The story of the Scottish Reformation Author:Alexander Wilmot Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. Scottish Reformation the work of an oligarchy.— Precise causes of this Reformation.—Establishment of the College of Justice.—James V.— The infant ... more »Mary and the Regency.—Conspiracy for the murder of Cardinal Beaton.— George Wishart.—Murder of the Cardinal. The student of history finds nothing more distinctly proved than that the Scottish Reformation -was the work of an oligarchy. For a long period the crown, the clergy, and the people from whom the clergy sprung were opposed by the nobility. The nobles of Scotland were extremely powerful, and a spirit of prideful competition urged them on to savage warfare, sometimes among themselves, but more frequently against the established authorities. They murdered James I. and James III., imprisoned James V., rebelled against James II. and James III., confined Mary in the Castle of Lochleven, and afterwards deposed her. Their bas conspiracies form almost a framework to Scottish history. "But the Scots were seldom distinguished for loyalty" (Laing's History of Scotland, Vol. III., p. 199). "The little respect paid to royalty is conspicuous in every page of Scottish history" (Brodie's History of the British Empire, Vol. I., p. 383). " Scotland seems indeed the natural foyer of rebellion as Egypt is of the plague" (Wilkes's speech in the House of Commons reported in Parliamentary History, Vol. XIX., p. 810). " Never was any race of monarchs more unfortunate than the Scottish. Their reigns were generally turbulent and disastrous, and their end often tragical" (Nimmo's History of Stirlingshire, p. 219). There were in large cities no powerful free Burghers—no municipal spirit. The conformation of the country itself favoured the nobles, as its lakes, fens, morasses, and mountains rendered many of the chieftain's retreats al...« less