.'T^ OF PR///^.. '^i)WAU0^ BX 9223 .S6 1895 , Smith, George Barnett, 184. 1909 John knox and the Scottish P o -f ^» 1^ iT> ^ ■*' T ^- '^ A STORMY INTERVIEW BETWEEN JOHN KNOX AND QUEEN MARY {A/te7- a painting by D. Allati.) ^,SH OF niiicc-^^^ JOHN KNOX AND ^be Scottish IRefovmation EY G. BARNETT SMITH AUTHOR OF SIR JOHN franklin;" the "history of the ENGLISH I'ARLIAMEN' THE BIOGRAPHIES OF "GLADSTONE" AND "BRIGHT;" ETC., ETC. ' ,V^ JOHN KNOX S GRAVE, LONDON S. W. PARTRIDGE & CO. 8 & 9 Paternoster Row KIRK-OF-FIELD. PREFACE. THE times in which the lot of John Knox was cast were among the most stirring in the history of Scotland. The wave of Protestant enthusiasm which had already swept over many parts of Europe, had reached Scotland before the time when the Great Reformer had attained the years of manhood. Just as the clergy abroad had lost the respect of the people through their excesses, so the clergy of Scotland had done much by their arbitrary and immoral conduct to precipitate the revolution in which Knox bore so conspicuous a part. By the year 1525, Lutheran books were so widely read in Scotland that an Act of Parliament was passed forbidding their importation. Nevertheless, the work went forward in spite of the fierce fires of V VI PREFACE. persecution. Patrick Hamilton, a youth of high rank and distinguished attainments, was the first martyr in Scotland for the cause of the Reformation. He was condemned to the flames at St. Andrews in 1528, when he was only twenty-three years of age. From 1530 to 1546, persecution raged in every quarter, and among the early martyrs were Jerome Russell, Alexander Kennedy, and George Wishart. But these deaths only served to hasten the triumph of the new doctrines. The nobles, jealous of the wealth, the influence, and the arrogance of the Popish clergy, threw in their lot with the people. Then John Knox arose — a man who has had few rivals in the world's history for the firm and undevi- ating way in which he trod the path of rectitude through innumerable trials. His influence over the nation, and over individuals with whom he was brought into contact, was well-nigh unexampled. God had evidently raised him up for the work which had to be done, and which no other man could have accomplished. What that work was, with all its marvellous results, will be apparent in the course of the following narrative. This great apostle of the Scottish Reformation laid the basis of a national faith which has ever since slathered strenp;th, and never ceased to animate the breasts of his country- men. He is justly, therefore, entitled to rank with those whose names shall continue to live for ever- more. G. Barnett Smith. DARNLEYS ROOM, HOLYROOD. CONTENTS. PAGE 9 CHAPTER I. BIRTH, YOUTH, AND EARLY MANHOOD, . CHAPTER II. PROBATION AND SUFFERING, I3 CHAPTER III. KNOX IN ENGLAND, T 549- I 554, 22 CHAPTER IV. HIS SOJOURN AT GENEVA, 3 1 CHAPTER V. KNOX ADVANCES THE REFORMATION, .... 46 CPIAPTER VI. HIS CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, . 70 vii Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. PAGE FROM MAY, 1563,70 Mary's marriage with darnley, 100 CHAPTER VIII FIVE MEMORABLE YEARS, 1565-1570, 127 CHAPTER IX. KNOX'S LAST ILLNESS, DEATH, AND CHARACTER, . . 140 STAIKCASE, HOLYROOD. ■-^^J?.-^ HADDINGTON, JOHN KNOX. CHAPTER I. BIRTH, YOUTH, AND EARLY MANHOOD. THE great Scottish Reformer first saw the light in the year 1505. Much speculation has taken place as to whether the place of his birth was Gifford, a village in EasT Lothian, or Gifford- gate, a suburb of the town of Haddington. For some time past, however, the latter spot has been generally accepted as his birthplace, and up to the beginning of the present century the very house in which he was alleged to have been born was shown with pride by the inhabitants of the locality. For nearly three centuries after Knox's birth, this house, together with the adjoining land, was held by a family of the name of Knox, who claimed kinship with the Reformer. When a man becomes distinguished, the world always evinces an interest in his ancestry. Although 10 JOHN KNOX. little is definitely known of the family connections of Knox, his^BTographer Dr. M'Cfie states that his father was descended from an ancient and respectable family, who possessed the lands of Knock, Ranferly, and Craigends, in Renfrewshire. The descendants of the family were accustomed to claim with pride that it had given birth to the Scottish Reformer, a Bishop of Raphoe, and a Bishop of the Isles. Of one thing we may be quite certain, (Knox himself would have taken little trouble to establish an illustrious pedigree!^ On one occasion, however, when alluding to his irnmedi- ate ancestors, he thus addressed the Earl of Bothwell : " My lord, my grandfather, grandsire (maternal grand- father), and father have served under your lordship's predecessors, and some of them have died under their standards." Greater credit attaches to a man who conquers fame without adventitious aids than there does to one who enjoys the advantages of fortune or position ; but, nevertheless, there is no ground for the assertion that John Knox's parents lived in poverty. The4"act that they were able to afford their son a liberal educa- tion in an age when such training was the exception, is a proof that they were people of some substance. To the Grammar School of Haddington young Knox was sent at a very early age. Of course he was brought up in the Catholic faith, and one account says that he was educated as a friar in the Franciscan Monastery of Haddington,y by its Warden, Adam Harley. On this point h'^ recognised biographers are silent ; but it appears that after Knox had acquired the principles of the Latin language, he was despatched to the' JJniversity of Glasgow in the winter of 1521-22. At this time, consequently, he was in his seventeenth year. In the early part of the sixteenth century, the chief branches of knowledge cultivated in the Scottish Universities were the Aristotelian philosophy, schol- BIRTH, YOUTH, AND EARLY MANHOOD. II astic theology, and common law. The teachers were greatly indebted for their acquirements to their train- ing pursued abroad. Dealing with Knox's university education, Mr. P. Hume Brown remarks : — " St. Andrews was nearer his home, and possessed the more famous university ; but he was probably drawn to Glasgow by the fame of the most distinguished literary Scotsman of his generation — John Major, the schoolman. For this reason, at least, George Buchanan was sent to St. Andrews, though Glasgow was nearer his native place, when Major had migrated to the former university. At Glasgow, under Major, Knox could have been subjected to none of the influences of the great intellectual revolution which substituted for the studies and methods of mediseval- ism the ideals of the Revival of Letters. Like all his educated contemporaries, he learned to speak and write Latin with perfect fluency ; but it was always with an idiom that showed he had none of the humanist's scruples regarding purity of language. What he learned from Major was the art for which that scholar was renowned throughout Europe — the art of logical exercitation ; and Knox's writings everywhere show that all through life he had a natural delight in the play of dialectic. He left the university without taking the degree of Master of Arts, thus, by the conditions of all the mediaeval universities, precluding himself from the career of an academic teacher." Before arriving at middle age, Knox acquired a knowledge of the Greek language, but at forty-five he was still lamenting his ignorance of Hebrew, and this defect was not remedied until the tin^e of his continental exile. (Knox, like his contemporary Buchanan, was im- patient at the usejessness of much of the prevalent aca- demic knowledge^ and he applied himself to the study of Divine truth and the labours of the sacred ministry. But it was not for a considerable period that he could 12 JOHN KNOX. put these to a practical use. In the interim he taught philosophy in one of the classes of the unjversity, and was famed for his skill in dialectics. 'About 1529, and before the age fixed by the canons of the church, he was ordained priesO Familiarity with the writings of Jerome and Augustine caused him to ^bandon the study of scholastic theology, and he also 'began at the same time to throw off many of the superstitions of the Romish Church. This was about the year 1535, but it was not until seven or eight years later that he formally declared himself a Protestant^ Fron:/i540 to 1543 Knox appears to have acted as a notary in Haddington, and in the latter year he surrendered his orders in the Church of Rome. By this time, the Reformed religion numbered among its adherents many members of noble Scottish families, who had been alienated from the old faith by the corruptions in Romish doctrine and practice.^ As they increased in strength; the Reformers began boldly to promulgate their views. Attacks were openly made upon the Church, and " dramatic com- positions were repeatedly acted in the presence of the Royal family, the nobility, and vast assemblies of people, to the great mortification, and still greater disadvantage, of the clergy." The bishops tried to check the growing movement by harsh legislation, ^ but all in vain ; and " metrical epistles, moralities, and psalms, in the Scottish language, continued to be read with avidity, notwithstanding prohibitory statutes and legal prosecutions." Knox hailed the evidences of this awakened religi- ous feeling with delight, though the time for his own public and pronounced stand in favour of the reformed doctrines was not yet come. ST. ANDREWS. CHAPTER II. PROBATION AND SUFFERING. XT was when he left St. Andrews, and retired to I the South of Scotland, that Knox avowed his J^ belief in the Protestant doctrine. Holding the views he did, his stay in the ancient university had become impossible, especially when the bigoted Cardinal Beaton, the enemy of all religious reform, was the ruling spirit of the place. The Scottish Parliament passed an act in 1542 declaring it lawful for all subjects to read the Scrip- tures in the vulgar tongue.^ This was a great step gained, and soon the Bible was to be seen on every gentleman's table, while the New Testament was in almost every one's hands. The clergy were alarmed by the defection of Knox, because they feared his influence with others, and Cardinal Beaton engaged assassins to waylay him. Happily, in the good provi- "Hence of God, he was enabled to baffle his enemies, and td secure the protection of Douglas of Longniddry, to whose sons he acted as tutor in 1544. He also taught in the family of Cockburn of Ormiston, and 13 14 JOHN KNOX. both these sympathising friends were favourably dis- posed to the new doctrines which were now making so much headway. But by far the most important influence wielded over Knox at this period, was that of the noble and learned Geojge Wishart, a man whose name will ever stand in the forefront of that of Scottish martyrs. Wishart had only recently returned from travelling in Germany and England, and he was zealous in bringing his countrymen(to a knowledge of the Lutheran faith. After his intercourse-.\vith Wishart, Knox never wavered in his course : " Thenceforward with an intensity and self-devotion never surpassed, he is the apostle of the cause with which his name is for ever identified — the establishment in Scotland of what he deemed the only true conception of the primitive Church, as based on the teaching of Christ and the Apostles." He was now clearly conscious of his great mission, and with all the well-known impetuosity of his character, he united himself with Wishart, and was in the habit — a^ he himself states — of carrying a two-handed sword before the preacher.'^ He was anxious to attend his friend to the last, wtien Wishart was seized by the emissaries of Beaton ; but Wishart, who realised the fate in store for him, said : " Return to your bairns " (meaning his pupils), " and God bless you. One is sufficient for sacrifice." To show the beautiful and Christ-like spirit which animated Wishart, on one occasion he protected from the vengeance of the populace, a friar who had been actively concerned in his own attempted assassina- tion. Wishart's work in inculcating the Reformed doctrines in Scotland was of the utmost importance in the building up of the new faith. In March, 1546, Wishart suffered martyrdom at St. Andrews, and two months later Cardinal Beaton was murdered. Knox had no hand whatever in his assassination, though he held with Buchanan and PROBATION AND SUFFERING. 1 7 others that, according to the laws of God, and the just laws of society, it was justifiable to put away oppres- sive rulers and tyrants, when all other means of redress had failed. The Cardinal's murderers held possession of the castle of St. Andrews, and Knox — who was known to be an enemy of Beaton — was compelled for his own safety to join them with his pupils. Accord- ingly, (at Easter, 1547, he began the education of his pupils as before, an^ his zeal and theological attain- ments were so conspicuous, that he was soon formally called to the ministry, at the instance of the leaders of the Reformed party. Among these leaders was Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, Lyon-King-at-Arms, and one of the first poets of the age. The mouth- piece of the Reformers was an eloquent preacher named John Rough, who at the close of his sermon on one occasion thus directly addressed Knox : — " Brother, you shall not be offended, although 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 all that presently call you by my mouth, I charge you that you refuse not this holy vocation, But, as you 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 multitude of labours, that you take the public office and charge of preach- ing, even as you look to avoid God's heavy displeasure, and desire that He shall multiply His graces unto you." Then, addressing himself to the congregation, he said, " Was not this your charge unto me ? and do ye not approve this vocation ? " They all answered " It was, and we approve it." 'Overwhelmed by this unexpected and solemn charge, Knox, after an ineffectual attempt to address the audience, burst into tears, rushed out of the assembly, and shut himself up in his chamber. " His counten- ^ -- B 1 8 JOHN KNOX. ance and behaviour, from that day till the day that he was compelled to present himself in the public place of preaching, did sufficiently declare the grief and trouble of his heart ; for no man saw any sign of mirth from him, neither had he pleasure to accompany any man for many days together." Notwithstanding his bold character, Knox on several occasions in his career manifested this diffi- dence and sensibility in taking the position to which he was called. Having accepted the ministerial office, however, he preached with much acceptance in the castle and parish church of St. ^ndrews) Touching Knox's views of the ministry, he rejected' the order of episcopal ordination, as totally unauthorised by the laws of Christ ; nor did he even regard the imposition of the hands of presbyters as a rite essential to the validity of ordersyor of necessary observance in all circumstances of the Church. As regarded himself, once convinced that God had called him to the minis- terial office, he consulted not with flesh and blood, and counted not his life dear if haply he could save others. He preached a sermon in which, going further than Wishart and his predecessors, he boldly pro- nounced the Pope to be Anti-Christ, and the Romish Church system to be wholly erroneous, and anti- Scriptural. Controversy ensued, in which Knox came off triumphant ; and besides the garrison in the castle, a great number of the inhabitants of the town renounced Popery, and made profession of the Protes- tant faith, by participating in the Lord's Supper for the first time after the Reformed mode. Unfortunately, in July,. 1547, a French fleet inves- ted the castle of St. Andrews, and, unable to obtain succour, the besieged were obliged to capitulate after a brave and vigorous resistance./' Knox shared with his brethren the trials of the siege, and was conveyed away along with them, contrary to the terms of the capitulation, as prisoners. They were taken first to PROBATION AND SUFFERING. IQ Rouen, and Knox and a few others were confined on board _the galleys. i;In addition to the rigours of an ordinary captivity, they were loaded with chains, and exposed to all the indignities which Papists at that time inflicted upon the Protestants within their power., M'Crie thus graphically describes the trials of the exiled Reformers : — " From Rouen they sailed to Nantes, and lay upon the Loire during the following winter. Solicitations, threatenings, and violence were all employed to ^induce the prisoners to change their religion, or at least to countenance the Popish worship. But so great was their abhorrence of that system, that not a single individual of the whole company, on land or water, could be induced to symbolize in the smallest degree with idolaters. While the prison-ships lay on the Loire, mass was frequently said, and salve regina sung on board, or on the shore within their hearing. On these occasions, they were brought out and threatened with the torture, if they did not give the usual signs of reverence ; but instead of complying, they covered their heads as soon as the service began. Knox has preserved in his ' History of the Reforma- tion in Scotland ' a humorous incident which took place on one of these occasions ; and although he has not said so, it is highly probable that he himself was the person concerned in the affair. One day a fine painted ijnage of the Virgin was brought into one of the galleys, and a Scottish prisoner was desired to give it the kiss of adoration. He refused, saying that such idols were accursed, and he would not touch it. ' But you shall,' replied one of the officers roughly, at the same time forcing it towards his mouth. Upon this the prisoner seized the image, and throwing it into the river, said, ' Lat our Ladie now save hirself ; she is lycht enoughe, lat hir leirne to swyme.' The officers with difficulty saved their goddess from the waves, and the prisoners were relieved for the future from such troublesome importunities. 20 JOHN KNOX. "In summer, J 548^ as nearly as I can collect, the galleys in which they were confined returned to Scot- land, and continued for a considerable time on the east coast, watching for English vessels. Knox's health was now greatly impaired by the severity of his confinement, and he was seized with a fever, during which his life was despaired of by all in the ship. But even in this state, his fortitude of mind remained unsubdued, and [he comforted his fellow- prisoners with hopes of reTease) To their anxious, desponding inquiries (natural to men in their situa- tion), 'if he thought they would ever obtain their liberty,' his uniform answer was, ' God will deliver us to His glory, even in this life.' While they lay on the coast between Dundee and St. Andrews, Mr. (after- wards Sir) James Balfour, who was confined in the same ship with him, pointed to the spires of St. Andrews, and asked him if he knew the place. ' Yes,' replied the sickly and emaciated captive, ' I know it well ; for I see the steeple of that place where God first opened my mouth in public 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 godly name in the same place.' This striking reply Sir James repeated in the presence of a number of witnesses many years before Knox returned to Scotland, and when there was very little prospect of his words being verified." Nevertheless, in spite of his buoyancy of spirits before others, Knox frequently fell into a state of despondency. Having strong feelings, he was liable either to periods of exaltation or of depression. When not suffering from fever during his captivity, he employed himself in composing a confession of his faith, based upon his discourses at St. AndrewsJ This confession he found means to convey to his religious friends in Scotland, with the object of strengthening them in the faith. PROBATION AND SUFFERING. 21 Those of Knox's fellow-prisoners who were con- fined in Mont St. Michel, consulted him as to the lawfulness of attempting to escape by breaking their prison, which was opposed by some as likely to increase the hardships of those left behind. Knox replied that such fears were not a sufficient reason for relinquishing the design, and that they might with a safe conscience effect their escape, provided it could be done " without the blood of any being shed or spilt ; but to shed any man's blood for their freedom, he would never consent." The attempt was made and successfully executed, " without harm done to the person of any, and without touching anything that appertained to the king, the captain, or the house." Knox himself was set at liberty in February, 1549, after an imprisonment lasting for nearly two years. Various accounts were long in vogue as to the manner and cause of his release, but within the last few years it has been authoritatively stated that he was set at liberty on the express intercession of Edward VI. His biographers state that his hard experience during his imprisonment seriously impaired his health for the rest of his life. " The breach of faith on the part of the French, and the ignominy to which he was subjected, were never forgotten by Knox, and must in part explain and justify his life-long con- viction that no good thing could come of French policy or French religion." But if those who had kept him thus long bound could have dipped into the future, and seen the work that was to be accom- plished by the Reformer, we may be sure that he would have longed in vain for his freedom, even after the long and weary waiting for his release. CASTLE OF ST. ANDKF.W; CHAPTER III. KNOX IN ENGLAND, I 549- I 5 54. THOUGH now enjoying his freedom, Knox could not return to his native land. The condition of affairs in Scotland rendered it unsafe for him to do so, and he accordingly repaired to England, where he remained until the death of Edward VI. The wholesome change in religious matters since the accession of the young Protestant king filled him with rejoicing, while he soon acquired great influence with Cranmer, and other ruling spirits at the English Court. Knox's high reputation as a preacher, together with his sufferings for the faith, commended him to Edward's Council, and not long after his arrival in London, he was sent to preach in Berwick. The Council employed a number of orthodox and popular preachers in this way in various parts of the kingdom, for the purpose of expounding to the people and the illiterate or disaffected clergy, the principles of the Reformation. In his new sphere, Knox became famous for his earnestness, and numbers were converted from the KNOX IN ENGLAND, I 549" I 5 54- 23 errors of Popery under his ministry, while a visible change quickly became apparent in the morals of the soldiers of the garrison. Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, was greatly disturbed by his teachings, however, seeing that he had a strong leaning to Popish tenets. The result was that a charge was exhibited before the bishop against Knox, for teaching that the sacrifice of the mass was idolatrous, and a day was appointed for him publicly to defend or abandon his belief It was a grave mistake in tactics on the part of the bishop and his friends, for Knox — whose motto in controversy was, "spare no arrows" — smote his accusers hip and thigh in argument. He completely silenced the bishop and his learned assistants, and his fame in consequence was more widely established than ever in the north of England. In the early part of 1551, nevertheless, Knox was removed to Newcastle, one writer stating because it was supposed that his influence there would be less mischievous, but another giving as the reason that it was a sphere of greater usefulness. The Privy Council conferred upon him a mark of its approbation for his earnest labours in December, 155 1, by appointing him one of King Edward's chaplains in ordinary. Knox was further consulted about the Book of Common Prayer, which was undergoing a revisal. He went up to London, and along with five others conferred with Archbishop Cranmer respecting his forty-five articles of religion, which were afterwards reduced to forty- two. Although Knox was unable to obtain the thorough reforms which he desired, he had sufficient influence to procure an important change in the article dealing with the Communion Office, and to secure the sanction of the Church of England to the Genevan doctrine of the Eucharist. After the accession of Queen Mary, the procurator, Dr. Weston, in a disputation with Latimer, thus complained of Knox's influence in this matter — "A runagate Scot 24 JOHN KNOX. did take away the adoration or worshipping of Christ in the Sacrament, by whose procurement, that heresy was put into the last Communion Book ; so ARCHBISHOP CRAN-MEK. much prevailed that one man's authority at that time." But besides open enemies like the Papists, Knox KNOX IN ENGLAND, 1 549- 1 5 54. 25 had covert ones like the Duke of Northumberland. After the fall of the Protector Somerset, that ambitious nobleman attained the highest position in the State, and the plain speaking of Knox upon all questions greatly displeased him. The duke was therefore desirous of curbing his influence, by removing him from the sphere of usefulness in which he had been long engaged. It is stated that in 1552 he was offered the bishopric of Rochester, at the suggestion of Northumberland ; but as Knox perceived that the duke's object was simply to check his activity, he unhesitatingly rejected the offer. Being next summoned to London to answer certain vague charges against him, Knox was honourably acquitted by the Council. Melchior Adam says he was employed to preach before the Court, and that his sermons gave great satisfaction to the king, who contracted a favour for him, and was anxious to have him promoted in the Church. After returning to the north to settle his affairs, Knox returned to London in April, 1553. In the previous February, Cranmer had been directed by the Council to present him to the vacant living of All-Hallows, in the City, but Knox had declined the charge on the ground that he did not feel sufficient freedom in his mind to accept a fixed living in the English Church. This decision gave offence, and he was summoned before the Coun- cil to state his objections in greater detail. Knox averred that he could be more useful to the Church in another situation, and on the whole, the conference ended amicably. Edward VI. wished Knox to have a bishopric, and there was a proposal to divide the extensive diocese of Durham into the bishoprics of Durham and Newcastle — Knox to take the latter see ; but he declined the offer. Dr. M'Crie observes that, "during the time that Knox was in London, he had full opportunity for observing the state of the Court ; and the observa- 26 JOHN KNOX. tions which he made filled his mind with the most anxious forebodings. Of the piety and sincerity of the young king, he entertained not the slightest doubt. Personal acquaintance heightened the idea which he had conceived of his character from report, and enabled him to add his testimony to the tribute of praise, which all who knew that prince had so cheerfully paid to his uncommon virtues and endow- ments. But the principal courtiers, by whom he was at that' time surrounded, were persons of a very different description, and gave proofs, too unequivocal to be mistaken, of indifference to all religion, and of a readiness to acquiesce, and even to assist, in the re-establishment of the ancient superstition, whenever a change of rulers should render this measure practic- able and expedient. The health of Edward, which had long been declining, growing gradually worse, so that no hopes of his recovery remained, they were eager only about the aggrandising of their families, and providing for the security of their places and fortunes." Meanwhile, such faithful servants of God as Latimer, Knox, Grindal, and Bradford, lost no opportunity of courageously censuring the ambition, avarice, luxury, oppression, and irreligion which reigned in the Court. We may form a judgment of Knox's sermons from the account which he has given of the last sermon preached by him before His Majesty ; in which he directed several piercing glances of reproof at the haughty premier and his crafty relation, the Marquis of Winchester, Lord High Treasurer, both of whom were among his hearers. His text was John xiii. i8, "He that eateth bread with Me, hath lifted up his heel against Me." It had been often seen, he said, that the most excellent and godly princes were surrounded with false and ungodly officers and counsellors. Having inquired into the reason of this, and illustrated the fact from the KNOX IN ENGLAND, I 549- 15 54. 