eddes is traditionally reported to have thrown her
stool at the Dean's head. The service was interrupted, the Bishop was
the mark of stones, and "the Bishops' War," the Civil War, began in this
brawl. James VI., being on the spot, had thoroughly quieted Edinburgh
after a more serious riot, on December 17, 1596. But Charles was far
away; the city had not to fear the loss of the Court and its custom, as
on the earlier occasion (the removal of the Council to Linlithgow in
October 1637 was a trifle), and the Council had to face a storm of
petitions from all classes of the community. Their prayer was that the
Liturgy should be withdrawn. From the country, multitudes of all classes
flocked into Edinburgh and formed themselves into a committee of public
safety, "The Four Tables," containing sixteen persons.

The Tables now demanded the removal of the bishops from the Privy Council
(December 21, 1637). The question was: Who were to govern the country,
the Council or the Tables? The logic of the Presbyterians was not always
consistent. The king must not force the Liturgy on them, but later,
their quarrel with him was that he would not, at their desire, force the
absence of the Liturgy on England. If the king had the right to inflict
Presbyterianism on England, he had the right to thrust the Liturgy on
Scotland: of course he had neither one right nor the other. On February
19, 1638, Charles's proclamation, refusing the prayers of the
supplication of December, was read at Stirling. Nobles and people
replied with protestations to every royal proclamation. Foremost on the
popular side was the young Earl of Montrose: "you will not rest," said
Rothes, a more sober leader, "till you be lifted up above the lave in
three fathoms of rope." Rothes was a true prophet; but Montrose did not
die for the cause that did "his green unknowing youth engage."

The Presbyterians now desired yearly General Assemblies (of which James
VI. had unlawfully robbed the Kirk); the enforcement of an old
brief-lived system of restrictions (_caveats_) on the bishops; the
abolition of the Articles of Perth; and, as always, of the Liturgy. If
he granted all this Charles might have had trouble with the preachers, as
James VI. had of old. Yet the demands were constitutional; and in
Charles's position he would have done well to assent. He was obstinate
in refusal.

The Scots now "fell upon the consideration of a band of union to be made
legally," sa