The only device by which they attempted to bring back the people to their allegiance was equally unfortunate and imprudent; they had recourse to false miracles, which the vigilance of the reformers detected and exposed to ridicule. The bare-faced impositions that were practised by the monks on the credulous, are almost inconceivable.--Among other customs of those times, it was common for them to travel to Rome and come home laden with relics, blessed by his holiness, dispensations for sin, by which they wheedled the credulous out of their money. One of these, on a holiday, endeavouring to vend his wares to the country people, among other things shewed them a bell with a rent in it, possessing the virtue of discovering the truth or fallacy of an oath; for, as he pretended, if any one swore truly, with his hand on the bell, he could easily remove it, without any change; but if the oath was false, his hand would stick to it, and the bell rent asunder. A farmer, rather more shrewd than the rest of his auditors, suspecting the truth of this assertion, asked liberty to take an oath in the presence of those assembled, about an affair which nearly concerned him. The monk could not refuse; and the farmer addressing the crowd, said, “Friends, before I swear, you see the rent, how large it is, and that I have nothing on my fingers to make them stick to the bell.” Then laying his hand on it, he took this oath.--“I swear, in the presence of the living God, and before these good people, that the pope of Rome is Antichrist, and that all the rabble of his clergy, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, monks, with all the rest of the crew, are locust, come from hell, to delude the people, and to withdraw them from God; moreover, I promise they will all return to hell;” and lifting his hand he added. “See, friends, I have lifted my hand freely from the bell, and the rent is no larger, this sheweth that I have sworn the truth.” The cause of reformed religion, was powerfully supported by the ambition of the Queen-dowager. (Mary of Guise) After the death of James V. her husband, the Earl of Arran, was appointed Regent of the kingdom during the minority of her daughter; and from that situation she wished to exclude him, that she might enjoy the first honours of the state alone, and promote the designs of her brothers upon Scotland. For this purpose she applied to the favourers of the Reformation, as being the most numerous of the Regent’s enemies, and forming a respectable body in the state; and although her promises of protection were insincere, they, in a very considerable degree, abated the fury of persecution.