and power to redress the wrongs of their church | their service is an evil said mass in English; they and country. The result was, that Arran was driven into obscurity, and the king obliged to assume a more moderate tone; while Episcopacy, though it could not be abrogated, was reduced as before to its place within the verge of Presbyterian parity and submission a reduction that was soon after signalized in the excommunication of Patrick Adamson, Archbishop of St. Andrews, by the synod of Fife. Although all this was much, yet it fell short of the mark, as the order of bishops was still tolerated, and might at any future period be restored to its wonted pre-eminence. Indeed, it was soon found that the patriotic lords, at their return, were more intent in settling their own private quarrels, and securing their personal interests, than in caring for the rights of the church, or advancing its welfare.

want nothing of the mass but the liftings. I charge you, my good people, ministers, doctors, elders, nobles, gentlemen, and barons, to stand to your purity, and to exhort your people to do the same; and I, forsooth, so long as I bruik my life and crown, shall maintain the same against all deadly." There was nothing heard for a quarter of an hour but praising God, and praying for the king. It was a striking scene, as well as the manifestation of an unwonted mood on the part of the royal speaker. Nor was the feeling so evanescent as might have been expected, as, two years afterwards, James conceded more liberally to the demands of the Scottish church than he had hitherto done. While the harmony between the civil and ecclesiastical powers was as yet uninterrupted, the General Assembly, in 1592, drew up a full list of their requirements, which the king received and favourably answered; and though all was not granted which had been asked, the concessions were so ample that they constituted then, as afterwards, the Magna Charta of the Church of Scotland. They were passed in parliament assembled for the purpose, which ratified and approved "all liberties, privileges, immunities, and freedoms whatsoever given and granted by his highness, his regents in his name, or any of his predecessors, to the true and holy kirk presently established within this realm, and declared in the first act of his highness's parliament, the twenty day of October, the year of God 1579 years." By these enactments, it may be stated in general terms, that the right of general assemblies, synods, and presbyteries to hold their meetings was recognized, and that their discipline and jurisdiction was to continue and hold good whatever statutes, acts, and laws might have been made to the contrary. The royal supremacy was to be in no

The great public political events that followed were of a nature to reconcile James to the national church, or at least compel him to a show of amity. The Popish continental league, which had for its object the restoration of Mary Stuart to her throne, and the conquest of Protestant England by the subjugation of Scotland, was matured for action; the Spanish Armada was ready to set sail; and James, who knew that the reposition of his mother would not only uncrown him in Scotland, but might debar him from the still more tempting succession of England, was glad to strengthen himself in the Protestant feelings of his subjects. On this account he was careful not only to avoid all encroachments upon the church, but to propitiate its ministers whom he had formerly persecuted. This mutual agreement was strikingly manifested in 1590, when he performed the only adventurous deed of his long reign, by sailing to Denmark and espousing the Princess Anne, in spite of the storms which witch-wise prejudicial to the rights of the church officecraft had raised against the enterprise. Before he set sail, he entrusted the guardianship of the kingdom in an especial manner to Robert Bruce, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, who enjoyed the chief confidence of his brethren; and, at his return, was so well pleased at the manner in which the trust had been discharged, that he declared it worth a "whole quarter of his little kingdom." Elated, also, in no ordinary degree by his chivalrous voyage and its success, he gave full vent to his feelings in a meeting of the General Assembly which was held in August, three months after his return. He praised God that he was born in such a time as in the time of the light of the gospel; to such a place as to be king of such a kirk, the sincerest kirk of the world. "The Kirk of Geneva," said he, "keepeth Pasch and Yule; what have they for them? They have no institution. As for our neighbour kirk in England,

bearers concerning heads of religion, matters of heresy, excommunication, the appointment and deprivation of ministers, or the infliction of such censures as the Word of God warranted; and the commission formerly granted to bishops, and other judges appointed by the king in the trial of ecclesiastical causes, was henceforth to be null and of no effect. But notwithstanding these concessions, there were demands still left unsatisfied, and wrongs unredressed, which could furnish ample ground for future controversy and contention between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities.

