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Engraved, by B. Holl, from a Picture in tlie Possession of Lord Somerville.

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John Knox.

BY
WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D.,
Author of " Limitations of Life," etc.

WITH STEEL PORTRAIT ENGRAVED BY B. HOLL, FROM
A PAINTING IN THE POSSESSION OF
LORD SOMERVILLE.

NE'W YORK :
A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON,
714 Broadway. 1885.

Copyright, 1885,
By a. C. ARMSTRONG & SON.

PREFACE.

' I ""HE sources from which the following narra
tive has been derived are (i) the splendidly
edited and complete edition of Knox's Works
in six volumes, by Dr. David Laing ; (2) the
Memoir of the Reformer, by Dr. Thomas McCrie,
forming the first volume of the collected works
of that eminent theologian ; (3) the monograph
by the late Professor Lorimer, D.D., entitled
" John Knox and the Church of England " ; and
(4) the Histories of the Period, more especially
that of Scotland, by John Hill Burton, vols. iii.
and iv., and that of England, by J. A. Froude,
vols. v. and vi. Some assistance also has been
derived from " The Scottish Reformation," by
Professor Lorimer ; and the two sketches by
Carlyle, the one in his " Heroes and Hero Wor
ship," and the other in his essay on the Portraits

vi PREFACE.
of John Knox, have been both helpful and sug
gestive. Quotations have been generally in
dicated, but this acknowledgment must cover
any accidental omission to give to each author
his due ; and for the rest the reader may be
assured that while no material fact has been
omitted, nothing has been recorded for which
ample authority could not be given. The figure
has been felt to be too large for the canvas
to which we have been restricted, but we have
sought to reproduce, as faithfully as possible the
man as he was, and if we may succeed in re
moving any of the unreasonable prejudice, with
which many still regard the Scottish Reformer,
the story of his life will not be retold by us in
vain.
W. M. T
NE'W York.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PAGH
Early Life and Call to the Ministry, 1505-1547 . i
CHAPTER II.
In the French Galleys, 1547-1549 .... 20
CHAPTER III.
Ministry in Berwick-on-Tweed, 1549-1550 ... 29
CHAPTER IV.
Knox and the English Book of Common Prayer,
1551-1553  42
CHAPTER v.
Last Days in England, 1553  64
CHAPTER VI.
First Days in Exile, 1554  71
CHAPTER VII.
The Troubles at Frankfort, 1554-1555 ... 83
CHAPTER VIII.
The Ministry at Geneva, 1555-1559 .... 95

viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
Return to Scotland, 1559  115
CHAPTER X.
The Reconstruction of the Scottish Church, 1560 136
CHAPTER XL
Knox and Queen Mary Stuart, 1561-1563 . , .157
CHAPTER XII.
Ministry at Edinburgh, 1564-1570 . ¦ , . 179
CHAPTER XIII.
Last Days, 1570-1572  , . 191

CHAPTER I.
Early Life and Call to the Ministry, 1505-1547.
ON the sixteenth day of January, 1546, George
'Wishart delivered a remarkable sermon in the
church of Haddington. Two things had combined to
produce special depression in his heart. Shortly before
he entered the pulpit a boy had put into his hands a
letter informing him that his friends in Kyle would not
be able to keep an appointment which they had made
to meet him in Edinburgh. This news so saddened
him that he expressed himself as " weary of the world,"
because he perceived that " men began to be weary of
God." Nor was his despondency removed when he
rose to preach, for instead of the crowds that used to
assemble to hear him in that church, there were not
more than a hundred persons present. It was thus
made apparent to him that the efforts of his enemies
for his overthrow were now to be successful, and so
instead of treating the second table of the law as he
had been expected to do, he poured forth a torrent of
warning and denunciation, not unlike some of the fervid
B

3 JOHN KNOX.
utterances of the old Hebrew prophets. The effect
produced was all the more solemn, because he evidently
felt that he was bearing his last public testimony against
the evils of his times.
¦When he had concluded he bade his friends farewell,
and to John Knox, who throughout his sojourn in
Lothian had attended him, armed with a two-handed
sword, as a protection against the assassination with
which he had twice been threatened, and who had
pressed to be allowed to accompany him to Ormiston,
where he was to spend the night, he said, " Nay, return
to your bairns " (pupils), " and God bless you ! One
is sufficient for one sacrifice."
The good man's presentiment was all too surely
realized. Before midnight the house in which he slept
was surrounded by a band of which the Earl of Bothwell
was the head, and he was given up by his host to that
nobleman, only however on the receipt of a pledge, over
which " hands " were " struck," to the effect that his
personal safety should be secured, and he should not
be delivered into his enemies' power. But promises in
these days were not of much account, and Bothwell
was easily prevailed upon to give him up to Cardinal
Beaton, who took him first to Edinburgh Castle, and
afterwards to St. Andrews. There, in defiance of the
protest of the Regent, he was hurriedly subjected to the
form of a trial by the cardinal, and being, of course,
found guilty, he was executed at the stake on the first
of March.

EARLY LIFE AND CALL TO TBE MINISTRY. 3
Thus it is, as the body-guard of 'Wishart, that we get
our first glimpse of John Knox in history ; and very
characteristic of the man this first appearance was. He
comes upon the scene as unheralded as Elijah, and, like
him too, he is seen from the first to be set for the de
fence of the truth. He was a sword-bearer all through ;
only when he laid aside the two-handed brand which he
carried before Wishart, he took in its stead " the sword
of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
Before proceeding to tell the stirring story of his life,
however, it may be well to take a brief survey of the
condition of Scotland at the moment when he stepped
into the arena of its national strife.
Little more than three years before the date of
Wishart's execution, the Queen of Scotland had given
birth to that Mary Stuart, whose character has been
the puzzle of historians, and whose chequered career
has been the theme of poets almost ever since. Her
father, James "V., broken-hearted by the utter defeat of
his army by the English at the battle of Solway Moss,
died only a few days after his daughter's birth. Thus
it came about, that in a critical time which tested the
statesmanship of the world's strongest rulers, alike in
England, France, Germany, and Spain, Scotland had a
baby sovereign, and the controlling of its affairs became
an object of keen competition between contending
parties. The queen-mother, Mary of Guise, a woman
of marked ability, of much cunning, and of little prin
ciple, was, both from national and religious leanings, on

4 JOHN KNOX.
the side of the Catholic party. Of that party the head
at this time was David Beaton, Archbishop of St.
Andrews, and a Cardinal of the Church. This artful
prelate, " the nephew of his uncle,'' was possessed of
eminent talents, but was characterized by cruelty,
licentiousness, and unscrupulousness. He had prevailed
on James 'V. to violate the promise which he had made
to his uncle, Henry VIII., to meet him at Newcastle.
The haughty Tudor had now broken with the Romish
see, and was anxious, if possible, to induce his nephew
to follow his example. But the cardinal, as great a
master of intrigue as was the English king himself, had
succeeded in keeping the Scottish monarch from putting
himself under the spell of his uncle's influence, and
Henry, exasperated at his defeat, sent into Scotland an
army, whose success at Solway Moss led indirectly, as
we have seen, to the death of James. When that event
occurred, Beaton produced a forged will, purpordng to
be the last testament of the king, and nominating him
as Regent with three of the nobles as his assistants.
On the strength of that document he had himself pro
claimed as Regent at the Cross of Edinburgh. But the
validity of the instrument was annulled by the Scottish
Parliament; and in the spring of 1543, James, Earl of
Arran, heir presumptive of the crown, was appointed to
the dignity which the cardinal had so eagerly and so
unrighteously sought to make his own.
This nobleman, "notorious," as Burton says, "for
fickleness," had been at first on the side of the Reforma-

EARLY LIFE AND CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 5
tion, and was then assiduously courted by Henry 'VIII.
He had even consented to the marriage of the baby
queen to the young English Prince Edward. But the
influence of the queen-mother and the cardinal, backed
by that of his own natural brother, the Abbot of Paisley,
together with the unjust and impolitic demands of the
English monarch himself, combined to turn him from his
original leanings. He publicly abjured the Protestant
faith, and was received into, the bosom of the Catholic
Church. He broke off all negotiations for a matrimonial
alliance between the royal houses of England and Scot
land, and ultimately consented to the betrothal of
Mary to the Dauphin of France. The result of these
proceedings was a protracted war with England, during
which Scotland was repeatedly invaded, and portions of
it devastated by the southern forces.
But while these political and international intrigues,
in which it must be confessed that there was little
scrupulousness on either side, were going on, a great
spiritual movement was making quiet progress among
the people. The Reformation from Popery had begun
in Scotland also. Patrick Hamilton, its protomartyr,
had been put to death in 1528 ; but the smoke of his
burning, to borrow the well-known words of one of
the elder Beaton's own servants, "had infected all
on whom it blew"; and the books of the German
Reformers, together with the English Testaments of
William Tyndale, had wrought like hidden leaven,
especially among the more intelligent of the community.

6 JOHN KNOX.
Thus we account for the fact that, in spite of legal
prohibitions and public executions, the knowledge of
evangelical truth was diffused, even when there was no
living voice to proclaim it publicly in the hearing of the
multitudes ; so that when a man like Wishart did make
his appearance, he found crowds to listen to him ap
preciatively both in Dundee and Ayr. The Lollards
of Kyle had still worthy descendants in that historic
district ; and the merchants in towns like that of Leith,
whose commerce brought them into contact with men
from Hamburg, Antwerp, and the cities of the Rhine,
were disposed to welcome the new doctrines. Among
the nobles, men like Glencairn and Errol and Ruthven
ranged themselves on the side of the Reformers ; while
the influence of a satirist like Sir David Lindsay of the
Mount, and a scholar like Henry Balnaves of Halhill,
was given heartily to their cause.
But next only to the diffusion of the Scriptures among
the people, the greatest factor in the production of the
Reformation in Scotland was the degraded condition into
which in that country the Church of Rome itself had
sunk. " That which decayeth is ready to vanish away."
There were no longer in it the elements of vitality. It
was past purifying, and had to be swept clean out. Its
corruptions were too open to be denied, and too gross
to be defended. The grasping selfishness and shameless
licentiousness of the upper clergy were equalled only by
the ignorance and general incompetence of the lower, so
that there had sprung up among the people generally a

EARLY LIFE AND CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 7
hatred of the order to which both belonged. This was
deepened and intensified by the spirit in which the first
efforts of the Reformers had been met, for in Scotland
as elsewhere the prison and the stake were the short
and easy answers made by papal intolerance to all the
arguments which the preachers brought against the
errors of Romanism. But these were answers which
only turned more general attention to the statements
of the Reformers, and gave wider circulation to their
words. The storm of contrary wind unfurls the banner,
and makes thereby its inscription the more legible, and
in the same way the persecution of those who proclaimed
the truth only fell out to the furtherance of that which
it was designed to arrest.
But Cardinal Beaton's conscience was too hard to feel
the crime, and his eye was too dim to see the blunder
which he was committing in putting Wishart to death.
He looked only at immediate results, and thought per
haps that by silencing the preacher he could arrest the
influence of the words which had already gone from
him. But in reality he was himself standing above a
mine which before long exploded for his own destruc
tion. His checkmating of Henry VIII. so exasperated
that monarch that he entered into correspondence,
through his agent Sir Robert Sadler, with certain
Scotsmen whose disaffection to the cardinal was well
known, and who, at his suggestion, or at least with his
concurrence and approval, perhaps also with his reward,
entered into a conspiracy to " take him out of the way."

8 JOHN KNOX
Accordingly on the morning of the 29th of May, just
three months after the martyrdom of Wishart, Cardinal
Beaton was assassinated by a company of men headed
by Norman Leslie. That the wily priest had himself
been guilty of attempts to get rid of his adversaries by
the same unscrupulous means is not to be denied. It
is equally certain that, as things then were, it would
have been impossible to bring him to trial for any of his
enormities. But still the manner of his "taking off" is
not only utterly indefensible, but also worthy of the
deepest reprobation, and it is too true, as Dr. Lorimer
has said, that " the exasperation of feeling called forth
by a deed so daring and criminal gave rise to proceed
ings against the conspirators which, being extended to
all their abettors real or supposed, had the effect of
retarding the progress of the Reformation for many
years, and of weighing it down with a load of oppro
brium from the effects of which it could only slowly
recover." 1
Foreseeing that they would be the objects of bitter
attack, the conspirators, after they had done their bloody
work, resolved to keep possession of the Castle of St.
Andrews which they had so unexpectedly seized, and
there they were speedily joined by at least one hundred
and forty persons, numbering among them Kirkaldy of
Grange, Melville of Raith, Balfour of Mount-quhany,
and many gentlemen of Fife and the neighbouring
' "The Scottish Reformation." A Historical Sketch by Peter
Lorimer, D.D. London : R. Griffin & Co., i860, p. 157.

EARLY LIFE AND CALL TO THE MINISTRY, g
counties. They put the castle into a state of defence,
and were besieged by an army under command of the
Regent Arran, against wliom they held out, more per
haps from the incompetence of the besiegers than from
the skill or strength of the besieged, until the end of
January, 1547. At that date the siege was suspended
under an agreement which stipulated that the Castle
was still to remain in the hands of its defenders, on the
conditions that they should hold it for the Regent and
not deliver it to England ; and that they should not be
required to surrender it even to the Regent until he had
obtained from Rome absolution for those who had been
implicated in the murder of the cardinal. Upon his
side the Regent agreed to withdraw his forces to the
south of the Forth, and from the beginning of the year
on till the following June the inmates of the Castle were
permitted to go out and in at their pleasure, and to
receive all that came to them.
Thus the Castle of St. Andrews became for the time
a kind of sanctuary for all who were seeking relief or
refuge from the oppression of the rulers in Church and
State ; and at the following Easter, which fell that year
on the loth of April, John Knox entered its gates under
circumstances which he himself has thus described :
" At the Pasch after, came to the Casde of St. Andrews
John Knox, who, wearied of removing from place to
place by reason of the persecution that came upon him
by this Bishop of St. Andrews, was determined to have
left Scotland and to have visited the schools of Germany

IO JOHN KNOX. f
(of England then he had no pleasure by reason that the
Pope's name being suppressed, his laws and corruptions
remained in full vigour). But because he had the care
of some gentlemen's children, whom certain years he
had nourished in godliness, their fathers solicited him
to go to St. Andrews, that himself might have the bene
fit of the castle, and their children the benefit of his
doctrine, and so (we say) came he the time foresaid, to
the said place, and having in his company Francis
Douglas of Longniddry, George his brother, and
Alexander Cockburn, eldest son to the ]aird of Ormiston,
began to exercise them after his accustomed manner." ^
Knox was at this time in the prime and vigour of his
manhood, being forty-two years of age. He was born
in 1505 at Gifford-gate, a suburb connected with Had
dington by the old stone bridge across the Tyne. His
parents were not distinguished either for rank or fortune,
for one of his adversaries affirms that he was " obscuris
natus parentibus " (born of obscure parents), and even
one of his admirers says that " he descended but of
lineage small." His father was William Knox, and his
mother's name was Sinclair. Both of them apparently
belonged to families that were in some way feudatories
to the Earls of Bothwell, for at the Reformer's first
interview with that earl, whose name is so tragically
• "The 'Works of John Knox," collected and edited by Dr. David
Laing, vol. i. p. 1S5. Once for all let it be said that in making
these quotations the spelling is modernized, but otherwise no altera
tion is made.

EARLY LIFE AND CALL TO THE MINISTRY, ii
coupled with Queen Mary's, he said, "Albeit that to
this hour it hath not chanced me to speak to your
lordship face to face, yet have I borne a good mind to
your house ; . . . for, my lord, my grandfather,
goodschir {i.e., according to Mr. Laing, maternal grand
father) and father have served your lordship's pre
decessors, and some of them have died under their
standards." He received his earhest education at the
Grammar School of Haddington, and passed when he
was about sixteen years of age to the University of
Glasgow, in the register of which his name appears
among those of the students who v.'ere incorporated on
the 25th October, 1522.
At that time and for a year later John Major, or
Mair, Doctor of the Sorbonne, was Principal of the
Glasgow University and Professor of Divinity in the
same. He had some opinions, both ecclesiastical and
political, which were considerably in advance of his age,
and it has been supposed that Kno.x may have received
from him some of those principles which he afterwards
so ably advocated. But perhaps too much has been
made of this by the Reformer's biographers, for Major
remained only one year in Glasgow after Knox had
been registered as a student at the University ; and
though he held some liberal notions in poliucs, he was
in theology to the last a rigid scholastic. Moreover, he
was so far from being a zealous promoter of the cause
of the Reformation that his name appears as a judge
on several of the tribunals at which the early Scottish

12 JOHN KNOX.
confessors were condemned to banishment or death.
Taking these things into consideration along with the
youth of Knox when he first entered college, it will
appear hardly likely that he received from Major any
thing more than a general impulse in the direction of
liberty and liberality, which prepared him to look with
favour on the efforts of those who, though they might
be called innovators, were in reality only seeking to get'
back to the original simplicity of the gospel, and the
primitive purity of the Church.
Knox left Glasgow without taking the degree of
Master of Arts, and there is no evidence whatever for
the statement sometimes made that he was afterwards
connected with the University of St. Andrews. In fact
we lose sight of him entirely for a period of eighteen
years from the time of his leaving Glasgow. During
that interval he was ordained a priest, though by
whom, or at what precise date, it is now impossible
to determine; but his signature has been found,i as
notary, to an instrument in the charter-room at Tyning-
harae, bearing date ISIarch 27, 1543, a fact which
establishes that up till that time he retained his cha
racter as a priest and had the papal authority to act
as a notary. With these functions he seems to have
combined that of a teacher of youth, for at the time we
come upon him in connection with Wishart, he had under
his charge some young men of good family in the land.
^ By Dr. David Laing : see " Knox's Works," vol. vi. pp. xxii.
xxiii.

EARLY LIFE AND CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 13
We have no details concerning his conversion from
the Romish to the Protestant faith. According to one
authority it was Thomas Guillaume who was " the first
to give Mr. Knox a taste of the truth.'' That eloquent
preacher, — a native of East Lothian, who had risen to a
high place in the order of the Dominicans, — had through
the influence of the party of progress been appointed
chaplain to the Regent Arran at the time when that
weak ruler was favouring the Reformers. Knox himself
has described him as " a man of solid judgment, reason
able letters (as for that age), and of prompt and good
utterance ; his doctrine was wholesome without great
vehemency against superstition." It does not appear,
however, from anything he says that he ever came per
sonaUy into contact with him, though it is possible that
some of those clear expositions of Scripture for which
Guillaume was so esteemed may have been heard by
him, and may have produced a deep impression on his
mind. But beyond all question George Wishart was
the true spiritual father of John Knox. The preaching
and companionship of that earnest man during that
journey through the Lothians, which ended in his appre
hension at Ormiston, did more for Knox than any other
human instrumentality whatever. They wrought convic
tion iu him, and brought him out into decision, so that
from the moment when these two men parted from each
other for the last time at the church of Haddington, it
was no longer possible for Knox to return into the
position of comparative obscurity from which he had

14 JOHN KNOX.
emerged to become the body-guard of Wishart. He
had come prominently out on the side of the Refor
mation, and the martyrdom of his teacher would only
deepen his determination that he should not go back.
But there was no need for him to throw his life away
as a gratuitous sacrifice, and therefore, when he was
compelled to seek safety from his persecutors by remov
ing from place to place, and out of weariness was minded
to go to Germany, he consented, at the earnest solicita
tions of the parents of his pupils, to find protection in
the Castle of St. Andrews. Let it be noted, however,
that he did not enter that stronghold until the loth of
April, 1547, that is, more than ten months after Beaton's
murder, and therefore he is not to be reckoned among
those who had concocted and carried out the assassina
tion of that prelate. He was at that date in too obscure
a station to be in any way, even the most remote, asso
ciated with those who had committed that foul murder,
and he went to St. Andrews simply that he might be
able to carry on uninterruptedly the education of his
pupils. Accordingly, so soon as he was fairly settled
there, he resumed the regular routine of his work with
them. What that was he has himself informed us in
these words : " Besides their grammar and other humane
authors " (that is, authors in what were then called the
humanity classes) " he read unto them a catechism, an
account whereof he caused them to give publicly in the
parish church of St. Andrews. He read moreover unto
them the Gospel of John proceeding where he " (had)

EARLY LIFE AND CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 15
"left" (off) "at his departing from Longniddry where
before his residence was, and that lecture he read in the
chapel within the castle at a certain hour." These pub
lic exercises attracted to them a large number of those
who were then sojourning in the castle, among whom
were Henry Balnaves of Halhill, a distinguished jurist,
who had been already, and was to be again, one of the
judges of the court of session, and John Rough, who was
the stated preacher to the congregation within the castle.
These men were greatly impressed alike with the matter,
the method, and the manner of delivery of the lectures,
and seeing his fitness for the work, they earnestly en
treated Knox to enter at once upon the office of the
ministry. But he declared that " he would not run
where God had not called him," and peremptorily re
fused to accede to their request. Upon this they took
counsel with Sir David Lindsay, of the Mount, and
others, and ultimately agreed that Rough, without giving
any formal warning that he was about to do anything of
the kind, should address to Knox a special public call
in the name and before the face of the congregaUon.
Accordingly, in the presence of the people, and after
having preached a sermon on the election of minis
ters, Rough turned to Knox and said, " Brother, ye
shall not be offended, albeit that I speak unto you that
which I have in charge even from all those that are here
present, which is this : In the name of God and of His
Son Jesus Christ, and in the name of these that pre
sently call you by my mouth, I charge you that ye refuse

1 6 JOHN KNOX.
not this holy vocation, but that, as ye tender the glory of
God, the increase of Christ's kingdom, the edification
of your brethren, and the comfort of me whom you
understand well enough to be oppressed by the multi
tude of labours, that ye take upon you the public office
and charge of preaching even as ye look to avoid God's
heavy displeasure, and desire that He shall multiply His
graces with you.'' Then turning to the congregation he
said, " Was not this your charge to me ? " They an
swered, " It was, and we approve it." The combined
suddenness and solemnity of this appeal completely un
manned Knox. He burst into tears and hastened to
his closet, where we may well believe that he sought
light from God ; and the result was that he was led to
take up that ministry which he laid down only with his
life. Not from the impulse of caprice, or because he
desired the position of a preacher, but because he could
not otherwise meet the responsibility which God had laid
upon him, did he enter upon that high and honourable
vocation. He was to do a work for his countrymen not
unlike that which Moses did for his kinsmen, and so
like Moses he was called to it in the full maturity of
his powers, and entered upon it with the conviction that
God had given him his commission, and he dared not
disobey. Nor did he tarry long before he began to preach, for
the call of Providence came almost simultaneously with
that of the church. It happened just then that Mr.
Rough was engaged in a controversy with a popish

EARLY LIFE AND CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 17
dean named Annand. For such a discussion Rough
was but poorly furnished, since, as McCrie says, though
he was sound in doctrine, his Uterary acquirements
were only moderate. In his emergency he had been
much assisted by Knox, who made such good use of
the pen that he beat back his adversary from all his
defences. As a last resort Annand took refuge in the
authority of the Church, upon which Knox at once ex
claimed, in the hearing of those who were present at
the discussion, that a distinction must be drawn be
tween the true spouse of Christ and the Church of
Rome, and offered to prove by word or writing that the
Papal Church had degenerated from that of primitive
times more than the Jews who crucified the Saviour
had fallen from the ordinances of Moses. On hearing
this, the people alleged that they could not all read his
writings, but could all listen to his preaching, and there
fore insisted, in the name of God, that he would let
them hear his proof of the assertion which he had made.
Such an appeal was not to be resisted, and therefore on
the very next Sunday Knox entered the pulpit, and
preached (from the text Daniel vii. 24, 25) a sermon, in
which, after having given the true marks of the Church,
he went on to expose the corruptions of the Romish
clergy in their lives, the erroneous doctrine taught by
them, especially in the matter of justification, and the
enslaving laws enjoined by them in regard to days, and
meats, and marriage. In particular he inveighed against
the blasphemies of popery. He identified the Papal
c

i8 JOHN KNOX.
Church with the Babylonian harlot in the book of the
Revelation, and concluded by demanding the most
thorough investigation of all the statements which he
had made, and the most minute examination of the
authorities whom he had cited. This discourse was
listened to by a large assembly, among whom was John
Major, his old Glasgow principal, and it produced a
great effect upon all. Some said, " Others lopped off
the branches of the papistry, but he strikes at the root
to destroy the whole." Others predicted that he would
meet the fate of Wishart, who had never spoken quite
so plainly as Kno.x had done that day. The new arch
bishop of St. Andrews, not yet consecrated to his office,
expostulated with the vicar-general of the diocese for
allowing such heretical doctrines to be promulgated
without opposition, and that led to the calling of a
convention of the learned men of the abbey and the
university, before which Rough and Knox were sum
moned to make answer to nine articles, involving here
sies, which had been drawn from their sermons. But
nothing more serious resulted from that meeting than a
debate between Knox and a friar named Arbuckle,
whose arguments Knox easily refuted, and that too with
a considerable mixture of the grim humour which ever
and anon laughs outright in the pages of his history.
Clearly, therefore, it would be a perilous thing for
the Church to let such a man do all the preaching to
the people ; and so orders were issued that each of the
learned men in the abbey and university should preach

EARLY LIFE AND CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 19
in his own turn on the Sundays in the parish church.
This deprived Knox of the opportunity of addressing
the congregation on those days when the greatest num
bers were in attendance ; but he continued his ministry
on the other days of the week, and that with such suc
cess that although it lasted in all at this time not more
than three months, many of the inhabitants of the town
renounced popery, and made confession of the Protes
tant faith by partaking of the Lord's Supper in the
reformed manner, the first occasion on which the ordin
ance was publicly administered in Scotland after that
fashion. Thus the beginning of Knox's work marks a distinct
stage in the history of the Scottish Reformation. At first,
and under what has been called by Lorimer the Ham
ilton period, peculiar emphasis was laid upon the truths
which were revived in the teaching of Luther ; under
the Wishart period the doctrine of the sacraments came
into prominence, and then first the influence of Switzer
land began to be felt by Scotland; but under Knox
attention was directed especially to the nature and con
stitution of the church, and the first sermon which he
preached, and of which we have given the barest outline,
had already in it " the promise and the potency " of the
great work which he was yet to accomplish for his native
land.

CHAPTER n.
In the French Galleys, 1547-1549.
DURING the months which had elapsed since the
time when the Casde of St. Andrews had become
a refuge for those who had so summarily and unscru
pulously murdered Beaton, changes had occurred both
in England and in France which deeply affected their
interests. Henry VIII. died on the 28th January, 1547,
and for a short time during the minority of Edward the
reins of government had been virtually given into the
hands of the Duke of Somerset, under the name of
Protector. This deprived the besieged of their most
powerful friend, for although after Henry's decease the
Privy Council fulfilled his directions and voted money to
Leslie and others as individuals, together with a certain
sum for the maintenance of a garrison in the castle, yet
Somerset took little further care of those who remained
within its shelter, and left them virtually to their own
resources. The death of Francis I. of France, which
took place on the 31st of March in the same year,
added to their danger, for he was succeeded by Henry
IL, who as Dauphin had been the leader of the party
20

IN THE FRENCH GALLEYS. 21
most opposed to England, and who was therefore by no
means indisposed to do anything that would tend to
widen the breach between that country and his own.
When therefore Somerset, unwisely insisting on reviving
the pretensions of feudal superiority over Scotland which
had been put forth by Edward I., permitted the Borders
to be wasted by fire and sword, and urged the French to
abstain from interference, he was met with the reply that
their king " might not suffer the old friends of France
to be oppressed and alienated from him." In France,
therefore, the Regent Arran and the queen-mother found
a willing ally, and in the beginning of June Leo Strozzi,
prior of Capua, appeared with a fleet of French galleys
in sight of the Castle of St. Andrews, and demanded the
surrender of its inmates. According to agreement this
was conditioned on the reception from Rome of absolu
tion for the murderers of Beaton. But although Strozzi
brought absolution with him, it was expressed in such an
equivocal form, — " Reraittimus irremissibile,'' we pardon
that which is unpardonable, — that the persons interested
refused to accept it, and the siege was renewed. Arran,
hearing of the arrival of his allies, hastened from the
west country to co-operate with them, and the result
was such as might have been expected. For this time
the defenders had to contend with skilled gunners, be
fore whose batteries, as Knox had forewarned them
would be the case, " their walls were no better than egg
shells." From the steeple of St. Salvador's College and
the towers of the Abbey, as well as from the galleys in

22 JOHN KNOX.
the bay, the cannon of their assailants poured shot in
upon them, while within the walls the plague broke out
with virulence. So in the end of July Kirkcaldy of
Grange went forth with a flag of truce to make the
best possible terms with the victors. The conditions
obtained were that the lives of all within the castle,
whether English or Scotch, should be spared ; that they
should be safely transported to France ; and that in case,
upon conditions that by the king of France should be
offered unto them, they could not be content to remain
in service and freedom there, they should, at the expense
of the king of France, be safely conveyed to what
country they would require, other than Scotland. These
promises, however, were shamefully broken, for the van
quished were taken on board the vessels which had
been plentifully loaded with the spoils of the castle, and
carried to France, where they were held in bondage for
many months. One detachment of them was taken to
Cherbourg, and another to Mount St. Michael. Knox
himself was reduced to the condition of a galley-slave.
We have no connected account of his experiences in
this time of trial, but here and there in his works he has
dropped incidental hints which give us glimpses of his
sufferings, and of the manner in which they were endured
by him. In his history of the Reformation, in connec
tion with the account of an effort made by some of his
friends to dissuade him in the year 1559 from preaching
in St Andrews, we have a report of the answer which he
gave to them, and in that occurs the following passage :

IN THE FRENCH GALLEYS. 23
" In this town and church began God first to call me to
the dignity of a preacher, from the which I was reft by
the tyranny of France by procurement of the bishops as
.ye all well enough know. How long I continued pri
soner, what torment I sustained in the galleys, and what
were the sobs of my heart, is now no time to consider."
An equally pathetic reference to his misery during this
season of bondage, and to his solace under it, is to be
found in his treatise on the true nature and object of
prayer, in which after having referred to the words,
(Ps. vii. 16, 17) " His mischief shall return upon his own
head, and his violent dealings shall come down upon his
own pate. I will praise the Lord according to His
righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the
Lord most high," he goes on to say, " This is not written
for David only, but for all such as shall suffer tribulation
to the end of the world. For I, the writer hereof (let
this be said to the laud and praise of God alone), in
anguish cf mind and vehement tribulation and affliction,
called to the Lord, when not only the ungodly, but even
my faithful brethren, yea and mine own self, that is all
natural understanding in me, judged my cause to be
irremediable ; and yet in my greatest calamity, and when
my pains were most cruel, would His eternal wisdom
that I should write far contrary to the judgment of carnal
wisdom, which His mercy has proved true. Blessed be
His holy name ! And therefore I dare be bold, in the
verity of God's word to promise that notwithstanding the
vehemence of trouble, the long continuance thereof, the

24 JOHN KNOX.
dispersion of all men, the fearfulness, danger, dolor, and
anguish of our hearts ; yet if we call constantly to God,
that beyond expectation of all men. He shall deliver."
There can be little doubt, as Dr. Laing remarks in a
foot-note to this passage, that Knox here refers to his
bodily and mental sufferings during his confinement on
board the French galley, and so we see that his faith
was not a mere sentimental thing, that, as he has him
self elsewhere expressed it, he was no mere " speculative
theologue," but indeed a steadfast believer, who had
proved God's faithfulness to His promise even in the
sorest tribulation.
Again in the epistle to the congregation of the Castle
of St. Andrews prefixed by him to the tract on Justifi
cation by Faith, which his friend Henry Balnaves had
written during his imprisonment at Rouen, we find
among other allusions to his support under his sufferings
the following words : " I exhort that ye read diligently
this treatise, not only with earnest prayer that ye may
understand the same aright, but also with humble and
due thanksgiving unto our most merciful Father, who of
His infinite power hath so strengthened the hearts of His
prisoners, that in despite of Satan they desist not yet to
work, but in the most vehemency of tribulation seek the
utility and salvation of others."
And in a letter written in December, 1559, he speaks
of " all the torments of the galleys " in such a way as to
lead us to conclude that he was subjected to the greatest
hardships. Once more, and perhaps most pathetically of

IN THE FRENCH GALLEYS. 25
all, in that letter to the congregation of Berwick which Dr,
Lorimer first printed in his " John Knox and the Church
of England," and to which we shall have to make fuller
reference by-and-by, he thus writes : " This day I am
more vile and of low reputation in my own eyes than I
was either that day that my feet were chained in tin
prisojt of dolor (the galleys I mean), or yet that day that
I was delivered by His only providence from the same."
It is clear, therefore, that his sufferings were severe, and
while he endured them with a fortitude that was sus
tained by his faith in God, he was careful also to main
tain always a conscience void of offence. He tells us
that those who were in the galleys " were threatened
with torments if they would not give reverence to the
mass, but they could never make the poorest of that
company to give reverence to that idol." He adds the
following narrative, and from the ironic humour that
plays about his style as he recites it, we cannot doubt
that he was himself the hero of the story. " Soon after
the arrival at Nantes, their great salve was sung, and a
glorious (gaudy) painted board was brought in to be
kissed, and amongst others was presented to one of the
Scotchmen then chained. He gently said, ' Trouble me
not ; such an idol is accursed, and therefore I will not
touch it.' The patron and the arguesyn {i.e. sergeant
who commanded the forgats) with two officers, having the
chief charge of all such matters, said, ' Thou shalt handle
it,' and so they violently thrust it to his face, and put it
betwixt his hands, who seeing the extremity, taking the

25 ¦ JOHN KNOX.
idol, and advisedly looking about, he cast it into the
river, and said, ' Let our lady now save herself ; she is
light enough ; let her learn to swim.' After that was no
Scotchman urged with that idolatry."
But sorely bestead as he was in his captivity, he would
not sanction any attempt to escape which should savour
of violence. Though himself innocent of all complicity
in Beaton's murder, he had seen the cause which he
had at heart so greatly hindered by the consequences
of that evil deed, and he was withal so utterly opposed
to everything which he believed that God had for
bidden, that he would be no party to doing evil that
good might come. Accordingly when Kirkcaldy and
two other friends who were confined with him at Mount
St. Michael wrote to him to inquire whether they might
with safe conscience break their prison, he replied, that
if without the shedding of any blood they could set
themselves at liberty, they might do so without sin,
but that he would never consent to their slaying of
others in order to obtain deUverance. He added the
expression of his own assurance that God Himself would
work out their enlargement in such a way that " the
praise thereof should redound to His glory alone." Nor
was that with him a mere temporary or intermittent
sentiment. It was the settled conviction of his soul;
for from the very beginning of his captivity when one of _
his fellow-prisoners would often ask him if he thought
that they should ever be delivered, his invariable answer
was that " God would deliver them from that bond.ige

IN THE FRENCH GALLEYS. 27
to His glory, even in this life." Nor did he falter, even
when his own strength seemed ebbing out, for when the
galleys had returned to Scotland in the summer of 1548,
and were lying between Dundee and St. Andrews, while
he himself was so reduced by illness that his life was
despaired of, the same companion bidding him look to
the land, asked him if he knew it, whereupon he made
reply, " Yes, I know it well, for I see the steeple of that
place where God first opened my mouth to His glory,
and I am fully persuaded, how weak soever I now appear,
that I shall not depart this life till that my tongue shall
glorify His holy name in the same place " He tells
this almost as if he believed that the Spirit of prophecy
spoke through him at the moment ; but it is not
necessary for us, while admitting the full truth of the
narrative, to accept any such explanation. If his
anticipation had not been verified, his words might have
been entirely forgotten ; and the probability is that his
conviction rested rather upon his general apprehension
of the principles of the Divine administration, than upon
any supernatural communication of a special sort. The
Psalmist writes that " the secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him ; " and this gracious illumination,
which is the heritage of all in the proportion in which
they possess the character with which it is associated,
is sufficient to account for the correctness of his im
pression, without having recourse to the theory of pro
phetic inspiration. That even Knox himself would have
thus regarded this matter, seems clear from a passage in

28 JOHN KNOX.
his " Faithful Admonition to the Professors of God's
Truth in England," which Dr. Lorimer thinks is of
standard authority as giving the principle of interpreta
tion for all those places in which he speaks in what
may be called a prophetic tone and manner; and in
which it has sometimes been thought that he spoke
not without some endowment of supernatural insight
and foreknowledge. We quote the following sentences :
" But ye would know the grounds of my certitude.
God grant that hearing them, ye may understand
and steadfastly believe the same. My assurances are
not marvels of Merlin, nor yet the dark sentences of
profane prophecies ; but (i) the plain truth of God's
word, (2) the invincible justice of the everlasting God,
and (3) the ordinary course of His punishments and
plagues from the beginning, are my assurances and
grounds " (p. 85).
But however we may account for the assurance which
he felt, his forecast of the future was certainly remark
ably fulfilled ; and there are few contrasts in history more
striking and suggestive than that between the weak and
apparently dying galley-slave looking longingly on the
shores of his native land ; and the energetic Reformer
of a later date, of whom the English ambassador wrote
to Cecil saying : "I assure you the voice of one man is
able in an hour to put more life in us than six hundred
trumpets continually blustering in our ears."

