nd Sectarians, foreshadows the more rigid form which was to
be one day impressed upon Church doctrine and life in his native land.

During the ensuing year, 1557, everything was peaceful and hopeful. The
Protestants kept their worship private, but it spread from town to
town, and from the land of one friendly baron to his neighbours'
territory. Knox had been formally condemned, but those he left behind
were not molested, and in March four of the Lords wrote him to Geneva
asking him to return to Scotland. They accompanied this with assurances
that though 'the Magistrates in this country' were in the same state as
before, the Churchmen there were daily in less estimation. After
consulting Calvin, Knox said farewell to his congregation, and had got
as far homewards as Dieppe, where he was much disappointed to receive
'contrary letters.' His reply, indignantly acquiescing, indicates the
plan which by this time he had formed in order to solve the combined
difficulties in theory and practice which beset Scotland. He reminded
his correspondents--Glencairn, Lorne, Erskine, and James Stewart--in
very memorable words, that they were themselves magistrates, or at least
representatives of the people, and had duties accordingly.

'Your subjects, yea, your brethren, are oppressed, their bodies
and souls holden in bondage; and God speaketh to your
consciences (unless ye be dead with the blind world) that you
ought to hazard your own lives (be it against kings and
emperors) for their deliverance. For only for that cause are ye
called Princes of the people, and ye receive of your brethren
honour, tribute and homage at God's commandment; not by reason
of your birth and progeny (as the most part of men falsely do
suppose), but by reason of your office and duty, which is to
vindicate and deliver your subjects and brethren from all
violence and oppression, to the utmost of your power.'[68]

The effect of this and other encouragements was to bring matters to a
point in Scotland. The Protestant party, which had now been joined by
Argyll and Morton, entered into the kind of engagement which was then
called a 'Band,' and afterwards became widely known in Scotland as a
'Covenant.' This document, dated 3rd December 1557, bound the
signatories to 'apply our whole power, substance, and our very lives, to
maintain, set forward, and establish the most blessed Word of God and
his congregation ... unto whic