Hereupon rose whispering and complaints by the flatterers of the Court. Men were not charitably handled, said they: "Might not sins be reproved in general, albeit men were not so specially taxed, that all the world might know of whom the preacher spake?" To this the answer was made, "Let men be ashamed to offend publicly, and the ministers shall abstain from specialities; but so long as Protestants are not ashamed manifestly to act against the Evangel of Jesus Christ, so long cannot the ministers of God cease to cry that God will be revenged upon such abusers of His holy Word." Thus had the servants of God a double battle; fighting upon the one side against the idolatry and the rest of the abominations maintained by the Queen; and upon the other part, against the unthankfulness of such as sometime would have been esteemed the chief pillars of the Kirk within the realm. The threatenings of the preachers were fearful; but the Court thought itself in such security that it could not miscarry. The Queen, after the banqueting, kept a diet by direction of Monsieur la Usurie, Frenchman, who had been acquainted with her malady before, being her physician. And thereafter, for the second time, she made her progresses to the North, and commanded the Earl of Caithness to ward in the castle of Edinburgh, for a murder committed by his servants upon the Earl Marischall's men. He obeyed, but he was speedily relieved; for bloodthirsty men and Papists, such as he is, are best subjects to the Queen. "Thy kingdom come, O Lord; for in this realm there is nothing (amongst such as should punish vice and maintain virtue) but abomination abounding without bridle." [Sidenote: The Courtiers rouse John Knox: he preaches concerning Idolatry.] The flatterers of the Court did daily enrage against the poor preachers: happiest was he that could invent the most bitter taunts and disdainful mockings of the ministers. At length they began to jest at the term of idolatry, affirming, "That men wist not what they spake when they called the Mass idolatry." Yea, some proceeded further, and feared not at open tables to affirm, that they would sustain the argument that the Mass was no idolatry. These things coming to the ears of the preachers, were proclaimed in the public pulpit of Edinburgh, with this complaint directed by the speaker to his God. "O Lord, how long shall the wicked prevail against the just! How long shalt Thou suffer Thyself and Thy blessed Evangel to be despised of men; of men, we say, that make themselves defenders of the truth. Of Thy manifest and known enemies we complain not, but of such as unto whom Thou hast revealed Thy light: for now it comes to our ears that men, not Papists, but chief Protestants, will defend the Mass to be no idolatry. If this were so, O Lord, miserably have I been deceived, and miserably, alas, O Lord, have I deceived Thy people; and that Thou knowest, O Lord, I have ever abhorred more than a thousand deaths."