CHAPTER II FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE UNION. pline. THE Parliament of 1561, desirous of consolidating the The Book work of the Reformation, gladly accepted the Confession of Disciof Faith; but it declined to sanction the Book of Discipline, drawn up by Knox and his fellow-Reformers as a basis for a reorganisation of the Protestant Church and its practice. Many influential men in the Estates were unwilling to submit to certain stringent restraints which the book would have enforced, for it dealt radically and comprehensively with practice as well as with faith. Two years later the Estates met and passed an Act of Act of Oblivion, to protect from prosecution all concerned in the Oblivion. troubles immediately preceding the Queen's arrival. The protecting clauses covered the period from March 6th, 1558, to September 1st, 1561; but the great object of the act was to secure from dispute the transactions with regard to Church lands during that time, a matter into which even many Protestant laymen did not desire a very close scrutiny. The first germs of a persecution which afterwards Witchgained force in Scotland appear in an act passed by craft. this Parliament against witchcraft, whereby all persons, of whatsoever estate, degree, or condition, were forbidden to use any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, or necromancy, under pain of death, "as well to be execute against the VOL. II. 9 CHAP. II. user and abuser as the seeker of the response or From the consultation." Reformation to the Union. Parliament of 1567. Law of defama tion. The Parliament which assembled at Edinburgh in April, 1567, after the murder of Darnley, and when Bothwell had gained the ascendency, was really an assembly called together in the interests of the Queen. The Archbishop of St. Andrews and four other prelates, twelve noblemen (including Bothwell and Argyle), and a few commoners represented the Legislature of Scotland. Important statutes were passed, however, affecting the Church and other matters. An act in favour of religious peace and toleration, intended to bribe the Protestants, promised and reiterated protection to all persons in the exercise of their religion, without specifying the nature of the religion or defining the characteristics of Protestantism as distinguished from the tenets of the Church of Rome. The project of representation in the Estates also came up, when it was ordered that the barons of each shire should elect commissioners to represent them in Parliament, and that the barons be mulcted for their expenses. The Estates further passed many ratifications of gifts of private estates. Bothwell's right to his barony and lordships of Hailes, Crichton, and Liddesdale, and all his other lands, lordships, baronies, castles, etc., was confirmed. By his inherited territories and the grants and distinctions now conferred upon him, Bothwell acquired overwhelming wealth and influence. Lethington and Chambers, the latter one of the Lords of Session, were well provided for, and Morton and the Queen's illegitimate half-brothers were confirmed in their acquisitions and dignities, while Huntly had restored to him a large part of his hereditary domains. The Queen now for the first time formally recognised the Reformation; but, in order to silence mutinous tongues, it was enacted that, "whereas writings had been set up to the slander, infamy, and reproach of the Queen's Highness and divers of the nobility, the Queen and Estates ordained that in time coming, when any such placard or defamation was found, the person first seeing From the tion to the Reforma Union. the same should take it or destroy it, that no further CHAP. II. knowledge nor copy should pass of the same; if such person failed therein, and either the writing was copied or proceeded to further knowledge among the people, the first seer and finder should be punished in the same manner as the first inventor and upsetter, if he was apprehended; the defamers of the Queen should be punished with death, and all others with imprisonment at the Queen's pleasure." This act, dealing with anonymous libels and denunciations, was practically a reproduction of part of the old Roman law, being little more than a translation of the provisions in the forty-seventh book of the Pandects. 