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others, to agree to his designs and to promise their assistance.
Unmindful of their duty to Scotland they consented to sell both their
country and their religion for English gold. The regent was only too
willing to lend his aid, and before the end of January the English
agents were able to announce to "their Sovereign Lord" that the
cardinal was a prisoner. Everything seemed to favour the religious
change and the plans of union with England. Parliament met in March
1543. It decreed liberty to all to read or to have in their possession
a copy of the Bible in the English or the Scottish tongue, and
appointed commissioners to treat with Henry for the marriage of Mary
to his son. But popular opinion in Scotland supported strongly the
religious and political policy of Cardinal Beaton. The clergy of the
diocese of St. Andrew's refused to continue their ministrations until
their archbishop was released. The people supported them in their
demands, as did several of the nobles, and in the end, despite the
protests of the English party, among the lords, the cardinal was set
at liberty. The regent, the Earl of Arran, deserted his former
friends, became reconciled with the Catholic Church, joined himself to
the party of the cardinal and of the queen dowager, and welcomed the
arrival of the French forces that had come to defend the kingdom
against an English invasion.

The Scottish nobles in the pay of Henry VIII. were convinced, as was
Henry VIII. himself, that so long as Cardinal Beaton was alive to
guide affairs in Scotland no advance could be made in the work of
destroying both the religion and the independence of the kingdom.
Several of the Scottish enemies of the cardinal entered into
communication with Henry himself or with his agents. They offered to
murder the cardinal if only Henry promised a sufficient reward, and
Henry expressed his approval of the step that was in contemplation.[6]
Meanwhile the cardinal was busy preparing schemes for a genuine reform
of the Church to be submitted to a national synod called for January
1546, and in making a visitation of his diocese for the purpose of
suppressing heresy. George Wishart, formerly a Greek master at
Montrose, had returned from the Continent, and had begun to stir up
religious dissension in several cities of Scotland. He was the close
ally of the Scottish lords who were in the pay of Henry VIII., and he
himself was the trusted messenger employed by Crichton, Lord of
Brunston, to communicate to the English court the projected murder of
Cardinal Beaton and the destruction of certain religious houses in
Scotland.[7] The cardinal, who was probably aware of his plots as well
as of his preachings, secured his arrest, and brought him to St.
Andrew's, where he was tried and executed for heresy (1546). The news
of the execution created considerable commotion especially in those
centres where Wishart had preached, and gave new impetus to the
movement for the assassination of the cardinal. In May 1546 some of
the family of Leslie, who had grievances of their own to revenge, with
a number of other accomplices secured an entrance to the palace of the
Archbishop of St. Andrew's, put his servants and attendants to flight,
and murdered him before any help could be summoned. The murder of
Cardinal Beaton was an irreparable misfortune for the Catholic Church
in Scotland. He was at once an able churchman and a patriot,
determined to maintain the independence of his country against the
group of pro-English traitors, who were determined to change the
religion of Scotland at the bidding of Scotland's greatest enemy. John
Knox, a fanatical priest, who had gone over to the new religion,
welcomed the murder of the cardinal as a veritable triumph for the
gospel and as a "godly act." He hastened to join the murderers who had
taken possession of the castle of St. Andrew's, and to whom he
preached as the first reformed congregation in Scotland.[8] Henry
VIII., no less jubilant for the disappearance of his strongest
opponent, was not slow to assist the murderers.

But the assassination of the cardinal did not mean the triumph of the
English party. It served only to embitter the feelings of the vast
majority of the people, and to force the regent and queen-dowager to
throw themselves more unreservedly into the arms of France. A French
fleet arrived at Leith and forced the murderers assembled in the
castle of St. Andrew's to surrender. Those of them who were not
fortunate enough to make their escape were taken prisoners and
condemned to the French galleys. An English army led by the Duke of
Somerset marched into Scotland to enforce the English demands, and
especially to secure the person of the infant queen. But though it