spirit of Knox remained unsubdued. On the day after their arrival
at Stirling, he mounted the pulpit, and delivered a discourse, which
had a wonderful effect in rekindling the zeal and courage of the
Congregation. Their faces (he said) were confounded, their enemies
triumphed, their hearts had quaked for fear, and still remained
oppressed with sorrow and shame. Why had God thus dejected them?
The situation of their affairs required plain language, and he would
use it. In the present distressed state of their minds, they were
in danger of attributing these misfortunes to a wrong cause, and of
imagining that they had offended in taking the sword of self‑defence
into their hands; just as the tribes of Israel did, when twice
discomfited in the war which they undertook, by divine direction,
against their brethren the Benjamites. Having divided the Congregation
into two classes, those who had been embarked in this cause from the
beginning, and those who had lately acceded to it, he proceeded to
point out what he considered as blameable in the conduct of each.
The former (he said) had laid aside that humility and dependence upon
divine providence which they had discovered when their number was
small; and, since they were joined by the Hamiltons, had become elated,
secure, and self‑confident. “But wherein had my lord duke and his
friends offended? I am uncertain if my lord’s grace has unfeignedly
{314} repented of his assistance to these murderers, unjustly pursuing
us. Yea, I am uncertain if he has repented of that innocent blood of
Christ’s blessed martyrs, which was shed in his default. But let it be
that so he has done (as I hear that he has confessed his fault before
the lords and brethren of the Congregation); yet I am assured that
neither he, nor yet his friends, did feel before this time the anguish
and grief of heart which we felt, when in their blind fury they
pursued us. And therefore God hath justly permitted both them and us
to fall in this fearful confusion at once,――us, for that we put our
trust and confidence in man, and them, because they should feel in
their own hearts how bitter was the cup which they made others drink
before them.” After exhorting all to amendment of life, to prayers,
and works of charity, he concluded with an animating address. “God,”
he said, “often suffered the wicked to triumph for a while, and
exposed his chosen congregation to mockery, dangers, and apparent
destruction, in order to abase their self‑confidence, and induce
them to look to himself for deliverance and victory. If they turned
unfeignedly to the Eternal, he no more doubted that their present
distress would be converted into joy, and followed by success, than
he doubted that Israel was finally victorious over the Benjamites,
after being twice repulsed with ignominy. The cause in which they were
engaged would prevail in Scotland, in spite of all opposition. It was
the eternal truth of the eternal God which they maintained; {315} it
might be oppressed for a time, but would ultimately triumph.”[460]
The audience, who had entered the church in deep despondency, left
it with renovated courage. In the afternoon the council met, and,
after prayer by the Reformer, unanimously agreed to despatch William
Maitland of Lethington to London, to supplicate more effectual
assistance from Elizabeth. In the mean time, as they were unable
to keep the field, it was agreed that they should divide, and
that the one half of the council should remain at Glasgow, and the
other at St Andrews. Knox was appointed to attend the latter in the
double capacity of preacher and secretary. The French having, in
the beginning of the year 1560, penetrated into Fife, he encouraged
that small band, which, under the earl of Arran, and the prior of St
Andrews, bravely resisted their progress, until the appearance of the
English fleet compelled the enemy to retreat with precipitation.[461]
The disaster which obliged the protestant army to raise the siege
of Leith, and to evacuate Edinburgh, turned out eventually to the
advantage of their cause. It induced the English court to abandon the
line of cautious policy which they had hitherto pursued. Maitland’s
embassy to London was successful; and, on the 27th of February, 1560,
Elizabeth concluded a formal treaty with the lords of the Congregation,
{316} by which she engaged to send an army into Scotland, to assist
them in expelling the French forces. Being informed of this treaty,
the queen regent resolved to disperse the troops which were collected
at Glasgow under the duke of Chastelherault, before the English
army could arrive. On the 7th of March, the French, amounting to
two thousand foot, and three hundred horse, issued from Leith, and,
proceeding by Linlithgow and Kirkintilloch, suddenly appeared before
Glasgow. Having reduced the episcopal castle, they were preparing
to advance to Hamilton, when they received a message from the queen
regent, informing them that the English army had begun its march into
Scotland; upon which they relinquished their design, and returned
to Leith, carrying along with them a number of prisoners and a
considerable booty.[462] In the beginning of April, the English army
joined the forces of the Congregation. The French shut themselves up
within the fortifications of Leith, which was invested both by sea and
land; and the queen regent, who had for some time been in a declining
state of health, was received by lord Erskine into the castle of
Edinburgh, where she died during the siege of Leith.
