matrimonial, with the title of king, was granted by parlia- | praying that the canons should be enforced against clergy 1557-1559. ment to the dauphin. While statesmen were occupied with the queen's marriage the Reformation had been steadily advancing. Knox laboured incessantly, preaching in Edinburgh ten days in succession and making rapid visits to the central and western shires. He attracted to his side representatives of the nobility and gentry, and had much support in the towns. The earl of Glencairn, Lord Lorne, Lord James Stuart, the future regent, and the laird of Dun, John Erskine, in Angus were amongst his earliest followers, as well as many of the tradesmen and artisans. Knox now openly denounced attendance at mass as idolatrous and began to administer the Lord's Supper after the manner of the Swiss Reformers. He was summoned to Edinburgh on a charge of heresy; but, though he kept the day, the proceedings were dropped. Shortly after he was again summoned, but meanwhile had accepted a call from Geneva. In his absence he was condemned for heresy and burned in effigy at the (market cross of Edinburgh. Though absent, he continued 'the master-spirit of the Reformation in Scotland, and as the result of his exhortations Argyll, Glencairn, Morton, Lord Lorne, and Erskine of Dun drew up a bond (3d December 1557) to "defend the whole congregation of Christ and every member thereof... against Satan and all wicked power," themselves forsaking and renouncing "the congregation of Satan with all the superstition, abomination, and idolatry thereof." This was the first of many bonds or covenants in which, borrowing the old form of league amongst the Scottish nobility, the Lords of Congregation applied it to the purposes of the Reformation. They afterwards passed resolutions that prayers should be read weekly in all parishes by the curates publicly, with lessons from the Old and New Testaments, and that doctrine and the interpretation of the Scriptures should be used privately in quiet houses until God should move the prince to grant public preaching by faithful ministers. Argyll at once acted upon the resolutions and protected John Douglas, formerly a Dominican, his chaplain, who preached at Castle Campbell in spite of the remonstrance of Archbishop Hamilton. That prelate next took a fatal step. Walter Myln, parish priest of Lunan near Montrose, an old man of eighty-two, was burnt for heresy at St Andrews (8th April 1558). He was the last Protestant martyr in Scotland. The total number of deaths was small, it is believed twenty in all; but many people were banished or forced to leave the country and many fined, while none were allowed freedom of worship. Immediately after the death of Myln there began, says Knox, "a new fervencie amongst the whole people." Gathering courage from the popular feeling, the Lords of Congregation presented petitions in rapid succession to the regent. The first laid before her prayed "that it might be lawful to meet in public or in private for common prayer in the vulgar tongue, to interpret at such meetings hard places in Scripture, and to use that tongue in administering baptism and the Lord's Supper"; in reply permission was granted to preach in private and to administer the sacraments in the vulgar tongue. The second presented at the meeting of parliament prayed for a suspension of all Acts against heretics until a general council, that copies of the accusation and depositions should be given to all persons accused of heresy, that the accused should be allowed themselves to interpret any words charged as heretical, and should not be condemned unless found guilty of teaching contrary to Scripture. "The regent," Knox remarks, " spared not amiable looks and good words," but suffered the parliament to be dissolved (2d March 1557) without any answer. In the spring a synod met in Edinburgh and a third petition was laid before it, who led scandalous lives; that there should be preaching on every Lord's day and on holidays, that no priests should be ordained unless able to read the Catechism distinctly, that prayer should be in the vulgar tongue, that the mortuary dues and Easter offerings should be optional, and that the consistorial process should be reformed: Another point was included according to Lesley, that bishops should be elected with the consent of the laity of the diocese and priests with that. of their parishioners. The synod replied that they could not dispense with Latin in public prayer as appointed by the church, and that the canon law must be observed as to elections of bishops and priests. On other matters they were prepared to make concessions, and passed thirty-four canons in the spirit of the council of Trent directed to the due investigation and punishment of immorality of the clergy and the inspection of monasteries, better provision for preaching by bishops and priests, the remission of mortuary dues to the very poor; and the recognition of the sacrament of baptism as administered by the Reformers. A short exposition of the mass was to be published. These concessions proved the necessity for reform; but, as they were silent on the principal points of doctrine, as well as on the more radical reforms in church government, they could not be accepted. The time of compromise, if compromise had ever been practicable