B

CHAPTER IIL
Ministry in Berwick-on-Tweed, 1549-1550.
Y what means Knox obtained his release from the
galling servitude in which he had been held by
the French, we have not been able to discover ; but it
is believed that he was indebted for it to the intercession
of England, and it is certain that in the early part of
the year 1549, he was employed by the Privy Council
of that country as one of the ministers whom its mem
bers commissioned to preach the doctrines of the
Reformation thoughout the kingdom. The probability
is that he arrived in London about the month of Feb
ruary, and it is conjectured that as Henry Balnaves was
in that city as a commissioner from the besieged in St,
Andrews, at the time of the death of Henry VIIL,
Knox, who had just then entered upon his ministry,
may have been beholden to his friend for bringing his
name to the favourable notice of the English Reform
ers. But however that may have been, we come upon
authentic and reliable information, when we find in the
register of the Privy Council, under date April 7th, 1549,
an entry authorizing the payment of five pounds " to

30 JOHN KNOX.
John Knox, preacher, by way of reward." Besides this,
his name occurs as the sixty-fourth in a list of eighty who
obtained licence to preach in England during the reign
of Edward the Sixth. He himself informs us in his
History, that "he was first appointed preacher to
Berwick, then to Newcastle ; last he was called to
London and to the southern parts of England, where
he remained till the death of Edward the Sixth." This
is all that he has said directly in that work concerning
his residence in England; but so much new light has
been shed on this part of the Reformer's career by the
painstaking and elaborate monogram of Dr. Lorimer,
that we are now able to follow his steps with something
like minuteness.
He was settled first at the border town of Berwick-on-
Tweed, which in those days was " the focus of a long
and bloody war between the two kingdoms, which had
begun with the tremendous slaughter of the Scots at
Pinkey in the autumn of 1547, and in which the Scots,
having received large assistance from France, were still
able to maintain so vigorous a defence that there was no
near prospect of a return of peace." ^ Thus it happened
that its garrison was larger than ordinary, and everything
about the place was volcanic. Quarrels among the
soldiers were common, and the civilians themselves were
not over peaceful, so that the chronic state of the town
was one of disorder. John Brende, "master of the
musters," reports to the Protector Somerset concerning
* Lorimer, p. 17.

MINISTRY IN BERWICK-ON-TWEED. 31
it : " There is better order among the Tartars than in
this town; the whole picture of the place is one of
social disorder and the worst police." ^ Besides all this,
the great majority of the people were as yet probably
papists, for the doctrines of the Reformation had made
litde progress thus far in the northern counties, and
luatters ecclesiastical were very unsettled. In March
of that year the first Prayer-Book of Edward VI. was
sanctioned by Parliament and published for the use of
the Church. The new liturgy still retained much of the
leaven of sacerdotalism and sacramentarlanism, but it
was decidedly in advance of anything which could have
been issued in the days of Henry VIII. It was
thoroughly approved by but a portion of the bishops,
and there were several counties in the remoter parts of
the kingdom where it was never introduced at all.
Tunstall, then Bishop of Durham, who was no friend
to the cause of reform, was in no haste to give effect to
the new legislation ; and the council of the north, to
which was committed the care of public affairs in that
then distant corner of the realm, probably thought it
advisable to refrain from enforcing it upon the people,
until they were prepared, by the instructions of some
eminent preacher, for receiving and obeying it. Thus
we account for the fact that, all the time he was in
Berwick, Knox vi^as left very much to his own discretion
as to the doctrines which he preached, and the methods
• Lorimer, p. 18

32 JOHN KNOX.
which he adopted for the conduct of Divine service and
the administration of the sacraments.
Already in his preface to Balnaves's treatise on
Justification, the first of his printed productions so far
as can be traced, he had written a summary of his belief
on that great central doctrine; and in his disputation
with Arbuckle in St. Andrews, he had been truly
charged with holding the following opinions — viz. first,
man may neither make nor devise a religion that is
acceptable to God, but is bound to observe and keep
the rehgion that from God is received without chopping
or changing thereof; second, the sacraments ofthe New
Testament ought to be ministered as they were insti
tuted by Christ Jesus and practised by the apostles,
nothing ought to be added to them, nothing ought to be
diminished from them ; third, the mass is abominable
idolatr}', blasphemous to the death of Christ, and a
profanation of the Lord's Supper. When therefore he
began his labours at Berwick he set himself to the
proclamation of the great truths which radiate from
the priesthood of Christ ; and in his dispensation of the
supper he followed an order of his own, which was not
improbably the same as he had adopted in the Castle
of St. Andrews. This is put beyond dispute by his
letter to the congregation of Berwick, written probably
about the close of 1552, and the fragment entided "The
Practice of the Lord's Supper used in Berwick-upon-
Tweed by John Knox, preacher to the congregation of
the Church there," both of which are to be found in

MINISTRY IN BERWICK-IN-TWEED. 33
Dr. Lorimer's Appendix. The matter is of more than
mere antiquarian interest, and we may therefore make
one or two extracts from the more important of these
documents. In regard to his preaching he thus writes : " As for
the variety and diversity of opinions touching the
doctrine and chief points of religion which ye have
received, God I take to witness, and the Lord Jesus
Christ, before whom at once shall all flesh appear,
that I never taught unto you, nor unto any others my
auditory, that doctrine as necessary to be believed
which I did not find written in God's holy law and
testament And, therefore, in that case with Paul I
will say, ' If an angel from heaven shall teach unto
you another gospel than ye have heard and externally
received, let him be accursed.' " Then after stating in a
positive form what he understands by the gospel he
adds : " If in any of these chief and principal points
any man vary from that doctrine which ye have pro
fessed, let him be accursed:' (i) as if any man teach
any other cause moving God to elect and choose us than
His own infinite goodness and mere mercy; (2) any
other name in heaven or under the heaven wherein
salvation stands, but only the name of Jesus ; (3) any
other means whereby we are justified and absolved from
wrath and damnation that our sins deserve, than by faith
only; (4) any other cause or end of good works than
that first we are made good trees, and thereafter bring
1 Lorimer, pp. 257-8. D

34 JOHN KNOX.
forth fruits accordingly, to witness that we are lively
members of Christ's holy and most sanctified body, pre
pared vessels to the honour and praise of our Father's
glory ; (5) if any teach prayers to be made to other than
God above ; (6) if any Mediator betwixt God and man,
but only our Lord Jesus ; (7) if more or other sacraments
be affirmed or required to be used than Christ Jesus
left ordinary in His Church, to wit. Baptism and the
Lord's Table, or mystical supper; (8) if any deny remis
sion of sins, resurrection of the flesh and life everlasting
to appertain to us in Christ's blood, which, sprinkled in
our hearts by faith, doth purge us from all sin ; so that
we need no more nor other sacrifices than that oblation
once offered for all, by the which God's elect be fully
sanctified and made perfect ; if any I say, require any
other sacrifice to be made for sins than Christ's death,
which once He suffered, or any other manner whereby
Christ's death may be applied to man, than by faith
only, which also is the gift of God, so that man hath
no cause to glory in works ; and yet, if any deny good
works to be profitable as not necessary to a true Chris
tian profession, let the affirmers, teachers, or maintainers
of such a doctrine be accursed of you, as they are of
God unless they repent." In these articles we are struck
with the absence of all reference to the Holy Spirit and
regeneration ; but we have many allusions to these sub
jects elsewhere, some, indeed, in this very document,
and we may suppose that as it was specifically the
mediatorial work of Christ that was then in controversy.

MINISTRY IN BERWICK-ON-TWEED. 35
he designedly restricted himself to that But from this
summary, brief as it is, we learn that even at this early
date, long before he had visited Geneva, or met Calvin,
Knox had found his own way by the study of the Scrip
tures to those views of gospel truth which are now
associated with the name of the great Frenchman ; and
that they formed the chief themes of his public discourse
at Berwick is evident from the solemn words with which
he has here introduced their enumeration.
Nor was his proclamation of them there in vain ; for
in his vindication of himself, at a later date before
Queen Mary of Scotland, from the charge of causing
great sedition and slaughter in England, and securing
his ends by necromancy, he said among other things,
" I shame not further to affirm that God so blessed my
weak labours, that in Berwick, where commonly before
there used to be slaughter by reason of quarrels that
used to arise among the soldiers, there was as great
quietness all the time that I remained there, as there is
this day in Edinburgh." 1 Besides this, there is in the
letter from • which we have quoted abundant evidence
that his biographer was not wrong when he affirmed
that during his two years in Berwick numbers were
converted and a visible reformation was produced upon
the soldiers of the garrison who had been notorious
for turbulence and licentiousness.
But his procedure in regard to the Lord's Supper
was even more remarkable for its independence, than
• Lorimer, p. 1 6.

36 fOHN KNOX.
the tenour of his discourses was for its adherence to the
Pauline theology. In the Book of Common Prayer
issued by the joint authorization of Convocation and
Parliament in 1549, the rubric for the Lord's Supper
provided that bread "unleavened and round as it was
afore" should be used. But in regard to that Knox
took the bold course of ignoring the authoritative
rubrics. He substituted common bread for the wafer,
and he administered the "elements" to the people
while they sat, according to the form still followed in
the nonconforming churches of England, and the
Presbyterian churches in all parts of the world. It
may seem to some that this was a defiance of the law ;
and perhaps in strictest construction so it was ; but it
is to be remembered that, as yet, the law had not
become operative in the district to which Berwick
belonged, and that therefore it was open meanwhile
for Knox to take the course which he believed to be
best. Thus he writes •?¦ " Kneeling at the Lord's
Supper I have proved by doctrine (teaching) to be no
convenient gesture for a table; (a gesture) which hath
been given in that action to such a presence of Christ,
as no place of God's Scripture doth teach unto us.
And therefore, kneeling in that action, appearing to be
joined with certain dangers, no less in maintaining
superstition than in using Christ's holy institution with
other gestures than either He used or commanded to
be used, / thought good amongst you. to avoid and io
* Lorimer, p. 261.

MINISTRY IN BERWICK-ON-TWEED. 37
use sitting at the Lord's Table ; which ye did not refuse,
but with all reverence and thanksgiving to God for
His truth knowing, as I suppose, ye confirmed the
doctrine with your gestures and confession." The
order which he observed^ began with a sermon on
the benefits given us by God through Jesus Christ ;
this was followed by prayer, after which was read
the account of the institution of the ordinance from
I Corinthians xi. 20-30. Then a declaration of "what
persons be unworthy to be partakers" was made;
after which " common prayer was offered in the form
of confession." At the conclusion of this prayer,
some notable passage in which God's mercy is most
evidently declared was read from the gospel, and
thereafter the minister pronounced absolution to such
as unfeignedly repent and believe in Jesus Christ
After this came prayer for the congregation and for the
sovereign. At this point the fragment which we have been
following breaks off, but there is every reason to be
lieve that the remainder of the service was the same
as that afterwards adopted in Scotland ; and any one
at all conversant with the ecclesiastical ritual of the
Presbyterian churches in that country may see in the
portion which we have given the origin of the " action"
sermon, the " fencing of the tables ; " and the frequent
if not invariable use of the passage from first Corinthians
as the "warrant" for the observance of the Supper,
' Lorimer, p. 290.

38 JOHN KNOX.
which characterize a communion " occasion " in that
country. But the singular thing about the matter is
that this Puritan and Presbyterian form of administer
ing the ordinance of the Lord's Supper was observed
in England by John Knox when he was labouring at
Berwick as a recognised minister of the Church of
England, and acting under the authority, or perhaps,
to put it more correctly, with the permission, of the
government This was at a date anterior by ten years
to the time when it was introduced into Scodand with
the sanction of its Parliament.
But it deserves notice that although Knox was thus
conscientiously opposed to kneeling at the Lord's Table,
he was not so intolerant as to declare that the taking
of that posture at that table was necessarily sinful. The
reader of the letter addressed to the congregation at
Ber^vick cannot fail to be struck with the broad Pauline
spirit manifested by the Reformer in his treatment of
this subject He is advising his friends as to what
they should do if, now that he had ceased to have
the oversight of them, the practice of kneeling at the
communion table should be insisted upon; and he
affirms that he neither recants nor repents his former
teaching, but still prefers sitting to any other posture ;
yet he adds^ " because I am but one having in my
contrair, magistrates, common order, and judg.iients
of many learned, I am not minded for maintenance of
that one thing to gainstand the magistrates in all and
' Lorimer, pp. 26i-j.

MINISTRY IN BERWICK-ON-TWEED. 39
other chief points of religion agreeing with Christ, and
His true doctrine, nor yet to break nor trouble common
Order, thought meet to be kept for unity and peace
in the congregations for a time. And least of all do I
intend to condemn or lightly regard the grave judgments
of such men as unfeignedly I fear (reverence), love and
will obey, in all things judged expedient to promote
God's glory, these subsequents granted to me.'' Then
follow three' conditions which may be summarized
thus, — first, that the magistrates make known that
kneeling is not required for any superstitious reasons
or for any adoration of Christ's natural body believed
to be there present, but only for the sake of uniform
Order and that for a time ; second, that kneeling is not
imposed as a thing essential to the right observance
of the ordinance, or required by Christ, but enjoined
only as a ceremony thought seemly by men ; and third,
that the brethren shall have regard to his conscience,
and not bring any uncharitable accusation against him,
because he seeks to follow what Christ has commanded
rather than what men have required. With these
concessions granted, he declares that he would be
satisfied; and that there may be no breach of charity,
he recommends his former flock, should these conditions
be complied with, to conform to the requirements of the
Prayer-Book if those in authority should insist on their
so doing. We have been the more particular in
bringing out this fact at this particular time, because
of its bearing on his conduct in connection with the

40 JOHN KNOX.
issue of the revised Prayer-Book in 1552, of which we
shall have to speak more particularly by-and-by.
So much for the Reformer's public work in Berwick ;
but before we accompany him to Newcastle, we must
pause to mention that it was during his residence at this
time in the border town that he made the acquaintance
of and was engaged to the lady who afterwards became
his wife. Her name was Marjory Bowes, and she was
the daughter of Richard Bowes, youngest son of Sir
Ralph Bowes, of Streatham. Her mother was Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir Robert Aske, of Aske. The father,
probably on account of Knox's religious opinions, was
opposed to the marriage, and so the union was deferred
for some years. But the mother was friendly to the
Reformer, and with her he kept up a constant corre
spondence in which many of the softer traits of
his character come beautifully out Mrs. Bowes was
subject to religious melancholy, and the tender
manner in which he often seeks in his letters to bind
up her bruised spirit shows that, when occasion needed,
he could be a " son of consolation " as well as a " son
of thunder." Somedmes too, as when his heart was
stirred with solicitude for the spiritual interests of those
among whom he had laboured, or when he was re
quired to confront the possible issue of his uncompro
mising adherence to what he believed to be right, he
rises to a strain of heroism which reminds us of the
greatest of the apostles. One example of this occurs
in his letter to his Berwick friends, and we may fitly

MINISTRY IN BERWICK-ON-TWEED. 41
close this chapter by reproducing it here. "If any
man be offended with me that I, willing to avoid God's
wrath and vengeance threatened against such as having
no necessity despise His ordinances, do purpose and
intend to obey God, embracing such as He has
offered unto me (rather) than to please and flatter man
that unjustly held the same from me ; if any, I say,
for this cause be offended and will seek my displeasure
or trouble, let the same understand, that as I have
a body, which only they may hurt, and not unless God so
permit ; so have they bodies and souls which both shall
God punish in fire inextinguishably with the devil and
his angels, unless suddenly they repent and cease to
malign against God and His holy ordinance. With life
and death, dear brethren, I am at point, — they before
me in equal balances. Transitory life is not so sweet
to me that for defence thereof I will jeopard to lose
the life everlasting. Nor yet is corporeal death to
me so fearful that albeit most certainly I understood
the same shortly to follow my godly purpose, I would
therefore depone myself to die in God's wrath and
anger for ever and ever, which no doubt I should
do, if for man's pleasure I refused God's perfect
ordinance." ^ There is no mistaking the ring of such
words as these ; and he who wrote them takes his place
in the honourable company of the heroes of conscience
to whom the world no less than the Church has owed
so much. ' Lorimer, p. 260.

CHAPTER IV.
Knox and the English Book of Common Prayer,
1551-1553-
FROM Berwick Knox was removed, in the early
summer of 1551, to Newcastle-on-Tyne, where
he laboured, with occasional absences, for nearly two
years. Already, in the spring of 1550, he had made
a public discourse of great importance there, and
perhaps the impression produced by his words then,
may have led to his being ultimately transferred thither.
There is extant among his writings " A Vindication of
the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Idolatry,"
to which this note is prefixed : " The fourth of April, in
the year 1550, was appointed to John Knox, preacher
of the Holy Evangel of Jesus Christ, to give his con
fession why he affirmed the mass idolatry ; which day,
in presence of the Council, and congregation, amongst
whom was also present the Bishop of Durham, in this
manner he beginneth." This has been supposed by
some to indicate that he was under accusation of
heresy, and had been called to Newcasde to make
his defence. But though it is not unlikely that his

THE ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON FRA YER. 43
doctrine had been objected to by Tunstall, yet the
Council of the North was not an ecclesiastical tribunal,
and there is nothing in the whole address to imply that
the speaker was upon his trial. The truth seems rather
to have been that the members of the Council invited
him to declare and enforce his opinions concerning the
mass before an audience which filled the great church
of St. Nicholas.
The argument of his discourse on this occasion was
an amplification of the following syllogism : " all wor
shipping, honouring, or service, invented by the brain of
man, in the religion of God, without His express com
mandment is idolatry : the mass is invented by the
brain of man without any commandment of God ; there
fore, the mass is idolatry.'' The ground here taken was
identical with that which he had defended against
Arbuckle, and is distinctively different from the position
which, in the very same year, was taken by Cranmer in
his " Defence of the true Catholic Doctrine of the
Sacrament" The Anglican primate meant by idolatry
the substitution of a false God for the true, as in the
adoration of the host, for the real body, blood, soul and
divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ But by the same
term, as his major premise makes abundantly evident,
Knox designated that which we should call now con
structive idolatry, namely, "the invention of strange
worshippings of God, introduced without any warrant
from His word ; " or what the Westminster divines
meant, when in their Shorter Catechism in answer to the

44 JOHN KNOX.
question, " What is forbidden in the second command
ment?" they reply, "The worshipping of God by
images, or any other way not appointed in His word."
With Cranmer the word meant the worshipping as God
of that which is no God ; with Knox it denoted the
worshipping of God in a manner invented by men and
unauthorized by God. Cranmer was the father of the
Anglican churchmen ; Knox was the earliest, and by no
means the least noteworthy, of the Puritans, for the
principle which he advocated was one which he was as
ready to apply to ceremonies in the reformed churches
as to the idolatries of the Romish worship. The utter
ance of these sentiments by him at this time marks the
beginning of that movement which has continued even
until now, and whicli in its progress, among other less
conspicuous results, called into existence the various
nonconforming churches of England ; inspired the cove
nanters of Scotland to begin and carry through their long
and painful struggle with the second Charles ; widened
the civil liberties of Great Britain ; and planted the seed
from which the American Republic has grown into
stateliness and strength.
Its more immediate personal effect, as we have con
jectured, was the transference of Knox from Berwick to
Newcastle, where he continued to administer word and
sacraments in the same manner as he had been accus
tomed to follow. On the banks of the Tyne he was
as faithful and fearless in his pulpit utterances, and as
simple in his ritual observances, as he had been on the

THE ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER. 45
banks of the Tweed. " God is witness," said he in a
letter to his Newcasde friends, written by him from the
continent in 1558; "and I refuse not your own judg
ments, how simply and uprighUy I conversed and walked
among you, that neither for fear did I spare to speak the
simple truth unto you; neither for hope of worldly
promotion, dignity, or honour, did I wittingly adulterate
any part of God's Scriptures, whether it were in
exposition, in preaching, contention, or wridng ; but
that simply and plainly, as it pleased the merciful good
ness of my God to give unto me the utterance, under
standing, and spirit, I did distribute the bread of life, as
of Christ Jesus I had received it;"' and again, "How
oft have ye assisted to baptism ? How oft have ye been
partakers of the Lord's Table prepared, and used, and
ministered, in all simplicity, not as a man had devised,
neither as the king's proceedings did allow, but as Christ
Jesus did institute, and as it is evident that Saint Paul
did practise ? " ^ How it came that he was permitted
to administer the sacrament in that manner does not
appear ; but the fact that he did so is incontrovertible,
and that he did not stand quite alone in taking such a
course is evident from these words in Becon's " Display
ing of the Mass," written in the reign of Queen Mary :
" How oft have I seen here, in England, people sitting
at the Lord's Table ! " It is well known also that the
opinions of Hooper, on this subject, were in full accord
with those of Knox ; and though we have not been able
1 Lorimer, p. 73. ^ Ibid., p. 74

46 fOHN KNOX.
to find any distinct statement that he had actually
reduced them to practice, yet it is all but certain that he
did so.
But in any case his nonconformity in the matter of
kneeling did not keep Knox from attaining a prominent
place among the leaders of his time, for in December,
155 1, six months after he had been stationed at New
castle, he was appointed one of King Edward the Sixth's
chaplains, who were six in number, and all of whom
were selected because they were " accounted the most
zealous and ready preachers of that time." This pre
ferment was a recognition of the ability which Knox
had shown. It added much to his consideration and
weight in the social scale, while it gave him an
opportunity of making his influence felt in ecclesiastical
affairs in a manner which has left its mark on the
English Prayer-Book even until the present day. To
understand how this came about, it is needful to bear
in mind that the Second or Revised Book of Common
Prayer was completed at the press in August, 1552, and
had been appointed by the Parliament of that year to
come into lise in the churches on the first day of
November. Into that book had been reintroduced
from the "order of communion,'' published in 1548,1
' Dr. Lorimer has said (p. 31) that "in both the formularies
recently set forth," the Order of Communion in 1548 and the
"Book of Common Prayer" in 1549, the practice of kneeling in
the Lord's Supper had been retained ; and on a subsequent page
(112) that "in the Second Prayer-Book of King Edward 'VI. a
rubric had for the first time been inserted appointing the Lord's

THE ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER. 47
the injunction that the people should receive the bread
and wine "kneeling." That had, indeed, been the
accustomed posture before, but no instruction for its
observance had been contained in the First Prayer-Book
published in 1549. There the directions are thus given :
" Then shall the priest first receive the communion in
both kinds himself, and next deliver it to other ministers,
if any be there present (that they may be ready to help
the chief minister), and after to the people.'' But in
the two years immediately following the publicadon of
that First Prayer-Book, discussion on the posture at
the Lord's Table had been brought up, and as Cranmer,
Ridley, and the most of the other Reforming Bishops
were opposed to the views and practices of Knox,
Hooper, and others, they deemed it advisable to fore
close debate and put an end to diversity of order by an
authoritative injunction. For this purpose, in the
Prayer-Book in 1552 the rubric was made to read thus :
"Then shall the minister first receive the communion
in both kinds himself, and next deliver it to the other
Supper to be administered to the communicants in a kneeling
posture." But these statements are not made with that author's
usual accuracy. For the "Order of Communion" reads thus:
"Then shall the priest rise, the people still reverently kneeling,
and the priest shall deliver the communion, first to the ministeis,
if any be there present, that they may help the chief minister, and
after to the others." But in the " Book " of 1549, the rubric is as
we give it in the text. 'What the motive was for the omission of
kneeling in the Book of 1549 it is not easy to say, but the fact of its
omission is undoubted. (See " The Two Liturgies," by Rev. Joseph
Kelley, p. 92.)

48 JOHN KNOX.
ministers, if any be there present (that they may help
the chief m.inister), and after to the people, in their
hands, kneeling." Thus it came about that what had
been left undefined in the former book was expressly
limited in the new one ; and, therefore, though in other
respects the latter was much more in harmony with the
sentiments of Knox, it was in this less tolerant than the
former. When, therefore, Knox was appointed to preach
before the king in the autumn of that year, having
probably seen one of the first-issued copies of the book,
he took occasion to enter fully into the discussion of the
mode of administering the communion, and his discourse
was not without immediate effect, for in a letter of
John Utenhovius to Henry Bullinger, dated October 12,
1552, the writer says : 1 "Some disputes have arisen
among the bishops, within these few days, in conse
quence of a sermon by a pious preacher, chaplain to
the Duke of Northumberland, preached by him, before
the king and Council, in which he inveighed with great
freedom against kneeling at the Lord's Supper, which
is still retained here in England. This good man, how
ever, a Scotsman by nation, has so wrought upon the
minds of many that we may hope some good to the
church will at length arise from it, which I earnestly
implore the Lord to grant" Now there can be no
doubt that the preacher here referred to was Knox,
who as having been in contact with Northumberland as
Warden-General of the border counties, might easily be
' Lorimer, p. 98.

THE ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER. 49
mistaken by a foreigner for the chaplain of that noble
man. Other facts to be taken in connection with the
information furnished by Utenhovius are the following ;!
In the Record of the Privy Council, under date 26 th
September, 1552, there is an order to Grafton, the
printer, forbidding him to issue any copies of the new
Prayer-Book; and commanding that if any had been
already distributed to his fellow-publishers they should
" not be put abroad until certain faults therein had been
corrected." Clearly therefore, as copies of the book had
been sold, it was possible for Knox to have obtained
one, and as Lorimer says, " none would be more eager
purchasers than those ministers of the Church who were
most zealous for reform.'' Meetings of the Council
were held on October 4th and 6th, at one or other of
which objections to the rubric seem to have been made,
probably as the result of Knox's sermon, and to have
been referred to Cranmer for his review. On October
7th, Cranmer wrote to the Council in vindication of the
rubric on kneeling, a letter which purports to be a reply
to certain objections against it which had been forwarded
to him by its members. On the agenda paper of the
business to be transacted at the meeting of the Council
on the 2oth of October, and which still exists in the
handwriting of Cecil, there is a line to this effect :
" Mr. Knocks— b of Caf''— ye book in ye B of Durh"","
and at that very meeting, as we learn from the Record,
"a letter was directed to Messrs. Harlej', Bill, Horn,
1 Lorimer, p. 109.

5° JOHN KNOX.
Grindal, Pern, and Knox, to consider certain articles
exhibited to the King's Majesty, to be subscribed by all
such as shall be admitted to be preachers or ministers
in any part of the realm, and to make report of their
opinions touching the same." These articles, therefore,
must have come at this time into Knox's hands, and,
though many of them must have received his cordial
endorsement, there was one of them which he could not
have approved ; that, namely, which contained this
clause : " and as to the character of the ceremonies,
they are repugnant in nothing to the wholesome liberty
of the gospel, if they are judged from their own nature,
but very well agree with it, and in very many respects
further the same in a high degree." How could Knox,
after his recent sermon on kneeling in the Lord's Supper,
give his sanction to that article ? Manifestly he would
feel that he must protest against such an assertion as
it contained ; and then, as Lorimer says, " the thought
would seem to have flashed upon him that he had now
another and quite an unexpected opportunity of making
a fresh appeal to the king and Council on that very
question of the rubric on kneeling, which was still
apparently in dependence. There was still time to make
one more attempt In addition to his judgment upon
the articles at large, which need not go to the Council
so quickly, what if he should single out this 38th Article
and make it the subject of a separate representation,
and distinguishing between the ceremony of kneeling
and all the rest; what if he should confine the bulk

THE ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 51
of his representations to this single point, which was
now the only one in which it was feasible to look for
any immediate alteration ? " That at least was done
by the memorial, which by its authors is called their
confession in regard to the 38th Article, and which
Lorimer has printed for the first time in his appendix.
No names are subscribed to the document, but the first
portion of it bears strong internal evidence of having
been the production of Knox ; and though in other
parts there are traces, as the painstaking editor thinks,
of the hands of Thomas Becon and Roger Hutchinson,
we agree with him in believing that every one who
examines the whole statement with care will conclude
"that whatever Englishman may have joined him in the
memorial, and whatever they may have contributed to
its substance of thought, it was Knox himself who held
the pen." This memorial could have been of no use
after the final action of the Council on the matter of
"kneeling;'' and it was evidently called forth by the
reference of the articles to the royal chaplains, there
fore it must have been prepared between the 20th
and 27th October, and must have been presented to
the meeting of the Council on the latter of these
two dates, on which also, and we may conclude as
the result of the arguments contained in the memorial,
the " Declaration on Kneeling,'' which has all the marks
of the style of Cranmer, and which therefore had
probably been sent by him to the Council as a
suggested compromise, was adopted, and ordered to be

52 JOHN KNOX.
inserted in the forthcoming book. This accounts for
the circumstance mentioned by the editor of " The Two
Liturgies " in a note, that the paragraph in question " is
printed on a separate leaf in some copies, and as is
evident from the signatures, was added afterwards." In
one copy, "the leaf is pasted in after the copy was
bound, and several copies are without it" Now putting
all these things together, the conclusion is not only
legitimate but inevitable, that the insertion of the
declaration on kneeling in the Prayer-Book was due
to the agency of Knox, more probably than to that
of any other man. As Lorimer writes (p. 121), "The
compromise prevailed, but apparently there would not
have been so much as a compromise obtained if the
' confession ' had not been thrown into the scale at the
very last moment . . . His last blow had the effect
of overcoming the resistance to all further change which
a majority of the Council had hitherto maintained."
Hence, though we may not approve of the spirit in
which Weston uttered the words, or accept either his
description of Knox or his designation of the doctrine
on which he insisted, yet he was correct as to the matter
of fact when he said, "a renegade Scot did take away
the adoration and worshipping of Christ in the sacra
ment, by whose procurement that heresy was put into
the last communion book ; so much prevailed that one
man's authority at that time."
The Declaration itself was in the following words : —
" Although no order can be so perfectly devised, but it

THE ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 53
may be of some, either for their ignorance and infirmity,
or else of malice and obstinacy, misconstrued, depraved,
and interpreted in a wrong part : And yet, because
brotherly charity willeth, that so much as conveniendy
may be, offences should be taken away ; therefore we
willing to do the same : Whereas it is ordained in the
Book of Common Prayer, in the administration of the
Lord's Supper, that the communicants kneeling should
receive the Holy Communion : which thing being well
meant, for a signification of the humble and grateful
acknowledging of the benefits of Christ, given unto the
worthy receiver, and to avoid the profanation and dis
order, which about the Holy Communion might else
ensue : lest yet the same kneeling might be thought or
taken otherwise, we do declare that it is not meant there
by, that any adoration is done, or ought to be done,
either unto the sacramental bread and wine there bodily
received, or to any real and essential presence there
being of Christ's natural flesh and blood. For as con
ceming the sacramental bread and wine, they remain
still in their very natural substances, and therefore may
not be adored, for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of
all faithful Christians. And as concerning the natural
body and blood of our Saviour Christ they are in heaven
and not here. For it is against the truth of Christ's true
natural body, to be in more places than in one at one
time." Opinions will of course differ as to whether in
this matter the influence of Knox was beneficial or the
reverse. We are writing biography, not a treatise on

54 JOHN KNOX.
theology, and what we have been seeking to show is the
share that Knox had in the English Reformation.
Sacramentarians generally will agree in styling the
Declaration which we have quoted " the black rubric,"
but for ourselves we have no hesitation in avowing our
agreement with Lorimer that "there is nothing in the
whole English Liturgy which is, to say the least, more
Protestant ; " and it may be well, to give completeness to
our reference to the subject, that we should add that
author's very condensed summary of the subsequent
history of this famous rubric. " At the accession of
Elizabeth it was dropped out of the Prayer-Book, along
with that portion of the 35th Article upon which it
rested ; and it remained outside the Liturgy for a
hundred years. And why? Simply because its
omission was judged as important by the Church'?
leaders then as its insertion had been at first
Elizabeth's church policy was a comprehensive policy,
and neither James I. nor Charles I. had any wish to
depart from it She wished, and so did her council and
first Parliament, to make it as easy as possible for the
Roman party to continue in the National Church, but
she and they knew that such a comprehension was
impossible as long as the " Declaration on Kneeling "
remained in the Prayer-Book. Its insertion had taken
place in order to " comprehend " the Puritan party, to
the exclusion of the Romanists ; and now its omission
took place in order to comprehend the Romanists, at the
risk of driving out the Puritans. But why do we now

THE ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 55
find the " Declaration " restored to its old place ? What
was the motive of so remarkable a rehabilitation in
1662? It is easy to discern it The circle of church
evolution and change had then returned into itself. In
1662 the old policy of conciliating and comprehending
the Puritans instead of the Catholics was again in
season — was again the key of the situation. To this
policy the " Declaration on Kneeling " was again indis
pensable, and again, therefore, this most remarkable
rubric was restored, in substantially the same form, to its
vacant place. Nor has its history yet exhausted itself.
It has retained its recovered place through all the
changes of the last two centuries only to come forward
into new significance and importance in our own day.
The last chapter of its history was written only the other
day in the long discussion and the fateful decision of the
Bennett case. Its simple but trenchant language was
often quoted in the pleadings, and passed into the body
of the judgment itself: "As concerning the natural
body and blood of our Saviour Christ they are in heaven,
not here : for it is against the truth of Christ's true
natural body to be in more places than in oue at one
time.'' But the memorial to the Privy Council, which we have
traced to Knox, prevailed also so far as to secure a
modification of the article on ceremonies, which,
originally numbered as the 3Sth, came out owing to
some minor condensations as the 35th, and took this
ultimate shape — (we give Lorimer's translation from

S6 JOHN KNOX.
the Latin) — "The book which of very late time was
given to the Church of England by the king's authority
and the Parliament, containing the manner and form of
praying and ministering the sacraments in the Church
of England, likewise also the book of ordering ministers
of the Church set forth by the foresaid authority, are
godly, and iu no point repugnant to the wholesome
doctrine of the gospel, but agreeable thereunto, further
ing and beautifying the same not a little ; and therefore
of all faithful members of the Church of England, and
chiefly of the ministers of the Lord, they ought to be
received and allowed with all readiness of mind and
thanksgiving, and to be commended to the people
of God." ' When this is compared with the clause
formerly given it will be seen that what before was said
of the " ceremonies " is here restricted to the
" doctrine," and that everything to which the memorial
had taken exception is omitted.
But though the insertion of the Declaration on Kneel
ing into the Prayer-Book satisfied one of the conditions
which, in his letter to his Berwick friends, Knox had
laid down as essential to his conforming to "common
Order" : it did not meet the others, and so he steadily
refused to accept a formal charge in the Churcli of
England. At the very time when the Council was
' For the full discussion of this subject we refer to Dr. Lorimer's
monograph, "John Knox ancl the Church of England," a most
valuable and original contribution to English Ecclesiastical history,
though the absence of an index makes it less serviceable to the
student than such a work should be.

