Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

liberated and regenerated.
The first part of the alternative seemed at this
moment the likelier to be realized. With an
affiliated disciple of the Jesuits upon the throne,[1]
with its institutions, one after another, attacked,
undermined, and overthrown, England was rapidly
sinking into the abyss from which Wicliffe's spirit
had rescued it, and along with it would descend
into the same abyss the remains of the once
glorious Churches of Geneva, of France, and of
Scotland. Help there appeared not in man. No
voice was heard in England powerful enough to
awaken into life and action that spirit which had
given so many martyrs to the stake in the days of
Mary. This spirit, though asleep, was not dead.
There were a few whose suspicions had been
awake ever since the accession of James II; and of
those who had sunk into lethargy many were now
thoroughly aroused by the violent measures of the
king. The imprisonment of the bishops, and the
birth of the "Prince of Wales," were two events
which the nation interpreted as sure portents of a
coming slavery. The people of England turned their
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