Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/571

1543.] interests to which, he had sold himself; his courage was as matchless as his subtlety; his accomplishments as exquisite as his intellect.

It was little wonder that for such a man Henry thought the Tower of London a safer prison than Blackness, and himself a surer gaoler than the Earl of Arran. No sooner was Beton under arrest than he drew up letters of interdict for the whole of Scotland. They were passed through the hands of his keepers, and copies were distributed among the clergy. There was no lash or gallows, as in England, to correct the over-zeal of the ecclesiastics. The letters were obeyed without scruple and without exception. Although the 'gospellers' might preach, no mass might be sung in any church in Scotland, no corpse be buried, child be baptized, or impatient lover united in matrimony, till the heavy edict should be withdrawn. The body of the Cardinal was imprisoned. His spirit escaped through the walls and moved omnipotent through the land. When the people complained, it was answered that the servant of the Church was suffering for the truth and for his country, which a treacherous faction would betray to England and to heresy. The temporal lords of Scotland were ill able to cope with such an antagonist. It was not till a power, preternatural as his own, till the spirit of the Reformation stood out to battle with him, that the haughty Beton at last would vail his crest. The Government durst not