Bartholomew massacre, in
the autumn of 1572, demanded that "it shall be lawful to all the subjects
in this realm to invade them and every one of them to the death." The
persons to be "invaded to the death" are recalcitrant Catholics, "grit or
small," persisting in remaining in Scotland. {137}

The alarmed demands of the preachers were merely disregarded by the Privy
Council. The ruling nobles, as Bishop Lesley says, would never gratify
the preachers by carrying out the bloody penal Acts to their full extent
against Catholics. There was no expulsion of all Catholics who dared to
stay; no popular massacre of all who declined to go. While Morton was in
power he kept the preachers well in hand. He did worse: he starved the
ministers, and thrust into the best livings wanton young gentlemen, of
whom his kinsman, Archibald Douglas, an accomplice in Darnley's death and
a trebly-dyed traitor, was the worst. But in 1575, the great Andrew
Melville, an erudite scholar and a most determined person, began to
protest against the very name of bishop in the Kirk; and in Adamson, made
by Morton successor of John Douglas at St Andrews, Melville found a mark
and a victim. In economics, as an English diplomatist wrote to Cecil in
November 1572, the country, despite the civil war, was thriving; "the
noblemen's great credit decaying, . . . the ministry and religion
increaseth, and the desire in them to prevent the practice of the
Papists." The Englishman, in November, may refer to the petition for
persecution of October 20, 1572.

The death of old Chatelherault now left the headship of the Hamiltons in
more resolute hands; Morton was confronted by opposition from Argyll,
Atholl, Buchan, and Mar; and Morton, in 1576-1577, made approaches to
Mary. When the young James VI. came to his majority Morton's enemies
would charge him with his guilty foreknowledge, through Both well, of
Darnley's murder, so he made advances to Mary in hope of an amnesty. She
suspected a trap and held aloof.

CHAPTER XXII. REIGN OF JAMES VI.

On March 4, 1578, a strong band of nobles, led by Argyll, presented so
firm a front that Morton resigned the Regency; but in April 1578, a
Douglas plot, backed by Angus and Morton, secured for the Earl of Mar the
command of Stirling Castle and custody of the King; in June 1578, after
an appearance of civil war, Morton was as strong as ever. After dining
with him, in April 1579, Atholl, the main hope of Mary in