Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

Chapter 3
Wishart is Burned, and Knox
Comes Forward
BETWEEN the death of Hamilton and the
appearance of Knox there intervenes a period of a
chequered character; nevertheless, we can trace all
throughout it a steady onward march of Scotland
towards emancipation. Hamilton had been burned;
Alesius and others had fled in terror; and the
priests, deeming themselves undisputed masters,
demeaned themselves more haughtily than ever.
But their pride hastened their downfall. The nobles
combined to set limits to an arrogance which was
unbearable; the greed and profligacy of the
hierarchy discredited it in the eyes of the common
people; the plays of Sir David Lindsay, and the
satires of the illustrious George Buchanan, helped
to swell the popular indignation; but the main
forces in Scotland, as in every other country, which
weakened the Church of Rome, and eventually
overthrew it, were the reading of the Scriptures and
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