a Parliamentary Convention could disestablish and disendow the Church, it had been disestablished and disendowed; but statutory definitions do not always correspond with the fact; and what was legally dead might yet be politically and practically alive. There was a want of authority everywhere, and the force which was strong at the centre became weak, if not impotent, before it reached the extremities. The new ecclesiastical organisation was yet in its infancy. Knox was a power in himself; but he was still an eruptive and revolutionary power; and except in the towns he had no considerable following. The nobles, with a few exceptions, were careless, if not cold. It was ex ceptionally a period of transition, and the next few years would determine what impress the Church and the nation would take. Mary, during these years, was the central figure; but the real struggle, as we shall see, lay between Knox and Lethington. The ecclesiastical policy which Maitland pursued may be defined in a sentence. He was strenucusly opposed to whatever would render a religious peace between England and Scotland, between Elizabeth and Mary, difficult or impracticable. The Confession of Faith had not been approved by Elizabeth. Its bitter Calvinism was little to her taste, and Cecil would probably have been pleased if its sanction by the Estates had been postponed to a more convenient season. Maitland had done what he could to mitigate its austerity; but he probably regarded the abstract propositions of theology with indifference, and it was only where it trenched upon civil rights and duties that he insisted on its revision. Maitland, no less than Elizabeth, was keenly opposed to theocratic government; the Church was very well in its place; but a parliament of preachers would have been simply intolerable. Church of Rome had been an imperium in imperio: for this among other reasons the Church of Rome had been abolished. It appeared to Maitland, as it appeared to Elizabeth, that the ecclesiastical society which undertook to exercise temporal as well as spiritual lordship, must become a focus of sedition, and consequently a danger to the state; and that any proposal, however modestly disguised or studiously veiled, to override the law of the land by the law of the Church, was to be steadily resisted. Knox was eager to have the The Book of Discipline accepted by the lords; but Maitland's opposition to a scheme involving a domestic inquisition and a social censorship, could not be overcome. would always be a menace to Elizabeth, was secretly hostile. The interview never took place; and as time wore on, the differences which had once been capable of peaceful adjustment, became emphasised and accentuated. unanimity. The proclamation of 25th August 1561 was probably drawn by Maitland. It provided that the form of religion presently "standing" should in the meantime be continued. The final settlement was purposely delayed. The proclamation was substantially a declaration that the whole religious state was provisional. This was exactly what Maitland in the interests of a comprehensive pacification must have desired. There was at least no legislative bar to union; a truce had been proclaimed; and when · passion had cooled and prejudices had conciliated, union might Maitland's position, on the other hand, as regards Mary's Catholicism, though constantly misunder- Mary was not invited on her stood and misrepresented, is not return to ratify the proceedings less clear. It was not to be ex- of the Parliament which had abolpected that Mary would be per- ished the ancient Church. She suaded to join a Calvinistic and had refused to do so before she Presbyterian Church. But the left France; the Parliament of Church of Elizabeth was in a dif- 1560, she alleged, had neither been ferent position; the English Church lawfully convened nor lawfully could hardly be said to have re- constituted. A compromise that linquished the Catholic tradition. left matters open for any subseThe new creed of Northern Chris- quent change of circumstances tendom has not had time to was agreed to with apparent crystallise; and the doctrinal standards of the various sects were not yet regarded with the unreasoning reverence which time and habit beget. There was nothing in Maitland's view to prevent an "accord" between Mary and Elizabeth; nothing in fact to make a religious peace between the Churches of the two nations hopeless. The preachers did their best to mar the prospects of union. They affronted the Queen. They insulted her ministers. They inveighed against her creed. They presented Protestantism to her in its most repellent aspect. But Maitland did not despair. The advantages of an accord on matters of religion between the two Queens and the two nations being so obvious, he believed that if Mary and Elizabeth met, the difficulties might be removed. Some articles of peace, some comprehensive settlement tolerable to all reasonable men, might surely be devised. It is certain that Knox, who hated Prelacy nearly as hotly as he hated Popery, did not view the scheme with a friendly eye; and Cecil, holding that Mary, Catholic-Protestant or Protestant Catholic been come. I am aware that this view of Maitland's ecclesiastical policy is