[78] Knox himself takes care in his History 'to let the posterity that shall follow understand, by what instruments God wrought the familiarity and friendship, that after we found in England.'--'Works,' ii. 43. [79] 'It is not unknown to the most part of this realm, that there has been an old hatred and contention betwixt Edinburgh and Leith; Edinburgh seeking continually to possess that liberty which by donation of kings they have long enjoyed, and Leith, by the contrary, aspiring to a liberty and freedom in prejudice of Edinburgh.'--Declaration of the Lords of the Congregation in 1559. 'Works,' i. 426. [80] Lesser barons sign too, from Cranstoun and Cessford on the Borders, to Leslie of Buchan and John Innes of that Ilk in the North. [81] 'Works,' ii. 61. It is dated 26 April 1560. [82] It does not say that all its acts were to be valid. On the contrary, 'certain Articles concerning religion' having been presented on the part of the nobles and people of Scotland, and not meddled with by the plenipotentiaries 'as being of such importance that they judged them proper to be remitted to the King and Queen,' it was provided that the Estates, on their meeting, should choose some persons of quality 'to repair to their Majesties and remonstrate to them the state of their affairs, particularly those last mentioned.' [83] Thomas Carlyle. CHAPTER V THE PUBLIC LIFE: LEGISLATION AND CHURCH PLANS The Confession presented to the Parliament of 1560 was one of a group which sprang as if from the soil, in almost every country in Europe. They had all a strong family likeness; but not because one imitated the other. They were honest attempts to represent the impression made on the mind of that age by the newly discovered Scriptures, and that impression--the first impression at least--was everywhere the same. And everywhere it was overwhelmingly strong. So far as Knox at least is concerned, he plainly held the extreme view, not only that no one could read the Scriptures without finding in them the new doctrine, but that--as he quite calmly observed on one memorable occasion in St Giles--'all Papists are infidels,' either refusing to consult the light, or denying it when seen. And, of course, nothing was more calculated to confirm this view than a scene like that which we have just described, and which had been recently rehearsed in innumerable cases in Scotland and elsewhere. But, in truth, the new light dazzled all eyes. Later on, men had to analyse it, and they found there were distinctions to be made as to its value:--for example, between truth natural and truth revealed, between the Old Testament and the New, between the truths even of the New Testament and its sacraments--distinctions which some among themselves admitted, and which others refused. The very last publication, too, of Knox in 1572 was an answer to a Scottish Jesuit; for by that time a counter-Reformation, which also was not without its convictions, had begun.