between Rome and Geneva, to which the Scottish Reformers adhered, was now past. Two events had occurred before the synod separated which hastened the crisis. On 17th November 1558 the death of Mary Tudor once more placed on the English throne a sovereign inclined to favour the Reformation. In May, during the sittings of the synod, Knox returned to Scotland and the Scottish Reformers once more had a determined leader. The regent issued about Easter (1559) a proclamation Struggle forbidding any one to preach or administer the sacraments between. Congrewithout authority of the bishops. Willock and other leadgation ing preachers having disregarded it were summoned to and Mary Stirling on 10th May. Their adherents assembled in great of Guise. numbers, but mostly unarmed, at Perth, a town zealous for the Reformed opinions. Erskine of Dun went from there as a mediator to the regent at Stirling; she promised, but in vague terms, that she would take some better order with the ministers if their supporters did not advance. Notwithstanding they were outlawed for not appearing on the day of trial. Next day, when the news reached Perth, Knox preached his first public sermon (11th May) since his return, inveighing against "idolatry." Hardly had he ended when a priest began mass and opened the tabernacle on the high altar. A young man called out, "This is intolerable that, when God by His Word hath plainly damned idolatry, we shall stand and see it used." The priest struck the youth, who retaliated by throwing a stone, which broke an image. From this spark the fire kindled., The people destroyed the images in the church and then proceeded to sack the monasteries. The example of Perth was followed at.many other places. The regent could not remain passive when the Congregation was sanctioning such action. But her position was. one of grave difficulty. Her main support was from France, and, though she had adherents amongst the Scottish nobility, Argyll and Lord James, who were still with her at Stirling, were really committed to the Congregation. What course the new queen of England would take was still uncertain. On 11th May the regent advanced towards Perth, but the arrival of Glencairn with 2500 men from the west to'aid the Congregation led to a compromise, of which the terms were these: both parties were to disband their troops; Perth was to be left open to the regent, but no French troops were to come within 3 miles; the inhabitants were 1559-1560. not to be called upon to answer for their recent conduct; | country against French aggression. and all controversies were to be reserved for parliament. Negotia- In the end of June Kirkaldy of Grange began a corre- Elizabeth was. to Guise. support Scotland by an army, but no place of strength Her death removed the chief obstacle to peace, which Treaty oi tion Before parliament met an important step towards a new Reforms organization of the church was taken. Superintendents, parlia some lay, others clerical, were appointed for Lothian, Glas- meut. gow, Fife, Angus, Mearns, Argyll, and the Isles. The principal ministers of the Congregation were planted in the chief towns,-Knox receiving Edinburgh as his charge. The convention parliament which assembled on 10th July and began its business on 1st August 1560 was the Reformation parliament of Scotland. Like Henry VIII.'s famous parliament, its work was thorough. It not merely reformed abuses but changed the national creed and accomplished more in one than the English parliament did in three sessions. The parliament was the most numerous yet held in Scotland, being attended not only by nearly all the nobility but by some bishops and an unusually large nuniber of lesser barons or landed gentry, representatives of the burghs. Its statutes never received the royal assent. but were confirmed by the first parliament after Mary's | Lesley her brother Lord James, who had been sent by 1560-1567 Mary. On her return to Scotland Mary showed herself disposed to conciliate the Reformers provided she was allowed the exercise of her own faith. This had been guaranteed her by Lord James. His near kinship to the queen at a time when the stain of bastardy was less regarded, and his close relation with the Reformers, made him necessary to both and gave him an influence which his eminent prudence used for the good of the nation, but with an eye to his own advantage. Without thrusting himself too prominently forward, he led the privy council (ably supported by Lethington), and, without the name, was in fact prime minister. The title of Mar, and, when that was reclaimed by the heir of the Erskines, of Moray or MURRAY (q.v.), with its large territories, gave him the designation by which he is best known, as well as great wealth, which he dispersed by means not well explained. But the leaven of another influence than that of the statesman was now at work in Scottish politics. This was embodied in John Knox, the Knox most representative Scotsman since Wallace. The first and Sunday after Mary's arrival the mob tried to interrupt mass at Holyrood, and Moray had himself to keep the chapel door to prevent its being broken. "His. best exThe same persons who had prepared the Confession cuse was," says Knox, "that he wald stop all Scotchmen were entrusted with the composition of a code of ecclesi- to enter into