What had Crumwell, though Vicar-General? What had the Bench of Bishops there yet done, in reference to the Sacred Volume in the vulgar tongue? Had they yet found a translation and agreed respecting it, and made open proclamation that all might read, believe, and live? Nothing of the kind. On the contrary, Henry and his authorities had been fighting against it exactly ten years! And what was the English government doing at the moment? Were its members not in the guilty act of leaving the translator to perish, without one solitary or solemn remonstrance from either the King or Crumwell, to whom earnest application had been made, and by no common man? Nay more, at the moment when Howard, the brother of the Duke of Norfolk, and Barlow were thus writing their joint letter, in what a shameful and bloody tragedy, in reference to Anne Boleyn, the King and Crumwell, and all around them were engrossed, we need not repeat. Barlow remained behind Howard for ten days longer, when he signified that it would be "no more displeasant for him to depart, than it was for Lot to pass out of Sodom!" But he was not aware of Latimer being in the very act of preparing his Latin sermon for the prelates then occupying the English bench; and in which they were to have small credit over the bishops whom Barlow had left behind him. He could not be aware that Fox of Hereford was about to tell his brethren that they were" in danger of being laughed to scorn by the common people, (who knew more of the Scriptures than they did,) as having not one spark of learning or godliness within them." Above all, he had not anticipated that a native of that same Edinburgh was on the point of adjusting the balance more correctly between the English and the Scotish bench, when he put Stokesly the Bishop of London in a rage; though simply, yet boldly, pleading for no more than the authority and all-sufficiency of Scripture; when Cranmer himself was afraid to let him go on, and fight the battle out; or in other words, when the Archbishop of Canterbury would discover as much timidity as the Archbishop of Cologne had done, and before the same man! These equal reminiscences are imperatively due to the present history. They show how hostile the men, called ecclesiastical, in either country were, and at the same moment, to the highest favour which Heaven had ever bestowed on them both. It was certainly too soon for any such men to throw a snow-ball at their next neighbours, while" the lay people" in Scotland, as well as England, were alike so far a-head of them. Barlow, however, had now set out on his hunt after preferment, and a more dangerous course it is not possible for a man to pursue. Whether it was in reward of his services, or in preparation for the noted Convocation about to be held in June; even before he left Scotland, he was translated to St. David's, in which character he sat, and heard all that we have hinted, as in preparation for him.21 What must Barlow have thought or felt, when he saw a native of Edinburgh so encounter his brethren, and try their temper? But, at all events, we are indebted to him for the information he has given us, respecting those lay people in the north, for whom Ales had already so powerfully pled. Under the influence of his ecclesiastical advisers, James was now bent on a matrimonial alliance with France. A regency was appointed, of which James Beaton was the head; and taking his nephew, the Abbot of Arbroath, with certain noblemen in his train, he left the kingdom in September, and after an absence of fully eight months, returned with a queen for his royal master, an accomplished princess, Madeleine, the only daughter of Francis I. During the absence of his nephew from Scotland, Henry VIII., ever intriguing, had sent down Ralph Sadler to his sister, the Queen-Mother, as early as February; and from thence he proceeded with instructions to King James himself at Amiens in March, professedly in reference to his mother, Henry's sister. The visit, in both instances, no doubt, had a double object in view; and hence the Scotish King was scarcely landed, with his bride, on the 19th of May 1537, than Sadler was down once more, charged with long and particular instructions. Henry, understanding that the gentlemen of " the old learning" were very much alike every where, and judging also by those who stood round his own person to the end of his life, again must this ambassador whisper in the ear of James, his uncle's sayings in reference to the clergy. They were commonly held by the affection they have to their maintenance, and to their authority in pomp and pride." If Sadler actually went as far as his Master instructed him, he was to say that James was "not to think of himself, as perchance some of his clergy would have him to be, as brute as a stock, or to mistrust, that his wits, which he had received of God, be not able to perceive Christ's word, which his grace has left us, common to be understood by all Christian men." Henry farther advised his nephew to try these clergy 21 See the account of the Convocation, to which he was so soon summoned, vol. i., pp. 488, 494-510. "by their works and deeds"-for "that would induce him to lean to the pure word of God, and to pass light upon dreams of men abused by superstition, to blind princes, and other persons of much simplicity." Sadler was then to pray Henry's good nephew "not to conceive any evil opinion of his uncle, from false and lying reports, only because his Highness, sticking to the word of God, had abolished certain Roman abuses and superstitions in his realm;" with many other such words.22 The entire document is in perfect keeping with the deep hypocrisy of Henry's character; but if this was a specimen of his policy, not to say the refinement of his language, it was not likely to have much effect on such a Prince as James, at the age of twenty-six, recently married to the only daughter of the French monarch; and immediately after he had been accustomed, for so many months, to a very different style of address. Henry's nephew was not now to be rated like a school-boy, and Sadler, of course, had to return as he came. In pursuance of the same policy, he had brought a present of £200, by way of fee, to the QueenMother, and she, as in duty bound, acknowledges receipt, to her brother, in June, when she trusts that the King, her son, is sending to him David Beaton. She prays him to talk kindly with the Abbot, as he was a great man with his master.23 The young Queen, however, had but a short time to live, having indeed been ill of consumption before her marriage. Upon landing at Leith, she had "knelt upon the beach," says Mr. Tytler, "and taking up some portion of the sand, kissed it with deep emotion, whilst she implored a blessing upon her new country, and her beloved husband." It says much for her character that in so short a period she had so endeared herself to all classes; as within fifty days after her arrival she expired. The deep regret of many was shewn by their putting on mourning, a custom, till then, altogether unknown in Scotland. James, however, recovering from this shock, retained his purpose of sending Beaton to England. In the month of August we find him as far as Stamford, there soliciting an audience, through Crumwell, with the King, then at Dunstable. 