was as enemies of Mary Tudor that she gave shelter to the
exiles, and it was to avoid a national strife which would have left
Scotland open to English attack in the war which closed Mary's reign
that the Regent gave "fair words" to the preachers. But with the first
Covenant, with the appearance of the Lords of the Congregation in an
avowed league in the heart of the land, with their rejection of the
state worship and their resolve to enforce a change of religion, her
attitude suddenly altered. To the Regent the new religion was henceforth
but a garb under which the old quarrel of the nobles was breaking out
anew against the Crown. Smooth as were her words, men knew that Mary of
Guise was resolute to withstand religious change. But Elizabeth's
elevation to the throne gave a new fire to the reformers. Conservative
as her earlier policy seemed, the instinct of the Protestants told them
that the new Queen's accession was a triumph for Protestantism. The
Lords at once demanded that all bishops should be chosen by the nobles
and gentry, each priest by his parish, and that divine service should
be henceforth in the vulgar tongue. These demands were rejected by the
bishops, while the royal court in May 1559 summoned the preachers to its
bar and on their refusal to appear condemned them to banishment as
rebels. The sentence was a signal for open strife. The Protestants,
whose strength as yet lay mainly in Fife, had gathered in great numbers
at Perth, and the news stirred them to an outbreak of fury. The images
were torn down from the churches, the monasteries of the town were
sacked and demolished. The riot at Perth was followed by a general
rising. The work of destruction went on along the east coast and through
the Lowlands, while the "Congregation" sprang up everywhere in its
train. The Mass came to an end. The Prayer-Book of Edward was heard in
the churches. The Lords occupied the capital and found its burghers as
zealous in the cause of reformation as themselves. Throughout all these
movements the Lords had been in communication with England, for the old
jealousy of English annexation was now lost in a jealousy of French
conquest. Their jealousy had solid grounds. The marriage of Mary Stuart
with the Dauphin of France had been celebrated in April 1558 and three
days before the wedding the girl-queen had been brought to convey her
kingdom away by deed to the House of Valois. The deed was kept secret;
but Mary's demand of the c