Page:Life of John Knox (3).pdf/15

15 She therefore began to treat them with coldness and contempt, and not only approved the decrees of a convocation of the Popish clergy, in which the principles of the Reformation were condemned, but at the same time issued a proclamation enjoining the observance of Easter according to the ritual of the Romish church.

Alarmed at these proceedings, and still more at an order summoning all the reformed clergy in the kingdom to attend a court of justice at Stirling, on the 10th of May, 1559, the earl of Glencairn, and Hugh Campbell of Louden, were deputed to wait on her and intercede in their behalf. On urging their peaceable demeanour, and the purity of their doctrine, she said, “In despite of you and your ministers both, they shall be banished out of Scotland, albeit they preached as true as ever did St Paul." And on pleading her former promises of protection, she replied, "The promises of princes ought not to be too carefully remembered, nor the performance of them exacted unless it suits their convenience.”

Perth, in the meantime, having embraced the Reformed religion, added to the rage, which agitated the Queen against the Protestants, and she commanded the provost (Patrick Ruthven) to suppress all their assemblies. The answer of this gentleman deserves to be recorded for its manly freedom "I have power over their bodies, and estates," said, he, " and these I will take care shall do no hurt; but have no dominion over their consciences." The day of trial now approached, and the town of Dundee, and the gentlemen of Angus and Mearns, in conformity of an old custom which prevailed in Scotland, resolved to accompany their pastors to the place of trial. Intimidated by their numbers, though unarmed, she prevailed on John Erskine