Chapter 61: ; Knox, Volume II., page 71

The reformed preachers, most of whom were in Edinburgh, were actively engaged preparing matters for the parliament. They met in St. Giles’s church on the 19th of July, and offered up solemn prayers for their deliverance.¹ About the 20th of July, the first appointment of ministers and superintendents to the chief towns and districts of the country was made.

¹ Knox, Volume II., pages 84‒87.

The parliament met at Edinburgh in the beginning of August 1560. All had been summoned who had a right by law or custom to be present, and there was an unusually large attendance. Some time was spent in discussing whether it was a legal meeting of the Estates. The leaders of the Reformation had prepared a document containing what they deemed necessary for reforming the Church. This they placed in the form of a petition before the parliament. It was a rather sweeping production, and extremely vehement in expression. One part of it referred to the patrimony of the Church, but the parliament waived this important and practical question of dealing with the revenues of the hierarchy; and then requested the Reformers to lay before the House a summary of the doctrines which they proposed to establish. The party selected for this task proceeded rapidly with their work; and in four days they produced a Confession of Faith which touched upon many subjects, and delivered opinions upon some of the most difficult and speculative points which have ever tasked the powers of the human mind. It was, however, only a body of doctrine, and when on the 17th of August this Confession of Faith was read in parliament, it was adopted without hesitation “as wholesome and sound, and grounded upon the infallible truth of God’s word.” Only three Earls voted against it, on the ground that they would believe as their fathers believed before them, and no otherwise. The spiritual estate, the bishops and the clergy, said nothing;¹ and there is some reason to think that they had not formed any adequate conception of the immense issues of the revolution which was being enacted before their eyes――the rending the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church.

¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages
525‒534; Knox, Volume II., pages 89‒92, 220‒222. A far
greater number than usual of the lesser barons attended this
parliament; and their names were inserted in the roll after
the commissioners of the burghs. The Roman Catholic clergy
were represented in it by twenty-eight names, among whom
there were six bishops. A contemporary chronicler makes the
following mention of the Confession: “And upon the 20th day
of the said month, the whole Lords passed to the Tolbooth,
and there, after long reasoning of sundry matters concerning
the commonweal of this realm, the ministers presented in the
same a tractate called the Confession of our Faith, which
being read was received and admitted therein.”――_Diurnal of
Occurrents_, pages 279‒280.

This parliament passed an act against the mass, and another abolishing the authority of the Pope in Scotland. By the first act, any person who said mass or attended to hear it was liable to have all their moveable goods confiscated, and to be otherwise punished at the discretion of the magistrate; for a second fault, banishment; and for the third, the punishment of death. It was declared that in future the Bishop of Rome, called the Pope, should have no jurisdiction in Scotland, nor should any bishop or persons whom he might appoint, dare to act, under the penalty of proscription and banishment from the kingdom.¹ The Scottish nobles had now done their work. They had at last laid the Church of their fathers in the dust; hereafter we shall see what was the real depth of their religious feelings and convictions, and how true and faithful they were to the religion which they had professed to fight so hard to establish.

¹ _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume II., pages
534‒535.