msmM k 3V^ ■rT^* :€/ i •if^ b :o 56C W 'f LIFE OP JOHN KNOX; CONTAINING ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY OP THE EEPORMATION IN SCOTLAND WITH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE PRINCIPAL REFORMERS, AND SKETCHES OF THE PROGRESS OF LITERATURE IN SCOTLAND DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY ; AND AN APPENDIX, CONSISTING OF ORIGINAL PAPERS. BY THOMAS M'CRIE, D. D. FIRST COMPLETE AMERICAN EDITION. PHILADELPHIA: PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. Slereolvped by S. DOUGLAS WYETH, No. 7 Pear St. Philadelptik. PREFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION. The Reformation from Popery marks an epoch un- questionably the most important in the history of modern Europe. The effects of the change which it produced, in religion, in manners, in politics, and in literature, continue to be felt at the present day. No- thing, surely, can be more interesting than an investi- gation of the history of that period, and of those men who were the instruments, under Providence, of ac- complishing a revolution which has proved so benefi- cial to mankind. Though many able writers have employed their talents in tracing the causes and consequences of the Reformation, and though the leading facts respecting its progress in Scotland have been repeatedly stated, it occurred to me that the subject was by no means exhausted. I was confirmed in this opinion by a more minute examination of the ecclesiastical history of this country, wdiich I began, for my own satisfaction, several years ago. While I was pleased at findincr that there existed such ample materials for illustrating the history of the Scottish Reformation, I could not but regret that no one had undertaken to digest and exhibit the information on this subject which lay hid iii ir PREFACE. in manuscripts, and in books which are now Httle known or consulted. Not presuming, however, that I had the abiUty or the leisure requisite for executing a task of such difficulty and extent, I formed the design of drawing up memorials of our national Reformer, in which his personal history might be combined with illustrations of the progress of that great undertaking, in the advancement of which he acted so conspicuous a part. A work of this kind seemed to be wanting. The name of Knox, indeed, often occurs in the general his- tories of the period, and some of our historians have drawn, with their usual ability, the leading traits of a character with which they could not fail to be struck ; but it was foreign to their object to detail the events of his life, and it was not to be expected that they would bestow that minute and critical attention on his history, which is necessary to form a complete and accurate idea of his character. Memoirs of his life have been prefixed to editions of some of his worl^, and inserted in biographical collections, and periodical publications ; but in many instances their authors were destitute of proper information, and in others they were precluded, by the limits to which they were confined, from entering into those minute statements, which are so useful for illustrating individual character, and which render biography both pleasing and in- structive. Nor can it escape observation, that a num- ber of writers have been guilty of great injustice to the memory of our Reformer, and from prejudice, from ignorance, or from inattention, have exhibited a distorted caricature, instead of a genuine portrait. I was encouraged to prosecute my design, in con- PREFACE. V sequence of my possessing a manuscript volume of Knox's Letters, which throw considerable light upon his character and history. The advantages which I have derived from this volume will appear in the course of the work, where it is quoted under the general title of MS. Letters.* The other manuscripts which I have chiefly made use of, are Calderwood's large History of the Church of Scotland, Row's History, and Wodrow's Collections. Calderwood's History, besides much valuable informa- tion respecting the early period of the Reformation, contains a collection of letters written by Knox be- tween 1559 and 1572, which, together with those in my possession, extended over twenty years of the most active period of his life. I have carefully con- sulted this history as far as it relates to the period of which I write. The copy which I most frequently quote belongs to the Church of Scotland. In the Advocates' Library, besides a complete copy of that w^ork, there is a folio volume of it, reaching to the end of the year 1572. It was written in 1634, and has a number of interlineations and marginal alterations, differing from the other copies, which, if not made by the author's own hand, were most probably done under his eye. I have sometimes quoted this copy. The reader will easily discern when this is the case, as the references to it are made merely by the year under which the transaction is recorded, the volume not being paged. Row, in composing the early part of his Historic of the Kirk, had the assistance of Memoirs written by David Ferguson, his father-in-law, who was admitted * See an account of this MS. p. 503. vi PREFACE. minister of Dunfermline at the establishment of the Reformation. Copies of this History seem to have been taken before the author had put the finishing hand to it, which may account for the additional mat- ter to be found in some of them. I have occasionally quoted the copy which belongs to the Divinity Library in Edinburgh, but more frequently a copy transcribed in 1726, which is more full than any other that I have had access to see. The industrious AVodrow had amassed a valuable collection of manuscripts relating to the ecclesiastical history of Scotland, the greater part of which is now deposited in our public libraries. In the library of the University of Glasgow, there is a number of vol- umes in folio containing collections which he had made for illustrating the lives of the Scottish reform- ers and divines of the sixteenth century. These have supplied me with some interesting facts; and are quoted under the name of Wodrow^ MSS. in Bibl. Coll. Glas. For the transactions of the General Assembly, I have consulted the Register commonly called the Book of the Universal Kirk. There are several copies of this manuscript in the country; but that which is followed in this work, and which is the oldest that I have examined, belongs to the Advocates' Library. I have endeavoured to avail myself of the printed histories of the period, and of books published in the age of the Reformation, which often incidentally men- tion facts that are not recorded by historians. In the Advocates' Library, which contains an invaluable treasure of information respecting Scottish affairs, I PREFACE. yji had an opportunity of examining the original editions of most of the Reformer's works. The rarest of all his tracts is the narrative of his Disputation with the Abbot of Crossraguel, which scarcely any writer since Knox's time seems to have seen. After I had given up all hopes of procuring a sight of this curious tract, I was accidentally informed that a copy of it was in the library of Alexander Boswell, Esq. of Auchinleck, who very politely communicated it to me. In pointing out the sources which I have consulted, I wish not to be understood as intimating that the reader may expect in the following work, much infor- mation which is absolutely new. Hej^^ho engages in researches of this kind, must lay his account with finding the result of his discoveries reduced within a small compass, and should be prepared to expect that many of his readers will pass over with a cursory eye, what he has procured with great, perhaps with unnecessary labour. The principal facts respecting the Reformation and the Reformer, are already known. I flatter myself, however, that I have been able to place some of these facts in a new and more just light, and to bring forward others which have not hitherto been generally known. The reader will find the authorities, upon which I have proceeded in the statement of facts, carefully marked ; but my object was rather to be select than numerous in my references. When I had occasion to introduce facts which have been often repeated in his- tories, and are already established and unquestionable, I did not reckon it necessary to be so particular in producing the authorities. ^rjii PREFACE. After so many writers of biography have incurred the charge either of uninteresting generality, or of tedious proUxity, it would betray great arrogance were I to presume that I had approached the due medium. I have particularly felt the difficulty, in writing the life of a public character, of observing the line which divides biography from general history. Desirous of giving unity to the narrative, and at the same time anxious to convey information respecting the ecclesi- astical and literary history of the period, I have sepa- rated a number of facts and illustrations of this de- scription, and placed them in notes at the end of the Life. I am not without apprehensions that I may have exceeded in the number or length of these notes, and that some readers may think, that, in attempting to relieve one part of the work, I have overloaded another. No apology will, I trust, be deemed necessary for the freedom with which I have expressed my senti- ments on the public questions which naturally occur- red in the course of the narrative. Some of these are at variance with opinions which are popular in the present age ; but it does not follow from this that they are false, or that they should have been suppressed. I have not become the indiscriminate panegyrist of the Reformer, nor have I concealed or thrown into shade his faults ; but, on the other hand, the apprehension of •incurringr these charnces has not deterred me from vindicatingr him wherever I considered his conduct to be justifiable, or from apologizing for him against un- candid and exaorjrerated censures. The attacks which have been made on his character from so many quar- ters, and the attempts to wound the Reformation PREFACE. ^ through him, must be my excuse for having so often adopted the language of apology. In the Appendix, I have inserted a number of Knox's letters, and other papers relative to that period, none of which, as far as I know, have formerly been pub- lished. Several others, intended for insertion in the same place, have been kept back, as the work has swelled to a greater size than was expected. A very scarce Poem, written in commendation of the Refor- mer, and published in the year after his death, is re- printed in the Supplement. The prefixed portrait of Knox is engraved from a painting in the possession of the Right Honourable Lord Torphichen, with the use of which his Lord- ship, in the most obliging manner, favoured the pub- lishers. There is every reason to think that it is a genuine likeness, as it strikingly agrees with the print of our Reformer, which Beza, who was personally acquainted with him, published in his Icones. There is a small brass medal, which has on one side a bust of Knox, and on the other the following inscription : — JOANNES KNOXUS SCOTUS THEOLOGUS ECCLESLE EDIM- BURGENSIS PASTOR. OBIIT EDIMBURGI AN. 1572. JET. 57. It appears to have been executed at a period mu^h later than the Reformer's death. There is an error of ten years as to his age ; and as Beza has fallen into the same mistake, it is not improbable that the inscrip- tion was copied from his Icones, and that the medal was struck on the Continent. Edinburgh, November 14, 1811. B PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. In preparing this work for a second impression, I have endeavoured carefully to correct mistakes which had escaped me in the first, both as to matter and lan- guage. I have introduced accounts of the principal public transactions of the period, which a desire of being concise induced me formerly to exclude, but which serve to throw light on the exertions of the Reformer, and ought to be known by those who read his Life. And I have entered into a more full detail of several parts of his conduct than was practicable within the limits of a single volume. Such additional authorities, printed or manuscript, as I have had ac- cess to, since the publication of the former edition, have been diligently consulted ; and I flatter myself that the alterations and additions which these have enabled me to make, will be considered as improve- ments. I have added to the Supplement a number of ori- ginal Latin Poems on the principal characters men- tioned in the course of the work, which may not be unacceptable to the learned reader. Edinburgh, March 1, 1813. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIFTH EDITION. Besides the additional matter introduced into the Fourth Edition, the present contains a variety of new facts and documents, the most interesting of which will be found in the Note concerninsr Scottish Mar- tyrs. The portrait of the Regent Murray, engraved for this edition, is taken from the original in Holyrood Palace. Edinburgh, February 14, 1831i CONTENTS PERIOD FIRST. Birth and parentage of Knox — his education — state of literature in Scot- land— introduction of Greek language — political and ecclesiastical opin- ions of John Major — their probable influence on Knox and Buchanan — Knox teaches scholastic philosophy at St. Andrews — is admitted to cleri- cal orders — change in his studies and sentiments — state of religion in Scotland — urgent necessity of a reformation — gratitude due to the reform- ers— introduction of reformed opinions into Scotland — Patrick Hamilton — martyrs — exiles for religion — reformation promoted by the circulation of the Scriptures — by poetry — embraced by persons of rank — its critical state at the deatli of James V Page 17 PERIOD SECOND. Knox retires from St. Andrews, and joins himself to the reformed — is de- graded from the priesthood — reformation favoured by Regent Arran — Scottish Parliament authorize tlie use of the Scriptures in the vulgar language — the Regent abjures the reformed religion — Thomas Guillaume — George Wishart — Knox enters the family of Langniddrie as a tutor — Cardinal Beatoun assassinated — Knox persecuted by Archbishop Hamil- ton— averse to go to England — takes refuge in the Castle of St. Andrews — his sentiments respecting the assassination of Beatoun — Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount — Henry Balnaves of Halhill — John Rough — Knox's call to the ministry — his reluctance to comply with it — 'reflections on this — his first sermon — his disputation before a convention of the clergy — the clergy begin to preach at St. Andrews — success of Knox's labours — castle taken, and Knox confined in the French galleys — his health in- jured— his fortitude of mind — writes a confession of faith — extract from his dedication to a treatise of Balnaves — his humane advice to his fellow- prisoners — his liberation, Page 38 PERIOD THIRD. Knox arrives in England — state of the Reformation in that kingdom — Knox sent by the privy council to preach at Berwick — his great exertions — (xi) xii CONTENTS, character of Bishop Tonstal — Knox defends his doctrine before him — is removed to Newcastle — made cliaplain to Edward VI. — consulted in the rcvisal of the Liturg-y and Articles — makes proposals of marriage to j\Iarjor\' Bowes — receives marks of approbation from the privy council — incurs tlie displeasure of Earl of Northumberland — is honourably acquit- ted by the privy council — bad state of his health — preaches in London — declines accepting a benefice — refuses a bishopric — his objections to the worship and government of the Church of England — private sentiments of English reformers similar to his — plan of Edward VI. for improving the Church of England — state of his court — boldness and honesty of the royal chaplains — Knox's sermons at court — his distress at the death of Edward — he retires to the north of England on the accession of Mary — returns to the south — his prayer for the queen — marries Marjory Bowes — displea- sure of some of her relations at this — Roman Catholic religion restored by Parliament — Knox continues to preach — his letters are intercepted — lie is forced to abscond — and retires to Dieppe in France, . Page 62 PERIOD FOURTH. Knox's uneasy reflections on his flight — letters to his friends in England — his eloquent exhortation to religious constancy — he visits Switzerland — returns to Dieppe with the intention of venturing into England — visits Geneva — forms an intimate friendship with Calvin — returns to Dieppe — distressmg tidings from England — writes his admonition — apology for the severity of its language — devotes himself to study at Geneva — his means of subsistence — called to be minister to the English exiles at Frankfort — dissensions among them about the Liturgy — moderation with which Knox acted in these — harmony restored — disorderly conduct of the sticklers for the Liturgy — rebuked by Knox — he is accused of high treason — retires to Geneva — turns his thoughts to his native country — retrospect of ecclesi- astical transactions in Scotland from the time he left it — triumph of the Popish clergy — execution of Melville of Raith — martyrdom of Adam Wallace — provincial councils of the clergy — canons enacted by them for reforming abuses — catechism in the vulgar language — Queen Dowager made Regent — she privately favours the Protestants — violence of English Queen drives preachers into Scotland — William Harlow — John Willock — Knox visits his wife at Berwick — preaches privately in Edinburgh — John Erskine of Dun — William Maitland of Lethington — Knox's letter to Mrs. Bowes — he prevails on the Protestants to abstain from hearing mass — preaches at Dun — at Calderhouse — Sir James Sandilands — John Spots- wood — Lord Lorn — Lord Erskine — the Prior of St. Andrews — Knox dis- penses the sacrament of the supper in Ayrshire — Earl of Glencairn — first religious covenant in Scotland — conversation at court about Kno.x — he is summoned before a convention of the clergy — appears — preaches publicly in Edinburgh — his letter to Mrs. Bowes — his letter to the queen regent — he receives a call from the English Congregation at Geneva — leaves Scotland — clergy condemn him as a heretic, and burn his effigy — sum- mary of the doctrine which he had taught — estimate of the advantages which accrued to the Reformation from this visit — letter of instruction which he left behind him, Page 87 PERIOD FIFTH. Knox arrives at Geneva — happiness which he enjoyed in that city — his pas- sionate desire to preach the gospel in his native country — he receives an CONTENTS. xiii invitation from the Protestant nobles in Scotland — leaves Geneva — re- ceives letters at Dieppe dissuading him from prosecuting the journey — his animated letter to the nobility — persecution of the Protestants in France — Knox preaches in Rochelle — and at Dieppe — reasons which in- duced him not to proceed to Scotland — he writes to the Protestants of Scotland — warns them against tlie Anabaptists — writes to the nobility — his prudent advice respecting resistance to the government — he returns to Geneva — assists in an English translation of the Bible — publishes his letter to the Queen Regent — and his Appellation from the sentence of the clergy — and his First Blast of the Trumpet — reasons which led to this publication against female government — Aylmer's answer to it — Knox receives a second invitation from the Protestant nobility of Scotland — progress which the Reformation had made — formation of private congre- gations— resolutions of a general meeting — Protestant preachers taken into the families of the nobility — correspondence between the Archbishop of St. Andrew's and Earl of Argyle — martyrdom of Walter Mill — impor- tant effects of this — Protestants present a petition to the regent — her fair promises to them — death of Queen Mary of England and accession of Elizabeth — Knox leaves Geneva for Scotland — is refused a passage through England — grounds of this refusal — Knox's reflections on it — reason for his wishing to visit England — he writes to Cecil from Dieppe — arrives in Scotland Page 129 PERIOD SIXTH. Critical situation in which Knox found matters at his arrival — dissimulation of the Queen Regent — differences between her and Archbishop Hamilton accommodated — a provincial council of the clergy — reconciliation of the two archbishops — remonstrance presented by some members of the Popish Church — canons of the council — treaty between the regent and clergy for suppressing the Reformation — proclamation by the queen against the Protestants — the preachers summoned to stand trial — Knox's letter to Mrs. Locke — clergy alarmed at his arrival — he is outlawed — he repairs to Dundee — Protestants of tiie north resolve to attend the trial of their preachers — send information of this to the Regent — her duplicity — Knox preaclies at Perth — demolition of the monasteries in that town — unjustly imputed to Knox — Regent threatens the destruction of Perth — Protes- tants resolve to defend themselves — a treaty — Knox's interview with Ar- gyle and Prior — treaty violated by the Regent — the name of the Congre- gation given to the Protestant association — Lords of the Congregation invite Knox to preach at St. Andrews — archbishop opposes this by arms — intrepidity of Knox — he preaches at St. Andrews — magistrates and inha- bitants agree to demolish the monasteries and images, and to set up the reformed worship — tlieir example followed in other parts of the kingdom — apology for the destruction of the monasteries — Lords of the Congre- gation take possession of Edinburgh — Knox is chosen minister of that city — Willock supplies his place after the capital was given up to the Regent — x'\rc!ibishop Hamilton preaches — Knox undertakes a tour of preaching through the kingdom — liis family arrive in Scotland — Christo- pher Goodman — settlement of Protestant ministers in principal towns — French troops come to the assistance of the Regent — Knox persuades the Congregation to seek assistance from the court of England — apologizes to Elizabeth for his book against female government — undertakes a jour- ney to Berwick — succeeds in the negotiation — reasons for his takmg a 3jJv CONTENTS. part in political managements — embarrassments in which this involved him — prejudices of the English court against him — their confidence in his honesty — his activity and danger — Lords of Congregation consult on the deposition of the Regent — Knox advises her suspension — influence of the Reformation on civil liberty — political principles of Knox — resistanca to tyrants not forbidden in the New Testament — disasters of the Congre- gation— their courage revived by the eloquence of Knox — his exertions in Fife — treaty between Elizabeth and Congregation — expedition of the French troops against Glasgow — English army enter Scotland — death of the Queen Regent — intrigues of the French court — civil war concluded — exertions of "Protestant preachers during the war — increase of their number — conduct of Popish clergy— their pretended miracle of Mussel- burgh— meeting of parliament — petition of Protestants — Protestant Con- fession of Faith ratified by parliament — retrospective view of the ad- vancement of the Reformation, Page 158 PERIOD SEVENTH. Knox resumes his situation in Edinburgh — urges the settlement of ecclesi- astical polity — aversion to this on the part of the nobles — Knox is employed in compiling the Book of Discipline — this is approved by General Assem- bly and subscribed by greater part of Privy Council — sketch of the form and order of the Reformed Church of Scotland — attention to education — avarice of the nobility — influence of the Reformation on literature — intro- duction of Hebrew into Scotland — John Row — return of Buchanan — re- marks on Mr. Hume's representation of the rudeness of Scotland — literary hours in a Scottish minister's family — cultivation of the vernacular lan- guage— David Ferguson — First General Assembly — Knox loses his wife — corresponds with Calvin — his anxiety for the safety of the Reformed Church — Queen Mary arrives in Scotland — her education — her fixed de- termination to restore Popery — alarm excited by her setting up of mass — behaviour of Knox on this occasion — remarks on this — sanguinary spirit and proceedings of Roman Catholics — hostile intentions of the Queen against Knox — first interview between them — Knox's opinion of her cha- racter— his austerity and vehemence useful — he vindicates the right of holding ecclesiastical assemblies — inveighs against the inadequate provi- sion made for the ministers of the Church — his own stipend — attention of town-council to his support and accommodation — he installs two superin- tendents— is employed in reconciling the nobility — the Queen is offended at one of his sermons — second interview between them — his great labours in Edinburgh — he obtains a colleague — incidents in the life of John Craig — the Prior of St. Andrews created Earl Murray, and made prime minister — insurrection under Huntly — conduct of Knox on that occasion — Quin- tin Kennedy — dispute between him and Knox — Ninian Wingate — excom- munication of Paul Methven — reflections on the severity of the Protes- tant discipline — tliird interview between Knox and the Queen — artifice of Mary — she prevails on tiie parliament not to ratify the Protestant religion — indignation of Knox at this — broach between liim and Earl of Murray — liis sermon at the dissolution of parliament — fourth interview between him and the Queen — apology for the sternness of liis behaviour — slander against his cliaractcr — he is accused of high treason — the courtiers endea- vour to intimidate him into a submission — his trial and defence — indigna- tion of the Queen at his acquittal, Page 208 CONTENTS. ,xv PERIOD EIGHTH. The courtiers charge Knox with usurpinw a papal power — the General As- sembly vindicate him — he marries a daughter of Lord Ochiltree — splene- tic reflections of the Papists on this alliance — dissensions between the court and preachers — apology for the liberty of the pulpit — debate be- tween Knox and secretary Maitland — on Knox's form of prayer for the Queen — and on his doctrine respecting resistance to civil rulers — Craig's account of a similar dispute in Bologna — the Queen marries Lord Darn- ley — change in the court — reasons which induced the nobles who opposed the marriage to take up arms — Queen amuses the Protestant ministers — Knox is reconciled to Earl of Murray — gives offence to the King — is inhibited from preaching — town-council remonstrate against this — he re- sumes his employment — Goodman leaves St. Andrews — petition for Knox's translation to that town refused by Assembly — he is employed to write different treatises for the church — extract from the treatise of Fasting — measures taken by the Queen for restoring Popery — assassination of Rizzio — sudden changes in the court — Knox retires to Kyle — Queen re- fuses' to permit his return to the capital — he resolves to visit his sons in England — receives a recommendation from the General Assembly — car- ries a letter to the English bishops — Archbishop Hamilton restored to his ancient jurisdiction — spirited letter of Knox on that occasion — alienation between Mary and her husband — the King murdered by Both well — the Queen's participation in the murder — her marriage to Bothwell — inde- pendent behaviour of John Craig — the Queen resigns the crown to her son — Knox returns to Edinburgh — preaclies at the coronation of James VI. — his opinion concerning the punishment of Mary — the Earl of Mur- ray is installed in the Regency — act of Parliament in favour of the Pro- testant Church — state of the Church during the regency of Murray — Knox cherishes the desire of retiring from public life — the regent opposed by a party attached to Mary — attempts made on his life — he is assassin- ated by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh — national grief at this event — cha- racter of Murray — Knox bewails his loss — fabricated conference between them — Thomas Maitland insults over the death of the Regent — Knox's denunciation against him — his pathetic sermon before the Regent's fune- ral— is struck with apoplexy, Page 268 PERIOD NINTH. Knox recovers from the apoplectic stroke — Kircaldy of Grange joins the Queen's party — Knox involved in a personal quarrel with him — interposi- tion of the gentlemen of the west in his favour — anonymous libels against him — his spirited answers from the pulpit — Queen's party take possession of the capital — danger to which Knox is exposed — he is prevailed on to retire to St. Andrews — civil war — hostility of the Queen's faction against Knox — he is opposed by their adherents at St. Andrews — John Hamilton — Arcliibald Hamilton — execution of Archbishop Hamilton — the Regent Lennox slain — is succeeded by Earl of Mar — invasion on the jurisdiction of the Church — tulchan bishops — not approved of by the General Assem- bly— Knox's letter to the assembly at Stirling — his sentiments respecting episcopacy — he refuses to install Douglas as Archbishop of St. Andrews — gradual decay of his health — striking description of his appearance and pulpit eloquence — his familiarity with the students at the university — he xvi CONTENTS. publishes an answer to a Scots Jesuit — ardently desires his dissolution — his last letter to the General Assembly — his subscription to Ferguson's sermon — he returns to Edinburgh — requests a smaller place of worship — Craig removes from Edinburgh — Lawson chosen as successor to Knox — Knox's letter to him — Bartholomew massacre in France — Knox's denun- ciation against Charles IX. — he begins to preach in the Tolbooth Church — his last sermon — his sickness — interview between him and his session — liis message to Kircaldy — his religious advices, meditations, and comfort during his last illness — his death — his funeral — opinions entertained re- specting him by the Papists — by foreign reformers — by Scottish Protes- tants— by divines of the Church of England — origin and cause of preju- dices against him — his character — reflections on the prophecies ascribed to him— account of his family — sufferings of Joim Welch, his son-in-law, interview between him and Louis XIII. — interview between Mrs. Welch and James VI. — character of Knox's writings — conclusion, Page 310 Notes, 367 Appendix, 505 Supplement, . • • • • 540 Index, ....• •• 563 THE LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. PERIOD I. FROM THE YEAR 1505, IN WHICH HE WAS BORN, TO THE YEAR 1542, WHEN HE EMBRACED THE REFORMED REUGION. John Knox was born in the year one thousand five hundred and five. The place of liis nativity has been disputed. That he was born at Gilford, a village in East Lothian, has long been the prevailing opinion ; but some late writers, relying upon popular tradition, have fixed his birth-place at Hadding- ton, the principal town of the county. The house in which he is said to have been born is still shown by the inhabitants, in one of the suburbs of the town called the Gifibrd-gate. This house, with some adjoining acres of land, continued to be pos- sessed, until about fifty years ago, by a family of the name of Knox, who claimed affinity with the Reformer, I am inclined, however, to prefer the opinion of the oldest and most credible writers, that he was born in the village of Gifford.* His father was descended from an ancient and respectable family, who possessed the lands of Knock, Ranferly, and Craig- ends, in the shire of Renfrew. The descendants of this family hav» been accustomed to enumerate among the honours of their house, that it gave birth to the Scottish Reformer, a bishop of Raphoe, and a bishop of the Isles. t At what particular period his paternal ancestors removed from their original seat, * See Note A. t Nisbet's Heraldry, p. 180. Crawfurd's Renfrew, by Semple, Part II. pp. 30, 139. Account of Knox, prefixed to his Hislorie, anno 1732, page ii. Keith's Scottish Bishops, p. 177. C 17 Ig LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. and settled in Lothian, I have not been able exactly to ascer- tahi. His mother's name was Sinclair,* Obscurity of parentage can reflect no dishonour upon the man who has raised himself to distinction by his virtues and talents. But though our Reformer's parents were neither great nor opulent, the assertion of some writers that they were in poor circumstances, is contradicted by facts.t They were able to give their son a liberal education, which, in that age, was far from being common. In his youth, he was put to the grammar school of Haddington : and, after he had acquired the principles of the Latin language, his father sent him, in the year 1521, to the University of Glasgow. J The state of learning in Scotland at that period, and the pro- gress which it made in the subsequent part of the century, have not been examined with the attention which they deserve, and which has been bestowed on contemporaneous objects of infe- rior importance. There were unquestionably learned Scots- men in the early part of the sixteenth century; but most of them owed their chief acquirements to the advantage of a for- eign education. Those improvements which the revival of literature had introduced into the schools of Italy and France, were long in reaching the universities of Scotland, though ori- ginally formed upon their model ; and, when they did arrive, they were regarded with a suspicious eye, and discountenanced by the clergy. The principal branches cultivated in our uni- versities were the Aristotelian philosophy, scholastic theology, and canon law.§ * In times of persecution or war, when there was a risk of his letters being intercepted, the Reformer was accustomed to subscribe, " John Sin- clair." Under this signature at one of them, in the collection of letters in my possession, is the following note : " Yis was his mother's surname, wlk he wrait in time of trubill." MS. Letters, p. 346. t See Note A. I See Note B. Beza (Icones Virorum Illustrium, Ee. iij. anno 1580) and Verheiden (Effigies et Elogia Preestant. Theolog. p. 92. Hagajcomit. 1602) say that Knox was educated at the University of St. Andrews. 5 Boetii VitiE Episcopor. Murthlac. et Aberdon. fol. xxix. col. cum fol. xxvi— xxviii. Impress, anno 1522. This liule work is of great value, and contains almost the only authentic notices which we possess, as to the state of learning in Scotland, about the beginning of the sixteenth century. Mackenzie, the copier of the fabulous Dempster, who gives an account of learned men who never existed, and of hooks that no man ever saw, or could see, talks of almost every writer whom he mentions as finishing " the course of his studies in the Belles Lcttres and Philosophy," in one of tbe Scots uni- versities. These are merely words of course. The Aristotelian rules con- cerning rhetoric were taught by the professors of scholastic philosophy; but it does°not appear that stated lectures of this kind were read, until the time of the Reformation, when they were appointed to be regularly delivered in the colleges. First Book of Discipline, pp. 40, 42, edit, anno 1621. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 19 Even in the darkest ages, Scotland was never altogether des- titute of schools for teaching the Latin language.* It is prob- able that these were at first attached to monasteries ; and it was long a common practice among the barons to board their children with the monks for their education.! When the regular clergy had degenerated, and learning was no longer confined to them, grammar schools were erected in the principal towns, and taught by persons who had qualified themselves for this task in the best manner that the circumstances of the country admitted. The schools of Aberdeen, Perth, Stirling, Dumbarton, Killearn, and Haddington, are particularly men- tioned in writings about the beginning of the sixteenth century. The two first of these acquired the greatest celebrity, owing to the skill of the masters who presided over them. In the year 1520, John Vans was rector of the school of Aberdeen, and is commended by Hector Boece, the learned principal of the uni- versity, for his knowledge of the Latin tongue, and his success in the education of youth.:!: At a period somewhat later, An- drew Simson acted as master of the school of Perth, where he taught Latin with applause. He had sometimes three hundred boys under his charge at once, including sons of the principal nobility and gentry ; and from his school proceeded many of those who afterwards distinguished themselves both in Church and State. § These schools afforded the means of instruction in the Latin tongue, the knowledge of which, in some degree, was requisite for enabling the clergy to perform the religious service. But the Greek language, long after it had been enthusiastically studied on the Continent, and after it had become a fixed branch of education in the neighbouring kingdom, continued to be * In the twelfth century, there was a school at Abernethy and at Rox- burgh. Sir James Dalrymple's Collections, pp. 220, 255. Other schools in that and the subsequent century are mentioned in charters, apud Chalmers's Caledonia, i. 76. t Caledonia, i. 768. I Boetii VitEB, fol. xxx. Vans was the author of " Rudimenta Artis Grammaticse per Jo. Vaus Scotvm Selecta — Edinbvrgi Excudebat Robertas Lepreuik, Anno Do. 1566." 4to. This was probably another edition of the work printed by Jod. Bad. Ascensius, Paris, 1522. 5 Row's History of the Kirk of Scotland, MS. pp. 3, 4. Simson taught at Perth between 1550 and 1560. At the establishment of the Reformation, he became minister of Dunning and Cargill, from which he was translated, in 1566, to Dunbar, where he sustained the double office of minister of the parish, and master of the grammar school. He was the author of the Latin Rudiments, which continued to be taught in the schools of Scotland until the time of Ruddiman, and were much esteemed by that ajccomplished scholar. Row, ut supra. Keith's History, p. 534. Chalmers's Life of Ruddiman, pp. 21, 22, 63. 20 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. almost unknown in Scotland. Individuals acquired the know- ledge of it abroad ; but the first attempts to teach it in this country were of a private nature, and exposed their authors to the suspicion of heresy. The town of JVIontrose is distinguished by being the first place, as far as I have been able to discover, in which Greek was taught in Scotland ; and John Erskine of Dun is entitled to the honour of being regarded as the first of his countrymen who patronized the study of that elegant and useful language. As early as the year 1534, this enlightened and public spirited baron, on returning from his travels, brought with him a Frenchman, skilled in the Greek tongue, whom he settled in Montrose ; and, upon his removal, he liberally encou- raged others to come from France and succeed to his place. From this private seminary many Greek scholars proceeded, and the knowledge of the language was gradually diffused over the kingdom.* After this statement, I need scarcely add, that the Oriental tongues were at this time utterly unknown in Scot- land. I shall afterwards have occasion to notice the introduc- tion of the study of Hebrew. Knox acquired the Greek language before he arrived at middle age ; but we find him acknowledging, as late as the year 1 550, that he was ignorant of Hebrew,! a defect in his education which he exceedingly lamented, and which he afterwards got supplied during his exile on the Continent. John ]\Iair, better known by his Latin name, Major, was professor of philosophy and theology at Glasgow, when Knox attended the university. The minds of young men, and their future train of thinking, often receive an important direction from the master vmder whom they are educated, especially if his reputation be high. Major was at that time deemed an oracle in the sciences which he taught ; and as he was the pre- ceptor of Knox, and of the celebrated scholar Buchanan,! it may be proper to advert to some of his opinions. He had received the greater part of his education in France, and acted for some time as a professor in the University of Paris, where * Life of John Erskine of Dun, p. 2, in Wodrow MSS. vol. 1. Bibl. Coll. Glas. This industrious collector had access to some of Erskine's papers, when employed in compihng his Life. Additional facts respecting the early state of Greek literature in Scotland will be found in Note C. t " In the Hebrew toung (says Knox, in his defence before the Bishop of Durham), I confess myself ignorant ; but have, as God knavveth, fervent thirst to have sum entrance thairin." MS. Letters, p. 16. X Major had come to St. Andrews in 15'23. The Records of that Uni- versity show tiiat Buchanan was not of St. Salvator's Collejre, but of St. Mary's, li is probable that Major at that time tauglit in tliis College; and it was not until 1533 that he became provost, or principal, of St. Salvator's. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 21 he acquired a more liberal habit of thinking and expressing himself on certain subjects than was yet to be met with in his native country, and in other parts of Europe. He had imbibed the sentiments concerning ecclesiastical polity, maintained by John Gerson and Peter D'Ailly, who so ably defended the decrees of the Council of Constance, and the hberties of the Galilean Church, against the advocates for the uncontrollable authority of the Sovereign Pontiff. He taught that a General Council was superior to the pope, and might judge, rebuke, resti'ain, and even depose him from his dignity ; denied the temporal supremacy of the bishop of Rome, and his right to inaugurate or dethrone princes ; maintained that ecclesiastical censures, and even papal excommunications, had no force, if pronounced on irrelevant or invalid grounds : he held that tithes were not of divine right, but merely of human appoint- ment ; censured the avarice, ambition, and secular pomp of the Court of Rome, and of the Episcopal order ; was no warm friend of the regular clergy ; and advised the reduction of monasteries and holydays.* His opinions respecting civil governments were analogous to those which he held as to ecclesiastical polity. He taught, that the authority of kings and princes was originally derived from the people ; that the former are not superior to the latter, collec- tively <3onsidered : that if rulers become tyrannical, or employ their power for the destruction of their subjects, they may law- fully be controlled by them, and proving incorrigible may be deposed by the community as the superior power ; and that tyrants may be judicially proceeded against, even to capital punishment.! The affinity between these sentiments and the political prin- ciples afterwards avowed by Knox, and defended by the classic pen of Buchanan, is too striking to require illustration. Some of "them, indeed, had been taught by at least one Scottish author, who flourished before the time of Major ; but it is most proba- ble that the oral instructions and writings of their master first suggested to them the sentiments which they so readily adopted, and which were afterwards confirmed by mature reflection, and more extensive reading ; and that, consequently, the important changes which these contributed to accomplish, should be traced, in a certain measure, to this distinguished professor. Nor, in such circumstances, could his ecclesiastical opinions fail to have a proportionate share of influence on their habits of thinking with respect to religion and the Church. * These sentiments are collected from his Commentaries on the Third Book of the Master of Sentences, and from his Exposition of Matthew's Gos- pel ; printed in Latin at Paris, the former in 1517, and the latter in 1518. \ See Note D. 22 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. » But though, in these respects, the opinions of Major were more free and rational than those generally entertained at that time, it must be confessed that the portion of instruction which his scholars could derive from him Av^as extremely small, if we allow his publications to be a fair specimen of his academical prelections. Many of the questions which he discusses are utterly useless and trifling ; the rest are rendered disgusting by the most servile adherence to all the minutiae of the scholastic mode of reasoning. The reader of his works must be content with painfully picking a grain of truth from the rubbish of many pages ; nor will the drudgery be compensated by those discoveries of inventive genius and acute discrimination, for which the writings of Aquinas, and some others of that subtle school, may still deserve to be consulted. Major is entitled to praise, for exposing to his countrymen several of the more glaring errors and abuses of his time ; but his mind was deeply tinctured by superstition, and he defended some of the absurdest tenets of popery by the most ridiculous and puerile arguments.* His talents were moderate ; with the writings of the ancients he appears to have been acquainted only through the medium of the collectors of the middle ages ; nor does he ever hazard an opinion, or pursue a speculation, beyond the limits which had been marked out by some approved doctor of the Church. Add to this, that his style is, to an uncommon degree, harsh and forbidding : " exile, aridum, conscissum, ac minutum." Knox and Buchanan soon became disgusted \vith such stu- dies, and began to seek entertainment more gratifying to their ardent and inquisitive minds. Having set out in search of knowledge, they released themselves from the trammels, and overleaped the boundaries, prescribed to them by their timid conductor. Each following the native bent of his genius and inclination, they separated in the prosecution of their studies. Buchanan, indulging in a more excursive range, explored the extensive fields of literature, and wandered in the flowery mead of poesy ; while Knox, passing through the avenues of secular learning, devoted himself to the study of divine truth, and the labours of the sacred ministry. Both, however, kept uniformly * Lord Ilailes, having given an example of this, adds, " After this, can Buchanan be censured tor saying that he was 'solo cognomine Major/'' " (Provincial Councils of the Scottish Clergy, p. 11.) By the way, it was Major who first said this of himself. It was the sight of these words, "Joannes, solo cognomine Major," in the dedicatory epistle to his writings, that drew from Buchanan the satirical lines, wliich have been so often ap- pealed to by his enemies, as an infallible proof of the badness of his heart. If fault there was in this, we may certainly make the apology which his learned editor produces for him in another case, "Non tarn hominis vitium, quam poeta;." Poets and wits cannot always spare their best friends. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 23 in view the advancement of true religion and liberty, with the love of which they were equally smitten ; and as, during their lives, they suffered a long and painful exile, and were exposed to many dangers, for adherence tcJ this kindred cause, so their memories have not been divided in the profuse but honourable obloquy with which they have been aspersed by its enemies, and in the deserved and grateful recollections of its genuine friends.* But we must not suppose that Knox was able at once to divest himself of the prejudices of his education and of the times. Barren and repulsive as the scholastic studies appear to our minds, there was something in the intricate and subtle sophistry then in vogue calculated to fascinate the youthful and ingenious mind. It had a show of wisdom; it exercised, although it did not enrich, the understanding ; it even gave play to the imagination, while it served to flatter the pride of the learned adept. Once involved in the mazy labyrinth, it was no easy task to break through it, and to escape into the open field of rational and free inquiry. Accordingly, Knox continued for some time captivated with these studies, and prosecuted them with great success. After he was created master of arts, he taught philosophy, most probably as a regent of one of the classes in the university.! His class became cel- ebrated ; and he was considered as equalUng, if not excelling, his master in the subtleties of the dialectic art.J About the same time, although he had no interest but what was procured by his own merit, he was advanced to clerical orders, and was ordained a priest, before he reached the age fixed by the canons of the church.§ This must have taken place previous to the * Buchanan always mentions Knox in terms of high respect, Oper. ed. Ruddiman, pp. 313, 321, 366. And the Reformer, in his Historic, has borne testimony to the virtues as well as splendid talents of the Poet: "That notable man, Mr. George Bucquhanane — remains alyve to this day, in the yeir of God 1566 years, to the glory of God, to the gret honour of this na- tioun, and to the comfort of thame that delyte in letters and vertew. That singulare wark of David's Psalmes, in Latin meetre and poesie, besyd mony uther, can witness the rare graices of God gevin to that man." Historic, p. 24. t D. Buchanan's Life of Knox. Mackenzie's Lives, iii. 111. Although I have followed the common accounts, I have great doubts if Knox was made Master of Arts. It was usual to put Mr. before the names of those who had been laureated, but I have never seen this title prefixed to his name in any old record. I "In hac igitur Anthropotheologia egregie versatus Cnoxus, eandem et magna autoritate docuit : visusque fuit magistro suo (si qua in snbtil- itate felicitas), in quibusdam felicior." Verheiden. Effigies et Elogia Praestant Theolog. p. 92. Hagaicomit. 1602. Beza? Icones, Ee. iij. Melch. Adami Vila; Theolog. Exter. p. 137. Francofurti, 1618. 5 See Note E. 24 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. year 1530, at which tune he had arrived at his twenty-fifth year, the canonical age for receiving ordination. It was not long, however, till his stndies received a new direction, which led to a complete revolution in his religious sentiments, and had an important influence on the whole of his future life. Not satisfied with the excerpts from ancient authors, which he found in the writings of the scholastic divines and canonists, he resolved to have recourse to the original works. In them he found a method of investigating and communicating truth to which he had hitherto been a stranger, and the simpli- city of which recommended itself to his mind, in spite of the prejudices of education and the pride of superior attainments in his own favourite art. Among the fathers of the Christian Church, Jerome and Augustine attracted his particular attention. By the writings of the former, he was led to the Scriptures as the only pure fountain of divine truth, and instructed in the utility of studying them in the original languages. In the works of the latter, he found religious sentiments very opposite to those taught in the Romish Church, who, Avhile she retained his name as a saint in her calendar, had banished his doctrine, as heretical, from her pulpits. From this time, he renounced the study of scholastic theology ; and although not yet com- pletely emancipated from superstition, his mind was fitted for improving the means which Providence had prepared for lead- ing liim to a fuller and more comprehensive view of the system of evangelical religion. It was about the year 1535 when this favourable change commenced ;* but it does not appear that he professed himself a Protestant before the year 1542. As I am now to enter upon that period of Knox's life at which he renounced the Roman Catholic communion and com- menced Reformer, it may not be improper to take a survey of the state of religion in Scotland at that time. Without an ade- quate knowledge of this, it is impossible to form a just estimate of the necessity and importance of that Reformation, in the ad- vancement of which he laboured with so great zeal ; and no- thing has contributed so much to give currency, among Pro- testants, to prejudices against his character, as ignorance, or a superficial consideration of the enormous and almost incredible abuses which then prevailed in the Church. This must be my apology for a digression which might otherwise be deemed superfluous or disproportionate. The corruptions by which the Christian religion was univer- * Bezse Icones, Verheidenii Effiijiee, Melchior Adam ; ut supra. Spotg- wood's Ilislory, p. 265. Lond. 1677. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. ^ sally disfigured, before the Reformation, had grown to a greater height in Scotland than in any other nation within the pale of the Western Church. Superstition and religious imposture, in their grossest forms, gained an easy admission among a rude and ignorant people. By means of these, the clergy attained to an exorbitant degree of opulence and power ; which were accompanied, as they always have been, with the corruption of their order, and of the whole system of religion. The full half of the wealth of the nation belonged to the clergy ; and the greater part of this was in the hands of a few individuals, who had the command of the whole body. Avarice, ambition, and the love of secular pomp, reigned among the superior orders. Bishops and abbots rivalled the first nobility in magnificence, and preceded them in honours : they were Privy-Counsellors, and Lords of Session, as well as of Parlia- ment, and had long engrossed the principal offices of state. A vacant bishopric or abbacy called forth powerful competitors, who contended for it as for a principality or petty kingdom ; it was obtained by similar arts, and not unfrequently taken pos- session of by the same weapons.* Inferior benefices were openly put to sale, or bestowed on the illiterate and unworthy minions of courtiers ; on dice-players, strolling bards, and the bastards of bishops.t Pluralities were multiplied without bounds, and benefices, given in commendam,\Ye.Ye kept vacant during the life of the commendator — nay, sometimes during several lives ;! so that extensive parishes were frequently de- prived for a long course of years, of all religious service, — if a deprivation it could be called, at a time when the cure of souls was no longer regarded as attached to livings originally endow- ed for that purpose. The bishops never, on any occasion, con- * During the minority of James V. the celebrated Gawin Douglas was recommended by the Queen to the archbishopric of St. Andrews ; but John Hepburn, prior of the regular canons, opposed the nomination, and took the archiepiscopal palace by storm. Douglas afterwards laid siege to the cath- edral of Dunkeld, and carried it more by the thunder of his cannon, than the dread of the excommunication which he threatened to fulminate against his antagonist. Buch. Hist. xiii. 44. Spotsw. 61. Life of Gawin Doug- las, prefixed to his translation of the ^neid : Ruddiman's edition. t Sir David Lindsay's Works, by Chalmers, i. 344; ii. 237, 238. Win- zet, and Kennedy ; apud Keith, App. 488, 504. X The Popes were accustomed to grant liberty to the commendators to dispose of benefices which they held by this tenure, to others who should succeed to them after their death. Introduction to Scots Biography, in Wodrow, MSS. vol. ix. p. 171 ; Bibl. Coll. Glas. So late as anno 1534, Clement VII. granted, in commendam, to his nephew, Hypolitus, Cardinal de Medici, ALL tlie benefices in the world, secular and regular, dignities and parsona- ges, simple and with cure, being vacant, for six months; with power to dispose of all their fruits, and convert them to his own use. Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent, lib. 1. p. 251. Lond. 1620. 3 D 26 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. descended to preach ; indeed, I scarcely recollect an instance of it mentioned in history, from the erection of the regular Scottish Episcopacy down to the era of the Reformation.* The practice had even gone into desuetude among all the secular clergy, and was wholly devolved on the mendicant monks, who employed it for the most mercenary purposes.! The lives of the clergy, exempted from secular jurisdiction, and corrupted by wealth and idleness, were become a scandal to religion, and an outrage on decency. While they professed chastity, and prohibited, under the severest penalties, any of the ecclesiastical order from contracting lawful wedlock, the bishops set an example of the most shameless profligacy before the hifcrior clergy ; avowedly kept their harlots, provided their natural sons with benefices, and gave their daughters in marriage to the sons of the nobility and principal gentry, many of whom were so mean as to contaminate the blood of their families by such base alliances for the sake of the rich dowries which they brought. J Through the blind devotion and munificence of princes and nobles, monasteries, those nurseries of superstition and idleness, had greatly multiplied in the nation ; and though they had uni- versally degenerated, and were notoriously become the haunts of lewdness and debauchery, it was deemed impious and sacri- legious to reduce their number, abridge their privileges, or alienate their funds. § The kingdom swarmed with ignorant, * One exception occurs, and must not be omitted. When George Wish- art was preaching in Ayr, Dunbar, archbishop of Glasgow, took posses- sion of the pulpit, in order to exclude the Reformer. Some of the more zealous hearers would have dispossessed the bishop, but Wishart would not suffer them. " The bishope preichit to his jackmen, and to some auld boisses of the toun. The soum of all his sermone was. They sey, we sould preiche : Quhynot? Better lait thryve nor nevir thryve. Had us still lor your bishope, and we sail provyde better the next tyme." Knox, Historie, p. 44. I War not the preiching of the begging freiris, Tint war the faith among the seculeiris. Lyndsay, ut supra, i. 343, comp. ii. 101. \ Lord Hailes's Notes on Ancient Scottish Poems, pp. 249, 2-50, 297, 309. We need not appeal to the testimony of the reformers, nor to satirical poems published at that time, in proof of the extreme profligacy of the popish clergy. The truth is registered in the Acts of Parliament, and in the decrees of their own councils, (Wilkins, Concil. torn. iv. pp. 46 — 60. Keith's Hist, pref xiv. and p. 14,) in the records of legitimation, (Lord Hailes, «/ supra, pp. 249, 250,) and in the confessions of their own wri- ters. (Kennedy and Winzet, apud Keith, append. 202, 205 — 207. Lesley, Hist. 232. Father Alexander Baillie's True hiformation of the Unhallowed Offspring, &c. of our Scottish Calvinian Gos^pcl, pp. 15, 16 ; Wirtzburg, anno 1628.) § In consequence of a very powerful confederacy against the religious knights, called Templars, and upon charges of the most flagitious crimee, LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 27 idle, luxurious monks, who, like locusts, devoured the fruits of the earth, and filled the air with pestilential infection ; with friars, white, black, and grey ; canons regular, and of St. Anthony ; Carmelites, Carthusians, Cordeliers, Dominicans, Franciscan Conventuals and Observantines, Jacobins, Premon- stratensians, monks of Tyrone, and of Vallis Caulium, and Hospitallers, or Holy Knights of St. John of Jerusalem ; nuns of St. Austin, St. Clair, St, Scholastica, and St. Catherine of Sienna, with canonesses of various clans.* The ignorance of the clergy respecting religion was as gross as the dissoluteness of their morals. Even bishops were not ashamed to confess that they were unacquainted with the canon of their faith, and had never read any part of the sacred Scrip- tures, except what they met with in their missals.t Under such masters the people perished for lack of knowledge. That book, which was able to make them wise unto salvation, and intended to be equally accessible to " Jew and Greek, Barbarian and Scythian, bond and free," was locked up from them, and the use of it in their own tongue prohibited under the heaviest penalties. The religious service was mumbled over in a dead language, which many of the priests did not understand, and some of them could scarcely read ; and the greatest care was that order was suppressed by a g-eneral council, anno 1312 ; but their pos- sessions were conferred upon another order of sacred knights. The pleni- tude of papal power was stretched to the very utmost, in this dread attempt : " Quanquam," says his holiness in the bull, "de jure non possumus, tamen ad plenitudinem potestatis dictum ordinem reprobamus." Walsins^ham, Histor. Angl. p. 99. When the Gilbertine monks retired from Scotland, because the air of the country did not agree with them, their revenues were, upon their resignation, transferred to the monastery of Paisley. Keith's Scottish Bishops, p. 266. * See Note F. f Fox, p. 1153, printed anno 1596. Chalmers's Lyndsay, ii. 62, 63, 64. Lord Hailes, Provincial Councils of the Scottish Clergy, p. 30. Sir Ralph Sadler's testimony to the clergy, as the only men of learning about the court of James V. may seem to contradict what I have asserted. But Sadler speaks of their talents for political management, and in the same letter gives a proof of their ignorance in other respects. The clergy, at that time, made law their principal study, and endeavoured to qualify themselves for offices of State. This, however, engaged their whole attention, and they were grossly io-noraiit in their own profession. Sadler's State Papers, i. 47, 48 ; Edin. 1809. Knox, Historic, p. 18. Andrew Forman, bishop of Murray, and papal legate for Scotland, being obliged to say grace, at an entertainment which he gave to the pope and cardinals in Home, blundered so in his latinity, that his holiness and their eminences lost their gravity, which so disconcerted the bishop, that he concluded the blessing by giving all the false carles to the devil, in nom- ine patr is, jiliiet sancti spiritus ; to which the company, not understanding his Scoto-Latin, said Amen. " The holy bishop," says Pitscottie, " was not a good scholar, and had not good Latin." History, p. 106. 28 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. taken to prevent even catechisms, composed and approved by the clergy, from coming into the hands of the laity.* Scotland, from her local situation, had been less exposed to disturbance from the encroaching ambition, the vexatious exactions, and fulminating anathemas of the Vatican court, than the countries in the immediate vicinity of Rome. But from the same cause, it was more easy for the domestic clergy to keep up on the minds of the people that excessive veneration for the Holy See, which could not be long felt by those who had the opportunity of witnessing its vices and worldly politics.! The burdens which attended a state of dependence upon a remote foreign jurisdiction were severely felt. Though the popes did not enjoy the power of presenting to the Scottish pre- lacies, they wanted not numerous pretexts for interfering with them. The most important causes of a civil nature, which the ecclesiastical courts had contrived to bring within their juris- diction, were frequently carried to Rome. Large sums of money were annually exported out of the kingdom, for the confirmation of benefices, the conducting of appeals, and many other purposes ; in exchange for which were received leaden bulls, woollen palls, wooden images, old bones, and similar arti- cles of precious consecrated mummery. J Of the doctrine of Christianity almost nothing remained but the name. Instead of being directed to offer up their adora- tions to one God, the people were taught to divide them among an innumerable company of inferior divinities. A plurality of mediators shared the honour of procurhig the divine favour * Wilkins, Concilia, torn. iv. 72. Lord Hailes's Provincial Councils of the Scottish Clergy, p. 36. t Luther often mentioned to his familiar acquaintances the advantage which he derived from a visit to Rome in 1510, and used to say, that he would not exchange that journey for 1000 florins; so much did it con- tribute to open his eyes to the corruptions of the Romish Court, and to weaken his prejudices. Melchior. Adami, Vitfe Germ. Theol. p. 104. Erasmus had a sensation of the same kind, although weaker. John Rough, one of the Scottish Reformers, felt in a similar way after visiting Rome. Fox, p. 1841. I Notwithstanding laws repeatedly made to restrain persons from going to Rome, to obtain benefices, the practice was greatly on the increase about the time of the Reformation. It is schort time sen ony benefice Was sped in Rome, except great bishoprics; But now, for ane unworthy vickarage, A priest will rin to Rome in Pilgrimage. Ane cavill quhilk was never at the scule Will rin to Rome, and keep ane bischopis mule : And syne come hanie with mony a colorit crack, With ane burdin of beneficis on his back. Chalmers's Lyndsay, ii. 60 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 29 with the " one Mediator between God and man ;" and more petitions were presented to the Virgin Mary, and other saints, than to " Him whom the Father heareth always." The sacri- fice of the mass was represented as procuring forgiveness of sins to the hving and the dead, to the infinite disparagement of the sacrifice by whicli Jesus Clirist expiated sin and procured everlasting redemption ; and the consciences of men were with- drawn from faith in the merits of their Saviour to a delusive reliance upon priestly absolutions, papal pardons, and voluntary penances. Instead of being instructed to demonstrate the sin- cerity of their faith and repentance by forsaking their sins, and to testify their love to God and man by practising the duties of morality, and observing the ordinances of worship authorized by Scripture, they were taught that, if they regularly said their aves and credos, confessed themselves to a priest, punctually paid their tithes and church-offerings, purchased a mass, went in pilgrimage to the shrine of some celebrated saint, refrained from flesh on Fridays, or performed some other prescribed act of bodily mortification, their salvation was infallibly secured in due time : while those who were so rich and so pious as to build a chapel or an altar, and to endow it for the support of a priest, to perform masses, obits, and dirges, procured a relaxa- tion of the pains of purgatory for themselves or their relations, in proportion to the extent of their liberality. It is difficult for us to conceive how empty, ridiculous, and wretched those ha- rangues were which the monks delivered for sermons. Legen- dary tales concerning the founder of some religious order, his wonderful sanctity, the miracles which he performed, his com- bats with the devil, his watchings, fastings, flagellations ; the virtues of holy water, chrism, crossing, and exorcism ; the horrors of purgatory, and the numbers released from it by the intercession of some powerful saint ; these, with low jests, table-talk, and fireside scandal, formed the favourite topics of the preachers, and were served up to the people instead of the pure, salutary, and sublime doctrines of the Bible.* The beds of the dying were besieged, and their last moments disturbed, by avaricious priests, who laboured to extort be- quests to themselves or to the Church. Not satisfied with exacting tithes from the living, a demand was made upon the dead : no sooner had the poor husbandman breathed his last, than the rapacious vicar came and carried off his corpse-present, which he repeated as often as death visited the family.! Ec- * Knox, 14—16. Spotswood, 64, 69. Keith, append. 205. Dalyell's Cursory Remarks, prefixed to Scottish Poems of the Sixteenth Century, i. 16 — 18. Chalmers's Lyndsay, i. 211. t See Note G. 3* 30 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. clesiastical censures were fulminated against those who were rehictant in making these payments, or M^ho showed themselves disobedient to the clergy ; and, for a little money, they were prostituted on the most trifling occasions.* Divine service was neglected ; and, except on festival days, the churches, in many parts of the country, were no longer employed for sacred pur- poses, but served as sanctuaries for malefactors, places of traffic, or resorts for pastime.t Persecution, and the suppression of free inquiry, were the only weapons by which its interested supporters were able to defend this system of corruption and imposture. Every avenue by which truth might enter, was carefully guarded. Learning was branded as the parent of heresy. The most frightful pic- tures were drawn of those who had separated from the Romish Church, and held up before the eyes of the people, to deter them from imitating their example. If any person, who had attained a degree of illumination amidst the general darkness, began to hint dissatisfaction with the conduct of churchmen, and to propose the correction of abuses, he was immediately stigmatized as a heretic, and, if he did not secure his safety by flight, was immured in a dungeon, or committed to the flames. And when, at last, in spite of all their precautions, the light which was shining around did break in and spread through the nation, the clergy prepared to adopt the most desperate and bloody measures for its extinction. From this imperfect sketch of the state of religion m this country, we may see how false the representation is which some persons would impose on us ; as if popery were a system, erroneous, indeed, but purely speculative, superstitious but harmless, provided it had not been accidentally accompanied Avith intolerance and cruelty. The very reverse is the truth. It may be safely said, that there is not one of its erroneous tenets, or of its superstitious practices, which was not either originally contrived, or afterwards accommodated, to advance and support some practical abuse ; to aggrandize the ecclesias- tical order, secure to them immunity from civil jurisdiction, sanctify their encroachments upon secular authorities, vindi- cate their usurpations upon the consciences of men, cherish im- plicit obedience to the decisions of the Church, and extinguish free inquiry and liberal science. It was a system not more repugnant to the religion of the Bible, than incompatible with the legitimate rights of princes, and the independence, liberty, and prosperity of kingdoms ; not more destructive to the souls of men, than to domestic and * Knox, Historie, p. 14. t Dalyell's Cursory Remarks, &c. i. 28. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 31 social happiness, and the principles of sound morality. Con- siderations from every quarter combined in calling aloud for a radical and complete reform. The exertions of every descrip- tion of persons, of the man of letters, the patriot, the prince, as well as the Christian, each acting in his own sphere for his own interests, with the joint concurrence of all as in a common cause, were urgently required for extirpating abuses, of which all had reason to complain, and for effectuating a revolution, in the advantages of which all would participate. There was, however, no reasonable prospect of accomplishing this, without exposing, in the first place, the falsehood of those notions which have been called speculative. It was principally by means of these that superstition had established its empire over the minds of men ; behind them the Romish ecclesiastics had intrenched themselves and defended their usurped prerogatives and pos- sessions ; and had any prince or legislature endeavoured to de- prive them of these, while the great body of the people remained unenlightened, it would soon have been found that the attempt was premature in itself, and replete with danger to those by whom it was made. To the revival of the primitive doctrines and mstitutions of Christianity, by the preaching and writings of the reformers, and to those controversies by which the popish errors were confuted from Scripture, (for which many modern philosophers seem to have a thorough contempt), we are chiefly indebted for the overthrow of superstition, ignorance, and des- potism ; and in fact, all the blessings, political and religious, which we enjoy, may be traced to the Reformation from popery. How grateful should we be to Divine Providence for this happy revolution ! For those persons do but sport with their own imaginations, who flatter themselves that it must have taken place in the ordinary course of human affairs, and over- look the many convincing proofs of the superintending direc- tion of superior wisdom in the whole combination of circum- stances which contributed to bring about the Reformation in this country, as well as throughout Europe. How much are we indebted to those men, who, under God, were the instruments in effecting it; men who cheerfully hazarded their lives to achieve a design which involved the felicity of millions unborn; who boldly attacked the system of error and corruption, though fortified by popular creduUty, by custom, and by laws, fenced with the most dreadful penalties; and who, having forced the stronghold of superstition, and penetrated the recesses of its temple, tore aside the veil that concealed the monstrous idol which the world had so long ignorantly worshipped, dissolved the spell by which the human mind was bound, and restored it to liberty ! How criminal must those be, who, sitting at ease 32 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. under the vines and fig-trees, planted by the labours, and watered with the blood of these patriots, discover their dis- esteem of the invaluable privileges which they inherit, or their ignorance of the expense at which they were purchased, by the most unworthy treatment of those to whom they owe them — misrepresent their actions, calumniate their motives, and load their memories with every species of abuse !* The reformed doctrine had made considerable progress in Scotland before it was embraced by Knox. Patrick Hamilton, a youth of royal lineage,t obtained the honour, not conferred upon many of his rank, of first announcing its glad tidings to his countrymen, and of sealing them with his blood. He was born in the year 1504; and being designed for the Church by his relations, the abbacy of Feme was conferred upon him in his childhood, according to a ridiculous custom which prevailed at that period. But, as early as the year 1526, and previous to the breach of Henry VHI. with the Romish see, a gleam of light was, by some unknown means,J imparted to his mind, amidst the darkness which brooded around him. His recom- mendations of ancient literature, at the expense of the philoso- phy wliich was then taught in the schools, and the free lan- * Patriots have toiled, and in their country's cause Bled nobly ; and their deeds, as they deserve, Receive proud recompense. But fairer wreaths are due, though never paid, To those who, posted at the shrine of truth, Have fallen in her defence. Yet few remember them. With their names No bard embalms and sanctifies his song : And history, so warm on meaner themes. Is cold on this. She execrates, indeed, The tyranny that doomed them to the fire, But gives the glorious sufferers little praise. Cowper, Task, Book V. In the margin, Cowper names Hume as chargeable with the injustice which he so feelingly upbraids. While it is painful to think that other historians, since Hume, have exposed themselves to the same censure, it is pleasant to reflect, that Cowper is not the only poet who has " sanctified," and, I trust, "embalmed his song," with the praises of these patriots. The reader will easily perceive that I refer to the author of The Sabbath. t His father. Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavil, was son of Lord Hamilton, who married a sister of King James III. His mother was a daughter of John Duke of Albany, brother to the same monarch. Pinkerton's Hist, of Scotland, ii. 45, 46, 289. I There was an act of Parliament, as early as 17th July 1525, prohibiting ships from bringing any books of Luther or his disciples into Scotland, which had always "bene clene of all sic filth and vice." Act. Pari. Scot. vol. ii. p. 295. This renders it highly probable that such books had already been introduced into this country. LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. 30 guage which he used in speaking of the corruptions of the Church, had ah'eady drawn upon him the suspicions of the clergy, when he resolved to leave Scotland, and to improve his mind by travelling on the Continent. He set out with three attendants, and, attracted by the fame of Luther, repaired to Wittemberg. Luther and Melancthon were highly pleased with his zeal ; and, after retaining him a short time with them, they recommended him to the university of Marburg. This university was newly erected by that enlightened prince, Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, who had placed at its head the learned and pious Francis Lambert of Avignon. Lambert, who had left his native country, and sacrificed a lucrative situation, from love to the reformed religion, conceived a strong attachment to the young Scotsman, who imbibed his instructions with extra- ordinary avidity. While he was daily advancing in acquaint- ance with the Scriptures, Hamilton was seized with an uncon- querable desire of imparting to his countrymen the know- ledge which he had acquired. In vain did Lambert represent to him the dangers to which he would be exposed ; his deter- mination was fixed ; and taking along with him a single atten- dant, he left Marburg, and returned to Scotland.* The clergy did not allow him long time to disseminate his opinions. Pretending to wish a free conference with him, they decoyed him to St. Andrews, where he was thrown into prison by Archbishop Beatoun, and committed to the flames on the last day of February 1528, and in the twenty-fourth year of his age. On his trial he defended his opinions with firmness, yet with great modesty; and the mildness, patience, and forti- tude, which he displayed at the stake, equalled those of the first martyrs of Christianity. He expired with these words in his mouth : " How long, 0 Lord, shall darkness cover this realm ! How long wilt thou suffer this tyranny of men ! Lord Jesus, receive my spirit !"t " The murder of Hamilton," says a modern historian, J " was afterwards avenged in the blood of the nephew and successor of his persecutor ;" and the flames in which he expired were, " in the course of one generation, to enlighten all Scotland, and to consume, with avenging fury, the Catholic superstition, the papal power, and the prelacy itself." The good effects which resulted from the martyrdom of * F. Lamberti Avenionensis Comment, in Apocalypsin, prsefat. anno 1528. f Lambert, ut supra. Bezse Icones Ff j. Fox, 888. Knox, 4 — fi. Lind- say of Pitcottie's History of Scotland, pp. 133—5; Edin. 1728. Tbis last author gives a very interesting account of Hamilton's trial, but be is wrong as to the year of his martyrdom. J Pinkerton. E 34 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. Hamilton soon began to appear. Many of the learned, as well as of the common people, in St. Andrews, beheld with deep interest the crnel death of a person of rank, and could not refrain from admiring the heroism with which he endured it. This excited inquiry into the opinions for which he suffered, and the result of inquiry, in many cases, was a conviction of their truth. Gawin Logie, principal of St. Leonard's College, was so successful in instilling them into the minds of the stu- dents under his care, that it became proverbial to say of any one who was suspected of Lutheranism, that he " had drmik of St. Leonard's well."* Under the connivance of John Win- ram, the subprior, they also secretly spread among the novici- ates of the abbey.t These sentiments were not long confined to St. Andrews, and everywhere persons were to be found who held that Pat- rick Hamilton had died a martyr. Alarmed at the progress of the new opinions, the clergy adopted the most rigorous measures for their extirpation. Strict inquisition was made after heretics ; the flames of persecution were kindled in all quarters of the country ; and, from 1530 to 1540, many inno- cent and excellent men suffered the most inhuman death. { Henry Forrest, David Straiton, Norman Gourlay, Jerom Rus- sel, Kennedy, Kyllor, Beveridge, Duncan Sympson, Robert Forrester, and Thomas Forrest, were the names of those early martyrs, whose sufferings deserve a more conspicuous place than can be given to them in these pages. A few, whose constancy was overcome by the horrors of the stake, purchased their lives by abjuring their opinions. Numbers made their escape to England and the Continent ; among whom were the following learned men, Gawin Logie, Alexander Seatoun, Alexander Aless, John Macbee, John Fife, John Macdowal, John jVIacbray, George Buchanan, James Harrison, and Robert Richardson.§ Few of these exiles afterwards returned to their native country. England, Denmark, Germany, France, and even Portugal, offered an asylum to them ; and foreign universities and schools enjoyed the benefit of those talents which their bigoted countrymen were incapable of appreciating. To maintain their authority, and to preserve those corruptions from which they derived their wealth, the clergy would wil- lingly have driven into banishment all the learned men in the kingdom, and quenched for ever the light of science in Scotland. * Cald. MS. i. 69. f In 1546, Winram having spoken to the bishops in favour of Georgce Wishart, Cardinal Beatoun upbraided him, saying, " Well, sir, and you, we know what a man you are, seven years ago." I'itscoUie, 189. I See Note II. 5 See Note I. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 35 Various causes contributed to prevent these measures from arresting the progress of the truth. Among these, the first place is unquestionably due to the circulation of the Scriptures in the vulgar language. Against this the patrons of ignorance had endeavoured to guard with the utmost jealousy. But when the desire of knowledge has once been excited among a people, they easily contrive methods of eluding the vigilance of those who would prevent them from gratifying it. By means of merchants who traded from England and the Continent to the ports of Leith, Dundee, and Montrose, Tindali's translations of the Scriptures, with many Protestant books, were imported. These were consigned to persons of tried principles and pru- dence, who circulated them in private with great industry. One copy of the Bible, or of the New Testament, supplied sev- eral families. At the dead hour of night, when others were asleep, they assembled in a private house ; the sacred volume was brought from its concealment, and while one read, the rest listened with mute attention. In this way the knowledge of the Scriptures was ditiused, at a period when it does not appear that there was a single public teacher of the truth in Scotland.* Nor must we overlook another means which operated very extensively in alienating the public mind from the established religion. Those who have investigated the causes which led to the Reformation on the Continent, have ascribed a consider- able share of influence to the writings of the poets and satirists of the age. Poetry has charms for persons of every descrip- tion ; and in return for the pleasure which it affords them, mankind have in all ages been disposed to allow a greater lib- erty to poets than to any other class of writers. Strange as it may appear, the poets who flourished before the Reformation used very great freedom with the Church, and there were not wanting many persons of exalted rank who encouraged them in this species of composition. The same individuals who were ready, at the call of the pope and clergy, to undertake a crusade for extirpating heresy, entertained poets who inveighed against the abuses of the court of Rome, and lampooned the religious orders. One day they assisted at an auto-da-fe, in which her- etics were committed to the flames for the preservation of the Catholic Church ; next day they were present at the acting of a pantomime or a play, in which the ministers of that Church were held up to ridicule. Intoxicated with power, and lulled asleep by indolence, the clergy had either overlooked these attacks, or treated them with contempt ; it was only from ex- * Wodrow's MSS. in Bibl. Coll. Glas. vol. i. p. 2. Calderwood's MS. Hiot. of the Church of Scotland, vol. i. p. 35. Kno.x, Historie, p. 22. 36 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. perience that they learned then- mjurious tendency; and before they made the discovery, the practice had become so common that it could no longer be restrained. This weapon was wield- ed with much success by the friends of the reformed doctrine in Scotland. Some of their number had acquired great celebrity among their countrymen as poets ; and others, who could not lay claim to high poetical merit, possessed a talent for wit and humour. They employed themselves in writing satires, in which the ignorance, the negligence, and the immorality, of the clergy were stigmatized, and the absurdities and superstitions of the popish religion exposed to ridicule. These poetical effusions were easily committed to memory, and were circu- lated without the intervention of the press, which was at that time entirely under the control of tlie bishops. An attack still more bold was made upon the Church. Dramatic composi- tions, partly written in the same strain, were repeatedly acted in the presence of the royal family, the nobility, and vast assemblies of people, to the great mortification, and the still greater disadvantage, of the clergy. The bishops repeatedly- procured the enactment of laws against the circulation of sedi- tious rhymes and blasphemous ballads : but metrical epistles, moralities, and psalms, in the Scottish language, continued to be read with avidity, notwithstanding prohibitory statutes and legal prosecutions.* In the year 1540, the reformed doctrine could number among its converts, besides a multitude of the common people, many persons of rank and external respectability : among whom were William, Earl of Glencairn; his son Alexander, Lord Kil- maurs ; William, Earl of Errol ; William, Lord Ruthven ; his daughter Lilias, wife of the Master of Drummond ; John Stewart, son of Lord Methven; Sir James Sandilands, Sir David Lindsay, Campbell of Cesnock, Erskine of Dun, INlelville of Raith, Balnaves of Halhill, Straiton of Laurieston, with Wil- liam Johnston, and Robert Alexander, advocates.! The early period at which they were enrolled as friends to the Reforma- tion, renders these names more worthy of consideration. It has often been alleged that the desire of sharing in the rich spoils of the PopishChurch, together with the intrigues of the Court of England, engaged the Scottish nobles on the side of the Reformed religion. At a later period, there is reason to think that this allegation was not altogether groundless. But at the time of which we now speak, the prospect of overturning the Established Church was too distant and uncertain to induce persons, who had no higher motive than to gratify avarice, to * See Note K. t Cald! MS. i. 103, 119. Sadler, i. 47. Knox, 21, 24. LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. §f take a step by which they exposed their hves and fortunes to the most imminent hazard ; nor had the Enghsh monarch yet extended his influence in Scotland by those arts of pohtical intrigue which he afterwards employed. During the two last years of the reign of James V. the num- bers of the reformed rapidly increased. Twice did the clergy attempt to cut them off by a desperate blow. They presented to the king a list, containing the names of some hundreds, pos- sessed of property and wealth, whom they denounced as here- tics ; and endeavoured to procure his consent to their condemn- ation, by flattering him with the immense riches which would accrue to him from the forfeiture of their estates. When this proposal was first made to him, James rejected it with strong marks of displeasure ; but so violent was the antipathy which he at last conceived against his nobility, and so much did he fall under the influence of the clergy, that it is highly probable he would have yielded to the solicitations of the latter, if the disgraceful issue of an expedition, which they had instigated him to undertake against the English, had not impaired his reason, and put an end to his ■ unhappy life on the 1 3th of December, 1542.* * Sadler, i. 94. Knox, 27, 28. Pitscottie, 164. Keith, 22. Sir James Melvil's Memoirs, 2 — 4, Lond. 1683. Knox says, that the roll contained " mo than ane hiindreth landit men, besides utheris of meener degre, amongis quhome was the Lord Hamiltoun, then second persoun in the realme." Sadler says, " eighteen score noblemen and gentlemen, all well minded to God's word, which then they durst not avow ;" among whom was the Earl of Arran, the Earl of Cassils, and the Earl Marishal. Pitscottie says, " seventeen score ;" but he includes in his account not only " earls, lords, barons, gentlemen," but also " honest burgesses and craftsmen." 38 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. PERIOD II. FROM THE YEAR 1542, A\HEN HE EMBRACED THE REFORMED RELI- GION, TO THE YEAR 1549, WHEN HE WAS RELEASED FROM THE FRENCH GALLEYS. While this fermentation of opinion was spreading through the nation, Knox, from the state of his mind, could not remain long unaffected. The reformed doctrines had been imbibed by several persons of his acquaintance, and they were the topic of common conversation and dispute among the learned and inquisitive at the university.* His change of views first dis- covered itself in his philosophical lectures, in which he began to forsake the scholastic path, and to recommend to his pupils a more rational and useful method of study. Even this inno- vation excited against him violent suspicions of heresy, which were confirmed when he proceeded to reprehend the corruptions that prevailed in the Church. He was then teaching at St. Andrews ; but it was impossible for him to remain long in a * The progress of opinion in Scotland, and the jealous measures adopted for checking it, may be traced in the variations introduced into the Act of Parliament, 17th of July, 1525, " For eschewing of Heresy," as these are marked in the original record. The act, as originally drawn, in prohibiting the rehearsing of, or disputing about, the heresies of Luther, or his disci- ples, has this exception ; " gif (?. e. unless) it be to the confusion thairof ;" but this being thought too loose, the following clause is added on the mar- gin, "and that be clerkis in the sculis alenarlie." According to the tenor of the act, when passed in 1525, " na maner of person n, sir ungear, that happenis to arrive with thare schip within ony part of this realme, bring with thame any bukis or workis of the said Luther, his discipulis, or ser- vandis, disputis or rehersis his heresies, &c. under the pane of escheting of thare schipis and guidis, and putting of thaire personis in presoun." But in 1.527, the chancellor and lords of council added this clause: "and all uther the kingis liegis assistaris to sic opunyeons be punist in semeible wise, and the eiicct of the said act to straik upon thaim." From this it appears that, in 152.5, Protestant books and opinions were circulated by stranofers only, who came into Scotland for the purpose of trade; but that, in 1527, it was found necessary to extend the penalties of the act to na- tives of the kinnfdom. Both these additions were embodied in the act, as renewed 12th June, 1535. Acta Parliamentorum Scotiae, vol. ii. p. 295, 341, 342, published by the authority of his Majesty's Commissioners on the Public Records of the Kingdom. This highly valuable and accurate work will afterwards be referred to under the title of Act. Pari. Scot LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 39 town which was wholly under the power of Cardinal Beatoun, the chief supporter of the Romish Church, and a determined enemy to all reform. Accordingly, he left that place, and re- tired to the south of Scotland, where he avowed his belief of the Protestant doctrine. Provoked by his defection, and alarmed lest he should draw others after him, the clergy were anxious to rid themselves of such an adversary. Having passed sentence against him as a heretic, and degraded him from the priesthood, the cardinal employed assassins to waylay him, by whose hands he must have fallen, had not Providence placed him under the protection of Douglas of Langniddrie.* The change produced in the political state of the kingdom by the death of James V. had great influence upon the Refor- mation. After a bold but unsuccessful attempt by Cardinal Beatoun to secure to himself the government during the minority of the infant queen, the Earl of Arran was peaceably estab- lished in the regency. Arran had formerly shewn himself attached to the reformed doctrines, and he was now surrounded with counsellors who were of the same principles. Henry VHI. laid hold of this opportunity for accomplishing his favourite measure of uniting the two crowns, and eagerly pressed a marriage between his son Edward, and Mary, the young Queen of Scots. Notwithstanding the determined oppo- sition of the whole body of the clergy, the Scottish Parliament agreed to the match ; commissioners were sent into England to settle the terms ; and the contract of marriage was drawn out, subscribed, and ratified, by all the parties. But, through the intrigues of the cardinal and queen-mother, the fickleness and timidity of the regent, and the violence of the English monarch, the treaty, after proceeding thus far, was broken off; and Arran not only renounced connection with England, but abjured the reformed religion publicly in the church of Stirling. The Scottish queen was soon after betrothed to the dauphin of France, and sent into that kingdom ; a measure which, at a subsequent period, nearly accomplished the ruin of the inde- pendence of Scotland, and the extirpation of the Protestant religion. The Reformation had, however, made very considerable pro- gress during the short time that it was patronized'by the regent. In 1542, the Parliament passed an act, declaring it lawful for all the subjects to read the Scriptures in the vulgar language. This act, which was proclaimed in spite of the protestations of the bishops, was a signal triumph of truth over error.t For- * Bezae Icones, Ee. iij. t Act. Pari. Scot. ii. 415, 425. Sadler's Letters, i. 83. Crawfiird's Offi- cers of State, 77, 4ti8. Keith, 30, 37. 40 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. merly, it was reckoned a crime to look on the sacred books ; now, to read them was safe, and even the way to honour. The Bible was to be seen on every gentleman's table ; the New Testament was almost in every one's hands.* Hitherto, the Reformation had been advanced by books imported from Eng- land ; but now the errors of popery were attacked in publica- tions which issued from the Scottish press. The reformed preachers, whom the regent had chosen as chaplains, dissemi- nated their doctrines throughout the kingdom, and, under the sanction of liis authority, made many converts from the Roman Catholic faith.t One of these preachers deserves particular notice here, as it was by means of his sermons that Knox first perceived the beauty of evangelical truth, and had deep impressions of reli- gion made upon his heart. J Thomas Guillaume, or Williams, was born at Athelstoneford, a village in East Lothian, and had entered into the order of Black Friars, or Dominican monks, among whom he rose to great eminence. § But having em- braced the sentiments of the reformers, he threw off the monk- ish habit. His learning and elocution recommended him to Arran and his Protestant counsellors ; and he was much esteemed by the people as a clear expositor of Scripture. When the regent began to waver in his attachment to the Reforma- tion, Guillaume was dismissed from the court, and retired into England, after which I do not find him noticed in history. But the person to whom our Reformer was most indebted, was George Wishart, a brother of the laird of Pittarrow in Mearns. Being driven into banishment by the Bishop of Brechin, for teaching the Greek Testament in Montrose, he had resided for some years at the university of Cambridge. In the year 1544, he returned to his native country, in the com- pany of the commissioners who had been sent to negotiate a treaty with Henry VIII. of England. Seldom do we meet, in ecclesiastical history, with .a character so amiable and interest- ing as that of George Wishart. Excelling all his countrymen at that period in learning, of the most persuasive eloquence, irreproachable in life, courteous and aflable in manners, his fervent piety, zeal, and courage in the cause of truth, were tempered witli uncommon meekness, modesty, patience, pru- * Knox, 34. t Ibid. 33, 34. I Life of Knox, prefixed to his History of tlie Reformation, anno 1644. 5 Cald. MS. i. 118. Caldorwood says, that he was provincial of the order of Dominicans, or black Friars, in Scotland. But a late author informs us, that the chartulary of the Black Friars' monastery at Perth mentions John Grierson as havinij been provincial from the year 1")25 to the time of the Reformation. Scott's History of the Reformers, p. 96. LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. 41 deuce, and charity.