Neither James V nor his daughter could afford to break with Rome and with France.

James V, especially, was thrown into the arms of his clergy by the hostility of his nobles.

Moreover, after the death of many nobles at the battle of Flodden, the clergy became, for a time, [Sidenote: 1513] the strongest estate in the kingdom.
{354} Like the other estates the clergy were still in the Middle Ages when the Reformation [Sidenote: Reformation] came on them like a thief in the night.

In no country was the corruption greater.

The bishops and priests took concubines and ate and drank and were drunken and buffeted their fellow men.