who had an old feud with the clergy. From the church
the multitude streamed away to the magnificent Religious Houses which
had adorned the town, and sacked and burned them so thoroughly that only
the walls were left standing. It wanted yet four days to that
Whitsunday, for ejection on which the 'rascal multitude' had last New
Year's Day warned the Friars! The Queen Regent resented this outrageous
violence, but was forced to come to an interim agreement with the Lords
of the Congregation. On her entry into Perth they moved into Fife, and
Knox having preached in Crail and Anstruther, resolved to do so also in
the Parish Church of St Andrews on Sunday. But the St Andrews populace
had not yet declared themselves; the Regent's hostile army was only
twelve miles off; and the Archbishop--who had occupied the town with a
hundred spears and a dozen of culverins--now threatened his life if he
attempted it. It was a moment for a bold man. At the hour fixed Knox
made his appearance. No one ventured to attack him. He preached with his
usual impetuous eloquence on 'casting the buyers and sellers out of the
temple,' and at its close the magistrates and council permitted the
majority of the people to destroy most of the monasteries, and strip the
churches and cathedral of their apparatus of 'idolatry.' Knox was always
more comfortable where he could say that such proceedings were
countenanced by the local authority, or by the majority of a civic
community. In Edinburgh, to which the Congregation next moved, the
majority had hitherto been hostile to them; and now, on the Queen
Regent's departure, the pulpits were for the first time opened to what
was the legitimate glory of the new movement--free and unfettered
preaching. Knox, church-statesman though he was, threw himself into this
work with a delight that lifted him above calculation of consequences.

'The long thirst of my wretched heart is satisfied, in abundance
that is above my expectation; for now, forty days and more hath
God used my tongue in my native country to the manifestation of
His glory. Whatever now shall follow, as touching my own
carcase, His Holy Name be praised.'[76]

The castle, however, still remained faithful to the Regent, and on her
forces approaching Edinburgh, both parties agreed to a truce till
January, which, as respects the town and its religion, provided that--

'The town of Edinburgh shall, without compulsion, use and choose