commandment or word, hath commanded." They disclaim all responsibility
for the ensuing tumults. {90a} In fact, they aver that they will not
only worship in their own way, but prevent other people from worshipping
in the legal way, and that the responsibility for the riots will lie on
the side of those who worship legally. And this was the chief occasion
of the ensuing troubles. The Regent promised to "put good order" in
controverted matters, and was praised by the brethren in a letter to
Calvin, not now to be found.

Another threat had been made by the brethren, in circumstances not very
obscure. As far as they are known they suggest that in January 1559 the
zealots deliberately intended to provoke a conflict, and to enlist "the
rascal multitude" on their side, at Easter, 1559. The obscurity is
caused by a bookbinder. He has, with the fatal ingenuity of his trade,
cut off the two top lines from a page in one manuscript copy of Knox's
"History." {90b} The text now runs thus (in its mutilated condition): "
. . . Zealous Brether . . . upon the gates and posts of all the Friars'
places within this realm, in the month of January 1558 (1559), preceding
that Whitsunday that they dislodged, which is this . . . "

Then follows the Proclamation.

Probably we may supply the words: ". . . Zealous Brethren caused a paper
to be affixed upon the gates and posts," and so on. The paper so
promulgated purported to be a warning from the poor of Scotland that,
before Whitsunday, "we, the lawful proprietors," will eject the Friars
and residents on the property, unlawfully withheld by the religious--"our
patrimony." This feat will be performed, "with the help of God, _and
assistance of his Saints on earth, of whose ready support we doubt not_."