the puritanism of his master, Calvin, he returned to Scotland in 1558. He found the Reformers there disposed to take a more moderate course than that which he had learned, at Geneva, to regard as the only righteous one. They were in the habit of attending mass; and as the queen-regent had, for her own purposes, shown some favour to the Reformers, they were anxious to go as far with her in conformity to the national Church as they could. Knox boldly opposed this spirit of compromise, and brought over Maitland of Lethington to his views. A more open and formal separation from the Romish Church was determined upon. He now numbered amongst his adherents men destined to figure in the religious history of their time: Erskine of Dun, a man of baronial rank and ancient family; Sir James Sandilands, commonly styled Lord St. John; Archibald, Lord Lorn, afterwards Earl of Argyll; the Master of Mar; James Stuart, prior of St. Andrews, a natural brother of Mary Queen of Scots, now called the Lord James; the Earl Glencairn; and the Earl-Marshal.
The opposing clergy, roused by the recommendations of Knox for separation, summoned him to appear before an ecclesiastical convention in Edinburgh. Thither he repaired, and, to his agreeable surprise, found the Reformers collected in such numbers as to overawe his enemies. He addressed a letter to the queen-regent, calling upon her to protect the Reformed preachers, and even to attend their sermons. This was a stretch of assurance which Mary of Guise treated with ridicule; and the opposite party, emboldened by her secret countenance, began to plot against his safety. A period of danger seemed approaching, and Knox, to the astonishment of his friends, at this moment accepted an invitation to become pastor of the reformed congregation at Geneva, where all was prosperous and secure.
The Roman Catholic leaders exulted in the flight of Knox; they summoned him to stand his trial, and as he, of course, could not appear, condemned him, and burnt him in effigy at the High Cross in Edinburgh. The conduct of the Reformers whom he left behind him was far bolder than his own. When summoned by Mary of Guise to appear in Edinburgh and answer for their conduct, the preachers, attended by thronging thousands of the respective congregations, presented themselves in such a formidable shape, that the regent declared that she meant no injury to them; and a period of such tranquility succeeded, that the leaders of the Reform party—the Earl of Glencairn, Lord Lorn, son of the Earl of Argyll, Erskine of Dun, Stuart, afterwards the Regent Murray—entreated Knox to return to his country, which they assured him he might do in safety. Knox resigned his charge, and had reached Dieppe in order to take ship for Scotland, when he received the intelligence that the zeal of the Reformers had cooled, that the scheme which occasioned them to write to him had been abandoned, and that the Protestants preferred worshipping God in private to daring the perils of a public contest. Knox wrote a most indignant answer, telling the nobles that if they thought they should escape tyranny and oppression by shunning danger, they grievously deceived themselves; that they would only encourage the enemy to greater insolence, and that the work of reformation was especially that of the nobles. This address, accompanied by stinging private letters to Erskine of Dun and Wishart of Pitarrow, produced the intended effect. A new impulse was given to the cause of reform; the leaders of the cause came together, their zeal acquired every day more fervency, and on the 3rd of December, 1557, they drew up that League and Covenant which was destined to work such wonders in Scotland, to rouse the suffering Reformers into an actual church militant; to put arms into the hands of the excited peasants, brace the sword to the side of the preacher, and, through civil war and scenes of strange suffering, bloodshed, and resistance on moor and mountain, to work out the freedom of the faith for ever in Scotland. The Covenant engaged all who subscribed it, in a solemn vow, "in the presence of the Majesty of God and his congregation," to spread the Word by every means in their power, to maintain the Gospel and defend its ministers against all tyranny; and it pronounced the most bitter anathemas against the superstition, the idolatry, and the abominations of Rome.
This bond received the signatures of the Earls of Glencairn, Argyll, and Morton, Lord Lorn, Erskine of Dun, and many other nobles and gentlemen, who assumed the name of the Lords of the Congregation: and from this hour it became a scandalous apostacy for any one to flinch or fall away from this "solemn League and Covenant." War to the death was thus proclaimed against the established religion, and the Congregation, as the Reformers now styled themselves, passed a resolution, that in all the parishes of the realm the Common Prayer Book—that is, the book of Edward VI.—should be regularly used, with corresponding lessons from the Old and New Testament, and that the curates should read the same; but, if they were not qualified, or refused, then the next qualified person should do it for them. Preaching, or interpretation of the Scriptures, was recommended to be used also in private houses, but not in such numbers as to draw the attention of the Government till such time as God should move the prince to grant public preaching by true and faithful ministers.
The Lords of the Congregation proceeded forthwith to put these resolutions in force in all their own districts. The Earl of Argyll ordered Douglas, his chaplain, to preach openly in his own house, and a second letter was written to hasten the arrival of Knox. The Papal clergy were greatly excited, and called on the queen-regent to interpose her authority; but Mary of Guise had a difficult part to play. The marriage of her daughter with the dauphin was about to take place, but as yet the Scottish Parliament had not given its final consent. She therefore had to avoid incensing the nobles of either persuasion, and whilst she supported the views of the establishment, she was obliged to protest against proceeding to extremities with the Reformers. The Archbishop of St. Andrews was averse to persecution also; but the clergy would not let him rest, and Walter Miln, the parish priest of Lunan, in Angus, who had been condemned as a heretic in the time of Cardinal Beaton, but had escaped from prison, was now seized, and brought to the stake. He was a venerable man of upwards of eighty, and his death excited such a horror and indignation, that he was the last victim in Scotland by fire.
This deed produced its natural fruits. The Lords of the Congregation remonstrated with the queen-regent boldly,
