The cause of the poor, and of the preachers, lay near his heart, and no man was more insensible of the temptations of wealth.
Lethington did not address the Parliament as Speaker till August 9.

Never had such a Parliament met in Scotland.

One hundred and six barons, not of the higher order, assembled; in 1567, when Mary was a prisoner and the Regent Moray held the assembly, not nearly so many came together, nor on any later occasion at this period.

The newcomers claimed to sit "as of old custom"; it was a custom long disused, and not now restored to vitality.
A supplication was presented by "the Barons, gentlemen, Burgesses, and others" to "the nobility and Estates" (of whom they do not seem to reckon themselves part, contrasting _themselves_ with "yourselves").

They reminded the Estates how they had asked the Regent "for freedom and liberty of conscience with a godly reformation of abuses." They now, by way of freedom of conscience, ask that Catholic doctrine "be abolished by Act of this Parliament, and punishment appointed for the transgressors." The Man of Sin has been distributing the whole patrimony of the Church, so that "the trew ministers," the schools, and the poor are kept out of their own.