en,' it was provided that
the Estates, on their meeting, should choose some persons of quality 'to
repair to their Majesties and remonstrate to them the state of their
affairs, particularly those last mentioned.'

[83] Thomas Carlyle.

CHAPTER V

THE PUBLIC LIFE: LEGISLATION AND CHURCH PLANS

The Confession presented to the Parliament of 1560 was one of a group
which sprang as if from the soil, in almost every country in Europe.
They had all a strong family likeness; but not because one imitated the
other. They were honest attempts to represent the impression made on the
mind of that age by the newly discovered Scriptures, and that
impression--the first impression at least--was everywhere the same. And
everywhere it was overwhelmingly strong. So far as Knox at least is
concerned, he plainly held the extreme view, not only that no one could
read the Scriptures without finding in them the new doctrine, but
that--as he quite calmly observed on one memorable occasion in St
Giles--'all Papists are infidels,' either refusing to consult the light,
or denying it when seen. And, of course, nothing was more calculated to
confirm this view than a scene like that which we have just described,
and which had been recently rehearsed in innumerable cases in Scotland
and elsewhere. But, in truth, the new light dazzled all eyes. Later on,
men had to analyse it, and they found there were distinctions to be made
as to its value:--for example, between truth natural and truth revealed,
between the Old Testament and the New, between the truths even of the
New Testament and its sacraments--distinctions which some among
themselves admitted, and which others refused. The very last
publication, too, of Knox in 1572 was an answer to a Scottish Jesuit;
for by that time a counter-Reformation, which also was not without its
convictions, had begun. But, in the meantime, the energy and the triumph
were all on one side. And although only the first step had been taken,
it must be remembered that the first step was, in Scotland, the great
one. With the really Protestant party, and, of course, with the
Puritans, the confession of truth was fundamental. Subsequent
arrangements as to the State, and even as to the Church, were
subordinate--they were, at the best, mere corollaries from the central
doctrine affecting the individual. In every case truth comes first: and
human authority a long way later on. In this transaction, for example,
of the 17