CHAPTER VI.
THE REFORMATION.
The Reformation (1)—state of the Church (2)—the first Covenant (3)—religious riots (4)—treaties with England (5)—Reformation statutes (6)—return of the Queen (7)—division of the Church lands (8)—fall of Huntly (9)—second marriage of the Queen (10)—murder of Rizzio (11)—flight to Dunbar (12)—murder of Darnley (13)—third marriage of the Queen (14)—surrender at Carberry (15)—captivity of the Queen (16)—James VI.; Regency of Murray (17)—escape of Mary (18)—Battle of Langside; flight of Mary (19)—the Conference (20)—state of parties (21)—murder of the Regent (22)—Regency of Lennox (23)—taking of Dunbarton (24)—Parliament at Stirling (25)—Regency of Mar (26)—Tulchan bishops (27)—death of Knox (28)—taking of Edinburgh (29)—Regency of Morton (30)—fall of Morton (31)—raid of Ruthven (32)—fall of Gowrie (33)—fall of Arran (34)—death of Mary—(35) marriage of the King (36)—abolition of episcopacy (37)—the Spanish blanks (38)—religious tumults (39)—the Gowrie Plot (40)—union of the Crowns (41)—state of the nation (42)—summary (43).
1. The Reformation.—Five hundred years had gone by since the English, who fled from the Norman Conqueror, had brought about a great social revolution in the Celtic kingdom, where they found a refuge. We now find another revolution arising from a very similar cause. But there was a difference in the way in which these great changes were wrought out characteristic of the two centuries in which they took place. In the eleventh century it was the influence of the Court which little by little changed the people; in the sixteenth century, the people struggled against, and in the end overcame, the opposition of the Court. When Mary Tudor became Queen of England, she wished to place the English Church under the authority of the Pope, even more than it had been before the changes of her father Henry. All who held the Reformed doctrines were persecuted as heretics. Many of these so-called heretics sought safety across the Border, in Scotland, and were welcomed there with a kindness that would have seemed impossible but a few years before, when the deadly war was waging. But religious sympathy got the better of national hate, and thus the religious zeal of Mary Tudor may be said to have hastened the Reformation in Scotland, which the cruelties of Henry and of Somerset had for a while delayed. Still the traditional bent of the national feeling influenced the character of the new movement, and led the Scottish Reformers to mould anew the polity and form of worship of their Church after the model of the French Calvinists, rather than to follow the example of the Church of England in her merely doctrinal reform.
2. State of the Church.—In Scotland, as in the other lands of Western Christendom, the clergy had lost their hold on the commons by their immorality and irreligion; their greed of money, and their abuse of their spiritual powers; while they had roused the jealousy of the nobles by their wealth, and by the influence won by their learning, which, though it was often but little, secured to them the offices of state. The hope of getting hold of some of the well-cultivated Church lands, led many lairds, as landholders are called in Scotland, to join the popular movement of Reform.
3. The First Covenant.—The friends of Reform were thus silently becoming a power in the state, and, as had been the Scottish custom for centuries, they joined themselves together by a bond, 1557. In this bond they pledged themselves to support one another, and to do their utmost for the spread of the new doctrines. This bond is called the First Covenant. By it the authority of the Pope was renounced, and the use of the English Bible and of the Prayer Book of Edward VI. was enjoined. Thenceforth the barons who had signed it, called themselves the Lords of the Congregation. The burning of Walter Mill, an aged priest of blameless life, who suffered for heresy at St. Andrews in 1558, roused them to action. They demanded of the Regent a reformation of religion after the principles of their bond. Though at first she seemed inclined to grant what they asked, she afterwards set her face against them, and cited some of the preachers of the new doctrines before the Privy Council. A great body of their followers gathered at Perth to come with them; the Regent, in alarm, begged them to disperse and promised to withdraw the citation. Instead of doing this, she outlawed the preachers for not coming.
4. Religious Riots.—This breach of promise on the Regent's part provoked their followers to a breach of the peace. The mob attacked, and tried to pull down, the churches and the religious houses at Perth, May 11, 1559, and this tumult was followed by riots of the same kind in other towns. John Knox was the spiritual leader of the movement. But he only wished to destroy the images and ornaments in the churches, which he looked on as idolatrous, not the churches themselves. Nor is it to be laid to the charge of the Reformers that there is but one cathedral church left entire in Scotland; the ruin of far the greater number of the churches and religious houses is due to the English invasions, or to the neglect of later times. After this outbreak the Congregation strengthened themselves in Perth, but many of the Lords, among others the Lord James Stewart, illegitimate son of James the Fifth, joined the Regent, and, had she been true to her promises, the strife which now broke out between the two parties might have been prevented. But she led a French force against the Congregation, who were now in open rebellion. An agreement was made that the questions at issue between them should be left to be settled by the Estates, while both armies laid down their arms, and the French garrison was turned out of Perth. But the Regent did not keep to the spirit of this treaty, though she avoided breaking the letter of it by garrisoning Perth with native troops hired with French money. On this the Congregation flew to arms, seized St. Andrews, and occupied Edinburgh. There, in a meeting which they called a Parliament, they deposed the Regent, though they still professed loyalty to the King and Queen. But they were too weak to hold the advantage they had won, and as Elizabeth had now succeeded Mary in England, they looked to her for support.
5. Treaties with England.—Elizabeth would not treat with subjects in open rebellion against their Sovereign, though Mary had given her good reason for offence, by quartering the arms of England on her shield, as though she were lawful Queen and Elizabeth only a usurper. At last a treaty was arranged at Berwick in 1560, between Elizabeth and the rebels. Chatelherault, the next heir to the Scottish crown, acted for the Congregation, and by this treaty Elizabeth promised to send troops to prevent the French conquering Scotland. The war that now followed presented the unwonted sight of the Scots on Scottish ground fighting side by side with the English against their old allies of France. But, before the year was out, the French were called away by troubles at home, and by the treaty of Edinburgh it was agreed that no foreigners should in future be employed in the country without the consent of the Estates. The Estates promised in the name of the King and Queen that they should acknowledge Elizabeth as lawful Queen of England, and thenceforth make no pretension to her kingdom.