THE ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER. 57
engaged in the discussions which we have just mentioned,
the Duke of Northumberland wrote from Chelsea, under
date October 27th, 1552, to Secretary Cecil, in these
words : 1 " I would to God it might please the King's
majesty to appoint Mr. Knox to the office of Rochester
bishopric, which for three reasons would be very well.
First : he would not only be a whetstone to quicken
and sharp the Bishop of Canterbury, whereof he hath
need, but also would be a great confounder of the
Anabaptists lately sprung up in Kent. Secondly, he
shoidd not continue the ministration in the north, con
trary to this set forth here '' (meaning to the usual form
prescribed at this time). " Thirdly, the family of the
Scots now inhabiting in Newcastle, chiefly for his fellow
ship, would not continue there, wherein many resort to
them out of Scotland, which is not requisite." These
are certainly rather strange reasons why Knox should be
promoted to a bishopric, but they prove not only that
he had acted an independent part in Newcastle, but also
that his fame had gone so widely over Scotland that
imdtitudes of his fellow-countrymen were attracted to
that place for the sake of enjoying his ministrations.
But he would not be made a bishop, and he must have
expressed his refusal with all his wonted plainness of
speech, for a few weeks later, on the 7 th December,
Northumberland writes to the same correspondent :
" Master Knox's being here to speak with me, saying
he was so willed by you ; I do return him again,
• Lorimer, pp. 149-150.

$8 JOHN KNOX.
because I love not to have to do with men which be
neither grateful nor pleasable. ' ^ So his grace is minded
to put the case ; but with his former letter in our hands
we can see that gratitude in his vocabulary meant falling
in with his individual plans, and " pleasableness " was
with him a synonym for " squeezeableness."
In the following February (1553) Knox was offered
the Vicarage of All Hallows in Bread Street (London);
but that also he declined, and we have from die pen of
Calderwood an account of what occurred in connection
with that^ " In a letter, dated the 14th of April, 1553,
and written with his own hand, I find," says that author,
" that he was called before the Council of England for
kneeling, who demanded of him three questions. First,
why he refused the benefice provided for him ? secondly,
whether he thought that no Christian might serve in the
ecclesiastical ministration according to the rites and laws
of the realm of England? thirdly, if kneeling at the
Lord's Table was not indifferent ? To the first he
answered, that his conscience did witness that he might
profit more in some other place than in London ; and
therefore had no pleasure to accept any office in the
same. Howbeit, he might have answered otherwise, that
he refused that parsonage because of my Lord of North
umberland's command. To the second, that many
things were worthy of reformation in the ministry of
England, without the reformation whereof no minister
' Lorimer, p. 151.
* See Laing : " Knox's 'Works," vol. iii. pp. 86-7.

THE ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER. 59
did discharge, or could discharge, his conscience before
God ; for no minister in England had authority to divide
and separate the lepers from the whole, which was a
chief point of his offi.ce ; yet did he not refuse such
oflice as might appear to promote God's glory in utter
ance of Christ's gospel in a mean degree, where more he
might edify by preaching of die true word than hinder
by sufferance of manifest iniquity, seeing that reforma
tion of manners did not appertain to all ministers. To
the third he answered, that Christ's action in itself was
most perfect, and Christ's action was done without
kneeling ; that kneeling was man's addition or imagina
tion ; that it was most sure to follow the example of
Christ, v.'hose action was done sitting and not kneeling.
In this last question there was great contention betwixt
the whole table of the lords and hitn. There were
present there the Bishops of Canterbury and Ely, my
Lord Treasurer, the Marquis of Northampton, the Earl
of Bedford, the Earl of Shrewsbury, Master Comptroller,
my Lord Chamberlain, both the Secretaries, and other
inferior lords. After long reasoning, it was said unto
him that he was not called of any evil mind ; that they
were sorry to know him of a contrary mind to the com
mon Order. He answered that he was more sorry that
a common Order should be contrary to Christ's insti
tution. Widi some gentle speeches he was dismissed,
and willed to advise with himself if he would communi
cate after that Order." But, unlike Hooper, who, after
a long controversy about vestments and a brief imprison-

6o JOHN KNOX.
ment for his refusal to wear them, accepted the bishopric
of Gloucester, vestments and all, only however to suffer
martyrdom at last under Queen Mary, Knox remained
steadfast to the position which he had taken up ; and,
refusing a permanent charge, which would have required
him to give his assent and consent to the Articles, and
to conform to the common Order, he was sent in June,
1553, as one ofthe itinerary preachers into Buckingham
shire, where he laboured with great zeal and assiduity
for some weeks.
In the interval between October, 1552, and March,
1553, we find that Knox had been back at Newcastle,
where he was bitterly opposed by Sir Robert Brandling,
the Mayor, whose zeal was checked, liowever, by the
agency of Lord Wharton, then Lord Warden of the
North, at the suggestion of Northumberland ; and there
are some interesting letters belonging to this portion of
his life which give us delightful glimpses into his heart
and habits. In one >ve see him " sitting at his book,"
and contempladng Matthew's Gospel by the help of
" some most godly expositions, and among the rest
Chrysostom." In another he writes, " This day ye know
to be the day of my study and prayer to God." And in
a third, written to Mrs. Bowes from London, whither he
had been summoned in haste before the Privy Council,
we have this record : " The very instant hour that your
letters were presented unto me was I talking of you, by
reason that three honest poor women were come to me,
and were complaining their great infirmity, and were

THE ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 6i
showing unto me the great assaults of the enemy, and I
was opening the causes and commodities thereof, where
by all our eyes wept at once ; and I was praying unto
God that you and some others had been there with me
for the space of two hours, and even at that instant came
your letters to my hands, whereof the part I read unto
them ; and one of them said, ' Oh would to God I might
speak with that person, for I perceive there be more
tempted than I.' " Thus amid the multiplicity and
weight of his public labours he did not neglect either the
study or the closet ; and the weeping Knox, seeking to
comfort those that were cast down, is a picture that must
seem strange to many who know little more about him
than that his fortitude made Mary Stuart shed tears of
wounded pride and disappointed ambition.
In April he preached in the Chapel Royal before the
young king, and inveighed in the strongest terms against
Northumberland and Paulet, finishing one of his scath
ing passages in this way: "Was David and Hezekiah,
princes of great and godly gifts and experience, abused
by crafty counsellors and dissembling hypocrites ? What
wonder is it, then, that a young and innocent king
be deceived by crafty, cdvetous, wicked, and ungodly
counsellors? I am greatly afraid that Ahithophel be
councillor, that Judas bear the purse, and that Shebna
be scribe, comptroller and treasurer." The pulpit in
those days had to discharge the dudes of public criti
cism on politics and morals, which are now much more
appropriately performed by the press ; and so, as Froude

62 JOHN KNOX.
remarks, " since discipline could not be restored, Knox,
and those who felt with him the enormities of the times,
established, by their own authority, this second form of
excommunication." It was then perhaps a necessity,
but it is always, more or less, a dangerous thing for a
minister to do ; and it must be admitted that Knox was
not always just in such philippics. But he was always
conscientious, and he was always brave ; and he well
knew at the moment the risk which he was running. In
¦ the present case, if little good came out of it to the
country, no harm resulted from it to himself; for, as we
have seen, he was shortly afterwards engaged to preach
in Buckingharaslrire. And there he laboured on, like
another Jeremiah, forecasting evils which none of his
hearers would believe could happen, until at the death
of Edward the Sixth, on the 6th of July, 1553, they were
rudely awakened from their sleep of security.
Such was Knox's share in the working out of the
English Reformation ; and we have dwelt thus long
upon it because the facts which we have stated have
only recently been brought to light ; and because we
wished to set forth with as much clearness as condensa
tion would allow the opinions which were held, and the
mode of worship which was observed, by him, even at
this early stage in his history. If Knox did something
for England, England did much also for him. If he was
instrumental in keeping the Church of that country from
greater affinity with Romanism than it might otherwise
have shown, there can be no doubt that the evil effects

THE ENGLISH BOOK OF COMMON PRA YER. 63
of compromise as witnessed by him there helped to
make him more thorough in his later work in Scotland ;
while it is also most true that during his residence there
his contact with the Christian people whom he met did
something to soften and sweeten his piety, and to make
it more inward and sympathising. Most of all, God was
preparing him by it for the great work which he was
afterwards to perform in his native land ; and his years
of service in England were blessed in securing for him
the friendship and confidence of her ablest statesmen,
without whose assistance, humanly speaking, Scodand
might have been lost to Protestantism in the very crisis
of her history.

D

CHAPTER V.
Last Days in E.mgland, 1553.
URING the last illness of the young King Edward,
Knox, as we have seen, received a commission to
go upon a preaching tour in the county of Buckingham,
where, like an old Hebrew prophet, he warned his
hearers of the coming crisis. He was back in London,
however, as we learn from the date of the first of his
published letters, on the 23id of June (1553); but be
fore the death of his majesty, which happened on the
6th of July, he had returned to Buckinghamshire, and
there, at Amersham, on the 16th of that month, he
preached a sermon suited to the times in the very thick
of the turmoil caused by the dispute as to the succes
sion to the crown. The Duke of Northumberland had
presumed to set the Lady Jane Dudley on the throne,
but Mary Tudor's adherents could not brook such dis
loyalty to their mistress, and had already entered on
that struggle which ended in the collapse of the reign of
" the twelfth-day Queen." The county of Bucks, as
Froude tells us, "both Catholic and Protestant," was
"arming to the teeth." Sir Edward Hastings had called

LAST DAYS IN ENGLAND. 65
out its musters, in Mary's name, and had been joined
i^y Peckham, the cofferer of the royal household, who
had gone off with the treasure under his charge, so
that the Reformer was speaking " at the peril of his
life among the troopers of Hastings." Nevertheless,
nothing daunted, he thus apostrophised the land:i "O
England ! now is God's wrath kindled against thee.
Now hath He begun to punish as He hath threatened a
long while by His true prophets and messengers. He
hath taken from thee the crown of thy glory, and hath
left thee without honour as a body without a head. And
this appeareth to be only the beginning of sorrows,
¦which appeareth to increase. For I perceive that the
heart, the tongue, and the hand of one Englishman is
bent against another, and division to be in the whole
realm, which is an assured sign of desolation to come.
O England I England ! dost thou not consider that thy
commonwealth is like a ship sailing on the sea ; if thy
mariners and governors shall one consume another, shalt
thou not suffer shipwreck in short process of time? O
England ! England ! alas these plagues are poured upon
thee, for that thou wouldest not know the most happy
time of thy gentle visitation. But wilt thou yet obey the
voice of thy God and submit thyself to His holy words ?
Truly if thou wilt, thou shalt find mercy in His sight, and
the estate of thy commonwealth shall be preserved. But
if thou obstinately wilt return into Egypt, that is, if thou
contract marriage, confederacy, and league with such
1 " Works," vol. iii. pp. 30S-9. F

66 JOHN KNOX.
princes as do maintain and advance idolatry (such as
the Emperor, which is no less enemy unto Christ than
ever was Nero) ; if for the pleasure and friendship (I
say) of sucii princes thou return to thine old abomina-
t.ons, before used under the papistry, then assuredly, O
England, thou shalt be plagued and brought to desola
tion by the means of those whose favour thou seekest,
and by whom diou art procured to fall from Christ and
to serve Antichrist." These were bold words. Some
of them, indeed, might be called rash, and, as we shall
see, furnished a weapon for his adversaries at a future
day ; but there was no quailing in the heart of him who
uttered them, and the sting of them after all was in
their truth.
From Amersham he went up to London, where on the
19th of July he was a witness of the great outburst of
popidar enthusiasm with which Mary was welcomed to
the throne ; but he could not share in the wild delight
of the multitude, for as he tells us himself, "in London,
in more places than one, when fires of joy and riotous
banqueting were at die proclamation of Mary," his
tongue was vehement in declaring his forebodings of the
storm Avhich was so soon to break. On the 26 th of
July he wrote to Mrs. Bowes from Carlisle, and again
on the 25th of September we find him writing to her on
his return to London from Kent, where he seems to
have been labouring for some weeks. The dates indi
cate that he was both "in labours a'oundant'' and "in
journeyings often," and show that he had little reason to

LAST DA YS IN ENGLAND. 67
upbraid himself, as in «ne of his writings referring to
this time he does, for '"allowing the love of friends
and carnal affection for some men more than others to
allure him to make more residence in one place than
another, thus having more respect to the pleasure of a
few than to the necessity of many, and not sufficiently
considering how many hungry souls were in other places
to whom none took pains to break and distribute the
bread of life." But he was ere long to be " in peril "
as well as labour. From the first he had augured nothing
but evil from the accession of Mary, and it is to his
honour that with such misgivings in his heart, he was at
this very time in the habit of using in the pulpit a prayer
of singular beauty and comprehensiveness, in which we
find this petition : " Illuminate the heart of our Sove
reign Lady Queen Mary with pregnant gifts of the Holy
Ghost, and influence the hearts of her council with Thy
true fear and love." As the months rolled round, liow
ever, it became only too apparent that England would
no longer be a safe place for him. The door of oppor
tunity which Edward had opened was speedily closed
by Mary. In August, indeed, she issued a proclamation
giving toleration to all meanwhile, forbidding her Pro
testant and Catholic subjects to interrupt each other's
services, yet prohibiting all preaching on either side with
out licence from herself But in November, under the
influence of the violent reaction which had set in, and
in obedience to the opinion of the people, three-fourths
of whom were sdll attached to the old religion, the

68 JOHN KNOX.
Commons, by a vote of 350 to 80, enacted that from the
20th December following there should be no other form
of service in the churches but what had been used in
the last year of Henry the Eighth, and leaving it free to
all up dll that date to use either of the books appointed
by Edward or the old one at their pleasure. Up till the
day thus specified, therefore, Knox was comparatively
safe, and during that time he was probably in London a
guest in the families of the Lockes and the Hickmans,
with whose members he afterwards corresponded. It
was in this interval also, as seems most probable, that
he began to prepare his exposition of the sixth Psalm,
and his " godly letter to the faithful in London, New
casde, Berwick, and all others within the realm of
England that love the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,"
both of which were afterwards finished in France.
From London he went to Newcastle, whence on the
22nd of December he wrote to Mrs. Bowes a letter
which contains a postscript to this effect : " I may not
answer the places of Scripture, nor yet write the exposi
tion of the sixth Psalm, for every day of this week must
I preach, if this wicked carcase will permit." But
dangers began to thicken around him ; for in the end
of December or beginning of January, his servant was
seized as he carried letters from him to Mrs. Bowes and
her daughter, in the expectation of finding something in
them that might furnish matter of accusation against
him. They contained nothing but religious advices and
such things as he was prepared to avpw before any tri-

LAST DA YS IN ENGLAND. 69
bunal in the country, but fearing that the report of the
matter might cause uneasiness to his friends at Berwick,
ne set out to visit them in person. On the way, how
ever, he was met by some of the relatives of his be
trothed, who prevailed on him to relinquish his intention,
and to retire to a place of safety on the coast, from
which, if necessary, he might escape out of the country
by sea. From this retreat he wrote to his friends, say
ing that " his brethren had, partly by tears and partly
by admonition, compelled him to obey, somewhat con
trary to his own mind, for never could he die in a more
honest quarrel than by suffering as a witness for that
truth of which God had made him a messenger," yet
promising if Providence prepared the way to do as his
counsellors advised, and "give place to the fury and rage
of Satan for a time.'' So when he became satisfied that
the apprehensions of his friends were well founded, he
procured a vessel which landed him safely at Dieppe on
the 2oth of January, 1554. What his pecuniary circum
stances at this time were may be inferred from these
words in a letter to his future mother-in-law : " I will
not make you privy how rich I ara, but ofi {i.e. from)
London I departed with less money than ten groats ;
but God has since provided, and vvill provide I doubt
not hereafter abundantly for this life. Either the
Queen's Majesty or some treasurer will be forty pounds
richer by me, for so much lack I of duty of my patents
(that is, salary as Royal Chaplain), but that little troubles
me,'' And more interesting even than that glim: s-'

70 JOHN KNOX.
into his poverty is the recital of his feelings toward
England in a letter to the same correspondent written
just before his embarkation : " My daily prayer is for
the sore afflicted in those quarters. Some time I have
thought that it had been impossible so to have removed
my affection from Scotland that any realm or nation
could have been equally dear unto me ; but I take God
to record in my conscience that the troubles present
and appearing to be in the realm of England are doubly
more dolorous unto my heart than ever were the troubles
of Scodand."
Thus Knox parted from the realm of England. Had
he remained much longer in it, he would most probably
have shared the fate of Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and
the " noble army," whom Mary's intolerance " chased
up to heaven." But God had other work for him to do,
and it was well for Scotland that he listened to the en
treaty of those who counselled him when he was " perse
cuted in one country '' to " flee to another " ; so it came
about that for a brief season he found refuge in that
land wherein only a few years before he had been a
galley-slave.

CPIAPTER VL
First Days of Exile, 1554.
FROM England Knox went to Dieppe, where he
sojourned at this time for a month, and finished
his exposition of the sixth Psalm, the first instalment of
which he had sent to Mrs. Bowes just before leaving
the shores of Britain. This production was piimirily
designed for the consolation and encouragement of that
lady, who, as we have already hinted, seems to have
been afflicted with religious melancholy. Apparently
slie was one of those, of whom every pastor has had
some experience, who believe that God has cast them
off, and who while "fearing the Lord," yet "walk in
darkness and have no light" Her life was one constant
wrestle with spiritual depression, by which her intimate
friends were afflicted almost as much as she was herself
Knox dealt with her most tenderly, and under the influ
ence of his wise words she regained her comfort for a
time, but after a litde she was in the depths again,
and the whole process had to be gone over with her
anew. Had she lived in modern days, a prudent friend
would have counselled her to consult a skilful physician,
71

72 JOHN KNOX.
and would have sought to combine medical treatment
with religious advice. We cannot wonder, however, that
we have nothing in this tractate bearing on that aspect
of the matter. The writer deals throughout with the
malady as spiritual, but he treats it most wisely, and the
great well of tenderness in his heart reveals itself to the
reader in such a passage as the following : ^ " These
things put I you in mind of, beloved mother, that albeit
your pains sometimes be so horrible that no release nor
comfort ye find neither in spirit nor yet in body, yet if
the heart can only sob unto God, despair not, 30U shall
obtain your heart's desire, and destitute you are not of
faith. For at such time as the flesh, natural reason, the
law of God, the present torment, and the devil at once
do cry God is angry, and therefore is there neither help
nor remedy to be hoped for at His hands ; at such
time, I say, to sob unto God is the demonstration of
the secret seed of God which is hid in God's elect
children, and that only sob is unto God a more accept
able sacrifice than, without this cross, to give our bodies
to be burned even for the truth's sake." Very compre
hensive also is this expansion of the second petition of
the Lord's Prayer in the same treatise." " We are com
manded daily to pray, ' Thy kingdom come,' which
petition asketh that sin may cease, that death may be
devoured, that transitory troubles may have an end, that
Satan may be trodden under our feet, that the whole
1 " 'Works," vol. iii. p. 137,
« Ibid., p. 128.

FIRST DA YS OF EXILE. 73
body of Christ may be restored to life, liberty, and joy,
that the powers and kingdoms of this earth may be dis
solved and destroyed, and that God the Father may be
all in all things, after that His Son Christ Jesus, the
Saviour, hath rendered up the kingdom for ever." And
in these days when so much is written, both wise and
otherwise, on the subject of eschatology, some interest
may be felt in the following " bit " of exposition. " ' For
there is no remembrance of Thee in death ; who laudeth
Thee in the pit ? ' As (if) David would say, ' O Lord,
how shall I pray and declare Thy goodness when I am
dead, and gone into the grave ? It is not the ordinary
course to have Thy miracles and wondrous works
preached unto men by those that are buried and gone
down into the pit Those that are dead make no
mention of Thee in the earth, and therefore, O Lord,
spare Thy servant, that yet for a time I may show and
witness Thy wondrous works unto mankind.' These
most godly affections in David did engender in him a
vehement horror and fear of death, besides that which
is natural and common to all men, because he perfectly
understood that by death he shall be lettit (hindered)
any further to advance the glory of God. Of the same
he complaineth most vehemenUy in the 88th Psalm,
where apparenUy he taketh from them that are dead,
sense, remembrance, feeling, and understanding, alleging
that God worketh no miracles by the dead, that the
goodness of God cannot be preached in the grave, nor
His faith in perdition, and that His marvellous works

74 JOHN KNOX.
are not known in darkness. By which speeches we may
not understand that David taketh all sense and feeling
from the dead, neither yet that they who are dead in
Christ are in such estate that by God they have not
consolation and life. No ; Christ Himself doth witness
the contrary. But David so vehemendy depresses their
estate and condition, because that after death they are
deprived from (of) all ordinary ministration in the Ki«k
of God. None of those that are departed are appointed
to be preachers of God's glory unto mankind. But after
death they cease any more to advance God's holy name
here among the living on earth, and so shall even they
in that behalf be unprofitable to the congregation as
touching anything that they can do, either in body or
soul after death. And therefore most earnestly desired
David to live in Israel for the further manifestation of
God's glory."!
Appended to this tract there is the date " upon the
very point of my journey, the last of February, 1553(4),
so that Knox left Dieppe about the beginning of March,
but before his departure he finished and transmitted
the first of that series of admonitions and consolatory
epistles which during his exile on the continent he ad
dressed to his friends in England, and from which we
have already quoted so many passages throwing light
upon his labours among them. This earliest of the
series is entitled '¦' A Godly Letter of Warning or Admo
nition to the Faithftd in London, Newcastle, and Ber-
1 " Works," vol. iii. pp. 151-2.

FIRST DA YS OF EXILE. 75
wick," and is written in a strain of burning and impas
sioned expostulation. It is mainly founded on the
sermon preached by Jeremiah to the princes and all the
people of Judah in the beginning of the reign of Jehoia
kim, as recorded in the 26tli chapter of his prophecies.
Knox runs a skilful parallel between the circumstances
of the Jews before the destruction of their capital by
Nebuchadnezzar, and those of the people of England
under Mar}', and with the presage of coming judgment
darkening his spirit, he exhorts the "remnant" to fidelity
and earnestness. One extract will give the reader some
slight idea of its style and purport i" Hitherto have I
recited the estate of Judah before the destruction of
Jerusalem and subversion of that comiuonwealth. Now
I appeal to the conscience of any indifferent {i.e. im
partial) man in what one point differ the manners, estate
and regiment {i.e. government) of England this day from
the abuse and estate rehearsed of Judah in these days,
except that they had a king, a man of his own nature (as
appeared), more facile than cruel, who sometimes was
entreated in the prophet's favour, and also in some cases
heard his counsel ; and ye have a queen, a woman of a
stout stomach {ie. of a haughty spirit), more stiff in
opinion than flexible to the truth, who no wise may
abide the presence of God's prophets. In this one
thing you disagree ; in all other things as like as one
bean or nut is like to another, (i) Their king was led
by pestilent priests ; who guides your queen, it is not
> " Works," vol. iii. pp. 187-8.

75 JOHN KNOX.
unknown. (2) Under Zedekiah and his council the
idolatry which by Josiah was suppressed, came to light
again ; but more abominable idolatry was never in the
earth than is that which of late is now set up again
by your pestilent papists among you. (3) In Jerusalem
was Jeremiah persecuted and cast into prison for speak
ing the truth and rebuking their idolatry ; what prison in
London tormenteth not some true prophet of God for the
same causes? And O thou dungeon of darkness, where
that abominable idol of late days was first erected (thou
Tower of London, I mean), in thee are tormented more
Jeremiahs than one, whom God shall comfort according
to His promise, and shall reward their persecutors even
as they have deserved ; in which day also shalt thou
tremble for fear, and such as pretend to defend thee
shall perish with thee, because thou wast first defiled
with that abominable idol."
The letter concludes with the following touching sen
tences : — '¦ The peace of God rest with you all. From
one sore troubled heart upon my departure fio.m Dieppe
— 1553(4) — whither God knoweth. In God is my trust,
through Jesus Christ His Son ; and therefore I fear not
the tyranny of man, neither yet what the devil can invent
against me. Rejoice, ye faithful, for in joy shall we
meet where death may not dissever us."
At the time when he wrote these words he seems to
have had no definite purpose as to his immediate des
tination, but we have now no difficulty in tracing his
movements, for in a letter addressed to his afflicted

FIRST DAYS OF EXILE. 77
brethren in England, ttnd dated Dieppe, loth May, 1554,
we find the following words : — " My own estate is this :
since the 28th of January I have travelled through all
the congregations of Helvetia (Switzerland), and have
reasoned with all the pastors and many other excellent
learned men upon such matters as now I cannot commit
to writing ; gladly I would by tongue or by pen utter the
same to God's glory." What these things were may
perhaps be inferred from the words of Bullinger to
Calvin in a letter dated 26th March, 1554, to this effect :
" I have enclosed in this letter the answer I made to the
Scotsman whom you commended to me ; you will re
turn it to me when you have opportunity."' Now as
Knox visited Geneva in that month of March, and ob
tained from Calvin a letter of introduction to Bullin
ger, there can be no doubt, as Dr. Laing has shown,
that the reference is to him. The questions which he
submitted to Bullinger were the following, and we give
them entire, with a brief summary of the answer to each,
that we may make plain the gravity and importance of
the mat-ters which were at this time engrossing his at
tention : — (i) "Whether the son of a king, upon his
father's death, diough unable by reason of his tender
age to conduct the government of the kingdom, is never
theless by right of inheritance to be regarded as a lawful
magistrate, and as such to be obeyed as of Divine right ? "
This, illustrating his statement by a reference to King
Edward the Sixth of England, Bullinger answers in the
1 "Works," vok iii. pp. 219, 226.

78 JOHN KNOX.
affirmative. (2) "Whether a female can preside over
and riUe a kingdom by Divine right, and so transfer the
right of sovereignty to her husband ? " To this Bullin
ger replies, that, though the law of God ordains the
Avornan to be in subjection, yet as it is a hazardous thing
for godly persons to set themselves up in opposition to
political regulations, and in the gospel does not seem to
unsettle hereditary rights, the people of God may rejoice
in a female sovereign if she be like Deborah ; and if she
be of a different character, they may have an example
and consolation in the case of Athaliah; but with re
spect to the right of transferring the government to her
husband, only those persons who are acquainted with the
laws and customs of the realm can give a proper answer.
(3) " Whether obedience is to be rendered to a magis
trate who enforces idolatry and condemns true religion ;
and whether those authorities who are still in military
occupations of towns and fortresses are permitted to
repel this ungodly violence from themselves and their
friends?" No definite or categorical answer is given to
this inquiry, on the ground that it is difficult to pro
nounce on every particular case ; but while there is need
of wisdom, lest by rashness and corruption much mischief
may be occasioned to many worthy persons, it is un
equivocally asserted that death itself is far preferable to
the admission of idolatry. (4) " To which party must
godly persons attach themselves in the case of a religious
nobility resisting an idolatrous sovereign ? " This is left
by the Swiss Reformer to the judgment of the individual

FIRST DA YS OF EXILE. 79
conscience. Between the lines of these questions we
can easily read that Knox was pondering questions which
lie near the foundation of civil and religious liberty;
and that, foreseeing the occasion which he might soon
have for dealing practically with them, he availed him
self of the opportunity furnished by his exile for consult
ing the most eminent Swiss Protestant divines regarding
them. He returned to Dieppe in May, 1554, and remained
there until the end of July in order that he might gain
accurate information concerning his brethren in England,
and might learn whether he coidd do anything in their
behalf To these weeks must be assigned the preparation
and transmission of his " Faithful Admonition unto the
Professors of God's Truth in England," which caused him
so much trouble in the Frankfort episode of his history.
For that reason, therefore, it may be well to give a brief
account of this trenchant production. It is evidendy
the expansion of a discourse formedy preached by him
on the experience of the disciples in the storm, when diey
"toiled in rowing" becatise "the wind was contrary unto
them," with a pungent and sometimes not very prudent
application of its lessons to the circumstances which then
existed in England. It was his habit to preach his
sermons before he wrote them, and indeed, so far as
appears, he did not often write them out, even after they
had been delivered, but usually contented himself with
speaking from a few note.i, which were made in the
margin of his Bible, and which remained the sole mem-

So JOHN KNOX.
oranda of the discourse. In the present case the note
was to the effect '¦ Videat Anglia" — "Let England
beware ! " and the matter written in his book in Latin
was this : " Seldom it is that God worketh any notable
work to the comfort of His Church but that trouble, fear,
and labour cometh upon such as God hath used for His
servants and His workmen ; and also tribulation most
commonly foUoweth that Church where Christ Jesus is
most truly preached." In his exposition he goes on to
explain why, after the miracle of the feeding of the mul
titude, Christ sent both the people at large and His
disciples away ; and dwells on the danger to which the
apostles were exposed, the manner of their deliverance
through the coming and the word of Christ, the zeal of
Peter in seeking to meet the Lord on the waves, and his
fear in sinking in the waters, and the mercy of the
Master in permitting neither Peter nor the rest of the
disciples to perish, but gloriously delivering them all.
Into his treatment of these several things he introduces
plentiful allusions to the state of affairs in England, and
the object which he has before him as a whole is two
fold — first, to encourage those who had made a pro
fession of the Reformed Faith to maintain the beginning
of their confidence steadfast unto the end ; and second,
to give warning of the dangers which were to be appre
hended if the kingdom should come under the dominion
of strangers, as it would infiillibly do when Mary became
the wife of Philip of Spain. The admonition bears the
iinprint "20th day of July, 1554." Now the marriage

FIRST DAYS OF EXILE. 8i
of Mary to Philip was celebrated on the 25th day of that
same month, and it was provided by the treaty for that
alliance, and confirmed by Act of Parliament, that Philip,
as the husband of Mary, "should have and enjoy, jointly
with the Queen his wife, the style, honour, and kingly
name of the realm and dominions unto the said Queen
appertaining, and shall aid her Highness, being his wife,
in the happy administration of her realm and dominions."
This helps us to understand one of the questions which
Knox had proposed to Bullinger, and explains at least,
if it cannot justify, the vehemence of his feelings and the
violence of his words in the " admonition." He speaks
of " Stephen Gardiner and his black brood ; '' calls the
wafer of the- host " the round clipped God ; " declares
that " the devil rageth in his obedient servants, wily
Winchester, dreaming Durham, and bloody Bonner, with
the rest of their bloody, butcherly brood ; " avers that
Jezebel " never erected half so many gallows in all Israel
as mischievous Mary hath done within London alone ; "
denounces Mary as a " breaker of promises;" calls her
that most unhappy and wicked woman ; " and foretells
evil for England if she — i.e. England — contract marriage,
confederacy, or league with such princes as do maintain
and advance idolatiy (such as the Emperor, which is no
less an enemy here to Christ than ever was Nero)." All
this is dreadful enough. But let us bear in mind that
Maiy, on her accession, had publicly declared that she
"meant graciously not to compel or strain other men's
consciences otherwise than God should, as she trusted,
G

83 JOHN KNOX.
put in their hearts a persuasion of the truth, through the
opening of His word unto them," and that, by her subse
quent conduct she had utterly falsified that Avord ; let it
be remembered that at the very time of Knox's Avriting,
Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer had been prisoners for
seven or eight months in the Tower, first under the
charge of treason, and lattedy under that of heresy ; let
it be considered that reports were continually coming
to Kno.\'s ears of the daily increasing sufferings of the
Protestants in England, and then some allowance will be
made for the outburst of his indignation in these passion
ate utterances. Still, when we have made all such allow
ance, we must admit that a more cautious man would
have foreseen that a probable effect of such a bitter on
slaught would be the increase of the persecutor's fury,
and would not have gone out of his way to irritate the
German Emperor by comparing him with Nero. But
caution never was one of Knox's distinctive excellences.
If it had, he Avould not have become a Reformer, for
your merely cautious men are of very litde service either
to their generation or to the world. Boldness is neces
sary for progress, and where the boldness is, we must
reconcile ourselves as best we may to its attendant
shadow. In the present instance Knox paid dearly
enough for his imprudence, as Ave shall shortly see, and
Ave may therefore content ourselves with tliis simple
reference to it

CHAPTER VII.
The Troubles at Frankfort, 1554-1555.
FROM Dieppe, after having launched across the
channel the thunderbolt of the " Faithful Ad
monition," Knox retired to Geneva, Avhere he enjoyed
the friendship of John Calvin and other Swiss divines,
and where, though he Avas now bordering on fifty years
of age, he applied himself to the study of Hebrew Avith
all the ardour of youth. But such a man could not
long be permitted to enjoy learned leisure. Accord
ingly Ave find that in the end of September, 1554, he
Avas called to be one of the pastors of a congregation
of English exiles Avho had found an asylum in
Frankfort-on-the-Maine, a city Avhose inhabitants had
early embraced the principles of the Reformation, and
befriended refugees from all countries so far as that
could be done by them AvithcRit coming to an open
breach Avith the Emperor. Already a church of French
Protestants Avas in existence there, and on application
to the authorities the English exiles obtained the
joint use of the place of Avorship allotted to that
congregation, on condition that they should in their

84 JOHN KNOX.
service conform as nearly as possible to the forms
observed by the French. This was thankfully accepted
by the English, Avho agreed among themselves, be it
observed before Knox appeared among them, to give
up the audible responses, the Litany, the surplice, and
other things Avhich " in these reformed churches Avould
seem more than strange." It is added in the " Brief
Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankfort " Avhich
lies before us as Ave Avrite, that " as touching the
ministration of the sacraments, sundry things Avere also
by common consent omitted as superstitious and
superfluous ; " and that " after that the congregation
had thus concluded and agreed, and had chosen their
minister and deacons to serve for a time, they entered
their church on the 29th of July."
Having thus secured for themselves religious priA-i-
leges, the Frankfort exiles by a circular letter invited
their brethren in other continental cities to come and
share the blessing Avith them. To this the English
residents at Strasburg replied recommending certain
persons as Avell qualified to fill the offices of super
intendent or bishop, and pastors, but before receiving
that communication the brethren at Frankfort had
aheady chosen three persons, one of Avhom Avas Knox,
to be their pastors, and to be invested Avith co-ordinate
authority. The invitation Avas not specially attractive
to Knox, both because he Avas loth to sacrifice the
advantages for study Avhich he Avas enjoying at
Geneva, and because he feared the outbreak of such a

THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 85
controversy as ultimately arose. But moved by Avhat
McCrie has styled " the powerful intercession of Calvin,"
he accepted the call and Avent to Frankfort about the
end of October or the beginning of November. Before
his arrival there, however, the harmony of the congrega
tion had been disturbed by the recepdon of a letter
from the English residents at Zurich, Avho declined to
come to Frankfort unless they obtained security that the
Church Avould use the Prayer-Book of King Edward VL,
on the ground that the rejection or alteration of that form
of service* Avould give occasion for the charge against
them of fickleness in their religion, and Avould be a virtual
condemnation of those Avho at that very time Avere
suffering persecution on its account To this the
members of the church at Frankfort replied that they
had obtained permission to use their place of worship
on the condition of their conforming as closely as
possible to the French ritual ; that there Avere some
things in the English book which Avould give offence
to the Protestants of the place Avhose hospitality they
Avere enjoying ; that certain ceremonies in that book
had been occasion of scruple to conscientious persons
at home ; that they Avere very far indeed from pro
nouncing condemnation of those Avho had drawn up
that book, since they themselves had altered many
things; and that the sufferers in England Avere testify
ing for more important matters than rites of mere
human appointment. This answer, while it somewhat
abated the confidence of the friends at Zurich, did not

86 JOHN KNOX.
drive them from their purpose, for they instigated their
brethren at Strasburg to make the same request both
by letter and by deputation, and thus Avidened the
area of the controversy.
This Avas the state of things when Knox appeared
upon the scene, and although his convictions Avere
strongly on the side of those who opposed the adoption
of the Book of Common Prayer, he strove to act the
part of a peacemaker, as far as he consistently could.
For Avhen the congregation agreed to adopt the order
of Avorship folloAved in Calvin's Church at Geneva, he
declined to carry out that determination until their
learned bretliren in other places should be consulted.
He confessed that he could not conscientiously
administer the sacraments according to the English
book, but he offered to restrict himself solely to the
preaching of the word, and let some one else administer
the sacraments; and if that freedom could not be
granted to him, he desired that he might be altogether
released from the pastorate to Avhich he had been chosen.
But the congregation Avould not consent to give him
up, and in the hope of preventing future controversy,
Knox, who Avas joined by Whittingham, afterAA-ards
Dean of Durham, and others, drcAV up a fair summary
and description of the English Prayer-Book, Avhich they
sent to Calvin for his inspection and advice. In his
reply the Genevese Reformer bewailed the existence of
unseemly contentions among them; claimed that he
had always counselled moderation respecting external

THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 87
ceremonies, yet condemned the obstinacy of those
Avho Avotild consent to no change of old customs; de
clared that in the English liturgy he had found many
"iolerabiles inepiias," — tolerable fooleries, — which might
be borne Avith in the beginning of the Reformation,
but ought to be removed as soon as possible ; gave it
as his opinion that the circumstances of the exiles in
Frankfort Avarranted them to attempt the removal of
such blemishes ; and rather caustically remarked that
"he could not tell AA'hat they meant Avho so greatly
delighted in the leavings of popish dregs.''
This letter produced considerable effect, and a com
mittee, of Avhicli Knox was one, Avas appointed to draw
up a form Avhich might harmonize all parties. When
this committee met, Knox acknoAvledging that there Avas
no hope of peace unless "one party something relented,"
indicated how far he Avas willing to go in the direction of
compromise ; and the result Avas the draAving up of a
form of Avhich " some part Avas taken from the English
Prayer-Book, and other things put to, as the state of the
Church required." By the consent of the congregation
this order Avas to continue until the month of April ;
and if any contention should meanwhile arise, the matter
Avas to be referred for decision to these five learned men,
namely, Calvin, Musculus, Martyr, Bullinger, and Vyret.
This agreement Avas put in Avriting, and subscribed by
the members of the congregation amid the joy of all.
" Thanks Avere given to God, brotherly reconcihation
followed, great familiarity (Avas) used, and the former

88 JOHN KNOX.
grudges forgotten ; yea, the Holy Communion Avas upon
this happy agreement also ministered."
But this peace was not of long continuance, for on
the 13th of March Dr. Richard Cox, who had been
the preceptor of Edward VL, and who Avas afterAvards
a bishop under Queen Elizabeth, arrived in Frankfort
Avith a company like-minded Avith himself; and on the
very first day on Avhich they attended public Avorship,
they broke the concordat by indulging in audible
responses. When they Avere expostulated Avith by some
of the seniors, or elders, of the congregation for their
disorderly conduct, they replied that " they Avould do as
they had done in England, and that they Avould have
the face of an English Church ; " and on the following
Sunday one of their number, Avithout the knowledge or
consent of the congregation, entered the pulpit and read
the Litany, Avhile the rest answered aloud. This was a
still more flagrant breach of the agreement, for Knox and
his friends specially objected to the Litany ; and there
fore on the afternoon, it being his turn to preach, Knox
made a public protest against such procedure. He
showed how after long trouble and contention among
them, a godly agreement had been made, and hoAv it had
been ungodly broken, " Avhich thing it became not the
proudest of them all to have attempted." He further
alleged that as Ave must seek our Avarrant for the
establishing of religion from the word of God, and with
out that nothing should be thrust into any Christian
congregation ; and as in the English Prayer Book there

THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 89
were, as he Avas prepared to prove, things both super
stitious, impure, and imperfect, he Avould not consent
that it should be received in that Church ; and he
declared that if the attempt should be made, he Avould
not fail to speak against it from that place, as his text
might furnish occasion. He also affirmed that, among
other things which provoked God's anger against
England, slackness to reform religion Avhen time and
opportunity Avere granted Avas one ; and as an instance
of that slackness he specified, to the sore Avounding of
some then present, the allowing of one man to have
three, four, or five benefices, to the slander of the gospel,
and the defrauding of the people.
This remonstrance brought things to a crisis, and on
the following Tuesday the congregation met to take the
Avhole matter into consideration. Cox and his company
claimed the right of sitting and voting Avith the rest, but
it Avas contended that they should not be admitted until
they had subscribed the discipline of the Church. This
objection Avould have prevailed, but on the intercession
of Knox they Avere received, and they rewarded his
magnanimity by outvoting him, and, at the instigation
of Cox, discharging him from preaching and from all
interference in the affairs of the congregation. This,
hoAvever, only made matters Avorse ; and to prevent a
disgraceful tumult, the Avhole case was referred to the
senate of the city, from Avhom they had obtained per
mission to use the place of worship in which they
assembled. That body, after in vain recommending a

go JOHN KNOX.
private accommodation, issued an order requiring the
congregation to conform exactly to the French ritual,
and threatening if that were disobeyed to shut up the
church. With this injunction Cox and his party out
wardly complied for the time ; but seeing the influence
Avhich Knox possessed, and having no hope of carrying
their point so long as he should remain among them,
they took means of the basest sort to get him out of the
way. For two of them went privately to the magistrates
of the city and accused Knox of high treason against the
emperor, and against Mary, Queen of England, putting
forth as the ground of their charge those passages from
the Faithful Admonition Avhich Ave have already quoted.
On receipt of this charge the magistrates sent for
Whittingham, and asked him concerning the character
of Knox, Avhom he described in his reply as "a learned,
grave, and godly man." They then informed him of
the charge which had been preferred against him, and
requested that he would furnish them Avith an exact
Latin translation of the sentences of his tract, nine in
number, which had been brought to their particular
attention. They gave orders also that meanwhile Knox
should desist from preaching until their pleasure should
be known. With this command Knox loyally complied;
but Avhen he appeared next day in the church as an
ordinary hearer, not thinking that any Avould be offended
at his presence, " some departed from the sermon, pro
testing with great vehemence that they would not tarry
Avhere he was."

THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 91
The action of the informers Avas most embarrassing to
the magistrates, who abhorred the malice by Avhich they
Avere evidently actuated, but at the same time feared that
the matter might come to the ears of the emperor's
council then sitting at Augsburg, and that they might be
compelled to give Knox up to them or to the Queen of
England; and as the best means of extricating them
selves from the difficulty, they suggested that he should
privately AvithdraAv from the city. Accordingly on the
evening of the 25th of March, 1555, he delivered a
most consolatory address to about fifty of the members
of the Church in his own lodgings ; and " the next
day,'' to borrOAV the Avords of the author of the Brief
Discourse, "he was brought three or four miles on his
Avay by some of these unto Avhom the night before he
had made that exhortation, who, Avith great heaviness
of heart and plenty of tears, committed him to the
Lord." The sequel is soon told. Cox, by falsely represent
ing that the congregation Avas noAV unanimous, obtained
an order from the senate for the unrestricted use of the
English Prayer-Book, and then procured in the Church
the abrogation of the code of discipline, and the appoint
ment of a superintendent or bishop over the other
pastors. The result Avas that a considerable number of
the members left the city, and the remainder continued
a prey to strife, Avhich Cox and his friends did not stay
to compose, for they also soon took their departure to
other places. The Church was thus virtually broken

92 JOHN KNOX.
up ; and it is not without significance that, in seeking
afterwards to be excused from performing service before
a crucifix in the chapel of Queen Elizabeth, Cox
employed the very argument which Knox had urged
without effect upon himself, for he said, " I ought
to do nothing touching religion Avhich may appear
doubtful, AA'hether it pleaseth God or not; for our re
ligion ought to be certain, and grounded upon God's
word and Avill."
We have gone thus fully into the " Frankfort troubles,"
not so much because, as McCrie says, they present in
miniature a striking picture of that contentious scene
Avhich was afterwards exhibited on a larger scale in
England, or because it Avould not be difficult to find
similar divisions on precisely similar points in the days
in Avhich we live, but because of the insight Avhich the
history gives us into the character of Knox himself.
The controversy was keen and bitter ; but throughout it
all our Reformer shows to great advantage, — evincing
what Carlyle has called " a great and unexpected
patience," by Avhich Ave suppose he means a patience
Avhich those Avho know nothing more about him than the
usual caricature of his character, Avhich too many have
accepted, Avould hardly have expected. But the readers
of his letter to his Berwick friends, on Avhich we have
already commented, could have looked for nothing else
at his hands ; and Ave commend the study of this episode
in his history to all those Avho have been accustomed to
regard him as a dogmatic, domineering, impracticable

THE TROUBLES AT FRANKFORT. 93
man, Avho was determined ahvays to have his Avay in the
scorn of every consequence. The offer to restrict him
self solely to preaching, or, if that should not be granted,
to go quietly aAvay, stands out to his lasting honour, and
shows hoAv eager he Avas to prevent all strife ; Avhile the
simple mention by the chronicler of the "plenty of
tears " shed by those Avho accompanied him out of
the city, witnesses to the tenderness of his friendship ;
and by both alike Ave are reminded of the great apostle
Avhose Avords Avere so constantly upon his lips. In
reviewing the Avhole case, he cannot help recalling that
his opponents had brought against him the old cry, " He
is not Caesar's friend ; " but he prays for them thus, " O
Lord God, open their hearts that they may see their
wickedness, and forgive them for Thy manifold mercies ;
and I forgive them, O Lord, from the bottom of my
heart. But that Thy message sent by my mouth should
not be slandered, I am compelled to declare the cause
of my departing, and so to utter their folly, to their
amendment I trust, and the example of others Avho, in
the same banishment, can have so cruel hearts to
persecute their brethren." His opponents tried to
excuse themselves, and in a letter to Calvin put the best
possible construction on their case ; but nothing said by
them altered the opinion of the great Reformer, in Avhich
we are persuaded all fair-minded men, Avhatever may be
their ecclesiastical opinions will agree, to this effect : —
" But certainly this one thing I cannot keep secret,
that Mr. Knox was, in my judgment, neither godly nor

94 JOHN KNOX.
brotherly dealt Avithal." It was a hard and bitter exper
ience, and no doubt it had its influence in determining
him, Avhen he came to deal Avith the Reformation of
Scotland, to make more thorough work of it than they
had done in England.

CHAPTER VIII.
The Ministry at Genev.'^, 1555-1559.
ON his departure from Frankfort Knox made his
Avay to Geneva, Avhither he Avas followed by a
considerable number of those Avho had adhered to him
in the former city. There it seems evident that he was
invited by them, and probably also by others Avho had
joined them, to resume his pastoral labours; for at the
solicitation of Calvin, the Lesser Council of Geneva
granted for the joint use of the English and Italian
congregadons the church called the Temple de Nostre
Dame la Nove ; and it is recorded that on the first
of November, 1555, when the Enghsh Church Avas
formed, Christopher Goodman and Arthur Gilby Avere
"appointed to preach the Avord, in the absence of John
Knox." This indicates that Knox Avas already re
cognised as one of the permanent pastors of the Church,
and that just at that time he Avas for some reason or
other, aAvay for a long season from the scene of his
labours. Where he was and Avhat he was doing we have
ample means of tracing, for in the September of that

gS JOHN KNOX.
year we find him back again in Scotland, for the first
time since he had been taken prisoner by the French.
But much as he cared for the spiritual interests of his
native land, it is probable that his return to Great
Britain at this time was more immediately prompted
by feelings of a personal nature. We have already
referred to his attachment to Marjory Bowes, daughter
of Richard Bowes, and of Elizabeth Aske, of Aske, near
Berwick, and Dr. Laing has given strong reasons for
believing that he came now for the purpose of making
her his Avife. The precise date of his marriage, indeed,
is uncertain. Dr. McCrie has put it in 1553, before he
left England, on the ground that after that date Knox
invariably addressed Mrs. BoAves as his " mother " and
spoke of Marjory as his "wife." The truth, however,
seems to have been that owing to the strong opposition
of her father and other relatives to the alliance, and
also, perhaps, to the very uncertain position of the
Reformer himself, in these times of unsettlement and
peril, they contented themselves in 1553 with formally
pledging themselves to each other " before witnesses."
But now, immediately on his landing, at a point on
the east shore not far from the boundary between
England and Scotland, he repaired to Berwick, Avhere
he found Marjory and her mother enjoying the happi
ness of rehgious society. After this, he visited Scotland,
where he laboured for some months, and the marriage
may not have taken place until the time when,
preparatory to their setting out for Geneva, Mrs. Bowes

MINISTRY AT GENEVA. 97
resolved to leave all her relatives and cast in her lot
Avith her son-in-laAv.
The visit of Knox to Scotland, at this juncture, Avas of
immense service to the cause of the Reformation. The
clergy, unable or umvilling to discern the signs of the
times, had sunk into supineness, under the belief that
Avhat they called heresy had been Avell-nigh banished
from the land. Arran, now Duke of Chatellerault, had
given place as Regent to Mary, the mother of Mary
Queen of Scots, Avhose policy it Avas just then to
temporize with the Protestant nobles, and to disguise
for a season her deep-rooted and undying hatred of
their cause. In the good providence of God, also,
a number of the leading adherents of the new faith,
like Erskine of Dun, Maitland of Lethington, and others,
had come to Edinburgh to confer Avith and enjoy the
ministrations of John Willock, Avho had been sent
over by the Duchess of East Friesland, ostensibly on
a commercial mission to the Scottish court, but really
to see " Avhat good Avork God Avould do by him to
his native land ; '' and the private meetings Avhich he
held with the Protestants in Edinburgh for prayer and
the exposition of the word, may have suggested to Knox
that he should folloAv a similar plan. That at least
Avas the course Avhich he determined to pursue. Lie
Avas received into the houses of certain burgesses Avhose
names he has enshrined in his history, and though the
number of meedngs and the necessity of holding them
in secret kept him busy night and day, he Avas greatly
H

98 JOHN KNOX.
encouraged by the results. Writing to Mrs. BoAves, he
says that "the fervent thirst of his brethren, night and
day, sobbing and groaning for the bread of life, Avas
such, that if he had not seen it Avith his OAvn eyes he
could not have believed it;" and again that "the
fervency here did far exceed all others that he had
seen ; " and " did so ravish him, that he could not but
accuse and condemn his slothful coldness."
The news of his arrival spread among the Reformers
in all parts of the country, and his presence Avas so
eagerly desired everyAvliere that he Avas obliged to
postpone his return to BerAvick, and enter upon a series
of evangelistic journeys through different districts of
the land. But we Avill alloAv him to describe his Avork
at this time himself Thus he Avrites in his " History " :
" John Knox, at the request of the Laird of Dun,
folloAved him to his place of Dun, where he remained
a month, daily exercised in doctrine, Avhereunto resorted
the principal men of that country. After his return
ing, his residence was most in Calder, Avhere repaired
unto him the Lord Erskine, the Lord Lorn, and Lord
James Stuart, Prior of St AndreAvs (half-brother to
Mary Stuart), Avhere they heard and so approved his
doctrine, that they Avished it to have been public. That
same Avinter he taught commonly in Edinburgh ; and
after the Yule (Christmas) by the conduct of the Laird
of Barr, and Robert Campbell of Kinzeancleugh, he
came to Kyle, and taught in the Barr, in the house of
the Carnell, in the Kinzeancleugh, in the toAvn of Ayr,

MINISTRY AT GENEVA. 99
and in the houses of Ochiltree and Gadgirth, and in
some of them ministered the Lord's Table. Before the
Pasch (Easter) the Earl of Glencairn sent for him to
his place of Finlaston, Avhere, after doctrine, he like-
Avise ministered the Lord's Table ; Avhereof, besides him
self, Avere partakers his lady, tAvo of his sons, and
certain of his friends. And so returned he to Calder,
Avhere divers from Edinburgh, and from the country
about, convened as Avell for the doctrine as for the
right use of the Lord's Table, Avhich before they had
never pracdsed. From thence he departed the second
time to the Laird of Dun, and teaching them in greater
liberty, the gentlemen required that he should minister
likewise unto them the Table of the Lord Jesus ; Avhere
of Avere partakers the most part of the gentlemen of
the Mearns, Avho professed that they refused all society
Avith idolatry and bound themselves to the uttermost
of their poAver to maintain the true preaching of the
Evangel of Jesus Christ, as God should offer to them
preachers and opportunity.'' Well done, ye men of
the Mearns, and ye Avorthy descendants of the Lollards
of Kyle ! Often in the history of Scotland have the
dwellers in these parts stood up manftdly for the truth,
but never Avas a nobler thing done in either locality,
than Avhen ye thus received and welcomed the apostle
of your country's Reformation !
Such labours Avere sure sooner or later to attract
the attendon of the bishops; and accordingly Avhile
he was in the Mearns he was summoned to appear

100 JOHN KNOX.
before them at Edinburgh, in the Church of the Black
friars, on the 15th May, 1556. They probably imagined
that this mere "show of force" on their part aa-ouM
suffice to frighten him into silence. If they did, they
reckoned Avithout their host ; for encouraged by his
friends he came to Edinburgh to meet and face his
accusers. But Avhen it came to the pinch, diey shrank
from the encounter ; and so it Avas that on the very
day on Avhich he had been summoned to stand before
them, he preached, of all places, in the very lodging
of the Bishop of Dunkeld, to a greater audience than he
had hitherto addressed in Edinburgh. For ten days he
continued morning and afternoon at this AVork, and so
thorough!}' Avas his heart refreshed by it that he Avrites
of it thus to Mrs. Bowes : " O sweet Avere the death
that should follow such forty days in Edinburgh as here
I have had three."
But the boldest, if we should not call it the most
audacious thing, Avhich he did in this A'isit, Avas to
address a letter to the Queen Regent, Avherein he
vindicated himself from the charges made by his enemies
against him, and exhorted her to hear the Avord of God,
and regulate her government by its principles. The
suggestion to send such an epistle came from the Earl
Mareschal and Henry Drummond, Avho had been brought
to hear him by Lord Glencairn, and Avho declared, on
Avhat they said they knew of the queen's mind, that she
AA'as in a mood to be propitious. But though the letter
is correctly described by Lorimer as one " Avhich for its

MINISTRY AT GENEVA. loi
courtesy of phrase, and faithfulness of counsel, was
equally suitable to her dignity as a queen, and to his
character as a minister of God," it met Avith only a
mocking reception. " Please you, my lord, to read a
pasquil," said Mary of Guise, after it had been put into
her hands, and Avhile she was giving it to the Arch
bishop of GlasgOAv, and that Avas all the notice of it
Avhich she condescended to take. This treatment of his
expostulation being reported to Knox, revealed to him
hoAV little he had to expect from Mary of Guise ; and as
just at this time letters arrived from Geneva " command
ing him, in God's name, as he that was their chosen
pastor, to repair unto them for their comfort," he made
immediate preparations for his departure thither. He
took leave of the several congregations to Avhom he had
preached, and sent on his wife and his mother-in-law
to Dieppe before him, there to aAvait his arrival. He
reached them in the month of July, and shortly after
went Avith them to Geneva ; for in the " Livre des
Anglois '' there is an entry to the effect that on the 13th
of September, 1556, John Knox; Marjory, his wife;
Elizabeth, her mother ; James  , his servant ; and
Patrick, his pupil, were received and admitted members
of the English Church and congregation there.
The reception of Mrs. BoAves into his household,
especially with his knowledge of her deep-seated melatt-
cholia, says much for the kindliness of Knox's heart;
and contrasts strongly Avith the spirit manifested on a
similar matter by that other Scotsman Avhose correspon-

102 JOHN KNOX.
dence has so recently been given to the world. We
know not if the cheap sneer indulged in by so many at
the expense of the mother-in-law were as common in his
days as it is in ours, but, in any case, Knox in all this
Avas thoughtfully tender, and though he admits that the
desponding habit of Mrs. BoAves AA'as often a great trial
to him, yet he never AvithdreAv his regard from her. The
folloAving sentences of Dr. Laing express all that needs
to be said more on this subject : " Her husband, I pre
sume, AA'as a bigoted adherent of the Roman Catholic
faith, and this may serve as the key both to his opposi
tion to Knox's marriage Avith his daughter, and to the
mother's attachment to her son-in-laAV. It cannot at
least be said that Kno.x Avas actuated by the expectation
of wealth. In his last Avill and testament he states that
all the money he received from the mother's succession
for the benefit of his two sons Avas one hundred marks
sterling, Avhich he, ' out of his poverty,' had increased to
five hundred pounds Scots, and had paid through Mr.
Randolph to their uncle, Mr. Robert BoAves, for their use.
Tlie comparative value of money at this time Avas very
variable ; but Ave may reckon (that) the hundred marks,
or ;£66 \2,s. i,d., Avere increased by Knox to ;!^ioo
sterling." '
After Knox left Scotland the courage of the bishops
revived, for they actually summoned him again, and on
his failure to put in an appearance they Avere bold
enough to burn him in effigy at the Cross of Edinburgh !
' "^Yorks," vol. vi. p. Lwi.

MINISTRY AT GENEVA. 103
But this brutum fulmen of theirs could not undo the
Avork Avhich he had Avrought. For by his labours at this
time, especially in exposing the evil of the Protestants'
any longer countenancing papal Avorship, he detached
from the Romish communion the nucleus round which
the Church of Scotland, in a reformed state, Avas ulti
mately to form itself Hitherto there had been no
separate organization of the adherents to the Protestant
faith ; and no formal observance by them of the ordi
nance of the Supper. But noAv they had, to some extent
at least, committed themselves to ultimate separation
from the Church of Rome. As Lorimer says, "They
Avere now a " Congregation " or community of Evan
gelical Christians, as much bound to one another as they
were dissevered from the Church of the popes." And
Knox's leaving of them in that condition Avas as much
for their good as his arrival among them some months
before had been. Had he remained longer in Scodand
at this time, his presence Avould have undoubtedly pro
voked an outburst of persecuting fury on the part of the
bishops and their friends; Avhile as it Avas, the seed
Avhich he sowed had opportunity to root itself in the
hearts of those Avho had received it at his hands ; and
this it Avould assuredly do if they folloAved the directions
Avhich he had left behind him. For before his departure
he drew up a letter of Avholesome counsel addressed to
his brethren in Scotland, in Avhich he exhorts them to
give themselves to the daily study of the Bible and
AVorship of God in their homes, and gives them direc-

104 JOHN KNOX.
tions as to the holding and conducting of assemblies
for public Avorship and mutual conference and prayer,
recommending them to observe a regular course in their
reading, and cautioning those Avho should speak, to do
so Avith modesty, avoiding "multiplication of AA'ords,
perplexed interpretation, and Avilfulness in reasoning.''
If anything occurred in the text Avhich they could not
resoh'e for themselves, he advised them to apply for
assistance to the more learned, and offered if they should
refer it to him, to give them such help as he could
render, saying, " I Avill more gladly spend fifteen hours
in communicating my judgment Avith you, in explaining
as God pleases to open to me any place of Scripture,
than half an hour in any matter beside."
To the same period belong his " AnsAvers to some
Questions concerning Baptism," etc., Avhich had been
proposed to him by some inquirers, and AA'hich a.re of a
sort that have often troubled young converts in similar
cases. They are, Avhether baptism administered by the
popish priests Avas valid and did not require repetition ?
Whether the decree of the apostles and elders at Jeru
salem be still in all its points binding on believers?
Whether the prohibition in 2 John 10 extended to the
common salutation of those who taught erroneous doc
trine ? How the directions re.specdng dress in i Peter
iii. 3 are to be obeyed ? and the like. And Avith them
all he deals in a spirit of Avisdom for Avhich multitudes
unacquainted Avith his Avorks Avould hardly give him
credit We need not enter into details regarding them ;

MINISTRY AT GENEVA. 105
but as the first mendoned of the above subjects Avas
debated a feAv years ago in the Assembly of the Presby
tenan Church (North) of the United States, it may not
be uninteresting to state that, Avhile Knox declares
unequivocally that it would be Avrong for Protestant
believers to seek baptism for their children from popish
priests, he yet as plainly affirms that a man who had
been baptized in infancy in papistry ought not to be
rebaptized Avhen he cometh to knowledge, because
Christ's institution could not be utterly abolished by
the malice of Satan or by the abuse of man.
From September, 1556, to September, 1557, Knox
laboured in GenCA'a, delighting in his work and rejoicing
in the felloAvship of congenial friends. Indeed, these
halcyon months seem to have been the most peaceful of
his chequered life, and Ave do not wonder that he Avrote
regarding Geneva : " I neither fear nor shame to say,
it is the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in
the earth since the days of the apostles." In the public
services of the Church he used the form of prayer
Avhich had been drawn up by himself and others for the
English congregation, and Avhich Avas the groundwork of
the " Book of Common Order " that was received by
the Church of Scotland in 1565. But as that will come
up for description in its proper place, Ave need not dAvell
upon it here. The harmony of the Geneva Church Avas
sweet after the controversies of Frankfort, and the inter
course of the brethren from England, who Avere then
engaged in the preparation of that version of the Scrip-

io6 JOHN KNOX.
tures which continued to be for neariy a hundred years
the favourite Bible of the Puritans, must have been a
constant joy.
But this happiness did not last long ; for in the month
of May (1557) James Syme and James Barron, two
burgesses of Edinburgh, and his OAvn very devoted
friends, arrived Avith a letter from Glencairn, Lorn,
Erskine, and Lord James Stuart, beseeching "in the
name of the Lord," that he would return to his native
land ; and affirming that he Avould find all the faithful
whom he had left behind him, not only glad to hear his
doctrine, but also ready to jeopardise their lives and
goods for the setting forward of the glory of God. .The
opinion of Calvin and other friends to Avhom he sub
mitted this request, Avas that he could not refuse such
a call "without declaring himself rebellious unto God
and unmerciful to his country"; and no doubt his OAvn
heart had already given a similar response. Accordingly,
after making all due arrangements for the leaving of his
charge, and for the care of his family in his absence,
he set out from Geneva in the end of September, and
arrived at Dieppe on the 24th October. He Avas met
there, hoAvever, with letters Avhich gave him the impres
sion that those Avho had invited him to return to Scot
land had repented of their action in that regard ; and
that many of the professed adherents of the truth had
drawn back and became faint-hearted in the cause. This
brought him to a stand, and he determined to go no
farther until his Avay should be more clear. He ira-

MINISTRY AT GENEVA. 107
mediately Avrote to his correspondents, explaining hoAV
he came to be at Dieppe, upbraiding them for their
fear and fickleness ; admonishing them of the great im
portance of the enterprise to Avhich they had committed
themselves ; and alleging that they ought to hazard
their lives and fortunes to deliver themselves and their
brethren from spiritual bondage. This letter is dated
October 27 th, 1557, and Avas folloAved by another of a
more general tenour to his brethren in Scodand, which
appears to have been Avritten in the same place on the
ist of December.
In the expectation of receiving some definite infor
mation from Scodand, Knox lingered in Dieppe for
some considerable time, and officiated as temporary
preacher to a Protestant Church Avhich had recently
been formed there. But Avhen no ansAver came to his
appeal to his countrymen, he set his face again tOAvard
GencA'a, to Avhich, after visiting Lyons, Rochelle, and
other towns, he returned in the spring of 1558.
But though he had heard nothing from Scotland,
matters there had been making steady progress. There
may have been just enough of Avavering on the part of
some to give occasion for the desponding letters which
had arrested him at Dieppe, yet there had been no
great reaction. For on the 3rd December, perhaps
after the receipt of Knox's letter of the preceding
October, there had been a conference of the leading
Protestants as to Avhat Avas best to be done, and as the
result a Common Bond or Band— the eadiest of those

to8 JOHN KNOX.
covenants which have had so conspicuous a place in
the church history of Scotland — was draAvn up and
subscribed by Argyle, Glencairn, Morton, Lorn, Erskine
of Dun, and many others. By this "engagement"
they pledged themselves in the most solemn manner
"to strive in their Master's cause even unto death;" "to
maintain, set forward, and establish the most blessed
Avord of God, and His congregation ;" with their "Avhole
poAver, substance, and their very lives ; and to labour
to the utmost of their possibility, to have faithful min
isters purely and truly to preach Christ's gospel, and
minister His sacraments to His people."
This was brave and hopeful in the highest degree.
But Knox kncAv nothing of it meanwhile, and in his
despondency composed and issued that tract Avhich
must be pronounced the greatest mistake of his life.
We refer, of course, to " The First Blast of the Trumpet
against the monstrous Regiment {i.e. government) of
Women,'' Avhich is an elaborate argument designed to
establish the proposition that " to promote a Avoman
to bear rule, superiorit)', dominion, or empire, above
any realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to nature, con
tumely to God, a thing most contrarious to His revealed
Avill and approved ordinance ; and finally it is the
subversion of good order, of all equality and justice."
¦We have already seen from the questions Avhich he put
to Bullinger, that he had been pondering this subject
for some time ; and there is evidence in the tract itself,
that he had diligendy consulted Avhat we should now

MINISTRY AT GENEVA. 109
call "the literature of the subject," for he refers to
Aristode's politics ; to the Books of the Digests ; to
such Fathers of the Church as TertuUian, Augustine,
Ambrose, Chrysostom, etc. But it was clearly prompted
by the fact that Mary Tudor was on the throne of
England ; and there is throughout a strong under
current of application to her character and crueldes.
Whatever opinion may be taken on the main question,
hoAvever, — and the very existence of the Salic laAv in
some states sdll proves that there are two sides to it,
there can be no doubt that Knox's treatment of it
at all, not to speak of the sort of treatment which he
gave it, Avas at this time impolitic and imprudent
In his preface he intimates that he is prepared to be
condemned by multitudes, and even for being accused
by some of high treason ; and doubtless, he thought
that he had counted the cost before he built his toAver.
But the publication brought such a storm about his
head, that though he had purposed to follow his first
blast Avith a second and a third, the tAvo latter Avere
never blown. His friend and colleague, Christo
pher Goodman, put himself by his side in a work
entided "Hoav Superior Powers ought to be Obeyed of
their Subjects ;'' and at a later day John Milton, in
quoting from Goodman, and referring to him and others,
in his " Tenure of Kings and Magistrates " say.s, " These
Avere the pastors of those saints and confessors, Avho,
flying from the bloody persecution of Queen Mary,
gathered up at length their scattered members into

IIO JOHN KNOX.
many congregations . . . These 7vere the true Protestant
divines of England, our fathers in the faith Ave hold." i
But such laudations were exceptional. Foxe, the mar
tyrologist, Avrote a long and friendly letter to Knox, in
which he expostulated Avith him on the impropriety of
its publication ; and even his friend John Calvin, in a
letter to Cecil, felt compelled to deny all complicity
Avith its production. Mary Tudor did not live long to
resent it; but her sister Elizabeth never either forgot
or forgave it ; and it prejudiced the mind of Mary
Stuart against him long before she looked upon his face.
Not many months after its publication he Avas con
strained to say " My first Blast hath bloAvn from me all
my friends in England," and could he have foreseen
Avhat the alliance of Elizabeth Avas ultimately to do for
Scotland in the very climax of her Reformation agony,
Ave may safely say that the Avork Avould neither have
been written nor pubhshed.
But his excuse {valeat quantum') is not far to seek,
and Ave cannot do better than give it in the Avords
of Carlyle'^ " It is written Avith very great vehemency ;
the excuse for Avhich, so far as it may really need excuse,
is to be found in the fact that it Avas Avritten Avhile the
fires of Smithfield Avere still blazing, on best of bloody
Mary, and not long after Mary of Guise had been raised
to the Regency of Scotland — maleficent crowned Avomen
these two — covering poor England and poor Scotland
' " Knox's Works," by Laing, vol. iv. p. 359.
' Carlyle's Works, vol. xii. p. 137.

MINISTRY AT GENEVA. iii
with mere ruin and horror, in Knox's judgment, and
may Ave not still say to a considerable extent, in that
of all candid persons ? The book is by no means
Avithout merit ; has in it various little traits uncon
sciously autobiographic, and others which are illumin
ative and interesting. One ought to add Avithal, that
Knox Avas no despiser of Avomen, far the reverse in
fact ; his behaviour to good and pious women is full
of respect ; and his tenderness, his filial helpfulness
in their suffering and infirmities (see the letters to his
mother-in-laAv and others) are beautifully conspicuous.
For the rest his poor book testifies to many high
intellectual qualities in Knox, and especially to far
more of learning than has ever been ascribed to him,
or is anywhere traceable in his other Avritings."
To this time also belongs his treatise on Predestina
tion, in answer to an anonymous Avriter Avho called his
Avork " The Careless of Necessity." It is the most
elaborate of all the Reformer's productions, and goes
into the Augustinian controversy, on the side of the
great ecclesiastical father, Avith much vigour of logic,
great clearness of language, and apt and extended refer
ences to Scripture. Nowhere else, as it seems to us,
does Knox indulge in such closely compacted argument,
or Avrite in such a nervous style. He is very careful to
keep himself from misrepresentation, and all he states
may be accepted as true ; but there is another side to
the shield to Avhich he rarely refers, and Avhich must be
admitted as implicidy as that to which he has restricted

112 JOHN KNOX.
his attention. It is not, of course, equal to the great
work of Mozley on the same subject; but they Avho
Avould master the literature of the controversy cannot
afford to overlook this valuable contribution to its docu
ments. Knox continued at Geneva until the month of
January, 1559, Avhen, in response to a request sent to
him by those Avho had signed the " Godly Band," Avhich
Avas backed by letters of a more recent date, informing
him of the state of things in Scotland, he left his Avife and
family behind him and set out for his nativ-e land.
Mary, the English queen, had now gone to her account,
and her sister Elizabeth had succeeded to the throne, so
that the Protestant refugees on the continent could safely
return to their OAvn country, and it Avas, therefore, no
longer necessary for him to retain his position as pastor.
Before the breaking up of the congregation, however, its
members met to give thanks to God, and agreed to send
one of their number Avith letters to their brethren in
Frankfort and other places, congratulating them on the
happy change Avhich had come about at home, and
requesting them to forget all past unpleasantness, AA'hile
they co-operated as brethren to procure such a setde-
ment of religion in England as would be well-pleasing to
all thc friends of die Reformation. Having received
favourable replies to these letters, they Avent in a body to
the council of the city, and William Whittingham, in their
name, expressed to the seigneurie the gratitude Avhich
they felt for the good reception given to them during

MINISTRY AT GENEVA. 113
their exile, presenting them at the same time as a lasting
memorial of their names the " Livre des Anglois,'' Avhich
is still preserved among the archives of Geneva, and from
Avhich Ave have quoted an interesting entry. They then
left the city in Avhich they had found so safe an asylum,
and Knox sent letters Avitli them to some of his former
acquaintances in England, desiring that they Avould
obtain permission for him to travel through England on
his way to Scotland. Naturally enough he Avished to see
some of those among Avhom he had formerly laboured ;
but there is reason to believe that his principal motive in
asking this favour, at this time, Avas that he might dis
close to Cecil the existence of a plan Avhich had been
formed by the Princes of Lorraine, Avith Avhich somehow
he had become acquainted, and Avhich had for its
objects the setting up of the claim of Mary Stuart to the
throne of England, the dethronement of Elizabeth under
pretence that she Avas a bastard and a heretic, the union
of England and Scotland under one crown, and the
suppression of the Reformation in both by bringing the
whole island under the virtual control of France. But
the indignation of Elizabeth at his " First Blast " was
such that his request Avas indignantly refused, and it was
Avith difficulty that those Avho presented his letters
escaped imprisonment. He did not learn this result of
his application until his arrival in Dieppe; and even
then, impressed with the importance of the information
Avhich he had to communicate, he himself wrote to Cecil,
seeking to remove all difficulties, and desiring a personal I

114 JOHN KNOX.
intervicAV. But this overture met Avith no better success ;
and so, determined to Avait no longer for that Avhich
seemed to be hopeless, he sailed from Dieppe on the
22nd of April, and arrived at Leith on the 2nd of May,
1559. From this time up till his decease, AA'ith the
exception of a brief visit which he made to England,
Scotland was the sole scene of his labours ; and during
these thirteen years the incidents of his public life
became part and parcel of the history of his country.

T

CHAPTER IX.
Return to Scotland, 1559.
HE landing of Knox in Scotland Avas almost
dramatic in its timeliness ; and though Ave cannot
here undertake to rewrite the annals of the period, aa'C
must as briefly as possible oudine the situation. The
Queen Regent, Avho had so far succeeded in her tem
porizing policy as even at one time to have secured the
commendation of Knox, had now openly declared her
self as the enemy of the Reformation ; and, at that very
moment, four of its preachers Avere under summons, at
her instance, to stand trial before the justiciary court at
Sdrling on the loth of May, for " administering Avithout
the consent of the ordinaries the sacrament of the altar
in a manner different from that of the Catholic Church,
during three several days of the late feast of Easter, in
the burghs and boundaries of Dundee, Montrose, and
A'arious other places in the sheriffdoms of Forfar and
Kincardine, and for convening the subjects in these
places, preaching to them, seducing them to their erron
eous doctrines, and exciting seditions and tumults."
How things had come to this crisis it is not hard to tell.

ii6 JOHN KNOX.
At the consultation at Avhich the " Godly Band " was
adopted, the Reformers agreed besides on these two
things, viz. first, that prayers and the lessons of the Old
and NcAv Testaments should be read in English, accord
ing to the Book of Common Prayer, in every parish on
Sundays and festival days by the curates, or, if they re
fused, by such persons within the bounds as Avere best
quahfied; and second, that the Reformed preachers should
teach in private houses only, until the government should
alloAV them to do so in public. In accordance with the
latter of these resolutions, the Protestant noblemen took
preachers as private chaplains into their homes, kept
them under their protection, and encouraged them in
informal and domestic meetings to expound the Avord of
God. This soon came to the knoAvledge of the bishops,
and the primate, presuming on his influence with some
of Argyle's friends, wrote to that earl, expostulating with
him for having John Douglas under his care. Such
interference provoked a very smart and stinging retort ;
and the archbishop, falling back on the old tactics of
persecution, thought he Avould strike terror into the
hearts of the Protestants by another execution. He
found a victim in Walter Mill, a venerable old man,
Avho, though condemned years before as a heretic by
Cardinal Beaton, had escaped the stake at that time,
but AA'as now discovered and consigned to the flames, in
the midst of Avhich he expired, Avith these pathetic and
prophetic Avords upon his lips, " As for me, I am four
score and tAvo years old, and cannot live long by the

RETURN TO SCOTLAND. 117
course of nature, but a hundred better shall arise out of
the ashes of my bones. I trust in God I shall be the
last to suffer death in Scotland in this cause." This
horrible deed — done on the 28th August, 1558— thrilled
the people into earnestness in a moment, and determined
them to make open profession of their adherence to the
Reformed Avorship, so that their ministers Avere embold
ened to preach and administer the sacraments in public,
even Avithout the permission of the government, for
Avhich until then they had Availed.
Meanwhile, in the month of July, a formal petition
had been presented to the Regent by the Protestant
barons, requesting her to restrain the violence of the
clergy, and asking liberty of Avorship according to a
restricted plan, to Avhich they Avere Avilling to conform
until their grievances should be examined and redressed.
To this she replied after her usual plausible fashion, in
such a Avay as to make them believe that she Avas friendly
to their proposals. But the hollowness of her Avords is
apparent from the fact that in the very same month she
was in consultation Avith the archbishop of St Andrews,
as to the course Avhich should be adopted for checking
the Reformation ; yet, as she needed the help of the
Protestants at the meeting of the Parliament in No
vember for the carrying of certain measures on Avhicli
Iier heart Avas set, nothing was done openly by her
against them until after that date. In December, how
ever, she gave the primate such assurances of her
support, that he summoned the Reformed preachers to

ii8 JOHN KNOX.
appear before him at St. Andrews on the 2nd of February
following, to answer the charges of usurping the sacred
office and of disseminating heresy. This proceeding on
his part stirred up the Protestant nobles, so that they
informed the Regent that if the trial Avent on they Avould
be present to see justice done, and she, fearing the con
sequences, prevailed upon the archbishop to prorogue
the trial. At the same time she summoned a convention
of the nobility to meet at Edinburgh on the 7 th of
March, and induced the archbishop to call a provincial
council of the clergy to meet in the city on the first of
the same month.
When the clergy met, tAvo representations were laid
before them, one from the Protestants, asking Avhat they
felt to be needed, and another from persons still at
tached to the Roman Catholic faith, praying for the re
dress of certain grievances in ecclesiastical administra
tion ; but both Avere treated Avith indifference. A secret
treaty had been entered into by them Avith the Queen
Regent, Avherein they had promised to raise a large sum
of money to enable her to put down all heresy, and so
in the most uncompromising confidence they confirmed
all the doctrines and practices of the Church, and de
clared that both the preachers who administered the
sacraments after the Reformed manner, and those Avho
received them at their hands should be excommuni
cated. This action of theirs convinced the Reformers that
nothing Avas to be hoped for from the clergy, and the

RETURN TO SCOTLAND. ug
treaty to Avhich we hav^; referred having somehoAv come
to their knowledge revealed to them that they had just as
little to hope for from the court ; so they broke off all fur
ther negotiations and left the city. But they had scarcely
gone Avhen a proclamation Avas made at the Market
Cross, by order of the Regent, prohibiting any person
from preaching or administering the sacraments Avithout
authority from the bishops ; and it Avas because they had
disregarded that injunction that Paul Methven, John
Christison, William Harlo\A', and John Willock Avere
now summoned to appear at Stirling on the loth of
May, before the Court of Justiciary. When, therefore,
Knox arrived at Leith on the 2nd of that month, he
could truly say that he had come " even in the brunt
of the battle." Nor Avas he dismayed thereat Rather
like the Avar-horse of the sacred poet, he said among the
trumpets Aha ! and Avent forth rejoicing in his strength
to mingle in the fray.
The next morning the announcement of his arrival to
the provincial council of the clergy Avhich Avas still in
session in Edinburgh broke up that assembly in haste,
but not before its members had despatched a messenger
with the news to the Queen Regent Avho AA'as then at
Gla.sgow, and Avho a few days later proclaimed Knox as
a rebel and an outlaw in virtue of the sentence formerly
pronounced against him in his absence by the bishops.
But all this counted for Httle with him, for after Avaiting
only a feAV hours at Edinburgh, he had already gone to
Dundee, where he found the Protestants of Angus and

120 JOHN KNOX.
neighbourhood gathered in great numbers and deter
mined to attend their ministers to Stirling. Lest, hoAv-
ever, they should do harm, Avhen they only intended to
do good, they determined to halt at Perth, from Avhich
place they sent forward Erskine of Dun to inform the
Regent at Stirling of the peaceable object Of their ap
proach. As usual, when she heard Avhat he had to say,
she sought to gain time by temporizing. She authorized
him to promise in her name that the trial should not go
on, and prevailed on him to persuade them to give up
their purpose. Accordingly the larger number of them
returned to their homes. But when the day appointed
for the trial came, the summons Avas called by the
Regent's orders, the ministers Avere outlaAved for non
appearance, and all persons Avere prohibited, under pain
of being treated as rebels, from harbouring or assisting
them. Erskine, finding that he had been grievously be
fooled, escaped from Stirling and carried the ncAvs to
Perth, Avhere on the day of his arrival Knox preached a
sermon in Avhich he denounced the idolatry of the mass,
and on Avhich consequences followed which he did not
at the moment anticipate. For after his discourse had
been concluded a priest " in contempt '' uncovered a
rich altar-piece and prepared to celebrate mass, Avhere-
upon a youth uttered an exclamation of indignation.
This provoked the priest to strike him " a great blow,"
and he retaliated " in anger " by throAving a stone at
the priest, Avhich hit the altar and broke one of the
images. This Avas the spark to Avhich the people Avere

RETURN TO SCOTLAND. 121
as tOAv, and in the course of a few minutes everything
in the church that savoured of idolatry — altar, images,
ornaments and the like— Avas throAvn doAvn and de
molished. The report of this outbreak soon gathered a
mob described by Knox as "not of the gentlemen,
neither of them that Avere earnest professors, but of the
rascal multitude,'' who finding nothing more to be done
in the church 1 rushed to the monasteries of the Black
and Grey Friars and to the Charterhouse and laid them
all in ruins.
This was the beginning of that demolition of Roman
Catholic edifices for Avhich Knox has been so grievously
assailed. But, Avithout entering minutely into the merits
of the question, and cheerfully admitting that — OAving
to human imperfection — a Avork like that in which our
Reformer AA'as engaged could not be carried through
without the doing of some things of Avhicli men in less
troublous times must disapprove, Ave must be permitted
to advance the following considerations. First, the out
break at Perth was in a manner accidental, and Avas not
either premeditated or instigated by Knox. Second,
when the Avork of purifying the churches Avas systemati
cally entered upon, special instructions Avere given to
those entrusted with it to guard against any injury to the
fabrics themselves ; for in a document enjoining the
purgation of the Cathedral of Dunkeld and subscribed
by Argyle and Ruthven on the 12th August, 1560, the
parties commissioned are thus addressed : " Fail not ye,
but that ye take good heed that neither the desks,

122 JOHN KNOX.
Avindows, nor doors be anywise burnt or broken, either
glass-Avork or iron-Avork." Third, the Avork of absolute
destruction AA'as reserved for the monasteries. Noav Ave
can clearly see the reason for such a distinction. The
churches Avere the property of the people, and after
being cleansed were preserved for the people's use ; but
the monasteries, as Burton candidly admits, Avere in a
manner " fortresses of the enemy," and as such Avere de
molished. Yet even for the destruction of them Knox
and his brethren are not solely to be blamed ; for as the
historian just named has said i : "In the history of the
invasions directed by King Henry and Somerset we
have seen enough to account for large items in the ruin
that overcame ecclesiastical buildings in Scotland. For
Melrose, Kelso, Jedburgh, and the many other build
ings torn doAvn in these inroads, the Scots Reformers
have no censure beyond that of neutrality or passive-
ness. The ruined edifices were not restored as they
naturally would have been had the old Church remained
predominant." When all these things are taken into
account, it Avill be seen that there is very little founda
tion for the common outcry against Knox in this matter.
In the present instance the demolition of the mon
asteries by the mob in Perth seriously complicated the
situation, and gave the Regent an advantage Avhich she
Avas not sloAv to improve. For in an address to the
nobility in Stirling, she so employed it as to succeed in
getting their assistance in advancing against Perth, with
' " History of Scotland," vol. iii. p. 354.

RETURN TO SCOTLAND. 123
an army, for the purpose of putting doAvn what she
chose to call a dangerous rebellion. The Reformers
Avrote to her disclaiming all such intention ; but finding
her inflexible, they prepared to defend themselves, and
Avere assisted by the opportune arrival of Glencairn from
Ayrshire, with 2,500 volunteers. When therefore she
reached Perth she discovered that her force Avas greatly
outnumbered by theirs, and she Avas obliged to accept
an " appointment," by which she engaged to leave the
citizens unmolested in the exercise of their religion, and
they pledged themselves to return to their homes. This
agreement she violated in many Avays, and so finally lost
the confidence and support of Argyle and Lord James
Stuart, both of Avhom had been thus far politically on
her side, but now cast in their lot whole-heartedly Avith
the congregation. After this experience the leaders
determined to take a step in advance and set up Pro
testant worship in those places Avhere their OAvn personal
influence or the adherence of the people promised suc
cess, and it Avas resolved to begin at St. Andrews. They
therefore set a day for Knox to meet them in that
city, Avhere he arrived on the 9th of July. When the
archbishop learned that he intended to preach in the
cathedral he sent a message to his friends to the effect
that, "In case John Knox presented himself at the
preaching-place in his toAvn and principal church, he
should make him be saluted with a dozen of culverings,
whereof the most part would light upon his nose." This
threat somewhat daunted those by Avhom he was accom-

124 JOHN KNOX.
panied, and they endeavoured to dissuade him from
preaching ; but die reply of the Reformer takes its place
beside Luther's Avords on the Avay to Worms, for he said,
" As for the fear of danger that may come to me let no
man be solicitous, for my life is in the custody of Him
Avhose glory I seek, and therefore I cannot so fear their
boast or tyranny that I Avill cease from doing my duty,
Avhen of His mercy He offereth me the occasion. I
desire the hand or Aveapon of no man to defend me. I
only crave audience, which if it be denied me here I
must seek further Avhere I may have it'' There Avas no
resisdng such a determination, and the result justified
his courage, for remembering doubtless his OAvn Avords
years before, while a slave in the French galley, he
preached on the Sunday, nor on that day alone, but
also on the four next folloAving, Avithout seeing anything
either of the archbishop or his culverings ; and such Avas
the effect of his discourses that the provost, magistrates,
and inhabitants agreed to set up the Reformed Avorship
forthAvith, and proceeded at once to strip the church of
its images and to pull doAvn the monasteries.
The report of all this taken to the Queen Regent
in the palace of Falkland by the archbishop, led to the
affair of Cupar Muir, Avhich Carlyle has thus described
after his oavu manner : " Not itself a fight, but the pro
logue or foreshadoAv of all the fighting that followed.
The Queen Regent and her Frenchmen had marched
in triumphant humour out of Falkland, Avith their artillery
ahead, soon after midnight, trusting to find at St-

RETURN TO SCOTLAND. 125
Andrews the tAvo chief lords of the congregation, the
Earl of Argyle and Lord James Stuart (afterwards Regent
Murray), Avith scarcely a hundred men about them, —
found suddenly that the hundred men, by good industry
over-night, had risen to an army ; and that the con
gregation itself, under these tAvo lords, Avas here, as if
by tryst, at mid-distance, skilftilly posted, and ready for
battle either in the Avay of cannon or of spear. Sudden
halt of the triumphant Falklanders in consequence ; and
after that a multifarious manoeuvring, circling, and
Avheeling, noAV in clear light, noAV hidden in clouds of
mist; Scots standing steadfast on their ground, and
ansAvering message-trumpets in an inflexible manner, till,
after many hours, the thing had to end in an ' appoint
ment,' truce, or offer of peace, and a retreat to Falkland
of the Queen Regent and her Frenchmen, as from an
enterprise unexpectedly impossible." '
From this place Knox accompanied the forces of the
congregation to Perth, and thence to Edinburgh, Avhere
on the 7th of July the Protestants of the city chose
him to be their minister, and then for the first time his
voice sounded through the cathedral of St Giles in
ringing notes of trumpet poAver. But soon after the
lords of the congregation, having been compelled to con
clude a treaty Avith the Regent, by the terms of which
they agreed to quit Edinburgh and deliver it up to her,
judged it unsafe that he, being so obnoxious to her,
' "An Essay on tlie Portraits of John ICnox," pp. 139-140.
"Works," vol. xiL

126 JOHN KNOX.
should remain there without their protection, and so,
putting the less objectionable John Willock for the time
into his place, they set him free for a preaching excursion
through different parts of the kingdom.
Hoav he Avrought on that occasion, and where, he has
himself described in one of his letters thus : " I have
been in continual travel since the day of appointment
{i.e. the treaty with the Regent), and notwithstanding
the fevers have vexed me the space of a month, yet have
I travelled through the most part of this realm, Avhere all
praise be to his blessed Majesty, men of all sorts and
conditions embrace the truth. Enemies Ave have many,
by reason of the Frenchmen avIio are lately arrived, of
Avhom all parties hope golden hills and such support as
we are not able to resist. We do nothing but go about
Jericho, blowing with trumpets as God giveth strength,
hoping victory by His laws alone. Christ Jesus is
preached even in Edinburgh, and His blessed sacra
ments rightly ministered in all congregations Avhere the
ministry is established ; and they be these, Edinburgh,
St Andrews, Dundee, Perth, Brechin, Montrose, Stirling,
and Ayr. And noAv Christ Jesus is begun to be preached
upon the south borders in Jedburgh and Kelso, so that
the trumpet soundeth over all, blessed be our God."
This Avas Avritten on the 2nd September, 1559, and on
the 20th, his Avife, having obtained through the influence
of Throckmorton, the English ambassador at Paris, that
permission to pass through England which had been
denied to her husband, reached Scotland in safety. Her

RETURN TO SCOTLAND. 127
mother came Avith her as far as Northumberland, and
after remaining a short time Avith her friends there, took
up her abode in Knox's household, and continued a
member of his family, at least till the death of her
daughter, though some believe that even after that she
remained Avith him, Avith but a brief interval, till her own
decease. Mrs. Knox Avas accompanied by Christopher
Goodman, Avho had been the colleague of her husband
in Geneva, and who continued to labour in Scodand,
first at Ayr and afterwards at St. Andrews, until his
return to England in 1565.
But the Avork in Scodand Avas too great to be suc
cessfully carried out by its own people, even if they had
been united among themselves, Avhich, unhappily, they
Avere not The Reformers there had to contend not only
with the adherents of the papacy in their own land, but
also Avith the power and diplomacy of France, and there
fore it Avas of the utmost consequence that assistance
from England should be secured. It Avas, fortunately,
also quite important for England that France should be
prevented from securing a permanent hold on Scodand ;
but it was some time before the English queen could be
induced to commit herself in any Avay to the cause of
the Scottish congregation ; and many negotiations Avere
required before that result Avas obtained. Neither into
the details of these, nor into the particulars of the civil
war, Avhich lasted at this time in Scotland for about a
year, can Ave enter here. They will be found at length
in the pages of the historians ; and it may suffice in this

128 JOHN KNOX.
place to say that at last, as the fruit of the mission of the
younger Maitland to the English Court, Elizabeth con
sented to send a fleet into the Firth of Forth, and an
army across the border ; and that the ultimate issue Avas
a treaty entered upon during the siege of Leith, on the
7th July, 1560, Avhich secured that the French troops
should be immediately rem.oved from Scotland ; that an
amnesty should be granted to all Avho had been engaged
in the late resistance to the Queen Regent ; that the
principal grievances in the civil administration should be
redressed ; and that a Free Parliament should be held
to settle the affairs of the kingdom.
Before this turn Avas given to matters, and at midnight
between the roth and nth of June, the Queen Regent,
Mary of Lorraine, the mother of the Queen of Scots, had
passed away from the earth, and thus the stage Avas as
it Avere cleared for the important things which Avere so
soon to be achieved. The one !Mary had gone to her
account ; the other had not yet come from France to
take personal possession of the throne of her native land,
and in the interval many things otherwise — humanly
speaking at least — unattainable were obtained. " The
stars in their courses " Avere fighting for the Reforma
tion ; the providence of God Avas on its side, and blind
indeed must the historian be Avho sees no indication of
that fact. But because Ave fully recognise His hand, it
is the more important that we distincdy note also the
obliquities Avhich characterized the conduct of many of
the human actors in these transactions j and it is with a

RETURN TO SCOTLAND. 129
sense of something like mortification that we confess
that even Knox did not stand the ordeal Avithout dete
rioration. He AA'as, as Laing remarks, " a chief instigator
and agent " in the negotiations Avith England ; and, for
the most part, he manifested the strictest integrity. But
there is one letter extant Avhich prevents us from being
able to say that he never lent his countenance to deceit
He is Avriting to Sir James Croft requesting that men
shoidd be sent by him to the help of die Reformers ;
and in answer to the objection that the league between
England and France made it impossible to do that Avith
out offending France, he says,i " If ye list to craft Avith
them, the sending of a thousand men to us can break no
league nor point of peace contracted between you and
France ; for it is free for your subjects to serve in Avar
any prince or nation for their Avages ; and if you fear that
such excuses shall not prevail, you may declare them
rebels to your realm, Avhen ye shall be assured that they
are in our company.'' We mention it that Ave may not
be accused of concealing any portion of the truth con
cerning him. We do not extenuate it ; we cannot vin
dicate it We say only that it is, so far as Ave know, the
solitary instance of the kind in the extensive correspond
ence of our Reformer ; that it is a clear exception to
the general outspoken, and in some cases even indis
creet, frankness by which he Avas characterized ; and
that, perhaps, he caught the infection from those Avith
Avhom he Avas treating, for Froude says of Elizabeth at
1 "Works," vol. vi. p. 90.

130 JOHN KNOX.
this time, " It is certain only that on the one hand she was
distinctly doing, Avhat as distinctly she said she was not
doing ; and on the other, that she AA'as holding out hopes
Avhich, if she could help it, she never meant to fulfil ; " i
and even Cecil, as the same author proves, was a master
in the same kind of craft, so that his indignant reference
to Knox's proposal reads to us noAv like an illustration
of " Satan reproving sin." It Avas in truth, as Laing has
said, " an age of dissimulation ; " but Knox knew better ;
he was before his age in other things, and should have
been above it in this.
But enough, Ave gladly turn from censure to praise,
and Avish to direct attention at this point to Knox's
views concerning civil government There AA'as an
assembly of nobles, barons, and representatives of burghs
held at Edinburgh on the 21st of October, 1559, at
Avhich the propriety or laAvfulness of depriving the Queen
Regent of her authority (Avhich was afterwards resolved
upon) Avas debated ; and before Avhich John Willock and
Knox Avere asked to give their opinion on the question.
Willock alleged that the poAver of rulers is limited, that
they might be deprived of it on valid grounds ; and that
the fortification of Leith, and the introduction of foreign
troops into the kingdom, Avas a good reason Avhy the
Regent should be divested of her authority. Knox,
Avhile agreeing Avith Avhat he had said, added that the
assembly might safely proceed on these principles,
provided only that they did not suffer the misconduct of
1 Froude's " History of England," vol. vi. p. 273.

RETURN TO SCOTLAND. 131
the Regent to alienate them from their allegiance to
their OAvn proper sovereigns, Francis and Mary; that
they Avere not actuated by any private hatred of the
Regent herself; and that any sentence Avhich they
shoidd noAV pronounce should not preclude her re-
admission to office if she afterwards acknoAvledged her
error, and agreed to submit to the estates of the realm.
These sentiments, considering the circumstances in
Avhich the Reformers Avere then placed, Avere moderate
and Avise. They shoAv how very far from revolutionary
Knox and his associates Avere ; and it is no small praise
to him to say that in a struggle Avhich strained every
thing to the utmost, he sought to maintain law Avhile
striving after liberty, and was careful to discriminate
betAveen condemnation of the manner in Avhich an office
Avas filled, and repudiation of the office itself The
relation of the Reformation from popery to civil liberty
is a theme Avhich might furnish materials for a goodly
volume, and space Avill not allow us to enlarge upon it
here ; but it might be Avell in these days if more attention
Avere directed to the opinions of the Reformers regard
ing political government, and the share Avhich these have
had in laying the foundation of freedom, as it is noAv
enjoyed in Great Britain and the United States. So far
as Knox is concerned, we could have no better summary
of his vieAvs on the subject than that Avhich is given by
his great. biographer, from Avhich we quote the following
sentence,! each clause of which is atnply confirmed by
1 McCrie's " Works," vol. 1. p. 149.

132 JOHN KNOX.
McCrie in the learned and elaborate note Avhich he has
appended to his statement : — " He held that rulers,
supreme as Avell as subordinate, Avere invested Avith
authority for the public good; that obedience Avas not
due to them in anything contrary to the Divine laAv,
natural or revealed ; that in every free and Avell-con-
stituted government, the law of the land AA-as superior to
the will of the prince ; that inferior magistrates and
subjects might restrain the supreme magistrate from
particular illegal acts, Avithout throAving off their allegi
ance, or being guilty of rebellion ; that no class of men
have an original, inherent, and indefeasible right to rule
over a people, independently of their will and consent;
that every nation is entitled to provide and require that
they shall be ruled by laAvs Avhich are agreeable to the
Divine laAv, and calculated to promote their Avelfare ;
that there is a mutual compact, tacit and implied, if not
formal and explicit, between rulers and their subjects ;
and if the former shall flagrandy violate this, employ that
poAver for the destruction of the commonAA'ealth Avhich
Avas committed to them for its preservation and benefit,
or, in one Avord, if they shall become habitual tyrants
and notorious oppressors, that the people are absolved
from allegiance, and have a right to resist them, formally
to depose them from their place, and to elect others in
their room.'' It may surprise some of our readers to
discover how fully Knox in these particulars AA'as abreast
of many of the views of the most enlightened Liberals
of our generation; but even Major, the principal ofthe

RETURN TO SCOTLAND. 133
GlasgOAV University Avhen Knox became a student, had
struck out in the same direction, and in one of his works 1
has declared that " a free people first gives strength to a
king, Avhose power depends on the whole people ; " and
that " a people can discard or depose a king and his
children for misconduct just as it appointed him at
first ; " and similar sentiments might be cited from the
pages of Buchanan. Major taught them in the class,
and Buchanan Avrote them in his Avorks ; but Knox gave
them utterance, and that too Avith such force, that they
were Avidely diffused among the people, so that in due
season the divine-right nonsense of the Stuarts Avas
exploded, and the beginning of a new order of things
introduced. But even in this matter, advanced as he was, Knox
was not entirely above the narrowness of his age. In
common Avith all the Reformers, and the most of the
Puritans, he held that the theocracy of the Jews Avas the
ideal state, and as a consequence, that it Avas the duty
of the civil gOA'ernment to punish idolatry with death,
to set up and maintain the true religion by all the means
at its disposal, and to put doAvn heresy as rebellion.

' " De Historia Gentis Scotorum,'' book iv. chap. 22. I am
indebted for these citations to my late friend. Dr. J. M. Ross,
Avhose researches into the literature of Scotland have been recently
published, and whose eariy death is mourned by all who knew his
worth. His Avork on the Pre-reformation Literature of Scotland is
a perfect thesaurus of precious things, and has attracted the widest
attention.

134 JOHN KNOX.
Neither the statesmen nor the divines of that age seem
to have perceived that the true analogue to the JeAvish
theocracy is the spiritual Church of Christ, and so Ave
account for the fact that they continually referred to the
Old Testament as their Avarrant for seeking to advance
Avhat they believed to be the truth, and to put down
Avhat they considered to be error by force. They did
not remember that in the Jewish state God Avas in no
mere figurative sense, but really and absolutely the King,
so that in it to fear God and to honour the king Avas
virtually the same thing, and sin in every form AA'as also
ipso facto crime, AA-as indeed treason, as committed
against the head of the government, and so Avas punish
able by civil pains and penalties. Forgetting or not
perceiving that, the Reformers took the Jewish for the
model constitution. In all the states Avhich they sought
to remodel, they lost sight of the distinction between a
theocracy and an ordinary government, and confounded
crime Avith sin, and sin Avith crime. More especially
they made the crime of crimes to be, the resisting or not
conforming to Avhat they themselves believed to be the
true religion as revealed by God, and as such they
punished that Avith all severity. There is no instance
indeed on record of Knox himself being in any Avay
mixed up Avith persecution, understanding by that Avord
merely the putting of one to death for religious practices
or opinions. No such controversy can be raised over
him as that Avhich has been held regarding Calvin and
the prosecution of Servetus. But they all alike held

RETURN TO SCOTLAND. 135
that it Avas the duty of the government to establish and
maintain, as a government, and that means by enact
ments enforced by penalties, the true religion ; and from
that persecution follows ; rather let us say, in that per
secution is involved. To this error, Avhich, hoAvever, Avas
the common opinion of their times, may be traced most
of the difficulties in Avhich they Avere involved in the
prosecution of their Avork. The Avorld has been sIoav to
come to it, but no perfect liberty either in Church or in
state is possible save through the separation of the one
from the other, and the restriction of each to its OAvn
proper domain. When this shall be attained in Scotland
and England, then shall be the beginning of another
era, as strongly marked as "that Avhich began in the over
throw of the Papal Church three hundred years ago.
The course of our narrative takes us noAV into parlia
mentary debates, and royal closets, fully as often as into
assemblies of the Church, and therefore before Ave enter
upon this section of the history, Ave deem it right to
indicate once for all the vicAVS Avhich Ave ourselves hold
upon the subject It is the province of the biographer
to narrate, and he must not be held as endorsing every
thing Avhich he records.

CHAPTER X.
The Reconstruction of the Scottish Church, 1560.
THE meeting of Parliament, provided for in the
Treaty of Leith, Avas opened Avith great ceremony
on the ist of August, 1560, and Avas attended by an
unusually large number of members. Knox " improved "
the occasion by preaching from the cathedral pulpit a
series of expository sermons on the prophecies of
Haggai, Avith special appHcadon to the circumstances of
the country at the time. On his OAvn showing he Avas
" vehement," and as he inveighed strongly against those
Avho had been enriched Avitli the revenues of the Church,
his Avords gave great offence to many. Maitland sneer-
ingly said, " What! Ave must now forget ourselves and
bear the barroAV to build the house of God," — Avords
Avhich already showed that spirit of insincerity Avhich
afterwards took him into the opposite camp. The great
matter before this Parliament, after it had approved the
articles of the treaty, Avas the settlement of religion, and
as a preliminary to that the ministers Avere requested to
draw up a summary statement of " that doctrine Avhich
they Avould maintain as Avholesome and true, and only
136

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. (37
necessary to be believed." ThisAvork Avas done by them
in four days, at the end of Avhich they produced the
Confession Avhich Knox has given at full length in his
history. It is all but certain that he had a considerable
hand in its preparation, and it has been described by the
younger McCrie as " remarkably free from metaphysical
distinctions and minutiae," and as " running in an easy
style, and in fact reading like a good sermon in old
Scotch." It is, of course, Calvinistic, but in the article
on election, there is nothing of either reprobation or
pretention. In that on the Lord's Supper it repudiates
alike the doctrine of transubstantiation, and that of those
Avho believe it to be " nothing else but a naked and bare
sign," insisting on some mystical influence as connected
Avith it, but yet confessing that such influence is given
" neither at that only time, nor yet by the proper power
of the sacraments only," so that it is exceedingly difficult
to get from it a definite statement of Avhat precisely the
"grace" in the sacrament is ; but that difficulty is felt, in
our judgment, as seriously by those Avho desire to reduce
to plain language the words of the Westminster standards
on the same subject. In the section Avhich treats of the
audiority of Scripture, there is no attempt to formulate
any theory of inspiration, but simply a declaration that
"in those books which of the ancients have been re
puted canonical, all things necessary to be believed for
the salvation of mankind are sufficiently expressed," and
an affirmation that "such as allege the Scriptures to
have no other authority, but that Avhich is received from

138 JOHN KNOX.
the Kirk (Church) are blasphemous against God, and
injurious to the true Kirk, which ahvays heareth and
obeyeth the voice of her own spouse and pastor, and
taketh not on her to be mistress of the same." On the
subject of the civil magistrate its Avords run thus : " That
to kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates, Ave affirm that
chiefly and most principally the reformation and purga
tion of the religion appertains ; so that not only they are
appointed for civil policy, but also for maintenance of
the true religion, and for suppressing of idolatry and
superstition, as in David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah,
and others highly commended for their zeal, in that case
may be espied," a statement which amply confirms Avhat
Ave have just said regarding the position taken by the
Reformers on this matter. We ought to add, however,
that according to Randolph, the representative of the
English Court, who Avas present on the occasion of the
ratification of the Confession, the section on the civil
magistrate had been expunged by Maitland, to Avhose
revision, as well as that of the Lord James Stuart,
it had been submitted, and by Avhom certain strong
phrases in other parts of the document had been
softened. In Knox's history Ave have no Avord of any
thing like that, but simply the Confession as it Avas
actually ratified, and in that a paragraph on the civil
magistrate stands Avith the rest But as there is in that
paragraph a good deal about the prerogatives of rulers,
and the duty of obedience to them, Avhile there is no
word of the limits of allegiance to them, and the right of

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 139
resisting them Avhen they violate either the laAvs of the
realm or the dictates of conscience, on bodi of Avhich
points Ave knoAV that Knox and his brethren held strong
convictions, it is probable that at first the article con
tained some things on these aspects of the question,
Avhich Avere afterwards stricken out, by the two men
Avhom Ave have named, as being likely if retained to im
peril the acceptance of the document as a Avhole. This
is only a conjecture of our own, but it is not inherently
improbable, and it serves to harmonize the statement
of Randolph with the appearance in Knox's history of
a chapter on the ciA'il magistrate in the Confession as
adopted. This summary of doctrine Avas laid before Parliament,
and carefully read over article by article. Then, that no
one should have a pretext for complaining of undue
haste, its further consideration Avas adjourned to another
day, the 17th of August, on which it was almost unani-
mousl}' accepted, and " ratified by the three estates of
the realm.' This Avas followed on the 24th of the same
month by the passing of Acts abolishing the jurisdiction
of the Pope in Scotland, repealing all former statutes.
passed in favour of the Roman Catholic Church, and
ordaining that all Avho said mass, or heard mass, should
for the first offence be punished Avith confiscation ot
goods, for the second Avith banishment, and for the third
Avith death. Thus on the very direshold of their under
taking they manifested the same intolerance from Avhich
they had themselves suffered so much.