As the prospects of the English succession were now continuing to expand and become every year more certain, James endeavoured to accommodate his proceedings to the occasion. He knew that the Presbyterianism of Scotland, so like the Puritanism of England, was in the highest degree di tasteful to Elizabeth; and his own likings were

in

favour of Episcopacy, which acknowledged the I must tell you that there are two kings and two kingly rule in ecclesiastical affairs, and recognized kingdoms. There is Christ and his kingdom the the sovereign as the head of the church. These kirk, whose subject King James the Sixth is, and were motives sufficiently strong for his dislike of of whose kingdom he is not a king, nor a head, the ecclesiastical republicanism of his own coun- nor a lord, but a member; and they whom Christ try, and his desire to conciliate the Anglican hath called and commanded to watch over his church, in which he hoped at no distant day to kirk, and govern his spiritual kingdom, have suffirule as a pontiff. But a more difficult task which cient authority and power from him so to do, remained for him was to conciliate the Popish which no Christian king nor prince should conparty, still powerful in Scotland and England trol nor discharge, but fortify and assist, otherthrough their connection with the continental wise they are not faithful subjects to Christ. Sir, powers, and whose concurrence would be of the when you were in your swaddling clouts, Christ utmost importance in facilitating his admission reigned freely in this land in spite of all his eneto the English throne. To this purpose, therefore, mies. His officers and ministers convened and he directed all his kingcraft, and with such ef-assembled for ruling of his kirk, which was ever fect that the English Papists were more desirous for your welfare, also when the same enemies were of having him for their king than even the Pro-seeking your destruction; and have been, by their testants; but in securing this future contingency, he almost lost the present reality, for his Scottish subjects, alarmed at his tamperings with Popery, began to suspect that, if not a Papist in heart, he was at least compromising the safety of their church, and the cause of the Reformation itself, by his concessions to their irreconcilable enemies. At last, in 1596, when the dread of a Spanish invasion of Scotland was at the height, the banished Popish lords secretly returned to Scotland, and were about to be restored to place and power. Alarmed at this ominous movement, a deputation from the church was sent to the king, with James Melvil for their spokesman, as it was thought that his courteous speech and mild demeanour were best suited for a transaction of this kind with royalty. The interview took place at Falkland; but no sooner had the minister announced the purport of their arrival, and the proceedings of the clerical court by which they had been commissioned, than the king angrily charged that meeting with being seditious, declared that it had been alarmed without cause, and accused them of stirring up alarm in the country when none was needed. James Melvil was about to return a soft answer; but Andrew Melvil, his uncle, fearing, perhaps, that the purpose of the mission would be lost by too much forbearance, and kindled at the king's charge of sedition against the brethren, broke in abruptly upon the conference. Taking the king by the sleeve, and addressing him with the epithet of "God's silly vassal," he thundered in his ears to the following effect:-"Sir, we will humbly reverence your majesty always, namely, in public; but we have this occasion to be with your majesty in private, and you are brought into extreme danger both of your life and of your crown, and with you, the country and kirk of God is like to be wrecked for not telling the truth, and giving you a faithful counsel. We must discharge our duty, or else be enemies to Christ and you; therefore, sir, as divers times before, so now

assemblies and meetings since, terrible to these enemies, and most steadable for you. Will you now, when there is more than necessity, challenge Christ's servants, your best and most faithful subjects, for their convening, and for the care they have of their duty to Christ and you, when you should rather commend and countenance them, as the godly kings and emperors did? The wisdom of your counsel, which is devilish and pernicious, is this-that you may be served with all sorts of men to come to your purpose and grandeur, Jew and Gentile, Papist and Protestant. Because the ministers and Protestants in Scotland are too strong, and control the king, they must be weakened and brought low by stirring up a party against them, and the king, being equal and indifferent, both shall be fain to flee to him; so shall he be well settled. But, sir, let God's wisdom be the only true wisdom: this will prove mere and mad folly; for his curse cannot but light upon it, so that in seeking both you shall lose both; whereas, in cleaving uprightly to God, his true servants shall be your true friends, and he shall compel the rest, counterfeitly and lyingly, to serve you, as he did to David." We can imagine with what feeling Elizabeth or her father would have listened to such sentiments, and enforced in such a fashion; but the arguments were nothing more than the legitimate consequences of an ecclesiastical polity which James himself had recognized; and as for the blunt mode in which his attention had been solicited, it was too much in accordance with the simple fashions of a Scottish court to excite either wonder or alarm. While Elizabeth, therefore, would have called for her guards, or Henry VIII. shouted for the executioner, James only listened quietly, as to an expected lesson, although this was but a part of the harangue, and "demitted them pleasantly," declaring his ignorance of the return of the Popish lords. All this courtesy, however, on the part of the king was but an empty show, for the Popish lords were al

lowed to remain unmolested, and the proceedings | Andrews, was accused of having employed cerstill went on for their reinstatement.

