Volume I Part 5 (1/2)

The Reforot the upper hand, had prohibited this service under severe penalties, and these principles of intolerance they were determined to maintain Mary had not interfered with their h;--they considered themselves called upon to interfere with hers In anticipation of the iven orders, the Godly, Knox tells us, ain to take place within this realm? It shall not” They even repented that they had not pulled down the chapel itself at the tiious houses; for the sparing of any place where idols orshi+pped was, in their opinion, ”the preserving the accursed thing” When Sunday arrived, a crowd collected on the outside of the chapel; and Lord Lindsay, whose bigotry has been already mentioned, called out with fiery zeal,--”The idolatrous priests shall die the death, according to God's law” The Catholics were insulted as they entered the chapel, and the tumult increased so th, the Lord Jaht his to this extreood, stationed himself at the door, and declared he would allow no evil-disposed person to enter His influence with the Godly was such, that they ventured not to proceed to violence against his will He was a good deal blamed, however, by Knox for his conduct When the service was concluded, Lord Jaed to conduct the priests home, as a protection to them from the insults of the people; and in the afternoon, crowds collected in the neighbourhood of the palace, who, by their disloyal language and turbulent proceedings, signified to the Queen their disapprobation, that she had dared to worshi+p her God in the manner which seemed to herself most consistent, both with the revealed and natural law Many of Mary's friends, who had accousted with the whole of this scene, that they announced their intention of returning sooner than they ht otherwise have done ”Would to God,” exclaiood-night of the real Sunday, Knox took the opportunity of preaching, what Keith ainst idolatry In this discourse he declared, that one mass was more fearful to him than ten thousand armed enemies would be, landed in any part of the realion No one will deny, that the earlier Reformers of this and all other countries would, naturally and properly, look upon Popish rites with far greater abhorrence than is done by the strictest Protestants of moretheiven way so far to the feelings of the age, as to be unable to draw the exact line of distinction between the iospel, and the imperfections of the old The faith which they established, was of a purer, simpler, and better kind than that fro all these allowances, there does see and illiberal in the spirit which animated Knox and some of his followers When contrasted with the reater moderation observed in some of the other countries of Europe, where the Reforress, the anti-Catholic ardor of the good people of Scotland must be allowed to have over-stepped considerably the just limits of Christian forbearance It is useful also to observe the inconsistencies which still existed in the Reforion was reprobated, Catholic custoion do not seem to have called forth any censure On the very day on which Knox preached the seriven by the city of Edinburgh to Mary's uncles, the Duke Danville, and other of her French friends; and, generally speaking, Sunday was, throughout the country, the favourite day for festivities of all kinds

The mark of attention paid to her relations pleased Mary, but her pleasure was rendered i hoerful and unlooked for an enemy both she and they had in John Knox Aware of the liberal ht it hard that he should so unreainst her That this influence was of no insignificant kind, is attested by very sufficient evidence Knox was not a mere polemical churchman His friends and admirers intrusted to him their temporal as well as spiritual interests He was often selected as an umpire in civil disputes of importance; and persons whom the Town-council had determined to punish for disorderly conduct, were continually requesting his intercession in their behalf When differences fell out even a the nobility, he was not uncommonly employed to adjust theyht the Reforate, and another in the neighbouring parish of St Cuthberts, but Knox was _the_ h He preached in the church of St Giles, which was capable of holding three thousand persons To this numerous audience he held forth twice every Sunday, and thrice on other days during the week He was regular too in his attendance at the s of the Synod and the General asseh the country to disseue was appointed to him

Animated by a sincere desire to soften if possible our Reforht into her presence two days after he had delivered his serainst idolatry Knox had no objection whatever to this interview To have it granted him at all would show his friends the importance attached to his character and office; and froh it, he hoped to strengthen his reputation for bold independence of senti adherence to his principles This was so far well; but Knox unfortunately e, and stubbornness with his consistency

Mary opened the conversation by expressing her surprise that he should have formed so very unfavourable an opinion of herself; and requested to knohat could have induced hiainst her so far back as 1559, when he published his book upon the ”overnes considered their judgment of mankind, they were not to blame He then ventured to compare his ”First Blast of the Tru, with much self-complacency, that both these books contained many new sentiments He added, that what he had written was directed land” The Queen, perceiving that this was a eneral” Knox confessed that he did so, but again went the length of assuring her, though the assurance see ”intended to trouble her estate”