2/ Scripture examples of Achitophel under King David, Shebuel under Hezekiah, and Judas under Jesus Christ, he added : " What wonder is it, then, that a young and innocent king be deceived by crafty, covetous, wicked, and ungodly counsellors? I am greatly afraid that Achitophel be counsellor, that Judas bear the purse, and that Shebuel be scribe, comptroller, and treasurer." To the unspeakable grief of Protestant England and Europe, Edward VI. expired on the 6th of July, 1553. Knox had long dreaded this event, and his keen anguish had even drawn tears from his eyes ; but when the disaster had actually occurred he bore it with fortitude and resignation. Mary was pro- claimed Queen on the 19th day of July, and Knox left London on the same day. The fickle public, unable to see what the accession of such a sovereign as Mary implied, hailed her proclamation with delight, for which they were reproved by Knox, and warned of the calamities which they had only too good reason to fear. At first, the Reformer retired to the North of England, and there awaited with apprehension the promulgation of the measures of the new Govern- ment. As Mary, however, issued a proclamation in which she announced that no violence should be done to the consciences of Protestants, he returned to the south in August, and resumed his labours. While he prayed in his ministrations for Queen Mary by name, and for the suppression of such as meditated rebellion, he, at the same time, earnestly exhorted the people to repentance, under the tokens of Divine displeasure, and to a steady adherence to the faith which they had embraced. He preached with much success in Buckinghamshire and Kent during the harvest months, although his position now became very precarious in consequence of the threat- ening attitude of the Government. 28 JOHN KNOX. Returning to London in September, Knox shortly afterwards married his first wife, Marjory Bowes, to whom he had become engaged during his sojourn in Newcastle. The father of Mrs. Knox was Richard Bowes, the youngest son of Sir Ralph Bowes of Streatlam, and her mother was Elizabeth, daughter and one of the co-heirs of Sir Roger Aske of Aske. Mr. Bowes strongly opposed the marriage, but his wife as warmly supported it, and she seems to have had a great esteem and affection for Knox, who always addressed her by the name of mother. Mr. Bowes appears to have been moved by pride as well as by religious considerations. After the marriage, Mrs. Knox and her mother were anxious that Knox should settle in Berwick, and he would not have been averse to this, provided he could have seen any prospect of being able to support himself The whole of his stipend had been stopped, however, since the accession of Queen Mary. His father-in- law was wealthy, but Knox's spirit would not allow him to live in dependence upon one who treated him with coldness and disdain. At the urgent wish of Mrs. Bowes, Knox applied to her brother-in-law, Sir Robert Bowes, to act as mediator between him- self and his brother Richard, but he appears to have been rudely rebuffed, which he took greatly to heart. Meanwhile national affairs were moving rapidly, and to the dire prejudice of the Reformers. Parlia- ment repealed all the laws made in favour of the Reformation, and restored the Roman Catholic religion ; but those who pleased were allowed to observe the Protestant worship until the 20th of December, 1553. After that they were subject to all the pains and penalties declared against heretics. Many bishops and ministers had already escaped beyond sea, but Knox would neither fly nor give up preaching. Writing to a friend three days after the lapse of the period allowed for submission, he KNOX IN ENGLAND, I 549- 1 5 54. 29 said, " I may not answer your places of Scripture, nor yet write the exposition of the Sixth Psalm, for every day of this week must I preach, if this wicked carcase will permit." One of his biographers observes that " his enemies, who had been defeated in their attempts to ruin him under the former Government, had now access to rulers sufficiently disposed to listen to their infor- mation. They were not dilatory in improving the opportunity. At the end of December, 1553, or beginning of January, 1554, his servant was seized as he carried letters from him to his wife and mother- in-law, and the letters were taken from him in the hopes of finding in them some matter of accusation against the writer. As they contained merely religious advices and exhortations to constancy in the Protestant faith, which he was prepared to avow before any court to which he might be called, he was not alarmed at their interception. But being aware of the uneasiness which the report would give to his friends at Berwick, he set out immediately with the design of visiting them. Notwithstanding the secrecy with which he conducted this journey, the rumour of it quickly spread ; and some of his wife's relations who had joined him, perceiving that he was in imminent danger, prevailed on him, greatly against his own inclination, to relinquish the design of proceeding to Berwick, and retire to a place of safety on the coast, from which he might escape by sea, provided the search for him was continued. From this retreat he wrote to his wife and her mother, acquainting them with the reasons of his absconding and the small prospect which he had of being able at that time to see them. * His brethren,' he said, * had, partly by admonition, partly by tears, compelled him to obey,' somewhat contrary to his own mind ; for, ' never could he die in a more honest quarrel,' than by suffering as a witness for that truth 30 JOHN KNOX. of which God had made him a messenger. Notwith- standing this state of his mind, he promised, if Providence prepared the way, to ' obey the voices of his brethren, and give place to the fury and rage of Satan for a time.' " Being finally convinced that he could not hope to escape the pursuit of his enemies if he remained in England, Knox left England in the middle of January, 1554. But in order to be within call, should circumstances permit of his return either to Scotland or England, he took up his abode at Dieppe, where he remained for about six weeks. ^DIXKUKGH CASTLE. CHAPTER IV. HIS SOJOURN AT GENEVA. ALTHOUGH in giving way to the urgent entreaties of friends, Knox had only fulfilled the Scriptural injunction, "when they perse- cute you in one city, flee ye to another," he had no sooner reached Dieppe than he regretted the step he had been induced to take. As a man whose courage was so conspicuous, he would rather have faced danger with his friends ; but his life was considered too valuable to the Protestant cause to risk it unnecessarily. And the result proved that he had stern work yet to do. Writing to Mrs. Bowes, Knox said, " England and Scotland shall both know that I am ready to suffer more than either poverty or exile for the profession of that doctrine, and that heavenly religion, whereof it has pleased His merciful providence to make me, among others, a simple soldier and witness-bearer unto men." In his retirement, he subjected himself and his past ministry to the severest scrutiny, solemnly resolving upon a more devoted course of action in the 31 32 JOHN KNOX. future — though those who knew him best would have thought this to be impossible. One of his first occupations was to prepare two short treatises, which he transmitted to England. One was a practical exposition of the Sixth Psalm, and the other was a lengthy letter addressed to those in London and other parts of England who had listened to his ministrations. He once more warned them against abandoning the religion which they had embraced, or giving countenance to the idolatrous wor- ship now erected among them. This letter was couched in a strain of genuine and touching eloquence. Leaving Dieppe on the last day of February, 1554, Knox travelled through France to Switzerland. There he was welcomed by sympathising friends, who had learnt with regret of the overthrow of Protestant- ism in England. He visited the Swiss churches, and conferred with the learned Protestant divines of the country, returning to Dieppe in May, in order to receive information from England. On several occasions he journeyed backwards and forwards in this way. In visiting Geneva, he formed a friendship with the celebrated Calvin, which subsisted until the latter's death in 1564. He likewise met many other distinguished men, for Geneva was thronged with persons from England, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Spain, and Italy, who came to consult Calvin about the advancement of the Reformation, or to find shelter from the persecutions to which they were exposed in their native countries. Calvin and Knox were nearly of the same age ; " and there was a striking similarity in their senti- ments, and in the more prominent features of their character. The Genevan Reformer was highly pleased with the piety and talents of Knox, who, in his turn, entertained a greater esteem and deference for Calvin than for any other of the Reformers. As Geneva was an eligible situation for prosecuting study, and HIS SOJOURN AT GENEVA. 33 as he approved much of the religious order established in that city, he resolved to make it the ordinary place of his residence during the continuance of his exile." In July, 1554, Knox was once more in Dieppe, whither he went " to learn the estate of England." 34 JOHN KNOX. What he heard was dark and discouraging, and with Mary of Lorraine as Regent in Scotland, and Mary Tudor as Queen of England, he was convinced that for the time being both those countries were closed against him. He was also disheartened by the back- sliding of some of his own converts who had returned to the Popish communion. At the end of this year he published his " Admonition to England." Knox has been blamed for the severity of his language in this remonstrance, but, as Dr. M'Crie asks — "What terms were too strong for stigmatizing the execrable system of persecution coolly projected by the dissem- bling, vindictive Gardiner, the brutal barbarity of the bloody Bonner, or the unrelenting, insatiable cruelty of Mary, who, having extinguished the feelings of humanity, and divested herself of the tenderness which characterises her sex, continued to urge to fresh severities the willing instruments of her cruelty, after they were sated with blood, and to issue orders for the murder of her subjects, until her own husband, bigoted and unfeeling as he was, turned with disgust from the spectacle ? " On his return to Geneva, Knox threw himself with ardour into his studies, and although now nearly fifty years of age, he acquired a complete mastery of the Hebrew language. His means of livelihood were very precarious, but voluntary remittances were from time to time made to him by friends in England and Scotland. Great numbers of Protestants escaped from England before the end of 1554, and being received with much friendliness on the Continent, they settled in such places as Zurich, Basle, Frankfort, Strasburg, and Geneva. There was already a French Protestant Church at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and the English settlers in that city obtained from the magistrates the joint use of this place of worship, with liberty to perform religious services in their own language. HIS SOJOURN AT GENEVA. 35 They made some concessions as to the form of worship, adopting that of the French Church, and then proceeded to elect three pastors of equal author- ity, of whom Knox was one. In consequence of the powerful intercession of Calvin, he accepted the call. Difficulties arose among the congregation, however, with regard to the use of the Book of Common Prayer, and having made an effort to adjust them in vain, Knox was compelled to leave his charge after a few months. He was practically driven away on false charges of high treason against the Emperor of Germany, his son Philip, and Queen Mary of England. The magistrates privately took Knox's part, and completely absolved him, but counselled him to leave for the sake of peace and his own safety. This he did, much mourned by many of those he left behind. Dr. Cox, a high-churchman who had been preceptor to Edward VI., had been the chief disturbing spirit, in consequence of the determined effort of himself and his partisans to introduce fully the English service. After Knox left the unseemly bickerings continued. Knox returned to Geneva, where he was warmly welcomed by Calvin, who did not conceal his opinion that he had been treated in an unbrotherly and un- christian manner. At this juncture, having heard of the favourable change which had taken place in the situation of his Protestant brethren in Scotland, Knox proceeded to Dieppe, from whence he sailed for England. M'Gavin, the editor of Knox's writings, remarks that " his first object was to visit his wife and friends in Berwick, from whom he had been absent two years, and while with them he heard such an account of the state of matters in Scotland that he was encouraged to take a journey thither. He began to preach in Edinburgh in the house where he lodged, and he was heard with intense interest by all who could get access — including some of the nobility and gentry of rank. From this period he was constantly 36 JOHN KNOX. employed in different parts of the country, of which he has given an account in the " History." The clergy became dreadfully alarmed when they heard of his KNOX's HOUSE IN EDIMBUKGH. preaching, and at the rapid progress of the Reformed doctrines. He was summoned to appear before a convention of them in Edinburgh ; and he determined to obey the summons, which, when his enemies under- HIS SOJOURN AT GENEVA. 37 stood, they durst not meet him, and the convention was not held. He, however, kept the appointment, and on the very day on which he was to have been put on his trial, he began preaching again in Edin- burgh to greater audiences than he had had before. " While thus busily employed at home, he received an invitation from the English Church in Geneva to be one of their pastors. This church consisted of some of his former flock, who had left Frankfort the year before and come to settle in Geneva, where they had liberty to worship God without being subject to the yoke of the ceremonies. It must have been very gratifying to him to receive this public testimony of his integrity from those who were best acquainted with his conduct in Frankfort, and the cause of his leaving it. Perhaps it was on this account that he so readily accepted the invitation. To the friends who had pressed him to remain in Scotland he said, ' Once he must visit that little flock which the wicked- ness of men had compelled him to leave.' At the same time he gave them to understand, that if his services were again required at home, he would not be backward to return. He proceeded to Geneva with his wife and her mother, then a widow, in July, 1556. " He was no sooner gone than his enemies, the clergy, renewed their summons, and they had the courage to meet for his trial when they knew he would not appear. They condemned his body to the flames, and his soul to damnation ; but as both were beyond their reach, they had to content themselves with burning his (^ffigy at the cross in Edinburgh. This gave occasion to ' The Appellation,' one of his most spirited productions." The Appellation was published, with a supplication and exhortation, addressed to the nobility and com- monalty of Scotland. As this remarkable treatise embraced the doctrines which Knox had taught 38 JOHN KNOX. during his visit to Scotland, and which had been pro- nounced execrable by the clergy, a synopsis of it may here be given. Knox taught " that there is no other name by which men can be saved but that of Jesus, and that all reliance on the merits of others is vain and delusive ; that the Saviour having by His one sacrifice sanctified and reconciled to God those who should inherit the promised kingdom, all other sacrifices which men pretend to offer for sin are thus blasphemous ; that all men ought to hate sin, which is so odious before God that no sacrifice but the death of His Son could satisfy for it ; that they ought to magnify their Heavenly Father, who did not spare Him who is the substance of His glory, but gave Him up to suffer the ignominious and cruel death of the cross for us ; and that those who have been washed from their former sins are bound to lead a new life, fighting against the lusts of the flesh, and studying to glorify God by good works. In con- formity with the certification of his Master, that He would deny and be ashamed of those who should deny and be ashamed of Him and His works before a wicked generation, he further taught, that it is incumbent on those who hope for life everlasting, to make an open profession of the doctrine of Christ, and to avoid idolatry, superstition, vain religion, and, in one word, every way of worship which is destitute of authority from the Word of God. This doctrine he did believe so conformable to God's Holy Scrip- tures, that he thought no creature could have been so impudent as to deny any point or article of it ; yet had the false bishops and ungodly clergy condemned him as a heretic, and his doctrine as heretical, and pronounced against him the sentence of death, in testimony of which they had burnt his effigy ; from which sentence he appealed to a lawful and general council, to be held agreeably to ancient laws and canons ; humbly requesting the nobility and com- HIS SOJOURN AT GENEVA. 39 mons of Scotland, to take him, and others who were accused and persecuted, under their protection, until such time as these controversies were decided, and to regard that, his plain Appellation, of no less effect than if it had been made with the accustomed solem- nity and ceremonies." Knox's visit had laid the foundations of that great work which was afterwards achieved in Scotland, but for which the time was not yet ripe. His retirement to Geneva was, therefore, a wise step, as he not only preserved his own life against that more important day, but averted the storm of persecution from the heads of his brethren. His stay at Geneva, which lasted over two years, was one of the most peaceful and comfortable pass- ages in Knox's life. Two sons were born to him there, and he enjoyed the society of Calvin and other notable Reformers. In 1557 he appears to have received an invitation to return to Scotland from Lords Glencairn, Lorn, Erskine, and James Stewart, but when he had decided to accept it letters arrived written in a very different strain, and he remained in Geneva. Once he preached at Rochelle, and he had also the felicity occasionally of officiating in the Reformed Church established at Dieppe. From the latter place he transmitted two letters to Scotland — one directed to the Protestants in general, and the other to- the nobility. In the first he strongly incul- cated purity of morals, and warned the brethren against a new sect — the Anabaptists — who were scarcely less hostile to the Reformed communion than the Papists. The term Anabaptist is one often applied to those Christians who reject infant baptism, and only apply the rite to adults ; but it is only properly applied to a set of fanatical enthusiasts called the Prophets of Zwickau, in Saxony, who appeared shortly before the beginning of the Reformation. 40 JOHN KNOX. They pretended to new revelations, dreamed of the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth, and summoned princes to join them on pain of losing their temporal power. They rejected infant baptism, and taught a new baptism with the baptism of the Spirit ; and they also proclaimed the community of goods and the equality of all Christians. Excesses crept into the sect, until at Miinster the wildest licentiousness prevailed. Several Protestant princes united and took the city, bringing the new kingdom to a violent end. Some of the doctrines of the Ana- baptists penetrated into England and Scotland, and it was against these that Knox strongly inveighed. The Scottish Reformers remained firm in their faith, the new opinions gradually died out, and no repre- sentatives of the German Anabaptists have been left. The application of the term is, therefore, unjustifiable to those bodies in Great Britain and America who only resemble them in the practice of adult baptism. Knox's letter to the Protestant lords sought to raise, sanctify, and Christianise their views, and to purify their minds from selfish and worldly principles. He also communicated his advice on the delicate question of resistance to supreme rulers. The writer said it was currently reported on the Continent that a rebellion was intended in Scotland, and he solemnly charged all the professors of the Protestant religion to avoid accession to it. They must beware of counte- nancing those who sought to promote their private and worldly ends by disturbing the Government. At the same time, he did not retract the principle which he had advanced in former letters, nor deny the lawfulness of inferior magistrates, and the body of a nation resisting the tyrannical measures of supreme rulers. But recourse ought not to be had to open resistance, until matters had been tyrannically driven to an extreme. And it was peculiarly incumbent on the Protestants of Scotland to be circumspect in all their HIS SOJOURN AT GENEVA. 4I proceedings, that they might give their adversaries no reason to allege that seditious and rebellious designs were concealed under the cloak of zeal for reforming religion. Yet if they were violently entreated when peaceably engaged in their religious exercises and duties, they were not bound to look on and see their innocent brethren murdered, but were justified in standing up in their defence. The early part of the year 1558 Knox employed in making a new translation of the Bible into English, in which undertaking he was assisted by several learned men of his congregation. From the place where it was composed and first printed, it obtained the name of the Geneva Bible. At this time also Knox pub- lished his letter to the Queen Regent, and his Appella- tion and Exhortation, which were transmitted to Scotland, and contributed not a little to the spread of the Reformed opinions. But the most extraordinary treatise published by Knox this year, and one which caused great commotion, was that entitled " The First Blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous Regiment of Women." In this work he fiercely attacked the practice of admitting females to the government of nations. He had for some time held the view which he now inculcated, but had held his peace until he had been provoked by the tyranny of the Queen of England, and wearied out with her increasing cruel- ties. He adduced many arguments against the principle of entrusting public authority to women, and in support of his opinion he could appeal to the con- stitutions of the free states of antiquity, and to the authority of their most celebrated legislators and philosophers. Moreover, in France females were excluded from the throne, and Edward VI. had favoured the same policy in England. But Knox did not disguise from himself the fact that his treatise would be unpopular, and it certainly exposed him to the resentment of two queens, during whose reigns 42 JOHN KNOX. it was hi^ lot to live — Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth. On the accession of the latter a great out- cry was raised against the " First Blast " in England, and John Fox, the martyrologist, wrote a letter of remonstrance to Knox on the impropriety of its publication, and the severity of its language. Knox had intended to blow three " Blasts," but being desir- ous to strengthen the authority of Elizabeth rather than to invalidate it, he relinquished his design. He retained his sentiments, however, to the last. In the ensuing year there appeared an answer to the " Blast," under the title of " An Harbour for Faith- ful Subjects." Though published anonymously, it was the work of John Aylmer, one of the English refugees on the Continent, who had been Archdeacon of Stowe, and tutor to Lady Jane Grey. The author admitted that if Knox had confined himself to his animadver- sions upon Queen Mary, " he could have said noth- ing too much, nor in such wise as to have offended every indifferent man," for Mary's government was " unnatural, unreasonable, unjust, and unlawful." But it was quite another thing as regards Elizabeth, who sought to govern justly, and whom Aylmer was anxious to conciliate in favour of the Reformed religion. The practical result of the controversy was that Aylmer was advanced to the bishopric of London, while Knox could not without great difficulty obtain leave to set his foot again upon English ground. Knox's letter to the Protestant lords in Scotland had a most salutary effect. They cheered one another in the faith in consequence, and at a meeting held at Edinburgh in December, 1557, they unanimously resolved to adhere to the Protestant doctrines, and to exert themselves in advancing the Reformation. They subscribed a solemn bond of mutual assistance, and renewed their invitation to Knox, writing also to Calvin, praying him to use his influence in securing its acceptance. Meanwhile, desperate efforts were being HIS SOJOURN AT GENEVA. 43 made to crush the Reformation in Scotland ; and the Archbishop of St. Andrews caused to be burned at the stake as a heretic, one Walter Mill, formerly a parish priest in Angus, and now eighty-two years of age. This barbarous and illegal execution roused the horror and anger of the Scottish nation against the clergy to an incredible pitch. It had also an unlooked-for result, for it led many reformers to come out boldly in favour of the new doctrines, while the people assembled more openly for Protestant worship. Information having been received abroad of the death of Mary, Queen of England, and the accession of Elizabeth, the Protestant refugees hastened to return to their native land. By some of these Knox sent letters to his friends at the court of Elizabeth, requesting permission to travel through England on his .way to Scotland. Then he arranged his Continen- tal affairs, and in the month of January, 1559, took his leave of Geneva for the last time. Before his departure, the republic conferred upon him the freedom of the city. Leaving his wife and family behind him, until he could be assured that it was safe, for them to return to Scotland, he arrived in the middle of March at Dieppe, where he was deeply wounded to receive information that the English Government refused to grant him liberty to pass through their dominions. This was the result of false representations made against Knox and his friends as being inimical to Elizabeth, when nothing could be further from the truth. For a time he was tempted to issue his second " Blast," and to make it stronger than the first, but he abandoned the idea because of the urgency of Scottish affairs. Our Reformer had always distrusted the conciliatory disposition of the Queen Regent of Scotland towards her Protestant subjects. He was now confirmed in this by reports which reached him to the effect that the immediate suppression of the Reformation in 44 JOHN KNOX. Scotland, and its consequent suppression in the neighbouring kingdom, were intended. Knox's far- seeing eye had already descried the plans of the am- bitious Princes of Lorraine, the brothers of the Queen Regent of Scotland. Their designs have been fully described by the able Scotch historian Robertson. It appears that " their counsels had determined the French Court to set up the claim of the young Queen of Scots to the crown of England ; to attack Elizabeth, and wrest the sceptre from her hands, under the pre- text that she was a bastard and a heretic ; and to commence their operations by suppressing the Refor- mation, and establishing the French influence in Scotland, as the best preparative to an attack upon the dominions of the English Queen. In the course of his journeys through France, Knox had formed an acquaintance with certain persons about the Court, and by their means had gained some knowledge of this plan. He was convinced that the Scottish Reformers were unable to resist the power which France might bring against them ; and that it was no less the interest than the duty of the English Court to afford them the most effectual support. But he was afraid that a selfish and narrow policy might prevent them from doing this until it was too late, and was therefore anxious to call their attention to the subject at an early period, and to put them in possession of the facts that had come to his knowledge. The assistance which Elizabeth granted to the Scottish Protestants in the year 1560 was dictated by the soundest policy. It baffled and defeated the designs of her enemies at the very outset ; it gave her an influence over Scotland which all her predecessors could not attain by the terrors of their arms, nor the influence of their money ; and it secured the stability of her Government by ex- tending and strengthening the Protestant interest, the principal pillar on which it rested. And it reflects not a little credit on our Reformer's sagacity, that he con- HIS SOJOURN AT GENEVA. 