140 JOHN KNOX.
With a view to the proper organization of the Pro
testant Church, the Lords of the Privy Council appointed
Knox, along Avith five other ministers, to draAV up a plan
of reconstruction which in their judgment should be
both agreeable to Scripture and practicable in the circum
stances of the country at the time. The outcome of
their labours was that scheme of Church govemment and
order, which is knoAvn in Scottish ecclesiastical history
as " The First Book of Discipline." It specifies the
officers of the Church, permanent and temporary, de
scribes the manner of their election and appointment,
particularizes their duties, and gives principles for
guidance as to general discipline, Avhile it also furnishes
directions as to the celebration of marriages and the con
ducting of funerals. At the same time it outlines Avith
great fulness a magnificent system of national educa
tion, such as Scotland is only now beginning to realize,
though for centuries it has enjoyed something of an ap
proximation to it.
This " Book " is one of extreme interest, and is
worthy of far more attention from the mass of the people
in these days than it has received, or perhaps is likely
to receive ; but to Avhet the appetites of our readers for
the enjoyment of the Avork itself, Ave shall give some
general notion of its contents. The permanent officers
in the Church Avere ministers, elders, and deacons. The
ministers Avere to be elected by the people, but in case
they neglected to do that duty within forty days the
Church of the superintendent with his council Avas to

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 141
"present" to them a man whom they judged apt to
feed the flock, yet it Avas always to be avoided " that
any man be violently intruded or thrust in upon any
congregation." Thus Knox and his brethren Avere
" non-intrusionists ; " yet Ave doubt if in the famous con
troversy which ended in 1843, they Avould have come
up to the party standard, for the "Book" says: "But
violent intrusion Ave call not, Avhen the council of the
Kirk, in the fear of God, and for the salvation of the
people, offereth unto them a sufficient man to instruct
them, whom they shall not be forced to admit before
examination." Then elscAvhere it is said, " If his
doctrine is AA'holesome and able to instruct the simple,
and if the Kirk can justly reprehend nothing in his life,
doctrine, or utterance, then Ave judge the Kirk which
before Avas destitute unreasonable if they refuse him
whom the Kirk did offer, and they should be compelled
by the censure of the council and Kirk, to receive the
person appointed and approved by the judgment of
the godly and learned." Where Avas "the veto Avithout
reasons " then ? And on Avhose side Avas the First
Book of Discipline ? or Avas it on both sides ? The
minister so chosen or appointed Avas to give proof of
his gifts by interpreting before the men of soundest
judgment in the neighbourhood, some place of Scripture
selected by his brethren in office. He was also to be
examined openly " before all that hst to hear," by the
ministers and elders ofthe Kirk, "in all the chief points
that noAV lie in controversy betwixt us and the Papists,

142 JOHN KNOX.
Anabaptists, Arians, or other such enemies of the
Christian religion." Next he Avas to preach to the con
gregation calling him, that in open audience of his flock
he might give confession of his faith in full. Then
pubhc "edict" Avas to be proclaimed, not only in the
church Avhere he Avas to serve, but also in other places,
especially in those in Avhich he had formerly lived, that
if there Avas knoAvn any reason Avhy he should not be
appointed to the ministry it should be shown. If every
thing Avere satisfactory, the manner of his installation
to office Avas to consist in the consent of the people to
Avhom he was appointed and the approbation of the
learned ministers by Avhom he was examined. The
admission Avas to be " in open audience." After a
sermon by some " especial minister " on the duty and
office of ministers, exhortations Avere to be given to
minister and people, and this paragraph folloAvs : " Other
ceremony than the public approbation of the people and
declaration of the chief minister, that the person there
presented is appointed to serve that Kirk, Ave cannot
approve ; for albeit the apostles used the imposition of
hands, yet seeing the miracle is ceased, the using of the
ceremony Ave judge is not necessary." Most evidently
John Knox believed in "order," but just as evidendy
he did not believe in " orders," and there is no place
here for the doctrine of " succession."
The elders and deacons Avere to be chosen by the
people annually, from among a list given by the minister,
and if Churches be of smaller number than that such

I
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 143
office-bearers can be chosen from among them, they
may be joined to the next adjacent Church. We have
here therefore the " rotatory " eldership, as it has been
called by some in America, recognised in principle, and
the reason given for it is " lest that by long continuance
of such officials men presume upon the liberty of the
Church." Those holding the office Avere eligible for
re-election, but they must be appointed yearly " by
common and free election." In another place he says :
" This order has been ever observed since that tim.e in
the Kirk of Edinburgh, that is that the old session
before their departure nominate twenty-four in election
for elders, of Avhom twelve are to be chosen, and thirty-
two for deacons, of Avhom sixteen are to be elected,
Avhich persons are publicly proclaimed in the audience
of" the Avhole Kirk, upon a Sunday before noon, after
sermon, Avith admonition to the Kirk, that if any man
know any notorious crime or cause that might unfit any
of these persons to enter in such vocation they should
notify the same unto the session the next Thursday ; or
if any knoAV any persons more able for that charge, they
should notify the same unto the session, to the end that
no man, either present or absent, being one of the Kirk,
should complain that he Avas spoiled of his liberty in
election." The duty of the elders Avas to assist the
minister in the oversight and discipline of the flock ;
and that of the deacons Avas to superintend the revenues
of the Church and to take care of the poor.
Besides these permanent offices, two others Avere re-

t44 JOHN KNOX.
commended for the meeting of present emergencies.
There Avere first a class of men called Readers, Avhose
duty it Avas to read the Common Prayers and the
Scriptures, in places still destitute of properly qualified
ministers, and Avhich otherAvise Avould have had no ser
vice of any sort for public Avorship or instruction. They
Avere restricted to the function of reading, and hence
their name ; but they Avere encouraged to prosecute their
studies, and if they advanced satisfactorily they were
permitted, after examination, to append some exhort
ations to their readings, and then they Avere called
Exhorters. In addition to these, and at the other end
of the scale, the Book recommended the appointment
of ten Superintendents, each of Avhom Avas to have the
supervision of a district over which he Avas required
regularly to travel for the purpose of preaching, planting
Churches, and inspecting the conduct of ministers, ex
horters, and readers. Some have maintained that in
this there Avas a recognition of Episcopacy, but as Dr.
Laing has shoAvn, the office was merely temporary, and
the number never exceeded the five Avho Avere first
appointed. Like other ministers the superintendent Avas
subject to the Assembly, and might be censured, super
seded, or deprived of his office by its decision. These
office-bearers were to be appointed in the first instance
by the Privy Council, or by a commission appointed by
that body for the purpose ; but, afterwards, by the Avhole
ministers of the district to be superintended, from a list
of names already proclaimed by the ministers, elders.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 145
and deacons Avith the magistrates and council of the
chief town in the province ; and for his installation a
form is given, Avith a list of the questions to be proposed
to him, and the answers to be given by him. It is
added that "the superintendent being elected and
appointed to his charge, must be subjected to the
censure and correction of the ministers and elders, not
only of his chief tOAvn, but also of the Avhole province
over the which he is appointed overseer.''
It may be added here, that "The Book of Common
Order" makes mention of still another class of office
bearers, called Teachers or Doctors, Avho were to be
men of learning for the exposition of God's Avord, and
Avhose nearest modern equiA'alent seems to us to be
the professors in theological seminaries, but it is said
" for lack of opportunity Ave cannot Avell have the use
thereof" In regard to the sacraments the "Book of Discipline "
lays doAvn that the Lord's Supper should be observed
after the manner already described by us when Ave Avere
treating of Knox's ministry in Berwick. In great towns
it Avas recommended that it should be observed four
times in the year, and in order to keep off Easter, the
first Sundays in March, June, September, and December
are suggested, because " Ave study to suppress super
stition." It Avas also specified that in large towns there
should be daily sermon, or else common prayer, Avith
some exercise of reading the Scriptures ; and in smaller
places there should be at least one day besides the

146 lOHN KNOX.
Sunday appointed for sermon and prayer. Baptism
might be administered Avherever the Avord Avas preached,
but it is alleged to be more expedient that it be on
the Sunday, and never in private unless accompanied
by the preaching of the Avord ; for as the Book of
Common Order says, " The sacraments are not ordained
of God to be used in private corners as charms or
sorceries, but left to the congregation and necessarily
annexed to God's Avord as seals of the same." We
admit the clause about "charms," but Avith the house
hold baptisms of the Scriptures before us, and the other
baptisms, Avhich Avere administered — as it Avere " ex
tempore " — by the apostles in the house of the jailer
and the house of Cornelius, Ave are not quite so sure
about the rest of " the rubric." Marriages Avere not to
be entered into secretly, but in open face and audience
of the church ; the place for their celebration, there
fore, Avas the church, and the time recommended Avas
Sunday before sermon. It Avas suggested that there
should be no service of any sort at funerals; but it is
added, " Yet Ave are not so precise but that Ave are
content that particular kirks use services in that behalf,
Avith the consent of the ministry of the same, as they
shall answer to God, and to the assembly of the Church
gathered Avithin the realm."
But the most interesting portion of the Book of
Discipline, perhaps, to us in these days, is that Avhich
refers to education, contemplating as it did the erection
of a school in every parish for the instruction of the

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 147
young in the grammar of their OAvn language, in the
Latin tongue, and in the principles of religion ; the
setting up in every notable town of a " college " for the
teaching of " the arts, at least, logic and rhetoric, and
the tongues ; " and finally the establishment in the
" tOAvns accustomed," — that is Aberdeen, St Andrews,
and Glasgow, — of Universities Avith full appointments
Avhich are minutely described. These Avere to be sup
ported, stipends Avere to be furnished for the superin
tendents, ministers, and readers, and suitable provision
made for ministers' Avidows, and orphan children, out
of the confiscated revenues of the Church, the bishops,
and the cathedral establishments, together Avith the rents
arising from the endoAvments of monasteries and other
religious foundations.
The " Common Prayer ' so frequendy referred to
Avas no doubt " the order of Geneva Avhich is now used
in some of our kirks," as the Avords Avithin inverted
commas quoted from the Book of Discipline make
clear. That book had been prepared for the English
congregation of Geneva during Knox's pastorate there ;
and Avith such changes as the difference of circum
stances made necessary, it came to be adopted by the
Scottish General Assembly in 1564. Our reference to
it here, therefore, is a little premature, as Ave are noAv
Avriting of events that occurred in 1560; but it may be
convenient, as Ave are treating of the organization of
the Scottish Church, to dispose of the matter, once for
all, in this place. As Ave have already incidentally

148 JOHN KNOX.
recorded, it was agreed by those Avho entered into the
" Godly Band," that " common prayers " be read in the
parish churches on Sundays by the curates if they con
sented, or if they refused, by such persons Avithin the
bounds as Avere best qualified to do so. This probably
Avas meant to specify the second Prayer-Book of King
Edward VI. , yet as Dr. Laing remarks, and the reason
ing of Dr. McCrie on the subject tends to confirm his
statement, " the adoption of that book could only have
been to a partial extent, and of no long continuance."
He proceeds thus : " But this, after all, is a question
of very litde importance, although it has been keenly
disputed, for it is well to remember that at this period
there Avere no settled parish churches, and as there
were no special congregations either in Edinburgh or in
any of the principal tOAvns throughout the country, no
ministers had been appointed. The lords of the con
gregation and their adherents Avere much too seriously
concerned in defending themselves from the Queen
Regent and her French auxiliaries, and more intent
for that purpose on obtaining the necessary aid from
England, than to be at all concerned about points of
ritual importance. In the following year, Avhen the
French troops Avere expelled from Scotland, and the
Protestant cause Avas ultimately triumphant, Ave may
conjecture that, in some measure swayed by the avoAved
dislike of Knox to the English service book, the pre
ference Avas given to the forms of Geneva We hear
at least no more Avord of the English Prayer-Book, and

INSTRUCTION OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 149
in the " Book of Discipline," prepared in December,
1560, the only form mentioned is " Our Book of Com
mon Order," and " The Book of our Common Order,
called the Order of Geneva.'' There is also in existence
a copy of an edition of that book printed in Edinburgh
in 1562, Avhich shows its actual use at that time. After
wards it Avas found needful to have it enlarged, and the
metrical version of the Psalms, taken in large proportion
from Sternhold and Hopkins, and accompanied Avith
appropriate tunes, was appended to it We cannot go
into all the details of each part of the service here, but
will content ourselves Avith giving the order Avhich it
folloAvs. It begins Avith a confession of faith of con
siderable extent, but folloAving the lines of the Apostles'
Creed of Avhich it is an expansion ; then come sections
in the order in which Ave name them, and respectively
entided — Of the Ministers and their Election, Of the
Elders and as Touching their Office and Election; Of the
Weekly Assembly of the Ministers, Elders and Deacons ;
Of the Interpretation of the Scriptures. After these
comes the sanctuary service proper, consisting first of a
prayer of confession, of which a choice of one or other
of three forms is given, or perhaps it may have been
intended that all three should be used, for the book is
not so explicit here as elsewhere; second, a psalm to
a plain tune sung by the people ; third, a prayer by
the minister for the assistance of God's Holy Spirit, for
which no form is given, and the minister is to offer it
as the Holy Spirit shall move his heart ; fourth, the

150 JOHN KNOX.
sermon ; fifth, a prayer for the Avhole state of Christ's
Church, and for the Queen and her council, and the
Avhole body of the commouAvealth ; sixth, the Apostles'
Creed; seventh, a psalm sung by the people; eighth,
the Benediction, after one or other of two forms, to
Avit, that of Aaron and his sons, or that of the apostle
at the end of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, but
in both instances " us " is substituted for " you ; " and
so the congregation departeth. To this are appended
the Genevan form of prayer after sermon ; and another
form to be used after sermon, on the week-day ap
pointed for common prayer ; prayers used in the
churches of Scotland during the time of their perse
cution by the French ; the thanksgiving after their
departure ; and a prayer for the general assemblies of
the Church. It Avill be observed that nothing is here
said of the reading of the Scriptures, but this was not
because that Avas under-valued, but because the reader,
Avho Avas in many cases the minister's assistant, had
already, before the commencement of the service proper,
attended to that duty in the hearing of the people. So
far Avere Knox and his friends from slurring over that
exercise, that in the Book of Discipline this character
istic passage occurs : " Further, we think it a thing
most expedient and necessary that every church have
a Bible in English, and that the people be commanded
to convene to hear the plain reading or interpretation
of the Scriptures as the Church shall appoint, that
by frequent reading this gross ignorance, Avhich in the

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 151
accursed papistry hath overfloAvn all, may partly be
removed. We think it most expedient that the Scrip
tures be read in order, that is, that some one book of
the Old and the New Testament be begun and orderly
read to the end. And the same we judge of preaching,
Avhere the minister for the most part remaineth in one
place; for this skipping and divagation from place to
place, be it in reading, be it in preaching, we judge
not so profitable to edify the Church, as the continual
folloAving of one text."
The order for baptism folloAvs : the father, or in his
absence the godfather, is to rehearse the articles of his
faith (this mention of the godfather is interesting, and
some may be surprised to learn, that at the baptisms
in Geneva of Knox's tAvo sons, who were born there,
Whittingham was godfather to the one and Miles Cover-
dale to the other) ; the minister follows with an expo
sition of the Creed ; after that comes a prayer ; then the
minister taketh water in his hand, layeth it on the
child's forehead, repeating the Avords of the formula of
baptism, and closes with an offering of thanks. The
Book of Discipline had already disallowed the sign of
the cross, all anointings; and the like. This is folloAved
by " the manner of the Lord's Supper,'' into which Ave
need not go, as that has been already described. Then
there is a single sentence on burial, discouraging services
at the grave ; but after burial " the minister, if he be
present and required, goeth to the church if it be not
far off, and maketh some comfortable exhortation to the

152 JOHN KNOX.
people touching death and resurrection." The book
concludes Avith "The Order of Ecclesiastical Discipline,"
pointing out the three causes of discipline — the two kinds
of discipline private and public, and the like. There is
in it no form for marriage ; but that could be supplied
from the " Order of Geneva," which in this respect
folIoAvs the lines of other ecclesiastical books.
This " Book of Common Order " has often been
called "John Knox's Liturgy,'' and Avithin due limita
tions it is not inaccurately so denominated ; but the term
is apt to be misleading, and it needs to be added that
the forms contained in it are not prescribed for constant
and exclusive use, but are given more in the way of a
directory to ministers as to the conduct of the service.
The " Readers " of course Avere restricted to them ;
but ministers Avere left free to use them or not at their
discretion. Thus Ave find in Avhat Ave may call the
"rubrics " such expressions as these : "When the congre
gation is assembled at the hour appointed, the minister
useth one of these tAvo confessions, or like in effect;"
" the minister after the sermon useth this prayer folloAv-
ing, or such like." Similar liberty is given as to the
prayers in the forms for baptism and the Lord's Supper ;
and at the end of the form for the service on the Sunday
we have this general statement : " It shall not be neces
sary for the minister daily to repeat all these things be
fore mentioned ; but beginning with some manner of con
fession, to proceed to the sermon, which ended, he useth
either the prayer for all estates before mentioned, or else

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 153
prayeth as the Spirit of God shall move his heart, framing
the same according to the time and manner which he
hath entreated of" Thus the position of the book, as
concerns the debate between liturgy proper and free
prayer, is on'e of liberty, furnishing forms to those Avho
wished to use them, and leaving those who did not to
pray as the Spirit moved them ; but shoAving to both
alike what order Avas to be observed in the service as a
whole, Avhat subjects Avere to be introduced into the
prayers, and in Avhat order and connection they Avere
to be brought into them. It ought to be noted also
that this book gave a great impulse to congregational
singing of psalms, Avhich was adopted instead of that of
choral anthems ; and the fashion now so universal, of
printing the tunes in connection with the Psalms, Avas
followed, if not indeed introduced, so far as Scotland is
concerned by it But though Knox had undoubtedly
a hand in the preparation and sanction of this so-
called Liturgy, Dr. Laing has unqualifiedly affirmed
" that in no instance do Ave find himself using set forms
of prayer." The importance of the subject in itself,
and the general interest noAv felt in it by most of the
Presbyterian and Congregational Churches alike in Great
Britain and America, must be our apology for going so
fully into this interesting history, and for setting, as far
as Ave may, the exact truth about it before the reader.
But Ave must now resume the thread of our narrative.
The Book of Discipline never Avas so ratified as to
become the law of the land. Its general outlines, in-

1 54 JOHN KNOX.
deed, were folloAved in the organization of the Church ;
but though it received the signatures of many members
of the Privy Council, it Avas bitterly opposed by others —
by some because they Avere unwilling to disgorge the
share of the Church's patrimony of Avhich they had taken
possession, and by others because of their aversion to
the strict moral surveillance to which it Avould have
subjected them. Knox puts the matter in a nutshell
Avhen he says : " Everything that impugned to their
corrupt affections Avas called in their mockage a 'devout
imagination.' The cause Ave have already declared:
some Avere licentious ; some had greedily gripped to the
possessions of the Kirk ; and others thought that they
Avould not lack thair part of Christ's coat, and that be
fore ever He Avas hanged, as by the preachers they were
oft rebuked." The final arrangement of the temporalities
Avas made later, when the ecclesiastical revenues Avere
divided into three parts, two of Avhich Avere given to the
ejected popish clergy for their lives ; and the other Avas
divided between the court and the Protestant ministers.
As to the conduct of public Avorship the General
Assembly of the Church passed an Act in December,
1562, Avhich enacted that " one uniform order shall be
taken in the administration of the sacraments, solemni
zation of marriages, and burial of the dead, according to
the Book of Geneva"; and in December, 1564, it Avas
ordained by the same body "that minister, exhorter,
and reader shall have one of the psalm books lately
printed in Edinburgh and use the order contained there-

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 155
in, in prayers, marriage, and ministration of the sacra
ments." In the latter part of 1560 Knox entered upon his
ministry in Edinburgh, Avith the Cathedral of St Giles
as his parish church, and John Cairns as his assistant
or reader. The city council provided for his lodging
a house at the NetherboAv Port, Avhich had been that
of the Abbot of Dunfermline, and AA'hich is noAv the
property of the Free Church of Scotland, by Avhom it
is preserved as a memorial of the Reformer. The
council assigned him at first a stipend of ;^2oo, besides
discharging his house rent After the setdement by the
Privy Council above ahuded to, he received at least a
part of his stipend from the common fund of the
ministers — for there was an " equal diA'idend " of the
portion given to the Protestant clergy — and the city
council added to that Avhat Avas necessary to bring it
up to the sum originally given. An interesting illustra
tion of their care for his comfort is furnished in the Act
of council of date 30th October, 1561, Avhich runs thus:
" The same day the provost, bailies, and council ordains
the Dean of Guild with all diligence to make a warm
study of deals to the minister John Knox, AA'ithin his
house above the hall of the same, Avith light and windoAvs
thereunto, and all other necessaries.'' But before that
time a dark shadoAV had fallen upon his dAvelling, for
tOAvard the end of December, 1560, his wife died, leaving
him Avith his two boys to mourn her loss.
Pubhc affairs just then also had a threatening aspect.

IS6 JOHN KNOX.
Mary and her husband, the King of France, persist
ently refused either to ratify the Treaty of Leith, or
to confirm the settlement of the Reformed Church, and
were preparing a French army for the invasion of Scot
land ; while agents of the Roman Catholic Church Avere
sent over to rally the adherents of the old faith. But
" man proposes and God disposes," for before the pro
jected invasion could be carried out Francis II. died
(on December 5th, 1560), and Lord James Stuart was
sent by a convention of the nobility to France, not, as
some have alleged, to invite Mary to Scotland, but as
Lord James himself Avrote to Cecil, " for declaration
of our duty and devotion to her highness." Before his
departure he Avas— we quote from Knox's "History" —
" plainly premonished that if ever he condescended
that she should have mass publicly or priA-ately said
Avithin the realm of Scotland, that then betrayed he
the cause of God, and exposed the religion even to the
uttermost danger that he could do. That she should
have mass publicly, he affirmed that he never should
consent, but to have it secretly in her chamber, who
could stop her? The danger was shown, and so he
departed." He left Edinburgh on the i8th of March,
and on the 19th of August, 156 1, Mary arrived in
Scotland, Avhere she was received with every demon
stration of enthusiastic welcome.

CHAPTER XL
Knox and Queeisi Mary Stuart, 1561-1563.
BEAUTIFUL in person, attractive in manner, able,
acute, brilliant even, in intellect, Mary Stuart
had many qualities Avhich might have been turned to
good account for the Avelfare of her country. But,
brought up in a French court, her moral code was
neither of the highest nor the purest ; educated under
the supervision of her uncles of Lorraine, she was taught
to believe that the one great object of her life Avas to
advance the interests of the Roman Catholic Church ;
and sister-in-laAv to him Avhose name is for ever black
ened by the massacre of St Bartholomew, she Avas not
likely to be over scrupulous as to the means Avhich she
would employ to gain her end. So far as she had
shaped a policy to herself, when she came to Scotland,
it Avould seem to have been to temporize Avith the Pro
testants, until she had time either to fascinate them by
the spell of her personal magnetism or to crush them by
her power ; then to make the throne of Scotland a step-
ping-stoue to that of England, to which she claimed to
be the lawful heir, and so to bring that realm also back
'57

iS8 JOHN KNOX.
to its allegiance to the Pope. This made her and Eliza
beth implacable enemies. They Avere neighbours ; they
Avere cousins ; they Avere queens, these tAvo, and the
struggle between them Avas to the death. One or other
must go down. Each played a deep and deceitful game,
but Elizabeth Avas moved by ambition for herself, while
Mary was devoted to a cause, and so it is that as she
lays her head upon the block at Fotheringay it is en
circled Avith the halo of a kind of martyrdom, and the
eye of the sternest judge is for die moment blinded to
the guilt of her life by the tear of pity which dims it as
he looks upon the manner of its close.
Knox and she from the very first seem to have singled
each other out for a conflict hand to hand. He saw
that everything Avhich he counted dear depended on the
manner in Avhich she Avas dealt Avith ; and she perceived
that he was the moving spirit in that religious revolt
which it Avas her mission to put doAvn. He feared the
effect of her blandishments upon others, and she recog
nised the magnitude of his influence upon the people.
He saAv that if she could be baffled in her efforts to re
establish popery in the land, the victory would be finally
Avon ; and she felt that so long as he had the opportunity
of swaying the multitude by the fervour of his eloquence,
there Avas no hope of gaining the end on which her
heart Avas fixed. He Avas afraid of the effect of AA'hat
his friend Campbell of Kingzeancleugh called " the
sprinkling of the holy Avater of the court " upon the less
reliable of his adherents ; and she feared the fervour of

KNOX AND MARY STUART. 159
his prayers to God, and the poAver of his appeals to his
fellow-men. So there came to be for some time a kind
of duel between them, and the issue Avas at last a victory
for Knox. We need not approve unqualifiedly of every
thing Avhich he did or said in the course of the struggle,
yet Ave must rejoice in the result, for Knox " budded
better than he knew," and secured, not immediately but
ultimately, the triumph of a larger liberty than that
which he at the time believed in ; Avhile she was the
representative of absolute poAver, and of a feudalism
which looked upon the common people as e.xisting for
her convenience and aggrandisement rather than upon
herself as the servant of the state. " What are you in
this commonwealth?" was her haughty question to him
on one occasion. "A subject born Avithin the same,"
was his ever-memorable ansAver, and the outcome of it
has been that now in the land he loved the sovereign
is for the subjects, and not the subjects for the sove
reign ; it is a litde difference verbally, but in reahty the
gulf between the two is that Avhich divides freedom from
slavery. The first collision between them occurred a few days
after her landing. Naturally enough, as some may
think, she gave orders for the celebration of a solemn
mass in the chapel of Holyrood on the first Sabbath
after her arrival. She knew of the law passed by the
Parliament in 1560 ; she had probably heard from Lord
James Stuart the warning which had been given to him
when he Avent to France, and therefore this act on her

i6o JOHN KNOX.
part was a virtual throAving doAvn of the gauge of battle
at the feet of the Protestants. And thus they themselves
interpreted it. Some may imagine that they attached
undue importance to it; yet as Protestantism is still
insisted on as a sitie qua non to succession to the
British throne, those AA'ho approve the continuance
of the Revolution settlement cannot consistently con
demn them. Moreover, it is not to be forgotten that to
the Reformers the mass was more than even an idola
trous service. It was a sign of many other things :
thumbscrews, racks, galley chains, gibbets and the like,
which were inseparably connected Avith papal supremacy,
and in truth, as one has said, " A man sent to row in
French galleys and such like for teaching the truth in
his OAvn land, cannot always be in the mildest humour."
When therefore her purpose became knoAvn, great ex
citement Avas created among the Protestants, and some
spoke of preventing her by force from carrying it
out ; but Knox used his influence in private against
such a proposal. On the following Sunday, hoAvever,
from his pulpit he showed his sense of the gravity of
the crisis, Avhen, after exposing the idolatry that Avas in
the mass, he alleged that " one mass AA'as more fearful
unto him than if ten thousand armed enemies Avere
landed in any part of our realm of purpose to suppress
the Avhole religion." Hearing of this outburst Mary
sent for him to the palace, AA'hether of her oaa'u motive
or at the suggestion of others is not known, and he had
then, in the presence of Lord James Stuart, the first of

KNOX AND MARY STUART. i6i
those interviews which have been so harped upon by
his vituperators. We must refer our readers for the
details to Knox's OAvn account in his " History," Avhich
has been little more than simply modernised by McCrie,
and must content ourselves with a mere summary of
Avhat occurred. She began by attacking him for the
Avriting of the " First Blast," and after he had vindicated
himself as best he could for that, she charged him with
having taught the people to receive a religion different
from that Avhich Avas alloAved by their princes. This
brought out his vieAvs as to the limits of obedience to
civil rulers, and on her interpreting his words to mean
that her subjects should obey him and not her, he ve
hemently repudiated that misapprehension, and alleged
that both rulers and subjects should obey God, and that
kings should be foster-fathers, and queens nursing-
mothers to His Church. That elicited the question from
her which is the Church of God ? and for answer there
to he referred her to the Scriptures. This in its turn
raised the inquiry whose interpretation of Scripture was
to be accepted ? Avhich he ansAvered by laying down the
duty of private judgment and of the comparing of one
part of Scripture with another. At length she very
humbly remarked that she was not able to contend with
him, but that if she had those present Avith her whom
she had heard they could answer him, and he expressed
his readiness to meet before her in argument " the
learnedest papist in Europe." To this she somewhat
tartly retorted, "You may perchance get that sooner
M

i62 JOHN KNOX.
than you believe," and he replied a little sarcastically to
the effect that if he ever got it, then indeed it would be
sooner than he believed. He took his leave in this courtly
yet scriptural fashion, " Madame, I pray God that you
may be as blessed within the commonwealth of Scotland
as ever Deborah was in the commonwealth of Israel."
Thus for the first time they measured their strength,
and the result Avas, in common speech, a draw. Mary
found that Knox was made of more unyielding stuff
than those Avhom heretofore she had been in the habit
of meeting; and John formed an estimate of Mary's
ability which his subsequent experience only served to
confirm. It was to be no child's play betAveen them.
He could not afford to give so subtle and ready an
adversary the least advantage. Writing to Cecil after
this interview he says, " The Queen neither is, neither
shall be of our opinion, and in very deed her Avhole
proceedings do declare that the cardinal's lessons are
so deeply printed in her heart that the substance and the
quahty are like to perish together. I would be glad to
be deceived, but I fear I shall not. In communication
with her I espied such craft as I have not found in such
age." Matters Avent on after this Avith tolerable quietness for
months, and Knox kept up his stated labours as the
minister of Edinburgh. A\'hat these were seem now to be
surprising. He preached twice every Sunday, and tlirice
besides during the Aveek on other days. He met
regularly once a Aveek Avith his elders for the oversight of

KNOX AND MARY STUART. 163
the flock ; and attended weekly the assembly of the
ministers, for Avhat Avas called "the exercise on the
Scriptures." These stated and constant labours, Avith
the addition of frequent journeyings by appointment of
the General Assembly to perform in distant parts of the
country very much the duty of a superintendent for the
time, Avere exceedingly exhausting ; and the city council,
Avishing to relieve him of some of his duties, came (in
April, 1562) to a resolution to call the minister of the
Canongate to undertake the half of his charge ; but their
object Avas not accomplished till June of the following
year, Avhen John Craig became his colleague.
Meanwhile the Reformer came again into collision
with the court In the beginning of March, 1562, the
Duke of Guise and the Cardinal Lorraine made that
assault on a peaceable and defenceless congregation of
Huguenots, which is known in French history as the
Massacre of Vassy ; and Avhen the report of that was
received by Mary, she Avas so delighted that she gave in
honour of the occasion a splendid ball in the palace to
her foreign servants, by Avhom dancing was kept up to a
very late hour. This act of hers Avas exceedingly painful
to Knox, for he had many Avarm friends among the
Protestants of France, and his heart Avas saddened by
the tidings of the treatment to which they had been
subjected. Accordingly he gave vent to his feelings in
his pulpit on the following Sunday, when he preached
from the text, " Be wise now, ye kings ; be instructed, ye
judges of the earth." After discoursing on the dignity

i64 JOHN KNOX.
of magistrates and the obedience which Avas due to
them, he lamented and condemned the vices to Avhich
they were too commonly addicted, and made some
severe strictures on their conduct, affirming, among
other things, " that they were more exercised in fiddling
and flinging, than in reading or hearing God's Avord,"
and that " fiddlers and flatterers " (John Avas evidently
fond of alliteration) " Avere more precious in their eyes
than men of Avisdom and gravity.'' The report of his
discourse Avas carried by some one to Mary ; and though
he had made no direct assault upon her, he Avas sum
moned on the next day to the palace. Introduced to a
chamber in Avhich she sat, surrounded by her maids of
honour and principal courtiers, he was treated to a long
" harangue," as he calls it (but it Avas no doubt a proper
scolding), on the enormity of his conduct. Very Avisely
he heard that out Avithout interruption ; then, when his
" innings '' came, he complained that he had evidently
been misreported to her, and craved leave to repeat
to her precisely Avhat he had said, thus adroitly contriv
ing that for that time at least she should listen to a
sermon. Beginning Avith the text, he Avent over the
main points of his discourse, Avhich, among other things,
had in it this piece of sound sense : " And of dancing,
madame, I said that albeit in Scripture I find no praise
of it, and in profane Avriters that it is termed the gesture
rather of those that are mad and in frenzy than of
sober men ; yet do I not utterly condemn it, providing
that tAvo vices be avoided : the former, that the principal

KNOX AND MARY STUART. 165
vocation of those that use that exercise be not neglected
for the pleasure of dancing ; and the second, that they
dance not as the Philistines their fathers, for the pleasure
they take in the displeasure of God's people." The
accuracy of his rehearsal of his sermon having been
confirmed by those Avho had heard it when it was
originally given, the Queen said it Avas bad enough, but
admitted that it had not been so reported to her ; and
then very na'ively asked, that if he heard anything of her
that " misliked " him, he Avould come to herself and speak
of it to her privately. But Knox believed that publicity
Avas one great means of securing the vigilance, and
through that the safety, of the people, and therefore he
declined to accede to her request, on the ostensible
ground that Avith the multiplicity of his labours he had
not the time for running about the court and his con
gregation individually to deal Avith them for Avhat he
saAv amiss. On this occasion Knox was the champion
of "free speech," and "scored" a victory, so that he
departed " Avith a reasonable merry countenance ; " and
Avhen some of the bystanders said, " He is not afraid," he
made reply, "Why should the pleasing face of a gende
Avoman affray me ? I have looked on the faces of many
angry men, and yet have not been afraid above
measure," and so he left the Queen and the court for
that time.
The Romanists, encouraged by the hope of success,
began noAV to put forth strenuous exertions, both military
and controversial, to recover their lost ground ; but the

1 66 JOHN KNOX.
rising of the Earl of Huntiy in the north was put down by
the vigour of Lord James Stuart, who Avas now knoAvn
as the Earl of Murray ; and the success of the abbot
of Crossraguel, in debate Avith Knox, was not such as to
encourage others to folloAv in his footsteps. That digni
tary, in his chapel in Kirkoswald, had, on August 30th,
1562, read a series of articles on the mass and kindred
subjects, which he offered to defend against all comers ;
and on the following Sunday Knox, who happened to be
in the neighbourhood and heard of the challenge, came
to the church to meet him. But though he had court
eously intimated to the abbot that he Avould be present,
that dignitary did not put in an appearance, and Knox
himself preached in the chapel. At the close of the
service a letter from the abbot Avas put into his hand ;
and, after negotiations, they met on the 28th of Sep
tember in the house of the provost of Maybole, where
forty persons on each side were admitted as witnesses.
The debate lasted for three days, and strangely enough
was made by the abbot to turn mainly on the signifi
cance of the act of Melchizedek in bringing forth bread
and wine Avhen he went out to meet Abraham returning
from his victories over the five kings, AA'hich Knox
averred " appertained nothing to the purpose." At the
end of the third day Knox, on the ground of the scanty
accommodation at Maybole, proposed that they should
adjourn to Ayr to finish the discussion ; but this was
decUned by the abbot, who promised to come to Edin
burgh and resume it there if the Queen would permit.

