pulpit in order to appease the populace, had a stool thrown at him; the
council was insulted: and it was with difficulty that the magistrates
were able, partly by authority, partly by force, to expel the rabble,
and to shut the doors against them. The tumult, however, still continued
without: stones were thrown at the doors and windows: and when the
service was ended, the bishop, going home, was attacked, and narrowly
escaped from the hands of the enraged multitude. In the afternoon, the
privy seal, because he carried the bishop in his coach, was so pelted
with stones, and hooted at with execrations, and pressed upon by the
eager populace, that if his servants with drawn swords had not kept them
off, the bishop's life had been exposed to the utmost danger.[*]

Though it was violently suspected that the low populace, who alone
appeared, had been instigated by some of higher condition, yet no proof
of it could be produced; and every one spake with disapprobation of
the licentiousness of the giddy multitude.[**] It was not thought safe,
however, to hazard a new insult by any new attempt to read the liturgy;
and the people seemed for the time to be appeased and satisfied. But it
being known that the king still persevered in his intentions of imposing
that mode of worship, men fortified themselves still further in their
prejudices against it; and great multitudes resorted to Edinburgh, in
order to oppose the introduction of so hated a novelty.[***]

* King's Decl. p. 22. Clarendon, vol. i. p. 108. Rush, vol.
ii. p. 387.

** King's Decl. p. 23, 24, 25. Rush. vol. ii. p. 388.

*** King's Decl. p. 26, 30. Clarendon, vol. i. p. 109.

It was not long before they broke, out in the most violent disorder.
The bishop of Galloway was attacked in the streets, and chased into
the chamber where the privy council was sitting. The council itself
was besieged and violently attacked: the town council met with the same
fate: and nothing could have saved the lives of all of them, but their
application to some popular lords, who protected them, and dispersed the
multitude. In this sedition, the actors were of some better condition
than in the former; though nobody of rank seemed as yet to countenance
them.[*]

All men, however, began to unice and to encourage each other in
opposition to the religious innovations introduced into the kingdom.
Petitions to the council were signed and presented by persons of the
highest