sence of the
Sacraments tending to the enervation of the faith catholic, in which
they were threatened with "tinsale of lif, landis, and gudis."[52] He
had not dared to proclaim this openly, though perhaps his ally, Henry
VIII., would not have blamed him greatly for doing so. But no sooner was
he in league with, and under the power of, the cardinal, than he showed
in open Parliament "how thair is gret murmure that heretikis mair and
mair risis and spredis within this realme, sawand dampnable opinionis
incontrar the fayth and lawis of Haly Kirk, actis and constitutionis of
this realm"; and exhorted all prelates and ordinaries "to inquir upon
all sic maner of personis and proceid aganis thame according to the
lawis of Haly Kirk"; promising to be ready himself to do therein at all
times what belonged to his office.[53] This promise he was soon obliged
cruelly to fulfil.

[Sidenote: The Perth Martyrs.]

On the 20th January 1543-44 he set out in company of the cardinal, the
Lord Justice and his deputy, with a band of armed men and artillery, to
Perth, where a great assize was held. Several were convicted of heresy,
and their goods forfeited. Several were condemned to die. The governor
himself was inclined to spare their lives, but the cardinal and the
nobles who were with him threatened to leave him if he did this. So on
St Paul's day (25th January) 1543-44, Robert Lamb, James Hunter, William
Anderson, and James Ranaldson were hanged; and the wife of this last,
who had refused when in labour to pray to the Virgin Mary, was denied
the consolation of being suspended from the same beam with her husband,
and put to death by drowning, after she had consigned to the care of a
neighbour the infant she carried in her arms. Dundee was next visited,
but it was found that the suspected citizens--who in the previous autumn
had sacked and destroyed the Grey Friars and the Dominican
monasteries--had taken the alarm and fled from their homes.

[Sidenote: The Balance of Parties.]

The weak and inconstant man continued to be regent in name, but from
that hour he was dominated by the imperious cardinal almost as
completely as King James had been. He wrote to the pope that the
cardinal's devotion to the holy see and to the interests of his native
country was so great that he deserved the praise, or at least no small
part of the praise, of preserving its liberty and extinguishing
heresy.[54] That last work, however, was by no means so nearl