II. bench2, which was entirely under the influence of B O Ó K the Archbishop of St. Andrew's, and which, by its numbers and authority, usually had great weight in 1558. the house, so as to render any opposition it could give at that time of little consequence. The Earl of Argyll, and James Stewart Prior of St. Andrew's, one the most powerful, and the other the most popular leader of the Protestants, were appointed to carry the crown and other ensigns of royalty to the Dauphin. But from this they were diverted by the part they were called to act in a more interesting scene, which now begins to open. succeeds Before we turn towards this, it is necessary to Elizabeth observe, that on the seventeenth of November, one to the thousand five hundred and fifty-eight, Mary of crown of England. England finished her short and inglorious reign. Her sister Elizabeth took possession of the throne without opposition; and the Protestant religion was once more established by law in England. The accession of a Queen, who, under very difficult circumstances, had given strong indications of those eminent qualities, which, in the sequel, rendered her reign so illustrious, attracted the eyes of all Europe. Among the Scots, both parties observed her first motions with the utmost solicitude, as they easily foresaw that she would not remain long an indifferent spectator of their transactions. Under many discouragements and much oppression, the Reformation advanced towards a full esta z It appears from the rolls of this parliament, which Lesly calls a very full one, that only seven bishops and sixteen abbots were present. BOOK blishment in Scotland. All the low country, the II. most populous, and at that time the most warlike 1558. part of the kingdom, was deeply tinctured with the Protestant opinions; and if the same impressions were not made in the more distant counties, it was owing to no want of the same dispositions among the people, but to the scarcity of preachers, whose most indefatigable zeal could not satisfy the avidity of those who desired their instructions. Among a people bred to arms, and as prompt as the Scots to act with violence; and in an age when religious passions had taken such strong possession of the human mind, and moved and agitated it with so much violence, the peaceable and regular demeanour of so numerous a party is astonishing. From the death of Mr. Patrick Hamilton, the first who suffered in Scotland for the Protestant religion, thirty years had elapsed, and during so long a period no violation of public order or tranquillity had proceeded from that sect"; and though roused and irritated by the most cruel excesses of ecclesiastical tyranny, they did in no instance transgress those bounds of duty which the law prescribes to subjects. Besides the prudence of their own leaders, and the protection which the Queen Regent, from political motives, afforded them, the moderation of the Archbishop of St. Andrew's encouraged this pacific disposition. That prelate, whose private life cotempo a The murder of Cardinal Beatoun was occassioned by private revenge; and being contrived and executed by sixteen persons only, cannot with justice be imputed to the whole Protestant party. II. 1558. rary writers tax with great irregularities, governed B O O K the church, for some years, with a temper and prudence of which there are few examples in that age. But some time before the meeting of the last parliament, the Archbishop departed from those humane maxims by which he had hitherto regulated his conduct; and, whether in spite to the Queen, who had entered into so close an union with the Protestants, or in compliance with the importunities of his clergy, he let loose all the rage of persecution against the reformed; sentenced to the flames an aged priest, who had been convicted of embracing the Protestant opinions; and summoned several others, suspected of the same crine, to appear before a synod of the clergy, which was soon to convene at Edinburgh. Nothing could equal the horror of the Protestants at this unexpected and barbarous execution, but the zeal with which they espoused the defence of a cause that now seemed devoted to destruction. They had immediate recourse to the Queen Regent; and as her success in the parliament, which was then about to meet, depended on their concurrence, she not only sheltered them from the impending storm, but permitted them the exercise of their religion with more freedom than they had hitherto enjoyed. Unsatisfied with this precarious tenure by which they held their religious liberty, the Protestants laboured to render their possession of it more secure and independent. With this view, they determined to petition the Parliament Knox, Buchanan, Keith, 208. II. 1558. BOOK for some legal protection against the exorbitant and oppressive jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts, which, by their arbitrary method of proceeding, founded in the canon law, were led to sentences the most shocking to humanity, by maxims the most repugnant to justice. But the Queen, who dreaded the effect of a debate on this delicate subject, which could not fail of exciting high and dangerous passions, prevailed on the leaders of the party, by new and more solemn promises of her protection, to desist from any application to parliament, where their numbers and influence would, in all probability, have procured them, if not entire redress, at least some mitigation, of their grievances. They applied to another assembly, to a convocation of the Popish clergy, but with the same ill success which hath always attended every proposal for reformation addressed to that order of men. To abandon usurped power, to renounce lucrative error, are sacrifices which the virtue of individuals has, on some occasions, offered to truth; but from any society of men no such effort can be expected. The corruptions of a society recommended by common utility, and justified by universal practice, are viewed by its members without shame or horror; and reformation never proceeds from themselves, but is always forced upon them by some foreign hand. Suitable to this unfeeling and inflexible spirit was the behaviour of the convocation in the present conjuncture. All the demands of the Protestants were rejected with contempt; and the Popish clergy, far from endeavour II. ing, by any prudent concessions, to sooth and to BOOK reconcile such a numerous body, asserted the doctrines of their church, concerning some of the most exceptionable articles, with an ill-timed rigour, which gave new offence. During the sitting of the convocation, the Protestants first began to suspect some change in the Regent's disposition towards them. Though joined with them for many years by interest, and united, as they conceived, by the strongest ties of affection and of gratitude, she discovered, on this occasion, evident symptoms, not only of coldness, but of a growing disgust and aversion. In order to account, for this, our historians do little more than produce the trite observations concerning the influence of prosperity to alter the character and to corrupt the heart. The Queen, say they, having reached the utmost point to which her ambition aspired, no longer preserved her accustomed moderation, but, with an insolence usual to the fortunate, looked down upon those by whose assistance she had been enabled to rise so high. But it is neither in the depravity of the human heart, nor in the ingratitude of the Queen's disposition, that we must search for the motives of her present conduct. These were derived from another, and a more remote source, which, in order to clear the subsequent transactions, we shall endeavour to open some care. with 1558. 1559. The ambition of the Princes of Lorrain had been Ambitious no less successful than daring; but all their schemes the Princes views of |