These proceedings were viewed with deep interest {317} by the court of
France. Henry II., having died in July 1559, was succeeded by Francis
II., the husband of the young queen of Scots; in consequence of which,
the administration of affairs fell entirely into the hands of the
duke of Guise and the cardinal of Lorrain. They employed every art
of political intrigue to prevent the queen of England from giving
assistance to the Scottish Congregation, and to prevail on her to
desert them, after she had undertaken their protection. Nor were they
altogether unsuccessful in their attempts. Elizabeth, partly from
extreme caution and parsimony, and partly from the influence of some
of her counsellors, was induced to listen to their plausible proposals;
she delayed the march of her army into Scotland, and after the siege
of Leith was commenced, suspended the military operations, and engaged
in premature negotiations for peace. This last step justly alarmed
the Congregation; and while they neglected no means to persuade the
English court to perform the stipulations of the late treaty, they
prepared for the worst, by renewing their covenant among themselves.
Elizabeth at last listened to the advice of her ablest ministers, and
resolved to prosecute the war with vigour. No sooner did she evince
this determination than the French court yielded to all her demands.
The armament which they had lately fitted out at great expense for
Scotland had been dispersed by a storm; the frith of Forth was blocked
up by an English fleet; and a confederacy had been formed among a
number of the nobility in France, to remove {318} the princes of
Lorrain from the administration of public affairs, and to free the
protestants in that kingdom from the severe persecutions to which they
had hitherto been exposed.[463] Influenced by these circumstances,
the French cabinet sent plenipotentiaries to Edinburgh, who concluded
a treaty with England, by which the Scottish differences were also
adjusted. By this treaty it was provided, that the French troops
should immediately be removed from Scotland; that an amnesty should
be granted to all who had been engaged in the late resistance to the
queen regent; that the principal grievances of which they complained
in the civil administration should be redressed; that a free
parliament should be held to settle the other affairs of the kingdom;
and that, during the absence of their sovereigns, the government
should be administered by a council to be chosen partly by Francis and
Mary, and partly by the estates of the nation. The treaty was signed
on the 7th of July; on the 16th, the French army embarked at Leith,
and the English troops began their march into their own country;
and on the 19th, the Congregation assembled in St Giles’s church,
to return solemn thanks to God for the restoration of peace, and the
success which had crowned their exertions.[464] In this {319} manner
terminated the civil war which attended the Scottish Reformation,
after it had continued for twelve months, with less rancour and
bloodshed than have distinguished any other contest of a similar kind.
During the continuance of the war, the protestant preachers had been
assiduous in disseminating knowledge through all parts of the kingdom,
and their success was equal to their diligence. They had received
a considerable accession to their number from the ranks of their
opponents. While we venerate those men who enlisted under the banners
of truth when her friends were few, and who boldly took the field in
her defence when the victory was yet dubious and distant, and while
we cheerfully award to them the highest meed of honour,――let us not
load with heavy censure, or even deprive of all praise, such as,
less enlightened, or less courageous, were tardy in appearing for the
cause. He who “knew what is in man,” has taught us not to reject such
disciples, in the dawn of light, and in perilous times. Nicodemus,
who at first “came to Jesus by night,” and Joseph of Arimathea, who
was his disciple, “but secretly for fear of the Jews,” afterwards
avouched their faith in him, and obtained the honour of embalming
and interring his body, when all his early followers had forsaken
him and fled. Several of the Scottish clergy, who were favourable to
the protestant doctrine, had contrived to retain their places in the
church, by concealing their sentiments, or by securing the favour of
some powerful patron. Of this class were John Winram, sub-prior of
the abbey of St Andrews, Adam {320} Herriot, a friar of that abbey,
John Spottiswood, parson of Calder, and John Carsewell, rector of
Kilmartine. In the gradual diffusion of knowledge through the nation,
the minds of many who were attending the schools had been also
enlightened; among whom were David Lindsay, Andrew Hay, Robert
Montgomery, Patrick Adamson, and Robert and Archibald Hamilton. During
the year 1559, these men came forward as auxiliaries to the first
protestant preachers; and so successful were they in instructing the
people, that the French would have found it extremely difficult to
support the ancient superstition, though they had proved victorious
in the military contest.
