=38. The Spanish Blanks.=--Still a large party adhered to the old Church. The chiefs of this party were _Huntly_ in the north and the _Maxwells_ on the Border. They were always suspected of scheming for its restoration, and, as the King could not or would not proceed against them, he was supposed to favour their plans. In 1592 eight suspicious papers were seized on the person of _George Kerr_, the _Lord_ _Newbottle's_ brother, who was leaving Scotland by the western coast. These papers, called the _Spanish blanks_, were signed by _Huntly_, _Errol_, and _Angus_, but had no other writing on them. _Kerr_, after being put to the torture, declared that these blank papers were to be filled up by two Jesuits who were commissioned to offer the services of the nobles who had signed them to the King of Spain, to aid him in the re-establishment of the old religion. This discovery filled every one with horror. _Angus_ was seized; but as _Huntly_ retreated to his own country in the north, _Argyle_, his rival in the Highlands, was sent with full power against him. The two armies met at _Glenlivat_, not far from the scene of the well-remembered fight of _Harlaw_. Huntly had but two thousand men, raised chiefly in the northern Lowlands, but they defeated Argyle's swarm of Highlanders, October 1594. But the Romish party was too weak to follow up the victory, and in 1597 Huntly and Errol publicly renounced their old faith, and joined the established Church. =39. Religious Tumults.=--The King and the Church were not long at peace. He called certain of their ministers to account before the council for what they had said in the pulpit. The ministers looked upon this interference as an attack on their privileges. The people supported them, and the result was a riot, so serious that the Court had to flee to Linlithgow. Upon this the King threatened to take away the courts of justice from Edinburgh. The fear of this damped the spirit of the mob, and after the return of the Court the ministers who had withstood the King fled to England. The Estates soon after passed an act by which the King might confer on any minister the title of _bishop_ or _abbot_, but only so as to give him a seat in Parliament; the title was not to imply any lordship over his brethren.