Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/324

 induce Morton to accept office as a lay elder, and to act as an ‘instrument of righteousness’ (‘Supplication to the Lord Regent,’ in Buik of the Universal Kirk, p. 292). But apart from other considerations, Morton deemed it advisable not to give the clergy a chance of beginning by exercising church discipline on himself. To repeated requests of the assembly that he would attend and countenance their proceedings he was accustomed to give the stereotyped answer that he had ‘no leisure to talk with them,’ until, exasperated beyond endurance by three importunate deputations in one day, he haughtily ‘threatened some of them with hanging, alledging that otherwise there could be no peace nor order in the country.’ ‘So ever resisting the worke in hand,’ says the sorrowful Calderwood, ‘he boore forward his bishops, and preassed to his injunctiouns and conformitie with England’ (Hist. iii. 394). The clergy had also a more substantial grievance. By acts passed 22 Dec. 1561 and 15 Feb. 1561–2 (Reg. Privy Counc. i. 192–4 and 201–2), it had been arranged that while two-thirds of the revenues of the benefices should remain in the hands of the ‘auld possessors,’ the other third should be applied to the support of the reformed clergy, any surplus that remained being used for crown purposes. There had, however, always been a difficulty in collecting the money, and Morton now proposed that the whole sum should be collected by the government, who were then to distribute their quota to the clergy. This being agreed to, he at once proceeded to reduce the number of the clergy by assigning two, three, or even four churches to one minister, while a reader at a small salary was appointed to every parish to officiate in the minister's absence. To their remonstrances he replied that as the surplus of the thirds belonged to the king, it was fitter that the regent and council rather than the church should determine its amount. This treatment of the clergy assisted to swell the general cry of avarice raised against him by his enemies. Modern historians generally have repeated the cry without any examination into its justice or its meaning. As regards the surplus of the thirds, it was well known that money was urgently needed at this time for the pacification of the borders. The nobles, who were greatly scandalised by his exertions to recover the crown jewels and lands alienated from the crown, also joined in the cry, but the avarice to which they principally objected was the honesty which prevented him from so distributing the ‘kingis geare as to satisfie all cravers’ (see letter of Morton in Reg. Honor. de Morton, i. 91). How jealous he was of his integrity as an administrator is seen in his anxiety to have an inventory taken of the king's property (which he had recovered with great difficulty and the penalty of much ill-will) in the castle of Edinburgh when required to deliver it up in 1578. ‘It is my wrack,’ he writes, ‘that is sought, and a great hurt to the king, gif his jewellis, moueables and munition suld be deliverit without Inventorie. Gif this be in heid to proceid thus, I pray yow laboure at your uttermaist power at all the Lordes handes to stop it’ (Earl of Morton to the Laird of Lochleven, 19 March 1577–8 in Reg. Honor. de Morton, i. 103). Morton was justly proud that he had been able during his regency, besides placing the revenues of the king on a proper footing, to put the king's palaces in good repair, and especially to restore and furnish the castle of Edinburgh, and Spotiswood, who had no presbyterian prejudice to distort his judgment, asserts that by these great services he ‘won both love and reverence, with the opinion of a most wise and prudent governor’ (Hist. ii. 195). Morton's faithfulness to Elizabeth also was assigned by the catholics to avarice, many, probably quite sincerely, placing his annual pension at 10,000l. As a matter of fact, during his regency he never received, and did not ask, from Elizabeth one penny for himself, and while importunate for money to defray military expenses, all his requests, though always backed up strongly by the English ambassadors in Scotland, were refused, even the payment of the rents of the king's estates in England being withheld (see numerous letters in the State Papers during the whole of this period). While the favour of Elizabeth was both fickle and sterile, the friendship of France was constantly pressed upon him with the offers of large bribes if he would only move to procure Mary's liberty; but to these offers he curtly replied that ‘as he was chosen the king's regent during his minority, he would not know any other sovereignty so long as the king lived’ (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1575–7, entry 294). It would appear, therefore, that the avarice which his enemies condemned in Morton, if it existed, was avarice of which the king reaped the chief if not the sole advantage. The cry led to the rumour that he possessed a fabulous store of treasure concealed in some secret place. After Morton's apprehension, one of his servants on being put to the torture stated ‘part of it to be lying in Dalkeith yaird under the ground; a part in Aberdour under a braid stane before the gate; and a part in Leith’ (, Hist. iii. 506); but all efforts to discover it were vain. Sir James Melville