[1] Although imperfectly educated, his eloquence and intimate acquaintance with scripture enabled him to render such good service to the Protestant cause that he became obnoxious both to the prelates and the secret council; and the latter not only issued an order for his apprehension, but also forbade the people to listen to his orations or to harbour him in their houses.
During the war between Scotland and England, which began in the autumn of 1556, and continued through the following year, the Protestants enjoyed considerable liberty, and their numbers rapidly increased.
On 10 May 1559 Methuen and other prominent reformers were put on trial before the justiciary court at Stirling[2] for usurping the ministerial office, for administering without the consent of their ordinaries the sacrament of the altar in a manner different from that of the Catholic Church, in the burghs of Dundee and Montrose, and for convening the subjects of the realm in those places, preaching to them erroneous doctrines, and exciting seditions and tumults.
He was ordered to appear at the church door of Edinburgh when the second bell rang for public worship, clothed in sackcloth, bare-headed and bare-footed; to stand there until the prayer and psalms were finished; when he was to be brought into the church to hear the sermon, during which he was to be 'placeit in the publick spectakill [stool of repentance] above the peiple.'
Methuen went through a part of this discipline, but being overwhelmed with shame, or despairing to regain his lost reputation, he stopped in the midst of it, and again returned to England.