again be transported to Spain, whither, it seems, the Scotch merchants had been in the habit of car. rying considerable quantities of those articles, to be converted into candles for the shrines of the saints, and for the idolatrous service, as the minis ters were pleased to term it, of the mass. Inspired with the same over-pious, though no doubt sincere notions regarding a market which was held in Edinburgh every Monday, they forbade that assemblage, under the pretext that it caused people to begin journies and attend to secular business on Sunday The people, who felt too particular an interest in these matters to brook interference with them, soon convinced their pastors that they were stepping a little beyond their commission; on which occasion, James is said to have lifted up his bands, and expressed his surprise, that shoemakers and skippers had done what he had never been able to do. Such was really the case. But however unable the clergy might be to legislate for the people, they at all times showed themselves possessed both of the power and the will to tyrannise over their sovereign.

Calderwood relates various anecdotes of James, as appropriate to this period. It was the conviction of this ecclesiastical historian, and probably was also that of the clergy in general, that there could be no sincere religion in the King's heart: he had been heard to call Calvin's Institution' a childish work,' and had sometimes applied the ludicrous epithet of the holy sisters' to a certain coterie of religious women who lived in Edinburgh! This was a sentiment quite in the spirit of the age, when, to think differently from the multitude upon any little matter of form, or to utter the most tri

6

vial expression of ridicule regarding the rigidly righteous,' was enough to procure a sentence of excommunication. But the most curious anecdote remains. It must be given in Calderwood's own words.

There came from Aberdeen a young woman, called Helen Guthry, daughter to John Guthry, sadler, to admonish the King of his duty. She was so disgusted with the sinnes reigning in the country, swearing, filthy speaking, profanation of the Sabbath, &c., that she could find no rest till she came to the King. She presented a letter to him when he was going to see his hounds. After he had read a little of it, he fell a laughing that he could scarce stand on his feet, and swore horri bly, saying the very women could not spare to reprove him. He asked if she was a prophetess. She answered she was a puir simple servant of God, that prayed to make him a servant of God also, that was desirous vice should be punished, and specially murder, which was chiefly craved at his hands that she could find no rest till she put him in mind of his duty. After the King and council had stormed a while, she was sent to the Queen, whom she found more courteous and humane. Soe many and great were the enormities in the country through impunity and want of justice, that the minds of puir simple young women were disquieted, as ye may see; but the King and court had deaf eares to the crying sinnis.'

But at this crisis, when James was distressed beyond measure by Bothwell and the clergy, there happened an incident which occasioned to him, if possible, still greater uneasiness-namely, the discovery of a conspiracy among the Catholics. Though the

3

failure of the Spanish armada in 1588, had given a most severe blow to the resources of this body throughout Europe, yet it appears that they never for a day ceased their exertions for the extirpation of heresy. There was now a project on foot, among the Scottish nobles who had appeared in in arms on the former occasion, to receive a new Spanish fleet in some of the northern firths, to revive, by means of it, the Catholic church in Scot> land, and then to invade England, either with the King, or without him. A gentleman of the name of Ker, brother to Lord Newbattle, was seized on his way out of the country, by the minister of Paisley, and, being searched, was found to carry blank let. ters, signed with the names of the Earls of Huntly, Errol, and Angus, which, from the terms of the address, were evidently designed for the King of Spain. This was on the 27th of December, 1592. Being brought towards Edinburgh on the succeeding Sunday, the fame of the incident preceded his arrival; and the ministers are recorded to have made short work of their sermons, in order to permit their auditors to go out, weill bodin. in effeir of weir,' to assist the officers of justice in convoying so monstrous a public enemy to prison. Ker, being examined, confessed the nature and object of his mission, and thereby excited in the public mind a degree of indignation and alarm of which it is now impossible to form any idea. The King, who was enjoying his Christmas with the Earl and Countess of Mar at Alloa, was immediately sent for. The Earl of Angus, one of the guilty nobles, happening to come to Edinburgh, was seized by the provost and confined in Edinburgh Castle. While yet the King was absent, a small knot of

VOL. I.

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the ministers took it upon them, in virtue of their sovereign power and infallibility, to write letters to all their best friends within a wide circle, desiring them to convene at Edinburgh on the 8th of January, that they might consult about measures for the safety of the church. When James returned, he presumed to chide them in his usual gentle way, for making an unlawful convocation of the lieges. But they were too much engrossed by the magnitude of the end they had in view, to regard his individual interests; and he was soon compelled to go along with the tide of popular opinion, as inspired and guided by these men, at the risk of otherwise losing his life or his crown.

James was exceedingly averse, from taking any severe measures with the Catholics. He had, in the first place, strong political reasons for endeavouring to conciliate them; for they threatened to endeavour all they could to bar his succession to the English crown. It was, in a great measure, as the price of permission to deal leniently with them, that he had lately assented to the demands of the Presbyterians. Whether he secretly entertained any favour for their doctrines or not, it would be difficult to discover: probably, he thought on this subject, as his contemporary Lord Herbert avows himself to have thought, and as every man of just thinking and humanity must now think, namely, that the points agreed upon on both sides are greater bonds of amity betwixt the two faiths, than the points disagreed on should break them; and, certainly, in all his polemical works, the only point of the Catholic religion which he seems to hold in abhorrence, is the Pope's supremacy. Among other reasons which he had for acting leniently in t the

present case, were his personal friendship for the parties accused, their attachment and good service to him-Angus had just returned from the North, where he had quelled a serious disturbance-and perhaps a conviction, that the utmost object of their conspiracy was to procure a relaxation of the severe persecution which the established clergy had lately set on foot against them; a persecution which went the length of making them outlaws in the land, and which was rather increasing than declining in rigour.

But his own sentiments on this subject.were too completely the reverse of those entertained by the public in general, to be acted on. Borne along by the popular current, which he had no means of resisting, he was obliged to permit the execution of David Graham of Fintry, a gentleman inculpated by Ker's dispatches; and he had soon after to put himself at the head of an army, and go to the North, for the purpose of seizing the three Catholic Earls. It was only at a considerable risk, that, on finding the nobles fled from their houses, he could take it upon him to abstain from destroying their property and incarcerating their families;the Earl of Angus meanwhile escaped from Edinburgh, not without suspicions of his connivance ;and but for the prospect of seeing them forfaulted in a parliament which he had called to meet in July, the people would have been thrown, by these symptoms of leniency, into a condition of open rebellion.

The parliament met on the 14th of July; but as the popular clamours had abated a little by that time, he did not find it necessary to permit the forfeiture to be pronounced: it was found sufficient to adjourn the parliament till November,