THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA CHAPTER XI THE SCOTTISH KIRK, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH AND AMERICAN PURITANISM PLOTS OF THE CATHOLICS AGAINST ELIZABETH WE have seen in the last chapter something of the influences exerted upon the home of their adoption by the refugees from the Netherlands, who had sought shelter in England to avoid the early persecutions of the Spaniards. We have also seen how the war for civil and religious liberty, going on across the Channel, was affecting the English people, and how the contest with Spain and the papacy had been brought to their very doors by the rebellion in Ireland, which had broken out just at the time when the Jesuits Parsons and Campian began their missionary labors. The Irish Rebellion was important from its effects upon the relig ious and national sentiment of England; but it was far less dangerous than another movement, also incited by the pope, which about the same time threatened the English queen from her northern border. To understand this new peril, we must take a glance at the story of the Reformation in Scotland-a story which, in addition to its connection with this subject, is full of interest and instruction, because the Scotch Puritans exercised a marked and lasting influence both upon their brethren in England and upon those in America, second only to that exerted by the Puritans of the Netherlands. Since the battle of Bannockburn, in 1314, Scotland had been an independent kingdom. Her people, although more advanced than the Irish, were still behind the English in general civilization. They had felt little of the Norman influence which gave to England her universities, her cathedrals, and her legal system. Neither had they shared, to any great extent, in that connection with the Netherlands from which the English had always benefited. Their soil was sterile, and they had not yet begun to develop the manufactures which, in late years, have poured in upon them such a stream of wealth. But they had gone further than the English upon one road. Scotland had become Protestant in fact as well as in name, for there the Reformation had been carried to its legitimate conclusion. The old papal system had disappeared, root and branch, and in its place Presbyterianism, pure and simple, had been established. Much of this was the work of one mana man perhaps the most remarkable that Scotland, a country prolific of great men, has ever yet produced. This man was John Knox. He was the son his origin. He Knox was a typical Scotch Puritan. of a plain yeoman, and never forgot cared neither for rank nor for wealth. His reliance was on the common people: he made them a power in the land, and with them he won his victories. Born in 1505, he obtained such an education at the University of Glas JOHN KNOX-THE REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND 3 gow as that institution, in its very low condition, could then afford. Taking holy orders in the Romish Church, he remained in the priesthood until 1546, when, from conviction, he became a Protestant. The next year he was captured by the French, with the Protestant garrison of St. Andrews, and, for approving of the murder of Cardinal Beaton, was sent to the galleys, where he labored at an oar for some eighteen months. Obtaining his release, he went to England, preached some years, was made one of the court chaplains to Edward VI., and even a bishopric was suggested to him, which he declined. When Mary began her persecutions he fled to the Continent, taking refuge first at Frankfort, and then at Geneva. He visited Scotland for a brief time in 1555, and did some bold preaching, but was outlawed, and again sought a home in Geneva.* Finally, in 1559, he returned to Scotland and began the work for which he had been preparing by thirteen years of study, not only of books, but of men and institutions. Knox, however, was not the founder of the Scottish Reformation. It began before he became a Protestant, and made great progress during his banishment. He was born to be its governor, and not its nurse. He was too bold, too outspoken, too radical, to be of service in its early life. This he understood as well as any one, and was content to bide his time. In Scotland, as in England, France, and in many of the German states, the revolt against the papacy had originated in a political and not a religious movement. James V. attempted to curb the power of some of the leading nobles, and was assisted by the bishops. The nobles retaliated by leaving the Church and joining the * Froude, vii. 108. ranks of the Reformers. Thus at the outset Protestantism had a powerful support, without which it would have made small progress.* The leaders, to be sure, had little religion; they were hungering for the church lands, which in England had been divided among the members of their order. But each noble was a feudal chieftain, and within his domain the rude and ignorant people began to hear truths of which they had never dreamed before. Thus little circles were formed, in which there went on a quiet spiritual education, which in time was to work a revolution. James V. died in 1542, leaving a widow, Mary of Guise, and an only child, the ill-starred Mary Stuart, who at an early age was sent to France to be educated among her mother's relatives. During her long minority the nobles killed Cardinal Beaton, the head of the Church, and kept up a continual conflict with the queendowager, who had been appointed regent. The regent had the power of France behind her, but France at that time did not think it wise to persecute the Protestants of Scotland, and so a general policy of toleration prevailed, broken only by an occasional burning at the stake when heresy became too outspoken. In 1558, Mary Stuart married the French dauphin, and, under the advice of her father-in-law, claimed the crown of England, to which Elizabeth had just succeeded. The Guises, uncles of the dauphiness, were then powerful at court. They were earnest Papists, and urged that Scotland should be first purged of heresy; that then England should be invaded, Elizabeth deposed, the old religion re-established, and all the British isles annexed to France. Had the first part of this * See Buckle, "Hist. of Civilization," ii. 169. FRENCH ATTEMPTS ON SCOTLAND-POPULAR UPRISING, 1559 5 scheme proved successful, and had Scotland been made really Catholic, the papal power would easily have disposed of Elizabeth and her mongrel Protestantism. The proposed movement was not long delayed. While preparing for it, in 1559, the French king met with a sudden death; but he was succeeded by the dauphin; and the Guises, as uncles of the queen, became more powerful than ever. A French force was sent to Scotland to aid the regent, who had threatened to drive all the Reformed ministers out of the kingdom, "though they preached as truly as St. Paul." She knew little of the storm which she was raising. For years the For Gospel had been preached to the middle and the poorer classes, and it had come to them with all the power of a fresh revelation.* They had known nothing but the worst features of Catholicism, for nowhere in Europe had the priesthood been more depraved and dissolute. The Protestant ministers might be narrow-minded, superstitious, and sometimes cruel; but they were earnest in their work, honest in their convictions, and moral according to their light. Men who for a generation had listened to their teachings were not to be driven to a mass administered by priests who habitually violated every commandment of the Decalogue.† * Foreseeing the coming danger, the Protestant leaders By an act of the Scottish Parliament, passed in 1543, every one was permitted to read the Bible in an English or Scotch translation. + Dean Stanley speaks of "the hideous and disproportionate corruption which took possession of the Scottish hierarchy during the last two centuries of its existence."-"Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland," p. 40. See also Blaikie's "Preachers of Scotland," p. 46, etc., and Froude, passim. The State also was corrupt, and the people hardly tinged with civilization. |