Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/415

A.D. 1559.] and roused the indignation of the country against the clergy. Emissaries were dispatched in all directions to stir up the people against such cruelty, and Mary of Guise was compelled to protest, to a deputation headed by Sir James Sandilands, that such measures were contrary to her wishes, and that the Protestants should have her protection. In the Parliament of December, 1558, the Lords of the Congregation demanded that all proceedings on account of heresy should be suspended till the present differences of opinion in the Church should be settled by a general council, and that no churchman should judge those accused of heresy, but lay judges only. At this crisis Elizabeth of England ascended the throne. The power of the Papists was there for a moment paralysed; but in France, Mary's daughter was now married, and her husband, the dauphin, was proclaimed king-consort of Scotland by consent of Parliament. Mary of Guise's objects were accomplished, and she at once threw off the disguise of assumed moderation towards the Reformers. She at once joined the policy of her brothers, the Duke of Guise and the cardinal, whose object was to combine France and the Papists of France, England, and Scotland, for the dethronement of Elizabeth, and the establishment of the Queen of Scots in her place. The first step was evidently to put down the Reformation in Scotland, and to secure the French dominance in that country, by which they imagined that, in combination with the disaffected Roman Catholics of England, they would easily depose Elizabeth.

A firm stand against the demands of the Reformers indicated this change in the policy of the queen-regent. In a convention of the clergy held in Edinburgh, in March, 1550, the Lords of the Congregation demanded that the bishops should be elected by the gentlemen of the diocese, and the clergy by people of each parish. This was peremptorily refused, and it was decreed that the practice of using English prayers should cease, no language should be permitted in public worship but Latin, and this was followed by a proclamation of the queen-regent, ordering all people to conform strictly to the established religion, to attend mass daily; and, in an interview with the leaders of the Protestants, she showed them the commands which she had received on these heads from France, and summoned the chief ministers of the reformed body to appear before a Parliament to be held at Stirling to answer for their conduct in introducing heretical practices and doctrines.

The astonished Lords of the Congregation protested against so arbitrary and alarming a determination of government, and reminded the queen-regent of her solemn and repeated promises of toleration and protection. "Promises," replied the regent, to their still greater amazement, "ought not to be urged upon princes, unless they can conveniently fulfil them." This flagrant avowal of the basest Jesuitical doctrine so startled the lords, that they replied, on the spot: "Madam, if you are resolved to keep no faith with your subjects, we will renounce our allegiance; and it will be for your grace to consider the calamities which such a state of things must entail upon the country."

For a moment this remonstrance appeared to influence the infatuated woman, but soon hearing that the town of Perth had embraced the Protestant faith, she was so exasperated that she commanded Lord Ruthven, the provost, to suppress the heresy. "Madam," replied that nobleman, "I can cut down the people till you are satiated with their blood; but over their consciences I have no power." Blind to the folly of her course, she reprimanded Ruthven for what she termed his malapert speech, and issued orders for Perth, Dundee, Montrose, and other places which had renounced Romanism to return to the ancient faith, duly to attend mass, and again summoned the reformed preachers to appear at Stirling to answer for their delinquencies.

At this moment, as by the direct ordering of Providence, Knox arrived. He found the position of Protestantism very different from that in which he left it. Then, the Reformers were zealous, but their numbers few; now, they were numerous and powerful, though menaced. Willock, Douglas, and other ministers had, during his absence, been labouring at the peril of their lives; but now, not only were they protected by the nobles, by the indignant spirit of the people at large, but by England under her new Protestant queen. It was determined by the Lords of the Congregation to attend their ministers to Stirling in such numbers as to overawe the Government, and Knox volunteered to take his part with the other preachers. The nobles and the people mustered at Perth, and Erskine of Dun was sent on to request an interview with the queen-regent. Mary of Guise, aware of the formidable assembly of the Protestants, on this occasion exercised that duplicity for which she became famous. On Erskine assuring her that the people asked for nothing more than to worship God according to their consciences in peace, she declared that that was only reasonable, and if the leaders would request their followers to disperse, the summonses to the ministers should be discharged, and toleration fully conceded. But no sooner had the people returned home from Perth on the faith of this promise, than, acting on her maxim that promises were only to be regarded by princes as long as they were convenient, she continued the summonses, denounced all who did not appear as rebels, and made it high treason for any one to harbour them. Erskine of Dun, burning with indignation at this gross perfidy, hastened to Perth, where, on the announcement of this news, Knox ascended the pulpit, and preached a fiery sermon against the idolatry of the mass, and enumerated the stern commands of Scripture for the destruction of all the monuments of that crime. Scarcely had the people retired from the church, when a priest, as in defiance, unveiled a rich shrine which stood above one of the altars, and, displaying the images of the Virgin and the saints, prepared to celebrate mass. An enthusiastic young man called to those standing around him to prevent such a perpetration of the idolatry just denounced in so terrible a manner; the priest struck him in resentment at the interruption, and the young man retaliated by flinging a stone, and dashing to pieces one of the images. This was the signal for a general onslaught on the altar. Images, candles, and ornaments were torn down in an instant and destroyed; and the noise recalling those without, there was a general rush into the church, and crosses, shrines, confessionals, paintings, and painted windows were rent and battered into a thousand