The Scottish Parliament was to open at Easter, and the moment was approaching. Instead of one there would be (so to speak) two parliaments. The party of the opposition, the earls of Huntley, Argyle, Murray, and Bothwell, a very great number of barons, knights, bishops, and abbots, met at Perth a week before the day of convocation, and having drawn up certain articles, they sent them to the regent and his council by the hands of the bishop of Orkney and Sir John Campbell, uncle to the earl of Argyle. Let the cardinal, they said, be set at liberty; let the New Testament be interdicted; let the regent confer with us on all affairs of the realm, and let other ambassadors be sent to the King of England, charged with a quite different mission from that which has been determined on. The regent by the advice of his council declined to accede to ‘demands so unreasonable.’ The next step, immediately taken, was to send a herald-at-arms to Perth, to summon the lords who were there to Edinburgh, under penalty of treason, to discharge their duties. This citation took effect. The earl of Murray, the bishops, and abbots arrived on the eve of the opening of parliament. The other lords presented themselves later. Argyle alone remained on his estates. His two uncles, however, offered excuse for him, on the ground of ill health.[281] Parliament opened on Monday, March 12. The assembly was numerous, for the gravity of the occasion was universally understood. ‘This parliament,’ said the earl of Angus, ‘is the most _substantial_ that was ever seen in Scotland; the three estates are present in great force, and the multitude of on-lookers is so great that no more could find lodging in the two towns of Edinburgh and Leith.’ The first resolution of this important assembly approved the marriage of prince Edward and the little Queen Mary, and empowered ambassadors to negotiate it with England.[282] The second resolution (Tuesday) was the confirmation of the earl of Arran in the office of regent. On Wednesday the earl of Angus and his brother were reinstated in the honors and the estates of which they had been deprived during their fifteen years’ exile. On Thursday the most important of all the resolutions of this body was to be presented and debated.