On the other hand, the exertions of the popish clergy had been feeble
in the extreme. Too corrupt to think of reforming their manners, too
illiterate to be capable of defending their errors, they placed their
forlorn hope on the success of the French arms, and looked forward
to the issue of the war as involving the establishment or the ruin
of their religion. The bishop of Amiens, who came to Scotland in the
double capacity of ambassador from the French court and papal legate,
was accompanied by three doctors of the Sorbonne, who gave out that
they would confound the reformed ministers, and bring back the people
whom they had misled to the bosom of the church, by the force of
argument and persuasion. Lesley boasts of the success which attended
their exertions; but there is good reason for thinking, that these
foreign divines confined themselves to the easier {321} task of
instructing the Scottish clergy to perform the religious service with
greater solemnity, and to purify the churches, in a canonical manner,
from the pollution which they had contracted by the profane worship of
heretics.[465] One effort, however, was made by the popish clergy to
support their sinking cause, which, if it had succeeded, would have
done more to retrieve their reputation than all the arguments of the
Sorbonists; and, as this was the last attempt of the kind that ever
was made in Scotland, the reader may be gratified with the following
account of it.
In the neighbourhood of Musselburgh was a chapel dedicated to our
Lady of Loretto, the sanctity of which was increased from its having
been the favourite abode of the celebrated Thomas the Hermit. To this
sacred place the inhabitants of Scotland, from time immemorial, had
repaired in pilgrimage, to present their offerings to the Virgin, and
to experience the efficacy of her prayers, and the healing virtue of
the wonder‑working “Hermit of Lareit.”[466] In the course of the year
1559, public notice was given by the friars, that they intended to put
the truth of their religion to the proof, by performing a miracle at
this chapel upon a young man who had been born blind. On the day {322}
appointed, a vast concourse of spectators assembled from all parts of
Lothian. The young man, accompanied with a solemn procession of monks,
was conducted to a scaffold, erected on the outside of the chapel,
and was exhibited to the multitude. Many of them knew him to be the
blind man whom they had often seen begging, and whose necessities they
had relieved; all looked on him, and pronounced him stone blind. The
friars then proceeded to their devotions with great fervency, invoking
the assistance of the Virgin, at whose shrine they stood, and that
of all the saints whom they honoured; and after some time spent in
prayers and religious ceremonies, the blind man opened his eyes, to
the astonishment of the spectators. Having returned thanks to the
friars and their saintly patrons for this wonderful cure, he was
allowed to go down from the scaffold to gratify the curiosity of the
people, and to receive their alms.
