h the efforts of Knox, who all
through his public career was deep in the politics of the time, the
assistance of England was obtained against what was now deemed the
French invasion. The help of England proved effective, and by the treaty
of Leith (1560), and the death of the regent the same year, the
insurgent party became masters of the country. The estates of Parliament
having met on August 1st, the ministers were ordered to draw up a
Confession of Faith which should embody the new teaching, and on August
17th Protestantism was formally established as the religion of the
country. Having gained thus much, the ministers, desirous of practical
results from their victory, drew up the first Book of Discipline--a
document ever memorable in the history of Scotland, and admirable in
itself for its wise and liberal suggestions for the religious and
educational organization of the country. These suggestions, however,
were little to the mind of the majority of the Protestant nobles, who,
"perceiving their carnal liberty and worldly commodity to be impaired
thereby," sneeringly spoke of them as "devote imaginationis." In the
revolution that had been accomplished Knox had been the leading spirit;
but he saw that the victory was as yet only half gained, and that the
deadliest struggle had still to be decided.

The return of the young queen to Scotland (August, 1561) revived all the
old dissensions, and introduced new elements into the strife of parties.
By every opinion she held on religion, on the relations of prince and
subject, on the fundamental principles of life, Mary was separated as by
an abyss from the party represented by Knox. If we may judge from the
language which each used of the other, Knox and she failed to find one
point on which genial intercourse was possible. As the minister of St.
Giles (then the only Reformed church in Edinburgh), Knox believed that
Mary was his special charge. Her personal conduct, therefore, no less
than her public policy, were made the subject of his most stringent
criticism; and during the six years of her reign his attitude toward her
was that of uncompromising insistence. The celebration of mass in
Holyrood Chapel, in defiance of the late religious settlement, first
roused his wrath; and a sermon delivered by him in St. Giles led to the
first of those famous interviews with Mary, the record of which makes
such a remarkable portion of his "History of the Reformation." The
division of ecc