the mass." Next Sunday Knox preached in astical polity, and a draft, after being first laid before the Edinburgh against idolatry. "One mass was more fearful convention of 1560, was submitted as revised to that of to him," he said, "than 20,000 armed enemies." Little the following year. This First Book of Discipline was not likely as such sentiments were to please the young queen, universally approved; several of its provisions, especially a meeting between her and the preacher was arranged by those relating to church estates and their application to Moray, the only third party present. On the matter of the support of the ministry, the relief of the poor, and religion he was unbending, yet not more so than Mary. the furtherance of education, were little to the taste of the His judgment of the queen's character was, "If there be nobility, and it was never sanctioned by the estates or fully not in her a proud mind, a crafty spirit, and an indurate acted on. Other parts of it were, however, embodied in heart against God and His truth my judgment faileth me.” the Second Book of Discipline, which became the law of In 1562 Huntly, the chief Romanist in the north, who the Reformed Church. It remains a memorial of the far-offered to have the mass said in three counties, rebelled sighted views of Knox, its author; and the verdict of posterity has been in his favour and against the nobles who prevented its being carried out. See PRESBYTERIANISM, vol. xix. p. 679 sq. The death of Francis II. (6th December 1560) materially altered the political situation. The much feared subordination of Scotland to France was at last averted. Mary Stuart, only nineteen, was young enough to be influenced by a new husband and new responsibilities. Her character was not yet known, but her relations with Catherine de' Medici were not friendly, and there was little doubt that she would take advantage of the provision in her marriage articles and return to Scotland. Sir John Sandilands's mission to France to procure the royal sanction to the treaty of Edinburgh and the Acts of the Reformation parliament must have been unpalatable, and he was not favourably reMary's ceived. Before she left France Mary was visited by envoys return to of the opposite parties into which Scotland was divided. Lesley, official of Aberdeen, afterwards bishop of Ross, and her valiant defender, was sent by the Catholic lords and bishops with a special message from Huntly, urging her to come to Aberdeen, where an army of 20,000 men would be at her disposal. But Huntly had not proved trustworthy during the regency and Mary rejected an offer which would have plunged the kingdom in war from the moment she landed. The very day after she had seen being indignant at the grant to Moray of an earldom whose 1568-1567. and celebrating the mass. Yet Knox's comment in his History is, "This conference we have inserted to let the world see how Marie queen of Scotland can dissemble, and how that she could cause men to think that she bore no indignation for any controversy in religion, while that yet in her heart was nothing but venom and destruction, as short after that did appear." She was in fact corresponding with her uncle the cardinal of Lorraine, with the pope, with Philip II., testifying her steadfast attachment to Papacy and her desire to restore the Catholic faith. At a last conference Knox remonstrated against her marriage, then thought imminent, with a Papist, claiming the right of a subject "to speak out on this topic which so nearly concerned the commonwealth," remaining unmoved by the last argument of a woman, which he savagely describes as "howling and tears in greater abundance than the matter required." Nothing but perusal of the conversations can bring before us this pregnant passage of history-the abasement of the Scottish monarchy before the religious democracy of the woman forced to dissemble and weep before the stern man believing he delivered a message from God to the head of a corrupt court. Something was allowed to Knox's sincere outspokenness. He moved men and women alike by words which, like Luther's, go straight to the realities of life. He is the typical Scottish divine framed on the model of the Hebrew prophets, and often reproduced in weaker copies. The Reformation in Scotland, in both its strength and its weakness, was his work more than that of any other man. The Presbyterian form of government, of which his friend Calvin was the author, was introduced by Knox from Geneva and continued for long to enforce discipline, first by censure and then, if need be, by excommunication and temporal punishment, entirely in his spirit. Mary's Not only to Knox and the Reformers but to all classes marriage the question of the day was the queen's marriage. Apart to Darn- from her beauty, her political position rendered her hand ley. of importance to the balance of power. It held not only the dowry of France and the possession of Scotland but a claim, which might be at any moment asserted, to the English crown. She avowed her inclination to marry, and indeed she required a man to put her in possession of her kingdom. Don Carlos, the archduke of Austria, son of Philip of Spain, Charles IX. of France, the kings of Denmark and of Sweden, the archduke Charles, second son of the emperor, were all passed in review but