THE POPISH LORDS--MELVILLE AND THE KING AT FALKLAND PALACE
'The king he movit his bonnet to him,
He ween'd he was a king as weel as he.'
_Johnie Armstrong._
The end of the Church's troubles in Scotland was still far off. No
sooner had the constitution of 1592, which promised to secure her peace
and liberty, been set down in the statute-book, than the forces of
reaction, headed by the Crown, began to work for the undoing of it; and
the Church was to pass through a century of almost continuous struggle
and of many and bitter disappointments--a century which had great part
in the making of Scotland--before that constitution was finally
ratified.
The slackness of James towards the Popish agents, who had resumed their
intrigues in the country, has been referred to. Those best informed in
public affairs both in England and Scotland shared the indignation and
alarm in the matter which were expressed by the ministers. One day, in
the very year after the Armada, as James was in the Tolbooth with the
Lords of Session, a packet was put into his hands from the English
Queen containing intercepted treasonable letters from the Popish lords
in Scotland to the King of Spain and the Duke of Parma, and accompanied
by the following letter in Elizabeth's own hand, in which she rates him
for his fatuous lenity towards subjects who had joined hands with the
enemies of his kingdom:--
'MY DEERE BROTHER,--I have ere now assured you, that als long
as I found you constant in amitie towards me, I would be your
faithfull watche, to shunne all mishappes or dangers that, by
assured intelligence, I might compasse to give you. And
according to my good devotioun and affectioun, it hath pleased
God to make me, of late, so fortunat as to have intercepted a
messinger (whom I keepe safe for you), that carried letters of
high treasoun to your persone and kingdome; and can doe no
lesse, than with most gladenesse, send you the discovered
treasoun, suche as you may see, as in a glasse, the true
portrature of my late wairning letters; which, if then it had
pleased you follow, als weill as read, you might have taiken
their persons, receaved their treasoun, and shunned their
further strenthening, which hath growne daylie by your too
great neglecting and suffering of so manie practises which, at
the beginning, might easilie have been prevented.
'Permitt me, I pray you, my deere brother, to use als muche
plainnesse as I beare you sinceritie, your supposing to deale
moderatlie and indifferentlie to both factions, and not to take
nor punishe, at the first, so notorious offenders, as suche as
durst send to a forrane king for forces to land in your land
under what pretence soever, without your special directioun,
the same never punished; but rather, holde foote deere and
neere, with a parentage of neare allya. Good Lord! me thinke I
doe but dreame: no king a weeke would beare this! Their forces
assembled, and held neere your persoun, held plotts to take
your persoun neere the seaside; and that all this wrapped up
with giving them offices, that they mighte the better
accomplishe their treasoun! These be not the formes of
governments that my yeeres have experimented: I would yours had
noucht, for I sweare unto you myne sould never in like sort.
'I exhort you be not subject to such weaknesse, as to suffer
such lewdnesse so long to roote, as all your strenth sall not
plucke up (which God forbid!), which to shunne, after you have
perused this great packet that I sent you, take speedie order
lest you linger too long; and take counsell of few, but of wise
and trustie. For if they suspect your knowledge they will
shunne your apprehensioun. Therefore of a suddantie they must
be clapped up in safer custodie than some others have been,
which hath bred their laughter. You see my follie when I am
entered to matter that toucheth you so neere. I know not how to
ende but with my prayers to God to guide you for your best. My
agent with you sall tell you the rest.
'Your most aproved loving sister and consignesse,
'ELIZABETH R.'[18]
[Footnote 18: Calderwood's _History_, v. 9.]
