=43. Summary.=--We have, in this chapter, traced the progress of the _Reformation_, and noted the changes which it made in the state of the nation. Though the Reformation did not begin so soon in Scotland as in _Germany_ and _England_, it made more striking changes and overthrew the old Church more completely than it did in either of those countries. It first gave to the people an independent national life. Until it roused them to separate action, they had been swayed by no party feelings, but had blindly followed the lead and fought in the feuds of their feudal superiors, without paying any heed to the cause for which they laid down their lives. The Reformation also broke off the alliance with France which had subsisted ever since the War of Independence. All the events of this period are closely connected with the change of religion, and it is marked by more civil war, more bloodshed, more crimes of violence, more party strife, more treachery and wrong and robbery, than any other period in the history of Scotland. It was the bad faith of Mary of Lorraine which first drove the Reformers to take up arms in defence of their opinions. Under their own native queen they hoped to enjoy liberty of conscience, and as they looked to her to redress their grievances they welcomed her return with much loyal feeling. By the craftiness and dissimulation of her policy in public affairs, and by the scandals of her private life, she changed their loyal affection into loathing and contempt, and finally forfeited the crown. During the long minority which followed, the country was desolated by a civil war, and the crown was impoverished by the grasping greediness of the nobles. When the King came of age, he showed himself quite unequal to the task of ruling and uniting the different rival factions in the church and in the state, and allowed himself to be governed by one worthless favourite after another. Nor were the ecclesiastical affairs of this period at all more settled than the secular. The form of church government was changed four times before the presbyterian polity was finally established in 1592. The lands of the old Church had been seized by the most worthless of the nobles instead of being set apart for the support of the new Church, so that the ministers could with difficulty secure a bare subsistence. During such an unhappy state of affairs there could be little social or intellectual development. There were however among the Reformers many men distinguished for their learning and brilliant talents. Of these the most conspicuous were _George Buchanan_, tutor to the young king, who wrote a fabulous history of Scotland and other books in very elegant Latin, and _John Knox_, who wrote a History of the Reformation, remarkable for the vigour, clearness, and simplicity of its style. _Sir James Melville_, who was also an accomplished courtier, and stood high in favour both with Mary and with James, gives an excellent picture