At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Scotland was a moral waste. The Papacy, which had attained the zenith of its power on the Continent, reigned in its supremacy throughout the land. In Europe, indeed, there were some oases in the desolation, but here there were "stretched out upon the kingdom the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness." The chaos was as broad and deep as that of the Papal States before the time of Victor Emanuel. By the presence of the Papacy, mind, conscience, heart, were blasted; while ignorance, superstition, iniquity, increased and prevailed. But the Lord that saw the affliction of Israel in the land of the Pharaohs, was "the same yesterday"; and His time of visitation was one of love. The first signs of the coming deliverance were the martyr fires kindled to consume those who were beginning to cry for liberty. The heroic efforts and successes of the Reformers on the Continent, in the presence of Papal bulls and inquisitions, were a trumpet call to independence to the people of this priest-cursed land; and many responded right nobly, ready to stand amid the faggots at the stake rather than bear the iron heel that bruised them. Those valiant men were led to bind themselves together in "bands," or covenants, and together to God, in prosecution of their aims. At Dun, in 1556, they entered into a "Band" in which they vowed to "refuse all society with idolatry." At Edinburgh, in 1557, they entered into "ane Godlie Band," vowing that "we, by His grace, shall, with all diligence, continually apply our whole power, substance, and our very lives to maintain, set forward and establish the most blessed Word of God." At Perth, in 1559, they entered into covenant "to put away all things that dishonour His name, that God may be truly and purely worshipped." At Edinburgh, in 1560, they entered into covenant "to procure, by all means possible, that the truth of God's Word may have free passage within this realm." And these covenants were soon followed by the Confession of Faith prepared by Knox and five other Reformers, and acknowledged by the three Estates as "wholesome and sound doctrine grounded upon the infallible truth of God;" by an Act abolishing the "jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome within this realme," and forbidding "title or right by the said bishop of Rome or his sect to anything within this realme," and by the first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Seven years thereafter, 1569, the Parliament recognised, by specific Act, the reformed Church of Scotland as "the only true and holy kirk of Jesus Christ within this realm." The young Church of Scotland was based on the Word of God, anti-papal, free, reformed, and covenanting, and in that character acknowledged by the State. "At this time," writes D'Aubigne, "the reformed church was recognised and established by the State--a triumph similar to that of Christianity when under Constantine the