Satisfied with this concession, Mary proceeded to ask, why he could not teach the people a new religion without exciting then? Knox found it necessary to answer this question in a somewhat round-about manner ”If all the seed of Abrahaion of Pharaoh, what religion should there have been in the world? Or if all men, in the days of the Roion of the Roion should have been on the face of the earth? Daniel and his felloere subject to Nebuchadnezzar and unto Darius, and yet they would not be of their religion” ”Yea,” replied Mary proainst their princes” ”Yet you cannot deny that they resisted,” said Knox, refining a little too iven them, do in so the quibble, ”they resisted not with the sword” The Reformer felt that he had been driven into a corner, and deteret out of it at whatever cost ”God, Madaiven unto them the power and thethe power may resist their princes?” ”If princes exceed their bounds, Mada from the point, ”no doubt they may be resisted even by power” He proceeded to fortify this opinion with arguments of no very loyal kind; and Mary, overcome by a rudeness and presumption she had been little accustomed to, was for some time silent Nay, Randolph, in one of his letters, affirms that he ”knocked so hastily upon her heart that he th she said, ”I perceive then that my subjects shall obey you, and not me, and will do what they please, and not what I command; and so must I be subject to them, and not they to me” Knox answered, that a subjection unto God and his Church was the greatest dignity that flesh could enjoy upon the face of the earth, for it would raise it to everlasting glory

”But you are not the Church that I will nourish,” said Mary; ”I will defend the Church of Rome, for it is, I think, the true Church of God”

Knox's coarse and discourteous answer shows that he was alike ignorant of the delicacy hich, in this argument, he should have treated a _lady_, and of the respect a _queen_ was entitled to demand ”Your _will_, Madaht make the Roman harlot to be the true and immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ Wonder not, Madaether polluted with all kinds of spiritual fornication, both in doctrine and manners”

Whilst this speech s of Mary, a sincere Catholic as she was, it cannot entitle the Reformer to any praise on the score of its bravery and independence Knox knew that the whole country would, in a few days, be full of his conference with the Queen By yielding to her, he had nothing to gain; and, as his reputation was his dearest possession, he hoped to increase it by an un what sort of a man she had to deal with, soon afterwards broke off the conversation[48]

On the saave Knox this audience, she h She rode up the Canongate and High Street, to the Castle, where a banquet had been prepared for her She was greeted, as she passed along, with every ive to the whole procession, as striking and splendid an air as possible The Town had issued procla the citizens to appear in their best attire, and advising the young ht make ”the convoy before the court more triumphant” When Mary left the castle after dinner, on her way back, a pageant which had been prepared was exhibited on the Castle Hill The Reformers could not allow this opportunity to pass, without re her that she was now in a country where their authority was paraeant, represented the terrible vengeance of God upon idolaters It was even, at one tiy; but the Earl of Huntly declared, he would not allow so gross an insult to be offered to his sovereign

Soon after paying this co a progress through the country, that she and her subjects ht becoress upon horseback, accompanied by a pretty numerous train There appears at the tie in Scotland It was a chariot, (as it is called in the treasurer's books), probably of a rude enough construction, which Margaret of England brought with her when she married James IV Mary, no doubt, knew that it would have been rather adventurous to have atte on the Scotch roads of that day in so frail and uncertain a vehicle It is not, however, to be supposed, that a Queen such as Mary, with her Lords and Ladies well-h her native country without being the object of universal admiration, even without the aid of so wonderful a piece of e was to the palace at Linlithgow Here she re On the night of her arrival there, she made a very narrow escape As she lay in bed asleep, a candle, that was burning beside her, set fire to the curtains; and had the light and heat not speedily awakened her, when she iht have been burned to death The populace said at the time, that this was the fulfilment of a very old prophecy, that a Queen should be burned at Stirling It was only the bed, however, not the Queen that was burned, so that the prophet ht , the Lord Ja perhaps, that his former apparent defence of thethe Reforular impropriety in the Royal chapel He was assisted by the Lord Justice General, the Earl of Argyle, in conjunction hom he seems to have come to actual bloith the priests This affair was considered good sport byprobably to Mary, ”that shed a tear or two” ”It was reserved,” Chalmer's remarks, ”for the _Prime Minister_ and the _Justice General_, to make a riot in the house which had been dedicated to the service of God, and to obstruct the service in the Queen's presence”[49]

