Page:Life of John Knox (4).pdf/3

3 The profusion of the Scots kept pace with their superstition for at the Reformation one half of the lands of Scotland were the property of the church. David I. had made over almost the whole of those belonging to the crown, and his example was imitated, not only by many of his successors, but by all orders of men, with whom the founding a monastery, or endowing a church, was thought to be a sufficient atonement for the breach of every command in the decalogue.

Besides the influence derived from the nature and extent of their property, generally let on lease, on easy terms, to the younger sons and dependents of great families, the weight the clergy had in Parliament was very considerable. The number of temporal barons being extremely limited, and the lesser barons and representatives of boroughs looking upon it as a hardship to attend, combined with the mode of choosing the Lords of the Articles Its proceedings in a great measure were left under their direction and control.

The Lords of the Articles were a Committee whose business it was to prepare and digest all matters that were to be laid before Parliament. Every motion for a new law was made in this committee, and approved or rejected by the members of it; what they approved was formed into a bill, and presented to Parliament; what they rejected could not be introduced into the house. This committee owed the extraordinary powers vested in it to the military genius of the ancient nobles, and in this way not only directed all the proceedings of Parliament, but possessed a negative before debate. It consisted of eight temporal and eight spiritual lords, of eight representatives of boroughs, and of the eight great officers of the crown, and when its composition is considered, it will easily