It happened that there was among the crowd a gentleman of Fife, Robert
Colville of Cleish,[467] who, from his romantic bravery, was usually
called Squire Meldrum, in allusion to a person of that name who had
been celebrated by Sir David Lindsay. He was of protestant principles,
but his wife was a Roman catholic, and, being pregnant at this time,
had sent a servant with a present to the chapel of Loretto, to procure
the assistance of the Virgin in her labour. The squire was too gallant
to hurt his lady’s feelings {323} by prohibiting the present from
being sent off, but he resolved to prevent the superstitious offering,
and with that view had come to Musselburgh. He witnessed the miracle
of curing the blind man with the distrust natural to a protestant, and
determined, if possible, to detect the imposition before he left the
place. Wherefore, having sought out the young man from the crowd, he
put a piece of money into his hand, and persuaded him to accompany
him to his lodgings in Edinburgh. Taking him into a private room,
and locking the door, he told him plainly that he was convinced he
had engaged in a wicked conspiracy with the friars to impose on the
credulity of the people, and at last drew from him the secret of the
story. When a boy, he had been employed to tend the cattle belonging
to the nuns of Sciennes, in the vicinity of Edinburgh, and had
attracted their attention by a peculiar faculty which he had of
turning up the white of his eyes, and of keeping them in this position,
so as to appear quite blind. Certain friars in the city, having come
to the knowledge of this fact, conceived the design of making it
subservient to their purposes; and, having prevailed on the sisters of
Sciennes to part with the poor boy, lodged him in one of their cells.
By daily practice he became an adept in the art of counterfeiting
blindness; and after he had remained so long in concealment as not to
be recognised by his former acquaintance, he was sent forth to beg as
a blind pauper; the friars having previously bound him, by a solemn
vow, not to reveal the secret. To confirm his narrative, he {324}
“played his pavie” before the squire, by “flypping up the lid of his
eyes, and casting up the white,” so as to appear as blind as he did on
the scaffold at Loretto. The gentleman laid before him the iniquity of
his conduct, and told him that he must next day repeat the whole story
publicly at the cross of Edinburgh; and, as this would expose him to
the vengeance of the friars, he engaged to become his protector, and
to retain him as a servant in his house. The young man complied with
his directions, and Cleish, with his drawn sword in his hand, having
stood by him till he had finished his confession, placed him on the
same horse with himself, and carried him off to Fife. The detection of
this imposture was quickly published through the country, and covered
the friars with confusion. My author does not say whether it cured
Lady Cleish of her superstition, but I shall afterwards have occasion
to notice its influence in opening the eyes of one who became a
distinguished promoter of the Reformation.[468]
The treaty which put an end to the civil war in Scotland, made no
particular settlement respecting the religious differences,[469] but
it was, on that very {325} account, the more fatal to popery. The
protestants were left in the possession of authority; and they were
now by far the most powerful party in the nation, both as to rank and
numbers. With the exception of those places which had been occupied
by the queen regent and her foreign auxiliaries, the Roman catholic
worship was almost universally deserted throughout the kingdom, and
no provision was made in the treaty for its restoration. The firm
hold which it once had on the opinions and affections of the people
was completely loosened; it was supported by force alone; and the
moment that the French troops embarked, that fabric which had stood
for ages in Scotland fell to the ground. Its feeble and dismayed
priests ceased of their own accord from the celebration of its rites;
and the reformed service was peaceably set up, wherever ministers
could be found to perform it. The parliament, when it entered upon
the consideration of the state of religion, as one of the points,
undecided by the commissioners, which had been left to them,[470]
had little else to do but to sanction what the nation had previously
done, by {326} legally abolishing the popish, and establishing the
protestant religion.
When the circumstances in which they were assembled, and the affairs
on which they were called to deliberate, are taken into consideration,
this must be regarded as the most important meeting of the estates
of the kingdom that had ever been held in Scotland. It engrossed the
attention of the nation, and the eyes of Europe were fixed on its
proceedings. The parliament met on the 10th of July, but, agreeably
to the terms of the treaty, it was prorogued, without entering on
business, until the first day of August. Although a great concourse
of people resorted to Edinburgh on that occasion, yet no tumult or
disturbance of the public peace occurred. Many of the lords spiritual
and temporal, who were attached to popery, absented themselves; but
the chief patrons of the old religion, as the archbishop of St Andrews,
and the bishops of Dumblane and Dunkeld, countenanced the assembly
by their presence, and were allowed to act with freedom as lords of
parliament. There is one fact in its constitution and proceedings
which strikingly illustrates the influence of the Reformation upon
political liberty. In the reign of James I. the lesser barons had
been exempted from personal attendance on parliament, and permitted to
elect representatives in their different shires. But a privilege which
in modern times is so eagerly coveted, was then so little prized, that,
except in a few instances, no representatives from the shires had
appeared in {327} parliament,[471] and the lesser barons had almost
forfeited their right by neglecting to exercise it. At this time,
however, they assembled at Edinburgh, and agreed upon a petition to
the parliament, claiming to be restored to their ancient privilege.