45 ceived this plan at so early a period, was the first person who proposed it, and persisted, in spite of great discouragements, to urge its adoption, until his en- deavours were ultimately crowned with success." Impressed deeply by the machinations which were going forward against the Protestant religion, Knox, on the loth of April, wrote a letter to Secretary Cecil — with whom he had some personal acquaintance — assuring him of his loyalty to Elizabeth, and again asking permission to go through England. He did not desire to visit the Court, or to remain long in England, he said, but he was anxious to communicate to him, or some other trusty person, grave matters, which it was not prudent to commit to writing. This letter Knox entrusted to one Robert Harrison; but Harrison, fearing that he was being made the bearer of another " Blast," or that he might be dis- credited in some way at the English Court, handed over the packet to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, English Ambassador at the Court of France, who conveyed it to London. In doubt as to the success of his plans, Knox him- self sailed from Dieppe in April, 1559, and safely landed at Leith on the 2nd of May. From this time forth he never left his native land again for any pro- longed period. JOHN KNOXS SITTING-ROOM. CHAPTER V. KNOX ADVANCES THE REFORMATION. THE times were critical when Knox arrived in Scotland ; but Knox was made for critical times, and throwing himself into the work of the Reformation, he at once became the life and soul of his party. The Queen Regent had thrown off the mask, and the Lords of the Congregation — as the Protestant nobility styled themselves — were in open revolt against her. So long as she had required their assistance in furthering the designs of her son-in- law, the Dauphin of France, and in aiding to curb the power of the Hamiltons, she had listened to their plans of reform, and apparently sympathised with them ; but having achieved the objects she had in view, she now took a course which speedily undeceived them. The Lords were furious on discovering her duplicity, for, in compliance with her request, they had restrained their preachers from teaching in public, and had de- sisted from presenting to Parliament a petition which they had prepared. Now they were completely 46 KNOX ADVANCES THE REFORMATION. 47 alienated from her, and her double-dealing was ulti- mately to have a salutary effect in leading to the firmer consolidation of the new faith. Fruitless negotiations between the Lords of the Congregation and the Regent's Council were broken off, and the religious difficulties grew serious. Arch- bishop Hamilton received positive assurances from the Regent of her support in his exertions for main- taining the authority of the Church. As one result of this, proclamation was made at the Market Cross in Edinburgh prohibiting any person from preaching or administering the Sacraments without authority from the bishops, and commanding all subjects to prepare to celebrate the ensuing feast of Easter according to the rites of the Catholic Church. Some of the preachers disregarded this order, and accordingly Paul Methven, John Christison, William Harlaw, and John Willock were summoned to stand their trial before the Justiciary Court at Stirling on the loth of May. They were charged with usurping the minis- terial office; with administering, without the consent of their ordinaries, the sacrament of the altar in a manner different from that of the Catholic Church, in various places cited ; and with convening persons in these places, preaching to them, seducing them to their er- roneous doctrines, and exciting seditions and tumults. The accused obtained powerful sureties for their appearance, and as matters were evidently approach- ing an extremity, the Earl of Glencairn and Sir Hugh Campbell of Loudon, Sheriff of Ayr, waited on the Queen, and remonstrated against these proceedings ; but she replied haughtily that, " in spite of them, all their preachers should be banished from Scotland." When they reminded her of her promises to protect them, she unblushingly replied that "it became not sub- jects to burden their princes with promises further than they pleased to keep them." Glencairn and Loudon, disgusted but not intimidated by her conduct, there- 48 JOHN KNOX. Upon informed her that, if she violated the engage- ments which she had come under to her subjects, they would consider themselves as absolved from their allegiance to her. After they had freely remonstrated with her, she assumed a milder tone, and promised to suspend the trial of the preachers ; but learning after- wards that France and Spain had concluded a treaty by which they mutually agreed to extirpate heretics, and being irritated by the introduction of the Reformed worship into the city of Perth, she ordered the process against the accused to go on, and summoned them peremptorily to appear at Stirling on the day ap- pointed. It was at this juncture that Knox arrived in Scot- land, and his return soon became known to the clergy, who were panic-stricken at the intelligence, A messen- ger was despatched to the Queen Regent, who was then at Glasgow, and in a few days Knox was pro- claimed an outlaw and a rebel, in virtue of a sentence formerly pronounced against him by the clergy. Knox, nothing daunted, prepared to accompany the accused ministers to the scene of their trial, and a large body of Protestants had gathered together and proceeded as far as Perth, when Erskine of Dun was sent on in advance to Stirling, to acquaint the Queen of the peaceable object of their mission. Again she dissembled in the most flagrant manner. She pro- mised Erskine to put a stop to the trial, and at her request he persuaded his friends to desist from their journey. But when the day of trial arrived, the Queen ordered the prosecutions to proceed. The preachers were outlawed for not appearing ; all persons were prohibited from harbouring or assisting them, under pain of rebellion, and the gentlemen who had given security for their appearance were fined. An unfortunate rising which now took place at Perth is thus described : — " Escaping from Stirling, Erskine brought to Perth the intelligence of the D KNOX ADVANCES THE REFORMATION. 5 I Queen's disgraceful dissimulation, which could not fail to incense the Protestants. It happened that, on the same day on which the news came, Knox, who remained at Perth, preached a sermon, in which he exposed the idolatry of the mass, and of image-wor- ship. The audience had quietly dispersed, and a few idle persons only loitered in the church, when an imprudent priest, wishing to try the disposition of the people, or to show his contempt of the doctrine which had just been delivered, uncovered a rich altar-piece, decorated with images, and prepared to celebrate mass. A boy, having uttered some expressions of disapproba- tion, was struck by the priest. He retaliated by throwing a stone at the aggressor, which, falling on the altar, broke one of the images. This operated as a signal for the people present, who had sympathised with the boy ; and, in the course of a few minutes, the altar, images, and all the ornaments of the church were torn down and trampled under foot. The noise soon collected a mob, which, finding no employment in the church, flew, by a sudden and irresistible impulse, upon the monasteries ; and, although the magistrates of the town and the preachers assembled as soon as they heard of the riot, yet neither the persuasions of the one, nor the authority of the other, could restrain the fury of the people, until the houses of the grey and black friars, with the costly edifice of the Carthusian monks, were laid in ruins. None of the gentlemen or sober part of the congregation were concerned in this unpremeditated tumult ; it was wholly confined to the lowest of the inhabitants ; or, as Knox designs them, ' the rascal multitude.' " The demolition of the monasteries was represented as the first-fruits of the Reformer's labours, whereas he deprecated this violence, and sought to arrest it, knowing the use which his enemies would make of it. The Regent, who had lost ground by her late conduct, at once seized the opportunity of turning the public 52 JOHN KNOX. indignation from herself, and directing it against the Protestants. By specious arguments, she inflamed the minds of Cathoh'cs and moderate Protestants alike, and then magnifying the Perth tumult into a dangerous and designed rebellion, she collected an army and advanced upon Perth. The inhabitants solemnly disclaimed all rebellious intentions, and sought to turn away her wrath ; but finding this to be vain, they resolved not to suffer themselves and their brethren to be massacred. Measures of defence were so promptly and vigorously taken, that when the Queen appeared, she was fain to conclude overtures of peace. Once more her double dealing became apparent, for she had no sooner obtained possession of Perth than she ruthlessly trampled on the conditions of peace. The young Earl of Argyle and the Prior of St. Andrews, who had hitherto been disposed to support her, now deserted the Court, and never afterwards could be induced to place any faith in her promises. The leading Protestants, being by this time utterly distrustful of the Regent, circulated copies of their religious covenant for signature, in order to ascertain the numbers of their friends. The union, which began to be distinguished by the name of the Congregation, was joined by the Earls of Argyle, Glencairn, Monteith, and Rothes ; Lords Ochiltree, Boyd, and Ruthven, and the Prior of St. Andrews. The Earl Marischal and Lord Erskine, with others supposed to be friendly to the Reformed religion, remained neutral. Most of the lesser barons belonged to the Congrega- tion. In June, the Lords of the Congregation held a con- ference for the advancement of the Reformation, and came to a determination to deal with the scandalous lives of the clergy, their total neglect of the religious instruction of the people, the profanation of Christian worship by gross idolatry, and other flagrant abuses. They proceeded to abolish the Popish service, and to KNOX ADVANCES THE REFORMATION. 53 set up the Reformed worship in all those places where their authority or influence extended. In adopting this course, they did but act in accordance with the loudly-expressed desire of the bulk of the nation for these reforms. It was resolved to begin the good work at St. Andrews, and there on the 9th of June, Knox met the Earl of Argyle, the Prior of St. Andrews (Lord James Stewart), and other friends. The Archbishop assembled an armed force, and sent information to Knox that if he attempted to preach in the cathedral, he would give orders to the soldiers to fire upon him. The noblemen, finding themselves with but a handful of supporters, and fearful lest the lives of Knox and others should be sacrificed, counselled submission for the present. But it was in moments like these, when weakness might have ruined his cause, that the courage and intrepidity of Knox shone most conspicuously. " Fired with the recollection of the part which he had formerly acted on that spot," says his " History," " and with the near prospect of realising the sanguine hopes which he had so long cherished in his breast, he resisted all the importunities of his friends. He could take God to witness, he said, that he never preached in con- tempt of any man, nor with the design of hurting any earthly creature ; but to delay to preach next day (unless forcibly hindered), he could not in conscience agree. In that town, and in that church, had God first raised him to the dignity of a preacher, and from it he had been ' reft ' by French tyranny, at the instigation of the Scots bishops. The length of his imprisonment, and the tortures which he had endured, he would not at present recite ; but one thing he could not conceal, that, in the hearing of many yet alive, he had expressed his confident hope of again preaching in St. Andrews. Now, therefore, when Providence, beyond all men's expectation, had brought him to 54 JOHN KNOX. that place, he besought them not to hinder him. ' As for the fear of danger that may come to me,' con- tinued he, ' let no man be solicitous, for my life is in the custody of Him whose glory I seek. I desire the hand nor weapon of no man to defend me. I only crave audience ; which, if it be denied here unto me at this time, I must seek where I may have it.' " This intrepid reply silenced all remonstrance ; and next day Knox appeared in the pulpit, and preached to a numerous assembly, including many of the clergy, without experiencing the slightest interruption. He discoursed on the subject of our Saviour's ejecting the profane traffickers from the temple of Jerusalem ; from which he took occasion to expose the enormous corruptions which had been introduced into the Church under the Papacy, and to point out what was incumbent upon Christians, in their different spheres, for removing them. On the three following days he preached in the same place ; and such was the influence of his doctrine that the provost, bailies, and inhabitants harmoniously agreed to set up the Reformed worship in the town ; the church was stripped of images and pictures, and the monasteries were pulled down. This happened on the 14th of June, 1559." The Queen Regent and the Lords of the Congre- gation were now speedily arrayed in hostility against each other, and the forces of the latter expelled the Royal garrison from Perth, seized upon Stirling, and, still advancing, took possession of the capital. The Queen retired with her troops to Dunbar. In the course of a few weeks the example set by St. Andrews in abolishing the Popish worship was followed by Crail, Cupar, Lindores, Stirling, Linlith- gow, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. The houses of the monks were overthrown, and all the instruments of idolatry destroyed. At the end of June, the forces of the Congregation KNOX ADVANCES THE REFORMATION. 55 arrived at Edinburgh. Knox was with them, and on the day of his arrival preached in St. Giles's. Next day he officiated in the Abbey Church, and on the 7th of July, at a meeting held in the Tolbooth, he was chosen by the inhabitants of the metropolis as their minister. He accepted his election, and at once began his zealous labours in the city. The Royal forces, however, speedily advanced upon Edinburgh, and the Protestants were forced to conclude a treaty by which they agreed to leave the city. Knox desired to remain with his congregation, but the Lords insisted on his accompanying them, and Willock was appointed minister in his place. The Queen wished to re-establish the Roman Catholic services in the Church of St. Giles, but the inhabitants resolutely opposed this ; and during the whole time that the capital was in possession of the Royal forces, the Popish worship was confined to the Royal Chapel and the Church of Holyrood. Knox now undertook a preaching tour through Scotland, visiting Kelso, Jedburgh, Dumfries, Ayr, Stirling, Perth, Brechin, Montrose, Dundee, and St. Andrews. This tour greatly stimulated the people and strengthened them in their Protestant principles. In the following September, the Reformer welcomed his wife and family on their arrival from Geneva. ]n consequence of the representations of the English Ambassador in Paris, the English Government per- mitted Mrs. Knox to travel through England, and they also began to regard Knox himself with more favour, now that they understood the strength of his position with the Reformers. But the position of the Regent, subsidised as she was by French money and soldiers, was too strong for the Reformers, unless they could obtain the assistance of England. Knox had for some time foreseen this, and he made strenuous efforts to obtain the aid of England against what was described as the 56 JOHN KNOX. French invasion. The Queen had between 3000 and 4000 trained soldiers, of whom only 500 were Scots. The Lords of the Congregation mustered some 8000 men, but only 1000 of these were trained to arms, while the Royal forces were constantly being aug- mented from France. Knox entered into corre- spondence with Secretary Cecil, praying for aid ; and Cecil, who was friendly to the measure, exerted all his influence with Elizabeth and the Council. Knox received a message requesting him to meet Sir Henry Percy at Alnwick on secret and important business, but being dissuaded from entering England, he proceeded to Berwick only, where he received the English despatches from a trusty messenger, Alex- ander Whitlaw of Greenrig. As the Queen Regent had learnt of Knox's journey, he prudently returned by sea to Fife ; and Whitlaw, who was mistaken for him, was hotly pur- sued in East Lothian, and only effected his escape with great difficulty. The Lords of the Congregation were disappointed by the hesitating tone of the Eng- lish despatches, and Knox could scarcely prevail upon them to allow him to write to London again in his own name. However, his second intervention proved efficacious, and both men and money were promised to the Scots. Sir Ralph Sadler was sent down from London to Berwick to act as secret agent, and the correspondence between the Court of London and the Lords of the Congregation was carried on through him and Sir James Croft, Governor of Berwick, until the English auxiliary army entered Scotland. The lay Reformers capable of entering into corre- spondence and conducting political negotiations were so few, that for a long time the whole weight of this distasteful burden fell upon Knox. Elizabeth and the English Court were in some respects strongly prejudiced against him ; and it says much for his integrity and influence that they were compelled to KNOX ADVANCES THE REFORMATION. 5/ accept his services. In Cecil's directions for the management of the subsidy, it was expressly pro- vided that Knox should be one of the Council for examining the receipts and payments, to see that it was applied to " the common action," and not to any private use. So conspicuous for his zeal and activity had Knox become, that the Papists publicly offered a reward to any one who should apprehend or kill him ; and some of the baser sort, moved by hatred or avarice, actually lay in wait to seize him. This made not the least difference to Knox's fearless discharge of his duties. He worked night and day, and was the life and soul of the Congregation. His brave demeanour, and his wise counsels, alike in public and in private, greatly strengthened the Reformers, and kept their unity unbroken. Meantime, his heart was cheered by periodical accessions of strength. The most import- ant of these was the adhesion of the former Regent, the Duke of Chatelherault, to the movement. His eldest son, the Earl of Arran, had embraced the principles of the Reformation ; and it was owing to his representations, and those of the English Cabinet, that the Duke at length threw in his lot with the Lords of the Congregation, and subscribed the bond of confederation. A serious question now arose, in the settlement of which Knox was compelled to take a prominent part. This was the deposition of the Queen Regent. As the advice which Knox gave had important results, and as he has been blamed for it by some writers, we shall quote from Dr. M'Crie an account of his justifica- tion, which is based substantially upon Knox's own record of the transaction. When the Lords of the Congregation first had recourse to arms in their own defence, they " had no intention of making any altera- tion in the Government, or of assuming the exercise of the supreme authority. Even after they had adopted 58 JOHN KNOX. a more regular and permanent system of. resistance to the measures of the Queen Regent, they continued to recognise the station which she held, presented peti- tions to her, and listened respectfully to the proposals which she made for removing the grounds of variance. But, finding that she was fully bent upon the execu- tion of her plan for subverting the national liberties, and that her official situation gave her great advan- tages in carrying on this design, they began to deliberate upon the propriety of adopting a different line of conduct. Their sovereigns were minors, in a foreign country, and under the management of persons to whose influence the evils of which they complained were principally to be ascribed. The Queen-dowager held the regency by the authority of Parliament ; and might she not be deprived of it by the same authority? In the present state of the country it was impossible for a free and regular Parliament to meet ; but the majority of the nation had declared their dissatisfaction with her adminis- tration, and was it not competent for them to provide for the public safety, which was exposed to such immfnent danger? These were the questions which formed the topic of frequent conversation at this time. After much deliberation, a numerous assembly consisting of nobles, barons, and representatives of boroughs met at Edinburgh, on the 2ist of October, 1 5 59; to bring this important point to a solemn issue. To this assembly Knox and Willock were called ; and, the question being stated to them, they were required to deliver their opinions as to the lawfulness of the proposed measure. Willock, who then officiated as minister of Edinburgh, being first asked, declared it to be his judgment, founded on reason and Scrip- ture, that the power of rulers was limited ; that they might be deprived of it upon valid grounds ; and that the Queen Regent having, by fortifying Leith and introducing foreign troops into the country, evinced a KNOX ADVANCES THE REFORMATION. 59 fixed determination to oppress and enslave the king- dom, might justly be divested of her authority by the nobles and barons as native counsellors of the realm, whose petitions and remonstrances she had repeatedly rejected. Knox assented to the opinion delivered by his brother, and added that the assembly might, with safe consciences, act upon it, provided they attended to the three following things:— First, that they did not suffer the misconduct of the Queen Regent to alienate their affections from due allegiance to their sovereigns, Francis and Mary ; second, that they were not actuated in the measure by private hatred or envy of the Queen-dowager, but by regard to the safety of the commonwealth ; and, third, that any sentence which they might at this time pronounce should not preclude her re-admission to office if she afterwards discovered sorrow for her conduct, and a disposition to submit to the advice of the Estates of the nation. After this, the whole assembly, having severally delivered their opinions, did, by a solemn deed, suspend the Queen-dowager from her authority as Regent of the kingdom, until the meeting of a free Parliament ; and, at the same time, elected a Council for the management of public affairs during this interval. When the Council had occasion to treat of matters connected with religion, four of the minis- ters were appointed to assist in their deliberations. These were Knox, Willock, Goodman, and Alexander Gordon, Bishop of Galloway, who had embraced the Reformation. " It has been alleged by some writers that the ques- tion respecting the suspension of the Queen Regent was altogether incompetent for ministers of the Gospel to determine, and that Knox and Willock, by the advice which they gave on this occasion, exposed themselves unnecessarily to odium. But it is not easy to see how they could have been excused in refusing to deliver their opinion, when required by 6o JOHN KNOX. those who had submitted to their ministry, upon a measure which involved a case of conscience, as well as a question of law and political right." Knox's position in this matter was practically that assumed by the English patriots of the later time of Charles I. He held that there was a mutual compact, tacit and implied, if not formal and explicit, between rulers and their subjects ; and if the former should flagrantly violate this, and employ for the destruction of the commonwealth that power which was com- mitted to them for its preservation and benefit — in one word, if they should become habitual tyrants and notorious oppressors, then the people were absolved from their allegiance, and had a right to resist them, formally to depose them from their place, and to elect others in their room. Matters did not progress so satisfactorily for the Reformers, after the deposition of the Queen Regent, as they hoped. Their messenger to the English Court was surprised on his return and robbed of the mone- tary supplies which he bore ; their soldiers were in a state of mutiny for want of pay ; a repulse had been sustained during a premature assault upon the fortifi- cations of Leith, and a second disaster befell them in a skirmish with the French troops ; while the secret emissaries of the Regent were at work among the discontented forces of the Covenant, As the numbers were daily decreasing, the dispirited and dismayed remnant abandoned Edinburgh on the evening of the 5th of November, and retreated hastily and disgrace- fully to Stirling. Well nigh alone in his indomitable courage, Knox still hoped almost against hope. From the pulpit at Stirling he preached a powerful discourse which rekindled the zeal and spirit of the Congregation. They had been trusting, he said, too much to the arm of flesh, especially since the Hamiltons had come among them, and God had allowed these disasters to Hp^. '■■^■K' ir^VH ; *:-;>i«5i M%jngiiiaiJ ■ .^'Si:. B^fjn iJS^^-^-^- '■ ^ J -*^^»«aaa? ^JiT '■•■ //■■ t. •;P^^^^^^^^,.-,;.i^ '\ i^^^ •' -i'i:ii^P«:. :i 1 :"'tf ^l*^ ■**f^^» ' : "]J§dMH[^|H|^^^P^^iPr^^PP'v ' -■^i^^m^^^Mm'^fJ^ I- 1 i;^^J^^^H| ■ , i 11 , ^# ^'■'■»*^i; ^ m^mmmmmi^.- ..^^^: j i ! 1 1 f ^^.'■•felfif -^^^ V MP ^^^^^H 1 iKfc: . • '*■■ ■. ' KNOX ADVANCES THE REFORMATION. 63 fall momentarily upon them in order to bring them back to their Eternal Refuge and Strength. Their cause might seem weak for the time, but it must ultimately triumph. After the sermon the Council met with renewed faith and firm resolves. It was unanimously agreed to despatch William Maitland of Lethington to London to supplicate more effectual assistance from Elizabeth. The Council further agreed to divide themselves into two parts, one to be sta tioned at Glasgow, and the other at St. Andrews. Knox was to attend the latter body in the double capacity of preacher and secretary. Early in the year 1560 the French penetrated into Fife; but Knox encouraged the small band of Reformers under the Earl of Arran and the Prior of St. Andrews to resist their progress, and this was done until the appearance of the English fleet compelled the enemy to retreat. Maitland's mission to London was happily success- ful. Elizabeth and her Council, perceiving the serious- ness of the situation, concluded a formal treaty with the Lords of the Congregation — known as the treaty of Leith — by which she engaged to send an army into Scotland to assist them in expelling the French forces. News of this having reached the Queen Regent, she ordered her forces to attack the Cove- nanters at Glasgow. They had captured the episcopal castle, and were advancing upon Hamilton, when they received a message to abandon the design, as the English forces were already marching towards Scot- land. The English army and the forces of the Congrega- tion came together in April, and proceeded to invest Leith, where the French had shut themselves up, both by sea and land. While the siege was progressing, an important event occurred in Edinburgh Castle. The Queen Regent, who had for some time past been in failing health, died unexpectedly, and this circum- stance had an important bearing on public affairs. 64 JOHN KNOX. Elizabeth had been somewhat lukewarm in her sup- port of the Scots, but, as she at length consented to prosecute the war with vigour, this fact, combined with political difficulties in France, decided the French cabinet to send plenipotentiaries to Edinburgh, who concluded a treaty with England. Under this treaty the Scottish differences were adjusted. It was provided that the French troops should be immediately withdrawn from Scotland ; that an amnesty should be granted to all who had been engaged in the resistance to the late Queen Regent ; that the principal grievances of which they complained in the civil administration should be redressed ; that a free Parliament should be held to settle the other affairs of the kingdom ; and that, dur- ing the absence of their sovereigns, the government should be administered by a Council, to be chosen partly by Francis II. and his wife, the young Queen of Scots, and partly by the Estates of the realm. This treaty was signed on the 7th of July, the French and English troops withdrew on the i6th, and on the 19th the Congregation assembled in St. Giles's Church, Edinburgh, to return solemn thanks to God for the restoration of peace, and the success which had crowned their exertions. Thus concluded the civil war which resulted in the triumph of the Scottish Reformation. The Protestants had made such headway in Scot- land that they were now by far the most powerful party in the nation, both numerically and influenti- ally. They rejoiced at having the settlement of the religious question in their own hands. The ist of August was the day fixed for the Estates of Parlia- ment to meet for the despatch of business, and on that day a great concourse of people assembled at Edinburgh. But nothing occurred to disturb the public peace. Many of the Popish lords absented themselves from Parliament, but the Archbishop of KNOX ADVANCES THE REFORMATION. 