* In his tour of preaching through Scot- land, he was usually accompanied by some of the principal gentry ; and the people, who flocked to hear him, were rav- ished with his discourses. To this teacher Knox attached him- self, and profited greatly by his sermons and private instruc- tions. During the last visit which Wishart paid to Lothian, Knox waited constantly on his person, and bore the sword, which was carried before him, from the time that an attempt was made to assassinate him in Dundee. Wishart was highly pleased with the zeal of his faithful attendant, and seems to have presaged his future usefulness, at the same time that he laboured under a strong presentiment of his own approaching martyrdom. On the night on which he -was apprehended by Bothwell at the instigation of the cardinal, he directed the sword to be taken from Knox ; and, on the latter insisting for liberty to accompany him to Ormiston, the martyr dismissed him with this reply, " Nay, return to your bairnes," (meaning his pupils,) " and God bless you : ane is sufficient for a sacrifice." Having relinquished all thoughts of officiating in that Church which had invested him with clerical orders, Knox had entered as tutor into the family of Hugh Douglas of Langniddrie, a gentleman in East Lothian, who had embraced the reformed doctrines. John Cockburn of Ormiston, a neighbouring gentle- man of the same persuasion, also put his son under his tuition. These young men were instructed by him in the principles of religion, as well as in the learned languages. He managed their religious instruction in such a way as to allow the rest of the family, and the people of the neighbourhood, to reap ad- vantage from it. He catechized them publicly in a chapel at Langniddrie, in which he also read, at stated times, a chapter of the Bible, accompanied with explanatory remarks. The memory of this fact has been preserved by tradition, and the chapel, the ruins of which are still apparent, is popularly called John Knox's Kirk.t It was not to be expected that he would be suffered long to continue this employment, under a government which was now entirely at the devotion of Cardinal Beatoun, who had gained a complete ascendant over the mind of the timid and irresolute regent. But, in the midst of his cruelties, and while he was planning still more desperate deeds,J the cardinal was himself * See Note L. t Chalmers's Caledonia, ii. 526. comp. Knox, Historic, 67. \ In his progress through the kingdom with the governor, he instigated him " to hang (at Perth) four honest men, for eating of a goose on Friday ; and drowned a young woman, because she refused to pray to our lady in her 4* F 42 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. suddenly cut oft'. A conspiracy was formed against his life ; and a small but determined band (some of whom seem to have" been instigated by resentment for private injuries, and the influ- ence of the English court, others animated by a desire to revenge his cruelties, and deliver their country from his oppres- sion) seized upon the castle of St. Andrews, in which he resided, and put him to death, on the 29th of May, 1546, The death of Beatoun did not, however, free Knox from per- secution. John Hamilton, an illegitimate brother of the regent, who was nominated to the vacant bishopric, sought his life with as great eagerness as his predecessor. He was obliged to con- ceal himself, and to remove from place to place, to provide for his safety. Wearied .with this mode of living, and apprehen- sive that he would some day llill into the hands of his enemies, he came to the resolution of leaving. Scotland. England presented the readiest and most natural sanctuary to those who were persecuted by the Scottish prelates. But, though they usually fled to that kingdom in the first instance, the^A did not find their situation comfortable, and the greater part, after a short residence there, proceeded to the Continent. Henry VHL, from motives which, to say the least, were highly suspicious, had renounced subjection to the Roman see, and compelled his subjects to follow his example. He invested himself with the ecclesiastical supremacy, within his own dominions, which he had wrested from the Bishop of Rome ; and in the arrogant and violent exercise of that power, the English pope was scarcely exceeded by any of the pretended successors of St. Peter. XJaving signalized himself at a former period as a literary champion against Luther, he was anxious to demonstrate that his breach with the court of Rome, had not alienated him from the Catholic faith ; and he would suffer none to proceed a step beyond the narrow and capricious line of reform which he was pleased to prescribe. Hence, the motley system of religion Avhich he established, and the contra- dictory measures by which it was supported. Statutes against the authority of the pope, and against the tenets of Luther, were enacted in the same parliament ; and Papists and Protes- tants were alternately brought to the same stake. The Protes- tants in Scotland were universally dissatisfied with this bastard reformation, a circumstance which had contributed not a little to cool tlieir zeal for the lately proposed alliance with England. Sir Ralph Sadler, his ambassador, found himself in a very birth." Pitscottie, 188. Knox says, that the woman, " havinof an soucking babe upon hir brio.st, was drounit." Historic, 40. Petrie's History of the Church of Scotland, part ii. p. 182. He had planned tiie destruction of tlie principal fjontleuK'n of Fife, as appeared from dccumonts found after his deatii. Kno.\, 03, 04. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 43 awkward predicament on this account ; for the Papists were otTended because he had gone so far from Rome, the Protes- tants because he had gone no further. The latter disrehshed, in particular, the restrictions which he had imposed upon the reading and interpretation of the Scriptures, and which he urged the regent to imitate in Scotland. And they had no desire for tlie king^s hook, of which Sadler was furnished with copies to distribute, and which lay as a drug upon his hands.* On these accounts Knox had no desire to go to England, where, although " the pope's name was suppressed, his laws and corruptions remained in full vigour."! His determination was to visit Germany, and to prosecute his studies in some of the Protestant universities, until he should see a favourable change in the state of his native country. But the lairds of Langiiiddrie and Ormiston, who were extremely reluctant to part with him, prevailed on him to relinquish his design, and to repair, along with their sons, to the castle of St. Andrews.^ The conspirators against Cardinal Beatoun kept possession of the castle after his death. The regent had assembled an army and laid siege to it, from a desire not so much to avenge the murder of the cardinal, at whose fall he secretly rejoiced, as to comply with the importunity of the clergy, and to release his eldest son, who had been retained by Beatoun as a pledge of his father's fidelity, and had now fallen into the hands of the conspirators. But the besieged, having obtained assistance from England, baffled all his skill ; and a treaty was at last concluded, by which they engaged to deliver up the castle to the regent, upon his procuring to them from Rome a pardon for the cardinal's nuirder. The pardon was obtained ; but the conspirators, alarmed, or affecting to be alarmed, at the contra- dictory terms in which it was expressed, refused to perform their stipulation, and the regent felt himself unable, without foreign aid, to enforce a compliance. In this interval, a number of persons who were harassed for their attachment to the re- * Sadler's State Papers, i. 264, 265, comp. p. 128. Sir John Borthwick (who fled to England in the year 1540) ridicules the Scottisli clergy for making it an article of accusation against him, that he had approved of" "all tliose heresies, commonly called the heresies of England ;" " Because," says he, " what religion at that time was used in England, the like the whole realm of Scotland did embrace ; in tliis point only the Englishmen differed from the Scottes, that tliey had cast off the yoke of Antichrist, the other not. Idols were worshipped of both nations ; the prophanating of the supper and baptisme was like unto them both. — Truly, it is most false that I had sub- scribed unto such kinde of heresies." Fox, 1149, 1150. t Knox, Historie, p. 67. t Ibid. 44 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX, formed sentiments, repaired to the castle where they enjoyed the free exercise of their reUgion.* Writers, unfriendly to Knox, have endeavoured to. fix an accusation upon him respecting the assassination of Cardinal Beaton)!. Some have ignorantly asserted, that he was one of the conspirators.! Others, better informed, have argued that he made himself accessory to their crime, by taking shelter among them.± With more plausibility, others have appealed to his writings, as a proof that he vindicated the deed of the conspirators as laudable, or at least innocent. I know that some of Knox's vindicators have denied this charge, and main- tain that he justified it only so far as it was the work of God, or a just retribution in Providence for the crimes of which the cardinal had been guilty, without approving the conduct of those who were the instruments of punishing him.§* The just judgment of Heaven is, I acknowledge, the chief thing to which he directs the attention of his readers ; at the same time, I think no one who carefully reads what he has written on this subject, can doubt that he justified the action of the conspirators, jj The truth is, he held the opinion, that persons who, according to the law of God, and the just laws of society, have forfeited their lives by the commission of flagrant crimes, such as notorious miu'derers and tyrants, may warrantably be put to death by private individuals, provided all redress, in the ordinary course of justice, is rendered impossible, in consequence of the otfen- ders having usurped the executive authority, or being system- atically protected by oppressive rulers. This is an opinion of * Act. Pari. Scot. ii. 471, 477—9. Keith, 50, 51. Knox, 66, 67. Bu- clianan, i. 296. t This is done in a book entitled, " The image of both Churches, Hie- rusalem and Babell, Unitie and Confusion, Obedience and Sedition, by P. D. M." (supposed to be Sir Tobie Mattliews) pp. 189, 140, Torney, 1623. In p. 13(), the autlior says, " Yet there is one aduise of Knox •t'hich is to be recorded with admiration, ' It wear f]rood, that rewards wear pub- licklie appointed by the peopl for such as kill tyrants, as well as for those tliat kill wolfs.' " In proof of this he refers to Knox's Historie, p. 372. The reader who chooses to give himself the trouble, will probably search in vain (as I have done) for such a sentiment, either m that or in any other part of the History. X " Quorum se societate, non multo post, implicaret Joannes Knoxus, Calvinistarum minister, qui se evangelicse perfectionis cumulum assecu- tum non arbitrabatur nisi in cardinalis ac sacerdotis sanguine ac ceede triumphasset." LeslfBus de rebus gestis Scotorum, lib. x. The bishop should have recollected, that the violence of liis popisii brethren drove " the Calvinistic minister" to this " pinnacle of evangelical perfection." ) Principal Baillie's Historical Vindication of the Government of the Clmrch of Scotland, p. 42. A. 1646. Cald. MS. ad an. 1590. II Historie, 83. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. m the same kind with that of tyrannicide, held by so many of the ancients, and defended by Buchanan, in his dialogue, Be jure regni apud Scotos. It is a principle, I confess, of very dange- rous application, and extremely liable to be abused by factious, fanatical, and desperate men, as a pretext for perpetrating the most nefarious deeds. It would be unjust, however, on this account, to confound it with the principle, which, by giving to individuals a liberty to revenge their own quarrels, legitimates assassination, a practice which was exceedingly common in that age. I may add, that there have been instances of persons, not invested with public authority, taking the execution of punishment into their own hands, whom we may scruple to load with an aggravated charge of murder, although we cannot approve of their conduct.* Knox entered the castle of St. Andrews at the time of Easter, 1547, and conducted the education of his pupils after liis accus- tomed manner. In the chapel within the castle, he read to them lectures upon the Scriptures, beginning at the place in the Gospel accordmg to John, where he had left olf at Langnid- drie ; and he catechized them publicly in the parish-church belonging to the city. Among the refugees in the castle who attended these exercises, and who had not been concerned in the conspiracy against Beatoun,t there were three persons who deserve to be particularly noticed. Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, Lyon King at Arms, had been a favourite at the court both of James IV., and of his son James Y . He was esteemed one of the first poets of the age, and his writings had contributed greatly to the advancement of the Reformation. Notwithstanding the indelicacy which dis- figures several of his poetical productions,! the personal deport- ment of Lindsay was grave, his morals were correct, and his writings discover a strong desire to reform the manners of the age, as well as ample proofs of true poetical genius, extensive learning, and wit the most keen and penetrating. He had long lashed the vices of the clergy, and exposed the absurdities and superstitions of popery, in the most popular and poignant satires, being protected by James V., who retained a strong attachment to the companion of his early sports, and the poet * See Note M. t Spotswood says, that " seven-score persons entered into the castle tlie day after the slaughter" of the cardinal. History, p. 84. X The coarseness of the age, and the strong temptation which he was under to gratify a voluptuous prince, will not excuse the gross indelica- cies of Lindsay ; and still Ipss will the desire of preserving the ancient dialect of Scotland, and of gratifying an antiquarian passion, apologize for giving to the modern public a complete edition of his works, accom- panied with a glossary and explanatory notes. 46 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. who had often amused his leisure hours. After the death of that monarch, he entered zealously into the measures pursued by the Earl of Arran at the commencement of his government ; and when the regent dismissed his reforming counsellors, Sir David was left exposed to the vengeance of the clergy, Avho could never forgive the injuries which they had received from his pen.* Henry Balnaves of Halhill had raised liimself, by his talents and probity, from an obscure situation to the highest honours of the state, and was justly regarded as one of the principal ornaments of the reformed cause in Scotland. Descended from poor parents in the town of Kirkaldy, he travelled, when only a boy, to the Continent, and hearing of a free school in Cologne, he gained admission to it, and received a liberal education, together with instruction in the principles of the Protestant religion. Returning to his native country, he applied himself to the study of law, and practised for some time before the consistorial court of St. Andrews.t Notwithstanding the jeal- ousy of the clergy, his reputation daily increased, and he at length obtained a seat in parliament, and in the court of ses- sion. | James V. employed him in managing public affairs of great importance ; and at the beginning of Arran's regency, he was made secretary of state. The active part which he at that time took in the measures for promoting the Reformation, ren- dered him peculiarly obnoxious to the administration which suc- ceeded, and obliged him to seek shelter within the walls of the castle.§ John Rough having conceived a disgust at being deprived of some property to which he thought himself entitled, had left his parents, and entered a monastery in Stirling, when he was only seventeen years of age.|| During the time that the light of divine truth was spreading through the nation, and pene- trating even the recesses of cloisters, he had felt its influence, and became a convert to the reformed sentiments. The repu- tation which he had gained as a preacher was such, that in the year 1543, the Earl of Arran procured a dispensation for his leaving the monastery, and appointed him one of his chap- lains. Upon the apostasy of Arran from the reformed religion, * Heroes ex omni Historia Scotica lectissimi : Auctore Johan. Johnstono Abredonense Scoto, pp. 27, 28. Lugduni Batavorum, 1603, 4to. Chal- mers's Life of Lindsay, Works, vol. i. t Cald. MS. i. 119. J Lord Ilailes, Catalogue of the Lords of Session, p. 2. Act. Pari. Scot. ii. 353. { Act. Pari. Scot. ii. 409. Sadler's State Papers, i. 83. Knox, 35. II Fox, p. 1840. He was born A. D. 1510. LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. 47 he retired first into Kyle, and afterwards into the castle of St. Andrews, where.he was chosen preacher to the garrison.* These persons were so much pleased with Knox's talents, and his manner of teaching his pupils, that they urged him strongly to preach in public, and to become colleague to Rough. But he resisted all their solicitations, assigning as his reason, that he did not consider himself as having a call to this employ- ment, and would not be guilty of intrusion. They did not, however, desist from their purpose ; but having consulted with their brethren, came to a resolution without his knowledge, that a call should be publicly given him, in the name of the whole, to become one of their ministers. Accordingly, on a day fixed for the purpose. Rough preached a sermon on the election of ministers, in which he declared the power which a congregation, however small, had over anyone in whom they perceived gifts suited to the office, and how dangerous it was for such a person to reject the call of those who desired instruction. Sermon being concluded, the preacher turned to Knox, who was present, and addressed him in these ^y:ords : " 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 voca- tion, 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 preaching, even as you look to avoid God's heavy displea- sure, and desire that he shall multiply his grace 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 countenance and behaviour, from that day till the day that he was compelled to present himself in the public place of preaching, did sufliciently 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.t This proof of the sensibility of his temper, and the reluctance which he felt at undertaking a public office, may surprise those * Fox, p. 1810. Knox, Historie, pp. 33, 36, 37. f Knox, Historie, p. 68. 48 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. who have carelessly adopted the common notions respecting our Reformer's character ; but we shall meet ^vith many exam- ples of the same kind in the course of his life. The scene, too, will be extremely interesting to such as are impressed with the weight of the ministerial function, and will naturally awaken a ' train of feelings in the breasts of those who have been intrusted with the Gospel. It revives the memory of those early days of the Church, when persons did not rush forward to the altar, nor beg to " be put into one of the priest's offices, to eat a piece of bread ;" when men of piety and talents, deeply affected with the awful responsibility of the office, and with their own insuf- ficiency, were with great difficulty induced to take on them those orders which they had long desired, and for which they had laboured to qualify themselves. What a contrast did this exhibit to the conduct of the herd, which at that time filled the stalls of the Popish Church ! The behaviour of Knox serves also to reprove those who become preachers of their own ac- cord ; and who, from vague and enthusiastic desires of doing good, or a fond conceit of their own gifts, trample upon good order, and thrust themselves into employment without any regular call. We must not, however, imagine, that his distress of mind, and the reluctance which he discovered to comply with the call which he had received, proceeded from consciousness of its invalidity, through the defect of certain external formalities which had been usual in the church, or which, in ordinary cases, may be observed with propriety in the installation of persons into sacred offices. These, as far as warranted by Scripture, or conducive to the preservation of order, he did not contemn ; and his judgment respecting them may be learned from the early practice of the Scottish Reformed Church, in the organization of which he had so active a share. In common with all the original reformers, he rejected thc'Order of episcopal ordination, as totally unauthorized 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 orders, or of necessary observance in all circumstances of the Church. The Papists, indeed, did not fail to declaim on this topic, representing Knox, and other reformed ministers, as destitute of all lawful vocation. In the same strain did many hierarchical writers of the English Church afterwards learn to talk, not scrupling, by their extravagant doctrine of the absolute necessity of ordination by the hands of a bishop, who derived his powers by uninterrupted succession from the apostles, to invalidate and nullify the orders of all the re- formed churches, except their own, — a doctrine which has been revived in the present enlightened age, and unblushingly avowed and defended, with the greater part of its absurd, illiberal, and LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 49 horrid consequences. The fathers of the EngHsh Reformation, however, were very far from entertaining such contracted and unchristian sentiments. When Knox afterwards went to Eng- land, they accepted his services without the smallest hesitation. They maintained a constant correspondence with the reformed divines on the Continent, and cheerfully owned them as brethren and fellow-labourers in the ministry. And they were not so ignorant of their principles, nor so forgetful of their character, as to prefer ordination by popish prelates to that which was con- ferred by protestant presbyters,* I will not say that our Reformer utterly disregarded his early ordination in the Popish Church, although, if we may credit the testimony of his adver- saries, this was his sentiment ;t but I have little doubt that he looked upon the charge which he received at St. Andrews as principally constituting his call to the ministry. His distress of mind, on the present occasion, proceeded from a higher source than the deficiency of some external formalities in his call. He had now very different thoughts as to the importance of the ministerial office, from what he had enter- tained when ceremoniously invested with orders. The care of * Whittingham, Dean of Durham, was ordained in the English Church at Geneva, of which Knox was pastor ; and Travers, the opponent of Hooker, was ordained by a presbytery at Antwerp. Attempts were made by some highflyers to invalidate their orders, and induce tliem to submit to re-ordination ; but they did not succeed. Strype's Annals, vol. ii. 520 — 1. In the year 1582, Archbishop Grindal, by a formal deed, declared the validity of the orders of Mr. John Morrison, who had been ordained by the Synod of Lothian, " according to the Imidable form and rite of the Reformed Church of Scotland," says the instrument, " per generalera synodum sive congregationem illius comitatus, juxta laudabilem ecclesise Scotiaj Reformatae formam et ritum, ad sacros ordines et sacrosanctum niinisterium per manuum impositionem admissus et ordinatus. Nos igitur formam ordinationis et prcefectionis tuse hujusmodi, modo prcemisso factam, quantum in nos est, et de jure possumus, approbantes et ratificantes," &c. Strype's Life of Grindal. Append. Book ii. Numb. xvii. p. 101. It has been objected that Archbishop Grindal was at tliis time under sequestration, and that the license was granted, not by Iiim, but by Dr. Aubrey, as vicar-general. To this it is sufficient to reply, that Mr. Strype is of opinion, that the sequestration was taken off from the time that the writs and instruments run in the name of Aubrey alone, without any mention of Clark, (Life of Grindal, p. 271 ;) that, even during the period of the sequestration, " all licenses to preach, &c. were granted by those two civilians, with a deterence to the archbishop, and consultation with him in what they did," (Ibid. p. 240;) and that the license in question bears, tliat it was granted " with the consent and express command of the most reverend father in Christ, the Lord Edmund, by the Divine Providence, Archbishop of Canterbury, to us signified ;" — " de consensu et expresso mandato reverendiss. in Christo patris domini Edmundi, &c. nobis significato." Ibid. p. 271. Append, p. 101. t Ninian Winzet, apud Keith's History, App. pp. 212, 213. Bnrne's Dis- putation, p. 128. Parise, 1581. 5 G 50 LIFEOFjOHNKNOX. immortal souls, of whom he must give an account to the Chief Bishop ; the charge of declaring " the whole counsel of God, keeping nothing back," however ungrateful it might be to his hearers ; the manner of life, afflictions, persecutions, imprison- ment, exile, and violent death, to which the preachers of the Protestant doctrine were exposed ; the hazard of his sinking under these hardships, and " making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience," — these, with similar considerations, rushed into his mind, and filled it with anxiety and fear. Satisfied, at length, that he had the call of God to engage in this work, he composed his mind to a reliance on Him who had engaged to make his " strength perfect in the weakness" of his servants, and resolved, with the apostle, " not to count his life dear, that he might finish with joy the ministry which he received of the Lord, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." Often did he afterwards reflect with lively emotion upon this very interesting step of his life, and never, in the midst of his greatest sufferings, did he see reason to repent of the choice which he had so delib- erately made. An occurrence which took place about this time contributed to fix his wavering resolution, and induced an earlier compliance with the call of the congregation than he might otherwise have been disposed to yield. Though sound in doctrine. Rough's literary acquirements were moderate. Of this circumstance the patrons of the established religion in the university and abbey took advantage ; and among others. Dean John Annand* had long proved vexatious to him, by stating objections to the doctrine which he preached, and entangling him with sophisms, or garbled quotations from the fathers. Knox had assisted the preacher with his pen, and by his superior skill in logic and the writings of the fathers had exposed Annand's falla- cies, and confuted the popish errors. This polemic being one day, at a private disputation in the parish church, driven from all his usual defences, fled, as his last refuge, to the infallible authority of the church, which, he alleged, had ren- dered all farther debate on these points unnecessary, in conse- quence of its having condemned the tenets of the Lutherans as heretical. To this Knox replied, that, before they could submit to such a summary determination of the matters in controversy, it was requisite to ascertain the true Church by the marks given in Scripture, lest they should blindly receive, as their spiritual * In the former editions, I had spoken of Annand as probably a friar, who, according to the custom of the times, had assumed the honorary title of dean. But I have since ascertained that he was a person of great note in the university. It appears from tlie Records, that he was prin- cipjil of St. Leonard's College in 1544, and continued to hold that office during several years subsequent to that period. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 51 mother, " a harlot instead of the immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ." " For," continued he, " as for your Roman Church, as it is now corrupted, wherein stands the hope of your victory, I no more doubt that it is the synagogue of Satan, and the head thereof, called the pope, to be that man of sm of whom the apostle speaks, than I doubt that Jesus Christ suffered by the procurement of the visible church of Jerusalem. Yea, I offer myself, by word or writing, to prove the Roman Church this day farther degenerate from the purity which was in the days of the apostles, than were the Church of the Jews from the ordinances given by Moses, when they consented to the inno- cent death of Jesus Christ." This was a bold charge ; but the minds of the people were prepared to listen to the proof. They exclaimed, that, if this was true, they had been miserably de- ceived, and insisted that, as they could not all read his writings, he should ascend the pulpit, and give them an opportunity of hearing the probation of what he had so confidently affirmed. The request was reasonable, and the challenge was not to be retracted. The following Sabbath was accordingly fixed for makhig good his promise. On the day appointed, he appeared in the pulpit of the parish church, and gave out the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth verses of the seventh chapter of Daniel, as his text. After an introduc- tion, in which he explained the vision, and showed that the four animals hieroglyphically represented four empires, — the Baby- lonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman, out of the ruins of the last of which rose the empire described in his text, he proceeded to show that this was applicable to no power but the papal. He compared the parallel passages in the New Testament, and showed that the king mentioned in his text was the same else- where called the Man of Sin, the Antichrist, the Babylonian harlot ; and that, in prophetical style, these expressions did not describe a single person, but a body or multitude of people under a wicked head, including a succession of persons occupying the same place. In support of his assertion, that the papal power was antichristian, he described it under the three heads of life, doctrine, and laws. He depicted the scandalous lives of the popes from records published by Roman Catholic writers, and contrasted their doctrine atid laws with those of the New Tes- tament, particularly on the heads of justification, holydays, and abstinence from meats and from marriage. He quoted from the canon law the blasphemous titles and prerogatives ascribed to the pope, as an additional proof that he was described in his text.* In conclusion, he signified that, if any of his hearers * The doctrine which the preacher delivered at this time was after- wards put into " ornate meeter," by one of his hearers, Sir David Lind« 62 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. thought that he had misquoted or misinterpreted the testimo- nies which he had produced from the Scriptures, ecclesiastical history, or the writings of the fathers, he was ready, upon tlieir coming to him, in the presence of witnesses, to give them sat- isfaction. Among the audience were his former preceptor, Major, and the otlier members of the imiversity, the sub-prior of the abbey, and a great number of canons and friars of dif- ferent orders. Tliis sermon, dehvered with a considerable portion of that popular eloquence for which Knox was afterwards so celebrat- ed, made a great noise, and excited much speculation among all classes.* The preachers who had preceded him, not even excepting Wishart, had contented themselves with refuting some of the grosser errors of the established religion : Knox struck at the root of popery, by boldly pronouncing the pope to be antichrist, and the whole system erroneous and antiscriptural. The report of this sermon, and of the effects produced by it, having reached Hamilton, the bishop-elect of St. Andrews, he wrote to Winram, who was vicar-general during the vacancy of the see, expressing his surprise that such heretical and schis- matical tenets were allowed to be taught without opposition. Winram was at bottom friendly to the reformed doctrine ; but he durst not altogether disregard this admonition, and, there- fore, appointed a convention of the learned men of the abbey and university to be held in St. Leonard's Yards, to which he summoned Knox and Rough. The two preachers appeared before that assembly. Nine articles, drawn from their sermons, were exhibited, " the strange- ness of which," the sub-prior said, " had moved him to caU for them to hear their answers." Knox conducted the defence, for himself and his colleague, with much acuteness and moderation. He expressed high satisfaction at appearing before an auditory so honourable, modest, and grave. As he was not a stranger to the say, who, in his " Monarchie," finished in 1553, has given a particular account of the rise and corruptions of popery, under the name of the " fittli spiritual and papal monarchie." Chalmers's Lindsay, iii. 83 — 116. * " Sum said, utheris hued the branches of papistry, hot he straiketh at the rute, to destroye the whole. Uth'eris said, gif the doctors and magistri nostri defend not now the pope and liis authoritie, which in their owin presence is so manifestlie impugnit, the dcvill have my part of him and his lawes botlie. Utheris said, Mr. George Wischeart spak never so planelie, and yet he was brunt ; even so will he be in tlie end. Utheris said, the tyrannic of the Cardinal maid not iiis cause the better, neither yet the suffering of Godis servand maid his cause the wors. — And thair- foir we wakl counsail yow and thame to provyde better defences than fyre and sword; ibr it may be that allis ye shall be disappointed: men now liave uther eyes than tliey had then. This answer gave the laird of Nydrie." Knox, Historic, p. 70. LIFE OF. TOHN KNOX. 53 report concerning the private sentiments of Winram, and nothing was more abhorrent to his own mind than dissimulation, he, be- fore commencing his defence, obtested him to deal uprightly in a matter of such magnitude. " The people," he said, " ought not to be deceived or left in the dark ; if his colleague and he had advanced any thing unscriptural, he wished the sub-prior by all means to expose it ; but, if, on the other hand, the doctrine taught by them was true, it was his duty to give it the sanction of his authority." Winram cautiously replied, that he did not come there as a judge, and would neither approve nor con- demn ; he wished a conference, and, if Knox pleased, he would reason with him a little. Accordingly, he proceeded to state some objections to one of the propositions maintained by Knox, " That, in the worship of God, and especially in the adminis- tration of the sacraments, the rule prescribed in the Scriptures is to be observed, without addition or diminution ; and that the Church has no right to devise religious ceremonies, and impose significations upon them." After maintaining the argument for a short time, the sub-prior devolved it on a grey friar, named Arbukgill, who took it up with great confidence, but was soon forced to yield with disgrace. He rashly engaged to prove the divine institution of ceremonies ; and, being pushed by his an- tagonist from the Gospels and Acts to the Epistles, and from one epistle to another, he was driven at last to afiirm, " that the apostles had not received the Holy Ghost when they wrote the Epistles, but they afterwards received him, and ordained cere- monies." Knox smiled at the extravagant assertion. " Father !" exclaimed the sub-prior, " what say ye ? God forbid that ye say that ! for then farewell the ground of our faith." Alarmed and abashed, the friar attempted to correct his error, but in vain. He could not afterwards be brought to argument upon any of the articles, but resolved all into the authority of the Church. His opponent urging that the Church could have no authority to act in opposition to the express directions of Scrip- ture, which enjoined an exact conformity to the divine laws respecting worship : " If so," said Arbugkill, " you will leave us no Church." " Yes," rejoined Knox, sarcastically, " in David I read of the church of malignants, Odi ecclesiam malignan- tium; this church you may have without the word, and fight- ing against it. Of this church if you will be, I cannot hinder you ; but as for me I will be of no other church but that which has Jesus Christ for pastor, hears his voice, and will not hear the voice of a stranger." For purgatory,* the friar had no bet- * Knox, Historie, p. 70 — 74. " Alexander Arbuckylle" was made Bach- elor of Arts, Nov, 3. 1525. Act, Fac. Art, 54 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. ter authority than that of Virgil in the sixth ^neid ; and the pains of it, according to him, were — a bad wife. Solventur risu tabulae ; tu missus abibis. Instrncted by the issue of this convention, the Papists avoided for the future all disputation, which tended only to injure their cause. Had the castle of St. Andrews been in their power, they would soon have silenced these troublesome preachers ; but as matters stood, more moderate and crafty measures were necessary. The plan adopted for counteracting the popular preaching of Knox and Rough was artfully laid. Orders were issued, that all the learned men of the abbey and university should preach by turns every Sunday in the parish church. By this means the reformed preachers were excluded on those days when the greatest audiences attended ; and it was expect- ed that the diligence of the established clergy would conciliate the affections of the people. To avoid offence or occasion of speculation, they were also instructed not to touch in their ser- mons upon any of the controverted points. Knox easily saw tln-ough this artifice ; but he contented himself with expressing a wish, in the sermons which he still delivered on week days, that the clergy would show themselves equally diUgent in places where their labours were more necessary. He, at the same time, expressed his satisfaction that Christ was preached, and that nothing was spoken publicly against the truth ; if any thing of this kind should be attempted, he recpiested the people to suspend their judgment, until they should have an opportu- nity of hearing him in reply.* His labours were so successful during the few months that he preached at St. Andrews, that, besides the garrison in the castle, a great number of the inhabitants of the town renounced popery, and made profession of the Protestant faith, by parti- cipating of the Lord's Supper. This was the first time that the sacrament of the supper was dispensed after the reformed mode in Scotland, if we except the administration of it by Wishart in the same place, which was performed with great privacy immediately before his martyrdom.! Those who pre- ceded Knox appear to have contented themselves with preach- ing ; and such as embraced their doctrine had most probably continued to receive the sacraments from the popish clergy, at least from such of them as were most friendly to the reforma- tion of the Church. The gratification which he felt in these edit * Knox, Hislorie, pp. 74, 75. t Buchanan, Hist. lib. .w. Open torn. i. 293, 294.^ Pitscottie, 189, folio LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 55 first fruits of his ministry, was considerably abated by instances of vicious conduct in the persons under his charge, some of whom were guilty of those acts of licentiousness which are too common among soldiery when placed in similar circumstances. From tlie time that he was chosen to be their preacher, he had openly rebuked these disorders ; and when he perceived that his admonitions failed in putting a stop to them, he did not cou" ceal his apprehensions of the unsuccessful issue of the enter- prise in which they were engaged.* In the end of June, 1 547, a French fleet, with a considerable body of land forces, under the command of Leo Strozzi, ap- peared before St. Andrews to assist the governor in the reduc- tion of the castle. It was invested both by sea and land ; and, being disappointed of the expected aid from England, the besieged, after a brave and vigorous resistance, were under the necessity of capitulating to the French commander on the last day of July. The terms which they obtained were honour- able ; the lives of all in the castle were to be spared ; they were to be transported to France, and if they did not choose to enter into the service of the P^rench king, were to be con- veyed to any country which they might prefer, except Scotland. John Rough had left them previous to the commencement of the siege, and retired to England.! Knox, although he did not expect that the garrison would be able to hold out, could not prevail upon himself to desert his charge, and resolved to share with his brethren in the hazard of the siege. He was con- veyed along with them on board the fleet, which, in a few days, set sail for France, arrived at Fecamp, and, going up the Seine, anchored before Rouen. The capitulation was violated, and they were all detained prisoners of war at the solicitation of the pope and Scottish clergy. The principal gentlemen were incarcerated in Rouen, Cherburg, Brest, and Mont St. Michel. Knox, with a few others, was confined on board the galleys ; and in addition to the rigours of ordinary captivity, was loaded with chains, and exposed to all the indignities with which Pa- * Buchan. Oper. i. 293. Pitscottie, 191. Knox, 76. f Rough continued to preach in England until the death of Edward VI. when he retired to Norden in Friesland. There he was obliged to support himself and his wife (whom he had married in England) by knitting caps, stockings, &c. Having come over to London in the course of his trade, he heard of a congregation of Protestants which met secretly in that city, to whom he joined himself, and was elected their pastor. A few weeks after this, the conventicle was discovered by the treachery of one of their own number, and Rough was carried before Bishop Bonner, by whose orders he was committed to the flames on the '22d of December, 1557. An account of his examination, and two of his letters breathing the true spirit of a martyr, may be seen in Fox, pp. 1810 — 1812. 56 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. pists were accustomed to treat those Avliom they regarded as heretics.* 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 idol- aters. While the prison-ships lay on the Loire, mass was fre- quently said, and salve regina sung on board, or on the shore within their hearing. On these occasions, they vv^ere 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 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 atiair. One day a fine painted image of the Virgin was brought into one of the galleys, and a Scotch 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 hir- self; sche 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 trou- blesome importunities.! In summer 1548, as nearly as I can collect, the galleys in which they were confined returned to Scotland, and continued for a considerable time on the east coast, watching for English vessels. Knox's health was now greatly impaired by the se- verity of his confinement, and he was seized with a fever, dur- ing which his life was despaired of by all in the ship.J But even in this state his fortitude of mind remained unsubdued,§ and he comforted his fellow-prisoners with hopes of release. * Balnaves's Confession, Epist. Dedic. Archibald Hamilton says, that he was condemned to work at the oar: — 'ImpeUendis lonofarum navium reinis, cum rcliquis adjudicatur.' Dialogus de Conlusione Calviniana; Scctae, p. 64, b. t Knox, Ilistorie, p. 83. X MS. Letters, p. 53. \ One of his most bitter adversaries has borne an invokmtary bnt hon- ourable testimony to his magnanimity at this time: — " Ubi longo maris ta-dio, et laboris molestia extcnuatum (juidem, et subactum corpus tuit ; sod animi elatio eum subinde rerum mao-narum spe extimulans, nihilo magis tunc quam prius quiescere potuit." — iiauiiltonii Dialogus, p. (Jl, b. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 57 To their anxious desponding inquiries (natural to men in their situation), " if he thought they would ever obtain their hberty," 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. (afterwards 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.* We must not, however, think that he possessed this tranquil- lity and elevation of mind during the whole period of his im- prisonment. When first thrown into fetters, insulted by his enemies, and deprived of all prospect of release, he was not a stranger to the anguish of despondency, so pathetically de- scribed by the royal Psalmist of Israel.t He felt that conflict in his spirit, with which all good men are acquainted, and which becomes peculiarly sharp when aggravated by corporal affliction ; but having had recourse to prayer, the never-failing refuge of the oppressed, he was relieved from all his fears, and reposing upon the promise and the providence of the God whom he served, he attained to " the confidence and rejoicing of hope." Those who wish for a more particular account of the state of his mind at this time, will find it in the notes, ex- tracted from a rare work which he composed on Prayer, and the chief materials of which were suggested by his own expe- rience, f When free from fever, he relieved the tedious hours of cap- tivity, by committing to writing a confession of his faith, con- taining the substance of what he had taught at St, Andrews, with a particular account of the disputation which he had maintained in St. Leonard's Yards. This he found means to convey to his religious acquaintances in Scotland, accompanied with an earnest exhortation to persevere in the faith Avhich they had professed, whatever persecutions tlie}^ might sufler for its sake.§ To this confession I find him referring in the defence which he afterwards made before the Bishop of Durham. << Let no man think, that because I am in the realm of England, therefore so boldly I speak. No : God hath taken that suspi- * Knox, Historie, p. 74. f Psalm xlii. | See Note N. 5 Knox, Historie, p. 74. This Treatise appears to have been lost. 58 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. ciou from mc. For the body lying in most painful bands, in the midst of cruel tyrants, his mercy and goodness provided that the hand sliould write and bear witness to the confession of the heart, more abundantly than ever yet the tongue spake."* Notwithstanding the rigour of their confinement, the prison- ers who were separated found opportunities of occasionally corres}ionding with one another. Henry Balnaves of Halhill liad composed, in liis prison, a treatise on Justification, and the Works and Conversation of a Justified Man. Tiiis having been conveyed to Knox, probably after his return from the coast of Scotland, he was so much pleased with the work, that he divided it into chapters, and added some marginal notes, and a concise epitome of its contents ; to the whole lie prefixed a recommendatory dedication, intending that it should be pub- lished for the use of his brethren in Scotland, as soon as an opportunity offered.! The reader will not, I am persuaded, be displeased to have some extracts from this dedication, which represent, more forcibly than any description of mine can do, the pious and heroic spirit which animated the Reformer, when " his feet lay in irons ;" and I shall quote more freely, as the book is rare. It is thus inscribed rj " John Knox, the bound servant of Jesus Christ, unto his best beloved bretln-en of the congregation of the castle of St. Andrews, and to all professors of Christ's true evangel, desireth grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, with perpetual consolation of the Holy Spirit." After mentioning a number of instances in which the name of God had been magnified, and the interests of religion advanced, by the exile of those who were driven from their native countries * MS. Letters, p. 40. f The manuscript, there is reason to think, was conveyed to Scotland about that time, but it tell aside, and was lono- considered as lost. After the death of Knox, it was discovered by his servant, Richard Bannatyne, in the hon-e of Ormiston, and was printed, anno 1584, by Thomas Vaoltrollier, in l"-'mo, with the title of " Confession of Faith, Sic, by Henry Balnaves of Ilalhill, one of tlie Lords of Council and Session of Scotland." — David Buchanan, in his edition of Knox's History, anno 1644, among his other alterations and interpolations, makes Knox to say that this work was published at the time he wrote his History : which may be numbered among- tlie anachronisms in that edition, which, for some time, discredited the authenticity of the History, and led many to deny that Knox was its author. But in the jrenuine editions, Knox expresses the very reverse, " In the presoun, he (Balnaves) wrait a maist protitabill treatise of justifica- tioun, and of the warkis and conversatioun of a justifyed man : ' but how it was su])pressit we knaw not.' " Ilistorie, p. 88, Edin. anno 17-'V2. See also p. 181 of the first edition, in 8vo, printed at London by Vaultfollier in the year 1586. J I have not adhered to the orthography of the printed work, which is evidently different from what it must have been in tlie MS. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 69 by tyranny, as in the examples of Joseph, Moses, Daniel, and the primitive Christians, he goes on thus : " Which thing shall openly declare this godly work subsequent. The counsel of Satan in the persecution* of us, first, was to stop the whole- some wind of Christ's evangel to blow upon the parts where we converse and dwell ; and, secondly, so to oppress ourselves by corporal atliiction and worldly calamities, that no place should we find to godly study. But by the great mercy and infinite goodness of God our Father, shall these his counsels be frustrate and vain. For, in despite of him and all his wicked members, shall yet that same word (0 Lord, this I speak, con- fiding in thy holy promise) openly be proclaimed in that same country. And how that our merciful Father, amongst these tempestuous storms, byt all men's expectation, hath provided some rest for us, this present work shall testify, which was sent to me in Roane, lying in irons, and sore troubled by corporal infirmity, in a galley named Nostre Dame, by an honourable brother, Mr. Henry Balnaves of Halhill, for the present holden as prisoner (though unjustly) in the old palace of Roane, f Which work after I had once and again read, to the great comfort and consolation of my spirit, by counsel and advice of the fore- said noble and faithful man, author of the said work, I thought expedient it should be digested in chapters, &c. Which thing I have done as imbecility of ingine § and incommodity of place would permit ; not so much to illustrate the work (which in the self is godly and perfect) as, together with the foresaid noble man and faithful brother, to give my confession of the article of justification therein contained. || And I beseech you, beloved brethren, earnestly to consider, if we deny any thing presently (or yet conceal and hide) Avhich any time before we professed in that article. And now we have not the castle of St. Andrews to be our defence, as some of our enemies falsely accused us, saying, If we wanted our walls, we would not speak so boldly. But blessed be that Lord whose infinite good- ness and wisdom hath taken from us the occasion of that slan- der, and hath shown unto us, that the serpent hath power only to sting the heel, that is, to molest and trouble the flesh, but not to move the spirit from constant adhering to Cin-ist Jesus, nor public professing of his true word. 0 blessed be thou, Eternal Father ! which, by thy only mercy, hast preserved us to this day, and provided that the confession of our faith (which ever we desired all men to have known) should, by this trea- tise, come plainly to light. Continue, 0 Lord ! and grant unto * It is ' perfection' in the printed copy, which is evidently a mistake, f i. e. beyond. | Rouen, not Roane, is the place meant. 5 i. €. genius or knowledge. || See Note O. 60 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. us, that, as now with pen and ink, so shortly we may confess with voice and tongue the same before thy congregation ; upon whom, look, 0 Lord God ! with the eyes of thy mercy, and sutler no more darkness to prevail. I pray you, pardon me, beloved brethren, that on this manner I digress : vehemency of spirit (the Lord knoweth I lie not) compelleth me thereto." The prisoners in Mont St. Michel consulted Knox as to the lawfulness of attempting to escape by breaking their prison, which was opposed by some of them, lest their escape should subject their brethren who remained in confinement to more severe treatment. He returned for answer, that such fears were not a sufficient reason for relinquishing the design, and that they might, with a safe conscience, eflect their escape, pro- vided it could be done " without the blood of any shed or spilt ; but to shed any man's blood for their freedom, he would never consent."* The attempt was accordingly made by them, and successfully executed, " without harm done to the person of any, and without touching any thing that appertained to the king, the captain, or the house."! At length, after enduring a tedious and severe imprisonment of nineteen months, Knox obtained his liberty. This happened in the month of February 1549, according to the modern com- putation.! By what means his liberation was procured I cannot certainly determine. One account says, that the galley in which he was confined was taken in the Channel by the English.§ According to another account, he was liberated by order of the King of France, because it appeared, on examination, that he was not concerned in the murder of Cardinal Beatoun, nor accessory to other crimes committed by those who held the * This is the man whom a hig-h-chnrch historian has represented as hold- ing the principles of the ancient Zealots or Sicarii, and teaching tliat any person who met a Papist might kill him ! Collier, Eccles. Hist. ii. 54.5. f Knox, Historic, pp. 84, 85. J In one of his letters, preserved by Calderwood, Knox says, that he was nineteen months at the French galleys. Cald. MS. vol. i. 256. In the printed Calderwood, the period of his confinement is limited to nine months, a mistake which has been copied by several writers. It is proper tliat the reader of tliat book should be aware, that it is an abridgment of a larger work, still in manuscripi ; and though there is reason to believe tliat it was drawn up by Calderwood himself, yet, having been printed after his death, and in a foreign coimtry, it is often incorrect. Knox, in a conference with Mary of Scotland, told the queen, that he was five years resident in Eng- land (Historic, p. 289). Now, as he came to England immediately after he obtained liis liberty, and left it (as we sliall afterwards see) in the end of January or beginniuL'' of February 1554, this accords exactly with the date of his liberation, which is given above from Calderwood's MS. 5 This is mentioned in a MS. in my possession ; but little credit can be given to it, as it is written in a modern hand, and no autliority is produced. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 61 castle of St. Andrews.* In the opinion of others, his Uberty was purchased by his acquaintances, wlio fondly cherished the hope tliat he was destined to accompKsh some great achievements, and were anxious, by their interposition in his behalf, to be in- strumental in promoting the designs of Providence.! It is more probable, however, that he owed his deliverance to the comparative indifference with which he and his brethren were now regarded by the French court, who, having procured the consent of the Parliament of Scotland to the marriage of Queen Mary to the dauphin, and obtained possession of her person, felt no longer any inclination to revenge the quarrels of the Scottish clergy. * Petrie's Church History, part ii. p. 184. ' t Hamiltonii Dialog, p. 64. 62 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. PERIOD III. FROM THE YEAR 1349, WHEN HE WAS RELEASED FROM THE FRENCH GALLEYS, TO THE YEAR 1554, WHEN HE FLED FROM ENGLAND Upon regaining his liberty, Knox immediately repaired to England, The objections which he had formerly entertained against a residence in that kingdom were now in a great measnre removed. Henry VIII, had died in the year 1547 ; and Arch- bishop Cranmer, released from the severe restraint under which he had been held by his tyrannical and capricious master, now exerted himself with much zeal in advancing the Reformation. In this he was cordially supported by those who governed the kingdom during the minority of Edward VI. But the under- taking was extensive and difficult ; and, in carrying it on, he found a great deficiency of ecclesiastical coadjutors. Although the most of the bishops had externally complied with the altera- tions introduced by authority, they remained attached to the old religion, and secretly thwarted, instead of seconding, the measures of the primate. The inferior clergy were, in general, as unable as they were unwilling to undertake the instruction of the people,* whose ignorance of religion was in many parts of the country extreme, and whose superstitious habits had become quite inve- terate. This evil, which prevailed universally throughout the Popish Church, instead of being corrected, was considerably aggravated by a ruinous measure adopted at the commencement of the English Reformation, When Henry suppressed the monasteries, and seized their revenues, he allowed pensions to the monks during life ; but, to relieve the royal treasury of this burden, small benefices in the gift of the crown were afterwards substituted in the place of pensions. The example of the mon- arch was imitated by the nobles who had procured monastic lands. By this means a great part of the inferior livings were "^ Peter Martyr, in a letter dated Oxford, 1st July 1650, laments the paucity of useful preachers in England. " Doleo plus quam dici possit, tanta ubique in Ano-lia vorbi Dei pcnuria laborari ; et eos (jui oves Christi doctrina pas- cere tenentur, cum usque eo remisse ag-ant, ut officium facere prorsus recu- sant, nescio quo fletu, quibusve lachrymis deplorari possit. V'crum conrido fore ut meliora simus visuri." Martyri Epist. apud Loo. Commun. p. 760. Genevaj, 1624. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 63 held by ignorant and superstitious monks, who were a dead weight upon the English Church, and a principal cause of the nation's sudden relapse to Popery, at the subsequent accession of Queen Mary.* Cranmer had already adopted measures for remedying this alarming evil With the concurrence of the protector and privy council, he had invited a number of learned Protestants from Germany into England, and had placed Peter Martyr, Martin Bucer, Paul Fagius, and Emanuel Tremellius, as professors in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This was a wise measure, which secured a future supply of useful preachers, trained up by these able masters ; but the necessity was urgent, and demanded immediate provision. For this purpose, instead of fixing a number of orthodox and popular preachers in partic- ular charges, it was judged most expedient to employ them in itinerating through different parts of the kingdom, where the clergy were most illiterate or disaffected to the Reformation, and where the inhabitants were most addicted to superstition. In these circumstances, our zealous countryman did not re- main long imemployed. The reputation which he had gained by his preaching at St. Andrews,! and his late sufferings, re- commended him to thft English council ; and soon after his arrival in England, he was sent down from London to preach in Berwick. J The council had every reason to be pleased with the choice which they had made of a northern preacher. He had long thirsted for the opportunity which he now enjoyed. His love for the truth, and his zeal against Popery, had been inflamed during his captivity, and he spared neither time nor labour in the instruction of those to whom he was sent. Regarding the wor- ship of the Romish Church as idolatrous, and its doctrines as damnable, he attacked both with the utmost fervour, and exerted himself in drawing his hearers from the belief of the one, and * Burnet's Hist, of the Reformation, ii. 24. The suppression of tlie chan- tries, in the reign of Edward VI. was attended witii similar eft'ects. Strype's Memorials of the Reformation, ii. 446. t I omitted mentioning- in the proper place, that the biographer of Sir David Lindsay has stated, from the minutes of the English council, that Knox was in the pay of England as early as the year 1547. Chalmers's Lindsay, i. 32. I cannot suppose that the learned author would confound the salary which Knox received during his residence in England, with a pension allotted to liim when he was in his native country. But, on the other hand, I think it very luilikely that he should have been known to the English Court before he entered the castle of St. Andrews, and am inclined to suppose that any pension which he received from them did not commence until that period at soonest. Mr. Chalmers's language conveys the idea, that he was pensioned by England before he went to the castle. I Strype's Memor. of the Reform, iii. 235. Knox. Hist. 85, 2S9. 64 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. from the observance of the other, with as much eagerness as if he had been saving their hves from a devouring flame or flood. Nor were his eflbrts fruitless. During tlie two years that he con- tinued in Berwick, numbers were converted by his ministry from i'j-norance and the errors of Popery ; and a visible reformation of manners was produced upon the soldiers of the garrison, who had formerly been noted for licentiousness and turbulence.* The popularity and success of a Protestant preacher were very galling to the clergy in that quarter, who were, almost to a man, bigoted Papists, and enjoyed the patronage of the bishop of the diocese. Tonstal, Bishop of Durham, like his friend Sir Thomas More, was one of those men of whom it is extremely ditiicult to give a correct idea, qualities of an opposite kind being mixed and blended in his character. Surpassing all his brethren in polite learning, he was the patron of bigotry and superstition. Dis- playing, in private life, that moderation and suavity of manners which liberal studies usually inspire,! he was accessory to the public measures of a reign disgraced throughout by the most shocking barbarities. Claiming our praise for honesty by oppos- ing in parliament innovations which his judgment condemned, he forfeited it by the most tame acquiescence and ample confor- mity : thereby maintaining his station rfmidst all the revolutions of religion during three successive reigns. He had paid little attention to the science immediately connected with his profes- sion, and most probably was indifferent to the controversies then agitated; but, living in an age in which it was necessary for every man to choose his side, he adhered to those opinions which had been long established, and which were friendly to the power and splendour of the ecclesiastical order. As if anxious to atone for his fault, in having been instrumental in producing a breach between England and the Roman see, he opposed in parliament all the subsequent changes. Opposition awakened his zeal ; he became at last a strenuous advocate for the popish tenets ; and wrote a book in defence of transubstantiation, of which, says Bishop Burnet, " the Latin style is better than the divinity." The labours of one who exerted himself to overthrow what the bishop wished to support, could not fail to be very disagree- able to Tonstal. As Knox acted mider the authority of the protector and council, he durst not inhibit him ; but he was disposed to listen to the informations which were lodged against him by the clergy. Although the town of Berwick was Knox's principal station 'during the years 1549 and 1550, it is probable * Knox, Ilistorie, p. 289. t Sir Thomas More, in one of his letters to Erasmus, gives the following cliaracter of Tonstal: — " Ut nemo est omnibus bonis Uteris instructior, nemo vita moribusqne sevorior, ita nemo est uscjuam in convictu jucundior." LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 65 tnat he was appointed to preach occasionally in the adjacent country. Whether, in the course of his itinerancy, he had preached in Newcastle, or whether he was called up to it in consequence of complaints against the sermons which he had delivered at Berwick, it is difficult to ascertain. It is, however, certain, that a charge was exhibited against him before the bishop, for teaching that the sacrifice of the mass was idola- trous, and that a day was appointed for him publicly to assign his reasons for this opinion. Accordingly, on the 4th of April, 1550, a large assembly being convened in Newcastle, among whom were the members of the council,* the Bishop of Durham, and the learned men of his cathedra], Knox delivered in their presence an ample defence of his doctrine. After an appropriate exordium, in which he stated to the audience the occasion and design of his appearance, and cautioned them against the powerful preju- dices of education and custom in favour of erroneous opinions and corrupt practices in religion, he proceeded to establish the doctrine which he had taught. The manner in which he treated the subject was well adapted to his auditory, which was com- posed both of the learned and the illiterate. He proposed his arguments in the syllogistic form, according to the practice of the schools, but illustrated them with a plainness level to the meanest capacity among his hearers. The propositions on which he rested his defence are very descriptive of his charac- teristic boldness of thinking and acting. A more cautious and timid disputant would have satisfied himself with attacking the grosser notions which were generally entertained by the people on this subject, and exposing the glaring abuses of which the priests were guilty in the lucrative sale of masses. Knox scorned to occupy himself in demolishing these feeble and fall- ing outworks, and proceeded directly to establish a principle which overthrew the whole fabric of superstition. He engaged to prove that the mass, " even in her most high degree," and when stripped of the meretricious dress in which she now ap- peared, was an idol struck from the inventive brain of super- stition, which had supplanted the sacrament of the supper, and engrossed the honour due to the person and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. " Spare no arrows," was Knox's motto ; the authority of Scripture, and the force of reasoning, grave reproof, and * Besides the great council which managed tlie affairs of the kingdom under the protector, a number of the privy counsellors wlio belonged to that part of the country, composed a subordinate board, called " the council of the north." The members here referred to probably belonged to this coun- cil, and not to the town council of Newcastle. If I am right in this con- jecture, Knox might owe to them, and not to the bishop, the liberty of this public defence. 6* I •66 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. pointed irony, were weapons wliich he alternately employed. In the course of this defence, he did not restrain those sallies of raillery, which the fooleries of the popish superstition irresisti- bly provoke, even from such as are deeply impressed with its pernicious tendency. Before concluding his discourse, he ad- verted to certain doctrines which he had heard in that place on the preceding Sabbath, the falsehood of which he engaged to demonstrate ; but, in the first place, he said, he would submit the notes of the sermon, which he had taken down^ to the preacher, that he might correct them as he saw proper ; for his object was not to misrepresent, or captiously entrap a speaker, by catching at words unadvisedly uttered, but to defend the truth, and warn his hearers against errors destructive to their souls. The defence, as drawn up by Knox himself, is now before me in manuscript, and the reader who wishes a more particular account of its contents, will find it in the notes.* This defence had the effect of extending Knox's fame through the north of England, while it completely silenced the bishop and his learned assistants.t He continued to preach at Berwick during the remaining part of this year, and in the following was removed to Newcastle, and placed in a sphere of greater usefulness. In December, 1551, the privy council conferred on him a mark of their approbation, by appointing him one of King Edward's chaplains in ordinary. " It was appointed," says his majesty, in a journal of important transactions which he Avrote with his own hand, " that I should have six chaplains ordinary, of which two ever to be present, and four absent in preaching ; one year, two in Wales, two in Lancashire and Derby ; next year, two in the marches of Scotland, and two in Yorkshire ; the third year, two in Norfolk and Essex, and two in Kent and Sussex. These six to be Bill, Harle,| Perne, Grin- * See Note P. f The compiler of the account of Knox, prefixed to the edition of his History printed in 17S2, says, that the MS. containing the defence bears, that it " quite silenced" the bishop and his doctors. But that writer does not appear to have ever seen the IMS., wliich contains notliing of the kind./ The fact, however, is attested by tlie Bishop of Ossory, who had good oppor- tunities of knowing the truth, and who is accurate in his account of other circumstances relative to it. His words are, " Et 4 die Aprilis ejusdem anni [15."0] aperiens in concione opinionem, ejus idolatrias et horrendas blasphe- mias, tarn solidis argumentis, abominationem esse probabat, ut, cum omnibus sciolis, Saturnius ille somniator [Dunelmensis] refragare non possit." Baleus, De Script. Scot, et Hibern. Art. Knoxus. I John Harle or Harley, was afterwards made Bishop of Hereford, May 2R, 1")53. Strype's Cranmer, p. ;^01. A late writer has confounded this Englishman with William Harlowe, wlio was minister of St. Cutlibert's church, near Edinburgh. Scott's History of the Reformers in Scotland, p. 242. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 67 dal, Bradford, and ."* The name of the sixth has been dashed out of the journal, but the industrious Strype has shown that it was Knox.t " These, it seems, were the most zealous and readiest preachers, who were sent about as itinerants, to supply the defects of the greatest part of the clergy, who were generally very faulty." J An annual salary of forty pounds was allotted to each of the chaplains. § In the course of this year, Knox was consulted about the Book of Common Prayer, which was undergoing a revisal. On that occasion, it is probable that he was called up for a short time to London. Although the persons who had the chief direction of ecclesiastical affairs were not disposed, or did not deem it as yet gxpedient, to introduce that thorough reform which he judged necessary, in order to reduce the worship of the English Church to the Scripture model, his representations on this head were not altogether disregarded. He had influ- ence to procure an important change in the communion office, completely excluding the notion of the corporal presence of Christ in the sacrament, and guarding against the adoration of the Elements, which was too much countenanced by the prac- tice, still continued, of kneeling at their reception. || In his Admonition to the Professors of the Truth in England, Knox speaks of these amendments with great satisfaction. " Also God gave boldness and knowledge to the court of parliament to take away the round clipped god, wherein standeth all the holiness of the Papists, and to command common bread to be used at the Lord's table, and also to take away the most part of superstitions (kneeling at the Lord's table excepted) which before profaned Christ's true religion." These alterations gave great offence to the Papists. In a disputation with Latimer, after the accession of Queen Mary, the prolocutor, Dr. Weston, complained of our countryman's influence in procuring them * King Edward's Journal, apud Burnet, ii. Records, p. 42. f Memorials of the Reformation, ii. 297. Memor. of Cranmer, p. 292. Burnet, iii. 212. Records, 420, 422. I Burnet, ii. 171. 5 Strype's Memor. of Reform, ut supra. Life of Grindal, p. 7. Mr. Strype says, tliat the number of chaplains was afterwards reduced to four, Bradford and Knox being dropped from the list. But both of these preached in their turn before the court, in the year 15.53. And in the council book a warrant is granted, October 27, 1552, to four gentlemen, to pay to Knox, " his majesty's preacher in the north, forty pounds, as his majesty's reward." Strype's Cranmer, 292. This salary he retained until the death of Edward : for, in a letter written by him at the time he left England, he says, " Ather the queen's majestic, or sum thesaurer, will be 40 pounds rycher by me, sae meikle lack I of the dutie of my patentis ; but that littil trublis me." MS. Letters, p. 288. II See Note Q. 68 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. " A runragate Scot did take away the adoration or worship- ping of Christ in the sacrament, by whose procurement that heresy was j^nt into the last communion book ; so much pre- vailed that one man's authority at that time."* In the follow- ing year, he was employed in revising the Articles of Religion, previous to their ratification by parliament.! During his residence at Berwick, he had formed an acquaint- ance with Marjory Bowes, a young lady, who afterwards be- came his wife. Her father, Richard Bowes, was the youngest son of Sir Ralph Bowes of Streatlem ; her mother was Eliza- beth, the daughter and one of the co-heirs of Sir Roger Aske of Aske.:}: Before he left Berwick, Knox had paid his addresses to this young lady, and met with a flivourable reception. Her mother also was friendly to the match; but, owing to some reason, most probably the presumed aversion of her father, it was deemed prudent to delay solemnizing the union. But having come under a formal promise to her, he considered him- self, from that time, as sacredly bound, and in his letters to Mrs. Bowes always addressed that lady by the name of mother. § Without derogating from the praise justly due to those worthy men who were at this time employed in disseminating religious truth through England, I may say, that our countryman was not behind the first of them, in the unwearied assiduity with which he laboured in the stations assigned to him. From an early period his mind seems to have presaged, that the golden oppor- tunity now enjoyed would not be of long duration. He was eager to "redeem the time," and indefatigable both in his studies * Fox, p. 1326. Strype questions the truth of Weston's statement, and says that Knox " was hardly come into England (at least any further than Newcastle) at this time." Annals, iii. 117. But we have already seen that he arrived in England as early as the beginning of 1549. T " October 2, (15')2), a letter was directed to Messrs. Harley, Bill, Horn, Grindal, Pern, and Knox, to consider certain articles exhibited to the king's majesty, to be subscribed by all such as shall be admitted to be preachers or ministers in any part of the realm ; and to make report of their opinions touching the same." Council book, apud Strype's Cranmer, p. 273. Their report was returned before the 20th of November, ibid. p. *301. Burnet says, the order was given Oct. 20. History, iii. 212. The articles agreed to at this time were forty-two. In 1562, they were reduced to thirty-nine, their present number. |: See the pedigree of the family of Bowes among the original papers at the end of the work. 5 From tiiis appellation in the MS. letters, I concluded that Knox was married to Miss Bowes before he left Berwick, until I met with one of his printed works, to which a letter from him to Mrs. Bowes is added. On the margin of this, opposite to a place in which he had called her mother, is this note: "I had maid fiitlifid promise, before witness, to Mariorie Bowes, her daughter, so as she took me for sone, I hartly embrased her as my mo- ther." Knox's Answer to Tyrie, the Jesuit. F. ij. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 69 and in teaching. In addition to his ordinary services on Sabbath, he preached regularly on week-days, frequently on every day of the week.* Besides the portion of time which he allotted to study, he was often employed in conversing with persons who applied to him for advice on religious subjects.! The council were not insensible to the value of his services, and conferred on him several marks of their approbation. They wrote different letters to the governors and principal inhabitants of the places where he preached, recommending him to their notice and pro- tection. J They secured him in the regular payment of his salary until he should be provided with a benefice.§ And out of respect to him, they, in September 1552, granted a patent to his brother, William Knox, a merchant, giving him liberty, for a limited time, to trade to any port of England, in a vessel of a hundred tons burden. II But the things which recommended Knox to the council, drew upon him the hatred of a numerous and powerful party in the northern counties, who remained addicted to Popery. Irri- tated by his boldness and success in attacking their superstition, and sensible that it would be vain, and even dangerous, to prefer an accusation against him on that ground, they watched for an opportunity of catching at something in his discourses or beha- viour, which they might improve to his disadvantage. He had long observed, with great anxiety, the impatience with which the Papists submitted to the present govermnent, and their eager * MS. Letters, pp. 265, 276. t Ibid, passim. \ They wrote a letter in commendation of him, Dec. 9, 1552, to Lord Wharton, deputy warden of the Borders. During the following year, when he was employed in Buckinghamshire, in order to secure greater acceptance and respect to him in that county, the council wrote in his favour to Lords Russel and Windsor, to the justices of the peace, and to several other geii- tlemen. Strype's Cranmer, p. 292. ^ Strype's Memor. of the Reformation, ii. 533. II Bishop Burnet, and Mr. Strype (Memor. of Reform, ii. 299), who have recorded this fact, conjectured that the patentee was a relation of our Re- former. That he was his brother, is evident from Knox's letters, which mention his being in England about this time. In a letter written in 1553, he says : " My brother, Williame Knox, is presentlie with me. What ye wald haif frome Scotland, let me knaw this Monunday at nycht ; for hie must depart on Tyisday." MS. Letters, p. 271. Perhaps the same person is referred to in the following extract from another letter : " My brother hath communicat his haill hart with me, and I persave the mychtie opera- tion of God. And sa let us be establissit in his infinit gudnes and maist sure promissis." lb. p. 206. William Knox afterwards became a preacher, and was minister of Cock- pen, in Mid-Lothian, after the establishment of the Reformation in Scotland. No fewer than fourteen ministers of the Church of Scotland are numbered among his descendants. Genealogical Account of the Knoxes, apud Scott's History of the Reformers in Scotland, p. 152. 70 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. desires for any change which might lead to the overthrow of the Protestant religion, — desires which were expressed by them in the north, witliout that reserve which prudence dictated in places adjacent to the seat of authority. He had witnessed the joy with which they received the news of the protector's fall, and was no stranger to the satisfaction with which they circulated prognostications as to the speedy demise of the king. In a sermon preached by him about Christmas 1552, he gave vent to his feelings on this subject ; and, lamenting the obstinacy of the Papists, asserted, that such as were enemies to the gospel then preached in England, were secret traitors to the crown and commonwealth, thirsted for nothing more than his majesty's death, and cared not who should reign over them, provided they got their idolatry again erected. The freedom of this speech was immediately laid hold of by his enemies, and transmitted, with many aggravations, to some great men about court, secretly in their interest, who, tliereupon, accused him of high misde- meanours before the privy council* In taking this step, they were not a little encouraged by their knowledge of the sentiments of the Duke of Northumberland, who had lately come down to his charge as warden-general of the northern marches,! This ambitious and unprincipled nobleman had affected much zeal for the reformed religion, that he might the more easily attain the highest preferment in the State, which he had recently secured by the ruin of the Duke of Somerset, the protector of the kingdom. Knox had offended him by publicly lamenting the fall of Somerset as dangerous to the Re- formation, of which this nobleman had always shown himself a zealous friend, however blamable his conduct might have been in other respects. J Nor could the freedom which the preacher used in reproving from the pulpit the vices of great as well as small, fail to be displeasing to a man of Northumberland's character. On these accounts, the duke was desirous to have Knox removed from that quarter, and had actually applied for this, by a letter to the council, previous to the occurrence just mentioned, alleging, as a pretext for this, that great numbers of * MS. Letters, p. 193. Knox's Admonition to the Professors of the Truth in England, p. 61, apud History, Edin. 1644, 4to. t The Earl of Warwick, now created Duke of Northumberland, was ap- pointed warden-general of the northern marches in October 15-^1. But being occupied in securing his interest at court, he got himself excused from going north until June 1552. Strype's Memor. of the Reformation, ii. 282, 3=39. I MS. Letters, pp. 112, 173. Admonition, p. 51, apud History, Edin- burgh, 1(544. Knox considered that the Papists had a secret hand in foment- ing those dissensions which led to the condemnation and death of tiic pro- tector. Nor were his suspicions ill-founded. See Strype's Memor. of the Reform, ii. 303 — 7. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 71 Scotsmen resorted to him ; as if any real danger was to be apprehended from this intercourse with a man, of whose fidehty the existing government had so many strong pledges, and who luiiformly employed all his influence to remove the prejudices of his countrymen against England.* In consequence of the charge exhibited against him to the council, he was summoned to repair immediately to London, and answer for his conduct. The following extract of a letter, written by him to Miss Bowes,t will show the state of his mind on receiving this citation. " Urgent necessity will not suffer that I testify my mind unto you. My Lord of Westmoreland^ has written unto me this Wednesday, at six of the clock at night, immediately thereafter to repair unto him, as I will answer at my peril. I could not obtain licence to remain the time of the sermon upon the morrow. Blessed be God who does ratify and confirm the truth of his word from time to time, as our weakness shall require ! Your adversary, sister, doth labour, that you should doubt whether this be the word of God or not. If there had never been testimonial of the undoubted truth thereof before these our ages, may not such things as we see daily come to pass prove the verity thereof ? Doth it not affirm, that it shall be preached, and yet contemned and lightly regarded by many ; that the true professors thereof shall be hated by father, mother, and others of the contrary religion ; that the most faithful shall be persecuted ? And cometh not all these things to pass in ourselves ? Rejoice, sister, for the same word that forespeaketh trouble doth certify us of the glory consequent. As for myself, albeit the extremity should now apprehend me, it is not come unlooked for. But, alas ! I fear that yet I be not ripe, nor able to glorify Christ by my death ; but what lacketh now, God shall perform in his own time. Be sure I will not * The duke's letter was dated Nov. 23, 1552. Hayne's State Papers, p. 136. Brand's History of Newcastle, p. 304. Redpath's Border History, p. 577. t A great number of his letters in the MS. are superscribed " to his sis- ter." It appears from internal evidence, that this was a daughter of Mrs. Bowes ; and, although I cannot be positive, I am inclined to think that she was the young lady whom he married. One letter has this superscription, " To Mariorie Bowes, who was his first wife." In it he addresses her by the name of Sister, and at the close says, " I think this be the first letter that I ever wrait to you." MS. Letters, p. 335. But there is no date by which to compare it with other letters. I Henry Nevyl, Earl of Westmoreland, was, by the interest of the Duke of Northumberland, admitted a member of the privy council in 1552. He was also a member of the council for the north, and lord lieutenant of the bishopric of Durliam. His private character was indifferent. Strype's Memor. of the Reformation, ii. 401, 457—9. 72 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. forget you and your company, so long as mortal man may re- member any earthly creature."* Upon reaching London, he found tliat his enemies had been uncommonly industrious in tlieir endeavours to excite prejudices against iiini. But the council, after hearing his defence, were convinced of the malice of his accusers, and gave him an honourable acquittal. He was employed to preach before the court, and his sermons gave great satisfaction to his majesty, who contracted a favour for him, and was anxious to have him promoted in the Church.t The council resolved that he should preach in London and the southern counties during the following year ; but they allowed him to return for a short time to New- castle, either that he might settle his affairs in the north, or that a public testimony might be borne to his innocence in the place where it had been attacked. In a letter to his sister, dated Newcastle, 23d March 1553, we find him writing as follows: " Look farther of this matter in the other letter,^ written unto you at such time as many thought I should never write after to man. Heinous were the delations laid against me, and many are the lies that are made to the council. But God one day shall destroy all lying tongues, and shall deliver his servants from calamity. I look but one day or other to fall in their hands ; for more and more rageth the members of the devil against me. This assault of Satan has been to his confusion, and to the glory of God. And therefore, sister, cease not to praise God, and to call for my comfort ; for great is the multi- tude of enemies, whom every one the Lord shall confound. I intend not to depart from Newcastle before Easter." His confinement in the French Galleys, together with his labours in England, had considerably impaired the vigour of his constitution, and brought on the gravel. In the course of the year 1553, he endured several violent attacks of this acute disorder, accompanied with severe pain in his liead and stomach. " My daily labours must now increase," says he, in the letter last quoted, " and therefore spare me as much as you may. My old malady troubles me sore, and nothing is more contrarious to my health than writing. Think not that I weary to visit you ; but unless my pain shall cease, I will altogether become unpro- fitable. Work, 0 Lord, even as pleaseth thy infinite goodness, and relax the troubles, at thy own pleasure, of such as seeketh thy glory to shine. Amen !"§ In another letter to the same correspondent, he writes : " The pain of my head and stomach * MS. Letters, p. 267—9. t MS. Letters, p. 112. Melchior Adam, Vitrc Theolo^. Ext. p. l'^7. I The letter last quoted. MS. Letters, p. 273 — 4, compared with p. 2G8. \ MS. Letters, p. 27G. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 75 troubles me greatly. Daily I find my body decay ; but the pro- vidence of my God shall not be frustrate. I am charged to be at Widdrington upon Sunday, where, I thinlc, I shall also remain Monday. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus rest with you. Desire such faithful with whom ye connnunicate your mind, to pray that, at the pleasure of our good God, my dolour both of body and spirit may be relieved somewhat ; for presently it is very bitter. Never found I the spirit, I praise my God, so abundant, where God's glory ought to be declared ; and, there- fore, 1 am sure there abides something that yet we see not."* " Your messenger," says he, in another letter, " found me in bed, after a sore trouble and most dolorous night ; and so dolour may complain to dolour when we two meet. But the infinite goodness of God, who never despiseth the petitions of a sore troubled heart, shall, at his good pleasure, put end to these pains that we presently suffer, and, in place thereof, shall crown us v/ith glory and immortality for ever. But, dear sister, I am even of mind with faithful Job, yet more sore tormented, that my pain shall have no end in this life. The power of God may, against the purpose of my heart, alter such things as appear not to be altered, as he did unto Job ; but dolour and pain, with sore anguish, cries the contrary. And this is more plain than ever I spake, to let you know ye have a fellow and companion in trouble. And thus rest in Christ ; for the head of the serpent is already broken down, and he is stinging us upon the heel."t About the beginning of April, 1553, he returned to London. In the month of February preceding, Archbishop Cranmer had been directed by the council to present him to the vacant living of All-Hallows, in the city 4 This proposal, which originated in the personal favour of the young king, was very disagreeable to Northumberland, who exerted himself privately to hinder the appointment. But the interference of this nobleman was unnecessary ; for Knox declined the living when it was offered to him, and, being questioned as to his reasons, readily acknow- ledged that he had not freedom in his mind to accept of a fixed charge in the present state of the English Church. His refusal, with the reasons which he had assigned for it, gave offence, and, on the 14th of April, he was called before tire privy coun- cil. There were present the Archbishop of Canterbury, Good- rick Bishop of Ely and Lord Chancellor, the Earls of Bedford, Northampton, and Shrewsbury, the Lords Treasurer and Cham- berlain, and the two Secretaries of State. They asked iiim, why he had refused the benefice provided for him in London. * Ibid. p. 260—1. t MS. Letters, p. 262. f Strype's Cranmer, p. 292. 7 K 74 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. He answered, that he was fully satisfied that he could be more useful to the Church in another situation. Being interrogated, if it was his opinion, that no person could lawfully serve in ecclesiastical ministrations according to the present laws of that realm, he frankly replied, that there were many things in the English Church which needed reformation, and that unless they were reformed, ministers could not, in his opinion, discharge their office conscientiously in the sight of God : for no minister had authority, according to the existing laws, to prevent the unworthy from participating of the sacraments, which was " a chief point of his office." Being asked, if kneeling at the Lord's table was not a matter of indifierence, he replied, that Christ's action at the communion was most perfect, and in it no such posture was used ; that it was most safe to follow his example ; and that kneeling was an addition and invention of men. On this article, there was a smart dispute between him and some of the members of the council. After long reasoning, he was told that they had not sent for him with any bad design, but were sorry to understand that he was of a judgment contrary to the common order. He said he was sorry that the common order was contrary to Christ's institution. The council dis- missed him with soft words, advising him to use all means for removing the dislike which he had conceived to some of the forms of their Church, and to reconcile his mind, if possible, to the idea of communicating according to the established rites.* Scruples which had resisted the force of authority and argu- ment, have often been found to yield to the more powerful influence of lucrative and honoural3le situations. But whether, with some, we shall consider Knox's conduct on this occasion as indicating the poverty of his spirit,! or shall regard it as a proof of true independence of mind, the prospect of elevation to the episcopal bench could not overcome the repugnance which he felt to a closer connection with the Church of Eng- land. Edward VL, with the concurrence of his privy council, oftered him a bishopric. But he rejected it ; and in the reasons which he gave for his refusal, declared the episcopal office to * The account of his examination before the council is taken from a letter of Knox, tlie substance of which has been inserted by Calderwood, in his MS. History, and by Strype, in his Memorials of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 400. t Luther having; rejected with disdain the s^reat oifers by which Alexan- der, the papal legate, attempted to gain him over to tlie court of Rome, "He is a ferocious brute," exclaimed the legate, equally confounded and disappointed, "whom nothing can soften, and who regards riches and hon- ours as mere dirt; otherwise the pope »-ould long ago liave loaded liini with favours." — Beausobre's History of the Reformation, i. ^95 — 0. Macaulay'a Translation. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 75 be destitute of divine authority in itself, and its exercise in the EngUsh Church to be inconsistent with the ecclesiastical canons. This is attested by Beza, a contemporary author.* Knox him- self, in one of his treatises, speaks of the " high promotions" ottered him by Edward ;t and we shall find him, at a later period of his life, expressly asserting that he had refused a bish- opric. Tonstal having been sequestered upon a charge of mis- prision of treason, the council came to a resolution, about this time, to divide his extensive diocese into two bishoprics, the seat of one of which was to be at Durhamj and of the other at Newcastle. Ridley, Bishop of London, was to be translated to the former, and it is highly probable that Knox was intended for the latter. " He was offered a bishopric," says Brand, " pro- bably the new founded one at Newcastle, which he refused — • revera noluit episcopari." J It may be proper, in this place, to give a more particular account of Knox's sentiments respecting the English Church. The reformation of religion, it is well known, was conducted on very different principles in England and in Scotland, both as to worship and ecclesiastical polity. In England, the papal supremacy was transferred to the prince ; the hierarchy, being subjected to the civil power, was suffered to remain, and, the grosser superstitions having been removed, the principal forms of the ancient worship were retained ; whereas, in Scotland, all of these were discarded, as destitute of divine authority, unpro- fitable, burdensome, or savouring of Popery, and the worship and government of the Church were reduced to the primitive standard of scriptural simplicity. The influence of Knox in recommending this establishment to his countrymen, is univer- sally allowed ; but, as he officiated for a considerable time in the Church of England, and on this account was supposed to have been pleased with its constitution, it has been usually said, that he afterwards contracted a dislike to it during his exile on the Continent, and having imbibed the sentiments of Calvin, brought them along with him to his native country, and organ- ized the Scottish Church after the Genevan model. This state- ment is inaccurate. His objections to the English liturgy were increased and strengthened during his residence on the Conti- nent ; but they existed before that time. His judgment respect- ing ecclesiastical government and discipline was matured during that period, but his radical sentiments on these heads were formed long before he saw Calvin, or had any intercourse v/ith * Beza3 Icones, Ee iij. See also Verheideni Effigies, pp. 92, 93. Melch. Adam, p. 137. f MS. Letters, p. 73. The passage will afterwards be quoted. \ History of Newcastle, p. 304. Surtee's Durham, vol. i. p. 70. 76 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. the foreign reformers. At Geneva he saw a Church, which, upon the whole, corresponded with his idea of the divinely au- tliorized pattern ; but he did not indiscriminately approve, nor servilely hnitate, either that or any other existing establish- ment.* As early as the year 1547, he taught, in his first sermons at St. Andrews, that no mortal man could be head of the Church; there were no true bishops, but such as preached personally without a substitute ; that in religion men were bound to regu- late themselves by divine laws ; and that the sacraments ought to be administered exactly according to the institution and ex- ample of Christ. We have seen that, in a solemn disputation in the same place, he maintained that the Church has no au- thority, on pretext of decorating divine service, to devise reli- gious ceremonies, and impose upon them arbitrary significa- tions.t This position he also defended in the year 1550, at Newcastle, and on his subsequent appearance before the privy council at London. It was impossible that the English Church, in any of the shapes which it assumed, could stand the test of these principles. The ecclesiastical supremacy, the various orders and dependencies of the hierarchy, crossing in baptism, and kneeling in the eucharist, with other ceremonies — the theat- rical dress, the mimical gestures, the vain repetitions used in religious service, were all condemned and repudiated by the cardinal principle to which he steadily adhered, that, in the Church of Christ, and especially in the acts of worship, every thing ought to be arranged and conducted, not by the pleasure and appointment of men, but according to the dictates of in- spired wisdom and authority. He rejoiced that liberty and encouragement were given to preach the pure word of God throughout the extensive realm of England ; that idolatry and gross superstition were sup- pressed ; and that the rulers were disposed to support the Refor- mation, and even to carry it farther than had yet been done. Considering the character of the greater part of the clergy, the extreme paucity of useful preachers, and other hinderances to the introduction of the primitive order and discipline of the Church, he acquiesced in the authority exercised by a part of the bishops, under the direction of the privy council, and en- * The churches of Geneva and Scotland did not agree in all points. Thouirh liolydays were abolished in Geneva at tlie comniencement of the Reformation, the observance of a number of them was very soon restored, and h;is always continued in tliat ('luirch; but this practice was wliolly re- jected by the Cliurch of Scotland, from the very first establishment of the Refonn;ition, and its introduction has always been vigorously resisted by her Other things in which they differed might easily be mentioned. f Knox, Historic, pp. 72 — 71, and this Life, pp. 5"2, 53 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 77 deavonred to strengthen their hands in the advancement of the common cause, by painful preaching in the stations which were assigned to him. But he could not be induced to contradict or to conceal his fixed sentiments, and he cautiously avoided com- ing under engagements by which he must have assented to what, in his decided judgment, was either in its own nature unlawful, or injurious in its tendency to the interests of religion. Upon these principles, he never submitted to the unlimited use of the liturgy, during the time that he was in England,* and refused to become a bishop, or to accept a parochial charge. When he perceived that the progress of the Reformation was arrested by the influence of a popish faction, and the dictates of a temporizing policy ; that abuses, which had formerly been acknowledged, began to be openly vindicated and stiflly main- tained ; above all, when he saw, after the accession of Eliza- beth, that a retrograde course was taken, and a yoke of cere- monies, more grievous than that which the most sincere Pro- testants had formerly complained of, was imposed and enforced by arbitrary statutes, he judged it necessary to speak in a tone of more decided and severe reprehension. Among other things which he censured in the English eccle- siastical establishment, were the continuing to employ a great number of ignorant and insufficient priests, who had been ac- customed to nothing but saying mass and singing the litany ; the general substitution of the reading of homilies, the mum- bling of prayers, or the chanting of matins and even-song, in the place of preaching; the formal celebration of the sacra- ments, unaccompanied with instruction to the people ; the scan- dalous prevalence of pluralities ; and the total want of ecclesi- astical discipline. He was of opinion, that the clergy ought not to be entangled, and diverted from the duties of their office, by holding civil places : that the bishops should lay aside their secular titles and dignities; that the bishoprics should be divided, so that in every city or large town there might be placed a godly and learned man, with others joined with him, for the management of ecclesiastical matters ; and that schools for the * Cald. MS. i. 250. During' the reign of Edward, and even the first years ofthatof his sister Elizabeth, absolute conformity to the liturgy was not pressed upon ministers. Strype's Annals, i. 419, 4."