The debate at the General Assembly, June 1564

Summary

[The meeting of the General Assembly in June 1564 brought the dispute over the legitimacy of the queen's mass to a head. While the majority of the Protestant nobility were unwilling to alienate the queen by forbidding her to worship as a Catholic, the more radical ministers were adamant in their opposition to what they construed as idolatry. On the first day of the Assembly, the ‘courtiers’ (as Knox calls the politique noblemen) invited a small group of ministers to confer with them in order to avoid a full public debate of the matter. Reluctantly, the ministers agreed, though only on condition that nothing should be voted upon or concluded without the knowledge and advice of the Assembly as a whole. The following extract from Knox's History (Laing MS, fos. 370r–387r Laing, vol. II, pp. 425–61; Dickinson, vol. II, pp. 108–34) gives a detailed account of the ensuing debate – primarily between Knox and the queen's secretary, William Maitland of Lethington – over Knox's uncompromising attitude to the mass, and, more broadly, over the general principle of resistance to ungodly rulers.]