the  result  of  any  legislative  plan ;  but  than  it  none  better 
could  have  been  devised  to  carry  Christianity  into  every 
hamlet  and  every  home.  By  dividing  the  land,  it  subdued  it. 
The  noble  gave  proof  of  his  piety  by  endowing  the  Church 
with  the  tithes  of  his  manor,  and  the  Church  more  than  repaid 
the  benefit  by  its  humanising  influence  upon  the  serfs  who 
tilled  his  soil  and  followed  his  banner  to  battle.  Even  the 
right  of  patronage  was  then  an  unmixed  good,  for  it  bound 
the  clergy  to  the  native  aristocracy,  and  so  far  freed  them 
from  the  foreign  domination  of  their  spiritual  head,  and 
the  ignorant  villains  had  not  yet  dreamt  of  the  indefeasible 
right  of  the  Christian  people  to  choose  their  own  bishops  and 
priests. 

Before  the  parochial  system  had  time  fully  to  develop 
itself,  and  exhibit  its  capacity  for  reclaiming  and  instructing 
a  whole  population,  it  was  well-nigh  destroyed  by  the  intro- 
duction of  a  new  element.  The  parochial  clergy,  in  a 
multitude  of  instances,  were  jostled  out  of  their  places  by 
monks,  or  if  allowed  to  continue  at  their  work,  they  were 
cozened  out  of  their  legitimate  revenues,  which  were  appro- 
priated to  the  support  of  some  Religious  House,  with  a  high 

1  The  great  extent  of  the  ancient  parishes,  and  the  difficulty  of  passage 
to  the  parish  church,  frequently  led  to  their  division.  Thus  the  parish  of 
Glenbuchat  was  separated  from  the  parish  of  Logie,  because  on  one 
occasion,  while  the  people  of  the  Glen  were  on  their  way  to  the  parish 
church  to  keep  Easter,  they  were  caught  in  a  storm,  and  five  or  six  persons 
perished. 

We  have  said  nothing  of  Chapels  in  the  text.  Very  frequently  a 
nobleman  took  a  pride  in  having  a  chapel  on  his  own  grounds  for  the  con- 
venience of  his  own  household.  These  erections  were  numerous  in  Roman 
Catholic  times. 

Collegiate  Churches  were  the  growth  of  the  fifteenth  century.  They 
had  no  parishes  attached  to  them.  They  were  instituted  for  Secular 
Canons  performing  divine  service  and  singing  masses  for  the  souls  of  their 
founders  and  their  friends.  They  were  governed  by  a  Dean  or  Provost. 
Of  such  Collegiate  Churches  there  were  thirty-three  in  Scotland, 


a.d.  1100-1300.]  MONKS.  77 

savour  of  sanctity.  We  have  already  alluded  to  the  rise  of 
monachism,  and  its  introduction  into  Scotland  by  Columba 
and  the  Culdees  ;  but  that  primitive  form  of  it  had  passed 
away,  and  now,  with  a  new  organisation  and  restored  vitality, 
it  came  and  reconquered  the  land. 

The    first   monks   were    completely   independent    of    one 
another;  they  belonged  to  no  order,  and  were  obedient  to 
no  rule;  but  each,  in  his  own  cell,  inflicted  upon    himself 
any  amount  of  torture  he  pleased.     But  now  they  were  all 
marshalled  into  different  societies,  and  made  subject   to  a 
particular  discipline ;  and  from  the  fidelity  and  courage  with 
which,  in  serried  array,  they  fought  the  battles  of  the  papacy, 
they  have  been  appropriately  called    the   militia  of  Rome. 
As  opposed  to  the  secular  clergy  they  were  called  Regulars, 
because  they  followed  some  rule.     The  Augustinians  followed 
the  rule  of  St  Augustine;  and  the  Benedictines  the  rule  of 
St  Bennet.     These  were  the  two  most  ancient  orders,  and 
the  most  famous.     Under  the  former  were  comprehended  the 
regular  canons  of  St  Augustine,  the  canons  of  St  Anthony, 
the  Praemonstratenses,  the  Red  Friars,  and  the  Black  Friars 
or  Dominicans.     Under  the  latter  there  were  the  Benedic- 
tines of  Marmoutier,  of  Cluny,  of  Tyron  ;  the   Bernardines 
or  Cistercians  ;  and  the  monks  of  Vallis-Caulium.     Besides 
all  these,  there  were  the   Franciscans,   the  Carthusians,  the 
Carmelites  or  White  Friars,  and  others  still  of  inferior  name. 
Some  of  these  did  not  come  into  existence  till  the  twelfth 
and   thirteenth  centuries ;    for   every  age  threw  off  its   own 
swarm.     The  divisions  we  have  given  depended  upon   the 
rule  which  the  Religious  obeyed,  the  leader  they  acknow- 
ledged, or  the  place  where  they  originated;    but  there  was 
another  division  which  crossed  these — for  all  the  orders  we 
have  enumerated  subsisted  either  on  the  endowments  which 
their  houses  had  acquired,  or  by  begging.     They  were  there- 
fore  divided  into   Rented  Religious  and   Mendicant  Friars? 
The    Black,   White,  and    Grey   Friars  were  all   mendicants. 
The  rules  under  which  the  various  orders   lived   were  ex- 
tremely  various — some    excessively   rigid,    and   others    com- 
paratively mild  ;  but  there  were  three  vows  common  to  them 
all — obedience,  chastity,  and  poverty. 

In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  an  intense  passion 
to  found  and  endow  monasteries  seized  upon  Scotland. 
That   of  Dunfermline  was   founded   by    Malcolm   Canmore  ; 

1  Spottiswood's   Religious    Houses,   also  Walcott's  Ancient    Church  of 
Scotland. 


78  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  V. 

Coldingham,  by  Edgar ;  Scone  and  St   Columba  on    Inch- 
colm,  by  Alexander  I.     David,  with  pious  prodigality,  erected 
and    endowed  Jedburgh,  Kelso,   Melrose,   Nevvbattle,    Holy- 
roodhouse,  Kinloss,  Cambuskenneth,  Dryburgh,  and,  besides 
these,  a  convent  of  Cistercian  Nuns  at  Berwick-upon-Tweed. 
Many  of  these,  however,  were  merely  the  transformation  of 
ancient  Culdee  houses.     Thus  the   revenues  of  the  Culdee 
Monastery  of  Lochleven  were  bestowed  on  the  Priory  of  St 
Andrews,  and  the  Culdees  were  informed  by  the  King  in  his 
Charter  that  if  they  chose  to  remain  and  obey  the  rules  of 
the  new-comers,  they  might,  but  that  if  not,  they  would  be 
expelled  from  the  island.     The  successors  of  these  monarchs 
followed  their  devout    example,  and    the   nobles  strove    to 
emulate  their  kings.     Many  causes  conspired  to  produce  this. 
The  monks  and  friars  had  a  high  repute  for  superior  holiness, 
and  they  attracted  the  attention  and  won  the  veneration  of  a 
rude  and  superstitious  age  by  the  austerity  of  their  lives,  the 
fervour  of  their  devotions,  the  fame  of  their  preaching,  and 
the   self-inflicted    pain    of   their   penances.      The    rich    and 
the  great  became  their  worshippers,    and  built   them  those 
beautiful  houses,  the  very  ruins  of  which  still  excite  our  ad- 
miration.    Perhaps  the  noble,  as  he  saw  the  abbey  raising 
itself  against  the  sky,  with  its  ribbed  doorways  and  richly- 
decorated  windows,  looked  forward  to  the  possibility  of  him- 
self becoming  a  brother  of  the  order,  when  age  had  cooled  his 
martial  ardour,  and  taught  him  to  prepare  to  die ;  perhaps  he 
was  ambitious  that  a  member  of  his  family  might  be  appointed 
its  abbot ;  at  all  events,  he  had  chosen  its  sacred  enclosures 
as  the  place  of  sepulture  for  himself,  his  countess,  and  their 
children,  and  he  never  doubted  but  that  the  endowments  he 
lavished   upon   it  would  secure  the   repose   of  their   souls.1 

1  In  the  preface  to  the  Origines  we  have  examples  of  the  operation  of 
these  motives.  "  In  the  reign  of  William  the  Lion,  Robert  de  Kent  gave 
a  territory  in  Innerwic  to  the  Monks  of  Melrose,  adding  this  declaration, 
— And  be  it  known,  I  have  made  this  gift  to  the  church  of  Melrose,  with 
myself,  and  the  monks  have  granted  me  their  cemetery,  and  the  service 
of  a  monk  at  my  decease  ;  and  if  I  be  free,  and  have  the  will  and  the 
power,  the  monks  shall  receive  me  in  their  convent."  (Lib.  de  Melrose, 
P-  59-)  "  Gilbert,  Earl  of  Strathearn,  and  his  countess  Matildis,  who 
founded  the  monastery  in  1200,  declared  that  they  so  loved  the  place  that 
they  had  chosen  it  as  the  place  of  burial  for  them  and  their  successors, 
and  had  already  buried  there  their  first-born,  for  the  repose  of  whose  soul 
chiefly  it  was  that  they  so  bountifully  endowed  the  monastery.  At  the 
same  time  they  bestowed  five  parish  churches  upon  it."'  (Lib.  de  Ins. 
Missar,  pp.  3,  5.) 


A.D.  1200-1400.]  APPROPRIATION  OF  PARISHES.  79 

Lauds,  tithes,  rights  of  pasture,  of  fuel,  of  fishing,  were  heaped 
upon  the  monks ;  and  when  all  else  failed,  the  parish  church, 
with  its  revenues,  was  annexed  to  the  monastery,  to  be  held  by 
it  for  ever.  In  this  case,  a  paltry  pittance  was  reserved  for 
the  impoverished  parish  priest  who  served  the  cure  ;  or  one 
of  the  monks  performed  the  duty,  and  the  monastery  engulphed 
all.  To  such  an  extent  was  this  system  carried,  that  in  the 
reign  of  William  the  Lion,  no  fewer  than  thirty-three  parish 
churches  were  bestowed  on  the  Abbey  of  Aberbrothock,  then 
newly  erected,  and  dedicated  to  St  Thomas  a  Becket,  the 
fashionable  saint  of  the  period,  who  for  a  season  eclipsed 
even  the  glories  of  Mary.1  At  the  time  of  the  Reformation, 
of  the  thousand  parishes  in  Scotland,  about  seven  hundred 
had  been  appropriated  to  bishops  and  Religious  Houses.- 

The  parochial  clergy  were  crippled  and  humbled  by  the  with- 
drawal of  their  revenues  to  pamper  the  monks,  and  to  such  a 
state  of  poverty  and  dependence  were  some  of  the  vicars  re- 
duced, that  the  popes  had  to  interfere  to  save  them  from  the 
rapacity  of  the  bishops  and  abbots ; 3  and  ultimately  James 
III.  passed  an  act  forbidding  any  further  appropriations,  under 
the  pains  of  high  treason.4  But  the  evil  was  already  done  ;  the 
secular  clergy  were  degraded  and  wretchedly  poor ;  the 
revenues  of  the  Church  had  gone  to  fatten  idle  friars,  wrho, 
whatever  their  primitive  virtues  may  have  been,  were  now  the 
scandal  of  the  Church  ;  and  if  it  be  true  they  defended  and 
supported  the  papacy  for  a  time,  it  is  certain  they  made  its 
downfall  more  dreadful  in  the  end. 

Mr  Spottiswoode,  in  his  account  of  the  Religious  Houses 
that  were  in  Scotland  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  has 
enumerated  one  hundred  and  twenty  monasteries,  besides 
more  than  twenty  convents  for  the  reception  of  nuns  ;  and 
though  his  list  is  the  fullest  that  has  yet  been  given  to  the 
world,  it  is  said  there  were  at  least  other  forty  monastic 
establishments,  which  he  has  omitted  to  mention.  There- 
must  therefore  have  been  nearly  two  hundred  such  institutions 

1  Origines,  Introduction  to  vol.  i. 

-  Connel  on  Tithes,  book  i.  The  exact  number  of  parishes  before  the 
Reformation  is  unknown.  It  is  certain  that  very  many  ancient  parishes 
have  been  suppressed  since  the  Reformation.  Thus,  within  the  bounds  of 
the  Presbytery  of  Auchterarder,  there  must  have  been  once  nearly  twice 
the  number  of  parishes  there  are  at  present,  the  majority  of  the  modern 
parishes  being  a  combination  of  two  or  three  ancient  one>. 

:i  Connel,  book  i.,  chap.  iii. 

4  James  III.,  pari,  vi.,  chap.  xliv.     1471 . 


8o  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  V. 

in  our  country.  We  have  no  Monasticon  from  which  we  can 
learn  the  number  of  their  inmates,  but  we  may  safely  estimate 
them  at  between  two  and  three  thousand.1  Dunfermline  ap- 
pears to  have  had  from  thirty  to  fifty  monks ;  and  Paisley, 
Elgin,  Arbroath,  Kelso,  had  probably  as  many.  In  1542 
Melrose  is  said  to  have  contained  three  hundred,  but  this  is 
manifestly  a  great  exaggeration.  When  the  convent  of  the 
Grey  Friars  at  Perth  was  demolished  in  1559,  only  eight  friars 
belonged  to  it ;  but  it  is  probable  there  had  been  a  con- 
siderable number  of  deserters  before  this.2 

Of  Mr  Spottiswood's  list,  forty-eight  were  occupied  by 
Augustinian  monks,  thirty-one  by  Benedictines,  and  forty-one 
by  the  three  orders  of  mendicants,  viz.,  fifteen  by  the  Domini- 
cans or  Black  Friars,  seventeen  by  the  Franciscans  or  Grey 
Friars,  and  nine  by  the  Carmelites  or  White  Friars. 

Of  the  Augustinian  establishments,  Scone,  Lochleven, 
Monimusk,  Pittenweem,  Holyroodhouse,  Cambuskenneth, 
Jedburgh,  Inchaffray,  Abernethy,  &c,  &c,  were  occupied  by 
canons-regular.  Whitehorn  and  Dryburgh  were  in  possession 
of  'the  Praemonstratenses ;  and  Red  Friars  were  settled  at 
Aberdeen,  Dunbar,  Dundee,  and  several  other  places. 

Of  the  Benedictine  establishments,  the  most  famous  were 
those  at  Coldingham,  Dunfermline,  Kelso,  Kilwinning,  Aber- 
brothock,  Paisley,  Melrose,  Newbattle,  Culross,  and  Plus- 
cardin.  All  these  monasteries  were  possessed  of  large  reve- 
nues. They  had  great  tracts  of  land,  rights  of  pasture,  of 
fishing,  of  hunting,  of  multure,  besides  the  teinds  of  many 
parishes.  Merely  as  landed  proprietors  the  abbots  must  have 
exercised  a  prodigious  influence.  Many  of  them  wore  the 
mitre,  had  seats  in  Parliament,  and  exercised  episcopal  juris- 
diction over  all  the  churches  subject  to  the  monastery. 

There  was  an  establishment  of  Carthusians  at  Perth, 
founded  by  James  I.  ;  but  this  brotherhood,  in  their  white 
gowns,  scapulars,  and  capuchins,  were  never  to  be  seen  in  the 

1  In  a  note  to  Dalyell's  Dissertation  on  Ane  Booke  of  Godly  Songs,  there 
is  mention  made  of  an  ancient  memorial  to  the  Queen  Regent  (we  suppose 
Mary  of  Guise),  in  which  there  is  an  estimate  of  the  religious  foundations 
at  that  time  in  the  kingdom.  There  were,  according  to  it,  13  bishops,  I 
Lord  St  John,  60  abbots  and  friars  ;  of  Trinity  Friars,  Carmelites,  Cor- 
deliers, &c,  about  50  places  ;  provostries,  about  50;  11  deans  ;  n  arch- 
deans  ;  1 1  chanters.  The  parsons  are  estimated  at  about  500  ;  the  vicars, 
2000  ;  religious  men  and  women,  1 114  ;  other  priests,  1000  ;  in  all,  about 
4600  persons  living  on  rents. 

2  See  note  to  Dr  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  Period  First. 


A.D.   1100-1500.]        HOSPITALLERS  AND  TEMPLARS.  8  L 

streets  of  St  Johnstone,  for  their  gloomy  rule  compelled  them 
to  eat  in  solitude,  to  observe  a  constant  silence,  and  never 
to  leave  their  cloisters.  But  every  town  in  Scotland  swarmed 
with  the  begging  friars,  black,  white,  and  grey.  The  Domini- 
cans exercised  their  peculiar  privilege  of  preaching  everywhere 
without  the  permission  of  the  bishop,  and  confessing  all 
noble  ladies  and  their  lords,  to  the  infinite  chagrin  of  the 
curate,  who  had  hoped  to  hear  the  secrets  of  the  hall ;  but, 
more  especially,  they  had  a  keen  scent  for  heresy,  for  to  their 
order  belonged  the  imperishable  honour  of  having  instituted 
the  Inquisition,  preached  the  crusade  against  the  Albigeois, 
and  poisoned  with  the  hostie  a  refractory  king.  The  bare- 
footed Franciscans  prowrled  about  in  their  long  grey  gowns, 
with  a  cowl  on  their  neck,  and  a  rope  about  their  waist, 
begging  alms  for  the  love  of  God ;  and  the  Carmelites,  who 
pretended  to  be  the  successors  of  Elijah  and  Elisha,  were  dis- 
tinguishable by  their  white  habits,  and  competed  with  the 
other  two  mendicant  orders  for  the  veneration  of  the  people. 
Unclean  and  odorous  then  as  they  are  now,  while  the  pious 
might  be  edified  by  their  touch,  the  polite  would  not  willingly 
remain  long  in  close  proximity  to  their  persons. 

But  it  still  remains  for  us  to  mention  two  celebrated  orders 
—the  Knights  of  St  John  and  of  Solomon's  Temple,  who, 
combining  the  military  and  monastic  life,  were  wonderfully 
fitted  to  gain  the  admiration  of  an  age  at  once  martial  and 
superstitious.  The  Hospitallers  or  Knights  of  St  John  took 
their  rise  from  some  merchants  of  Melphis,  who,  previous  to 
the  Crusades,  had  obtained  from  the  Caliph  of  Egypt  permis- 
sion to  erect  a  church  and  hospital  in  Jerusalem  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  Christian  pilgrims.  Conspicuous  for  their  bravery 
at  the  siege  of  the  Holy  City,  when  Godfrey  led  his  victorious 
Crusaders  within  its  walls,  he  bestowed  upon  them  large  pos- 
sessions, and  from  a  church  which  they  had  erected  in  honour 
of  St  John,  and  an  hospital  for  the  reception  of  the  sick,  they 
derived  the  name  by  which  they  were  known.  Formed  into  a 
regular  monastic-military  order,  they  took  a  vow  to  defend 
pilgrims  against  the  infidel  Saracens,  and  assumed  as  their 
peculiar  dress  a  black  habit  with  a  cross  of  gold,  having  eight 
points  enamelled  white,  in  memory  of  the  eight  beatitudes. 
Their  ranks  were  soon  filled  with  the  most  illustrious  youth  of 
Europe  ;  and  so  scrupulous  were  they  in  regard  to  those  whom 
they  admitted,  that  every  entrant  was  obliged  to  prove  his 
nobility  for  four  generations,  and  that  he  had  been  born  in 

F 


8  2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  V. 

lawful  wedlock ;  unless,  perchance,  he  was  the  bastard  of  a 
king,  for  royal  blood  alone  could  wipe  out  the  disgrace  of 
illegitimacy.  Introduced  into  Scotland  by  David  I.,  where 
there  were  no  pilgrims  to  defend,  and  no  infidels  to  fight  with, 
they  yet  found  favour  with  the  people,  and  acquired  numerous 
residences,  the  chief  of  which  was  at  Torphichen,  where  the 
Preceptor  of  the  order  resided.  They  had  hospitals  both  in 
Edinburgh  and  Leith. 

The  Templars,  like  the  Hospitallers,  were  the  offspring  of 
the  Crusades.  The  constant  danger  to  which  the  kingdom  of 
Jerusalem  was  exposed  by  the  incursions  of  the  infidels  was 
the  occasion  of  their  institution.  They  followed  the  rule  of 
St  Augustine,  and  the  constitution  of  the  Canons- Regular  of 
Jerusalem,  and  vowed  to  defend  the  temple  and  city,  to 
entertain  pilgrims,  and  guard  them  safely  through  the  Holy 
Land.  They  wore  a  white  habit,  embroidered  with  a  red 
cross  ;  and  these  martial  monks  soon  became  the  terror  of  the 
Moslem,  and  the  firmest  bulwark  of  the  Christian  throne. 
Nine  thousand  manors  scattered  over  Europe  rewarded  their 
services  and  courage,  and  enabled  them  to  support  a  regular 
army  for  the  defence  of  Palestine.  They  obtained  a  footing 
in  Scotland  about  the  same  time  as  the  Hospitallers,  and  soon 
there  was  scarcely  a  parish  in  which  they  had  not  some  pos- 
session. In  Edinburgh  and  Leith  numerous  houses  belonged 
to  them,  and  when  these  were  feued  to  seculars,  the  cross  of 
the  order  was  affixed  to  the  highest  point  of  the  gable  to  mark 
out  its  superiors.  The  temple  near  Southesk  was  their  prin- 
cipal residence  ;  but  those  numerous  designations  of  land  still 
in  use,  in  which  the  adjunct  of  temple  occurs,  are  a  pretty  sure 
index  of  the  ancient  possessors.  The  Knights  of  the  Temple 
fell  as  quickly  as  they  rose.  Their  wealth  begat  insolence  and 
pride ;  their  monastic  vows  were  forgotten,  amid  the  license  of 
the  camp  and  the  court ;  and  the  world  was  scandalised  by 
the  corruption,  avarice,  and  imputed  crimes  of  the  soldiers  of 
the  Cross,  who  retained  nothing  of  their  first  virtues  but  their 
fearless  and  fanatic  bravery.  The  order  was  suppressed  in 
the  fourteenth  century  ;  many  of  the  knights  were  cruelly  put 
to  death  for  vices  charged  upon  them,  but  never  proved  ;  and 
in  Scotland  and  elsewhere,  a  large  part  of  their  property  was 
transferred  to  the  Hospitallers.  It  has  been  suspected  that 
their  wealth  hastened  their  ruin. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  female  mind,  ever  sus- 
ceptible of  religious  impressions,  should  withstand  the  tend- 


A.D.   1100-1500.]  NUNNERIES.  %3 

ency  to  monasticism  at  that  time  so  prevalent.  At  Edinburgh, 
I  )almulin,  Berwick,  St  Bathans,  Coldstream,  Eccles,  Hadding- 
ton, Aberdeen,  Dunbar,  and  several  other  places,  there  were 
nunneries  ;  and  within  these,  ladies  connected  with  many  of 
the  noblest  families  in  the  land.  The  nuns  of  Scotland 
revered,  as  the  first  of  their  order  in  our  country,  a  legendary 
St  Brigida,  who  is  fabled  to  have  belonged  to  Caithness,  to 
have  renounced  an  ample  inheritance,  lived  in  seclusion,  and 
finally  to  have  died  at  Abernethy  in  the  sixth  century.  Church 
chroniclers  relate,  that  before  Coldingham  was  erected  into  a 
priory  for  monks,  it  had  been  a  sanctuary  for  nuns,  who 
acquired  immortal  renown  by  cutting  off  their  noses  and  lips 
to  render  themselves  repulsive  to  some  piratical  Danes  who 
had  landed  on  the  coast.  The  sisterhood  of  Lincluden  were 
of  a  different  mind,  for  they  were  expelled  by  Archibald, 
Earl  of  Douglas,  for  violating  their  vows  as  the  brides  of 
heaven,  and  the  house  was  converted  into  a  collegiate  church.1 

History  contains  no  record  of  the  influence  which  these 
devoted  virgins  exercised  upon  the  Church  or  the  world  ;  and 
we  may  believe  that,  shut  up  in  their  cloisters,  and  confined 
to  a  dull  routine  of  daily  duty,  they  could  exercise  but  little. 
They  would  chant  their  matins  and  vespers,  count  their  beads, 
employ  themselves  with  needlework,  and  in  many  cases  vainly 
pine  for  that  world  which  their  parents  or  their  own  childish 
caprice  had  forced  them  to  abandon  ;  but  the  world  could  not 
witness  their  piety,  nor  penetrate  their  thoughts.  Yet  men 
are  strangely  moved  by  the  very  sight  of  walls,  within  which 
are  enclosed  women  who  have  devoted  their  virginity  to  God, 
and  who  are  supposed  to  serve  Him  without  any  admixture 
of  those  passions  which  mingle  so  largely  in  other  breasts  ; 
and  no  doubt  the  very  existence  of  nunneries,  and  the  reli- 
gious mystery  which  shrouded  their  inmates,  must  have  had 
their  power  in  moulding  the  piety  of  the  times,  though  it  was 
unconsciously  exercised,  and  too  secret  in  its  operation  to  be 
traced. 

Though  the  Roman  hierarchy  was  long  of  obtaining  a  firm 
footing  in  our  country,  when  once  established  it  soon  reached 
a  height  of  power  and  opulence  unsurpassed  in  any  other  por- 
tion of  Europe.  The  barbarity  and  ignorance  of  our  ancestors 
inclined  them  to  superstition,  and  their  superstition  inclined 
them  to  prodigality.  Before  the  Reformation  one-half  of  the 
whole  national  wealth  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  clergy, 
1  Forbes's  Treatise  of  Church  Lands  and  Tithes,  p.  22. 


84  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap,   y. 

which  is  proved  by  the  fact,  that  they  paid  one-half  of  every 
tax  imposed  upon  land,  and  there  is  little  reason  to  believe 
that  they  would  bear  an  unequal  proportion  of  the  burden.1 
This  enormous  wealth  must  have  been  almost  all  accumulated 
in  the  course  of  four  centuries — from  the  twelfth  to  the  six- 
teenth ;  and  whatever  use  we  make  of  it,  we  should  not  shut 
our  eyes  to  the  contrast  between  the  religious  liberality  of  the 
period  which  preceded,  and  that  which  has  followed  the  Refor- 
mation. The  entire  riches  of  the  Church  were  the  result  of  pri- 
vate donations  and  bequests  ;  the  free-will  offerings  of  a  piety, 
which,  though  mistaken,  must  have  been  sincere.  Almost 
surpassing  the  lavish  liberality  of  the  kings,  who  thus  alienated 
nearly  all  their  royal  demesnes,  were  the  gifts  of  the  great  earls  ; 
and  in  the  thirteenth  century  we  find  with  astonishment  an 
Earl  of  Strathearn  dividing  his  wide  property  into  three  por- 
tions, one  of  which  he  bequeathed  to  the  See  of  Dunblane ;  a 
second  to  the  Abbey  of  Inchaffray;  and  the  third  only  he 
reserved  for  the  inheritance  of  his  family.2 

So  large  a  proportion  of  the  national  wealth  locked  up,  in 
our  day,  in  the  coffers  of  the  clergy,  who  are  excluded  from 
putting  out  their  coin  to  usury  in  mercantile  transactions, 
would  be  an  unmitigated  evil,  and  would  most  seriously  cripple 
the  operations  of  trade.  But  it  admits  of  question  as  to 
whether  it  was  an  evil  four  hundred  years  ago,  or  whether  the 
soil  could  have  been  in  better  hands  than  in  those  of  the 
ministers  of  religion  ?  There  were  few  traders  in  those  primi- 
tive times  superior  to  pedlars,  and  their  humble  traffic  required 
little  capital.  Had  so  many  rich  manors  not  passed  into  the 
possession  of  the  Church,  they  must  have  remained  in  the 
possession  of  the  great  barons ;  and  surely  it  was  well  for  the 
country  that  they  were  transferred  from  the  men  of  war  to  the 
men  of  peace. 

The  clergy  everywhere  introduced  agriculture  and  the  arts. 
Columba  had  fields  waving  with  corn,  and  barns  filled  with 
plenty  in  his  dreary  island  of  Iona,  when  there  were  few  corn- 

1  This  is  the  estimate  both  of  Dr  Robertson  and  Dr  M'Crie.  Sir 
George  Mackenzie  estimates  the  tithes  paid  to  the  clergy  at  a  fourth  part 
of  the  rents  of  lands,  and  their  lands  at  another  fourth.  Forbes  remarks 
that  the  clergy  were  most  justly  subjected  to  the  payment  of  the  half  of  the 
taxt-roll  in  all  public  compositions.  Keith  says  that  it  is  ascertained  by 
the  public  records  that  in  the  case  of  extraordinary  taxations  on  land,  one- 
third  was  paid  out  of  the  lands  of  the  clergy.  See  Connel  on  Tithes, 
book  i.  chap.  iii. 

2  Fordun,  Scotichron,  lib.  viii.  c.  73. 


\.D.   1100-1500.]  HUMANISING  INFLUENCES.  85 

fields  or  granaries  in  Scotland.  St  Mungo,  according  to  the 
legend,  "  yoked  the  wolf  and  the  deer  to  his  plough,"  and  the 
legend  has  its  much  meaning.  Around  every  monastery  were 
extensive  orchards,  with  trees  grafted  by  the  hands  of  the 
monks,  and  laden  with  fruits  nowhere  else  to  be  found  in  the 
country.  The  industry  and  arts  of  the  monks  were  copied  by 
their  dependents,  and  the  traveller  could  at  once  discern,  by 
the  superior  cultivation  of  the  fields,  and  the  more  contented 
look  of  the  peasantry,  the  districts  that  belonged  to  the 
Church.  The  clergy  were  confessedly  the  best  landlords  ;  they 
gave  feus,  and  let  out  their  farms  upon  long  and  easy  leases, 
and  in  this  way  they  encouraged  the  reclaiming  of  moors  and 
marshes  which  might  otherwise  have  lain  waste  to  the  present 
hour. 

The  immunity  from  war  enjoyed  by  the  Church  and  its  vas- 
sals greatly  favoured  the  improvement  both  of  the  land  and  of 
those  who  tilled  it.  The  retainers  of  the  fierce  barons,  who 
divided  with  the  clergy  the  property  of  the  soil,  were  con- 
stantly harassed  by  military  duty ;  they  were  liable  at  any  mo- 
ment to  be  called  upon  to  join  in  a  raid  against  the  English 
or  some  hostile  chief  in  the  neighbourhood,  to  burn,  plunder, 
and  slay;  and  amid  such  scenes,  they  lost  all  relish  for  the 
arts  of  peace;  besides,  they  were  at  all  times  subject  to 
have  retaliated  upon  themselves  the  havoc  they  had  wrought 
upon  others  ;  and  few  men  will  sow  fields  when  there  is  a 
strong  probability  that  others  will  reap  them.  The  tenants 
and  retainers  of  the  clergy  were  happily  free  from  all  this,  and 
were  liable  to  be  called  to  arms  only  on  urgent  and  general 
occasions ;  and  so  great  was  the  respect  for  their  possessions, 
that  even  in  the  case  of  national  hostilities,  they  were  generally 
spared.  The  clergy,  with  admirable  prudence,  encouraged 
this  lenity,  not  only  by  the  powers  of  superstition,  but  by 
checking  anything  like  a  marauding  disposition  on  the  part  of 
their  dependents;  and  the  consequence  was,  that  they  enjoyed 
the  blessings  of  perpetual  peace  in  the  midst  of  turmoil  and 
war ;  they  had  light  in  their  dwellings  when  darkness  was  in 
the  land  of  Egypt. 

But  the  clergy  were  not  only  the  greatest  agricultural  im- 
provers ;  they  were  the  most  learned  men  of  the  time,  and,  in 
fact,  monopolized  all  the  learning  of  the  period.  It  was  in  the 
still  cloister  that  the  lamp  of  knowledge  was  kept  burning,  and 
had  it  been  exposed  to  the  rude  winds  of  heaven  in  those  stormy 
days,  it  would  infallibly  have  been  blown  out.     Notwithstand- 


86  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  V. 

ing  the  many  pictures  we  have  of  overgrown  and  lazy  monks, 
sleeping  away  their  whole  lives  amid  the  drowsy  atmosphere 
of  their  conventual  buildings,  or  spending  their  days  and 
nights  in  wassail,  swilling  Bourdeaux,  and  rejoicing  in  venison, 
e^en  in  Lent — pictures  which  are  perfectly  true  to  life  ;  yet  it 
must  be  remembered  that  this  was  not  always,  and  never  uni- 
versally the  case.  Many  of  the  ancient  clergy  were  thoughtful 
and  studious  men,  adepts  in  the  scholastic  theology  then  in 
vogue,  and  well  read  in  the  canon  and  civil  law,  a  knowledge 
of  which  was  the  surest  road  to  ecclesiastical  and  political 
distinction.  We  must  not  be  so  ungrateful  as  to  forget  that, 
before  the  invention  of  printing,  it  was  monkish  pens  that 
multiplied  copies  of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  and  preserved  to  us 
those  Greek  and  Roman  classics  which  at  length  revived  in 
Europe  a  love  for  literature,  and  which  still  delight  and  im- 
prove us  in  our  hours  of  ease.  It  is  the  unwritten  saying  ot 
Chalmers,  that  the  accumulated  revenues  of  the  rich  diocese 
of  Durham  were  not  misspent,  since  they  had  encouraged  and 
fostered  the  genius  of  Butler :  may  it  not  be  said,  with  still 
greater  propriety,  that  our  monasteries  were  not  endowed  in 
vain,  if  they  have  preserved  to  us  our  Homers  and  Virgils,  and 
above  all,  our  Bibles  ? 

Without  the  assistance  of  the  clergy,  the  business  of  the 
State  could  not  have  been  conducted.  A  knowledge  of  let- 
ters was  esteemed  unbecoming  on  the  part  of  the  nobility;  and 
Tytler  declares,  that  during  the  long  period  from  the  accession 
of  Alexander  III.  to  the  death  of  David  II.,  it  is  impossible  to 
produce  a  single  instance  of  a  Scottish  baron  who  could  sign 
his  own  name.1  As  a  matter  of  course,  almost  the  whole  work 
of  legislation  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  clergy,  and  the  fighting 
was  left  to  the  lay  lords.  The  bishops  and  mitred  abbots 
formed  by  far  the  most  influential  section  of  the  parliament, 
and  filled  almost  all  the  important  offices  of  State.  The  Lord 
Chancellor  was  the  first  subject  in  the  realm  ;  and  of  fifty- 
four  persons  who  held  this  high  office  from  the  dawn  of 
history  to  the  death  of  Beaton,  forty-three  were  churchmen. 
The  Lords  of  Session  were  supreme  judges  in  all  civil  affairs ; 
and  by  the  original  constitution  of  the  College  of  Justice,  the 
president  and  one-half  of  the  senators  must  needs  be  eccle- 


siastics.2 


A  power  so  great  was  not  unattended  with  honour.      Most 

1  History,  vol.  ii. 

2  Robertson's  History  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.     Crawford's  Officers  of  State. 


A.D.    1100-1500.]  CHURCH  CHRONICLES.  87 

of  the  dignified  churchmen  belonged  to  the  first  families  in 
the  land,  and  many  of  them  were  closely  allied  to  royalty. 
Not  only  bishops,  but  abbots,  took  precedence  of  the  greatest 
earls,  and  every  clergyman  was  entitled  to  have  "  Sir  "  ap- 
pended to  his  name,  if  he  had  not  the  higher  academic  title  of 
"  Master." 1  They  managed  to  exempt  their  persons  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  civil  tribunals,  as  too  sacred  to  be  there 
dealt  with  ;  and  the  reputed  sanctity  of  the  sacerdotal  charac- 
ter was  enough  at  all  times  to  screen  the  delinquent  priest 
from  the  hands  of  justice  or  the  fury  of,  private  revenge.  To 
assault  an  ecclesiastic  was  a  crime  for  which  nothing  but  death 
could  atone. 

It  is  to  churchmen,  moreover,  we  owe  the  earliest  annals 
of  our  country.  At  a  period  when  we  have  not  a  single 
chronicle  of  political  events,  we  have  numerous  Lives  of  the 
Saints,  and  all  of  these  throw  less  or  more  light  upon  the 
general  history  of  the  times.  Adamnan,  Bede,  Jocelin, 
Ailred,  Turgot,  have  given  us  glimpses  of  the  flow  of  events 
and  the  state  of  society  in  their  day — regarding  which,  but 
for  them,  there  had  been  impenetrable  gloom.  But  every 
great  monastery  in  Scotland  appears  to  have  kept  three  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  registers,  and  many  of  these  have  survived 
the  waste  of  time  and  the  zeal  of  the  Reformers,  and  they 
now  form  the  principal  guide  of  the  historian  in  traversing 
these  dark  ages.  The  first  was  a  general  one,  giving  an 
account  of  the  principal  events,  according  to  the  years  in 
which  they  occurred — as  the  Book  of  Paisley,  and  the 
Chronicle  of  Melrose.  The  second  was  an  Obituary,  in 
which  were  recorded  the  deaths  of  the  abbots  and  priors,  the 
kings  and  great  nobles,  and  the  chief  benefactors  of  the 
monastery.  The  third  was  their  Chartulary,  in  which  were 
carefully  transcribed  the  charters  granted  them  by  kings 
or  pious  nobles  who  had  endowed  their  house,  the  bulls  of 
the  popes,  a  statement  of  their  revenues,  taxes,  leases,  and 
lawsuits,  and  a  multitude  of  other  minute  particulars,  no 
more  intended  to  serve  for  history  than  the  accurate  accounts 
of  an  exact  housekeeper,  but  which  do  in  reality,  above  all 
other  documents,  illustrate  the  spirit  and  character  of  the 
times.     Of  these  are  the  Book  of  Dunfermline,  the  Register 

1  There  is  a  curious  instance  of  this  in  the  trial  of  Walter  Mill  the 
martyr.  When  he  was  addressed  Sir  Walter,  he  repudiated  the  title,  de- 
claring he  would  no  longer  be  one  of  the  pope's  knights.  See  Spottiswood's 
History,  Fox,  &c. 


88  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  v. 

of  Arbroath,  the  Chartulary  of  Inchaffray,  and  many  others, 
most  of  which  have  recently  been  brought  from  the  shelves  of 
our  great  libraries  and  the  charter-chests  of  our  nobles,  and 
given  to  the  world  by  the  labours  and  liberality  of  the  Banna- 
tyne  and  Maitland  Clubs. 

We  must  still  further  award  to  the  monasteries  the  honour 
of  having  been  the  first  Educational  Institutions  in  the 
country.  The  Monastery  of  Iona  was  as  much  a  seminary 
for  learning  as  a  school  of  piety ;  and  there  can  be  little 
doubt  but  that  the  other  Culdee  establishments  took  it  for 
their  model,  and  that  from  them  there  issued  men,  not  merely 
practised  in  monkish  austerities,  but  accomplished  in  the 
scanty  literature  and  science  of  the  day.  At  a  subsequent 
period,  when  Roman  ideas  became  dominant,  it  was  custom- 
ary for  the  Scottish  clergy  to  resort  to  Oxford  or  Paris  to 
complete  their  education,  as  their  native  country  was  still 
unprovided  with  Universities  ;  and  this  led  David,  Bishop  of 
Moray,  in  the  year  1325,  to  found  the  Scots  College  at  Paris, 
for  the  reception  of  his  countrymen.  But  though  Scotland 
could  not  yet  boast  of  a  University,  it  was  not  without 
schools.  So  early  as  the  twelfth  century,  there  were  schools 
at  Abernethy  and  Roxburgh,  at  Perth  and  Stirling,  and  soon 
after  at  Glasgow,  Ayr,  Berwick,  and  Aberdeen,  and  probably 
in  many  other  places,  though  we  have  no  record  of  their 
existence  ;  and  all  these  were  necessarily  under  the  manage- 
ment of  the  clergy.  The  monks  of  Kelso  had  the  charge 
of  the  school  at  Roxburgh,  and  the  monks  of  Dunfermline 
of  those  at  Stirling  and  Perth.  But  besides,  almost  every 
monastery  must  have  been  less  or  more  a  seminary  of  educa- 
tion for  the  sons  of  the  nobility  and  aspirants  to  the  priest- 
hood. We  know  it  was  so  at  St  Andrews,  where  the  youth 
ambitious  of  literary  fame  was  instructed  in  the  quodlibets 
of  Scotus  ;  and  in  the  Chartulary  of  Kelso  we  find  a  certain 
Matilda,  widow  of  Richard  of  Lincoln,  Lord  of  Molle,  making 
a  grant  of  rents  to  the  abbot  and  monks  to  board  and  edu- 
cate her  son  William  with  the  best-bred  boys  entrusted  to 
their  care.1 

Last  of  all,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  monasteries 
served  at  once  as  inns  and  poor's-houses,  when  regular  hos- 
telries  were  scarce,  and  poor-laws  unknown.     The  hospitality 

1  Chart,  de  Cal.,  f.  71.  I  have  derived  my  information  about  our  early 
schools  chiefly  from  Tytler's  History,  vol.  ii.,  the  Origines,  and  a  note  in 
the  Appendix  to  Dr  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox. 


a.D.   1100-1500.]  MONASTIC  HOSPITALITY.  89 

of  the  monks  was  proverbial.  The  traveller,  overtaken  by 
night,  was  sure  to  find  a  kindly  welcome,  a  cheerful  supper, 
and  a  wholesome  though  hard  bed,  in  the  first  convent  he 
came  to.  The  brothers  of  the  order  counted  the  news  he 
brought  from  the  wide  world,  and  perhaps  a  small  coin 
bestowed  at  the  shrine  of  a  favourite  saint,  as  a  sufficient 
recompense.  It  is  so  in  many  Catholic  countries  at  the  pre- 
sent hour.  But  the  wants  of  the  poor  as  well  as  of  the 
wayfarer  were  attended  to.  The  beggar  in  his  distress, 
afraid  to  approach  the  baronial  hall,  came  crouching  to  the 
convent-gate,  and  it  was  not  often  that  assistance  was  refused. 
It  is  related,  that  in  the  reign  of  David  I.  a  sore  famine  pre- 
vailed in  Scotland.  Four  thousand  half-famished  wretches 
repaired  to  the  Abbey  of  Melrose,  reared  their  huts  in  its 
neighbourhood,  and  waited  for  the  beneficence  of  the  bre- 
thren ;  and  Waltheof,  the  Superior,  ordered  them  all  to  be 
fed.  There  is  something  touching  in  the  lament  of  Father 
Hay  on  the  fall  of  the  Monastery  of  Iona.  "  The  monks," 
says  he,  "  were  driven  away,  and  the  revenues  turned  to  pro- 
fane uses  ;  whence  the  poor  were  defrauded  of  continual  alms, 
strangers  of  entertainment,  the  servants  of  God  of  their  neces- 
sary food  and  clothing,  the  souls  of  the  pious  faithful  of  their 
sacrifices,  the  church  of  as  many  prayers,  and  God  of  the  wor- 
ship due  to  Him."  1 

From  the  rapid  sketch  we  have  here  given  of  the  rise  of 
our  ecclesiastical  institutions,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  union  of 
Church  and  State  in  our  country  was  the  growth  of  circum- 
stances, rather  than  the  result  of  any  specific  legislation.  No 
Act  of  Parliament  proclaimed  it.  Churchmen  gradually 
acquired  lands  and  tithes  by  voluntary  grants  ;  and  the  State 
protected  them  in  the  enjoyment  of  these,  as  it  would  have 
done  any  other  class  of  its  subjects.  The  holders  of  property 
had  a  right  to  sit  in  the  Parliament ;  and  thus  bishops  and 
abbots  acquired  their  seats,  and,  on  account  of  their  sacred 
functions,  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  separate  Estate.  Eccle- 
siastics alone  could  perform  marriages  and  draw  wills,  the 
necessity  being  a  religious  one  in  the  one  case,  and  a  literary 
one  in  the  other ;  and  hence  they  naturally  acquired  a  juris- 
diction in  all  matrimonial  and  testamentary  affairs.  From 
the  time  of  James  I.,  it  was   the  pious  practice   of  almost 

1  Scotia  Sacra,  p.  487.  In  Roman  Catholic  times  there  were  also  many 
hospitals,  endowed  by  the  pious,  superintended  by  the  clergy,  and 
specially  designed  for  the  entertainment  of  strangers  and  the  poor. 


90  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   V. 


every  Parliament  to  begin  its  business  by  an  Act  ratifying 
all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  Church  ;  but,  in  truth, 
every  subject  was  entitled  to  the  same  justice  which  was  thus, 
in  a  complimentary  manner,  rendered  to  the  Church.  Every 
religious  body  has  this  kind  of  establishment  now,  in  as  far  as 
every  religious  body  is  protected  by  law  in  the  enjoyment  of 
its  property  and  privileges,  and  is  amenable  to  law  for  the  use 
of  these. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  much  regarding  the  liturgical  rites 
of  the  Scottish  Church,  but  it  were  wrong  to  overlook  them 
entirely.  The  Culdees  had  a  liturgy  peculiar  to  themselves, 
which  they  boasted  to  have  derived  from  St  Mark.1  There 
is  still  in  the  Advocates'  noble  library  a  MS.  liturgy, 
described,  though  without  authority,  as  Liturgia  Sancti 
Columbani  Abbatis,  written  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  or  Irish 
character,  and  which  probably  dates  as  far  back  as  the 
eleventh  century.2  There  is  in  the  possession  of  the  family 
of  Perth  another  MS.  Missal  or  Sacramentary,  written  in  a 
similar  character,  and  equally  ancient.  We  may  regard 
these  as  belonging  to  the  Culdee  period.  At  what  time 
the  Roman  liturgy  superseded  the  Culdean  we  cannot 
exactly  determine,  but  we  may  infer  that  the  Roman  ritual 
came  with  the  Roman  hierarchy.  It  was  the  use  of  Sarum 
that  prevailed  in  Scotland,  as  it  did  in  a  large  part  of  England 
and  Ireland. 

This  usage  derives  its  origin  from  St  Osmund,  who  was 
Bishop  of  Salisbury  towards  the  close  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury.3 It  differed  in  some  particulars  from  the  ritual  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  but  such  differences  were  not  thought  to 
interfere  with  the  unity  of  religious  worship.  In  fact,  in  the 
Romish  communion,  considerable  liturgic  latitude  was  allowed  ; 
and  bishops  were  permitted,  within  certain  bounds,  to  pre- 
scribe liturgies  to  their  own  Churches.     In  the  fifteenth  cen- 

1  Usher's  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Irish. 

2  My  information  upon  these  ancient  liturgies  is  derived  from  the  Pre- 
face to  the  Aberdeen  Breviary,  written  by  Dr  Laing.  Bannatyne  Club 
edition. 

8  "  lie  (Bishop  Osmund)  buylded  there  a  new  chyrche,  and  brocht 
thyther  noble  clerkes  and  cunnynge  of  clergye  and  of  songe,  soo  that  this 
byshop  hymself  shonned  not  to  wryte  and  lymme  (illuminate)  and  bynde 
bukis.  Also  he  maid  the  ordynall  of  the  servyce  of  the  holy  chyrche,  and 
named  it  the  Consuetudynarie.  Now  well  nygh  all  Englonde,  Wales,  and 
Irelonde  used  that  ordinall."  (Polychronicon,  lib.  vii.  chap,  hi.,  quoted 
in  Preface  to  Aberdeen  Breviary.) 


a.d.   1100-1500.)  ANCIENT  LITURGIES.  9 1 

tury,  it  was  believed  that  the  use  of  Sarum  was  introduced  into 
Scotland  by  Edward  I.1  There  was  an  absurd  tradition  that 
he  had  destroyed  all  the  old  Scottish  Service-Books,  and  intro- 
duced the  Anglican  one.  But  we  have  good  evidence  that 
the  usages  of  the  Salisbury  Cathedral  had  been  introduced 
into  the  country  long  before,  and  in  a  more  peaceful  way. 
We  have  already  seen  the  Saxon  St  Margaret  fleeing  to  Scot- 
land, marrying  its  king,  setting  herself  zealously  to  reform  its 
Church.  We  have  seen  her  arguing  with  Culdee  monks,  and 
by  a  royal,  though  erroneous  arithmetic,  correcting  their  calen- 
dar. Her  biographer  farther  informs  us  that  she  found  the 
mass  celebrated  with  barbarous  rites,  which  she  laboured 
to  abolish,  and  managed  to  introduce  a  new  and  a  better 
form.2  It  was  undoubtedly  the  more  ornate  usage  of  some 
Anglican  Church.  But  our  knowledge  becomes  more  defi- 
nite when  we  descend  a  single  century.  Herbert  was  con- 
secrated Bishop  of  Glasgow  in  1147;  and  we  know  that  he 
settled  the  use  of  Sarum  in  his  cathedral,  and  that  this  was 
shortly  afterwards  confirmed  by  a  Papal  bull.3  It  soon  became 
universal  :  it  was  used  at  St  Andrews,  Moray,  Aberdeen,  in 
every  cathedral  and  church  in  the  kingdom. 

We  have  still  preserved  in  our  public  libraries  many  old 
Service-Books,  but  none  of  these  can  now  be  identified  as 
having  belonged  to  the  Church.  In  truth,  the  Service-Books 
in  use  in  the  churches  must  have  almost  all  perished  at  the 
Reformation,  when  it  was  esteemed  a  work  of  piety  to  burn 
them.  But,  happily,  the  Breviary  of  Aberdeen  still  remains  to 
us,  "  which  is  the  only  existing  use  proper  to  Scotland,  and  is 
therefore  of  importance  to  those  who  regard  with  interest  such 
an  authentic  record  of  the  forms  and  usages  of  the  Scottish 
Church."4  This  great  work  was  prepared  and  completed  under 

1  The  following  is  Blind  Harry's  account  of  the  matter  : — 

11  The  Bishoppis  all  inclynit  to  his  croun, 
Baith  temporal  and  the  religioun  ; 
The  Romane  bukis  that  thar  wer  in  Scotland 
He  gart  thame  beir  to  Scone,  quhair  they  thame  fand, 
And,  but  redeme,  they  brynt  thame  all  ilk  ane, 
Salisbury  use,  our  clerkis  than  his  tane." 

?  "  Praeterea  in  aliquibus  locis  Scottorum  quiclam  fuerant,  qui  contra 
tot*us  Ecclesias  consuetudinem,  nescio  quo  ritu  barbaro  missas  celebrarc, 
consueverant,  quod  regina,  zelo  Dei  accensa  ita  destruere  atque  annihilate 
studuit,  at  deinceps  qui  tale  quid  presumerit,  nemo  in  tota  Scottorum  gente 
appareret."  It  has  been  argued  from  this  passage  that  the  Culdees  cele- 
brated the  Lord's  Supper  in  the  primitive  form.  If  it  do  not  prove  that, 
it  warrants  the  belief  that  up  to  this  time  the  Culdees  were  ignorant  of 
many  of  the  ceremonies  superadded  by  the  Romish  Church. 
3  Preface  to  the  Aberdeen  Breviary.  4  Ibid. 


92  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  V. 

the  superintendence  of  the  celebrated  William  Elphinstone, 
Bishop  of  Aberdeen;1  and  it  is  probable  that  some  of  the 
lessons  appointed  to  be  read  on  the  festivals  of  the  Scottish 
saints  were  written  by  himself.  It  challenges  a  still  higher  in- 
terest, from  the  fact  that  the  art  of  printing  appears  to  have 
been  first  introduced  into  Scotland  to  multiply  copies  of  it  for 
the  use  of  the  churches.2 

Tytler  is  of  opinion  that  organs  and  choirs  were  used  in 
Scotch  cathedrals  as  early  as  the  thirteenth  century.3  At  that 
time  there  lived  a  Scottish  friar  of  the  order  of  St  Dominic, 
named  Simon  Taylor.  At  Rome  and  Paris,  we  are  told,  he 
applied  himself  to  the  study  of  that  part  of  the  mathematics 
which  treats  of  sounds  and  harmony,  and  became  a  mighty 
proficient.  Returning  to  Scotland,  he  found  the  music  of  the 
churches  rude  and  barbarous,  and  burning  with  a  musician's 
zeal,  he  made  a  proposal  to  reform  it ;  and  when  the  bishops 
and  clergy  accepted  his  services,  he  set  himself  to  the  work 
with  such  energy  and  success,  that  an  ancient  historian  of  the 
Bishops  of  Dunblane  declares,  that  in  a  few  years  he  brought 
matters  to  such  perfection  that  Scotland  might  have  competed 
with  Rome  for  musicians.  This  Simon  Taylor  further  showed 
his  musical  lore  by  publishing  four  treatises,  entitled  De  Cantu 
Ecclesiastico  Corrigendo,  De  Tenore  Musicali,  Tetrachordorum, 
and  Pentachor doming 

His  improvements,  however,  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
universally  acknowledged  even  by  those  who  lived  nearer  his 
time,  for  he  was  not  well  in  his  grave  till  we  find  St  ^Elred,  in 
his    "  Mirror   of  Charity,"    thus    breaking    forth    against  the 

1  It  is  now  reprinted  by  both  the  Maitland  and  the  Bannatyne  Clubs. 

2  Up  till  this  time,  the  Service-Books  in  use  in  the  churches  were  in 
MS.,  or  printed  in  France,  with  the  Scotch  saints  added  to  the  calendar  in 
writing.  But  on  the  15th  September  1507,  James  IV.  gave  a  grant  of 
privileges  to  Walter  Chepman  and  Andrew  Millar,  two  burgesses  of  Edin- 
burgh, who  had  undertaken  to  procure  and  bring  home  printing  materials. 
In  this  charter  of  privileges  we  have  this  clause  : — "  It  is  devisit  and  thocht 
expedient  by  us  and  our  counsall,  that,  in  tyme  dimming,  mess  builds, 
manualis,  matyn  buikis,  and  portuis  buikis,  efter  our  awin  Scottis  use,  and 
with  legends  of  Scottis  Sanctis,  as  is  now  gadderit  and  eket  by  ane  Reverent 
father  in  God  and  our  traist  counsalour  William,  bischope  of  Aberdene, 
utheris  be  uset  and  generally  within  our  realme,  als  soone  as  the  sammyn 
may  be  imprentit  and  providit,  and  that  na  manner  of  sic  buikis  of  Salus- 
berry  use  be  brocht  to  be  sauld  within  our  realm  in  time  aiming,  and  gif 
ony  does  the  contrair  that  they  sail  tyne  the  sammyn."  (Registrum 
Secreti  Sigilli,  vol.  Hi.  fol.  29.) 

3  History,  vol.  ii.  4  M'Kenzie's  Lives  of  Scotch  Writers. 


a.d.  1100-1500.]  MUSIC.  93 

modernized  music: — "Since  all  types   and   figures  are  now- 
ceased,  why  so  many  organs  and  cymbals  in  our  churches  ? 
Why,  I  say,  that  terrible  blowing  of  bellows,  that  rather  imi- 
tates the  frightsomeness  of  thunder  than  the  sweet  harmony  of 
the  voice?     For  what  end  is  this  contraction  and  dilatation  of 
the   voice?     One    restrains    his    breath,    another   breaks   his 
breath,  and  a  third  unaccountably  dilates  his  voice,  and  some- 
times, which  I  am  ashamed  to  say,  they  fall  a  quivering  like 
the  neighing  of  horses  \  then  they  lay  down  their  manly  vigour. 
and  with  their  voices  endeavour  to  imitate  the  softness  of 
women;  then,  by  an  artificial   circumvolution,   they  have   a 
variety  of  outrunnings;    sometimes  you  shall  see  them  with 
open  mouths,  and  their  breath  restrained  as  if  they  were  ex- 
piring, and  not  singing,  and,  by  a  ridiculous  interruption  of 
their  breath,  seem  as  if  they  were  altogether  silent;   at  other 
times  they  appear  like  persons  in  the  agonies  of  death  ;  theny 
with  a  variety  of  gestures,  they  personate  comedians, — their 
lips  are  contracted,  their  eyes  roll,  their  shoulders  are  moved 
upwards  and  downwards,  their  fingers  move  and  dance  to  every 
note ;    and  this  ridiculous   behaviour  is  called   religion,  and 
where  these  things  are  most  frequently  done,  there  God  is  said 
to  be  most  honourably  worshipped."1     Those  in  our  own  day, 
who  object  to  organs  and  choristers,  could  desire  no  more 
vehement  advocate  than  this  Roman  abbot. 

The  last  echoes  of  the  choral  singing  have  long  since  died 
away  ;  but  the  cathedrals  and  churches,  whose  long  aisles  were 
once  filled  with  them,  still  remain,  some  of  them  almost  entire, 
others  in  ruins,  and  from  these  we  may  infer  the  splendour  of 
the  ancient  ritual,  and  the  vast  resources  at  the  disposal  of  the 
ancient  clergy.  Inferior  in  size  to  the  great  minsters  of 
England,  they  yet  rival  them  in  their  noble  romanesque  and 
pointed  architecture  ;  and  though  the  country  has  increased  a 
hundredfold  in  wealth  since  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  we 
have  not  since  that  period  erected  one  building  that  will  vie 
with  the  cathedral  of  Glasgow  or  Elgin.  But,  perhaps,  above 
all  others,  the  great  cathedral  of  St  Magnus  at  Kirkwall,  lifting 
its  massive  buttresses  and  walls,  and  its  richly-mullioned 
windows,  almost  from  the  waste  of  waters,  proves  the  power 
and  splendour  of  the  hierarchy  which  could  have  reared  such 
a  structure  in  such  a  solitude.  Its  foundations  were  laid,  and 
a  large  part  of  it  built,  by  a  Norse  earl,  in  the  twelfth  century, 
under  the  influence  of  a  superstition  which  could  convert 
1  M'Kenzie's  Lives,  vol.  i. 


94  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   V. 

pirates  into  the  founders  of  churches  ;  but  it  was  not  the 
wealth  of  the  earl  alone  that  gave  to  the  Orkneys  their  High 
Church  ;  the  building  was  so  liberally  helped  on  by  the  obla- 
tions of  a  devout  age,  that  all  Christendom  was  said  to  have 
paid  tribute  for  its  erection. 

The  Culdee  houses  were  originally  built  of  timber;  Candida 
Casa,  and  the  church  of  Abernethy,  were  probably  exceptions 
to  the  rule.  We  have  already  spoken  of  the  ancient  Monas- 
tery of  Iona  as  being  of  wood ;  and  Bede  expressly  tells  us 
that  the  Church  of  Lindisfarne  was  constructed  of  logs  of  oak 
and  thatched  with  reeds,  after  the  custom  of  the  Scots.  All 
these  humble  structures  have  perished.  The  noble  stone 
churches  which  still  stand — too  many  of  them  in  ruins — were 
all  reared  between  the  twelfth  and  the  fifteenth  centuries.  It 
is  almost  certain  that  not  one  of  these  ecclesiastical  buildings 
belongs  to  a  period  prior  to  the  first  of  these  dates  ;  but  from 
this  time,  till  near  the  dawn  of  the  Reformation,  church-build- 
ing went  on  at  such  a  pace  as  to  have  called  forth  the  splenetic 
remark,  that  the  Gospel  could  not  be  heard  for  the  sound  of 
the  hammer  and  trowel.  Some  of  these  ecclesiastical  struc- 
tures were  chiefly  reared  by  royal  or  baronial  munificence,  but 
the  great  proportion  were  reared  by  churchmen.  Bishops  set 
apart  for  the  purpose  large  sums  out  of  their  episcopal  re- 
venues ;  every  benefice  in  the  district  was  taxed ;  subscrip- 
tions throughout  the  whole  country,  sometimes  throughout  all 
Christendom,  were  set  on  foot ;  the  sale  of  indulgences  was 
resorted  to  ;  and  so  the  worshipful  Freemasons  were  employed 
and  paid  ;  and  the  ribbed  column  and  groined  roof  still  testify 
to  the  exquisite  skill  with  which  they  handled  their  mallet. 

The  history  of  the  artificers  who  reared  these  edifices  is 
somewhat  curious.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  Pope 
created  a  number  of  Italian,  Flemish,  and  French  artizans, 
with  some  Greek  refugees,  into  a  corporation  of  Freemasons, 
giving  them  high  and  exclusive  privileges  ;  and  these  travel- 
ling in  companies  from  country  to  country,  as  there  was 
occasion  for  their  skill,  are  said  to  have  reared  many  of  the 
finest  religious  houses.  The  same  mouldings,  even  to  minute 
details,  have  been  observed  in  buildings  far  separated  from  one 
another,  proving  that  they  were  erected  either  by  the  same 
artificers  or  from  the  same  designs.  It  is  probable  that  these 
same  men  partly  designed,  as  well  as  executed,  the  plans  ot 
their  buildings ;  but  it  is  also  certain  that  ecclesiastics  were 
the  chief  architects  of  the  time,  as  they  alone  possessed  such  a 


a.D.   1100-1500.]  CATHEDRALS.  95 

knowledge  of  mathematics  and  the  mechanical  arts  as  to  fit 
them  for  the  task.  It  has  been  observed,  however,  as  a  cir- 
cumstance full  of  meaning,  that  no  man  knows  the  names  of 
the  architects  of  the  cathedrals.  "  They  left  no  record  of 
themselves  upon  the  fabrics,  as  if  they  would  have  nothing 
there  that  could  suggest  any  other  idea  than  the  glory  of  that 
( rod  to  whom  the  edifices  were  devoted  for  perpetual  and 
solemn  worship ;  nothing  to  mingle  a  meaner  association  with 
the  profound  sense  of  His  presence  :  or  as  if,  in  the  joy  of 
having  built  Him  a  house,  there  wras  no  want  left  unfulfilled, 
no  room  for  the  question  as  to  whether  it  is  good  for  a  man  to 
live  in  posthumous  renown."1 

But  though  the  names  of  the  architects  of  our  cathedrals 
have  perished,  we  are  able  to  glean  from  our  ancient  records 
some  hints  regarding  their  builders.  Bishop  Jocelin  it  was 
who  laid  the  foundation  of  the  High  Church  of  Glasgow,  and 
two  years  before  he  died  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  its 
unrivalled  crypt  finished  and  solemnly  consecrated.  To 
Bishop  Bondington  we  owe  the  magnificent  choir.  We  next 
find  the  Chapter  purchasing  timber  on  the  banks  of  Loch- 
lomond  "  for  the  fabric  of  their  steeple  and  treasury,"  and 
bargaining  that  their  workmen  should  have  free  entry  to  the 
forest,  and  the  right  of  felling,  hewing,  and  dressing  the  wrood 
wherever  they  pleased.  In  the  Breviary  of  the  Scottish 
Church  we  find  a  lesson  appointed  to  be  read  commemorating 
the  skill  of  the  builder  of  another  of  her  minsters — St  Gilbert 
of  Moray,  who  reared  the  cathedral  of  Dornoch.  "  He  built 
it  with  his  own  hands,"  says  the  Breviary;  and  it  is  recorded 
that  the  glass  used  for  the  windows  was  manufactured  at 
Ciderhall  under  his  own  eye.  About  the  same  period  the 
cathedral  of  Elgin  was  lifting  up  its  lofty  towers  on  the  oppo- 
site shores  of  the  Moray  Frith.  Bishop  Andrew  laid  its 
foundation,  and  the  records  of  the  See  give  us  a  glimpse  of 
Master  Gregory  the  mason,  and  Richard  the  glazier,  at  their 
work.  But  in  1390  the  Wolf  of  Badenoch  descended  from  the 
hills,  and  gave  the  noble  building  to  the  flames  ;  and  the 
bishop,  in  his  complaint  to  the  king,  fondly  speaks  of  it  as 
having  been  "  the  pride  of  the  land,  the  glory  of  the  realm, 
the  delight  of  wayfarers  and  strangers,  a  praise  and  boast 
among  foreign  nations,  lofty  in  its  towers  without,  splendid  in 
its  appointments  within,  its  countless  jewels  and  rich  vest- 

1  Gladstone,  quoted  in  Quarterly  Keoiew,  June  1 849. 


96  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  VI. 

ments,  and  the  multitude  of  its  priests  serving  God."1  It 
afterwards,  however,  rose  from  its  ruins,  and  by  the  liberal 
contributions  of  the  faithful  attained  to  at  least  its  pristine 
magnificence.  Thus  were  our  great  cathedrals  founded  and 
built.  Designed  by  unknown  architects,  reared  by  travelling 
companies  of  masons,  paid  for  by  bishops  out  of  the  fruits  of 
their  benefices,  and  assisted  by  the  free-will  offerings  of  the 
people,  they  still  stand,  monuments  of  what  may  be  done  by 
piety  in  spite  of  poverty. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


Our  last  chapter  has  been  occupied  more  with  the  rise  of 
institutions  than  with  the  course  of  events.  It  will  be  our  duty 
now  to  trace  these  from  the  introduction  of  the  Latin  Hier- 
archy to  the  dawn  of  the  Reformation.  The  field,  though 
wide,  is  by  no  means  crowded  with  ecclesiastical  occurrences 
deserving  of  record.  The  higher  clergy  were  very  generally 
occupied  with  affairs  of  State ;  attending  upon  parliament, 
taking  a  part  in  embassies,  acting  in  councils  of  regency  ;  and 
the  parsons  and  vicars  who  ministered  in  our  parishes  have 
left  few  memorials  of  their  humble  labours.  In  many  cases  it 
is  impossible  to  dissever^  religious  from  political  events,  so 
closely  were  they  interwoven,  and  kings  as  well  as  bishops  must 
be  introduced  upon  our  canvass. 

Some  good  men  have  longed  for  the  complete  identification 
of  Church  and  State.  Now,  saving  the  fact  that  the  Roman 
clergy  had  elevated  themselves  into  a  distinct  caste,  and  claimed 
for  themselves  peculiar  powers  and  privileges,  the  devout 
desire  was  much  more  nearly  realised  then  than  it  is  now. 
Religion  and  politics  in  our  day  are  divided,  as  if  their  union 
were  unnatural  and  wrong.  The  clergyman  is  bid  to  refrain 
from  the  least  allusion  to  political  topics,  and  the  slightest 
sympathy  with  political  contentions,  and  the  member  of  par- 
liament is  thought  to  offend  good  taste,  if  not  to  violate  the 
rules  of  the  House,  if  he  introduces  any  pious  reflection  or 
doctrinal  discussion  into  his  speech.  There  is  room  for  doubt, 
if  men  do  not  thus  put  asunder  things  which  God  hath  joined. 
In  the  mediaeval  ages,  it  was  different;  the  Church  and  the  State, 

1  See  an  interesting  article  in  the  Quarterly  Review  for  June  1849,  on 
Scottish  Abbeys  and  Cathedrals. 


A.D.   1109.]  YORK  AND  CANTERBURY.  97 

if  not  completely  one,  with  the  same  laws  and  the  same  law- 
givers, were  yet  much  more  closely  allied.  Ecclesiastics  were 
the  principal  politicians,  and  in  Parliament  they  framed 
statutes  for  the  government  of  the  Church  as  well  as  of  the 
kingdom.  What  is  now  called  Erastianism  was  then  little  un- 
derstood, and  a  law  for  the  benefit  of  the  Church  was  not 
thought  to  be  the  worse  of  having  emanated  from  the  State. 
The  Church,  of  course,  did  form  a  separate  community  ;  but  its 
councils  were  rare,  and  their  canons  comparatively  few,  and  in 
this  country,  at  least,  it  had  very  little  individual  action.  The 
king  and  the  bishops  were  generally  at  one,  even  in  contests 
with  the  Pope ;  and  happily  Scotland  never  produced  a 
Thomas  a  Becket. 

The  archbishops  of  York  at  a  very  early  period  asserted 
their  primacy  over  the  Scottish  bishops.  This  probably 
arose  from  the  circumstance  of  the  Lothians  having  anciently 
formed  a  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Northumberland,  and  from 
the  other  circumstance  that,  when  Christianity  was  carried  from 
Iona  to  Lindisfarne,  it  radiated  thence  northwards  as  well  as 
southwards,  and  the  powerful  prelates  of  York,  forgetting 
whence  they  had  originally  received  their  own  consecration, 
began  to  arrogate  jurisdiction  over  their  brethren  in  Scotland, 
who  had  as  yet  no  primate  amongst  themselves.  When  Alex- 
ander I.,  with  the  approbation  of  his  clergy,  had  chosen 
Turgot,  the  confessor  and  biographer  of  his  sainted  mother, 
to  the  See  of  St  Andrews,  it  so  happened  that  the  Archbishop 
of  York  was  in  the  position  of  having  been  elected,  but  not 
yet  consecrated,  and  as  a  rumour  had  reached  Canterbury 
that,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Bishops  of  Durham  and  the 
Orkneys,  he  was  about  to  consecrate  Turgot,  Anselm,  then 
Primate  of  All  England,  wrote  an  imperious  letter  to  his 
brother  of  York,  absolutely  prohibiting  such  consecration, 
and  ordering  him  to  compear  at  Canterbury,  and  be  conse- 
crated himself.  York  bowed  its  head  before  Canterbury,  but 
did  not  relinquish  its  pretensions.  While  the  two  English 
archbishops  were  thus  at  war,  the  Scotch  clergy  maintained 
that  neither  of  them  had  the  right  to  what  they  laid  claim. 
The  decision  of  the  triple  controversy  was  evaded  for  the 
time,  by  the  Kings  of  England  and  Scotland  agreeing  that  the 
former  should  enjoin  the  Archbishop  of  York  to  consecrate 
Turgot,  with  a  special  provision  that  the  authority  of  neither 
church  was  to  be  thereby  compromised.  Upon  that  understand- 
ing, Turgot  received  consecration  on  the  30th  of  July  1109.1 

1  Hailes's  Annals,  vol.  i. 


98  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VI. 

Upon  the  death  of  Turgot,  Alexander  wrote  a  letter  to 
Ralph,  the  successor  of  Lanfranc  and  Anselm  in  the  See  of 
Canterbury,  in  which  he  artfully  insinuated  that  in  ancient 
times  the  bishops  of  St  Andrews  were  wont  to  be  consecrated 
either  by  the  Pope  himself  or  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ; 
that  it  was  merely  by  sufferance  that  the  Archbishop  of  York 
had  ever  exercised  the  right ;  and  that  this  assumption  of 
power  could  no  longer  be  permitted.  It  is  evident  that  the 
Scottish  monarch  wished  to  fight  York  with  Canterbury,  and 
to  leave  it  undecided,  if,  after  all,  the  Pope  alone  did  not  pos- 
sess the  coveted  jurisdiction.  The  stratagem  was  skilful,  and 
the  time  chosen  opportune  ;  for  Thurstin  of  York,  otherwise  a 
formidable  opponent,  was  at  present  half  powerless  by  his  own 
want  of  consecration,  and  the  battle  might  have  been  quickly 
fought  and  won.1  But  delays  took  place,  years  slipped  past, 
and  still  St  Andrews  remained  without  a  bishop. 

At  length  the  Scottish  monarch  despatched  a 
letter  to  the  English  primate,  in  which  he  cen- 
sured himself  for  having  so  long  allowed  the  flock  to  wander 
in  the  wilderness  without  a  shepherd,  and  prayed  him  to  set  free 
Eadmer,  one  of  his  monks,  that  he  might  be  raised  to  the 
Episcopate  of  St  Andrews.  The  request  was  complied  with, 
and  Eadmer,  loosed  from  his  monastery,  began  his  journey  to 
the  north;  but  he  carried  with  him  a  letter  from  the  Arch- 
bishop to  the  king,  counselling  that  he  should  be  sent  back 
without  loss  of  time  to  receive  consecration.  On  his  arrival 
in  Scotland  he  was  instantly  elected  to  the  vacant  See  by  the 
clergy  and  people,  under  the  sanction  of  the  king — language 
which  would  seem  to  imply  that  the  laity  of  St  Andrews  had  a 
voice  in  the  election  of  its  bishops.  Next  day  Alexander  had 
an  interview  with  the  bishop-elect  in  regard  to  his  consecration, 
and  when  Eadmer  hinted  at  the  pre-eminence  of  Canterbury 
over  all  the  British  churches,  the  monarch  rose  up,  and  broke 
off  the  conference  with  the  strongest  symptoms  of  displeasure. 
A  month  passed  away  before  the  king  would  again  see  the 
bishop ;  but  then  a  compromise  was  come  to,  by  which  it  was 
agreed  that  Eadmer  should  receive  the  ring  from  Alexander, 
take  the  pastoral  staff  off  the  altar,  as  receiving  it  from  the  Lord ; 
and  then,  without  more  ado,  assume  the  charge  of  the  diocese.2 

1  Hailes's  Annals,  vol.  i. 

2  Ibid.  Eadmer  himself  has  given  us  an  account  of  these  trans- 
actions, and  authenticated  his  statements  by  original  documents.  Lord 
llailes  follows  Eadmer,  so  that  he  may  be  regarded  as  a  safe  guide. 


A.D.    1120.]  EADMER.  99 

In  the  meantime,  Thurstin  was  in  Normandy  with  the  Eng- 
lish king,  and,  hearing  of  what  was  going  on,  he  prevailed 
upon  Henry  to  write  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  pro- 
hibiting him  from  consecrating  Eadmer;  and  also  to  Alexander, 
forbidding  him  to  allow  the  consecration.  All  this  disturbed 
the  new  bishop  ;  he  felt  his  influence  in  Scotland  to  be  weak; 
his  favour  with  the  king  at  an  end  ;  some  reforms  he  had  de- 
signed had  miscarried  ;  and,  above  all,  he  was  uneasy  in  regard 
to  his  consecration.  He  therefore  craved  permission  to  return 
to  Canterbury  and  receive  the  blessing  of  the  archbishop. 
Alexander  refused  the  request,  and  reminded  him  that  he  had 
come  to  him  altogether  free.  Eadmer  retorted  that  he  would 
not  abdicate  the  honour  of  being  a  monk  of  Canterbury  for 
all  the  kingdom  of  Scotland.  The  aspect  of  affairs  grew  daily 
worse,  and  the  clergy  in  a  body  supported  the  king.  In  these 
circumstances,  the  perplexed  prelate  asked  his  friends  what 
he  should  do,  and  they  gave  it  as  their  opinion  that  he  must 
either  submit  or  leave  the  kingdom.  His  High  Church  prin- 
ciples prevented  him  from  taking  the  former  course,  and  so  he 
returned  the  ring  to  Alexander,  laid  his  crosier  upon  the  altar, 
whence  he  had  taken  it,  and  returned  to  Canterbury,  whose 
pretensions  he  had  maintained  with  such  unbending  firmness, 
that  neither  ambition  nor  the  love  of  independence  could  tempt 
him  to  set  them  aside.1 

During  the  reign  of  the  same  monarch,  and  in  the  year  1 122, 
the  ambitious  Thurstin  again  made  trial  of  his  strength,  by 
requiring  canonical  obedience  from  the  Bishop  of  Glasgow,  but 
it  was  peremptorily  refused ;  and  when  the  Archbishop  ot 
York  affected  to  suspend  him  from  his  episcopal  functions,  he 
appealed  to  Rome,  and  proceeded  thither  in  person.  The 
Bishop  of  St  Mungo's  appears  to  have  gained  his  case,  for 
when  he  still  farther  indulged  his  wandering  propensities  and 
went  on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  lingered  for  months 
with  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  the  Pope  very  properly  re- 
called him,  and  enjoined  him  to  return  to  his  bishopric.2  In 
1 1 23  Thurstin  found  still  another  opportunity  to  exert  his  pre- 
rogative. An  English  monk,  named  Robert,  who  had  been 
Prior  of  Scone,  was  elected  to  the  See  of  St  Andrews,  and  the 
old  question  of  consecration  arose.  Alexander  died,  and 
David  I.  came  to  the  throne  before  the  dispute  was  terminated. 
At  length,  in  1128,  an  arrangement  was  agreed  upon,  which 
allowed  the  consecration  of  the  bishop  to  be  proceeded  with, 
1  Hailes's  Annals,  vol.  i.  2  Ibid. 


IOO 


CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.   VI. 


but  left  the  question  of  the  liberties  of  the  Scottish  Church  un- 
decided. Thurstin  was  allowed  to  lay  his  episcopal  hands 
upon  Robert ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  he  executed  an  instru- 
ment by  which  he  made  it  known  to  all  men,  present  and 
future,  that  he  had  done  so  without  any  profession  of  obedi- 
ence, solely  for  the  love  of  God  and  King  David,  and  without 
compromising  either  the  claims  of  York  or  the  rights  of  St 
Andrews.1 

The  prelates  of  York,  though  resisted  at  St  Andrews  and 
Glasgow,  made  a  show  of  extending  their  jurisdiction  still 
farther  to  the  north.  At  this  period  they  were  in  the  habit 
of  consecrating  bishops  of  the  Orkneys,  and  one  of  these  we 
find  with  Thurstin  in  the  English  ranks  at  the  battle  of  the 
Standard.  As  the  Orkneys  were  at  this  time  held  by  the 
Norwegians,  and  the  constant  scene  of  piratical  warfare,  it  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  these  Yorkshire  bishops  could  ever  set 
foot  in  their  diocese ;  and  we  can  account  for  the  title  they 
bore  only  by  supposing  that  the  primates  of  England  had  hit 
upon  an  expedient  similar  to  that  followed  by  Rome  in  our 
day,  of  appointing  bishops  to  Sees  in  partibus  infidelium.  In 
the  records  of  the  cathedral  of  York  there  are  also  three 
entries  of  bishops  of  Glasgow  in  the  eleventh  century,  who 
were  never  heard  of  on  the  banks  of  the  Clyde.  The  proud 
prelates  appear  to  have  preferred  a  train  of  imaginary  suff- 
ragans to  none  at  all. 

The  reign  of  David  I.,  which  commenced  in  1124,  is  the 
most  important  in  the  history  of  the  Church  before  the  Refor- 
mation. He  wrought  a  change  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  almost 
as  great  as  that  which  was  subsequently  accomplished  by 
Knox.  He  in  effect  built  up  that  which  Knox,  when  it  was 
in  a  state  of  decay,  pulled  down.  He  drave  out  the  now  anti- 
quated Culdees,  and  introduced  prelates  and  priests  \  Knox 
cast  out  the  prelates  and  priests,  and  brought  in  Protestant 
preachers.  The  proceedings  of  the  one,  as  well  as  of  the 
other,  are  frequently  spoken  of  as  a  Church  reform.  It  is 
certain  that  David  remodelled  our  whole  ecclesiastical  polity. 
He  originated  the  hierarchy,  and  gave  it  its  splendour.  Nearly 
the  half  of  our  bishoprics,  and  the  abbeys  of  Kelso,  Holyrood- 
house,  Melrose,  Newbattle,  Cambuskenneth,  Kinloss,  Dryburgh, 
and  Jedburgh,  were  founded  by  his  munificence.  He  brought 
several  orders  both  of  the  Augustinian  and  Benedictine  monks 
into  the  country,  transplanting  them  from  the  great  monas- 
1  Warton's  Anglia  Sacra. 


a.d.  1124.]  uavid's  church  reformation.  ioi 

teries  of  France  and  England ;  and  it  was  under  his  favour 
that  the  Templars  and  Knights  of  St  John  took  up  their 
residence  at  Southesk  and  Torphichen.  Many  may  think 
that  the  Celtic  monks  were  better  than  their  Latin  successors, 
but  it  is  certain  they  had  degenerated  since  the  days  of 
Columba,  that  the  church  had  sunk  into  decrepitude,  and  that 
new  life  required  to  be  infused  into  it. 

It  is  probable  that  David  further  wished  to  reform  the  whole 
State  by  the  instrumentality  of  the  Church,  and  to  soften  and 
refine  the  ferocity  of  the  existing  manners  by  a  more  educated 
clergy,  and  a  more  splendid  ritual.  "  By  his  early  converse 
with  our  countrymen,"  says  William  of  Malmesbury,  speaking 
of  David,  "  his  manners  were  polished  from  the  rust  of  Scot- 
tish barbarity."  It  is  not  improbable  the  Anglicized  monarch 
invited  Anglican  ecclesiastics  into  his  kingdom,  that  they  might 
confer  upon  his  subjects  the  benefits  he  himself  had  received 
from  his  intercourse  with  the  south.  A  far-seeing  policy  might 
also  discern  in  the  intelligence  and  wealth  of  the  clergy  a 
counterpoise  to  the  exorbitant  power  of  the  turbulent  barons ; 
and  whether  David  perceived  the  result  or  not,  it  is  certain 
that  the  Church  in  almost  every  emergency  stood  fast  by  the 
throne,  and  helped  to  preserve  a  proper  balance  in  the  State. 
But  whatever  opinion  we  may  form  of  David's  policy,  it  is 
impossible  to  doubt  of  his  piety;  and  his  piety  was  happily  of 
that  healthy  kind  which  made  him  neither  faint-hearted  nor 
weak-handed.  He  was  strong  in  battle,  wise  in  counsel,  and 
merciful  in  the  administration  of  justice  to  the  poor.  All 
historians  are  agreed  that  no  better  king  ever  sat  upon  the 
throne.  His  death  was  the  appropriate  termination  of  a  well- 
spent  life ;  for  the  monkish  historian  relates  that,  on  a  Sunday 
morning  in  May,  just  as  the  sun  began  to  penetrate  the  dark- 
ness of  night,  his  spirit,  escaping  from  all  earthly  shadows, 
passed  into  the  true  light  with  such  calmness  that  he  did  not 
seem  to  be  dead,  and  with  such  devotion,  that  he  was  found 
with  his  hands  clasped  and  stretched  out  toward  heaven.1 

David  was  succeeded  on  the  Scottish  throne  by  his  grand- 
son, Malcolm  IV. ;  and,  during  his  reign,  Roger,  Archbishop 
of  York,  having  obtained  from  Rome  legatine  powers  over  all 
Scotland,  summoned  its  clergy  to  meet  him  at  Norham.  The 
Archdeacon  of  Glasgow,  the  Prior  of  Kelso,  and  some  other 
clergy  obeyed  the  citation,  but  they  did  so  only  that  they  might 
appeal  to  the  Pope ;  and  proceeding  to  Rome,  they  procured 
1  Aldred.  ap.  Fordun,  lib.  v.  cap.  lix. 


102 


CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP.   VI. 


a  bull  of  exemption  from  Alexander  III.1  But  this  ancient 
battle  of  our  Church  for  spiritual  independence  was  not  yet 
come  to  an  end. 

On  the  death  of  Malcolm,  his  brother  William,  surnamed 
the  Lion,  was  crowned  king  in  1165,  and  immediately  set  his 
heart  upon  the  recovery  of  Northumberland  from  the  English. 
Forming  a  confederacy  with  the  rebellious  son  of  Henry  II., 
he  marched  into  England,  and  laid  waste  the  country  with  fire 
and  sword ;  but  his  enterprise  was  brought  to  an  abrupt  con- 
clusion by  his  being  surprised  and  captured  by  a  body  of  the 
enemy's  horse.  All  Scotland  was  thrown  into  confusion  and 
dismay  by  the  loss  of  its  king,  and  negotiations  were  instantly 
opened  for  his  ransom.  But  Henry  knew  the  full  value  of  his 
prize,  and  resolved  to  part  with  it  for  no  mean  return.  After 
three  months  consumed  in  vain  attempts  to  lessen  his  demands, 
the  Scotch  ambassadors,  who  had  repaired  to  Normandy,  pur- 
chased the  liberty  of  their  king  by  surrendering  the  independ- 
ence of  the  nation.  The  independence  of  the  Church  had 
well-nigh  perished  with  that  of  the  kingdom,  but  the  dexterous 
diplomacy  of  the  Bishops  of  St  Andrews  and  Dunkeld  made 
the  clauses  affecting  it  so  indefinite  and  ambiguous,  as  to  leave 
the  discussion  of  the  old  question  open  for  the  determination 
of  happier  times.  It  was  provided  that  the  Scotch  Church 
should  yield  to  the  Anglican  bishops  such  subjection  as  it 
ought  of  right  and  was  wont  to  yield — words  capable  of  two 
very  different  renderings.2  It  was  not  long  before  the  Scottish 
clergy  had  an  opportunity  of  asserting  the  sense  in  which  they 
understood  them. 

In  the  year  11 76,  Cardinal  Huguccio  Petrileonis,  the  Pope's 
legate,  held  a  council  at  Northampton.  Both  Henry  and 
William  graced  it  by  their  royal  presence.  The  English  clergy 
resorted  to  it  in  great  numbers.  The  Scottish  clergy  came 
thither  also,  aware  of  the  important  questions  that  were  to  be 
mooted,  and  resolved  to  maintain  their  rights.  Huguccio,  in 
papal  pride,  sat  upon  a  seat  higher  than  the  rest,  and  the  other 
ecclesiastics  occupied  positions  according  to  their  rank.  The 
important  subject  was  broached,  and  the  Scottish  clergy  were 
required  to  fulfil  the  treaty  of  Normandy,  by  yielding  to  the 
English  Church  that  obedience  which  they  ought  to  yield  and 
were  wont  to  yield.  The  cardinal,  according  to  Boethius, 
made  a  prolix  speech,  counselling  submission,  and  expatiating 

1  Spottiswood's  History,  book  ii.      Hailes's  Annals,  vol.  i. 

2  Rymer's  Foedera,  vol.  i.  p.  30,  31. 


A.D.   1176-78.]  COUNCIL  OF  NORTHAMPTON.  103 

upon  the  advantages  that  would  arise  from  the  union  of  the 
Churches.  The  Scottish  clergy,  however,  neither  daunted  by 
the  presence  of  the  king,  nor  persuaded  by  the  arguments  of 
the  legate,  nor  deterred  by  the  thought  that  they  were  on 
English  ground,  maintained  that  they  never  had  yielded  sub- 
jection to  the  Anglican  Church,  nor  ought  they  to  do  so  now.1 

The  bold  eloquence,  on  this  occasion,  of  a  young  canon 
named  Gilbert  Murray,  is  celebrated  by  our  ancient  historians. 
"  The  Church  of  Scotland,"  said  he,  "  ever  since  the  faith  of 
Christ  was  embraced  in  that  kingdom,  has  been  a  free  and 
independent  Church,  subject  to  none  but  the  Bishop  of  Rome, 
whose  authority  we  refuse  not  to  acknowledge.  To  admit  any 
other  for  our  metropolitan,  especially  the  Archbishop  of  York, 
we  neither  can  nor  will."  When  the  Scottish  canon  had  ended 
his  speech,  the  Archbishop  of  York  stepped  up  to  him,  and 
said,  "  That  arrow  came  not  from  your  own  quiver.''  2 

As  the  discussion  proceeded,  the  Archbishop  of  York 
affirmed  that  the  Sees  of  Glasgow  and  Galloway  especially 
were  subject  to  his  authority.  Jocelin  pleaded  that  Glasgow 
was  expressly  exempted  from  any  such  obedience  by  papal 
authority.3  What  the  Bishop  of  Galloway  replied  is  not 
recorded  ;  but  at  this  point  in  the  debate  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  interfered,  and  declared  that  it  was  to  Canterbury, 
and  not  to  York,  that  the  Scottish  clergy  must  yield  canonical 
obedience.  The  altercation  which  ensued  between  the 
Primate  of  England  and  the  Primate  of  All  England  was  the 
salvation  of  the  Scottish  Church  ;  for  though  the  Anglican 
clergy  might  have  failed  to  establish  any  ancient  usage  in 
support  of  their  claims,  royal  and  legatine  authority  would 
have  more  than  supplied  the  defect  of  precedents.  The  king 
and  the  cardinal  bewildered,  and  probably  disgusted  by  so 
many  conflicting  claims,  broke  up  the  assembly,  and  the 
Scotch  ecclesiastics  returned  home  free  and  unfettered. 

But  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  hardly  escaped 

this  danger,  when   it  was   involved  in  a  more 

serious  quarrel  with  a  more  formidable  opponent.     In  1178 

the  Archbishop    of  St   Andrews    died,    and   John    Scot,    an 

archdeacon  of  the  See,  was   elected  by  the   chapter  in  his 

1  Fordun's  Scotichron.,  lib.  viii.  c.  25. 

-  This  young  canon  is  the  Gilbert  who  built  the  cathedral  of  Dornoch, 
and  was  sainted  after  his  death. 

:i  Registrum  Epis.  Glasg.  i.  35.  Robertson's  Concilia  Eccles.  Scot., 
Pref.  xxxvi. 


104  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   VI. 

room.  The  king  appears  to  have  been  taken  by  surprise,  for 
when  he  heard  of  the  election,  he  swore  by  the  arm  of  St 
James  that  John  would  never  be  Bishop  of  St  Andrews.  He 
was  not  a  man  to  vow  and  not  perform.  He  seized  upon  the 
episcopal  revenues,  compelled  the  other  bishops  to  consecrate 
his  own  chaplain,  called  Hugh,  and  forthwith  put  him  in 
possession  of  the  bishopric.  John  appealed  to  Rome,  and 
set  out  thither  to  look  after  his  interests.  The  Pope  appointed 
a  legate  to  proceed  to  Scotland,  to  hear  and  determine  the 
case  ;  and  he,  in  an  assembly  of  the  Scottish  clergy  at  Holy- 
rood,  pronounced  judgment  for  John,  and  solemnly  conse- 
crated him.  William  had  forborne  thus  far,  but  now  he 
banished  John  and  all  his  abettors  from  the  kingdom,  and  by 
preserving  Hugh  in  the  benefice,  set  the  Pope  and  his  legate 
at  defiance. 

Thus  thwarted  and  defied,  the  Roman  pontiff  issued  a 
mandate  to  the  Scottish  clergy,  ordering  them  to  yield 
canonical  obedience  to  John,  and  to  bear  in  mind  it  was 
their  duty  to  obey  God  and  the  Church  rather  than  man. 
Not  satisfied  with  this,  he  commanded  the  bishops  forthwith 
to  excommunicate  Hugh  ;  and  entrusted  Roger,  Archbishop 
of  York,  with  legatine  powers  over  Scotland,  with  instructions 
to  excommunicate  the  king,  and  put  the  kingdom  under  an 
interdict,  if  John  were  not  put  in  possession  of  St  Andrews. 
John,  who  was  a  learned  man,  and  who  seems  also  to  have 
been  a  good  man,  now  interposed,  and  declared  that  he 
would  rather  renounce  his  dignity  for  ever,  than  that  the 
masses  said  for  the  souls  in  purgatory  should  be  intermitted 
for  one  day.  But  the  Pope  loved  power  better  than  the  souls 
in  purgatory,  and  so  he  commanded  the  yielding  bishop,  by 
his  canonical  obedience,  to  be  firm.1 

The  Roman  pontiff  at  this  period  was  Alexander  III.,  one 
of  the  ablest  and  most  ambitious  of  the  long  line  of  able  and 
ambitious  men  who  have  sat  in  the  chair  of  St  Peter.  In  the 
Council  of  Lateran,  he  had  solemnly  deposed  the  Emperor 
Frederic  Barbarossa,  absolved  his  subjects  from  their  oath  of 
allegiance,  and  encouraged  them  to  rise  in  rebellion.  The 
emperor  retaliated  by  marching  upon  Rome,  compelling  the 
proud  pontiff  to  flee  for  his  life,  and  setting  Pascal  on  the 
apostolic  throne.  The  fortunes  of  Alexander,  however, 
gradually  recovered,  and  Frederic  was  glad  in  the  end  to 
make  terms  of  peace  with  him,  and  as  some  have  affirmed,  to 
1  Hailes's  Annals,  vol.  i.     Spottiswood's  History,  book  ii. 


A.D.   1181-88.]        ROME  AND  SCOTLAND  RECONCILED.  105 

allow  the  triumphant  priest  to  put  his  foot  upon  his  neck. 
It  was  the  same  troubler  of  kings  that  encouraged  a  Becket 
to  wage  his  spiritual  warfare  against  Henry  of  England,  and 
though  the  primate  paid  the  penalty  of  his  presumption  with 
his  blood,  foully  spilt  before  the  high  altar  of  Canterbury, 
he  was  everywhere  worshipped  as  a  martyr,  William  of 
Scotland  himself  raised  a  monastery  in  his  honour,  while 
Henry  was  compelled  to  go  bare-footed  to  his  tomb,  and  sub- 
mit to  be  scourged  as  a  penance.  When  William  thought  of 
these  things  he  might  well  tremble  and  yield  ;  but  to  yield 
was  not  the  temper  of  the  man.  Frederic  had  yielded ; 
Henry  had  yielded  ;  but  William  never.  He  seems  to  have 
had  a  singular  pleasure  in  adorning  the  tomb  of  one  prophet 
of  High  Church  principles,  and  in  strenuously  resisting  the 
pretensions  of  another. 

At  length,  in  the  year  1181,  the  Archbishop  of  York,  as 
papal  legate,  fulminated  a  sentence  of  excommunication 
against  the  unbending  monarch,  and  in  conjunction  with  the 
Bishop  of  Durham,  who  was  joined  with  him  in  the  pontifical 
commission,  laid  the  whole  kingdom  of  Scotland  under  an 
interdict.1 

Happily  for  William,  death  rid  him  of  his  enemy.  At  the 
critical  moment  Alexander  died,  and  was  succeeded  in  the 
pontifical  chair  by  Lucius  III.,  and  the  King  of  Scotland 
lost  no  time  in  sending  ambassadors  to  kiss  his  toe,  and 
request  his  benediction.  The  embassage  was  eminently  suc- 
cessful :  the  sentence  of  excommunication  was  reversed,  the 
interdict  recalled,  and  in  the  bull  issued  by  the  new  pontiff, 
it  is  specially  set  forth,  that  to  reverence  kings  is  an  apos- 
tolic precept.  After  some  difficulty  and  delay,  the  dispute 
about  St  Andrews  was  ingeniously  settled,  by  both  claimants 
resigning  their  pretensions  into  the  hands  of  the  Pope,  when 
the  Pope  anew  appointed  Hugh  to  St  Andrews,  and  John  to 
Dunkeld,  which  happened  at  that  time  to  be  vacant.  Lucius, 
still  further  to  assure  William  of  his  friendship,  sent  him  the 
golden  rose  and  his  blessing.2  A  great  victory  had  undoubt- 
edly been  won. 

A  few  years  later,  Clement  III.,  Servant  of  the 

Servants  of  God,  addressed  a  bull  to  his   most 

dear  son  William,  illustrious  King  of  the  Scots,  and  his  suc- 

1  Hailes's  Annals,  vol.  i.     Robertson's  Concilia,  Pief.  xxxviii. 

2  Hailes's  Annals.     Spottiswood's  History. 


Io6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   VI. 

cessors,1  by  which  he  set  aside  for  ever  the  pretensions  of 
Canterbury  and  York,  and  established  the  national  independ- 
ence of  the  Scottish  Church.  By  this  bull  it  is  declared — 
"That  the  Church  of  Scotland  is  a  daughter  of  Rome  by 
special  grace,  and  immediately  subject  to  her ;  that  the  Pope 
alone,  or  his  legate  a  latere,  should  have  power  to  pronounce 
sentence  of  interdiction  or  excommunication ;  that  none 
should  be  capable  of  exercising  the  office  of  legate  except  a 
Scottish  subject  or  a  member  of  the  sacred  College  of  Cardi- 
nals ;  and  that  no  appeal  concerning  benefices  should  lie  out 
of  Scotland  unless  to  the  Court  of  Rome." 2 

Thus  Scotland,  to  escape  from  the  domination  of  England, 
placed  herself  under  the  broad  shield  of  Rome,  and  Rome, 
by  a  masterly  stroke  of  policy,  received  and  protected  the 
suppliant.  But  though  our  country  was  thus  cast  more 
completely  into  the  bosom  of  the  papacy,  it  was  well  that 
the  pretensions  of  York  and  Canterbury  were  upset,  for  had 
it  been  otherwise,  the  ecclesiastical  victory  might  have 
paved  the  way  for  a  political  one  ;  the  sense  of  independence 
being  broken  down  in  one  sphere,  might  have  yielded  more 
readily  in  another ;  and,  at  all  events,  had  the  Churches 
become  one,  the  Reformation  would  have  taken  the  same 
course  in  both  countries,  and  whichever  form  of  worship — 
the  Episcopal  or  Presbyterian — had  prevailed,  it  would  not, 
in  ah  probability,  have  exhibited  the  same  moderation  as  both 
these  have  happily  exhibited  in  the  sister  countries  ;  for  who 
will  doubt  that  the  one  has  helped  to  check  the  excesses  of 
the  other  ? 

It  is  worthy  of  notice,  that  at  the  very  time  the  Church  of 
Scotland  was  most  strenuously  asserting  its  independence, 
and  repudiating  the  pretensions  of  York  and  Canterbury,  it 
was  quietly  moulding  its  government  and  worship  after  the 
Anglican  model,  and  inviting  to  its  bishoprics,  its  abbacies, 
and  its  richest  benefices,  an  Anglican  clergy.  Its  cathedral 
constitutions  were  in  general  copies  of  English  ones  already 
existing.  The  chapters  of  Glasgow  and  Dunkeld  are  said 
to  have  been  taken  from  that  of  Salisbury;  and  of  Elgin, 
Aberdeen,  and  Caithness,  from  that  of  Lincoln.     As  with  the 

1  Spottiswood  quotes  under  this  date  a  bull  of  Pope  Innocent  III.  ;  but 
Innocent  III.  did  not  become  Pope  till  1199-  In  1208,  however,  he 
issued  a  bull  confirming  the  privileges  of  the  Church,  and  Spottiswood  has 
evidently  confounded  the  two. 

2  Robertson's  Concilia,  Pref.  xxxix. 


a.v.   1100-1200.]  ANGLICANISM.  1 07 

cathedrals,  so  with  the  monasteries.  Dunfermline  was  an 
offshoot  of  Canterbury,  Coldingham  of  Durham,  Dryburgh  of 
Alnwick,  Paisley  of  Wenloch,  Melrose  of  Rievaulx.  The 
catalogues  of  early  bishops  and  abbots  show  how  many  of 
these  were  of  Norman  or  Saxon,  and  how  few  of  Celtic 
descent.  Their  names  are  generally  enough  to  testify  to 
their  blood.  Some  of  them  belonged  to  the  Norman  and 
Saxon  families  who  had  recently  settled  in  every  district  of 
Scotland,  but  the  great  majority  of  them  were  brought  from 
the  monasteries  of  England  to  fill  the  high  offices  in  the 
Church. 

This  tendency  to  conform  the  Church  of  Scotland  to  that 
of  England  undoubtedly  arose,  in  a  great  measure,  from  the 
influence  of  those  English  settlers,  who  were  now  rapidly 
obtaining,  together  with  extensive  territory,  an  ascendency 
in  the  councils  of  the  kingdom.  But  we  must  also  remember 
that,  in  copying  Anglican  models,  the  Church  of  Scotland 
only  copied  models  which  were  now  universally  prevalent, 
from  the  wide-spread  dominion  of  Romish  ideas.  The  Church 
of  Scotland,  in  short,  by  conforming  itself  to  England,  only 
conformed  itself  to  Rome.  But  that  the  Church  should  have 
exhibited,  at  the  same  time,  a  determined  resistance  to 
English  supremacy,  and  a  fond  desire  for  English  conformity, 
is  not  a  little  remarkable  ;  and  the  fact  becomes  still  more 
remarkable  when  we  reflect  that  the  battle  of  the  Church's 
independence  was  chiefly  fought  and  won  by  Anglo-Norman 
priests ;  just  as,  in  the  age  that  followed,  it  was  Anglo-Norman 
knights  who  achieved  on  Bannockburn  the  independence  of 
the  nation.1 

The  bull  which  secured  the  independence  of  the  Church 
was  brought  to  Scotland  by  John,  Cardinal  de  Monte  Celio, 
who  also  brought,  as  a  gift  from  the  Roman  pontiff  to  the 
king,  a  sword  richly  set  with  precious  stones,  and  a  purple  hat 
in  form  of  a  diadem.  While  this  cardinal  was  in  the  king- 
dom, a  convention  of  the  clergy  was  held  at  Perth,  in  which 
all  priests  who  had  received  ordination  on  Sunday  were  de- 
posed, and  a  canon  framed  ordering  Saturday  from  twelve 
o'clock  to  be  observed  as  a  holiday,  and  that  the  people  at  the 
sound  of  the  bell  should  repair  to  church,  and  desist  from 
their  several  crafts  till  Monday  morning.2  Thus,  in  the 
twelfth   century,   was  a  law  passed,  under  the  auspices  of  a 

1  Bruce,  Randolph,  Douglas,  were  all  of  Anglo-Norman  descent. 

2  Spottiswood's  History,  book  ii. 


Io8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  |CHAP.  VI, 

Roman  legate,  establishing  the  Saturday  half  holiday,  which 
the  crafts  in  the  present  day  have  managed  to  recover  for 
themselves.1 

The  Crusades  had  now  been  raging  for  nearly  a  hundred 
years.  Swarm  after  swarm  of  nobles  and  knights,  of  priests 
and  peasants,  had  crossed  the  Bosphorus  to  combat  with  the 
infidel  Moslem  for  the  city  where  our  Saviour  had  died  and 
the  sepulchre  where  he  had  lain,  till  Europe  seemed  to  be 
loosened  from  its  foundations,  and  hurled  against  Asia.2  The 
victorious  arms  of  Saladin  had,  towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth 
century,  recovered  almost  everything  that  had  previously  been 
lost,  and  Jerusalem  was  once  again  in  the  hands  of  the  infi- 
dels. But  Christendom  could  not  yet  relinquish  a  land  asso- 
ciated with  so  much  that  was  hallowed  in  religion,  and  now 
rendered  doubly  dear  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Chris- 
tian warriors  who  had  perished  by  sword,  famine,  or  plague 
upon  its  plains.  A  third  Crusade  was  organized.  Philip 
Augustus  of  France  and  Richard  of  England  took  the  cross, 
and  lent  their  wisdom  and  valour,  the  dignity  of  their  royal 
names,  and  the  resources  of  their  great  kingdoms,  to  the 
chivalrous  enterprise.  In  order  to  convert  a  dangerous 
neighbour  into  a  firm  friend,  and  prompted  also  by  his 
generous  nature,  Richard,  before  his  departure  for  Palestine, 
restored  to  William  the  Lion  everything  which  had  been 
extorted  from  him  while  in  captivity  by  Henry  II. ;  and,  in 
return,  William  agreed  to  pay  to  Richard  ten  thousand 
merks  sterling — thus  furnishing  sinews  for  the  Holy  War — 
and  to  send  with  him  his  own  brother  David,  Earl  of  Hunt- 
ingdon, with  a  band  of  Scottish  knights,  to  share  in  the 
dangers  and  glory  of  the  expedition.3  A  few  years  later, 
Scotland  contributed  two  thousand  merks  to  redeem  Richard 
from  the  captivity  in  which  he  was  basely  kept  by  the  Em- 
peror of  Germany;  but  it  is  more  than  probable  that  this 
was  an  unpaid  instalment  of  the  ten  thousand  originally 
stipulated. 

William,  before  the  close  of  his  reign,  appears  to  have  made 

1  It  is  a  singular  circumstance,  also  worthy  of  being  noted,  that,  in  the 
reign  of  James  1. ,  an  act  was  passed  very  similar  to  the  Forbes  Mac- 
kenzie Act.  "  It  is  ordained  that  na  man  in  burgh  be  foundin  in  tavernes 
of  wine,  aill,  or  beir  after  the  straik  of  nine  hours,  and  the  bell  that  sail 
be  rung  in  the  said  burgh."     (Pari,  xiii.,  chap,  cxliv.) 

2  This  was  the  figure  of  the  Princess  Anne,  daughter  of  the  Emperor 
Alexius.     (Gibbon,  chap,  lviii.) 

3  Hailes's  Annals,  vol.  i. 


a. a   1190.]  RIGHTS  OF  SANCTUARY.  109 

an  effort  to  reform  the  evils  which  had  arisen  in  Scotland  and 
throughout  all  Europe,  from  religious  houses  having  the  rights 
of  sanctuary — where  the  greatest  criminals  were  safe,  and  law 
lost  its  power.  He  sought  the  advice  of  the  Pope  as  to  how 
he  should  deal  with  malefactors  who  had  sought  an  asylum  in 
the  churches.  Innocent  III.,  in  his  rescript,  made  answer — - 
"  That  if  the  person  who  retires  into  a  church  be  a  freeman, 
he  must  not  be  forced  from  thence,  nor  punished  with  the  loss 
of  life  or  limb,  even  for  the  most  atrocious  offences ;  but 
every  other  punishment  which  the  law  authorises  may  be 
inflicted  upon  him.  Public  robbers,  however,  and  they  who 
spoil  the  country  by  night,  may  be  dragged  out  of  churches, 
and  this  is  no  violation  of  the  rights  of  sanctuary.  If  the  per- 
son who  retires  into  a  monastery  be  a  slave,  he  must  be 
restored  to  his  master  after  that  his  master  has  promised  upon 
oath  not  to  inflict  any  punishment  upon  him."  1  In  an  age 
when  law  is  weak  and  revenge  strong,  it  is  possible  to  recog- 
nise the  prudence  and  policy  of  having  sanctuaries  and  cities 
of  refuge,  where  the  manslayer  or  other  criminal  may  find  a 
safe  asylum  from  the  avenger  of  blood,  till  guilt  be  proved  and 
justice  vindicated;  but  it  is  neither  prudent  nor  politic  to 
allow  any  place,  however  sacred,  to  shelter  criminals,  not  only 
from  private  resentment,  but  from  public  law.  The  rights  of 
sanctuary,  as  defined  by  Innocent  III.,  must  have  seriously 
weakened  the  hands  of  justice  in  Scotland.2 

In  the  papal  rescript  there  is  mention  of  slaves.  It  seems 
incredible  to  many  that  there  should  have  ever  been  slaves 
in  our  country,  and  yet  true  it  is  that  there  were.  There  is 
ample  documentary  evidence  to  prove  that  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  the  labouring  population  must  have  once  been  in 
this  sad  condition.3  They  were  generally,  though  not  always, 
attached  to  the  soil,  and  bought  and  sold  with  it  like  beasts 
of  burden.  Their  children  and  their  children's  children  for 
ever  were  the  property  of  their  lord,  and  accordingly  their 

1  Hailes's  Annals,  vol.  i.     Deer.  Greg.  iii.  44-6. 

2  Among  the  statutes  of  Alexander  II.,  in  the  Regiam  Majestatem,  is 
one  anent — ''Them  wha  fleis  to  halie  kirk,"  It  is  provided  that  in  the 
case  of  those  who  declare  themselves  guilty  but  penitent,  they  must  restore 
what  they  have  stolen,  swear  upon  the  gospels  they  will  never  steal  again, 
and  then  pass  out  of  the  realm  till  reconciled  to  the  king.  In  the  case  of 
those  who  declare  themselves  innocent,  they  will  be  protected  till  they  are 
tried,  and  then  they  must  abide  the  law. 

3  In  the  Regiam  Majestatem  there  is  a  complete  code  of  laws  in  regard 
to  native  bondsmen,  book  ii.  chap,   xi.-xiv. 


110  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VI. 

genealogies  were  carefully  preserved,  not  from  ancestral  pride, 
but  to  serve  as  title-deeds  do  in  the  case  of  houses  and  lands. 
In  the  year  1178  William  the  Lion  makes  a  grant  of  Gillan- 
drean  Macsuthen  and  his  children  to  the  monks  of  Dunferm- 
line.1 In  1258,  Malise,  Earl  of  Strathearn,  bestowed  upon  the 
monks  of  Inchaffray,  in  pure  and  perpetual  alms,  Gilmory 
Gillendes,  and  this  he  does  at  Kenmore,  on  the  day  of  the 
annunciation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin.  The  same  pious  earl,  in 
the  same  year,  bestowed  upon  the  same  religious  house  John 
Starnes,  the  son  of  Thomas  and  grandson  of  Thore,  with  his 
whole  property  and  children  which  he  had  begotten  or  might 
beget ;  and  this  he  did  for  the  salvation  of  his  own  soul,  the 
souls  of  his  predecessors,  and  the  souls  of  his  successors  for 
ever.2  In  some  ancient  documents  there  is  mention  made  of 
clerici  nativi,  and  these  Tytler  thinks  must  be  serfs  who  had 
become  clerks,  and  still  continued  to  be  serfs ;  but  we  know 
that  personal  slavery  was  inconsistent  with  the  sanctity 
anciently  ascribed  to  the  clerical  character,  and  are  rather 
inclined  to  believe  that  the  clerici  nativi  were  bondsmen  be- 
longing to  the  Church.3 

Slavery  existed  in  Scotland,  and  the  Church  of  Scotland  gave 
it  its  sanction ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  similar  ser- 
vitude existed  at  the  time  in  almost  every  country  of  Europe, 
and  was  probably  nearly  inseparable  from  the  state  of  society 
which  then  existed.  It  was  undoubtedly  different  from  the 
negro  slavery  which  till  recently  existed  in  the  Southern  States 
of  America,4  and  more  nearly  resembled  the  serfdom  which 

1  Chartulary  of  Dunfermline,  fol.  13. 
-  Chartulary  of  Inchaffray. 

3  Tytler's  Hist.,  vol.  ii.  The  view  taken  in  the  text  is  supported  by 
the  13th  chapter  of  the  Regiam  Majestatem,  which  is  entitled,  "  Bond- 
men should  not  be  promoved  to  halie  orders."  It  starts  with  the  proposi- 
tion— "  Servile  condition  is  not  capabill  of  the  orders  or  honours  of 
clerks."  It  is  provided  that  if  a  slave,  with  the  knowledge  of  his  master, 
receives  orders,  he  thereby  becomes  free  ;  if  without  the  knowledge  of  his 
master,  he  may  be  given  back  to  slavery  ;  but  in  that  case  he  is  stripped  of 
his  orders. 

4  In  the  Regiam  Majestatem  it  is  provided  that  a  slave  cannot  purchase 
his  liberty  with  his  own  property,  for  his  property  is  already  his  master's  ; 
but  if  his  master  defile  his  wife,  or  draw  blood  of  him  above  his  breath, 
or  allow  him  to  remain  unchallenged  for  seven  years  on  another  man's  pro- 
perty, he  is  free. 

It  is  amusing  to  find  the  Regiam  Majestatem  basing  the  institution  of 
slavery  upon  the  same  scriptural  argument  as  the  American  slave-owners 
were  accustomed  to  use.  "  Bondage  and  servitude  take  ane  beginning 
frae  the  drunkenness  and  ebrietie  of  Noah  (for  he  pronounced  Cham  to  be 
servant  of  servants  to  his  brethren — Gen.  ix.  24)."     (Chap,  xiv.) 


A.U.   1214-16. J  A  PAPAL  INTERDICT.  IIT 

has  now  been  happily  abolished  in  Kussia,  where  it  had  lin- 
gered longer  than  in  any  other  European  country.  It  con- 
tinued in  Scotland  till  the  fifteenth  century,  but  had  gradually 
been  losing  ground,  and  then  it  disappeared  ;  but  curious 
enough,  driven  from  the  surface  of  the  soil,  it  took  refuge  in 
the  mines,  and  lingered  there  in  a  modified  form  till  last 
century.1 

In  1 2 14  King  William  died  at  Stirling,  and  was  buried  in 
the  Abbey  of  Aberbrothock,  which  he  himself  had  so  mag- 
nificently founded  and  endowed.  He  was  succeeded  on  the 
throne  by  Alexander  II.,  who  soon  found  himself  involved  in 
a  war  with  John,  the  reigning  King  of  England.  This  weak 
and  passionate  prince  had  first  foolishly  bearded  the  Pope, 
and  then  stooped  so  low  as  to  accept  the  crown  of  England 
from  his  hands,  and  acknowledge  himself  the  vassal  of  Rome. 
To  war  with  England  was  now  to  war  with  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church,  and  this  guilt  was  contracted  by  the  king.  Such  im- 
piety could  not  pass  with  impunity ;  and  accordingly  Gualo, 
the  Pope's  legate,  came  to  Scotland,  and  excommunicated 
Alexander  with  his  whole  nobility ;  and  to  borrow  the  words 
of  Balfour,  "  interdicted  the  kingdom  from  the  use  of  any 
religious  exercise,  and  solemnly,  with  book  and  bell,  cursed 
all  of  whatsoever  degree  or  quality  that  carried  arms  against 
King  John."  2 

A  papal  interdict  was  the  most  awful  ecclesiastical  punish- 
ment that  could  be  inflicted  upon  a  guilty  country  ;  and  was 
then  generally  regarded  with  the  utmost  consternation.  The 
doors  of  the  churches  were  shut,  the  services  suspended.  The 
images  of  the  apostles  and  saints  were  taken  from  their  pedes- 
tals, and  placed  upon  the  ground.  Marriage  could  be  per- 
formed only  in  the  church-yard  above  the  graves  of  the  dead. 
No  other  sacrament  saving  baptism  could  be  administered. 
The  dying  must  be  without  the  consolations  of  religion  :  for 
their  souls  no  mass  could  be  said ;  by  their  coffin  no  dirge 
could  be  sung — they  must  be  buried  like  dogs.  The  whole 
population  must  continue  under  the  wrath  of  God  for  a  time, 
till  the  anger  of  the  Pope  should  be  assuaged.  There  is  reason, 
however,  to  believe  that  the  interdict  was  not  felt  in  Scotland 

1  In  some  mining  districts,  till  very  lately,  the  miners  were  made  over 
from  one  proprietor  to  another,  together  with  the  mines.  It  was  the  same 
with  salters.  They  were  ascriptce  glelxx — and  could  not  be  sold  elsewhere. 
(Erskine's  Institutes,  bk.  i.  tit.  vii.  61,  and  note.) 

2  Annals,  vol.  i. 


112  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   VI. 

in  its  utmost  severity.  The  White  Monks  possessed  the 
privilege  of  officiating  at  such  times  ;  and  this  they  now 
diligently  did,  till  they  also  were  suspended  by  the  legate, 
under  the  highest  spiritual  censures,  from  performing  their 
merciful  functions.1 

From  February  1 2 1 7  till  February  1 2 1 8,  our  sanctuaries  and 
high  places  were  a  desolation  ;  but  before  the  latter  of  these 
dates,  Alexander,  abandoned  by  his  French  ally,  was  glad  to 
seek  and  find  reconciliation  with  Rome.  Now  came  the  re- 
moval of  the  interdict.  The  Prior  of  Durham  and  the  Dean 
of  York  came  to  Scotland  as  the  deputies  of  the  legate, 
"  making  their  progress,"  according  to  Balfour,  "  from  Berwick 
to  Aberdeen,  and  absolved  the  kingdom  from  Gualo's  curse 
and  interdiction  ;  and  in  their  return  home  to  England,  being 
lodged  in  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  the  Prior  of  Durham  was 
burned  to  death  in  his  chamber,  which  took  fire  in  the  night 
by  chance,  his  chamberlain  being  very  drunk,  and  he  fast 
asleep."2  It  appears  that  these  deputies  had  also  a  commis- 
sion to  wring  as  much  money  as  they  could  from  the  parish 
priests,  many  of  whom,  as  a  further  penance,  were  compelled  to 
go  barefooted  to  the  door  of  the  church,  and  ask  absolution  in 
the  most  abject  form. 

The  extortions  of  Gualo  roused  the  indignation  of  the 
Scottish  clergy,  and  three  bishops  proceeded  to  Rome  to  com- 
plain. On  professing  repentance,  they  easily  obtained  pardon; 
and  the  avaricious  legate  was  compelled  to  disgorge  one-half 
of  his  ill-gotten  gains,  which  the  Pope  appropriated  to  himself, 
thus  dividing  the  spoil  with  the  spoiler.  A  cardinal  who  stood 
by  remarked  sneeringly,  in  reference  to  the  mock  penitence 
and  absolution  of  the  bishops,  "  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
pious  to  confess  a  crime  even  where  no  fault  had  been  com- 
mitted."3 

A  few  years  after  this,  a  bishop  of  Caithness  was  horribly 
mutilated  and  burned  alive  in  his  own  house  at  Hawkirk  by 
the  people  of  his  diocese.  A  quaint  annalist  says,  "  that 
he  was  leading  poor  people's  corn  too  avariciously  ; "  4  in  other 
words,  he  was  a  rigorous  exacter  of  tithes.  The  "  Chronicle 
of  Melrose  "  says  that,  like  the  good  shepherd,  he  laid  down  his 
life  for  the  sheep,  rather  than  allow  them  to  remain  in  their 
pristine  ignorance  as  to  the  duty  of  giving  a  tenth    to  the 

1  Spottiswood's  Hist.,  book  ii.  -  Annals,  vol.  i. 

'5  Spoctiswood,  book  ii.      Hailes,  vol.  i. 
4  Balfour's  Annals,  vol.  i. 


A.D.   1225.]  PROVINCIAL  COUNCILS.  113 

church.1  The  Saga  of  Orkney  gives  a  more  minute  account 
of  the  murder,  and  of  the  causes  which  led  to  it.  It  would 
appear  that  it  was  customary  in  Caithness  to  pay  to  the  bishop 
a  spa  fin  of  butter  for  every  twenty  cows,  but  Bishop  Adam 
exacted  his  spann  for  every  fifteen,  and  then  for  every  twelve, 
and  ultimately  for  every  ten.  The  dairymen  of  the  north  could 
not  stand  this,  and  seizing  upon  the  greedy  prelate,  they  roasted 
him  at  his  own  kitchen  fire.2  His  death  was  amply  avenged. 
A  massacre  was  made  of  the  peasantry.  The  Earl  of  Orkney, 
who  it  was  thought  might  have  stilled  the  tumult,  had  a  large 
part  of  his  property  confiscated,  and  hardly  escaped  with  his 
life,  which  he  did  not  preserve  very  long,  for  a  few  years  after- 
wards he  was  assassinated  and  burned  in  his  own  castle  by  his 
own  servants,  who  it  was  suspected  had  been  instigated  to  this 
studied  mode  of  revenge.  The  murdered  bishop  was  venerated 
in  the  Church  as  a  martyr  to  the  divine  right  of  tithes,  and 
ranked  with  St  James,  St  Stephen,  and  St  Laurence. 

The  Scottish  clergy  about  this  time  represented 
I22^'  to  Honorius  IV.  that,  from  the  want  of  a  metro- 
politan, they  could  not  hold  a  council ;  that  in  consequence  of 
this,  many  crimes  were  committed  without  punishment,  and 
many  abuses  allowed  to  grow  up  without  the  power  to  correct 
them.  The  Pope  listened  to  their  statements,  and  gave  them 
permission  to  call  provincial  councils  by  the  direct  authority 
of  the  Apostolic  See.  The  bishops  met  in  virtue  of  this 
authority  and  appointed  one  of  their  number  to  be  Conserva- 
tor of  their  Statutes,  and  this  official  acquired  considerable 
power  in  the  Church.  The  king,  on  his  part,  appointed  two 
doctors  of  civil  law  to  attend  these  councils,  and  see  that 
nothing  was  done  in  them  to  the  prejudice  of  the  State.  We 
do  not  know  how  often  they  met,  as  we  have  no  regular  re- 
cord of  their  proceedings  \  we  only  know  that  within  fifty 
years  of  the  bull  which  gave  them  being  they  framed  some 
fifty  or  sixty  canons,  which  were  in  force  down  to  the  Refor- 
mation ;  but  some  of  these  we  recognize  as  the  product  of 
old  legatine  councils,  and  others  are  borrowed  from  the  coun- 
cils of  other  countries  and  general  canon  law.3 

In  1230  Henry  III.  invited  Alexander  to  York,  where  the 
two  monarchs  kept  Christmas  together,  and  feasted  right 
royally  for  fourteen  days.     Amidst  the  festivities,  the  Cardinal 

1  Chronicon  de  Mailros,  fol.  38,  Ban.  ed.,  p.  139. 

2  Ork.  Saga,  p.  421.     Torfaeus,  lib.  c.  40,  quoted  in  Origines. 

3  Robertson's  Concilia,  Pref.  l.-lv. 

II 


114  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  VI. 

Deacon,  who  was  legate  in  England,  hinted  to  our  monarch 
his  intention  of  visiting  Scotland,  to  inquire  into  ecclesiastical 
affairs.  "  I  have  never  seen  a  legate  in  my  dominions,"  replied 
Alexander,  "and  as  long  as  I  live  I  never  will."  The  king 
said  something  more  about  the  ferocity  of  his  subjects,  which 
might  endanger  the  life  of  a  visitor  so  obnoxious.  The  Italian 
took  alarm,  and  abandoned  his  journey  for  a  time  ;  but  some 
years  after  he  came  northwards,  and  was  again  withstood  by 
the  king,  who  would  not  allow  him  to  cross  the  border  till  he 
obtained  from  him  a  written  declaration  that  the  present  per- 
mission would  not  be  drawn  into  a  precedent.1  The  cardinal 
came  to  Edinburgh,  held  a  council  there,  and  levied  some  con- 
tributions from  the  clergy,  but  he  was  studiously  avoided  by 
the  king  \  and  apparently  finding  that  little  could  be  done,  he 
returned  to  England  without  proceeding  farther  to  the  north. 
The  Pope  had  condescended  to  publish  a  bull,  declaring  that 
it  would  evince  a  want  of  maternal  affection  to  send  a  legate 
to  England  and  not  to  Scotland ;  but  it  is  plain  that  our  an- 
cestors never  appreciated  these  proofs  of  his  love. 

Under  the  sanction  of  the  papal  bull,  a  Provincial  Council 
was  held  at  Perth  in  1242,  in  which  grievous  complaint  was 
made  that  nobles  and  knights  were  withholding  their  tithes,  and 
otherwise  sinning  against  the  privileges  of  the  Church ;  for 
even  then  all  men  were  not  equally  loyal.  But  the  pious 
monarch,  attended  by  some  of  his  great  barons,  came  to  the 
council  and  warned  all  men,  of  whatever  degree,  against 
violating  the  immunities  of  the  Church  or  doing  wrong  to 
churchmen  ;  and  the  royal  warning  had  a  salutary  effect  for 
all  the  years  of  his  reign.2 

The  spirited  resistance  to  papal  extortion  and  encroachment 
exhibited  by  Alexander  II.  was  continued  by  his  successor 
Alexander  III.  In  1266  Cardinal  Ottobon  de  Fieschi,  after- 
wards Adrian  V.,  while  legate  in  England,  attempted  to  raise 
in  Scotland,  as  a  procuration,  six  merks  from  each  cathedral, 
and  four  merks  from  each  parish  church — an  enormous  sum, 
as  the  annual  value  of  the  parsonages  at  this  period  did  not 
average  more  than  ten  merks,  each  merk,  though  it  counts  but 
t  3s.  4d.,  being  capable  of  purchasing  a  chalder  of  meal.3    The 

1  Matthew  Paris,  Hist.  Angl.,  p.  377. 

2  Fordun,  Scotichron,  lib.  ix.  cap.  59. 

3  "  The  following  examples,"  says  Lord  Hailes,  "will  give  a  notion  toler- 
able correct  of  the  salaries  of  parish  priests  during  the  reign  of  Alexander 
III.     Ten  merks  of  silver,   six  acres  of  arable  ground,  and  one  acre  of 


a. d.   1263.]  THE  CRUSADES.  I  T  5 

king  prohibited  the  contribution,  and  appealed  to  Rome  ;  and 
the  clergy  generously  raised  amongst  themselves  two  thousand 
merks  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  suit.  So  large  a  sum,  it 
is  evident,  could  be  used  only  for  bribery,  but  it  was  known 
that  no  empty-handed  suitor  ever  gained  a  case  in  the  papal 
court. 

Foiled  in  his  attempts  at  extortion,  the  legate, 
3  '  two  years  afterwards,  summoned  the  Scottish 
clergy  to  attend  a  council  in  England  ;  four  of  them  went,  but 
only  to  decline  its  jurisdiction,  and  observe  its  proceedings  ; 
and  though  canons  were  passed  affecting  our  Church,  they 
were  held  as  null  and  void.1 

The  Roman  pontiffs,  at  this  period,  were  using  their  utmost 
endeavours  to  levy  the  tenths  of  benefices  over  all  Europe,  ta 
defray  the  expenses  of  the  Holy  War.  In  1254  Pope  Innocent 
IV.  granted  to  Henry  III.  of  England  a  twentieth  of  the 
ecclesiastical  revenues  of  Scotland  for  three  years,  provided  he 
should  join  the  Crusade  which  was  then  in  agitation,  and  the 
grant  was  subsequently  extended  for  another  year.  Henry  III. 
wisely  stayed  at  home,  and  the  Scottish  clergy  escaped  that 
ancient  income-tax  of  five  per  cent.  But  in  1268,  Clement  IV. 
renewed  the  grant,  increasing  it  to  a  tenth  ;  and  the  gallant 
son  of  Henry  put  a  cross  on  his  shield,  and  repaired  to  Pales- 
tine. Still  Scotland  declined  to  be  taxed  by  an  English  poten- 
tate. Blessed  with  a  greater  abundance  of  soldiers  than  of 
gold,  an  offer  was  made  to  send  a  company  of  crusaders  to 
uphold  the  national  piety  and  honour  \  and,  accordingly,  a 

meadow,  were  provided  to  the  vicar  of  Worgs  in  Galloway.  This  grant 
was  confirmed  by  Gilbert,  Bishop  of  Galloway,  who  died  in  1253.  In 
1268  a  pension  of  ten  merks  sterling  was  granted  to  the  vicar  of  Kilrenny 
in  Fife  ;  of  ten  merks  to  the  vicar  of  Salton  in  the  Lothians  ;  of  ten  pounds 
to  the  vicar  of  Childrer  Kirk  ;   .   .   .   .   twelve  merks  were  provided  to  the 

vicar  of  Gulan Hence  we  may  presume  to  fix  the  actual  medium 

at  ten  merks.  The  canons  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  a.d.  1242  and  1269, 
fix  the  minimum  at  ten  merks."  (Annals,  vol.  i. )  The  price  of  grain 
varied  as  much  anciently  as  now  ;  but  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 
turies, a  merk  appears  to  be  nearly  the  average  price  of  a  chalder.  "  In 
1263  a  chalder  of  oatmeal,  fourteen  bolls  being  computed  for  the  chalder, 
cost  exactly  one  pound.  In  the  same  year,  six  chalders  of  wheat  were 
bought  for  nine  pounds  three  shillings.  In  1264  twenty  chalders  of  barley 
sold  for  ten  pounds  ;  in  1288  the  price  had  fallen  so  low,  that  we  rind  forty 
chalders  sold  for  six  pounds  thirteen  shillings  and  fourpence,  being  at  the 
rate  of  forty  pence  the  chalder.  In  1288  twelve  chalders  of  wheat  brought 
twelve  merks,  or  thirteen  shillings  and  fourpence  the  chalder."  (Tytler's 
History,  vol.  ii. ) 
1  Robertson's  Concilia,  Ixiii. 


Il6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   VI. 

band  of  knights  and  yeomen,  under  the  command  of  the  Earls 
of  Carrick  and  Athol,  were  despatched  on  the  fatal  expedition, 
few  of  whom  ever  returned.  Athol  died  before  Tunis,  fighting 
bravely  under  the  banners  of  the  chivalrous  but  unfortunate  St 
Lewis ;  and  Carrick  found  a  grave  in  Palestine.  His  widow 
married  again,  and  became  the  mother  of  the  heroic  Bruce. 

In  the  year  1275  Benemundus  de  Vicci,  better  known  under 
the  corrupted  name  of  Bagimont,  came  to  Scotland,  to  collect, 
on  behalf  of  the  Pope,  the  tenth  of  all  ecclesiastical  benefices 
for  the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Land — the  grant  to  Henry  having 
expired.  It  would  appear,  that  long  prior  to  this  time  there 
existed  a  valuation-roll  of  all  our  Church  revenues,  according  to 
which  the  beneficed  clergy  were  taxed,  when  procurations  must 
be  paid  to  legates,  when  suits  must  be  appealed  to  Rome,  when 
a  proportion  of  the  national  burdens  must  be  borne.  The 
clergy  wished  the  ancient  valuation  adhered  to  ;  but  Bagimont 
had  instructions  to  raise  the  tenths  according  to  the  true  values 
of  the  benefices.  As  usual,  there  was  an  appeal,  and  Bagi- 
mont returned  to  Rome  for  fresh  instructions ;  but  the  Pope 
was  inexorable,  and  insisted  that  every  benefice  should  be 
taxed  according  to  its  actual  value  at  the  time.  Accordingly, 
a  new  valuation  and  assessment  roll  required  to  be  formed, 
and  this  document  was  long  known  and  hated  in  our  country 
as  Bagimont's  Roll,  till  in  process  of  time  the  actual  valuation 
rose  far  above  it,  and  then  it  was  as  much  prized  as  it  had  been 
previously  disliked.  It  was  used  at  Rome  as  the  rule  of  pay- 
ment for  those  who  came  to  seek  benefices  there.  It  still 
exists,  but  so  mutilated,  interpolated,  and  altered,  as  to  give  no 
information  upon  the  real  value  of  land  or  Church-livings  prior 
to  the  reign  of  James  V. 

By  far  the  most  important  political  events  in  the  reign  of 
Alexander  III.  were  the  invasion  of  the  Norwegians,  their 
defeat  at  Largs,  and  the  subsequent  cession  of  the  Hebrides 
to  the  crown  of  Scotland  upon  the  payment  of  4000  merks. 
But  this  acquisition  of  islands,  long  disputed,  had  for  the  time 
little  influence  upon  ecclesiastical  affairs ;  for  though  the 
patronage  of  the  Bishopric  of  Sodor  was  ceded  to  Alexander, 
the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  was  reserved  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Drontheim  in  Norway ;  and  so  Iona  still  continued  under 
the  spiritual  supremacy  of  the  north.1 

It  was  during  the  reign   of  the  two  Alexanders  that  the 

1  Tytler's  Hist.,  vol.  i.,  note. 


a.d.   1200-1300.]  MICHAEL  SCOT.  117 

different  orders  of  mendicant  friars  first  began  to  appear  in 
Scotland.  They  were  now  at  the  very  height  of  their  popu- 
larity ;  and  our  monarchs,  who  gave  them  welcome,  probably 
thought  they  would  be  more  cheaply  lodged  and  entertained 
than  the  expensive  orders  of  Cistercian  and  Cluniac  monks 
patronized  by  their  predecessors.  The  chief  agent  in  bringing 
them  to  this  country  was  William  de  Malvoisin,  Bishop  of  St 
x\ndrews,  who  was  one  of  the  most  active  and  enterprising 
prelates  of  the  time ;  and  yet  it  appears  he  must  have  loved 
good  cheer,  for  from  1202  to  1233  he  deprived  the  Abbey  of 
Dunfermline  of  the  presentation  to  two  churches,  because  its 
monks  had  neglected  to  supply  him  with  wine  enough  for  his 
collation  after  supper.1 

We  have  now  arrived  at  a  period  when  Scottish  ecclesiastics 
begin  to  make  a  prominent  figure  in  the  current  literature  of 
Europe.  Dempster  has  written  the  biographies  of  more  than 
twelve  hundred  eminent  Scotch  writers  who  lived  from  the 
fourth  century  downwards.  It  may  be  safely  said  that  hun- 
dreds of  these  never  existed,  that  hundreds  more  owed  their 
birth  to  other  countries  than  ours,  and  that  of  the  remnant, 
the  fame  and  the  works  of  the  majority  have  utterly  perished. 
Our  catalogue  of  authors,  by  this  process  of  unbelief  and  for- 
getfulness,  will  be  greatly  reduced ;  but  it  will  contain  men, 
and  not  phantoms.  We  might  well  be  proud  to  rank  among 
our  illustrious  writers  such  men  as  Columbanus,  Alcuin,  and 
Rabanus  Maurus ;  but  other  countries  deny  us  the  honour. 
Even  Joannes  Scotus  Erigena,  the  friend  and  companion  of 
Charles  the  Bald,  and  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  the 
ninth  century,  must  be  consigned  to  the  limbo  of  uncertainty ; 
for  though  it  is  certain  he  was  a  Scot,  it  is  doubtful  whether 
he  was  a  Scot  of  Ireland,  of  Ayr,  or  of  Strathearn.2 

Michael  Scot  of  Balwirie  is  still  remembered  in  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  country,  and  is  now  embalmed  in  the  Lay  of  the 
Last  Minstrel.  By  visiting  the  great  universities  of  England, 
France,  Spain,  and  Italy,  he  made  himself  master  of  the 
dialectics  and  natural  philosophy  of  the  age.  He  was  made 
a  Doctor  of  Theology,  and  acquired  for  himself  the  name  of 
Michael  the  Mathematician.  He  wrote  commentaries  on 
Aristotle,  and  a  book  concerning  the  physiognomy  and  procrea- 
tion of  men  \  but  a  large  part  of  his  time  was  devoted  to 
alchemy  and  astrology.  He  was  astrologer  for  a  while  to  the 
Emperor  Frederic  II.  When  war  drove  him  from  his  court, 
1  JIailes's  Annals,  vol.  i.  a  Mackenzie's  Lives,  vol.  i. 


Il8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VI. 

he  found  a  welcome  from  the  first  Edward  of  England ;  and 
his  old  age  appears  to  have  been  spent  in  his  native  land.  It 
has  been  his  fate  to  be  remembered  as  a  sorcerer  rather  than 
as  a  man  of  science.  Dante,  in  his  "  Divine  Comedy,"  makes 
mention  of  him  as  a  magician.  Dempster  tells  us  that  he  had 
heard  in  his  youth  that  the  magic  books  of  Michael  Scot  were 
still  somewhere  in  existence,  but  might  not  be  opened  on 
account  of  the  fiends  that  would  thereby  be  let  loose.  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  the  great  Modern  Wizard  of  the  North,  has 
adhered  to  the  tradition  of  the  country,  that  his  books  were 
interred  in  his  grave.  Yet  let  us  not  despise  or  condemn  the 
Baron  of  Balwirie,  though  an  ignorant  age  regarded  him  as  a 
sorcerer,  and  undying  poetry  preserves  the  tradition.  It  was 
the  doom  of  science  in  those  dark  days  to  be  looked  upon  as 
necromancy ;  and  the  power  over  nature,  which  a  slight 
acquaintance  with  its  laws  conferred,  gave  rise  to  the  suspicion 
of  dealings  with  the  devil.  Michael  Scot  flourished  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  com- 
missioners sent  to  bring  the  Maid  of  Norway  to  Scotland  upon 
the  death  of  Alexander  III.1 

John  Holybush,  known  in  the  world  of  letters  by  the  more 
sounding  appellative  of  Joannes  Sacrobosco,  is  said  to  owe  his 
birth  to  Nithsdale.  While  still  a  young  man  he  became  a 
canon-regular  of  the  order  of  St  Augustine,  and  afterwards  was 
made  Professor  of  Mathematics  in  the  University  of  Paris. 
He  is  acknowledged  to  have  been  the  most  learned  mathema- 
tician of  his  day,  and  to  have  done  much  to  revive  in  Europe 
a  love  for  mathematical  studies.  His  treatise  on  the  Sphere 
was  judged  by  Peter  Ramus,  Clavius,  and  Melancthon  to  be 
worthy  of  their  study  and  illustrative  comments.  He  was 
buried  in  the  Church  of  the  Mathurines  at  Paris,  with  his 
epitaph  written  round  about  a  sphere,  in  allusion  to  his 
greatest  work.2  Richard,  Abbot  of  St  Victore,  who  flourished 
toward  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  also  owed  his  origin  to 
Scotland.  He  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  exegetical  and  doc- 
trinal studies,  and  has  left  behind  him  thirty-seven  different 
treatises  on  theological  subjects,  which  are  still  to  be  found  in 
the  libraries  of  the  learned  in  two  large  folio  volumes.  Adam 
Scot,  a  canon-regular  of  the  order  of  Premontre,  was  another 
of  our  northern  lights  in  that  remote  age.    With  the  wandering 

1  Note  to  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel.     Mackenzie's  Lives,  &c.,  &c. 

2  Mackenzie,  Dempster,  &c. 


a.d.  1200-1300.]  JOHN  DUNS  SCOTUS.  119 

spirit  which  has  always  been  characteristic  of  his  countrymen, 
he  went  to  France,  where  he  rose  to  a  distinction  which  he 
would  have  sought  for  in  vain  at  home.  He  wrote  a  treatise 
on  the  Tabernacle  of  Moses,  and  another  on  the  Immaculate 
Conception  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  ;  and  excelled  in  the  allego- 
rical and  mystical  interpretation  of  Scripture,  which  was  greatly 
applauded  then,  but  would  be  accounted  as  worse  than  mean- 
ingless now.1 

Thomas  Learmont,  generally  known  as  Thomas  the  Rhymer, 
has  obtained  a  more  imperishable  place  in  Scottish  history  than 
many  who  have  a  higher  claim  to  it.  He  lived  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  Ercildoun,  a  village  not  far  from  the  Tweed,  is 
famed  as  his  birthplace  and  residence.  He  sustained  the 
double  character  of  a  poet  and  prophet — characters  once 
inseparable,  but  now  disjoined  through  the  decay  of  the  spirit 
of  prophecy ;  so  that  for  nearly  two  thousand  years  our  poets 
have  been  but  poets,  with  no  inspiration  but  that  of  genius. 
He  is  the  author  of  "  Sir  Tristem,"  and  is  said  to  have  fore- 
told the  death  of  Alexander  III.,  the  triumph  of  the  Bruce, 
and  the  accession  of  the  Stuarts  to  the  throne ;  and  there  are 
still  extant  some  obscure  verses,  in  which  the  two  last  of  these 
events  are  dimly  foreshadowed ;  but  doubts  have  been  started 
in  regard  to  their  authorship.  Some  have  affirmed  that  he 
derived  his  knowledge  of  the  future  from  an  inspired  nun  in 
the  convent  at  Haddington ;  but  the  popular  belief  was,  that 
he  derived  it  from  a  secret  intercourse  with  fairyland,  whither 
he  had  been  carried  when  a  child.  We  shall  probably  stumble 
at  both  these  hypotheses,  and  reject  altogether  his  pretensions 
as  a  prophet ;  and  his  rhymes  which  remain  do  not  give  us 
very  exalted  ideas  of  his  powers  as  a  poet. 

But  by  far  the  most  celebrated  Scotchman  of  the  thirteenth 
century  was  the  celebrated  schoolman,  John  Duns  Scotus. 
Born  at  Duns,  in  the  Merse,2  he  entered  at  an  early  age  the 
order  of  Franciscan  Friars.  To  complete  his  studies  he  re- 
paired to  Oxford,  where  he  rapidly  rose  to  be  professor  of 
theology,  and  such  was  the  fame  of  his  genius  and  learning, 
that  thirty  thousand  students  are  said  to  have  resorted  to  his 
lectures  ;  but  we  are  not  informed  how  the  huge  concourse 

1  Mackenzie,  Dempster,  &c. 

2  Some  antiquaries  have  affirmed  that  this  great  schoolman  was  born  at 
Dunstan  in  Northumberland  ;  but  there  is  a  great  preponderance  of  evi- 
dence in  favour  of  Scotland.  He  is  said  to  have  been  born  in  1274,  and 
to  have  died  in  1308. 


120  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VI. 

was  accommodated.  From  Oxford  he  went  to  Paris,  as  a  wider 
field  for  his  talents.  The  scholastic  philosophy  was  now  in 
the  ascendant ;  Aristotle  was  worshipped  as  a  God,  and  every 
theological  subject  was  reduced  into  a  dialectic  form,  and  dis- 
cussed according  to  the  rules  of  the  dialectic  art.  Duns 
Scotus  was  deeply  infected  with  the  prevailing .  epidemic,  and 
among  his  other  works  we  find  Commentaries  on  the  Eight 
Books  of  Aristotle,  and  on  the  Four  Books  of  Sentences.  He 
ventured,  however,  in  many  particulars  to  differ  from  Aquinas, 
who,  next  to  Aristotle,  was  the  great  authority  of  the  day. 
The  Dominicans  flew  to  the  succour  of  the  one,  the  Francis- 
cans stood  fast  by  the  side  of  the  other.  The  famous  sects  of 
the  Thomists  and  Scotists  arose,  whose  controversies  regarding 
Grace  and  Free  Will  are  undecided  to  this  day.  The  genius 
of  Aquinas  had  earned  for  him  the  title  of  the  Angelic  Doctor; 
the  acuteness  of  Scotus  got  for  him  the  title  of  the  Subtle 
Doctor;  it  was  the  fashion  of  the  time  to  bestow  such  appella- 
tives. But  perhaps  the  greatest  achievement  of  our  countryman 
was  connected  with  the  Immaculate  Conception  of  the  Virgin, 
a  dogma  which  he  is  reputed  to  have  proved  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  University  of  Paris  by  no  fewer  than  two  hundred 
arguments.  Though  his  labours  were  abundant,  his  years 
were  not  many,  for  he  is  understood  to  have  died  at  Cologne 
at  the  early  age  of  thirty-four.  Over  his  tomb,  in  the  Church 
of  the  Minorites,  it  is  said  that  there  was  once  an  epitaph, 
purporting  that  Scotland  gave  him  birth,  England  nurture, 
France  education,  Germany  a  grave.1 

We  have  been  diverted  from  following  the  course  of  events 
by  this  brief  review  of  the  writers  produced  by  our  country  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  and  who  walk  first  in  that  long  proces- 
sion of  poets,  philosophers,  and  divines,  which  slowly  defiles 
before  the  eye  of  the  historian  as  he  scans  the  centuries  which 
succeed.     We  now  return  to  our  narrative. 

Alexander  III.  was  killed  by  a  fall  from  his  horse  near 
Kinghorn  on  the  16th  of  March  1285-6.  His  death  plunged 
the  whole  nation  into  mourning.  "  The  nobility,  clergy,  and, 
above  all,  the  gentry  and  commons,"  says  Balfour,  "  bedewed 
his  coffin  for  seventeen  days'  space  with  rivulets  of  tears."  He 
was  a  good  king,  and  deserved  to  be  lamented.  "  In  his 
time,"  to  quote  the  affectionate  tribute  of  Fordun,  "  the  Church 
flourished ;    its  ministers   were  treated  with  reverence  \  vice 

1  Scotia  me  genuit,  Anglia  suscepit, 
Gallia  edocuit,  Germania  tenet. 


A.D.   1286.]  COMPETITION  FOR  THRONE.  12  1 

was  openly  discouraged  \  cunning  and  treachery  were  trampled 
under  foot ;  injury  ceased;  and  the  reign  of  virtue,  truth,  and 
justice  was  maintained  throughout  the  land."  But,  indeed, 
there  was  greater  reason  to  grieve  for  the  living  than  for  the 
dead,  because  of  the  phials  of  wrath,  confusion,  and  civil  war 
which  were  now  about  to  be  poured  out  upon  the  country. 
Alexander  had  seen  all  his  children  die  before  him  ;  and  now 
the  heir  of  his  crown  was  an  infant  grandchild,  daughter  of 
Eric,  King  of  Norway.  Several  of  the  powerful  barons  began 
already  to  aspire  to  the  throne  \  and,  in  truth,  in  those  turbu- 
lent times,  a  sickly  child  was  scarcely  its  proper  occupant. 
Edward  of  England  had  already  reduced  Wales,  and  had  long 
been  ambitious  to  annex  Scotland  to  his  crown ;  and  he 
thought  that  now  the  pear  wras  ripe.  He  proposed  a  marriage 
between  the  Maid  of  Norway  and  his  son,  which  was  agreed 
to ;  but  the  fragile  girl  died  at  Orkney  on  her  voyage  to  Scot- 
land, and  so  this  scheme  of  ambition  was  blasted. 

No  fewer  than  twelve  competitors  for  the  throne  now  ap- 
peared ;  and,  unhappily,  Edward  wras  chosen  to  adjudicate 
between  them.  Before  proceeding  to  investigate  their  claims 
and  give  his  award,  the  English  monarch  demanded  that  he 
should  be  recognised  as  Lord  Paramount ;  and  the  demand, 
haughtily  made,  was  meanly  conceded  by  suitors  anxious  to 
secure  the  favour  of  their  judge.  Robert  de  Bruce  and  John 
de  Baliol  had  undoubtedly  the  strongest  claims  \  and  Edward, 
discovering  that  the  latter  was  likely  to  be  the  more  compliant 
vassal,  gave  judgment  in  his  favour.  But  even  Baliol  could 
not  brook  the  indignities  which  were  heaped  upon  him.  He 
fired,  and  prepared  to  resist ;  but  resentment  was  useless  and 
resistance  in  vain  in  the  divided  state  of  the  kingdom,  and  the 
feeble  monarch  was  tumbled  from  his  throne.  At  this  crisis 
in  the  country's  fate,  William  Wallace  arose,  and  for  a  time 
almost  single-handed  stemmed  the  tide  of  oppression.  He 
defeated  the  English  at  Stirling  Bridge,  and  carried  his  vic- 
torious arms  into  the  north  of  England ;  but  the  disaster  at 
Falkirk,  and  the  jealousy  of  the  great  barons,  compelled  him 
to  resign  his  office  of  Governor  of  Scotland.  Still  he  did  not 
sheath  his  renowned  two-handed  sword  ;  and  Edward  felt  that 
so  long  as  Wallace  lived  Scotland  was  not  subdued. 

The  English  monarch  was  not  allowed  to  urge  his  preten- 
sions to  the  feudal  superiority  of  Scotland  without  a  rival. 
Boniface  VIIL,  in  the  year  1300,  published  a  bull,  in  which 
he  declared  that  Scotland  was  a  fief  of  the  Holy  See, — and 


122  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VI. 

commanded  Edward  to  remove  his  officers  and  armies  from 
the  patrimony  of  the  Church.  One  of  the  arguments  by  which 
His  Holiness  supported  his  pretensions  was,  that  the  spiritual 
conquest  of  the  country  had  been  achieved  by  the  bones  of 
St  Andrew,  the  brother  of  St  Peter.1  One  is  tempted  to  think 
that  the  pretensions  of  the  Pope  were  merely  meant  as  a 
mockery  of  those  of  the  King — a  quiet  sarcasm  upon  the 
weak  arguments  by  which  he  supported  his  too  powerful  arms  ; 
but  both  were  really  in  earnest.  It  is  not  improbable,  how- 
ever, that  Scottish  influence,  perhaps  Scottish  gold,  had 
procured  the  interference  of  the  Supreme  Pontiff ;  and  it  may 
even  have  been  suggested  that  our  bleeding  country  would  be 
safest  from  the  English  lion  if  taken  under  the  ample  folds  of 
the  papal  mantle.  Edward  received  the  bull  with  oaths  and 
rage  ;  but,  collecting  himself,  he  gave  a  courteous  reply  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  who  delivered  it,  and  finally  got  his 
parliament  to  send  an  elaborate  answer  to  the  Pope  in  defence 
of  his  pretended  rights.  It  is  probable  the  document  was 
accompanied  with  larger  bribes  than  Scotland  could  afford  ; 
for  His  Holiness  now  suddenly  turned  round,  and  in  a  papal 
bull  censured  the  patriotism  of  the  Scottish  bishops,  who  were 
anxious  to  maintain  the  independence  of  their  country.2 

Reconciled  to  Rome,  and  backed  by  this  bull,  Edward 
again  marched  into  Scotland.  "  In  recording  the  history  of 
this  last  miserable  campaign,"  says  Tytler,  with  more  than  his 
usual  eloquence,  "  the  historian  has  to  tell  a  tale  of  sullen 
submission  and  pitiless  ravage  ;  he  has  little  to  do  but  to  follow 
in  dejection  the  chariot-wheels  of  the  conqueror,  and  to  hear 
them  crushing  under  their  iron  weight  all  that  was  free  and 
brave  in  a  devoted  country/'3  But  the  cause  of  that  country 
was  not  yet  utterly  lost ;  and  its  deliverer  was  already  riding 
in  hot  haste  from  the  court  of  Edward  for  the  Scottish 
border. 

Robert  Bruce,  the  grandson  of  Baliol's  rival  for  the  throne, 
had  hitherto  preserved  his  large  estates  by  maintaining  his 
allegiance  to  the  English  throne ;  but  finding  himself  sus- 
pected, and  no  longer  safe,  he  now  fled  to  Scotland,  sum- 
moned together  his  dependents  and  friends,  had  himself 
solemnly  crowned  at  Scone,  and,  after  some  of  the  most  ro- 
mantic adventures,  and  hair-breadth  escapes,  and  chivalrous 
feats  at  arms  recorded  in  history,  he  achieved,  on  the  field 
of  Bannockburn,  the  independence  of  his  country. 

1  Hailes's  Annals,  vol.  ii.     Tytler's  History,  vol.  i. 

2  Hailes's  Annals,  vol.  ii.  3  Tytler's  History,  vol  ii. 


A.D.    1317.]  THE  CLERGY  SUPPORT  BRUCE.  1 23 

Religion,  though  she  naturally  seeks  for  quieter  scenes  than 
the  camp  and  the  battle-field,  did  not  altogether  stand  aloof 
in  this  great  struggle  for  liberty.  Among  the  first  friends  of 
the  Bruce  were  Lamberton,  Bishop  of  St  Andrews  ;  Wishart, 
Bishop  of  Glasgow ;  David,  Bishop  of  Moray  ;  and  the  Abbot 
of  Scone.  Bruce  had  become  guilty  of  the  most  daring  impiety 
by  slaying  Comyn  in  the  Church  of  the  Minorites  at  Dumfries ; 
but  Wishart  absolved  him  in  his  cathedral  at  Glasgow.  A 
papal  excommunication  was  thundered  against  him,  which 
might  have  utterly  ruined  him  in  that  superstitious  age,  but  the 
friendship  and  influence  of  Lamberton  deprived  it  of  more  than 
half  its  power.  Both  these  prelates  paid  for  their  patriotism  by 
a  long  imprisonment,  and  it  was  only  their  surplice  that  saved 
them  from  a  halter.  The  Bishop  of  Moray,  undeterred,  boldly 
preached  in  his  diocese,  that  it  was  more  meritorious  to  fight 
under  the  banners  of  Bruce  than  to  join  in  a  crusade  against 
the  Saracens.  Led  by  such  influence,  the  Scottish  clergy  met 
in  a  provincial  council,  and  issued  a  declaration  addressed  to 
all  the  faithful,  and  bearing  that  the  nation,  seeing  the  king- 
dom betrayed  and  enslaved,  had  assumed  Robert  Bruce  for  its 
king,  and  that  the  clergy  had  cheerfully  done  him  homage  as 
such.1  On  the  field  of  Bannockburn,  before  the  battle,  the 
Abbot  of  Inchaffray  passed  along  the  serried  ranks  of  the  Scots, 
bearing  the  bones  of  St  Fillan,  granting  absolution,  and  fortify- 
ing courage  by  the  powers  of  superstition.  In  gratitude  to  St 
Andrew,  to  whose  assistance  the  victory  was  devoutly  ascribed. 
the  king  gave  to  the  canons  of  his  cathedral  a  yearly  sum  of  a 
hundred  merks  ;  Lamberton  added  the  churches  of  Abercrom- 
bie  and  Dairsie  ;  and  Duncan,  Earl  of  Fife,  the  church  of 
Kilgour.2 

While  the  Church  thus  exhibited  its  patriot- 
a.d.  ni7.        .  .......         ,  l 

ism,  and  the  king  his  piety,  the  supremacy 

which  a  dominant  priest  had  obtained  among  the  nations  was 

employed  to  prevent  the  Scottish  armies  from  reaping  the  full 

fruits  of  victory.     After  the  battle  of  Bannockburn,  Bruce  was 

bent  upon  following  up  his  success  by  marching  into  England ; 

and  Edward  was  in  no  position  to  resist.     It  was  resolved  that 

the   invaders    should   be   combated   with    spiritual  weapons. 

England  was  rich,  and  the  Pope  was  compliant ;  and  a  bull 

was  issued  from  Avignon,  commanding  a  truce  of  two  years 

between   the    hostile    countries,   under   pain    of  the   highest 

1  Hailes's  Annals,  vol.  ii.  2  Balfour's  Annals,  vol.  i. 


1 24  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   VI. 

spiritual  censures.  Two  cardinal  legates  were  despatched  to 
publish  the  truce,  and  in  case  of  resistance  to  excommunicate 
the  king.  The  cardinals  prudently  paused  in  England,  and 
sent  forward  two  nuncios  to  intimate  the  message ;  but  the  un- 
fortunate deputies,  while  crossing  the  borders,  were  attacked 
by  banditti,  and  being  eased  of  some  superfluous  vestments  and 
money,  were  allowed  to  pursue  their  way.  Bruce  courteously 
received  them  at  court,  professed  his  earnest  desire  to  be  at 
peace  with  his  spiritual  mother,  but  firmly  refused  to  open  the 
sealed  letters  which  they  brought,  as  they  were  not  addressed 
to  him  under  the  title  of  king.  "  There  are  several  nobles  in 
my  dominions,"  said  he,  "  called  Robert  de  Bruce ;  it  may  be 
they  are  intended  for  some  one  of  them."  1 

Baffled  of  their  object  by  the  firmness  of  the  king,  the  nun- 
cios returned  in  all  haste  to  the  cardinals,  who  awaited  the 
result  of  the  enterprise  at  Durham.  A  check  had  been  given 
to  papal  presumption ;  but  it  was  never  the  wont  of  church- 
men thus  easily  to  quit  the  field.  It  was  resolved  that  the 
truce  should  be  published  ;  and  Adam  Newton,  a  Franciscan 
friar,  was  employed  upon  the  perilous  mission.  Setting  out 
from  Berwick,  he  found  the  king  encamped  in  a  wood  near  to 
Old  Cambus,  busily  employed  in  constructing  engines  to  batter 
the  walls  of  the  town  he  had  just  left.  He  sought,  but  was  re- 
fused admittance  to  the  royal  presence  ;  and  when  it  was  found 
that  his  credentials  were  not  addressed  to  Robert  as  king,  they 
were  contemptuously  returned  to  him  unopened.  The  friar, 
nevertheless,  with  the  devoted  courage  which  has  in  general 
been  characteristic  of  his  order,  proclaimed,  in  presence  of  a 
concourse  of  the  barons,  that  it  was  the  pontifical  will  there 
should  be  a  truce  between  the  kingdoms ;  but  the  words  were 
no  sooner  spoken  than  there  were  mutterings  and  looks  which 
could  not  be  mistaken ;  and  the  monk,  feeling  his  courage  to 
ooze  out,  begged  that  he  might  now  be  allowed  to  proceed  to 
visit  the  prelates,  to  whom  his  instructions  were  addressed ;  or, 
if  not,  that  he  might  have  a  safe  conduct  to  return  to  Berwick. 
Both  requests  were  refused,  and  a  hint  conveyed  that  he  had 
better  leave  the  kingdom  as  quickly  and  as  best  he  could.  He 
took  the  hint  and  hastened  south,  but  he  was  waylaid  upon 
the  road,  robbed  of  his  parchments,  among  which  were  the 
bulls  excommunicating  the  king ;  and  being  further  stripped 
of  the  little  clothing  which  a  Franciscan  has,  was  left  stark 

1  Rymer,  Foedera,  vol.  iii.  pp.  661-2. 


A.D.  1320.]  BULL  AND  MANIFESTO.  1 25 

naked,  and  almost  stark  mad,  to  continue  his  journey. 
Arriving  at  Berwick,  the  unhappy  monk  addressed  a  letter  to 
the  legates  bemoaning  his  misfortunes,  and  stating  that  it  was 
rumoured  that  the  Lord  Robert  had  planned  the  robbery  and 
was  in  possession  of  the  parchments ;  and,  without  greatly 
wronging  the  memory  of  the  pious  monarch,  we  may  feel  dis- 
posed to  believe  in  the  report.1 

After  obtaining  possession  of  Berwick,  and  re- 
3  pulsing  an  attempt  to  recapture  it  by  the  English 
king  in  person,  and  sweeping,  more  than  once,  the  northern 
counties  with  his  light-armed  cavalry,  Bruce  consented  to  a 
cessation  of  hostilities.  He  was  anxious  not  merely  for  the 
blessings  of  peace,  but  to  be  reconciled  to  the  Holy  See  ;  but 
the  Supreme  Pontiff  was  in  no  humour  to  be  reconciled  to 
him,  and  had  forgotten  altogether  his  office  as  a  peacemaker. 
A  rabid  and  most  rancorous  bull  was  issued  against  the  king 
and  his  accomplices  ;  and  the  Archbishop  of  York,  with  the 
Bishops  of  London  and  Carlisle,  were  commanded,  with  all  the 
usual  solemnities  of  book,  bell,  and  candle,  to  excommunicate 
the  guilty  crew  every  Sunday  and  festival-day  throughout  the 
year.  This  could  not  be  borne  in  silence  ;  and,  accordingly, 
a  meeting  of  the  Estates  was  held  at  Aberbrothock,  and  an 
elaborate  manifesto  prepared  and  addressed  to  the  Pope ;  set- 
ting forth  the  ancient  independence  of  the  nation,  and  the 
right  of  Robert  the  Bruce  to  reign  as  its  king.  It  ran  in  the 
name  of  eight  earls  and  thirty-one  barons  especially  men- 
tioned, and  of  "the  other  barons,  freeholders,  and  whole  com- 
munity of  Scotland."2  The  publication  of  this  spirited 
manifesto  led  the  Pontiff  to  sist  the  repeated  publication  of 
the  bulls  of  excommunication  •  but  it  was  not  till  three  years 
afterwards,  during  which  the  northern  counties  of  England 
were  again  cruelly  wasted,  that  a  complete  reconciliation  with 
Rome  was  effected  by  Randolph  proceeding  to  Rome  and 
persuading  the  Pope  to  address  a  bull  to  the  Bruce,  with  the 
title  of  king.  Edward  complained  of  the  bad  faith  of  His 
Holiness  for  consenting  to  do  so,  but  was  soon  afterwards  him- 
self glad  to  make  peace  with  the  Scottish  monarch  upon  terms 
still  more  hurtful  to  his  pride. 

In  all  these  transactions  the  patriotism  and  loyalty  of  the 

1  Rymer,  Fcedera,  vol.  iii.  pp.  683-4. 

2  A  duplicate  of  this  memorable  document  is  preserved  in  the  General 
Register  House  at  Edinburgh.  A  facsimile  is  given  in  the  first  vohime 
of  the  Scots  Acts. 


126  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.   VI. 

native  clergy  were  sufficiently  obvious,  and  it  was  only  the 
foreign  element — the  unfortunately-recognised  supremacy  of 
the  Bishop  of  Rome — that  threatened  to  breed  disturbance 
between  the  Church  and  the  State.  The  papal  court,  ever 
venal,  was  at  the  service  of  England,  and,  of  course,  it  had 
its  emissaries  and  devotees ;  but  the  clergy,  as  a  body,  clung 
to  the  interests  of  the  royal  Bruce,  and  were  ready  to  forget 
their  vows  to  advance  his  cause.  In  truth,  though  the  faith 
and  worship  of  the  Scottish  Church  were  as  corrupted  as  those 
of  any  Church  in  Christendom,  its  priesthood  was  never  blindly 
submissive  to  the  Vatican.  The  country  was  distant  from  the 
centre  of  pontifical  influence,  and  much  of  that  influence  was 
lost  as  it  radiated  towards  the  circumference.  It  formed  one 
of  the  outer  provinces  of  the  vast  spiritual  hierarchy,  where  the 
law  in  its  rigour  was  not  felt.  Scotland  was  more  than  once 
put  under  an  interdict,  and  its  monarchs  were  frequently  under 
the  ban  of  the  Holy  See ;  but  the  king  and  the  country  alike 
seemed  to  have  been  unscathed  by  the  lightning's  flash,  for  we 
read  of  no  rebellions,  no  assassinations,  no  outrages  of  any 
kind  ;  and  though  history  has  recorded  the  facts,  she  has  made 
no  mention  of  their  effects,  from  which  we  may  infer  that  they 
were  but  slight  and  transient. 

Our  great  king,  notwithstanding  his  stout  resistance  to 
Rome,  was  a  religious  man  according  to  the  religion  of  the 
time ;  and  there  is  a  circumstance  in  his  life,  or  rather  con- 
nected with  his  death,  which  very  well  illustrates  the  religious 
feelings  of  the  period.  The  blood  of  the  Red  Corny n,  slain 
before  the  altar  at  Dumfries,  had  left  a  stain  upon  his  con- 
science, and  to  wipe  it  out,  he  had  solemnly  vowed  that 
when  the  country  was  free,  he  would  take  the  cross  and  go 
to  Palestine.  He  had  never  been  able  to  perform  his  vow, 
and  when  he  was  upon  his  death-bed,  being  troubled  thereat, 
he  called  Sir  James  Douglas  to  his  side,  and  exacted  from 
him  a  solemn  promise,  that  when  he  was  dead  he  would  take 
out  his  heart  and  carry  it  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  "  where  the 
Lord  lay."1  The  promise  being  made  on  the  true  faith  of  a 
knight,  the  monarch  died  in  peace.  The  good  Sir  James  was 
true  to  his  word,  and  with  a  chosen  band  of  knights  set  out  for 
Palestine  ;  but  his  unconquerable  love  for  adventure  led  him  ' 

1  Bruce  had  previously  arranged  that  he  should  be  buried  at  Melrose,  to 
which  abbey  he  bequeathed  large  sums  ;  and  it  appears  that  it  was  not 
till  he  lay  a  poor  leper  at  Cardross,  and  nigh  to  death,  that  he  formed 
the  resolution  of  sending  his  heart  to  Jerusalem. 


a.d.   1300-1400. j  JOHN  DE  FORDUN.  1 27 

to  Spain,  that  he  might  assist  in  battle  against  the  Moors,  and 
being  surrounded  in  the  too  eager  pursuit  of  the  flying  foe,  he 
made  his  last  charge  by  throwing  the  casket  containing  the 
embalmed  heart  of  his  beloved  sovereign  before  him,  and  cry- 
ing out,  "  On,  thou  noble  heart,  and  where  the  Bruce  leads,  the 
Douglas  will  follow  ! "  The  incident  is  one  of  the  finest 
in  the  records  of  chivalry,  but  it  is  evidently  embellished 
by  romance. 

Robert  I.  was  succeeded  by  his  son  David  II.,  a  child  of 
eight  years  old  at  the  time  of  his  father's  death.  In  the  re- 
joicings attending  his  birth,  the  court  poets  foretold  that  he 
would  rival  his  father's  fame  ;  but  virtue  and  valour  are  not 
always  hereditary,  and  we  read  with  extreme  pain,  on  the 
prosaic  but  truthful  page  of  history,  of  his  mean  and  truckling 
spirit,  and  of  how  he  would  have  sold  to  England  for  money 
the  country  which  his  father  had  redeemed  with  blood.  Robert 
II.,  the  first  of  the  Stuarts  who  sat  upon  our  throne,  succeeded 
to  his  uncle  David ;  and  he  in  his  turn  was  succeeded  by  his 
son  Robert  III.  These  reigns  fill  up  the  fourteenth  century. 
They  contain  political  events  of  the  greatest  importance,  but 
no  ecclesiastical  occurrences  deserving  of  record.  The  Church 
had  now  fully  asserted  its  independence  of  England.  The 
ecclesiastical  battle  was  fought  and  won  earlier  than  the  poli- 
tical one.  It  was  now  completely  conformed  to  Rome,  and 
reconciled  to  Rome ;  and  its  bishops  and  priests  quietly  per- 
formed their  sacred  offices  in  those  noble  edifices  which  piety 
had  reared  for  them.  It  is,  unfortunately,  only  times  of  trouble 
that  find  a  place  in  history  ;  the  calm  scenes  and  useful  labours 
of  periods  of  repose  soon  sink  into  oblivion. 

The  seeds  of  our  glorious  modern  literature  were  already 
beginning  to  germinate  under  the  sunny  influences  of  the 
Italian  sky.  In  our  colder  latitudes  the  development  was  later 
and  slower ;  but  even  in  the  fourteenth  century  there  were 
evidences  of  a  quickening  power  at  work.  We  have  authors 
in  that  age — all  of  them  ecclesiastics — of  whom  we  need  not 
be  ashamed. 

John  de  Fordun  is  the  earliest  Scottish  historian.  He  was 
born,  toward  the  latter  end  of  the  reign  of  Alexander  III.,  at 
Fordun  in  Kincardineshire.  After  he  had  finished  his  studies 
in  grammar  and  philosophy,  he  applied  himself  to  theology, 
and  entered  into  holy  orders.  He  formed  the  design  of 
writing  the  history  of  his  country  from  the  most  remote  anti- 
quity down  to  his  own  time,  but  he  did  not  live  to  complete 


128  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   VI. 

the  work.  He  finished  only  five  books,  but  he  has  had  several 
continuators.  He  was  not  free  from  the  love  for  fable,  uni- 
versal in  his  age,  and  he  traces  our  nation  through  Greece  and 
Egypt  up  to  Nimrod  the  mighty  hunter.  But  when  he  leaves 
behind  him  the  region  of  clouds,  and  sets  his  foot  upon  the 
solid  land,  he  is  in  general  worthy  of  credit  ;  and  every  sub- 
sequent historian  has  been  largely  indebted  to  him.  He  is, 
at  least,  the  highest  authority  we  have,  and  far  more  trust- 
worthy than  the  imaginative  Boece  ;  but  none  of  our  early 
chronicles  can  be  implicitly  followed  as  a  guide.  His  "  Scoti- 
Chronicon  "  was  anciently  so  hightly  esteemed,  that  almost 
every  monastic  library  could  boast  a  copy  of  it  \  and  the  famous 
Register  of  the  Carthusians  at  Perth,  and  the  Black  Books  of 
Scone  and  Paisley,  were  little  else  than  transcripts  and  con- 
tinuations of  it. 

Achilles  had  Homer  to  celebrate  his  praise  in  immortal 
verse  ;  Bruce,  a  mightier  hero,  had  a  meaner  bard,  but  still 
one  of  those  favoured  few  who  are  born  with  a  harp  in  their 
bosom.  John  Barbour  is  said  to  have  been  born  in  Aber- 
deen about  the  year  1316.  After  receiving  the  rudiments 
of  his  education  at  home,  he  pursued  his  philosophical  and 
theological  studies  in  the  universities  of  Oxford  and  Paris. 
Returning  to  his  native  country,  he  entered  into  priest's 
orders,  and  was  preferred  by  King  David  to  the  Arch- 
deaconry of  his  native  city.  His  heroic  poem  on  Robert 
Bruce  consists  of  a  hundred  and  one  books,  in  which  he 
minutely  traces  his  history,  from  his  flight  to  Scotland  down 
to  the  adventure  of  his  heart  on  the  mountains  of  Andalusia. 
It  is  a  remarkable  production  for  so  early  a  period,  giving  us 
life-like  pictures  of  the  great  characters  who  wrought  out  the 
deliverance  of  the  country,  and  of  the  stirring  scenes  amid 
which  they  lived  ;  and  though  not  to  be  ranked  with  the 
great  productions  of  poetic  genius,  it  must  ever  be  interest- 
ing to  Scotsmen  as  one  of  the  earliest  specimens  of  their 
native  tongue,  and  the  most  faithful  history  of  their  favourite 
king. 

John  Bassol,  a  Minorite  friar,  who  wrote  a  large  folio  on 
the  "  Books  of  the  Sentences,"  which  acquired  for  him  the 
title  of  "  the  most  orderly  doctor ;"  John  Blair,  a  Benedictine 
monk,  who  is  said  to  have  been  a  schoolfellow  of  Sir  William 
Wallace,  and  who  afterwards  wrote  his  deeds ;  William 
Dempster,  Professor  of  Philosophy  at  Paris ;  and  Thomas 
Varoye,  Provost  of  Bothwell,  who  wrote  a  poem  in  celebration 


ad.   1400.]  GROWTH  OF  THE  PAPACY.  I  29 

of  the  battle  of  Otterburne,  nearly  complete  the  catalogue  of 
illustrious  Scotsmen  in  the  fourteenth  century.  Even  these, 
how  few  have  seen  their  writings — how  few  have  heard  their 
names  !  But  the  revival  of  letters  had  already  begun. 
Petrarch  and  Boccaccio  had  made  the  world  vocal  with 
poetry  not  unworthy  of  their  Latin  ancestry  j  the  invention  of 
printing  was  at  hand  ;  and  greater  men  arose  to  play  their 
parts  upon  a  greater  stage. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

"  Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day."  This  is  equally  true  of 
papal  as  of  pagan  Rome.  We  shall  sin  against  all  history  if 
we  conceive  that  the  stupendous  system  of  faith  and  worship 
now  embodied  in  the  decrees  and  canons  of  the  Council  of 
Trent  was  fully  developed  and  perfect  from  the  first.  It  was 
the  growth  of  fifteen  hundred  years.  The  members  of  the 
hierarchy  rose  by  slow  decrees  to  their  opulence  and  power ; 
the  rites  and  ceremonies  which  overlaid  the  spiritual  services 
of  the  sanctuary  were  gradually  introduced  \  and  almost  every 
important  dogma  was  the  subject  of  free  discussion  for  cen- 
turies before  it  was  put  into  the  creed,  and  made  a  necessary 
article  of  belief.  Pictures  and  statues  were  very  early  brought 
into  the  Christian  churches,  but  it  was  not  till  the  year  879 
that  the  Council  of  Constantinople  decreed  the  worship  of 
images,  and  silenced  the  iconoclasts  ;  and  more  than  another 
century  was  required  to  make  the  doctrine  universal  in  the 
west.  From  the  patristic  age  the  virtues  of  celibacy  were 
greatly  lauded,  and  multitudes  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  of  men 
and  of  women,  sacrificed  the  first  instincts  of  their  nature  to 
the  prevalent  ideas  of  Christian  perfection  ;  but  it  was  not  till 
the  eleventh  century  that  Gregory  VII.  made  celibacy  com- 
pulsory upon  every  member  of  the  sacerdotal  caste.  In  the 
writings  of  several  of  the  first  apologists  for  Christianity  there 
is  language  which  seems  to  imply  a  belief  in  the  real  presence 
in  the  sacrament  of  the  Supper  :  but  not  till  the  thirteenth 
century,  when  Innocent  III.  sat  in  the  papal  chair,  was  the 
term  transubstantiation  known,  or  the  doctrine  authoritatively 
defined.  It  was  the  same  pontiff  who  first  rendered  auricular 
confession  imperative,  thus  giving  to  the  Church  two  dogmas, 


I30  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   VII. 

the  former  of  which  is  the  greatest  possible  affront  to  the 
human  understanding,  and  the  latter  the  greatest  possible 
shock  to  private  modesty  and  to  public  morals.  His  succes- 
sor, Honorius  III.,  decreed  the  adoration  of  the  Host,  and 
thus  rendered  complete  the  idea  of  Christ's  presence  in  the 
Eucharist.  Thus  has  this  great  Church  system  grown,  and 
thus  is  it  now  growing  ;  for  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
the  creed  of  Rome  is  a  sealed  book,  from  which  nothing  must 
be  taken  away,  and  to  which  nothing  may  be  added.  In  our 
own  day,  after  five  hundred  years  of  vehement  debate,  the 
doctrines  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  and  the  Infallibilty 
of  the  Pope  have  been  placed  upon  the  same  level  as  the 
doctrines  of  the  Existence  and  Unity  of  God. 

It  has  frequently  been  remarked  of  the  British  constitution 
that  its  great  strength  and  durability  result  from  its  being  the 
slow  growth  of  many  centuries.  In  France  we  have  seen  con- 
stitutions born  in  a  day  and  die  in  a  day.  In  England  the 
overshadowing  constitution  under  which  we  live  and  are  safe 
has  been  the  work  of  nearly  a  thousand  years — the  product 
of  a  cautious  legislation,  meeting  emergencies  and  correcting 
abuses  just  as  they  arose.  Unlike  the  gourd  matured  by  a 
single  sun  and  blasted  in  a  single  night,  it  is  more  like  the 
oak  of  our  forests,  which  requires  an  unknown  number  of  cen- 
turies to  arrive  at  its  fullest  development ;  but  which,  when  it 
has  taken  hold  of  the  soil,  no  tempest  can  overturn.  It  is  to 
the  same  circumstance  we  must  attribute  the  amazing  stability 
of  the  papal  system  and  the  papal  power.  The  oldest  empires 
are  young  in  comparison  with  the  spiritual  empire  of  Rome. 
The  most  ancient  dynasties  are  of  yesterday  contrasted  with 
the  long  line  of  pontiffs  who  have  sat  in  the  chair  of  St  Peter. 
Nor  are  there  yet  the  slightest  symptoms  of  this  dominion 
coming  to  an  end  ;  for  though  old  provinces  have  revolted 
and  declared  themselves  free,  new  provinces  have  been  gained 
which  more  than  compensate  for  the  loss  ;  just  as  Great 
Britain  has  more  than  made  up  for  the  loss  of  the  American 
States,  by  her  vast  and  recently-acquired  possessions  in  Aus- 
tralia and  India. 

The  Church  grew  in  Scotland  as  it  grew  at  Rome,  as  the 
branch  grows  with  the  growth  of  the  stem.  Rite  after  rite  was 
introduced  ;  doctrine  after  doctrine  was  readily  embraced  ; 
for  with  the  expansion  of  the  creed  there  was  always  exhi- 
bited a  corresponding  expansion  of  the  faculty  of  faith  ; 
swarm  after  swarm  of  idle  friars  came  from  the  south,  dark- 


a.d.  1414.]  COUNCIL  OF  CONSTANCE.  131 

ening  the  sky  and  settling  down  upon  the  land  ;  stone  after 
stone  was  added  to  the  structure,  and  as  it  rose  toward  heaven, 
it  appeared  so  broad  and  high,  and  firmly  compacted,  that 
nothing  could  shake  it.  But  already  the  cloud,  no  larger  than 
a  man's  hand,  appeared  in  the  sky,  which  betokened  the 
coming  tempest. 

The  fifteenth  century  opened  upon  one  of  the  worst 
schisms  that  had  ever  rent  the  Latin  Church.  Boniface  IX. 
at  Rome,  and  Benedict  XIII.  at  Avignon,  both  laid  claim  to 
the  popedom,  and  exercised  its  functions.  The  death  of  the 
former  did  not  end  the  division,  for  his  faction  raised  to  the 
pontificate  Innocent  VII.  ;  and  he,  after  a  reign  of  two  years, 
was  succeeded  by  Gregory  XII.  A  plan  of  reconciliation 
was  now  formed  between  the  contending  pontiffs,  who  reci- 
procally bound  themselves  by  a  solemn  oath  to  resign  the 
papal  dignity,  if  necessary  for  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the 
Church ;  but  their  oaths  were  violated,  and  the  schism  con- 
tinued. In  1409  a  Council  was  assembled  at  Pisa,  which 
declared  both  the  Popes  to  be  guilty  of  heresy,  perjury,  and 
contumacy,  and  to  be  therefore  ipso  facto  deposed  and  excom- 
municated. The  Council  next  raised  to  the  pontifical  chair 
Peter  of  Candia,  who  assumed  the  name  of  Alexander  V. 
There  were  now  in  the  Church  three  factions  and  three  Popes, 
who  mutually  cursed  and  excommunicated  each  other.  Alex- 
ander V.  dying  at  Bologna,  sixteen  cardinals,  who  belonged 
to  his  party,  chose  as  his  successor  a  Neapolitan,  of  a  most 
unprincipled  and  profligate  character,  who  took  the  name  of 
John  XXIII.  The  pious  beheld  all  this  with  wonder  and  dis- 
gust, and  knew  not  whom  to  recognise  as  their  spiritual  father 
and  supreme  head. 

In  1414  the  famous  Council  of  Constance  met  to  heal  the 
divisions  which  distracted  the  Church.  The  Council  began 
its  labours  by  declaring,  that  an  oecumenical  council  was  supe- 
rior to  the  Pope.  This  rule  being  established,  John  XXIII. 
was  unanimously  deposed  on  account  of  many  grave  crimes 
which  were  laid  to  his  charge.  As  the  Council  was  evidently 
in  earnest,  Gregory  XII.  anticipated  his  fate  by  making  a 
voluntary  resignation  of  the  pontifical  throne.  But  Benedict 
XIII.  was  not  a  man  to  yield,  and  so  he  also  was  deposed  ; 
and  the  field  being  thus  cleared,  Otta  de  Colonna  was  raised 
to  the  dignity  of  head  of  the  Church,  which  he  ruled  under 
the  title  of  Martin  V.  Still  Benedict  refused  to  acknowledge 
the  proceedings  of  the  Council,  and  continued  till  the  day  of 


132  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.   yiX, 

his  death  to  claim  the  prerogatives  and  discharge  the  duties  of 
the  pontificate. 

This  unseemly  spectacle  of  so  many  rival  popes  contending 
for  the  chair  of  the  apostolic  fisherman,  with  all  the  ambition, 
avarice,  want  of  faith,  and  other  crimes  which  the  contest  laid 
bare,  scandalized  many,  and  led  them  to  doubt  the  infallibility 
of  such  men,  and  the  purity  of  the  Church  over  which  they 
presided.  But  even  before  this  period,  Wickliff — so  beauti- 
fully called  the  Morning  Star  of  the  Reformation — had  arisen, 
and  by  his  bold  preaching,  and,  above  all,  by  his  translation 
of  the  Bible  into  English,  exposed  the  corruptions  of  Rome. 
Notwithstanding  the  bitter  enmity  of  the  friars,  whose  profli- 
gacy he  had  frequently  denounced,  he  died  in  peace  at  his 
rectory  of  Lutterworth  in  the  year  1384.  But  a  convocation 
of  the  Anglican  clergy  at  Oxford,  in  1410,  condemned  his 
doctrines,  and  burnt  his  books.  The  Council  of  Constance, 
after  deposing  so  many  popes,  proceeded  to  deal  writh  here- 
tics. Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague  were  consigned  to  the 
fire.  Wicliff  was  happily  beyond  their  power ;  but  a  list  of 
propositions,  culled  from  his  writings,  was  examined  and 
condemned,  and  a  brutal  decree  passed,  commanding  his 
works,  and  his  bones — now  mouldering  in  the  grave — to  be 
committed  to  the  flames.  It  was  thirteen  years  before  the 
decree  was  obeyed;  but  then  his  body  was  exhumed  and 
burnt.  "  His  ashes,"  says  old  Fuller,  "  were  thrown  into  the 
Swift,  and  the  Swift  conveyed  them  to  the  Avon,  the  Avon 
into  the  Severn,  the  Severn  into  the  narrow  seas,  the  narrow 
seas  into  the  main  ocean ;  and,  like  his  ashes,  so  were  his 
doctrines  dispersed  over  the  wide  world." 