65 St Andrews and the Bishops of Dunblane and Dunkeld attended and took part in the proceed- ings. A Protestant petition, presented to the Estates, which was signed by persons of all ranks, prayed for legislation on three points, to wit — that the anti- Christian doctrine maintained in the Popish Church should be discarded ; that means should be used to restore purity of worship and primitive discipline ; and that the ecclesiastical revenues, which had been engrossed by a corrupt and indolent hierarchy, should be applied to the support of a pious and active ministry, to the promotion of learning, and to the relief of the poor. The petitioners were prepared to prove that those who arrogated to themselves the name of clergy were destitute of all right to be accounted ministers of religion ; and that, from the tyranny which they exercised, and their vassalage in the Court of Rome, they could not be safely tolerated, and far less intrusted with power, in a Reformed commonwealth. Parliament requested the Reformed ministers to lay before it a summary of doctrine which they could prove to be consonant with the Scriptures, and which they desired to have established. Accordingly, in the course of four days, the ministers presented a Con- fession of Faith, as the result of their joint labours, and an expression of their unanimous judgment. It agreed with the Confessions which had been published by other Reformed Churches. While it professed belief in the common Articles of Christianity respect- ing the Divine nature, the Trinity, the creation of the world, the origin of evil, and the person of the Saviour, which were retained by the Church of Rome, it condemned not only the idolatrous and supersti- tious tenets of that Church, but also its gross depravation of the doctrine of Scripture respecting the state of fallen man, and the method of his E 66 JOHN KNOX. recovery. All salvation came of God, through Jesus Christ only, by whom also men were justified. All true Christians were sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and it was blasphemy to say that Christ could abide in the hearts of those in whom there was no spirit of sanctification. The Confession of Faith was thus carried into law : — " The Confession was read first before the Lords of Articles, and afterwards before the whole Parliament. The Protestant ministers attended in the House to defend it if attacked, and to give satisfaction to the members respecting any point which might appear dubious. Those who had objections to it were formally required to state them. And the farther consideration of it was adjourned to a subsequent day, that none might pretend that an undue advan- tage had been taken of him, or that a matter of such importance had been concluded precipitately. On the 17th of August the Parliament resumed the sub- ject, and, previous to the vote, the Confession was again read, article by article. The Earl of Athole, and Lords Somerville and Borthwick, were the only persons of the temporal estate who voted in the negative, assigning this as their reason, 'We will beleve as our forefatheris belevit' ' The bischopis spak nothing.' After the vote establishing the Con- fession of Faith, the Earl Marischal rose, and declared that the silence of the clergy had confirmed him in his belief of the Protestant doctrine ; and he pro- tested that if any of the ecclesiastical estate should afterwards oppose the doctrine which had just been received, they should be entitled to no credit, seeing, after full knowledge of it, and ample time for delibera- tion, they had allowed it to pass without the smallest opposition or contradiction. On the 24th of August the Parliament abolished the Papal jurisdiction, pro- hibited, under certain penalties, the celebration of mass, and rescinded all the latws formerly made in 67 KNOX ADVANCES THE REFORMATION. 69 support of the Roman Catholic Church, and against the Reformed faith." Thus, after many perils and vicissitudes, was Protestantism formally established as the religion of Scotland. The caprices, the ambition, the avarice, and the interested policy of princes and cabinets, had, as M'Crie has pointed out, been overruled for good. Knox had been largely instrumental in bringing to pass this happy conclusion to the troubles and trials of his suffering and agitated countrymen, and to him their gratitude consequently went forth. It is not too much to say that at this juncture there was no person in Scotland whose word would everywhere have been regarded with such respect and reverence. JOHN KNOX S STUDY. CHAPTER VI. HIS CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. HAVING taken the first steps in the settlement of the religious difficulty, the Reformers were now anxious to provide the means of religious instruction for the whole people of the king- dom. In doing this, " they were sensible of the great importance of ecclesiastical discipline to the prosperity of religion, the maintenance of order, and the pre- servation of sound doctrine and morals." Knox was very firm on this point, as he had witnessed the lamentable results which resulted from the lack of religious discipline in England. Consequently, immediately after the dissolution of Parliament, the Privy Council gave a commission to Knox, and four other ministers, who had formerly been employed together with him in composing the Confession, to draw up a plan of ecclesiastical govern- ment. They began their task at once, with great care and diligence, drawing their principles and ordinances 70 CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 7 1 from the Scriptures alone. The document in which they embodied their scheme is known in history as " The First Book of Discipline." The form and order of the Protestant Church of Scotland, as gathered mainly from " The Book of Discipline" — but supplemented by information gleaned from other authentic documents of the period — may now be described. " First," says Dr. M'Crie, " the ordinary and permanent office-bearers of the Church were of four kinds ; the minister, or pastor, to whom the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments belonged ; the doctor or teacher, whose province it was to interpret Scripture and confute errors (including those who taught theology in schools and universities) ; the ruling elder, who assisted the minister in exercising ecclesiastical disci- pline and government ; and the deacon, who had the special oversight of the revenues of the Church and the poor. But, besides these, it was found necessary at this time to employ some persons in extraordinary and temporary charges. As there was not a suffi- cient number of ministers to supply the different parts of the country, that the people might not be left altogether destitute of public worship and instruc- tion, certain pious persons, who had received a common education, were appointed to read the Scriptures and the common prayers. These were called readers. In large parishes, persons of this description were also employed to relieve the ministers of a part of the public service. If they advanced in knowledge, they were encouraged to add a few plain exhortations to the reading of the Scriptures. In this case they were called exJiorters ; but they were examined and admitted before entering upon this employment. " The same cause gave rise to another temporary expedient. Instead of fixing all the ministers in particular charges, it was judged proper, after supply- ing the principal towns, to assign to the rest the 72 JOHN KNOX. superintendence of a large district, over which they were appointed regularly to travel, for the purpose of preaching, of planting churches, and inspecting the 'conduct of ministers, exhorters, and readers. These were called stipermtendents. The number originally proposed was ten ; but, owing to the scarcity of pro- per persons, or rather to the want of necessary funds, there were never more than five appointed. The de- ficiency was supplied by commissioners, or visitors, appointed from time to time by the General Assembly. " None was allowed to preach, or to administer the sacraments, till he was regularly called to this employment. Persons were invested with the pastoral office in the way of being freely elected by the people, examined by the ministers, and publicly admitted in the presence of the congregation. On the day of admission, the minister who presided, after preaching a sermon suited to the occasion, put a number of questions to the candidate, to satisfy the Church as to his soundness in the faith, his willingness to undertake the charge, the purity of his motives, and his resolution to discharge the duties of the office with diligence and fidelity. Satisfactory answers having been given to these questions, and the people having signified their adherence to their former choice, the person was admitted and set apart by prayer, without the imposition of hands ; and the service was concluded with an exhortation, the sing- ing of a Psalm, and the pronouncing of the blessing. Superintendents were admitted in the same way as other ministers. The affairs of each congregation were managed by the minister, elders, and deacons, who constituted the kirk-session, which met regularly once a week, and oftener if business required. There was a meeting, called the weekly exercise, or prophesy- ing, held in every considerable town, consisting of the ministers, exhorters, and learned men in the vicinity, for expounding the Scriptures. This was afterwards CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 73 converted into the Presbytery, or Classical Assembly. The superintendent met with the ministers and delegated elders of his district twice a year, in the provincial synod, which took cognizance of ecclesias- tical affairs within its bounds. And the General Assembly, which was composed of ministers and elders commissioned from the different parts of the kingdom, met twice, sometimes thrice, in a year, and attended to the interests of the National Church." Next, as regards public worship. It was "con- ducted according to the ' Book of Common Order,' with a few variations adapted to the state of Scotland. On Sabbath-days, the people assembled twice for public worship ; and to promote the instruction of the ignorant, catechising was substituted for preaching in the afternoon. In towns, a sermon was regularly preached on one day of the week besides the Sabbath ; and on almost every day the people had an oppor- ^ tunity of hearing public prayers and the reading of the Scriptures. Baptism was never dispensed unless it was accompanied with preaching or catechising. The Lord's Supper was administered four times a year in • towns, and there were ordinarily two ' ministrations,' one at an early hour of the morning, and another later in the day. The sign of the cross in baptising, and kneel- ing at the Lord's table, were condemned and laid aside ; and anniversary holydays were wholly abolished." Touching the state of education, the compilers of the " First Book of Discipline " paid particular atten- tion thereto. " They required that a school should be erected in every parish, for the instruction of youth in the principles of religion, grammar, and the Latin tongue. They proposed that a college should be erected in every ' notable town,' in which knowledge and rhetoric should be taught, along with the learned languages. They seem to have had it in their eye to revive the system adopted by some of the ancient republics, in which the youth were considered as the 74 JOHN KNOX. property of the public rather than of their parents, by obliging the nobility and gentry to educate their child- ren, and by providing, at the public expense, for the education of the children of the poor who discovered talents for learning. Their regulations for the three national universities discover an enlightened regard to the interests of literature, and may suggest hints which deserve attention in the present age. If these were not reduced to practice, the blame cannot be imputed to the Reformed ministers, but to the nobility and gentry, whose avarice defeated the execution of their plans." As regards the ways and means for carrying these important measures into effect, it was necessary to look to the patrimony of the Church for the requisite permanent funds. "The hierarchy had been abolished, and the Popish clergy excluded from all religious services, by the alterations which the Parliament had introduced ; and, whatever provision it was proper to allot for the dismissed incumbents during life, it was unreasonable that they should continue to enjoy those emoluments which were attached to offices for which they had been found totally unfit. No succes- sors could be appointed to them ; and there was not any individual, or class of men in the nation, who could justly claim a title to the rents of their bene- fices. The compilers of the ' Book of Discipline,' therefore, proposed that the patrimony of the Church should be appropriated, in the first instance, to the support of the new ecclesiastical establishment. Under this head they included the ministry, the schools, and the poor. For the ministers they required that such ' honest provision ' should be made as would give ' neither occasion of solicitude, neither yet of insolencie and wantonnesse.' In ordinary cases they thought that forty bolls of meal and twenty-six bolls of malt, with a reasonable sum of money, to purchase other necessary articles of provision for his family, was an adequate stipend for a minister. To enable superin- CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 75 tendents to defray the extraordinary expenses of travelling in the discharge of their duty, six chalders of veal, nine chalders of meal, three chalders of oats, and six hundred merks in money, were thought necessary as an annual stipend. The salaries of professors were fixed at from one to two hundred pounds ; and the mode of supporting the poor was left undetermined until means should be used to suppress ' stubborne and idle beggars,' and to ascer- tain the number of the really necessitous in each parish. The stipends of ministers were to be collected by the deacons from the tithes, but all illegal exactions were to be previously abolished, and measures taken to relieve the labourers of the ground from the oppressive manner in which the tithes had been gathered by the clergy, or by those to whom they had farmed them. The revenues of bishoprics, and of cathedral and collegiate churches, with the rents arising from the endowments of monasteries and other religious foundations, were to be divided and appro- priated to the support of the universities, or of the churches within their bounds. Nothing could be more unpalatable than doctrine of this kind to a considerable number of the Protestant nobility and gentry. They had for some time fixed a covetous eye on the rich revenues of the Popish clergy. Some of them had seized the Church lands, or retained the tithes in their own hands. Others had taken long leases of them from the clergy for small sums of money, and were anxious to have these private bar- gains legalised. Hence their aversion to have the ' Book of Discipline ' ratified ; hence the poverty and the complaints of the ministers, and the languishing state of the universities. The Swiss Reformer, by his eloquence and his firmness, enabled his countrymen to gain a conquest over their avarice, which was more honourable to them than any of their other victories, when he prevailed on them to appropriate ^6 JOHN KNOX. the whole revenues of the Popish establishment to the support of the Protestant Church and seminaries of literature. But it was not so easy a matter to manage the turbulent and powerful barons of Scotland, as it was to sway the minds of the burgomasters of Zurich. When we consider, however, the extent of the estab- lishments proposed by our Reformers, including the support of the ministry, of parochial schools, of city colleges, and of national universities, we cannot regard the demands which they made on the funds devoted to the Church as extravagant or unreasonable. They showed themselves disinterested by the moderate share which they asked for themselves ; and the worst that we can say of their plan is that it was worthy of a more enlightened and liberal age, in which it might have met with rulers more capable of appreciating its utility, and better disposed to carry it into execution." The majority of the Protestant nobles, " perceiving their carnal liberty and worldly commodity to be im- paired" by the provisions of the "Book of Discipline;" sneeringly spoke of them as "devote imaginations." So, when the plan was submitted to the Privy Council, although some members highly approved of it, it was warmly opposed by others. The greater part of the members, however, eventually subscribed to the docu- ment. The General Assembly also approved of it, after they had caused some of its articles to be abridged. It was further submitted to by the nation, and most of its ecclesiastical regulations were carried into effect. But it failed to receive the legislative sanction of the Estates, as did also the " Second Book of Discipline," compiled twenty years later. On the; 20th of December, 1560, the first meeting of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was held at Edinburgh.'^ It consisted of forty mem- bers, of whom six only were ministers, Knox being the leading spirit. He continued to sit in most of the meetings of the Assembly until his death. For ^CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 7/ some time the meetings were held without a moderatpr or president ; but as the numbers increased, and business became more compHcated, a moderator was chosen at every meeting. The Assembly enacted regulations concerning constituent members of .the Court, the causes which ought to come before them, and the mode of procedure. Before the year closed, Knox sustained a severe domestic bereavement by the death of his wife. She had shared with him the hardships of exile, and now passed away soon after reaching her native land, leaving him with the charge of two young children, in addition to other cares. The grief of his mother-in- law over her daughter's death rather heightened his anxieties than otherwise, as she fell into a state of deep dejection. Calvin wrote the Reformer a touching letter of sympathy upon the loss of his wife. To domestic troubles were soon added public causes for disquietude. Although the Reformation had made rapid progress, Mary Queen of Scots and her husband, the King of France, had refused to ratify the late treaty, and dismissed the deputy sent by Parliament, with marks of the highest displeasure at the religious innovations introduced in Scotland^ A new army was preparing in France for the invasion of the country in the spring; emissaries were sent in advance to encourage and unite the Roman Catholics ; and it was doubtful whether Elizabeth would protect the Reformers from a second attack. It was, therefore, with feelings of foreboding that Knox contemplated the future. In consequence of the death of the French king, some time later, the threatened invasion happily blew over. Another danger to the Reformed Church, however, speedily arose, when, in response to the invitation given by the Protestant nobility, the young Queen arrived in Scotland, and took over the reins of govern- ment into her own hands. In his " History of the 78 JOHN KNOX. Reformation," Knox thus quaintly describes the arrival of the Queen : — " The nineteenth day of August, 1 561 years, between seven and eight hours before noon, arrived Mary Queen of Scotland, then HOLYROOU PALACE IN THE OLDEX TIMES. widow, with two galleys forth of France. In her company, besides her gentlewomen called the Marys, were her three uncles, the Duke d'Omal, the Grand Prior, the Marquis d'Albufe. There accompanied her CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 79 also d'Anville, son to the Constable of France, with other gentlemen of inferior condition, besides servants and officers. The very face of the heavens, the time of her arrival, did manifestly speak what comfort was brought unto this country with her, to wit, sorrow, darkness, dolour, and all impiety ; for, in the memory of man, that day of the year, was never seen a more dolorous face of heaven, than was at her arrival, which two days after did so continue. For besides the sur- face weitt (water) and corruption of the air, the mist was so thick and dark, that scarce might any man espy another the length of two pair of butts : the sun was not seen to shine two days before nor two days after. That forewarning gave God unto us, but alas ! the most part were blind. "-At the sound of the cannons which the galleys shot, the multitude being advertised, happy was he and she that first might have the presence of the Queen. The Protestants were not the slowest, and thereuntil they were not to be blamed. Because the Palace of Holyroodhouse was not thoroughly put in order — for her coming was more sudden than many looked for — she remained in Leith till towards the evening, and then repaired thither. In the way betwixt Leith and the Abbey, met her the rebels the crafts, of whom we spake before, to wit, those that had violated the authority of the magistrates, and had besieged the Provost. But, because she was suffi- ciently instructed, that all that they did was done in despite of the religion, they were easily pardoned. " Fires of joy were set forth at night, and a com- pany of most honest men, with instruments of music, and with musicians, gave their salutations at her chamber-window. The melody, as she alleged, liked her well, and she willed the same to be continued some nights after, with great diligence. The lords repaired unto her from all quarters ; and so was noth- ing understood but mirth and quietness till the next 80 JOHN KNOX. Sunday, which was the 24th of August, when pre- paration began to be made for that idol, the mass, to be said in the chapel. Which perceived, the hearts of all the godly men began to bolden ; and men began openly to speak, ' Shall that idol be suffered again to take place within this realm ? It shall not' The Lord Lindsay — then but Master — with the gentlemen of Fife, and others, plainly cried in the close, ' The idolater priest should die the death,' according to God's law. One that carried in the candle was evil afraid ; but then began flesh and blood to show the self There durst no Papist, neither yet any that came out of France, whisper : but the Lord James — the man whom all the godly did most reverence — took upon him to keep the chapel door. His best excuse was, that he would stop all Scotsmen to enter into the mass ; but it was, and is sufficiently known, that the door was kept that none should have entrance to trouble the priest ; who, after the mass, was committed to the protection of Lord John of Coldingham, the Lord Robert of Holyroodhouse, who then were both Protestants, and had communicated at the table of the Lord. Betwixt them two was the priest convoyed to his chamber ; and so the godly departed with grief of heart, and at afternoon repaired to the Abbey in great companies, and gave plain signification that they could not abide that the land which God by His power had purged from idolatry should, in their eyes, be polluted again." It was speedily apparent, after Mary's arrival, what a great gulf separated herself and the Reformers. All the old dissensions were revived, and new ele- ments introduced. On all questions such as religion, the relations of princes and subjects, and the guiding principles of life, she was utterly antagonistic to men like Knox. Indeed, the fierce controversies which arose between the Queen and the leader of the Reformers, showed that there was not one point on CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 83 which mutual friendly intercourse was possible. The restoration of the mass by Mary filled the Protestants with horror. On the first rumour of the design there were loud expressions of discontent, which would have led to an open tumult, had not some of the lead- ing Reformers interfered, and exerted their authority in allaying the passions of the multitude. Reluctant to offend the Queen so soon after her return to her native kingdom, and desirous still more of preserving the public tranquillity, Knox reasoned in private with those who proposed to prevent the service of the mass by an armed force. But the precedent alarmed him as much as it did his brethren ; and after exposing the evils of idolatry on the following Sabbath, he con- cluded his sermon by saying that " one mass was more fearfull unto him, than if ten thousand armed enemies was landed in ony parte of the realme, of purpose to suppress the whole religioun." Some writers have called Knox and his friends intolerant for strongly opposing Popish practices, but the fact is that the public toleration of the Popish worship was only a step to the re-establishment of that hated religion in Scotland, and this would have been the signal for kindling afresh the fires of persecu- tion. There was already a league on foot, among the Popish princes of Europe, for the universal extermina- tion of Protestants, and the Scottish Queen was in sympathy with it. The Lords of the Privy Council had once exclaimed to the English Mary : " God for- bid that the lives of the faithful should stand in the power of the Papists ; for past experience has taught us what cruelty is in their hearts." Knox felt the same thing, and distrusted his own sovereign. She had been brought up in France, where she had been accustomed to see Protestants burnt ; and it was not to be expected that a nation which was Protestant could regard with complacency the Papistical doings of their Queen. A French author, in discussing this 84 JOHN KNOX. point, frankly and candidly remarked, " I maintain that, in the state of men's spirits at that time, if a Huguenot queen had come to take possession of a Roman Catholic kingdom, with the slender retinue with which Mary went to Scotland, the first thing they would have done would have been to arrest her ; and if she had persevered in her religion, they would have procured her degradation by the Pope, thrown her into the Inquisition, and burnt her as a heretic. There is not an honest man who can deny this." Knox, as minister of the only Reformed Church in Edinburgh, considered Mary to be under his special charge. He therefore subjected her personal con- duct, as well as her public policy, to the most stringent criticism. During the whole of her reign, his attitude towards her was one of bold and uncompromising antagonism. He, at any rate, did not fall under the spell of her personal beauty. The sermon which he preached in the cathedral church of St. Giles against the celebration of mass in Holyrood Chapel, led to the first of those famous interviews with Mary, which he has described with such vigour and emphasis in his " History of the Reformation." In this, their earliest passage-of-arms, the Queen accused him of raising a portion of her subjects against her mother, and against herself; she charged him with having written a book against her just authority — " The First Blast against Women " — and with being the cause of great sedition and great slaughter in England ; and that he had done all this with the aid of necromancy. But she was no match in argument with Knox. He shattered all her positions, attacked and demolished the Popish doctrine of the mass, and demonstrated that religion takes .neither its origin nor authority from worldly princes, but from the eternal God alone. As to exer- cising magic and necromancy, he had ever spoken against such arts and those who resorted to such CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 85 impiety. With regard to the " Blast " against Women, he said : " I have communicated my judgment to the world ; if the realm finds no inconveniency in the reign of a woman, that which they approve shall I not further disallow, except within my own breast, but shall be as well content to live under your Grace, as Paul was to live under Nero. And my hope is, that so long as ye defile not your hands with the blood of the saints of God, that neither I nor that book shall either hurt you or your authority : for in very deed, Madam, that book was written most especially against that picked Jezebel of England." Knox gives this striking and interesting account of his arguments with the Queen, on the relations between princes and their subjects : — " ' Think ye,' said she, ' that subjects having power may resist their princes ? ' 'If their princes exceed their bounds,' said he, ' Madam, and do against that wherefore they should be obeyed, it is no doubt but they may be resisted, even by power ; for there is neither greater honour, nor greater obedience to be given to kings and princes, than God has commanded to be given to father and mother ; but so it is, that the father may be stricken with a frenzy, in the which he would slay his own children. Now, Madam, if the children arise, join themselves together, apprehend the father, take the sword and other weapons from him, and finally bind his hands, and keep him in prison, till that his frenzy be overpast ; think ye, Madam, that the children do any wrong? Or think ye. Madam, that God will be offended with them that have stayed their father to commit wickedness ? It is even so,' said he, ' Madam, with princes that would murder the children of God that are subject unto them. Their blind zeal is nothing but a very mad frenzy ; and, therefore, to take the sword from them, to bind their hands, and to cast them into prison, till that they be brought to a more sober mind, is no dis- S6 JOHN KNOX. obedience against princes, but just obedience, because that it agreeth with the will of God.' " At these words, the Queen stood as it were amazed, more than a quarter of an hour ; her countenance altered, so that Lord James began to entreat her, and to demand, 'What has offended you, Madam?' At length, she said, ' Well, then, I perceive, that my subjects shall obey you, and not me ; and shall do what they list, and not what I command : and so must I be subject to them, and not they to me.' ' God forbid,' answered he, ' that ever I take upon me to command any to obey me, or yet to set subjects at ^ liberty to do what pleases them. But my travail is, ^ that both princes and subjects obey God. And think not,' said he, ' Madam, that wrong is done unto you, when you are willed to be subject unto God : for, it is He that subjects the people under princes, and causes obedience to be given unto them ; yea, God craves of kings, " That they be, as it were, foster- fathers to His Kirk, and commands queens to be nurses unto His people." And this subjection, Madam, unto God, and unto His troubled Kirk, is the greatest dignity that flesh can get upon the face of the earth, for it shall carry them to everlasting glory.' " ' Yea,' said she, ' but ye are not the Kirk that I will nurse. I will defend the Kirk of Rome, for it is, I think, the true Kirk of God.' '' ' Your will,' said he, ' Madam, is no reason ; neither doth your thought make that Roman harlot to be the true and immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ And wonder not. Madam, that I call Rome a harlot ; for that Kirk is altogether polluted with all kind of spiritual fornication, as well in doctrine as in manners. Yea, Madam, I offer myself further to prove, that the Kirk of the Jews, that crucified Christ Jesus, when that they manifestly denied the Son of God, was not so far degenerated from the ordinances and statutes which God gave by Moses and Aaron unto His people, CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 87 as that the Kirk of Rome is declined, and more than five hundred years hath declined, from the purity of that religion, which the Apostles taught and planted.' " * My conscience,' said she, ' is not so.' ' Conscience, Madam,' said he, * requires knowledge ; and I fear that right knowledge you have none.' ' But,' said she, ' I have both heard and read.' ' So, Madam,' said he, 'did the Jews who crucified Christ Jesus, read both the law and the prophets, and heard the same interpreted after their manner. Have ye heard,' said he, ' any teach, but such as the Pope and the Cardinals have allowed ? And ye may be assured, that such will speak nothing to offend their own estate.' * Ye interpret the Scriptures,' said she, 'in one manner and they in another ; whom shall I believe, and who shall be judge?' 