The democracy of the kirk consisted in the rise of most of these men from the lower ranks of the people; its theocracy in the claim of these men, once established in Moses' seat, to interpret the commands of God.

"I see," said Queen Mary, after a conversation with Knox, "that my subjects shall obey you rather than me." "Madam," replied Knox, "my study is that both princes and people shall obey God"-- but, of course, the voice of the pulpit was the voice of God.

As a contemporary put it: "Knox is king; what he wills obeyit is." Finally the kirk was a tyranny, as a democracy may well be.

In life, in manners, in thought, the citizen was obliged, under severe social penalty, to conform exactly to a very narrow standard.
[Sidenote: Queen Mary in Scotland, August 19, 1561] When Queen Mary, a widow eighteen years old, landed in Scotland, she must have been aware of the thorny path she was to tread.

It is impossible not to pity her, the spoiled darling of the gayest court of Europe, exposed to the bleak skies and bleaker winds of doctrines at Edinburgh.