It  is  certain  Wickliff  had  many  followers.  It  was  said  that 
if  you  met  two  men  upon  the  road,  one  of  them  was  sure  to 
be  a  Wickliffite.1  Within  thirty  years  of  his  death,  his  opinions 
had  reached  all  the  way  to  Bohemia ;  for  Huss  and  Jerome 
had  imbibed  them,  and  it  was  for  this  chiefly  they  were  con- 
demned to  be  burnt.  But  even  before  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance had  met,  the  doctrines  of  Wickliff  had  found  their  way 
into  Scotland.  John  Resby,  an  English  priest,  and  described 
by  our  early  historians  as  being  of  the  school  of  Wickliff,  had 
come  into  our  country ;  and  it  was  not  long  till  he  incurred 
the  suspicion  of  heresy.  He  was  accordingly  seized,  in  the 
year  1407,  and  carried  before  a  council  of  the  clergy,  over 
which  presided  Lawrence  Lindores,  a  doctor  in  theology,  and 
1  Knighton,  T  >e  Eventibus. 


A.D.   1407-H13.]  UNIVERSITY  OF  ST  ANDREWS.  1 33 

a  member  of  the  Inquisition.  His  impeachment  consisted  of 
forty  different  articles,  but  we  are  acquainted  with  only  two  of 
them.  He  was  accused  of  denying  that  the  Pope  was  the 
successor  of  St  Peter  ;  or  that  a  man  of  a  wicked  life  could  be 
the  vicar  of  Christ.  The  trial  resulted  in  his  being  condemned 
to  the  flames;  and  the  cruel  sentence  was  immediately  carried 
into  execution  at  Perth.1  He  was  the  first  who  went  from 
Scotland  to  join  the  noble  army  of  martyrs. 

Scotland,  at  this  period,  was  under  the  regency  of  Robert, 
Duke  of  Albany.  The  third  Robert  was  dead,  and  his  son, 
James  I.,  was  a  captive  in  England.  The  whole  aim  of  Albany 
was  to  maintain  his  precarious  power,  which  he  managed  to 
do  by  pampering  the  nobles  and  ecclesiastics  and  oppressing 
the  people.  Winton,  in  his  "  Chronicle,"  specially  celebrates 
his  hatred  of  the  Lollards,  and  his  zeal  for  the  purity  of  the 
Church.2 

Henry  Wardlaw  was  Bishop  of  St  Andrews.  We  would 
willingly  exculpate  him  if  we  could  from  all  participation  in 
the  horrid  crime.  He  was  a  prelate  of  liberal  sentiments,  of 
unbounded  hospitality,  distinguished  for  his  anxiety  to  reform 
the  clergy  and  the  laity,  and  to  him  belongs  the  undying 
honour  of  having  given  to  Scotland  its  first  University.  But 
it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  the  fires  of  religious  persecution 
could  be  kindled  without  the  approbation  of  so  influential  a 
bishop.  After  all,  need  we  wonder  that  he  gave  his  voice  to 
burn  a  wandering  Wickliffite,  when  perhaps  there  were  not  ten 
men  then  living  who  did  not  think  it  was  highly  meritorious  to 
persecute  heretics  to  the  death.  The  same  sin  lies  at  the  door 
of  still  greater  and  holier  men. 

Wardlaw  had  got  his  bishopric  from  Benedict  XIII. ,  at 
Avignon  ;  and  he  no  sooner  obtained  possession  of  his  See 
than  he  set  his  heart  upon  making  it  the  seat  of  a  University. 
Scottish  munificence  had  already  founded  the  Scotch  College 
at  Paris  and  Baliol  College  at  Oxford ;  but  Scotland  itself  was 
yet  without  any  school  for  the  higher  branches  of  study,  and 
its  clergy  were  obliged  to  go  abroad  to  complete  their  educa- 
tion. So  early  as  1410  the  first  Professors  of  St  Andrews  had 
begun  their  labours.  John  Shevez,  Official  of  St  Andrews, 
William  Steven,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Dunblane,  and  Sir  John 
Lister,  a  canon  of  the  Abbey,  read  lectures  in  divinity ;  Law- 
rence  Lindores  expounded  the  common    law  \   and  Richard 

1  Fordun's  Scotichron.,  lib.  xv.  c.  20. 
-  Winton'.^  Chronicle,  vol.  ii.  p.  419. 


134  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  vn. 

Cornwall,  the  civil  law ;  while  John  Gow,  William  Foulis,  and 
William  Crosier,  delivered  prelections  on  philosophy  and 
logic.1  They  are  worthy  to  be  held  in  everlasting  remem- 
brance, as  the  first  Senatus  Academicus  of  Scotland.  The 
infant  university  was  yet  without  endowments,  and  without  a 
pontifical  charter.  The  latter  of  these  wants  was  speedily 
supplied.  On  the  3d  February  141 3,  Alexander  Ogilvy,  who 
had  been  despatched  to  Rome  to  obtain  the  Pope's  bull  of 
confirmation,  arrived  at  St  Andrews,  bringing  with  him  the 
coveted  document,  and  was  received  with  every  demonstration 
of  joy.  On  the  following  day,  the  bull  was  read  in  the  refec- 
tory, in  the  presence  of  the  bishop  and  a  large  concourse  of 
ecclesiastics.  A  procession,  in  which  four  hundred  of  the 
clergy  joined,  moved  up  the  long  nave  of  the  cathedral  to  the 
altar ;  Te  Deum  was  sung ;  high  mass  was  celebrated ;  and 
the  day  was  concluded  with  bonfires,  the  ringing  of  bells,  and 
universal  festivity.2  It  was  fitting  that  thanks  should  be  given 
to  God,  and  that  gladness  should  abound  among  the  people, 
for  science  had  how  found  a  resting-place  in  the  land. 

In  the  year  1424  James  I.  was  released  from  his  captivity 
in  England,  and  solemnly  crowned  in  the  abbey  church  of 
Scone.  According  to  the  ancient  usage  of  the  country, 
Murdoch,  Duke  of  Albany  and  Earl  of  Fife,  placed  the  crown 
upon  his  head ;  and  Wardlaw,  Bishop  of  St  Andrews,  anointed 
him  with  the  holy  oil.  The  country  was  in  a  state  of  perfect 
lawlessness ;  the  barons  were  no  better  than  powerful  bandits  ; 
and  to  the  poor  for  many  long  years  had  belonged  only  lamen- 
tation and  woe ;  but  there  was  now  seated  upon  the  throne  a 
man  of  a  determined  will,  resolved  to  redress  such  grievous 
wrongs.  "  Let  God  but  grant  me  life,"  said  he,  "  and  there 
shall  not  be  a  spot  in  my  dominions  where  the  key  shall  not 
keep  the  castle,  and  the  bracken-bush  the  cow,  though  I 
myself  should  lead  the  life  of  a  dog  to  accomplish  it." 

The  eyes  of  so  wakeful  a  monarch  were  not  shut  to  the 
abuses  which  had  crept  into  the  Church ;  but  he  required  the 
help  of  churchmen  to  curb  the  exorbitant  power  of  the  nobles; 
and  therefore  he  touched  their  sore  places  with  a  very  tender 
hand,  while  otherwise  he  showed  his  zeal  for  the  established 
religion.  Buchanan  celebrates  his  anxiety  to  raise  the  educa- 
tional standard  of  the  clergy,  which  was  gradually  sinking  ; 
and  states  that  he  gave  instructions  to  the  governors  of  all 

1  Spottiswood's  History,  book  ii.     Boethius,  lib.  xvi. 
-  Pinkerton's  History,  vol.  i.     Ty tier's  History,  vol.  in- 


A.D.   1424.]  SALE  OF  BENEFICES.  135 

schools,  and  of  the  university  now  happily  founded,  to  make 
known  to  him  any  scholars  who  had  distinguished  themselves, 
that  he  might  bestow  upon  them  ecclesiastical  preferments.1 

The  sale  of  Scotch  benefices  at  Rome  had  long  been  felt  as 
an  intolerable  evil.  It  not  only  impoverished  the  kingdom, 
but  made  the  clergy  look  to  a  foreign  potentate,  instead  of 
their  own  monarch,  for  promotion.  Still  further  to  extort 
money  and  render  the  higher  ecclesiastics  dependent  upon  the 
pontifical  will,  Pope  Urban  IV.  had  ordained  that  every  bishop 
and  abbot  should  repair  to  Rome  for  consecration ;  and, 
accordingly,  towards  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  we 
rind  five  of  our  bishops-elect  dancing  attendance  at  the  Roman 
court  for  several  years,  while  their  bishoprics  remained  vacant 
at  home.  One  of  them  died  there,  two  received  consecration, 
and  one  was  refused,  most  probably  because  he  could  not 
afford  bribes  sufficiently  large.  The  fifth,  through  his  agent, 
obtained  a  mandate  to  be  consecrated  in  Scotland.2  This 
grasping  at  power  and  wealth  on  the  part  of  the  popes  was 
felt  over  all  Europe,  and  led  to  the  memorable  war  of  investi- 
tures. In  Scotland  the  pretensions  of  the  supreme  pontiffs 
were  not  always,  nor  even  generally,  conceded.  The  bishops 
were  generally  elected  by  the  cathedral  chapters ;  the  abbots 
by  the  monks ;  the  parish  priests  by  the  native  aristocracy, 
the  bishops,  or  religious  houses  in  which  the  patronage  was 
vested.  The  popes  were  never  denied  the  right  of  confirming 
the  appointment,  and  the  large  fees  consequent  thereon.  Still 
many  of  the  best  preferments  were  bestowed  at  Avignon  or 
Rome,  and  it  was  the  custom  of  aspiring  clerks  to  resort  thither 
in  great  numbers,  to  try  what  love  or  money  could  accomplish. 
Wardlaw  was  at  Avignon  with  Benedict  when  the  See  of  St 
Andrews  became  vacant,  and  managed  to  get  the  appointment. 
James  I.  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  this  grievance ;  and,  accord- 
ingly, had  an  act  passed,  declaring  that  no  clerk  should  pur- 
chase any  pension  out  of  any  benefice,  secular  or  religious, 
"  under  all  pain  that  he  may  tine  against  his  Majesty."3  By 
another  act  it  was  declared,  that  if  any  clerk  wished  to  go 
beyond  seas  he  must  first  prove  to  his  ordinary  that  there  was 
good  cause  for  his  journey,  and  make  oath  that  he  would  not 
be  guilty  of  baratrie?  a  word  which  occurs  in  our  ancient  laws, 
and  seems  to  be  nearly  synonimous  with  simony,  or  the  pur- 
chasing   of  benefices    by   money.     Certain    acts,   which    had 

1  History,  book  x.  2  Spottiswood,  book  ii. 

:*  James  I.,  pari.  i.  c.  xiv.  4  James  I.,  pari.  vii.  c.  cvii. 


i36 


CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[chap,  vi r. 


1 


already  been  passed,  anent  carrying  gold  out  of  the  realm, 
were  also  made  applicable  to  churchmen  proceeding  to  Rome 
with  a  suspicious  amount  of  cash. 

But  while  James  thus  attempted  to  check  the  avarice  of  the 
popes,  in  his  very  first  parliament  he  ratified  all  the  ancient 
privileges  of  the  Church,  and  commanded  all  men  to  honour 
it.1  He  brought  himself,  however,  into  violent  collision  with  the 
Roman  See  by  parliamentary  legislation  which  was  thought  to 
interfere  with  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  Church,  and 
saved  himself  from  excommunication  only  by  proposing  a  com- 
promise. He  was  evidently  bent  on  the  reformation  of  the 
Church  as  well  as  the  State.  He  ordered  the  bishop  of  St 
Andrews  to  take  measures  for  recovering  the  possessions 
of  which  his  See  had  been  robbed  by  his  predecessors :  he 
ordered  the  Benedictines  and  Augustinians  to  restore  their 
ancient  discipline,  and  save  themselves  from  ruin.2  Unfor- 
tunately he  proceeded  still  further.  The  death  of  Resby  had 
not  suppressed  the  opinions  he  cherished.  So  many  had  em- 
braced them  as  to  have  attracted  the  attention  and  excited  the 
alarm  of  the  legislature.  Accordingly,  in  a  parliament  held  in 
1425,  it  was  enacted  that  every  bishop  within  his  diocese 
should  make  inquisition  for  all  Lollards  and  heretics,  in  order 
that  they  might  be  punished,  and  that  wherever  it  was  neces- 
sary the  secular  arm  should  be  called  in  to  support  the  laws 
and  authority  of  the  Church.3  Eight  years  elapsed  after  the 
passing  of  this  act  before  we  hear  of  its  being  put  into  force. 
But  in  the  year  1433  it  found  a  victim. 

o  A  Bohemian  of  the  name  of  Paul_Craw  had 

come  from  Prague  to  Scotland,  for  what  reason 
is  not  very  well  known.  He  was  a  physician,  but  he  appears 
to  have  been  more  zealous  in  propagating  his  religious  opin- 
ions than  in  practising  medicine.  Lawrence  Lindores,  who 
had  conducted  the  impeachment  of  Resby,  again  signalized 
his  zeal  for  the  Church  by  seizing  Craw  and  arraigning  him  as 
a  heretic.      The  Bohemian  appears  to  have  denied  the  doc- 


1  Most  parliaments  were  opened  by  such  an  act.  The  first  act  of  the 
first  parliament  of  James  was  as  follows  : — "  In  the  first  to  the  honour  of 
God  and  halie  kirk,  It  is  statute  and  ordained,  that  the  halie  kirk  joyes 
and  bruikis,  and  the  ministers  of  it,  thar  auld  priviledges  and  freedomes, 
And  that  no  man  let  them  to  set  thar  lands  or  teinds  under  pain  that  may 
follow  be  spiritual  law  or  temporal." 

2  Robertson's  Concilia,  Pref.  Ixxxviii.-xc. 

3  James  I.,  pari.  ii.  chap,  xxviii. 


A.D.   1435.]  .l.NEAS  SILVIUS  IN  SCOTLAND.  1 37 

trine  of  transubstantiation,  the  existence  of  purgatory,  the 
efficacy  of  absolution  ;  and  to  have  maintained  that  the  Bible, 
in  the  native  tongue,  should  be  open  to  all.  It  would  also 
seem  that  in  the  celebration  of  the  Supper,  he  and  his  followers 
observed  a  form  not  greatly  different  from  that  presently  in 
use  in  Presbyterian  Churches.  The  Lord's  prayer  was  recited 
— the  words  of  institution  were  read — and  the  elements  of 
bread  and  wine  given  to  the  communicants.  Craw  was  fur- 
ther accused  of  denying  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and 
encouraging  gross  immorality ;  but  in  all  probability  these 
were  the  slanderous  inventions  of  his  enemies.1  When  put 
upon  his  trial  he  exhibited  great  acuteness  and  knowledge  of 
the  Scriptures  ;  but  it  was  in  vain.  He  was  condemned  and 
burnt  at  St  Andrews. 

Just  a  year  before  the  tragic  death  of  James  I. 
I435'  Scotland  received  an  illustrious  visitor.  yEneas 
Silvius,  afterwards  Pope  Pius  II.,  came  to  our  country  as  papal 
legate,  and  has  left  us  some  interesting  notices  of  its  condition 
at  the  time.  "  Concerning  Scotland,"  says  he,  "  these  things 
are  worthy  of  repetition.  It  is  an  island  joined  to  England, 
stretching  two  hundred  miles  to  the  north,  and  about  fifty 
broad ;  a  cold  country,  fertile  of  few  sorts  of  grain,  and  gene- 
rally void  of  trees ;  but  there  is  a  sulphureous  stone  dug  up, 
which  is  used  for  firing.  The  towns  are  unwalled,  the  houses 
commonly  built  without  lime,  and  in  villages  roofed  with  turf, 
while  a  cow's  hide  supplies  the  place  of  a  door.  The  com- 
monalty are  poor  and  uneducated,  have  abundance  of  flesh  and 
fish,  but  eat  bread  as  a  dainty.  The  men  are  small  in  stature, 
but  bold  ;  the  women  fair  and  comely,  and  prone  to  the 
pleasures  of  love— kisses  being  there  esteemed  of  less  conse- 
quence than  pressing  the  hand  is  in  Italy.  The  wine  is  all 
imported  ;  the  horses  are  mostly  small,  ambling  nags,  only  a  few 
being  preserved  entire  for  propagation,  and  neither  curry-combs 
nor  reins  are  used.  The  oysters  are  larger  than  in  England. 
From  Scotland  are  imported  into  Flanders  hides,  wool,  salt- 
fish,  and  pearls.  Nothing  gives  the  Scots  more  pleasure  than 
to  hear  the  English  dispraised.  The  country  is  divided  into 
two  parts, — the  cultivated  lowlands,  and  the  region  where 
agriculture  is  not  used.  The  wild  Scots  have  a  different  lan- 
guage, and  sometimes  eat  the  bark  of  trees." 

"  Coals  are  given  to  the  poor  at  the  church-doors  by  way  of 

1  Fordun  Scolichron.,  lib.  xvi.  c.  20.     Tvtler,  vol.  iii. 


138  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.   VII, 

alms,  the  country  being  denuded  of  wood."  1  The  future  Pope 
informs  us,  that,  on  his  return,  when  he  reached  the  north  of 
England,  disguised  as  a  merchant,  he  could  get  neither  bread 
nor  wine ;  and  during  the  night,  a  report  being  spread  that  the 
Scottish  borderers  were  approaching,  the  men  fled,  but  the 
women  remained  quietly  at  home,  undismayed  by  the  prospect 
of  the  probable  result. 

,  In  1436,  James  was  basely  assassinated  in 

the  convent  of  the  Dominicans  at  Perth.  He 
was  perhaps  the  most  energetic  monarch  who  ever  occupied 
our  throne ;  and  many  of  the  laws  passed  during  his  reign 
prove  his  anxiety  to  promote  trade  and  to  ameliorate  the  con- 
dition of  the  poor.  But  it  is  probable  that,  had  he  lived,  he 
would  have  completely  crushed  the  nobility,  and  in  freeing 
the  country  from  their  rapacity  and  turbulence,  exposed  it  to 
the  hazard  of  a  monarchical  despotism.  His  death  brought 
upon  the  nation  the  evils  of  a  long  minority.  His  eldest  son, 
James  II.,  was  but  six  years  old  when  he  was  crowned  king. 
There  was  now  repeated  the  often-told  tale  of  fierce  contend- 
ings  for  place  and  power.  Crichton  struggled  with  Living- 
stone, and  Livingstone  with  Crichton,  for  the  supreme  direc- 
tion of  affairs ;  and  the  unhappy  royal  child  was  carried  about 
from  place  to  place,  to  be  used  as  a  puppet — was  captured  and 
recaptured — was  now  a  prisoner  at  Edinburgh,  now  at  Stirling ; 
while  the  house  of  Douglas  appeared  to  overtop  the  very 
monarchy,  like  some  huge  tower  overtopping  the  walls  of  a 
beleaguered  city,  and  threatening  its  destruction.  But  this 
came  to  an  end.  Before  James  was  arrived  at  manhood  he 
seized  the  reins  of  government,  and  held  them  so  firmly  as 
soon  to  show  that  he  had  inherited  some  of  the  energy  and 
resolution  of  his  father. 

Up  to  this  time  when  a  bishop  died  his  personal  estate  went 
to  the  crown,  probably  on  the  theory  that  he  could  have  no 
heirs  proper  to  whom  to  leave  it.  The  Church  had  frequently 
remonstrated  against  this  but  without  success.  But  now  in  a 
parliament  held  in  1449  the  bishops  went  down  upon  their 
knees  before  the  king,  and  the  ancient  custom  was  revoked, 
and  the  prelates  allowed  to  leave  their  money  to  whom  they 
pleased.2  At  this  period  there  were  always  some  nephews 
or  nieces  whom  the  good  bishops  loved  with  an  affection 
entirely  paternal — what  more  natural  than  that  they  should 
wish  to  leave  them  their  wealth  ? 

1  Pii  II.,  Comment,  rerum.  mem.  sui  temporis. 
iJ  Act  Pari.  Scot.,  James  II. 


A. D.   1450.  J  UNIVERSITY  OF  GLASGOW.  I  39 

In  perusing  the  annals  of  this  reign,  so  full 
of  feuds,  assassinations,  and  all  the  darkest 
passions  of  our  nature,  it  is  pleasing  to  light  upon  a  page  which 
records  the  erection  of  a  second  university.  It  is  a  gleam  of 
sunshine  in  the  midst  of  a  tempest.  On  the  7th  of  January 
1450,  Pope  Nicolas  V.  issued  a  bull  for  the  erection  of  a  sta- 
dium generate,  or  University  in  Glasgow.  It  is  to  William 
Turnbull,  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  that  we  are  indebted  for 
the  boon ;  but  the  papal  bull  of  erection  proceeds  upon  the 
desire  of  the  king,  and  the  fitness  of  the  city  for  producing 
the  fruits  of  learning  to  the  advantage  of  all  Scotland  and 
the  neighbouring  nations,  "  by  reason  of  the  salubrity  of  its 
climate,  the  plenty  of  victuals,  and  of  everything  necessary 
for  the  use  of  man ;  that  there  the  Catholic  faith  may  abound, 
the  simple  be  instructed,  justice  taught,  reason  flourish,  and 
the  minds  and  understandings  of  men  be  enlightened  and 
enlarged."  In  this  foundation-charter  it  is  further  ordained, 
that  the  doctors,  masters,  lecturers,  and  students  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Glasgow  should  enjoy  all  the  privileges  granted  by 
the  Apostolic  See  to  the  University  of  the  city  of  Bologna.1 
The  papal  bull  was  solemnly  read  at  the  market-cross  ;  a 
plenary  indulgence  was  promised  to  all  who  should  visit  the 
cathedral  during  the  current  year ;  and  the  University  of  the 
West  began  its  career,  obscure  at  first,  but  ever  marking  its 
track  through  time  with  a  broader  and  brighter  splendour. 

The  royal  protection  was  soon  extended  to  the  infant  semi- 
nary. On  the  20th  of  April  1453,  James  II.,  by  his  royal 
letters,  "took  under  his  firm  peace,  protection,  and  safeguard, 
all  and  every  the  rector,  deans  of  faculty,  procurators  of  nations, 
regents,  masters,  and  scholars,  in  the  aforesaid  university,  and 
exempted  them,  together  with  the  beadles,  writers,  stationers, 
parchment-makers,  and  students,  from  all  tributes,  services, 
exactions,  taxations,  collections,  watchings,  wardings,  and  all 
dues  whatsoever  imposed  within  the  kingdom,  or  to  be  im- 
posed."2 In  the  same  year  Bishop  Turnbull  executed  a  deed, 
confirming  and  explaining  the  privileges  granted  by  papal  and 
royal  favour  to  his  university,  and  granting  others,  which  show 
how  much  it  was  in  the  power  of  a  bishop  to  grant.  But 
though  possessed  of  such  high  privileges,  the  university  does 
not  appear  to  have  yet  fallen  heir  to  any  property  or  endow- 

1  Origines  Parochiales  Scotiae — Glasgow. 

2  Origines — Glasgow.      In  this  document  James  calls  the  university— 
"  Alma  Universitas  Glasguensis,  filia  nostra  dilecta." 


140  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.   vji. 

ments,  and  must  have  resembled  some  of  our  ancient  nobility 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  who,  with  illustrious  titles  and  ex- 
tensive hereditable  jurisdictions,  could  scarcely  muster  enough 
of  money  to  purchase  a  coat,  or  furnish  themselves  with  a 
meal.  "  The  university,"  says  Professor  Jardine,  "  came  into 
the  world  as  naked  as  every  individual." 

It  found  its  first  domicile  in  the  Rottenrow,  where  there  was 
a  house  known  long  afterwards  as  the  "  Aulde  Pedagoge ;  "  but 
on  the  6th  of  June  1459,  James  Lord  Hamilton  bequeathed  to 
the  regent  and  students  a  tenement  "in  the  street  leading 
down  from  the  cathedral  to  the  market-cross,  near  the  place  of 
the  Dominican  Friars,"  together  with  four  acres  of  land  in  the 
Dowhill,  contiguous  to  the  Molendinar  Burn,  upon  condition 
that  every  day  they  should,  in  a  prescribed  form,  pray  for  his 
own  soul  and  the  soul  of  Euphemia,  his  countess ;  and  that  if 
an  oratory  should  ever  be  built  within  the  college,  the  regent 
and  students  should  there  also  daily  convene,  and,  on  their 
bended  knees,  sing  an  Ave  to  the  Virgin,  with  a  collect  and 
memoria  for  himself  and  his  wife.1  Whether  or  not  the  regent 
and  students  were  thus  careful  to  remember  Lord  James  and 
his  lady  in  their  prayers,  the  tenement  was  taken  possession 
of,  and  it  served  to  shelter  the  learning  of  the  west,  till  it  wTas 
thrown  down,  and  the  buildings  were  erected  upon  its  site, 
which  accommodated  the  University  till  a  few  years  ago,  when 
it  moved  westwards  from  the  squalor  of  the  High  Street  to  the 
palatial  structure  which  the  munificence  of  the  city  merchants 
provided  for  it  on  Gilmore  Hill.  Three  years  later  than  Lord 
Hamilton's  gift,  David  de  Cadiou,  Canon  of  Glasgow  and  Rector 
of  the  University,  assigned  an  annual  sum  of  twelve  merks,  from 
certain  lands  and  tenements  in  the  burgh,  to  endow  a  clerk  in 
the  faculty  of  the  sacred  canons,  who  should  be  bound  to  read 
lectures  in  the  public  schools  within  the  city  in  the  morning, 
and  celebrate  mass  at  the  altar  of  the  Virgin  in  the  lower 
church  of  the  cathedral,  for  the  donor,  his  parents,  friends,  and 
benefactors.2  In  1466  another  tenement,  adjoining  that  already 
obtained,  was  bequeathed  to  the  university  by  Thomas  Arthurlie. 
These  were  the  first  benefactors  of  this  celebrated  school ;  and 
though  we  may  no  longer  say  masses  for  their  souls,  it  is  right  we 
should  hold  their  names  in  grateful  remembrance.  Their  ex- 
ample was  not  generally  followed,  and  for  a  century  and  a  half 
the  University  of  Glasgow  remained  wretchedly  poor. 

In  accordance  with  the  papal  bull,  the  university  contained 

1  Origines — Glasgow.  2  Ibid. 


A.D.   1450.  J  PROFESSORS  AND  STUDENTS.  141 

four  different  faculties — theology,  canon  law,  civil  law,  and 
arts.  We  have  no  very  explicit  information  in  regard  to  the 
first  professorships  that  were  instituted,  or  the  first  lectures 
that  were  read.  From  its  first  institution  the  university  en- 
joyed the  privilege  of  conferring  degrees.  In  order  to  the 
acquisition  of  one  of  these,  a  certain  period  required  to  be 
devoted  to  study  within  the  university ;  certain  prelections 
heard  ;  Porphyrie's  "  Introduction  to  Aristotle,"  and  "  Petrus 
Hispanus  "  mastered  ;  a  searching  examination  endured  ;  and 
then  the  chancellor  or  vice-chancellor  bestowed  the  coveted 
academical  honour,  as  by  Divine  authority,  and  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.1 

Within  the  first  two  years  of  its  existence,  upwards  of  a 
hundred  persons  were  admitted  members  of  the  university,  but 
these  were  chiefly  Churchmen,  ambitious  of  the  honours  and 
privileges  of  a  learned  corporation,  and  not  young  men  com- 
mencing their  studies.  Among  its  earliest  professors  were 
John  Major,  David  Melville,  and  John  Adamson.  Among  its 
first  students  were  William  Manderstone,  successively  Rector 
of  the  University  of  Paris  and  St  Andrews,  Cardinal  Beaton, 
John  Knox,  and  John  Spottiswood.  But  still  earlier  than 
these,  and  among  the  matriculated  in  1451,  was  a  William 
Elphinston.  This  youth  afterwards  rose  to  great  distinction  in 
the  canon  and  civil  law  ;  he  became  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  and 
Chancellor  of  the  Kingdom,  and  showed  his  enlightened 
liberality  by  founding  and  endowing  a  university  in  his  epis- 
copal city.     Thus  is  one  lamp  lighted  at  another.2 

At  this  period  the  students  ate  at  a  common  table,  as  is 
still  the  case  in  the  great  English  universities.  The  regents  sat 
at  table  with  them  and  maintained  order.  At  nine  o'clock  at 
night  the  gates  of  the  college  were  shut,  and  the  regents  -visited 
the  rooms  of  the  students  to  see  that  they  were  in  bed  ;  and 
again,  at  five  in  the  morning,  they  went  their  rounds  to  see  that 
they  were  astir.  The  universities  were  in  many  respects  copies 
from  monastic  models.  Many  of  the  professors  were  monks, 
many  of  the  students  were  designed  to  be  monks,  and  the 
monasteries  had  hitherto  accomplished  imperfectly,  what  the 
universities  were  now  intended  to  do  in  a  more  perfect  way. 

It  would  appear  that  the  students  in  arts  were  distinguished, 

1  Statistical  Account  of  the  University  of  Glasgow,  transmitted  by  Pro- 
fessor G.  Jardine,  in  the  name  of  the  Principal  and  Professors  of  the 
University. — See  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  1799,  vol.  xxi. 

2  Statistical  Account,  &c.     M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville,  vol.  i. 


142  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VII. 

according  to  their  rank,  into  the  sons  of  noblemen,  of  gentle- 
men, and  of  those  of  humbler  pedigree — distinctions  which 
are  now  happily  abolished  in  all  the  seats  of  learning  in  Scot- 
land, where  it  is  only  superior  genius  or  superior  industry  that 
can  raise  one  student  above  his  fellows.  Among  these  youths, 
it  was  essential  that  discipline  should  be  maintained,  and  as 
suasion  frequently  fails,  corporal  punishment  might  be  in- 
flicted ;  and  the  statutes  carefully  provide,  that  in  certain  cases 
it  should  be  administered  caligis  laxatis.  But  notwithstand- 
ing the  rigour  of  its  discipline,  the  university  languished.  It 
languished  because  it  was  poor.  We  hear  complaints  of 
masters  not  attending  upon  their  duties,  of  licentiates  not 
proceeding  with  their  degrees,  of  statutes  having  fallen  into 
disuse,  and  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  university  being  despised. 
The  three  higher  faculties  gradually  died  from  inanition,  and 
at  the  Reformation  the  faculty  of  arts  alone  gave  some  feeble 
symptoms  of  remaining  vitality.1  But  we  must  now  revert  to 
our  narrative. 

The  Second  James  followed  the  example  of  his  father  in 
resolving  to  hold  the  Church  patronage  of  the  kingdom  in  his 
own  hands,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  Holy  See ;  and  in  this  he 
was  supported  by  the  national  clergy.  During  his  reign,  a 
provincial  council  was  held  at  Perth,  in  which  it  was  declared, 
that  by  the  ancient  law  and  custom  of  Scotland,  the  presenta- 
tion to  all  vacant  benefices,  within  a  vacant  bishopric,  be- 
longed to  the  Crown.2  In  all  other  matters  the  king  and  the 
clergy  appear  to  have  been  bound  to  one  another  by  mutual 
interests  and  mutual  support ;  and  it  is  certain,  that  if  the 
throne  lost  some  of  its  strength  by  the  alienation  of  its  ancient 
demesnes  to  the  Church,  it  was  more  than  compensated  by  the 
assistance  which  the  Church  gave  it  in  hours  of  need. 

The  chief  friend  and  counsellor  of  James  II.  was  Kennedy, 
who  succeeded  Wardlaw  in  the  See  of  St  Andrews.  He  was 
at  once  the  greatest  and  the  best  man  of  his  age.  His  portrait 
is  one  of  the  most  prominent  in  the  gloomy  picture  of  the 
times,  presenting  a  benign  aspect  amid  many  fierce  and 
frowning  visages-.  He  was  so  much  occupied  with  affairs  of 
State,  that  one  would  think  he  must  have' neglected  his  epis- 
copal duties,  and  yet  we  know  that  no  prelate  was  more 
attentive  to  these.  He  is  said  to  have  visited  every  church  in 
his  diocese  four  times  in  the  year,  and  to  have  been  par- 
ticularly careful  in  compelling  every  parson  and  vicar  to  reside 
1  Statistical  Account,  &c.  2  Tytler's  History,  vol.  iv. 


A.D.   1466.]  BISHOP  KENNEDY.  1 43 

within  his  parish,  to  preach  the  Word,  administer  the  sacra- 
ments, and  visit  the  sick.1  Robert  Lindsay  of  Pitscottie  gives 
an  anecdote  of  him,  which  is  illustrative  at  once  of  his 
patriotism  and  piety.  The  Earl  of  Douglas  had  entered  into 
a  conspiracy  against  the  throne  with  some  of  the  most  power- 
ful barons,  and  their  adherents  were  already  in  arms.  In  this 
emergency  the  king  hurried  to  St  Andrews  to  take  the  advice 
of  the  bishop,  whose  fidelity  and  wisdom  had  already  been  so 
often  tried.  The  good  prelate  first  of  all  led  his  Majesty  into 
his  oratory,  that  together  they  might  ask  guidance  from  the 
Almighty  Disposer  of  all  events  ;  and  this  being  done,  he  next 
conducted  him  to  his  study,  and  put  into  his  hand  a  bundle 
of  arrows  firmly  bound  together,  and  asked  him  to  break  them 
if  he  could.  The  monarch  with  all  his  strength  was  unable, 
upon  which  the  bishop  unbound  them,  and  taking  them  singly 
easily  snapped  them  all  asunder.  "  Sir,"  said  he,  addressing 
the  king,  "you  must  even  do  in  this  manner  with  your 
barons."  James  understood  the  hint,  and  taking  his  direc- 
tions still  further  from  Kennedy,  managed  to  dissolve  the 
dangerous  confederacy  which  had  been  formed  against  him. 
and  to  reduce  the  overgrown  power  of  the  Douglases.2 

James  was  untimely  killed  at  the  siege  of  Roxburgh  Castle, 
by  the  bursting  of  a  cannon  ;  and  again  were  heard  through- 
out the  kingdom  the  doleful  words,  "  Woe  unto  thee,  O  land, 
when  thy  king  is  a  child."  But  Kennedy  still  lived,  and 
managed  as  no  other  man  could  have  done  to  keep  down 
faction.  In  1466  he  died,  and  his  death  was  felt  to  be  a 
national  calamity,  for  he  left  no  one  behind  him  capable  of 
governing  the  kingdom  with  such  integrity  and  discretion. 
"  His  death,"  says  Buchanan,  "  was  so  lamented  by  all  good 
men,  as  if  in  him  they  had  lost  a  public  father." 

It  is  to  this  prelate  we  owe  the  foundation  of  St  Salvator's 
College  at  St  Andrews.  He  assigned  also  a  large  sum  of 
money  to  erect  a  tomb  for  himself,  which  still  remains,  a 
monument  of  his  wealth,  and  of  a  weakness  from  which,  with 
all  his  virtues,  he  was  not  exempt.  "  He  founded,"  says 
Lindsay,  "  a  triumphant  college  at  St  Andrews,  called  St 
Salvator's  College,  wherein  he  made  his  lair  very  curiously 
and  costly;  and  also,  he  bigged  a  ship  called  the  Bishop's 
Berge  ;  and  when  all  three  were  complete,  he  knew  not  which 
of  the  three  was  costliest."'3 

1  Lindsay's  History,  p.  69.  -  Ibid.,  pp.  52,  55. 

*  Ibid.,   p.  68. 


144  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VII. 

Kennedy  was  succeeded  in  the  See  of  St  Andrews  by 
Patrick  Graham,  his  near  relative.  The  learning  and  virtues 
of  this  ecclesiastic,  not  to  speak  of  his  royal  birth,  for  he 
was  nephew  of  James  I.  and  grandson  of  Robert  III.,  made 
him  worthy  of  the  high  post  he  was  called  to  fill.  He  had 
been  elected  by  the  canons,  as  was  then  usual,  but  he  required 
the  Pope's  bull  of  confirmation  to  make  his  title  complete. 
The  Boyds,  who  now  ruled  the  court  and  the  kingdom,  wished 
to  prevent  this,  but  he  stealthily  left  the  country  and  posted  to 
Rome,  where  he  found  favour  with  the  Pope,  and  got  his 
election  confirmed.  Afraid  to  return  home  on  account  of  the 
bitter  animosity  of  the  prevailing  faction,  he  resolved  to  remain 
at  the  papal  court  till  some  change  should  occur  among  the 
parties  in  power.  While  there  he  managed  to  gain  such  influ- 
ence with  Sixtus  IV.,  that  he  obtained  a  bull  erecting  St  An- 
drews into  an  Archiepiscopal  and  Metropolitan  See.  The 
Pope,  to  give  a  still  greater  grace  to  the  first  archbishop  whom 
Scotland  had  seen,  appointed  him  apostolic  nuncio,  with  full 
power  to  reform  all  abuses  in  the  Church,  and  levy  soldiers 
and  subsidies  for  a  crusade.  Neville,  Archbishop  of  York, 
remonstrated  violently  against  this  elevation  of  Graham  as  an 
infringement  of  his  jurisdiction,  but  it  was  in  vain.1 

Scotland  had  now  gained  the  honour  which 
for  several  centuries  she  had  ardently  desired,  as 
the  primacy  of  York  was  most  effectually  barred  by  the  pri- 
macy of  St  Andrews  ;  and  the  spiritual  independence  of  the 
kingdom  was  thus  for  ever  secured.  Graham  rejoiced,  and 
naturally  thought  that  all  good  men  would  rejoice  with  him. 
As  soon,  therefore,  as  he  heard  that  the  Boyds  had  fallen  from 
their  high  pinnacle  of  power,  and  that  the  young  king  had 
taken  the  government  into  his  own  hands,  he  hastened  to 
return  home,  sending  the  papal  bulls  before  him,  that  they 
might  prepare  his  triumphal  way.  He  had  no  sooner  landed 
than  he  discovered  his  mistake.  Envy  of  his  fortunes  and 
dread  of  his  reforms  had  raised  him  up  many  enemies,  who 
poisoned  the  ear  of  the  king  with  insinuations  that  he  had 
violated  the  law  of  the  realm  in  leaving  the  kingdom,  and 
carrying  on  negotiations  with  the  papal  court  without  the  royal 
license.  He  was  cited  to  answer  for  his  conduct  at  Edinburgh, 
on  the  i  st  of  November.  When  put  upon  his  trial,  Graham 
appealed  to  his  bulls,  and  pleaded  the  service  he  had  rendered 
to  his  country  ;  but  his  enemies  appealed  to  the  Pope,  and 
1  Robertson's  Concilia,  Fief.,  cxii. 


A.D.   1472.]  A  MAD  ARCHBISHOP.  145 

offered  to  prove  the  invalidity  of  the  documents  he  presented. 
The  king  is  said  to  have  had  his  judgment  swayed  by  a  pre- 
sent of  eleven  thousand  merks  ;  and  so  he  ordered  Graham  to 
retire  to  his  bishopric,  and  refrain  from  wearing  the  archiepis- 
copal  pall  till  the  cause  were  determined.1 

Conspicuous  among  the  enemies  of  the  new  archbishop  was 
one  William  Shevez,  an  able  but  unprincipled  man,  who  had 
acquired  great  favour  at  court  from  his  supposed  acquaintance 
with  the  fashionable  science  of  astrology.  Through  his  in- 
trigues the  revenues  of  St  Andrews  were  seized  and  confiscated 
by  the  king.  The  bankers  of  Rome,  with  whom  Graham  had 
got  deeply  involved,  hearing  of  the  trouble  into  which  he  had 
fallen,  now  became  clamant,  and  the  impoverished  primate 
was  unable  to  satisfy  their  demands.  In  these  circumstances, 
a  nuncio  was  despatched  to  Scotland  to  inquire  into  the  case. 
It  was  affirmed  that  the  archbishop  spoke  blasphemously 
against  the  Holy  See,  that  he  revoked  its  indulgences  and 
spurned  its  censures,  that  he  believed  himself  the  Pope,  ap- 
pointed legates  to  different  parts  of  the  world,  would  celebrate 
mass  three  times  in  a  day,  and  finally  began  to  broach  some 
horrible,  but  unreported  heresies.2  As  the  only  explanation 
of  these  aberrations,  it  was  said  he  was  mad  ;  but  it  is  evident 
there  was  method  in  his  madness,  and  even  some  gleams  of 
sense,  and  it  is  just  possible  insanity  may  have  been  alleged  to 
save  the  Church  from  the  scandal  of  its  metropolitan  being 
a  heretic.  However  this  may  be,  he  was  degraded  from  his 
office,  and  committed  to  the  keeping  of  his  mortal  enemy 
Shevez,  who  kept  him  a  close  prisoner,  first  at  Inchcolm,  and 
afterwards  at  Lochleven,  where  he  died.  Shevez  managed  to 
get  himself  appointed  to  the  archbishopric  in  his  place,  found- 
ing his  fortune  on  the  ruin  of  a  far  better  and  worthier  man. 

Among  the  elements  which  conspired  to  the  ruin  of  Graham, 
by  uniting  the  king  and  the  higher  clergy  against  him,  was  the 
shameless  huckstering  in  benefices  which  began  at  this  period. 
The  first  two  Jameses  had  prohibited  the  clergy  from  purchas- 
ing benefices  at  the  court  of  Rome  ;  but  it  was  reserved  for 
the  third  James  to  divert  the  stream  of  wealth  which  had 
hitherto  flowed  into  the  Pope's  treasury,  so  that  it  might  be 
poured  into  his  own.  Under  his  reign  an  act  was  passed  for- 
bidding the  procuring  of  benefices  at  Rome,  the  collection  of 

1  Buchanan,  book  xii.     S  pott  is  wood,  book  ii. 

2  Theiner's  Vetera  Monumenta,  p.  480.  Robertson's  Concilia,  Pref. 
cxvi. 


I46  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  vii. 

more  money  for  the  Papal  See  than  had  been  regulated  by  the 
ancient  taxation  of  Bagimont,  and  confirming  the  right  of  the 
clergy  to  the  election  of  their  own  dignitaries.1  But  in  two 
years  this  law  was  violated  by  its  maker.  The  monks  of  Dun- 
fermline, according  to  ancient  usuage,  had  chosen  for  them- 
selves an  abbot  ;  but  the  king,  probably  won  by  a  bribe, 
recommended  another  to  the  Pope  for  confirmation,  and  the 
Pope  at  once  confirmed  the  royal  nominee.2  This  was  but 
the  beginning  of  the  system.  Bishoprics,  abbacies,  priories, 
parishes,  were  now  openly  sold  by  the  king  and  his  favourites  ; 
and  men  of  worthless  character,  and  even  laymen,  were  thus 
intruded  into  the  office  of  the  ministry.  Patrick  Graham  was 
known  to  be  opposed  to  such  practices  ;  and  it  was  feared 
that  when  he  was  armed  with  primatial  and  legatine  powers 
many  Simonists  would  be  thrown  out,  and  the  lucrative  trade 
in  benefices  checked,     This  hastened  his  fall. 

It  is  obvious  that  even  already  the  king  and  his  nobles  began 
to  grudge  the  Church  its  possessions.  After  this  period  no 
new  abbeys  were  built,  no  new  bishoprics  endowed.  But  what 
had  been  given  could  not  be  regained.  The  Church  was  too 
strong  for  this ;  and  had  the  monarch  put  forth  his  hand  to 
touch  her,  she  would  have  cursed  him  to  his  face.  But  an 
expedient  was  devised  by  which  the  Church  retained  her 
wealth,  and  the  king  and  the  barons  enjoyed  it.  When  a 
bishopric  or  priory  became  vacant,  it  was  bestowed  upon  some 
friend,  or  sold  for  money,  or  given  as  the  reward  of  services, 
which  could  not  otherwise  be  so  easily  repaid.  It  is  melan- 
choly to  mark  the  number  of  bastards — the  illegitimate  sons 
of  nobles  and  kings — who  became  bishops  and  abbots  after  this 
period  ;  and  when  there  was  no  bastard — which  was  seldom 
the  case — there  was  always  a  younger  son,  who,  deprived  by 
aristocratic  pride  of  any  share  in  the  family  property,  received 
a  richer  inheritance  in  the  patrimony  of  the  Church.  Such  an 
exercise  of  patronage  was  necessarily  followed  by  the  decay  of 
piety  and  devotedness  among  the  clergy,  especially  among  the 
regulars.  It  is  probably  to  this  cause  we  are  to  trace  the  rise 
of  a  new  species  of  religious  foundation,  which  belongs  to  this 
age — collegiate  churches  or  provostries.  According  to  the 
constitution  of  these,  the  secular  canons  formed  a  body  at  the 
college  church,  and  employed  themselves  in  singing  masses  for 
the  founders,  and  performing   ether  parts   of  divine   service, 

J  James  III.,  pari.  i.  chap.  i\\;  also,  pari.  vi.  chap.  xliv. 

2  Balfour's  Annals,  vol.  i.     Pinkerton,  vol.  i.  ...0 


A.D.   1483-97.]  UNIVERSITY  OF  ABERDEEN.  147 

while  vicars  served  their  respective  parishes.  But  still  the 
sore  evil  spread.  A  mercenary  spirit  had  been  introduced 
into  the  Church.  Money-changers  had  gained  admittance  to 
the  temple  ;  and  there  was  needed  a  reformer  to  overturn  their 
tables,  and  drive  them  out  with  a  scourge  of  cords. 

In  1488  James  III.,  a  monarch  of  some  accomplishments, 
but  devoted  to  favourites  of  low  birth,  and  too  inactive  to 
repress  aristocratic  turbulence — was  assassinated  by  a  pre- 
tended priest  at  Milltown,  in  fleeing  from  the  civil  strife  of 
Sauchie.  His  son,  James  IV.,  a  youth  of  sixteen,  who  cannot 
be  acquitted  of  the  unnatural  crimes  of  treason  and  rebellion 
against  his  father,  succeeded  him  on  the  throne.  The  young 
monarch  afterwards  repented  bitterly  the  share  he  had  in  his 
father's  death  ;  and  whatever  may  have  been  his  faults,  he  was 
certainly  a  most  energetic  and  chivalrous  prince,  resembling  in 
some  respects  James  I. 

During  his  reign  Scotland  was  enriched  with  a  third  univer- 
sity. At  the  request  of  Bishop  Elphinston,  James  IV.  applied 
for  a  papal  bull  for  the  erection  of  a  stadium  generate  in  Aber- 
deen. In  his  letter  to  the  Pope,  the  king  gives  a  melancholy 
picture  of  the  state  of  the  north  country.  "  The  inhabitants," 
he  says,  "  are  ignorant  of  letters,  and  almost  uncivilised  ;  there 
are  no  persons  to  be  found  fit  to  preach  the  Word  of  God  to  the 
people,  or  to  administer  the  sacraments  of  the  Church  ;  and, 
besides,  the  country  is  so  intersected  with  mountains  and  arms 
of  the  sea,  so  distant  from  universities  already  erected,  and 
the  roads  so  dangerous,  that  the  youth  have  not  access  to  the 
benefit  of  education  in  those  seminaries."  "  But,"  adds  the 
king,  "  the  city  of  Old  Aberdeen  is  situated  at  a  moderate 
distance  from  the  highland  country  and  nothern  islands,  enjoys 
an  excellent  temperature  of  air,  abundance  of  provisions,  and 
the  conveniency  of  habitation,  and  of  everything  necessary  for 
human  life."  In  compliance  with  the  royal  request,  Pope 
Alexander  VI.  issued  a  bull  in  1494  for  erecting  in  the  city  of 
Aberdeen  a  studium  generate  et  universitas  studii  genera/is  for 
theology,  canon  and  civil  law,  medicine,  the  liberal  r.rts,  and 
every  other  lawful  faculty  ;  ordaining  that  it  should  enjoy  all 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  Universities  of  Bo'ogna  and 
Paris,  and  that  the  bishops  of  Aberdeen  should  in  ill  time  be 
its  chancellors. 

In  1497  James  IV.  granted  a  charter  of  confirmation,  em- 
powering Bishop  Elphinston  to  erect  a  college  within  the 
university,  and  to  divide  its  revenues  between  the  masters  and 


14-8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   VII. 

scholars  as  he  should  see  fit,  according  to  the  powers  vested 
in  him  by  the  Pope.  It  was  not  till  1506  that  this  college  was 
erected.  It  was  dedicated  to  the  Holy  Virgin.  It  was  to  con- 
sist of  thirty-six  ordinary  members,  among  the  chief  of  whom 
were  a  doctor  in  each  of  the  four  faculties  of  theology, 
canon  law,  civil  law,  and  medicine ;  the  doctor  of  theology 
to  be  styled  principal,  and  to  bear  rule  over  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  college.  Next  to  these  came  two  masters  of 
arts,  the  first  of  whom  was  to  be  called  regent,  and  con- 
stituted sub-principal ;  the  other  was  to  be  call  grammarian, 
and  his  province  was  to  consist  in  teaching  the  elements 
of  literature.  These  were  the  permanent  members  of  the 
college,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  mediciner,  they  were 
all  to  be  ecclesiastics.1  A  chair  of  medicine  was  perfectly 
new  to  Scotland.  Henceforward  the  science  of  healing  was 
to  be  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  barbers  and  old  wives,  and 
entrusted  to  men  of  science. 

Besides  these  permanent  members,  there  were  also  a  num- 
ber of  masters  and  bachelors  of  arts,  who  were  to  hold  their 
situations  only  for  a  certain  number  of  years ;  thirteen  poor 
scholars  of  respectable  talents  and  proficiency  in  the  specu- 
lative sciences  ;  and,  last  of  all,  eight  prebendaries  and  six 
singing-boys  for  the  service  of  the  Church.  For  the  accom- 
modation of  his  learned  society,  the  patriotic  bishop,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  king,  erected  the  noble  buildings  which  still 
remain  as  a  monument  of  his  liberality  and  taste.  By  dona- 
tions during  his  life,  and  a  legacy  of  ten  thousand  pounds  be- 
queathed at  his  death,  he  endowed  his  college  with  a  truly 
princely  munificence  ;  and  thus  the  doctors  were  able  to  "  pre- 
lect every  lecture-day,  each  in  his  own  faculty,  and  dressed  in 
his  own  habit."2 

The  laws  of  this  northern  university  give  us  no  very  favour- 
able idea  of  student  life  in  those  early  times.  All,  great  and 
small,  in  the  college  are  ordained  to  live  honestly ;  they  are 
prohibited  from  keeping  public  concubines,  from  carrying 
arms,  from  being  night-walkers,  panders,  or  vagabond  buffoons  ; 
and  are  exhorted  rather  to  devote  themselves  to  good  manners 
and  liberal  studies.3     But  a  still  greater  scandal  was  brought 

1  Report  of  Commissioners  on  Scottish  Universities,  p.  305.  Statistical 
Account  of  the  University  and  King's  College  of  Aberdeen,  by  the  Mem- 
bers of  the  University.    See  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  1799,  vol.  xxi. 

2  Statistical  Account,  ut  supra. 
8  Report  of  Commissioners. 


A.D.   1497.]  HECTOR  BOETHIUS.  149 

upon  the  ancient  literature  and  universities  of  the  country,  by 
an  Act  of  Parliament  passed  in  1599,  which  established  a 
regular  "  ordour  of  punishment "  for  sorners,  masterful  beggars, 
and  vagabonds.  This  act,  after  specifying  jugglers,  gypsies, 
fortune-tellers,  idlers,  minstrels,  counterfeiters  of  licenses,  mari- 
ners pretending  they  have  been  shipwrecked,  proceeds  to 
mention  "  all  vagabond  scholars  of  the  Universities  of  St 
Andrews,  Glasgow,  and  Aberdeen,  not  licensed  by  the  rector 
and  dean  of  faculty  to  ask  almes."  It  is  enacted  and  declared, 
that  these  shall  be  taken,  esteemed,  and  punished  as  strong 
beggars  and  vagabonds.1  It  is  comforting  to  know  that  the 
same  reproach  lies  at  the  door  of  other  and  still  more  cele- 
brated universities. 

The  first  principal  of  King's  College,  Aberdeen,  was  Hector 
Boethius,  who  was  honoured  with  the  correspondence  of 
Erasmus,  and  justly  obtained  a  high  reputation  for  his  classi- 
cal attainments  and  lively  fancy.  As  a  historian,  however,  he 
had  too  great  a  love  for  the  marvellous,  and  could  not  refrain 
from  inventing  facts,  and  imbellishing  those  he  did  not  re- 
quire to  invent  with  a  garniture  of  his  own.  His  "  His  tor  ice 
Scottorum "  is  contained  in  seventeen  books,  beginning  with 
Gathelus  and  Pharaoh,  and  ending  with  the  death  of  James  I. 
He  closes  his  labours  very  characteristically,  by  telling  of  a  sow 
that  brought  forth  a  dog,  and  of  a  cow  that  had  a  calf  with  the 
head  of  a  horse.  Yet,  though  not  often  quoted  as  an  authority, 
he  will  long  be  remembered  as  one  of  the  earliest  of  Scottish 
historians.  His  tomb,  together  with  that  of  Bishop  Elphin- 
ston,  is  in  the  chapel  of  the  college  so  famous  for  its  exquisite 
carvings  in  wood.  The  whole  buildings  are  massive  and  im- 
posing, and  Billings  has  declared  that  there  is  no  structure  in 
Scotland  which  possesses  more  of  a  cloister-like  repose.2 

The  fifteenth  century  witnessed  the  erection  of  three  univer- 
sities ;  and  for  all  of  them  are  we  indebted  to  the  Church. 
The  building  of  cathedrals  and  abbeys  had  declined  ;  the  build- 
ing of  schools  and  colleges  had  commenced.  It  was  a  health- 
ful and  a  hopeful  sign.  It  spoke  of  a  future  illumined  with 
learning.  It  augured  a  change  in  the  Church,  though  the 
Church  understood  it  not.  The  dawn  of  knowledge  was  the 
dawn  of  the  Reformation.  And  while  benevolent  and  enlight- 
ened prelates  furnished  the  youth  of  Scotland  with  the  means 
of  obtaining  at  home  a  liberal  education,  the  monarch  resolved 

1  James  VI.,  pari.  vi.  chap,  lxxiv. 

-  Ecclesiastical  and  Baronial  Antiquities  of  Scotland,  vol.  i. 


150  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  VII. 

that  these  means  should  not  be  furnished  in  vain.  In  the 
fifth  parliament  of  James  IV.  it  was  statute  and  ordained  that 
all  barons  and  freeholders  of  substance  should  keep  their  eldest 
sons  and  heirs  at  school  till  they  were  taught  Latin,  philosophy, 
and  the  laws,  under  a  penalty  of  twenty  pounds.  This  short 
law  speaks  volumes.1  A  great  change  must  have  come  over 
men's  minds  before  it  could  have  been  imagined  or  passed  : 
the  learning  which  a  century  before  would  have  been  accounted 
degrading  is  here  made  compulsory.  A  new  era  had  un- 
doubtedly begun.  The  present  compulsory  system  of  educa- 
tion is,  to  some  extent,  only  the  revival  of  a  law  already  on  the 
statute-book. 

A  native  literature  was  now  beginning  to  push  out  its  first 
buds.  Andrew  de  Winton,  prior  of  St  Serf's  monastery  in  Loch- 
leven,  published,  about  1420,  his  rhyming  Cronykil  of  Scotland, 
and  though  his  poetic  genius  is  inferior  to  that  of  Barbour  (the 
earliest  of  our  native  bards),  he  has  helped  to  form  our  language, 
besides  giving  an  animated  narrative  of  many  important  events. 
Forty  years  later  Blind  Harry  wrote  his  Adventures  of  Sir  William 
Wallace,  a  version  of  which,  in  modern  Scotch,  has  been  long 
popular  with  the  Scotch  peasantry,  and  is  said  to  have  first 
kindled  the  poetic  genius  of  Burns.  But  even  before  this  James 
I.  had  written  the  King's  Quhair  and  Christes  Kirk  on  the 
Grene.     Thus  native  thought  first  appeared  in  a  native  garb. 

It  has  frequently  been  maintained  that  the  Scottish  ecclesi- 
astics of  this  period  were  scandalously  ignorant  and  illiterate. 
It  is  certain  they  were  unacquainted  with  sciences  not  then 
known  ;  unread  in  books  not  then  published  ;  and  that  they 
were  better  versed  in  their  missal  than  their  Bible.     But  it  will 

1  The  design  of  this  Act  was  to  fit  the  sons  of  the  gentry  to  act  as  local 
magistrates.  It  is  curious  enough  to  deserve  transcription  : — "  It  is  statute 
and  ordained  throw  all  the  realme,  that  all  barronnes  and  freehalders  that 
are  of  substance  put  their  eldest  sonnes  and  aires  to  the  schule,  fra  they  be 
six  or  nine  zeires  of  age,  and  till  remaine  at  the  grammar-schules,  quhill 
they  be  competently  founded,  and  have  perfite  Latin  ;  and  thereafter  to 
remaine  three  zeires  at  the  schules  of  art  and  jure,  swa  that  they  have 
knowledge  and  understanding  of  the  laws.  Throw  the  quhilks  justice  may 
remaine  universally  throw  all  the  realme  ;  swa  that  they  that  are  Sheri fifes 
or  Judges  Ordinares,  under  the  Kingis  Hienesse,  may  have  knowledge  to 
do  justice,  that  the  puir  people  suld  have  na  neede  to  seek  our  Soveraine 
Lordis  Principal  Auditour  for  ilk  small  injurie.  And  quhat  barronne  or 
freeholder  of  substance  that  holdes  not  his  sonne  at  the  schule,  as  guid  is, 
havand  na  lauchfull  essoinzie,  but  failzies  herein,  fra  knawledge  may  be 
gotten  thereof,  he  sail  pay  to  the  king  the  summe  of  twentie  pound.  (James 
IV.,  pari.  v.  chap.liv.) 


. 


A.D.   1490.]  FORMAN,  BISHOP  OF  MORAY.  151 

be  difficult  to  prove  that  they  were  either  stupid  or  unlearned, 
when  compared  with  the  generation  then  existing,  or  tried  by 
the  standard  then  in  use.  Every  important  deed  was  drawn 
by  their  pens  ;  every  important  office  of  State  was  in  their 
hands  ;  the  schools  were  taught  by  them ;  the  universities 
were  founded  by  them.  All  the  authors  were  still  ecclesiastics  ; 
and  though  few  of  the  productions  of  this  period  have  come 
down  to  us,  it  must  be  remembered  that  much  of  what  was 
then  done  has  perished  ;  and  very  probably,  in  three  hundred 
years  hence  little  more  of  the  teeming  authorship  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  will  be  found  still  floating  on  the  tide  of  time. 
It  is  monstrously  unfair  to  blame  the  ancient  priesthood  for 
not  having  raised  Europe  all  at  once  from  Gothic  barbarity. 
It  is  false  to  charge  them  with  systematically  trying  to  keep  the 
people  in  ignorance.  How  could  they  teach  a  knowledge  not 
yet  known  ;  communicate  ideas  not  yet  dreamt  of;  confer  a 
civilisation  which  nowhere  existed  ;  compel  haughty  barons  to 
enter  their  schools,  who  would  thereby  have  considered  them- 
selves to  be  lowered  to  the  level  of  monks  ?  The  old  clergy  laid 
the  foundations  of  our  civilisation  and  sciences,  though  another 
race  reared  the  superstructure.  Every  new  step  in  advance 
was  taken  by  them  ;  and  they  undoubtedly  ever  walked  first  of 
the  men  of  their  generation  in  that  slow  and  painful  progress 
which  has  led  to  the  high  and  commanding  eminence  on  which 
we  now  stand. 

AndrewForman,  Bishop  of  Moray,  in  the  reign  of  James  IV., 
has  been  cited  as  an  instance  of  ignorance,  and  as  a  specimen 
of  his  class.1  Forman  was  probably  a  poor  Latinist,  and  his 
wit  sometimes  got  the  better  of  his  piety  ;  but  he  was  one  of 
the  ablest  diplomatist,  if  not  one  of  the  best  prelates,  of  his 
day.  When  the  armies  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  and  the  French 
King  were  ready  to  come  to  blows,  the  Bishop  of  Moray 
managed  to  make  peace.  He  was  rewarded  for  his  services  by 
the  Pope  with  the  mule  upon  which  his  holiness  rode,  and  by 
being  made  Legate  of  Scotland  :  he  was  rewarded  by  the  king 
for  this  and  other  services  connected  with  an  invasion  of 
England,  by  being  made  Archbishop  of  Bourges.2  From  this 
period  he  was  constantly  employed  on  embassages  between  the 
Scotch  and  French  Courts  ;  and  on  more  occasions  than  one 
he  was  despatched  to  negotiate  with  the  King  of  England. 

1  Among  others,  by  Dr  M'Crie,  in  his  "  Life  of  Knox,"  p.  12  (note). 
-  Lindsay,  History,  pp.  106-7.     Burton's  History,  chap.  30. 


152  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.    VII. 

The  story  upon  which  the  belief  in  his  ignorance  is  founded 
is  this  :  When  at  Rome,  he  gave  a  banquet  to  the  Pope  and 
his  cardinals.  Required  to  say  a  Latin  grace,  the  unexpected 
responses  of  the  sacred  company  put  him  out,  and  he  fairly 
broke  down.  Instantly  recovering  himself,  however,  he 
mumbled,  in  his  own  vernacular,  "  all  the  false  carils  to  the 
devil,  in  nomine  Patris,  Filii,  et  Spiritus  Sancti;  "  to  which  the 
Pope  and  the  cardinals  solemnly  responded,  "  Amen."  Forman 
afterwards  took  the  liberty  of  explaining  the  import  of  his 
Scoto-Latin  petition,  which,  instead  of  giving  offence,  caused 
the  greatest  merriment.1  The  scene  does  not  heighten  one's 
ideas  of  papal  and  episcopal  propriety  :  we  find  ourselves  in 
the  company  of  jovial  boon  companions,  rather  than  of  grave 
and  reverend  signors ;  but,  apart  from  this,  is  it  not  just  pos- 
sible that  even  a  Presbyterian  minister  of  the  present  day 
might  find  his  scholarship  to  fail  him  if  asked  to  say  a  Latin 
grace  ;  and  would  it  be  fair  to  infer  from  this  that  all  the 
Presbyterian  clergy  were  illiterate  and  ignorant  men  ?  If 
Forman  could  not  speak  Latin  (which  is  unlikely),  he  must 
have  spoken  fluently  both  French  and  Italian,  or  he  could  not 
have  filled  the  posts  which  he  did. 

Shevez  was  now  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews, 
49  and  James  began  to  find  that  he  had  a  rival  in 
his  realm,  for  the  primate  seemed  to  have  a  pleasure  in 
thwarting  the  king,  and  exhibiting  his  spiritual  independence. 
But  James  had  seen  how,  in  England,  the  pretensions  of  Can- 
terbury were  kept  in  check  by  those  of  York,  and  therefore  he 
resolved  to  balance  St  Andrews  by  Glasgow.  He  impor- 
tuned the  Pope  to  send  to  the  Bishop  of  Glasgow  the  archi- 
episcopal  pallium.  "  No  small  wrong  and  danger,"  he  writes 
in  one  of  his  letters,  "  might  arise  to  me  and  my  successors 
from  having  only  one  spiritual  primate  throughout  my  whole 
kingdom.  Honours  ought  to  be  distributed,  and  as  the  sove- 
reign pontiffs  have  divided  the  power,  jurisdiction,  and  dignity 
ecclesiastical  in  the  realm  of  England  to  its  advantage,  it 
would  have  been  to  the  honour  and  dignity  of  my  realm  had 
you,  with  the  counsel  of  the  Sacred  College,  raised  the  Church  of 
Glasgow  to  enjoy  all  the  privileges  and  dignities  of  that  of 
York,  the  Church  of  St  Andrews  being  of  similar  creation  to 
that  of  Canterbury."  Speaking  with  just  pride  of  the  Church 
of  St  Mungo,  the  monarch  said,  "  I  have  written  many  letters 

1  Lindsay,  History,  p.  106.      Though  Lindsay  gives  this  story,  it  looks 
apocryphal. 


A. D.   1494.]  ARCHBISHOP  OF  GLASGOW.  I  53 

to  you  and  the  Sacred  College  for  the  raising  of  the  famous 
Church  of  Glasgow,  which  surpasses  the  other  cathedral  churches 
of  my  realm  by  its  structure,  its  learned  men,  its  foundation,  its 
ornaments,  and  other  very  noble  prerogatives,  to  metropolitan, 
primatial,  and  born  legatine  rank,  like  the  Church  of  York  in 
England."  He  begs  the  Pope  not  to  listen  to  the  representa- 
tions of  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  but  to  grant  the  peti- 
tion of  a  prince  so  devoted  to  him,  as  otherwise  he  would 
consider  himself  despised.  The  importunities  of  the  king  at 
length  prevailed,  and  in  1490  Innocent  VIII.  issued  a  bull 
erecting  Glasgow  into  an  archbishopric,  and  placing  the  dioceses 
of  Glasgow,  Galloway,  Dunblane,  and  Lismore  under  its 
jurisdiction.1  The  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  could  ill  brook 
this  diminution  of  a  glory  and  a  power  so  recently  received, 
and  refused  to  acknowledge  the  new  archbishop.  A  furious 
feud  was  the  result,  which  was  handed  down  from  archbishop 
to  archbishop,  and  Knox  describes  with  infinite  humour  and 
glee  a  quarrel  for  precedence  between  the  followers  of  the  two 
archbishops  at  Glasgow.2 

Blackadder,  the  new  archbishop,  soon  showed 
494-  fjjs  zeaj  for  fae  Church  which  had  raised  him  to 
such  honour.  Opinions  opposed  to  the  established  faith  and 
worship  were  beginning  to  be  widely  diffused.  A  class  of 
religionists  called  Lollards  had  sprung  up,  and  were  numerous, 
especially  in  the  districts  of  Carrick,  Kyle,  and  Cunningham  ; 
and  the  archbishop  resolved  if  possible  to  purge  his  diocese  of 
heretics.  Thirty  suspected  persons  were  accordingly  cited  to 
appear  before  the  king  and  his  council  in  the  year  1494, 
among  whom  were  Reid  of  Barskimming,  Campbell  of 
Cessnock,  Campbell  of  Newmills,  Shaw  of  Polkemmet,  Helen 
Chalmers,  Lady  Polkillie,  and  Isabel  Chalmers,  Lady  Stairs. 
Their  indictment  contained  thirty-four  different  articles. 
Among  the  chief  of  these  were  : — That  images,  relics,  and  the 
virgin,  were  not  proper  objects  of  worship  ;  that  the  bread  and 
wine  in  the  sacrament  were  not  transubstantiated  into  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ ;  that  no  priest  or  pope  could  grant 
absolutions  or  indulgences  ;  that  masses  could  not  profit  the 
dead  ;  that  miracles  had  ceased  ;  and  that  priests  might  law- 
fully marry.  They  appear  also  to  have  been  accused  of 
opinions  which  struck  at  the  civil  power ;  but  there  is  no  evi- 
dence  that  they  acknowledged   these,   and   it   is   more  than 

1  Brown's  Calendar  of  State  Papers  in  Venice,  pp.  204-10. 

2  History,  book  i. 


154  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   VII. 

probable  they  were  false.  Blackadder  conducted  the  pro- 
secution, and  tried  to  entangle  the  accused,  but  Barskim- 
ming  answered  the  charges  with  such  wit  and  good  humour 
that  the  accusation  was  turned  into  laughter.  James  IV.. 
though  somewhat  superstitious,  was  not  inclined  to  be  a  per- 
secutor, and  so  the  proceedings  were  quashed.1 

In  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  there  was  intro- 
duced into  our  country  an  art,  almost  unnoticed  by  our  ancient 
chroniclers,  but  which  has  done  more  to  revolutionise  society, 
and  shape  the  destinies  of  the  Church  and  the  world,  than 
any  other  human  discovery.  In  145.0  the  first  printed  book 
issued  from  the  German  press,  and  it  is  pleasing  to  know  that 
that  book  was  a  Bible.  "  We  may  see  in  imagination,"  says 
Mr  Hallam,  "  this  venerable  and  splendid  volume  leading  up 
the  crowded  myriads  of  its  followers,  and  imploring,  as  it  were, 
a  blessing  on  the  new  art,  by  dedicating  its  first  fruits  to  the 
service  of  heaven."2  About  1474  the  art  was  introduced  into 
England  by  Caxton.  It  required  upwards  of  thirty  years  more 
to  penetrate  into  Scotland.  Walter  Chepman,  a  servant  in 
the  king's  household,  has  the  merit  of  having  set  the  first 
printing-press  at  work  in  our  country.  In  1508  he  printed  a 
small  volume  of  pamphlets,  and  soon  after,  the  "  Breviary  of 
Aberdeen."  The  king  warmly  patronised  the  printer,  pur- 
chased his  books,  and  granted  him  a  patent  to  exercise  his 
craft,  the  original  of  which  still  exists  among  the  national 
records.3 

We  cannot  agree  with  those  who  think  that  the  reforma- 
tion of  religion  was  the  necessary  consequence  of  the  inven- 
tion of  printing  and  the  dif(  ision  of  knowledge.  But  though 
printing  was  not  the  parent  of  the  Reformation,  it  was  one  of 
its  most  powerful  auxiliaries.  It  diffused  knowledge,  and  thus 
diminished  the  distance  between  the  clergy  and  laity.  It  made 
the  communication  of  ideas  easy,  and  thus  sentiments,  which 
must  otherwise  have  been  limited  to  a  few,  were  extended  to 
the  many.  When  the  Reformation  broke  out  in  Germany, 
the  books  of  the  Refonners  found  their  way  into  Scotland. 
When  the  fulness  of  the  time  had  come  at  home,  the  printing- 
press  was  called  into  use,  and  treatises,  squibs,  plays,  and 
satirical    songs    issued    thickly   from    it,   like    barbed  arrows. 

1  Knox's  History  of  the  Reformation,  book  i. 

2  Introduction  to  Hist,  of  Lit.,  vol.  i.  p.  211. 

3  Tytler's  History,  vol.  v. 


A  D.   1513.]  FLODDEN. 


do 


Though  printing  did  not  create  the  new  ideas,  it  gave  them 
utterance. 

On  the  9th  of  September  1513  James  IV.  was  killed  on  the 
fatal  field  of  Flodden.  Alexander  Stewart,  his  natural  son, 
fell  fighting  by  his  side.  This  youth  had  studied  in  early  life 
under  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam.  While  yet  a  boy  he  was  pre- 
ferred to  the  Archbishopric  of  St  Andrews ;  but  when  he 
donned  the  cassock,  he  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  doff  the 
coat  of  mail.  Nor  did  the  age  deem  it  necessary — popes  had 
appeared  at  the  head  of  armies.  When  the  expedition  had 
reached  England,  besieged  Norham,  and  taken  Ford  Castle, 
a  perfect  paralysis  came  over  the  Scotch  army.  Lindsay 
declares  that  the  king  had  been  captivated  by  the  beauty  of 
the  lady  of  the  castle,  and  that  while  he  spent  his  time  in 
dalliance  with  her,  the  young  prelate,  his  son,  made  love  to 
her  daughter  ;  and  thus  weeks  were  wasted,  victuals  became 
scarce,  the  army  melted  away,  and  the  golden  opportunity  of 
victory  was  lost.1  They  both  paid  for  their  folly  by  their 
lives,  but  their  gallantry  does  not  atone  for  their  guilt,  as  it 
did  not  restore  to  Scotland  the  many  brave  and  noble  ones 
who  died  in  their  defence. 

The  life  of  James  IV.  affords  a  good  illustration  of  the 
religious  life  of  the  period  ;  and  his  temperament  was  one 
which  we  frequently  meet  with,  swinging  him  to  and  fro 
between  scandalous  sinnings  and  bitter  repentings,  overflowing 
joyousness  and  profound  melancholy.  The  part  he  took  in 
the  treason  which  ended  in  his  father's  death  made  a  wound 
on  his  conscience  which  would  not  heal  \  and  though  he 
could  never  resist  a  woman's  charms,  when  the  first  flush  of 
love  was  over,  he  was  always  ready  to  do  penance  for  his 
crimes.  In  1494  Pope  Alexander  VI.  sent  his  legate  to  Scot- 
land to  comfort  the  king,  who  had  become  disquieted  on 
account  of  his  father's  death.  By  the  power  given  him  by  the 
Pope,  the  nuncio  absolved  the  penitent,  having  first  imposed 
as  a  penance  that  he  should  wear  an  iron  chain  about  his  waist 
all  the  days  of  his  life,  which  James  is  said  faithfully  to  have 
done.2  Still  religious  sadness  sometimes  haunted  him,  and  on 
these  occasions  he  was  wont  to  shut  himself  up  in  a  convent, 
and  refuse  to  see  anyone  but  his  confessor.  The  monastery 
of  the  Observantines  at  Stirling  was  his  favourite  retreat, 
whither  he  frequently  retired,  especially  in  Lent,  and  lived  in 
every  respect  like  a  brother  of  the  order. 

1  Lindsay,  History,  p.  113.  2  Balfour's  Annals,  vol.  i. 


156  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  VIII. 

Seasons  of  gladness  had  also  their  peculiar  expressions  of 
thankfulness.  On  the  21st  of  February  1506,  his  young  queen 
was  brought  to  bed  of  a  son,  but  after  her  delivery  became 
dangerously  ill.  She  recovered,  however,  and  her  fond, 
though  sometimes  delinquent  husband  set  out  upon  foot  in 
pilgrimage  to  St  Ninian's  Cathedral  Church,  in  performance  of 
a  vow  which  he  had  made  for  her  recovery.  In  the  month  of 
July,  when  the  fair  Margaret  was  perfectly  restored,  the  royal 
couple  set  out  together  upon  a  second  pilgrimage  to  White - 
horn,  that  together  they  might  offer  up  their  united  thanks  at 
the  holy  shrine.  A  third  time  in  the  same  year  did  the  devout 
monarch  set  out  upon  a  pilgrimage,  directing  his  steps  on  this 
occasion  to  the  shrine  of  St  Duthac,  in  Ross-shire.1  Such 
devotion  could  not  but  be  pleasing  to  the  head  of  the  Church, 
especially  at  a  time  when  heretics  were  beginning  to  abound; 
and,  accordingly,  he  sent  to  the  pious  monarch  a  cap  and 
sword,  and  the  title  of  "  Protector  of  the  Faith."2  The  king 
gratefully  received  the  papal  gifts  ;  but,  so  far  as  religion  was 
concerned,  he  wisely  allowed  the  sword  to  remain  in  its  scab- 
bard, and  his  reign  is  not  stained  by  the  blood  of  a  single 
martyr. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

In  the  same  year  in  which  Flodden  was  fought,  Leo  X. 
ascended  the  pontifical  throne.  Come  of  the  magnificent 
house  of  the  Medici,  he  had  at  once  the  faults  and  the  virtues 
of  his  family.  Gay,  kind-hearted,  and  affable,  every  one  left 
his  presence  full  of  his  praise.  Fond  of  ease  and  self-indulg- 
ence, averse  to  business  and  its  drudgery,  he  frequently 
neglected  the  responsibilities  of  government  ;  and  yet  he  pos- 
sessed a  prudence,  and  even  sagacity,  which  on  several  grave 
emergencies  gave  him  a  superiority  over  the  ablest  diplomatists 
of  pAirope.  Careless  about  religion,  and  not  quite  unimpeach- 
able in  morals,  he  was  yet  vastly  more  exemplary  than  several 
of  the  popes  who  had  preceded  him.  He  was  elegant  in  all 
his  tastes,  and  a  most  liberal  patron  of  the  arts  and  sciences. 
His  ante-rooms  were  constantly  filled  with  sculptors,  painters, 

1  Balfour's  Annals,  vol.  i. 

2  Balfour's  Annals,  vol.   i.     This   is  understood  to  be  the   sword  still 
preserved  amongst  the  regalia  in  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh. 


a.d.   1513.]  LEO  X.  157 

poets,  comedians,  and  artificers  in  silver  and  gold.  The 
recovery  of  an  antique  statue,  the  colouring  of  a  modern 
Madonna,  the  performance  of  a  new  drama,  or  comedy,  or 
piece  of  music3  any  object  of  vert u,  any  appliance  of  art,  pro- 
digiously interested  the  polite  and  voluptuous  pontiff.  The 
Vatican  was  the  scene  of  continual  feasting  :  delicate  viands, 
sparkling  wines,  handsome  women,  witty  men  —  talk  about 
some  mosaic  recently  dug  up  from  an  old  Roman  villa,  or  of 
a  lost  book  of  Livy  happily  found  in  the  shelves  of  an  ancient 
monastery1 — amusements  in  which  indecency  appeared  dis- 
guised in  a  thin  but  always  most  graceful  drapery,  dreamily 
filled  up  the  days  and  nights  of  those  who  enjoyed  the  Pope's 
hospitality.  But  all  this  could  not  be  done  for  nought.  If  a 
sumptuous  board  was  to  be  daily  spread,  if  artists  were  to  be 
patronized,  and  their  productions  purchased,  if  largesses  were 
to  be  given  to  the  people,  and  costly  spectacles  exhibited  for 
their  diversion,  money  must  be  obtained.  Golden  ducats 
alone  could  do  this. 

Prior  to  this  period,  Rome  had  made  a  belief  in  purgatory 
a  part  of  its  creed.  In  the  burning  abyss  of  that  middle  estate 
must  the  dead  expiate  the  sins  which  they  had  not  expiated 
on  earth ;  and  the  living  were  led  by  monkish  orators  to  con- 
template their  departed  relatives  as  writhing  for  centuries  in 
quenchless  flames  before  their  final  admission  to  heaven,  and 
to  look  forward  themselves  to  the  same  fiery  refining  process. 
But  their  case  was  not  hopeless.  Indulgences  had  been  in- 
vented ;  and  the  man  who  was  in  possession  of  one  of  these 
might  confidently  calculate  upon  exemption  from  purgatorial 
fires.  For  a  few  florins,  a  man  might  escape  centuries  of 
torment.  For  a  few  florins  more,  he  might  secure  the  deliver- 
ance of  some  one,  now  dead,  once  dear  to  him  as  his  own  life. 
If  a  scoundrel  had  been  guilty  of  polygamy,  six  ducats  would 
save  him  ;  if  he  had  committed  murder,  he  must  pay  eight ; 
if  he  had  contracted  the  greatest  of  all  sins,  sacrilege,  nine 
would  shut  the  gates  of  hell,  and  throw  wide  open  the  doors 
of  paradise.2     Such  doctrines  must  have  been  most  comfort- 

1  In  a  letter  dated  November  151 7,  Leo  requires  from  his  Commissioners 
of  Indulgences  147  gold  ducats,  to  pay  for  a  manuscript  of  the  33d  Book 
of  Livy. 

2  For  special  sins  Tetzel  had  a  special  scale.  Polygamy  cost  six  ducats, 
sacrilege  nine,  murder  eight,  witchcraft  two.  Samson,  who  carried  on 
the  same  traffic  in  Switzerland  as  Tetzel  in  Germany,  had  a  different 
scale.  He  charged  for  infanticide  four  livres  tournois  ;  for  a  parricide  or 
fratricide,  one  ducat. 


158  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   VIII. 

ing  to  the  people ;  and  if  comforting  to  the  people,  they  were 
most  profitable  to  the  Church.  Besides  the  ordinary  traffic  in 
indulgences,  several  pontiffs,  when  pressed  for  money,  had 
published  a  general  sale,  and  instantly  their  coffers  were  filled. 
To  what  better  device  could  the  prodigal  Leo  resort?  What 
better  pretext  for  the  need  of  money  could  pontiff  have  ? 
Michael  Angelo  had  conceived  the  mighty  dome  of  St  Peter's. 
The  greatest  of  Christian  temples  was  begun  \  but  the  work 
languished  for  want  of  means.  The  bones  of  the  blessed 
apostles  Peter  and  Paul  were  exposed  to  the  rains  of  heaven  : 
what  more  Christian  enterprise  than  to  help  and  hasten  its 
completion  ?  A  bull  was  accordingly  published,  proclaiming  a 
general  indulgence,  the  product  of  which  was  to  be  appro- 
priated to  the  building  of  St  Peter's.  The  lucrative  trade  was 
farmed  out  to  a  contractor.  Tetzel  appeared  in  Germany, 
hawking  his  spiritual  wares.  "  Draw  near,"  cried  he,  "  and  I 
will  give  you  letters,  duly  sealed,  by  which  even  the  sins  you 
shall  hereafter  desire  to  commit  shall  be  all  forgiven  you. 
There  is  no  sin  so  great  that  the  indulgence  cannot  remit  it ; 
and  even  if  any  one  should  (which  is  doubtless  impossible) 
ravish  the  Holy  Virgin  Mother  of  God,  let  him  pay — let  him 
only  pay  largely,  and  it  shall  be  forgiven  him.  But  more  than 
all  this,  indulgences  save  not  the  living  alone — they  also  save 
the  dead.  The  very  moment  that  the  money  clinks  against 
the  bottom  of  the  chest,  the  soul  escapes  from  purgatory  and 
flies  free  to  heaven."1  Luther  could  stand  this  no  longer:  he 
nailed  his  theses  to  the  church-door  at  Wittemberg,  and  the 
Reformation  was  begun. 

The  Reformation,  thus  begun  in  Saxony,  spread  rapidly  over 
all  Germany,  and  soon  began  to  affect  the  other  countries  of 
Europe.  At  first  it  was  purely  a  religious  reformation,  but  it 
contained  within  its  bosom  the  germ  of  great  changes,  both  in 
the  social  and  political  world.  The  contempt  of  authority,  and 
the  spirit  of  inquiry  which  it  engendered,  gave  a  new  impulse 
to  thought.  The  duties  it  inculcated,  and  the  doctrines  it 
taught,  awoke  a  thousand  feelings  which  had  long  lain  dormant 
in  the  mind,  and  roused  them  to  action.  Christianity  was  no 
longer  a  matter  of  form.  It  was  no  longer  confined  to  the 
priesthood  :  it  extended  alike  to  the  noble,  the  burgher,  and 
the  peasant.     Hitherto  shut  up  in  the  cloister,  or  displayed  as 

1  D'Aubigne's  Hist.,  vol.  i.  p.  263.  The  historian  states  in  a  note  that 
Tetzel  publicly  maintained  the  second  of  these  propositions  in  his  anti- 
theses. 


a.d.   1513.]  CONTEST  FOR  ST  ANDREWS.  1 59 

a  pageant  in  the  cathedral,  its  holy  influences  were  unfelt  by  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  ;  but  now  it  became  a  subject  of 
serious  thought  and  earnest  discussion  to  all.  A  spirit  of  new 
life  was  breathed  over  society.  The  religious  feelings  of  our 
nature  put  on  their  native  strength,  and  eagerly  enlisted  either 
on  the  side  of  the  Reformation  or  the  Papacy.  A  great 
struggle  was  begun.  The  din  of  battle  everywhere  resounded. 
The  confused  noise  came  booming  over  the  German  Ocean, 
and  was  distinctly  heard  on  the  shores  of  Scotland. 

But  we  must  revert  to  our  insular  history,  and 
'  '"^  trace  the  events  which  preceded  the  Refor- 
mation at  home.  The  battle  of  Flodden  subjected  our  country 
once  more  to  the  distractions  of  a  long  minority.  The  king, 
thirteen  earls,  an  archbishop,  two  bishops,  and  many  others  of 
name  and  note,  lay  dead  on  the  fatal  field.  The  infant 
monarch  was  however  solemnly  crowned,1  and  the  regency  of 
the  kingdom  committed  to  the  queen-mother,  the  sister  of 
Henry  VIII.,  a  woman  still  in  the  flower  of  youth,  possessed 
of  great  beauty,  spirit,  and  ability,  but  subject,  like  her  brother, 
to  violent  passions,  and  not  more  careful  of  decency  in  matters 
affecting  marriage  and  divorce.  With  indecorous  haste  she 
threw  off  her  royal  weeds,  and  wedded  the  Earl  of  Angus,  a 
handsome  but  impetuous  young  man,  by  which  she  forfeited 
the  regency,  and  the  Duke  of  Albany,  at  that  time  residing  in 
France,  was  recalled  to  take  the  government  of  the  kingdom. 
The  consequence  was,  a  bitter  and  very  natural  hostility  sprung 
up  between  Queen  Margaret  and  the  Duke,  who  had  sup- 
planted her  in  the  government ;  and  the  nobility  began  to 
divide  themselves  into  two  factions — the  English  and  the 
French — and  for  the  next  fifty  years  we  find  these  factions  thus 
formed  contending  for  the  chief  direction  of  affairs. 

The  archiepiscopal  chair  of  St  Andrews  was  next  in  dignity 
to  the  royal  throne,  and  it  also  was  made  vacant  by  the 
slaughter  of  Flodden.  Three  powerful  competitors  appeared 
in  the  field.  The  first  of  these  was  the  celebrated  Gawin 
Douglas,  son  of  Archibald  Douglas,  Bell-the-Cat,  uncle  of  the 
Earl  of  Angus,  who  had  married  the  queen,  and  known  to  some 
as  the  translator  of  the  /Eneid  of  Virgil  into  the  Scotch  verna- 
cular.    He  was  presented  by  Margaret,  and  his  literary  merits 

1  Buchanan,  Lesley,  Lindsay,  and  Balfour  say  the  coronation  took  place 
at  Stirling  ;  but  Pinkerton,  on  the  evidence  of  an  original  letter  (Dacreto 
the  Bishop  of  Durham,  29th  October  1 51 3),  makes  it  take  place  at  Scone, 
and  him  Tytler  follows. 


l6o  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   Till. 

made  him  worthy  of  the  honour,  but  despite  his  poetry  he  was 
a  factious  and  intriguing  man.  The  second  was  John  Hepburn, 
Prior  of  St  Andrews.  He  managed  to  get  himself  elected  by 
the  chapter.  The  third  was  Andrew  Forman,  Bishop  of 
Moray,  and  legate  a  latere,  who  had  procured  a  papal  bull 
nominating  him  to  the  vacant  See.  There  were  thus,  in  this 
instance,  the  three  modes  of  nomination  which  then  existed, 
and  which  frequently  conflicted — that  by  the  pope,  by  the 
king,  and  by  the  canons  of  the  cathedral  church.  The 
adherents  of  Douglas  seized  upon  the  castle.  Hepburn  col- 
lected his  followers  and  attacked  them,  and  having  carried  the 
fortress  by  storm,  he  strongly  garrisoned  it.  Foiled  at  this 
point,  Douglas  retired  from  the  contest.  Forman  for  a  while 
could  find  no  one  sufficiently  bold  to  publish  his  bull.  At 
length  he  bribed  Lord  Home,  by  bestowing  upon  his  brother 
the  vacant  priory  of  Coldingham.  Accordingly  Home  pro- 
ceeded to  Edinburgh  with  ten  thousand  men,  and  there  pro- 
claimed the  bull  in  favour  of  Forman.  He  next  marched 
towards  St  Andrews,  in  order  to  intimate  what  had  been  done, 
and  to  give  the  bishop  institution  and  full  possession  of  his 
benefice.  But  Hepburn  again  rallied  his  adherents,  manned 
both  the  cathedral  and  the  castle,  planted  artillery  around 
them,  and  made  such  a  formidable  show  of  resistance,  that 
Forman  felt  it  would  be  better  to  resort  to  other  means  than 
force  to  get  possession  of  his  archbishopric.1  The  ecclesiastical 
feud  was  finally  settled  by  the  Duke  of  Albany  on  his  arrival 
in  the  country.  He  confirmed  Forman  in  the  archbishopric, 
and  bestowed  upon  his  rival  enough  of  beneficiary  spoil  to 
allay  his  disappointment  and  chagrin. 

These  tumults  were  quickly  followed  by 
a.d.  1520.  anot]ierj  in  which  we  find  some  of  the  same  actors 
engaged.  A  deadly  animosity  existed  between  the  houses  of 
Angus  and  Arran.  During  the  sitting  of  the  Estates  the 
adherents  of  both  had  mustered  in  considerable  numbers  in 
Edinburgh,  and  an  outbreak  was  apprehended.  The  Hamil- 
tons  had  met  in  the  church  of  the  Black  Friars  to  concert  their 
measures.  Gawin  Douglas,  Bishop  of  Dunkeld,  ventured 
amongst  them  as  a  peacemaker,  and,  addressing  himself  chiefly 
to  Beaton,  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  remonstrated  with  him 
against  the  hostilities  which  were  too  evidently  intended. 
Beaton  struck  his  hand  upon  his  breast,  and  declared  he  could 
not  help  it ;  but  a  coat  of  mail,  concealed  beneath  his  linen 

1  Lindsay,  p.  123. 


A.D.  1520.]  ALBANY  AND  THE  QUEEN-MOTHER.  l6l 

rochet,  gave  forth  a  metallic  and  suspicious  sound.  "  Ah,  my 
lord,"  said  Douglas,  "  I  perceive  your  conscience  clatters. " 
The  mediation  of  the  Bishop  of  Dunkeld  was  fruitless  ;  a  hasty 
attack  was  made  by  the  retainers  of  the  Hamiltons  upon  the 
borderers  who  owned  Angus  for  their  chief,  and  who  were  now 
drawn  up  in  the  High  Street  from  the  castle  to  St  Giles.  It 
was  speedily  and  decisively  repulsed ;  Lord  Montgomery  and 
Sir  Patrick  Hamilton  were  among  the  slain  ;  the  Earl  of  Arran 
was  forced  to  flee  the  city,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow  to 
take  refuge  behind  the  high  altar  of  the  Dominican  church, 
where  he  would  have  been  sacrilegiously  slain  had  not  Gawin 
Douglas  generously  interfered.  This  armed  encounter  is  known 
in  history  by  the  name  of  "  cleansing  the  causeway."1 

The  political  history  of  this  period  is  full  of  strange  and 
sudden  transitions.  Albany  was  more  a  Frenchman  than  a 
Scot,  and  soon  made  himself  enemies,  though  historians  are 
yet  divided  in  regard  to  his  administration.  The  queen- 
mother  thought  him  imperious,  and  this  her  proud  spirit  could 
not  brook.  Deprived  of  the  care  of  her  royal  infant,  she  fled 
to  England,  where  she  was  brought  to  bed  of  a  daughter  to 
Angus.  Not  long  afterwards  Albany  sailed  for  France,  where 
his  heart  always  was  ;  and  he  was  not  well  gone  till  Margaret 
returned.  Completely  estranged  from  her  husband,  whose 
fidelity  was  questioned,  she  could  not  now  bide  his  presence, 
and  already  began  to  speak  of  a  divorce.  Imagining  herself, 
at  the  same  time,  neglected  by  her  brother,  she  turned  her 
eyes  towards  France,  and  by  a  letter  in  her  own  hand  invited 
Albany  to  return  and  resume  the  government  of  the  kingdom. 
He  came,  landed  in  Lennox,  and  the  queen  hurried  to  Lin- 
lithgow to  meet  and  welcome  him.  Rumour  now  began  to 
speak  of  an  intimacy  too  tender  to  be  merely  political,  and 
Henry  believed  the  report,  and  wrote  his  sister  sharp  letters  of 
reproof.2  Amid  the  fluctuations  of  parties,  she  afterwards 
affected  a  reconciliation  with  her  husband,  but  it  was  only  to 
part  from  him  in  greater  anger  and  disgust,  and  finally  to  pro- 
cure a  divorce.  At  liberty  to  marry  again,  she  took  to  her 
royal  couch  a  young  man,  the  son  of  Lord  Avondale,  and 
afterwards  created  Lord  Methven.  This  indecent  conduct 
lowered  her  influence  ;  Albany  had  bid  Scotland  farewell ;  and 
Angus  for  a  time  got  into  his  hands  the  chief  management  of 
affairs,   although  the  king,  now    thirteen   years    of  age,    had 

1  Pinkerton,  vol.  ii.  p.  181.      Tytler,  vol.  v. 
-  Pinkerton,  vol.  ii.  books  xii. ,  xVn. 


1 62  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

nominally  assumed  the  government.  The  troubles  which  these 
things  implied  were  industriously  augmented  by  English  gold 
and  English  spies,  for  Henry  and  Wolsey  had  already  begun 
the  system  which  was  afterwards  brought  to  perfection  by 
Elizabeth  and  Burleigh. 

Gawin  Douglas  was  deeply  involved  in  most  of  the  transac- 
tions to  which  we  have  referred.  At  first  a  keen  ally  of  the 
queen,  when  she  quarrelled  with  her  husband  he  became  her 
bitterest  enemy.  Proceeding  to  England,  he  sunk  into  a 
political  intriguer,  propagated  slanders  against  his  royal  relative 
and  Albany,  and  even  advised  the  invasion  of  his  country  to 
remove  them  from  power.  As  one  might  expect,  Scotland 
became  too  hot  for  him  ;  the  romantic  valley  of  the  Tay  and 
the  hills  of  Dunkeld  did  not  afford  him  a  safe  asylum,  and  he 
was  obliged  to  take  up  his  residence  in  London,  where  he 
died.  His  translation  of  the  "  ^Eneid  "  into  Scotch  verse,  and 
his  other  poetical  works,  have  kept  alive  his  name,  when 
his  intrigues  are  almost  forgotten.  All  allow  him  to  have 
been  a  man  of  singular  learning  and  fine  wit,  and  we  must 
ever  admire  him  as  among  the  first  who  made  our  wild  un- 
tutored mother-tongue  to  How  in  the  soft,  measured  cadences 
of  verse. 

During  these  political  troubles  Lutheran  opinions  were 
slowly  finding  their  way  into  the  country,  and  among  other 
converts  was  one  who  held  high  office  in  the  Church.  Patrick 
Hamilton  was  the  son  of  Sir  Patrick  Hamilton  of  Kincavil, 
and  Catherine  Stewart,  a  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Albany. 
The  date  and  place  of  his  birth  are  unknown ;  but  when  yet  a 
boy,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  he  was  made  Abbot 
of  Eerne.  Destined  for  the  Church,  he  required  such  an  edu- 
cation as  would  suit  him  for  his  profession ;  and  accordingly, 
about  the  year  15 17,  he  left  Scotland,  to  pursue  a  course  of 
philosophy  in  the  University  of  Paris;  and  in  1520  he 
acquired  his  degree  of  Master  of  Arts.  In  1523  he  returned 
to  his  native  country,  and  entered  himself  in  St  Andrews  Uni- 
versity, where  he  continued  to  pursue  his  studies  under  the 
celebrated  John  Mair,  the  master  of  Buchanan  and  of  Knox. 
Distinguished  by  a  passion  for  music,  he  was  appointed  pre- 
centor of  the  choir  of  St  Leonards,  and  is  said  to  have  com- 
posed "what  the  musicians  call  a  mass  arranged  in  parts  for 
nine  voices,  in  honour  of  the  angels,  intended  for  that  office  in 
the  missal  which  begins  '  Benedicaut  Dominum  Aiigeli Ejus!  "  l 

1  Alcsius  :  quoted  in  Memoirs  of  Patrick  Hamilton,  by  Rev.  Peter 
Lorimer. 


A.D.  1527-8.]  MARTYRDOM  OF  HAMILTON.  1 63 

But  while  at  Paris  he  seems  to  have  imbibed  the  free  senti- 
ments of  Erasmus  and  Reuchlin,  and  he  must  have  heard  at 
least  of  the  theses  of  Luther.  He  consequently  fell  under 
the  suspicion  of  heresy,  and  inquisition  was  made  into  his 
opinions.  Thus  threatened  he  again  left  Scotland,  and  went 
to  Germany,  where  the  human  mind  was  now  in  open  mutiny 
against  papal  authority.  Prevented  from  going  to  Wittemberg 
by  the  plague,  he  turned  aside  to  the  little  university  town  of 
Marburg,  where  he  remained  for  a  time,  and  was  confirmed  in 
the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation.  Francis  Lambert,  who 
taught  there,  took  an  affectionate  interest  in  the  young  Scots- 
man, and  had  a  powerful  influence  in  moulding  his  mind. 

In   1^27  he  was  in  Scotland  once  more,  not 

A  D     I  n  2  7  01  m  7 

ashamed  of  the  opinions  he  had  embraced. 
Archbishop  James  Beaton  had  been  transferred  from  Glasgow 
to  St  Andrews,  and  had  recently  made  peace  with  the  party 
of  Angus,  now  at  the  head  of  affairs.  He  had  the  power,  if 
he  had  the  will,  to  put  Hamilton  to  death  ;  and  Beaton  was 
too  zealous  a  churchman  to  let  Lutheranism  escape  with  im- 
punity, but  it  is  more  than  probable  that  theological  intoler- 
ance was  inflamed  by  the  feud  which  existed  between  the 
houses  of  Angus  and  Arran.  Hamilton  was  brought  to  St 
Andrews,  and  tried  before  a  bench  of  bishops  and  other  eccle- 
siastical dignitaries.  In  the  sentence  pronounced  against  him 
the  judges  declare, —  "We  have  found  the  same  Air  Patrick 
Hamilton  many  ways  infected  with  heresy,  disputing,  holding, 
and  maintaining  divers  heresies  of  Martin  Luther  and  his  fol 
lowers,  repugnant  to  our  faith,  and  which  are  already  con- 
demned by  general  councils,  and  most  famous  universities. 
And  he,  being  under  the  same  infamy,  .  .  .  passed  to 
other  parts  furth  of  the  realm,  suspected  and  noted  of  heresy  ; 
and,  being  lately  returned,  not  being  admitted,  but  of  his  own 
head,  without  license  or  privilege,  hath  presumed  to  preach 
wicked  heresy.''  "  All  these  premises  being  considered,  we, 
having  God  and  the  integrity  of  our  faith  before  our  eyes,  do 
pronounce,  determine,  and  declare  the  said  Mr  Patrick  Hamil- 
ton, for  his  affirming,  confessing,  and  declaring  the  aforesaid 
heresies,  and  his  pertinacity,  to  be  an  heretic,  and  to  have  an 
evil  opinion  of  the  faith,  and  therefore  to  be  condemned  and 
punished,  likeas  we  condemn  and  define  him  to  be  punished 
by  this  our  sentence  definitive,  depriving  him,  and  sentencing 
him  to  be  deprived,  of  all  dignities,  honours,  orders,  offices, 
and  benefices  of  the  Church;  and  therefore  do  judge  him  to 


164  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  VIIT. 

be  delivered  over  unto  the  secular  power  to  be  punished,  and 
his  goods  confiscate."  l 

8  On  the  last  day  of  February  1528  a  stake 

was  fixed  in  the  ground  in  the  centre  of  the 
large  area  before  the  gate  of  St  Salvator's  College.  Around 
it  fagots  of  wood  were  piled  high.  At  noon  the  young  and 
noble  confessor  left  his  prison  for  the  place  of  execution.  He 
was  accompanied  by  his  servant  and  two  or  three  faithful 
friends,  and  carried  in  his  hand  a  copy  of  the  Evangel.  Being 
come  to  the  place,  he  gave  the  volume  he  so  much  loved  to 
a  friend;  and,  taking  off  his  gown,  he  gave  it  with  some  other 
apparel  to  his  servant,  remarking,  "  This  stuff  will  not  help  me 
in  the  fire,  yet  will  do  thee  some  good.  I  have  no  more  to 
leave  thee  but  the  ensample  of  my  death,  which  I  pray  thee 
keep  in  mind.  For  albeit  the  same  be  bitter,  and  painful  in 
man's  judgment,  yet  is  it  the  entrance  to  everlasting  life, 
which  none  can  inherit  who  deny  Christ."  2  By  the  ignorance 
and  awkwardness  of  his  executioners,  his  torments  were  pro- 
tracted for  nearly  six  hours.  It  was  six  o'clock  in  the  evening 
before  his  body  was  reduced  to  ashes.  "  But  during  all  that 
time,"  says  Alexander  Alane,  who  had  witnessed  the  whole 
scene  with  profound  emotion,  "  the  martyr  never  gave  one 
sign  of  impatience  or  anger,  nor  ever  called  to  Heaven  for  ven- 
geance upon  his  persecutors,  so  great  was  his  faith,  so  strong 
his  confidence  in  God."  3  His  last  words  that  were  heard  were, 
"  How  long,  Lord,  shall  darkness  cover  this  kingdom  ?  How 
long  wilt  Thou  suffer  this  tyranny  of  men?  Lord  Jesus, 
receive  my  spirit !  " 

So  died  Patrick  Hamilton,  the  proto- martyr  of  the  Lutheran 
Reformation.  It  was  strange  that  the  theses  of  Luther,  posted 
upon  the  door  of  the  church  at  Wittemberg  in  15 17,  should 
so  soon  have  been  burnt  with  fire  into  the  gates  of  St  Salva- 
tor's College  at  St  Andrews.  No  nobler  or  gentler  spirit  ever 
passed  through  great  tribulation  into  the  kingdom  of  God. 
His  youth,  his  accomplishments,  his  many  virtues,  excited  uni- 
versal pity  ;  and  it  was  afterwards  said,  that  the  smoke  of  the 
flames,  in  which  he  had  been  consumed,  infected  all  that  they 
blew  upon.  Very  recently  there  was  discovered  in  the 
accounts  of  the  Lord  Treasurer,  under  the  year  1543,  the 
name  of  an  Isobel  Hamilton,  one  of  the  ladies  in  attendance 

1  The  sentence  is  found  at  length  in  the  Appendix  to  Keith's  History. 

2  S pot tis wood,  lib.  ii. 

3  Quoted  in  Lorimer's  Memoirs  of  Hamilton,  p.  155. 


...D.  1532.]  THE  COLLEGE  OF  JUSTICE.  1 65 

on  the  court  of  the  Regent  Arran,  and  described  as  "  daughter 
of  umquhil  Patrick  Hamilton,  Abbot  of  Feme."  It  was  in- 
stantly suspected  that  the  martyr's  virtue  had  not  been  imma- 
culate ;  but  Alesius  tells  us,  in  a  tract  till  lately  unknown,  that 
immediately  after  his  return  from  Germany  he  had  married  a 
lady  of  noble  birth,  and  thus,  like  Luther,  had  openly  and 
irretrievably  broken  with  Rome.1  It  has  indeed  been  ques- 
tioned if  he  ever  was  a  priest,  for  it  does  not  appear  he  was 
more  than  Commendator  Abbot  of  Feme.  If  he  was  a  priest 
and  married,  his  marriage  must  have  been  clandestine,  as  other- 
wise it  would  certainly  have  been  made  a  chief  charge  against 
him.2 

Three  months  after  the  execution  of  Hamilton,  James  con- 
trived to  escape  from  the  Douglases,  gathered  the  nobility 
around  him,  and  being  now  in  his  seventeenth  year,  and 
possessed  of  wisdom  and  firmness  above  his  age,  took  the 
government  upon  his  own  shoulders.  His  hatred  of  Angus 
and  all  his  relatives,  who  had  kept  him  so  long  in  virtual 
captivity,  was  deep  and  incurable.  He  could  never  be 
brought  to  forgive  them.  He  confiscated  their  estates,  and 
drave  them  from  the  kingdom.  We  need  not  wonder  that 
they  were  the  objects  of  his  aversion  and  dread.  They 
undoubtedly  sowed  the  seeds  of  many  of  the  evils  which  bore 
such  bitter  fruit  during  his  reign.  Though  carefully  watch- 
ing his  movements,  in  order  to  prevent  his  slipping  out  of 
their  hands,  they  had  ruinously  indulged  him,  neglected  his 
education,  and  encouraged  his  early  inclination  to  gallantry, 
and  thus  fostered  the  vices  which  afterwards  contaminated  his 
character  and  hastened  his  end.  The  fear  of  his  barons,  thus 
early  inspired,  made  him  throw  himself  more  completely  upon 
the  support  of  his  clergy  ;  while  alarm  at  the  intrigues  of  the 
English  court,  which  had  long  kept  the  kingdom  in  perpetual 
agitation,  led  him  to  suspect  and  avoid  all  the  overtures  of 
Henry. 

We  do  not  require  to  wander  far  out  of  our 

AD     I  ^  s2  ... 

DJ  '    way   to   record   the   institution,   m    1532,   of  the 
College  of  Justice,  the  first  great  step  in  our  country  toward 

1  Lorimer's  Memoirs,  p.  124.  Also  Appendix  to  Laing's  edition  of 
Knox's  works. 

2  The  statement  in  his  sentence,  "not  being  admitted,  but  of  his  own 
head,  without  license  or  privilege,  hath  presumed  to  preach  wicked 
heresy,"  seems  to  prove  he  was  not  in  priest's  orders.  Then,  there  is  no 
mention  of  his  being  degraded  before  he  was  burned,  as  would  have  been 
the  case  had  he  been  a  priest. 


1 66  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  viii. 

the  equitable  administration  of  the  law.  The  idea  is  said  to 
have  been  taken  from  the  parliament  of  Paris.  It  was  to 
consist  of  fifteen  members,  eight  of  whom,  including  the 
president,  were  to  belong  to  the  ecclesiastical  order.  Ten 
advocates  were  appointed  to  conduct  the  pleadings  before  it ; 
the  clerks  of  the  signet  were  ordered  to  be  sworn,  and  every- 
thing down  to  the  appointment  of  macers  was  minutely  pro- 
vided for.  The  expenses  of  the  court  were  to  be  defrayed 
out  of  the  revenues  of  the  clergy,  who,  deeming  the  honour 
done  to  their  order  to  be  no  compensation  for  the  injury 
inflicted  on  their  property,  remonstrated  against  the  exaction, 
but  in  vain.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  constitution 
of  the  college  is  a  testimony  to  the  superior  learning  and  abili- 
ties of  the  ecclesiastics. 

It  was  about  the  same  time  that  Antonio  Campeggio 
visited  Scotland,  as  papal  legate,  to  confirm  James  in  his 
attachment  to  the  ancient  faith.  He  brought  him  from  the 
Pope  a  consecrated  cap  and  sword ;  addressed  him  as 
"  Defender  of  the  Faith, "  a  title  which  his  uncle  Henry  of 
England  was  held  to  have  forfeited,  and  granted  him  a  tithe 
of  all  ecclesiastical  benefices  in  the  kingdom  for  three  years — 
a  most  acceptable  present  to  a  profuse  prince.1 

Meanwhile  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  were  making 
rapid  progress  in  Scotland.  The  Lollards  had  not  been 
extirpated, — some  of  them  still  remained,  ancient  witnesses  of 
the  truth.  Men  were  passing  to  and  fro  betwixt  our  island 
and  the  Continent,  and  ever  bringing  fresh  tidings  of  the  pro- 
gress of  Protestantism.  Vessels  were  arriving  at  Aberdeen, 
Montrose,  Dundee,  and  Leith,  and  stealthily  discharging 
packages  of  Tyndale's  English  New  Testament,  and  the 
pamphlets  and  sermons  of  the  Reformers.2  These  stirred  up 
the  people  like  a  trumpet-blast ;  they  began  to  scent  the 
battle  from  afar.  Poets  were  not  afraid  to  lampoon  the  idle 
monks  and  friars  ;  wits  perpetrated  jokes  at  the  expense  of 
the  voluptuous  bishops ;  and  even  the  rustics,  when  they  met 
at  the  ale-house,  told  scandalous  stories  about  the  parish  priest 
— some  concubine  he  kept,  or  some  good-looking  woman  he 
had  inveigled  at  confession.3  But  there  were  earnest-minded 
men  in  the  Church  who  perceived  that   a  reformation  was 

1  Tytler,  vol.  v. 

2  Among  other  proofs  of  this  importation  of  books,  we  have  an  Act  of  the 
Scotch  Parliament  declaring  it  penal. 

b  Dunbar  and  Lyndsay's  poems  give  ample  proof  of  this. 


A.D.  1533-38.]  MARTYRS  AND  CONFESSORS.  1 67 

needed  ;  there  were  honest  hearts  beneath  the  monkish  gown, 
which  could  not  stifle  their  feelings.  In  Scotland,  as  in 
Germany,  the  Reformation  began  among  the  clergy  themselves. 
Almost  all  our  first  martyrs  and  confessors  were  monks  or 
parish  priests. 

The  flames  in  which  the  Abbot  of  Feme  was  consumed 
had  scarcely  died  out  among  his  ashes,  when  Alexander 
Seaton,  a  Dominican  friar,  and  confessor  to  the  king,  began 
to  preach  the  necessity  of  keeping  the  commandments,  and 
of  looking  to  Christ  as  the  end  and  perfection  of  the  law.  He 
was  called  to  task  for  his  sentiments,  and  glad  to  save  his  life 
by  fleeing  to  England.  At  Berwick  he  wrote  a  letter  to 
James  pointing  out  the  subordination  of  the  ecclesiastical  to 
the  civil  power,  and  urging  his  Majesty,  in  respectful  terms, 
to  put  an  end  to  the  oppression  of  the  clergy.  But  the  king 
did  not  interfere  to  save  him,  and  so  he  was  compelled  to 
remain  in  exile.1 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  a  Church,  backed  by  the 
influence  of  the  King,  proud  of  a  venerable  antiquity,  and 
ignorant  of  the  duty  of  toleration,  would  allow  opinions 
destructive  of  its  power,  its  privileges,  and  its  very  existence, 
to  grow  up  in  its  bosom  without  a  struggle  to  crush  them. 
We  think  it  needless  to  relate  minutely  the  story  of  every 
martyrdom  and  of  every  martyr.  It  is  everywhere  and  at  all 
times  the  same  sad  tale.  Henry  Forest,  a  young  Benedictine 
monk,  was  burnt  at  St  Andrews  in  1533.  In  the  year  follow- 
ing, Norman  Gourlay,  a  priest,  and  David  Straiton,  a  gentle- 
man of  respectable  family,  were  hanged  and  burned  at  the 
rood  of  Greenside,  "  according,"  says  Knox,  "  to  the  mercy 
of  the  papistical  Church."2  Numbers  were  arraigned,  but 
their  faith  failed,  and  they  recanted.  Others  of  whom  the 
country  was  not  worthy,  fled,  and  transferred  their  allegiance 
and  learned  labours  to  other  lands.  Among  these  were  Alex- 
ander Alesius,  who  became  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Leipsic, 
and  the  friend  of  Melancthon  ;  and  John  Machabaeus,  who 
rose  to  high  favour  with  Christiern,  King  of  Denmark,  and 
was  honoured  to  be  one  of  the  translators  of  the  Bible  into 
the  Danish  tongue. 

In  July  1538,  the  parliament  met,  and,  amongst 

d3  *    other  things,  passed  a  law,  which  is  indicative  at 

once  of  the  progress  the  reformed  doctrines  were  making,  and 

of  the  disposition  of  the  government  toward  them.     This  act, 

1  Knox's  History,  book  i.  -  Ibid. 


l63  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  Vlll. 

after  referring  to  an  act  passed  in  the  year  1525,  against  the 
"  damnable  opinions  of  the  great  heretic  Luther,"  proceeds — ■ 
"  Our  said  Sovereign  Lord,  for  the  zeal  and  love  his  High- 
ness bears  to  the  Christian  faith  and  the  Holy  Kirk,  ordains 
and  statutes  the  said  act  anew.  Likewise,  it  is  statute  and 
ordained,  that  forasmuch  as  the  damnable  opinions  of  heresy 
are  spread  in  diverse  countries  by  the  heretic  Luther  and  his 
disciples,  and  this  realm,  and  the  lieges  thereof,  has  firmly 
persisted  in  the  holy  faith,  since  the  same  was  first  received 
by  them,  and  never  as  yet  admitted  any  opinions  contrary  to 
the  Christian  faith,  but  ever  has  been  clean  of  all  such  filth 
and  vice  ;  therefore,  that  no  manner  of  person,  stranger,  that 
happens  to  arrive  with  their  ship  within  any  part  of  this  realm, 
bring  with  them  any  books  or  works  of  the  said  Luther,  his 
disciples  or  servants,  disputes  or  rehearses  his  heresies  or 
opinions,  unless  it  be  to  the  confusion  thereof,  and  that  by 
clerks  in  the  schools,  under  the  pain  of  escheating  their  ships 
and  goods,  and  putting  of  their  persons  in  prison."  It  is 
farther  provided — "  That  none  have,  use,  keep,  or  conceal  any 
books  of  the  said  heretics,  or  countenance  their  doctrine  and 
opinions,  but  that  they  deliver  the  same  to  their  ordinaries 
within  forty  days."1 

Meanwhile  Henry  VIII.  had  revolted  against  Rome.  When 
the  Reformation  first  broke  out  he  had  entered  the  lists  against 
Luther,  and  published  a  treatise  on  the  seven  sacraments,  in 
answer  to  a  book  which  had  been  published  by  the  reformer 
on  the  Babylonish  captivity.  The  royal  production  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Pope  in  full  consistory ;  His  Holiness  spoke  of 
it  as  the  result  of  inspiration,  and  bestowed  upon  its  author  the 
title  of  Defender  of  the  Faith.  But  passion  will  sometimes 
interfere  with  faith ;  and  in  despotic  governments  the  caprices 
of  an  individual  may  overturn  the  religion  of  a  whole  people. 
The  Defender  of  the  Faith  had  grown  weary  of  Catherine  of 
Arragon  ;  he  pretended  scruples  of  conscience  about  having 
her  to  wife,  because  she  had  been  the  wife  of  his  deceased 
brother,  and  craved  a  divorce  from  the  Pope ;  but  the  Pope, 
fearful  of  offending  her  nephew  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  was 
not  so  compliant  as  he  might  have  been  to  so  orthodox  a  king. 
Without  refusing  the  royal  request,  he  staved  it  off  upon 
various  pretences ;  and  Henry  got  impatient,  for  he  had  seen 
and  loved  Anne  Boleyn.  In  these  circumstances  Cranmer 
proposed  to  solve  the  difficulty,  by  getting  the  opinions  of  the 
1  Keith's  History,  book  i.  chap.  i.     Acts  of  the  Scottish  Parliament. 


A.D.  1535.]  THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION.  1 69 

most  famous  universities  in  regard  to  the  legitimacy  of  his 
marriage,  and,  if  these  should  prove  unfavourable  to  it,  to  have 
a  divorce  pronounced  by  his  own  clergy.  Henry  swore  that 
Cranmer  had  the  right  sow  by  the  ear.  The  thing  was  done  ; 
the  opinions  were  unfavourable ;  and  the  divorce  was  pro- 
nounced by  Cranmer  himself,  who  had  now  been  raised  to  the 
See  of  Canterbury.  Excommunicated  by  the  Court  of  Rome, 
Henry  was  declared  by  his  own  parliament  the  only  supreme 
head  of  the  Church  of  England  upon  earth  ;  and  the  papal 
supremacy  was  for  ever  at  an  end.  The  Rubicon  being  thus 
crossed,  monasteries  were  suppressed,  and  their  enormous 
revenues  appropriated  by  the  monarch,  or  bestowed  upon  his 
courtiers,  and  the  people  flattered  with  the  notion  that  hence- 
forward they  would  require  to  pay  no  more  taxes.  But  though 
the  English  monarch  had  thus  abolished  the  Roman  jurisdic- 
tion within  his  realm,  he  had  no  intention  of  reforming  the 
Romish  ritual  or  the  Romish  creed.  "  The  scheme,"  says 
Macaulay,  "  was  merely  to  transfer  the  full  cup  of  sorceries 
from  the  Babylonian  enchantress  to  other  hands,  spilling  as 
little  as  possible  by  the  way."1  Accordingly,  with  the  utmost 
impartiality,  Henry  struck  off  men's  heads  for  maintaining  the 
Pope's  supremacy,  or  for  denying  the  dogma  of  transubstantia- 
tion  ;  for  owning  the  jurisdiction  of  Rome,  or  for  denying  her 
doctrines.  Such  was  the  beginning  and  the  ending  of  Henry's 
reformation  of  religion  in  England. 

But  the  English  monarch  was  most  anxious  to  extend  his 
reformation,  such  as  it  was,  to  the  sister  kingdom;  and  we  find 
him  labouring,  with  all  the  zeal  of  a  new  proselyte,  to  convert 
his  nephew  of  Scotland  to  his  faith.  With  this  view  he  made 
a  proposal  of  a  marriage  between  James  and  his  daughter,  the 
Princess  Mary,  holding  out  to  him  the  hope  of  succeeding  to 
the  English  crown.  He  despatched  his  chaplain,  Dr  Barlow, 
Bishop-elect  of  St  Davids,  to  the  Scottish  court  to  remove  false 
impressions  ;  to  present  to  the  young  monarch  a  book  recently 
published,  called  "  The  Doctrine  of  a  Christian  Man  ;  "  and, 
if  permission  were  granted,  to  display  his  no-popery  eloquence 
in  the  pulpit.  James  submitted  the  treatise  to  his  ecclesiastics, 
who  pronounced  it  full  of  heresy,  and  unfit  for  the  royal  eyes ; 
and  Barlow  wrote  to  Secretary  Cromwell  informing  him  that 
the  king  was  surrounded  "  by  the  Pope's  pestilent  creatures 
and  very  limbs  of  the  devil."2 

1  Critical  and  Historical  Essay?,  vol.  i.  p.  131. 

2  Pinkerton,  book  xiv.     Keith's  History,  book  i.     Tytler,  vol.  v. 


1  70  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  viii. 

Barlow  was  followed  by  Lord  William  Howard,  who  was  in- 
structed to  propose  a  conference  at  York  between  his  master 
and  James  ;  but  though  James  at  first  consented  to  meet  his 
uncle,  he  afterwards,  through  the  influence  of  his  clergy,  made 
pretexts  for  delay,  and  the  conference  never  took  place.  It 
would  appear,  however,  that  Henry's  overtures  had  made  some  . 
impression  on  the  king,  for  in  May  1536  he  advertises  him 
"  that  he  had  sent  to  Rome  to  get  impetrations  for  reformation 
of  some  enormities,  and  especially  anent  the  ordering  of  great 
and  many  possessions  and  temporal  lands,  given  to  the  kirk  by 
our  noble  predecessors."  l  We  need  not  wonder  that  the 
diplomatists  both  of  London  and  Rome  should  thus  anxiously 
be  visiting  Scotland.  Its  relative  position  to  England  made  its 
movements  of  more  than  ordinary  consequence.  It  was  a 
strategical  point  in  the  field,  which  it  was  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance for  the  Pope  to  retain  and  for  Henry  to  carry. 

James  wished  for  a  wife,  and  his  thoughts  were  fixed  upon 
the  daughters  of  France.  Disdaining  to  entrust  the  courtship 
into  the  hands  of  diplomatists,  he  set  sail  for  Dieppe,  and 
having  landed,  hastened  to  Paris — a  romantic  knight-errant  in 
search  of  a  lady-love.  He  had  no  sooner  seen  than  he  loved 
Magdalene,  the  only  daughter  of  Francis  I.,  a  beautiful  girl  of 
seventeen  ;  but  her  fragile  figure  and  hectic  complexion  were 
already  indicative  of  consumption  and  prophetic  of  death. 
Mutual  affection  would  not  listen  to  reason,  and  so  their 
nuptials  were  celebrated  with  extraordinary  pomp  in  the 
Church  of  Notre  Dame.  Refused  a  passage  through  England 
the  royal  pair  were  compelled  to  return  to  Scotland  by  sea ; 
and  when  the  devoted  girl  landed  at  Leith  she  knelt  down  upon 
the  beach,  kissed  the  very  sand,  and  solemnly  thanked  God  for 
having  brought  her  husband  and  herself  safely  through  the  sea 
to  the  land  of  her  adoption.2  But  she  came  only  to  find  a 
grave.  In  two  months  she  was  dead — a  flower  too  tender  for 
northern  skies.  James  mourned  her  in  death  as  he  had  loved 
her  in  life ;  but,  young  and  hopeful,  he  dried  his  tears,  and 
before  the  days  of  his  mourning  were  accomplished,  he  had 
sought  and  obtained  the  hand  of  Mary  of  Guise,  the  widow  of 
the  Duke  of  Longueville — a  marriage  which  had  the  most 
important  influence  upon  the  future  fortunes  of  the  kingdom. 
On  the  last  day  of  February  1539  a  huge  fire 
was  blazing  on  the  Castle  Hill  of  Edinburgh, 
and  five  miserable  men  were  seen  in  the  midst  of  it — suffering, 

1  Keith,  book  i.  chap.  ii.  2  Lindsay  of  Pitscottie,  p.  159. 


A.D.  1539.]  THE  BISHOP  AND  THE  DEAX.  I  7  T 

yet  rejoicing.  They  were  Dean  Thomas  Forret,  Vicar  of 
Dollar,  and  a  canon  regular  of  the  monastery  of  St  Colm's, 
Inch  ;  Sir  Duncan  Simpson,  a  priest ;  Keillor  and  Beveridge, 
black  friars ;  and  Forrester,  a  notary  in  Stirling.  They  had 
been  tried  for  heresy  before  a  council  held  by  Cardinal  Beaton 
and  William  Chisholme,  Bishop  of  Dunblane,  and  this  was 
their  end.  Keillor,  it  would  appear,  had  written  one  of  those 
religious  plays  or  mysteries,  common  at  the  period,  in  which 
Christ's  passion  was  represented  ;  and  this  had  been  acted 
before  the  king  and  court  at  Stirling,  upon  the  morning  of  a 
Cood  Friday.  But  it  was  obvious  that  under  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,  who  accomplished  the  condemnation  of  Christ, 
Keillor  had  painted  the  Churchmen  of  his  day  who  were 
crucifying  Christ  afresh  by  persecuting  his  friends.1  The 
satire  had  been  too  stinging  to  be  easily  forgotten  or  forgiven. 
The  Vicar  of  Dollar  had  some  time  before  incurred  the  sus- 
picion of  Lutheranism  by  refusing  to  exact  the  corpse  present 
— felt  by  the  poor  to  be  an  intolerable  grievance,  and  by 
preaching  regularly  on  the  Sundays.  He  was  accordingly  cited 
before  Crichton,  Bishop  of  Dunkeld,  a  prelate  more  given  to 
hospitality  than  the  study  of  theology,  but  evidently  a  kind- 
hearted  and  good-natured  man.  The  conversation  which 
passed  between  them  is  characteristic  of  the  times,  and  there- 
fore we  give  it  at  length,  as  reported  by  Fox,  the  martyr- 
ologist. 

"  I  love  you  well,"  said  the  bishop,  "and  therefore  I  must 
give  you  my  counsel  how  you  shall  rule  and  guide  yourself. 
My  dear  Dean  Thomas,  I  am  told  that  you  preach  the  epistle 
or  gospel  every  Sunday  to  your  parishioners,  and  that  you 
take  not  the  cow  nor  the  uppermost  cloth  from  your  pa- 
rishioners, which  is  very  prejudicial  to  the  Churchmen,  and 
therefore  I  would  you  took  your  cow  and  your  uppermost 
cloth,  as  other  Churchmen  do,  or  else  it  is  too  much  to  preach 
every  Sunday  ;  for  in  so  doing  you  may  make  the  people  think 
that  we  should  preach  likewise.  But  it  is  enough  for  you,  when 
you  find  any  good  epistle,  or  any  good  gospel,  that  setteth 
forth  the  liberty  of  the  Holy  Church,  to  preach  that,  and  let 
the  rest  be."  Forret  answered,  "  My  lord,  I  think  that  none 
of  my  parishioners  will  complain  that  I  take  not  the  cow  nor 
the  uppermost  cloth,  but  will  gladly  give  me  the  same,  to- 
gether with  any  other  thing  that  they  have,  and  I  will  give  and 
communicate  with  them  any  thing  that  I  have;  and  so,  my 

1  Knox's  History,  book  i. 


172  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  VIII. 

lord,  we  agree  right  well,  and  there  is  no  discord  amongst  us. 
And  where  your  lordship  saith,  '  it  is  too  much  to  preach 
every  Sunday,'  indeed  I  think  it  is  too  little,  and  also  would 
wish  that  your  lordship  did  the  like."  "  Nay,  nay,  Dean 
Thomas,"  cried  the  bishop  ;  "  let  that  be,  for  we  are  not 
ordained  to  preach."  Then  said  Forret,  "  Where  your  lord- 
ship biddeth  me  preach  when  I  find  any  good  epistle  or  a  good 
gospel,  truly,  my  lord,  I  have  read  the  New  Testament  and 
the  Old,  and  all  the  epistles  and  gospels,  and  among  them  all 
I  could  never  find  an  evil  epistle  or  an  evil  gospel ;  but  if 
your  lordship  will  show  me  the  good  epistle  and  the  good 
gospel,  then  I  shall  preach  the  good  and  omit  the  evil."  The 
bishop  replied,  "  I  thank  God  that  I  never  knew  what  the  Old 
and  New  Testament  was  ;  therefore,  Dean  Thomas,  I  will 
know  nothing  but  my  portuise  and  pontifical.  Go  your  way, 
and  let  be  all  these  fantasies ;  for  if  you  persevere  in  these 
erroneous  opinions,  ye  will  repent  when  you  may  not  mend 
it."1 

In  the  same  year  there  were  burnt  as  heretics  in  Glasgow  a 
grey  friar  named  Russel,  and  a  young  man  named  Kennedy, 
who  is  said  to  have  had  a  genius  for  poetry,  and  who  had 
probably  employed  it  in  lampooning  the  clergy.  It  is  re- 
ported that  Archbishop  Dunbar  would  willingly  have  saved 
them,  but  his  coadjutors  were  inexorable. 2 

The  panic  caused  by  these  burnings  made  many  flee  to 
England  for  safety.3  George  Buchanan  had  been  acting  as 
tutor  to  the  Lord  James  Stewart,  one  of  the  king's  illegitimate 
children,  and  had  recently  received  a  gown  of  Paris  black  lined 
with  satin  as  mourning  for  the  young  queen ;  but  he  had 
satirised  the  Franciscans,  and  was  imprisoned  in  the  Sea 
Tower  of  St  Andrews.  Happily,  for  the  sake  of  literature,  he 
escaped  by  his  bedroom  window  and  fled  to  France,4  pro- 
bably with  the  connivance  of  the  king. 

About  the  same  time  James  Beaton,  Archbishop  of  St 
Andrews,  died,  and  the  primacy  passed  into  the  hands  of  his 
nephew,  David  Beaton,  already  a  cardinal,  and  Bishop  of  Mire- 
poix  in  France.  He  was  a  man  of  great  talents,  and  still 
greater  ambition,  devoted  heart  and  soul  to  the  interests  of 
the  Church,  and  himself  an  embodiment,  in  many  respects,  at 
once  of  its  virtues  and  its  vices.      He  had  already  acquired  a 

1  Martyrology,  book  viii.  2  Spottiswood,  book  ii. 

:i  Letter  of  Duke  of  Norfolk,  State  Papers,  vol.  v.  p.  155. 
4  Ikichanan's  History,  lib.  xiv.     Knox's  History,  book  i. 


A.D.  1539.]  SADLER  AT  THE  SCOTTISH  COURT.  I  73 

great  influence  over  the  mind  of  the  king,  and,  for  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life,  we  may  regard  him  as  the  main  instigator 
of  every  public  measure  both  ecclesiastical  and  political.  He 
was  scarcely  installed  till  he  convoked  at  St  Andrews  a  meet- 
ing of  the  great  barons  and  dignified  clergy,  and  harangued 
them  upon  "  the  Church  in  danger,"  and  followed  up  his 
oration  by  citing  Sir  John  Borthwick  to  appear  and  answer  to 
the  charge  of  heresy  ;  but  Sir  John  had  wisely  fled  to  Eng- 
land. He  was  declared  guilty,  and  burned  in  effigy,  first  at 
St  Andrews,  and  afterwards  in  Edinburgh;1  but  better  to  be 
burned  ten  times  in  similitude  than  once  in  reality. 

The  year  1539  saw  Charles  V.  and  Francis  I.,  who  had  so 
long  wasted  Europe  by  their  wars,  at  peace  with  one  another ; 
and  Henry,  alarmed  lest  a  Catholic  league  might  be  formed 
against  him,  and  James  invited  to  join  it,  despatched  Sir 
Ralph  Sadler  to  the  Scottish  court,  to  try  the  effects  of 
diplomacy.  We  may  well  regard  this  as  an  important  era  in 
our  history,  for  Sadler  soon  began  to  exert  a  strong  influence 
in  Scottish  affairs,  and  fortunately  his  letters  and  despatches 
have  been  preserved,  and  throw  much  light  upon  the  state  of 
parties  and  of  public  feeling  at  the  time.  Sadler's  instructions 
were  to  persuade  the  Scottish  monarch  to  break  off  from 
Rome,  and  seize  upon  the  possessions  of  the  abbeys  and  other 
religious  houses  ;  to  discover  what  he  were  likely  to  do  in  the 
event  of  a  Catholic  league  being  formed  against  England;  and 
to  bring  Cardinal  Beaton  into  suspicion  with  him  by  every 
means,  but  more  especially  by  showing  certain  equivocal 
letters  which  the  cardinal  had  addressed  to  his  agent  at  Rome, 
and  which  had  accidentally  fallen  into  Henry's  hands.  Sadler 
was  further  instructed  to  renew  the  proposal  of  an  interview 
between  the  two  monarchs  at  York  ;  and  to  flatter  the  hopes 
of  James  succeeding  to  the  English  crown  in  the  event  of 
Prince  Edward's  death."2 

Sadler's  account  of  his  mission  is  peculiarly  interesting,  from 
the  gossiping  way  in  which  it  communicates  to  us!  grave 
matters  of  state,  and  the  glimpses  it  gives  us  of  life  at  Holy- 
rood  three  hundred  years  ago.  He  tells  us  that  when  he 
sought  his  first  interview  he  was  conducted  to  the  chapel, 
where  he  saw  the  king  at  mass,  kneeling  under  a  cloth  of  state, 
with  the  cardinal,  bishops,  and  nobles  kneeling  around  him. 
The  ambassador  was  led  to  a  seat  behind  the  place  where  the 

1  Knox's  History,  book  i.      Spottiswood,  lib.  ii.     Keith. 

2  Sadler's  State  Papers,  vol.  i.      Keith,  book  i.  chap.  ii. 


174  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

monarch  was  thus  devoutly  engaged.  When  the  service  was 
over,  he  was  brought  to  the  king,  and  instantly  entered  upon 
his  business.  He  said  he  was  sent  by  his  royal  master  to 
assure  his  Majesty  of  his  friendly  feelings,  and  to  offer  for  his 
acceptance  a  present  of  six  geldings,  which  were  on  their  way 
to  Scotland  by  sea,  and  would  arrive  in  the  course  of  another 
day.  James  pleasantly  received  the  gift,  and  declared  that  if 
there  was  anything  in  his  kingdom  which  his  uncle  would  like, 
it  was  quite  at  his  service.  Sadler  next  stated  that  he  had 
some  secret  intelligence  to  communicate,  and  wished  a  secret 
conference,  upon  which  the  king  fixed  the  next  day  before 
noon. 

The  next  day  came  ;  the  English  ambassador  repaired  to 
the  palace,  and  was  again  taken  to  the  chapel,  where  he  had 
the  benefit  of  a  French  sermon,  to  which  the  queen  and  her 
ladies  were  listening.  He  was  then  conducted  to  the  privy- 
chamber,  and  the  king  took  him  to  a  window-recess,  that  they 
might  there  talk  over  matters  together.  Sadler,  with  many 
apologies,  exacted  a  promise  of  secrecy  from  James,  and  then, 
with  an  air  of  mystery,  began  to  tell  him  of  a  letter  which  had 
fallen  into  his  master's  hands,  and  which  proved  Beaton  to  be 
holding  a  treasonable  correspondence  with  Rome.  It  was 
written  by  the  Cardinal  to  Mr  Andrew  Oliphant,  Vicar  of 
Foulis,  his  agent  at  the  papal  court,  and  was  on  its  way  thither 
under  the  charge  of  Crichton  of  Brunston ;  but  the  vessel 
which  conveyed  the  letter  and  its  bearer  was  shipwrecked  on 
the  English  coast.  It  contained  references  to  ecclesiastical 
affairs  which  Henry  deemed  very  suspicious,  and  therefore 
had  he,  in  his  great  solicitude  for  his  nephew's  welfare,  com- 
municated it  to  him.  Sadler  says  that  while  he  was  narrating 
all  this,  and  explaining  the  contents  of  the  letter,  he  narrowly 
watched  the  king,  to  see  what  effect  it  would  have  upon  him. 
The  result  of  his  observation  was — "  Sometimes  the  king  looked 
steadfastly  at  him  with  a  grave  countenance,  sometimes  he 
bit  his  lip,  sometimes  he  bowed."  When  he  was  done,  the 
king  said,  "  There  are  two  laws,  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal. 
The  administration  of  the  one  belongs  to  the  Pope,  and  the 
administration  of  the  other  to  myself.  I  shall  see  to  the  one, 
but  must  leave  my  clergy  to  manage  the  other."  Sadler, 
somewhat  disconcerted,  offered  to  show  the  letter ;  but  the 
cardinal  was  all  this  while  in  the  room,  so  the  king  whispered 
he  would  rather  look  at  it  some  other  time. 

Sadler  now  broached  another  subject.     It  had  not  yet  be- 


A.D.  1540.]  THE  WAY  TO  BE  RICH.  I  75 

come  fashionable  for  princes  to  keep  model  farms,  and  rear 
fat  bullocks  and  prize  rams.  The  ambassador  therefore  said 
that  he  was  instructed  to  state  to  his  Majesty,  that  his  uncle 
of  England  had  heard  with  deep  concern  that  he  "  kept  large 
flocks  of  sheep,  and  other  such  mean  things,"  and  that  it 
would  be  much  more  royal  if  he  would  enrich  himself  with  the 
plunder  of  the  religious  houses  in  the  kingdom.  "  Then," 
said  Sadler,  "  you  will  be  able  to  live  like  a  king,  and  not 
meddle  with  sheep."  James  declared  that  he  had  no  sheep, 
but  that  the  tacksmen  of  the  royal  demesnes  might  have. 
Alas,  James  !  you  were  either  ignorant  of  your  own  flocks  and 
herds,  or  you  were  ashamed  to  acknowledge  the  possession 
of  "  such  mean  things  "  to  your  august  relative.  But  your 
treasurer's  accounts  have  made  it  known  to  a  still  more  august 
posterity,  that  at  that  very  time  you  had  numerous  flocks 
grazing  in  the  forests  of  Ettrick,  and  you  need  not  have 
blushed  to  own  it. 

But  James  was  poor,  and  Henry  knew  it,  and  had  suggested 
a  way  in  which  he  might  become  passing  rich.  "  I  thank  my 
uncle  for  his  advice,"  said  James,  "  but  in  good  faith  I  cannot 
do  so,  for  methinks  it  against  reason  and  God's  laws  to  put 
down  these  abbeys  and  religious  houses,  which  have  stood  so 
long,  and  maintained  God's  service."  "  And  what  need  have 
I  to  take  of  them  to  increase  my  livelihood  ? "  continued  the 
monarch.  "  There  is  not  an  abbey  in  Scotland  at  this  hour, 
but,  if  I  asked  anything,  would  give  it."  Sadler  urged  that 
the  monks  were  an  idle,  unprofitable  kind  of  people,  and 
withal  very  unchaste.  The  king  replied,  "  that  a  few  might  be 
bad,  but  it  were  a  pity  that  for  the  sake  of  these  all  should  be 
destroyed."  Beat  off  on  this  point,  the  ambassador  next 
referred  to  the  league  which  it  was  rumoured  his  Majesty  had 
entered  into  with  France  ;  but  the  king  laughed  at  this,  and 
denied  it  utterly.  Last  of  all,  Sadler  touched  upon  the  con- 
ference which  his  master  wished  to  have  with  his  Majesty. 
James  showed  an  evident  disposition  to  waive  this  matter,  and 
remarked,  that  if  such  a  conference  took  place,  he  would  like 
the  King  of  France  to  be  present  at  it. 

The  next  day  was  Sunday,  and  again  the  ambassador  was 
sent  for.  He  came  to  exhibit  the  geldings,  which  had  now 
arrived;  but,  as  before,  he  was  first  of  all  brought  into  the 
chapel,  where  the  whole  court  was  assembled.  The  service 
being  done,  the  horses  were  mounted  and  put  through  their 
paces,  and  the  barbary  and  jennet  particularly  praised.     The 


176  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  VIII. 

master  of  the  household  now  came  and  announced  that  dinner 
was  ready,  upon  which  the  king  went  and  washed,  and  then 
sat  down,  having  told  his  lords  to  take  the  ambassador  with 
them.  At  table,  besides  the  king,  there  were  the  Cardinal,  the 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  the  Earls  of  Huntly,  Errol,  Cassillis, 
and  Athole,  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  Lord  Erskine,  and  some 
others.  After  dinner,  Sadler  politely  thanked  the  king  for 
having  so  kindly  entertained  so  poor  a  man  as  he  was.  The 
king  now  took  an  opportunity  of  telling  him  that  he  knew  all 
about  the  letter  to  which  he  had  referred  :  that  Beaton  had 
kept  a  duplicate  of  it,  that  he  had  seen  it,  and  that  it  had 
created  no  suspicions  of  the  cardinal's  loyalty.  Sadler,  evi- 
dently amazed,  suggested  that  his  Majesty  had  better  look  at 
the  original,  which  he  had  in  his  bosom.  As  the  cardinal  was 
in  the  room,  and  might  be  observing  their  movements,  the 
king  told  him  to  take  it  out  quietly,  as  if  it  were  some  other 
paper ;  and  then  looking  at  it,  he  declared  that  it  agreed  word 
for  word  with  the  duplicate.  It  was  hopeless  to  make  any- 
thing of  this,  and  so  the  ambassador,  leaving  it  off,  began  to 
dilate  upon  the  reformation  which  Henry  had  wrought  at 
Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  and  upon  the  bad  lives  of  the 
monks  and  friars  ;  but  the  king  simply  smiled,  and  said  that 
if  they  did  not  live  well,  he  would  amend  them,  and  then 
showed  a  disposition  to  change  the  subject.1 

All  this,  and  much  more,  Sadler  communicates  to  Henry 
with  great  minuteness  of  detail ;  but  it  was  plain  that  the  great 
object  of  his  embassage  had  failed. 

In  a  parliament  which  was  held  in  the  month  of  March 
1541,  a  series  of  acts  were  passed  which  clearly  indicate  the 
determination  of  the  king  to  root  out  heresy  and  maintain  the 
established  order  of  things.  By  one  of  these  it  was  declared 
death  to  argue  or  impugn  the  Pope's  authority.  By  another 
it  was  declared  unlawful  for  any,  except  "  theologians  ap- 
proved by  famous  universities,  or  admitted  thereto  by  those 
who  have  lawful  power,"  to  hold  conventicles  in  order  to 
dispute  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  or  for  any  one  to  lodge  any 
known  heretic.  By  a  third,  it  was  enacted  that  no  heretic 
who  had  abjured  his  heresy,  and  been  received  to  penance 
and  grace,  should  talk  to  others  of  the  holy  faith,  under  pain 
of  being  considered  as  relapsed.  By  a  fourth,  it  was  provided 
that  if  any  one  were  suspected  of  heresy,  and,  after  being 
summoned,  fled  from  justice,  he  should  be  held  as  guilty,  and 
proceeded  against  accordingly  ;  and  that  if  any  one  should 
1  Sadler's  State  Papers  and  Letters,  vol.  i. 


A.D.  1541.]  PENAL  ACTS.  177 

receive  him,  assist  him,  or  petition  for  his  pardon,  he  should 
be  held  as  a  favourer  of  heresy.  By  a  fifth,  it  was  ordained 
that  should  any  one  reveal  a  congregation  or  conventicle 
where  error  was  disseminated,  he  should,  in  the  event  of  his 
being  one  of  the  heretical  congregation  himself,  be  acquitted 
and  absolved  ;  and  in  the  event  of  his  not  being  so,  he  should 
be  rewarded  with  a  portion  of  the  confiscated  goods  of  the 
accused.1  Such  were  the  tyrannical  acts  by  which  it  was  at- 
tempted to  prop  up  the  papacy  in  our  country  when  it  was 
tottering  to  its  fall. 

But  it  was  felt  at  the  same  time  that  the  Church  might  be 
better  preserved  by  abolishing  abuses  than  by  burning  people 
for  talking  of  them.  Accordingly,  on  the  same  day  with  these 
other  acts,  an  act  was  passed  for  reforming  of  kirks  and  kirk- 
men.  In  this  act  it  is  set  forth,  that  "  because  the  negligence 
of  divine  service,  the  great  unhonesty  in  the  kirk,  through  not 
making  of  reparation  to  the  honour  of  God  Almighty,  and  to 
the  blessed  sacrament  of  the  altar,  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  all 
holy  saints  ;  and  also  the  unhonesty  and  misrule  of  kirk  men. 
both  in  wit,  knowledge,  and  manners,  is  the  matter  and  cause 
that  the  kirk  and  kirkmen  are  lightly  spoken  of  and  contemned : 
for  remede  hereof,  the  King's  Grace  exhorts  and  prays  openly 
all  archbishops,  bishops,  ordinaries,  and  other  prelates,  and 
every  kirkman  in  his  own  degree,  to  reform  themselves,  and  all 
kirkmen  under  them,  in  habit  and  manners  both  to  God  and 
man,"  etc.,  etc.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  this  act  does  not 
conclude  with  denouncing  death  and  confiscation  of  goods 
against  all  delinquent  churchmen,  but  simply,  "  if  any  person 
will  not  obey  nor  obtemper  to  their  superior,  in  that  behalf  the 
King's  Grace  shall  find  remede  therefor  at  the  Pope's  Holiness, 
and  such  like  against  the  said  prelates  if  they  be  negligent."  - 

These  acts  were  hardly  passed  till  Beaton,  ever  active, 
started  on  an  embassage  to  Rome.  His  avowed  object  was  to 
procure  his  appointment  as  papal  legate  to  Scotland  ;  but  it  is 
supposed  he  had  secret  instructions  to  negotiate  an  alliance 
with  the  Emperor  and  the  King  of  France  for  the  invasion  of 
Kngland  and  extirpation  of  heresy.  The  conjuncture  was 
favourable,  as  Francis  was  now  feasting  and  feting  his  former 
foe,  and  both  were  equally  zealous  for  the  Catholic  Church ; 
but  their  old  animosities  were  quickly  renewed — Milan  became 
once  more  a  bone  of  contention,  and  the  alliance,  if  ever  con- 
templated, happily  for  Protestantism  was  never  formed. 
1  Keith,  book  i.  chap.  i.  2  Ibid. 

M 


178  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  VIII. 

Meanwhile  Sadler  proceeded  a  second  time  to  Scotland, 
bent  on  the  same  errand  as  before,  and  with  letters  in  which 
our  monarch  was  admonished  not  to  be  as  a  brute  or  stock  in 
the  hands  of  the  clergy.  "  The  practices  of  prelates  and 
clerks/' say  the  instructions,  "be  wondrous,  and  their  jug- 
gling so  crafty,  that  unless  a  man  beware,  and  be  as  oculate 
as  Argus,  he  may  be  lightly  led  by  the  nose,  and  bear  the  yoke, 
yea,  and  yet  for  blindness  not  to  know  what  he  doth."1  This 
lecture,  which  was  to  be  read  by  Sadler  to  James,  lets  us 
understand  that  Henry  considered  him  as  priest-ridden ;  and 
perhaps  he  was  ;  but  still  it  was  not  very  courteous  to  say  so 
in  such  homely  phrase,  notwithstanding  the  privilege  of  an 
uncle  to  say  rude  things  to  an  orphan  nephew. 

The  position  of  James  at  this  period  was  peculiar  and  em- 
barrassing. He  was  in  need  of  money ;  and  there  were  two 
ways  in  which  he  could  get  it,  and  each  of  these  had  been 
urged  upon  him.  He  might  confiscate  the  property  of  the 
Church,  or  of  the  heretical  gentry  and  nobles.  Again  and 
again  Henry  urged  upon  him  the  former  method  ;  Beaton  and 
his  clergy  suggested  the  latter.  The  king  pointed  to  his  own 
example ;  the  cardinal  drew  out  a  list  of  three  hundred  and 
sixty  persons  of  property  who  were  suspected  of  heresy,  and 
whose  possessions,  if  confiscated,  would  amply  satisfy  all  the 
requirements  of  royalty.  It  was  for  James  to  choose  whether 
he  would  break  with  the  nobility  or  the  clergy, — whether  he 
would  enrich  himself  with  secular  or  ecclesiastical  plunder. 
There  was  as  much  principle,  or  want  of  principle,  on  the  one 
side  as  the  other.  But,  if  rob  the  king  must,  whom  should  he 
rob  ?  The  clergy  had  hitherto  been  his  firmest  friends  ;  it  was 
in  their  wisdom  he  most  trusted ;  it  was  their  talents  he  most 
employed  ;  it  was  to  their  masses  he  looked  for  the  salvation 
of  his  soul.  If  they  were  rich,  they  were  also  liberal ;  and 
they  had  already  voluntarily  assessed  themselves  in  large  sums 
for  his  support.  Mary,  his  queen,  was  Catholic ;  France,  his 
ancient  ally,  was  Catholic  ;  to  spoil  the  Church  he  must  break 
with  them.  Yet  James  was  not  blind  to  the  vices  of  the 
clergy ;  he  gave  his  countenance  to  satires  upon  their  idle  and 
licentious  lives;2  he  passed  acts  to  reform  them;3  and  he  is 

1  Sadler's  State  Papers,  &c,  vol.  i. 

2  Friar  Keillor's  "Mystery"  and  Sir  David  Lindsay's  "  Satyre  of  the 
Three  Estatis  "  were  performed  in  his  presence;  and  Buchanan,  at  the 
king's  special  desire,  wrote  the  stinging  satire  on  the  Franciscan  friars, 
known  as  Franciscanus. 

3  Act,  14th  March  1541,  quoted  above. 


A.D.  1542.]  DEATH  OF  JAMES  V.  I  79 

said  to  have  looked  with  a  covetous  eye  upon  their  ample 
possessions,  and  to  have  meditated  the  appropriation  of  some 
of  them.  On  the  other  hand,  James  had  no  great  love  for  his 
nobility ;  he  had  more  than  the  Stewarts'  hereditary  dread  of 
their  turbulence  and  power  ;  and  the  faction  of  Angus  had 
disturbed  and  distressed  him  all  his  life  long.  But  to  beggar 
nearly  four  hundred  of  them,  because  suspected  of  heresy,  was 
a  scheme  too  wild,  too  daring,  too  unprincipled  for  him.  He 
is  said  to  have  driven  from  his  presence  the  first  proposer  of 
the  plan  with  mutterings  about  heading  and  hanging,  but  to 
have  afterwards  reverted  to  the  thought,  and  that  the  terrible 
proscription-roll  was  found  in  his  pocket  after  his  death.1 

We  have  not  the  same  clear  information  in  regard  to  Sadler's 
second  mission  which  we  have  in  regard  to  his  first ;  but  it 
would  appear  that  James  had  given  a  qualified  promise  that 
he  would  meet  Henry  at  York  during  his  intended  progress 
to  the  north.  Henry  came  to  York,  and  remained  there 
during  six  days  ;  but  James  did  not  appear.  The  clergy,  it 
was  thought,  had  prevailed  upon  him  to  remain  at  home  ;  and 
perhaps  they  advised  wisely,  for  there  were  suspicions  of  a 
trap  being  laid  to  catch  the  Scotch  king.  James  sent  a  courteous 
apology ;  but  Henry  conceived  himself  slighted  and  insulted, 
and  returned  to  London  venting  threatenings  and  curse? 
against  the  Scotch.  War  was  the  result ;  the  borders  became 
the  scene  of  bloodshed  and  pillage ;  the  old  Duke  of  Norfolk 
marched  into  Scotland  with  a  large  army,  but  retired  at  the 
approach  of  winter,  and  in  presence  of  the  Scotch  array.  The 
king  wished  a  pursuit,  but  the  barons  refused  to  follow  him. 
and  he  left  the  army  in  deep  disgust.  The  shameful  rout  of 
Sol  way  Moss  soon  followed.  The  high-spirited  monarch  could 
bear  no  more  ;  he  shut  himself  up  in  Falkland  Palace,  and  the 
violence  of  his  grief  soon  induced  a  slow  fever.  None  could 
"  pluck  from  his  heart  the  rooted  sorrow."  While  rapidly 
sinking,  intelligence  was  brought  that  his  queen,  who  was  at 
Linlithgow,  had  been  delivered  of  a  girl,  afterwards  the  unfor- 
tunate Queen  Mary.  "  It  came  with  a  lass,  and  it  will  go 
with  a  lass,"  said  the  broken-hearted  monarch,  and  in  seven 
days  afterwards  expired. 

The  mysterious  death  of  the  king,  free  from  all  apparent 
disease,  made  many  whisper  he  had  been  poisoned,  or  as 
Knox  phrases  it,  that  "  of  old  '  his  part  was  in  the  pot,'  and 

1  Knox's  History,  book  i.  Sadler  also  mentions  such  a  proscription- 
roll,  vol.  i. 


I  So  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

that  the  suspicion  thereof  caused  him  to  be  inhibited  the 
queen's  company. "  The  truth  is,  it  was  customary  in  those 
times  to  attribute  every  such  death  to  false  play,  and  chemical 
analysis  could  not  yet  either  prove  or  disprove  the  popular 
rumours.  Knox  had  no  liking  for  Mary  of  Guise.  "  Howsoever 
the  tidings  liked  her,"  said  he,  "she  mended  with  as  great 
expedition  of  that  daughter  as  ever  she  did  of  any  son  she 
bore.  The  time  of  her  purification  was  sooner  than  the  Levi- 
tical  law  appoints ;  but  she  was  no  Jew,  and  therefore  in  that 
she  offended  not."1 

Cardinal  Beaton  lost  no  time  in  producing  a  document  pur- 
porting to  be  the  will  of  the  deceased  monarch,  appointing 
him  regent  of  the  kingdom  during  the  queen's  minority,  with 
a  council,  consisting  of  the  Earls  of  Argyll,  Huntly,  and  Moray, 
to  assist  him  in  the  government ;  and  proclamation  was  made, 
accordingly,  at    the    market-cross    of   Edinburgh.     Instantly 
there  were  rumours  afloat  of  a  dead  or  dying  man's  hand 
being  guided  upon  a  blank  paper,  which  was  afterwards  filled 
up  by  the  cardinal  himself.     The  circumstance  was  affirmed 
in  high   quarters,2   and  very  generally   believed  ;  but  it  was 
never  proved,  nor  as  much  as  judicially  alleged  against  the 
cardinal,  even  when  he  was  lying  in  prison,  and  his  enemies 
very  anxious   to  find  judicial    matter    against    him.     In   the 
absence  of  proof  to  the  contrary,  all  the  probabilities  are  in 
favour  of  the  genuineness  of  the  document.     James  was  mor- 
bidly jealous  of  his  barons  ;  after  the  mutiny  of  Fala  Muir, 
and  the  rout  of  Solway,  he  had  conceived  toward  them  the 
most  violent  antipathy — it  was  the  cause  of  his  death.     It  was 
not  likely  he  would  commit  the  government  of  the  kingdom  to 
them.      On   the  other  hand,   he  trusted    and  venerated  the 
clergy ;  he  had  all  along  been  ruled,  perhaps  overridden,  by 
them  ;  on  his  death-bed,  when  all  the  powers  of  superstition 
could  be  brought  to  bear  upon  him,  their  ascendency  would 
naturally  be  increased,  and  there  was  nothing  more  likely  than 
that  he  should  execute  an  instrument  appointing  his  favourite 
Beaton  regent  of  the  kingdom. 

But  if  the  king  had  faith  in  the  cardinal,  the  nobles  had 
not.  They  assembled,  and  ignoring  all  other  pretensions, 
appointed  the  Earl  of  Arran,  the  next  heir  to  the  crown  after 

1  Knox's  History,  book  i. 

3  Sadler  says  that  Arran  assured  him  of  this.  (State  Papers,  vol.  i.  p. 
138.) 


A.D.  lf>43.]  MARRIAGE  PROJECT.  l8l 

the  infant  Mary,  to  be  regent.1  He  was  a  good-natured, 
somewhat  feeble,  and  very  changeable  man.  Successively  a 
puppet  in  the  hands  of  the  opposite  factions,  he  was  trusted 
by  neither.  But,  be  this  as  it  may,  his  elevation  to  the  head 
of  the  government  was  considered  a  great  triumph  to  the 
reformed  opinions,  as  he  was  known  to  favour  them,  and  had 
employed  as  his  chaplains  two  Dominican  friars,  Thomas 
Williams  and  John  Rough,  who  had  acquired  a  reputation  for 
their  bold  preaching  against  the  errors  and  vices  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church. 

Meanwhile  the  intelligence  of  James's  death  reached  the 
court  at  London.  Henry  at  once  determined  to  renew  his 
favourite  project  of  uniting  the  two  crowns  by  a  marriage  be- 
tween the  infant  queen  and  his  son  Prince  Edward.  The 
long-exiled  Douglases  set  out  on  their  journey  to  the  north, 
bound  by  feeling  and  interest  to  the  English  king.  The 
nobles  who  had  been  taken  prisoners  at  the  Solway,  among 
whom  were  the  Earls  of  Glencairn  and  Cassillis,  and  the 
Lords  Maxwell,  Somerville,  Fleming,  and  Oliphant,  were  re- 
leased from  captivity,  on  solemnly  swearing  that  they  would 
use  their  utmost  efforts  to  obtain  the  consent  of  the  Scotch 
Parliament  to  the  marriage,  and  the  instant  delivery  into 
Henry's  hands  of  the  royal  child,  and  the  principal  fortresses 
of  the  kingdom.  The  first  proposal  was  politic  and  wise — the 
truest  patriot  might  have  given  his  approval  to  it ;  but  the 
other  two  were  so  ignominious  that  no  independent  people 
could  consent  to  them  ;  and  it  is  too  plain  that  the  nobles 
had  basely  agreed  to  purchase  their  own  liberty  by  surrender- 
ing the  liberty  of  their  country. 

Beaton  was  too  able  and  dangerous  a  man  to  be  allowed  to 
be  at  large ;  and  the  first  act  of  Arran  and  his  friends  was  to 
get  him  into  their  power.  He  was  known  to  correspond  with 
France  :  this  was  construed  into  treason  ;  the  cry  of  a  French 
invasion  was  raised  ;  and  the  cardinal  was  hurriedly  seized  and 
committed  as  a  prisoner  to  Blackness  Castle.  But  the  Church 
was  still  strong;  and  a  result  followed  which  probably  was  not 
anticipated.  The  churches  were  everywhere  closed  ;  no  priest 
could  be  prevailed  upon  to  say  a  mass,  to  christen  an  infant,  or 
to  read  the  service  for  the  burial  of  the  dead.  It  seemed  as  if 
the  country  had  been  placed  under  an  interdict.  Notwith- 
standing the  prevalence  of  the  reformed  opinions,  there  can  be 

1  His  office  and  title  of  Governor  were  conferred  by  the  first  parliament 
that  met. 


1 82  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

no  doubt  but  that  this  bold  stroke  of  the  papal  party  must 
have  produced  a  profound  impression  upon  a  people  educated 
in  the  Romish  creed,  and  not  yet  emancipated  from  its  power.1 

On  the  1 2th  March  1543,  the  Three  Estates  assembled  at 
Edinburgh.  They  wisely  agreed  to  the  marriage  of  Mary  to 
Prince  Edward  of  England  ;  but  like  men  who  valued  the 
freedom  they  had  inherited,  they  resolved  that  their  young 
queen  should  not  pass  into  England  till  she  was  ten  years  of 
age,  and  that  not  one  of  their  fortresses  should  be  entrusted 
to  Henry.2  All  the  deliberations  of  the  parliament  on  this  sub- 
ject were  characterised  by  prudence  and  patriotism  ;  and  had 
it  not  been  for  the  impetuosity  of  the  English  king,  the  union 
of  the  crowns  would  have  been  anticipated  by  more  than  half 
a  century. 

On  the  15th  day  of  the  month,  being  the  third  of  the  ses- 
sion, this  parliament  took  the  first  step  toward  the  reforma- 
tion of  the  church,  by  authorising  the  perusal  of  the  sacred 
Scriptures  in  the  vulgar  tongue.  It  was  Lord  Maxwell  who 
brought  the  matter  before  the  Lords  of  the  Articles,  proposing 
that  "  it  should  be  statute  and  ordained  that  it  shall  be  lawful 
for  all  our  sovereign  lady's  lieges  to  have  the  holy  writ,  to  wit, 
the  New  Testament  and  Old,  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  in  English 
or  Scotch,  of  a  good  and  true  translation,  and  that  they  shall 
incur  no  crime  for  the  having  and  reading  of  the  same,"  &c. 
Upon  which  the  act  proceeds — "  The  Lords  of  Articles  being- 
advised  with  the  said  writing,  find  the  same  reasonable ;  and 
therefore  think  that  the  same  may  be  used  among  all  the  lieges 
of  this  realm,  in  our  vulgar  tongue,  of  a  good,  true,  and  just 
translation,  because  there  was  no  law  shown  nor  produced  to  the 
contrary  ;  and  that  none  of  our  sovereign  lady's  lieges  incur  any 
crime  for  having  or  reading  of  the  same  in  form  as  said  is  ;  nor 
shall  be  accused  therefore  in  time  coming ;  and  that  no  person 
dispute,  argue,  or  hold  opinions  of  the  same,  under  the  said 
pains  contained  in  the  foresaid  acts  of  parliament."  3  When  this 
bill  was  brought  before  the  Estates,  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow 
protested,  in  his  own  name  and  of  all  the  prelates  who  might 
adhere  to  him,  against  its  being  passed  into  a  law  "  till  a  pro- 
vincial council  should  be  held  of  all  the  clergy  of  the  realm,  to 

1  Tytler,  vol.  v. 

2  Keith's  History,  book  i.  chap  iii.     Tytler,  vol.  v. 

:i  Acts  of  the  Scottish  Parliament,  15th  March  1543.  Keith's  History, 
book  i.  chap.  iv. 


A.D.  1543.]  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  VULGAR  TONGUE.  1 83 

advise  and  conclude  if  the  same  were  necessary."1  Notwith- 
standing the  archbishop's  protest,  the  bill  was  passed  ;  and  in- 
structions given  to  the  Clerk  of  Register  to  make  proclamation 
of  it  at  the  market-cross. 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  act  affirms  that  there  was  no 
law  upon  the  statute-book  against  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures 
in  the  vulgar  tongue,  and  therefore  it  is  simply  what  would 
now  be  called  a  declaratory  act.  It  did  not  confer  the  privi- 
lege ;  it  merely  declared  that  it  already  existed  by  the  law  of 
the  land.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  the  clergy  did  not  con- 
cede the  lawfulness  of  every  man  perusing  the  Scriptures  for 
himself,  and  to  have  done  so  prior  to  this  period  would  have 
been  construed  into  a  crime.  It  is  fair,  however,  to  remark, 
that  Archbishop  Dunbar  founds  his  protest  not  upon  the 
wrongousness  or  illegality  of  the  measure,  but  upon  its 
Erastianism.  He  deprecates  legislation  in  the  parliament  re- 
garding matters  which  could  be  properly  dealt  with  only  in  the 
councils  of  the  Church.  Most  people,  however,  will  be  of 
opinion,  that  it  would  have  been  long  before  a  convocation  of 
ecclesiastics  would  have  passed  such  a  law,  and  will  receive 
this  measure  of  Church  reform  not  the  less  thankfully  that  it 
emanated  from  State  legislation. 

The  act,  with  singular  inconsistency,  while  it  allows  all  men 
to  read  the  Bible,  forbids  them  to  form  any  opinion  regarding 
it.  It  has  been  construed,  however,  as  referring  merely  to 
opinions  contrary  to  the  authorised  creed,  and  it  has  been  said 
that  even  still,  while  all  may  read  the  Bible,  they  must  read  it 
according  to  the  Church's  Confession.  Probably  it  was  the 
fully-expressed  opinion  of  the  Anglican  party  in  the  parlia- 
ment ;  for  in  England  men  were  allowed  to  read  the  Bible, 
but  if  they  there  discovered  anything  opposed  to  the  royal 
faith,  the  discovery  cost  them  their  head.  The  instant  effect 
of  the  passing  of  the  act  is  described  by  Knox,  with  all  the 
freshness  of  one  who  lived  at  the  time  : — "Then,"  says  he, 
"  might  have  been  seen  the  Bible  lying  almost  upon  every  gen- 
tleman's table.  The  New  Testament  was  borne  about  in  many 
men's  hands.  We  grant  that  some,  alas  !  profaned  that  blessed 
Word  ;  for  some  that  perchance  had  never  read  ten  sentences 
in  it,  had  it  most  common  in  their  hand  ;  they  would  chop 
their  familiars  on  the  cheek  with  it,  and  say,  this  hath  lain 
under  my  bed  feet  these  ten  years.     Others  would  glory,  O 

1  Keith's  History,  book  i.  chap.  iv. 


184  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VI 11. 

how  oft  have  I  been  in  danger  for  this  book  !  How  secretly 
have  I  stolen  from  my  wife  at  midnight  to  read  upon  it !  And 
this  was  done  of  many  to  make  court  and  curry  favours  thereby  ; 
for  all  men  esteemed  the  governor  to  have  been  one  of  the 
most  fervent  Protestants  that  was  in  Europe."  * 

The  passing  of  this  act  was  a  great  victory  won  by  the  Re- 
formers, but  the  next  scene  in  the  changeful  drama  is  the  Earl 
of  Arran  riding  to  Callander,  meeting  with  Cardinal  Beaton 
there,  proceeding  with  him  to  Stirling,  going  to  the  Church  of 
the  Franciscan  Convent,  making  confession,  doing  penance, 
getting  absolution,  received  back  into  the  bosom  of  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church.  How  the  cardinal  had  been  liberated  from 
his  prison  no  one  could  well  explain.  How  the  governor  had 
thus  suddenly  changed  his  opinions  was  a  greater  mystery 
still.  But  people  noted  that  shortly  before  this  his  illegitimate 
brother,  John  Hamilton,  Abbot  of  Paisley,  had  returned  from 
France,  and  they  suspected  that  he  had  exercised  that  mes- 
meric influence  which  strong  minds  always  have  over  weak  ones. 
There  was  now  no  place  found  for  John  Rough  and  Thomas 
Williams.  Their  declamations  against  licentious  monks,  the 
idolatry  of  the  mass,  and  the  invocation  of  saints,  had  lost 
their  savour,  and  they  were  glad  to  flee  for  their  lives.  A 
coalition-government  was  formed,  and  the  vigour  of  its  mea- 
sures soon  showed  that  it  was  Beaton  and  not  Arran  who  was 
its  real  head. 

Meanwhile,  a  fleet  of  Scottish  merchantmen  had  taken  re- 
fuge in  an  English  harbour,  and,  depending  on  the  treaty  of 
peace  between  the  two  nations,  were  in  no  hurry  to  depart. 
With  the  grossest  injustice,  Henry  ordered  them  to  be  seized, 
and  their  cargoes  to  be  confiscated  and  sold.2  The  mercan- 
tile classes  of  Scotland,  now  rising  into  importance,  were  in- 
censed to  the  uttermost ;  they  mobbed  the  house  of  Sadler, 
and  threatened  his  life.:j  The  spark  was  soon  fanned  into  a 
flame,  and  the  indignation  was  mutual.  Disappointed  at  the 
conditions  which  the  Scottish  Parliament  had  annexed  to  the 
matrimonial  alliance,  Henry  resolved  to  seek  Mary  for  his  son, 
with  a  sword  in  his  hand — a  bad  way  to  woo  a  woman.  War 
blazed  forth,  and  the  two  countries  were  alternately  ravaged. 
There  was  one  new  feature  in  these  desolating  campaigns. 
The  Religious  Houses,  instead  of  being  spared  as  hitherto, 
were  the  first  to  be  given  to  the  flames.     The  Protestants  of 

1  Knox's  Hist.,  book  i.  ~  Keith,  hook  i.  chap.  iii. 

3  Robertson's  History  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.  book  ii. 


a.d.  1545.]  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  FACTIONS.  1 85 

England  esteemed  it  peculiarly  meritorious  to  butcher  a  monk, 
or  to  burn  a  monastery.  In  one  foray  alone,  conducted  by 
the  Earl  of  Hertford  in  1545,  no  fewer  than  seven  monasteries 
and  other  Religious  Houses  were  destroyed.  Kelso,  Dry- 
burgh,  Melrose,  and  Jedburgh  were  laid  in  ruins.1 

Francis  I.  gave  a  cordial  and  effective  support  to  Cardinal 
Beaton  and  his  party  ;  the  people  were  divided  into  the  French 
and  English  factions  ;  and  the  contest  became  little  better 
than  a  battle  between  France  and  England,  fought  upon 
Scottish  ground.  Henry  was  bent  upon  uniting  Scotland  to 
England,  by  obtaining  possession  of  her  queen  and  her  for- 
tresses. Francis  saw  it  to  be  his  interest,  if  possible,  to  pre- 
vent this.  The  Protestants  looked  to  Henry,  the  Papists  to 
Francis.  Beyond  all  question,  Popery  in  this  case  was  for 
the  nonce  allied  with  patriotism.  The  clergy  saw  this,  and 
made  the  best  use  of  it.  From  pulpits,  formerly  silent,  they 
uttered  fierce  invectives  against  the  truckling  spirit  that  would 
sell  country,  birthright,  liberty,  religion,  to  a  brutal  king,  the 
murderer  of  his  wives,  the  desolator  of  their  fairest  provinces. 
They  met  at  St  Andrews,  raised  money  among  themselves  to 
carry  on  the  war,  offered  to  melt  down  the  church  plate,  and  to 
take  the  field  themselves,  if  need  were,  and  fight  for  their  hearths 
and  their  altars.2  While  this  loyal  spirit  pervaded  thePapal 
party,  the  Protestant  nobles  were  pocketing  pensions  from  the 
English  king,  and  pledging  themselves  to  unite  their  banners 
to  his  for  the  conquest  of  their  fatherland.  The  Earl  of  Glen- 
cairn  gets  ^250  yearly;  his  son,  Lord  Kilmaurs,  ^125.  The 
Karl  of  Lennox  gets  a  still  more  splendid  bribe — the  hand  of 
the  Lady  Margaret  Douglas,  and  considerable  estates  in  Eng- 
land.3    For  this  they  sold  their  country  and  themselves. 

But  we  must  revert  to  the  triumphs  and  conflicts  of  Pro- 
testantism apart  from  State  intrigues.  The  Earl  of  Arran, 
immediately  after  his  apostasy,  caused  it  to  be  "  propounded 
in  plane  parliament/  "how  there  is  great  murmurs  that  heretics 
more  and  more  rise  and  spread  within  the  realm,  sowing 
damnable  opinions,  contrary  to  the  faith  and  laws  of  Holy 
Kirk ; "  and  gave  exhortation  to  all  prelates,  each  within  his 

1  Haynes'  State  Papers.  Original  paper  quoted  by  Robertson,  Hist., 
vol.  i.  book  ii. 

2  Sadler's  State  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  204.     Tytler,  vol.  v. 

3  Keith's  Hist.,  book  i.  chap.  iii.  A  still  more  detailed  account  of  the 
pensions  received  by  the  Scottish  Protestant  nobles  will  be  found  in  Tytler's 
History. 


1 86  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

own  diocese,  to  inquire  after  such  heretics,  intimating  that 
he,  as  governor,  would  be  ready  at  all  times  to  do  his  duty.1 
Thus  armed  with  the  whole  political  as  well  as  ecclesiastical 
power  of  the  kingdom,  the  cardinal  resolved  to  strike  terror 
into  the  Reformers  by  a  signal  example  of  severity.  The  fair  city 
of  Perth,  laved  by  the  waters  of  the  Tay,  had  become  noted 
for  heresy.  Thither  Beaton  made  a  progress,  taking  Arran 
along  with  him.  A  number  of  persons  were  cited  before  an 
ecclesiastical  assize,  and  of  these,  six — five  men  and  a  woman 
— were  condemned  to  die.  Robert  Lamb  was  charged  with 
interrupting  the  preaching  of  a  friar  who  was  advocating  the 
invocation  of  saints ;  William  Anderson,  James  Ronald,  and 
James  Finlayson  were  indicted  for  nailing  two  ram's  horns  to 
a  St  Francis's  head,  attaching  a  cow's  rump  to  his  tail,  and 
eating  a  goose  upon  All-hallow  evening ;  James  Hunter  was 
charged  with  being  art  and  part  with  them  ;  and  Helen  Stark, 
the  wife  of  James  Finlayson,  was  accused  of  refusing  to  pray 
to  the  Virgin  when  in  labour.2  The  men  were  hanged,  and 
the  poor  woman  was  drowned,  being  refused  the  small  con- 
solation, which  she  earnestly  desired,  of  dying  in  company  with 
her  husband. 

Before  this  terrible  example  was  forgotten,  the  celebrated 
martyr  George  Wish  art  was  brought  to  the  stake.  Wishart 
belonged  to  the  family  of  Pittarrow,  in  the  Mearns.  We  first 
hear  of  him  teaching  a  school  at  Montrose,  and  exhibiting  his 
enlightened  scholarship  by  instructing  his  pupils  in  Greek. 
We  next  find  him  at  Bristol,  where  he  was  accused  of  heresy, 
and  more  especially  of  denying  the  atonement,  and  for  this  he 
was  condemned  ;  but  he  had  not  yet  acquired  the  martyr's 
willingness  to  die,  and  so  he  publicly  recanted,  and  burned  his 
fagot  in  the  church  of  St  Nicolas.3  This  occurred  in  1539, 
and  in  1543  we  find  him  at  Cambridge,  the  interval  having 
been  spent  in  Germany  and  Switzerland.  We  have  an  inter- 
esting portraiture  of  him  while  there,  given  us  by  Emery 
Tylney,  one  of  his  pupils.  "  He  was  a  man  of  tall  stature, 
bald-headed,  and  on  the  same  wore  a  round  French  cap  ; 
judged  to  be  of  melancholy  complexion  by  his  physiognomy, 
black-haired,  long-bearded,  comely  of  personage,  well-spoken 
after  his  country  of  Scotland,  courteous,  lowly,  lovely,  glad  to 

1  Keith's  History,  book  i.  chap.  iv. 

2  Spottiswood's  History,  book  ii.     Knox's  Hist.,  book  i. 

3  Tytler,  vol.  v.  Mayor's  Calendar — "That  Christ  nother  hath  nor 
could  merit  for  him  ne  yet  for  us. 


a.d.  1543-46.]  GEORGE  WISHART.  187 

teach,  desirous  to  learn,  and  was  well  travelled  ;  having  on 
him,  for  his  habit  or  clothing,  never  but  a  mantle  or  frieze 
gown  to  the  shoes,  a  black  millian  fustian  doublet  and  plain 
black  hose,  coarse  new  canvass  for  his  shirts,  and  white  falling 
bands  and  cuffs  at  his  hands.  All  the  which  apparel  he  gave 
to  the  poor,  some  weekly,  some  monthly,  some  quarterly,  as 
he  liked,  saving  his  French  cap,  which  he  kept  the  whole  year 
of  my  being  with  him."  l 

In  July  1543  Wishart  returned  to  Scotland  in 
'  I543-  the  company  of  the  commissioners  who  had 
gone  to  England  to  negotiate  the  marriage-treaty  which  was  to 
unite  the  kingdoms.2  He  instantly  began  to  preach  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Reformation.  Montrose  and  Dundee  listened  to 
his  eloquence.  In  the  latter  town  the  populace  were  so  ex- 
cited by  his  invectives  as  to  attack  and  destroy  the  convents 
of  the  Franciscan  and  Dominican  Friars.  The  magistrates 
found  themselves  compelled  to  interfere,  and  Wishart  was 
interdicted  from  preaching.  Upon  this,  he  retired  to  the 
western  counties, ^where  his  friends  were  all-powerful.  Lennox, 
Cassillis,  and  Glencairn  were  there  able  to  defend  him  against 
all  deadly.^and  secure  him  an  entrance  into  every  parish  church  ; 
but  to  the  honour  of  Wishart  it  must  be  told,  that  when  any 
opposition  was  made  to  his  preaching  in  the  church,  he  re- 
fused to  allow  force  to  be  used,  and  retired  to  the  market- 
cross  or  the  fields.  He  preached  at  Barr,  Galston,  Mauchline, 
and  Ayr,  generally  surrounded  by  armed  men.  Hearing  that 
the  plague  had  broken  out  at  Dundee,  with  great  self-devoted- 
ness  he  hurried  thither,  and  was  unwearied  in  preaching  the 
gospel,  visiting  the  sick,  and  preparing  the  dying  for  death. 
While  thus  employed,  he  received  a  message  from  the  Earl  of 
Cassillis,  that  the  gentlemen  of  the  west  wished  him  to  meet 
them  at  Edinburgh,  for  the  purpose  of  having  a  public  dispu- 
tation with  the  bishop.  He  at  once  obeyed  the  summons, 
and  proceeded  southwards,  but  with  the  melancholy  feeling 
of  St  Paul  when  he  went  "  bound  in  the  spirit  to  Jerusalem." 
He  knew  that  Cardinal  Beaton  was  bent  upon  his  destruction, 
and  he  was  haunted  by  the  dread  of  a  cruel  death.  But  now 
he  was  prepared  to  meet  it.:j 

On  reaching  Edinburgh,  he  found  his  friends  had  not 
arrived,  and  it  was  thought  expedient  he  should  remain  con- 
cealed for  a  day  or  two.     The  truth  is,  men  were  afraid  both. 

1  Quoted  in  Fox's  Martyrology,  book  viii.  sect.  iv. 

2  Tytler,  vol.  v.  3  Knox's  History,  book  i.     Tytler,  vol.  v. 


1 88  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  YIII. 

for  him  and  themselves.  But  Wishart  could  not  bear  this 
skulking  from  danger  in  so  holy  a  cause,  and  preached  at 
Leith  i  and  afterwards,  proceeding  into  East  Lothian,  he  was 
entertained  by  the  Lairds  of  Brunston,  Longniddry,  and 
Ormiston,  who  were  all  zealous  reformers.  While  here,  he 
preached  at  Musselburgh,  Inveresk,  Tranent,  and  Haddington. 
On  these  occasions  he  was  surrounded  by  the  armed  retainers 
of  his  friends,  and  a  two-handed  sword  was  borne  before 
him.  It  was  here  that  John  Knox,  now  in  his  fortieth  year, 
attached  himself  to  his  party,  and  immediately  obtained  his 
confidential  friendship.  His  office  it  was  to  bear  the  two- 
handed  sword.1  At  Haddington  the  congregation  was  very 
small ;  it  was  plain  that  men's  faith  was  failing  through  fear  ; 
and,  conscious  of  his  approaching  doom,  Wishart  bid  an 
affectionate  farewell  to  his  friends,  and  proceeded  to  Ormiston 
House.  Knox  would  have  accompanied  him,  but  this  Wishart 
would  not  allow.  "Nay,  return  to  your  children,''  said  he, 
"and  God  bless  you.     One  is  sufficient  for  a  sacrifice."2 

Meantime  Cardinal  Beaton  had  come  to  Edinburgh,  and 
was  there  holding  a  synod  for  the  correction  of  clerical  abuses.3 
Hearing  that  Wishart  was  in  the  neighbourhood  preaching 
Lutheranism,  and  sheltered  by  men  whom  he  knew  to  be  his 
deadly  enemies,  he  resolved  upon  his  instant  apprehension. 
At  midnight  Ormiston  House  was  surrounded  by  a  troop  of 
cavalry,  commanded  by  the  Earl  of  Bothwell.  Wishart  sur- 
rendered himself  upon  a  solemn  assurance  from  Bothwell  that 
he  would  not  deliver  him  into  the  hands  of  the  cardinal,  but 
would  protect  him  from  all  harm.  The  pledge  was  violated, 
and  the  captive  hurried  from  Ormiston  to  Edinburgh,  and  from 
Edinburgh  to  St  Andrews.  A  convocation  of  the  dignified 
clergy  was  called  ;  Dunbar  laid  aside  his  ill-will  to  Beaton, 
and  came ;  it  was  the  old  story  of  Herod's  reconciliation  with 
Pilate  before  the  victim  was  offered  up.4  Wishart's  heresy  was 
set  forth  in  eighteen  articles  ;  he  was  found  guilty,  and  delivered 
to  the  secular  power. 

On  the  ist  of  March  1546  a  scaffold  was 
5  '  erected  in  the  open  space  before  the  Castle  of 
St  Andrews,  and  faggots  of  dried  wood  were  piled  around  it. 
The  guns  of  the  castle  were  brought  to  bear  upon  the  spot, 
lest  a  rescue  should  be  attempted,  as  had  been  threatened  in 
the  case  of  Hamilton.     There   George  Wishart  died.     It  is 

1  Tytler,  vol.  v.     M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  Period  II. 

2  Knox's  History,  book  i.  3  Ibid.  4  Ibid. 


A.D.  1546.]  MURDER  OF   BEATON.  189 

affirmed  by  some  of  our  historians  that  Beaton,  Dunbar,  and 
other  prelates  beheld  his  sufferings  from  a  balcony,  and  that 
the  martyr  from  the  midst  of  the  flames,  fixing  his  eyes  upon 
the  cardinal,  said,  "  He  who,  in  such  state,  from  that  high 
place,  feedeth  his  eyes  with  my  torments,  within  a  few  days 
shall  be  hanged  out  at  the  same  window,  to  be  seen  with  as 
much  ignominy  as  he  now  leaneth  there  in  pride."1 

The  death  of  Wishart  produced  a  powerful  impression  all 
over  Scotland.  Some  praised  the  cardinal  for  his  seasonable 
severity  ;  but  a  much  greater  number  commiserated  the  fate  of 
one  so  modest,  so  eloquent,  and  so  good.  With  these  expres- 
sions of  sorrow  there  were  mingled  mutterings  about  revenge  ; 
men  of  birth  were  known  to  have  declared  at  their  table  that 
there  must  be  life  for  life.2     And  so  it  was. 

