The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-11-04
MARY STUART's FIRST lass IN
SCOTLAND.

History offers scarce a sadder spec
tacle than that of a young queen, girl
ish. refined gentle, thrown among a
coarse and semi barbarous people
Mary Stuart must have had pre-
monition of the calamities to come
when she babe adieu to ia belle
France in those terms which have be-
come historical. Robertson describes
| Scotland, when Mary Stuart entered it,
as being in a state of anarchy, when
! the administration fell into the hands
of young queen, not 10 years of age.
unacquainted with the manners and
laws of her country, a stranger to her
subjects, without experience, without
allies, without friends. The beauty
and gracefulness of her person drew
universal admiration; the elegance and
politeness of her manners commanded
general respect. To all the charms of
her sex she added many accomplish
ments of the other. The progress she
had made in all the arts and sciences
was far beyond what is commonly at
tanned by princes" She was utterly
unprotected among her savage mobiles.
and that they were savage is proved by
the fact that out of the los kings pre-
ceding her, fifty-siX were slain. Bur
ton, in his History of Scotland" says:
While every head of considerable
family down to the humble land owner
had some regular armed followers, the
crown alone had none. All Mary's eff
forts to establish a royal guard were
sternly resisted
The government of the English queen
fcmented discords by means of spies.
money and plots, and the religious
hatred born of the Reformation threat
aened to make the road of this Young
girl from France a very thorny and
terrible one. OF the Scottish mobiles the
historian Burton says: Their dress
was that of the camp or stable; they
were dirty in person and abrupt and
disrespectful in manner, carrying on |
their disputes and even fighting out I
their quarrels in the presence of roy
atty. They were all ardent reformers.
for the divisions of the church lands
had more charm for them than the
most glorious promised Paradise in the
future.
Imagine the feelings of young wo-
man accustomed to the polish of the
French court, thrown among such a
rabble. She did her best to conciliate
them. She issued a proclamation for
bidding any attempt to interfere with
the Protestant religion, which she
found established in her realm, and
she claimed the right to have Mass
celebrated in her own chapel The
'eformers, who claimed religious free
iom for themselves, were not anxious
hat those who differed from them
should enjoy it.
The scene at her first Mass is thus
described by an unbiased historian:
When the service was about to begin.
Lord Lindsay, one of the most bigoted
# the reformed mobiles, rushed in. {
lad in armor, exclaiming, 1.-The idol :
tor priest shall die the DEATH" The {
lmoner, fortunately for himself, took
efuge, after he had been driven from :
he altar with broken head and bloody {
ars. but, fortunately, all the mobiles t
urIounulnS mary were not actual t
rutes. and the priest was protected
rom further violence until he finished r
aging Mass. Upon which, says the +
emile John Knox, with pious siunplic- t
y, the cody departed with great Il
REF of heart" Thus it was that the a
eformers of Scotland endea~3red toI a
onvert Mary Stuart to their new re-
gion; thus it was that they inaugu- c
ated religious liberation. a