An incident which occurred at the close of 1592, and which is known in
our history as 'The Spanish Blanks,' brought to an acute crisis the
suspicion and discontent of the country, and especially of the
ministers. A Papist of the name of Kerr was about to embark on his ship,
which was lying off Fairlie Roads on the Ayrshire coast, when he was
arrested by a posse of Glasgow students and local gentry, with Knox the
minister of Paisley at their head. In conversation with some of the
people, Kerr had led them to suspect that he was bound for Spain as the
agent of some plot, and information to this effect was immediately
communicated to the authorities in the neighbourhood, and among others
to Knox. Only a month before, at the instance of Melville, the ministers
had formed a vigilance committee to gather reports from every parish in
the country of any sinister movements on the part of the Papists, and to
lay these before the Council, that steps might be taken at once to
defeat them. Kerr's apprehension was a proof of the efficiency of this
organisation. A search having been made, there were found in his
possession, along with many treasonable letters, several sheets of paper
containing no writing. They were addressed to the King of Spain,
however, and bore the signatures and seals of the three chief Popish
lords--Huntly, Angus, and Errol. Attached to these documents was a
commission to a Jesuit named Crichton, to fill up the blanks, and in
such a way--so it transpired afterwards--as to invite Philip to invade
the country, and to pledge to him the support of these nobles. Kerr and
an accomplice, Graham of Fintry, were brought before the Council and
confessed the plot; and a few days after the arrest of Kerr, before the
report of it had spread through the country, the Earl of Angus, having
occasion to come to Edinburgh, was seized by the magistrates and
confined in the Castle.
The King was absent from the city at the time attending the marriage
festivities of the Earl of Mar, and an urgent request was sent to him by
the ministers of Edinburgh and his own Council to return and take steps
to bring the conspirators to justice. James, instead of thanking the
ministers and councillors for their diligence in the matter, blamed them
for their super-serviceableness, and so gave the impression that he was
in sympathy with the plot. Kerr himself, in a letter to the King, went
the length of saying that he and his friends had no doubt that they
would have his countenance in their enterprise; and Calderwood
says:--'It appeareth the chief conspirators have had his [the King's]
expresse or tacite consent, or at least have perceaved him inclyned that
way, whereupon they have presumed.' Events confirmed the suspicion, if
it wanted confirmation, of James's secret leanings to the party that had
been guilty of treason. Only one of them--Graham, the most insignificant
of their number--paid the penalty of his crime; Kerr and the Earl of
Angus escaped from prison with the connivance of the authorities;
Huntly, who had been summoned to stand trial before the Privy Council,
retired to his own territory and defied the Government, and it was only
when he could no longer resist the popular will that the King took
action against him. At the head of a considerable force, James set out
to seize him; but when the army reached Aberdeen it was found that the
Earl had retired further north to the Caithness moors. The subsequent
treatment of the rebel lords showed that the King had no heart in their
prosecution--indeed, in an unguarded moment, while conversing with one
of the few nobles who were reckoned friends of the Protestant cause,
Lord Hamilton, he let out this fact. Had it not been for the pressure
of the ministers, nothing would have been done. James trifled with the
business: he scolded and coaxed the ministers in turn; he threatened
them, and then gave way and promised to bring the offenders to trial,
but still made no move; he allowed the conspirators to appear in public
and to have interviews with himself in which he made it apparent that
they had little to fear at his hands; he tampered with his own law
officers in the traitors' interest; and through his influence with
Parliament they were virtually absolved and their forfeitures cancelled.
But the ministers were stronger and far more really representative of
the nation than the Parliament--a fact which markedly characterises this
long crucial period of Scottish history, and which must always be borne
in mind for a right understanding of events.
The two Melvilles took the lead in the Church's action. At the Synod of
Fife, September 1593, excommunication was pronounced on the Popish
lords; and steps were taken to hold an early meeting in Edinburgh of
commissioners from the counties to adopt such measures as would secure
the ends of justice. At this convention, delegates were appointed to
meet with the King and represent to him the necessity of taking vigorous
action against the lords. The interview took place at Jedburgh, where
the King had gone to repress some Border tumult. 'We war bot
bauchlie[19] lukit upon,' says James Melville, who was one of the
delegates.--'Our Assembly of Fife was bitterly inveyit against, namlie
my uncle Mr. Andro and Mr. David Black.' Before the interview closed,
the King became more gracious, and he dismissed the delegates with fair
promises; but his real answer was the subsequent passing through
Parliament of an Act of Oblivion in favour of the lords, which he urged
on the unkingly ground that, if severe measures were taken against them,
they would go 'to armes and get forean assistance quhilk might wrack
King, Country, and Relligion.'
[Footnote 19: Sorrily.]