KNOX AND MARY STUART. 167
But he never came to the metropolis, though Knox
alleges that he himself had applied to the Privy Council
for the necessary permission. As usual in such cases,
the victory was claimed for each by his OAvn partisans ;
but to counteract the false reports that were circulated,
Knox prepared and published the curious tract, purport
ing to be an accurate account of the debate, which Dr.
Laing has reprinted in the sixth volume of the Reformer's
works ; and though the discussion itself was on an
entirely irrelevant issue, Knox dealt with the very heart
of the question in the prologue of his pamphlet, which is
written in his most vigorous and trenchant style. One
extract will show how sarcastic he could sometimes be,
and with what grim humour he could occasionally treat
even the most sacred subjects. He has been comparing
the making of the " wafer-god " to that of the idols so
witheringly described by Isaiah in the 40th and 41st
chapters of his prophecies, and then proc?feds as follows :
" These are the artificers and workmen that travail in
making of this god, I think as many in number as the
prophet reciteth to have travailed in making of the
idols ; and if the power of both shall be compared, I
think they shall be found in all things equal, except that
the god of bread is' subject unto more dangers than were
the idolsof the Gentiles. Men made them : men make
it They were deaf and dumb : it cannot speak, hear,
or see. Briefly, in infirmity they wholly agree, except
that (as I have said) the poor god of bread is most
miserable of all other idols; for according to their

i68 JOHN KNOX.
matter Avhereof they are made, they will remain without
corruption for many years ; but within one year that god
will putrefy, and then he must be burned. They can
abide the vehemency of the wind, frost, rain, or snow ;
but the Avind will bloAv that god to sea, the rain or the
snow will make it dough again ; yea, Avhich is most of
all to be feared, that god is a prey (if he be not well
kept) to rats and mice ; for they will desire no better
dinner than white round gods enow. But, oh then,
what becometh of Christ's natural body ? By miracle it
flies to heaven again, if the papists teach truly ; for how
soon soever the mouse takes hold, so soon flieth Christ
aAvay, and letteth her gnaw the bread. A bold and
puissant mouse ! but a feeble and miserable god 1 Yet
would I ask a question : ' Whether hath the priest or the
mouse greater poAver ? ' By his words it is made a god ;
by her teeth it ceaseth to be a god : let them advise and
ansAver." Truly there is a ring of honest old Hugh
Latimer in all this ; and if there were many such passages
in Knox's sermons, it is not difficult to explain how it
Avas that " the common people heard him gladly."
In the May of the following year (1563), Knox was
sent for by Mary to Loch Leven, Avhere she AA-as at the
time residing, and treated to another " intervicAv," in
which she endeavoured to induce him to use his in
fluence to put a stop to the prosecution of certain parties
for their celebration or countenancing of the mass. But
nothing of importance resulted, though from his OAvn
showing it is apparent that oa this occasion he Avas very

KNOX AND MARY STUART. 169
nearly throAvn off his guard by the skill of her acting
and the "glamour" of her presence.
In this same month Parliament met for the first time
since Mary's arrival in Scodand, and Knox confidently
expected that the Treaty of Leith Avould be ratified, and
the establishment of religion by the Parliament of 1560
would be put beyond all question by its action. But he
Avas doomed to disappointment The " holy water of
the court " had not been without effect ; the Protestant
leaders had slackened in their enthusiasm, and what he
regarded as a great opportunity was lost. He expostu
lated with many of the principal men of the party on the
subject, but his efforts were in vain; and the "conten
tion" between him and Murray over it Avas "so sharp"
that there was a breach of friendship between them
Avhich lasted for more than a year. The effect of all
this upon him was exceeding depressing ; and on a
Sunday before the dissolution of Parliament he took
occasion to unburden his soul to his congregation. He
expressed his sadness at the thought that those who had
in their hands the opportunity to establish God's cause
had actually betrayed it ; he affirmed that the Parliament
by which the Protestant Confession was adopted and the
Church reformed was as free and lawful as any ever
held in Scotland ; and as reports of the Queen's marriage
were now in circulation, he warned them of the conse
quences that would ensue if she should marry a papist.
His words gave great offence to many Protestants as
well as Romanists ; and when the Queen heard of them

170 JOHN KNOX.
he was again summoned into her presence. This was
the occasion on which the much talked of " tears " Avere
so plentifully shed, and therefore Ave may reproduce the
account of it given by McCrie, which is itself only a
condensation into the language of to-day of the narrative
given by Knox in his History.
"Her Majesty received him in a very different manner
from what she had done at Loch Leven. Never had
prince been handled (she passionately exclaimed) as
she was : she had borne with him in all his rigorous
speeches against herself and her uncles ; she had offered
unto him audience whenever he pleased to admonish
her. ' And yet,' said she, ' I cannot be quit of you. I
vow to God I shall be once revenged.' On pronouncing
these words with great violence she burst into a flood of
tears Avhich interrupted her speech. When the Queen
had composed herself, he proceeded calmly to make his
defence. Her grace and he had (he said) at different
times been engaged in controversy, and he never before
perceived her offended with him. When it should please
God to deliver her from the bondage of error in which
she had been trained, through want of instruction in the
truth, he trusted that her Majesty would not find the
liberty of his tongue offensive. Out of the pulpit, he
thought, few had occasion to be offended with him ; but
there he Avas not master of himself, but bound to obey
Him who commanded him to speak plainly, and tc
flatter no flesh on the face of the earth.
" 'But what have you do with my marriage ?' said the

KNOX AND MARY STUART. 171
Queen. He was proceeding to state the extent of his
commission as a preacher, and the reasons which led
him to touch on that delicate subject; but she inter
rupted him by repeating her question : ' What have ye to
do with my marriage ? Or what are you in this common
wealth?' 'A subject born within the same, madame,'
replied the Reformer, piqued by the last question, and
the contemptuous tone in which it was proposed. ' And
albeit I be neither earl, lord, nor baron in it, yet has
God made me (hoAv abject that ever I be in your eyes)
a profitable member within the same. Yea, madame, to
me it appertains no less to forewarn of such things as
may hurt it, if I foresee them, than it doth to any of the
nobility ; for both my vocation and conscience requires
plainness of me. And therefore, madame, to yourself I
say that Avhich I spake in public place : whensoever the
nobility of this realm shall consent that ye be subject to
an unfaithful husband, they do as much as in them lieth
to renounce Christ, to banish His truth from them, to
betray the freedom of this realm, and perchance shall
in the end do small comfort to yourself At these
words the Queen began again to weep and sob with great
bitterness. The superintendent (Erskine of Dun, who
was present), who was a man of mild and gentle spirit,
tried to mitigate her grief and resentment : he praised her
beauty and her accomplishments, and told her that there
was not a prince in Europe who would not reckon him
self happy in gaining her hand. During this scene, the
severe and inflexible mind of the Reformer displayed

172 JOHN KNOX.
itself He continued sdent, and with unaltered coun
tenance, until the Queen had given vent to her feelings.
He then protested that he never took delight in the
distress of any creature ; it Avas Avith great difficulty that
he could see his own boys AA-eep Avhen he corrected them
for their faults, far less could he rejoice in her Majesty's
tears; but seeing he had given her no just reason of
offence, and had only discharged his duty, he Avas con
strained, though unAvillingly, to sustain her tears, rather
than hurt his conscience and betray the commonwealth
through his silence.
" This apology inflamed the Queen still more : she
ordered him immediately to leave her presence, and Avait
the signification of her pleasure in the adjoining room.
There he stood as ' one Avhom men had never seen ' ;
all his friends (Lord Ochiltree excepted) being afraid to
shoAV him the smallest countenance. In this situation
he addressed himself to the court ladies, Avho sat in
their richest dress in the chamber. ' O fair ladies, how
pleasing were this life of yours, if it should ever abide,
and then, in the end, that Ave might pass to heaven Avith
all this gay gear I But fie upon that knave Death, that
Avill come Avhether Ave Avill or not ! ' Having engaged
them in a conversation, he passed the time tOl Erskine
came and informed him that he Avas alloAved to go home
until her Majesty had taken further advice. The Queen
insisted to have the judgment of the Lords of Articles,
whether the Avords he had used in the pulpit were not
actionable ; but she Avas persuaded to desist from a

KNOX AND MARY STUART. 173
prosecution. ' And so that storm quieted in appearance,
but never in the heart.' " '
At this time, Avhen many of his friends Avere cold
toAvard him, an effort Avas made by some of his enemies
to blacken his moral character by accusing him of a vile
offence, but the lie had nothing in it to make it formi
dable. It Avas "a lie that was all a he," and so it could
be " met and fought Avith outright" The vindication
Avas so complete that now very feAV remember that the
allegation Avas ever made, and we refer to it here only
to shoAv that he too was made an illustration of the
poet's Avords : " Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as
snow, thou shalt not escape calumny."
Much more serious was the attempt made about this
same time to convict him of high treason. During the
absence of Mary in Stirling, and on the day of the ob
servance of the communion in the Protestant churches,
her servants at Holyrood had taken measures for having
the mass celebrated with more than usual publicity and
splendour. The result was a scene of confusion and
"brawling," almost indeed of riot, which was caused by
the interference of some Protestants who were present.
Two of these were afterwards indicted for their offence,
which Avas called in the technical language of the country
and the time, " forethought felony, hame-sucken, and
invasion of the palace." Knox had been empowered
by a general commission from the Church to ask the
presence of the Protestant leaders in Edinburgh for
' McCrie's " Works," vol. i. pp. 206-8.

174 JOHN KNOX.
constiltation and assistance in any emergency which in
his judgment might require the same; and beheving
that the prosecution of these men might issue in very
serious consequences, he drew up under the advice of
the friends with Avhom he usually acted a circular letter,
which he sent to the principal gentlemen of the " con
gregation," stating the circumstances, and asking them
without fail to come to Edinburgh for the trial. A copy
of this letter found its way into the hands of Mary, Avho
laid it before the PriA^y Council, by whom it was pro
nounced to be treasonable. The Queen was exultant
Now was her opportunity, and she resolved to turn it
to the best advantage. An extraordinary meeting of
the councillors and other noblemen was convened to be
held at Edinburgh about the middle of December, 1563,
to try the cause. Some urged Knox to acknowledge
that he had done wrong, and cast himself on the Queen's
mercy, but that he absolutely refused to do, because he
did not believe that he had committed an offence ; and
when Secretary Maitland and Murray called upon him,
and somewhat ungenerously sought to get out of him
the nature of the defence which he meant to set up, he
very wisely put an end to the conversation with them,
and resolved to keep his own counsel until he was
actually called to vindicate his conduct
When the day came, he stood forth as the champion
of the liberty of assembly, as before he had appeared in
vindication of free speech ; and so admirably did he
plead his cause that he was acquitted, if not unanimously

KNOX AND MARY STUART. 175
at least nem. con., of the charge which had been brought
against him.
Much has been said of the bearing of Knox towards
Queen Mary, and said, as Ave believe,' most unjustly, for
though he felt himself constrained to oppose her course,
and would not yield to her wishes, yet he was never
rude, or irreverent, or ungentlemanly. As Carlyle says,
" he was never in the least ill-tempered with her
Majesty ; " and most of those Avho accuse him in this
matter, we shrewdly suspect, have never read the
accounts of his interviews with her, but have simply
accepted the common babblement which has been so
long current regarding them. No candid student of the
rehearsal of these intervicAvs in Knox's History, we are
sure, could refuse to endorse the accuracy of Carlyle's
statement of the case Avhen he says " Mary often enough
bursts into tears, oftener than once into passionate long
continued fits of weeping, Knox standing with mild and
pitying visage, but without the least hair's-breadth of
recanting or recoiUng, waiting till the fit pass, and then
with aU softness but with all inexorability taking up his
theme again."
But while Knox's manner toward her Majesty has
been most microscopically examined, very little attention
has been given to Mary's manner toward Knox ; and on
this particular occasion, in the presence of the council
and the nobles, sitting too as a kind of court before
which he was on trial for high treason, it Avas flippant
and unmannerly in the extreme, and was besides entiirely

176 JOHN KNOX.
incompatible with the presence in her ofa judicial spirit
When she entered the chamber and took her seat, she
first smiled, and then burst into a loud guffaw, saying,
"This is a good beginning, but wot you Avhereat I
laugh ? That man made me Aveep, and shed never a
tear himself I Avill see now if I can make him weep."
Then after his letter had been read, and he Avas defend
ing himself, she cried, " What is this ? Methinks you
trifle Avith him. Who gave him authority to make con
vocation of my lieges? Is not that treason?" There
spake the despot, for beneath the velvet of her glove
there Avas always a hand of iron ; but she touched a
chord that vibrated to a note which she had not thought
to sound Avhen she used these Avords, for Ruthven said
boldly and categorically, " No, madame 1 " The gruff
nobleman Avas immediately commanded by her Majesty
to "hold his peace," and Knox went on with his defence
in such a Avay that he successfully vindicated his right
to call and hold a meeting of his friends for any lawful
purpose when and Avhere he chose. He was next ques
tioned about the statement in his letter to the effect that
he feared the prosecution of these men Avould open a
door for the infliction of cruelty upon a greater number ;
and as he Avas proceeding to enlarge upon the deeds
of the papists in France, and denouncing those who had
done them, he was interrupted by the ejaculation of
one ofthe nobles, "You forget yourself; you are not in
the pulpit." This called forth the often quoted words,
' I am in the place where I am demanded of my con-

KNOX AND MARY STUART. ITJ
science to speak the truth ; and, therefore, the truth I
speak ; impugn it Avho so list" The Queen noAv felt that
a defeat Avas imminent, and as a last resort, she tried to
Avork on the sympathy of her lords by referring once more,
but this time in another fashion, to the fact that Knox
had made her weep. That, hoAvever, only gave him an
opportunity of rehearsing all that had occurred on the
occasion to Avhich she had referred, and thereby made
his victory the more sure. But Avhat is to be said of her
conduct throughout on this trial ? " Heard you ever,
my lords, a more despiteful and treasonable letter ? "
"You shall not escape so." " Is it not treason to accuse
a prince of cruelty ? " " Lo 1 Avhat say you to all that ? "
These are a few of her expressions when she Avas sitting
as a judge, and with these, and others already quoted,
before us, is it not idle to speak of justice, far less of
mannerliness or gentlewomanliness in the case ? Un-
gentlemanliness is bad enough, — though even of that we
maintain that there was nothing in Knox's treatment of
his queen, — but to seek to overbear a court as Mary did
at this time, by the manifestation of her eagerness to
have the accused condemned, either by fair means or
foul, is infinitely worse. The spirit of Mary here was
that of Jeffreys long after. It was indeed far from being
so coarsely and brutally expressed, but it is worthy of all
reprobation, and in view of the facts which we have here
presented, it is litde wonder that Hume, in writing to
the historian Robertson, should have said, " I am afraid
that you, as well as myself, have drawn Mary's character N

178 JOHN KNOX.
with too great softenings. She was undoubtedly a violent
woman at all times." But he never altered his represen
tation in his work, and to him, perhaps, more than to all
others, the prevalent misconception of our Reformer's
character, manner, and motives is to be traced.
The result of this trial was announced by Secretary
Maitland, when he said to Knox that he was at liberty
to return home for that night. But though his voice
was smooth, his soul Avas full of Avrath, and Mary's
mortification vented itself in taunting the very man who
had given her the letter, for voting for the acquittal of
him who wrote it Thus again the Reformer triumphed,
and it is with a glow of satisfaction aldn to that with
which Nehemiah recounts his escape from Sanballat,
that he finishes the record thus : " That night was
neither dancing nor fiddling in the court, for madame
was disappointed of her purpose, Avhich was to have had
John Knox in her will, by vote of her nobility."

I

CHAPTER XII.
Ministry at Edinburgh, 1564-1570.
N the month of March, 1564, Knox, Avho had been
a widower for noAv rather more than three years,
was united in marriage to Margaret Stewart, daughter of
Lord Ochiltree, and the room in the old baronial resi
dence Avhere the ceremony was performed is still
pointed out to visitors. Despite their dissimilarity in
age, the union seems to have been a very happy one,
and such as brightened the last days of the Reformer's
home life. This year passed with little to make it
memorable save a long discussion between Knox and
Secretary Maitland, which originated in an attempt to
restrain the freedom of the Reformer's utterances on
public questions in the pulpit, and Avandered over a
great variety of topics, touching, among others, the
duties of magistrates and their subjects, but led to no
immediate practical result The calm, hoAvever, Avas
not of long continuance, for Ave come nOAv to those
troublous times and dark doings which have made the
reign of Mary Queen of Scots the great debating ground
of modern history. She determined to marry Lord

i8o JOHN KNOX.
Henry Darnley, the son of the Earl of Lennox, a Catho
lic and an empty-headed fool. The knoAvledge of her
purpose provoked the project of an insurrection among
some of her nobles, who were headed by the Earl of
Murray ; but though they had the promise of assistance
from Elizabeth, she failed them Avhen it came to the
point, and the result was that all Avho had been con
cerned in it were proclaimed as outlaAvs and banished
from the kingdom. In this affair Knox took no part
Avhatever, though Lord Ochiltree, his father-in-laAv, Avas
implicated in it, and was one of the exiles. But though
he did not compromise himself by proposing to join in
the meditated appeal to arms, he was as strongly op
posed to Mary's marriage as any of them, and as Avas
his Avont he liberated his conscience in the pulpit, but it
Avas not until after the nuptials had been consummated
that his Avords were especially regarded. The marriage
Avas celebrated on the 29th of July, 1565, and on the
19th of August, Darnley, for some reason, chose to at
tend the public services in St Giles' Cathedral, Avhere a
great throne had been prepared for his reception.
Whether Knox had received any intimation of his in
tention to be present Ave are unable to say, but in his
sermon there were tAvo things which gave great offence
to this prominent hearer. The first was his quotation
of the passage, " I Avill give children to be their princes,
and babes shall rule over them ; children are their op
pressors, and Avomen rule over them " ; and the second,
his declaration that " God had punished Ahab because

MINISTRY AT EDINBURGH. iSi
he did not correct his idolatrous Avife Jezebel." Darnley
believed that these Avords Avere meant for him, and Avent
home in the sulks, making his likeness to Ahab only
the more striking by refusing to eat his dinner. The
preacher Avas immediately summoned before the Privy
Council, by Avhom he AA'as told that he must desist from
preaching as long as their majesties Avere in the city.
For his own exoneration Knox printed the sermon for
the preaching of Avhich he was thus condemned, and it
remains the only specimen of his pulpit Avork proper
Avhich has come down to us. It is founded on Isaiah
xxvi. 13-21, and is of the nature of an expository
discourse, bringing out the primary signification and re
ference of the Avords, and making application of the
principles evolved by that process to the characters and
circumstances of his hearers. It gives evidence of con
siderable scholarship, of immense familiarity with Scrip
ture, of good acquaintance Avith ancient history, and of
great fervour of spirit It is neither a hasty nor ill
digested production, and it impresses us a good deal
more by its solidity than by its invective. Indeed, there
are in it no passages that one could put into comparison
for that Avith others which have been already mentioned
by us ; and it is a little difficult for the modern reader
to Aved in his imagination a style so calm and Aveighty as
that which he finds here, Avith a manner so vehement as
the Reformer's is usually described to have been. But
no printer can reproduce the man, or the surroundings ;
here are the wood and the lamb indeed ; but in these

1 82 JOHN KNOX.
others Avere the fire — from heaven too in a sense — which
flamed forth Avith its energizing and consuming power,
and made his discourse a thing of might Such differ
ence as there is between a bugle, and a bugle blown by
a hving martial musician, there is betAA'een a printed
sermon and the same discourse preached by its author
Avith the gloAv of spiritual enthusiasm in his heart and
on his face. The one is a thing of curious study to the
professional man, the other is a trumpet call Avhich puts
heart and heroism into hundreds in a moment
Knox showed his laAv-abiding spirit by obeying the
injunction of the authorities. His biographer, indeed,
says that " it does not appear that he continued any
time suspended from preaching," but Dr. Laing believes
that he did not resume his usual ministrations at Edin
burgh, unless at occasional intervals, until after Queen
Mary had been deprived of her authority. He Avas not
idle, hoAvever, in those months, for he Avas employed not
only in the preparation of his " History of the Reforma
tion in Scotland," but also in the visitation of churches
in the south of Scotland, and in a journey into England,
specially undertaken to look after his two boys Avhom
he had sent thither for education.
In this interval occurred the murder of David Rizzio,
on the 9th March, 1566, in the palace of Holyrood.
That Avretched man AA'as an Italian adventurer, Avhose
knowledge of foreign languages made him useful to
Mary in her coiTespondence Avith the other members of
the Anti-Protestant League to Avhich she belonged.

MINISTRY AT EDINBURGH. 183
His acquaintance Avith her political designs thence de
rived opened the Avay for his becoming one of the most
confidential of her advisers. That roused against him
the enmity of the Scottish nobles, and Darnley became
jealous of his intimacy with the Queen; so Avith his
assistance and approval David was foully slain almost
before the eyes of his mistress. Attempts have been
made to implicate Knox Avith this affair, but though he
does not conceal his satisfaction at David's " removal,"
he Avas in no wise accessory to his death. The very
next day after this tragedy the exiled lords returned to
Edinburgh, and then folloAved thick and fast upon each
other events of great and lasting importance to the land.
These Avere the birth of James VI. on the 19th of June,
1566 ; the murder of Darnley, on the night between the
9th and loth of February, 1567, a deed Avhich was plan
ned and carried out by BothAvell and his agents, not
without dark grounds for the suspicion, to say the very
least, that he and they Avere acting with the knowledge
and consent of Mary herself ; the marriage on the
15th May, 1567, of Mary to Bothwell, that black-hearted
villain who Avas the evil genius of her life ; the surrender
of Mary to the opposing Lords at Carberry Hill on the
15th of June ; the imprisonment of Mary in Loch Leven
Castle, Avhere, on the 24th of July, she signed a deed
abdicating the crown in favour of her infant son, and
appointing Murray regent during his minority ; the
escape of Mary from her place of confinement on the
2nd of May, 1568 ; and the defeat on May 13th of hei

iS4 JOHN KNOX.
forces at Langside, whence she fled to seek from Eliz
abeth refuge in England, Avith the Fotheringay block as
the ultimate result For full details regarding all of
these Ave must refer our readers to the Scottish histories,
and Ave content ourselves Avith mentioning them thus
in a group in order that Ave may carry in our hands the
clue for the intelligent following out of our Reformer's
career. When the infant James Avas croAvned in the parish
church of Stirling, on the 29th of July, 1567, the sermon
on the occasion was preached by Knox, though he
objected to perform the ceremony of anointing, Avhich
accordingly Avas done by another. In the month of
December following he preached at the opening of
Parliament, and had the satisfaction of seeing an Act
passed Avhich ratified all that had been done in the
AA-ay of Reformation by the Parliament of 1560; Avhile
an additional statute Avas noAv made providing that no
prince should afterwards be admitted to exercise au
thority in the kingdom Avithout taking an oath to main
tain the Protestant religion.
During the regency of Murray everything Avent Avell,
but his assassination (what terrible times these Avere !)
at Linlithgow, by Hamilton of BothAvellhaugh, on the
23rd of January, 1569, Avas a terrible blow to Knox.
Indeed, it may be said that he Avas never quite the
same man afterwards. Knox and Murray loved and
trusted each other thoroughly — perhaps all the more
from the additional insight into each other's hearts

MINISTRY AT EDINBURGH. 185
which their temporary estrangement gave them, and Avhen
the Regent Avas stricken doAvn the Reformer felt as if his
chief human helper had been taken from him. Murray
Avas a genuine patriot, and in the main a sincere and
noble man. He had his faults, and on exceptional
occasions like that described by Froude,i Avhen he Avas
made the tool of Elizabeth, he Avas constrained to be,
at least by his silence, a party to deceit Avhich in his
heart he abhorred ; but that historian has not hesitated
to call him "a noble gendeman of stainless honour,""
and to affirm that " his noble nature had no taint of self
in it " ; ^ and though Robertson has done his best to
belittle him, the verdict of history Ave think will settle in
the acceptance of SpottisAvood's eulogy : " a man truly
good, and Avorthy to be ranked among the best gover
nors that this kingdom hath enjoyed, and therefore to
this day honoured with the title of ' the good Regent.' "
On the Sunday after this irreparable loss, Knox poured
out his heart to God before the congregation in a prayer
which shoAved how deeply the bereavement had depressed
his spirit, and on the day of the funeral he preached a
sermon from the text, " Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord," in Avhich he sketched the- character and
career of his friend with such effect that three thousand
persons Avere moved to tears by his Avords. The blow
fell sorely on the country ; and it nearly crushed the

*" History," vol. vii. pp. 345-7.
^ 'Vol. vii. p. 340. ' 'Vol. iii. p. 355.

i86 JOHN KNOX.
Reformer. The loss preyed upon his spirit and en
feebled his strength, so that in the month of October
folloAving he AA-as stricken Avith paralysis or apoplexy,
Avhich laid him aside altogether for a season from his
Avork, and gave Avarning of the approaching end. His
enemies exulted over his illness, and could not refrain
from congratulating themselves on the prospect that he
would never preach again ; but after some Aveeks he so
far regained his vigour as to resume, in part at least,
those labours in which he had found so much of his joy.
Throughout the Avinter and the spring he continued to
bear testimony from his pulpit to the principles Avhich
he had so long proclaimed, and to expose and rebuke
the evil-doers who Avere once more at work in the land.
For though the murder of Murray brought no permanent
advantage to the party of reaction, it brought back
again, for a while at least, the chaos and contentions
out of Avhich he had begun to bring order and peace.
Lennox, as the grandfather of the infant king, was put
into the place of Murray, but Avithin a comparatively
brief period he Avas mortally Avounded in an assault
made upon the adherents of the king at Stirling, by
a force led by Huntly in the interests of Mary, and
Erskine of Mar Avas chosen as his successor. This Avas
in September, 157 1. Meanwhile Kirkaldy, of Grange,
Avho had been appointed governor of the Castle of Edin
burgh by Murray, had turned his back upon the pro
fessions and promise of his life, by avoAving himself a
partisan of the Queen. He held that fortress for her

MINISTRY AT EDINBURGH. 187
behoof, and gave its protection to Secretary Maidand,
Avho Avas Avorking earnestly in her cause. By Maitland's
influence Kirkaldy Avas encouraged in a course Avhich Avas
exceedingly painful to Knox. The Laird of Grange and
he had been fellow-sufferers in the French galleys, and
to the last the heart of the Reformer yearned after him.
Yet he could not permit his conduct as governor of the
Castle to go unreproved. On tAvo occasions, in particu
lar, he Avas constrained to take public notice of his
doings. The first Avas briefly this. There had been a
scuffle in Dunfermline betAveen a cousin of Kirkaldy and
his relatives, and some of the Duries, a family Avith
whom the Kirkaldys had a feud ; and one of the latter
having been seen shortly afterwards in the streets of
Edinburgh, was by Kirkaldy's orders folloAved to Leith
by some of his tools, that they might chastise him Avith
a cudgel. But they took the sword instead and left him
dead. In the attempt to escape, one of the assailants
was arrested and committed to the Tolbooth , but
Grange and his men attacked the building, violently
forced it open, and marched off with their liberated
comrade to the Castle, the guns of Avhich they fired,
either in token of triumph or for the purpose of striking
terror into the citizens. In his sermon on the following
Sunday Knox protested against this interference Avith the
course of justice, using language Avhich seems to us both
temperate and kindly : " Had it been done," he said,
"by the authority of a bloodthirsty man, or one who
had no fear of God, he would not have been so much

i88 JOHN KNOX.
moved ; but he was affected to think that one, of Avhom
all good men had formed so great expectations, should
have fallen so low as to act such a part, one too Avho,
Avhen formerly in prison, had refused to purchase his
OAvn liberty by the shedding of blood." An utter mis
representation of this statement Avas carried to Kirkald}',
Avho complained to John Craig, the Reformer's colleague,
by Avhom he Avas referred to the elders of the Church
of Avhich Kirkaldy still professed to be a member.
Knox himself, as soon as he had the matter brought
before him, denied that he had used the Avords imputed
to him, and took the first opportunity of correcting the
false report, by repeating and vindicating Avhat he had
really said.
The other occasion Avas that of the appearance shortly
after, in the church, of Kirkald}', accompanied by a
strong armed escort, composed of those Avho had been
most conspicuous in the recent outrages. He had not
attended the public services for nearly a year, and Knox
looked upon his presence so surrounded as an attempt
to overawe him. But he Avas not the man to be thus
intimidated, and so, as his good servant Ballantyne tells
us, he took occasion then and there to inveigh " against
all such as forget God's benefits received, and in treat
ing of God's great mercies bestoAved upon penitents,
according to his common manner, he foreAvarned proud
contemners that God's mercy appertained not to such
as Avitli knowledge prou dly transgressed, and after, more
proudly maintained the same." Kirkaldy Avas greatly

MINISTRY AT EDINBURGH. 1S9
enraged at these Avoids, and even in the church he
gave vent to his anger so loudly as to be heard by a
great part of the congregation. The report went out
in consequence that he meant to kill the preacher ; but
Kno.x held on his AA'ay, dealing defiandy Avith the anony
mous libels that Avere sent him, and publicly declaring
in words that have become proverbial, that " from Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and other inspired Avriters, he had learned to
call a fig a fig, and a spade a spade."
But Avhen, in 157 1, Kirkaldy received the Hamiltons
and their forces into the Castle, the friends of Knox
became seriously alarmed for his safety. They pro
posed to form a guard who should constantly accompany
him for his protection ; but he Avould not accept the
offer, and even if he had accepted it Kirkaldy Avoiild
not have permitted it to be carried out It Avas accord
ing to military etiquette that he should suppress or
prevent all such outrages, and he expressed his Avilling-
ness to provide a guard for Knox from the soldiers of
his garrison. He even tried to get the Hamiltons to
guarantee the safety of the Reformer, but they declared
that they could not enter into any such engagement,
" because there were many rascals and others among
them who loved him not, Avho might do him harm
Avithout their knowledge." One evening a musket Avas
fired into his AvindoAV, and had he not been sitting in
a place different from that Avhich he usually occupied,
the ball must have struck him, and Avould in all pro
bability have mortally wounded him. After that he

I90 JOHN KNOX.
was importuned by his friends to seek a place of safety
elsewhere, but he refused to leave his post until they
told him that they had made up their minds to defend
him, if need be, Avith their lives, and that if blood Avas
shed they Avould leave it on his head. This argument
prevailed, and he consented to remove to St. Andrews,
Avhither he Avent by easy stages, and Avhere he arrived
in the month of May, 1571. In his absence his pulpit
in St Giles was filled for a while by Alexander Gordon,
Bishop of Galloway, Avho pleased the Queen's party
but displeased the vast majority of the Protestants, so
that the Church of Edinburgh Avas for a time dissolved,
Avhile disorder reigned in the city, and what was vir
tually a civil Avar Avas raging in the country.

CHAPTER XIIL
Last Days, 15 70-1 5 7 2.
AT St AndrcAvs Knox Avas free from personal danger,
L. and resumed the Avork of preaching. In the
pulpit of the parish church he discoursed almost
regularly, with a vigour Avhich triumphed for the time
over his physical Aveakness. We have a most graphic
portrait of him at this time from the pen of James
Melville Avho Avas then a student at the University, and
Avho Avrites thus in his diary : (We are constrained to
modernize the words that they may be generally under
stood by English and American readers, but Ave know
hoAv much they must lose thereby in expressiveness, to
those Avho understand the vernacular) " Of all the
benefits that I had that year (15 71), was the coming of
that most notable prophet and aposde of our nation,
Mr. John Knox, to St. Andrews, Avho by the faction of
the Queen occupying the castle and town of Edinburgh,
Avas compelled to remove therefrom, Avith a number of
the best, and chose to come to St Andrews. I heard
him teach there the prophecies of Daniel that summer
and the Avinter following. I had my pen and my little

192 JOHN KNOX.
book, and took aAvay such things as I could compre
hend. In the opening up of his text he Avas moderate
for the space of half an hour ; but when he entered on
application, he made me so to shudder {scottice, ' grue ')
and tremble, that I could not hold my pen to write.
He Avas very Aveak. I saw him every day of his teach
ing, go slowly and Avarily, Avith a fur of martens about
his neck, a staff in the one hand, and good, godly
Richard Ballantyne, his servant, holding up the other
armpit {scottice, ' oxter '), from the abbey to the parish
kirk, and by the said Robert and another servant lifted
up to the pulpit, Avhere he behoved to lean at his first
entrance; but before he had done with his sermon, he
Avas so active and vigorous, that it seemed as if he
Avould beat the pulpit in pieces {scottice, ' ding the pulpit
in blads ') and fly out of it" Nor must aa'c omit this
other trait, evincing as it does the interest taken by the
aged Avarrior in the young soldiers who Avere then just
girding on their armour. " He Avould sometimes come
in and rest in our college yard, and call us scholars unto
him, and bless us, and exhort us to know God, and His
Avork in our country, and stand by the good cause, to
use our time Avell, and learn the good instructions and
follow the good examjjle of our masters."
In St. Andrews too, at this time, he published his
"Answer to the Letter of a Jesuit named Tyrie," which
Avas the last Avork that he gave to the Avorld. It had
been composed years before, in the haste Avhich Avas
incident to his numerous occupations, but it was noAV

LAST DAYS. 193
revised and enlarged, and gives expression in a vigorous
manner to his maturest views on faith, religion, and
the Catholic, or true and Universal Church. Here is a
nugget from it, not without its pertinence to some
popular notions current in the days in Avhich we live.
" We find that Christ sends not His afflicted Church to
seek a lineal succession of any persons, before He Avill
receive them ; but He Avith all gentleness calleth His
sheep unto Himself, saying, ' Come unto Me all ye
that labour and are laden, and I Avill ease you.' " Truly
a golden sentence, touching the very quick of all Church
controversies, and emphasizing the principle never to be
forgotten, that Ave must find our Avay to the Church
through Christ, and not to Christ through the Church.
In public questions he did not cease to take an
interest, although the state of his health unfitted him for
active leadership. Still, that he Avas no unconcerned
spectator of what was going forward is apparent from the
folloAving statement, Avhich, because of its faithfulness and
fairness, Ave take from the article by Dr. Mitchell on
"The Last Days of John Knox."' "In March, 1572,
the General Assembly Avas held in St Andrews, in the
schools of St. Leonard's College. This place was no
doubt chosen, in part at least, for the convenience of the
aged Reformer, whose counsel in that time of trouble
was specially needed. It Avas the last Assembly at which
he Avas able to be present, and probably the first
witnessed by Davidson and Melville. ' There,' the
1 " Catholic Presbyterian,'' vol. vi. p. 265. O

194 JOHN KNOX.
latter narrates, ' Avas motioned the making of bishops,
to the Avhich Mr. Knox opposed himself direcdy and
zealously.' . . . Some months before this a con
vention at Leith had given its sanction to a sort of
mongrel episcopacy, nominally to secure the tithes more
completely to the Chuich, but really to secure the bulk
of them by a more regular title to certain covetous
noblemen, Avho sought in this Avay to reimburse them
selves for their services in the cause." (The noblemen'
presented to the bishoprics men avIio had first covenanted
to give by far the larger portion of the revenues to the
patrons, and Avith a truly Scottish humour, the people
called these dignitaries "tulchan bishops," a "tulchan"
being the name Avhich Avas given to a calf s skin stuffed
Avith straAv, which Avas set up to make the coav give her
milk more Avillingly.) "First among these noblemen
Avas the Earl of Morton, then one of the chief supporters
of the young prince, and soon after Regent of the king
dom. Having secured a presentation to the Arch
bishopric of St. AndreAvs, for j\Ir. John Douglas, he
came over to the city, had him elected in terms of the
convention, and on the loth of February inaugurated
into his office. This was performed by Winram,
superintendent of Fife, according to the order folloAA-ed
in the admission of superintendents, save that the
Bishops of Caithness, the Superintendent of Lothian,
and Mr. David Lindsay, Avho sat beside Douglas, laid
their hands on his head. Knox had preached that day
as usual, but, as Ballantyne is careful to tell us, " had re-

LAST DA YS.