^2. Burnet, iii. SO-3, 311. Hutchinson's Antiq. of Durham, i. 4.33. Archbishop Parker, in the begin- ning of Elizabeth's reign, administered the elements to the communicants standing, in the cathedral church at Canterbuiy. Her majesty's commis- sioners appointed the communion to be received in the same posture in Co- ventry ; and the practice was continued in that town as late, at least, as the year 1608. Certain demands propounded unto Richard, Archbishop of Can- terbury, p. 45, anno 1005. Removal of Imputations laid upon the ministers of Devon and Cornwall, p. 51, anno 1603. Dispute upon the question of Kneeling, p. 131, anno ICOS. n * 78 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. education of youth should be universally erected through the nation.* Nor did the principal persons who were active in effecting the English Reformation differ widely from Knox in these senti- ments, altliough they might not have the same conviction of their importance, and of the expediency of reducing them to practice. We should mistake exceedingly, if we supposed that they were men of the same principles and temper with many who succeeded to their places, or that they were satisfied with the pitch to which they had carried the reformation of the English Church, and regarded it as a paragon and perfect pattern to other churches. They were strangers to those extra- vagant and illiberal notions which were afterwards adopted by the fond admirers of the hierarchy and liturgy. They would have laughed at the man who seriously asserted, that the eccle- siastical ceremonies constituted any part of " the beauty of holiness," or that the imposition of the hands of a bishop was essential to the vahdity of ordination ; and they would not have owned that person as a Protestant w*lio would have ventured to insinuate, that where these were wanting, there was no Christian ministry, no ordinances, no church, and perhaps — no salvation. JMany things which their successors have applauded, they barely tolerated ; and they would have been happy if the circumstances of their time would have permitted them to introduce alterations, which have since been cried down as puritanical innovations. Strange as it may appear to some, I am not afraid of exceeding the truth when I say, that if the EngHsh reformers, including the Protestant bishops, had been left to their own choice, — if tliey had not been held back and retarded by a large mass of popishly affected clergy in the reign of Edward, and restrained by the supreme civil authority on the accession of Elizabeth, they would have brought the government and worship of the Church of England nearly to the pattern of other reformed churches. If the reader doubts this, he may consult the evidence produced in the notes.t Such, in particular, was the earnest wish of his majesty, Edward VI., a prince who, besides his other rare qualities, had an unfeigned reverence for the word of God, and a disposition to comply with its precepts in preference to custom and established usages ; and who showed himself uniformly inclined to give relief to his conscientious subjects, and sincerely bent on pro- * This statement of his sentiments is drawn from his Brief Exhortation to England for the speedy embracinir of Christ's Gospel, printed at Geneva, anno 1.V.9, and at the end of his Hikory, Edinburgh, 1644, 4to ; and from his letters to Mrs. Locke, dated 6th April, and 15th October, 1559 in Cald. MS. i. pp. ;i80, 491. t See Note R. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 79 moting the union of all the friends of the reformed religion at home and abroad. Of his intention on this head, there remain the most unquestionable and satisfactory documents,* Had his life been spared, there is every reason to think that he would have accomplished the correction or removal of those evils in the English Church, which the most steady and enlightened Protes- tants have lamented. Had his sister Elizabeth been of the same spirit with him, and prosecuted the plan which he laid down, the consequences would have been most happy both for herself and for her people, for the government and for the Church. She would have united all the friends of the Reformation, who were the great support of her authority. She would have weakened the interest of the Roman Catholics, whom all her accommoda- ting measures could not gain, nor prevent from repeatedly con- spiring against her life and crown. She would have put an end to those dissensions among her Protestant subjects, which con- tinued during the whole of her reign, which she bequeathed as a legacy to her successors, and which, being fomented and exaspe- rated by the severities employed for their suppression, burst forth at length, to the temporary overthrow of the monarchy, as well as of the hierarchy, whose exorbitancies it had patronized, and whose corruptions it had sanctioned and maintained — dissen- sions which subsist to this day ; which, though softened by the partial lenitive of a toleration, have gradually alienated from the communion of that Church, a large proportion of the people, and which, if a timely and suitable remedy be not applied, may ultimately undermine the foundations of the Eng- lish establishment During the time that Knox was in London, he had full opportunity for observing the state of the court ; and the observations which he made filled his mind with the most anxious forebodings. Of the piety and sincerity of the young king he entertained not the smallest doubt. Personal acquaint- ance heightened the idea which he had conceived of his char- acter 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 endowments.t But the prin- cipal 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 * See Note S. f "We had," says he in his Letter to the Faithful in London, Newcastle, and Berwick, "ane king of sa godlie disposition towardis vertew, and the treuth of God, that nane frome the beginning- passit him, and (to my knaw- ledge) none of his yeiris did ever mache him in that behalf; gif hie myo-ht haif bene lord of his awn will." MS. Letters, p. 119. Ilehas passed a fuller encomium on this prince in his Historic, p. 89. 80 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. of a readiness to acquiesce, and even to assist, in the re-estab- lishnicut of the ancient superstition, wlienever a change of rulers should render this measure practicable and expedient. The health of Edward, Avhich had long been declining, grow- ing gradually worse, so that no hopes of his recovery remain- ed, they were eager only about the aggrandizing of their families, and providing for the security of their places and fortunes. The royal chaplains were men of a very different character from those who have usually occupied that place in the courts of princes. They were no time-serving, supple, smooth-tongued parasites ; they were not afraid of forfeiting their pensions, or of alarming the consciences, and wounding the delicate ears, of their royal and noble auditors, by denouncing the vices which they committed, and the judgments of Heaven to which they exposed themselves. The freedom used by the venerable Lati- mer is well known from his printed sermons, which, for their homely honesty, artless simplicity, native humour, and genuine pictures of the manners of the age, continue still to be read with interest. Grindal, Lever, and Bradford, who were superior to Latimer in learning, evinced the same fidelity and courage. They censured the ambition, avarice, luxury, oppression, and irreligion which reigned in the court. As long as their sove- reign was able to give personal attendance on the sermons, the preachers were treated with exterior decency and respect ; but after he was confined to his chamber by a consumptive cough, the resentment of the courtiers vented itself openly in the most contumelious speeches and insolent behaviour.* From what the reader has already seen of Knox's character, he may readily conceive that the sermons delivered by him at court, were not less free and bold than those of his colleagues. We may form a judgment of them from the account whicli 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 Win- chester, lord high treasurer, both of whom were among his hearers. His text was John xiii. 18, ''He that eateth bread with me, hath hfted 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 reasons of this, and illustrated the fact from the Scripture examples of Ahithophel under King David, Shebna under Hezekiah, and Judas under Jesus Christ, he added : " Wliat wonder is it, then, that a young and innocent king be deceived by crafty, covetous, wicked, and ungodly coun- * See Note T. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. Si sellers ? I am greatly afraid that Ahithophel be counsellor, that Judas bear the purse, and that Shebna be scribe, comptroller, and treasurer."^ On the 6th of July 1553, Edward VI. departed this life, to the unspeakable grief of all the lovers of learning, virtue, and the Protestant religion; and a black cloud spread over England, which, after hovering awhile, burst into a dreadful storm, that raged during five years with the most destructive fury. Knox was at this time in London.t He received the afflicting tidings of his majesty's decease with becoming fortitude and resignation to the sovereign will of Heaven, The event did not meet him unprepared : he had long anticipated it, with its probable con- sequences ; the prospect had produced the keenest anguish in his breast, and drawn tears from his eyes ; and he had frequently introduced the subject into his public discourses and confidential conversations with his friends. Writing to Mrs. Bowes, some time after this, he says, " How oft have you and I talked of these present days, till neither of us both could refrain tears, when no such appearance then was seen of man ? How oft have I said unto you, that I looked daily for trouble, and that I wondered at it, that so long I should escape it ! What moved me to refuse (and that with displeasure of all men, even of those that best loved me) those high promotions that were offered by him whom God hath taken from us for our offences ? Assuredly the fore- sight of trouble to come. J How oft have I said unto you that the time would not be long that England would give me bread ! Advise with the last letter that I wrote unto your brother-in-law, and consider what is therein contained."§ He remained in London until the 19th of July, when Mary was proclaimed queen, only nine days after the same ceremony had been performed in that city for the amiable and unfortu- nate Lady Jane Grey. The thoughtless demonstrations of joy given by the inhabitants, at an event which threatened such danger to the religious faith which they still avowed, affected him so deeply that he could not refrain, in his sermons, from publicly testifying his displeasure at their conduct, and from warning them of the calamities which they had reason to dread. || * MS. Letters, pp. 175 — 177, and Admonition, pp. 52, 54, apud History, Edinburgh, 1644, 4to. t One of his letters to Mrs. Bowes is dated, London, 22d June 1553. MS. Letters, p. 249. And from other letters it appears, that he was there in the following month. I We have already seen (pp. 75, 76) that this was not his sole reason for refusing preferment in the English Church. § MS. Letters, pp. 73, 74, also p. 250. IJ In his " Letter to the Faithful in London," &c., he puts them in mind of the premonitions which he had given on different occasions, and among L 82 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. Tmmediately after this, he appears to have withdrawn from London, and retired to the north of England, being justly ap- prehensive of the measures which might be pursued by the new government.* To induce the Protestants to submit peaceably to her autho- rity, Mary amused them for some time with proclamations, in which she promised not to do violence to their consciences. Though aware of the bigotry of the queen, and the spirit of the religion to which she was devoted, the Protestant ministers reckoned it their duty to improve this respite. In the month of August, Knox returned to the south, and resumed his labours. It seems to have been at this time that he composed the Con- fession and Prayer, commonly used by him in the congrega- tions to which he preached, in which he prayed for Queen Mary by name, and for the suppression of such as meditated rebel- lion.! While he itinerated through Buckinghamshire, he was attended by large audiences, which his popularity and the alarming crisis di'ew together ; especially at Amersham, a bo- rough formerly noted for the general reception of tlie doctrines of Wickliffe, the precursor of the Reformation in England, and from which the seed sown by his followers had never been altogether eradicated. J Wherever he went, he earnestly ex- horted the people to repentance, under the tokens of divine dis- pleasure, and to a steady adherence to the faith which they had embraced. He continued to preach in Buckinghamshire and Kent during the harvest months, although the measures of government daily rendered his safety more precarious ; and in the beginning of November, returned to London, where he resided chiefly with Mr. Locke and Mr. Hickman, two respec- table merchants of his acquaintance. § While the measures of the new government threatened dan- ger to all the Protestants in the kingdom, and our countryman was under daily apprehensions of imprisonment, he met with a severe trial of a private nature. I have already mentioned his engagements to Miss Bowes. At this time, it was judged pro- per by both parties to avow the connection, and to proceed to solemnize their union. This step was opposed by the young lady's father ; and his opposition was accompanied with cir- others, of " what was spoken in Londone in ma places nor ane, when fyreis of joy and ryatous banketting wer at the proclamation of Marie your quene." MS. Letters, 112, 113. * One of his letters is dated Carlisle, 26th July, 1553. MS. Letters, p. 270. t See Note U. I Fox, 718, 748—0, 751 — 706. Knox, Admonition, p. 67. Appendix to History, Edin. 164 !, 4to. { MS. Letters, pp. 289, 291. * LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 83 cumstances which gave much distress to Mrs. Bowes and her daughter, as well as to Knox. His refusal seems to have pro- ceeded from family pride ; but there is reason to think it was also intiuenced by religious considerations ; as, from different hints dropped in the correspondence about this affair, he ap- pears to have been, if not inclined to Popery in his judgment, at least resolved to comply with the religion now favoured by the court. On this subject I find Knox writing from London to Mrs. Bowes, in a letter, dated 20th September, 1553. " My great labours, wherein I desire your daily prayers, will not suffer me to satisfy my mind touching all the process between your husband and you touching my matter with his daughter. I praise God heartily both for your boldness and constancy. But I beseech you, mother, trouble not yourself too much there- with. It becomes me now to jeopard my life for the comfort and deliverance of my own flesh,* as that I will do by God's grace, both fear and friendship of all earthly creature laid aside. I have written to your husband, the contents whereof I trust our brother Harry will declare to you and my wife. If I escape sickness and imprisonment, [you may] be sure to see me soon." t His wife and mother-in-law were anxious that he should settle in Berwick, or its neighbourhood, where he might per- haps be allowed to reside peaceably, although in a more private way than formerly. To this proposal he does not seem to have been averse, provided he could have seen any prospect of his being able to support himself. Since tlie accession of Queen Mary, the payment of the salary allotted him by government had been stopped. Indeed, he had not received any part of it for the last twelve months.^ His father-in-law was abundantly able to give him a sufficient establishment ; but Knox's spirit could not brook the thought of being dependent on one who had treated him with coldness and disdain. Induced by the importunity of Mrs. Bowes, he applied to her brother-in-law, Sir Robert Bowes, and attempted, by a candid explanation of all circumstances, to remove any umbrage which had been con- ceived against him by the family, and to procure an amicable settlement of the whole affair. The unfavom'able issue of this interview was communicated by him in a letter to Mrs. Bowes, of which the following is an extract : — " Dear mother, — So may and will I call you, not only for the tender affection I bear unto you in Christ, but also for the motherly kindness ye have shewn unto me at all times since our first acquaintance ; albeit such things as I have desired (if it had pleased God), and ye and others have long desired, are never like to come to pass, yet shall ye be sure that my love * His wife. t MS. Letters, pp. 290, 29L t Ibid. p. 196. 84 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. and care toward you shall never abate, so long as I can care for any earthly creature. Ye shall understand that this Gth of November, I spake with Sir Robert Bowes on the matter ye know, according to your request, whose disdainful, yea, despite- ful words, have so pierced my heart, that my life is bitter unto me. I bear a good countenance with a sore troubled heart ; while he that ought to consider matters with a deep judgment is become not only a despiser, but also a taunter of God's mes- sengers. God be merciful unto him. Among other his most unpleasing words, while that I was about to have declared my part in the whole matter, he said, ' Away with your rhetorical reasons, for I will not be persuaded with them.' God knows I did use no rhetoric or coloured speech, but would have spoken the truth, and that in most simple manner. I am not a good orator in my own cause. But what he would not be content to hear of me, God shall declare to him one day to his displea- sure, unless he repent. It is supposed that all the matter comes by you and me. I pray God that your conscience were quiet and at peace, and I regard not what country consume this my wicked carcass. And were it not that no man's unthankful- ness shall move me (God supporting my infirmity) to cease to do profit unto Christ's congregation, those days should be few that England would give me bread. And I fear that, when all is done, I shall be driven to that end ; for I cannot abide the disdainful hatred of those, of whom not only I thought I might have craved kindness, but also to whom God hath been by me more liberal than they be thankful. But so must men declare themselves. Atfection does trouble me at this present ; yet I doubt not to overcome by Him, who will not leave comfortless his afilicted to the end, whose omnipotent Spirit rest with you. Amen." * He refers to the same disagreeable affair in another letter written about the end of this year. After mentioning the bad state of his health, which had been greatly increased by distress of mind, he adds, " It will be after the 12th day before I can be at Berwick ; and almost I am determined not to come at all. Ye know the cause. God be more merciful unto some, than they are equitable unto me in judgment. The testimony of my conscience absolves me, before His face who looks not upon the presence of man."t These extracts show us the heart of the writer ; they discover the sensibility of his temper, the keen- ness of his feelings, and his pride and independence of spirit struggling with a sense of duty, and atfection to his relations. About the end of November, or tbe beginning of December, he retired from the south to Newcastle. The parliament had * MS. Letters, pp. 293, 294. t Ibid. p. 265. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 85 by this time repealed all the laws made in favour of the Refor- mation, and restored the Roman Catholic religion ; but such as pleased, were permitted to observe the Protestant worship until the 20th of December, After that period they were thrown out of the protection of the law, and exposed to the pains de- creed against heretics. Many of the bishops and ministers were already committed to prison : others had escaped beyond sea. Knox could not, however, prevail on himself either to flee the kingdom, or to desist from preaching. Three days after the period limited by the statute had elapsed, he says in one of his letters, " 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 carcass will permit."* 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 information. They were not dilatory in improving the opportunity. In the end of De- cember, 1553, or begimiing 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 find- ing 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 uneasi- ness which the report would give to liis friends at Berwick, he set out immediately with the design of visiting them. Notwith- standing 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 dan- ger, prevailed on him, greatly against his own incUnation, 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 suf- fering as a witness for that truth of which God had made him a messenger. Notwithstanding this state of his mind, he pro- mised, 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."t * MS. Letters, p. 265. t Ibid. p. 284. 8 86 LIFE OP JOHN KNOX. Having ascertained that his friends were not mistaken in the apprehensions which they felt for his safety, and that he could not hope to ekide the pursuit of his enemies if he remained in England, he procured a vessel, which landed him safely at Dieppe, a port of Normandy in France, on the 20th of January, 1554.* * MS. Letters, p. 318. Archibald Hamilton has trumped up a ridiculous story, respecting Kno.x's flight from England. He says that, by teaching the unlawfulness of female government, he had excited a dangerous rebel- lion agamst Queen Mary ; but the queen, having marched agamst tlie rebels, defeated them with great slaughter ; upon which Knox, stained witli their blood, fled to Geneva, carrying along with him a rich noblewoman. Dialog, de Confus. Calv. Sect. p. 65. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 87 PERIOD IV. FROM THE YEAR 1554, WHEN HE LEFT ENGLAND, TO THE YEAR 1556, WHEN HE RETURNED TO GENEVA, AFTER VISITING SCOTLAND. Providence, having more important services in reserve for Knox, made use of the urgent importunities of his friends to hurry him away from those dangers, to which, had he been left to the determination of his own mind, his zeal and fearlessness would have prompted him to expose himself No sooner did he reach a foreign shore, than he began to regret the course which he had been induced to take. When he thought upon his fellow- preachers, whom he had left behind him immured in dungeons, and the people lately under his charge, now scattered abroad as sheep without a shepherd, he felt an indescribable pang, and an 'almost irresistible desire to return and share in the hazardous but honourable conflict. Although he had only complied with the divine direction, " when they persecute you in one city, flee ye unto another," and although in his own breast he stood acquitted of cowardice, yet he found it difficult to divest his conduct of the appearance of that weakness, and was afraid that it might operate as a discouragement to his brethren in England, and induce them to make sinful compliances with a view of saving their lives. On this subject we find him unbosoming himself to Mrs. Bowes in his letters from Dieppe. " The desire that I have to hear of your continuance with Christ Jesus, in the day of this his battle (which shortly shall end to the confusion of his proud enemies), neither by tongue nor by pen can I express, beloved mother. Assuredly, it is such, that it vanquisheth and overcometh all remembrance and soHcitude which the flesh useth to take for feeding and defence of herself For, in every realm and nation. God will stir up some one or other to minister those things that appertain to this wretched life, and, if men will cease to do their office, yet will he send his ravens ; so that in every place, per- chance, I may find some fathers to my body. But, alas! where I shall find children to be begotten unto God by the word of life, that can I not presently consider ; and therefore the spiritual life of such as some time boldly professed Christ (God knoweth), is to my heart more dear than all the glory, riches, and honour, §8 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. in earth ; and the falling back of such men, as I hear daily to turn back to that idol again, is to me more dolorous than, I trust, the corporal death shall be, whenever it shall come at God's appointment. Some will ask. Then why did I flee ? Assuredly I cannot tell ; bnt of one thing I am sure, the fear of death was not the chief cause of my fleeing. I trust that one cause hath been, to let me see with my corporal eyes, that all liad not a true heart to Christ Jesus, that, in the day of rest and peace, bare a fair face. But my fleeing is no matter ; by God's grace I may come to battle before that all the conflict be ended. And haste the time, 0 Lord, at thy good pleasure, that once again my tongue may yet praise thy holy name before the con- gregation, if it were but in the very hour of death !" — "• I would not bow my knee before that most abominable idol for all the torments that earthly tyrants can devise, God so assisting me, as his Holy Spirit presently moveth me to write unfeignedly. And albeit that I have, in the beginning of this battle, appeared to play the faint-hearted and feeble soldier (the cause I remit to God), yet my prayer is, that I may be restored to the battle again. And blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I am not left so bare without comfort, but my hope is to obtain such mercy, that, if a short end be not made of all my miseries by tinal death (which to me were no small advantage), that yet, by Him who never despised the sobs of the sore afliicted, I shall be so encouraged to fight, that 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. And therefore, mother, let no fear enter into your heart, as that I, escaping the furious rage of these ravening wolves that, for our unthankfnlness, are lately loosed from their bands, do repent any thing of my former fervency. No, mother ; for a few sermons by me to be made within England, my heart at this hour could be content to suffer more than nature were able to sustain ; as, by the grace of the most mighty and most merciful God, who only is God of comfort and consolation through Christ Jesus, one day shall be known."* In his present sequestered situation, Knox had full leisure to meditate upon the surprising vicissitudes in his lot during the last seven years — his singular call to the ministry, and employ- ment at St. Andrews — his subsequent imprisonment and release — the sphere of usefulness in which he had been placed in England, with the afflicting manner in which he was excluded from it, and driven to seek refuge as an exile in that country to * MS. Letters, pp. 70, 71, 107, 108. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 89 which he had formerly been carried as a prisoner. This last event seemed in a special manner to summon him to a solemn review of the manner in which he had discharged the sacred trust committed to him, as " a steward of the mysteries of God." It will throw light on his character, and may not be without use to such as occupy a public station in the Church, to exhibit the result of his reflection on this subject. He could not deny, without ingratitude to Him who had called him to be his servant, that his qualifications for the ministry had been in no small degree improved since he came to England ; and he had the testimony of his own conscience, in addition to that of his numerous auditors, that he had not altogether neglect- ed the gifts bestowed on him, but had exercised them with some measure of fidelity and painfulness. At the same time he found reason for self-accusation on diflerent grounds. Having men- tioned in one of his letters the reiterated charge of Christ to Peter, " Feed my sheep, feed my lambs," he exclaims, " Oh, alas ! how small is the number of pastors that obeys this com- mandment. But this matter will I not deplore, except that I, not speaking of others, will accuse myself that do not, I confess, the uttermost of my power in feeding the lambs and sheep of Christ. I satisfy, peradventure, many men in the small labours I take, but I satisfy not myself I have done somewhat, but not according to my duty."* In the discharge of private duties, he acknowledges that shame, and the fear of incurring the scandal of the world, had sometimes hindered him from visiting the female part of his charge, and administering to them the instruction and comfort which they craved. In public ministra- tions, he had been deficient in fervency and fidelity, in impar- tiality, and in diligence. He could not charge himself with flattery, and his " rude plainness" had given offence to some : but his conscience now accusedhimof not having been sufliciently plain in admonishing offenders. His custom had been to describe tlie vices of which his hearers were guilty in such colours that they might read their own image ; but, being " unwilling to provoke all men" against him, he had restrained himself from particular application. Though his " eye had not been much set on worldly promotion," he had sometimes been allured by affection for friends and familiar acquaintances, to reside too long in some places, to the neglect of others which had an equal, or perhaps stronger, claim on his labours. For- merly, he thought he had not sinned, if he had not been idle ; now he was convinced that it was his duty to have considered how long he should remain in one place, and how many hungry souls were starving elsewhere. Sometimes, at the solicitation of * Ibid. pp. 308, 309. 8* M 90 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. friends, he had spared himself, and devoted to worldly business, or to bodily recreation and exercise, the time which ought to. liave been employed in the discharge of his official duties. " Besides these," says he, " I was assaulted, yea infected, with more gross sins, that is, my wicked nature desired the favours, the estimation, and praise of men ; against which, albeit that sometimes the Spirit of God did move me to fight, and earnestly did stir me (God knoweth I lie not) to sob and lament for these imperfections, yet never ceased they to trouble me when any occasion was otfered ; and so privily and craftily did they enter into my breast, that I could not perceive myself to be wounded till vainglory had almost got the upper hand. 0 Lord ! be merciful to my great offence ; and deal not with me according to my great iniquity, but according to the multitude of thy mercies."* Such was the strict scrutiny which Knox made into his minis- terial conduct. To many the offences of which he accused himself will appear slight and venial, while others will perceive in them nothing worthy of blame ; but they struck his mind in a very different light, in the hour of adversity and solitary meditation. If he, whose labours were so abundant as to appear to us excessive, had such reason for self-condemnation, how few are there in the same station who may not say, " I do remember my faults this day !" He did not, however, abandon himself to melancholy, and unavailing complaints. One of his first cares, after arriving at Dieppe, was to employ his pen in writing suitable advices to those whom he could no longer instruct by preaching and con- versation. With this view, he transmitted to England two short treatises. The one was an exposition of the sixth Psalm, which, at the request of Mrs. Bowes, he had begun to write in England, but had not found leisure to finish. It is an excellent practical discourse upon that portion of Scripture, and will be read with peculiar satisfaction by those who have been trained to religion in the school of adversity. The other treatise was a large letter, addressed to those in London and other parts of England, among whom he had been employed as a preacher. The drift of it was to warn them against abandoning the religion whicli they had embraced, or giving countenance to the idolatrous worship now erected among them. The reader of this letter cannot fail to be struck with its animated strain, when he reflects that it proceeded from a forlorn exile, in a strange country? without a single acquaintance, and ignorant where he would find a place of abode, or the means of subsistence. As a speci- men of elevated piety, and the most fervid eloquence, I cannot * MS. Letters, pp. 165—167. Admonition, pp. 46—48. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 91 refrain from quoting the conclusion of the letter ; in which he addresses their consciences, their hopes, their fears, and adjures them, by all that is sacred, and all that is dear to them, as men, as parents, and as Christians, not to start back from their good profession, and plunge themselves and their posterity into the gulf of ignorance and idolatry. " AUace ! sail we, efter so many graces that God has oiferit in our dayis, for pleasure, or for vane threatnying of thame whome our hart knaweth and our mouthes have confessit to be odious idolateris, altogidder without resistance turne back to our vomit and damnabill ydolatrie, to the perdition of us and our posteritie ? 0 horribill to be hard ! Sail Godis halie pre- ceptis wirk no greater obedience in us ? Sail nature no other- wayis molifie our hartis ? Sail not fatherlie pitie overcum this cruelnes ? I speik to you, 0 natural fatheris ! Behold your children with the eie of mercie, and considder the end of thair creatioun. Crueltie it were to saif your selves, and damn thame. But, 0 ! more than crueltie, and madnes that can not be ex- pressit, gif,* for the pleasure of a moment, ye depryve yourselves and your posteritie of that eternall joy that is ordanit for thame that continewis in confessioun of Christis name to the end. Gif natural lufe, fatherly affectioun, reverence of God, feir of tor- ment, or yit hoip of lyfe, move you, than will ye ganestand that abominabill ydol ; whilk, gif ye do not, then, allace ! the sonet is gone doun, and the lyht is quyte lost, the trompet is ceissit, and ydolatrie is placeit in quietnes and rest. But gif God sail strenthin you (as unfainedlie I pray that his Majestic may), then is their but ane dark elude overspred the sone for ane moment, whilk schortlie shall vanische, sa that the beames efter salbe seven fauld mare bryht and amiable nor they were befoir. Your patience and constancie salbe a louder trompit to your posteritie than were the voces of the prophetis that in- structit you ; and so is not the trompit ceissit sa lang as any baldlie resistith ydolatrie. And, thairfoir, for the tender mer- cies of God, arme yourselves to stand with Christ in this his schorte battell. " Let it be knawn to your posteritie that ye wer Christianis, and no ydolateris ; that ye learnit Chryst in tyme of rest, and baldlie professit him in tyme of trubill. The preceptis, think ye, are scharpe and hard to be observit ; and yet agane I affirme, that comparit with the plagis that sail assuredlie fall upon obstinat ydolateris, they salbe fund easie and lycht. F'or avoyding of ydolatrie ye may perchance be compellit to leave your native contrie and realme, but obeyris of ydolatrie without end salbe compellit to burne in hell; for avoyding ydolatrie * If. t Sun. 92 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. your substance salbe spoillit, but for obeying ydolatrie heavenly ryches sal be lost ; for avoyding ydolatrie ye may fall into the liandis of earthlie tirantis, but obeyeris, manteaneris, and con- sentaris to ydolatrie sail not eschaip the haiidis of the liveing God ; for avoyding of ydolatrie your children salbe depryvit of father, fricndis, ryches, and of rest, but by obeying ydolatrie they saU be left without God, without the knawledge of his word, and without hoip of his kingdome. Considder, deir breth- rene, that how mekill mair * dolorous and fearfull it is to be torinentit in hell than to sutler trubill in erth, to be depryvit of heavenlie joy than to be rubbitt of transitorie ryches, to fall in the hands of the liveing God than to obey manis vane and uncertain displeasure, to leif oure children destitute of God than to leif them unprovydit before the world, — sa mekill mair feir- ful it is to obey ydolatrie, or by dissembling to consent to the same, than by avoiding and tlying from the abominatioun, to sutler what inconvenient may follow thairupon. " Ye feir corporall deth. Gif nature admitit any man to live ever, than had your feir sum aperance of reasone. But gif corporall deth be commoun to all, why will ye jeoparde to lois eternall lyfe, to eschaip that which neither ryche nor pure, nether wyse nor ignorant, proud of stomoke nor febill of corage, and finally, no earthlie creature, by no craft nor ingynej of man, did ever avoid. Gif any eschapit the uglie face and hor- ribill feir of deth, it was thay that baldlie confessit Chryst be- foir men. — Why audit the way of lyfe to be so fearful by reasone of any pane, considering that a great number of oure brethrene lies past befoir ws, by lyke dangeris as we feir. A stout and prudent marinell, in tyme of tempest, seeing but one or two schippis, or like weschells to his, pass throughout any danger, and to win a sure harberie, will have gud esperance, § by the like Avind, to do the same. AUace ! sail ye be mair feir- fiill to win lyfe eternah, than the natural man is to save the cor- porall lyfe ? Hes not the maist part of the Sanctis of God from the begynning enterit into thair rest, by torment and trubillis ? And yit what complayntis find we in thair mouthis, except it be the lamenting of thair persecuteris ? Did God comfort thame ? and sail his Majestic despyse us, gif, in fichting againis iniquitie, we will follow thair futstepis ? Hie will not." || On the last day of February, 1554,1i he set out from Dieppe, ♦ Much more. f Robbed. J Wit. 5 Hope. 11 Letter to the Faithful in London, &c. in MS. Letters, pp. 149 — 151, 156. IT His Exposition of tlie sixth Psalm concludes with these words: " Tpon the very point of my journey, ths last of February, l.^>-58." MS. Letters, p. 109. The reader will recoil oct, that in our Rjforuipr's time, they did not LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 93 like the Hebrew patriarch of old, " not knowing whither he went;"* and " committing his way to God," travelled through France to Switzerland. A correspondence had been kept up between some of the English reformers and the most noted divines of the Helvetic Church. The latter had already heard with the sincerest grief, of the overthrow of the Reformation, and the dispersion of its friends, in England. On making him- self known, Knox was cordially received by them, and treated with the most affectionate hospitality. He spent some time in Switzerland, visiting the particular churches, and conferring with the learned men of that country ; and embraced the op- portunity of submitting to them certain difficult questions, which were suggested by the present conjuncture of affairs in Eng- land, and about which his mind had been greatly occupied. Their views with respect to these coinciding with his own, he was confirmed in the judgment which he had already formed for himself t In the beginning of May he returned to Dieppe, to receive information from England; a journey which he repeated at intervals as long as he remained on the Continent. The kind reception which he had met with, and the agreeable company which he enjoyed during his short residence in Switzerland, had helped to dissipate the cloud which hung upon his spirits when he landed in France, and to open his mind to more pleas- ing prospects as to the issue of the present afflicting events. This appears from a letter written by him at this time, and addressed " To his afflicted brethren." After discoursing of the situation of the disciples of Christ during the time that he lay in the grave, and of the sudden transition which they experi- enced, upon the reappearance of their Master, from the depth of sorrow to the summit of joy, he adds : " The remembrance thereof is unto my heart great matter of consolation. For yet my good hope is, that one day or other, Christ Jesus, that now is crucified in England, shall rise again, in despite of his ene- mies, and shall appear to his weak and sore troubled disciples ; begin the year until the 25th of March; so that "February, 1553," accord- ing to the old reckoning, is, " February, 1554," according to the modern. * His Letter to the Faithful in London, &c. concludes thus : — " From ane sore trubillit hart, upon my departure from Diep, 1558, lohilher God hnaw- eth. In God is my trust through Jesus Chryst his sone; and, thairfor, I feir not the tyrannie of man, nether yet what the devill can invent against me. Rejoice, ye faitlifull ; for in joy sJiall we meit, wher deth may not dissever us." MS. Letters, pp. 157, 158. t In a Letter, dated Dieppe, May 10, 1554, he says, " My awin estait is this : since the 28 of Januar," coui.ting from the time he came to France, " I have travellit throughout all tlie congregations of Helvetia, and iias rea- sonit with all the pastoris and mixny other excellent! ie learnit men, upon sic matters as now I cannot comit to wryttiiig." MS. Letters, p. 318. 94 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. (for yet some he hath in that wretched and miserable realm) ; to whom he shall say, ' Peace be unto you ; it is I, be not afraid.' "* His spirit was also refreshed at this time, by the information that he received of the constancy with which his mother-in-law adhered to the Protestant faith. Her husband, it appears, took it for granted that she and the rest of the family had consciences equally accommodating with his own. It was not until she had evinced, in the most determined manner, her resolution to for- sake friends and native country, rather than sacrifice her reli- gion, that she was released from his importunities to comply with the Roman Catholic religion.! Before he went to Switzer- land, Knox had signified his intention, if his life was spared, of visiting his friends at Berwick.^ When he returned to Di- eppe, he had not relinquished the thoughts of this enterprise. § It is likely that his friends had, in their letters, dissuaded him from it ; and, after cool consideration, he resolved to postpone an attempt, by which he must have risked his life, without the prospect of doing any good.|| Wherefore, setting out again from Dieppe, he repaired to Geneva. The celebrated Calvin was then in the zenith of his reputation and usefulness in that city, and having completed its ecclesiastical establishment, and surmounted the opposition raised by those who envied his authority, or disliked his system of doctrine and discipline, was securely seated in the affections of the citizens. His writings were already translated into most of the languages of Europe ; and Geneva was thronged with strangers from England, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and even from Spain and Italy, who came to consult him about the advancement of the Reformation, or to find shelter from the persecutions to which they were exposed in their native coun- tries. The name of Calvin was respected by none more than the Protestants of England ; and, at the desire of Archbishop Cranmer, he had imparted to the Protector Somerset and to Edward VI. his advice as to the best method of advancing the Reformation in that kingdom. If Knox was afiectionately re- ceived by him as a refugee from England, and an intimate friendship was soon formed between them, which subsisted until the death of Calvin in 1564, They 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. * MS. Letters, pp. .313—315. t MS. Letters, p. 311. t Ibid. p. 108. \ Ibid. p. 310. II Ibid. p. 310. IT Strype's Cranmer, p. 413. Calvini Epist. et Respons. pp. 179, 245, 248, Hanov. 1597. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 95 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 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. But no prospect of personal safety or accommodation could banish from his mind the thoughts of his persecuted countiymen. In the month of July he undertook another journey to Dieppe, to inform himself accurately of their situation, and to learn if he could do any thing for their comfort.* The tidings he received on this occasion tore open those wounds which had begun to close. In Scotland, every thing was dark and discouraging. The severities used against the Protestants of England daily increased ; and, what was still more afflicting to him, many of those who had embraced the truth under his ministry had been induced to return to the communion of the Popish Church. In the agony of his spirit, he wrote to them, setting before them the destruction to which they exposed their immortal souls by such cowardly desertion, and earnestly calling them to repent- ance.! Under his present impressions, he repeated his former admonitions to his mother-in-law, and to his wife ; over whose religious constancy he was tenderly jealous. " By pen will I write (because the bodies are put asunder to meet again at God's pleasure) that which, by mouth, and face to face, ye have heard, that if man or angel labour to bring you back from the confession that once you have given, let them in that behalf be accursed. If any trouble you above measure, whether they be magistrates or carnal friends, they shall bear their just condemnation, unless they speedily repent. But now, mother, comfort you my heart (God grant ye may) in this my great affliction and dolorous pilgrimage ; continue stoutly to the end, and bow you never before that idol, and so will the rest of worldly troubles be unto * One of his letters to Mrs. Bowes is dated, " At Diep the 20 of July 1544, after I had visited Geneva and uther partis, and returned to Diep to learn the estait of Ligland and Scotland." MS. Letters, pp. 255, 25G. This is the letter which was publ itched by Knox, along with his answer to Tyrie, in 1572, after the death of Mrs. Bowes. t In the letter mentioned in last note, he refers his mother-in-law to " a general letter written," says he, " be me in greit anguiss of hart, to the congregationis of whome I heir say a greit part, under pretence that thai may keip faith secreitt in the hart, and yet do as idolaters do, beginnis now to fall before that idoll. But O, alas ! blindit and desavit ar thai ; as they sail knaw in the Lordis visitatioun, wliilk, sa assuredlie as our God liveth, sail shortlie apprehend thai backstarteris amangis the middis of idolateris." MS. Letter.-?, p. 252. On the margin of tlie printed copy is his note : " Fre- quent letters written by Johne Knox to decline ti-om idolatrie." 96 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. me more tolerable. With my own heart I often commmie,yea, and, as it were comforting myself, I appear to triumph, that God shall never suffer you to fall in that rebuke. Sure I am that both ye would fear and eschame to commit that abomination in my presence, who am but a wretched man, subject to sin and misery like to yourself. But, 0 mother ! though no earthly creature should be offended with you, yet fear ye the presence and offence of Him, who, present in all places, searcheth the very heart and reins — whose indignation, once kindled against the inobedient (and no sin more inflameth his wrath than idolatry doth), no creature in heaven nor in earth is able to appease."* He was in this state of mind when he composed the Admoni- tion to England, which was published about the end of this year. Those who have censured him, as indulging in an excessive vehemence of spirit and bitterness of language, usually refer to this tract in support of their charge.t It is true that he there paints the persecuting Papists in the blackest colours, and holds "them up as objects of human execration and divine vengeance. I do not now stop to inquire, whether he was chargeable with transgressing the bouncls of moderation prescribed by reason and religion, in the expression of his indignation and zeal ; or whether the censures pronounced by his accusers, and the prin- ciples upon which they proceed, do not involve a condemnation of the temper and language of the most righteous men mentioned in Scripture, and even of our Saviour himself. But, I may ask, is there no apology for his severity to be found in the character of the persons against whom he wrote, and in the state of his own feelings, lacerated, not by personal sufferings, but by sympathy with his suffering brethren, who were driven into prisons by their unnatural countrymen, " as sheep for the slaughter," to be brought forth and barbarously immolated to appease the Roman Moloch ? Who could suppress indignation in speaking of the conduct of men, who, liaving raised themselves to honour and affluence by the warmest professions of friendship to the reformed religion under the preceding reign, now abetted the most violent measures against their former brethren and benefactors ? 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 her- self of the tenderness which characterizes 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 * MS. Letters, pp. 251—253. f Collier, Ecclos. History, ii. 441. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 97 murder of her subjects, until her own husband, bigoted and un- feeling as he was, turned with disgust from the spectacle ? On such a theme 'tis impious to be calm ; Passion is reason, transport temper here. Oppression makes a wise man mad ; but (to use the words of a modern orator, with a more just application) " the distemper is still the madness of the wise, which is better than the sobriety of fools. Their cry is the voice of sacred misery, exalted, not into wild raving, but into the sanctified frenzy of prophecy and inspiration." Knox returned to Geneva, and applied himself to study with all the ardour of youth, although his age now bordered upon fifty. It seems to have been at this time that he made himself master of the Hebrew language, which he had no opportunity of acquiring in early life.* It is natural to inquire by what funds he was supported during his exile. However much in- clined his mother-in-law was to relieve his necessities, the dis- position of her husband appears to have put it greatly out of her power. Any small sums which his friends had advanced to him, before his sudden departure from England, were ex- hausted; and he was at this time very much straitened for money. Being unwilling to burden strangers, he looked for assistance to the voluntary contributions of those among whom he had laboured. In a letter to Mrs. Bowes, he says, " My own estate I cannot well declare ; but God shall guide the footsteps of him that is wilsome, and will feed him in trouble that never greatly solicited for the world. If any collection might be made among the faithful, it were no shame for me to receive that which Paul refused not in the time of his trouble. But all I remit to his Providence that ever careth for his own."t I find that remittances were made to him by particular friends, both in England and Scotland, during his residence on the Continent. J Meanwhile, the persecution growing hot in England, great numbers of Protestants had made their escape from that king- dom. Before the close of the year 1554, there were on the Continent several hundred Englishmen of good education, besides others of different ranks, who had preferred religion to country, and voluntarily encountered all the hardships of exile, that they might hold fast the profession of the Protestant faith. The foreign reformed churches exhibited, on this occasion, an amiable proof of the spirit of their religion, and amply recom- * MS. Letters, p. 322. Davidson's Breif Commendatioun of Uprichtnes ; reprinted in the Supplement. t MS. Letters, p. 256. f Ibid. pp. 344, 373. 9 N g8 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. peiised the kindness which England had shewn to strangers during the reign of Edward. They emulated one another in exertions to accommodate the unfortunate refugees who were dispersed among tliem, and endeavoured, with tiie most atiec- tionate sohcitude, to supply their wants and alleviate their sutlerings. * The principal places in which the English exiles obtained settlements, were Zurich, Easle, Geneva, Arrow, Embden, Wesel, Strasburg, Duysburg, and Frankfort. Frankfort on the Maine was a rich imperial city of Germany, which, at an early period, had embraced the Reformation, and befriended Protestant refugees from all countries, so far as this could be done without coming to an open breach with the em- peror, by whom their conduct was watched with a jealous eye. There was already a church of French Protestants in that city. On the 14th of July 1554, the English who had come to Frank- fort obtained from the magistrates the joint use of the place of worship allotted to the French, with liberty to perform religious service in their own language, t This was granted upon the condition of their conforming, as nearly as possible, to the mode of worship used by the French Church ; a prudent precaution, dictated by the political situation in which the city was placed. The offer was gratefully accepted by the English, who came to a unanimous agreement, that they would omit the use of the surplice, the litany, the audible responses, and some other cere- monies prescribed by the English liturgy, which, '• in those re- formed churches, would seem more than strange," or which were "superstitious and superfluous." Having settled this point in the most harmonious manner, elected deacons and a temporary pastor, and agreed upon certain rules of discipline, they wrote a circular letter to their brethren who were scattered through different places, informing them of the agreeable settle- ment which they had obtained, and inviting them to participate in their accommodations at Frankfort, and unite with them in prayers for the afflicted Church of England. The exiles at Strasburg, in their reply to this letter, recommended to them * It is painful to observe, that many of the Lutherans, at this time, dis- graced themselves by their illiberal inhospitality, refusing, in different in- stances, to admit those who fled from England into their harbours and towns, because they difiered from them in their sentiments on the sacramental con- troversy. Melch. Adami Vita> Exter. Theoloaf. p. 20. Strype's Cranmer, p. 35:^ ;if)l. Gerdesii Hist. Reform, tom. iii. 2:35—237. f The Enolish exiles were greatly indebted for this favour to the friendly services of the French pastors. One of these, Valerandus Polanus, was a native of Flanders, and had been minister of a congregation in Strasburg. During the confiisions produced in Germany by the Interim, he had retired along with his congregation to England, and obtained a settlement at Glas- tonbury. Upon the death of Edward VI. he went to Frankfort. Strype's Memor. of tlie Reform, ii. 242. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 99 certain persons as well qualified for filling the offices of super- intendent and pastor ; a recommendatien not asked by the congregation at Frankfort, who did not think a superintendent necessary in their situation, and who intended to put themselves under the inspection of two or three pastors invested with equal authority. They accordingly proceeded to make choice of three persons to this office. One of these was Knox, who re- ceived information of his election by a letter written in the name of the congregation, and subscribed by its principal members.* The deputation which waited on him with this invitation found him engaged in the prosecution of his studies at Geneva. From aversion to sacrifice the advantages which he enjoyed, or from the apprehension of difficulties that he might meet with at Frankfort, he would gladly have excused himself from ac- cepting the invitation. But the deputies having employed the powerful intercession of Calvin,t he was induced to comply, and repairing to Frankfort in the month of November, com- menced his ministry with the universal consent and approba- tion of the Church. Previous to his arrival, however, the harmony which at first subsisted among that people had been disturbed. In reply to the letter addressed to them, the exiles at Zurich had signified that they would not come to Frankfort, unless they obtained security that the Church there would " use the same order of service concerning religion, which was, in England, last set forth by King Edward ;" for they were fully determined " to admit and use no other." They alleged, that, by varying from that service, they would give occasion to their adversaries to charge their religion with im- perfection and mutability, and would condemn their brethren who were sealing it with their blood in England. To these representations the brethren at Frankfort replied, that they had obtained the liberty of a place of worship, upon condition of their accommodating themselves as much as possible to the forms used by the French Church ; that there were a number of tilings in the English service-book which would be offensive to the Protestants among whom they resided, and which had been occasion of scruple to conscientious persons at home ; that, by the variations which they had introduced, they were very far from meaning to throw any reflection upon the regu- lations of their late sovereign and his council, who had them- selves altered many things, and had resolved on- still greater alterations, without thinking that they gave any handle to their popish adversaries ; and still less did they mean to detract from the credit of the martyrs, who, they were persuaded, shed their * See Note V. t Knox, Historic, p. 85. 100 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. blood in confirmation of more important things than mutable ceremonies of human appointment. This reply had the ctfect of lowering the tone of the exiles at Zurich, but it did not satisfy them ; and instead of desisting from the controv^ersy, and contenting themselves with remaining Avhere they were, they instigated their brethren at Strasburg to urge the same re- quest, and, by letters and messengers, fomented dissension in the congregation at Frankfort.* When Knox arrived, he found that the seeds of animosity had already sprung up among them. From what we already know of his sentiments respecting the English service-book, we may be sure that the eagerness manifested by those who wished to impose it was very displeasing to him. But so sensible was he of the pernicious and discreditable eflects of division among brethren exiled for the same faith, that he resolved to act as a moderator between the two parties, and to avoid, as far as pos- sible, every thing which might have a tendency to widen or continue the breach. Accordingly, when the congregation had agreed to adopt the order of the Genevan Church,t and re- quested him to proceed to administer the communion according to it, although he approved of that form, he declined carrying it into practice, until their learned brethren in other places were consulted. At the same time, he signified that he had not free- dom to dispense the sacraments agreeably to the English liturgy. If he could not be allowed to perform tliis service in a manner more consonant to Scripture, he requested that some other per- son might be employed in this part of duty, in which case he would willingly confine himself to preaching ; and if neither of these could be granted, he besought them to release him alto- gether from his charge. To this last request they would by no means consent. Fearing that, if these differences were not speedily accom- modated, they would burst into a flame, Knox, and some other members of the congregation, drew up a svmimary of the Book of Common Prayer, and, having translated it into Latin, sent it to Calvin for his opinion and advice. In a reply, dated January =" Brieff Discours oft' the Troubles be^onne at Franckford in Germany, Anno Domini loijJ, abowtc the booke oft' Common Prayer, pp. xviii — xxiv. Printed in 1575. This work contains a full account of the transactions of the English Churcli at Frankfort, conftrmed by original papers. The author was a non-conformist, but his narrative was allowed to be accurate by the opposite party. To save repetition, I may mention once for all, that, when no autliority "is referred to, my statement of these transactions is taken from this book. It was reprinted in 1(M"J, and is also to be found in the second volume of the Phonix, or a Revival of Scarce and Valuable Pieces. Lond. 1707 — 8. But I have made use of the first edition. t This was the order of worship used by the Church at Geneva, of which Calvin was the minister. It had been lately translated into English. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 101 20. 1555, Calvin stated, that he was grieved to hear of the un- seemly contentions which prevailed among them; that, although he had always recommended moderation respecting external ceremonies, yet he could not but condemn the obstinacy of those who would consent to no change of old customs ; that, in the liturgy of England, he had found many tolerable foole- ries {tokrabiles ineptias), — practices which might be tolerated at the beginning of a reformation, but ought to be removed as soon as possible ; that, in his opinion, the present condition of the English exiles warranted them to attempt this, and to agree upon an order more conducive to edification ; and that, for his part, he could not understand what those persons meant who discovered such fondness for popish dregs.* This letter, when read to the congregation, had a great effect in repressing the keenness of such as had urged the unlimited use of the liturgy ; and -a committee was appointed to draw up a form which might put an end to all differences.t When this committee met, Knox told them that he was convinced it was necessary for one of the parties to relent before they could come to an amicable settlement ; and that he would therefore state what he judged most proper to be done, and having ex- onerated himself, would allow them, without opposition, to determine as they should answer to God and the Church. They accordingly agreed upon a form of worship, in which the English liturgy was followed, so far as their circumstances and the general ends of edification, permitted. This was to continue in force until the end of April next ; and if any dis- pute arose in the interval, it was to be referred to five of the most celebrated foreign divines. The agreement was subscribed by all the members of the congregation ; thanks were publicly returned to God for the restoration of harmony ; and the com- munion was received as a pledge of union, and of the burial of all past offences. But this agreement was soon after violated, and the peace of that unhappy congregation again broken, in the most wanton and inexcusable manner. On the 13th of March, 1555, Dr. Cox, who had been preceptor to Edward VI, came from Eng- land to Frankfort, with some others in his company. The first * Calvini Epist. p. 28; Oper. torn. ix. Amstselodami, anno 1657. f Previous to the appointment of this committee, Knox, Whittingham, Fox, Gilby, and T. Cole, liad composed (what was afterwards called) The Order of Geneva, but it did not meet the views of all concerned. This was difierent from the order of the Genevan Church, already referred to; and obtained its name from the circumstance of its having been first used by the English Church at Geneva. It was afterwards used in the Church of Scot- land under the name of the Book of Coinmon Order, and is sometimes called Knox's Liturgy. 9* 102 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. day on which they attended public worship after their arrival, they broke through the established order, by answering aloud after the minister in the time of divine service. Being admo- nished by some of the elders to refrain from that practice, they insolently replied, " that they would do as they had done in England ; and they would have the face of an English Church." — " The Lord grant it to have the face of Christ's Church," says Knox, in an account which he drew up of these transactions ; " and therefore I would have had it agreeable, in outward rites and ceremonies, with Christian Churches re- formed."* On the following Sabbath, one of their number having in- truded himself into the pulpit without the consent of the pastors or the congregation, read the litany, while Cox and his accomplices echoed the responses. This offensive behaviour was aggravated by the consideration, that some of them had, before leaving England, been guilty of compliances with Popery, for which they had not yet given satisfaction to their brethren. Such an infraction of public order, as well as insult upon the whole body, could not be passed over in silence. It was Knox's turn to preach on the afternoon of the Sabbath when this occurred. In his ordinary course of lecturing through the book of Genesis, he had occasion to discourse of the manner in which offences committed by professors of religion ought to be treated. Having mentioned that there were infirmities in their conduct over which a veil should be thrown, he proceeded to remark, that offences which openly dishonoured God and dis- turbed the peace of the Church, ought to be disclosed and publicly rebuked. He then reminded them of the contention which had existed in the congregation, and of the happy man- ner in which, after long and pahiful labour, it had been ended, to the joy of all, by the solemn agreement which had that day been so flagrantly violated. This, he said, it became not the proudest of them to have attempted. Nothing which was destitute of a divine warrant ought to be obtruded upon any Christian Church. In that book for which some entertained such an overweening fondness, he would undertake to prove publicly, that there were things imperfect, impure, and super- stitious ; and if any should go about to burden a free congre- gation with such things, he would not fail, as often as he occupied that place, provided his text afforded occasion, to oppose their design. As he had been forced to enter upon that subject, he would say farther, that, in his judgment, slackness in reforming religion, when time and opportunity were granted * Cald. MS. i. 249. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 103 for this purpose, was one cause of the divine displeasure against England. He adverted also to the trouble which Bishop Hooper had suffered for refusing to comply with some of the ceremonies, to the want of discipline, and to the well- known fact, that three, four, or five benefices had been held by one man, to the depriving of the flock of Christ of their necessary food. This free reprimand was highly resented by those against whom it was levelled, especially by such as had held pluralities in England, who insisted that the preacher should be called to account, for slandering their mother church. A special meeting being held for the consideration of this affair, the friends of the liturgy, instead of prosecuting their complaints against Knox, began with requiring that Cox and his friends should be ad- mitted to a vote in the discussion. This was resisted by the great majority, on the ground that these persons had not yet subscribed the discipline of the Church, nor given satisfaction for their late disorderly conduct, and their sinful compliances in England. The behaviour of our Reformer, on this occasion, was more remarkable for magnanimity than prudence. Al- though aware of the hostility of Cox's adherents to himself, and that they sought admission chiefly to overpower him by numbers, he was so confident of the justice of his cause, and so anxious to remove prejudices, that he entreated and pre- vailed with the meeting to yield to their unreasonable request, and to admit them immediately to a vote. " I know," said he, « that your earnest desire to be received at this instant within the number of the congregation, is, that, by the multitude of your voices, ye may overthrow my cause. Howbeit, the matter is so evident, that ye shall not be able to do it. I fear not your judgment ; and therefore do require that ye may be admitted."* This disinterestedness was thrown away on the opposite party; for no sooner were they admitted, and had obtained a majority of voices, than Cox, usurping an authority with which he had never been invested, discharged Knox from preaching, and from all interference in the congregational affairs.t The great body of the congregation were indignant at these proceedings ; and there was reason to fear that the mutual ani- mosity would break out into a disgraceful tumult. To prevent this, some of the members made a representation of the case to * Cald. MS. i. 252. t Collier (ii. 395) says that Knox manifested in this instance "a surpri- sing compliance." But it appears, even from the account given by that historian, tiiat, in the whole of the Frankfort afiair, our Reformer displayed the greatest moderation and forbearance, while the conduct of his opponents was marked throughout with violence and want of charity. 104 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. the senate of Frankfort, who, after recommending in vain a private accommodation, issued an order that the congregation should conform exactly to the mode of service used by the French Church, as nothing but confusion had ensued since they departed from it ; and threatened, if this was not complied with, to shut up their place of worship. To this peremptory injunction the Coxian faction pretended a cheerful submission, while they clandestinely concerted measures for obtaining its revocation, and enforcing their favourite liturgy upon a re- claiming congregation. Perceiving the influence which our countryman had in the Church, and despairing to carry their plan into execution so long as he was among them, they determined, in the first place, to rid themselves of his presence. To accomplish this object, they had recourse to one of the basest and most unchristian acts ever employed to ruin an adversary. Two of them, in concurrence with others, went privately to the magistrates, and accused Knox of high treason against the Emperor of Ger- many, his son Philip, and Queen Mary of England; putting into their hands at the same time a copy of a book which he had lately pubUshed, and in which the passages containing the grounds of charge were marked. "0 Lord God !" says Knox, when relating this step, " open their hearts to see their wicked- ness, and forgive them for thy manifold mercies. And I for- give them, 0 Lord, from the bottom of mine heart. But that thy message sent by my mouth may not be slandered, I am compelled to declare the cause of my departing, and to utter their follies, to their amendment, I trust, and the example of others, who, in the same banishment, can have so cruel hearts as to persecute their brethren."* The book which the inform- ers left with the magistrates was his Admonition to England ; and the passage upon which they principally fixed, as sub- stantiating the charge of treason against the emperor, was the following, originally spoken to the inhabitants of Amersham in Buckinghamshire,t on occasion of the rumour of marriage of Queen Mary with Philip, the son and heir of Charles V,, a match which was at that time dreaded by many of the English * Cald. MS. i. 254, Upon his return to Geneva, Knox committed to writing a narrative of the causes of his retiring from Frankfort. This lie intended to publish in his own defence; but, on mature deliberation, he re- solved to suppress it, and to leave his own character to sutler, rather than expose his brethren and the connnon cause in which they were engaged. His narrative was preserved by Calderwood, and has furnished me with several facts. It contains the names of the persons who accused him to the senate of Franktbrt, and of their advisers, which I have omitted, at^er the example of Knox, in the notice which he has taken of the allUir, in his His- toric of the Retbrmation, p, 85. t See above, p. 82. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 105 Catholics. " 0 England, England ! if thou obstinately wilt return into Egypt, that is, if thou contract marriage, confede- racy, or league with such princes as do maintain and advance idolatry, such as the emperor, who is no less enemy to Christ than ever was Nero — if for the pleasure of such princes thou return to thy old abominations before used under Papistry, then assuredly, 0 England, thou shalt be plagued and brought to desolation, by the means of those whose favour thou seek- est !" The other passages related to the cruelties of the Eng- lish queen. Not to speak of the extravagance of the charge which they founded upon these passages, and of the un- brotherly spirit which they discovered, it was with little grace and consistency that the sticklers for tlie English forms availed themselves of the strong language which Knox had employed in the warmth of his zeal, in order to excite prejudices against him ; and it would be no difficult task to extract from their writings declamations against their own queen, and against for- eign princes, more intemperate than any thing that ever pro- ceeded from his pen.* In consequence of this accusation, the magistrates sent for Whittinghara, a respectable member of the English congregation, and interrogated him concerning Knox's character. He told them that he was " a learned, grave, and godly man." They then acquainted him with the serious accusation which had been lodged against him by some of his countrymen, and giving him the book, charged him, sub poena pads, to bring them an exact Latin translation of the passages which were marked. This being done, they commanded Knox to desist from preach- ing until their pleasure should be known. To this command he peaceably submitted ; " yet," says he in his narrative, "being desirous to hear others, I went to the church next day, not thinking that my company would have offended any. But as soon as my accusers saw me, they, with and others, de- parted from the sermon ; some of them protesting with great vehemence that they would not tarry where I was."f The magistrates were extremely perplexed how to act in this deli- cate business. On the one hand, they were satisfied of the malice of Knox's accusers ; on the other, they were afraid that information of the charge would be conveyed to the emperor's * See Note W. f Cald. MS. i. 255. Mr. Strype has not discovered his usual impartiality or accuracy in the short account he has given of this affair. He says that Knox had " published some dangerous principles about government," and that the informers " tliought it fit for their own security to make an open complaint against him." Memor. of the Reform, iii. 212. Knox had, at that time, published nothing on the subject of government ; and Collier himself does not pretend such an excuse for the actors, 0 106 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. council, which then sat at Augsburg, and that they might be obliged to deliver up the accused to them, or to the Queen of England. In this dilemma, they desired Whittingham to advise his friend privately to retire of his own accord from Frankfort. At the same time, they did not dissemble their detestation of the unnatural conduct of the informers, who, having waited upon them to know the result of their deliberations, were dis- missed from their presence with evident marks of displeasure. On the 25th of March, Knox delivered a most consolatory discourse to about fifty members of the congregation, who as- sembled at his lodgings in the evening. Next day they accom- panied him some miles on his journey from Frankfort, and, with heavy hearts and many tears, committed him to God, and took their leave. No sooner was Knox gone than Cox, who had privately con- certed the plan with Glauberg, a civilian, and nephew of the chief magistrate, procured an order from the senate for the unlimited use of the English liturgy, by means of the false re- presentation, that it was now universally acceptable to the congregation. The next step was the abrogation of the code of discipline, and then the appointment of a bishop, or super- intendent over the pastors. Having accomplished these impor- tant improvements, they could now boast that they had, " the face of an English church." Yes, they could now raise their heads above all the reformed churches which had the honour of entertaining them, and which, though they might have all the office-bearers and ordinances instituted by Christ, had neither bishop, nor litany, nor surplice ! They could now lift up their faces in the presence of the Church of Rome herself, and cherish the hope that she would not altogether disown them ! But let me not forget that the men of whom I write were at this time suffering exile for the Protestant religion, and that they really detested the body of Popery, though childishly and super- stitiously attached to its attire, and gestures, and language. The sequel of the transactions in the English congregation at Frankfort does not properly belong to this memoir. I shall only add, that after some ineffectual attempts to obtain satis- faction for the breach of the Church's peace, and the injurious treatment of their minister, a considerable number of the mem- bers left the city. Some of them, among whom was Fox, the celebrated martyrologist, repaired to Basle. The greater part went to Geneva, where they obtained a place of worship, and lived in great harmony and love until the storm of persecution in England blew over at the death of Queen I\Iary ; while those who remained at Frankfort, as if to expiate their offence against Knox, continued a prey to endless contention. Cox and his learned colleagues, having accomplished their favourite object. LIFE OF JOHNKNOX. 107 soon left tliem to compose the strife which they had excited, and provided themselves elsewhere with a less expensive situa- tion for carrying on their studies.* I have been the more minute in the detail of these transac- tions, not only on account of the share which the subject of this memoir had in them, but because they throw light upon the controversy between the conformists and non-conformists, which runs through the succeeding period of the ecclesiastical history of England. " The troubles at Frankfort" present, in minia- ture, a striking picture of that contentious scene which was afterwards exhibited on a larger scale in the mother country. The issue of that affair augured ill as to the prospect of an ami- cable adjustment of the litigated points. It had been usual to urge conformity to the obnoxious ceremonies, from the respect due to the authority by which they were enjoined. But in this instance the civil authority, so far from enjoining, had rather discountenanced them. If they were urged with such intole- rant importunity in a place where the laws and customs were repugnant to them, what was to be expected in England, where law and custom were on their side ? The divines who received ecclesiastical preferment at the accessionof Elizabeth, professed that they desired the removal of these grounds of strife, but could not obtain it from the queen ; and I am disposed to give many of them credit for the sincerity of their profession. But as they showed themselves so stilf and unyielding when the mat- ter was wholly in their own power — as some of them were so eager in wreathing a yoke about the consciences of the brethren as to urge reluctant magistrates to rivet it — is it any wonder * Cox was afterwards made to feel a little the galling yoke which he strove to impose on his brethren. Upon the accession of Elizabeth, that stately princess, still fonder of pompous and popish equipage than her clergy, kept a crucifix in her chapel, and ordered her chaplains to perform divine service before it. Dr. Cox was the only one of the refugees who complied with this order, but his conscience afterwards remonstrating against it, he wrote a letter to the queen, requesting to be excused fi-om continuing the practice. It is observable, that in this letter he employs the great argument which Knox had used against other ceremonies, while he prostrates himself before his haughty mistress with a submission to which our Reformer would never have stooped. " I ought," says he, " to do nothing touching religion, which may appear doubtful whether it pleaseth God or not; for our religion ought to be certain, and grounded upon God's word and will. Tender my sute, I beseech you, in visceribus Jesu Christi, my dear sovereign, and most gracious queen Elizabeth." Burnet, ii. Append. 294. The crucifix was re- moved at this time, but was again introduced about 1570. Strype's Parker, p. 310. Dr. Cox afterwards fell under the displeasure of his " dear sove- reign," tor maintaining rather stifily his riglit to some of the revenues of his bishopric. Strype's Annals, ii. ^79. It is but justice, however, to this learned man to say, that I do not find him taking a very active part against the non- conformists after his return to England ; he even made some attempts for the removal of the obnoxious ceremonies. 108 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. tliat their applications for relief were cold and ineffectual, when made to rulers who were disposed to make the yoke still more severe, and " to chastise with scorpions those whom they had chastised with whips ?" I repeat it : when I consider the trans- actions at Frankfort, I am not surprised at the defeat of every subsequent attempt to advance the Reformation in England, or to procure relief to those who scrupled to yield conformity to some of the ecclesiastical laws, I know it is pleaded, that the things complained of are matters of indifference, not prohibited in Scripture, not imposed as essential to religion or necessary to salvation, matters that can affect no well informed con- science ; and tliat such as refuse them, when enacted by autho- rity, are influenced by unreasonable scrupulosity, conceited, pragmatical, opinionative. This has been the usual language of a ruling party, when imposing upon the consciences of the minority. But, not to urge here the danger of allowing to any class of rulers, civil or ecclesiastical, a power of enjoining in- different things in religion; nor the undeniable fact, that the burdensome system of ceremonial observances, by which re- ligion was corrupted under the Papacy, was gradually intro- duced under these and similar pretexts ; nor that the things in question, when complexly and formally considered, are not really matters of indifference ; not to insist at present upon these topics, the answer to the above plea is short and decisive. These things appear matters of conscience and importance to the scruplers; you say they are matters of indiflerence. Why, then, violate the sacred peace of the Church, and perpetuate division ; why silence, deprive, harass, and starve men of ac- knowledged learning and piety, and drive from communion a sober and devout people ; why torture their consciences, and endanger their souls, by the imposition of things, which, in your judgment, are indifferent, not necessary, and unworthy to be- come objects of contention ? Upon retiring from Frankfort, Knox went directly to Geneva. He was cordially welcomed back by Calvin. As his advice had great weight in disposing Knox to comply with the invita- tion from Frankfort, he felt much hurt at the treatment which had obliged him to leave it. In reply to an apologetic epistle which he received from Dr. Cox, Calvin, although he prudently restrained himself from saying any thing which might revive or increase the flame, could not conceal his opinion, that Knox had been used in an unbrotherly and unchristian manner, and that it would have been better for his accuser to have remained at home, than to have come into a foreign country as a lire- brand to inflame a peaceable society.* * Calvini Epistolse, p. 98, ut supra. Tliis letter is addressed " Cnoxo" LIFE OF. JOHN KNOX. 109 It appeared from the event, that Providence had disengaged Knox from his late charge, to employ him on a more impor- tant service. From the time that lie was carried prisoner into France, he had never lost sight of Scotland, nor relinquished the hope of again preaching in his native country. While he resided at Berwick and Newcastle, he had frequent opportuni- ties of personal intercourse with his countrymen, and of learn- ing the state of religion among them.* His unintermitted labours, during the five years which he spent in England, by occupying his time and attention, lessened the regret which he felt at seeing the object of his wishes apparently at as great a distance as ever. Upon leaving that kingdom, his thoughts were anxiously turned to Scotland. He found means to carry on an epistolary correspondence with some of his friends at home ; one great object of his journeys to Dieppe was to receive their letters ;t and he had the satisfaction, soon after his retreat from Frankfort, to obtain such information from them, as encouraged him to execute his design of paying a visit to his native country. To prepare the reader for the account of this journey, it will be necessary to take a view of the principal events which had occurred in that kingdom from the time that Knox was forced to leave it. The surrender of the castle of St. Andrews seemed to have given an irrecoverable blow to the reformed interest in Scotland. Among the prisoners conveyed to France were some of the most zealous and able Protestants in the kingdom ; and the rest, seeing themselves at the mercy of their adversaries, were dis- pirited and intimidated. The clergy triumphed in the victory which they had obtained,^ and flattered themselves that they would now be able with ease to stifle all opposition to their measures. The regent, being guided entirely by his brother, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, was ready to employ all the power of the State in support of the Church, and for suppress- ing those who refused to submit to her decisions. During the confusions produced by the invasion of the kingdom under the Duke of Somerset, and by the disastrous defeat of the Scots at Pinkie, in the year 1547, the regent found it his interest not to irritate the Protestants ; but no sooner was he freed from the (by mistake of the publisher, instead of Coxo), "et Gregalibus. Pridie Idus Junii, 1555." Knox was at Geneva when Calvin wrote that letter. * See above, p. 70, 71. f MS. Letters, pp. 255—6. I The following lines were commonly repeated at this time, in allusion t« Normand Leslie, who headed the conspirators against Cardinal Beatoun :— Priestis, content you now, priestis, content you now ; For Normund, and his companie, hes fiUit the gallayis few. 10 110 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. alarm created by these events than he began to treat them with severity. Aware that it would be extremely invidious to pro- secute the barons and gentry upon a charge of heresy, and per- haps convinced that such measures in the time of his predecessor, had proved injurious to the hierarchy, the crafty primate com- menced his attack by bringing them to trial for crimes against the state.* Although they had conducted themselves in the most peaceable and loyal manner during the late invasion, and many of them had died under the standard of the regent,! they were accused of being secretly favourable to the English, and of holding correspondence with them. Cockburn of Ormiston, and Crichton of I3runston, were banished, and their estates for- feited, f Sir John Melville of Raith, a gentleman of distinguish- ed probity, and of untainted loyalty, was accused of a traitorous connection with the enemy ; and although the only evidence adduced in support of the charge was a letter written by him to one of his sons then in England, and although this letter con- tained nothing criminal, yet was he unjustly condemned and beheaded.§ The signing of a treaty of peace with England, in 1550, was a signal for the clergy to proceed to acts of more undisguised persecution. Adam Wallace, who had lived for some time as tutor in the family of Ormiston, was apprehended, and being tried for heresy before a convention of clergy and no- bility, was committed to the flames on the Castle-hill of Endin- burgh.|| These prosecutions were not confined to persons in holy orders. George Winchester of Kinglassie was summoned before the archbishop and clergy at St. Andrews, and, having made his escape, was condemned as a heretic, and his goods escheated.f In the following year, the parliament renewed the * MS. Letters, pp. 435, 438. \ Knox, Historic, p. 78. Hume of Godscroft's History, ii. 128. I Knox, Ilistorie, p. 80. 5 Buclianani Oper. i. 302. Knox, Historic, p. 82. The following tribute to the memory of this patriot occurs in a work of one of our Latin poets, which is rarely to be met with : — JOHANNES MALVILLUS RETHIUS, Nobilis Fifanus, Jacobo V. regi olim familiarissimus, summa vitse inno- centia, ob pursB relligionis studium, in suspicione falsi criminis, iniquissimo Ijudicio sublatus est A. Christi 1548. Quidnam ego commerui, quae tanta injuria facti, Hostis ut in nostrum sffiviat ense caput ! Idem hostis, judexque simul. Pro crimine, Christi Relligio, et fsedo crimine pura manus. O secla! O mores: scelerum sic tollere poenas Ut virtus sceleri debita damna luat. Joh. Jonstoni Heroes, pp. 28, 29. II Knox, Ilistorie, pp. 87, 88. Spotswood, 90, 91. Boza? Icones, Ff. ii. IT Winchester's brotlier-in-law, William Arthur of Cairnes, obtained his LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. Ill laws in support of the Church, and added a new statute against the circulation of heretical ballads and tragedies.* By these severe measures the clergy struck terror into the minds of the nation ; but they were unable to conceal the gla- ring corruptions by which their own order was disgraced, and they could not remain strangers to the murmurs that these had excited throughout the whole kingdom. In the month of No- vember 1549, a provincial council was held at Edinburgh ''for the reformation of the Church, and the extirpation of heresy."! This council acknowledged that " corruption and profane lewd- ness of life, as well as gross ignorance of arts and sciences, reigned among the clergy of almost every degree," J and they en- acted no fewer than fifty -eight canons for correcting these evils. They agreed to carry into execution the decree of the general council of Basle, which ordained that every clergyman who lived in concubinage should be deprived of the revenues of his bene- fice for three months, and that if, after due admonition, he did not dismiss his concubine, or if he took to himself another, he should be deprived of his benefices altogether. § They ex- horted the prelates and inferior clergy not to retain in their own houses their bastard children, nor suffer them to be promoted directly or indirectly to their own benefices, nor employ the patrimony of the Church for the purpose of marrying them to barons, or of erecting baronages for them.H That the distinc- tion between clergy and laity might be visibly preserved, they appointed the ordinaries to charge the priests under their care to desist from the practice of preserving their beards, which had begun to prevail, and to see that the canonical tonsure was duly observed. IT To remedy the neglect of public instruction, which was loudly complained of, they agreed to observe the act of the Council of Trent, which ordained that every bishop, "according to the grace given to him," should preach person- ally four times a year at least, unless lawfully hindered ; and that such of them as were unfit for this duty, through want of property: and by a disposition, dated 27th August 1555, "out of pity to Christian Martine" (wife of George Winchester), " and her eight fatherless children, disponed to her in liferent the fore tenement and the tacks of Kinf- lassie and Polduff, sometime pertaining to the said George, with his haill moveables, fallen in escheat, upon her paying to him the composition that he paid therefor." MS. Genealogical Collections of Martin of Clermont, vol. i. pp. .583 — 5. * Act. Pari. Scot. ii. 488—9. t This council assembled at Linlithgow, but was transferred to Edin- burgh. Wilkins, Concil. tom. iv. 46. conf. p. 209. I Proem. Concil. apud Wilkins, iv. 46. § Canon 1. Ibid. p. 47. II Can. 2. Ibid. p. 48. 11 Can. 5. Ibid. p. 48. 112 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. practice, should endeavour to qualify themselves, and for that end should entertain in their houses learned divines capable of instructing them. The same injunctions were laid on rectors.* They determined that a benefice should be set apart in each bishopric and monastery, for supporting a preacher who might supply the want of teaching within their bounds; that, where no such benefice was set apart, pensions should be allotted ; and that, where neither of these was provided, the preacher should be entitled to demand from the rector forty shillings a year, provided he had preached four times in his parish within that period.! The council made a number of other regula- tions, concerning the dress and diet of the clergy, the course of study in cathedral churches and monasteries, union of benefi- ces, pluralities, ordinations, dispensations, and the method of process in consistorial courts. But, not trusting altogether to these remedies for the cure of heresy, they farther ordained that the bishop of each diocese, and the head of each monas- tery, should appoint " inquisitors of heretical pravity, men of piety, probity, learning, good fame, and great circumspection," who should make the most diligent search after heresies, foreign opinions, condemned books, and particularly profane songs, intended to defame the clergy, or to detract from the authority of the ecclesiastical constitutions. J Another provincial council, held in 1551 and 1552, besides ratifying the preceding canons, § adopted an additional expe- dient for correcting the continued neglect of public instruction. After declaring that " the inferior clergy, and the prelates for the most part, were still unqualified for instructing the people in the catholic faith, and other things necessary to salvation, and for reclaiming the erroneous," they proceeded to approve of a catechism which had been compiled in the Scottish lan- guage, ordered that it should be printed, and that copies of it should be sent to all rectors, vicars, and curates, who were en- joined to read a portion of it, instead of a sermon, to their parishioners, on every Sunday and holiday, when no person qualified for preaching was present. The rectors, vicars, and curates, were enjoined to practise daily in reading their cate- chism, lest, on ascending the pulpit, they should stammer and blunder, and thereby expose themselves to the laughter of the people. The archbishop was directed, after supplying the clergy with copies, to keep the remainder beside him " in firm custody ;" and the inferior clergy were prohibited from indis- creetly communicating their copies to the people, without the * Can. 15, 20. Ibid. pp. 50—1. f Can. 42, 45. Ibid. 56—7. I Can. 43, 44, 47. Ibid. pp. 57—8. \ Ibid. 69—73. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 113 permission of their bishops, who might allow this privilege to '' certain honest, grave, trusty, and discreet laics, who appeared to desire it for the sake of instruction, and not of gratifying curiosity."* If any of the hearers testified a disposition to call in question any part of the catechism, the clerical reader was prohibited, under the pain of deprivation, from entering into dispute with them on the subject, and was instructed to delate them to the inquisitors.t Many of the regulations enacted by these two councils were excellent ;J but the execution of them was committed to the very persons who were interested in support of the evils against which they were directed. Accordingly, the canons of the Scottish clergy, like those of general councils called for the reformation of the Church, instead of correcting, served only to proclaim the abuses which prevailed. We know from the declarations of subsequent provincial councils,§ as well as from the complaints of the people, that the licentiousness of the clergy continued ; and the catechism which they had sanctioned seems to have been but little used. I have not found it men- tioned by any writer of that age, Popish or Protestant ; and we know of its existence only from the canon of the Assembly which authorized its use, and from a few copies of it which have descended to our time.|| The council which met in 1551, boasts that, through the singular favour of the government, and the vigilance of the prelates, heresy, which had formerly spread through the king- dom, was now repressed, and almost extinguished.^ There were still, however, many Protestants in the nation ; but they were deprived of teachers, and they satisfied themselves with retaining their sentiments, without exposing their lives to in- evitable destruction by avowing their creed, or exciting the suspicions of the clergy by holding private conventicles. In this state they remained from 1551 to 1554. While the Reformation was in this languishing condition, it experienced a sudden revival in Scotland, from two causes which appeared at first view to threaten its utter extinction in Britain. These were the elevation of the queen dowager to the regency of Scotland, and the accession of Mary to the throne of England. The queen dowager of Scotland, who possessed a great por- tion of that ambition by which her brothers, the princes of Lorrain, were fired, had long formed the design of wresting the regency from the hands of Arran. After a series of po- * Can. 16. Ibid. p. 72—3. t Ibid. p. 73. t See Note X. J Wilkins, iv. 207, 209, 210. Keith, pref. p. xiv. II See Note Y. IT Wilkins, iv. 72. 10* P 114 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. litical intrigue, in which she discovered the most consummate and persevering address, she at last succeeded; and, on the 10th of April 1554, the regent resigned his office to her in the presence of parliament, and retired into private life, with the title of Duke of Chastelherault, The dowager had, at an early period, made her court to the Protestants, whom Arran l;ad alienated from him by persecution ; and, to induce them to fa- vour her pretensions, she promised to screen them from the violence of the clergy. Having received their cordial support, and finding it necessary still to use them as a check upon the clergy, who, under the influence of the primate, favoured the interest of her rival, the queen regent secretly countenanced them, and the Protestants were emboldened again to avov/ their sentiments. In the mean time the queen of England was exerting all her power to crush the Reformation ; and, had the court of Scotland acted in concert with her for this purpose, the Pro- testants must, according to all human probability, have been exterminated in Britain. But the English queen having mar- ried Philip, King of Spain, while the queen regent was indisso- lubly attached to France, the rival of Spain, a coldness was produced between these two princesses, which was soon after succeeded by an open breach. Among the Protestants who fled from the cruelty of Mary, some took refuge in Scotland, where they were suffered to remain undisturbed, and even to teach in private, through the connivance of the new regent, and in consequence of the security into which the clergy had been lulled by success. Travelling from place to place, they propa- gated instruction, and by their example and their exhortations fanned the latent zeal of those who had formerly received the knowledge of the truth. William Harlow, whose zeal and acquaintance with the Scriptures compensated for the defects of his education, was the first preacher who, at this time, came to Scotland. Let those who do not know, or who wish to forget, that the rehgion which they profess was first preached by fishermen and tent- makers, labour to conceal the occupations of some of those men whom Providence raised up to spread the reformed gospel through their native country, Harlow had followed the trade of a tailor in Edinburgh;* but having imbibed the Protestant * Keitli, Append, p. 90. Episcopal writers have sometimes upbraided the Scottish Church as reformed by tradesmen and mechanics. They have, however, no reason to talk in this strain; for in tlie first place, a sensible pious tradesman is surely better qualified for communicatinof religious in- struction than an ignorant superstitious priest; and secondly, the Churcli of England herself, after trying those of the latter class, was glad to betake herself to the former. See Strype's Annals, i. 176, 177. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 115 doctrine, he retired to England, where he was admitted to deacon's orders, and employed as a preacher during the reign of Edward VI.* Upon his return to Scotland, he remained for some time in Ayrshire, and continued to preach in different parts of the country with great fervour and diligence, until the establishment of the Reformation, when he was admitted min- ister of St. Cuthberts, in the vicinity of Edinburgh,! Some time after him arrived John Willock. This reformer afterwards became the principal coadjutor of Knox, who never mentions him without expressions of affection and esteem. The cordiality which subsisted between them, the harmony of their sentiments, and the combination of the peculiar talents and qualities by which they were distinguished, conduced in no small degree to the advancement of the Reformation. Wil- lock was not inferior to Knox in learning, and though he did not equal him in eloquence and intrepidity, surpassed him in affability, in moderation, and in address ;J qualities which ena- bled him sometimes to maintain his station, and to accomplish his purposes, when his colleague could not act with safety or with success. He was a native of Ayrshire, and had belonged to the order of Franciscan friars ; but, having embraced the reformed opinions at an early period, he threw off the monastic habit, and fled to England. During the persecution for the Six Articles in 1541, he was thrown into the prison of the Fleet. He afterwards became chaplain to the Duke of Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane Grey ;§ and upon the accession of Queen Mary, left England, and took up his residence at Embden. Having practised there as a physician, he was introduced to Anne, Duchess of Friesland, who patronized the Reformation, || and whose opinion of his talents and integrity induced lier to send him to Scotland, in the summer of 1555, with a commis- sion to the queen regent, to make some arrangements respecting the trade carried on between the two countries. The public character with which he was invested gave Willock an oppor- tunity of cultivating acquaintance with the leading Protestants^ and while he resided in Edinburgh, they met with him in pri vate, and listened to his religious instructions. IT * Cald. MS. i. 256. t Keith, History, p. 498. I Smetonii Respons. ad Arch. Hamiltoni Dialog, p. 93. Edinburgi, 1579. § Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, celebrates Willock among the chaplains of the duke, in the following lines : — Quid memorem quanta Wilocus, Skinerus et Haddon, iElmerusque tuos ornarint luce penates 1 O Deus ! O quales jnvenes ! Quo principe digni 1 His tua luminibus splendet domus. Strype'e Annals, ii. Append, p. 46. II Gerdesii Hist. Reform, iii. 147—8. IT Spots wood, p. 93. Knox, 90. 116 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. Knox received the news of this favourable change in the situation of his brethren with heartfelt satisfaction. He did not know what it was to fear danger, and was little accvistomed to consult his own ease, when he had the prospect of being useful in advancing the interests of truth ; but he acknowledges that, on the present occasion, he was at first averse to a journey into Scotland, notwithstanding some encouraging circumstances in the intelligence which he had received from that quarter. He had been so much tossed about of late, that he felt a pe- culiar relish in the learned leisure which he at present enjoyed, and which he was desirous to prolong. His anxiety to see his wife, after an absence of nearly two years, and the importunity with which his mother-in-law, in her letters, urged him to visit them, determined him at last to undertake the journey.* Set- ting out from Geneva in the month of August 1555, he came to Dieppe, and sailing from that port, landed on the east coast, near the boundaries between Scotland and England, about the end of harvest.! He repaired immediately to Berwick, where he had the satisfaction of finding his wife and her mother in com fortable circumstances, and enjoying the happiness of religious society with several individuals in that city, who, like them- selves, had not "bowed the knee " to the established idolatry, nor consented to " receive the mark " of antichrist. J Having remained some time with them, he set out secretly to visit the Protestants in Edinburgh ; intending, after a short stay, to return to Berwick. But he found employment which detained him beyond his expectation. He lodged with James Syme, a respectable burgess of Edinburgh, in whose house the friends of the Reformation assembled, to attend the instruc- tions of Knox, as soon as they were informed of his arrival. Few of the inhabitants of the metropolis had as yet embraced the reformed doctrines, but several persons had repaired to it at this time, from other parts of the country, to meet with Wil- lock. Among these were John Erskine of Dun, whom we had formerly occasion to mention as an early favourer of the new opinions, and a distinguished patron of literature,§ and whose great respectability of character, and approved loyalty and patriotism, had preserved him from the resentment of the clergy, and tlie jealousy of the government, during successive periods of persecution ;|| and William Maitland of Letlrington, a young gentleman of the finest parts, improved by a superior * MS. Letters, p. 342. t Diecours of the Troubles at Franckford, p. h'. lix. Knox, Historic, p. 90. I MS. Letters, p. 343. } See above, pp. 20, 36. II Buchanani Opcr. i. SOL Keith Append, p. 57. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 117 education, but inclined to subtlety in reasoning, accommoda- ting in his religious sentiments, and extremely versatile in his political conduct. Highly gratified with Knox's discourses, which were greatly superior to any which they had heard from Popish or Protestant preachers, they brought their acquaintan- ces along with them to hear him, and his audiences daily increased. Being confined to a private house, he was obliged to preach to successive assemblies ; and was unremittingly em- ' ployed, by night as well as by day, in communicating instruc- tion to persons who demanded it with extraordinary avidity. The following letter, written by him to Mrs. Bowes, to excuse himself for not returning so soon as he had purposed, will con- vey the best idea of his employment and feelings on this inter- esting occasion. " The wayis of man are not in his awn power. Albeit my journey toward Scotland, belovit mother, was maist contra- rious to my awn judgment, befoir I did interpryse the same ; yet this day I prais God for thame wha was the cause exter- nall of my resort to theis quarteris ; that is, I prais God in yow and f(A yow, whom hie maid the instrument to draw me from the den of my awn eas (you allane did draw me from the rest of quyet studie), to contemplat and behald the fervent thirst of our brethrene, night and day sobbing and gronying for the breide of life. Gif I had not sene it with my eis, in my awn country, I culd not have beleveit it ! I praisit God, when I was with you, perceaving that, in the middis of Sodome, God had mo Lottis than one, and mo faithful douchteris than tua. But the fervencie heir doith fer exceid all utheris that I have seen. And thairfor ye sail paciently bear, altho' I spend heir yet sum dayis; for depart I cannot, unto sic tyme as God quenche thair thirst a littil. Yea, mother, their fervencie doith sa ravische me, that I cannot but accus and condemp my sleuthful coldnes. God grant thame thair hartis desyre ; and I pray yow adverteis [me] of your estait, and of thingis that have occurit sense your last wrytting. Comfort yourself in Godis promissis, and be assureit that God steiris up mo friendis than we be war of. My com- mendation to all in your company. I commit you to the pro- tectioun of the Omnipotent. In great haist ; the 4. of Novem- ber, 1555. From Scotland. Your sone, Johne Knox."* Having executed the commission, Willock returned to Emb- den ; and he quitted Scotland with the less regret, as he left behind him one who was so capable of promoting the cause which he had at heart. When he first arrived in Scotland, Knox found that the friends of the reformed doctrine continued, in general, to attend the popish worship, and even the celebration * MS. Letters, pp. 342, 343. 118 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. of mass ; principally with the view of avoiding the scandal which they would otherwise incur. Highly disapproving of this practice, he laboured, in his conversation and sermons, to convince them of the great impiety of that part of the popish service, and the criminality of countenancing it by their pre- sence. Doubts being still entertained on the subject by some, a meeting of the Protestants in the city was held for the ex- press purpose of discussing the question. Maitland defended the practice with all the ingenuity and learning for which he was distinguished ; but his arguments were so satisfactorily an- swered by Knox, that he yielded the point as indefensible, and agreed, with the rest of his brethren, to abstain, for the future, from such temporizing conduct. Thus was a formal separation made from the Popish Church in Scotland, which may be justly regarded as an important step in the Reformation.* Erskine of Dun prevailed on Knox to accompany him to his family seat in the shire of Angus, where he continued a month, during which he preached every day. The principal persons in that neighbourhood attended his sermons. After his return to the south of the Forth, he resided at Calder-house,t in West Lothian, the seat of Sir James Sandilands, commonly called Lord St. John, because he was chief in Scotland of the religious order of military knights, who went by the name of Hospi- tallers, or Knights of St. John. This gentleman, who was now venerable for his grey hairs as well as for his valour, sagacity, and correct morals, had long been a sincere friend to the re- formed cause, and had contributed to its preservation in that part of the country. J In 1548, he had presented to the parson- age of Calder, John Spottiswood,§ afterwards the reformed superintendent of Lothian, who had imbibed the Protestant doctrines from Archbishop Cranmer in England, and who in- stilled them into the minds of his parishioners, and of the no- bility and gentry that frequented the house of his patron. |( Among those who attended Knox's sermons at Calder, were three young noblemen, who made a great figure in the public transactions which followed, — Archibald Lord Lorn, who, suc- * Knox, Historie, p. 91. f On the back of a picture of our Reformer, whicli hangs in one of the rooms of Lord Torphichen's house at Calder, is this inscription : " The Rev. John Knox. The first sacrament of the supper given in Scotland atler tlie Reformation, was dispensed in this hall." The connnencenieiit of the Refor- mation is here dated from the present visit of Knox to Scotland ; for we have already seen that he administered the ordhiance in the Castle of St. An- drews, in 1547. Tlie account given by Knox in liis History of the Refor- mation (p. 92), seems to imply that he perfbnned this service in the west country, before he did it in Calder-house. I Knox, Historie, pp. 91, 118. J Keith, p. 530. II Spotswood, p. 90. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 119 ceeding to the earldom of Argyle at the most critical period of the Reformation, promoted, with all the ardour of youthful zeal, that cause which his father had espoused in extreme old age, — John Lord Erskine, afterwards Earl of Mar, who commanded the important fortress of Edinburgh Castle, during the civil war which ensued between the queen regent and the Protestants, and died Regent of Scotland, — and Lord James Stewart, au illegitimate son of James V., who was subsequently created Earl of Murray, and was the first regent of the kingdom during the minority of James VI. Being designed for the Church, the last named nobleman had been in his youth made prior of St. Andrews — a title by which he is often mentioned in history ; but, on arriving at manhood, he discovered no inclination to follow the clerical profession. He was at this time in the twenty- second year of his age ;* and although he had lived fo^' the most part in retirement from the court, had already given proofs of those superior talents which he had soon a more favourable op- portunity of displaying. Knox had formerly met with him in London, and his sagacity led him, even at that time, to form the highest expectations from the talents and spirit of the youth- ful prior.t The three noblemen were much gratified with Knox's doctrine, and his exhortations made an impression upon their minds, which remained during the succeeding part of their lives. In the beginning of the year 1556, he was conducted by Lockhart of Bar, and Campbell of Kineancleugh, to Kyle, the ancient receptacle of the Scottish Lollards, where there were a number of adherents to the reformed doctrine. He preached m the houses of Bar, Kineancleugh, Carnell, Ochiltree, and Gad- girth, and in the town of Ayr. In several of these places he also dispensed the sacrament of our Lord's Supper. A little before Easter, he went to Finlayston, the baronial mansion of the noble family of Glencairn. William Earl of Glencairn, having been killed at the battle of Pinkie, had been succeeded by his son, Alexander, whose superior learning and abilily did not escape the discerning eye of Sir Ralph Sadler, during his embassy in Scotland.^ He was an ardent and steady friend to the reformed religion, and had carefully instructed his family in its principles. In his house, besides preaching, Knox dispensed the sacrament of the supper ; the earl himself, his countess, and two of their sons, with a number of their friends and acquaintance, participating of that sacred feast.§ * Chalmers's Caledonia, i. 848. f Knox, Historie, pp. 91, 331. I Sadler's State Papers, i. 83. Hume of Godscroft's Hist. ii. 128. § The silver cups which were used on that occasion were, till of late, care- fully preserved by the tamily of Glencairn at Finlayston; and the parish of 120 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. From Finlayston he returned to Calder-house, and soon after paid a second visit to Dun, during which he preached more openly than before. At this time the greater part of the gentlemen of Mearns made profession of the reformed religion, by sitting down at the Lord's table ; and entered into a solemn and mutual bond, in which they renounced the Popish com- munion, and engaged to maintain and promote the pure preach- ing of the gospel, as Providence should favour them witli op- portunities.* This seems to have been the first of those religious bonds or covenants, by which the confederation of the Protestants in Scotland was so frequently ratified. Although they have been condemned as unwarranted in a religious point of view, and dangerous in a political, yet are they completely defensible upon the principles both of conscience and policy. A mutual agreement, compact, or covenant, is virtually implied in the constitution of every society, civil or religious ; and the dictates of natural law conspire with the declarations of revelation in sanctioning the warrantableness and propriety of explicit en- gagements, about any lawful and important matter, and of ratifying these, if circumstances shall require it, by formal subscription, and by a solemn appeal to the Searcher of hearts. By strengthening the motives to fidelity and constancy, and thus producing mutual confidence among those who are em- barked in the same cause, they have proved eminently bene- ficial in the reformation of churches and nations, and in securing the religious and political privileges of men. The misapplica- tion of them, when employed in a bad cause and for mis- chievous ends, can be no argument against their use in a legi- timate way, and for laudable purposes. And the reasoning employed to prove that such covenants should not be entered into without the permission of rulers, would lead to the con- clusion, that subjects ought never to profess a religion to which their superiors are hostile, nor make any attempts to obtain the reform of abuses, or the redress of grievances, without the con- sent and approbation of those v/ho are interested in their sup- port. Kilmalcolm was regularly favoured with the use of them at the time of dis- pensing tlic sacrament. " The people," says tlie minister, in his account of that parisli, " respect them much for their antiquity, as well as for the solem- nity attending them in former and later times." Statistical Account of Scot- land, vol. iv. p. 279. This writer thinks they had been originally candle- sticks, and converted to this use on the emergent occasion ; the hollow bottom reversed forming the mouth of the cup, and the middle, after the socket was screwed out, being converted into the foot. But it is not very likely that the family of Glencairn were obliged to have recourse to this ex- pedient. * Knox, Historie, p. 92. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 121 The dangers to which Knox and his friends had been accus- tomed, taught them to conduct matters with such secrecy, that he had preached for a considerable time, and in different quar- ters of tlie country, before tlie clergy knew that he was in the kingdom. Concealment was, however, impracticable after his audiences became numerous. His preaching at Ayr was re- ported to the court, and formed the topic of conversation in the presence of the queen regent. Some one in the company having affirmed that the preacher was an Englishman, " a pre- late, not of the least pride, said, ' Nay ; no Englishman, but it is Knox, that knave.' " This was Beatoun, Archbishop of Glasgow. " It was my lord's pleasure," says Knox, " so to baptize a poor man ; the reason whereof, if it should be re- quired, his rochet and mitre must stand for authority. What further liberty he used in defining things alike uncertain to him, to wit, of my learning and doctrine, at this present I omit. For what hath my life and conversation been, since it hath pleased God to call me from the puddle of papistry, let my very enemies speak ; and what learning I have, they may prove when they please."* Interest was at this time made by the bishops for his apprehension, but without success.t After his last journey to Angus, the friars flocked from all quarters to the bishops, and instigated them to adopt speedy and decisive measures for checking the alarming eftects of his preaching. In consequence of this, he was summoned to appear before a convention of the clergy, in the Church of the Blackfriars at Edinburgh, on the 15th of May. This diet he resolved to keep, and with that view came to Edinburgh, be- fore the day appointed, accompanied by Erskine of Dun, and several other gentlemen. The clergy had never dreamed of his attendance. Being apprised of his determination, and afraid to bring matters to extremity, while unassured of the regent's decided support, they met beforehand, set aside the summons under pretence of some informality, and deserted the diet against him. On the day on which he should have appeared as a culprit, Knox preached in the Bishop of Dunkeld's large lodging, to a far greater audience than had before attended him in Edinburgh. During the ten following days, he preached in the same place, forenoon and afternoon ; none of the clergy making the smallest attempt to disturb him. It was in the midst of these labours, that he wrote the following hasty lines to Mrs. Bowes. " Belovit mother, with my maist hartlie commendation in the Lord Jesus, albeit I was fuUie purposit to have visitit yow * Letter to Mary, Regent of Scotland, apud Historic, p. 417. t Ibid. pp. 416, 417. 11 Q 122 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. before this tyme, yet hath God laid impedimentis, whilk I culd not avoyd. They are siiche as I dout not ar to his glorie, and to the comfort of many heir. The trumpet blew tlie aid sound thrie dayis together, till privat houssis of indifferent largenes culd not conteane the voce of it. God, for Christ his Sonis sake, grant me to be myndful, that the sobbis of my hart hath not been in vane, nor neglectit in the presence of his Majestic. 0 ! sweet war the death that suld follow sic fourtie dayis in Edinburgh, as heir I have had thrie. Rejose, mother ; the tyme of our deliverance approacheth : for, as Sathan ragetli, sa dois the grace of the Halie Spreit abound, and daylie geveth new testymonyis of the everlasting love of oure merciful Father. I can wryt na mair to you at this present. The grace of the Lord Jesus rest with you. In haste — this Monun- day — youre sone, John Knox."* About this time, the Earl Marischal was induced to attend an evening exhortation delivered by Knox. He was so much pleased with the discourse, that he joined with Glencairn in urging the preacher to write a letter to the queen regent, which, they thought, might have the effect of inclining her to pro- tect the reformed preachers, if not also to lend a favourable ear to their doctrine. With this request he was induced to comply.t As a specimen of the manner in which this letter was written, I shall give the following quotation, in the original language : — " I dout not, that the rumouris, whilk half cumin to your grace's earis of me, half bene such, that (yf all re- portis wer trew) I wer unworthie to live in the earth. And wonder it is, that the voces of the multitude suld not so have inflamed your grace's hart with just hatred of such a one as I am accuseit to be, that all acces to pitie suld have been schute up. I am traducit as ane heretick, accusit as a false teacher and seducer of the pcpill, besides other opprobries, whilk (afRrmit by men of warldlie honour and estimation) may easelie kendill the wrath of majestratis, whair innocencie is not knawin. But blissit be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Chryst, who, by the dew of his heavenly grace, hath so quenchit the fyre of displeasure as yit in your grace's hart (whilk of lait dayis I have understood), that Sathan is frustrat of his interpryse and purpois. Whilk is to my heart no small comfort; not so muche (God is witness) for any benefit that I * MS. Letter?, pp. 343, 344. f Knox, Ilistorie, p. 92. Another hearer of Knox at this time was Henry Drummond of liiccartowne, wlio was married to a niece of Robert Creighton, Biishop of Dunkeld. Lord Stratliallan's Account of the House of Drum- mond, MS. in Advocates' Library. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 123 can resave in this miserable lyfe, by protectioun of any earthlie creature (for the ciipe whilk it behoveth me to drink is apoyntit by the wisdome of him whois consallis ar not changeable), as that I am for that benefit whilk I am assnrit your grace sail resave ; yf that ye continew in like moderation and clemencie towards utheris that maist unjustlie ar and sail be accusit, as that your grace hath begun towardis me and my most despe- rate cause." An orator (he continued) might justly require of her grace a motherly pity towards her subjects, the execution of justice upon nmrderers and oppressors, a heart free from avarice and partiality, a mind studious of the public welfare, with other virtues which heathen as well as inspired writers required of rulers. But, in his opinion, it was vain to crave reformation of manners, when religion was so much corrupted. He could not propose, in the present letter, to lay open the sources, progress, and extent of those errors and corruptions which had overspread and inundated the Church ; but, if her majesty would grant him opportunity and liberty of speech, he was ready to undertake this task. In the mean time, he could not refrain from calling her attention to this important subject, and pointing out to her the fallacy of some general prejudices by which she was in danger of being deluded. She ought to beware of thinking, that the care of religion did not belong to magistrates, but was devolved wholly on the clergy ; that it was a thing incredible that religion should be so universally depraved ; or that true religion was to be judged of by the majority of voices, by custom, by the laws and determinations of men, or by any thing but the infallible dictates of inspired Scripture. He knew that innovations in religion were deemed hazardous ; but the urgent necessity and immense magnitude of the object ought, in the present case, to swallow up the fear of danger. He was aware that a public reformation might be thought to exceed her authority as a regent ; but she could not be bound to maintain idolatry and manifest abuses, nor to suffer the clergy to murder innocent men, merely because they wor- shipped God according to his word. Though Knox's pen was not the most smooth nor delicate, and though he often irritated by the plainness and severity of his language, the letter to the queen regent is very far from being uncourtly or inelegant. It seems to have been written with great care, and in point of style may be compared with any composition of that period, for simplicity and forcible ex- pression.* Its strain was well calculated for stimulating the * This isjnore evident from the letter in its orig-inal lang-uage, which is now before me in manuscript. In the copies of it which have been publislied along with his History, and even in the edition of 1732, freedoms have been 124 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. inquiries, and confirming the resolutions, of one who was im- pressed with a conviction of the reigning evils of the Church, or who, though not resolved in judgment as to the matters in con- troversy, was determined to preserve moderation between the contending parties. Notwithstanding her imposing manners, the regent was not a person of this description. The Earl of Glencairn delivered the letter into her hand ; she glanced over it with a careless air, and gave it to the Archbishop of Glas- gow, saying, " Please you, my lord, to read a pasquil."* The report of this induced Knox, after he retired from Scotland, to publish the letter, with additions. The style of the additions is more spirited and sharp than that of the original letter ; but there is nothing even in them which is indecorous, or which will warrant the charge which has been brought agauist him of being accustomed to treat crowned heads with irreverence and disrespect. " As charitie," says he, " persuadeth me to interpret thinges doubtfully spoken in the best sence, so my dutie to God (who hath commanded me to flatter no prince in the earth) compelleth me to say, that if no more ye esteme the admonition of God nor the cardinalies do the scoffing of pasquilles; then he shall schortly send you messagers, with whom ye shall not be able on that maner to jest. — I did not speak unto you, madame, by my former lettre, neither yet do I now, as Pasquillus doth to the pope, in behalf of such as dare not utter their names ; but I come, in the name of Jesus Christ, affirming that the religion which ye maintain is damna- ble idolatrie : the which I offre myselfe to prove by the most evident testimonies of Goddis Scriptures. And, in this quar- relle, I present myself againste all the Papistes within the realme, desireing none other armore but Goddis holie word, and the libertie of my tonge,"t While he was thus employed in Scotland, he received letters from the English congregation at Geneva, stating that they had made choice of him as one of their pastors, and urging him to come and take the inspection of them. J He judged it his duty to comply with this invitation, and began immediately to pre- pare for the journey. His wife and mother-in-law had by this time joined him at Edinburgh ; and Mrs. Bowes, being now a widow, resolved to accompany Mrs. Knox and her husband to Geneva. Having sent them before him in a vessel to Dieppe, used, and the style is not a little injured by the insertion of unnecessary and enfeebling expletives. * Ilistorie, pp. 92, 425. f Letter, &c. apud Historic, pp. 425, 426. I This coiigrGgation (which consisted of those wlio had withdrawn from Frankfort), as early as Sei)teniber 1555, "chose Knox and Good man for their pastors, and Cilby requested to supplie the rome till Knox returned owte of France." Troubles at Franckford, p. lix. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 125 Knox again visited and took his leave of the brethren in the different places where he had preached. He was conducted, by his friend Campbell of Kineancleugh, to the Earl of Argyle, and preached for some days at his seat of Castle Campbell.* That aged nobleman appears to haA^e received durable impres- sions from the instructions of the Reformer. He resisted all the arts which the clergy afterwards employed to detach him from the Protestant interest, and on his death-bed laid a solemn charge upon his son to use his utmost influence for its preser- vation and advancement. Argyle, and Glenorchy, who was also a hearer of Knox, endeavoured to detain him in Scotland, but without success. "If God so blessed their small begin- nings," he said, " that they continued in godliness, whensoever they pleased to command him, they should find him obedient. But once he must needs visit that little flock, which the wicked- ness of men had compelled him to leave." Accordingly, in the month of July 1556, he left Scotland, and having joined his fa- mily at Dieppe, proceeded along with them to Geneva.t No sooner did the clergy understand that he had quitted the kingdom, than they, in a dastardly manner, renewed the sum- mons against him which they had deserted during his presence, and, upon his failing to appear, passed sentence against him, adjudging his body to tire flames, and his soul to damnation. As his person was out of their reach, they caused his effigy to be ignominiously burned at the cross of Edinburgh. Against this sentence he drew up his Appellation, which he afterv/ards published, with a supplication and exhortation, directed to the nobility and commonalty of Scotland. It may not be impro- per here to subjoin the summary which he gave in this treatise of the doctrine taught by him during his late visit to Scotland, which the clergy pronounced so execrable, and deserving of such horrible punishment. He 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 recon- ciled to God those who should inherit the promised kingdom, all other sacrifices which men pretend to offer for sin are blas- phemous ; 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 * A piece of sloping ground on the south side of the castle is still pointed out as the spot on which Knox preached, t Knox, Historic, pp. 92—3, 108. U* 126 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 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 words 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 Scriptures, 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 gene- ral council, to be held agreeably to ancient laws and canons; humbly requesting the nobility and commons of Scotland, to take him, and others who were accused and persecuted, under their protection, until such time as these controversies were de- cided, and to regard this his plain Appellation of no less effect, than if it had been made with the accustomed solemnity and ceremonies.* The late visit of our Reformer was of vast consequence. By his labours on this occasion, he laid the foundations of that noble edifice which he was afterwards so instrumental in com- pleting. The friends of the Protestant doctrine were separated from the corrupt communion to which, in a certain degree, they had hitherto adhered ; their information in scriptural truth was greatly improved ; and they were brought together in different parts of the nation, and prepared for being organized into a re- gular church, as soon as Providence should grant them external liberty, and furnish them with persons qualified for acting as overseers. Some may be apt to blame him for abandoning with too great precipitation the undertaking which he had so auspiciously begun. But, without pretending to ascertain the train of reflections which occurred to his mind, we may trace, in his determination, the wise arrangements of that Providence which watched over the infant Reformation, and guided the steps of the Reformer. His absence was now no less conducive to the preservation of the cause, than his presence and personal labours had lately been to its advancement. Matters were not yet ripened for a general reformation in Scotland ; and the clergy would never have suffered so zealous and able a cham- pion of the new doctrines to live in the country. By retiring * Appellation, &c. apud Historie, p. 428. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 127 at this time, he not only preserved his own life, and reserved his labours to a more fit opportunity, but he also averted the storm of persecution from the heads of his brethren. Deprived of teachers, they became objects of less jealousy to their adver- saries; while in their private meetings, they continued to con- firm one another in the doctrine which they had received, and the seed lately sown had sufficient time to take root and spread. Before he took his departure, Knox gave his brethren such directions as he judged most necessary, and most useful to them, in their present circumstances. Not satisfied with com- municating these orally, he committed them to writing in a common letter, which he either left behind him, or sent from Dieppe, to be circulated in the different quarters where he had preached. In this letter, he warmly recommends to every one the frequent and careful perusal of the Scriptures. He incul- cates the duty of attending to religious instruction and worship in each family. He exhorts the brethren to meet togetlier once every week, if practicable, and gives them directions for con- ducting their assemblies, in the manner best adapted for their mutual improvement, while destitute of public teachers They ought to begin with confession of sins, and invocation of the divine blessing. A portion of the Scriptures should then be read ; and they would find it of great advantage to observe a regular course in their reading, and to join a chapter of the Old and of the New Testament together. After the reading of the Scriptures, if an exhortation, interpretation, or doubt, occurred to any brother, he might speak ; but he ought to do it with mo- desty, and a desire to edify or to be edified, carefully avoiding " multiplication of words, perplexed interpretation, and wilful- ness in reasoning." If, in the course of reading or conference, they met with any difficulties which they could not solve, he advised them to commit these to writing, before they separated, that they might submit them to the judgment of the learned ; and he signified his own readiness to give them his advice, by letter, whenever it should be required. Their assemblies ought always to be closed, as well as opened, by prayer.* There is every reason to conclude, that these directions were punctually complied with ; this letter may therefore be viewed as an im- portant document regarding the state of the Protestant Church in Scotland previous to the establishment of the Reformation, and shall be inserted at large in the notes.t Among his subsequent letters are answers to questions which his countrymen had transmitted to him for advice. The ques- tions are such as might be supposed to arise in the minds of pious persons lately made acquainted with Scripture, puzzled * MS. Letters, pp. 353—359. f See Note Z. 128 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. with particular expressions, and at a loss how to apply some of its directions to their situation. They discover an inquisitive and conscientious disposition ; and at the same time, illustrate the disadvantages under which ordinary Christians labour when deprived of the assistance of learned teachers.* Our Reformer's answers display an intimate acquaintance with Scripture, and dexterity in expounding it, with prudence in giving advice in cases of conscience, so as not to encourage a dangerous laxity on the one hand, or scrupulosity and excessive rigidness on the other. * Among the questions proposed were the following : — Whether the bap- tism administered by the Popish priests was valid, and did not require repe- tition ! Whether all the things prohibited in the decree of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem (Acts xv.) were still unlawful ? Whether the prohibition in 2d John, verse 10, extended to the common salutation of those who taught erroneous doctrine 1 How are the directions respecting dress, in Sd Peter iiL 3, to be obeyed ! In what sense is God said to repent 1 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 129 PERIOD V. FROM THE YEAR 1556 WHEN HE RETURNED TO GENEVA, AFTER VISITING SCOTLAND, TO MAY 1559, WHEN HE RETURNED TO SCOT- LAND FOR THE LAST TIME. Knox reached Geneva before the end of harvest, and took upon him the charge of the English congregation there,* among whom he laboured during the two following years. This short period was the most quiet of his life. In the bosom of his own family, he experienced that soothing care to which he had hith- erto been a stranger, and which his frequent bodily ailments now required. Two sons were born to him in Geneva. The greatest affection to him, and cordiality among themselves, sub- sisted in the small flock under his charge. With his colleague, Christopher Goodman, he lived as a brother ; and he was happy ill the friendship of Calvin and the other pastors of Geneva. So much was he pleased with the purity of religion established in that city, that he warmly recommended it to his religious acquaintances in England, as the best Christian asylum to which they could flee. " In my heart," says he, in a letter to his friend Mr. Locke, " I could have wished, yea, and cannot cease to wish, that it might please God to guide and conduct yourself to this place, where, I neither fear nor eshame to say, is the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the apostles. In other places I confess Christ to be truly preached ; but manners and religion to be so sincerely reformed, I have not yet seen in any other place beside. "•{• But neither the enjoyment of personal accommodations, nor the pleasures of literary society, nor the endearments of do- * The congregation appear to have delayed the final settlement of their form of worship and discipline until Knox's arrival ; for the preface to The Order of Geneva, is dated " the 10th of February anno 15")6." Dunlop's Collection of Confessions, ii. 401. If this date was according to the old method of reckoning, Knox must have been present at the time. But I am not sure but that the new mode of beginning tlie year in January was intro- duced in Geneva as early as 1556. t MS. Letters, p. 377. R 130 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. mestic happiness, could subdue Knox's ruling passion, or unfix his determination to revisit Scotland, as soon as an opportunity should ofl'er, for advancing the Reformation among his country- men. In a letter written to some of his friends in Edinburgh, March 16, 1557, he expresses himself in the following man- ner: " My own motion and daily prayer is, not only that I may visit you, but also that with joy I may end my battle among you. And assure yourself of this, that whenever a greater number among you shall call upon me than now hath bound me to serve them, by his grace it shall not be the fear of pun- ishment, neither yet of the death temporal, that shall impede my coming to you."* A certain heroic confidence, and assu- rance of ultimate success, have often been displayed by those whom Providence has raised up to achieve great revolutions in the world ; by which they have been borne up under discour- agements which would have overwhelmed men of ordinary spirits, and imboldened to face dangers from which others would have shrunk appalled. Knox possessed no inconsidera- ble portion of that enthusiastic heroism which was so con- spicuous in the German reformer. " Satan, I confess, rageth," says he, in a letter written at this time ; " but potent is He that promiseth to be with us, in all such enterprises as we take in hand at his commandment, for the glory of his name, and for maintenance of his true religion. And therefore the less fear we any contrary power; yea, in the boldness of our God, we altogether contemn them, be they kings, emperors, men, angels, or devils. For they shall be never able to prevail against the simple truth of God which we openly profess ; by the permis- sion of God they may appear to prevail against our bodies, but our cause shall triumph in despite of Satan."t Soon after the above letter had been written, two citizens of Edinburgh, James Syme and James Barron, arrived at Geneva with a letter and credentials from the Earl of Glencairn, and Lords Lorn, Erskine, and James Stewart, informing him, that the professors of the reformed doctrine remained steadfast, that its adversaries were daily losing credit in the nation, and that those who possessed the supreme authority, although they had not yet declared themselves friendly to it, continued to refrain from persecution ; and inviting him, in their own name, and in that of their brethren, to return to Scotland, where he would find them all ready to receive him, and to spend their lives and fortunes in advancing the cause which they had espoused.| Knox, at the same time that he laid this letter before his congre- gation, craved the advice of Calvin and the other ministers of * MS. Letters, p. 408. t Ibid p. 378. X Knox, Historic, p. 97, 98. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 131 Geneva. They gave it as their opinion, "that he could not refuse the call without shewing himself rebellious to God, and unmerciful to his country." His congregation agreed to sacri- fice their particular interest to the greater good of the Church ; and his own family silently acquiesced. Upon this, he returned an answer to the letter of the nobility, signifying that he meant to visit them with all reasonable expedition. The congregation chose as his successor William Whittingham,* a learned Eng- lishman, with whom he had been long united by the ties of friendship and congeniality of sentiment. Having settled his other afiairs, he took an affectionate leave of his friends at Geneva, and went to Dieppe, in the month of October. But on his arrival there, he received letters from Scotland, written in a very different strain from the former. By these he was informed, that new consultations had been held among the Pro- testants in that country ; that some of them began to repent of the invitation which they had given him to return ; and that the greater part seemed irresolute and faint-hearted. This intelligence exceedingly disconcerted and embarrassed him. He instantly despatched a letter to the nobility who had invited him, upbraiding them fof their timidity and inconstancy. The information which he had just received, had, he said, con- founded him, and pierced his heart with sorrow. After taking the advice of the most learned and godly in Europe, to satisfy his own conscience and theirs as to the propriety of this enter- prise, the abandonment of it must reflect disgrace either on him or them — it argued either that he had been marvellously for- ward and vain, or that they had betrayed great imprudence and want of judgment in the invitation which they had given him. To some it might appear a small matter that he had left his poor family destitute of a head, and committed the care of his little but dearly-beloved flock to another ; but, for his part, he could not name the sum that would induce him to go through that scene a second time, and to behold so many grave men weeping at his departure. What answer could he give to those who inquired, why he did not prosecute his journey ? He could take God to witness, that the personal inconveniences to which he had been subjected, and the mortification which he felt at the disappointment, were not the chief causes of his grief. He was alarmed at the awful consequences which would ensue — at the bondage and misery, spiritual and temporal, which they would entail on themselves and their children, their sub- jects and their posterity, if they neglected the present oppor- tunity of introducing the gospel into their native country. In his conscience, he could exempt none that bore the name of * See Note AA. 132 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. nobility in Scotland from blame in this affair. His words might perhaps appear sharp and indiscreet; bnt charity would con- strue them in the best sense, and wise men would consider that a true friend cannot flatter, especially in a matter which involves the salvation of the bodies and souls, not of a few persons, but of a whole realm. " What are the sobs, and what is the afflic- tion, of my troubled heart, God shall one day declare. But this will I add to my former rigour and severity ; to wit, if any per- suade you, for fear or dangers to follow, to faint in your former purpose, be he esteemed never so wise and friendly, let him be judged of you both foolish and your mortal enemy. I am not ignorant tliat fearful troubles shall ensue your enterprise, as in my former letters I did signify unto you. But, 0 ! joyful and comfortable are those troubles and adversities which man sus- taineth for accomplishment of God's will revealed in his word. For how terrible soever they appear to the judgment of natural men, yet they are never able to devour nor utterly to consume the sufferers ; for the invisible and invincible power of God sus- taincth and preserveth, according to his promise, all such as with simplicity do obey him. No less cause have ye to enter in your former enterprise, than Moses had to go to the presence of Pharaoh ; for your subjects, yea, your brethren are oppressed — their bodies and souls holden in bondage ; and God speaketh to your consciences (miless ye be dead with the blind world), that ye ought to hazard your own, lives, be it against kings or emperors, for their deliverance. For only for that cause are ye called princes of the people, and receive honour, tribute, and homage at God's commandment, — not by reason of your birth and progeny (as the most part of men falsely do suppose,) but by reason of your office and duty ; which is, to vindicate and deliver your subjects and brethren from all violence and oppres- sion, to the uttermost of your power."* Having sent off this letter, with others written in the same strain, to Erskine of Dun, Wishart of Pitterow, and some other gentlemen of his acquaintance, he cherished the hope that he would soon receive more favourable accounts from Scotland, and resolved in the mean time to remain in France. t The re- formed doctrine had been early introduced into that kingdom ; it liad been copiously watered with the blood of martyrs ; and all the violence which had been employed by its enemies had not been able to extirpate it, or to prevent its spreading among all ranks. The Parisian Protestants were at present smarting * Knox, Historie, pp. 98—100. t I find hiin about this time, addressing a letter to one of his correspon- dents from Lyons. MS. Letters, p. 340. This letter is subscribed John Sinclair. See above, p. 18, note * df LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 133 under the effects of one of those massacres, which so often dis- graced the Roman CathoUc rehgion in that country, before as well as after the commencement of the civil wars. Not satis- fied with assaulting them when peaceably assembled for wor- ship in a private house, and treating them with great barbarity, their adversaries, in imitation of their pagan predecessors, in- vented the most diabolical calumnies against them, and circu- lated the report that they were guilty of abominable practices in their religious assemblies.* The innocent sufferers had drawn up an apology, in which they vindicated themselves from the atrocious charge ; and Knox, having got this translated into English, wrote a preface and additions to it, with the intention of publishing it for the use of his countrymen, t Having formed an acquaintance with many of the Protestants of France, and being able to speak their language, he occasionally preached to them in passing through the country. It seems to have been on this occasion that he preached in thecity of Rochelle, and having alluded to his native country in the course of his sermon, told his audience that he expected within a few years, to preach in the Church of St. Giles, in Edinburgh, j: * Histoire des Martyrs, pp. 425, 426. Anno 1597, Folio. Beza, Vita Calvini, ad ami. 1557. The Cardinal of Lorrain, uncle to Mary, the young Queen of Scotland, was industrious in propagating these vile calumnies ; a circumstance which increased Knox's bad opinion of that determined enemy of the Reformation. This is mentioned by him in his preface to the Parisian Apology. " This was not bruited be the rude and ignorant pepil ; but a cardinall (whais ipocrisie nevertheless is not abil to cover his awn filthiness) eschamit not openlie at his tabill to affirm that maist impudent and manifest lie ; adding, moreover (to the further declaratioun whais sone he was), that in the hous whair they wer apprehendit, 8 bedis were preparit. When in verie deed, in that place whair they did convene (except a table for the Lord's supper to have been ministered, a chayr for the preicher, and bankis and stullis for the easement of the auditors), no preparation nor furniture was abill to be proved, not even by the verie enemis." MS. Let- ters, pp. 445, 446. t MS. Letters, pp. 442 — 500. The Apology of the Parisian Protestants was published ; but I do not think that the English translation, with Knox's additions, ever appeared in print. The writer of the Life of Knox, prefixed to the edition of his History, 1732, p. xxi. has fallen into several blunders on this subject. There are no letters to the French Protestants in the MS. to which he refers. The Apology was written by the Parisians themselves, and Knox informs us, that a part of the translation only was done by him, — " the former and maist part was translatit by another, because of my other labors." Ut supra, p. 446. \ " Having particularly declared to me," says Row, " by those who heard hun say, when he was in Rochel, in France, that within two or three years he hoped to preach the gospel publicly in St. Giles in Edinburgh. But the persons who heard him say it, being Papists for the time, and yet persuaded by a nobleman to liear him preach privately, and see him baptize a bairn that was carried many miles to him for tliat purpose, thouglit that such a thing could never come to pass, and hated him for so speaking; yet, coming 13 134 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. It does not appear that there were any Protestants hi Dieppe when Knox first visited it. But he had now the satisfaction of officiating in a reformed church, recently planted in that town. In the course of the year 1557, a travelling merchant from Geneva, named John Venable, had come to Dieppe, and by his conversation and the circulation of books, imparted the know- ledge of the Protestant doctrine to some of the inhabitants. At his request, they were visited by Delajonche, pastor at Rouen, who applied to the ministers of Geneva to furnish them with a preacher. They sent Andre de Sequeran, sieur d' Amont, who,, having removed in the course of a few months, was succeeded by Delaporte, one of the pastors of the Church of Rouen. Knox having come to Dieppe at this time, was chosen colleague to Delaporte ; and under their ministry the Reformation was embraced by some of the principal persons of the town, and amongst the rest by M. de Bagueville, a descendant of Charles JVIartel. A surprising change was soon observed on the morals of the inhabitants, which had formerly been very dissolute ; and the church at Dieppe continued long in a flourishing condi- tion.* Being disappointed in his expectation of letters from Scot- land, Knox determined to relinquish his journey, and return to Geneva. This resolution does not accord with the usual firm- ness of our Reformer, and is not sufficiently accounted for in the common histories. The Protestant nobles had not retracted their invitation : the discouraging letters which he had received, were written by individuals without any authority from the rest ; and if their zeal and courage had begun to flag, his presence was the more necessary to recruit them. From the letters which he wrote to his familiar acquaintance, I am enabled to state the motives by which he was actuated in making this retrograde step. He was perfectly aware that a violent struggle must precede the home to Scotland, and through stress of weather likely to perish, they began to think of his preaching, and allowed of every part of it, and vowed to God, if he would preserve their lives, that they would forsake Papistry, and follow the calling of God ; whilk they did, and saw and heard John Knox preach openly in the kirk of Edinburgh, at the time whereof he spoke to tliem." Row's liistorie, MS. pp. 8, 9. The same fact is mentioned by Pierre de la Roque, a French author, in Recueil des Dernieres Heures Edifiantes: Wodrow, MSS. No. 15, Advocates' Library. * Annuaire, ou Repertoire Ecclesiastique, a I'usage desEglises Reformees et Protests ntes de I'empire Francais, par M. Rabaut le Jeune, pp. 273, 274. A Paris, 1807. The pastor of Dieppe was a member of the first National Synod of the reformed ciiurchcs of France, held at Paris in 1559. Quick's Synodicon, 1, 2, 7. In Ki'^O there were upwards of 5000 communicants in the Church of Dieppe. Diary of Mr. Robert Trail, minister of Greyfriars, Edinburgii, pp. 22, 23. MS. in the possession of the Rev. Dr. Trail. LIFE OF JOhN KNOX. 135 establishment of the reformation in his native country ; he knew that his presence in Scotland would excite the rage of the clergy, who would make every effort to crush their adversaries, and to maintain the lucrative system of superstition : and he dreaded that civil discord, and tumult, and bloodshed would ensue. The prospect of these things rushed into his mind, and, regard- less of public tranquillity as some have pronounced him to be, staggered his resolution to prosecute an undertaking, which, in his judgment, was not only lawful, but laudable and necessary. " When," says he, " I heard such troubles as appeared in that realm, I began to dispute with myself as followeth : — ' Shall Christ, the author of peace, concord, and quietness, be preached where war is proclaimed, sedition engendered, and tumults appear to rise ? Shall not his evangel be accused as the cause of all this calamity which is like to follow ? What comfort canst thou have to see the one-half of the people rise up against the other ; yea, to jeopard the one to m\irder and destroy the other ? But, above all, what joy shall it be to thy heart, to be- hold with thy eyes thy native country betrayed ftito the hands of strangers, which, to no man's judgment, can be avoided ; because, that those who ought to defend it, and the liberty thereof, are so blind, dull, and obstinate, that they will not see their own destruction.' "* To "these and more deep cogita- tions," which continued to distract his mind for several months after he returned to Geneva, he principally imputed his abandon- ment of the journey to Scotland. At the same time, he was convinced that they were not sufficient to justify his desisting from an undertaking recommended by so many powerful con- siderations. " But, alas !" says he, " as the wounded man, be he never so expert in physic or surgery, cannot suddenly miti- gate his own pain and dolour, no more can I the fear and grief of my heart, although I am not ignorant of what is to be done. It may also be, that the doubts and cold writing of some brethren did augment my dolour, and somewhat discourage me that before was more nor feeble. But nothing do I so much accuse as myself." Whatever were the secondary causes of this step, I cannot help again directing the reader's attention to the wisdom of Providence, in throwing impediments in his way, by which his return to Scotland was protracted to a period, before which it might have been injurious, and at which it was calcu- lated to be in the highest degree beneficial, to the great cause that he meant to promote. In judging of Knox's influence in advancing the Reformation, we must take into view not only his personal labours, but also the epistolary correspondence which he maintained with his * MS. Letters, p. 349. 136 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. countrymen. By this he mstmcted them in his absence, com- municated his own advice, and that of the learned among whom he resided, upon every diflicult case wliich occurred, and ani- mated tliem to constancy and perseverance. During his resi- dence at Dieppe, he transmitted to Scotland two long letters, which deserve particular notice. The one, dated on the 1st of December, is directed to the Protestants in general ; the other, dated on the 17th of that month, is addressed to the nobility. In both of them he prudently avoids any reference to his late disappointment. In the first letter he strongly inculcates purity of morals, and warns all who professed the reformed religion against those irregularities of life which were employed to the disparagement of their cause, by two classes of persons, — by the Papists, who, although the same vices prevailed in a far higher degree among themselves, represented them as the native fruits of the reformed doctrine, — and by a new sect, who were enemies to superstition, but who had deserted the reformed communion, and were be- come scarcely less hostile to it than the Papists. The principal design of this letter was to put his countrymen on their guard against the arts of this last class of persons, and to expose their leading errors. The persons to whom he referred went under the general name of Anabaptists, a sect which sprung up soon after the com- mencement of the Reformation under Luther, and, breaking out into the greatest excesses, produced violent commotions in dif- ferent parts of Germany. Being suppressed in the place of its birth, it spread through other countries, and secretly made con- verts by high pretensions to seriousness and Christian simpli- city ; the spirit of wild fanaticism, which at first characterized its disciples, gradually subsiding after its first ef!ervescence. Extravagancies of a similar kind have not unfrequently accom- panied great revolutions ; when the minds of men, released from the fetters of implicit obedience, and dazzled by a sudden illu- mination, have been disposed to fly to the extreme of anarchy and turbulence. Nothing proved more vexatious to the original reformers than this. It was urged by the defenders of the old system as a popular argument agahist all change. The extra- vagant opinions and disorderly practices of the new sect, though disowned and opposed by all sober Protestants, were artfully imputed to them by their adversaries. And many, who had de- clared themselves friendly to reform, alarmed, or pretending to be alarmed, at this hideous spectre, drew back, and sheltered themselves within the sacred pale of that Church, which, not- withstanding her notorious dissensions, errors, and corruption, both in head and members, continued to arrogate to herself ex- LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 137 clusively the properties of unity, universality, and perpetual infallibility. The radical error of this sect, according to the more improved system held by them at the time of which I write, was a fond conceit of a certain ideal spirituality and perfection, by which they considered the Christian Church to be essentially distin- guished from the Jewish, which was, in their opinion, a mere carnal, secular society. Entertaining this notion, they were naturally led to abridge the rule of faith and manners, by con- fining themselves almost entirely to the New Testament, and to adopt their other opinions concerning the unlawfulness of infant baptism, of civil magistracy, national churches, oaths, and defen- sive war. But besides these tenets, the Anabaptists were, at this period, generally infected with the Pelagian heresy, and united with the Papists in loading the doctrines which the reformers held respecting predestination and grace with the most odious charges.* Our Reformer had occasion to meet with some of these sec- taries both in England and on the Continent, and had ascer- tained their extravagant and dangerous principles. In the year 1553, one of them came to his lodging in London, and, after requiring secresy, gave him a book, written by one of the party, which he pressed him to read. It contained the following pro- position, " God made not the world, nor the wicked creatures in it ; but these were made by the devil, who is therefore called the god of this world." He immediately warned the man against such gross doctrine, and began to explain to him the sense in which the devil is called " the god of this world" in Scripture. " Tush for your written word !" replied the enthu- siast, '< we have as good and as sure a word and veritie that teacheth us this doctrine, as ye have for you and your opinion,"! Being apprised that persons who had imbibed these opinions were creeping into Scotland, Knox Avas afraid that they might insidiously instil their poison into the minds of some of his bre- thren. He refuted their opinion respecting church-communion, by showing that they required a purity which had never been * The Careles by Necessitie, as reprinted in Knox's Answer to an Ana- baptist, in 15fi0, Spanhemii (Patris) Disput. Theol. Miscell. Geneva, 1652. Spanhemii (Filii) Opera, torn. iii. pp. 771 — 798. It is scarcely necessary to state, that the greater part of those who, in the present day, oppose the bap- tism of infants, do not hold a number of the tenets specified above. They are decidedly hostile to Pelagianism, and friendly to the doctrine of grace. So far from denying the lawfulness of magistracy among Christians, they have in general (at least in Scotland) adopted the principle of non-resistance to civil rulers in all cases. f Knox, Answer to the Blasphemous Cavillations written by an Anabaptist, pp. 405, 4U7. Anno 1560. 12* S 138 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. found in the Churcli, either before or since the completion of the canon of Scripture. In opposition to their Pelagian tenets, he gave the following statement of his sentiments : " If there be any thing which God did not predestinate or appoint, then lacked he wisdom and free regimen ; or, if any thing was ever done, or yet after shall be done, in heaven or in earth, which he might not have impeded, (if so had been his godly pleasure), then he is not omnipotent : which three properties, to wit, wisdom, free regimen, and power, denied to be in God, I pray you what rests in his Godhead ? The wisdom of our God we acknowledge to be such, that it compelleth the very malice of Satan, and the horrible iniquity of such as^be drowned in sin, to serve to his glory, and to the profit of hi*s elect. His power we believe and confess to be infinite, and such as no creature in heaven or earth is able to resist. And his regimen we ac- knowledge to be so free, that none of his creatures dare present them in judgment, to reason or demand the question, why hast thou done this or that ? But the fountain of this their damnable error (which is, that in God they can acknowledge no justice except that which their foolish brain is able to comprehend), at more opportunity, God willing, we shall entreat."* He assigns his reasons for warning them so particularly against the seduction of these erroneous teachers. Under the cloak of mortification, and the colour of a godly life, they " sup- planted the dignity of Christ," and " were become enemies to free justification by faith in his blood." The malice of Papists was now visible to all the world ; the hypocrisy of mercenary teachers and ungodly professors Avouldsoon discover itself; and seldom had open tyranny been able to suppress the true religion, when it had once been earnestly embraced by the body of any nation or province. " But deceival^le and false doctrine is a poison and venom, which, once drunken and received, with great difficulty can afterwards be purged." Accordingly, he charged them to " try the spirits" which ca^iie to them, and to sutler no man to take the office of preacher upon him of his own accord, and without trial, or to assemble the people in secret meetings ; else Satan would soon have his emissaries among them, who would " destroy the plantation of our hea- venly Father."t His admonitions, on this head, were not with- out effect ; and the Protestants of Scotland, instead of being dis- tracted with those opinions, remained united in their views, as to doctrine, worship, and discipline. His letter to the Protestant lords breathes an ardent and ele- * This he afterwards accomplished in the book referred to in the prece- ding note. t MS. Letters, pp. 403—424. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 139 vated spirit. Its object was to purify their minds from selfish and worldly principles — to raise, sanctify, and christianize their views, by exhibiting and recommendhig to them the examples of those great and good men whose characters were delineated, and whose deeds were recorded, in the sacred annals. The glory of God, the advancement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the salvation of themselves and their brethren, the emancipation of their country from spiritual and political bondage — these, and not their own honour and aggrandisement, or the reveng- ing of their petty private feuds, were the objects which they ought to keep steadily and solely in view. In this letter, he also communicates his advice on the delicate question of resistance to supreme rulers. They had consulted him on this subject, and had submitted it to the judgment of the most learned men on the Continent. Soon after they had agreed to the marriage of their young queen to the dauphin of France, the Scots began to be jealous of the designs of the French court against their liberties and independence. Their jealousies increased after the regency was transferred to the queen dowager, who was wholly devoted to the interest of France, and had contrived, under ditferent pretexts, to keep a body of French troops in the kingdom. It was not difficult to excite to resistance the independent and haughty barons of Scotland, accustomed to yield a very limited and precarious obedience even to their native princes. They had lately given a proof of this by their refusal to co-operate in the war against England, which they considered as undertaken merely for French interests. And, encouraged by this circumstance, the Duke of Chastelherault had begun, under the direction of his brother, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, to intrigue for regain- ing the authority which he had reluctantly resigned. Our Reformer displayed his moderation, and the soundness of his principles, by tlie advice which he gave at this critical period. He did not attempt to inflame the irascible minds of the nobility by aggravating the mal-administration of the queen regent ; far less did he advise them to join with the duke, and others who were discontented with the government, and to en- deavour in this way to advance their cause. Instead of this, he informed them that 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 ac- cession to it, and to beware of countenancing those who sought to promote their private and worldly ends by disturbing the go- vernment. "He did not mean," he said, "to retract the prin- ciple which he had advanced in former letters, nor to deny the lawfulness of inferior magistrates, and the body of a nation, re- sisting the tyrannical measures of supreme rulers." He still 140 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. held, that there was " a great difference between lawful obe- dience, and a fearful flattering of princes, or an unjust accom- plishment of their desires, in things which be required or de- vised for the destruction of a commonwealth." Tlie nobility were the hereditary guardians of the national liberties ; and there were limits beyond which obedience was not due by sub- jects. But recourse ought not to be had to resistance, except when matters were tyrannically driven to an extreme. And it was peculiarly incumbent on the Protestants of Scotland to be circumspect in all their 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. His advice and solemn charge to them therefore was, that they should continue to yield cheerful obedience to all the lawful commands of the regent, and endeavour, by humble and repeated requests, to procure her favour, and to prevail upon her, if not to promote their cause, at least to protect them from persecution. If she refused to take any steps for reforming re- ligion, it was their duty to provide that the gospel should be preached, and the sacraments administered in purity, to them- selves and their brethren. If, while they were endeavouring peaceably to accomplish this, attempts should be made to crush them by violence, he did not think, considering the station which they occupied, that they were bound to look on and see their innocent brethren murdered. On the contrary, it was lawful for them, nay, it was their incumbent duty, to stand up in their defence. But even in this case they ought to protest their readiness to obey the regent in every thing consistent with their fidelity to God, and to avoid all association with the am- bitious, the factious, and the turbulent."^ This is a specimen of the correspondence which Knox main- tained with the Protestant nobility, by which he enlightened their views, aroused their zeal, and restrained their impetuosity, at this important juncture. I shall afterwards have occasion to call the attention of the reader more particularly to his po- litical principles. Knox retm-ned to Geneva in the beginning of the year 1558. During that year, he was engaged, along with several learned men of his congregation, in making a new translation of the Bible into English ; which, from the place where it was composed and first printed, has obtained the name of the Geneva Bible.t * MS. Letters, pp. 424, 438. t Strype's Mcni. of Parker, p. 20'). This translation was often reprinted in Britain. 'J'lie freedom of remark used in the notes gave offence to Queen Elizabeth, and lier successor .Tames; the last of whom said, that it was the worst translation wjiich he had seen. Notwithstanding this expression of disapprobation, it is evident thitt the translators appointed by his authority LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 141 It was at this time also that he published his Letter to the Queen Regent, and his Appellation and Exhortation ; both of which were transmitted to Scotland, and contributed not a little to the spread of the reformed opinions. I have already given an account of the first of these tracts, which was chiefly intended for removing the prejudices of Roman Catholics. The last was more immediately designed for instructing and animating the friends of the reformed religion. Addressing himself to the nobility and estates of the kingdom, he shows that the care and reformation of religion belonged to them as civil rulers, and constituted one of the primary duties of their office. This was a dictate of nature as well as revelation ; and he would not insist on it, lest he should seem to suppose them " lesse careful over God's true religion, than were the ethnicks* over their idolatrie." Inferior magistrates, within the sphere of their jurisdiction — the nobles and estates of a kingdom, as well as kings and princes, were bound to attend to this high duty. He then addresses himself to the commonalty of Scotland, and points out their duty and interest, with regard to the important controversy in "agita- tion. They were rational creatures, formed after the image of God — they had souls to be saved — they were accountable for their conduct — they were bound to judge of the truth of religion, and to make profession of it, as well as kings, nobles, or bishops. If idolatry was maintained, if the gospel was suppressed, if the blood of the innocent was shed, and if, in these circumstances, they kept silence, and did not exert themselves to prevent such evils, how could they vindicate their conduct ?t But the most singular treatise published this year by Knox, and that which made the greatest noise, was, " The first Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment J of Women ;" made great use of it ; and if tliey had followed it still more, the version which they have given us would, upon the whole, have been improved. The late Dr. Geddcs had a very different opinion of it from the royal critic. I pretend not to know the versions referred to in the following passage of a foreign critic : — "Nee vero melius opera suae factioni, vel astuta vulpecula ilia Joannes Cnoxius Scotus, vel Oes magnoe & Celebris Anglicance veridic- tianee reformationis authores, cum in suis Bibliis eodem capite, itareponunt: Scoti primi quia proprius Calvinismo accedunt ; ' Thou ar Piter, and vpon that rok I wil buld my kirk,' id est, Tu es Petrus, & super istam rupe ego volo sedificare mea Ecclesia. Videmus ' that rok ' non esse id quod Petrum Cnoxius vocauit, atque Dominus Petrum- affatur, et de eodem intelligit fore ipsum EcclesicB suae columen. Angli nihil habent discriminis, nisi quod dicunt 'churk' pro 'Kirk.'" Paradigma De Quatuor Linguis Orientalibvs Prsecipvis. Petro Victore Caietano Palma Avtliore, p. 115. Parisiis, 1595. * i. e. heathen. "i Appellation, apud Historie, pp. 434 — 440, 453, 454. I i. e. regimen, or government. 142 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. in which he attacked, with great vehemence, the practice of admitting females to the government of nations. There is some reason to think that his mind was struck with the incongruity of this practice as early as Mary's accession to the throne of Eng- land.* This was probably one of the points on which he had conferred with the Swiss divines in 1554.t That his sentiments respecting it were fixed in 1556, appears from an incidental reference to the subject in one of his familiar letters. J Influ- enced, however, by deference to the opinion of others, he refrained for a considerable time from publishing them to the world. But, at last, provoked by the tyranny of the queen of England, and wearied out with her increasing cruelties, he applied the trumpet to his mouth, and uttered a terrible blast. " To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire, above any realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, a thing most contrarious to his revealed will and approved ordinance, and, finally, it is a subversion of all equity and justice." Such is the first sentence and principal proposition of the work. The arguments by which he endea- vours to establish it are, that nature intended the female sex for subjection, not superiority, to the male, as appears from their infirmities, corporal and mental (excepting always such as God, " by singular privilege, and for certain causes, exempted from the common rank of women") ; that the divine law, announced at the creation of the first pair, had expressly assigned to man the dominion over woman, and commanded her to be subject to him ; that female government was not permitted among the Jews ; that it is contrary to apostolical injunctions ; and that it leads to the perversion of government, and other pernicious consequences. Knox's theory on this subject was not novel. In support of his opinion, he could appeal to the constitutions of the free states of antiquity, and to the authority of their most celebrated legislators and philosophers. § In the kingdom of France, females were, by an express law, excluded from succeeding to the crown. Edward VI. some time before his death, had pro- posed to the privy council the adoption of this law in England ; but the motion, not suiting the ambitious views of the Duke of Northumberland, was overruled. || Though his opinion was * First Blast, apud Historie, p. 478. t MS. Letters, pp. .318, 319. I Ibid. pp. 322, 323. § Tacitus has expressed his contempt of those who submit to female gov- ernment with his usual emphatic brevity in the account which he gives of the Sitones, a German tribe. " Coetera similes, uno differunt, quod ftemina dominatur ; in tantum, non modo a libertate, sed etiam a servitute degene- • rant." Dc Mor. Germ. c. 45. II Warner's Eccles. History of England, ii. 308 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 143 sanctioned by such high authority, Knox was by no means sanguine in his expectations as to the reception of this perform- ance. He tells us, in the preface, that he laid his account not only with the indignation of those who were interested in the support of the reprobated practice, but also with the disapproba- tion of such gentle spirits among the learned as would be alarmed at the boldness of the attack. He did not doubt that he would be called " curious, despiteful, a sower of sedition, and one day perchance be attainted for treason ;" but in uttering a truth of which he was deeply convinced, he was determined to " cover his eyes, and shut his ears," from these dangers and obloquies. He was not mistaken in his anticipations. It exposed him to the resentment of two queens, during whose reign it was his lot to live ; the one his native princess, and the other exerting a sway over Scotland scarcely inferior to that of any of its mon- archs. Several of the English exiles approved of his opinion,* and few of them would have been displeased at seeing it re- duced to practice, at the time that the Blast was published. But Queen Mary dying soon after it appeared, and her sister Eliza- beth succeeding her, they raised a great outcry against it. John Fox wrote a letter to the author, in which he expostulated with him, in a very friendly manner, as to the impropriety of the pub- Hcation, and the severity of its language. Knox, in his reply, did not excuse his " rude vehemencie and inconsidered affirma- tions, which may appear rather to procead from coler then of zeal and reason ;" but signified that he was still persuaded of the principal proposition which he had maintained.! His original intention was to blow his trumpet thrice, and to publish his name with the last blast, to prevent the odium from falling on any other person. But finding that it gave oflence to many of his brethren, and being desirous to strengthen rather than invalidate the authority of Elizabeth, he relinquished his design of prosecuting the discussion. :f He retained his senti- ments to the last, but abstained from any further declaration of them, and from replying to his opponents ; although he was pro- voked by their censures and triumph, and sometimes hinted, in * Christopher Goodman adopted the sentiment, and commended tlie publi- cation of his colleague, in his book on " Obedience to Superior Powers." Whittingham and Gilby declared themselves on the same side of the ques- tion. I might also mention countrymen of his own, who agreed with Knox on this subject; as James Kennedy, the celebrated Archbishop of St. An- drews, and Sir David Lindsay. Buchanani Hist. lib. xii. torn. i. 221 — 24, edit. Rudim. Chalmers's Lindsay, iii. 175. t Strype's Annals, i. 127. Fox's letter was written before the death of Queen Mary. Knox's Answer to it, from the original in the British Museum, will be found in the Appendix. f The heads of the intended Second Blast are subjoined to his Appellation, which was published some montlis atler the First Blast. 144 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. his private letters, that lie would break silence, if they did not study greater moderation. In the course of the following year, an answer to the Blast appeared under the title of " An Harborowe for Faithful Sub- jects."* Though anonymous, like the book to which it was a reply, it was soon declared to be the production of John Aylmer, one of the English refugees on tiie Continent, who had been archdeacon of Stowe, and tutor to Lady Jane Grey. It was not undertaken until the accession of Elizabeth, and was written, as Aylmer's biographer informs us, " upon a consultation holden among the exiles, the better to obtain the favour of the new queen, and to take off any jealousy she might conceive of them, and of the religion which they professed."! Aylmer himself says, that if the author of the Blast " had not swerved from the particular question to the general," but had confined himself to the queen who filled the throne when he wrote, " he could have said nothing too much, nor in such wise as to have offended any indifferent man ;" and he allows with Knox, that Mary's govern- ment was " unnatural, unreasonable, unjust, and unlawful."^ From these and some other considerations, Knox was induced to express a suspicion that his opponent had accommodated his doctrine to the times, and courted the favour of the reigning princess by flattering her vanity and love of power.§ It is cer- tain, that if Knox is entitled to the praise of boldness and disin- terestedness, Aylmer carried away the palm for prudence ; the latter was advanced to the bishopric of London, the former could not, without great difficulty, obtain leave to set his foot again upon English ground. Knox's trumpet would never have sound- ed its alarm, had it not been for the tyranny of Mary ; and there is reason to think that Aylmer would never have opened his " Harborowe for Faithful Subjects," but for the auspicious suc- cession of Elizabeth. This, however, is independent of the merits of the question, * "An Harborowe for Faithful and Trewe Subjects, against the late blowne Blaste, concerning the Government of Wemen, &c. anno MD. lix. At Strasborowe the 26. of Aprill." The Blast drew forth several other de- fences of female government, two of which were written by natives of Scot- land. Bishop Lesley's tract on this subject was printed along with his de- fence of Queen Mary's honour. David Chalmers, one of the lords of session, published his " Discours de la legitime succession des Femmes," after he retired from Scotland. Lord Hailes's Catal. of the Lords of Session, note 23. Mackenzie's Lives, iii. 388, 392. f Strype's Life of Aylmer, p. 16. I riarboro\\'e, sig. B. Strype says, contrary to the plain meaning of the passage, that Aylmer speaks here of "the Scotch Queen Mary." Life of Aylmer, p. 230. { The same suspicion seems to liavc been entertained by some of Eliza- beth's courtiers. Strype's Aylmer, p. 20. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 145 which I do not feel incHiied to examine minutely. The change which has taken place in the mode of administering govern- ment in modern times, renders it of less practical importance than it was formerly, when so much depended upon the per- sonal talents and activity of the reigning prince. It may be added, that the evils incident to a female reign will be less felt under such a constitution as that of Britain, than under a pure and absolute monarchy. This last consideration is urged by Aylmer; and here his reasoning is most satisfactory,* The Blast bears the mark of hasty composition.! The Harborowe has evidently been written with great care ; it contains a good collection of historical facts bearing on the question ; and though more distinguished for rhetorical exaggeration than logical pre- cision, the reasoning is ingeniously conducted, and occasionally enlivened by strokes of humour. J It is, upon the whole, a curious as well as rare work. After all, it is easier to vindicate the expediency of continu- ing the practice, where it has been established by law and usage, than to support the affirmative, when the question is propounded as a general thesis on government. It may fairly be questioned, if Aylmer has refuted the principal arguments of his opponent ; and had Knox deemed it prudent to rejoin, he might have exposed the fallacy of his reasoning in different in- stances. In replying to the argument from the apostolical canon,§ the archdeacon is not a little puzzled. Distrusting his distinction between the greater office, " the ecclesiastical func- tion," and the less, " extern policy," he argues, that the apos- tle's prohibition may be considered as temporary, and peculiarly applicable to the women of his own time ; and he insists that his clients shall not, in toto, be excluded from teaching and ruling in the Church any more than in the State. " Me thinke," says he, very seriously, " even in this poynte, we must use trtcstxua, a certain moderacion, not absolutely, and in every wise to debar them herein (as it shall please God) to serve * See Note BB. ' t The editions of tlie Blast printed along with Knox's History are all ex- tremely incorrect : whole sentences are often omitted. \ In his answer to Knox's argument, from Isaiah iii. 12, he concludes thus: " Therefore the argumente ariseth from wrong understandings As the vicar of Trumpenton understode Eli, Eli, lama-zabatani, when he read the passion on Palme Sonday. When he came to that place, he stopped, and calling the churchwardens, saide, 'Neighbours! this gear must be amended. Here is Eli twice in the book : I assure you if my L. [the bishop] of Elie come this waye and see it, he will have the book. Therefore, by mine advice, we sliall scrape it out, and put it in our own towne's name, Trumpington, Trumpington, lamah zabactani.'' They consented, and he did so, because he understode no grewe." Harborowe, G. 3 G. 4. § 1 Tim. ii. 11—14. 13 T 146 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. Christ. Are there not, in England, women, think you, that for their learninge and wisdom, could tell their householde and neighbouris as good a tale as the best Sir Jhone there?"* Be- yond all question-. Who can doubt that the learned Lady Elizabeth, who on a certain time interrupted the dean of her chapel, and told him to "stick to his text," was able to make as good a sermon as any of her clergy ? or, that she was better qualified for other parts of the duty, when she composed a book of prayers for herself, while they were obliged to use one made to their hands ? In fact, the view which the archdeacon gave of the text was necessary to vindicate the authority of his queen, who was head, or supreme governor, of the Church, as well as of the State. She who, by law, had supreme authority over all the reverend and right reverend divines in the land, with power to superintend, suspend, and control them in all their ecclesiasti- cal functions, — who, by her injunctions, could direct the primate himself when to preach, and how to preach, — and who could license and silence ministers at her pleasure, must have been bound very moderately indeed by the apostolical prohibition, " I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." Reason would also say, that she had an equal right to assume the exercise of the office in her own person, if she chose to avail herself of that right ; and had she issued a conge cV elire, accompanied with her royal recom- mendation to elect some learned sister to a vacant see, the arch- deacon at least would not have felt so squeamish at complying with it, as the Italian university did at conferring the degree of Doctor in Divinity upon the learned Helen Lucrecia Piscopia Cornaca.t There are some things in the Harborowe which might have been vmpalatable to the queen, if the author had not sweetened them with that personal tiattery, which was as agreeable to Elizabeth as to others of her sex and rank, and which he took care to administer in sufficient quantities before concluding his work. The ladies will be ready to excuse a slight slip of the pen in the good archdeacon, in consideration of the handsome manner in which he has defended their right to rule ; but they will scarcely believe that the following description of the sex could proceed from him. " Some women," says he, " be wiser, better learned, discreater, constanter, than a number of men ;" but others (" the most part," according to his biographer) he describes^ as " fond, foolish, wanton, flibbergibs, tatlers, trifling, wavering, witles, without counsel, feable, carles, rashe, proud, daintie, nise, tale-bearers, eves-droppers, rumour-raisers, evil- * Harborowe, G. 4. H. t See Note CC. X Harborowe, sig. G. 3. Life of Aylraer, p. 279. # LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 147 tongued, worse-minded, and, in every wise, doltified with the dregges of the devil's doungehill ! ! !" The rude author of the monstrous Blast never spoke of the sex in terms half so disre- spectful as these. One would suppose that Aylmer had already renounced the character of advocate of the fair sex, and re- canted his principles on that head, as he did respecting the titles and revenues of bishops, which he inveighed against before his return from exile, but afterwards accepted with little scruple ; and, when reminded of the language which he had formerly used, apologized for himself by saying, " When I was a child, I thought as a child ; but when I became a man I put away childish things."* — But it is time to return to the narrative. Our Reformer's letter to the Protestant lords in Scotland pro- duced its intended effect, in reanimating their drooping courage. At a consultative meeting, held at Edinburgh in December 1557, they unanimously resolved to adhere to one another, and exert themselves in advancing the Reformation. Having sub- scribed a solemn bond of mutual assistance, they renewed their invitation to Knox ; and being afraid that he might hesitate on account of their former irresolution, they wrote to Calvin, to employ his influence to induce him to comply. Their letters did not reach Geneva until November 1558.f By the same conveyance, Knox received letters of a later date, communi- cating the most agreeable intelligence respecting the progress which the reformed cause had made, and the flourishing ap- pearance which it continued to wear, in Scotland. Through the exertions of our Reformer, during his residence among them in the year 1556, and in pursuance of the instruc- tions which he left behind him, the Protestants had formed themselves into congregations, which met in diff"erent parts of the country with greater or less privacy, according to the oppor- tunities which they enjoyed. Having come to the resolution of withdrawing from the Popish worship, they provided for their religious instruction and mutual edification in the best manner that their circumstances would permit. As there were no mi- nisters among them, they continued for some time to be de- prived of the dispensation of the sacraments ;J but certain in- telligent and pious men of their number were chosen to read the Scriptures, to exhort, and offer up prayers in their assem- * Life of Aylmer, p. 269. f Knox, Historie, p. 101. X Ninian Winget says, that " sum lordis and f^entilmen " ministered the sacrament of the supper " to their awn household servandis and tenantis." If only one instance of this kind occurred, the Papists would exaggerate it. The same writer adds, " that Knox blamed the persons who did it, saying, that they had " gretumlie failzeit." Winzet's Buke of Fourscoir Three Questions, in Keith, Append, p. 239. Comp. Knox, p. 217. 146 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. blies. Convinced of the necessity of order and discipline in their societies, and desirous to have them organized, as far as was in their power, agreeably to the institution of Christ, they next proceeded to choose elders for the inspection of their man- ners, to whom they promised subjection, and deacons for the collection and distribution of alms to the poor.* Edinburgh was the first place in which this order was established : Dundee the first town in which a reformed Church was completely organized, provided with a regular minister, and favoured with the dispensation of the sacraments. During the war with England, which began in Autumn 1556, and continued through the following year, the Protestants en- joyed considerable liberty ; and they improved it with great zeal and success. The clergy were not indiflerent to the pro- gress which the reformed opinions were daily making, and they prevailed with the regent to summon such as had presumed to preach without their authority ; but she was obliged to abandon the process against them, in consequence of the arrival of certain gentlemen from the west country, who demanded their release in a tone which declared that they were resolved not to be re- fused.t At a meeting of the nobles and barons attached to the Re- formation, held at Edinburgh in December 1557, two resolu- tions were adopted for regulating their conduct in the present delicate juncture. It was agreed, in the first place, that they should rest satisfied for the present with requiring that prayers, and the lessons of the Old and New Testament, should be read in English, according to the book of Common Prayer,| in every parish, on Sundays and festival days, by the curates of the respective parishes, or, if they were unable or unwilling, by such persons within the bounds as were best qualified. And, secondly, that the reformed preachers should teach in private houses only, till the government should allow them to preach in public.§ The first resolution has been represented as an unwar- rantable assumption of authority by this reforming assembly, and as implying that they had a right to dictate to the whole nation, by setting aside the established worship, and imposing a new * Cald. MS. i. 257. " The Electioun of Eldaris and Deaconis in the Church of Edinburgh," in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 685, 686. Calderwood places his account of this under the year 1555 ; but I think that date too early. It was rather in the end of 1556, or in the course of 1557. The names of the first elders in Edinburgh were George Smail, Michael Robert- son, Adam Craig, Jolm Cairns, and Alexander Hope. There were at first two assemblies in Edinburgh; but Erskine of Dun persuaded them to unite, and they met sometimes in the houses of Robert Watson and James Barron, and sometimes in the Abbey. t Knox, Historie, pp. 94—5. J See Note DD. 5 Knox, 101. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 149 form. This construction is, however, irreconcilable with the situation in which they were then placed, and with the moderate and submissive tone in which they continued to urge their claims at a subsequent period. It is rather to be viewed as expressing the opinion of that meeting respecting the degree of reformation which individuals of their body might introduce, in places to which their authority and influence extended. And, accordingly, it was reduced to practice in many parishes where Protestant barons resided, and where the people were disposed to imitate their example.* • In pursuance of the second resolution agreed on at the general meeting, the Earl of Argyle undertook the protection of Joliii Douglas, a Carmelite friar, who had embraced the reformed sentiments ;t and the rest of the preachers were received into the houses of other barons, and employed to preach as their chaplains. This measure alarmed the clergy no less than the former practice of itinerant preaching had done. They saw that it would be vain to commence prosecutions against preachers who were entertained in the families of the principal men in the kingdom ; and they resolved to exert all their influence to deprive them of such powerful patronage. Presuming upon the easy temper of the aged Earl of Argyle, and upon the friendship which had long subsisted between his family and the Hamiltons, the Archbishop of St. Andrews wrote a letter to that nobleman in a very insinuating strain, and at the same time sent a relation of his own, Sir David Hamilton, with instructions to represent the danger to which he exposed his noble house by countenan- cing Douglas, and to entreat him, in the most earnest manner, to withdraw his protection from such a pestilent heretic. Argyle's reply was temperate and respectful, but at the same time firm and spirited : he not only vindicated the doctrine taught by his chaplain, and refused to dismiss him, but made several shrewd and pointed remarks which the archbishop could not fail to apply to himself The bishop having written that he felt himself bound " in honour and conscience" to inquire into the heresies of which Douglas was accused, the earl replies : " He preiches against idolatrie, I remit to your lordschip's conscience gif it be heresie or not ; he preiches against adultrie and fornicatioun, I referre that to your lordschip's conscience ;| he preiches against hypocrisie, I referre that to your lordschip's conscience ; he preiches against all maner of abuses and corruptioun of Christis sincere religioun, I referre that to your lordschip's conscience. * Spotswood, p. 117. i Ibid. Knox, p. 102. \ How the bishop's conscience stood aflijcted as to these points we know not ; but it is certain that his practice was very far from being immaculate. Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 209. Knox, Historic, p. 104. Keith, p. 208. 13* 150 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. My lord, I exhort yow, in Christis name, to wey all thii' affairis in your conscience, and consider if it be your dewtie also not onlie to thole* this, bot in hke maner to do the same. This is all, my lord, that I varie in my age, and na uthar thing bot that I knew not befoir these oflences to be abhominable to God, and now, knawing his will by manifestatioun of his word, abhorres thame." Referring to the bishop's offer to send him a learned and catholic teacher, the earl replies, " God Almichtie send us mony of that sorte, that will preiche trewlie, and nathing but ane catholic universall Christian fayth ; and we Heiland rude pepill hes mistert of thame. And if your lordschip wald get and provyde me sic a man, I sould provyde him a corporal leving as to my self, with grit thanks to your lordschip ; for trewlie, I and many ma hes grit mister of sic men. And becaus I am abill to sustain ma nor ane of thame, I will requeist your lordschip earnestlie to provyde me sic a man as ye wrait ; for the harvest is grit, and thair are few labouraris."