Leaving Stirling, Mary spent a night at Lesly Castle, the seat of the Earl of Rothes, a Catholic nobleman On the 16th of September she entered Perth She was everywhere welcomed with much apparent satisfaction; but in the midst of their demonstrations of affection, her subjects always took care to remind her that they were Presbyterians, and that she was a Papist In the very pious town of Perth, pageants greeted her arrival somewhat similar to those which had been exhibited to her on the Castle Hill at Edinburgh Mary was not a little affected by observing this constant deterh the streets of Perth, she becaing Her acute sensibility often produced sih the cause was not understood by the unrefined multitude With St Andrews, the seat of the Commendatorshi+p of the Lord James, she seems to have been most pleased, and reh by the end of Septeh Falkland, where her father had died Knox wasin favour of Mary during this journey He consoles hih which she passed with her idolatry; and in allusion to the accident at Stirling, remarks, ”Fire followed her very commonly on that journey”[50]

It was, perhaps, to counteract, in soree, the impression which Mary's affability and beauty had h, a very singular proclamation was issued by the civil authorities of that town It was couched in the following terms:--”October 2 1561 On which day the Provost, Baillies, Council, and all the Deacons, perceiving the Priests, Monks, Friars, and others of the wicked rabble of the Anti-Christ the Pope, to resort to this town, contrary to the tenor of a previous procla all Monks, Friars, Priests, Nuns, Adulterers, Fornicators, and all such filthy persons, to remove themselves out of this town and bounds thereof, within twenty-four hours, under the pain of carting through the town, burning on the cheek, and perpetual banishn of the real to confound the professors of the old religion with the ross to be allowed to pass unnoticed Mary did not bring these bigoted istrates to trial,--she did not even ih with no less firmness, she ordered the Town-Council instantly to deprive the Provost and Baillies of the offices they held, and to elect other better qualified persons in their stead[52]

During the remainder of the year 1561, the only public affairs of consequence, were the appointment of the Lord James as the Queen's Lieutenant on the Borders, where he proceeded to hold courts, and endeavoured, by great severity and many capital punish like order; and the renewal on the part of Queen Elizabeth of the old dispute concerning the treaty of Edinburgh

Mary, having now had the benefit of advice fro what Elizabeth asked, gave her, in pretty plain ter away her hereditary title and interest to the Crown of England ”We know,” she says, in a letter she wrote to Elizabeth on the subject, ”how near we are descended of the blood of England, and what devices have been atteer fro so nearly your cousin, you would be loth we should receive so manifest an injury, as entirely to be debarred from that title, which, in possibility, may fall to us”

Most of Mary's French friends had, by this time, returned home Her uncle, the Marquis D'Elbeuf, however, re the Duke of Danville, Mary lost one of her war already h he could have obtained a divorce,) and from other considerations, Mary rejected his addresses Many foreign princes were suing for the honour of her alliance, a ere Don Carlos of Spain, the Archduke Charles of Austria, the King of Sweden, the Duke of Ferrara, and the Prince of Conde; but Mary did not yet see the necessity of an i her own subjects, there were tho ventured upon confessing their attachht to view it propitiously These were the Earl of Arran, already mentioned, and Sir John Gordon, second son of the Earl of Huntly The forh the latter far excelled him in accomplishiven hiement either Inspired by mutual jealousy, these noblemen, of course, detested each other; but Arran was the hts which he supposed had been offered him, he had retired to St Andrehere he was believed, by those who knew his restless te sedition Upon one occasion--a Sunday night in November--just before the Queen had retired to bed, a report was suddenly spread through the palace, that Arran had crossed the water at the head of a strong body of retainers, and wasdirect for Holyroodhouse, with the intention of carrying off the Queen to Dumbarton Castle, which was in the possession of his father, or to soained credit, it was scarcely kno, excited the greatest alarm Mary's friends collected round her with as ates were closed, and the Lords reht Arran did not h the nobles deterht for some time This is the foundation of the assertion uard, which, unfortunately, she never did during the whole of her reign

The Duke of Chatelherault, who caained credence against his son, was only a h his son's conduct was, on all occasions, sufficiently outre, it is not unlikely that this allegation was true

