For the suppression of evangelical Christianity, which upheld the supreme authority of the Divine Word in the presence of the tiara and its oracles, Beatoun needed the royal support. His first step therefore must be to make himself master of the king. This was not difficult. The nobility had rights which they meant to make respected, and which the crown wished to take away. The king and the cardinal were naturally impelled to unite against the Gospellers and the nobles. In addition, James V., a prince of good natural endowments both of body and of mind, and of a frank and amiable disposition, was strongly inclined to sensual pleasures. In order to keep him out of the way of state affairs, the courtiers and the regent had fostered in him the taste for intrigues and adventures of gallantry, a vice which he never got rid of even after his marriage.[206] Dissolute as a man, prodigal as a king, and superstitious as a Catholic, he could not but easily fall under the sway of superior minds,[207] especially if they promised him money, and that Beatoun could do. Henry VIII., who, like his nephew, was habitually in want of money, had sought it in the treasures of the monasteries and other ecclesiastical institutions. The King of Scotland might be tempted to follow that example. Beatoun, and the other ecclesiastical dignitaries who were about the prince, discovered a certain means of preventing it. Instead of taking the money of the clergy, they said, let the king take that of the Gospellers; let the property of those who may be condemned to death for their faith, and even that of those who, after having embraced the Reform, may abjure it, be confiscated for his majesty’s benefit. This scheme was all the more seductive in that, while it secured their wealth to the clergy, it at the same time deprived the friends of the Reformation of theirs. This was killing two birds with one stone. The plan gives a special character to the Scottish persecutions. The cruel Gardiner said in England, that when people went stag-hunting they must fire at the leader of the herd, and that the same course must be pursued in hunting the Gospellers. In Scotland it was agreed not to harass those poor Christians who had nothing to leave at their death. Why seize these lean sheep? The knife must be laid on the big fat ones--on those which have a rich fleece. War on the rich! This was the cry raised by the party of the persecutors. For about four years the sword had not been drawn from its scabbard, and the horror excited by the persecution of 1534 had, as it seemed, subsided. The Gospel had reaped advantage from the lull: the number of those who confessed Christ as their only Saviour had increased, and thus the irritation of the priests was soon aroused again. [Sidenote: WAR ON THE RICH.]