rejected. Elizabeth pressed the claim of her favourite Leicester,—a project supported by Cecil and Moray. In the end the fair face and fine figure of her young cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, carried the day. A party of the Scottish nobles-Athole, himself a Stuart, Morton, Crawford, Eglinton, and Cassilis-favoured the alliance. David Rizzio, the queen's foreign secretary, who already had great influence with her, promoted it. But it was her own act, the most dangerous of many false steps in her life. Shortly before the marriage (29th July 1565) Moray attempted to seize Darnley and the queen as they rode from Perth to Callendar near Falkirk. When it was accomplished he rose in arms with the duke of Chastelherault, the head of the Hamiltons, Argyll, and Rothes; but Mary with a large force pursued them from place to place in the Roundabout Raid, from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh through Fife, where she levied fines, and finally to Dumfries, from which Moray fled to England. He had been secretly but not vigorously supported by Elizabeth, who, when she heard of his flight, recalled her orders to Bedford, then on the marches, to place troops at the disposal of the insurgents. Mary still retained some of the popularity of a young queen, and fostered it by an apparent desire to humour the Reformers. For the first time she attended a Protestant sermon. But the consequences of a union between a highspirited woman, active in mind and body beyond her sex and years, with a vain and dissolute youth were soon seen. His alienation from the queen, the murder of Rizzio, with the intrigues that preceded and followed it, the rapid growth, of Bothwell's influence, the pitiable vacillations of Darnley, and his murder at Kirk of Field (10th February Murder 1567) have been sketched in the article MARY (vol. xv. of Darne p. 596 sq.). The authors of the last crime were Bothwell, ley. who devised it, and his servants, who executed it. Their confessions leave no doubt of their own guilt. Who were their accomplices has from that day to this been debated without conclusive answer. The great controversy is whether the nobles with Moray at their head had bound themselves to support Bothwell, as he and Mary afterwards declared, or whether Mary, possessed with passion for Bothwell and hate of Darnley, herself instigated her husband's murder. Some have thought both the queen and the nobles were implicated. The casket letters, alleged to have been found in a coffer that was given to Morton by Dalgleish when intrusted with it by Sir James Balfour for its delivery to Bothwell, must be left out in any fair examination of this question. The mode of their recovery and their production, first partially and secretly before Elizabeth's commissioners at York, then with apparent but not real publicity at Westminster (for Mary's counsellors were not allowed to see them), their contents, so different from her known writings, and the disappearance of the originals render their evidence inadmissible. What weighs most against Mary is her subsequent conduct, explicable only in favour of innocence if she was absolutely in Bothwell's power from the time of the murder to the defeat of Carberry,-an hypothesis not borne out by facts. Though Lennox and his wife urged that the murderers be brought. to justice, there was delay till 13th April, when Bothwell was at last brought before an assize. The trial was a sham, and his acquittal on the pretence that there was no accuser could deceive no one. with Both The strange wooing which commenced when Darnley was Mary's just buried, if not before, was continued by the seizure of relations Mary by Bothwell near Cramond and her captivity in her own castle of Dunbar-a pretence according to her adver- well. saries, an opportunity for an outrage from which marriage was the only escape according to her defenders-at last culminated in the marriage at six in the morning, at Holyrood, on the 15th of May 1567. It was the month when wicked women marry, said the people, writing Ovid's line on the Tolbooth walls. Before it took place she created Bothwell duke of Orkney, and pardoned him for any violence. She also wrote in palliation of his conduct to the French king. His divorce from Lady Jane Gordon had been hurried through both the bishops' court and that of the Protestant commissaries,—in the former on the false pretence that there had been no papal dispensation for his marriage to one of near kin, and in the latter on the ground of adultery. Mary had been more than once warned of the consequences of such a marriage by Lord Herries, by the faithful Melville, and by Craig, the minister who, with the utmost reluctance, proclaimed the banns. It was an act which required no warning. She had no alternative, urge her vindicators, to save her honour, and her tears on the morning of marriage are proof that she was forced; but the more scrupulous admit she should have preferred death to union with a man she must at least have known was not clear of Darnley's murder. Her enemies said then, and historians who take their side repeat, that it was the madness of a passion she could not resist. The view most consistent with the facts seems to be that she accepted, not without fits of remorse, the service of the strongest sword at her disposal on the