On  the  first  of  March  Wishart  was  burned.  On  the  even- 
ing of  the  28th  of  May,  Norman  and  John  Leslie,  Kirkaldy  of 
Grange,  and  James  Melville  of  Carnbee,  with  a  few  friends 
and  followers,  entered  St  Andrews  in  different  parties,  and 
took  up  their  abode  for  the  night  at  different  hostelries  to 
avoid  causing  suspicion.  The  cardinal  was  known  to  be  in 
his  castle,  to  which  he  had  lately  returned  from  the  marriage 
of  his  illegitimate  daughter  with  the  eldest  son  of  the  Earl  of 
Crawford.  This  fortalice  was  understood  to  be  of  great 
strength,  and  at  that  very  time  extensive  additions  were  being- 
made  to  its  means  of  defence.  Situated  on  the  rock-bound 
coast,  and  washed  on  three  of  its  sides  by  the  waves,  it  looked 
in  one  direction  over  the  broad  bay  merging  into  the  German 
Ocean,  and  on  the  other  side  commanded  the  town,  with  its 
cathedral,  priory,  and  colleges.  Early  in  the  morning  the 
drawbridge  was  lowered  to  admit  the  workmen  who  were 
employed  on  the  fortifications,  and  Norman  Leslie  and  three 
friends  entered  with  them,  and  quietly  inquired  at  the  porter 
if  the  cardinal  were  astir.  Kirkaldy  of  Grange  and  James 
Melville,  with  a  few  retainers,  followed,  without  attracting 
notice ;  but  when  John  Leslie  and  four  attendants  wrere  seen 
approaching,  the  porter  took  alarm,  and  would  have  raised  the 
bridge,  but  Leslie  sprang  forward,  and  in  another  instant  the 
man  was  stabbed  and  thrown  into  the  ditch.  The  workmen 
and  servants  were  now  led  to  the  gate  and  dismissed,  their 

1  This  circumstance  is  narrated  by  Buchanan,  and  Lindsay  of  Pitscottie, 
and  it  also  occurs  in  the  modern  editions  of  Knox's  History  ;  but  it  is  not 
found  in  the  first  edition,  which  has  led  some  to  doubt  its  genuineness. 

-  Knox's  History,  book  i. 


190  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

lives  being  threatened  if  they  made  the  slightest  noise  ;  and  in 
this  way  the  castle  was  cleared  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  persons 
by  sixteen  determined  men. 

Meanwhile  the  cardinal  was  sleeping,  but  being  awoke  by 
the  moving  of  men  to  and  fro,  he  got  up  and  inquired  the 
cause.  On  being  informed  that  the  castle  had  been  surprised 
and  taken  by  the  Leslies,  he  attempted  to  escape  by  a  secret 
postern,  but  found  it  already  secured  ;  he  then  retreated  to  his 
room,  and  with  the  assistance  of  his  chamberlain  barricaded 
the  door;  but  when  a  threat  of  fire  was  used,  he  opened  it, 
and  gave  admission  to  the  conspirators.  John  Leslie  and  a 
man  named  Peter  Carmichael  at  once  rushed  upon  him  and 
stabbed  him  with  their  swords.  But  James  Melville,  strangely 
characterised  by  Knox,  when  describing  this  scene,  as  a  man 
of  nature  most  gentle  and  most  modest,  interposed  and  said — 
"This  work  and  judgment  of  God,  although  it  be  secret,  yet 
ought  to  be  done  with  greater  gravity;"  and  then  turning 
toward  the  unhappy  cardinal  die  point  of  his  sword,  he  said, 
"  Repent  thee  of  thy  former  wicked  life,  but  especially  of  the 
shedding  of  the  blood  of  that  notable  instrument  of  God,  Mr 
George  Wishart,  which  although  the  flame  of  fire  consumed 
before  men,  yet  cries  it  for  vengeance  upon  thee,  and  we  from 
God  are  sent  to  revenge  it.  For  here,  before  my  God,  I  pro- 
test that  neither  the  hatred  of  thy  person,  the  love  of  thy  riches, 
nor  the  fear  of  any  trouble  thou  couldest  have  done  to  me  in 
particular,  moved  or  moveth  me  to  strike  thee,  but  only 
because  thou  hast  been,  and  remainest  an  obstinate  enemy 
against  Christ  Jesus  and  His  Gospel."  1  Having  spoken  thus, 
he  struck  him  with  his  stog-sword ;  and  so  the  cardinal  fell, 
the  victim  of  a  mean  and  mercenary  conspiracy,  originating  as 
much  in  political  as  religious  reasons,  encouraged  by  a  foreign 
potentate,  and  ripened  by  revenge. 

While  this  bloody  tragedy  was  being  enacted  in  the  car- 
dinal's bedroom,  the  rumour  had  spread  through  St  Andrews 
that  the  castle  had  been  seized.  The  town-bell  was  rung,  the 
magistrates  and  people  hurried  to  the  edge  of  the  fosse  to 
inquire  the  truth,  but  would  not  believe  the  conspirators  when 
they  declared  to  them  from  the  walls  that  the  cardinal  was 
dead.  Devoted  to  Beaton,  they  became  clamorous,  and  to  put 
an  end  to  their  cries,  the  murderers  took  the  bleeding  corpse, 
and  fastening  it  by  one  leg  and  an  arm  to  a  sheet,  they  swung 
it  over  the  wall,  and  then  told  the  people  in  mockery  to  see 
1  Knox's  History,  book  i. 


A.D.  1546.]  CHARACTER  OF  BEATON.  19 1 

their  god.1    Shocked  at  this  revolting  spectacle  of  fallen  great- 
ness, the  crowd  quietly  and  quickly  dispersed. 

Through  the  mists  of  three  hundred  years  the  form  of  Beaton 
looms  upon  us — the  greatest  and  the  last  of  Rome's  champions 
in  Scotland.  He  fell,  and  the  Papacy  fell  with  him.  To  laud 
him  as  a  religious  man  were  idle,  for  he  was  not  even  moral. 
Forbid  by  his  Church  the  enjoyments  of  wedlock,  he  lived  in 
concubinage  with  Marion  Ogilvy,  who  was  seen  stealing  from 
his  room  on  the  morning  of  his  murder  ; 2  and  in  the  marriage- 
contract  of  Margaret  Beaton  with  the  Master  of  Crawford,  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  designate  her  as  his  daughter.3  But  it  were 
equally  idle  to  deny  him  the  praise  of  being  a  great  church- 
man and  a  great  statesman.  As  either,  he  reached  to  the 
highest  position  to  which  a  subject  might  aspire  ;  like  Wolsey, 
he  was  a  cardinal-primate,  and  all  but  a  king ;  and  his  govern- 
ment was  characterised  by  an  energy,  resolution,  and  sagacity, 
which  overcame  every  difficulty,  and  made  reluctant  barons 
succumb  before  a  haughty  ecclesiastic.  He  was  indeed 
ambitious  and  unscrupulous  in  the  attainment  of  the  objects 
of  his  ambition  ;  but  ambition  is  the  sin  of  great  minds.  He 
was  a  persecutor,  and  spilt  the  blood  of  the  innocent ;  but  he 
did  it  in  ignorance,  believing  that  the  safety  of  the  Church,  of 
which  he  was  the  head,  required  severe  measures  to  be  taken 
with  the  "  heretics  "  who  threatened  its  destruction.  Tried  by 
the  maxims  of  the  New  Testament,  we  cannot  pronounce  him 
a  good  man  ;  tried  by  the  maxims  of  the  world,  we  must  pro- 
nounce him  a  great  man. 

Thus  within  three  months  the  cardinal  had  followed  the 
Lutheran  preacher;  and  widely  divided  in  life,  they  were 
now  united  in  a  violent  death.  But  there  are  circumstances 
which  lead  us  to  believe  that  the  threads  of  Wishart's  and  of 
Beaton's  destiny  were  still  more  closely  intertwined. 

As  murder  will  not  hide,  documents  have  been  brought  to 
light,  after  centuries,  which  prove  beyond  all  doubt  that  for 
two  years  before  this  a  conspiracy  had  been  formed  to  assassi- 
nate Cardinal  Beaton.  On  the  17th  of  April  1544,  the  Earl 
of  Hertford  transmits  to  King  Henry  a  letter  from  Crichton  of 
Brunston,  containing  a  proposal  on  the  part  of  the  Master  of 
Rothes  and  Kirkaldy  of  Grange,  "  to  apprehend  or  slay  the 
cardinal  at  some  time  when   he  shall  pass  through  the  Fife- 

1  Letter  of  James  Lindsay,  a  Scottish  spy,  to  his  employer  Lord  Wharton, 
quoted  in  notes  and  illustrations  to  Ty tier's  History,  vol.  v. 

2  Knox,  book  i.  3  Keith,  book  i. 


I92  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [QHAP.  VIII, 

land." 1  This  letter  was  brought  to  Hertford,  and  by  him  trans- 
mitted to  Henry,  by  a  Scotchman  of  the  name  of  Wishart. 
The  conspiracy  slept  for  a  year,  when  we  find  it  again  agitated 
by  the  Earl  of  Cassillis,  the  friend  and  coadjutor  of  Brunston. 
Besides  other  documentary  proof,  there  is  still  in  existence  a 
letter  from  the  English  privy  council  to  the  Earl  of  Hertford, 
dated  May  30,  1545,  which  refers  to  a  letter  from  the  Earl  of 
Cassillis  to  Mr  Ralph  Sadler,  "  containing  an  offer  for  the  kill- 
ing of  the  cardinal,  if  his  Majesty  would  have  it  done,  and 
would  promise  when  it  were  done  a  reward."  There  was 
nothing  for  which  the  English  monarch  was  more  anxious,  as 
Beaton  was  the  great  obstacle  to  the  execution  of  his  plans  ; 
but  he  did  not  like  to  give  direct  encouragement  to  the  assas- 
sins, or  direct  promises  of  reward,  as  it  might  compromise  his 
royal  dignity,  and  all  they  could  get  was  general  encourage- 
ment from  his  ambassador,  and  an  assurance  that  his  Majesty 
"  misliked  not  the  offer."  Again  the  conspiracy  slept ;  for  the 
wages  of  iniquity  had  not  been  stipulated,  the  price  of  blood 
had  not  been  told  down.  But  the  plan  was  not  given  up.  In 
October  the  Laird  of  Brunston  is  once  more  in  communication 
with  the  English  government ;  "  hoping  to  God  that  the  car- 
dinal's proposed  journey  to  France  will  be  cut  short,"  but  in- 
sisting that  "  his  Majesty  must  be  plain  with  them,  both  what 
his  Majesty  would  have  them  to  do,  and  in  like  manner  what 
they  shall  lippen  to  of  his  Majesty."  Sadler  in  return  assures 
him  that  it  would  be  an  acceptable  service  to  God  and  the 
king  to  take  the  cardinal  out  of  the  way,  and  that  though  he 
could  not  compromise  his  Majesty,  he  could  safely  promise 
any  reward  that  was  reasonable,  and  would  undertake  to  pay 
it  himself  on  the  execution  of  the  act  "  from  Christian  zeal ;" 
and  finally  hints  that,  if  he  were  in  his  place,  he  knew  what 
he  would  do  "  to  please  God  and  do  good  to  his  country." 
After  this  we  are  left  in  the  dark  ;  the  correspondence  appears 
to  cease,  or  at  least  is  not  preserved.2 

1  The  existence  and  authenticity  of  this  letter  were  long  questioned  ;  but 
all  doubts  are  now  removed.  State  Papers  (Henry  VIII.),  v.  377. 
Hamilton  Papers,  96. 

2  The  reader  will  find  this  strange  mystery  minutely  traced  in  Tytler's 
History,  both  in  the  text  and  in  an  elaborate  note  appended  to  the  fifth 
volume.  He  may  also  trace  it  in  the  State  Papers  of  the  period,  now 
published  in  abbreviated  form  in  the  Calendars.  We  may  feel  grieved  at 
the  dark  discoveries,  but  there  is  no  gainsaying  the  evidence,  and  it  is 
a  weak  thing  to  shut  our  eyes  against  historic  truth,  because  the  sight  of 
it  pains  us. 


A.D.  1546.]  THE  CONSPIRACY.  1 93 

But  though  the  correspondence  does  not  conduct  us  up  to 
the  very  day  when  the  deed  was  done,  it  is  quite  sufficient  to 
prove  that  the  Earl  of  Cassillis,  the  Master  of  Rothes,  and  the 
Lairds  of  Brunston  and  Grange  had  entered  into  a  foul  con- 
spiracy to  murder  Beaton,  and  that  this  conspiracy  was  en- 
couraged by  the  English  monarch  and  the  English  Privy 
Council,  who  were  ready  to  pay  the  assassins.  If  it  be  asked — 
Was  George  Wishart  connected  with  it  ?  it  must  be  answered, 
there  is  a  strong  presumption  that  he  was,  though  not  positive 
and  conclusive  proof.  It  is  just  possible  that  the  Wishart 
mentioned  in  the  Earl  of  Hertford's  letter  may  not  have  been 
the  martyr,  but  his  close  intimacy  at  that  time  with  every  one 
of  the  conspirators  leads  one  to  suspect  that  he  was.  Beaton 
himself  knew  that  his  life  was  in  danger ;  and  it  is  difficult  to 
believe  that  Wishart  was  entirely  ignorant  of  the  character  and 
intrigues  of  the  men  with  whom  he  was  so  intimately  associ- 
ated. We  know  that  he  lived  in  constant  dread  of  the  cardi- 
nal, and  frequently  anticipated  his  fate ;  and  when  at  last  he 
was  apprehended,  it  was  at  Ormiston,  from  which  one  of 
Brunston's  letter  was  dated,  in  the  company  of  Sandilands  of 
Calder,  from  whose  house  a  second  document  had  gone  forth, 
and  of  Brunston,  the  chief  of  the  intriguers  ;  and  they  were  all 
together,  anxiously  awaiting  the  coming  of  the  Earl  of  Cassillis 
and  his  friends  from  the  west.  But  in  addition  to  this,  we 
know  that  Wishart  frequently  foretold  the  woes  that  were 
coming  upon  his  country,  and  even  in  the  flames  is  said  to 
have  predicted  the  cardinal's  death ;  and  if  so,  his  foreknow- 
ledge must  have  been  the  result  of  his  admission  to  the  coum 
cils  of  the  conspirators  and  their  English  allies  ;  for  the  same 
reasons  which  force  us  to  deny  miraculous  powers  to  the  Papal 
Church,  must  lead  us  to  refuse  them  to  our  own. 

But  it  will  be  asked — How  is  it  possible  to  believe  that  one 
so  saintly  as  the  martyr  of  Pittarrow  could  enter  into  so  mur- 
derous a  plan  ?  The  difficulty  of  belief  arises  from  our  trans- 
ferring the  piety  of  the  nineteenth  to  the  sixteenth  century — 
the  piety  of  men  at  ease,  to  men  oppressed  by  power,  and  by 
no  means  free  of  the  ferocity  of  the  feudal  times.  In  the 
language  of  Sadler,  the  bloody  deed  was  done  "  to  please  God" 
and  "  for  Christian  zeal,"  as  well  as  for  "  a  small  sum  of 
money."  The  religion  of  the  Reformation  period  in  Scotland 
was  of  a  sterner  kind  than  that  prevailing  now,  modelled  more 
after  the  examples  of  the  Old  Testament  than  according  to  the 
spirit  of  the  New.     It  was  accounted  right  to  take  vengeance 

VOL.  I.  n 


194  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  IX. 

on  oppressors ;  it  was  peculiarly  the  Lord's  work.  To  hew 
Agag  in  pieces,  to  smite  the  prophets  of  Baal,  to  scatter  the 
proud  in  the  imaginations  of  their  heart,  was  a  work  to  which 
the  faithful  were  called,  and  which  they  must  not  shrink  from 
performing.  This  was  shown  by  the  speech  of  Melville  before 
passing  his  swrord  through  the  body  of  the  cardinal ;  it  is  shown 
in  the  language  with  which  Knox  records  the  event  ;x  and  it 
is  shown  by  the  whole  history  of  the  period.  It  were  really 
more  difficult  to  believe  that  Wishart  could  be  free  from  these 
feelings,  than  that  he  should  be  infected  by  -them. 


CHAPTER   IX 


Before  proceeding  to  narrate  the  last  struggle  between  the 
new  opinions  and  the  old' — between  Protestantism  rising 
into  vigour,  and  Popery,  strong  in  its  antiquity,  its  wealth,  and 
its  legal  establishment,  but  rapidly  losing  its  hold  on  the  affec- 
tions of  the  people,  we  wish  to  pause  and  take  a  view  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  before  its  reformation — a  farewell  look  of 
the  stately  fabric  before  it  fell. 

The  papal  creed  had  attained  to  nearly  its  present  develop- 
ment, though  it  had  not  yet  received  the  exact  definition 
which  it  soon  afterwards  did  from  the  decrees  and  canons  of 
the  Council  of  Trent.  The  Word  of  God  was  recognised  as 
the  rule  of  faith  and  manners  ;  but  this  was  held  to  include  not 
only  the  canonical  Scriptures,  but  the  traditions  of  Christ  and 
His  apostles,  as  these  were  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  the 
early  fathers.  The  Jehovah  of  the  Jews  was  recognised  as  the 
God  of  the  Christians,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  obscure 
to  the  former,  was  made  clear  to  the  latter ;  but  the  worship 
and  honour  due  to  the  one  God  was  given  to  crosses  and 
crucifixes,  to  paintings  and  statuary.  As  our  papal  ancestors 
believed  in  the  one  God,  so  did  they  believe  in  the  one 
Mediator  between  God  and  man,  the  man  Christ  Jesus;  but 
they  regarded  the  virgin- mother,  the  apostles,  the  martyrs,  the 
saints,  as  intercessors  too,  and  these,  upon  their  bended  knees, 
they  humbly  invoked.     They  trusted  to  the  sacrifice  made  by 

1  Notwithstanding  our  admiration  of  Knox,  we  think  it  impossible  to 
read  his  indecent  jests  at  the  cardinal's  death  without  extreme  pain  and 
disgust  ;  and  it  is  too  evident  from  the  whole  narrative,  that  he  approved 
of  and  applauded  the  murder. 


CHAP.  IX.]  ROMISH  CREED.  195 

the  great  High  Priest ;  but  instead  of  regarding  it  as  the  one 
sacrifice  made  once  for  all,  they  believed  that  every  time  the 
mass  was  celebrated  a  new  sacrifice  was  offered  for  the  sins  of 
the  living  and  the  dead.  They  believed  in  the  forgiveness  of 
sins ;  but  instead  of  considering  this  as  the  free  gift  of  divine 
grace,  they  made  it  result  from  the  virtue  of  the  sacraments  as 
dispensed  by  the  Church.  They  believed  in  the  life  everlast- 
ing ;  but  they  also  believed  that  betwixt  earth  and  heaven  lay 
the  yawning  abyss  of  purgatory,  where  sin  unrepented  of  must 
be  expiated,  and  the  soul  tortured  for  centuries,  unless  relieved 
by  the  masses  and  prayers  of  the  priests.  They  believed  in 
the  Holy  Catholic  Church;  but  they  restricted  its  members  to 
the  Roman  communion  ;  its  priests  were  held  to  be  the  only 
legitimate  successors  of  the  apostles ;  and  the  sacraments,  as 
dispensed  by  their  hands,  and  only  theirs,  were  supposed  to 
operate  like  a  charm  in  purifying  the  soul  from  sin.  In 
baptism,  our  nature  was  regenerated  ;  in  the  eucharist,  the 
bread  and  wine  were  transubstantiated  into  the  actual  body 
and  blood  of  Christ  \  in  penance,  all  crimes  committed  after 
the  laver  of  baptism  were  pardoned ;  and  in  extreme  unction, 
the  parting  spirit  was  so  purged  from  human  defilement  as  to 
be  fit  to  enter  into  the  presence  of  the  Holy  One  who  inhabit- 
eth  eternity. 

In  this  creed,  the  true  and  the  false,  the  sublime  and  the 
absurd  were  strangely  interwoven,  and  it  was  undoubtedly  the 
one  that  preserved  the  other,  as  the  solid  columns  of  the  old 
cathedrals  sustained  the  grotesque  figures  of  imaginary  angels 
and  demons,  monsters  and  men,  that  grinned  from  their  cor- 
bels on  the  worshippers  below.  In  so  far  as  it  places  an 
earthly  priesthood  in  the  room  of  the  Great  High  Priest,  and 
puts  the  pardon  of  sin  and  the  keys  of  paradise  into  their 
hands,  it  may  be  regarded  as  partly  an  invention  of  the  Church 
to  aggrandize  itself,  and  as  partly  an  expression  of  human 
feeling ;  for  under  all  systems  of  faith  man  has  shown  an  inve- 
terate tendency  to  be  pious  by  proxy,  and  to  get  the  stated 
ministers  of  religion  to  pray  for  him,  to  believe  for  him,  to 
make  reconciliation  for  him.  He  will  rather  pay  another  to 
do  this  for  him  than  earnestly  do  it  himself. 

In  order  that  the  faithful  might  worship  on  consecrated 
ground,  every  parish  had  its  church,  and  every  bishop's  seat 
its  cathedral.  How  noble  some  of  these  structures  were  their 
remains  do  still  testify;  but  it  were  wrong  to  imagine  that  alL 
the  ecclesiastical  buildings  in  Scotland  were  on  a  similarly 


ig6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

magnificent  scale.  Most  of  the  parish  churches  have  perished 
through  the  mere  waste  of  time,  but  from  those  that  remain — 
some  entire,  and  some  in  ruins — we  may  infer  that  they  were 
not  in  general  more  imposing  than  those  which  now  shelter 
the  Protestant  worship.1  To  these  the  faithful  were  accus- 
tomed to  resort,  not  to  hear  sermon,  as  with  us,  but  to  be  pre- 
sent at  the  office  of  the  mass,  or  some  other  Church-service, 
to  say  their  prayers  before  the  figure  of  some  favourite  saint, 
or  to  make  confession  to  the  priest.  It  would  appear  that 
then,  as  now,  other  motives  than  those  which  religion  approves 
took  people  to  church;  for  Dunbar,  in  his  poem  of  the  "  Two 
Married  Women  and  the  Widow,"  makes  his  widow  describe 
herself  as  repairing  to  church  in  her  weeds,  spreading  out 
her  book,  illumined  with  gold,  upon  her  knee,  drawing  her 
cloak  forward  on  her  face,  and  from  behind  it  stealing 
glances  at  the  knights  and  clerks  who  were  at  their  devotions 
beside  her. 

Preaching  had,  in  a  great  measure,  fallen  into  disuse  amongst 
the  secular  clergy.  The  parsons  seldom  preached  ;  the  bishops 
never.  Kennedy  of  St  Andrews  appears  to  have  been  an 
exception,  for  it  is  recorded  of  him  that  he  preached  four 
times  a-year  in  every  parish  in  his  diocese,  and  compelled  his 
subordinate  clergy  to  remain  at  their  parish  kirks,  to  preach 
the  Word  of  God  to  the  people,  and  to  visit  them  when  they 
were  sick  ;  and,  more  effectually  to  enforce  this,  he  was  in  the 
habit  of  catechizing  the  parishioners,  on  his  visitations,  if  they 
were  duly  instructed  by  the  parson  or  vicar,  if  the  sacraments 
were    regularly   administered,    the   poor    sustained,    and    the 

1  Dunbar,  in  his  vain  longings  for  a  benefice,  declares  that  he  would  be 
content  with  a  church  thatched  with  heather  : 

"  Greit  abbais  grayth  I  nill  to  gather, 
But  ane  kirk  scant  coverit  with  hadder; 
For  I  of  lytil  wald  be  fane, 
Quhilk  to  consider  is  ane  pane." 

Poem  on  the  Worlds  Instabilitie. 

"We  have  a  fervid  description,"  says  the  Quarterly  Review,  "of  the 
beauty  of  the  chancel  of  Dollar  in  Clackmannanshire  in  1336,  but  the 
chronicle  does  not  conceal  that  the  building  was  only  of  hewn  oak.  We 
know  that  at  the  same  date  the  chancel  of  Edrom  in  the  Merse  was 
thatched  with  straw.  Nor  does  there  appear  cause  to  believe  that  the 
great  mass  of  the  parish  churches  were  in  much  better  state,  either  in 
that  age  or  until  long  after  the  Reformation."     (Quarterly  Review,  June 

1849O 

The  First  Book  of  Discipline  confirms  this,  by  requiring  that  the  kirks 
be  repaired  with  thack  or  sclait>  chap.  xv. 


CHAP.  IX.]  PREACHING  FRIARS.  197 

youth  brought  up  in  godliness.1  Kennedy  must  have  been  a 
light  shining  in  a  dark  place.  There  were  not  many  that  fol- 
lowed his  example.  But  the  neglect  of  preaching  by  the 
seculars  was  in  some  respects  compensated  for  by  the  friars. 
They  were  in  the  constant  habit  of  preaching  to  the  people. 
The  popularity  of  the  Dominicans  rested  in  a  great  measure 
upon  their  preaching.  One  of  their  names  pointed  to  their 
work — they  were  called  fratres  predicantes.  Accordingly  we 
have  frequent  allusions  to  preaching  in  ante-Reformation 
times.  Dunbar,  the  poet,  who  was  brought  up  as  a  friar, 
boasts  of  having  preached  in  the  pulpit  at  Canterbury,  and 
everywhere  throughout  England  and  France.2  In  1508  we 
hear  of  a  Scottish  doctor  expounding  the  Epistles  of  St  Paul 
at  St  Paul's  Cross  ;  and  in  15 13  Dr  West,  the  English  ambas- 
sador, writes  :  "  When  the  passion  was  preached,  and  the  ser- 
mon done,  the  queen  sent  for  me."  3  Sir  Ralph  Sadler  was 
first  introduced  to  Mary  of  Guise  in  the  Chapel  of  Holyrood, 
where  she  was,  with  a  number  of  her  ladies,  hearing  a  sermon  in 
French.  This  was  on  a  Friday,  between  nine  and  ten  in  the 
morning.  On  the  Sunday  following,  the  ambassador  resorted 
to  the  palace  to  exhibit  the  geldings  which  Henry  had  sent  for 
the  acceptance  of  James.  Again  he  was  taken  to  the  chapel, 
and  again  he  found  the  queen  at  a  sermon.4  Before  Wishart 
was  impeached  and  tried,  Winram,  the  sub-prior  of  St 
Andrews,  preached  a  sermon  upon  heresy  to  the  assembled 
clergy  and  people;5  and  in  1552,  eight  years  before  the  Re- 
formation, an  act  of  the  Scottish  Parliament  imposed  fines 
upon  those  who  should  interrupt  divine  service  and  preaching 
of  the  Word  of  God ;  6  an  act  which  seems  too  plainly  to  inti- 
mate that  the  Reformers  had  already  begun  rudely  to  disturb 
the  established  worship. 

The  discourses  of  these  monkish  orators,  we  may  well  be- 
lieve, were  not  such  as  would  now  be  applauded:  they 
embodied  not  the  Christianity  that  now  is,  but  the  Christianity 
that  then  was  received  in  the  churches.      They  were  generally 

1  Lyndsay's  History,  p.  69. 

2  In  freiris  weid  full  fairly  haif  I  fleichit, 
In  it  haif  I  in  pulpet  gane  and  preichit, 
In  Demtown  kirk,  and  eik  in  Canterbury, 
In  it  1  past  at  Dover  our  the  ferry  ; 
Throw  Picardy,  and  thair  the  peple  teichit. 

3  Pinkerton,  vol.  ii. 

4  Sadler's  State  Papers,  &c,  vol.  i.  pp.  22-40. 

5  Knox's  History,  book  i.  6  Mary,  pari.  v.  c.  xvii. 


198  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  IX. 

filled  with  the  legends  of  fabulous  saints,  the  pains  of  purga- 
tory, and  the  virtues  of  the  mass.  Knox  makes  one  of  his 
reforming  preachers  ridicule  sermons  in  which  cursing  was  too 
freely  used.  "  The  priest,"  saith  he,  "  whose  duty  and  office 
is  to  pray  for  the  people,  standeth  up  on  Sunday  and  crieth, 
Ane  hath  lost  her  spurtle ;  there  is  a  flail  stolen  from  them 
beyond  the  burn  \  the  goodwife  on  the  other  side  of  the  gate 
has  lost  a  horn  spoon ;  God's  malison  and  mine  I  give  to  them 
that  knoweth  of  this  gear  and  restoreth  it  not."1  Such  preach- 
ing as  this,  however  homely,  if  the  cursing  were  left  out, 
might  be  not  only  pardoned  but  encouraged  if  it  conduced  to 
honesty. 

After  the  Church-service  was  ended,  the  Sunday  was  not 
regarded  as  peculiarly  sacred.  It  was  common  to  hold  mar- 
kets and  fairs  upon  it ;  and  the  rustic,  after  hearing  mass  at 
the  altar,  retired  to  the  ale-house  to  sell  his  meal,  or  haggle 
about  the  price  of  a  horse.2  Marketing  was  sometimes  carried 
on  in  the  porch  of  the  church,  and  even  before  the  service  was 
done.3  In  other  cases,  the  parson  followed  his  parishioners  to 
the  churchyard,  to  witness  their  skill  in  archery,4  or  join  in 
their  laughter  at  the  frolics  of  Robin  Hood  and  Little  John.5 
Shops,  hostelries,  and  places  of  amusement  were  open ;  and  it 
was  nothing  unusual  for  the  courts  of  law  to  sit  upon  a  Sun- 
day.6 The  way  in  which  the  Sunday  was  kept  is  very  well 
illustrated  by  an  incident  already  referred  to.  It  was  on  a 
Sunday  morning  Sir  Ralph  Sadler  was  ordered  to  attend  his 
Majesty  James  V.  with  the  horses  sent  to  him  from  the  stud 
of  his  royal  uncle  of  England.  When  the  ambassador  arrived 
he  found  the  courtly  circle  in  chapel,  devoutly  engaged;  but 
no  sooner  was  the  service  over  than  the  horses  were  brought 
into  the  palace-court,  and  mounted  by  a  groom  ;  while  his 
Majesty  and  his  nobles  from  a  window  admired  their  action. 

1  Knox's  History,  book  i. 

2  After  the  Reformation  there  were  several  acts  of  parliament  forbidding 
markets  or  fairs  to  be  held  on  Sabbath;  and  even  before  the  Reformation 
legislation  was  tried,  but  failed. 

3  A  synod  shortly  before  the  Reformation  forbade  this. 

4  James  I.,  pari.  i.  chap,  xviii.,  provides  "That  all  men  busk  them  to 
be  archers,  from  ten  years  of  age  and  upwards,  and  that  in  each  ten 
pounds  of  land  there  be  made  bow  marks,  especially  near  to  parish 
churches,  wherein  upon  holydays  men  come,  and  at  least  shoot  thrice 
about." 

5  The  game  of  Robin   Hood  was  generally  celebrated  on  a  Sunday  in 

May. 

6  JJalzell's  Cursory  Remarks  on   "  ane  Book  of  Godly  Sangs,"  p.  9. 


CHAP.  IX.]  PILGRIMAGES.  1 99 

Festival-days  would  seem  to  have  been  very  generally  set  apart 
for  fairs;  and  thus  a  prudent  compromise  was  made  between 
religion  and  business.1 

After  the  Reformation,  Acts  of  Parliament  were  passed 
forbidding  markets  to  be  held  upon  a  Sunday,  and  discharg- 
ing the  people  from  gaming,  playing,  or  resorting  to  taverns 
during  divine  service  ;2  but  still  it  would  seem  that  the 
customs  of  the  country  partly  continued,  for  long  afterwards 
we  find  Acts  of  Parliament  and  Acts  of  Assembly  levelled 
against  them.  In  1591  the  General  Assembly  complains  of 
the  profanation  of  the  Sabbath  by  Robin  Hood  plays.3 

Pilgrimages  to  shrines  of  reputed  sanctity  were  regarded  as 
peculiarly  meritorious,  and  constituted  an  important  part  of 
the  piety  of  the  times..  Conspicuous  among  the  places  of 
pious  resort  was  Whitehorn,  where  Ninian  had  reared  his 
white  church  of  stone  by  the  waters  of  the  Solway.  But  in 
later  times  this  celebrated  shrine  was  eclipsed  by  the  Chapel 
of  our  Lady  of  Loretto  at  Musselburgh.  Here  were  a  famous 
image  of  the  Virgin,  and  a  holy  hermit  who  pretended  to 
work  miracles.  It  was  to  this  shrine  that  James  V.  made  a 
pilgrimage  from  Stirling,  in  1536,  to  secure  a  blessing  upon 
his  journey  to  France  in  search  of  a  queen.  But  crowds  of 
young  men  and  women  from  Edinburgh  were  continually  trip- 
ping their  way  to  Musselburgh,  more  bent,  as  satirists  affirm, 
upon  love  than  devotion.4 

Religious  processions  formed  another  conspicuous  feature 
of  the  period,  as  they  do  in  all  papal  countries  in  the  present 
day.  Yearly,  on  the  1st  of  September,  the  image  of  St  Gile 
was  borne  through  the  streets  of  Edinburgh,  with  the  sound 
of  tabret,  trumpet,  and  clarion  ;  and  the  populace  uncovered 
their  heads  as  it  passed,  and  the  more  devout  went  down 
upon  their  knees  in  the  gutters.  But  as  the  reformed  opinions 
spread,  it  was  a  common  trick  to  break  into  sanctuaries  and 

1  Fair  is  a  corruption  of  feriae,  a  festival-day. 

2  Jac.  VI.,  pari.  vi.  chap.  lxx.  So  early,  in  fact,  as  the  reign  of 
James  IV.,  it  was  ordained  that  no  markets  or  fairs  should  be  held  upon 
holidays,  or  within  kirks  or  kirk-yards..  (James  IV.,  pari.  vi.  c.  lxxxiii. ) 
Legislation  failed  to  put  down  a  habit  which  had  become  inveterate. 

3  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  356. 

4  "  I  have  sene  pass  ane  marvillous  multitude — 
Young  men  and  women,  flingand  on  thair  feit, 
Under  the  forme  of  fenzeit  sanctitude, 
For  till  adore  ane  image  in  Laureit  ; 
Mony  came  with  thair  marrowis  for  to  meit,"  &c,  &c 

L v N dsay'.^  Monarchic, 


200  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

steal  away  the  images  ;  and  in  this  way  St  Gile  was  got  hold 
of,  first  drowned  in  the  North  Loch,  and  afterwards  burned. 
When  his  day  came  round,  and  his  procession  must  be  made, 
an  image  was  borrowed  from  the  Grey  Friars,  which  the 
populace  at  once  nicknamed  Young  St  Gile.  This  young 
saint  was  fastened  with  nails  upon  a  species  of  ambulance, 
called  a  fertor,  and  so  wheeled  down  the  High  Street,  amid 
friars,  priests,  canons,  trumpeters,  tapers,  banners,  and  bag- 
pipes— the  queen  regent  herself  walking  at  the  head  of  the 
procession.  But  as  the  procession  returned  homewards,  a 
cry  got  up,  "  Down  with  the  idol  ;  down  with  it  ; "  and 
instantly  the  fertor  was  seized,  and  the  image  thrown  into  the 
mire.  "  Then  might  have  been  seen,"  says  Knox,  who 
narrates  the  incident  with  infinite  satisfaction,  "  so  sudden  a 
fray  as  seldom  hath  been  seen  among  that  sort  of  men  within 
this  realm  ;  for  down  go  the  crosses,  off  go  the  surplices,  round 
caps  corner  with  the  crowns.  The  grey  friars  gaped,  the  black 
friars  blew,  the  priests  panted  and  fled,  and  happy  was  he  that  first 
got  the  house."1  This  was  in  155  8,  and  was  probably  the  last  time 
that  the  streets  of  the  metropolis  were  perambulated  by  St  Gile. 
The  Romish  priesthood  well  knew  that  the  multitude  are 
pleased  with  spectacles  ;  and  probably  they  also  knew  that 
a  rude  populace  can  be  most  easily  instructed  by  representa- 
tions which  appeal  to  their  senses.  They  were  therefore  in 
the  habit  of  occasionally  exhibiting,  partly  for  the  amusement 
and  partly  for  the  edification  of  their  flocks,  a  kind  of  religious 
dramas,  called  Mysteries.  In  these  some  of  the  striking  inci- 
dents of  Scripture  were  delineated,  and  acted  in  the  manner 
of  a  play ;  in  which  the  players  were  priests,  and  the 
dramatis  persona  the  most  holy  and  reverend  names  con- 
nected with  religion.  They  were  sometimes  performed  in  a 
church,  but  more  frequently  in  the  open  air  ;  and  the  audi- 
ence were  kept  attentive  for  eight  or  nine  hours,  and  some- 
times for  two  or  three  days  together,  by  the  alternation  of 
pious  speeches,  ribald  conversations,  and  indecent  scenes. 
Most  of  them  would  now  be  regarded  as  positively  blas- 
phemous ;  but  they  were  not  so  regarded  by  our  forefathers, 
and  zealous  Protestants  have  confessed  to  the  profound 
impression  produced  on  their  mind  by  the  passion-plays  still 
performed  at  Ober  Ammergau,  in  Bavaria,  where  the  old 
custom  still  survives,  but  purified  from  the  puerilities  and 
irreverence  of  the  ante-Reformation  mysteries.  It  is  impossible 

1  Knox's  History,  book  i. 


CHAP,  ix.]  PASSION-PLAYS  AND  MYSTERIES.  20  1 

to  conceive  that  they  were  designed  to  turn  religion  into  ridi- 
cule, or  to  treat  its  sanctities  with  levity  or  contempt.  They 
were  acted  in  all  seriousness.  The  sense  of  the  decorous 
alters  with  the  times.  Painting  put  forth  her  first  effort  upon 
Scripture  incidents  ;  and  did  not  hesitate  to  pourtray  the 
Trinity  upon  her  canvas.  The  modern  drama,  in  like  manner, 
originated  in  the  Church,  and  its  first  scenes  were  borrowed 
from  the  Bible. 

But  these  theatricals  were  sometimes  taken  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  clergy,  and  converted  by  the  people  into  comic  parodies 
upon  the  rites  of  religion.  When  inclined  for  frolic,  it  was  not 
uncommon  for  the  laity  to  elect  some  "  lord  of  the  revels, 
who,  under  the  name  of  the  Abbot  of  Unreason,  the  Boy 
Bishop,  or  the  President  of  Fools,  occupied  the  churches,  pro- 
faned the  holy  places  by  a  mock  imitation  of  the  sacred  rites, 
and  sung  indecent  parodies  on  hymns  of  the  Church."  l  The 
clergy,  singularly  enough,  tolerated  these  profane  exhibitions, 
probably  because  they  knew  they  occupied  the  attention,  and 
afforded  an  outlet  for  the  coarse  humour  of  the  populace,  and 
were  not  really  intended  to  cast  dishonour  on  religion.  We 
have  an  instance  of  this  Saturnalian  licence  in  1547,  when  a 
macer  of  the  Primate  of  St  Andrews  appeared  at  Borthwick 
with  letters  of  excommunication  against  its  lord,  which  the 
curate  was  required  to  publish  at  the  service  of  high  mass  in 
the  parish  church.  The  inhabitants  of  the  castle  happened  at 
the  time  to  be  engaged  in  the  sport  of  acting  the  Abbot  of 
Unreason.  With  this  mock  dignity  at  their  head,  they  laid 
hold  of  the  unhappy  macer,  ducked  him  once  and  again  in 
the  mill-dam,  and  then  compelled  him  to  eat  his  parchment 
letters,  made  palatable  by  being  steeped  in  wine.  These 
licensed  frolics,  at  first  deemed  harmless,  were  afterwards  per- 
severed in  by  the  people,  as  the  Reformation  drew  near,  to 
turn  the  ceremonies  and  officers  of  the  Church  into  contempt, 
and  this  has  furnished  Sir  Walter  Scott  with  some  of  the  most 
graphic  chapters  in  his  "  Abbot." 

It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  the  amount  of  personal  piety  which 
existed  among  our  papal  ancestors,  and  thus  learn  the  inner 
life  of  the  Church.  "  The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with 
observation."  Unable  in  many  cases  to  determine  the  piety 
of  our  most  intimate  friends,  it  is  hopeless  to  arrive  at  any  very 
definite  conclusions  in  regard  to  the  piety  of  the  masses  three 
centuries  ago.  It  must  be  admitted,  though  with  pain,  that 
1  Sir  Walter  Scott.     Note  to  the  Abbot. 


2  02  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  IX. 

false  objects  of  worship,  as  well  as  the  true,  are  capable  of  ex- 
citing devotional  feeling  and  that  it  is  not  always  in  the  purest 
churches  that  there  is  most  of  the  outward  appearance  of 
piety.  The  Hindu  and  the  Moslem,  after  their  own  fashion, 
are  as  devout  as  the  Christian  ;  the  Romanist,  when  prostrate 
before  a  crucifix,  mav  exhibit  as  much  earnestness  as  the 
Protestant  when  bowing  before  the  Father  of  Spirits.  If  we 
judge  by  external  tests,  and  it  is  these  only  we  can  apply,  we 
shall  not  judge  harshly  of  the  piety  of  our  forefathers.  They 
waited  diligently  upon  all  the  rites  of  the  Church,  and  they 
showed  their  sincerity  by  the  great  liberality  with  which  they 
endowed  its  ministers.  They  undoubtedly  lived  under  a  sense 
of  religion,  in  hope  of  its  rewards  and  in  fear  of  its  punish- 
ments ;  and  in  the  letters  and  other  documents  of  the  period 
which  have  come  down  to  us,  there  are  more  references  to 
religious  topics  than  would  be  found  in  most  of  the  epistolary 
correspondence  of  the  present  day.  It  is  impossible  to  refrain 
from  lamenting  that  so  much  devotional  feeling  should  have 
been  wasted  on  worthless  objects;  that  virgins  resplendent  in 
tinsel  and  lace  should  have  received  the  homage  due  only  to 
Deity ;  but  still  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  but  that  much  true 
piety  continued  to  exist,  notwithstanding  the  circumstances 
unfavourable  to  its  growth,  and  that  many  prayers  breathed  in 
jDapal  shrines  from  humble  hearts  found  an  echo  in  heaven. 

The  Saxon  tongue  has  ever  been  fruitful  in  oaths.  Pro- 
testantism  has  not  been  able  to  eradicate  the  evil ;  but  it 
yisprung  up  in  Roman  Catholic  times ;  and  the  swearer's 
vocabulary  was  still  more  voluminous  then  than  it  is  now. 
The  following  are  a  specimen  of  the  more  common  forms  : — 
By  the  Trinity,  by  God's  passion,  by  God's  wounds,  by  God's 
cross,  by  God's  mother,  by  God's  bread,  by  Him  that  wore 
the  crown  of  thorns,  by  Him  that  herryit  hell,  by  the  rood, 
by  the  sacrament,  by  the  mass,  by  my  soul,  by  my  thrift,  by 
our  Lady,  by  Allhallows,  by  St  James,  by  St  Michael,  by  St 
Gile,  and  so  on  by  all  the  saints  in  the  calendar.  Such  ex- 
pressions as  these  were  copiously  introduced  into  every  con- 
versation, and  do  not  appear  to  have  been  regarded  as  very 
improper,  for  they  were  perpetually  used  in  the  presence  of 
the  clergy  without  rebuke.  Lyndsay's  play  is  full  of  them,  and 
it  is  from  it  that  these  examples  have  been  culled. 

But  with  the  dawn  of  the  Reformation,  a  change  for  the 
better  appears.  On  the  ist  of  February  1551,  an  Act  of  Par- 
liament was  passed   against  "  them  that  swear   abominable 


CHAP.  IX.]  ANCIENT  OATHS.  203 

oaths."  This  curious  act  sets  forth  "  that  notwithstanding  the 
oft  and  frequent  preachings  in  detestation  of  the  grievous  and 
abominable  oaths — swearing,  execrations,  and  blasphemation 
of  the  name  of  God,  swearing  in  vain  by  his  precious  blood, 
body,  passion,  and  wounds,  devil  stick,  cummer,  gore,  roist  or 
riefe  them,  and  such  like  ugly  oaths  and  execrations,  against 
the  command  of  God,  yet  the  same  is  come  into  such  ungodly 
use  amongst  the  people  of  this  realm,  both  of  great  and  small 
estates,  that  daily  and  hourly  may  be  heard  amongst  them 
open  blasphemation  of  God's  name."  x  To  remedy  this  state 
of  things  a  scale  of  fines  is-  framed  to  suit  the  circumstances  of 
different  defaulters.  If  a  bishop  or  lord  were  caught  swearing, 
he  was  to  be  mulcted  in  twelve  pence ;  a  baron  or  beneficed 
man  in  four  pence,  and  so*  on.  A  poor  man,  who  had  nothing 
to  pay,  was  to  have  his  feet  put  in  the  stocks,  and  women 
were  to  be  rated  according  to  their  blood  or  marriage.  Thus 
did  a  parliament  of  Mary  attempt  to  cure  this  unprofitable 
vice,  before  her  queenly  cousin  of  England  began  to  box  the 
ears  of  her  ministers,  and  to  swear  those  horrid  oaths  which 
we  shudder  to  read. 

In  the  absence  of  all  statistics  on  the  subject,  it  is  almost  as 
difficult  to  form  a  proper  estimate  of  the  morality  as  of  the  re- 
ligion of  a  by-gone  age.  It  were  wrong  to  conclude  that  our 
ancestors  were  immoral,  because  they  were  Roman  in  their 
faith  and  rude  in  their  manners.  A  country,  though  Catholic, 
may  be  virtuous  :  and  it  is  very  questionable  if  refinement, 
though  it  deprives  vice  of  its  grossness,  robs  it  of  its  power. 
There  is  an  immorality  of  the  country  and  an  immorality  of 
the  city.  Unfortunately  very  little  of  our  ancient  literature  is 
descriptive  of  ancient  manners.  Dunbar,  in  his  "Two  Married 
Women  and  the  Widow,"  gives  a  horrid  picture  of  female 
libertinism,  but  the  poem  is  plainly  a  satire  on  the  sex,  and, 
like  all  other  satires*  is  evidently  stretched  beyond  the  truth. 
Lyndsay,  in  his  "  Squire  Meldrum,"  gives  us  some  interesting 
pictures  of  home  life,  in  which  there  is  mingled  evil  with  good. 
In  some  cases  the  morality  of  a  country  may  be  gathered  from 
the  spirit  that  pervades  its  literature.  The  poems,  novels,  and 
plays  of  the  age  of  Charles  II.  simply  mirror  the  existing 
manners ;  no  other  age  could  have  produced  them,  no  other 
generation  would  have  read  them.  If  we  look  to  this  test  we 
shall  find  that  the  ante-Reformation  literature  of  Scotland  is 
often  grossly  indecent,  but  it  does  not  breathe  a  licentious 
1  Mary,  pari,  v.,  1st  P^ebruary  1 551. 


204  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

spirit.  Lyndsay's  "  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates  "  was  acted  at 
Linlithgow  in  presence  of  the  king  and  his  newly-wedded  queen, 
the  bishops,  and  a  large  concourse  of  lords  and  ladies ;  and 
yet  it  has  language  and  scenes  most  abominably  immodest. 
But  this  argues  rather  a  coarseness  than  a  dissoluteness  of 
manners.  Persons  in  the  lower  walks  of  life  sometimes  use 
phrases  which  give  a  shock  to  all  our  ideas  of  propriety ;  but 
this  is  very  far  from  proving  anything  like  impurity  of  feeling 
or  incorrectness  of  conduct  on  their  part  Amongst  our  un- 
educated and  remote  peasantry,  we  may  find  reproduced,  with 
but  slight  alterations,  the  generations  that  lived  three  centuries 
ago.  As  there  are  hills  among  the  Cordilleras  where  we  may 
see  assembled  together  the  vegetations  of  every  climate  under 
heaven,  from  the  sugar-cane  at  the  base  to  the  lichen  on  the 
highest  peaks,  so  we  may  discover  as  contemporaneous,  if  we 
are  allowed  to  range  over  sufficient  space,  the  customs  and 
civilisations  of  all  the  epochs  embraced  by  history. 

The  ministers  of  religion  before  the  Reformation  were  not 
the  men  to  exercise  the  best  influence  upon  the  morals  of  the 
people.  In  the  exercise  of  the  Church's  patronage  gigantic 
evils  had  arisen,  which  urgently  called  for  reform.  The  whole 
system  had  become  rotten.  We  have  seen  the  efforts  made  by 
successive  monarchs  to  prevent  the  purchase  of  benefices  at 
Rome.  They  never  succeeded ;  the  abuse  continued  till  the 
very  last ;  and  a  foreigner  annually  disposed  of  many  of  the 
best  livings  in  Scotland,  and  by  the  purchase-money  which  he 
received  made  a  country  naturally  poor  poorer  still.1  The 
presentees  of  the  king  and  nobles  received  their  appointments 
from  motives  equally  mean  and  mercenary.  The  livings  of 
the  Church  came  to  be  regarded  just  as  a  means  of  endowing 
a  younger  son,  providing  for  a  bastard,  enriching  a  favourite, 
or  paying  the  arrears  of  wages  due  to  a  servant.2  In  15 13  the 
archbishopric  of  St  Andrews  was  held  by  a  bastard   son  of 

1  Lyndsay  speaks  as  if  the  practice  were  on  the  increase  : — 
"  It  is  schort  tyme  sen  ony  benefice 
Was  sped  in  Rome  except  greit  bischopries; 
Bot  now  for  ane  unworthie  vickarage, 
Ane  priest  will  rin  to  Rome  in  pilgrimage, 
Ane  carell  whilk  was  never  at  the  scule, 
Will  rin  to  Rome  and  keip  ane  bischopis  mule, 
And  syne  cam  hame,  with  mony  colorit  crack, 
With  ane  burden  of  benefices  on  his  back." 

Satyre  of  the  Three  Estaitis. 

2  "  And  him  that  gaits  ane  parsonage, 
Thinks  it  a  present  for  a  page." 

Dun  bar's  Complaint. 


CHAP.  IX.]  SIMONIACAL  ABUSES.  2  0 


James  IV.,  and  in  1547  the  same  dignity  was  possessed  by  the 
bastard  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Arran,  Governor  of  the  King- 
dom. James  V.,  in  1538,  bestowed  five  of  the  richest 
monasteries  in  Scotland  on  his  natural  children,  albeit  they 
were  little  better  than  babies  ;  and  even  before  this,  one  of 
them  had  held  several  benefices.1  When  such  was  the  way  in 
which  promotion  in  the  Church  was  obtained,  we  need  not 
wonder  that  the  clergy  degenerated,  if  not  in  exterior  accom- 
plishments, at  least  in  the  virtues  which  become  those  who 
minister  at  the  altar. 

Pluralities  had  likewise  prodigiously  increased.2  The  great 
dignitaries  of  the  Church  set  the  example,  and  beside  their 
bishoprics,  held  abbacies,  priories,  and  parishes,  for  the  sake 
of  their  revenues.  Forman  and  Beaton  were  notorious  for  this. 
Every  one  grasped  as  many  livings  as  he  could  ;  and  if  the 
teinds  were  got  hold  of  there  was  little  thought  of  the  cure  of 
souls.  Another  sacrilegious  practice  had  arisen — bestowing 
abbacies  and  priories  in  commendam?  The  commendator  need 
not  be  a  man  of  learning  and  piety  ;  he  need  not  be  in  holy 
orders  at  all ;  he  drew  the  revenues  without  being  able  to  dis- 
charge the  duties  of  the  office.  If  the  abbot  was  a  com- 
mendator, the  prior  did  the  work ;  if  the  prior  was  a  com- 
mendator, the  sub-prior  was  at  hand.  In  a  previous  part  of 
our  history  we  have  adverted  to  yet  another  evil — the  appro- 
priation of  parishes,  patronage,  teinds,  everything,  by  Religious 
Houses,  who  appointed  a  vicar  to  serve  the  cure,  or  perhaps 
had  the  duties  perfunctorily  discharged  by  one  of  their  own 
sodality.  The  parish  priest  in  this  way  lost  much  of  his 
respectability,  independence,  and  income,  and  the  tenth  sheaf 
and  the  tenth  lamb  went  to  fatten  the  useless  inmates  of  some 
distant  monastery.  These  things  might  be  tolerated  in  times 
of  mental  stagnation ;  but  it  was  certain  that  so  soon  as  men 

1  Balfour's  Annals.     Pinkerton,  vol.  ii. 

2  "  I  knaw  nocht  how  the  Kirk  is  gydit, 
Bot  benefices  ar  nocht  leil  devydit  ; 
Sum  men  hes  seven,  and  I  nocht  ane, 
Quilk  to  considder  is  ane  pane." 

D  U  N  B  A  R —  World's  List  a  bill  tie. 
See  also  his  poem,  The  Fest  of  Benefyce. 

3  Lyndsay  stigmatizes  this  abuse  also  in  his  satire  ;  but  he  lets  the 
courtier  get  the  better  of  the  reformer  when  he  proposes  there  should  be 
an  exception  in  favour  of  the  blood-royal.  The  truth  is,  his  patron  James 
V.  was  notoriously  guilty  of  the  practice. 

Of  the  twenty  abbots  and  priors  that  sat  in  the  parliament  that  effected 
the  Reformation,  fourteen  were  commendators.    (Keith,  book  i.  chap,  xii.) 


206  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

began  to  think,  the  system  must  perish.  The  tree  stands 
stately  and  erect  in  the  summer's  calm,  though  there  be  rotten- 
ness at  the  heart;  but  with  the  first  breath  of  the  hurricane  it 
goes  crashing  to  the  ground. 

We  cannot  conceal,  though  we  willingly  would,  the  gross 
licentiousness  of  all  ranks  of  the  clergy.  Denied  by  the  stern 
ordinance  of  their  Church  the  enjoyment  of  wedlock,  and 
unable  to  repress  the  instincts  of  their  nature,  they  sought 
relief  either  in  systematic  concubinage,  or  in  the  seduction  of 
the  wives  and  daughters  of  their  parishioners.  The  temptation 
to  crime  was  increased  by  the  confessional,  where  the  celebate 
was  required  to  hear  from  the  warm  lips  of  a  woman  the  in- 
most secrets  of  her  heart  and  the  strangest  passages  of  her 
life.  Accordingly,  the  ancient  canons  of  the  Scottish  Church 
cautiously  enjoined  the  confessor,  when  confessing  a  female, 
not  to  look  her  too  often  in  the  face.  But  canons  were 
powerless,  and  councils  strove  in  vain,  to  repress  the  growing 
immorality  of  the  clergy.  When  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen 
ordered  the  dean  and  chapter  of  his  See  to  hold  a  council  to 
devise  means  for  preventing  the  growth  of  heresy,  the  council 
besought  his  lordship  "  to  cause  the  Churchmen  reform  their 
shameful  lives,  and  remove  their  open  concubines  ;  and  that 
he  would  have  the  goodness  to  show  an  example,  by  abstaining 
from  the  company  of  the  gentlewoman  with  whom  he  was 
greatly  slandered." 1  Chisholme,  the  last  Roman  Bishop  of 
Dunblane,  had  both  sons  and  daughters,  to  whom  he  sacri- 
legiously alienated  the  possessions  of  his  See.  We  have 
already  seen  Beaton  marrying  his  daughter  to  the  Master  of 
Crawford,  and  we  know  that  his  son  and  namesake  received  a 
grant  of  the  lands  of  Baky.2  His  successor  in  the  primacy,  as 
Knox  takes  care  to  inform  us,  fell  into  the  same  sin ;  and  so 
concluded  the  papal  apostolical  succession  at  St  Andrews. 

When  harlotry  thus  occupied  the  high  places  of  the  Church, 
we  need  not  be  surprised  to  find  it  in  the  gloom  of  cloisters, 
and  amid  the  seclusion  of  rural  parishes.  The  poetry  of  the 
time  represents  the  vice  as  all  but  universal.  Lyndsay  lashes 
unmercifully  parish  priests,  monks,  friars,  nuns — the  taint  was 
on  them  all ;  and  making  all  allowance  for  the  excesses  of 
satire,  we  must  conclude  that  the  clergy  were  not  exemplars 
of  chastity  to  their  flocks.     It  may,  however,  be  conceded  that 

1  A  copy  of  this  document  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix  to  Dr  Cook's 
History  of  the  Reformation. 

2  Pinkerton,  vol.  ii.  p.  416. 


CH.vr.  ix.]  CELIBACY.  207 

many  of  those  clerics  who  lived  in  concubinage  regarded 
themselves  as  simply  evading  the  unnatural  restrictions  of 
their  Church,  and  as  living  in  true,  though  unlawful,  wedlock. 
The  connections  they  formed  show  that  the  illicit  alliance  was 
not  regarded  as  altogether  disgraceful.  Archbishop  Cranmer 
had  such  a  secret  liaison,  "  affirming  it  was  better  for  him  to 
have  his  own  wife  than  to  do  like  other  priests,  having  the 
wives  of  others."  l  Bad  though  this  was,  there  were  fouler  sores 
generated  by  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy.  Before  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  monasteries  in  England,  they  were  visited  by  a 
royal  commission,  which  made  the  most  revolting  revelations 
of  all  conceivable  and  inconceivable  crimes  ;  and  though  some 
of  their  statements  were  afterwards  proved  to  be  false,  and 
probably  the  whole  narrative  was  exaggerated  to  subserve  the 
purpose  in  view,  it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  conviction  that 
many  Religious  Houses  had  become  dens  of  iniquity.  Henry 
pressed  upon  James,  that  unless  the  monks  of  Scotland  were 
more  holy  than  those  of  England,  nowhere  did  there  reign 
"  more  abominations  than  were  used  in  cloisters  among  monks, 
canons,  nuns,  and  friers;"  but  all  that  James  would  admit  was 
contained  in  his  answer  to  the  ambassador  :  "  God  forbid  that 
if  a  few  be  not  good,  for  them  all  the  rest  should  be  destroyed. 
Though  some  be  not,  there  be  a  great  many  good  ;  and  the 
good  may  be  suffered,  and  the  evil  must  be  reformed,  as  ye 
shall  hear  that  I  shall  see  it  redressed  in  Scotland,  by  God's 
grace,  if  I  brook  life."  Such  were  the  different  views  of 
monasticism  entertained  by  the  two  monarchs.  The  one 
imagined  it  might  be  reformed,  the  other  thought  it  only 
worthy  to  be  destroyed.  "  Every  plant,"  said  Sadler,  solemnly, 
"which  my  Father  hath  not  planted  shall  be  plucked  up."  2 

Very  different  estimates  have  been  formed  of  the  literary 
attainments  of  the  Scottish  clergy  prior  to  the  Reformation. 
Some  have  maintained  they  were  grossly  ignorant,  others  that 
they  were,  compared  with  the  age  in  which  they  lived,  well- 
educated  and  intelligent.  The  difference  of  opinion  has  arisen 
from  trying  them  by  different  standards,  and  having  regard  to 
different  departments  of  literature.  It  must  be  conceded  that 
in  general  they  were  ignorant  of  the  contents  of  the  Bible,  and 
probably  many  of  them  had  never  once  seen  a  copy  of  it. 
Luther  was  upwards  of  twenty,  and  in  the  convent  of  Erfurth, 
before  he  knew  anything  of  the  Scriptures  ;  there  he  found  a 

1  Fronde's  History,  chap,  xxxiii. 

2  Sadler's  State  Papers,  &c.,  vol.  i.  p.  31. 


2o8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

copy  fastened  by  a  chain,  and  began  to  study  it.  The  Church 
had  substituted  the  missal  and  breviary  in  the  place  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  hundreds  of  the  clergy  knew  only  so  much  of 
the  sacred  oracles  as  were  contained  in  these  compilations. 
But  it  would  be  wrong  to  infer  from  this  that  they  were  ignor- 
ant of  all  theology.  Unacquainted  with  the  theology  of  the 
psalter,  the  gospels,  and  epistolary,  they  were  versed  in  the 
theology  of  the  missal,  the  pontifical,  and  the  Hours  of  the 
blessed  Virgin.  Their  text-books  of  divinity  were  different 
from  ours,  but  their  text-books  they  had.  Their  knowledge, 
like  their  faith,  was  that  of  the  time. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  printing  had  not  been  long 
invented,  and  that  books  were  still  scarce,  so  that  the  acquire- 
ments of  the  ecclesiastics  must  in  general  have  been  confined 
within  a  narrow  circle.  The  libraries  of  the  monasteries, 
the  only  ones  then  in  existence,  were  accounted  rich  if  they 
contained  a  hundred  volumes.1  Nevertheless,  many  of  our 
ancient  clergy  were  well  read  in  the  scholastic  and  patristic 
divinity,  and  some  of  them  had  extended  their  acquaintance  to 
the  Latin  classics.  Every  age  produced  authors  of  whom  we 
need  not  be  ashamed ;  and  the  Reformation  found  Lesley 
Official  of  Aberdeen,  whose  history  of  Scottish  affairs  does 
honour  to  himself  and  his  order.  The  same  period  produced 
the  classical  Buchanan,  and  the  Admirable  Crichton,  who 
astonished  half  the  courts  and  universities  of  Europe  by  his 
learning  and  his  logic.  It  may  be  safely  concluded  that  the 
clergy  in  general  were  acquainted  with  the  Latin  tongue,  and 
that  many  of  them  were  able  to  write  it  and  speak  it  with  ease. 
The  whole  services  of  the  Church  were  conducted  in  Latin, 
the  whole  literature  of  the  day  was  contained  in  Latin,  and 
therefore  they  must  have  known  Latin  if  they  knew  anything. 
If  we  go  beyond  professional  acquirements,  and  inquire  into 
the  general  intelligence  of  the  body,  we  shall  find  reason  to 
believe  that  they  were  still,  as  a  whole,  the  best  educated  and 

1  In  the  Priory  of  Lochleven  there  were  but  seventeen  volumes.  In  the 
library  of  Glasgow  Cathedral  in  1432,  we  find  the  following  catalogue  of 
books: — I  missale,  9  missalia  ;  1  epistolare  ;  1  catholicon  ;  2  legenda 
sanctorum  ;  I  biblia  pulchra  ;  7  breviaria  ;  5  psalteria  ;  7  antiphonaria  ; 
3  gradalia  ;  5  processionaria  ;  I  collectarium  ;  1  ordinarium  ;  2  libri  pon- 
tificates ;  and  a  few  others.  These,  we  are  told,  were  distinguished  by 
their  colour,  their  size,  the  number  of  their  volumes,  or  the  place  where 
they  were  deposited,  some  being  chained  to  stalls  or  beside  altars,  and 
others  preserved  in  chests  or  presses.  See  Introduction  to  Breviary  of 
Aberdeen,  Maitland  Club  Ed. 


CHAP.  IX.]       LITERARY  ATTAINMENTS  OF  THE  CLERGY.  20Q 

most  intelligent  portion  of  the  community.  It  was  this  that 
enabled  them  so  long  to  keep  their  ground.  To  try  them  by 
the  present  standard  of  intelligence  were  unfair ;  we  must  try 
them  by  the  standard  which  then  existed,  we  must  compare 
them  with  the  age  in  which  they  lived.  A  school-boy  in  the 
nineteenth  century  may  know  more  than  a  doctor  of  divinity 
in  the  sixteenth,  and  yet  that  doctor  have  been  perfectly  worthy 
of  his  degree.  "  To  be  plain  with  you/'  says  Sir  Ralph  Sadler, 
in  a  letter  to  a  member  of  the  English  Privy  Council,  "  though 
they  (the  Scottish  nobles)  be  well-minded,  and  diverse  others 
also  that  be  of  the  Council  and  about  the  king,  yet  I  see  none 
amongst  them  that  hath  any  such  agility  of  wit,  gravity,  learn- 
ing, or  experience  to  set  forth  the  same,  or  to  take  in  hand  the 
direction  of  things.  So  that  the  king,  as  far  as  I  can  perceive, 
is  of  force  driven  to  use  the  bishops,  and  his  clergy  as  his  only 
ministers  for  the  direction  of  his  realm.  They  be  the  men  of  art 
and  policy  that  I  see  here;  they  be  never  out  of  the  king's  ear."1 
But  even  though  this  be  the  testimony  of  an  enemy,  we 
must  take  it  with  some  qualification,  and  regard  it  as  chiefly 
applicable  to  the  higher  clergy,  whose  abilities  procured  them 
employment  at  court.  There  were  prodigious  disparities  in 
the  Roman  Church,  from  the  lordly  prelate  who  rode  to  parlia- 
ment on  his  ambling  mule,  to  the  starvling  of  a  priest  who 
mumbled  obits  and  masses  for  forty  merks  a  year.  This  dis- 
parity in  rank  produced  a  corresponding  disparity  in  intelli- 
gence. The  beneficed  clergy,  and  the  heads  of  the  Religious 
Houses,  generally  belonged  to  good  families,  and  frequently 
had  the  benefit  of  a  foreign  education.  The  monks,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  mostly  taken  from  the  peasantry,  and,  as  a 
general  rule,  had  only  such  a  scanty  acquaintance  with  letters 
as  they  could  acquire  at  the  conventual  school.  Some  of 
them  could  not  read  with  fluency  and  ease.2  Before  the 
invention  of  printing  the  most  slender  intellectual  acquire- 
ments, the  ability  to  con  a  lesson  or  wield  a  pen,  placed  a  wide 
gulph  between  the  clergy  who  could  perform  these  literary 
feats  and  the  laity  who  could  not.    But  the  introduction  of  this 

1  Sadler's  State  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  47. 

2  In  proof  of  this  there  are  not  only  the  two  satirical  lines — 

4i  Ane  carell  whilk  was  never  at  the  scule."    (Lyndsay,  quoted  p.  204),  and 
"  The  curate  his  creid  he  could  not  reid."     (quoted  p.  217), 

but  the  Canon  of  the  Council  (quoted  p.  253)  enjoining  the  clergy  to 
practise  reading,  and  ordaining  that  those  who  could  not  go  so  and  were 
under  fifty  should  go  to  school  and  learn.  The  abuse  of  patronage 
created  the  evil. 

VOL.   I.  O 


2IO  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

marvellous  art  bridged  over  the  gulph,  by  spreading  education 
among  the  nobles,  the  barons,  and  the  wealthier  burgesses. 
To  read  and  write  was  no  longer  a  marvel.  The  clergy  did 
not  push  on  and  maintain  their  distance ;  and  the  sceptre 
which  superior  knowledge  had  placed  in  their  hand  departed 
from  them.  In  a  council  which  met  under  the  presidency  of 
Archbishop  Hamilton  in  1549,  the  growth  of  heresy  is  imputed 
to  the  dissolute  lives  of  the  clergy,  and  their  gross  ignorance 
in  all  arts  and  sciences.1 

The  clergy  were  chiefly  supported  by  their  lands  and  tithes. 
They  held  their  lands  by  the  same  titles  as  the  lay  proprietors  ; 
and  though  some  envied  them  their  large  possessions  it  was 
only  as  some  now  envy  the  broad  territories  of  the  overgrown 
nobility.  The  wealth  they  had  acquired  by  private  bequests 
did  not  entail  any  burden  on  the  general  community  ;  while 
the  Church's  tenants  were  notoriously  the  most  lightly  rented 
in  the  whole  country.  Sir  Richard  Maitland,  in  one  of  his 
poems,  pours  forth  a  lament  upon  the  change  which  was  felt 
when  the  lands  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  temporal  lords.2 
One  should  imagine  that  the  lifting  of  the  tithes  must  have 
been  felt  as  a  grievance,  extending  as  they  did  to  every  con- 
ceivable kind  of  produce —grain,  wool,  milk,  cheese,  eggs, 
venison,  fish,  the  young  of  animals,  the  multure  of  mills,  the 
fruit  of  trees,  the  clearings  of  wood,  &c,  &c.3  But  Lyndsay, 
who  rakes  together  every  known  grievance  in  his  Satire,  says  little 
of  this,  so  that  we  may  conclude  the  tenantry  had  come  to  regard 
it  as  a  part  of  their  rent,  and  probably,  so  long  as  religious 

1  Hailes's  Provincial  Councils.     Robertson's  Concilia,  Pref.  cxlix. 

2  "  Sum  with  deir  ferme  are  herreit  hail, 

That  wount  to  pay  but  penny  maill ; 

Sum  be  thar  lordis  are  opprest, 

Put  fra  the  land  that  they  possest  ; 
*  *  *  *  * 

Sum  commouns  that  has  been  weil  stakit 
Under  kirkmen,  are  now  all  wrakit, 
Sen  that  the  teind  and  the  kirklands 
Came  in  great  tempiral  mennis  hands,"  Sec. ,  &c. 
Complaint  againis  Oppression  of  the  Commou/is — Maitland's  Poems. 
Maitland  is  borne  out  by  the  First  Book  of  Discipline.      "With  the 
griefe  of  our  hearts  we  heare,  that  some  gentlemen  are  now  as  cruell  over 
their  tenants  as  ever  were  the  papists,  requiring  of  them  the  teinds,  and 
whatsoever  they  afore  paid  to  the  Kirk,  so  that  the  papistical  tyranny  shall 
only  be  changed  into  the  tyranny  of  the  lord  and  laird."     (Chap,  viii., 
sect,  ii.) 

3  Connel  on  Tithes,  vol.  iii.  pp.  17,  18 — where  will  be  found  a  number 
of  extracts  from  the  Canons  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  regarding  tithes. 


CHAR  IX.]  THE  CORSE  PRESENT.  211 

unanimity  prevailed,  felt  a  devout  gratification  in  contributing 
to  the  maintenance  of  their  ghostly  fathers. 

But  there  was  another  exaction  which  was  universally  felt  as 
a  hardship,  and  we  cannot  wonder  that  it  was  so.  It  was 
called  the  corse  present  When  death  visited  a  family,  the 
violence  of  grief  was  scarcely  allowed  to  subside,  till  the 
parson  came,  and  carried  off  the  best  cow  and  the  "  uppermost 
cloth."1  When  deprived  of  her  husband,  a  widow  might 
thus  be  robbed  of  her  only  remaining  means  of  support. 
Lyndsay,  in  his  play,  introduces  a  poor  man  who  has  been 
bereaved  successively  of  his  father,  his  mother,  and  his  wife, 
and  who  complains  that  on  each  occasion  the  vicar  had  driven 
away  a  cow  ;  and  to  complete  his  misfortunes,  the  landlord 
had  seized  the  grey  mare,  which  brought  a  foal  every  year 
and  carried  coals  to  Edinburgh,  as  his  heryeild,  or  fine  on 
the  death  of  a  vassal;  and  now  he  had  neither  cow  nor 
mare,  and  was  bent  on  feeing  counsel  with  his  only  remaining 
groat,  and  seeking  remede  at  law.  He  was  told,  however,  that 
he  was  a  mad  fool  to  think  he  would  get  redress  against 
churchmen,  or  that  he  could  escape  an  extortion,  which, 
though  not  founded  on  law,  could  plead  a  long  consuetude. 

There  was  yet  another  way  in  which  money  was  raised — by 
the  sale  of  indulgences  and  of  relics.  The  Pardoner  perambu- 
lated the  country  like  a  hawker,  selling  his  sealed  indulgences 
and  his  mouldy  bones  to  those  who  were  simple  enough  to  buy 
them.  There  were  also  clerke-maile,  teindale,  Candlemas  offer- 
ings, Pasche  offerings,  fees  for  baptism  and  the  burial  of  the 
dead,  and  the  rich  harvest  which  accrued  for  saying  masses  for 
souls  in  purgatory.  In  addition  to  all  these  sources  of  revenue, 
there  was  the  mendicancy  of  the  mendicant  friars,  and  the 
plenty  in  which  they  lived  proved  that  they  did  not  beg  in  vain. 

Such,  as  near  as  we  can  gather,  was  the  state  of  the  Church 
when  it  became  evident  to  many  that  a  great  religious  revolu- 
tion was  approaching.  Many  causes  were  concurring  to  hasten 
it.  Ever  since  the  days  of  Wickliff,  there  were  men  who, 
without  separating  from  the  membership  of  the  Church,  saw 
and  grieved  over  its  abuses,  and  yearned  for  a  return  to  the 
simplicity  of  primitive  Christianity.  The  seed  was  in  the  soil, 
and  waited  only  a  favourable  season  to  germinate.  The  Refor- 
mation in  Germany  awakened  ideas  in  Scotland  which  pointed 

1  The  uppermost  cloth  seems  to  refer  to  the  coverlet  of  the  bed  ;  but 
what  the  parson  could  do  with  his  accumulation  of  coverlets  is  a  mystery 
and  a  marvel.     The  custom  was  not  confined  to  Scotland. 


2  12  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

to  reformation  too.  Communities  strongly  sympathise  with 
each  other,  especially  in  periods  of  excitement.  The  throbbings 
of  one  heart  pulsate  throughout  the  whole  system.  Every 
vessel  that  crossed  the  German  Sea  brought  the  contagion  of 
German  heresy  to  our  shores,  for  every  vessel  brought  Bibles, 
theses,  sermons,  the  "  Praise  of  Folly  "  from  the  witty  pen  of 
Erasmus,  or  the  "  Confession  of  Augsburg"  from  the  mild  pen 
of  Melancthon.  The  Reformation  in  England  had  a  still  more 
decided  influence  upon  Scotland.1  Henry  used  every  means, 
both  fair  and  foul,  to  induce  the  Scottish  nation  to  copy  the  ex- 
ample he  had  set.  He  tempted  our  needy  king  with  the  pros- 
pect of  enjoying  the  plunder  of  the  Church,  and  he  kept  our  still 
more  needy  nobles  in  his  pay.  While  Angus,  Cassillis,  and  Glen- 
cairn  were  in  England,  they  had  seen  private  gentlemen  become 
great  lords,  and  great  lords  become  greater  still,  through  their 
share  of  monastic  spoil ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  doubt,  from 
their  conduct,  that  their  avarice  prepared  their  minds  for  the 
reception  of  the  principles  of  the  Reformation.  In  tracing  a 
great  politico-religious  movement  like  this,  it  is  strange  to 
remark  how  the  base  mingles  with  the  noble,  and  vice  leagues 
herself  with  virtue,  and  how  God  overrules  all — making  the 
very  wrath,  and  selfishness,  and  sins  of  men  to  praise  him. 

Amongst  the  agencies  employed  to  spread  the  Reform 
opinions,  one  of  the  most  effective  was  poetry.  The  power  of 
poetry  upon  a  primitive  people  has  passed  into  a  proverb ;  and 
modern  poetry  had  no  sooner  sprung  into  existence  than  she 
began  to  rail  against  the  clergy  and  the  Church.  Dante 
boldly  placed  a  pope  in  hell,  and  represented  Satan  as  im- 
patiently waiting  the  arrival  of  another.  Chaucer  let  loose  all 
his  powers  of  laughter  against  the  monks  and  friars,  and  his 
poetry  was  read  and  praised,  while  sermons  not  half  so 
damaging  would  have  been  burned.  Dunbar,  though  himself  an 
ecclesiastic,  did  not  refrain  from  satirising  ecclesiastical  abuses. 
In  some  of  his  minor  poems  he  attacks  the  prevalence  of 
pluralities,  and  the  character  of  those  who  obtained  Church 
preferments  ;  and  though  envy  and  disappointment  sharpened 
his  shafts,  it  is  evident  they  were  aimed  at  actual  objects. 
In  his  "  Friars  of  Berwick  "  we  have  a  ludicrous  tale  of  a  holy 
abbot  who  was  too  intimate  with  a  farmer's  wife,  the  exquisite 
humour  of  which  must  have  been  keenly  relished  by  a  genera- 
tion disposed  to  enjoy  a  joke  at  delinquent  churchmen. 

1  In  Sage's  Charter  of  Presbytery  this  influence  is  traced  with  great 
labour  and  learning,  and  we  now  know  more  than  Sage  did. 


chap,  ix.]  lyndsay's  poems.  213 

But  Sir  David  Lyndsay  of  the  Mount,  though  inferior  to 
Dunbar  as  a  poet,  was  the  great  scourge  of  the  Roman  clergy. 
In  almost  every  one  of  his  poems  he  has  either  some  sly  hit 
or  some  fierce  assault  upon  them.  His  "  Complaint  of  the 
Papingo,"  "  Kitty's  Confession/'  and  his  "  Satire  on  the  Three 
Estates,"  were  specially  written  to  turn  into  ridicule  and  bring 
into  disgrace  the  whole  order.  The  king's  papingo  or  parrot 
has  fallen  from  the  top  branch  of  a  tree  and  is  dying.  Instantly 
she  is  surrounded  by  the  pye — a  canon  regular,  the  raven — a 
black  monk,  and  the  gled — a  holy  friar.  They  bewail  her 
misfortune,  press  upon  her  the  need  of  confession,  and  suggest 
she  should  leave  all  her  goods  to  their  care,  that  masses  may 
be  said  for  her  soul  after  she  is  gone.  But  the  papingo  has 
still  enough  of  strength  left  to  read  them  a  long  lecture  upon 
the  decline  of  the  Church,  and  upon  their  greed,  idleness, 
sensuality,  and  other  sins.  They,  however,  persuade  her  in 
the  end  to  allow  herself  to  be  shrived,  and  to  consign  her  body 
and  property  to  their  charge,  and  then  before  she  is  well  dead 
they  fall  out  among  themselves  about  the  division  of  the  spoil. 
In  "  Kitty's  Confession "  we  have  a  dialogue  between  the 
curate  and  a  country  girl  at  the  confessional.  She  acknow- 
ledges herself  to  have  violated  more  than  one  of  the  command- 
ments, and  when  asked  about  heresy,  she  ingenuously  confesses 
she  did  not  know  what  it  meant.  But  when  further  pressed 
if  she  had  ever  seen  any  English  books,  she  acknowledged 
she  had  seen  her  master  reading  some ;  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  but  that  it  was  Tyndale's  Translation  of  the  new  Testa- 
ment that  was  referred  to.  The  curate  finally  tells  her  she 
must  come  to  his  house  in  the  evening  in  order  to  be  absolved. 
"  Kitty's  Confession  "  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  in 
1 541,  just  previous  to  the  passing  of  Lord  Maxwell's  Act 
allowing  the  Bible  to  be  read  in  the  vulgar  tongue.  The 
"  Satire  on  the  Three  Estates "  is  a  kind  of  play,  and  was 
evidently  modelled  after  the  Mysteries  or  Moralities  which 
were  acted  in  the  Papal  Church.  The  vices  of  all  the  Estates, 
and  more  especially  of  the  spiritual,  are  mercilessly  exposed  and 
ridiculed  ;  but  King  Correction  in  the  end  promises  a  thorough 
reformation,  and  after  a  discourse  by  one  of  the  new  doctors  of 
divinity,  Common  Thief,  Deceit,  and  Falsehood  are  hanged. 

This  celebrated  satirical  comedy  was  first  acted  at  Cupar- 
Fife,  in  1535  ;  afterwards  in  the  playfield  at  Linlithgow,  by  the 
express  command  of  the  king,  on  the  day  of  Epiphany  1540  : 
and  a  third  time  near  Edinburgh,  in  1554,  in  presence  of  the 


214  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

queen-regent,  the  nobility,  and  a  great  concourse  of  people. 
The  student  now  reads  the  play  quietly  in  his  closet,  and  he 
finds  in  it  enough  of  pungent  satire  to  reward  his  pains  ;  but  he 
also  meets  with  passages  which  make  him  marvel  how  it  was 
possible  that  such  words  could  be  spoken,  and  such  scenes  repre- 
sented, in  the  presence  of  the  young  Mary  of  Guise,  her  maids 
of  honour,  and  a  mixed  assemblage  of  princes,  prelates,  and 
nobles.  It  is  too  evident  there  must  have  been  at  the  period 
a  coarseness  of  sentiment,  language,  and  manners  among  our 
highest  classes  which  are  now  scarcely  to  be  found  amongst 
our  lowest.  In  truth,  such  a  representation  would  not  now  be 
tolerated  by  the  lowest  rabble  in  the  lowest  theatre. 

But  it  is  still  more  marvellous  that  a  play,  specially  designed 
to  degrade  the  clergy,  by  heaping  upon  them  all  possible 
calumnies,  should  have  been  tolerated  at  such  a  time,  and 
acted  in  the  presence  of  a  monarch  understood  to  be  favourable 
to  the  Established  Church.  The  most  obvious  explanation  is, 
that  it  was  written  and  acted  at  the  request  of  the  king,  in 
order  to  lead  to  the  reformation  of  the  clergy,  by  setting  their 
sins  before  their  eyes, — and  probably  to  prepare  them  for  some 
legislative  measures  which  he  contemplated.  Government 
measures  are  now  sometimes  heralded  by  a  leader  in  the 
"Times"  or  an  article  in  the  "  Edinburgh  Review;"  and 
though  James  had  no  such  organ  at  his  disposal,  he  had  the 
poetic  genius  of  the  Lyon-King.  Lyndsay  entered  into  the 
service  of  James  on  the  day  of  his  nativity.  He  was  his  prin- 
cipal page,  his  sewer,  cupbearer,  carver,  treasurer,  and  chief 
cubicular, — an  office  which  consisted  in  keeping  the  bed- 
clothes comfortably  about  the  prince,  and  sleeping  by  his  side. 
As  James  grew  older,  it  was  Lyndsay's  duty  to  amuse  him  by 
bearing  him  on  his  back,  making  all  kinds  of  antics,  counter- 
feiting all  kinds  of  beasts,  and  singing  all  kinds  of  songs.1  In 
this  way  did  the  prince  grow  up  under  the  eye  of  the  poet  till 
he  was  twelve  years  of  age,  and  we  know  that  he  ever  after- 
wards regarded  him  with  affection.  What  more  likely  than  that 
he  should  request  him  to  satirize  the  clergy.  James  was  not 
blind  to  their  vices ;  he  was  bent  on  their  reform.  He  wished  to 
purify  the  Church,  though  he  wished  to  preserve  it.  We  know 
he  employed  his  tutor,  Buchanan,  to  lampoon  the  Franciscans  ; 
how  much  more  likely  that  he  should  ask  Lyndsay  to  lampoon 
the  whole  ecclesiastical  body.     We  may  be  certain  that  the 

1  We  have  all  this  very  pleasantly  described  in  his  Dreme,  and  also  in 
his  Complaynt. 


CHAP.  IX.]  METAMORPHOSIS  OF  PROFANE  SONGS.  21  5 

lyon-king  would  not  have  written  what  he  did  without  knowing 
that  it  would  find  favour  with  his  Majesty.  He  was  too  fond 
of  his  places  and  pensions  to  do  otherwise.  The  whole  design 
becomes  more  apparent  when  we  find  that  immediately  after 
the  play  the  king  sent  for  some  of  the  higher  clergy  and  thus 
addressed  them  : — "  Wherefore  did  my  predecessors  give  so 
many  lands  and  rents  to  the  kirk?  Was  it  to  maintain  hawks, 
dogs,  and  whores  to  you  idle  priests  ?  The  King  of  England 
burns,  the  King  of  Denmark  beheads  you  ;  but  I  shall  stick 
you  with  this  whinger.  Mend  your  ways,  or  I  will  send  six  of 
the  proudest  of  you  to  England."1  The  whole  thing,  includ- 
ing this  afterpiece,  had  evidently  been  preconcerted  ;  and  it 
heightens  our  ideas  of  the  prudence  and  policy  of  the  king  to 
find  him  thus  anxious,  by  the  powers  of  satire,  to  correct 
ecclesiastical  abuses,  and  gently  prepare  the  way  for  a  change. 
John  Wesley  thought  it  was  a  pity  that  the  devil  should  have 
all  the  best  tunes,  and  accordingly  he  had  his  Methodist  hymns 
set  to  some  of  those  exquisite  melodies  which  had  hitherto 
been  wedded  to  words  of  profane  meaning.  The  Scottish 
Reformers  must  have  cherished  a  similar  sentiment  when  they 
compiled  their  "  Compendious  Booke  of  Godly  and  Spirituali 
Songs,  collected  out  of  sundrie  partes  of  the  Scripture,  with 
Sundrie  of  other  Ballates  changed  out  of  Prophaine  Sangis  for 
avoyding  of  sin  and  harlotrie."2  The  Romish  priesthood  are 
said,  by  a  little  change  in  the  drapery,  to  have  converted  Pagan 
deities  into  Christian  apostles.  Our  forefathers  exhibited  an 
equal  ingenuity  when,  by  a  little  change  in  the  words,  they 
converted  these  profane  ballads  into  spiritual  songs.  Who  was 
the  alchymist  who  thus  transmuted  dirt  into  gold  cannot  now 
be  discovered  ;  but  these  singular  productions  are  said  to  have 
been  sung  with  enthusiasm  by  our  ancestors,  and  to  have 
spread  amongst  a  people  who  could  sing,  but  could  not  read, 
Reformation  ideas.  Their  spirit  proves  their  epoch.  They 
breath  a  fierce  hostility  against  the  Romish  idolatry,  expose 
the  vices  of  the  clergy,  inveigh  against  the  pope,  the  cardinal, 
and  the  queen-regent,  complain  of  cruel  usage  and  violated 
treaties,  and  in  many  ways  point  to  the  period  immediately 
preceding  the  Reformation.  The  Roman  clergy  were  not  slow 
to  retaliate;  and  in  this  case  they  retaliated  in  a  legitimate  way. 

1  Sir  James  Melville's  Memoirs,  pp.  63,  64.  Sir  William  Eure  in  a  letter 
to  the  Lord  Privy  Seal  of  England  tells  the  same  story,  though  slightly 
different.     Knox  also  relates  it. 

-  These  were  republished  in  1801  by  John  Graham  Dalzell,  advocate. 


2 1 6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  IX. 

A  ballad  ridiculing  the  Protestant  faith,  and  the  English  for 
embracing  it,  was  in  wide  circulation,  and  some  poetic  parson 
was  reputed  to  be  its  author.1  The  Scottish  nobles,  who  had 
sold  themselves  to  Henry,  were  celebrated  in  song  as  having 
been  seduced  by  English  angels.2  Knox  himself  informs  us 
that  a  servant  of  the  Bishop  of  Dunkeld  wrote  a  "  despiteful 
railing  ballad  against  the  governor  and  the  preachers,  for  which 
he  narrowly  escaped  hanging.3 

These  metamorphosed  ballads,  which,  from  all  accounts, 
had  such  an  influence  in  fanning  the  devotional  feelings  of  our 
fathers,  would  now  be  regarded  as  nothing  but  parodies.4  But 
though  these  rhymes  were  rude  and  appear  to  us  ridiculous, 
our  reforming  ancestors  sung  them  with  enthusiasm  by 
their  firesides,  and  preferred  them  to  the  noble  litanies  of 
the  Roman  Church,  because  they  understood  them.  It  were 
wrong  to  disparage  their  piety,  though  we  may  laugh  at  their 
poetry.  Deep  feelings  may  find  vent  in  odd  utterances.  But 
beside  these  hymns  there  was  already  in  existence  a  translation 
of  many  of  the  psalms,  and  one  of  these  Wishart  sung  with  the 

1  Letter  from  Sir  Thomas  Wharton  to  the  Lord  Privy  Seal  of  England, 
23d  December  1540,  quoted  in  Dalzell's  Cursory  Remarks. 

2  "The  Earl  of  Glencairn  prayed  me,"  says  Sadler  to  Henry  VIII.,  "to 
write  to  your  Majesty  and  to  beseech  the  same  for  the  passion  of  God,  to 
encourage  them  so  much  as  to  give  them  trust,  for  they  were  already 
commonly  hated  here,  for  your  Majesty's  sake,  and  throughout  the  realm 
called  the  English  lords  ;  and  such  ballads  and  songs  made  of  them,  how 
the  English  angels  (coins)  had  corrupted  them,  as  have  not  been  heard." 
(Sadler's  State  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  167.) 

3  Knox's  History,  book  i. 

4  A  few  specimens  will  illustrate  the  religious  taste  of  the  times.  There 
is  one  which  shows  the  antiquity  and  transformations  of  a  song  still 
known  : — 

Quho  is  at  my  windo'?  who?  who? 
Goe  from  my  windo1  ;  goe,  goe, 
Quha  calles  there,  so  like  ane  stranger? 
Goe  from  my  window,  goe. 

Lord  I  am  heir,  ane  wratched  mortall, 
That  for  Thy  mercie  dois  crie  and  call. 
Unto  Thee,  my  Lord  celestiall, 
See  who  is  at  my  window,  who,  &c,  &c. 

This  was  understood  to  be  purely  devotional,  but  there  were  others  which 
breathed  a  spirit  of  defiance  to  Rome. 

The  Paip,  that  pagane  full  of  pryd, 

Hee  hes  us  blinded  lang  ;  _ 

For  where  the  blind  the  blind  doe  gyde, 

No  wonder  both  goe  wrang. 

Of  all  iniquitie. 

Like  prince  and  king,  hee  led  the  ring. 

Hay  trix,  trim  goe  trix,  under  the  green-wode-tree. . 


CHAP.  IX.]  REFORMATION  BALLADS.  2 1 7 

household  of  Ormiston  before  retiring  to  rest  on  the  night  on 
which  he  was  seized.  In  general  they  adhere  pretty  closely  to 
the  sense  of  the  original,  but  the  versification  is  rough,  and 
the  language  uncouth,  although  in  some  instances  we  have 
sentiments  expressed  with  peculiar  felicity. 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  what  proportion  of  the  nation 
had  embraced  Protestantism  before  it  was  established  by  law. 
The  first  proselytes  must  have  been  among  the  priesthood  and 
the  upper  classes.  The  great  mass  of  the  people  could  not 
read,  and  must  have  been  grossly  ignorant  of  all  religion.  The 
Church- service  was  mumbled  in  an  unknown  tongue,  and  their 
few  ideas  about  Christianity  must  have  been  inherited  from 
their  parents,  derived  from  pictures,  or  picked  up  from  the 
conversation  of  the  parson,  or  the  sermons  of  the  friars.  It 
must  be  confessed  that  though  the  Bible  had  been  all  along 
allowed  to  the  people,  Bibles  could  not  have  been  got,  and 
though  they  had  been  got,  there  would  have  been  few  able  to 
read  them.  Printing  not  only  created  books,  but  it  gradually 
created  a  reading  population.  We  need  not  wonder  that  the 
first  and  most  urgent  cry  of  the  people  when  light  began  to 
dawn  upon  them  was  for  preachers.  They  would  have  every 
bishop  and  parson  preach.     It  was  thus  only  they  could  learn. 

The  blind  bishop  he  could  not  preich 

For  playing  with  the  lassis; 

The  silly  frier  behuifit  to  sleech 

For  almous  that  he  assis  ; 

The  curate  his  creid  he  could  not  reid, 

Shame  fall  the  company. 

Hay  trix,  trim  goe  trix,  &c,  &c. 

Of  Scotland  well  the  friers  of  Faill, 
The  limmery  lang  has  lastit, 
The  monks  of  Melrose  made  gude  kaill, 
On  Fryday  quhen  they  fastit,  <&c,  &c. 

The  following  is  in  a  more  playful  spirit  :  — 

God  send  every  priest  ane  wife, 
And  every  nunne  a  man, 
That  they  may  live  that  haly  life, 
As  first  the  kirk  began. 

Sanct  Peter,  quhom  none  can  reprufe, 
His  life  in  mariage  led  ; 
All  gude  priests  quhom  God  did  lufe, 
Thair  maryit  wyfes  Lad,  &c,  &c. 

So  great  was  the  influence  of  these  ballads  that  the  clergy  framed  a  canon, 
ordaining  every  ordinary  to  search  his  diocese  for  books  of  rhymes  or 
ballads  scandalizing  the  clergy  or  the  Church  ;  and  in  the  fifth  parliament 
of  Mary  an  act  was  passed  against  printers  printing  "books  concerning  the 
faith,  ballads,  songs,  blasphemations,  rhymes,  as  well  of  Churchmen  as 
temporal,  and  others,  tragedies,"  &c,  &c. 


2l8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  IX. 

Incapable  of  reading,  and  without  books  to  read,  they  could 
yet  listen,  and  from  the  living  voice  of  the  preacher  acquire 
knowledge.  The  Reformers  supplied  the  want,  and  by  doing 
so  overturned  the  papacy. 

It  will  at  once  be  understood  that  the  first  proselytes  to 
Protestantism  could  not  be  from  such  an  ignorant  population 
— a  population  that  scarcely  knew  their  right  hand  from  their 
left.  Accordingly  all  the  early  converts  whose  names  have 
been  recorded  belonged  either  to  the  sacerdotal  or  the  aristo- 
cratic caste.  Almost  all  the  nobles  who  were  taken  prisoners 
at  the  Solway  Moss  returned  Protestants  ;  and  in  an  age  when 
feudalism  was  still  strong,  the  faith  of  the  lord  would  naturally 
become  the  faith  of  the  retainer.  But  though  the  Reformed 
opinions  were  gradually  spreading,  as  the  acts  of  the  parliament 
regarding  heresy  prove,  still  it  is  probable  that  even  so  late  as 
1545  the  bulk  of  the  people  continued  attached  to  the  ancient 
faith.  Protestantism  had  allied  itself  with  Henry  and  Eng- 
land, and  Henry  and  England  were  regarded  with  bitter  hatred 
by  almost  every  Scotchman,  excepting  the  few  who  had  been 
seduced,  as  the  taunt  went,  by  the  English  angels.  At  the 
time  when  Cardinal  Beaton  was  assassinated,  it  is  evident  that 
all  St  Andrews  was  devoted  to  him.  Knox  speaks  of  Edin- 
burgh about  the  same  period  as  being  drowned  in  supersti- 
tion.1 

But  during  the  next  fifteen  years  it  is  certain  the  Protes- 
tant opinions  made  great  and  rapid  progress  among  all  classes 
of  people.  During  the  same  period  there  was  also  a  change  in 
the  popular  feelings  in  regard  to  England.  The  rout  of  the 
Solway  and  the  slaughter  of  Pinkie  were  forgotten  ;  the  pre- 
sence of  French  garrisons  in  different  parts  of  the  country  had 
led  to  jealousies  and  disputes ;  it  was  felt  hurtful  to  the 
national  pride  to  see  foreign  troops  employed  to  preserve  peace 
and  punish  disorders,  and  the  populace  began  to  clamour  as 
anxiously  for  their  removal  as  they  had  a  few  years  before 
cried  for  their  help.  Protestantism  and  England  now  rose  to 
the  ascendant.  The  great  crowds  who  attended  the  sermons 
of  the  Reformers,  the  mobs  who  attacked  and  demolished  the 
monuments  of  idolatry,  incline  us  to  believe  that  when  the 
Protestant  confession  was  accepted  by  the  parliament,  it  had 
already  become  the  creed  of  the  majority  of  the  nation. 

We  have  thus  viewed  the  Roman  Church  in  our  country 
before  its  fall,  and  we  shall  confess  that  we  have  viewed  it  with 

1  History,  book  i. 


A.D.  1546.]  HAMILTON  SUCCEEDS  BEATON.  219 

feelings  in  which  exultation  has  been  softened  by  sadness  ;  we 
have  viewed  it  as  we  would  a  great  though  wicked  city,  be- 
leaguered by  armies,  with  its  bulwarks  already  undermined,  and 
a  whole  park  of  artillery  pointed  against  its  palaces,  ready  with 
the  morrow's  sun  to  vomit  forth  fire,  destruction,  and  death. 


CHAPTER     X. 

The  murder  of  Beaton  made  way  for  the  promotion  of  Hamil- 
ton, Bishop  of  Dunkeld  and  Abbot  of  Paisley,  to  the  primacy. 
He  was  nominated  to  the  archbishopric  by  his  brother  the 
governor,  elected  by  the  canons,  and  readily  confirmed  by  the 
Pope.  But  it  was  not  so  easy  for  him  to  get  possession  of  his 
archiepiscopal  castle.  The  conspirators  who  held  it  welcomed 
within  its  walls  all  who  were  in  danger  of  their  lives  from  their 
disaffection  to  the  government  or  their  favour  for  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  and  it  was  soon  sufficiently  garrisoned  by  a  band  of  de- 
termined men,  who  bid  defiance  to  all  Scotland.  In  the  month 
of  June,  a  summons  was  issued  against  the  assassins,  to  which 
the  Earl  of  Huntly,  the  new  chancellor,  appended  the  great 
seal.  In  the  month  following,  after  some  ineffectual  attempts 
at  negotiation,  the  parliament,  upon  their  non-appearance,  de- 
clared them  guilty  of  treason,  and  preparations  were  made  for 
laying  siege  to  their  stronghold.1  But  the  governor  was  utterly 
destitute  of  military  vigour ;  though  artillery  was  in  use, 
Scotchmen  had  not  yet  learned  how  to  employ  it  with  skill 
and  effect,  and  after  several  months  of  idle  effort,  little  or  no 
progress  was  made  towards  reducing  the  fortress. 

The  hopes  of  the  besieged  were  centred  in  England  ;  and 
as  the  sea  was  open  to  them,  they  despatched  Kirkaldy  of 
Grange,  John  Leslie,  and  Balnaves  to  Henry  VIII.,  to  solicit 
his  assistance.  Notwithstanding  that  the  kingdoms  were  at 
peace,  Henry  at  once  promised  his  aid,  and  showed  that  he 
was  in  earnest  by  forwarding  both  money  and  victuals  for  the 
garrison.  The  principal  assassins  he  rewarded  with  pensions  ; 
the  Master  of  Rothes  got  ^250,  Kirkaldy  of  Grange  ^200, 
and  others  of  less  note  got  smaller  sums.2     Thus  supported, 

1  Acts  of  the  Scots  Parliament,  1546.  The  Kirkmen  were  to  be 
assessed  for  the  expense  of  the  operations. 

-  Privy  Council  Records,  February  6th  (1547).  Fronde's  History,  vol. 
v.  p.  31. 


2  20  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

they  held  out  till  the  end  of  December,  when  an  armistice  was 
agreed  upon,  in  which  they  consented  to  surrender  the  castle 
on  procuring  a  free  pardon  and  a  papal  absolution  for  the 
slaughter  of  the  cardinal.  This  last  condition  they  insisted 
upon,  not  from  any  respect  they  themselves  had  for  Roman 
favours,  but  because  Churchmen  had  maintained  that  no  par- 
don could  be  binding  for  so  great  a  crime  unless  it  were  backed 
by  an  absolution  from  the  Pope.  It  soon  became  apparent 
that  neither  party  were  in  earnest,  and  that  they  merely  wished 
to  gain  breathing  time.  Arran  had  already  despatched  an 
envoy  to  France,  entreating  its  monarch  to  use  his  influence 
with  Henry  for  the  preservation  of  the  existing  peace  between 
the  kingdoms,  and  to  send  him  without  delay  some  experienced 
engineers  to  assist  in  the  reduction  of  the  castle.  The  con- 
spirators, on  the  other  hand,  despatched  a  messenger  to  Henry, 
declaring  they  had  no  intention  of  abiding  by  the  treaty,  and 
actually  asking  him  to  write  to  the  Emperor  that  he  might  per- 
suade the  Pope  to  refuse  the  absolution.1 

Meanwhile  the  Castilians,  as  the  keepers  of  the  castle  were 
commonly  called,  held  their  fortalice,  but  they  no  longer  con- 
fined themselves  within  its  walls.  They  visited  the  town  and 
the  neighbourhood  ;  and  all  history  declares  that  they  dis- 
graced the  sacred  cause,  of  which  they  professed  to  be  the 
champions,  by  brutal  immorality.  John  Rough,  formerly 
mentioned  as  chaplain  to  the  Regent  Arran  before  he  aposta- 
tized, had  already  sought  refuge  in  the  castle,  and  had  in- 
dignantly denounced  the  outrages  upon  decency  committed  by 
the  garrison  ;  but  it  was  in  vain.  A  man  of  sterner  stuff,  and 
destined  to  play  a  more  conspicuous  part  in  the  history  of  the 
times,  now  appeared  at  St  Andrews,  and  threw  in  his  lot  with 
the  conspirators.      It  was  John  Knox. 

This  remarkable  man,  whose  name  has  so  long  been  a  house- 
hold word  in  Scotland,  was  born  near  the  Nungate  of  Had- 
dington in  J 505.  His  parents  appear  to  have  been  wealthy 
enough  to  give  him  a  learned  education,  and  to  have  early 
destined  him  for  the  Church,  which  was  then  the  only  field  for 
ability  and  ambition.  Having  passed  through  the  grammar 
school  of  Haddington,  he  was  in  1522  matriculated  in  the 
University  of  Glasgow,  where  the  celebrated  John  Mair  was 
then  regent.  He  appears  to  have  taken  priest's  orders  at  an 
early  age,  and  to  have  acted  as  a  notary,  as  many  of  the  clergy 

1  Tytler,  vol.  vi.,  who  quotes  a  MS.  in  the  State-paper  Office. 


A.D.  1547.]  KNOX  JOINS  THE  CONSPIRATORS.  22  1 

then  did;1  but  we  are  almost  entirely  ignorant  of  his  history 
till  we  find  him  in  the  company  of  Wishart  the  martyr,  imme- 
diately before  his  martyrdom.  At  that  time,  and  when  he 
entered  the  Castle  of  St  Andrews,  he  was  acting  as  tutor  to  the 
sons  of  the  Lairds  of  Ormiston  and  Longniddry,  and  had  com- 
pleted his  fortieth  year.  Was  it  these  lairds,  with  their  strong 
English  proclivities,  who  gave  to  Knox's  mind  its  future  bent, 
and  made  their  quiet  tutor  the  greatest  man  of  his  day  ?  Or 
was  it  because  he  was  known  to  hold  similar  sentiments  to 
their  own  that  he  was  admitted  to  their  families,  and  entrusted 
with  the  education  of  their  boys  ?  It  was  a  strong  step  for  the 
obscure  ecclesiastic  to  take — to  join  the  murderers  of  the 
cardinal,  the  desperadoes  who  held  his  castle  against  the  go- 
vernment of  the  country ;  but  he  acted  with  the  approval  of 
his  patrons,  and  carried  his  pupils  along  with  him.  He  says 
he  sought  the  Castle  to  escape  persecution,  and  probably  there 
was  good  cause  for  the  Lairds  of  Ormiston  and  Longniddry 
wishing  to  have  their  boys  in  a  place  of  temporary  safety,  as  the 
former  of  these,  at  least,  was  probably  connected  with  the  con- 
spiracy to  assassinate  the  cardinal. 

During  the  continuance  of  the  truce,  Rough  had  frequently 
preached  in  the  parish  church  of  St  Andrews,  and  having 
uttered  sentiments  opposed  to  the  Established  faith,  Dean 
Annan  entered  the  controversial  lists  with  him.  It  would  ap- 
pear that  Rough  was  scarcely  a  match  for  the  Dean,  for  Knox 
states  that,  though  orthodox,  he  was  not  learned,  and  that 
accordingly  he  saw  it  needful  to  go  to  his  rescue,  and  with  his 
pen  beat  the  papist  from  his  defences.2  This  theological  en- 
counter, and  Knox's  well-known  talents  and  vigour,  led  the 
leading  men  in  the  castle  to  resolve  among  themselves  to  call 
him  to  assume  the  office  of  a  preacher  of  the  Protestant  faith. 
Several  of  them  spoke  to  him  privately  of  the  matter,  but  he 
steadfastly  resisted  their  solicitations,  "  alleging  that  he  would 
not  run  where  God  had  not  called  him,  meaning  that  he  would 
do  nothing  without  a  lawful  vocation."  8  Failing  in  this  way, 
they  resolved  to  try  another. 

One  day  Rough  ascended  the  pulpit  and  preached  a  sermon 
upon  the  election  of  ministers,  of  which  the  chief  argument 
was,  that  a  congregation,  however  small,  had  power,  in  time 

1  In  the  charter  chest  of  Lord  Haddington  there  is  a  document  written 
out  and  signed  by  Knox  in  1543.  He  designs  himself  "Minister  of  the 
Sacred  Altar,  and  Notary  by  Apostolic  Authority." 

-  Knox's  History,  book  i.  '6  Ibid. 


22  2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

of  need,  to  call  any  one  in  whom  they  discerned  the  gifts  of 
God  to  be  their  minister  ;  and  that  it  was  dangerous  in  any 
one  to  refuse  such  a  call.  Having  established  these  principles, 
he  suddenly  turned  to  Knox,  who  was  present,  and  said  : — 
"  Brother,  ye  shall  not  be  offended,  although  that  I  speak 
unto  you  that  which  I  have  in  charge,  even  from  all  those 
that  are  here  present,  which  is  this  :  In  the  name  of  God, 
and  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  name  of  those  who 
call  you  by  my  mouth,  I  charge  you  that  you  refuse  not  this 
holy  vocation  ;  but  as  ye  tender  the  glory  of  God,  the  increase 
of  Christ's  kingdom,  the  edification  of  your  brethren,  and 
the  comfort  of  me,  whom  ye  understand  well  enough  to  be 
oppressed  by  the  multitude  of  labours,  that  ye  take  upon  you 
the  public  office  and  charge  of  preaching,  even  as  ye  look  to 
avoid  God's  heavy  displeasure,  and  desire  He  shall  multiply 
his  graces  upon  you."  Then  turning  to  the  congregation  he 
asked — "  Was  not  this  your  charge  to  me  ?  and  do  you  not 
approve  this  vocation  ?  "  They  replied  with  one  voice — "  It 
is,  and  we  approve  it."  "  Whereat  the  said  Mr  John, 
abashed,  burst  forth  in  most  abundant  tears,  and  withdrew 
himself  to  his  chamber  ;  his  countenance  and  behaviour  from 
that  day  till  the  day  that  he  was  compelled  to  present  himself 
in  the  public  place  of  preaching  sufficiently  declared  the  grief 
and  trouble  of  his  heart ;  for  no  man  saw  any  sign  of  mirth  in 
him,  neither  yet  had  he  pleasure  to  accompany  any  man  for 
many  days  together."  1 

Such  was  Knox's  call  and  ordination  to  the  work  of  the 
ministry.  These  circumstances,  narrated  by  Knox  himself, 
have  led  some  historians  to  the  conclusion  2  that  up  to  this 
time  he  was  not  in  orders.  He  first  refused  to  preach 
because  he  had  no  lawful  vocation  to  do  so — a  plea  which  he 
could  not  use  had  he  been  already  ordained.  He  afterwards 
agreed  to  undertake  the  work  when  Rough  argued  that  every 
congregation  had  an  inherent  right  to  call  any  qualified  person 
to  assume  the  office  of  their  instructor— an  argument  which 
would  have  been  wholly  irrelevant  if  Knox  had  been  previously 
set  apart  by  episcopal  hands. 

We  should  have  regarded  these  arguments  as  conclusive 
had  we  not  had  positive  knowledge  to  the  contrary,  and  a 
key  to  the  apparent  contradiction  in  a  controversial  tract  pub- 

1  Knox's  History,  book  i. 

-  Dr  Cook  is  constrained  by  these  circumstances  to  come  to  this  conclu- 
sion.    (History  of  Reformation,  vol.  i.) 


A.D.  1547.]  WAS  KNOX  A  PRIEST?  223 

lished  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  while  Knox  was  yet 
living,  and  every  circumstance  in  his  career  fresh  in  men's 
memories.  Ninian  Wingate  was  schoolmaster  at  Linlithgow, 
and  remaining  attached  to  the  Roman  faith,  he  proved  his 
devotion  by  challenging  discussion  on  some  of  the  contro- 
verted points  between  the  Romanists  and  Reformers.  In 
one  of  his  tracts  he  attempts  to  pose  John  Knox  in  regard 
to  the  lawfulness  of  his  call  to  the  ministry.  He  argues  from 
Romans  and  Hebrews  that  no  man  may  take  this  office  to 
himself,  unless  he  be  called  thereto  either  by  God  or  by  men 
having  authority  to  do  so.  If  Knox  pretended  he  was  called 
by  God,  Wingate  asked  where  was  the  proof  of  it  —where 
were  his  miracles?  for  nothing  less  could  prove  a  Divine 
vocation.  If  Knox  declared  he  was  called  by  men,  "  then," 
says  his  opponent,  "  he  must  show  they  had  the  authority  to 
do  what  they  did."  "  You  must  show,"  urges  Wingate,  "  in 
which  of  these  two  ways  you  were  ordained  to  the  ministry, 
since  you  esteem  that  ordination  null  and  wicked  by  which 
you  were  formerly  called  Sir  John."  x  Here  is  the  solution 
of  the  difficulty.  Knox  was  in  priest's  orders,  and  therefore 
entitled  to  be  addressed  Sir  John,  but  he  had  renounced 
these  orders,  and  believed  that  he  had  no  title  to  preach  the 
Gospel  till  he  received  a  call  from  a  reformed  congregation. 
The  "  First  Book  of  Discipline"  corroborates  the  fact,  for 
there  it  is  declared  "  that  the  Papistical  priests  have  neither 
power  nor  authority  to  minister  the  sacraments  of  Jesus 
Christ."2  If  we  add  to  these  circumstances  the  positive 
testimony  of  Beza,3  we  need  have  no  hesitation  in  believing 
that  Knox  was  a  priest  of  the  Romish  Church  :  but  that  he 
did  not  think  its  orders  constituted  him  a  minister  of  the 
reformed  faith. 

It  has  sometimes  been  affirmed  that  the  first  preachers  of 
Protestantism  in  Scotland  were  laymen,  and  that  from  these 
the  present  Presbyterian  ministers  are  descended.  The  very 
reverse  was  the  case.  Almost  all  the  early  Reformers  had 
Romish   orders.      The  Bishops   of  Galloway,  Caithness,  and 

1  Xinian  Wingate,  Tract  ii.,  "Gif  John  Knox  be  lauchfull  minister?" 
See  also  his  third  tract.  They  are  to  be  found  in  the  appendix  to  Keith's 
History.  It  need  hardly  be  said  in  explanation,  that  the  priests  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  had  "  Sir  "  appended  to  their  names,  just  as  clergymen 
now-a-days  have  "  Revd."  Burton  supposes  Knox  might  have  been  de- 
posed, but  the  language  of  Wingate  forbids  that  supposition. 

2  Book  of  Discipline,  chap.  xvi.  sect.  iii.  3  Beza — Icones. 


224  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

Orkney  joined  the  Protestants.  A  multitude  of  abbots  and 
friars  did  the  like.  Spottiswood,  the  superintendent  of 
Lothian  ;  Winram,  the  superintendent  of  Fife  ;  Willocks,  the 
superintendent  of  the  West,  had  all  been  clergymen  in  the 
Romish  communion.  When  Protestantism  was  completely 
established,  and  the  want  of  Protestant  preachers  sorely  felt, 
it  would  appear  that  priests  became  proselytes  by  the  score, 
and  only  too  many  of  them  were  admitted  into  Protestant 
pulpits.  They  afterwards  gave  trouble,  some  of  them  by 
immoral  lives,  and  some  of  them  by  heretical  teaching. 
If  Romish  orders,  then,  be  worth  any  tiling,  the  Church  of 
Scotland  has  inherited  them  ;  and  still  possesses  them  by 
Episcopal-Presbyterian  descent.  But  so  little  stress  did  the 
Reformers  put  upon  episcopal  descent,  that  they  decreed  in 
the  Assembly  of  1562,  that  bishops,  like  other  ministers,  could 
hold  office  in  the  Church  only  after  being  elected  by  the 
people  and  found  qualified  by  the  superintendent.  Oh, 
Lucifer,  son  of  the  morning,  how  art  thou  fallen  in  these  sad 
reforming  times  ! 

But  though  no  mitred  bishop  had  conveyed  to  one  of  our 
Reformers  the  Apostolical  succession,  though  no  one  had  been 
even  ordained  by  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  Presby- 
tery, no  honest  Presbyterian  minister  need  question  the 
validity  of  his  title  as  a  minister  of  the  New  Testament. 
There  are  only  two  sources  from  which  clerical  authority  can 
proceed — the  transmitted  commission  of  the  first  apostles,  or 
the  will  of  the  Christian  community.  Either  of  these  theories 
has  had  its  advocates.  It  is  an  article  of  the  Roman  creed, 
and  it  has  been  a  favourite  dogma  of  many  Anglican  divines, 
that  no  one  can  be  a  true  minister  of  the  word  and  sacra- 
ments unless  he  can  trace  his  spiritual  pedigree  up  to  the 
apostles  of  our  Lord.  Christ,  say  they,  gave  his  disciples  a 
commission  to  preach  and  baptize  ;  they  conferred  the  same 
power  upon  others  ;  and  so  the  priestly  character  and  office 
have  come  down  by  direct  descent  to  the  present  day. 
Every  clergyman  in  Western  Europe  must  be  able  to  trace 
his  genealogy  to  St  Peter,  the  chief  of  the  apostles,  and  the 
first  Bishop  of  Rome.  Except  by  inheritance,  there  is  no 
other  way  in  which  the  status  of  a  minister  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment can  be  obtained.  In  opposition  to  this  it  is  maintained 
by  all  Presbyterian,  and  by  some  Episcopal  doctors,  that 
the  power  of  calling  to  the  ministry  lies  essentially  in  the 
Christian  Church  itself.     It  is  argued  that  under  the  gospel 


a.d.  1547.]  ORDERS.  225 

economy  there  is  no  radical  distinction  between  the  clergy 
and  the  laity  ;  and  that  ministers  are  merely  men  appointed 
to  act  as  rulers  and  teachers  in  the  Church.  They  are,  in  no 
sense,  mediators  with  God  ;  they  have  no  special  powers  but 
such  as  the  Church,  as  a  matter  of  convenience,  confers. ;  and 
occupy  no  higher  platform  than  the  humblest  believer. 
But  though  the  vocation  of  ministers  lies  with  the  Church,  it 
may,  for  the  sake  of  order,  be  entrusted  to  its  office-bearers. 
They  may  have  committed  to  them  by  the  whole-  community 
the  charge  of  seeking  out  men  fitted  for  the  sacred;  work,  and 
setting  them  apart  to  it.  Still  it  is  but  a  delegated  power, 
which  bishops  or  presbyteries  may  exercise,  not  from  any 
virtue  inherent  in  themselves,  but  from  their  position  as  the 
representatives  of  the  Church  at  large.  Such  are  the  two 
antagonistic  theories  of  orders  ;  and  though  a  compromise 
between  them  has  often  been  attempted.,  there  is  in  truth  no 
possible  middle  way. 

The  controversy  is  similar  to  that  which  has  been  waged  in 
regard  to  the  right  by  which  kings  reign.  Here  also  there 
have  been  two  theories — the  divine  right  of  inheritance,  and 
the  will,  expressed  or  understood,  of  the  people.  There  are 
those  who  think,  that  simply  because  a  man  is  his  father's  son 
he  has  a  divine  right  to  a  throne ;  but  this  scoffing  age  is  dis- 
posed to  laugh  at  such  assumptions,  and  believe  that  all  royal 
power  rests  upon  the  popular  will.  According  to  this  theory, 
whatever  the  form  of  government  there  are  times  when  the 
ordinary  rules  of  succession  must  be  broken  and  the  popular 
will  assert  itself.  Such  was  the  time  when  John  Knox  was 
called  to  the  office  of  the  ministry  by  the  Church  at  St 
Andrews  :  such  was  the  time  when  William  of  Orange  was 
placed  upon  the  throne. 

It  was  not  long  till  Knox  brushed  away  his  tears,  and  came 
forth  from  his  chamber  like  a  strong  man  rejoicing  to  grapple 
with  superstition  and  sin.  His  first  step  showed  the  boldness 
of  his  genius.  Mounting  the  pulpit  of  St  Andrews,  he  under- 
took to  prove  that  the  Pope  of  Rome  was  the  Man  of  Sin,  the 
Antichrist,  the  Babylonish  woman  spoken  of  in  Scripture.  The 
noise  of  this  reached  the  archbishop,  who  enjoined  Winram, 
his  sub-prior,  to  inquire  into  it.  Accordingly,  nine  proposi- 
tions, supposed  to  embody  heresy,  were  collected  from  his 
sermons,  and  made  the  subject  of  controversy.  The  discus- 
sion is  preserved  in  the  pages  of  Knox ;  and  when  he  claims 
the  victory  to  himself,  we  may  believe  him,  remembering  the 

VOL.    I.  P 


2  26  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

goodness    of    his    cause,    and    his    undoubted  powers  as  a 
logician.1 

The  success  which  had  attended  the  preaching  of  the 
Reformers  determined  the  clergy  to  imitate  their  example.  It 
was  therefore  agreed  that  every  learned  man  in  the  abbey  and 
university  should  preach  his  Sunday  about  in  the  parish 
church,  and  that  their  sermons  should  be  previously  composed, 
in  order  to  give  as  little  offence  as  was  possible.  But  Knox 
suspected  the  cause  of  this  new-born  zeal,  and  in  his  ministra- 
tions during  the  week,  he  "  prayed  to  God  that  they  should 
be  as  busy  in  preaching  when  there  was  more  want  of  it  than 
there  was  then."  2 

But  the  din  of  the  ecclesiastical  warfare  was 
hushed  by  the  sudden  appearance  in  the  bay  of 
twenty-one  3  French  galleys,  commanded  by  Leo  Strozzi,  Prior 
of  Capua,  a  Knight  of  Rhodes  of  great  military  renown.  Two 
or  three  weeks  previous  to  this,  the  papal  absolution  had 
arrived  from  Rome ;  but  as  it  contained  the  clause,  "  we 
pardon  the  unpardonable  sin/'  the  conspirators  objected  to  its 
terms,  and  made  use  of  a  quibble  to  escape  from  their  agree- 
ment. A  worse  fate  awaited  them.  The  galleys  took  up  their 
position  in  front  of  the  castle  ;  heavy  ordnance  was  landed,  and 
planted  not  only  in  the  streets  leading  to  the  fortress,  but  on 
the  walls  of  the  abbey  and  the  steeple  of  St  Salvator's  College  ; 
not  a  creature  could  move  in  the  interior  courts  without  being 
exposed  to  its  fire  ;  the  walls  began  to  crumble,  and  it  became 
evident  that  it  was  no  longer  Scottish  engineers  who  were 
working  the  guns.  Meanwhile,  John  Knox  within  lifted  up 
his  prophetic  voice,  warning  the  debauched  garrison  that  their 
hour  was  come,  and  that  the  thick  walls  in  which  they  put 
their  trust  would  be  but  egg  shells  ;  and  his  prediction  was 
soon  realized.  Further  defence  soon  became  hopeless,  and 
accordingly  the  fortress  was  surrendered  to  the  admiral  of  the 
French,  as  the  conspirators  had  contrived  to  persuade  them- 
selves that  there  was  no  lawful  authority  in  Scotland. 

After  being  first  rifled  of  its  treasure,  the  noble  old  castle 
was  levelled  with  the  ground — either  from  superstition,  as 
being  stained  with  the  blood  of  a  cardinal,  or  from  policy,  as 
being  dangerous  to  the  kingdom. 

Historians  differ  in  regard  to  the  terms  of  the   surrender, 

1  Knox's  History,  book  i.  2  Ibid. 

3  wSome  authorities  say  sixteen,  others  twenty-one — the  difference  is  im- 
material. 


a.d.  1547.]  somerset's  invasion.  227 

some  affirming  that  the  lives  and  liberty  of  the  garrison  were 
guaranteed,  and  others  that  even  their  lives  were  made  to 
depend  on  the  mercy  of  the  French  king.  The  latter  is  the 
more  probable  and  the  better  supported  by  authorities.1  But 
be  this  as  it  may,  they  were  carried  to  France;  some  of  them 
were  placed  in  the  galleys  to  tug  at  the  oar,  and  others  were 
consigned  to  the  prisons  of  Rouen  and  its  neighbourhood. 
Knox  was  compelled  to  labour  for  nineteen  months  as  a 
galley-slave,  but  he  was  ultimately  liberated,  and  not  one  of 
his  associates  suffered  death.  When  we  remember  that  the 
crimes  in  which  they  were  implicated  were  murder  and  re- 
bellion, we  must  allow  that  they  were  mercifully  dealt  with. 

It  was  in  the  end  of  July  1547  that  the  Castle  of  St  Andrews 
fell.  In  the  January  preceding  Henry  VIII.  of  England  had 
died,  and  two  months  afterwards  he  was  followed  to  the 
grave  by  his  illustrious  compeer  Francis  I.  But  the  English 
monarch  had  bequeathed  to  his  successor  the  resolution  to 
subdue  Scotland  under  the  cloak  of  a  marriage  with  its  infant 
queen ;  and  the  Protector  Somerset  was  already  on  his  march 
to  the  north.  At  this  crisis,  Arran,  easily  alarmed,  was  com- 
pletely stunned,  as  any  man  might  be,  by  discovering  among 
the  papers  of  Balnaves,  in  the  Castle  of  St  Andrews,  a  docu- 
ment containing  the  signatures  of  two  hundred  noblemen  and 
gentlemen  who  had  secretly  sold  themselves  to  England,  and 
undertaken  to  assist  Somerset  in  his  marriage  project,  perhaps 
ignorant  that  under  this  guise  he  was  reviving  the  designs  of 
Edward  I.,  and  bent  on  the  entire  subjugation  of  the  kingdom.2 
Notwithstanding  these  discouragements  the  military  array 
of  the  kingdom  was  quickly  mustered.  A  large  number  of 
priests  and  monks,  knowing  that  the  Church  was  in  danger, 
joined  the  army,  bearing  a  white  banner,  on  which  there  was 
embroidered  a  female  with  dishevelled  hair,  kneeling  before  a 
crucifix,  with  the  motto — "  Afflictce  Ecclesicz  ne  obliviscaris.* 
On  the  other  hand,  on  the  8th  of  September  the  Three 
Estates  passed  an  act,  which,  proceeding  upon  the  preamble 
that  "  the  whole  body  of  the  realm  is  passing  forward  at  this 
time  to  resist  our  old  enemies  of  England,"  ordained  that  the 
next  of  kin  to  all  Churchmen  who  should  die  in  battle  would 

1  We  have  Lesley  on  the  one  side,  and  Knox  on  the  other.  Tytler 
quotes  Anderson's  MS.  History  as  siding  with  Lesley.  Buchanan  is  ob- 
scure, but  he  appears  to  confirm  the  truthfulness  of  Lesley  ;  he  says  their 
safety  was  covenanted  for,  in  a  manner,  or  tinder  a  condition.  It  is  plain 
the  French  admiral  was  in  a  position  to  dictate  what  terms  he  pleased. 

2  Tytler,  vol.  vi.     Froude,  vol.  v.  pp.  32-46. 


2  28  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

have  a  right  to  their  vacant  benefices.1  On  the  ioth  of  the 
same  month  the  battle  of  Pinkie  was  fought — one  of  the  most 
disastrous  in  the  annals  of  Scotland.  More  than  ten  thousand 
Scotchmen  on  that  fatal  day  bit  the  dust ;  and  the  whole 
country  lay  bleeding  at  the  mercy  of  the  English. 

Fortunately  for  Scotland's  independence  Somerset  was 
unable  from  want  of  resources  to  follow  up  his  victory  with 
vigour ;  while  grief,  shame,  and  rage  rendered  any  alliance 
with  England  at  present  impossible,  and  threw  the  country 
more  completely  into  the  arms  of  France.  The  Protector 
having  tried  the  sword,  now,  when  it  was  too  late,  tried  per- 
suasion. In  an  address  to  the  Scottish  nation,  he  declared 
that  England  desired  union  and  not  conquest,  and  remarked 
almost  in  a  prophetic  strain,  that  if  the  Scots  and  English 
were  made  one  by  amity,  "  having  the  sea  for  a  wall,  mutual 
love  for  a  garrison,  and  God  for  a  defence,"  they  might  defy 
the  world.2  But  the  Scots  could  only  think  of  the  slaughter  of 
Pinkie  Cleugh  and  thirst  for  revenge.  In  June  1548  Monsieur 
D'Esse  landed  at  Leith  with  five  thousand  men,  "  old  beaten 
soldiers,"  says  Balfour,  "  French,  Italians,  and  Germans." 3 
John  Knox,  as  a  condemned  convict,  worked  an  oar  in  one 
of  the  galleys  which  brought  them  over  the  sea.  The  governor 
joined  these  with  five  thousand  more,  and  the  allied  armies 
were  now  more  than  able  to  keep  their  ground  against  the 
English.  The  French  king,  in  his  message,  had  solicited  Mary 
in  marriage  for  the  Dauphin,  and  the  Scottish  Parliament 
readily  agreed  to  the  match,  and  farther  resolved,  in  the 
unsettled  state  of  the  kingdom,  to  intrust  her  to  his  care. 
Four  galleys  quietly  left  Leith,  and  slipping  round  the  north  of 
Scotland  by  the  Pentland  Firth,  arrived  in  the  Clyde  off  Dum- 
barton. The  Queen  of  Scotland,  now  a  beautiful  child  in  her 
sixth  year,  instantly  embarked,  accompanied  by  Lords  Living- 
stone and  Erskine,  and  her  natural  brother,  James  Stewart, 
Prior  of  St  Andrews,  at  this  time  a  youth  of  seventeen.  There 
were  also  in  her  train  four  Maries,  of  like  age  with  herself, 
chosen  from  the  families  of  Livingstone,  Seaton,  Beaton,  and 
Fleming,  to  be  her  playmates,  and  whose  names  are  frequently 
allied  with  that  of  their  royal  mistress  in  the  ancient  ballads  of 
the  country.  The  little  squadron  reached  Brest  in  safety,  and 
Mary  Stewart  opened  her  eyes  upon  the  beautiful  land  which 
she  ever  afterwards  loved  so  well.  The  decision  of  the  Parlia- 
ment can  hardly  be  blamed,  but  it  had  the  effect  of  making  the 

1  Acts  of  the  Scotch  Parliament — Mary,  pari.  iii. 

J  Holinshed's  Chronicle.  8  Annals,  vol.    i. 


A.D.  1550.]  QUEEN  DOWAGER  BECOMES  REGENT.  229 

Queen  of  Scots  already  half  a  Frenchwoman  by  blood,  a 
thorough  Frenchwoman  in  heart. 

In  March  1550  a  peace  was  concluded  at  Boulogne  between 
England  and  France,  in  which  Scotland  was  comprehended  ; 
but  though  war  ceased,  animosities  remained,  and  rendered 
more  difficult  than  ever  the  union  of  the  crowns.  Had  it  not 
been  for  the  violence  of  Henry  and  Somerset,  Mary,  with  a 
kingdom  for  her  dower,  must  have  become  the  wife  of  Edward  ; 
but  as  time  afterwards  revealed,  their  happiness  could  not  have 
been  long,  and  the  Queen  of  Scotland  must  have  been  a  widow 
in  England  even  sooner  than  in  France. 

In  the  meantime  the  queen-mother  had  set  her  heart  upon 
the  regency,  and  in  order  to  mature  her  schemes  she  set  out 
for  the  court  of  France.  Her  brothers,  the  Cardinal  of  Lor- 
raine and  the  Duke  of  Guise,  if  not  the  originators  of  the  plot, 
at  once  perceived  that  its  accomplishment  would  further  their 
own  family  aggrandisement,  and  secure  the  ascendency  of  the 
French  interests  in  Scotland,  and  therefore  they  gave  it  the 
full  weight  of  their  great  authority.  To  dispossess  the  Earl  of 
Arran  by  violence  would  have  been  madness,  and  therefore 
they  resolved  to  try  bribes — dazzling  bribes.  Panter,  Bishop 
of  Ross,  and  two  others,  were  despatched  to  the  governor,  to 
offer  him  the  French  dukedom  of  Chastelherault,  and  to  his 
eldest  son  the  command  of  the  Scots  Guard  in  Paris,  if  he 
demitted  the  regency ;  and  after  considerable  hesitation  his 
consent  was  obtained.  This  great  step  toward  dominion 
being  made,  the  queen-dowager  began  her  journey  homeward, 
passing  through  England,  and  visiting  on  her  way  the  court  of 
Edward.  The  young  king,  amid  much  kindness,  referred  to 
his  disappointment  in  regard  to  her  daughter ;  but  the  queen- 
mother  rejoined,  that  the  invasion  of  Somerset  was  not  the 
right  way  to  woo  and  win  a  woman,  and  that  it  was  only  on 
this  account  the  match  had  miscarried.1 

Arran  had  promised  to  resign  the  regency,  but  he  had  since 
repented  him  of  his  promise.  Accustomed  to  the  power  and 
splendours  of  royalty,  he  could  not  bring  his  mind  to  descend 
to  a  private  station.  Mary  of  Guise  quietly  "  bided  her  time;" 
employed  every  artifice  to  draw  the  nobles  to  her  party;  kept 
regal  state  at  Stirling  ;  and  at  last  Arran,  finding  the  tide 
running  strongly  against  him,  consented  to  resign,  on  receiving 
an  assurance  of  indemnity  for  every  measure  of  his  govern- 
ment, and  an  act  of  parliament  securing  to  him  the  succession 

1  Keith,  book  i.  chap.  v. 


250  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  X. 

to  the  throne  in  the  event  of  the  queen  dying  childless.1  On 
the  1 2th  of  April  1554,  the  solemn  transference  of  power  took 
place  in  a  parliament  assembled  at  Edinburgh ;  and  Mary  of 
Guise  attained  to  the  full  height  of  her  ambition,  by  being  de- 
clared regent  of  the  kingdom. 

But  we  must  retrace  our  steps  for  a  few  years,  and  follow  the 
current  of  ecclesiastical  events.  It  was  plain  that  the  tide  was 
now  steadily  setting  in  toward  a  reformation.  On  the  19th 
March  1547,  the  clergy  presented  a  supplication  to  the 
governor  and  council,  complaining  of  the  increase  of  heresy, 
the  contempt  of  the  sacrament  of  the  altar,  the  return  of  per- 
sons who  had  been  banished  for  their  faith,  and  the  open 
preaching  of  opinions  opposed  to  the  Established  Church  ;  and 
praying  that  steps  should  be  taken  to  remedy  the  evil.  In 
compliance  with  this  supplication,  the  council  ordained  that 
the  clergy  should  report  to  the  governor  all  such  as  had 
relapsed  or  were  suspected  of  heresy,  in  order  that  the  laws  of 
the  realm  might  be  put  into  execution  upon  them.2 

In  1549  a  council  was  held  in  the  Blackfriar's  Church,  Edin- 
burgh, under  the  presidency  of  Archbishop  Hamilton.  The 
pressure  of  the  times  caused  a  great  gathering — six  bishops, 
two  vicars-general,  fourteen  abbots,  priors  or  commendators, 
besides  doctors,  provosts,  archdeacons,  deans,  and  others — in 
all  some  sixty  persons.  Among  them  was  the  prior  of  St 
Andrews — then  only  eighteen  years  of  age— destined  to  be  the 
leader  of  the  Reformation  and  the  regent  of  the  kingdom. 
There  were  there  also  Robert  Reid,  Quintin  Kennedy,  John 
Winram,  and  John  Mair — all  men  of  note.  It  passed  no  fewer 
than  sixty-eight  canons,  which  let  in  the  light  of  day  on  a  sad 
state  of  things.  The  very  first  of  them  makes  it  plain  that  large 
numbers  both  of  the  higher  and  inferior  clergy  were  celibate 
only  in  name  ;  they  had  concubines  and  families  living  openly 
with  them  in  their  episcopal  palaces  and  manses,  and  they  were 
in  the  habit  of  making  provision  for  these  out  of  the  Church's 
lands  and  revenues.  The  council  forbade  this  in  the  words  of 
the  Council  of  Basle,  perhaps  to  turn  away  the  sharp  edge  of 
the  condemnation  from  themselves,  and  to  show  they  were  no 
worse  than  others.  Canons  were  also  framed  to  promote  the 
better  education  and  more  decent  behaviour  of  the  clergy,  pro- 

1  Keith,  book  i.  chap.  v. 

2  Keith,  book  i.  chap.  vi.  Robertson's  Concilia,  pref.  cxlvi.  In  June 
1546,  an  act  of  Privy  Council  was  passed  against  the  demolition  or  plunder- 
ing of  churches  or  Churchmen's  houses.  The  necessity  for  the  act  proves 
the  existence  of  the  crime. 


A.D.  1550.]  MARTYRDOM  OF  WALLACE.  23 1 

viding  among  other  things  that  they  should  cleanly  shave 
their  faces  and  crowns,  wear  ecclesiastical  garments,  and  put 
off  their  hats  when  engaged  in  divine  service.  Pluralities  were 
to  be  limited,  preaching  enforced.  It  was  to  be  usually  expo- 
sitory and  catechetical ;  and,  in  some  cases,  argumentative  and 
denunciatory  against  the  new  doctrines.  No  doubt  a  reform- 
ing synod,  but  it  could  not  move  faster  than  Rome  and  Trent ! 
At  the  same  time  diligent  inquisition  was  to  be  made  for  all 
heretics,  and  for  their  railing  ballads  and  books.1 

It  was  not   long  after   the  dispersion  of  this 

&.d.  1550.  councii  when  Adam  Wallace,  who  appears  to 
have  succeeded  Knox  as  tutor  at  Ormiston,2  was  apprehended 
at  Winton,  and  brought  to  his  trial  in  the  Church  of  the  Black- 
friars  in  Edinburgh.  Among  his  judges,  besides  the  Governor 
and  Chancellor,  we  are  surprised  to  find  the  Earls  of  Argyll, 
Angus,  and  Glencairn.3  He  was  accused  of  usurping  the  office 
of  a  preacher  ;  of  baptising,  one  of  his  own  children  ;  of  deny- 
ing purgatory ;  of  maintaining  that  prayers  to  the  saints  and 
for  the  dead  were  superstitious  :  of  calling  the  mass  an  idola- 
trous service ;  and  of  affirming  that  the  bread  and  wine  used 
in  the  sacrament  continued  bread  and  wine,  notwithstanding 
their  consecration.  The  poor  man  was  found  guilty,  given  over  to 
the  Justice-Deputy,  and  burned  the  next  day  on  the  Castle-hill. 

It  was  in  the  same  year  in  which  Wallace  was  burned  that 
an  amusing  controversy  arose  among  the  Churchmen  in  regard 
to  the  Pater-noster — whether  it  should  be  said  to  God  only, 
or  whether  it  might  also  be  said  to  the  saints.  A  certain  friar 
had  stretched  his  ingenuity  to  show  that  everyone  of  its 
petitions  might,  in  a  sense,,  be  addressed  to  the  saints ;  but 
when  he  came  to  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  his  gloss 
was  so  absurd  as  to  throw  his  audience  into  laughter.  He  was 
rewarded  for  his  pains  with  the  soubriquet  of  Friar  Pater- 
noster. But  the  dispute  wras  not  thus  easily  to  be  settled  ;  it 
set  the  whole  University  of  St  Andrews  in  a  flame.  The 
doctors  assembled  in  solemn  conclave  to  decide  the  matter. 
The  fine  distinctions  of  the  schoolmen  were  called  into  requi- 
sition ;  and  some  held  that  the  Pater-noster  was  said  to  God 

1  Robertson's  Concilia,  vol.  ii.  pp.  81-127. 

2  "He  frequented,"  says  Knox,  "the  company  of  the  Lady  Ormiston, 
for  the  instruction  of  her  children,  during  the  trouble  of  her  husband,  who 
was  then  banished."     (History,  book  i.) 

3  Knox's  History,  book  i.  Knox  states  that  Glencairn  said  to  the  Bishop 
of  Orkney  and  others  that  sat  near  him,  that  he  protested  against  Wallace 
being  put  to  death.  This  whispered  protest  does  not  redeem  his  con- 
sistency. 


232  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

formaliter,  and  to  saints  materialiter ;  others,  that  it  ought  to 
be  said  to  God  principality,  and  to  saints  minus  principaliter ; 
a  third  party  would  have  it  ultimate  and  non-ultimate ;  a  fourth, 
primario  and  secundario ;  but  the  majority  declared  that  it 
should  be  said  to  God  capiendo  stride,  and  to  saints  capkndo 
large.  Still,  the  division  of  sentiment  was  so  great  and  so  strong 
that  it  was  resolved  to  refer  the  whole  matter  to  the  provincial 
synod,  which  was  cited  to  meet  at  Edinburgh  in  January 
1552.  In  the  meantime,  the  valet  of  the  sub-prior,  in  putting 
his  master  to  bed,  took  the  liberty  of  asking  what  was  the 
nature  of  the  question  which  had  so  irritated  the  university  and 
the  Church.  "We  cannot  agree,  Tom/'  said  the  sub-prior, 
"  to  whom  the  Pater-noster  should  be  said."  "  To  whom 
should  it  be  said  but  unto  God?"  said  Tom,  "Then  what 
shall  we  do  with  the  saints?"  rejoined  his  master.  "Give 
them  Aves  and  Credos  enough,"  replied  the  theological  valet, 
"  and  that  may  suffice  them. "  1 

When  the  synod  convened,  the  controversy  was  again 
stirred  :  and  the  vote  being  taken,  it  carried  that  the  Pater- 
noster might  be  said  to  the  saints.  The  bishops,  however,  and 
some  ecclesiastics  more  prudent  than  their  brethren,  interfered 
to  prevent  the  decision  being  registered  in  this  unqualified 
shape,  and  directed  the  sub-prior,  on  his  return  to  St  Andrews, 
to  teach  that  the  Pater-noster  ought  to  be  said  to  God,  yet  so 
that  the  saints  ought  also  to  be  invocated? 

In  January  1552  (1551  O.S.)  this  Synod  met.  In  pro- 
found ignorance  of  what  was  passing  around  them,  the 
ecclesiastics  congratulated  themselves  that  heresy  was  nearly 
stamped  out,  but  confessing  the  want  of  education  on  the 
part  of  the  clergy,  and  impelled  by  the  universal  clamour  for 
instruction  in  the  Scotch  tongue,  order  was  taken  for  publish- 
ing a  Catechism  in  the  vernacular,  containing  a  summary  of 
Christian  doctrine  ;  and  the  clergy  were  enjoined  to  read  a 
part  of  it  every  Sunday  and  holiday  to  the  people,  when  there 
was  no  sermon.  It  was  accordingly  printed,  as  the  colophon 
bears,  at  St  Andrews,  in  August  1552,  by  command  and  at  the 
expense  of  Archbishop  Hamilton,  whose  composition  it  is 
thought  by  some  to  be,  while  others  attribute  it  to  John  Win- 
ram.     It  is  a  Catechetical  Treatise  rather  than  a  Catechism, 

1  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  ii. 

2  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  ii.  Hailes's  Provincial  Councils,  pp.  36-7. 
There  is  no  such  canon  in  the  Synod  of  1551-52,  but  in  the  Synod  of  1549 
there  was  a  canon  regarding  the  Pater  Noster,  which  after  a  few  words  ends 
in  a  blank.     Robertson's  Concilia,  vol.  ii.  p.  121. 


A.D.  1552.]  CHURCH  SYNOD.  233 

in  the  modern  sense  of  the  term.1  It  consists  of  an  exposition 
of  the  Commandments,  the  Creed,  the  Sacraments,  and  the  Lord's 
Prayer.  It  would  appear,  from  the  canon  authorising  its  publica- 
tion, that  it  was  designed,  not  for  circulation  among  the  people, 
but  to  assist  the  clergy  in  conducting  the  church  services,  and 
in  communicating  to  their  hearers  some  knowledge  of  religion. 
They  were  accordingly  ordered  to  exercise  themselves  daily  in 
the  reading  of  it,  lest  by  stammering  or  breaking  down  alto- 
gether, they  should  make  sport  for  their  hearers ;  and  they 
were  to  be  equally  on  their  guard  against  reading  it  languidly 
or  with  yawning,  but  rather  with  such  vigour  of  voice,  facial 
expression  and  gestures,  as  should  make  the  deepest  impres- 
sion on  the  people.2  From  the  eighth  canon  of  this  council 
it  appears  that  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  population 
attended  mass  upon  the  Sundays,  still  fewer  on  the  festivals, 
and  that  of  those  who  came  to  church,  some  behaved  irreve- 
rently, while  others  busied  themselves  with  making  bargains 
in  the  porch.  It  was  like  the  time  of  which  Pliny  wrote,  when 
in  the  great  province  of  Bithynia  so  few  were  found  to  purchase 
the  victims  and  present  themselves  at  the  sacrifices.  The  old 
religion  was  losing  its  hold,  and  all  the  superficial  reforms  of 
the  synod  could  not  restore  its  lost  power.  As  Lord  Hailes 
remarks,  "  when  a  house  is  in  flames,  it  is  vain  to  draw  up 
regulations  for  the  bridling  of  joists  or  the  sweeping  of  chim- 
neys."3 Was  the  church  to  be  saved  by  the  priests  shaving 
their  chins,  cheeks,  and  crowns?  or  reading  a  catechism, 
arrayed  in  surplice  and  stole,  but  with  difficulty  spelling  out 
the  words  as  they  went  along,  amid  the  jibes  and  jeers  of  the 
people  ? 

1  The  title  of  this  significant  publication  is  "The  Catechisme  :  that  is 
to  say,  ane  Comone  and  Catholick  instruction  of  the  Christine  people  in 
materis  of  our  Catholick  faith  and  religioun,  quilk  na  gud  Christin  man  or 
woman  suld  misknaw  :  set  forth  be  ye  maist  reverend  father  in  God, 
Johne,  Archbishop  of  wSanct  Androis,  Legatnait  and  Primat  of  ye  Kirk  of 
Scotland,  in  his  provincial  counsal,  halden  at  Edinburgh  the  xxvi  day  of 
Januarie  155 1,  with  the  advice  and  counsall  of  the  Bischoppis  and  other 
prelatis,  with  doctoris  of  theologie  and  canon  law  of  the  said  realme  of 
Scotland  present  for  the  tyme."  On  the  back  of  the  title-page  there  is  an 
admonition  by  the  Archbishop  to  the  "  Vicars  and  Curattis  of  his  Dio- 
cyce,"  "to  have  yis  Catechisme  usit  and  reid  to  their  parishionours 
insteid  of  preching,  quhil  God  of  his  gudnes  provide  ane  sufficient 
noumer  of  Catholyk  and  abil  prechouris  quilk  sail  be  within  few  yeiris,  as 
we  traist  in  God." 

2  Robertson's  Concilia,  vol.  ii.  p.  138. 

3  Hailes's  Provincial  Councils,  pp.  29-37.  To  the  council  of  155 1  we 
owe  the  establishment  of  registers  of  proclamations  of  banns,  and  baptisms. 


234  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

In  the  acts  of  the  parliament  of  155 1  we  have  some  indica- 
tions of  the  course  of  events.  There  are  two  acts  against 
those  who  had  sustained  the  process  of  cursing  or  excommu- 
nication. They  were  but  resuscitations  of  acts  formerly 
passed  in  the  reign  of  James  V.  From  the  terms  of  these  we 
learn  that  the  Church  had  put  its  bann  upon  great  numbers 
who  were  suspected  of  heresy  ;  that  some  of  these  had  quietly 
continued  under  the  curse,  without  any  attempt  to  remove  it, 
and  that  others  had  defiantly  frequented  the  church,  and  even 
come  to  the  altar,  notwithstanding  the  excommunication  under 
which  they  lay.  To  put  an  end  to  this  state  of  things,  the  law 
interfered,  and  threatened  confiscation  of  goods  against  all 
who  remained  under  excommunication  for  more  than  a  year, 
or  who  desecrated  the  sacraments  or  disturbed  the  faithful 
while  the  curse  of  the  Church  was  still  upon  them.1 

But  there  is  another  act,  still  more  ominous  ;  it  is  anent 
them  that  disturb  the  kirk  during  the  time  of  divine  service. 
The  statute  is  directed  against  all  "who  contemptuously  make 
perturbation  in  the  kirk  in  the  time  of  divine  service  and 
preaching  of  the  Word  of  God,  preventing  the  same  from 
being  heard  and  seen  by  the  devout  people,  and  will  not  desist 
therefrom  for  any  monition  that  the  churchmen  may  use."  2 
The  passing  of  such  an  act  sufficiently  proves  the  prevalence 
of  the  practice  to  which  it  refers,  and  he  must  have  a  strangely 
one-sided  notion  of  toleration  wrho  does  not  think  that  it  was 
properly  put  down  by  the  strong  hand  of  the  law.  The  act, 
after  specifying  different  penalties  for  different  classes  of 
offenders,  from  the  prelate  and  earl  down  to  the  "  poor  folks 
that  have  no  goods,"  and  who  are  ordained  to  be  imprisoned 
for  fifteen  days,  and  fed  on  bread  and  water,  concludes  with 
directing  deans  of  guild,  kirk-masters,  and  rulers,  "garleische 
bairnes  that  perturbis  the  kirk  in  manner  foresaid."  A  singular 
commentary  on  this  finishing  enactment  is  found  in  a  passage 
at  the  very  commencement  of  Row's  "  History  of  the  Church.'' 
He  narrates  that  when  a  friar  was  preaching  in  Perth,  on  a 
Sunday  in  Lent,  he  was  suddenly  assailed  by  the  hissing  of  all 
the  boys  of  the  grammar-school  who  were  present.  A  com- 
plaint being  made  to  the  magistrates,  the  rector  searched  out 
the  ring-leaders  of  the  tumult,  and  when  he  was  about  to  chas- 
tise a  culprit,  the  urchin  produced  as  his  apology  Lyndsay's 
"Satire  of  the  Three  Estates."     Such  a  boy  in  our  day  would 

1  Mary,  pari,  iv.,  29th  May  1 551  ;  pari,  v.,  1st  February  1552.     James 
V.,  pari.  iv..  7th  June  1535. 

2  Mary,  pari,  v.,  1st  Feb.  1552. 


a.d.  1551-55.]  ACTS  AGAINST  THE  REFORMERS.  235 

be  doubly  whipped — whipped  for  possessing  a  book  so  grossly 
indecent,  and  whipped  for  disturbing  any  one,  though  he  were 
a  Mahometan  or  a  Hindu,  in  the  midst  of  his  devotions. 

Another  act  was  passed  to  restrain  the  liberty  of  the  press, 
already  become  turbulent  and  troublesome.  It  sets  forth  that 
divers  printers  were  daily  printing  books  concerning  the  faith, 
ballads,  songs,  blasphemies,  and  rhymes,  both  of  churchmen 
and  laymen  ;  and  therefore  ordains  that  no  printer  "  presume, 
attempt,  or  take  in  hand "  to  print  any  book,  without  first 
obtaining  the  necessary  licence.1  Thus  early  was  the  infant 
press  put  into  irons.  Shut  out  from  the  pulpit,  the  Reformers 
must  have  found  it  to  be  their  most  powerful  auxiliary,  speak- 
ing as  it  did  with  a  voice  which  echoed  from  shore  to  shore. 
No  marvel  the  frightened  ecclesiastics  attempted  to  gag  it. 

While  tracing  the  legislation  with  which  the  Church  fenced 
herself  round  before  her  fall,  we  may  refer  to  yet  another  act 
passed  in  the  year  1555.  It  is  aimed  at  "  diverse  insolent 
and  evil-given  persons,  who,  not  regarding  the  law  of  God  and 
the  constitution  of  the  holy  Church,  but  in  high  contempt 
thereof,  and  to  the  great  slander  of  the  Christian  people,  eat 
flesh  in  Lent,  and  on  other  forbidden  days."2  All  such  lovers 
of  flesh  and  despisers  of  the  Church,  were  made  Liable  to  the 
confiscation  of  their  moveable  goods,  and  if  they  had  no  goods 
to  be  confiscated,  they  might  be  imprisoned  for  a  year  and  a 
day,  and  trained  during  that  period  to  abstinence,  h  is  easy 
to  perceive  that  the  constitutions  of  the  clergy  were  beginning 
to  break  down  under  the  popular  pressure.  Men  were  laugh- 
ing at  Lent ;  and  doubting  the  virtue  of  fasting  on  a  Friday. 

On  the  6th  of  July  1553.  Edward  VI.  of  England  untimely 
died,  at  the  early  age  of  sixteen.  He  was  a  sickly,  but  an 
amiable  and  intelligent  boy,  and  had  he  lived  a  few  years 
longer,  a  more  complete  reformation  would  have  been  effected 
in  England.  He  was  succeeded  on  the  throne  by  his  sister 
Mary,  a  bigoted  Roman  Catholic,  who  determined  to  restore 
the  ancient  order  of  things,  and  whose  persecutions  have 
gained  for  her  with  posterity  the  unenviable  epithet  of 
"bloody."  With  such  a  woman  on  the  throne  of  England, 
and  a  member  of  the  house  of  Guise  wielding  the  sceptre  of 
Scotland,  Protestantism  had  much  to  fear.  But  light  sprang 
out  of  darkness.  It  was  the  present  policy  of  Mary  of  Guise 
to  conciliate  the  adherents  of  the  Reformed  faith  ;  and  when 
the  fires  of  Smithfield  were  lighted,   "  they  that  were  scattered 

1  Mary,  pari,  iv.,  1st  Feb.  1 55 1. 

2  Mary,  pari,  vi.,  20th  June  1555. 


236  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

abroad  went  everywhere  preaching  the  Word,"1  as  they  had 
done  once  before  when  a  persecution  arose  at  Jerusalem. 
Many  refugees  from  England  sought  shelter  in  Scotland. 
Among  these  was  William  Harlaw,  originally  a  tailor  in  the 
Canongate  of  Edinburgh,  but  whose  zeal  had  led  him  to  become 
a  preacher  of  the  Reformation.  While  Edward  lived  he  had 
laboured  in  England,  but  now  he  returned  to  his  native 
country,  and  though  he  had  little  learning,  he  must  have  had 
talents  and  force  of  character,  for  he  commanded  influence 
and  respect.  Another  was  John  Willock,  a  Franciscan  friar, 
who  had  embraced  Protestantism,  and  become  chaplain  to  the 
Duke  of  Suffolk.  On  the  accession  of  Mary  he  had  fled  to 
Friesland,  where  he  practised  medicine,  and  became  favour- 
ably known  to  the  duchess,  by  whom  he  wras  sent  in  1554, 
and  again  in  1555,  on  missions  to  the  queen-regent.  On  the 
last  occasion  he  fixed  his  abode  in  Scotland,  and  became 
one  of  the  most  useful  and  honoured  of  the  Reforming 
ministers. 

But  in  the  minds  of  the  people  the  Reformation  in  Scotland 
is  centred  in  but  one  man,  and  that  man  now  once  more 
appeared  upon  the  stage.  When  we  last  parted  with  Knox  he 
was  a  convict  on  board  a  French  galley,  bound  with  a  chain  to 
a  bench  in  the  hold,  toiling  at  an  oar  side  by  side  with 
thieves  and  murderers.  Sometimes  he  lay  on  the  quiet  waters 
of  the  Loire,  and  at  other  times  he  was  tossed  by  the  incessant 
jumble  of  the  German  Ocean  ;  and  once,  while  riding  off  the 
coast,  between  the  Friths  of  Forth  and  Tay,  observing  the 
movements  of  the  English  fleet,  he  could  distinctly  see  the 
shores  of  his  native  land,  and  the  tall  steeple  of  St  Andrews, 
associated  in  his  mind  with  so  much  that  was  sacred,  and  with 
those  stirring  scenes  in  which  he  had  been  an  actor.  On  the 
conclusion  of  peace,  and  at  the  intercession  of  Edward  of 
England,  he  was  set  at  liberty,  after  a  captivity  of  more  than 
a  year  and  a  half,  emaciated  in  body,  but  unshaken  in  mind.2 
With  his  native  country  barred  against  him,  he  landed  in 
England,  and  acted  as  a  minister  in  the  English  Church,  first 
at   Berwick,   and    afterwards    at    Newcastle,   and    when    thus 

1  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  chap.  viii.  ver.  4. 

2  "  I  have  at  your  request,"  said  the  French  king  to  Mason,  "set  at 
liberty  the  Scots  which  else,  by  yon  sun,  should  have  rotted  in  their 
prisons,  so  cruel  was  their  murder.  By  my  troth  I  cannot  tell  how  to 
answer  the  world  for  lack  of  justice."  Mason  to  the  council,  July  20th 
(1550),  MS.  France,  bundle  9,  State  Paper  Office.  Froude,  vol.  v.  p. 
306. 


A.D.  1554.]  KNOX  AND  CALVIN.  237 

employed  he  wooed  his  wife,  Marjory  Bowes.  He  was  after- 
wards chosen  one  of  the  chaplains  to  Edward  VI.,  and  being 
consulted  about  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  which  was 
undergoing  a  revision,  he  had  sufficient  influence  to  procure 
an  important  change  in  the  communion  office,  "  taking  away 
the  round  clipped  god,  wherein  standeth  all  the  holiness  of 
the  papists,"  and  substituting  common  bread.  The  Articles  of 
Religion  were  also  revised  by  his  pen  previous  to  their  rati- 
fication by  parliament.  Thus  he  played  an  important  part  in 
the  English  Reformation.  In  consideration  of  his  services  he 
was  offered  the  living  of  All-Hallows  in  London,  and  after- 
wards the  bishopric  of  Rochester ; x  but  he  declined  them  both, 
as  the  English  Church  had  not  yet  attained  to  his  standard  of 
purity.  The  accession  of  Mary  compelled  him  to  flee  for  his 
life,  with  less  than  ten  groats  in  his  pocket.  Setting  sail  for 
the  Continent,  he  landed  at  Dieppe  on  the  28th  January  1554. 

After  some  wanderings  among  the  Helvetian  churches,  he 
settled  at  Geneva.  Here  was  John  Calvin,  now  at  the  very 
height  of  his  reputation,  and  with  him  Knox  soon  formed  a 
strict  intimacy.  It  is  pleasing  to  think  of  these  two  great 
Reformers  walking  together  in  the  garden  surrounding  the 
house  provided  for  Calvin  by  the  State,  where  was  a  command- 
ing view  of  the  Leman  Lake,  and  a  magnificent  background 
of  Alpine  peaks.  Though  animated  by  the  same  spirit,  and 
holding  the  same  views,  they  were  very  unlike.  Knox  was  a 
rough,  unbending,  impetuous  man,  but  withal  fond  of  fun,  and 
full  of  humour.  Calvin  was  calm,  severe,  often  irritable,  but 
never  impassioned  ;  rising  in  pure  intellect  above  all  his  com- 
peers, like  Mont  Blanc  among  the  mountains  touching  the 
very  heavens,  yet  shrouded  in  eternal  snows.  There  is  no 
doubt  but  that  Calvin  exercised  a  great  influence  upon  the 
mind  of  Knox.  Knox,  though  the  older  of  the  two,  was  but 
beginning  his  work  ;  Calvin's  work  was  done.  Knox  was  but 
rising  into  fame  ;  Calvin  was  giving  laws  to  a  large  section  of 
Christendom. 

Knox  left  Geneva  to  take  the  charge  of  a  congregation  of 
English  refugees   at   Frankfort,  but   he  had  scarcely  entered 

1  "Northumberland  offered  it  that  he  might  be  'as  a  whetstone  to  quicken 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  whereof  he  had  need  '  ;  and  also  to  put  an 
end  to  Knox's  administrations  in  the  north  where  he  had  habitually  dis- 
obeyed the  Act  of  Uniformity,  and  cared  not  to  conceal  his  objections  to 
the  Prayer  Book.  Knox  would  not  accept,  and  in  a  sermon  he  afterwards 
preached  before  the  Court,  spoke  out  his  mind  very  plainly  about  Court 
and  Church."     Froude,  vol  v.  p.  475. 


238  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

upon  his  duties  when  dissensions  arose  in  regard  to  the  use  of 
a  liturgy.  When  things  were  in  this  state,  Dr  Cox,  who  had 
been  preceptor  to  Edward  VI.,  arrived  from  England,  and 
coming  to  church  during  service,  he  and  some  friends 
began  to  give  audible  responses  to  the  prayers.  Requested 
to  desist,  they  declined  to  do  so,  and  on  the  succeeding  Sun- 
day one  of  them  managed  to  get  admission  to  the  pulpit  and 
read  the  litany.  Knox  could  not  stand  this,  and  preached  one 
of  his  characteristic  sermons  against  the  innovators.  Religious 
rancour  increased  instead  of  abating.  Knox  was  maliciously 
accused  of  treason  against  the  Emperor  and  his  daughter-in- 
law  the  Queen  of  England  (inasmuch  as  he  had  called  the  one 
little  inferior  to  Nero,  and  the  other  more  cruel  than  Jezebel); 
and  to  escape  trouble  he  was  glad  to  quit  Frankfort,  and  retire 
to  his  retreat  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Leraan. 

But  now  a  longing  to  visit  home  came  upon  the  exile.  His 
mother-in-law  had  frequently  written  him  to  return  •  the  Re- 
formation in  Scotland  was  making  progress,  a  leading  man  was 
wanted,  and  so  he  set  his  face  homewards.  He  arrived  toward 
the  end  of  the  harvest  1555,  and  after  solacing  himself  for  a 
few  days  at  Berwick  with  his  wife  and  his  wife's  relatives,  he 
repaired  privately  to  Edinburgh.  Here  he  was  entertained  by 
a  pious  citizen  of  the  name  of  Syme.1  In  his  house  the  friends 
of  the  Reformation  were  accustomed  to  meet,  and  talk  over 
their  prospects  and  plans  with  the  pale-faced,  long-bearded 
man,  whom  they  already  acknowledged  as  their  chief.  A  ques- 
tion arose  which  must  be  discussed  and  determined,  for  it 
affected  the  conduct  of  many  of  the  Reformers.  These,  not- 
withstanding their  Protestant  principles,  were  accustomed  still 
to  go  to  the  mass,  and  outwardly  to  conform  themselves  to  the 
established  religion.  Knox  lifted  up  his  voice  against  this  as 
a  sinful  compromise.  He  denounced  it  as  a  wicked  com- 
pliance with  an  idolatrous  practice.  The  matter  began  to  be 
agitated  from  man  to  man,  and  Erskine  of  Dun,  to  set  the  sub- 
ject at  rest,  invited  some  leading  men  to  supper,  that  in  their 
presence  the  subject  might  be  debated  and  decided.  The 
chief  opponent  of  Knox  was  young  Maitland  of  Lethington, 
already  distinguished  for  his  acuteness  and  subtlety.  Mait- 
land defended  the  practice  as  expedient  in  the  circumstances 
in  which  they  were  placed,  and  quoted  the  instance  of  Paul 
resorting  to  the  temple  to  pay  his  vow  in  company  with  Jews 
still  unconverted.  Knox  answered  that  the  temple  service  was 
of  divine  origin,  and  that  the  mass  was  not  \  but  further,  he 
1  Knox's  History,  book  i. 


a.d.  1555-6.]  KNOX  AND  MAITLAND.  239 

boldly  declared  his  doubt  of  the  propriety  of  Paul  having 
done  as  he  did.     No  good  came  of  it,  but  rather  evil.1 

Maitland  was  candid  enough  to  confess  that  Knox  had  the 
best  of  the  argument,  and  so  he  had.  In  such  times  and  cir- 
cumstances very  little  is  to  be  gained  by  compromises.  The 
character  and  future  career  of  both  disputants  is  wonderfully 
brought  out  in  this  quiet  disputation  at  the  supper-table  of 
Erskine  of  Dun.  We  see  on  the  one  side  the  inflexible  Re- 
former, regardless  alike  of  fear  and  of  favour,  never  content 
with  half-measures,  crying,  "  Come  out  of  her,  and  be  ye  sepa- 
rate." On  the  other  side  sits  the  clear-headed,  quick-eyed 
secretary,  bending  to  expediency,  keeping  friends  with  all, 
making  the  most  of  everything.  The  results  of  the  contro- 
versy were  important.  The  Reformers  henceforward  refrained 
from  going  to  mass  or  taking  any  part  in  the  Church-services, 
and  it  would  appear  that  so  numerous  were  they  that  the  priests 
at  once  perceived  their  desertion.2  The  separation  from  the 
Established  Church  had  already  taken  place. 

Among  the  nobles  who  at  this  time  attached  themselves  to 
Knox,  attending  his  sermons  and  helping  him  in  his  work, 
were  the  Earl  of  Glencairn,  Lord  Lorn,  and  the  Prior  of  St 
Andrews,  afterwards  the  celebrated  Regent  Moray.  With 
these  at  his  side,  the  Reformer  need  fear  no  evil.  During  the 
winter  of  1555-6  he  was  indefatigable  in  preaching,  not  only  in 
the  capital,  but  in  the  provinces.  Repairing  to  Kyle  and 
Cunningham,  where  Glencairn  was  omnipotent,  he  preached 
the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  as  Wishart  had  done  before 
him.  Under  the  shield  of  Erskine  of  Dun  he  preached  in 
Angusshire.  At  Finlaystone-house,  at  Easter,  and  in  several 
other  baronial  houses  afterwards,  he  administered  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  Supper,  in  the  simple  yet  impressive  manner  in 
which  it  is  now  administered  in  the  Scotch  Church.3  Rumours 
of  all  this  flew  through  the  country,  and  the  clergy  became 
alarmed.  Here  was  a  bold  man  doing  a  bold  thing,  and  he 
must  be  quieted.     Counsel  was  taken,  an  indictment  prepared, 

1  Knox's  History,  book  i.  a  Ibid. 

3  Knox's  History,  book  i.  It  is  possible,  but  by  no  means  certain,  that 
he  used  either  the  Genevan  Book  of  Common  Order,  or  the  Liturgy  of 
Edward  VI.,  on  these  occasions.  Ninian  Wingate,  in  his  second  Tract, 
says  upbraidingly  : — ;'Quhy  cover  ze  zour  table  with  a  quhyte  clayth  at 
zour  communioun  ?  Quhy  cause  ze  utheris  than  the  minister  partlie  to  dis- 
tribut  zour  breid  and  wyne  ?  Quhy  mak  ze  zour  communioun  afoir  dennar  ? 
Quhy  use  ze  at  zour  communion  now  four,  now  three  coupis  and  mony 
breids?"  At  Findlaystone  House  a  pair  of  silver  candlesticks  inverted 
were  used  as  cups  at  the  first  communion. 


240  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X- 

and  the  heretical  preacher  cited  to  appear  at  the  Church  of 
the  Blackfriars  in  Edinburgh,  and  answer  for  his  conduct. 
Knox  felt  himself  strong  enough  to  obey,  and  his  friends  began 
to  muster  in  the  city,  in  order  to  be  present  at  the  trial,  and 
see  justice  done.  On  the  Saturday  preceding  the  day  fixed 
for  the  trial  the  summons  was  withdrawn,  on  the  pretext  that 
it  was  found  to  be  informal,  but  it  was  shrewdly  suspected  that 
the  stout  face  of  the  reformer  and  his  friends  had  intimidated 
the  bishops,  and  led  them  to  sist  procedure. 

Knox  was  resolved  to  take  advantage  of  his  position,  and 
not  retire  from  Edinburgh  without  striking  a  blow.  On  the 
very  day  on  which  he  should  have  stood  at  the  bar  as  a  culprit, 
he  ascended  the  pulpit  and  preached  to  the  largest  audience 
he  had  ever  addressed.1  At  a  subsequent  meeting,  held  at 
night,  the  Earl  Marischal  was  present,  and  was  so  impressed 
by  the  Reformer's  eloquence  that  he  joined  with  Glencairn  in 
urging  him  to  write  a  letter  to  the  queen-regent,  exhorting  her 
not  merely  to  protect  the  preachers,  but  to  give  heed  to  their 
doctrine.  The  letter  was  written,  and  presented  by  Glencairn. 
Mary  of  Guise  read  it,  kept  it  in  her  possession  for  a  day  or 
two,  and  then  handed  it  to  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  with  a 
smile  and  a  jest,  saying,  "  Please  you,  my  lord,  to  read  a  pas- 
quil."2     The  matter  shortly  became  too  serious  for  jesting. 

While  the  Reformation  was  thus  making  steady  progress, 
Knox  received  an  urgent  letter  from  the  English  Church  at 
Geneva  commanding  him  as  their  chosen  pastor  to  come  to 
them,  and  he  resolved  to  go.  Argyll  and  others  strongly  urged 
him  to  remain  in  Scotland,  where  he  was  so  much  required ; 
but  he  would  be  gone,  and  despatched  his  wife  and  mother-in- 
law  before  him,  as  if  he  did  not  mean  soon  to  return.3  His 
conduct  in  this  instance  is  difficult  to  account  for,  and  has  per- 
plexed all  his  apologists.  Why  should  he  leave  his  native 
country,  where  the  Reformation  dawn  was  steadily  advancing 
to  the  perfect  day,  to  take  the  charge  of  an  obscure  congrega- 
tion of  refugees  in  a  foreign  city  ?  Perhaps  the  genial  climate 
of  Geneva,  and  quiet  walks  by  its  blue  lake  with  the  high- 
browed  Calvin,  allured  him.  In  the  midst  of  din  and  agita- 
tion, men  often  yearn  for  seclusion.  It  is  much  more  probable, 
however,  that  he  took  advantage  of  the  call  from  Geneva  to 
escape  from  danger.     The   clergy  had   deserted  the  diet  in 

1  Knox's  History,  book,  i.  2  Ibid. 

3  He  said  to  Argyll  when  pressed,  "  that  if  God  blessed  these  small  be- 
ginnings, and  if  that  they  continued  in  godliness,  whensoever  they  pleased 
to  command  him,  they  should  find  him  obedient."     (History,  book  i.) 


a.d.  1556.]  KNOX  BURNED  IN  EFFIGY.  24 1 

May,  but  it  was  not  at  all  likely  they  had  entirely  abandoned 
the  idea  of  destroying  one  whose  destruction  was  essential  to 
their  own  safety.  Both  M'Crie  and  Tytler  are  of  opinion  that 
Knox  fled  to  save  his  life.  M'Crie  recognises  the  finger  of 
Providence  in  this  passage  of  his  history,  preserving  him  for 
happier  days.  Tytler  charges  him  with  something  like 
cowardice,  using  the  language  of  the  martyr,  but  lacking  the 
spirit.1  He  forgets  that  in  many  cases  "  discretion  is  the  better 
part  of  valour,"  and  that  he  is  but  a  fool  who  is  too  solicitous 
for  the  martyr's  crown.  If  Knox  was  really  in  danger  of  his 
life,  he  was  right  to  flee  ;  if  he  was  no  longer  able  to  beard  the 
bishops,  he  was  wise  to  get  out  of  their  way.  The  safety  of 
his  friends  was  not  compromised  by  his  departure.  He  was 
the  marked  man,  and  before  we  brand  him  as  a.  coward  we 
must  hold  that  retreat  is  in  no  case  allowable. 

Knox  was  no  sooner  gone  than  a  summons,  was  issued 
against  him.  As  the  criminal  on  this  occasion  did  not  appear 
at  the  bar,  the  bishops  occupied  the  bench.  He  was  con- 
victed of  heresy,  condemned,  and  burned  in  effigy  at  the 
market-cross  of  Edinburgh.  The  whole  affair  was  a  foolish 
bravado,  which  might  as  well  have  been  spared,.  When  the 
report  of  it  reached  the  Reformer  at  Geneva,  he  wrote  his 
"  Appellation  from  the  cruel  and  unjust  sentence  of  the  false 
bishops  and  clergy  of  Scotland."  These  different  events  were 
crowded  within  a  short  space.  Scarcely  nine  months  had 
elapsed  since  Knox's  arrival  from  the  continent,  and  only  two 
since  he  was  able  to  brave  the  Church  instead  of  standing  as  a 
criminal  at  its  bar.     There  had  been  a  recoil. 

But  though  Knox's  voice  was  no  longer  heard  sternly 
denouncing  idolatry,  Scotland  was  not  left  without  witnesses 
for  the  truth.  John  Douglas,  a  Carmelite  friar,  forsaking  his 
order,  became  chaplain  to  the  Earl  of  Argyll,  and  preached 
even  at  court  against  the  prevailing  superstitions.2  Paul 
Methven,  originally  a  baker,  exercised  a  powerful  influence 
upon  Dundee.  Others  of  less  note  laboured  in  other  parts  of 
the  country.  To  put  an  end  to  this,  the  queen-regent,  at  the 
instigation  of  the  clergy,  issued  a  proclamation,  citing  them  to 
appear  and  answer  for  their  conduct.  They  prepared  to  obey, 
and  their  friends  began  to  crowd  toward  Edinburgh.  Dread- 
ing a  tumult,  the  regent  made  proclamation  that  all  who  had 
come  to  the  city  without  the  express  permission  of  the  authori- 

1  History,  vol.  vi. 

2  Knox's  History,  book  i.     Keith,  book  i.  chap.  vi. 

VOL.   I.  Q 


242  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

ties  should  resort  to  the  borders,  and  remain  there  for  fifteen 
days.  As  the  gentlemen  of  the  west  had  just  returned  from 
border  duty,  they  were  in  no  humour  to  obey,  and  tumultu- 
ously  forced  themselves  into  the  presence  of  the  regent  at  the 
palace.  When  she  would  vindicate  her  proclamation,  Chalmers 
of  Gadgirth  stepped  forward,  and  in  no  very  courtly  style 
said,  "  We  know,  madam,  that  this  is  the  device  of  the 
bishops  who  stand  by  you ;  we  avow  to  God  we  shall  make  a 
day  of  it.  They  oppress  us  and  our  tenants  for  feeding  of 
their  idle  bellies ;  they  trouble  our  preachers,  and  would  mur- 
der them  and  us  ;  shall  we  suffer  this  any  longer?  No, 
madam,  it  shall  not  be."  1  And  therewith  every  man  put  on 
his  steel  bonnet,  and  began  to  finger  about  the  hilt  of  his 
sword.  The  queen  was  intimidated,  as  she  well  might  be,  and 
was  glad  to  get  rid  of  the  threatening  barons  by  promising  that 
their  preachers  would  no  more  be  disturbed. 

To  this  outburst  of  feudal  independence  there  succeeded  a 
period  of  tranquillity,  and  the  nobles  who  favoured  the  Refor- 
mation resolved  to  recall  Knox  from  Geneva.  Accordingly 
they  directed  a  letter  to  him,  in  which  they  spoke  of  "  their 
godly  thirst  for  his  presence,  and  declared  themselves  ready  to 
jeopard  their  lives  and  goods  for  advancing  the  glory  of  God." 
They  informed  him  that  the  magistracy  was  much  in  the  same 
state  as  when  he  left  the  country,  but  that  no  cruelty  had  been 
used  against  them,  and  that  the  friars  were  every  day  held  in 
less  estimation  by  the  queen  and  the  nobility.  This  letter  was 
dated  at  Stirling  on  the  ioth  of  March  1557,  and  subscribed 
by  Glencairn,  Erskine  of  Dun,  Lorn,  and  James  Stuart.2  It 
was  brought  to  Geneva  by  James  Syme  and  James  Barron, 
both  burgesses  of  Edinburgh,  and  Knox  having  first  laid  the 
matter  before  his  congregation  and  sought  the  advice  of 
Calvin,  resolved  to  comply  with  the  invitation,  and  return 
home.  In  the  beginning  of  October  he  proceeded  to  Dieppe, 
but  while  he  waited  there  for  a  vessel  to  convey  him  to  Scot- 
land, he  received  other  letters  which  dashed  all  his  hopes,  by 
counselling  him  to  remain  where  he  was.3  The  Reformers 
had  suddenly  changed  their  minds ;  they  had  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  better  to  enjoy  the  toleration  which 
they  had,  than  to  peril  it  by  seeking  more,  and  thus,  through 
faint-heartedness,  had  abandoned  the  project  of  a  thorough 
reformation. 

1  Knox's  History,  book  i.     Keith,  book  i.  chap.  vi. 

2  Knox's  History,  book  i.  3  Ibid. 


A.D.  1557-]  THE  FIRST  COVENANT.  243 

Sitting  down  in  his  lodging  at  Dieppe,  Knox  wrote  a  letter 
to  the  lords  whose  faith  had  failed,  after  inviting  him  to  come 
to  their  help.  He  referred  to  the  sacrifices  he  had  already 
made — he  had  severed  his  connection  with  his  flock  at  Geneva 
— he  had  seen  the  eyes  of  many  grave  men  weep  when  he 
took  his  last  good-night  of  them — he  had  left  his  poor  family 
destitute  of  all  head,  save  God  only.  He  acknowledged  his 
belief  that  troubles  would  arise,  but  it  was  their  duty  to  meet 
danger  in  so  glorious  a  cause.  He  spoke  of  their  position  as 
feudal  barons,  and  of  the  claims  which  their  vassals  had  upon 
them ;  and  finally  prayed  that  the  mighty  spirit  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  would  rule  and  guide  their  counsels  to  His  eternal  glory.1 
This  letter  was  dated  the  27th  October  1557.  With  it  he 
despatched  another  addressed  to  the  whole  nobility  of  Scot- 
land, and  others  to  particular  friends,  as  to  the  lairds  of  Dun 
and  Pittarrow.  In  the  meantime,  he  did  not  consider  it  pru- 
dent to  venture  into  Scotland.  It  was  a  period  of  suspense — 
the  fate  of  the  Reformation  depended  on  the  issue. 

The  letters  of  Knox  had  an  immediate  and  powerful  effect 
in  stimulating  the  decaying  zeal  of  the  Reforming  nobles. 
Like  a  fire  stirred  up  just  when  ready  to  die  out  among  its 
own  ashes,  it  now  burned  more  brightly  than  ever.  Meet- 
ing at  Edinburgh  in  the  month  of  December,  they  drew  up 
a  bond  which  knit  them  into  one  body,  pledged  them  to  a 
definite  line  of  conduct,  and  gave  consistency  and  shape  to 
their  plans.  They  had  separated  from  the  Roman  com- 
munion ;  they  now  formed  themselves  into  an  opposing 
phalanx.  This  document  is  known  in  Scottish  Church  history 
as  the  first  Covenant,  and  is  so  important  that  we  give  it 
entire. 

"We,  perceiving  how  Satan,  in  his  members,  the  antichrists 
of  our  time,  cruelly  do  rage,  seeking  to  overthrow  and  destroy 
the  gospel  of  Christ  and  His  congregation,  ought,  according 
to  our  bounden  duty,  to  strive  in  our  Master's  cause,  even 
unto  the  death,  being  certain  of  the  victory  in  Him.  The 
which  our  duty  being  well  considered,  we  do  promise  before 
the  Majesty  of  God  and  His  congregation,  that  we,  by  His 
grace,  shall,  with  all  diligence,  continually  apply  our  whole 
power,  substance,  and  our  very  lives,  to  maintain,  set  forward, 
and  establish  the  most  blessed  Word  of  God  and  His  congre- 
gation ;  and  shall  labour,  at  our  possibility,  to  have  faithful 
ministers,  truly  and  purely  to  minister  Christ's  gospel  and 
1  Knox's  History,  book  i. 


244  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

sacraments  to  His  people.  We  shall  maintain  them,  nourish 
them,  and  defend  them,  the  whole  congregation  of  Christ,  and 
every  member  thereof,  at  our  whole  powers  and  waging  of  our 
lives,  against  Satan  and  all  wicked  power  that  doth  intend 
tyranny  or  trouble  against  the  foresaid  congregation.  Unto 
the  which  holy  word  and  congregation  we  do  join  us,  and  so 
do  forsake  and  renounce  the  congregation  of  Satan,  with  all 
the  superstitious  abomination  and  idolatry  thereof ;  and,  more- 
over, shall  declare  ourselves  manifestly  enemies  thereto,  by 
this  our  faithful  promise  before  God,  testified  to  His  congre- 
gation by  our  subscription  to  these  presents,  at  Edinburgh,  the 
3rd  day  of  December  1557  years.  God  called  to  witness — A., 
Earl  of  Argyle,  Glencairn,  Morton,  Archibald,  Lord  of  Lorn, 
John  Erskine  of  Dun,"  &c. 

From  the  time  that  the  Reformers  had  resolved  to  refrain 
from  being  present  at  mass,  they  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
meeting  among  themselves  for  the  purpose  of  worship.  They 
generally  assembled  in  private  houses,  and  one  of  the  number 
was  chosen  to  read  the  Scriptures,  to  exhort  them,  and  give 
utterance  to  their  prayers.  Roman  controversialists l  affirm 
that  some  lords  and  gentlemen  administered  the  sacrament  of 
the  Supper  to  their  own  household  servants  and  tenants ;  and 
the  "  First  Book  of  Discipline  "  gives  countenance  to  the  idea 
that  such  irregularities  had  occurred.2  Elders  and  deacons 
were  chosen  to  superintend  the  affairs  of  these  infant  com- 
munities. Edinburgh  has  the  honour  of  having  given  the 
example,  and  the  names  of  her  first  five  elders  are  still  pre- 
served.3 The  existence  of  these  small  Protestant  congregations, 
scattered  over  the  country,  probably  led  the  lords  to  employ 
the  word  so  frequently  in  their  bond,  and  this  again  led  to 
their  being  called  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation.  It  was  a 
bold  document  to  which  they  had  thus  put  their  names.     It 

1  Ninian  Wingate.  His  writings  have  been  published  by  the  Maitland 
Club. 

2  "  Where  not  long  agoe  men  stood  in  such  admiration  of  that  idol 
the  masse,  that  none  durst  have  presumed  to  have  said  the  masse  but 
the  shaven  sort,  the  beast's  marked  men  ;  some  dare  now  be  so  bold,  as 
without  all  vocation  to  minister,  as  they  suppose,  the  true  sacrament  in 
open  assemblies  ;  and  some  idiots  (yet  more  wickedly  and  impudently) 
dare  counterfeit  in  their  house  that  which  the  true  ministers  do  in  open 
congregation,  they  presume,  we  say,  to  do  it  in  houses  without  rever- 
ence, without  word  preached,  and  without  minister."  (Fir^t  liook  of 
Discipline,  chap.  xvi.  sect,  i.) 