'You shall believe God,' said he, ' that plainly speaketh in His Word : and farther than the Word teacheth you, you neither shall believe the one nor the other. The Word of God is plain in the self; and if there appear any obscurity in any place, the Holy Ghost, who is never contrarious to Himself, explains the same more clearly in other places : so that there can remain no doubt, but unto such as will remain obstinately ignorant. And now, Madam,' said he, ' to take one of the chief points, which this day is in controversy betwixt the Papists and us : for example, the Papists allege, and boldly have affirmed, that the mass is the ordinance of God, and the institution of Jesus Christ, and a sacrifice for the quick and the dead. We deny both the one and the other, and affirm, that the mass, as it is now used, is nothing but the invention of man ; and, therefore, it is an abomination before God, and no sacrifice that ever He commanded. Now, Madam, who shall judge betwixt us two thus contending? It is not reason that any of the parties be farther believed, than they are able to prove by unsuspected witnessing : let them lay down the book of God, and by the plain words thereof 8s JOHN KNOX. prove their affirmatives, and we shall give unto them the plea granted. But so long as they are bold to affirm, and yet do prove nothing, we must say, that albeit all the world believe them, yet believe they not God, but do receive the lies of men for the truths of God. What our master Christ Jesus did, we know by His own evangelists : what the priest doth at his mass, the world seeth. Now, doth not the word of God plainly assure us, that Christ Jesus neither said, nor yet commanded mass to be said at His last supper, seeing that no such thing as their mass is made mention of within the whole Scripture.' ' You are over-sore for me,' said the Queen, 'but and if they were here whom I have heard, they would answer you.' ' Madam,' said the other, ' would to God that the most learned Papist in Europe, and he that you would best believe, were present with your Grace to sustain the argument ; and that ye would abide patiently to hear the matter reasoned to the end ; for then, I doubt not. Madam, but that ye should hear the vanity of the Papistical religion, and how little ground it hath within the Word of God.' ' Well,' said she, ' ye may perchance get that sooner than ye believe.' 'Assuredly,' said the other, 'if ever I get that in my life, I get it sooner than I believe ; for the ignorant Papist cannot patiently reason, and the learned and crafty Papist will never come into your audience, Madam, to have the ground of their religion searched out ; for they know that they are never able to sustain an argument, except fire and sword, and their own laws be judges.' ' So say you,' said the Queen ; 'but I believe that it hath been so to this day.' Said he, ' For how often have the Papists in this and other realms been required to come to conference, and yet could it never be obtained, unless themselves were admitted for judges. And, therefore, Madam, I must yet say again, that they dare never dispute, but where themselves are both CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 89 judge and party. And wheresoever ye shall let me see the contrary, I shall grant myself to have been deceived on that point.' "And with this the Queen was called upon to dinner, for it was afternoon. At departing, John Knox said unto her, ' I pray God, Madam, that ye may be as blessed within the commonwealth of Scotland — if it be the pleasure of God — as ever Deborah was in the commonwealth of Israel.' Of this long conference, whereof we only touch a part, were divers opinions. The Papists grudged, and feared that which they needed not ; the godly thinking at least, that she would have heard the preaching, rejoiced ; but they were utterly deceived, for she continued in her massing ; and despised and quietly mocked all exhortation." When Knox was afterwards asked by his friends what he thought of the Queen, he replied, " If there be not in her a proud mind, a crafty wit, and an indurate heart against God and His truth, my judg- ment faileth me." In writing to Cecil also respecting this interview, Knox said that he had not seen such craft in any person of Mary's age, and she neither was, nor would ever be, of his opinion. Papistical doctrines were so deeply engraven in her heart. The Reformer, there- fore, set himself vigilantly to watch her proceedings, and the more the zeal of the Protestant nobles began to cool, or that their fears were laid to sleep by the winning arts of the Queen, the more persistently and loudly did he sound the alarm. Although his admoni- tions frequently irritated her, they obliged her to act with greater reserve and moderation, and they braced up the Protestants to zeal and watchfulness. The effect produced by his discourses was marvellous. The English Ambassador, who was one of his con- stant hearers, wrote to Cecil, " I assure you the voice of one man is able, in an hour, to put more life in us V go JOHN KNOX. than six hundred trumpets continually blustering in our ears." When Cecil himself advised the Reformer to adopt a more conciliatory and courtier-like tone, Knox replied, " Men delighting to swim betwixt two waters have often complained of my severity. I do fear that that which men do term lenity and dulceness, do bring upon themselves and others more fearful destruction, than yet hath ensued upon the vehemency of any preacher within this realm." /^ Mary looked with extreme disfavour upon the General Assembly, and desired to see it suppressed. A sharp passage took place on this subject between Knox and Secretary Maitland of Lethington. The latter also warmly opposed the ratification of the " Book of Discipline " by the Queen. He asked scoff- ingly who would be subject to it — would the Duke of Chatelherault? "If he will not," replied Lord Ochiltree, " I wish that his name were scraped not only out of that book, but also out of our number and company ; for to what end shall men subscribe, and never mean to keep word of that which they promise ? " " Stand content," said one of the courtiers, " that ' Book ' will not be obtained." " And let God require the injury which the Commonwealth shall sustain, at the hands of those who injure it," answered the Reformer. Another cause of dissatisfaction with the Govern- ment related to the division of ecclesiastical property. Under the arrangement adopted, those in actual possession received two-thirds, and the Reformed ministers only one-third. Knox warmly inveighed against this settlement, not in his own interests, for he had been liberally treated by the city authori- ties in the matter of his stipend — but in the interests of his poorer brethren. " I see two parts," he ex- claimed, "freely given to the devil, and the third must be divided betwdxt God and the devil. Who would have thought that when Joseph ruled in Egypt, his brethren should have travelled for victuals, and CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 9 1 have returned with empty sacks unto their families ? O happy servants of the devil, and miserable servants of Jesus Christ, if after this life there were not hell and heaven ! " As showing the high personal respect in which Knox was held for his justice and upright dealing, it may be stated that he was constantly chosen as umpire and mediator in disputes of a civil nature among Protestants. He would also frequently inter- cede with the Town Council of Edinburgh on behalf of persons who had rendered themselves liable to punishment for their disorderly conduct. Not long after his return to Scotland he had composed a domestic difference between the Earl and Countess of Argyle. In the year 1561, he was employed as arbi- trator in a quarrel between Archibald, Earl of Angus, and his brothers. Next he was urged by the Earl of Bothwell to assist in composing a deadly feud which subsisted between him and the Earl of Arran. This matter had already baffled the authority of the Privy Council, and Knox was loth to interfere ; but he yielded to the persuasion of friends, and after con- siderable pains he had the satisfaction of bringing the fiery earls to an amicable interview, in the course of which they mutually promised to bury all their former differences. Unfortunately, the reconciliation was soon disturbed, and Arran came to Knox in great agitation, bearing the information that Bothwell had endeavoured to engage him in a conspiracy, to seize upon the person of the Queen, and to kill the Prior of St. Andrews, Maitland, and the rest of her counsellors. Knox doubted the information, and besought Arran not to make it public ; but he was unsuccessful in this, and in the end both noblemen were imprisoned. It afterwards became evident that Arran was demented, but the courtiers notwithstanding placed some credit in his accusation, believing that Bothwell was quite capable of conceiving such a design. 92 JOHN KNOX. ^ Another stormy interview between the Queen and Knox took place in the month of May, 1562. It appears that the Guises had once more begun to persecute the French Protestants. The Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine attacked with an armed force a congregation peaceably assembled for worship at Vassy, killing a number of them, and wounding and mutilating others, not excepting women and children. Intelligence of this having been brought to Queen Mary, she immediately gave a splendid ball to her foreign servants, at which the dancing was prolonged to a late hour. Such an outrage upon the better feelings of humanity naturally provoked Knox to wrath. In his sermon on the following Sabbath he handled the subject, taking for his text, "And now understand, O ye kings, and be learned, ye that judge the earth." He proceeded to tax the ignorance, the vanity, and the despite of princes against all virtue, and against all those in whom hatred of vice and love of virtue appeared. A report thereof was made to the Queen, and the Reformer was summoned to appear before her. When he arrived at Holyrood, there were in the room with her, besides her ladies. Lord James Stewart, the Earl of Morton, Secretary Lethington, and some of the guard. Knox was called in, and accused as one that had irreverently spoken of the Queen. He was also charged with having travailed to bring her into contempt, and with extending the bounds of his text. Upon these three heads Mary herself delivered a long harangue or oration, and then Knox made a powerful defence of his position, the Queen being compelled to listen for once to a Protestant discourse. Knox spoke to the following effect : — " * Madam, this is oftentimes the just recompense which God gives to the stubborn of the world, that because they will not hear God speaking to the comfort of the penitent, and for amendment of the CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 93 wicked, they are oft compelled to hear the false reports of others to their greater displeasure. I doubt not but that it came to the ears of proud Herod, that our Master, Christ Jesus, called him a fox ; but they told him not how odious a thing it was before God to murder an innocent, as he had lately done before, causing to behead John the Baptist, to reward the dancing of an harlot's daughter. Madam, if the reporters of my words had been honest men, they would have reported my words, and the circum- stances of the same. But because they would have credit at Court, and lacking virtue worthy thereof, they must have somewhat to pleasure your majesty, if it were but flattery and lies : but such pleasure — if any your Grace take in such persons — will turn to your everlasting displeasure ; for, Madam, if your own ears had heard the whole matter that I entreated ; if there be in you any spark of the Spirit of God, yea, of honesty and wisdom, ye could not justly have been offended with any thing that I spake. And because you have heard their report, please your Grace to hear myself rehearse the same, so near as memory will serve. My text. Madam,' said he, ' was this, " And now, O kings, understand, and be learned, ye judges of the earth." After, Madam/ said he, 'that I had declared the dignity of kings and rulers, the honour whereunto God has placed them, the obedience that is due unto them, being God's lieutenants, I demanded this question : But oh, alas ! what account shall the most part of the princes make before that supreme y Judge, whose throne and authority they so manifestly and shamefully abuse ? That the complaint of Solomon is this day most true, to wit, that violence and oppression do occupy the throne of God here in this earth ; for while that murderers, blood-thirsty men, oppressors and malefactors, dare to be bold to present themselves before kings and princes, and the poor saints of God are banished and exiled, what shall 94 JOHN KNOX. we say but that the devil has taken possession of the throne of God, which ought to be fearful to all wicked doers, and a refuge to the innocent oppressed. And how can it otherwise be ? For princes will not under- stand, they will not be learned, as God commands them. But God's law they despise, His statutes and holy ordinances they will not understand ; for in fiddling and flinging they are more exercised than in reading or hearing of God's most blessed Word ; and fiddlers and flatterers — which commonly corrupt the youth — are more precious in their eyes than men of wisdom and gravity, who by wholesome admonition might beat down into them some part of that vanity and pride, whereunto all are born, but in princes take deep root and strength by wicked education. And of dancing. Madam, I said, that albeit in Scripture I find no praise of it, and in profane writers, that it is termed the gesture rather of those that are mad and in frenzy than of sober men ; yet do I not utterly damn it, pro- viding that two vices be avoided. The former^ that the principal vocation of those that use that exercise be not neglected for the pleasure of dancing. Secondly, that they dance not, as the Philistines their fathers, for the pleasure that they take in the displeasure of God's people ; for if any or both they do, so they shall receive the reward of dancers — and that will be to drink in hell, unless they speedily repent — so shall God turn their mirth into sudden sorrow : for God will not always afflict His people, neither yet will He always wink at the tyranny of tyrants. If any man. Madam,' said he, ' will say that I spake more, let him presently accuse me ; for I think I have not only touched the sense,' but the very words as I spake them.' Many that stood by bare witness with him, that he had recited the very words that publicly he spake. " The Queen looked about to some of the reporters, and said, ' Your words are sharp enough as ye have CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 95 Spoken them, but yet they were told to me in another manner. I know/ said she, ' that my uncles and ye are not of one religion ; and therefore I cannot blame you, albeit you have no good opinion of them : but if ye hear anything of myself that mislikes you, come to myself and tell me, and I shall hear you.' ' Madam,' said he, ' I am assured that your uncles are enemies to God, and unto His Son Jesus Christ ; and that for maintenance of their own pomp and worldly glory, they spare not to spill the blood of many innocents ; and therefore I am assured that their enterprises shall have no better success than others have had that before them have done as they do now. But as to your own person. Madam, I would be glad to do all that I could to your Grace's contentment, providing that I exceed not the bounds of my vocation. I am called, Madam, to a public function within the Kirk of God, and am appointed by God to rebuke the sins and vices of all. I am not appointed to come to every man in particular to show him his offence ; for that labour were infinite. An' your Grace please to frequent the public sermons, then doubt I not but that ye shall fully understand both what I like and what I mislike, as well in your majesty as in all others. Or, if your Grace will assign unto me a certain day and hour when it will please you to hear the form and substance of doctrine which is propounded in public to the Kirks of this realm, I will most gladly await your Grace's pleasure, time, and place ; but to come to wait upon your chamber-door or elsewhere, and then to have no farther liberty but to whisper my mind in your Grace's ears, or to tell you what others think and speak of you, neither will my conscience, nor the vocation where- unto God has called me, suffer it ; for albeit at your Grace's commandment I am here now, yet can I not tell what other men shall judge of me, that at this time of day I am absent from my book and waiting upon the court' ' Ye will not always,' said she, ' be 96 JOHN KNOX. at your book/ and so turned her back. And the said John departed with a reasonable merry countenance ; whereat some Papists, offended, said, ' He is not afraid.' Which heard of him, he answered, *Why should the pleasing face of a gentlewoman fear me ? I have looked in the faces of many angry men, and yet have not been afraid above measure.' " Knox's general labours were so arduous, and told so much upon his constitution, that an assistant pastor was granted him in 1563. Since 1560 Knox had preached twice every Sunday, ^nd thrice during the week in St. Giles's Church, frequently to 3000 persons. He also performed all the other duties attaching to the ministerial office, met regularly every week with his kirk-session for discipline, was present at the assembly of the neighbourhood for the exercise on the Scriptures, and attended the meetings of the pro- vincial synod and the General Assembly. Accord- ingly, in April, 1562, the town council unanimously resolved to solicit the minister of Canongate to under- take half the charge. The ensuing General Assembly approved the proposal, but the translation was not completed until June, 1563. John Craig, Knox's new co-adjutor, was a distinguished Reformer, who was born in 15 12, and educated at St. Andrews University. He went to England for a time as tutor to the family of Lord Dacres, but in consequence of the v/ar between England and Scotland, he returned to his native country and entered the order of Dominican Friars. Becoming disgusted with the ignorance and bigotry of the clergy, however, he left Scotland in 1537, and visited England, France, and Italy. At Bologna he was admitted among the Dominicans on the recom- mendation of Cardinal Pole ; but finding in the library of the Inquisition a copy of Calvin's " Institu- tions," he carefully studied that and other works, and ultimately became a thorough convert to the Reformed opinions. CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 97 He left the monastery of Bologna, but was arrested for his heretical opinions, and conveyed to Rome, where he was condemned to be burnt on the 20th of August, 1559. Making his escape from the city, he passed through many strange vicissitudes, until in 1560 he succeeded in reaching Scotland, when he was admitted to the ministry. Protestant counsellors were still employed by Mary, and the chief direction of public affairs was entrusted to the Prior of St. Andrews, who in 1562 was created Earl of Murray, and married a daughter of the Earl Marischal. Knox performed the marriage ceremony publicly as usual before the congregation, and he exhorted the bridegroom to stand fast in the Protest- ant faith, lest the blame should be imputed to his wife. The Reformer had greater fear, however, of his being corrupted by the Court. It was well known that the Protestant chiefs did not possess the confidence of the Queen, and the Papists made repeated efforts to ruin and displace them. The Earl of Huntly took up arms in the North to rescue the Queen from her counsellors, whilst the Archbishop of St. Andrews endeavoured to rouse the Papists of the South. Knox acted with vigour, travelling through various parts of the Low- lands and confirming the faith of the Protestants. Murray crushed the rebellion in the North in the autumn of 1562, and Huntly was slain. Mary rejoiced little over the victory, for she had been hoping before the year expired to have the mass and the Catholic religion restored throughout the whole kingdom. In September, 1562, there was a famous disputa- tion at Maybole, on the subject of the mass, between Knox and Quintin Kennedy, Abbot of Crossraguel, and an uncle of the Earl of Cassilis. In defending the mass, the Abbot undertook to prove that Melchisedec offered bread and wine unto God, G 98 JOHN KNOX. "which was the ground that the mass was builded upon to be a sacrifice/' etc. But during a discussion of three days no proof could be produced for Melchisedec's oblation, as Knox clearly made appear. The Reformer, in quaintly reporting the contest, remarked, " The Papists constantly looked for a change in their favour, and therefore they would make some brag of reasoning. The Abbot farther presented himself to the pulpit, but the voice of Mr. George Hay so feared him that after once he wearied of that exercise." Another priest who defended the Roman Catholic cause at this juncture was Ninian Wingate, formerly schoolmaster of Linlithgow. He sent to Knox in writing a series of eighty-three ques- tions upon the principal points in dispute between Papists and Protestants, which questions he had drawn up in the name of the inferior clergy, and the laity of the Catholic persuasion in Scotland. The Reformer answered many of the questions from the pulpit, especially those which related to the call of the Protestant ministers. He also intended to publish a fuller refutation of Wingate's questions, but public questions and more pressing duties prevented him from carrying his design into execution. Early in 1563 one Paul Methven, a preacher of the Reformed doctrines at Jedburgh, was accused of adultery. The affair caused much scandal, and John Knox and several elders of Edinburgh were appointed by the General Assembly a commission to try the case. They proceeded to Jedburgh, and after hearing the evidence, reported against Methven, who was pre- scribed a severe and humiliating penance. He fled, and was excommunicated ; but at a later period he returned and went through a portion of the required discipline. Feeling overwhelmed with shame, how- ever, and despairing to regain his lost reputation, he stopped in the midst of his penitential exercises and again fled to England. Appearing at the church CONTROVERSIES WITH MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 99 door in sackcloth, bareheaded and barefooted, on three successive occasions, with public expressions of sorrow before the whole congregation on the final day, was the mode of public repentance afterwards used in all cases of aggravated immorality. It was characteristic of Knox that he exercised the greatest vigilance over the morals of the ministers of the Reformed faith. He knew that not a little of the unpopularity of the Romish priests arose from the scandalous lives which many of them led, and he was doubly anxious that the new spiritual guides of the people should be men of pure lives and conversa- tion. THE AUDIENCE CHA.AIBER, HOLYROOD I'ALACE. CHAPTER VII. FROM MAY, 1563, TO MARY'S MARRIAGE WITH DARNLEY. W HILE Mary was at Lochleven in May, 1563, the Protestant gentlemen of the West made a determined stand against the Popish priests, who, under cover of the Queen's favour, had again openly taken to the celebra- tion of the mass. In accordance with the laws, some of the offenders were apprehended, and although Mary signified her displeasure at this, it did not suffice to check the Reformers in executing the laws. Upon this Mary sent for Knox. She spoke with him very earnestly for two hours, requesting him to persuade the western gentlemen to desist from all interference with the Catholic worship. The Reformer replied that if she would exert her authority in execut- ing the laws of the land, he could promise for the peace- able behaviour of the Protestants ; but if she thought to elude them, he feared there were some who would let Papists know they could not interfere with impunity. FROM MAY, 1563, TO MARY'S MARRIAGE. lOI "Will ye allow that they shall take my sword in their hands ? " asked the Queen. "The sword of justice is God's',' replied the Reformer, with equal firmness, " and is given to princes and rulers for one end, which, if they transgress, spar- ing the wicked and oppressing the innocent, they who, in the fear of God, execute judgment where God has commanded, offend not God, although kings do it not." Having produced examples, Knox went on to show that the gentlemen of the West were acting strictly according to law ; and he concluded with this state- ment of a doctrine which has always been unpalatable to kings : " It shall be profitable to your Majesty to consider what is the thing your Grace's subjects look to receive of your Majesty, and what it is that ye ought to do unto them by mutual contract. They are bound to obey you, and that not but in God ; ye are bound to keep laws to them. Ye crave of them ser- vice ; they crave of you protection and defence against wicked doers. Now, Madam, if you shall deny your duty unto them (which especially craves that ye shall punish malefactors), think ye to receive full obedience of them ? I fear, Madam, ye shall not." The Queen was greatly displeased, perhaps all the more because she had no answer to such arguments. Knox acquainted the Earl of Murray with the sub- stance of what had passed, and was preparing early next day to return to Edinburgh when a message was conveyed to him that the Queen desired to see him again. The second interview took place in the neigh- bourhood of Kinross, where Mary was hawking. Her demeanour was now wholly different, and she was full of gracious words and wreathed smiles. The Reformer so far met the Queen's views as to interfere to prevent the election of the Archbishop of Athens (the late Lord Huntly's brother) as superintendent of the Dumfries district, and he further wrote a letter to the I02 JOHN KNOX. Earl of Argyle on the unhappy differences that had again broken out between him and the Countess — which letter, however, was not very pleasing to that nobleman. There is little doubt that Mary's specious promises had temporarily deceived Knox, and he soon had reason to find that she was merely dis- sembling as usual when she promised faithfully to administer the laws in future without fear or favour. The first evidence of this was given on the dissolu- tion of Parliament, when she set at liberty the Arch- bishop of St. Andrews, and a number of leading Papists who had only just been arrested for breaking the laws. The Parliament which met on the 2ist of May, 1563, was the first that had assembled since the Queen's arrival in Scotland. It was hoped that its first business would be to ratify the treaty of peace made in July, 1560, thus legally confirming the estab- lishment of the Protestant religion. But so well had Mary laid her plans, such was the effect of her insinu- ating address, and so powerful was the temptation of self-interest on the minds of the Protestant leaders, that by general consent they passed from this demand, and lost the only favourable opportunity during the reign for giving a legal security to the Reformed religion, and thereby removing the one great source of national disquietude. It is true that an act of oblivion was passed, securing indemnity to those who had been engaged in the late civil war ; but the mode of its enactment virtually implied the invalidity of the treaty in which it had been originally embodied. The other Acts of this Parliament were conceived in a grudging and inimical spirit as regards the Reformers. Knox was extremely angry, and reasoned with the leaders of the Reformed party ; but they replied that nothing could be done until the favourable opportun- ity afforded by the Queen's projected marriage arrived. He now realised the full extent of Mary's dissimula- KNOX ADMONISHING QUEEN MARY.