± Foiled in his attempts to prevail on the nobility to withdraw their protection from the preachers, the archbishop determined to wreak his vengeance upon such of them as were still within his power, and proceeded to revive those cruel measures which had been suspended for several years, by the political circum- stances of the country rather than by the clemency and modera- tion of the clergy. Walter Mill, parish priest of Lunan in Angus, having been condemned as a heretic in the time of Cardinal Beatoun, had escaped from execution, and continued to preach, sometimes in private, and at other times openly, in different quarters of the kingdom. Being lately discovered by one of the archbishop's spies, he was brought to trial at St. Andrews. He appeared before the court so worn out with age, and the hardships which he had endured, that it was not expected he would be able to answer the questions which might be put to him ; but, to the surprise of all, he conducted his defence with great spirit. Such was the compassion excited by his appearance, and the horror which was now felt at the punishment to which he was doomed, that the clergy, after pronouncing him guilty, could not procure a secular judge to pass sentence of death upon him, and the archbishop was at last obliged to employ a worthless servant of his own to perform the odious task. On the 2Sth of August 1558, IVIill expired amidst the flames, uttering these words : " As for me, I am fourscore and two years old, and cannot live long by course of nature; but a hundred better shall rise out of the ashes of my bones. I trust in God, I shall be the last tiiat shall suffer death in Scotland for this cause !"§ * Endure. f Need. | Knox, Historie, pp. 103 — 7. 5 Lindsay of Pitscottie's History, pp. 200 — 1. Knox, 1'22. Spots wood, 95—7. Pctrie, Part ii. 191. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 151 This barbarous and illegal execution produced effects of the greatest importance. It raised the horror of the nation to an incredible pitch ; and as it was believed at that time, that the regent was not accessory to the deed, their indignation was directed wholly against the clergy. Throwing aside all fear, and disregarding those restraints which prudence, or respect for esta- blished order, had hitherto imposed on them, the people now assembled openly to join in the reformed worship, and avowed their determination to adhere to it at all hazards. Harlow, Douglas, Paul Methven, and some others, were imboldened to break through the regulations to which they had submitted, and began to preach, and administer the sacraments, with greater publicity than formerly.* In the month of October,! they were joined by John Willock, who returned a second time from Embden. Meanwhile, the Protestant barons, having assembled at Edin- burgh in the month of July,| had resolved to lay their complaints in a formal manner before the regent. They renewed the request which they had formerly made, that she would, by her authority and in concurrence with the parhament, restrain the violence of the clergy, correct the flagrant and insufferable abuses which pre- vailed in the Church, and grant to them and their brethren the liberty of religious instruction and worship, at least according to a restricted plan which they laid before her, and to which they were willing to submit, till their grievances should be deliberately examined and legally redressed. § Their petition was presented to the regent, in the palace of Holyroodhouse, by Sir James San- dilands of Calder, in the presence of a number of the nobility and bishops. Her reply was such as to persuade them that she was friendly to their proposals ; she promised that she would take measures for carrying them legally into effect as soon as it was in her power, and assured them, that, in the mean time, they might depend on her protection. || * Wilkins, ConcDia, iv. 216. Besides the persons above named, the council niention (in the place here referred to) " Johannes Patritz, et alii complures, catholicce fidei et ecclesiasticos unitatis desertores." Who this Patritz was I do not know. The reformed preachers were obliged to assume feig-ned names on particular occasions, to escape apprehension. Thus Douglas went by the name of Grant. Comp. Knox, Historie, pp. 103, 100. t Historie of the Estate of Scotland from 1559 to 1560, p. 1. MS. be- longing to Thomas Thomson, Esq. Advocate. This MS., which I had not seen when I published the first edition of this work, contains a number of minute particulars not mentioned in otiier histories. It would have been extremely valuable if it had been complete, but tlie copy which I have used stops short in the middle of the year 1560. t Ibid. 5 See Note EE. II Knox, Historie, p. 122. Bishop Bale, who was then at Basle, inserted, in a work which he was just publishing, a letter sent him at this time by 152 LIFE OF JOHN KiNOX. It did not require many arguments to persuade Knox to com- ply with an invitation, which was accompanied with such gra- tifying intelligence ; and he began immediately to prepare for his journey to Scotland. The future settlement of the congre- gation under his charge, occupied him for some time. Infor- mation being received of the death of Mary, Queen of England,* and the accession of Elizabeth, the Protestant refugees hastened to return to their native country. The congregation at Ge- neva, having met to return thanks to God for this deliverance, agreed to send one of their number with letters to their brethren in ditlerent places of the Continent, and particularly in Frank- fort, congratulating them on the late happy change, and re- questing a confirmation of the mutual reconciliation which had already been effected, the burial of all past offences, and a brotherly co-operation, in endeavouring to obtain such a settle- ment of religion in England as would be agreeable to all the sincere well-wishers of the Reformation. A favourable return to their letters being obtained,! they took leave of the hospita- ble city, and set out for their native country. By them Knox sent letters to some of his former acquaintances, who were now in the court of Elizabeth, requesting permission to travel through England on his way to Scotland. In the month of January 1559, our Reformer took his leave of Geneva for the last time.l In addition to former marks of respect, the republic, before his departure, conferred on him the freedom of the city.§ He left his wife and family behind him, Thomas Cole, an English refugee residing at Geneva, communicating this information. " Heri enim," says Cole, " D. Knoxus ex Scotia nova certis- sima de immutata religione accepit : Christum publice per totum illud reg- num doceri ; et ita demum homuium corda occupasse, ut omni raetu posito audeant publicis precibus interesse sua lingua cclebratis, et sacramenta quoque habeant rite administrata, impuris antichristi ceremoniis abjectis. Nunc regina cogitat Reformationem religionis, indicto die quo conventus fiat totius regni," &c. Scriptor. Illustr. Major. Britannise Poster. Pars. Art. Knoxus. Basil. 1559. * " God would not suffer her to reign long," says a Catholic writer, " either on account of the sins of her father, or on account of the sins of her people, who were unworthy of a princess so holy, so pious, and endued with such divine and rare dispositions." Laing, de Vita Heretic, fol. '28. + Troubles at Franckford, pp. 189, 190. t Cald. MS. i. 380. \ llistoire Litteraire de Geneve, par Jean Senebier, tom. i. 375, Genev. 178f}. It is somewhat singular, that Calvin did not obtain this honour until December 1559. " II n'y a cependant point de citoyen," says Senebier, "qui ait achete ce titre honorable aussi cherement que lui par ses services, et je ne crois pas qu'il en ait bcaucoup qui I'aient autant merite, et qui le rendnnt aussi celobre." Ibid. pp. 2:^0, 231. Our Reformer obtained another public testimony of esteem at this time from Bishop Bale, who dedicated his v/ork on Scottisii writers to him and Alexander Aless. The praise which he bestows on him deserves the more LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 153 until he should ascertain that they could live with safety in Scotland. Upon his arrival at Dieppe, in the middle of March, he received information that the English government had re- fused to grant him liberty to pass through their dominions. The request had appeared so reasonable to his own mind, con- sidering the station which he had held in that country, and the object of his present journey, that he once thought of proceed- ing to London without waiting for a formal permission ; yet it was with some difficulty that those who presented his letters escaped imprisonment.* This impolitic severity was occasioned by the informations of some of the exiles, who had not forgotten the old quarrel at Frankfort, and had accused of disloyalty and disaftection to the queen, not only Knox, but all those who had been under his charge at Geneva, whom they represented as proselytes to the opinion which he had published against female government.t There was not an individual who could believe that Knox had the most distant eye to Elizabeth in publishing the obnoxious book ; nor a person of judgment who could seriously think that her government was exposed to the slightest danger from him or his associates, who felt no less joy at her auspicious acces- sion than their brethren. | If he had been imprudent in that publication, if he had " swerved from the particular question to the general," his error (to use the words of his respondent) notice, because the bishop had been one of his opponents at Frankfort. " Te vero, Knoxe, frater amatissimc, conjunxit mihi Anglia et Germania, impri- mis autem doctrine nostras in Christo Domino fraterna consensio. Nemo est enim qui tuam fidem, constantiam, patientiam tot erumnis, tanta persecutione, exilioque diuturno et gravi, testatum, non coUaudet, et non admiretur, non amplectatur." Balei Script. Illustr. Maj. Brit. Poster. Pars. pp. 175, 176. Basiliffi, ex officina Joan. Operini, 1559, mense Februario. * Knox, Historie, p. 205. t Ibid. pp. 20ri, 210. I In February 1559, the English exiles at Geneva published a prose trans- lation of the Book of Psalms, which they dedicated to Elizabeth ; and in this dedication, their congratulations on her accession to the throne, and their professions of loyalty, are as warm as those of any of her subjects were. It is inscribed, " To the most Vertuous and Noble Queene Elizabeth, Queene of Englande, France, and Irelande, &c. your humble subjects of the English Church at Geneva, wyth grace," &c. After mentioning that tliey had em- ployed the time of their exile in revising the English translation of the Bible, and endeavouring to bring it as near as they could to the pure sim- plicity and true meaning of the Hebrew tongue, they add : — " When we heard that the almightie and most mercyfull God had no less myraculously preferred you to that excellent dignitie, than he had aboue all men's expec- tations, preserued you from the furie of such as sought your blood : with the most joyful myndes and great diligence we endeavoured our selves, to set foorth and dedicate this most excellent booke of the Psalmes vuto your grace as a speciall token of our seruice and good will, till the rest of the Byblc, which, praysed be God, is in good readinesse, may be accomplished and presented." Epistle, p. 3, prefixed to the Booke of Psalmes, Geneva, 1559, 16mo. u 154 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. " rose not of malice, but of zeal, and by looking more to the present cruelty, than to the inconveniences that after might follow ;" and it was the part of generosity and of good policy to overlook the fault. Instead of this, Elizabeth and her coun- sellors took up the charge in a serious light ; and the accused were treated with such harshness and disdain, that they repent- ed of leaving their late asylum to return to their native country. One cannot help feeling indignant at this weak revenge, when it is considered that EUzabeth had admitted to favour, and re- tained at court, persons who had endeavoured to prevent her succession, and who had thirsted for her blood f and that those who, under the preceding reign, had advised and practised the greatest severities against the Protestants, were now treated with the utmost lenity. Even the infamous Bonner was allowed to appear at court, and although the queen shuddered at the thought of a man who was polhited with so much blood kissing her hand, yet was he at this time going about London without the smallest molestation.t In the first parliament of Elizabeth, one Dr. Storey made a speech, in which he had the efirontery to justify the cruelties of Mary, to boast of his own activity in carrying her orders into execution, and to regret that measures still more violent and effectual had not been adopted for the utter extirpation of heresy. J Nor does it appear that this speech was resented either by the house or by the queen. De nobis, post haec, tristis sententia fertur : Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas. The refusal of his request, and the harsh treatment of his flock, touched to the quick the irritable temper of our Reformer; and it was with some difficulty that he suppressed the desire * Haynes, State Papers, p. 295. Knox, Historic, p. 210. f Burnet, ii. :374, 398. Stow, Annals, p. 635, edit. 1631. When after- wards committed to the Marslialsea for refusing to take the oath of alle- giance and supremacy, Bonner was kept " under a very easy restraint." Godwin de Prsesulibus Angliee, p. 251, edit. 1616. Stapleton, a Popish wri- ter, says that Tonstal was " cast into prison, as most of the bishops were, where he made a glorious end of a confessor, and satisfied for his former crime of schisme." " A prison !" exclaims Dr. Jortin, " Lambeth palace, and the archbishop's table, was a dreadful dungeon, to be sure; and as bad, as those into wliicli the righteous Bonner, and other saints of the same class, used to thrust the poor heretics ! Will men never be ashamed of these godly tricks and disingenuous prevarications?" Life of Erasmus, i. 101. \ lie said, "that he saw nothing to be ashamed of or sorry for; wished that he had done more, and that ho and others had been more vehement in executing tiie laws ; and said that it grieved him that they laboured only about the yoimg and little twigs, whereas they should have struck at the root;" by which he was understood to mean Queen Elizabeth. Strype's Annals, i. 79, 536. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 155 which he felt rising in his breast, to prosecute a controversy which he had resolved to abandon. " My First Blast," says he, in a letter dated Dieppe, 6th April 1559, "hath blown from me all my friends in England. My conscience bears record, that yet I seek the favour of my God ; and so I am in the less fear. The Second Blast, I fear, shall sound somewhat more sharp, except that men be more moderate than I hear they are. England hath refused me ; but because, before, it did refuse Christ Jesus, the less do I regard the loss of this familiarity. And yet have 1 been a secret and assured friend to thee, 0 Eng- land, in cases which thyself could not have remedied."* But greater designs occupied his mind, and engrossed his attention. It was not for the sake of personal safety, nor from the vanity of appearing at court, that he desired to pass through England. He felt the natural wish to visit his old acquaintances in that country, and was anxious for an opportunity of once more ad- dressing those to whom he had preached, especially at New- castle and Berwick.. But there was another object which he had still more at heart, and in which the welfare of both Eng- land and Scotland was concerned. Notwithstanding the flattering accounts which he had receiv- ed of the favourable disposition of the queen regent towards the Protestants, and the directions which he sent them to cultivate this, he appears to have always entertained suspicions of the sincerity of her professions. Since he left Geneva, these sus- picions had been confirmed ; and the information which he had procured, in travelling through France, conspired, with intelli- gence which he had lately received from Scotland, to convince him, that the immediate suppression of the Reformation in his native country, and its consequent suppression in the neigh- bouring kingdom, were intended. The plan projected by the gigantic ambition of the princes of Lorrain, brothers of the queen regent of Scotland, has been developed and described with great accuracy and ability by a celebrated modern his- torian.! Suffice it to say here, that their counsels had deter- mined the French court to set up the claim of the young Queen of Scots to the crown of England ; to attack Elizabeth, and Avrest the sceptre from her hands, under the pretext that she was a bastard and a heretic ; and to commence their operations by suppressing the Reformation, 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 jour- neys through France, Knox had formed an acquaintance with certain persons about the court, and, by their means, had gained * Cald. MS. i. 384. See also Knox, Historie, pp. 204—207. f Robertson's History of Scotland, b. ii. ad an. 1559. 156 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 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 Eliza- beth 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 in- fluence over Scotland, which all her predecessors could not ob- tain by the terror 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 had conceived this plan at so early a period, was the first person who proposed it, and per- sisted, in spite of great discouragements, to urge its adoption, until his endeavours were ultimately crowned with success. Deeply impressed with these considerations, he resolved, al- though he had already been twice repulsed, to brook the morti- fication, and make another attempt to obtain an interview with some confidential agent of the English government. With this view, he, on the 10th of April, wrote a letter to secretary Cecil, with whom he had been personally acquainted during his resi- dence in London. Adverting to the treatment of the exiles who had returned from Geneva, he exculpated them from all respon- sibility as to the offensive book which he had published, and assured him that he had not consulted with any of them pre- vious to its publication. As for himself, he did not mean to deny that he was the author, nor was he yet prepared to retract the leading sentiment which it contained. But he was not, on that * Knox, Historie, pp. 206, 214, 260. He had an opportunity of receiving a confirmation of this intelligence during his voyage to Scotland. In the same ship in wliich he sailed, there was sent by the French court to the queen regent a staff of state, witli a great seal, on which were engraved the arms of France, Scotland, and England. This was shewn to him in great se- crecy. The English court, after they were awakened from their letha,rgy, and convinced of the hostile designs of France, applied to Knox for the in- formation which they might have had from iiim six months before. Cotton MSS. Caligula, b. ix. f. :38. 74. Sadler's State Papers, i. 463, 688. Keith, Append, pp. .'iS, 42. The English certainly suffered themselves to be amused during tlic treaty of Chateau-Cambresis, while the Courts of France and Spain concerted measures dangerous to England, and to the wliole Protes- tant interest. Dr. Wotton, one of the commissioners, complains, in a letter to Cecil, of want of intelligence, and that the English had no spies on the continent Forbes's State Papers, i. 23. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 157 account less friendly to the person and government of Elizabeth, in whose exaltation he cordially rejoiced ; although he rested the defence of her authority upon grounds different from the common. This was the third time that he had craved liberty to pass through England. He had no desire to visit the court, nor to remain long in the country ; but he was anxious to com- municate to him, or some other trusty person, matters of great importance, which it was not prudent to commit to writing, or intrust to an ordinary messenger. If his request was refused, it would turn out to the disadvantage of England.* The situation in which he stood at this time with the court of England was so well known, that it was not without great diffi- culty that he could find a messenger to carry his letter ;t and, either despairing of the success of his application, or urged by intelligence received from Scotland, he sailed from Dieppe on the 22d of April, and landed safely at Leith on the 2d of May 15594 * Knox, Historie, pp. 204, 206. t The person whom he at last persuaded to take his letter was Richard Harrison. But the cautious spy (for such was his employment at that time), dreading that Knox had made him the bearer of another Blast, which, if it did not endanger the throne qf Elizabeth, might blow up his credit with the court, prudently communicated the suspicious packet to Sir Nicholas Throk- morton, the English ambassador at the court of France, who conveyed it to London. Letter from Throkmorton to Cecil, 15th of May 1559. Forbes's State Papers, i. 90, 91. X Cald. MS. i. 392, 393. Knox, Historie, pp. 127, 207. 14 1£8 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX, PERIOD VI. FROM MAY 1559, WHEN HE FINALLY RETURNED TO SCOTLAND, TO AUGUST 15C0, WHEN HE WAS SETTLED AS MINISTER OF EDINBURGH, AT THE ESTABLISHMExNT OF THE REFORMATION. On his arrival, Knox found matters in the most critical state in Scotland. The queen regent had thrown off the mask which she had long worn, and avowed her determination forcibly to suppress the Reformation. As long as she stood in need of the assistance of the Protestants to support her authority against the Hamiltons, and to procure the matrimonial crown for her son- in-law, the dauphin of France, she ^courted their friendship, listened to their plans of reform, professed her dissatisfaction with the ecclesiastical order, and her desire of correcting its corruption and tyranny as soon as a fit opportunity offered, and flattered them, if not with the hopes of her joining their party, at least with the assurances that she would shield them from the fury of the clergy. So completely were they duped by her consummate address and dissimulation, that they complied with all her requests, restrained their preachers from preaching in public, and desisted from presenting to the parliament a petition which they had pre- pared ; nor would they believe her to be insincere, even after different parts of her conduct had afforded strong grounds for suspicion. But, having accomplished the great objects which she had in view, she at last adopted measures which completely undeceived them, and discovered the gulf into which they were about to be precipitated. As this discovery of the regent's duplicity produced conse- quences of the greatest importance ; as it completely alienated from her the minds of the reformers, and aroused that spirit of determined and united opposition to her insidious policy, and her violent measures, which ultimately led to the establishment of the Reformation ; and as the facts connected with it have not been accurately or fully slated in our common histories,* the * Some remarks on the representation which Dr. Robertson has given of the regent's conduct will be Ibund in Note FF. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 159 reader may not be displeased at having the following more cir- cumstantial detail laid before him. A mutual jealousy had long subsisted between the queen regent and that able but unprincipled prelate, Archbishop Ha- milton, whose zeal for the Church was uniformly subordinated to personal ambition, and the desire of aggrandizing his family. While he exerted the influence which his station gave him over the clergy to embarrass the administration of the regent, she employed the Protestants as a counterbalance to his power. But amidst the jarring excited by rival interests, both parties beheld the rapid progress of the reformed sentiments with equal concern ; and intelligent persons early foresaw, that their differ- ences would finally be compromised, and a coalition formed between them to accomplish the ruin of the Protestants.* It does not appear that the primate ever entertained the slightest suspicion that the regent was friendly to the cause of the reformers. Independently of her own sentiments, he was well acquainted with the influence which her brothers possessed over her, and with their devoted attachment to the Roman Catholic Church. Had he not had good reasons for presuming upon her connivance and secret approbation, his knowu prudence would not have allowed him to venture upon the invidious measure of putting Mill to death. As early as July 1558, she had held consultations with him on the course which sliould be adopted for checking the Reformation.t In consequence of this, steps were taken to bring to trial certain individuals who had given, great offence to the clergy by expounding the Scriptures in private meetings, and contemniag the laws of the Church. J And immediately after the meeting of parliament in November, at which the regent obtained, by the assistance of the Protestants, all the objects which she wished to carry, the primate received positive assurances of her support in his exertions for maintaining the authority of the Church. Accordingly, in the end of De- cember, he summoned the reformed preachers to appear before him in St. Andrews, on the 2d of February following, to answer for their conduct in usurping the sacred office, and disseminating heretical doctrines. § Upon this, a deputation of the Protestants waited on the regent, and informed her, that, after what had recently taken place in the instance of Mill, they were determined to attend and see justice done to their preachers ; and that, if the pro- secution went forward, there would be a greater convocation at St. Andrews than had been seen at any trial in Scotland for a * Knox, Historie, p. 125. t MS. History of the Estate of Scotland, from 1559 to 1566, p. 1. J See Note GG. ^ MS. Historie, ut supra p. 2. 160 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. long period. Dreading the consequences of a concourse of people in a place adjacent to counties in which the Protestants were numerous, the queen wrote to the archbishop to prorogue the trial. She, at the same time, summoned a convention of the nobility, to be held at Edinburgh on the 7th of March, to advise upon the most proper measin-es for settling the religious ditier- ences which had so long agitated the nation.* And the primate, at her request, called a provincial council of the clergy to meet in the same place on the first of March.t When our Saviour was condemned to be crucified, it was ob- served, that, " on the same day, Pilate and Herod were made friends together, for before they were at enmity between them- selves." The determination which was at this time formed to crush the Protestant interest in Scotland, seems to have brought about the reconciliation of more than the queen regent and the primate. A rivalship had long subsisted between those who occupied the two Scottish archbishoprics ; the bishops of Glas- gow insisting on the independence of their see, and boasting of the priority of its erection, while the bishops of St. Andrews claimed an authoritative primacy over all the clergy in the king- dom, as belonging to that see from the time of its foundation,! Hamilton, in the mandate issued for assembling this council, had asserted his primacy in very formal terms, founding upon it, as well as upon the authority with which he was hivested as papal legate, his right to convocate the clergy.§ Beatoun, Arch- bishop of Glasgow, seems to have resented this claim of superi- ority, and declined for some time to countenance the council by his presence, or to cite his suffragans and the clergy of his dio- cese to attend. This dissension, which might have proved highly injurious to the Roman Church at this critical period, was got accommodated, and Beatoun, with the western clergy, at length joined the council. || In the mean time, the Protestants, having assembled at Edin- burgh, appointed commissioners to lay their representations * MS. Ilistorie, pp. 2, 3. f Ibid. p. 3. Wilkins, Concilia, torn. iv. p. 285. I Act. Pari. Scot. ii. 342. Knox, p. 51. Spotswood, 24. Lord Hailes, Provincial Councils, 39, 40. 5 Wilkins, Concilia, iv. pp. 204 — 5. II Tlic primate's letter, summoning- the Archbishop of Glasgow to the council, is dated the last day of January. Wilkins, ut supra. The council met on the 1st of March. Ibid. p. 208. But the Archbishop of Glasgow's letter, calling his clergy to tlie council, is dated so late as the 18th of March, and he requires tliem to attend on the 6th of April. Ibid. p. 206. We may also observe tliat Beatoun, in his citation, takes no notice of the primate's mandate. It is likely tliat the iiialter was settled by the good offices of the queen regent, whose favourable inclinations towards the Church are warmly celebrated by the council. Ibid. p. 209. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 161 before the convention of the nobility, and the council of the clergy.* The commissioners gave in to the latter certain pre- liminary articles of reformation, in which they craved, that the religious service should be performed in the vulgar tongue ; that such as were unfit for the pastoral office should be removed from their benefices ; that, in time coming, bishops should be ad- mitted with the assent of the barons of the diocese, and parish priests with the assent of the parishioners ; and that measures should be adopted for preventing immoral and ignorant persons from being employed in ecclesiastical functions.! But there was another paper laid before the council, which, it is probable, gave them more uneasiness than the representation of the Protes- tants. This was a remonstrance by certain persons attached to the Roman Catholic faith, " craving redress of several grievances complained of in the ecclesiastical administration of Scotland." It consisted of thirteen articles, in which, among other points of reformation, they required that the exacting of corpse-presents and Easter ofterings should be abolished ; that, for the more ef- fectual instruction of those who partake of the sacraments, " there should be an godlie and faithful declaration set forth in Inglis toung, to be first shewin to the pepil at all times," when any of the sacraments are administered ; and that the common prayers and litanies should also be read in the vulgar language. At the same time, they desired that none should be permitted to speak irreverently of the mass, make innovations upon the ceremonies of the Church, or administer divine ordinances without authority from the bishops. J The council were not disposed to agree to the proposals either of the Protestant or the Popish reformers. After making cer- tain partial regulations relating to some of the grievances com- plained of by the latter,§ and renewing the canons of former councils respecting the lives of the clergy and public instruc- tion,|| they refused to allow any part of the public service to be performed in the vulgar language ;1[ they ratified, in the strongest terms, all the popish doctrines which were controverted by the Protestants ;** and they ordained, that strict inquisition should * MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 3. t Lesley, Hist. p. 546. Lord Hailes, Provincial Councils, p. 38. I Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 207 — 8. Wilkins has inserted the remonstrance at large, which he procured from the records in the Scots college at Paris. It is surprising that this curious document should have escaped the inquisi- tive eye of Lord Hailes, who has not taken the slightest notice of it in his account of the Scottish councils. § Can. 21, 22, 24, 32 : in Wilkins, 214—16. II Can. 2—20 : ibid. pp. 210—14. IT Lesley, Hist. p. 546. Lord Hailes, Prov. Coun. pp. 38 — 9. ** Can. 16: in Wilkins, ut supra, pp. 212—213. 14* V 162 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. be made after such as absented themselves from the celebration of mass,* and that excommunication should be fulminated against those who administered or received the sacrament after the Protestant forms, and against parents and sponsors who had presented children for baptism to the reformed preachers, and did not bring them to the priests to be re-baptized.t The council were emboldened to take these decisive steps in consequence of a secret treaty which they had concluded with the regent, and in which they had stipulated to raise a large sum of money to enable her to suppress the reformers.^ This arrangement could not be long concealed from the Protestant deputies, who, perceiving that they were mocked by the clergy, and abandoned by the court, broke off the fruitless negotiations in which they had been engaged, and left Edinburgh. They were no sooner gone than a proclamation was made at the market cross, by order of the regent, prohibiting any person from preaching or administering the sacraments witliout au- thority from the bishops, and conmianding all the subjects to prepare to celebrate the ensuing feast of Easter, according to the rites of the Catholic Church. Understanding that her pro- clamation was disregarded, she determined on taking decisive steps to enforce obedience, by bringing the preachers to justice. § Accordingly, Paul Methven, John Christison, William Harlaw, and John Willock, were summoned to stand trial before the justiciary court at Stirling, on the 10th of May, for usurping the ministerial office, for administering, without the consent of their ordinaries, the sacrament of the altar in a manner different from that of the Catholic Church, during three several days of the late feast of Easter, in the burghs and boundaries of Dundee, Montrose, and various other places in the sheriffdoms of Forfar and Kincardine, and for convening the subjects in these places, preaching to them, seducing them to their erroneous doctrines, and exciting seditions and tumults. As the preachers were resolved to make their appearance, George Lovell, burgess of Dundee, became surety for Methven, Johii Erskine of Dun for * Can. 30. Ibid. p. 216. + Can. 33, 34. Ibid. pp. 216—17. The followinsr is the form of words appointed by the council to be used by the priest in re-baptization : — " Si tu es baptizatus, es;o non te baptizo ; sed si non es baptizatus, ego te baptize, in nomine Patris," &c. /. e. "If thou hast been baptized, I do not baptize thee ; but if thou hast not been baptized, I do baptize thee, in the name of the Father," &c. This was not, liowever, anew form. I MS. Ilistorie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 3. Knox, Historic, p. 122. Accordintr to the first of these authorities, the sum promised by the clergy was L.1;'),(1()0: but according to a chronicle written by the Laird of Erlea- hall, and referred to by Knox, it was L. -10,(100. ^ MS. Hist, of the Estate of Scotland, ut supra. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 163 Christison, Patrick INIurray of Tibbermuir for Harlaw, and Ro- bert Campbell of Kinyeancleugh for Willock.* To prevent matters from coming to extremity, the Earl of Glencairn, and Sir Hugh Campbell of Loudon, sheriff of Ayr, waited on the queen, and remonstrated against these proceed- ings ; but she told them haughtily, that, " in spite of them, all their preachers should be banished from Scotland." They re- minded her of the promises she had repeatedly made to pro- tect them ; upon Avhich she unblushingly replied, that " it be- came not subjects to burden their princes with promises, farther than they pleased to keep them." Surprised, but not intimi- dated, at this language, Glencairn and Loudon told her, that, if she violated the engagements which she had come under to her subjects, they would consider themselves as absolved from their allegiance to her. After they had remonstrated with her very freely, and pointed out the dangerous consequences that might result from adopting such a line of conduct, she began to speak in a milder tone, and promised to suspend the trial of the preachers, and take the whole affair into serious consideration.! But receiving intelligence soon after that peace was concluded between France and Spain, by a treaty in which these two powers had agreed to unite their endeavours for the extirpa- tion of heresy, and being irritated by the introduction of the re- formed worship into the town of Perth, she ordered the process against the preachers to go on, and summoned them peremp- torily to stand their trial at Stirling on the appointed day.J The state of our Reformer's mind, upon receiving this infor- mation, will appear from the following letter, hastily written by him on the day after he landed in Scotland. " The perpetual comfort of the Holy Ghost for salutation. These few lines are to signify unto you, dear sister, that it hath pleased the merciful providence of my heavenly Father to con- duct me to Edinburgh, where I arrived the 2d of May : uncer- tain as yet what God shall further work in this country, except that I see the battle shall be great. For Satan rageth even to the uttermost, and I am come, I praise my God, even in the brunt of the battle. For my fellow preachers have a day ap- pointed to answer before the queen regent, the 10th of this instant, when I intend (if God impede not) also to be present ; by life, by death, or else by both, to glorify His godly name, who thus mercifully hath heard my long cries. Assist me, sister, with your prayers, that now I shrink not, when the battle approacheth. Other things I have to communicate with you, but travail after travail doth so occupy me, that no time is granted * Justiciary Records, May 10. 1559. f Knox, 126. \ Knox, 126. Spotswood, 120—1. Buchanani Oper. . 312—3. 164 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. me to write. Advertise my brother, Mr. Goodman, of my estate ; as, in my other letter sent unto you from Dieppe, I willed you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ rest with you. From Edinburgh, in haste, the 3d of May."* His arrival in Scotland was not long concealed from the clergy. On the morning after he landed at Leith, one came to the monastery of the Greyfriars, where the provincial council was still sitting,t and informed them that John Knox was come from France, and had slept last night in Edinburgh. The clergy were panic-struck Avith the intelligence, and, foreboding the ruin of all the plans which they had formed with so much care, they dismissed the council in great haste and confusion. A messenger was instantly despatched by them with the infor- mation to the queen regent, who was at Glasgow ; and within a few days Knox was proclaimed an outlaw and a rebel, in virtue of the sentence formerly pronounced against him by the clergy.J Although his own cause was prejudged, and he knew that he was liable to be apprehended as a condemned heretic, he did not hesitate a moment in resolving to present himself volun- tarily at Stirling, to assist his brethren in their defence, and share their danger. Having remained only a single day at Edinburgh, he hurried to Dundee, where he found the principal Protestants in Angus and Mearns already assembled, and de- termined to attend their ministers to the place of trial, and avow their adherence to the doctrines for which they were accused. The providential arrival of such an able champion of the cause, at this crisis, must have been very encouraging to the assembly ; and the liberty of accompanying them, which he requested, was readily granted. Lest the unexpected approach of such a multitude, though unarmed, should alarm or offend the regent, the assembled Pro- testants agreed to stop at Perth, and sent Erskine of Dun be- fore them to Stirling, to acquaint her with the peaceable object and manner of their coming. Apprehensive that their presence would disconcert her measures, the regent had again recourse to dissimulation. She persuaded Erskine to write to his brethren to desist from their intended journey, and authorized him to * Letter to IVfrs. Anne I-ocko, apiid Cald. MS. i. 393. t MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, pp. 3, 4. Knox, Historie, p. 109. In the preamble to the acts of thi.s council, it is said to have been '• finitum 10 die mensis Aprilis." But in the conclusion of the acts, there is an expression which enables us to reconcile this with the two preceding authorities — " fmiendo sen finito die 10 niensis Aprilis;" from which it ap- pears, that thoug'li tlie acts were concluded, it was not yet agreed to close the council on that day. Wilkhis, iv. 209, *217. \ MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 4. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 165 promise in her name, that she would put a stop to the trial. The Protestants testified their pacific intentions by a cheerful compliance with this request, and the greater part, confiding in the royal promise, returned to their homes. But when the day of trial came, the summons was called by the orders of the queen, the preachers were outlawed for not appearing, and all persons were prohibited, under the pain of rebellion, from harbourhig or assisting them.* At the same time the gentle- men who had given security for their appearance, were fined.t Escaping from Stirling, Erskine brought to Perth the intelli- gence of this disgraceful transaction, 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-worship. The audience had quietly dismissed, and a few idle persons only loitered in the Church, when an impru- dent 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 aUar-piece, decorated with images, and prepared to celebrate mass. A boy, having uttered some expressions of disapprobation, 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 sig- nal upon the people present, who had sympathized 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 au- thority 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 gen- tlemen 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 mul- titude."! The demolition of the monasteries having been represented as the first fruits of our reformer's labours on this occasion, it was necessary to give this minute account of the causes which pro- duced that event. Whatever his sentiments were as to the destruction of the instruments and monuments of idolatry, he did * Knox, Historie, p. 127. Spotswood, 121. Buchanani Oper. i. 313. t See Note GG. X Knox, Historie, p. 128. Buchanani Oper. i. 313, 166 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. not wish the work to be accomplished in an irregular manner ; he was sensible that tumultuary proceedings, especially in present circumstances, were prejudicial to the cause of the reformers ; and, instead of instigating, he exerted himself in putting a stop to the ravages of the mob. If this disorderly conduct must be traced to a remote cause we can impute it only to the wanton and dishonourable perfidy of the queen regent. In fact, nothing could be more favourable to the designs of the regent than this riot. By her recent conduct, she had forfeited the confidence of the Protestants, and even exposed herself in the eyes of the sober and moderate of her own party. This occurrence aflbrded her an opportunity of turning the public indignation from herself, and directing it against the Protestants. She did not fail to improve it with her usual addi'ess. She mag- nified the accidental tumult into a dangerous and designed rebel- lion. Having called the nobility to Stirling, she, in her interviews with them, insisted upon such topics as were best calculated to persuade the parties into which they were divided. In conversing with the Catholics, she dwelt upon the sacrilegious overthrow of those venerable structures which their ancestors had dedicated to the service of God. To the Protestants who had not joined their brethren at Perth, she complained of the destruction of the Charter-house, which was a royal foundation ; and, protestmg that she had no intention of offering violence to their consciences, promised to protect them, provided they would assist her in pmiishing those who had been guilty of this violation of pubhc order.* Having inflamed the minds of both parties, she collected an army from the adjacent counties,! and advanced to Perth, threatening to lay waste the town with fire and sword, and to inflict the most exemplary vengeance on all who had been mstru- mental in producing the riot.| The Protestants of the north were not insensible to their dan- ger, and did all in their power to avert the storm which threatened them. They wrote to the queen regent, to the commander of the French troops, to the Popish nobles, and to those of their own persuasion ; they solemnly disclaimed all rebellious inten- tions ; they protested their readiness to yield due obedience to the goverimient ; they entreated all to refrain from offering vio- lence to peaceable subjects, who sought only the liberty of their consciences, and the reformation of religion. But, findmg all * Knox, Historie, pp. 128—9, i:35, 137. t MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 5. I Buchanani Oper. i. ."313. Knox, 128. A writer has given the name of "bpllum imairinarium'''' to this war, undertaken by the regent to avenge tlie destruction of the images ; and the crimes charged upon the Protestants he denominates " mera imaginaria seditio et rebellio." Historie of the Church of Scotland to 156(3. ^ MS. Adv. Lib. A. 5, 43. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 167 their endeavours fruitless, they resolved not to suffer themselves and their brethren to be massacred, and prepared for a defence of the town against an illegal and furious assault. And so prompt and vigorous were they in the measures which they adopted, that the regent, when she approached, deeming it im- prudent to attack them, proposed overtures of accommodation, to which they readily acceded.* While the two armies lay before Perth, and negotiations were going on between them, our Reformer obtained an interview with the prior of St. Andrews and the young Earl of Argyle, who ad- hered to the regent. He reminded them of the solemn engage- ments which they had contracted, and charged them with violat- ing these, by abetting measures which tended to suppress the lelbrmed religion, and enslave their native country. The noble- men replied, that they had been induced, by the representations of the regent and the clergy, to believe that their brethren in- tended to swerve from their former loyalty, and, although they were now convinced that this charge was unfounded, they were anxious to fulfil the promise which they had made to the queen, by bringing the present difference to an amicable termination ; but, if she should violate the proposed treaty, they would with- draw their countenance from her, and openly take part with their brethren, to whom they considered themselves as bound by the most sacred ties. The regent was not long in affording them an opportunity of verifying their promise. No sooner had she taken possession of Perth, and perceived that the forces of the Protes- tants were disbanded, than she began to disregard the conditions to which she had agreed. Argyle and the prior remonstrated against the infractions of a treaty which they had concluded at her earnest request, but were answered in such an unsatisfactory manner, that they deserted her court, and could never afterwards be persuaded to place any confidence in her promises.! From the time that the leading Protestants discovered the hostile intentions of, the regent, they had used great industry to ascertain the numbers of their friends, to establish means of cor- * When the overtures were proposed to the Protestants, they exclaimed with one voice, "Cursit be they that seik effusioun of blude, weir, or dis- sentioun. Lat us possess Christ Jesus, and the benefite of his evangell, and nane within Scotland sail be mair obedient subjectis than we sail be." Knox, Historic, p. 137. The regent's army consisted of 8000, that of the Protestants amounted to 5000 men. This seems to have been the number of the latter previous to the arrival of the Earl of Glencairn with a rein- forcement from the west. Glencairn had joined them, before the conclusion of the treaty, with 2500 men, a circumstance which did not alter their pacific wishes. Cald. MS. i. 426. MS. Ilistorie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 5. Knox, Historic, 136. t MS. Historic of the Estate of Scotland, p. 6. Ivnox. 135—9. Buch- anani Ooer. i. 314 — 5. Spotswood, 123. 168 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. respondence among them, and to have them united by the strictest bonds. For this purpose, copies of their religious covenant were committed to persons who procured sub- scriptions to it in the ditferent districts where they resided.* From the designation which they gave themselves in this cove- nant, or from the union which subsisted among them, they be- gan at this time to be distinguished by the name of The Con- gregation. The nobles who had joined the association, were the Earls of Argyle, Glencairn, Monteith, and Rothes ; Lords Ochiltree, Boyd, Ruthven, and the prior of St Andrews. The Earl Marischal, and Lord Erskine, with some others who were friendly to the reformed religion, still supported the regent, or remained neutral. A large proportion of the lesser barons be- longed to the Congregation ; particularly those of Mearns, An- gus, Strathearn, Monteith, Fyfe, Cunningham, Kyle, Carrick, and Galloway.t In the beginning of June, the lords of the Congregation held a consultation on the measures which they should adopt for their own security, and for the advancement of the Reformation. They had repeatedly applied to the clergy to rectify the abuses which prevailed in the Church, and to release them from those unjust and oppressive laws by which their consciences had long been enslaved ; but their petitions had been treated with neg- lect and disdain. " To abandon usurped power, to renounce lucrative error, are sacrifices which the virtue of individuals has, on some occasions, offered to truth ; but from any society of men no such effort can be expected. The corruptions of a society, recommended by common utility, and justified by uni- versal practice, are viewed by its members without shame or horror ; and reformation never proceeds from themselves, but is always forced upon them by some foreign hand."| Convinced of this, the Protestant leaders had next addressed themselves to the regent, and requested her to employ her authority to bring about a reformation, which could not be much longer deferred, without interrupting the peace of the kingdom. As long as they had any reason to think that she was disposed to listen to their petitions, they had waited with exemplary patience, and restrained the ardour of such of their friends as were inclined, without farther delay, to use the right which nature and Christ- • ianity gave them ; but the regent had disappointed their ex- pectations, and from being a professed friend was become a declared enemy ; they could no longer place the smallest de- * Buchanani Oper. i. 31L t MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 8. Knox, Historic, 136, 138, 144. \ Dr. Robertson. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 169 pendence on her promises ; and they were satisfied that she had formed a systematic plan for suppressing the Reformation, and enforcing the existing ecclesiastical laws in all their rigour. It behoved them now either to submit to have their chains rivet- ed, or by a bold and vigorous etfort to shake them off altogether. They determined upon the latter. The scandalous lives of the established clergy, their total neglect of the religious instruction of the people, and the profanation of Christian wor- ship by gross idolatry, were the most glaring abuses. The lords of the Congregation resolved to take immediate steps for removing these, by abolishing the Popish service, and setting up the reformed worship in all those places to which their au- thority or influence extended, and in which the greater part of the inhabitants were friendly to the design. This step is justi- fied in part by the feudal ideas respecting the jurisdiction of the nobility, which at that time prevailed in Scotland ; the urgent and extreme necessity of the case, however, forms its best vin- dication. A great part of the nation loudly demanded such a reformation, and, had not regular measures been adopted for its introduction, the popular indignation would have elfected the work in a more exceptionable way. St Andrews was the place fixed on for commencing these operations. With this view, the Earl of Argyle, and Lord James Stewart, who was prior of the abbey of St Andrews, made an appointment with Knox to meet them on a certain day, in that city. Travelling along the east coast of Fife, he preached at Anstruther and Crail, and, on the 9th of June, joined them at St Andrews. The archbishop, apprised of his design to preach in his cathedral, assembled an armed force, and sent information to him, that if he appeared in the pulpit, he would give orders to the soldiers to fire upon him. The noblemen, having met to consult what ought to be done, agreed that Knox should desist from preaching at that time, and strongly urged upon him the reasons of their opinion. Their retinue was very slender ; they had not yet ascertained the dis- position of the inhabitants of the town ; the queen regent lay at a small distance with an army ; and his appearance in the pul- pit might lead to the sacrifice of his own life, and the lives of those who were determined to defend him from violence. There are occasions on which it is a proo/ of superior wisdom to disregard the ordinary dictates of prudence ; on which, to face danger is to avoid it, to flee from it is to invite it. Had the reformers, after announcing their intentions, suftered themselves to be intimidated by the bravading attitude and language of the archbishop, their cause would, at the very outset, have received a blow, from which it would not easily have recovered. This was prevented by the firmness and intrepidity of Knox. Fired 15 W 170 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. with the recollection of the part which he had formerly acted on that spot, and with the near prospect of realizing the san- guine 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 contempt of any man, nor with the design of hurting an earthly creatare ; 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 tor- tures 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 preach- ing in St Andrews. Now, therefore, when Providence, beyond all men's expectation, had brought him to that place, he be- sought them not to hinder him. " As for the fear of danger that may come to me," continued he, " let no man be solici- tous ; 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 incum- bent 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 pro- vost, 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. Understanding that the lords of St. Andrews were accompanied by a small retinue, the queen regent, who lay at Falkland, at- tempted to surprise ^hem. But the Protestants in Angus, having received information of the critical situation of their brethren, came to their assistance with such celerity and in such numbers, that they were able to face the royal army at Cupar-moor ; and the regent, afraid to risk a battle, consented to a truce, by which she engaged to remove her French troops from Fife, and to send commissioners to St. Andrews for the purpose of settling all differences between her and the Congregation. The troops LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 171 were removed, but no commissioners appeared ; and the lords of the Congregation, being apprised that the queen intended to fortify the passage of the Forth at Stirling, and to cut off their communication with the Protestants in the south, proceeded to Perth, and, having expelled the garrison from that town, by a rapid march seized upon Stirling, and, advancing, took posses- sion ofthe capital of the kingdom; the regent, as they approached, retiring with her forces to Dunbar.* The example of St. Andrews,in abolisliing the Popish worship, was quickly followed in other parts of the kingdom ; and, in the course of a few weeks, at Crail, at Cupar, at Lindores, at Stir- hng, at Linlithgow, at Edinburgh, and at Glasgow, the houses of the monks were overthrown, and all the instruments of idol- atry destroyed.! These proceedings were celebrated in the singular lays, which were at that time circulated among the reformers. His cardinalles hes cause to moume, His bishops are borne a backe ; His abbots gat an uncouth turne, When shavelhnges went to sacke : With burges wiles they led their lives, And fare better than wee. Hay trix, trim goe trix, under the greene-wod tree. His Carmelites and Jacobinis, His Dominikeshad great adoe; His Cordeliers and Augustines, Sanct Francis's ordour to ; The sillie friers, mony yeiris With babbling bleirit our ee. Hay trix, &c. Had not your self begun the weiris. Your stepillis had been standand yit ; It was the flattering of your friers That ever gart sanct Francis flit : Ye grew sa superstitious In wickednesse, It gart us grow malicious Contrail your messe.t Scarcely any thing in the progress of the Scottish Reforma- tion has been more frequently or more loudly condemned than the demolition of those edifices upon which superstition had la- vished all the ornaments of the chisel and the pencil. To the Roman Catholics, who anathematized all who were engaged in * Knox, Historie, 141 — 146. Buchanani Open i. 315 — 6. Spotswood, 142—6. + Letter written by Knox from St. Andrews, 23d June 1559. Cald. MS. i. 426, 428. Knox, Historie, pp. 140, 141. MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 6. X Gude and godly Ballates, in Dalyell's Scottish Poems of the 16th cen- tory, ii. 192, 198. 172 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. this work of inexpiable sacrilege, and represented it as involving the complete overthrow of religion,* have succeeded another race of writers, who, although they do not, in general, make high pre- tensions to devotion, have not scrupled, at times, to borrow the language of their predecessors, and have bewailed the wreck of these precious monuments in as bitter strains as ever idolator did the loss of his gods. These are the warm admirers of Gothic architecture, and other relics of ancient art ; some of whom, if we may judge from their language, would welcome back the reign of superstition, with all its ignorance and bigotry, if they could recover the objects of their adoration.! Writers of this stamp depict the ravages and devastation which marked the pro- gress of the Reformation, in colours as dark as ever were em- ployed by the historian in describing the overthrow of ancient learning, by the irruption of the barbarous Huns and Vandals. Our Reformer cannot be mentioned by them but with symptoms of horror, and in terms of detestation, as a barbarian, a savage, and a ringleader of mobs, for overthrowing whatever was ven- erable in antiquity, or sacred in religion. It is unnecessary to produce instances. Expectes eadem a summo minimoque poeta. To remind such persons of the divine mandate to destroy all monuments of idolatry in the land of Canaan would be altogether insufferable, and might provoke, from some of them, a profane attack upon the authority from which it proceeded. To plead the examj)le of the early Christians, in demolishing the temples and statues dedicated to pagan polytheism, would only awaken the keen regrets that are felt for the irreparable loss.f It would * The tolbooth of Musselburgh was built out of the ruins of the chapel of Loretto; on which account the good people of that town were, till lately, annually excommunicated at Rome. Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, iii. 19. Those who wish to see a specimen of Catholic declamation on this subject, may consult Note HH. t The reader may take one example, which I adduce, not because it is the strongest, but because it happens to be at hand. " This abbey (Kelso) was demolished 1569, in consequence of the enthusiastic Reformation, which, in its violence, was a greater disgrace to religion than all the errors it was in- tended to subvert. Reformation has hitherto always appeared in the form of a zealot, full of fanatic fury, with violence subduing, but tlirougli madness creating, almost as many mischiefs in its oversights, as it overtiirows errors in its pursuit. Religion has received a greater shock from the present struggle to repress some formularies and save some scrujjles, than it ever did by the growth of superstition." Hutcliinson's History of Northumberland, and of an Excursion to the Abbey of Melrose, i. 265. I " Alas ! liow little of its former splendour have time and the fanatic rage of the early Christians lef\ to the Roman forum 1 The covered passage, witli a flight of steps, founded by Tarquin the elder, is no more here to shelter us LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 173 be still worse to refer to the apocalyptic predictions, which some have been so fanatical as to think were fulfilled in the miserable spoliation of that " great city," which, under all its revolutions, has so eminently proved the nurse of the arts, and given encou- ragement to painters, statuaries, and sculptors, to " harpers, and musicians, and pipers, and trumpeters, and craftsmen of whatso- ever craft," who to this day have not forgotten their obligations to it, nor ceased to bewail its destruction. In any apology which I make for the reformers, I would alleviate instead of aggravating the distress which is felt for the loss of such valuable memorials of antiquity. It has been observed by high authority, that there are certain commodities which derive their principal value from their extreme rarity, and which, if found in great quantities, would cease to be sought after or prized. A nobleman of great literary reputation has, indeed, questioned the justness of this observation, so far as respects precious stones and metals.* But I flatter myself that the noble author and the learned critic, how- ever much they may differ as to public wealth, will agree that the observation is perfectly just, as applied to those commodities which constitute the wealth and engage the researches of the antiquary. With him rarity is always an essential requisite and primary recommendation. His property, like that of the possessor of the famous Sybilline books, does not decrease in value by the reduc- tion of its quantity ; but after the greater part has been destroyed, becomes still more precious. If the matter be viewed in this light, antiquarians have no reason to complain of the ravages of the reformers, who have left them such valuable remains, and placed them in that very state which awakens in their minds the most lively sentiments of the sublime and beautiful, by reducing them to — ruins. But, to speak seriously, I would not be thought so great an enemy to any of the fine arts, as to rejoice at the wanton de- struction of their models, ancient or modern, or to vindicate those who, from ignorance and fanatical rage, may have excited the mob to such violence. But I am satisfied, that the charges usually brought against our reformers on this head are highly exaggerated, and in some instances altogether groundless. The demolition of the monasteries is, in fact, the only thing of which they can be fairly accused. Cathedral and parochial churches, and, in several places, the chapels attached to monas- from bad weather, or to serve for the spectators to entertain themselves with mountebanks in the market-place." A most deplorable loss truly ! This writer adds, that the statues of the twelve gods are yet standing : no great proof, one would imagine, of the fanatic rage of the Christians. Kot- zebue's Travels through Italy, vol. i. p. 200. * Edinburgh Review, vol. iv. p. 348, and Lord Lauderdale's Observations on Edinburgh Review. 15* 174 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. teries, were appropriated to tlie Protestant worship ; and, in the orders issued for stripping them of images, idolatrous pic- tures, and superstitious furniture, particular directions were given to avoid whatever might injure the buildings, or deface any of their ordinary decorations. It is true that some churches suffered from popular violence during the ferment of the Refor- mation, and that others were dilapidated, in consequence of their most valuable materials being sold to defray the expenses of the war in which the Protestants were involved : but the former will not be matter of surprise to those who have attend- ed to the conduct of other nations in similar circumstances ; and the latter will be censured by such persons only as are incapa- ble of entering into the feelings of a people who were engaged in a struggle for their lives, their liberties, and their reUgion. Of all the charges thrown out against our reformers, the most ridiculous is, that, in their zeal against Popery, they waged war against literature, by destroying the valuable books and records which had been deposited in the monasteries. The state of learning among the monks at the era of the Reformation was wretched, and their libraries poor ; the only persons who pa- tronized or cultivated literature in Scotland were Protestants ; and so far from sweeping away any literary monuments wbich remained, the reformers were disposed to search for them among the rubbish, and to preserve them with the utmost care. In this respect we have no reason to deprecate a comparison be- tween our Reformation and that of England, notwithstanding the flattering accounts which have been given of the orderly and temperate manner in which the latter was conducted under the superintending control of the supreme powers.* But even although the irregularities committed in the pro- gress of that work had been greater than have been represent- ed, I must still reprobate the spirit which disposes persons to dwell with unceasing lamentation upon losses which, in the view of an enlightened and liberal mind, will sink and disap- pear in the magnitude of the incalculable good which rose from the wreck of the revolution. What ! do we celebrate with public rejoicings victories over the enemies of our country, in the gaining of which the lives of thousands of our fellow-crea- tures have been sacrificed ? and shall solemn masses and sad dirges, accompanied with direful execrations, be everlastingly sung, for the mangled members of statues, torn pictures, and ruined towers ? Shall those who, by a display of the horrors of war, would persuade their countrymen to repent of a con- test which had been distinguished with uncommon feats of va- lour, and crowned with the most brilliant success, be accused * See Note II. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 175 of a desire to tarnish the national glory ? Shall the topics on which they insist, however forcible in themselves — the effusion of human blood, the sacking of cities, the devastation of fertile provinces, the ruin of arts and manufactures, and the intolerable burdens entailed even upon the victors themselves — be repre- sented as mere commonplace topics, employed as a cover to disloyalty? And do not those who, at the distance of nearly three centuries, continue to wail evils of a far inferior kind which attended the Reformation, justly expose themselves to the suspicion of indifference and disaffection to a cause, in com- parison with which all contests between rival kingdoms and sovereigns dwindle into insignificance? I will go further, and say, that I look upon the destruction of these monuments as a piece of good policy, which contributed materially to the over- throw of the Roman Catholic religion and the prevention of its re-establishment. It was chiefly by the magnificence of its temples, and the splendid apparatus of its worship, that the Popish Church fascinated the senses and imaginations of the people. A more successful method of attacking it, tlierefore, could not be adopted than the demolition of what contributed so much to uphold and extend its influence. There is more wisdom than many seem to perceive in the maxim which Knox is said to have inculcated " that the best way to keep the rooks from returning, was to pull down their nests." In demolish- ing, or rendering uninhabitable, all those buildings which had served for the maintenance of the ancient superstition (except what were requisite for the Protestant worship), the reformers only acted upon the principles of a prudent general, who dis- mantles or razes the fortifications which he is unable to keep, and which might afterwards be Seized and employed against him by the enemy. Had they been allowed to remain in their former splendour, the popish clergy would not have ceased to indulge hopes, and to make efforts to be restored to them ; oc- casions would have been taken to tamper with the credulous, and to inflame the minds of the superstitious ; and the reformers might soon have found reason to repent their ill-judged for- bearance.* When we had quelled The strength of Aztlan, we should have thrown down Her altars, cast her idols to the fire. The priests combined to save their craft ; And soon the rumour ran of evil signs And tokens ; in the temple had been heard Wailings and loud lament ; the eternal fire Gave dismally a dim and doubtful flame ; And from the censer, which at morn should steam Sweet odours to the sun, a fetid cloud Black and portentous rose. Southey's Madoc, part i. book ii. 176 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. Our Reformer was along with the forces of the Congregation when they faced the army of the regent in Cupar-moor;* lie accompanied them on their expedition to Perth,t and in the end of June arrived with them at Edinburgh.! On the same day, he preached in St. Giles's, and next day in the Abbey Church. On the 7th of July, the inhabitants of the metropoUs met in the Tolbooth, and made choice of him as their minister. With this choice, which was approved of by his brethren, he judged it his duty to comply, and immediately began his la- bours in the city.§ On their arrival at Edinburgh, the lords of the Congregation had sent deputies to Dunbar, to assure the queen that they had no intention of throwing off their allegiance, and to induce her to yield to reasonable terms of accommodation. As a prelimi- narj^ she agreed to release their ministers from the sentence of outlawry, and allow them to preach to those who chose to hear them. y Meanwhile, she was busily employed in endeavours to disunite her opponents. Having spun out the negotiations which they had opened with her, until she understood that the greater part of their forces had left them, she advanced sudden- ly with her army to Edinburgh. The Protestants took up a position on the east side of Craigingate,1[ and resolved to defend the capital, though against superior forces ;** but Leith having opened its gates to her, and Lord Erskine, who commanded the castle, threatening to fire upon them, they were forced to con- clude a treaty, by which they agreed to leave Edinburgh. They stipulated, however, that the inhabitants should be left at liberty to use that form of worship which was most acceptable to them.tt Knox would have remained with his congregation after the regent took possession of the *ty ; but the nobles, knowing the value of his services, and the danger to which his life would be exposed, insisted on his accompanying them.J:]: Willock, who was less obnoxious to the hatred of the court and clergy, was therefore substituted in his place ; and the prudence and firm- ness which this preacher displayed in that difficult situation proved that he was not unworthy of the choice which had fallen on him. The regent was extremely anxious to have the Roman Catholic service re-established in the Church at St. Giles, and employed the Earl of Huntly to persuade the citizens to declare in favour of the measure ; but neither the authority of the * Knox, Historie, p. 332. f Ibid. p. 146. | Ibid. p. 145. 5 MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, pp. 8, 9. |I Ibid. p. 7. IT Probably a part of the Calton Hill. ** The army of the regent consisted of 5000 men, the Congreg-ation could not muster above l.'JOO. MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 9 tf MS. Historie, p. 10. Knox, Historie, 151—5. U i^^ox, p. 1-58. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 177 queen, nor the entreaties which Huntly employed, both in pri- vate and at a public meeting called with that view, could pre- vail with them to swerve from their profession of the reformed religion, or to relinquish the right whicli was secured to them by the late treaty.* Although the French soldiers who had come to the regent's assistance kept the city in alarm, and dis- turbed the Protestant service,! Willock maintained his place ; and in the month of August he administered the sacrament of the supper after the reformed manner in St. Giles's Church.J The celebration of the Popish worship was confined to the royal chapel and the church of Holyroodhouse, during the time that the capital was in the possession of the royal forces.§ In the month of August, a singular phenomenon was seen in the Abbey church. The Archbishop of St. Andrews appeared in the pulpit, and preached. If his grace did not acquit him- self with great ability on the occasion, he at least behaved with becoming modesty. After discoursing for a short time, he requested the audience to. excuse the defects of his sermon, as he had not been accustomed to the employment, and told them that he had provided a very skilful preacher to succeed him : upon which he concluded, and gave way to Friar Black. || On retiring from Edinburgh, Knox undertook a tour of preaching through the kingdom. The wide field which was before him, the interesting situation in which he was placed, the dangers by which he was surrounded, and the hopes which he cherished, increased the ardour of his zeal, and stimulated liim to extraordinary exertions both of body and mind. Within less than two months, he travelled over a great part of Scotland. He visited Kelso, and Jedburgh, and Dumfries, and Ayr, and Stirling, and Perth, and Brechhi, and Montrose, and Dundee, and returned to St. Andrews. This itinerancy had great influence in diffusing the knowledge of the truth, and in strengthening the Protestant interest. The attention of the nation was aroused ; their eyes were opened to the errors by which they had been deluded ; and they panted for a continued and more copious sup- ply of the word of life, which they had once been permitted to taste, and had felt so refreshing to their souls. If I cannot better describe the emotions which this success excited in Knox'sbreast, than by quoting from the familiar letters which he wrote at in- tervals snatched from his constant employment. " Thus far hath God advanced the glory of his dear Son among us," says he, in a letter written from St. Andrews, on the * MS. Historie of the Estate, &c. p. 11. f Knox, 1.59. I MS. Historie, p. 12. 5 Ibid. Knox, 159. II MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 12. H Cald. MS. i. 472, 473. Forbes, i. 131, 155. Sadler, i. 431, 432. X 178 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 23d of June, " 0 ! that my heart could bo thankful for the superexcellent benefit of my God. The long thirst of my wretched heart is satisfied in abundance, that is aliove my expec- tation; for now forty days and more hath my God used my tongue, in my native country, to the manifestation of his glory. Whatsoever now shall follow as touching my own carcass, his holy name be praised. The thirst of the poor people, as well as of the nobility, here, is wondrous great ; which putteth me in comfort, that Christ Jesus shall triumph here in the north and extreme parts of the earth for a space." In another letter, dated the 2d of September, he says : "• Time to me is so precious, that with great difficulty can I steal one hour in eight days, either to satisfy myself, or to gratify my friends. I have been in conti- nual travel since the day of appointment ;* and, notwithstanding the fevers have vexed me, yet have I travelled through the most part of this realm, where (all praise to His Blessed Majesty !) men of all sorts and conditions embrace the truth. Enemies we have many, by reason of the Frenchmen who lately arrived, of whom our Papists hope golden hills. As we be not able to resist, we do nothing but go about Jericho, blowing with trum- pets, as God giveth strength, hoping victory by his power alone."t Soon after his arrival in Scotland, he wrote for his wife and family, whom he had left behind him at Geneva. On the 13th of June, Mrs. Knox and her mother were at Paris, and applied to Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, the English ambassador, for a safe-conduct to pass into England. Throkmorton, who by this time had penetrated the counsels of the French court, not only granted this request, but wrote a letter to Elizabeth, in which he urged the propriety of overlooking the ofl^ence which Knox had given by his publication against female government, and of conciliating him by the kind treatment of his wife ; see- ing he was in great credit with the lords of the Congregation, had been the principal instrument in producing the late change in Scotland, and was capable of doing essential service to her majesty.^ Accordingly, Mrs. Knox came into England, and, * This refers to the agreement between the regent and lords of the Congregation, by which the latter gave up Edinburgh. The lords left Edin- burgh on the 2"ith of July. MS. Historic of the Estate of Scotland, p. 10. Knox, Historic, p. 151. I Cald. MS. i. 4-J8, 471. I Forbes, i. 129, 130. Throkmorton wrote to the same effect to Cecil, in letters dated 7th Jinio, and 19th July ir)59. Ibid. pp. 119, 167. The am- bassador was probably moved to more earnestness in this matter by the influence of Alexander Whitlaw of Greenrig, a particular friend of our Reformer, who was at this time in France. He returned soon after to Scot- land, and Throkmorto!! recommended him to Cecil, as "a very honest, sober, and godly man." " You must let him se as littel sin in England as yowe LIFE* OF JOHN KNOX. 179 being conveyed to the borders by the direction of the court, reached her husband in safety, on the 20th of September.* Mrs. Bowes, after remaining a short time in her native country, followed her daughter into Scotland, where she remained until her death. t The arrival of his family was the more gratifying to our Reformer, that they were accompanied by Christopher Good- man, his late colleague at Geneva. He had repeatedly writ- ten, in the most pressing manner, for him to come to his assis- tance, and expressed much uneasiness at the delay of his arrival. J Goodman became minister of Ayr, and was after- wards translated to St. Andrews. The settlement of Protest- ant ministers began to take place at an earlier period than is mentioned in our common histories. Previous to September 1559, eight towns were provided with pastors; and other places remained unprovided owing to the scarcity of preachers.§ In the mean time, it became daily more apparent that the lords of the Congregation would be vmable, without foreign aid, to maintain the struggle in which they were involved Had the contest been merely between them and the domestic party of the regent, they would soon have brought it to a successful termination ; but they could not withstand the veteran troops which France had already sent to her assistance, and was pre- paring to send in still more formidable numbers. 1| As far back maye." He " is greatly estemyd of Jhone Knokes, and he doth allso favour hym above other : nevertheless, he is sory for his boke rashly written." Ibid. 137, 147—149. * Cald. MS. i. 491. f Knox applied to the English court for a safe conduct for Mrs. Bowes to come into Scotland, which was granted about the month of October 1559. Sadler, i. 456, 479, 509. I have already noticed (p. 124) that Mrs. Bowes's husband was dead. The particular time of his death I have not ascertained, but it seems to have been between 1554 and* 1556. She is designed a widow in the correspondence between Cecil and Sadler. I Cald. MS. i. 429, 473. 9 Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Dundee, Perth, Brechin, Montrose, Sterling, and Ayr, were the towns provided with ministers. Letter, Knox to Locke, 2d Sept. 1559. Cald. MS. i. 472. II Sadler, i. 403, 411. Forbes, vol. i. passim. Dr. Robertson complains that, from the carelessness of the contemporary historians, it is impossible to ascertain the number of French soldiers in Scotland, or at what times, and under what pretexts, they had returned, after having left the kingdom in 1550. History of Scotland, p. 108. Lond. 1791. In September 1559, when the queen regent retired within the fortifications of Leith, her forces amounted to oOOO soldiers, of whom 500 only were Scots. MS. Historic of the Estate of Scotland, from 1559 to 1566, p. 13. A thousand men had arrived from France in tlie month of August, and it does not appear that any other arri- val had taken place since the commencement of the late commotions. It seems pretty evident that the other 1500 had been sent from France during 190 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. as the middle of June, our Reformer had renewed his exer- tions for obtaining assistance from England, and persuaded William Kircaldy of Grange, first to write, and afterwards to pay a visit, to Sir Henry Percy, who held a public situation on the English marches. Percy immediately transmitted liis rep- resentations to London, and an answer was returned from Sec- retary Cecil, encouraging the correspondence.* Knox himself wrote to Cecil, requesting permission to visit England,! and enclosed a letter to Queen Elizabeth, in which he attempted to apologize for his rude attack upon female gov- ernment. When a man has been " overtaken in a fault," it is his glory to confess it ; but those who have been so unfortunate as to incur the resentment of princes, must, if they expect to appease them, condescend to very ample and humiliating apolo- gies. Luther involved himself more than once by attempting this task, and had not the lustre of his talents protected him, his reputation must have suffered materially from his ill success. He was prevailed on to write submissive apologies to Leo X. and Henry VHL for the freedom with which he had treated them in his writings ; but, in both instances, his apologies were rejected with contempt, and he found himself under the neces- sity of retracting his retractations. J Knox was in no danger of committing himself in this way. He was less violent in his temper than the German reformer, but he was also less flexible and accommodating. There was nothing at which he was more awkward than apologies, condescensions, and civilities ; and on the present occasion he was placed in a very embarras- sing predicament, as his judgment would not permit him to re- tract the sentiment which had given offence to the English queen. In his letter to Elizabeth, he expresses deep distress at having incurred her displeasure, and warm attachment to her government ; but the grounds on which he advises her to found her title to the crown, and* indeed the whole strain in which the war between Scotland and England, in 1.556 and 1557. Tlie lords of the Congregation mustered 8000 men in September ; but only 1000 of these were trained to arms. Ibid. * Knox, Ilistorie, p. 207. t Knox, Historie, p. 209. Forbes, i. 15'), 167. \ Beausobre, Hist. Reform, i. 855 — 377. Macaulay's translation. Mil- ner's History of tlie Church, iv. 948 — 9. This last iiistorian, speaking of Luther's apology to Henry, says, that he went "quite far enough, eitlier for the dignity of a leading reformer, or the simplicity of a follower of Christ." Luther himself, after receiving Henry's reply, appears to have been abun- dantly sensible of the ridiculous situation in which he had placed himself, and with a facetiousness which seldom forsook him, asked his friends, if they would now advise liim to write penitential epistles to the Archbishop of Mentz, tlie Archduke Ferdinand, and other princes whom he had otiended. Milner, ut sup. p. 956. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 181 the letter is written, are such as must have aggravated, instead of extenuating, his offence in the opinion of that iiigh-minded princess.* But, although his apology had been more ample and humble than it was, it is not probable that he would have succeeded better with Elizabeth than Luther did with her father. Christopher Goodman, after his return to England, was obliged, at two several periods, to subscribe a recantation of the opinion which he had given against the lawfulness of fe- male government, nor could all his condescensions procure for him the favour of his sovereign.! In fact, Elizabeth was all along extremely tender on the subject of her right to the throne ; she never failed to resent every attack that was made upon this, from whatever quarter it came ; and, although several his- torians have amused their readers with accounts of her ambi- tion to be thought more beautiful and accomplished than the Queen of Scots,:j: I am persuaded that she was always more jealous of Mary as a competitor for the crown, than as a ri- val in personal charms. It does not, however, appear, that Elizabeth ever saw Knox's letter, and I have little doubt that it was suppressed by the sagacious secretary. § Cecil was himself friendly to the mea- sure of assisting the Scottish Congregation, and exerted all his influence to bring over the queen and her council to his opin- ion. Accordingly, Knox received a message, desiring him to meet Sir Henry Percy at Alnwick, on the 2d of August, upon business which required the utmost secrecy and despatch ; and Cecil himself came down to Stamford to hold an interview with him.l| The confusion produced by the advance of the regent's army upon Edinburgh, retarded his journey ; but no sooner was this settled, than Knox sailed from Pittenweem to Holy Island. Finding that Percy was recalled from the borders, he applied to Sir James Croft, the Governor of Berwick. Croft, who was not unapprised of the design on which he came, dissuaded him from proceeding farther into England, and undertook to des- * Knox, Historie, pp. 210—2. t Strype, Annals, i. 126. ii. 95—6. Life of Grindal, 170, and Life of Parker, 325 — 6. I See Sir James Melvil's account of his interview with Elizabeth, Me- moirs, pp. 49 — 51, which has been adopted, and detailed by Mr. Hume, and other liistorians. 5 Cecil was accustomed to keep back intelligence which he knew would be disagreeable to his mistress. A curious instance of this occurs with re- spect to the misfortune which happened to Cockburn of Ormiston? while conveying a subsidy which she had sent to the Congregation. Sadler, i. 573. We learn from one of his letters, that he did not usually communicate the epistles of our Reformer, whom he knew to be no favourite with Elizabeth. Ibid. p. 535. 1! Knox, Historie, p. 212. 16 182 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. patch his communications to London, and to procure a speedy return. Alexander Whitlaw of Greenrig, who had been ban- ished from Scotland, having come to London on his way from France, was intrusted by the English court with their answer to the letters of the Congregation. Arriving at Berwick, he delivered the despatches to Knox, who hastened with them to Stirling, where a meeting of the Protestant lords was to be held. He prudently returned by sea to Fife ; for the queen regent had come to the knowledge of his journey to England, and Whit- law, in travelling through East Lothian, being mistaken for Knox, was hotly pursued, and made his escape with great difficulty.* The irresolution or the caution of Elizabeth's cab- inet had led them to express themselves in such general and unsatisfactory terms, that the lords of the Congregation, when the letters were laid before them, were both disappointed and displeased ; and it was with some difficulty that our Reformer obtained permission from them to write again to London in his own name. The representation which he gave of the urgency of the case, and the danger of farther hesitation or delay, pro- duced a speedy reply, desiring them to send a confidential messenger to Berwick, who would receive a sum of money to assist them in prosecuting the war. About the same time. Sir Ralph Sadler was sent down to Berwick, to act as an accredited but secret agent, and the correspondence between the court of London and the lords of the Congregation continued afterwards to be carried on through him and Sir James Croft mitil the English auxiliary army entered Scotland.t If we reflect upon the connection which the religious and civil liberties of the nation had with the contest in which the Protestants were engaged, and upon our Reformer's zeal in that cause, v/e shall not be greatly surprised to find him at this time acting in the character of a politician. Extraordinary cases camiot be measured by ordinary rules. In a great emer- gency, when all that is valuable and dear to a people is at stake, it becomes the duty of every individual to step forward, and exert all his talents for the pubhc good. Learning was at this time rare among the nobility ; and though there were men of disthiguished abilities among the Protestant leaders, few of them had been accustomed to transact public business. Ac- cordingly, the management of the correspondence with England * Kjjox, Historie, pp. 59, 213. i Knox, Historic, pp. 21-2— -214. The State Papers of Sir Ralpli Sadler have been \a.tvAy published in 2 vols. 4to. The first volume contains the greater part of the letters that passed between Sadler and the agents of the Congregation. They throw much light upon this interesting period of our national history, and ought to be consulted, in addition to the histories which appeared previous to their publication. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 183 was for a time devolved chiefly on Knox and Balnaves. But our Reformer submitted to the task merely from a sense of duty and regard to the common cause ; and when the younger Mait- land acceded to their party, he expressed the greatest satisfac- tion at the prospect of being relieved from the burden.* It was not without reason that he longed for this deliverance. He now felt that it was as difficult to preserve integrity and Christian simplicity amidst the crooked wiles of political in- trigue, as he had formerly found it to pursue truth through the perplexing mazes of scholastic sophistry. In performing a task foreign to his habits, and repugnant to his disposition, he met with a good deal of vexation, and several unpleasant rubs. These were owing partly to his own impetuosity, and partly to the grudge entertained against him by Elizabeth, but chiefly to the particular line of policy which the English cabinet had re- solved to pursue. They were convinced of the danger of allowing the Scottish Protestants to be suppressed ; but they wished to confine themselves to pecuniary aid, believing that by such assistance the lords of the Congregation would be able to expel the French, and bring the contest to a successful issue, while, by the secrecy with which it could be conveyed, an open breach between France and England would be prevented. This plan, Avhich originated in the personal disinclination of Elizabeth to the Scottish war t rather than in the judgment of her wisest counsellors, protracted the contest, and gave occasion to some angry disputes between the English agents and those of the Congregation. The former were continually urging the associated lords to attack the forces of the regent, before she re- ceived fresh succours from France, and blaming their slow operations ; they complained of the want of secrecy in the cor- respondence with England ; and even insinuated that the money, intended for the common cause, was partially applied to private purposes. The latter were irritated by this insinua- tion, and urged the necessity of military as well as pecuniary assistance, f In a letter to Sir James Croft, Knox represented the great importance of their being speedily assisted with troops, without * Keith, Append. 42. t See Note KK. I Sadler, i. 520, 524. Randolph mentions in one of his letters, that both Knox and Balnaves were discontented. Keith has inserted a letter in which Balnaves complains of, and vindicates himself from the charges brought against him. Sadler afterwards endeavoured to pacify them. Keith, Append. 43, 44. Sadler, i. pp. 537, 548. Notwithstanding tlie complaints against the Congregation for 'being too " open," there is some reason to think that Sir James Croft's own secretary had informed the queen regent of the correspondence between England and the Congregation. Forbes, i. p. 137. 184 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. which they would be in much hazard of miscarrying in an at- tack upon the fortifications of Leith, The court of England, he said, ought not to hesitate at ofiending France, of whose hostile intentions against them they had the most satisfactory evidence. But " if ye list to craft with thame," continued he, " the sending of a thousand or mo men to us can breake no league nor point of peace contracted betwixt you and France : for it is free for your subjects to serve in warr anie prince or nation for their wages ; and if ye fear that such excuses will not prevail, ye may declare thame rebelles to your realme when ye shall be assured that thei be in our companye." No doubt such things have been often done ; and such " political casu- istry" (as Keith not improperly styles it) is not unknown at courts. But it must be confessed, that the measure recommend- ed by Knox (the morality of which must stand on the same grounds with the assistance which the English were at that time affording) was too glaring to be concealed by the excuses which he suggested.. Croft laid hold of this opportunity to check the impetuosity of his correspondent, and wrote him, that he wondered how he, " being a wise man," would require from them such aid as they could not give " without breach of treaty, and dishonour ;" and that " the world was not so blind but that it could soon espy" the "devices" by which he proposed " to colour their doings." Knox, in his reply, apologized for his " unreasonable request ;" but, at the same time reminded Croft of the common practice of courts in such matters, and the con- duct of the French court towards the English in a recent in- stance.* He was not ignorant, he said, of the inconveniences which might attend an open declaration in their favour, but feared that they would have cause to " repent the drift of time, when the remedy would not be so easy." t This is the only instance in which I have found our Refor- mer recommending dissimulation, which was very foreign to the openness of his natural temper, and the blunt and rigid hon- esty that marked his general conduct. His own 'opinion was, that the English court ought from the first to have done what they found themselves obliged to do at last — avow their resolu- tion to support the Congregation. Keith praises Croft's " just * " See how Mr. Knox still presses his under-hand managfenient !" says Keith. Quwre: Did the honest bishop never find any occasion, in the course of his history, to reprimand such management in his own friends! or, did he think that intrigue was criminal, only when it was employed by Pro- testant cabinets and ministers! t Keith, Append. 40 — 42. Sadler, i. p. iiS^. In fact, if a storm had not dispersed and shattered the French fleet, wliu-li liad on board tlie Marquis D'Elbeuf, and a large body of troops, destined for tiie reinforcement of the queen regent, the Englisli, after so long delay, would have found it very diffi- cult to expel the French from Scotland. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 185 reprimand on Mr Knox's double fac'd proposition," and Cecil says, that liis " audacite was well tamed." We must not, how- ever, imagine, that these statesmen had any scruple of con- science, or nice feeling of honour on this point. For, on the very day on which Croft reprimanded Knox, he wrote to Cecil that he thought the queen ought openly to take part with the Con- gregation. And in the same letter in which Cecil speaks of Knox's audacity, he advises Croft to adopt in substance the very measure which our Reformer had recommended, by send- ing five or six officers, who should " steal from thence with appearance of displeasure for lack of interteynment ;" and in a subsequent letter, he gives directions to send three or four, fit for being captains, who should give out, that they left Berwick, " as men desyrous to be exercised in the warres, rather than to lye idely in that towne." * Notwithstanding the prejudice which existed in the English court against our Reformer, t on account of his " audacity" in attacking female prerogative, they were too well acquainted with his integrity and influence to decline his services. Cecil kept up a correspondence with him ; and in the directions sent from London for the management of the subsidy, it was ex- pressly provided, that he 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.f In the mean time, his zeal and activity, in the cause of the Congregation, exposed him to the deadly resentment of the queen regent and the Papists. A reward was publicly offered to any one who should apprehend or kill him ; and not a few, actuated by hatred or avarice, lay in wait to seize his person. But this did not deter him from appearing in public, nor from travelling through the country in the discharge of his duty. His exertions at this period were incredibly great. By day he was employed in preaching, by night in Avriting letters on pub- lic business. He was the soul of the Congregation; was * Sadler, i. 522, 534, 568. f The lords of the Congregation having proposed to send our Reformer to London as one of their commissioners, Cecil found it necessary to dis- courage the proposal. " Of all others, Knoxees name, if it be not Good- man's, is most odious here ; and, therefore, I wish no mention of him (coming) hither." And in another letter he says, — " His writings (i. e, Knox's letters) doo no good here ; and, therefore, I doo i-ather suppress them, and yet I meane not but that ye should contynue in sending of them." Sadler i. 532, 535. The editor of Sadler supposes, without any reason, that Knox and Goodman were disliked by the English court on account of their Geneva discipline, and republican tenets. The unpardonable offence of which both had been guilty was different from either of these ; tliey had attacked " the regiment of women." I Sadler, i. 540. Keith, Append. 40. 16* Y 186 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. always found at the post of danger ; and by his presence, his pubUc discourses, ancl private advices, animated the whole body, and defeated the schemes employed to corrupt or disunite them.* The Congregation had lately received a considerable increase of strength by the accession of the former regent, the Duke of Chastelherault. His eldest son, the Earl of Arran, who com- manded the Scots guard in France, had embraced the principles of the Reformation. Understanding that the French court, ■which was entirely under the direction of the princes of Lor- rain, intended to throw him into prison, he secretly retired to Geneva, from which he was conveyed to London by the assis- tance of Elizabeth's ministers. In the month of August he came to his father at Hamilton, The representations of his son, joined with those of the English cabinet, and with his own jealousy of the designs of the queen regent, easily gained over the vacillating duke, who met with the lords of the Congrega- tion, and subscribed their bond of confederation.! Our Reformer was now called to take a share in a very deli- cate and important measure. When they first had recourse to arms in their own defence, the lords of the Congregation had no intention of making any alteration in the government, or of assuming the exercise of the supreme authority. + Even after they had adopted a more regular and permanent system of resistance to the measm^es of the queen regent, they continued to recognise the station which she held, presented petitions 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 execution of her plan for subverting the * " In twenty-four hours, I have not four free to natural rest, and easce of this wicked carcass. Remember my last request for my mother, and say to Mr. George (Sir George Bowes, his brother-in-law,) that I have need of a good and an assured horse ; for great watch is laid for my apprehension, and large money promised till any that shall kyll me. And this part of my care now poured in your bosom, I cease farther to trouble you, being trou- bled myself in body and spirit, for the troubles that be present, and appear to grow. At mydnicht. " Many things I have to writ, which now tym suffereth not, but after, if ye mak haste with this messinger, ye shall undirstand more R ryt I write with sleaping eis." Knox's letter to Raylton, 23d October, 1559. Koith, Append. 