195

fused to inaugurate the said bishop "; and, as others add,
had denounced "anathema to the giver, and anathema
to the receiver," Avho, as rector and principal, " had
already far more to do than such an aged man could
hope to overtake." In the face of such a fact, it is idle
for historians to insinuate, as Burton does, that Knox
gave in his closing days even a quasi sanction to
episcopacy. In the month of July, 1572, a cessation of hostilities
for a time Avas agreed upon between the Regent's party
and that of the Queen, so that the city of Edinburgh
Avas again delivered from annoyance, either at the hands
of the garrison or of "the lewd fellows of the baser
sort" Avho made its streets unsafe. As Melville says,
"the good and honest men thereof returned to their
homes, and earnestly implored their pastor, if he could
without injury of his health, to do the same; and so Mr.
Knox and his family passed home to Edinburgh,'' Avhere
he arrived on the 23rd of August. On the folloAving
Sunday he preached in his old pulpit ; but as in his
weakness he could not make himself heard in the large
cathedral, the Avestern part of the nave, knoAvn as the
Tolbooth Church, was fitted up for his use ; and that Avas
the scene of his latest ministrations. He preached as
often as he Avas able, dehvering a course of sermons on
the Redeemer's Passion, which he had always wished
to be the theme of his last discourses. But in his
debilitated condition, his ancient power had well-nigh
departed. Only once during this period of decadence

196 JOHN KNOX.
did the " wonted fires " flame forth out of " their ashes."
When he heard of the massacre of St Bartholomew he
had himself assisted into the pulpit, and there, moved at
once by the tender recollections of the many friends of
his OAvn Avho had been among the victims, and by his
life-long antagonism to the system Avhich Avas identified
Avith that horrible cruelty, he thundered forth the ven
geance of Heaven against " that cruel murderer the king
of France ; " and turning to Le Croc, the French ambas
sador, he said, like another Elijah : " Go tell your master
that sentence is pronounced against him ; that the
Divine vengeance shall never depart from him or from
his house, except they repent ; but his name shall remain
an execration to posterity, and none proceeding from
his loins shall enjoy his kingdom in peace."
His closing work AA'as the installation of his OAvn
successor. During his absence from Edinburgh, Mr.
John Craig, his colleague, had gone to another sphere of
labour, and his flock had noAV no other shepherd than
himself He Avas, therefore, very naturally anxious to
see some true and earnest man set over them in the
Lord, and accordingly obtained permission from the
General Assembly to induct any minister Avho might be
chosen by himself, the Superintendent of Lothian, and
the Church of Edinburgh, to take his place. They
agreed to nominate James Lawson, of Aberdeen, who,
being urged by Knox to repair immediately to Edin
burgh, in a touching letter, Avith a still more touching
postscript, — "Haste, lest ye come too late!"— came to

LAST DAYS. 197
the metropolis, gave such evidence of his gifts as satisfied
all parties concerned, and Avas installed on the gth of
November. Knox preached the sermon on the occasion
in the Tolbooth Church, and after that removed Avitli
the congregation to the larger area of the cathedral,
Avhere he Avent through the form of admission by pro
posing the usual questions, and giving exhortation first
to the pastor and then to the people. He concluded
Avith prayer and the benediction ; " then leaning upon
his staff and the arm of an attendant, he crept down the
street, Avhich Avas fined with the audience, Avho, as if
anxious to take the last sight of their beloved pastor,
folloAved him until he entered his house, from Avhich he
never again came out alive."
The next day he Avas seized Avith a violent cough, and
he gradually declined until the 24th of November, Avhen,
at the age of sixty-seven, he breathed his last His
faithful servant, Richard Ballantyne, has left a minute
description of his death-bed experiences and sayings,
Avhich Dr. McCrie has reproduced the main features of
in his biography. We select those Avhich seem to us to
give most insight into the character of the man. Visited,
a few days after his last sickness began, by two of his
personal friends, he " for their cause came to the table,"
for it Avas the hour of dinner, and caused an hogshead of
Avine in the cellar to be pierced for their entertainment,
at the same time playfully desiring one of them to send
for some of it as long as it lasted, for he Avould not tarry
until it Avas all drunk.'' To the elders of his Church who

198 JOHN KNOX.
came in a body to his room at his request, he said, " I
profess before God and His holy angels that I never
made merchandise of the sacred Avord of God ; never
studied to please men ; never indulged my own private
passions or those of others, but faithftdly distributed the
talents entrusted to me for the edification of the Church
over Avhich I Avatched. Whatever obloquy Avicked men
may cast upon me respecting this point, I rejoice in the
testimony of a good conscience." As they Avere leaving,
he detained his colleague and the minister of Leith to give
them a message to Kirkaldy of Grange, adding to it these
words : " That man's soul is dear to me, and I Avould
not have it perish, if I could save it." When they
returned and told him that they had met Avith a rude
reception, he Avas much grieved, and said, " that he had
been earnest in prayer for that man, and still trusted
that his soul Avould be saved, although his body should
come to a miserable end." Such petitions as these
dropped from his lips at intervals, " Come, Lord Jesus.
Be merciful to Thy Church Avhich Thou hast redeemed.
Give peace to this afflicted coinmonAvealth. Raise up
faithful pastors Avho Avill take the charge of Thy Church.
Grant us. Lord, the perfect hatred of sin, both by the
evidences of Thy AA'rath and mercy.'' To his friend
Fairley, of Braid, he said : " Every one bids me good
night, but Avhen Avill you do it ? I have been greatly
indebted to you, for Avhich I shall never be able to
recompense you, but I commit you to one Avho can,
to the eternal God." To CampbeU of Kingzeancleugh

LAST DA YS. igg
he said, " I must leave the care of my Avife and children
to you, to Avhom you must be a husband in my room."
A few hours before his death he said to his wife, " Go
read Avhere I first cast my anchor," and she understand
ing his reference, read to him the 17 th chapter of John's
Gospel, and afterwards a part of Calvin's " Sermons on
the Ephesians." Shortly after, seeing that death Avas fast
approaching, and Avhen he Avas unable to speak, his
servant said to him, " Noav, sir, the time that you have
long called to God for, the end of your batde, is come ;
and seeing ah natural power noAv fails you, remember
the comfortable promises of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
which ofttimes you have shoAvn us. And that we may
understand and knoAv that you hear us, give us some
sign." And " so he lifted up one of his hands, and in
continent thereafter rendered up his spirit, apparently
without pain or movement, so that he seemed rather to
fall asleep than to die."
He Avas buried on the 26th of November, his body
being accompanied to the grave by a large concourse of
people, among whom were the Earl of Morton, newly-
appointed Regent, and other noblemen. According to
the rubric of his own Book of Common Order, there was
no religious service at the funeral, but Avhen the body
Avas loAvered to its place CalderAvood tells us that the
Regent Morton uttered these Avords : " Here lieth a
man avho in his life never feared the face of
man ; avho hath been often threatened with dagge
and dagger, but yet hath ended his days in peace

200 JOHN KNOX.
AND HONOUR." The precise site of his grave cannot
noAv be identified. It was in the churchyard of St Giles,
Avhich extended from the church down the slope of the hill
till it reached the CoAA'gate, and was wholly obhterated
in 1633 Avhen the Parliament House and other buildings
were erected. If any stone ever marked the spot, it Avas
probably then removed or destroyed. Tradition points
out as the place that Avhich is noAV marked Avith the
letters " I. K., 1572," afcAv feet to the Avest ofthe statue
of Charles II. in the Parliament Square. What Charles
ever did for Scotland to deserve any such memorial, it
would puzzle the wisest man to say, unless perhaps on
die principle that it was his intolerance Avhich most of
all provoked the Revolution ; but many Avill agree Avith
Dr. Laing in thinking, that " a more appropriate monu
ment for such a locality Avould be a statue of the great
Reformer." Knox, Ave are told, Avas of small stature, and his con
stitution never recovered from the effects of the exposure
to which he was subjected in the French galleys, so that
his frame was not Avell fitted for hardship and fatigue.
He too had his " thorn in the flesh," and that he did so
much in spite of that is a proof of the dominating power
of his spiritual earnestness over his physical Aveakness.
Of the five portraits reproduced and criticised so cha
racteristically by Carlyle in his " Brochure " on the
subject, Ave give our verdict in favour of that Avhich he
calls the Somerville portrait, and of Avhicli he says that
it is " the only probable likeness anyAvhere knoAvn to

LAST DAYS. 201
exist." It is that of a true Scottish face — sharp, Avedge-
like in its contour, surmounted by a bald dome-like head
fringed Avith scanty hair, the beard short and not very
profuse, the lips firmly set, with the slightest curl of
scorn in their expression, and the eyes small, clear,
penetrating, and quick; altogether "a physiognomy
Avorth looking at," and far more in keeping with the
character and history of the Reformer, than the long-
bearded timber-looking figure-head, surmounted by a
Genevan cap, Avhich has been made so long to represent
him to posterity, and which Carlyle has shown to have
no claim to authenticity.
His children were five in number. His two sons by
his first wife became students in St John's College,
Cambridge, Avhere Nathanael, the elder, died in 1580.
Eleazar, the younger, after finishing his studies, became
Vicar of Clacton Magna, and died in 1591. He too Avas
buried at Cambridge; and, by the death of both, the
family of the Reformer in the male line became extinct
His three daughters by his second Avife were Martha,
Margaret, and Elizabeth. Martha became the wife of
Alexander Fairley, eldest son of Robert Fairley, of
Braid, Avhom Ave have just seen at the Reformer's death
bed. Margaret married Zachary Pont, one of the Lords
of Session, and latterly minister of St. Cuthbert's, Edin
burgh. Elizabeth wedded John Welsh, best knoAvn as
Minister of Ayr, Avho was banished for the part which he
took in the holding of the General Assembly at Aber
deen in July, 1605, and spent many years as pastor of a

202 JOHN KNOX.
Protestant Church in France. It is of this daughter
that the well-knoAvn story is told to the effect that
Avhen her husband's health failed she came over to
London, and, having through the influence of friends
obtained audience of King James I., requested the
royal permission for his return to his native land.
After some coarse pleasantry, which need not here be
repeated, the king told her that if she would persuade
her husband to submit to the bishops he Avould alloAV
him to go back to Scotland, Avhereupon, lifting her apron
and holding it out toAvard the king, she answered, like
a true daughter of her father, " Please your Majesty, I'd
rather kep his head {i.e. receive it from the block)
there ! " I
Of the writings of Knox we have spoken inci
dentally in the course of our narrative, and need not
therefore enter now into any minute criticism of their
character and merits. They were struck out of him
almost extemporaneously by emergencies that arose,
and, like all similar productions, they Avere mainly
ephemeral in their nature, so that they are studied hoaa',
for the most part, only by those who wish to gain some
insight into the man, his times, and his work. He was
not Avhat might properly be called literary. He Avould
not have described himself as another of his country
men did, as " a Avriter of books." On the contrary, in
the preface to the only sermon which he published, he
affirmed that " he considered himself rather called of

LAST DAYS. 203
God to instruct the ignorant, comfort the sorroAvful, con
firm the Aveak, and rebuke the proud by tongue and
living voice in these most corrupt times, than to compose
books for the age to come; seeing that so much is Avritten
(and that by men of most singular condition) and yet
so litde Avell observed, he decreed to contain himself
Avithin the bounds of that vocation Avhereunto he felt
himself specially called." An exception to this may
perhaps be found in his " History of the Reformation in
Scotland," to Avhich throughout Ave have been so much
indebted, and Avhich is one of the raciest, clearest, and
most trustworthy records of the heroic struggle in Avhich
he Avas virtually the leader of die victorious side. It has
been stigmatized by Burton as egotistical ; but Carlyle
more justly notices how on one occasion, Avhen his per
sonal merit far excelled all possible description, "he
hardly names himself at all " ; and where he could not
be truthful without speaking of himself, he invariably
does so in the third person, and Avithout any attempt
to glorify the Avork of Avhich he might have said, " cujus
pars magna fui." For the rest, as Carlyle says, " His
account of every event he Avas present in is that of a
well-discerning eye-witness. Things he did not himself
see, but had reasonable cause and abundant means to
inquire into — battles even, and sieges — are described
with something of a Homeric vigour and simplicity." It
is unfortunate for modern readers that it is written in the
old Scottish dialect; but if some competent scholar
Avould only honestly modernize and faithfully edit it, a

204 JOHN KNOX.
great boon would be conferred upon the present gener
ation, for it has in it many elements of popular interest
His special vocation Avas that of the preacher rather
than of the author. The pulpit AA'as the dirone of his
peculiar and pre-eminent poAver. Other men might equal
or surpass him elsewhere, but there he Avas supreme.
Different excellences might come out in himself on dif
ferent occasions ; but in the pulpit all his abilities Avere
conspicuous, and there they were always at their best. It
Avas the glass Avhich focussed all his poAvers into a point,
and quickened their exercise into a burning intensity
Avhich kindled everything it touched. It brightened his
intehect, enlivened his imagination, clarified his judg
ment, inflamed his courage, and gave fiery energy to
his utterance. He AA'as never elseAvhere so great in any
one of these particulars, as he Avas, when in the pulpit, in
them all ; for there, over and above the " prcefervidum
ingenium," Avhich he had in common with so many of
his countrymen, and the gloAV of animation Avhich fills
the soul of the orator when he looks upon an audience,
he had the feeling that he Avas called of God to be
faithful, and that made him almost like another Paul.
Behind him Avas the cross of his Lord ; before him was
the throne at Avhich he Avas to be accountable, and
betAveen these tAvo he stood " Avatching for souls as one
. that must give account" He began his discourse most
commonly Avith Biblical exposition, and spent a litde
time in calmly, clearly, and fully explaining the meaning
of the passage on Avhich he was engaged. In this

LAST DA YS.

205

portion of his sermon, if aa'c may judge from the pub
lished tracts Avhich Avere apparently founded on pulpit
utterances, he Avas clear, simple, convincing ; not making
a parade of learning, yet bringing out Avithal the true
significance of the sacred text Then having cleared
away all doubt from that, he made it the foundation of
a battery, Avhereon he erected a SAvivel gun, and with
that he SAvept the Avhole horizon, firing at every evil
Avhich came Avithin his vicAv. Nor Avere the shots mere
random things. They Avere deliberately aimed, and
they commonly did most effective Avork. No matter
who, might be the evil-doer, the exposure Avas sure to
be made, and the expostulation, usually ending in
denunciation, unless the sinner should repent, Avas
sure to follow. Whatever he might do elsewhere, he
could neither shut his eyes nor keep back his utterance
when he Avas, as he called it, "in public place." He
was " set as a Avatchman " to the people of Scotland,
and he Avould Avatch with Avakeful vigilance, and give
honest warning of everything which he saAV Avrong ; for
the Avrong Avith him Avas always fraught Avith danger, and
the wrongness Avas enough to evoke his protest He
used no soft Avords. He Avas no maker of polite phrases.
He spoke in order to be understood, and therefore he
'' caUed a fig a fig, and a spade a spade." He Avent
into the pulpit not because he had to say something,
but because there was something in him which was
compelling itself to be said. He spoke because he
"could not but" speak. That irrepressibility gave

2o6 JOHN KNOX.
volcanic energy to his manner and fiery force to his
Avords, so that the effects produced by his sermons
Avere not merely superficial. Like those modern mis
siles Avhich burst in the Avounds which they have made,
his Avords exploded Avithin the hearts of those Avho had
received them, and set them on fire Avith convictions
that flamed forth in their conduct It Avas apparently
impossible for any one to listen to him Avithout being
deeply moved, either to antagonism, or to enthusiastic
agreement, or — for he could be tender also — to tears.
It may be said indeed that he alloAved himself too
great liberty in commenting on public men and national
affairs ; and Ave may readily admit that in ordinary times,
and especially in our altered circumstances, it Avould be
uuAvise in most preachers to use the pulpit precisely as
he did. But we have to bear in mind that the crisis
through Avhicli his country Avas passing at the time, was
as much religious as political, and that the pulpit Avas
the only organ at his command. To his credit be it
recorded, that he Avas, if not the first, at least one of the
very first to perceive the importance of making and
guiding public opinion aright. He saw that the people
were to be the virtual rulers in the coming time ; nay, he
recognised in them the ultimate arbiters for the decision
of the great matters Avhich Avere then in debate, and there
fore he Avould not take time to go to royal closets or
noblemen's studies, but made his appeal to the people as
a body, and the pulpit was the only place in Avhich he
could do that. The daily press Avas not then born ; the

LAST DA YS. 207
public meeting had not yet come into vogue ; but Avhat
is now done by our editors in their columns, and by our
statesmen in Midlothian campaigns, and such like, he
did by his five Aveekly sermons in Edinburgh, and by his
various preaching journeys in the south and Avest and
north divisions of the kingdom. He informed and
aroused public opinion. He appealed to the people,
speaking to them as one under oath to the King of
kings the Avhile; and when Ave put the matter in that
light, Ave have at once the defence of his procedure and
the explanation of his success.
He Avas not always Avise ; neither Avas he always dis
criminating in his utterances. Who is ? who especially
Avhen surrounded by the difficulties Avith Avhich he had
to contend ? and Ave may Avell forgive him his occasional
indiscretions, Avhen we think of the Avoric Avhich, in spite
of these, he Avas honoured to accomjjlish. By that Avork
he has earned the gratitude of posterity, and deserved
a place among the men Avho are most Avorthy to be
remembered in these times. By that Avork the entire
face and future of Scotland were changed. She has
made great progress in many directions since his day,
and outgrown many of the limitations within which he
Avould have restricted her ; but the success of his Avork
made it possible for her to become Avhat she is to-day.
The liberty, the literature, the philosophy, as AveU as
the religion of Scodand, could not have developed into
Avhat they became Avithout the Reformation ; and Avithout
Knox, humanly speaking, the Reformation would not

2o8 JOHN KNOX.
have been at all, or at least would not have been what
it actually became. He had not the lyric thrill of genius
that vibrates in the songs of Robert Burns ; but in his
own way and to his oavu tune he sang, " A man's a man
for a' that," two hundred years before the Ayrshire bard
Avas born. He laid the foundation of that national
popular education Avhich has made Scotland at home so
intelligent, and carried Scotsmen Avith honour abroad
into all the countries under heaven ; and though he
Avould have protested very vehemently against the scep
ticism of Hume and others, yet the men Avho have made
the Scottish school of philosophy illustrious, received,
consciously or unconsciously, much of their impulse from
his work. Add to this, that wherever Presbyterianism has
found a foothold, its votaries name Knox side by side
Avith Calvin, as one of its foremost leaders and organizers.
But when we consider the shortness of the time Avithin
Avhicli Knox did his Avork for Scotland, the greatness of
the man becomes still more conspicuous. He was forty-
two years of age Avhen he AA'as called to preach in the
Castle of St. Andrews, and he died at sixty-seven. With
in these twenty-five years therefore his reformation Avork
was done ; and yet of these nearly two were spent as a
galley-slave in French captivity, five Avere passed in
England, three on the continent, and for the last year
and a half of his life he Avas disabled by paralysis, so that
his active labours in his native land Avere virtually con
densed Avithin little more than fourteen years. During
these, also, he had to contend, save in the brief season

LAST DAYS. 209
of Murray's regency, with the greatest difficulties, but
through them all he held on, and over them all he
secured an ultimate triumph. Piis energy Avas consum
ing, his zeal untiring, and his vigilance unslumbering.
With the eye of a statesman he looked into the future,
Avhile at the same time he keenly scrutinized the move
ments of the present He had the near sight Avhich sees
Avhat is closest to it Avith admirable distinctness, and
the far sight Avhich descries with equal accuracy what
is distant, and with these he combined the philosophic
spirit Avhich marked very correctly the connection be
tween the two. He Avas a true patriot, and ever wilhng
to sacrifice himself in the Avelfare of his country. And
all these qualities in him Avere raised to the white heat
of enthusiasm, and fused into the unity of holiness by his
devotion to the God and Father of his Saviour the Lord
Jesus Christ He spoke, and Avrote, and acted as ever
in His sight This Avas the secret of his courage, the
root of his inflexibility, and the source of his poAver. As
a Reformer he had in him the boldness of Luther, com
bined Avith some of the qualities of Calvin, and though
as a whole he was inferior to both, yet more than either
he reminds us of a Hebrew prophet. When Ave see him
before Queen Mary, Ave think at once of Elijah before
Ahab, and more appropriately perhaps than any other
man in modern history he might have taken for the
motto of his life the oft-repeated asseveration of the
Tislibite, "As the Lord God of Israel hveth, before
whom I stand." P

ZIO JOHN KNOX.
And yet, though sternly uttering in the highest places
AA'hat he believed to be the Avord of God, there Avere not
Avanting in his character other traits of gendeness and
geniality. As Carlyle has truly said, "Tumult Avas not
his element, it Avas the tragic feature of his life that he
AA'as forced to dwell in that" He too, like the granite
mountains of his native land, had in him fountains of
tenderness, and valleys laughing Avith cheerfulness. He
Avas not the heartless Stoic that many have ignorantly
painted him, for have Ave not seen him weeping with
those Avho Avere "sobbing unto God"? And though it
may seem strange to those Avho have not made them
selves acquainted AA'ith his history, there Avas in him a
vein of humour, yea even, as Carlyle says, of " drollery,"
that makes him excellent company. This humour of
his, as the Avriter just named has admirably diagnosed it,
Avas " not mockery, scorn, bitterness, alone, though there
is enough of that too, but a true, loving, illuminating
laugh mounts up over the earnest visage ; not a loud
laugh ; you Avould say a laugh in the eyes most of all.'
But noAv our task is done. We have tried to shoAV
honestly the man as he Avas, and to describe dispassion
ately the AVOrk Avhich he did. He is, if not pre-eminently
the Scotchman of history, — though Ave think a good claim
might be established for him as such, — yet certainly one
of " the three mightiest," or of " the first three " of his
nation ; and like the vine Avhose branches spread over
the wall, his influence has gone in blessing to other
lands, for in his AVork Ave have the root of the English

LAST DAYS. 211
Revolution, and some of the seeds that were carried
AvestAvard in the Mayflower, and sown in New England
fields, had fallen from his hands. It is not inappropriate
therefore that one Avhose labours in the ministry of the
gospel have closely connected him alike Avith Scotland,
England, and America, should pay this Avilling tribute to
his name and Avork.

INDEX

A>N'.A.ND, Dean, Controversy of
Knox with, 17.
Answers to some questions concem
ing Baptism, etc., by Knox, 17.
Arbuckle, Friar, Controversy of,
with Knox, conceming the Mass,
18, 32.
Arran, Earl of, appointed'Regent
of Scotland, 4; character of, 5.
Argyle, Earl of, 108, 116, 125.
Balfour of Mount Quarry, 8.
Balnaves, Henry, 6, 15, 24, 29.
Band, or Bond, Godly, 107, 112,
116.
Beaton, Cardinal, executes George
Wishart, 2; character of, 4; pro
duces a forged will in order to
obtain the Regency of Scotland,
4; murder of, 8; condemnation
oC Walter Mill by, 116.
Becon's Displaying ofthe Mass, 45.
Berwick on "Tweed, Knox ap
pointed to, 30; condition of, at
that time, 31; practice of Knox
at, in the matter of the Lord's
Supper, 32, 36; preaching of
Knox at, 33.
Blast, First, of the Trampet
ag;ainst the monstrous Regiment
of Women, by Knox, 108.
Book of Common Prayer (English),
31, 36, 46, 47.
Book of Common Order (Scottish),
105, 147.
Book of Discipline. First, 140-147,
153; not ratified, 154.

Bothwell, Earl of, apprehends
George Wishart, 2; connection
of, with the family of Knox, 10;
part of, in Darnley's murder,
1 83 ; marriage of, to Queen Mary,
1S3.
BoAves, Marjory, betrothed to
Knox, 40; marriage of, to Knox,
96; joins her husband in Scot
land, 126; death of, 155; sons
of, 151, 201.
Bowes, Elizabeth, mother-in-law
of Knox, 40, 60, 65; chai-acter
of, 71, 98, 100, loi; kindness
of Knox to, 102.
Brandling, Sir Robert, 60, 68.
Bullinger, Henrj-, 48, 77; ques
tions of Knox to, 77, 81, loS.
Burton's History of Scotland quo
ted from or referred to, 4, 122,
195, 203.
C.A.IRNS, John, appointed reader to
Knox in Edinburgh, 155.
Calvin, John, 77, 82; opinion of,
on English Prayer Book, 86;
criticism of Knox's treatment at
Frankfort by, 93, 106, 1 10.
Campbell, Robert, of Kingzeau-
cleuch, 98, 158, igS.
Carlyle, Thomas, Opinions of, on
Knox's conduct at Frankfort,
92; on the First Blast, no; on
Knox's treatment of Queen
Mary, 175; on the portraits of
Knox, 200; on Knox's History
of the Reformation, 203; on

INDEX.

213

Knox's tenderness and humor,
210; description of the affair at
Cupar Muir by, 124.
Cecil, Secretary, 49, 113, 130, 162.
Clergy of Scotland, General charac
ter of, before the Reformation, 6.
Confession of Faith, Scottish, 137;
^ ratified by Parliament, 139.
Conversion of Knox to Protestant
ism, 13.
Coverdale, Miles, godfather to one
of Knox's sons, 151.
Cox, Dr. Richard, Relation of, to
the troubles at Frankfort, 88, 91.
Craig, John, colleague of Knox,
163, 188, 196.
Cranmer, Archbishop, on the
Mass, 43; letter of, to English
Council, 49; probable author of
Declaration on Rjieeling, 51;
sufferings of, 82.
Crossraguel, Abbot of, Controversy
Avith Knox, i56-i68.
Cupar Muir, Affair of, 124.
Darnley, Lord Henry, Marriage
of, to Queen Mary Stuart, 180;
offended at sermon by Knox,
180; part of, in murder of Riz
zio, 1S3; murder of, 183.
Deacons, Office of, in First Book
of Discipline, 143.
Declaration of Prayer Book on
Kneeling in the Lord's Supper,
History of, 48-55.
Demolition of Roman Catholic
edifices. Relation of Knox to,
121.
Dieppe, Knox in, 71-76, 79, 113.
Doctors, Office of, in Scottish
Church, 145.
Douglas, John, Chaplain to Earl
of Argyle, 11 5.
Edinburgh, Knox chosen minister
of 125; Knox's house in, 155;
labors of Knox in, 163.

Education, Book of DiscipUne on,
146.
Edward 'VL, First Prayer Book
of. 31. 36. 46. 47; Second
Prayer Book of, 46, 47; order
of Communion under, 46; death
of, 62.
Elders, Office of, under First Book
of Discipline, 142.
Elizabeth, Queen of England, ac
cession to the throne, 112; re
fuses Knox's request for per
mission to travel through En
gland, 113; relation of to Mary
Stuart, 158; deceitfulness of,
130.
England, Feelings of Knox in re
gard to, 70; influence of, on
Knox, 62.
Erskine, Lord, 98, 106.
Erskine of Dun, 97, 98, 108, 120,
171.
Exposition of the Sixth Psalm by
Knox, 71-74.
Faithful Admonition, by Knox,
79-S2.
Fairley, Robert, of Braid, 198.
Francis L, of France, Death of,
20.
Francis IL, Death of 156.
Frankfort on the Maine, History
of Knox's troubles at, 83-94;
departure of Knox from, gi.
First Blast of the Trumpet against
the Monstrous Regiment of Wo
men, by Knox, 108, 113, 161;
Carlyle on, IIO.
Froude, J. A., History of England,
64. 127. 139. 185.
Galleys, French, Knox's experi
ences in, 23-25.
Geneva, Knox at, 83; pastor of
English congregation in, 95 ; ar
rival of Knox and family at,
loi ; labors of Knox at, 105,

214

INDEX.

107 ; thanks of English refugees
to the council of, 112.
Gilby, Arthur, colleague of Knox
at Geneva, 95 .
GlasgOAV University, Knox a stu
dent at, II.
Glencairn, Earl of 106, loS.
Godly Band or Bond, 107, 112,
116.
Godly Letter of Warning, by
Knox, 74-76.
Guillaume, 'Thomas, Connection
of Knox Avith, 13.
Haddington, George Wishart
preaching at, i; birthplace of
Knox, 10.
Hamilton, Patrick, 5.
Henry 'VIIL, Dispute of Avith
James V., 4; connection of, with
conspirators against Beaton, 7;
Death of 20.
Hooper, Bishop, 45, 59.
Hume, David, Letter of to Dr.
Robertson, on character of Mary
Stuart, 177.
James 'V., Death of 3; dispute
Avith Henry 'VIIL, 3.
James 'VL, Birth of 1S3; corona
tion of 184.
KiRK.\LDV of Grange, 9; makes
terms for surrender of the castle
of St. Andrews, 22; dissuaded
by Knox from the shedding of
blood to escape from prison, 26;
controversy of with Knox, 187;
message of Knox to, 198.
Kneeling in the Lord's Supper,
Knox's opinions and practice in
regard to,35, 37, 39; declaration
of English Prayer Book on, 62.
Knox, John, First appearance of
as body-guard of Wishart', 2;
enters the castle of St. Andrews,
9, 14; early history of, 10; con

version of to Protestantism, 13;
within the castle of St. An
drews, 14; called to the minis-
istry, 15; controversy Avith Dean
Annand, 17; sermon at St. An
drews, 17; controversy with
Friar Arbuckle, 18, 32; made
a galley slave, 22; feelings of,
on sight of St. Andrews from
the galley, 27; released from
the galleys, 30; preaching of at
Berwick, 33; administration of
Lord's Supper at Berwick, 36;
opinions of, on Lord's Supper,
39; heroism of 40; removal to
Newcastle, 42 ; discourse on the
Mass, 43 ; preaching of at New
castle, 45 ; practice in regard to
the Lord's Supper at Newcastle,
45 ; appointed a Royal Chaplain,
46; preaches before Edward VL,
48, 61; influence of on English
Book of Common Prayer, 48-52;
relation of, to Duke of Northum
berland, 48; 56; ofi'ered a bishop
ric, 57; offered the vicarage of
All Hallows, London, 58; le-
fore the English council, 58; in
the county of Bucks, 65 ; sermon
at Amersham, 65 ; Exposition of
Sixth Psalm, 68, 72; leaves En
gland for France, 69; love of,
for England, 70; writes Godly
Letter of Warning, 74; first visit
of to Switzerland, 77; returns
to Dieppe, 79; writes " Faith
ful Admonition," 79; goes to
Frankfort on the Maine, 83 ; his
tory of troubles there, 84; leaves
Frankfort, g I ; pastor of English
Church at Geneva, 95 ; brief visit
of to Scotland, 95 ; marriage of
to Marjory Bowes, 96; Avork in
Scotland at this time, g7-99;
summoned to appear before the
bishops, 100; writes to the Queen
Regent, lOO; returns to Geneva

INDEX.

215

102, labors at, 105; called to re
turn to Scotland, io6; at Dieppe,
106; returns to Geneva, 107;
leaves Geneva for Scotland, 112;
arrives in Scotland, 1 14; preach
es at Perth, 120; and at St. An
drews, 124; chosen minister of
St. Giles, Edinburgh, 125; trav
els through Scotland, 126; ne
gotiations Avith Sir James Croft,
129; views of on civil govern
ment, 130 ; imperfect under
standing ofthe relation of Church
and State, 133; residence of in
Edinburgli, 155; first interview
with Queen Mary Stuart, 159;
second interview, 163; debate
of with Abbot of Crossraguel,
166; breach between, and Earl
of Murray, i6g; third interview
with Queen Mary, 168; fourth
intei-view with Mary, 170; ac
cused falsely of immorality, 175;
before the Scottish council, 175;
marriage of to Margaret Stew
art, 179; preaches at coronation
of James "vL, 185; mourns over
the death of Murray , 185; strick
en with paralysis, 186; contro
versy Avith Kirkaldy of Grange,
187; danger of in Edinburgh,
i8g; goes to St. Andrews, igo;
Melville's description of at this
time, 191; publishes "Answer
to the Letter of a Jesuit," 192;
returns to Edinburgh, 195; last
sermon of 197; last illness of
197; death of, 199; personal ap
pearance of, 2Co; children of,
201; portraits of 200; writings
of 202; preaching of 204; effect
of work on Scotland, 207; ten
derness and humor of 2 10.
Knox's History of the Reforma
tion, 9, 22, 25, 27, 35, 98, 121,
124, 138, 156, 161, 170; de
scribed by Carlyle, 203. I

Laing, David, LL.D., Edition of
Knox's Works quoted from 01
referred to, 11, 12, 58, 65, 72,
74. 75. 77. 102, no, 129, 130^
144, 148, 153, 182, 201.
Lawson, John, Induction of as.
Knox's successor, 197.
Leslie, Norman, 8, 20.
Lindsay, Sir David, 6, 15.
Liturgy of Knox, 152.
Lollards of Kyle, gg.
Lorimer, Rev. Peter, D.D., Works
on Knox quoted from or referred
to, 8, 25, 28, 30, 31,33, 36, 37,
41, 45. 46, 48, 49. 5'. 52. 54.
55. 'OS-
Lorn, Lord, 58, 106.
Lorraine, Princes of, 113.
Lord's Supper, first administered
after reformed fashion, 19; prac-
tioe followed by Knox regarding
at Berwick, 32-34, 36; kneeling
in, opposed iSy Knox, 38; influ
ence of Knox on English Prayer
Book regarding, 46-52; declar
ation of Prayer Book on kneel
ing in, 52.
Lyons, Knox visits, 107.
Major, John, Principal of Glasgow
University, 11; opinions of 11,
133; present at Knox's sermon
at St. Andrews, 18.
McCrie's "Life of Knox " quoted
from or referred to, 17, 85, 92,
96, 132, 161, 170, 193, 197.
Maitland of Lethington, 97; the
younger, 128, 136, 174, 178,
179.
Marriage, Solemnization of accor.
ding to Book of Discipline, 146.
Mary of Guise, character of, 3;
Queen Regent of Scotland, 97;
policy of 97 ; letter of Knox to,
too; declared enemy of Refor-
mation, 114; petition of Protes
tant barons to, 117; prohibit?

2l6

INDEX.

preaching or administration of the
sacrament without authority of
bishops, ilg; proclaims Knox a
rebel, iig; death of 12S.
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland,
3 ; betrothed to the Dauphin of
France, 5 ; reply of Knox to, on
the charge of necromancy, 35;
death of first husband of 156;
character of 157; arrival of in
Scotland, 156; interviews with
Knox, 159, 163, 168, 170, 173,
17s; marries Lord Henry Dam-
ley, 180; marriage of, to Both-
well, 183; abdicates in favor of
her son, 183 ; defeat of, at Lang
side, 183; imprisonment of, by
Elizabeth, 184.
Mary Tudor, Accession of to
English throne, 66; prayer of
Knox for, 67 ; first proclamation
of, 67; marriage of, to Philip of
Spain, 81; attacked by Knox in
First Blast, 109.
Mass, Opinions of Knox on the,
32, 43, 107; Becon's Display
ing ofthe, 45.
Melville of Raith, 9.
Melville, James, Description of
Knox at St. Andrews by, 191.
Mill, Walter, Martyrdom of 1 16.
Milton, John, quoted from, 109.
Ministers, Office of, in Book of
Discipline, 141.
Mitchell, Dr., A. F., quoted from,
193-
Morton, Earl of 108; burial eu
logy of on Knox, igg.
Murray, Earl of (See Lord James
Stuart).
Neavcastle on Tyne, Removal of
Knox to, 42 ; preaching of Knox
at, 45; practice of Knox at, in
regard to the Lord's Supper, 45.
Northumberland, Duke of 48, 57,
60, 61, 64.

Ochiltree, Lord, 172; father-in-
law of Knox, 179, 180./
Ormiston, Laird of, 10.
Prayer BooksofEdw'd'VL, First,
31, 36, 46; Second, 46, 47, 49,
52, 56, 85 ; opinion of Calvin on,
86.
Perth, John Knox at, 121.
Preaching, Knox's. habit of prep
aration for, 79; effect of Knox's,
at Perth, 120; in Edinburgh,
136; before Damiey, 181 ; Knox's
characterized, 204.
Predestination, Knox's Disserta
tion on. III. .
PriAry Council of England, name
of,Knox in register of, 29; me
morial of Knox to, on fiord's
Supper, 49; appearance of Knox
before, 58.
Portraits of Knox, 200.
Randolph, English Ambassador
at Edinburgh, 28, 138.
Readers, Office of, in Scottish
Church, 140.
Reformation, Beginnmg of, in
Scotland, 5; Hamilton period
of, 19; Wishart period of, 19;
Knox period of, 19.
Rizzio, DaArid, character of, 182;
murder of, 183.
Robertson, Wilham, D.D., char
acter of Murray in History of
Scotland, 185.
Rochelle, Knox visits, 107.
Ross, Dr. John M., quoted from,
133-
Sacraments, Scottish Confession
of Faith on, 13.7; administration
of the, according to Book of
Discipline, 145; according to
the Book of Common Order,
Scotland, Condition of before Ref

INDEX.

217

ormation, 7; visit of Knox to,
i'l i555i 97. arrival of ICnox at,
in 1559, 114; condition of at
that time, 115; labors of Knox
in, 126; negotiations of, with
England, 127.
St. Andrews, Castle of an asy
lum for Protestants, 8; siege of
by Arran, 9; arrival of Knox in,
9; Avork of Knox in, 14; Knox
called to the ministry in, 15;
Knox preaches in, 17; attacked
by Leo Strozzi, 2 1 ; visited by
Knox, 123; the scene of Knox's
all but latest labors, igl.
Scottish Confession of Faith, 137.
Scottish Parliament, Meeting of
in 1560, 136; in 1563, i6g.
Solway Moss, Battle of 3, 4.
Somerset, Duke of Protector of
England, 20.
Stewart, Margaret, married to
Knox, 179.
Stuart, Lord James, Earl of Mur
ray, 98, 106, 125, 138, 156, 166,
169, 174, 180, 184, 185.
Strozzi, Leo, attacks the castle of
St. Andrews, 21.

Superintendents, Office of, in Scot
tish Church, 149.
Switzerland, First visit of Knox to,
77-
Throckmorton, English Ambas
sador at Paris, 126.
Tulchan Bishops, 194,
Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, 31.
Tyninghame Charter Room, In
strument in, signed by Knox, 12.
Utenhovius, Letter of to Bullin
ger, 48.
Whittingham, Dean, with Knox
at Frankfort, 86; gives thanks
to council at Geneva for hospi
tality lo English refugees, 112;
godfather to one of Knox's sons.
151.
Willock, John, 97, 126, 130.
Wishart, George, at Haddington,
I ; apprehension of 2 ; attended
by Knox, 2; executed at St. An
drews, 3 ; influence of on Knox,
I3.
Writings of Knox, 202.

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