England, and Spain, the history of the
Reformation in Scotland is a record of order and tranquillity.

What is thrust upon us by the narrative of events in Scotland is the
singular moderation alike of the representatives of the old and the new
religion. Heretics had been burned indeed, but the number was
inconsiderable compared with that of similar victims in other countries;
and, even in the day of their triumph, the Scottish Protestants, in
spite of the stern threat of their legislation, were guiltless of a
single execution on the ground of religion. What is still more striking
is, that difference of faith begot no fanatical hate among the mass of
the people. In France and Spain men forgot the ties of blood and country
in the blind fury of religious zeal, but in Scotland we do not find town
arrayed against town and neighbor denouncing neighbor on the ground of a
different faith. That this tolerance was not due to indifference the
religious history of Scotland abundantly proves. It was in the
convulsions attending the change of the national faith that the Scottish
nation first attained to a consciousness of itself, and the
characteristics it then displayed have remained its distinctive
characteristics ever since. It is precisely the combination of a fervid
temper with logical thinking and temperate action that have
distinguished the Scottish people in all the great crises of their
history.

It soon appeared that the Protestant triumph was not so complete as it
might have seemed. Those who saw furthest--and none was more keenly
alive to the fact than Knox--were well aware that many a battle must yet
be fought before the new temple they had built should stand secure
against the assault of open enemies and equivocal friends. The inherent
difficulties of the situation became speedily manifest. Mary and Francis
refused to ratify the late measures--a fact, says Knox, "we little
regarded or do regard." What he did regard, however, was the continued
alliance and support of England; and he was now to learn that, having
attained her own objects, Elizabeth was not disposed to be specially
cordial in her future relations to the Protestants in Scotland. It had
been for some time in the minds of the Protestant leaders that a
marriage between Elizabeth and the Earl of Arran would be an excellent
arrangement for both countries; and in October a commission was actually
sent to make the proposal. The reply of Elizabeth was that "presen