*  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox.      Period  Fifth. 


A.D.  1558.]  REFORMING  RESOLUTIONS.  245 

was  throwing  down  the  gauntlet  to  all  the  powers  of  the  exist- 
ing Church  and  State.  It  was  a  solemn  repetition  of  their  put- 
ting on  their  steel  bonnets  in  the  presence  of  the  queen.  It  is 
easy  to  see  the  spirit  of  feudalism  underlying  the  spirit  of  the 
Reformation. 

General  declarations  are  often  intended  merely  for  parade, 
and  having  served  their  purpose  they  are  allowed  to  lie  idle, 
but  it  was  not  so  here.  Immediately  after  the  subscription  of 
the  Covenant,  the  lords  who  signed  it,  and  those  who  concur- 
red with  them,  passed  the  following  resolutions  : — 

I.  It  is  thought  expedient,  advised,  and  ordained,  that  in  all 
parishes  of  this  realm  the  Common  Prayer  be  read  weekly  on 
Sunday  and  other  festival  days,  publicly  in  the  parish  churches, 
with  the  lessons  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  conform  to 
the  order  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  And  if  the  curates 
of  the  parishes  be  qualified,  that  they  read  the  same  ;  and  if 
they  be  not,  or  if  they  refuse,  that  the  most  qualified  in  the 
parish  use  and  read  the  same. 

II.  It  is  thought  necessary  that  doctrine,  preaching,  and  in- 
terpretation of  Scriptures  be  had  and  used  privately  in  quiet 
houses,  without  great  conventions  of  the  people  thereto  till  God 
move  the  prince  to  grant  public  preaching  by  faithful  and  true 
ministers.1 

Resolutions  like  these  were  enough  to  make  the  clergy 
flock  to  the  regent  with  complaints  ;  for  here  was  a  small  knot 
of  barons  quietly  setting  aside  the  "  Three  Estates,"  usurping 
their  power,  and  making  ordinances  affecting  the  whole  realm. 
What  title  had  they  to  order  what  was  to  be  done  in  all  the 
parishes  of  Scotland  ?  Who  invested  them  with  a  commission 
to  compel  the  curate  to  lay  aside  his  missal,  and  adopt  the 
Common  Prayer-Book  in  its  stead  ?  A  body  of  dissenters  so 
acting  in  our  day  would  either  be  laughed  at  for  their  insol- 
ence, or  punished  for  their  treason.  We  cannot  justify  these 
Lords  of  the  Congregation  by  any  law  or  by  any  precedent ; 
and  yet  we  must  thank  them  for  doing  as  they  did,  for  we  owe 
to  them  our  religion  and  our  liberties.  Perhaps  it  was  a  pre- 
sumptuous sin  in  them  assuming  to  legislate  for  both  Church 
and  State,  but  their  legislation  was  such  as  to  save  both.  But 
whatever  we  may  think  of  the  first  resolution,  the  second  un- 
doubtedly breathes  a  spirit  of  moderation.  It  shows  that  the 
Reforming  nobles  wished  to  avoid  a  collison  with  the  State  ; 
and  perhaps  we  ought  to  interpret  the  first  by  the  light  of  the 
1  Knox's  History,  book  i.     Keith,  book  i.  chap.  vi. 


246  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

second,  and  regard  it  as  referring  to  what  they  were  determined 
to  bring  about  by  constitutional  means,  rather  than  to  what 
they  designed  to  do  by  their  own  authority.  At  all  events, 
they  could  carry  it  out  only  in  those  districts  where  they  had 
feudal  jurisdiction.  Their  mode  of  procedure  is  referred  to  in 
a  letter  from  Cecil  to  Throkmorton,  of  9th  July  1559,  from 
which  we  also  learn  that  the  Prayer-Book  referred  to  was  that 
of  Edward  VI.  "  The  Protestants,"  says  he,  "  are  at  Edin- 
burgh. They  offer  no  violence,  but  dissolve  Religious  Houses, 
directing  the  lands  thereof  to  the  Crown,  and  to  ministry  in 
the  Church.  The  parish  churches  they  deliver  of  altars  and 
images,  and  have  received  the  service  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land according  to  King  Edward's  book."1 

The  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  about  this  period,  made  an 
effort  to  detach  the  Earl  of  Argyll  from  the  Congregation.  He 
sent  to  him  Sir  David  Hamilton  with  a  friendly  letter,  and  an 
elaborate  memorandum,  pointing  out  the  disgrace  which  heresy 
would  bring  upon  his  ancient  and  honourable  house  ;  counsel- 
ling him  to  dismiss  the  Protestant  preacher  he  entertained  as 
his  chaplain ;  and  offering  to  provide  him  with  a  confessor  of 
orthodox  faith.  Argyll  was  not  to  be  moved.  He  answered 
the  archbishop's  memorandum  minutely,  but  in  a  moderate 
spirit,  adhering  to  the  opinions  and  cause  he  had  espoused. 
It  was  not  long  after  this  that  he  died  ;  but  his  son,  a  still 
more  decided  Reformer,  succeeded  to  his  influence  in  the 
Western  Highlands.2 

Unfortunately  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  now  resorted 
to  sterner  measures  to  stay  the  progress  of  the  Reformation, 
and  he  put  forth  his  hand,  not  upon  a  powerful  baron,  but 
upon  a  helpless  priest,  venerable  for  his  piety  and  his  years. 
Walter  Mill  had  been  the  parish  priest  of  Lunan,  but  during 
the  primacy  of  Cardinal  Beaton  he  had  incurred  the  sus- 
picion of  heresy,  and  sought  safety  in  concealment.  Deceived 
by  the  clemency  of  the  queen-regent,  he  had  now  ventured 
from  his  hiding-place,  and  was  apprehended  at  Dysart. 
When  brought  before  the  ecclesiastical  tribunal  at  St  Andrews, 
the  old  man  appeared  hardly  able  to  stand,  much  less  to 

1  Forbes's  State  Papers,  i.  155,  quoted  in  the  Notes  to  Dr  M'Crie's 
Life  of  Knox.  There  is  afterwards  quoted  a  letter  of  the  same  period 
from  Kirkcaldy  of  Grange  to  Sir  Henry  Percy,  which  decides  the  con- 
troversy which  was  waged  by  Sage  and  Anderson  regarding  the  book 
used,  still  more  definitively.     The  fact  is  now  beyond  all  controversy. 

2  Knox's  History,  book  i. 


a.d.  1558.]  MARTYRDOM  OF  MILL.  247 

defend  himself;  but  when  charge  after  charge  was  brought 
against  him,  he  answered  with  such  firmness  as  to  show  that 
an  undaunted  spirit  could  rise  superior  to  all  bodily  infirmity. 
He  was  convicted  of  heresy  ;  but  such  was  the  commiseration 
for  his  fate,  that  no  temporal  judge  could  be  got  to  pronounce 
upon  him  sentence  of  death,  till  a  dissolute  retainer  of  the 
archbishop  performed  the  odious  office.  When  led  to  the 
stake,  his  gray  hairs  and  tottering  steps  excited  universal 
sympathy.  "  As  for  myself,"  said  the  patriarchal  martyr 
from  amidst  the  flames,  "  I  am  fourscore  and  two  years 
old,  and  cannot  live  long  by  the  course  of  nature  ;  but  a 
hundred  better  shall  rise  out  of  the  ashes  of  my  bones,  and 
I  trust  in  God  that  I  am  the  last  that  shall  suffer  death  in 
Scotland  for  this  cause/'1  His  prayer  was  heard;  he  was 
the  last. 

The  names  of  twenty  individuals  2  are  recorded  as  having 
lost  their  lives  in  the  long  conflict  between  Popery  and  Pro- 
testantism in  our  country  ;  a  small  number  when  we  consider 
that  it  was  a  life  and  death  struggle  between  an  ancient 
system  deeply  rooted  in  many  hearts,  and  a  new-born  hostile 
faith,  flushed  with  youthful  vigour,  and  bent  not  merely  on 
toleration  but  conquest.  A  much  greater  number  might 
fall  in  an  out-post  skirmish  or  a  midnight  sortie,  which 
would  be  deemed  too  insignificant  to  be  mentioned  in 
history.  But  while  history  may  fail  to  mourn  every  hero 
who  falls  in  battle,  she  will  ever  feel  it  her  most  sacred 
duty  to  pause  and  shed  a  tear  on  the  martyr's  grave.  Men 
will  never  regard  with  equal  veneration  death  defiantly  met 
on  the  battle-field,  and  death  calmly  endured  at   the   stake. 

1  Knox's  History,  book  ii.  Lindsay  of  Pitscottie,  History.  Keith, 
book  i.  chap.  vi.     Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  ii. 

2  This  is  the  sum  of  the  names  given  by  Fox  the  martyrologist,  and 
others.  M'Crie,  in  his  Notes,  tries  to  make  it  appear  that  many  more 
were  put  to  death  for  their  religion  ;  that  between  1534  and  1539  about 
sixty  persons  suffered  death,  banishment,  or  confiscation  of  goods,  and 
many  more  not  included  in  that  period.  He  refers  to  the  Treasurer's 
Accounts,  and  Register  of  Privy  Seal,  and  other  ancient  records.  We 
think  it  highly  probable  that  many  suffered  fines,  the  confiscation  of 
goods,  and  exile  ;  but  we  must  still  doubt  if  more,  at  least  many  more, 
than  those  we  have  mentioned  suffered  death.  It  is  wrong  to  say  that 
history  has  recorded  the  sufferings  of  the  rich  and  distinguished  only — 
several  of  those  whose  names  have  been  preserved  belonged  to  the 
poorer  orders  ;  and  piety  in  all  ages  has  exhibited  a  peculiar  solicitude 
to  treasure  up  the  tears  and  blood  of  the  martyrs,  so  that  we  cannot 
believe  many  names  have  been  lost. 


248  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  X. 

The  hundreds  of  thousands  who  perished  in  the  European 
wars  which  followed  the  Reformation  are  forgotten ;  the 
memory  of  the  martyrs  is  fondly  cherished  ;  and  it  is  right 
they  should  be  held  in  everlasting  remembrance.  It  is  the 
silent  protest  of  all  generations  against  the  horrid  iniquity  of 
putting  a  man  to  death,  under  the  shadow  of  justice,  simply 
for  the  opinions  he  may  have  held.  And  yet  that  a  man 
should  be  punished,  even  to  burning,  for  error  in  intellectual 
belief,  is  an  opinion  which  still  lingers  in  the  world.  It  were 
folly  to  say  that  the  smallness  of  the  number  of  our  martyrs  is 
honourable  to  a  Church  which  has  stereotyped  persecution  in 
its  creed  ;  but  it  is  honourable  to  the  moderation  of  the  men 
who,  at  that  period  of  the  conflict,  held  in  their  hands  the 
government  of  the  country  ;  it  is  honourable  to  the  humane 
genius  of  the  Scottish  nation. 

The  death  of  Mill  was  followed  by  a  strong  reaction  in 
favour  of  Protestantism.  The  inhabitants  of  St  Andrews 
placed  a  cairn  of  stones  over  his  grave,  and  every  district  of 
the  country  was  canvassed  for  adherents  to  the  Congrega- 
tion, which  now  began  to  feel  its  numerical  strength.1  While 
the  blood  of  the  people  was  up,  it  was  resolved  to  present  a 
remonstrance  and  petition  to  the  regent.  In  this  document 
the  Protestant  barons  declared  that  such  was  the  tyranny  of 
the  ecclesiastical  Estate,  that  there  remained  for  them 
"nothing  but  fagot,  fire,  and  sword  ;"  that  they  ought,  as  a 
part  of  tire  power  of  the  realm,  to  have  defended  their 
brethren  from  cruel  murder,  and  have  given  open  testimony 
of  their  faith  with  them  ;  that  they  now  desired  to  do  this, 
lest  their  silence  should  afterwards  be  liable  to  misconstruc- 
tion ;  and  they  concluded  by  petitioning  her  Grace — I.  That 
it  might  be  lawful  for  them  to  meet  in  public  or  in  private 
for  common  prayers  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  to  the  end  they 
might  grow  in  knowledge,  and  be  induced  in  sincerity  of 
heart  to  commend  unto  God  the  holy  universal  Church,  the 
queen  their  sovereign,  her  honourable  and  gracious  husband, 
the  succession  to  the  throne,  her  grace  the  regent,  the 
nobility,  and  the  whole  estate  of  the  realm.  II.  That  it 
should  be  lawful  for  any  person  of  sufficient  knowledge  to 
interpret  any  hard  places  of  Scripture  that  might  be  read  in 
their  meetings.  III.  That  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper 
should  be  administered  in  the  vernacular,  and  the  latter  in 
both  kinds.  And,  lastly,  That  the  wicked  and  scandalous  lives 
1  Keith's  History,  book  i.  chap.  vi. 


A.D.  1558.]  DEMANDS  OF  THE  PROTESTANTS.  249 

of  the  clergy  should  be  reformed,  according  to  the  rules  con- 
tained in  the  New  Testament,  the  writings  of  the  ancient 
fathers,  and  the  laws  of  Justinian,  to  which  three  they  were 
willing  to  leave  the  decision  of  the  controversy  between  them 
and  the  clergy.1 

This  petition  was  presented  to  the  queen- 
•  ISS  -  regent  by  Sir  James  Sandilands,  Preceptor  of  the 
Knights  of  St  John,  a  man  of  venerable  years  and  un- 
blemished life,  who  had  early  attached  himself  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Reformation.  The  queen  received  the  petition 
with  her  usual  benignity,  and  granted  permission  for  the 
evangel  to  be  preached  and  the  sacraments  administered  in 
the  vulgar  tongue  ;  only  she  requested  that,  in  the  meantime, 
they  should  not  preach  publicly  in  Edinburgh  or  Leith  ;  and 
the  Reformers,  in  turn,  to  show  their  gratitude  and  desire  for 
peace,  interdicted  Douglas  from  preaching  in  the  latter  town, 
as  he  had  intended  to  do.2  Encouraged  by  the  success  of 
their  application  to  the  regent,  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation 
resolved  to  bring  the  matter  before  a  meeting  of  ecclesiastics, 
which  was  sitting  in  Edinburgh  in  the  month  of  November 
1558.  After  some  violent  altercation,  they  seemed  willing  to 
grant  that  the  gospel  might  be  preached  and  the  sacraments 
administered  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  provided  the  mass,  purga- 
tory, and  prayers  for  the  dead  were  retained.3  It  was  well 
for  Scotland  that  the  Reformers  did  not  accept  of  this  com- 
promise ;  and  yet  it  was  much  for  Romish  ecclesiastics  to 
offer.  There  must  have  been  amongst  them  at  the  time  a  feel- 
ing of  weakness,  and  a  desire  to  patch  up  a  compromise  before 
all  compromise  became  hopeless. 

The  period  for  the  meeting  of  parliament  was  now  rapidly 
approaching.  It  had  been  cited  to  meet  at  Edinburgh  toward 
the  end  of  November  ;  and  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation 
resolved  to  bring  their  grievances  before  it.  Their  petition 
concluded  with  the  following  specific  requests  : — I.  That  all 
acts  of  parliament  empowering  Churchmen  to  proceed  against 
heretics  should  be  suspended  until  a  general  council  of  the 
Church,  lawfully  convened,  should  decide  the  present  contro- 
versies in  religion  ;  and  that,  in  the  meantime,   Churchmen 

1  Knox's  History,  book  ii.     Keith,  book  i.  chap.  viii. 

2  Knox's  History,  book  ii. 

3  Lesley,  Keith,  and  others,  speak  of  a  Council  being  held  at  this 
date  ;  but  there  is  no  record  of  it,  and  it  was  probably  only  an  informal 
meeting  of  churchmen. 


250  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

should  only  be  allowed  to  act  as  accusers  before  a  temporal 
judge,  and  not  to  sit  as  judges  themselves.  II.  That,  in  all 
cases  of  this  kind,  an  authentic  copy  of  the  accusation  and 
depositions  should  be  allowed  to  the  accused,  and  every 
defence  competent  in  law  permitted  to  him.  III.  That  every 
party  accused  should  be  allowed  to  interpret  his  own  mind 
and  meaning,  and  that  such  interpretation  should  be  held 
superior  to  the  deposition  of  any  witness  whatever.  Lastly, 
That  none  of  the  Congregation  should  be  condemned  for 
heresy,  unless  he  should  be  convicted  by  the  Word  of  God  to 
have  erred  from  the  faith  which  the  Holy  Scripture  witnessed 
to  be  necessary  to  salvation.1 

These  demands  were  first  submitted  to  the  queen-regent, 
whose  good  offices  the  Reformers  were  anxious  to  secure. 
"She  spared  not  amiable  looks,"  says  Knox>  "and  good 
words  in  abundance  ;  but  always  she  kept  our  petition  close 
in  her  pocket/' 2  The  Reformers  urged  her  to  bring  it  before 
parliament ;  but  she  spoke  of  the  unfitness  of  the  time,  the 
strength  of  the  ecclesiastical  Estate,  and  manoeuvred  so 
cleverly  that  the  parliament  was  dissolved  without  the  peti- 
tion being  so  much  as  presented.  The  petitioners,  however, 
publicly  protested  that  it  would  be  lawful  for  them  to 
worship  God  according  to  their  consciences,  without  incurring 
any  danger  of  life  and  lands ;  that  should  any  tumult  arise  on 
account  of  religious-  differences,  the  .blame  of  it  should  not 
be  imputed  to  them  ;  and  that  their  requests  had  no  other  end 
but  the  reformation  of  the  abuses  which  had  grown  up  in  the 
Church.3 

Up  to  this  point,  royal  favour  appeared  to  smile  upon  the 
Reformers.  Mary  of  Guise  almost  seemed  to  have  forgotten 
her  family  traditions  and  her  country's  faith,  that  she  might 
foster  the  Reformation..  The  Protestants  carried  all  their 
sorrows  to  the  foot  of  the  throne,  certain  that  they  would  be 
received  with  benignant  smiles,  and  dismissed  with  most 
gracious  assurances.  The  regent  had  a  purpose  to  serve,  which 
made  her  court  the  Protestants  ;  but  when  it  was  served,  her 
countenance  forthwith  was  changed.  Her  daughter  was 
grown  up  to  womanhood ;  the  conditions  of  her  marriage 
with  the  Dauphin  must  be  arranged  ;  and  the  friendly  influ- 
ence of  the  Protestant  lords  was  required.  In  truth,  such 
are   the   strange   caprices    of  state   policy,   that  this  Guisian 

1  Knox's  History,  book  ii.     Keith,  book  i.  chap.  viii. 

2  History,  book  ii.  3  Knox's  History,  book  ii. 


A.D.  1558]  POLICY  OF  THE  QUEEN-REGENT.  25 1 

queen  was  compelled  to  look  to  the  Protestants  rather  than 
to  the  Papists  for  support.  The  Duke  of  Chastelherault 
regarded  her  with  jealousy  ever  since  she  had  supplanted 
him  in  the  regency  ;  he  regarded  her  with  especial  jealousy 
when  dealing  with  matrimonial  affairs,  as  she  might  supplant 
him  in  his  hopes  of  succeeding  to  the  throne  ;  and  the  Duke 
of  Chastelherault,  through  his  brother,  the  archbishop,  had  a 
powerful  sway  over  the  whole  ecclesiastical  body.  She  artfully 
played  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation  against  the  adherents  of 
Hamilton ;  and  thus  Protestantism,  for  a  time  at  least,  was  on 
the  royal  and  winning  side  of  the  game. 

In  a  parliament  held  on  the  14th  of  December  1557,  nine 
commissioners  had  been  appointed  to  proceed  to  Paris,  and 
be  present  at  the  marriage  of  the  queen — the  Archbishop  of 
Glasgow,  the  Bishops  of  Ross  and  Orkney,  the  Earls  of 
Rothes  and  Cassillis,  Lords  Seton  and  Fleming,  the  Prior  of 
St  Andrews,  and  the  Laird  of  Dun.1  The  instructions  to  the 
commissioners  were  framed  in  a  wise  and  patriotic  spirit,  and 
the  commissioners  discharged  their  trust  faithfully  and  well. 
The  open  conduct  of  the  French  court  was  fair  and  honour- 
able ;  but,  veiled  from  the  light  of  day,  there  had  been  per- 
petrated a  deed  of  base  and  deliberate  villany.  The  Scottish 
queen — a  confiding  girl  of  fifteen — was  induced  to  sign  three 
separate  documents,  by  which  she  made  over  in  free  gift  her 
kingdom  of  Scotland  to  the  French  king  in  the  event  of  her 
dying  childless.  But  all  this  was  unknown  at  the  time,  and 
on  the  24th  of  April  1558  the  marriage  was  solemnised  with 
extraordinary  pomp  in  the  Church  of  Notre  Dame.  When 
the  days  of  feasting  were  ended,  and  the  commissioners  were 
on  their  way  home,  no  fewer  than  four  of  them  sickened  and 
died  at  Dieppe.  The  thing  was  mysterious  ;  the  Princes  of 
Guise  were  regarded  as  skilful  poison-seethers,  and  it  was 
universally  believed  in  Scotland  that  they  had  prescribed  for 
the  commissioners,  although  it  was  difficult  to  show  what 
object  they  could  have  for  their  death.  On  the  29th  of 
November  1558  a  parliament  was  called  to  receive  the  surviv- 
ing members  of  the  fatal  expedition,  and  in  this  convention  of 
Estates  the  queen  regent  managed  parties  so  well  as  to  get 
them  to  consent  to  bestow  upon  the  Dauphin  of  France  the 
matrimonial  crown  of  Scotland.  What  more  could  the  house 
of  Guise  desire,  and  had  not  their  own  diplomacy  brought 
all  these  things  to  pass  ? 

1  Keith,  book  i.  chap.  vii. 


252  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

But  other  events  came  crowding  fast,  and,  with  them,  other 
plans  began  to  develop  themselves.  On  the  17th  of  Novem- 
ber 1558,  Mary  of  England  died,  and  resuscitated  Popery  died 
with  her  a  second  death.  Her  sister  Elizabeth  succeeded  her 
on  the  throne,  and,  with  a  woman's  true  instinct  of  policy, 
placed  herself  at  the  head  of  the  Protestants  of  Europe.  But 
Elizabeth  had  been  declared  illegitimate  by  the  parliament, 
and,  Elizabeth  out  of  the  way,  Mary  of  Scotland  was  the  next 
heir  to  the  English  throne.  The  house  of  Guise  wished  to 
take  the  tide  that  leads  to  fortune  at  the  flood.  They  per- 
suaded their  niece  to  assume  the  title  and  arms  of  Queen  of 
England  and  Ireland,  and  she  did  so.  And  now  if  Scotland 
could  only  be  quieted.;  if  the  Congregation  could  be  coaxed 
to  give  up  their  foolish  fondness  for  preachers,  or  if  they  could 
be  forced  into  compliance  by  the  tramp  of  armed  men,  it 
seemed  impossible  that  Elizabeth  could  resist  the  odds  that 
might  be  brought  against  her.  With  papal  France  on  the 
south,  and  papal  Scotland  on  the  north,  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  Papists  in  its  own  heart,  might  not  the  world 
behold  with  wonder  Popery  once  more  restored  to  England, 
amid  the  blazing  of  bonfires  in  which  martyrs  burned,  and  a 
daughter  of  Guise  reigning  by  the  Thames  and  the  Liffy,  as 
well  as  by  the  Forth  and  the  Seine.  All  this  was  thought 
possible,  and  therefore  the  queen-regent  no  longer  smiled 
upon  the  Protestants,  but  frowned,  and  threatened,  and  kept 
her  French  soldiers  in  drill,  that  they  might  use  the  last  argu- 
ment if  all  others  should  fail. 

On  the  2d  of  March  1559,  a  provincial  synod  assembled  at 
Edinburgh  to  consider  the  state  of  the  Church.  There  was 
laid  before  it  a  document  which  had  been  presented  to  the 
queen-regent  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  nobility,  who  apparently 
wished  the  reformation  of  the  Church  rather  than  its  destruc- 
tion. It  stated  .that  the  canons  of  previous  councils  had  pro- 
duced little  or  no  fruit,  and  that  the  Spiritual  Estate,  which 
ought  to  be  a  mirror  and  lantern  to  the  rest,  "is  deteriorate  nor 
emends  be  ony  sic  persuasion  as  lies  hedertells  usit."  It  prayed 
therefore  that  the  canons  of  former  councils  should  be  enforced 
against  the  clergy  who  were  living  scandalous  lives ;  that  there 
should  be  preaching  of  God's  word  in  every  parish  Church  on 
the  Sundays  and  holidays  ;  that  none  should  be  admitted  to  the 
ministry  unless  qualified,  and  able  at  least  to  read  the  Catechism 
distinctly  and  plainly ;  that  the  prayers  should  be  in  the  vulgar 
tongue  ;  that  at  the  celebration  of  the  sacraments,  their  nature 


a.d.  1559.]  THE  LAST  OF  THE  COUNCILS.  253 

should  be  explained  to  the  people  in  English ;  that  mortuary 
dues  and  Easter  offerings  should  be  made  optional,  and  con- 
sistoria)  processes  shortened.  The  petitioners  declared,  at  the 
same  time,  that  no  one  should  be  allowed  to  speak  irreverently 
of  the  sacrament  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  that  no  one 
should  be  suffered  to  take  it  upon  himself  to  administer  it,  and 
finally,  that  no  manner  of  person  should  destroy  Church, 
Chapel,  or  religious  place,  or  their  ornaments,  or  innovate  on 
the  lovable  ceremonies  of  Holy  Kirk.  A  truly  moderate  and 
sensible  petition. 

The  Synod,  with  this  document  before  them,  and  seeing 
that  affairs  were  becoming  serious,  passed  no  fewer  than  thirty- 
four  canons.  They  appointed  a  commission  to  enforce  the 
canons  against  the  immoralities  of  the  clergy  ;  all  churchmen, 
moreover,  must  be  decently  dressed  and  shaved  ;  the  canonical 
hours  must  be  said  daily,  and  the  mass  at  least  every  Sunday 
and  feast-day ;  Monasteries  were  to  be  inspected,  Churches 
repaired ;  bishops  must  preach  at  least  four  times  a  year  in 
their  dioceses,  parish  priests  must  preach  oftener  than  four  times 
a  year  if  they  were  able  to  preach  at  all ;  if  they  were  not  able, 
they  must  go  to  the  public  schools  (in  gymnasiis  publicis\  and 
learn  to  do  it,  but  if  above  fifty  years  of  age  they  might  pro- 
vide a  substitute;  the  nature  of  the  sacraments  was  to  be 
explained  to  the  people;  mortuary  dues  were  not  to  be 
exacted  from  the  very  poor ;  and  the  sacraments,  as  ad- 
ministered by  the  reformers,  were  not  to  be  recognised. 
There  was  silence  about  the  prayers  in  the  language  of  the 
people.  But  as  the  cry  for  instruction  was  every  day  becoming 
more  clamorous,  a  short  exposition  of  the  mass  was  ordered  to 
be  published.1  History  condescends  to  relate  that  it  was  sold 
for  two-pence,  and  therefore  called  in  derision,  "  The  Two- 
Penny  Faith."  2 

Such  were  the  canons  of  the  last  of  the  councils.  They 
will  remain  to  all  time  as  a  memorial  of  the  state  of  the  Scotch 
Church  just  before  its  reformation.  Notwithstanding  the 
decrees  of  previous  Synods,  in  very  many  of  the  manses  and 
episcopal  palaces  there  were  still  unwedded  wives  and  numerous 
families,  and  now  these  must  be  turned  to  the  door,  or,  at 
least,  smuggled  away  out  of  sight;  so  had  the  Synod  ordained; 

1  Robertson's  Concilia,  vol.  ii.  pp.  151-75. 

2  Knox,  book  i.,  and  Spottiswood,  book  iii.  A  Black  Letter  copy  of 
this  tract  still  exists.  It  is  only  four  pages.  It  is  republished  in  the 
Miscellany  of  the  Ballantyne  Club,  vol.  iii.  p.  313. 


254  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

and  inquisitors  were  appointed  to  see  the  thing  done,  with 
power  to  fine  and  even  deprive  of  the  benefice.  It  was  the 
publicity  of  the  thing !  Naked  and  not  ashamed !  What 
were  the  wretched  shavelings  to  do  ?  They  must  either  break 
with  Rome,  or  part  with  those  who  were  dearest  to  them  on 
earth.  The  enforced  decrees  of  clerical  celibacy  had  brought 
this  to  pass.  Bishop  Lesley,  the  Romish  historian,  affirms 
that  many,  especially  among  the  younger  clergy,  preferred  the 
former  course  and  joined  the  Protestants,  that  they  might  keep 
their  harlots  under  the  name  of  wives  1 — an  unworthy  taunt, 
coming  from  such  a  quarter.  But  this  was  not  all — the  parish 
parsons  must  read  the  catechism  and  preach ;  or,  if  they  could 
not  do  so,  they  must  go  to  school  and  learn.  Poor  old  priests, 
up  to  fifty  years  of  age,  sent  to  school  to  learn  to  read  and 
perorate,  and  all  to  please  those  horrid  Calvinists,  who  were 
turning  the  world  upside  down  !  They  might  shave  a  little 
cleaner,  and  put  on  their  rochets,  if  that  would  save  the 
church,  but  to  go  to  school  again  !  Yet  the  Synod  had  decreed 
it,  and  was  now  determined  to  enforce  it — for  were  not  in- 
quisitors appointed?  It  was  clear  a  crisis  had  come.  The 
Synod  was  willing  to  go  as  far  as  it  could,  and  if  possible  meet 
the  Reformers  half  way,  though  it  was  obliged  to  evade  the 
serious  proposition  as  to  the  offices  of  the  church  being  read 
in  the  vulgar  tongue,  as  the  Council  of  Trent  had  not  yet 
decided  the  matter.  But  these  half-measures  came  too  late  : 
the  hurricane  was  already  rising,  which,  in  less  than  another  year, 
was  to  strew  the  beach  with  the  wreckage  of  the  Roman  Church. 
It  was  feared  that  the  regent,  to  strengthen  the  resolutions 
of  the  Synod,  might  call  the  Protestant  preachers  to  account. 
In  these  circumstances,  the  Earl  of  Glencairn  and  Sir  Hugh 
Campbell  of  Loudon  sought  an  interview  with  her  Grace,  to 
plead  that  their  preachers  might  be  protected  so  long  as  they 
preached  sound  doctrine ;  but  the  regent  declared  that, 
maugre  all  they  could  do,  their  ministers  should  be  banished, 
though  they  preached  as  soundly  as  St  Paul.  The  barons 
took  the  liberty  of  reminding  her  of  her  promises.  "  The 
promises  of  princes,"  said  the  queen,  "  are  no  further  to 
be  urged  than  it  suits  their  convenience  to  keep  them." 
"  Then,"  said  the  earl,  "  if  you  renounce  your  promises,  we 

1  Non  quidem  ut  conscientioe  suae  satisfacerent  sed  ut  libidinem  expleturi, 
scorta,  uxorum  titulo,  impune  deinceps  foverent.  Lesley  De  Rebus,  &c., 
pp.  546-7. 


A.D.  1559.]  PREACHERS  OUTLAWED.  255 

must  renounce  our  allegiance."1  The  boldness  of  the  feudal 
baron  startled  the  finessing  woman,  and,  lowering  her  tone, 
she  promised  to  think  of  what  could  best  be  done  to  remedy 
what  was  wrong. 

Whatever  meaning  the  regent  attached  to  this  general 
declaration,  she  was  soon  led  to  give  a  practical  interpreta- 
tion of  it.  The  town  of  Perth  having  given  unequivocal 
symptoms  of  its  attachment  to  the  Reformation,  she  sent 
for  Lord  Ruthven,  its  provost,  and  charged  him  to  put  down 
the  spirit  of  change.  "I  have  power,"  said  Ruthven,  "over 
the  bodies  of  the  citizens,  but  none  over  their  consciences." 
The  queen  told  him  he  was  too  malapert  to  give  her  such 
an  answer,  and  dismissed  him  in  anger.2  As  Easter  was 
approaching,  she  despatched  able  men  to  Montrose,  Dundee, 
and  Perth,  to  persuade  the  populace  to  keep  the  festival  with 
the  usual  solemnities  ;  but  their  persuasions  were  powerless, 
and  high  mass  was  celebrated  with  few  to  join  in  it.8  Failing 
in  argument,  she  had  recourse  to  violence,  and  summoned  all 
the  preachers  in  the  kingdom  to  compear  at  Stirling  on  the 
10th  of  May.4  They  resolved  to  obey,  and  the  gentry  re- 
solved to  accompany  them,  not  armed,  but  still  determined  to 
protect  men  whom  they  deemed  to  be  innocent.  Angus  and 
M earns  were  especially  forward  in  this  demonstration,  and 
when  the  gentlemen  from  these  counties  arrived  at  Perth,  they 
sent  Erskine  of  Dun  on  to  Stirling  before  them,  to  explain  the 
cause  of  their  coming.  The  regent  got  alarmed — for  she 
seems  in  every  menacing  emergency  to  have  had  a  woman's 
fears — and  persuaded  Dun  to  write  to  his  friends  to  disperse, 
and  that  the  summons  would  be  withdrawn.  In  consequence 
of  this,  the  preachers  and  their  friends  resolved  to  remain  at 
Perth,  and  proceed  no  farther  south.  The  ioth  of  May  came, 
no  preachers  appeared,  and  the  queen,  forgetting  her  promise, 
commanded  them  to  be  "  put  to  the  horn  " — a  Scottish  law- 
phrase,  signifying  "they  should  be  declared  rebels  by  the  sound 
of  the  horn  " — and  all  men  prohibited,  under  pain  of  high 
treason,  from  holding  any  communication  with  them.  The 
Laird  of  Dun,  disgusted  at  the  royal  perfidy,  left  Stirling,  and 
posted  back  to  his  friends  in  Perth.5 

1  Knox's  History,  book  ii.      Keith,  book  i.  chap.  viii.  2  Ibid. 

3  Knox's  History,  book  ii. 

4  Lesley  says  that  Knox,  Willock,  Douglas,  and  Methven,  only  were 
summoned.  (De  Rebus,  &c,  lib.  x.)  It  is  probable  there  were  not 
many  more  professed  preachers  in  the  whole  country. 

5  Knox's  History,  book  ii.     Spottiswood,  lib.  iii.     Keith,  &c. 


256  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

At  this  critical  moment  John  Knox  appeared.  In  the 
November  of  the  preceding  year  he  had  received  letters 
earnestly  urging  him  to  return,  and  taking  a  second  leave  of 
his  friends  at  Geneva  he  began  his  journey  homewards.  He 
begged  permission  to  pass  through  England,  but  he  had 
recently  published  his  "  First  Blast  of  the  Trumpet  against 
the  monstrous  Regiment  of  Women  ; "  and  though  all  the 
world  knew  it  was  Mary  he  attacked,  Elizabeth  felt  that  the 
argument  applied  to  herself,  and  she  could  never  forgive  the 
writer  of  that  tract.  She  refused  him  a  passport.1  Forced  to 
proceed  by  sea,  he  landed  at  Leith,  and  after  spending  two 
days  in  Edinburgh,  he  hurried  first  to  Dundee  and  then  to 
Perth,  where  the  Protestantism  of  the  country  was  concen- 
tred, and  arrived  just  when  men's  minds  were  in  the  greatest 
ferment,  on  account  of  their  preachers  being  put  to  the  horn. 
Proceeding  to  the  church,  he  thundered  against  idolatry. 
The  excitement  of  the  period  gave  additional  vehemence  to 
his  oratory,  and  he  seemed  like  another  Demosthenes,  "  wield- 
ing at  will  the  mighty  multitude  who  had  assembled  to  hear 
him.  The  sermon  being  done,  the  crowd  dispersed,  and  only 
a  few  loiterers  remained  in  the  church,  when  a  priest  with 
inconceivable  imprudence  uncovered  a  rich  altar-piece,  de- 
corated with  images,  and  proceeded  to  celebrate  mass.  A  lad 
standing  by  told  him  this  was  not  to  be  borne,  and  the  priest  in 
anger  struck  him.  The  lad  seized  a  stone,  and  threw  it,  but  it 
missed  the  priest  and  smashed  to  pieces  one  of  the  images. 
It  was  the  signal  for  the  demolition  of  many  a  gorgeous  altar 
and  stately  monastery.  The  on-lookers  took  part  with  the 
boy,  a  religious  fury  took  hold  of  the  people  who  came  flock- 
ing back  to  the  building,  and  in  a  few  minutes  every  chapel 
was  ransacked,  every  virgin,  apostle,  and  saint  broken  to 
pieces,  and  the  whole  costly  furniture  of  the  church  scattered 
in  fragments  on  the  floor.  In  a  twinkling  the  whole  city 
heard  of  what  had  been  done  ;  and  a  mob,  still  under  the 
excitement  of  the  sermon,  began  to  assemble.  The  cry  was 
given  — "  To  the  monasteries  !  n  and  in  a  short  time  the 
monasteries  of  the  Black  and  Grey  Friars  were  in  ruins.  The 
cry  was  next  raised — "  To  the  Charter  House  !  "  and  soon 
of  that  magnificent  structure  there  were  left  only  the  bare 
walls."2 

When  the  regent  heard  of  these  outrages  she  was  violently 

1  Knox's  Letter  to  Cecil,  Dieppe,  loth  April  1559. 

2  Lesley,  lib.  x.     Knox,  book  ii. 


a.d.  1559.]  TREATY  OF  PERTH.  257 

incensed,  and  is  said  to  have  vowed  that  she  would  raze  the 
sacrilegious  city  to  the  ground,  and  sow  its  foundations  with 
salt  in  sign  of  perpetual  desolation.1  In  a  few  days  she  was  in 
its  neighbourhood  with  a  considerable  military  following.  The 
citizens  shut  the  gates,  and  directed  letters  to  the  queen- 
regent,  the  nobility,  and  "  to  the  generation  of  Antichrist,  the 
pestilent  prelates,  and  their  shavelings  within  Scotland."2 
These  letters  proved  that  they  were  perfectly  ripe  for  rebel- 
lion. The  regent  at  first  was  unwilling  to  treat ;  but  Glen- 
cairn,  with  upwards  of  two  thousand  followers,  had  made  his 
way  by  forced  marches  and  mountain  roads  to  Perth,  and 
threw  a  preponderating  weight  into  the  Protestant  scale.  It 
was  finally  agreed  that  both  armies  should  be  disbanded,  and 
the  town  left  open  to  the  queen ;  that  none  of  the  inhabitants 
should  be  molested  on  account  of  their  religion  ;  that  no 
French  soldiers  should  enter  the  town  ;  and  that  all  other  con- 
troversies should  be  referred  to  the  next  parliament.3  In  con- 
sequence of  this  treaty,  the  Congregation  left  Perth  the  day 
after  it  was  concluded,  but  not  till  they  had  entered  into  a 
second  bond  or  "  Covenant  "  for  mutual  support  and  defence, 
which  was  subscribed  by  the  Earls  of  Argyll  and  Glencairn, 
Lords  Boyd  and  Ochiltree,  the  Prior  of  St  Andrews,  generally 
called  the  Lord  James,  and  Campbell  of  Taringhame.4 

The  queen  had  no  sooner  got  possession  of  Perth  than  she 
violated  the  treaty  she  had  subscribed.  She  removed  the  Pro- 
testant magistrates  from  their  offices,  and  substituted  Papists 
in  their  room  :  she  took  steps  toward  the  restoration  of  the 
Roman  worship,  and  introduced  a  garrison,  not  indeed  of 
French  soldiers,  but  of  Scotchmen  in  the  pay  of  France,  and 
who  were  therefore  quite  as  odious  to  the  citizens.  The  Earl 
of  Argyll  and  the  Lord  James,  anxious  to  suppress  rebellion, 
had  hitherto  remained  with  the  regent,  but  now  they  were  so 
shocked  at  her  want  of  faith  that  they  withdrew,  and  repaired 
to  St  Andrews,  where  a  great  muster  of  the  Congregation  was 
about  to  be  held.  Other  influential  nobles  followed  their 
example. 

Meanwhile  Knox  was  not  idle.  Passing  into  Fife,  he 
preached  first  at  Crail  and  afterwards  at  Anstruther,  and  in 
both  places  his  preaching  was  followed  by  the  overturning  of 

1  Knox's  History,  book  ii. 

2  These  letters  are  given  at  length  in  Knox's  History. 

3  Knox's  History,  book  ii.     Keith,  book  i.  chap,  viii, 

4  Both  Knox  and  Keith  give  this  document  in  full. 

R 


258  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

altars  and  the  breaking  of  images.  Cupar  had  already  fol- 
lowed the  example  set  by  Perth ;  and  the  poor  priest  was  so 
distressed  that  he  committed  suicide.  It  was  on  Friday  and 
Saturday  that  Knox  preached  in  Crail  and  Anstruther,  and  he 
had  arranged  to  preach  at  St  Andrews  on  the  Sunday.  The 
archbishop,  hearing  this,  got  alarmed  for  his  noble  cathedral 
church,  and  came  to  St  Andrews  on  Saturday  night,  accom- 
panied with  a  hundred  spears.  A  message  was  sent  to  Knox, 
that  if  he  should  attempt  preaching  on  the  morrow  a  dozen 
hackbuts  would  be  levelled  at  his  head,  or,  as  it  was  phrased, 
"would  light  upon  his  nose."  In  these  circumstances,  he  was 
strongly  advised  to  abandon  his  design.  But  the  fearless 
Reformer  had  long  looked  forward  to  preaching  once  more  in 
the  place  where  he  had  first  been  called  to  the  ministry  of  the 
Word  ;  the  hope  of  it  had  solaced  him  while  toiling  in  the 
galleys ;  he  had  foretold  it  when  the  tower  of  St  Regulus  had 
gleamed  on  his  view  far  over  the  wave ;  and  now,  when  his 
fondest  wishes  were  about  to  be  realised,  he  would  not  draw 
back  for  fear  of  man.  The  archbishop  finding  that  Knox  was 
determined,  and  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  were  friendly 
to  him,  left  on  the  Sunday  morning,  and  repaired  to  Falkland, 
where  the  queen  was.  Knox  preached  in  the  cathedral  church, 
and  ancient  memories  gave  an  impassioned  tone  to  his  elo- 
quence. Christ  driving  out  the  traffickers  from  the  temple  was 
the  subject  of  his  discourse,  and  the  magistrates  as  well  as  the 
mob,  understanding  his  arguments  and  heated  by  his  fire, 
proceeded  immediately  after  sermon  to  destroy  the  Dominican 
and  Franciscan  monasteries,  and  to  rifle  and  deface  all  the 
churches  in  the  town.1 

The  queen,  full  of  grief  and  indignation,  determined  to 
march  at  once  against  the  rioters.  The  armed  members  of 
the  Congregation  were  not  numerous,  and  they  might  have 
been  taken  by  surprise ;  but  the  moment  danger  was  antici- 
pated, partizans  flocked  in  from  every  quarter;  "men," 
according  to  Knox,  "  seemed  to  rain  from  the  clouds  ; "  and 
encamping  on  Cupar  Moor,  midway  between  Falkland  and 
St  Andrews,  they  bid  defiance  to  the  queen's  army.  As  both 
parties  were  unwilling  to  come  to  blows,  a  truce  was  agreed 
upon,  and  the  queen  promised  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  to 
send  commissioners  to  St  Andrews  to  arrange  an  armistice. 
But  day  after  day  passed  ;  no  commissioners  came ;  and  it 
began  to   be  suspected,  as  indeed  it  was  manifest,  that  the 

1  Knox,  book  ii. 


a.d.  1559.]  ABBEY  OF  SCONE.  259 

queen  only  wished  to  gain  time.  The  Congregation  could  not 
afford  to  be  idle,  as  their  array  was  liable  to  melt  away,  and 
therefore,  facing  northwards,  they  marched  upon  Perth,  the 
garrison  of  which  they  compelled  to  surrender.1 

About  three  miles  west  from  Perth,  upon  ground  gently 
sloping  down  to  the  Tay,  stood  the  Abbey  of  Scone.  It  was 
venerable  in  the  eyes  of  every  Scotchman,  as  the  place  where 
the  kings  of  Scotland  had  from  time  immemorial  been  crowned; 
and  though  robbed  by  Edward  of  its  famous  black  stone, 
fabled  to  be  the  one  upon  which  Jacob  had  pillowed  his  head 
at  Bethel,  enough  remained  to  throw  a  peculiar  interest  around 
it.  The  Bishop  of  Moray  was  at  this  time  Commendator  of 
Scone,  and  resided  there.  He  was  a  man  of  licentious  manners, 
and  had  rendered  himself  obnoxious  to  the  men  of  Perth  and 
Dundee  ;  but  now,  when  his  abbey  was  threatened,  he  became 
obsequious  even  to  meanness,  promised  to  send  his  followers 
to  join  those  of  the  Congregation,  and  to  vote  on  their  side  in 
the  approaching  parliament.  All  would  not  do:  the  "  rascal 
multitude "  poured  from  the  city  toward  the  abbey ;  and 
though  Knox  and  other  leading  men  of  the  Congregation 
hurried  after  them,  and  attempted  to  stay  their  fury,  they  suc- 
ceeded only  for  a  day.  On  the  second  day  the  torch  was 
applied,  and  soon  the  beautiful  house  in  which  our  fathers  had 
worshipped  and  our  monarchs  had  been  crowned  was  burned 
up  with  fire.2 

Only  a  day  after  this,  the  mob  at  Stirling,  incited  by  the 
presence  of  the  Earl  of  Argyll  and  Lord  James  Stewart, 
attacked  and  destroyed  the  monasteries  in  the  town ;  and 
then  proceeding  to  the  Abbey  of  Cambuskenneth,  which 
lifted  up  its  lofty  walls  amid  the  windings  of  the  Forth,  and 
was  everywhere  visible  from  the  rich  corn-fields  of  the  carse, 
they  left  it  nearly  as  we  now  find  it — an  utter  desolation. 
Flushed  with  these  victories  over  the  monuments  of  idolatry 
and  architecture,  the  Congregation  resolved  to  march  upon 
Edinburgh.  On  their  way  they  purged  Linlithgow  of  its  idols  ; 
and  reaching  the  capital,  from  which  the  regent  retreated  on 
their  approach,  they  finished  what  the  mob  had  left  undone 
in  plundering  Holyrood,  destroying  the  convents,  and  clearing 
the  churches  of  their  altars  and  images."3  The  example  was 
infectious,  and  spread  fast  and  far.     The  Abbeys  of  Paisley, 

1  Knox,  book  ii.     Lesley.     Keith.  -  Knox's  History,  book  ii. 

3  Keith,  book  i.  chap.  viii.     Knox,  book  ii.     Lesley,  lib.  x. 


260  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap,  x, 

Kilwinning,  and   Dunfermline  were   attacked,  and   all   their 
"popish  stuff"  burned.1 

Tradition  has  ascribed  to  Knox  the  party-cry,  "  Down  with 
the  crows'  nests,  or  the  crows  will  build  in  them  again."2 
Whether  true  or  not,  it  is  like  the  man,  and  like  his  manner 
of  going  to  work.  Indicating  great  insensibility  to  the 
sesthetical,  it  shows  a  far-reaching  policy.  The  wise  captain, 
when  he  ferretted  out  the  robber,  destroyed  his  fortalice,  that 
he  might  never  harbour  in  it  again.  On  the  same  principle, 
the  Reformer,  when  he  had  ousted  the  monks,  destroyed  their 
monasteries.  We  would  we  had  restored  some  of  our  ruined 
castles,  to  crown  our  crags,  if  we  could  have  them  without 
bandits  \  and  we  would  we  had  still  every  one  of  our  abbeys, 
if  we  had  them  without  Benedictines  or  Augustinians,  Fran- 
ciscans, Carmelites,  or  Dominicans.  But  if  the  refuge  and 
the  rogue  must  go  together,  we  would  rather  want  robbers  and 
picturesque  castles,  monks,  and  Gothic  monasteries.  Was  it 
possible  to  destroy  the  one  and  preserve  the  other?  Perhaps 
it  was )  but  the  usual  tactics  of  war  is  to  destroy  everything 
which  shelters  the  enemy ;  and  the  Reformation  was  a  death- 
war  against  monachism.  Who  would  put  possibilities  against 
the  maxims  of  a  universal  policy  ?  But  might  not  every  monu- 
ment of  superstition  have  been  destroyed,  and  the  bare  build- 
ings themselves  been  preserved  to  lodge  a  purer  religion? 
Perhaps  they  might ;  but  could  the  rabble  which  followed 
in  the  trail  of  the  Congregation  be  expected  to  do  just  what 
was  needful,  and  nothing  more  ?  As  well  try  to  keep  a  fierce 
soldiery  in  check  when  sacking  a  city.  Every  revolution  must 
have  its  excesses.  It  is,  indeed,  impossible  to  read  without  a 
pang  of  the  demolition  of  the  Charter-House  at  Perth,  and  the 
burning  of  the  Abbey  at  Scone ;  but  our  grief  will  subside 
when  we  reflect  that  a  more  glorious  temple,  built  of  living 
stones,  has  risen  upon  their  ruins.  But  withal  let  no  man 
indulge  in  imaginary  sorrows,  or  dream  that  every  ruined 
cathedral,  abbey,   and  church   which   he   sees,  was   reduced 

1  Sadler's  State  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  468.  See  also  Letters  of  Bishop  Jewel 
to  Peter  Martyr — "  All  the  monasteries  are  everywhere  levelled  with  the 
ground,  the  theatrical  dresses,  the  sacrilegious  chalices,  the  idols  and 
the  altars  are  consigned  to  the  flames,  not  a  vestige  of  the  ancient 
superstition  and  idolatry  left."  London,  August  1st,  1559.  Zurich 
Letters.     Parker  Society. 

-  Row's  History  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  p.  12.  Spottiswood's  History, 
lib.  ii. 


A.D.  1559.]  MUTUAL  RECRIMINATIONS.  26 1 

to  its  present  desolation  by  the  Reformers.  War,  time, 
neglect,  and  the  barbarity  of  making  grand  old  buildings 
quarries  out  of  which  to  erect  mean  modern  ones,  have  done 
far  more  than  John  Knox  toward  reducing  our  religious  houses 
to  the  state  of  ruin  in  which  we  now  find  too  many  of  them. 
And  England  must  bear  more  than  half  the  shame,  for  the 
border  abbeys,  the  noblest  of  all,  were  destroyed  by  the  Eng- 
glish  army  under  Hertford. 

After  the  retreat  of  the  queen-regent,  and  the  occupation 
of  the  capital  by  the  Congregation,  both  parties  gave  vent  to 
mutual  recriminations  and  reproaches.  The  regent  issued 
proclamations,  and  the  Congregation  answered  them.  The 
regent  accused  the  Congregation  of  rebellion  and  treason  ;  the 
Congregation  declared  they  wished  nothing  more  than  the 
reformation  of  religion  and  the  expulsion  of  the  French.1  On 
the  one  side,  it  was  industriously  whispered  that  the  Prior  of 
St  Andrews,  notwithstanding  his  bastard  blood,  aspired  to  the 
throne ;  on  the  other,  it  was  rumoured  that  the  French  had 
already  parcelled  out  the  country  amongst  them,  and  that  one 
already  rejoiced  in  the  title  of  Monsieur  dJ Argyll,  another  of 
Monsieur  de  Prior,  a  third  of  Monsieur  de  Ruthven.2  The 
known  ambition  and  abilities  of  the  young  Lord  James  gave 
a  colour  of  probability  to  what  was  said  of  him,  and  some 
even  of  the  Congregation  believed  it.  Jealousies  arose ;  un- 
comfortable feelings  about  the  end  of  traitors  were  experi- 
enced, though  not  confessed ;  barons  began  to  slip  away 
home ;  and  the  military  muster  to  dissolve  like  frost-work  in 
the  sun.  The  regent,  knowing  this  state  of  matters,  marched 
upon  Edinburgh,  and  the  Congregation  were  glad  to  accept  of 
the  following  terms  of  accommodation :  "  That,  on  the  one 
side,  the  Congregation  evacuate  the  capital,  deliver  up  the  dies 
of  the  mint,  which  they  had  seized,  submit  themselves  to  the 
authority  of  the  king,  queen,  and  regent,  refrain  from  molest- 
ing ecclesiastics  or  hindering  them  in  the  lifting  of  their  rents, 
and  finally,  cease  from  casting  down  religious  houses,  or  strip- 
ping them  of  their  furniture  ;  and  on  the  other  side,  that  the 
citizens  of  Edinburgh  should  be  allowed  to  choose  their  own 
religion,  without  being  overawed  by  a  garrison,  and  that  the 
Protestant  preachers  should  everywhere   have  full  liberty  of 

1  Proclamation  by  Regent,  and  Answer  by  the  Congregation,  July  1559, 
published  at  length  by  Keith,  book  i.  chap.  ix. 

2  Knox's  History,  book  ii. 


262  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

speech."  These  terms  were  subscribed  on  the  24th  of  July, 
and  were  to  hold  good  till  the  10th  of  January  following.1 

Driven  from  Edinburgh,  the  Protestants  sought  refuge  in 
Stirling,  where  a  third  bond  or  "  Covenant'7  was  subscribed,  in 
which  the  barons  pledged  themselves  not  to  treat  separately 
with  the  regent.2  It  was  meant  as  a  counter-check  to  the 
queen,  who  had  been  tampering  with  individuals,  and  attempt- 
ing to  detach  them  from  the  cause. 

In  the  meantime,  Henry  II.  died,  slain  in  joisting  with 
Count  Montgomery,  and  Francis  and  Mary  were  now  King 
and  Queen  of  France.  They  were  scarcely  seated  on  the 
throne  when  they  each  wrote  to  the  Prior  of  St  Andrews,  re- 
minding him  of  the  favours  he  had  received  at  their  hands, 
upbraiding  him  with  ingratitude,  want  of  natural  affection,  and 
treason,  but  leaving  him  place  for  repentance.  The  prior 
replied  that  he  had  done  nothing  against  God  or  their 
Majesties,  and  that  all  he  desired  was  a  reformation  of  the 
Church.3  But  it  could  scarcely  be  hoped  that  threaten- 
ing epistles  could  turn  the  tide  of  revolution.  A  large 
detachment  of  French  auxiliaries  arrived  at  Leith.  Following 
in  their  train  came  a  more  peaceful  band — the  Bishop  of 
Amiens  as  legate  from  the  Pope,  and  three  doctors  of  the  Sor- 
bonne.  The  soldiers  began  to  fortify  Leith,  the  bishop  to 
purify  the  Church  of  St  Giles  from  heretical  pollutions,  and 
the  doctors  to  confute  the  heretics.4  But  notwithstanding  the 
lustrations  of  the  legate,  and  the  reasonings  of  the  Sorbonnists, 
the  citizens  refused  to  give  up  their  High  Church ;  and  John 
Willock  stoutly  preached  there. 

Meanwhile  the  country  was  traversed  by  preachers,  uttering 
fierce  invectives  against  the  regent  and  the  Pope.5  The  regent 
complained  of  the  language  they  used.  "  They  merely  pro- 
claim and  cry,"  said  Knox,  "  that  the  same  God  who  plagued 
Pharaoh,  repulsed  Sennacherib,  struck  Herod  with  worms,  and 
made  the  bellies  of  dogs  the  grave  and  sepulchre  of  the  spite- 
ful Jezebel,  will  not  spare  misled  princes,  who  authorise  the 
murderers  of  Christ's  members  in  this  our  time."  "  On  this 
manner,"  said  he,  "  they  speak  of  princes   in  general,  and  of 

1  Keith,  book  i.  chap.  ix.     Lesley,  lib.  x. 

2  It  will  be  found  at  length  in  both  Keith  and  Knox. 

3  Lesley,  De  Rebus,  &c. ,  lib.  x. ,  where  a  copy  of  the  letters  of  Francis 
and  Mary  is  given,  and  an  outline  of  the  prior's  reply.  Keith's  History, 
book  i.  chap.  ix. 

4  Lesley,  De  Rebus,  Sec. 

5  Sadler's  State  Tapers,  vol.  i.  p.  433. 


A.D.  1559.]  NEGOTIATIONS  WITH  ENGLAND.  263 

your  Majesty  in  particular."  But  why  should  preachers 
meddle  with  State  policy  at  all?  said  the  regent.  Again 
Knox  had  his  answer  :  "  Elias  did  personally  reprove  Ahab 
and  Jezebel  of  idolatry,  of  avarice,  of  murder  :  Esaias  the 
prophet  called  the  magistrates  of  Jerusalem,  in  his  time,  com- 
panions to  thieves,  princes  of  Sodom,  bribe-takers,  and  mur- 
derers ;  he  complained  that  their  silver  was  turned  into  dross, 
that  their  wine  was  mingled  with  water,  and  that  justice  was 
bought  and  sold :  Jeremiah  said  that  the  bones  of  King 
Jehoiakim  should  wither  with  the  sun  :  Christ  Jesus  called 
Herod  a  fox :  and  Paul  calleth  a  high-priest  a  painted  wall, 
and  prayeth  unto  God  that  he  should  smite  him,  because  that 
against  justice  he  had  commanded  him  to  be  smitten."1  This 
was  plain  and  not  very  pleasant  language  to  be  used  by  a 
preacher  to  a  lady  and  a  queen. 

But  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation  now  began  to  feel  the 
need  of  exterior  aid,  and  that,  if  England  did  not  help  them, 
their  enterprise  must  fail.  At  the  same  time  Elizabeth  began 
to  see  that  if  she  did  not  act  energetically,  Scotland  might  be 
filled  with  Frenchmen,  who  would  march  into  England  and 
topple  her  from  her  throne. 

Towards  the  end  of  June  and  beginning  of  July,  communi- 
cations affecting  matters  in  Scotland  had  passed  between 
Kirkaldy  of  Grange,  Sir  Henry  Percy,  and  Sir  William  Cecil, 
Queen  Elizabeth's  clear-seeing  secretary.  On  the  19th  of 
July,  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation  wrote  to  Cecil,  referring 
to  these,  explaining  their  views,  and  soliciting  his  assistance.2 
As  Knox  was  indispensable  to  the  negotiations  with  the 
English  government,  he  thought  it  right  to  make  an  effort  to 
propitiate  Elizabeth,  whom  he  had  grievously  offended  by  his 
"  Blast  against  the  Monstrous  Regiment  of  Women."  On  the 
20th  of  July,  he  wrote  Secretary  Cecil,  enclosing  a  letter  for 
the  queen,  in  which  he  deprecated  her  resentment,  expressed 
his  attachment  to  her  person  and  government,  but  still  honestly 
confessed  his  adherence  to  the  general  principles  contained  in 
his  book,  and  warned  her  not  to  brag  of  her  birth,  or  build 
her  authority  on  changing  laws,  but  on  the  eternal  providence 
of  Him  who,  contrary  to  nature  and  above  her  desserts,  had 
exalted  her  head.  Cecil  answered  his  letters  on  the  28th, 
oddly  beginning  his  note  with  the  text,  "  There  is  neither 
male   nor  female,   but  we   are   all   one  in  Christ,"    and    then 

1  Knox's  History,  book  ii. 

2  This  letter  will  be  found  in  Knox's  History,  book  iii. 


264  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

passing  on  to  other  matters.1  The  truth  is,  Knox  had  com- 
mitted an  unpardonable  sin,  and  Elizabeth  could  never  bear 
him.  Cecil,  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Sadler  and  Crofts,  some 
months  afterwards,  declares,  "  of  all  others,  Knox's  name,  if 
it  be  not  Goodman's,  is  most  odious  here;  and  therefore  I 
wish  no  mention  of  him  hither."  2  On  the  same  day  on  which 
Cecil  wrote  to  Knox,  he  wrote  to  the  Lords  of  the  Congrega- 
tion, hinting  that,  as  they  must  be  in  want  of  money,  they 
should  appropriate  the  revenues  of  the  Church,  "putting 
good  things  to  good  uses."  3 

Though  Knox  was  no  favourite  at  the  English  court,  he 
could  not  well  be  wanted  as  a  negotiator ;  and  on  the  3d  of 
August  we  find  him  at  Berwick,  closeted  with  Sir  James 
Crofts,  the  governor,  suggesting  that  Stirling  Castle  should  be 
seized  and  strongly  garrisoned ;  that  Broughty  Castle  should, 
in  like  manner,  be  occupied  \  that,  in  order  to]  do  this,  money 
to  pay  the  troops  must  be  furnished  by  England,  ships  of  war 
must  be  ready  to  give  assistance  in  case  of  need,  and  pensions 
allowed  to  some  of  the  reforming  barons  who  were  hard  up 
for  cash.4  About  the  middle  of  August  Sir  Ralph  Sadler, 
than  whom  there  was  no  one  more  intimately  acquainted  with 
Scotch  affairs,  arrived  at  Berwick  to  watch  the  movements  of 
the  Congregation,  and  treat  with  their  emissaries.  From  this 
time,  everything  that  happened  in  Scotland  was  made  known 
to  Sadler,  and  by  Sadler  communicated  to  Cecil.  Randolph 
had  come  into  Scotland  to  spy  the  land,  and  he  writes ;  Bal- 
naves  writes ;  and  Knox  writes.  Knox  assumed  the  name  of 
Sinclair — his  mother's  name — in  his  correspondence  ;  and  in 
a  letter  of  date  the  21st  of  September,  he  again  tells  Sadler 
that,  unless  some  support  were  given  to  certain  of  the  lords, 
they  must,  through  extreme  poverty,  remain  at  home,  and  take 

1  Copies  of  these  three  letters  are  given  in  Knox's  History,  book  iii. 
Tytler,  however,  has  shown  that  the  dates  there  given  are  wrong,  and 
that  those  here  given  are  the  correct  ones. 

2  Sadler's  State  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  532.  Goodman  was  an  Englishman, 
who  fled  the  country  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  and,  when  at 
Geneva,  published  a  book  entitled,  "How  Superior  Powers  ought  to  be 
obeyed  of  their  Subjects,  and  wherein  they  may  lawfully  be  disobeyed 
and  rejected,"  &c.  In  this  book  he  rails,  like  Knox,  against  the  govern- 
ment of  women  ;  therefore  Elizabeth's  hate. 

3  MS.  in  State-Paper  Office. 

4  MS.  in  State-Paper  Office.  In  the  Calendars  of  State  Papers  there 
is  a  summary  of  many  documents  throwing  interesting  light  upon  these 
transactions. 


A.D.  1559.]  PLANS  AND  PROJECTS.  265 

no  part  in  the  warlike  movements  that  were  contemplated."1 
The  individuals  referred  to,  as  Sadler  informs  Cecil,  were 
Glencairn,  Dun,  Grange,  and  Ormiston.2  It  was  money,  in 
fact,  that  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation  chiefly  wanted — 
money  to  pay  their  mercenaries,  and  money  to  support  their 
own  state  as  feudal  barons  with  a  feudal  following.  Elizabeth 
was  parsimonious,  and  did  not  like  to  part  with  her  money  ; 
but,  overcome  by  the  urgency  of  the  case,  she  repeatedly  sent 
considerable  sums  to  the  Reformers,  under  the  pledge  that  the 
strictest  secrecy  would  be  observed  as  to  the  source  from  which 
they  had  come.3 

But  the  most  interesting  inquiry  remains— What  were  the 
objects  which  the  Congregation  had  in  view,  and  what  was  the 
policy  of  the  English  government  in  assisting  them  ?  These 
we  are  able  minutely  to  trace.  On  the  very  day  after  the 
Congregation  entered  Edinburgh,  Sir  William 
Juy  !>  1SS9-  Kirkaldy  of  Grange  wrote  to  Sir  Henry  Percy — 
"  I  received  your  letter  this  last  of  June,  perceiving  thereby 
the  doubt  and  suspicion  you  stand  in  for  the  coming  forward 
of  the  Congregation,  whom,  I  assure  you,  you  need  not  have 
in  suspicion,  for  they  mean  nothing  but  reformation  of  religion, 
which  shortly,  throughout  the  realm,  they  will  bring  to  pass ; 
for  the  Queen  and  Monsieur  D'Osell,  with  all  the  Frenchmen, 
for  refuge,  are  retired  to  Dunbar.  The  foresaid  Congregation 
came  this  last  of  June,  by  three  of  the  clock,  to  Edinburgh, 
where  they  will  take  order  for  the  maintenance  of  the  true 
religion,  and  resisting  of  the  King  of  France  if  he  sends  any 

force  against  them The  manner  of  their  proceeding  in 

reformation  is  this, — they  pull  down  all  manner  of  friaries  and 
some  abbeys,  which  willingly  receive  not  the  Reformation. 
As  to  parish  churches,  they  cleanse  them  of  images  and  all 
other  monuments  of  idolatry,  and  command  that  no  masses  be 
said  in  them  ;  in  place  thereof  the  book  set  forth  by  godly 
King  Edward  is  read  in  the  same  churches.  They  have  never 
as  yet  meddled  with  a  pennyworth  of  that  which  pertains  to 
the  Church,  but  presently  they  will  take  order  throughout  all 
the  parts  where  they  dwell,  that  all  the  fruits  of  the  abbeys 
and  other  churches  shall  be  kept  and  bestowed  upon  the 
faithful  ministers,  until  such  time  as  a  farther  order  be  taken. 

1  Sadler's  State  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  455. 

2  Sadler's  State  Papers,  vol.  i.  p.  469.     Sadler,  in  mentioning  Glencairn, 
somewhat  piteously  says,  "he  is  indeed  a  puir  man." 

3  Sadler's  State  Papers,  vol.  i.,  passim. 


266  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

Some  suppose  the  queen,  seeing  no  other  remedy,  will  follow 
their  desires,  which  is  a  general  reformation  throughout  the 
whole  realm,  conform  to  the  pure  AVord  of  God,  and  the 
Frenchmen  to  be  sent  away.  If  her  Grace  will  do  so,  they 
will  obey  her  and  serve  her,  and  annex  the  whole  revenues  of 
the  abbeys  to  the  crown ;  if  her  Grace  will  not  be  content 
with  this,  they  are  determined  to  hear  of  no  argument."1 

Such  were  the  views  of  the  leaders  of  the  Congregation  on 
the  i st  of  July.  By  the  19th  of  the  same  month  they  have 
advanced  a  step  farther.  In  a  letter  to  Cecil,  and  in  answer 
to  the  question,  "  What  the  Protestants  within  this  realm  do 
mean  ?  "  They  say,  "  True  it  is,  that  as  yet  we  have  made  no 
mention  of  any  change  in  authority,  neither  yet  were  we 
minded  to  do  any  such  thing,  till  extreme  necessity  compelleth 
us  thereto  ;  but  seeing  it  is  now  more  than  evident  that  France, 
and  the  queen-regent  here,  with  her  priests,  pretend  nothing 
but  the  suppressing  of  Christ's  gospel,  the  ruin  of  us,  and  the 
subversion  of  this  poor  realm,  committing  our  innocency  to 
God,  and  unto  the  judgment  of  all  godly  and  wise  men,  we 
are  determined  to  seek  the  remedy,  in  which  we  heartily  re- 
quire your  counsel  and  assistance.' J2  By  the  19th  of  August 
this  plan  is  assuming  a  definite  shape,  for  on  that  day  Argyll 
and  the  Lord  James,  in  name  of  their  brethren,  write  to  the 
English  secretary — ".We  cease  not  to  provoke  all  men  to 
favour  our  cause,  and  of  our  nobility  we  have  established  a 
council ;  but  suddenly  to  discharge  this  authority  [evidently 
the  regent's],  till  that  ye  and  we  be  fully  accorded,  it  is  not 
thought  expedient."3  By  the  8th  of  September  the  scheme 
was  ripe.  "  Whatever  pretence  they  make/'  writes  Sadler  to 
Cecil,  "  the  principal  mark  they  shoot  at  is,  as  Balnaves  saith, 
to  make  an  alteration  of  the  state  and  authority,  to  the  extent 
that  the  same  being  established  as  they  desire,  they  may  then 
enter  into  open  treaty  with  her  Majesty,  as  the  case  may  re- 
quire. This,  he  saith,  is  very  secret ;  and  if  the  Duke  will 
take  it  upon  him,  they  mean  to  bestow  it  there ;  or,  if  he 
refuse,  his  son  is  as  meet,  or  more  meet  for  the  purpose."4 

The  Lords  of  the  Congregation  had  now  hit  upon  the  plan 
of  all  most  agreeable  to  Elizabeth,     Her  policy  was  not  to 

1  MS.  Letter,  State-Paper  Office. 

2  Knox's  History,  book  iii.  Knox  dates  the  letter  on  the  27th ;  we 
have  already  referred  to  this  as  a  mistake. 

3  MS.,  State-Paper  Office. 

4  Sadler's  State  Papers,  &c,  vol.  i.  p.  433. 


A.D.  1559.]  THE  COMING  MAX.  267 

reform  religion,  especially  according  to  Knox's  views,  but  to 
lessen  French  influence  in  Scotland  ;  and  there  was  no  more 
effectual  way  of  doing  this  than  by  depriving  Mary  of  Guise 
of  her  regency.  During  the  month  of  August,  Cecil's  and 
Sadler's  letters  are  full  of  mysterious  references  to  the  arrival 
of  the  Earl  of  Arran.  This  young  nobleman  had  held  the  com- 
mand of  the  Scots  Guard  at  Paris,  but  becoming  suspected  of 
heresy,  he  had  fled  to  Geneva,  and  now  he  was  passing  through 
England  on  his  way  home.  He  entered  Scotland  in  disguise 
under  the  name  of  Beaufort,  accompanied  by  Randolph,  who 
rejoiced  in  the  name  of  Barnabie.  This  M.  de  Beaufort  was 
the  regent  to  be.  It  was  even  hoped  he  would  soon  be  the 
husband  of  Elizabeth,  and  that  thus  the  kingdoms  would  be 
united  under  a  Protestant  house,  and  the  Catholic  Mary  cast 
overboard.  His  presence  at  Hamilton  was  soon  seen  in  his 
influence  over  his  vacillating  father,  whose  conduct  for  some 
time  had  been  dubious,  though  he  was  generally  understood  to 
lean  to  the  regent ;  but  now,  turning  Protestant  once  more,  he 
threw  in  his  lot  with  the  Congregation.  The  plans  thus  secretly 
formed  soon  began  to  develop  themselves. 

In  1559  the  harvest  in  Scotland  was  unusually  late,  and 
before  it  was  well  gathered  in  the  Congregation  was  in 
motion.1  On  the  18th  of  October  they  entered  Edinburgh, 
and  the  regent,  upon  their  approach,  left  Holyrood,  and 
retired  within  the  fortifications  at  Leith.  Rumours  had  got 
afloat  that  Chastelherault  had  joined  the  Protestants  to  cheat 
Lord  James  of  the  crown,  and  take  it  to  himself.  He  purged 
himself  with  sound  of  trumpet  at  the  market-cross.2  On  the 
19th  a  message  was  sent  to  the  regent,  requiring  her  to  send 
all  Frenchmen  furth  the  realm.  The  regent  refused  to  accede 
to  a  demand,  which,  she  said,  was  more  like  that  of  a  prince 
to  his  subjects,  than  of  subjects  to  a  prince.3  On  the  21st 
the  barons  and  their  preachers  assembled  in  the  Tolbooth. 
No  less  weighty  a  matter  than  the  deposition  of  the  regent 
was  debated.  The  preachers  were  required  to  give  their 
opinion,  and  John  Willock  stood  up.  He  argued  that,  albeit 
magistrates  were  the  ordinance  of  God,  they  might  upon  good 
cause  be  removed,  and  that  God  had  frequently  raised  up 
men   to  cut  off  wicked  monarchs,  "  as  by  Asa   he   removed 

1  When  urged  to  activity,  they  pleaded  harvest  operations  as  the  cause 
of  delay.     (Sadler's  State  Papers,  vol.  i.) 

2  Keith's  Hist.,  book  i.  chap.  ix.     Knox's  Hist.,  book  ii. 

3  Keith's  Hist.,  book  i.  chap.  ix. 


268  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

Maacha,  his  own  mother,  from  honour  and  authority ;  by 
Jehu  he  destroyed  Joram,  and  the  whole  posterity  of  Ahab." 
Knox  followed  and  concurred.1  The  plan  had  been  deter- 
mined upon  a  month  ago  ;  the  preachers  had  been  required 
to  speak  only  that  they  might  give  to  it  the  sanction  of  reli- 
gion, and  a  deed  was  drawn  depriving  the  regent  of  her 
office.  The  barons  alleged  that  they  took  this  decisive  step 
in  virtue  of  their  being  born-counsellors  of  the  realm,  but  how 
many  of  the  oligarchy  had  part  in  it  we  cannot  discover,  as, 
instead  of  appending  their  names  individually  to  the  deed  of 
deprivation,  they,  strangely  enough,  made  it  to  run  in  the 
name  of — "  Us,  the  nobility  and  commons  of  the  Protestants 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland."  2 

The  siege  of  Leith  was  now  begun.  An  attempt  was  made 
to  scale  its  walls  and  take  it  by  storm,  but  utterly  failed.  On 
the  6th  of  November  a  convoy  with  provisions  was  seen 
approaching  the  city,  and  the  garrison  sallied  out  to  cut  it  off. 
The  Earl  of  Arran  and  the  Lord  James,  with  a  band  of  fol- 
lowers, made  for  the  rescue,  and  charged  the  French  with 
such  impetuosity  that  they  got  entangled  in  the  marshy 
ground  between  Holyrood  and  Restalrig,  and  made  a  narrow 
escape  of  being  surrounded  and  cut  to  pieces.  A  panic 
seized  upon  the  city.  Lord  Erskine  held  the  castle  ;  his 
policy  was  doubtful,  and  men  with  pale  faces  whispered 
that  he  might  bring  the  guns  of  the  fortress  to  bear  upon 
them.  A  flight  was  determined  upon,  and  at  midnight  the 
members  of  the  Congregation  were  crowding  out  of  the  city- 
gates  and  taking  the  road  to  Stirling.  Then  it  was  seen  how 
many  there  are  ready  to  change  with  the  change  of  circum- 
stances, and  ever  to  keep  on  the  winning  side.  Two  days  ago 
all  Edinburgh  seemed  Protestant ;  "  but  now,"  says  Knox,  in 
dolour  of  heart,  "  the  despiteful  tongues  of  the  wicked  railed 
upon  us,  calling  us  traitors  and  heretics  ;  every  one  provoked 
the  other  to  cast  stones  at  us."3  The  Congregation  were  hooted 
and  pelted  as  they  left  the  city. 

Arrived  at  Stirling,  the  lords  took  counsel  together  as  to 
what  was  to  be  done.  It  was  plain  that  their  raw  musters 
could  not  cope  with  the  disciplined  soldiery  of  France,  and 
that  unless  Elizabeth  sent  men  and  munitions  of  war,  as  well 
as  money,  to  their  aid,  they  must  be  crushed.     Young  Mait- 

1  Knox's  Hist.,  book  ii. 

2  The  deed  of  deprivation  is  given  by  Knox  at  length.     Hist.,  book  ii. 
:i  Knox's  History,  book  ii. 


A.D.  1559.]  DIPLOMACY.  269 

land  of  Lethington  had  recently  deserted  the  regent,  and 
joined  their  cause.  He  was  despatched  to  the  English  court. 
In  the  meantime,  as  the  Reforming  barons  could  easiest  main- 
tain themselves  each  in  his  own  country,  they  resolved  to 
divide  —  Chastelherault,  Glencairn,  Boyd,  and  Ochiltree, 
marched  upon  Glasgow  ;  Arran,  Rothes,  the  Lord  James, 
and  the  Master  of  Lindsay,  retired  into  Fife.  Henry  Balnaves 
was  attached  as  secretary  to  the  western  division  ;  John  Knox 
to  the  eastern.  At  Glasgow,  Chastelherault  was  not  idle.  He 
purged  the  churches  of  their  idols,  seized  upon  the  archiepis- 
copal  palace,  and  published  proclamations  in  the  name  of  the 
king  and  the  queen  \  but  a  detachment  of  French  from  Edin- 
burgh brought  his  procedure  to  an  abrupt  conclusion. 

Elizabeth  was  most  anxious  to  assist  the  insurgents,  but  was 
at  a  loss  how  to  do  it,  as  the  kingdoms  were  at  peace.  In  the 
month  of  October,  Knox  had  proposed  to  Sir  James  Crofts 
that  a  thousand  men  or  more  should  be  sent  into  Scotland, 
and  that  so  soon  as  they  joined  the  Congregation  they  should 
be  declared  rebels,  as  if  they  had  left  England  without  the 
consent  of  the  government.  Crofts  declared  that  such  a  pro- 
ceeding would  not  blind  the  world,  and  would  touch  the  hon- 
our of  his  prince.1  Cecil  was  delighted  with  the  rebuke  which 
the  diplomatist  had  administered  to  the  preacher.2  But  as 
the  emergency  became  greater,  it  was  felt  that  something  must 
be  done,  under  whatever  pretence.  Cecil  had  already  sent 
down  to  Scotland  minute  instructions  as  to  the  precise  way  in 
which  all  applications  for  assistance  should  be  made.  The 
only  subject  to  be  insisted  upon  was  that  the  French,  by  con- 
quering Scotland,  would  endanger  England  and  Ireland.  In 
the  instructions  given  to  Lethington  for  his  conduct  at  the 
English  court,  this  programme  of  procedure  was  faithfullv 
observed,  so  that  when  Maitland  spoke,  Elizabeth  could  only 
hear  the  echo  of  her  own  voice.3  The  result  of  all  this 
crooked  diplomacy  was,  that  a  secret  treaty  was  concluded  at 

1  Keith  gives  both  these  letters  in  his  Appendix.  Knox  signs  himself 
John  Sinclair. 

2  "Surely  I  like  not  Knox's  audacity,  which  was  well  tamed  in  your 
answer.  His  writings  do  no  good  here,  and  therefore  I  do  rather  sup- 
press them,  and  yet  I  mean  not  but  that  he  should  continue  in  sending 
them."     (Cecil  to  Sadler  and  Crofts.     Sadler's  State  Papers,  &c,  vol.  i. 

P-.535.) 

3  Compare  letter  of  Cecil  to  Sadler  and  Crofts  of  12th  November,  with 

instructions  given  to  Lethington,  25th  November  1559.  (Sadler's  State 
Papers,  &c,  vol.  i. ) 


270  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

Berwick  between  Elizabeth  and  the  Lords  of  the  Congrega- 
tion, in  which  she  undertook  to  assist  them  in  expelling  the 
French. 

After  the  retreat  of  the  Protestants  from  the  capital,  the 
French  marched  into  Fife.  Proceeding  along  the  coast,  they 
observed  some  large  ships  of  war  bearing  up  the  Frith.  At 
first  they  imagined  them  to  be  from  France  with  auxiliary 
troops,  and  gave  them  a  salute,  but  it  soon  became  plain  that 
they  were  English  vessels,  whatever  might  be  the  design  of 
their  coming.  The  admiral  said  he  had  been  sent  in  quest  of 
some  pirates,  and  wished  to  skulk  for  a  time  in  the  Frith  that 
he  might  unexpectedly  pounce  upon  them ;  but  nobody 
believed  him,  and  the  French  instantly  began  their  retreat. 
The  English  fleet  was  soon  followed  by  an  English  army,  and 
in  the  month  of  April  1560,  Leith  found  itself  besieged  for  the 
second  time.  Elizabeth  and  Cecil  had  frequently  upbraided 
the  Scots  for  their  dilatoriness  and  want  of  success  during  the 
previous  siege.  They  now  found  it  was  not  so  easy  as  they 
had  supposed  to  enter  a  town  lying  to  the  sea,  strongly  fortified, 
and  defended  by  veteran  troops.  Batteries  were  opened, 
skirmishes  fought,  an  escalade  attempted,  but  still  Leith  was 
not  taken.  But  hope  did  not  fail ;  the  treaty  of  Berwick  was 
renewed  and  confirmed ;  and  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation 
put  their  names  to  a  fourth  Covenant,  in  which  they  pledged 
themselves  to  pursue  their  object  to  the  last  extremity,  to  be 
enemies  to  enemies,  and  friends  to  friends.1 

Upon  the  approach  of  the  English  army  the  queen-regent 
retired  within  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh,  into  which  Lord 
Erskine  willingly  received  her.  Worn  out  with  grief,  swollen 
and  breathless  from  dropsy,  she  knew  she  was  dying.  Feeling 
her  end  to  be  near,  she  expressed  a  wish  to  have  an  interview 
with  some  of  the  confederate  lords,  and  accordingly  the  Duke 
of  Chastelherault,  the  Earls  of  Argyll,  Marischal,  and  Glen- 
cairn,  and  the  Lord  James  Stuart,  waited  upon  her  in  her  sick 
room.  She  declared  to  them  how  she  had  loved  Scotland — 
how  she  had  lamented  the  troubles  that  had  arisen — how 
earnestly  she  desired  peace.  She  recommended  them  to  send 
both  the  French  and  the  English  troops  out  of  the  country, 
but  at  the  same  time  to  preserve  inviolate  their  ancient  alliance 
with  France,  as  her  daughter,  their  queen,  was  now  united  in 
marriage  with  its  monarch.  She  at  last  burst  into  tears,  asked 
pardon  of  all  whom  she  had  in  any  way  offended,  and  declared 
1  Knox's  Hist.,  book  iii.     Keith,  book  i.  chap.  xi. 


A.D.  1560. J  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN-REGENT.  27 1 

that  from  her  heart  she  forgave  those  who  had  offended  her. 
Composing  herself  a  little,  she  kissed  the  nobles  one  by  one, 
and  held  out  her  hand  to  be  kissed  by  the  attendants  who 
happened  to  be  in  the  room.  The  rough  barons  were  deeply 
moved,  and,  sincere  in  their  religious  convictions,  they  pro- 
posed that  John  Willock  should  be  sent  for  to  prepare  her  for 
death.  The  Catholic  queen  agreed  to  receive  the  Protestant 
preacher,  and  Willock  came.  He  spoke  to  her  of  the  merits 
of  Christ,  and  the  abominations  of  the  mass.  She  declared 
that  her  only  hope  was  in  Christ,  but  regarding  the  mass  she 
was  silent.     The  next  day  she  died.1 

We  cannot  help  loving  Mary  of  Lorraine,  albeit  she  was  a 
Papist  and  a  Guise.  No  Frenchwoman,  before  or  since,  ever 
became  so  naturalised  to  Scotland  as  she,  though  she  never 
understood  the  rough  temper  of  its  people.  Brought  from  the 
most  dissolute  court  in  Europe,  her  court  was  an  example  to 
every  household  in  the  kingdom.  Admired  for  her  beauty  and 
wit  in  the  brilliant  circle  of  Francis  I.,  she  had  adapted  herself 
to  her  altered  circumstances,  both  as  wife  and  widow,  and 
made  her  husband's  country  her  own.  She  herself  was  accus- 
tomed to  visit  the  sick  and  the  poor,  and  with  womanly 
kindness  relieve  them.  Justice  was  never  more  strictly  ad- 
ministered than  during  her  government.  But  she  was  fated 
to  live  in  troublous  times,  and  when  her  subjects  changed 
their  religion  she  could  not  change  hers.  A  collision  became 
inevitable  between  a  government  still  Catholic,  a  church  still 
Catholic,  and  a  nobility  turned  Protestant.  Instead  of  marvel- 
ling at  this,  it  were  wiser  to  marvel  that  the  collision  was  not 
more  violent  than  it  was,  and  that  so  great  a  revolution  was 
effected  with  so  little  loss  of  blood.  It  was  not  to  be  expected 
that  she  should  be  able  to  free  herself  of  French  influences, 
more  especially  considering  that  her  daughter  the  Queen  of 
Scotland  was  Dauphiness  of  France.  The  only  thing  for 
which  we  find  it  hard  to  forgive  her  was  her  frequent  viola- 
tions of  solemn  promises.  The  truth  is,  that  when  affairs  were 
threatening  the  woman  got  alarmed,  and  made  promises  which 
she  broke  when  the  danger  was  past.  A  resolute  man  would 
not  have  made  the  promises,  and  would  not  have  been  taunted 
for  breaking  them.  But  her  death- scene  covers  all.  She 
begged  our  forgiveness — shall  we  refuse  to  give  it  ?  Knox  did 
not  forgive  her ;  and  we  are  ashamed  to  write  that  a  vindictive 
intolerance   followed    her  to    the   grave.      "  Question    being 

1  Lesley.     Knox.     Spottiswood.     Keith,  &c,  &c. 


272  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X, 

moved  about  her  burial,"  says  he,1  "the  preachers  boldly 
gainstood  that  any  superstitious  rites  should  be  used  in  that 
realm,  which  God  of  His  mercy  had  begun  to  purge.  Her 
burial  was  deferred  till  further  advisement;  and  so  she  was 
laid  in  a  coffin  of  lead,  and  kept  in  the  castle  from  the  10th  of 
June  till  the  19th  of  October,  when  she  was  carried  by  some 
pioneers  to  a  ship."  In  this  vessel  she  was  carried  over  the 
troubled,  restless  sea  to  France,  and  buried  in  the  Benedictine 
Monastery  of  St  Peter's,  at  Rheims,  of  which  her  sister  Renee 
was  the  abbess ;  and  where  she  herself  had  desired  that  her 
ashes  might  repose. 

Thus  lived,  died,  and  was  buried,  Mary  of  Lorraine,  Dowa- 
ger Duchess  of  Longueville,  and  Queen  Regent  of  Scotland. 
It  is  known  that  Henry  of  England  wanted  her  to  wife,  as  he 
had  heard  much  of  her  large  and  comely  person ;  and  refused 
to  be  satisfied  even  when  he  heard  of  her  betrothal  to  his 
nephew  in  Scotland.2  How  would  it  have  fared  with  her  had 
she  gone  to  England  ?  Would  she  have  shared  the  fate  of  the 
other  wives,  or  would  her  personal  charms  and  Guisean  ways 
have  turned  the  heart  of  the  king  and  stayed  the  Refor- 
mation ? 

Before  the  death  of  the  regent  both  France  and  England 
had  become  earnestly  desirous  of  peace  ;  and  in  the  month  of 
May  commissioners  had  been  appointed  to  adjust  its  terms. 
But  there  were  grave  difficulties  in  the  way,  as  the  negotia- 
tions must  include,  in  some  way  or  other,  not  only  England 
and  France,  but  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation,  who  had  been 
in  open  rebellion  against  their  natural  sovereign.  The  firm- 
ness of  Cecil  got  rid  of  the  difficulty,  and  a  treaty  was  agreed 
upon,  in  which  was  embraced  all  that  France  and  England 
desired  ;  while  at  the  same  time  the  safety  of  the  Lords  of  the 
Congregation  was  guaranteed,  and  the  Reformation  of  re- 
ligion in  Scotland,  though  not  mentioned,  virtually  secured.3 
The  chief  articles  of  this  important  treaty,  so  far  as  it  referred 
to  Scotland,  were  : — That  both  the  French  and  the  English 

1  Knox's  History,  book  iii.  Randolph  wrote  to  Killigrew  that  the  corpse 
was  treated  with  the  greatest  respect,  and  that  it  should  receive  all  sol- 
emnities excepting  such  as  savoured  of  superstition.  June  20th,  1560. 
State  Papers. 

-  Carte's  Hist.,  vol.  iii.  p.  152.     Tytler's  Hist.,  chap.  ix. 

:;  As  the  queen  had  not  given  her  commissioners  any  instructions  to 
treat  upon  these  two  last  points,  she  refused  to  ratify  the  treaty  so  far 
as  it  had  reference  to  them.  Nevertheless  the  treaty  was  acted  upon, 
as  if  it  were  good  in  every  respect. 


A. D.  1560.]  TREATY  OF  LEITH.  273 

troops  should  be  withdrawn  ;  that  an  act  of  oblivion  should  be 
passed  for  all  offences  committed  between  the  6th  of  March 
1558  and  the  ist  of  August  1560  ;  that  the  barons  and  com- 
monality of  the  realm  should  bear  no  quarrels  against  each 
other  for  anything  done  during  that  period  ;  that  those  who 
had  possessions  or  benefices  in  France  should  have  them 
restored  ;  that  all  ecclesiastics  who  had  received  injuries 
during  the  commotions  should  receive  redress,  and  that  they 
should  not  now  be  hindered  in  lifting  their  rents ;  that  the 
government  should,  in  the  meantime,  be  conducted  by  a 
council  of  twelve,  seven  of  whom  should  be  chosen  by  the 
queen,  and  live  by  the  Estates  ;  and  that  in  the  month  of 
August  next  a  parliament  should  be  held,  lor  which  a  commis- 
sion should  be  sent  by  the  king  and  queen,  and  that  this  con- 
vention should  be  as  lawful  in  all  respects  as  if  it  had  been 
ordained  by  the  express  command  of  their  Majesties. 

In  this  document  the  Reformation  appears  to  be  ignored, 
and  the  Papacy  protected.  This  arose  from  the  desire  of 
Elizabeth  to  have  it  understood  that  she  began  the  war,  not 
from  religious  considerations,  but  simply  from  a  determination 
to  prevent  the  ascendancy  of  France  in  the  island.  The  treaty 
of  Leith  must  be  read  by  the  light  of  the  treaty  of  Ber- 
wick. But  the  article  which  permitted  the  Scotch  to  hold  a 
parliament,  put  it  in  their  power  to  effect  a  reformation  in  the 
Church,  if  it  were  found  that  a  majority  of  the  representatives 
of  the  nation  desired  it.  The  change  from  Prelacy  to  Presby- 
terianism  was  afterwards  effected  in  the  same  way,  not  by  the 
mandate  of  a  monarch,  not  by  an  article  in  a  treaty,  but  by  a 
vote  in  parliament ;  and  of  all  possible  modes  it  was  the  most 
legitimate.  On  the  8th  of  July  the  peace  was  proclaimed  at 
the  Market  Cross  of  Edinburgh,  and  public  thanks  were  given 
to  God  in  the  church  of  St  Giles. 

The  thoughts  and  desires  of  the  nation  were  now  concen- 
trated upon  the  approaching  parliament.  According  to  the 
specific  terms  of  the  treaty,  it  met  on  the  10th  of  July,  and 
then  adjourned  to  the  ist  of  August,  to  afford  time  for  receiv- 
ing a  commission  from  the  sovereigns.  On  the  ist  of  August 
the  Parliament  House  was  unusually  full,  and  a  scrutiny  of  the 
faces  showed  there  were  many  there  who  had  never  sat  in  a 
parliament  before.1  In  ancient  times  the  whole  landed  pro- 
prietors who  held  their  estates  directly  by  charter  from  the 

1  Keith,  book  i.  chap,  xii.,  gives  the  parliamentary  roll.  The  new- 
comers far  outnumbered  all  the  others. 


274  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  X. 

crown,  as  well  as  the  titled  nobility,  possessed  the  privilege  of 
appearing  in  the  legislature  ;  but  the  difficulty  and  expense  of 
travelling  to  the  capital  had  prevented  their  regular  attend- 
ance, and  for  nearly  a  century  their  right  had  fallen  into 
abeyance.1  Now,  upwards  of  a  hundred  of  these  appeared 
and  claimed  their  seats,  and  after  some  ineffectual  opposition, 
their  claim  was  allowed.  This  secured  an  overwhelming 
majority  in  favour  of  reform. 

The  next  question  debated  was,  whether  or  not  they  might 
now  proceed  to  business,  seeing  that  no  commission  had  as 
yet  been  received  from  the  queen.  Some  held  that  the  want 
of  a  commission  was  fatal  to  the  parliament,  others  that  the 
terms  of  the  treaty  supplied  the  defect,  and  after  a  discussion 
which  lasted  for  a  week,  a  vote  was  taken,  and  it  was  carried 
that  they  should  continue  their  sittings.2  Maitland  of  Lething- 
ton  was  chosen  "  harangue-maker,"  and  next  were  chosen  the 
Lords  of  the  Articles,  whose  business  it  was  to  prepare  the 
measures  to  be  brought  before  the  Estates.  When  the  election 
was  over  the  clergy  declared  that,  of  those  taken  from  their  body, 
several  were  mere  laics  and  all  were  apostates.3  But  remon- 
strance was  useless;  the  banks  of  the  old  mill-dam  were  bursting, 
and  it  was  already  evident  in  what  direction  the  flood  would 
flow,  and  what  institutions  would  be  swept  away  in  its  course. 

These  were  but  out-post  skirmishes,  and  the  great  battle  was 
yet  to  be  fought.  A  petition  was  presented  in  name  of  "  the 
barons,  gentlemen,  burgesses,  and  other  true  subjects  of  this 
realm,  professing  the  Lord  Jesus  within  the  same,"  praying  that 
idolatry  should  be  abolished,  the  sacraments  administered  in 
their  original  purity,  the  discipline  of  the  ancient  Church 
restored,  and  the  patrimony  usurped  by  the  Pope  applied  to 
the  maintenance  of  a  true  ministry,  the  founding  of  schools, 
and  the  support  of  the  poor.  This  document,  which  Knox 
has  preserved,4  unfortunately  abounds  in  coarse  and  unbecom- 
ing language,  for  which  we  can  scarcely  find  an  apology  in  the 
rudeness  of  the  times.  After  some  debate,  the  barons  and 
ministers  who  had  presented  the  petition  were  called  and 
"  commandment  given  unto  them  to  draw  into  plain  and  several 
heads,  the  sum  of  that  doctrine  which  they  would  maintain, 
and  would  desire  the  present  parliament  to  establish  as  whole- 

1  There  is  an  excellent  dissertation  on  this  subject  in  Pinkerton's 
History,  vol.  ii. 

2  Keith's  History,  hook  i.  chap.  xii.     Tytler's  History,  vol.  vi. 

3  Spottiswood,  lib.  iii.  '  History,  book  iii. 


A.D.  1560.]  THE  REFORMED  CONFESSION.  275 

some,  true,  and  only  necessary  to  be  believed,  and  to  be 
received  within  the  realm.''1  The  task  was  undertaken,  and  in 
four  days  it  was  accomplished. 

This  Confession  of  Faith  was  contained  in  twenty-five 
articles,  treating  respectively — of  God  ;  Of  the  Creation  of 
Man  ;  Of  Original  Sin  ;  Of  the  Revelation  of  the  Promises  ;  Of 
the  Continuance,  Increase,  and  Preservation  of  the  Church  ; 
Of  the  Incarnation  of  Christ  Jesus  ;  Of  why  it  behoveth  the 
Mediator  to  be  Very  God  and  Very  Man ;  Of  Flection ;  Of 
Christ's  Death,  Passion,  and  Burial;  Of  the  Resurrection;  Of 
the  Ascension ;  Of  Faith  in  the  Holy  Ghost ;  Of  the  Cause  of 
Good  Works  ;  Of  what  Works  are  reputed  good  before  God  ; 
Of  the  Perfection  of  the  Law  and  the  Imperfection  of  Man  ; 
Of  the  Church  ;  Of  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul ;  Of  the  Notes 
by  which  the  True  Church  is  Discerned  from  the  False,  and 
who  shall  be  Judge  of  the  Doctrine ;  Of  the  Authority  of 
the  Scriptures ;  Of  General  Councils,  of  their  Power,  Author- 
ity, and  cause  of  their  Convention  ;  Of  the  Sacraments  ;  Of 
the  Right  Administration  of  the  Sacraments;  Of  those  to  whom 
Sacraments  Appertain  ;  Of  the  Civil  Magistrate  ;  Of  the  Gifts 
freely  given  to  the  Church.  It  is  a  clear  and  logical  summary 
of  Calvinistic  doctrine,  more  concise  and  less  definite  than  the 
Westminster  Confession,  but  agreeing  with  it  in  every  essential 
respect. 

It  was  first  submitted  to  the  Lords  of  the  Articles,  and 
afterwards  to  the  whole  parliament,  some  of  the  ministers 
attending  to  give  any  explanations  that  might  be  required,  or 
defend  any  of  the  doctrines  that  might  be  impugned.2  In 
order  that  so  grave  a  matter  might  not  be  done  hurriedly,  an 
adjournment  took  place  to  give  time  for  reflection,  and  when 
the  parliament  again  met,  the  Confession  was  again  read  over 
article  by  article.  The  vote  was  then  taken  which  was  to 
decide  the  faith  of  many  succeeding  generations  in  Scotland. 
Man  by  man  was  asked  his  opinion.  Of  the  temporal  peers 
present,  the  Earls  of  Athole,  Caithness,  and  Cassillis,  and  the 
Lords  Somerville  and  Borthwick,  alone  said  "  Xo  "  to  the  new 
creed,  declaring  they  would  believe  as  their  fathers  believed.3 

1  Knox's  History7,  book  iii.  2  Ibid. 

:*  Upon  the  authority  of  a  letter  from  Randolph  to  Cecil,  Tytler  mentions 
only  Cassillis  and  Caithness  as  dissenting.  Knox  says  that  Athole,  Somer- 
vilie,  and  Borthwick  opposed  the  new  creed.  We  may  safely  reg?rd 
either  list  as  imperfect,  and  conclude  that  the  two  combined  give  the 
nearest  approximation  to  the  truth.  Neither  Randolph  nor  Knox  would 
place  among  their  opponents  nobles  who  were  their  friends. 


276  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  X. 

Of  the  Spiritual  Estate,  of  whom  few  were  present,  the  Bishops 
of  St  Andrews,  Dunkeld,  and  Dunblane  alone  made  an  effort 
at  resistance  ;  the  others,  seeing  that  opposition  would  be  use- 
less, "  spake  nothing."  l  The  great  victory  was  won.  The 
enthusiasm  of  the  assembly  was  at  the  highest,  and  the  vener- 
able Lord  Lindsay  rose  and  declared  that  he  could  say  with 
Simeon — "  Now,  Lord,  let  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for 
mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation."  2 

It  was  on  the  17th  of  August  that  the  Parliament  adopted 
the  Confession  of  Knox  as  the  confession  of  its  faith.  But 
something  more  required  to  be  done  to  make  the  work  of 
Reformation  complete.  On  the  24th  of  the  month  the  Estates 
again  assembled,  and  passed  three  acts  which  finished  the  long 
reign  of  Romanism  in  the  country.  By  the  first  it  was  statute 
and  ordained  that  all  previous  acts  of  parliament  regarding  the 
censures  of  the  Church,  or  the  worshipping  of  saints,  should 
be  annulled  and  deleted  from  the  statute-book.  By  the  second, 
the  Pope's  jurisdiction  was  abolished  within  the  realm.  By 
the  third,  to  say  a  mass  or  hear  a  mass  was  made  criminal ; 
the  first  offence  to  be  punished  with  confiscation  of  goods  ; 
the  second  with  banishment ;  the  third  with  death.3 

The  intolerance  which  the  Romish  Church  had  meted  out 
to  others  was  now  meted  out  to  herself;  so  had  an  eternal 
Providence  ordained.  But,  at  the  same  time,  wrho  does  not 
wish  that  our  reforming  forefathers  had  not  marred  the  beauty 
of  their  glorious  work  by  penal  statutes  written  in  blood  ? 

1  Knox  says  that  none  of  the  clergy  made  any  opposition  ;  but  Tytler 
produces  a  letter  from  Lethington  to  Cecil,  in  which  the  Bishops  of  Dun- 
blane and  Dunkeld  pray  for  delay  to  consider  a  matter  so  important. 
There  is  still  extant  a  letter  from  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  dated  the  1 8th  of  August,  in  which  he  hints 
that  he  also  opposed  the  reception  of  the  new  Confession.  See  Keith. 
There  is  also  a  suspicion  of  intimidation  having  been  used,  and  the  arch- 
bishop speaks  as  if  he  had  been  threatened  with  assassination.  There 
is  also  a  letter  from  Throckmorton,  in  which  he  gives  an  account  of  the 
parliament,  and  mentions  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  as  opposing, 
though  not  very  decisively,  the  New  Faith. 

2  MS.  Letter,  State-Paper  Office,  Randolph  to  Cecil,  19th  August  1560, 
quoted  by  Tytler,  vol.  vi. 

3  Knox's  History,  book  iii.      Keith's  History,  book  i.  chap.  xii. 


A.D.  1560.]     THE  ENGLISH  AND  SCOTCH  REFORMATIONS.  277 


CHAPTER    XL 

A  contrast  has  frequently  been  drawn  between  the  Reforma- 
tion in  England,  and  the  Reformation  in  Scotland.  In  the 
one  country  we  are  told,  it  was  effected  by  the  king  ;  in  the 
other,  by  the  people.  In  the  one,  it  was  the  product  of 
despotic  power ;  in  the  other,  it  resulted  from  the  persuasive- 
ness of  preaching.  In  the  one,  the  movement  was  more  than 
half  political  ;  in  the  other,  it  was  entirely  religious.  In  the 
one,  the  primary  object  was  to  abolish  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Pope ;  in  the  other,  the  object  from  first  to  last  was  to  purify 
the  sanctuary.  This  is  only  partially  true.  The  Reformation 
in  Scotland  was  certainly  much  more  a  popular  movement 
than  it  was  in  England  ;  but  in  its  springs  it  was  not  entirely 
popular,  at  least  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  phrase.  We 
shall  approach  nearer  the  truth  if  we  say  that  it  was  baronial 
in  Scotland  as  it  was  monarchical  in  England.  In  the  south  of 
the  island,  the  monarch  was  omnipotent,  and  he  reformed  the 
Church  ;  in  the  north,  the  barons  were  always  a  match  for 
the  throne,  even  when  a  vigorous  king  sat  upon  it,  and  much 
more  than  a  match  for  it  when  it  was  filled  by  a  child ;  and 
so  they  took  the  matter  in  hand,  and  accomplished  the  Refor- 
mation. Had  it  not  been  for  the  favour  of  the  oligarchy, 
Knox  would  have  preached  in  vain,  or  rather  he  would  never 
have  preached  at  all. 

We  have  already  remarked  that  the  ignorance  of  the  peas- 
antry precluded  the  possibility  of  their  originating  the  con- 
troversy. But  from  the  first,  we  find  the  nobility  and  gentry, 
who  were  now,  in  a  measure,  educated  men,  bidding  welcome 
to  the  Protestant  opinions.  Even  during  the  lifetime  of  James 
V.  such  converts  were  numerous.  Beaton  is  said  to  have 
presented  to  the  king  a  list  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  landed 
proprietors  who  were  suspected  of  heresy.  So  long  as  the 
king  lived  they  were  kept  in  check  ;  but  he  was  no  sooner 
gone,  than  their  power  began  to  be  seen.  The  return  of  the 
prisoners  taken  at  the  Solway,  and  who,  while  in  England, 
had  conversed  with  Cranmer  at  Lambeth,  and  contracted  a 
fondness  for  English  pensions,  Reformation  principles,  and 
monastic  spoil,  increased  their  numbers  and  quickened  their 
zeal.  They  had  influence  enough  to  set  aside  Beaton's  pre- 
tensions, and  raise  the  Protestant  Earl  of  Arran  to  the  regency. 


278  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI.. 

They  had  numbers  enough  to  outvote  the  clergy,  and  get  an 
act  passed  allowing  the  Scriptures  to  be  read  in  the  vulgar 
tongue.  When  Wishart  began  to  preach  he  was  protected  by 
powerful  barons.  When  he  died,  a  conspiracy  of  barons 
avenged  him.  Knox's  hatred  of  Rome  was  nursed  in  the 
same  baronial  halls  which  had  shelted  Wishart.  He  came 
from  Ormiston  and  Longniddry  to  thunder  against  idolatry  at 
St  Andrews,  which  was  now  held  by  a  few  Protestant  barons 
against  the  might  of  the  country.  When  he  returned  from  cap- 
tivity, by  barons  again  was  he  befriended,  and  under  the  shadow 
of  their  power  he  preached.  When  he  was  dwelling  at  Geneva, 
an  exile  from  his  native  country,  the  barons  leagued  them- 
selves together,  assumed  the  name  of  the  Lords  of  the  Con- 
gregation, and  began  the  armed  struggle  which  resulted  in  the 
triumph  of  the  Reformation. 

Feudalism  was  still  strong  in  Scotland,  and  the  faith  of 
the  lord  naturally  became  the  faith  of  the  vassal.  It  was  in 
those  districts  of  the  country  where  the  barons  had  become 
Protestant  that  the  populace  became  Protestant  too.  Argyll 
and  Glencairn  were  all-powerful  in  the  western  counties,  and 
the  western  counties  were  the  stronghold  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  Earl  of  Rothes,  Lord  Lindsay,  and  the  Lord 
James  Stewart  had  Fife  at  their  devotion ;  and  Fife  was  for 
reform.  Lord  Ruthven  was  provost  of  Perth,  and  Erskine 
of  Dun  was  provost  of  Montrose,  and  his  influence  extended 
to  Dundee  ;  and  Perth,  Montrose,  and  Dundee  were  con- 
spicuous among  the  towns  for  their  thorough-going  Pro- 
testantism. On  the  other  hand,  where  Huntly  was  lord,  the 
Reformation  made  little  progress,  so  much  so,  that  after  the 
mass  was  abolished  by  parliament,  this  potent  earl  boasted 
that  he  could  set  it  up  again  in  three  counties ;  and  strange 
to  say,  in  some  of  these  very  districts,  Popery  has  lingered 
till  the  present  day.  Glasgow,  Paisley,  and  the  country 
around  them  vacillated  with  the  vacillations  of  the  dominant 
house  of  Hamilton.  Carrick  was  strongly  Protestant  in  the 
days  of  Wishart ;  it  was  not  so  much  so  in  the  days  of  Knox. 
The  explanation  is — the  old  Earl  of  Cassillis  was  a  staunch 
Reformer ;  the  new  earl  was  not.  In  his  famous  letter 
from  Dieppe,  Knox  reminded  the  Scottish  nobles  of  their 
duty  as  feudal  chiefs — they  ought  to  care  for  the  faith  of 
their  followers.  In  more  than  one  of  their  manifestoes,  the 
Lords  of  the  Congregation  appealed  to  their  feudal  position 
as    the    vindication    of  their    conduct — their    duty    to    their 


A.D.  1560.]  THE  BARONS.  279 

dependents  and  the  State  constrained  them.  As  feudal 
barons  they  brow- beat  the  regent;  and  as  feudal  barons  they 
deposed  her. 

Knox  was  unquestionably  a  great  instrument  in  effecting 
the  Reformation  ;  but  we  are  inclined  to  regard  the  preacher 
as  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  barons,  rather  than  the 
barons  as  instruments  in  the  hands  of  the  preacher.  Knox 
had  but  to  preach,  surrounded  by  his  powerful  patrons,  and 
his  words  were  like  sledge  hammers,  beating  down  abbeys, 
images,  and  altars.  Priests,  friars,  nuns,  were  scattered  like 
chart  before  the  breath  of  his  nostrils.  He  had  but  to  draw 
up  a  Confession  of  Faith,  and  the  parliament  with  acclama- 
tions received  it.  But  when  he  differed  from  the  nobles,  he 
became  weak  as  another  man.  When  he  suggested  a  truly 
wise  application  of  the  revenues  of  the  Church,  he  was  treated 
with  derision  and  contempt.  He  could  pull  down  the  old 
house,  but  he  could  not,  as  he  would,  build  up  the  new  one. 
The  "  Book  of  Discipline,"  as  we  shall  shortly  see,  was  not 
received  with  the  same  enthusiasm  as  the  "  Book  of  Doc- 
trines." The  needy  nobles,  the  possessors  of  barren  moors 
and  mountains,  had  been  hungering  and  thirsting  for  the  well- 
cultivated  lands  of  the  churchmen,  and  now  they  were  not  to 
be  baulked  of  their  prey. 

The  Reformations  in  the  sister  countries  have  been  con- 
trasted in  anotiier  way.  The  one,  it  has  been  said,  was  con- 
stitutional, legal,  orderly,  without  mobbings,  without  violence; 
the  other  was  the  offspring,  of  treason  and  rebellion,  and 
characterised  throughout  by  rioting  and  popular  outrage. 
Here,  again,  we  have  the  partial  truth,  not  the  whole  truth. 
It  may  have  been  constitutional  for  a  despotic  king  and  cor- 
rupt parliament  to  make  millions  believe  backwards  and 
forwards  at  their  bidding  ;  but  was  it  right  ?  It  may  have 
been  treasonable  and  rebellious  for  a  numerous  aristocracy 
to  rise  against  their  sovereign,  and  insist  upon  being  allowed 
to  worship  their  own  God  in  their  own  way  ;  but  was  it 
wrong  ?  It  were  a  sorry  world  in  which  we  live  had  there 
been  no  treasons,  no  rebellions ;  had  the  iron  rod  of  the 
oppressor  never  been  broken  ;  had  the  neck  been  eternally- 
bowed  to  the  yoke.  It  may  be  true  that  in  England  there 
were  no  mobbings,  and  that  the  monasteries  were  there 
spoiled  under  the  decencies  of  law,  and  the  ridiculous  pre- 
text of  voluntary  surrenders ;  but  spoiled  they  nevertheless 
were,  as  effectually  as  in  Scotland.     It  may  be  true  that  in 


280  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAI\  XI. 

Scotland  popular  passions  were  let  loose  against  Religious 
Houses,  venerable  for  their  antiquity,  and  admired  for  their 
architecture ;  but  surely  it  is  much  more  easy  to  justify  the 
illegal  outrages  of  a  rabble,  than  the  legalised  spoliations  of 
a  king  and  his  parliament.  In  England,  the  monarch  did 
violence  to  the  people ;  in  Scotland,  the  people  did  violence 
to  the  monarch. 

But  foreign  elements  mingled  in  the  Scottish  Reformation 
struggle,  and  in  the  end  decided  it.  Around  Leith  were 
gathered  the  interests  of  Popery  and  Protestantism  ;  and 
Leith  was  held  by  a  French  garrison,  and  besieged  by  an 
English  army.  France  was  Scotland's  ancient  ally,  England 
was  her  nearest  neighbour.  Had  England,  the  stronger 
country,  always  acted  with  fairness  toward  Scotland,  the 
weaker  one,  it  had  been  the  plain  policy  of  Scotland  to  have 
cherished  her  friendship.  But  it  had  not  been  so,  and  Scot- 
land, in  her  weakness,  had  sought  and  obtained  the  alliance 
of  France.  The  war  of  independence  had  caused  wounds 
which  were  not  easily  healed,  and  the  defeat  of  Flodden  and 
the  slaughter  of  Pinkie  had  opened  them  up  again.  Up  to 
this  time,  England  was  both  hated  and  feared.  But  Eliza- 
beth pursued  a  different  policy,  and  easily  subdued  by 
intrigue  a  country  which  all  her  predecessors  had  failed  to 
subdue  by  arms.  English  spies  were  in  the  court  and  the 
castle,  and  a  very  little  English  gold  went  a  long  way 
with  nobles  of  great  pretensions  and  slender  means.  The 
English  alliance  grew  in  favour — the  French  alliance  de- 
clined. The  French  secured  the  queen,  and  she  continued 
a  Papist ;  the  English  prevailed  with  the  people,  and  they  all 
turned  Protestant. 

Even  before  Protestantism  had  received  its  parliamentary 
establishment,  it  had,  in  a  measure,  taken  possession  of  the 
country.  The  treaty  of  Leith  was  no  sooner  signed,  and  the 
French  and  English  troops  withdrawn,  than  the  few  preachers 
of  the  Reformation  who  could  be  found  were  located  in  the 
different  towns,  to  keep  alive  the  zeal  of  the  populace.  John 
Knox  was  appointed  to  Edinburgh,  Christopher  Goodman  to 
St  Andrews,  Adam  Heriot  to  Aberdeen,  John  Row  to  Perth, 
Paul  Methven  to  Jedburgh,  William  Christison  to  Dundee, 
David  Ferguson  to  Dunfermline,  and  David  Lindsay  to  Leith. 
Besides  these  ordinary  ministers,  the  primitive  Protestant 
Church  of  Scotland  recognised  a  class  of  office-bearers  called 
superintendents,  appointed,  says  Knox,  to  see  ''that  all  things  in 


A.D.  1560.]  FIRST  BOOK  OF  DISCIPLINE.  281 

the  Church  were  carried  with  order,  and  well  ;*  and  of  these  John 
Spottiswood  was  appointed  for  Lothian,  John  Winram  for  Fife, 
John  Willock  for  Glasgow,  Erskine  of  Dun  for  Angus  and 
Mearns,  and  John  Carswell  for  Argyll  and  the  Isles.1  These 
eight  ministers  and  five  superintendents  formed  the  first  staff 
of  the  Reformed  Church. 

The  parliament  had  received  a  new  creed,  and  had  passed 
acts  abolishing  the  mass"  and  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope 
within  the  realm.  But  still  the  work  was  but  half  done.  The 
old  Church  had  been  thrown  down — a  new  one  must  be 
reared  out  of  its  ruins.  It  was  not  enough  that  preachers 
should  perambulate  the  country,  or  be  settled  in  towns  ;  pro- 
vision must  be  made  for  their  maintenance,  rules  must  be  laid 
down  for  their  conduct,  legal  authority  must  be  given  to  their 
acts.  Well-nigh  the  half  of  the  whole  wealth  of  the  kingdom 
had  belonged  to  the  Romish  Church,  and  the  Romish  Church 
was  no  more.  What  was  to  be  done  with  it?  The  mass  was 
prohibited,  the  invocation  of  saints  was  prohibited,  the  whole 
service  of  the  ancient  worship  was  prohibited.  What  was  now 
to  be  substituted  in  their  stead  ?  The  jurisdiction  of  Rome 
was  at  an  end.  WThat  other  jurisdiction  was  to  succeed  it? 
These  questions  must  be  solved ;  and  accordingly,  soon  after 
the  dissolution  of  parliament,  a  commission  was  given  to 
Knox,  Spottiswood,  Winram,  Willock,  and  Row,  to  draw  up  a 
Book  of  Policy  for  the  Protestant  Church.2 

The  product  of  their  labour  remains,  and  is  generally  known 
as  the  "  First  Book  of  Discipline."  No  document  could 
possibly  throw  more  light  upon  the  opinions  of  the  Reformers. 
It  is,  in  fact,  the  plan  of  the  temple  they  designed  to  rear.  If 
in  anything  our  Church,  as  it  now  stands,  differs  from  the 
"  Book  of  Discipline  " — if  it  has  not  the  breadth  of  founda- 
tion, or  height  of  pinnacle,  or  richness  of  ornament  there 
indicated,  it  is  because  the  after  execution  has  fallen  short  of 
the  original  plan — it  is  because  the  builders  who  raised  the 
fabric  had  not  the  same  views  as  the  architects  who  designed 
it.  The  "  First  Book  of  Discipline  "  is  divided  into  sixteen 
chapters,  but  we  shall  endeavour  to  explain  the  ecclesiastical 
polity  which  it  shadows  forth  under  three  heads — The  Office- 
bearers of  the  New   Church,   their   election   and   admission  \ 

1  Knox's  Hist.,  book  iii.      Spottiswood's  Hist.,  lib.  iii. 

2  The  First  Book  of  Discipline  is  addressed  to  "The  Great  Councell 
of  Scotland  now  admitted  to  the  Regiment,  by  the  providence  of  God, 
and  by  the  Common  consent  of  the  Estates  thereof,"  &c 


282  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

The  Worship  and  Discipline  of  the  New  Church  ;  The  Patri- 
mony of  the  Old  Church,  and  its  appropriation  by  the  New. 

I.    The  Office-bearers  of  the  New  Church. 

Of  these  there  were  four  orders — the  superintendent,  the 
minister,  the  elder,  and  the  deacon. 

The  "  First  Book  of  Discipline  "  divides  the  whole  country 
into  ten  dioceses,  which  were  tobe  presided  over  by  ten  super- 
intendents. Their  duty  was  to  erect  kirks,  appoint  pastors 
in  places  hitherto  unprovided,  and  give  the  occasional  benefit 
of  a  learned  ministry  in  localities  which  could  not  otherwise 
enjoy  that  privilege  at  all.  Their  labours  are  minutely  de- 
tailed. They  must  preach  at  least  thrice  every  week ;  they 
must  not  remain  in  the  chief  town  of  the  diocese,  where  their 
own  church  and  residence  were,  longer  than  three  or  four 
months  at  a  time  :  when  on  a  visitation,  they  must  tarry  in  no 
one  place  longer  than  twenty  days ;  they  must  not  only 
preach,  but  examine  the  lifey  diligence,  and  behaviour  of  the 
ministers,  the  order  of  the  churches,  and  the  manners  of  the 
people  :  they  must  see  how  the  youth  were  instructed  and  the 
poor  provided  for ;  and,,  finally,  take  cognizance  of  any  crimes 
which  called  for  the  correction  of  the  Kirk. 

These  magnates  of  the  early  Church  have  been  the  subject 
of  fierce  debate  between  Episcopal  and  Presbyterian  writers. 
The  Episcopal  controversialist  maintains  that  the  Reformed 
Church  of  Scotland  was  Episcopal  at  the  first,  and  that  its 
Presbyterianism  was  the  growth  of  a  subsequent  age.  As  we 
are  sometimes  told  that  presbyter  is  just  priest  written  large, 
so  we  are  told  that  the  superintendent  was  just  the  bishop 
done  into  Latin.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Presbyterian  dis- 
putant affirms  that  the  superintendent  of  the  Scotch  Church 
was  quite  a  different  functionary  from  the  bishop  of  the 
Roman  and  Anglican  Churches ;  and,  moreover,  that  the 
office  was  designed  to  be  temporary,  and  not  perpetual.  In  a 
controversy  like  this,  where  we  have  authoritative  documents 
upon  which  to  proceed,  there  is  no  great  difficulty  in  arriving 
at  the  precise  truth.  It  must  be  conceded  to  the  Episcopalian 
that  the  names  coincide  in  meaning ;  that  superintendent  is 
nothing  but  the  Latin  form  *of  the  Greek  episcopos.  It  must 
further  be  conceded,  that  the  superintendent,  like  the  bishop, 
had  a  diocese  entrusted  to  his  care,  and  that  the  duties 
imposed  upon  the  one  in  many  respects  agreed  with  those 
discharged  by  the  other :  he  was  to  make  a  periodical  visita- 


A.D.  1560.]  SUPERINTENDENTS.  283 

tion  of  the  churches  in  his  diocese,  and  set  everything  in 
order.  The  ministers  and  readers,  the  elders  and  deacons, 
were  amenable  to  his  jurisdiction.  But  here  concession  must 
stop  :  here  the  similarity  of  the  bishop  and  the  superintendent 
ceases.  In  other  respects  there  was  a  great  gulph  between 
them.  The  genuine  bishop  required  to  rise  through  the 
diaconate  and  priesthood  to  his  episcopate ;  the  superin- 
tendent might  at  once  be  elevated  from  the  laity  to  his 
superintendency.  John  Erskiine  of  Dun  was  a  country 
gentleman  when  he  was  admitted  superintendent  of  Angus 
and  Mearns.1  The  bishop  could  be  consecrated  only  by 
bishops  ;  the  superintendent  was  admitted  to  his  charge  by 
presbyters.  John  Knox  presided  at  the  admission  both  of 
Spottiswood  and  Erskine.  To  the  bishop  belonged  exclu- 
sively the  power  of  ordination — through  him  the  apostolic 
virtue  was  transmitted  to  the  different  office-bearers  in  the 
Church  ;  to  the  superintendent  belonged  no  such  exclusive 
privileges.  The  power  of  ordination  belonged  equally  to 
every  minister  in  the  Church.  The  bishop  was  raised  above 
the  control  of  the  presbyter ;.  but  the  superintendent  was 
made  subject  to  the  censure  and  correction  of  the  ministers 
and  elders  of  the  province  over  which  he  presided,  and  no 
inconsistency  or  absurdity  was  felt  as  belonging  to  the  arrange- 
ment. Would  any  stickler  for  a  canonical  episcopacy  recog- 
nise such  a  superintendent  as  a  true  bishop?  a  bishop  who 
had  never  been  a  deacon,  never  a  priest ;  a  bishop  consecrated 
by  a  presbyter ;  a  bishop  with  no  exclusive  powers  of  ordina- 
tion, and  made  subject  to  the  clergy  of  his  diocese? 

The  language  of  the  "  Book  of  Discipline  ,;  seems  to  imply 
that  the  office  of  a  superintendent  was  not  designed  to  be 
perpetual  in  the  Church.  It  was  a  temporary  expedient  to 
meet  the  exigencies  of  a  country  suddenly  deprived  of  its 
ancient  priesthood,,  and  not  yet  supplied  with  Protestant 
preachers.2  In  such  a  time,  the  creation  of  such  an  office  was 
most  politic  and  wise,  it  could  scarcely  have  been  dispensed 

1  This,  however,  leads  us  back  to  the  time  when  Ambrose  was  taken 
from  the  courts  of  law,  even  against  his  will,  and  at  once  set  upon  the 
Episcopal  throne  of  Milan. 

2  "  We  have  thought  good  to  signify  to  your  honours  such  reasons  as 

moved  us  to  make  difference  betwixt  preachers  at  this  tune We 

have  thought  it  a  thing  most  expedient  at  this  time,  that  from  the  whole 
number  of  godly  and  learned  men,  now  presently  in  this  realm,  be  selected 
ten  or  twelve,  to  whom  charge  and  commandment  should  be  given  to 
plant  and  erect  kirks,"  &c.     (First  Book  of  Discipline,  chap,  vi.) 


284  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XJ. 

with ;  and  he  must  be  blindly  wedded  to  Presbyterian  parity 
who  would  grudge  these  Presbyterian  bishops  the  superiority 
they  enjoyed  over  their  brethren.  That  they  did  enjoy  a 
superiority  it  were  useless  to  deny. 

Next  to  the  superintendent  came  the  minister,  whose  office, 
as  defined  in  the  "  Book  of  Discipline,"  agrees  exactly  with 
what  it  is  now.  But  as  men  of  sufficient  learning  to  supply  all 
the  parishes  in  the  country  with  ministers  could  not  at  once 
be  found,  men  of  inferior  attainments,  denominated  readers, 
were  to  be  temporarily  employed  in  the  destitute  districts.  It 
was  the  duty  of  these  to  read  the  Common  Prayers  and  the 
Scriptures  to  the  people,  but  they  were  forbidden  to  adminis- 
ter the  sacraments.  They  might  also  follow  up  their  reading 
with  some  suitable  exhortation,  and  if  they  attained  to  fluency 
in  this  exercise,  they  might  then,  with  the  approbation  of  the 
superintendent,  be  raised  to  the  full  status  of  ministers.  Thus 
this  system  of  readerships  not  merely  supplied  a  temporary 
want,  but  served  as  a  school  in  which  men  were  trained  for  the 
ministerial  work,  for  no  college  curriculum  had  as  yet  been 
prescribed.  Ministers  are  specially  forbidden  to  haunt  the 
court,  to  be  members  of  the  Council,  or  to  board  in  taverns  or 
ale-houses. 

The  elders  were  to  be  "  men  of  best  knowledge  in  God's 
Word,  and  cleanest  life,  men  faithful  and  of  most  honest  con- 
versation that  could  be  found  in  the  Church."  Their  duty 
was  "  to  assist  the  ministers  in  all  public  affairs  of  the  kirk,  to 
wit,  in  determining  and  judging  causes,  in  giving  admonition 
to  the  licentious  liver,  in  having  respect  to  the  manners  and 
conversation  of  all  men  within  their  charge."  "  They  ought  also 
to  take  heed  to  the  life,  manners,  diligence,  and  study  of  their 
ministers.  If  he  be  worthy  of  admonition,  they  must  admon- 
ish him  ;  of  correction,  they  must  correct  him  ;  and  if  he  be 
worthy  of  deposition,  they,  with  the  consent  of  the  kirk  and 
superintendent,  may  depose  him,  so  that  his  crime  deserve  so." 
The  deacons  were  "  to  receive  the  rents  and  gather  the  alms  of 
the  kirk,  to  keep  and  distribute  the  same  as  by  the  ministers 
and  kirk  shall  be  appointed  ;  they  may  also  assist  in  judgment 
with  the  ministers  and  elders  ;  and  may  be  admitted  to  read  in 
assembly  if  they  be  required,  and  be  able  thereto."  The  elders 
and  deacons  were  to  be  elected  only  for  a  year,  lest  they 
should  presume  too  much  ;  and  no  stipend  was  to  be  assigned 
them  for  their  labours,  which  were  not  deemed  to  be  such  as 
to  withdraw  them  from  their  usual  employments. 


a.d.  1560.]  WORSHIP.  28 


Ordinary  vocation  is  said  to  consist  of  three  parts-  -election, 
examination,  and  admission.  The  "  Book  of  Discipline"  sug- 
gests that  the  superintendents  should  be  chosen  by  the  Secret 
Council,  with  the  approbation  of  the  gentlemen  and  burgesses 
of  their  dioceses ;  and  that  the  ministers  should  be  chosen  by 
their  parishioners.  Being  duly  elected,  the  same  course  was 
to  be  pursued  in  regard  to  both  superintendents  and  ministers  ; 
their  life,  their  doctrines,  and  their  capabilities  of  edifying  the 
people  were  to  be  tested ;  a  sermon  was  to  be  preached  ; 
admonitions  were  to  be  addressed  to  all  the  parties  concerned ; 
prayer  was  to  be  offered  up ;  and  the  presentee  declared  to  be 
admitted  to  his  charge.  The  imposition  of  hands  was  forbid- 
den :  "  for  albeit  the  apostles  used  imposition  of  hands,  yet  see- 
ing the  miracle  is  ceased,  the  using  of  the  ceremony  we  judge 
not  necessary."  To  preach  the  Word  or  administer  the  sacra- 
ments without  a  proper  call,  is  declared  to  be  worthy  of  death. 

II.  The  Worship  and  Discipline  of  the  New  Church, 
It  is  declared  to  be  necessary  that  the  Word  should  be 
preached,  the  sacraments  administered,  common  prayers 
publicly  made,  the  young  and  the  ignorant  instructed,  and 
offenders  punished;  it  is  declared  to  be  profitable,  but  not 
necessary,  that  psalms  should  be  sung,  that  certain  portions  of 
Scripture  should  be  read  when  there  was  no  sermon,  and  that 
certain  days  should  be  observed  on  which  the  people  might 
assemble  in  the  churches.  It  is  recommended  that,  in  the 
great  towns,  there  should  be  either  sermon  or  common  prayers, 
with  some  reading  of  the  Scriptures  every  day  ;  and  that  in  the 
smaller  towns,  one  day  beside  the  Sunday  should  be  set  apart 
for  this  purpose.  On  the  Sunday  the  Word  was  to  be  preached, 
the  sacraments  administered,  the  children  publicly  catechized 
in  the  audience  of  the  people,  and  the  whole  day  observed  as 
sacred.  All  holidays  are  abolished.  All  vows  of  continence, 
and  all  assumption  of  religious  apparel,  are  declared  to  be  sin- 
ful. All  monuments  and  places  of  idolatry  are  ordered  to  be 
destroyed. 

Besides  the  meetings  for  the  preaching  of  the  Word  and  the 
administration  of  the  sacraments,  the  "  Book  of  Discipline" 
directs,  that  in  every  town  "  where  schools  and  repair  of  learned 
men  are,"  there  should  be  a  weekly  meeting  for  prophesying 
or  interpreting  the  Scriptures.  In  these  meetings  every  man 
was  to  have  liberty  to  speak,  to  offer  interpretations  of  hard 
passages,  to  suggest  doubts,  to  solve  difficulties ;  but  not  to 


286  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XL 

launch  out  into  anything  like  preaching.  The  ministers  in  the 
neighbourhood  were  to  attend  these  prophesyings,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  meeting  to  communicate  to  those  who  had  spoken 
their  opinion  of  the  manner  in  which  they  had  handled  the 
matter.  In  this  way  it  is  said  "  shall  the  kirk  have  knowledge 
and  judgment  of  the  graces,  gifts,  and  utterances  of  every  man 
within  their  body  ;  the  simple  and  such  as  have  somewhat 
profited  shall  be  encouraged  daily  to  study  and  to  proceed  in 
knowledge  ;  and  the  whole  kirk  shall  be  edified/' 

In  the  Policy  of  the  Church  it  is  recommended  that  the 
sacrament  of  the  Supper  should  be  administered  four  times 
every  year,  the  communicants  sitting  at  a  table,  and  partaking 
both  of  the  bread  and  the  wine,  while  the  minister  recited  to 
them  some  comfortable  passages  of  holy  writ  touching  the 
death  of  Christ,  and  the  benefits  which  flowed  from  it.  Before 
being  admitted  to  the  Lord's  table,  persons  were  to  be  ex- 
amined if  they  could  say  the  Lord's  prayer,  the  Creed,  and  the 
Ten  Commandments.  The  sacrament  of  baptism  was  to  be 
administered  in  the  church  at  convenient  times.  The  use  of 
oil,  salt,  wax,  spittle,  conjuration,  and  crossing  is  abolished, 
and  the  pure  element  of  water  alone  was  to  be  employed. 
Marriage  was  to  be  performed  after  the  proclamation  of  banns 
upon  a  Sunday,  and  in  the  open  face  and  public  audience  of 
the  Church.  The  burial  of  the  dead  was  to  take  place  without 
any  singing  of  mass,  placebo,  or  dirge.  No  ceremony  what- 
ever was  to  be  used,  no  funeral  sermon  was  to  be  preached, 
but  "  the  dead  committed  to  the  grave  with  such  gravity  and 
sobriety  as  those  that  be  present  may  seem  to  fear  the  judg- 
ments of  God,  and  to  hate  sin,  which  is  the  cause  of  death." 

In  the  "Book  of  Discipline"  there  is  frequent  reference  to 
the  Common  Prayers  and  the  Order  of  Geneva.  This  liturgi- 
cal form,  it  would  appear,  had  now  begun  to  supersede  the 
First  Book  of  Edward  VI.,  which  had  hitherto  been  used  by 
the  Scotch  Reformers  as  a  guide  in  their  devotions.  It  had 
been  printed  together  with  the  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms, 
and  now  received  the  stamp  of  authority  from  the  "  Book  of 
Discipline."1  It  was  chiefly  the  composition  of  John  Knox, 
and  was  used  by  him  at  Geneva.  It  contained  morning  and 
evening  prayers,  an  order  of  baptism,  an  order  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Lord's  Supper,  a  form  of  marriage,  a  visitation  of 
the  sick,  and  there  were  afterwards  added  to  it  a  form  for  the 

1  When  reference  is  made  to  the  Psalm  Book  at  this  period  and  for 
long  afterwards,  the  liturgy  with  the  psalms  attached  is  meant. 


A.D.  1560.]  DISCIPLINE.  287 

election  of  superintendents  and  ministers,  and  an  order  for 
excommunication  and  public  repentance.  The  officiating 
minister  was  allowed  by  the  rubric  to  deviate  from  the  forms 
of  prayer  prescribed,  but  still  these  were  to  be  considered  as 
his  guide,  and  we  need  not  hesitate  to  admit  that  this  liturgy 
was  generally  used  for  many  years  in  the  Reformed  Church  of 
Scotland.  Some  of  the  prayers,  for  transparency  of  diction 
and  beauty  of  piety,  will  compare  with  the  much-lauded  com- 
positions of  the  Anglican  Prayer-Book  ;  but  in  general  they 
are  prolix  and  involved,  and  appear  never  to  have  taken  much 
hold  upon  the  hearts  of  the  people.  The  Lord's  prayer  is 
frequently  introduced,  and  the  whole  compilation  is  charac- 
terized by  good  sense  and  sobriety  of  religious  feeling.  The 
rubric  instructs  us  that  the  Church-service  began  with  a  prayer, 
containing  a  confession  of  sin;  then  a  portion  of  the  Scriptures 
was  read;  then  a  psalm  was  sung;  then  an  extemporaneous 
prayer  was  offered  up  by  the  minister  ;  then  followed  the 
sermon,  a  prayer,  a  psalm  ;  and  finally  the  congregation  was 
dismissed  with  the  benediction.1 

The  discipline  of  the  early  Church  was  stern — perhaps  too 
stern  for  frail  human  nature.  Every  kind  of  immorality  was 
taken  cognisance  of — drunkenness,  profane  swearing,  impurity, 
excess  in  eating,  in  drinking,  or  in  dress,  oppression  of  the 
poor,  the  use  of  a  false  weight  or  measure,  wanton  words, 
licentious  living,  everything  which  fell  short  of  the  perfect  law. 
Heresy,  idolatry,  adultery,  and  several  other  crimes  were  pro- 
nounced worthy  of  death,  and  it  was  declared  to  be  the  duty 
of  the  civil  magistrate  to  see  the  sentence  carried  into  execu- 
tion. In  the  case  of  offenders  who  continued  obstinate  and 
unrepentant  notwithstanding  the  admonitions  of  the  Church, 
the  sentence  of  excommunication  was  to  be  pronounced.  This 
sentence  was  scarcely  less  dreadful  than  the  anathema  of  Rome. 
When  it  was  pronounced,  none,  saving  his  wife  and  family, 

1  So  early  as  1567  the  Prayer-Book  was  translated  into  Gaelic  by  John 
Carswell,  Bishop  of  the  Isles,  and  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  Gaelic 
book  ever  printed.  It  was  entitled  "  Foirm  na  Nurrnuidheadh,"  or  Forms 
of  Prayer.  The  bishop  knew  that  this  book  would  be  treated  with  ridicule 
by  the  bards  who  still  continued  Papists,  and  who  would  regard  printing 
as  an  innovation.  "Well  do  I  know,"  said  he,  in  his  Apologetic  In- 
troduction, "  that  the  Papists  especially,  and  above  all  the  old  satirical 
priests,  will  vomit  malice  against  me,  and  that  my  work  will  procure  me 
from  them  only  scandal  and  reproach."  A  curious  and  highly-interest- 
ing notice  of  this  work  will  be  found  in  Leyden's  "  Scottish  Descriptive 
Poems,"  &.C.  The  only  copy  of  Carswell's  translation  known  to  exist  is 
said  to  be  in  the  possession  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll. 


288  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

might  have  any  dealings,  in  eating  or  drinking,  in  buying  or 
selling,  in  saluting  or  talking,  with  the  excommunicated  man. 
He  was  to  be  as  one  accursed,  and  cut  off  from  all  society. 
When  the  delinquent,  however,  was  brought  to  repentance,  he 
was  to  be  absolved  of  his  sin,  and  received  back  into  the  bosom 
of  the  Church.  The  "  Book  of  Discipline  "  recommends  that 
"  a  solemn  and  special  prayer  should  be  drawn  for  the  purpose, 
that  the  thing  might  be  more  gravely  done  ;"  and  accordingly 
an  order  of  excommunication  and  of  public  repentance  was 
afterwards  added  to  the  liturgy.  It  shows  the  discipline  of  the 
Church  to  have  been  much  more  formal  and  operose  then  than  it 
is  now ;  perhaps  more  faithful,  certainly  more  severe.  The  form 
of  absolution,  however,  would  now  be  pronounced  papistical, 
as  it  is  not  declarative,  but  authoritative.  The  minister  autho- 
ritatively absolves  the  penitent  of  his  sin,  and  pronounces  it  to 
be  loosed  in  heaven.  The  "  Book  of  Discipline  "  says  nothing 
of  the  government  of  the  Church  by  kirk-sessions,  presbyteries, 
synods,  and  General  Assemblies  ;  but  it  is  easy  to  trace  in  it 
the  rudimental  forms  of  all  these  courts.  The  minister  required 
to  meet  with  his  elders  and  deacons  ;  out  of  this  grew  the 
kirk-session.  The  ministers  within  six  miles  of  the  notable 
towns  required  to  meet  at  the  prophesyings  or  weekly  exercises, 
and  neighbour  ministers  required  to  meet  with  each  other  for 
several  other  purposes  ;  here  was  the  embryo  presbytery.  The 
superintendent  required  to  meet  with  the  clergy  of  his  diocese 
for  ordering  many  things  connected  with  the  government  of  the 
Church ;  this  was  the  genesis  of  the  synod.  From  the  first 
year  of  its  existence  the  whole  Church  met  in  General  Assembly. 

III.  The  patrimony  of  the  Old  Church,  and  its  appropriation 
by  the  New. 

The  "  Book  of  Discipline  "  proposed  to  remit  all  mortuary 
clues  and  Easter  offerings.  All  the  other  possessions,  rents, 
and  revenues  of  the  ancient  Church,  whether  they  belonged  to 
bishoprics,  religious  houses,  or  parishes,  were  to  be  appro- 
priated by  the  new  establishment,  and  lifted  as  they  fell  due  by 
the  deacons.  Being  thus  appropriated  and  realised,  they  were 
to  be  applied  to  three  great  purposes — the  maintenance  of  the 
ministry,  the  education  of  youth,  and  the  support  of  the  poor. 
For  these  purposes  had  the  hierarchy  been  endowed  \  and  these 
very  purposes  did  the  Protestant  clergy  now  propose  to  fulfil.1 

1  The  Romanists  themselves  acknowledged  that  these  endowments  had 
been  received  for  these  three  purposes.      "  Quhidder  cumis  it  be  zour  ex- 


A.D.  1560.]  THE  CHURCH'S  PATRIMONY.  289 

It  was  the  smallest  possible  alienation  of  funds  doted  by  piety 
for  particular  purposes,  and  such  dotations  ought  ever  to  be 
regarded  as  peculiarly  sacred.  The  scheme  does  honour  to 
Knox,  and  proves  that,  with  all  his  roughness,  he  was  pos- 
sessed of  a  great  and  liberal  mind.  He  appears  more  truly 
great  in  his  attempts  to  build  up  the  new  Church,  though 
therein  he  Jailed,  than  in  his  efforts  to  throw  down  the  old  one, 
though  therein  he  succeeded.  But  let  us  examine  the  plan  a 
little  more  narrowly. 

It  is  suggested  that  the  superintendent  should  have  a  stipend 
of  about  six  chalders  beer,  nine  chalders  meal,  three  chalders 
oats,  and  six  hundred  merks  of  money,  to  be  increased  or 
decreased  at  the  discretion  of  the  prince  and  council  of  the 
realm.  It  is  suggested  that  the  minister  should  have  at  least 
forty  bolls  of  meal,  twenty-six  bolls  of  malt,  to  find  his  house 
in  bread  and  drink,  and  an  allowance  of  money  beside,  to  be 
fixed  yearly  by  his  congregation.  The  readers  were  to  have  a 
salary  of  forty  or  fifty  merks,  according  as  they  might  agree 
with  the  parishioners  among  whom  they  laboured.  It  must  be 
confessed  that  here  there  was  no  greed  or  grasping  on  the  part 
of  the  clergy;  the  allowances  they  asked  for  themselves  were 
extremely  moderate.  The  stipend  of  the  superintendent  is 
not  greater  than  a  city  living  at  the  present  day,  and  the 
stipend  of  the  minister,  though  not  so  precisely  defined,  we  may 
conclude  was  not  more  liberal  than  that  now  enjoyed  by  the 
ministers  of  rural  parishes.  "  The  Book  of  Discipline,"  how- 
ever, demanded  that  some  provision  should  be  made  for  the 
widows  and  children  of  those  who  devoted  themselves  to  the 
ministry,  upon  salaries  which  did  not  enable  them  to  accumu- 
late wealth.  The  sons  of  the  clergy  were  to  have  the  freedom 
of  the  towns  adjacent  to  the  parishes  in  which  their  fathers  had 
lived  and  laboured.  If  they  had  an  aptitude  for  learning  they 
were  to  be  maintained  at  the  schools,  and  have  a  bursary  in 
the  college ;  if  they  had  no  such  aptitude,  they  were  to  be  put 
to  some  useful  trade.  The  daughters  were  to  be  virtuously 
brought  up,  and  honestly  dowered  when  they  came  to  maturity, 
at  the  discretion  of  the  Kirk. 

The  second  part  of  the  scheme  was  the  education  of  the 
youth  of  the  country,  a  duty  which  hitherto  the  Romish  priest- 
hood had  performed,  though  in  an  imperfect  way.    The  "  Book 

hortation  or  nocht  that  mony  desyris  the  kirk-landis  anis  dedicat  to  God, 
for  sustentation  of  godly  mini.steris,  puir  studentis,  and  feble  and  waik 
indigentis,"  &c.     (Ninian  YVingate,  62.) 

T 


290  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

of  Discipline  "  proposes  that  to  every  church  there  should  be 
attached  a  school ;  that  in  every  large  town,  especially  in  the 
towns  of  the  superintendents,  there  should  be  erected  a  college 
or  grammar  school ;  and  that  the  Universities  of  St  Andrews, 
Glasgow,  and  Aberdeen  should  be  liberally  endowed.  Here, 
then,  we  have  a  parochial  system  of  education  chalked  out,  a 
system  whose  foundations  were  laid  amid  such  humble  liter- 
ature as  the  peasantry  could  receive,  but  whose  pinnacles 
reached  to  the  highest  regions  of  learning,  a  system  starting 
from  the  village  school  and  ending  with  the  university.  It  was 
the  foreshadow  of  the  system  which  was  afterwards  realised  in 
our  country,  but  the  shadow  was  more  perfect  than  the  reality. 
It  is  worked  out  in  the  "  Book  of  Discipline "  with  great 
minuteness,  and  while  we  may  not  approve  of  its  every  detail, 
in  all  its  leading  outlines  it  discovers  a  genius  for  policy  worthy 
of  the  greatest  statesman. 

The  third  part  of  the  scheme  was  the  sustenance  of  the 
poor.  The  Christian  Church  has  ever  considered  the  poor  to 
be  the  special  objects  of  its  care.  In  Romish  times  many 
hospitals  had  been  founded  for  the  reception  of  the  sick,  the 
infirm,  and  the  indigent ;  and  every  monastery,  in  fact,  was  akind 
of  alms-house.  When  the  Reformation  was  on  the  eve  of  being 
accomplished,  bishops  bemoaned  the  misfortunes  that  would 
befall  the  poor  ;  but  the  Reformers  showed  their  knowledge  of 
Christian  duty,  and  their  respect  for  the  intention  of  the  donors 
of  the  Church-property,  when  they  resolved  to  take  the  poor 
under  their  charge.  Both  before  and  after  the  Reformation, 
Scotland  seems  to  have  swarmed  with  beggars.  Among  these 
there  were  not  only  the  aged  and  sick,  but  strong,  sturdy  vaga- 
bonds, who  haunted  the  public  roads  and  entered  the  farm- 
houses, and  received  alms  more  from  fear  than  from  charity. 
The  "Book  of  Discipline  "proposed  that  the  able-bodied  should 
be  compelled  to  work,  but  that  the  aged  and  infirm  should  be 
made  to  return  to  their  native  parishes,  and  be  there  provided 
for. 

The  Church  is  said  to  have  anciently  possessed  one-half  of 
the  whole  property  of  the  kingdom.  Even  a  moiety  of  this, 
had  it  been  carefully  preserved  and  improved,  would  have 
abundantly  maintained  the  ecclesiastical,  educational,  and 
pauper  establishments  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  community  been 
saved  from  three  of  the  heaviest  taxes  which  now  press  upon  it. 
The  gospel  would  be  preached,  every  child  educated,  the  poor 
provided  for,  without  cost.     No  one  would  lose  anything  ; 


A.D.  1560.]  SPOLIATION.  29 1 

only  some  proprietors  would  never  have  possessed  their  exten- 
sive domains.  Some  great  lords  would  be  but  country  gentle- 
men with  small  estates  ;  and  others  might  rejoice  in  ancient 
titles,  but  lack  the  broad  acres  which  now  give  them  support. 
Public  officers,  and  not  private  factors,  would  be  lifting  the 
rents  of  the  monasteries  ;  and  yet  the  present  holders  could 
not  be  said  to  have  lost  what,  according  to  our  supposition, 
they  never  possessed.  The  community  would  have  reaped, 
as  it  ought  to  have  done,  the  benefit  of  the  Church's  accumu- 
lated wealth. 

The  same  agencies  which  deposited  the  endowments  of  the 
Roman  hierarchy  are  operating  still  \  and  if  sufficient  time- 
be  allowed,  the  accumulation  will  again  become  equally  great. 
Men  are  every  now  and  then  dying  and  leaving  money  to 
build  a  church,  to  found  an  hospital,  to  endow  a  school.  The 
funds  thus  devoted  must  go  on  increasing — they  cannot 
decrease  \  and  we  can  contemplate  the  time  when  our  ecclesi- 
astical, educational,  and  pauper  establishments  will  be  sus- 
tained by  this  source  alone,  without  need  of  assessments. 
How  sad  if  the  few  were  again  to  sweep  away  the  wealth  thus 
slowly  accumulated  for  the  benefit  of  the  many  ! 

From  the  first  brush  of  the  Reformation,  it  was  evident 
that  the  Church's  property  would  have  an  important  influence 
upon  the  struggle.  The  hungry  nobles  were  coveting  the  well- 
fed  churchmen.  So  early  as  1543,  the  Regent  Arran  confessed 
to  Sadler  that  so  many  great  men  were  Papists,  that  unless  the 
sin  of  covetousness  made  them  Reformers,  he  saw  no  other 
way  in  which  the  Reformation  could  be  effected.1  When  the 
battle  commenced,  the  barons  instantly  began  to  relieve  the 
churchmen  of  the  trouble  of  lifting  their  rents.  When  the 
victory  was  won,  Knox  perceived  the  danger  of  the  Church 
being  not  merely  purged  of  its  idolatry,  but  stripped  of  its 
possessions,  and  turned  out  naked  upon  the  streets ;  and 
therefore,  while  the  parliament  of  1560  was  yet  sitting,  he 
began  a  course  of  lectures  upon  Haggai,  and  we  can  conceive 
the  indignant  tones  in  which  he  demanded  of  the  barons  who 
filled  the  nave  of  St  Gile's — "  Is  it  a  time  for  you,  O  ye,  to 
dwell  in  your  ceiled  houses,  and  this  house  lie  waste  ?  Go  up 
to  the  mountain  and  bring  wood,  and  build  the  house  ;  and  I 
will  take  pleasure  in  it,  and  I  will  be  glorified,  saith  the  Lord. 
The  silver  is  mine,  and  the  gold  is  mine,  saith  the  Lord  of 
hosts.     The  glory  of  this  latter  house  shall  be  greater  than  of 

1  Sadler,  State  Papers,  &c,  vol.  i.     Keith's  Hist.,  book  i.  chap.  iii. 


292  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XL 

the  former,  and  in  this  place  will  I  give  peace."  But  if  Knox 
could  declaim,  there  were  barons  who  could  sneer  at  his 
declamation.  "  We  may  now  forget  ourselves,''  said  Mait- 
land,  "  and  bear  the  barrow  to  build  the  house  of  God."  1 

When  the  "  Book  of  Discipline  "  was  presented  to  the  Privy 
Council  for  its  approval,  the  same  spirit  became  still  more 
manifest.  Maitland  again  had  his  sneer,  and  declared  the 
whole  affair  to  be  "  a  devout  imagination."  Knox  now  sud- 
denly found  himself  in  the  midst  of  a  den  of  thieves,  and  he 
broke  out  with  scorching  sarcasm.  "  Some,"  says  he,  "  were 
licentious,  some  had  greedily  gripped  the  possessions  of  the 
Church,  and  others  thought  that  they  would  not  lack  their 
part  of  Christ's  coat ;  yea,  and  that  before  that  ever  He  was 
hanged,  as  by  the  preachers  they  were  oft  rebuked.  The 
chief  great  man  that  had  professed  Christ  Jesus,  and  refused 
to  subscribe  the  '  Book  of  Discipline,'  was  the  Lord  Erskine  ; 
and  no  wonder,  for,  besides  that  he  has  a  very  Jezebel  to 
his  wife,  if  the  poor,  the  schools,  and  the  ministry  of  the 
Church  had  their  own,  his  kitchen  would  lack  two  parts  and 
more  of  that  which  he  unjustly  now  possesseth.  Assuredly 
some  of  us  have  wondered  how  men  that  profess  godliness 
could  of  so  long  continuance  hear  the  threatenings  of  God 
against  thieves  and  against  their  houses,  and  knowing  them- 
selves guilty  in  such  things  as  were  openly  rebuked,  and  that 
they  never  had  remorse  of  conscience,  neither  yet  intended  to 
restore  anything  of  that  which  long  they  had  stolen  and  reft. 
There  were  none  within  the  realm  more  unmerciful  to  the  poor 
ministers  than  were  they  which  had  greatest  rents  of  the 
churches  ;  but  in  that  we  have  perceived  the  old  proverb  to 
be  true,  '  Nothing  can  suffice  a  wretch ; '  and  again,  '  The 
belly  hath  no  ears.'"2 

The  Secret  Council,  as  a  body,  could  never  be  induced  to 
give  its  approval  to  the  "  First  Book  of  Discipline."  But  on 
the  17th  of  January  1561,  thirty-three  barons  and  proselytized 
prelates  put  their  names  as  individual  subscribers  to  a  docu- 
ment, in  which  they  gave  it  their  sanction,  and  promised  to 
do  their  best  to  carry  it  into  execution.3  The  subscription 
was  useless,  and  in  many  cases  was  insincere.  Thus  this  plan 
for  the  building  of  the  second  temple  was  discarded,  simply 
because  it  proposed  to  apply  ecclesiastical  property  to  ecclesi- 
astical uses.  It  might  have  been  supposed  that  barons  so 
zealous  for  religion  would  have    themselves  been  religious, 

1  Knox's  History,  book  iii.  2  Ibid.  3  Ibid. 


A.D.  Lr>60.]  FIRST  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY.  293 

and  that  being  religious  they  would  have  been  honest,  but  it 
was  not  so.  In  the  case  of  many,  a  desire  to  clutch  the  Church's 
lands  and  tithes  had  much  more  to  do  with  making  them  re- 
formers than  any  love  for  Calvinism.  A  knowledge  of  men, 
and  of  the  motives  which  concur  in  promoting  the  best  of 
causes,  will  lessen  our  surprise,  and  let  us  see  that  the  same 
thing  has  happened  more  than  once  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
But  though  the  "  First  Book  of  Discipline  "  did  not  receive  the 
sanction  of  the  parliament  or  council,  it  was  acted  upon  by 
the  Church,  so  far  as  the  Church  could  act  upon  it.  The 
ecclesiastical  arrangements  were  carried  out,  though  the 
ecclesiastical  revenues  could  not  be  touched.  It  is  said  that 
the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  when  he  saw  the  day  lost,  and 
the  ruin  of  his  party  irretrievable,  sent  a  message  to  Knox, 
urging  him,  while  he  changed  the  doctrines  of  the  Church,  to 
maintain  its  ancient  policy,  as  in  that  way  only  could  he  hope 
to  preserve  its  property ;  but  Knox  was  too  thorough  a  Re- 
former to  listen  to  the  advice.1 

On  the  20th  December  1560,  the  first  General  Assembly 
of  the  Reformed  Church  of  Scotland  met  in  Magdalen 
Chapel,  in  the  Cowgate  of  Edinburgh.  It  consisted  of  but 
forty-one  members,  of  whom  only  six  were  ministers.  They 
sat  as  "  the  ministers  and  commissioners  of  the  particular 
kirks  of  Scotland,  convened  upon  the  things  which  are  to  set 
forward  God's  glory,  and  the  weal  of  His  Kirk  in  this  realm."- 
The  chief  business  of  this  Assembly  was  to  give  its  approval 
to  a  number  of  persons  who  were  recommended  to  it  as 
readers,  ministers,  and  superintendents.  Acts  were  also 
passed  in  regard  to  the  laws  of  consanguinity,  the  election  of 
ministers,  elders,  and  deacons,  the  confirmation  of  testa- 
ments ;  and  ordaining  that  those  who  had  borne  office  in  the 
Popish  Church,  and  were  of  honest  conversation,  should  be 
supported  with  the  alms  of  the  Kirk,  as  other  poor ;  that  the 
parliament  should  be  petitioned  to  admit  none  to  public 
offices  but  such  as  were  of  the  Reformed  religion,  and  to 
punish  sharply  all  sayers  and  hearers  of  mass.  This  Assembly 
seems  to  have  continued  its  sittings  during  seven  days,  when 
it  adjourned  to  meet  on  the  15th  of  January  1561. 

Of  the  Assembly  appointed  to  meet  in  January,  if  it  ever 
met,  we  have  no  record;  but  on  the  15th  of  that  month,  a 
Convention  of  the  Estates  was  held,  in  which  grave  matters 

1  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  iii. 

2  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  1.      Keith,  book  iii.  chap.  i. 


294  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XJ. 

affecting  the  Church  were  debated.  It  was  in  this  convention 
that  the  "  Book  of  Discipline"  was  first  examined,  and  then 
cast  overboard.  But  the  nobles,  while  refusing  to  sanction 
the  new  ecclesiastical  policy,  wished  to  have  their  faith  con- 
firmed by  a  disputation  on  the  controverted  points  between 
the  Papists  and  Protestants.  There  were  therefore  sum- 
moned into  their  presence,  on  the  Romish  side,  John  Lesley, 
Official  of  Aberdeen,  and  shortly  afterwards  Bishop  of  Ross, 
Alexander  Anderson,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Aberdeen, 
Patrick  Myrtom,  and  James  Strachan ;  and  on  the  side  of 
the  Reformers,  John  Knox,  John  Willock,  and  Christopher 
Goodman.  It  was  on  the  mass  that  the  debate  principally 
hinged.  We  have  an  account  of  it  from  two  of  the  com- 
batants, Knox  and  Lesley,  and  it  is  amusing  to  contrast  their 
opposite  descriptions  of  this  polemical  passage-at-arms.  Knox 
declares  that  Anderson,  who  began  the  combat,  was  quickly 
silenced ;  and  that  when  Lesley  came  to  his  rescue,  he  could 
only  say  that  he  knew  nothing  but  the  canon  law,  where  the 
great  reasons  for  everything  were  nolumus  and  volumus ; 
words  which  Knox  instantly  fastened  upon  him  as  a  nick- 
name. Lesley,  on  the  other  hand,  relates  that  Anderson 
reasoned  so  learnedly,  consistently,  and  piously,  that  the 
Catholics  were  confirmed,  and  the  heretics  confounded,  and 
that,  after  that  exhibition,  no  one  dared  to  challenge  him 
or  any  other  Romanist  to  an  encounter  regarding  the 
mysteries  of  his  faith.  Lesley  adds  that  the  nobles  revenged 
themselves  upon  the  triumphant  Catholics  by  compelling 
them  to  remain  in  the  city,  and  give  attendance  upon  the 
sermons  of  the  Protestant  preachers,  as  if,  says  he,  with  a 
bitter  sneer,  the  pandering  speeches  of  these  paltry  rhetori- 
cians could  convince  men  whom  all  their  arguments  had 
failed  to  move.1 

In  the  month  of  May,  the  second  General  Assembly  of 
which  we  have  any  record  assembled  in  the  Tolbooth  at 
Edinburgh.  It  resolved  that  a  petition  should  be  presented 
to  the  Privy  Council,  praying  that  all  monuments  of  idolatry 
should  be  destroyed,  and  all  persons  guilty  of  it  proceeded 
against  according  to  act  of  parliament ;  that  provision  should 
be  made  for  the  superintendents,  ministers,  and  readers,  and 
punishments  appointed  for  those  who  contemned  their  autho- 
rity ;  that  all  despisers  of  the  sacraments  should  be  punished ; 
that  no  letters  of  session  should  be  given  for  the  payment  of 
1  Knox's  History,  book  iii.     Lesley,  lib.  x. 


a.d.  1561.]  DEMOLITION  OF  RELIGIOUS  HOUSES.  295 

teinds,  without  the  special  provision  that  enough  was  retained 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  ministry  ;  that  no  judge  should 
proceed  upon  any  precept  at  the  instance  of  persons  who  had 
already  obtained  feus  of  vicarages,  parson-houses,  or  church- 
yards ;  that  no  warrants  of  any  kind  should  be  put  in  force 
till  the  stipends  specified  in  the  "  Book  of  Discipline  "  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  ministry  should  be  first  consigned  in  the 
hands  of  the  principal  parishioners  ;  and,  finally,  that  punish- 
ment should  be  inflicted  upon  any  who  might  purchase,  or 
publish  within  the  realm,  papal  bulls.1 

These  articles  of  complaint  and  petition  are  highly  signifi- 
cant, and  show  the  means  already  being  taken  to  alienate  the 
property  of  the  Church.  Knox  says  that  the  Lords  of  Privy 
Council  granted  the  prayer  of  the  petition  ;  but  we  have  little 
evidence  that  they  acted  upon  any  part  of  it,  except  that  which 
related  to  the  demolition  of  the  monasteries.2  With  regard  to 
these,  they  went  to  work  with  amazing  alacrity.  The  execu- 
tion of  the  work  was  intrusted  to  the  Earls  of  Arran,  Argyll, 
and  Glencairn,  in  the  western  counties  ;  and  to  the  Lord 
James  in  the  north  ;  and,  if  we  may  believe  Spottiswood,  a 
pitiful  devastation  ensued. 

It  is  undoubtedly  more  difficult  to  defend  this  demolition 
of  Religious  Houses  than  that  which  preceded  it,  notwith- 
standing that  the  one  was  done  under  the  pretext  of  law,  and 
the  other  in  defiance  of  it.  In  the  first  case,  the  contest  was 
raging,  the  issue  was  doubtful,  men's  passions  were  up,  and 
the  mob  was  not  to  be  restrained  ;  in  the  second,  the  victory 
had  been  won,  the  flood  of  angry  feeling  had  somewhat  abated, 
and  it  was  not  the  rascal  rabble,  but  the  lords  of  parliament 
who  did  the  work.  At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  allowed  that 
fear  lest  Popery  should  regain  its  lost  ground  was  still  strong, 
and  that  the  public  mind  was  in  a  state  of  intense  excitement. 
These  monasteries,  if  allowed  to  stand,  might  yet  be  re- 
occupied.  It  is  also  certain  that  the  havoc  made  was  not 
nearly  so  great  as  is  frequently  supposed.  We  have  still 
remaining  the  commission  issued  for  the  purging  of  the 
Cathedral  of  Dunkeld,  in  which  the  Lairds  of  Arntilly  and 
Kinvaid  are  instructed  to  pass  to  it  incontinent,  to  take  down 
the  images,  and  bringing  them  out  to  the  church-yard,  to  burn 
them  publicly,  to  cast  down  the  altars,  and  remove  every 
vestige  of  idolatry  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  to  be  careful  to  do 
no  damage  to  the  desks,  windows,  or  doors,  either  in  respect 

1  Keith,  book  iii.  chap.  i.  2  Knox's  History,  book  iv. 


296  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

of  the  glass-work  or  iron-work.1  This,  it  must  be  acknow- 
ledged, was  only  a  reasonable  and  needful  reformation,  and 
we  shall  understand  it  still  better  if  we  take  it  in  conjunction 
with  the  chapter  in  the  "  First  Book  of  Discipline,"  in  which 
it  is  declared  that  the  churches  ought  to  be  repaired  in  a 
manner  fitting  the  majesty  of  God  and  the  commodity  of  the 
people,  and  provided  with  doors,  glass  windows,  thatch  or 
slate,  a  bell,  a  pulpit,  a  basin  for  baptizing,  and  tables  for 
administering  the  Lord's  Supper.2  There  was  no  antipathy  to 
churches  of  hoary  antiquity  and  stately  architecture  ;  it  was 
only  monasteries  that  were  to  be  destroyed,  and  that  part  of 
the  furniture  of  the  churches  which  the  Protestants  deemed  to 
be  idolatrous. 

Immediately  after  the  dissolution  of  the  parliament  which 
accepted  the  reformed  Confession  of  Faith,  Sir  James  Sandi- 
lands,  Preceptor  of  the  Knights  of  St  John,  had  been 
despatched  to  France  to  obtain  the  queen's  ratification  of  its 
acts.  He  was  received  with  cold  courtesy  ;  his  request  was 
refused  ;  and  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  took  an  opportunity  of 
saying  to  him,  that  he  was  surprised  to  find  the  head  of  an 
ecclesiastical  military  order  so  forgetful  of  his  vows  as  to  come 
upon  such  an  errand.  The  queen,  moreover,  complained 
that  a  poor  gentleman  of  secondary  rank  should  have  come  to 
her,  while  a  splendid  legation,  consisting  of  the  Earls  of  Glen- 
cairn  and  Morton,  and  the  Laird  of  Lethington,  had  been 
sent  to  Elizabeth.  She  saw  but  too  clearly  that  she  was  sup- 
planted in  the  affections  of  her  subjects,  and  that  the  Queen 
of  England  had  more  influence  in  Scotland  than  its  rightful 
sovereign.  Rumours  of  her  displeasure  reached  Scotland,, 
and  the  worst  was  apprehended.  French  troops  might  again 
be  landed ;  English  assistance  might  not  again  be  obtained  ; 
and  despotic  power  might  occupy  the  throne,  and  force  an 
odious  religion  upon  a  reluctant  people.     These  fears,  how- 

D  ever,  were  quickly  dissipated  by  the  death  of 

•  4>  15  c  Francis  II.  It  was  at  once  seen  that  this 
event  would  entirely  change  the  current  of  State  affairs.  Mary 
was  now  a  widow.  She  no  longer  swayed  the  French  sceptre, 
or  had  at  her  command  the  armies  and  resources  of  a  king- 
dom more  powerful  than  her  own.  All  this  had  passed  to 
another  ;  and  it  was  already  anticipated  that  she  would  soon 
return  to  her  native  dominions. 

1  This  document  is  given  in  the  Notes  to  Dr  M 'die's  Life  of  Knox. 

2  First  Book  of  Discipline,  chap.  xv. 


A.D.  1561. J  THE  QUEEN'S  RETURN.  297 

Early  in  1561  two  distinguished  personages  were  hurrying 
from  Scotland  to  France  by  different  routes.  The  one  took 
shipping  at  Aberdeen,  and  proceeded  by  sea ;  the  other 
posted  southwards  through  England,  pausing  at  the  Court  of 
St  James's  on  his  way.  Both  were  Churchmen.  The  one 
was  John  Lesley,  Official  of  Aberdeen  ;  the  other  was  James 
Stewart,  Prior  of  St  Andrews.  The  former  was  hastening  to 
bespeak  the  favour  of  his  queen  for  the  Catholics  ;  the  latter, 
to  entreat  his  sister  to  consult  her  own  happiness,  and  the 
stability  of  her  government,  by  seeking  the  support  of  the 
Protestants.  Lesley  beat  his  rival  on  the  road  by  a  day,  and 
had  the  first  word  with  his  sovereign.  He  was  kindly  re- 
ceived, and  advised  her  to  land  at  Aberdeen  and  put  herself 
at  the  head  of  the  Catholics  of  the  north,  but  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  obtained  her  confidence.  Her  brother,  though 
he  was  a  bastard,  she  received  with  all  a  sister's  openness 
and  affection ;  and  he  rewarded  her  confidence  by  retail- 
ing their  interviews  to  the  English  ambassador.  Mary  was 
willing  to  forgive  her  brother  all  the  past ;  but  she  was  most 
anxious  he  should  make  his  peace  with  Rome.  The  Guises 
used  all  their  influence  to  bring  this  about ;  let  him  only 
return  to  his  ecclesiastical  habit,  and  he  might  have  a  cardi- 
nal's hat,  abbeys,  priories,  anything  his  soul  desired.1  The 
Lord  James  remained  firm — he  would  not  be  a  renegade — 
and  for  this  we  must  honour  him.  However,  he  was  not  firm 
for  nought  \  he  had  already  sought  and  obtained  a  pension 
from  England,  and  at  this  very  time  we  find  the  English 
ambassador  earnestly  pressing  his  claims  upon  the  English 
queen.  He  soon  obtained  an  earldom  \  people  whispered  he 
sought  a  crown. 

After  some  hesitation  and  delay,  the  widowed  Mary  resolved 
to  return  to  her  ancestral  kingdom.  She  applied  to  Elizabeth 
for  a  safe  passport,  but  it  was  refused  with  rage,  for  she  had 
cleverly  evaded  confirming  the  Treaty  of  Edinburgh,  in  which 
Elizabeth  was  acknowledged  as  Queen  of  England — a  thing 
about  which  she  was  particularly  tender  and  touchy.  The 
Scottish  queen  was  not  to  be  deterred,  though  she  had  reason 
to  suspect  that  evil  was  meditated  against  her,  and  embarking 
at  Calais  on  the  14th  of  August,  she  gazed  at  the  receding 
shores  while  she  could,  but  soon  lost  sight  for  ever  of  the  joy- 
ous country  where  she  had  spent  the  only  period  of  her  life 
destined  to  be  happy.  The  English  cruisers  were  in  the 
1  Tytler's  History,  vol.  vi.     Keith,  book  ii. 


298  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

Channel  eager  to  intercept  her,  but  she  happily  passed  them 
in  a  fog,  and  arrived  at  Leith  on  a  dark,  stormy  morning,  five 
days  after  she  had  set  sail.  Her  nobility  and  people  received 
her  with  rude  pomp,  and  conducted  her  to  her  Palace  of 
Holyroodhouse.  In  the  evening  numerous  bonfires  blazed  a 
welcome,  and  "  a  company  of  most  honest  men,  with  instru- 
ments of  music,  gave  their  salutations  at  her  chamber  window/'1 
Mary  was  good-natured  enough  to  declare  that  she  was 
delighted  with  their  strains,  and  bid  them  come  and  repeat 
them  on  the  following  night;  but  the  celebrated  chronicler, 
Brantome,  who  was  one  of  her  company,  declares  the  music 
was  abominable,  and  performed  upon  wretched  fiddles  and 
rebecs. 

But  Sunday  came,  and  on  Sunday  the  queen,  like  a  good 
Catholic,  must  hear  mass ;  and  to  hear  mass  in  Scotland  was 
a  crime  worthy  of  death.  The  Master  of  Lindsay,  and  some 
of  the  Fife  Reformers,  had  gathered  about  the  palace.  The 
poor  man  who  carried  in  the  candles  for  the  altar  trembled  in 
every  joint  when  he  looked  at  their  threatening  aspects.  He 
heard  them  muttering,  "  the  idolatrous  priest  shall  die."  The 
chapel  would  certainly  have  been  invaded,  but  the  Lord  James 
had  taken  up  his  post  at  the  door,  and  would  allow  no  one  to 
enter.  He  declared,  with  much  solemnity,  that  he  had  placed 
himself  there  that  no  Scotchman  might  pollute  his  eyes  with 
the  abominable  thing.  A  strange  humour  must  have  flickered 
about  his  mouth  when  he  said  it.  The  service  was  performed, 
and  no  mischief  done  ;  and  the  officiating  priest  safely  con- 
ducted back  to  his  lodgings  between  the  Abbot  of  Colding- 
ham  and  the  Abbot  of  Holyroodhouse,  both  Protestants,  and 
both  illegitimate  brothers  of  the  queen.2  But  in  the  afternoon 
the  crowd  became  greater,  and  a  riot  was  apprehended.  In 
these  circumstances  the  Privy  Council  met,  and,  as  the  result 
of  their  deliberations,  a  proclamation  was  published  the  next 
day  at  the  market-cross,  forbidding  any  one,  under  pain  of 
death,  to  make  "any  alteration  in  the  state  of  religion  as  it  ex- 
isted upon  her  Majesty's  arrival  in  her  dominions,  or  to 
assault  upon  any  pretence  any  of  her  Majesty's  attendants, 
either  within  or  without  the  palace.3 

This  proclamation  had  two  sides  —  a  Protestant  and  a 
Popish.  Many  regarded  it  as  a  great  triumph  of  Protestant- 
ism, for  it  was  its  first  regal  recognition  in  the  realm ;  others 

1  Knox's  History,  book  iv.  9  Ibid. 

3  Keith's  History,  book  iii.  chap.  ii. 


A.D.  1561. J  MARY  AND  KNOX.  299 

regarded  it  as  a  revival  of  Popery,  for  it  protected  the  queen's 
Frenchmen  and  priests  in  celebrating  their  masses.  When 
the  herald  had  read  the  proclamation,  the  Earl  of  Arran,  an 
excitable  young  man,  who  had  sought  the  hand  of  Elizabeth  and 
been  refused,  who  had  aspired  to  the  heart  of  Mary  with  little 
hope  of  success,  and  who  subsequently  went  mad,  stepped  for- 
ward and  protested  against  any  protection  being  given  to  the 
queen's  domestics  in  their  idolatrous  worship,  as  the  law  of  the 
Lord  and  the  law  of  the  land  had  alike  declared  it  to  be 
deserving  of  death.1  On  the  Sunday  following  Knox  took  up 
the  same  theme,  and  declared  from  the  pulpit  that  one  mass 
was  more  fearful  to  him  than  if  ten  thousand  armed  enemies 
were  landed  in  any  part  of  the  realm.  The  courtiers,  however, 
only  laughed  at  his  alarm,  and  jeeringly  said  that  it  was  quite 
beside  his  text.-  In  deep  dolour  Knox  wrote  to  Calvin  pour- 
ing into  his  bosom  his  griefs  and  his  fears,  and  asking  his 
advice  (but  it  is  probable  the  letter  never  reached  its 
destination).'' 

Before  Mary  had  left  France  she  had  heard  of  Knox,  and 
feared  him,  perhaps  hated  him.4  Rumours  of  his  sermon  now 
reached  the  palace,  and  she  resolved  to  send  for  and  try  if 
nothing  could  be  made  of  this  wild  and  outspoken  man.  The 
long-bearded  Reformer  came,  and  was  admitted  to  an  audience 
with  the  queen — a  girl  of  nineteen,  already  a  widow,  but  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  women  in  Europe.  There  they  stood 
opposite  to  one  another  in  the  ancient  halls  of  Holyrood. 
There  were  none  present  to  witness  what  passed  but  the  Lord 
James,  and  two  gentlemen  in  waiting  who  remained  at  the  far 
end  of  the  room.  The  queen  began  the  interview  by  charging 
Knox  with  stirring  up  her  subjects  against  her  mother  and 
herself;  with  writing  a  book  against  the  government  of  women  ; 
and  with  doing  all  he  did  by  necromancy.  In  regard  to  the 
first  charge,  Knox  protested  that  he  had  done  nothing  more 
than  rebuked  idolatry,  and  preached  the  Word  of  God  in 
sincerity.  In  regard  to  the  second,  he  confessed  that  he 
had  written  the  treatise  referred  to,  and  that  it  contained  his 
opinions.     "Then,"  said  the  queen,  "  you  think  that  I  have 

1  Keith's  History,  book  iii.  chap.  ii.      Knox's  History,  book  iv. 

2  Knox's  History,  book  iv.  Thomas  Randolph  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Nicolas 
Throckmorton  refers  to  the  Mass,  the  Proclamation,  and  the  Sermon. 
(Eliz.  vol.  vi.  No.  61A). 

3  Teulet,  book  ii.  p.  12.     Burton,  chap.  xli. 

4  Letter  in  Appendix  to  Tytler's  History,  vol.  vi. 


jOO  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XL 

no  just  authority."  Knox  parried  this  thrust  by  stating,  that 
philosophers  were  privileged  to  entertain  speculative  opinions 
opposed  to  the  existing  order  of  things,  as  was  Plato  when  he 
published  his  "  Republic."  For  himself,  he  declared  that  he 
was  willing  to  live  as  a  peaceable  subject  of  her  Majesty's 
government,  and  that  his  book  was  provoked  by  the  persecu- 
tions of  Mary  of  England.  "  But,"  cried  Mary  of  Scotland, 
"  you  speak  of  women  in  general."  The  Reformer  allowed  that 
his  argument  was  general,  but  urged  that,  seeing  it  had  not 
caused  her  Majesty  any  trouble,  and  was  not  likely  to  do  so, 
it  was  impolitic  to  stir  it  at  all.  Then  referring  to  the  charge 
of  necromancy,  he  appealed  to  all  the  congregations  to  whom 
he  had  preached  to  refute  the  charge.  "  But  seeing,"  he  con- 
cluded, "  that  the  wicked  of  the  world  said  my  Master,  the 
Lord  Jesus,  was  possessed  with  Beelzebub,  I  must  patiently 
bear,  albeit  that  I,  wretched  sinner,  am  unjustly  accused." 
The  queen  now  shifted  her  ground,  and  asked  if  he  had  not 
taught  the  people  another  religion  than  that  of  their  princes ; 
and  "  how,"  said  she,  "can  that  doctrine  be  of  God,  seeing  God 
commandeth  subjects  to  obey  their  princes."  Knox  had  now 
clearly  the  truth  on  his  side,  and  he  argued  that,  as  religion 
came  not  from  princes,  but  from  the  eternal  God,  so  to  God 
only  were  men  answerable  for  it.  He  appealed  to  the  Israel- 
ites in  Egypt,  to  Daniel  and  his  fellows  in  Babylon,  to  Christ 
and  His  apostles  in  the  Roman  Empire.  "  Yes,"  said  the 
royal  disputant,  "  but  none  of  these  men  raised  their  sword 
against  their  princes."  "  God,"  said  the  stout  Reformer,  "  had 
not  given  them  the  power  and  the  means."  "Then,  do  you 
think,"  asked  the  queen,  "that  subjects  having  the  power  may- 
resist  their  princes  ? "  "If  princes  exceed  their  bounds,"  said 
the  unflinching  Knox,  and  proceeded  to  illustrate  his  argument 
by  the  case  of  a  parent  seized  with  frenzy  and  bound  by  his 
children. 

At  this  bold  and  startling  declaration  the  queen  was  struck 
dumb.  She  remained  silent,  and  looked  so  ill,  that  her  brother 
asked  her  if  anything  ailed  her.  After  a  little  she  recovered 
herself  and  said,  "Well,  then,  I  perceive  that  my  subjects  will 
obey  you  and  not  me."  "  God  forbid,"  answered  the  Re- 
former, "  that  I  take  upon  me  to  command  any  to  obey  me, 
or  yet  to  set  subjects  at  liberty  to  do  whatsoever  pleases  them, 
but  my  travail  is,  that  both  princes  and  subjects  obey  God." 
After  this  he  proceeded  to  say,  that  it  became  kings  and 
queens    to   be  nursing  fathers   and   nursing   mothers   to   the 


A.D.  1561.]  THE  INTERVIEW.  301 

Church.  "  Yes,"  quoth  the  queen,  "  but  ye  are  not  the  Church 
that  I  will  nourish.  I  will  defend  the  Church  of  Rome,  for  I 
think  it  is  the  true  Church  of  God."  "Your  will,  madam," 
said  Knox  sternly,  "  is  no  reason,  neither  doth  your  thought 
make  that  Roman  harlot  the  immaculate  spouse  of  Jesus 
Christ."  When  the  uncourtly  controversialist  offered  to  prove 
that  Rome  was  a  harlot,  and  that  the  princes  of  the  earth  had 
committed  fornication  with  her,  the  queen  quietly  said,  "  My 
conscience  says  not  so."  "  Conscience,  madam,"  said  Knox. 
"  requires  knowledge,  and  I  fear  that  of  right  knowledge  you 
have  but  little."  "But,"  said  she,  "I  have  both  heard  and 
read."  "  So  had  the  Jews  that  crucified  Christ,"  retorted  the 
preacher.  "  You  interpret  the  Scriptures  in  one  manner,  and 
the  Roman  clergy  in  another,"  said  the  royal  Mary,  still  pre- 
serving her  temper,  and  resolved  not  to  be  beat  :  "  whom  shall 
I  believe,  and  who  shall  be  judge  ?"  Knox  replied  that  the 
Scriptures  were  their  own  best  interpreters,  and  that  the  mass 
had  no  authority  in  Scripture  at  all.  "  You  are  over  hard  for 
me,"  said  the  queen,"  but  if  they  were  here  whom  I  have  heard, 
they  would  answer  you."  Knox  declared  how  it  would  rejoice 
him  to  meet  in  controversy  with  the  ablest  Romanists  in 
Europe,  but  that  he  knew  by  experience  that  they  avoided  all 
arguments  but  fire  and  sword.  The  interview  had  been  long, 
the  afternoon  was  come,  dinner  was  announced,  and  the  queen 
rose  to  depart.  The  Reformer  appears  to  have  been  touched 
with  a  transient  loyalty  at  leaving,  for  he  said,  "  I  pray  God, 
madam,  that  you  may  be  as  blessed  within  the  Commonwealth 
of  Scotland  as  ever  Deborah  was  in  the  Commonwealth  of 
Israel."  * 

Very  different  views  have  been  taken  of  this  interview  be- 
tween the  gray-headed  Reformer  and  the  girlish  queen.  We 
think  it  must  be  allowed  by  all  that  very  few  royal  personages 
would  have  borne  so  much  as  Mary  did ;  and  very  few  men 
would  have  spoken  so  roughly  in  the  presence  of  royalty  as 
Knox  did.  Would  the  bravest  man  in  England  have  dared 
so  to  speak  in  the  presence  of  Elizabeth  ?  But,  at  the  same 
time,  we  think  it  will  be  generally  conceded  that  they  were 
wholesome  truths  which  the  Reformer  uttered,  however  pain- 
ful they  may  have  been  to  hear.  They  contain  the  germs  of 
our  present  political  liberty  resting  on  a  limited  monarchy. 
Knox  was  not  formed  by  nature  to  be  a  courtier,  but  perhaps 
for  that  very  reason  he  was  better  suited  to  be  a  religious 
1  Knox's  History,  book  it. 