—/. lOI. 103 FROM MAY, 1563,70 MARY's MARRIAGE. IO5 tion ; " and the selfishness and servility of the Pro- testant leaders also affected him deeply." Indeed, this matter led to the severance of the old and tried friendship between Knox and the Earl of Murray. The Reformer wrote a letter to the Earl, in which, after reminding him of his condition when they first became acquainted in London, and the honours to which he had been raised by Providence, he solemnly renounced friendship with him. " Seeing that I perceive myself frustrated of my expectation," he remarked, "which was, that ye should ever have preferred God to your own affection, and the advance- ment of His truth to your singular commodity, I commit you to your own wit, and to the conducting of those who better can please you. I praise my God, I leave you this day victor of your enemies, promoted to great honour, and in credit and authority with your Sovereign. If so ye long continue, none within the realm shall be more glad than I shall be ; but if that after this ye shall decay — as I fear ye shall — then call to mind by what means God exalted you ; which was neither by bearing with impiety, neither yet by main- taining of pestilent Papists." One cannot but admire Knox's firm adherence to conscience in thus breaking with Murray, for the step entailed no small sacrifice on his part. The Queen rejoiced over the breach, and others who had been jealous of the friendship between Knox and Murray did not fail to " cast oil into the flame, until God did quench it by the water of afflic- tion." Before the Parliament was dissolved, the Reformer delivered his soul before the Lords in a powerful sermon, in which he inveighed against the deep ingratitude prevailing among all ranks of persons for the great mercy God had shown them in delivering them from bondage of soul and body. In making a passion- ate appeal to his auditors, he said he saw nothing but a cowardly desertion of Christ's standard. Some even I06 JOHN KNOX. had the effrontery to say that they had neither law nor Parliament for their religion. But they had the authority of God for it, and its truth was independent of human laws ; and it was also ac- cepted within the realm in public Parliament, and that Parliament he maintained to have been as lawful and as free as any Parliament that had ever been held within the kingdom of Scotland. In concluding his discourse, he referred to the Queen's marriage, and predicted the serious conse- quences which must ensue if ever the Sovereign should marry a Papist. The Reformer's bold speech offended men of both parties ; and some who had been familiar with the preacher now shunned him. But this was not the first time he had been left to fight the battle alone. Flatterers hastened to the Court to announce that Knox had spoken against the Queen's marriage. He was ordered to present himself before the Queen, which he did soon after dinner. Lord Ochiltree and divers of the faithful bore him company to Holyrood Abbey, but none passed into the Queen with him in the cabinet but John Erskine of Dun, then superin- tendent of Angus and Mearns. What took place at this memorable scene is thus detailed in Knox's " History of the Reformation " : — "The Queen, in a vehement fume, began to cry out that never prince was handled as she was. ' I have,' said she, ' borne with you in all your rigorous manner of speaking, both against myself and against my uncles ; yea, I have sought your favour by all possible means ; I offered unto you presence and audience whensoever it pleased you to admonish me, and yet I cannot be quit of you. I vow to God I shall be once revenged.' And with these words, scarcely could Marnock, her secret chamber-boy, get napkins to hold her eyes dry for the tears. And the howling, besides womanly weeping, stayed her speech, j FROM MAY, 1563, TO MARY'S MARRIAGE. 107 The said John did patiently abide all the first fume, and at opportunity answered : — " ' True it is, Madam, your Grace and I have been at divers controversies, into the which I never perceived your Grace to be offended at me. But when it shall please God to deliver you from that bondage of dark- ness and error in the which ye have been nourished, for the lack of true doctrine, your Majesty will find the liberty of my tongue nothing offensive. Without the preaching place, Madam, I think few have occa- sion to be offended at me ; and there, Madam, I am not master of myself, but must obey Him who commands me to speak plain, and to flatter no flesh upon the face of the earth.' " ' But what have you to do,' said she, ' with my marriage?' 'If it please your Majesty,' said he, ' patiently to hear me, I shall show the truth in plain words. I grant your Grace offered unto me more than ever I required, but my answer was then as it is now, that God hath not sent me to await upon the courts of princes, or upon the chamber of ladies ; but I am sent to preach the Evangel of Jesus Christ to such as please to hear it ; and it hath two parts, Repentance and Faith. Now, Madam, in preaching repentance, of necessity it is that the sins of men be so noted, that they may know wherein they offend ; but so it is, that the most part of your nobility are so addicted to your affections, that neither God's Word, nor yet their commonwealth, are rightly regarded ; and therefore, it becomes me so to speak, that they may know their duty.' ' What have you to do,' said she, 'with my marriage? Or what are you in this commonwealth ? ' 'A subject born within the same, Madam/ said he. ' And albeit I am neither earl, lord, nor baron within it, yet has God made me — how abject that ever I am in your eyes — a profit- able member within the same ; yea, Madam, to me it appertains no less to forewarn of such things as may I08 JOHN KNOX. hurt it, if I foresee them, than it doth to any of the nobility ; for both my vocation and conscience crave plainness of me, and therefore, Madam, to yourself I say that which I spake in public place. Whensoever that the nobility of this realm shall consent that ye be subject to an unfaithful (infidel) 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 com- fort to yourself.' "At these words, howlincr was heard, and tears might have been seen in greater abundance than the matter required. John Erskine of Dun, a man of meek and gentle spirit, stood beside, and entreated what he could to mitigate her anger, and gave unto her many pleasing words of her beauty, of her excellency, and how that all the princes of Europe would be glad to seek her favour. But all that was to cast oil in the flaming fire. The said John stood still without any alteration of countenance for a long season, until that the Queen gave place to such/,, inordinate passion ; and in the end, he said, ' Madam, ^ in God's presence I speak, I never delighted in the weeping of any of God's creatures ; yea, I can scarcely abide the tears of my own boys, whom my own hand corrects, much less can I rejoice in your Majesty's weeping ; but seeing that I have offered you no just occasion to be offended, but have spoken the truth, as my vocation craves of me, I must sustain — albeit unwillingly — your Majesty's tears, rather than I dare hurt my conscience, or betray my commonwealth through my silence.' V / " Herewith was the Queen more offended, and commanded the said John to pass forth of the cabinet, and to abide farther of her pleasure in the chamber. The Laird of Dun tarried, and Lord John of Colding- ham came into the cabinet ; and so they both remained with her near the space of an hour. The FROM MAY, 1563, TO MARY'S MARRIAGE. IO9 said John stood in the chamber as one whom men had never seen — so were all afraid — except that the Lord Ochiltree bore him company ; and therefore began he to forge talking (devise conversation) with the ladies who were there sitting in all their gorgeous apparel, which espied, he merrily said, ' O fair ladies, how pleasing was this life of yours, if it should ever abide, and then in the end that we might pass to heaven with all this gay gear? But fie upon that knave death, that will come whether we will or not ! and when he has laid on his arrest, the foul worms will be busy with this flesh, be it never so fair and so tender ; and the silly soul, I fear, shall be so feeble, that it can neither carry with it gold, garnishing, targetting (border tasselling), pearl, nor precious stones.' And by such means procured he company of women, and so passed the time till that the Laird of Dun willed him to depart to his house with new advertisement. The Queen would have had the sensement of the lords of articles, if that such manner of speaking deserved not punishment ; but she was counselled to desist, and so that storm quieted in appearance, but never in the heart." As Mary had got all she wished at present from the Protestant lords, her tears must have been more of anger than of grief, and they have given rise to misplaced sympathy on the part of some historians. The truth is, that she was furious because there was one man — and he the most prominent of her subjects — who refused to sell his conscience by endorsing her acts. Knox, with far-seeing eye, looked into the future, and he was unable to compromise ignobly when he saw the dangers looming before his country. A slander upon Knox's moral character was set afloat by a woman of Edinburgh, but when she was brought before the General Assembly, she flatly denied having given utterance to the words forming the charge, which all men knew to be a lie. Never- no JOHN KNOX. theless, after the Reformer's death, Papistical writers repeated the charge, though they must have known of its utter baselessness. The Queen, however, was determined in some way ST. Giles's, Edinburgh. to get Knox within her power, and at last she flattered herself that she had caught him in an offence which would infallibly subject him to punishment. FROM MAY, 1563, TO MARY'S MARRIAGE. Ill While the Queen was away at Stirling in August, her domestics at Holyrood House celebrated mass with even greater ostentation than if she were present. A number of Protestants, hearing of this, and feeling greatly annoyed thereat, went to see if it were really the case. When they entered, the mistress of the household despatched a messenger for the comptroller, who was at St. Giles's, desiring him to come instantly to save her life and the palace. As soon as he arrived, he found no appearance of tumult. Never- theless, when the news of the pretended riot reached the Queen, she vowed that the instigators of it must be punished, and two Protestants — Andrew Arm- strong and Patrick Cranston — were indicted to stand their trial for the rioting. Thereupon, the Protestants in Edinburgh resolved that Knox, agreeably to a commission which he had received from the Church, should write a circular letter to the principal gentle- men of their persuasion, informing them of the circumstances, and requesting their presence on the day of trial. Knox wrote the letter as requested, and a copy of it having come into the hands of Sinclair, Bishop of Ross, who was a great personal enemy to Knox, he conveyed it to the Queen at Stirling. She sent it to the Privy Council, who, to her great delight, pro- nounced it treasonable. An extraordinary meeting of the Council, reinforced by other noblemen, was called, to be held in Edinburgh at the close of December, and Knox was summoned to appear before this convention. Great influence was used with Knox before the trial to persuade him to acknowledge a fault, and to throw himself on the Queen's mercy ; but this he absolutely refused to do. His intimate friend, the Master of Maxwell (afterwards Lord Herries), threatened him with the loss of his friendship if he did not submit to the Queen, and said that men 112 JOHN KNOX. would not bear with him as they had done. The sturdy Reformer replied that he did not understand such language. He had never opposed the Queen except in the matter of religion, and surely it was not meant that he should bow to her in that : if God stood by him — which He would do as long as he confided in Him, and preferred His glory to his own life — he regarded little how men should behave towards him. Nor did he know wherein they had borne with him, unless in hearing the Word of God from his mouth, which, if they should reject, he would lament it, but the injury would be their own. The Earl of Murray and Secretary Maitland then sent for Knox, and had a long interview with him. They told him they had taken great pains to mitigate the Queen's resentment, but nothing could save him except a timely submission. He replied that he could not confess a fault where there was none, and that he had not learned to " cry treason at everything which the multitude called treason, nor to fear what they feared." The wily Secretary then tried to inveigle him into stating the grounds of his defence, but Knox, aware of his craft, declined the conversa- tion, and told him it would be foolish to entrust his defence with one who had already prejudged his cause and pronounced him guilty. The case therefore went to trial, and within four days Knox was called before the Queen and Council, between the hours of six and seven in the evening, the season being the middle of December. Reports arising in the town that Knox had been summoned before the Queen, the Reformers followed in such numbers that the inner close was full, and all the stairs, even to the chamber-door where the Queen and Council sat, who had been reasoning among themselves before, but had not fully satisfied the Secretary's mind. The Queen retired to her cabinet, and the Lords conversed with each other. But upon FROM MAY, 1563, TO MARY'S MARRIAGE. II3 the entry of John Knox, they were commanded to take their places. The Duke of Chatelherault, accord- ing to his dignity, headed the one side, with the Earl of Argyle opposite, and there were also present the Earl of Murray, the Earl of Glencairn, the Earl Marischal, Lord Ruthven, etc. The officers of the Council, Comptroller Pitarrow, the Justice-Clerk, Mr. John Spence of Condie, Advocate, and divers others stood by. Near the table sat old Lethington, father to the Secretary, Mr. Henry Sinclair, Bishop of Ross, and Mr. James M'Gill, Clerk of Register. As this trial for alleged treason forms one of the most remarkable episodes in Knox's life, we shall allow the Reformer himself to report it in his own words, as follows : — " Things thus put in order, the Queen came forth, and with no little worldly pomp was placed in the chair, having two faithful supports, the Master of Maxwell upon the one tor (arm), and Secretary Lethington upon the other tor of the chair, where- upon they waited diligently, all the time of that accusation, sometimes the one occupying her ear, sometimes the other ; her pomp lacked one principal point, to wit, womanly point ; for when she saw John Knox standing at the other end of the table bare- headed, she first smiled, and after gave a gaulf (loud burst) of laughter ; whereat when her placeboes gave their plaudit, affirming with like countenance, ' This is a good beginning,' she said ; ' but wot ye whereat I laugh? Yon man made me greet (weep) and grate (wept) never a tear himself; I will see if I can cause him greet' At that word ther Secretary whispered her in the ear, and she him again, and with that gave him a letter ; after the inspection thereof he directed his visage and speech to John Knox in this manner : 'The Queen's Majesty is informed, that you have travailed to raise a tumult of her subjects against her, and for certification thereof, there is presented H 114 JOHN KNOX. to her your own letter, subscribed in your name ; yet, because her Grace will do nothing without a good advisement, she has convened you before this part of the nobility, that they may witness betwixt you and her.' ' Let him acknowledge,' said she, ' his own handwrite, and then shall we judge of the contents of the letter.' And so was the letter presented from hand to hand, to John Knox, who, taking inspection of it, said, * I gladly acknowledge this to be my hand- write ; and also I remember that I dited a letter in the month of October, giving signification to the brethren in divers quarters of such things as displeased me. And that good opinion have I of the fidelity of the scribes that willingly they would not adulterate my original, albeit I left divers blanks subscribed with them ; and so I acknowledge both the handwrite and the ditement' ' You have done more,' said Lethington, 'than I would have done.' 'Charity,' said the other, ' is not suspicious.' ' Well, well,' said the Queen, ' read your own letter, and then answer to such things as shall be demanded of you.' ' I shall do the best I can,' said the other ; and so with a loud voice he began to read as before is expressed. '' After that the letter was read to the end, it was presented again to Mr. John Spence ; for the Queen commanded him to accuse, as he after did, but very gently. After, we say, that the letter was read, the Queen beholding the whole table, said, ' Heard ye ever, my Lords, a more despiteful and treasonable letter ? ' When that no man gave answer, Lethington addressed himself to John Knox, and said, ' Master Knox, are you not sorry from your heart, and do you not repent that such a letter has passed your pen, and from you is come to the knowledge of others ? ' John Knox answered, ' My Lord Secretary, before I repent I must be taught of my offence.' ' Offence ! ' said Lethington ; ' if there were no more but the con- FROM MAY, 1563, TO MARY'S MARRIAGE. II5 vocation of the Queen's lieges, the offence cannot be denied.' ' Remember yourself, my Lord,' said the other, ' there is a difference betwixt a lawful convoca- tion and an unlawful. If I have been guilty in this, I offended often since I came last into Scotland : for what convocation of the brethren has ever been to this hour, unto the which my pen served not ? And before this no man laid it to my charge as a crime.' ' Then was then,' said Lethington, ' and now is now ; we have no need of such convocations as sometimes we have had.' John Knox answered, ' The time that has been is even now before my eyes ; for I see the poor flock in no less danger than it has been at any time before, except that the devil has got a visorue (mask) upon his face. Before he came in with his own face, discovered by open tyranny, seeking the destruction of all that has refused idolatry ; and then, I think, ye will confess the brethren lawfully assembled themselves for defence of their lives. And now the devil comes, under the cloak of Justice, to do that which God would not suffer him to do by strength.' ' What is this ? ' said the Queen ; ' methinks, ye trifle with him. Who gave him authority to make convocation of my lieges ? Is not that treason ? ' ' No, Madam,' said the Lord Ruthven ; ' for he makes convocation of the people to hear prayer and sermon almost daily, and whatever your Grace or others will think thereof, we think it no treason.' ' Hold your peace,' said the Queen, ' and let him make answer for himself ' I began. Madam,' said John Knox, ' to reason with the Secretary — whom I take to be a better dialectician than your Grace is — that all convocations are not un- lawful ; and now my Lord Ruthven has given the instance, which if your Grace will deny, I shall address me for the proof * I will say nothing,' said the Queen, ' against your religion, nor against your convening to your sermons : but what authority have Il6 JOHN KNOX. you to convocate my subjects when you will, without my commandment?' 'I have no pleasure,' said John Knox, ' to decline from the former purpose ; and yet, Madam, to satisfy your Grace's two questions, I answer, that at my will I never convened four persons in Scotland, but at the order which the brethren have appointed. I have given divers adver- tisements, and great multitudes have assembled thereupon. And if your Grace complain, that this has been done without your Grace's commandment, I answer, so has all that God has blessed within this realm from the beginning of this action ; and, there- fore. Madam, I must be convicted by a just law, that I have done against the duty of God's messenger in writing of this letter, before I can either be sorry, or yet repent for the doing of it, as my Lord Secretary would persuade me ; for what I have done, I have done at the commandment of the general Kirk of this realm ; and, therefore, I think, I have done no wrong.' "'You shall not escape so,' said the Queen. 'Is it not treason, my Lords, to accuse a prince of cruelty ? I think there are acts of Parliament against such whisperers.' That was granted of many. ' But whereuntil,' said John Knox, ' can I be accused ? ' ' Read this part of your own bill,' said the Queen, which began, ' These fearful summonses is directed against them — to wit, the brethren aforesaid — to make, no doubt, a preparative on a few, that a door may be opened to execute cruelty upon a greater multitude.' ' So,' said the Queen, ' what say you to that ? ' While many doubted what the said John would answer, he said unto the Queen, ' Is it lawful for me. Madam, to answer for myself? or shall I be condemned before I be heard ? ' ' Say what you can,' said she ; ' for I think you have enough ado.' ' I will first then desire this of your Grace, Madam, and of this most honourable audience, whether if your Grace knows not, that the obstinate Papists are FROM MAY, 1563,70 MARY'S MARRIAGE. II7 deadly enemies to all such as profess the Evangel of Jesus Christ, and that they most earnestly desire the extermination of them, and of the true doctrine that is taught within this realm ? ' The Queen held her peace : but all the Lords, with common voice, said, ' God forbid that either the lives of the faithful, or yet the staying of the doctrine, stood in the power of the Papists : for just experience has taught us what cruelty lies in their heart.' ' I must proceed then,' said John Knox, ' seeing I perceive all will grant that it were a barbarous cruelty to destroy such a multitude as profess the Evangel of Christ within this realm, which oftener than once or twice they have attempted to do by force, as things done of late days do testify, whereof they, by God and by His provi- dence, being disappointed, having invented more crafty and dangerous practices, to wit, to make the prince party under colour of law ; and so what they could not do by open force, they shall perform by crafty deceit : for who thinks, my Lords, that the insatiable cruelty of the Papists — within this realm, I mean — shall end in the murdering of these two brethren now unjustly summoned, and more unjustly to be accused. I think no man of judgment can so esteem, but rather the direct contrary, that is, that by this few number they intend to prepare a way to their bloody enterprise against the whole ; and, there- fore, Madam, cast up when you list the acts of your Parliament. I have offended nothing against them, for I accuse not in my letter your Grace, nor yet your nature of cruelty ; but I affirm yet again, that the pestilent Papists, who have inflamed your Grace without cause against these poor men at this present, are the sons of the devil ; and therefore must obey the desires of their father, who has been a liar and a manslayer from the beginning.' 'You forget yourself,' said one; ^you are not now in the pulpit.' 'I am in the place,' said the other, ' where I am demanded Il8 JOHN KNOX. of conscience to speak the truth ; and therefore the truth I speak, impugn it whoso list And hereunto I add, Madam, that honest, gentle, and meek natures by appearance, by wicked and corrupt counsellors, may be subverted and altered to the direct contrary. Example we have of Nero, whom in the beginning of his empire, we find having some natural shame ; but after his flatterers had encouraged him in all impiety, alleging, that nothing was either unhonest or yet unlawful in his personage, who was emperor above others ; when he had drank of this cup, I say, to what enormities he fell the histories bear witness. And now. Madam, to speak plainly. Papists and conjured enemies of Jesus Christ, have your Grace's ear patent at all times. I assure your Grace they are dangerous counsellors, and that your mother found.' " As this was said, Lethington smirked (smiled), and spoke secretly to the Queen in her ear ; what it was the table heard not. But immediately she addressed her visage and speech to John Knox, and said, ' Well, you speak fair enough here before my Lords, but the last time that I spoke with you secretly you caused me weep many salt tears, and said to me stubbornly, you set nought by my greeting.' ' Madam,' said the other, ' because now the second time your Grace has burdened me with that crime, I must answer, lest, for my silence, I should be held guilty. If your Grace be ripely remembered, the Laird of Dun, yet living, can testify the truth, who was present at that time whereof your Grace complains. Your Grace accused me that I had irreverently handled you in the pulpit ; that I denied. You said, what ado had I to speak of your marriage? What was I, that I should meddle with such matters ? I answered, as touching nature, I was a worm of this earth, and yet a subject of this commonwealth ; but as touching the office whereunto it had pleased God to place me, I was a watchman, FROM MAY, 1563, TO MARY'S MARRIAGE. II9 both over the realm, and over the Kirk of God gathered within the same ; by reason whereof I was bound in conscience to blow the trumpet publicly, so oft as ever I saw any upfall or apparent danger, either of the one or the other. But so it was, that a certain bruit affirmed that traffic of marriage was betwixt your Grace and the Spanish ally ; whereunto I said, that if your nobility and states did agree, unless both you and your husband should be so straitly bound, that neither of you might hurt this common- wealth, nor yet the poor Kirk of God within the same, that in that case I would pronounce that the consenters were traitors to this commonwealth, and enemies to God and to His truth planted with(in) the same. At these words, I grant your Grace stormed, and bursted forth into an unreasonable weeping. What mitigation the Laird of Dun would have made, I suppose your Grace has not forgotten. But while that nothing was able to stay your weeping, I was compelled to say, I take God to record, that I never took pleasure to see any creature weep, yea, not my children when my own hands had beaten them, much less can I rejoice to see your Grace make such regret ; but seeing I have offered your Grace no such occasion, I must rather suffer your Grace to take your own pleasure, or that I dare conceal the truth, and so betray both the Kirk of God and my common- wealth. These were the most extreme words that I spoke that day,' " After that the Secretary had quietly conferred with the Queen, he said, ' Mr. Knox, you may return to your house for this night.' ' I thank God and the Queen's Majesty,' said the other. ' And, Madam, I pray God to purge your heart from Papistry, and to preserve you from the counsel of flatterers ; for how pleasant that they appear to your ears and corrupt affections for the time, experience has taught us in what perplexity they have brought famous princes.' Lethington and I20 JOHN KNOX. the Master of Maxwell were that night the two stoops of her chair. " John Knox being departed, the table of the Lords, and others that were present, were demanded every man by his vote, If John Knox had not offended the Queen's Majesty? The Lords voted uniformly they could find no offence. The Queen was passed to her cabinet. The flatterers of the Court, and Lethington principally, raged. The Queen was brought again, and placed in her chair, and they commanded to vote over again ; which thing highly offended the nobility, and they began to speak in open audience, ' What ! shall the Laird of Lethington have power to control us ? or shall the presence of a woman cause us to offend God, and to condemn an innocent against our consciences for pleasure of any creature ? ' And ^so the whole nobility absolved John Knox again, and praised God for his modesty, and for his plain and sensible answers. Yet before the end, one thing is to be noted, to wit, that among so many placeboes, we mean the flatterers of the Court, there was not one that plainly durst condemn the poor man that was accused, the same God ruling their tongues that some time ruled the tongue of Balaam, when gladly he would have cursed God's people. This perceived, the Queen began to upbraid Mr. Henry Sinclair, then Bishop of Ross, and said, hearing his vote to agree with the rest, 'Trouble not the bairn, I pray you, trouble him not ; for he is newly wakened out of his sleep. Why should not the old fool follow the foot- steps of them that have passed before him?' The bishop answered coldly, ' Your Grace may consider that it is neither affection to the man, nor yet love to his profession, that moved me to absolve him ; but the simple truth that plainly appears in his defence, draws me after it, albeit that others would condemn him and it.' This being said, the Lords and whole accessors arose and departed. That night were FROM MAY, 1563, TO MARY'S MARRIAGE. 