Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/272

 256 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 65. patron. The Assembly had lately resisted the appoint- ment of these imaginary dignitaries. The King found them financially convenient, and desired rather to give them a more substantive existence, as Crown officers for the control of the Church. It was an opportunity for Lennox to strike a blow at the organization of the Kirk, which had survived unexpectedly the fall of Morton. To establish bishops would be to divide Protestantism against itself, and make its ultimate overthrow the more easy. The See of Glasgow was considered vacant. The true Archbishop was in Paris. His restoration as a Catholic would have created an immediate outbreak ; and Mr Robert Montgomery, minister of Stirling, whose pliancy had been tried and could be depended on, was named to take his place. The Glasgow Presbytery re- fused to receive him, Lennox and the King insisted, and the struggle began between the prerogative and the in- dependence of the Church of Scotland. The Earl of Arran, already uneasy in the second place which had been assigned him, was inclined at first to bid for popularity, and take the Presbytery's side. But the Presbytery did not value their champion. Arran had seduced his friend's wife, and married her when on the point of her confinement. The Kirk compelled the pro- fligate pair to do public penance in Edinburgh, and made enemies of them for ever. The Catholics might make a heroine out of Mary Stuart. The Kirk did not choose to purchase a patron by flattering adultery, and preferred to fight their own battles with their own weapons. The contention about the bishopric of Glasgow was going on