Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/530

Rh 506 SCOTLAND [HISTORY. 569-1575. Kirkaldy of Grange, who held the castle of Edinburgh, and while there " the chameleon," as Buchanan named Mait land in his famous invective, contrary to the nature of that animal, gained over those in the castle, including Kirkaldy. Moray was afraid to proceed with the charge on the day of trial, and Kirkaldy and Maitland became partisans of the queen. The castle was the stronghold of the queen's party, being isolated from the town and able to hold out against the regent who governed in the name of her son. This defection was mourned over by the Reformers. Knox, with the self-confidence which marked his character, sent from his deathbed to Kirkaldy a message of warning that " neither the craggy rock in which he confided, nor the carnal wisdom of the man [Maitland] whom he esteemed a demi-god, nor the assist- ance of strangers, should preserve him from being disgrace- fully dragged to ignominious punishment." It has been suspected that Maitland and Kirkaldy were cognizant of the design of Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh to murder Moray, for he had been with them in the castle. This has been ascribed to private vengeance for the ill-treatment of his wife ; but the feud of the Hamiltons with the regent is the most reasonable explanation. As he rode through Linlithgow Moray was shot (23d January 1570) from a window by Hamilton, who had made careful preparation for the murder and his own escape. Moray was buried in the south aisle of St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, amid gen- eral mourning. Knox preached the sermon and Buchanan furnished the epitaph, both unstinted panegyrics. His real character is as difficult to penetrate as that of Mary. It is easy for the historian to condemn the one and praise the other according to his own religious or political creed. It is nearer truth to recognize in both the graces and talents of the Stuart race, which won devoted followers, but to acknowledge that times in which Christian divines approved of the murder of their enemies were not likely to produce a stainless heroine or faultless hero, indeed necessitated a participation in deeds which would be crimes unless they can be palliated as acts of civil war. Let us absolve, if we can, Moray and Mary of Darnley's blood. It remains indisputable that Mary ap- proved of Moray's assassination and that Moray would have sanctioned Mary's death. Regen- Moray was succeeded in the regency by Lennox, Darnley's cies of father, the male nearest of kin to the future sovereign, but 5 ^ n f X really the nominee of Elizabeth. His brief term of office and Mar. 1-111 .1 i, ^ was marked by the renewal of the English war under Sussex and other generals, which made the queen's cause again the more popular. Lennox, another victim of violence, was slain (3d September 1571) in a hasty attack by one of the Hamiltons on Stirling, from which Morton, the real head of the Protestant party, who at first had been taken and threatened with the same fate, barely escaped. Mar, who had all along held the custody of the young king, was now chosen regent and held the post for a year, when he died (28th October 1572). During his regency the civil war between the queen's and the king's party continued. An English intrigue was carried on with great mystery, and never brought to a point, by Randolph and Killigrew to deliver Mary to the regent that she might be tried within her own dominions. On the death of Mar, Morton, who had been the most powerful noble during the last regency, at length reached the object of his ambition by being elected regent. On the day of Morton's election Knot's Knox died. He was "one," said Morton, "who never work. feared the face of man." If ve condemn his violent language and bitter spirit, it is just to remember that he lived during the red heat of the struggle between Rome and the Reformation, and died before the triumph of the latter in Scotland was secure. He had felt the thongs of Morton. the galleys and narrowly escaped the stake. The massacre of St Bartholomew spread consternation throughout Pro- testant Europe just before his last illness. Mary and Philip of Spain were still plotting for the destruction of all he held vital. His scheme for the reformation of the church and application of its revenues was in advance not of his own time only. He contemplated free education for children of the poor who really required such aid, a graduated system of parish schools, burgh schools, and universities, which would have forestalled the most recent educational reform. While he introduced Presbyterian government by kirk -sessions, presbyteries, synods, and general assembly and opposed even a modified Episcopacy, he saw the advantage of the superintendence of districts by the more learned and able clergy. While he insisted on the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments in the vulgar tongue, his liturgy shows his favour for forms of public prayer. Knox's first wife was English, and two of his sons took orders in the Church of England. Scottish Presbyterianism had not yet been hardened by persecution into a hatred of prelacy as bitter as that of Popery. It meant separation from Rome, but inclined to union with England, and the question of the form of church government was still open. Morton, like his predecessor, favoured the Episcopal Regency order, and, acting upon a compromise agreed to at Leith, a modified Episcopacy was restored. The bishops appointed were declared subject to the king in temporal and to the church and general assembly in spiritual matters, and were to have the same jurisdiction as the superintendents. The assembly of Perth protested against the use of certain ecclesiastical titles, but passed over that of bishop. Most of the clergy sanctioned, though with reluctance, the ap- pointment of bishops in the hope of retaining their re- venues. The people called them " tulchan " bishops, from the straw counterfeit used to rob the calf of its mother's milk. Almost the whole church property remained in the hands of the landed proprietors, Moray in the first instance and afterwards Morton receiving a lion's share. Avarice was Morton's besetting sin. In other respects he was an energetic and capable ruler. He effected at Perth, with the aid of Elizabeth's envoy, a pacification with Huntly, Chastelherault, and the Catholic nobles who supported Mary. Only the castle of Edinburgh held out, and this, aided by English artillery, he succeeded in taking after a brave resistance by Kirkaldy and Lethington. Kirkaldy and his brother were executed at the cross of Edinburgh. Lethington escaped their fate in what Melville calls " the Roman manner," at his own hands, perhaps by poison. The death of the bravest and the ablest Scotsman of that age put an end to the last chance of Mary's restoration by native support. Morton, now without a rival, restored order in the borders, and when an encounter occurred between the English and Scottish borderers called the Raid of the Redswyre his prudence prevented it becoming a national conflict. He appointed a commission for the reform of the law, a far-sighted scheme, often at- tempted but always stopping short of success, to codify the law, which several Continental states, notably Denmark, about this period engaged in. The time was not ripe for a change which, now that it is, remains unaccomplished. But, while all seemed to favour Morton, there were under- currents which combined to procure his fall. The Presby- terian clergy were alienated by his leaning to Episcopacy, and all parties in the divided church by his seizure of its estates. Andrew Melville, who had succeeded to the leadership of Knox, was more decided than Knox against any departure from the Presbyterian model, and refused to be won by a place in his household. His expensive buildings at Dalkeith, which got the name of