Parliament had given way to the King: but the ministers kept their
ground. The Assembly of May 1594 ratified the deed of the Synod of Fife
in excommunicating the Popish lords, and appointed another commission to
meet with the King and urge him in the matter, James Melville being
again one of the delegates and their spokesman. The manner in which the
King received them was very different from that in which he had received
the deputation at Jedburgh, and surprised them by its friendliness. He
expressed his regret at the misunderstandings that had arisen between
himself and the Church, heard the statements of the delegates with
apparent favour, and promised to summon Parliament for the earliest
convenient day to take measures for the punishment of the excommunicated
lords. At the close of the conference the King detained James Melville
for a private interview, and sent through him a friendly message to his
uncle, acknowledging both to be most faithful and trusty subjects. From
this time, for the space of two years, James Melville by the King's
command went a great deal about the Court. 'Courting' did not go with
his heart, but he was reconciled to it by the hope that he might be of
service in bringing the King into better relations with the Church. The
King's motive in inviting him to Court may be inferred from an incident
which occurred one day when he had been conferring with the King on
Church affairs. As Melville left the room the King was overheard saying
to a courtier, 'I have streaked his mouth with cream.' James little knew
the man, than whom there was not among his subjects one less likely to
be seduced from his convictions by a king's flattery or favours. When
the King found after a two years' trial that he was untamable, James
Melville's 'Courting' days ceased.
The King's change of policy in the business concerned and his adoption
of a more conciliatory attitude to the ministers are not difficult to
explain. He had come to realise that they were too strong for him: they
had the country with them, while towards himself there was a universal
feeling of suspicion and discontent. Moreover, the ministers had a
strong ally in Queen Elizabeth, who continued to make angry
remonstrances with James on his treatment of the rebel lords. In one
stinging letter she said 'she could only pray for him, and leave him to
himself. She did not know whether sorrow or shame had the upper hand,
when she had learned that he had let those escape against whom he had
such evident proof. Lord! what wonder grew in her that he should correct
them with benefits and simply banished them to those they loved. She
more than smiled to read their childish, foolish, witless excuses,
turning their treasons' bills to artificers' reckonings, one billet
lacking only, item, so much for the cord they best merited.'[20]
[Footnote 20: Cunningham's _History_, i. 424.]
James dared not longer defy the feeling of the country, and accordingly
Parliament was summoned in June 1594 and the trial of the Popish lords
proceeded with, the King professing the greatest zeal in it, and
declaring that, as he had found 'plaister and medicine' unavailing in
dealing with the traitors, he would now 'use fire as the last remedie.'
It fell to Parliament to choose those who composed the court in trials
for treason--the Lords of the Articles they were called,--and some of
those who were chosen on this occasion were notoriously tainted with
treason themselves. Melville, who was present in the Parliament as a
commissioner of the Church, attended the opening of the court, and,
addressing the King and the judges, admonished them to deal with the
cause as the laws of the realm and the safety of the country required.
'It is true,' he said, 'manie thinke it a mater of great weight to
overthrow the estate of three so great men. I grant it is so: yitt it is
a greater mater to overthrow and expell out of this countrie three farre
greater; to witt, true religioun, the quietnesse of the commoun weale,
and the King's prosperous estat.' He then challenged the composition of
the court: '"There come some heere to reasoun who have no interest, but
ought to be excluded by all law,"--meaning of the Pryour of Pluscardie,
brother to the Lord Setoun, who was after made chanceller. Some
answered, that he was a man of honorable place, President of the
Sessioun. Mr. Andrew answered, more honorable were debarred from place
among the Lords of the Articles. The King confessed it was true, and
promised it sould be amended. "Nixt," said Mr. Andrew, "there are some
on the Articles justlie suspected partiall, and almost als guiltie as
the persons that are to be tryed." The Abbot of Inchaffrey and Mr.
Edward Bruce sitting together laughed. The King asked at Mr. Andrew who
it was that was suspected? Mr. Andrew said, "One laughing there." Mr.
Edward asked if he meant of him. Mr. Andrew answered, "If yee confesse
your self guiltie, I will not purge you: but I meant of Inchaffrey
there, beside you." The King sayeth to Mr. Edward, "That is Judas'
questioun, 'Is it I, Maister?'"--whereat was muche laughter.'