somewhat unusual. But I believe it to be in accordance with the facts which have been recorded, not by ecclesiastical historians only, but by contemporary writers whose fairness and impartiality are undoubted. To a consecutive narrative of these facts-the incidents of the struggle between Maitland's policy of peace and Knox's policy of exasperation-I must now address myself. The objects then of Maitland's It was committed unto the Lord policy were: (I.) To prevent Scot- of Lethington and the Sub-Prior tish Protestantism from assuming to be examined. Though they a form that would make an accord could not reprove the doctrine, with Elizabeth and English Pro- yet did they mitigate the austerity testantism impossible. (II.) To of many words and sentences bring the Queens together, with which sounded to proceed rather the view of concluding a compre- of some evil-conceived opinion hensive religious peace between than of any sound judgment. the two nations on a reasonable The author of the work had also basis. (III.) To dissuade the preach- put in his treatise a title or ers from presenting such a cari- chapter of the obedience or discature of Protestantism to Mary obedience that subjects owe unto as might confirm her attachment their magistrates, that contained to Catholicism and increase the little less matter in few words difficulties of an accord. (IV.) To than hath been otherwise written restrain the extravagant pretensions of of the preachers, whose doctrines of spiritual independence and spiritual supremacy were incompatible, in his view, with the maintenance of civil authority and orderly government. I. It is known that the Confession of Faith, before it was ratified by the Estates, had been submitted to Maitland and the Lord James for revision. They had together gone over it; they had modified the severity of its language; and they had deleted one whole chapter on the duty of subjects to the civil power-which would certainly have proved distasteful to Elizabeth. But Maitland and Randolph were obviously extremely doubtful whether even the revised version would be acceptable at Westminster. "If my poor advice might have been heard," the English envoy was careful to explain to Cecil, "touching the Confession of Faith, it should not so soon have come into the light. God hath sent it better success for the confirmation thereof than was looked for; it passed men's expectations to see it pass in such sort as it did. Before that it was published and many words spoken of it, it was presented unto certain of the lords to see their judgment. more at large. The surveyors of this work thought it to be an unfit matter to be treated at that time, and so gave their advice to have it out." A week later Maitland wrote to Cecil to the same effect. It was not yet too late, he added, to amend any article that Elizabeth might hold to be amiss. "If there be anything in the Confession of our Faith which you mislike, I would be glad to know it, that upon the advertisement it may rather be changed (if the matter will so permit), or at least in some thing qualified, to the contentation of those who otherways might be offended." The Confession, however, was a difficult work to recast; it hung together with logical tenacity; if one brick was dislodged, the whole structure might be imperilled. Granting the fundamental assumption of its compilers, there was no road by which the conclusion at which they arrived-" And therefore we utterly abhor the blasphemy of them that affirm that men who live according to equitie and justice shall be saved"-could be avoided. The Scottish Pharisee who held that he was not as other men we are the only part of your people that truly fear God was proud of his isolation. "As. touching the doctrine taught by our ministers, and as touching the administration of Sacraments used in our churches, we are bold to affirm that there is no realm this day upon the face of the earth, that hath them in greater purity; -yea (we mon speak the truth whomsoever we offend), there is none that hath them in the like purity. For all others retain in their churches, and the ministers thereof, some footsteps of Antichrist and some dregs of Papistrie; but we have no thing within our churches that ever flowed from that Man of Sin." They, at least, had made no pact with Satan; in Scotland, if nowhere else," Christ's religion had been established de novo." In the remarkable letter addressed in December 1566 on behalf of the General Assembly to the bishops and pastors of the Church of England, Knox (who was the penman) tried hard to be civil, if not friendly; but, by the time he had finished, the English bishops and pastors had been roundly told that they still flaunted in "Romish rags.' "If these have been the badges of idolaters in the very act of their idolatry, what hath the preacher of Christian liberty, and open rebuker of all superstition, to do with the dregs of that Romish beast?