38. Sadler, i. t;81, 682. This letter, written with the Reformer's own hand, is in the British Museum. Cotton MS. Calig. B. ix. f. 38. The conclusion of the letter, which is here printed in imitation of the original, is very descriptive of the state of tlie writer at the time. It also appears from this letter, that, amidst his other employments, he liad already begun, and made considerable pro- gress in his History of the Reformation. t Forbes, i. 117, 144, 163, 166. Sadler, i. 404, 417, 447. i See Note LL. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 187 national liberties, and that her official situation gave her great advantages 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 administration; and was it not competent for them to provide for the public safety, which was exposed to such imminent 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 21st of October 1559, 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 Scripture, 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 in- troducing foreign troops into the country, evinced a fixed de- termination to oppress and enslave the kingdom, might justly be divested of her authority, by the nobles and barons, as na- tive counsellors of the realm, whose petitions and remonstran- ces 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-admis- sion to office, if she afterwards discovered sorrow for her con- duct, and a disposition to submit to the advice of the estates of the nation. After this, the whole assembly, having several- ly 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, * Dr. Robertson says, " It was the work but of one day to examine and 188 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. electttl a council for the management of public affairs during this interval.* When the council had occasion to treat of mat- ters connected with religion, four of the ministers were appoint- ed to assist in their deliberations. These were Knox, Willock, Goodman, and Alexander Gordon, Bishop of Galloway, who had embraced the Reformation.t It has been alleged by some writers, that the question respect- ing the suspension of the queen regent was altogether incompetent for ministers of the gospel to determine, and that Knox and Willockjby the advice which they gave on this occasion, exposed themselves unnecessarily to odium. if But it is not easy to see how they could have been excused in refusing to deliver their opinion, when required by 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. The advice which was actually given and followed is a matter of greater conse- quence, than the quarter from which it came. As this rests upon principles very different from those which produced resis- tance to princes, and limitation on their authority, under feudal governments, and as our Reformer has been the object of much animadversion for inculcating these principles, I shall embrace the present opportunity to offer a few remarks on this uiterest- ing subject. Among the various causes which affected the general state of society and government in Europe, during the middle ages, the influence of religion cannot be overlooked. Debased by igno- rance, and fettered bj^^ superstition, the minds of men were pre- pared to acquiesce without examination in the claims of authority, and tamely to submit to every yoke. In whatever light we view Popery, the geniusof that singular system of religion will be found to be adverse to liberty. The court of Rome, while it aimed directly at the establishment of a spiritual despotism in the hands ofecclesiastics,contributedto rivet the chainsof political servitude upon the people. In return for the support which princes yielded to its arrogant claims, it was content to invest them with an absolute authority over the bodies of their subjects. By the priestly unction, performed at the coronation of kings in the name of the holy see, a sacred character was understood to be resolve this nice problem, concerning the beliaviour of subjects towards a ruler who abuses his power." But it may be observed, that this was the formal determination of the question. It had been discussed among the Protestants frequently before this meeting, and, as early as tlie beginning of September, they were nearly unanimous about it. Sadler, i. 43:^ It should also be noticed, that tlic queen regent was only suspended from, not abso- lutely "deprived of," her office. * Knox, 182—187. t Sadler, i. 510, 511. | Spotswood, p. 137. Keith, p. 104. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 189 imparted, which raised them to a superiority over their nobility which they did not possess accordhig to f(?udal ideas, rendered their persons inviolable, and their office divine. Although the sovereign pontitfs claimed, and on different occasions exercised, the power of dethroning kings, and of absolving subjects from their allegiance ; yet any attempt of this kind, when it proceeded from the people themselves, was denounced as a crime deserving the severest punishment in this world, and damnation in the next. Hence sprung the doctrine of the divine right of kings to rule independently of their people, and of passive obedience and non- resistance to their will ; under the sanction of which they were encouraged to sport with the lives and happiness of their subjects, and to indulge in the most tyrannical and wanton acts of oppres- sion, without the dread of resistance, or of being called to an account by any power on earth. Even in countries where the people were understood to enjoy certain political privileges, trans- mitted from remote ages, or wrested from their princes on some favourable occasions, these principles were generally prevalent ; and, availing himself of them, it was easy for an ambitious and powerful monarch to violate the rights of the people with impu- nity, and upon a constitution, the forms of which were friendly to popular liberty, to establish an administration completely arbi- trary and despotic. The contest between papal sovereignty and the authority of general councils, which was carried on during the fifteenth cen- tury, elicited some of the essential principles of liberty, which were afterwards applied to political government. The revival of learning, by unfolding the principles of legislation and modes of government in the republics of ancient Greece and Rome, gra- dually led to more liberal notions on this subject. But these were confined to a few, and had no influence upon the general state of society. The spirit infused by philosophy and literature is too feeble and contracted to produce a radical reform of esta- blished abuses ; and learned men, proud of their own superior illumination, and satisfied with the liberty of indulging their speculations, have generally been too indifferent or too timid to attempt the improvement of the multitude. It is to the religious spirit excited during the sixteenth century, which spread rapidly through Europe, and diffused itself among all classes of men, that we are chiefly indebted for the propagation of the genuine prin- ciples of rational liberty, and the consequent amelioration of government. Civil and ecclesiastical tyranny were so closely combined, that it was impossible for men to emancipate themselves from the latter without throwing off the former ; and from arguments which established their religious rights, the transition was easy, and almost unavoidable, to disquisitions about their civil privi- 190 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. leges. In those kingdoms in which the rulers threw off the Roman yoke, and introduced the Reformation by their authority, the influence was more imperceptible and slow ; and in some of them, as in England, the power taken from the ecclesiastical was thrown into the regal scale, which proved so far prejudicial to popular liberty. But where the Reformation was embraced by the great body of a nation, while the ruling powers continued to oppose it, the effect was visible and immediate. The interested and obstinate support which rulers gave to the old system of er- ror and ecclesiastical tyranny, and their cruel persecution of all who favoured the new opinions, drove their subjects to inquire into the just limits of authority and obedience. Their judgments once informed as to the rights to which they were entitled, and their consciences satisfied respecting the means which they might employ to acquire them, the immense importance of the imme- diate object in view, their emancipation from reUgious bondage, and the salvation of themselves and their posterity, impelled them to make the attempt with an enthusiasm and perseverance which the mere love of civil liberty could not have inspired. In efl'ecting that memorable revolution, which terminated in favour of religious and political liberty in so many nations of Europe, the public teachers of the Protestant doctrine had a principal influence. By their instructions and exhortations, they roused the people to consider their rights and exert their power ; they stimulated timid and wary politicians ; they encouraged and animated princes, nobles, and confederated states, with their ar- mies, against the most formidable opposition, and under the most overwhehning difficulties, until their exertions were ultimately crowned with success. These facts are now admitted, and this honour has at last, through the force of truth, been conceded to the religious leaders of the Protestant Reformation, by philoso- phical writers, who had too long branded them as ignorant and fanatical* Our Reformer had caught a large portion of the spirit of civil liberty. We have already adverted to the circumstance in his education which directed his attention, at an early period, to some of its principles.! His subsequent studies introduced him to an acquaintance with the maxims and modes of government in the free states of antiquity ; and it is reasonable to suppose that his intercourse with the republics of Switzerland and Geneva had some influence on his political creed. Having formed his sentiments independently of the prejudices arising from estab- lished laws, long usage, and commonly received opinions, his zeal and intrepidity prompted him to avow and propagate them, * Viller's Essay on the Spirit and Influence of the Reformation of Lu- ther, Mill's Translation, pp. 183, 186, 321, 327. t See above, pp. 20— 21» LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 191 when others, less sanguine and resolute, would have been re- strained by fear, or by despair of success.* Extensive observa- tion had convinced him of the glaring perversion of government in the European kingdoms ; but his principles led him to desire their reform, not their subversion. His admiration of the polity of republics, ancient or modern, was not so great or indiscrimi- nate as to prevent him from separating the essential principles of equity and freedom which they contained, from others which were incompatible with monarchy. He was perfectly sensible of the necessity of regular government to the maintenance of justice and order, and aware of the danger of setting men loose from its salutary control. And he uniformly inculcated a conscientious obedience to the lawful commands of rulers, and respect to their persons as well as to their authority, even when they were charge- able with various mismanagements, so long as they did not break through all the restraints of law and justice, and cease to perform the great and fundamental duties of their office. But he held that rulers, supreme as well as subordinate, were invested with authority for the public good ; that obedience was not due to them in any thing contrary to the divine law, natural or revealed; that, in every free and well-constituted government, the law of the land was superior to the will of the prince ; that inferior magistrates and subjects might restrain the supreme magistrate from particular illegal acts, without throwing off their allegiance, or being guilty of rebellion ; that no class of men have an original, inherent, and indefeasible right to rule over a people, independently of their will and consent ; that every nation is en- titled to provide and require that they shall be ruled by laws which are agreeable to the divine law, and calculated to promote their welfare ; that there is a mutual compact, tacit and implied, if not formal and explicit, between rulers and their subjects ; and if the former shall flagrantly violate this, employ that power for the destruction of the commonwealth which was committed to them for its preservation and benefit, or, in one word, if they shall become habitual tyrants and notorious oppressors, that the people are absolved from allegiance, and have a right to resist them, formally to depose them from their place, and to elect others in their room. The real power of the Scottish kings was, indeed, always li- mited, and there are in our history, previous to the era of the Reformation, many instances of resistance to their authority. But, though these were pleaded as precedents on this occasion, it must be confessed that we cannot trace them to the principles * " I prais my God," said he, " I have not learned to cry conjuration and treasoun at every thing that the godles multitude does condemn, neither yet to fear tlie things that they fear." Conference with Murray and Maitland. Historie, p. 339. 192 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. of genuine liberty. They were the effects of sudden resentment on account of some extraordinary act of mal-administration, or of the ambition of some powerful baron, or of the jealousy with which the feudal aristocracy watched over the privileges of their own order. The people who followed the standards of their chiefs had little interest in the struggle, and derived no benefit from the limitations which were imposed upon the sovereign. But, at this time, more just and enlarged sentiments were ditfused through tlie nation, and the idea of a common- wealth, including the mass of the people, as well as the privi- leged orders, began to be entertained. Our Reformer, whose notions of hereditary right, whether in kings or nobles, were not exalted, studied to repress the insolence and oppression of the nobility. He reminded them of the original equality of men, and the ends for which some were raised above others ; and he taught the people that they had rights to preserve, as well as duties to perform. With respect to female government, he never moved any question among his countrymen, nor attempted to gain proselytes to his opinion. * Such, in substance, were the political sentiments which were inculcated by our Reformer, and which were more than once acted upon in Scotland during his lifetime. That in an age when the principles of political liberty were only beginning to be understood, such sentiments should have been regarded with a suspicious eye by some of the learned who had not yet thrown oft' common prejudices, and that they should have exposed those who maintained them to a charge of treason from despoti- cal rulers and their numerous satellites, is far from being matter of wonder. But it must excite both surprise and indignation, to find writers in the present enlightened age, and under the sim- shine of British liberty (if our sun is not fast going down), ex- pressing their abhorrence of these principles, and exhausting upon their authors all the invective and virulence of the former anti-monarchomachi, and advocates of passive obedience. They are essentially the principles upon which the free constitution of Britain rests ; and the most obnoxious of them were reduced to practice at the memorable era of the Revolution, when the necessity of employing them was not more urgent or unques- tionable, than it was at the suspension of the Queen Regent of Scotland, and the subsequent deposition of her daughter. I have said esseiitially : for I would not be understood as meaning to say, that every proposition advanced by Knox, on this subject, is expressed in the most guarded and unexcep- tionable manner, or that all the cases in which he was led to vindicate forcible resistance to rulers, were such as rendered it * Tlie authorities for this statement of Knox's political opinions will be found in Note MM. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 193 necessary, and as may be pleaded as precedents in modern times. The political doctrines maintained at that period re- ceived a tincture from the spirit of the age, and were accommo- dated to a state of society and government comparatively rude and unsettled; The checks which have since been introduced into the constitution, and the influence which public opinion, expressed by the organ of a free press, has upon the conduct of rulers, are sufficient, in ordinary cases, to restrain dangerous encroachments, or to afford the means of correcting them in a peaceable way ; and have thus happily superseded the necess- ity of having recourse to those desperate but decisive remedies which were formerly applied by an oppressed and indignant people. But if ever the time come when these principles shall be generally abjured or forgotten, the extinction of the boasted liberty of Britain will not be far off. There are objections against our Reformer's political princi- ples which demand consideration, from the authority to which they appeal, and the influence which they may have on pious minds. " The doctrine of resistance to civil rulers," it is alleged, " is repugnant to the express directions of the New Testament, which repeatedly enjoin Christians to be subject to * the powers that be,' and denounce damnation against such as disobey or resist them on any pretext whatever. With the literal and strict import of these precepts the exarnple of the primitive Christians agreed ; for, even after they became very numerous, so as to be capable of opposing the government mider which they lived, they never attempted to shake off the authority of the Roman emperors, or to employ force to protect themselves from the tyranny and persecutions to which they were exposed. Besides, granting that it is lawful for subjects to vindicate their civil rights and privfleges by resisting arbi- trary rulers, to have recourse to forcible measures for promoting Christianity is diametrically opposite to the genius of that reli- gion, which was propagated at first, and is still to be defended, not by arms and violence, but by teaching and suffering," These objections are more specious than solid. The direc- tions and precepts on this subject, which are contained in the New Testament, must not be stretched beyond their evident scope and proper import. They do not give greater power to magistrates than they formerly possessed, nor do they supersede any of the rights or privileges to which subjects were entitled by the common law of nature, or by the particular statutes of any country. The New Testament does not give directions to communities respecting the original formation or subsequent improvement of their civil constitutions, nor prescribe the course which ought to be pursued in certain extraordinary cases, when rulers abuse the power with which they are in- 17 Z 194 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. vested, and convert their legitimate authority into an engine of despotism and oppression.* It supposes magistrates to be acting within the proper line of their office, and discharging its duties to the advantage of the society over which they are placed. And it teaches Christians, that the liberty which Christ purchased, and to the enjoyment of which they are called by the gospel, does not exempt them from subjection and obedi- ence to civil authority, which is a divine ordinance for the good of mankind ; that they are bound to obey existing rulers, although they should be of a different religion from themselves ; and that Christianity, so far from setting them free from obliga- tions to this or any other relative duty, strengthens these obli- gations, and requires them to discharge their duties for con- science' sake, with fidelity, cheerfulness, patience, long-suffer- ing, and singleness of heart. Viewed in this light, nothing can be more reasonable in its own nature, or more honourable to the gospel, than the directions which it gives on this subject ; and we must perceive a peculiar propriety in the frequency and earnestness with which they are urged, when we consider the danger in which the primitive Christians were of supposing that they were liberated from the ordinary restraints of the rest of mankind. But if we shall go beyond this, and assert that the Scriptures have prohibited resistance to rulers in every case, and that the great body of a nation consisting of Christians, in attempting to curb the fury of their rulers, or to deprive them of the power which they have grossly abused, are guilty of that crime against which the apostle denounces damnation, we represent the beneficent religion of Jesus as sanctioning despotism, and entailing all the evils of political bondage upon mankind ; and we tread in the steps of those enemies to Christ- ianity, who, under the colour of paying a compliment to its pacific, submissive, tolerant, and self-denying maxims, have represented it as calculated to produce a passive, servile spirit, and to extinguish courage, patriotism, the love of civil liberty, the desire of self-preservation, and every kind of disposition to repel injuries, or to obtain the redress of the most intolerable grievances. * "Concedit autem," says Melancthon, " evangelium uti legibus politi- cis cum ratione congruentibus. Imo si talis defensio non esset concessa, transformaretur evangelium in doctrinam politicam, et stabiliret infinitam tyrannidcm." Comment, in Prov. xxiv. 21, '22. And again, " Non consti- tuit evangelium novas politias, quare nee infinitam servitutem prscepit." 2. Artie. Symbol. Nicen. sub queestione, Utrum armis reprimendi sunt tyr- anni ? Tliis argument influenced Luther to retract tlie unlimited con- demnation of resistance which he had formerly published, and to approve of the League of Smalcald. Sleidan, Comment, lib. 8. Dean Miluer lias overlooked this fact in his statement of the political principles of that Re- former. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 195 The example of the primitive Christians is not binding upon others any farther than it is conformable to the Scriptures ; and the circumstances in which they were placed were totally differ- ent from those of the Protestants in Scotland, and in other countries, at the time of the Reformation. The fathers often indulge in oratorical exaggerations when speaking of the num- bers of the Christians ; nor is there any satisfactory evidence that they ever approached near to a majority of the Roman empire, during the time that they were exposed to persecution. " If thou mayest be made free, use it rather," says the Apos- tle ; a maxim which is applicable, by just analogy, to political as well as domestic freedom. The Christian religion natively tends to cherish and diffuse a spirit favourable to civil liberty, and this, in its turn, has the most happy influence upon Christ- ianity, which never flourished extensively, and for a long peri- od, in any country where despotism prevailed. It must there- fore be the duty of every Christian to exert himself for the acquisition and defence of this invaluable blessing. Christiani- ty ought not to be propagated by force of arms ; but the ex- ternal liberty of professing it may be vindicated in that way both against foreign invaders and against domestic tyrants. If the free exercise of their religion, or their right to remove religious abuses, enter into the grounds of the struggle which a nation maintains against oppressive rulers, the cause becomes of vastly more importance, its justice is more unquestionable, and it is still more worthy, not only of their prayers and peti- tions, but of their blood and treasure, than if it had been main- tained solely for the purpose of securing their fortunes, or of acquiring some mere worldly privilege. And to those whose minds are not warped by prejudice, and who do not labour un- der a confusion of ideas on the subject, it must surely appear paradoxical to assert, that, while God has granted to subjects a right to take the sword of just defence for securing objects of a temporary and inferior nature, he has prohibited them from using this remedy, and left them at the mercy of every lawless despot, with respect to a concern the most important of all, whether it be viewed as relating to his own honour, or to the welfare of mankind. Those who judge of the propriety of any measure from the success with which it is accompanied, will be disposed to con- demn the suspension of the queen regent. Soon after this step was taken, the aflairs of the Congregation began to wear a gloomy aspect. The messenger whom they sent to Berwick to receive a remittance from the English court was intercepted on his return, and rifled of the treasure ; their soldiers mutinied for want of pay ; they were repulsed in a prematiu-e assault 196 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. upon the fortifications of Leith, and worsted in a skirmish with the French troops ; the secret emissaries of the regent were too successful among them ; their numbers daily decreased ; and the remainder, disunited, dispirited, and dismayed, came to the resolution of abandoning Edinburgh on the evening of the 5th of November, and retreated with precipitation and disgrace to Stirling. Amidst the universal dejection produced by these disasters, the spirit of Knox remained unsubdued. On the day after their arrival at Stirling, he mounted the pulpit, and delivered a discourse, which had a wonderful eftect in rekindling the zeal and courage of the Congregation. Their faces (he said) were confounded, their enemies triumphed, their hearts had quaked for fear, and still remained oppressed with sorrow and shame. Why had God thus dejected them? The situation of their affairs required plain language, and he would use it. In the present distressed state of their minds, they were in danger of attributing these misfortunes to a wrong cause, and of imagin- ing that they had offended in taking the sword of self-defence into their hands ; just as the tribes of Israel did, when twice discomfited in the war which they undertook, by divine direc- tion, against their brethren the Benjaniites. Having divided the Congregation into two classes, those who had been embark- ed in this cause from the beginning, and those who had lately acceded to it, he proceeded to point out what he considered as blamable in the conduct of each. The former (he said) had laid aside that humility and dependence upon Divine Provi- dence which they had discovered when their number was small ; and, since they were joined by the Hamiltons, had become elated, secure, and self-confident. " But wherein had my lord duke and his friends offended ? I am uncertain if my lord's grace has unfeignedly repented of his assistance to these murderers, unjustly pursuing us. Yea, I am uncertain if he has repented of that innocent blood of Christ's blessed martyrs, which was shed in his default. But let it be that so he has done (as I hear that he has confessed his fault before the lords and brethren of the Congregation) ; yet I am assured that neither he, nor yet his friends, did feel before this time the anguish and grief of heart which we felt, when in their blind fury they pursued us. And therefore God hath justly permit- ted both them and us to fall in this fearful confusion at once, — us, for that we put our trust and confidence in man, and them, because they should feel in their own hearts hov/ bitter was the cup which they made others drink before them." After exhort- ing all to amendment of life, to prayers, and works of charity, he concluded with an animating address : — " God," he said, " often sutfered the wicked to triumph for a while, and ex- LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 197 posed his chosen congregation to mockery, dangers, and appa- rent destruction, in order to abase their self-confidence, and in- duce them to look to himself for deliverance and victory. If they turned unfeignedly to the Eternal, he no more doubted that their present distress would be converted into joy, and followed by success, than he doubted that Israel was finally victorious over the Benjamites, after being twice repulsed with ignominy. The cause in which they were engaged would prevail in Scotland, in spite of all opposition. It was the eter- nal truth of the eternal God which they maintained ; it might be oppressed for a time, but would ultimately triumph,"* The audience, who had entered the church in deep despon- dency, left it with renovated courage. In the afternoon the council met, and, after prayer by the Reformer, unanimously agreed to despatch William Maitland of Lethington to London, to supplicate "more effectual assistance from Elizabeth. In the mean time, as they were unable to keep the field, it was agreed that they should divide, and that the one-half of the council should remain at Glasgow, and the other at St. Andrews. Knox was appointed to attend the latter in the double capacity of preacher and secretary. The French having in the begin- ning of the year 1560, penetrated into Fife, he encouraged that small band, which, under the Earl of Arran and the Prior of St. Andrews, bravely resisted their progress, until the appear- ance of the English fleet compelled the enemy to retreat with precipitation.t The disaster which obliged the Protestant army to raise the siege of Leith, and to evacuate Edinburgh, turned out eventu- ally to the advantage of their cause. It induced the English court to abandon the line of cautious policy which they had hitherto pursued. Maitland's embassy to London was success- ful ; and, on the 27th of February 1560, EUzabeth concluded a formal treaty with the lords of the Congregation, by which she engaged to send an army into Scotland, to assist them in expel- Ung the French forces. Being informed of this treaty, the queen regent resolved to disperse the troops which were collec- ted at Glasgow under the Duke of Chastelherault, before the English army could arrive. On the 7th of March, the French, amounting to two thousand foot, and three hundred horse, issued from Leith, and proceeding by Linlithgow and Kirkintulloch, suddenly appeared before Glasgow. Having reduced the episcopal castle, they were preparing to advance to Hamilton, * Knox has preserved in his history (pp. 194 — 197) the principal topics on which he insisted in this sermon. t Knox, Historic, pp. 197, 201, 215. Spotswood, p. 140. MS Historic of the estate of Scotland, pp. 19 — 22. 17* 198 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. when they received a message from the queen regent, inform- ing them that the EngUsh ariny had begun its march into Scot- land ; upon which they relinquished their design, and returned to Leith, carrying along with them a number of prisoners, and a considerable booty.* In the beginning of April, the English army joined the forces of the Congregation. The French shut themselves up within the fortifications of Leith, which was invested both by sea and land ; and the queen re- gent, who had for some time been in a declining state of health, was received by Lord Erskine into the castle of Edinburgh, where she died during the siege of Leith. These proceedings were viewed with deep interest by the court of France. Henry IL having died in July 1559, was suc- ceeded by Francis IL the husband of the young Queen of Scots ; in consequence of which, the administration of affairs fell entirely into the hands of the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain. They employed every art of political intrigue to prevent the Queen of England from giving assistance to the Scottish Congregation, and to prevail on her to desert them, after she had undertaken their protection. Nor were they al- together unsuccessful in their attempts. Elizabeth, partly from extreme caution and parsimony, and partly from the influence of some of her counsellors, was induced to listen to their plausi- ble proposals ; she delayed the march of her army into Scotland, and after the siege of Leith was commenced, suspended the military operations, and engaged in premature negotiations for peace. This last step justly alarmed the Congregation ; and while they neglected no means to persuade the English court to perform the stipulations of the late treaty, they prepared for the worst, by renewing their covenant among themselves. Elizabeth at last listened to the advice of her ablest minis- ters, and resolved to prosecute the war with vigour. No sooner did she evince this determination than the French court yielded to all her demands The armament which they had lately fitted out at great expense for Scotland, had been dis- persed by a storm ; the Frith of Forth was blocked up by an Eng- lish fleet ; and a confederacy had been formed among a number of the nobility in France, to remove the princes of Lorrain from the administration of public affairs, and to free the Protestants in that kingdom from the severe persecutions to which they had hitherto been exposed.! Influenced by these circumstan- * A particular account of this expedition, overlooked in our common his- tories, is friven in MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland from 1559 to 1506, pp. 25 — 7. Lesley (p. 519) refers to it obscurely. Spotswood (p. 140) and Keith (p. 110) iiave confounded it with a different e.xpedition, which was undertaken in November preceding. t Those wIjo wish to see a particular account of the negotiations between LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 199 ces, the French cabinet sent plenipotentiaries to Edinburgh, who conckided a treaty with England, by which the Scottish differences were al-so adjusted. By this treaty it was provided, that the French troops should immediately be removed from Scotland ; that an amnesty should be granted to all who had been engaged in the late resistance to the queen regent ; that the principal grievances of which they complained in the civil ad- ministration should be redressed ; that a free parliament should be held to settle the other affairs of the kingdom ; and that, during the absence of their sovereigns, the government should be administered by a council, to be chosen partly by Francis and Mary, and partly by the estates of the nation. The treaty was signed on the 7th of July. On the 16th, the French army embarked at Leith, and the English troops began their march into their own country; and on the 19th, the Congregation as- sembled in St Giles's Church, to return solemn thanks to God for the restoration of peace, and the success which had crown- ed their exertions,* In this manner terminated the civil war which attended the Scottish Reformation, after it had continued for twelve months, with less rancour and bloodshed than have distinguished any other contest of a similar kind. During the continuance of the war, the Protestant preachers had been assiduous in disseminating knowledge through all parts of the kingdom, and their success was equal to their dili- gence. They had received a considerable accession to their number from the ranks of their opponents. While we vene- rate those men who enlisted under the banners of truth when her friends were few, and who boldly took the field in her de- fence when the victory was yet dubious and distant, and while we cheerfully award to them the highest meed of honour, — let us not load with heavy censure, or even deprive of all praise, such as, less enlightened, or less courageous, were tg-rdy in ap- pearing for the cause. He who " knew what is in man," has taught us not to reject such disciples, in the dawn of light, and in perilous times. Nicodemus, who at first " came to Jesus by night," and Joseph of Arimathea, who was his disciple, " but secretly, for fear of the Jews," afterwards avouched their faith in him, and obtained the honour of embalming and interring his body, when all his early followers had forsaken him and fled. Several of the Scottish clergy, who were favourable to the Protestant doctrine, had contrived to retain their places in France and England, and of the motives which influenced both courts in their conduct towards Scotland, may consult the letters published by For- bes and llaynes, particularly those written from November 1559 to July 1560. * Buchanani Oper. i. 313. Knox, 229—234. Spotswood, pp. 147—9. Keith, pp. 130 — 145, 200 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. the Church, by concealing their sentiments, or by securing the favour of some powerful patron. Of this class were John Win- ram, subprior of the abbey of St Andrews, Adam Herriot, a friar of that abbey, John Spottiswood, parson of Calder, and John Carswell, rector of Kilmartine. In the gradual diffusion of knowledge through the nation, the minds of many who were attending the schools had been also enlightened ; among whom were David Lindsay, Andrew Hay, Robert Montgomery, Patrick Adamson, and Robert and Archibald Hamilton. Dur- ing the year 1559, these men came forward as auxiliaries to the first Protestant preachers ; and so successful were they in instructing the people, that the French would have found it ex- tremely difficult to support the ancient superstition, though they had proved victorious in the military contest. On the other hand, the exeriions of the Popish clergy had been feeble in the extreme. Too corrupt to think of reforming their manners, too illiterate to be capable of defending their errors, they placed their forlorn hope on the success of the French arms, and looked forward to the issue of the war as in- volving the establishment or the ruin of their religion. The Bishop of Amiens, who came to Scotland in the double capac- ity of ambassador from the French court and papal legate, was accompanied by three doctors of the Sorbonnc, who gave out that they would confound the reformed ministers, and bring back the people whom they had misled, to the bosom of the Church, by the force of argument and persuasion. Lesley boasts of the success which attended their exertions ; but there is good reason for thinking, that these foreign divines confined themselves to the easier task of instructing the Scottish clergy to perform the religious service with greater solemnity, and to purify the churches, in a canonical manner, from the pollution which they had contracted by the profane worship of heretics. * One effort, however, was made by the Popish clergy to support their sinking cause, which, if it had succeeded, would have done more to retrieve their reputation than all the arguments of the Sorbonnists ; and, as this was the last attempt of the kind that ever was made hi Scotland, the reader may be gratified with the following account of it : — In the neighbourhood of Musselburgh was a chapel dedica- ted to our Lady of Loretto, the sanctity of which was increased from its having been the favourite abode of the celebrated Thomas the Hermit. To this sacred place the inhabitants of Scotland, from time immemorial, had repaired in pilgrimage, to present their offerings to the Virgin, and to experience the * Lesley, pp. 516—7. Spotswood, 133—4. Keith, 102. Sadler says, that the Bishop of Amiens came to " curse, and also to dispute with the Protestants, and to reconcile them, if it wolbe." State Papers, i. 470. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 201 efficacy of her prayers, and the healing virtue of the wonder- working" Hermit of Lareit." * In the course of the year 1559 public notice was given by the friars, that they intended to put the truth of their religion to the proof, by performing a miracle at this chapel upon a young man who had been born blind. On the day appointed, a vast concourse of spectators assembled from all parts of Lothian. The young man, accompanied with a solemn procession of monks, was conducted to a scaffold erected on the outside of the chapel, and was exhibited to the multitude. Many of them knew him to be the blind man whom they had often seen begging, and whose necessities they had relieved; all looked on him, and pronounced him stone blind. The friars then proceeded to their devotions with great fervency, invoking the assistance of the Virgin, at whose shrine they stood, and that of all the saints whom they honoured ; and after some time spent in prayers and religious ceremonies, the blind man opened his eyes, to the astonishment of the specta- tors. Having returned thanks to the friars and their saintly patrons for this wonderful cure, he was allowed to go down from the scaffold to gratify the curiosity of the people, and to receive their alms. It happened that there was among the crowd a gentleman of Fife, Robert Colville of Cleish,t who, from his romantic bra- very, was usually called Squire Meld rum, in allusion to a per- son of that name who had been celebrated by Sir David Lind- say. He was of Protestant principles, but his wife was a Ro- man Catholic, and, being pregnant at this time, had sent a ser- vant with a present to the chapel of Loretto, to procure the assistance of the Virgin in her labour. The squire was too gallant to hurt his lady's feelings by prohibiting the present from being sent off, but he resolved to prevent the superstitious offering, and with that view had come to Musselburgh. He witnessed the miracle of curing the blind man with the distrust natural to a Protestant, and determined, if possible, to detect the imposition before he left the place. Wherefore, ha.ving sought out the young man from the crowd, he put a piece of money into his hand, and persuaded him to accompany him to his lodgings in Edinburgh. Taking him into a private room, and locking the door, he told him plainly that he was convinced he had engaged in a wicked conspiracy with the friars to impose on the credulity of the people, and at last drew from him the secret * The Earl of Glencairn's satirical poem against the friars is written in the form of an epistle from this hermit. Knox, Historie, p. 25. f He was the ancestor of Lord Colville of Ochiltree (Douglas's Peerage, L147), and was killed at the siege of Leith, on the 7th of May 15(i0. ox, Historie, p. 227. A2 202 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. of the story. When a boy, he had been employed to tend the cattle belonging to the nuns of Sciennes, in the vicinity of Edin- burgh, and had attracted their attention by a peculiar faculty which he had of turning up the white of his eyes, and of keep ing them in this position, so as to appear quite blind. Certain friars in the city, having come to the knowledge of this fact, con- ceived the design of making it subservient to their purposes ; and having prevailed on the sisters of Sciennes to part with the poor boy, lodged him in one of their cells. By daily practice he became an adept in the art of counterfeiting blindness ; and after he had remained so long in concealment as not to be re- cognised by his former acquaintance, he was sent forth to beg as a blind pauper ; the friars having previously bound him, by a solemn vow, not to reveal the secret. To confirm his narra- tive, he " played his pavie" before the squire, by " flypping up the lid of his eyes, and casting up the white," so as to appear as blind as he did on tiie scaffold at Loretto. The gentleman laid before him the iniquity of his conduct, and told him that he must next day repeat the whole story publicly at the cross of Edinburgh ; and, as this would expose him to the vengeance of the friars, he engaged to become his protector, and to retain him as a servant in his house. The young man complied with his directions, and Cleish, with his drawn sword in his hand, having stood by him till he had finished his confession, placed him on the same horse with himself, and carried him off to Fife. The detection of this imposture was quickly published through the country, and covered the friars with confusion. My author does not say whether it cured Lady Cleish of her superstition, but I shall afterwards have occasion to notice its influence in opening the eyes of one who became a distinguish- ed promoter of the Reformation.* The treaty which put an end to the civil war in Scotland, made no particular settlement respecting the religious differ- ences,t but it was on that very account, the more fatal to Popery. The Protestants were left in the possession of authority ; and they were now by far the most powerful party in the nation, * Row's MS. Historie of tlie Kirk, p. 356, transcribed in 1726. An ac- count of this pretended miracle and its detection, probably taken from the above MS., will be found in the Weekly Magazine for June 1772. t The English ambassadors, in a letter to Elizabeth, say : — " Two things have bene tow hott (too hot) for the French too meddle withal ; and there- fore they be passed, and left as they found them. The first is the matter of religion, which is here as freely, and rather more earnestly (as I, the secre- tary, thynk,) receaved than in England : a hard thyng now to alter as it is planted." llayncs, p. 352. Dr. Wotton, dean of Windsor, and secretary Cecil, are the subscribers of this letter; but as it would have been rather too much for the dean to say that religion was " more earnestly received" in Scotland than in England, the secretary alone vouches for that fact. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 203 both as to rank and numbers. With the exception of those places which had been occupied by the queen regent and her foreign auxiUaries, the Roman CatlioUc worship was ahnost universally deserted throughout the kingdom, and no provision was made in the treaty for its restoration. The firm hold which it once had on the opinions and aftections of the people was completely loosened ; it was supported by force alone ; and the moment that the French troops embarked, that fabric which had stood for ages in Scotland fell to the ground. Its feeble and dismayed priests ceased of their own accord from the celebra- tion of its rites ; and the reformed service was peaceably set up, wherever ministers could be found to perform it. The par- liament, when it entered upon the consideration of the state of religion, as one of the points undecided by the commissioners, which had been left to them,* had little else to do but to sanc- tion what the nation had previously done, by legally abolish- ing the Popish, and establishing the Protestant religion. When the circumstances in which they were assembled, and the affairs on which they were called to deliberate, are taken in- to consideration, this must be regarded as the most important meeting of the estates of the kingdom that had ever been held in Scotland. It engrossed the attention of the nation, and the eyes of Europe were fixed on its proceedings. The parliament met on the 10th of July, but, agreeably to the terms of the trea- ty, it was prorogued, without entering on business, until the first day of August. Although a great concourse of people resorted to Edinburgh on that occasion, yet no tumult or disturbance of the public peace occurred. Many of the lords spiritual and temporal, who were attached to Popery, absented themselves ; but the chief patrons of the old religion, as the Archbishop of St. Andrews, and the Bishops of Dumblane and Dunkeld, coun- tenanced the assembly by their presence, and were allowed to act with freedom as lords of parliament. There is one fact in its constitution and proceedings which strikingly illustrates the influence of the Reformation upon political liberty. In the reign of James I. the lesser barons had been exempted from personal attendance on parliament, and permitted to elect re- presentatives in their diff'erent shires. But a privilege which, in modern times, is so eagerly coveted, was then so little prized, that, except in a few instances no representatives from the shires had appeared in parliament, t and the lesser barons had almost * By one of the articles of the treaty, the parliament, after agreeing upon such things as they thought necessary for the reformation of religion, were to send deputies into France to represent them to their Majesties. Knox, Historie, p. 284. Spotswood, p. 149. t Robertson's History of Scotland, p. i. Keith, pp. 147 — 8. 204 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. forfeited their right by neglecting to exercise it. At this time, however, they assembled at Edinburgh, and agreed upon a pe- tition to the parliament, claiming to be restored to their ancient privilege. The petition was granted, and, in consequence of this, about a hundred gentlemen took their seats.* The business of religion was introduced by a petition pre- sented by a number of Protestants of different ranks, in which, after rehearsing their former endeavours to procure the removal of the corruptions which had affected the Church, they reques- ted parliament to use the power which Providence had now put into their hands for effecting this great and urgent work. They craved three things in general, — that the antichristian doctrine maintained in the Popish Church should be discarded ; that means should be used to restore purity of worship, and primi- tive 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. They de- clared, that they were ready to substantiate the justice of all their demands, and, in particular, to prove, that those who ar- rogated to themselves the name of clergy were destitute of all right to be accounted ministers of religion ; and that, from the tyranny which they had exercised, and their vassalage to the court of Rome, they could not be safely tolerated, and far less intrusted with power, in a reformed commonwealth, t In answer to the first demand, the parliament required the reformed ministers to lay before them a summary of doctrine which they could prove to be consonant with the Scriptures, and which they desired to have established. The ministers were not unprepared for this task ; and, in the course of four days, they presented a Confession of Faith, as the product of their joint labours, and an expression of their unanimous judgment. It agreed with the confessions which had been published by other reformed churches. Professing belief in the common articles of Christianity respecting the divine nature, the trinity, the creation of the world, the origin of evil, and the per- son of the Saviour, which were retained by the Church of Rome, in opposition to the errors broached by ancient heretics, it condenmed not only the idolatrous and superstitious tenets of that Church, but also its gross depravation of the doctrine of Scripture respecting the state of fallen man, and the method of * Act. Pari. Scot. ii. 525—6. Keith, 146—7. Robertson, i. Append. No. iv. In the list of members in this parliament, the names of the lesser barons, or gentlemen of the shires, are inserted after those of the commissioners of borouifhs; the roll having been made up previous to the admission of the former. t Knox, Historie, pp. 237—8. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 205 his recovery. It declared, that by " original sin was the image of God defacit in man, and he and his posteritie of nature be- come enemies to God, slaifis to Sathan, and seruandis of sin ;" that " all our saluatioun springs fra the eternal 1 and immutabill decree of God, wha of meir grace electit us in Christ Jesus, his Sone, befbre the foundatione of the warld was laid ;" that it be- hoves us " to apprehend Christ Jesus, with his justice and satis- factioun, wha is the end and accomplischement of the law, by whome we are set at this libertie, that the curse and maledic- tioun of God fall not upon us ;" that " as God the Father creatit us whan we war not, and his Sone our Lord Jesus redemit us whan we were enemies to him, sa alswa the Haly Gaist dois sanctifie and regenerat us, without all respect of ony merite pro- ceeding fra us, be it befoir, or be it efter our regeneration, — to speik this ane thing yit in mair plaine wordis, as we willinglie spoyle ourselfis of all honour and gloir of our awin creatiouu and redemptioun, sa do we alswa of our regeneratioun and sanctificatioun, for of our selfis we ar not sufficient to think ane gude thocht, bot he wha lies begun the work in us is onlie he that continewis us in the same, to the praise and glorie of his undeservit grace ;" and, in fine, it declared, that although good works proceed " not from our fre-wil, but the Spirit of the Lord Jesus," and although those that boast of the merit of their own works, "hoist themselfis of that whilk is nocht," yet "blas- phemie it is to say, that Christ abydis in the hartis of sic as in whome thair is no spirite of sanctificatioun ; and all wirkers of iniquitie have nouther trew faith, nouther ony portioun of the Spirite of the Lord Jesus, sa lang as obstinatlie they continew in thair wickitnes." * 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 pre- tend that an undue advantage 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 subject, and, previous to the vote, the Confession was again read, arti- cle by article, t The Earl of Athole, and Lords Somerville and Borthwick, were the only persons of the temporal estate who * Act. Par]. Scot. ii. 526—534. Knox, Historie, pp. 240—253. Dun- lop's Confessions, ii. 21 — 98. f In Knox's Historie, " the 17th day of July^^ is printed, by mistake, instead of the 17th of August. Act. Pari. Scot. ii. 534. 18 206 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. voted in the negative, assigning this as their reason, " We will beleve as our forefatheris belevit." * " The bischopis spak nothin"-." t After the vote establishing the Confession 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 protested, that if any of the ecclesiastical estate should afterwards oppose the doctrine which had just been re- ceived, they should be entitled to no credit ; seeing, after full knowledge of it, and ample time for deliberation, they had allowed it to pass without the smallest opposition or contradic- tion, t On the 24th of August, the parliament abolished the papal jurisdiction, prohibited, under certain penalties, the cele- bration of mass, and rescinded all the laws formerly made in support of the Roman Catholic Church, and against the re- formed faith. § Thus did the reformed religion advance in Scotland, from small beginnings, and amidst great opposition, until it attained a parliamentary establishment. Besides the influence of Hea- ven secretly accompanying the labours of the preachers and confessors of the truth, the serious and inquisitive reader will trace the wise arrangements of Providence in that concatenation of events which contributed to its rise, preservation, and in- crease,— by overruling the caprice, the ambition, the avarice, and the interested policy of princes and cabinets, many of whom had nothing less in view than to favour that cause which they were so instrumental in promoting. The breach of Henry VHI. of England with the Roman see, awakened the attention of the inhabitants of the northern part of the island to a controversy which had formerly been carried on at too great a distance to interest them, and led not a few to desire a reformation more improved than the model which that monarch had held out to them. The premature death of James V. of Scotland saved the Protestants from destruction. During the short period in which they received the countenance of ci- vil authority, at the commencement of Arran's administration, the seeds of the reformed doctrine were so widely spread, and took such deep root, as to be able to resist the violent mea- sures which the regent, after his recantation, employed to extir- pate them. Those who were driven from the country by per- * Knox, Historic, p. 253. I Keith is at a great loss to account for, and excuse the silence of the Po])ish clergy ; (to whom he is uniformly partial ;) and he found liimself obliged to retract one apology which he had made for tliem, namely, that they were dcternd from speaking by the threatenings of their opponents. HistoTj , pp. 149, 150, comp. 488, note (a) I Knox, Historie, p, 253. 5 Act Pari, Scot. ii. 534 — 5. Knox, Historie, pp. 254 — 5. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 207 sedition found an asylum in England, under the decidedly Pro- testant government of Edward VI. After his death, the alli- ance of England with Spain, and of Scotland with France, the two great contending powers on the continent, prevented that concert between the two courts which might have proved fatal to the Protestant religion in Britain. While the cruelties of the English queen drove Protestant preachers into Scotland, the political schemes of the queen regent induced her to favour them, and to connive at the propagation of their opinions. At the critical moment when the latter had accomplished her favourite designs, and was preparing to crush the Reformation, Elizabeth ascended the throne of England, and was induced, by political no less than religious considerations, to support the Scottish reformers. The French court was no less bent on sup- pressing them, and, having lately concluded peace with Spain, was left at liberty to direct its undivided attention to the accomplishment of that object ; but at this critical moment, those intestine dissensions, which continued so long to desolate France, broke out, and forced its ministers to accede to that treaty, which put an end to French influence, and the papal re- ligion, in Scotland. 208 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX PERIOD VII. FROM AUGUST 1560, WHEN KNOX WAS SETTLED AS MINISTER OF EDINBURGH, AT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REFORMATION, TO DECEMBER 1563, WHEN HE WAS ACQUITTED FROM A CHARGE OF TREASON. In appointing the Protestant ministers to particular stations, a measure which engaged the attention of the privy council immediately after the conclusion of the civil war, the tempor- ary arrangements that had been formerly made were in general confirmed, and our Reformer resumed his charge as minister of Edinburgh.* For several months he had officiated as minister of St, Andrews;! but ui the end of April 1560, he left that place, and returned to the capital,:]: where he preached during the siege of Leith, and the negotiations which issued in a peace. Although the parliament had abolished the papal jurisdiction and worship, and ratified the Protestant doctrine, as laid down in the Confession of Faith, the Reformed Church was not yet completely organized in Scotland. Hitherto the Book of Com- mon Order, used by the English Church at Geneva, had been generally followed as the rule of public worship and discipline. But this having been compiled for a single congregation, and for one that consisted chiefly of men of education, was found inadequate for the use of an extensive Church, composed of a multitude of confederate congregations. Our reformers were anxious to provide the means of religious instruction to the whole people in the kingdom ; but they were very far from ap- proving of the promiscuous admission of persons of all descrip- ' tions to the peculiar privileges of the Church of Christ. From the beginning, they were sensible of the great importance of ecclesiastical discipline, to the prosperity of religion, the main- * Knox, Historie, p. 230. f " Ult. Mart. 1560. Margaret Aidnam askit God and the congreo^atioun forgiveness of tlie adultery committed be licr \vt William Rantoun, publiclie in the paroche kirke of this town: John Knox beand at that tyme minister." Records of the kirk Session of St. Andrews. \ Records of Town-council of Edinburgh, May 8. 1560. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 209 tenance of order, and the preservation of sound doctrine and morals. In the petition presented to parliament in August, the establishment of this was specially requested.* And Knox, who had observed the great advantages which attended the ob- servance of a strict discipline at Geneva, and the manifold evils which resulted from the want of it in England, insisted very particularly on this topic, in the discourses which he delivered from the book of Haggai during the sitting of parliament.! The difficulties which the reformed ministers had to surmount, before they could accomplish this important object, began to present themselves at this early stage of their progress. When it is considered, that Calvin was subjected to a sentence of ban- ishment from the senate of Geneva, and exposed to a popular tumult before he could prevail on the citizens to submit to ec- clesiastical discipline,! we need not be surprised at the opposition which our reformers met with in their endeavours to introduce it into Scotland. Knox's warm exhortations on this head were at first disregarded ; he had the mortification to find his plan of Church polity derided as a " devout imagination," by some of the professors of the reformed doctrine,§ — and the parlia- ment dissolved without coming to any decision on this impor- tant point. As the ministers, however, continued to urge the subject, and the reasonableness of their demands could not be denied, the privy council, soon after the dissolution of the parliament, gave a commission to Knox, and four other ministers, who had former- ly been employed along with him in composing the Confession, to draw up a plan of ecclesiastical government. || They imme- diately set about this task, with a diligence and care propor- * Knox, Historie, p. 238. t Ibid. p. 237 I Beza, Vita Calvini. Melch. Adami Vits Exter. Theolog. pp. 70, 88. Persons unfriendly to the government of the reformed churches, have re- presented the opposition made to Cah'in and his brethren, as arisinsf from their attempts to have their discipline established by human laws, and sup- ported by civil penalties. This is an unfair representation of the case. " Neque enim consentaneum est," says Calvin, " ut qui monitionibus nostris obtemperare voluerint, eos ad magistratum deferamus." Institut. Christ. Relig. p. 434. Ludg. Batav. 16.54. The dispute between liim and his op- ponents turned on this question. Are ministers obliged to administer the sac- raments to those whom they judge unworthy ? Or, (which amounts to the same thing,) Are the decisions of the church court in such matters to be reviewed and reversed by the civil court 1 Melch. Adam, tit supra. And this will be found to have been tlie true state of the question in Scotland, in the greater part of the dissensions between the Court and the Church, after the establishment of the Reformation. 5 Knox, Historie, pp. 237, 256. II The names of the ministers who composed the Confession of Faith, and the Book of Discipline, were John Winram, John Spotswood, John Douglas, John Row, and John Knox. Ibid. p. 256 18* B2 210 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. tioned to their convictions of its importance. They " took not their example," says Row, "from any kirk in the world, no, not from Geneva ; but drew their plan from the Sacred Scrip- tm-es." Having arranged the subject under different heads, they divided these among them ; and, after they had finished their several parts, they met together and examined them with great attention, spending much time in reading and meditation on the subject, and in earnest prayers for divine direction. When they had drawn up the whole in form, they laid it before the General Assembly, by whom it was approved, after they had caused some of its articles to be abridged.* It was also submitted to the privy council ; but, although many of the members highly approved of the plan, it was warmh^ opposed by others. This opposition did not arise from any difference of sentiment between them and the ministers respecting eccles- iastical government, but partly from aversion to the strict dis- cipline which it appohited to be exercised against vice, and part- ly from reluctance to comply with its requisition for the appro- priation of the revenues of the Popish Church to the support of the new religious and literary establishments. Though not formally ratified by the council, it was, however, subscribed by the greater part of the members ;t and as the sources of preju- dice against it were well known, it was submitted to by the na- tion, and carried into effect in most of its ecclesiastical regula- tions. J It is known in history by the name of the Book of Policy, or First Book of Discipline. Considering the activity of Knox in constructing and recom- mending this platform, and the importance of th3 subject in itself, it cannot be foreign to our object to take a view of the form and order of the Protestant Church of Scotland, as delm- * Row, MS. Historic of the Kirk, pp. 12, 16, 17. It is probable that the meeting of Assembly by which the Book of Discipline was approved, was that which Knox calls a Convention, held on the 5th of January 1.561. His- torie, pp. 201, 295. The first General Assembly appointed a meeting to be held at that time. Bulk of the Universall Kirk, p. 'S. MS. in Advocates' Library. But there is no account of its proceedings in that or in any other register which I liave had access to see. In the copy of the First Book of Discipline, published (by Calderwood, I believe) in 1(121, pp. 23, 70 : and in Dunlop's Confessions, vol. ii. pp. 517,605, it is said that the order for com- piling it was given on the 29th of April 15(i0, and that it was finished by them on the 20th of May following. But, as the civil war was not then con- cluded, I have followed the account given by Knox, who says, that it was undertaken subsequently to the meeting of parliament in x'Vugust that year. Historie, p. 256. ■f In Dunlop's Collect, of Confessions, ii. 436, the approbation of it is styled "an act of secret council, 25th January 1560," i. e. 1561. X Knox, Historie, pp. 256, 257, 295, 296. Keith, 496, 497. Dunlop, ii. 608—608. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 211 eated in the Book of Discipline, and in other authentic docu- ments of that period. The ordinary and permanent office-bearers of the Church were of four kinds : the minister, or pastor, to whom the preach- ing of the gospel and administration of the sacraments belong- ed ; the doctor, or teacher, whose province it was to interpret Scripture and confute errors (including those who taught theol- ogy in schools and universities ;) the ruling elder who assisted the minister in exercising ecclesiastical discipline and govern- ment ; 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 suf- ficient number of ministers to supply the different parts of the country, that the people might not be left altogether destitute of public worship and instruction, 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 employ- ed to relieve the ministers from 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 exhorters ; 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 supplying the principal towns, to assign to the rest the superintendence of a large district, over which they were appohited regularly to travel, for the purpose of preaching, of planting churches, and inspecting the conduct of ministers, exhorters, and readers. These were called superintendents. The number originally proposed was ten ; but, owing to the scarcity of proper persons, or rather to the want of necessary funds, there were never more than five appointed.* The defi- ciency 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 * The General Assembly had, at difFerent times, under their consideration, the appointment of superintendents for Jedburgh, Dumfries, Aberdeen, and Banff, but came to no conclusion. Those actually appointed were, John Erskine of Dun, for Angus ; John Winram, for Fife ; John Spotswood, for Lothian; John Willock, for Glasgow; and John Carswell, for Argyle. Keith's Hist. pp. .511, 512, 518 — 9. Carswell is not mentioned among the superintendents in a curious document recently printed : but it contains no list of the Ministers in Argyle. Register of Ministers, Exhorters, and Rea- ders, and of their Stipends, after the period of the Reformation, pp. 1, 2. Ed- inburgh, 1830. 212 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. invested with the pastoral office in the way of being freely elected by the people,* examined by the ministers, and public- ly admitted in the presence of the congregation. On the day of admission, the- minister who presided, after preaching a ser- mon 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 ; t and the service was concluded with an exhortation, the singing of a psalm, and the pronouncing of the blessing. Superintendents were admitted in the same way as other ministers. t The aifairs 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 converted into the presbytery, or classical assembly. The superintendent met with the minis- ters, and delegated elders of his district twice a-year in the pro- vincial synod, which took cognizance of ecclesiastical afiairs within its bounds. And the General Assembly, which was composed of ministers and elders commissioned from the differ- ent parts of the kingdom, met twice, sometimes thrice, in a year, and attended to the interests of the national Church. Public worship was conducted according to the Book of Com- mon Order, with a few variations adapted to the state of Scot- land. On Sabbath-days, the people assembled twice for public worship ; and to promote the instruction of the ignorant, cate- chising was substituted for preaching in the afternoon. In towns, a sermon was regularly preached on one day of the week besides Sabbath ; and on almost every day, the people had an opportunity 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 Sup- per was administered four times a-year in towns, and tliere were ordinarily two " ministrations," one at an early hour of the morning, and another later in the day. The sign of the * Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 524, 526, 545, 577, 638, 639. t Dunlop, ii. -^26. Imposition of liands was afterwards appointed to be used by the Second Book of Discipline. Ibid. 768 — 9. I Knox, Historic, pp. 26y — 26S. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 213 cross in baptizing, and kneeling at the Lord's table, were con- demned and laid aside ; and anniversary holidays were wholly abolished. * We shall afterwards have occasion to advert to the discipline under which offenders were brought. The compilers of the First Book of Discipline paid particular attention to the state of education. 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 logic 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 an- cient republics, in which the youth were considered as the pro- perty of the public rather than of their parents, by obliging the nobility and gentry to educate their children, 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. t If these were not reduced to practice, the blame cannot be imputed to the reformed minis- ters, but to the nobility and gentry, whose avarice defeated the execution of their plans. To carry these important measures into effect, permanent funds were requisite ; and for these it was natural to look to the patrimony of the Church. 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 in- cumbents during life, it was unreasonable that they should con- tinue to enjoy those emoluments which were attached to offices for which they had been found totally unfit. No successors 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 benefices. 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 in- cluded the ministry, the schools, and the poor. For the minis- ters 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, Avith a reasonable sum of money, to purchase other necessary * For an illustration of some of those facts, see Note NN. t First Book of Discipline, chap. vii. Dunlop, ii. 547 — 561. 214 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. articles of provision for his family, was an adequate stipend for a minister. To enable superintendents to defray the extraordi- nary expenses of travelling in the discharge of their duty, six chalders of bear, 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 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 ascertain 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 re- ligious foundations, were to be divided, and appropriated 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 reve- nues of the Popish clergy. Some of them had seized upon 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 bargains legalized. Hence their aversion to have the Book of Discipline ratified ; * hence the poverty and the complaints of the minis- ters, and the languishing state of the universities. The Swiss Reformer, by his eloquence and his firmness, enabled his coun- trymen 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 the whole revenues of the Po- pish establishment to the support of the Protestant Church and seminaries of literature, t 13ut it was not so easy a matter to * Knox mentions Lord Erskine (afterwards Earl of Mar) as one of the chief noblemen who reftised to subscribe the Discipline, and assigns two rea- sons for his refusal : first, "he has a very Jesabell to his wife ;" and, second, " if tlie pure, the senilis, and the ministry of the kirk, had thair awin, his kitcheing wald want twa partes and mair of that quhilk he now unjustly possesses." Historic, p. 256. My Lady Mar's passion for money was well known at that time, and is referred to in Lord Thirlstune's " Admonitioun to my Lord of Mar Regent," published in Ancient Scottish Poems from Mait- land MS. p. 164. Lond. 178B :— " Nor, to content thy marrow's covatice. Put not thyself in perrell for to pereis." t Hess, Life of Zuingle, pp. 201—207. Gerdes. i. 309. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 215 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 establishments propos- ed by our reformers, including the support of the ministry, of parochial schools, of city colleges, and of national universities, we caimot regard the demand which they made on the funds devoted to the Church as extravagant or unreasonable. They shewed themselves disinterested by the moderate share which they asked for themselves ; and the least that we can say of their plan is, that it was worthy of a more enlightened and lib- eral age, in which it might have met with rulers more capable of appreciathig its utility, and better disposed to carry it into execution.* It is peculiarly pleasing to observe the restoration of religion and of letters going hand in hand, in our native country. Everywhere, indeed, the Reformation had the most powerful intluence, direct and remote, on the general promotion of litera- ture. It aroused the human mind from the lethargy in which it had slumbered for ages, released it from the fetters of implicit faith and blind obedience to human authority, and stimulated it to the exertion of its powers in the search of truth. It induced the learned to study with care the original languages in which the sacred books were written ; and it diffused knowledge among the illiterate, by laying open the Scriptures, and calling upon all to examine them for themselves. The unintelhgible jargon which had long infested the schools began to be discard- ed. Controversies were now decided by appeals to Scripture and to common sense ; and the disputes which were eagerly maintained led to the improvement of the art of reasoning, and a more rational method of communicating knowledge. Super- stition and credulity being undermined, the spirit of inquiry was soon directed to the discovery of the true laws of nature, as well as the genuine doctrines of revelation. In the south of Europe, the revival of letters preceded the reformation of religion, and materially facilitated its progress. In the north, this order was reversed ; and Scotland, in par- ticular, must date the origin of her literary acquirements from the first introduction of the Protestant opinions. As the one gained ground, the other was brought forward. We have al- ready seen that the Greek language began to be studied almost as soon as the light of Reformation dawned upon this country ; and I have now to state, that the first school for teaching the Hebrew language in Scotland was opened immediately after the establishment of the Protestant Chvu'ch. Hebrew was one of the branches of education appointed by the Book of Disci- * See Note 00. 216 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. pline to be taught in the reformed seminaries, and Providence had furnished a person who was well qualified for that task, which those who filled the chairs in our universities were totally unfit to undertake. The person to whom I refer was John Row. After finishing his education at St Andrews, and practising for some time as an advocate before the consistorial court there, he left the country about the year 1550, with the view of prosecuting his studies to greater advantage on the Continent. Within a short time he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from two Italian uni- versities. He did not, however, confine himself to one branch of study ; but, improving the opportunity which he enjoyed, made himself master of the Greek and Hebrew languages. His reputation as a lawyer being high, the Scottish clergy em- ployed him as agent to manage some of their causes before the court of Rome. This introduced him to the friendship of Guido Ascanio Sforza, Cardinal of Sancta Flora, and to the acquaint- ance of two sovereign pontiffs, Julius HI. and Paul IV. Had he remained in Italy, it is highly probable that he would soon have attained to honourable preferment in the Church: but having lost his health, he determined, in 1558, to return to his native country. The reigning pope had heard, with deep con- cern, of the progress which the new opinions were making in Scotland, and, as he had great confidence in Row's talents, ap- pointed him his nuncio, with instructions to use his utmost ex- ertions to oppose them. When he came home, he endeavoured for some time to discharge his commission ; but despairing of success, and foreseeing the confusions in which the country was about to be involved, he resolved on returning to Italy. From this resolution he was diverted by the prior of St. Andrews, who admired his learning, and conceived good hopes of his conversion, from the candour which he displayed in the man- agement of religious controversy. His constancy was soon after shaken by the discovery of the imposture which the clergy attempted to practise at Musselburgh; * and, having held several conferences with Knox, he became a complete convert to the Protestant faith. Upon the establishment of the Refor- mation, he was admitted minister of Perth, and, at the recom- mendation of his brethren, began to give lessons in the He- brew language to young men who were placed under his tuition, t The interests of literature in Scotland were not a little pro- moted at this time by the return of Buchanan to his native country. That accomplished scholar, since his flight in 153S, * See above, p. 201. t Row's MS. Historie, ut sup. pp. 308, 356, 372. See also Note PP. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 217 had visited the most celebrated seminaries on the Continent, greatly improved his stock of learning, and given ample proof of those talents which, in the opinion of posterity as well as of his contemporaries, have placed him indisputably at the head of modern Latin poets. The reception which he obtained from his countrymen evinced that they were not incapable of esti- mating his merits ; and the satisfaction with which he spent the remainder of his life among them, after he had enjoyed the society of the most learned men in Europe, is a sufficient proof that they had already made no inconsiderable advances in the acquisition of polite literature.* We are apt to form false and exaggerated notions of the rudeness of our ancestors. Scotland was, indeed, at that period, as she is still at the present day, behind many of the southern countries in the cultivation of some of the fine arts, and she was a stranger to that refinement of manners which has oftener been a concealment to vice than an ornament to virtue. But that her inhabitants were " men unacquainted with the pleasures of conversation, ignorant of arts and civility, and corrupted beyond their usual rusticity by a dismal fanaticism, which rendered them incapable of all humanity or improvement," t is an asser- tion which argues either inexcusable ignorance or deplorable prejudice. Will this character apply to such men as Buchanan, Knox, Row, Willock, Balnaves, Erskine, Maitland, Glencairn, and James Stewart, not to name many others ; men who ex- celled in their respective ranks and professions, who had received a liberal education, travelled into foreign countries, conversed with the best company, and, in addition to their acquaintance with ancient learning, could speak the most polite languages of modern Europe ? Perhaps some of our literati, who entertain such a diminutive idea of tire taste and learning of those times, might have been taken by surprise, had they been set down at the table of one of our Scottish reformers, surrounded by a circle of his children and pupils, Avhere the conversation was all car- ried on in French, and the chapter of the Bible, at family wor- ship, was read by the boys in French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Perhaps they might have blushed, if the book had been put into their hands, and they had been required to perform a part of the exercises. Such, however, was the common practice in the house of John Row.j Nor was the improvement of our native tongue neglected at that time. David Ferguson, minister of Dunfermline, was celebrated for his attention to this branch of composition. He had not enjoyed the advantage of a univcr- * See Note QQ. t Hume, History of England, vol. v. chap. 38, p. 51. Lond. 1807. t Row's MS. p. 372. 19 C2 218 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. sity education, but, possessing a good taste and lively fancy, was very successful in refining and enriching the Scottish lan- guage, by his discourses and writings.* The first meeting of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was lield at Edinburgh on the 20th of December 1 560. It consisted of forty members, only six of whom were ministers.! Knox was one of these ; and he continued to sit in most of the meetings of that judicatory until the time of his death. Its deliberations were conducted at first with great simplicity and unanimity. It is a singular circumstance that there were seven ditferent meetings of Assembly without a moderator or presi- dent. But as the number of members increased, and business became more complicated, a moderator was appointed to be chosen at every meeting ; and he was invested with authority to maintain order. The first person who occupied that place was John Willock, superintendent of Glasgow and the West. Regulations were also enacted concerning the constituent mem- bers of the court, the causes which ought to come before them, and the mode, of procedure. J In the close of this year, our Reformer suffered a heavy domestic loss, by the death of his valuable wife, who, after sharing the hardships of exile along with her husband, was removed from him just when he had obtained a comfortable settlement for his family.§ He was left with the charge of two young children, in addition to his other cares. His mother-in- law was still with him ; but though he took pleasure in her religious conversation, the dejection of mind to which she was subject, and which all his efforts could never completely cure, rather increased than lightened his burden. || His acute feel- mgs were severely wounded by this stroke ; but he endeavoured to moderate his grief by the consolations which he administered to others, and by application to public duty. He had the satis- faction of receiving, on this occasion, a letter from his much respected friend Calvin, in which expressions of great esteem for his deceased partner were mingled with condolence for his loss.1" * See Note RR. t Bulk of the Universal Kirk, p. 2. MS. Adv. Lib. Keith, 498. \ See Note SS. 5 Knox's Historie, p. 260. II Preface to a Letter, added to An Answer to a Letter of a Jesuit, named Tyrie, be Johne Knox. — Sanctandrois — Anno Do. 1572. IF Calvini Epistote, p. L'lO. Oper. torn. ix. " Viduitas tiia mihi, ut debet, tristis et acerba est. Uxorcin nactiis eras cui non repcriuntur passim similes," &c. In a letter to Christopher Goodman, written at the same time, Calvin says, " Fratrem nostrum Knoxum, etsi non parum dolco suavissima iixore fuisse privatum, ijuadeo tamcn ejus morto non ita fuisse atflictum, quin strenue operam suam Christo ot ecclesiie impcndat." Ibid. Calvin had lost his own wife in 1519. Epistolce et Responsa, p. 212 — 3, 225, Hanov. 1597. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 219 I may take this opportunity of mentioning, that Knox, with the consent of his brethren, consulted the Genevan reformer upon several difficult questions which occurred respecting the settlement of the Scottish Reformation, and that a number of letters passed between them on this subject.* Anxieties on a public account were felt by Knox along with domestic distress. The Reformation had hitherto advanced with a success equal to his most sanguine expectations ; and, at this time, no opposition was publicly made to the new estab- lishment. But matters tvere still in a very critical state. There were a party in the nation, by no means inconsiderable in num- bers and power, who remained addicted to Popery ; and, though they had given way to the torrent, they anxiously waited for an opportunity to embroil the country in another civil war, for the restoration of the ancient religion. Queen Mary, and her husband, the King of France, had refused to ratify the late treaty and dismissed the deputy sent by the parliament, with marks of the highest displeasure at the innovations which they had presumed to introduce. A new army was preparing in France for the invasion of Scotland against the spring ; emis- saries were sent, in the mean time, to encourage and unite the Roman Catholics ; and it was doubtful if the Queen of England would subject herself to new expense and odium, by protecting them from a second attack. t The danger was not unperceived by our Reformer, who laboured to impress the minds of his countrymen with its mag- nitude, and to excite them speedily to complete the settlement of religion throughout the kingdom, which, he was persuaded, would prove the principal bulwark against the assaults of their adversaries. His admonitions were now listened to with atten- tion by many who had formerly treated them with indifference. + The threatened storm, however, blew over, in consequence of the death of the French king ; but this necessarily led to a mea- sure which involved the Scottish Protestants in a new struggle, and exposed the Reformed Church to dangers less obvious and striking, but, on that account, not less to be dreaded, than open violence and hostility. This was an invitation given by the Protestant nobility to their young queen, who, on the 19th of August, 1561, arrived in Scotland, and assumed the reins of government into her own hands. The education which Mary had received in France, what- ever embellishments it added to her beauty, was the very worst which can be conceived for fitting her to rule her native country * See Note TT. t Knox, 257, 258. Buchanan, i. 326, 327. Spotswood, 150, 151. Keith 154, 157. I Ivnox, 260. 220 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. in the present juncture. Of a temper naturally violent, the de- votion which she had been accustomed to see paid to her per- sonal charms, rendered her extremely impatient of contradic- tion.* Habituated to the splendour and gallantry of the most luxurious and dissolute court in Europe, she could not submit to those restraints which the severer manners of her subjects imposed ; and while they took ofl'ence at the freedom of her behaviour, she could not conceal the antipathy and disgust which she felt at theirs.t Full of high notions of royal pre- rogative, she regarded the late proceedings in Scotland as a course of rebellion against her legitimate authority. Nursed from her infancy in a blind attachment to the Roman Catholic faith, every means had been employed, before she left France, to strengthen this prejudice, and to inspire her with aversion to the religion which had been embraced by her people. She was taught that it would be the great glory of her reign to reduce her kingdom to the obedience of the Roman see, and to co-operate with the Popish princes on the Continent in extir- hating heresy. If she forsook the religion in which she had been educated, she would forfeit their powerful friendship ; if she persevered in it, she might depend upon their assistance to enable her to chastise her rebellious subjects, and to prosecute her claims to the English crown against a heretical usurper. With these fixed prepossessions, Mary came into Scotland ; and she adhered to them with singular pertinacity to the end of her life. To examine the subjects of controversy between the Papists and Protestants, with the view of ascertaining on which side the truth lay — to hear the reformed preachers, or permit them to lay before her the grounds of their faith, even in the presence of the clergy whom she had brought along with her — to do any thing, in short, which might lead to a doubt in her mind respecting the religion in which she had been brought up — were compliances against which she had formed an unal- terable determination. As the Protestants were in possession of power, it was necessary for her to temporize ; but she resolved to withhold her ratification of the late proceedings, and to em- brace the first favourable opportunity to overturn them, and re-establish the ancient system. J * Mr. Hume's letter, printed in the Life of Dr. Robertson ; History of Scotland, vol. i. 25. Lond. 1809. Anderson's Collections, vol. iv. part i. pp. 71, 72, 74, 79. t " How sone tliat ev^er her French fillokes, fidlars, and utlieris of that band, irat the bous alone, thair mayclit be sene skippino- not veray comelie for lionest women. Her comuue talk was in secrete, that sclie saw nothing in Scotland but gravity, quliilk repugned altogidder to her nature, for sche was brocht up in joyeusetie." Kno.x, Historic, p. 294. \ SeeNote UU. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 221 The reception which she met with on landing in Scotland was flattering ; but an occurrence that took place soon after, damped the joy which had been expressed, and prognosticated future jealousies and confusion. The deputies sent to France with the invitation from the nobles, could not promise her more than the private exercise of her religion ; but her uncles, by whom she was accompanied, wishing to take advantage of the spirit of loyalty which had been displayed since their arrival, insisted that she should cause the Roman Catholic rites to be performed with all publicity. Influenced by their opinion, and willing to give her subjects an early proof of her firm determi- nation to adhere to the ancient faith, Mary directed prepara- tions to be made for the celebration of a solemn mass in the chapel of Holyroodhouse, on the first Sabbath after her arrival. This service had not been performed in Scotland since the con- clusion of the civil war, and was prohibited by an act of the late parliament. So great was the horror with which the Pro- testants viewed its restoration, and the alarm which they felt at finding it countenanced by their queen, that tlie first rumour of the design excited expressions of strong discontent, which would have burst into an open tumult, had not some of the leading men among the Protestants interfered, and exerted their authority in repressing the zeal of the multitude. From regard to public tranquillity, and reluctance to offend the queen at her first return to her native kingdom, Knox used his influence in private conversation to allay the fervour of the more zealous reformers, who were ready to prevent the service by force. But he was not less alarmed at the precedent than his brethren were ; and, having exposed the evils of idolatry on the follow- ing Sabbath, he concluded his sermon by saying, that " one mass was more fearfull unto him, than if ten thousand armed enemies were landed in ony parte of the realme, of purpose to suppress the whole religioun." * At this day, we are apt to be struck with surprise at the con- duct of our ancestors, to treat their fears as visionary, or at least as highly exaggerated, and summarily to pronounce them guilty of the same intolerance of which they complained in their adversaries. Persecution for conscience' sake is so odious, and the least approach to it is so dangerous, that we deem it impos- sible to express too great detestation of any measure which tends to countenance or seems to encourage it. But let us be just as well as liberal. A little reflection upon the circum- stances in which our reforming fathers were placed may serve to abate our astonishment, and to qualify our censures. They were actuated by a strong abhorrence of Popish idolatry, a * Knox, Historie, pp. 284—287. 19* 222 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. feeling which is fully justified by the spirit and precepts of Christianity ; and the prospect of the land being again defiled by the revival of its impure rites produced on their minds a sensation, with which, from our ignorance and lukewarmness, as much as our ideas of religious liberty, we are incapable of sympathizing. But they were also influenced by a proper regard to their own preservation ; and the fears which they entertained were not fanciful, nor the precautions which they adopted unnecessary. The warmest friends of toleration and liberty of conscience (some of whom will not readily be charged with Protestant prejudices) have granted, that persecution of the most san- guinary kind was inseparable from the system and spirit of Popery which was at that time dominant in Europe ; and they cannot deny the inference, that the profession and propagation of it were, on this account, justly subjected to penal restraints, as far, at least, as was requisite to prevent it from obtaining the ascendency, and from reacting the bloody scenes which it had already exhibited.* The Protestants of Scotland had these scenes before their eyes, and fresh in their recollection ; and infatuated and criminal indeed would they have been, if, listen- ing to the siren song of toleration, by which their adversaries, with no less impudence than artifice, now attempted to lull them asleep, they had suffered themselves to be thrown off" their guard, and neglected to provide against the most distant ap- proaches of the danger by which they were threatened. Could they be ignorant of the perfidious, barbarous, and unrelenting cruelty with which Protestants were treated in every Roman Catholic kingdom ? In France, where so many of their breth- ren had been put to death, under the influence of the house of Guise ; in the Netherlands, where such multitudes had been tortured, beheaded, hanged, drowned, or buried alive ; in Eng- land, where the flames of persecution were but lately extin- guished ; and in Spain and Italy, where they still continued to blaze ? Could they have forgotten what had taken place in their own country, or the perils from which they had themselves so recently and so narrowly escaped ? " God forbid !" exclaim- ed the lords of the privy council, in the presence of Queen JVIary, at a time when they were not disposed to offend her, — " God forbid ! that the lives of the faithful stood in the power of the Papists; for just experience has taught us what cruelty is in their hearts." t Nor was this an event so incredible, or so unlikely to happen, as many seem to imagine. The rage for conquest, on the Con- tinent, was now converted into a rage for proselytism ; and * See Note XX. ■\ Knox, Historic, p. 341, LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 22S steps had already been taken towards forming that league among the Popish princes, Avhich had for its object the miiver- sal extermination of Protestants. The Scottish queen was pas- sionately addicted to the intoxicating cup of which so many of " the kings of the earth had drunk." There Avere numbers in the nation who were similarly disposed. The liberty taken by the queen would soon be demanded for all who declared them- selves Catholics. Many of those who had hitherto ranged un- der the Protestant standard were lukewarm in the cause ; the zeal of others had already suffered a sensible abatement since the arrival of their sovereign:* and it was to be feared, that the favours of the court, and the blandishments of an artful and ac- complished princess, would make proselytes of some, and lull others into security, while designs were carried on pregnant with ruin to the religion and liberties of the nation. In one word, the public toleration of the Popish worship was only a step to its re-establishment, and this would be the signal for kindling afresh the fires of persecution. It was in this manner that some of the wisest men in the kingdom reasoned at that time -jt and, had it not been for the uncommon spirit wliich then existed among the reformers, there is every reason to think that their predictions would have been realized. To those who accuse the Scottish Protestants of displaying the same spirit of intolerance by which the Roman Catholics were distinguished, I would recommend the following statement of a French author, who had formed a more just notion of these transactions than many of our own writers: — "Mary," says he, " was brought up in France, accustomed to see Protestants burnt to death, and instructed in the maxims of her uncles, the Guises, who maintained that it was necessary to exterminate, without mercy, the pretended reformed. With these disposi- tions, she arrived in Scotland, which was wholly reformed, with the exception of a few lords. The kingdom received her, ac- knowledged her as their queen, and obeyed her in all things according to the laws of the country, 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 pro- * Knox, Historie, pp. 282, 283, 285, 287. f Several of the above considerations, alonof with others, are forcibly sta- ted in a letter of Maitland to Cecil, written a short time before Queen Mary's arrival in Scotland. Keitli, App. 92 — 95. That sagacious, but supple po- litician, was among the first to verify some of his own predictions. That such fears were very general in the nation appears also from a letter of Ran- dolph. Robertson, Append. No. 5. •^24 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. cured her degradation by the pope, thrown her into the Inquisi- tion, and burnt her as a heretic. Tliere is not an honest man who can deny this."