121 neither dancing nor fiddling in the Court, for Madam was disappointed of her purpose, which was to have had John Knox in her will by vote of her nobility." Mary was deeply wroth that her adversary should have escaped, and escaped so triumphantly. To appease her anger Murray and Maitland again endeavoured to persuade Knox to confess an offence ; and to put him within the Queen's will, they pro- mised that his greatest punishment should be to go within the castle of Edinburgh and immediately to return to his own house. " God forbid," he said, " that my confession should condemn those noble men, that of their conscience, and with displeasure of the Queen, have absolved me." He added that he could never confess himself to have been a mover of sedition. The sittings of the General Assembly began on the 25th of December, 1563. Knox took no part in the deliberations, but after the public business had been disposed of he rose and explained what he had done in the matter of the circular, and affirmed that if the Church did not either absolve or condemn him, he would never in public or in private as a public minister open his mouth in doctrine or in reasoning. The flatterers of the Court made desperate efforts to prevent the Assembly from coming to a decision, but the whole Kirk justified Knox, avowing that his act was not his act only, but the act of them all. Thus was Knox acquitted both by the Council and the General Assembly. In March, 1564, Knox, who had been a widower for more than three years, contracted a second marriage with Margaret Stewart, a daughter of Lord Ochiltree. Both father and daughter were much attached to the Reformer, and Mrs. Knox proved a valuable and loving helpmeet to her husband until his death. As the family of Ochiltree was of the blood royal, the Popish writers represented this marriage as a proof of his great ambition, and even 122 JOHN KNOX. accused him of aiming to raise his progeny to the throne ! Scotland was quiet during the year 1564, but the Papists were moving, in concert with the Queen, to restrain the freedom of the pulpit. Having gained over the weak-kneed Reformers, they sought to obtain the sanction of the leading members of- the General Assembly to their views. Knox, of course, was the chief person aimed at, but he knew how essential it was that the utmost liberty of speech should be enjoyed by the Reformed ministers in the presence of a corrupt Court and a scheming priest- hood. The subject was discussed at a conference between the principal statesmen and ministers of the Church, held in the month of June. In an elaborate debate with Maitland, Knox defended the leading points of his doctrine which had given offence to the Court. Robertson remarks that this debate " admir- ably displays the talents and character of both the disputants ; the acuteness of Maitland, embellished with learning, but prone to subtlety ; the vigorous understanding of Knox, delighting in bold sentiments, and superior to all fear." It was a wonderful debate, for its exhibition of dia- lectical skill. On its conclusion, Secretary Maitland " insisted that the questions which they had discussed should be put to the vote, and that the determination of the meeting should fix a rule for uniformity of doctrine among the ministers. Knox protested against this motion, and reminded their Lordships that the General Assembly had agreed to the present conference upon the express condition that nothing should be voted or decided at it. At last it was agreed, that the opinions of those who were present should be taken, but that they should not be con- sidered as decisive. Winram, superintendent of Fife, and Douglas, rector of the University of St. Andrews, were the principal persons among the ministers who FROM MAY, 1563,70 MARY'S MARRIAGE. 1 23 agreed in sentiment with the courtiers. Knox's colleague, in delivering his opinion, took occasion to give an account of a public dispute at which he had been present in Bologna, upon the question, whether subjects have a right to control and reform their rulers, when they have been guilty of violating their oaths of office. Thomas de Finola, rector of the University, and Vicentius de Placentia, persons celebrated for their learning, maintained the affirma- tive on this question, and their opinion was adopted after long discussion. ' Ye tell us what was done in Bologna,' exclaimed one of the courtiers ; ' we are in a kingdom, and they are but a commonwealth.' ' My Lord,' replied Craig, ' my judgment is, that every kingdom is a commonwealth, or at least should be, albeit that every commonwealth is not a king- dom ; and therefore I think that in a kingdom, no less diligence ought to be taken that laws be not violated than in a commonwealth, because the tyranny of princes who continually reign in a kingdom, is more hurtful to the subjects than the misgovernment of those that from year to year are changed in common- wealths.' He added, that the dispute to which he had referred was conducted on general principles, applicable equally to monarchies and republics ; and that one of the conclusions adopted was that, although laws contrary to the law of God, and to the true principles of government, had been introduced, through the negligence of the people or the tyranny of princes, yet the same people, or their posterity, had a right to demand that all things should be reformed according to the original institution of kings and commonwealths. " The speech of Craig alarmed the courtiers as to the issue of the vote, and the Clerk Register took occasion to observe that, at a former conference, it had been agreed that Knox should write to Calvin to obtain his opinion on this question. Knox corrected this 124 JOHN KNOX. statement, by saying that the secretary had under- taken to consult that reformer, but although re- peatedly reminded of his promise, had never fulfilled it. Maitland acknowledged this, and said that upon mature deliberation he durst not, considering his station, ask advice respecting any controversy between the Queen and her subjects without her Majesty's consent. It was now proposed that Knox should write to Calvin ; but he refused to be employed in the business. Before he returned to the kingdom, he said, he had obtained the judgment of the most eminent foreign divines on that question, and he could not renew his application to them, without exposing him- self to the charge of forgetfulness or inconsistency. The proper course was for them to write, complaining that he had taught such doctrines as he had now defended, and requesting Calvin to communicate his judgment respecting them. This proposal was thought reasonable, but none would undertake the task ; and the conference broke up without any determinate resolution being adopted." In December, 1564, another Parliament was held, but nothing was done for securing the Protestant religion. The Queen's marriage was the all-absorb- ing topic, and a new and disturbing element was now imported into this question. Mary's ministers had long been anxiously engaged in negotiations with the English and foreign Courts, but all their plans were suddenly thwarted by the strong passion which she had conceived for Henry, Lord Darnley, son of the Earl of Lennox. Such a union could not but be dis- tasteful to the great body of the nation, for young Darnley was inclined to Popery, and, with a Popish Queen and consort, the difficulties of the Protestants would have been greatly augmented. Therefore, the nobility, who were now more than ever resolved upon a Protestant settlement, would only promise their consent to the marriage on the FROM MAY, 1563,70 MARY'S MARRIAGE. 12$ understanding that the legal establishment of the Protestant religion should be secured. The Queen agreed to summon a Parliament for this purpose, but prorogued its meeting on a specious pretext. Then, having gained over a number of the nobility by favours and promises, she was married to Darnley in July, 1565, by the Dean of Restalrig. Her next step LORD DARNLEY. :mg, without the con- was to proclaim her husband sent of the Estates of the realm. These proceedings caused grave dissatisfaction, which was heightened by Darnley's vain, overbearing, and vindictive demeanour. He immediately began to overthrow Murray's influence, and the Court was soon ruled by Lennox, Athole, and David Rizzio, a low-bred Italian who wormed himself into Mary's 126 JOHN KNOX. '^ good graces. Murray, who had refused to sanction the match with Darnley, soon saw that his Hfe would be endangered if he remained at the Court. Though summoned twice by the Queen, he refused to place himself in the power of his avowed enemies, and was proclaimed an outlaw. Bothwell returned to Court ; Lord George Gordon was liberated from prison, and the earldom of Huntly was restored to him ; while the Earl of Sutherland was recalled from banishment. The dissatisfied Lords, agreeing to seek the protec- tion of Elizabeth, retired to their homes, still pro- fessing loyalty to their Queen, and desiring a reconciliation. They even offered to submit their cause to be tried by the laws of the country. But Mary refused to listen to them, and marching against them with a strong army, they were compelled to take refuge in England. Thus was the horizon of Protestantism once more darkly overcast in Scot- land. M JOHN KNOX ADMINISTERING THE SACRAMENT. CHAPTER VIIL FIVE MEMORABLE YEARS, 1565-157O. ARY pretended for a time to treat the Protest- ants leniently, and even said that she was willing to listen to the exhortations of some of their ministers. "Above all others," she said, " she would gladly hear the Superintendent of Angus, for he was a mild and sweet-natured man, with true honesty and uprightness. Sir John Erskine of Dun." But the fit of reasonableness soon passed off, and the Queen told the Commissioners of the Church, that she neither would nor might leave the re- ligion wherein she had been nourished and brought up. Knox and Mary were still on the most unfriendly terms. She would like to have proved his complicity in the insurrection led by the Earl of Murray, but this was impossible. The Reformer had kept himself entirely clear of the movement, although his father-in- law had joined it. However, Mary found another pretext for proceedings against Knox. On the 19th of August the young King made a solemn appearance in St. Giles's Church, sitting on a throne which had 127 128 JOHN KNOX. been prepared for his reception. It so happened that in his sermon that day, Knox quoted the words of Scripture, " I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them." He also had occasion to mention that God punished Ahab for not correcting his idolatrous wife Jezebel. The preacher made no particular application of these passages to the King and Queen, but Darnle}^ returned to the palace in great wrath. He refused all food, and made bitter complaints to the Queen. The result was that late in the same day Knox was taken from his bed and carried before the Privy Council. He was told that he had offended the King, and must desist from preaching so long as their majesties were in Edinburgh. Spotswood reports that Knox replied that "he had spoken nothing but according to his text ; and if the Church should command him to speak or abstain, he would obey, so far as the Word of God would permit him." He not only stood to what he had said in the pulpit, but added, " That as the King, for the Queen's pleasure, had gone to mass, and dishonoured the Lord God, so should He in His justice make her the instrument of his overthrow." Archbishop Spotswood observes that "this speech, esteemed too bold at the time, came afterwards to be remembered, and was reckoned among others his pro- phetical sayings, which certainly were marvellous. The Queen, enraged at this answer, burst into tears." The Court shortly afterwards left Edinburgh, but on its return it was apparently afraid, because of the popular sympathy with Knox, to insist upon his inhibition. He consequently continued to exercise his ministry with the same boldness as formerly. At its ensuing sittings, the General i\ssembly imposed upon Knox several important services. He was commissioned to visit the Churches in the South of Scotland, and appointed to write " a com- FIVE MEMORABLE YEARS, 1565-1570. 1 29 fortable letter " to encourage the ministers, exhorters, and readers throughout the kingdom, to persevere in the discharge of their functions, which many of them were threatening to abandon, on account of the non- payment of their stipends, and to stimulate the people among whom they laboured to relieve their necessities. The Reformer, who had already drawn up a Form of Excommunication and of Public Repentance, was now further requested to compose a treatise on Fasting. The Assembly had ordered a general fast in consequence of the dangers which threatened the whole Protestant interest. Knox produced an admir- able treatise, and events speedily showed that the perils to Protestantism were both real and near. The Queen renewed her efforts for the restoration of the Popish religion in Scotland. Darnley openly professed himself a Papist, and his example was followed by the Earls of Lennox, Cassilis, and Caith- ness, and Lords Montgomery and Seton. The friars sought to gain the ear of the people. Murray and his associates were summoned to appear before Parlia- ment, which was called for the 12th of March, 1566. The Lords of the Articles were chosen according to the Queen's pleasure, and the Popish ecclesiastics were restored to their place in Parliament. Suddenly a new complexion was given to affairs by the murder of Rizzio, the Queen's favourite. Darnley had become jealous of him, and this was the first result of a secret engagement into which he had entered with some of the Protestant nobility. The Popish counsellors now fled from the Court, the exiled lords returned from England, and Parliament was prorogued without accomplishing the objects for, which it was called together. The Queen easily persuaded the King, who was weak and uxorious, to disown the act to which he had been the leading party, and to retire with her to Dunbar — conduct which brought upon. him. the contempt of the nation, 130 JOHN KNOX. while it also failed to regain for him Mary's affec- tion. On the Queen's return to Edinburgh, Knox, who knew the strength of her animosity towards him, retired to Kyle in Ayrshire, where he seems to have written the greater part of his "History." He did not re- sume his ministry until the Queen had been deprived of \/ the government. Early in 1 567 he visited England, be- ing desirous of seeing his two sons, and he was granted leave of absence by the General Assembly, which passed a high eulogy upon his character and services. While Knox was absent in England, the assassina- tion of Darnley took place — an event which once more entirely changed the aspect of affairs. Mary had long lost her feelings of affection for her husband, and since the murder of Rizzio she had regarded him with fixed hatred. The violent and notorious Earl of Bothwell was meanwhile rising high into her favour. The birth of an heir, afterwards James VI., did nothing towards reconciling husband and wife. While Darnley was residing in Glasgow, he was seized with a violent illness from which he had barely recovered when Mary paid him a visit and urged his removal to Edinburgh. He was accordingly conveyed to a small house close to the city walls, in a district known as Kirk-of- Field. In the night of the loth of February, 1567, the house was blown up with gunpowder, and Darnley's body was found next morning lying in the garden by that of his page ; but while neither corpse bore traces of violence, it is believed that Darnley was strangled. Public feeling at once pointed to Bothwell as the murderer, and all the circumstances of the case strongly indicated Mary as an accomplice. Bothwell was brought to trial, but the proceedings proved a farce, and he was given large grants of land by the Queen. His next step was to carry off Mary as she was going from Stirling to Edinburgh, pro- . bably with her own connivance, and having obtained FIVE MEMORABLE YEARS, 1565-1570. 1 33 a divorce from his wife, he married the Queen on the 15th of May. Knox's colleague Craig refused to ^ publish the banns of the marriage, and boldly con- demned the adulterous and scandalous union, his hon- ourable conduct standing out in striking contrast to the passive and disgraceful silence of the Scottish lords. Retribution soon overtook the Queen and Bothwell, however. A combination of discontented lords led to Bothwell's flight and Mary's surrender to Kirkcaldy of Grange at Carberry Hill, in June. She was con- veyed to Lochleven Castle, where on the 23rd of July she was compelled to sign a deed of abdication, and to appoint Murray Regent of the kingdom dur- ^ ing the minority of her son. Knox seems to have returned to Edinburgh about the time that the Queen fled with Bothwell to Dunbar. He attended the sittings of the General Assembly, and on the 29th of July, 1567, he preached the sermon at the coronation of James VI. in the parish church of Stirling. With regard to the deposed Queen, Knox agreed with those who insisted that she ought to be capitally arraigned. Almost all the ministers, and the great body of the people, were of the same opinion. They founded this opinion not upon her mal-administration of the government, and her danger to the commonwealth — which were long afterwards regarded as sufficient in the case of her grandson Charles I. — but upon the personal crimes with which she was charged. They reasoned that murder and adultery were crimes for which all must be subjected to punishment, no matter how exalted their station. Knox did not scruple to maintain that Mary ought to be brought to trial, and that if she were found guilty of the murder of her husband, and an adulter- ous connection with Bothwell, she ought to be put to death. While he eventually acquiesced in the resolu- tion adopted by the nobility to detain her in prison, he retained his own sentiments, and after the civil 134 JOHN KNOX. war was kindled by her escape from confinement, he repeatedly said that he considered the nation was suffering for its criminal lenity. Murray, who had been out of the kingdom since the murder of the King, now returned, and was form- ally invested with the Regency on the 22nd of August, 1567. "No sooner was he confirmed in the government," observes M'Crie, "than he exerted him- self with great zeal and prudence to secure the peace of the kingdom, and settle the affairs of the Church. A Parliament being summoned to meet in the middle of December, he, with the advice of the Privy Council, previously nominated certain barons, and commis- sioners of boroughs, to consult upon and digest such overtures as were proper to be laid before that assem- bly. With these he joined Knox, and four other ministers, to assist in matters which related to the Church. This committee met in the beginning of December, and sat until the opening of the Parlia- ment. The record of their proceedings, both as to civil and ecclesiastical affairs, has been preserved, and, as many of their propositions were not adopted by the Parliament, it is valuable as a declaration of the sentiments of a number of the most able men in the kingdom. "On the 15th of December, Knox preached at the opening of the Parliament, and . exhorted them to begin with the affairs of religion, in which case they would find better success in their other business. The Parliament ratified all the acts which had been passed in 1560, in favour of the Protestant religion and against Popery. New statutes of a similar kind were added. It was provided, that no prince should afterwards be admitted to the exercise of authority in the kingdom, without taking an oath to maintain the Protestant religion ; and that none but Protestants' should be admitted to any office, with the exception of those that were hereditary or held for FIVE MEMORABLE YEARS, I 565- 1 5/0. 1 35 life. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction, exercised by the assemblies of the Church, was formally ratified, and commissioners appointed to define more exactly the causes which came within the sphere of their judg- ment. The thirds of benefices were appointed to be paid at first hand to collectors nominated by the Church, who, after paying the stipends of the minis- ters, were to account to the exchequer for the surplus. And the funds of provostries, prebendaries, and chaplainries, were appropriated to maintain bursars in colleges. " In the act ratifying the jurisdiction of the Church, Knox was appointed one of the commissioners for*^^ drawing out the particular points which pertained to ecclesiastical judgment, to be presented to next meet- ing of Parliament. The General Assembly, which met about the same time, gave him a commission, along with some others, to act for them in this matter, and, in general, to consult with the Regent and Council on such ecclesiastical questions as might occur after their dissolution. He was also appointed to assist the Superintendent of Lothian in his visita- tion, and afterwards to visit the Churches in Kyle, Carrick, and Cunningham." Murray's government was on the whole a wise and peaceable one, and during his brief rule the land had rest, while there was also no feud between the Church and the Court. Whenever it was in his power, he complied with the petitions of the General Assembly, and it was chiefly through his influence that the favourable arrangement concerning the third of benefices was made. He further endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to obtain the consent of Parliament to the dissolution of the prelacies, and the appropriation of their revenues to the common fund of the Church. Having happily seen his ends attained, and Protestantism once more established in Scotland, 136 JOHN KNOX. Knox, who was suffering from many infirmities of body, now hoped to be released from public affairs, and even from his charge in Edinburgh. He desired to spend the rest of his days in meditation, and in preparation for death, which he felt to be rapidly encroaching upon him. But, alas ! his trials were not yet over, and he was destined once more to see the security of the Reformed religion endangered, and the country involved in another civil war. Not only were the Papists inimi- cal to the Regent Murray, but many of the Protestant lords were alienated from him. Argyle and he were divided by a family quarrel, and the Hamiltons were jealous of Murray because he had been appointed Regent instead of their chief, the Duke of Chatel- herault, whose claim to the succession had likewise been endangered by the late settlement of the Crown. Others were hostile from various motives. But Murray held on his course. He crushed two formid- able revolts, and by his victory at Langside compelled Mary to flee to England. Then the Papists, despair- ing of securing their aims during the Regent's life, resolved to cut him off by private means. Two per- sons were employed to assassinate him, in 1568, but the design was discovered and frustrated. A new conspiracy was formed, however, and Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, a nephew of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, undertook to perpetrate the deed. He was one of the prisoners taken at Langside, and although he was tried and condemned to death, the Regent gave him his life and set him at liberty, together with other prisoners. This ungrateful miscreant followed the Regent about with murderous intent, and at length shot him through the body with a musket-ball. The Archbishop was privy to the crime. The wound proved mortal in the course of a few hours. While Murray lay dying, some of the friends who stood round his bed lamented the excessive lenity which he FIVE MEMORABLE YEARS, 1565-1570. 1 37 had shown to his enemies, including his murderer, whereupon the Regent repHed, in a noble and Christ- ian spirit, that nothing would ever make him repent of an act of clemency. The nation manifested the profoundest grief and consternation at the assassination of the good Regent. Many felt as if they had lost a father, and loudly demanded vengeance upon the authors of the crime. The Hamiltons were anxious to dissociate themselves from the deed when they saw the anger it provoked, and the actual murderer was got out of the country, and found himself condemned to perpetual banish- ment. When the news of the assassination of Murray reached Edinburgh,. on the day following the murder, the 23rd of January, 1570, Knox was almost over-j/ whelmed with sorrow. In former times he was his valued friend, and even now, after their estrangement, he placed the greatest confidence in Murray's attach- ment to religion. This confidence had been height- ened by his administration of the government ; and the Reformer, therefore, looked upon the Regent's death as the greatest calamity which could befall the nation, and as the forerunner of many evils. In his sermon, delivered the same day that the fatal news arrived, Knox referred to the glorious work which Murray had achieved, and then poured out the sorrows of his heart in pathetic language. " Surely," he said, " God in His great mercy raised up pious rulers, and took them away in His displeasure, on account of the sins of the nation. He is at rest, O Lord," he added ; " but we are left in extreme misery." In order to minimise the effects of Murray's death, a false and calumnious account was circulated, to the effect that at a pretended conference between the late Regent, Knox, Lord Lindsay, and James Macgill, a project was mooted for setting aside the 138 JOHN KNOX. young- king, and placing the crown on the Regent's own head. This document was cleverly fabricated by Thomas Maitland, brother to the secretary, but it was speedily discredited. On the day on which the weekly conference was held in Edinburgh, this same Maitland slipped into the pulpit a paper containing the words : " Take up now the man whom you EARL Oi vl I I I \ , . I ij.l.N i'. accounted another God, and consider the end to which his ambition hath brought him." On entering the pulpit, Knox read the paper, and laid it aside without apparent emotion. But towards the close of his sermon, when he had improved the death of Murray, and declared the account of the conference which had been circulated to be false, he said there was one person then present who had not scrupled FIVE MEMORABLE YEARS, 1565-1570. 1 39 to make the late treasonable murder a subject for jesting, and who had thrown into the pulpit a paper exulting over the event. " That wicked man," said Knox, " whosoever he be, shall not go unpunished, and shall die where there shall be none to lament him." Maitland went home and narrated the circum- stances to his sister, who, suspecting her brother, reproved him, saying, with tears, that none of that man's denunciations were wont to prove idle. Strangely enough, Spotswood states, on authority, \/ that Maitland died in Italy, "having no known person to attend him." On the 14th of February, the Regent's body was interred in the south aisle of the Collegiate Church of St. Giles. Knox preached a sermon, before the funeral, on the words, " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." While he described the virtues of the dead, and bewailed his loss, the sorrowing audi- ence of three thousand persons before him were dis- solved in tears. The General Assembly, at their first meeting, testified their detestation of the crime, and ordered the assassin to be publicly excommunicated in all the chief towns of the kingdom. The same pro- cess was directed to be used against all who should afterwards be convicted of accession to the murder. Knox's grief over the death of Murray further injured his already shattered health, and in the month v^ of October he had a stroke of apoplexy, which affected his speech to a considerable degree. His enemies exulted because he was stricken down, and spread abroad all kinds of rumours, even asserting that he was already dead. There was no life in the nation so eagerly and closely watched as his, both by friends and foes. JOHN KNoX S l5EUK(JOiM. CHAPTER IX. KNOX's LAST ILLNESS, DEATH, AND CHARACTER. FOR a time Knox partially recovered his health, and, as the faculty of speech returned, he was able again to resume his ministrations — at least on the Sabbath. But the times were once more dark and lowering. The Earl of Lennox, as the natural guardian of his grandson, was appointed Regent ; but he was a weak substitute for Murray, and the Queen's party soon gained the ascendant. The Hamiltons, aided by Maitland, and Kirkcaldy of Grange, who had turned traitor to the Reformed cause, raised the standard of revolt. Kirkcaldy had been appointed by Murray governor of the Castle of Edinburgh, and that famous stronghold now passed into the hands of the Queen's supporters. The defection of Kirkcaldy caused the keenest distress to Knox, and, as a personal quarrel also arose between the two on account of an act of injustice on Kirkcaldy's part, matters between them became critical. As Knox had not been afraid to reprove a queen, 140 EDINBURGH CASTLE FROM THE GRASSMARKET. 