24 He had gone, no doubt, as an espial, rather than an ambassador, in return for the visit of Sadler in James's absence. But there could be no cordiality between the countries at this moment. On the contrary, the life of James had been twice threatened by secret conspiracy, through the intrigues of the Douglas family, who were living under Henry's protection. The clergy will continue to advise or promote alliance with France. 22 Gov. St. Papers, vol. v., pp. 81, 82, note. 23 Idem, p. 90. 24 Idem, p. 99. SECTION V. FROM 1538 TO 1542-STATE OF THE COUNTRY-BEATON A CARDINAL AND PERSECUTION REVIVED THE MARTYRDOMS OF 1538-DEAN FORRET— THE CAUSE OF ALL THE TUMULT IN OPPOSITION TRACED TO THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE NATIVE TONGUE-ANOTHER MARTYRDOM-MEN ESCAPING THE CRUEL PROGRESS OF CARDINAL BEATON-DEATH OF THE KING JAMES V.-GLOOMY STATE OF THE COUNTRY AS TO ITS GOVERNMENT AT THIS MOMENT. HROUGHOUT these five years ensuing, or from 1538 to 1542 inclusive, just as though it had been intended by divine providence to be the more observed by the people as such, and at all events, by posterity, the only cause that looked upward, was that which was most hated; the only progress towards improvement, in any department, was in that of Divine truth. At the close of this period the King is to die, and even now, whether in relation to himself or the country at large, every movement was from bad to worse. All things went the downward road. In justice, however, to James V., it must be remembered that he was called to contend with more than Henry VIII. ever had to encounter. The English Barons had been brought low by Henry VII., before his son came to the throne; but in Scotland, although in 1513 the "Flowers of the Forest" had died away, another race had sprung up since then. The clergy, too, had a David Beaton among them, as licentious and ambitious as WOLSEY himself, and far more unrelenting in his dispositions than the English cardinal ever was. Besides, James, younger than the English King when he came to the throne, had been watched and swayed by interested parties from childhood; so that having to cope with the Barons as well as the Clergy, it discovered no small force of character, that he proved so much of a sovereign as he did. In early life, amiable in his dispositions, he had evidently endeared himself to the people of his kingdom; and afterwards, in being dragged into such cruelties by these ecclesiastics, it only shews to what fearful extent a man may go, whether from profligacy or mistaken political motives. In short, among all these public men, the King is the solitary individual who draws on our pity. At one moment, indeed, he will be seen to sink himself to the lowest depth, by compliance with his bishops, in the burning of his subjects for their attachment to divine truth; but before a year goes round, we shall not only see him sit for hours, and hear the ecclesiastical order lashed with the severest satire for their vices; but he will turn round afterwards, and acquiescing in the justice of the exhibition, rate the whole order severely to their faces, as the root of all evil. Both Henry and James vainly imagined that they themselves might live as they listed, though neither of them were blind to the scandalous lives of the priests and their superiors. But to proceed, David Beaton having gone to France once more, and to negociate for another Queen, returned in May 1538, (only ten months after the death of Madeleine) with a woman of a widely different character-MARY of GUISE―an alliance perfectly agreeable to the clergy, though ere long to prove most injurious to the best interests of the country. Beaton, like Wolsey in past years, looking out for his own advancement by the way, had contrived to be made Bishop of Mirepoix in Languedoc, with not less than ten thousand livres of annual revenue; and though not yet a bishop in his own country, his French appointment will strengthen the ladder to higher promotion. Sharpened, no doubt, by his visit to England last year, and having now furnished so trusty a checkmate for his Sovereign, no time was to be lost in proceeding against all the insinuations of his uncle, by strengthening his own personal authority through the court of Rome. He was indeed, as yet, nothing more than an Abbot in Scotland; but with his French see in addition, Beaton had applied to the Pontiff for one of his highest honours. Of course this was represented as by no means on his own account, but merely for the benefit of the kirk, and to meet the signs of the times. This, however, was no usual demand, no common step in advance, yet through the vigilance of his agent in Italy, the able and aspiring Abbot succeeded, and was actually raised, by Paul III., to the powers of a Cardinal, on the 20th of December 1538. Throughout the year 1538, the new learning having made very manifest progress, the disposition to persecute was about to be fully gratified. The secret of Beaton's zeal for power could not long remain hid, and since James was both so married, and too far gone to profit by any warning; his character as a man must "smart for it," as Henry, his uncle, had predicted. Nothing improved by his former visit to France, gay, licentious and thoughtless, James was as much in want of money as his uncle always was, and money he must have. In younger life he had shrunk from the shedding of blood, but now, in order to beguile him from an eye to clerical wealth and the accumulated treasures of the monasteries, the property of all who should either die for their opinions, or abjure, was |