The deputies of the burgesses and a part of the nobles then required that the reading asked for should be permitted; as well as the reading of Christian treatises, until such time as the clergy should give a better translation of the Bible. The prelates still stood out; but at length, reduced to silence, they submitted, and it was enacted by Act of Parliament that ‘all men and women should be free to read the Holy Scriptures in their own tongue or in the English tongue, and that all acts passed to the contrary should be abolished.’ This bill, which passed on March 15, was promulgated on the 19th, and sent into all parts of the kingdom by order of the regent. The priests immediately began to cry out with one voice against him as the promoter of heresy.[285] This was the first public Act passed in Scotland in favor of religious liberty. The victory, says Knox, which Christ Jesus then won over the enemies of his truth was of no little importance. The trumpet of the Gospel gave at once a certain sound, from Wigton to Inverness, from south to north. No small comfort was given to the souls, to the families, who till then durst not read the Lord’s Prayer or the Ten Commandments in English through fear of being accused of heresy. The Bible, which had long lain hidden in some out-of-the-way corner, was now openly placed on the tables of pious and well-informed men. The New Testament was indeed already widely circulated, but many of those who possessed it had shown themselves unworthy of it, never having read ten sentences in it through fear of men. Now they brought out their New Testaments, and ‘they would chop their familiars on the cheek with it.’[286] ‘Here,’ said they, ‘this book has lain hid under my bed feet these ten years.’ Others, on the contrary, exclaimed with joy, ‘Oh, how often have I been in danger for this book! how secretly have I stolen away from my wife at midnight to read upon it in that lonely silent hour!’ Some, who were minded to turn everything to account, made a great parade of their joy, on purpose to pay court to the regent, who was then esteemed the most fervent Protestant in all Europe. ‘But in general,’ add the historians, ‘the knowledge of God was wonderfully increased by the perusal of the sacred writings, and the Holy Spirit was given in great abundance to simple men.’ Many works were also published at the same time in Scotland, which were intended to disclose the abuses of the Romish Church, and others of the same character were brought from England. That important Act of the Scottish parliament was never repealed. [Sidenote: MISSION OF SIR R. SADLER.]