Even in the beginning, the ministers, in their public sermons, opposed themselves to such corruption, for they foresaw the purpose of the Devil, and clearly understood the butt at which the Queen and her flatterers shot. In the stool[192] of Edinburgh, John Knox said, "Well, if the end of this order, pretended to be taken for sustentation of the ministers, be happy, my judgment faileth me; for I am assured that the Spirit of God is not the author of it. First I see two parts freely given to the Devil, and then the third must be divided betwixt God and the Devil. Bear witness to me that this day I say it--before long the Devil shall have three parts of the third; judge what God's portion shall then be." This was an unsavoury saying in the ears of many. Some were not ashamed to affirm, "The ministers being sustained, the Queen will not, at the year's end, have enough to buy her a pair of new shoes." And this was Secretary Lethington. [192] Pulpit. [Sidenote: The Modification of Stipends.] There were appointed to modify[193] the ministers' stipends, the Earls Argyll, Moray, and Morton, Lethington, the Justice Clerk, and the Clerk of Register. The Laird of Pittarrow was appointed to pay the ministers' stipends, according to their modification. Who would have thought that, when Joseph ruled Egypt, his brethren should have travelled for victuals, and have returned to their families with empty sacks? Men would rather have thought that Pharaoh's poise, treasure, and girnells should have been diminished, before the household of Jacob should have stood in danger of starving for hunger. [193] Adjust. So busy and circumspect were the modificators (because it was a new office, the term must also be new) to secure that the ministers should not be too wanton, a hundred marks was considered sufficient for a single man, being a common minister. Three hundred marks was the highest stipend appointed to any, except to the superintendents, and a few others. Shortly, whether it was from the niggardliness of their own hearts, or the care that they had to enrich the Queen, we know not; but the poor ministers, readers, and exhorters cried out to the heaven, as their complaints in all Assemblies do witness, that neither were they able to live upon the stipends appointed, nor could they get payment of that small thing that was appointed. The Comptroller would fain have played the good valet, and have satisfied the Queen, or else his own profit, in every point; and he got this saying and proverb, "The good Laird of Pittarrow was an earnest professor of Christ; but the big Devil receive the Comptroller, for he and his collectors are become greedy factors."[194] [194] Stewards.