" The age of Elizabeth was distinguished by
magnificence, in the highest sense of the word, by the most brilliant
display of great qualities of all kinds; and the hero of the _Faerie
Queene_ seems to be the personification of the splendid attributes of the
age. A prevailing sentiment, in the mind of Spenser, was the perfectness
of character to which the gentlemen of his time aspired, and on this
model he fashioned his hero. He observes that "the general end, therefore,
of all the books is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in gentle and
virtuous discipline." And again, "I labor to pourtraict in Arthure,
before he was King, the image of a brave knight, perfected in the twelve
moral virtues." And as we read the gorgeous description of the prince,
when he first meets the forsaken Una, we could fancy that the magnificent
characteristics of the golden age of England had blended together, and
blazed forth in one dazzling form before us.
JOHN KNOX HEADS THE SCOTTISH REFORMERS
A.D. 1559
P. HUME BROWN THOMAS CARLYLE
In the year of Martin Luther's death (1546) Protestant doctrines
were preached in Scotland by George Wishart. This reformer was
burned at St. Andrew's, in the same year (March 12th), at the
instigation of Cardinal Beaton.
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