302  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XL 

Reformer.  He  was  another  Baptist,  more  suited  to  preach 
repentance  in  the  wilderness  than  to  live  in  kings'  houses. 
"  I  commend  better  the  success  of  his  doings  and  preachings," 
said  Randolph  to  Cecil,  "  than  the  manner  thereof."  1 

■  In  the  beginning  of  September  the  queen  made  her  public 
entry  into  Edinburgh.  The  magistrates  had  determined  to 
receive  her  with  unusual  magnificence  ;  and  we  read  in  the 
Registers  of  the  town  council  of  new  bonnets,  new  coats, 
and  new  hose — of  coifs  of  black  velvet  and  doublets  of 
crimson  satin  ordered  for  their  attendants,  that  they  might 
join  in  the  triumphal  procession  with  becoming  civic 
dignity.  Pageants  were  also  prepared  in  honour  of  the  day, 
cunningly  devised  to  show  their  Protestantism  as  well  as 
their  loyalty.  The  queen  dined  in  the  castle.  When  she 
came  out,  on  her  return  to  the  palace,  the  first  sight  that 
met  her  eyes  was  a  beautiful  boy  coming  out  of  a  round  hole 
intended  to  represent  heaven.  The  cherub  presented  to 
her  Majesty  a  Bible,  a  psalter,  and  the  keys  of  the  city, 
and  then  recited  some  verses  in  her  praise.  Knox,  with 
indignation,  beheld  her  handing  the  Bible  to  Arthur  Erskine, 
whom  he  denominates  the  most  pestilent  Papist  in  the  king- 
dom. Proceeding  a  little  further,  she  beheld  Korah,  Dathan, 
and  Abiram  swallowed  up  alive  for  having  offered  strange 
fire  in  their  censers  to  the  Lord.  It  was  a  significant  re- 
presentation of  the  fate  of  idolaters.  But  a  more  significant 
representation  still  was  designed — a  priest  was  to  have  been 
burned  in  the  act  of  elevating  the  Host,  but  the  Earl  of 
Huntly  had  influence  enough  to  prevent  it.2  Having  run  the 
gauntlet  of  these  edifying  spectacles,  the  queen  reached  her 
palace.  Shall  we  believe  that  pleasure  or  vexation  possessed 
her  mind  ? 

Notwithstanding  these  demonstrations  of  Protestant  ardour, 
we  have  many  indications  that  the  queen  was  already  soften- 
ing the  asperity  which  many  had  felt  toward  her  because  of 
her  religion.  The  realm  had  long  been  without  a  sovereign, 
and  though  a  few  wished  it  to  be  without  a  sovereign  still, 
the  great  majority  of  the  nation  were  pleased  that  Holyrood 
was  again  tenanted.  The  beauty,  the  grace,  the  affable  and 
winning  manners  of  Mary,  charmed  all  who  were  admitted 

1  Randolph  to  Cecil,  24th  October  1561.      Given  in  Keith,  book  ii. 

chap.  ii. 

2  Randolph  to  Cecil,  7th  September  1 561.  Given  in  Keith,  book  ii, 
chap.  ii. ;  Knox's  History,  book  iv. 


A.D.  1501. J  COURT  HOLY  WATER.  3°3 

into  her  presence.  Furious  Protestants  felt  their  reforming 
zeal  thawing  rapidly  under  her  smiles.  As  the  Lords  of  the 
Congregation  presented  themselves  one  after  another  at 
court,  they  were  at  first  inclined  to  fret  because  of  the  mass, 
but  their  indignation  quickly  subsided,  and  they  became 
inclined  to  concede  toleration  to  their  queen.  Lord  Ochiltree 
had  been  long  of  making  his  appearance,  but  when  at  last  he 
came,  Campbell  of  Kinzeancleuch  ventured  to  say  to  him  : 
"  My  lord,  now  you  are  come,  and  almost  the  last  of  all  the 
rest ;  and  I  perceive  by  your  anger  that  the  fire  edge  is  not 
off  you  yet ;  but  I  fear  that  after  the  holy  water  of  the  court 
is  sprinkled  upon  you,  that  you  shall  become  as  temperate  as 
the  rest ;  for  I  have  been  here  now  five  days,  and  at  the  first 
I  heard  very  many  say,  '  Let  us  hang  the  priest ; '  but  after 
they  had  been  twice  or  thrice  in  the  abbey,  all  that  fervency 
past.  I  think  there  is  some  enchantment  by  which  men  are 
bewitched."  l 

Within  two  months  after  her  arrival,  Mary  felt  herself 
strong  enough  to  take  a  step  in  defence  of  her  fellow- 
religionists.  The  magistrates  of  Edinburgh  had  published 
a  proclamation  commanding  all  priests,  monks,  friars,  nuns, 
adulterers,  fornicators,  and  other  such  filthy  persons,  to 
leave  the  city  within  eighteen  hours,  under  pain  of  being 
publicly  carted  through  the  town  and  burned  upon  the  cheek. 
The  queen  instantly  issued  a  counter-proclamation,  com- 
manding the  town  council  to  meet  and  deprive  the  provost 
and  bailies  of  their  offices  as  the  punishment  of  their  pre- 
sumption, and  elect  others  in  their  room.  The  council 
succumbed,  and  did  as  they  were  ordered.  "And  so," 
writes  Knox,  "  murderers,  adulterers,  thieves,  whores,  drun- 
kards, idolaters,  and  all  malefactors,  got  protection  under  the 
queen's  wings."  2 

When  things  were  in  this  state  a  General 
Dec.  1561.  Assembly  of  the  Church  was  held.  It  was 
observed  that  the  Protestant  barons  who  had  been  sprinkled 
with  the  holy  water  of  the  court  absented  themselves.  As 
important  measures  were  contemplated,  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  confer  with  them  and  effect  a  reconciliation. 
The  nobles  complained  that  the  ministers  had  done  things 
in  secret  without  their  knowledge.  Angry  words  were  ex- 
changed,  and  Lethington  went   so   far  as  to   challenge    the 

1  Knox's  History,  book  iv. 

1  Keith's  History,  book  ii.  chap.  ii.     Knox's  History,  book  iv. 


304  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

right  of  the  Assembly  to  meet  without  the  sanction  of  the 
queen.  "Take  from  us  the  freedom  of  assemblies,"  said 
Knox,  "and  take  from  us  the  gospel."  The  dispute  was 
settled  upon  the  understanding  that  the  queen  might  send 
any  one  to  the  Assembly  to  hear  what  questions  were  dis- 
cussed— the  first  step  toward  the  appointment  of  a  royal 
commissioner.  An  effort  was  now  made  to  get  her  Majesty 
to  ratify  the  "  Book  of  Discipline."  When  the  number  of  her 
council  who  had  signed  it  was  quoted — "  How  many  of  those 
who  subscribed  that  book  will  be  subject  to  it?"  said  a 
courtier?  "All  the  godly,"  said  a  preacher.  "Will  the 
duke  ?  "  said  Lethington.  "  If  he  will  not,"  answered  Lord 
Ochiltree,  "  I  would  that  he  were  scraped  out,  not  only  of 
that  book,  but  also  out  of  our  number  and  company."  "Many 
subscribe  there,"  retorted  Lethington,  "  in  fide  parentum,  as 
children  are  baptised."  "Albeit  you  think  that  scoff  proper," 
said  John  Knox  fiercely;  "yet  as  it  is  most  untrue,  so  it  is 
improper :  that  book  was  read  in  public  audience  on  divers 
days,  so  that  no  man  was  required  to  subscribe  what  he 
understood  not."  "Stand  content,"  said  the  baron;  "that 
book  will  not  be  obtained."  "Let  God,"  replied  the  preacher, 
"  require  the  lack  and  want  which  this  poor  commonwealth 
shall  have  of  the  things  therein  contained  from  the  hands  of 
such  as  stop  the  same."  1  It  was  the  disposal  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical temporalities,  provided  for  in  the  "  Book  of  Discipline," 
which  mainly  stood  in  the  way  of  its  ratification.  '  ,;^;. ..  fer^J 
But  it  was  evident  that  something  must  be  done  to  keep 
the  Protestant  preachers  from  positive  starvation.  Hitherto 
they  had  depended  almost  entirely  upon  the  benevolence  of 
their  congregations ;  many  of  them  were  in  abject  poverty ; 
and  they  were  clamorous  against  the  government,  as  hungry 
men  always  are.  Meanwhile  the  rich  benefices  of  the  Church 
were  still  held  by  the  Romish  ecclesiastics,  or  enjoyed  by 
the  nobles  who  had  violently  seized  upon  them.  In  these 
circumstances,  the  Privy  Council  conceived  the  idea  of 
allowing  the  old  clergy  to  retain  two-thirds  of  their  bene- 
fices during  their  life-time,  and  of  appropriating  the  remain- 
ing third  partly  for  the  ministry  and  partly  for  the  crown. 
An  order  was  therefore  issued,  requiring  all  the  beneficed 
clergy  in  the  kingdom  to  produce  their  rent-rolls,  that  the 
value  of  the  ecclesiastical  property  might  thus  be  ascer- 
tained ;  and  the  superintendents  were  at  the  same  time  re- 
1  Knox's  History,  book  iv. 


A.D.  1661.]  THE  THIRDS.  305 

quired  to  make  up  lists  of  the  ministers,  exhorters,  and 
readers  of  the  Protestant  Church,  that  calculations  might 
be  made  as  to  how  much  would  be  required  for  their  support.1 

They  were  Protestant  nobles  who  sat  in  council  when  this 
scheme  was  devised,  most  of  them  the  men  who  had  been  the 
Lords  of  the  Congregation.  Their  legislation  when  in  power 
was  certainly  different  from  their  sentiments  when  in  opposi- 
tion. Their  scheme  appears  marvellous  for  two  reasons  — 
their  own  entire  disinterestedness,  and  their  great  generosity 
to  the  Romish  clergy.  They  are  silent  in  regard  to  their  own 
claims  :  they  are  careful  of  the  rights  of  the  ousted  ecclesi- 
astics. It  was  certainly  but  just  that  these,  though  now 
prevented  from  executing  their  functions,  should  have  a  pro- 
portion of  their  ancient  property,  and  it  would  have  been  a 
sin  and  a  shame  to  have  thrown  them  as  beggars  on  the 
world ;  but  it  was  scarcely  to  be  expected  that  such  an  appre- 
ciation of  "  the  just  "  should  have  been  found  in  such  men  and 
in  such  an  age.  It  was  seldom  then  that  the  vanquished  were 
spared.  Courtly  and  Catholic  influences  had  probably  some- 
thing to  do  with  the  arrangements ;  but  it  will  shortly  be  seen 
that  the  nobles,  by  being  generous  to  the  priesthood,  were 
enabled  to  be  generous  to  themselves.  The  Archbishop  of 
St  Andrews,  and  the  Bishops  of  Moray,  Ross,  and  Dunkeld, 
were  present,  and  gave  their  consent  when  the  resolution  was 
formed;  and  when  they  were  taking  their  leave,  the  Earl  of 
Huntly  jocosely  said  to  them,  "  Good-morrow,  my  lords  of  the 
two  parts."2 

Knox  disliked  the  scheme  from  the  first,  and  spoke  vehe- 
mently against  it.  "  Well/'  said  he,  "  if  the  end  of  this  order, 
pretended  to  be  taken  for  the  sustentation  of  the  ministry,  be 
happy,  my  judgment  fails  me  ;  for  first  I  see  two  parts  freely 
given  to  the  devil,  and  the  third  must  be  divided  between  God 
and  the  devil."  He  prophesied  that  it  would  be  seen  that  the 
devil  would  get  three  parts  of  the  third,  and  then,  cried  he. 
"  you  may  judge  what  God's  portion  will  be."  The  courtiers, 
on  the  other  hand,  accused  the  clergy  of  greed ;  and  the  sec- 
retary Lethington,  in  his  sneering  way,  said,  that  if  the  minis- 
ters got  their  will,  "  the  queen  would  not  have  enough  to  buy 
herself  a  pair  of  new  shoes."3 

When  the  rent-rolls  of  all  the  clergy  had  been  produced,  as 
they  were  after  considerable  hesitation  and  delay,  it  was  found 

1  Knox's  History,  Keith's  History,  &c,  &c. 

-  Knox's  History,  book  iv.  c  Ibid. 

U 


306  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

that  the  thirds  of  all  the  benefices  in  the  kingdom  amounted 
to  ^7 2,49 1.1  This  was  a  large  sum,  and  might  have  gone  a 
long  way  in  maintaining  an  established  church.  The  next 
step  to  be  taken  was  to  modify  stipends  to  the  several  super- 
intendents, ministers,  exhorters,  and  readers.  The  Earls  of 
Argyll  and  Morton,  the  Lord  James,  now  Earl  of  Moray,  the 
Laird  of  Lethington,  the  Justice-Clerk,  and  the  Clerk-Register, 
were  appointed  for  the  purpose,  and  the  Laird  of  Pitarrow  was 
appointed  their  comptroller.  The  preachers  could  not  have 
desired  a  better  commission :  they  were  all  Protestants. 
Nevertheless  they  proved  parsimonious,  and  out  of  the 
^72,491  assigned  only  ^24,2312  to  the  Reformed  Church. 
The  Revenue  of  the  Romish  Church  must  have  amounted  to 
upwards  of  ^25o,ooo.3  "  Who  would  have  thought,"  says 
Knox,  "  that  when  Joseph  ruled  Egypt,  his  brethren  should 
have  travelled  for  victuals,  and  have  returned  with  empty 
sacks?"4  The  modificators  appear  to  have  been  resolved 
that  the  new  race  of  ecclesiastics  should  not  wax  wanton 
through  too  much  affluence,  and  so  they  assigned  to  them 
stipends  ranging  from  100  to  300  merks.5  The  ministers 
cried  out  against  their  stinted  stipends,  which,  small  as  they 
were,  were  but  ill  paid ;  and  in  many  cases  they  must  have 
been  absolutely  in  want.  "  The  Laird  of  Pitarrow/'  says  Knox, 
"  was  an  earnest  professor ;  but  the  great  devil  receive  the 

1  Several  small  benefices  were  at  first  omitted,  and  which,  when  after- 
wards added,  increased  this  by  ^1389,  10s. 

2  Appendix  to  Keith's  History.  Besides  this  sum,  there  was  also  a 
small  allowance  to  Knox  and  the  superintendents.  Keith  has,  with  great 
industry,  collected  the  revenues  of  our  ancient  bishoprics  and  religious 
houses. 

3  I  make  up  this  sum  by  multiplying  ^72, 49 1+^1389  by  3,  and  then 
making  some  allowance  for  the  under-valuation  put  upon  their  revenues  by 
the  Romish  ecclesiastics.     The  valuation  was  notoriously  too  low. 

4  History,  book  iv. 

5  Considerable  misapprehension  exists  in  regard  to  the  stipends  of  the 
first  Protestant  ministers  in  our  country,  and  many  imagine  them  to  have 
been  much  lower  than  they  really  were.  The  money  referred  to  is  Scotch 
money,  £1  Scotch  is  equal  only  to  is.  8d.  sterling;  and  as  the  merk  is 
two-thirds  of  a  pound,  its  proportionate  value  is  only  is.  i^d.  Hence  100 
merks  amount  to ^5,  us.  ijd.,  300to^i6,  13s.  4d.  sterling.  From  this  it 
might  be  concluded,  and  has  been  concluded,  that  the  stipends  of  the  Scot- 
tish clergy  vibrated  between  these  two  sums.  But  it  must  be  taken  into 
account  that  the  £1  Scotch  at  that  time  was  at  least  as  valuable  as  the 
£1  sterling  now,  as  it  would  buy  as  much,  if  not  more;  and  therefore, 
again,  taking  the  merk  as  two-thirds  of  a  pound,  we  shall  state  the  case 
more  truly  if  we  say  that  the  stipends  varied  from  ^70  to  ^200.     The 


A.D.  1562.]  DIVISION  OF  THE  SPOIL.  307 

comptroller."  The  grumbling  of  the  clergy  did  little  good. 
They  were  simply  told  they  must  rest  satisfied,  that  many 
lairds  had  not  so  much,  and  that  the  queen  could  not  spare 
more.  "  Oh  happy  servants  of  the  devil/'  said  our  Reformer, 
with  keen  irony,  "and  miserable  servants  of  Jesus  Christ,  if 
after  this  life  there  were  no  heaven  and  no  hell ;  for  to  the 
servants  of  the  devil,  these  dumb  dogs  and  horrid  bishops,  to 
one  of  these  idle  bellies  ten  thousand  was  not  enough ;  but  to 
the  servants  of  Christ,  that  painfully  preach  the  gospel,  a 
hundred  will  suffice.'' 

When  the  stipends  of  the  ministers  were  paid,  there  still 
remained  upwards  of  ^48,000,  which,  according  to  the  scheme 
of  the  Council,  ought  to  have  been  annexed  to  the  Crown,  to 
maintain  its  splendour.  Royalty  in  Scotland  for  long  had 
possessed  but  small  revenues,  and  it  must  be  acknowledged 
that  it  had  some  claims  upon  the  ecclesiastical  property  of  the 
country,  as  it  had  come  to  poverty  by  the  ancient  alienation 
of  its  demesnes  to  the  Church.  But  royalty  was  in  reality 
little  enriched.  We  find,  indeed,  in  the  accounts,  ^9000 
expended  upon  the  queen's  body-guard,  ^303  in  the  purchase 
of  their  uniforms,  and  ^75  paid  to  David  Rizzio,  valet  of  the 
chamber.  The  remanent  thousands  were  swallowed  up  other- 
wise. There  were  numerous  pensions  to  courtiers  and  their 
kin.     There  were  numerous  remittances  of  the  thirds.     The 


average  price  of  grain,  as  we  learn  from  the  Book  of  Assignations  and  the 
Book  of  Assumptions,  appears  to  have  been  about  20  merks  per  chalder  ; 
so  that,  converting  the  money  into  victual,  we  might  say  that  the  stipends 
ranged  from  five  to  fifteen  chalders. 

If  we  compare  these  stipends  with  the  value  of  many  of  the  ancient  bene- 
fices, we  shall  find  them  higher  rather  than  lower.  In  156 1  the  rectory 
of  Kilmaronock  was  let  for  100  merks  (Book  of  Assumptions).  The  bene- 
fice of  Eddleston  was  rated  at  ^133,  6s.  8d.  (Libellus  Taxationum). 
Newlands  was  let  for  200  merks  (Book  of  Assumptions).  The  parsonage 
of  Buchanan  was  valued  at  ,£40.  Tbe  vicarage  of  Bonhill  was  under  £7. 
The  parsonage  and  vicarage  of  Killearn  were  set  together  in  1561  for  160 
merks.  The  rectory  of  Carmunnock  amounted  to  ^"20,  the  vicarage  to 
£6,  13s.  4d.  The  rectory  and  vicarage  of  Neilston  were  let  at  the  time  of 
the  Reformation  for  £66,  13s.  4c!.,  &c.  These  are  taken  at  random,  and 
form  a  sample  of  the  whole.  With  these  the  stipends  of  the  Protestant 
clergy  will  stand  a  comparison,  as  we  find  them  stated  in  the  ''Register 
of  Ministers  and  their  Stipend  sen  the  year  1567."  The  minister  of  Ratho 
has  ;£ioo,  St  Cuthbert's  £200,  Perth  £200  and  a  chalder  of  oats,  Glas- 
gow £240,  Kinfauns  ico  merks,  Kilgour  40  merks.  The  reader  at  Comrie 
has  20  merks,  at  Cargill  £20,  at  Arngask  £16,  &c.  The  Register  of 
Ministers  and  Readers  in  1574,  published  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  \Vodrow 
Society,  shows  similar  results. 


308  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XI, 

Earl  of  Moray  drew  the  large  revenues  of  the  Priories  of  St 
Andrews  and  Pittenweem  without  deduction.  Many  others 
did  the  like.  The  Earl  of  Argyll,  the  Lord  Erskine,  and  a 
host  of  others,  divided  the  spoil,  and  little  was  left  to  the 
queen  herself.  There  are  two  entries  in  the  accounts  which 
we  read  with  sympathy.  The  one  is  ;£ioi8  given  to  a  multi- 
tude of  houseless  monks,  and  the  other  is  ^754,  3s.  nd. 
given  to  a  number  of  enfranchised  nuns.1  Shall  we  blame 
the  charity  which  helped  them  in  their  distress  ? 

Before  leaving  this  subject  it  will  be  well  to  trace  the 
fortunes  of  the  property  which  still  remained  in  the  hands  of 
the  beneficed  clergy.  We  have  already  had  some  indications 
of  the  course  it  was  to  take.  We  have  quoted  Acts  of 
Assembly  and  Acts  of  Council,  levelled  at  Churchmen  feuing 
their  manses,  lands,  and  tithes.  Here  was  the  device.  When 
the  Romish  clergy  saw  that  all  chance  of  preserving  the 
Church  was  gone,  they  began  to  give  feus  and  long  leases  of 
their  property  to  their  relatives  and  friends  among  the  nobility 
and  gentry ;  and  these  gladly  accepted,  if  indeed  they  had  not 
arranged,  the  advantageous  offers  thus  made  to  them,  hoping 
they  would  have  sufficient  influence  to  get  them  afterwards 
confirmed,  and  made  perpetual  in  their  families.  To  ease  the 
consciences  of  the  Roman  donors,  perhaps  also  to  ease  the 
consciences  of  the  Protestant  receivers,  and  to  give  an  appear- 
ance of  validity  to  the  transactions,  the  confirmation  of  the 
Pope  was  asked  ;  and,  in  a  multitude  of  cases,  the  confirma- 
tion of  the  Pope  was  obtained.  A  bribe  silenced  all  scruples. 
When  Churchmen  were  unwilling  thus  to  alienate  the  Church's 
patrimony,  fraud  or  force  was  sometimes  employed  to  secure 
compliance.  The  Earl  of  Cassillis  had  cast  covetous  eyes 
upon  the  Abbacy  of  Glenluce,  and  was  in  treaty  with  the 
abbot  for  its  feu  ;  but  before  the  bargain  was  concluded  the 
abbot  died.  The  Earl  was  not  to  be  baulked ;  and  therefore 
he  bribed  a  monk  to  forge  the  necessary  documents  ;  and 
then  he  employed  a  retainer  to  stab  the  monk,  lest  he  should 
reveal  the  forgery  ;  and,  last  of  all,  he  made  his  uncle  hang 
the  retainer,  lest  he  should  let  out  the  murder.  The  same 
nobleman  had  farther  desired  the  Abbacy  of  Crossraguel,  and, 
shortly  after  the  Reformation,  had  got  a  feu  of  it  from  the 
abbot.  But  this  abbot  died,  and  another  was  appointed  ;  and 
as  the  earl's  feu  had  not  received  the  royal  confirmation,  the 
new  abbot  held  it  as   null.     The   earl  decoyed  him  to  his 

1  Keith's  History,  Appendix. 


a.d.  1560-70. J  LORDS  OF  ERECTION.  309 

castle  of  Dunmure,  and  roasted  him  over  a  slow  fire,  till,  in 
the  extremity  of  his  torture,  he  consented  to  sign  papers  rati- 
fying the  earl's  rights,  with  a  hand  ill  able  to  hold  the  pen. 
The  abbot  afterwards  brought  his  complaint  before  the 
Council  •  but  Cassillis  was  too  powerful  to  be  punished ;  and 
peace  was  ultimately  made  by  a  small  pension  paid  by  the 
tormentor  to  his  victim,  whom  he  had  rendered  decrepit  for  life.1 

When  a  member  of  the  hierarchy  died,  the  office  was  not 
allowed  to  remain  vacant.  A  successor  was  generally  ap- 
pointed, not  indeed  to  discharge  the  functions,  but  to  draw  the 
revenues  of  the  place.  The  Church  had  long  ago  given  the 
hint  of  this  by  the  appointment  of  commendators.  These  new 
bishops  and  abbots  were  generally  Protestants,  frequently  lay- 
men, sometimes  boys.  They  were  appointed  for  a  purpose  ; 
and  the  terms  of  their  appointment  sometimes  indicated  what 
the  purpose  was.  On  the  death  of  Bishop  Sinclair,  a  young 
lad,  named  Alexander  Campbell,  of  the  family  of  Ardkinlas, 
was  presented  to  the  Bishopric  of  Brechin,  and  his  presenta- 
tion expressly  gave  him  power  "  to  dispone  and  alienate  the 
benefices,  as  well  of  the  spirituality  as  temporality  of  the 
bishoprick."  The  youth  availed  himself  of  his  power,  and 
alienated  a  great  part  of  the  lands  and  tithes  of  his  See  to  his 
patron,  the  Earl  of  Argyll,  who  had  probably  obtained  the 
grant  for  him,  and  was  thus  repaid  for  his  services.2  It  is 
remarkable  that  men  should  have  preferred  these  flimsy  pre- 
texts of  law  to  open  robbery.  It  was  esteemed  the  more 
decent  way  to  get  possession  of  the  Church's  property — it  had 
the  colour  of  right. 

But  in  other  cases  the  Church's  lands  and  revenues  passed 
into  lay  hands  by  a  more  direct  road.  A  large  proportion  of 
the  dignified  clergy,  especially  of  the  abbots  and  priors,  joined 
the  Reformers;  and  when  the  Reformation  was  completed, 
some  of  these  were  rewarded  by  getting  their  abbacies  erected 
into  temporal  lordships.  The  holy  fathers  were  now  free  to 
marry ;  and  the  property  which  they  originally  held  only  for 
life  became  perpetual  in  their  families,  free  from  the  burden  of 
discharging  monastic  duties,  and  feeding  monks  who  did 
nothing  but  eat.3     In  instances  still  more  numerous,  abbacies 

1  Historical  and  Genealogical  Account  of  the  Principal  Families  of  the 
name  of  Kennedy,  from  an  Original  MS.,  Bannatyne  Club. 

-  Keith's  History,  book  ii. 

:;  It  was  seriously  contemplated,  at  one  time,  to  make  the  holders  of 
abbacies  pay  to  the  crown  a  sum   equal   to   what  would  have  been  re- 


3IO  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XI. 

were  bestowed  upon  favourite  courtiers  or  powerful  barons ; 
the  lands  frequently  carried  a  title  of  nobility  along  with  them; 
the  new  possessor  was  a  lord  of  parliament,  and  enjoyed  all 
the  honours,  privileges,  and  powers  which  his  monkish  ances- 
tors had  enjoyed  before  him.  Under  these  different  dis- 
solving processes,  the  patrimony  of  the  Church  gradually 
melted  away  •  and  the  Protestant  clergy  were  too  helpless  to 
come  in  for  any  considerable  share  when  they  divided  the  spoil 
with  the  strong. 

The  majority  of  the  superior  clergy  of  the  Roman  communion 
lost  but  little  by  the  Reformation.  Many  gained  prodigiously. 
They  all  had  the  two-thirds  of  their  benefices  secured  to  them  ; 
they  increased  these  by  their  feus ;  and  many  had  lands  and 
tithes,  which  were  theirs  only  for  life,  bestowed  upon  them- 
selves and  their  heirs  for  ever.  But  it  was  very  different  with 
the  inferior  clergy.  As  a  general  rule  they  were  reduced  to 
absolute  beggary.  An  act  of  the  first  Assembly  provides  that 
they  should  receive  alms  like  other  poor,  if  their  conversation 
was  honest.  The  queen,  with  true  kind-heartedness,  bestows 
nearly  ^2000  out  of  her  proportion  of  the  thirds  upon  desti- 
tute monks  and  nuns.  In  the  "  Book  of  Assumptions  "  we 
find  frequent  references  to  small  sums  retained  for  the  helpless, 
houseless  wretches,  now  they  were  turned  adrift.  In  the  Cis- 
tercian Abbey  of  Melrose,  eleven  monks  and  three  portioners 
have  twenty  merks,  and  a  small  quantity  of  victual  assigned 
to  each  of  them.  In  the  Cistercian  Nunnery  of  North  Berwick, 
eleven  nuns  are  pensioned  with  ^20  each.  In  the  Abbey  of 
Newbattle,  six  aged  and  decrepit  monks,  who  had  recanted, 
are  liberally  pensioned  with  ^240.  In  the  monastery  of  Cul- 
ross,  of  nine  monks,  five  embraced  reform,  and  had  an  allow- 
ance granted  to  them,  but  the  other  four  would  not  listen  to 
reason,  and  so  they  were  left  to  starve.     Many  of  the  clergy 

quired  for  the  sustenance  of  the  usual  number  of  monks.  "  Before  this 
tyme  a  litill,  thair  was  a  plat  devysit  for  the  benefite  of  the  prence,  as  was 
pretendit;  to  wit,  that  as  in  all  abbacies  thair  was  a  number  of  monks  that 
was  sustenit  upon  thair  awin  severall  portions,  that  prejugeit  not  the 
abbot's  rent  ;  and  that  the  abbot,  after  the  death  of  ilk  monk,  had  appro- 
priate the  portion  to  his  awin  behuvc,  whereas,  be  the  first  institution, 
still  another  sould  have  bene  surrogat  to  the  place  ;  tharefore  it  was  devy- 
sit to  call  in  all  abbots  and  uthers  prelates  that  war  presidents  of  con- 
vents to  a  compt,  to  caus  thayme  to  bestow  upon  the  king,  for  all  tyme 
bygane,  the  portions  of  the  monks  departit  before  that  day,  and  siclyke 
for  all  tyme  cuming."     (Historie  of  King  James  Sext,  p.  233,  Ban.  Ed.) 


A.D.  1560-70.]  ASSEMBLY  BUSINESS.  31  I 

thus  reduced  to  want  became  proselytes  for  a  morsel  of  bread, 
and  received  employment  in  the  Protestant  Church.1 

Meanwhile  the  Reformation  was  making  rapid  progress 
toward  the  occupation  of  the  land.  We  can  distinctly  trace 
its  history  in  the  records  of  the  Assemblies.  Yet  it  were  a 
waste  of  time,  and  an  abuse  of  patience,  to  go  over  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Assembly  after  Assembly;  and  the  purpose  of  our 
history  will  better  be  served  by  giving  a  general  view  of  the 
business  which  came  under  the  notice  of  these  venerable 
courts,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  it  was  transacted.  Every 
Protestant  nobleman  would  seem  to  have  been  invited  to  sit 
in  the  first  Assemblies,  and  many  of  these  were  generally  pre- 
sent, as  the  sederunts  show.  In  1567  we  find  missives  directed 
to  a  large  number  of  lords,  barons,  and  other  brethren,  requir- 
ing them  to  compear  at  an  Assembly,  which  is  described  in 
the  body  of  the  missive  as  a  General  Assembly  of  the  whole 
professors  of  all  estates  and  degrees  within  the  Kirk  of  Scot- 
land.2 In  the  very  next  year,  however,  we  find  it  resolved, 
that  none  should  have  place  or  power  to  vote  in  the  Assembly 
except  superintendents,  commissioners  appointed  for  visiting 
kirks,  ministers  brought  with  them,  and  presented  as  able  to  rea- 
son and  judge,  commissioners  of  burghs  and  shires,  together  with 
the  commissioners  of  universities.  The  Assembly  at  this  period 
met  twice  in  the  year,  in  June  and  December,  and  in  Decem- 
ber it  generally  began  its  sittings  upon  the  25th,  to  show  its 
contempt  for  the  Romish  festival  of  Christmas.  At  first  no 
Moderator  was  chosen,  so  primitive  was  the  manner  in  which 
business  was  done,  but  in  the  sixth  General  Assembly  John 
Willock  was  chosen  to  this  honour,  to  prevent  confusion  in  the 
debates.3 

Much  time  in  all  the  first  Assemblies  was  occupied  in  the 
appointment  of  ministers,  exhorters,  and  readers  \  and  it  is 
amazing  how  rapidly  the  vacant  parishes  were  supplied.  In 
several  cases  we  have  modest  men  declaring  themselves  unfit 
for  the  office  of  the  ministry,  but  compelled  to  take  it  under 

1  The  superintendent  of  Angus  and  Mearns  was  accused  of  having  ad- 
mitted many  immoral  and  ignorant  Popish  priests  as  readers.  (Records  of 
Assembly. ) 

2  This  was  the  Assembly  held  at  the  time  when  Mary  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  lords  who  had  risen  against  the  government,  and  when  they  were 
yet  unresolved  what  to  do.  A  large  attendance  of  noblemen  was  desired, 
that  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom,  as  well  as  of  the  Church,  might  be  decided 
in  the  Assembly.      (Keith's  Hist,  book  iii. ) 

3  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  17. 


312  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

the  pain  of  the  censures  of  the  Church.      In  other  cases  we 
have  presumptuous  men  removed  from  offices  which  they  had 
taken    upon    themselves.       In    every   Assembly,    ministers, 
exhorters,  and  readers  joined  in  complaints  that  their  stipends 
were  small  and  irregularly  paid,  and  in  some  instances  they 
excused  themselves  for  not  having  done  the  work  which  was 
imposed  upon  them  from  their  inability  to  bear  the  expense  it 
would  have  entailed.1      These  complaints  were  generally  fol- 
lowed by  resolutions  to  petition  the  Secret  Council,  to  prevent 
the  further  alienation  of  the  Church's  lands.     But  one  of  the 
most  characteristic  features  of  these  Assemblies  was  delating 
the  superintendents.    These  dignified  Fresbyterian  Churchmen 
were  removed  from  the  house  one  after  another,  and  the  clergy 
of  their  diocese  invited  to  make  complaints  against  them,  and 
there  appears  to  have  been  no  disinclination  to  do  so.      The 
superintendent  of  Fife  was  blamed  for  being  too  much  given 
to  worldly  affairs,  slack  in  preaching,  rash  in  excommunicating, 
sharper  than  became  him  in  exacting  payment  of  small  tithes. 
The  superintendent  of  Angus  was  accused  of  having  admitted 
too  many  illiterate  and  immoral  Popish  priests  to  be  readers 
in  his  diocese,  of  having  rashly  admitted  some  young  men  to 
the  ministry  without  the  forms  prescribed  in  the  "  Book  of 
Discipline;"  of  having  chosen  gentlemen  of  vicious  lives  to 
be  elders ;  of  tolerating  ministers  who  did  not  visit  the  sick, 
nor  instruct  the  youth  ;  and  who  on  the  Sundays  came  to  their 
churches  long  after  the  hour,  and  departed  again  the  moment 
the  sermon  was  done.2     The  superintendent  of  the  West  was 
charged  with  being  slack  in  the  extirpation  of  idolatry;  but  he 
pleaded  that  he  was  hindered  in  the  good  work  by  the  Duke 
and  the   Earl  of  Cassillis.3     When  the  superintendents  had 
one  by  one  passed   through  this  fiery  ordeal,   the  ministers 
required  to  walk  over  the  same  course ;  and  as  it  had  been 
the  duty  of  the   ministers  to  rake  up  everything  they  could 
against  the  superintendents,  so  now  it  was  the  privilege  of  the 
superintendents  to  mete  out  to  them  the  same  measure  they 
had  meted  to  others. 

The  other  business  of  these  Assemblies  was  very  miscel- 
laneous.    The  sacraments  were  ordered  to  be  administered 

1  The  universal  complaint,  we  are  told,  was,  that  kirks  lacked  minis- 
ters, and  ministers  lacked  stipends.  (Assembly  vi.  Keith,  book  iii. 
chap,  iii.) 

2  Fifth  General  Assembly.     Keith,  book  iii.  chap.  iii. 

s  Seventh  General  Assembly.     Keith,  book  iii.  chap.  iii. 


A.D.  1560-70.]  RUINS  OF  ROMISH  CHURCH.  313 

according  to  the  forms  of  the  Book  of  Geneva.1  Every 
minister  was  ordered  to  furnish  himself  with  a  copy  of  the 
Psalm-Book,  which  had  just  been  printed  with  the  Order  of 
Geneva  attached  to  it.2  The  minister  of  Galston  complained 
that  his  wife  had  abandoned  him  and  fled  to  England,  where- 
upon letters  were  directed  to  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury 
and  York,  requesting  edicts  to  be  proclaimed  or  citations 
executed  against  the  fugitive  lady.3  Four  women  were 
accused  of  witchcraft,  and  were  handed  over  to  the  Privy 
Council.4  John  Knox  asks  leave  to  go  to  England  to  visit 
his  children,  and  is  furnished  with  letters  of  commendation.5 
The  confession  of  the  Helvetian  churches  is  approved  of,  with 
the  exception  of  the  appointment  of  festival  days.6  Com- 
plaints are  made  against  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  being 
again  invested  with  his  ancient  jurisdiction  in  testamentary 
and  other  matters.  A  letter  is  written  to  the  bishops  and 
clergy  of  England,  begging  them  in  the  bowels  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  bear  with  those  of  their  brethren  whose  consciences 
would  not  allow  them  to  wear  any  religious  apparel,  seeing 
that  surplices,  cornets,  capes,  and  tippets  were  but  vain 
trifles." 

While  the  Assemblies  were  thus  legislating,  complaining, 
petitioning,  and  writing  pastoral  epistles,  the  public  mind 
was  in  a  state  of  tremulous  excitement.  There  were  still 
abundant  sources  of  irritation.  The  ancient  Church  was  not 
clean  swept  away.  It  stood  like  the  bare  and  blackened  walls 
of  a  building  which  had  been  gutted  by  fire.  Romish  ecclesi- 
astics lived  in  the  manses,  cultivated  the  glebes,  lifted  the 
tithes,  sat  in  the  senate,  presided  on  the  bench. s  Protestant 
preachers  occupied  the  churches,  expounded  the  Scriptures, 
and  dispensed  the  sacraments  to  the  people.  The  rapidity 
with  which  the  Catholic  worship  had  been  overthrown  was 
marvellous,  but  we  must  not  imagine  that  the  overthrow  was 
complete.  The  mass  was  still  celebrated  in  many  parish 
churches,  and  where  it  could  not  be  celebrated  openly  in  the 

1  Fourth  General  Assembly.  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  13.  Keith 
places  this  act  in  the  Fifth  Assembly. 

-  Ninth  Gen.  Assembly.     Keith.      3  Seventh  Gen.  Assembly.     Keith. 

4  Seventh  Gen.  Assembly.     Keith.   5  Thirteenth  Gen.  Assembly.  Keith. 

fi  Twelfth  Gen.  Assembly.    Keith.    7  Thirteenth  Gen.  Assembly.    Keith. 

8  "For  sa  muckle  as  it  was  heavilie  lamentit  be  the  maist  part  of  the 
ministers  that  they  can  have  no  dwelling-places  at  their  kirks  because  the 
manses  ar  either  deteinit  be  the  parsons  or  vicars  of  the  samen,  or  else  sett 
in  feu  or  utherwayes  to  gentlemen."  (General  Assembly,  iv.  sess.  5.  Book 
of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  13.) 


314  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

churches,  it  was  performed  privately  in  gentlemen's  houses. 
Large  districts  were  still  attached  to  the  ancient  forms.  When 
Protestant  ministers  made  their  appearance  at  Paisley,  Aber- 
deen, Curry,  Duplin,  Aberdalgie,  they  found  the  doors  of  the 
churches  barred  against  them.1  Quentin  Kennedy,  Abbot  of 
Crossraguel,  and  Ninian  Wingate,  schoolmaster  of  Linlithgow, 
threw  down  the  gauntlet,  and  challenged  Knox  to  discussion.2 
The  people  nowhere  could  shake  off  their  early  prejudices, 
and,  notwithstanding  their  Protestantism,  persisted  in  going  on 
pilgrimage  to  chapels  and  wells,  and  keeping  wakes  for  the 
dead.3  When  such  strong  counter-currents  meet,  a  violent 
commotion  is  the  necessary  result.  Society  in  Scotland  was 
in  as  troubled  a  state  as  it  well  could  be.  The  agitation  was 
increased  by  political  events,  to  which  we  must  now  refer. 

Since  her  first  arrival  in  the  kingdom,  the  young  queen  had 
thrown  herself  entirely  upon  the  friendship  and  support  of  her 
Protestant  subjects.  Maitland  of  Lethington  was  made  her 
secretary.  Her  principal  advisers  were  Reformers.  Her 
brother  the  Lord  James  was  constantly  at  her  side,  and  in  fact 
held  in  his  hand  the  sceptre,  while  she  was  content  to  wear 
the  crown.  He  was  created  Earl  of  Mar,  and  afterwards 
Earl  of  Moray,  an  honour  which  he  had  long  coveted.  Her 
face  was  turned  away  from  her  fellow-religionists,  though  she 
must  in  her  heart  have  sympathised  with  them.  The  potent 
Earl  [of  Huntly,  still  a  Catholic,  was  treated  coldly,  driven 
into  rebellion,  defeated,  and  slain.  His  second  son  died  on 
the  scaffold,  and  his  immense  estates  were  forfeited.  But  as 
the  queen  still  continued  a  Romanist  herself,  and  insisted 
upon  the  private  use  of  the  mass,  she  was  suspected  and  dis- 
liked by  the  more  vehement  Reformers.  Nothing  but  the 
unconditional  surrender  of  her  religion  would  satisfy  them. 
The  queen,  moreover,  was  fond  of  gaiety — the  dance  and  the 

1  In  the  Ninth  General  Assembly  the  Church  "requyres  punishment  of 
sick  as  hes  steikit  the  doores  of  the  paroch  kirks,  and  will  not  opin  the 
samen  to  preachers  that  have  presentit  themselves  to  preach  the  Word, 
sick  as  Paisley,  Aberdeen,  Curry,  Duplin,  and  Aberdalgie."  See  also 
Lee's  Paisley  Abbey. 

2  "  Ane  Compendius  Tractive,"  published  by  Kennedy  in  1558,  is  re- 
printed in  the  Wodrow  Miscellany,  with  Davidson's  answer  to  it. 
Wingate's  Controversial  Tracts  are  to  be  found  in  the  Appendix  to  Keith. 
They  have  also  been  published,  with  a  prefatory  notice,  by  the  Maitland 
Club.  Wingate  was  glad  to  flee  to  the  Continent,  where  he  became 
abbot  of  a  Scotch  monastery  at  Ratisbone. 

3  We  have  Acts  of  Assembly  against  these  practices. 


A.D.  1562.]  DANCING  AT  HOLYROOD.  3  1  5 

song,  to  which  she  had  been  accustomed  in  joyous  France. 
The  preachers  were  scandalised  at  this,  and  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  many  of  the  dances  of  that  day  were  grossly  in- 
decent, and  in  some  respects  as  lewdly  suggestive  as  the 
modern  Parisian  quadrilles.  But  a  dance  might  be  indicative 
of  political  triumph  as  well  as  of  libidinous  desire.  News  had 
arrived  that  peace  had  been  restored  to  France  \  and,  con- 
joined with  this,  there  were  rumours  that  the  Guises  were 
about  to  commence  a  persecution  of  the  Huguenots.  About 
the  same  time  a  ball  was  given  at  Holyrood,  and  the  dancing 
was  kept  up  with  great  spirit  till  after  midnight.  Knox  heard 
of  this,  and  on  the  following  Sunday  he  chose  for  his  text, 
"  Be  wise  now,  therefore,  O  ye  kings  \  be  instructed,  ye  judges 
of  the  earth,"  and  from  these  words  declaimed  against  perse- 
cuting and  dancing  princes.1 

Some  of  the  queen's  attendants  reported  this  to  her  Majesty, 
and  Knox  was  summoned  into  her  presence.  The  Reformer 
told  the  queen  that  it  had  been  better  she  had  come  and 
heard  the  sermon  herself  than  have  listened  to  distorted  reports 
of  it  from  others.  "I  doubt  not,"  said  he,  "but  that  it  came 
to  the  ears  of  Herod  that  our  Master  Jesus  Christ  called  him 
a  fox ;  but  they  told  him  not  how  odious  a  thing  it  was  before 
God  to  murder  an  innocent,  as  he  had  lately  done  before, 
causing  to  behead  John  the  Baptist,  to  reward  the  dancing  of 
a  harlot's  daughter."  He  then  proceeded  to  state  what  he  had 
really  said  in  his  sermon.  He  had  declared  "  that  violence 
and  oppression  occupied  the  throne  of  God  upon  earth ;  that 
murderers  and  bloodthirsty  men  presented  themselves  before 
kings  and  princes,  while  the  poor  saints  were  exiled ;  that 
princes  were  more  exercised  in  fiddling  and  flinging,  than  in 
reading  and  hearing  God's  most  blessed  Word ;  and  that 
fiddlers  and  flatterers  were  more  precious  in  their  eyes  than 
men  of  wisdom  and  gravity.  As  for  dancing,"  he  remarked, 
"  though  he  found  it  nowhere  praised  in  God's  Word,  and 
though  he  thought  it  fitter  for  the  mad  than  the  sane,  yet  he 
did  not  utterly  condemn  it  if  it  did  not  interfere  with  more 
serious  concerns,  and  if  it  were  not  used  to  triumph  over 
God's  people. "  This  was  bad  enough,  but  it  would  appear 
that  the  reports  were  worse.  The  queen  said  so,  and  told 
the  stern  censor,  that  if  at  any  time  he  had  any  fault  to  find 
with  her,  she  would  much  rather  he  would  come  and  tell  it  to 

1  Randolph  wrote  to  Kyllygrew  regarding  the  court  ladies   that   they 
were  merry,  lopping,  dancing,  lusty,  and  fair.     (Eliz.,  vol.  vii.  No.  93  a). 


3l6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

herself.  This  was  kindly  said,  and  no  doubt  kindly  meant ; 
but  Knox  rudely  answered  that  he  had  something  else  to  do 
"  than  come  and  wait  at  her  chamber  door,  and  whisper  in 
her  Majesty's  ear."  The  queen  turned  her  back  upon  him.  As 
he  left  the  palace,  men  were  watching  the  expression  of  his 
countenance,  and  he  overheard  one  whisper,  "  He  is  not 
afraid."  "  Why  should  the  pleasant  face  of  a  lady  affray  me  ?  " 
said  the  unmoved  man.  "  I  have  looked  in  the  faces  of  many 
angry  men,  and  have  not  been  afraid  above  measure." x 

It  is  from  Knox  himself  we  get  the  account  of  these  scenes 
at  the  palace,  and  it  is  probable  he  makes  himself  ruder  in 
writing  than  he  actually  was  in  the  royal  presence.  Of  his 
outspokenness  there  can  be  no  doubt.  But  there  was  need 
for  it,  and  all  the  more  because  Mary  was  a  beautiful  woman. 
If  he  spoke  sharply,  he  did  not  give  way  to  mere  random  in- 
vective :  he  knew  what  he  was  saying.  He  had  penetrated  as 
deeply  into  the  political  designs  of  the  day  as  any  man  living, 
and  had  probably  sources  of  information  through  the  French 
Huguenots.  The  State  papers,  which  were  then  seen  by  only 
a  few  eyes,  but  which  are  now  published  to  the  world,  make  it 
plain  that  this  woman,  able  as  she  was  beautiful,  was  bent 
upon  the  restoration  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and  that  she 
was  plotting  not  only  with  her  cousins  of  Guise,  but  with  a 
more  dangerous  and  formidable  man,  Philip  of  Spain,  the 
greatest  bigot  and  bloodiest  persecutor  of  the  time. 

There  were  penal  statutes  against  the  mass,  but  they  had 
seldom  been  put  into  execution.  Perhaps  the  queen  denied 
their  validity,  as  she  had  never  ratified  the  proceedings  of  the 
parliament  which  passed  them  ;  perhaps  she  felt  it  would  be 
indecent  for  her  to  punish  others  for  what  she  did  herself. 
But  the  more  vehement  Reformers  were  resolved  that  these 
sanguinary  laws  should  not  lie  idle  in  the  statute-book,  and 
therefore  the  westland  gentlemen,  in  their  char- 
ay  ^  3'  acter  of  magistrates,  laid  hold  of  some  of  the 
perverse  priests,  and  warned  others,  especially  the  Abbot  of 
Crossraguel  and  the  parson  of  Sanquhar,  that  they  would  do 
well  to  desist  from  saying  mass.  The  queen  was  then  at 
Lochleven,  enjoying  herself  amid  its  pleasant  scenery,  and 
little  dreaming  it  was  soon  to  be  her  prison,  when  intelligence 
of  this  reached  her.  Knowing  the  influence  of  Knox  with  his 
party,  she  resolved  to  send  for  him,  and  try  the  influence  of 
persuasion.  Knox  came,  and  was  admitted  to  an  audience. 
1  Knox's  History,  book  iv. 


A.D.  1563.]  THE  SWORD  OF  JUSTICE.  3  I  7 

The  queen  complained  that  her  subjects  had  taken  the  law 
into  their  own  hand,  and  that  it  was  hard  that  men  should  be 
punished  for  worshipping  their  God  according  to  their  con- 
science. "  The  sword  of  justice,  madam,  is  God's,"  said  the 
Reformer,  "  and  is  given  to  princes  and  rulers  for  one  end, 
which,  if  they  transgress,  sparing  the  wicked  and  oppressing 
the  innocent,  they  that  in  the  fear  of  God  execute  judgment 
where  God  hath  commanded  offend  not  God ;  neither  yet  sin 
they  that  bridle  kings  from  striking  innocent  men  in  their 
rage.  The  examples  are  evident,  for  Samuel  spared  not  to 
slay  Agag,  the  fat  and  delicate  King  of  Amalek,  whom  King 
Saul  had  saved ;  neither  spared  Elias  Jezebel's  false  prophets 
and  Baal's  priests,  albeit  King  Ahab  was  present ;  Phinehas 
was  no  magistrate,  and  yet  feared  he  not  to  strike  Zimri  and 
Cosbi  in  the  very  act  of  filthy  fornication.  And  so,  madam, 
you  Majesty  may  see  that  others  than  chief  magistrates  may 
lawfully  punish,  and  have  punished  the  vices  and  crimes 
which  God  commands  to  be  punished  ;  for  power  by  act  of 
parliament  is  given  to  all  judges  to  search  the  mass-mongers, 
or  hearers  of  the  same,  and  to  punish  them  according  to  the 
law."1  Knox  may  have  been  right  in  holding  that  magistrates 
were  entitled  to  put  existing  laws  into  execution  ;  but  he  was 
plainly  wrong  in  the  applicability  of  the  Old  Testament  ex- 
amples which  he  cited,  or  every  bigot  would  be  entitled  to 
commit  murder  when  he  pleased,  and  then  quote  the  examples 
of  Samuel,  Elijah,  and  Phinehas.  The  queen  bore  with 
him  with  wonderful  patience,  continued  the  conversation  for 
two  hours,  and  only  broke  it  off  when  supper-time  had  come. 
Knox  left  her  presence  to  go  and  repeat  all  that  had  passed  to 
the  Earl  of  Moray. 

Before  sunrise  the  next  morning,  Knox  was  again  summoned 
to  wait  upon  her  Majesty.  She  had  gone  out  to  enjoy  a 
day's  hawking,  and  Knox  came  up  with  her  in  the  fields  near 
Kinross.  She  received  him  with  the  greatest  kindness  and 
condescension ;  told  him  of  a  little  love  affair  between  Lord 
Ruthven  and  herself;  warned  him  against  the  Bishop  of  Gal- 
loway, whom  she  knew  to  be  a  dangerous  man  ;  confided  to 
him  some  domestic  differences  between  the  Earl  and  Countess 
of  Argyll,  and  begged  his  good  offices  to  effect  a  reconcilia- 
tion ;  and  finally,  before  parting,  said  to  him,  with  reference 
to  their  interview  on  the  previous  evening,  that  she  would 
cause  all  offenders  against  the  laws  to  be  summoned,  and  see 
justice  done.  She  kept  her  word  :  so  soon  as  she  returned  to 
1  Knox's  History,  book  iv. 


3l8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  xi. 

Edinburgh,  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  the  Prior  of  Whit- 
horn, and  several  others,  were  brought  before  the  Council, 
and  committed  to  custody.  Was  not  this  enough  to  make 
Knox  relent  ?  But  he  did  not.  Mary  was  a  Papist,  and  a 
Papist  was  an  abomination  in  his  sight. 

On  the  4th  of  June  1563  the  parliament  as- 
j  une  4,  1563.  sembled#     The  queen  rode  jn  state  t0  the  Tol_ 

booth,  and  delivered  the  opening  address,  surrounded  by  a 
crowd  of  ladies,  whom  French  milliners  had  made  more  than 
usually  gay.  "  Such  stinking  pride  of  women,"  says  Knox, 
"  as  was  seen  at  that  parliament,  was  never  seen  before  in 
Scotland."  But  there  were  others  felt  differently,  and  while 
the  queen  spoke,  there  were  heard  whispers  among  the  audi- 
ence— "God  save  that  sweet  face;  was  there  ever  orator 
spake  so  properly  and  so  sweetly?"1  The  more  vehement  of 
the  Reformers  wished  to  obtain  in  this  parliament  a  ratifica- 
tion of  the  treaty  of  Leith ;  but  Moray  and  Lethington,  know- 
ing the  queen's  aversion  to  this,  had  resolved  to  content 
themselves  with  an  act  of  indemnity.  Knox  and  Moray  had 
a  violent  altercation  on  the  subject,  which  ended  in  a  quarrel, 
and  for  eighteen  months  the  two  chiefs  of  the  Reformation 
scarcely  exchanged  words.  The  act  of  indemnity  was 
passed;  and  to  conciliate  the  clergy,  acts  were  also  passed 
to  punish  adulterers  and  witches  with  death  ;  to  repair  the 
parish  churches  ;  to  prevent  the  letting  of  manses  and  glebes 
by  the  Romish  occupants,  and  ultimately  secure  them  to  the 
Protestant  ministry.  The  preachers  were  clamorous  for  a 
law  against  the  superfluity  of  female  attire,  which  they  affirmed 
was  sure  to  bring  God's  vengeance  not  only  upon  the  foolish 
women  themselves,  but  upon  the  whole  kingdom ; 2  but  the 
love  neither  of  religion  nor  economy  could  induce  the  lords 
to  intermeddle  with  the  ruffs  and  farthingales  of  their  ladies. 

If  the  press  be  a  fourth  estate  of  the  realm  now,  the  pulpit 
arrogated  this  honour  and  authority  to  itself  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation.  While  the  parliament  was  sitting,  St  Gile's  was 
crowded  with  courtiers  and  legislators.  Undivided  by  parti- 
tions, and  unencumbered  with  galleries,  it  then  opened  up  its 
long  nave  and  aisles  to  the  echoing  voice  of  the  preacher. 
John  Knox,  mounting  the  pulpit,  believed  himself  in  the 
place  "where  God  required  him  to  speak  the  truth,  and  there- 
fore speak  it  he  would,  impugn  it  whoso  listed."  He  drew  a 
picture  of  the  dangers  through  which  the  nation  had  passed  ; 
of  the  struggle  the  Reformers  had  endured.     "  In  your  most 

1  Knox's  History,  book  iv.  2  Ibid. 


A.D.  1563.]  KNOX  OX  MARY'S  MARRIAGE.  319 

extreme  danger,"  he  exclaimed,  "  I  have  been  with  you ;  St 
Johnstone,  Cupar-moor,  and  the  charges  of  Edinburgh  are  yet 
recent  in  my  heart;  yea,  that  dark  and  dolorous  night 
wherein  all  you,  my  Lords,  with  shame  and  fear  left  this 
town,  is  yet  in  my  mind  ;  and  God  forbid  that  ever  I  forget 
it."  He  alluded  to  speeches  which  had  been  made  by  some 
to  the  effect  that  the  Protestant  religion  had  never  been  estab- 
lished by  law,  and  declared  that  those  who  spoke  such  things 
deserved  to  be  hanged  upon  a  gallows.  He  adverted  to  the 
rumours  which  were  in  circulation  in  regard  to  the  marriage  of 
the  queen  with  the  Infant  of  Spain,  and  said  that  if  the  nobles 
consented  to  her  marrying  a  Papist,  they  would  banish  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  realm,  and  bring  God's  judgments  upon  the 
country  and  themselves.1  All  this  was  uttered  as  Knox  could 
utter  his  fierce  philippics,  with  a  voice  low  and  calm  at  first, 
but  soon  rising  into  a  perfect  hurricane. 

Rumours  of  this  soon  reached  the  palace,  and  again  the 
preacher  was  summoned  into  the  presence  of  the  queen. 
Knox  found  Mary  in  a  violent  fit  of  grief  and  rage.  "  I  have 
borne  with  you,"  she  exclaimed,  "in  all  your  rigorous  manner 
of  speaking,  both  against  myself  and  my  uncles ;  I  have  even 
sought  your  favour  by  all  possible  means ;  I  offered  you  pre- 
sence and  audience  whenever  you  pleased  to  admonish  me  ; 
and  yet  I  cannot  be  quit  of  you.  I  vow  to  God  I  shall  be  re- 
venged ; "  and  so  saying  she  burst  into  tears.  Knox  was 
unmoved ;  he  could  even  afterwards  mock  at  her  grief. 
"  Scarce  could  her  page,"  says  he,  "  get  handkerchiefs  to  hold 
her  eyes  dry ;  for  the  tears  and  the  howling,  besides  womanly 
weeping,  staid  her  speech."  When  the  fit  of  crying  had  sub- 
sided, Knox  remarked,  "  that  when  it  should  please  God  to 
deliver  her  Majesty  from  the  bondage  of  error  in  which  she 
had  been  nourished,  she  would  not  find  the  liberty  of  his 
tongue  to  be  offensive ;  and  that  in  the  pulpit  it  was  his  duty 
to  speak  plain,  and  flatter  no  flesh."  "  But  what,';  cried  she 
passionately,  "have  you  to  do  with  my  marriage?"  for  her 
heart  was  set  upon  the  Spanish  match,  and  it  was  all  but 
arranged.  In  answer  to  this  Knox  said,  "  that  he  must  preach 
repentance,  which  implied  the  noting  of  particular  sins;"  and 
"  it  so  happens,"  said  he,  "  that  the  most  part  of  the  nobility 
are  so  devoted  to  your  wishes,  that  neither  God's  Word  nor 
yet  the  commonwealth  are  rightly  regarded  ;  and  therefore  it 

1  Knox's  History,  book  iv.  There  was  the  same  agitation  in  England 
ten  years  earlier  in  regard  to  the  marriage  of  Mary  with  Philip  of  Spain. 
(See  Froude,  vol.  vi.) 


320  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

becometh  me  to  speak,  that  they  may  know  their  duty."  "  But 
what  have  you  to  do  with  my  marriage,''  she  again  asked,  "  or 
what  are  you  within  the  commonwealth?"  "A  subject  born 
within  the  same,"  said  Knox,  proudly;  "and  albeit  I  be 
neither  earl,  lord,  nor  baron,  yet  hath  God  made  me  a  profit- 
able and  useful  member."  "My  vocation  craves,"  he  con- 
tinued, "  plainness  of  speech,  and  therefore,  madam,  I  say  to 
yourself  what  I  have  spoken  in  public,  that  whenever  the 
nobility  shall  consent  to  your  marrying  an  unlawful  husband, 
they  will  do  as  much  as  in  them  lies  to  renounce  Christ,  banish 
truth,  betray  the  freedom  of  the  realm,  and  bring  discomfort 
upon  yourself."  Upon  this  the  queen  again  gave  way  to  a 
passionate  fit  of  crying.  Erskine  of  Dun  had  accompanied 
John  Knox  into  the  queen's  presence,  and  now  did  everything 
he  could  to  soothe  and  comfort  her;  but  "the  said  John,"  to 
quote  his  own  description  of  the  scene,  "stood  still,  without 
any  alteration  of  countenance."  At  length  he  said  that  he  did 
not  delight  in  the  weeping  of  any  of  God's  creatures  ;  that  it 
grieved  him  to  hear  his  own  children  cry  when  he  whipped 
them  ;  but  that  still  he  must  speak  the  truth.  This  species  of 
sympathy  only  increased  the  anger  of  the  queen,  and  so  the 
unflinching  Reformer  was  ordered  to  leave  her  presence,  and 
wait  her  pleasure  in  an  adjoining  room. 

When  Knox  came  into  the  outer  apartment  the  courtiers 
carefully  avoided  him — Lord  Ochiltree  alone  came  and  spoke 
to  him.  But  he  found  himself  in  the  midst  of  the  ladies  of  the 
court,  gorgeously  apparelled,  and  probably  busy  at  their 
tapestry.  "  Fair  ladies,"  said  he,  with  a  smile  on  his  face, 
"how  pleasant  were  this  life  of  yours  if  it  should  ever  abide ; 
and  then  in  the  end  that  we  might  pass  to  heaven  with  this  gay 
gear.  But  fe  upon  that  knave  death,  that  will  come  whether 
we  will  or  not ;  and  when  he  hath  laid  on  the  arrest,  then  foul 
worms  will  be  busy  with  this  flesh,  be  it  never  so  fair  and  so 
tender;  and  the  silly  soul,  I  fear,  shall  be  so  feeble,  that  it 
ran  neither  carry  with  it  gold,  garnishing,  targating,  pearl,  nor 
precious  stones."  1  With  such  moralisings,  which  remind  us  of 
Hamlet,  he  entertained  the  maids  of  honour  for  a  long  hour, 
till  the  Laird  of  Dun  came  and  told  him  he  might  go  home. 
Perhaps  as  he  made  his  way  up  the  Canongate  he  thought, 
"  better  that  women  weep  than  bearded  men,"  and  so  justified 
himself. 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year,  the  queen  paid  a  visit  to  the 
western  counties.     During  her  absence  from  the  capital,  her 
1  Knox's  History,  book  iv. 


A.D.  1564.]  KNOX  BEFORE  THE  COUNCIL.  32 1 

household,  as  usual,  attended  mass  in  the  chapel  on  the  Sunday. 
On  that  day  the  sacrament  of  the  Supper  was  administered  in 
St  Gile's  ;  and  the  solemn  services  had  unhappily  awakened 
religious  rancour  rather  than  Christian  charity.  A  crowd  of 
citizens  gathered  around  the  palace  \  some  of  them  entered  the 
chapel,  and  interrupted  the  service.  A  riot  was  apprehended ; 
the  magistrates  were  called  upon  to  interfere ;  and  two  of  the 
ringleaders  were  seized  and  committed  for  trial.  Knox 
believed  that  the  Protestant  religion  would  be  compromised  if 
these  two  men  were  punished ;  and  so  he  wrote  circular  letters  to 
the  leading  Reformers  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  request- 
ing their  presence  in  Edinburgh  on  the  day  of  the  trial.  The 
Protestant  gathering  was  no  doubt  designed  to  overawe  the 
judges.  It  was  a  plan  which  had  frequently  succeeded  during 
the  Reformation  struggle.  It  was  a  plan  which  feudal  barons 
well  knew;  and  in  feudal  times  magistrates  were  often  required 
to  pronounce  sentence  in  a  court  crowded  with  the  armed 
retainers  of  the  accused.  A  copy  of  Knox's  circular  came 
into  the  hands  of  the  queen,  and  was  pronounced  to  be 
treasonable.  He  was  summoned  before  the  council,  to  answer 
to  the  charge  of  having  convocated  the  queen's  lieges.  Mary 
herself  sat  at  the  head  of  the  council-table,  hardly  able  to  con- 
ceal her  satisfaction  at  having  now  got  her  arch-enemy  within 
her  power.  Knox  stood  at  the  foot  of  it,  with  his  head 
uncovered.  Lethington  exerted  all  his  ingenuity  to  get  a 
verdict  of  guilty.  The  accused,  when  requested  to  answer  for 
himself,  drew  a  distinction  between  lawful  and  unlawful  con- 
vocations ;  some  of  his  friends  in  the  council,  anxious  to  save 
him,  caught  it  up ;  and  he  wras  almost  unanimously  acquitted, 
to  the  queen's  great  chagrin.  "  That  night,"  said  the  triumphant 
Knox,  "  there  was  neither  dancing  nor  fiddling  in  the  court, 
for  our  sovereign  was  disappointed  of  her  purpose." l  But 
though  he  was  acquitted  of  treason,  the  more  moderate 
Reformers  blamed  his  violence,  and  few7  attempted  altogether 
to  justify  his  conduct. 

During  the  year  1564,  the  great  subject  of  conversation  and 
anxiety  in  Scotland  was  the  marriage  of  the  queen.  Gossips 
talked  of  it  over  their  bread  and  ale  ;  and  diplomatists,  ambas- 
sadors, and  ministers  of  state  discussed  it  in  cabinets.  It  was 
known  that  the  King  of  Sweden,  the  Infant  of  Spain,  and  the 
second  son  of  the  Emperor,  had  offered  her  their  royal  hearts 
and  hands.     But  Mary,  who  had  ever  an  eye  on  the  English 

1  Knox's  History,  book  iv. 


322  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

throne,  was  anxious  to  consult  the  wishes  of  Elizabeth ;  and 
Elizabeth  was  averse  to  her  forming  an  alliance  with  a  foreign 
potentate.  It  was  known  that  if  she  could  have  had  her  own 
way  she  would  have  preferred  the  Prince  of  Spain  to  any  other 
match ;  but  both  Elizabeth  and  her  own  subjects  were  utterly 
opposed  to  her  marrying  a  Papist.  The  Queen  of  England, 
not  yet  too  old  to  love,  suggested  her  own  gallant,  the  Earl  of 
Leicester ;  but  her  royal  cousin  justly  suspected  her  sincerity, 
and  more  justly  still  considered  the  match  as  unbecoming  her 
sovereign  dignity.  Mary  had  now  been  a  widow  for  nearly 
three  years,  and  was  most  anxious  to  marry  again  ;  but  Eliza- 
beth's intrigues  threw  such  continual  obstacles  in  her  way,  that 
she  was  outstripped  in  the  matrimonial  race  by  a  competitor 
whom  we  could  scarcely  have  expected  to  have  found  in  such 
a  contest.  This  was  John  Knox.  He  also  had  passed  three 
years  in  widowhood,  and  was  now  verging  upon  the  venerable 
age  of  sixty.  He  was  an  austere  man ;  and  to  have  seen  him 
stern  and  unmoved  in  the  presence  of  the  weeping  Mary,  one 
would  have  thought  him  incapable  of  being  influenced  either 
by  a  woman's  hate  or  a  woman's  love.  But  he  must  have  had 
his  softer  moods ;  for  the  rough  old  man  wooed  and  won 
Margaret  Stewart,  a  daughter  of  Lord  Ochiltree's,  a  young  lady 
just  escaping  from  her  teens.  Many  thought  the  thing  so  ex- 
traordinary that  they  ascribed  the  girl's  passion  to  witchcraft ; 
but  it  is  certain  that  the  parents,  as  well  as  the  bride,  were 
delighted  with  the  match.1  For  a  time  people  ceased  to 
speculate  about  Mary's  marriage  to  talk  of  Knox's  wedding. 

But  the  veteran  bridegroom  took  home  his  bride,  the  tittle- 
tattle  died  away,  and  again  the  subject  of  discourse  was  the 
future  husband  of  the  queen.     In  the  month  of  February  1565, 

1  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  period  vii.  Dr  M'Crie,  in  his  appendix,  has  a 
curious  note  about  Knox's  courtship,  taken  from  Nicol  Burne's  Disputa- 
tion. He  is  said  to  have  first  asked  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  Duke  of 
Chastelherault,  and  was  refused  ;  and  then  he  set  his  heart  npon  Lord 
Ochiltree's  daughter.  "  Rydand  thair  with  ane  gret  court,  on  ane  trim 
gelding,  nocht  lyk  ane  prophet  or  ane  auld  decrepit  priest,  as  he  was,  bot 
lyk  as  he  had  bene  ane  of  the  blude  royal,  with  his  bendes  of  taffetie 
feschnit  with  golden  ringis  and  precious  stanes  ;  and  as  is  plainlie  reportit 
in  the  countrey,  be  sorcerie  and  witchcraft  did  sua  allure  that  puir  gentil 
woman  that  scho  could  not  leve  without  him  ;  whilk  apperis  to  be  of  greit 
probabilitie,  scho  being  ane  damsel  of  nobil  blude,  and  he  ane  auld  decre- 
pit creatur  of  maist  bais  degrie  of  onie  that  could  be  found  in  the  countrey." 
It  is  comical  to  hear  Knox  described  as  a  dandy  ;  it  is  equally  so  to  find 
Ninian  Wingate  taunting  him  for  his  "southron  tongue."  He  appears  to 
have  been  both  Anglilied  and  dandyfied. 


A.D.  1564.]  LORD  DARNLEY.  323 

Lord  Darnley  arrived  in  Scotland.  He  was  handsome,  the 
next  heir  to  the  English  throne  after  Mary  herself;  his  foolish- 
ness and  vice  were  as  yet  latent ;  and  if  the  queen  was  to  marry 
a  subject,  whom  better  could  she  find  ?  Beside  the  tall,  slender 
person  of  the  stripling,  there  were  many  political  reasons  in 
favour  of  the  match ;  and  it  soon  became  known  that  Mary 
had  given  to  him  her  heart.  The  nobility  in  a  body  gave  their 
consent;  and  it  was  hoped  the  Queen  of  England  would  give 
her  approbation  too.  But  Elizabeth's  policy  led  her  in  an 
opposite  course ;  and  moreover  she  seems  to  have  had  a 
malicious  pleasure  in  teasing  her  fairer  cousin  in  her  matri- 
monial projects.  She  despatched  an  ambassador  to  Scotland 
to  do  everything  in  his  power  to  prevent  it.  Moray,  too, 
began  to  show  his  aversion  to  the  marriage ;  and  when  the 
sentiments  of  Elizabeth  were  known,  his  aversion  became  still 
more  decided.  The  feeling  was  infectious,  and  quickly 
spread.  Moray  did  not  like  the  match,  for  it  would  take 
the  sceptre  out  of  his  hands;  the  Duke  of  Chastelherault 
did  not  like  the  match,  for  it  would  take  the  hope  of  the  crown 
from  off  his  head;  Elizabeth  did  not  like  the  match,  from 
female  jealousy  and  state  craft;  and  where  these  led  many  were 
sure  to  follow.  Argyll,  Glencairn,  Rothes,  Ochiltree,  threw  in 
their  lot  with  them  ;  and  an  armed  resistance  was  secretly 
organised,  under  the  fostering  care  of  the  English  queen. 

Things  were  in  this  state  when  the  General  Assembly  met 
on  the  24th  of  June.  Moray  and  Knox  had  been  reconciled. 
Knox  was  at  the  devotion  of  Moray,  and  the  General  Assembly 
was  at  the  devotion  of  Knox.  Certain  articles  of  petition  and 
complaint  were  prepared  to  be  laid  before  the  queen.  They 
were  to  the  effect — That  the  blasphemous  mass,  with  all 
papistry  and  idolatry,  should  be  suppressed  throughout  the 
realm,  not  only  in  her  subjects,  but  in  her  Majesty's  own  per- 
son ;  and  every  one  compelled  to  resort,  on  the  Sundays  at 
least,  to  prayers  and  the  preaching  of  the  Word  :  That  some 
sure  provision  should  be  made  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
ministry  :  That  none  should  be  permitted  to  teach  in  schools, 
colleges,  or  universities,  or  even  to  act  as  private  tutors,  till 
they  were  first  examined  and  approved  of  by  the  superintend- 
ents :  That  all  lands  anciently  doted  to  hospitals,  all  revenues 
belonging  to  the  friars,  and  all  obits,  altarages,  and  such  dues 
pertaining  to  the  priests,  should  be  appropriated  to  the  main- 
tenance of  schools  and  the  support  of  the  poor  :  That  such 
horrible  crimes  as  idolatry,  blasphemy,  Sabbath-breaking, 
witchcraft,  sorcery,  adultery,  whoredom,  murder,  &c,  should 


324  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI. 

be  severely  punished  :  That  order  should  be  taken  to  give 
relief  to  the  poor  labourers  of  the  ground  from  the  unreason- 
able payment  of  tithes,  taken  over  their  heads  without  their 
consent.1 

The  first  of  these  articles  asked  the  queen  to  renounce  her  re- 
ligion. That  she  should  be  compelled  to  do  so  had  always  been 
the  opinion  of  Knox,  but  not  of  Moray.  Now  they  were  at  one. 
It  could  not  have  been  expected  that  the  queen  would  yield 
to  such  a  compulsory  method  of  conversion ;  but  she  made  a 
conciliatory  reply,  and  declared  that  all  her  Protestant  subjects 
would  enjoy  the  same  liberty  of  conscience  which  she  claimed 
for  herself,  and  that  she  was  willing  to  leave  the  ratification  of 
the  Reformed  faith  to  the  Estates  of  the  realm.  This  was  not 
deemed  to  be  enough  ;  perhaps  no  declaration  whatever  would. 
But  an  object  had  been  gained.  It  was  important  that  reli- 
gious enthusiasm  should  give  its  aid  to  political  craft,  and  there- 
fore the  cry  was  raised  that  the  Church  was  in  danger  ;  but  the 
people  in  general  were  shrewd  enough  to  see  that  it  was  raised 
for  factious  purposes ;  and  indeed  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  there  was  less  cause  for  alarm  at  this  juncture  than  at  any 
period  since  the  queen's  arrival  in  the  realm.  She  had  recently 
gone  so  far  as  to  attend  a  Protestant  sermon  ;  she  had  admitted 
three  of  the  superintendents  to  an  interview,  and  declared  her 
willingness  to  listen  to  discussion  regarding  disputed  points  ot 
faith  ;  she  had  expressed  a  desire  to  hear  Erskine  preach, 
whom  she  appears  to  have  regarded  with  kindness  since  his 
attempt  to  comfort  her  under  the  rebukes  of  Knox ;  and  at 
that  very  time  she  had  requested  the  most  powerful  of  the 
Protestant  nobles  to  meet  her  at  Perth,  that  some  arrange- 
ments might  be  made  regarding  their  religion,  but  they  de- 
clined to  meet  her  under  various  pretences. 

It  was  known  that  the  queen,  in  the  company  of  Lord  Darn- 
ley,  was  to  pass  from  Perth  to  Callander.  The  discontented 
lords,  with  the  approbation  of  the  English  resident,  resolved 
to  waylay  them ;  but  the  queen  got  a  hint  of  what  was  in- 
tended, and  was  so  early  in  her  saddle  that  she  gave  them  the 
slip. 

On  the  morning  of  Sunday  the  29th  of  July,  Mary,  attired  in 
black  velvet,  was  married  to  Lord  Darnley  in  the  Chapel  of 
Holyrood.  The  ceremony  was  performed  according  to  the 
rites  of  the  Catholic  Church,  but  immediately  after  it  was  over 
Darnley,  who,  though  a  Catholic,  wished  to  trim  his  sails  for 
1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  28,  29. 


A.D.  1.364. J  LIBERTY  OF  THE  PULPIT.  325 

Protestant  favour,  left  the  chapel,  not  to  be  present  at  the  ser- 
vice of  the  mass.  On  Sunday  the  19th  of  August,  he  repaired 
to  St  Gile's  to  hear  John  Knox  preach.  Knox  chose  his  text 
from  Isaiah — "  O  Lord  our  God,  other  lords  beside  thee  have 
had  dominion  over  us."  He  expatiated  on  the  government  of 
wicked  princes,  who  were  sent  to  plague  nations  for  their  sins, 
and  "  amongst  other  things  said,  that  God  set  in  that  station, 
for  the  offences  and  ingratitude  of  the  people,  boys  and 
women,"  and  then  went  on  to  declare  "that  God  had  justly 
punished  Ahab  and  his  posterity  because  he  would  not  take 
order  with  the  harlot  Jezebel."1  A  kind  of  throne  had  been 
erected  in  the  church,  that  the  young  king  might  sit  in  state 
and  listen  to  the  sermon ;  but  he  soon  began  to  perceive  that 
the  preacher  was  coarsely  lecturing  himself  and  the  queen,  and 
left  the  church  boiling  with  indignation.  When  he  got  home 
to  the  palace,  he  could  eat  no  dinner,  and  went  out  to  hawk 
in  the  afternoon,  that  he  might  soothe  his  choler  in  the  open 
air. 

We  have  refrained  up  to  this  time  from  saying  much  regard- 
ing these  pulpit  exhibitions  of  Knox.  The  liberty  of  the 
pulpit  is  certainly  a  thing  quite  as  sacred  as  the  liberty  of  the 
press.  It  were  a  grievous  calamity,  even  now,  if  the  preachers  of 
the  gospel  were  restricted  to  speak  only  the  prevalent  opinions 
of  the  court ;  it  had  been  a  greater  calamity  still  had  it  been 
so  in  the  days  of  the  Reformation,  when  the  press  was  yet  in 
its  infancy,  and  the  pulpit  the  only  means  of  acting  on  the  in- 
telligence of  the  people.  Had  the  preachers  become  the 
mouthpiece  of  princes,  had  they  gilded  fashionable  vices, 
recommended  obedience  to  tyrannical  decrees,  exalted  kings 
into  gods,  the  preaching  of  those  truths  which  should  make 
men  free  would  have  been  converted  into  a  means  for  their 
enslavement.  A  woe  is  on  the  country  where  despotism  cannot 
be  denounced  as  a  sin ;  where  the  people  cannot  be  told  that 
God  has  made  them  free.  But  liberty  is  ever  apt  to  degenerate 
into  licentiousness,  and  the  law  of  libel  has  been  devised,  which 
now  operates  as  a  check  upon  the  licentiousness  alike  of  the 
pulpit  and  the  press.  In  no  place,  however  sacred,  can  a 
man  be  indulged  with  an  unbridled  latitude  of  speech  ;  men's 
characters,  feelings,  interests,  must  be  protected  from  the 
assaults  of  envy,  malice,  and  falsehood.  If  a  man  will  speak, 
he  must  be  responsible  for  what  he  says.     Knox  would  have 

1  Knox's  History,  book  iv. 


326  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XT. 

it,  that  for  what  he  said  in  the  pulpit  he  was  answerable  only 
to  God — a  dangerous  doctrine. 

The  truth  is,  Knox  in  the  pulpit  was  stronger  than  Mary  in 
her  palace,  and  all  his  harsh  and  uncharitable  speeches  against 
her  escaped  with  impunity.  But  when  Knox  is  placed  at  the 
bar  of  a  posterity  which  is  stronger  than  the  strongest,  and 
cannot  be  overawed,  he  cannot  be  acquitted.  We  do  not  con- 
demn him  for  introducing  politics  into  the  pulpit,  for  at  such 
a  crisis  that  was  inevitable ;  we  do  not  condemn  him  for 
unveiling  foreign  conspiracies,  for  that  was  patriotic  ;  but  we 
condemn  him  for  attacking  with  such  coarse  virulence  persons 
whose  position  should  have  commanded  respect.  It  was  too 
bad  that  a  queen  who  had  as  yet  been  convicted  of  no  crime 
but  a  conscientious  attachment  to  the  religion  in  which  she 
had  been  educated,  should  be  publicly  compared  to  every 
harlot,  murderer,  and  idolater  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  that  even  prayer  should  have  been  prostituted  to 
the  purposes  of  abuse.  Nor  can  we  accept  the  apologetic  plea 
that  his  invectives  seem  coarse  only  to  the  squeamish  delicacy 
of  modern  times  ;  that  his  calumnious  way  of  speaking  was  the 
current  language  of  the  period.  Knox  was  blamed  by  his 
compeers,  remonstrated  with,  threatened,  but  in  vain.  Leth- 
ington  reasoned  with  him,  Moray  reasoned  with  him.  His 
best  friends,  as  he  himself  confesses,  were  scandalized  and 
estranged  from  him  by  his  violence;  and  Randolph  the 
English  resident,  notwithstanding  his  favour  for  the  faction  to 
which  Knox  belonged,  again  and  again  alludes  to  his  unseason- 
able severity.  Nor  did  the  Reformation  require  such  vituper- 
ative speeches.  In  some  respects  it  was  injured  by  them. 
They  gave  deep  cause  of  offence  to  the  court ;  they  cooled  the 
affection  of  many  of  the  nobles  ;  and  were  probably  one  of  the 
reasons  which  deferred  for  so  long  a  suitable  provision  for  the 
Reformed  ministry. 

Knox  was  not  perfect,  as  no  man  is.  He  was  coarse,  fierce, 
dictatorial  \  but  he  had  great  redeeming  qualities — qualities 
which  are  seldom  found  in  such  stormy,  changeful  periods  as 
that  in  which  he  lived.  He  was  consistent,  sincere,  unselfish, 
far-seeing.  From  first  to  last  he  pursued  the  same  straight, 
unswerving  course,  turning  neither  to  the  right  hand  nor  to 
the  left ;  firm  amid  continual  vicissitudes  \  and  if  he  could 
have  burned  and  disembowelled  unhappy  Papists,  he  would 
have  done  it  with  the  fullest  conviction  that  he  was  doing 
God  service.     He  hated  Popery  with  a  perfect  hatred;  and 


A.D.  1566. J  REBELLION  AND  MURDER.  327 

regarding  Mary  and  her  mother  as  its  chief  personations  in  the 
land,  he  followed  them  through  life  with  a  rancour  which  was 
all  the  more  deadly  because  it  was  rooted  in  religion.  The 
suspicions  he  had  of  their  designs  have  been  proved  to  be 
well  founded.  He  was  perhaps  fond  of  power  and  popularity, 
but  he  gained  them  by  no  mean  compliances.  On  a  question 
of  principle  he  wrould  quarrel  with  the  highest.  His  hands 
were  clean  of  bribes.  He  did  not  grow  rich  by  the  spoils  of 
the  Reformation.  He  wras  content  to  live  and  die  the  minister 
of  St  Gile's.  Is  not  such  an  one,  rough  and  bearish  though 
he  be,  more  to  be  venerated  than  the  supple,  time-serving 
Churchmen  who  were  the  tools  of  the  English  Reformation  ? 
Does  he  not  stand  out  in  pleasing  relief  from  the  grasping 
barons  with  whom  he  was  associated,  who  hated  monks 
because  they  coveted  their  corn-fields,  and  afterwards  dis- 
graced the  religion  they  professed  by  their  feuds,  their  con- 
spiracies, and  cold-blooded  assassinations  ? 

Meanwhile  the  discontented  nobles,  depending  upon  the 
assistance  of  England,  had  broken  out  into  open  rebellion. 
A  few  days  after  her  marriage,  Mary  placed  herself  at  the 
head  of  her  troops,  chased  them  from  town  to  town,  and 
finally  compelled  them  to  seek  shelter  in  England.  They  had 
implored  the  promised  aid  from  Elizabeth ;  but  Elizabeth  had 
seen  that  their  case  was  hopeless,  and  left  them  to  their  fate. 
The  faction  was  broken  to  pieces.  The  Earl  of  Moray  and 
the  Abbot  of  Kilwinning,  leaving  their  discomfited  com- 
panions at  Newcastle,  repaired  to  the  court  of  London.  But  it 
was  not  the  policy  of  Elizabeth  to  appear  openly  to  favour 
unsuccessful  rebels.  They  were  at  first  refused  admittance  ; 
and  wThen  they  were  admitted,  they  were  compelled  to  go 
down  upon  their  knees  before  the  imperious  queen,  in  the 
presence  of  the  ambassadors  of  France  and  Spain,  and  declare 
that  they  had  not  been  incited  to  rebellion  by  her  Majesty ; 
and  when  they  had  submitted  to  this  indignity,  and  uttered 
this  falsehood,  they  were  told  to  get  out  of  her  presence,  as 
they  were  unworthy  traitors.1  It  was  a  solemn  farce  on  the 
part  of  the  queen  to  keep  up  appearances,  as  we  soon  find  her 
exerting  herself  to  procure  their  pardon. 

March  1 ^66  ^  *s  a  ^ar^  PaSe  °f  our  history  upon  which 

we  now  enter.     In  the  month  of  March  a  par- 
liament was  to  be  held,  in  which  it  was  expected  that  Moray 
and  his  associates  wxmld  be  outlawed,  and  their  immense  pos- 
1  Sir  James  Melville's  Memoirs,  pp.  112,  113. 


328  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XL 

sessions  confiscated.  The  parliament  was  opened,  but  its 
proceedings  were  suddenly  and  fearfully  stayed.  A  conspiracy 
had  been  organised  by  the  king  (who  had  proved  a  silly, 
jealous,  libertine  lad),  the  Earl  of  Morton,  Lord  Ruthven,  the 
Secretary  Maitland,  and  the  banished  nobles,  to  murder 
Rizzio,  who  was  thought  to  have  too  much  influence  with  the 
queen,  to  imprison  the  queen  herself,  confer  upon  Darnley  the 
crown-matrimonial,  and  restore  to  the  rebels  their  honours  and 
estates.  The  English  queen  was  made  aware  of  the  con- 
spiracy, and  there  is  a  strong  suspicion  that  Knox  and  Craig, 
the  two  ministers  of  Edinburgh,  were  made  privy  to  it  too.1 
On  a  Saturday  evening  the  unhappy  Italian  was  foully  mur- 
dered, almost  in  the  presence  of  the  queen.  Mary  was  kept  a 
prisoner  in  her  room.  The  banished  lords  were  instantly  in 
Edinburgh.  Moray  was  received  with  affection  by  his  sister, 
who  clung  to  him  in  her  hour  of  need,  being  yet  ignorant  of 
the  part  which  he  had  in  the  conspiracy.  But  Mary's  influence 
over  her  feeble  husband  was  not  yet  gone.  He  repented  him 
of  his  rashness,  and  fled  with  her.  Their  friends  gathered 
around  them,  they  marched  upon  Edinburgh,  and  the  assassins 
were  obliged  to  flee  for  their  lives.  Darnley  now  protested  his 
own  innocence,  but  revealed  his  accomplices,  and  insisted  on 
their  punishment.  They,  in  revenge,  produced  the  documents, 
which  proved  not  only  that  he  was  a  party  to  the  conspiracy, 
but  that  he  had  openly  asserted  the  dishonour  of  his  wife. 
A  wrong  had  been  done  to  Mary  which  she  could  not  forgive. 
A  solemn  bond  had  been  violated  with  men,  who,  destitute  of 
all  other  faith,  esteemed  fidelity  to  one  another  a  sacred  virtue, 
and  it  must  be  avenged.     Less  than  a  year  revealed  it  all. 

Mary,  now  a  mother,  did  not  attempt  to  conceal  her  estrange- 
ment from  Darnley ;  and  Darnley,  deprived  of  the  royal  favour, 
sunk  into  universal  contempt.  The  Earl  of  Bothwell,  in  the 
meantime,  had  made  himself  useful  to  the  queen,  had  seized 
every  opportunity  of  insinuating  himself  into  her  favour,  and 
perhaps  had  already  gained  her  heart.  A  divorce  from  Darn- 
ley was  talked  of  \  but  there  were  difficulties  in  the  way,  and 

1  This  is  debateable  ground  in  history.  The  question  is  interesting  in 
a  historical  point  of  view,  but  not  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  as  affecting 
Knox's  character.  We  know  he  approved  of  the  murder  after  it  was  com- 
mitted ;  and  to  approve  of  a  murder  after  its  commission  is  in  a  moral 
point  of  view  the  same  as  to  approve  of  it  before  its  commission.  He  was, 
moreover,  a  keen  advocate  of  tyrannicide,  as  Buchanan  and  other  leading 
men  of  the  time  were. 


A.D.  1567.]  MURDER  OF  DARNLEY.  329 

it  was  abandoned.  The  simple  remedy  of  desperadoes  must 
be  resorted  to.  A  new  conspiracy  was  organised.  A  new  bond 
for  blood  was  drawn  up.  It  was  signed  by  Bothwell,  Huntly, 
Argyll,  Lethington,  and  Balfour.  It  was  afterwards  made 
known  to  the  Earl  of  Morton.  The  plot  ramified  still  more 
widely  :  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  and  the  Earl  of  Moray 
are  said  to  have  received  intimation  of  it.  The  king  was  to  be 
got  rid  of  by  murder.  Was  Mary  ignorant  that  she  was  on  the 
eve  of  a  second  widowhood  ?  God  alone  knows  all,  but  a  fear- 
ful suspicion  rests  upon  her  name,  and  the  casket-letters  all 
but  prove  her  guilt.  Early  on  the  morning  of  Monday,  the 
10th  of  February  1567,  the  house  in  the  suburbs  of  Edinburgh 
where  the  king  slept  was  blown  up  with  gunpowder,  and  the 
loud  report  awakened  the  whole  city.  A  crowd  was  soon  col- 
lected on  the  spot,  and  the  king's  body  was  found  in  an 
adjoining  field,  nearly  naked,  and  entirely  unscathed  by  fire. 
It  was  thought  he  had  been  caught  rushing  from  the  house 
just  before  the  explosion,  and  strangled.  Bothwell  was  in- 
stantly suspected  of  the  murder :  voices  in  the  night  pro- 
claimed it ;  labels  secretly  posted  up  in  the  streets  proclaimed 
it ;  but  none  dared  openly  to  accuse  him,  saving  the  father  of 
the  murdered  man.  Meanwhile  Mary  was  continually  in 
Bothwell's  society,  and  delayed  to  bring  him  to  trial.  When 
a  trial  could  no  longer  be  deferred,  he  appeared  before  a  court 
constituted  after  his  own  liking,  surrounded  by  his  own  re- 
tainers, and  overawed  by  the  guns  of  the  castle  which  he  com- 
manded. Lennox,  his  accuser,  was  forbidden  to  approach 
Edinburgh  with  more  than  six  followers ;  and  so  unattended, 
he  was  afraid  to  come.  The  indictment  was  read ;  no  accuser 
appeared  \  no  witnesses  were  called ;  and  after  this  mockery 
of  law  and  justice,  a  verdict  of  "  not  guilty  "  was  brought  in 
by  the  jury. 

What  followed  is  soon  told.  It  is  a  story  of  sin  and  shame, 
followed  by  wretchedness  and  ruin.  Mary  married  the  man 
who  was  universally  believed  to  be  her  husband's  murderer. 
She  appears  to  have  been  mad  in  love  with  him,  though  one 
of  the  most  dissolute  men  of  the  time.  Some  even  fancy  that 
her  passion  for  him  had  for  the  time  quenched  her  zeal  for 
Rome.  She  sanctioned  provisions  for  the  support  of  the 
Protestant  preachers,  cancelled  all  permissions  to  use  the 
offices  of  her  own  religion,  cut  down  church  vestments  of 
cloth  of  gold  to  make  a  robe  for  her  lover,  and  consented  to 
be    married   according   to  the   Reformed   rites.     While   her 


33°  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XI. 

infatuation  lasted,  she  was  willing  to  sacrifice  everything  for 
him,  but  it  was  an  abandonment  of  herself  to  what  she  knew 
was  bad.1  Her  downward  progress  in  guilt  had  been  awfully 
rapid — as  a  woman's  always  is.  She  had  been  living  amidst 
conspirators  and  assassins,  and  had  learned  their  ways.  Why 
trace  her  corruption  back  to  France,  which  she  had  left  when 
almost  a  child  :  had  she  not  witnessed  dark  scenes,  had  she 
not  associated  with  bloody  men  in  Holyrood  House  ?  But 
when  the  cup  of  iniquity  is  full,  it  runs  over.  The  nation 
could  bear  this  burden  of  guilt  no  more.  A  number  of  the 
nobles  took  arms.  The  people  sympathised  with  them. 
Resistance  was  attempted  ;  but,  deserted  by  their  troops  at 
Carberry  Hill,  Bothwell  was  glad  to  flee,  and  Mary  to  surren- 
der herself  into  the  hands  of  her  subjects.  She  was  brought 
to  Edinburgh,  marched  through  the  streets,  insulted  by  the 
mob,  and  finally  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  the  Castle  of  Lochleven 
to  await  her  fate. 

While  these  things  were  doing,  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  Church  was  sitting.  It  was  of  the  utmost  importance 
that  the  lords  who  had  the  queen  in  their  power  should  be 
joined  by  their  brother  peers,  the  great  bulk  of  whom  held 
back  ;  and  the  influence  of  the  Assembly  was  employed  for 
this  purpose.  The  Assembly  was  prorogued  till  the  20th  of 
July.  Missives  were  directed  to  nearly  forty  influential 
barons,  inviting  them  to  attend  ;  and  Knox,  Douglas,  Row, 
and  Craig  were  commissioned  to  wait  upon  those  to  whom 
the  missives  were  sent,  to  urge  by  every  argument  their  pre- 
sence in  Edinburgh  at  the  time  appointed.2  The  missives 
calling  this  extraordinary  Assembly  mention  only  the  neces- 
sity of  extirpating  Popery,  and  providing  for  the  Reformed 
ministry;  but  the  narrative  of  Knox,  as  well  as  subsequent 
events,  makes  it  clear  that  the  great  object  was  to  secure  the 
concurrence  of  as  many  nobles  as  possible  to  the  political  re- 
volution that  was  in  progress.  Very  few  of  the  invited  lords 
appeared.  They  made  the  disturbed  state  of  the  kingdom 
a  reason  for  their  absence. 

The  Assembly  again  met.  The  revolutionary  lords,  dis- 
appointed of  their  brethren,  and  anxious  to  conciliate  the 
Church,  which  was  omnipotent  with  the  people,  promised 
everything  that  was  asked  of  them.  In  the  presence  of  the 
Assembly  they  put  their  hands  to  a  document,  promising  to 

1  Robertson's  Concilia,  vol.  i.,  Ptef.  clxxii.,  clxxiii. 

2  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  55-57.     Keith,  book  iii. 


A.D.  1567.]  MARY  IN  LOCHLEVEN.  33 1 

have  the  Parliament  of  August  1560,  which  established  the 
Reformation,  ratified ;  the  ecclesiastical  lands  given  back  to 
ecclesiastical  uses  \  the  education  of  youth  entrusted  to  the 
clergy ;  and  idolatry  everywhere  put  down.  In  the  same 
document  they  bound  themselves  to  revenge  the  murder  of 
Darnley,  to  guard  the  young  prince  his  son  from  all  danger, 
to  see  him  educated  in  the  Protestant  faith,  and  to  cause  all 
future  sovereigns  to  swear  to  maintain  the  Reformed  religion 
previous  to  their  coronation.1 

Meanwhile,  in  every  coterie  in  the  kingdom  it  was  debated 
what  should  be  done  with  the  queen.  Some  proposed  she 
should  be  divorced  from  Bothwell,  and  restored  to  the 
throne ;  some  suggested  she  should  take  the  veil,  and  spend 
the  remainder  of  her  days  in  a  French  monastery.  Some 
gave  it  as  their  opinion  that  she  should  be  deprived  of  the 
government,  and  doomed  to  perpetual  imprisonment ;  some 
argued  that  the  short  and  simple  plan  was  to  put  her  to 
death.  Of  what  was  said  and  done  in  the  Assembly  of  the 
Church  in  regard  to  these  grave  matters,  we  have  no  record ; 
we  are  only  told  that  the  debates  were  sanguinary.  But  we 
know  that  Knox,  who  had  been  out  of  the  country  since 
the  murder  of  Rizzio  and  was  now  returned,  was  clamorous 
for  the  death  of  the  queen,  and  Throkmorton  wrote  to 
Elizabeth  that  the  Assembly  demanded  that  the  murder  of 
the  king  should  be  punished  according  to  the  laws  of  God 
and  man.2  Immediately  after  the  Assembly  dissolved,  Lord 
Lindsay  proceeded  to  Lochleven,  bearing  three  documents. 
The  first  was  a  deed  of  demission  by  the  queen  in  favour  of 
her  infant  son ;  the  second  was  a  deed  appointing  the  Earl 
of  Moray  regent  of  the  kingdom  during  the  minority  of 
James ;  the  third  was  a  deed  empowering  the  Duke  of 
Chastelherault,  and  the  Earls  of  Lennox,  Argyll,  Athole, 
Morton,  Glencairn,  and  Mar,  to  govern  the  realm  till  the 
return  of  Moray  from  abroad.  It  is  not  too  much  to  suppose 
that  these  documents  were  concocted  and  resolved  upon  in 
the  Assembly  of  the  Church.  With  death  before  her  eyes  in 
case  of  refusal,  Mary  signed  the  instruments. 

Moray  was  in  France  during  this  amazing  revolution,  but 
he  now  hurried  home.     He  was  not  long  in  the   country  till 

1  Fourteenth  General  Assembly,  pp.  65-69.     (Book  of  the  Universal 
Kirk.)     Keith,  book  iii. 

2  Throkmorton  to  Elizabeth,    25th   July.     Froude's   History,  vol.   ix. 
p.  138. 


332  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

he  visited  his  captive  sister  at  Lochleven.  Mary  received 
him  with  kisses  and  tears  ;  but  instead  of  being  affected  by 
her  misfortunes,  or  remembering  the  many  favours  he  had 
received  at  her  hands,  he  bitterly  upbraided  her  for  her 
crimes,  and  presented  to  her  mind  the  possibility  of  an 
ignominious  death.  Bewildered  by  grief  and  fear,  she  be- 
sought him  as  her  brother  to  accept  the  regency,  and  so 
save  the  country,  her  infant,  and  herself.  Moray  affected 
to  accept  with  reluctance  an  office  which  he  had  long 
earnestly  desired,  for  which  many  affirmed  he  had  all  his 
life-time  plotted  and  schemed.  The  full  height  of  his  am- 
bition was  all  but  attained.  On  the  2 2d  of  August  he  was 
declared  regent  of  the  kingdom  ;  and  the  bells  of  Edinburgh 
were  ringing  rejoicings,  while  Mary  was  pining  in  her  solitary 
prison  in  Lochleven. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

The  Regent  Moray  soon  showed  that,  if  he 
had  aspired  to  rule,  his  abilities  were  equal  to 
his  ambition.  It  was  immediately  felt  that  the  government 
of  the  country  was  no  longer  in  the  hands  of  a  woman. 
The  fierce  baron  in  his  feudal  keep,  the  bandit  on  the  bor- 
ders, the  gillie  in  the  mountain-pass,  knew  he  might  no 
more  rob  and  murder  with  impunity.  But  a  large  portion 
of  the  nobility  were  discontented  with  the  government; 
they  might  at  any  time  organise  a  formidable  opposition  to 
it ;  and  therefore  the  regent  hastened  to  secure  the  good- 
will of  the  Protestant  ministers,  by  whose  influence  chiefly 
he  had  clamb  to  power.  Pledges  had  been  given  in  the 
last  Assembly,  and  these  must  be  redeemed.  On  the  15th 
of  December,  the  parliament  met.  Its  first  business  was  to 
accept  the  resignation  of  the  queen,  and  give  its  sanction  to 
the  coronation  of  James  and  the  regency  of  Moray.  This 
done,  a  series  of  acts  affecting  the  Church  were  passed. 
The  parliament  of  August  1560,  which  first  established  the 
Reformation,  had  never  received  the  royal  sanction ;  and 
therefore  it  was  deemed  prudent  to  re-enact  its  enactments. 
The  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope  was  abolished ;  all  laws  in 
favour  of  "the  Roman  Catholic  religion  were  repealed ;   the 


A.D.  1567.]  REFORMATION  RATIFIED.  333 

Protestant  Confession  of  Faith  was  ratified   and    engrossed 
in   the   records  \    and   the   saying  or   hearing   of   mass  was 
declared  to  be  a  crime  punishable  with  confiscation  of  goods 
for  the  first  offence,  banishment  for  the   second,    death   for 
the  third.     Sticklers  for  constitutional  forms  regard  this  as 
the   true    establishment   of  the   Protestant  Church ;   as  the 
previous  acts  had  never  been  ratified  by  the  head   of  the 
State.     Legislation  proceeded  still  farther,  and  declared  the 
Church   now   established    to    be   the    only   true    Church   of 
Christ,  and  those  only  to  be  members  of  it  who  should  accept 
of  the  Confession  as  now  ratified,  and  partake  of  the  sacra- 
ments as  now  administered.     Another  act   was  passed  pro- 
hibiting any   one   from  holding  office,   or  from   acting  as   a 
procurator  or  notary  in  any  court,  till  he  should  first  profess 
the  Reformed  faith  ;  and  another  and  still  more  important 
one,    providing    that    every  future    sovereign   should,   at    his 
coronation,    swear   before   the    Eternal  God  that  he  would 
maintain  the  true  religion  of  Christ  Jesus,  abolish  all  false 
religions  contrary  to  the  same,  and  rule  the  people    com- 
mitted to  his  charge  according  to  the  will  of  God  revealed  in 
His  Word,  and  the  lovable  laws  and  constitutions  received 
in  the  realm.     It  was  a  wise  piece  of  legislation.     It  may 
have   savoured   of  intolerance   to    insist    on    the    Catholic 
queen   of  a  hitherto    Catholic    country    changing   her    faith 
because  her  subjects  had  changed  theirs;  but  there  was  no 
intolerance  in  a  Protestant  country  notifying  to  all   future 
expectants  of  the  throne  that  they  must  be    Protestants  if 
they  would  be  its  king.     The  time  chosen,  too,  was  oppor- 
tune.    James  was  a  child,   and  might  be  educated  in  the 
Protestant  faith,   and  so  saved  the  struggle    of  overcoming 
early  prejudices,  or  the  hypocrisy  of  professing  a  religion 
which  he  did  not  believe. 

All  was  not  yet  done  that  was  needful  to  be  done.  It  was 
needful  that  arrangements  should  be  made  as  to  the  admission 
of  ministers,  and  stipends  for  them  after  they  were  admitted. 
In  regard  to  the  former,  it  was  "  statute  and  ordained  by  our 
sovereign  lord,  with  advice  of  his  dearest  regent  and  the 
Three  Estates  of  this  present  parliament,"  that  the  examina- 
tion and  admission  of  ministers  should  lie  with  the  Church, 
and  that  the  presentation  should  lie  with  the  ancient  lay 
patrons  ;  but  that  if  the  patron  failed  to  present  a  properly- 
qualified  person  to  the  superintendent  within  six  months,  the 
right  of  presentation  should  lapse  to  the  Church.     In   the 


334  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

event  of  the  superintendent  refusing  to  induct  the  presentee 
of  the  patron,  it  was  provided  that  there  might  be  an  appeal 
to  the  provincial  synod,  and  from  the  provincial  synod  to  the 
General  Assembly,  whose  sentence  was  to  be  final.  In  regard 
to  the  stipends  of  the  clergy,  an  act  was  passed,  proceeding 
upon  the  preamble  that  the  ministers  had  been  long  defrauded 
of  their  stipends,  so  that  they  were  come  to  great  poverty,  and 
yet  that  they  had  continued  in  their  vocation,  but  that  they 
should  be  constrained  to  leave  it  unless  some  remedy  were 
provided.  It  was  therefore  enacted  that  the  stipends  of  the 
clergy  should  first  be  paid  out  of  the  whole  thirds  of  the 
whole  realm,  and  that  not  till  this  was  done  should  the 
surplus  be  applied  to  swell  the  royal  revenue.  From  this  act 
it  is  plain  that  the  poverty  of  the  ministers  had  not  arisen 
altogether  from  the  insufficiency  of  the  stipends  assigned  to 
them,  but  from  these,  such  as  they  were,  being  irregularly 
and  imperfectly  paid.  Their  claims  were  now  to  be  held 
paramount  to  all  others.  But  the  clergy  had  claimed  the 
whole  patrimony  of  the  Church  ;  the  barons  who  sat  in  the 
last  Assembly  had  promised  it ;  the  regent  is  said  not  to  have 
been  opposed  to  it ;  but  it  was  too  strong  a  measure  to  pro- 
pose and  carry  in  the  face  of  so  much  greed  and  selfishness, 
Hope,  however,  was  kept  alive  in  the  minds  of  the  ministers 
by  a  clause  purporting  that  the  present  measure  was  to  be 
only  a  temporary  one,  to  serve  "  ay  and  quhill  the  Kirk  come 
to  the  full  possession  of  its  proper  patrimonie,  quhilk  is  the 
teindes."  Vain  hope  !  every  day  was  making  the  thing  more 
hopeless  by  new  alienations.1 

It  is  not  a  little  curious  to  find  the  same  parliament  which 
passed  these  strongly -Protestant  measures  ratifying  all  the 
civil  privileges  anciently  possessed  by  the  Spiritual  Estate  of 
the  realm  ;  and  by  the  Spiritual  Estate  is  meant  not  the  Pro- 
testant ministers,  but  the  Popish  hierarchy.  The  act  regard- 
ing the  Spiritual  Estate  is  followed  by  two  others  ratifying  the 
privileges  of  the  barons  and  the  burghs.2  Strange  that  the 
Popish  dignitaries  should  still  be  recognised  as  the  first  of  the 
Three  Estates  ;  that,  driven  from  the  Church  and  the  altar, 
they  should  still  be  allowed  to  sit  in  the  Senate.  In  the  very 
parliament  in  which  these  things  were  done,  four  bishops  and 
fourteen  abbots  sat,  and  spoke,  and  voted.     They  were  mostly 

1  Acts  of  Pari.     James  I.,  pari.  i.  chapters  i.-xii. 
-  James  I.,  pari.  i.  chapters  xxiv.-xxvi. 


A.D.  1567-8.]  MARY  ESCAPES.  335 

Protestants;  but  it  was  in  virtue  of  their  positions  in  the  Roman 
hierarchy  that  they  occupied  their  places. 

The  parliament  was  hardly  dissolved  when 
Dec.  25,  1567.    tlie  Generai  Assembly  met.     It  met  bent  on 

enforcing  discipline.  The  Earl  of  Argyll  was  taken  to  task 
for  separating  from  his  wife  ;  and  the  Countess  of  Argyll  for 
being  present  at  the  Popish  baptism  of  the  prince.  The  Earl 
declared  the  fault  was  not  his,  but  for  other  offences  professed 
himself  willing  to  submit  to  the  discipline  of  the  Church. 
The  lady  confessed  her  fault,  and  was  ordered  to  make  public 
repentance  in  the  Chapel  Royal  at  Stirling.  John  Craig,  one 
of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh,  was  accused  of  having  pub- 
lished the  banns  of  marriage  between  the  queen  and  the 
Earl  of  Bothwell ;  but  he  amply  vindicated  his  conduct  by 
proving  that  in  proclaiming  the  banns  he  had  openly  con- 
demned the  marriage.  Adam,  called  Bishop  of  Orkney,  was 
charged  with  not  visiting  the  kirks  of  his  province  \  acting  as 
a  judge  in  the  Court  of  Session;  keeping  company  with  Sir 
Francis  Bothwell,  a  Popish  priest,  bestowing  upon  him 
benefices,  and  placing  him  as  a  minister ;  and,  above  all, 
solemnizing  the  marriage  between  the  queen  and  the  Earl  of 
Bothwell.  The  bishop  pleaded  that  his  health  would  not 
allow  him  to  remain  in  Orkney ;  that  he  was  ignorant  of  Sir 
Francis  being  a  Papist ;  but  being  unable  to  exculpate  him- 
self for  marrying  the  queen,  he  was  suspended  from  his 
office,  and  not  restored  till  he  professed  his  penitence 
publicly  in  the  Chapel  of  Holyrood.  The  Bishop  of  Gallo- 
way was  accused  of  not  having  visited  the  churches  in  his 
district  for  three  years ;  of  having  ceased  to  plant  churches  ; 
of  haunting  the  court  too  much  ;  of  acting  as  a  judge  and 
privy-counsellor  ;  of  having  resigned  the  Abbey  of  InchafTray 
in  favour  of  a  child  ;  and  having  set  lands  in  feu  to  the  pre- 
judice of  the  kirk.1 

In  the  beginning  of  May  1568,  the  news  spread  through 
the  country  like  wildfire  that  the  queen  had  escaped  from 
her  prison  in  Lochleven.  Escaped  she  certainly  had,  and 
in  a  few  days  she  found  herself  at  Hamilton,  surrounded  by  a 
great  majority  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  the  realm,  eager 
for  her  restoration  to  the  throne.  But  the  Regent  Moray 
proved  himself  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  in  a  few  days 
more  the  unhappy  Mary,  from  the  top  of  Langside  Hill,  saw 
her  hopes  blighted,  and  her  army  scattered  like  chaff;  and, 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  Dec.  1567.     Keith,  book  iii.  chap.  ii. 


336  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

turning  her  horse's  head  to  the  south,  she  sought  shelter  in 
England — a  fugitive  from  her  ancestral  kingdom — a  suppliant 
at  the  feet  of  Elizabeth.  How  it  fared  with  her  all  the 
world  knows  : — Accused  of  the  murder  of  her  husband  by  her 
own  brother ;  detained  for  eighteen  long  years  in  captivity ; 
finally  brought  to  the  block  ;  she  went  from  the  world  leaving 
behind  her  a  name  not  unsullied  by  suspicion,  but  which  still 
moves  every  heart  to  pity  her  misfortunes,  and  almost  to  forget 
her  crimes. 

Moray  did  not  long  enjoy  his  regency.  On  the  23d  day 
of  January  1570,  in  passing  through  the  town  of  Linlithgow, 
he  was  shot  at  from  a  window  by  Hamilton  of  Bothwell- 
haugh.  The  street  was  narrow,  the  crowd  of  spectators 
obstructed  the  way,  the  assassin  had  time  to  take  deliberate 
aim,  and  the  wound  proved  mortal.  His  body  was  conveyed 
to  Edinburgh,  and  followed  to  the  grave  by  an  immense 
concourse  of  mourners.  When  the  procession  reached  the 
Church  of  St  Gile's,  the  coffin  was  placed  upon  a  bier  in 
front  of  the  pulpit,  and  while  it  lay  there,  in  the  view  of  the 
people,  Knox  preached  a  sermon  from  the  text — "  Blessed 
are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord."  Lowered  into  his  last 
resting-place  in  St  Anthony's  aisle,  his  epitaph  was  written 
by  the  classic  pen  of  Buchanan,  in  which  he  is  bewailed  as 
the  best  man  of  his  age,  and  the  common  father  of  his 
country. 

Posterity  has  vindicated  the  encomium  of  Buchanan  by 
bestowing  upon  Moray  the  enviable  name  of  the  Good 
Regent.  Yet  the  impartial  reader  of  history  may  find  it  diffi- 
cult to  assign  such  unqualified  praise.  Moray's  devotion  to 
England  may  be  thought  inconsistent  with  patriotism,  his 
conduct  to  his  sister  at  variance  with  natural  affection,  his 
share  in  bloody  conspiracies  as  opposed  to  true  Christianity. 
But  be  this  as  it  may,  he  undoubtedly  possessed  great 
qualities.  He  was  born  to  govern,  and,  during  his  short 
regency,  he  rendered  a  turbulent  country  peaceful  and  happy. 
His  private  life  was  irreproachable.  "  His  house,"  says  the 
affectionate  Buchanan,1  "  like  an  holy  temple,  was  free  not 
only  from  impiety,  but  even  from  wanton  words.  After 
dinner  and  supper  he  always  caused  a  chapter  out  of  the 
Holy  Bible  to  be  read  \  and  though  he  had  still  a  learned 
man  to  interpret  it,  yet  if  there  were  any  eminent  scholars 
there  (as  frequently  there  were  a  great  many,  and  such  were 
1  History  of  Scotland,  book  xix. 


A.D.  1570.]  REGENT  MORAY.  337 

still  respected  by  him)  he  would  ask  their  opinions  of  it, 
which  he  did  not  out  of  a  vain  ambition,  but  a  desire  to  con- 
form himself  to  its  rules."  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that 
his  attachment  to  Protestantism  was  sincere,  persevered  in, 
as  it  was,  from  boyhood  till  the  day  of  his  death.  The 
preachers  might  well  bewail  him,  for  he  courted  their  favour, 
and  showed  himself  on  all  occasions  attentive  to  their  interests. 
His  enemies  accused  him  of  aiming  at  the  supreme  power, 
and  he  was  scarcely  in  his  grave  till  a  document  was  put  in 
circulation,  purporting  to  be  an  account  of  an  interview  acci- 
dentally overheard  between  him  and  some  of  his  friends,  in 
which  Knox,  Lord  Lindsay,  and  others,  advised  him  to 
make  himself  strong  with  men  of  war,  and  assume  the  regency 
for  life.1  The  cleverness  of  the  squib  deceived  many,  but  it 
was  a  forgery,  and  Knox,  from  the  pulpit,  declared  it  to  be 
so.  But  while  opposing  factions  assailed  and  lampooned 
him,  the  great  bulk  of  the  nation,  as  they  had  experienced  his 
virtues,  lamented  his  loss.  He  is  described  as  being  of  a  com- 
manding presence,  but  possessed  of  a  blunt  open  manner, 
which  begot  confidence.  It  was  noted,  however,  that  after  he 
acquired  the  regency  he  became  more  haughty,  and  kept  the 
nobles  at  a  distance.  It  was  probably  policy  more  than  pride 
that  prompted  him  to  do  so. 

The  death  of  Moray  left  the  country  without  a  governor, 
and  for  some  months  it  was  cruelly  torn  by  the  contending 
factions  of  the  king  and  queen.  The  faction  of  the  queen 
numbered  most  names  among  the  nobility  ;  but  the  faction  of 
the  king  had  the  support  of  the  Church  and  the  English 
Government.  In  the  month  of  July  the  Earl  of  Lennox  was 
raised  to  the  regency  on  account  of  his  near  relationship  to  the 
infant  king,  but  the  queen's  faction  refused  to  acknowledge  his 
authority,  and  as  he  was  entirely  destitute  of  the  vigour  of 
Moray,  the  country  continued  to  be  distracted  by  civil  dissen- 
sions. These  were  industriously  fomented  by  Elizabeth,  whose 
constant  policy  it  was  to  secure  peace  to  herself  by  sowing 
troubles  among  her  neighbours. 

Sir  William  Kirkaldy  of  Grange  commanded  the  Castle  of 
Edinburgh,  and  threw  in  his  lot  with  the  queen's  party.  The 
city  lay  at  his  mercy.  It  began  to  fill  with  the  adherents  of 
Mary.  Knox's  health  was  failing,  but  his  courage  was  un- 
shaken, and  from  the  pulpit  he  denounced  Grange  as  a  throat- 
cutter  and  murderer.  His  life  was  threatened  in  consequence. 
1  Bannatyne's  Memoriales. 


33%  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

When  the  Assembly  met  in  March  1570,  an  anonymous  paper 
was  thrown  in  at  the  door,  charging  him  with  speaking  of  the 
queen  as  an  idolater,  adulteress,  and  murderer — treating  her 
as  a  reprobate,  and  refusing  to  pray  for  her.  Placards  to  the 
same  effect  were  pasted  on  the  door  of  the  church.  Knox 
boldly  answered  them,  and  vindicated  his  conduct  without 
denying  it.1  On  another  occasion,  a  musket  ball  came  crack- 
ling in  at  the  window  of  his  house  at  the  Netherbow  Port,  where 
the  thoughtful  bailies  had  made  "  ane  warme  studye  of  dailies 
to  the  minister,  John  Knox,  above  the  hall  of  the  same,  with 
lyght  and  windocks  thereunto  and  all  other  necessaries. "  2  The 
place  was  getting  too  hot  for  him,  and,  by  the  advice  of  his 
friends,  he  retired  to  St  Andrews.  The  Bishop  of  Galloway 
occupied  his  pulpit,  and  preached  in  a  manner  more  pleasing 
to  the  queen's  party.3 

James  Melville  was  at  this  time  a  student  in  St  Leonard's 
College,  and  from  his  pen  we  have  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing sketches  of  the  Reformer  in  this  the  last  period  of  his  life  : 
— u  Of  all  the  benefits,"  says  he,  in  his  interesting,  graphic 
style,  "  which  I  had  that  year  was  the  coming  of  that  most  not- 
able prophet  and  apostle  of  our  nation,  Mr  John  Knox,  to  St 
Andrews,  who,  by  the  faction  of  the  queen  occupying  the  castle 
and  town  of  Edinburgh,  was  compelled  to  remove  therefrom 
with  a  number  of  the  best,  and  chose  to  come  to  St  Andrews. 
I  heard  him  teach  there  the  prophecy  of  Daniel  that  summer 
and  the  winter  following.  I  had  my  pen  and  my  little  book, 
and  took  away  such  things  as  I  could  comprehend.  In  the 
opening  up  of  his  text  he  was  moderate  the  space  of  half 
an  hour,  but  when  he  entered  to  application,  he  made  me  so 
to  grew  and  tremble  that  I  could  not  hold  a  pen  to  write.  .  .  . 
Mr  Knox  would  sometimes  come  into  our  college-yard,  and 
call  us  scholars  unto  him  and  bless  us,  and  exhort  us  to  know 
God  and  his  work  in  our  country,  and  stand  by  the  good  cause, 
to  use  our  time  well,  and  learn  the  good  instructions,  and  fol- 
low the  good  example  of  our  masters/  "  I  saw  him  every  day 
of  his  doctrine,"  Melville  again  testifies,  "  go  hulie  and  fiar, 
with  a  furring  of  martricks  about  his  neck,  a  staff  in  the  one 
hand,  and  good,  godly  Richard  Bannatyne,  his  servant,  hold- 
ing up  the  other  ox  far,  from  the  abbey  to  the  parish  church, 
and  by  the  said  Richard  and  another  servant  lifted  up  to  the 

1  Bannatyne's  Memoriales. 

2  Act  of  Council.     Laing's  Pref.  to  Knox's  Works,  vol.  vi. 

3  Bannatyne's  Memoriales. 


A.D.  1571.]  ARCHBISHOP  HAMILTON  HANGED.  339 

pulpit,  where  he  behoved  to  lean  at  his  first  entry,  but  ere  he 
had  done  with  his  sermon  he  was  so  active  and  vigorous,  that 
he  was  like  to  ding  the  pulpit  in  blads,  and  fly  out  of  it."  l  No 
picture  of  the  Reformer  could  be  more  perfect  than  this — it 
stands  out  before  us  like  a  stereoscopic  view — we  see  him  walk, 
we  hear  him  speak.  And  it  is  all  the  more  interesting,  as  it 
presents  him  to  us  old  and  worn  out  with  his  life-long  work  ; 
his  hard  battle  against  mass-saying  priests  and  sacrilegious 
nobles. 

On  the  7th  of  April  1571,  John  Hamilton,  the  last  Roman 
Catholic  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  was  publicly  hanged  in 
his  episcopal  robes  upon  a  gibbet  at  Stirling.  After  the  battle 
of  Langside  he  had  been  declared  a  traitor  by  the  Earl  of 
Moray,  and  after  living  for  a  time  under  the  shelter  of  his 
powerful  friends,  he  had  sought  refuge  in  the  Castle  of  Dum- 
barton, which  was  held  for  the  queen.  When  it  was  surprised 
and  taken,  he  was  brought  to  trial,  accused  of  being  privy  to 
the  murders  of  Darnley  and  Moray,  condemned,  hanged, 
quartered.  He  was  a  man  able,  indefatigable,  and  faithful  to 
his  Church,  through  good  and  bad  report ;  but  like  most  of 
his  compeers,  he  appears  to  have  been  utterly  destitute  of 
principle. 

It  was  now  becoming  more  and  more  evident  that  something 
must  be  done  to  give  the  Church  a  polity.  The  "  First  Book 
of  Discipline  "  had  never  been  sanctioned  by  the  Legislature  ; 
the  Church  had  a  nationally-received  creed,  but  not  a  nation- 
ally-received government.  The  old  Spiritual  Estate  still  existed 
as  one  of  the  Estates  of  the  realm.  Its  property  had  never 
been  confiscated  ;  its  voice  in  the  parliament  had  never  been 
denied.  But  the  bishops  and  abbots  were  gradually  dying  out  ; 
and  to  replace  them  by  Protestant  laymen  was  felt  to  be  a  false 
and  anomalous  proceeding.  These  bishops  and  abbots,  thus 
dying  without  successors,  were  the  acknowledged  superiors  of 
a  large  part  of  the  land  of  the  country,  a  considerable  propor- 
tion of  which  was  let  in  feu  and  heritage  ;  and  now  the  feuars 
and  heritable  tenants  could  not  get  entry  to  their  lands,  for 
there  was  none  to  give  it.  To  rectify  this  an  act  was  passed 
in  the  parliament  which  met  in  August  1571,  declaring  that  all 
such  ecclesiastical  feuars  and  tenants  should  henceforth  hold 
their  feus  and  possessions  direct  from  the  king.2     It  was  an  im- 


1  James  Melville's  Diary,  Ban.  Ed. 
-James  VI.,  pari.  ii.  chap,  xxxviii. 


34°  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

portant  measure,  and  in  some  respects  amounted  to  a  confisca- 
tion of  a  great  part  of  the  Church  property  of  the  kingdom. 

But  much  land  and  tithes  were  still  undisposed  of,  and  who 
was  to  get  these  ?  The  Protestant  Church  earnestly  and  im- 
portunately claimed  them,  but  the  men  in  power  had  destined 
the  most  of  them  for  themselves.  There  was  a  perfect  scramble 
for  abbacies,  priories,  and  bishoprics  ;  and  the  lawless  state  of 
the  country  made  the  work  rapid  and  easy.  Either  faction 
required  to  purchase  partisans,  and  there  was  no  price  they 
could  so  conveniently  offer  as  a  benefice.  Mary  bestowed 
upon  Grange  the  Priory  of  St  Andrews.  "  Brother  William," 
wrote  Randolph  to  him,  in  a  bantering  letter,  "  it  was  indeed 
most  wonderful  unto  me,  when  I  heard  that  you  should  become 
a  prior.  That  vocation  agreeth  not  with  anything  that  ever  I 
knew  in  you,  saving  for  your  religious  life  led  under  the 
cardinal's  hat,  when  we  were  both  students  in  Paris."  1  The 
Earl  of  Glencairn  had  set  his  heart  upon  the  Archbishopric  of 
Glasgow,  and  sulkily  refused  to  take  any  part  in  a  parliament 
because  it  was  refused  him.2  The  defection  of  the  Earl  of 
Argyll  from  the  party  of  the  queen  to  that  of  the  king  was 
ascribed  to  an  ecclesiastical  bribe.  "  The  greedy  and  in- 
satiable appetite  of  benefices,"  says  the  author  of  the  "  Diurnal 
of  Occurrents,"  "  was  the  most  cause  thereof,  for  in  his  time 
there  was  none  brought  under  the  king's  obedience  but  for 
reward  either  given  or  promised."  3  The  Archbishop  of  St 
Andrews  was  scarcely  cut  down  from  his  gallows,  when  the 
Earl  of  Morton  got  a  gift  of  his  archbishopric  from  the 
Regent  Lennox. 

But  under  what  plea  and  by  what  tenure  were  these  bishop- 
rics, abbacies,  and  priories  to  be  held  ?  The  nobles  who  got 
them  did  not  contemplate  becoming  ecclesiastics.  They 
scarcely  dared  to  contemplate  the  sudden  secularization  of  so 
much  ecclesiastical  property.  The  nation  was  not  prepared 
for  it.  The  Church  would  vehemently  resist  it;  and  the 
Church  had  already  shown  itself  strong  enough  to  pull  down 
and  set  up  rulers.  Besides,  was  it  politic,  was  it  wise,  to  allow 
the  Spiritual  Estate — the  first  estate  in  the  realm — to  come  to 
nought  ?  Were  none  but  barons  and  burgesses  henceforward 
to  sit  in  parliament  ?  Was  the  old  balance  of  the  constitution 
to  be  destroyed  ?     Would  the  throne  be  safe,  would  the  aris- 

1  Letter,  Randolph  to  the  Laird  of  Grange,  1st  May  1570.  State-Paper 
Office.     Quoted  by  Tytler,  Hist.,  vol.  vii. 

2  Diurnal  of  Occurrents,  13th  October  1570.  3  Ibid.  1571. 


A.D.  1572.]  CONCORDAT  OF  LEITH.  341 

tocracy  be  safe,  in  presence  of  the  rising  power  of  the  burghs, 
without  the  aid  of  the  clergy?  Moreover,  how  was  the  original 
framework  of  the  College  of  Justice  to  be  maintained  ?  where 
were  its  eight  ecclesiastical  senators  to  come  from,  seeing  the 
Church  had  debarred  its  superintendents  and  ministers  from 
acting  as  judges?  P>en  laying  aside  the  constitution  of  the 
court,  was  not  the  ecclesiastical  body  the  one  most  fitted  to 
supply  able  lawyers,  from  the  superior  training  of  its  members? 
Could  no  plan  be  formed  by  which  the  Spiritual  Estate  might 
be  preserved,  the  Court  of  Session  supplied  with  judges,  and 
a  portion  at  least  of  the  Church's  revenues  pocketed  by  the 
patrons?  These  thoughts  must  have  passed  through  many 
minds  at  the  period  we  speak  of.  In  a  little  we  may  be  able 
to  trace  the  result. 

On  the  1 2th  of  January  1572,  a  Convention  of 
the  Church  assembled  at  Leith.  By  whom  it 
was  convened  is  unknown.  It  was  not  a  regular  Assembly, 
but  it  assumed  to  itself  "  the  strength,  force,  and  effect  of  a 
General  Assembly,"  and  it  was  attended  by  "  the  superinten- 
dents, barons,  commissioners  to  plant  kirks,  commissioners  of 
provinces,  towns,  kirks,  and  ministers."1  At  its  third  session, 
and  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  month,  it  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  meet  with  a  committee  of  the  Privy  Council,  and 
confer  upon  matters  affecting  the  Church.  On  the  very  next 
day  the  Privy  Council  appointed  a  corresponding  committee 
to  meet  and  confer  with  the  Commissioners  of  the  Church,  upon 
the  matters  entrusted  to  them."  These  two  committees  em- 
braced the  leading  men  of  the  Church  and  State,  and  repre- 
sented very  fairly  every  party  and  every  sentiment  \  but  it  is 
impossible  to  believe  that  the  Convention  and  Privy  Council 
would  have  worked  with  such  perfect  harmony,  unless  the 
whole  proceedings  had  been  previously  arranged. 

By  the  1st  of  February  the  joint  committees  framed  a 
concordat,  of  which  the  following  articles  were  the  chief : — 

1.  That  the  names  of  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  the 
bounds  of  dioceses,  should  remain  as  they  were  before  the 
Reformation,  at  least  till  the  majority  of  the  king,  or  till  a 
different  arrangement  should  be  made  by  the  parliament ;  and 
that  to  every  cathedral  church  there  should  be  attached  a 
chapter  of  learned  men  ;  but  that  the  bishops  should  have  no 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  January  1572. 

-  CalderwoocTs  History.     Spottiswood's  History. 


342  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIL 

more  power  than  was  possessed  by  the  superintendents,  and 
should  like  them  be  subject  to  the  General  Assemblies. 

2.  That  abbots  and  priors  should  be  continued  as  parts  of 
the  Spiritual  Estate  of  the  realm  \  that  before  they  were 
admitted  they  should  be  examined  by  the  Church,  and  care 
taken  that  from  the  benefices  within  their  bounds  enough  was 
secured  for  the  adequate  maintenance  of  the  ministers  ;  but 
that  being  admitted,  they  might  be  promoted  to  act  as  senators 
of  the  College  of  Justice. 

3.  That  qualified  ministers  should  be  placed  in  every  part 
of  the  country ;  that  livings  under  the  yearly  value  of  ^40 
should  be  conferred  upon  readers,  and  those  of  greater  value 
upon  ministers  capable  of  dispensing  the  sacraments  ;  that  no 
pluralities  should  be  allowed,  every  minister  constrained  to 
reside  within  his  parish,  and  required  at  his  admission  to  sign 
the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
king. 

4.  That  all  provostries,  prebends,  collegiate  churches,  and 
chaplainries  should  be  bestowed  by  their  respective  patrons 
upon  bursars  or  students  in  grammar,  arts,  theology,  law,  or 
medicine.1 

Such  was  the  famous  concordat  agreed  upon  by  the  Church 
and  State  in  Scotland  in  1572.  The  regent  instantly  approved 
of  it ;  but  it  remained  to  be  seen  whether  the  General  Assem- 
bly would  give  its  sanction  to  the  proceedings  of  its  commis- 
sioners. The  Earl  of  Morton  did  not  wait  till  the  General 
Assembly  would  meet,  but  at  once  took  action  upon  the  terms 
of  the  concordat.  He  had  obtained  a  gift  of  the  Archbishopric 
of  St  Andrews  ;  he  presented  to  it  John  Douglas,  Rector  of 
the  University.  A  chapter  was  held,  and  Douglas  gave  proof 
of  his  ability  to  preach.  The  day  for  his  admission  was  fixed, 
and  John  Knox  preached  the  sermon,  but  believing  there  had 
been  a  Simoniacal  paction  between  the  patron  and  presentee, 
he  denounced  an  anathema  upon  both.  John  Winram  read 
the  forms,  and  asked  the  questions  used  in  the  admission  of 
superintendents ;  and  thereafter  the  Bishop  of  Orkney,  the 
Superintendent  of  Lothian,  and  David  Lindsay  laid  their  hands 
upon  Douglas,  and  embraced  him  in  sign  of  admission.2  The 
Church  of  Scotland  had  once  more  an  archbishop. 

The  work  being  begun  went  briskly  on.  James  Boyd  was 
appointed  to  the  Archiepiscopal  See  of  Glasgow,  Andrew  Paton 

1  Calderwood's  History.     Spottiswood's  History. 

2  Calderwood's  History,  1572. 


A.D.  1572.]  TULCHAN  BISHOPS.  343 

to  Dunkeld,  Andrew  Graham  x  to  Dunblane,  George  Douglas 
to  Moray.  The  episcopal  bench  was  now  once  more  nearly 
full ;  for  Gordon  was  already  Bishop  of  Galloway,  Bothwell  of 
Orkney,  Campbell  of  Brechin,  Stuart  of  Caithness,  Hamilton 
of  Argyle,  Carswell  of  the  Isles.  It  was  more  than  suspected 
that  these  men — at  least  those  of  them  who  had  recently 
received  their  investiture — had  consented  to  enjoy  the  episco- 
pal titles,  with  but  a  small  part  of  the  episcopal  revenues. 
They  were  the  creatures  of  the  lordly  patrons.  "  There  be 
three  kinds  of  bishops,"  said  Adamson,  with  severe  irony,2 
"  My  Lord  Bishop,  My  Lord's  Bishop,  and  the  Lord's  Bishop. 
My  Lord  Bishop  was  in  the  Papistry ;  My  Lord's  Bishop  is 
now,  when  my  lord  gets  the  fat  of  the  benefice,  and  the  bishop 
makes  his  title  sure ;  the  Lord's  Bishop  is  the  true  minister  of 
the  gospel."3  The  people,  too,  must  have  their  jest.  It  was  once 
the  custom  in  Scotland  to  set  up  a  stuffed  calf  s  skin  before 
cows  when  being  milked,  under  the  belief  that  the  milk  was 
made  thereby  to  flow  more  freely  into  the  pail  of  the  dairy- 
maid. This  stuffed  calf  was  called  a  tulchan.  The  coarse 
humour  of  the  nation  found  vent  in  nick-naming  the  new  race 
of  prelates  "  tulchan-bishops,"  as  they  were  thought  no  better 
than  stuffed  calves,  set  up  to  make  the  benefice  yield  its 
revenues  to  their  lord.4 

The  General  Assembly  met  at  St  Andrews  on  the  6th  of 
March,  but  there  is  no  record  of  its  having  done  anything  in 
regard  to  the  Convention  at  Leith.  It  again  met,  however,  at 
Perth  on  the  6th  of  August,  and  the  following  minute  was  put 
upon  the  register  with  reference  to  the  concordat  : — "  In  it 
are  found  certain  names,  such  as  archbishop,  bishop,  dean, 
archdean,  chamber,  chapter,  which  names  were  thought 
slanderous  and  offensive  to  the  ears  of  many  of  the  brethren, 
appearing  to  sound  of  Papistry ;  therefore  the  whole  Assembly 
in  one  voice,  as  well  they  that  were  in  commission  at  Leith  as 
others,  solemnly  protest  that  they  intend  not  by  using  such 
names  to  ratify,  consent,  and  agree  to  any  kind  of  Papistry  or 
superstition,  and  wish  rather  the  same  names  may  be  changed 

1  Graham  was  a  layman  when  he  was  all  at  once  made  a  bishop  ;  but  so 
was  St  Ambrose. 

2  Adamson  is  thought  to  have  had  his  wit  sharpened  by  disappointment. 
He  afterwards  got  promotion  to  an  archbishopric,  and  then  he  changed  his 
way  of  speaking. 

3  James  Melville's  Diary. 

4  Calderwood's  History.     James  Melville's  Diary. 


344  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

to  others  that  are  not  slanderous  and  offensive,  and,  in  like 
manner,  protest  that  the  said  heads  and  articles  agreed  upon 
be  only  received  as  an  interim,  until  farther  and  more  perfect 
order  be  obtained  at  the  hands  of  the  king's  majesty's  regent 
and  nobility,  for  the  which  they  will  press  as  occasion  shall 
serve ;  unto  the  which  protestation  the  whole  Assembly  in  one 
voice  adheres."  1 

The  whole  Church,  in  General  Assembly  convened,  thus 
gave  its  consent  to  the  concordat  of  Leith ;  but  it  was  a  reluc- 
tant consent,  and  accompanied  by  a  protest  that  the  arrange- 
ment was  not  exactly  such  as  they  would  have  wished,  and 
that  even  while  submitting  to  it,  they  would  regard  it  as  merely 
temporary,  and  use  every  effort  to  secure  a  better.  It  is  sur- 
prising, however,  to  find  the  Church  which  had  approved  of 
the  "  First  Book  of  Discipline,"  and  banished  bishops  from  its 
policy  for  twelve  years,  giving  even  such  a  conditional  sanc- 
tion as  this  to  a  concordat  which  reintroduced  the  whole 
machinery  of  the  Papacy.  It  was  plainly  a  compromise — an 
expediency  measure — agreed  to  in  the  hope  that  good  would 
result  from  it.  Things  were  still  in  a  chaotic  state,  and  pure 
Presbyterianism  was  an  after-growth. 

The  Church  had  in  vain  attempted  to  get  its  favourite 
policy  ratified  by  parliament.  It  had  in  vain  struggled  to  get 
possession  of  its  patrimony.  In  had  in  vain  argued  that  the 
bishoprics  and  abbacies  should  be  dissolved,  and  their  revenues 
applied  for  the  maintenance  of  the  ministry,  the  education  of 
the  youthhead,  and  the  support  of  the  poor.  The  bishoprics 
and  abbacies  wrere  maintained  as  if  they  were  indissoluble. 
Some  of  them  were  already  bestowed  upon  laymen,  and  the 
ministers  of  the  Protestant  Church  were  poorly  paid  out  of 
the  thirds  of  benefices.  The  collection  of  these  even  the 
regent  had  recently  stopped,2  and  beggary  was  at  the  door. 
What  was  to  be  done?  The  only  way  of  obtaining  the 
episcopal  revenues  was  by  reintroducing  the  episcopal  office. 
None  but  a  bishop  could  hold  a  bishopric,  so  had  the 
law  ordained.  The  law  could  not  be  safely  abrogated;  the 
balance  of  the  constitution  could  not  be  safely  destroyed ; 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  August  1572. 

2  The  avaricious  Morton  had  persuaded  the  clergy,  that  if  they  would 
allow  him  to  collect  the  thirds,  he  would  arrange  to  have  every  minister's 
stipend  paid  out  of  the  teinds  of  the  parish  where  he  served.  They  soon 
discovered  that  they  were  worse  off  than  ever,  and  clamoured  for  a  return 
to  the  system  established  by  Moray.  (Calderwood's  History.  Book  of 
the  Universal  Kirk,  &c,  &c.) 


A.D.  1572.]  NECESSITY  OF  THE  CASE.  345 

the  First  Estate  in  the  realm  could  not  be  suffered  to  perish.1 
These  arguments  were  no  doubt  pressed  again  and  again  upon 
the  ministers,  by  men  whose  influence  would  give  weight  to 
their  logic.  The  ministers  regarded  archbishops,  bishops, 
cleans,  and  chapters  as  things  lawful,  but  not  expedient — 
"  they  sounded  of  papistry  f  but  now,  under  the  pressure  of  a 
still  stronger  expediency,  they  received  them  into  the  Church. 
That  the  Church  did  sanction  the  proceedings  of  the  Conven- 
tion at  Leith,  and  succumb  to  a  species  of  episcopacy,  it  were 
idle  to  deny.  In  the  sederunts  of  the  Assemblies  hencefor- 
ward, the  bishops  are  mentioned  immediately  before  the 
superintendents  ;  by  the  Assembly  of  August  1574,  the  regent 
was  petitioned  to  provide  qualified  persons  to  vacant  bishop- 
rics; and  in  the  Assembly  of  March  1575,  the  Bishop  of  Glas- 
gow was  raised  to  the  moderator's  chair.2  But  it  was  not 
always,  nor  even  often,  that  bishops  enjoyed  this  dignity;  on 
the  contrary,  we  frequently  find  them  hauled  before  the  court 
for  negligence  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties,  and  altogether 
they  were  never  greatly  honoured  in  the  Church. 

Knox  yielded  to  the  same  necessity  under  which  the  Church 
had  bowed.  Preferring  the  Presbyterian  polity  which  he  had 
seen  at  Geneva  to  the  Prelatic  under  which  he  had  ministered 
in  England,  he  had  yet  never  held  diocesan  episcopacy  to 
be  anti-Christian.  Anxious  above  all  things  to  secure  the 
Church's  patrimony,  he  was  ready  to  submit  to  anything  but  a 
surrender  of  principle  to  encompass  his  heart's  desire.  He 
submitted  to  the  introduction  of  episcopacy.  Too  frail  to  be 
present  at  the  Assembly  of  August  1572,  he  sent  certain 
articles  for  its  consideration ;  he  recommended  the  Church  to 
petition  the  regent  that  all  vacant  bishoprics  should  be  filled 
up  by  properly-qualified  persons  within  a  year  after  they  had 
become  vacant,  "  according  to  the  order  taken  in  Leith  by 
the  Commissioners  of  the  Nobility  and  of  the  Kirk,  in  the 
month  of  January  last,"  and  that  a  complaint  should  be 
made  as  to  the  giving  of  the  Bishopric  of  Ross  to  the 
Lord  Methven,  a  mere  layman.  He  farther  recommended 
that  "  an  act  should  be  made  decerning  and  ordaining  all 

1  Melville  confessed  that  many  of  the  nobles  were  against  his  policy, 
just  because  it  implied  the  destruction  of  the  Spiritual  Estate  ;  and  we  find 
King  James  frequently  asking  the  Assembly  what  was  to  become  of  this 
Estate  if  the  bishops  were  abolished.  He  dreaded  such  a  change  in  the 
constitution.     (Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk.) 

2  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk. 


346  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

bishops  admitted  to  the  order  of  the  Kirk  now  received 
to  give  account  of  their  whole  rents  and  intromissions  there- 
with once  a  year,  as  the  Kirk  shall  appoint,  for  such  causes  as 
the  Kirk  may  easily  consider  the  same  to  be  most  expedient 
and  necessary." 1 

If  Knox  agreed  to  recognise  episcopacy  in  order  to  secure 
the  episcopal  revenues,  he  knew  there  was  a  danger  of  being 
cheated  by  Simonists.  There  were  whispers  abroad  of  pac- 
tions being  made  between  patrons  and  presentees — the  lords 
who  held  the  bishoprics,  and  their  creatures  who  were  to 
get  them.  He  sounded  a  note  of  alarm.  He  wrote  to  the 
Assembly  which  met  at  Stirling  in  157 1  :  "  Unfaithful  and 
traitors  to  the  flock  shall  ye  be  before  the  Lord  Jesus  if  that 
with  your  consent,  directly  or  indirectly,  ye  suffer  unworthy 
men  to  be  thrust  into  the  ministry  of  the  Church,  under 
what  pretence  that  ever  it  be.  Remember  the  Judge  before 
whom  you  must  make  account,  and  resist  that  tyranny  as  ye 
would  hell-fire.  This  battle,  I  grant,  will  be  hard,  but  in 
the  second  point  it  will  be  harder  ;  that  is,  that  with  the  like 
uprightness  and  strength  in  God,  ye  withstand  the  merciless 
devourers  of  the  patrimony  of  the  Church.  If  men  will  spoil, 
let  them  do  it  to  their  own  peril  and  condemnation;  but 
communicate  you  not  with  their  sins,  of  what  state  soever 
they  be."  2  He  preached,  as  we  have  already  seen,  before 
the  inauguration  of  Douglas,  but  he  is  said  to  have  denounced 
both  the  giver  and  receiver;3  and  when  he  recommends 
the  Assembly  to  compel  bishops  to  give  to  the  Church  an 
account  of  their  intromissions  with  the  revenues  of  their  Sees, 
it  was  most  probably  to  prevent  them  from  being  paid  away  as 
the  price  of  the  presentation.4  In  all  this  there  was  honesty 
and  wisdom. 

It  was  a  mongrel  prelacy  that  was  thus  introduced  into 
Scotland — a  cross  betwixt  Popery  and  Presbytery.  It  was  not 
of  the  true  Roman  breed.  It  was  not  even  of  the  Anglican. 
It  could  not  pretend  to  the  apostolical  descent.  The  lordly 
archbishop  must  sit  in  the  Assemby  as  an  humble  member, 
while  the  humble  minister  presided  as  moderator,  and  must 
be  ready  at  all  times  to  give  an  account  of  his  conduct,  it 

1  This  letter  is  given  in  Calderwood's  History  ;  it  is  also  copied  in  the 
Appendix  to  Robertson's  History. 

2  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  1 57 1 . 
8  Calderwood's  Hist.,  1572. 

4  Articles  to  Assembly  of  August  1573,  above  referred  to,  given  in  Cal- 
derwood  and  Robertson's  Histories. 


A.D.  1572.]  DEATH  OF  KNOX.  347 

might  be  to  have  his  episcopal  pride  brought  low  by  the 
rebukes  of  a  presbyter.  But  the  most  marvellous  thing  is  that 
the  abbot  was  to  be  resuscitated  as  well  as  the  bishop ;  and 
though  he  might  not  be  allowed  to  minister  in  the  churches, 
he  might  win  his  bread  by  sitting  on  the  judicial  bench. 
Abbesses  would  probably  have  been  revived  too  had  they 
formed  a  part  of  any  estate,  or  had  it  been  possible  to  find 
any  work  for  them  to  do.  But  they  could  be  turned  to  no 
account,  and  therefore  were  allowed  to  perish.  When  Dame 
Christian  Ballenden,  Prioress  of  the  "  Priorissie  of  the  Senis, 
besyde  the  burrowmure  of  Edinburgh/'  departed  this  life,  the 
Earl  of  Morton,  "  understanding  that  in  the  Convention  of 
the  States  of  the  realm  consideration  was  had  that  nunneries 
are  not  meet  to  be  conferred  and  given  to  women,  according 
to  the  first  foundation  in  the  tyme  of  ignorance  .... 
appoints  Captain  Ninian  Cockburn  his  highness's  chamberlain 
and  factor  to  the  said  Priorissie  of  the  Senis.'' *  So  the  captain 
succeeded  to  the  prioress,  and  the  order  became  extinct. 

On  the  24th  of  November  1572,  John  Knox,  the  Scottish 
Reformer,  rested  from  his  labours.  His  spirit  was  vigorous 
to  the  last,  but  his  body  was  worn  out  with  worry  and  toil. 
He  did  not  die  too  soon.  His  work  was  done  ;  the  sore  battle 
was  fought ;  the  land  was  purged  of  idols.  Standing  by  his 
open  grave,  the  Earl  of  Morton,  now  regent,  pronounced  his 
brief  but  true  eulogium — "  There  lies  one  who  neither  feared 
nor  flattered  flesh."2 

His  character  is  not  difficult  to  understand,  it  flashes 
strongly  out  in  almost  every  act  of  his  life.  A  man  of 
strong  convictions,  of  fearless  courage,  and  a  sanguine  tem- 
perament, he  had  no  toleration  for  the  opinions  of  others 
if  they  were  different  from  his  own.  Though  he  must  have 
had  his  own  struggle  before  he  threw  off  the  religion  of  his 
childhood,  he  had  no  sympathy  with  those  who  could  not 
change  their  faith,  and  curse  everything  they  had  formerly 
revered.  In  some  respects  he  was  more  a  politician  than  a 
theologian,  and  worked  quite  as  much  for  the  liberty  of  his 
country  as  for  the  Reformation  of  his  Church.  The  greatest 
statesmen  of  the  day  on  both  sides  of  the  border  recognised 
his  ability,  and  the  Protestant,  selfish   Elizabeth  hated  and 

1   Register  of  Privy  Seal,  quoted  in  a  note  to  M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville. 

-  James  Melville's  Diary.  Calderwood's  version  is — "  Here  lieth  a 
man  who  in  his  life  never  feared  the  face  of  a  man  ;  who  hath  been  often 
threatened  with  dag  and  dagger,  but  yet  hath  ended  his  days  in  peace  and 
honour." 


34-8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XII. 

feared  him  almost  as  much  as  the  Popish  finessing  Mary. 
Though  never  ambitious  of  being  more  than  an  Edinburgh 
minister — perhaps  because  he  knew  that  in  no  other  position 
could  he  be  more  powerful — he  was  the  associate  and  adviser 
of  the  greatest  nobles  m  the  kingdom.  The  influence  of  his 
eloquence  is  well  hit  off  in  a  letter  from  Randolph  to  Cecil. 
"The  voice  of  that  one  man,"  said  he,  "is  able  to  put  more 
life  in  us  in  one  hour  than  five  hundred  trumpets  blustering 
in  our  ears."  He  appears  to  have  been  of  small  and  fragile 
make.  "I  know  not,"  says  Calderwood,  "  if  ever  God  placed 
in  a  frail  and  weak  little  body  a  more  godly  and  greater  spirit."1 
He  is  described  as  fond  of  trinkets  and  dress.  It  is  certain 
he  writes,  and  he  is  said  to  have  spoken,  the  English  rather 
than  the  Scotch  of  his  time,  but  it  is  difficult  to  believe  it  was 
from  any  affectation  of  the  southron  tongue.  His  "  History  of 
the  Reformation  "  is  one  of  the  most  graphic  racy  books  in  any 
language,  and  without  reading  it  it  is  impossible  to  understand 
either  the  man  or  the  scenes  amid  which  he  lived.  Its  broad 
humour,  its  rollicking  fun,  its  relish  for  the  ludicrous,  mingle 
strangely  with  its  fierce  dogmatism  and  bitter  hatred,  and  show 
of  how  many  opposite  elements  the  Reformer  was  made. 
Though  a  virulent  enemy  of  Popery,  he  was  really  a  broad 
Churchman;  he  preached  his  evangel  as  readily  in  England 
as  in  Scotland,  and  his  sons  went  to  Cambridge  to  be  educated 
as  ministers  of  the  English  Church.  It  is  pleasant  to  find  at 
the  end  of  a  life  during  which  the  harder  features  of  his 
character  were  most  displayed  a  touch  of  true  genial  humour. 
When  lying  on  his  death-bed,  and  drawing  near  to  his  end,  he 
was  visited  by  two  friends,  whom  he  bid  stay  to  dinner,  and 
insisted  upon  tapping  a  hogshead  of  wine  in  his  cellar,  and 
while  they  were  drinking  their  glass,  he  pressed  them  to  send 
for  some  more,  as  he  did  not  expect  to  live  till  it  was  done.2 

The  Regent  Lennox  had  been  killed  in  a  sudden  encounter 
at  Stirling.     Mar  had  succeeded  him,  but  death  soon  deprived 

1  Hist.,  vol.  iii.  p.  238. 

2  We  are  fortunate  in  having  what  may  be  regarded  as  an  authentic 
likeness  of  the  Reformer  in  the  I  cones  of  Beza,  engraved  in  wood,  from 
a  portrait  by  Vaensoun,  sent  to  Geneva  by  King  James.  We  have,  per- 
haps, a  still  better  representation  of  the  man  in  the  engraving  by  Hondius, 
evidently  from  the  same  original,  though  somewhat  changed.  There  is 
the  powerful  head  well  placed  on  the  shoulders,  the  thoughtful  eye  ready 
to  kindle  into  flame,  the  firm  set  mouth,  the  flowing  beard.  Carlyle, 
indeed,  denounces  the  Beza  portrait  as  no  better  than  a  boiled  figure- 
head, and  not  the  image  of  a  man  who  could  do  and  dare  what  Knox  had 


A.D.  1573.]  KIRKALDV  AND  MAITLAND.  349 

him  of  his  honours,  and  now  Morton,  the  fourth  regent  within 
six  years,  was  at  the  head  of  affairs ;  but  still  the  country  lay 
bleeding  with  civil  wounds.  The  Castle  of  Edinburgh,  beet- 
ling on  the  top  of  its  lofty  crag,  was  held  by  the  Lairds  of 
Grange  and  Lethington  for  the  queen ;  and  the  miserable  city 
at  its  base  was  exposed  equally  to  the  guns  of  the  fortress  and 
the  fury  of  its  assailants.  At  length  a  battering-train  from 
England  compelled  a  surrender,  and  Kirkaldy  and  Maitland 
were  at  the  mercy  of  Morton.  Kirkaldy  was  hanged  at  the 
market-cross  of  Edinburgh.  Maitland  suddenly  died  before 
his  doom  was  known ;  but  it  was  said  that  he  anticipated  it 
by  swallowing  poison  in  his  prison. 

Kirkaldy  was  probably  the  ablest  soldier,  and  Maitland  the 
ablest  statesman  of  his  day.  Either  had  played  an  important 
part  in  accomplishing  the  Reformation.  When  Kirkaldy  was 
hanging  on  the  gibbet,  the  Protestants  thought  of  a  prediction 
of  Knox,  that  this  would  be  his  end  for  taking  part  with  the 
queen;  the  Papists  remembered  that  he  had  begun  his  career 
by  the  slaughter  of  a  cardinal.  Maitland  was  much  the  greater 
man  of  the  two,  and  had  played  a  greater  part.  His  life  had 
been  full  of  change.  We  first  find  him  in  the  company  of  the 
Reformers,  but  advocating  an  outward  compliance  with  the 
rites  of  Rome.  We  next  find  him  in  the  service  of  the  queen 
regent,  and  only  deserting  to  the  Congregation  when  her 
cause  was  hopeless.  In  the  parliament  of  1560,  which  estab- 
lished the  Reformation,  his  abilities  and  zeal  raised  him  to 
the  speakership.  When  Queen  Mary  sought  her  native  country, 
he  attached  himself  heart  and  soul  to  her  interest,  and  slighted 
the  parliament  in  which  he  had  played  so  conspicuous  a  part. 
He  shared  with  Moray  the  duties  of  government ;  and,  while 
thus  employed,  Randolph,  the  English  resident,  describes 
"  the  Lord  James  as  dealing,  according  to  his  nature,  rudely, 
homely,  bluntly;  the  Laird  of  Lethington  more  delicately  and 
finely,  yet  nothing  swerving  from  the  other  in  mind  and 
effect."1   His  great  ambition  at  that  time  was  the  union  of  the 

dared  and  done,  and  prefers  the  altogether  unauthentic  Somerville  por- 
trait ;  but  Wilkie  has  shown  how  the  face  and  figure,  in  repose  in  Vaen- 
soun's  portrait,  could  be  thrown  into  action,  and  kindled  into  fire,  in 
his  great  picture  of  Knox  preaching  before  the  Lords  of  the  Congrega- 
tion. See  an  interesting  paper  on  Scottish  Historical  Portraits  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries,  vol.  xi.  part  i. ;  also  Carlyle's  Essay 
on  the  Portraits  of  Knox.  Dr  Laing  gave  Wilkie  the  loan  of  Hondius' 
portrait  to  be  used  in  his  historical  picture. 

1  Randolph  to  Cecil,   24th  October,   1561.     Keith. 


350  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

kingdoms.  But  Maitland's  brain  was  unfortunately  fertile  of 
plots.  He  was  in  the  conspiracy  to  murder  Rizzio  ;  in  the 
conspiracy  to  murder  the  king.  When  the  nobles  rose  to 
avenge  the  murder  of  the  king,  Maitland,  though  himself  one 
of  the  chief  of  the  assassins,  joined  them,  and  he  was  too  able  a 
man  to  be  put  away.  When  Moray  received  the  regency,  for 
a  time  Lethington  was  his  principal  adviser,  but  his  heart 
appears  to  have  been  with  the  exiled  Mary,  and  he  began  to 
plot  for  her  return.  Apprehended,  and  about  to  be  brought 
to  trial  for  his  part  in  the  Darnley  conspiracy,  Kirkaldy,  by  a 
stratagem,  had  him  conveyed  to  the  castle,  where,  during  a 
long  siege,  his  statesman-like  diplomacy  seconded  the  courage 
and  skill  of  the  military  knight.  Though  the  character  of 
neither  is  defensible,  we  cannot  but  admire  their  abilities,  and 
pity  their  fate. 

In  the  summer  of  1574,  Andrew  Melville,  a  man  destined 
to  play  an  important  part  in  the  history  of  the  Church, 
returned  to  his  native  country,  after  an  absence  of  ten  years. 
These  ten  years  he  had  spent  at  the  most  celebrated  seats  of 
learning  on  the  Continent.  He  had  studied  both  at  Paris  and 
at  Poictiers.  Driven  from  France  by  the  civil  wars,  he  turned 
his  eyes  toward  Geneva,  at  that  period  the  chosen  asylum  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty.  He  travelled  all  the  long  way  upon 
foot,  as  he  had  previously  done  from  Dieppe  to  Paris,  and 
from  Paris  to  Poictiers.  His  scholarship  almost  immediately 
secured  for  him  the  vacant  Professorship  of  Humanity  in  the 
Academy,  and  admittance  to  the  literary  society  in  the  town. 
It  was  a  marvellous  society  that  had  congregated  in  this  little 
republican  city,  cradled  among  the  everlasting  hills,  and  shut 
out  from  the  rest  of  the  world ;  men  who  had  fled  from  every 
country  of  Europe,  that  they  might  breathe  a  freer  atmosphere. 
Calvin  was  no  more ;  but  Theodore  Beza  occupied  his  place, 
and  almost  rivalled  his  renown.  Scaliger  came  with  the 
refugees  who  escaped  through  the  passes  of  the  Jura,  after 
the  horror  of  St  Bartholomew's  Day.  One  hundred  and 
twenty  French  ministers  are  said  to  have  been  all  at  one  time 
in  the  town.1  As  they  spoke  one  to  another  of  the  wrongs 
they  had  suffered,  the  perils  they  had  escaped,  the  friends 
they  had  seen  butchered  before  their  eyes,  can  we  wonder 
that  there  was  generated  beneath  the  broad  shadows  of  the 
Alps  a  deep  hatred  of  despotism  and  Popery,  and  a  fervent 
love  of  liberty.  In  this  school  Andrew  Melville  was  nursed — 
1  M 'die's  Life  of  Melville,  vol.  i. 


AD.  lT>7r>.  j  MELVILLE  ATTACKS  EPISCOPACY. 


35  l 


with  these  men  he  held  converse ;  he  was  the  personal  friend 
of  the  most  distinguished  amongst  them  ;  and  when  he  re- 
turned to  Scotland,  he  was  already  a  well-known  and  cele- 
brated man.  The  Universities  of  St  Andrews  and  Glasgow- 
competed  for  his  services  ;  he  chose  the  latter,  and,  as  its 
Principal,  soon  laid  among  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  school  the 
foundations  of  its  future  fame.1 

Episcopacy  had  now  existed  in  Scotland  for  about  three 
years,  but  it  had  not  got  on  well.  The  old  tree  taken  up  by 
the  roots  and  planted  again  did  not  seem  to  thrive ;  its  fibres 
had  been  mangled  and  curtailed,  and  it  did  not  take  with  the 
soil,  now  too  poor  for  its  proper  luxuriance  of  growth.  The 
Church  had  already  appointed  a  committee  to  draw  up  a  new 
scheme  of  policy,  but  it  was  uncertain  what  they  might 
recommend,  when  John  Durie,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edin- 
burgh, sounded  the  first  note  of  war  against  Episcopacy.  In 
the  Assembly  of  August  1575,  when  the  court  was  about  to 
proceed  to  the  trial  of  the  bishops,  he  protested  that  this 
would  not  prejudge  the  objections  which  he  and  others  enter- 
tained to  the  name  and  office  of  a  bishop.2  At  a  subsequent 
session  of  the  same  Assembly,  the  question  was  proposed — 
Whether  bishops,  as  they  are  now  in  Scotland,  have  their 
function  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  whether  the  chapters 
appointed  for  creating  them  should  be  tolerated  in  this 
Reformed  Church?  Melville  rose  and  delivered  his  senti- 
ments in  a  speech  which  produced  a  powerful  impression 
upon  the  Assembly.3  His  accurate  acquaintance  with  the 
language  of  the  New  Testament ;  his  intimacy  with  Beza,  who 
was  regarded  as  an  oracle  in  Scotland ;  his  Genevan  experi- 
ences ;  besides  his  native  powers  of  debate,  must  have  made 
him  be  listened  to  with  respect.  The  consequence  was,  that 
a  committee  of  six  persons  was  appointed,  three  to  argue  the 
one  side,  and  three  to  maintain  the  other,  as  was  the  practice 
at  that  time  in  Scotland;  and  to  report  the  conclusion  to 
which  they  might  come  to  a  future  diet  of  the  Assembly. 
John  Craig,  James  Lawson,  and  Andrew  Melville,  were  to 
impugn  Episcopacy ;  George  Hay,  John  Row,  and  David 
Lindsay  to  defend  it.4 

1  James  Melville's  Diary.     M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville. 
-'  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  August   1575. 
:;  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vi.     Melville's  Diary. 
4  This  appears  to  have  been  copied  from  the  old  scholastic  method  of 
defending  and  impugning  a  given  thesis. 


352  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

At  the  sixth  session  the  committee  gave  in  their  report  in 
writing.  They  declared  that  it  was  their  unanimous  opinion, 
that  the  name  "  bishop  "  rightly  belonged  to  every  minister  who 
had  the  charge  of  a  flock ;  but  that  out  of  these  some  might  be 
chosen  to  oversee  such  reasonable  districts  as  might  be 
assigned  them  beside  their  own  congregations,  to  appoint 
ministers,  elders,  and  deacons  in  destitute  places,  and  to 
administer  discipline,  with  the  consent  of  the  clergy  and 
people.1  The  Assembly  approved  of  the  report,  and  ordained 
that  farther  inquiry  should  be  made  in  regard  to  that  and  other 
matters  affecting  the  policy  and  discipline  of  the  Church.2 
When  the  Assembly  again  met  in  April  1576,  the  subject  was 
resumed,  and  the  same  conclusions  were  arrived  at ;  and  in  the 
way  of  following  them  up,  the  bishops,  who  had  not  yet  received 
any  charge,  were  required  by  the  morrow  to  condescend  upon 
the  congregations  which  they  would  take  under  their  pastoral 
care.3 

In  1578  the  Assembly  proceeded  a  step  farther.  It  declared 
that  bishops  should  henceforward  be  called  simply  by  their  own 
names,  and  not  by  any  titles  of  honour ;  and  debarred  cathe- 
dral chapters  from  proceeding  to  any  election  before  its  next 
meeting.  The  next  Assembly  made  this  order  perpetual.  But 
it  was  not  till  1580  that  the  last  stone  of  the  Episcopal  fabric 
was  thrown  down.  In  that  year  "  the  whole  Assembly  of  the 
Kirk,  in  one  voice,  found  and  declared  the  pretended  office  of 
a  bishop  to  be  unlawful,  having  neither  foundation  nor  warrant 
in  the  Word  of  God,  and  ordained  all  such  persons  as  brooked 
the  said  office  to  demit  the  same,  as  an  office  to  wrhich  they 
were  not  called  by  God,  and  to  cease  from  preaching  the 
Word,  or  administering  the  sacraments,  till  they  should  be 
admitted  anew  by  the  General  Assembly,  under  pain  of  ex- 
communication. "  To  carry  out  this  sweeping  resolution, 
synodal  assemblies  were  appointed  to  be  held  in  the  different 
dioceses  to  receive  the  submission  of  the  bishops,  and  in  case 
of  contumacy,  to  report  them  to  the  next  Assembly,  that  they 
might  be  put  under  the  bann  of  the  Church.4  So  energetic 
were  their  measures  that  before  the  next  Assembly  all  the 
bishops,  except  five,  had  sent  in  their  submissions. 

The  Church  had  not  been  able  to  carry  these  measures  with- 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  August  1575. 

2  James  Melville's  Diary. 

:{  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  April  1576. 
4  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  1578,  1580. 


A.I).  1578-9.]  MORTON   AND  MELVILLE.  353 

out  opposition.  When  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow  was  re- 
quired to  take  upon  him  the  charge  of  a  congregation,  he 
pleaded  that  he  had  accepted  his  bishopric  according  to  the 
terms  of  the  concordat  of  Leith  ;  that  when  he  was  admitted 
to  it  he  had  taken  an  oath  to  the  king,  and  that  if  he  now  con- 
sented to  any  changes  he  might  incur  the  guilt  of  perjury  ; 
that,  nevertheless,  when  residing  in  Glasgow  he  would  preach 
there,  and  when  residing  in  Ayr  he  would  also  preach  there, 
in  any  church  which  the  brethren  might  agree  upon  ;  but  he 
protested  that  this  must  not  be  understood  as  interfering  with 
his  jurisdiction  as  bishop  of  the  diocese.  The  Assembly  was 
obliged  to  content  itself  with  this.1  Upon  the  death  of 
Douglas,  Adamson  abandoned  the  Presbyterian  cause,  and 
received  the  presentation  to  the  Archbishopric  of  St  Andrews 
from  the  regent.  He  was  instantly  brought  before  the 
Assembly,  but  he  managed  to  temporise.  The  Assembly  pro- 
hibited the  chapter  from  proceeding  to  his  admission  ;  the 
regent  ordered  it  to  proceed ;  and  proceed  it  did.  The 
Assembly  appointed  a  commission  to  summon  Adamson  before 
them,  and  inquire  into  the  case,  but  it  is  probable  they  felt 
themselves  without  power  to  proceed  farther,  as  we  do  not  hear 
any  more  of  the  matter. 

As  the  Regent  Morton  had  been  the  chief  deviser  of  the 
tulchan  Episcopacy,  he  was  naturally  annoyed  at  the  attempts 
of  the  Church  to  overturn  it.  He  was  frequently  pressed  to 
be  present  at  the  Assemblies,  but  he  steadily  refused,  and 
attempted  to  intimidate  its  leaders  by  threatening  to  hang 
some  of  them,  as  an  example  to  the  rest.2  Failing  to  gain 
Melville  by  bribes,  he  bitterly  upbraided  him  for  disturbing 
the  peace  of  the  country  by  his  over-sea  dreams  and  Genevese 
discipline.  "  There  never  will  be  quietness  in  this  country," 
said  he  fiercely,  "  till  half  a  dozen  of  you  be  hanged  or 
banished."  "  Tush  !  "  said  Melville,  who  had  now  become 
Principal  of  St  Mary's  College,  St  Andrews;  " threaten  your 
courtiers  in  that  way;  it  is  all  the  same  to  me  whether  I  rot  in 
the  air  or  the  ground.  The  earth  is  the  Lord's :  my  fatherland 
is  wherever  well-doing  is.  I  have  been  ready  to  give  my  life, 
where  it  would  not  have  been  half  so  well  spent,  at  the 
pleasure  of  my  God.  I  lived  out  of  your  country  ten  years  as 
well  as  in  it.  Let  God  be  glorified  ;  it  is  out  of  your  power 
to  hang  or  exile  His  truth."3 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk. 
-  Melville's  Diary,  pp.  46,  47,  Ban.  Ed. 
3  Melville's  Diary,  pp.  52,  53. 
Z 


354  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

On  the  1 2th  of  March  1578,  the  Earl  of  Morton,  finding 
that  his  regency  had  become  unpopular,  and  that  it  was  no 
longer  safe  to  hold  it,  resigned  it ;  and  the  king,  a  boy  twelve 
years  of  age,  nominally  assumed  the  government.  For  a  little 
while,  Morton  had  no  influence  at  court ;  but  in  less  than  a 
year  he  was  again  in  power,  not  as  regent,  but  as  the  adviser 
of  the  boy-king.  His  influence  is  apparent  in  a  letter  which 
James  directed  to  the  Assembly  in  July  1579,  counselling  them 
to  make  no  innovations  in  the  government  of  the  Church  dur- 
ing his  minority ;  but  the  Assembly  paid  no  attention  to  the 
advice,  and  proceeded  in  their  course.1  In  1580  the  triumph 
of  Presbytery  was  almost  complete :  Episcopacy  had  been  con- 
demned; the  bishops  had  bowed  their  heads  before  the 
victorious  presbyters ;  but  they  had  bowed  them  only  as  the 
bulrush  bows  its  head  under  the  wave,  to  lift  it  up  again  when 
it  has  rolled  past. 

This  ecclesiastical  revolution,  accomplished  by  the  Church 
courts  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  the  government,  is,  in  a 
great  measure,  to  be  attributed  to  the  energy  and  ability  of 
Andrew  Melville.  He  was  more  learned  than  his  brethren, 
and  had  the  power  which  knowledge  gives.  It  is  probable 
there  were  not  ten  ministers  in  the  Assembly  at  this  period  who 
could  read  the  New  Testament  in  the  original  tongue ; 2  but 
Melville  was  well  versed  both  in  Hebrew  and  Grecian  liter- 
ature, and  could  prove  that,  in  apostolic  times,  the  bishop  and 
presbyter  was  one  and  the  same.  He  received  material  aid, 
however,  from  Theodore  Beza.  The  Earl  of  Glammis  had 
written  to  this  theological  dictator,  requesting  his  opinion  upon 
some  of  the  points  which  were  then  so  fiercely  controverted  in 

1  Calderwood's  History,  1579. 

2  "J  wald  haiff  glaidlie  bein  at  the  Greik  and  Hebrew  toungs,  becauss 
I  red  in  our  byble  that  it  was  translated  out  of  Hebrew  and  Greik  ;  but 
the  langages  were  nocht  to  be  gottine  in  the  land.  Our  Regent  begoud 
and  teatched  us  the  A,B,C  of  the  Greik,  and  the  simple  declinationes,  but 
went  no  farther.  Be  that  occasion  he  tauld  me  of  my  uncle,  Mr  Andro 
Melville,  whom  he  knew  in  the  tyme  of  his  course  in  the  New  Collage,  to 
use  the  Greik  logicks  of  Aristotle,  the  quhilk  was  a  wonder  to  them  that 
he  was  sa  fyne  a  schollar,  and  of  sic  expectation."  "Within  the  Univer- 
sity of  St  Andros,  all  that  was  teatched  of  Aristotle  he  lerned  and  studeit 
out  of  the  Greik  text,  quhilk  his  maisters  understood  nocht."  (Melville's 
Diary,  pp.  24,  31.)  In  March  1575,  the  Assembly  resolved,  for  the  first 
time,  that  Latin  was  a  necessary  qualification  for  the  ministry.  (Book  of 
Universal  Kirk.)  Row,  in  his  notice  of  Patrick  Simpson,  at  the  end  of 
his  History,  remarks,  that  in  those  days  it  was  a  proverb,  "Grcxcum  est, 
non  legitur."     (History,  &c,  Coronis,  p.  422.) 


A.D.  1580.]  EPISCOPACY  OVERTURNED.  355 

Scotland.  Beza,  in  answer,  published  his  book  "  De  Triplici 
Episcopatu  " — the  divine,  human,  and  Satanic.  In  this  treatise 
he  argues  that,  unless  human  Episcopacy  be  pulled  up  clean  by 
the  roots,  it  will  sprout,  and  bring  forth  again,  as  it  had  done 
before,  a  Satanic  Episcopacy.1  The  book  was  brought  over 
to  this  country,  translated  into  English,  and  had  some  influence 
upon  the  contest. 

The  Church,  in  1580,  reverted  to  the  policy  of  1560.  It 
went  farther.  Knox  held  Episcopacy  to  be  lawful,  but  not 
convenient, — an  allowable  form  of  government,  but  not  the 
purest  or  the  best.  Melville  held  Episcopacy  to  be  unlawful 
— opposed  to  Scripture — allowable  in  no  circumstances.  Even 
the  superintendents  began  to  be  regarded  with  suspicion ;  and 
preparation  was  made  for  the  abolition  of  the  order,  and  the 
establishment  of  a  perfect  parity  among  all  the  ministers  of  the 
Church.  The  course  which  the  Church  had  pursued  was  a 
self-denying  one.  Almost  every  act  of  Assembly  was  a  self- 
denying  ordinance.  They  were  offered  bishoprics,  and  they 
refused  them  \  titles  of  honour,  and  they  refused  them  ;  seats 
in  the  parliament  as  the  highest  Estate,  and  seats  on  the 
bench  as  the  supreme  tribunal,  and  they  refused  them.  They 
would  be  nothing  but  ministers,  with  little  honour  and  less  pay. 

For  several  years  a  committee  of  the  Church  had  been 
employed  in  framing  a  new  policy.  Many  meetings  were  held, 
much  labour  was  bestowed,  and  an  ecclesiastical  system 
elaborated,  now  known  as  the  "Second  Book  of  Discipline." 
Conferences  had  also  been  held  with  the  Privy  Council,  with 
the  regent,  and  with  the  king,  to  get  the  consent  of  the  State 
to  the  proposed  government  of  the  Church  \  but  that  consent 
had  hitherto  been  withheld.  In  a  conference  at  Stirling,  be- 
tween a  committee  of  the  parliament  and  the  Commissioners 
of  the  Church,  the  treatise  was  gone  over  article  by  article  ; 
some  were  marked  as  agreed  to,  others  as  referred  to  farther 
reasoning,  others  as  passed  over;  and  more  than  this  the 
Assembly  could  not  obtain.2  But  now,  when  the  Episcopal 
polity  was  destroyed,  it  was  necessary  that  another  should  be 
substituted  in  its  place ;  and  therefore  the  Assembly  which 
met  in  April  1581  resolved  that  "  the  Book  of  Policy  agreed 
upon  in  diverse  Assemblies  before  should  be  registered  in  the 
acts  of  the  Kirk,  and  remain  therein,  ad  perpetuam  rci  memo- 

1  Calderwood's  History. 

2  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vi. 


356  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  xtt. 

ridtfty  and  that  a  copy  thereof  should  be  taken  by  every  pres- 
bytery/' 1 

It  is  necessary  to  give  a  sketch  of  this  celebrated  treatise. 
In  the  first  chapter  the  Church  is  denned,  and  the  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  jurisdictions  discriminated.  The  Church,  it  is 
said,  may  mean  all  who  profess  the  gospel ;  or,  all  who  are 
truly  godly  ;  or,  those  who  exercise  spiritual  functions.  The 
ecclesiastical  and  civil  power  both  flow  from  God,  but  cannot 
in  general  be  exercised  by  the  same  person.  "  The  magis- 
trate ought  neither  to  preach,  minister  the  .sacraments,  nor 
execute  the  censures  of  the  Church,  nor  yet  prescribe  any  rule 
how  it  should  be  done,  but  command  the  minister  to  observe 
the  rule  prescribed  in  the  Word,  and  punish  transgressors  by 
civil  means ;  the  minister,  again,  exercises  not  the  civil  juris- 
diction, but  teaches  the  magistrate  how  it  should  be  exercised 
according  to  the  Word."  The  second  chapter  is  occupied 
with  the  office-bearers  of  the  Church.  Ecclesiastical  functions 
are  divided  into  ordinary  and  extraordinary.  "  There  are  four 
ordinary  offices  or  functions  in  the  Church  of  God — the  pastor, 
minister,  or  bishop ;  the  doctor ;  the  presbyter  or  elder ;  and 
the  deacon.  These,  we  are  told,  ought  to  remain  perpetually 
in  the  Church,  as  necessary  to  its  government.  The  third 
chapter  prescribes  the  manner  in  which  persons  were  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  ecclesiastical  functions.  Calling,  it  is  said,  consists 
of  two  parts,  election  and  ordination.  "  Election  is  the  choos- 
ing out  of  one  man  or  person  to  the  office  that  is  void,  by  the 
judgment  of  the  eldership  and  consent  of  the  congregation. " 
"  Ordination  is  the  separation  and  sanctifying  of  the  person 
appointed  by  God  and  His  Church,  after  that  he  is  well  tried 
and  found  qualified."  "  The  ceremonies  of  ordination  are 
fasting,  prayer,  and  imposition  of  hands  of  the  eldership."  In 
the  fourth  chapter,  the  office  and  duty  of  the  pastor  are 
defined.  Pastor,  minister,  bishop,  are  declared  to  be  but 
different  names  for  the  same  office.  To  the  pastor  it  belongs 
to  preach  the  Word,  administer  the  sacraments,  solemnize 
marriage,  and  pronounce  the  denunciations  and  blessings  of 
the  Church.  The  fifth  chapter  relates  to  doctors  and  schools. 
"  The  office  of  the  doctor  is  to  open  up  the  mind  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  in  the  Scriptures  simply,  without  such  application  as 
the  minister  uses."  "  Under  the  name  and  office  of  doctor  is 
also  comprehended  the  order  in  schools,  colleges,  and  uni- 
versities."    If  the  doctor  be  an  elder,  he  is  to  assist  in  the 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  April  1581. 


A.D.  1581. J  SECOND  BOOK  OF  DISCIPLINE.  357 

government  of  the  Church  ;  but  he  is  not  to  preach  or  ad- 
minister the  sacraments.  The  sixth  chapter  is  of  elders  and 
their  office.  Elder  in  Scripture  sometimes  signifies  all  who 
hold  office  in  the  Church ;  but  here  we  are  told  it  is  used  in 
a  more  restricted  signification,  to  denominate  those  who  are 
to  assist  the  pastors  in  the  government  of  the  flock.  "  As  the 
pastors  and  doctors  should  be  diligent  in  teaching  and  sowing 
the  seed  of  the  Word,  so  the  elders  should  be  careful  in 
seeking  the  fruits  of  the  same  among  the  people."  "  Their 
principal  office  is  to  hold  assemblies  with  the  pastors  and 
doctors,  who  are  also  of  their  number,  for  establishing  good 
order  and  execution  of  discipline." 

The  seventh  chapter  is  an  important  one,  and  refers  to  the 
assemblies  of  the  Church.  "  Assemblies  are  "  said  to  be  "  of 
four  sorts,  for  either  they  are  of  a  particular  congregation,  or 
of  a  province,  or  of  a  whole  nation,  or  of  all  and  divers 
Christian  nations."  "  The  first  sort  and  kind  of  assemblies, 
although  they  be  within  particular  congregations,  yet  they 
exercise  the  power,  authority,  and  jurisdiction  of  the  Church 
with  mutual  consent."  "When  we  speak  of  elderships  of  par- 
ticular congregations,  we  mean  not  that  every  particular 
church  can  and  may  have  their  particular  elderships,  especially 
to  landward  ;  but  wre  think  three  or  four,  more  or  fewer,  par- 
ticular churches  may  have  a  common  eldership  to  them  all,  to 
judge  their  ecclesiastical  causes."  "  Provincial  assemblies  we 
call  lawful  conventions  of  the  pastors,  doctors,  and  other 
elders  of  any  province,  gathered  for  the  common  affairs  of  the 
churches  thereof."  "The  national  Assembly,  which  we  call 
General,  is  a  lawful  convention  of  the  whole  Church  of  the 
realm  or  nation  where  it  is  gathered,  and  may  be  called  the 
General  Eldership  of  the  whole  Church  within  the  realm.  " 
"  There  is  besides  these  another  more  General  Assembly, 
which  is  of  all  nations,  and  of  all  estates  of  persons  within  the 
Church,  representing  the  universal  Church  of  Christ,  which 
may  be  properly  called  the  General  Assembly,  or  General 
Council  of  the  whole  Church  of  God." 

In  the  eighth  chapter  the  office  of  the  deacons  is  discussed. 
To  them  belongs  the  collection  and  distribution  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical property;  and  in  this  they  must  be  subject  to  the 
presbytery,  though  they  are  not  members  of  it.  The  ninth 
chapter  treats  of  the  patrimony  of  the  Church.  To  appro- 
priate any  portion  of  this  is  declared  to  be  detestable  sacrilege  ; 
— it  ought  to  be  lifted  by  the  deacons,  and  applied  to  ecclesi- 


35 8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XII. 

astical  uses.  The  tenth  chapter  points  out  the  duty  of  the 
magistrate  in  relation  to  the  Church.  He  is  to  defend  it, 
provide  for  it,  see  its  sentences  carried  into  execution,  but  not 
to  invade  its  inherent  jurisdiction.  In  the  eleventh  chapter 
there  is  a  list  of  abuses,  which  the  Church  desired  to  have 
reformed.  Amongst  these  are  abbacies,  cathedral  chapters, 
bishoprics,  pluralities,  the  employment  of  ecclesiastical  per- 
sons in  civil  affairs,  the  dilapidation  of  the  Church's  property, 
&c.  &c.  In  the  twelfth  chapter  certain  things  are  noted 
which  the  Church  desired  to  see  done.  It  desired  to  see  small 
parishes  united,  large  parishes  disjoined,  one  or  more  elders 
appointed  in  every  congregation,  congregational,  provincial, 
and  national  assemblies  held,  patronage  abolished  in  every 
case  where  there  was  a  cure  of  souls,  and  the  patrimony  of 
the  Church  applied  to  four  general  purposes  : — "  One  part  to 
be  assigned  to  the  pastor,  for  his  entertainment  and  keeping 
hospitality ;  another  to  the  elders,  deacons,  and  other  officers 
of  the  Church,  as  clerks  of  assemblies,  takers  up  of  Psalms, 
beadles,  and  keepers  of  the  Church  so  far  as  they  are  neces- 
sary, joining  therewith  the  doctors  of  schools,  for  help  of  the 
old  foundations,  where  need  requires ;  the  third  portion  to  be 
bestowed  upon  the  poor  members  of  Christ ;  and  the  fourth 
upon  the  reparation  of  Churches,  and  other  extraordinary 
charges  that  are  profitable  to  the  Church  and  commonwealth." 
The  concluding  chapter  points  out  the  good  that  would  result 
from  the  adoption  of  such  a  discipline : — The  realm  would 
become  a  pattern  of  good  order ;  the  streets  would  be  cleansed 
of  beggars  ;  churches,  bridges,  and  other  public  works  would 
be  set  agoing  ;  God  would  be  glorified  ;  the  Church  edified  ; 
Christ  and  His  kingdom  advanced ;  Satan  and  his  kingdom 
subverted ;  and  God  would  dwell  in  the  midst  of  them. 

