ld be read in all churches. While hundreds were going
to the stake in England the Scotch nobles boldly met the burning of
their preachers by a threat of war. "They trouble our preachers," ran
their bold remonstrance against the bishops in the Queen-mother's
presence; "they would murder them and us! shall we suffer this any
longer? No, madam, it shall not be!" and therewith every man put on his
steel bonnet. The Regent was helpless for the moment and could find
refuge only in fair words, words so fair that for a while the sternest
of the reformers believed her to be drifting to their faith. She was in
truth fettered by the need of avoiding civil strife at a time when the
war of England against France made a Scotch war against England
inevitable. The nobles refused indeed to cross the border, but the
threat of a Scotch invasion was one of the dangers against which Mary
Tudor now found herself forced to provide. Nor was the uprise of
Protestantism in Scotland the only result of her policy in giving fire
and strength to the new religion. Each step in the persecution had been
marked by a fresh flight of preachers, merchants, and gentry across the
seas. "Some fled into France, some into Flanders, and some into the high
countries of the Empire." As early as 1554 we find groups of such
refugees at Frankfort, Emden, Zuerich, and Strassburg. Calvin welcomed
some of them at Geneva; the "lords of Berne" suffered a group to settle
at Aarau; a hundred gathered round the Duchess of Suffolk at Wesel.
Amongst the exiles we find many who were to be bishops and statesmen in
the coming reign. Sir Francis Knollys was at Frankfort, Sir Francis
Walsingham travelled in France; among the divines were the later
archbishops Grindal and Sandys, and the later bishops Horne, Parkhurst,
Aylmer, Jewel, and Cox. Mingled with these were men who had already
played their part in Edward's reign, such as Poinet, the deprived Bishop
of Winchester, Bale, the deprived Bishop of Ossory, and the preachers
Lever and Knox.

[Sidenote: The Extreme Protestants.]

Gardiner had threatened that the fugitives should gnaw their fingers
from hunger, but ample supplies reached them from London merchants and
other partizans in England, and they seem to have lived in fair comfort
while their brethren at home were "going to the fire." Their chief
troubles sprang from strife among themselves. The hotter spirits among
the English Protestants had seen with discontent the retent