Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/257

 1570.] EXCOMMUNICATION OF ELIZABETH. 243 Had Scotland remained as he had known it ten years before a country without a people, a country of noble- men and gentlemen where the commons had no exist- ence except as servants or retainers or dependants, the Knot which killed Murray would have killed the Re- formation. The first champions of the cause, the Lords of the Congregation, were divided, distracted, bankrupt in fortune and principle, and with little heart to con- tinue the struggle ; but it was not for nothing that John Knox had for ten years preached in Edinburgh, and his words been echoed from a thousand pulpits. The murders, the adulteries, the Bothwell scandals, and other monstrous games which had been played before heaven there since the return of the Queen from France, had been like whirlwinds fanning the fire of the new teaching. Princes and Lords only might have noble blood, but every Scot had. a soul to be saved, a con- science to be outraged by these enormous doings, and an arm to strike with in revenge for them. Elsewhere the plebeian element of nations had risen to power through the arts and industries which make men rich the commons of Scotland were sons of their religion : while the nobles were splitting into factions, chasing their small ambitions, taking securities for their fortunes, or entangling themselves in political intrigues, the trades- men, the mechanics, the poor tillers of the soil, had sprung suddenly into consciousness with spiritual con- victions for which they were prepared to live and die. The fear of God in them left no room for the fear of any other thing, and in the very fierce intolerance which Knox had poured into their veins they had become a