XXX CONTROVERSY ON LORD'S PRAYER 543 called a "Godly Exhortation," made by the provincial council of 1559. It was in the nature of a "Companion to the Altar," to be read in churches before celebration in order to prepare the people for communion. The reformers exercised their caustic wit upon it, and Knox sneers at it as "The Twopenny Faith "-in probable allusion to its price.1 The council of 1552 is credited with the settlement of a grotesque controversy about the Lord's Prayer, whether it should be said to the saints or not. Friar Cottis (of the Observantine order) had raised the question in a sermon at St. Andrews, in which he showed how each petition could appropriately be addressed to the saints. His glosses are said to have excited the ridicule of his audience, especially when he attempted to prove how the saints could give us our daily bread. The ridicule followed him into the streets, and the children saluted him. as "Friar Pater Noster." The subject continued to be discussed by the doctors of the university with much scholastic subtlety, as recorded by Spottiswoode. The sub-prior, Winram, had an inquisitive servant who asked him the nature of the discussion that was absorbing so much of their time. "The sub-prior merrily answered, 'Tom, we cannot agree to whom the Pater Noster should be said.' He suddenly replied, 'Sir, to whom should it be said but unto God?' Then said the sub-prior, 'What shall we do with the saints?' He answered,' Give them Aves and Credos enow for that may suffice them.' This answer going abroad, many said, 'He hath given a wiser decision than all the doctors had done with their distinctions.'" 2 Spottiswoode writes that when the question 1 The "Exhortation" is given by Robertson in his Statuta, p. 177. See also Burton, Hist., iii. 334. 2 Spottiswoode, Hist., i. pp. 182, 183. was put to the council the members voted in favour of the proposal, but that "the bishops and such as had any judgment would not suffer the conclusion to be enacted." There is no allusion to the subject in the canons of 1552, while the canons of 1549 simply enact without comment that the Pater Noster and Ave, in accordance with ancient usage, be repeated before sermons. This has made some of our historians discredit the story, but its mere absence from the council records is not enough to explain away the detailed narrative of Spottiswoode who lived so near to the time.1 For four years after Cardinal Beaton's death there had been no prosecutions for heresy. Archbishop Hamilton and the regent were both supposed to be averse to severity. But in 1550 a layman in Ayrshire named Adam Wallace, said to have been of humble rank and little learning, preached with such boldness and persistency that he was apprehended and taken to Edinburgh for trial. Among his judges, besides the primate and regent, were the earls of Argyll, Angus, and Glencairn. Wallace refused to abjure the doctrines he held on the eucharist and was sentenced to death. They cruelly deprived him of his Bible when sending him back to prison. But the condemned preacher knew most of the psalter by heart and he solaced himself in the night with snatches of the psalms. Next day he was burned on the Castlehill, Edinburgh. 1 See Grub, ii. 37, who thinks it possible that the ignorant clergy may have entertained the notion, but incredible that it was formally CHAPTER XXXI QUEEN MARY-REGENCY OF THE QUEEN-MOTHER, 1554-1560 Return of Scottish reformers—John Knox in Scotland 1555, leaves for Geneva 1556-Delated for heresy and burned in effigy— Answers by "appellation"-Reformers and the regent-Bond by the lords of the Congregation-Their legislation for the Church, and use of the English Prayer-Book-Preaching of Protestant friars - Burning of Walter Mylne - Protestants petition regent for religious liberty-Marriage of queen Mary of Scotland and death of queen Mary of England-Influence of English Reformation on the Scottish-Last provincial council, 1559-Articles of Reformation submitted by churchmenRejection of the same by the council-Character of some Scottish bishops-Canons enacted in 1559. THE regency of the earl of Arran ended in 1554, when he was induced to resign, by the offer of the French dukedom of Chatelherault, in favour of the widowed queen Mary of Lorraine, who then continued regent until her death in 1560. She is admitted to have been a woman of exceptional talents, and she certainly governed the country during a difficult crisis with remarkable moderation and tact. Devout Catholic as she was, her policy afforded complete toleration to the Protestants so long as they observed the laws and were not guilty of disturbing the peace of the realm. Her difficulties were increased by the return of several Scotsmen, driven from England by the persecutions of queen Mary. Among these were two ex-friars, Douglas and Willock, besides William Harlow, and Paul Methven. Douglas was an ex-Carmelite and became chaplain to the reforming earl of Argyll; Willock had been chaplain to the duke of Suffolk; Harlow, who began life as a tailor in Edinburgh, had been ordained deacon in the English Church; and Methven had been originally a baker in Dundee. These men all became active in preaching the reformed doctrines in Scotland. A still more formidable adversary to the old Church arrived in Edinburgh soon afterwards, in the person of John Knox. Knox was born at Gifford, near Haddington, in 1505, studied at Glasgow and St. Andrews, and was ordained to the priesthood. For many years his life was passed in obscurity, and not until he was at the mature age of forty, on the occasion of Wishart's preaching at Haddington, did he cast in his lot with the reformers. By that time the Reformation was effected in England, and the free use of the Bible in English had been sanctioned by the Scottish Parliament. For his first services in the reformed cause-his ministry to Beaton's murderers in St. Andrews Castle--he paid the penalty of imprisonment in the French galleys. From this he was released in 1549 at the intercession of Edward VI. after an imprisonment of nineteen months. He then preached in England, chiefly at Berwick and Newcastle, for two or three years, after which he was appointed one of king Edward's chaplains and is said to have been offered the bishopric of Rochester by the young king. He is credited with a share in the Articles of Religion compiled at this time for the English Church, and with having advised the insertion of the "black rubric" at the end of the communion service in the Prayer-Book. Whether from 1 Hardwick, Reformation, p. 219; Procter, Prayer-Book, p. 53. XXXI KNOX AND MAITLAND OF LETHINGTON 547 fear of apprehension at home, or from some other cause, he kept out of Scotland for six years, from 1549 to 1555. Reckoning the period of his public life at twentyeight years, not much more than the half of it was spent in Scotland. During the persecutions of queen Mary in England, Knox went to Geneva, where he made the acquaintance of Calvin. For a short time he became minister to the English congregation in Frankfort-on-theMain, but withdrew from them on differences about the Book of Common Prayer and returned to Geneva. In 1555 he received favourable intelligence of the progress of the Reformation in Scotland which induced him to return home. Erskine of Dun and Maitland of Lethington were then leading men among the reformers, but their counsels were too moderate for Knox. Many of the Protestants continued to join in the public worship of the Church-a practice which Knox vehemently denounced as idolatry. When Maitland defended it and pleaded the advice which St. James and the elders of Jerusalem gave to St. Paul to take part in the service of the temple, Knox replied that the cases. were not parallel, and that he very much doubted whether the advice of the apostle proceeded from the Holy Ghost and was not worldly-wise counsel of his own which came to no good in the end. Knox's arguments prevailed, and from this occasion may be dated the separation of the reformers from the established church. Knox accompanied Erskine of Dun to his house in Angus, where he met many of the barons of Angus and Mearns and persuaded them to adopt the Protestant views. He preached frequently at this time in Edinburgh, in West Lothian where he was the guest of Sir James Sandilands at Calder, and in the shires of Ayr and Renfrew under the protection of the earl of |