A.D. 1541.

About this time, died Margaret of England, the Queen mother. She was interred in the tomb of James the First, in the church of the Carthusians at Perth. But the nation had to deplore a more calamitous event, the death of the King's two infant sons. James and his Queen, to divert their grief, honoured the University of Aberdeen with a visit. There they were entertained by the professors and the students with dramatic exhibitions, literary disputations, and orations in the learned languages; which excited the highest encomiums of the royal visitors.

The bold and resolute conduct of Henry, in throwing off the Papal yoke, enraged the Pontiff; who instigated the Emperor of Germany, the Kings of France and Scotland, to meditate his overthrow. Cardinal Beaton proceeded to the Continent, to receive the Pope's instructions for his master. Henry despatched Sadler into Scotland during the Cardinal's absence, to expose the designs of the Pontiff, and to vindicate his own character from the slanderous imputations that had been propagated against him. To efface every unfavourable impression, and to confirm the pacific relations between the kingdoms, Henry requested an interview with his nephew at York. James returned an ambiguous answer, that as soon as circumstances permitted, he would meet him in England.

Alarmed lest their Monarch should be infected with Henry's opinions, the Scottish clergy again dissuaded James from meeting his uncle; who was so exasperated by the disappointment, that he declared war against Scotland. A futile negotiation was proposed by James; which was abandoned. Surrey Earl of Norfolk entered Scotland with an army of thirty thousand, and burned many villages, besides the towns of Kelso and Roxburgh. A Scottish army of ten thousand watched the enemy's movements and surprised their detachments. After an incursion of eight days, the want of provisions compelled the English to retire.

James had advanced as far as the Lammermuir Hills, with an army of thirty thousand, when he received the news of the enemy's retreat. The opportunity he considered favourable for transferring the war into England; but the principal barons, with a disdain which aggravated their disobedience, refused to advance beyond the frontiers. Stung with resentment, and dreading a repetition of the scene at Lauder bridge in the reign of his grandfather, he dismissed his army, and returned home,

To sooth his agitated spirit, the council proposed to levy a small army of ten thousand, under the command of Lord Maxwell, to invade England by the Western Marches. When this army had advanced beyond the frontiers, Oliver Sinclair, a royal favourite, produced the King's commission, appointing him general; and he assumed the command. An universal murmur ensued ; which was quickly changed into disorder, tumult, and uproar.

Dacre and Musgrave, two English commanders, who had ad vanced with a few hundred men to observe the motions of the enemy, perceiving their dissentions, charged their scattered battalions, and put them to an inglorious flight. A thousand prisoners were taken; among whom were many nobles and gentlemen. James had advanced to the castle of Carlaverock when he received the fatal news. Impatience, resentment, and grief, so distracted his mind, that he became pensive and sullen. He shunned the society of mankind in the retirement of Falkland; and A.D. Į died soon after, of a broken heart, in the thirty-first year 1542. of his age.

Had James survived this misfortune, one of two things must have happened, he would openly have attacked the refractory nobles, and thus excited a dangerous civil war; or he would have been compelled to sacrifice the church to promote their union. In the latter case, a reformation, after the example of England, would have been established by law, and the property of the church transferred to the aristocracy to secure their fidelity.

James left only one legitimate child, Mary, who was born a few days before his death. He was the author of a humorous composition in verse, known by the name of "the Gaberlunzieman.”

BOOK THE FIFTH.

CHAPTER I.

Sketch of the Ecclesiastical History of Scotland prior to the Reformation-the causes of that event-the means by which it was effected.

ABOUT the beginning of the sixteenth century, a spirit of religious inquiry was diffused among all classes of men through the greater

part of Europe, and produced a revolution in the sentiments of mankind, the greatest and most beneficial that is recorded in history. That surprising event, called, by way of eminence, the Reformation, produced an influence eminently and exclusively beneficial on the state of society in general, and on the interests of virtue, religion, and liberty. The human mind, which had long continued tame and passive, believing whatever was sanctioned by cleri*cal authority, and bearing whatever was imposed, was suddenly roused, and became inquisitive, mutinous, and disdainful of the yoke under which it had groaned. The Reformation was begun by the elector of Saxony, at the solicitation of Luther.

The seeds of the Reformation were very early sown in Scotland, by several noblemen of that nation, who had resided on the Continent during the religious disputes that divided the German empire. In Scotland, the same ardent love of liberty that appeared in Germany was elicited by the Reformation, and attended its progress. A spirit of general inquiry and independence was awakened, which rendered men attentive to their privileges as subjects, and jealous of the encroachments of their rulers.

But it may not be unacceptable to present the juvenile reader with an outline of the ecclesiastical history of Scotland prior to the Reformation, before detailing the political effects of that great concussion.

