of conscience"!

On May 31 a composition was made between the Regent and the insurgents,
whom Argyll and James Stewart promised to join if the Regent broke the
conditions. Henceforth the pretext that she had broken faith was made
whenever it seemed convenient, while the Congregation permitted itself a
godly liberty in construing the terms of treaties. A "band" was signed
for "the destruction of idolatry" by Argyll, James Stewart, Glencairn,
and others; and the Brethren scattered from Perth, breaking down altars
and "idols" on their way home. Mary of Guise had promised not to leave a
French garrison in Perth. She did leave some Scots in French pay, and on
this slim pretext of her treachery, Argyll and James Stewart proclaimed
the Regent perfidious, deserted her cause, and joined the crusade against
"idolatry."



NOTE.


It is far from my purpose to represent Mary of Guise as a kind of
stainless Una with a milk-white lamb. I am apt to believe that she
caused to be forged a letter, which she attributed to Arran. See my
'John Knox and the Reformation,' pp. 280, 281, where the evidence is
discussed. But the critical student of Knox's chapters on these events,
generally accepted as historical evidence, cannot but perceive his
personal hatred of Mary of Guise, whether shown in thinly veiled hints
that Cardinal Beaton was her paramour; or in charges of treacherous
breach of promise, which rest primarily on his word. Again, that "the
Brethren" wrecked the religious houses of Perth is what he reports to a