When these petitions were presented, the Estate Ecclesiastical began to storm and to devise all manner of lies to deface the equity of our cause. They bragged that they would have public disputation. This we most earnestly asked them to arrange, upon two conditions: the one, that the plain and written Scriptures of God should decide all controversy; the other, that our brethren, of whom some were then exiled and by them unjustly condemned, might have free access to the said disputation, and safe conduct to return to their dwelling places, notwithstanding any process which before had been led against them in matters concerning religion. But these preliminary conditions were utterly denied. No judge would they admit but themselves, their Councils, and Canon law. They and their faction began to draw up certain Articles of Reconciliation. These stipulated that we should permit the Mass to remain in reverence and estimation, grant purgatory after this life, confess prayer to saints and for the dead, and suffer them to enjoy their accustomed rents, possession, and honour. Upon these terms, they were prepared to grant us freedom to pray and baptize in the vulgar tongue, if this were done secretly, and not in the open assembly. The grossness of these articles was such, that with one voice we refused them; and continued to crave justice from the Queen Regent, and a reasonable answer to our former petitions. The Queen Regent, a woman crafty, dissimulate, and false, thinking to make profit of both parties, gave us permission to conduct ourselves in godly manner, according to our desires, provided that we should not make public assemblies in Edinburgh or Leith; and she promised her assistance to our preachers, until some uniform order might be established by a Parliament. To the clergy, she quietly gave signification of her mind, promising that, as soon as opportunity should serve, she should so arrange matters for them that they should have no more trouble. Some say that they gave her a large purse,--40,000 pounds, says the Chronicle gathered by Sir William Bruce, the Laird of Earlshall. Unsuspecting of her doubleness and falsehood, we were fully contented with her answer; and did use ourselves so quietly that, for her pleasure, we put silence to John Douglas. He would have preached publicly in the town of Leith; but in all things we sought the contentment of her mind, so far as we should not offend God by obeying her in things unlawful. [Sidenote: Persecution at St. Andrews: Walter Myln is burned.]