The ecclesiastical history of Scotland during remote ages is involved in impenetrable obscurity; it is therefore impossible to ascertain the precise period when Christianity was introduced. About the end of the second century, Marcus and Dionysius, as tradition reports, preached the gospel in the remote parts of Britain; and probably many, to avoid the severity of the imperial edicts against Christianity, fled into the inaccessible wilds of Caledonia, into which the arms of Rome had in vain attempted to penetrate. It is conjectured that Christianity was professed by a few scattered individuals until the sixth century; when Columba, a native of Ireland, after founding many seminaries of learning in that island, arrived in Scotland, with twelve companions, prompted by zeal for the propagation of Christianity. Having converted the Northern Picts, he received from Brudi, their king, the island of Iona, for the purpose of erecting a monastery upon it.

Columba was much devoted to the study of the Bible; and taught his disciples to believe those things only which are con

tained in the writings of the prophets, evangelists, and apostles. His followers sent missionaries into England and Wales; where many embraced their doctrines and became subject to their discipline. The Culdees, as they were named, established religious schools at Abernethy, about the year 600. Similar schools were subsequently erected at Dunkeld, St Andrew's, Dunblane, Brechin, Dunfermline, Scone, Kirkcaldy, Monymusk, Culross, and Melrose. At what time the church of Rome first extended its influence to Scotland, it is difficult to ascertain. Palladius, the Popish mis-sionary, introduced the order of bishops. Tradition reports that he resided and exercised his clerical functions in the district that now composes Kincardineshire. The spot of his sepulture is commemorated by the ruins of a chapel, which bears his name.*

The arrival of Popish emissaries was not favourably regarded by the Culdees; who even refused to hold communion with them, and long contended against the heresies and usurpations of the church of Rome. It was not till the twelfth century that their influence began to decline. There are no accounts of them as a distinct body later than the thirteenth century, about which time the Culdees of St Andrew's became subject to the bishop. It is remarkable, that during the last year the Culdees are mentioned in history, the Lollards of England made proselytes in Scotland, and their opinions could not afterwards be eradicated; hence the light of truth, though it burned dimly until the republication of the Scriptures, continued to direct the perilous steps of its champions, who ceased not to oppose the doctrines and pracstices of the Romish church.

After the arrival of Palladius in Scotland, the authority of the Pope, as the head of the church, was gradually recognized: The religious doubts and controversies of the Scots were submitted to his judgment and decision; and the veneration with which his authority was received, prepared them for that humiliating subjection which was so rapidly extending over the Western nations of Europe. But this abject submission was not in Scotland the work of one age; both the ecclesiastics and the nobles long considered their subjection to the Pontiff as voluntary, and they resolutely asserted their right of judging for themselves. Even the clergy united with

* It is situate about six miles west of Stonehaven, in a deep glen environed on all sides but the south by high mountains.

the civil power in resisting Papal oppression, when the national independence was threatened.

It was the policy of the Popish clergy, whose influence and aggrandisement increased as ignorance and error prevailed, to extinguish, as far as possible, the illumination of the Holy Scriptures, and to substitute the most absurd and impious doctrines, that their impostures might command the most implicit belief; and, to rivet the fetters of superstition, the most appalling threatenings were denounced against those who presumed to disobey their mandates. Superstition and imposture had gained a greater ascendancy over the rude and ignorant Scots than in any other nation in Europe; by which means, the clergy attained to an exorbitant degree of opulence and power, which necessarily corrupted their order and debased the whole system of their religion.

The Scottish kings early demonstrated the undue influence the clergy had acquired over them, by the vast additions which they made to their immunities and riches. The profuse piety of David the First transferred almost the whole crown lands to the church. The clergy were daily loaded with new possessions, until they became so powerful that they paid the full half of the national taxes. Their influence procured the erection of magnificent temples, and their opulence furnished them with showy apparatus for worship, which fascinated the senses and imposed on the imaginations of the people. Those nurseries of superstition and indolence universally degenerated, and became the notorious haunts of lewdness and debauchery. Exempted from secular jurisdiction, and corrupted by wealth and idleness, the immoralit es of the clergy were become a scandal to religion and an outrage on decency. Though nominally separated from the world by the law of celibacy, the clergy of all ranks were shamefully profligate; the bishops openly kept their harlots, provided their sons with benefices, and married their daughters to the sons of the nobility and gentry.

The ignorance of the clergy respecting religion was as gross as their morals were, dissolute. Until the reformed doctrines had made some progress, neither Greek nor Hebrew was taught in any seminary in Scotland.* Even bishops were not ashamed to

* The first public school for Greek, of which Wishart was appointed teacher, was established at Montrose, by Erskine of Dun, in 1534. John Row, a Protestant preacher, opened a class for Hebrew, at Perth, 1560.