for the lords to swallow. Many a stout
spirit of the Congregation had held manfully for the Reformed faith and
escaped with delight from the exactions and corruptions of the Romish
clergy who yet had not schooled his mind to give up the half of his
living, the fat commendatorship or priory which had been obtained for
him by the highest influence, and upon which he had calculated as a
lawful provision for himself and his family. One would have supposed
that the meddling and keen supervision of every act of life, which was
involved in the Church's stern claim of discipline, would also have
alarmed and revolted a body of men not all conformed to the purest
models of morality. But this seems to have troubled them little in
comparison with the necessity of giving up their share of Church lands
and ecclesiastical wealth generally, in order to provide for the
preachers, and the needs of education and charity. "Everything that
repugned to their corrupt affections was termed in their mockage 'devout
imaginations,'" says Knox: and it was no doubt Lethington from whose
quiver this winged word came, with so many more.

[Illustration: HOLYROOD PALACE AND ARTHUR'S SEAT]

A number of the lords, however, subscribed to the Book of Discipline
though with reluctance, but some, and among them several of the most
staunch supporters of the Reformation, held back. Knox had himself been
placed in an independent position by his congregation, the citizens of
Edinburgh, and he was therefore more free to press stipulations which in
no way could be supposed to be for his own interest: but he evidently
had not taken into account the strong human disposition to keep what has
been acquired and the extreme practical difficulty of persuading men to
a sacrifice of property. In other matters too there were drawbacks not
sufficiently realised. There can be no grander ideal than that of a
theocracy, a commonwealth entirely ruled and guided by sacred law: but
when it is brought to practice even by the most enlightened, and men's
lives are subjected to the keen inspection of an ecclesiastical board
new to its functions, and eager for perfection, which does not disdain
the most minute detail, nor to listen to the wildest rumours, the high
ideal is apt to fall into the most intolerable petty tyranny. And
notwithstanding the high exaltation of many minds, and the wonderful
intellectual and emotional force which was expended every day in that
pulpit of St. Gile