Such  are  the  most  prominent  features  of  the  "  Second  Book 
of  Discipline."  The  First  Book  exhibited  a  system  of  polity 
sagaciously  suited  to  the  circumstances  of  the  country  and  the 
Church  :  it  seemed  to  grow  out  of  the  times.  The  Second 
aims  at  elaborating  a  system  from  the  New  Testament,  without 
reference  to  circumstances.  The  one  looked  to  practice  ;  the 
other  looked  to  the  establishment  of  general  principles.  They 
differ  in  several  respects.  The  "  First  Book  of  Discipline " 
had  abolished  the  imposition  of  hands  in  ordination ;  the 
Second  restored  it.  The  "  First  Book  of  Discipline  "  gave  its 
sanction  to  superintendents  and  readers  ;  the  Second  removed 
the  superintendent,  as  he  savoured  of  the  diocesan  bishop,  and 


A.I).  1581.]  ECCLESIASTICAL  ASSEMBLIES.  359 

the  reader,  as  his  office  had  no  warrant  in  the  Word  of  God, 
however  much  it  might  be  required  by  the  times.  In  the 
"  First  Book  of  Discipline  n  there  is  no  mention  whatever  of 
the  courts  of  the  Church,  though  we  can  trace  in  some  of  its 
arrangements  the  beginnings  of  them  all ;  in  the  Second  there 
is  an  elaborate  chapter  upon  assemblies,  but,  singular  enough, 
the  presbytery,  now  reckoned  the  fundamental  court  of  a  Pres- 
byterian Church,  is  not  marked  out  as  a  court  separate  and 
distinct  from  the  kirk-session.  Four  ecclesiastical  assemblies 
are  named — the  congregational,  the  provincial,  the  national, 
and  oecumenical.  Striking  out  the  oecumenical,  we  have  only 
a  threefold  gradation,  instead  of  a  fourfold  as  at  present.  The 
first  of  these,  the  eldership,  or  congregational  assembly,  ap- 
proximates much  more  closely  to  a  modern  kirk-session  than 
a  modern  presbytery.  In  towns,  the  pastor  and  elders  of  one 
congregation  were  to  form  the  eldership ;  but  in  landward 
parishes,  three  or  four  congregations  were  to  join  their  pastors 
and  elders  together  to  constitute  one  assembly.  Strange !  that 
the  very  reverse  should  now  be  the  case — that  in  landward 
parishes  every  congregation  should  have  its  own  kirk-session, 
and  that  in  some  towns  all  the  congregations  should  send  their 
office-bearers  to  form  one  general  session.  Yet  we  know  that 
at  this  very  time  presbyteries  were  springing  into  existence. 
In  1579  the  Assembly  was  petitioned  to  erect  such  courts; 
and  its  answer  was,  that  the  weekly  exercise  might  be  re- 
garded as  a  presbytery  l — a  meeting  appointed  by  the  "  First 
Hook  of  Discipline  "  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  the  ministers 
and  people  of  a  district  together  to  read  and  interpret  the 
Scriptures.  But,  what  is  much  more  remarkable,  in  the  very 
Assembly  in  which  the  "  Second  Book  of  Discipline "  was 
ordered  to  be  engrossed  in  the  minutes,  a  regular  platform  of 
presbyteries  was  arranged — presbyteries  embracing  not  two  or 
three  congregations,  but  twenty  or  thirty,  the  very  prototypes 
of  the  presbyteries  which  now  exist.2 

Time  has  made  havoc  upon  the  policy  established  by  the 
"  Second  Book  of  Discipline,"  as  upon  everything  human. 
The  doctor  and  the  deacon  have  all  but  disappeared  from  the 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  1579. 

3  Ibid.,  1 58 1.  In  1582,  the  presbytery  was  considered  a  novelty,  as 
the  following  extract  from  the  Historie  of  King  James  the  Sext  will  show  : 
—  "It  pleasit  the  members  of  court  to  give  eare  to  certayne  informations 
maid  aganis  a  new  erectit  society  of  ministers,  callit  a  presbiterie,  sa  that 
thair  moderators  weir  summonit  to  compeir  before  the  king  and  counsall, 
to  produce  the  bukis  of  thair  proceidings,  to  be  sene  and  considerit." 
Anno  1582,  p.  187. 


6 


6o  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 


office-bearers  of  the  Church  ;  the  minister  and  the  elder  alone 
remain.  The  kirk-session  has  been  discriminated  from  the 
presbytery;  and  by  kirk-sessions,  presbyteries,  synods,  and 
general  assemblies,  the  government  of  the  Church  is  now 
carried  on.  But  the  "  Second  Book  of  Discipline  "  possesses 
much  that  is  enduring,  and  to  this  day  remains  the  foundation- 
stone  of  our  ecclesiastical  constitution ;  while  the  "  First  Book  " 
resembles  a  collection  of  parchments  deposited  beneath  it,  by 
which  future  generations  may  read  the  story  of  the  times  in 
which  the  building  was  begun,  and  the  noble  designs  of  its 
first  founders. 

It  is  plain  that  the  superintendents  were  fast  falling  into  dis- 
repute. The  name  began  to  be  disliked,  and  "  visitor "  was 
substituted  in  its  place.  But  even  the  visitor  was  now 
destined  to  yield  up  his  power  to  the  presbytery.  In  the 
Assembly  of  October  1580,  it  was  considered  "  to  sound  to 
tyrannie  that  sic  kind  of  office  sould  stand  in  the  person  of 
ane  man,  quhilk  sould  flow  from  the  presbyteries,"1  and 
therefore  a  committee  was  appointed  to  draw  up  a  platform  of 
presbyteries  and  constitutions  for  them.  In  the  very  next 
Assembly  the  Laird  of  Caprington  appeared  and  presented  a 
commission  from  the  king  to  concur  with  the  Assembly  in  the 
planting  of  churches  and  presbyteries,  and  a  document  con- 
taining a  number  of  suggestions  as  to  the  course  to  be  pur- 
sued. In  this  document  it  is  stated  that,  leaving  out  the 
Diocese  of  Argyll  and  the  Isles,  from  which  no  returns  had 
yet  been  obtained,  there  were  in  all  nine  hundred  and  twenty- 
four  parishes  in  Scotland.  Of  these  it  was  said  many  were 
mere  pendicles,  many  very  small  parishes,  and  of  many  more 
the  churches  were  demolished,  and  therefore  it  was  proposed 
to  reduce  the  number  to  six  hundred,  and  to  divide  these 
among  fifty  presbyteries,  with  about  twenty  churches  attached 
to  each.2  In  its  eighth  session,  the  Assembly  had  before  it 
the  report  of  its  committee  on  the  subject,  and  resolved  "  that 
a  beginning  should  be  had  of  presbyteries  instantly  in  the 
places  after  named,  to  be  exemplars  to  the  rest  that  may  be 
established  afterwards,"  viz.,  Edinburgh,  Dundee,  St  Andrews, 
Perth,  Stirling,  Glasgow,  Ayr,  Irving,  Haddington,  Linlithgow, 
Dunbar,  Chirnside,  and  Dunfermline.3     The  thing  was  done, 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  October  1580. 

2  "  Thir  six  hundred  kirks  to  be  divyded  in  fyftie  Presbyteries,  twenty 
to  every  presbytrie,  or  thereabout."  (Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p. 
212.)  So  stands  the  king's  scheme,  but  I  cannot  understand  the  royal 
arithmetic,  as  50  x  20  =  1000.  Row  says  twelve  to  each,  which  makes  all 
right.  :i  Ibid.,   1 581. 


A.D.  1579-81.]  the  king's  favourites.  361 

and  Scotland  now  for  the  first  time  saw  the  full  machinery  of 
its  Presbyterian  polity  in  motion. 

We  must  now  leave  for  a  little  the  divines  of  the  Assembly, 
and  mingle  with  the  statesmen  and  gallants  of  the  court.  In 
the  year  1579,  Esme  Stewart,  a  cousin  of  the  young  king,  and 
generally  called  Mons.  D'Aubigne,  arrived  from  France  on  a 
visit  to  his  royal  relative.  He  was  a  young  man  of  graceful 
exterior  and  many  showy  accomplishments,  and  he  was  not 
long  at  court  till  he  became  a  prodigious  favourite  of  the 
king's.  Wherever  James  was,  D'Aubigne  was  sure  to  be.  They 
rode  together,  hunted  together,  hawked  together  ;  and  when 
the  court  was  removed  to  Holyrood,  the  apartments  assigned 
to  D'Aubigne  were  next  to  those  occupied  by  the  king.  It 
was  the  first  noted  instance  of  a  favouritism  to  which  James 
was  all  his  life  long  in  bondage.  Under  the  smiles  of  the 
monarch  D'Aubigne  grew  rapidly  into  greatness  ;  he  was  first 
made  Earl,  and  subsequently  Duke  of  Lennox  ;  he  was  raised 
to  the  office  of  Lord  High  Chamberlain  ;  the  rich  Abbacy  of 
Arbroath  was  given  him  ;  and  the  greatest  nobles  courted  his 
favour.  About  the  same  time,  Captain  James  Stewart,  a 
younger  son  of  Lord  Ochiltree's,  also  began  to  acquire  in- 
fluence at  court.  He  was  well  educated,  and  had  seen  a  good 
deal  of  the  world ;  but  in  his  travels  he  had  lost  any  little 
principle  he  ever  had,  and  was  now  known  to  be  profligate  in 
his  manners  and  reckless  of  results,  if  but  his  own  interests 
were  advanced.  He  was  created  Earl  of  Arran,  under  which 
name  we  shall  hear  more  of  him  anon.  From  the  pedagogic 
birch  of  Buchanan,  and  the  stern  admonitions  of  Morton,  the 
king,  now  a  lad  of  fourteen,  passed  into  the  hands  of  these  gay 
companions  and  counsellors. 

The  ministers  of  the  Church  beheld  all  this  with  alarm. 
D'Aubigne  was  a  Papist.  It  was  whispered  that  he  had  come 
to  this  country  as  a  secret  emissary  of  the  Pope.  It  was 
known  that  before  leaving  France  he  had  had  consultations 
with  the  Bishops  of  Glasgow  and  Ross  ;  and  it  was  told  how 
the  Duke  of  Guise  had  accompanied  him  to  Dieppe,  and 
remained  on  board  ship  with  him  some  hours  before  he 
set  sail.  There  were  other  rumours  afloat  of  Jesuit  priests 
having  stolen  into  the  country  ;  of  plots  to  bring  back  a 
Popish  queen ;  of  endeavours  to  break  the  alliance  with  Eng- 
land, and  revert  to  the  ancient  alliance  with  France  \  and  as 
the  danger  was  unseen,  every  one  magnified  it  according  to 
his  fears.     D'Aubigne   partly,   and    only   partly,   allayed    the 


3^2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

alarm,  by  declaring  his  conversion  to  Protestantism.  The 
young  king,  already  vain  of  his  theological  acquirements,  had 
plied  him  with  arguments  ;  he  had  called  in  some  Presby- 
terian clergymen  to  his  help,  and  the  favourite  could  not 
withstand  the  logic  of  the  monarch  and  his  ministers.  He 
publicly  renounced  and  abjured  the  Romish  faith  in  the 
Church  of  St  Gile's  at  Edinburgh,  in  the  Royal  Chapel  at 
Stirling,  and  last  of  all,  in  a  letter  to  the  General  Assembly.1 
Still  the  popular  mind  was  ill  at  ease  in  regard  to  Popery. 
To  still  suspicion,  rather  than  to  test  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
country,  the  king  caused  Craig  to  draw  up  a  confession  of 
faith,  or  covenant  condemnatory  of  all  the  most  obnoxious 
tenets  of  the  Romish  religion.  When  drawn,  it  was  signed 
by  the  king  and  his  household,  and  afterwards,  in  consequence 
of  an  order  of  the  Privy  Council  and  an  act  of  the  Assembly, 
by  persons  of  all  ranks  throughout  the  kingdom.  In  opposi- 
tion to  the  Confession  of  1560,  it  was  called  the  Negative 
Confession,  as  it  related  rather  to  doctrines  which  were  not 
believed,  than  to  those  which  were.2 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  ex-regent  Morton  would 
look  on  with  indifference  while  the  upstart  Lennox  enjoyed 
all  the  favour  of  the  king,  and  wielded  all  the  power  of  the 
country.  He  had  lost  the  good  opinions  of  the  clergy  and 
the  people  by  his  greed,  his  Simony,  and  his  tulchan  Episco- 
pacy ;  but  he  caballed  with  Elizabeth,  and  Elizabeth  was  glad 
to  have  the  aid  of  so  powerful  and  crafty  a  man,  for  she 
began  to  dread  the  re-ascendancy  of  French  influence  in 
Scotland.3  There  was  a  bitter  jealousy  between  the  rivals, 
continual  rumours  of  plots  and  counter-plots,  and  it  was 
evident  that  Scotland  could  not  hold  them  both.  Lennox 
struck  the  first  blow,  and  secured  the  victory.  One  day, 
while  the  Council  was  sitting,  Captain  Stewart  begged  per- 
mission to  enter,  and  going  down  upon  his  knee  before  the 
king,  he  accused  Morton  of  being  privy  to  the  murder  of  his 
father.  Morton  was  sitting  at  the  council-board  when  the 
charge  was  made,  bat  he  was  at  once  placed  under  arrest,  and 
it  is  highly  probable  that  the  whole  procedure  had  been  pre- 
viously arranged  with  the  king.     Five  months  elapsed  before 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  196,  197. 

2  This  Confession,  forming  the  first  part  of  The  National  Covenant  or 
Confession  of  Faith,  is  generally  bound  up  in  the  same  volume  with  the 
Westminster  Confession. 

3  Tytler's  History,  vol.  viii. 


A.D.  1581.]  EXECUTION  OF  MORTON.  363 

he  was  brought  to  trial,  and  then  the  proof  would  have  failed, 
had  he  not  himself  confessed  that  he  had  previous  knowledge 
of  the  intended  assassination,  though  he  took  no  part  in  its 
execution. 

On  this  confession  he  was  condemned  to  die.  He  had 
reached  to  power  by  the  commission  of  great  crimes,  and 
had  kept  it  by  the  exercise  of  great  severity.  He  had  never 
hesitated  to  send  his  enemies  to  the  scaffold  \ 1  but  now, 
when  his  own  turn  came,  he  showed  that  he  could  go  thither 
too,  and  die,  if  not  with  the  serenity  of  a  martyr,  at  least  with 
the  firmness  of  a  man.  On  the  evening  of  Friday,  the  2d  of 
June  1 581,  some  men  might  be  seen  digging  a  grave  in  the 
Tolbooth  burying  ground,  and  depositing  in  it  a  headless 
trunk.  It  was  the  great  Earl  of  Morton,  who  had  so  long 
kept  the  country  in  terror,  and  had  that  day  perished  under 
the  knife  of  the  maiden,  who  was  thus  so  meanly  interred.2 
His  ghastly  head  was  exposed  on  the  gable  of  the  church. 

The  death  of  Morton  left  Lennox  supreme.  But  it  was 
felt  more  than  ever  that  his  power  was  dangerous  to  the 
State — dangerous  to  the  Church.  Events  were  already  ripen- 
ing for  a  conflict.  James  appears  to  have  early  contracted  a 
partiality  for  the  Episcopal  polity.  He  was  still  a  boy ;  but 
he  was  a  marvellously  precocious  boy,  and  perhaps  nearly  as 
wise  now  as  at  any  future  period  of  his  life,  for  he  was  only  a 
clever  school-boy  to  the  last.  What  was  the  origin  of  his 
Episcopal  tendencies  it  is  difficult  to  discover.  Notwith- 
standing his  being  reared  amid  revolutionary  nobles,  and 
tutored  by  a  republican  pedagogue,  he  had  contracted  over- 
weening ideas  of  hereditary  and  indefeasible  prerogative. 
Even  a  dull  boy  might  see  that  Presbytery  was  essentially 
democratic.  Perhaps  James  had  actually  seen  that  the  bishops 
were  courtly,  smooth-spoken  gentlemen,  while  the  ministers 
were  rough,  outspoken  men.  Be  this  as  it  may,  notwith- 
standing the  resolutions  of  the  Assembly,  he  determined  to 
maintain  Episcopacy ;  and  of  course  the  favourite  agreed  with 

1  As  instances  of  this,  two  poets  had  lampooned  him  ; — he  hanged 
them  both.  The  following  notice  occurs  in  the  Diurnal  of  Occurrents, 
1572: — "2Ltf  April. — The  same  day  there  was  a  minister  hanged  in 
Leith,  and  borne  to  the  gibbet,  because  he  was  birsit  in  the  boots.  The 
principal  cause  was  that  he  said  to  the  Earl  of  Morton  that  he  defended 
an  unjust  cause,  and  that  he  would  repent  when  there  was  no  time  to 
repent.  And  when  he  was  asked  by  whom  he  was  requested  to  say  the 
same,  he  answered,  '  By  the  Holy  Spirit.'  " 

2  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vi. 


364  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

the  king — if  it  was  not  the  king  who  agreed  with  the  favourite. 
While  things  were  in  this  state,  the  Archbishopric  of  Glasgow 
became  vacant  by  the  death  of  Boyd ;  and  Lennox,  who  held 
in  his  hands  the  patronage  of  the  kingdom,  had  it  at  his 
disposal.  He  offered  it  to  Montgomery,  the  minister  of 
Stirling,  upon  condition  that,  so  soon  as  he  was  admitted, 
he  would  dispone  the  lands,  lordships,  and  everything  belong- 
ing to  the  bishopric  to  him  and  his  heirs,  for  the  yearly  pay- 
ment of  ^£1000  Scots,  with  some  horse-corn  and  poultry. 
Montgomery  accepted  the  offer,  and  the  conflict  with  the 
Church  began.1 

The  matter  was  brought  before  the  Assembly,  which  met 
in  October  1581.  One  would  have  imagined  that  the  bishop- 
elect  would  have  been  charged  with  accepting  an  office  which 
had  been  declared  unlawful  by  the  courts  of  the  Church,  or 
for  entering  into  a  Simoniacal  paction  with  the  patron ;  but 
not  so.  Melville  appeared  as  his  accuser ;  and  though  his 
libel  contained  fifteen  articles,  there  was  not  the  slightest  re- 
ference to  the  real  head  and  front  of  Montgomery's  offending. 
This  was  a  tortuous  policy,  and  such  as  we  would  not  have 
expected  from  so  bold  a  man.  It  was  worse,  for  it  is  a 
perversion  of  justice  to  accuse  a  man  of  one  crime  and  con- 
demn him  for  another.  The  articles  did  not  charge  im- 
morality, and  related  principally  to  sentiments  which  Mont- 
gomery was  said  to  have  uttered  in  the  pulpit,  and  which 
would  not  now  be  considered  as  deserving  of  very  serious 
censure.  Though  proof  was  ordered,  it  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  led,  for  commission  was  given  to  the  Presbytery 
of  Stirling  to  summon  him  before  them,  try  his  whole  life  and 
doctrine,  and  report  to  the  provincial  Synod  of  Lothian.  He 
was  ordered,  in  the  meantime,  to  continue  in  his  ministry  at 
Stirling,  and  not  to  aspire  to  the  Bishopric  of  Glasgow,  under 
pain  of  excommunication.2 

1  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vi.  Calderwood  says  ^"500.  The  value 
of  the  bishopric  was  ^"4080,  13s.  4d.  wSee  the  Appendix  to  Keith's 
History. 

2  itook  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  October  1581.  Calderwood's  History, 
same  date. 

The  charges  in  the  libel  are  curious  ;  for  instance  : — "  I.  That, 
publicly  preaching  in  the  church  of  Stirling,  he  propounded  a  question 
touching  the  circumcision  of  women,  and  in  the  end  concluded  that  they 
were  circumcised  in  the  skin  of  their  foreheads.  2.  In  Glasgow  he 
openly  taught  that  the  discipline  of  the  Kirk  (*>.,  its  polity)  is  a  thing 
indifferent,  and  may  stand  this  way  or  that.  3.  He  accused  the  ministers 
that   they   used   fallacious  arguments  and   captions,   and   that  they  were 


A.D.  1582.]  CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  COLLISION.  365 

Montgomery  ventured  to  defy  the  thunders  of 
a.d.  1582.  the  church>  In  the  month  0f  March  of  the  fol- 
lowing year  he  proceeded  to  Glasgow,  attended  by  an  armed 
escort,  and  entered  the  cathedral.  The  minister  had  already 
occupied  the  pulpit.  The  bishop-elect  pulled  him  by  the 
sleeve,  and  said,  "Come  down,  sirrah!"  but  the  minister 
kept  his  ground.  There  was  like  to  be  a  tumult,  and  Mont- 
gomery was  constrained  to  retire.  The  Presbytery  of  Stirling 
at  once  suspended  him  from  the  office  of  the  ministry  ;  but 
he  disregarded  their  sentence.  The  Privy  Council  now  inter- 
fered, and  summoned  the  Presbyteries  of  Glasgow,  Stirling. 
Dalkeith,  Linlithgow,  and  Edinburgh,  to  appear  and  answer 
for  their  conduct  in  regard  to  Montgomery.  They  declined 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Council.  The  Church  and  the  State 
had  come  into  violent  collision.1  In  April  the  General 
Assembly  met,  and  the  whole  matter  was  brought  before  it. 
More  specific  and  more  serious  charges  were  now  brought 
against  Montgomery,  such  as  lying  in  the  face  of  the  Church 
courts,  and  despising  their  sentences.  The  king,  anxious 
to  save  his  bishop,  had  already  sent  a  message  to  the 
Assembly,  requesting  that  they  would  not  trouble  him  in 
regard  to  his  bishopric  ;  but  the  Assembly  pursued  its  course 
notwithstanding.  James  now  proceeded  farther :  a  mes- 
senger-at-arms  entered  the  House,  and  by  virtue  of  the  King's 
letters,  delivered  by  the  Lords  of  Secret  Council,  inhibited 
the  Assembly  from  citing,  excommunicating,  or  otherwise 
troubling  Montgomery  in  the  matter  of  the  episcopate,  under 
pain  of  rebellion.  The  Assembly  directed  a  letter  to  his 
Majesty,  vindicating  the  course  they  were  pursuing ;  and 
having  done  so,  they  were  about  to  proceed  to  the  final 
sentence  of  ecclesiastical  law,  excommunication — "to  the 
effect  that  Montgomery's  proud  flesh  be  cast  into  the  hands  of 
Satan  ;  if  he  may  be  won  again,  if  it  be  possible,  to  God  " — 
when  he  yielded,  confessed  his  faults,  and  promised  to  give 
up  all  thoughts  of  the  bishopric.  The  Assembly  received  his 
submission,  but  at  the  same  time  instructed  the  Presbytery  of 
Glasgow  to  keep  a  watch  upon  his  conduct.2 

curious  brains.  4.  So  far  as  he  could,  he  travelled  to  bring  the  original 
languages,  Greek  and  Hebrew,  into  contempt,  abusing  thereto  the  words 
of  the  Apostle,  1  Cor.  xiv.,  and  tauntingly  asked  in  what  school  were 
Peter  and  Paul  graduated,"  &c,  &C. 

1  Calderwood's  History,  1582. 

-  P.ook  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  245-48.    Calderwood's  History,  1582. 


$66  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [cHAP.  XII. 

There  was  need  for  the  caution.  Probably  incited  by  the 
king  and  the  court,  Montgomery  began  to  preach  and  to 
revive  his  claims  upon  the  archbishopric.  The  Presbytery  of 
Glasgow  instantly  met ;  but  this  had  been  anticipated,  and 
the  Council  was  equally  prompt.  While  the  ecclesiastical 
court  was  yet  sitting,  the  provost,  bailies,  and  some  citizens 
entered,  prohibited  them  from  proceeding,  and  cited  them 
to  appear  before  the  Privy  Council.  The  presbytery  refused  ; 
the  magistrates  "  put  violent  hands  upon  the  moderator, 
smote  him  in  the  face,  rent  his  beard,  struck  out  one  of  his 
teeth,  and  thereafter  committed  him  to  ward  in  the  Tol- 
booth."1  The  students  interfered  ;  some  fighting  took  place  ; 
a  serious  tumult  was  apprehended  ;  and  by  tuck  of  drum 
and  sound  of  bell,  the  citizens  were  collected  to  defend  their 
bailies.  But  the  presbytery  kept  to  their  point,  and  sentence 
was  pronounced  against  Montgomery,  and  forwarded  to  the 
Presbytery  of  Edinburgh.  On  Saturday,  the  9th  of  June,  the 
Presbytery  of  Edinburgh  met,  and  appointed  John  Davidson, 
minister  of  Libberton,  to  pronounce  the  sentence  of  excom- 
munication against  Montgomery,  which  Davidson  did  on  the 
following  day.2 

The  meeting  of  Assembly  was  hastened.  It  convened  on 
the  27th  of  June.  Melville  preached  the  opening  sermon, 
and  inveighed  against  the  " bludie  gulliez  of  absolute  autho- 
rity, whereby  many  intended  to  pull  the  crown  off  Christ's 
head,  and  to  wring  the  sceptre  out  of  His  hands."  4  The 
Church  resolved  to  lay  its  griefs  at  the  foot  of  the  throne. 
A  committee  was  accordingly  appointed  to  proceed  to  Perth, 
where  the  king  then  was.  They  procured  an  audience,  and 
produced  their  complaints,  which  related  chiefly  to  the  inter- 
ference of  the  Council  with  the  ecclesiastical  courts  in  the 
exercise  of  their  jurisdiction.  "  Who  dare  subscribe  these 
treasonable  articles  ?  "  said  the  Earl  of  Arran,  and  the  Earl 
of  Arran  was  not  a  man  to  be  trifled  with.  "  We  dare,"  said 
Andrew  Melville,  "  and  will  subscribe,  and  render  our  lives 
in  the  cause."  Stepping  forward  to  the  table,  he  took  the 
pen  from  the  clerk,  and  wrote  his  name ;  the  rest  followed.5 
The  king  and  his  counsellors  might  have  learned  from  this 
what  was  the  temper  of  the  men   they  had  to  deal  with. 

1  Calderwood's  History,  1582. 

2  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  256-58.     Calderwood's  History. 

3  Bloody  knife.  4  Calderwood's  History. 
6  Melville's  Diary.     Calderwood's  History. 


A.D.  15S2.J  WE  DARE  !  367 

Lennox  and  Arran  were  so  confounded  that  they  thought 
they  had  some  armed  force  at  their  back.  The  truth  is  they 
had  the  whole  nation  at  their  back.  They  were  dismissed 
with  a  peaceful  reply,  but  still  it  was  not  one  with  which  the 
Assembly  was  satisfied. 

The  din  of  the  contest  extended  beyond  the  courts  of  the 
Church.  The  pulpits  rang  with  it.  The  excitement  of 
the  period  was  increased  by  continual  rumours  of  French 
intrigues,  of  Popish  plots,  and  of  seminary  priests  and 
Jesuits  having  been  smuggled  into  the  country.  James  com- 
plained to  the  Assembly  that  Balcanquhal  one  of  the 
ministers  of  Edinburgh,  had,  in  a  sermon,  accused  his  cousin 
the  Duke  of  Lennox  of  labouring  to  restore  Popery.1  The 
Assembly  asked  the  king  to  condescend  upon  a  proof  of  his 
statement ;  and,  as  he  declined  to  do  so,  it  absolved  Bal- 
canquhal. Durie,  another  of  the  Edinburgh  ministers,  was 
still  more  outspoken.  He  declared  from  the  pulpit  that 
James  had  been  moved  by  his  courtiers  to  send  a  private 
message  to  the  King  of  France  and  the  Duke  of  Guise,  to  ask 
his  mother's  blessing,  and  was  scheming  to  place  her  beside 
him  on  the  throne.  At  the  nick  of  time  a  certain  Signor  Paul 
came  from  the  Duke  of  Guise  to  present  some  horses  to  his 
Majesty.  It  was  instantly  suspected  that  he  had  other  busi- 
ness on  hand,  and  the  story  went  that  this  very  man  had 
been  one  of  the  butchers  of  St  Bartholomew's  day.  The 
zealous  Durie  took  to  horse  and  rode  to  Kinneil,  where  the 
king  was.  Meeting  Paul  in  the  garden,  he  drew  his  hat  over 
his  eyes,  saying,  he  could  not  look  upon  the  devil's  ambas- 
sador. Getting  admission  to  the  monarch,  "  Is  it  with  the 
Guise,"  cried  he,  "  that  your  Grace  will  exchange  presents, — 
with  that  cruel  murderer  of  the  saints  ?  "  Returning  to  Edin- 
burgh, he  made  the  High  Church  to  resound  with  his  fiery 
eloquence.  He  denounced  Montgomery  as  an  apostate  and 
man-sworn  traitor  to  God  and  his  Church.  Passing  on  to 
the  Guisean  embassage,  he  exclaimed,  "  If  God  did  threaten 
the  captivity  and  spoil  of  Jerusalem  because  that  their  king 
Hezekiah  did  receive  a  letter  and  present  from  the  king  of 
Babylon,  shall  we  think  to  be  free,  committing  the  like,  or 
rather  worse  ?" 2     His  sermon  excited  considerable  stir,  and 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  1582. 

2  Tytler's  History,  vol.  viii.  Calderwood's  History.  Tytler,  in  his 
Appendix,  gives  a  sketch  of  this  sermon  from  the  pen  of  one  of  the 
auditors. 


$68  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

he  was  cited  before  the  Council  to  answer  for  it.  When  he 
arrived  at  Dalkeith  Palace,  where  the  king  was  residing  with 
Lennox,  his  Grace's  cooks,  zealous  to  avenge  their  master  upon 
his  reviler,  issued  from  the  kitchen  with  spits  and  knives,  and  had 
nearly  elevated  Durie  to  the  honour  of  a  second  St  Lawrence.1 
He  escaped  this  culinary  martyrdom  ;  but  he  was  ordered  to 
leave  the  city,  and  the  provost  and  magistrates  were  instructed 
to  see  the  sentence  carried  into  execution. 

Durie  asked  the  advice  of  the  Assembly  as  to  what  he 
should  do.  The  magistrates  asked  the  advice  of  the 
Assembly  too,  for  they  were  members  of  Durie's  congrega- 
tion, and  were  divided  between  their  allegiance  to  the  kirk 
and  their  allegiance  to  the  king.  The  Assembly  pronounced 
Durie's  doctrine  sound,  and  his  life  honest,  and  advised  him 
not  to  quit  the  city  unless  he  were  forced,  but  if  he  were 
forced,  to  go  peaceably.2  The  magistrates  were  reluctantly 
compelled  to  insist  upon  his  leaving.  That  same  night, 
about  nine  o'clock,  he  was  seen  taking  his  way  along  the 
High  Street,  accompanied  by  two  notaries  and  a  few  of  his 
brethren.  When  they  came  to  the  cross,  one  of  the  notaries 
read  a  document,  in  which  the  exiled  minister  protested  the 
purity  of  his  life  and  doctrine,  and  that,  though  he  obeyed  the 
sentence  of  banishment,  he  would  not  desist  from  preaching 
the  Word.  According  to  legal  form,  he  then  placed  a  piece 
of  money  in  the  hands  of  the  notaries,  and  took  instruments. 
"  I,  too,"  cried  Davidson,  who  was  with  him,  "  must  take 
instruments,  and  this  I  protest  is  the  most  sorrowful  sight 
that  eyes  ever  rested  upon — a  shepherd  removed  by  his  own 
flock  to  pleasure  flesh  and  blood,  and  because  he  has  spoken 
the  truth.  But  plague  and  fearful  judgments  will  yet  light  on 
the  inventors."  3 

The  Church  was  nothing  daunted  by  the  exile  of  Durie. 
If  the  king  wielded  the  sword,  it  wielded  the  keys — still  the 

1  James  Melville's  Diary. 

2  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  252,  253.     Calderwood's  History. 

3  Tytler's  History,  vol.  viii.  Calderwood's  History.  Anciently,  in 
Scotland,  taking  instruments  in  the  hands  of  a  notary  was  very  common. 
A  curious  instance  of  this  is  given  in  Mill's  I  Iistory  of  the  Bishops  of  Dun- 
keld.  One  of  these  old  prelates  lying  on  his  death-bed,  having  professed 
his  faith,  and  received  the  sacraments  of  the  Church,  afraid  lest  in  deli- 
rium or  extreme  weakness  he  might  say  things  contradictory  of  his 
Christian  profession,  called  in  a  notary  and  took  instruments,  that  what- 
ever he  might  say  after  that  was  not  to  be  esteemed  of  any  weight  or 
authority. 


A.D. 


1582.]  EXCOMMUNICATION.  369 


more  formidable  weapon  of  the  two.  The  provost  and  bailies 
of  Glasgow  had  assaulted  a  presbytery,  and  done  violence  to  its 
moderator  ;  they  were  summoned  before  the  Assembly,  threat- 
ened with  excommunication,  and  glad  to  save  themselves  by 
making  an  abject  submission.  The  Lord  Advocate,  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duty,  had  penned  some  proclamations,  which 
were  esteemed  slanderous  to  the  Church.  He  was  cited  to 
appear  at  its  bar,  and  he  hardly  escaped  by  humbly  protesting 
that  he  had  only  translated  into  Scotch  what  had  already  been 
written  by  Lennox  in  French.1  Montgomery  had  already 
been  excommunicated,  but  Lennox  had  harboured  him,  and  it 
was  against  the  ecclesiastical  code  to  harbour  an  excommuni- 
cated man.  The  uncompromising  presbyters  threatened  "  to 
take  order "  with  the  duke,  the  Lord  High  Chamberlain  of 
the  kingdom,  the  cousin  of  the  king;  for  their  lightnings 
could  strike  the  tops  of  the  highest  hills.  James  Montgomerie, 
probably  a  relative  of  the  excommunicated  bishop,  had  spoken 
to  him,  and  to  speak  to  an  excommunicated  man  was  a  high 
misdemeanour.  He  wTas  ordered  to  make  public  repentance 
in  the  parish  church  of  Glasgow.2  The  excommunicated  man 
himself  ventured  to  appear  in  the  streets  of  Edinburgh,  and 
this  also  was  a  crime.  Lawson  applied  to  the  magistrates, 
and  he  was  compelled  to  sneak  away.  The  Council  tried  to 
save  him,  by  making  proclamation  that  he  should  be  received 
as  a  true  Christian  and  faithful  subject;  but  the  Church  was 
stronger  than  the  Council.  He  returned  to  the  town,  and 
presented  himself  at  the  Tolbooth,  but  he  was  refused  admit- 
tance within  the  bar,  and  told  that  no  excommunicated  man 
could  appear  as  a  pursuer.  The  magistrates  and  officers  were 
immediately  upon  his  track,  and  again  insisted  upon  his  leav- 
ing the  town.  While  this  was  going  on  within,  a  crowd  had 
collected  in  the  street,  and  were  impatiently  waiting  for  him  to 
come  out — some  with  sticks,  some  with  stones,  some  with 
rotten  eggs.  To  have  surrendered  him  to  the  people  might 
have  cost  him  his  life,  and  so  he  was  quietly  smuggled  away 
by  the  Kirk  Heugh ;  but  the  mob  got  the  scent,  and  were 
soon  in  full  cry  after  him,  and  he  did  not  escape  from  the  city 
by  the  Potterrow  gate  without  receiving  some  smart  slaps  upon 
the  back.  The  king  was  at  Perth  wrhen  this  scene  took  place, 
and  when  he  heard  of  it  he  could  only  throw  himself  down 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  June  and  October  15S2. 
a  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  October  1582. 

VOL.    I.  2  A 


37°  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

upon  the  Inch,  and  give  way  to  roars  of  laughter.1  His  sense 
of  the  ludicrous  got  the  better  of  his  sense  of  justice. 

On  the  23d  of  August  1582,  the  king  suddenly  found  him- 
self a  prisoner  at  Huntingtower,  a  castle  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Perth,  belonging  to  the  Earl  of  Gowrie.  Scotland  for 
centuries  had  been  fated  to  have  children  to  rule  over  it,  and 
its  nobles  had  learned  that  the  faction  who  possessed  the  royal 
child  were  generally  able  to  exercise  the  royal  power.  The 
Earls  of  Gowrie,  Mar,  Glammis,  and  some  others,  had  beheld 
with  impatience  the  upstarts  Lennox  and  Arran  sharing 
between  them  the  smiles  of  the  monarch  and  the  government 
of  the  country,  and  encouraged  by  Elizabeth,  that  old 
fomenter  of  sedition,  and  probably  alarmed  for  the  Protestant 
faith,  they  had  signed  a  bond  which  pledged  them  to  drive 
Lennox  from  the  court.  As  chance  would  have  it,  the  king 
came  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Perth  to  hunt,  just  when  the 
conspiracy  was  nearly  ripe.  The  opportunity  was  not  to  be 
lost ;  he  was  decoyed  to  the  castle  of  the  Ruthvens  ;  and 
when  he  wished  to  depart,  Glammis  placed  himself  against 
the  door,  and  informed  him  he  was  their  captive.  The  Earl 
of  Arran  was  shortly  afterwards  seized  and  confined  in  Duplin; 
the  king  was  removed  to  Stirling ;  and  Lennox  got  warning 
that  he  would  do  well  to  leave  the  country  without  delay. 

The  ministers  regarded  the  Raid  of  Ruthven  as  the  deliver- 
ance of  the  Church  from  an  evil  bondage,  and  many  of  them 
proclaimed  their  satisfaction  from  the  pulpit.  Others  of  them 
entered  into  treaty  with  the  Confederated  Lords.  The  exiled 
Durie  was  brought  back  to  Edinburgh  amidst  the  shouts  of 
the  citizens  and  the  singing  of  psalms,  and  Lennox,  who 
beheld  the  triumphal  procession  from  a  window,  is  said  to 
have  torn  his  beard  with  rage,  and  immediately  to  have  fled  to 
Dumbarton,  from  which  he  afterwards  escaped  to  France.2 
The  Confederates  knew  that  their  cause  would  gain  strength 
if  it  received  the  sanction  of  the  Church  ;  and  therefore,  when 
the  Assembly  met  in  October,  Lord  Paisley  appeared  as  their 
commissioner,  declared  that  their  reasons  for  undertaking  the 
enterprise  were  the  dangers  which  threatened  the  Church,  the 
king,  and  the  commonwealth,  and  beseeched  them  to  show 
their  "good  liking  to  it,"  and  to  appoint  each  minister  in  his 
own  pulpit  to  explain  the  nature  of  it  to  his  people,  and  ex- 

1  Tytler's  History,  vol.  viii.     Calderwood's  History,  1582. 

2  Melville's  Diary.     Calderwood,  1582.     Burton,  ch.  lviii.     The  Psalm 
sung  was  the  well  known  124th. 


a.  D.   1582.]  GEORGE  BUCHANAN.  37 1 

hort  them  to  give  it  their  concurrence.  The  Assembly  at 
once  resolved  that  the  dangers  alluded  to  existed ;  but  before 
proceeding  farther,  they  sent  a  deputation  to  wait  upon  the 
king  and  learn  his  mind  upon  the  matter.  The  king  was  a 
captive,  and  required  to  speak  as  his  jailors  dictated  \  he  con- 
fessed the  Church  and  commonwealth  were  in  danger.  When 
the  deputation  returned,  the  whole  Assembly  with  one  voice 
declared  their  approbation  of  the  Raid,  and  ordained  an  act 
to  be  made  accordingly.1 

On  the  28th  September  1582,  while  the  excitement  of  the 
Ruthven  enterprise  was  still  fresh,  George  Buchanan,  the  most 
illustrious  of  living  Scotchmen,  breathed  his  last.  Born  in  the 
parish  of  Killearn  in  1506,  he  became  early  conspicuous  for 
his  talents,  and  his  uncle,  James  Heriot,  sent  him  to  Paris  to 
complete  his  education.  But  James  Heriot  died,  and  the 
Scotch  scholar  was  left  in  poverty.  He  came  back  to  Scot- 
land ;  he  struggled  with  bad  health ;  he  went  into  the  army ; 
he  returned  to  his  scholastic  studies  ;  and  the  summer  of 
1526  found  him  a  second  time  in  France.  After  several 
years  he  was  once  more  in  his  native  country,  and  acted  for 
a  time  as  tutor  to  James  Stewart,  afterwards  the  celebrated 
regent,  and  was  probably  the  first  to  imbue  his  mind  with  a 
love  for  Lutheranism.  Buchanan's  religious  opinions  at  this 
time  were  necessarily  secret,  but  James  V.  knew  he  had  no 
love  for  the  monks,  and  employed  him  to  write  a  satire  upon 
the  Franciscans  \  and  the  poem  was  felt  to  be  so  cutting,  that 
the  poet  was  glad  to  escape  with  his  life.  Probably  the  king 
felt  that  he  could  not  openly  protect  him.  He  sought  an 
asylum  in  France,  a  country  which  he  loved,  and  which 
appears  to  have  always  paid  a  willing  homage  to  his  genius. 
He  taught  in  Bordeaux  for  a  time ;  he  afterwards  taught  in 
Portugal ;  but  suspicions  arose  in  regard  to  his  orthodoxy, 
and  he  was  accused  of  heresy  and  imprisoned  in  a  monastery. 
Christendom  will  pardon  the  Portuguese  monks  their  perse- 
cution, when  it  is  known  that  it  was  to  relieve  the  solitude  of 
his  monastic  prison  that  Buchanan  translated  the  Psalter  into 
Latin  verse,  in  which  the  piety  of  the  Hebrew  bards  is  em- 
balmed in  the  aromatic  diction  of  the  Augustan  age.  Set  at 
liberty,  he  remained  for  a  time  in  Portugal,  and  received  some 
Mattering  attentions  from  the  king.  After  this  we  find  him  in 
England,  in  France,  in  Italy,  illustrating  the  mediaeval  descrip- 
tion of  our  countrymen — Scoti  vagantes.  About  1560  he 
returned  to  Scotland  to  leave  it  no  more. 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  October  1582. 


372  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIL 

Two  years  afterwards,  Queen  Mary  came,  having  already 
buried  in  France  her  hopes  and  her  happiness.  Buchanan 
was  employed  to  assist  her  in  her  classical  studies  ;  for  ladies 
of  fashion  in  those  days,  having  no  Shakespeare,  Scott,  or 
Macaulay  to  read,  read  the  epics  of  Homer,  the  odes  of 
Horace,  and  the  grand  historic  fictions  of  Livy.  Buchanan 
showed  his  admiration  for  his  royal  mistress  by  dedicating  to 
her  the  first  complete  edition  of  his  "  Psalms : "  Mary  showed 
her  appreciation  of  her  scholarly  tutor  by  making  him  Com- 
mendator  of  Crossraguel.  But  Buchanan  was  a  Protestant  in 
religion,  and  a  republican  in  politics;  and  these  principles 
naturally  leagued  him  with  the  opponents  of  Mary's  govern- 
ment. The  Earl  of  Moray  presented  him  to  the  Principality 
of  St  Leonard's  College.  The  General  Assembly  received 
lustre  from  his  constant  attendance,  and  honoured  itself  as 
much  as  it  honoured  him  by  elevating  him,  though  a  layman, 
to  the  Moderator's  chair.  When  Mary  was  driven  from  her 
throne,  to  Buchanan  was  entrusted  the  education  of  the  infant 
king — a  trust  which  he  discharged  faithfully  and  well.  He 
made  James  a  scholar;  he  could  not  make  him  more.  He 
raised  a  wondrous  crop  of  learning  upon  a  thin,  though  sharp, 
soil.  To  his  royal  pupil  he  dedicated  his  famous  treatise, 
"  De  jure  Regni  apud  Scotos  " — a  treatise  in  which  he  brought 
back  from  heaven  the  old  altar-flame  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  quenched  upon  earth  since  the  days  of  republican 
Greece  and  consular  Rome. 

His  last  great  work  was  the  history  of  his  country.  A  keen 
partisan  in  an  age  torn  with  contending  factions,  it  was  not  to 
be  expected  that  he  should  speak  of  his  contemporaries  with 
impartiality  ;  but  still  his  history  will  ever  stand  a  noble  monu- 
ment of  his  industry  and  scholarship.  He  only  lived  long 
enough  to  complete  it.  A  short  time  before  his  death,  Andrew 
and  James  Melville  went  to  Edinburgh  to  visit  him.  They 
found  him  in  his  bedroom,  sitting  in  his  chair,  and  "  teaching 
his  young  man  that  servit  him  in  his  chalmer  to  spell  a-b,  ab  ; 
e-b,  eb."  "  I  see,  sir,"  said  Andrew  Melville,  "you  are  not 
idle.';  "  Better  this,"  replied  the  veteran  scholar,  "  than  steal- 
ing sheep,  or  sitting  idle,  which  is  as  bad  ;" — a  lesson  which 
his  Celtic  brethren  on  the  banks  of  Lochlomond  required  two 
centuries  longer  to  learn.  Buchanan  dismissed  his  pupil,  and 
showed  Melville  his  "  Epistle  Dedicatory  to  the  King." 
Melville  ventured  some  criticisms.  "  I  can  do  no  more," 
replied  the  feeble  old  man,  "  for  thinking  of  another  matter." 


A.D.   1583.]  FRENCH  EMBASSAGE.  373 

"  What  is  that  ?  "  said  Melville.  "  To  die  !  "  said  Buchanan.1 
The  change  for  which  he  was  preparing  came,  and  he  died  so 
poor  that  he  was  buried  at  the  public  expense.  His  grave 
was  made  in  the  Greyfriars  Church-yard,  and  a  plain  stone 
placed  at  the  head  of  it  \  but  no  one  can  now  point  out  the 
spot. 

While  the  king  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Gowrie  conspirators, 
an  embassage  arrived  from  France,  at  the  head  of  which  were 
De  Menainville  and  De  la  Motte  Fenelon.  The  ministers 
withstood  their  being  received  at  court ;  but  the  king,  after 
debating  the  matter  with  a  deputation  of  them,  determined 
otherwise.  The  ambassadors  demanded  the  use  of  the  mass, 
which  was  allowed  them  ;  and  this  also  excited  popular  dis- 
content. Fenelon  was  a  knight  of  the  order  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  wore  a  white  cross  embroidered  on  his  shoulder.  This 
was  denominated  a  badge  of  Antichrist ;  and  the  ambassador 
of  the  Catholic  King  was  followed  wherever  he  went  by  the 
hootings  of  the  Edinburgh  mob.2  When  he  was  about  to 
leave  the  country,  James  requested  the  magistrates  of  the 
metropolis  to  entertain  him  at  a  civic  banquet ;  the  ministers, 
scandalized  that  such  an  honour  should  be  paid  to  such  a  man, 
proclaimed  a  fast  upon  the  same  day.  While  the  bailies  were 
pledging  the  envoys  in  their  cups,  the  preachers  were  thun- 
dering anathemas  at  their  head  in  the  Church  of  St  Gile's.  On 
the  same  day  the  city  presented  the  twofold  aspect  of  a  house 
of  mourning  and  a  house  of  feasting.3  Upon  the  whole,  the 
preachers  and  people  wrere  right,  for  the  thrill  of  horror  which 
darted  through  Europe  with  the  intelligence  of  St  Bartholo- 
mew's massacre  was  not  yet  forgotten,  nor  was  it  right  that  it 
should. 

On  the  25th  of  June  1583,  James  managed  to  escape  from 
his  keepers,  and  threw  himself  into  the  Castle  of  St  Andrews. 
The  power  of  the  Confederate  Lords  was  at  an  end.  The 
king  published  a  proclamation,  declaring  the  Raid  of  Ruthven 
to  be  treason,  but  at  the  same  time  holding  out  the  promise  of 
a  pardon  to  all  who  should  acknowledge  their  crime.  The 
barons  made  their  submission,  and  were  forgiven  ;  but  the 
Church  could  not  thus  easily  cancel  its  own  solemn  deeds. 

1  James  Melville's  Diary.  Buchanan's  life  has  been  written  with  much 
judgment  and  taste  by  Dr  Irving. 

2  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vi  Ilistorie  of  King  James  VI.,  Ban. 
Club  Ed. 

3  Ilistorie  of  King  James  Sext.     Spottiswood.     Calderwood,  &c. 


374  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

The  clergy,  in  fact,  did  not  feel  themselves  called  upon  to  do 
so  )  for  they  still  thought  that  the  evils  of  the  government  had 
required  such  a  remedy,  and  several  of  them  did  not  hesitate 
to  say  so  in  the  pulpit.  With  Arran  in  power,  such  speeches 
could  scarcely  pass  with  impunity.  Durie  was  cited  before 
the  Council,  but  retracted,  and  was  dismissed.  Andrew  Mel- 
ville was  cited  for  using  still  stronger  language,  holding  out  to 
the  king  the  fearful  examples  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  Belshazzar, 
and  James  III.,  and  he  would  not  retract.1  He  acknowledged 
what  he  said,  but  declined  the  judgment  of  the  Council,  on 
the  ground  that  what  was  spoken  in  the  pulpit  ought  first  to 
be  tried  by  the  Presbytery,  and  that  neither  the  king  nor 
Council  might,  in  the  first  instance  meddle  with  it,  though  the 
speeches  were  treasonable.  Few  men  will  now  defend  the 
declinature  of  Melville  :  modern  sense  and  modern  legislation 
have  decided  against  it.  But  every  accused  man  should  be 
allowed  the  liberty  of  urging  every  possible  plea  which  he 
chooses  ;  and  the  absurdity  of  the  plea  should  not  be  held  as 
aggravating  the  crime.  There  is  reason  to  think  that,  in  this 
case,  the  plea  was  held  as  an  aggravation  of  the  offence.  But 
there  is  also  reason  to  suspect  that  Melville  so  far  forgot  him- 
self as  to  be  contemptuous  to  the  court  before  which  he  was 
arraigned.  "  That  you  may  see  your  weakness  and  rashness," 
cried  he  to  the  king  and  his  counsellors  in  the  course  of  the 
trial,  "  in  taking  upon  you  what  you  neither  can  nor  ought  to 
do,  these  are  my  instructions  ;  see  if  any  of  you  can  judge  of 
them,  or  show  that  I  have  passed  my  injunctions  ;"  and  with 
that  he  unclasped  a  Hebrew  Bible  from  his  girdle,  and  clanked 
it  down  upon  the  table.2  The  records  of  the  Privy  Council 
bear  that  he  declared  "  proudly,  irreverently,  and  contemptu- 
ously, that  the  laws  of  God  and  the  practices  observed  within 
this  country  were  perverted,  and  not  observed,  in  his  case/'  3 
Would  such  language  be  permitted  in  the  present  day? 
Would  such  a  proud  speaker  not  be  imprisoned  for  contempt 
of  court,  though  for  nothing  else  ?  Melville  was  ordered  to 
enter  himself  a  prisoner  in  Blackness  Castle  within  ten  hours  ; 
but  some  of  his  friends  repeated  to  him  the  Angus  proverb, 
"  Loose  and  living ;  " — he  took  the  hint,  and  fled  to  Berwick.4 
Melville  was  followed  in  his  flight  by  several 
A,D'  l*  4'    of  his  brethren,  who  had  reason  to  dread  the 

1  M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville.     Melville's  Diary.     Calderwood's  History. 

2  James  Melville's  Diary. 

l!  M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville.  4  James  Melville's  Diary. 


A.D.    1584.]  THE  BLACK  ACTS.  375 

displeasure  of  the  king.  They  were  not  well  gone  till  Gowrie 
was  brought  to  trial,  for  a  new  conspiracy  in  which  he  was 
supposed  to  have  been  implicated,  and  condemned  to  death. 
He  was  among  the  last  of  the  turbulent  barons  who  had  moved 
amidst  the  political  storms  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century. 
They  had  almost  all  died  by  violence.  Moray  had  perished 
from  the  bullet  of  an  assassin;  Grange  had  been  hanged; 
Lethington  had  taken  poison;  Morton  had  yielded  up  life 
under  the  axe  of  the  maiden ;  and  now  Ruthven  was  destined 
to  share  his  fate. 

James  was  bent  upon  destroying  a  form  of  Church  govern- 
ment which  he  imagined  to  be  inconsistent  with  his  own 
kingly  prerogatives.  The  General  Assembly  rested  upon  too 
popular  a  basis  ;  it  was  too  independent  of  his  absolute 
will  j  it  assumed  a  jurisdiction  which  he  could  not  allow. 
The  ministers  were  too  much  given  to  discuss  political  subjects 
in  the  pulpit — to  speak  evil  of  dignities — to  resist  the  powers 
that  were  ordained  of  God ;  and  therefore  their  liberty  must 
be  restrained.  James  had  servants  only  too  ready  to  assist 
him  in  his  undertaking.  Arran's  power  was  now  greater  than 
ever;  and  he  was  the  known  enemy  of  the  Presbyteries. 
Adamson,  the  titular  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews,  was  constantly 
at  court,  and  laboured  with  all  his  might  to  perfect  the  Epis- 
copal polity  of  the  Church.  On  the  2 2d  of  May  1584,  the 
parliament  assembled.  Much  business  was  on  hand.  Some 
of  the  greatest  nobles  in  the  kingdom  were  declared  guilty  of 
treason,  and  their  estates  forfeited  to  the  Crown.  But  this 
was  the  least  of  it.  A  series  of  acts  were  passed  almost 
entirely  subversive  of  the  rights  hitherto  enjoyed  by  the 
Church.  By  one,  the  ancient  jurisdiction  of  the  Three  Estates 
was  ratified,  and  to  speak  evil  of  any  one  of  them  was 
declared  to  be  treason  ;  thus  were  the  bishops  hedged  about. 
By  another,  the  king  was  declared  to  be  supreme  in  all  causes 
and  over  all  persons,  and  to  decline  his  judgment  was  pro- 
nounced to  be  treason ;  thus  was  the  boldness  of  such  men  as 
Melville  to  be  chastised.  By  a  third,  all  convocations  except 
those  specially  licensed  by  the  king,  were  declared  to  be  un- 
lawful ;  thus  were  the  courts  of  the  Church  to  be  shorn  of  their 
power.  By  a  fourth,  the  chief  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  was 
lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  Episcopal  body ;  for  the  bishops 
must  now  do  what  the  Assemblies  and  presbyteries  had  hitherto 
done.  By  still  another  act,  it  was  provided  "that  none  should 
presume,  privately  or  publicly,  in  sermons,  declamations,  or 


376  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XII. 

familiar  conferences,  to  utter  any  false,  untrue,  or  slanderous 
speeches,  to  the  reproach  of  his  Majesty  or  council,  or  meddle 
with  the  affairs  of  his  Highness  and  Estate,  under  the  pains 
contained  in  the  acts  of  parliament  made  against  the  makers 
and  reporters  of  lies.'5 1 

The  passing  of  these  acts  carried  consternation  among  the 
Presbyterian  clergy.  When  the  first  rumours  of  what  was 
doing  in  the  parliament  reached  the  city,  Lindsay  hastened  to 
the  palace  to  remonstrate,  but  he  was  seized  at  the  gate  and 
sent  off  a  prisoner  to  Blackness.  When  the  acts  were  read  at 
the  market-cross,  Pont,  the  minister  of  St  Cuthbert's,  and  a 
Senator  of  the  College  of  Justice,  publicly  protested  against 
them,  and  took  instruments  with  all  the  forms  of  law.  Having 
done  this,  he  fled  together  with  Balcanquhal  to  Berwick,  which 
was  the  city  of  refuge  to  the  persecuted  Presbyterians.2  The 
whole  of  the  acts  were  bad,  but  the  one  which  lay  at  the  basis 
of  the  rest  was  the  one  which  asserted  that  the  king  was 
supreme  in  all  causes,  and  over  all  persons — a  proposition 
which  the  Church  of  Scotland  has  ever  contended  against  with 
weapons  both  carnal  and  spiritual.  That  he  is  supreme  over 
all  persons  is  allowed;  that  he  is  supreme  in  all  causes  is 
denied.  It  is  maintained,  that  in  matters  purely  spiritual,  the 
ecclesiastical  courts  possess  an  independent  jurisdiction,  and 
from  them  there  is  no  appeal.  The  maintenance  of  this 
principle  forms  a  large  part  of  the  Church's  history,  and  has 
been  the  source  of  much  of  the  Church's  sufferings.  The  pre- 
sent generation  has  witnessed  the  fierce  debates  and  bitter 
heart-burnings  which  this  question  has  generated,  and  has 
beheld  with  grief  the  unfortunate  result  in  a  great  national 
Church  rent  in  twain. 

If  King  James  had  jurisdiction  in  all  causes  as  well  as  over 
all  persons,  he  was  entitled  to  set  up  bishops  and  bid  all  men 
bow  down  before  them ;  he  was  entitled  to  interdict  Assem- 
blies and  presbyteries  from  meeting  without  his  express  per- 
mission; he  was  entitled  to  stop  the  mouths  of  outspoken 
ministers.  But  the  ministers  maintained  he  had  no  such 
jurisdiction ;  that  there  is  a  spiritual  kingdom  in  which  poten- 
tates lose  their  power,  where  Caesar  yields  to  God.  By 
preaching  such  doctrines  as  this,  they  in  fact  taught  the  people 

1  Acts  of  the  Scotch  Parliament,  James  VI.,  May  1584.  Spottiswood's 
History.  The  same  parliament  condemned  Buchanan's  History  and  his 
Treatise  De  jure  Regni  apud  Scotos. 

2  Calderwood's  History,  1584.     Row's  History,  &c. 


a.d.   1584.]  UNPOPULARITY  OF  THE  BISHOPS.  377 

that  there  was  a  limit  to  royal  prerogatives  ;  that  meetings 
might  be  held  and  matters  discussed  with  which  monarchs 
might  not  meddle  \  and  thus  they  paved  the  way  for  the  prin- 
ciples of  civil  as  well  as  religious  liberty.  The  acts  of  1584 
were  unquestionably  tyrannical,  subversive  of  an  existing  order 
of  things,  carried  in  the  face  of  the  country  and  the  Church. 
The  parliament  registered  the  resolves  of  the  king ;  for  though 
Scottish  barons  were  turbulent,  Scottish  parliaments  were 
docile,  and  seldom  thwarted  the  reigning  power.  But  the 
people  sympathised  with  the  ministers  ;  the  acts  became  known 
as  the  black  acts  \  and  the  struggle  between  the  court  and  the 
Church,  which  lasted  with  some  intermissions  for  more  than  a 
century,  was  begun.  James's  jealousy  of  prerogative — the 
bane  of  his  family — was  the  origin  of  the  evil,  but  unfortu- 
nately he  found  some  apology /or  his  legislation  in  the  defence 
of  Melville,  the  political  tracts  of  some  of  the  preachers,  and 
the  acts  of  the  Assembly  approving  of  the  Raid  of  Ruthven.1 

Popular  irritation  was  greatly  increased  by  the  passing  of 
these  acts,  and  the  bishops  could  hardly  appear  in  the  streets 
without  being  mobbed.  They  were  looked  upon  as  the 
troublers  of  Zion  ;  as  diseased  excrescences  on  the  body  of 
the  Church,  which  must  be  removed  before  perfect  healthful- 
ness  could  be  restored.  After  the  flight  of  the  Melvilles, 
Adamson  attempted  to  teach  at  St  Andrews,  but  the  students 
regarded  him  with  the  strongest  aversion.  Parading  round 
his  Episcopal  palace,  they  bade  him  remember  how  fatal  that 
See  had  been  to  his  predecessors.2  He  was  glad  to  leave  St 
Andrews  and  go  to  Edinburgh,  where  his  services  were 
required,  as  the  pulpits  were  silent  and  the  ministers  in  exile ; 
but  even  there  the  Privy  Council  were  obliged  to  interfere  to 
preserve  him  from  insult.3  Montgomery,  the  Archbishop  of 
Glasgow,  was  perhaps  still  more  odious  to  the  people.  When 
residing  in  Ayr,  he  was  mobbed  by  a  crowd  of  women  and 
boys,  who  heaped  upon  him  the  vilest  abuse,  calling  him 
atheist,  dog,  schismatic,  excommunicate  beast,  unworthy  to 
live.4 

But  James  having  got  his  general  principles  of  Church 
government  established  by  act  of  parliament,  resolved  to 
make  the  ministers  bow  their  necks  to  them.     It  was  not 

1  These  things  were  pointedly  referred  to  in  the  preambles  of  the  acts, 
and  specially  quoted  by  the  king  afterwards  in  his  defence  of  them. 

2  Tytler's  History,  vol.  ix.     M'Crie's  Melville. 

3  M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville,  vol.  i.  4  Tytler's  History,  vol.  ix. 


37$  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XII. 

enough  they  should  be  written  in  the  statute-book ;  the 
ministers  must  put  their  hand  to  them.  In  August  the 
Estates  again  assembled,  and  an  act  was  made  that  all 
ministers,  readers,  and  masters  of  colleges  should  appear 
within  forty  days,  and  subscribe  the  acts  concerning  the  king's 
jurisdiction  over  all  estates,  temporal  and  spiritual,  and 
promise  to  submit  themselves  to  the  bishops,  their  ordinaries, 
under  pain  of  being  deprived  of  their  stipends.1  About 
the  same  time  Archbishop  Adamson  was  invested  by  the  king 
with  plenary  powers  to  exercise  his  archiepiscopal  jurisdiction 
in  accordance  with  the  recent  legislation.2 

John  Craig  and  some  others  were  known  to  have  denounced 
the  laws.  They  were  summoned  before  the  Council  to  answer 
for  their  conduct,  and  asked  how  they  dared  to  find  fault  with 
acts  of  parliament.  "  We  will  find  fault,"  said  Craig,  "with 
anything  repugnant  to  God's  Word."  Upon  this  Arran  started 
to  his  feet,  and  fiercely  said,  that  the  ministers  were  too  pert, 
and  that  he  would  shave  their  heads,  pair  their  nails,  cut  their 
toes,  and  make  them  an  example  to  all  that  rebelled  against 
the  king  and  his  Council.  James,  however,  was  less  fierce 
and  more  politic  than  his  counsellor ;  and,  after  some  negoti- 
ation, he  prevailed  upon  Craig  and  other  influential  ministers 
to  sign  a  deed  of  submission,  adding  the  clause,  "  agreeably  to 
the  Word  of  God/'  to  satisfy  their  consciences.3 

But  neither  the  fierceness  of  Arran  nor  the  kingcraft  of 
James  could  repress  altogether  the  utterance  of  thought  and 
feeling.  Some  of  the  ministers  had  prayed  for  their  exiled 
brethren  ;  this  was  construed  into  treason.  Others  had  re- 
ceived letters  from  them  ;  this  also  was  held  to  be  a  crime. 
The  fugitives  directed  a  letter  to  their  congregation,  explain- 
ing and  bemoaning  the  causes  of  their  exile.  The  magistrates 
and  citizens  of  Edinburgh,  under  royal  influences,  and  pro- 
bably assisted  by  an  archiepiscopal  pen,  answered  the  letter, 
and  taunted  the  ministers  with  abandoning  their  flocks,  as 
sheep  without  a  shepherd.  The  pen-and-ink  battle  was  fairly 
begun.  Pamphlets  and  "scurril  poems"  appeared  on  both 
sides.  Adamson  wrote  a  defence  of  the  acts.  James  Mel- 
ville, from  his  retreat  in  England,  wrote  a  dissuasive  from 
subscribing  them.     The  wives  of  Durie,  Lawson,  and  Balcan- 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  iv. 

2  See  Melville's  Diary,  1584,  where  a  copy  of  the  document  will  be 
found.     See  also  Calderwood,  vol.  iv.  p.  144. 

3  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  iv.  pp.  198,  199. 


A.D.   1585.]  SUBMISSION  OF  THE  MINISTERS.  379 

quhal  were  women  of  spirit,  and  ventured  to  address  a  letter 
to  the  primate,  rebutting  the  charges  he  had  brought  against 
their  husbands,  and  using  towards  his  Grace  woman's  natural 
liberty  of  speech.  The  magistrates  got  orders  to  dislodge 
them  from  their  houses,  and  accordingly  the  poor  ladies  were 
obliged  to  sell  their  furniture  and  deliver  up  the  keys.  Other 
ladies  of  Edinburgh,  who  were  known  to  have  used  their 
tongues  too  freely  against  the  obnoxious  acts,  were  banished 
north  of  the  Tay.1 

By  this  severity  the  spirit  of  the  ministers  was  broken,  and 
many  of  them  began  to  give  in  their  submission.  John  Craig, 
the  old  colleague  of  Knox,  not  only  submitted,  he  went 
further,  and,  in  conjunction  with  Duncanson,  the  king's  chap- 
lain, he  wrote  a  letter  urging  his  brethren  to  do  as  he  had 
done ;  and  not  long  after,  in  the  pulpit,  he  branded  the 
refugees  with  the  name  of  the  "peregrine  ministers/'2 

The  triumph  of  the  king  was  nearly  complete.  He  might 
now  have  driven  to  his  capital  with  the  Church  bound  to  his 
chariot-wheels.  We  have  a  letter  written  at  this  period  by 
David  Hume,  one  of  the  exiles,  to  James  Carmichael,  a  recu- 
sant brother  of  the  Church,  giving  some  details  which  must 
have  carried  sorrow  and  despair  to  the  hearts  of  the  little 
remnant  who  still  refused  to  submit.  It  told  that  "  all  the 
ministers  betwixt  Stirling  and  Berwick,  all  Lothian,  all  the 
Merse,  had  subscribed,  with  only  ten  exceptions,  amongst 
whom  the  most  noted  were — Patrick  Simpson  and  Robert 
Pont ;  that  the  Laird  of  Dun,  the  most  venerable  champion 
of  the  Kirk,  had  so  far  receded  from  his  primitive  faith  as  to 
have  become  a  pest  to  the  ministry  in  the  north  ;  that  John 
Durie,  who  had  so  long  resisted,  had  cracked  his  curple  at  last, 
and  closed  his  mouth;  that  John  Craig,  so  long  the  coadjutor 
of  Knox,  and  John  Brande,  his  colleague,  had  submitted ; 
that  the  pulpits  of  Edinburgh  were  nearly  silent — so  fearful 
had  been  the  defection — except,"  said  he,  "a  very  few  who 
sigh  and  sob  under  the  Cross."  The  truth  is,  the  bulk  of  the 
clergy,  under  the  influence  of  Craig,  and  the  terror  of  losing 
their  stipends,  had  subscribed,  but  in  many  cases  it  was  with 
a  grudge.3 

Several  of  the  most  ancient  Scottish  nobles  were  at  this 
period   living   in    England   as    exiles.      They   had   fled    the 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  iv.,  year  1584.  See  also  Melville's  Diary, 
same  date. 

-  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  iv.  3  Tytler's  History,  vol.  ix. 


38o  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

country  at  different  times,  and  for  various  causes,  but  their 
common  misfortunes  drew  them  together.  They  kept  hover- 
ing about  the  borders,  with  the  exiled  ministers  in  their  train, 
impatiently  waiting  some  event  which  might  enable  them  to 
return.  Toward  the  close  of  1585,  an  opportunity  not  to  be 
lost  occurred.  Lord  Maxwell,  one  of  the  most  powerful  of 
the  border  chiefs,  had  quarrelled  with  Arran  \  they  formed  a 
league  with  him,  marched  northwards,  gathering  their  depend- 
ents as  they  proceeded,  and  were  soon  before  Stirling,  where 
the  king  and  Arran  were.  When  Arran  saw  that  all  was  lost 
he  fled,  and  the  king,  unprovided  for  a  siege,  had  no  alterna- 
tive but  to  open  the  gates  and  receive  the  exiles,  who  upon 
bended  knees  implored  his  forgiveness,  and  were  received  into 
favour. 

The  hopes  of  the  Church  now  rose  high.  The  king  was  in 
the  hands  of  their  friends,  and  they  expected  no  less  than  a 
reversal  of  the  obnoxious  acts  and  a  legal  sanction  to  their 
favourite  policy.  As  the  parliament  was  cited  to  meet  in 
December,  the  clergy  came  flocking  to  Dumfries,  toward  the 
end  of  November,  to  hold  an  Assembly  there,  but  the  gates 
were  shut  against  them,  and  they  had  to  meet  in  the  open 
fields.  They  adjourned  to  Linlithgow;  but  their  meeting  was 
in  vain.  The  king  called  them  loons,  smaiks,  and  seditious 
knaves ;  and  the  lords  told  them  they  must  attend  to  them- 
selves first,  and  that  then  they  would  do  something  for  the 
Church.  Their  chagrin  as  usual  found  vent  in  the  pulpit.  A 
young  man  named  Watson  ventured  in  his  sermon  to  reprove 
the  king  to  his  face.  He  was  sent  to  Blackness.  Gibson,  the 
minister  of  Pencaitland,  preaching  in  his  room,  said  it  had 
been  supposed  that  it  was  Arran  who  was  the  persecutor  of 
the  Church,  but  now  it  was  seen  to  be  the  monarch  himself, 
and  that  if  he  continued  his  wicked  courses  the  curse  de- 
nounced against  Jeroboam  would  fall  upon  him — he  would  be 
rooted  out  and  be  the  last  of  his  race.1  Gibson  followed 
Watson  to  prison.  The  zealous  Balcanquhal  was  once  more 
in  Edinburgh,  and  once  more  in  his  pulpit.  On  a  Sunday  in 
January  1586,  the  king  was  among  his  auditors.  Balcanquhal 
thought  it  a  fitting  opportunity  to  expatiate  upon  the  unlawful- 
ness of  bishops.  The  king  rose  from  his  seat  and  said  he 
would  pledge  his  crown  he  could  prove  there  ought  to  be 
bishops   set  over  the  clergy.     The  preacher    maintained  he 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  iv.  p.  487. 


A.D.   1586.]  CHRISTMAS  EVE.  38 1 

could  prove  the  contrary,  and  after  some  further  altercation, 
he  was  allowed  to  proceed  with  his  discourse.  l 

In  the  meantime  a  scene  of  a  different  kind  was  going  on  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Dumfries.  Lord  Maxwell,  who  had 
been  the  chief  instrument  in  restoring  the  refugee  nobles  and 
ministers,  was  a  Papist ;  and  glorying  in  his  services  and  the 
greatness  of  his  power,  he  fondly  dreamt  that  he  might  openly 
profess  his  faith  with  impunity.  On  Christmas  Eve  1585  he 
assembled  a  number  of  priests  in  the  town  of  Dumfries,  with 
all  the  gentlemen  and  gentlewomen  in  the  district  who  were 
still  attached,  though  in  secret,  to  the  religion  of  Rome. 
During  the  night  a  procession  was  formed,  and  with  carols 
and  lighted  tapers  it  moved  on  to  the  College  Church  of  Lin- 
cluden.  There  mass  was  celebrated,  sermons  were  preached, 
and  the  religious  services  were  concluded  by  two  days  of 
feasting  in  Lord  Maxwell's  house.  For  twenty-five  years  the 
country  had  not  seen  such  a  sight,  and  rumours  of  the  mid- 
night procession,  the  carols,  the  tapers,  the  mass,  flew  every- 
where. The  ministers  were  instantly  on  their  watchtowers 
sounding  an  alarm ;  and  Maxwell,  potent  though  he  was,  paid 
for  his  presumption  by  three  months'  imprisonment  in  Edin- 
burgh Castle.2 

The  Provincial  Synod  of  Fife  had  not  met  for  two  years ; 
but  now  it  assembled  once  more,  and  Andrew  Melville  was 
again  present  to  direct  its  proceedings.  Archbishop  Adamson 
was  its  victim.  He  was  charged  with  being  the  author  of  the 
obnoxious  acts  of  1584,  and  solemnly  excommunicated.  On 
the  next  day,  a  cousin  of  the  archbishop,  attended  by  some  of 
his  servants,  proceeded  to  the  church,  and  excommunicated 
Andrew  and  James  Melville,  and  some  of  their  coadjutors/3 
Thus  in  a  Presbyterian  country  was  the  unholy  spectacle — 
which  Rome  had  more  than  once  witnessed — revived,  of  rival 
popes  anathematizing  one  another. 

Every  day  was  making  it  more  evident  that 
'  ^  '  something  must  be  done  to  place  the  policy 
of  the  Church  upon  a  more  satisfactory  footing.  The  minis- 
ters had  begged  the  king  to  reconsider  the  recent  legislation, 
and  the  king,  by  the  pen  of  Archbishop  Adamson,  had  de- 
fended it.4     A  conference,  moreover,  had  been  held  between 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  iv.     Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vi. 

2  Historie  of  King  James  Sext,  Ban.  Ed. 

3  Calderwood's  History,  1586.     Melville's  Diary. 

4  Calderwood  gives  the  documents  on  both  sides,  vol.  iv.  An  answer 
toAdamson  was  written  by  Melville. 


382  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  xil. 

the  Council  and  some  of  the  leading  ministers,  and  the  terms 
of  a  compromise  agreed  upon,  which  only  required  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  General  Assembly.  On  the  10th  of  May  the 
Assembly  met  in  the  Upper  Tolbooth,  at  Edinburgh.  James, 
by  his  Commissioner,  requested  them  to  delay  proceeding  to 
business  till  the  afternoon,  and  to  meet  with  him  then  in  the 
Chapel  of  Holyrood.  The  royal  request  was  readily  complied 
with,  and  the  Assembly  met  at  the  time  and  place  appointed. 
As  usual,  several  candidates  were  nominated  for  the  modera- 
torship.  The  king  voted  first,  and  his  candidate  was  carried. 
During  eighteen  sessions  this  Assembly  sat ;  but  the  most 
important  business  regarded  the  Episcopal  order.  It  was 
resolved  that  by  bishops  should  be  meant  only  such  bishops 
as  were  described  by  Paul;  that  such  bishops  might  be 
appointed  by  the  General  Assembly  to  visit  certain  bounds 
assigned  to  them,  but  that  in  their  visitation  they  must  be 
subject  to  the  advice  of  the  provincial  synod;  and  that, 
in  receiving  presentations  and  giving  collation  to  benefices, 
they  must  act  according  to  the  direction  of  the  presbytery 
within  which  the  vacant  benefice  lay ;  and,  finally,  that  they 
must  be  answerable  for  their  whole  conduct  to  the  General 
Assemblies.1  Thus,  again,  did  the  Church  give  its  consent  to 
a  modified  form  of  Episcopacy.  But  how  carefully  was  it 
hemmed  round,  and  with  what  evident  pain  was  it  wrung 
from  reluctant  presbyters  ! 

Other  important  business  was  despatched  affecting  the 
Church's  policy.  It  was  agreed  that  henceforward  the  Assem- 
bly should  meet  once  a-year,  and  to  this  the  royal  assent  was 
given.  A  platform  of  presbyteries  was  produced,  and  the 
respective  jurisdictions  of  kirk-sessions,  presbyteries,  and  pro- 
vincial synods  were  carefully  chalked  out.  Archbishop  Adam- 
son  made  some  submissions,  and  was  absolved  from  the 
excommunication  of  the  Synod  of  Fife.  The  excommunica- 
tion of  Melville  was  referred  to  the  Presbytery  of  St  Andrews. 
Thus  peace  was  patched  up  by  James's  kingcraft.  The  king 
took  an  active  part  in  all  the  deliberations  of  the  Assembly, 
sometimes  being  present  himself,  and  sometimes  by  his  Com- 
missioner, and  expressing  either  his  approbation  or  disappro- 
bation of  its  various  acts.2 

Towards  the  end  of  the  year,  it  became  known  in  Scotland 
that  Elizabeth  had  determined  to  bring  Mary  to  the  block. 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  May  1586. 

2  Ibid.      Calderwood. 


A  D.   1587.]  PRAYERS  FOR  THE  QUEEN.  383 

James  was  not  a  man  to  act  with  the  spirit  which  the  emer- 
gency required;  but  he  instantly  despatched  an  embassage 
to  London,  and  requested  the  ministers  in  the  meantime  to 
remember  his  mother  in  their  prayers,  asking  "  that  it  might 
please  God  to  illuminate  her  with  the  light  of  His  truth,  and 
save  her  from  the  apparent  danger  wherein  she  was  cast." 
The  ministers  of  Edinburgh  refused,  pleading  that  to  pray 
for  her  preservation  would  imply  a  belief  in  her  innocence, 
and  a  condemnation  of  the  conduct  of  Elizabeth.  In  these 
circumstances  his  Majesty  appointed  Adamson  to  officiate 
in  the  High  Church,  that  in  his  own  presence  public  prayers 
might  be  offered  up  for  his  mother — a  pious  wish  which  we 
cannot  but  applaud.  On  entering  the  Church,  however,  he 
found  that  Cowper,1  the  ordinary  minister,  had  already  taken 
possession  of  the  pulpit.  James  rose  in  his  seat,  and  addressed 
the  minister.  "  Mr  John,"  said  he,  "that  place  was  destined 
to-day  for  another ;  but  if  you  will  remember  the  charge  that 
has  been  given,  and  remember  my  mother  in  your  prayers 
this  day,  you  may  go  on."  Cowper  answered  that  he  would 
do  just  as  the  Spirit  of  God  directed  him — an  answer  very 
significant  of  the  times.  The  king  commanded  him  to  come 
down.  He  looked  as  if  he  would  resist,  and  the  captain  of 
the  guard  stepped  forward  to  enforce  the  royal  mandate.  He 
descended  the  pulpit-stairs,  muttering  that  that  day  would 
rise  up  in  witness  against  the  king  on  the  great  day  of  the 
Lord. 

A  scene  of  wild  confusion  ensued ;  the  people  groaned  and 
shouted  ;  most  of  them  followed  the  outed  minister  to  the 
door  1  and  the  king  exclaimed,  "  What  devil  ails  the  people, 
that  they  will  not  stay  and  hear  a  man  preach?"2  When 
order  was  restored,  Adamson  went  to  the  pulpit,  and  preached 
on  the  duty  of  praying  for  all  men.  He  was  confessed  on 
all  hands  to  be  an  eloquent  man.  On  this  occasion  he  had 
a  subject  of  thrilling  interest,  for  the  jeopardy  of  the  un- 
fortunate queen  would  give  a  pathos  to  his  arguments ;  and 
Spottiswood  records  the  powerful  impression  he  produced. 
But  neither  embassage  nor  prayers  prevailed.  On  the  8th  of 
February   1587,  Mary  was  executed  at  Fotheringay  :  and,  as 

1  Row  and  Calderwood  say  he  was  the  minister  of  the  church.  Spottis- 
wood says  he  had  not  yet  been  received  into  the  ministry  at  all. 

2  Row's  History,  pp.  115,  116.  Row  says  he  was  present  and  wit- 
nessed the  scene.  Spottiswood  and  Calderwood  likewise  give  a  descrip- 
tion of  it. 


384  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

usually  happens,  her  death  has  thrown  a  halo  of  glory  around 
her  more  than  questionable  name,  and  she  has  become  one 
of  the  heroines  of  history. 

g  In  the  month  of  June  the  General  Assembly 

5  ''  met.  The  king  wished  the  Assembly  to  absolve 
Montgomery,  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  and  to  censure 
Gibson  and  Cowper  for  their  insolence  in  the  pulpit.  The 
Assembly  offered  to  relax  the  sternness  of  their  discipline 
toward  the  archbishop,  if  the  king  would  relax  in  the  severity 
of  his  demands  in  regard  to  the  preachers ;  but  James  would 
not  listen  to  this  species  of  barter  in  ecclesiastical  discipline, 
and  so  the  affair  was  dropped.1  In  the  following  month  the 
Three  Estates  assembled.  At  their  first  sitting,  commissioners 
from  the  Church  appeared,  and  demanded  that  the  prelates 
who  were  present  should  be  removed,  as  they  had  no  authority 
to  sit  as  its  representatives  in  the  meeting  of  the  Estates. 
The  Abbot  of  Kinloss  defended  the  right  of  the  prelates,  and 
bitterly  remarked  that  the  ministers,  having  thrust  them  out 
of  the  Church,  now  wished  to  thrust  them  out  of  the  State 
too.2  They  were  allowed  to  remain,  but  it  was  only  to  see 
themselves  stripped  of  their  ancient  splendour  and  power. 
An  act  was  passed,  annexing  the  temporalities  of  all  benefices 
to  the  Crown.3  According  to  this  act  the  teinds  remained 
sacred,  but  all  the  Church  lands  were  secularized. 

Various  causes  concurred  to  the  passing  of  this  act — a  fatal 
one  to  Episcopacy  in  Scotland.  The  royal  revenues  were 
very  scanty,  and  James  was  persuaded  that  in  this  way  they 
might  be  largely  augmented  without  having  recourse  to 
taxation,  to  which  his  subjects  were  not  yet  sufficiently  tamed 
to  submit.  The  bishops  were  made  to  believe  that  the  tithes 
annexed  to  their  respective  Sees  would  support  them  in 
affluence ;  and  it  is  probable  that  these  amounted  to  more 
than  the  revenues  which  they  actually  enjoyed.  The  ministers 
had  always  resisted  the  secularization  of  ecclesiastical  property; 
but  they  hated  the  bishops  more  than  they  loved  their  lands, 
and  they  let  the  one  go  in  order  that  the  other  might  go  with 
them.  Every  acre  of  the  Church's  patrimony  had  now  passed 
into  other  hands,  and  though  the  teinds  were  still  unsecu- 
larized,  the  Church  henceforward  became  a  pensioner  of  the 
State,  receiving  a  small  dole  out  of  what  was  once  all  her 
own.     The    Crown   was  very  little  enriched    by  the  act  of 

1  Caklerwood's  History,  1587.  -  Ibid. 

'-*  Acts  of  the  Scotch  Parliament,  James  VI. 


A.D.  1588.]  ACT  OF  ANNEXATION .  385 

annexation.  James's  easy  disposition  led  him  to  give  away 
to  others  what  he  could  not  at  once  enjoy  himself.  His 
courtiers  grew  great  upon  the  spoils  of  the  bishops  and 
abbots  ;  and  he  had  nothing  left  to  himself  but  regret  at  his 
double  folly,  in  first  plundering  the  Church  and  then  squan- 
dering the  booty. 

The  year  1588  was  one  of  intense  excitement  to  all  Chris- 
tendom, and  Scotland  felt  the  pulsations  of  the  common 
heart.  The  mighty  armada,  which  was  to  hurl  Elizabeth 
from  her  throne,  had  put  to  sea.  The  Papists  believed  that 
the  time  of  their  restoration  was  come.  The  Popish  nobles 
in  England  and  Scotland  were  plotting  to  join  their  arms  to 
those  of  the  Spaniard.  Jesuit  priests,  already  known  and 
dreaded  all  over  the  world  for  their  craft,  their  disregard  of 
all  principle,  and  their  undying  devotion  to  Rome,  were 
gliding  about  the  country.  The  alarm  was  universal.  James, 
after  a  period  of  hesitation,  acted  with  vigour.  The  Protestant 
lords  assembled  their  vassals ;  the  parliament  passed  stringent 
laws  against  Papal  emissaries ;  a  solemn  bond  of  allegiance 
and  mutual  defence  was  widely  signed;  the  country  was 
preserved  in  quietness  ;  and  soon  the  joyful  tidings  flew  from 
place  to  place  that  the  invincible  fleet  had  been  smitten  by 
the  skill  of  the  English  admirals,  and  afterwards  scattered  by 
a  succession  of  violent  storms.  Still  the  panic  did  not 
altogether  subside ;  for  it  was  known  that  several  of  the  most 
potent  earls  in  the  kingdom  were  ready  for  revolt.  They 
actually  took  arms ;  but  James  placed  himself  at  the  head  of 
his  troops,  and  soon  compelled  them  to  submit. 

The  young  monarch  was  now  bent  upon  matrimony.  He 
had  despatched  ambassadors  to  Denmark  to  affiance  for  him 
the  daughter  of  its  king,  and  he  impatiently  awaited  the 
coming  of  his  bride  ;  but  contrary  winds  prevented  her  setting 
sail,  and  James,  at  last  losing  all  patience,  gallantly  proceeded 
in  quest  of  her,  committing  himself,  Leander  like,  to  the 
waves,  as  Asheby  wrote  to  Queen  Elizabeth.1  He  found  her 
at  Upsal,  and  was  united  to  her  in  wedlock  by  his  own 
chaplain,  David  Lindsay — the  only  Scotch  Presbyterian 
minister  who  ever  united  a  royal  pair."2  After  a  merry  winter 
spent  at  the  Danish   court,  James  brought  home   his  bride, 

1  Calendar  of  State  Papers  (Scotland),  1589. 

2  The  language  used  in  the  marriage  ceremony  was  French.  Adam, 
Bishop  of  Orkney,  married  Mary  and  Pothwell.  He  had  joined  the 
Protestants,  but  can  scarcely  be  called  a  Presbyterian  minister.  He  was 
Commissioner  of  Orkney. 

VOL.   I.  2  R 


3^6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

and  was  now  as  full  of  joyfulness  and  good-nature  as  a  bride- 
groom should  be.  Proceeding  to  church,  he  caused  public 
thanks  be  given  to  God  for  his  safe  and  happy  return.  Wish- 
ing to  lose  no  time  in  having  the  queen  solemnly  crowned,  he 
chose  Robert  Bruce,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh,  to 
perform  the  ceremony  ;  but  some  of  his  brethren  had  well- 
nigh  marred  the  matter,  by  objecting  to  the  anointing  with 
oil,  as  a  Jewish  and  antichristian  custom.  James,  however, 
was  imperative  ;  and  throwing  out  a  hint  that,  if  they  did  not 
choose  to  do  as  he  wished,  the  bishops  would,  he  silenced,  if 
he  did  not  remove,  their  scruples.1  Upon  a  Sunday  in  May 
1590,  the  imposing  ceremony  took  place  in  the  Chapel  of 
Holyroodhouse ;  and  Melville,  assuming  the  laureate,  read 
on  the  occasion  his  noble  poem,  the  "  Stephaniskion." 

During  the  king's  absence  in  Denmark,  the  country  had 
been  remarkably  quiet.  This  was  partly  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
efforts  of  the  clergy  ;  and  James  was  sensible  of  this.  He  had 
made  Robert  Bruce  a  member  of  the  council  appointed  to 
govern  the  kingdom  during  his  absence ;  he  kept  up  a  con- 
stant correspondence  with  him,  called  him  good  Mr  Robert, 
joked  with  him  about  his  new  rib,  and  declared  he  was  worth 
the  quarter  of  his  kingdom.  On  the  Sunday  following  that  of 
the  queen's  coronation,  he  proceeded  to  the  High  Church,  to 
render  public  thanks  for  his  return  to  his  kingdom  in  pos- 
session of  a  wife.  When  the  sermon  was  done,  the  minister 
called  upon  the  king  to  confirm  the  promises  he  had  made  to 
the  Church.  James  stood  up  in  his  seat  in  the  loft,  and  made 
a  harangue.  He  said  he  had  come  to  church  to  thank  God  for 
his  prosperous  return,  the  people  for  the  good  order  they  had 
maintained,  and  the  ministers  for  having  stirred  them  up  to 
fast  and  pray  for  his  safety.  He  promised  to  prove  a  loving, 
faithful,  and  thankful  king;  to  amend  his  former  negligence; 
to  see  justice  done  without  fear  or  favour ;  and  make  better 
provision  for  the  Church.  He  confessed  that  he  had  in  the 
past  done  some  things  which  had  better  been  undone  ;  but 
now  that  he  was  married,  and  had  seen  more  of  the  world,  he 
would  be  more  staid,  and  meant  immediately  to  address  him- 
self to  business.2 

Upon  the  4th  of  August,  the  General  Assembly  convened  in 
Edinburgh,  and  James  Melville,  as  Moderator,  preached  the 
opening  discourse,  in  which  he  declaimed  against  the  sins  of 

1  Calderwood's  Hist.,  vol.  v.      Spottiswood,  lib.  vi. 

2  Calderwood's  Hist.,  vol.  v. 


A.D.  1590.]  THE  KING'S  SPEECH.  387 

the  times.  James  was  present  at  the  eighth  session  of  the 
Assembly  thus  begun.  The  Moderator  propounded  to  him  all 
that  the  Church  desired.  James  made  a  speech,  for  to  make 
a  speech  was  his  delight.  He  promised  much  ;  and  in  the  end, 
we  are  told,  "  he  fell  forth  praising  God  that  he  was  born  in 
such  a  time  as  the  time  of  the  light  of  the  gospel — to  such  a 
place  as  to  be  king  in  such  a  Kirk,  the  sincerest  Kirk  in  the 
world."  "The  Kirk  of  Geneva,"  he  continued,  "  keepeth 
Pasche  and  Yule  :  what  have  they  for  them  ?  they  have  no  in- 
stitution. As  for  our  neighbour  Kirk  in  England,  it  is  an  evil 
said  mass  in  English,  wanting  nothing  but  the  liftings.  I 
charge  you,  my  good  people,  ministers,  doctors,  elders,  nobles, 
gentlemen,  and  barons,  to  stand  to  your  purity,  and  to  exhort 
the  people  to  do  the  same  ;  and  I,  forsooth,  so  long  as  I  brook 
my  life  and  crown,  shall  maintain  the  same  against  all  deadly."  ] 
When  this  royal  oration  was  concluded,  we  are  told  "  the 
Assembly  so  rejoiced  that  there  was  nothing  but  loud  praising 
of  God,  and  praying  for  the  king  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour." 
If  the  Assembly  had  known  the  whole  future,  it  would  have 
mingled  trembling  with  its  mirth.  The  king  was  no  doubt 
sincere  at  the  time,  but  whatever  he  felt,  it  is  certain  his 
proceedings  must  have  been  highly  displeasing  to  the  auto- 
cratic Queen  Elizabeth.  Within  a  month  of  the  Assembly, 
and  as  if  in  anticipation  of  it,  she  wrote  to  James  warning  him 
against  a  new  sect  which  had  arisen  in  both  their  realms,  who 
would  have  no  king  but  a  presbytery,  urging  him  to  stop  the 
mouths  of  those  who  made  orations  about  the  persecuted  Puri 
tans,  and  hoping  that,  however  he  might  bear  such  audacity 
himself,  he  would  not  suffer  her  to  receive  such  indignities  at 
the  hands  of  such  caterpillars.2 

In  159 1  the  troubled  life  of  Archbishop  Adamson  came  to  a 
close.  He  had  been  again  excommunicated  for  marrying,  at 
the  request  of  the  king,  the  Popish  Earl  of  Huntly  to  a  sister 
of  the  Duke  of  Lennox ;  for  the  presbyters  of  those  days  held 
that  a  pestilent  Papist  had  no  right  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of 
wedlock.  He  had,  moreover,  lived  beyond  his  means,  and 
being  unable  to  pay  some  stipends  which  were  payable  out  of 
his  Episcopal  revenues,  he  was  not  only  censured  by  the 
courts  of  the  Church,  but  outlawed  by  his  creditors.  He  is 
said  to  have  been  fond  of  magnificent  living  ;  but  it  is  pro- 
bable his  Episcopal  revenues,  eaten  up  by  his  patron,  were 
never  able  to  support  his  Episcopal  state ;  and   the  king  un- 

1  Calderwood's  Hist.,  vol.  v. 

2  Calendar  of  State  Papers  (wScotland),  6th  July  1590. 


3^8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII. 

generously  made  matters  worse  in  his  old  age,  by  bestowing 
the  bishopric  upon  the  young  Duke  of  Lennox.  Adamson  came 
to  absolute  want,  and  was  glad  to  beg  a  bit  of  bread  from  his 
enemies.  A  recantation  of  his  opinions  in  regard  to  Episco- 
pacy was  paraded  in  the  Assembly ;  but  few  will  now  be  in- 
clined to  put  much  stress  upon  it.  There  is  pathos,  and 
perhaps  truth  too,  in  the  following  story  given  by  Row  : — "  '  I 
gloried  over  much  in  three  things/  said  the  dying  man,  '  and 
God  has  now  justly  punished  me  in  them  all.  I  gloried  in  my 
riches  and  great  living,  and  now  I  am  so  poor  that  I  have  no 
means  to  entertain  myself;  I  gloried  in  my  eloquence,  and 
now  few  can  understand  what  I  say  ;  I  gloried  in  the  favour  of 
my  prince,  and  now  he  loves  any  of  the  dogs  of  his  kennel 
better  than  me.' " 1 

As  the  volatile  James  was  at  present  in  great  good  humour 
with  the  Church,  it  was  resolved  to  take  advantage  of  his 
favourable  disposition.  On  the  21st  of  May  1592,  the  General 
Assembly  was  convened  at  Edinburgh.  Immediately  after  the 
elevation  of  Bruce,  the  king's  favourite,  to  the  Moderator's 
chair,  it  was  resolved  that  suit  should  be  made  to  his  Majesty 
for  the  following  articles  : — 1.  That  the  acts  of  parliament 
made  in  1584  against  the  discipline,  liberty,  and  authority  of 
the  Kirk  should  be  annulled,  and  its  discipline,  as  then 
practised,  sanctioned  by  law.  2.  That  the  act  of  annexation 
should  be  abolished,  and  the  patrimony  of  the  Church  restored. 
3.  That  abbots,  priors,  and  other  prelates  should  be  debarred 
from  sitting  in  parliament  as  the  representatives  of  the  Spiritual 
Estate.     4.  That  the  country  should  be  purged  of  idolatry. 

The  parliament  assembled  on  the  29th  of  May.  The  peti- 
tion of  the  Church  was  taken  into  consideration,  and  an  act 
passed  ratifying  the  liberty  of  the  Church,  giving  a  legal  juris- 
diction to  its  courts,  abrogating  the  acts  of  1584,  in  so  far  as 
they  impinged  upon  ecclesiastical  authority  in  matters  of  reli- 
gion, and  providing  that  presentations  should  henceforward  be 
directed,  not  to  the  bishops,  but  to  the  presbyteries  within 
whose  bounds  the  vacant  benefices  lay.  This  important  act 
was  tantamount  to  the  entire  subversion  of  the  Episcopal 
polity,  and  the  re-establishment  of  the  National  Church  upon 
a  Presbyterian  basis.  It  is  frequently  spoken  of  as  the  Magna 
Charta  of  the  Church.  It,  in  fact,  legalized  the  most  impor- 
tant parts  of  the  "  Second  Book  of  Discipline,"  for  which  the 
Church  had  so  long  contended.  For  nearly  twenty  years 
1  Row's  History,  p.  131,  Wodrow  Edition. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  REVIEW.  389 

Episcopacy  and  Presbytery  had  been  jumbled  together';  but 
they  were  found  to  be  irreconcilable.  For  nearly  twenty  years 
the  presbyter  had  done  battle  with  the  bishop,  and  at  this 
period  in  the  contest  he  stood  victorious.  The  act  of  annexa- 
tion, however,  was  not  repealed,  and  all  hope  of  the  Church 
recovering  its  lost  lands  was  gone. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

Before  allowing  ourselves  to  be  carried  farther  down  in  our 
history  by  the  fast-flowing  current  of  events,  we  must  pause  and 
discover  what  we  can  of  the  institutions,  customs,  and  con- 
dition of  the  Church  at  the  period  to  which  our  narrative 
relates.  The  traveller  who  would  thoroughly  explore  a  river, 
from  its  source  among  the  mountains  to  its  outlet  in  the  sea, 
must  not  suffer  his  bark  to  glide  unceasingly  down  the  stream  ; 
he  must  occasionally  moor  it  to  the  bank,  that  he  may  examine 
the  channel  over  which  the  current  flows,  and  the  character 
of  the  vegetation  which  grows  upon  its  brink.  As  time  and 
space  condition  all  things,  the  manners  and  ideas  of  a  people 
condition  their  history. 

A  great  change  has  occurred  in  the  country  since  we  last 
attempted  to  sketch  its  moral  and  religious  features.  The 
Papal  Church  was  then  supreme  ;  it  stood  like  an  ancient  oak, 
casting  its  umbrageous  branches  over  all  the  land ;  now  the 
axe  has  been  laid  to  its  root,  and  a  vigorous  shoot  springing 
from  its  stock  bids  fair  to  emulate  the  magnitude  of  the  former 
trunk  without  its  rottenness.  The  nation  was  then  just  waking 
into  life ;  now  it  was  almost  dizzy  with  the  excitement  of  new 
ideas  continually  flashing  upon  the  mind,  and  with  deep 
draughts  from  the  cup  of  liberty.  "  When  the  Lord  turned 
again  the  captivity  of  Zion,  we  were  like  them  that  dream. 
Then  was  our  mouth  filled  with  laughter,  and  our  tongue  with 
singing." 

The  General  Assembly  was  the  most  remarkable  growth  of 
the  Reformation.  It  spontaneously  sprung  into  existence  fully 
accoutred  for  its  work.  Strong  from  the  very  first,  it  was  a 
Hercules  in  its  cradle,  far  more  powerful  in  its  infancy  than  it 
is  in  its  old  age.  The  very  year  of  the  Reformation  the 
Assembly  met,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  business,  as  if  it  had 
already  inherited  the  land.     It  early  assumed  a  lofty  bearing  ; 


39°  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XII I. 

it  remonstrated  with  regents  ;  it  defied  parliaments  ;  it  bearded 
kings;  it  claimed  a  jurisdiction  independent  of  all  civil  con- 
trol. Nor  was  it  mere  assumption ;  its  strength  warranted  its 
ambition.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  for  many  years  the 
General  Assembly  was  a  more  influential  body  than  the  parlia- 
ment. What,  then,  was  the  secret  of  its  strength  ?  Where  did 
it  lie  ?     The  question  admits  of  an  easy  solution. 

The  General  Assembly  was  built  upon  a  broad  basis.  Had 
it  been  a  mere  convention  of  ecclesiastics,  it  would  have  had 
the  weakness  which  such  conventions  have  always  exhibited, 
especially  in  Protestant  countries.  But  from  the  very  first  the 
Church  of  Scotland  laid  aside  the  notion  of  priestly  exclusive- 
ness.  The  laity  were  largely  admitted  into  all  its  courts,  just 
because  it  did  not  recognise  the  distinction  between  the  laity 
and  clergy.1  It  never  knew  a  sacerdotal  caste.  Every  man 
in  the  nation,  professing  the  Reformed  faith,  who  held  a  high 
office  or  influential  position,  was  invited  to  attend.  The 
regents,  the  king,  the  members  of  the  Privy  Council,  the 
higher  nobility,  the  barons,  had  a  seat  and  a  vote  when  they 
chose  to  exercise  them.  The  qualification  of  being  an  elder 
was  not  insisted  on.2  In  the  first  General  Assembly  there  were 
but  forty-one  members,  and  only  six  of  these  were  ministers. 
In  the  sederunt  of  every  Assembly,  the  miscellaneous  character 
of  its  members  is  indicated.  The  sederunt  of  August  1572 
runs  thus  : — "  There  were  present  the  earls,  lords,  superintend- 
ents, barons,  commissioners  to  plant  kirks,  commissioners  of 
provinces,  universities,  and  ministers/' 3  Before  the  Assembly 
of  August  1573,  bishops  had  been  introduced  into  the  Church, 
and  accordingly  the  sederunt  then  stands  : — "  There  were  pre- 
sent the  earls,  lords,  barons,  bishops,  superintendents,  commis- 
sioners to  plant  kirks,  commissioners  of  provinces,  towns,  and 

1  This  idea  is  well  developed  in  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  admirable  Essay 
on  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Scotland. 

2  The  regulations  of  July  1568,  in  regard  to  those  who  should  vote  in 
the  Assembly,  do  not  seem  to  have  been  applied  to  the  nobility. 

3  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  132,  Peterkin's  Edition.  In  the 
sederunt  of  the  Assembly  of  December  1563,  we  have  the  names  of  the 
leading  nobles  given.  There  were — the  Duke  of  Chastelherault,  the  Earl 
of  Argyll,  the  Earl  of  Moray,  the  Earl  of  Morton,  the  Earl  Marischal,  the 
Earl  of  Glencairn,  Maitland  of  Lethington,  the  Secretary  of  State,  Sir 
John  Wishart  of  Pittarrow,  the  Comptroller,  Sir  John  Ballantyne  of  Auch- 
nool,  the  Justice-Clerk,  the  Lords  of  Secret  Council,  superintendents, 
ministers,  and  commissioners  of  kirks  and  provinces.  These  were  the  lead- 
ing men  of  the  kingdom.  Anything  they  agreed  upon  would  have  as  much 
the  force  of  law  as  an  act  of  parliament. 


CHAI\  xiii.]  MEMBERS  OF  ASSEMBLY.  39 1 

kirks,  with  the  ministers."  In  this  Assembly,  we  find  the 
somewhat  curious  resolution  agreed  upon  in  the  first  session  : 
— "  Because  it  is  understood  that  certain  of  the  nobility  of  this 
realm  and  Secret  Council  are  to  repair  to  this  Assembly ; 
therefore  the  whole  brethren  ordain,  that  the  whole  nobility 
and  council,  with  commissioners  of  provinces,  towns,  and 
kirks,  having  power  to  vote,  shall  sit  within  the  bar  of  the  said 
over-Tolbooth,  and  all  others  without  the  same."  l  Thus  by  a 
council  of  the  Church  were  its  own  ministers  thrust  without 
the  bar,  to  give  ample  room  enough  to  their  lay  coadjutors. 

But  there  is  nothing  brings  out  the  ideas  of  the  Church  in 
regard  to  who  should  be  the  constituent  members  of  its  highest 
court  so  well  as  a  letter  which  the  Assembly  of  March  1574 
directed  to  the  Regent  Morton.  "  It  is  known  unto  your 
Grace,"  says  the  Assembly,  "  that  since  the  time  God  blessed 
this  country  with  the  light  of  His  evangel,  the  whole  Church 
most  gladly  appointed,  and  the  same  by  act  of  parliament  was 
authorised,  that  two  godly  Assemblies  of  the  whole  general 
Church  of  this  realm  should  be  every  year,  as  well  of  all  mem- 
bers thereof  in  all  estates  as  of  the  ministers  ;  the  which 
Assemblies  have  been  since  the  first  ordinance  continually 
kept  in  such  sort  that  the  most  noble  thereof,  the  highest 
estate,  have  joined  themselves  by  their  own  person  in  the 
Assemblies,  concurring,  voting,  and  authorising  all  things  there 
proceeding  with  their  brethren.  And  now  at  the  present  the 
Church  is  assembled  according  to  the  godly  ordinance,  and 
looks  to  have  concurrence  of  their  brethren  in  all  estates,  and 
wishes  of  God  that  your  Grace  and  Lords  of  Privy  Council  will 
authorize  the  Church  in  the  present  Assembly,  by  your  pre- 
sence, or  by  others  having  your  commission,  in  your  Grace  and 
Lordship's  name,  as  members  of  the  Church  of  God  ;  for  as 
your  Grace's  presence  and  the  nobility's  should  be  to  us  most 
comfortable,  and  so  most  earnestly  wished  of  all,  so  your 
Grace's  absence  is  most  dolorous  and  lamentable  .  .  .  and 
so  we  give  you  admonition  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  extending 
this  admonition  to  every  person  of  whatever  estate  that  is  present 
with  your  Grace"  2 

The  General  Assembly  was  essentially  a  representative  body, 
and  possessed  the  strength  which  every  such  body  necessarily 
has.  The  Scotch  parliament  was  a  very  imperfect  representa- 
tive of  the  Scotch  people.     But  the  Assembly  contained  the 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  137.  2  Ibid.,  pp.  139-40. 


392  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

representatives  of  every  class.  The  nobles  were  there  in  con- 
siderable numbers,  and  beside  them  sat  the  representatives  of 
provinces,  of  towns,  of  universities,  of  congregations.  We  may 
therefore  regard  the  voice  of  the  Assembly  as  the  voice  of  the 
people.  The  Church  of  Scotland  was  in  fact  a  spiritual  re- 
public, and  the  General  Assembly  its  supreme  court.  Another 
source  of  the  Assembly's  power  lay  in  the  frequency  of  its 
meetings.  Twice  every  year  it  was  summoned  together,  some- 
times more  frequently.1  If  any  emergency  arose,  the  members 
came  hurrying  together  from  every  part  of  the  country,  to  de- 
liberate and  act  as  the  occasion  required.  If  a  parliament  was 
convoked,  the  Assembly  met  a  few  days  before  it,  to  make  up 
a  catalogue  of  its  grievances  and  requests  to  be  laid  before  the 
Estates.2  Under  the  guidance  of  able  and  energetic  men — 
Knox,  Erskine,  Davidson,  and  Melville — its  proceedings  were 
always  marked  with  uncommon  vigour,  and  necessarily  com- 
manded respect.  Perhaps  yet  another  source  of  strength  may 
be  mentioned :  the  Presbyterian  Court  inherited  some  of  the 
superstitious  respect  which  was  anciently  paid  to  the  councils 
of  the  Papal  Church,  and  its  sentences  of  excommunication 
were  regarded  with  as  much  awe  as  the  anathemas  of  Rome. 

We  have  no  record  of  the  Assembly  debates,  but  we  know 
that  the  ministers  from  the  pulpit  were  in  the  habit  of  declaim- 
ing upon  the  topics  which  had  been  first  discussed  upon  the 
Assembly  floor.  In  this  way  the  sympathies  of  the  people 
were  enlisted,  and  subjects,  which  otherwise  would  scarcely 
have  been  known  beyond  the  walls  of  the  Assembly-house, 
were  proclaimed  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 
The  pulpit  supplied  the  people  periodically  with  the  news  of  the 
churches.  And  shall  we  doubt  that  man  and  woman  received 
the  truth  in  much  docility  from  the  mouth  of  their  minister  ? 
On  some  occasions  they  were  asked  to  testify  their  approval 
by  holding  up  their  hands.3  In  this  also  we  have  a  source  of 
the  Church's  power.4 

1  King  James  early  saw  this,  and  attempted  to  restrain  the  frequency  of 
meeting.  He  would  allow  only  one  meeting  in  the  year,  and  was  even 
anxious  to  manage  that  no  meeting  should  be  held  without  his  sanction. 

2  For  instances  of  this  see  Book  of  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  145-155. 
8  Scott's  Apologetic  Narration,  p.  66,  Wodrow  Ed. 

4  Before  leaving  the  Assemblies  it  may  be  stated,  that  the  Moderators 
at  this  period  were  generally  chosen  from  a  leet  by  the  vote  of  the  house ; 
and  that  the  first  instance  of  an  advocate  appearing  at  the  bar  of  the 
Assembly  was  to  plead  the  case  of  the  Bishop  of  Dunkeld,  who  had  dila- 
pidated his  benefice.  The  Assembly  refused  to  hear  him.  This  was  in 
1575- 


CHAP,  tin.]  CLERICAL  CLOTHING.  39^ 

After  thirty  years  of  experiment  and  change,  the  minister 
alone  remained  as  the  recognised  religious  teacher  of  the 
people.  The  superintendents  and  commissioners  were  fast 
dying  out,  and  were  not  to  have  successors.  The  readers 
and  exhorters  still  continued  in  many  parts  of  the  country, 
and  we  find  them  frequently  rebuked  for  assuming  to  them- 
selves the  administration  of  the  sacraments  ;x  but  in  1580  the 
Assembly  declared  them  to  be  no  ordinary  office  in  the 
Church,  and  they  gradually  sunk  into  the  subordinate  position 
of  clerks  or  precentors.2  The  bishop  had  fiercely  struggled 
with  the  presbyter  for  pre-eminence,  and  was  destined  to 
struggle  again,  but  in  1592  the  presbyter  kept  the  field. 
There  is  a  singular  notice  in  the  records  of  the  Assembly  of 
April  1576,  which,  while  it  shows  the  anxiety  of  the  Church  to 
maintain  the  respectability  of  its  ministers,  throws  a  shade  of 
suspicion  as  to  the  vocation  of  some  of  them.  It  is  as  follows : 
— Any  minister  or  reader  that  taps  ale,  beer,  or  wine,  and 
keeps  an  open  tavern,  should  be  exhorted  by  the  commis- 
sioners to  keep  decorum."3 

At  this  period  the  English  Church  was  agitated  in  regard  to 
ecclesiastical  vestments.  The  Scotch  Church  sympathized 
with  the  Puritans,  and  directed  a  letter  to  the  Anglican 
bishops,  begging  them  to  make  allowance  for  tender  con- 
sciences in  such  trivial  and  indifferent  matters  as  tippets, 
cornets,  and  capes  ; 4  but  no  such  controversy  appears  ever  to 
have  been  agitated  in  Scotland  itself.  Every  surplice  and 
every  stole  seems  to  have  been  burned  up  in  the  Reformation 
bonfires.  But  the  Assembly  thought  it  right  to  prescribe  the 
everyday  garments  of  the  ministers  and  their  wives,  and  we 
have  a  curious  minute  upon  the  subject ;  "  Forasmuch,"  it  is 
said,  "  as  a  comely  and  decent  apparel  is  requisite  in  all, 
especially  in  the  ministers  and  such  as  bear  function  in  the 
Church  ;  first,  we  think  all  kind  of  broidering  unseemly,  all 
bagaries  of  velvet  on  gowns,  hose,  or  coats,  and  all  superfluous 
and  vain  cutting  out,  steiking  with  silks  ;  all  kinds  of  costly 
sewing  or  variant  hues  in  sarks,  and  kind  of  light  and  variant 
hues  in  clothing,  as  red,  blue,  yellow,  and  such  like,  which 
declare  the  lightness  of  the  mind ;  all  wearing  of  rings, 
bracelets,  buttons  of  silver,  gold,  or  other  metal;  all  kind 
of  superfluity  of  cloth  in  making  of  hose  ;  all  using  of  plaids 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  191. 

-  Ibid.,  pp.  158,  196.      See  also  Second  Book  of  Discipline. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  160.  4  Ibid.,  pp.  49,  50. 


394  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIIJ. 

in  the  church  by  readers  or  ministers,  in  time  of  their  ministry 
and  using  their  office ;  all  kinds  of  gowning,  coating,  doublet- 
ting^  or  breeches  of  velvet,  satin,  tarTety,  or  such  like;  all  costly 
gilding  of  whingers  or  knives,  or  such  like  ;  all  silken  hats,  and 
hats  of  diverse  and  light  colours ;  but  that  their  whole  habit 
shall  be  of  grave  colour,  as  black,  russet,  sad  gray,  sad  brown, 
or  serges,  worsted,  camblet,  growgrame,  lytes,  worsitt,  or  such 
like ;  and,  to  be  short,  that  the  good  Word  of  God  by  them 
and  their  immoderateness  be  not  slandered ;  and  their  wives 
to  be  subject  to  the  same  order/'1 

Thirty-six  years  after  the  Reformation  there  were  still 
upwards  of  four  hundred  churches  unsupplied  with  Protestant 
preachers.2  Ministers  had  multiplied  fast,  but  not  so  fast  as 
to  have  filled  more  than  one-half  of  the  pulpits  even  after  this 
lengthened  period.  We  need  not  marvel  at  this,  for  the  body 
of  learned  men  from  whom  alone  the  clergy  could  be  chosen 
must  have  still  been  extremely  small,  and  the  stipends  allowed 
by  the  State,  instead  of  tempting  men  to  prepare  themselves 
for  the  work,  were  so  scanty  and  so  ill  paid  as  to  have  led 
many  to  abandon  it.:]  The  Romish  clergy  had  been  forced 
into  an  outward  compliance,  at  least,  with  the  Protestant  faith 
and  worship,  and  one  would  have  imagined  that  the  ministry 
might  have  been  largely  recruited  from  their  ranks.     But  they 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  Assembly  1575,  p.  149. 

2  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  Assembly  1596,  p.  437.  See  also  Calder- 
wood.  "  There  are  in  Scotland  900  kirks,  of  the  quhilk  there  are  400 
without  ministers  or  readers."  (Diary  of  Robert  Birrel.)  The  number  of 
ministers  and  readers  appears  to  have  decreased.  From  the  Register  of 
Ministers  and  their  Stipends  in  1567,  it  would  appear  there  were  then 
about  1080  churches,  under  the  charge  of  257  ministers,  151  exhorters, 
and  455  readers.  Moreover,  the  places  of  12  ministers  and  53  readers  are 
marked  vacant,  making  in  all  928  persons,  besides  the  five  superintendents. 
According  to  the  Register  of  1574,  there  were  about  988  churches,  sup- 
plied by  289  ministers  and  715  readers,  with  the  places  of  20  ministers 
and  97  readers  vacant  ;  making  in  all  1 121  persons.  The  difference  in 
the  proportion  of  ministers  and  readers  in  the  two  Registers  arose  from 
the  Regent  Morton  placing  three  or  four  churches  under  the  care  of  one 
minister,  assisted  by  readers.  In  this  way  the  difference  between  a  minis- 
ter's stipend,  about  200  merks,  and  a  reader's  stipend,  about  20  merks, 
was  saved  by  the  parsimonious  regent.  (See  the  Analysis  of  the  Ancient 
Registers  of  Ministers  by  Dr  Laing,  the  Editor  of  the  Wodrow  Miscellany, 
vol.  i.  pp.  325-27.) 

3  Several  Acts  of  Assembly  were  made  to  prevent  ministers  abandoning 
their  office.  (Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  125,  126.)  Melville,  in 
his  Diary,  speaks  of  some  ballads  that  had  been  made  against  those  who 
had  deserted  their  vocation,  or,  as  it  is  expressed,  put  their  hand  to  the 
plough,  and  drawn  back.      (P.  15,  Ban.  Ed.) 


CHAP.  XIII. J  COMMON  PRAYER.  395 

seem  to  have  exhibited  a  general  indisposition  to  undertake 
the  duty  of  preachers.  The  General  Assembly  more  than 
once  complained  that  they  ate  up  two-thirds  of  the  benefice, 
and  did  none  of  the  work,  and  was  evidently  inclined  to  com- 
pel them  to  exercise  their  spiritual  functions  according  to  the 
Protestant  forms.1 

The  "  Book  of  Common  Prayer "  was  still  used  in  the 
service  of  the  Church,  and  sometimes  as  a  help  to  private 
devotion.  John  Knox  had  portions  of  it  read  to  him  while  he 
lay  upon  his  death-bed.2  In  December  1564,  the  Assembly 
ordered  all  ministers  and  readers  to  provide  themselves  with  a 
copy  of  the  Psalm-Book,  with  the  Order  of  Geneva  attached 
(which  had  just  then  issued  from  the  press),  to  assist  them  in  the 
celebration  of  the  sacraments  ;3  and  in  October  1579,  the  par- 
liament ordained  that  every  gentleman  worth  three  hundred 
merks  yearly,  and  every  substantial  seaman  and  burgess  worth 
fifty  pounds  in  goods  or  land,  should  possess  himself  with  a 
Bible  and  Psalm-Book,  for  the  better  instruction  of  himself 
and  his  family.4  The  early  Church  appears  to  have  been  dis- 
posed to  prescribe  a  method  of  preaching  as  well  as  of  prayer. 
In  1 581  the  Assembly  gave  a  commission  to  Mr  Thomas 
Smeton  to  prepare  such  a  form  ;'°  and  even  ten  years  before 
this  there  is  a  reference  in  the  records  of  the  Privy  Council  to 
a  "book  called  the  Homilies  for  Readers  in  Kirks."0  Such 
helps  were  at  first  imperatively  required.  The  Church- 
services,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  could  not  have  been  con- 
ducted without  them. 

In  the  "  Diary  "  of  Melville  and  the  "History"  of  Buchanan, 
we  get  a  glimpse  of  a  devout  household  at  their  devotions  in 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  86.  "The  haill  brethren  conveint 
and  assembled  thocht  meit  that  ane  supplication  be  presentit  to  the 
supreame  magistrate  anent  sic  persons  as  hes  receavit  ther  benefices  in 
papistrie,  payand  now  allanarlie  their  thirds,  thinkand  themselves  there- 
through dischargit  of  all  further  cure  in  the  Kirk  ;  requireing  at  his  Grace 
what  order  shall  be  tane  anent  sic  persones."  (Assembly,  February  1569. 
Ibid.  p.  107.)  The  Assembly  of  1573  was  still  more  explicit:  "Seeing 
the  most  part  of  the  persons  who  were  canons,  monks,  or  friars  within 
this  realm,  have  made  profession  of  the  true  religion,  it  is  therefore 
thought  meet  that  it  be  enjoined  to  them  to  pass  and  serve  as  readers  at 
the  places  where  they  shall  be  appointed."  (Calder wood's  History,  vol.  iii. 
p.  297,  Wodrow  Edition.) 

2  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox.         3  Keith's  History.     Calderwood's  History. 
^  James  VI.,  pari.  vi.  chap,  lxxii. 

5  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  219. 

6  Quoted  in  Appendix  to  Dr  M;  Crie's  Life  of  Melville. 


396  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIIU 

the  age  which  immediately  followed  the  Reformation.  It  was 
the  custom,  after  both  dinner  and  supper,  to  offer  up  a  prayer, 
to  read  a  chapter,  to  make  comments  upon  it,  and  to  conclude 
by  singing  a  psalm.  This  was  the  usage  in  the  house  of  the 
Regent  Moray;1  it  was  the  usage  of  John  Knox  while  he 
lived  at  St  Andrews  ; 2  it  was  the  usage  of  John  Durie,  one  of 
the  ministers  of  Edinburgh.  The  Assembly  attempted  to  force 
it  upon  James  VI.,  and  James,  with  the  advice  of  his  Council, 
made  some  show  of  submission,  but  he  did  not  religiously 
adhere  to  it.3  "  In  time  of  meals,"  says  James  Melville,  who 
was  frequently  an  inmate  of  Durie's  family,  and  married  his 
daughter,  "  was  reasoning  upon  good  purposes,  namely,  matters 
on  hand ;  thereafter,  earnest  and  long  prayer ;  thereafter,  a 
chapter  read,  and  every  man  about  gave  his  note  and  obser- 
vation upon  it ;  .  .  .  thereafter  was  sung  a  psalm ;  after 
which  was  conference  and  deliberation  upon  the  purposes  in 
hand ;  and  at  night,  before  going  to  bed,  earnest  and  zealous 
prayer,  according  to  the  estate  and  success  of  matters."4 
Traces  of  this  ancient  practice  have  lingered  in  some  ministers7 
families  to  the  present  day. 

The  personal  piety  of  the  times  appears  to  have  been  deep 
and  sincere,  but  somewhat  tinctured  with  fanaticism  and 
superstition.  Some  of  the  more  eminent  ministers  were  in 
the  habit  of  spending  seven  or  eight  hours  together  in  prayer; 
and  the  power  of  working  miracles  and  uttering  prophecies 
was  claimed  by  themselves,  and  joyfully  conceded  by  the 
people.  In  their  higher  ecstasies,  they  sometimes  enjoyed 
visions  of  angels  ;  and  in  their  more  depressed  states  of  mind, 
the  devil  appeared  to  them  under  some  fantastic  shape,  and 
either  engaged  them  in  combat,  or  tempted  them  to  sin.5 
Such  superstitions,  however,  were  not  confined  to  the  Scotch 
ministers  ;  the  most  eminent  divines  of  Germany  and  England 
were  vexed  about  the  same  period  by  such  apparitions. 

When  the  Protestant  Church  abolished  the  Roman  festivals, 
it  substituted  days  of  fasting.  By  the  direction  of  the  Assem- 
bly, Knox  drew  up  a  treatise  on  Fasting,  for  the  guidance  of 
ministers,  which  still  remains,  and  throws  much  light  upon  the 

1  Buchanan's  History,  book  xix. 
-James  Melville's  Diary,  p.  21,  Ban.  Ed. 

8  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  Assembly  1596,  p.  433.  Calderwood's 
History,  vol.  v.  p.  140.      Register  of  Privy  Council,  vol.  iii.  pp.  264-5. 

4  Melville's  Diary,  pp.  60-1. 

5  Proofs  of  this  will  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Knox,  and  in  the  Lives 
of  Welsh,  Bruce,  Livingstone,  &c. 


'HAP.  XIII.]  FASTS.  397 

early  Church.  "  The  abstinence,"  it  says,  "  is  commanded  to 
be  from  Saturday  at  eight  of  the  clock  at  night,  till  Sunday 
after  the  exercise  at  afternoon,  that  is,  after  five  of  the  clock  ; 
and  then  only  bread  and  drink  to  be  used,  and  that  with  great 
sobriety, — that  the  body  craving  necessary  food,  the  soul  may 
be  provoked  earnestly  to  crave  of  God  that  which  it  most 
needeth,  that  is,  mercy  for  our  former  unthankfulness,  and  the 
assistance  of  His  Holy  Spirit  in  time  to  come. 

"  Gorgeous  apparel  would  be  abstained  from  during  the 
whole  time  of  our  humiliation,  which  is  from  one  Sunday  in 
the  morning  till  the  next  Sunday  at  night ;  albeit  that  the 
straitness  of  abstinence  is  to  be  kept  but  two  days  only. 

"  Because  this  exercise  is  extraordinary,  the  time  thereof 
would  be  somewhat  longer  than  it  is  used  to  be  in  the  accustomed 
assemblies.  And  yet  we  would  not  have  it  so  tedious  that  it 
should  be  noisome  to  the  people.  And  therefore  we  think 
that  three  hours,  and  not  less,  before  noon,  and  two  hours  at 
afternoon,  shall  be  sufficient  for  the  whole  public  exercise  ; 
the  rest  to  be  spent  in  private  meditation  by  every  family  apart." 

A  fast  so  long  continued  and  so  severe,  implying  entire 
abstinence  from  food  for  a  part  of  two  days,  and  a  great 
abridgment  of  the  ordinary  diet  for  eight ;  five  or  six  hours 
spent  in  church  on  the  Sundays,  and  two  or  three  during  every 
day  of  the  week,  would  ill  sort  with  the  notions  of  modern 
times.  But  such  fasts  appear  to  have  been  religiously  kept 
during  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Reforming  period.  It  is  very 
remarkable  that  all  the  lessons  prescribed  for  the  Church- 
service  on  these  occasions  are  taken  from  the  Old  Testament, 
and  not  one  from  the  New.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  age,  and 
of  the  temper  of  the  men  who  lived  in  it.  Their  religion,  in 
some  of  its  aspects,  was  more  Jewish  than  Christian. 

To  a  sensitive  mind,  the  discipline  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  must  have  been  far  more  terrific  than  the  most  painful 
penances  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  Every  crime  required  to  be 
confessed  in  the  face  of  the  congregation  ;  and  the  penitent, 
when  making  his  confession,  was  clothed  in  sackcloth.  In  the 
case  of  all  heinous  crimes,  such  as  adultery  or  murder,  the 
penitent  was  obliged  to  stand  three  several  Sundays  in  a  public 
place  before  the  church-door,  "  bare-footed  and  bare-headed, 
clothed  in  a  base  and  abject  apparel," — the  murderer  holding 
in  his  hand  "  the  same  weapon  which  he  used  in  the  murder, 
or  the  like,  bloody  in  his  hand."1  Thus  stationed,  he  was 
1  Order  of  Excommunication,  p.  130. 


39$  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAI\  XIII. 

required  to  confess  his  sin  and  penitence  to  all  who  entered 
the  church,  and  beg  their  forgiveness.  Nor,  while  thus  seek- 
ing admission  to  the  body  of  the  faithful,  might  he  join  in 
their  prayers ;  the  utmost  that  was  allowed  him  was  to  listen 
from  afar  to  the  sermon,  in  which,  very  probably,  his  crime  was 
denounced.1  It  was  not  unusual  for  the  Church  Courts  to 
hand  over  delinquents  to  the  magistrate,  to  have  the  punish- 
ment of  the  sword  superadded  to  that  of  the  keys.2  Felons 
sometimes  underwent  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  and  were 
then  executed.  In  1570,  two  men  were  convicted  of  an 
abominable  crime,  and  this  was  the  manner  of  their  punish- 
ment. First,  they  were  kept  in  prison  for  eight  days,  and  fed 
upon  bread  and  water ;  they  were  then  stationed  at  the 
market-place,  with  the  inscription  of  their  fault  written  on 
their  forehead ;  after  that  they  were  placed  in  the  church,  to 
repent  before  the  people  on  three  several  Sundays ;  they  were 
next  ducked  in  a  deep  loch  over  the  head  three  several 
times ;  and,  last  of  all,  they  were  bound  to  a  stake,  and 
burned  to  ashes.3 

In  some  cases  the  discipline  of  the  Church  was  extended 
to  matters  which  are  now  properly  placed  under  the  head  of 
political  economy,  and  not  of  morals.  Thus  an  elder  of  the 
Church,  named  Gourlay,  was  compelled  to  make  public 
repentance  for  having  exported  some  wheat.  The  regent 
attempted  to  save  him,  stating  that  he  had  acted  with  his 
license  and  authority,  and  that  such  economic  arrangements 
did  not  belong  to  the  Church ;  but  it  was  in  vain.  On 
another  occasion  a  Senator  of  the  College  of  Justice  was 
debarred  from  the  sacraments,  for  having  remained  in  Edin- 
burgh during  the  rebellion.4 

The  discipline  of  the  Church  was  extended  impartially  to 
all.  Haughty  lords  and  high-born  ladies  were  compelled  to 
submit  to  it,  and  Acts  of  Assembly  passed  that  none,  what- 
ever their  rank,  should  be  exempted  from  sackcloth.5     Un- 

1  Order  of  Excommunication,  p.  130.  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp. 
118,  119,  125,  &c. 

2  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  189,  &c. 

3  Historie  of  King  James  Sext,  p.  64,  Ban.  Ed. 

4  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  iii.  pp.  328,  343. 

5  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  139.  Among  the  early  subjects  of 
the  Church's  discipline,  we  find  the  Earl  and  Countess  of  Argyll,  the  Earl 
of  Arran  (at  that  time  the  prime  minister  of  the  country)  and  his  Countess, 
Lord  Angus,  and  others  of  the  highest  nobility.  The  Duke  of  Lennox 
and  the  Earl  of  Montrose  were  threatened  with  excommunication  for 
entertaining  excommunicated  persons.  Many  others  among  the  nobility 
were  excommunicated  for  Popery. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  DISCIPLINE.  399 

happily,  many  of  the  earliest  subjects  of  the  Church's  discipline 
were  its  own  ministers  and  readers.  Within  the  first  ten  years 
of  its  existence,  the  General  Assembly,  notwithstanding  the 
paucity  of  ministers,  had  under  its  notice  seven  or  eight 
clerical  offenders,  and  one  unhappy  man — the  minister  of 
Sprott — was  hanged  for  the  murder  of  his  wife.1  This  may 
be  accounted  for,  either  by  supposing  that  some  vicious  men 
had  got  into  office  in  the  hurry  of  filling  up  vacant  parishes, 
or  that  the  immorality  of  the  ministers  was  only  a  part  of  the 
general  immorality  of  the  times — hitherto  tolerated  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Church,  but  to  be  tolerated  no  more.  The 
most  celebrated  among  these  delinquents  was  Paul  Methven, 
one  of  the  most  popular  of  the  Reforming  preachers.  He 
was  caught  in  adultery.  In  the  Romish  Church  his  crime 
would  have  been  winked  at,  but  not  in  the  Protestant.  He 
was  deposed  from  the  ministry,  and  excommunicated.  In 
piteous  and  abject  terms  he  begged  that  he  might  be  restored, 
even  though  it  should  be  "  with  the  loss  of  some  member." 
Coming  into  the  Assembly,  "  he  prostrated  himself  on  the 
floor  with  weeping  and  howling,"  and  the  Assembly  were 
moved  to  receive  him  again,  but  not  till,  on  two  separate 
preaching-days,  he  presented  himself  at  the  door  of  the 
Church  of  Edinburgh,  bare-headed,  bare-footed,  clothed  in 
sackcloth,  begging  forgiveness  :  doing  the  same  at  Jedburgh, 
repeating  it  at  Dundee,  in  which  places  he  had  previously 
ministered.  It  was  agreed  that  after  undergoing  this  painful 
penance,  he  should  be  invested  with  his  own  apparel,  and 
received  into  the  Church,  but  still  not  restored  to  the  ministry 
till  the  ensuing  Assembly.  Poor,  sinning,  penitent  Paul 
underwent  one-half  of  the  punishment ;  but,  overwhelmed 
with  shame,  he  could  not  endure  more,  and  fled  to  England.2 
The  records  of  the  Church  Courts  would  lead  us  to  believe 
that  the  morals  of  the  people  were  at  this  period  exceedingly 
debased.  We  have  constant  references  to  all  manner  of  con- 
ceivable and  inconceivable  crimes,  which  the  magistrates  are 
importuned  to  punish.3  The  poor  are  stigmatized  as  having 
been  especially  degraded.  "  Universally  throughout  the 
realm,"  says  the  Assembly  record,  "  there  is  neither  religion 
nor  discipline  with  the  poor,  but  the  most  part  live  in  filthy 

1  Bannatyne's  Memoriales,  &c. 

2  Acts  of  the  Assembly,  1564-6.     Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk.     Calder- 
wood's  History. 

3  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  29,  143,  332,  &c. 


400  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

adultery,  incest,  fornication ;  their  children  are  unbaptized, 
and  they  themselves  never  resort  to  the  church,  nor  participate 
in  the  sacraments  'J1 — a  fearful  picture  !  but  it  is  probable  that 
the  zeal  of  these  good  men  against  sin  has  given  the  picture 
a  darker  colouring  than  the  reality.  Still  the  state  of  society 
must  have  been  deplorably  bad ;  it  was  an  Augean  stable  the 
clergy  had  to  cleanse.  The  Scottish  peasantry  at  this  time 
were  miserably  poor,  and  poverty,  by  rendering  the  decencies 
of  life  impossible,  became  the  parent  of  vice.  The  whole 
land  swarmed  with  beggars;2  and  gangs  of  bronze- coloured 
gipsies  strolled  about  the  country,  and  are  talked  of  as 
"  defiling  it  with  their  abominations."3 

One  of  the  reputed  sins  of  this  period  was  witchcraft. 
Many  persons,  especially  women,  were  supposed  to  have 
renounced  their  baptism,  and,  by  an  obscene  act  of  homage, 
to  have  devoted  themselves  to  the  devil.4  They  were  said  to 
sail  through  the  air,  to  assemble  at  midnight  in  churches,  to 
raise  violent  storms,  to  affect  the  subjects  of  their  sorcery 
with  slow,  wasting  diseases.  The  belief  was  universal ;  and 
it  is  perfectly  certain  that  some  wretched  creatures  really 
fancied  themselves  in  league  with  the  wicked  one,  and 
practised  rites  which  they  believed  to  have  power  with  him. 
While  James  was  in  Denmark,  Satan  was  affirmed  to  have 
assembled  a  number  of  his  supposts,  some  of  the  masculine 
and  others  of  the  feminine  kind,  in  the  Church  of  North 
Berwick,  in  order  to  raise  storms  at  sea  to  prevent  the  young 
queen  from  coming  safely  to  Scotland.5  Several  of  these  were 
afterwards  seized  and  put  to  death.  One  of  them,  called 
Agnes  Sampson,  was  generally  known  as  the  wise  wife  of 
Keith,  "  a  woman,"  says  Spottiswood,  "  not  of  the  base  and 
ignorant  sort  of  witches,  but  matron-like,  grave,  and  settled  in 
her  answers."  In  her  examination  she  declared  "  that  she 
had  a  familiar  spirit,  who,  upon  her  call,  did  appear  in  a 
visible  form,  and  resolve  her  of  any  doubtful  matter,  especially 
concerning  the  life  or  death  of  persons  lying  sick,"  and  that 
her  words  of  conjuration  were  "hollo,  master."6  In  other 
cases,  these  dupes  of  their  own  diablerie  placed  an  image  in 

1  Hook  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  333. 

2  Second  Book  of  Discipline.     Also  acts  of  parliament  passed  at  this 
period.  :i  Rows  History,  p.  141. 

4  Doemonologie,  by  King  James  VI. 
B  Historie  of  King  James  Sext,  p.  241. 
,;  Spottis wood's  Hist.,  lib.  vi. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  SUNDAY  AMUSEMENTS.  40I 

wax  of  their  unsuspecting  victim  before  a  slow  fire,  and  the 
image  and  the  victim  wasted  away  together.  The  Church 
shared  in  the  popular  belief,  and  denounced  witchcraft  as  a 
sin,  the  parliament  declared  it  to  be  a  crime,  and  the  king  not 
only  busied  himself  to  hunt  out  and  burn  the  unhappy  crea- 
tures, but  proved  his  orthodox  zeal  by  writing  a  treatise  on  the 
subject.1 

For  many  years  after  the  Reformation  the  Sunday  continued 
to  be  desecrated  by  markets,  and  all  manner  of  work ;  but 
the  Church  Courts  laboured  with  a  laudable  earnestness 
to  effect  a  change.  In.  the  Assembly  records  we  find  fre- 
quent complaints  of  salt-pans  being  at  work,  of  mills  being 
at  work,  of  the  operations  of  husbandry  going  on,  and  of  fairs 
being  held  on  the  day  of  rest.2  Earnest  efforts  were  made  to 
put  a  stop  to  such  irregularities.  The  Presbytery  of  Edin- 
burgh proceeded  still  further.  The  Edinburgh  weekly  market 
was  held  upon  Monday,  and  the  Presbytery  wished  it  abolished, 
on  the  ground  that  many  who  came  to  it  began  their  journey 
on  Sunday.  The  attempt  created  a  riot;  and  King  James  was 
hugely  delighted  with  the  idea  that  the  soutars  had  intimidated 
the  ministers  more  than  he  could.3 

In  a  previous  part  of  our  history  we  gave  some  account  of 
the  religious  dramas — the  Mysteries  and  Moralities — which 
were  acted  in  the  Romish  Church.  These  did  not  cease  with 
the  Reformation,  although  we  may  believe  that  their  peculiar 
hue  would  vary  with  the  times,  The  Virgin,  the  blessed 
apostles,  the  beatified  saints,  would  vanish  from  the  stage  ; 
Old  Testament  judges  and  kings  would  now  figure  in  their 
stead.  But  it  soon  began  to  be  thought  unseemly  to  have 
dramas  founded  on  the  Bible  narrative,  and,  accordingly,  the 
General  Assembly  in  1575  determined  that  henceforward  no 
clerk-plays,  comedies,  or  tragedies,  based  upon  the  canonical 
Scriptures,  should  be  acted  either  upon  Sunday  or  work-day, 
and  that  profane  plays  should  be  examined  before  they  were 
exhibited,  and  in  no  case  acted  on  the  Sunday.  In  the  very 
next  year  the  Bailie  of  Dunfermline  asked  permission  of  the 

1  Diemonologie  by  King  James  VI.  Historic  of  King  James  Sext. 
Spottiswood,  lib.  iv.  Tytler,  vol.  ix.  In  1597  no  fewer  than  twenty-four 
witches  were  burned  at  Aberdeen.  See  the  Records  of  the  Kirk-Session 
of  Aberdeen,  published  by  the  Spalding  Club. 

-  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  160,  228,  344,  &c. 

3  Historie  of  King  James  Sext,  p.  254.  The  editor  of  Calderwood 
gives  us  a  specimen  of  the  rhymes  which  were  published  on  the  occasion, 
taken  from  the  Cotton  MSS.     See  note  to  vol.  v.  p.  177. 

VOL.    I.  2  C 


402  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

Assembly  to  have  a  play  performed  on  a  Sunday  afternoon, 
but  it  was  peremptorily  refused.1  It  is  curious  to  contem- 
plate John  Knox  as  delighting  in  theatricals,  and  as  present 
at  a  play  in  which  one  of  the  divertisements  was  the  hang- 
ing of  the  Laird  of  Grange  ;  but  so  it  was,  and  that  in  his  old 
age,  when  he  was  rusticating  at  St  Andrews.  "This  year,  in 
the  month  of  July,"  says  James  Melville,  "  Mr  John  Davidson, 
one  of  our  regents,  made  a  play  at  the  marriage  of  Mr  John 
Colvin,  which  I  saw  played  in  Mr  Knox's  presence  :  wherein, 
according  to  Mr  Knox's  doctrine,  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh  was 
besieged,  taken,  and  the  captain,  with  one  or  two  with  him, 
hanged  in  effigy."  2 

But  Robin  Hood  plays  were  the  particular  delight  of  the 
Scottish  people.  On  a  Sunday  in  May,  the  people,  led  by 
their  magistrates,  assembled  in  some  green  field  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  their  village  or  town  ;  one  of  their  number,  by 
previous  arrangement,  personated  the  celebrated  outlaw 
Robin  Hood,  another  his  faithful  squire  Little  John ;  and  in 
boisterous  fun  and  frolic  the  day  was  spent.  In  the  same 
merry  month  the  young  women  and  children  were  accustomed 
to  meet,  choose  a  Queen  of  May,  and,  dancing  around  some 
greenwood  tree,  to  make  the  air,  far  and  near,  vocal  with  their 
sweet  voices.  So  early  as  1555  the  parliaments  attempted  to 
prevent  these  practices,  and  declared  that  if  any  provost  or 
bailie,  council  or  community,  chose  any  such  personages  as 
Robin  Hood,  Little  John,  Abbot  of  Unreason,  or  Queen  of 
May,  they  should  lose  their  freedom  for  five  years  ;  and  that  if 
any  woman,  by  singing  about  summer  trees,  made  perturba- 
tion to  the  queen's  lieges,  they  should  be  put  upon  the  cuck- 
stool  of  the  burgh  or  town.3  But  parliament  was  almost  power- 
less to  prevent  a  practice  that  had  become  inveterate.  The 
attempt  to  enforce  the  law  in  Edinburgh  in  1561  led  to  serious 
riots.4  Even  the  elders  and  deacons  of  the  Church  sometimes 
so  far  forgot  themselves  as  to  give  these  amusements  their 

1  For  very  curious  notices  upon  this  subject  see  Book  of  the  Universal 
Kirk,  pp.  146,  159,  165,  174,  192. 

2  James  Melville's  Diary,  p.  22. 
:i  Mary,  pari.  vi.  c.  61. 

4  Knox's  History,  book  iv.  There  is  a  reference  to  these  Robin  Hood 
plays  in  the  Diurnal  of  Occurrents,  May  1572.  After  noticing  that  at  that 
time  there  was  a  great  dearth  in  Edinburgh,  it  is  added — "  Nevertheless, 
the  remainder  abode  patiently,  and  were  of  good  comfort,  and  used  all 
pleasures  which  were  wont  to  be  used  in  said  month  in  old  time — viz., 
Robin  Hood  and  Little  John." 


I  Hap.  xill.]  PAGEANTS.  4°3 

patronage  and  presence  ; l  and  for  more  than  thirty  years 
after  the  Reformation,  we  find  the  Assembly  sometimes 
begging  the  civil  power  to  interfere  and  put  an  end  to  the  evil, 
and  sometimes  threatening  its  own  spiritual  censures  against 
the  disobedient. 

The  age  was  fond  of  pageants.  Every  great  occasion  called 
forth  a  display  of  them.  We  have  a  minute  description  of 
those  which  greeted  James  VI.  on  his  first  public  entrance 
into  Edinburgh,  which  will  give  us  a  general  idea  of  them  all. 
"  At  the  West  Port  he  was  received  by  the  magistrates  of  the 
town  under  a  pompous  payle  of  purple  velvet.  The  Port  pre- 
sented unto  him  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  as  it  is  written  in 
the  third  chapter  of  the  First  Book  of  Kings ;  that  is  to  say, 
King  Solomon  was  represented  with  the  two  women  that  con- 
tended for  the  young  child.  This  done,  they  presented  the 
king  with  the  sword  for  the  one  hand,  and  the  sceptre  for  the 
other.  And  as  he  made  further  progress  within  the  town,  in 
the  street  that  ascends  to  the  castle,  there  is  an  ancient  port, 
at  the  which  there  hung  a  curious  globe,  which  opened  arti- 
ficially as  the  king  came  past,  wherein  was  a  young  boy  who 
descended  craftily,  presenting  the  keys  of  the  town  to  his 
Majesty,  which  were  all  made  of  fine  massive  silver,  and  these 
were  presently  received  by  one  of  his  honourable  council  at  his 
own  command.  During  this  space  Dame  Music  and  her 
scholars  exercised  her  art  with  great  melody.  Then,  in  his 
descent,  as  he  came  opposite  to  the  house  of  Justice,  there 
showed  themselves  unto  him  four  gallant  virtuous  ladies,  to  wit, 
Peace,  Justice,  Plenty,  and  Policy,  and  each  of  them  had  an 
oration  to  his  Majesty.  Thereafter,  as  he  came  toward  the 
chief  collegiate  church,  there  Dame  Religion  showed  herself, 
desiring  his  presence,  which  he  there  obeyed  by  entering  the 
church,  where  the  chief  preacher  for  that  time  made  a  notable 
exhortation  unto  him  for  the  embracing  Religion  and  all  her 
cardinal  virtues,  and  all  other  virtues.  Thereafter  he  came 
forth  and  made  progress  to  the  market-cross  where  he  beheld 
Bacchus,  with  his  magnificent  liberality  and  plenty,  distribut- 
ing of  his  liquor  to  all  passengers  and  beholders,  in  such  ap- 
pearance as  was  pleasant  to  see.  A  little  beneath  is  the 
market-place  of  salt,  whereupon  was  painted  the  genealogy  of 
the  Kings  of  Scotland,  and  a  number  of  trumpets  sounding 
melodiously,  and  crying  with  a  loud  voice,  Welfare  to  the  King. 


Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  192. 


4©4  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

At  the  East  Port  was  erected  the  conjunction  of  the  planets, 
as  they  were  in  their  degrees  and  places  the  time  of  his 
Majesty's  happy  nativity,  and  the  same  lively  represented  by 
the  assistance  of  King  Ptolemy.  And  withal  the  whole  streets 
were  spread  with  flowers,  and  the  front  houses  of  the  streets, 
by  which  the  king  passed,  were  all  hung  with  magnificent 
tapestry,  with  painted  history,  and  the  effigies  of  noble  men 
and  women."  1 

The  printing-press  had  been  helpful  in  effecting  the  Refor- 
mation, and  soon  after  its  establishment  the  Church  began  to 
take  an  instrument  so  powerful  for  good  or  for  evil  under  its 
care.  So  early  as  1563,  it  was  ordained  by  the  Assembly  that 
no  religious  book  should  be  published  without  being  first  re- 
vised by  the  superintendent  of  the  diocese.2  In  1568  Thomas 
Bassandyne,  at  that  time  a  printer  in  Edinburgh,  was  accused 
of  having  printed  a  book  entitled  the  "  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Kirk,;;  in  which  the  king  was  named  as  the  supreme  head  of 
the  primitive  Church.  He  was  farther  charged  with  having 
published  a  psalm-book,  "in  the  end  whereof  was  found 
printed  a  bawdy  song  called  '  Welcome  Fortune/  "  and  all  this 
he  had  done  without  the  license  of  the  magistrate  or  the  re- 
visal  of  the  Church.  He  was  ordered  by  the  Assembly  to  call 
in  the  books  he  had  sold,  to  retain  those  that  were  unsold,  and 
henceforward  to  print  nothing  without  the  license  of  the  magis- 
trate, and  in  the  case  of  religious  books,  the  revisal  of  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Church.3  There  flourished  in  Edinburgh  at  the 
same  time  another  printer  called  Robert  Lekprevik.  He  had 
obtained  from  the  Privy  Council  the  monopoly  of  printing  all 
books  in  Latin  or  English  necessary  "  for  the  weill  and  com- 
moditie  of  the  lieges  of  the  realme,  and  also  all  sic  things  as 
tend  to  ye  glorie  of  God ; "  but  his  trade  does  not  seem  to  have 
thriven,  for  in  1570  he  appeared  before  the  General  Assembly 
asking  its  aid  in  his  undertakings,  and  the  Church,  having  re- 
spect to  his  poverty,  the  great  expense  he  had  been  at  in  buy- 
ing printer's  irons,  and  the  zeal  and  love  he  bore  to  the 
Church  at  all  times,  granted  him  a  yearly  pension  of  fifty 
pounds.4 

In  1573  the  Assembly  voted  forty  pounds  to  Richard 
Bannatyne,  the  faithful  servant  of  John  Knox,  to  assist  him  in 
preparing  the  MS.  History  of  his  old  master  for  the  press,  and 

1  Historic  of  King  James  Sext,  pp.  178,  179. 

2  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  16.  3  Ibid.  pp.  100,  101. 
4  Ibid.  p.  119. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  THE  PRINTING  PRESS.  405 

appointed  a  committee  of  some  learned  men  to  give  him 
their  help.1  In  the  following  year  it  was  reported  to  the 
Assembly  that  a  French  printer  of  great  celebrity,  who  had 
been  banished  with  his  wife  and  family  for  the  sake  of  re- 
ligion, was  willing  to  settle  in  this  country,  and  bring  with 
him  three  thousand  francs'  worth  of  books,  and  print  whatever 
work  he  should  be  commanded,  if  he  were  made  sure  of  a 
yearly  pension  of  three  hundred  merks.2  The  Assembly 
thought  it  right  to  bring  this  proposal  before  the  regent,  but 
nothing  appears  to  have  been  done.  Six  years  after  this  we 
find  the  Assembly  bringing  under  the  notice  of  the  king  that 
the  country  stood  greatly  in  need  of  a  printer,  and  that  a  stranger 
banished  for  his  religion,  called  Vantrolier,  had  offered  to  exer- 
cise his  craft  for  the  welfare  of  the  country,  if  his  Majesty 
should  give  him  a  license  and  privilege.3 

Neither  the  General  Assembly  nor  the  Privy  Council  had  the 
most  remote  conception  of  a  free  press.  The  Assembly  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  revise  all  books  before  their  publica- 
tion, and  to  give  them  the  benefit  of  their  imprimatur  if  they 
were  approved.  Adam  son  had  rendered  the  Book  of  Job  into 
Latin  verse  ;  Hay  had  written  a  book  against  the  Jesuits:  they 
were  required  to  submit  them  for  inspection.  Popish  books 
were  pouring  into  the  country;  pedlars  from  Poland  were 
hawking  them  about ;  the  Church  called  upon  the  regent 
to  interfere.  Nor  was  the  Privy  Council  more  enlightened. 
Davidson  had  published  a  dialogue  between  a  clerk  and  a  cour- 
tier, satirizing  the  regent  for  creating  pluralities  in  order  to 
enrich  himself.  He  was  cited  before  the  Council,  and  finally 
obliged  to  abscond.4 

It  was  in  1579  that  the  first  edition  of  the  English  Bible 
issued  from  the  Scottish  press.  So  early  as  1575,  the  Assembly 
entered  into  terms  with  Thomas  Bassandyne,  the  printer  pre- 
viously referred  to,  and  Alexander  Arbuthnot,  a  merchant  bur- 
gess of  Edinburgh,  for  the  production  of  this  great  work, 
stipulating  among  other  things  that  £4,  13s.  4d.  should  be 
the  price  of  a  copy.  It  was  merely  a  reprint  of  the  Genevan 
Bible  with  a  few  corrections.  George  Young  revised  the  proof- 
sheets;  Robert  Pont  composed  the  calendar;  the  General 
Assembly  made  the  dedication  to  the  king  to  run  in  its  name  f 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,    p.  135. 
'2  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  iii.  p.  336. 

3  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  200,  201. 

4  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  iii.  pp.  301-36. 

5  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.    187.     Calderwood's  History,   1579. 


406  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIIT. 

and  the  parliament  made  the  purchase  of  it  compulsory  upon 
all  who  were  able  to  bear  the  expense. 

The  same  parliament  which  made  Protestantism  the  religion 
of  the  realm  pronounced  Popery  to  be  a  crime.     To  perform 
a  mass  or  be  present  at  a  mass  three  times  was  death.     The 
Church  frequently  importuned  the  magistrate  to  purge  the  land 
of  idolatry,  and  it  is  all  but  certain  that  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands, under  the  pressure  of  fear,  succumbed    to  a  religion 
which  in  their  hearts  they  abhorred.     It  does  not  appear  that 
the  laws  were  frequently  put  in  force  in  all  their  rigour  \ x  but 
it  sometimes  happened  that  what  the  magistrate  was  unwilling 
to  do,  the  mob  took  in  hand ;  and  it  were  idle  to  deny  that 
unhappy  Romanists  were  generally  regarded,  and  frequently 
treated,   as  unclean  beasts,   to  be  hunted  down  and  exter- 
minated from  the  land.     About  Easter  1565,  a  Romish  priest 
named  Sir  John  Tarbat  was  laid  hold  of  as  he  rode  rapidly 
through  Edinburgh.     It  was  suspected  he  had  been  celebrat- 
ing mass.     He  was  taken  to  the  Tolbooth,  invested  with  his 
sacerdotal  garments,  dragged  to  the  market-cross,  tied  up  there, 
with  a  chalice  bound  in  his  hand,  and  kept  in  that  position  for 
an  hour,  "  during  which  time,"  says  Knox,  with  great  glee, 
"the  boys  served  him  with  his  Easter  eggs."2     The  next  day 
he  was  tried  for  his  life,  and  convicted,  but  mercy  was  ex- 
tended to  him,  and  this  was  the  manner  of  it.     "  He  was  set 
upon  the  market-cross  for  the  space  of  three  or  four  hours,  the 
hangman  standing  by,  and  keeping  him  ;  the  boys  and  others 
were  busy  with  eggs-casting. "     There  was  like  to  be  a  tumult, 
as  the  Papists  made  an  effort  to  save  their  pilloried  priest ;  the 
magistrates  were  obliged  to  interfere,  and  carry  him  off  to  the 
Tolbooth ;  and  it  was  afterwards  rumoured,  though  wrongously, 
that   the  poor  man   had   died   of  the   ill-usage   he  had   re- 
ceived. 

In  1569  a  similar  scene  took  place  at  Stirling.  While  the 
Regent  Moray  was  there,  four  priests  belonging  to  Dunblane, 
who  had  lingered  too  fondly  by  the  ruined  altars  of  their 
ancient  cathedral,  were  condemned  to  death,  "  for  saying  mass 

I)r  M'Crie,  in  the  Appendix  to  his  Life  of  Melville,  speaks  of  the  arrange- 
ment being  made  in  March  1575,  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  this  in 
the  records  of  the  Assembly. 

3  Bishop  Lesley  gives  candid  testimony  to  this  fact. 

2  Knox's  History,  book  v.  In  justice  to  Knox  it  must  be  stated,  that  it 
is  generally  understood  that  this  part  of  his  History  was  written  by  some 
other  hand.  There  can  be  little  doubt,  however,  but  that  the  Reformer 
would  have  rejoiced  at  such  a  scene. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  CONFESSORS  AND  MARTYRS.  407 

contrary  to  the  Acts  of  Parliament."  The  regent,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  his  clemency,  saved  their  lives,  "  but  caused  them  to  be 
bound  to  the  market-cross,  with  their  vestments  and  chalices, 
in  derision,  where  the  people  cast  eggs  and  other  villany  in 
their  faces,  by  the  space  of  an  hour,  and  thereafter  their 
chalices  and  vestments  were  burned  to  ashes."1  But  clem- 
ency like  this  was  thrown  away.  The  tender  mercy  of  the 
Protestants  was  abused.  Popish  priests  still  persisted  in  say- 
ing mass,  and  so,  on  the  4th  of  May  1574,  one  of  them  was 
laid  hold  of  in  Glasgow  and  hanged.2  No  monumental  stone 
marks  this  man's  grave ;  his  very  name  has  been  suffered  to 
perish  ;  but  was  he  not  a  martyr  to  his  faith  ?  Strange  incon- 
sistency of  human  nature,  that  the  very  men  who  had  loaded 
with  all  opprobrious  epithets  the  persecutors  under  the  Papacy, 
should  now  be  such  zealous  persecutors  themselves  !  Long 
years  required  to  come  and  go  before  the  great  principle  of 
mutual  toleration  was  understood  and  acted  upon.  From  the 
beginning  of  the  world  men  clearly  saw  that  it  was  wrong  for 
others  to  persecute  them  ;  it  is  scarcely  two  hundred  years 
since  they  began  dimly  to  see  that  it  was  wrong  for  them  to 
persecute  others. 

In  some  districts  of  the  country,  the  Catholics  were  still  so 
numerous,  that  it  was  not  safe  to  meddle  with  the  priests  in 
celebrating  mass.  This  was  the  case  at  Aberdeen,  Dunkeld, 
Paisley,  Eglinton,  and  many  other  places.  We  find  it  there- 
fore arranged,  that  a  day  should  be  appointed  for  all  the 
Protestants  in  the  neighbourhood  of  these  places  to  assemble 
and  proceed  in  a  body  to  apprehend  the  violators  of  the  law.3 
We  are  not  informed  what  was  the  result  of  these  tumultuous 
assemblages. 

The  Assembly  had  its  own  species  of  legislation,  and  its  own 
means  of  coercion.  An  act  was  made,  requiring  every  one  to 
take  the  sacrament,  an  act  which  was  to  be  put  in  force  against 
all  who  were  suspected  of  Popery,  with  the  awful  sentence  of 
excommunication  in  case  of  refusal.4  Thus  the  Holy  Supper 
of  our  Lord,  designed  to  be  a  bond  of  brotherhood  and  a  feast 
of  love,  was  converted  into  a  stone  of  stumbling,  and  a  rock  of 

1  Historie  of  James  Sext,  p.  40. 

2  Diurnal  of  Occurrents,  4th  May  1574.  The  entry  is, — "  There  was 
ane  priest  hangit  in  Glasgow  callit for  saying  mess/' 

3  Diurnal  of  Occurrents,  20th  October  1572. 

4  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  147.  Calder wood's  History,  vol.  iii.  p. 
346.  There  were  more  acts  than  one  of  this  kind  backed  by  acts  of  parlia- 
ment. 


408  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

offence.  The  devoted  Roman  Catholics  would  regard  the 
taking  the  sacrament  from  a  Protestant  minister  as  the 
primitive  Christians  regarded  the  throwing  a  grain  of  incense 
upon  the  altar  of  Jupiter.  Many  would  succumb  to  terror ;  a 
few  would  resist ;  and  to  be  excommunicated — altogether  apart 
from  its  spiritual  effects — was  to  be  cut  off  from  society,  to  lose 
all  the  rights  of  a  man  and  a  subject,  and  to  be  shunned  as 
a  loathsome  leper. 

The  horror  diffused  through  every  Protestant  country  by 
the  Massacre  of  St  Bartholomew,  and  the  butcheries  of 
Alva  in  Holland,  the  alarm  kept  alive  by  the  preparations 
of  Spain  for  the  invasion  of  the  island,  the  known  strength 
of  the  Papal  party  both  in  England  and  Scotland,  the  machina- 
tions of  that  new  order,  who  bearing  the  blessed  name 
of  Him  who  was  without  guile,  were  already  notorious  for 
every  species  of  deceit,  and  already  to  be  found  in  every 
country  of  Europe,  naturally  led  the  Estates  to  add  new 
severities  to  the  penal  code.  The  Church  had  frequently  begged 
them  to  take  order  with  Jesuits  and  seminary  priests,  and  they 
did  so.1  In  1587  an  act  was  passed,  declaring  that  all  Jesuits 
and  seminary  priests  found  in  the  country  should  be  taken  and 
put  to  death,  and  that  every  one  harbouring  them  for  three 
nights  should  be  liable  to  the  confiscation  of  his  goods.  To 
bring  into  the  country  Papistical  books,  to  distribute  these,  to 
attempt  by  argument  or  persuasion  to  make  any  one  decline 
from  the  true  religion,  was  likewise  declared  to  be  a  misde- 
meanour, punishable  with  the  loss  of  property.2  About  forty 
years  before  this,  the  same  parliament  passed  a  similar  law 
against  Protestant  books  being  brought  into  the  country,  or 
Protestant  arguments  being  uttered ;  the  tables  were  turned  ! 

The  Papacy  was  crushed  in  Scotland,  but  it  was  by  no  means 
destroyed.  Its  adherents  were  still  both  numerous  and  power- 
ful. There  is  still  in  existence  a  remarkable  state-paper  in 
the  handwriting  of  Lord  Burghley,  and  belonging  to  the  year 
1589,  in  which  we  have  an  estimate  of  the  comparative  strength 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  parties.  From  this 
document  it  would  appear,  that  the  whole  northern  part  of 
the  country,  including  the  counties  of  Inverness,  Caithness, 
Sutherland,  Aberdeen,  and  Moray,  with  the  sheriffdoms  of 
Buchan  and  Angus,  and  Wigton  and  Nithsdale  in  the  south, 
were  still  almost  entirely  Catholic,  commanded   by  Popish 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  329,  330,  331,  &c. 

2  Tames  VI.,  pari.  xi.  chapters  xxiv.  xxv.  xxvii. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  STRENGTH  OF  THE  PAPACY.  409 

noblemen,  and  giving  shelter  to  Jesuit  priests.  On  the  Pro- 
testant side  were  ranked  the  counties  of  Perth,  Stirling,  Fife, 
Lanark,  Renfrew,  and  Dumbarton.  Ayr  and  Linlithgow  were 
regarded  as  dubious.1 

At  the  same  period  the  General  Assembly  presented  to  the 
king  a  picture  of  the  country  equally  dark.  Many  of  the 
noblest  families  in  the  land  still  adhered  to  the  ancient  super- 
stition, notwithstanding  the  terrors  of  excommunication. 
Jesuits  were  everywhere  prowling  about,  seducing  the  people. 
Priests  were  openly  celebrating  mass,  and  abusing  the  ordin- 
ances of  baptism  and  marriage.  The  ladies  especially  were 
wedded  to  idolatry.  Ladies  Herries,  Morton,  Mar,  Minto, 
Tweeddale,  Sutherland,  Ryder,  Farnyhurst,  and  others,  were 
all  active  in  their  support  of  Romanism.  They  sheltered  the 
proscribed  priests,  they  practised  superstitious  rites,  they  kept 
Pasche  and  Yule ;  and  some  of  them  were  represented  as 
having  themselves  horribly  usurped  the  administration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  with  bread  and  water.  In  some  districts  the 
churches  were  falling  into  ruins ;  in  others,  there  were  churches, 
but  no  ministers ;  in  others,  both  churches  and  ministers, 
but  few  people  to  attend  them.  In  Lennox,  of  twenty-four 
churches,  only  four  had  ministers  ;  and  in  some  of  the  northern 
counties,  the  state  of  matters  was  still  worse.  Confident  in 
their  numbers,  the  Papists  in  some  places  ventured  to  be 
insolent.  They  defied  the  law,  assaulted  Protestant  ministers, 
to  the  effusion  of  their  blood  and  the  danger  of  their  lives, 
and  had  their  Christ's  wells,  pilgrimages,  bonfires,  and  carols, 
as  if  the  land  were  still  in  the  bondage  of  Rome.2 

This  divided  state  of  the  country  must  have  generated 
religious  rancour,  as  certainly  as  decomposing  matter  gene- 
rates noxious  gases.  There  was  oppression  on  the  one  hand, 
the  thirst  for  revenge  on  the  other ;  there  was  the  pride  of 
new  domination  confronted  by  the  memory  of  ancient  empire. 
The  Romanists  had.  lost  their  supremacy,  but  they  were  not 
without  hopes  of  regaining  it;  the  Protestants  had  got  the 
upper  hand,  but  they  were  not  without  fear  that  they  might 
lose  it.  The  Romanists  were  busy  intriguing,  the  Protestants 
in  watching  them.  A  ship  arrives  in  port  from  France  or 
Spain,  a  stranger  of  distinguished  appearance  is  seen  to  land 
from  it :  the  minister  reports  the  case  to  the  magistrates,  and 

1  Tytler's  History  of  Scotland,  vol.  ix. 

2  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  330-32.     Calderwood's  History,  vol. 
iv.  p.  664. 


41 0  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

requests  them  to  seize  upon  the  ship,  and  keep  it  till  the 
mystery  is  cleared  up.  A  suspicious-looking  man  has  been 
observed  skulking  about  the  country,  visiting  at  the  houses  of 
suspected  Papists,  dropping  a  call  at  the  cots  of  the  peasants  : 
the  matter  is  reported  to  the  Assembly,  by  the  Assembly  it  is 
reported  to  the  Council,  and  if  the  disguised  Jesuit  has  not 
already  decamped,  he  is  in  danger  of  the  judgment. 

But  there  was  danger  not  merely  from  the  plots  of  the 
Papists,  but  from  the  Protestants  themselves  relapsing  into 
error;  and  to  this  the  ministers  were  jealously  alive.  Scotland 
was  ill  provided  with  the  means  of  education,  worse  now  than 
before  the  Reformation,  for  the  monasteries  had  been  destroyed, 
and  nothing  substituted  in  their  stead  ;  and  parents  were 
therefore  in  the  habit  of  sending  their  children  to  France  and 
other  Continental  countries  to  be  educated.  Some  of  these 
returned  Romanists.  The  Church  took  alarm,  and  passed  an 
act  prohibiting  parents  from  sending  their  children  out  of  the 
realm  upon  any  such  pretences.1  The  Edinburgh  clergy  went 
further.  The  merchants  of  the  metropolis  had  carried  on  a 
lucrative  traffic  with  Spain.  The  ministers  brought  this  before 
the  magistrates  as  a  crime  to  be  prohibited,  and  from  the 
pulpit  declared,  * '  that  no  one  could  make  a  voyage  to  Spain 
without  danger  of  his  soul,  and  therefore  they  charged  every 
one  in  the  name  of  God  to  abstain."  The  merchants  per- 
severed in  their  voyages  ;  the  ministers  cited  them  before  the 
session,  and  commanded  them  to  desist.  The  merchants 
complained  to  the  king,  who  told  them  to  go  on  as  they  had 
done ;  the  ministers  threatened  them  with  excommunication 
if  they  did.  At  this  crisis  the  town-council  interfered,  and  by 
representing  that  many  of  the  Spaniards  were  indebted  to  the 
Scots,  and  some  of  the  Scots  indebted  to  the  Spaniards,  and 
that  these  accounts  could  never  be  cleared  unless  the  traffic 
were  continued  for  a  time  at  least,  they  managed  to  stay  the 
storm.2 

The  people  who  had  joined  the  Protestant  Church  had 
not  been  able  all  at  once  to  throw  off  the  habits  in  which 
they  had  been  educated.  Multitudes  still  resorted  to  the  holy 
rood  of  Peebles,  to  consecrated  wells,  to  localities  sanctified 
by  superstition.  Christmas  and  Easter  were  still  observed  ; 
bonfires  were  kindled ;  carols  were  sung.     There  were  Papal 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  184,  185. 

2  Historie  of  King  James  Sext,  pp.  254,  255.  Calderwood  states  that 
the  matter  was  brought  before  the  Assembly. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  ROMAN  USAGES.  41  I 

practices  at  bridals  and  births ;  and  wakes  for  the  dead.  The 
Church  laboured  to  suppress  these  inveterate  tendencies  ;  but 
more  than  one  generation  required  to  die  out  before  they  suc- 
ceeded.1 We  have  vestiges  of  them  at  the  present  day.  The 
past  continually  intrudes  itself  into  the  present.  The  Pro- 
testant preachers  went  further,  and  prudently  discouraged 
everything  which  had  the  appearance  of  Popery.  The  Bishop 
of  Dunkeld  had  administered  the  sacrament  of  the  Supper 
upon  a  work-day  :  he  was  admonished  never  to  do  so  except 
on  the  Sunday ; 2  a  marked  difference  must  be  made  between 
it  and  the  mass.  The  Duke  of  Athol  had  died,  and  there 
was  a  report  of  superstitious  rites  being  prepared  for  his  burial, 
— that  there  was  a  white  cross  upon  the  mortcloth,  and  that 
the  mourners  were  to  be  clothed  in  long  gowns,  with  stroupes, 
and  to  carry  torches.  The  Assembly  instantly  despatched 
two  of  its  members  to  inquire  into  this ;  and  it  was  arranged 
that  the  mortcloth  should  be  covered  with  black  velvet,  and 
the  stroupes  removed.  It  was  denied  that  there  had  been  any 
intention  of  using  torches.3 

The  Protestantism  of  the  king  was  vehemently  suspected  by 
some  of  the  more  zealous  Presbyterians.  There  was  no  more 
ground  for  their  suspicions  than  there  would  be  for  believing 
that  the  statesmen  who  carried  the  Roman  Catholic  Emanci- 
pation Bill  were  themselves  Roman  Catholics.  James  knew 
how  strong  the  Popish  party  was  in  Scotland ;  how  strong  it 
was  in  England ;  and  it  was  a  part  of  his  kingcraft  to  propitiate 
and  conciliate  all.  But  though  a  Protestant,  he  was  never  a 
hearty  Presbyterian  ; 4  and  he  had  a  royal  pride  in  exhibiting 
his  theological  gladiatorship  against  both  Papists  and  Presby- 
ters. He  encountered  Balcanquhal  in  the  High  Church 
upon  the  authority  of  bishops ;  he  continued  the  argument 
in  the  palace.  He  wrangled  with  Gibson  about  his  liberty  of 
speech  in  the  pulpit ;  and  did  not  disdain  to  defend,  both  by 
tongue  and  pen,  his  Episcopal  legislation.  But  he  was  equally 
zealous  against  the  doctrines  of  Trent.  He  converted  Lennox. 
He  met  James  Gordon,  a  celebrated  Jesuit  of  the  family  of 
Huntly,  in  single  combat,  and  drove  him  from  his  subterfuges, 
to  the  admiration  of  the  lords  and  ladies  assembled  at  Holy- 

1  Book  of  the    Universal    Kirk.      Calderwood's  History — everywhere 
from  1560  to  1600. 

2  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  144.  3  Ibid. 

4  This  is  proved  not  only  by  his  whole  history,  but  by  his  sentiments  in 
the  Basilicon  Doron. 


412  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XUL 

rood  to  hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon.  The  Jesuit  finally 
affected  to  agree  with  the  king  regarding  both  justification  and 
predestination,  and  put  the  substance  of  what  had  been  said 
into  writing.  The  polemical  monarch,  on  examining  the 
document,  remarked  to  Gordon,  that,  having  subscribed  these 
things,  he  could  no  longer  remain  a  follower  of  Loyola ;  but 
the  wily  Jesuit  answered  that  every  Catholic  prince  in  Europe 
would  put  their  hands  to  the  same  articles.1  There  is  reason 
to  fear  that  the  king,  though  claiming  the  victory,  had  been 
out-manoeuvred. 

There  is  nothing  more  characteristic  of  the  times  than 
the  liberties  which  the  ministers  took  with  the  king.  Etiquette 
had  not  yet  so  hedged  about  royalty  as  to  prevent  easy  access 
into  the  presence-chamber,  and  the  utmost  plainness  of  speech 
while  there.  Both  in  public  and  private,  the  ministers  largely 
availed  themselves  of  their  privilege.  They  saw  no  special 
virtue  in  a  royal  argument,  and  never  dreamt  they  were  bound 
to  yield  to  it ;  they  saw  no  particular  apology  for  a  royal  sin, 
but  thought  it  their  duty  to  rebuke  it  on  the  spot.  Craig,  in 
the  High  Church  of  Edinburgh,  so  sharply  rebuked  the  king 
to  his  face  for  a  proclamation  he  had  issued  affecting  the 
Church,  that  he  is  said  to  have  wept.2  When  the  deputation 
of  ministers  waited  upon  James  to  remonstrate  about  the 
reception  of  the  French  ambassadors,  the  king,  as  was  his 
wont,  gave  utterance  to  several  oaths  in  the  course  of  the  con- 
versation. Davidson  remained  a  little  behind  his  colleagues, 
and  admonished  the  king  that  he  ought  not  thus  to  swear,  and 
take  the  name  of  God  in  vain.  James  was  good-natured  enough 
to  take  the  advice  well,  and  laughingly  to  thank  Davidson 
for  it.3 

For  many  years  after  the  Reformation,  the  utmost  harmony 
and  good-will  seems  to  have  prevailed  among  all  the  Protes- 
tant Churches.  The  fact  that  they  had  separated  from  Rome 
united  them  to  one  another  :  there  was  but  one  Papal  Church 
and  one  Protestant  Church.  The  ministers  of  one  Reformed 
nation  were  freely  admitted  into  the  pulpits  of  another ;  the 
nationality  of  Churches  was  still  unknown.  Knox  ministered 
in  England,  in  Geneva,  in  Scotland  ;  the  Church  of  which  he 
was  an  apostle  was  not  limited  to  his  native  country,  or  to  any 
country.     It  was  wherever  Protestantism  was.     When  there 

1  Papers  illustrative  of  the  reigns  of  Queen  Mary  and  King  James,  Ban. 
Club.  Jul. 

2  Calderwood,  vol.  iii.  p.  674.  3  Ibid.  p.  697. 


CHAP.  XIII. ]  SPLIT  IN  THE  CHURCHES.  413 

was  persecution  in  England,  many  of  its  preachers  came  into 
Scotland ;  when  there  was  persecution  in  Scotland,  they  re- 
turned to  England.  Geneva  was  ever  the  refuge  of  all.  The 
General  Assembly  formally  gave  its  sanction  to  the  Helvetian 
Confession,  with  some  trifling  exceptions ;  and  wrote  friendly 
letters  "  to  their  brethren,  the  bishops,  and  pastors  of  England, 
who  had  renounced  the  Roman  Antichrist,  and  professed  with 
them  the  Lord  Jesus  in  sincerity."1 

But  when  the  Presbyterian  constitution  of  Scotland  became 
more  clearly  defined,  and  when  the  Assembly  cast  out  bishops, 
and  declared  Episcopacy  to  be  a  sin,  a  chasm  broad  arid  deep 
began  to  form  between  the  two  Churches.  The  irritation  of 
the  Anglican  dignitaries  was  increased  by  the  rise  of  Puritan- 
ism at  their  own  door.  The  Puritans  were  already  numerous 
in  the  south  ;  they  held  opinions  almost  identical  with  the 
northern  Presbyters  ;  and  the  bishops  naturally  transferred  the 
dislike  with  which  they  regarded  the  one  to  the  other.  Had 
there  been  nothing  akin  to  Presbyterianism  in  England 
the  lordly  prelates  would  have  looked  at  it  across  the 
border  with  condescending  kindness.  Had  there  been 
no  attempt  to  force  Episcopacy  upon  Scotland,  bishops 
would  never  have  been  spoken  of  as  the  bastards  of 
Popery.  We  can  view  other  forms  of  Church  government  than 
our  own  in  the  distance  with  perfect  complacency ;  it  is  only 
when  they  are  brought  near  us  that  our  equanimity  is  disturbed. 

The  first  hostile  blow  was  struck  by  England.  The  earliest 
Reformers  of  the  Anglican  Church  had  held  that  there  were 
but  two  orders  of  ecclesiastical  office-bearers  mentioned  in  the 
New  Testament — bishops  and  deacons — the  presbyter  and 
bishop  having  been  originally  the  same,  and  the  superiority  of 
the  bishop  an  arrangement  of  after-growth.  Dr  Bancroft,  on 
the  9th  of  February  1588,  preached  a  sermon  at  St  Paul's 
Cross  before  the  parliament,  in  which  he  startled  all  England 
by  pleading  for  the  divine  right  of  Episcopacy.2  In  this  ser- 
mon the  future  archbishop  railed  against  the  Puritans,  and 
turning  from  them  he  next  railed  against  the  Scotch  Presby- 
terians. He  abused  their  great  Reformer,  as  a  man  of  conten- 
tious humour ;  he  abused  their  church  Courts,  as  laboratories 
of  treason ;  he  lauded  the  king  for  having  put  them  down. 
This  attack  naturally  provoked  antagonism.  The  Presbytery 
of  Edinburgh  appointed  a  committee  to  write  to  Elizabeth,  cora- 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  49. 

2  Extracts  of  this  sermon  are  to  be  found  in  the  Wodrow  Miscellnay 
vol.  i.  pp.  .477-96. 


414  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

plaining  of  the  evil  treatment  they  had  received,  and  to  draw 
up  a  refutation  of  Bancroft's  sermon.  The  letter  and  refuta- 
tion were  prepared,  but  never  sent ;  and  the  only  answer  the 
English  polemic  received  was  contained  in  a  small  pamphlet  by 
Davidson,  and  entitled  "  Bancroft's  rashness  in  railing  against 
the  Church  of  Scotland."  x  The  author  presented  a  copy  to 
the  king,  but  the  king  was  greatly  troubled  at  it,  and  would 
have  done  anything  to  suppress  it.2  But  though  the  battle  was 
almost  entirely  on  one  side,  it  was  continued.  Bancroft  care- 
fully collected  new  calumnies  against  the  northern  Church,  and 
published  two  pamphlets,  one  of  which  was  entitled  "  Danger- 
ous Positions,  or  Scottish  Genevating  and  English  Scottising  for 
Discipline."  The  title  indicated  the  tender  part :  it  was  the 
Puritans  who  were  troubling  him.  Unhappily,  the  jealousy 
which  has  too  long  prevailed  between  the  sister  Churches  of 
England  and  Scotland  was  begun. 

Independency  entered  Scotland  while  the  war  betwixt  Epis- 
copacy and  Presbytery  was  being  waged,  and  so  the  three  great 
rival  schemes  of  Church  government  were  brought  for  the  first 
time  face  to  face  upon  the  field.  The  Independents  were  first 
called  Brownists,  and  took  their  rise  about  1580.  Robert 
Brown,  a  preacher  in  the  Diocese  of  Norwich,  perambulated 
the  country,  declaiming  against  bishops,  ceremonies,  ecclesi- 
astical courts,  and  the  ordination  of  ministers.  Thirty-two 
times  was  he  cast  into  prison,  sometimes  into  dungeons  so  dark 
that  he  could  not  see  his  hand  at  noon-day  ;  but  he  persevered, 
and  managed  to  draw  a  little  congregation  around  him. 
According  to  the  principles  of  this  sect,  every  congregation 
formed  a  separate  and  independent  church.  The  whole  power 
of  admitting  and  excluding  members,  of  deciding  controver- 
sies, and  even  of  setting  apart  pastors  and  deacons  to  their 
work,  rested  with  the  brotherhood.  They  unchurched  all  other 
churches.  A  community  holding  principles  like  these  was  not 
to  be  suffered  to  take  root  in  England.  The  congregation  was 
broken  up,  and  Brown,  with  a  number  of  his  followers,  sought 
refuge  in  Holland.3  But  there  dissensions  arose,  and  Brown, 
with  some  of  his  sect,  came  into  Scotland. 

They  took  up  their  abode  in  the  Canongate  of  Edinburgh, 
and  soon  began  to  make  their  principles  known.  They  under- 
took to  prove  before  the  kirk-session  that  witnesses  at  baptism 

1  Extracts  from  these  are  also  to  be  found  in  the  Wodrow  Miscellany, 
vol.  i.  pp.  496-520. 

,J  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Bowes  to  Burghley,  2d  October  1590. 

:;  Neal's  History  of  the  Puritans,  vol.  i. 


A.D.  1592.]  THE  BROWNISTS.  415 

was  not  a  thing  indifferent,  but  a  sin  \  but  the  kirk-session  was 
not  convinced.  Brown  himself  had  next  a  conference  with 
some  members  of  the  Presbytery,  and  alleged  that  the  whole 
discipline  of  Scotland  was  wrong,  that  he  and  his  company 
would  not  submit  to  it,  and  that  they  appealed  from  the 
Church  to  the  magistrate.  Lawson  and  Davidson  were  ap- 
pointed to  examine  his  writings ;  and  this  done,  he  was  cited 
before  the  Presbytery  to  answer  for  his  heresies.  He  boldly 
avowed  his  books  and  opinions,  and  the  Church  resolved  to 
lay  the  matter  before  the  king.  But  James  did  not  interfere, 
and  it  was  even  thought  that  the  Brownists  were  fostered  by 
the  court  that  they  might  act  as  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the 
Church.1 

Brown  afterwards  returned  to  England,  renounced  his  prin- 
ciples, became  a  rector  in  Northamptonshire,  and  threw  a 
scandal  upon  his  austere  youth  by  a  dissolute  old  age.2  But 
when  he  died,  his  opinions  did  not  die  with  him.  He  had 
sown  some  seed,  which,  possessing  a  principle  of  vitality, 
sprung  up,  and  was  destined,  in  the  course  of  years,  to  over- 
spread the  land  with  its  abundant  vegetation.  It  was  already 
becoming  plain  that  the  indivisibility  of  the  Roman  Church 
was  not  to  be  a  characteristic  of  Protestantism.  The  elements 
of  strife — the  symptoms  of  dissent — were  beginning  to  appear. 

The  period  which  we  have  traversed,  extending  from  1560 
to  1592,  was  a  period  of  excitement,  but  it  was  a  healthy  ex- 
citement. The  stagnant  stillness  of  Romanism  was  gone;  the 
agitation  of  Protestantism,  the  agitation  inseparable  from  free 
thought,  was  begun.  There  was  liberty ;  let  us  not  marvel 
though  in  a  few  cases  it  had  degenerated  into  licentiousness. 
And  while  we  may  not  approve,  let  us  not  too  rudely  blame 
the  excesses  of  men  who  were  breathing  for  the  first  time  the 
mountain  air  of  freedom,  and  felt  its  exhilarating  influences. 
Like  the  cripple  restored  to  the  use  of  his  limbs,  they  felt  in- 
clined to  leap  with  a  half-frantic  joy.  Had  they  only  been 
left  to  themselves,  the  staid  and  steady  step  would  soon  have 
succeeded. 


CHAPTER     XIV. 

In  the  estuary  of  the  Clyde,  just  where  that  noble  river  opens 

its  mouth  that  it  may  pour  its  full  volume  of  water  into  the 

sea,  are  two  small  islands  called  the  Cumbraes.     They  had 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  iv.  p.  133.  -  Xeal's  History,  vol.  i. 


