was broken, and the mob violently assaulted a procession of priests.  The country was seething with discontent, and the death of Mary Tudor (November 17, 1558), with the accession of the Protestant Elizabeth, encouraged the Congregation.  Mary of Guise made large concessions:  only she desired that there should be no public meetings in the capital.  On January 1, 1559, church doors were placarded with “The Beggars’ Warning.”  The Beggars (really the Brethren in their name) claimed the wealth of the religious orders.  Threats were pronounced, revolution was menaced at a given date, Whitsunday, and the threats were fulfilled.

All this was the result of a plan, not of accident.  Mary of Guise was intending to visit France, not longing to burn heretics.  But she fell into the worst of health, and her recovery was doubted, in April 1559.  Willock and Methuen had been summoned to trial (February 2, 1559), for their preachings were always apt to lead to violence on the part of their hearers.  The summons was again postponed in deference to renewed menaces:  a Convention had met at Edinburgh to seek for some remedy, and the last Provincial Council of the Scottish Church (March 1559) had considered vainly some proposals by moderate Catholics for internal reform. {106}

Again the preachers were summoned to Stirling for May 10, but just a week earlier Knox arrived in Scotland.  The leader of the French Protestant preachers, Morel, expressed to Calvin his fear that Knox “may fill Scotland with his madness.”  Now was his opportunity:  the Regent was weak and ill; the Congregation was in great force; England was at least not unfavourable to its cause.  From Dundee Knox marched with many gentlemen—­unarmed, he says—­accompanying the preachers to Perth:  Erskine of Dun went as an envoy to the Regent at Stirling; she is accused by Knox of treacherous dealing (other contemporary Protestant evidence says nothing of treachery); at all events, on May 10 the preachers were outlawed for non-appearance to stand their trial.  The Brethren, “the whole multitude with their preachers,” says Knox, who were in Perth were infuriated, and, after a sermon from the Reformer, wrecked the church, sacked the monasteries, and, says Knox, denounced death against any priest who celebrated Mass (a circumstance usually ignored by our historians), at the same time protesting, “We require nothing but liberty of conscience”!

On May 31 a composition was made between the Regent and the insurgents, whom Argyll and James Stewart promised to join if the Regent broke the conditions.  Henceforth the pretext that she had broken faith was made whenever it seemed convenient, while the Congregation permitted itself a godly liberty in construing the terms of treaties.  A “band” was signed for “the destruction of idolatry” by Argyll, James Stewart, Glencairn, and others; and the Brethren scattered from Perth, breaking down altars and “idols” on their way home.  Mary of Guise had promised not to leave a French garrison in Perth.  She did leave some Scots in French pay, and on this slim pretext of her treachery, Argyll and James Stewart proclaimed the Regent perfidious, deserted her cause, and joined the crusade against “idolatry.”