southern
border. He shunned no risk, shrank from no cruelty, to remove out of the
way those who thwarted his schemes or favoured the better policy which
in the end was to carry the day.

[41] Theiner's Vetera Monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum, 1864, pp.
608-612.

[42] [Betoun's Commission as Legate is dated 30th January 1543-44
(Lemon's State Papers, v. 443; Thorpe's Calendar, i. 46).]

[43] [There is such a reference to him in Theiner's Vetera Monumenta, p.
608.]

[44] Robertson's Concilia Scotiae, vol. i. p. cxxxvi, n.

[45] See Appendix C.

[46] D'Aubigne's Reformation in the Time of Calvin, vi. 132.

[47] Concilia Scotiae, vol. i. pp. cxxxix, cxl.

[48] [14th Dec. 1542.]

[49] [His letter to the Pope is dated 10th May 1543 (Theiner's Monumenta
Hibernorum et Scotorum, pp. 614, 615).]

[50] [On the 8th of September "he was enjoyned to passe to the Freres in
Stirling, ... and there received open pennance and a solempne othe, in
the presence and hereing of all men that was there, that he shulde never
doo the same againe, but supporte and defende the professon and habit of
mounkes, freres, and such other; and therupon, being absolved by the
Cardinall and the Busshoppes, herde masse and received the sacramente"
(Hamilton Papers, ii. 38).]

[51] D'Aubigne's Reformation in the Time of Calvin, vi, 206.

[52] Concilia Scotiae, ii. 294.

[53] Acts of Parliament, ii. 443. [This was on the 15th of December
1543.]

[54] [This letter is dated 20th May 1545 (Theiner's Monumenta, p. 616).]

[55] Theiner's Monumenta, p. 617. [This letter is dated 6th July 1545.]

[56] Hume Brown's Knox, i. 64, 65. Grimani's opinion, as sent from
Stirling, is thus summarised by Father Stevenson: "The realm is in such
confusion, so divided, so full of heresy that, but for the interposition
of God, it will soon become as bad as England. The queen and the
cardinal have spent all their money in the common cause; and the clergy
are unable to assist, for the fruits of their benefices have been seized
by the Lutherans" (Mary Stuart, 1886, p. 51).

CHAPTER IV.

GEORGE WISHART.

It was about this time that a new evangelist arrived in the country,
singularly fitted to impress on the hearts of men the lessons of the
Holy Book to which they had now access in their native tongue. This was
George Wishart, a younger son or nephew of Sir James Wishart, laird of
Pittarrow in the Mearns. He appears to have been born about 1512-13, and