41 6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

swarmed  with  Danes  when  Haco  led  his  victorious  squadron 
from  the  Hebrides  to  dispute  at  Largs  the  sovereignty  of  the 
mainland.  They  had  often  given  shelter  to  pirates,  who 
skulked  securely  in  their  creeks,  and  landed  upon  the  coast  at 
their  leisure.  With  no  population,  at  the  period  to  which  our 
history  relates,  but  a  few  miserable  fishermen,  and  completely 
cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  country,  one  should  imagine  no 
hiding-place  could  be  more  adapted  at  once  for  concealment 
and  escape.  But  the  Church  possessed  a  kind  of  omnipre- 
sence ;  and  no  detective  police  was  ever  more  effective  than 
were  its  ministers  in  capturing  Papists.  George  Ker,  a  doctor 
of  laws,  and  a  brother  of  the  Abbot  of  Newbattle,  had  been 
excommunicated  for  Popery  by  the  Presbytery  of  Haddington. 
He  came  secretly  to  the  west  country.  Andrew  Knox,  the 
minister  of  Paisley,  got  information  that  he  was  in  the  Cum- 
braes,  and  that  a  vessel  was  lying  in  the  Fairley  roads,  only 
waiting  a  favourable  wind  to  set  sail  for  Spain.  Evil  was  sus- 
pected, and  with  a  company  of  Glasgow  students,  armed  for 
the  occasion,  Knox  was  instantly  upon  his  track.  Ker  was 
seized ;  the  vessel  was  searched  ;  and  papers  of  a  very  sus- 
picious character  were  found  in  the  trunks  of  the  fugitive.  The 
news  of  all  this  soon  spread  through  the  country,  and  caused 
the  greatest  excitement.  Ker  was  carried  a  prisoner  to  Calder, 
and  from  Calder  to  Edinburgh.  It  was  on  a  Sunday,  toward 
the  end  of  December  1592,  when  he  reached  the  capital.  The 
ministers  knew  he  was  coming ;  they  shortened  their  sermons  ; 
and,  by  their  exhortations,  the  populace,  fully  armed,  on  horse 
and  on  foot,  went  forth  to  meet  him,  and  conduct  him  to  his 
dungeon.1 

Among  the  documents  found  in  the  luggage  of  Ker  were 
several  blank  sheets  of  paper,  subscribed  by  Huntly,  Angus, 
Errol,  and  Patrick  Gordon  of  Auchindoun.  It  was  at  first 
suspected  that  these  blanks  were  written  with  some  invisible 
ink,  which  a  future  process  would  render  visible  \  but  it  turned 
out  afterwards  that  they  were  true  blanks,  to  be  filled  up  by 
Ker,  and  delivered  to  the  King  of  Spain.  When  Ker  was  first 
submitted  to  examination,  he  denied  everything ;  but,  by  the 
command  of  the  king,  he  was  put  to  the  torture,  and,  on  the 
second  stroke  of  the  boots,  he  confessed  all.  He  was  to 
negotiate  the  descent  of  a  Spanish  force  upon  the  coast,  which 
was  to  be  joined  by  the  Popish  nobles,  and  the  Catholic  reli- 

1  Historie  of  King  James  Sext,  pp.  256-57.     Calder  wood's  History,  vol. 
v.  p.  192. 


a.  D.   1593.]  POPISH  TREASON.  417 

gion  re-established,  or,  at  least,  toleration  secured  for  its 
adherents.  Graham  of  Fintry,  another  of  the  conspirators, 
was  shortly  afterwards  seized,  and  by  his  confession  corrobo- 
rated the  statements  of  Ker.1 

The  ministry  considered  this  a  matter  which  specially 
affected  them ;  they  held  a  meeting  in  Edinburgh  with  a 
number  of  barons  and  nobles  zealous  for  the  Protestant  cause  \ 
they  waited  upon  the  king  at  Holyrood ;  they  offered  in  the 
emergency,  to  provide  him  with  a  body-guard  of  horse  and 
foot;  and  urged  hirn  to  bring  the  traitors  to  instant  justice. 
The  king  was  annoyed  rather  than  otherwise  at  this  loyal  promp- 
titude on  the  part  of  his  subjects  ;  he  did  not  think  the  danger 
so  imminent  as  they  did ;  he  had  not  observed  such  readiness 
on  other  occasions  quite  as  grave ;  he  hinted  all  this  to  them 
in  his  address  ;  but  still  he  thanked  them,  and  promised  that 
he  would  see  justice  done.  The  popular  agitation  increased 
instead  of  abating,  and  probably  under  the  pressure  of  this. 
James,  upon  the  15th  of  January,  by  the  advice  of  his  Council 
and  nobility,  resolved  that  the  laws  against  Papists  of  every 
rank  should  be  enforced ;  that  letters  should  be  issued, 
charging  the  Earls  of  Huntly  and  Errol,  and  Gordon  of  Auchin- 
doun,  to  compear  before  his  Majesty  and  Privy  Council  at  St 
i\ndrews  on  the  5th  of  February,  to  answer  to  the  things  which 
should  be  laid  to  their  charge ;  and  the  lieges  were  instructed 
to  be  ready  to  attend  his  Majesty  in  arms,  in  case  their  services 
should  be  required.2 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  king  was  determined  to 
punish  the  traitors,  though  he  was  not  animated  by  the  fiery 
zeal  of  the  Presbyterian  clergy.  The  Earl  of  Angus  had  been 
surprised  in  Edinburgh  immediately  after  the  seizure  of  Ker7 
and  was  in  prison.  Ker  and  Graham  were  in  prison  too. 
Graham  was  tried,  condemned,  and  executed  ;  but  prisons  in 
those  days  were  not  over  secure,  and  both  Angus  and  Ker  con- 
trived to  escape.3  The  day  fixed  for  the  trial  of  Huntly  and 
Errol  arrived  ;  they  did  not  appear,  but  confined  themselves 
to  their  strongholds  in  the  north ;  and  the  king  made  instant 
preparations  to  march  against  them.  The  forfeiture  of  their 
estates  was  considered  as  certain,  and  the  Protestant  courtiers 
were  already  in  fancy  dividing  the  prey.     James  advanced 

1  Tytler's  History,  vol.  ix.      Calderwood,  vol.  v. 
-  Calderwood,  vol.  v.     Spottiswood,  lib.  vi. 

3  Ker's  jailor  was  afterwards  hanged  for  his  carelessness  in  allowing  his 
prisoner  to  escape. 

VOL.   I.  2D 


41 8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

without  opposition  to  Aberdeen  ;  the  Popish  nobles  fled  before 
him  to  the  wilds  of  Caithness,  and  their  immense  possessions 
were  declared  to  be  the  property  of  the  Crown.  But  as  the 
Countess  of  Huntly  was  allowed  to  continue  her  residence  in 
the  principal  castle  of  the  family,  and  as  the  estates  of  both 
earls  were  confided  to  the  factorage  of  their  relatives,  it  was 
shrewdly  conjectured  that  it  was  but  a  "  dissembled  confisca- 
tion."1 Angus  was  more  severely  dealt  with,  but  still  his 
estates  were  not  placed  beyond  reach  of  recovery;  and  no 
forfeiture  could  be  considered  as  final  till  it  was  ratified  by  the 
parliament. 

The  clemency  of  the  king  was  generally  blamed  by  the 
Protestants,  and  the  preachers,  taking  up  the  matter  in  the 
pulpit,  hinted  that  James  was  himself  a  Papist  at  heart ;  some 
declared  that  he  had  himself  trafficked  with  the  Prince  of 
Parma  and  the  King  of  Spain ;  and  in  the  excitement  of  the 
time  everything  was  believed.2  The  truth  is,  the  Presbyterian 
ministers  were  determined  not  merely  upon  the  punishment  of 
treason,  but  upon  the  extirpation  of  Popery,  and  nothing  less 
would  satisfy  them.  This  is  too  clearly  seen  in  the  fierce 
intolerance  breathed  by  the  General  Assembly  which  met  at 
Dundee  in  the  month  of  April.  They  laid  the  following  peti- 
tions before  his  Majesty  : — 

i.  That  all  Papists  should  be  punished  according  to  the  laws 
of  God  and  the  realm. 

2.  That  the  act  of  parliament  should  strike  upon  all  manner 
of  men,  landed  and  unlanded,  in  office  or  otherwise,  as  it  was 
provided  to  strike  upon  beneficed  persons. 

3.  That  a  declaration  should  be  given  against  Jesuits,  semi- 
nary priests,  and  trafficking  Papists,  declaring  them  guilty  of 
treason  and  lese  majesty,  whereby  those  who  harboured  such 
persons  might  be  punished  according  to  law. 

4.  That  all  such  persons  as  the  Church  should  declare  publicly 
to  be  Papists,  although  they  were  not  excommunicated,  should 
be  debarred  from  brooking  any  office,  having  access  to  his 
Majesty,  or  enjoying  any  benefit  of  the  laws  ;  and  that  all  the 
civil  pains  which  followed  excommunication  should  follow  this 
declaration.3 

No  severer  laws  had  ever  been  passed  by  Popery  against 

1  Tytler,  vol.  ix.  p.  76.     Calderwood,  vol.  v. 

2  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  v.  p.  251. 

3  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  381,  382.  Calderwood's  History, 
vol.  v.  p.  240. 


A.D.  1593.]  THE  CHURCH'S  DEMANDS.  4-19 

nascent  Protestantism,  than  were  now  sought  to  be  enacted  by 
Protestantism  against  enfeebled  Popery.  Had  the  Council 
granted  what  the  Church  asked,  an  ecclesiastical  court  had  but 
to  declare  a  man  to  be  a  Papist,  and  he  became  an  outlaw.  A 
Papist  had  but  to  let  a  priest  come  under  his  roof,  and  he  was 
liable  to  the  confiscation  of  his  goods.  It  is  true  that  almost 
all  that  the  Church  asked  was  already  written  in  the  statute- 
book  ;  but  James  was  wisely  unwilling  to  put  the  laws  into 
execution.  How  could  he  ?  Thirteen  of  his  greatest  nobles, 
and  a  considerable  part  of  the  population  of  the  kingdom, 
especially  in  the  north,  were  still  attached  to  the  Roman  faith. 
Had  he  done  so,  a  massacre  must  have  ensued  more  terrible 
than  the  Massacre  of  St  Bartholomew's  Day. 

James  was  still  jealous  of  the  power  of  the  Assemblies,  and 
of  the  liberty  of  speech  used  in  the  pulpit.  He  therefore  re- 
quested the  Assembly  to  send  commissioners  to  him,  to 
arrange  the  time  and  place  for  the  meeting  of  the  next 
Assembly ;  and  also  to  pass  an  act  prohibiting  ministers,  under 
pain  of  deprivation,  to  declaim  against  his  Majesty  or  Council 
in  their  sermons.  The  first  request  was  agreed  to,  but  the 
second  only  in  a  very  modified  form.  It  was  ordained  that  no 
minister  should  utter  from  the  pulpit  any  "  irreverent  speeches 
against  his  Majesty  or  Council,  or  their  proceedings ;  but  that 
all  their  public  admonitions  should  proceed  upon  just  and 
necessary  causes,  and  sufficient  warrant,  in  all  fear,  love,  and 
reverence."1  The  king  was  annoyed  at  the  conditions  with 
which  the  Assembly  had  clogged  its  resolution,  for  he  had  his 
suspicions  as  to  what  would  be  deemed  "  just  and  necessary 
causes/'  and  what  would  be  the  spirit  of  "  fear,  love,  and  re- 
verence "  in  which  he  would  be  spoken  of.  Time  showed  that 
there  were  grounds  for  his  fear. 

On  the  1 6th  of  July  the  parliament  met  in  the  Tolbooth  of 
Edinburgh.  It  was  hoped  that  the  forfeiture  of  the  Popish 
earls  would  now  be  ratified,  and  their  treason  punished  with 
beggary,  if  not  with  death  ;  but  the  king  was  unwilling  that 
matters  should  be  driven  to  extremity ;  their  friends  were 
numerous,  and  it  would  have  been  dangerous  to  do  so  ;  and  he 
tried  to  appease  the  commissioners  of  the  Church  who  waited 
upon  him  to  know  what  was  to  be  done,  by  assuring  them  that 
his  advocate  had  declared  that  nothing  could  be  done  in  the 
meantime  for  want  of  proof.2     Acts,  however,  were  passed, 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  3S6. 

2  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  v.  p.  254. 


42 O  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

prohibiting  the  holding  of  markets  upon  Sunday,  exempting 
stipends  from  taxation,  declaring  the  contemners  of  the 
Church's  sentences  to  be  rebels,  and  forbidding  the  saying  of 
mass,  or  the  harbouring  of  excommunicated  Papists,  under  the 
severest  penalties.1  Still  the  rigid  Protestants  were  not  satis- 
fied. On  the  Sunday,  Davidson  denounced  the  parliament  as 
a  black  parliament,  as  iniquity  had  occupied  the  place  of 
equity.2 

The  ecclesiastical  courts  were  guided  by  different  men,  and 
resolved  upon  different  measures  from  the  high  court  of  parlia- 
ment. On  the  25th  of  September  the  Synod  of  Fife  met  at  St 
Andrews.  It  was  under  the  influence  of  the  Melvilles,  and 
breathed  their  spirit.  It  was  resolved  that  a  solemn  fast  should 
be  held  to  bemoan  the  state  of  the  kingdom.  It  was  resolved 
that  the  Earls  of  Angus,  Huntly,  and  Errol,  Lord  Hume,  Sir 
Patrick  Gordon,  and  Sir  James  Chisholm,  should  be  excom- 
municated, and  that  intimation  of  this  sentence  should  be 
made  from  every  pulpit  in  the  kingdom,  that  none  might  pre- 
sume to  receive  them  within  their  houses,  or  to  have  any  deal- 
ings, friendship,  or  society  with  them.  The  synod  was  some- 
what at  a  loss  to  discover  upon  what  pretext  they  could  pass 
this  sentence  upon  the  Popish  nobles,  as  none  of  them  resided 
within  the  bounds ;  but  they  ingeniously  hit  upon  the  circum- 
stances, that  three  of  them  had  attended  the  University  of  St 
Andrews  in  their  youth,  that  the  same  three  had  married  in 
the  province,  and  on  that  occasion  had  subscribed  the  articles 
of  religion,  and  that  all  of  them  were  in  the  habit  of  visiting 
their  friends  in  Fife.3  This  was  voted  enough  to  bring  them 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court. 

James  was  anxious  for  quiet ;  he  had  a  secret  liking  for 
Huntly;  he  had  some  thoughts  of  restoring  him  to  favour. 
He  was  annoyed  at  the  high-handed  sentence  of  the  Synod  of 
Fife ;  remonstrated  with  Bruce  against  the  irregularity  of  the 
procedure  ;  and  remarked  that  he  had  no  rest  till  he  had  given 
the  Church  its  present  government,  but  that,  seeing  it  was 
abused,  he  would  find  means  to  reform  it.4  He  sounded  the 
disposition  of  Lord  Hamilton  ;  he  complained  that  he  had  not 
a  single  nobleman  at  his  devotion  ;  and  that  if  he  received 
Huntly,  the  ministers  would  cry  out  that  he  was  an  apostate 

1  James  VI.,  pari,  xiii.,  chapters  clix.  clx.  clxii.  clxiv. 

2  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  v.  p.  255. 

3  Calderwood,   vol.    v.   pp.    261-63.     Spottiswood,  lib.   vi.     Melville's 
Diary.  4  Spottiswood,  lib.  vi. 


A.D.   1593.]  THE  KING'S  PERPLEXITIES.  42 1 

from  religion.  "  You  may  receive  him,"  said  Hamilton,  "  if 
he  and  his  accomplices  are  not  enemies  to  religion,  but  not 
otherwise."  "  I  cannot  tell  what  to  make  of  that,"  said  the 
king ;  "  but  the  ministers  hold  them  for  enemies.  For  my 
own  part,  I  think  they  should  enjoy  liberty  of  conscience." 
"  Then  we  are  all  gone,  sir,"  cried  Hamilton,  "  we  are  all 
gone  ;  and  though  no  others  withstand,  I  will."1  He  was  like 
the  men  of  his  generation ;  he  did  not  understand  that  the 
safety  of  a  divided  state  consisted  in  giving  freedom  of  con- 
science to  all  its  subjects,  and  that  if  this  had  been  granted, 
conspiracies  would  have  ceased.  Would  Huntly,  Errol, 
Angus,  have  plotted  with  the  Spaniard  and  jeoparded  all,  had 
they  not  been  denied  that  which  was  dearer  to  them  than 
life? 

On  the  12th  of  October,  the  king  left  Holyroodhouse  for 
Jedburgh,  where  the  gentlemen  of  Merse  and  Teviotdale  were 
charged  to  meet  him  to  repress  some  disturbances  which  had 
taken  place  on  the  borders.  When  he  was  near  Fala,  the 
Popish  earls  threw  themselves  in  his  way,  went  down  upon 
their  knees  before  him,  protested  their  innocence,  and  earnestly 
craved  to  be  tried  for  the  crimes  which  had  been  laid  to  their 
charge.  James  spoke  gruffly  to  them ;  but  after  taking  the 
advice  of  the  nobles  in  his  train,  he  bid  them  enter  themselves 
in  the  town  of  Perth  by  the  24th  of  the  month,  and  remain 
there  till  arrangements  were  made  for  their  trial.  The  king- 
was  terrified  lest  this  meeting  should  be  misconstrued,  and 
instantly  despatched  messengers  to  explain  to  the  English 
ambassador  and  the  Edinburgh  ministers  what  had  really 
occurred.  This  precaution  did  not  serve  its  purpose ;  many 
people  persisted,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  in  believing  that 
the  whole  scene  was  a  farce,  concocted  by  the  monarch  him- 
self, preparatory  to  the  pardon  of  the  rebels.  - 

At  this  very  time  a  convention  of  ministers  and  barons  was 
sitting  in  Edinburgh.  They  instantly  despatched  commis- 
sioners to  the  king,  to  lay  before  him  what  were  their  views  as 
to  the  trial  of  the  Popish  lords.  They  craved  that  the  trial 
should  be  postponed,  and  the  traitors  meanwhile  kept  in 
custody  ;  that  the  jury  should  be  nominated  by  their  accusers, 
the  professors  of  the  gospel ;  that  being  excommunicated  men 
they  should  have  no  benefit  of  law  till  they  were  reconciled  to 
the  Church,  and  that  his  Majesty  should  be  accompanied  to 

1  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  268. 

2  Spottiswood,  lib.  vi.     Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  270. 


422  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  |CHAP.  XIV. 

Perth   by  a   Protestant  body-guard,  who  would  see   justice 
done.1 

The  commissioners,  bearing  these  requests,  got  an  audience 
of  the  king  at  Jedburgh,  but  their  reception  was  not  very 
gracious.  James  stormed  against  the  Synod  of  Fife  for 
having  excommunicated  the  Lords ;  he  stormed  against  the 
ministers  and  barons  for  having  held  a  meeting  without  his 
express  permission ;  but  before  the  interview  was  concluded, 
his  choler  had  somewhat  abated,  and  he  answered  their 
remarks  by  stating  that,  seeing  a  trial  had  been  craved,  he 
could  not  in  equity  refuse  it ;  that  he  would  take  care  that  it 
should  be  ordered  according  to  justice  \  and  that  immediately 
after  his  return  from  the  south,  he  would  hold  a  convention  of 
the  estates  at  Linlithgow,  where  everything  connected  with  the 
matter  would  be  arranged.2 

The  poorest  subject  in  the  realm,  if  accused  of  crime,  had 
a  right  to  claim  the  benefit  of  a  trial.     The  Popish  peers  had 
been  accused,  but  they  declared  they  were  innocent,  and  that 
the  subscriptions  to  the  Spanish  blanks  were  forgeries ;  were 
they  to  be  denied  the  opportunity  of  proving  their  statements 
if  they  could,    and   condemned   without   a   hearing?      The 
humane  maxim  of  law  is,  that  a  man  must  be  held  innocent 
till  he  is  proved  guilty.     But  it  was  becoming  obvious  that  an 
impartial  trial  of  the  accused  lords  was  an  impossibility.     If 
they  were  tried  in  a  Protestant  district,  and  by  a  Protestant 
jury,  their  conviction  was  certain.     If  they  were  tried  in  a 
Catholic  district,  and  by  a  Catholic  jury,  their  acquittal  was 
certain.     Perth  lay  midway  between  the  districts  which  were 
most    decidedly    Protestant    and    those    which    were    most 
thoroughly  Popish,  and   therefore   seemed   the   fittest   place 
that  could  be  fixed  upon  for  the  assize.     But  had  the  trial 
taken  place  at  Perth,  it  is  probable  its  beautiful  Inches  would 
have   become  the   battle-field   of  Popery  and  Protestantism 
in  Scotland,  and  the  Tay  have  rolled  red  with  blood.     The 
earls  had  already  come  to  the  Fair  City  ;  their  armed  retainers 
were   flocking   fast   after   them.     The   commissioners  of  the 
Church  were  not  behind  in  warlike  preparations.     Everywhere 
they  cited  the  barons  and  burghs  to  convene  at  Edinburgh,  to 
be  ready  against  the  trial.     The  country  seemed  on  the  brink 
of  a  terrible  contest,  in  which  old  feuds  would  receive  new 
vigour  from  religious  bigotry  ;  and  men  would  cut  each  other's 
throats,    believing   they  were    doing   God    service.      In   this 
1  Spottiswood,  lib.  vi.  2  Melville's  Di  ry,  p.  208. 


A.D.   1593.J  THE  COMPROMISE.  423 

threatening  aspect  of  affairs,  the  king  issued  a  proclamation, 
prohibiting  all  armed  convocations  of  the  lieges.  In  conse- 
quence of  this,  the  Popish  earls  dismissed  their  forces,  and 
remained  in  Perth  with  only  a  few  friends,  and  the  adherents 
of  the  Church  hurried  to  Edinburgh,  leaving  their  arms 
behind  them.  Some  of  those  who  had  set  out  upon  their 
journey  in  armour  left  their  weapons  by  the  way.1 

On  the  last  day  of  October  the  Estates  assembled  at  Lin- 
lithgow. A  deputation  from  the  Protestant  convention  was 
again  in  waiting  to  urge  severity.  But  the  Chancellor  Mait- 
land,  after  a  temporary  banishment  from  court,  was  again  in 
power,  and  it  was  evident  that  everything  had  already  been 
arranged.  It  was  resolved  there  should  be  no  trial  after  the 
usual  form ;  but  when  the  petitions  of  the  accused  earls  were 
read,  a  committee  of  nobles,  barons,  and  commissioners  of 
burghs  was  appointed  to  consider  the  whole  matter,  and  con- 
clude on  it  as  they  should  think  most  expedient  for  the 
security  of  religion  and  the  correction  of  disorders.  It  was, 
moreover,  especially  provided,  that  of  the  ministers,  Lindsay, 
Bruce,  Galloway,  Carmichael,  Rollock,  and  Duncanson  should 
be  admitted  to  the  meetings  of  the  committee,  if  they  had  any- 
thing to  propose.  The  committee  thus  appointed  met  at 
Edinburgh  on  the  12th  of  November,  and  after  several  days 
of  anxious  consultation,  agreed  upon  the  following  resolutions : 
— 1.  That  God's  true  religion,  publicly  preached,  and  by  law 
established,  should  be  the  only  religion  professed  and  prac- 
tised by  his  Majesty's  lieges  in  time  to  come  \  and  that  all 
who  had  not  yet  embraced  the  said  religion,  or  who  had  made 
defection  from  it,  must,  before  the  1st  of  February  1594,  either 
conform  themselves  to  it,  and  give  satisfaction  to  the  Church, 
or  depart  furth  of  the  realm  to  such  parts  beyond  sea  as  his 
Majesty  should  appoint.  2.  That  the  Earls  of  Angus,  Huntly, 
and  Errol,  Sir  Patrick  Gordon,  and  Sir  James  Chisholm  should 
be  "  free  and  unaccusable  in  time  coming  "  of  the  crimes  laid 
to  their  charge  in  regard  to  the  Spanish  blanks,  provided  that 
they  refrained  from  any  such  treasonable  trafficking  in  future, 
complied  with  the  act  of  uniformity,  banished  all  Jesuits  and 
excommunicated  Papists  from  their  presence,  avoided  speaking 
against  the  established  religion  at  their  tables,  received  a  Pres- 
byterian minister  into  their  houses,  to  resolve  their  doubts  and 
prepare  them  for  subscribing  the  Confession  of  Faith.2 

1  Melville's  Diary,  p.  269.     Calderwood.  vol.  v.  pp.   274-80.     Spottis- 
wood,  lib.  vi. 

-  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  v.  p.  2S4.      Spottiswood,  lib.  vi. 


424  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

This  sentence  was  at  once  too  lenient  and  too  severe.  The 
Popish  nobles,  if  traitors,  should  not  have  been  wholly  ex- 
empted from  punishment,  and  placed  upon  the  same  level 
with  other  Roman  Catholics,  who  had  never  committed  any 
crime  but  that  of  conscientious  adherence  to  their  faith.  A 
clear  line  should  have  been  drawn  between  the  traitorous  and 
the  loyal  Romanist.  But,  otherwise,  what  shall  we  say  of  a 
decree  which  presented  to  tens  of  thousands  the  sad  alterna- 
tive of  renouncing  their  religion  or  their  country — a  life-long 
hypocrisy,  or  a  life-long  exile  ?  Was  ever  act  of  conformity 
more  sweeping — more  merciless  that  this  ?  The  sword,  or  the 
Koran ;  exile,  or  Presbytery  ;  the  dilemma  is  still  the  same 
cruel  one.  After  all,  what  casuist  will  nicely  measure  the  sin 
even  of  the  traitors  ?  Before  the  Reformation,  the  Protestants 
were  denied  the  liberty  of  conscience,  and  they  trafficked  with 
England  to  obtain  it.  After  the  Reformation,  the  Papists  were 
denied  the  liberty  of  conscience,  and  they  trafficked  with  Spam 
to  obtain  it.  If  the  imperial  parliament  now  were  to  make  it 
death  for  an  Irishman  to  be  present  at  a  mass,  confiscation  of 
goods  to  shelter  a  priest,  perpetual  exile  unless  he  signed  the 
Westminster  Confession,  would  he  do  anything  very  morally 
or  religiously  wrong  though  he  were  to  rebel  ? 

Thus  almost  the  whole  world  reasons  now,  but  it  reasoned 
differently  at  the  time  of  our  history.  The  ministers  were 
indignant  at  the  Act  of  Oblivion.  The  pulpits  resounded  with 
rebukes  of  the  king  and  his  counsellors.  Andrew  Melville 
offered  to  go  to  the  gibbet  himself  if  he  failed  to  convict 
Huntly  and  his  accomplices,  provided  they  were  sent  to  the 
gallows  if  he  succeeded  in  his  proof.  The  courtiers  smiled, 
and  said  he  was  more  zealous  than  wise.1  Queen  Elizabeth, 
however,  sympathised  with  the  clergy,  and  herself  wrote  a 
scornful,  cutting  letter  to  the  king  in  answer  to  his  explana- 
tions. "  She  could  only  pray  for  him  and  leave  him  to  himself. 
She  did  not  know  whether  shame  or  sorrow  had  the  upper 
hand  when  she  learned  how  he  had  let  those  escape  against 
whom  he  had  such  evident  proof.  Lord  !  what  wonder  grew 
in  her  that  he  should  correct  them  with  benefits,  and  simply 
banished  them  to  those  they  loved.  She  more  than  smiled  to 
read  their  childish,  foolish,  witless  excuses  turning  their  treasons' 
bills  to  artificers'  reckonings,  one  billet  lacking  only,  item,  so 
much  for  the  cord  they  best  merited."3    But  the  general  feeling 

1  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  pp.  288,  2S9. 

2  Queen  Elizabeth  to  King  James,  Calendar  of  State  Papers  (Eliz.  Scot.), 
22d  Dec.  1592. 


a.d.   1593.]  PUBLIC  FEELING.  425 

of  the  country  is  best  described  in  a  letter  by  Bowes,  the  English 
ambassador,  to  Lord  Burghley.  "This  edict  and  act  of  oblivion," 
says  he,  "  is  thought  to  be  very  injurious  to  the  Church,  and 
far  against  the  laws  of  God  and  this  realm  ;  whereupon  the 
ministers  have  not  only  protested  to  the  king  and  convention 
that  they  will  not  agree  to  the  same,  but  also  in  their  sermons 
inveigh  greatly  against  it ;  alleging  that  albeit  it  hath  a  pre- 
tence to  establish  one  true  religion  in  the  realm,  yet  liberty  is 
given  to  all  men  to  profess  what  they  list,  so  they  depart  out 
of  the  realm  :  and  thereby  they  shall  enjoy  greater  privileges 
and  advantages  than  any  other  good  subjects  can  do."1  Such 
was  the  feeling  of  dissatisfaction  on  the  one  side  ;  on  the  other 
it  was  equally  strong.  The  Popish  nobles  were  not  inclined 
to  abandon  either  their  country  or  their  creed.  Perhaps  they 
thought  themselves  powerful  enough  to  enjoy  both ;  their 
strength  must  have  been  increased  by  the  act  of  conformity  ; 
and  their  friends  and  followers  began  to  gather  around  them. 

While  things  were  in  this  state,  the  Earl  of  Both  well,  wTho 
had  more  than  once  before  made  treasonable  attempts  to  get 
possession  of  the  king's  person,  and  who  was  known  to  be 
encouraged  by  Elizabeth,  broke  over  the  border  at  the  head  of 
a  considerable  force,  marched  upon  Leith,  threatened  the 
capital,  defeated  the  royalists  in  a  skirmish  near  Niddry — rush- 
ing upon  them  with  shouts  of  "  God  and  the  Kirk!"  But 
having  obtained  this  slight  success,  he  ^retreated  upon  Kelso, 
and  there  disbanding  his  followers,  retired  into  England.2 
The  king  was  deeply  incensed  by  these  repeated  treasons,  and 
insisted  that  he  was  encouraged  by  the  ministers  of  the  Church. 
It  is  certain  there  was  no  clamour  from  the  pulpit  to  bring  him 
to  justice.  But  things  took  a  marvellous  turn.  Bothwell's 
last  desperate  cast  of  the  dice  was  to  join  his  fortunes  with 
those  of  the  excommunicated  lords.  He  was  then  excom- 
municated too. 

On  the  7th  May  1594,  the  General  Assembly  met  at  Edin- 
burgh. It  ratified  the  sentence  of  excommunication  passed  by 
the  Synod  of  Fife  upon  the  Popish  earls  ;  it  drew  up,  for 
presentation  to  the  king,  a  list  of  disorders  and  their  remedies; 
it  urged  that  the  most  vigorous  measures  should  be  taken  to 
exterminate  Popery.  Lord  Hume,  a  Popish  lord,  in  high  favour 
with  the  king,  appeared,  made  a  most  abject  submission,  declared 

1  Tytler's  History,  vol.  ix.     Also  Calendar  of  State  Papers. 

2  Spottiswood,  lib.  vi.     Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  297.     Historie  of  King 
James  Sext. 


426  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

himself  a  convert  to  the  Church,  and  was  absolved  from  ex- 
communication.1 On  the  30th  of  May  the  parliament  met. 
Huntly  and  his  associates  had  not  complied  with  the  condi- 
tions of  the  act  of  oblivion,  and  now  rigorous  measures  were 
resolved  upon.  James  made  a  harangue  to  his  Estates,  in 
which  he  declared  that  hitherto  he  had  used  plaster  and  medi- 
cine, but  that  these  having  failed  to  cure,  he  was  to  use  fire 
as  the  last  remedy.2  The  Spanish  blanks,  the  depositions  of 
Ker  and  Graham,  the  acts  of  parliament  bearing  on  the  sub- 
ject, were  produced  and  read ;  the  rebels  were  judged,  though 
not  unanimously,  to  be  guilty;  their  armorial  bearings  were 
torn  by  a  herald,  and  thrown  out  of  the  window  ;  their  estates 
declared  to  be  forfeited  ;  and  commission  given  to  the  Earl  of 
Argyll  to  pursue  them  with  fire  and  sword.3 

Argyll  was  Huntly's  ancient  enemy,  and  accepted  the  com- 
mission with  alacrity.  Two  ministers  were  despatched  to 
urge  him  to  undertake  the  work,  aas  a  thing  acceptable  to- 
God,  profitable  for  the  commonwealth,  and  honourable  to 
himself ; "  4  but  he  scarcely  required  their  exhortations.  In 
the  beginning  of  October  he  was  on  his  march  toward  the 
country  of  the  rebels,  followed  by  a  rabble  of  six  thousand 
Highlanders,  some  armed  with  muskets,  some  with  bows  and 
arrows,  some  with  two-handed  swords,  and  some  with  no  arms 
at  all.  He  was  confronted  at  Glenlivet  by  Huntly  and  Errol, 
with  a  much  smaller  but  better  disciplined  force  ;  and  after  a 
sharp  fight  he  was  driven  from  the  field. 

In  the  meantime  the  king  had  pushed  on  to  Dundee,  where 
Argyll  himself  brought  the  evil  tidings  of  his  disaster.  Jamesr 
nothing  dismayed,  advanced  upon  Aberdeen,  which  he  occu- 
pied without  opposition.  He  had  requested  Andrew  and 
James  Melville,  with  some  other  ministers,  to  accompany  him 
in  his  progress,  and  be  the  witnesses  of  his  severity ;  and  the 
stern  Presbyters,  regarding  it  as  a  crusade  against  idolatry, 
cased  themselves  in  corslets,   and  marched  with  the  host.* 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  404-8. 

2  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  330. 

3  Spottiswood,  lib.  vi.     Calderwood,  vol.  v. 

4  Historie  of  King  James  Sext,  p.  338. 

5  Melville's  Diary,  p.  214.  It  was  nothing  unusual  for  Andrew  Melville 
to  be  in  armour.  "  He  merchet  mikle  of  that  day,  withe  a  whait  speare  in 
his  hand,"  says  James  Melville  of  his  uncle,  speaking  of  a  riot  at  St 
Andrews — "  as  he  wear  a  corslet  therefter  at  the  dinging  down  of  Strea- 
bogy."  (Diary,  p.  210.)  David  Lindsay,  the  minister  of  Leith,  appears 
to  have  been  of  a  like  martial  disposition.     "He  was  for  stoutness  and 


A.D.   1594.]  THE  KING  AND  THE  CRUCIFIX.  427 

The  martial  monarch  was  detained  for  some  time  in  Aberdeen 
by  bad  weather,  and  his  money  began  to  fail.  He  remembered 
that  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh  had  recently  raised  for  him 
the  funds  to  entertain  the  ambassadors  who  were  to  be  pre- 
sent at  the  baptism  of  his  first-born.  He  resolved  to  apply  to 
the  same  spiritual  court  again,  which  appears  to  have  held  the 
purse-strings  of  the  nation.1  James  Melville  was  despatched 
with  a  letter  to  the  presbytery,  and  another  to  the  town-council. 
The  royal  letter  was  backed  by  one  from  the  ministers  who 
were  with  the  army,  and  the  money  was  forthcoming.2  Thus 
relieved  of  his  pecuniary  embarrassments,  the  king  pushed  on 
to  Strathbogie,  the  principal  residence  of  Huntly.  A  majority 
of  the  war  council  wished  this  noble  castle  to  be  spared ;  but 
Andrew  Melville  urged  that  it  should  be  destroyed,  and  it  was 
accordingly  blown  up  with  gunpowder.3  Slaines,  in  Buchan, 
the  stronghold  of  Errol,  was  levelled  with  the  ground ;  and  a 
number  of  other  fortalices  shared  the  same  fate.  Huntly 
saved  himself  by  fleeing  to  the  wrilds  of  Caithness  ;  but  some  of 
his  retainers  were  hanged,  and  the  gentry  who  had  assisted  him 
were  mulcted  in  considerable  sums. 

The  spirit  of  the  Catholic  party  in  Scotland  was  now 
thoroughly  broken.  When  the  king  returned  to  the  south, 
Huntly  made  one  more  effort  to  renew  the  contest ;  but  it  was 
a  forlorn  hope,  and  failed.  A  Jesuit  named  Morton,  bringing 
messages  to  him  from  the  Pope,  was  detected,  and  saved  him- 
self from  the  torture  only  by  confessing  everything.  Amongst 
other  things  found  in  his  possession  was  a  beautifully-carved 
crucifix  in  ivory,  which  he  said  was  a  present  from  Cardinal 
Cajetano  to  the  queen.  James  took  it  up,  and  asked  the 
Jesuit  what  was  its  use.  "  To  remind  me,"  said  Morton, 
"  when  I  gaze  upon  it,  of  my  Lord's  passion."  "  Look,  my 
liege,"  he  continued,  "  how  livelily  the  Saviour  is  here  seen 
hanging  between  the  two  thieves,  whilst  below  the  Roman 
soldier  is  seen  piercing  His  sacred  side  with  the  lance.  Ah, 
that  I  could  prevail  on  my  sovereign  but  once  to  kiss  it  before 
he  lays  it  down  !  "  "  No,"  said  James  ;  "  the  Word  of  God  is 
enough  to  remind  me  of  the  crucifixion;  and  besides,  this 

zeal  in  the  guid  cause  mikle  renouned  and  talked  of.  For  the  gown  was 
na  sooner  af,  and  the  Byble  out  of  hand  fra  the  kirk,  when  on  ged  the 
corslet,  and  fangit  was  the  hagbot,  and  to  the  fields."     (Diary,  p.  26.) 

1  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  340. 

2  Melville's  Diary,  pp.  214-16. 
:i  Ibid. 


428  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

carving  of  yours  is  so  small,  that  I  could  not  kiss  Christ  with- 
out kissing  both  the  thieves  and  the  executioner."  1 

Huntly  and  Errol,  seeing  that  all  was  lost,  resolved  now 
to  seek  safety  in  exile.  Father  Gordon  implored  them  not 
thus  to  abandon  their  country.  For  the  last  time  a  solemn 
mass  was  celebrated  in  the  Cathedral  of  Elgin  ;  and  the  de- 
voted Jesuit,  passing  from  the  altar  to  the  pulpit,  exhorted 
them  to  hazard  all  rather  than  allow  the  lamp  of  religion  to 
be  utterly  quenched  in  the  land ;  but  it  was  in  vain.  On  the 
17  th  of  March  1595,  Errol  embarked  at  Peterhead,  and  two 
days  afterwards  Huntly,  with  a  few  faithful  friends,  em- 
barked at  Aberdeen,  and  sailed  for  the  Continent.2  With 
them  the  last  hopes  of  Catholicism  in  Scotland  departed. 
Auchindoun  had  been  slain  at  Glenlivet;  Hume  had  made 
his  peace  with  the  Church;  and  shortly  afterwards  Sir 
James  Chisholm  followed  his  example,  and  sought  rest  by 
making  a  recantation,  which  in  all  probability  his  conscience 
belied.3 

The  Church  had  now  triumphed  gloriously ;  the  Papists 
had  been  put  down,  and  James  was  at  the  height  of  his  popu- 
larity, regaled  by  the  plaudits,  and  no  longer  tormented  by 
the  taunts  of  the  Protestant  ministers.  But  it  was  the  fate  of 
this  volatile  king,  when  delivered  from  the  buffeting  of  one 
tormentor,  to  be  given  over  to  another.  The  country  was  now 
scandalized  by  stories  of  domestic  broils.  James  was  jealous 
of  his  queen.  The  queen  was  indignant  at  James  for  entrust- 
ing the  care  of  the  infant  prince  to  the  Earl  of  Mar,  and  not 
to  her.  She  formed  a  party  among  the  nobles,  and  vexed  her 
liege  lord  and  husband.  Things  proceeded  so  far  that  the 
ministers  interfered,  and  helped  to  patch  up  a  reconciliation. 
Patrick  Galloway  preached  a  sermon  before  the  court  upon 
the  duties  of  husbands  and  wives,  and  the  royal  pair  were  once 
more  as  loving  as  ever.4 

King  James,  like  all  his  predecessors,  was 

a.d.  1596.       miserably  poor,  and,  if  not  prodigal,  neither 

was  he  thrifty.     His  finances  was  getting  into  utter  confusion, 

and  therefore,  in  the  beginning  of  1596,  he  appointed  eight 

1  Tytler,  vol.  ix.  Calderwood  tells  the  story  differently  ;  but  Tytler's 
narrative,  which  is  founded  upon  a  letter  of  the  period,  has  the  most 
verisimilitude. 

2  Tytler,  vol.  ix.     Calderwood.  vol.  v. 
:i  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  418. 

4  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  Nicolson  to  Bowes,  Cal.  of  State  Papers,  15th 
August  1595. 


A.D.   1596.]  CORRUPTIONS  OF  ALL  ESTATES.  429 

eminent  men  to  act  as  the  chancellors  of  his  exchequer. 
From  their  number  they  were  called  Octavians.  In  opposi- 
tion to  these,  the  gentlemen  of  his  Majesty's  household  were 
called  Cubiculars.  As  it  was  the  great  object  of  the  Octavians 
to  curtail  the  royal  expenditure,  and  of  the  Cubiculars  to  live 
as  comfortably  and  splendidly  as  they  could,  a  violent  jealousy 
soon  arose  between  them.  Several  of  the  Octavians  were  sus- 
pected of  a  leaning  to  Popery  ;  the  Cubiculars  therefore  threw 
their  weight  into  the  scale  of  the  Church  ;  and  the  intrigues  of 
those  two  parties  are  to  be  traced  in  many  of  the  events  which 
are  now  to  be  narrated. 

The  General  Assembly  met  in  Edinburgh  on  the  24th  of 
March.  On  the  second  day  of  its  meeting  King  James  pre- 
sented himself,  attended  by  a  brilliant  train  of  his  greatest 
nobles.  As  usual  he  made  an  oration.  He  evidently  re- 
garded the  Assembly  very  much  as  the  present  Sovereign 
regards  the  House  of  Commons — the  body  that  can  give  or 
withhold  supplies ;  and  for  the  same  reason,  that  it  contained 
the  representatives  of  the  tax-payers.  He  alluded  to  the 
necessity  of  making  preparation  against  probable  dangers,  and 
of  maintaining  a  standing  army,  now  that  the  feudal  militia 
was  found  to  be  useless  in  the  presence  of  disciplined  troops. 
He  urged  that  a  contribution  should  be  made  over  the  whole 
country,  not  to  be  lifted  presently,  but  when  need  should 
require.1  Andrew  Melville  bluntly  said  that  the  forfeited 
estates  of  the  exiled  earls  should  be  applied  to  this  pur- 
pose, instead  of  the  rents  being  given,  as  they  were,  to  their 
wives. 

A  characteristic  part  of  this  Assembly's  business  remains  to 
be  told.  A  proposal  had  been  made  in  regard  to  an  inquiry 
into  the  corruptions  of  all  estates  ;  and  his  Majesty  received  a 
hint  that  it  was  expected  he  also  should  submit  to  it.  The 
king  evidently  did  not  like  the  subject,  but,  after  a  soothing 
speech  from  Davidson,  he  submitted  to  his  fate,  and  said  that 
if  any  gross  fault  were  found  in  him  or  his  house,  he  would 
not  refuse  to  be  judged  by  the  Assembly,  providing  it  were 
done  privily.2  A  committee  was  accordingly  appointed  to 
draw  up  a  list  of  the  corruptions  that  prevailed,  aud  in  course 
presented   their   report.     The    ecclesiastical    Estate   had    set 

1  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  396.  In  the  previous  year  the  kinp  made  a 
proposal  to  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh  to  levy  troops  for  him,  which  thev 
undertook  to  do,  and  did.      (Ibid.  p.  341.) 

-  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  398. 


43°  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [OHAP.  XIV. 

before  them  rather  matters  which  constituted  offences,  than 
offences  which  were  alleged  actually  to  exist:  wanton  behaviour, 
gorgeous  apparel,  profane  company,  gaming,  dancing,  playing 
at  cards  or  dice,  swearing,  Sabbath-breaking,  fighting,  lying, 
keeping  hostelries,  taking  usury,  bearing  worldly  offices  in 
gentlemen's  houses,  engaging  in  merchandise,  buying  up 
grain  and  keeping  it  in  dearth,  non-residence,  selling  the 
sacraments.  In  regard  to  his  Majesty's  household,  it  was 
reported  that  reading  the  Scriptures  at  table,  and  grace  before 
and  after  meat,  were  frequently  omitted ;  that  his  Majesty  was 
guilty  of  banning  and  swearing ;  that  his  courtiers  copied  his 
example  ;  that  few  of  the  royal  household  came  to  the  week- 
day sermon ;  that  the  queen  did  not  repair  to  the  Word  and 
sacraments,  and  was  fond  of  night-wakes  and  balls,  as  were 
also  her  gentlewomen.  The  judges  were  charged  with 
neglecting  justice,  taking  bribes,  and  being  altogether  unfit 
for  the  office  they  held.  The  corruptions  of  the  community 
at  large  were  reported  to  be  a  universal  decay  of  zeal,  con- 
tempt of  the  Word,  ministry,  and  sacraments,  the  masters 
of  families  not  reading  the  Scriptures  or  engaging  in  prayer 
themselves,  but  leaving  this  to  be  abused  by  their  cooks, 
stewards,  and  jackmen ;  blasphemy,  Sabbath  desecration, 
superstitious  pilgrimages,  bonfires  and  carols,  gross  immo- 
rality, and  every  other  conceivable  sin.  The  land,  moreover, 
was  declared  to  be  overrun  with  pipers,  fiddlers,  songsters, 
sorners,  peasants,  and  strong  beggars  living  in  harlotry.1  A 
deputation  was  sent  to  the  king  to  set  his  sins  before  his  face; 
and  a  day  appointed  when  the  ministers  might  mourn  over 
their  own  offences.  On  that  day  Davidson  preached,  and 
"  for  the  space  of  a  quarter  of  an  hour,"  we  are  told,  "  there 
were  such  sighs  and  sobs,  with  shedding  of  tears  among  the 
most  part  of  all  estates  that  were  present,  every  one  provoking 
another  by  their  example,  and  the  teacher  himself  by  his 
example,  that  the  Church  resounded,  so  that  the  place  might 
worthily  have  been  called  Bochim."2 

Armies  have  risen  from  their  knees  to  fight  and  conquer ; 
the  Assembly  turned  from  fasting  to  bellicose  arrangements, 
which  sound  strangely  in  our  ears.  The  king  was  petitioned 
to  apply  the  forfeited  estates  of  the  rebel  lords  in  maintaining 
a  standing  force ;  to  authorise  the  minister  and  kirk-session  in 
every  parish  to  choose  captains,  to  hold  military  musters,  and 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk.     Assembly,  1596. 

2  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  407. 


A.D.   1596.]  THE  CHURCH  MILITANT.  43 1 

train  the  people  to  arms  ;  and  to  import  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  corslets,  pikes,  muskets,  and  other  needful  armour.1  The 
king  did  not  deem  it  prudent  to  give  to  the  Church  the  power 
of  the  sword,  as  well  as  of  the  key ;  but  before  the  Assembly 
dissolved,  he  sent  a  message  to  it  which  carried  joy  to  every 
heart.  It  was  his  Majesty's  intention,  the  Commissioner  said, 
to  devise  a  "constant  platt,"  by  which  every  church  should 
have  a  minister,  and  every  minister  a  stipend.2  The  Assem- 
bly broke  up,  and  the  members  went  home  rejoicing. 

Calderwood  celebrates  this  Assembly  with  his  loudest  praises. 
Presbytery  had  now  reached  its  culminating  point.  "  The  Kirk 
of  Scotland,"  says  he,  "  was  now  come  to  her  perfection,  and 
the  greatest  purity  that  ever  she  attained  unto,  both  in  doctrine 
and  discipline,  so  that  her  beauty  was  admirable  to  foreign 
churches.  The  Assemblies  of  the  saints  were  never  so  glorious 
nor  profitable  to  every  one  of  the  true  members  thereof  as  in 
the  beginning  of  this  year."3  And  at  the  close  of  the  Assem- 
bly, looking  forward  to  the  years  that  were  to  come,  he  mourn- 
fully notes,  "  Here  end  all  the  sincere  Assemblies  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  enjoying  the  liberty  of  the  gospel  under  the  free 
government  of  Christ."4 

During  the  summer  months,  Huntly  and  Errol  both  re- 
entered the  country  in  disguise,  but  not  in  company.  About 
the  same  time  James  sounded  his  favourite  minister  Robert 
Bruce,  as  to  the  policy  of  allowing  them  to  return  from 
banishment,  provided  they  should  submit  themselves  to  the 
discipline  of  the  Church.  Bruce  would  not  listen  to  the  pro- 
posal. The  king  asked  him  to  take  a  day  or  two  to  think  of 
it.  Bruce  still  adhered  to  his  former  opinion.  "  I  see,  sir," 
said  he  to  the  king,  "  that  your  resolution  is  to  take  Huntly  in 
favour ;  which,  if  you  do,  I  will  oppose ;  and  you  shall  choose 
whether  you  will  lose  Huntly  or  me,  for  both  you  cannot 
keep."5  Bruce's  favour  with  the  king  was  gone  from  that  day. 
At  a  meeting  of  the  Estates  held  at  Falkland  upon  the  12th 
of  August,  a  petition  was  presented  from  the  earls,  praying  to 
be  allowed  to  return,  and  Alexander  Seton,  the  President  of 
the  Court  of  Session,  supported  it  in  a  speech,  arguing  that, 
if  they  were  driven  to  despair,  they  might,  like  Coriolanus  the 
Roman,  or  Themistocles  the  Athenian,  join  the  enemies  of 
the  State,  and  endanger  it.6 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  424. 

2  Ibid.  pp.  430,  431.  3  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  pp.  387,  388. 
4  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  420.  5  Spottiswood,  lib.  vi. 

6  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  438. 


43 2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XI  v. 

It  was  resolved,  if  possible,  to  get  the  concurrence  of  the 
ministers,  and  some  of  them  were  invited  to  Falkland. 
Andrew  Melville  was  unasked,  but  hearing  the  business  that 
was  on  hand,  he  joined  his  brethren,  and  presented  himself 
before  the  king  and  Estates.  James  well  knew  the  man,  and 
asked  what  brought  him  there  uninvited.  "  Sir,"  said  Melville, 
"  I  have  a  special  calling  to  come  here  by  Christ  Jesus  the 
King,"  and  then  proceeded  to  charge  the  Estates  with  high 
treason  against  Christ,  the  Kirk,  and  the  country.  James 
interrupted  him  in  the  midst  of  this  tirade,  and  commanded 
him  to.  retire,  which  he  reluctantly  did.  After  this  violent 
scene,  it  was  agreed  that  if  the  Kirk  and  king  were  satisfied,  it 
were  best  to  recall  the  lords.1 

The  Church  was  thrown  into  a  paroxysm  of  mingled  fear 
and  indignation  by  the  intelligence  of  this  resolution.  A 
number  of  the  ministers  assembled  at  Cupar,  and  appointed  a 
deputation  to  proceed  to  Falkland  and  remonstrate  with  the 
king.  The  two  Melvilles  were  of  the  number ;  and  we  have  a 
graphic  description  of  what  passed  from  the  pen  of  James.  He 
tells  us  that  he  was  asked  to  open  the  matter,  as  the  king  liked 
his  mild  and  smooth  way  of  speaking;  but  his  Majesty  was 
exceedingly  testy,  and  said  they  had  no  warrant  to  meet  at 
Cupar  at  all.  Upon  this,  the  undaunted  Andrew  broke  in, 
called  the  king  "  God's  sillie  vassal,"  and  taking  hold  of  him 
by  the  sleeve,  "  bore  him  down,  and  uttered  his  commission 
as  from  the  mighty  God."  "Sir,"  said  the  stern  presbyter, 
"  we  will  humbly  reverence  your  Majesty  in  public ;  but  since 
we  have  this  occasion  to  be  with  your  Majesty  in  private — 
and  the  truth  is,  you  are  brought  into  extreme  danger  both  of 
life  and  crown,  and  with  you  the  country  and  Church  of 
Christ  are  like  to  go  to  wreck,  for  not  telling  you  the  truth, 
and  giving  you  faithful  counsel — we  must  discharge  our  duty 
therein,  or  else  be  traitors  both  to  Christ  and  you.  And 
therefore,  sir,  as  divers  times  before,  so  now  again  I  must  tell 
you,  there  are  two  kings  and  two  kingdoms  in  Scotland. 
There  is  Christ  Jesus  the  King,  and  His  kingdom  the  Kirk, 
whose  subject  King  James  VI.  is,  and  of  whose  kingdom,  not 
a  king,  nor  a  lord,  nor  a  head,  but  a  member.  And  they 
whom  Christ  has  called  and  commanded  to  watch  over  His 
Church,  and  govern  His  spiritual  kingdom,  have  sufficient 
power  of  Him  and  authority  so  to  do,  both  together  and 
severally,  which  no  Christian  king  should  control  or  discharge, 
1  Melville's  Diary,  p.  244. 


A.D.  1596.]  MELVILLE  BROW-BEATS  THE  KING.  433 

but   fortify  and  assist.     And,   sir,   when    you  were    in    your 
swaddling-cloths,  Christ  Jesus  reigned  freely  in  this  land,  in 
spite  of  all  His  enemies  \  and  His  officers  and  ministers  were 
convened  for  the  ruling  and  welfare  of  His  Church,  which  was 
ever  for  your  welfare,  defence,  and  preservation.     ...    As 
to  the  wisdom  of  your  counsel,  which  I  call  devilish  and  per- 
nicious, it  is  this,  that  you  must  be  served  by  all  sorts  of  men 
to  come  to  your   purpose   and  grandeur,  Jew  and   Gentile, 
Papist  and  Protestant ;  but  because  the  ministers  and  Pro- 
testants in  Scotland  are  too  strong,  and  control  the  king,  they 
must  be  weakened  ;  they  must  be  weakened  and  brought  low, 
by  stirring  up  a  party  opposed  to  them  •  and  the  king  being 
equal  and  indifferent,  both  shall  be  fain  to  fly  to  him ;  so  shall 
he  be  well  served.     But,  sir,  if  God's  wisdom  be  the  only  true 
wisdom,  this  will  prove  mere  mad  folly,  for  His  curse  can  but 
light  upon  it." 1     The  king  was  completely  brow-beaten  by  the 
violence  of  Melville,  and  was  glad  to  lay  aside  his  testiness, 
and  affect  to  look  pleased.    Such  a  scene  as  this  reminds  us  of 
the    days    when    popes   put   their   feet   upon   the   neck   of 
emperors;  or  when  Martin  of  Tours,  at  a  public  entertain- 
ment, after  taking  the  wine-cup  himself,  pushed  it  past  princes 
to  a  presbyter,  remarking  that  the  humblest  of  the  order  was 
superior  to  kings. 

On  the  20th  of  October,  the  commissioners  of  the  General 
Assembly  and  deputies  from  several  synods  met  at  Edinburgh. 
They  appointed  a  fast  \  they  nominated  a  number  of  ministers 
from  different  parts  of  the  country  to  take  up  their  residence  in 
Edinburgh,  and  meet  daily  with  its  ministers,  and  see  ne  quid 
ecclesia  detrimenti  caperet.  They  were  known  as  the  Council 
of  the  Church.2  On  the  19th  of  the  same  month,  the 
Countess  of  Huntly  laid  before  the  Synod  of  Moray  an  offer 
of  most  humble  submission  on  the  part  of  her  husband  :  he 
would  find  security  that  he  would  do  nothing  contrary  to  reli- 
gion ;  he  would  banish  all  Jesuits  and  Papists  from  his  society  ; 
he  would  meet  with  any  ministers  that  might  be  sent  to  him, 
and  listen  to  their  arguments,  and,  if  convinced,  he  would  em- 
brace the  Reformed  religion ;  he  would  maintain  a  minister  in 
his  household  for  his  better  instruction  ;  he  would  assist  to 
carry  out  the  sentences  of  the  Church.3  One  should  imagine 
this  submission  was  enough,  and  that  a  ministry  who  were 

1  Melville's  Diary,  pp.  245,  246. 

2  Calderwood,  vol.  v.     Spottiswood,  lib.  vi. 

3  Melville's  Diary,  p.  247. 

VOL.   I.  2  E 


434  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

commissioned  to  preach  repentance  and  forgiveness  to  the  chief 
of  sinners  were  bound  to  welcome  back  the  penitent.  But  the 
dread  of  Popery  had  engendered  a  stern  spirit,  which  knew  no 
compromise  :  Huntly  and  Errol  might  be  taken  upon  discipline 
by  the  Church ;  but  still  it  was  the  duty  of  the  king  to  see 
justice  done — they  must  die  the  death.  Happily,  more  merci- 
ful sentiments  prevailed  in  the  court ;  and  it  was  arranged  that 
the  rebel  lords  should  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  country  till 
May  of  the  following  year,  in  the  hope  that  by  that  time  they 
would  be  reconciled  to  the  Church.1 

Another  source  of  irritation  had  unfortunately  arisen  between 
the  king  and  the  clergy,  which  had  been  gradually  increasing, 
and  now  reached   the  violence   of  a   fever.     Following  the 
example  of  Knox,  the  ministers  were  in  the  habit  of  freely  dis- 
cussing political  topics  in  the  pulpit,  and  of  using  the  utmost 
plainness  of  speech  in  regard  to  the  king  and  his  courtiers. 
James  had  repeatedly  complained  of  this  to  the  Church  Courts, 
but  with  no  effect.     In  1594,  a  preacher  at    Perth,   named 
Ross,  had  spoken  of  the  king  as  a  traitor,  a  reprobate,  and  a 
dissembling   hypocrite.     He   had   declared  that  the  Popish 
rebels  were  encouraged  by  the  king,  and  that  no  good  had  ever 
come  to  the  country  by  the  Guisian  blood.2     The  matter  was 
brought  before  the  Synod  of  Perth  and  the  General  Assembly  ; 
but  Ross  defended  what  he  had  said ;  it  was  admitted  he  had 
cause  for  it;  and  he   was  dismissed  with  an  advice  to  be 
cautious  in  the  future.3     In  October  1596,  while  the  country 
was  agitated  in  regard  to  the  return  of  the  Popish  earls,  David 
Black,  one  of  the  ministers  of  St  Andrews,  uttered  a  philippic 
against  the  governments  of  both  England  and  Scotland.     He 
pronounced  the  Queen  of  England  to  be  an  atheist— a  woman 
of  no  religion ;  and  that,  as  for  the  King  of  Scotland,  none 
knew  better  than  he  of  the  return  of  the  rebel  lords.     "  But 
what  could  they  look  for?"  cried   the  preacher;  "was   not 
Satan  the  head  of  both  court  and  council?     Were  not  all 
kings    devil's    bairns  ?      Was  not  Satan  in  the  court,  in  the 
guiders  of  the  court,  in  the  head  of  the  court  ?     Were  not  the 
Lords  of  Session  miscreants  and  bribers,  the  nobility  cormo- 
rants, and  the  Queen  of  Scotland  a  woman  whom  for  fashion's 
sake  they  might  pray  for,  but  in  whose  time  it  was  vain  to  hope 
for  good."4 

1  Melville's  Diary,  p.  249.     Calderwood,  vol.  v. 

2  Ilistorie  of  King  James  Sext,  pp.  315-24. 

:{  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  409,  410. 

4  Tytler,  vol.  ix.     Spottiswood,  lib.  vi.       See  also  Calderwood,  vol  v.. 


A.D.  1596.]  A  DECLINATURE  OF  JURISDICTION.  435 

News  of  this  attack  upon  his  mistress  reached  the  ears  of 
the  English  ambassador,  and  he  complained  to  the  king. 
Black  was  summoned  before  the  Council,  and,  under  the 
advice  of  the  commission  then  sitting  in  Edinburgh,  he  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  Melville,  and  declined  its  jurisdiction.  It 
was  a  spiritual  matter,  and  could  be  dealt  with  only  in  an 
ecclesiastical  court.  All  the  ministers  in  Edinburgh  put  their 
hands  to  the  declinature,  and  then  a  copy  of  it  was  sent  down 
to  the  presbyteries  all  over  the  country,  accompanied  with  a 
letter,  headed  by  the  text,  "  if  we  suffer  with  him,  we  shall  also 
reign  with  him,"  and  requesting  every  minister  to  append  his 
subscription  to  it.1 

The  Commissioners  appointed  to  watch  over  the  interests 
of  the  Church  had  been  sitting  for  some  time,  and  had  not 
been  idle.     They  had  sent  a  deputation  to  the  queen  to  com- 
plain,  amongst  other  things,  that  she  trifled  away  her  time 
with  her  maids ;   but  the   queen  was  conveniently  engaged, 
and  they  were  requested  to  call  another   day.2      They  had 
sent  a  deputation  to  the  king,  to  complain  that  his  "  common 
talk  "  was  against  the  ministers  and  their  doctrines ;  but  the 
king   retorted    that   he  had  good  cause  for  what  he   said.j 
They  had  sent  a  deputation    to   the    Octavians  to  complain 
that  they  were    the    root    of  the   evil   which    the    king    had 
brought    upon    the    Church,    but   the    Octavians    denied    it.4 
This  had  been  quietly  borne,  but  James  chafed  exceedingly 
when  he  heard  of  the  circular-letter  to  the  presbyteries,  and 
an  act  of  the  Secret  Council  was  passed  charging  the  Com- 
missioners to  leave  the  town  within  twenty-four  hours.     The 
Commissioners  met,  read  and  considered  the  proclamation  and 
charge,  "  laid  them  open  before  the  Lord,  to  be  the  righteous 
judge  and  revenger,  as  well  of  the  slanderous  lies  and  blas- 
phemous calumnies  thereof,   as   of  the  great    iniquities   and 
wrong   done    to    the    Lord  Jesus   Christ,  and  liberty  of  his 
Church,  in  usurping  the  judicature  and  discharging  the  acts  of 
the  General  Assembly,  as  though  it  were  a  judicatory  inferior 
and  subaltern  to  the  Secret  Council  and  Session,  and  therefore 
ordained  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh,  and  such  others  as  were 
to  occupy  the  pulpits,  to  deal  mightily  by  the  word,  the  sceptre 


where  in  the  controversy  regarding  Black's  declinature,   the  most  of  these 
expressions  are  to  be  found. 

1  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  460.  -  Ibid.  vol.  v.  pp.  459,  460. 

3  Ibid.    p.  451  4  Ibid.  p.  461. 


436  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

of  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  King  of  Glory,  against  the  said  pro- 
clamation and  charge."  x 

The  trial  proceeded.  His  Majesty  and  Council  found  them- 
selves competent  judges,  as  the  crimes  charged  in  the  libel 
were  of  a  treasonable  and  seditious  nature.  But  the  king 
knew  how  powerful  was  the  body  with  whom  he  was  at 
war,  and  was  most  anxious  to  make  peace.  Deputations 
were  continually  passing  and  repassing  between  the  city  and 
the  palace.  James  was  willing  to  accept  of  a  mere  nominal 
fine,  if  Black  would  only  plead  guilty ;  but  the  ministers 
maintained  that  this  was  tantamount  to  yielding  up  the  whole 
point  at  issue.  It  became  plain  that  compromise  was  impos- 
sible. The  libel  was  found  proved,  and,  on  the  9th  of  Decem- 
ber, Black  was  charged  by  a  macer  to  enter  himself  in  ward 
beyond  the  north  water,  and  to  remain  their  during  his 
Majesty's  pleasure,2  for  the  highlands  of  Inverness  and  Ross 
were  then  the  place  of  banishment,  especially  for  clerical 
delinquents. 

The  conduct  of  the  ministers  at  this  period  has  sometimes 
been  defended,  but  in  truth  it  is  indefensible.  Let  us  try 
the  question  according  to  the  enlightened  sentiments  which 
are  happily  abroad  in  our  day  in  regard  to  the  liberty  of  the 
pulpit  and  the  press.  The  ministers  maintained  that  they 
were  answerable  for  what  they  said  in  the  pulpit  only  to  the 
Courts  of  the  Church ;  that  no  civil  or  criminal  tribunal  had 
a  right  to  touch  them.  Would  any  minister  make  such  a 
claim  now?  would  any  court  in  the  kingdom  sustain  it? 
The  minister  in  the  pulpit  occupies,  and  ought  to  occupy,  the 
same  level  as  the  editor  at  his  desk.  If  he  speaks  treason, 
he  will  be  tried  for  treason  ;  if  he  uses  defamatory  language, 
he  will  be  libelled  for  defamation ;  and  that  before  the  ordi- 
nary courts  of  the  country  for  trying  these  offences.  The 
sanctity  of  the  place  will  not  save  him,  and  should  not  save 
him.  The  fact  that  he  is  an  ecclesiastic  will  not  rescue  him 
from  the  claws  of  the  jury  and  the  judge.  Were  a  priest  to 
spout  sedition  from  the  altar,  would  we  allow  an  appeal  to  the 
bishop  or  the  pope  ?  Why  should  the  presbyter  be  deemed 
more  a  spiritual  person  than  the  priest  ?  But  it  has  been  said 
that  the  ministers  claimed  only  to  be  tried  before  the  Church 
Courts  in  the  first  instance.     This  is  only  partially  true.     The 

1  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  468. 

2  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  498.  The  whole  story  was  told  by  Bowes  to 
Burghley,  and  every  document  connected  with  it  forwarded  to  the  English 
Court.     Cal.  of  State  Tapers,  Nov.  and  Dec.  1596. 


a.D.  1596.]  PRIVILEGE  OF  THE  PULPIT.  437 

words  of  Black's  declinature  are,  "  at  least  in  prima  instan- 
tia;"  1  and  the  argument  by  which  it  is  supported  is  a  general 
one,  denying  totally  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil  courts  in  regard 
to  preaching,  which  is  declared  to  be  a  spiritual  matter.  If  it 
were  denied  in  the  first  instance,  upon  what  pretext  could  it  be 
allowed  in  the  second  ?  Would  the  Church  approvingly  be- 
hold the  Council  condemn  a  man  whom  it  had  already 
absolved  ?  But  what  had  the  Courts  of  the  Church  to  do 
with  sedition  or  treason  in  any  instance  ;  and  it  was  with  sedi- 
tion and  treason  that  Black  was  charged  ?  Was  sedition  less 
sedition  because  it  was  spoken  in  a  sermon  ?  was  treason  less 
treason  because  it  was  committed  by  a  minister  ? 

The  idea  of  spiritual  independence  had  been  gradually  grow- 
ing, till  at  this  period  it  had  attained  to  a  morbid  size. 
Unknown  by  Knox,  it  was  fully  developed  by  Melville. 
Unmentioned  in  the  "  First  Book  of  Discipline,"  it  is  carefully 
defined  in  the  Second.  Men's  sentiments  had  changed  with 
the  change  of  times.  When  the  Church  was  Roman,  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  magistrate  to  reform  it.  When  the  Church 
was  Protestant,  it  was  impiety  in  the  magistrate  to  touch  it. 
The  assumption  of  the  Church  reached  to  its  greatest  height 
in  the  time  at  which  we  have  now  arrived.  Its  growth  was 
favoured  by  the  weakness  of  the  government.  The  barons, 
when  it  suited  their  humour,  defied  the  king ;  the  ministers 
learned  to  do  the  same  thing.  Had  bishops  spoken  to  Eliza- 
beth as  presbyters  spoke  to  James,  she  would  have  unfrocked 
them  on  the  spot,  and  their  brethren  would  have  learned 
henceforward  to  speak  differently.  But  it  was  different  in 
Scotland.  Melville,  in  the  General  Assembly,  backed  by  the 
people,  was  really  more  powerful  than  James  in  his  palace, 
with  none  to  help  him.  The  rise  of  such  pretensions  in  such 
circumstances  was  natural — almost  necessary.  They  would 
have  grown  up  under  the  shadow  of  Episcopacy,  as  well  as 
under  the  shadow  of  Presbytery.  We  know  they  did  grow  up 
under  the  broad  shadow  of  the  Papacy. 

The  sentence  passed  upon  Black  did  not  put  an  end  to  the 
excitement  which  the  trial  had  originated.  The  ministers  pro- 
claimed a  fast,  and  in  their  sermons  denounced  the  king  as  a 
persecutor.  The  king,  in  return,  banished  the  ecclesiastical 
Commissioners  from  Edinburgh,  and  under  the  influence  of 
the  Cubiculars,  who  were  anxious  to  ruin  the  Octavians  by 
increasing  the  dissensions  between  the  court  and  the  Church, 
he  gave  notice  to  twenty-four  burgesses,  who  were  known  to 
1  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  pp.  457,  458. 


43$  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [cHAP.  XIV, 

be  devoted  to  the  ministers,  to  depart  from  the  town  within 
six  hours.1  The  Cubiculars  having  first  inflamed  the 
monarch  against  the  ministers,  now  inflamed  the  ministers 
against  the  monarch,  by  intimating  falsely,  in  an  anonymous 
letter,  that  Huntly  had  had  an  interview  with  James  at  the 
palace.  Balcanquhal  learned  this  on  Friday  morning,  just 
before  proceeding  to  the  pulpit  for  the  week-day  sermon.  He 
alluded  to  it  in  his  discourse,  and  requested  the  nobles  and 
barons  who  were  present  to  meet  after  the  services  were  over 
in  the  Little  Church,  to  consult  as  to  what  should  be  done. 
The  Little  Church  was  crowded  to  the  door.  Robert  Bruce 
addressed  the  multitude  in  regard  to  the  return  of  the  Popish 
lords,  the  sentence  passed  upon  Black,  and  the  banishment  of 
the  ministers  and  burgesses.  It  was  resolved  to  send  a  depu- 
tation to  bring  these  grievances  before  the  king.2 

James  happened  to  be  quite  at  hand,  sitting  in  the  Upper 
Tolbooth  with  some  of  his  Council.     The  deputation  getting 
admission  to  the  royal  presence,  said  they  were  sent  by  the 
noblemen   and   barons   convened   in   the    Little    Church,  to 
bemoan  the  danger  threatened  to  religion.     "What  dangers 
see  you  ?  "  said  the  king.     "  Our  best-affected  people,"  said 
Bruce,  "  are  banished  the  town ;  the  Lady  Huntly,  a  professed 
Papist,  is  entertained  at  court ;  and  it  is  suspected  her  hus- 
band is  not  far  off."     "  Who  are  they,"  said  the  king,  "  who 
dare  convene  against  my  proclamation  ?  "     "  We  shall  dare 
more  than  that/'  said  Lord  Lindsay  fiercely,  "  and  will  not 
suffer  religion  to  be  overthrown."     While  this  was  going  on,  a 
number  of  people  had  pressed  into  the  room  ;  the  king  got 
alarmed,  and  rising  abruptly,  he  made  for  the  door,  and  shut- 
ting it  behind  him,  he  retreated  to  the  lower  house,  where  the 
judges  were  sitting.     The  deputation  thus  unceremoniously 
left,  returned  and  reported  what  had  passed.     Meanwhile  the 
minister  of  Cramond  had  been  reading  to  the  congregation 
the  story  of  Hainan  and  Mordecai.     At  this  nick  of  time  a 
voice  shouted  at  the  church-door,  "  Save  yourselves  !  "     The 
people  rose  in  mass  as  if  they  had  discovered  the  rafters  of  the 
church  burning  over  their  heads.     Some  ran  one  way,  some 
another.     Some  thinking  the  king  was  taken  in  the  Tolbooth, 
rushed  to  the  Tolbooth.     Others,  thinking  that  the  ministers 
were  slain  in  the  church,  rushed  to  the  church.     Some  cried 
"  To  arms  !  "     Some  shouted,  "  The  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of 

1  Spottiswood,  lib.  vi.     Calderwood,  vol.  v. 

2  Ibid.     Bowes  to  Cecil,  17th  Dec.,  Cal.  of  State  Papers. 


a.d.  1596. J  RIOT  IN  EDINBURGH.  439 

Gideon  !  "  Some  took  their  position  at  the  door  of  the  Tol- 
booth,  and  vociferated,  "  Bring  out  the  wicked  Haman ; " 
"  Let  Seton,  Hamilton,  Elphinston,  be  delivered  to  us."  The 
provost,  hearing  of  what  had  happened,  rose  from  a  sick-bed, 
and  with  the  assistance  of  the  ministers  managed  to  pacify  the 
people.  By  the  afternoon  the  streets  were  completely  cleared, 
and  the  king,  accompanied  by  the  provost  and  bailies,  was  able 
without  fear  to  walk  down  the  Canongate  to  the  palace.1 

Early  next  morning  the  royal  household  set  out  for  Linlith- 
gow, and  a  proclamation  was  issued  forbidding  the  courts  of 
law  to  sit  longer  in  Edinburgh,  and  to  be  ready  to  remove  to 
such  other  place  as  his  Majesty  might  appoint.  This  resolute 
step  damped  the  ardour  of  the  citizens,  but  not  of  the  minis- 
ters. They  met ;  talked  about  excommunicating  the  Lord 
President  and  the  Lord  Advocate  ;  appointed  a  fast  to  be 
held  that  very  afternoon ;  and  Welsh,  the  son-in-law  of  Knox, 
and  revered  by  the  people  as  a  prophet  and  worker  of 
miracles,  mounting  the  pulpit,  declared  the  king  was  pos- 
sessed of  a  devil;  yea,  that  one  devil  being  cast  out,  seven 
worse  were  entered  in.  They  proceeded  further ;  Bruce 
wrote  a  letter  to  Lord  Hamilton,  begging  him  to  come 
and  place  himself  at  their  head.  Lord  Hamilton  hesitated 
for  a  moment ;  but  his  caution  got  the  better  of  his  ambition, 
and  he  refused  the  dangerous  pre-eminence.  He  even  played 
false,  and  showed  the  letter  to  the  king.2  Meanwhile  the  riot 
was  declared  to  be  treason  by  the  Privy  Council  \  and  a 
deputation  of  the  citizens  who  waited  upon  his  Majesty,  and 
made  the  most  humble  submissions,  were  received  with  frowns, 
and  simply  told  that  the  Estates  were  about  to  meet  and  de- 
termine the  punishment  they  deserved.  The  ministers  fled  to 
England.  There  were  dreadful  whisperings  afloat  \  some  said 
the  city  was  to  be  razed  to  its  foundations,  and  a  monumental 
pillar  erected  where  it  stood  to  warn  all  future  mobs  of  their 
folly  and  their  fate.  This  mob  had  in  truth  been  as  meaning- 
less as  most  mobs  are ;  but  the  king,  not  the  boldest  of  men, 
had  been  frightened  out  of  his  wits,  and  now  when  his  courage 
was  returned,  he  had  resolved  to  make  the  most  of  it  to  repress 
the  turbulence  of  the  Church.3 

On  the  i st  January  1597,  he  entered  the  city  like  a  con- 

1  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  Spottiswood,  lib.  vi.  Bowes  to  Burghley,  2 1st 
Dec,  Cal.  of  State  Papers. 

-  Bruce  to  Hamilton,  18th  Dec. ;  do.  to  do.,  accusing  him  of  foul  play, 
and  leaving  him  to  his  conscience,  27th  Dec,  Cal.  of  State  Papers. 

3  Calderwood,  vol.  v.     Spottiswood,  lib.  vi. 


44°  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

queror.  The  streets  were  lined  with  troops.  The  magistrates 
met  him,  and  upon  their  bended  knees  protested  their  inno- 
cence, offered  to  do  their  best  to  discover  the  ringleaders  in 
the  riot,  and  promised  in  future  to  consult  his  Majesty  in  the 
appointment  of  their  ministers.  A  sermon  was  preached  in 
the  High  Church,  and  after  it  was  done,  his  Majesty  made  an 
oration  to  the  people,  declaring  his  devotion  to  the  Reformed 
faith,  and  his  indignation  at  the  conduct  of  the  Reformed 
ministers.  The  Estates  assembled  at  Holyrood.  The  rioters 
were  anew  pronounced  to  be  guilty  of  treason ;  the  king  was 
vested  with  power  to  interdict  ministers  from  preaching,  or 
Church  Courts  from  meeting,  when  he  saw  cause  \  the  houses 
of  the  Edinburgh  clergy  were  taken  from  them,  and  bestowed 
upon  the  crown ;  and  the  magistrates  of  the  city  held  bound 
either  to  produce  the  originators  of  the  riot,  or  to  enter  their 
own  persons  in  ward  by  the  ist  of  February.  By  this  show  of 
firmness  both  the  Church  and  the  city  were  completely  over- 
awed.1 

It  is  certain  that  from  this  time  James  had  conceived  the 
idea  of  reintroducing  the  Episcopal  polity  into  the  Church. 
He  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  Presbytery  was  essentially 
anarchical  and  foul-mouthed — a  conclusion  natural  in  the  cir- 
cumstances, but  which  a  larger  experience  of  its  working  has 
sufficiently  refuted.     He  felt  himself  strong  enough  to  make 
the  attempt.     The   Edinburgh  riot  had  been  followed  by  a 
reaction.     "  Every  conspiracy    of  the    subjects  which    fails," 
says  Tacitus,  "  advances  the  sovereign."2     The  king  prepared 
his  way  by  a  popular  measure ;  he  accepted  the  resignation  of 
the  Octavians,  who,  notwithstanding  their  financial  reforms, 
were  generally  odious  to  the  nation  on  account  of  their  sup- 
posed Popish  predilections.     He  next  summoned  a  meeting 
of  the  General  Assembly  at  Perth   against   the  last  day  of 
February.       This    done,  he    had   fifty-five    queries    regarding 
points   of  the  Church's  discipline  printed  and  put  in  wide 
circulation.     They  were  cunningly  put ;  Lord  Burghley  had 
given  his  help  in   drawing  them,  and,  notwithstanding   the 
king's  protestations  to  the  contrary,  were  no  doubt  designed 
to  throw  discredit  upon  existing  practices  and  opinions,  and 
to  test  the  temper  of  the  ministry.     They  touched  upon  the 
propriety  of  pulpit  rebukes,  upon   excommunication  and  its 

1  Calderwood,  vol.   v.     Spottiswood,  lib.  vi.     Bowes  to  Burghley,  4th 
January. 

2  Spottiswood  quotes  this  saying  of  Tacitus  in  regard  to  these  events. 


A.D.  1597.]  ASSEMBLY  AT  PERTH.  44 1 

effects,  and  upon  the  constitution  and  jurisdiction  of  the 
several  judicatories  of  the  Church.1 

The  Synod  of  Fife  met  at  St  Andrews,  and,  true  to  its 
ancient  principles  and  its  redoubted  leaders,  answered  the 
royal  questions  in  a  tone  of  ultra-Presbyterianism.  Individual 
ministers  attempted  to  answer  them  too.2  But  while  this  was 
going  on  in  the  south,  Sir  Patrick  Murray,  as  royal  commis- 
sioner, was  busy  in  the  north,  courting  and  coaxing  the  clergy 
there,  and  winning  votes  for  the  approaching  Assembly.  It 
was  not  without  reason  that  Perth  was  fixed  upon  as  the  place 
of  meeting.  The  district  north  of  the  Tay,  long  guided  by  the 
counsels  of  Erskine  of  Dun,  had  never  sympathised  with  the 
violence  of  Lothian  and  Fife.  The  Assembly  was  brought 
near  to  it,  that  it  might  feel  its  influence.  In  those  days  a 
poor  minister  could  scarcely  be  expected  to  take  to  horse  and 
ride  all  the  long  way  from  Angus  to  Edinburgh ;  a  compara- 
tively small  number  would  undertake  the  journey  from  Edin- 
burgh to  Perth.  The  geography  of  the  place  decided  the 
character  of  the  meeting. 

On  the  last  day  of  February,  the  ministers  from  the  north 
came  pouring  into  Perth.  Never  before  had  so  many  of  the 
northern  brethren  been  seen  at  an  Assembly.  Sir  Patrick 
Murray,  called  ironically,  by  James  Melville,  the  Apostle  of 
the  North,  was  busy  amongst  them.  They  were  taken  to  the 
house  where  the  king  was,  they  were  introduced  to  his 
Majesty,  they  were  smiled  upon,  caressed,  and  flattered  by 
royalty.  Meanwhile  the  courtiers  were  moving  about  amid 
the  clerical  throng,  throwing  in  a  remark  about  the  pride  and 
arrogance  of  the  ministers  of  the  south  in  usurping  to  them- 
selves the  whole  government  of  the  Church,  and  gently 
insinuating  that  they  were  much  better  able  to  manage 
matters.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  simple  pastors 
from  the  remote  districts  of  Caithness  and  Aberdeen  got  giddy 
under  these  adulatory  attentions.  They  began  to  brag  of 
what  they  could  do ;  to  talk  of  the  popes  of  Edinburgh,  and 
of  how  they  had  almost  driven  away  the  king  and  ruined  the 
Church.3 

On  the  i st  of  March  the  Assembly  met,  and  the  king,  by  his 
commissioners,  inquired  whether  they  could  regard  themselves 

1  They  are  given  at  length  in  Melville's  Diary,  pp.  257-64.     Paper  by 
Lord  Burghley,  Cal.  of  State  Papers,  Jan.  20,  1597. 
-  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  pp.  579-99. 
1  Melville's  Diary,  pp.  264,  265.     Calderwood,  vol.  v. 


44 2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

as  a  lawful  General  Assembly  of  the  Church,  with  sufficient 
power  to  determine  such  matters  as  might  be  brought  before 
them.  This  was  keenly  debated,  as  it  involved  the  royal  pre- 
rogative of  calling  Assemblies,  but  in  the  end  it  was  carried 
that  they  were  a  lawful  extraordinary  General  Assembly.  The 
commissioners  from  the  Synod  of  Fife  protested  against  the 
finding,  as  the  Assembly  had  not  been  called  with  the  consent 
of  the  Church,  and  as  another  Assembly  stood  indited  for 
another  place  and  another  day.  The  king  next  laid  before 
the  meeting,  for  its  consideration,  twelve  propositions,  em- 
bodying some  of  the  most  important  matters  alluded  to  in  his 
questions.  The  answers,  as  first  framed,  did  not  satisfy  his 
Majesty,  but  the  Assembly  was  compliant,  and  they  were  so 
altered  as  to  gratify  his  wish.  In  these  answers  it  was 
declared  lawful  for  his  Majesty  to  propose  to  the  General 
Assembly  any  matter  affecting  the  external  government  of  the 
Church  which  he  might  wish  to  see  discussed  or  reformed;  no 
minister  was  to  reprove  his  Majesty's  laws  till  he  had  first 
sought  a  remedy  through  the  Church  Courts ;  no  man's  name 
was  to  be  mentioned  in  pulpit  rebukes  unless  his  sin  was- 
notorious,  and  notoriety  was  defined  to  consist  in  the  person 
being  fugitive,  convicted  by  an  assize,  excommunicated,  or 
contumacious  ;  every  summons  issued  by  Church  Courts  was 
to  mention  the  cause  and  the  crime ;  the  ministers  were  not 
to  hold  any  meetings  beyond  the  ordinary  sessions,  presby- 
teries, and  synods  ;  and  in  all  the  principal  towns  the  ministers 
were  to  be  chosen  with  the  consent  of  the  congregation  and 
the  king.  The  Assembly  having  given  the  weight  of  its 
authority  to  these  important  propositions,  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  deal  with  the  Popish  earls,  with  a  view  to  their 
being  restored  to  the  Church ;  and  then  finished  its  labours 
in  a  charitable  mood  of  mind,  by  petitioning  the  king  on 
behalf  of  the  fugitive  ministers,  and  the  capital  city  still 
groaning  under  the  royal  displeasure.1 

The  king  was  so  pleased  with  his  Assembly  at  Perth,  that 
he  resolved  to  have  another  at  Dundee  in  the  month  of  May, 
to  perfect  the  revolution  so  auspiciously  begun.  The  North- 
land ministers  again  mustered  strong.  Some  of  the  royal 
propositions  which  had  not  been  determined  at  Perth  were 
now  discussed,  and  it  was  resolved  that  his  Majesty's  sanction 
should  be  considered  essential  to  give  full  effect  to  the  acts  of 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  Assembly  1597.  Calderwood,  vol.  v.. 
pp.  606-23. 


A.D.  1597. J  ASSEMBLY  AT  DUNDEE.  443 

all  future  Assemblies  ;  that  all  ministers  should  be  set  apart 
to  their  work  by  the  imposition  of  hands  ;  that  all  Church 
Courts  should  keep  records  of  their  proceedings,  and  that 
these  should  be  subject  to  the  supervision  of  the  superior 
courts  ;  that  presbyteries  should  not  meddle  with  anything 
but  what  was  plainly  ecclesiastical ;  that  persons  having  in- 
terest should  be  entitled  to  have  extracts  of  processes  before 
the  ecclesiastical  courts  ;  and  that  summary  excommunication 
should  be  suspended  till  regulations  were  framed  in  regard  to  it. 

At  the  ninth  session  the  king  appeared  in  person,  and  made 
a  short  speech.  He  stated  that  on  account  of  the  shortness 
of  the  time  during  which  the  Assembly  sat,  many  important 
matters  were  necessarily  left  undecided ;  that  he  was  most 
anxious  to  have  churches  everywhere  planted,  and  a  right 
provision  made  for  their  ministers  ;  and  therefore  he  asked 
them  to  consider  whether  it  would  not  be  expedient  for  them 
to  give  a  commission  to  some  of  their  brethren  to  advise  with 
him  upon  these  and  other  matters  affecting  the  welfare  of  the 
Church.  The  king  had  struck  the  right  string ;  a  minister  for 
every  kirk,  and  a  stipend  for  every  minister,  had  a  peculiarly 
pleasing  sound  ;  and  a  standing  commission  was  appointed, 
consisting  of  Alexander  Douglas,  James  Nicolson,  George 
Gladstone,  Thomas  Buchanan,  Robert  Pont,  Robert  Pollock, 
David  Lindsay,  Patrick  Galloway,  John  Duncanson,  Patrick 
Sharp,  John  Porterfield,  James  Melville,  William  Couper,  and 
John  Clapperton,  with  very  ample  powers.1  These  were,  per- 
haps, the  greatest  names  in  the  Church,  if  we  except  Andrew 
Melville,  who,  in  learning  and  ability,  towered  high  above  all 
his  compeers,  but  whose  unflinching  devotion  to  High  Church 
principles  excluded  him  from  this  courtly  commission.  It 
formed  a  kind  of  college  of  presbyter-cardinals,  out  of  which 
the  future  bishops  were  to  be  chosen ;  and  as  every  man  began 
to  look  for  promotion,  he  began  to  be  subservient.  Calder- 
wood  stigmatizes  the  commission  as  the  "  king's  led  horse  ;  n 
and  in  bitterness  of  spirit  remarks,  that  "  it  was  as  a  wedge 
taken  out  of  the  Church  to  rend  her  with  her  own  forces,  and 
the  very  needle  which  drew  in  the  thread  of  bishops."2 

But  one  of  the  great  objects  of  this  Assembly  was  to  take 
steps  for  the  restoration  of  the  Popish  earls  to  the  bosom  of 
the  Church.     It  was  reported  that  they  had  attended  devoutly 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  p.  461. 

2  Calderwood,  vol  v.  p.  644.      In  this,  as  in  many  other  tilings,  Calder- 
wood  borrows  from  James  Melville. 


444  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

upon  a  prescribed  course  of  preachings ;  that,  after  long  con- 
ference with  the  brethren  appointed  to  deal  with  them,  they 
had  confessed  the  truth  of  the  Protestant  religion,  and  ex- 
pressed their  abhorrence  of  Popery ;  that  they  had  acknow- 
ledged the  Reformed  Church  of  Scotland  to  be  the  true 
Church,  and  were  willing  to  submit  themselves  to  it,  subscribe 
the  "  Confession  of  Faith/'  maintain  a  minister  in  their 
families,  and  make  provision  for  the  churches  on  their  estates. 
Upon  these  declarations  being  read,  power  was  given  to  the 
commission  to  grant  them  absolution,  and  receive  them  into 
the  Church.1 

This  was  done  at  Aberdeen  in  the  following  month,  and 
after  the  following  fashion  : — Saturday,  the  25th  of  June,  was 
observed  as  a  solemn  fast,  on  which  the  three  earls  made  up 
all  deadly  feuds.  The  next  day  being  Sunday,  the  Cathedral 
Church  was  crowded  with  a  congregation  anxious  to  witness 
the  edifying  spectacle  of  penitence  and  reconciliation.  Im- 
mediately before  the  sermon  was  commenced,  the  three  earls 
publicly  subscribed  the  "  Confession  of  Faith."  The  sermon 
being  done,  they  stood  up,  and  made  acknowledgment  of  their 
apostasy — declared  their  deep  penitence  on  account  of  it, 
their  conviction  of  the  truthfulness  of  the  Reformed  faith,  and 
their  resolution  to  abide  by  it.  Huntly,  proceeding  with  his 
confession,  while  his  brother  penitents  were  silent,  declared 
his  unfeigned  sorrow  for  the  murder  of  the  Earl  of  Moray. 
After  this  humiliating  scene,  in  which  hypocrisy  must  have 
largely  mingled,  they  were  formally  absolved  from  the  sentence 
of  excommunication,  and  received  as  members  of  the  Church. 
A  table  for  the  celebration  of  the  sacrament  of  the  Supper  had 
been  spread  in  the  centre  of  the  church,  at  which  the  congre- 
gation now  took  their  seats  ;  and  the  earls,  Popish  no  more, 
sitting  down  with  them,  received  from  the  hands  of  a  Presby- 
terian minister  the  sacred  elements,  in  token  of  their  member- 
ship with  the  Church.2 

In  the  month  of  December,  a  parliament  was  held  at 
Edinburgh.  The  Commissioners  appointed  at  the  Assembly 
in  Dundee,  under  the  influence  of  royal  inspiration,  appeared 
at  its  bar,  and  craved  that  a  limited  number  of  ministers,  as 
representing  the  Church  and  Third  Estate  of  the  kingdom, 
might  be  admitted  to  vote  in  parliament.  After  some  decent 
show  of  opposition,  it  was  agreed  that  so  many  of  the  ministry 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  452-57. 

2  Burton,  chap.  lx.     Tytler,  vol.  ix. 


A.D.  1598.]  MINISTERS  MADE  M.P.'s.  445 

as  his  Majesty  should  promote  to  the  dignity  of  bishop,  abbot, 
or  other  prelate,  should  have  a  vote  in  parliament,  as  ecclesi- 
astical prelates  had  in  times  past,  but  not  otherwise.1 

The  consent  of  the   Estates  being   thus  ob- 

A,D'  I$9  '  tained,  all  that  was  now  necessary  was  to  obtain 
the  consent  of  the  Church  to  this  revolutionary  measure.  An 
Assembly  was  indited  to  meet  at  Dundee  on  the  first  Tuesday 
of  March.  Once  more  thejnorth  gave  up  its  ministers  to  carry 
the  royal  resolutions.  But  from  an  opposite  direction,  and 
with  opposite  views,  came  Andrew  Melville.  The  king  was 
present  \  and  dreading  that  Melville's  powers  of  debate  might 
carry  confusion  among  the  northern  ranks,  he  challenged  his 
right  to  attend,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  a  doctor,  and  not 
a  pastor  in  the  Church ;  and  that  at  a  recent  visitation  of 
the  University  of  St  Andrews,  where  Melville  taught,  a  law 
had  been  enacted  prohibiting  the  professors  from  attending 
sessions,  presbyteries,  and  synods,  and  ordaining  that  the 
regents  and  masters  should  appoint  three  of  their  number,  and 
only  three,  to  represent  them  in  the  General  Assembly.2  Thus 
Melville,  known  in  the  Church  as  "  the  slinger  out  of  bishops/5 
was  slung  out  of  the  Assembly  himself,  and  the  bishops  were 
brought  in.  During  the  debate  upon  this  point,  a  characteristic 
passage-at-arms  took  place  between  the  king  and  John  David- 
son, the  minister  of  Prestonpans.  Davidson,  imagining  that 
James  was  arguing  too  authoritatively,  got  up  and  said — "  Sir, 
you  are  to  remember  that  you  sit  not  here  as  imperator,  but  as 
a  Christian  ;  ades  ut  inter  sis  non  tit  prcesis"  The  king  granted 
the  truth  of  what  the  minister  had  said,  but  was  evidently 
nettled  at  it ;  upon  which  Davidson  made  peace  by  jocosely 
remarking,  "  Sir,  we  are  afraid  to  speak,  unless  you  be  equal 
and  indifferent."" 

After  the  Assembly  had  sat  about  a  week,  the  great  subject 
for  which  it  was  convened  was  brought  up  for  discussion. 
Some  affirmed  it  was  thus  long  delayed  to  weary  out  the  hostile 
ministers.  The  king  opened  the  matter  in  a  speech.  He  ex- 
patiated upon  the  anxious  desire  he  felt  to  adorn  and  benefit 
the  Church,  to  remove  controversies,  establish  discipline,  and 
restore  her  patrimony  \  and  in  order  to  this,  he  went  on  to  say, 
it  was  needful  that  ministers  should  have  a  vote  in  parliament, 
without  which   the   Church   could   not   be   vindicated   from 

1  James  VI.,  pari.  xv.  chap,  ccxxxi. 

2  Melville's  Diary,  p.  289.     Spotliswood,  lib.  vi.     Calderwood,  vol.  v. 

3  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  p.  683. 


446  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XIV. 

poverty  and  contempt.  "  I  wish  not,"  said  the  king,  "  to  bring 
in  papistical  or  Anglican  bishops,  but  only  to  have  the  best  and 
wisest  of  the  ministry  appointed  by  the  General  Assembly  to 
have  place  in  council  and  parliament,  to  sit  upon  their  own 
matters  and  see  them  done,  and  not  to  stand  always  at  the 
door,  like  poor  supplicants,  despised  and  nothing  regarded." 
The  bribe  was  great.  The  debate  was  keen.  Bruce,  David- 
son, and  James  Melville  exerted  themselves  on  the  one  side  ; 
Buchanan,  Gladstone,  and  Pont  on  the  other ;  and  the  pole- 
mical monarch  sometimes  interrupted  the  speakers,  and 
attempted  to  pose  them  by  a  question.  It  is  characteristic  of 
the  period  that  the  hottest  of  the  fight  was  upon  the  nineteenth 
chapter  of  Second  Chronicles.1  When  the  roll  was  called,  it 
began  with  the  Synod  of  Orkney  and  Caithness.  Gilbert 
Bodie,  denounced  by  James  Melville  as  "a  drunken  Orkney 
ass,"  was  asked  first  to  vote.  "  He  led  the  ring,  and  a  great 
number  of  the  north  followed,  all  for  the  bodie,  without  regard 
to  the  spirit."  2  It  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  ten,  "  that  it  is 
necessary  and  expedient  for  the  welfare  of  the  Church,  that 
the  ministry,  as  the  third  Estate  of  the  realm,  in  name  of  the 
Church,  have  a  vote  in  parliament ;"  that  the  number  should 
be  the  same  as  in  the  time  of  Popery ;  and  that  the  election 
of  these  should  belong  partly  to  his  Majesty  and  partly  to  the 
Church.3 

It  was  a  saying  of  Philip  of  Macedon,  that  any  castle  might 
be  taken  to  which  an  ass  laden  with  gold  could  find  an 
entrance.  The  Church  of  Scotland  was  taken  by  a  much 
cheaper  commodity — a  mixture  of  craft  and  kindness.  The 
removal  of  the  Assemblies  to  the  borders  of  the  north,  and  a 
few  flattering  speeches  to  the  northern  ministers,  effected  the 
matter.  Who  would  have  fancied  that  the  Church,  which  but 
eighteen  months  before  defied  the  king  and  his  Council,  de- 
clined their  jurisdiction,  and  made  them  tremble  in  their 
capital,  would  at  the  royal  bidding  have  yielded  up  its  dearest 
and  most  cherished  principles  ?  The  truth  is,  the  bow  was 
bent  too  far,  and  a  rebound  was  inevitable.  The  state  of 
tension  which  existed  in  1596  could  not  be  maintained.  The 
extravagant  pretensions  of  Melville  and  Bruce  could  not  be 
allowed.  Had  they  claimed  less,  it  is  probable  the  Church 
had  lost  less.     In  surrendering  its  privilege  of  meeting  at  all 

1  Calderwood,  vol.  v.     Spottiswood,  lib.  vi. 

2  Melville's  Diary,  pp.  291,  292. 

3  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  Assembly  1598. 


a.D.  1598-99.]  IMPOSITION  OF  HANDS.  447 

times,  and  for  all  ecclesiastical  purposes,  it  surrendered  what 
ought  to  have  been  a  sacred  and  inviolable  right — a  right  to 
be  defended  to  the  last  extremity.  In  consenting  to  fifty-one 
of  its  ministers  having  a  place  in  parliament  as  the  Spiritual 
Estate,  it  in  fact  consented  to  the  reintroduction  of  prelacy. 
The  terms  of  the  act  of  parliament  implied  this,  the  opponents 
of  the  measure  clearly  saw  this.  David  Ferguson,  the  oldest 
minister  in  Scotland,  compared  the  stratagem  to  that  of  the 
Grecians  for  the  overthrow  of  Troy — busking  up  a  brave 
horse,  and  by  a  crafty  Sinon  persuading  the  citizens  to  pluck 
down  the  walls  with  their  own  hands,  and  receive  that  for  their 
welfare  and  honour  which  proved  their  wreck  and  destruction. 
"  Equo  ne  credite,  Teucri"  said  the  venerable  presbyter. 
"  Busk,  busk  him  as  bonnilie  as  ye  can,"  said  Davidson,  "  and 
bring  him  in  as  fairlie  as  ye  will,  we  see  him  weel  enough ;  we 
see  the  horns  of  his  mitre."  l  No  doubt  ambition  on  the  part 
of  the  ministers  had  something  to  do  with  the  matter.  It  was 
no  mean  thing  to  be  a  bishop  or  abbot,  have  a  seat  in  parlia- 
ment, and  perhaps  a  place  in  the  councils  of  the  king. 

The  "  First  Book  of  Discipline  "  had  repudiated  the  imposi- 
tion of  hands  in  ordination ;  the  Second  Book  had  enjoined 
it ;  but  still  it  would  appear  to  have  been  frequently  neglected. 
Melville,  while  in  Glasgow,  held  the  parsonage  of  Govan,  and 
frequently  preached ;  but  he  was  never  ordained.  Robert 
Bruce  acted  for  eleven  years  as  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edin- 
burgh ;  but  he  had  never  been  set  apart  to  his  work  by  the 
laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  presbytery.  But  now  the 
General  Assembly  had  put  its  stamp  upon  the  royal  proposi- 
tion that  none  should  be  admitted  to  the  ministry  but  by  the 
imposition  of  hands ;  and  it  was  resolved  that  this  principle 
should  be  applied  to  the  case  of  Bruce.  Bruce  strenuously  re- 
sisted, as  such  procedure  would  throw  a  doubt  upon  the  law- 
fulness of  his  previous  ministry.  There  were  discussions 
among  the  ministers,  conferences  with  the  king,  an  unseemly 
altercation  before  the  people  in  the  Church  of  St  Gile  ;  but  at 
last,  under  the  threat  of  deprivation,  he  submitted  to  the  cere- 
mony— it  being  expressly  declared,  for  his  satisfaction,  that 
the  imposition  of  hands  was  not  used  as  a  sign  of  his  ordina- 
tion to  the  ministry,  but  of  his  ordination  to  a  particular  flock. 
Bruce  was   now  as  violently  disliked  by  the 

a.b.  1^99.  fang  as  he  was  once  esteemed.  In  the  palmy 
days  of  his  favour,  he  had  received  from  James  a  pension  of 
1  Melville's  Diary,  p.  289. 


44^  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

twenty-four  chalders  of  victual  out  of  the  Abbacy  of  Arbroath, 
which  was  secured  to  him  for  life.  James  was  now  mean 
enough  to  attempt  to  deprive  him  of  it,  and  the  matter  was 
brought  before  the  Court  of  Session.  While  the  case  was  pro- 
ceeding, the  king  frequently  came  into  the  Court,  and 
violently  remonstrated  with  the  judges.  He  is  said  to  have 
sent  for  some  of  them  to  the  palace,  to  talk  them  over  to  his 
views.  When  it  came  to  the  vote,  and  was  like  to  go  against 
the  king,  his  rage  became  ungovernable,  and  he  asked  who  durst 
be  so  bold  as  vote  against  him.  Four  or  five  of  the  judges  rose 
to  their  feet,  and  said,  that  with  all  reverence  for  his  Majesty, 
except  he  would  discharge  them  by  his  absolute  power,  they 
both  durst  and  would  do  their  office.1  The  Lord  President 
Seton  spoke  as  became  his  dignified  place.  "  My  liege,  it  is 
my  part  to  speak  first  in  this  court,  of  which  your  Highness 
has  made  me  head.  You  are  our  king;  we  your  subjects, 
bound  and  ready  to  obey  you  from  the  heart,  and  with  all 
devotion  to  serve  you  with  our  lives  and  substance  ;  but  this  is 
a  matter  of  law,  in  which  we  are  sworn  to  do  justice  according 
to  our  conscience  and  the  statutes  of  the  realm.  Your  Majesty 
may  indeed  command  us  to  the  contrary,  in  which  case  I  and 
every  honest  man  on  the  bench  will  either  vote  against  con- 
science, or  resign  and  not  vote  at  all."  This  was  nobly 
spoken.  Judgment  was  given  in  favour  of  Bruce  \  and  the 
mortified  monarch  flung  out  of  court,  "  muttering  revenge,  and 
raging  marvellously."  2 

James  was  ambitious  of  literary  fame,  and  more  especially 
of  being  considered  an  authority  on  matters  of  king-craft.  In 
1598  he  published  his  "Law  of  Free  Monarchies  ;"  and  amidst 
all  the  distractions  of  his  contest  with  the  Church,  he  found 
time  to  compose  his  "  Basilicon  Doron,  or  Instructions  to  his 
Dearest  Son  Henry,  the  Prince."  He  permitted  only  seven 
copies  of  this  work  to  be  printed — the  printer  being  first  sworn 
to  secrecy — and  these  he  distributed  among  his  trustiest  ser- 
vants, to  be  closely  kept  by  them,  and  carefully  preserved. 
Sir  James  Sempill,  one  of  these  trusty  servants,  showed  his 
copy  to  Andrew  Melville.  Andrew  Melville  extracted  some 
propositions  from  the  work,  and  sent  them  to  his  nephew 
James  Melville.  James  Melville  showed  them  to  his  colleague 
at  Anstruther,  John  Dykes  ;  and  John  Dykes  covertly  brought 
a  copy  before  the  Synod  of  Fife — a  roundabout  and  underhand 

1  Caldcrwood's  History,  vol.  v.  p.  733. 
a  Tytler's  History,  vol.  ix. 


A.I).   1599.  J  BASILICON  DORON.  449 

course.1  Among  the  propositions  presented  to  the  synod  were 
the  following : — The  office  of  a  king  is  a  mixed  office  betwixt 
the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  estate  :  the  king  should  be  judge  if 
a  minister  wander  from  his  text  :  no  man  is  more  to  be  hated 
of  a  king  than  a  proud  puritan  :  parity  amongst  ministers  cannot 
agree  with  a  monarchy  :  without  bishops  the  three  Estates  in 
parliament  cannot  be  re-established  :  the  ministers  sought  to 
establish  a  democracy  in  the  land,  and  to  become  tribuni plebis 
themselves  :  the  ministers'  quarrel  was  ever  against  the  king, 
for  no  other  cause  but  because  he  was  a  king.2  The  proposi- 
tions thus  stealthily  laid  upon  the  table  were  anonymous ;  the 
synod  affected  to  be  ignorant  of  their  author,  and  condemned 
them.  All  this  was  done  under  the  eyes  of  two  royal  com- 
missioners who  were  present  in  the  court.  At  first  they  were 
completely  baffled  in  their  endeavours  to  discover  how  the  pro- 
positions had  been  obtained,  but  when  the  truth  began  to  ooze 
out,  Dykes  thought  it  prudent  to  abscond. 

James  now  felt  that  he  had  no  alternative  but  to  publish  his 
work,  and  he  did  so.  Amid  some  puerilities  it  contains  many 
wise  and  virtuous  maxims,  and  is  undoubtedly  the  most  credit- 
able of  the  royal  author's  productions.  James  was  a  believer 
in  the  divine  right  of  kings,  and  the  duty  of  passive  obedience 
on  the  part  of  the  people ;  but  he  does  not  put  these  doctrines 
offensively  forward.  The  passage  at  which  umbrage  was 
taken  occurs  in  the  second  book,  where,  speaking  of  the  Re- 
formation, and  the  events  which  followed,  he  alludes  to  the 
party  in  the  Church  who  had  kept  him  in  a  continual  whirl  of 
alarm  and  agitation.  "Take  heed,  therefore,  my  son,"  he 
says,  "to  such  puritans,  very  pests  in  the  Church  and  Com- 
monwealth, whom  no  deserts  can  oblige,  neither  oaths  or  pro- 
mises bind,  breathing  nothing  but  sedition  and  calumnies, 
aspersing  without  measure,  railing  without  reason,  and  making 
their  own  imaginations  (without  any  warrant  of  the  Word)  the 
square  of  their  consciences.  I  protest  before  the  great  (iod, 
and,  since  I  am  here,  upon  my  Testament,  it  is  no  place  for 
me  to  lie  in,  that  you  shall  never  find  with  any  highland  or 
border  thieves  greater  ingratitude,  and  more  lies  and  vile  per- 
juries, than  with  these  fanatic  spirits.  And  suffer  not  the 
principles  of  them  to  brook  your  land,  if  you  like  to  sit  at  rest ; 

1  Melville's  Diary,  p.  294.  Spottiswood,  lib.  vi.  Calderwood,  vol.  v. 
M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville. 

2  Melville's  Diary,  p.  295.     Melville  calk  them   '*  Anglopiscopapistica] 

propositions." 

VOL.  I.  2  F 


45°  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  |CHAP.   XIV. 

unless  you  would  keep  them  for  trying  your  patience,  as 
Socrates  did  an  evil  wife.  And  for  preservation  against  their 
poison,  entertain  and  advance  the  godly,  learned,  and  modest 
men  of  the  ministry,  of  whom  (God  be  praised)  there  lacketh 
not  a  sufficient  number,  and  by  their  provision  to  bishoprics 
and  benefices  (annulling  that  vile  act  of  annexation  if  you  find 
it  not  done  to  your  hand),  you  shall  not  only  banish  their 
conceited  parity  whereof  I  have  spoken,  and  their  other 
imaginary  grounds  which  can  neither  stand  with  the  order  of 
a  Church  nor  the  peace  of  a  Commonwealth  and  well-ruled 
monarchy ;  but  you  shall  also  re-establish  the  old  institution 
of  Three  Estates  in  Parliament,  which  can  no  otherwise  be 
done.  But  in  this,  I  hope,  if  God  spare  me  days,  to  make  you 
a  fair  entry ;  always  where  I  leave,  follow  you  my  steps.  And 
to  end  my  advice  anent  the  Church  Estate,  cherish  no  man 
more  than  a  good  pastor,  hate  no  man  more  than  a  proud 
puritan  ;  thinking  it  one  of  your  fairest  styles  to  be  called  a 
loving  nourish-father  to  the  Church."1 

The  king,  like  meaner  authors,  has  a  "  Prefactory  Epistle  to 
the  Charitable  Reader,"  which  he  begins  with  the  text 
"  there  is  nothing  covered  that  shall  not  be  revealed, "  and 
then,  alluding  to  the  underhand  production  of  the  propositions, 
he  says  that  he  was  thus  forced  to  publish  the  entire  book, 
"for  resisting  the  malice  of  the  children  of  envy,  who  like 
wasps,  suck  venom  out  of  every  wholesome  herb."  Knowing 
that  what  he  had  said  about  puritans  was  what  had  galled  most, 
he  declares,  by  way  of  apology,  "that  he  meant  by  puritans 
the  Anabaptists  and  Brownists,  and  not  the  ministers  who  pre- 
ferred the  simple  worship  of  their  own  Church  to  the  more 
ornate  ritual  of  the  south."2  We  are  bound  in  chanty  to  be- 
lieve what  James  so  earnestly  protests  ;  but,  apart  from  this, 
enough  remained  to  give  deep  cause  of  offence  to  many,  and 
to  reveal  to  all  that  it  was  the  king's  settled  purpose  to  rein- 
troduce Episcopacy  into  the  Church.  In  England,  if  we  may 
believe  Spottiswood,  the  book  was  so  well  received,  as  to  have 
smoothed  the  royal  author's  path  to  the  throne  ;  in  Scotland, 
if  we  may  believe  Bowes,  the  English  ambassador,  it  produced 
an  opposite  effect.  A  fast  was  proclaimed ;  for  two  whole 
days  it  was  rigorously  kept ;  and  Bowes  declares  to  Cecil  that 
he  had  never  witnessed  a  more  holy  or  powerful  practice  in 
religion.3 

1  Basilicon  Doron,  book  ii.  pp.  160,  161. 

2  Epistle  to  the  Reader  prefixed  to  the  Basilicon  Doron,  King  James's 
Works,  p.  143.  ;;  Spottiswood,  lib.  vi.     Tytler,  vol.  ix. 


A.D.  1599-1600.]     THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  PLAY-HOUSE.  45  I 

In  the  month  of  October  the  king  and  the  Church  were 
brought  into  collision  by  a  company  of  comedians,  whom  his 
Majesty  had  invited  from  England  to  his  northern  capital. 
Fletcher  was  at  the  head  of  this  strolling  band  of  players,  and 
some  have  fondly  imagined  that  William  Shakspeare  was  one 
of  the  company.1     James  was  a  lover  of  theatricals,  and  several 
comedies  were  performed  at  the  palace  in  his  presence.     When 
the  king  was  wearied  with  their  fun,  the  comedians  purchased 
from  him  a  warrant  to  the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh,  to  find 
them  a  house  within  the  town  for  performing  their  plays.     All 
things  being  ready,  "  they  gave  warning  by  trumpets  and  drums 
through  the  streets  of  the  city  to  all  that  pleased  to  come  to 
the  Blackfriars'  Wynd,  to  see  the  acting  of  their  comedies."' 
The  clergy  took  alarm  ;  the  four  sessions  were  convoked  ;  an 
act  was  made,  and  intimated  from  the  pulpit,  forbidding  the 
people  to  resort  to  these  profane  plays ;  and  the  poor  players 
found  that  their  occupation  was  gone.     The  king  was  highly 
incensed  when  he  heard  of  this,  as  he  regarded  the  act  of  the 
sessions  as  made  to  cross  his  royal  warrant,  and  therefore  he 
had  the  ministers  and  elders  forthwith  summoned  into  his  pre- 
sence.    Their  explanations  were  regarded  as  unsatisfactory, 
and  on  the  next  day  a  proclamation  was  published  by  sound 
of  trumpet,  charging  them  to  meet  and  rescind  the  obnoxious 
act.     The  sessions  convened,  the  opinion  of  counsel  was  taken, 
the  ministers  stood  firm,  but  the  elders  outvoted  them,  and  the 
act  was  annulled.     Thus  the  inhabitants  of  Edinburgh  had  free 
liberty  to  resort  to  the  Blackfriars'  Wynd  and  enjoy  the  modern 
drama,  now  that  the  Mysteries  and  Moralities  of  the  Church, 
and  the  frolics  of  Robin  Hood  and  Little  John,  had  fallen  into 
disuse.2 

The  first  year  of  the  seventeenth  century  was 
destined  to  see  Scotch  presbyters  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  Members  of  Parliament.  The  General  Assembly 
met  at  Montrose  on  the  i8th  of  March.  It  was  designed  to 
complete  the  revolutionary  work  which  had  been  begun  at 
Perth  and  Dundee,  and  therefore  the  uncompromising  Presby- 
terians, and  their  more  courtly  brethren,  looked  forward  to  it 
with  equal  anxiety.  The  north  once  more  appeared  in  great 
strength.  The  king  himself  came  to  Montrose  to  meet  with 
the  ministers,  and  join  in  their  discussions  with  all  the  keen- 

1  See  Statistical  Account,   vol.  xviii.  p.  523. 

-  Calderwood,  vol.  v.  pp.  765-67.     Tytler,  vol.  ix.     Nicolson  to  Cecil, 
Nov.  12.     Proclamation  by  King,  &c.     Cal.  of  State  Papers. 


45 2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.   XIV. 

ness  of  a  thorough-bred  polemic.  His  apartments  were  con- 
stantly crowded  with  clergymen,  who  came  either  to  make 
their  court  or  to  be  courted.  From  the  time  he  rose  in  the 
morning  till  he  went  to  bed  at  night,  he  was  so  busy  with 
ministers  that  the  courtiers  complained  they  could  not  get 
access  to  him.  It  had  already  been  decided  at  Dundee  that 
ministers  might  vote  in  parliament  as  the  representatives  of  the 
Church  ;  but  many  specialties  required  to  be  arranged  to  give 
to  this  general  proposition  a  substantive  shape.  At  a  meeting 
of  Commissioners  of  Synods  held  at  Falkland,  a  number  of 
resolutions  had  been  discussed  and  agreed  upon ;  and  at  a 
conference  of  ministers  in  Holyrood  House,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  king,  the  subject  had  been  long  and  earnestly  debated 
in  all  its  bearings. 

The  whole  matter  was  now  brought  before  the  supreme 
court  of  the  Church  to  receive  its  sanction.  The  first  subject 
to  be  decided  regarded  the  election  and  maintenance  of  those 
who  were  to  have  vote  in  parliament ;  and,  after  some  dis- 
cussion, it  was  resolved — that  the  Church  should  recommend 
to  his  Majesty  a  list  of  six  ministers  for  every  vacant  place, 
and  that  out  of  these  his  Majesty  should  choose  one  to  sit  in 
parliament ;  and  that  after  churches,  colleges,  and  schools 
were  sufficiently  provided  for,  the  remainder  of  any  Episcopal 
benefices  might  be  given  by  the  king  to  the  ministers  who  had 
been  raised  to  parliamentary  honours. 

This  being  resolved  upon,  the  Assembly  proceeded  to  heap 
caveats  upon  its  parliamentary  representatives.  Never  was 
member  for  a  burgh  more  loaded  with  pledges  and  promises 
than  were  these  members  for  the  Church  with  what  were 
called  caveats  or  cautions.  They  were  to  propose  nothing  in 
name  of  the  Church  without  its  express  warrant ;  they  were 
to  render  to  every  General  Assembly  an  account  of  the  way  in 
which  they  had  discharged  their  commission ;  they  were  to 
content  themselves  with  so  much  of  their  benefice  as  was  as- 
signed them  by  his  Majesty;  they  were  not  to  dilapidate  their 
benefice  \  they  were  to  discharge  every  pastoral  duty  to  their 
respective  congregations;  they  were  not  to  usurp  any  juris- 
diction over  their  brethren ;  they  were  to  remain  subject  to 
the  censures  of  the  Church  Courts ;  they  were  to  swear  to  all 
this  at  their  admission  ;  and,  in  case  of  their  deposition  from 
the  ministry,  their  seat  in  parliament  and  their  benefice  were 
ipso  facto  to  become  vacant.1 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  Assembly  1600.  Calderwood,  vol.  vL 
pp.  1-20. 


A.D.    1600.]  THE  NEW  BISHOPS.  453 

It  was  warmly  debated  as  to  whether  these  parliament-men 
should  hold  their  seats  for  life,  or  only  from  year  to  year.  A 
middle  course  was  at  length  agreed  upon.  Every  year  they 
were  to  give  an  account  of  their  stewardship  to  the  Assembly, 
and  lay  down  their  commission  at  its  feet,  to  be  continued  or 
discontinued  as  the  Assembly,  with  the  consent  of  his  Majesty, 
might  think  most  expedient  for  the  welfare  of  the  Church. 
Another  nice  point  which  this  Assembly  had  to  solve  was  the 
name  to  be  borne  by  its  parliamentary  representatives.  The 
Estates  had  determined  that  they  could  be  received  only  as 
abbots  and  bishops,  the  heirs  of  their  Popish  ancestors.  To 
be  an  abbot,  even  in  name,  was  a  thing  abhorrent  to  every 
Presbyterian ;  to  be  a  bishop  almost  as  bad.  It  was  resolved 
they  should  be  called  Commissioners,  and  in  case  the  Estates 
would  not  receive  them  under  that  appellation,  that  a  future 
Assembly  would  reconsider  it.  "  Thus,"  says  Calderwood, 
mournfully,  "the  Trojan  horse — the  Episcopacy — was  brought 
in,  busked  and  covered  with  caveats,  that  the  danger  and 
deformity  might  not  be  seen  ;  which  was,  notwithstanding, 
seen  of  many  and  opposed  unto.  But  force  and  falsehood 
prevailed."  : 

Nothing  now  remained  to  be  done  but  to  fill  up  the  vacant 
bishoprics.  Aberdeen  and  Argyll  were  already  filled  by 
ministers ;  Dunkeld,  Brechin,  and  Dunblane  were  held  by 
titulars,  not  ministers ;  St  Andrews  and  Glasgow  were  in 
possession  of  the  Duke  of  Lennox ;  Galloway  and  the  Isles 
were  so  dilapidated,  that  nothing  was  left.  Only  Ross  and 
Caithness  remained  to  be  disposed  of.  David  Lyndsay  was 
presented  to  the  first,  and  George  Gladstone  to  the  second.2 

The  autumn  of  this  year  is  memorable  for  the  Gowrie  Con- 
spiracy, over  which  there  still  hangs  an  air  of  impenetrable 
mystery.  The  king  was  cajoled  to  Gowrie  House,  at  Perth, 
by  Alexander  Ruthven,  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Gowrie,  where, 
instead  of  seeing  a  Spanish  Jesuit  in  a  black  cloak,  as  he  had 
expected,  he  beheld  a  man  in  armour  with  a  dagger  in  his 
belt.  The  man  stood  dumb  and  then  shuffled  out  of  the 
room,  but  Ruthven  threatened  the  king  with  death  for  his 
father's  execution.  James  got  to  the  window  and  bawled. 
"  treason  !  help  !  "  and  some  of  his  attendants  forced  their  way 

1  History,  vol.  vi.  p.  20.  The  Trojan  horse  was  a  favourite  figure. 
James  Melville  gives  us  a  snatch  of  poetry,  in  which  the  same  similitude 
is  worked  out. 

2  Spottiswood,  lib.  vi. 


454  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   Xiv. 

to  the  room,  killed  both  Gowrie  and  his  brother,  and  rescued 
the  king,  who  was  unhurt,  but  terribly  frightened.  A  letter 
from  his  Majesty  made  his  good  subjects,  the  citizens  of  Edin- 
burgh, aware  of  all  this  by  ten  o'clock  the  next  morning  ;  and 
requested  the  ministers  to  have  the  Church  bells  rung,  the 
people  assembled,  and  thanks  given  to  God  for  his  delivery. 
The  ministers,  somehow,  were  sceptical  about  the  whole 
matter,  and  declared  that  if  they  went  to  the  pulpit,  whatever 
they  might  say,  they  would  be  silent  about  treason.  The  re- 
monstrances of  the  Privy  Council  failed  to  move  them,  and 
there  was  nothing  for  it  but  that  David  Lyndsay,  the  new 
Bishop  of  Ross,  should  go  to  the  market  cross,  and  make  a 
harangue  to  the  people.  When  it  was  done,  the  whole  multi- 
tude uncovered  and  praised  God  ;  the  bells  of  the  churches 
rung ;  the  cannons  of  the  castle  thundered  forth  their  joy ;  and 
when  darkness  set  in  the  city  was  illuminated,  and  bonfires 
blazed  on  the  top  of  Arthur's  Seat,  on  Fawside  Hill,  and  other 
eminences,  both  on  the  north  and  south  of  the  Firth.1 

Upon  Monday,  the  nth  of  August,  James  returned  to  his 
capital,  and  the  citizens,  to  testify  their  joy,  turned  out  in  arms 
to  receive  him.  The  market  cross  was  covered  with  tapestry, 
and  at  it  the  royal  procession  paused.  Patrick  Galloway 
preached  a  sermon,  embodying  a  narrative  of  the  conspiracy, 
to  the  crowd  of  courtiers  and  burghers  who  thronged  around 
him ;  and  the  king  made  a  speech,  corroborating  what  had 
been  said  by  the  preacher.  The  next  day  the  unbelieving 
ministers  were  cited  by  a  macer  to  appear  before  the  Secret 
Council.  They  came,  and  were  questioned  by  the  king  him- 
self, but  they  were  still  sceptical ;  and  while  declaring  their 
readiness  to  give  thanks  for  the  king's  escape  in  general  terms, 
they  stoutly  declined  to  enter  into  particulars.  Had  James 
consulted  his  interest  and  his  dignity,  he  would  have  left  them 
alone  in  their  unbelief;  but  he  let  his  annoyance  get  the 
better  of  his  discretion,  and  banished  Bruce,  Balcanquhal, 
Balfour,  Watson,  and  Hall,  from  Edinburgh,  and  interdicted 
them  from  preaching  anywhere  in  his  dominions.  The  sen- 
tence was  utterly  unjustifiable,  but  it  had  the  effect  of  con- 
vincing Balcanquhal,  Balfour,  Watson,  and  Hall  ;  who,  after 
publicly  confessing  their  conversion  to  the  truth,  were  restored 
to  their  churches.  Bruce  remained  obstinate,  and  was  ban- 
ished to  France,  but  in  exile  conviction  began  to  dawn  upon 

1  Caklerwood,  vol.  vi.  p.  46. 


A.D.   1600.]  THE  GOWRIE  CONSPIRACY.  455 

his  mind  too,  and  he  was  on  the  eve  of  being  restored  when 
new  disagreements  led  to  his  final  banishment  from  Edin- 
burgh.1 

It  is  now  as  certain  as  most  historical  facts  that  the  Earl  of 
Gowrie  and  his  brother  had  conspired — not  to  murder  the 
king,  but  to  get  him  into  their  power,  and  thus  to  control  the 
government ;  but  James's  notorious  timidity,  the  death  of 
the  two  principal  conspirators,  with  the  secret  in  their  bosoms, 
the  discrepancies  in  the  narratives  that  were  afloat,  the  strange- 
ness of  the  whole  story,  made  many  besides  the  ministers  dis- 
believe, and  even  led  some  to  fancy  that  it  was  a  conspiracy  of 
the  king  against  the  Ruthvens,  and  not  of  the  Ruthvens 
against  the  king.2 

The  man  who  could  scarcely  look  upon  a  drawn  sword 
without  shuddering,  must  have  felt  devoutly  thankful  when 
delivered  from  a  dagger  pointed  at  his  heart ;  but  he  foolishly 
expected  all  men,  and  all  future  ages,  to  be  as  thankful  as 
himself,  when  he  changed  the  weekly  preaching  from  Friday 
to  Tuesday  in  memory  of  the  event,  and  ordained  that  in 
all  time  coming  the  5th  of  August  should  be  held  as  a  day  of 
solemn  thanksgiving  for  his  miraculous  deliverance.  This 
was  a  near  approach  to  an  apotheosis.  The  Church  of  Scot- 
land did  not  keep  saints'  days,  but  in  its  present  obliging 
humour,  it  agreed  to  keep  the  king's  day.3  But  it  was  not 
long  till  the  calendar  was  changed. 

Before  the  sixteenth  century  expired,  many  of  the  ministers 
of  the  Church,  who  had  borne  a  conspicuous  part  in  the 
Reformation  struggles,  ceased  from  their  warfare  to  enter  upon 
their  reward.  In  1598  Thomas  Buchanan,  provost  of  Kirk- 
heugh  and  minister  of  Cyprus,  was  killed  by  a  fall  from  his 
horse.  In  1599  Principal  Rollock  of  Edinburgh  died,  still  a 
young  man,  but  already  distinguished  for  his  learning,  modera- 
tion, and  services  to  the  Church.  In  1600  stout  John  Dury 
breathed  his  last,  a  man  whom  all  parties  appear  to  have  re- 
spected for  his  simple  piety  and  straightforward  honesty ;  and 
in  the  same  year  John  Craig,  long  the  colleague  of  Knox,  and 
whose  life  in  youth  was  strangely  chequered  by  stirring  inci- 
dents and  hairbreadth  escapes,  rested  from  his  labours.4 

1  Calderwood,  vol.  vi.      Spottiswood,  lib.  vi. 

2  The  curious  in  this  matter  are  referred  to  Burton's  History,  chaps,  lxi. 
.and  lxiii.,  and  to  Pitcairn's  Criminal  Trials. 

3  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  Assembly  1602,  p.  526.  Calderwood, 
vol.  vi. 

4  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vi. 


45 ^  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XIV. 

The  name  of  Principal  Rollock  bids  us  pause  and  record 
the  foundation  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  No  papal 
bull  gave  privileges  and  immunities  to  this  celebrated  seat 
of  learning,  as  had  been  the  case  with  St  Andrews,  Glasgow, 
and  Aberdeen.  The  reverence  for  the  Pope  had  departed 
before  the  metropolitan  university  had  a  being.  Immediately 
after  the  Reformation,  however,  the  magistrates  resolved  to 
apply  some  of  the  ecclesiastical  spoil  which  had  come  into 
their  hands  toward  the  erection  of  a  college,  and  the  kirk  of 
St-Mary-in-the-Fields  was  bought  from  its  last  provost  for  a 
site.  In  1580  the  building  was  begun;  two  years  afterwards, 
a  charter  of  erection  was  obtained  from  James  VI.,  ratifying 
the  previous  grants  of  his  mother ;  and  in  1583  students  were 
enrolled  to  be  taught  Humanity  by  Rollock,  at  first  the  only 
professor  of  whom  the  College  could  boast.  When  other 
professors  were  added,  Rollock  was  raised  to  the  principality. 
The  academy  thus  poorly  begun  flourished  mightily.  Regents 
were  appointed,  public  disputations  were  held,  students  were 
laureated ;  and  when  King  James  came  from  England  to 
revisit  his  native  country  in  161 7,  he  was  so  proud  of  the 
school  which  he  had  helped  to  rear  that  he  desired  that  it 
should  be  called  by  his  name.1 

The  Assembly  met  at  Burntisland  in  May 
1 60 1.  It  exhibited  the  same  zeal  as  all  former 
Assemblies  against  Popery ;  but  the  most  interesting  part  of 
its  proceedings  related  to  the  Bible  and  Psalm-book.  It  was 
brought  before  the  notice  of  the  Assembly,  that  in  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Scriptures  then  in  use  there  were  many  errors 
which  might  be  corrected  ;  that  in  the  metrical  version  of  the 
Psalms  there  were  many  lines  that  might  be  improved ;  and 
that  in  the  liturgy  there  were  several  prayers  which  ought  to 
be  changed,  to  meet  the  change  of  times.  This  was  a  subject 
upon  which  the  poetic  and  theological  monarch  was  sure  to 
shine.  He  pointed  out  the  errors  in  the  vulgar  translation  of 
the  Bible  ;  he  recited  verse  after  verse  of  the  Psalms  ;  he 
expatiated  upon  their  divergence  from  the  original,  and  the 
faults  of  their  metre  \  and  the  Assembly  listened  with  wonder 
and  joy.  It  was  finally  agreed  that  the  brethren  best  ac- 
quainted with  the  original  languages  should  devote  their 
energies  to  different  parts  of  the  sacred  text,  and  bring  the 
result  of  their  labours  before  a  future  Assembly ;  and  that  any 
brother  might  prepare  and  propose  new  prayers,  suited  to  the 
1  Stevenson's  Chronicles  of  Edinburgh. 


A.D.  1603.J  DEATH  OF  QUEEN   ELIZABETH.  45  7 

times,  to  be  added  to  the  liturgy,  but  that  no  alteration  should 
be  made  in  those  already  contained  in  it.1 

James  was  now  beginning  to  look  anxiously  forward  to  his 
accession  to  the  English  throne.  Elizabeth's  health  was  be- 
ginning to  decline,  and  it  was  plain  that  the  sceptre  must  soon 
depart  from  her,  notwithstanding  the  firmness  with  which  she 
had  held  it  for  so  long  a  period.  It  was  the  policy  of  James 
to  conciliate  all  classes  of  his  subjects,  present  and  future  ; 
and  such  middle  courses,  though  sometimes  the  best  that  can 
be  followed,  are  never  entirely  successful.  The  Protestants 
bitterly  blamed  him  for  the  marks  of  favour  which  he  gave  to 
the  Romanists.  The  Countess  of  Huntly,  a  Papist,  was  a 
great  favourite  at  court ;  Lady  Livingston,  a  Papist,  had  the 
charge  of  the  Princess  Elizabeth  ;  the  sister  of  the  Laird  of  Bon- 
nington,  a  Papist  too,  was  frequently  at  Holyrood.  These  were 
sore  evils  in  the  eye  of  the  Church.  It  was  even  affirmed  that 
in  1596  James  had  written  a  courteous  letter  to  the  Pope,  pro- 
posing the  residence  of  a  Scottish  ambassador  at  the  court  of 
Rome.  When  challenged  for  this  apparent  apostasy,  he 
strongly  denied  it ;  and  when  the  letter  was  afterwards  pro- 
duced, with  the  royal  signature  attached,  Lord  Balmerino,  the 
Scottish  Secretary  of  State,  and  a  Catholic,  stepped  forward  and 
declared  that  he  had  surreptitiously  got  it  signed,  with  a  num- 
ber of  other  papers  which  the  king  did  not  read  ;  but  many 
believed  that  the  secretary  took  the  paternity  of  the  document 
to  save  the  character  of  his  royal  master.2  Notwithstanding 
these  concessions,  the  millions  of  Papists  in  the  heart  of  Eng- 
land were  not  entirely  reconciled  to  the  prospect  of  another 
Protestant  monarch,  and  more  than  one  brain  was  busily  plot- 
ting a  change  in  the  line  of  succession. 

On  Thursday  the  24th  of  March  1603,  Queen  Elizabeth 
breathed  her  last,  and  late  on  Saturday  night  James  was  raised 
from  his  bed  to  be  greeted  as  King  of  England,  France,  and 
Ireland.  Two  days  afterwards  official  news  of  his  peaceable 
accession  to  the  English  throne  reached  Edinburgh.  He 
instantly  began  to  make  preparations  for  his  journey  to  the 
south.  On  Sunday  the  3d  of  April,  he  repaired  to  St  Gile's 
for  the  last  time  to  hear  sermon.  Hall  was  the  preacher  for 
the  day,  and  took  occasion  in  his  sermon  to  remember  the 
mercies  of  God  towards  his  Majesty,  not  the  least  of  which,  he 
remarked,  was  his  peaceable  accession  to  the  throne  of  Eng- 

1  Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk,  pp.  497,  498.     Spottiswood,  lib.  vi. 

2  Tytler,  vol.  ix.     Calderwood,  vol.  vi. 


45 8  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XV. 

land.  When  the  sermon  was  done,  the  king  rose  up  and 
delivered  his  farewell  speech.  He  complimented  the  preacher; 
he  remarked  of  himself  that  he  was  the  lineal  heir  of  the  crown 
of  England  as  well  as  of  the  crown  of  Scotland ;  he  declared 
his  love  for  his  Scotch  subjects  would  not  be  lessened  though 
he  was  removed  from  them.  "  There  is  no  more  difference," 
said  the  royal  orator,  "  between  London  and  Edinburgh,  than 
between  Edinburgh  and  Aberdeen  \  for  all  our  marches  are  dry, 
and  there  are  ferries  between  them.  But  my  course  must  be 
to  establish  peace,  and  religion,  and  wealth  betwixt  both 
countries  \  and  as  God  has  joined  the  right  of  both  kingdoms 
in  my  person,  so  you  may  be  joined  in  wealth,  in  religion,  in 
heart,  and  affections.  And  as  the  one  country  has  wealth,  and 
the  other  has  multitude  of  men,  so  we  may  part  the  gifts,  and 
every  one,  as  they  can,  help  the  other.  And  as  God  has  pro- 
moted me  to  a  greater  power  than  I  had,  so  I  must  endeavour 
myself  to  flourish  and  establish  religion,  and  take  away  the 
corruptions  of  both  countries.  And,  on  the  other  part,  you 
must  not  doubt  but  as  I  have  a  body  as  able  as  any  king  in 
Europe,  whereby  I  am  able  to  travel,  so  I  shall  visit  you  every 
three  years  at  the  least,  that  I  may  with  mine  own  mouth  take 
account  of  justice,  and  of  them  that  are  under  me,  and  that 
you  yourselves  may  see  and  hear  me,  and  from  the  meanest  to 
the  greatest  may  have  access  to  my  person,  and  may  pour  out 
your  complaints  in  my  bosom."1  In  a  few  days  more  the 
king  had  crossed  the  border,  to  be  met  by  the  loud  acclama- 
tions and  hearty  welcome  of  the  English  people. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

When  James  was  making  his  triumphal  progress  to  London, 
the  Puritans,  expecting  to  find  favour  with  a  Puritan  king,  met 
him  on  the  way,  and  presented  to  him  their  millenary  petition, 
so  called  because  it  was  said  to  be  signed  by  a  thousand 
ministers.  In  consequence  of  this,  and  probably  also  to  ex- 
hibit his  own  theological  attainments,  the  monarch  determined 
to  hold  a  conference  at  Hampton  Court,  of  the  two  parties  who 
divided  the  English  Church.  Nine  bishops,  seven  deans, 
and  an  archdeacon,  were  nominated  to  represent  the  High 
( !hurch  party  ;  four  ministers  to  state  the  views  of  the  Puritans. 
1  Caklerwood,  vol.  v.  p.  215. 


A.D.  1604.]  HAMPTON  COURT  CONFERENCE.  459 

They  met  on  the  14th  January  1604.  The  conference  con- 
tinued three  days.  The  first  was  with  the  bishops  and  deans 
alone,  when  the  king  made  a  speech,  saying,  "  that  he  was  now 
come  into  the  promised  land  :  that  he  sat  among  grave  and 
reverend  men,  and  was  not  a  king,  as  formerly,  without  state, 
nor  in  a  place  where  beardless  boys  would  brave  him  to  his 
face."  The  second  day's  conference  was  held  on  the  16th  ol 
January,  when  the  four  Puritan  ministers  were  called  in  on  the 
one  side,  and  two  bishops  and  six  or  eight  deans  on  the  other. 
Patrick  Galloway,  the  minister  of  Perth,  was  also  permitted  to 
be  present.  Dr  Reynolds  of  Cambridge,  in  name  of  his 
Puritanic  brethren,  humbly  craved  that  some  alterations  might 
be  made  in  the  doctrines,  government,  and  services  of  the 
Church.  James  no  longer  thought  the  Kirk  of  Scotland  the 
purest  Kirk  in  Christendom.  He  declared  the  surplice  to  be  a 
comely  garment,  and  the  sign  of  the  cross  as  old  as  Constan- 
tine  ;  "  and  as  to  the  power  of  the  Church,"  said  he,  "  in  things 
indifferent,  I  will  not  argue  that  point  with  you,  but  answer  as 
kings  in  parliament,  '  le  Roi  s'avisera!  This  is  like  Mr  John 
Black,  a  beardless  boy,  who  told  me  at  the  last  conference  in 
Scotland,  that  he  would  hold  conformity  with  me  in  doctrine, 
but  that  every  man,  as  to  ceremonies,  was  to  be  left  to  his  own 
liberty  ;  but  I  will  have  none  of  that :  I  will  have  one  doctrine 
one  discipline,  one  religion  in  substance  and  ceremony  \  never 
speak  more  to  that  point,  how  far  you  are  bound  to  obey." 
Dr  Reynolds  proceeded  to  complain  of  excommunication  by 
lay  chancellors ;  and  to  desire  that  the  clergy  might  have 
liberty  to  hold  periodical  meetings ;  but  at  this  all  the  king's 
bitter  reminiscences  of  Scotch  presbyteries,  synods,  and  General 
Assemblies,  rose  up  before  him,  and  he  sharply  told  the 
Puritan  ministers,  that  he  saw  they  were  aiming  at  a  Scotch 
Presbytery,  "  which,"  said  his  Majesty,  "  agrees  with  monarchy 
as  well  as  God  and  the  devil ;  then  Jack  and  Tom,  Will  and 
Dick,  shall  meet,  and  at  their  pleasure  censure  both  me  and 
my  Council.  Therefore,  pray  stay  one  seven  years  before  you 
demand  that  of  me,  and  if  then  you  find  me  pursy  and  fat, 
and  my  windpipe  stuffed,  I  will  perhaps  hearken  to  you  ;  for 
let  that  government  be  up,  and  I  am  sure  I  shall  be  kept  in 
breath  ;  but  till  you  find  I  grow  lazy,  pray  let  that  alone.  I 
remember  how  they  used  the  poor  lady  my  mother  in  Scot- 
land, and  me  in  my  minority."  Then  turning  to  the  bishops, 
he  put  his  hand  to  his  hat  and  said,  "  My  lords,  I  may  thank 
you  that  these  Puritans  plead  for  my  supremacy,  for  if  once 


460  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XV. 

you  are  out  and  they  in  place,  I  know  what  would  become 
of  my  supremacy,  for  no  bishop,  no  king."  x 

The  third  day  was  chiefly  occupied  with  the  bishops  and 
deans,  and  the  king  spoke  so  much  in  harmony  with  their 
feelings,  that  the  old  archbishop  cried  out,  "  undoubtedly  your 
Majesty  speaks  by  the  special  assistance  of  God's  Spirit.'7 
The  Puritans  were  only  called  in  for  a  little  to  hear  the  few 
trifling  alterations  which  had  been  agreed  upon.  The  bishops 
and  deans  exulted  at  this  issue  of  the  conference,  and  pro- 
nounced James  to  be  the  Solomon  of  his  age,  and  to  unite  in 
his  one  person  the  priest  and  the  king.  James  himself  was 
exalted  above  measure  at  the  part  he  had  played.  He  wrote 
to  Scotland  that  he  had  soundly  peppered  the  Puritans,  and 
that  they  had  fled  before  him.  "  It  were  no  reason,"  said  his 
Majesty,  aiming  at  a  pun,  "  that  those  who  refuse  the  airy  sign 
of  the  cross  after  baptism,  should  have  their  purses  stuffed  with 
any  more  solid  and  substantial  crosses.  They  fled  me  so  from 
argument  to  argument,  without  ever  answering  me  directly, 
that  I  was  forced  to  tell  them,  that  if  any  of  them  when  boys 
had  disputed  thus  in  the  college,  the  moderator  would  have 
fetched  them  up,  and  applied  the  rod  to  their  buttocks.'" 
Thus  wrote  the  king  of  such  men  as  Dr  Reynolds,  one  of  the 
lights  of  the  age.  But  the  Puritan  party  throughout  the 
country  felt  that  they  had  been  mocked,  and  complained 
loudly  that  justice  had  not  been  done  to  them.  The  Presby- 
terians in  Scotland  sympathised  with  them,  and  when  Patrick 
Galloway's  narrative  of  the  conference  was  read  in  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Edinburgh,  James  Melville  moved  that  prayer  should 
be  offered  up  for  their  comfort  and  relief,  and  that  care  should 
be  taken  lest  Scotland  should  catch  the  contagion  of  English 
superstition.2 

One  good  result  came  of  the  conference.  Acting  on  a  hint 
thrown  out  by  Dr  Reynolds,  the  king  resolved  to  have  a  new 
translation  of  the  Bible;  and  by  the  united  labours  of  forty-seven 
of  the  most  learned  men  in  England,  the  present  authorised 
version  was  compiled,  and  gradually  came  into  use.  It  is  now 
used  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken,  alike  by 
churchman  and  dissenter.  A  few  years  later  and  this  had  been 
impossible;  sectarian  jealousy  would  have  prevented  it,  and 
every  sect  would  have  had  its  own  Bible  as  it  has  its  own  hymn 
book  and  catechism. 

1  NeaTs  History,  vol.  i.  pp.  414-17. 

2  NeaPs  History,  vol.  i.  pp.  417-19.      Caklerwood's  History,  vol.  vi. 


A.D.  1605.]  FORBIDDEN  ASSEMBLIES.  46 1 

The  General  Assembly  had  been  indited  to  meet  at  Aberdeen 
on  the  last  Tuesday  of  July,  but  the  king  prorogued  it  till 
the  following  year.  Notwithstanding  the  prorogation,  the 
Presbytery  of  St  Andrews,  ever  faithful  to  its  principles  and  its 
leaders,  determined  to  keep  the  diet  on  the  appointed  day  ; 
and,  accordingly,  James  Melville,  William  Erskine,  and  William 
Murray  appeared  as  its  commissioners  in  the  Church  of  St 
Nicholas  at  Aberdeen,  true  to  the  time ;  and,  finding  no  other 
commissioners  there,  they  publicly  protested,  and  took  instru- 
ments in  the  hands  of  their  notaries  that  they  had  appeared, 
and  that  if  the  Church  suffered  skaith  through  the  not  keeping 
of  the  Assembly,  it  was  not  to  be  imputed  to  them  or  their 
presbytery.1  The  bad  feeling  excited  by  this  stretch  of  the 
royal  prerogative,  in  defiance  of  the  many  laws  which  guaran- 
teed an  annual  Assembly,  was  increased  by  the  circumstance, 
that  James  was  at  that  moment  using  every  endeavour  to  effect 
a  union  between  the  kingdoms.  The  Church  was  patriotic 
and  far-seeing  enough  devoutly  to  desire  this  ;  but  it  dreaded 
that  the  Anglican  episcopate  and  ritual  might  be  extended  to 
Scotland,  and  that  the  General  Assembly  was  prorogued  to 
prevent  its  remonstrances. 

As  the  month  of  July  1605 — when  the  General  Assembly 
was  to  meet — approached,  the  old  Presbyterian  spirit  began  to 
revive,  and  it  was  rumoured  throughout  the  country  that  an 
effort  would  be  made  to  undo  the  legislation  of  the  last  eight 
years.2  The  court  took  alarm,  and  in  the  month  of  June,  when 
many  of  the  presbyteries  had  already  elected  their  representa- 
tives, a  circular-letter  was  sent  them,  signed  by  Sir  Alexander 
Straiton,  the  Royal  Commissioner,  and  Patrick  Galloway,  the 
Moderator  of  last  Assembly,  requesting  them  to  stay  their  re- 
presentatives from  keeping  the  diet.3  This  letter  had  the  effect 
of  keeping  the  great  majority  of  the  Church's  commissioners 
at  home.  Dread  of  the  consequence  of  disobedience,  anxiety 
for  peace,  dislike  of  being  mixed  up  in  a  quarrel,  operated 
then,  as  they  always  do,  except  in  times  of  violent  excitement. 

On  the  2d  of  July  only  nineteen  ministers  appeared  at  Aber- 
deen. Straiton  of  Lauriston  came  too,  and  presented  to  them 
ix  letter  from  the  Lords  of  the  Secret  Council.  As  this  letter  was 
addressed — "To  our  trusty  friends,  the  brethren  of  the  ministry 
convened  at  their  Assembly  at  Aberdeen,"  it  was  agreed  that  it 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.  pp.  264-68. 

2  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii. 

3  Forbes's  Records,  p.  384,  WodrowEd.     Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi. 


462  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XV.. 

could  not  be  read  till  a  Moderator  was  appointed.  Straiton 
declined  being  present  at  the  election,  but,  before  leaving,  he 
suggested  Forbes  of  Alford,  and  in  compliance  with  his  wishes, 
Forbes  was  chosen.  The  letter  was  then  read,  and  it  charged 
them  instantly  to  dissolve,  and  that  without  fixing  any  day  for 
their  next  meeting  till  they  had  first  consulted  his  Majesty.1 
The  ministers  proved  their  moderation  by  resolving  to  adjourn 
without  despatching  a  single  piece  of  business,  but  to  adjourn 
without  fixing  the  time  of  their  next  meeting  was  to  surrender 
a  principle  which  was  a  part  of  their  religion — a  principle  which 
had  been  secured  to  them  by  law,  and  upon  which  they  be- 
lieved depended  the  continued  existence  of  their  Church. 
They  therefore  framed  a  respectful  letter  to  the  Secret  Council, 
explaining  their  conduct,  and  then  adjourned,  to  meet  again 
on  the  last  Tuesday  of  September.  When  this  resolution  was 
come  to,  the  Royal  Commissioner,  foiled  of  his  principal  pur- 
pose, protested  that  he  did  not  acknowledge  their  meeting  for 
a  lawful  Assembly ;  upon  which  the  Moderator  made  counter- 
protestation  that  it  was  and  behoved  to  be  a  lawful  Assembly, 
in  respect  of  their  warrant  to  meet,  the  laws  of  the  land,  and 
the  continual  custom  of  the  Kirk.  Straiton  now  took  a  more 
violent  step,  and  charged  the  ministers,  by  a  messenger,  forth- 
with to  depart,  under  pain  of  horning.  The  Assembly  pro- 
tested that  they  were  ready  instantly  to  obey  the  tenor  of  the 
charge,  and  so  quietly  dispersed.2 

The  Laird  of  Lauriston  appears  to  have  been  aware  that  the 
fact  of  the  Assembly  having  been  constituted  and  adjourned  to 
a  future  day  would  give  deep  cause  of  offence  to  the  king  and  his 
bishops,  and  therefore,  on  his  return  to  Edinburgh,  he  declared 
to  the  Council  that,  by  proclamation  at  the  market-cross,  on 
the  evening  preceding  the  day  on  which  the  Assembly  was  to 
convene,  he  had  forbidden  it  to  meet,  a  statement  which  the 
ministers  vehemently  denied,  and  which  his  own  conduct  ap- 
pears to  refute.  In  consequence  of  this  statement,  John 
Forbes,  who  had  acted  as  Moderator  of  the  dissolved  Assembly, 
John  Welsh,  a  son-in-law  of  Knox,  and  several  other  ministers, 
were  cited  before  the  Council,  either  for  having  been  present 
at  the  Assembly,  or  for  having  approved  of  its  proceedings, 
and  sent  prisoners  to  Blackness.  The  mass  of  the  people 
were  indignant  at  this  unjustifiable  severity.  The  preachers 
preached  against  it,  and  the  populace  talked  against  it.     The 

1  Forbes's  Records,  p.  388-     Calderwood,  vol.  vi. 

2  Forbes's  Records,  pp.  392-94.     Calderwood,  vol.  vi. 


a.d.  1605-6.  J  TREASON.  463 

Council  thought  to  check  this  by  issuing  two  proclamations — 
the  one  discharging  presbyteries  from  appointing  commis- 
sioners to  the  adjourned  Assembly,  and  the  other  prohibiting 
all  Church  Courts  and  ministers,  in  public  or  in  private,  from 
approving  of  the  proceedings  of  the  ministers  at  Aberdeen. 
But  it  is  difficult  to  stifle  free  thought.  James  Melville  wrote 
an  able  apology  for  the  imprisoned  ministers.  The  imprisoned 
ministers  themselves  directed  a  respectful  letter  to  the  king, 
vindicating  their  conduct.  Public  indignation  rose  higher, 
and  James  felt  it  necessary  to  publish  a  proclamation,  setting 
forth,  that  although  it  was  desirable  that  as  much  uniformity 
as  possible  should  exist  between  the  united  kingdoms,  he  did 
not  intend  to  make  any  sudden  innovations  on  the  civil  or 
ecclesiastical  institutions  of  Scotland,  and  appointing  a  General 
Assembly  to  be  held  at  Dundee  on  the  last  Tuesday  of  July.1 

On  the  24th  of  October,  fourteen  ministers  were  brought 
before  the  Secret  Council  \  and  when  called  to  answer  for 
their  conduct,  they  gave  in  a  written  declinature  of  the  juris- 
diction of  the  court.  The  Council  repelled  the  declinature, 
declared  the  Assembly  to  have  been  unlawful,  and  those  who 
had  met  in  it  to  be  subject  to  punishment.  A  fortnight  after 
this,  on  the  5th  of  November,  the  English  parliament  was  to 
have  met ;  but  that  day  was  rendered  for  ever  memorable  by 
the  discovery  of  the  gunpowder  treason ;  the  first  news  of 
which  carried  agitation  and  alarm  throughout  the  kingdom. 
While  James  and  his  courtiers  were  congratulating  themselves 
on  their  escape  from  the  plots  of  the  Papists,  Forbes  and  his 
Presbyterian  brethren  were  languishing  in  prison.  The  king 
had  unpleasant  recollections  about  declinatures  in  the  days  of 
his  weakness ;  and  now  when  he  was  strong  he  resolved  to 
have  his  revenge.  He  sent  down  directions  to  have  Forbes, 
Welsh,  Duncan,  Sharp,  Dury,  and  Strachan  tried  for  treason.- 

On  the  10th  of  January  1606,  they  were  brought  up  for 
trial  before  the  Justice-Depute,  assisted  by  several  of  the 
nobility,  the  indictment  being  laid  upon  the  Act  1584,  touch- 
ing his  Majesty's  jurisdiction  over  all  Estates.  After  a  legal 
argument,  it  was  decided  by  the  judges,  that  to  decline  the 
judgment  of  the  Council  was  treason — the  Earl  of  Marr,  Lord 
Holyroodhouse,  and  John  Preston,  dissenting.3  A  jury  was 
now  empanelled  j  and  it  was  carefully  explained  to  them  by 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.      Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii. 
-  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii.     Calclerwood.  vol.  vi. 
:{  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.  p.  379. 


464  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XV. 

the  king's  advocate,  that  the  only  question  which  they  had  to 
decide  was,  whether  or  not  the  indicted  ministers  had  declined 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Council,  and  that  their  own  signatures 
to  the  declinature  placed  the  fact  beyond  all  controversy. 
The  jury  had  been  packed  by  the  Crown ;  they  were  threat- 
ened and  brow-beat  by  the  Justice-Clerk  and  the  advocate ; 
the  fact  of  the  ministers  having  declined  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Council  was  certain  ;  and  yet  so  strong  was  the  sense  of 
the  injustice  that  was  about  to  be  perpetrated,  that  six  out  of 
the  fifteen  jurymen  refused,  after  six  hours'  consultation,  to 
bring  in  a  verdict  of  guilty.1 

On  the  9th  of  July,  the  parliament  assembled  at  Perth.  It 
was  customary  at  this  period  for  the  nobles  to  ride  in  state  to 
their  place  of  meeting,  clothed  in  their  scarlet  robes  of  office. 
Ten  bishops  were  in  the  cavalcade  on  the  first  day  of  this  par- 
liament, taking  their  place  betwixt  the  earls  and  lords.  First 
came  the  two  archbishops,  Gladstone  and  Spottiswood  ;  and  by 
the  stirrup  of  Gladstone  walked  an  Angusshire  minister,  of  tall 
stature,  with  his  cap  in  hand.  Next  to  them  rode  the  Bishops 
of  Dunkeld  and  Galloway ;  next,  the  Bishops  of  Ross  and 
Dunblane ;  next,  the  Bishops  of  Moray  and  Caithness  ;  and 
last  of  all,  the  Bishops  of  Orkney  and  the  Isles.  Blackburn, 
the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  thought  such  pomp  unbecoming  the 
simplicity  of  a  minister,  and  walked  to  parliament  on  foot.2 

The  chief  business  of  the  parliament  was  to  set  up  the  state 
of  bishops,  with  all  its  ancient  rents  and  privileges,  and  to 
erect  a  number  of  prelacies  into  temporal  lordships.  A 
paction  had  been  made  between  the  bishops  and  the  lords  : 
the  bishops  were  to  give  their  consent  to  the  erection  of  the 
prelacies  into  temporal  lordships ;  and  the  lords  were  to  lend 
their  help  to  resuscitate  the  ancient  bishoprics.3  An  act  was 
first  passed  declaring  the  king  to  be  supreme  over  all  persons 
and  causes  ;  and  after  it  followed  an  act  for  the  restitution  of 
the  Estate  of  bishops.  The  statute  proceeds  upon  the 
preamble,  that,  though    his   Majesty  was   no    longer  present 

1  Forbes's  Records,  Wod.  Ed.  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.  Cook's 
History  of  the  Church,  vol.  ii.  There  is  still  extant  a  letter,  written  by 
Sir  Thomas  Hamilton,  the  advocate,  to  the  king,  on  the  day  on  which  the 
sentence  was  passed,  in  which  he  mentions  the  difficulties  with  which  he 
had  to  struggle,  and  the  infamous  methods  he  was  obliged  to  employ  to 
procure  the  condemnation  of  the  ministers,  and  expressing  a  devout  wish 
lie  should  have  no  more  such  work  to  do. 

-  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.  pp.  492,  493. 

3  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi. 


A.D.  1606.J  EPISCOPAL  POMP  AND  PARADE.  465 

with  his  Scottish  subjects,  absence  had  not  bred  in  his  royal 
mind  oblivion  of  their  good,  and  that,  anxious  to  maintain 
justice  and  religion  as  the  pillars  of  the  kingdom,  and  to 
preserve  the  ancient  policy  of  the  Three  Estates,  which  had 
been  unwittingly  all  but  destroyed  by  the  Act  of  Annexation, 
he  now,  with  the  consent  of  the  Estates,  retracted,  rescinded, 
reduced,  cassed,  abrogated,  and  annulled  said  act  —  and 
reponed,  restored,  and  reintegrated  the  Estate  of  bishops 
to  their  ancient  and  accustomed  honour,  dignities,  prero- 
gatives, privileges,  livings,  lands,  teinds,  rents,  thirds,  and 
estate.  It  was  specially  declared,  however,  that  this  act 
was  to  extend  only  to  bishoprics,  and  was  not  to  affect  those 
other  benefices  which  his  Majesty,  in  his  princely  liberality, 
had  bestowed  upon  his  faithful  servants,  and  which  were  now 
anew  confirmed  to  them.  Another  act  was  passed  to  prevent 
the  dilapidation  of  bishoprics  in  future.1  The  parliament  did 
not  close  with  the  same  Episcopal  pomp  as  that  with  which  it 
was  opened ;  for  the  bishops  were  no  sooner  restored  to  their 
ancient  estate  than  they  quarrelled  about  their  proper  place  in 
the  procession,  maintaining  they  were  entitled  to  take  pre- 
cedence of  earls,  and  to  ride  after  the  marquises ;  and  rather 
than  yield  the  point,  they  resolved  not  to  join  in  the  proces- 
sion at  all,  but  to  proceed  to  the  parliament  on  foot.2 

They  had  afterwards  to  fight  a  more  serious  battle  than  this 
one  about  precedence,  for  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  which 
this  parliament  gave  them.  The  lay  possessors  would  not 
loosen  their  grip  ;  processes  at  law  were  slow  and  uncertain  ; 
there  were  districts  of  the  country  where  decreets  of  the 
courts  were  set  at  defiance,  and  the  lean  prelates  could  only 
complain  to  the  king  of  their  hard  fate — compelled  to  keep  an 
Episcopal  state  without  the  means  of  doing  it.3 

The  six  ministers  who  had  been  convicted  of  treason  were 
still  in  prison  awaiting  their  doom  :  it  might  be  death.  But 
James,  though  despotic,  was  not  cruel,  and  he  resolved  to 
make  an  effort  to  reclaim  the  irreclaimable  Presbyterians  of 
the  north.  Full  of  the  triumphant  memories  of  his  victory 
over  the  Puritans,  he  resolved  to  send  for  some  of  the  best- 

1  Acts  of  the  Scottish  Parliament,  James  VI.,  pari,  xviii.  chapters  ii.  iii. 

2  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.  p.  493.  There  is  still  extant  a  letter 
from  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  to  the  king,  dated  20th  July  1607,  in 
which  his  Grace  asks  his  Majesty  to  give  instructions  as  to  the  precedence 
of  the  archbishops  and  bishops. 

3  Original  Letters  relating  to  Ecclesiastical  Affairs  (Ban.  Club).  See 
also  Burton's  History,  chap.  lxv. 

VOL.  I.  2  G 


466  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XV. 

known  Scottish  ministers  to  court,  that  amidst  the  glare 
of  royal  and  Episcopal  splendour  they  might  be  brought  to 
reason.  So  early  as  the  month  of  March,  a  royal  missive  had 
been  directed  to  eight  ministers,  including  the  two  Melvilles, 
requesting  their  presence  at  London  in  September;  and  at 
the  same  time  five  of  the  Scotch  bishops  were  ordered  to  be 
in  attendance,  as  the  representatives  of  the  opposite  party  in 
the  Church. 

On  their  arrival  in  London,  the  Scotch  minis- 

SC?6o6  °'  ters  were  waited  upon  by  the  Dean  of  Salisbury, 
and  on  the  20th  of  the  month  conducted  to 
Hampton  Court,  where  they  immediately  got  presence,  and 
were  permitted  to  kiss  the  king's  hand.  The  king  had  just 
dined — he  had  not  swallowed  the  last  mouthful — and  was  in 
high  good-humour.  He  joked  with  Mr  Balfour  about  his 
long  beard,  asked  about  the  progress  of  the  plague  in  Edin- 
burgh, and  dismissed  the  ministers  with  smiles.  The  dean, 
who  was  still  their  attendant,  took  them  to  dinner,  and  before 
parting  with  them,  requested  them  to  be  present  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  in  the  king's  chapel  to  hear  sermon.  They  came, 
and  were  conducted  into  a  pew  by  themselves,  close  by  the 
pulpit.  The  king,  queen,  and  nobles  were  there,  and  Barlow, 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  was  the  preacher.  He  chose  his  text 
from  Acts  xx.  28,  "  Take  heed  to  yourselves,  and  to  all  the 
flock  over  which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made  you  overseers," 
and  toiled  to  prove  the  supremacy  of  bishops  above  presby- 
ters, and  the  inconvenience  of  parity.  On  the  2 2d  of  the 
month  they  were  again  sent  for  to  speak  to  his  Majesty  after 
dinner.  On  their  arrival  they  were  courteously  received  by 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  soon  afterwards  the  king 
entered  the  presence  chamber,  followed  by  a  train  of  Scotch 
nobles  and  bishops.  James  made  a  long  speech,  chiefly  bear- 
ing upon  the  Assembly  at  Aberdeen,  and  his  desire  to  have  a 
legal  and  peaceable  Assembly  to  set  all  things  in  order. 
According  to  arrangement,  James  Melville  answered  in  a 
respectful  manner,  but  avoiding  any  explicit  declaration  of 
opinion  on  the  controverted  points.1 

On  the  day  following  they  were  again  brought  to  chapel, 
and  heard  Dr  Buckridge,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  preach 
from  Romans  xiii.  1,  "  Let  every  soul  be  subject  to  the 
higher  powers,"  from  which  he  attempted  to  show  that  the 

]  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.  p.  567.     Spottiswood,  lib.  vii. 


A.D.   1606.]  LESSONS  FOR  THE  SCOTCH  MINISTERS.  467 

king  was  supreme  in  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  in  civil  causes, 
and  made  odious  comparisons  between  the  Pope  and  Presby- 
tery, as  being  equally  opposed  to  princes.  After  dinner  they 
were  again  brought  into  the  royal  presence.  The  king  asked 
whether  or  not  they  justified  the  conventicle  at  Aberdeen,  as 
he  was  pleased  to  call  it.  The  Scotch  bishops  one  by  one 
condemned  it;  but  when  it  came  to  Andrew  Melville,  he 
reasoned  that  it  had  sufficient  authority  in  the  Word  of  God 
and  the  laws  of  the  realm.  The  other  ministers  followed  in 
the  same  strain.  Reference  being  made  to  the  trial  of  the  six 
ministers  for  treason,  Melville  turned  upon  the  advocate,  who 
was  present,  and  accused  him  of  favouring  Papists  and  perse- 
cuting the  ministers  of  Christ.  "And  still,  my  lord,"  said  he, 
i4  you  show  yourself  possessed  of  the  same  spirit ;  for  not  con- 
tent with  having  pleaded  against  them  in  Scotland,  you  still 
continue  6  xarriyopog  rwv  adsXtpuv."  At  this  phrase  the  king 
turned  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  exclaimed, 
"  What's  that  he  said?  I  think  he  calls  him  Antichrist.  Nay, 
by  God,  it  is  the  devil's  name  in  the  Revelation  of  their  well- 
beloved  John  ! "  l 

On  Sunday,  the  28th  of  September,  they  were  again  brought 
to  the  king's  chapel  to  hear  Dr  Andrews,  Bishop  of  Chichester, 
discourse  from  the  Book  of  Numbers,  upon  the  silver  trumpets 
which  were  blown  by  the  Jews  at  their  solemn  convocations  ; 
from  which  the  ingenious  divine  undertook  to  prove  that  it 
belonged  to  emperors  and  kings  to  convene  and  discharge 
ecclesiastical  assemblies.  Next  day  was  St  Michael's  Day, 
and  again  the  Scotch  ministers  were  conducted  to  their 
accustomed  pew  in  the  chapel.  No  sermon  was  preached  on 
this  high  day  ;  but  on  the  altar  were  laid  two  closed  books, 
two  empty  chalices,  two  candlesticks  with  unlighted  candles  ; 
and  the  king  and  queen,  devoutly  approaching  it,  presented 
their  offerings.  On  the  day  following  they  were  yet  again  re- 
quired to  be  present,  to  hear  Dr  King,  Dean  of  Christ's 
Church,  discourse  from  the  8th  chapter  of  Solomon's  Song, 
and  demonstrating  from  the  vineyard  which  Solomon  had  at 
Baalhamon,  and  which  he  let  out  to  keepers,  that  lay  elders 
had  no  place  or  office  in  the  church.2    Here  ended  the  lessons 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.  p.  577.  The  story  is  sometimes  told  a 
little  differently.  According  to  one  version  the  Earl  of  Northampton 
asked  the  king  what  Melville  had  called  the  Lord  Advocate.  "  He  called 
him  the  meikle  devil"  replied  the  king. 

'J  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii.     Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi. 


468  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XV. 

for  the  Scotch  ministers.  When  James  resolved  to  put  them 
through  this  course  of  controversial  divinity,  he  must  have 
fancied  they  would  have  been  overawed  by  the  authority,  and 
silenced  by  the  arguments  of  the  English  dignataries.  It  was 
perhaps  well  meant,  but  it  was  very  farcical ;  and  it  is  a  marvel 
that  Melville,  considering  his  imperious  temper,  bore  it  with 
patience. 

More  than  once  after  this  the  ministers  were  called  before 
the  members  of  the  Scotch  Privy  Council,  who  were  present 
in  London,  and  harassed  with  questions  as  to  the  Aberdeen 
Assembly,  and  as  to  whether  or  not  they  sympathised  with 
and  prayed  for  the  six  ministers  who  had  been  convicted  of 
treason.  They  strongly  protested  against  this  treatment 
as  illegal  and  unjust,  and  craved  to  be  allowed  to  return  to 
their  native  country ;  but  this  was  denied  them.  It  was 
becoming  too  plain  that  the  king,  having  failed  to  convert 
them,  was  now  seeking  an  occasion  against  them.  They  who 
seek  opportunities  generally  find  them.  On  St  Michael's  Day, 
after  returning  from  the  chapel,  Andrew  Melville  had  amused 
himself  by  writing  a  Latin  epigram  upon  what  he  had  seen : — 

"  Cur  stant  clausi  Anglis  libri  duo  regia  in  ara, 
Lumina  caeca  duo,  pollubra  sicca  duo  ? 
Num  sensum  cultumque  Dei  tenet  Anglia  clausum, 
Lumine  caeca  suo,  sorde  sepulta  sua  ? 
Romano  an  ritu  dum  regalem  instruit  aram, 
Purpuream  pingit  relligiosa  lupam."1 

A  copy  of  these  verses  had  in  some  surreptitious  manner 
found  their  way  into  the  hands  of  the  king,  who,  affecting  to 
be  highly  indignant  at  the  slur  which  had  been  thrown  upon 
the  English  worship,  resolved  to  make  their  author  suffer  for 
it.  Melville  was  accordingly  cited  before  the  English  Council 
at  Whitehall,  and  at  once  confessed  that  he  was  the  author  of 
the  epigram,  but  declared  that  he  had  intended  to  show  it  to 
no  one  unless  it  were  to  his  Majesty  himself,  and  that  he  had 
written  it  in  deep  grief  at  seeing  such  superstitious  mummery 
in  a  Reformed  Church,  and  under  a  reformed  king,  brought 

1  Row's  History,  p.  234.  Calderwood,  vol.  vi.  Row  thus  Englishises 
the  Latin  epigram  : — 

"  On  kinglie  chappell  altar  stands,  blind  candlesticks,  closed  books, 
Dry  silver  basons,  two  of  each,  wherefore,  says  he  who  looks 
The  minde  and  worship  of  the  Lord,  doth  Ingland  so  keep  closse; 
Blind  in  hir  sight,  and  buried  in  hir  filthiness  and  drosse? 
And  while  with  Roman  rites  sho  doth  her  kinglie  altar  dresse, 
Religiously  a  purpur'd  whoore  to  trim  sho  doth  professe." 


A.D.   1606.]  MELVILLE  AND  BANCROFT.  469 

up  under  the  pure  light  of  the  gospel.  James  himself  was  not 
present,  but  Dr  Bancroft,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who 
sat  near  the  head  of  the  table,  argued  that  such  a  libel  on  the 
worship  of  the  Established  Church  was  a  high  misdemeanour, 
and  even  amounted  to  treason.  This  Melville  could  not  bear 
from  a  man  whom  he  hated,  and  perhaps  despised.  He  in- 
terrupted the  archbishop.  "  My  lords,"  said  he,  "  Andrew 
Melville  was  never  a  traitor ;  but  there  was  one  Richard  Ban- 
croft who,  during  the  life  of  the  late  queen,  wrote  a  treatise 
against  his  Majesty's  title  to  the  crown ;  and  here  is  the  book," 
said  he,  pulling  the  offending  treatise  from  his  bosom.  As  he 
spoke  thus,  he  had  gradually  approached  the  place  where 
Bancroft  sat,  and  now  taking  hold  of  the  lawn  sleeves  of  his 
rochet,  he  shook  them,  and  called  them  Romish  rags.  "  If 
you  are  the  author,"  he  continued,  fiercely  addressing  the 
primate,  "  of  the  book  called  '  English  Scottizing/  I  regard 
you  as  the  capital  enemy  of  all  the  reformed  churches  in 
Europe,  [and  as  such  I  will  profess  myself  an  enemy  to  you 
and  your  proceedings  to  the  effusion  of  the  last  drop  of  my 
blood. "  Bishop  Barlow  attempted  to  interfere  to  save  the 
archbishop,  but  Melville  suddenly  turning  upon  him  reproached 
him  for  his  unfair  narrative  of  the  Hampton  Court  Confer- 
ence, and  for  representing  the  king  as  saying  that  "  though 
he  was  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  he  was  not  of  it."  The 
undaunted  presbyter  was  at  last  silenced  and  removed,  and 
when  called  in  again,  he  was  admonished  by  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor to  add  modesty  and  discretion  to  his  learning  and 
years,  and  told  that  he  had  been  found  guilty  of  scandalum 
magnatum,  and  was  to  be  committed  to  the  custody  of  the 
Dean  of  St  Paul's,  till  the  king's  pleasure  regarding  him  was 
known.1 

In  a  few  sentences  we  can  now  trace  the  career  of  the 
Melvilles  to  its  close.  Andrew  Melville  was  again  called 
before  the  Council,  and  after  being  anew  examined  regarding 
his  scandalum  magnatum,  he  was  committed  to  the  Tower. 
There  he  languished  for  three  years,  when  he  was  allowed  to 
accept  an  invitation  to  become  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Sedan, 
where  there  was  a  Huguenot  University,  and  there  he  spent 
the  remainder  of  his  days  in  broken  health  and  spirits.  His 
nephew  James  was  ordered  to  take  up  his  residence  in  New- 
castle-on-Tyne,  from  which  he  was  afterwards  allowed  to  re- 

1  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii.  Calderwood,  vol.  vi.  M'Crie's  Life 
of  Melville,  vol.  ii. 


47°  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XV, 

move  to  Berwick,  where  he  died.  The  other  ministers  who 
had  accepted  the  king's  invitation  to  court  were  allowed  to 
return  to  their  native  country,  but  only  under  oppressive 
restrictions. 

Close  by  the  side  of  John  Knox,  in  the  list  of  Scottish 
worthies,  stands  Andrew  Melville.  He  has  left  the  deep  im- 
press of  his  mind  upon  the  Scottish  Church.  He  was 
a  man  of  scholarly  accomplishments,  great  energy,  and 
intrepid  courage.  Knox  made  the  Church  of  Scotland  Pro- 
testant ;  Melville  made  it  Presbyterian.  Naturally  dogmatic 
and  overbearing,  he  was  little  considerate  of  the  opinions  and 
feelings  of  others ;  but  it  was  a  striking  apology  he  made  for 
himself  when  he  said,  "  If  my  anger  go  downward,  set  your 
foot  on  it,  and  put  it  out ;  but  if  it  go  upward,  suffer  it  to  rise 
to  its  place.'7  2  The  imperious  advocate  of  High  Church  prin- 
ciples, he  may  be  fairly  regarded  as  the  Hildebrand  of  Presby- 
tery. He  had  acquired  his  opinions  in  Geneva,  where  he  had 
lived  and  taught,  and  where  Calvin,  differing  from  the  other 
Reformers,  had  maintained  the  autonomy  of  the  Church,  and 
left  behind  him  this  old  Roman  doctrine  as  a  special  legacy  to 
the  Scottish  Clergy.  His  temper  made  him  an  apt  disciple 
in  such  a  school,  for  he  never  could  brook  a  master,  and  prince 
and  parliament  must  give  way  to  the  presbytery  of  which  he 
was  a  member.  But  all  the  outlines  of  his  character  were 
flowing  and  free,  and  altogether  he  stands  out  in  bold  relief  as 
one  of  the  greatest  figures  in  Scottish  ecclesiastical  history. 
James  Melville  was  a  man  of  a  different  mould — mild,  amiable, 
formed  to  be  led  rather  than  to  lead.  He  was  completely  under 
the  influence  of  his  uncle,  whom  he  held  in  such  veneration 
that,  notwithstanding  his  own  gentle  nature,  he  followed  him 
even  in  his  most  violent  courses.  His  "  Diary  "  presents  us 
with  some  most  graphic  pictures  of  the  men  of  his  time,  and 
in  his  pages  there  is  no  more  prominent  or  pleasing  portrait 
than  his  own.  In  almost  every  word,  the  good,  kindly,  con- 
scientious man  stands  revealed. 

But  we  must  return  to  Scotland,  and  see  what  is  passing 
there.  After  a  long  imprisonment,  the  fate  of  the  six  ministers 
who  had  been  convicted  of  treason  was  made  known — they 
were  to  be  banished  the  country.  At  two  o'clock  on  a  stormy 
November  morning,  they  were  brought  to  the  pier  at  Leith  in 
order  to  embark.     A  large  concourse  of  people  had  already 

1  M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville,  vol.  ii. 


A.D.   1606.]  ASSEMBLY  AT  LINLITHGOW.  47 1 

assembled  on  the  sands  to  bid  them  farewell.  Welsh,  for  the 
last  time  on  Scottisli  soil,  lifted  up  his  voice  in  prayer,  and  few 
men  could  pray  as  he  did ;  the  whole  multitude  then  joined  in 
singing  the  23d  Psalm,  and  when  the  hopeful  words  of  the  last 
verse  had  died  away,  the  exiles,  for  conscience  sake,  tore  them- 
selves from  their  weeping  friends,  and  were  soon  steering  their 
course  down  the  Forth  on  their  way  to  France.  The  other 
ministers  who  had  been  present  at  the  obnoxious  Assembly, 
but  had  not  been  indicted  for  treason,  were  banished  to  the 
most  remote  districts  of  the  country,  to  Lewis,  Cantyre,  or 
Caithness,  that  their  zeal  might  be  lost  amid  these  savage 
solitudes.1 

The  king  and  bishops  now  thought  that  the  field  was  clear 
for  a  General  Assembly.  Eight  of  the  ablest  ministers  were 
detained  in  England,  and  fourteen  others  were  either  in  France 
or  the  Highlands.  In  the  beginning  of  December  the  presby- 
teries of  the  Church  received  a  royal  missive  to  appoint  certain 
of  their  number  to  meet  with  certain  noblemen  at  Linlithgow 
on  the  10th  of  the  month,  to  take  steps  for  suppressing 
Popery  and  removing  all  disagreements  from  the  Church. 
These  missives  did  not  designate  this  meeting  a  General 
Assembly,  took  no  notice  of  the  General  Assembly  which  had 
been  indicted  for  July,  and  instead  of  allowing  the  presby- 
teries as  usual  to  elect  their  own  commissioners,  specially 
nominated  them  ;  and  there  was  a  general  bewilderment  as  to 
what  this  meeting  might  mean.2 

However,  on  the  appointed  day,  thirty-three  noblemen  and 
about  a  hundred  and  thirty  ministers  met  at  Linlithgow,  and 
the  Earl  of  Montrose  appeared  as  the  king's  principal  Com- 
missioner. The  chief  business  of  the  meeting  was  brought  up 
by  his  Majesty's  letter,  in  which  he  recommended  that  every 
presbytery  should  have  a  perpetual  moderator,  as  a  means  of 
promoting  order.  The  ministers  were  at  first  staggered  at  the 
proposal  •  but  royal  influence  was  strong,  the  old  spirit  was 
becoming  weak,  and  after  a  committee  had  deliberated  and 
reported  upon  the  subject,  it  was  almost  unanimously  agreed 
to.  It  was  stipulated  that  these  perpetual  moderators  should 
enjoy  no  greater  jurisdiction  than  had  been  possessed  by  their 
predecessors,  and  should  be  subject  to  the  censure  of  the  pro- 
vincial synods ;  but  these  restrictions  proved  weak  as  tow.  It 
was  further  provided  that  these  moderators  should  act  as  agents 

1  Caldenvood's  History,  vol.  vi.  pp.  590.  591-       Row's  History,  p.  240. 

2  Caldenvood's  History,  vol.  vi.  pp.  601-604. 


472  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XV. 

for  suppressing  Popery — a  popular  measure  ;  and  for  this  ser- 
vice a  hundred  pounds  Scots  was  assigned  to  each  of  them  by 
his  Majesty.  The  Convention  stretched  its  authority  still 
wider,  and  took  in  hand  to  nominate  moderators  to  the  pres- 
byteries, making  the  bishops  moderators  of  the  presbyteries 
which  met  at  their  episcopal  seats.1 

The  Assembly  had  been  subservient ;  but  the  Church  at 
large  did  not  tamely  submit  to  this  insidious  encroachment 
upon  its  constitution.  Loud  murmurs  were  heard  from  every 
part  of  the  country.  It  was  not  merely  said  that  the  meeting 
at  Linlithgow  was  not  a  General  Assembly  of  the  Church,  but 
that  the  minute  of  its  proceedings  had  been  sent  up  to  court 
and  altered  there.  In  these  circumstances  a  royal  proclama- 
tion was  issued  charging  the  presbyteries  to  accept  the  per- 
manent moderators  who  had  been  appointed  to  them,  and  the 
royalist  nobles  everywhere  exerted  themselves  to  force  the 
Church  Courts  to  yield.  But  many  of  the  Church  Courts 
were  in  no  compliant  humour.  The  Synod  of  Perth,  the 
Synod  of  Fife,  and  the  Presbyteries  of  Lothian  and  the  Merse, 
distinguished  themselves  by  their  efforts  to  shake  off  the 
moderators,  who  had  been  fastened  on  their  shoulders  like  the 
old  man  of  the  sea;  and  it  was  not  till  they  found  their 
struggles  both  desperate  and  dangerous  that  they  sullenly 
succumbed  to  necessity.  Several  of  the  ministers  who  had 
been  nominated  moderators  refused  to  accept  an  office  so 
(Odious  to  their  brethren  and  the  people,2  and  even  those  who 
were  most  subservient  to  the  king  were  forced  to  warn  him  that 
a  storm  was  gathering.3  James  was  compelled  to  acknowledge 
the  difficulties  he  had  encountered,  and  the  conscientious  zeal 
of  the  ministers  for  the  maintenance  of  parity.4 

It  was  not  till  the  last  Tuesday  of  July  1608 

a.d.  1608.  tjiat  the  Assembly  was  again  convened.  The 
Earl  of  Dunbar  acted  as  the  king's  Commissioner,  and  about 
forty  other  noblemen  were  present  and  took  part  in  the  pro- 
ceedings. When  their  right  was  questioned  by  a  minister,  the 
moderator  remarked  that  without  them  their  laws  could  not  be 

1  Letter,  Earl  of  Montrose  to  King,  13th  December  1606.  Original 
Letters,  &c,  1603-25,  Ban.  Club  Ed.  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.  pp. 
604-27.     Row's  History,  pp.  241,  242. 

a  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.     Row's  History.     Scott's  Narrative. 

3  Letter  dated  28th  October  1607,  and  signed  Galloway,  Hall,  Hewat  ; 
to  be  found  in  a  Collection  of  Original  Letters  relating  to  Ecclesiastical 
Affairs,  between  1603  and  1625,  published  for  the  Bannatyne  Club. 

4  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii.  p.  503. 