Another tumult, which soon afterwards occurred, sho difficult it was, at this tiood order It had been reported ahter of a respectable h, was the _chere amie_ of the Earl of Arran Bothwell, always at home in any affair of this kind, undertook to introduce the Marquis D'Elbeuf to the lady; Lord John, brother of the Commendator of St Andreas also of the party They went to her house the first night in masks, and were ad next evening, they were disappointed to find, that the object of their ader They proceeded, therefore, to break open the doors, and to create hbourhood Next day the Queen was informed of their disorderly conduct, and she rebuked them sharply But Bothwell and the Lord John, animated partly by their dislike to the house of Hamilton, and partly by a turbulent spirit of contradiction, declared they would repeat their visit the very next night in despite of either friend or foe Their intentions being understood, the servants of the Duke of Chatelherault and Arran thought themselves called upon to defend a lady wholy with jack and spear in the streets, deter else, and collected his friends about his

The opposite party, however, increased an to collect in a threatening istrates saw the necessity of interfering; the alar, and despatches were sent off to Holyrood, to knohat course was to be taken The Earls of Argyle and Huntly, together with the Lord Ja out to the mob, made proclamation, that all men should instantly depart on pain of death This had the desired effect; the streets gradually becaave up his wild scheme

Mary, next day, ordered both the Duke of Chatelherault and the Earl of Bothwell to appear before her The first came accompanied by a crowd of Protestants, and the latter with an equal number of Catholics But the Queen was not to be over-awed, and having investigated the matter, Bothas banished from Court for ten days[53]

This was only the prelude to a still more serious difference, which took place between these untamed and irascible nobles The Earl of Arran appeared before the Queen, and declared that a powerful conspiracy had been forainst the life of the Lord James, upon whom the title of Earl of Mar, as preliminary to that of Murray, had recently been conferred This conspiracy, he said, had originated with hi to tremble, lest the newly created Earl's influence with the Queen, ht induce her to set aside the Haitimate brother That the Earl of Mar had really proposed soood authority[54] The Earl of Huntly, together with Mar's old enemy, Bothwell, had been induced by the Hamiltons to join in this plot The intention was, to shoot the Earl of Mar when hunting with the Queen, to obtain for the Haive the Catholic party greater weight in the state Huntly's eldest son, the Lord Gordon, was also implicated in Arran's confession A few days before the whole of these plans were to be carried into execution, the weak and vacillating Arran, according to his own declaration, had been seized with remorse of conscience; and, actuated by his ancient friendshi+p for Mar, and his love for the Queen, deter

Historians seeree of dependence they should place upon the truth of this strange story, told by one as already half crazed, and soon afterwards altogether insane That there is good reason, however, for giving credit to his assertions, is evident, from the manner in which all contemporary writers speak, and the fact, that the Queen sent both hiated, it was found to involve soothers, Arran's own father, Chaltelherault, whom he could never be expected publicly to accuse, that Mary resolved not to push ainst any one She ordered the Duke of Chatelherault, however, to deliver up the Castle of Duation, she kept Bothwell a prisoner, first in the Castle of St Andrews, and afterwards in that of Edinburgh, until he made his escape, and left the country for upwards of two years It is remarkable, that this conspiracy should not have been hitherto dwelt upon at greater length, tending as it does to develope the secret motives by which the Earl of Mar was actuated in his subsequent feuds with the Earl of Huntly[55] It is worth recollecting too, though the fact has not been previously noticed, that this was the _first_ occasion on which Bothwell ain, though unsuccessful, shows the spirit which long continued to actuate him Had Mary fallen into his hands at this period, it is not likely that she would ever have had it in her power to ht have been changed

In February 1562, Mary gave a series of splendid entertaine of her favourite brother, Jae, and chose for his wife Lady Agnes Keith, eldest daughter of the Earl of Marschal The e was solee of the occasion, to offer the Lord James a wholesome, but somewhat curiously expressed advice; ”for,” said the preacher to him, ”unto this day has the kirk of God received comfort by you, and by your labours; in the which, if hereafter you shall be found fainter than you were before, it will be said that your wife has changed your nature” Knox and his friends were subsequently , and the vanity thereof,”

which characterized the honeyhters, two of who[56]