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captivity, and to assist the Catholic cause. The preachers took alarm
at the sudden and unexpected increase of Popery. "Before this French
court came to Scotland," said Walter Belcanqual in one of his sermons
in 1580 "there were either few or none that durst avow themselves
Papists, neither yet publicly in the country, neither in the reformed
cities, neither in the king's palace. But since that time, not only
begin the Papists within the realm to lift up their heads, but also
our Scottish Papists that were outside the realm swarm home from all
places like locusts, and have taken such hardihood unto them that not
only have they access to the French court, but also in the king's
palace, in the particular sessions of our kirks, and general
assemblies thereof, durst plainly avow their Papistry, and impugn the
truth, both against the laws of the realm and discipline of the
Church, contrary to all practice that we have had before."[36]

The members of the General Assembly, annoyed at the attempt of the
king to support the episcopal system of government, were determined to
remove Lennox, whom they regarded as an emissary of Rome. Elizabeth's
agents, too, were busy stirring up discontent. A plot formed by
Ruthven Earl of Gowrie, the Earl of Mar, and others, for the capture
of the king, was carried out successfully during a visit paid by James
to Ruthven's castle at Gowrie (The Gowrie Plot). He was seized and
lodged safely in Stirling. The Earl of Arran who attempted to rescue
his sovereign was made prisoner, and Lennox was obliged to flee to
France (1582).

For a time Melville and the preachers, who gloried in Gowrie's
successful machinations, held the king in bondage. The General
Assembly of 1582 expressed its approval of what had been done,[37] and
renewed its attacks upon the episcopal system. James, however,
succeeded in making his escape from confinement; the Earl of Arran was
recalled to court; Ruthven was declared a traitor and was beheaded,
and the other conspirators were obliged to make their escape to
England. James entered into close correspondence with some of the
Catholic powers abroad, and even went so far as to appeal to the Pope
for assistance against the enemies who surrounded him (1584). For a
time it seemed as if a great Catholic reaction was about to set in.
Priests who had escaped from England were labouring with success in
the Scottish mission-fields; a few Jesuits had arrived from the
Continent, and France, Spain, and the Pope were in correspondence
regarding the assistance that might be given to James and his mother.
But the spies of Elizabeth soon obtained knowledge of what was in
contemplation. France and Spain were too jealous of one another to
undertake an armed expedition, without which success was impossible.
Negotiations were opened up with a view of detaching James from the
Catholic party, and of inspiring him with distrust for his mother. As
he was always more anxious to secure his accession to the English
throne than to defend either his mother's life or her religion, he
succumbed completely to English influence.

Not even the execution of his mother in 1587 was sufficient to rouse
him to take serious action. Though he was urged by many of the
Scottish nobles to declare war he contented himself with angry
speeches and protests that passed unheeded. Even many of the
Presbyterian lords were ready to support him had he declared war, and
Catholic noblemen like the Earls of Huntly, Erroll, and Crawford, Lord
Maxwell, and Lord Hamilton, offered their assistance. It was well-
known, too, that Philip II. was preparing at the time for an invasion
of England. Had Scotland declared war the results might have been
disastrous for England, but James, instead of taking the offensive,
accepted a pension from Elizabeth and offered to assist in the defence
of the kingdom. He endeavoured at first to conciliate the Catholic
party by restoring John Leslie Bishop of Ross, who had been for years
a most zealous defender of Mary Queen of Scots, to his See and his
possessions, and by appointing the exiled Archbishop of Glasgow to be
his ambassador at the French court. The General Assemblies, however,
backed up by Elizabeth forced him to take strong measures against the
adherents of the old religion. In 1593 a proclamation was issued
ordering all Jesuits and seminary priests to leave Edinburgh within
two hours under pain of death, and a violent campaign was begun in
nearly every part of Scotland against the Catholic nobles and clergy.
The Catholic lords who were in close communication with Spain were
forced to take up arms. Their forces were mustered under the Earls of
Huntly and Erroll, and gained a complete victory at Glenlivet over the