y by the majority in {363} Parliament but by the public opinion of
the capital and of the whole Lowlands.

[Sidenote: Laws of the estates]

Just a week after the adoption of the Confession, the estates passed
three laws: (1) Abolishing the pope's authority and all jurisdiction by
Catholic prelates; (2) repealing all previous statutes in favor of the
Roman church; (3) forbidding the celebration of mass. The law calls it
"wicked idolatry" and provides that "no manner of person nor persons
say mass, nor yet hear mass, nor be present thereat under pain of
confiscation of all their goods movable and immovable and punishing
their bodies at the discretion of the magistrate." The penalty for the
third offence was made death, and all officers were commanded to "take
diligent suit and inquisition" to prevent the celebration of the
Catholic rite. In reality, persecution was extremely mild, simply
because there was hardly any resistance. Scarcely three Catholic
martyrs can be named, and there was no Pilgrimage of Grace. This is
all the more remarkable in that probably three-fourths of the people
were still Catholic. The Reformation, like most other revolutions, was
the work not of the majority, but of that part of the people that had
the energy and intelligence to see most clearly and act most strongly.
For the first time in Scotch history a great issue was submitted to a
public opinion sufficiently developed to realize its importance. The
great choice was made not by counting heads but by weighing character.

The burgher class having seized the reins of government proceeded to
use them in the interests of their kirk. The prime duty of the state
was asserted to be the maintenance of the true religion. Ministers
were paid by the government. Almost any act of government might be
made the subject of interference by the church, for Knox's profession,
"with the policy, mind {364} us to meddle no further than it hath
religion mixed in it," was obviously an elastic and self-imposed
limitation.

[Sidenote: Theocracy]

The character of the kirk was that of a democratic, puritanical
theocracy. The real rulers of it, and through it of the state, were
the ministers and elders elected by the people. The democracy of the
kirk consisted in the rise of most of these men from the lower ranks of
the people; its theocracy in the claim of these men, once established
in Moses' seat, to interpret the commands of God. "I see," said Quee