The young prince, then, wearied with the yoke, threw himself, after the tradition of his fathers, into the arms of the priests, and in order to escape the aristocracy submitted himself to the clergy. This was a grievous prognostic for Reform. At the end of the summer of 1526, the queen, archbishop Beatoun, and other members of the priestly and royal party, assembled at Stirling Castle, and a plan was there considered and determined on which was to take away the chief power from the nobles and give it to the bishops. John Stuart, earl of Lennox, a friend of James V., set out from that fortress on September 4, at the head of from ten to twelve thousand men, and marched on Edinburgh. But Angus was already informed of what was in preparation, and Arran, who had made his peace with him, was ready. The same day, in the morning, the trumpet sounded in the capital, and the chief of the Douglases set forth at the head of his army, dragging after him the young monarch. The latter was in hope that the hour of his deliverance was come: he advanced slowly in the rear of the army, in spite of the brutal threats of Sir G. Douglas, his guardian. Presently the report of cannons was heard: the king stopped. George Douglas, fancying that he would attempt to escape, cried out, ‘Don’t think of running away, for if our enemies had hold of you on one side and we on the other, we would pull you in two rather than let you go.’ The King never forgot that word. Angus won the day. Lennox had been killed by the savage James Hamilton, and the father of the latter, when he heard it, had thrown his scarlet cloak over the body of Lennox, exclaiming: ‘Here lies a man, the boldest, the mightiest, and the wisest that Scotland ever possessed!’ At the tidings of this great disaster all was confusion in Stirling Castle. The queen fled in disguise and concealed herself: archbishop Beatoun put off his pontifical robes, took the dress of a shepherd, and went into retirement among the herdsmen of the Fifeshire hills, where for nearly three months he kept a flock, no one the while suspecting that he was the lord chancellor of the realm. Thus the anticipated triumph of the primate and the priests, which would have been fatal to the Reformation, was changed into a total rout, and greater religious freedom was given to Scotland.[30] But this was not enough. The reform of the Church by the Church itself would not suffice; nor would reform by the writings of the reformers; there was need of a mightier principle,--the Word of God. This Word does not merely communicate a bare knowledge; it works a transformation in the will and in the life of man, and as soon as such a change is accomplished in two or three individuals in any place whatsoever, there exists a church. The increased liberty enjoyed in Scotland after the flight of the primate favored the introduction of this mighty Word, to which it was reserved to effect the complete enfranchisement of the nation.