Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

pomp of the ceremonial, and to inspire the
spectators with inauspicious forebodings. There
were surer omens of impending evil presented to
their eyes if they could have read them. The king
was mounting the throne without legal pledge that
he would govern according to law. And though he
and the queen had resolved to have all the services
conducted in the Protestant form, the king refused
to take the Sacrament, which was always a part of
the ceremony; "and he had such senses given him
of the oath," says Burner, "that he either took it as
unlawful, with a resolution not to keep it, or he had
a reserved meaning in his own mind."[5]
James, deeming it perhaps an unnecessary labor
to preserve appearances before those who were so
willing to be deceived, began to drop the mask a
little too soon. The first Sunday after his brother's
death, he went openly to mass. This was to avow
what till then it was death for any one to assert,
namely, that he was a Papist. His next indiscretion
was to publish certain papers found in the strongbox
of his brother, showing that during his lifetime
Charles had reconciled himself to Rome. And,
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