Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

the broken link between Scotland and France; to
fill James's mind with exalted notions of his own
prerogative; to inspire him with a detestation of
Presbyterian Protestantism, the greatest foe of
absolute power; and to lead him back to Rome, the
great upholder of the Divine right of kings.
Accordingly Esme Stuart did not come alone.
He was in due time followed by Jesuits and
seminary priests, and the secret influence of these
men soon made itself manifest in the open
defection of some who had hitherto professed the
Protestant faith. In short, this was an off-shoot of
that great plot which was in 1587 to be smitten on
the scaffold in Fotheringay Castle, and to receive a
yet heavier blow from the tempest that strewed the
bottom of the North Sea with the hulks of the
"Invincible Armada," and lined the western shores
of Ireland with the corpses of Spanish warriors.
The Presbyterian ministers took the alarm. This
flocking of foul birds to the court, and this
crowding of "men in masks" in the kingdom, foreboded
no good to that Protestant establishment
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