Alarmed at these continuing symptoms, and dreading the growing favour of Popery in high places, the church proceeded to more decisive measures; and for this purpose they appointed certain ministers from the different presbyteries to repair to the capital, and form, with the presbytery of Edinburgh, a standing council of the church, for the purpose of watching public events, and providing for coming emergencies. It was both a wise and a necessary expedient for a rude age of sudden transitions, and unprincipled plots and conspiracies, in which the welfare of the church was unscrupulously sacrificed. A deputation of four ministers was also sent to the king, to lay before him the complaints of the church and crave redress; to whom he replied that there could be no agreement between him and the ministers till "the marches of their jurisdictions were rid." He also complained that the ministers themselves gave him occasion to speak of them, never ceasing in their sermons to provoke him, and to disgrace him before the people. To this they replied that "the free preaching of the Word, and rebuke of sin in whatsoever person without respect, and discipline joined therewith, were established, after many conferences, upon evident grounds of the Word, by his majesty's laws and acts of parliament, and many years' practice and use passed thereupon." It may be here remarked, that in an age when the only source of public intelligence was the pulpit, and when the consequent duty of a minister of religion was "to preach to the times," it was necessary to introduce subjects which now belong exclusively to the press; and that to extinguish this right was tantamount to the modern political offence of closing the public printing-offices and arresting their journalists a violation of national rights that would be thought enough to justify a national rebellion. The spirit of general inquiry awoke by the Reformation was still groping its way in advance, and could only establish a new order of things by trial and experiment, and these ministers, with all their freedom of speech upon public events, were the only journalists of the day. It was not wonderful, therefore, that James, who had often winced under their animadversions upon his personal vices, as well as been annoyed by their watchfulness of his public proceedings, and hostility to his despotic purposes, should have regarded the liberty of the pulpit with that amount of royal hatred which, in modern times, has been transferred to the liberty of the press, and exercise of public judgment.

An opportunity was even now at hand for bringing this important question to the issue of a public trial. Mr. David Black, minister of St.

tain reprehensible expressions in his sermons; and for this offence he was summoned to answer before the privy council. The charges against him were, that he had affirmed the return of the Popish lords to have been made with his majesty's knowledge, and upon his assurance, and that in this case the king had discovered the treachery of his heart. He had called all kings "the devil's bairns," and added that the devil was in the court, and in the guiders of it. In his prayer for the queen he had used these words-"We must pray for her for the fashion, but we have no cause; she will never do us good." He had called the Queen of England an atheist. He had discussed in the pulpit a suspension granted by the Lords of Session, and called them miscreants and bribers. In speaking of the nobility, he said they were degenerate, godless, dissemblers, and enemies to the church; and in mentioning the council he had called them howleglasses, cormorants, and men of no religion. Such were the expressions he was charged with using in his sermons, if we may believe the testimony of an historian who, at this period, was alleged to have been trimming between his clerical brethren and the court, and betraying the former to the latter. But the most startling charge of all was the concluding one, which might suffice to make all the rest uncertain, or positively worthless. It was that the said David Black "had convocated divers noblemen, barons, and others, within St. Andrews, in the month of June, 1594, caused them take arms and divide themselves in troops of horse and foot, and had thereby usurped the power of the king and civil magistrate." It is singular that this phantom array was never heard of till now, and that it was suffered to vanish so lightly from the accusation, while the alleged words were laid hold of and kept as substantial evidences. Perceiving that the purpose of these charges was to suppres the liberty of preaching in all time to come, the commission of the clergy in Edinburgh advised Black to decline the judgment of the privy council, in the first instance, as a court incompetent to decide; and his declinature, which he gave in accordingly, was backed by the signatures of 300 ministers. It was no longer a private and individual charge, but a great public contest between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, and a contest in which the former were certain to prevail, at least at the outset. Black was pronounced

1 "None so diligent in outward appearance to procure sub scriptions to the declinature, as Mr. John Spotswood, after wards Bishop of St. Andrews; and yet in the very meantinue as is constantly reported, he informed or sent to the king, by a

courtier, information of all the proceedings of the counsel of the

brethren, and other ministers forward in the same cause.

