ncis II, there seemed more danger that the little
kingdom should become an appanage of France than a satellite of her
southern neighbor. The licentiousness of French officers and French
soldiers on Scotch soil made their nation least loved when it was most
seen. [Sidenote: Influence of religion] But the great influence
overcoming national sentiment was religion. The Reformation that
brought not peace but a sword to so much of Europe in this case united
instead of divided the nations.

It is sometimes said that national character reveals itself in the
national religion. This is true to some extent, but it is still more
important to say that a nation's history reveals itself in its forms of
faith. From religious statistics of the present day one could {353}
deduce with considerable accuracy much of the history of any people.

The contrast between the churches of England and Scotland is the more
remarkable when it is considered that the North of England was the
stronghold of Catholicism, and that the Lowland Scot, next door to the
counties of the Northern Earls who rose against Elizabeth, flew to the
opposite extreme and embraced Protestantism in its most pronounced
form. To say that Calvinism, uncompromising and bare of adornment,
appealed particularly to the dour, dry, rationalistic Scot, is at best
but a half truth and at worst a begging of the question. The reasons
why England became Anglican and Scotland Presbyterian are found
immediately not in the diversity of national character but in the
circumstances of their respective polities and history. England cast
loose from Rome at a time when the conservative influence of Luther was
predominant; Scotland was swept into the current of revolution under
the fiercer star of Calvin. The English reformation was started by the
crown and supported by the new noblesse of commerce. The Scotch
revolution was markedly baronial in tone. It began with the humanists,
continued and flourished in the junior branches of great families,
among the burgesses of the towns and among the more vigorous of the
clergy, both regular and secular. The crown was consistently against
the new movement, but the Scottish monarch was too weak to impose his
will, or even to have a will of his own. Neither James V nor his
daughter could afford to break with Rome and with France. James V,
especially, was thrown into the arms of his clergy by the hostility of
his nobles. Moreover, after the de