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English Protestants, who were likely to prove more dangerous to
Spanish designs than to France. Such a policy of neutrality might
result, too, it was thought, in securing the throne of England for the
young Scottish queen, whose claims as the nearest legitimate heir
could not be questioned. For these reasons the regent was not
unwilling to allow Protestant refugees to take up their residence in
Scotland, and to permit the followers of the new religion to continue
their campaign so long as they did not disturb the public peace. In
her correspondence with the Pope she paid little attention to the
religious danger that was threatening the kingdom, and seemed to be
more anxious to obtain permission to tax the clergy than to secure an
energetic reform of the abuses that she painted in such dark
colours.[11] The Scottish lords, many of whom were offended by the
preponderance of French soldiers and French officials, were only too
willing to assist the new preachers, and what was worse, to stir up
their clansmen against the old religion by holding up the bishops and
clergy as the friends of France and the enemies of Scottish
independence. National patriotism was now utilised to help forward the
cause of Protestantism, by the very men who a few years before had
agreed to betray their country for English gold, and had striven with
all their might to make Henry VIII. the protector of Scotland.

Some Protestant refugees from England were soon at work in different
centres of the country, and encouraged by the regent's policy of
neutrality, the man, who was destined to be the apostle of the
Reformation, returned to his native land (1555). John Knox,[12] who
had shown his devotion to the Gospel by applauding the murder of
Cardinal Beaton as a "godly act," and who had founded the first
reformed congregation among the murderers gathered in the castle of
St. Andrew's, having been released from the French galleys, became a
pensioner of Edward VI., and took up his residence in some of the
northern towns of England. In a short time he was appointed royal
chaplain, and might have had the Bishopric of Rochester had he not
expressed the view that such an office was incompatible with devotion
to the true evangelical religion. On the accession of Queen Mary he
fled from England to Geneva, from which he returned to Scotland in
1555. His violent and overbearing manner, his extravagant
denunciations of his opponents, his misrepresentations of their
actions and policy, and his readiness both as a speaker and as a
writer, qualified him perfectly for the leadership of a revolutionary
party, were it not that at certain critical moments his anxiety to
avoid personal danger was calculated to shake the confidence of his
followers. He was welcomed by many of the discontented nobles, amongst
others by Lord Erskine afterwards Earl of Mar, Lord Lorne and his
father the Earl of Argyll, Maitland Lord of Lethington, the Earl of
Glencairn, and Lord James Stuart prior of St. Andrew's, who as Earl of
Moray was soon to betray his sister, Mary Queen of Scots.

Encouraged by the protection of such powerful patrons he preached
freely and with great success in several districts of Scotland. The
clansmen were so united to their lords that they were prepared to
follow their example even in matters of religion. The bishops and the
regent, to whom these proceedings must have been known, were strangely
oblivious to their duties, and when at last they mustered up
sufficient courage to summon Knox to appear at Edinburgh (1556), they
were so alarmed by the strength of his following that they abandoned
the trial. Knox, encouraged by their cowardice, preached openly in the
capital, and even went so far as to address a letter to the regent
calling upon her to open her mind for the reception of the truth.[13]
By this public challenge, however, he overshot the mark, and not being
gifted with any particular desire to suffer martyrdom for the faith,
he left Scotland suddenly and retired to the Continent (1556). For
years he was the leading spirit in many of the fierce and unseemly
disputes between the English Protestant exiles in Geneva and
Frankfurt. Although summoned more than once by his followers to
return, he contented himself with sending them written exhortations to
stand firm in the faith, or by publishing violent pamphlets such as
/The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of
Women/, in which he undertook to prove that the rule of women is
repugnant to nature, contrary to God's ordinances, and subversive of
good order, equity, and justice. Though this document was aimed
principally against Catharine de' Medici, Queen Mary of England, and
Mary of Guise regent of Scotland, it rankled in the mind of Queen