The forfeiture of the lords was agreed to, all but unanimously. But it
was easier to pronounce this sentence than to execute it. Huntly, the
chief traitor, defied the Government from his stronghold in the North,
where he was all-powerful. The Crown had no standing army, and depended
in military undertakings on the great feudal lords, one of the greatest
of whom, Argyle, the potentate of the West Highlands, was ready to take
the field against his rival, Huntly, in the North. He invaded the
Gordon district with a strong force, but was beaten by Huntly at
Glenlivet. The Crown then raised an army of its own, by proclamation,
and the King marched north with the force, accompanied on his own
command by the two Melvilles, that their presence might be a pledge to
the country of his sincerity and zeal in the business. On the army
reaching Aberdeen, it was found that Huntly and his friends had again
fled to Caithness, and it was resolved to go on to the district of the
rebels and demolish their strongholds. The weather was so severe,
however, that the army could not move out of Aberdeen for a whole month;
and by that time all the money the King had in hand for the expense of
the war was exhausted, and it became necessary to raise more. The means
he took to do this showed his estimate of the ministers' hold on the
country. He sent James Melville south to enlist their services in
procuring the money, and with him a letter in his own hand to the
ministers of Edinburgh, whom he addressed as his 'trusty friends,' in
which he made a fervent appeal to them to rouse the burgesses to do
their duty in the matter, and declared that, rather than that there
should be any miscarriage of justice, he would 'give crown, life, and
all else God had put into his hands.'
The King's message had been no sooner despatched than a difference of
opinion arose among his advisers as to the course to be pursued with the
rebels. A majority was in favour of taking no further action, while
Melville vehemently urged that the army should advance into Huntly's
territory and overthrow his chief stronghold, the castle of Strathbogie.
The King could better afford to differ from the Council than from
Melville, whose advice he adopted and at once put into execution; and
when the rebels heard of the destruction of Strathbogie, they believed
that at last the King was serious in the business, and Huntly and his
friends fled from the country in despair.
This expedition took place in the fall of 1594. Before another year was
over the King's attitude towards the Church was again hostile, or
rather, his latent hostility began to be again evident and active. The
removal from the Court of the Chancellor about this time, through an
illness of which he soon died, so far accounts for the King's relapse in
his relations with the ministers, as for some time Maitland's influence
had been used in encouraging him to cultivate their friendship.
In 1595, the King incurred one of those periodic explosions of
Melville's indignation, which were provoked by his own incurable
distrust of the ministers, and his persistent effort to deprive them of
liberty of speech in the pulpit. Mr. David Black of St. Andrews, one of
the most zealous and honoured ministers of the Church, had made an enemy
of Balfour of Burley, who has already been referred to in connection
with outrages on citizens of St. Andrews. In revenge, Balfour raised
calumnious charges against Black of disloyal utterances in the pulpit,
and got them conveyed, through acquaintances among the courtiers, to the
King's ears; Melville, as his friend, and as having been the means of
bringing him to the city, being also reported to the King as involved in
his offences. The two were summoned to appear before the King and
Council at Falkland to answer the accusations that had been made against
them. While Black and his accusers were being heard, Melville, who had
not been called, and who was determined that he would see justice done
to his friend, knocking at the door, burst into the Council Chamber,
'and efter humble reverence done to the King, he braks out with grait
libertie of speitche, letting the King planlie to knaw, that quhilk
dyvers tymes befor, with small lyking, he haid tooned in his ear, "Thait
thair was twa Kings in Scotland, twa Kingdomes, and twa Jurisdictiones:
Thir was Chryst Jesus, etc.: And gif the King of Scotland, civill King
James the Saxt, haid anie judicator or cause thair, presentlie, it sould
nocht be to judge the fathfull messanger of Jesus Chryst, the King,
etc., bot (turning him to the Lard of Burley, standing there) this
trator, wha hes committed divers poinets of his treasone against his
Majestie's civill lawes, to his grait dishonour and offence of his guid
subjects, namlie, taking of his peacable subjects on the night out of
thair housses, ravishing of weimen, and receating within his hous of the
King's rebels and forfault enemies!"
