and twa kingdomes in Scotland. Thair is Chryst Jesus the King,
and his kingdome the Kirk, whase subject King James the Saxt
is, and of whase kingdome nocht a king nor a lord, nor a heid,
bot a member!... And, Sir, when yie war in your
swadling-cloutes, Chryst Jesus' rang[22] friely in this land in
spyt of all his enemies."'

[Footnote 22: Reigned.]

The King bent before the tempest of Melville's indignation, and the
storm ended in calm: the deputation was dismissed with the promise that
the Popish lords would 'get no grace at his hands till they satisfied
the Kirk.'

The ministers had learned what value to attach to the royal word, so
that they cannot have been greatly surprised when soon afterwards James
showed his intention not only to indemnify the excommunicated lords, but
to restore them to favour at Court. At this time Huntly's Countess
received a special mark of the King's favour in being invited to the
baptismal ceremony of his daughter Elizabeth, and at the same time
another Popish lady was put in custody of the Princess at the Court.

The ultimate issue of this matter, which was soon involved in another
and greater controversy between the Crown and the Church, was that the
Popish lords, after a formal submission to the Courts of the Church,
were absolved from their excommunication and restored to their former
positions. No one believed that there was any sincerity in the
transaction either on the part of Huntly and his friends, or of the King
and Council, or of the majority of the Assembly: the whole business was
concocted and pushed through by the Crown for its own ends, with as much
of the semblance of concession to the Church as possible, and as little
of the reality. The action of the Court throughout the whole case was
such as to breed the greatest suspicion of the King's honesty in
professing zeal for the defence of the country from the dangers
threatened by Popish intrigues at home and abroad. Even Burton, whom no
one will suspect of partiality to the Church, and whose animus against
the ministers often overcomes his historic judgment, in writing of what
he calls the 'edifying ceremony' of the absolution of the lords, says:
'It must be conceded to their enemies that it was a solemn farce; and
whatever there might be in words or the surface of things, there would
be, when these Earls were restored, a power in the North ready to
co-operate with any Spanish invader.'