Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

initials. The solemn enthusiasm that filled the
assembled thousands found varied expression:
some wept aloud, others shouted as on a field of
battle, and others opened their veins and subscribed
with their blood.
This transaction, which took place in the Grayfriars'
Churchyard at Edinburgh, on the 1st of
March, 16313, was the opening scene of a struggle
that drew into its vortex both kingdoms, that lasted
fifty years, and that did not end till the Stuarts had
been driven from the throne, and William of
Orange raised to it. It was this that closed all the
great conflicts of the sixteenth century. By the
stable political position to which it elevated
Protestantism, and the manifold influences of
development and propagation with which it
surrounded it, this conflict may be said to have
crowned as well as closed all the struggles that
went before it.
"To this much-vilified bond," says a historic
writer, "every true Scotsman ought to look back
with as much reverence as Englishmen do to
299