'With this, Burley falles down on his knees to the King, and craves
justice. "Justice!" sayes Mr. Andro, "wald to God yow haid it! Yow wald
nocht be heir to bring a judgment from Chryst upon the King, and thus
falslie and unjustlie to vex and accuse the fathfull servants of God!"
The King began, with sum countenances and speitches, to command silence
and dashe him; bot he, insurging with graitter bauldnes and force of
langage, buir out the mater sa, that the King was fean to tak it upe
betwix tham with gentill termes and mirrie talk; saying, "They war bathe
litle men, and thair hart was at thair mouthe!"' Melville's boldness
stopped the proceedings, and there and then the trial took end.
We have now reached a period, 1596, just midway between the Reformation
and the Covenant, when the Crown resumed its openly hostile policy
towards the Church, laying upon her once more the heavy hand of
oppression. From this date it pursued its object--the introduction of
Episcopacy--more energetically than before. For the first decade of the
renewed struggle it was strenuously opposed by the leaders of the
Assembly; but thereafter, when the leaders had been silenced or
banished, there was a free course for tyranny, and during the next fifty
years the fortunes of the Church suffered an eclipse. To see the
emergence we have to look ahead to 1632-1638, the period of the Covenant
and the Glasgow Assembly, when there came that revival of the spirit of
the Church which prepared her for her ultimate conflict and hard-won
victory in 1688.
The cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, had already appeared on the
horizon in the changed attitude of the King, which we have just noted;
but there was no one able to foresee the storm it portended, which was
to rage so long and so cruelly before the sky cleared again.
James Melville speaks of 1596 as to be 'markitt for a special perriodic
and fatall yeir to the Kirk of Scotland,' and he enters on his narrative
of it 'with a sorrowful heart and drouping eyes,' so 'doolful' was the
decay it ushered in. The declension is not to be wondered at; for where
has a Church been found in which such prolonged oppression as the
Scottish Church had been subjected to, did not weary the patience and
damp the zeal of all but the most resolved members of its Communion? Had
we been present at one of the diets of the Assembly, held in March of
this 'fatall' year, we should have witnessed a scene which might have
been taken as an augury of good to the Church, rather than of evil. It
was a day set apart for humiliation and the renewal of the Covenant, and
no day had been seen like it, since the Reformation, in the spiritual
fervour which was evoked. The exhortations of the preacher drew forth
such sighs and sobs and weeping, that the House was turned into a
Bochim; and when those present were asked to signify their entrance into
a new covenant with God, the congregation rose _en masse_ and held up
their hands. Similar scenes took place in the Synods and Presbyteries to
which the movement extended. 'I am certaine,' says James Melville, 'by
the experience found in my selff and maney others present in these
meittinges, that the Assemblies of the saintes in Scotland wes nevir
more beautiful and gloriouse by the manifold and mightie graces of the
presence of the Holy Spirit.'
This devotional diet of the Assembly was held as the prelude to a work
of reformation in religion and morals on which the Church had set its
heart, and which, beginning with the ministry, was to be sought also in
the Parliament, in the Court, in the seats of justice, in every
household, in all ranks and classes, from the King to the meanest of his
subjects, to those who were in the highways and hedges, to the 'pypers,
fidlers, songsters, sorners, peasants, and beggars.' It was an
exhaustive programme; and the ministers gave undeniable proofs of their
sincerity by setting themselves to put their own house in order, and
drawing up ordinances for sifting their own ranks and 'rypping' out
their own ways. The scheme, as it applied to others, was too much of the
nature of a magisterial inquisition for sin to do credit to its
promoters' wisdom, if the ends they sought did honour to their hearts.
No doubt, the condition of the country was such as to distress every
good citizen and to make any remedy welcome. There was clamant need for
reform in every department of the State. The administration of justice
was, by its corruption and its ineffectiveness in the punishment of
crime, a disgrace to the country. These were matters of public scandal,
calling clearly for public agitation and reform; but in matters of
private and domestic life the ministers should have been content with
exhortation and example as their means of reformation. A moral police
proved then as intolerable and ineffectual as it must always be. Our
concern is to vindicate, not the absolute wisdom of Melville and the
other ministers of that day, but their thoroughgoing and disinterested
zeal for the purity and godliness of their nation, of which this scheme
of reform is a signal proof.