A.D.   1608.]  THE  POPISH  LORDS  RELAPSE.  473 

carried  into  execution.  "  We/'  said  he,  "can  preach  and 
pray  ;  they  can  fight."  This  Assembly,  though  tolerant  of 
Prelacy,  exhibited  all  the  old  intolerance  of  Popery.  The 
Marquis  of  Huntly  and  the  Earls  of  Angus  and  Errol  had 
relapsed  into  error ;  they  had  not  given  attendance  at  the 
church ;  they  had  refused  to  communicate ;  though  reasoned 
and  remonstrated  with,  they  were  obstinate ;  and  so  it  was  re- 
solved that  they  should  again  be  put  under  the  ban  of  the 
Church.  Huntly,  by  a  messenger,  protested  that  conscience 
alone  stood  in  the  way  of  his  reconciliation  to  the  Church,  and 
craved  farther  time,  in  hope  that  he  might  see  reason  to  change ; 
but  his  apologies  were  pronounced  to  be  frivolous,  and  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  was  for  the  second  time  solemnly 
pronounced  against  him.  His  Majesty's  Commissioner  pro- 
mised, that  after  forty  days  the  civil  sword  would  strike  with- 
out mercy.  The  Presbytery  of  Glasgow  was  instructed  to 
proceed  against  the  Earl  of  Angus,  the  Presbytery  of  Perth 
against  the  Earl  of  Errol,  and  the  Presbytery  of  Irvine  against 
Lord  Semphill,  who  had  also  been  reported  to  the  Assembly 
as  an  obstinate  Papist.1 

The  Assembly  still  farther  showed  its  zeal  against  Popery 
by  resolutions  against  Jesuits  and  seminary  priests,  against 
pilgrimages  to  chapels  and  wells,  regarding  the  searching  of 
merchant  vessels  for  Popish  books,  the  removal  of  Popish 
functionaries  from  office,  and  compelling  the  sons  of  the 
nobility  who  travelled  abroad  to  have  in  their  company  a 
pedagogue  well  grounded  in  the  faith.  A  lament  was  made 
that  many  churches  were  still  destitute  of  ministers.  In  one 
district  there  were  thirty-one ;  in  Annandale,  twenty-eight ;  in 
Nithsdale,  seventeen ;  and  so  over  the  greater  part  of  the 
country.  A  petition  was  presented  for  the  exiled  ministers ; 
and  the  Commissioner  promised  to  intercede  for  all  save 
those  who  had  been  banished  for  treason.  Finally,  the  eccle- 
siastical commissioners  were  re-appointed,  and  the  Assembly 
was  closed  by  prayer  and  the  singing  of  psalms.2 

It  was  universally  felt  that  the  bishops  had  gained  strength 
in  this  Assembly.  Their  position  had  not  been  openly  assailed ; 
their  power  as  commissioners  and  permanent  moderators  had 
been  continued  ;  and  the  process  of  development  seemed  to  be 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.  pp.  751-74.   Row's  History,  pp.  249-52. 
Spottiswood,  lib.  vii. 

2  Ibid. 


474  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.   XV. 

going  on  unchecked,  which  must  necessarily  end  in  a  full 
blown  Episcopate.     For  some  time  they  had  been  entrusted 
with  the  sole  power  of  modifying  the  stipends  of  the  ministers, 
and  here  was  one  great  source  of  their  growing  influence  in  the 
Church.     They  could  raise  a  friendly  minister  to  comparative 
plenty ;  they  could  leave  a  hostile  one  to  pine  in  poverty. 
Most  men,  however  conscientious,  will  have  a  regard  to  this, 
especially  if  they  have  a  wife  and  family  dependent  upon  them 
for  subsistence.     But  notwithstanding  the  increasing  power  of 
the  bishops,  it  is  certain  that  there  was  a  deep  undercurrent  of 
dissatisfaction  in  the  country ;  and  at  this  period  there  were 
sown  the  seeds  of  that  bitter  feeling  toward  Episcopacy  which 
has  never  since  been  thoroughly  eradicated  from  the  Scottish 
mind. 

But  notwithstanding  the  changes  wThich  were  in  progress, 
the  machinery  of  Presbyterianism  was  still  in  full  working 
order.  Synods  and  presbyteries  were  superintending  the 
local  interests  of  the  Church,  and  kirk-sessions  were  ruling 
congregations.  Discipline  was  administered  with  little  relaxa- 
tion of  its  ancient  severity.  It  seems,  in  truth,  to  have  been 
designed,  not  so  much  to  bring  the  erring  to  repentance,  as  to 
put  them  to  shame.  Some  of  the  female  penitents  had 
ventured  to  come  to  church  with  those  plaids  which  Scottish 
women  have  long  been  accustomed  to  wear  over  their  heads, 
in  order  that,  drawing  them  partly  over  their  face,  they  might 
in  some  measure  conceal  their  confusion.  By  solemn  decrees 
of  kirk-sessions  such  acts  of  concealment  were  forbidden ;  and 
frail  women  were  enjoined  to  leave  their  plaids  at  home,  and, 
taking  their  place  on  the  stool  of  repentance,  to  keep  their  face 
full  toward  the  congregation.1 

a  d    i6oq  ^n  ^ie  24t^  °*"  June  J^09'  tne  Parnament  as_ 

sembled  at  Edinburgh,  and  after  passing   new 

penal  statutes  against  the  unhappy  Papists,  it  proceeded  to  legis- 
late for  the  bishops.  It  conferred  upon  them  the  jurisdiction  of 
commissariats,  and  administration  of  justice  in  all  spiritual 
and  ecclesiastical  causes,  as  anciently  enjoyed  by  their  pre- 
decessors in  Roman  Catholic  times.  In  virtue  of  this  act, 
they  were  empowered  to  decide  in  all  testamentary  matters,  in 
all  matters  affecting  marriage  and  divorce,  and  generally  in 
every  matter  which  could  be  brought  under  the  comprehensive 
words  "  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical ;"  and  the  Court  of  Session 

1  Ecclesiastical  Records  of  Aberdeen,  pp.  63,  116,  Spalding  Club.     The 
notices  referred  to  belong  to  the  years  1608  and  165 1. 


A.D.  1609.]  COURTS  OF  HIGH  COMMISSION.  475 

was  authorised  to  grant  letters  of  horning  to  enforce  the  exe- 
cution of  their  sentences.1 

A  few  months  afterwards,  the  king  gave  completeness  to 
this  measure  by  erecting  two  courts  of  High  Commission — 
one  in  each  archbishopric.  Henry  VIII.  of  England  had  been 
the  first  to  institute  such  a  court,  for  the  execution  of  his 
tyrannical  caprices.  Elizabeth  had  continued  it,  and  made  it 
the  minister  of  her  cruelty  against  the  Puritans.  James  early 
perceived  its  capabilities  for  dealing  with  the  Puritans  of  the 
north,  and  had  two  twigs  from  the  parent  stock  transplanted 
to  Scotland,  where  they  took  root  and  flourished  vigorously. 
Each  court  consisted  of  the  archbishop,  his  suffragan  bishops, 
and  a  number  of  the  nobility.2  The  archbishop  and  four 
coadjutors,  lay  or  clerical,  constituted  a  quorum  ;  they  could 
call  any  one  before  them  whom  they  were  pleased  to  think 
scandalous  in  life  or  erroneous  in  religion  ;  they  could  impose 
any  fine;  they  could  imprison  for  any  period;  they  could 
depose  any  minister ;  they  could  pronounce  sentence  of  ex- 
communication against  any  subject  of  the  realm,  and  see  it 
followed  by  its  proper  effects.  In  all  this  they  were  bound  by  no 
law  but  their  own  discretion.  They  were  subject  to  no  appeal 
— their  sentence  was  final.  Such  courts,  possessing  such 
unlimited  jurisdiction  over  the  goods,  and  liberties,  and  con- 
sciences of  men,  rested  upon  no  act  of  parliament — they  were 
called  into  existence  by  a  royal  proclamation.3  They  were 
creatures  of  the  prerogative.  They  associated  with  the  name 
of  bishop  everything  that  was  odious  in  despotism,  and  slowly 
accumulated  against  the  house  of  Stewart  the  lamentation  and 
woes  which  befell  it  in  the  ages  to  come. 

A  royal  proclamation  was  deemed  enough  to  constitute 
these  Courts  of  High  Commission ;  but  an  act  of  parliament 
was  thought  necessary  to  determine  the  proper  colour  and  cut 
of  a  judge's  and  a  clergyman's  coat !  A  statute  was  framed, 
proceeding  on  the  ludicrous  preamble,  that  it  had  been  found 
by  daily  experience  that  the  greatness  of  his  Majesty's  empire. 
the  magnificence  of  his  court,  the  fame  of  his  wisdom,  the 
civility  of  his  subjects,  were  alluring  princes  and  strangers  from 
every  part  of  the  world,  and  that  it  was  fitting  that  bishops  and 
ministers,  judges  and  magistrates,  should  appear  before  these 

1  James  VI.,  pari.  xx.  chap.  vi. 

2  The  two  courts  were  subsequently  merged  in  one. 

:}  A  copy  of  the  royal  commission  is  given  in  Calderwood,  vol.  vii.  pp. 
57,  58. 


47  6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XV. 

in  becoming  apparel.  It  was  therefore  referred  to  his  Majesty's 
serene  wisdom  to  devise  appropriate  garments  and  robes  of 
office  for  these  different  functionaries.1  Valiant  colonels  have 
condescended  to  act  as  clothiers  to  their  regiments  ;  this 
famous  monarch  was  constituted  by  act  of  parliament  tailor  to 
the  Court  of  Session  and  the  Church  !  Spottiswood  informs 
us  that  shortly  afterwards  the  modes  were  sent  down  from 
London;2  and  Calderwood  describes  them.3  The  Senators 
of  the  College  of  Justice  were  to  have  purple  gowns ;  the 
advocates,  'clerks,  and  scribes,  black  gowns.  The  ministers 
were  to  wear  black  clothes,  and  in  the  pulpit  black  gowns ; 
the  bishops  and  doctors  of  divinity,  black  stockings  to 
the  knee,  black  gowns,  and  a  black  crape  about  their  neck. 
On  the  15  th  of  February  16 10,  the  Lords  of  Session  and 
bishops  put  on  their  new  robes  of  office,  and  walked  in  pro- 
cession from  the  Chancellor's  house  to  the  Tolbooth,  the 
beheld  of  all  beholders.4 

There  is  now  little  to  record  but  the  successive 
steps  by  which  Episcopacy  was  forced  upon  the 
nation.  On  the  1st  of  April  16 10,  the  king  directed  missives 
from  Whitehall,  appointing  a  General  Assembly  to  be  held  at 
Glasgow  on  the  8th  of  June.  In  these  missives  he  says 
enough  to  convince  us  that  the  Scotch  ministers  were  still  as 
bullocks  unaccustomed  to  the  yoke ;  he  was  no  way  "  assured 
of  their  peaceful  inclinations."  He  therefore  informed  the 
presbyteries  that  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  would  signify 
to  them  the  members  he  wished  sent  to  his  Assembly  ;5  which 
the  archbishop  accordingly  did,  expressing  a  hope  to  some  of 
the  presbyteries  that  they  would  not  be  refractory.6  On  the 
appointed  day,  thirteen  bishops,  thirteen  noblemen,  forty 
barons,  and  upwards  of  a  hundred  ministers  met ;  and  the 
Earl  of  Dunbar  appeared  as  the  Royal  Commissioner.  The 
first  day  was  kept  as  a  fast,  which,  says  the  historian  of  Pres- 
bytery, was  like  the  fast  that  was  called  when  Naboth's  vine- 
yard was  taken  from  him.7  One  of  the  characteristics  of  this 
Assembly,  and  of  all  the  Assemblies  of  the  period,  was,  that 

1  James  VI.,  pari.  xx.  chap.  viii.  2  History,  lib.  vii. 

3  History,  vol.  vii.  p.  54. 

4  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vii.  p.  55. 

5  The  royal  missive  is  copied  in  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vii.  pp.  92, 

6  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  to  the  Presbytery  of  Chirnside.     (Calder- 
wood, vol.  vii.  pp.  91,  92.) 

7  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vii.  p.  94. 


A.D.  1610.]  ACTS  OF  ASSEMBLY.  477 

no  controverted  question  was  openly  discussed,  but  settled  at 
a  private  conference,  and  the  result  presented  to  the  Assembly 
to  be  registered.  In  this  way  the  following  propositions  were 
agreed  upon  : — 

i.  That  the  calling  of  General  Assemblies  belonged  to  his 
Majesty  \  and,  consequently,  that  the  meeting  at  Aberdeen 
in  1605  was  null  and  void;  but  that  an  Assembly  should  be 
held  every  year. 

2.  That  synods  should  be  held  in  every  diocese  twice  in  the 
year,  in  which  the  archbishop  or  bishop  of  the  diocese  should 
preside. 

3.  That  no  sentence  of  excommunication  or  absolution 
should  be  pronounced  without  the  approbation  of  the  bishop 
of  the  diocese. 

4.  That  all  presentations  in  time  coming  should  be  directed 
to  the  archbishop  or  bishop  of  the  diocese  where  the  vacant 
benefice  lay  \  and  that  he,  if  he  found  the  presentee  qualified, 
should  take  the  assistance  of  the  ministers  of  the  district,  and 
perfect  the  act  of  ordination. 

5.  That  in  the  deposition  of  ministers,  the  bishop  should 
associate  with  himself  the  ministers  of  the  bounds  within  which 
the  delinquent  officiated,  and,  after  trial  of  the  fact,  pronounce 
sentence. 

6.  That  every  minister  at  his  admission  should  swear  obedi- 
ence to  his  Majesty  and  his  Ordinary. 

7.  That  the  bishops  should  visit  their  dioceses  themselves, 
unless  the  bounds  were  too  great ;  in  which  case  they  might 
appoint  a  substitute. 

8.  That  exercise  of  doctrine  should  be  continued  weekly 
among  the  ministers  at  the  time  of  their  accustomed  meetings, 
and  that  the  bishop  or  his  deputy  should  be  moderator. 

9.  That  the  bishops  should  be  subject  in  all  things  to  the 
censure  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  being  found  culpable, 
might,  with  his  Majesty's  consent,  be  deprived. 

10.  That  no  one  should  be  elected  as  a  bishop  under  forty 
years  of  age,  and  who  had  not  actually  taught  as  a  minister  for 
ten  years. 

Lastly,  That  no  minister,  in  the  pulpit  or  the  public  exer- 
cise, should  argue  against  or  disobey  the  acts  of  this  Assem- 
bly, under  the  pain  of  deprivation  ;  and,  particularly,  that  no 
one  should  discuss  in  the  pulpit  the  parity  or  imparity  of 
ministers.1 

1  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii,  Calderwood,  vol.  vii.  pp.  99-1037 
Spottiswood  curtails  the  resolutions.     Calderwood  gives  them  in  full. 


47$  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XV. 

It  is  certain  that  considerable  sums  of  money  were  distri- 
buted among  the  members  of  this  Assembly,  which  had  thus 
remorselessly  overturned  the  Presbyterian  polity  of  the  Church. 
Calderwood  affirms  that  it  was  given  in  payment  of  votes, 
though  under  the  name  of  defraying  travelling  expenses ; x 
Spottiswood  declares  that  it  was  given  only  as  the  payment  of 
the  stipulated  salaries  of  the  permanent  moderators.2  How- 
ever this  may  be,  the  last  resolution  abundantly  shows  that  the 
Assembly  had  ventured  to  fly  in  the  face  of  the  Church  and  of 
the  nation.  But  notwithstanding  the  terrors  of  deposition, 
many  ministers  ventured  to  speak  out ;  and  this  led  the  Privy 
Council  to  issue  a  proclamation  forbidding  any  one  to  impugn, 
deprave,  contradict,  condemn,  or  utter  his  disallowance  or 
dislike  of  any  point  or  article  of  the  most  grave  and  wise  con- 
clusions of  that  Assembly.  But  neither  king  nor  Council 
could  altogether  repress  the  free  utterance  of  indignant  thought. 
When  the  main  battle  had  given  way,  when  the  General 
Assembly  allowed  itself  to  be  led  captive,  the  Church  still 
carried  on  a  guerilla  warfare  against  despotism  and  Episcopacy 
in  its  inferior  courts. 

The  Marquis  of  Huntly  and  the  Earls  of  Angus  and  Errol 
were  lying  in  different  prisons  on  account  of  their  apostasy  to 
Rome.  They  presented  a  petition  to  this  Assembly,  offering 
to  subscribe  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  do  anything  that  was 
required  of  them.  After  a  conference  with  three  bishops,  and 
a  probation  of  six  months,  the  Marquis  was  set  at  liberty,  and 
allowed  to  return  to  Strathbogie.  The  Earl  of  Angus,  upon 
reconsidering  the  matter,  resolved  to  abandon  his  country 
rather  than  his  creed,  and  found  in  France  that  liberty  of  reli- 
gious worship  which  was  denied  him  in  Scotland.  At  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Council  in  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh,  the  Earl  of 
Errol  had  professed  his  conformity  with  the  dominant  faith, 
and  everything  was  ready  for  his  reconciliation  to  the  Church  ; 
but  on  that  very  night  he  was  so  smitten  with  remorse  that  he 
was  tempted  to  commit  suicide,  and  sending  for  the  Archbishop 
of  Glasgow  in  the  morning,  he  stated  his  unwillingness  to  sub- 
scribe to  doctrines  which  he  did  not  believe.3  We  may  surely 
regret  that  such  a  tender  conscience  was  made  subject  to  such 
violence. 

Scotland  had  now  bishops  in  outward  form  at  least ;  but 
according  to  the  Church  notions  which  were  in  vogue,  they 


1  History,  vol.  vii.  p.  97.  -  History,  lib.  vii.  p.  513. 

:i  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii.  p.  513. 


A.D.  1610.]  THE  APOSTOLIC  SUCCESSION.  479 

were  no  better  than  images  of  clay,  and  required  the  Prome- 
thean fire  to  give  them  episcopal  life.     Soon  after  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the   Assembly,  Spottiswood,  Archbishop  of  Glasgow, 
Lamb,  Bishop  of  Brechin,  and  Hamilton,  Bishop  of  Galloway, 
set  out  for  London.     On  their  reception  at  court,  the  king 
explained  to  them  that  he  had  at  his  great  charge  recovered 
the  bishoprics  from  the  hands  of  those  who  had  possessed 
them,  and  bestowed  them  upon  men  who,  he  hoped,  would 
prove  worthy  of  their  places  ;  but,  as  he  could  not  make  them 
bishops,  as  there  were  none  in  Scotland  who  could,  and  as 
they  could  not  take  that  honour  to  themselves,  he  had  sent  for 
them  to  England,  that  they  might  be  solemnly  consecrated, 
and  upon  their  return  home   bestow  the  spiritual  gift  upon 
others.     Spottiswood  ventured  to  suggest  that  this  might  give 
rise  to  the  old  jealousy  of  the  Church  of  England's  supremacy 
in  Scotland ;  but  James  stated  that  he  had  provided  against 
that,   by    arranging    that   consecration   should   be   given    to 
them  neither  by  York  nor  Canterbury,  but  by  the  Bishops  of 
London,   Ely,  and    Bath.     The   Scots   bishops   thanked   his 
Majesty  for  his  care  of  their  Church,  and  declared  their  will- 
ingness to   submit;  and,   accordingly,   the   consecration   was 
appointed  to  take  place  in  the  Chapel  of  London  House  on 
the  2 1  st  of  October.1 

In  the  meantime,  the  Bishop  of  Ely  expressed  his  opinion 
that  the  Scotsmen  must  be  made  priests  before  they  were  con- 
secrated bishops,  as  they  were  destitute  of  Episcopal  ordina- 
tion. This  opinion,  if  carried  out,  would  have  required  the 
re-ordination  of  every  minister  in  Scotland,  and,  on  the  same 
principle,  their  being  baptised  anew;  and  it  was  scarcely 
deemed  safe  to  ask  them  to  bow  their  heads  so  low.  Bancroft, 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  therefore  argued  that  there  was 
no  necessity  for  re-ordination ;  that  seeing  where  no  bishops 
could  be  had,  ordination  by  presbyters  must  be  deemed  lawful, 
as  otherwise  it  might  be  doubted  if  there  were  any  lawful 
vocation  in  most  of  the  Reformed  Churches.  Abbot,  the 
Bishop  of  London,  got  rid  of  the  difficulty  in  another  way. 
He  held  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  passing  the  inferior 
orders  of  deacon  and  priest,  but  that  the  episcopal  character 
might  be  conveyed  at  once,  as  appeared  from  the  example  of 
St  Ambrose,  Nectarius,  Eucherius,  and  others,  who  from  mere 
laymen  were  advanced  at  once  into  the  episcopal  chair.  Ely 
yielded  to  the  majority;  and,  accordingly,  on  the  appointed 

1  Spottiswood's  History,  lib,  vii.  p.  514. 


48o  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XV. 

day,  Spottiswood,  Lamb,  and  Hamilton  were  consecrated,  and 
afterwards  conveyed  to  Scotland  the  mystic  virtues  of  the 
apostolical  succession,  which  they  transferred  to  their  brethren 
by  the  laying  on  of  their  episcopal  hands.1  The  missing  link 
was  found. 

Bishops  had  been  recognised  by  the  General 
Assembly,  and  they  had  now  been  made  par- 
takers of  the  episcopal  character ;  but  still  they  had  no  legal 
standing  in  the  country,  as  the  act  of  1592 — the  Magna 
Charta  of  Presbytery — stood  unrepealed  on  the  statute-book. 
This  defect  was  now  to  be  supplied.  The  parliament  assem- 
bled in  Edinburgh  on  the  16th  of  October  16 12,  and  ratified 
all  the  acts  which  had  been  passed  at  the  Assembly  of  1610, 
with  some  alterations  which  tended  to  elevate  the  bishops  still 
higher  above  their  brethren  in  the  ministry.2  The  Assembly 
and  the  parliament,  in  fact,  at  this  period,  were  like  the  two 
parts  of  a  well-balanced  machine,  and  worked  beautifully  the 
one  into  the  other. 

The  contest  was  now  over,  and  Episcopacy  was  victorious. 
The  vehement  debates  in  the  Assembly,  the  bold  defiances 
to  the  king,  the  free  utterance  of  thought  in  the  pulpit,  was 
hushed,  and  there  was  a  dead  lull  after  the  storm,  broken 
only  by  the  grumbling  of  some  discontended  synod  or  presby- 
tery. But  the  fear  of  Popery  had  not  yet  died  away.  The 
adherents  of  Rome  were  still  numerous  and  active ;  propa- 
gandists traversed  the  country  in  disguise ;  and  many  of  the 
nominal  Protestants  were  still  unable  entirely  to  divorce 
themselves  from  Roman  feelings,  opinions,  and  practices. 
The  citizens  of  Glasgow  were  still  under  the  impression  that 
a  crucifix  painted  in  their  house  gave  luck ;  limners  were 
found  to  ply  the  unlawful  trade,  and  the  presbytery  busied 
itself  in  hunting  them  out.3  The  truth  is.  the  popular  mind 
was  by  no  means  purged  of  Popery.  The  people  in  many  dis- 
tricts still  clung  to  old  religious  customs,  which  had  become 
intertwined  with  their  social  and  domestic  habits.  On  Mid- 
summer Eve  they  persisted  in  kindling  bonfires,  and  the  fines 
of  the  magistrates  did  not  deter  them.4     At  Yule,  and  on  New 

1  Spottiswood,  lib.  vii.     Neal's  History,  vol.  i.     Calderwood,  &c. 

2  James  VI.,  pari.  xxi.  chap.  i. 

:i  Records  of  the  Presbytery  of  Glasgow,  8th  July  1612,  and  20th  April 
1614.  Appendix  to  Tapers  Illustrative  of  Queen  Mary  and  King  James, 
liannatyne  Club  Ed. 

4  Ecclesiastical  Records  of  Aberdeen,  p.  61,  anno  1608,  published  by 
the  Spalding  Club. 


. 


a.d.  1014.]         A  MARTYR  TO  SPIRITUAL  INDEPENDENCE.  48 1 

Year's  Day,  frolicsome  women  clothed  themselves  in  male 
attire,  and  as  guisers  visited  the  houses  of  their  neighbours 
and  friends.1  Persons  professing  Protestantism  still  under- 
took pilgrimages,  and  thought  they  derived  benefit  from  wash- 
ing themselves  in  sacred  wells.  The  Sunday  was  still  in  many 
places  desecrated  by  markets,  by  fishing,  by  the  operations  of 
husbandry.  But  stricter  notions  were  gradually  growing  up. 
Fines  were  levied  upon  persons  who  absented  themselves  from 
church.  Eavesdroppers  were  employed  to  go  about  the  streets, 
and  pick  up  all  whom  they  chanced  to  overhear  swearing;  and 
such  defaulters,  being  brought  before  the  magistrates,  were 
punished  by  palmies.2 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year  1614,  a  Jesuit 
14.       name(j  Ogilvy  was  apprehended  at  Glasgow. 
There  were   found   in  his    custody  three  little  books,   with 
directions  for  receiving  confessions,   a  warrant  to   grant  dis- 
pensations   to   those   who   possessed    Church-livings,    a   few 
reliques,  and  a  tuft  of  St  Ignatius's  hair,  which  he  held  in  the 
utmost  veneration.     When  put  upon  his  trial,   he  declared 
that  he  had  come  into  Scotland  to  save  souls,  but  refused  to 
give  any  information  which   might   criminate    others.       The 
judicial  procedure  of  most  countries  at  that  period  was  dis- 
graced by  barbarous  customs  \  and  this  poor  man  was  kept 
from    sleeping   for   several    successive   nights   together,    that 
this  slow  and  exquisite  torture  might  lead  him  to  speak  out ; 
and  in  the  half-delirious   state  which   was   thus  induced,  he 
began  to  let  his  secrets  escape ;  but  his  nerves  were  no  sooner 
restored  by  rest,  than  he  denied  everything  he  had  said.     All 
this  was  reported  to  the  king,  and  torture  was  suggested  \  but 
James  humanely  forbade  it,  and  directed  that  if  it  should  be 
found  that  Ogilvy  was  merely  a  Jesuit,  and  had  said  mass,  he 
should  be  banished ;  but  that  if  he  held  the  supremacy  of  the 
Pope  over  kings,  the  law  should  be  allowed  to  take  its  course. 
James  was  more  jealous  for  himself  than  his  God.      Ogilvy 
returned  guarded  answers  to  the  sifting  questions  which  were 
sent  down  from  London  to  be  put  to  him ;  but  as  he  declared 
his  belief  that  the  Pope  had  jurisdiction  over  his  Majesty,  and 
over  all  Christian  kings,  in  spiritual  affairs,   for  that  he  was 
hanged  in  the  High  Street  of  Glasgow.'5     Thus  the   metro- 

1  Ecclesiastical  Records  of  Aberdeen,  p.  50,  anno  1606.     In  some  dis- 
tricts, "  guisers  "  still  go  about  visiting  houses  on  the  last  night  of  the  year. 

2  Ibid. 

3  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii.     Calderwood,  vol.  vii.  pp.  193-96. 

VOL.   I.  2  H 


482  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  LCHAP-  xv- 

polis  of  the  west  has  martyrs  for  spiritual  supremacy  which 
she  wots  not  of.  Protestant  zeal  went  still  further,  and 
reached  the  unhappy  Jesuit's  friends.  A  citizen  was  brought 
before  the  presbytery  for  having  harboured  him,  and  was  glad 
to  make  his  peace  by  appearing  for  three  successive  Sundays 
at  the  door  of  the  High  Church,  clothed  in  linen,  with  bare 
head,  giving  tokens  of  repentance,  and  craving  the  prayers  of 
the  people.1 

Two  years  subsequent  to  this  the  Marquis 
of  Huntly  was  again  convicted  of  having  apos- 
tatized, and,  what  is  more,  of  having  prevented  his  tenants 
from  going  to  church.  On  a  warrant  from  the  Court  of  High 
Commission,  he  was  committed  to  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh, 
but  in  a  few  days  was  liberated  by  a  warrant  from  the  chan- 
cellor. The  bishops  loudly  complained  of  this  infringement 
upon  their  jurisdiction  ;  but  Huntly  was  already  on  his  way  to 
London,  and  found  means  to  get  access  to  the  king,  by  whom 
it  was  arranged,  with  the  consent  of  the  Bishop  of  Caithness, 
who  happened  to  be  at  Court,  that  he  should  be  absolved  by 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  The  Primate  of  All  England 
intimated  what  had  been  done  to  the  Primate  of  Scotland,  but 
it  was  felt  to  be  an  encroachment  upon  the  Scottish  Church  ; 
and  it  was  therefore  agreed  that  the  Marquis  should  present  a 
supplication  to  the  General  Assembly  and  be  absolved  anew, 
which  was  accordingly  done.2 

At  Aberdeen,  on  the  13th  of  August,  the  Assembly  met. 
The  primate,  without  any  election,  took  possession  of  the 
moderator's  chair.  "  A  number  of  lords  and  barons,"  says 
Calderwood,  "  decored  the  Assembly  with  silks  and  satins, 
but  without  any  commission  to  vote.3  As  usual,  a  number 
of  acts  were  passed  against  the  Papists.  To  have  an  Agnus 
Dei,  a  rosary,  a  cross,  or  a  crucifix,  about  the  person,  in  the 
house,  or  inscribed  on  any  book,  was  declared  to  be  tantamount 
to  apostasy.  To  make  a  pilgrimage  to  a  chapel  or  well  ex- 
posed the  pilgrim  to  the  terrors  of  the  High  Commission. 
No  man  might  act  as  an  apothecary,  or  practise  physic,  with- 
out being  first  examined  as  to  his  orthodoxy,  as  it  had  been 
found  that  Jesuits  were  carrying  on  their  proselytizing  prac- 
tices under  the  cloak  of  these  professions.     This  Assembly, 

1  Records  of  the  Presbytery  of  Glasgow,  March  1615.  Papers  Illustra- 
tive of  Queen  Mary  and  King  James,  Bannatyne  Club  Ed. 

2  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii.     Calderwood,  vol.  vii. 

3  History,  vol.  vii.  p.  223. 


A.D.  1616-17.]  JAMES  REVISITS  SCOTLAND.  483 

moreover,  projected  a  new  Confession  of  Faith,  a  new  Cate- 
chism, a  new  Liturgy,  a  Book  of  Canons,  and  ordained  every 
minister  to  keep  a  record  of  the  baptisms,  marriages,  and 
deaths  in  his  parish  ;  and  all  this  it  did  at  the  special  bidding 
of  the  king,  who  seems,  however,  in  the  matter  of  registra- 
tion, to  have  been  far  before  his  age.1 

When  James  went  to  England  to  take  possession  of  his 
new  crown,  he  promised  to  visit  his  native  country  every  three 
years.  Thirteen  years  had  elapsed,  and  still  he  had  not 
come  ;  but  now  he  sent  a  letter  to  the  Council  to  assure  them 
of  his  coming,  which  he  declared  "  proceeded  of  a  longing  to 
see  the  place  of  his  breeding — a  salmon-like  instinct."2  About 
the  same  time  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  Privy  Council 
commanding  that  cattle  should  everywhere  be  fed,  that  there 
might  be  enough  of  beef  in  the  country  when  the  king  came.*3 
But  preparations  of  another  and  more  ominous  kind  were 
begun  in  the  Chapel  at  Holyrood  House.  A  company  of 
English  carpenters  were  sent  to  refit  it  after  the  pattern  which 
they  had  seen  in  the  south.  Organs  were  disembarked  at 
Leith  \  gilded  statues  of  the  evangelists  and  apostles  came 
next  to  be  set  up  in  the  stalls ;  and  the  populace  began  to 
say,  that  in  a  church  with  organs  and  images  a  mass  might  be 
expected.  The  bishops  thought  it  right  to  advertise  his 
Majesty  of  the  state  of  public  feeling,4  but  his  Majesty  was 
wroth,  and  told  them  that  they  could  not  distinguish  between 
pictures  intended  for  ornament  and  images  erected  for  worship. 
You  can  endure,  said  the  king,  lions,  dragons,  and  devils  to  be 
figured  in  your  churches,  but  you  will  not  allow  the  patriarchs 
and  apostles.  Notwithstanding  this  scold,  the  king  said  the 
statues  would  not  be  set  up,  as  there  was  not  now  time 
for  it.5 

On  Friday,  the  16th  of  "May  1617,  James  re-entered  his 
ancient  capital,  and  was  received  as  Scotland  has  ever  received 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vii.  pp.  229-31.  Original  Letters  relating 
to  Ecclesiastical  Affairs,  1609-25.  "  Instructions  to  our  Right  Trusty  and 
Well-Beloved  Cousin  and  Councillor,  the  Earl  of  Montrose."  (Published 
by  the  Ban.  Club). 

2  Spottiswood,  lib.  vii.  p.  529.  3  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vii. 

4  The  Bishop  of  Galloway  was  Dean  of  the  Chapel  Royal,  and  penned 
this  letter,  getting  the  signatures  of  St  Andrews,  Aberdeen,  Brechin,  &c. 

5  Letter,  the  King  to  the  Ministers  of  Edinburgh,  23d  March  161 7. 
(Published,  among  Original  Letters  relating  to  Ecclesiastical  Affairs,  by 
the  Bannatyne  Club.)  Spottiswood  relates  the  circumstance  in  his  His- 
tory, and  this  letter  proves  his  accuracy.  The  letter  is  very  characteristic 
of  James. 


484  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XV. 

her  kings,  even  when  they  hardly  deserved  her  welcome.     He 
repaid  their  loyalty  by  insulting  their  religion.      On  the  very 
day  after  his  arrival,  the  Anglican  Service  was  begun  in  the 
Chapel  Royal.     There  were  bishops  in  surplices,  choristers 
singing,  an  organ  pealing  forth  its  notes.     Upon  the  8th  of 
June  the  Privy  Councillors,  bishops,  and  nobles  who  were  in 
Edinburgh,  were  commanded  to  repair  to  Holyrood,  where 
the  communion  was  to  be  celebrated  after  the  English  form. 
Many  went,  and,  to  humour  the  king,  violated  the  order  of 
their  church,  and  received  the  sacrament  kneeling.     A  few 
hung  back,  and  these  were  specially  noted  by  the  proselytizing 
monarch,  and  ordered  to  prepare  themselves  for  the  solemnity 
against  the  ensuing  Sunday.1 

On  the  28th  of  June  the  parliament  assembled.  His  Ma- 
jesty, as  of  yore,  made  a  speech  in  praise  of  his  own  good 
intentions ;  the  chancellor  also  made  a  speech,  and  then  the 
Lords  of  the  Articles  were  chosen,  not  without  some  alterca- 
tion, and  not  entirely  to  the  king's  satisfaction.2  The  legisla- 
tion to  which  the  Estates  first  addressed  themselves  affected 
the  Church.  They  passed  an  act  regarding  the  election  of 
bishops  ;  another  regarding  the  restitution  of  cathedral  chap- 
ters \  and  a  third,  and  most  salutary  one,  regarding  the  planta- 
tion of  churches,  and  the  provision  of  stipends  for  their 
ministers.3  But  it  began  to  be  mooted  abroad  that  the  king 
had  submitted  to  the  Lords  of  the  Articles  a  proposition, 
which,  if  passed  into  a  law,  would  be  tantamount  to  the  aboli- 
tion of  General  Assemblies.  The  proposition  was, — "  That 
whatsoever  his  Majesty  should  determine  touching  the  external 
government  of  the  Church,  with  the  advice  of  the  archbishops, 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  viii.  pp.  246,  247.  The  same  forms  were 
observed  in  the  Chapel  Royal  after  the  king's  return  to  the  south.  In 
1618  the  Bishop  of  Galloway  wrote  to  James: — "  As  your  Highness 
commands,  so  have  I  done.  On  the  passion  and  resurrection  days,  I 
ministered  the  communion,  kneeling,  to  my  Lord  Chancellor,  wSecretary, 
Register,  Advocate,  and  Treasurer-Depute,  and  the  Laird  of  Ruthven. 
My  Lord  of  Mar  had  communicated  on  the  day  before.  I  required 
others  when  the  lords  had  risen,  and  attended  them  at  leisure,  but  no 
more  presented  themselves  to  the  table.  Many  told  me  after  that  they 
were  minded  to  communicate,  but  they  stood  every  one  on  the  coming 
of  others."  The  bishop  goes  on  to  suggest  that  at  Pentecost  the 
lords  should  be  made  to  bring  their  servants  with  them,  and  also  that  all 
who  lived  in  the  palace  should  be  brought  to  swell  the  number  of  com- 
municants.     Such  shifts,  how  pitiful !      (Original  Letters,  1603-25,  Ban. 

Ed).  i     .. 

2  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vn.  p.  250. 
::  James  VI.,  pari.  xxii.  chapters  i.  ii.  iii. 


A.D.  1617.]  A  HIGH-HANDED  KING.  485 

bishops,  and  a  competent  number  of  the  clergy,  should  have 
the  strength  of  a  law."  The  king  did  not  conceal  that  this 
was  designed  to  supersede  General  Assemblies.  "To  have 
matters  ruled  as  they  have  been,"  said  he,  "  in  your  General 
Assemblies,  I  will  never  agree  ;  for  the  bishops  must  rule  the 
ministers,  and  the  king  both,  in  things  indifferent,  and  not 
repugnant  to  the  Word  of  God."  The  Lords  gave  their  con- 
sent to  the  proposition.1 

A  large  number  of  ministers  were  at  this  time  in  Edinburgh, 
drawn  together  from  every  part  of  the  country.  They  met, 
and  drew  up  a  most  respectful,  but  earnest,  protest  against  the 
proposed  measure,  as  subversive  of  a  polity  which  they  believed 
to  be  founded  on  the  Word  of  God.  Even  the  Bishop  of 
Galloway  appended  his  signature  to  it ;  and  Hewat,  one  of  the 
ministers  of  Edinburgh  and  Abbot  of  Crossraguel,  undertook 
to  present  it.  Proceeding  to  the  palace,  he  there  met  with 
Spottiswood,  now  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews;  and  in  an  aiter- 
( ition  which  took  place  between  them,  the  copy  which  he  had 
was  torn.  The'  king,  learning  what  was  passing,  came  out  of 
his  bedroom  undressed  ;  and  Hewat,  going  down  upon  his 
knees,  declared  that,  if  the  document  were  offensive  to  his 
Majesty,  he  would  not  present  it  in  parliament.2  The  king 
was  angry  at  the  insolence  of  any  set  of  men  protesting  against 
his  sovereign  wishes;  but  he  was  also  frightened,  though  he 
did  not  confess  his  fear  \  and  when  the  proposition  came  to  be 
read  over  in  the  parliament  to  be  passed  into  a  law,  he  ordered 
the  clerk  to  pass  it  over,  remarking  by  way  of  consoling  him- 
self, that  he  could  do  as  much  in  virtue  of  his  own  prerogative, 
without  asking  the  advice  of  any  one.3  He  did  not,  however, 
forget  the  protesters.  Hewat,  and  Simson,  the  minister  of 
Dalkeith,  whom  he  considered  as  ringleaders,  were  deprived  of 
their  offices,  and  cast  into  prison  ;  and  David  Calderwood,  the 
celebrated  historian  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  who  had 
joined  in  the  protest,  and  deferentially  defended  it  in  presence 
of  the  king  and  the  High  Commission,  was  stripped  of  his 
ministry,  and  banished  the  country.4 

During  his  Majesty's  progress  to  the  south,  he  affected  to 
discover  that  Puritan  precision  in  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  was  one  of  the  causes  why  Papists  refused  to  be  con- 

1  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii.  p.  531. 

2  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii.  pp.  531-33-     Calderwood,  vol.  vii. 

3  Ibid. 

4  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vii. 


486  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap. 

verted.  He  therefore  published  his  famous  "  Declaration  to 
encourage  Recreations  and  Sports  on  the  Lord's  Day."  In 
this  singular  document  it  is  declared  to  be  his  Majesty's 
pleasure  that,  after  divine  service,  his  good  people  should  not 
be  hindered  from  any  such  lawful  recreations  as  dancing, 
archery,  leaping,  or  vaulting,  nor  from  having  May-games, 
Whitsun-ales,  morris-dances,  and  setting  up  May-poles;  and 
that  women  should  have  liberty  to  carry  rushes  to  the  church 
to  decorate  it,  according  to  their  old  custom.  His  Majesty, 
however,  prohibited  such  unlawful  sports  on  Sunday  as  bear- 
baiting,  bull-baiting,  interludes,  and  bowling ;  and  declared 
that  none  should  have  the  benefit  of  the  act  save  those  who 
had  attended  divine  service  in  their  parish  church  in  the  fore- 
noon. This  royal  declaration  was  read  in  all  the  parish 
churches  of  Lancashire,  which  abounded  with  Papists  ;  and  it 
is  said  that  it  was  to  have  been  read  in  all  the  churches  of  the 
kingdom,  had  not  Archbishop  Abbot  wisely  opposed  it.  The 
news  of  it  soon  reached  Scotland,  and  excited  considerable 
apprehension  lest  the  monarch,  in  his  royal  beneficence,  might 
be  inclined  to  extend  such  considerate  indulgences  to  his 
northern  subjects.1 

The  Church  of  Scotland  was  now  nearly  conformed  to  the 
Church  of  England  in  government,  but  not  in  worship ;  and 
the  king  had  set  his  heart  upon  conformity  in  all  things.  The 
General  Assembly  of  1616  had  resolved  that  the  acts  of  former 
Assemblies  should  be  collected,  to  assist  the  Church  judica- 
tories in  the  administration  of  discipline,  only  these  were  no 
longer  to  be  called  Acts  of  Assembly,  but  Canons  of  the 
Church.2  His  Majesty  had  proposed  that  to  these  canons 
there  should  be  added  certain  others  of  his  own  framing, 
touching  the  confirmation  of  children,  the  administration  of 
baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  in  private,  the  reception  of  the 
communion  kneeling,  and  the  observance  of  holidays  ;  but  the 

1  Neal's  History  of  the  Puritans,  vol.  i.     Calderwood,  &c. 

2  On  the  part  of  the  king  and  his  bishops,  at  this  period,  there  was  a 
pedantic  aping  of  Roman  and  Anglican  terms.  The  General  Assembly 
was  now  a  National  Council  ;  its  acts  were  canons  ;  Presbyterians  were 
Puritans  ;  parents  in  baptism  were  godfathers  and  godmothers,  &c.  (See 
Original  Letters,  &c,  1603-25,  Ban.  Ed.)  On  the  part  of  some  Aber- 
donians,  there  would  appear  to  have  been  a  desire  to  overdo  Episcopacy. 
An  order  of  the  kirk-session  was  passed  against  children  being  brought  to 
baptism  with  more  than  two  godfathers,  proceeding  upon  the  narrative 
that  even  some  puir  men  had  brought  ten  or  twelve.  (Ecclesiastical 
Records  of  Aberdeen,  p.  109,  Spalding  Club  Ed.) 


a.D.  1617.]  THE  ROYAL  WRATH.  487 

bishops  had  urged  upon  him  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to  in- 
troduce such  innovations  upon  their  own  authority,  as  they 
had  never  been  even  mooted  in  the  ecclesiastical  courts. 

During  his  visit  to  Scotland,  James  reverted  to  the  subject 
in  a  meeting  of  the  bishops  and  leading  ministers  at  St 
Andrews.  In  a  speech  which  he  made  to  them,  he  extolled 
his  care  for  the  Church  :  he  alluded  to  the  wrongs  which  he 
had  received  at  their  hands :  he  expatiated  upon  his  prero- 
gative. "  It  is  a  power  innated  and  a  special  prerogative," 
said  the  philosophic  monarch,  "which  we  that  are  Christian 
kings  have,  to  order  and  dispose  of  external  things  in  the 
policy  of  the  Church,  as  we,  by  advice  of  our  bishops,  shall 
find  most  fitting  \  and  for  your  approving  or  disapproving,  de- 
ceive not  yourselves,  I  will  never  regard  it,  unless  you  bring 
me  a  reason  that  I  cannot  answer."  The  bishops  and  clergy 
were  overawed  by  these  flashes  of  the  prerogative,  and,  going 
down  upon  their  knees,  begged  that  they  might  be  allowed  a 
conference  among  themselves.  When  they  returned  they 
craved  permission  to  hold  a  General  Assembly,  pledging  them- 
selves that  everything  the  king  desired  would  then  be  done. 
An  Assembly  was  accordingly  appointed  to  be  held  at  St 
Andrews,  upon  the  25th  of  November.1  How  different  this 
interview  and  those  between  the  king  and  his  clergy  previous 
to  his  accession  to  the  English  throne  !  But  all  things  were 
changed.  The  king  wras  then  weak  ;  and  now  he  was  strong ; 
the  nobles  were  then  independent,  for  they  had  little  to  lose 
and  nothing  to  gain,  but  now  they  were  crouching,  for  they 
were  begging  favours  at  the  English  court ;  the  ministers  were 
then  bold,  for  they  were  not  looking  to  bishoprics,  and  they 
knew  that  their  voice  was  the  voice  of  the  people — now  there 
was  nothing  for  it  but  to  go  down  upon  their  knees. 

The  25th  of  November  came,  and  the  Assembly  met;  but 
notwithstanding  the  pledged  honour  of  the  bishops,  it  proved 
unmanageable.  Some  ministers  pressed  for  delay  that  they 
might  explain  the  proposed  changes  to  the  people ;  others, 
when  they  heard  what  was  moving,  quietly  slipped  away  home, 
and  nothing  definite  was  done.2  When  his  Majesty  learned 
the  result  he  was  highly  indignant ;  he  wrote  to  the  arch- 
bishops telling  them  he  was  now  come  to  an  age  when  he 
would  not  be  content  to  be  fed  with  broth,  as  one  of  their 
cloth  was  wont  to  say  to  him  ;  he  commanded  them  to  keep 

1  Spottiswood's  History,  lib.  vii. 

2  Ibid. 


488  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.   XV. 

Christmas,  which  was  now  approaching ;  and  added  in  a  post- 
script, that  as  the  Scottish  Church  had  so  far  contemned  his 
clemency,  they  would  know  what  it  was  to  draw  the  anger  of 
a  king  upon  them.1  This  letter  to  the  archbishops  was 
accompanied  by  another  to  the  Council,  prohibiting  the  pay- 
ment of  stipends  to  any  of  the  rebellious  ministers  till  they 
had  shown  their  willingness  to  conform — a  mean,  most  un- 
justifiable, and  most  arbitrary  expedient  to  extort  compliance 
from  poverty. 

Notwithstanding  this  failure,  it  was  resolved  that  another 
trial  should  be  made,  and  accordingly  an  Assembly  was 
indicted  to  meet  at  Perth  on  the  25  th  of  August  1618.  The 
Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  made  sure  of  his  purpose  this  time  by 
canvassing  the  members  previous  to  the  meeting,  and  making 
the  modification  of  their  stipends  tell  upon  their  votes,  so  that 
beforehand  he  knew  what  would  be  the  suffrage  of  almost 
every  man.  Lord  Binning,  Lord  Scone,  and  Lord  Carnegie 
appeared  as  his  Majesty's  Commissioners.  A  considerable 
number  of  the  nobility  presented  themselves  furnished  with 
missives  by  his  Majesty,  authorising  them  to  vote.  The 
archbishop  assumed  the  chair  as  his  right.  In  the  Little 
Church,  where  the  Assembly  met,  there  were  set  a  long 
table,  and  at  the  head  of  it  a  short  cross  one.  At  this 
cross  table  his  Majesty's  Commissioners  and  the  Moderator 
took  their  seats  upon  chairs  provided  for  them.  At  the  sides 
of  the  long  table  were  set  forms  for  the  noblemen,  barons, 
burgesses,  bishops,  and  doctors.  The  ministers  were  left 
to  stand  behind  and  look  on,  while  the  business  was  settled 
by  the  dignified  conclave  around  the  table.2 

The  king's  letter  was  twice  read  over,  and  we  are  at  a  loss 
whether  to  marvel  most  at  its  insolence  or  its  absurdity.  It 
declares  it  was  his  Majesty's  intention  never  to  have  called  an 
Assembly  more,  and  that  it  was  only  out  of  his  great  con- 
descension he  had  deigned  to  call  this  one ;  he  alluded  to  the 
desire  of  some  to  have  all  ecclesiastical  matters  arranged  at 
ecclesiastical  meetings,  but  he  declared  that  he  had  the  power, 
if  he  had  the  will,  to  determine  all  such  subjects  himself,  with- 
out consulting  them  at  all ;  he  acknowledged  that  he  did  not 
like  to  remember  the  treatment  he  had  received   from  the 

1  Letter,  the  King  to  Archbishop  Spottiswood,  6th  December,  161 7, 
published  among  Original  Letters  relating  to  Ecclesiastical  Affairs,  1603-25, 
Ban.  Club.     Spottiswood  refers  to  this  letter  in  his  History. 

2  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vii. 


A.D.  1618.]  ASSEMBLY  AT  PERTH.  489 

Scottish  ministers  in  his  youth,  but  piously  remarked  that  the 
love  of  God  and  His  truth  had  always  upheld  him,  and  that  so 
they  would  to  the  end  of  his  life  ;  he  reprimanded  them  for 
their  obstinacy,  and  upbraided  them  for  their  ingratitude  in 
not  acknowledging  the  blessing  of  having  such  a  loving  and 
such  a  religious  king  to  reign  over  them.1  The  Archbishop 
followed  up  this  letter  with  a  speech,  in  which  he  protested 
that  the  Five  Articles  to  be  proposed  to  them  were  none  of 
his ;  that  they  were  wholly  of  the  king's  devising ;  but  still  he 
strongly  urged  the  Assembly  to  give  them  its  concurrence. 
Dr  Young,  the  Dean  of  Winchester,  who  had  brought  down 
the  royal  letter,  next  made  a  speech,  in  which  he  spoke  of  his 
Majesty's  wrath  as  already  kindled,  and  as  ready  to  burst  forth 
and  consume  everything,  unless  it  were  quenched  by  the  sub- 
mission of  this  Assembly.2 

The  Presbyterian  party  had  mustered  so  strong  that  the 
Royal  Commissioners  were  at  first  extremely  doubtful  of  the 
result.  The  town  was  crowded  with  men  from  Fife  of  the 
Melville  stamp.3  An  effort  was  made  to  have  every  subject 
discussed  in  open  Assembly;  but  the  contrary  was  carried, 
and  the  Five  Articles  were  referred  to  a  committee  of  the 
House,  where  every  one  of  them  was  keenly  debated  ;  but  in 
the  end,  every  one  of  them  was  recommended.  Upon  Wed- 
nesday, the  27th  of  August,  the  report  of  the  committee  was 
brought  up  for  approval,  and  the  debate  was  renewed,  but 
conscience  was  brow-beat  by  authority,  and  country  ministers 
were  snubbed  by  insolent  courtiers.  Scot  of  Cupar  and  Car- 
michael  led  the  opposition  ;  but  the  representative  of  royalty 
put  Carmichael  down,  and  "  in  the  end  My  Lord  of  St 
Andrews,"  so  wrote  Binning  to  the  king,  "  cutting  short  their 
affected  shifts,  whereby  they  intended  either  to  disappoint  the 
matter  or  refer  it  to  another  meeting,  ordained  this  proposition 
only  to  be  voted,  Whether  the  Assembly  would  obey  your 
Majesty  in  admitting  the  Articles  or  refuse  them  ?  "  Some 
members  ventured  to  suggest  that  the  Articles  should  be  voted 
separately;  but  the  archbishop  told  them  that  the  king  must 
have  them  all,  or  none.  At  length  the  vote  was  taken,  after 
every  one    had  been   informed   that    his   conduct  would   be 

1  A  copy  of  the  royal  epistle  will  be  found  in  Calderwood,  vol.  vii. 

2  Spottiswood,  lib.  vii.     Calderwood,  vol.  vii. 

3  Lord  Binning  wrote  to  the  king,  that  on  coming  to  town  he  found  that 
so  many  presbyteries,  especially  those  of  Fife  and  the  Lothians,  had  sent 
such  precise  and  wilful  Puritans,  that  he  was  extremely  doubtful  of  the 
issue.     (Letter,  27th  August  1618.) 


49°  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XV. 

specially  reported  to  the  king.  Eighty-six,  says  Lord  Binning, 
allowed  the  Articles ;  forty-nine  refused ;  three  did  not  vote. 
His  Majesty's  Commissioners  —  says  David  Calderwood, 
analysing  the  vote — all  the  noblemen  except  Ochiltree  ;  all  the 
barons  except  Waughton,  who  went  home ;  all  the  doctors  ex- 
cept Dr  Strang ;  all  the  burgesses  and  a  number  of  the 
ministers,  voted  in  the  affirmative.  One  nobleman,  one 
doctor,  and  forty-five  ministers  voted  in  the  negative.  "  Albeit 
the  contention  was  vehement,"  wrote  Lord  Binning  to  his 
royal  master,  "  both  in  the  conference  and  public  Assembly ;. 
yet  after  the  Articles  were  voted,  there  appeared  great  con- 
tentment in  many  good  men's  faces."1  Without  believing 
this,  we  may  believe  that  there  would  at  least  be  a  feeling  of 
relief,  after  the  state  of  violent  tension  in  which  men's  minds 
had  for  some  time  been  kept. 

The  following  Five  Articles  now  formed  part  of  the  eccle- 
siastical law  of  the  land  : — i.  That  the  sacrament  of  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ  should  be  received  kneeling.  2.  That  it 
might  be  administered  in  private  to  the  sick.  3.  That  baptism 
might  be  administered  at  home  when  the  infant  could  not  con- 
veniently be  brought  to  the  Church.  4.  That  all  children  of 
eight  years  of  age  should  be  brought  to  the  bishop  on  his 
visitation,  to  be  questioned  as  to  their  knowledge,  and  to  re- 
ceive his  blessing.  5.  That  the  days  commemorative  of 
Christ's  birth,  passion,  resurrection,  and  ascension,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost's  descent,  should  be  devoutly  observed. 

The  king  had  carried  his  point.  He  had  set  himself  up  as 
a  dictator  in  the  Church,  and  the  Church  had  yielded  to  his 
dictation.  But  the  old  Presbyterian  spirit  was  not  entirely 
extinct.  The  ministers  were  ordered  to  read  the  Five  Articles 
of  Perth  from  their  pulpits,  but  many  of  them  refused.  An 
Act  of  the  Privy  Council  was  passed  confirming  the  procedure 
of  the  Assembly,  and  enjoining  compliance  upon  both  mini- 
sters and  people ;  and  proclamation  of  this  was  made  at  the 

1  Letter,  Lord  Binning  to  King  James,  St  Johnstones,  27th  August  (at 
night)  1 6 18 — (the  very  night  of  the  day  on  which  the  Five  Articles  were 
carried).  Original  Letters,  &c,  Ban.  Ed.  There  is  also  still  extant  a 
letter  from  Spottiswood  to  John  Murray  of  Lochmaben,  dated  2d  Septem- 
ber 1618,  in  which  he  says,  "  Many  of  the  noblemen  and  gentlemen  his 
Majesty  sent  letters  to,  for  assisting  the  service,  came  not,  excusing  them- 
selves by  sickness  and  ill  disposition  ;  but  I  think  their  minds  were  more 
sick  than  their  bodies,  and  are  so  still."  The  archbishop  goes  on  to  say 
that  absentees  should  be  noted,  and  such  as  came  specially  thanked  by  the 
king,  and  that  to  this  end  he  had  given  a  memorandum  to  the  Dean  of 
Winchester. 


A.D.  1618-19.]  ARTICLES  OF  PERTH.  49 1 

market-cross  of  Edinburgh  ;  but  already  it  began  to  be  seen, 
that  in  casts  like  this,  it  is  easier  to  make  laws  than  to  execute 
them.1  When  Christmas  came  round,  many  of  the  shopkeepers 
of  Edinburgh  kept  their  booths  open,  and  were  seen  pacing  in 
front  of  them,  instead  of  repairing  to  church  ;  for  this  they 
were  summoned  before  the  Court  of  High  Commission.  - 
When  Easter  approached  it  was  the  same.  Some  of  the  ministers 
resolved  to  comply  with  the  court,  and  dispense  the  sacrament 
to  kneeling  communicants  \  others  determined  to  resist. 
Crowds  of  people  abandoned  the  churches  where  the  new 
forms  were  introduced,  and  resorted  to  those  where  the  old 
Presbyterian  ritual  was  preserved.  Hundreds  and  thousands 
flocked  out  of  the  gates  of  Edinburgh,  where  the  four  mini- 
sters had  succumbed  on  their  way  to  the  rural  parishes,  where 
they  would  receive  the  sacrament  in  the  old  way  which  they 
loved.3  The  provost  of  Edinburgh,  a  gentleman  who  had  re- 
ceived the  honour  of  knighthood  on  his  Majesty's  visit  to  his 
northern  metropolis,  absented  himself  from  the  church,  to 
avoid  taking  the  sacrament  in  a  fashion  which  was  odious  to 
him.  A  Senator  of  the  College  of  Justice  was  cited  before  the 
Commission  for  the  same  misdemeanour.  Many  of  the  elders 
and  deacons  refused  to  officiate.  Of  those  of  the  laity  who 
did  come  to  church,  some  went  down  upon  their  knees  as  they 
received  the  consecrated  elements  \  others  refused,  and  not  a 
few  were  seen  to  be  in  tears.4     Confusion  and  sadness   of 

1  On  the  28th  of  November,  Lord  Binning  wrote  to  the  king,  that  he 
had  learned  some  of  the  ministers  intended  to  disobey  the  Five  Articles. 
On  the  30th,  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Presby- 
tery of  Ayr,  ordering  them  to  preach  on  Christmas  Day  on  some  such 
subject  as  the  nativity  or  incarnation,  and  hoping  that  none  of  them  would 
be  troublesome.  Binning  afterwards  informed  his  Majesty,  that  the 
Ministers  of  Edinburgh  had  requested  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  to 
come  and  occupy  their  pulpit  on  Christmas  Day,  but  that  he  was  not  very 
willing  to  come,     (Original  Letters,  &c,  1603-25,  Ban.  Club  Ed.) 

2  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vii. 

3  Ibid.  vol.  vii.  p.  359.  The  king,  in  a  letter  to  his  Scotch  Privy  Coun- 
cil, refers  to  the  numbers  who  had  fled  from  the  town  to  the  country 
churches.  He  alludes  also  to  some  pamphlets  which  had  been  published, 
and  asks  his  Council  to  see  these  things  punished.  (Original  Letters,  &c, 
1603-25,  Ban.  Ed.) 

4  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vii.  On  the  16th  March  1619,  Lord  Bin- 
ning wrote  to  the  king,  giving  his  Majesty  an  account  of  the  observance  of 
Easter  in  Edinburgh.  He  states  that  letters  had  been  written  to  all  the 
Privy  Councillors,  Lords  of  Session,  and  magistrates,  desiring  them  to 
come  and  walk  in  procession  from  the  chancellor's  lodging  to  the  church. 
Some  excused  themselves  by  sickness,  &c. ,  but  many  came.  The  nobles, 
councillors,  and  sessioners  came  first  to  the  Table,  and,  all  upon  their  knees, 


49 2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XV. 

spirit  had  been  infused  into  the  cup  of  communion  which  the 
Scottish  Christians  were  required  to  drink.  They  ate  their 
passover  with  bitter  herbs. 

Nor  did  this  occur  only  in  one  place,  or  on  one  occasion. 
The  antipathy  to  the  Anglican  rites  was  almost  universal 
among  the  people,  and  time  did  not  diminish  it.  The  terrors 
of  the  High  Commission  were  employed  to  enforce  submission, 
since  argument  had  failed  to  carry  persuasion  •  and  during  the 
whole  subsequent  reign  of  James,  we  are  continually  hearing 
of  some  recusant  minister  being  dragged  to  its  bar,  deposed 
from  his  office,  and  cast  into  prison.  The  persecution  began 
with  Dickson,  the  minister  of  the  west  parish  of  Edinburgh  ; 
and  many  of  his  brethren'  afterwards  exhibited  the  same  stead- 
fastness, and  bore  the  same  punishments.  The  public  feeling 
found  utterance  in  pamphlets  and  poems,  which  the  govern- 
ment tried  in  vain  to  suppress.  They  were  surreptitiously 
printed  and  dispersed  among  the  people,  who  greedily  read 
them. 

In  July  162 1,  a  parliament  was  called  together,  chiefly  for 
the  purpose  of  ratifying  the  Five  Articles,  which  still  wanted 
the  sanction  of  law.  A  number  of  ministers  assembled  in 
Edinburgh  to  draw  up  a  petition  to  be  laid  before  it,  but  they 
were  charged  to  leave  the  town  ;•  and  every  precaution  was 
taken  to  prevent  them  from  lodging  a  protest  which  they  had 
prepared.  The  Articles  wrere  carried,  but  not  without  a 
struggle.  Seventy-seven  voted  for  them,  fifty  against  them. 
A  majority  of  the  burghs  were  found  in  the  opposition ;  the 
Sheriffdoms  were  divided,  and  it  was  only  by  the  votes  of  the 
bishops  and  higher  nobility  that  the  obnoxious  acts  were 
carried.1 

The  year  16 18  witnessed  not  only  the  Assembly  at  Perth, 
which  sanctioned  the  Five  Articles,  but  the  celebrated  Synod 
of  Dort,  which  condemned  Arminianism,  and  declared  Cal- 
vinism to  be  the  doctrine  of  the  Dutch  Churches.  In  this 
ecclesiastical  council  there  were  present,  not  only  Dutch  and 
Walloon  divines,  but  the  representatives  of  almost  every  Re- 
received  the  elements  from  the  ministers — Ramsay  and  Galloway — who 
gave  them  to  each  with  their  own  hands.  Their  example,  says  Binning, 
was  generally  followed  by  the  congregation,  so  that  neither  man  nor 
woman,  during  the  space  of  four  hours,  offered  to  receive  the  sacrament 
sitting,  except  one  base  fellow.  It  is  plain  Lord  Binning  puts  the  best 
face  on  the  matter  ;  he,  however,  mentions  that  many  had  gone  to  the 
country,  especially  women.     (Original  Letters,  Ban.  Club  Ed.) 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vii. 


A.D.  1622.]  MRS  WELSH  AND  THE  KING.  493 

formed  Church  in  Europe.  Walter  Balcanquhal  was  present 
as  the  representative  of  the  Scotch  Church  ;  and  of  him  it  is 
recorded,  that  his  apparel  was  decent,  and  that  in  all  respects 
he  gave  much  satisfaction.1  The  tenets  of  Arminius  were  re- 
probated in  five  different  propositions,  and,  from  this  circum- 
stance, it  was  reported  among  the  common  people  of  Scotland 
that  the  Hollanders  had  condemned  the  Five  Articles  of 
Perth.2  The  report  was  ridiculous  as  it  was  false  \  but  even 
such  a  report  is  frequently  an  index  of  the  state  of  feeling. 
King  James  was  at  first  pleased  with  the  decisions  of  the  synod, 
but  soon  afterwards  we  find  him  bestowing  his  favours  upon 
Arminian  divines.  The  Scottish  bishops  were  inoculated  with 
the  same  opinions,  which  still  further  widened  the  gulph  be- 
tween them  and  the  ministers  who  had,  from  the  first  planting 
of  the  Protestant  Church,  been  strongly  attached  to  the  teach- 
ing of  Augustine  and  Calvin. 

In  the  few  remaining  years  which  fill  up  the  reign  of  King 
James,  there  is  little  to  record.  The  king  and  the  Court  of 
Commission  persisted  in  enforcing  obedience  to  the  tyrannical 
decrees ;  and  the  ministers  and  people  sullenly  submitted,  or 
continued  to  resist. 

There  is  a  story  belonging  to  the  year  1622,  which  deserves 
to  be  recorded,  as  interesting  in  itself,  and  as  very  descriptive 
of  some  of  the  chief  actors  in  the  period  over  which  we  have 
passed.  Welsh  had  now  been  in  banishment  for  upwards  of 
sixteen  years,  during  which  time  he  had  resided  in  France. 
His  health  began  to  fail,  and  in  1622  he  ventured  to  come 
to  London.  His  wife,  the  daughter  of  John  Knox,  managed 
to  get  access  to  court,  to  petition  that  her  husband  might  be 
allowed  to  return  to  Scotland,  and  seek  convalescence  from 
his  native  air.  His  Majesty,  upon  her  introduction,  asked 
who  was  her  father.  "  Mr  Knox,"  she  replied.  "  Knox  and 
Welsh  ! "  exclaimed  the  king ;  "  the  devil  never  made  such  a 
match  as  that."  "  It  is  very  likely,  sir,"  said  she,  "  for  we 
never  speired  (asked)  his  advice."  The  king  next  asked  her 
how  many  children  of  her  father's  were  living,  and  if  they  were 
lads  or  lasses.  She  said  three,  and  that  they  were  all  lasses. 
"God  be  thanked,"  cried  the  king,  lifting  up  both  his  hands. 
"  for  if  they  had  been  three  lads,  I  had  never  bruiked  my 
three  kingdoms  in  peace."  Mrs  Welsh  now  took  the  oppor- 
tunity of  urging  her  petition  that  his  Majesty  would  give  her 

1  Neal's  History  of  the  Puritans,  vol.  i.  pp.  479,  480. 

2  Spottisvvood's  History,  lib.  vii. 


494  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

husband  his  native  air.  "Give  him  the  devil  I"  said  the  king 
coarsely.  "  Give  that  to  your  hungry  courtiers,"  said  the  pious 
lady,  rebuking  his  profanity.  After  some  further  conversation, 
the  king  told  her  that  if  she  would  persuade  her  husband  to 
submit  to  the  bishops,  he  would  allow  him  to  return  to  Scot- 
land. The  heroic  matron,  the  daughter  of  Knox,  lifted  up 
her  apron,  and  holding  it  out  toward  the  king,  replied,  "  Please 
your  Majesty,  I'd  rather  kep  (receive,  keep  from  falling)  his 
head  there."1  Her  petition  was  refused,  and  Welsh  soon 
afterwards  died  an  exile  in  London. 

Three  years  afterwards,  James  also  died.  In  Scotland  he 
was  not  greatly  lamented,  save  by  the  bishops  who  had  sprung 
up  in  the  sunshine  of  his  favour,  and  the  few  hungry  nobles 
who  haunted  his  court,  grew  rich  upon  English  spoil,  and 
brought  upon  their  native  country  the  reproach  of  beggary. 
He  abandoned  presbytery  to  overturn  its  government  and 
persecute  its  ministers ;  he  embraced  prelacy  to  purge  it  from 
puritanism  ;  and  lost  the  esteem  of  one  nation  without  gaining 
the  respect  of  another.  His  foolish  ideas  of  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  and  of  the  extent  of  his  prerogative,  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  those  disasters  which  brought  his  son  to  the  scaffold, 
and  drove  his  race  from  the  throne.  English  adulation,  opu- 
lence, and  power  developed  his  vices,  and  choked  up  his 
virtues.  His  youth  was  more  virtuous  than  his  old  age  ;  and 
profligacy  in  the  old  is  peculiarly  repulsive.  He  grew  fond  of 
eating,  drinking,  and  indolence ;  and  licentious  favourites 
ruled  all.  He  was  clever  and  learned  for  a  king  ;  he  was  cer- 
tainly witty  ;  but  he  had  little  vigour  or  comprehensiveness  of 
mind,  and  no  true  dignity  of  character.  A  foreign  ambassador 
pronounced  him  "  the  wisest  fool  in  Christendom."  Henry 
of  Navarre  is  said  to  have  remarked — "  He  was  undoubtedly 
the  Solomon  of  his  age,  as  he  was  the  son  of  David  who 
played  upon  the  harp."  It  was  on  the  27th  of  May  1625  that 
he  died,  being  then  in  his  59th  year  of  his  age. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Charles  I.  ascended  the  throne  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land amid  the  general  acclamations  of  a  people  ever  inclined 
to  think  hopefully  of  their  hereditary  kings.      He  was  born  at 

1  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox. 


a.d.  1625.]  CHARLES  I.  495 

Dunfermline  in  the  year  1600,  was  baptised  by  a  Presbyterian 
minister,  and  entrusted  to  the  care  of  Presbyterian  tutors  ; 
but  he  was  still  a  child  when  his  father  succeeded  to  the  Eng- 
lish crown,  and  placed  him  under  men  who  taught  him  to 
abominate  Presbytery  as  akin  to  democracy,  and  to  cherish 
Episcopacy  as  the  firmest  ally  of  arbitrary  power.  Immedi- 
ately upon  his  accession,  he  married  Henrietta  Maria, 
daughter  of  Henry  IV.,  and  sister  of  Louis  XIII.,  kings  of 
France — a  lady  of  much  beauty  and  vivacity,  and  destined  to 
acquire  a  complete  ascendancy  over  her  husband  ;  but  the 
marriage  was  regarded  by  many  with  alarm,  as  it  was  stipulated 
that  the  queen,  with  all  the  children  of  the  marriage,  and  all 
her  domestics,  should  be  secured  in  the  free  exercise  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion  \  that  she  should  have  a  bishop, 
invested  with  all  necessary  authority  in  things  relating  to 
religion,  with  twenty-eight  priests  or  monks,  and  a  chapel  in 
every  place  where  she  should  happen  to  reside  ;  and  that  she 
should  have  the  education  of  her  children  till  they  were  thirteen 
years  of  age.1 

Charles  was  virtuous  in  his  life,  punctual  in  the  discharge  of 
his  religious  duties,  possessed  of  good  abilities,  many  accom- 
plishments, a  deep  earnestness  of  character,  and  a  dignity  of 
demeanour  becoming  a  king ;  but  he  soon  showed  that  he  had 
imbibed  high  notions  of  the  royal  prerogative — that  he  was 
fond  of  circumstance  and  ceremony  in  religious  worship — 
that  he  hated  puritanism — and  did  not  feel  himself  bound  to 
keep  faith  with  his  subjects.  Foolishly  involved  in  a  war, 
first  wTith  Spain,  and  afterwards  with  France,  his  Commons 
refused  him  such  supplies  as  he  required  till  he  would  redress 
their  grievances,  and  give  some  secure  resting-place  to  that 
spirit  of  liberty  which  was  now  abroad.  Parliament  after 
parliament  was  called,  only  to  be  dissolved  \  and  the  mortified 
king,  baulked  of  his  subsidies,  was  obliged  to  resort  to 
forced  loans  from  his  subjects  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the 
State.  The  elements  of  strife  were  already  in  existence  ; 
bishops  were  preaching  about  the  divine  right  of  kings  and  the 
duty  of  passive  obedience  \  members  of  parliament  were 
speaking  about  the  liberties  of  the  subject  and  the  oppressions 
of  the  court ;  and  it  was  becoming  evident  that  a  struggle 
between  the  old  and  the  new  ideas  was  at  hand. 

Soon  after  Charles  had  ascended  the  throne,  and  before  his 
character  was  fully  developed,  the  Scottish  ministers  despatched 
1  Rapin,  vol.  ix.  pp.  586-601,  8vo  eel.,  1732.    Court  and  Times  of  Charles  I. 


496  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XVL 

one  of  their  number  to  court,  with  a  petition  to  the  effect,  that 
they  might  be  relieved  from  the  observance  of  the  Articles  of 
Perth ;  but  on  the  return  of  their  messenger,  they  discovered 
that  no  relief  need  be  looked  for,  and  that  the  young  king  was 
resolved  to  pursue  his  father's  policy.1  His  revocation  of  all 
Crown  grants  of  ecclesiastical  property  made  before  he  was 
eight  months  king  showed  that  he  contemplated  ecclesiastical 
changes.  Charles,  however,  was  too  much  occupied  with 
English  affairs  to  be  able  to  give  much  attention  to  Scotland, 
and  the  Church  for  several  years  enjoyed  comparative  quiet. 
No  General  Assembly  had  met  since  that  disastrous  one  at 
Perth ;  but  General  Assemblies  had  not  yet  been  legally  abro- 
gated. The  bishops  continued  to  exercise  their  Episcopal 
power,  but  they  appear  to  have  done  it  with  moderation. 
Presbyteries  were  still  held.  The  Anglican  method  of  ad- 
ministering the  sacrament  was  followed  by  some,  and  by 
others  it  was  not.  Thus  on  Easter  Day  1627,  when  the  Com- 
munion was  given  in  the  High  Church  of  Edinburgh,  not  more 
than  six  or  seven  persons  kneeled,  and  even  some  of  the 
ministers  refrained  from  doing  so.2  In  February  1629,  the 
ministers  of  Edinburgh  again  resolved  to  give  the  sacrament  to 
the  people,  as  they  had  not  received  it  in  the  preceding  year ; 
"  but  it  was  given,"  says  the  historian,  "  with  such  confusion 
that  it  was  pitiful  to  behold  ;  some  of  the  ministers  kneeling, 
some  sitting,  some  standing,  and  such  confusion  among  the 
people  also;  the  minister  giving  the  elements  out  of  his  hands 
to  each  one,  and  the  reader  reading,  or  the  people  singing  at 
the  same  time."  3  It  was  the  same  with  the  other  Articles  of 
Perth,  which  appear  to  have  been  like  an  apple  of  discord 
thrown  into  the  midst  of  the  Church.  Thus,  on  Christmas 
Day,  John  Maxwell,  who  was  aspiring  to  a  bishopric,  was 
preaching  in  Edinburgh,  and  thundering  forth  invectives  and 
curses  against  such  as  would  not  keep  the  festivals  of  the 
Church  1  David  Forrester  was  preaching  in  Leith  on  the  same 
day,  and  maintaining  the  very  opposite.  "  It  was  sad,"  says 
John  Row,  "  to  hear  pulpit  against  pulpit ;  but  we  should  bless 
the  Lord  that  there  were  still  some  to  stand  in  the  gap,  and 
speak  for  the  truth  and  the  cause  of  God."  4 

In  the  year  1633  Charles  visited  his  ancient  kingdom  of 
Scotland,  to  be  crowned  with  the  crown  of  his  ancestors.  On 
Saturday,  the  15th  of  June,  he  entered  Edinburgh  in  triumphal 

1  Bishop  Guthrie's  Memoirs,  p.  7. 
2  Row's  History,  p.  343.  3  Ibid,  p.  348.  4  Ibid,  p.  350. 


a.d.   1633.]  KING  CHARLES  AND  BISHOP  LAUD.  497 

procession.     In  his  train  was  Dr  Laud,  at  that  time  Bishop  of 
London,  and  soon  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canterbury — a 
man  violent,  vain,  superstitious,  and  whose  restless  and  inno- 
vating spirit  had  long  ago  been  recognised  by  King  James.1 
He  had  now  become  the  adviser  of  his  more  infatuated  son. 
On  Sunday  he  preached  before  the  king   and  court  in  the 
Chapel  of  Holyrood  House ;  he  expatiated  upon  the  benefits 
of  conformity ;  he  extolled  the  venerable  ceremonies  of  the 
Anglican   Church ;  and  the  nobles,  knowing  that  the  bishop 
only  spoke  the  sentiments  of  the  king,  applauded  what  he  said.2 
Tuesday,  the  18th  of  the  month,  was  fixed  for  the  coronation. 
By  the  direction  of  Laud,  an  altar  was  erected  in  the  Abbey 
Church,   parallel  to  the  mass  altar,   unlighted  candles  were 
placed  upon  it,  and  otherwise  the  building  w7as  magnificently 
adorned.     The  Bishop  of  Brechin  preached  the  sermon,  and 
the  Archbishop   of  St  Andrews  placed  the  crown  upon  the 
king's  head  with  the  usual  forms.     Close  by  the  side  of  the 
Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow  had 
taken  his  place,  as  was  his  right ;  but  Laud,  observing  that  he 
did  not  wear  the  embroidered  robe,  which  the  High  Church 
fashion  required,  thrust  him  aside,  and  put  the  Bishop  of  Ross 
in  his  stead.3     In  this  little  episode  we  have  a  prophetic  reve- 
lation of  the  future  primate's  character  and  history. 

On  Sunday,  the  23rd  of  June,  the  king  went  to  the  High 
Church  of  Edinburgh  to  hear  sermon.  When  he  had  taken 
his  place  in  the  loft,  the  reader,  according  to  the  usage  then 
prevalent,  began  to  read  the  lessons  for  the  day,  and  sing  the 
psalms  preparatory  to  the  sermon,  but  Maxwell,  one  of  the 
ministers  of  Edinburgh,  and  recently  made  Bishop  of  Ross, 
requested  him  to  leave  his  desk,  and  then  substituted  in  his 
stead  two  English  chaplains,  clothed  in  surplices,  who  per- 
formed the  English  service.  The  service  being  ended,  the 
Bishop  of  Moray,  also  clothed  in  a  surplice,  ascended  the 
pulpit  and  preached.4  The  Scottish  people  bore  these  insults 
upon  their  established  worship  in  no  pleasant  humour.  The 
storm  was  slowly  gathering,  but  it  was  not  yet  ready  to  burst. 
The  next  day  being  St  John  the  Baptist's  Day,  his  Majesty 
went  in  state  to  his  chapel  royal,  and  made  a  solemn  offertory. 

1  Memorial  of  Archbishop  Williams,  by  Bishop  Ilacket.     (See  Burton's 
History,  chap,  lxvi.) 

2  Clarendon's  History  of  the  Rebellion,  vol.  i.  p.  64. 

3  Neal's  History  of  the  Puritans,  vol.  i.  p.  562.   Rushworth's  Collections* 
part  ii.  p.  182. 

4  Row's  History,  p.  363. 

VOL.  I.  2  I 


49^  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.   XVI. 

The  next  scene  was  a  characteristic  one.  About  a  hundred 
persons,  afflicted  with  the  king's  evil,  approached,  one  after 
another,  to  his  Majesty,  and  received  his  healing  touch,  and 
at  the  same  time  had  a  piece  of  gold,  coined  for  the  purpose, 
and  suspended  by  a  white  riband,  put  round  their  necks  by 
the  royal  hands  in  commemoration  of  their  cure.1  So  the 
time  passed,  amid  religious  pageants,  costly  banquets,  excur- 
sions to  the  provinces,  and  bestowal  of  titles  of  honour.  These 
last  were  given  with  no  niggard  hand,  and  yet  many  expectants 
were  disappointed.  During  his  stay  in  the  country,  his 
Majesty  created  one  marquis,  ten  earls,  two  viscounts,  eight 
lords,  and  dubbed  fifty-four  knights;2  thus  plenteously  did  the 
fountain  of  honour  overflow.  Edinburgh  he  erected  into  a 
bishopric;  appointed  St  Gile's  to  be  its  cathedral  church  ;  and 
gave  pain  to  the  lovers  of  Presbyterian  preaching,  by  ordering 
the  partitions  which  divided  the  church  to  be  taken  down,  that 
the  building  might  wear  a  cathedral-like  aspect,  and  be  fit  for 
the  cathedral  service.3 

But  we  have  still  to  record  the  most  important  event  con- 
nected with  his  Majesty's  visit  to  the  north — the  meeting  of 
parliament.  It  was  on  the  19th  of  June  that  the  Estates 
assembled.  On  the  first  day  the  Lords  of  the  Articles  were 
chosen,  and  continued  their  labours  for  more  than  a  week, 
and  certainly  they  could  not  have  been  idle,  for  they  gave 
their  sanction  to  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  acts  of  a  private 
nature,  and  to  thirty-one  relating  to  public  affairs.4  On  the 
28th,  the  parliament  met  to  give  its  stamp  of  approbation  to 
the  labours  of  its  committee.  When  the  acts  were  read  over 
there  were  two  which  were  seen  to  be  destructive  of  the  last 
traces  of  presbytery,  and  which  met  with  a  determined  opposi- 
tion.5 

The  first  of  these  was  a  combination  of  two  acts  passed  in 
the  reign  of  King  James,  the  one  extending  his  prerogative 
to  all  causes,  spiritual  as  well  as  political,  and  the  other  giving 
him  power  to  prescribe  the  apparel  of  Churchmen;  the  second 
was  the  virtual  ratification  of  the  Episcopal  government  and 
worship,  as  it  then  existed  in  Scotland.  Contrary  to  what  we 
would  imagine,  the  reluctance  was  greatest  to  continue  to 

1  Balfour's  Annals,  vol.  ii.  p.  201.     Large  Declaration,  p.  II. 

2  Balfour,  vol.  ii.  p.  202. 

3  Row's  History,  p.  369.      Stevenson's  History,  vol.  i.  p.  121. 

4  Murray's  Collection  of  the  Acts  of  the  Scottish  Parliament. 

5  Charles  I.,  pari.  i.  chapters  iii.  iv. 


A.D.   1633.]  THE  VOTE  QUESTIONED.  499 

Charles  the  power  which  had  been  given  to  James  to  deter- 
mine the  clerical  costumes.  Lord  Rothes,  who  led  the  oppo- 
sition, said  he  could  consent  to  the  first  part  of  the  act,  but 
not  to  the  second.  He  was  told  it  must  be  passed  as  a  whole, 
or  not  at  all.  People  declared  that  the  device  was  like  to 
that  of  the  Roman  emperors,  who  placed  a  statue  of  some 
heathen  divinity  near  to  the  statue  of  themselves,  that  the 
early  Christians,  in  paying  obeisance  to  the  one,  might  be 
entrapped  into  an  act  of  homage  to  the  other.1  The  truth  is, 
there  was  a  well-grounded  alarm  that  Laud  wished  to  intro- 
duce the  surplice,  and  all  those  other  sacerdotal  vestments 
which,  in  the  minds  of  the  Scottish  people,  were  inseparably 
joined  with  the  Popish  worship.  When  the  vote  was  taken, 
the  king  supplied  himself  with  a  roll  of  the  members  and  a 
pen,  and  marked  the  suffrage  of  every  individual,  which  had 
its  effect  upon  the  timid  and  time-serving,  but  was  felt  to  be 
unworthy  of  a  king  presiding  in  his  parliament.  The  clerk- 
register  declared  the  acts  to  be  carried.  Rothes  stood  up  and 
declared  the  vote  to  be  otherwise.  The  king  interfered,  and 
said,  that  to  corrupt  the  parliamentary  records  was  high 
treason,  and  that  therefore  Lord  Rothes  must  either  be  silent, 
or  make  good  his  charge  at  the  peril  of  his  life.  The  earl 
prudently  declined  to  run  such  a  hazard,  and  the  matter  is 
involved  in  mystery  to  this  day.2 

A  number  of  ministers,  when  they  heard  that  such  acts 
were  being  prepared  by  the  Lords  of  the  Articles,  drew  up  a 
statement  of  their  grievances,  to  be  laid  before  the  parliament, 
but  it  was  never  allowed  to  see  the  light.3  After  the  obnoxious 
measures  were  passed,  some  of  the  barons  who  had  voted  in 
the  opposition  prepared  a  most  respectfully-worded  supplica- 
tion to  be  presented  to  his  Majesty,  explaining  their  conduct.4 
The  Earl  of  Rothes  showed  a  copy  of  the  proposed  supplica- 
tion to  the  king  at  Dalkeith  to  see  if  it  would  be  agreeable  to 
him,  but  the  king  having  glanced  at  it,  returned  it  to  the  earl, 
saying,  sharply,  "No  more  of  this,  my  lord,  I  command  you."5 
There  was  no  more  of  it — the  petition  was  suppressed.     But 

1  Kirkton's  History,  p.  29. 

2  Row's  History,  p.  367.  Large  Declaration,  published  in  the  king's 
name,  but  known  to  be  the  production  of  Di  Balcanquhal,  Dean  of 
Durham,  p.  12. 

3  Row,  p.  357. 

4  wStevenson  gives  a  copy  of  this  document,  vol.  i.  pp.  104-11.  Row 
also  gives  it,  pp.  376-81. 

5  Guthrie's  Memoirs,  p.  9. 


500      .  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XVI. 

about  a  year  afterwards,  when  everybody  had  forgotten  all 
about  it,  Lord  Balmerino  happened  to  show  a  copy  of  it, 
which  he  had  lying  beside  him,  to  a  Dundee  writer,  who  was 
visiting  at  his  house.  The  writer,  unknown  to  Balmerino, 
took  a  copy  of  it,  and  showed  it  to  Hay  of  Naughton ;  Hay 
of  Naughton  showed  it  to  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews ;  the 
archbishop  sent  it  to  the  king ;  and,  for  possessing  such  a 
document,  Balmerino  was  summoned  before  a  criminal  court, 
indicted  on  an  old  statute  against  leasing ;  found  guilty  by  a 
majority  of  one;  condemned  to  death;  and  saved  from  the 
scaffold  only  by  the  clemency  of  the  king,  who  probably  felt 
that  his  execution  would  be  no  better  than  a  murder.1  The 
whole  proceedings  made  a  deep  impression  upon  the  public 
mind.  It  was  another  drop  added  to  the  cup  of  bitterness 
which  was  so  soon  to  overflow. 

But  while  we  may  blame  the  parliament  of  1633  for  bolster- 
ing up  Episcopacy  and  arbitrary  power,  we  should  never  forget 
that  we  owe  to  it  the  settlement  of  the  vexatious  tithe-question 
on  the  footing  according  to  which  all  stipends  are  now  paid, 
and  the  legal  establishment  of  the  parochial  school  system, 
which  has  conferred  such  inestimable  blessings  on  the  country. 
We  shall  be  pardoned  for  making  a  short  digression  on  these 
two  matters. 

Soon  after  the  Reformation,  the  Protestant  Church  claimed 
as  her  proper  inheritance  the  whole  lands  and  tithes  of  the 
Roman  clergy,  to  be  applied  to  the  maintenance  of  preachers, 
the  education  of  the  young,  and  the  support  of  the  poor. 
This  equitable  claim  was  never  conceded  by  a  nobility  anxious 
to  appropriate  to  themselves  the  wealth  of  the  hierarchy ;  but 
in  1 56 1  it  was  arranged  that  the  Papal  incumbents  should  be 
allowed  to  retain  two-thirds  of  their  benefices  for  life,  and  that 
the  remaining  third  should  be  appropriated  partly  for  the 
support  of  the  Protestant  preachers,  and  partly  to  meet  the 
necessities  of  an  impoverished  court.  The  commissioners 
appointed  to  allocate  the  stipends  of  the  new  ministers  proved 
niggardly,  and  the  small  pittances  which  they  assigned  were 
so  irregularly  paid,  that  the  Church,  though  wielding  great 
power,  was  sunk  in  abject  poverty.  To  rectify  this  grievance, 
often  and  loudly  complained  of  by  the  General  Assembly,  the 
Regent  Moray  in  his  first  parliament  gave  to  the  Church  the 
power  of  appointing  its  own  collectors  of  the  thirds,  made  its 
claim  prior  to  all  others,  and  declared  this  was  to  endure  only 
1  Guthrie's  Memoirs,  pp.  9,  10.     Row,  pp.  381-85. 


A.D.   1633.]  TEINDS  AND  STIPENDS.  501 

till  the  Church  should  come  to  its  proper  patrimony — the 
teinds.  The  finances  of  the  ministers  were  considerably 
improved  by  this  measure ;  but  the  Regent  Morton,  when  he 
came  into  power,  managed  to  persuade  the  Assembly  to 
resign  the  collection  of  the  thirds  into  his  hands,  with  the 
promise  that  he  would  assign  to  every  minister  a  sufficient 
stipend  out  of  the  tithes  of  his  own  parish — a  thing  most 
ardently  desired ;  but  the  ministers  soon  found  that  they  had 
been  deceived,  that  their  stipends  were  not  improved,  and 
that  one  minister  was  frequently  obliged  to  take  the  charge  of 
four,  five,  or  six  parishes,  assisted  by  readers  paid  at  the  rate 
of  fifty  or  sixty  merks.  The  avarice  of  Morton  had  done  this, 
and  it  lost  him  the  good-will  of  the  Church,  which  might  have 
served  him  in  his  hour  of  need. 

Things  remained  long  in  this  state  :  hundreds  of  parishes 
were  unprovided  with  ministers,  and  hundreds  of  ministers 
were  but  poorly  paid.  The  Assemblies  were  continually 
grumbling  ■  the  king  was  frequently  promising  ;  scheme  of 
adjustment  after  scheme  was  proposed,  but  proposed  only  to 
be  abandoned.  Meantime,  the  recovery  of  the  Church's  patri- 
mony was  becoming  every  day  more  hopeless.  The  great 
majority  of  the  parishes  had  been  gifted  in  Roman  Catholic 
times  to  the  bishoprics  and  abbeys.  As  the  Roman  abbots 
died  out,  lay  commendators  were  generally  appointed  in  their 
stead,  and  many  of  these  prevailed  upon  the  king  to  convert 
their  titles  into  heritable  rights.  After  a  time,  when  men's 
minds  had  got  so  accustomed  to  plunder  that  they  could  do  it 
without  a  cloak,  the  decent  form  of  appointing  commendators 
was  given  up,  and  the  king,  in  virtue  of  his  royal  right,  and 
with  reprehensible  prodigality,  gave  large  grants  of  the  Church's 
revenues  to  his  nobles.  These  lucky  men  were  styled  Lords 
of  Erection.  They  generally  received  their  grants  under  the 
burden  of  the  thirds  which  had  been  appropriated  to  the 
ministers ;  but  this  specific  burden  was  sometimes  discharged 
on  the  vague  condition  that  competent  stipends  should  be  pro- 
vided out  of  the  teinds  for  the  ministers  of  the  parishes  out  of 
which  they  were  drawn,  and  sometimes  on  no  condition  at 
all.1  We  have  seen  how  several  of  the  bishoprics  were  held 
by  courtiers,  who  drew  their  revenues,  and  employed  a  sti- 
pendiary tulchan  to  do  the  work. 

In  1587  James  VI.,  in  order  to  replenish  an  impoverished 
exchequer,  resolved  to  annex  the  lands  of  all  ecclesiastical 
1  Connel  on  Tithes,  vol.  i.  p.   182. 


502  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XVI. 

benefices  to  the  Crown.  This  act  extended  only  to  the  lands, 
and  not  to  the  tithes  of  the  Church  :  it,  moreover,  reached 
only  to  the  soil  still  in  possession  of  the  Church,  and  not  to 
that  which  had  already  been  gifted  to  laymen ;  but  as  none  of 
the  bishoprics  had  yet  been  erected  into  temporal  lordships, 
and  as  many  of  the  abbacies  granted  during  the  king's  minority 
were  only  given  during  pleasure,  the  statute  was  felt  to  be  very 
comprehensive  in  its  sweep.  The  king  afterwards  regretted 
the  passing  of  this  act,  as  it  opposed  a  barrier  to  the  restora- 
tion of  bishops,  by  depriving  them  of  that  wealth  which  be- 
comes them  so  well.  Bishops,  however,  were  restored,  and  the 
Parliament  House  as  well  as  the  Church  opened  its  doors  for 
them ;  but  notwithstanding  the  efforts  and  sacrifices  of  the 
king,  and  the  recission  of  the  act  of  annexation,  they  were  far 
from  enjoying  the  ancient  opulence  of  their  order. 

During  all  the  struggle  between  Episcopacy  and  Presbytery, 
the  ministers  continued  to  be  paid  out  of  the  thirds  of  bene- 
fices, and  their  stipends  rose  or  fell  according  to  the  disposi- 
tions of  the  modificators.  It  wras  1617  before  any  important 
change  was  effected.  In  that  year  a  commission  was  issued 
by  parliament  for  settling  ministers'  stipends,  founded  on  a 
principle  which  had  been  proposed  to  the  General  Assembly 
in  1596.  The  act  proceeds  on  the  narrative,  "  That  there  be 
divers  kirks  within  this  kingdom  not  planted  with  ministers, 
on  account  of  which  ignorance  and  atheism  abound  among  the 
people  ;  and  that  many  of  those  that  are  planted  have  no 
sufficient  provision  or  maintenance  appointed  to  them,  whereby 
the  ministry  are  kept  in  poverty  and  contempt,  and  cannot 
fruitfully  travel  in  their  charges."  A  mixed  commission  of 
prelates,  nobles,  barons,  and  burgesses  was  therefore  named, 
with  power  "  out  of  the  teinds  of  every  parish,  to  appoint  and 
assign  at  their  discretion  a  perpetual  local  stipend  to  the  minis- 
ters present  and  to  come."  By  this  act  the  stipend  of  every 
minister  was  ordained  to  be  paid,  not  out  of  a  general  fund  as 
before,  but  out  of  the  tithes  of  the  parish  where  he  laboured  \ 
the  minimum  stipend  to  be  assigned  was  fixed  at  5  chalders  of 
victual,  or  500  merks,  and  the  maximum  at  8  chalders,  or  800 
merks.1  This  act  was  felt  to  be  a  step  toward  putting  the 
stipends  of  the  clergy  on  a  proper  footing. 

1  We  have  here  a  proof  of  how  rapidly  money  had  depreciated  in  Scot- 
land. In  1560  the  value  of  5  chalders  of  victual  was  only  about  100 
merks;  in  1617  it  is  500.  It  is  a  symptom  of  the  rapid  improvement 
which  had  begun  and  was  going  on.  At  present  the  average  value  of  5 
chalders  of  victual  is  upwards  of  1 500  merks. 


a.d.   1633.]  DEED  OF  REVOCATION.  503 

Things  continued  in  this  state  till  Charles  I.  came  to  the 
throne  in  1625.  He  found  that,  by  the  thoughtless  prodigality 
of  his  father,  almost  the  entire  Church  property  of  Scotland 
had  been  gifted  away,  and  resolved  to  execute  a  revocation  of 
all  such  grants,  which  he  did  in  the  very  first  year  of  his  reign. 
Almost  every  noble  family  in  Scotland  had  some  share  in  the 
spoil ;  many  of  them  had  held  it  beyond  the  years  of  prescrip- 
tion; some  of  them  if  stripped  of  it  would  be  left  almost 
naked  in  the  world,  and  therefore  the  king's  design  of  wrench- 
ing it  from  them  caused  universal  agitation  and  alarm,  combined 
with  a  determination  to  resist.  Bishop  Burnet  tells  of  how  at 
a  meeting  with  the  king's  commissioners  regarding  surrenders, 
a  blind  Lord  Belhaven  asked  to  be  placed  beside  the  Earl  of 
Dumfries,  whom  he  held  with  the  one  hand,  while  he  secretly 
clutched  a  poinard  in  the  other,  that  he  might  make  sure  of 
one  man  if  the  surrenders  were  pressed.  To  counterbalance 
this  spirit,  Charles  attempted  to  interest  the  gentry  and  clergy 
in  his  project,  by  holding  out  to  the  former  the  right  of  pur- 
chasing and  leading  their  own  teinds  ;  and  to  the  latter,  the 
prospect  of  more  liberal  stipends. 

The  king  subsequently  narrowed  the  wide  range  of  his 
revocation,  and  then  ordered  a  summons  of  reduction  to  be 
raised,  as  he  conceived  that  the  grants  could  be  reduced  upon 
legal  grounds.  Alarmed  at  this  proceeding,  a  deputation  of 
the  titulars  was  sent  to  London,  and  had  a  conference  with  his 
Majesty.  In  consequence  of  the  agreement  then  come  to,  the 
king,  on  the  7th  of  January  1627,  issued  a  commission  to  the 
Lord  Chancellor,  the  Lord  High  Treasurer,  the  two  arch- 
bishops, eight  bishops,  twenty-two  nobles,  three  law  lords, 
seventeen  barons,  and  ten  burgesses,  to  treat  with  all  who  pre- 
tended a  right  to  erected  benefices  for  a  surrender  of  these 
to  the  Crown,  on  such  terms  as  the  commissioners  should 
suggest.  This  commission  continued  its  sittings  and  its 
labours  during  the  whole  summer  of  that  year ;  and  amongst 
other  things,  decided  that  all  superiorities  of  erection  should 
be  resigned  into  his  Majesty's  hands,  his  Majesty  being  left  to 
determine  what  composition  should  be  paid  for  the  rent  of  the 
superiorities  ;  and  it  was  further  agreed  that  this,  and  the 
questions  which  had  arisen  in  regard  to  the  valuation  and  sale 
of  teinds,  should  be  finally  adjusted  and  determined  by  de- 
creets-arbitral,  pronounced  by  the  king,  and  proceeding  upon 
submissions  by  all  the  parties  concerned.  Accordingly,  in  the 
course  of  the  year  1628,  submissions  were  given  in  by  the 


5^4  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

Lords  of  Erection  and  the  landholders,  by  the  bishops  and 
clergy,  by  the  royal  burghs  having  interest,  and,  last  of  all,  by 
certain  tacksmen  and  others  having  right  to  teinds. 

Everything  was  now  ripe  for  a  decision,  and  accordingly,  on 
the    2d    of  September    1629,  his    Majesty  pronounced   four 
decreets-arbitral,  corresponding  to  the  number  of  submissions. 
With  regard  to  the  superiorities  of  Church  lands,  it  was  ordained 
that  1000  merks  Scots  should  be  paid  by  the  Crown  for  each 
chalder  of  victual  feu-duty,  and  for  each  100  merks  of  money 
feu-duty.     With  regard  to  teinds,  the  decreet  declares,  "  that 
it  is  necessary  and  expedient  for  the  public  welfare  and  peace 
of  this  our  ancient  kingdom,  and  for  the  better  providing  of 
kirks  and  ministers'  stipends  and  for  the  establishing  of  schools 
and  other  pious  uses,  that  each  heritor  have  and  enjoy  his  own 
teinds ; ,J  and  in  order  to  this,  it  is  provided  that  all  teinds 
should  be  valued  and  sold  to  those  heritors  who  should  choose 
to  purchase  them.     The  fifth  of  the  rental  of  the  land  was  de- 
clared to  be  the  value  of  the  teind  j1  and  the  price  of  teinds 
thus  valued  was  fixed  at  nine  years7  purchase — a  price  which 
would  be  remarkably  low  now,  but  which  probably  was  not  so 
then.2     It  was  farther  provided,  that  in  calculating  the  price 
of  teinds,  heritors  were  to  pay  for  no  more  than  what  should 
remain  after  the  ministers'  stipends  were  deducted  ;  and  also 
that  a  certain  portion  of  the  rent  or  price,  to  be  fixed  by 
commissioners,  should  be  set  apart  for  the  king  in  name  of 
annuity. 

In  order  to  understand  this  arrangement,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  teinds  were  originally  levied  out  of  the  yearly  pro- 
duce of  the  farm.  The  parson,  or  his  tacksman,  went  to  the 
corn-field  in  harvest  time,  and  carried  off  every  tenth  sheaf  as 
his  own.  After  the  Reformation  the  lay  titulars  were  found  to 
be  more  rigorous  in  the  exaction  of  tithes  than  their  ecclesias- 
tical predecessors,  and  their  exaction  was  not  so  patiently  borne. 
No  victual  could  be  taken  from  the  field  till  it  was  first  teinded  ; 
and  a  careless  or  ill-disposed  titular  or  tacksman  might  let  the 
crop  rot  in  the  stook  before  he  appeared  to  claim  his  right,  a 
grievance  which  was  sorely  felt,  and  only  partially  removed  by 
statutes  limiting  the  time  for  the  removal  of  the  teind.     The 

1  When  the  teinds  were  drawn  from  the  land  separately,  they  were  to 
be  valued  by  a  proof  of  the  teind  as  drawn  ;  but  the  fifth  of  the  rental 
may  be  said  to  have  been  the  general  rule.     (Connel,  vol.  i.  p.  226.) 

2  The  Commissioners  on  Teinds  in  their  report  gave  instances  of  land 
being  sold  at  that  period  at  nine  years'  purchase.  Still  it  is  a  question 
often  debated  how  far  the  sum  fixed  was  a  fair  value  for  the  teinds. 


A.D.  1633.]  VALUATION  OF  TEINDS.  S°S 

land-owners  were  now  to  be  enabled  to  rid  themselves  of  this 
annoyance,  by  buying  their  own  teinds,  subject  to  the  payment 
of  such  a  stipend  as  should  be  granted  to  the  minister. 

The  parliament  of  1633  gave  its  sanction  to  these  proceed- 
ings, and  they  became  law.  Sub-commissioners  were  soon  at 
work  in  every  presbytery  over  the  country,  and  a  considerable 
proportion  of  the  teinds  valued  ;  but,  strange  to  say,  it  was 
long  before  many  of  the  proprietors  availed  themselves  of  the 
right  to  purchase.  The  minister  of  religion  required  no 
longer  to  haunt  the  harvest-field,  and  perhaps  quarrel  with 
the  farmer  about  his  teinding  ;  nor  to  peep  into  the  sheepcots, 
lest  he  should  be  cheated  of  his  proportion  of  the  lambs  and 
the  wool :  the  fifth  part  of  the  rental  of  the  land  was  declared 
to  be  the  value  of  the  teind,  and  so  much  of  this  was  assigned 
to  the  minister  as  the  commissioners  of  teinds  thought  good. 
The  arrangement  was  in  many  respects  a  wise  one,  but  now 
circumstances  have  so  outgrown  it  that  it  leads  to  gross  in- 
justices. In  many  cases  the  fifth  part  of  the  value  of  land 
then  is  not  the  fiftieth  part  now.  Moreover,  as  a  rule,  the 
great  landowners  got  their  lands  valued  at  any  price  they  chose 
to  put  on  them,  whereas  the  "  bonnet  lairds,"  unable  to  afford 
the  expense,  took  no  steps  to  have  a  valuation  put  on  their 
small  holdings  ;  and  the  result  now  is,  that  the  bonnet  laird 
frequently  pays  stipend  according  to  the  present  valuation  of 
his  land,  while  his  great  neighbour  pays  according  to  the 
valuation  of  two  hundred  and  sixty  years  ago.  In  this  way, 
ten  acres  sometimes  pay  more  than  a  thousand ;  the  poor 
man  is  plundered,  while  the  rich  man  escapes ;  and  a  burden 
which,  if  equally  distributed,  would  be  light  as  a  feather,  falls 
upon  some  with  a  crushing  load. 

By  these  measures  the  king  no  doubt  wished  to  benefit  the 
clergy,  and  he  in  fact  anticipated  the  commutation  of  tithes 
which  took  place  in  England  and  Ireland  two  centuries  later. 
But  the  arrangement,  though  meant  to  be  beneficial  for  the 
Church,  was  not  hailed  with  universal  satisfaction.  Many  of 
the  nobles  surrendered  their  teinds  with  a  grudge.  It  is  said 
to  have  so  embittered  the  minds  of  some  as  to  have  led  them 
to  take  part  in  the  troubles  which  followed,  and  that  the  deed 
of  revocation  was  the  root  of  the  rebellion.1  It  is  very  pro- 
bable that  this  is  partly  true,  and  we  need  not  wonder  at  it. 

1  The  king  expressly  affirms  this  in  his  Large  Declaration,  pp.  6-10  ; 
and  Sir  John  Connel  has  an  interesting  note  at  p.  216  of  his  Treatise, 
referring  to  the  same  subject. 


So6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XVI. 

It  would  be  the  same  now  if  those  nobles  who  still  hold 
ecclesiastical  plunder  were  asked  to  surrender ;  it  would  make 
loyal  men  disloyal,  peaceful  men  turbulent,  it  would  almost 
make  sane  men  mad.  We  should  rather  blame  the  profuse- 
ness  which  gifted  the  property,  than  the  tenacity  which  was 
unwilling  to  render  it  back  again.  That  such  passions  should 
mingle  in  the  strife  we  need  not  wonder  ;  for  the  purest  gold 
has  ever  an  admixture  of  alloy,  and  the  holiest  of  causes  has 
frequently  its  sinful  partisans. 

We  venture  to  make  another  digression  in  regard  to  the 
origin  of  our  school  system,  as  it  was  the  parliament  of  1633 
which  first  propped  it  up  and  strengthened  it  by  statute.  In 
Roman  Catholic  times,  the  means  of  education  in  Scotland 
were  very  scanty.  The  Universities  of  St  Andrews,  Glasgow, 
and  Aberdeen  had  been  established,  grammar  schools  existed 
in  some  of  the  principal  towns,  and  the  convents  were  less  or 
more  nurseries  of  learning,  but  no  provision  had  as  yet  been 
made  for  educating  the  bulk  of  the  people.  James  IV.  com- 
pelled all  barons  and  freeholders  to  send  their  eldest  sons  to 
school,  to  be  instructed  in  law,  Latin,  and  the  arts  ; 1  but  it  is 
certain  that  even  such  humble  acquirements  as  reading  and 
writing  were  rare  among  the  masses.  There  is  a  shade  of 
suspicion  that  some  of  the  clergy  could  not  correctly  read, 
and  much  less  write,  though,  as  a  body,  they  were  undoubtedly 
the  best  educated  class  of  the  community.2  The  Reformers 
showed  their  anxiety  to  extend  education,  by  making  that  one 
of  the  great  objects  to  which  they  proposed  the  property  of 
the  Church  should  be  consecrated.  In  the  "  First  Book  of 
Discipline  "  it  was  proposed  that  every  church  should  have  a 
school  attached  to  it  \  that  every  notable  town  should  have  a 
college  \  and  that  the  existing  universities  should  be  liberally 
endowed.  The  greed  of  the  nobles  prevented  the  scheme 
from  being  carried  into  effect,  and  with  them  rests  the  sin  and 

1  James  IV.,  pari.  v.  chap.  liv. 

2  In  the  Records  of  the  Kirk-session  of  St  Andrews,  which  are  coeval 
with  the  t  Reformation,  we  have  ^the  recantation  of  a  great  number  of 
monks  and  others.  Of  the  signatures  attached  to  these  recantations 
some  are  specially  marked  propria  manu,  which  gives  rise  to  the  sus- 
picion that  the  other  names  were  written  by  deputy.  See  Maitland 
Miscellany,  vol.  ii.  One  of  the  proclamations  of  the  Lords  of  the  Con- 
gregation regarding  the  use  of  the  Prayer-Book  of  Edward  VI.,  uses 
Language  which  makes  us  marvel  if  it  were  possible  there  might  be  clerics 
who  could  not  even  read  :  they  speak  of  those  not  qualified  to  read  the 
common  prayers.  The  canons  of  the  Council  of  1559,  already  quoted, 
confirm  the  suspicion. 


A.D.    1633.]  ANCIENT  GRAMMAR  SCHOOLS.  507 

the  shame  of  keeping  Scotland  for  many  years  longer  in  gross 
ignorance. 

The  grammar  schools,  which  had  been  founded  in  papal 
days,  still  remained,  and  gave  a  good  education  to  the  upper 
classes ;  the  universities  struggled  on  amid  many  difficulties  ; 
but  the  readers  seem  to  have  been  the  only  educators  of  the 
rural  districts.  These  humble  but  useful  men  read  the  ap- 
pointed lessons  and  prayers  in  the  church  upon  the  Sunday  ; 
during  the  week,  they  instructed  the  children  of  the  peasantry 
in  the  Catechism  and  the  Bible ;  and  thus  picked  up  such  a 
livelihood  as  they  could.  They  are  the  first  parents  of  our 
parish  schoolmasters.  In  the  "  Diary  "  of  James  Melville,  we 
have  some  most  interesting  notices  of  the  school  of  Montrose, 
in  which  he  was  a  scholar  six  years  after  the  Reformation. 
"  There/'  says  he,  "  was  a  guid  nomber  of  gentle  and  honest 
men's  berns,1  of  the  countrey  about,  weill  treaned2  upe,  bathe 
in  letters,  godliness,  and  exerceise  of  honest  geams.3  There 
we  lerned  to  reid  the  Catechisme,  Prayers,  and  Scripture  ;  to 
rehers  the  Catechisme  and  Prayers  par  cotur ;  also  nottes  of 
Scripture,  efter  the  reiding  therof."  ...  "  We  lerned 
there  the  6  rudiments  of  the  Latin  grammair,'  with  the 
vocables  in  Latin  and  Frenche ;  also  divers  speitches  in 
Frenche,  with  the  reiding  and  right  pronunciation  of  that 
toung.  We  proceidit  fordar  to  the  '  Etymologie '  of  Lilius  and 
his  '  Syntax,'  as  also  a  little  of  the  '  Syntax '  of  Linacer  \  there- 
with was  joyned  Hunters  '  Nomenclatura,'  the  '  Minora  Collo- 
quia '  of  Erasmus,  and  sum  of  the  '  Eclogs '  of  Virgill  and 
'Epistles'  of  Horace;  also  Cicero,  his  '  Epistles  ad  TerentiamJ  " 
It  would  thus  appear  that  boys  had  their  "  rudiments  "  to  learn, 
and  their  "Virgfis"  and  "Ciceros"  to  read,  then  as  now;  no 
advance  whatever  has  been  made  in  grammar  school  educa- 
tion in  these  three  hundred  years.  But  it  is  refreshing  to  know 
that  they  had  their  play  too.  "  Ther  also,"  continues  Melville, 
"  we  haid  the  aire  guid,  and  fields  reasonable  fear  ;4  and  be  our 
maister  war  teached  to  handle  the  bow  for  archerie,  the  glub 
for  goff,  the  batons  for  fencing  ;  also  to  rin,  to  loop,  to  swoum, 
to  warsell,5  to  prove  pratteiks,  everie  ane  haiffing0  his  matche 
and  andagoniste  bathe  in  our  lessons  and  play.  A  happie  and 
a  golden  tyme ! "  says  the  good  man,  as  the  dream  of  his 
school-boy  days  rose  up  before  him.7 


1  Bairns,  children.                         -  Well  trained. 

::  Games. 

4  Fair.                      5  To  run,  leap,  swim,  wrestle. 

6  Having 

7  Melville's  Diary,  p.  14. 

508  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  xvi. 

It  would  appear  that  music  had  been  much  cultivated  up  to 
this  period,  though  now  it  was  beginning  to  fall  into  neglect ; 
but  still  there  were  many  "  sang  schoolis  n  scattered  over  the 
country.  That  the  first  reformers  were  anxious  to  encourage 
sacred  music  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  first  editions  of 
the  Scottish  Liturgy  have  the  Psalm-tunes  then  sung  attached 
to  the  Psalms,  and  curiously  reversed,  on  the  opposite  pages, 
so  that  two  persons  standing  opposite  to  each  other  might 
sing  from  the  same  book.  In  the  year  1579,  King  James  had 
an  act  passed  for  instructing  the  youth  in  the  art  of  singing 
and  music,  "  quhilk  is  like  to  fall  in  great  decay,  without  timous 
remeid  be  provided."  "  Our  sovereign  lord,  therefore,  with 
advice  of  his  Three  Estates  of  this  present  parliament,  requests 
the  provosts,  bailies,  councils,  and  communities  of  the  most 
special  burghs  of  the  realm,  and  the  patrons  and  provosts  of 
the  colleges  where  l  sang  schools '  are  founded,  to  erect  and  set 
up  a  sang  school,  with  a  master  sufficient  and  able  for  the  in- 
struction of  the  youth  in  the  said  science  of  music,  as  they 
will  answer  to  his  Highness  upon  the  peril  of  their  foun- 
dations/' 1  About  the  same  date,  we  have,  in  the  "  Burgh 
Records  of  Glasgow,"  an  entry  for  the  rent  of  a  room  used  as 
a  "  sang  school ;" 2  and  in  other  documents  of  that  time,  we 
have  several  scattered  notices  of  a  similar  kind. 

James  Melville  was  something  of  a  musician,  and  tells  us 
that  he  acquired  his  knowledge  of  it  at  St  Andrews  from  a 
man  who  had  been  trained  up  among  the  monks  in  the 
abbey ;  that  he  learned  from  him  the  gammot,  plain  song 
and  treble  of  the  Psalms ;  that  he  loved  singing  and  playing 
on  instruments  passing  well ;  that  he  delighted  to  be  present 
at  the  performances  in  the  college ;  that  some  of  his  fellow- 
students  played  "  fell  weell "  on  the  virginals,  and  others  on 
the  lute  and  githorn ;  and  that  the  regent  had  a  spinet  in  his 
room,  to  which  he  sometimes  resorted,  and  played  an  accom- 
paniment.3 It  was  the  Church  that  had  fostered  this  pleasing 
art  \  and  the  daily  cathedral  service,  the  solemn  chanting  of 
the  monks  in  their  conventual  buildings,  and  the  way  in  which 
the  Roman  ritual  had  so  beautifully  blended  music  with  almost 
every  act  of  religious  worship,  diffused  a  love  of  it  among  the 

1  James  VI.,  pari.  vi.  chap,  xcviii. 

2  Burgh  Records  of  Glasgow,  published  in  the  Appendix  to  Papers 
Illustrative  of  Queen  Mary  and  King  James,  Maitland  Club.  "  1578.— 
For  male  ofane  chalmer  to  be  ane  sang  schole." 


Diary,  p.  23. 


A.D.    1633.]  PARISH  SCHOOLS.  509 

people.  It  is  probable  that  some  of  those  touchingly  simple 
Scottish  airs,  of  unknown  antiquity,  which  give  such  perfect 
utterance  to  the  finest  feelings  of  the  Scottish  heart,  may  first 
have  been  sung  by  young  men  and  maidens  who  learned  from 
monks  the  concord  of  sweet  sounds.  After  the  Reformation 
music  decayed,  though  it  had  still  its  votaries,  as  it  will  have 
in  all  ages. 

When  we  reach  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
we  find  that  the  Presbyterian  clergy  had  done  much  for  the 
establishment  of  schools,  considering  that  they  were  without 
the  means  of  endowing  them.  Thus,  it  appears  from  the 
report  of  a  visitation  of  a  number  of  parishes  in  the  Diocese 
of  St  Andrews,  in  the  years  1611  and  16 13,  that  considerably 
more  than  one-half  of  these  were  blessed  with  schools. 

The  parliament  had  confided  to  the  Church  the  superin- 
tendence of  schools,  though  it  had  denied  it  the  means  of 
endowing  them ;  and,  in  the  records  of  the  Church  Courts, 
there  is  evidence  that  the  duty  was  not  neglected.  At  the 
visitation  of  parishes  by  the  presbyteries  and  provincial  synods, 
the  state  of  education  was  inquired  into ;  the  qualifications  of 
the  teachers  were  tried ;  and  where  there  was  no  school,  steps 
were  sometimes  taken  for  establishing  one.  The  presbytery 
did  not  hesitate  to  tax  every  plough  of  land  for  the  support  of 
the  schoolmaster.  The  kirk-session  of  Anstruther-Wester 
went  farther,  and  made  an  order  for  every  child  in  the  town 
to  attend  school :  if  the  rich  refused,  they  were  to  be  called 
before  the  session  ;  if  the  poor  refused,  they  were  to  be  denied 
any  charity.  It  was  still  further  considerately  provided,  that 
the  children  of  the  poor  were  to  be  educated  at  the  expense 
of  the  town,  and  that  three  hours  every  day  were  to  be  allowed 
them  to  go  about  and  beg  for  their  food — a  circumstance 
which  reminds  us  of  the  schoolboy  days  of  Martin  Luther.1 

At  length  in  16 16  the  Privy  Council  put  forth  its  authority 
to  confer  upon  the  country  the  blessing  of  education,  and  by 
an  act  declared,  "  That  in  every  parish  in  this  kingdom,  where 
convenient  means  may  be  had  for  entertaining  a  school,  a 
school  shall  be  established,  and  a  fit  person  appointed  to 
teach  the  same,  upon  the  expense  of  the  parishioners,  accord- 
ing to  the  quality  and  quantity  of  the  parish  ; "  that  this  was 
to  be  done  at  the  sight  and  by  the  advice  of  the  bishops  ;  and. 
accordingly,  "  that  they  and  every  one  of  them  deal  and  travel 
with  the  parishioners  of  the  particular  parishes  within  their 
1  Appendix  to  Dr  M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville. 


510  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XVI. 

particular  dioceses,  to  condescend  and  agree  upon  some 
certain,  solid,  and  sure  course  how  and  by  what  means  the 
said  school  might  be  entertained." 

The  act  of  the  Council  does  not  seem  to  have  been  rigo- 
rously followed  up  by  the  bishops ;  for  ten  years  afterwards 
a  proclamation  was  made,  ordering  all  ministers,  with  the 
assistance  of  two  or  three  of  their  most  intelligent  parish- 
ioners, to  report  as  to  the  state  of  their  parishes ; 1  and  from 
the  returns  which  have  been  preserved,  and  are  now  pub- 
lished by  the  Maitland  Club,  the  condition  of  education 
appears  in  a  worse  light  than  in  the  documents  to  which  we 
have  already  referred.  The  great  majority  of  the  parishes  are 
reported  as  having  no  school.  In  many  cases  "  the  most 
intelligent  parishioners  "  chosen  to  assist  the  minister  in  making 
his  report  were  unable  to  sign  their  names  ;  and  of  one  parish 
the  significant  report  is — "  There  is  ane  greit  necissatie  for  ane 
skule,  for  not  ane  of  the  paroche  can  reid  nor  wryt  except  the 
minister." 2  Such  is  the  dark  picture  of  the  state  of  education 
in  Scotland  little  more  than  two  hundred  years  ago ;  but  the 
parliament  of  1633  ratified  the  Act  of  Council  of  16 16 ;  the 
clergy  followed  it  up  ;  schools  began  to  be  built  and  endowed, 
and  the  people  to  grow  in  intelligence ;  but  it  was  not  till  after 
the  Revolution  of  1688  that  the  proprietors  of  every  parish 
were  compelled  to  furnish  the  means  of  education  to  every 
child. 

Having  thus  wandered  twice  from  the  straight  path  of  our 
history,  we  must  now  return  to  it. 

The  excitement  caused  by  the  visit  of  the  king,  and  the 
meeting  of  the  parliament,  had  long  ago  subsided;  Lord 
Balmerino  had  been  tried,  condemned,  reprieved,  and  the 
public  sympathy  had  accordingly  abated.  There  was  still 
the  deep  grudge  in  the  minds  of  many  of  the  nobles  at  being 
compelled  to  surrender  their  teinds,  and  a  degree  of  irrita- 
tion kept  up  among  the  Presbyterian  ministers  by  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Court  of  Commission,  but  the  country  was 
marvellously  quiet.  During  the  year  1634,  several  of  the 
bishops  were  made  Judges  in  the  Court  of  Exchequer,  and 
Privy  Councillors;  at  the  same  time  many  of  the  inferior 
clergy  received  commissions  to  act  with  the  gentry  as  justices 
of  the  peace ;  and,  upon  the  death  of  the  Earl  of  Kinnoull, 

1  This  is  noticed  by  Row  in  his  History,  p.  343. 

2  Reports  of  the  State  of  certain  Parishes  in  Scotland,  1627,  Maitland 
Club. 


a.d.   1635.]  SCOTTISH  LITURGY.  5  1 1 

in  the  beginning  of  1635,  the  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  was 
raised  to  the  high  office  of  Chancellor  of  the  Kingdom  1 — a 
dignity  which  had  very  generally  been  held  by  ecclesiastics  in 
Roman  Catholic  times,  but  which,  since  the  Reformation,  had 
been  always  held  and  eagerly  coveted  by  the  greatest  nobles. 
These  haughty  peers  had,  for  the  last  seventy  years,  been 
accustomed  to  look  down  upon  the  ministers  of  religion  as  a 
race  of  men  very  inferior  to  themselves,  and  now  they  could 
ill  brook  to  see  them  placed  by  their  side,  or  even  over  their 
head.  In  the  meantime,  however,  they  were  obliged  to  bear  the 
affront  with  wThat  patience  they  could. 

We  now  approach  the  most  exciting  period  of  Scotch 
history.  Long  ago,  James  VI.,  in  his  burning  desire  to  have 
uniformity  of  worship  throughout  the  kingdom,  had  resolved 
to  introduce  into  Scotland  the  Anglican  Liturgy,  or  one  like 
unto  it.  At  his  royal  request,  the  Assembly  of  161 7  had 
agreed  that  a  liturgy  should  be  prepared  ;  but  he  afterwards 
found  that  he  had  quite  enough  to  do  in  compelling  obedience 
to  the  Articles  of  Perth,  and  the  liturgy  was  allowed  to  drop. 
Charles,  however,  inherited  his  father's  resolve  to  have  religious 
uniformity,  and  wrhen  he  came  to  Scotland,  the  question  of  the 
liturgy  wras  revived.  It  was  understood  that  Laud  had  accom- 
panied him  for  the  special  purpose  of  helping  him  in  the  work. 
When  the  matter  was  talked  over  with  the  bishops  and  Angli- 
cising clergy,  some  urged  the  introduction  of  the  Anglican 
liturgic  forms  while  the  king  was  in  the  country,  but  Charles 
does  not  seem  to  have  thought  that  the  fulness  of  the  time  was 
come,  and  so  the  Church  was  allowed  to  enjoy  its  own  ritual 
a  little  longer.  One  of  the  reasons  for  delay  was  this.  It  was 
stated  that  Scotland  wras  sensitively  afraid  of  sinking  into  a 
mere  English  province ;  that  the  imposition  of  the  English 
liturgy  would  give  strength  to  this  feeling ;  and  that  it  would 
be  more  flattering  to  the  national  vanity  to  have  a  liturgy  of 
native  growth.  In  compliance  with  these  views,  a  commission 
was  given  to  the  Scotch  bishops  to  prepare  a  liturgy  as  near  as 
might  be  to  the  Anglican  one.2 

It  has  too  often  been  supposed  that  Scotland  at  this  period 
had  no  liturgy  of  her  own,  and  that  the  Scottish  clergy  and 
people  were  opposed  to  all  liturgical  forms  whatever.  This  is 
a  mistake.  Scotland  had  never  been  without  a  "  Book  of 
Common  Prayer.''     Even  before  the  Reformation  was  estab- 

1  Row,  Balfour,  Guthrie. 

a  Clarendon's  History,  vol.  i.  pp.  65,  66. 


5 12  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XVL 

lished  by  law,  the  "  Service  Book  "  of  Edward  VI.  was  used  in 
many  of  the  parishes  where  Reformation  principles  prevailed. 
After  Protestantism  became  the  creed  of  the  nation,  the 
"  Book  of  Common  Order/'  prepared  by  Knox  for  the  English 
congregation  at  Geneva,  came  into  use,  was  sanctioned  by 
several  Assemblies,  and  continued  the  authorised  form  of 
worship  up  to  the  time  we  speak  of.  In  1601  the  Assembly 
of  Burntisland  showed  its  veneration  for  the  prayers  by  refus- 
ing to  allow  them  to  be  altered.  In  1605  Robert  Bruce,  the 
exile  from  Edinburgh  for  his  high  Presbyterianism,  was  accus- 
tomed to  read  them  every  other  night  to  the  little  flock  which 
had  gathered  around  him  at  Inverness.1  The  Assembly 
of  16 1 6  appointed  a  committee  to  revise  the  Prayer  Book  and 
bring  it  into  harmony  with  royal  and  Episcopal  views.2  In 
1620  Scrymgeour,  when  summoned  before  the  Court  of  High 
Commission  for  not  observing  the  Articles  of  Perth,  pleaded 
that  there  was  "  no  warrantable  form  directed  or  appro ven  by 
the  Kirk,  besides  that  which  is  extant  in  print,  before  the 
Psalm  Book  (Knox's  liturgy)/according  to  which,"  said  he  "as 
I  have  always  done,  so  now  I  minister  the  sacrament."3  On 
the  very  day  on  which  the  riot  took  place  on  account  of  the 
introduction  of  the  new  liturgy,  the  lessons  from  the  old 
liturgy  had  already  been  read  in  the  Church  of  St  Gile's  ;4  and 
Bishop  Sage  affirms  that  there  were  many  old  people  alive 
even  in  his  day,  who  remembered  to  have  seen  it  used  after  the 
civil  wars,  both  by  Prelatists  and  Presbyterians.5  It  was  not 
till  the  Westminster  Assembly  met,  and  the  "  Directory  for 
Public  Worship  "  was  adopted,  that  the  Church  of  Scotland 
discarded  a  liturgy,  and  even  then  it  was  never  formally  repu- 
diated or  repealed  ;  it  was  quietly  allowed  to  drop  into  disuse.6 
But  as  many  clergymen  do  not  follow  the  "  Directory  for 
Public  Worship  "  now,  it  is  probable  that  many  did  not  follow 
the  Genevese  forms  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century.     The  rubric  gave  ministers  the  liberty  of  deviating 

1  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vi.  pp.  291,  292. 

2  There  is  a  MS.  Liturgy  in  the  British  Museum,  which  Mr  Burton  sup- 
poses to  be  identical  with  the  one  which  emanated  from  that  committee. 
History,  vol.  vi. 

3  Calderwood's  History,  vol.  vii.  p.  421. 

4  Row's  History,  p.  408. 

5  Sage's  Charter  of  Presbytery,  p.  352. 

8  Wodrow,  in  his  Correspondence,  mentions  that  C  alder  wood  recom- 
mended that  the  Assembly  should  not  discard  the  liturgy,  but  allow  it  to 
fall  into  disuse.     There  is  no  act  of  Assembly  repudiating  it. 


A.D.  1636.]  BOOK  OF  CANONS.  513 

from  the  set  forms  \  and  as  extemporaneous  prayer  was  becom- 
ing more  and  more  prized,  it  is  likely  that  the  rubrical  license- 
was  largely  taken  advantage  of.  It  is  impossible  to  determine 
how  far  the  "  Common  Order  "  was  attended  to,  and  how  far 
it  was  set  aside  ;  but  it  is  probable  it  was  used  by  all  the 
readers  and  a  majority  of  the  ministers,  while  by  others  it  was 
either  entirely  repudiated,  or  at  most  very  slightingly  observed. 
In  the  year  1636,  the  "  Canons  and  Constitutions  Ecclesi- 
astical for  the  Government  of  the  Church  of  Scotland " 
appeared.1  They  were  published  by  authority,  and  an  instru- 
ment was  issued  under  the  Great  Seal,  in  which  it  was  declared 
that  his  Majesty  ratified  the  said  Canons  and  Constitutions, 
and  commanded  all  invested  with  ecclesiastical  authority  to  see 
them  observed.  In  a  short  time  copies  of  the  book  were  in 
the  hands  of  most  of  the  ministers,  and  loud  murmurs  began 
to  be  heard,  that  rules  so  subversive  of  their  discipline,  so  re- 
pugnant to  their  belief,  should  be  imposed  upon  them  by  the 
king  alone,  without  the  interposition  of  any  ecclesiastical  court. 
It  was,  indeed,  pretended  that  the  Canons  were  but  an  epitome 
of  the  acts  of  the  Assembly  f  but  this  was  a  mockery  :  it  can 
scarcely  be  called  a  delusion  and  a  snare,  for  no  person  could 
be  deceived  by  it,  so  unlike  were  the  one  to  the  other.  It  was 
the  decalogue  with  the  negative  struck  out  \  the  creed  with  a 
negative  put  in.  A  font  for  baptism  was  to  be  provided,  and 
placed  near  the  door  of  the  church,  as  in  Papal  times ;  a  table 
for  the  administration  of  the  eucharist  was  to  be  placed  in  the 
upper  end  of  the  chancel,  and  covered  with  an  embroidered 
cloth,  except  when  the  sacrament  was  to  be  dispensed ;  the 
consecrated  elements  were  to  be  carefully  handled,  and  what 
remained  was  to  be  eaten  by  the  poor  before  leaving  the 
church ;  all  private  religious  meetings  were  forbidden,  as  un- 
lawful conventicles;  assemblies,  synods,  presbyteries,  kirk- 
sessions,  and  elders  were  ignored,  and  the  parish  alms  were  to 

1  "Canons  and  Constitutions  Ecclesiastical  ;  gathered  and  put  in  forme 
for  the  Government  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Ratified  and  approved  by 
his  Majesty's  Royall  Warrand,  and  ordained  to  be  observed  by  the  Clergie, 
and  all  others  whom  they  may  concern.  Published  by  authoritie.  Aber- 
clene.  Imprinted  by  Edward  Raban,  dwelling  upon  the  Market  Place  at 
the  Arms  of  the  Citie.      1636.      With  Royall  Priviledge." 

-  The  way  had  been  paved  for  this  high  stretch  of  royal  prerogative  by 
an  Act  of  the  Assembly  of  1616  to  form  a  collection  of  "  Ecclesiastical 
Canons,  drawn  forth  of  the  Rooks  of  the  former  Assemblies,  and  where 
the  same  is  defective,  to  supply  it  by  Canons  of  Councils  and  Ecclesi- 
astical Conventions  in  former  times."     Scott's  Apologetic  Narration,   p. 

243- 

VOL.   I.  2  K 


514  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XVI. 

be  distributed  by  six  respectable  men ;  ordinations  were  to 
take  place  only  at  the  four  sacred  seasons,  the  two  solstices 
and  the  two  equinoxes  ;  the  preaching  deacon  was  to  be  intro- 
duced, an  office  hitherto  unknown  in  the  Church  ;  no  presby- 
ter was  to  reveal  anything  told  him  in  confession,  unless  it 
endangered  his  life )  no  presbyter  was  to  be  security  for  any 
one  in  pecuniary  matters ;  no  court  was  to  be  held,  or  excom- 
munication pronounced,  or  absolution  given,  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  bishop ;  every  ecclesiastical  person  dying  without 
children  was  to  leave  his  estate  to  pious  uses ;  those  who  had 
children  were  to  leave  something,  to  show  their  affection  to  the 
Church  )  every  parish  was  to  provide  for  itself  a  Bible  of  King 
James'  version  and  a  prayer  book ;  and  every  clergyman  must 
use  this  Service  Book,  and  refrain  from  extemporaneous  prayer, 
as  he  would  avoid  deprivation. 

The  "  Book  of  Canons "  was  followed  by  the  "  Book  of 
Common  Prayer."  This  famous  liturgy,  now  generally  known 
as  "  Laud's  Liturgy,"  is  supposed  to  have  been  prepared  by 
Maxwell,  Bishop  of  Ross,  and  Wedderburn,  Bishop  of  Dun- 
blane, and  then  submitted  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
for  revisal.  It  is  a  copy  of  the  English  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  with  a  few  alterations,  which  increase  its  similitude  to 
the  Roman  missal.  Some  of  these  were  introduced  by  the 
Scotch  bishops,  but  the  most  offensive  ones  were  the  handi- 
work of  Laud.1  All  things  being  thus  ready,  proclamation 
was  made  at  the  market-cross  of  every  burgh,  charging  all 
men,  under  pain  of  horning,  to  conform  themselves  to  the  new 
form  of  worship,  commanding  all  bishops  and  presbyters  to 
see  that  this  was  observed,  and  that  every  parish  procured  for 
its  use  at  least  two  copies  of  the  Prayer-Book.2 

The  whole  country  was  instantly  in  a  ferment.  The  people 
had  bowed  their  necks  and  sacrificed  their  feelings  more  than 
once  to  the  royal  prerogative,  but  they  would  do  it  no  more. 
They  declared  that  the  king  had  no  right  to  impose  a  liturgy 

1  Stevenson,  vol.  i.  p.  154.  Kirkton  says  that  lie  saw  the  original,  with 
the  corrections  in  the  handwriting  of  Laud,  and  that  they  were  all  toward 
Popery,  bringing  the  Prayer-Book  as  near  to  the  Missal  as  English  could 
he  to  Latin.  (History,  p.  30).  Mr  Burton  discusses  at  great  length, 
and  with  much  learning,  the  respective  parts  which  these  prelates  had  in 
the  book.  Laud,  when  in  trouble,  protested  that  he  wished  the  Scots 
simply  to  accept  the  English  Prayer-Book,  but  that  national  jealousy  pre 
vented  this,  and  hence  the  changes.     (See  Burton's  History,  vol.  vi.) 

2  Balfour's  Annals,  vol.  ii,  pp.  224,  225.  Stevenson's  History,  vol.  i. 
PP-  *73>  J74-     A  copy  of  the  charge  prefaced  the  book. 


A.D.  1637.]  1300K  OF  COMMON   PRAYER.  5  I  5 

upon  the  nation  without  the  consent  of  the  parliament,  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  Assembly  of  the  Church.  They  de- 
clared that  the  Service-Book  was  Popish — that  it  taught  bap- 
tismal regeneration,  transubstantiation,  the  oblation  of  the 
consecrated  elements,  and  was  little  better  than  a  mass- 
book.  1 

It  is  probable  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  clergy  would 
have  accepted  the  Service-Book.  Episcopacy  had  now  existed 
for  more  than  thirty  years.  Almost  all  the  existing  incum- 
bents had  grown  up  under  its  shadow — they  had  received 
their  ordination  from  Episcopal  hands  ;  they  had  vowed 
obedience  to  Episcopal  authority,  and  must  have  been  inocu- 
lated, less  or  more,  with  Episcopal  notions.  But  the  laity 
almost  as  one  man  cried  out  against  the  book.*2  All  ranks 
were  agreed  in  this.  Letters  from  noblemen  of  the  highest 
standing  poured  in  upon  the  Lords  of  the  Privy  Council, 
warning  them  to  beware  of  what  they  did  ;  and  the  murmurs 
of  the  yeomen  and  burghers  were  loud  enough  to  be  heard  and 
understood. 

fi  It  had  been  proposed  that  the  Service-Book 

should  begin  to  be  used  at  Easter  1637;  but 
such  was  the  state  of  the  nation  that  the  Privy  Council  took 
alarm,  and  wished  for  delay.  The  bench  of  bishops  was 
divided.  The  older  bishops,  with  Spottiswood  at  their  head 
— a  man  wary,  wise  in  his  generation,  and  mindful  of  the 
Perth  Assembly — were  for  putting  off  the  evil  day  ;  the  younger 
bishops,  anxious  to  ingratiate  themselves  with  Laud,  and  igno- 
rant of  the  temper  of  the  people,  saw  nothing  to  dread,  and 
were  for  instant  obedience.  Easter  passed,  and  in  only  two 
or  three  churches  was  the  liturgy  read.  The  Bishops  of  Ross, 
Dunblane,  and  Brechin  led  the  van.  Some  ministers  had 
thoughts  of  beginning  to  read  the  liturgy  with  closed  doors.' 

1  That  these  were  the  chief  arguments  used  against  the  Prayer-Book  is 
abundantly  plain  from  the  tenor  of  the  numerous  petitions  and  complaints 
against  it,  and  also  from  Row's  long  argument  on  the  subject.  (History, 
pp.  398-406.)  The  chief  complaints  were  that  it  was  Popish,  and  that  it 
was  unwarrantably  brought  in. 

2  Stevenson  (vol.  i.  p.  169)  expressly  allows  this  ;  and  the  same  thing  is 
made  more  apparent  by  the  fact  that  only  one  of  the  Edinburgh  ministers 
at  first  refused  to  read  the  liturgy.  This  was  Ramsay.  He  was  after- 
wards joined  by  Rollock,  neither  of  whom  read  the  order  respecting  the  use 
of  the  Prayer-Book.  (See  Stevenson,  vol.  i.  p.  181.)  The  extreme 
anxiety  of  the  king  to  exclude  as  much  as  possible  lay  influence  from  the 
Assembly  of  1638  is  another  proof  of  the  same  fact. 

3  Lord  Rothes'  Relation,  pp.  3,  4. 


5*6  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.   xvi. 

The  summer  wore  on,  and  still  nothing  was  done.  At  length 
the  fears  of  Spottiswood  were  overcome  by  some  motive  not 
very  well  understood  :  some  say  it  was  a  selfish  one  ;  others 
say  it  was  pure  infatuation,1  for  the  pulse  of  the  nation  now 
indicated  a  state  of  excitement  bordering  upon  madness  ;  yet 
he  not  only  give  way,  but  obtained  a  positive  order  from  court 
to  begin  the  use  of  the  liturgy  without  delay. 

On  Sunday,  the  16th  of  July,  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh 
were  required  to  read  the  order  respecting  the  introduction  of 
the  Prayer-Book  on  the  succeeding  Sunday.  Some  refused  to 
do  it ;  some  would  not  do  it  themselves,  but  left  it  to  their 
readers  to  do.  Some  read  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  it  was 
an  unwelcome  task  ;  some  not  only  read  it,  but  took  the  oppor- 
tunity of  extolling  the  liturgy,  which  in  future  was  to  be  the 
guide  of  their  devotions.2  The  people  in  general  heard  the 
intimation  with  respectful  silence  ;  there  was  not  the  slightest 
disturbance  in  any  of  the  churches. 

Sunday,  the  23d  of  July,  came.  At  the  morning  service,  in 
the  Middle  Church  of  St  Gile's,  the  prayers  from  the  Book  of 
Common  Order  were  read  as  usual  by  the  reader.  At  the 
forenoon  service  a  larger  congregation  than  usual  assembled, 
but  it  had  not  the  quiet  aspect  of  an  assembly  met  for  religious 
worship  1  there  was  a  restless  excitement  in  every  eye.  The 
Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  was  present  to  grace  the  occasion  ; 
and  it  was  known  that  Lindsay,  the  Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  was 
to  preach.  About  ten  o'clock  the  dean,  arrayed  in  a  white 
surplice,  entered  the  reading-desk,  and  began  to  read  the  ser- 
vice for  the  day  from  the  new  Prayer-Book.  Instantly  a  con- 
fused murmur  crept  over  the  congregation  ;  gradually  the 
sound  became  more  articulate ;  the  people  got  to  their  feet, 
and  the  whole  church  was  a  scene  of  uproar  and  confusion. 
The  voices  of  the  women  were  loudest.  Some  cried,  "  Woe  ! 
woe  ! "  others,  "  Sorrow  !  sorrow !  for  this  doleful  day  that 
they  are  bringing  in  Popery  amongst  us  ! ■'  The  bishop  went 
to  the  pulpit  to  appease  the  people,  but  it  was  in  vain  ;  he 
could  not  be  heard.  The  uproar  became  worse,  and  an  old 
woman  threw  the  stool  upon  which  she  sat  at  the  head  of  the 
dean.  Another  cried,  "  Will  ye  say  mass  at  my  lug  ?  "  The 
magistrates  now  interfered,  and  with  some  difficulty  managed 
to  clear  the  church  of  the  rioters,  and  the  service  was  con- 
tinued with  closed  doors.     But  the  crowd  still  remained  out- 

1  Stevenson,  vol.  i-  pp.  179,   1S0.     Guthrie,  p.  18. 

2  Row's  History,  p.  408. 


A.D.  1637.]  TUMULT  IN  ST  GILE'S.  5  1  7 

side.  They  knocked  at  the  doors,  they  threw  stones  in  at  the 
windows,  they  shouted  "  Popery,  Popery  ! "  and  called  the 
bishops  by  every  opprobrious  name.  When  the  bishop  came 
out  of  the  church,  he  was  hooted  and  hustled  by  the  rabble, 
and  only  rescued  from  their  hands  by  the  servants  of  the  Karl 
of  Wemyss.  In  the  afternoon  the  service  was  again  attempted, 
but  on  this  occasion  the  magistrates  had  stationed  themselves 
at  the  doors,  and  allowed  none  to  enter  but  such  as  were 
likely  to  be  quiet.  But  the  crowd  were  still  prowling  about 
the  street  in  a  humour  for  mischief;  and  when  the  bishop 
came  out  of  the  church  and  got  into  the  coach  of  the  Earl  of 
Roxburgh  to  be  driven  to  the  abbey,  he  was  followed  by  the 
mob  in  full  cry.  The  Tron  Church  was  then  building,  and 
supplied  abundant  material  for  pelting  the  obnoxious  prelate, 
who  escaped  only  by  the  speed  of  the  earl's  horses,  and  the 
drawn  swords  of  his  footmen.1 

A  similar  scene,  though  not  quite  so  violent,  had  occurred 
at  the  Greyfriars,  where  the  Bishop  Elect  of  Argyll  officiated. 
It  is  certain  that  these  riots  were  confined  to  the  lowest 
orders  of  the  populace,  and,  singularly  enough,  chiefly  to  the 
women.  The  magistrates  of  Edinburgh  declared  this,  after 
making  inquiry,  and  almost  all  historians  say  the  same  thing. 
It  is  also  certain,  however,  that  the  upper  and  middle 
classes  sympathised  with  them,  and  were  at  that  very  moment 
forming  their  plans  for  obtaining  the  same  object,  though  by 
more  constitutional  means  ;  but  there  is  no  reason  to  think 
that  they  had  hounded  on  the  mob  to  do  as  they  did.2  It 
was  not  necessary.  Such  outbursts  of  popular  fury  generally 
originate  with  the  rabble,  who  cannot  understand  the  pro- 
priety of  petitioning,  and  instinctively  resort  to  violence. 
The  lowest  classes  in  the  State  approximate  nearest  to  that 
condition  of  society  where  might  is  the  only  vindicator  of 
right.     The  court  and  Episcopal  party  of  course  cried  out 

1  I  have  drawn  this  description  from  the  accounts  given  in  the  Large  De- 
claration, pp.  23-26  ;  Guthrie's  Memoirs,  p.  20  ;  Row's  History,  pp.  40S, 
409;  Baillie's  Letters  and  Journal,  p.  18;  Crawford's  Lives,  p.  181  ; 
Clarendon's  History,  pp.  87,  88  ;  Gordon's  History,  &c.  The  collect  for 
the  day  (the  seventh  Sunday  after  Trinity)  is,  "  Lord  of  all  power  and 
might,  who  art  the  author  and  giver  of  all  good  things,  graft  in  our  hearts 
the  love  of  Thy  name,  increase  in  us  true  religion,  nourish  us  with  all 
goodness,  and  of  Thy  great  mercy  keep  us  in  the  same,  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.     Amen." 

2  Guthrie  alone  (p.  23)  affirms  that  Alexander  Henderson,  David  Dick- 
son, Lord  Balmerino,  and  the  Lord  Advocate,  concocted  the  whole  affair 
with  some  Edinburgh  matrons. 


5 18  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.   xvi. 

against  the  sacrilege  which  had  been  committed — the  dese- 
cration of  God's  house  and  God's  service  ;  and  even  some  of 
the  more  moderate  Presbyterians  regretted  that  things  had 
taken  such  a  turn  ;  but  Dr  Cook's  apology  is  a  good  one — 
the  people  were  really  "  contributing,"  says  he,  "  to  purify 
those  temples  which  apparently  they  profaned."  1 

The  bishops  instantly  sent  to  London  an  account  of  what 
had  happened.  Lord  Clarendon  contemptuously  declares 
that,  up  to  the  time  when  this  despatch  arrived,  "  there  was 
so  little  curiosity  either  in  the  court  or  the  country  to 
know  anything  of  Scotland,  or  what  was  done  there,  that 
when  the  whole  nation  was  solicitous  to  know  what  passed 
weekly  in  Germany  and  Poland,  and  all  other  parts  of 
Europe,  no  man  ever  inquired  what  was  doing  in  Scotland, 
nor  had  that  kingdom  a  place  or  mention  in  one  page  of  any 
gazette."2  This  obscure  comer  of  the  empire  was  now 
destined  to  rise  into  notice,  and  to  make  the  courtiers  of  St 
James's  know  that  there  was  a  nation  existing  north  of  the 
Tweed.  Upon  the  30th  of  July,  Charles  wrote  to  the  Privy 
Council,  instructing  them  to  use  their  best  endeavours  to  dis- 
cover the  rioters,  and  to  give  their  help  to  the  clergy  in  estab- 
lishing the  use  of  the  liturgy.3 

The  Privy  Council  had  at  first  resolved  to  persevere  in  the 
use  of  the  Prayer-Book,  and  in  this  they  were  seconded  by 
the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh  ;  and  by  tuck  of  drum  the 
people  were  enjoined  to  quietness.4  But  they  would  not  be 
quiet,  and  the  whole  country  continued  in  such  an  excited 
state,  that  the  Council  resolved  to  discontinue  the  use  of  the 
obnoxious  liturgy  till  the  king's  pleasure  was  known  ;  and 
that  the  people  might  not  be  deprived  altogether  of  religious 
ordinances,  it  was  agreed  that  sermons  should  be  preached 
and  prayers  offered  at  the  usual  times,  but  that  neither  the 
old  nor  the  new  Service-Books  should  be  employed.5  The 
week-day  meetings,  however,  were  discontinued,  at  which  the 
reader  was  accustomed  to  read  the  appointed  prayers,  so  that 
Baillie  declares  Edinburgh  looked  like  a  town  placed  under 
an  ecclesiastical  interdict.6  The  king  disliked  the  old  Prayer- 
Book,  the  people  disliked  the  new,  and  the  consequence  of 

1  History,  vol.  ii.  2  History  of  the  Rebellion,  p.  88. 

:}  Privy  Council  Record,  4th  August   1637.     Peterkin's  Records  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  p.  52. 

4  Privy  Council  Record,  28th  July  1637.     Peterkin,  pp.  51,  52. 

5  privy  Council  Record,  29th  July  1637.     Peterkin,  p.  52. 
,;  Letters  and  journals. 


a.d.  1637.]  ALEXANDER  HENDERSON.  5  19 

the  quarrel  has  been  to  deprive  Scotland  of  a  Prayer-Book 
altogether. 

On  the  13th  of  July,  proceedings  had  been  commenced 
against  Alexander  Henderson,  minister  of  Leuchars,  and 
several  other  clergymen,  for  not  having  given  obedience  to 
the  Privy  Council's  proclamation  in  regard  to  the  liturgy. 
On  the  20th  of  August  they  presented  bills  of  suspension,  on 
the  ground  that  the  recent  innovations  were  illegal,  being 
sanctioned  neither  by  the  parliament  nor  the  General 
Assembly.  It  was  difficult  for  the  Council  to  answer  such 
an  argument,  without  making  statements  subversive  of  the 
constitution  of  the  kingdom  ;  and  therefore,  avoiding  the 
general  question,  they  simply  found  that  their  proclamation 
extended  only  to  the  purchase  of  the  Prayer- Book,  and  no 
farther.1  It  was  compulsory,  they  said,  to  buy  the  book, 
but  not  to  use  it.  At  the  same  time  they  wrote  to  the  king 
that  matters  had  now  come  to  such  a  pass,  that  they  were 
unwilling  to  do  anything  without  his  express  commands  ;2 
and  delayed  any  farther  answer  to  the  petitions  which  had 
been  presented  to  them  till  the  20th  of  September,  by  which 
time  it  was  hoped  that  the  king's  pleasure  would  be  known. 

Cowardice  was  not  among  the  faults  of  the  king,  and  there- 
fore he  did  not  hesitate  as  to  the  course  he  should  pursue. 
With  the  advice  of  Laud,  he  wrote  a  sharp  letter  to  the 
Scottish  Council,  rebuking  them  for  having  suspended  for  a 
day  the  use  of  the  service,  and  commanding  them  instantly  to 
resume  it.3  This  royal  resolution  became  known  before  the 
Council  met,  and  the  four  or  five  ministers  who  had  hitherto 
borne  the  brunt  of  the  battle  were  instantly  joined  by  twenty- 
four  nobles,  a  multitude  of  the  gentry,  sixty-six  commission- 
ers from  towns  and  parishes,  and  nearly  one  hundred  of  the 
clergy,  who,  on  the  20th  of  September,  marched  in  a  body 
to  the  council-house,  to  present  the  petitions  against  the 
liturgy  which  had  been  poured  in  from  every  part  of  the 
kingdom.4  The  Council  was  in  a  strait  betwixt  the  impera- 
tive commands  of  the  king  and  the  threatening  aspect  of  the 
people  ;  but  popular  clamour  prevailed  against  despotic 
power,  and  they  determined  still  to  let  the  liturgy  alone. 
They  delayed  giving  any  answer  to  the  petitions  they  had 

1  Balfour's  Annals,  vol.  ii.  pp.  227-29.     Peterkin,  p.  53.  -  Ibid. 

3  Letter,  King  to  the  Privy  Council,  10th  Sept.  1637.  Balfour,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  232,  233.      Peterkin,  p.  54. 

4  Peterkin,  Introduction,  p.  7. 


520  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XVI. 

received  till  the  20th  of  October,  and  commissioned  the  Duke 
of  Lennox,  who  was  about  to  start  for  England,  to  lay  the  true 
state  of  matters  before  the  king.1 

In  the  meantime  the  country  was  actively  canvassed,  and 
petitions  were  getting  ready  from  almost  every  town  and 
district;  and  towards  the  17th  of  October,  when  it  was 
expected  the  king's  answer  would  be  known,  crowds  of  people 
from  the  provinces  came  pouring  into  the  metropolis.  The 
important  day  came,  and  almost  the  first  thing  the  expectant 
multitude  heard  was  a  proclamation  at  the  market-cross,  dis- 
solving the  Council  in  so  far  as  it  was  called  for  ecclesiastical 
affairs  ;  ordering  all  strangers  to  return  to  their  homes  within 
twenty-four  hours,  under  pain  of  horning;  removing  the  courts 
of  justice  from  the  capital ;  and  condemning  a  book  which 
had  got  into  circulation,  and  was  said  to  be  poisoning  the 
minds  of  the  people  in  regard  to  the  ceremonies  of  the  Angli- 
can Church.2 

The  populace  were  violently  incensed  by  these  proclama- 
tions, and  proceeded  to  the  commission  of  outrages  which 
makes  Baillie  declare  that  they  appeared  to  be  possessed  of 
a  bloody  devil.3  A  mob,  in  which  the  women  were  con- 
spicuous, beset  the  Bishop  of  Galloway  on  the  street,  and 
would  have  probably  torn  him  limb  from  limb  had  he  not 
been  rescued  by  some  of  his  friends,  and  carried  into  the 
council-house.  But  the  rioters  were  not  disposed  to  regard 
the  council-house  as  a  sanctuary.  They  remained  without, 
and  with  hootings  and  howlings  demanded  that  Sydserf  and 
other  obnoxious  lords  should  be  delivered  to  them.  The 
Council  finding  themselves  thus  besieged  by  an  enraged 
mob,  and  feeling,  no  doubt,  as  if  surrounded  by  a  pack  of 
wolves,  scenting  at  every  crevice  and  seeking  for  an  entrance, 
despatched  a  messenger  to  the  magistrates,  begging  them  to 
come  to  their  help.  The  messenger  found  the  magistrates 
in  the  same  evil  plight  as  the  Council,  and  in  no  condition 
to  render  assistance.  A  section  of  the  mob  had  taken  up 
their  station  before  their  place  of  meeting ;  some  of  them 
had  forced  their  way  into  the  lobbies  and  rooms,  and  threat- 
ened that  unless  the  provost  and  bailies  joined  the  city  in 
opposing  the  Service-Book,  they  would  burn  the  house  about 

?  Balfour,  vol.  ii.  pp.  233-35.      Peterkin,  pp.  54,  55. 

2  Guthrie's  Memoirs,  p.  24.     The  proclamations  are  given  in  the  Large 
Declaration,  pp.  33,  34  ;  also  in  Peterkin,  p.  55. 

3  Letters  and  Journals,  vol.  i.  p.  10. 


A.D.  1637.]  MOBBING  AND  RIOTING.  52 1 

their  ears.  When  this  was  reported  to  the  Privy  Council,  the 
Lord  Treasurer  and  the  Earl  of  Wigton,  accompanied  by 
their  followers,  courageously  forced  their  way  through  the 
crowd  to  the  town-house.  They  found  the  bailies  in  great 
perplexity,  but  after  consultation  it  was  resolved  that  Traquair 
and  Wigton  should  return  to  the  council-house,  and  that  the 
magistrates  should  do  what  they  could  to  disperse  the  crowd  ; 
and  as  the  first  step  to  this,  they  made  it  known  that  they  had 
acceded  to  the  requests  of  the  people,  and  would  join  them 
in  their  petitions. 

It  was  thought  that  this  concession  had  so  appeased  the 
mob  that  the  Lord  Treasurer  and  his  companions  might  now 
return  in  safety,  but  they  no  sooner  appeared  in  the  street  than 
they  were  assailed  by  horrible  cries.  The  magistrates  came 
out,  and  told  the  people  they  had  granted  all  that  they 
asked,  but  to  no  purpose ;  the  lords  assured  them  that  they 
would  urge  their  request  upon  the  king,  but  this  was  only 
mocked  at  \  a  rush  was  made,  and  the  Lord  Treasurer  was 
thrown  upon  the  ground,  his  hat,  cloak,  and  white  staff  of  office 
were  pulled  from  him,  and  in  all  probability  he  would  have 
been  trodden  to  death  had  not  some  of  his  friends  got  him  in- 
stantly to  his  feet,  and  then  by  the  sway  and  pressure  of  the 
crowd  he  was  half  carried  to  the  council-house  door,  where  he 
and  his  friends  immediately  got  entrance.  They  found 
Bishop  Sydserf  and  the  other  councillors  still  in  a  state  of  siege, 
and  trembling  for  the  result.  By  and  by  the  magistrates  joined 
them,  and  declared  that  with  all  their  efforts  they  had  been 
unable  to  pacify  the  mob.  There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to 
send  for  those  nobles  who  had  taken  an  active  part  against  the 
Service-Book,  and  at  their  entreaties  the  crowd  dispersed,  and 
the  councillors  got  home,  most  thankful  that  they  had  escaped 
with  their  lives.1 

Next  day  a  proclamation  was  made  by  the  Privy  Council, 
forbidding  the  citizens  to  assemble  in  the  streets;2  but  the 
citizens  cared  little  for  a  Council  whom  they  had  threatened 
and  insulted  with  impunity  on  the  preceding  day.  The  town, 
however,  was  quiet,  but  the  agitation  went  on,  and  a  petition 
was  presented  to  the  Lord  Chancellor,  in  name  of  the  men, 
women,  children,  and  servants  of  Edinburgh,  and  another  to 
the  Lords  of  Secret  Council,  by  the  noblemen,  barons,  minis- 
ters,  burgesses,    and    commons    of  the    kingdom,  protesting 

1  Large  Declaration,  pp.  35-38.     Guthrie,  pp.  24,  25.     Baillie,  &c. 

2  Large  Declaration,  p.  38. 


52  2  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [chap.  XVI. 

against  the  Service-Book,  and  demonstrating  how  wide-spread 
was  the  determination  to  resist  his  Majesty's  meddling  in  eccle- 
siastical affairs.1  It  is  clear  from  all  this  that  the  basis  of 
opposition  to  the  king's  scheme  of  ecclesiastical  uniformity  had 
greatly  widened.  So  long  as  the  changes  were  merely  from  a 
presbyterian  to  an  episcopal  polity,  the  opposition  was  mainly 
clerical ;  they  did  not  touch  the  people.  But  now  when  the 
changes  were  in  the  forms  of  worship,  every  one  was  interested, 
and  assumed  an  attitude  of  dogged  defiance.  They  would  not 
worship  according  to  the  king's  commandment.  The  storm 
had  been  slowly  gathering  since  1618  ;  but  the  Articles  of  Perth 
had  never  been  rigidly  enforced,  and  the  storm  was  stayed,  but 
now  when  a  Popish  liturgy  was  to  be  forced  upon  a  presby- 
terian people,  it  burst  with  the  fury  of  a  hurricane.  We  may 
see  nothing  very  wrong  in  most  of  the  Articles  of  Perth,  or  in 
most  parts  of  the  Laudian  liturgy,  but  all  the  same  we  must 
applaud  a  people  who  resented  these  illegal  interferences  with 
its  national  religion. 

The  plans  of  the  malcontents  expanded  with  their  power,  as 
a  man's  avarice  grows  with  his  wealth.  Their  first  thoughts 
were  confined  to  the  liturgy,  but  now  they  began  to  meditate 
the  demolition  of  the  Episcopate.  Before  separating,  they  re- 
solved to  meet  again  at  Edinburgh  on  the  15th  of  November, 
bringing  with  them  petitions  and  complaints  against  the 
bishops.  On  the  appointed  day  the  city  began  to  fill  with 
eager  Reformers,  from  every  part  of  the  country.  The  conflu- 
ence was  greater  than  ever.  The  Earls  of  Rothes,  Cassillis, 
Eglinton,  Home,  Lothian,  and  Wemyss,  and  the  Lords  Lind- 
say, Yester,  Balmerino,  Cranstone,  and  some  others,  had 
already  declared  themselves  on  the  popular  side ;  but  now, 
mingling  with  the  crowd  for  the  first  time,  was  seen  the  young- 
Earl  of  Montrose,2  who  afterwards  changed  his  side,  and 
achieved  for  himself  a  chivalrous  renown  by  leading  the  forlorn 
hope  of  the  fallen  throne. 

The  multitudes  who  thronged  Edinburgh  made  the  Council 
dread  lest  the  outrages  of  the  18th  of  October  should  be  re- 
newed, and  therefore  they  sent  to  the  nobles  who  had  come  to 
town  a  remonstrance  against  their  meetings,  as  illegal  and  dis- 
orderly. The  nobles  maintained  their  right  to  meet  and 
petition,  but  declared  the  willingness  of  their  party  to  act  by 

1  It  is  not  quite  clear  whether  these  petitions  were  presented  on  the  17th 
or  1 8th  of  October.  Copies  of  them  are  given  in  the  Large  Declaration, 
pp.  41-4.     See  also  Peterkin,  p.  56.  -  Guthrie's  Memoirs,  p.  27. 


A.D.  1637.]  THE  TABLES.  523 

commissioners,  and  so  prevent  the  possibility  of  disturbance 
from  crowds  of  people  being  brought  together.1  The  Council 
gave  its  sanction  to  the  proposal,  and  thus  unwittingly  lent  its 
aid  to  the  establishment  of  a  power  in  the  State  which  very 
speedily  superseded  its  own.  Four  permanent  committees 
were  accordingly  appointed  :  the  first  consisted  of  all  the 
nobles  who  had  joined  the  cause  ;  the  second,  of  a  gentleman 
for  every  county  ;  the  third,  of  a  minister  for  every  presbytery  : 
and  the  fourth,  of  a  burgher  for  every  town.  These  commit- 
tees sat  at  four  different  tables  in  the  parliament-house,  and 
were  therefore  called  The  Tables.  Four  representatives  from 
each  formed  a  central  committee,  which  sat  constantly  in  the 
capital,  while  the  others  only  met  upon  grave  emergencies. - 
These  Tables  were  at  first  designed  only  to  take  charge  of 
the  petitions  of  the  masses,  and  urge  them  upon  the  govern- 
ment ;  but  they  soon  felt  themselves  so  strong,  from  their 
representing  and  centralizing  the  feeling  of  the  country,  that 
they  began  not  merely  to  form  plans  for  the  government  of 
their  party,  but  to  issue  mandates,  which  were  universally  re- 
spected and  obeyed,  while  the  proclamations  of  the  king  and 
his  Council  were  treated  with  contempt.  They  soon  assumed 
all  the  powers  which  were  possessed  by  the  clubs  of  Paris 
during  the  French  Revolution.  The  government  of  the 
country  virtually  came  into  their  hands. 

Charles  now  began  to  open  his  eyes  to  the  revolutionary 
spirit  which  his  liturgy  had  evoked,  but  still  he  saw  things  very 
dimly,  and  appears  to  have  had  no  idea  that  beneath  a  thin  sur- 
face of  respect,  society  was  boiling  like  a  volcano  under  his 
feet.  He  thought  it  enough  to  despatch  the  Earl  of  Rox- 
burgh to  negotiate,  and,  it  was  whispered,  to  bribe  the  leading 
malcontents  ;  and  afterwards  to  publish  a  proclamation,  in 
which  he  declared  to  his  faithful  subjects,  that  it  was  only  the 
tumultuous  and  barbarous  insolences  committed  in  Edinburgh, 
in  contempt  of  his  royal  authority,  which  had  hitherto  pre- 
vented his  royal  resolution  of  considering  their  petitions,  but 
that  he  was  pleased  out  of  his  goodness  to  protest  that  he 
abhorred  all  superstition  of  Popery,  and  meant  to  do  nothing 
contrary  to  the   laudable   laws   of  his   native   kingdom.8     A 

1  Reference  is  made  to  this  in  the  speech  delivered  by  Lord  Loudon 
before  the  Privy  Council,  on  the  21st  of  December.  See  Balfour,  vol.  ii. 
p.  240. 

2  Stevenson's  History,  vol.  i.  p.  230. 

3  Proclamation  made  at  Linlithgow,  7th  December  1637.  Large  De- 
claration, p.  46. 


524  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  CHAP.  XV], 

proclamation  like  this,  which  meant  nothing,  was  not  the  thing 
to  pacify  a  people  ripe  for  rebellion.  If  it  was  meant  as  a 
sedative,  it  rather  served  as  an  irritant.  On  the  2 1st  of  Decem- 
ber, the  Privy  Council  met  at  Dalkeith,  and  the  deputies  of 
the  Tables  appeared  before  it,  and  showed  how  rapidly  their 
views  were  widening,  by  demanding  that  the  bishops  should 
be  removed  from  their  seats  as  parties  in  the  case.  They  had 
been  previously  complained  of,  and  accused  as  the  authors  of 
the  liturgy,  the  causes  of  all  the  troubles  which  had  afflicted 
the  country ;  and  on  that  ground  a  formal  declinature  of  their 
judgment  was  now  given  in.  The  declinature  was  a  bold  one, 
and  shows  how  high  the  pretensions  of  the  party  had  risen, 
and  what  were  the  feelings  which  were  abroad  in  the  country ; 
but  it  is  very  evident  that,  though  an  attempt  was  made  to 
support  it  by  a  legal  argument,  no  plea  in  law  could  deprive 
the  bishops  of  their  seats  at  the  Council-board,  on  this  simple 
ground,  that  the  Council  did  not  then  sit  as  a  court  of  justice. 
The  bishops  were  not  upon  their  trial  before  it.1  The  Coun- 
cil, having  its  hands  tied  by  orders  from  court,  remitted  the 
whole  matter  for  the  determination  of  the  king. 

At  the  king's  own  request  the  Earl  of  Traquair,  the  Lord 
Treasurer,  went  up  to  London  as  the  representative  of  the 
Scottish  Council.  His  Majesty  was  profoundly  ignorant  of 
the  precipice  upon  which  he  stood.  To  give  up  the  liturgy, 
the  Court  of  High  Commission,  the  whole  Episcopate,  was 
not  to  be  thought  of.  His  prerogative  must  not  be  so  abased. 
The  Archbishop  of  St  Andrews  wrote  him  that  if  he  con- 
demned the  present  doings  of  the  petitioners,  and  discharged 
all  such  procedure  for  the  future  under  pain  of  treason,  their 
combinations  would  melt  like  frost-work  in  the  sun,  or  be 
driven  like  mist  before  the  wind.2  Laud  and  Strafford  appear 
to  have  given  similar  advice.3  The  advice  was  taken,  and 
Traquair  returned  to  Scotland  about  the  middle  of  February 
1638  with  his  instructions. 

The  Council  and  Sessions  were  at  this  time  held  in  Stirling, 
as  Edinburgh  was  still  in  disgrace  on  account  of  the  riots. 
After  remaining  some  days  in  the  metropolis,  early  on  Monday 

1  Speeches  of  Lord  Loudon  and  Mr  James  Cunningham  before  the 
Privy  Council,  21st  December  1637.  See  Balfour,  Stevenson,  and  Peter- 
kin.  In  the  protest  made  against  the  royal  proclamation  on  the  19th 
of  February  following,  this  declinature  is  referred  to  the  19th  of  De- 
cember, but  it  is  certain  the  speeches  in  defence  of  it  were  made  on  the  21st. 

2  Stevenson,  vol.  ii.  p.  267. 

3  Strafford's  Letters,  vol.  ii.      Harris's  Life  of  Charles  I. 


A.I).  1638.]  PROCLAMATION  AND  PROTEST.  525 

morning,  the  19th  of  February,  the  High  Treasurer  set  out  for 
the  north.  The  Lords  of  the  Tables,  by  fair  means  or  foul, 
got  a  hint  of  his  journey  and  its  object,  and  within  an  hour 
afterwards  Lords  Lindsay  and  Home  were  in  their  saddles, 
riding  to  Stirling  as  fast  as  their  horses  could  carry  them. 
They  outrode  the  Treasurer,  and  entered  the  town  before 
him.  At  ten  o'clock  the  heralds,  with  the  royal  arms  on  their 
back,  accompanied  by  the  Treasurer  and  Privy  Seal,  appeared 
at  the  market-cross,  to  read  the  proclamation.  It  extolled  the 
"  Book  of  Common  Prayer "  as  the  surest  defence  against 
superstition  \  it  declared  the  petitioners  to  be  deserving  of 
high  censure,  but  that  they  might  hope  for  forgiveness,  as 
their  conduct  had  arisen  from  preposterous  zeal  rather  than 
disloyalty ;  it  discharged  all  future  meetings  under  the  highest 
pains  ;  and  commanded  all  save  the  inhabitants  and  Lords  of 
the  Council  and  Session,  to  leave  the  town  without  delay. 
When  the  heralds  were  done,  and  the  flourish  of  trumpets 
was  blown,  Lords  Lindsay  and  Home  stepped  forward,  took 
instruments  in  the  hands  of  a  notary,  and  protested  that  they 
should  still  have  a  right  to  approach  the  king  by  petition  ; 
that  they  would  not  recognise  the  prelates  as  judges  in  any 
court,  civil  or  ecclesiastical ;  that  they  should  not  incur  any 
loss  in  life  or  lands  for  not  observing  such  books,  canons, 
rites,  judicatories,  and  proclamations  as  were  contrary  to  the 
Acts  of  Parliament  and  the  Acts  of  the  Assembly  ;  that  if  any 
disturbance  should  arise,  it  should  not  be  imputed  to  them  ; 
and,  finally,  that  their  requests  proceeded  from  conscience, 
and  had  no  other  end  but  the  preservation  of  the  Reformed 
religion,  and  the  laws  and  liberties  of  his  Majesty's  most 
ancient  kingdom.  The  same  scene  occurred  at  Linlithgow, 
Edinburgh,  and,  in  fact,  wherever  the  proclamation  was  made. 
At  the  market-cross  of  Edinburgh,  seventeen  peers  and  a  great 
concourse  of  ministers  and  citizens  had  assembled ;  the  pro- 
clamation was  read  amid  laughter  and  jeers ;  and  the  crowd 
compelled  the  pursuivants  to  remain  and  hear  the  protest.1 

Men  now  began  to  feel  that  the  crisis  was  come  :  they  could 
not  recede,  it  was  not  likely  the  king  would ;  and  therefore 
they  began  to  forecast  the  future.  A  crash  was  almost  inevit- 
able. The  only  safety  of  the  nation  was  in  union,  a  union 
cemented  not  only  by  the  love  of  liberty,  but  the  sanctities  of 
religion.  Some  of  the  leading  men  proposed  that  every 
adherent  of  the  good  cause  should  be  bound  together  as  one 
1  Large  Declaration,  pp.  47-52. 


526  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XVI. 

man  by  a  solemn  covenant.  A  covenant  was  no  new  thing  in 
Scotland.  The  barons  had  been  accustomed  to  league  them- 
selves together  for  mutual  defence  by  subscribing  "  bands.'* 
Bands  of  man-rent  had  been  known  for  centuries.  When  the 
Lords  of  the  Congregation  drew  the  sword  for  the  Reforma- 
tion, they  joined  themselves  together  in  a  covenant,  which 
was  frequently  renewed.  But  it  was  the  Confession  and  Cove- 
nant of  1 58 1  which  was  now  to  be  revived.  At  that  period  a 
Popish  panic  had  taken  hold  of  the  country ;  it  was  said  that 
the  king's  favourites  were  Papists ;  that  the  king  himself  was 
at  least  half  a  Papist ;  that  Papist  emissaries  traversed  the 
country ;  that  a  Papist  army  might  soon  be  expected  upon 
the  coast ;  and  to  still  this  feeling  James  VI.  had  a  confession 
prepared  by  Craig,  the  old  colleague  of  Knox,  in  which  all 
the  chief  errors  of  Romanism  were  solemnly  abjured.  It  was 
signed  by  the  king  himself,  by  his  household,  by  the  members 
of  the  Privy  Council,  by  men  of  all  ranks  throughout  the 
country;  and  the  country  again  breathed  freer,  and  felt  its 
liberties  and  religion  were  secure. 

It  was  proposed  in  1638  to  league  Presbyterian  Scotland  by 
such  a  solemn  Confession  and  Covenant.  The  kingdom  was 
prepared  for  it  by  a  day  of  fasting,  on  which  the  pulpits  gave 
forth  no  uncertain  sound.  The  preparation  of  the  document 
was  entrusted  to  Alexander  Henderson  and  Johnstone  of 
Warriston.  Lords  Rothes,  Loudon,  and  Balmerino  were  ap- 
pointed to  revise  it.  When  ready,  it  was  found  to  consist  of 
three  parts.  The  first  was  a  faithful  transcript  of  the  Con- 
fession of  1 58 1 ;  the  second  was  a  summary  of  the  acts  of 
parliament  condemning  Popery,  and  ratifying  the  liberties  of 
the  Scottish  Church,  and  was  said  to  have  been  compiled  by 
Warriston ;  the  third  was  the  true  covenant,  in  which  the 
subscribers  swore,  by  the  great  name  of  the  Lord  their  God, 
that  they  would  continue  in  the  profession  of  their  religion; 
that  they  would  defend  it  against  all  errors  and  corruptions ; 
that  they  would  stand  by  his  Majesty  in  support  of  the  re- 
ligion, liberties,  and  laws  of  the  kingdom,  and  also  by  one 
another  against  all  their  enemies  ;  and  this  was  said  to  have 
been  written  by  Henderson.1 

When  the  first  draft  of  the  Covenant  was  submitted  to  the 
committees,  there  was  not  unanimity.  Some  objected  that 
they  could  not  pronounce  the  Articles  of  Perth  to  be  unlaw- 

1  This  Confession  and  Covenant  is  now  generally  bound  in  the  same 
volume  with  the  Westminster  Confession,  where  every  reader  may  see  it. 


A.D.  1638.]  SIGNING  THE  COVENANT.  527 

ful ;  others  that  they  could  not  get  rid  of  their  ordination  vows 
without  perjury;  others  that  they  could  not  league  themselves 
together  for  mutual  defence  without  treason.  But,  after  long 
discussion,  alterations  were  made  in  some  cases,  scruples  of 
conscience  were  silenced  in  others,  and  harmony  was  all  but 
restored.  Everything  was  now  ready  for  the  subscriptions  of 
the  people,  and  it  was  determined  that  Edinburgh  should  be 
first  tried.1 

On  the  28th  day  of  February  an  immense  concourse  of 
people  had  gathered  in  the  Greyfriars  Church,  and  thousands 
who  could  not  get  access  to  the  church  crowded  the  church- 
yard. The  peaceful  abodes  of  the  dead,  where  there  wras  no 
passion,  nor  knowledge,  nor  device,  contrasted  strangely  with 
the  excited  feelings  of  the  living  who  trod  upon  them  ;  and 
the  fine  old  conventual  building  grimly  lifted  up  its  hoary 
walls  and  mullioned  windows  above  the  surging  heads  of  the 
Presbyterian  multitude,  with  its  reminiscences  of  Roman  wor- 
ship and  monastic  ties.  Thus  death  and  life,  the  old  and  the 
new,  meet  and  harmonise.  About  two  o'clock,  Loudon  and 
Rothes  of  the  nobility,  Henderson  and  Dickson  of  the  minis- 
ters, and  Johnstone,  their  legal  adviser,  arrived  with  the  Cove- 
nant, ready  for  signature.  Henderson  opened  the  proceedings 
by  prayer  \  Loudon  next  stood  up  and  addressed  the  meeting  ; 
and  then  all  were  invited  to  come  forward  and  sign.  The  aged 
Earl  of  Sutherland  was  the  first  to  append  his  name.  He  was 
followed  by  Sir  Andrew  Murray,  the  minister  of  Abdy,  in  Fife. 
Then  high-born  and  low-born  together  crowded  forward  to 
add  their  signatures.  When  all  in  the  church  had  signed  the 
solemn  document,  it  was  taken  out  to  the  church-yard  and 
laid  upon  a  flat  gravestone.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  crowd  rose 
to  its  greatest  height.  Men  and  women  were  alike  ambitious 
to  subscribe  their  names.  Some  wrote  after  their  signatures, 
"till  death;"  others  could  not  restrain  their  feelings,  and 
wept.  This  went  on  for  hours,  till  every  part  of  the  parchment 
was  covered,  and  the  subscribers  had  only  room  to  write  their 
initials  ;  and  dark  night  alone  put  an  end  to  the  scene.-  Hen- 
derson afterwards  described  it  as  "  the  day  of  the  Lord's 
power,  wherein  they  had  seen  His  people  most  willingly  offer 
themselves  in  multitudes,  like  the  dew  of  the  morning."3  "  It 
may  well  be  said  of  this  day,"  says  another  old  writer,  "  Great 

1  See  Baillie's  Letters  and  Journals. 

2  This  copy  of  the  Covenant,  with  the  signatures  attached,  is  still  pre- 
served. 

z  First  Answer  to  the  Reply  of  the  Aberdeen  Doctors. 


528  CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.  [CHAP.   XVI. 

was  the  day  of  Jezreel.  It  was  a  day  wherein  the  arm  of  the 
Lord  was  revealed — a  day  wherein  the  princes  of  the  people 
were  assembled  to  swear  fealty  and  allegiance  to  that  great 
King  whose  name  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts."1 

Copies  of  the  Covenant  were  next  day  carried  through  the 
city,  and  signed  by  almost  every  one  who  was  solicited. 
Other  copies  were  sent  down  to  the  presbyteries  for  subscrip- 
tion ;  the  contagious  enthusiasm  of  the  capital  spread  over 
the  whole  country ;  and  almost  everywhere  the  people,  by  ' 
appended  names  and  uplifted  hands,  took  the  Covenant  oath. 
"  I  was  present,"  says  Livingstone,  "  at  Lanark,  and  at  several 
other  parishes,  when  on  a  Sabbath,  after  the  forenoon's  sermon, 
the  Covenant  was  read  and  sworn,  and  may  truly  say,  that  in 
all  my  lifetime,  except  one  day  at  the  Kirk  of  Shotts,  I  never 
saw  such  motions  from  the  Spirit  of  God,  all  the  people  gene- 
rally and  most  willingly  concurring.  I  have  seen  more  than 
a  thousand  persons  all  at  once  lifting  up  their  hands,  and  the 
tears  falling  down  from  their  eyes ;  so  that  through  the  whole 
land,  except  the  professed  Papists,  and  some  few  who  for 
base  ends  adhered  to  the  prelates,  the  people  universally 
entered  into  the  Covenant  with  God."2  The  whole  Scotch 
population  seems  to  have  been  melted  into  one  mass  by  the 
burning  religious  zeal  that  was  abroad,  as  they  were' knit  into 
one  brotherhood  by  their  Covenant  with  God.  It  is  difficult, 
in  times  of  perfect  quietude,  to  understand  the  high  excite- 
ment of  such  a  period.  It  can  only  be  compared  to  the 
outburst  of  feeling  which  accompanied  the  first  preaching  of 
Christianity,  the  first  preaching  of  the  Reformation,  or  those 
religious  revivals  which  have  sometimes  broken  out  in  a  par- 
ticular district,  and  sometimes  mysteriously  swept  over  a  whole 
country. 

Yet  there  was  not  perfect  unanimity  in  the  nation.  Some 
of  the  Glasgow  ministers  and  professors,  and  among  them 
the  famous  Zachary  Boyd,  refused  to  take  the  Covenant. 
The  town  of  St  Andrews,  under  the  influence  of  the  Arch- 
bishop, kept  back  from  joining  in  the  general  movement. 
The  doctors  of  the  Universities  of  Aberdeen  both  spoke  and 
wrote  against  it;  and  few  in  the  city  could  be  induced  to 
subscribe,  notwithstanding  the  persuasions  of  a  deputation, 
who  hurried  to  the  north  to  reduce  their  obstinacy.     They 

1  Wilson's  Defence  of  the  Reformation  Principles  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  quoted  by  Stevenson,  vol.  ii.  p.  298. 

-  Life.  p.  22,  quoted  by  Stevenson,  vol.  ii.  p.  296. 


A.D.  1638.]  WAS  THE  COVENANT  LEGAL?  529 

declared  it  was  an  unlawful  combination  against  lawful 
authority.  Pamphlets  were  published  upon  both  sides  of 
the  question  ;  and  the  controversy  was  maintained  with  equal 
acrimony  and  equal  ability.1  But  this  jarring  note  was 
scarcely  heard  amid  the  full  concord  of  voices  which  came 
from  every  part  of  the  empire  ;  and  the  Archbishop  of 
St  Andrews  is  reported,  when  he  heard  of  the  scene 
in  the  Greyfriars  church-yard,  to  have  said  —  "They  have 
thrown  down  in  a  day  what  we  have  been  building  up  for 
thirty  years." 

The  National  Covenant  has  been  a  bone  of  contention 
among  Scottish  historians.  Some  have  lauded  it  as  the  off- 
spring of  piety  and  patriotism  ;  others  have  denounced  it  as 
the  offspring  of  fanaticism  and  rebellion.  Some  have  spoken 
of  it  as  an  imperishable  monument  (the  admiration  of  the 
world)  of  the  religious  feelings  of  our  ancestors  ;  others  have 
told  how  it  scandalized  the  Churches  of  the  Reformation  on 
the  Continent.2  It  is  certain  that  the  Lord  Advocate  of  the 
time  declared  that  there  was  nothing  illegal  in  it — nothing 
inconsistent  with  proper  loyalty  to  a  constitutional  sovereign, 
and  eminent  lawyers  of  modern  days  have  held  the  same  ;  and 
yet,  if  we  interpret  it  as  the  Covenanters  themselves  did, 
when  they  afterwards  took  up  arms  against  their  king  for  their 
mutual  defence,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  law  should 
sanction  such  a  league.  But  to  quote  law  in  such  cases  is 
mere  pedantry.  There  are  times  when  law  must  be  set  aside 
— when  man  resumes  his  natural  rights.  The  king  had  violated 
the  laws  of  the  land  :  why  should  not  the  people  ?  The  king 
had  attempted,  in  defiance  of  the  constitution,  to  force  an 
obnoxious  liturgy  upon  the  nation  :  why  should  not  the  nation 
band  itself  together  and  defy  him  to  do  it  ?  Is  the  monarch 
made  for  the  nation,  or  the  nation  for  the  monarch  ?  Is  the 
will  of  the  one  or  the  will  of  the  many  to  be  supreme  ?  Should 
the  people,  for  fear  of  violating  some  statute,  and  giving 
pain  to   some    men    in  high  places,   sit  still   and  allow  their 

1  The  Answers  of  some  Brethren  of  the  Ministrie  to  the  Replyes  of 
the  Ministers  and  Professors  of  Divinitie  in  Aberdene,  concerning  the 
late  Covenant.      Printed  in  the  year  of  God  1638,  &c. 

2  The  king,  in  his  Large  Declaration,  affirms  this  :  and  Baillie,  in  one 
of  his  letters,  complains  that  the  Continental  Churches  had  not  sympa- 
thised with  them  in  their  struggles. 

VOL.   I.  2  L 


53° 


CHURCH  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 


[CHAP,  XVI. 


religion  and  liberties  to  be  trampled  on?  Had  the  Cove- 
nant not  been  subscribed,  it  is  certain  the  liturgy  would 
have  been  introduced,  the  canons  enforced,  and  the  heel  of 
arbitrary  power  placed  on  the  neck  of  the  country.  This  is 
its  justification. 


END  OF  VOL.   I. 


Tumbull  &>  Spean,  Printers. 


i