ffice "or be present
thereat, under the pain of confiscation of all their goods movable and
immovable, and punishing of their bodies at the discretion of the
Magistrates." Another edict followed abolishing the jurisdiction of the
Pope under pain of "proscription, banishment, and never to brook honour,
office, or dignity within this realm." "These and other things," says
the Reformer, "were orderly done in lawful and free Parliament," with
the bishops and all spiritual lords in their places sitting dumb and
making no sign. The Queen was at liberty to say afterwards, as was done,
that a Parliament where she was not represented in any way, either by
viceroy or regent, where there was no exhibition of sceptre, sword, or
crown, and in short where the monarch was left out altogether, was not a
lawful Parliament. But the most remarkable feature of this strange
assembly amid all the voting and "bruit" is the dramatic silence of the
State ecclesiastical. It is curious that no fervent brother should have
been found to maintain the cause of his faith. But probably it was
better policy to refrain. The extraordinary absence of logic as well as
toleration which made the Reformers unable to see what a lame conclusion
this was after their own struggle for freedom, and that they were
exactly following the example of their adversaries, need not be
remarked. John Knox thought it a quite sufficient answer to say that the
mass was idolatry and his own ways of thinking absolutely and certainly
true; but so of course has the Roman Catholic Church done when the
impulse of persecution was strongest in her. There is one only thing to
be said in favour of the Reformers, and that is, that while a number of
good men had been sacrificed at the stake for the Reformed doctrines, no
one was burned for saying mass; the worst that happened, notwithstanding
their fierce enactments, being the exposure in the pillory of a priest.
Rotten eggs and stones are bad arguments either in religion or
metaphysics, but not so violently bad as fire and flame.

Thus the Reformed religion was established in Scotland, and Knox settled
in St. Giles's for the remainder of his life. Whether he was at once
placed in the picturesque house with its panelled rooms and
old-fashioned comfort and gracefulness which still bears his name,
standing out in a far-seeing angle from which he could contemplate the
abounding life of the High Street, the great parish in which half his
life w