The movement of the Assembly was soon checked by fresh troubles in the
State. It was well known that Philip had never ceased to chafe at the
humiliation inflicted on him by the disastrous end of the Armada, and
that he was burning for revenge. In January of this year James had
issued a Proclamation in which he declared that the ambition of the King
of Spain to make conquest of the Crown and Kingdom of England was
manifest to all who had the least 'spunk of understanding'; that to have
such a neighbour settled on the borders of Scotland would be attended
with the eminent hazard of civil and spiritual thraldom; and that it was
therefore necessary to unite all their force and concur with England in
the defence of their ancient liberties and in preserving the isle from
the tyranny of strangers. At the Assembly last held the King had been
present, and had urged that contributions should be made from the whole
realm for this purpose, when Melville rose and told him, with his usual
plainness of speech, that if the estates of the Popish lords were
applied, as they should be, to the defence of the country, no
contributions would be needed from the people.
We can imagine the shock of alarm with which in these circumstances the
nation heard that the Earl of Huntly and his associates had returned to
Scotland, and the rising exasperation as it became evident that the King
was disposed to let them settle down peaceably. Who could fathom the
mind or trust the intentions of a King who roused the nation to resist
Philip, while he at the same time harboured the faction that was
prepared, when Philip appeared, to give him welcome?
A change had recently taken place in the _personnel_ of the Government
that did not tend to allay the apprehensions which the return of the
rebel lords awakened in the country. A Commission of eight had been
appointed to manage the King's private property and the Crown estates;
but though nominally only a Finance Committee, 'the Octavians,' as they
were called, soon got the reins of government into their hands; and of
this new Cabinet, 'one-half ... war suspecte Papists, and the rest
little better.'
In August 1596 the Estates were summoned to meet in Falkland and consult
what was to be done with the Popish lords. From the manner in which the
meeting was called, it was evident that the King and his ministers had
resolved to condone the crimes of Huntly and his allies, and to restore
them to their honours and estates. The summons was confined to those
members who were friendly to the lords, and to such of the ministers of
the Church as might be expected to yield to the wishes of the Court.
Melville, however, appeared with a commission from the Church which gave
him authority to watch over its interests on all occasions on which they
might be in danger. When the King, before the sitting had begun,
demanded the reason of his presence, and bade him go home, Melville
answered that he must first discharge the commission intrusted to him by
God and the Church. The session having opened, the King ordered that the
members should take their seats as their names were called from the
list. Melville, without his name being called, was among the first to
enter, when the King's challenge gave him the opportunity he sought of
delivering his soul: 'Sir, I have a calling to com heir be Chryst Jesus
the King, and his Kirk, wha hes speciall entres in this tourn,[21] and
against quhilks directlie this Conventioun is mett; charging yow and
your Esteattes in his nam, and of his Kirk, that yie favour nocht his
enemies whom he hattes, nor go nocht about to call hame and mak
citiciners, these that has traterouslie sought to betrey thair citie and
native countrey to the crewall Spainyard, with the overthrow of Chryst's
Kingdome, fra the quhilk they have bein thairfor maist justlie cutt of
as rotten members; certifeing, if they sould do in the contrair, they
sould feill the dint of the wrathe of that King and his Esteattes!' On
the King interrupting him and commanding him to go out, Melville obeyed,
thanking God that 'they haid knawin his mynd and gottin his message
dischargit.'
[Footnote 21: Interest in this business.]
The business at this meeting of the Estates was all 'chewed meit.' The
Resolutions were prepared by the King for a House packed with his
nominees, and it was agreed to license the return of the lords and to
receive their submission.
In September the Commission of Assembly met at Cupar and appointed a
deputation, consisting of the two Melvilles and other two ministers, to
lay before the King their complaint regarding the decision of the
Parliament, and to crave him to prevent it being carried into effect.
