Scotland/Scots > Life of John Knox ; and, The life of Alexander Henderson

LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.
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throughout the kingdom, which, he was persuaded,
would prove the principal bulwark against the assaults
of their adversaries. In the state in which the minds
of men then were, his admonitions were listened to by
many who had formerly treated them with indiffer¬
ence. The threatened storm blew over, in consequence
of the death of the French king; but this necessarily
led to a measure which involved the Scottish Protestants
in a new struggle, and exposed the reformed church to
dangers less obvious and striking, but, on that account,
not less to be dreaded than open violence and hostility.
This was the invitation given by the Protestant nobility
to their young queen, who, on the 19th of August 1561,
arrived in Scotland, and assumed the reins of government
into her own hands.
The education which Mary had received in France,
whatever embellishments it added to her beauty, was
the very worst which can be conceived, for fitting her to
rule her native country in the present juncture. Of a
temper naturally violent, the devotion which she had
been accustomed to see paid to her personal charms ren¬
dered her incapable of bearing contradiction. Habituat¬
ed to the splendour and gallantry of the most luxurious
and dissolute court of Europe, she could not submit to
those restraints which the severe manners of her sub¬
jects imposed; and while the freedom of her behaviour
gave offence to them, she could not conceal the antipathy
and disgust which she felt at theirs. Full of high no¬
tions of royal prerogative, she regarded the late proceed¬
ings of Scotland as a course of rebellion against her au¬
thority. Every means was employed, before she left
France, to strengthen the blind attachment to the Roman
Catholic religion in which she had been nursed from
her infancy, and to inspire her with aversion to the re¬
ligion which had been embraced by her subjects. She
was taught that it would be the great glory of her reign
to reduce her kingdom to the obedience of the Romish
See, and co-operate with the Popish princes on the con-