1 abdicates. Mary married Bothwell in May, 1567, but in the The following month there was a rising of discontented lords. Queen Bothwell fled, and the Queen surrendered to Kirkcaldy of Grange at Carberry Hill. She was taken to Lochleven Castle, where on July 23rd she signed a deed of abdication, and appointed Murray regent of the kingdom during the minority of her son. Casket Letters. The famous Casket Letters came before the Parliament The which met in December, 1567. These documents were supposed to be a correspondence between Bothwell and Mary Stuart, which fell into the hands of the Earl of Morton after Bothwell's flight from Carberry Hill. It was upon one letter from the Queen to Bothwell that the charge against Mary of complicity in Darnley's murder was founded. The letters were laid before the Scotch Council of Government, and now came before Parliament to be adjudicated upon. Although many of the Queen's partisans were present, they do not appear to have stood forth in her defence. Lord Herries, with one or two others, protested, not against the truth of the charges, but against any step which would be "prejudicial to the honour, power, and estate of the Queen." Nevertheless acts were passed setting forth the nature of the documents, and affirming their genuineness. "Anent the 1 Proceedings of Parliament, as given in Bishop Keith's history of this period. Reforma tion to the Union. CHAP. II. retention of our sovereane lord's motheris person," From the said the Estates in defending their action, it was to be attributed to "her aun default, in sa far as be divers her privie letters written halely with her aun hand, and send be her to James, sometime Earl of Bothwell, chief executer of the said horrible murther, as well before the committing thereof as thereafter." Another act declared it to be most certain from the Queen's letters to Bothwell," and by her ungodly and dishonourable proceeding to a pretended marriage with him, that she was privy art and part of the device and deed of the murder, and therefore justly deserved whatever had been done to her. Indirect counsel and means had been used to hold back the knowledge of the truth, yet all men were fully persuaded in their hearts of the authors and devisers of the fact. The nobility perceiving the Queen so thrall and so blindly affectionate to the private appetite of the tyrant, and perceiving also that both he and she had conspired together such horrible cruelty, they had at length taken up arms to punish them." them. Mary reMary denied the authenticity of the letters, and depudiates manded to see the originals, but this request was not granted. It must be borne in mind, however, as Burton has pointed out, that the theory of forgery seems to have become prevalent only after any appeal to the original writings, and to the recollection of the persons referred to in them, had ceased to be practicable." In October, 1568, the letters were produced before the English Commissioners at Westminster, when, after being compared with some other of the Queen's writings, they were accepted as genuine. English and foreign historians have differed widely on the subject of these documents, but those bearing the greater weight accept their authenticity. The Refor mation statutes ratified Having dealt with the Queen, the Parliament of December, 1567, which had been summoned by the new regent, Murray, proceeded to other work. It ratified 1 Acts of the Scots Parliament. 2 Acts of Parliament begun at Edinburgh December 15th (Anderson's Collection). the acts passed in 1560 for abolishing Popery and establishing a Protestant Church; enacted that a third of the benefices of the realm should be set aside for the suffering clergy; and granted an amnesty to Huntly, Argyle, and Herries, who had aided the Hamiltons against the regent, which amnesty was made general to all who would agree to conform to the new government. Murray's Protestant zeal led to great opposition. He obtained from Parliament the prohibition of the Catholic religion, under pain of death, in all parts of Scotland. But the act cost him dear, for a large minority which supported the protests of Caithness and Athole and the Bishop of Murray, "went over in a body at the close of the session. to the side of disaffection and the Hamiltons." CHAP. II. Union. Hamilton In July, 1569, the Scots Estates met amid great popular The excitement. Murray's enemies, the Hamiltons, were conworking indefatigably against him, and concerting mea- spiracy. sures for bringing back Mary and ousting the regent. Murray seized the chief conspirators, including Lethington and Balfour, and then turned his attention to reducing the Border. In August, Parliament arraigned thirty persons for trial. Seventeen of them were Hamiltons, including two of the sons of Chatelherault, and the virtual head of the house, the Archbishop John. The indictments were in Latin, after the solemn form of the High Court of Parliament. While the overt act of treason alleged was an attack on the regent and his forces, the accused were charged with rebellion against King James, to which they were seduced by his Majesty's mother, who attempted to usurp his crown. As the accused did not appear before the Estates, they were formally declared "forefaulted" or outlawed, a comprehensive sentence perilling their lives and estates. After the assassination of Murray on February 23rd, The Regency 1570, by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, Lennox was appointed regent, but he was mortally wounded at Stirling in September, 1571. Parliament then met and elected the Earl of Mar, who filled the office of regent with moderation and great acceptability until his death on |