* After all, it is surely unnecessary to apologize for the restric- tions whicli our ancestors were desirous of imposing on Queen Mary, to those who approve of the present constitution of Bri- tain, according to which every Papist is excluded from succee- ding to the throne, and the reigning monarch, by setting up mass in his chapel, would virtually forfeit his crown. Is Popery more dangerous now than it was two hundred and fifty years ago? Besides his fears for the common cause, Knox had, at this time, grounds of apprehension as to his personal safety. The queen was peculiarly incensed against him on account of the active part which he had taken in the late revolution ; the Po- pish clergy who left the kingdom had represented him as the ringleader of her factious subjects ; and she had publicly declar- ed, before she left France, that she was determined he should be punished. His book against female government was most pro- bably the ostensible charge on which he was to be prosecuted : and, accordingly, we find him making application, through the English resident at Edinburgh, to secure the favour of Elizabeth : reasonably suspecting that she might be induced to abet the pro- ceedings against him on this ground.! Bat whatever perils he apprehended, from the personal presence of the queen, either to the public or to himself, he used not the smallest influence to prevent her being invited home. On the contrary, he concurred with his bretln-en in this measure, and also in using means to de- feat a scheme which the Duke of Cliastelherault, under the di- * Histoire du Calvinisme et celle du Papisme mises en Parellele ; ou Apol- ogie pour les Reformateurs, pour la Reformation, et pour les Reformez, tome i. 334. A Rotterdam, 1683, 4to. The affirmation of this writer is complete- ly supported by the well known history of Henry IV. of France (not to men- tion other instances), whose recantation of Calvinism, although it smoothed his way to the throne, could not efface tlie indelible stigma of his former heresy, secure tlie affections of his Roman Catholic subjects, or avert from his breast the consecrated poniard of the assassin. f Randolph to Cecil, 9tli Aug-. 1.5R1, apud Robertson's Scotland, Appendix, No. 5, and Keith, p. 191 >. A letter of Maitland to Cecil, of the same date witli the above, seems to refer to the same design ; and I shall take the op- portvmity of correcting (what appears to me) an error in the transcription of tills letter. " I wish to God," says JMaitland, " the first warre may be planely intended against them by Knox, for so shold it be manifest that the suppressing of religion was ment; but I fear more she will proceed tharunto by indirect means. And nothing for us so dangerouse as temporising." Haynes, p. 3i)7. This seems altogether unintelligble ; but if the words which I have printed in Italics be transposed, and read thus, " by tiiem against Knox, "tliey will make sense, and correspond witii the strain of tlie letter, and with the fact mentioned by Randolph, in his letter to Cecil written on the same day. Maitland expresses his fears that Mary would have recourse LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 225 rection of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, had formed to ex- chide her from the government.* But when the Prior of St. An- drews was sent to France with the invitation, he urged that her desisting from the celebration of mass should be one of the conditions of her return ; and when he found him and the rest of the council disposed to grant her this liberty within her own chapel, he predicted that "her liberty would be their thral- dom." t In the beginning of September,J only a few days after her arrival in Scotland, the queen sent for Knox to the palace, and held a long conversation with him, in the presence of her bro- ther, the Prior of St. Andrews. Whether she did this of her own accord, or at the suggestion of some of her counsellors, is uncertain ; but she seems to have expected to awe him into sub- mission by her authority, if not to confound him by her argu- ments. The bold freedom with which he replied to all her charges, and vindicated his own conduct, convinced her that the one expectation was not more vain than the other ; and the im- pression which she wished to make on him was left on her own mind. She accused him of raising her subjects against her mother and herself; of writing a book against her just authority, which, she said, she v/ould cause the most learned in Europe to refute ; of being the cause of sedition and bloodshed, when he was in England ; and of accomplishing his purposes by magical arts. To these heavy charges Knox replied, that, if to teach the truth of God in sincerity, to rebuke idolatry, and exhort a peo- ple to worship God according to his word, were to excite sub- jects to rise against their princes, then he stood convicted of that crime ; for it had pleased God to employ him, among many others, to disclose unto that realm the vanity of the papistical religion, with the deceit, pride, and tyranny of the Roman anti- christ. But if the true knowledge of God and his right wor- ship were the most powerful inducements to subjects cordially to obey their princes (as they certainly were,) then was he inno- cent. Her grace, he was persuaded, had at present as unfeign- ed obedience from the Protestants of Scotland, as ever her father, or any of her ancestors, had from those called bishops. With respect to what had been reported to her majesty concerning the fruits of his preaching in England, he was glad that his ene- mies laid nothing to his charge but what the world knew to be false. If they could prove, that, in any of the places where he to crafty measures for undermining their cause, instead of persevering in the design which she had avowed of prosecuting Knox. * Knox, Historic, p. 269. t Ibid. p. 262 X Keith, 188. D2 226 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. had resided, there was either sedition or mutiny, he would confess himself to be a malefactor. But so far from this being the case, he was not ashamed to say, that in Berwick, where bloodshed had formerly been common among the military, God so blessed his weak labours, that there was as great quietness, during the time he resided in that town, as there was at present in Edin- burgh. The slander of practising magic (an art which he had always condemned), he could more easily bear, when he recol- lected that his master, Jesus Christ, had been defamed as one in league with Beelzebub. As to the book which seemed to have offended her majesty so highly, he owned that he wrote it, and he was willing that all the learned should judge of it. He un- derstood that an Englishman had written against it, but he had not read his work. If that author had sufficiently confuted his arguments, and established the contrary opinion, he would con- fess his error ; but to that hour he continued to think himself able to maintain the propositions affirmed in that book against any ten in Europe. " You think, then, I have no just authority?" said the queen. " Please your majesty," replied he, " learned men in all ages have had their judgments free, and most commonly disagreeing from the common judgment of the world ; such also have they published both with pen and tongue ; notwithstanding, they themselves have lived in the common society with others, and have borne patiently with the errors and imperfections which they could not amend. Plato, the philosopher, wrote his book on the commonwealth, in which he condemned many things that then were maintained in the world, and required many things to have been reformed; and yet, notwithstanding, he lived under such policies as then were universally received, with- out farther troubling of any state. Even so, madam, am I con- tent to do, in uprightness of heart, and with a testimony of a good conscience." He added, that his sentiments on that sub- ject should be confined to his own breast ; and that, if she re- frained from persecution, her authority would not be hurt, either by him or his book, " which was written most especially against that wicked Jesabelof England." " But ye speak of women in general," said the queen. " Most true it is, madam : yet it appeareth to me, that wisdom should persuade your grace never to raise trouble for that which to this day has not troubled your majesty, neither in person nor in authority : for of late years many things which before were held stable have been called in doubt ; yea, they have been plainly impugned. But yet, madam, I am assured that neither Protestant nor Papist shall be able to prove that any such ques- tion was at any time moved either in public or in secret. Now, madam, if I had intended to have troubled your estate, because LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 227 ye are a woman, I would have chosen a time more convenient for that purpose tiian I can do now, when your presence is with- in the reahn." Changing the subject, she charged him with having taught the people to receive a religion different from that which was allowed by their princes ; and she asked if this was not contra- ry to the divine command, that subjects should obey their rulers. He replied, that true religion derived its origin and authority not from princes but from God ; that princes were often most ignorant on this point ; and that subjects were not bound to frame their religious sentiments and practice according to the arbitrary will of their rulers, else the Hebrews ought to have conformed to the religion of Pharaoh, Daniel and his associates to that of Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, and the primitive Christians to that of the Roman emperors. " Yea," replied the queen, qualifying her assertion; "but none of these men raised the sword against their princes." " Yet you cannot deny," said he, " that they resisted ; for those who obey not the command- ment given them do in some sort resist." — " But they resisted not with the sword," rejoined the queen, pressing home the ar- gument, " God, madam, had not given unto them the power and the means." — " Think you," said the queen, " that subjects, having the power, may resist their princes ?" — " If princes ex- ceed their bounds, madam, no doubt they may be resisted, even by power. For no greater honour, or greater obedience is to be given to kings and princes, than God has commanded to be given to father and mother. But the father may be struck with a fren- zy, in which he would slay his children. Now, madam, if the children arise, join together, apprehend the father, take the sword from him, bind his hands, and keep him in prison, till the frenzy be over, think you, madam, that the children do any wrong.? Even so, madam, is it with princes that would murder the children of God that are subject unto them. Their blind zeal is nothing but a mad frenzy ; therefore, to take the sword from them, to bind their hands, and to cast them into prison, till they be brought to a more sober mind, is no disobedience against princes, but just obedience, because it agreeth with the will of God." Mary, who had hitherto maintained her courage in reasoning, was completely overpowered by this bold answer ; her counte- nance changed, and she remained in a silent stupor. Her bro- ther spoke to her, and inquired the cause of her uneasiness ; but she made no reply. Recovering herself, at length, she said, " Well, then, I perceive that my subjects shall obey you and not me, and will do what they please and not what I command ; and so must I be subject to them, and not they to me." — " God forbid i" replied the Reformer, " that ever I take upon me to 228 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. command any to obey me, or to set subjects at liberty to do whatever pleases them. But my travail is, that both princes and subjects may obey God, And think not, madam, that wrong is done you when you are required to be subject unto God ; for it is he who subjects people under princes, and causes obedience to be given unto them. He craves of kings that they be as foster-fathers to his Church, and commands queens to be nurses to his people. And this subjection, madam, unto God and his Church, is the greatest dignity that flesh can get upon the face of the earth; for it shall raise them to everlasting glory." " But you are not the Church that I will nourish," said the queen ; "■ I will defend the Church of Rome ; for it is, I think, tlie true Church of God," — " Your ivili, madam, is no reason, neither doth your thought make the Roman harlot to be the true and immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ. Wonder not, madam, that I call Rome an harlot, for that Church is altogether polluted with all kinds of spiritual fornication, both in doctrine and manners," He added, that he was ready to prove that the Roman Church had declined farther from the purity of religion taught by the apostles, than the Jewish Church had degenerated from the ordinances which God gave them by Moses and Aaron, at the time when they denied and crucified the Son of God. " My conscience is not so," said the queen, — " Conscience, ma- dam, requires knowledge, and I fear that right knowledge you have none," — " But I have both heard and read." — " So, madam, did the Jews, who crucified Christ Jesus, read the law and the prophets, and heard the same interpreted after their manner. Have you heard any teach but such as the pope and cardinals have allowed ? and you may be assured, that such will speak nothing to offend their own estate." " You interpret the Scriptures in one way," said the queen evasively, " and they in another; whom shall I believe, 'and Avho shall be judge ?" — " You shall believe God, who plainly speaketh in his word," replied the Reformer ;" and farther than the word teacheth you, you shall believe neither the one nor the other. The word of God is plain in itself; and if there ap- pear any obscurity in one place, the Holy Ghost, who is never contrary to himself, explains the same more clearly in other places, so that there can remain no doubt, but unto such as are obstinately ignorant," As an example, he selected one of the articles in controversy between the Church of Roiue and the Protestants, and was proceeding to shew, that the Popish doc- trine of the sacrifice of the mass was destitute of all foundation in Scripture, but the queen, who was determined to avoid all discussion of the articles of her creed, interrupted him, by say- ing, that she was unable to contend with him in argument, but LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 229 if she had those present whom she had heard, they would answer him. " Madam," repUed the Reformer, fervently, " would to God that the learnedest Papist in Europe, and he whom you would best believe, were present with your grace to sustain the argument, and that you would wait patiently to hear the matter reasoned to the end ! For then, I doubt not, madam, but you would hear the vanity of the papistical religion, and how little ground it hath in the word of God." — " Well," said she, " you may perchance get that sooner than you believe." — " Assuredly, 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, in your audi- ence, madam, to have the ground of their religion searched out. When you shall let me see the contrary, I shall grant myself to have been deceived in that point." The hour of dinner afforded an occasion for breaking off this singular conversation. At taking leave of her majesty the Re- former said, " I pray God, madam, that you may be as blessed within the commonwealth of Scotland, as ever Deborah was in the commonwealth of Israel."* I have been the more minute in the narrative of this curious conference, because it affords the most satisfactory refutation of the charge, that Knox treated Mary with rudeness and disre- spect. For the same reason I shall lay before the reader a circumstantial account of the subsequent interviews between them, from which we shall perceive that, though the Reformer addressed her with a plainness to which crowned heads are sel- dom accustomed, he never lost sight of that respect which was due to the person of his sovereign, nor of that decorum whicli became his own character. The interview between the queen and the Reformer excited great speculation, and different conjectures were formed as to its probable consequences. The Catholics, whose hopes now depended solely on the queen, were alarmed, lest Knox's rhe- toric should have shaken her constancy. The Protestants cherished the expectation that she would be induced to attend the Protestant sermons, and that her religious prejudices would gradually abate. t Knox indulged no such flattering expecta- tions. He had made it his study, during the late conference, to discover the real character of the queen ; and when some of his confidential friends asked his opinion of her, he told them that he was very much mistaken if she was not proud, crafty, obsti- nately wedded to the Popish Church, and averse to all means of instruction. J Writing to Cecil, he says, " The queen neyther * Knox, Historie, pp. 287—292. f Ibid. p. 292. X Knox, Historie, p. 292. Keith, 197, 20 230 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. is, neyther shal be of our opinion ; and, in very deed, her whole proceedings do declair that the cardinalle's lessons are so deaplie printed in her heart, that the substance and the qualitie are like to perishe together. I wold be glad to be deceaved, but I fear I shal not. In communication with her, I espyed such craft as I have not found in such aige. Since, hath the court been dead to me and I to it."* He resolved, therefore, vigilantly to watch her proceedings, and to give timely warning of any danger which might result from them to the reformed interest ; and the more that he per- ceived the zeal of the Protestant nobles to cool, and their jeal- ousy to be laid asleep by the winning arts of the queen, the more frequently and loudly did he sound the alarm. Vehement and harsn as his expressions often were — violent, seditious, and insufierable, as his sermons and prayers have been pronounced to be, — I have no hesitation in saying, that, as the public peace was never disturbed by them, so they Avere useful to the public safety, and a principal means of warding off for a time those confusions in which the country was afterwards involved, and which brought on the ultimate ruin of the infatuated queen. His uncourtly and rough manner was not, indeed, calculated to gain upon her mind (nor is there any reason to think that an opposite manner would have had this effect), and his admoni- tions often irritated her; but they obliged her to act with greater reserve and moderation ; and they operated, to an in- describable degree, in arousing and keeping awake the zeal and the fears of the nation, which, at that period, were the two great safeguards of the Protestant religion in Scotland. We may form an idea of the effect produced by his pulpit orations, from the account of the English ambassador, who was one of his constant hearers. "Where your honour," says he, in a letter to Cecil, "exhorteth us to stoutness, I assure you the voice of one man is able, in an hour, to put more life in us, than six hundred trumpets continually blustering in our cars."t The Reformer was not ignorant that some of his friends * Letter, Knox to Cecil, 7th October 156L Haynes, State Papers, — p. 372. t Randolpli's Letter, in Keith, 188. In this letter, the ambassador states some circumstances as to the first interview between tlie queen and the Re- former, which are not mentioned in Knox's History. He " knocked so hastily upon her heart, that he made her to weep, as well you know tliere be some of that sex that will do that as well for anger as tor grief; though in this the Lord James will disagree with me. He concluded so in the end witli her, that he hath liberty to speak his conscience, [and] to give unto her such reverence as becometh the ministers of God unto the superior powers." LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 231 thought him too severe in his language, nor was he always disposed to vindicate the expressions which he employed. Still, however, he was persuaded that the times required the utmost plainness ; and he was afraid that snares lurked under the smoothness which was recommended and practised by courtiers. Cecil having given him an advice on this head in one of his letters, Knox replied, — " Men deliting to swyni be- twix two waters have often compleaned upon my severitie. I do fear that that which men terme lenitie and dulceness, do bring upon themselves and others more fearful destruction, than yit hatli ensewed the vehemency of any preacher within this realme."* That abatement of zeal which he had dreaded from " the holy water of the court," soon began to appear among the Pro- testant leaders. The general assemblies of the Church were a great eye-sore to the queen, who was very desirous to have them put down. At the first General Assembly held after her arrival, the courtiers, through her influence, absented them- selves, and when challenged for this, began to dispute the pro- priety of such conventions without her majesty's pleasure. On this point there was sharp reasoning between Knox and Mait- land, who was now made secretary of state. " Take from us the liberty of assemblies, and take from us the gospel," said the Reformer. " If the liberty of the Church must depend upon her allowance or disallowance, we shall want not only assem- blies, but also the preaching of the gospel." It was proposed that the Book of Discipline should be ratified by the queen ; but this was keenly opposed by the secretary. " How many of those that subscribed that book will be subject to it ?" said he scoffingly. " All the godly," it was answered. " Will the duke ?" said he. " 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 ?" Maitland said, that many subscribed it, m fide parentum, implicitly. Knox replied, that the scoff was as un- true as it was unbecoming ; for the book was publicly read, and its different heads discussed, for a number of days, and no man was required to subscribe what he did not understand. " Stand content," said one of the courtiers ; " that book will not be obtained." — " And let God require the injury which the commoiiwealth shall sustain, at the hands of those who hinder it," replied the Reformer.! * Haynes, 372. An epistolary correspondence was at this time maintain- ed between secretary Cecil and our Reformer. Keith, 191, 192, 194. Robertson, Append. No. 5. t Knox, Historie, pp. 295 — 6. 232 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. He was still more indignant at their management in settling the provision for the ministers of the Church. Hitherto they had lived chiefly on the benevolence of their hearers, and many of them had scarcely the means of subsistence ; but repeated complaints having obliged the privy council to take up the alfair, they came at last to a determination, that the ecclesiasti- cal revenues should be divided into three parts ; that two of these should be given to the ejected Popish clergy ; and that the third part should be divided between the court and the Protes- tant ministry ! * The persons appointed to '' modify the sti- pends,"! were disposed to gratify the queen, and her demands were readily answered, while the sums allotted to the ministers were as ill paid as they were paltry and inadequate. " Weall !" exclaimed Knox, when he heard of this disgraceful arrange- ment, " if the end of this ordour, pretendit to be takin for sus- tentatioun of the ministers, be happie, my judgment failes me. I sie twa pairtis freely gevin to the devill, and the third mon be devyded betwix God aud the devill. Who wald have thocht, that when Joseph reulled in Egypt, his brethren sould have travellit for victualles, and have returned with emptie sackes unto thair families ? 0 happie servands of the devill, and mis- erabill servants of Jesus Christ, if efter this lyf thair wer not hell and heavin !" J At a conference held on this subject, Mait- land complained of the ingratitude of the ministers, who did not acknowledge the queen's liberality to them. " Assuredly," replied Knox with a derisive smile, " such as receive any thing of the queen are unthankfull, if they acknowledge it not ; but whether the ministers be of that rank or not, I greatly doubt. Has the queen better title to that which she usurps, be it in * Keith, App. 175—179. Knox, 296—300. t The privy council appointed certain persons to fix the sums which were to be appropriated to the court and to the ministry, and also the particular salaries which were to be allotted to individual ministers, according to tlie circumstances in which they were placed. The officers appointed for this purpose composed a board or court, under the privy council, and was called the court of modification. I " So busie," says he, " and circumspect wer the modificators (because it was a new office, the terme must also be new), that the ministers should not be over-wantoun, that an hundred merks was sufficient to an single man, being a commone minister : thre hundretii merks was the hiest apoynted to any, except the superintendents and a few utlieris." Historie, 801. " Mr Kriox is not at all here diminishing the sum," says Keith; "for the original books of assignation to the ministers, which now ly before me, ascertain the trutli of what he stiys," p. .508. Wishart of Pittarrow, who was comptroller of the modification, pinched the ministers so much tliat it became a proverb, — " The gude laird of Petarro was an ernest professonr of Christ, bot tlie mekill devill receavc the comptroller." Sir John Wishart of Pittarrow, was appointed comptroller on the 1st of March 1561. Reg. Sigil. Seer, lib. xxi. 5. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 233 giving to others, or in taking to herself, than such as crucified Christ had to divide his garments among them ? Let the Papists wlio have the two parts, some that have their thirds free, and some that have gotten ahbacies and feu-lands, thank the queen ; the poor preachers will not yet flatter for feeding their bellies. To your dumb dogs, formerly ten thousand was not enough ; but to the servants of Christ, that painfully preach his evangell, a thousand pound! how can that be sustained?" — " These words," he himself tells us, " were judged proud and intolerable, and engendered no small displeasure to the speaker."* Knox gave vent to his feelings on this subject the more freely, as his complaints could not be imputed to personal mo- tives ; for his own stipend, though moderate, was liberal when compared with those of the most of his brethren. From the time of his last return to Scotland, until the conclusion of the war, he had been indebted to the liberality of individuals for the support of his family. After that period, he lodged in the house of David Forrest, a burgess of Edinburgh, from whicii he removed to the lodging which had belonged to Durie, abbot of Dunfermline. As soon as he began to preach statedly in the city, the town council assigned him an annual stipend of two hundred pounds, which he was entitled to receive quarter- ly; and they also paid his house-rent and his board, during the time that he had resided with Forrest. Subsequent to the settlement made by the privy council, it would seem that he received, at least, a part of his income from the common fund allotted to the ministers of the Church ; but the good town had still an opportunity of testifying their generosity, by supplying the deficiencies of the legal allowance. Indeed, the uniform attention of the town council to his external support and accommodation, was honourable to them, and deserves to be recorded to their comraendation.t In the beginning of the year 1562, he went to Angus to pre- side in the election and admission of John Erskine of Dun, as superintendent of Angus and Mearns. That respectable baron was one of those whom the first General Assembly declared "apt and able to minister ;":t^ and having already contributed in different ways to the advancement of the Reformation, he now devoted himself to the service of the Church, in a labo- rious employment, at a time when she stood eminently in need of the assistance of all the learned and pious. Knox had for- * Knox Historie, pp. 201—2. i See Extracts from the Records of the Town Council in Note YY. \ Keith, p. 498. 20* E2 234 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. merly presided at the installation of John Spotswood as super- intendent of Lothian.* The influence of our Reformer appears from his being employ- ed on dill'erent occasions to act as umpire and mediator in dis- putes of a civil nature among the Protestants. He was frequent- ly requested to intercede with the town council in behalf of such of the inhabitants as had subjected themselves to punish- ment by their disorderly conduct.! Soon after his return to Scotland, he had composed a domestic variance between the Earl and Countess of Argyle.:^ I'l the year 1561, he had been employed as arbitrator in a difference between Archibald, Earl of Angus, and his brothers. § And he was now urged by the Earl of Bothwell to assist in removing a deadly feud which sub- sisted between him and the Earl of Arran. He was averse to interfere in this business, which had already baffled the author- ity of the privy council -,11 but at the desire of friends, he yielded, and, after considerable pains, had the satisfaction of bringing the parties to an amicable interview, at which they mutually pro- mised to bury their former differences. But all the fair hopes which he had formed from this reconciliation were speedily blas- ted. For, in the course of a few days, Arran came to him in great agitation, with the information that Botliwell had endeav- oured 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 does not seem to have given much credit to this information ; he even endeavoured to prevent Arran from making it public ; in this, however, he did not succeed, and bcth noblemen were imprisoned. It soon after became evident that Arran was lunatic, but the fears of the courtiers shew that they did not altogether disbelieve his accusa- tion, and that they suspected that Bothwell had formed a design, of which his future conduct proved him not incapable.lT In the month of May, Knox had another interview with the queen, on the following occasion. The family of Guise were making the most vigorous efforts to regain that ascendency in the French councils, of which they had been deprived since the death of Francis II. ; and, as zeal for the Catholic religion was the cloak under which they concealed their ambitious designs, they began by stirring up persecution against the Protestants. * The form observed on that occasion, which was followed in the admission or ordination of ail tlie superintendents and other ministers, is inserted at length in Knox's Historie, pp. 263 — 266 ; and in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 627— (j;}6. t Knox, Historie, p. 270. t Ibid. pp. 328—9. i See Note ZZ. || Keith, 215 IT Knox, Historie, 305—308, and letter to Locke, 6th May 1562, in Cald. MS. i. 755, 756. Spotswood, 184. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 235 The massacre of Vassy, in the beginning of March, was a pre- hide to this, in which the Duke of Guise and Cardinal of Lor- rain attacked, with an armed force, a congregation peaceably as- sembled for worship, killed a number of them, and wounded and mutilated others, not excepting women and children.* In- teUigence of the success which attended the measures of her uncles was brought to Queen Mary, who immediately after gave a splendid ball to her foreign servants, at which the dancing was prolonged to a late hour. Knox was advertised of the festivities in tl\e palace, and had no doubt that they were occasioned by the accounts which the queen had received from France. He always felt a lively inter- est in the concerns of the French Protestants, with many of whom he was intimately acquainted ; and he entertained a very bad opinion of the princes of Lorrain. In his sermon on the following Sabbath, after discoursing of the dignity of magis- trates, and the obedience which was due to them, he proceeded to lament the abuse which the greater part of rulers made of their power, and introduced some severe strictures upon the vices to which they were commonly addicted, their oppression, igno- rance, hatred of virtue, attachment to bad company and fondness for foolish pleasures. Glancing at the amusements which were common in the palace, he said that princes were more exercised in dancing and music than in reading or hearing the word of God, and delighted more in fiddlers and flatterers than in the company of wise and grave men, who were capable of giving them wholesome counsel. As to dancing, he said, that, although he did not find it praised in Scripture, and profane writers had termed it a gesture more becoming mad than sober men, yet he would not utterly condemn it, provided those who practised it did not neglect the duties of their station, and did not dance, like the Philistines, from joy at the misfortunes of God's people. If they were guilty of such conduct, their mirth would soon be converted into sorrow. Information of this discourse was quick- ly conveyed to the queen, with many exaggerations ; and the preacher was next day ordered to attend at the palace. Being conveyed into the royal chamber, where the queen sat with her maids of honour and principal counsellors, he was accused of having spoken of her majesty irreverently, and in a manner calculated to bring her under the contempt and hatred of her subjects. After the queen had made a long speech on that theme, he was allowed to state his defence. He told her majesty, thai she had been treated as persons usually were who refused to attend the preaching of the word of God ; she had been deceived by * Histoire des Martyrs, fol. 558, 559. Anno 1597. 236 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. the false reports of flatterers. For, if she had heard the calum- niated discourse, he did not believe she could have been olfendea with any thing that he had said. She would now, therefore, be pleased to hear him repeat, as exactly as he could, what he had preached yesterday. JNIary was obliged for once to listen to a Protestant sermon. Having finished the recapitulation of his discourse, he said, "■ If any man, madam, will say that I spake more, let him presently accuse me ; for I think I have not only touched the sum, but the very words as I spake them." Several of the company, who had heard the sermon, attested that he had given a fair and accurate account of it. After turning round to the informers, who were dumb, the queen told him, that his words, though sharp enough as related by himself, had been reported to her in a different way. She added, that she knew that her uncles and he were of a different religion, and therefore did not blame him for having no good opinion of them ; but if he heard any thing about her conduct which dis- pleased him, he ought to come to herself privately, and she would willingly listen to his admonitions. Knox easily saw through this proposal; and, from what he already knew of Mary's character, was convinced that she had no inclination to receive his private instructions, but wished merely to induce him to refrain in his sermons from every thing that might be dis- pleasing to the court. He replied, that he was willing to do any thing for her majesty's contentment, which was consistent with his office ; if her grace chose to attend the public sermons, she would have an opportunity of knowing what pleased or dis- pleased him in her and in others ; or if she chose to appoint a time when she would hear the substance of the doctrine which he preached in public, he would most gladly wait upon her grace's pleasure, time, and place ; but to come and wait at her chamber-door, and then to have liberty only to whisper in her ear what people thought and said of her, that would neither his conscience nor his office permit him to do. " For," added he, in a strain which he sometimes used even on serious occasions, " albeit, at your grace's commandment, I am heir now, yit can I not tell what uther men shall judge of me, that, at this time of day, am absent from my buke, and waitting upon the court." — " Ye will not alwayes be at your buke," said the queen, pet- tishly, and turned her back. As he left the room " with a reasonable merry countenance," he overheard one of the Popish attendants sayhig, " He is not afraid !" — " Why should the plesing face of a gentilwoman afray me?" said he, regarding them with a sarcastic scowl ; " I have luiked in the faces of ^nony angry men, and yit have not bene atfrayed above meas- our."* * Knox, Historie, 30tt— 311, LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 237 There was at that time but one place of worship in the city of Edinburgh.* The number of inhabitants was, indeed, small, when compared with its present population ; but they still must have formed a very large congregation. St. Giles's church, the place then used for worship, was capacious ; for we learn that, on some occasions, three thousand persons assembled in it to hear sermon. t In this church, Knox had, since 1560, performed all the parts of ministerial duty, without any other assistant than John Cairns, who acted as reader.J He preached twice every Sabbath, and thrice on other days of the week.§ He met regularly once every week with his kirk-session for discip- line,|| and with the assembly of the neighbourhood for the exer- cise on the Scriptures. He attended, besides, the meetings of the provincial Synod and General Assembly ; and at almost every meeting of the latter, he received an appointment to visit and preach in some distant part of the country. These labours must have been oppressive to a constitution which was already much impaired ; especially as he did not indulge in extempo- raneous efiusions, but devoted a part of every day to study. His parish was sensible of this; and, in April 1562, the town council came to a unanimous resolution to solicit the minister of Canongate to undertake the half of the charge. The ensuing General Assembly approved of the council's proposal, and ap- pointed the translation to take place. H It was not, however, accomplished before June 1563, owing, as it would seem, to the difficulty of obtaining an additional stipend.** The person who was appointed colleague to our Reformer was John Craig. A short account of this distinguislied minister cannot be altogether foreign to the history of one with whom he was so strictly associated, audit will present incidents which are curious in themselves, and illustrative of the singular man- ner in which many of the promoters of the Reformation were fitted by Providence for engaging in that great undertaking. He was born in 1512, and soon after lost his father in the bat- tle of Flodden, which proved fatal to so many families in Scot- land. After finishing his education at the university of St. Andrews, he went to England, and became tutor to the family of Lord Dacres ; but war having broken out between England and Scotland, he returned to his native country, and entered * St. Cuthberts, or the West Church, was at that time (as it is at present) a distinct parish, of which William Harlow was minister. There was also a minister in Canongate or Holyroodhouse. t Cald. MS. ii. 157. I Records of Town Council, 26th October 1.561 § Ibid. 10th April 1562. II The number of elders in the session of Edinburgh was twelve, and of deacons sixteen. Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 638. H Calderwood, apud Keith, 514. ** See Note AAA. 238 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. into the order of Dominican friars. The Scottish clergy were at that time eager in making inquisition for Lutherans ; and owing to the circumstance of his having been in England, or to his having dropped some expressions respecting religion which were deemed too free, Craig fell under the suspicion of heresy, and was thrown into prison. The accusation was found to be groundless, and he was set at liberty. But although still at- tached to the Roman Catholic religion, the ignorance and bigo- try of the clergy gave him such a disgust at his native country, that he left it in 1537, and, after remaining a short time in England, went to France, and from that to Italy. At the recommendation of the celebrated Cardinal Pole, he was ad- mitted among the Dominicans in the city of Bologna, and was soon raised to an honourable employment in that body. In the library of the Inquisition, which was attached to the monastery, he found a copy of Calvin's Institutes. Being fond of books, he determined to read that work ; and the consequence was, that he became a thorough convert to the reformed opinions. In the warmth of his first impressions, he could not refrain from imparting his change of sentiments to his associates, and must soon have fallen a sacrifice to the vigilant guardians of the faith, had not the friendship of a father in the monastery saved him. The old man, who was a native of Scotland, represented the danger to which he exposed himself by avowing such tenets in that place, and advised him, if he was fixed in his views, to retire immediately to some Protestant country. With this pru- dent advice he complied so far as to procure his discharge from the monastery. At an early period of the Christian era, there were converts to the gospel " in Caesar's household ;" and in the sixteenth cen- tury, the light of reformation penetrated into Italy, and even into the territories of the Roman pontiff. On leaving the mon- astery of Bologna, Craig entered as tutor into the family of a neighbouring nobleman, who had embraced Protestant princi- ples ; but he had not resided long in it, when, along with his host, he was delated for heresy, seized by the familiars of the Inquisition, and carried to Rome. After being confined nine months in a noisome dungeon, he was brought to trial, and con- demned to be burnt, along with some others, on the 20th of August 1559. On the evening previous to the day appoint- ed for their execution, the reigning pontiff, Paul IV. died ; and, according to an accustomed practice on such occasions, the pri- sons in Rome were all thrown open. While those who were confined for debt and other civil offences were liberated, here- tics, after being allowed to go without the walls of their prison, were conveyed back to their cells. A tumult, however, having been raised that night in the city, Craig and his companions LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 239 effected their escape, and took refuge in a house at a small dis- tance from Rome. They had not been long there when they were followed by a company of soldiers, sent to apprehend them. On entering the house, the captain looked Craig eagerly in the face, and taking him aside, asked, if he recollected of once relieving a poor wounded soldier in the vicinity of Bologna. Craig was in tod great confusion to remember the circumstance. " But I remember it," replied the captain, " and I am the man whom you relieved, and Providence has now put it in my power to return the kindness which you shewed to a distressed stranger. You are at liberty; your companions I must take along with me, but, for your sake, shall shew them every favour in my power." He then gave him what money he had upon him, with directions how to make his escape. We are not yet done with the wonderful incidents in the life of Craig. " Another accident," says Archbishop Spots wood, "befell him, which I should scarcely relate, so incredible it seemeth, if to many of good place he himself had not often re- peated it as a singular testimony of God's care of him." In the course of his journey through Italy, while he avoided the pub- lic roads, and took a circuitous route to escape from pursuit, the money which he had received from the grateful soldier failed him. Having laid himself down by the side of a wood to ruminate on his condition, he perceived a dog approaching him with a purse in its teeth. It occurred to him that it had been sent by some evil-disposed person who was concealed in the wood, and wished to pick a quarrel with him. He therefore endeavoured to drive it away ; but the animal continuing to fawn upon him, he at last took the purse, and found in it a sum of money which enabled him to prosecute his journey. Having reached Vienna, and announced himself as a Domini- can, he was employed to preach before the Archduke of Austria, who afterwards wore the imperial crown, under the title of Maximilian II. That discerning prince, who was not unfriendly to a religious reform, was so much pleased with the sermon, that he was desirous of retaining Craig ; but the new pope Pius IV. having heard of his reception at the Austrian capital, applied to have him sent back to Rome as a condemned heretic ; upon which the archduke dismissed him with a safe- conduct. When he arrived in England, in 1560, and was informed of the establishment of the reformed religion in his native country, he immediately repaired to Scotland, and was admitted to the ministry. Having in a great measure forgotten his native language during an absence of twenty-four years, he preached for a short time in Latin to some of the learned in Magdalene chapel. He was afterwards appointed minister 240 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. of the parish of Canongate, where he had not officiated long, till he was elected colleague to Knox.* The queen still persevered in the line of policy which she had adopted at her first arrival in Scotland, and employed none but Protestant counsellors. She intrusted the chief direction of public affairs to the Prior of St. Andrews, who, in 1562, was created Earl of Murray, t and married a daughter of the earl marischal. The marriage ceremony was performed by Knox publicly before the congregation according to the custom at that time ; and on that occasion the Reformer reminded the earl of the benefit which the Church had hitherto received from his services, and exhorted him to persevere in the same course, lest, if an unfavourable change was perceived, the blame should be imputed to his wife. + The fact, however, was, that Knox was more afraid that JNIurray would be corrupted by his con- nection with the court, than by his matrimonial alliance. Although the Protestants filled the cabinet, it was well known that they did not possess the affection and confidence of her majesty, and, in consequence of this, various plots were laid to displace and ruin them. During the autumn of 1562, the Roman Catholics in Scotland entertained great hopes of a change in their favour. After several unsuccessful attempts to cut off' the principal courtiers, § the Earl of Huntl)^ openly took arms in the north, to rescue the queen from their hands ; while the Archbishop of St. Andrews endeavoured to unite and rouse the Papists of the south. On this occasion, our Reformer acted with his usual zeal and foresight. Being appointed by the General Assembly as Commissioner to visit the churches of the west, he persuaded the gentlemen of that quarter to enter into a new bond of defence. Hastening into Nithsdale and Gallo- way, he, by his sermons and conversation, confirmed the Pro- testants in these places. He employed the master of Maxwell to write to the Earl of Bothwell, who had escaped from con- finement, and meant, it was feared, to join Huntly. He him- self wrote the Duke of Chastelherault, warning him not to listen to the solicitations of his brother, the archbishop, nor accede to a conspiracy which would infallibly prove the ruin of his house. * Row, MS. Historie of the Kirk, p. 47. Spotswood, pp. 463 — 4. I have chiefly followed Row's narrative. By comparing- it with Spotswood's, the reader will perceive that tliey differ in a few nnimportant circumstances. Row mentions that he had his information from several persons who had heard Craig himself relate the story, and particularly from his widow, " dame Craig," who survived her husband, and lived in Edinburgh until 1630. Mr John Craig, minister, his wife, Marion Small, and his eldest son, Mr William, are mentioned, under the date 16th August 1591, in Burgh Sas. ix. 60. t Keith, p. 226. J Knox, Historie, p. 302. t Keith, p. 226. { Keith, 230. Knox, 321. . LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 241 By these means the southern parts of the kingdom were preserved in a state of peace, while the vigorous measures of Murray crushed the rebelUon in the north.* The queen expressed httle satisfaction at the victory gained over Huntly, and there is every reason to think, that, if not privy to his rising, she expected to turn it to the advancement of her pro- jects.! According to Archbishop Spotswood, she scrupled not to say, at this time, that " she hoped, before a year was expired, to have the mass and CathoHc profession restored through the whole khigdom."J Wliile these hopes were indulged, the Popish clergy thought it necessary to gain credit to their cause, by appearing more openly in defence of their tenets than they had lately done. They began to preach publicly in ditferent parts of the country, and boasted that tliey were ready to dispute with the Protestant ministers.§ The person who stept forward as their champion was Quin- tin Kennedy, uncle to the Earl of Cassilis, and abbot of Crossra- guel. Though his talents were not of a superior order, the ab- bot was certainly one of the most respectable of the Popish clergy in Scotland, not only in birth, but also in regularity and decorum of conduct. He seems to have spent the greater part of his hfe in the same neglect of professional duty which characterized his brethren ; but he was roused from his inactiv- ity by the zeal and success of the Protestant preachers, who, in the years 1556 and 1557, attacked the Popish faith, and inveigh- ed against the idleness and corruption of the clergy. || At an age when others retire from the field, he began to rub up his long-neglected armour, and descended into the theological arena. His first appearance as a polemical writer was m 1558, when he published a short system of Catholic tactics, under the title of Ane Compendius Tractive, shewing " the nerrest and onlie way to establish the conscience of a Christian man," in all matters which were in debate concerning faith and religion. This way was no other than implicit faith in the decisions of * Knox, 316—318. f The Historian of the family of Gordon expressly says, that " her majesty thought, by the Earl of Huntlie his power in tlie north, to get herself fred from the hands of her bastard brother, James, Earle of Morray ;" and that " the Earle of Huntlie (at the quein's own desyre) did gather some forces, to get her out of the Earle of Murraye's power," Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland, by Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, pp. 140, 141. X Spotswood, 185. \ Knox, Historie, pp. 316, 318. 11 The Reasoning betwixt Jo. Knox and the abbote of Crossraguell, fol. 4. Edinburgh, 1563. 21 F2 242 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. the Church or clergy. When any point of reHgion was contro- verted, tlie Scripture might be cited as a witness, but the Church was the judge, whose determinations, in general coun- cils canonically assembled, were to be humbly received and submitted to by all the faithful* It was but "a harbour say- ing," which the Protestants had commonly in their mouths, that every man ought to examine the Scriptures for himself. It was sufficient for those who did not occupy the place of teach- ers, that they had a general knowledge of the creed, the ten commandments, and the Lord's prayer, according to the sense in which these were explained by the Church. And " as to the sacramentis, and all other secretis of the Scripture," every Christian man ought to " stand to the judgment of his pastor, who did bear his burden in all matters doubtsome above his knowledge."! This was doubtless a very near way to stability of mind, and a most compendious mode of deciding every controversy which might arise, without having recourse to examination, reasoning, or debate. But as the wilful and stubborn reformers would not submit to this easy and short mode of decision, the abbot was reluctantly obliged to enter the lists of argument with them. Accordingly, in the beginning of 1559, he challenged Willock, who was preaching in his neighbourhood, to a dispute on the sacrifice of the mass. The challenge was accepted, the time and place of meeting were fixed ; but the dispute did not take place, as Kennedy refused to appear, unless his antagonist would previously engage to submit to the interpretations of Scripture which had been given by the ancient doctors of the Church. J From this time he seems to have made the mass the great subject of his study, and in 1561 wrote a book in its de- fence, which was answered by George Hay.§ On the 30th of August 1562, the abbot read, in his chapel of Kirkoswald, a number of articles respecting the mass, purga- tory, praying to saints, the use of images, and other points, which he said, he would defend against any who should impugn them, and he promised to declare his mind more fully on the following Sabbath. Knox, who was in the vicinity, * Kennedy, Compendius Tractive, A, iiij. f Ibid. D. vii. I Keith, App. 195 — 199. Kennedy, in a letter to the Archbishop of Glas- gow, says, " Willock, and the rest of his counsell, liibourit earnestlie to sie git" I wald admitt the Scripture onlye jug-e, and, be that mcines, to haif maid rne contrarry to my awin buke ; bot thair labouris wes in waist. I held me evir fast at ane groundo." And he triumphs, that he " draif the lymmar — to refuse the interpretation of tlie doctoris allegeit be him and all utheris, bot so far as he thocht they war agreable with the worde of God, quhiJk was as rycht nocht." Ibid. 193, 194. 5 See Note BBB. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 243 came to Kirkoswald on that day, with the design of hearing the abbot, and granting him the disputation which he had courted. In the morning, he sent some gentlemen who accompanied him to acquaint Kennedy with the reason of his coming, and to de- sire him either to preach according to his promise, or to attend Knox's sermon, and afterwards to state his objections to the doctrine which might be delivered. The abbot did not think it proper to appear, and Knox preached in the chapel. When he came down from the pulpit a letter from Kennedy was put into his hand, which led to an epistolary correspondence between them, fully as curious as the dispute which followed. The abbot wrote to Knox, that he was informed he had come to that quarter of the country " to seik disputation," which he was so far from refusing, that he " earnestlie and effectuouslie covated the samin," and with that view should meet him next Sunday in any house in Maybole that he choosed, provided not more than twenty persons on each side were allowed to be pre- sent. The reformer replied, that he had come to that quarter for the purpose of preaching the gospel, and not of disputing ; that he was under a previous engagement to be in Dumfries on the day mentioned by the abbot, but that he would return with all convenient speed, and fix a time for meeting him. To this letter the abbot sent an answer, to which Knox merely returned a verbal message at the time ; but when he afterwards' published the correspondence, affixed short notes to it by way of reply. The abbot proposed that they should have " familear, formall, and gentill ressoning." — « With my whole hart I accept the condition," replies the Reformer ; " for assuredlie, my lord, (so I stile you by reason of blood, and not of office), chiding and brawling I utterlie abhor." To Knox's declaration that he had come to "■ preach Jesus Christ crucified to be the only Saviour of the world," the abbot answers, " Praise be to God, that was na newings in this countrie, or ye war borne." — " I greatlie dout," replies the Reformer, " if ever Christ Jesus was truelie preached by a papistical prelat or monk." As an excuse for his not preaching at Kirkoswald on the day he had promised, the abbot says, that Knox had come to the place convoyed by five or six score strangers. " I lay the night before," says Knox, " in Mayboil, accompanied with fewer than twentie." The abbot boasted, that Willock, at a former period, and Hay, more lately, had refused to dispute with him, until they consult- ed the council and their brethren. Maister George Hay offered unto your disputation, but ye fled the barrass." Knox wished the dispute to be conducted publicly in St, John's Clmrch, Ayr ; for, says he, " I wonder with what conscience ye can require privat conference of those artikles that ye have publicklie pro- poned. Ye have infected the ears of the simple, ye have 244 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. wounded the hartes of the godlie, and ye have spoken blasphe- mie in oppen audience. Let your owne conscience nowe he judge, if we be bound to answer you in the audience of twenty or forty, of whom the one half are aheadie persuaded in the treuth, and the other perchance so addicted to your error, that they will not be content that light be called light, and darknes, dar'knes." — " Ye said ane lytill afore," answers the abbot, " ye did abhor all chiding and railing, hot nature passis nurtor with yow." — " I will neither interchange nature nor nurtor with yow, for all the profTets of Crosraguell." — " Gif the victorie consist in calmour or crying out," says the abbot, objecting to a public meeting, " I wil quite you the cause but farder pley ; * and yet, praise be to God, I may whisper in sic manner as I will be hard sufficientlie in the largest house in all Carrick," — " The larger the house, the better for the auditor and me," replied the Re- former. The Earl of Cassilis wrote to Knox, expressing his disap- probation of the proposed dispute, as unhkely to do any good, and calculated to endanger the public peace ; to which the Reformer replied, by signifying, that his relation had given the challenge, which he was resolved not to decline, and that his lordship ought to encourage him to keep the appointment, from which no bad effects were to be dreaded. Upon tiiis the abbot wrote a letter to Knox, charging him with having procured Cassilis's letter, to bring him into disgrace, and to advance his own honour ; and saying, that he would have " rancountered" him the last time he was in that country, had it not been for the interposition of his nephew. " Ye sal be assured," adds he, " 1 sal keip day and place in Mayboill, according to my writing, an I half my life, an my feit louse ;" and in another letter to Knox and the bailies of Ayr, he says, " Keip your promes, and pretex na oukrie, by my lorde of Cassilis writing." — " To neither of these," says Knox, " did I answer otherwise than by appointing the day, and promising to keap the same. For I can pacientlie suffer wantone men to speak wantonlie, consid- ering that I had sufficiently answered my lord of Cassilis in that behalf" The conditions of the combat were now speedily settled. They agreed to meet on the 2Sth of September, at eight o'clock in the morning, in the house of the provost of Maybole. Forty persons on each side were to be admitted as witnesses of the dispute, with " as many mo as the house might goodly hold, at the sight of my lord of Cassilis." And notaries, or scribes, were chosen on each side to record the papers which migiit be given in by the parties, and the arguments which they advanced * Without further plea. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 245 in the course of reasoning, to prevent unnecessary repetition, or a false report of the proceedings. These conditions were form- ally drawn out, and subscribed by the Abbot and the Reformer, on the day preceding the meeting. When they met, " Johne Knox addressed him to make pub- lict prayer, whereat the abbot wes soir offended at the first, but v/hil the said John wold in nowise be stayed, he and his gave audience ; which being ended, the abbote said, ' Be my faith, it is Weill said.' " The reasoning commenced by reading a paper presented by the abbot, in which, after rehearsing the occasion of his present appearance, and protesting, that his entering into dispute was not to be understood as implying that the points in question were disputable or dubious, being already determined by lawful general councils, he declared his readiness to defend the articles which he had exhibited, beginning with that con- cerning the sacrifice of the mass. To this paper Knox gave in a written answer in the course of the disputation ; and, in the mean time, after stating his opinion respecting general councils, he proceeded to the article in dispute. It was requisite, he said, to state clearly and distinctly the subject in controversy, and he thought the mass contained the four following things : the name, the form and action, the opinion entertained of it, and the actor, with the authority which he had to do what he pretended to do ; all of which, he was prepared to shew, were destitute of any foundation in Scripture. The abbot was aware of the difficul- ty of managing the point on such broad ground, and he had taken up ground of his own, which he thought he could main- tain against his antagonist. " As to the masse that he will impung," said he, " or any mannes masse, yea, an it war the paipes awin masse, I will mantein na thing but Jesus Christes masse, conforme to my article, as it is written, and diffinition contened in my buik, whilk he lies tane on hand to impung." Knox expressed his delight at hearing the abbot say, that he v/ould defend nothing but the mass of Christ, for if he adhered to this, they were " on the verray point of an Christiane agre- ment," as he was ready to allow whatever could be shewn to have been instituted by Christ. As to his lordship's book, he confessed he had not read it, and (without excusing his negli- gence) requested the definition to be read to him from it. The abbot qualified his assertion by saying, that he meant to defend no other mass, except that which in its " substance, institution, and effect," was appointed by Christ ; and he defined the mass, in its substance and effect, to be the sacrifice and oblation of the Lord's body and blood, given and ottered by him in the last supper ; and for the first confirmation of this, he rested upon the oblation of bread and wine by Melchizedec. His argument was, that the Scripture declared Christ to be a priest after the 21 * 246 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. order of Melchizedec. Melchizedec offered bread and wine to God ; therefore Christ offered or made oblation of his body and blood in the last supper, which was the only instance in which the priesthood of Christ and Melchizedec could agree. Knox said, that the ceremonies of the mass, and the opinion entertained of it, (as procuring remission of sins to the quick and the dead,) were viewed as important parts of it, and, having a strong hold of the consciences of the people, ought to be taken into the argument ; but as the abbot declared himself willing to defend these afterwards, he would proceed to the substance, and proposed, in the first place, to fix the sense in which the word sacrifice or oblation was used in this question. There were sacrifices projntiatorise for expiation, and eiicharisticx, for thanksgiving ; in which last sense the mortification of the body, prayer, and almsgiving were called sacrifices in Scripture. He wished, therefore, to know whether the abbot understood the word in the first or second of these senses in this dispute. The abbot said, that he would not at present inquire what his opponent meant by a sacrifice propitiatorium ; but he held the sacrifice on the cross to be the only sacrifice of redemption, and that of the mass to be the sacrifice of commemoration of the death and passion of Christ. Knox replied, that the chief head which he intended to impugn, seemed to be yielded by the abbot ; and he, for his part, cheerfully granted, that there was a commemoration of Christ's death in the right use of the ordi- nance of the supper. The abbot insisted, that Knox should proceed to impugn the warrant which he had taken from Scripture for his article. " Pro- testing," said the reformer, " tliat this mekle is win, that the sacrifice of the messe being denied by me to be a sacrifice pro- pitiatorie for the sins of the quick and the dead (according to the opinion thereof before conceaved) hath no patron at the present, I am content to procede." — " I protest he hes Avin no- thing of me as yit, and referres it to black and white contened in our writing." — " I liave openlie denied the masse to be an sacrifice propitiatorie for the quick, &c. and the defence thereof is denied. And, therefore, I referre me unto the same judges that my lord hath clamed." — " Ye may denie what ye pleis ; for all that ye denie I tak not presentlie to impung ; but whair I began there will I end, that is, to defend the messe conform to my artickle." — " Your lordship's ground," said Knox, after some altercation, " is, that Melchizedeck is the figure of Christe in that he did offer unto God bread and whie, and that it be- hoved Jesus Christ to ofTer, in his latter supper, his body and blude under the forms of bread and wine. I answer to your ground yet againe, that Melchizedeck offered neither bread nor LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 247 wine unto God ; and, therefore, it that ye would thereupon conchide hath no assurance of your ground," — " Preve that," said the abbot. Knox rephed, that, according to the rules of just reasoning, he could not be bound to prove a negative; that it was incumbent on his opponent to bring forward some proof for his affirmation, concerning which, the text was altogether silent ; and that until the abbot did this it was sufficient for him simply to deny. But the abbot said, he "stuck to his text," and insisted that his antagonist should shew for what purpose Melchizedec brought out the bread and the wine, if it was not to ojffer them to God. After protesting that the abbot's position remained destitute of support, and that he was not bound, in point of argument, to shew what became of the bread and wine, or what use was made of them, Knox consented to state his opinion, that they were intended by Melchizedec to refresh Abraham and his company. The abbot had now gained what he wished ; and he had a number of objections ready to start against this view of the words, by which he was able at least to protract and involve the dispute. And thus ended the first day's contest. When the company convened on the following day, the abbot proceeded to impugn the view which his opponent had given of the text. He urged, first, that Abraham and his company had a sufficiency of provision in the spoils which they had taken from the enemy in their late victory, and did not need Melchiz- edec's bread and wine ; and, secondly, that the text said that Melchizedec brought them forth, and it was improbable that one man, and he a king, should carry as much as would refresh three hundred and eighteen men. To these objections Knox made such replies as will occur to any person who thinks on the subject. And in this manner did the second day pass. When they met on the third day, the abbot presented a paper, in which he stated another objection to Knox's view of the text. After some more altercation on this subject, Knox desired his opponent to proceed, according to his promise, to establish the argument upon which he had rested his cause. But the ab- bot, being indisposed, rose up, and put into Knox's hand a book to which he referred him for the proof By this time the noble- men and gentlemen present were completely wearied out. For, besides the tedious and uninteresting mode in which the dispu- tation had been managed, they could find entertainment neither for themselves nor for their retinue in Maybole ; so that if any person had brought in bread and wine among them, it is presu- mable that they would not have debated long upon the purpose for which it was brought. Knox proposed that they should ad- journ to Ayr and finish the dispute, which was refused by the abbot, who said he would come to Edinburgh for that purpose, 248 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. provided he could obtain the queen's permission. Upon this the company dismissed. The dispute was never resumed, though Knox says that he appUed to the privy council for liberty to the abbot to come to Edinburgh for this purpose. Kennedy died in August 1564. It has been said that he was canonized as a saint after his death,* and Dempster makes him both a saint and a martyr.t I have not seen his name in the Romish calendar, but I find (what is of as great consequence) that the grand argument upon which he insisted in his disputation with the Reformer has been can- onized. For in the calendar, at " March 25," it is written, " Melchezedec sacrifeit breid and wyne in figure of ye bodie and blond of our Lord, whilk is ofterit in ye rnesse."| Doubt- less those who knew the very month and day on which this happened, must have been better acquainted with the design of Melchizedec than either Moses or Paul, The abbot and his friends having circulated the report that he had the advantage in the disputation, Knox, in 1563, publish- ed the account of it from the records of the notaries, to which he added a prologue and short marginal notes. The prologue and his answer to the abbot's first paper, especially the latter, are pieces of good writing, I have been more minute in the narrative of this dispute than its merits deserve, because no ac- count of it has hitherto appeared, the tract itself being so ex- ceedingly rare as to have been seen by but few for a long period. § Another priest who defended the Roman Catholic cause at this time was Ninian Wingate. He had been schoolmaster of Linlithgow, from which situation he was removed by Spots- wood, superintendent of Lothian, on account of his devoted at- * Crawford's Peerage of Scotland, p. 75. I " Auo-ustus 22 — Monasterio Crucis regalis obitus Beati Quintirii Kenne- dii abbatis, Comitis Cassilii fratris, qui adrniranda constantia sex annis totis, cum hffiresi nascente, et jam contirmataconflixit, ad extremum lento veneno consumptus, corruptoque sanguine excessit." Dempsteri Menologium Scot- orum, p. 20. Bononiis, 1622. \ See Calendar, by " M. Adam King, profeseur of philosophie and Mathi- matikis at Paris," prefixed to a Scottish translation of Canisius's Catechism, printed in 1.587. § Knox gives merely a general notice of this dispute in his Historie, p. 318. Keith, who was very industrious in collecting whatever referred to the ecclesiastical history of tiiat period, could not obtain a copy of the prmt- ed disputation, and had heard of but one imperfect copy. History, App, 255. Tlie only copy known to exist at present is in the library of Alex- ander BoswcU, Esq, of Auchinlcck. — Since the publication of the first edi- tion of this Life, Mr. Boswell has printed a small impression of this unique, being an exact fac simile of the original edition for the gratification of the curious. [See British Reformers, vol. IX. edition of Board of Publication.] LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 249 tacbment to popery. In the month of February 1562, he sent to Knox a writing, consisting of eighty-three questions upon the principal topics of dispute bet\?een the Papists and Protestants, which he had drawn up in the name of the inferior clergy, and laity, of the Catholic persuasion in Scotland. To some of these, particularly the questions which related to the call of the Pro- testant ministers, the Reformer returned an answer from the pul- pit, and Wingate addressed several letters to him, complaining that his answers were not satisfactory. These letters, with ad- dresses to the queen, nobility, bishops, and magistrates of Edin- burgh, Wingate committed to the press, but the impression being seized in the printer's house (according to Bishop Lesley), the author made his escape, and went to the Continent.* Knox intended to publish an answer to Wingate's questions, and to defend the validity of the Protestant ministry ; but it does not appear that he carried his design into execution.! In the beginning of 1563, Knox went to Jedburgh, by appointment of the General Assembly, to investigate a scandal which had broken out against Paul Methven, the minister of that place, who was suspected of adultery. Methven was found guilty, and excommunicated. J Having fled to England, he sent a letter to the General Assembly, professing his wiUingness to submit to the discipline of the Church, but requesting that the account of his process should be deleted from the records of the Church. The Assembly declared that he might return with safety to his native country, and that he should be admitted to public repentance, but refused to erase the process from their minutes. § He afterwards returned to Scotland ; and a severe and humiliating penance was prescribed to him. He was en- * Lesley, apud Keith, p. 501. App. 223. Lesley speaks of a dispute be- tween Knox and Wingate, but that historian is often incorrect in his details. The dispute between the doctors of Aberdeen and the ministers, which took place in the beginning of 1561, is mentioned by Knox, Historie, pp. 261, 2G2. It would seem from a letter of Randolph, that there was a dispute in the end of 1.561, between some of the ministers and a Parisian divine, who had accom- panied the queen. Keith, 208. Wingate published at Antwerp, his " Buke of Fourscoir Three Questionis," in 15'i:3. Keith has reprinted this, along with his " Tractatis," origmally printed at Edinburgh. He calls them " very rare and much noted pieces." History, App. 203. In point of argument or senti- ment, they are certainly not noted ; but they contain a strong proof of the ex- treme corruption which prevailed among the superior popish clergy, against which Wingate inveighs as keenly as any reformer. His second book con- cludes with this exclamation, " Och, for mair paper or pennyis !" Wingate translated several works of the Fathers into the Scottish language, some of which are mentioned by him in his Tractatis. Keith, App. 226, 227. He was made abbot of a Scottish monastery at Ratisbon. Mackenzie's Lives, vol. iii. p. 149. t See Note CCC. J Knox, Historie, pp. 323, 324. Keith, .522. J Keith, p. 538. G2 250 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. joined to appear at the church-door of Edinburgh, when the second bell rang for pubHc worship, clad in sackcloth, bare- headed and barefooted ; to stand there until the prayer and psalms were finished, when he was to be brought into the church to hear sermon, during which he was to be " placeit in the public spectakell above the peiple." This appearance he was to make on three several preaching-days, and on the last of them, being a Sabbath, he was, at the close of the sermon, to profess his sorrow before the congregation, and to request their forgiveness ; upon which he was again to be " clad in his awin apparell," and received into the communion of the Church. He was to repeat this course at Dundee and at Jedburgh, where he had officiated as minister.* Methven went through a part of this humbling scene, with professions of deep sorrow ; but behig overwhelmed with shame, and despairing to regain his lost reputation, he stopped in the midst of it, and again re- tired to England.! Prudential considerations were not wanting to induce the reformed Church of Scotland to stifle this alfair, and to screen from public ignominy a man who had acted a distinguished part in the late reformation of religion. But they refused to listen to these ; and by instituting a strict scrutiny into the fact, and inflicting an exemplary punishment upon the criminal, they "approved themselves to be clear in this matter," and eft'ectually shut the mouths of their Popish adversaries. The mode of public repentance enjoined on this occasion was appointed to be afterwards used in all cases of aggravated im- morality.! There was nothing in which the Scottish reformers approached nearer to the primitive Church than in the rigorous and impartial exercise of ecclesiastical discipline, the relaxation of which, under the Papacy, they justly regarded as one great cause of the universal corruption of religion. While they rejected many of the ceremonies which were introduced into the worship of the Christian Church during the first three cen- turies, they, from detestation of vice, and a desire to restrain it, did not scruple to conform to a number of their penitential re- gulations. In some instances they might cany their rigour against off"enders to an extreme ; but it was a virtuous extreme, compared with the dangerous laxity, or rather total disuse of discipline, which has gradually crept into almost all the Churches which retain the name of reformed ; even as the scrupulous delicacy with which our forefathers shunned the society of those who had transgressed the rules of morality is to be preferred to modern manners, by which the vicious obtain easy admission into the company of the virtuous. * Bulk of the Universal Kirk, p. 23. Keith, 559, 560. t Knox, Historic, p. 398. J See Note DDD. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 251 'Twas hard, perhaps, on here and there a waif, Desirous to return, and not received: But was an wholesome rigour in the main, And taught the unblemished to preserve with care That purity, whose loss was loss of ail. But now — yes, now, We are become so candid and so fair, So liberal in construction, and so rich In Christian -charity, (good-natured age !) That they are safe, sinners of either sex. Transgress what laws they may. Cowper's Task. B. iii. In the month of May the queen sent for Knox to Lochleven, The Popish priests, presuming upon her avowed partiahty to them, and her secret promises of protection, had of late become more bold ; and, during the late Easter, masses had been openly celebrated in different parts of the kingdom. Repeated procla- mations had been issued against this practice by the queen in council, but none of them were carried into execution. The gentlemen of the west country, who were the riiost zealous Protestants, perceiving that the laws were eluded, came to the resolution of executing them, without making any application to the court, and apprehended some of the oftenders by way of example. These decided proceedings, which were calculated to defeat the scheme of policy which she had formed, gave great offence to her majesty ; but finding that the signification of her displeasure had not the effect of stopping them, she wished to avail herself of the Reformer's influence for accom- plishing her purpose. She dealt with him very earnestly for two hours before sup- per, to persuade the western gentlemen to desist from all inter- ruption of the Catholic worship. He told her majesty, that if she would exert her authority in executing the laws of the land, he could promise for the peaceable behaviour of the Pro- testants ; but if she thought to elude them, he feared there were some who would let the Papists understand that they should not offend with impunity. " Will ye allow, that they shall take Tny sword in their hands ?" said the queen. " The sword of jus- tice is God's ," replied the Reformer with equal firmness," and is given to princes and rulers for one end, which, if they trans- gress, sparing 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 some examples from Scripture to shew that criminals might be punished by persons who did not occupy the place of supreme rulers, he added, that the gentlemen of the West were actuig strictly according to law ; for the act of par- liament gave power to all judges within their bounds, to search for and punish those who should transgress its enactments. He concluded with inculcating a doctrine which has seldom been 262 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. very pleasing to princes : " It shall be profitable to your majesty to consider what is the thing your grace's subjects look to re- ceive 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 service : 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 punish malefactors), think ye to receive full obedience of them ? I fear, madam, ye shall not." The queen broke olf the conver- sation with evident marks of displeasure. Having imparted the substance of what had passed between them to the Earl of Murray, Knox meant to return to Edin- burgh next day without waiting for any further communica- tions with the queen. But a message was delivered to him at ' an early hour in the morning, desiring him not to depart until he had again spoken with her majesty. He accordingly met her at a place in the neighbourhood of Kinross, where she took the amusement of hawking. This interview was very different from that of the preceding evening. Waiving entirely the sub- ject on which they had ditiered, she conversed with him upon a variety of topics, with the greatest familiarity and apparent Qonfidence. Lord Ruthven (she said) had oflered her a ring ; but she could not love that nobleman. She knew that he used enchantment ; * yet he had been made a member of her privy council ; and she blamed secretary Lethington for procuring his admission into that body. Knox excused himself from saying any thing of the secretary in his absence. " I understand," said she, introducing another subject of discourse, " that ye are appointed to go to Dumfries, for the election of a superintendent to be established in these countries." He answered ui the affirmative. " But I understand the Bishop of Athenst would be superintendent." " He is one, madam, that is put in elec- tion." " If you knew him as well as I do, you would not pro- mote him to that office, nor yet to any other within your kirk." Knox said that the bishop deceived many, if he did not fear God. " Well, do as you will ; but that man is a dangerous man." * Comp. Knox, Historie, 327. with Keith, Append. 125. • t In Knox's Historie, it is printed Cathenis, by mistake, instead of Athcnis. 'the person referred to is Alexander Gordon, brother to George, Earl ot'IIuntly, who was slain at Corricliie in 1562. Scarcely any Scottish prelate ever occupied so many different sees, or occupied them for so short a time, lie was Bishop of Caithness, Archbishop of Glasgow, Bishop of the Isles, and Bisliop of Galloway. Wiien he was deprived of tlic see of Glas- gow, the pope, as a recompense, created him titular ArcJibishop of Athens. Gordon's Genealoo-ical History of the Earldon of Sutherland, pp. Ill — 12, 137, 290. Keith's Scottish Bishops, pp. 128, 153, Itjti, 175. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 253 Knox wished to take his leave of her majesty, but she pressed him to stay. " I have one of the greatest matters that have touched me, since I came into this realm, to open to you, and I must have your help in it," said she, with an air of con- descension and confidence as enchanting as if she had put a ring on his finger. She then entered into a long discourse with him concerning a domestic difference between the Earl and Countess of Argyle. Her ladyship, had not, she said, been so circumspect in every thing as could have been wished, but still she was of opinion that his lordship had not treated her in an honest and godly manner. Knox said that he was not un- acquainted with the disagreeable variance which had subsisted between that honourable couple, and, before her majesty's ar- rival in this country, had effected a reconciliation between them. On that occasion, the countess had promised not to complain to any creature before acquainting him ; and having never heard from her on that subject, he had concluded that there was nothing but concord between her and his lordship. " Well," said the queen, " it is worse than ye believe. But do this much for my sake, as once again to put them at unity, and if she behave not herself as she ought to do, she shall find no favour of me : but in any wise let not my lord know that I have request- ed you in this matter." Then introducing the subject of their reasoning on the preceding evening, she said, " I promise to do as ye required : I shall cause summon all offenders ; and ye shall know that I shall minister justice." " I am assured, then," said he, " that ye shall please God, and enjoy rest and tranquillity within your realm, which to your majesty is more profitable than all the pope's power can be." Upon this he took his leave of the queen.* This interview exhibits one part of Mary's character in a very striking light. It shews how far she was capable of dissembling, what artifice she could employ, and what con- descensions she could make, when she was bent on accomplish- ing a favourite object, She had formerly attacked the Refor- mer on another quarter without success, and was convinced that it was vain to think of working on his fears ; she now resolved to try if she could soothe his stern temper by flattering his vanity, and disarm his jealousy by strong marks of confi- dence. There is reason to think that she partly succeeded in her design. For, though he was not very susceptible of flattery, and must have been struck with the sudden change in the queen's views and behaviour, there are few minds that can altogether resist the impression made by the condescending familiarity of persons of superior rank ; and our feelings, on * Knox, Historie, pp. 326—328. 22 254 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. such occasions, chide as uncharitable the cold suspicions suggested by our judgment. In obedience to her majesty's request, he wrote a letter to the Earl of Argyle, which was not very pleasing to that nobleman. From deference to the opinion wliich she had expressed, he inquired more narrowly into the conduct of the Bishop of Galloway, and finding some grounds of suspicion, postponed the election. And the report which he gave of the queen's gracious answer operated in her favour on the public mind.* But if his zeal suffered a temporary intermission, it soon kindled with fresh ardour. On the 19th of May, the Arch- bishop of St. Andrews, and a number of the principal Papists, were arraigned, by the queen's orders, before the Lord Justice General, for transgressing the laws ; and, having come in her majesty's will, were committed to ward. But this was merely a stroke of policy, to enable her the more easily to carry her measures in the parliament which met on the following day ; and, accordingly, the prisoners were set at liberty as soon as it was dissolved.f This was the first parliament which had been held since the queen's arrival in Scotland ; and it was natural to expect that their first business would be to ratify the treaty of peace made in July 1560, and the establishment of the Protestant religion. If the acts of the former parliament were invalid, as the queen had repeatedly declared, the Protestants had no law on their side ; they held their rehgion at the mercy of their sovereign, and might be required at her pleasure, to submit to Popery, as the religion which still possessed the legal establishment. But so well had she laid her plans, such was the effect of her insin- uating address, and, above all, vso 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 which presented itself, during the reign of Mary, for giving a legal security to the reformed reli- gion, and thereby removing one principal source of national fears and jealousies. An act of oblivion, securing indemnity to those who had been engaged in the late civil war, was indeed passed ; but the mode of its enactment virtually implied the in- validity of the treaty in which it had been originally embodied ; and the Protestants, on their bended Imees,:]: supplicated, as a boon from their sovereign, what they had formerly won with their swords, and repeatedly demanded as their right. The other acts made to please the more zealous reformers were * Knox, Historie, pp. 327—429. t Ibid. 330—334. \ Spotswood, 188. " We are very much obliged to the information of Archbishop Spotswood " for this, says honest Keith. History, 240. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 255 expressed with such studied and glaring ambiguity, as to oifer an insult to their understandings.* Our Reformer was thunderstruck when first informed of the measures which were in agitation, and could scarcely believe that it was seriously intended to carry them into execution. He immediately procured an interview with some of the lead- ing members of parliament, to whom he represented the danger of allowing that meeting to dissolve without obtaining the rati- fication of the acts of the preceding parliament, or at least those acts which established the Reformation. They alleged, that the queen would never have agreed to call them together, if they had persisted in these demands ; but that there was a prospect of her being soon married, and on that occasion they would ob- tain all their wishes. In vain he reminded them that poets and painters had represented Occasion with a bald hind-head ; in vain he urged, that the event to which they looked forward would be accompanied with difficulties of its own, which would require all their skill and circumspection. Their determination was fixed. He now perceived the full extent of the queen's dissimulation ; and the selfishness and servility of the Protestant leaders affected him deeply. So hot was the altercation between him and the Earl of Mur- ray on this subject, that an open rupture ensued. Knox had long looked upon that nobleman as one of the most sincere and steady adherents of the reformed cause ; and therefore felt the greater disappointment at his conduct. Under his first irritation he wrote a letter to Murray, in which, after reminding him of his condition when they first became acquainted in London, t and the honours to which he had been raised by Providence, he solemnly renounced friendship with him, as one who prefer- red his own interest and the pleasure of his sister to the advance- ment of religion, left him to the guidance of the new counsellors * Act. Pari. Scot. ii. 536—8. Knox, 331. Keith, 240. j I have not been able to ascertain the time at which the acquaintance between the Earl of Murray and the Reformer commenced. It was prob- ably soon after Knox came into England, in the reign of Edward VI. A Popish writer has mentioned their meeting and grafted upon it the calumny, current among the party, that the earl had formed the ambitious project of wresting the crown from his sister, and placing it on his own head. " Jo- hann Kmnox deceavit him," says he, "in S. Paules kirk in Londone, bring- and him in consait, that God had chosen him extraordinarilie as ane Josias, to be king of Scotland, to rute out idolatrie, and to plant the licht of the new evangel : qahair they convenit in this manner. That the prior of St. Androis, Erl of Murray, sould mentene the new Elias againis the priestes of Bael (for sua blasphemouslie he namit the priestes of Christ Jesus). And the neu Elias 'sould fortifie the new Josias, be procuring the favour of the people againis lesabel, blaspheming maist impudentlie the quenis M." Nicol Burne's Disputation, p. 15(>. Knox was at least better acquainted with Scripture history than to make Josias contemporary with Elias and Jesabel. 256 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. whom he had chosen, and exonerated him from all future con- cern in his affairs. This variance, which continued nearly two years, was very gratifying to the queen, and to others who dis- liked their former famiUarity, and who failed not (as Knox in- forms us) to "cast oil into the flame, until God did quench it by the water of affliction."* Before the dissolution of the parliament, the Reformer em- braced an opportunity of disbiu'dening his mind in the presence of the greater part of the members assembled in his church. After discoursing of the great mercy of God shewn to Scotland, in marvellously delivering them from bondage of soul and body, and of the deep ingratitude which he perceived in all ranks of persons, he addressed himself particularly to the nobility. He praised God that he had an opportunity of pouring out the sor- rows of his heart in the presence of those who could attest the truth of all that he said. He appealed to their consciences, if he had not, in their greatest extremities, exhorted them to de- pend upon God, and assured them of preservation and victory, provided they preferred the divine glory to their own lives and secular interests. " I have been with you in your most despe- rate temptations (continued he, in a strain of impassioned elo- quence) ; in your most extreme dangers I have been with you. St. Johnston, Cupar-moor, and the Craggs of Edinburgh,! are yet recent in my heart ; yea, that dark and dolorous night where- in all ye, my lords, with shame and fear, left this town, is yet in my mind ; J and God forbid that ever I forge.t it ! What was, I say, my exhortation to you, and what has fallen in vain of all that ever God promised unto you by my mouth, ye yourselves yet live to testily. There is not one of you, against whom was death and destruction threatened, perished : and how many of your enemies has God plagued before your eyes ! Shall this he the thankfulness that ye shall render unto your God, to betray his cause when you have it in your hands to establish it as you please ?" He saw nothing (he said) but a cowardly de- sertion of Christ's standard. Some had even the effrontery to say that they had neither law nor parliament for their religion. They had the authority of God for their religion, and its truth was independent of human laws; but it was also accepted within this realm in public parliament, and that parliament he would maintain to have been as lawful and as free as any par- liament that had ever been held within the kingdom of Scotland. * Knox, Historie, p. 331. t Refcrriiiij; to the critical circumstance in which the lords of the Congre- gation had hcLMi situated at these places, when the queen regent threatened to attack theui with superior forces. See above, pp. 1(37, 170, 177. I See above, p. 190. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 257 In the conclusion of his discourse, he adverted to the reports of her majesty's marriage, and of the princes who courted her hand ; and (desiring the audience to mark his words) he predic- ted the consequences which would ensue, if ever the nobility consented that their sovereign should marry a Papist. Protestants, as well as Papists, were offended with the free- dom of this sermon, and some who had been most familiar with the preacher now shunned his company. Flatterers were not wanting to run to the queen, and inform her that John Knox had preached against her marriage. After surmounting all opposi- tion to her measures, and managing so successfully the haughty and independent barons of her kingdom, Mary was incensed to think that there should yet be one man of obscure condition who ventured to condemn her proceedings ; and as she could not tame his stubbornness, she determined to punish his teme- rity. He was ordered instantly to appear before her. Lord Ochiltree, with several gentlemen, accompanied him to the palace ; but the superintendent of Angus, Erskine of Dun, was the only person allowed to go with him into the royal pres- ence. Her majesty received him in a very different manner from what she had done at Lochleven. Never had prince been han- dled (she passionately exclaimed) as she was ; she had borne with him in all his rigorous speeches against herself and her uncles — she had sought his favour by all means — she had ofier- ed unto him audience whenever he pleased to admonish her ; « and yet," said she, " I cannot be quit of you. I vow to God I shall be once revenged !" On pronouncing these words with great violence, she burst into a flood of tears, which interrupt- ed her speech. When the queen had composed herself, Knox proceeded calmly to make his defence. Her grace and he had (he said) at different times been engaged in controversy, and he never before had perceived her offended with him. When it should please God to deliver her from the bondage of error in which she had been trained up, through want of instruction in the truth, he trusted that her majesty would not find the lib- erty of his tongue offensive. Out of the pulpit, he believed, few had occasion to complain of him; but there he was not his own master, but was bound to obey Him who commanded him to speak plainly, and to flatter no flesh on the face of the earth. "But what have you to do with my marriage ?" demanded the queen. He was proceeding to state the extent of his com- mission as a preacher, and the reasons which led him to touch on that delicate subject ; but she interrupted him by repeating her question, " What have you to do with my marriage ? Or what are you in this commonwealth ?" — " A subject born with- 22* H2 258 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. in the same, madam," replied the Reformer, piqued by the last question, and by the contemptuous tone in which it was proposed. " And albeit I be neither earl, lord, nor baron in it, yet has God made me (how abject that ever I be in your eyes) a profitable member within the same. Yea, madam, to me it appertains no less to forwarn of such things as may hurt it, if I forsee them, than it doth to any of the nobility ; for both my vocation and conscience require plainness of me. And, therefore, madam, to yourself I say that which I spake in public place. Whenso- ever the nobility of this realm shall consent that ye be subject to an unfaithful husband, they do as much as in them lieth to renounce Christ, to banish his truth from them, to betray the freedom of this realm, and perchance shall in the end do small comfort to yourself" At these words, Mary began again to sob and weep with great bitterness. The superintendent, who was a man of mild and gentle spirit, tried to mitigate her grief and resentment ; he praised her beauty and her accomplishments; and told her that there was not a prince in Europe who would not reckon himself happy in gaining her hand. During this scene, the severe and inflexible mind of the Reformer displayed itself. He continued silent, and v/ith unaltered countenance, until the queen had given vent to her feelings. He then pro- tested, that he never took delight in the distress of any creature ; it was with great difficulty that he could see his own boys weep when he corrected them for their faults, and far less could he rejoice in her majesty's tears ; but seeing he had given her no just reason of otfence, and had only discharged his duty, he was constrained, though unwillingly, to sustain her tears, rather than hurt his conscience, and betray the commonwealth by his silence. This apology inflamed the queen still more ; she ordered him instantly to leave her presence, and to wait the signification of her pleasure in the adjoining room. There he stood as " one whom men had never seen ;" all his friends, Lord Ochiltree ex- cepted, being afraid to shew him the smallest countenance. In this situation he addressed himself to the court ladies, who sat in their richest dress in the chamber : " 0 fair ladies, how plesing war this lyfe of yours, if it sould ever abyde, and then, in the end, that ye might pas to hevin with all this gay gear ! But fye upon that knave Death, that will come widder we will or not !" Having engaged them in conversation by a mixture of seriousness and raillery, he passed the time, till the superin- tendent came, and informed him that he was allowed to go home until her majesty had taken farther advice. The queen insisted to have the judgment of the Lords of Articles, whether the words he had used in the pulpit were not actionable ; but she was persuaded by her counsellors to abandon the idea of a LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 259 prosecution. '• And so that storme quietit in appearance, bot nevir in the hart."