rd James: "subtle brains" enough. _She_ was the "merchandise,"
and Lethington and Lord James wished to make Elizabeth acknowledge the
Scottish Queen as her successor, the alternative being to seek her price
as a wife for an European prince. An "union of hearts" with England
might conceivably mean Mary's acceptance of the Anglican faith. It is
not a kind thing to say about Mary, but I suspect that, if assured of the
English succession, she might have gone over to the Prayer Book. In the
first months of her English captivity (July 1568) Mary again dallied with
the idea of conversion, for the sake of freedom. She told the Spanish
Ambassador that "she would sooner be murdered," but if she could have
struck her bargain with Elizabeth, I doubt that she would have chosen the
Prayer Book rather than the dagger or the bowl. {206a} Her conversion
would have been bitterness as of wormwood to Knox. In his eyes
Anglicanism was "a bastard religion," "a mingle-mangle now commanded in
your kirks." "Peculiar services appointed for Saints' days, diverse
Collects as they falsely call them in remembrance of this or that Saint .
. . are in my conscience no small portion of papistical superstition."
{206b} "Crossing in Baptism is a diabolical invention; kneeling at the
Lord's table, mummelling," (uttering the responses, apparently), "or
singing of the Litany." All these practices are "diabolical inventions,"
in Knox's candid opinion, "with Mr. Parson's pattering of his constrained
prayers, and with the mass-munging of Mr. Vicar, and of his wicked
companions . . ." (A blank in the MS.) "Your Ministers, before for the
most part, were none of Christ's ministers, but mass-mumming priests." He
appears to speak of the Anglican Church as it was under Edward VI. (To
Mrs. Locke, Dieppe, April 6, 1559.) {207a} As Elizabeth brought in
"cross and candle," her Church must have been odious to our Reformer.
Calvin had regarded the "silly things" in our Prayer Book as "endurable,"
not so Knox. Before he came back to Scotland, the Reformers were content
with the English Prayer Book. By rejecting it, Knox and his allies
disunited Scotland and England.

Knox's friend Arran was threatening to stir up the Congregation for the
purpose of securing him in the revenues of three abbeys, including St.
Andrews, of which Lord James was Prior. The extremists raised the
question, "whether the Queen, being an idolater, may be obeyed in all
civil and politi