Two months later the Cardinal
himself, who practically controlled the Scottish government, was
murdered in the castle of St. Andrew's. Beaton's death was "fatal
to the Catholic religion and to the French interest in Scotland."
The interest of France was represented by the Queen Regent, Mary
of Lorraine, also called Mary of Guise, daughter of Claude, Duke
of Guise. She was the widow of James V of Scotland, and mother of
Mary Stuart, now four years old and living in France.
During his brief season of Protestant preaching, Wishart had
deeply impressed a scholar, then forty years of age, who gave up
his calling as teacher, and in 1547 began to preach the reformed
religion at St. Andrew's. This was John Knox.
From this moment dates the birth of the Protestant Reformation in
Scotland. Knox was imprisoned by the French (1547-1549), was
released, and for two years preached at Berwick. For several years
now he lived a life of many vicissitudes, partly in Great Britain and
partly on the Continent, and by his sermons and writings powerfully
influenced the growth of the Protestant faith. While at Geneva, where
he was much influenced by Calvin, in 1558, he published his _First
Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women_, a
denouncement which brought him into bitter antagonism with the Queen
Regent and with other Catholic authorities in England and France.
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