-yea, what is he that ought not to fear, either to take in his hand or his forehead the print and mark of that odious beast?" "All that are in civil authority," he continued in his characteristic vein, "have not the light of God shining before their eyes in their statutes and commandments, but their affections savour over much of the earth and of worldly wisdom; and therefor we think you should boldly opone yourself not only to all that power that will or daur extol the self against God, but also against all such as daur burthen the consciences of the faithful, further than God hath burthened them by His own Word." This characteristi epistle throws considerable light upon Knox's tactics. In England, where the Puritans were still few in number, the Reformer was content to plead for toleration: "Ye cannot be ignorant how tender a thing the conscience of man is;" but the moment the Border was crossed, dissent, however conscientious, was to be rigidly repressed. When the people of God were in a minority, it was the duty and privilege of the idolatrous ruler to respect the principle of religious liberty; but whenever the people of God were in a majority they were bound to execute God's justice against the idolater. Who, then, were the people of God? Knox had no difficulty in answering the question; -The Church of Scotland was pure; all others had some footsteps of Antichrist and some dregs of Papistrie." The letter to the Church of England was an official document, in which a show of courtesy was preserved; the true feeling of the preachers was perhaps more nearly expressed in that letter of Goodman's to Cecil, in which he exhorts him to abolish all the relics of superstition and idolatry, which, to the grief of the godly, are still retained in England, and not to suffer the bloodly Bishops and know murderers of God's people to live, on whom God hath expressly pronounced the sentence of death, for the execution of which He hath committed the sword into your hands." Any compromise between the prophet who had been admitted, as he believed, to the most intimate counsels of the Eternal, and the Papist, the Prelatist, and the Anabaptist, was not to be ex pected; but for several years after Mary's return, Knox did not represent the governing power in Scotland. Moray had been won over by Maitland, and the proclamation of 25th August 1561 was the official declaration of the policy which they had resolved to adopt. The significance of a declaration which was bitterly resented by Knox and the extreme Calvinistic faction, has not been sufficiently appreciated, and its language deserves careful study. Recognising the great inconvenience that might arise through the division and difference in matters of religion, which her Majesty is most desirous to pacify by "ane good ordour " to the honour of God and the tranquillity of her realm, and means to take the same by advice of her Estates as soon as conveniently may be," it enjoined all good citizens (in the meantime, until the Estates of the realm may be assembled, and her Majesty has taken a final order by their advice and public consent, which her Majesty hopes shall be to the contentment of the whole nation) to make no alteration or innovation of the form of religion "publickly and universallie standing at her Majesty's arrival." This proclamation, which was more than once repeated during Mary's reign, was the provisional charter of Protestantism in Scotland. The leaders of the moderate party did not desire any more explicit declaration; and, in spite of the urgency of the Kirk, declined to move on the line of further definition. The indisposition of the lay lords of the Congregation was attributed by the preachers to a selfish regard for their own convenience: Moray for instance, would not support the proposal, because he was waiting for the parliamentary ratification of his earldom. But, if I am not mistaken, the delay is mainly attributable to Maitland's resolve that when the time for union with England arrived, union should not be rendered more difficult by any legislative impediments. If peace with Elizabeth and the English Church could only be concluded on a broader and more Catholic basis than the Confession of Faith supplied, the Confession of Faith, as the act of a convention which had neither been duly summoned nor legally constituted, could be quietly set aside. II. This explanation of Maitland's attitude is confirmed, I think, by the extreme anxiety which he manifested to bring about an interview between Elizabeth and Mary. Many subjects, other than religion, as we shall see in the next paper, would have come to be discussed at their meeting; but the resolution of "the religious difficulty" would have been among the earliest. It was obvious to Maitland that unless some basis of reconciliation could be found, Mary's position must become critical, if not untenable. A Catholic queen among a people obstinately Protestant had an arduous enough part to play; but a Catholic queen in Scotland and a Protestant queen in England was a political embarrassment which, as Europe then stood, would not admit of amicable adjustment. Maitland from an early date had appreciated the difficulties of the situation; and when, on Elizabeth's rejection of Arran, the nation as one man went over to Mary, he continued to maintain that a cordial union with England was the only admissible solution. The scene in the Council Chamber on that occasion has been vividly described by Randolph. The Secretary stood almost alone. "If ever at any time the Lord of Leth |