The interview between Andrew Melville, the spokesman of the deputation,
and King James at Falkland Palace is an event of which the memory will
live in Scotland as long as it is a nation, and which ranks in moral
dignity and dramatic interest with the greatest scenes in history. When
did a subject ever use a manlier freedom with his Sovereign? When did
mere titular kingship more plainly shrink into insignificance in
presence of the moral majesty vested in the spirit of a true man? No
writer can afford to describe the scene in other words than those of
James Melville:--
'Mr. Andro Melvill, Patrik Galloway, James Nicolsone, and I,
cam to Falkland, whar we fand the King verie quyet. The rest
leyed upon me to be speaker, alleaging I could propone the
mater substantiuslie, and in a myld and smothe maner, quhilk
the King lyked best of. And, entering in the Cabinet with the
King alan, I schew his Majestie, That the Commissionars of the
Generall Assemblie, with certean uther breithring ordeanit to
watche for the weill of the Kirk in sa dangerous a tym, haid
convenit at Cowper. At the quhilk word the King interrupts me
and crabbotlie quarrels our meitting, alleaging it was without
warrand and seditius, making our selves and the countrey to
conceave feir whar was na cause. To the quhilk, I beginning to
reply, in my maner, Mr. Andro doucht nocht abyd it, bot brak
af upon the King in sa zealus, powerfull, and unresistable a
maner, that whowbeit the King used his authoritie in maist
crabbit and colerik maner, yit Mr. Andro bure him down, and
outtered the Commission as from the mightie God, calling the
King bot "God's sillie vassall"; and, taking him be the sleive,
sayes this in effect, throw mikle hat reasoning and manie
interruptiones: "Sir, we will humblie reverence your Majestie
alwayes, namlie in publick, but sen we have this occasioun to
be with your Majestie in privat, and the treuthe is yie ar
brought in extream danger bathe of your lyff and croun, and
with yow the countrey and Kirk of Chryst is lyk to wrak, for
nocht telling yow the treuthe, and giffen of yow a fathfull
counsall, we mon discharge our dewtie thairin, or els be
trators bathe to Chryst and yow! And, thairfor, sir, as divers
tymes befor, sa now again, I mon tell yow, thair is twa Kings
and twa kingdomes in Scotland. Thair is Chryst Jesus the King,
and his kingdome the Kirk, whase subject King James the Saxt
is, and of whase kingdome nocht a king nor a lord, nor a heid,
bot a member!... And, Sir, when yie war in your
swadling-cloutes, Chryst Jesus' rang[22] friely in this land in
spyt of all his enemies."'
[Footnote 22: Reigned.]
The King bent before the tempest of Melville's indignation, and the
storm ended in calm: the deputation was dismissed with the promise that
the Popish lords would 'get no grace at his hands till they satisfied
the Kirk.'
The ministers had learned what value to attach to the royal word, so
that they cannot have been greatly surprised when soon afterwards James
showed his intention not only to indemnify the excommunicated lords, but
to restore them to favour at Court. At this time Huntly's Countess
received a special mark of the King's favour in being invited to the
baptismal ceremony of his daughter Elizabeth, and at the same time
another Popish lady was put in custody of the Princess at the Court.
The ultimate issue of this matter, which was soon involved in another
and greater controversy between the Crown and the Church, was that the
Popish lords, after a formal submission to the Courts of the Church,
were absolved from their excommunication and restored to their former
positions. No one believed that there was any sincerity in the
transaction either on the part of Huntly and his friends, or of the King
and Council, or of the majority of the Assembly: the whole business was
concocted and pushed through by the Crown for its own ends, with as much
of the semblance of concession to the Church as possible, and as little
of the reality. The action of the Court throughout the whole case was
such as to breed the greatest suspicion of the King's honesty in
professing zeal for the defence of the country from the dangers
threatened by Popish intrigues at home and abroad. Even Burton, whom no
one will suspect of partiality to the Church, and whose animus against
the ministers often overcomes his historic judgment, in writing of what
he calls the 'edifying ceremony' of the absolution of the lords, says:
'It must be conceded to their enemies that it was a solemn farce; and
whatever there might be in words or the surface of things, there would
be, when these Earls were restored, a power in the North ready to
co-operate with any Spanish invader.'