They had renewed this Band in Edinburgh on July 13th; and at Stirling (Aug. 1st) they had covenanted,
“that nane of us sall in tymeis cuming pas to the Quenis Grace Dowriare, to talk or commun with hir for any letter without consent of the rest and commone consultatioun.”[321]
They had the bitter satisfaction of knowing that although the French troops and officers of the Regent were too strong for them in the field, the insolence and rapine of these foreigners was rousing all ranks and classes in Scotland to see that their only deliverance lay in the English alliance and the triumph of the Reformation. The Band of 1560 (April 27th) included, with “the nobilitie, barronis, and gentilmen professing Chryst Jesus in Scotland ... dyveris utheris that joyint with us, for expelling of the French army: amangis quham the Erle of Huntlie was principall.”[322]
The Estates or Parliament met in Edinburgh on July 10th, 1560. Neither the French nor the English soldiers had left; so they adjourned to August 1st, and again to the 8th.[323]
Meanwhile Knox and the Congregation were busy. The Reformer excelled himself in the pulpit of St. Giles’, lecturing daily on the Book of the Prophet Haggai (on the building of the Temple)—“a doctrine proper for the time.”[324] Randolph wrote to Cecil, Aug. 15th:
“Sermons are daylie, and greate audience; though dyvers of the nobles present ar not resolved in religion, yet do thei repayre to the prechynges, which gevethe a good hope to maynie that God wyll bowe their hartes.”[325]
The Congregation held a great thanksgiving service in St. Giles’; and after it arranged for eight fully constituted churches, and appointed five superintendents in matters of religion.[326] They also prepared a petition for Parliament asking for a settlement of the religious question in the way they desired.[327] At the request of the Estates or Parliament, Knox and five companions prepared The Confessioun of Faith professit and belevit be the Protestantis within the Realme of Scotland, which was ratified and approved as “hailsome and sound doctrine, groundit upoun the infallible trewth of Godis Word.” It was afterwards issued by the Estates as the “summe of that doctrin quhilk we professe, and for the quhilk we haif sustenit infamy and daingear.”[328] Seven days later (Aug. 24th), the Estates decreed that “the Bischope of Rome have na jurisdictioun nor authoritie in this Realme in tymes cuming”; they annulled all Acts of previous Parliaments which were contrary to the Confession of Faith; and they forbade the saying, hearing, or being present at Mass, under penalty of confiscation of goods and bodily punishment at the discretion of the magistrates for the first offence, of banishment for the second, and of death for the third.[329] These severe penalties, however, were by no means rigidly enforced. Lesley (Roman Catholic Bishop of Ross) says in his History:
“The clemency of the heretic nobles must not be left unmentioned, since at that time they exiled few Catholic on the score of religion, imprisoned fewer, and put none to death.”[330]
One thing still required to be done—to draft a constitution for the new Protestant Church. The work was committed to the same ministers who had compiled the Confession. They had been asked to prepare it as early as April 29th, and they had it ready for the Lords of the Congregation within a month. It was not approved by the Estates; but was ordered to be submitted to the next general meeting, and was meanwhile translated into Latin, to be sent to Calvin, Viret, and Beza in Geneva.[331] The delay seemed to some to arise from the unwillingness of many of the lords to see “their carnal liberty and worldly commoditie impaired”;[332] but another cause was also at work. Cecil evidently wished that the Church in Scotland should be uniform with the Church in England, and had instructed Randolph to press this question of uniformity. It was a favourite idea with statesmen of both countries—pressed on Scotland by England during the reigns of James I. and Charles I., and by Scotland on England in the Solemn League and Covenant. Randolph was wise enough to see that such uniformity was an impossibility.[333]
The Confession of the Faith and Doctrine, Believed and Professed by the Protestants of Scotland, was translated into Latin, and, under the title Confessio Scoticana, occupies an honoured place in the collections of the creeds of the Reformed Churches. It remained the symbol of the Church of Scotland during the first stormy century of its existence. It was displaced by the Westminster Confession in 1647, only on the understanding that the later document was “in nothing contrary” to the former; and continued authoritative long after that date.[334] Drawn up in haste by a small number of theologians, it is more sympathetic and human than most creeds, and has commended itself to many who object to the impersonal logic of the Westminster Confession.[335] The first sentence of the preface gives the tone to the whole: