 At the beginning of the Mary's reign, the Scottish political nation was divided between a pro-French faction, led by Cardinal Beaton and by the Queen's mother, Mary of Guise; and a pro-English faction, headed by Mary's prospective heir James Hamilton, Earl of Arran.Initially Arran became Regent, backed by the small "evangelical party" at court, who favoured religious reform.The Parliamentary Act of 1543 removed the prohibition against reading the Bible in the vernacular.