From: Jenny Geddes, or Presbyterianism and its great Conflict with Despotism,by Rev. W. P. Breed, D.D., Philadelphia, Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1869.No sooner had the first words of the book, through the lips of the dean, reached the ear of Jenny, the stern prophetess on her tripod, than a sudden inspiration seized her. In an instant she was on her feet, and her shrill, impassioned voice rang through the arches of the cathedral:
"Villain! doest thou say mass in my lug?" and in another instant her three-legged stool was seen on its way, traveling through the air straight toward the head of the surplice wearing prayer-reader.
The astounded dean, not anticipating such an argument, dodged it, but the consequences he could not dodge. He had laid his book, as he thought, upon a cushion — the cushion proved a hornet's nest. In an instant the assembly was in the wildest uproar. Hands were clapped; hisses and loud vociferations filled the house, and missiles, such as the hand could reach, filled the air. A sudden rush was made toward the pulpit by the people in one direction, and from the pulpit by the dean in the other.
On the retreat of the dean, the Bishop of Edinburgh took his place in the pulpit, and solemnly commanded the winds and waves to be still, but no calm followed. He was as rudely handled as his brother in oppression, and nothing but a vigorous onset of the magistrates saved his lawn and miter from the rough hands of Jenny Geddes' soldiery.
At length, the people having been forcibly ejected from the house, the affrighted dean re-entered the pulpit and resumed the service; but the uproar without, the pounding at the doors, showers of stones hurled through the windows, turned the place into a bedlam, drowned the voice of the dean and compelled a suspension of the service.
When the dean and the bishop came out of the church, decked in their prelatic plumes, they were in no small danger of being torn in pieces by the excited, outraged masses, and were followed through the streets with the cries —
"Pull them down! A pope — a pope! Antichrist — antichrist!"
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Copyright 1999 © First Presbyterian Church of Rowlett
See a PDF file of this article in The Blue Banner, v8#11-12.
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