Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/277

 1582.] THE JESUITS IN SCOTLAND. 261 The supremacy of the Crown meant bishops, and bishops meant Popery in a disguise, which it would drop as soon as Protestantism was killed. Lennox, afraid of bullets and daggers, kept Montgomery with him at Dalkeith ; but to try his strength with the ministers, he one day sent him into Edinburgh with a company of men-at-arms, and attended by u pursuivant, who declared that, excommunicated or non-excom- municated, Bishop he was, and Bishop he should be. The Assembly gathered in force, and announced stormily that they would resist to death. Lennox inquired whether they or the King were the rulers in Scotland. They replied with a protest against the King's misgovernnient and violation of his oath. The supremacy of the Kirk was Christ's, not his. He was subverting the law of God by arbitrary force. They drew up a list of their grievances. Their synods, they said, were broken up, God's enemies were protected, and the ministers of Christ suspended or expelled from their offices. Excommunicated persons were supported and encouraged, and the ordinances to which the King had sworn were trodden under foot. Andrew Melville, with a deputation of the Presbytery, carried the docu- ment, when it was finished, into James's presence. ' Who dares subscribe these treasonable articles ? * said the Earl of Arran, who was at the King's side. ' We dare,' answered Melville, taking a pen from a clerk and writing his name at the foot of the paper ' We dare, and will render our lives in the cause.' Again a demonstration was attempted in Edinburgh