The petition was granted, and, in consequence of this, about a hundred
gentlemen took their seats.[472]
The business of religion was introduced by a petition presented by a
number of protestants of different ranks, in which, after rehearsing
their former endeavours to procure the removal of the corruptions
which had infected the church, they requested parliament to use the
power which providence had now put into their hands for effecting
this great and urgent work. They craved three things in general,――that
the anti‑christian doctrine maintained in the popish church should be
discarded; that means should be used to restore purity of worship, and
primitive discipline; and that the ecclesiastical revenues, which had
been engrossed by a corrupt and indolent hierarchy, should be applied
to the support of a pious and active ministry, to the promotion of
learning, and to the relief of the poor. They declared, that they were
ready to substantiate the justice of all their demands, and, in {328}
particular, to prove, that those who arrogated to themselves the
name of clergy were destitute of all right to be accounted ministers
of religion, and that, from the tyranny which they had exercised,
and their vassalage to the court of Rome, they could not be safely
tolerated, and far less intrusted with power, in a reformed
commonwealth.[473]
In answer to the first demand, the parliament required the reformed
ministers to lay before them a summary of doctrine which they could
prove to be consonant with the scriptures, and which they desired to
have established. The ministers were not unprepared for this task;
and, in the course of four days, they presented a Confession of Faith,
as the product of their joint labours, and an expression of their
unanimous judgment. It agreed with the confessions which had been
published by other reformed churches. Professing belief in the common
articles of Christianity respecting the divine nature, the trinity,
the creation of the world, the origin of evil, and the person of the
Saviour, which were retained by the church of Rome, in opposition to
the errors broached by ancient heretics, it condemned not only the
idolatrous and superstitious tenets of that church, but also its
gross depravation of the doctrine of scripture respecting the state
of fallen man, and the method of his recovery. It declared that by
“original sin was the image of God defacit in man, and he and his {329}
posteritie of nature become enemies to God, slaifis to Sathan, and
seruandis to sin:”――that “all our salvatioun springs fra the eternall
and immutabill decree of God, wha of meir grace electit us in Christ
Jesus, his Sone, before the foundatione of the warld was laid:”――that
it behoves us “to apprehend Christ Jesus, with his justice and
satisfactioun, wha is the end and accomplischement of the law, by
whome we ar set at this libertie, that the curse and maledictioun of
God fall not upon us:”――that “as God the Father creatit us whan we war
not, as his Sone our Lord Jesus redemit us whan we were enemies to him,
sa alswa the Haly Gaist dois sanctifie and regenerat us, without all
respect of ony merite proceeding fra us, be it befoir or be it efter
our regeneratioun,――to speik this ane thing yit in mair plaine wordis,
as we willinglie spoyle ourselfis of all honour and gloir of our awin
creatioun and redemptioun, sa do we alswa of our regeneratioun and
sanctificatioun, for of our selfis we ar not sufficient to think ane
gude thocht, bot he wha hes begun the wark in us is onlie he that
continewis us in the same, to the praise and glorie of his undeservit
grace:”――and, in fine, it declared that, although good works proceed
“not from our fre‑will, but the Spirit of the Lord Jesus,” and
although those that boast of the merit of their own works, “boist
themselfis of that whilk is nocht,” yet “blasphemie it is to say, that
Christ abydis in the hartis of sic as in whome thair is no spirite of
sanctificatioun; and all wirkers of iniquitie have nouther trew faith,
nouther ony portioun of the Spirite of the Lord {330} Jesus, sa lang
as obstinatlie they continew in thair wickitnes.”[474]