Calderwood, fol. p. 339.

guilty, and sentenced to confinement beyond the | agreed that fifty-one ministers, corresponding to Tay until the king should decide upon his further punishment. But this was nothing compared with what followed. The powers of the commissioners of the assembly were declared to be illegal, and the commissioners themselves were ordered to leave Edinburgh; the ministers, by a decree of council, were required, before receiving payment of their stipends, to subscribe a bond in which they promised to submit to the judgment of the king and privy council as often as they were accused of preaching treasonable or seditious doctrine; and all magistrates of burghs, and noblemen and gentlemen in country parishes, were commanded and empowered to interrupt such language as often as they heard it from the pulpit, and imprison those who uttered it.

lapidated church revenues could have been re-tirely according to royal dictation; and, coeval called for the purpose. Instead of announcing, with the commencement of this great event, there at the close of each General Assembly, the time were many whose wishes had outstripped the and place of meeting for the next, he appointed mark of royalty. These were, properly, the them when and where he pleased by proclama- Puritans of England, when as yet the name was tion at the market crosses; and by this abrupt unknown; and from the innate tendency of the and unceremonious mode of convening it, he en- human mind, when fully emancipated, to hold deavoured to make the duty of meeting oppres- onward in its new course-from the example of sive to the members, as well as to desecrate the other Protestant countries-and from the coninstitution in the eyes of the people. Even when nection formed between the foreign leading Rethe assembly did meet under such humiliating formers and those of England-the germ of Engcircumstances, James was enabled to control its lish Puritanism was certain to strengthen and proceedings through the commission, which he shoot upward, in spite of the opposition that had made so subservient to his purposes that it awaited it. Thus questions were agitated and was called the "led horse" of the king. To this doubts entertained, even among the fathers of state was the Scottish church reduced when the new English church, regarding the propriety James, by the death of Elizabeth, succeeded to of retaining these ancient forms; and while one the throne of England. Whatever may have been party advocated them on the plea that the people the national exultation on the subject, the stanch would "come easily into the more real changes friends of Scottish Presbyterianism could not that were made in the doctrines, when they saw help regarding it with anxious foreboding. When the outward appearance so little altered,” it was almost single-handed, he had effected so much alleged, on the other hand, "that this still kept by mere craft and cunning, what might he not up the inclination in the people to the former attempt or effect with the whole weight of Eng-practices." Thus, Latimer laid aside, and Hooper land to aid him? It was too far-seeing to surmise, at so early a period, that the national spirit would thereby be only effectually roused into jealous activity, and that a bold and successful reaction would be the result.

While the Scottish Reformation had thus been undergoing such a struggle, and establishing a polity that was distasteful to the civil power, the history of English Protestantism was widely different. At the head of the movement, in the first instance, was a despotic sovereign; and although it was his interest to break loose from the dominion of Rome, he was little disposed to carry the change much farther. It was a political rather than a religious reformation in the church, that formed the mark of his ambition; and when the Papal yoke was wholly thrown off, he was willing that there the movement should stop short, or, at least, proceed according to his own dictation. Such also was the leading principle of Elizabeth during her long and vigorous reign, and which her successes enabled her to carry into effect. Hence the monarchical government of the English church, with the king for its head and prelates for its ruling officebearers; and hence, also, the pomps and formalities which were as essential for the kingly rule as that of the pope. All this was in marked contrast to the republicanism of the Scottish Reformation, which originated in the people, and had the powers of the state, not for its leaders, but its antagonists.

It was impossible, however, that a whole nation, and such a nation as England, would be contented to formulate its creed and ritual en

refused to assume, the Episcopal vestments. Ridley directed the altar to be changed after the "form of an honest table decently covered." In King Edward's time the surplice was neither universally used nor pressed upon the clergy. Later still, Archbishop Parker administered the Lord's Supper to persons standing, in the cathedral church at Canterbury, and there the practice continued until 1608. The persecution of Mary also, which drove so many Protestants to the Continent, tended greatly to the increase of Puritanism, as these exiles, on their return, brought along with them the doctrines they had learned, and the forms they had practised, in the churches of Switzerland, France, and Geneva. Even this persecution, also, which at home allured so many from their half-Protestantism back to the faith of Rome, only strengthened the growing Puritanism, and confirmed the faith of its adherents, from the distinct antagonism of their creed, and the firm decision which its adoption had required.

On the accession of Elizabeth, and the re-establishment of Protestantism in England, the change that so effectually blasted the hopes of the Catholics brought little favour to the Puritans. For while the oath of supremacy effectually excluded the former, the act of both Houses of Parliament, for the uniformity of common prayer and service in the church, and administration of the sacraments, bore hard upon the latter. This was the more confirmed, from the revision that had been made of the Liturgy of King Edward, and the alterations that had been

1 Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol iii. p. Sui 2 Ibid.