n
to Presbyterianism, although he still left some grave questions
undecided; for instance, that of the rights of the Crown, and the
General Assemblies. But in proportion as he now gave intimation of a
retrograde tendency in favour of the Catholic lords, he roused the
prejudices of the Protestants against himself. They told him that the
lords had been condemned to death according to the laws of God, and by
the sentence of Parliament, the Great Assize of the kingdom: that the
King had no right to show mercy in opposition to these. He had allowed
their return into the country; the Church demanded the renewal of
their exile: not till then would it be possible to deliberate upon the
satisfaction offered by them. All the pulpits suddenly resounded with
invectives against the King. The proud feeling of independent
existence was roused in all its force in the breasts of the churchmen.
Andrew Melville explicitly declared, that there were two kingdoms in
Scotland, of which the Church formed one: in that kingdom the
sovereign was in his turn a subject; those who had to govern this
spiritual realm possessed a sufficient authorisation from God for the
discharge of their functions. The Privy Council might be of opinion
that the King must be served alike by Jews and heathens, Protestants
and Catholics, and become powerful by their aid; but in wishing to
retain both parties he would lose both. The King forced himself to ask
support for his projects from Robert Bruce, at that time the most
prominent of the preachers, who answered him, that he might make his
choice, but that he could not have both the Earl of Huntly and Robert
Bruce for his friends at the same time.[305]

By dealing gently with the Catholic lords the King had intended not
only to win them over to his side, but also in prospect of the English
succession, which was constantly before his eyes, to give the English
Catholics a proof of the moderation of his intentions. Even in
Scotland he wished not to appear the sovereign of the Presbyterian
party alone. It was absolutely repugnant to him to adopt the ideas of
the Church entirely as his own. But the leaders of the Church were
bent on shutting him within a narrow circle in accordance with their
own ideas, from which there should be no escape. In his clemency to
Catholic rebels they saw a leaning to that Catholicism which fought
against God and threatened themselves with destruction. The efforts
which had been necessary to ov