support of this powerful body for the entire humiliation of the nobles, and would perhaps have been successful, if the clergy had not taken alarm at the progress of the Reformation in England, and involved him in a war with Henry VIII, which called the nobility into action, embarrassed all his measures, and brought him to the grave through indignation and despair. But though James failed in his attempt to humble the nobility by the aid of the clergy, his policy produced an important effect during the minority of his daughter, the celebrated Mary, as it bequeathed to his chief minister, the cardinal Beatoun, a degree of paramount authority, which, by committing the government in a more violent struggle with the reformers, more decisively determined the independent character of the Scotish reformation, and thus contributed to all its important consequences. The abuses of the religion of Rome* were at the same time in Scotland carried to the utmost excess, as the general ignorance and barbarity of the people rendered them incapable of perceiving their unreasonableness, until the preachers of the Reformation awakened and excited some intellectual power in the public mind; then however the tendency of the nation was naturally to secede as far as possible from the church which they had so blindly ve

* Robertson, vol 1. p. 141-145.

nerated, and to construct a system of protestant worship, which should affect an extreme simplicity in all its ordinances.

Circumstanced as Scotland was in regard to England, it naturally entered into a political connection with France, the rival of its formidable neighbour. It has been mentioned that this connection was originally formed in the year 1168. Long however after this time the efforts of France were employed rather in mediating with England for the protection of Scotland, than in engaging the latter of the two countries in hostilities with the former. The t first Scotish invasion of England, which has been recorded as instigated by the French, occurred in the year 1346. This connection became closer in process of time, until at length the ascendency of a French interest in the government of Scotland offended the independent spirit of the people, and assisted in disposing them to the more natural connection with England, which was begun by the policy of Elizabeth, and completed by the succession of James VI. to her throne.

Henry VIII. indeed became sensible of the importance of forming a strict and intimate union with the neighbouring kingdom, to which his own was so much exposed. James IV. of

* Dalrymple's Annals of Scotland, vol. 2. p. 28, 29, 39, 162, 179. Edinb. 1776. † Ibid. p. 213.

*

Scotland had been engaged by the French king to divide the efforts of Henry, who had defeated and routed his troops; in executing this diversion James, with a great number of his nobles, fell in the fatal battle of Flodden, fought in the year 1513; and in the minority which succeeded Henry began that practice of bribing a party among the Scotish courtiers, which was afterwards successfully adopted by Elizabeth. The English monarch subsequently endeavoured to attach the king himself to his interests, and † for this purpose twice proposed a personal interview at York. The king of Scotland however having been dissuaded from this measure by his clergy, who dreaded the subversion of the established religion, as the consequence of the union of the two sovereigns, Henry, indignant at his disappointment, renewed the former system of hostility. A female reign then presenting a favourable opportunity for establishing by a matrimonial alliance a permanent connection, the English monarch conceived a desire of effecting a marriage between Mary of Scotland and his son Edward; and a moderate degree of policy might have succeeded in reconciling the people of that country to a measure, which, if Edward had lived to complete it, would have antici* Pinkerton's Hist. of Scotland, vol. 2. p. 110, 111. Lond. 1797. Henry, vol. 11. p. 507, 508, 519 etc.

pated by half a century the union of the two crowns. But the impetuosity of Henry disconcerted his scheme. He grasped so openly at the dominion of Scotland, that the pride of that country was roused, the French party became predominant, and in the progress of hostilities, which were continued in the reign of Edward, the Scotch were at last induced by resentment to offer their queen to the dauphin, and thereby to sacrifice to France that very independence, for which they contended with England.

The violence of Henry's character thus not only defeated his own plan of union, but gave occasion to an intimate union with the court of France, which decided all the subsequent politics of Scotland. The government of that country, closely leagued with France during the reign of Mary, was opposed, though unsteadily, to the progress of the Reformation, which, as it was prompted only by the people, was accordingly conducted on a principle of democratic equality; and on the other hand the indignation conceived at the ascendency of the French interest in the councils of the state, caused a revulsion of the public feeling, which attached to the interest of England many more than the partisans of the new religion, who naturally looked to a protestant government for support.

*Robertson, vol. 1. p. 109, 123.

The Reformation was in this manner thrown upon the people, and the people were at the same time rendered favourable to a connection with England; and thus both the character of the Scotish reformation was determined, and the people were disposed to a connection with the neighbouring state, by which that reformation was brought to bear on its political arrangements.

Other causes however cooperated with the influences of the French connection, to give a democratic character to the reformation of Scotland. The lateness of its establishment * has been assigned as one cause of the extreme opposition to the ancient hierarchy, by which it was distinguished. In the progress of the ecclesiastical revolution, as in political convulsions, the minds of men had become more vehemently adverse to the ancient system, and Calvin at length established at Geneva a form of ecclesiastical government, which substituted a republican administration for the episcopacy of the Romish, and the superintendence of the Lutheran church. John Knox too, the disciple of Calvin, was an agent admirably qualified for the stern office of levelling the priesthood of his country; the contrasted characters indeed of the Scotish and English reformations may be said to have been personified in the two indivi

* Millar's Hist. View of the Engl. Gov. vol. 3. p. 65 etc.