141 LAST ILLNESS, DEATH, AND CHARACTER. 143 he did not hesitate to admonish Kirkcaldy from the pulpit, and threats and counter-threats followed be- tween their respective partisans. Libellous complaints were made against Knox at the meeting of the General Assembly in March, 1571, when the Assembly commanded that the anonymous offenders should come forward and substantiate their charges. As they failed to do so, Knox refuted the libels — which accused him of sedition, of railing against the Queen, etc. — from his pulpit in St. Giles's. He admitted that he had boldly called wickedness by its own terms, as he called a spade a spade. As to not pray- ing for the Queen, he answered, " I am not bound to pray for her in this place, for sovereign to me she is not ; and I let them understand that I am not a man of law that has my tongue to sell for silver or favour of the world." He lived in obedience to the lawful authority of the Estates who had deposed the Queen, and he had prayed God to confound the aims of the Papists. As to the threats against his life, he was accustomed to them, and he had reached an age at which he was not apt to flee far. Albeit an unthank- ful age might not know how he had laboured for his country, future ages would be compelled to bear witness to the truth. He asked his enemies to come forward and meet him face to face, adding, " To me it seems a thing most unreasonable, that, in my decrepit age, I shall be compelled to fight against shadows, and owlets that dare not abide the light." Knox now never went abroad except on Sabbath day to preach in the forenoon, and he was so debili- tated as to be unable to go into the pulpit without assistance. At the end of March, 1570, he wrote to his friend, Sir William Douglas, the Laird of Loch- leven, that he had taken his good-night of the world ; yet, whenever he saw the Church and commonwealth seriously in danger, he forgot his infirmities and once more mingled in the conflict. 144 JOHN KNOX. As his situation in Edinburgh became critical, in April, 1 571, when Kirkcaldy received the Hamiltons with their forces into the Castle, his friends urged him to leave the city. There were threatenings against his life, which was on one occasion attempted, but he refused to leave, as he was no coward. At length his friends resorted to the only argument which could move him. They told him that if he were attacked, they were determined to risk their lives in his defence, and, if blood were shed, it must be upon his head. " Sore against his will," he consented to leave the city, from whence he travelled by easy stages to St. Andrews. Many of his friends were also driven to quit the city, and for a time the Church of Edin- burgh was dissolved, and the celebration of the Lord's Supper suspended. Instead of the religious exercises which formerly prevailed, soon nothing was heard but the ringing of cannon. The Regent now fortified Leith, while the Queen's forces occupied Edinburgh. Petty skirmishes and acts of disgraceful retaliation were the order of the day. The Protestants were harassed in every way, and an inhabitant of Leith was assaulted and his 1/ body mutilated, merely because he bore the same name as Knox. This incident alone proved the danger which the Reformer would have run had he remained. But even in St. Andrews he had his trials. His denunciations of the murder of the King and the Regent stirred up the opposite faction, and especially two brothers, Robert and Archibald Hamil- ton, the former one of the ministers of the city, and the latter a professor in one of the colleges. Robert ^ Hamilton again circulated the slander that Knox had been privy to Darnley's death ; but the Reformer brought him sharply to book, whereupon he denied that he had given circulation to the report. Archi- bald Hamilton had the hardihood to accuse Knox before the university authorities of intolerable, railing LAST ILLNESS, DEATH, AND CHARACTER. 1 45 in his sermons. Knox successfully defended his con- duct before the professors ; but at the same time informed them that his appearance before them was voluntary, and that it did not invalidate the liberty of the pulpit, nor the authority of the regular Church Courts, to which, and not to any university, the judg- ment of religious doctrine belonged. Two important events now occurred which affected the destinies of the Scottish Protestant Church. Dumbarton Castle was taken on the 2nd of April, 1 571, by a party of the Regent's forces under Captain . Crawford of Jordanhill. Archbishop Hamilton fell into the hands of the captors, and, being tried and condemned, was hanged for his crimes. Archbishop Spotswood, Dr. Robertson, and others have deplored this execution ; yet, among the many offences which Hamilton undoubtedly committed, he confessed that he was privy to the Regent's murder. In the follow- ing September, a party of the Queen's soldiers seized Stirling and carried off the Regent Lennox, who was slain by the orders of Lord Claud Hamilton, in revenge for the death of the Archbishop of St. Andrews. The Earl of Mar succeeded to the Regency, and he conscientiously exerted himself to restore peace to the kingdom. An important question arose concern- ing the ecclesiastical revenues of the Church ; and, chiefly owing to the influence of the Earl of Morton, it was determined that the bishoprics and other rich livings should be presented to certain ministers, who, previous to their admission, should make over the principal part of the revenues to such noblemen as had obtained the patronage of them from the Court. Morton, having obtained a gift of the archbishopric of St. Andrews, made a private agreement respecting its revenues with John Douglas, rector of the univer- sity, whom he presented to the see. The affair made a great stir, and, at the next meeting of Parliament, the General Assembly protested against it. Through K 14^ JOHN KNOX. Morton's influence, however, the new scheme for seiz- ing on the ecclesiastical livings was confirmed; and bishoprics and other great benefices were now openly conferred on noblemen, on persons totally unqualified for the ministry, and even on minors. Thus originated that scheme of Episcopacy, which was introduced into the Reformed Church of Scotland during the minority of James VI. The ministers had condemned it ; the General Assembly in a formal resolution repudiated the retention of all such titles as archbishop, bishop, dean, etc., which savoured of Popery ; and Knox did not fail from the beginning to denounce these en- croachments on the rights and property of the Church. In dealing with Knox's views on Episcopacy and Church government. Dr. M'Crie says : *' Though our Reformer was of opinion that, in certain circumstances of the Church, a power might be delegated to some ministers to inspect the congregations within a par- ticular district, and accordingly recommended the appointment of superintendents at the first establish- ment of the Reformation in Scotland, yet he did not allow of any class of office-bearers in the Church, under whatever name, who were superior either in office or in order to ministers or Presbytery. His sentiments were not more favourable to diocesan Episcopacy in his latter than they had been in his earlier days. Writing to a correspondent in England, in the year 1568, he says, *I would most gladly pass through the course that God hath appointed to my labours, giving thanks to His holy name, for that it hath pleased His mercy to make me not a lord- bishop, but a painful preacher of His blessed Evangel.' In his correspondence with Beza, he had informed him of the government established in the Scottish Church ; and at this very time he received a letter from that Reformer, congratulating him that he had banished the order of bishops, and admonishing him and his colleagues to beware of suffering it to re-enter LAST ILLNESS, DEATH, AND CHARACTER. 147 under the deceitful pretext of preserving unity. He had an opportunity of publicly declaring his senti- ments on this subject, at the installation of Douglas as Archbishop of St. Andrews. Having preached as usual on Sabbath, February 13th, 1572, the Earl of Morton, who was present, desired him to inaugurate Douglas ; but he positively refused, and pronounced an anathema against both the donor and the receiver of the bishopric. The Provost of St. Salvator's College having said that Knox's conduct proceeded from disappointment because the bishopric had not been conferred on himself, he, on the following Sabbath, repelled this invidious charge. He had refused, he said, a greater bishopric than that of St. Andrews, which he might have had by the favour of greater men than Douglas had his ; what he had spoken was for the exoneration of his conscience, that the Church of Scotland might not be subject to that order, especially after a very different one had been settled in the ' Book of Discipline,' subscribed by the nobility, and ratified by Parliament. He lamented also that a burden should have been laid upon an old man, which twenty men of the greatest ability could not sustain. In the General Assembly held at St. Andrews in the following month, he not only entered a protest against the election of Douglas, but also 'opposed himself directly to the making of bishops.'" Although Knox was visibly declining in strength, he sometimes shook off his weakness in the pulpit, and electrified the audience with his eloquence. James Melville, who was a student at St. Andrews, and one of his constant hearers, gives this quaint and remarkable account of Knox's appearance : " Of all the benefits that I had that year (1571), was the coming of that maist notable profet and apostle of our nation, Mr. Johne Knox, to St. Andrews, who, be the faction of the Queen occupeing the castill and town of Edinburgh, was compellit to remove therefra, 148 JOHN KNOX. with a number of the best, and chusit to come to St. Andrews. I heard him teache there the prophecies of Daniel, that simmer and the wintar following. I had my pen and my little buike, and tuke away sic things as I could comprehend. In the opening up of his text, he was moderat the space of an halfe houre ; but when he entered to application, he made me so to grew * and tremble, that I could not hald a pen to wryt. He was very weik. I saw him, every day of his doctrine, go hulie and fear,-[- with a furring of marticks about his neck, a staffe in the ane hand, and gude, godlie Richart Ballenden, his servand, halden up the uther oxter,J from the Abbey to the Parish Kirk, and, by the said Richart, and another servand, lifted up to the pulpit, whar he behovit to lean at his first entrie ; bot, er he haid done with his sermone, he was sa active and vigorous, that he was lyk to ding the pulpit in blads,§ and flie out of it." The Reformer occupied himself at St. Andrews in encouraging the students ; and he also published a vindication of the Reformed religion, in answer to a letter written by Tyrie, a Scottish Jesuit. He dis- seminated this work as a farewell address to the world, and a dying testimony to the truth which he had long taught and defended. He further published, along with it, one of the religious letters which he had formerly written to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Bowes, who had but just departed this life. It was now his frequent complaint and confession that he was " weary of the world," and " thirsting to depart." On the 6th of August he wrote a touching farewell letter to the General Assembly, and from this time his health rapidly declined, so that it was thought he • would soon end his days at St. Andrews. But his old congregation of St. Giles's earnestly desired to hear * Thrill. t Slowly and warily. J Armpit. § As though he would beat the pulpit in pieces. LAST ILLNESS, DEATH, AND CHARACTER. 151 him once more before he died. They sent a deputa- tion entreating him immediately to come to Edinburgh, if his health would at all permit. He agreed to return, but on the express understanding that he should not be urged to preserve silence respecting the conduct of those who held the Castle — " Whose treasonable and tyrannical deeds he would cry out against as long as he was able to speak." A free hand being given him, he set forth, and by easy stages made his way to Edinburgh. He arrived early in September, but his heart was torn with anguish when the news reached Edinburgh of the terrible massacre of St. Bartholomew — one of ^ the most diabolical crimes recorded in history, yet one ^ for which a blasphemous thanksgiving was offered up at Rome by order of the Pope. To the French Ambassador Knox thundered out God's vengeance against his master, "that cruel murderer and false traitor, the King of France." Knox's last appearance in public was on the 9th of November, when he presided at the installation of his colleague and successor, James Lawson, Sub-Principal of the University of Aberdeen, a man eminent for his piety, learning, and eloquence. He prayed fer- vently for his successor, and delivered the customary address with impressiveness and solemnity. Having finished the service and pronounced the benediction, he was assisted home, and never went forth again alive. On the nth of November, he began to fail per- ceptibly. He was soon unable to accomplish his cus- tomary Scripture readings ; and his wife or secretary, Richard Bannatyne, now read daily to him the 17th chapter of John's Gospel, the 53rd of Isaiah, and a chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. He like- wise asked sometimes for certain Psalms and Calvin's French Sermons on the Ephesians. Occasionally he appeared to be asleep, but when the reader asked if 152 JOHN KNOX. he heard, he replied, " I hear (praise God), and under- stand far better." The scenes at Knox's deathbed are among the most remarkable ever recorded. He seems almost to have had the gift of prophetic insight, as many episodes in his life and during his death struggles testified. M'Crie's account of the Reformer's end is so graphic that we shall extract several passages from it On Sunday the i6th of November, as his col- league, James Lawson, and David Lindsay, a Leith minister, were leaving him, he desired them to re- main. " ' There is one thing that greatly grieves me,' said he to them. ' You have been witnesses of the former courage and constancy of Kirkcaldy of Grange in the cause of God ; but now, alas ! into what a gulf has he precipitated himself! I entreat you not to refuse the request which I now make to you. Go to the Castle and tell him ; "John Knox remains the same man now when he is about to die, that ever he knew him when able in body, and wills him to consider what he was, and the estate in which he now stands, which is a great part of his trouble. Neither the craggy rock in which he miserably confides, nor the carnal prudence of that man (Maitland) whom he esteems a demi-god, nor the assistance of strangers, shall preserve him ; but he shall be disgracefully dragged from his nest to punishment, and hung of a gallows before the face of the sun, unless he speedily amend his life, and flee to the mercy of God." That man's soul is dear to me, and I would not have it perish, if I could save it' The ministers undertook to execute this commission ; and going up to the Castle, they obtained an interview with the governor, and delivered their message. He at first exhibited symptoms of relenting, but having consulted apart with Maitland, he returned, and gave them a very unpleasant answer. This being reported to Knox, he was much grieved, and said that he had LAST ILLNESS, DEATH, AND CHARACTER. 1 53 been earnest in prayer for that man, and still trusted that his soul would be saved, although his body- should come to a miserable end. "After his interview with the session, he became much worse ; his difficulty of breathing increased, and he could not speak without great and obvious pain. Yet he continued still to receive persons of every rank, who came in great numbers to visit him, and suffered none to go away without advices, which he uttered with such variety and suitableness as aston- ished those who waited upon him. Lord Boyd, coming into his chamber, said, ' I know, sir, that I have offended you in many things, and am now come to crave your pardon.' The answer was not heard, as the attendants retired and left them alone ; but his lordship returned next day in company with Drumlanrig and Morton. The Reformer's private con- versation with the latter was very particular, as after- wards related by the Earl himself He asked him, if he was previously acquainted with the design to murder the late King. Morton having answered in the negative, he said, ' Well, God has beautified you with many benefits which He has not given to every man ; as He has given you riches, wisdom, and friends, and now is to prefer you to the government of this realm. And, therefore, in the name of God, I charge you to use all these benefits aright, and better in time to come than ye have done in bypast ; first to God's glory, to the furtherance of the Evangel, the mainten- ance of the Church of God, and His ministry ; next for the weal of the King, and his realm and true subjects. If so ye shall do, God shall bless you and honour you ; but if ye do it not, God shall spoil you of these benefits, and your ehd shall be ignominy and shame.' " On Thursday, the 20th, Lord Lindsay, the Bishop of Caithness, and several gentlemen, visited him. He exhorted them to continue in the truth which they 154 JOHN KNOX. had heard, for there was no other word of salvation, and besought them to have nothing to do with those in the Castle. The Earl of Glencairn (who had often visited him) came in with Lord Ruthven. The latter, who called only once, said to him, ' If there be any- thing, sir, that I am able to do for you, I pray you charge me.' His reply was, * I care not for all the pleasure and friendship of the world.' "On Friday, the 2ist, he desired Richard Bannatyne to order his coffin to be made. During that day he was much engaged in meditation and prayer. These words dropped from his lips at intervals : ' Come, Lord Jesus. — Sweet Jesus, into Thy hand I commend my spirit. — Be merciful. Lord, to Thy Church, which Thou hast redeemed. — Give peace to this afflicted commonwealth. — Raise up faithful pastors who will take charge of Thy Church. — Grant us, Lord, the perfect hatred of sin, both by the evidences of Thy wrath and mercy.' In the midst of his meditations, he often addressed those who stood by, in such sentences as these : — ' Oh serve the Lord in fear, and death shall not be terrible to you. Nay, blessed shall death be to those who have felt the power of the death of the only begotten Son of God.' " On Sabbath, the 23rd (which was the first day of the national fast), during the afternoon sermon, after lying a considerable time quiet, he suddenly exclaimed, ' If any be present, let them come and see the work of God.' Thinking that his death was at hand, Banna- tyne sent to the church for Johnstone of Elphingston. When he came to the bedside, Knox burst out in these rapturous expressions : — ' I have been these two last nights in meditation on the troubled state of the Church of God, the spouse of Jesus Christ, despised of the world, but precious in the sight of God. I have been called to God for her, and have committed her to her head, Jesus Christ. I have fought against spiritual wickedness in heavenly things, and have LAST ILLNESS, DEATH, AND CHARACTER. 1 55 prevailed. I have been in heaven, and have posses- sion. I have tasted of the heavenly joys where presently I am.' He then repeated the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, interjecting devout aspirations between the articles of the latter. '' After sermon, many came to visit him. Perceiv- ing that he breathed with great difficulty, some of them asked if he felt much pain. He answered that he was willing to lie there for years, if God so pleased, and if He continued to shine upon his soul through Jesus Christ. He slept very little ; but was employed almost incessantly either in meditation, in prayer, or in exhortation. 'Live in Christ. Live in Christ, and then flesh need not fear death. — Lord, grant true pastors to Thy Church, that purity of doctrine may be retained. — Restore peace again to this common- wealth, with godly rulers and magistrates. — Once, Lord, make an end of my trouble.' Then, stretch- ing his hands towards heaven, he said, ' Lord, I com- mend my spirit, soul, and body, and all, into Thy hands. Thou knowest, O Lord, my troubles ; I do not murmur against Thee.' His pious ejaculations were so numerous, that those who waited on him could recollect only a small portion of what he uttered ; for seldom was he silent, when they were not employed in reading or in prayer. " Monday, the 24th of November, was the last day that he spent on earth. That morning he could not be persuaded to lie in bed, but, though unable to stand, rose between nine and ten o'clock, and put on his stockings and doublet. Being conducted to a chair, he sat about half-an-hour, and then was put to -bed again. In the progress of the day, it appeared evident that his end drew near. Besides his wife and Bannatyne, Campbell of Kinyeancleugh, Johnstone of Elphingston, and Dr. Preston, three of his most intimate acquaintance, sat by turns at his bedside. Kinyeancleugh asked him if he had any pain. ' It is 156 JOHN KNOX. no painful pain, but such a pain as shall soon, I trust, put an end to the battle. I must leave the care of my wife and children to you,' continued he, ' to whom you must be a husband in my room.' About three o'clock in the afternoon, one of his eyes failed, and his speech was considerably affected. He desired his wife to read the fifteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians. 'Is not that a comfortable chapter?' said he, when it was finished. ' O what sweet and salutary consolation the Lord hath afforded me, from that chapter ! ' A little after, he said, ' Now, for the last time, I commend my soul, spirit, and body (touching three of his fingers), into Thy hand, O Lord.' About five o'clock, he said to his wife, ' Go, read where I cast my first anchor ; ' upon which she read the seventeenth chapter of John's gospel, and afterwards a part of Calvin's sermons on the Ephesians. "After this he appeared to fall into a slumber, interrupted by heavy moans, during which the attend- ants looked every moment for his dissolution. But at length he awaked, as if from sleep, and being asked the cause of his sighing so deeply, replied, ' I have formerly, during my frail life, sustained many contests, and many assaults of Satan ; but at present he hath assailed me most fearfully, and put forth all his strength to devour, and make an end of me at once. Often before has he placed my sins before my eyes, often tempted me to despair, often endeavoured to ensnare me by the allurements of the world ; but these weapons were broken by the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and the enemy failed. Now he has attacked me in another way : the cunning serpent has laboured to persuade me that I have merited heaven and eternal blessedness by the faith- ful discharge of my ministry. But blessed be God, who has enabled me to beat down and quench this fiery dart, by suggesting to me such passages of LAST ILLNESS, DEATH, AND CHARACTER. I 57 Scripture as these : — " What hast thou that thou hast not received ? By the grace of God I am what I am. Not I, but the grace of God in me." Upon this, as one vanquished, he left me. Wherefore, I gave thanks to my God through Jesus Christ, who has been pleased to give me the victory ; and I am per- suaded that the temptej shall not again attack me, but, within a short time, I shall, without any great pain of body or anguish of mind, exchange this mortal and miserable life for a blessed immortality through Jesus Christ' " He then lay quiet for some hours, except that now and then he desired them to wet his mouth with a little weak ale. At ten o'clock, they read the evening prayer, which they had delayed beyond the usual hour, from an apprehension that he was asleep. After this exercise was concluded, Dr. Preston asked him if he had heard the prayers. ' Would to God,' said he, ' that you and all men had heard them as I have heard them ; I praise God for that heavenly sound.' The doctor rose, and Kinyeancleugh sat down before his bed. About eleven o'clock, he gave a deep sigh, and said, ' Now it is come.' Bannatyne immediately drew near, and desired him to think upon those com- fortable promises of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which he had so often declared to others ; and, perceiving that he was speechless, requested him to give them a sign that he heard them, and died in peace. Upon this he hfted up one of his hands, and, sighing twice, expired without a struggle." Knox was only sixty-seven when he died, but in that time he had lived more than most men, for his career had not only been distinguished for its extra- ordinary labours, but for its equally extraordinary cares and anxieties. Probably no man passed through so many perils and dangers, and yet lived to finish his course in peace and honour. He was in- terred in the churchyard of St. Giles's, on the 26th 158 JOHN KNOX. of November, a vast concourse of persons being pre- sent at the funeral. The newly-elected Regent, Morton, well summed up his character when he pro- nounced over his grave the brief eulogium, " Here lies one who never feared the face of man." The Reformer was survived by his second wife and MONUMENT TO KNOX, GLASGOW her three daughters, and by the two sons of his first wife. An imposing monument to his memory was erec- ted at Glasgow, in 1825. It consists of a Doric column, surmounted by a colossal statue, and on the four sides of the base of the column are inscriptions LAST ILLNESS, DEATH, AND CHARACTER. I 59 touching the Hfe and services of the Reformer. That on the north side runs as follows : " To testify grati- tude for inestimable services in the cause of religion, education, and civil liberty ; to awaken admiration of that integrity, disinterestedness, and courage, which stood unshaken in the midst of trials, and in the maintenance of the highest objects ; and, finally, to cherish unceasing reverence for the principles and blessings of that great Reformation, by the influence of which our country, through the midst of difficulties, has risen to honour, prosperity, and happiness — this Monument is erected by voluntary contributions, to the memory of John Knox, the chief instrument, under God, of the Reformation of Scotland, on the 22nd day of September, 1825. He died, rejoicing in the faith of the Gospel, at Edinburgh, on the 24th of November, 1572, in the sixty-seventh year of his age." The great work which Knox was called upon to do could not have been accomplished by a rose water policy. It required a strong, invincible character such as his, and while his supporters were struck with ad- miration at his powers, the Papists were equally strong in denouncing him. But his work was deep and perma- nent. He was a true type of the religious Reformer, dominated by the mighty task which lay before him, and indifferent to everything which hindered its accomplishment. But he was far too broad-minded a man, and possessed too much sterling good sense and ready wit, to be justly described as a fanatic. He was ever manly and human in his enthusiasms. He brought about a greater revolution than could have been effected by the sword, for he set springs in motion which ultimately transformed the religious ideas and aspirations of the nation. He had a most acute intellect, was vigorous and bold in his conceptions, and there was the stamp of an unmistakeable individuality upon everything l60 JOHN KNOX. which he did. To a love of study he joined a dis- position for active employment. His zeal, intrepidity, and independence of mind stand in need of no commendation, for they are amongst the most con- spicuous features of his character. His eloquence was powerful and convincing. He was incorruptible, being above the solicitations of friends as he was un- dismayed by the threats of enemies. He was swayed by two lofty principles — love to his country and an all-consuming desire to advance the glory of God. These will keep his memory green, and he will go down to all time as one of the world's true heroes. THE END. I.ORIMER AND GILLIES, PRINTERS. EDINBURGH. Date Due w^ •s^ ily I 7 '4; -uuu ^rt^^ Mv 1 « '44 Ja 19 H8 13 j^Hipflti^SilS 4^ l»i