only terms on which she Mary a could obtain it. But, if Mary cannot be acquitted of testant party increased in Scotland until it became a 1567-1569) ter. Meantime, in Scotland, four regencies rapidly succeeded each other during the minority of James. The deaths by violence of two regents, Moray and Lennox, the suspicion of foul play in the death of the third, Mar, and the end scarcely less violent because preceded by a trial of the fourth, Morton, mark a revolutionary period and the impossibility of the attempted solution by placing the government in the hands of the most powerful noble. Hereditary royalty, not the rule of the aristocracy, was still dominant in Scottish politics and a regency was an experiment already disparaged in the preceding reigns. Moray, said Sir J. Melville, "was and is called the good Moray's regent," mingling with this praise only the slight qualifi- characcation that in his later years he was apt to be led by The leading nobles were not disposed to accept a new flatterers, but testifying to his willingness to listen to master in Bothwell, whose vices, unlike those of Darnley, Melville's own counsels. This epithet bestowed by the were coupled with a strong instead of a weak character. Protestants, whose champion he was, still adheres to him; They kept jealous possession of the young prince, placed but only partisans can justify its use. He displayed great in the custody of Mar in Stirling; and, when a muster was promptness in baffling the schemes of Mary and her party, called to enforce order on the border, secretly collected suppressed with vigour the border thieves, and ruled with their forces to act against instead of for the queen and a firm hand, resisting the temptation to place .the crown her husband. Within a month of her marriage she was on his own head. His name is absent from many plots met at Carberry Hill, near Musselburgh (15th June 1567), of the time. He observed the forms of personal piety,by a force of the confederate lords, headed by Morton and possibly shared the zeal of the Reformers, while he moderGlencairn, Ruthven and Lindsay. Mary, after a fruitless ated their bigotry. But the reverse side of his character prisoner. attempt at mediation by Du Croc, the French ambassador, is proved by his conduct. He reaped the fruits of the and an offer equally vain by Bothwell to decide the conspiracies which led to Rizzio's and Darnley's murders. issue by single combat, surrendered to Kirkaldy. Both He amassed too great a fortune from the estates of the well rode off to Dunbar with a few followers, and Mary church to be deemed a pure reformer of its abuses. He was conducted to Morton's camp. Once in their hands, pursued his sister with a calculated animosity which would the lords treated her as a prisoner, and confined her at not have spared her life had this been necessary to his end Lochleven Castle, where she was forced to abdicate, sur- or been favoured by Elizabeth. The mode of production rendering the crown in favour of her son and committing of the casket letters and the false charges added by the regency during the minority to Moray. The young Buchanan, "the pen" of Moray, deprive Moray of any king was crowned at Stirling on 29th July. The prudent reasonable claim to have been an honest accuser, zealous Moray, who had kept out of the way in France while these only to detect guilt and to benefit his country. events were transacted in Scotland, now returned and was reluctance to charge Mary with complicity in the murder installed as regent (22d August). Mary remained prisoner of Darnley was feigned, and his object was gained when in Loch Leven for nearly a year. After her escape on 2d he was allowed to table the accusation without being forced May 1568 the duke of Chastelherault and other Catholic to prove it. Mary remained a captive under suspicion of nobles rallied round her standard; but on 13th May Moray the gravest guilt, while Moray returned to Scotland to rule and the Protestant lords met her forces at Langside in her. 'ead, supported by nobles who had taken part in the near Glasgow, and the issue of that battle forced her steps whch ended in Bothwell's deed. Moray left London His to fly to England, where she placed herself (19th May) in on 12th January 1569. During the year between his regency. the hands of Lord Lowther, governor of Carlisle, recalling return and his death several events occurred for which he Elizabeth's promises of protection. Mary, however, found has been censured, but which were necessary for his securthat she was really a prisoner. Like Baliol, she disappears ity,-the betrayal of the duke of Norfolk and of the secret personally from the field of Scottish history; but her life plot for the liberation of Mary to Elizabeth, the imprisonin exile, unlike his, was spent in busy plots to recover ment in Loch Leven of the earl of Northumberland, who her lost throne. It became clear as time went on that after the failure of his rising in the north of England had she placed her whole reliance on the Catholic minority and taken refuge in Scotland, and the charge brought against foreign aid; even in prison she was a menace to Elizabeth Maitland of Lethington of complicity in Darnley's murder. and ready to plot against her as an enemy. The Pro-Lethington was committed to custody, but rescued by The |