* No expressions are sufficiently strong to describe the horror which many feel at the monstrous inhumanity of Knox, in re- mainhig unmoved, while " youth, beauty, and royal dignity,"t were dissolved in tears before him. Enchanting, surely, must the charms of the Queen of Scots have been, and iron-hearted the Reformer, who could resist the impression of them, when they continue to this day to exercise such a sway over the hearts of men, that even grave and serious authors, not addicted to the language of gallantry and romance, protest, that they cannot read of the tears which she shed on this occasion, with- out feeling an irresistible inclination to weep along with her. There may be some, however, who, knowing how much real misery there is in the world, are not disposed to waste their feelings unnecessarily, and who are of opinion, that there was not much to commiserate in the condition of the queen, nor to reprobate in the conduct of the Reformer. Considering that she had been so fortunate in her measures, and had found the no- bility so ready to gratify all her wishes, the passion by which she suffered herself to be transported was extravagant, and her tears must have been those of anger more than of grief. On the other hand, when we consider that Knox was at this time deserted by his friends, and stood almost alone in resisting the will of a princess, who accomplished her measures chiefly by caresses and tears, we may be disposed to form a more favour- able idea of his conduct and motives. We behold not, indeed, the enthusiastic lover, mingling his tears with those of his mis- tress, and vowing to revenge her wrongs ; nor the man of nice sensibility, who loses every other consideration in the gratifica- tion of his feelings ; but we behold, what is more rare, the stern patriot — the rigid reformer — who, in the discharge of his duty, and in a public cause, can withstand the tide of tenderness as well as the storm of passion. There have been times when such conduct was regarded as the proof of a superior mind ; and the man who, from such motives, " hearkened not to the wife of his bosom, nor knew his own children," has been the object, not of censure, but of admiration, in pagan as well as sacred story. Fertur pudicae conjugis osculum, Parvosque natos, ut capitis minor, Ab se removisse, et viiilem Torvus humi posuisse vulium. * Knox Historie, pp. 332—334. t These are the words of Mr. Hume, who holds a distinguished place among the writers who have excited prejudices against our Reformer on the score of cruelty to Mary. The reader will find some remarks on the state- ments of that able but artful historian in Note EEE. 260 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. While Knox lay under the displeasure of the court, and had lost the confidence of his principal friends, his enemies judged it a favourable opportunity for attacking him in (what liad been universally allowed to be irreproachable) his moral conduct. At the very time that he was engaged in scrutinizing the scandal against Methven, and inflicting upon him the highest censure of the Church, it was alleged that he was himself guilty of the same crime. Euphemia Dundas, an inhabitant of Edin- burgh, inveighing one day, in the presence of a circle of her acquaintance, against the Protestant doctrine and ministers, said, among other things, that John Knox had been a common whoremonger all his life, and that, within a few days past, he " was apprehendit and tane furth of ane killogie with ane com- mon hure." This might have been passed over by Knox and the Church, as an eff"usion of Popish spleen or female scandal; but the recent occurrence at Jedburgh, the situation in which the- Reformer at present stood Math the court, the public manner in which the charge had been brought, and the specification of a particular instance, seemed to them to justify and call for a legal investigation. Accordingly, the clerk of the General Assembly, on the 18th of June, gave in a formal representation and petition to the town comicil, praying, that the woman might be brought before them, and the matter examined ; that, if the accusation was found true, the accused might be punished with every degree of merited rigour ; and that, if false, the accuser might be dealt with according to the demerit of her oflence. She was called, and, appearing before the council, flatly denied that she had ever used any such words ; although Knox's procurator afterwards produced respectable witnesses to prove that she had spoken them.* This convicted calumny, which never gained the smallest credit at the time, would not have deserved notice, had it not been revived, after the Reformer's death, by the Popish writers, who, having caught hold of the report, and dressed it out in all the horrid colours which malice or credulity could suggest, cir- culated it hidustriously, by their publications, through the Con- tinent. Though I had not been able to trace their slanders to this source, the atrocity of the imputed crimes, the unspotted re- putation which Knox uniformly maintained among all his con- temporaries, the glaring self-contradictions of the accusers, and, above all, the notorious spirit of slander and defamation of which they have long stood convicted in the learned world, would have been grounds sufficient for rejecting such charges * See Note FFF. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 261 with detestation. Those who are acquainted with the wri- tings of that period will not think that I speak too strongly ; such as are ignorant of them may be satisfied by looking into the notes.* The queen flattered herself that she had at last caught the Reformer in an offence, which would infallibly subject him to punishment. During her residence at Stirling, in the month of August, the domestics whom she left behind her in Holyrood- house, celebrated the Popish worship with greater publicity than had been usual when she was present ; and, at the time when the sacrament of the supper was dispensed in Edinburgh, they revived certain superstitious practices which had been laid aside by the Roman Catholics, since the establishment of the Reformation. This boldness offended the Protestants, and some of them went down to the palace to mark the inhabitants who repaired to the service. Perceiving numbers entering, they burst into the chapel, and presenting themselves at the altar, which was prepared for mass, asked the priest how he " durst be so malapert" as to proceed in that manner, when the queen was absent. Alarmed at this intrusion, the mistress of the household despatched a messenger to the comptroller, who was attending sermon in St Giles's Church, desiring him to come instantly to save her life and the palace. Having hurried down, accompanied with the magistrates and a guard, the comptroller found every thing quiet, and no appearance of tumult except what was occasioned by the retinue which he brought along with him.t When the report of this affair was conveyed to the queen, she declared her determination not to return to Edin- burgh until this riot was punished, and indicted two of the Protestants, who had entered the chapel, to stand trial " for forethought felony, hamesucken, and invasion of the palace." Fearing an intention to proceed to extremities against these men, and that their condemnation would be a preparative to some hostile attempt against their religion, the Protestants in Edin- burgh resolved that Knox, agreeably to a commission which he * See Note GGG. f Spotswood gives a different account of this affair, which has been adopt- ed by several writers. He not only says that the Protestants " forced the gates, but tiiat some [of the Papists] were taken and carried to prison, many escaped the back way with tlie priest himself." Historic, p. 188. But he could not have the opportunity of being so well acquainted with the circum- stances as Knox, whose account is totally irreconcilable with the archbish- op's. Knox expressly says, that, besides entering the chape], and address- ing the priest as above mentioned, " no further was done or said." Historic, pp. 835, 333. Had some of the Papists been carried to prison, he never could have given such an account as he has done, not only in his History, but also in his circular letter, wiiich was produced at his trial, without any allegation that it contained an unfair or partial statement of facts. 262 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. had received from the Church, should write a circular letter to the principal gentlemen of their persuasion, informing them of the circumstances, and requesting their presence on the day of trial. He wrote the letter according to their request.* A copy of it having come into the hands of Sinclair, Bishop of Ross, and president of the Court of Session, who was a great personal enemy to Knox, he conveyed it immediately to the queen at Stirling. She communicated it to the privy council, who, to her great satisfaction, pronounced it treasonable ; but to give the greater solemnity to the proceedings, it was resolved that an ex- traordinary meeting of the counsellors, assisted by other noble- men, should be held at Edinburgh, in the end of December, to try the cause ; and the Reformer was summoned to appear be- fore this convention.t Previously to the day of trial, great influence was used in private to persuade him to acknowledge a fault, and to throw himself on the queen's mercy. This he peremptorily refused to do. The master of Maxwell (afterwards Lord Herries,) with whom he had long been intimate, threatened him with the loss of his friendship, and told him that he would repent, if he did not submit to the queen, for men would not bear with him as they had hitherto done. He replied, that he did not understand such language. He had never opposed her majesty except in the article of religion, and surely it was not meant that he should bow to her in that matter ; 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 to- wards 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, sent for him to the clerk register's house, and had a long conversation with him to the same purpose. They represented the pains which they had taken to mitigate the queen's resentment, and intimated that nothing could save him but a timely submission. His re- * Knox, Historie, pp. 336, 337. t It has been doubted, whether this meeting' acted as a court of Judicature in trying Knox, or was called to determine whether he should be brought to a judicial trial. Dalyell's Cursory Remarks, prefixed to Scottish Poems, vol. i. p. 72. The justice-general, the lord-advocate, and the other law lords, were present ; but they had seats in the privy council. Upon the whole, I am inclined to think that this was an extraordinary meeting of the privy council, to which other noblemen, besides the counsellors were called, to give the proceedings greater weight with the public. The object of the queen was, in the first place, to procure the imprisonment of Knox, atler which she might proceed against him as she thought most prudent Knox, Historie, p. 339, 340. Sj)otsvvood, p. 188. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 263 ply was similar to that which he had given to Maxwell, that he never would confess a fault when he was conscious of none, and had not learned to " cry treason at every thing which the multitude called treason, nor to fear what they feared." The wily secretary, finding him determined to abide the consequen- ces of a trial, endeavoured to bring on a dispute on the subject, with the view of ascertaining the grounds on which he meant to defend himself; but Knox, aware of his craft, declined the conversation, and told him it would be foolish to intrust with his defence one who had already prejudged his cause, and pro- nounced him guilty. On the day appointed for the trial, the public anxiety was raised to a high pitch, and the palace-yard and avenues were crowded with people, who waited to learn the result. The Re- former was conducted to the chamber in which the lords were already assembled, and engaged in consultation. When the queen had taken her seat, and perceived Knox standing un-^ covered at the foot of the table, she burst into a loud fit of laughter. " That man," said she, " made me weep, and shed never a tear himself; I will now see if I can make him weep." The secretary opened the proceedings with greater gravity, by stating, in a speech addressed to the Reformer, the reasons why the queen had convened him before her nobility. " Let him acknowledge his own handwriting," said the queen, " and then we shall judge of the contents of the letter." A copy of the circular letter being handed to him, he looked at the subscrip- tion, and owned that it was his ; adding, that though he had subscribed a number of blanks, he had such confidence in the fidelity of the scribe, that he was ready to acknowledge the con- tents as well as the subscription. " You have done more than I would have done," said Maitland. "Charity is not suspi- cious," replied the Reformer. " Well, well," said the queen, " read your own letter, and then answer to such things as shall be demanded of you." — " I will do the best I can," said he ; and having read the letter with an audible voice, re- turned it to the queen's advocate, who was commanded to ac- cuse him. " Heard you ever, my lords, a more despiteful and treason- able letter?" said the queen looking round the table. "Mr. Knox, are you not sorry from your heart, and do you not re- pent that such a letter has passed your pen, and from you has come to the knowledge of others ?" said Maitland. « My lord secretary, before I repent, I must be taught my offence." — " Offence ! if there were no more but the convocation of the queen's lieges, the offence cannot be denied." — " Remember yourself, my lord ; there is a difference between a lawful con- 264 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. vocation and an unlawful. If I have been guilty in this, I of- fended oft since I came last into Scotland ; for what convocation of the brethren has ever been to this hour, unto which my pen served not ?" — " Then was then, and now is now," said the secretary ; " we have no need of such convocations as some- times we have had." — " The time that has been is even now before my eyes," rejoined the Reformer; "for I see the poor flock in no less danger than it has been at any time before, ex- cept that the devil has got a vizor upon his face. Before, he came in with his own face, discovered by open tyranny, seeking the destruction of all that refused idolatry ; and then, I think, you 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 ?" interrupted her majesty, who was offended that he should be allowed such liberty of speech, and thought that she could bring him more closely to the question than any of her counsellors. " What is this ? Methinks you trifle with him. Who gave him authority to make convocation of my lieges ? Is not that treason ?" — " No, madam," replied Lord Ruthven, displeased at the keenness which the queen shewed in the cause ; " for he makes convocation of the people to hear prayers 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." — " 1 began, madam," resumed Knox, "to reason with the secretary (whom I take to be a better dialectician than your grace) that all convocations are not unlawful ; and now my I^ord Ruthven has given the instance." — " I will say no- thing against your religion, nor against your convening to your sermons ; but what authority have you to convocate my subjects when you will, without my commandment ?" He answered, that at his own will he had never convened four persons in Scotland, but at the orders of his brethren he had given many advertisements, and great multitudes" had assembled in conse- quence of them ; and if her grace complained that this had been done without her command, he begged leave to answer, that the same objection might be made to all that had been done respecting the reformation of religion in this kingdom. He had never, he said, loved to stir up tumults — never been a preacher of rebellion ; on the contrary, he had always taught the people to obey princes and magistrates in all their lawful commands. If he had been more active than the rest of his brethren in calling extraordinary assemblies of the Protestants, it was owing to a charge which he had received from the Church to do so, a^ LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 265 often as he saw a necessity for such meetings, and especially when religion was exposed to danger ; and he had repeatedly requested to be exonerated from this irksome and invidious charge, but could not obtain his wish. He must therefore be convicted by a just law, before he would profess sorrow for what he had done : he thought he had done no wrong. " You shall not escape so," said the queen. " Is it not treason, my lords, to accuse a prhice of cruelty ? I think there be acts of parliament against such whisperers." Several of their lord' ships said that there were such laws. " But wherein can I be accused of this ? asked Knox. " Read this part of your own bill," said the queen, who shewed herself an acute prosecutor. She then ordered the following sentence to be read from his letter : — "This fearful summons is directed against them [the two persons who were indicted], to make no doubt a preparative on a few, that a door may be opened to execute cruelty upon a greater multitude." " Lo !" exclaimed the queen exultingly ; " what say you to that ?" The eyes of the assembly were fixed on the Reformer, and all were anxious to know what answer he would make to this charge. " Is it lawful for me, madam, to answer for myself? or, shall I be condemned unheard ?" — " Say what you can ; for I think you have enough to do," said the queen, " I will first then de- sire of your grace, madam, and of this most honourable audi- ence, whether your grace knows not, that the obstinate Papists are deadly enemies to all such as profess the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that they most earnestly desire the extermination of them, and of the true doctrine that is taught within this realm ?" Mary was silent ; but the Lords, with one voice, exclaimed, " God forbid, that ever the lives of the faithful, or yet the stay- ing of the doctrine, stood in the power of the Papists ! for just experience has taught us what cruelty lies in their hearts." — " I must proceed, then," said the Reformer. " Seeing that I perceive that all will grant, that it was a barbarous thing to de- stroy such a multitude as profess the gospel of Christ within this realm, which oftener than once or twice they have attempt- ed to do by force — they, by God and by his providence being disappointed, have invented more crafty and dangerous prac- tices, to wit, to make the prince a 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) siiall end in the murdering of these two brethren, now unjustly summoned and more unjustly to be accused? And therefore, madam, cast up, when you list, the acts of your parliament, I have ofi"ended nothing against them ; for I accuse not, in my letter, your grace, 23 ^2 266 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. nor yet yonr nature, of cruelty. But I affirm yet again, that the pestilent Papists, who have intlamed your grace against those 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 manslayer from the beginning." "You forget your- self! you are not now in the pulpit," said the chancellor. "I am in a place where I am demanded of conscience to speak the truth ; and therefore the truth I speak, impugn it whoso list." He added, again addressing the queen, that persons who appear- ed to be of honest, gentle, and meek natures, had often been corrupted by wicked counsel ; and that the Papists, who had her ear, were dangerous counsellors, and such her mother had found them to be. Mary, perceiving that nothing was to be gained by rea- soning, began now to upbraid him with his harsh behaviour to her, at their last interview. He spake " fair enough" at present before the lords, she said ; but on that occasion he caused her to shed many salt tears, and said, " he set not by her weeping." This drew from him a vindication of his conduct, in the course of which he gave a narrative of that conference. After this, the secretary, having spoken with the queen, told Knox that he was at liberty to return home for that night. " I thank God and the queen's majesty," said he, and retired. When Knox had withdrawn, the judgment of the nobility was taken respecting his conduct. All of them, with the excep- tion of the immediate dependents of the court, gave it as their opinion, that he had not been guilty of any breach of the laws. The secretary, who had assured the queen of his condemnation, was enraged at this decision. He brought her majesty, who had retired, again into the room, and proceeded to call the votes a second time. This attempt to overawe them incensed the nobility. "What!" said they, " shall the laird of Lethington have power to control us ? or, shall the presence of a woman cause us to olfend God, and to condemn an innocent man, against our consciences ?" They then repeated the vote which they had already given, absolving him from all otience, and, at the same time, praising his modest appearance, and the judicious manner in which he had conducted his defence. Mary was unable to conceal the mortification and dis- pleasure which she felt at this unexpected acquittal. When the Bishop of Ross, who had been the informer, gave his vote on the same side with the rest, she taunted him openly in the presence of the court. " Trouble not the child !" said she ; <' I pray you trouble him not ! for he is newly wakened out of his sleep. Why should not the old fool follow the foot- LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 267 steps of those that have passed before him ?" The bishop repUed coldly, that her majesty might easily know, that his vote was not influenced by partiality to the person ac- cused. " That nicht was nyther dancing nor fiddeling in the court ; for madam was disappoynted of hir purpose, whilk was to have had Johne Knox in hir will, by vote of her nobility."* * Knox, Historic, pp. 238 — 343. Spotswood, p. 188. The account of the trial given by Caldervvood, in his MS, has been compared with that of Knox, and exactly agrees with it. 2G8 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. PERIOD VIII. FROM DECEMBER 1563. WHEN HE WAS ACQUITTED FROM A CHARGE OF TREASON, TO THE YEAR 1570, WHEN HE WAS STRUCK WITH APOPLEXY. The indignation of the queen at the Reformer's escape from punishment did not soon abate ; * and the effects of it fell upon the courtiers who had voted for his exculpation, and upon those who had been unsuccessful in opposing it. The Earl of Murray was among the former,t Maitland among the latter. In order to appease her wrath, they again attempted to persuade Knox to soothe her by some voluntary submission ; and they engaged that, if he would only agree to go within the walls of the castle, he should be allowed to return immediately to his own house. To this he refused to yield, being convinced, that by such a compliance, he would throw discredit on the judgment of the nobility who had acquitted him, and confess himself to have been a mover of sedition. Disappointed in their object, they endeavoured to injure him by whispers and detraction ; circu- lating that he had no authority from his brethren for what he had done, and that he arrogated a papal power over the Scot- tish Church, by issuing his letters at pleasure, and exacting an implicit obedience to them. These charges were very ground- less and unjust ; for there never was, perhaps, an individual who possessed as much influence, and at the same time was so care- ful to avoid all appearance of assuming superiority over his brethren, or of acting by his own private authority, in matters of public and common concern. At the meeting of the General Assembly, held in the close of this year, he declined taking any share in the deliberations ; but after the public business had been disposed of, he requested lib- erty to speak on an atiair wliich concerned himself He stated what he had done in writing the late circular letter, the pro- ceedings to which it had given rise, and the surmises which * Keith, 248, 251. f Rir Thomas Randolph, in a letter dated 27th Feb. 1561, mentions " some unkindness between Murray and the Queen, about Knox, whose parte he taketli." Keith, 249. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 269 were still circulating to his prejudice ; and he insisted that the Church should now examine his conduct in that matter, and particularly that they should declare whether or not they had given him a commission to advertise the brethren, when he foresaw any danger threatening their religion, or any difficult case which required their advice. The courtiers strenuously opposed the discussion of this question ; but it was taken up, and the Assembly, by a great majority, found that he had been charged with such a commission, and that, in the advertisement which he had lately given, he had not exceeded his powers.* Knox had remained a widower upwards of three years. But in March 1564, he contracted a second marriage with Mar- garet Stewart, daughter of Lord Ochiltree, a nobleman of amiable dispositions, who had been long familiar with our Re- former, and had steadily adhered to him when he was deserted by his other friends.t She continued to discharge the duties of a wife to him Avith the most pious and affectionate assiduity until the time of his death. The Popish writers, who envied the honours of the Scottish Reformer, have represented this marriage as a proof of his great ambition, and, in the excess of their spleen, have ridiculously imputed to him the project of aiming to raise his progeny to the throne of Scotland, because the family of Ochiltree was of the blood royal ! They are quite clear, too, that he gained the heart of the young lady by means of sorcery, and the assistance of the devil ! But it seems that, powerfully as he was seconded, he could not succeed in another attempt which he had previously made ; for the same writers inform us, that he paid his addresses to Lady Barbara Hamil- ton, eldest daughter of the Duke of Chastelherault, and widow of Lord Fleming, by whom he was repulsed. The account of the appearance that he made at the time of his marriage, which shall be inserted in the notes, the reader will receive according * Keith, .527, 528. Knox, 344, 345. t Randolph, in a letter to Cecil? 18th March, 1563—4, says : — " Knox askt in church to be marryed to Margarett Steward, the daughter of the Lord Ochiltree;" referring to tlie proclamation of banns. Keith, 251. Lord Och- iltree was descended from Robert duke of Albany, second son of King Ro- bert n. His father exchanged the lands and title of Evandale for those of Ochiltree. Douglas's Peerage, 522. Crawfurd's Renfrew and Royal House of Stewart, by Semple, part i. pp. 92 — 94. The second son of Lord Ochiltree, and brother-in-law of the Reformer, was Sir James Stewart of Bothwell-muir, afterwards the infamous fivourite of James VI. who created him Earl of Arran. Crawfurd, in his Officers of State (p. 488), has pub- lished a protestation which Arran made of his lineage and title of priority to the Duke of Lennox, his rival in James's favour. The reformer's father- in-law was usually called the good Lord Ochiltree ; and was " a man rather borne to mak peace than to brag upon the calsey." Knox's Historic, p. 304. 23* 270 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. to the degree of its probability, and the credit he may think due to tlie authorities upon which it rests.* The country continued in a state of quietness during the year 1564 ; but the same jealousies still subsisted between the Court and the Church.t Her majesty's prejudices against the reform- ed religion were unabated, and she maintained a correspond- ence with its sworn enemies on the Continent, which could not altogether escape the vigilance of her Protestant subjects.:}: The preachers, on their side, did not relax in their zealous warnings against Popery, and as to the dangers which they apprehended ; while they complained of the beggary to which the greater part of their own number was reduced, and of the growing lukewarmness of the Protestant courtiers. The latter felt uneasy under these reproaches, and, in concert with the queen, were anxious to restrain the license of the pulpit. They began by addressing themselves privately to the more moderate and complying of the ministers, whom they gained over, by their persuasions, to a partial approbation of their measures ; and having so far succeeded, they ventured to propose the mat- ter in public, and to request the sanction of the leading members of the General Assembly. Without intending to vindicate the latitude which was taken by particular preachers at that time, it may be said, in general, that a systematic attempt to restrain the liberty of speech in the pulpit, farther than the correction of occasional excesses might require, would have been a measure fraught with danger to the Protestant interest. The reformed preachers were the most vigilant and incorrupt guardians of national liberty ; an honourable distinction which their successors maintained during the remainder of that century. It is better to be awaked with rudeness, or even by a false alarm, than to be allowed to sleep on in the midst of dangers. Who would muzzle the mouth of the wakeful animal wliich guards the house against thieves, because the inmates are sometimes disturbed by his nocturnal * See Note HHH. f Robertson's History of Scotland, vol. ii. 108. Lond. 1809. I In a letter to the Council of Trent, dated 18th March 15(53—4, Mary la- ments "that the situation of her affairs — hujus temporis tanta injuria," did not permit her to send some of her prelates to that council ; and assures them of her great and unalterable devotion to the Apostolic see — " nostra perpetua mente ac voluntate, in ejusdem sedis observantia et submissione." In a letter, written Jan. 3d of the same year, she entreats the Cardinal of Lorrain to assure the pope of her resolution to live and die a Catholic. And on the last day of the same month, siie writes to his holiness himself, lament- ing the damnable errors — " danmabili crrori," in wliich she found her sub- jects plunged, and informing liini that her intention, from the time she left France, had uniformly been to re-establish the ancient religion. MS. Let- ters, extracted from the Barberini Library, in Advoc. Lib. A. 2. 11. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 271 vociferation ? or substitute in his place a " dumb dog, that can- not bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber ?" Knox, the freedom and sharpness of whose censures the courtiers felt most deeply, was the person whom they chiefly wished to restrain ; but it was no easy matter either to overawe him by authority, or by reasoning to procure his acquiescence in their proposals. In the month of June, a conference was held between the principal statesmen and ministers of the Church, when this subject was discussed ; and in an elaborate debate with Maitland, Knox defended the leading points of his doctrine which had given offence to the court. This debate " admirably displays the talents and character of both the dispu- tants ; the acuteness of the former, embellished with learning, but prone to subtlety ; the vigorous understanding of the latter, delighting in bold sentiments, and superior to all fear."* Maitland opened the conference with a plausible speech. He set forth the benefits which they had enjoyed under her majesty's government, and dwelt on the liberty which she had granted them in religious matters ; he urged the great import- ance of the ministers of the Church cultivating her friendship by every good office in their power, and endeavouring to inspire the people with a favourable opinion of her person and adminis- tration ; and pointed out the hurtful effects of their being observed to disagree in their form of prayer for her, and in their doctrine concerning the duty of subjects. Addressing himself particularly to Knox, he told him, with much politeness and address, that it was the earnest wish of the council that he should study greater caution when he had occasion to speak of her majesty from the pulpit ; not that they were afraid of his saying any thing very improper, but because the liberty which he used would be taken by persons less modest and prudent. Knox replied to the secretary's speech. He drew a very different picture of the state of affairs since the queen came to the country ; stated the grievances under which the Church laboured, and which were daily increasing, instead of being redressed ; and added, that in these circumstances, the courtiers ought not to be surprised at the complaints of the ministers, and the liberties which they took in rebuking sins which were openly committed and persisted in notwithstanding all due admonition. At the same time, he professed his readiness to account for any part of his own conduct which had given offence, and to listen to the objections which might be urged against it. Maitland specified the mode in which the Reformer usually prayed for her majesty, as one thing which gave offence to him * Robertson, Hist, of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 109. 272 LIFE OF JOHN K?^OX. and his colleagues. Prayers and tears, it has often been alleged, are the only arms which Christians ought to employ against injuries. But those who have deprived them of other weapons have usually envied them the use of these also ; and if their prayers have been smoothed down to the temper of their adversaries, so as to become mere compliments to princes under colour of an address to the Almighty, they have often been pro- nounced to be seditious and treasonable.* Knox repeated his common form of prayer for the queen, and requested to be in- formed in what respects it was deserving of reprehension, " Ye pray for the queen's majesty with a condition," replied Maitland, " saying, ' Illuminate her heart, if thy good pleasure be,' Where have ye example of such prayer ?" — " Wherever the examples are," rejoined Knox, " I am assured of the rule, ' If we shall ask anything according to his will, he will hear us ;' and Christ commanded us to pray, ' Thy will be done,' " — " But in so doing ye put a doubt in the people's head of her conversion," said Maitland, — " Not I, my lord ; but her own obstinate rebellion causes more than me to doubt of her conver- sion,"— " Wherein rebels she against God ?" — " In all the actions of her life, but in these two heads especially : that she will not hear the preaching of the blessed evangel of Jesus Christ, and that she maintains that idol the mass." — " She thinks not that rebellion, but good religion," — " So thought they who offered their children to INIoloch, and yet the Spirit of God affirms that they offered them unto devils, and not unto God." — " But yet ye can produce the example of none that has so prayed before you," said the secretary, pressing his former objection. — "Well, then," said Knox, " Peter said these words to Simon Magus, ' Repent of this thy wickedness, and pray to God, that, if it be possible, the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.' And think ye not, my lord secretary, that the same doubt may touch my heart as touching the queen's con- version, that then touched the heart of the apostle ?" — " I would never hear you or any other call that in doubt," replied Mait- land.— " But your will is no assurance to my conscience." — " Why say ye that she refuses admonitions ?" said Maitland ; " she ' will gladly hear any man." — " But what obedience ensues ? Or, when shall she be seen to give her presence to the public preaching ?" — " I think never, so long as she is thus entreated," replied the secretary. — " And so long," rejoined the * During the reign of Mary of England, the manner in which the Pro- testants prayed for her in their conventicles was declared high treason. Act. Pari. 1 and 2, Philip and Mary, cap. 9. Nor did the Psalms and pray- ers of the primitive Christians escape punishment under the "tolerant" Em- peror Julian. Works of the Reverend Samuel Johnston, p. '20 — 2'J. Lon- don, 1713. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 273 Reformer, " ye and all others must be content that I pray so as I may be assured to be heard of my God, either in making her comfortable to his Church, or, if he has appointed her to be a scourge to the same, that we may have patience, and she may be- bridled." " Well, then," said the secretary, " let us come to the second head. Where find ye that the Scripture calls any < the bond slaves of Satan ?' or that the prophets spake so irreverently of kings and princes?" — "If the sharpness of the term offend you," replied the Reformer, " I have not invented that phrase of speaking, but have learned it out of God's Scriptures ; for these words I find spoken unto Paul, 'Behold, I send thee unto the Gentiles, to open their eyes, that they may turn from dark- ness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.' Mark thir words, my lord, and stur not at the speaking of the Holy Ghost." The secretary, who, during the greater part of the dispute, had leaned on the Master of Maxwell's breast, said that he was fatigued, and desired some other person to reason with Knox on the point which remained to be discussed, respecting the au- thority of magistrates and the duty of subjects. Chancellor Morton ordered George Hay to perform this part. Knox was aware that the object of the Court was, if possible, to divide the ministers, and that they would improve any appearance of diversity of opinion among them to the prejudice of the com- mon cause. He therefore told Hay that he had no objections to reason with him, knowing him to be a man of learning and modesty ; but he should be sorry to think that they opposed each other, like two scholars of Pythagoras, to shew the quickness of their parts by supporting either side of a question ; and as he, for his own part, protested that he durst no more support a proposition which he knew to be untrue, than he durst teach false doctrine in the pulpit, so he hoped that his brother would, on the present occasion, advance or maintain nothing but what he was persuaded of in his conscience. This caution had the desired effect, and Hay declared, before the whole assembly, that his judgment exactly coincided with Knox's on the subject proposed for discussion. " Marry," said the disappointed sec- retary, " ye are the well worst of the two ; for I remember our reasoning when the queen was in Carrick." Perceiving that none of the company was disposed to enter the lists with the Reformer, Maitland again returned to the charge, and engaged to defend the uncontrolable authority of rulers. " Well," said he, " I am somewhat better provided in this last head, than I was in the other two. Mr. Knox, yester- day we heard your judgment upon the 13th to the Romans; we heard the mind of the apostle well opened ; we heard the K2 274 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. causes why God has established powers upon earth ; we heard the necessity that mankind has of the same ; and we heard the duty of magistrates sufficiently declared. But in two things I was offended, and I think some more of my lords tliat then were present : The one was, ye made difference betwixt the ordinance of God, and the persons that are placed in authority ; and ye affirmed, that men might resist the persons, and yet not otlend God's ordinance. The other was, that subjects were not bound to obey their princes if they commanded unlawful things, but that they might resist their princes, and were not ever bound to suffer." Knox said that the secretary had given a correct statement of his sentiments. " How will you prove your di- vision and difference," said Maitland, "and that the person placed in authority may be resisted, and God's ordinance not transgressed, seeing that the apostle says, ' He that resists the power, resists the ordinance of God ?' " Knox replied, that the difference was evident from the words of the apostle, and that his affirmative was supported by approved examples. For the apostle asserts, that the powers ordained of God are for the pre- servation of quiet and peaceable men, and for the punishment of malefactors; whence it is plain, that God's ordinance is wholly intended for the preservation of mankind, the punishment of vice, and the maintenance of virtue ; but the persons placed in authority are often corrupt, unjust, and oppressive. Having re- ferred to the conduct of the people of Israel in rescuing Jona- than from the hands of Saul, which is recorded with approba- tion, and to the conduct of Doeg, in putting to death the priests at the command of that monarch, which is recorded with dis- approbation in Scripture, he proceeded thus : " And now, my lord, in answer to the place of the apostle, I say, that ' the pow- er' in that place is not to be understood of the unjust com- mandment of men, but of the just power wherewith God has armed his magistrates to punish sin and to maintain virtue. As if any man should enterprise to take from the hands of a law- ful judge a murderer, an adulterer, or any other malefactor that by God's law deserved the death, this same man resisted God's ordinance, and procured to himself vengeance and damnation, because that he stayeth God's sword to strike. But so it is not, if that men, in the fear of God, oppose themselves to the fury and blind rage of princes ; for so they resist not God, but the devil, who abuses the sword and authority of God." — " I understand sufficiently," said Maitland, " what you mean ; and unto the one part I will not oppose myself, but I doubt of the other. For if the queen would command me to slay John Knox, because she is offended at him, I would not obey her; but if she would command others to do it, or yet by a colour of justice take his life from him, I cannot tell if I be bound to LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 275 defend him against the queen, and against her officers." — " Under protestation," replied the Reformer, " that the auditory think not that I speak in favours of myself, I say, my lord, that if ye be persuaded of my innocence, and if God hath given you such power or credit as might deliver me, and yet ye suffer me to perish, that in so doing ye should be criminal, and guilty of my blood." — " Prove that, and win the plea," said Maitland. " Well, my lord," answered Knox, " remember your promise, and I shall be short in my probation." He then produced the example of Jeremiah, who, when accused by the priests and false prophets, said to the princes, " Know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof." — " The cases are not like," said Maitland. " And I would learn," said Knox, " wherein the dissimilitude stands." — " First," replied Maitland, " the king had not condemned him to death. And next, the false prophets, the priests, and the people, accused him without a cause, and therefore they could not but be guilty of his blood." — " Neither of these fights with my argument," said Knox ; " for, albeit neither the king was present, nor yet had condemned him, yet were the princes and chief councillors there sitting in judgment, who represented the king's person and authority. And if ye think that they should all have been criminal only because they all accused him, the plain text witnesses the contrary ; for the princes defended him, and so, no doubt, did a great part of the people, and yet he boldly affirms that they should be all guilty of his blood, if that he should be put to death." — " Then will ye," said the secretary, "■ make subjects to control their princes and rulers ?" — « And what harm," asked the Reformer, " should the com- monwealth receive, if the corrupt affections of ignorant rulers were moderated, and so bridled, by the wisdom and discretion of godly subjects, that they should do wrong or violence to no man?" The secretary, finding himself hard pushed, said that they had wandered from the argument ; and he professed that if the queen should become a persecutor, he would be as ready as any within the realm to adopt the doctrine of the Reformer. " But our question," said he, " is, whether that we may, and ought, suppress the queen's mass. Or, whether that her idolatry should be laid to our charge." — " Idolatry ought not only to be suppressed," said Knox, " but the idolater ought to die the death." — "I know," answered Maitland, "that the idolater ought to die the death; but by whom!" — "By the people," rejoined the Reformer ; " for the commandment was made to Israel, as ye may read, ' Hear, 0 Israel, saith the Lord, the stat- utes and commandments of the Lord thy God.'" — " But there 276 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. is no commandment given to the people to punish their king, if he be an idolater." — " I find no privilege granted imto kings," said Knox, " more than unto the people, to oftend God's majes- ty."— " I grant," said the secretary ; " but yet the people may not be judge unto their king, to punish him albeit he be an idolater. The people may not execute God's judgment, but must leave it unto himself, who will either punish it by death, by war, by imprisonment, or by some other kind of plagues." — " I know," replied Knox, " the last part of your reason to be true ; but, for the first, I am assured ye have no other warrant except your own imagination, and the opinion of such as more fear to offend princes than God." " Why say you so ?" said Maitland. " I have the judgments of the most famous men within Europe, and of such as ye your- self will confess both godly and learned." Upon which he produced a bundle of papers, and read extracts from the writ- ings of the principal reformed divines against resistance to rulers ; adding, that he had bestowed more labour on the collec- tion of these authorities than on the reading of commentaries for seven years. Knox replied, that it was a pity he had given himself so much labour, for none of the extracts which he had read bore upon the question under discussion ; some of them being directed against the Anabaptists, who denied that Chris- tians should be subject to magistrates, or that it was lawful for them to hold the olfice of magistracy ; and the rest referring to the case of a small number of Christians scattered through heathen and infidel countries, which was the situation of the primitive church. In this last case, he said, he perfectly agreed with the writers whom Maitland had quoted ; but when the majority of a nation were professors of the true religion, the case was very different. While the posterity of Abraham were few in number, and while they sojourned in different countries, they were merely required to avoid all participation in the idolatrous rites of the heathen ; but as soon as they •' prospered into a kingdom," and obtained possession of Canaan, they were strictly charged to suppress idolatry, and to destroy all its mon- uments and incentives. The same duty was now incumbent on the professors of the true religion in Scotland, whose release from bondage, temporal and spiritual, was no less wonderful than the redemption of the Israelites from Egypt. Formerly, when not more than ten persons in a country were enlightened, and when these were called to seal their testimony to the truth, by giving their bodies to the flames, it would have been foolish- ness to have demanded of the nobility the suppression of idola- try. But now, when knowledge had increased, and God had given such a signal victory to the truth, that it had been public- ly embraced by the realm, if they suffered the land to be again LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 277 defiled, both they and their queen should drink of the cup of divine indignation. She, because, amidst the great hght of the Gospel, she continued obstinately addicted to idolatry, and they, because they tolerated, and even countenanced her in such conduct. Maitland challenged his opponent to prove that the apostles or prophets ever taught that subjects might suppress the idola- try of their rulers. Knox appealed to the conduct of the pro- phet Elisha in anointing Jehu, and giving him a charge to pun- ish the idolatry and bloodshed of the royal family of Ahab. " Jehu was a king before he put any thing in execution," said the secretary. " My lord, he was a mere subject, and no king, when the prophet's servant came to him ; yea, and albeit that his fellow captains, hearing of the message, blew the trumpet, and said, ' Jehu is king,' yet I doubt not but Jezebel both thought and said he was a traitor, and so did many others in Israel and Samaria." — " Besides this," said Maitland, " the fact is extraordinary, and ought not to be imitated." — " It had the ground of God's ordinary judgment, which commands the idolater to die the death," answered Knox. — " We are not bound to imitate extraordinary examples," rejoined Maitland, " unless we have like commandment and assurance." Knox granted that this was true when the example was repugnant to the ordinary precept of the law, as in the case of the Israelites borrowing from the Egyptians without repayment. But when the example agreed with the law, he insisted that it was imita- ble •, and of this kind was the instances to which he had appeal- ed. But, said Maitland, " whatsoever they did, was done at God's commandment." — " That fortifies my argument," retort- ed the Reformer ; " for God, by his commandment, has approved that subjects punish their princes for idolatry and wickedness by them committed." — " We have not the like commandment," said the secretary. " That I deny ; for the commandment, that the idolater shall die the death, is perpetual, as ye yourself have granted ; ye doubted only who should be the executioner, and I have sufficiently proven that God has raised up the people, and by his prophet has anointed a king, to take vengeance upon the king and his posterity, which fact God since that time has never retracted." — " Ye have produced but one example," said Maitland. " One sufficeth ; but yet, God be praised, we lack not others, for the whole people conspired against Araaziah, king of Judah, after he had turned away from the Lord." — " I doubt whether they did well, or not," said Maitland. " God gave sufficient approbation of their fact, for he blessed them wifh victory, peace, and prosperity, the space of fifty-two years after." — " But prosperity does not always prove that God approves the fects of men." — " Yes, when the facts of men 24 278 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. agree with the law of God, and are rewarded according to his promise, I say that the prosperity succeeding the fact is a most infallible assurance that God has approved the fact. And now, my lord, I have but one example to produce, and then I will put an end to my reasoning, because I weary longer to stand." The lords desired him to take a chair ; but he declined it, say- ing, " that melancholic reasons needed some mirth to be inter- mixed with them." After a short dispute on the resistance of the priests to Uzziah, the Reformer recapitulated the proposi- tions which he thought had been established in the course of the debate. " Well," said Maitland, " I think ye shall not have many learned men of your opinion." Knox replied, that the truth ceased not to be the truth, because men misunderstood or opposed it, and yet he did not want the suflrages of learned men to his opinions. Upon which he presented a copy of the Apology of Magdeburgh, desiring the secretary to look at the names of the ministers who had approved of the defence of that city against the emperor, and subscribed the proposition, that to resist a tyrant is not to resist the ordinance of God. " Hom- ines obscuri !"* said Maitland, slightingly, after perusing the list. " Dei tamen servi !"t replied the Reformer. The secretary now 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 noth- ing should be voted or decided at it. At last it Avas agreed, that the opinions of those who were present should be taken, but that they should not be considered as decisive. Winram, sup- erintendent of Fife, and Douglas, rector of the university of St. Andrews, were the principal persons among the ministers, who 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 re- form their rulers, when they have been guilty of violating their oaths of office. Thomas de Finola, rector of the University, and Vincentius de Placentia, persons celebrated for their learning, maintained the affirmative 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 com- * Men of no note. f Servants of God, however. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 279 monwealth is not a kingdom ; and therefore I think that in a kingdom no less dihgence 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 free commonwealths." 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 com- monwealths.* 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 statement, by saying that the secretary had undertaken to consult that reformer, but although repeatedly reminded of his promise, had never fulfilled it. Maitland acknowledged this, and said that upon mature deUberation 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 ques- tion, and he could not renew his application to them, without exposing himself 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 reques- ting Calvin to communicate his judgment respecting them. This proposal was thought reasonable, but none would under- take the task ; and the conference broke up without any deter- minate resolution being adopted.! The reader must be struck with the difference between this dispute, and that which Knox formerly maintained with the * Craig, who was rather facile in Iiis disposition, and apt to be moulded by those who were about him, seems afterwards to have recanted the principle which he maintained on this occasion. For I suppose he is the person who preached the sermon at Linlithgow, mentioned by Hume of Godscroft, in his History of the House of Douglas and Angus, ii. 383, 385. That historian has inserted some very ingenious observations on the subject, by way of strictures on the sermon. t Knox, Historie, pp. 348—366. 280 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. abbot of Crossraguel. Although long, it was kept up by the disputants with great spirit ; nor did they take refuge under those ambiguities of speech, or those sophistical forms of argu- ment, of which persons trained to wrangle in the schools were ever ready to avail themselves, to perplex an adversary, or to conceal their own defeat. Few secretaries of state in modern times would, it is presumed, be able to acquit themselves so well as JVIaitland did, on questions which were decided chiefly by an appeal to the Scriptures. But learned and acute as he was, Knox was fully a match for him, and, on the greater part of the topics introduced into the debate, evidently had the advantage, according to the principles held, and the concessions made, by his opponent. For both parties maintained, that idolatry ought to be punished by death ; a sentiment which they were led to adopt in consequence of their holding the untenable opinion, that Christian nations are bound to enact the same penalties against all breaches of the moral law, which were enjoined by the judicial laws of Moses.* This being taken for granted, the dispute between them resolved itself entirely into a question respecting the prerogatives of princes and the rights and duties of subjects. It may be questioned, too, whether Knox's rea- soning from extraordinary examples, qualified as it was by him, is sufficiently guarded and correct ; for the instances in which punishment was inflicted in an extraordinary way on criminals, although the punishment itself was merited and agreeable to law, cannot be pleaded as precedents in ordinary cases. But even when we cannot approve of his reasonings, we are com- pelled to admire the openness with which he avowed, and the boldness with which he defended, sentiments so opposite to those which were generally received in that age. In the month of August, Knox went, by appointment of the General Assembly, as visiter of the churches, to Aberdeen and * This was an opinion generally entertained among the Reformers ; and it was one ground (though not the only one, as we have seen, pp. 221 — 22), upon which they vindicated the penal statutes against the mass and image worship. At the same tune, while tliey laboured to restrain these evils, they discovered no disposition to proceed to capital punishment, even when it was completely in their power. I never read nor heard of an instance, in the time of our Reformer, of a person being put to death for performing any part of the Roman Catholic worship. If the reason of this disconformity between their opinion and their practice be asked, 1 can only answer, — their aversion to blood. " God," says our Reformer, addressing the Popish princes who persecuted the Protestants, " will not use his saintes and chosen chil- dren to punish you. For with them is alwaies mercie, yea, even althogh God have pronounced a curse and malediction ; as in the history of Josua is plaine. But as ye have pronounced wronsr and cruel judgment without mercie, so will he punish you by such as in whom there is no mercie." Answer to the Cavillations of an Anabaptist, p. 449. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 281 other parts of the north, where he remained six or seven weeks.* At the subsequent meeting of Assembly, he received a similar appointment to Fife and Perthshire.t Our Reformer's predictions at the last meeting of parliament were now fully realized. Another parliament was held in the end of 1564, but nothing was done for securing the Protestant religion. + The queen's marriage had long engaged the anxious attention of her ministers, and had been the subject of much negotiation with England and at foreign courts ; but the vari- ous proposals which had been made with a view to it, and the political intrigues to which they gave rise, were all thwarted by the sudden and strong passion which Mary conceived for Hen- ry, Lord Darnley, the son of the Earl of Lennox. As this young nobleman, so far as he had discovered any religious sen- timents, was inclined to Popery,§ the match could not be very agreeable to the great body of the nation, who had already testified the strongest jealousy at the queen's attachment to that religion. It was, therefore, natural for the nobility, in the prospect of this event, to provide additional securities for the Protestant Church, and to insist that the royal sanction hitherto withheld, should now be granted to its legal establishment. Upon this condition, they promised their consent to the mar- riage. || The queen agreed to summon a parliament to settle this important aifair, but she found some pretext for proroguing its meeting ;1[ and, having gained a number of the nobility by favours and promises, she proceeded, in July .1565, not only to solemnize the nuptials, but to proclaim her husband king, with- out the consent of the estates of the kingdom. The dissatisfaction produced by these precipitate and illegal steps was heightened by the conduct of Darnley. Naturally vain, rash, and vindictive, his unexpected prosperity rendered him insolent and overbearing ; and it required all the prudence of the queen to preserve him from falling into contempt, even. before their marriage.** Although he could not have come to Scotland, and his father could not have been restored to his honours and possessions, considering the opposition made by the house of Hamilton, without tiie concurrence and interest of the Earl of Murray ; yet he no sooner found himself seated in the * The magistrates of Edinburgh, understanding that Mr. Christopher Goodman was appointed to preach during the absence of tlieir own ministers, directed a committee of their number to wait upon him, and to " offer him, in their names, all honourabill entertenment, and cause the Stewart of Jhonne Knox house to keep table to him upoun the town's expensis." Re- cords of Town Council for 23d August 1564. + Keith, 535, 537, 540. | Knox, Historic, p. 368. { Keith, p. 278, note (a). || Knox, p. 373. IT Keith, 279. Knox, 374, 378. ** Keith, 329. Robertson, ii, 125. 24 * L2 282 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. affections of Mary, than he exerted his influence to deprive that nobleman of her favour, represented the honours which she had conferred on him as excessive, and leagued with those who were hostile to him and to the reformed religion. Lennox, Athole and David Rizzio, a low-bred Italian, who had insinua- ted himself into the good graces of Mary, now ruled the court, to the exclusion of the most able counsellors.* Murray had been urged in private to sign an approbation of the intended marriage, but refused to do it until the nobility were consulted.! His refusal to gratify the queen, by forwarding a match on which she was passionately bent, obliterated the memory of all his past services, and drew upon him the furious resentment of Darnley. Having declined to attend a convention at Perth, from just apprehensions of personal danger, he was summoned to court by the queen. The summons was repeated three days after her marriage, and because he refused to intrust his person, on her safe-conduct, to a court where the influence of his de- clared enemies prevailed, he was immediately proclaimed an outlaw.! In the mean time, the persons who had discovered the greatest hostility to him were openly encouraged. Bothwell was invited to return ; Lord George Gordon was set at liberty, and the earldom of Huntly restored to him ; and the Earl of Sutherland was recalled from banishment. § The lords who were dissatisfied with the late proceedings, assembled at Stir- ling, and, after agreeing to request the protection of Elizabeth, retired to their houses ;|| but the queen taking the field with all the forces which she could collect, they were at last compelled to arm in their own defence. IT Even after they were driven to this extremity, they neglected no means of conciliation. They professed their steadfast loyalty to the queen. They de- clared that their sole desire was, that the reformed religion should be secured against the dangers to which it was exposed, and that the administration of public affairs should be put into the hands of those whom the nation could trust. And they offered to submit their own cause to be tried by the laws of their country.** But the queen spurned all their offers of sub- mission, refused to listen to any intercession in their favour, and, advancing against them with an army, obUged them to take refuge in England.tt * Knox, 372, 374. Robertson, ii. 114, 120. f Knox, 372. I Ibid. 379. Keith, 309, 310. Append. 108—110. i Knox, mS, 379, 386. Keith, 309, 310. Gordon's Genealog. Hist of the Earldom of Sutherland, 14:3 — 4. II Keith, 300. 304, 306. ^ Robertson, ii. 131. Laing, History of Scotland. ** Knox, Historie, 382, 384, 383. tt Ibid. 38a LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 283 While her marriage with Darnley was in dependence, and she laboured to surmount the opposition made to it by the no- bility, Mary had condesended to court the Protestant ministers. Having sent for the superintendents of Lothian, Glasgow, and Fife (for Knox could not now be admitted to her presence), she amused them with fair words. She was not yet persuaded she said, of the truth of their religion, but was willing to hear con- ference and reasoning on the subject ; she was also content to attend the public sermons of some of them ; and, " above all others, 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."* She even went so far as to be present at a sermon preached by one of the minis- ters in Callender house, at the baptism of a child of Lord Liv- ingston.! But as soon as her marriage was accomplished, she told the commissioners of the Church, in very plain and de- termined language, " her majesty neither will nor may leave the religion wherein she has been nourished and brought up."J And there was no farther proposals of attending eitlier sermon or conference. The friendship between the Earl of Murray and the Refor- mer had been renewed in the beginning of 1565. Knox was placed in a very delicate predicament by the insurrection under Murray, and the other lords who opposed the queen's marriage. His father-in-law was one of their number. They professed that the security of the Protestant religion was the principal ground of their taking arms ; and they came to Edinburgh to collect men to their standard. But whatever favour he might have for them, he kept himself clear from any engage- ment. § If he had taken part in this unsuccessful revolt, we need not doubt that her majesty would have embraced the op- portunity of punishing him for it, when his principal friends had fled the kingdom. We find, in fact, that she immediately proceeded against him on a difterent, but far more slender ground. The young king, who could be either Papist or Protestant, as it suited him, went sometimes to mass with the queen, and sometimes attended the reformed sermons. || To silence the suspicions of his alienation from the Protestant religion, circulated by the insurgent lords, he, on the 19th of August, made a solemn appearance in St, Giles's Church, sitting on a throne which had been prepared for * Knox, Historie, 373, 374. f Ibid. 377. f Id. 376. q Goodall says, that Knox was engaged with the Earl of Murray in a plot for seizing Darnley ; but he has produced no evidence of his assertion. Life of Queen Mary, i. 207—209. 11 Keith, 301—2. 284 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. his reception. Knox preached that day, and happened to pro- long the service beyond his usual time. In one part of the ser- mon, he quoted these words of Scripture, " I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them; — in another part of it, he mentioned that God punished Ahab because he did not correct his idolatrous wife Jezebel.* Though no par- ticular application was made by the preacher, the king applied these passages to himself and the queen, and, returning to the palace in great wrath, refused to taste dinner. The Papists who had accompanied him to church, inflamed his 'resent- ment and that of the queen by their representations. That very afternoon Knox was taken from bed,t and carried before the privy council. Some respectable inhabitants of the city, understanding his citation, accompanied him to the palace. He was told that he had offended the king, and must desist from preaching as long as their majesties were in Edinburgh. He 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 hira."| Spotswood says, that he not only stood to what he had said in the pulpit, but added, " That as the king, for the queen's plea- sure, had gone to mass, and dishonoured the Lord God, so should He in his justice make her the instrument of his over- throw. This speech," continues the archbishop's manuscript, " esteemed too bold at the time, came afterwards to be remem- bered, and was reckoned among other his prophetical sayings, * Sermon on Isa. xxvi. 13, 14. History of the Reformation, Edin. 1644, 4to. App. pp. 120, 128. Spotswood says, that Knox, in his sermon (either doubting the king's sincerity, or favouring the faction of the noblemen), " fell upon him with a bitter reproof." History, 191. But the archbishop does not seem to have read the sermon, which contains no reproof of the king, either bitter or mild. Indeed, the preacher appears, on that occasion, to have used less freedom than ordinary in the application. Strype, Annals, i. 527, 23d August l.o65. f Preface to the Sermon, ut supra. |; Ibid. Records of Town Council. Knox, Historie, p. 381. Being call- ed before the privy council, he wrote out the sermon, as exactly according to what he had preached as possible, and sent it to the press, to let the im- partial see, " upon how small occasions great offence is now taken." At the end of it is this postscript : — " Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit ; for the terrible roaring of gunnes, and the noise of armour, do so pierce my heart, that my soul thirsteth to depart." On the margin are these words : — "The castle of Edinburgh was shooting against the exiled for Christ Jesus' sake." Then follows the date at which the writing was finished. " The last day of August lofiij, at four of the clock in the afternoon, written indigestly, but yet truly, so farre as memory would serve, of those things that in publiko I spake on Sunday Auirust 19, for tlie which I was dis- charged to preach for a time. Be mercifull to thy flock, O Lord, and at thy pleasure put end to my misery. John Knox." LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 285 which certamly were marvellous. The queen, enraged at this answer, burst forth into tears."* The report of the inhibition laid upon the Reformer created great agitation in the city. His colleague, who was appointed to supply his place during his suspension, threatened to desist entirely from preaching. The town council met, and appointed a deputation to wait on their majesties, and request the reversal of the sentence ; and at a second meeting held on the same day, they came to a unanimous resolution, that they would " in no manner of way consent or grant that his mouth be closed," but that he should be desired, " at his pleasure, and as God should move his heart, to proceed forward to true doctrine as before, which doctrine they would approve and abide at to their life's end."t It does not appear that he continued any time suspended from preaching. For the king and queen left Edinburgh before next Sabbath,Jand the prohibition extended only to the time of their residence in the city. Upon their return, it is probable that they judged it advisable not to enforce an order which had al- ready created much discontent, and might alienate the minds of the people still farther from the present administration. Ac- cordingly, we find him exercising his ministry in Edinburgh with the same boldness as formerly. Complaints were made to the council of the manner in which he prayed for the exiled noblemen ; but secretary Maitland, who had formerly found so much fault with his prayers, defended them on the present oc- casion, saying, that he had heard them, and they were such as nobody could blame. § Christopher Goodman had officiated, with much approbation, as minister of St. Andrews, since the year 1560 ; but he was prevailed on, by the solicitations of his friends in England, to return about this time to his native country. || The commission- %rs from St. Andrews were instructed to petition the General Assembly, which met in December this year, that Knox should * Spotswood, 191, 192. Keith, 546, 547. Keith calls in question the archbishop's narrative ; because Knox, in his History, does not say that the queen was present, and does not mention the prediction, althoug-h " fond enough to catch at and force such things upon his readers." But Knox did not write this part of the History ; the fifth book having been compiled after his death, and not being found in old MSS. See Advertisement, prefixed to the edition of his Historic, Edin. 1732. It must be confessed, however, that Spotswood's account of this affair is inaccurate in a number of particulars. David Buchanan says, that the king had " cast the psalme book in the fire," which was the cause of Knox's denunciation against him. Life of Knox prefixed to History of the Reformation. t Kecords of Town Council, 23d August 1565. Keith, 547. t Knox, Historic, p. 381. 5 Ibid. p. 389. II See Note III. 286 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. be translated from Edinburgh to their city. They claimed a right to him, as he had commenced his ministry among them ; and they might think that the dissensions in which he was in- volved with the court would induce him to prefer a more retired situation. But their petition was refused.* This Assembly imposed on him several important services. He was commissioned to visit the churches in the south of Scot- land, and appointed to write " a comfortable letter" to encou- rage the ministers, exhorters, and readers, throughout the king- dom, 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 excite the people among whom they laboured to relieve their necessities.! He had for- merly received an appointment to draw up the Form of Excommunication and of Public Repentance.^ And he was now required to compose a Treatise of Fasting, The Assem- bly, having taken into consideration the troubles of the country, and the dangers which threatened the whole Protestant interest, had appointed a general fast to be kept through the kingdom. The form and order to be observed on that occasion they left to be drawn out by Knox and his colleague ; and as nothing had been hitherto published expressly on this subject, they were authorized to explain the duty, as well as to state the reasons, which at that period called for this solemn exercise. This treatise does credit to the compilers, both as to matter and form. It is written in a perspicuous and nervous style. In the grounds assigned for fasting, the critical state of all reformed churches, the late decree of the council of Trent for the extirpa- tion of the Protestant name, the combination of the Popish princes for carrying it into execution, and the persecutions suffered by their brethren in different countries, are all held forth as a warning to the Protestants of Scotland, and urged as calls to repentance and prayer, ^ The following may serve as a specimen : — " Supposing, we say, that wee had none of these foresaid causes to moove us, yet is there one which, if it moove us not to humiliation, wee show ourselves more than insensible. For now is Satan so enlarged against Jesus Christ, and so odious is the light of his gospel unto * Keith, 562. f Keith, 538. I This appointment was laid upon him in June 15G3. Keith, .52.5. He does not seem to have executed it till 1567, which is the date subjoined to a prayer at the end of the treatise. Then follows a postscript : " This booke is thoui^ht necessary and profitable for the Church, and commanded to be printed by the General} Asseniblio." The order for printing it seems to have been first given by the Assembly in 1.5(^8, and renewed in 1571. Psalms in meeter, &c. (commonly called Knox's Liturgy,) printed by Andro Hart, A. IGll, pp. 28, 07. Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 705, 747. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 287 the Romaine antichrist, that to siippresse it in one province, realme, or nation, he thinketh it nothing, unlesse that, in all Eu- rope the godly, and such as abhorre the papisticall impietie, be therewith also utterlie destroyed, and so rased from the face of the earth, that no memory of them shal after remaine. If any thinks that suche crueltie cannot fall into the hearts of men, we send them to be resolved of those fathers of the last councel of Trent, who, in one of their sessions, have thus concluded : All Lutherans, Calvinists, and such as are of the new religion, shall utterly be rooted out. The beginning shall be in France, by con- ducting of the Catholike king, Philip of Spaine, and by some of the nobilitie of France ; which matter (they say) put in exe- cution, the whole power of both, together with the pope's armie, and force of the Duke of Savoy and Ferrar, shall assault Geneva, and shall not leave it till that they have put it to sacke, saving in it no living creature. And with the same mercie shall so many of France as have tasted of the new religion be served. From thence expedition shall be made against the Germanes, to reduce them to the obedience of the apostolike seate. And so shall they proceed to other realmes and nations, never ceasing till that all be rooted out that will not make homage to that Romane idoll. How fearefull a beginning this conclusion and determination had, France will remember moe ages than one. For how manie, above a hundredth thousand men, women, babes, virgines, matrones, and aged fathers suffer- ed, some by sworde, some by water, some by fire, and other torments, the verie enemies themselves are compelled to acknow- ledge. And albeit that God of his mercie in part disappoynted their cruell enterprises, yet let us not thinke that their will is changed, or their malice asswaged. No ; let us be assured, that they abide but opportunitie to finish the worke that cruellie against God, against his trueth, and the true professors of the same, they have begunne, the whisperings whereof are not se- creete, neither yet the tokens obscure. For the traffike of that dragon now with the princes of the earth, his promises and flattering enticements, tende to none other ende, but to inflame them against Jesus Christ, and against the true professours of his gospel. For who can thinke that the pope, cardinals, and horned bishops, will offer the greatest portion of their rents, for sustaining of a warre, whereof no commoditie should redound (as they suppose) to themselves?" Having quoted that part of the decree of the council which relates to the assessment imposed on the clergy, for carrying on this holy war, the compilers of the treatise add : " But let us hear their conclusion : France and Ger- manic (say they) being by these meanes so chastised, abased, and brought to the obedience of the holy Romano Church, the fathers doubt not but time shall provide both counsell and 288 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. commoditie, that the rest of the realmes about may be reduced to one flocke, and one apostolike governour and pastour. — But some shall say, they are yet far from the end of their pur- pose, and therefore wee neede not be so fearefull nor so troubled. We answere, the danger may be nearer than we beleeve, yea, perchance a part of it hath bene nearer to our neckes than we have considered. But how so ever it be, seeing that God of his mercie hath brought foorth to light their cruell and bloodie counsell, in which we neede not to doubt but still they continue, it becummeth us not to be negligent or slouthful."* Strong as their apprehensions were, the danger was nearer to them than they imagined. The most zealous and powerful of the Protestant nobles being exiled, the queen determined to carry into execution the design of which she had never lost sight ; and while she amused the nation with proclamations against altering the received religion, and tantalized the minis- ters with offers of more adequate support, was preparing for the speedy restoration of the Roman Catholic worship. No means were left unattempted for gaining over the nobility to the ancient religion. The king openly professed himself a con- vert to it, and officiated in some of its most superstitious rites. The Earls of Lennox, Cassilis, and Caithness, with Lords Montgomery and Seton, followed his example.! The friars were employed to preach at Holyroodhouse, and, to gain the favour of the people, endeavoured to imitate the popular method of the Protestant preachers.^ In the beginning of February 1566, a messenger arrived from the Cardinal of Lorraine, with a copy of the Catholic league for extirpating the Protestants, and instructions to obtain the queen's subscription to it, and to urge the propriety of adopting the most rigorous measures against the exiled noblemen. Mary scrupled not to set her hand to the league.§ Previous to this, it is said that she was inclined to yield to the intercessions made in behalf of the exiles ; but if ever she felt such a disposition, it is certain that, * Treatise of Fasting, in Knox's Liturgy, p. 157 — 160. edit. 1611 ; and in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 661 — 664. T Robertson, Append. No. 14. Keith, Append, pp. 165, 167. Knox, 889 —391. I The friars were so little esteemed, that they soon wearied of preaching. They boasted that they would dispute with the Protestant ministers; but when the commissioners of the General Assembly waited on their majesties, and rp(inested that this might be granted in their presence, the queen re- plied, that " sche wald not jeopard her religioun upon sick as were thare present ; for sche knew weill enouch, that the Protestants wer more learn- ed." Knox, Historic, p. 391. 5 Keith, p. 326. Append. 167. Melvil's Memoires, 63, 64. Robertson, Append. No. 14. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 289 f"om the arrival of this embassy, the door of mercy was shut. Murray and his associates were immediately summoned to ap- pear before the parUament wliich was to meet on the twelfth of March. The lords of the Articles were chosen according to the queen's pleasure ; the Popish ecclesiastics were restored to their place in parliament ; and the altars to be erected in St. Giles's Church, for the celebration of the Roman Catholic wor- ship, were already prepared.* But these measures, when ripe for execution, were blasted, in consequence of a secret engagement which the king had en- tered into with some of the Protestant nobles. The first effect produced by tiiis engagement was the well known assassination of Rizzio, the unworthy favourite of the queen, who was the principal instigator of the measures against the Protestant reli- gion and the banished lords, and had now incurred the jealousy of the king, as well as the contempt of the nobihty and the hat- red of the people. To have removed this minion from her majesty's counsels and presence by legitimate means would have been meritorious ; but the manner in which it was accom- plished was equally inconsistent with law and humanity, and fixes a deep stigma on the characters of those who perpetrated the deed.t A complete change on the state of the court succeeded this event. The Popish counsellors fled from the palace ; the exiled lords returned out of England ; and the parliament was pro- rogued, without accomplishing any of the objects for which it had been assembled. But Mary soon persuaded the weak and uxorious king to desert the noblemen whom he had made the instruments of his revenge, to retire with her to Dunbar, and to issue a proclamation, disowning his consent to the late attempt ; by which he exposed himself to the contempt of the nation, without regaining her affection. Having collected an army, she returned to Edinburgh, threatening to inflict the most ex- * Knox, 392, 394. Keith, Append. 126. The queen's letter to the Arch- bishop of Glasgow, apud Keith, 331. Goodall and Blackwood, apud Robert- eon, ii. 145. Lond. 1809. f The noblemen wished to bring Rizzio to a public trial ; but the king would not wait for this, and determined that he should be seized in the queen's presence, although she was big with child, tliat he might upbraid her for the wrongs which he had suffered. Keith, App. 121, 122. Robert- son, iii. 318. App. No. 15. Douglas of Lochleven, who was engaged in the combination against Rizzio, says, that it was their purpose to have " punist him be order of justice ; hot men proponit and God disponit udir wais, be sic extraordinar means, quhilk truly my aune hart aborit quhan I saw him ; for I never consentit that he suld haiff been usit by [beside] justice, nather was it in ony nobellman his mind." Speaking of Rizzio's influence, Douglas Bays, " 1 causit offer to him, gif he wald stay the Erie of Murray's forfaltour, he suld haiff 5 thowsand pundis Scottis; his answer was, 20 thowsand and that wer all alik ; it wald not be." MS. papers of the Laird of Lochleven. 25 M2 290 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. emplary vengeance on all who had been accessory to tlie mur- der of her secretary, and the indignity shown to her person. She fonnd herself, however, unable to resume her former plans ; and, while the conspirators against Rizzio were forced to flee to England, the Earl of Murray, and the other lords who had opposed her marriage, were allowed to remain in the country, and soon after pardoned. When the queen returned to Edinburgh, Knox left it, and retired to Kyle. There is no reason to think that he was privy to the conspiracy which proved fatal to Rizzio. But it is pro- bable that he had expressed his satisfaction at an event which contributed to the safety of religion and the commonwealth, if not also his approbation of the object of the conspiracy.* At any rate, he was sufficiently obnoxious to the queen on other grounds ; and as her resentment, on the present occasion, was exceedingly inflamed, it was deemed prudent for him to withdraw.t Having, at last, "got quit" of one who had so long been troublesome to her, Mary was determined to prevent his return to the capital. The town council and inhabitants, who had formerly refused to acquiesce in his suspension from preaching for a short time, exerted themselves to obtain his restoration ; and powerful intercession was made in his behalf by many of the nobility and gentry. But the queen was deaf to all entreat- ies. She was even unwilling that he should find a refuge with- in the kingdom, and wrote to a nobleman in the west country, with whom he resided, to banish him from his house. J It does not appear that he returned to Edinburgh, or, at least, that he resumed his ministry in it, until the queen was deprived of the government. Being banished from his flock, he judged this a favourable opportunity for paying a visit to England. Parental aflection increased the desire which he had long felt to accomplish this journey. His two sons had been lately sent by him into that * King James VI. having found great fault with Knox for approving of the assassination of Rizzio, one of the ministers said, " that the slaughter of David (Rizzio), so far as it was the work of God, was allowed by Mr. Knox, and not otherwise." Cald. MS. ad. ann. IfiOl. Knox Iiimself does not, however, state this qualification, when he mentions the subject incidentally. Historic, 83. Robertson, ii. 161 — 2. t Knox, Historic, 395. Answer to Tyrie, A. iiij. I Letter from Archbishop Grindal to Bullingcr, 17th August 1566: Strype's Grindal, Append. 20. Letter from Bishop Parkhnrst, written in December 1566: Burnet's Hist, of Reform, iii. Append. No. 91. In the Assembly which met in June this year, Craig desired that " John Carnes, who had read prayers and exhorted four years and more in Edinlnirgb, and had Weill protitccl, might bo joyncd with him as colleague in the kirk of Edinburgh, in respect he was alone." Keith, 560. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 291 kingdom, to reside with some of their mother's relations, and to obtain their education in the EngUsh seminaries. Having pro- cured the safe-conduct of EUzabeth, he appUed to the General Assembly, which met in December 1566, for their permission to remove. This was readily granted by them, upon condition of his returning against the time of their next meeting in June. The Assembly likewise gave him a most ample and honourable testimonial, in which they describe him as " a true and faithful minister, in doctrine pure and sincere, in life and conversation in our sight inculpable,^' and one who " has so fruitfully used that talent granted to him by the Eternal, to the advancement of the glory of his godly name, to the propagation of the king- dom of Jesus Christ, and edifying of them who heard his preaching, that of duty we must heartily praise His godly name, for that so great a benefit granted unto him for our utility and profit."* Knox was charged with a letter from the General Assembly to the bishops and ministers of England, interceding for lenity to such of their brethren as scrupled to use the sacerdotal dress enjoined by the laws. The controversy on that subject was at this time carried on with great heat among the English clergy. It is not improbable that the Assembly interfered in this busi- ness at the desire of Knox, to whom the composition of the letter was committed.! He could not have forgotten the trou- ble which he had himself suffered on a similar ground, and he had a high regard for many of the scruplers. This interposi- tion did not procure them any relief Though the superior clergy had been more zealous to obtain it than they were, Eliza- beth was inflexible, and would listen neither to the supplications of her bishops, nor to the advice of her counsellors. Knox's good opinion of the English queen does not seem to have been im- proved by this visit. J He performed one important piece of public service before undertaking this journey to England. On the 23d of Decem- ber, the queen granted a commission, under the privy seal, to the Archbishop of St. Andrews, restoring him to his ancient jurisdiction, which had been abolished in 1560, by act of par- * Keith, 56. t Ibid. 535, 566. Knox, 402, 403. Spotswood, 198, 199. The letter was subscribed by " John Davidson, for James Nicoldson, writer and clarke of the church of Edinborough." Strype's Life of Archbishop Parker, Append. p. 88. \ Speaking of England, he says, " And yet is sche that now rigneth over thame nether gude Protestant, nor yet resolute Papist; let the world juge quhilk is the third." Historie, p. 277. By comparing this with p. 269, it appears that it was written by him in 1567, and consequently after his re- turn from England. 292 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. liament,* This step was taken, partly to prepare for the re- storation of the Popish rehgion, and partly to facilitate another dark design which was soon after disclosed. The Protestants could not fail to be both alarmed and enraged at this daring measure. Moved by his own zeal no less than by the advice of his brethren, the Reformer addressed a circular letter to the principal Protestants in the kingdom, requesting tlieir immediate advice on the measures most proper to be adopted on this occa- sion, and enclosing a copy of a proposed supplication to the queen. This letter discovers all the ardour of the writer's spirit, called forth by such an alarming occurrence. After mentioning the late acts for the provision of the ministry, t by which the queen attempted to blind them, he says, " How that any such assignation, or any promise made thereof, can stand in any sta- ble assurance, when that Roman antichrist, by just laws once banished from this realm, shall be intrusted above us, we can no ways understand. Yea, farther, we cannot see what assu- rance can any within this realm, that hath professed the Lord Jesus, have of life, or inheritance, if the head of that odious beast be cured among us. As from the beginning we have neither spared substance nor life, so mind we not to faint unto the end, to maintain the same, so long as we can find the con- currence of brethren ; of whom (as God forbid) if we be desti- tute, yet we are determined never to be subject to the Roman antichrist, neither yet to his usurped tyranny ; but when we can do no farther to suppress that odious beast, we mind to seal it with our blood to our posterity, that the bright knowledge of Jesus Christ hath banished that Man of Sin, and his venomous doctrine, from our hearts and consciences. Let this our letter and request bear witness before God, before his Church, before the world, and before your own consciences.''^ The suppli- cation of the General Assembly to the lords of the privy coim- cil, on the same subject, also bears marks of the Reformer's pen.§ During the time that Knox was in England, that tragedy, so well known in Scottish history, was acted, which led to a com- plete revolution in the government of the kingdom, and, con- trary to the designs of the principal actors, threw the power wholly into the hands of the Protestants. Mary's affection for * Reg. Seer. Sig'. lib. xxxv. f. 99. Laing's History of Scotland, vol. i. 75, 76, 2d edit. Tliis historian has refuted the charges of forgery which Whitakcr had brought against Knox and Calderwood on this head. Ibid. pp. 78, 79. t Keith, pp. .561, 562. The occurrence wl)ich had taken place helps to e.\-- plain the coldness with wliich the Assembly received the information of these acts in their favour. Ibid. p. 563. I Cald. MS. apud Keith, .556—7. ? Ibid. 567—3. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 293 her husband, which had cooled soon after their marriage, was, from the time of Rizzio's assassination, converted into a fixed hatred, which she was at httle pains to conceal. The birth of an heir to the crown produced no reconciliation between the royal parents ; the king was not allowed to be present at the baptism of his own son, and was treated with such marked dis- respect, even by the servants, that he abandoned the court, and shut himself up in his father's house. In proportion as the queen's mind was alienated from her husband, the unprincipled Earl of Bothwell grew in her favour. He engrossed the whole management of public affairs, was loaded with honours, and treated by her majesty with every mark of personal regard and affection. In these circumstances, the neglected, unhappy king, was decoyed to Edinburgh, lodged in a solitary dwelling at the extremity of the city, and murdered on the morning of the 10th of February 1567 ; the house in which he lay being blown up with gunpowder. It would be unsuitable to the nature of the present work to enter into the controversy respecting the authors of this mur- der, which has been agitated with uncommon keenness from that day to the present time. The accusation of the Earl of Murray as a party to the deed, is destitute of all proof, and utterly incredible. It was at first circulated with the evident de- sign of turning away the public mind from tlie real perpetra- tors ; it was insinuated, and afterwards directly brought forward, in the conferences at York and Westminster, as a retaliation upon him for the charge which he exhibited against the queen; and it is now kept up only by the most blind and bigoted of her partisans. That Bothwell was the prime contriver and agent in the murder, cannot admit of a doubt with any impartial and judicious inquirer. And that Mary was privy to the design, and accessory to its execution by permission and approbation, there is, I think, all the evidence, moral and legal, which could reasonably be expected in a case of this kind. The whole of her behaviour towards the king, from the time that she brought him from Glasgow till she left him on the fatal night ; the re- missness which she discovered in inquiring into the murder ; the shameful manner in which she suffered the farce of Bothwell 's trial to be conducted ; the glaring act (which struck the whole of Europe, and even her own friends, with horror) of taking to her bed, with indecent haste, the man who was stigmatized as the murderer of her husband ; and the manner in which she refused to defend herself, and broke oft' the conference to which she had agreed, as soon as the charge of accession to the mur- der was brought against her, — aftbrd the strongest presumptions of her guilt ; and, when taken in connexion with the direct ev- idence arising from letters and depositions, would have been 25* 294 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. sufficient long ago to shut the mouths of any but the defenders of Mary Queen of Scots.* Knox was absent from Edinburgh at the time of the queen's marriage with Bothwell ; but his colleague ably supported the honour of his place and order on that occasion, when the whole nobility of Scotland preserved a passive and disgraceful silence. Being required by both the parties to publish the banns, Craig reluctantly complied, after taking the advice of his session ; but, at the same time, he protested from the pulpit, on three several days, and took heaven and earth to witness, that he abhorred and detested the intended marriage as unlawful and scandalous, and solemnly charged the nobility to use their influence to pre- vent the queen from taking a step, which would inevitably cover her with infamy, and involve her in ruin. Being called before the council, and accused of having exceeded the bounds of his commission, he boldly replied, that the bounds of his commis- sion were "the word of God, good laws, and natural reason, to all of which the proposed marriage was contrary. And Both- well being present he charged him with the crime of adultery, the precipitancy with which the process of divorce had been carried through, and the suspicions entertained of collusion between him and his wife, of his having murdered the king, and ravished the queen, all of which would be confirmed if they carried their purpose into execution.! The events which followed in rapid succession upon this in- famous marriage — the confederation of the nobility for reveng- ing the king's death, and preserving the person of the infant prince ; the flight of Bothwell ; the surrender and imprison- ment of Mary ; her resignation of the government ; the coro- nation of her son ; and the appointment of the Earl of Murray * Those who wish to see the proof of these assertions, may consult Mr. Hume's History of the period, with the Notes; Dr. Robertson's, with his Dissertation ; and especially Mr. Laing's Dissertation on the subject. This last writer has examined the point with great calmness, accuracy, and acute- ness, has established the genuineness of the letters to Bothwell, and cleared the whole evidence from the objections and cavils of the fantastical Whita- ker, a late author, who has equalled any of his predecessors in prejudice, and exceeded all of them in the illiberal and virulent abuse with which he has treated the most respectable of his opponents. 'J'lie principal writers who in modern times have undertaken the defence of Mary, are Goodall, Tytler, Stuart, and Whitaker. t Bulk of tlie Universal Kirk, pp. 85, 87, 103. Anderson's Collections, ii. 273— 128;i. Knox, 4t»5, 400. Spotswood, 20-,', 203. Craig gave in a narra- tive and defence of liis conduct to the General Assembly, 30th Dec. 1567 ; but it was not until the Gth July 15t)9, that the Assembly overtook the for- mal consideration of that affair, when they declared that " he had done the dewtie of a faithfull minister." LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 295 as regent during his minority, are all well known to the readers of Scottish history. Knox seems to have returned to his charge at the time that the queen fled with Bothwell to Dunbar. He was present in the General Assembly which met at Edinburgh on the 25th of June, and was delegated by them to go to the west country, and endeavour to persuade the Hamiltons, and others who stood aloof from the confederated lords to join with them in settling the distracted affairs of the country, and to attend a general convention of the delegates of the churches, to be held on the 20th of July following,* In this negotiation he was unsuccess- ful. But the convention was held, and the nobles, barons, and commissioners of boroughs, who were present, subscribed a number of important articles, with reference to religion and the state of the nation.! On the 29th of July 1567, the Reformer preached the sermon at the coronation of James VI. in the parish church of Stir- ling.J He objected to the ceremony of unction, as a Jewish rite abused under the Papacy ; but it was deemed inexpedient, on the present occasion, to depart from the accustomed ceremo- nial. It was therefore performed by the bishop of Orkney; the superintendents of Lothian and Angus assisting him to place the crown on the king's head.§ After the coronation, Knox, along with some others, took instruments, and craved extracts of the proceedings.il When the queen was confined by the lords in the castle of Lochleven, they had not resolved in what manner they should dispose of her person for the future. Some proposed that she should be allowed to leave the kingdom ; some that she should be imprisoned during life ; while others insisted that she ought to be capitally arraigned. Of this last opinion was Knox, with almost all the ministers, and the great body of the people. * Keith, 574, 577. Knox, 410. t Keith, 581—583. Knox, 411. Spotswood, 209, 210. I Knox, 412. Buchanan calls it luculentam concionem. Hist. lib. xviii. Oper. torn. i. p. 366. 5 Cald. MS. ii. 67, 68. Anderson's Collections, ii. 249. One author says that Knox was employed in putting the crown on the king's head. " Diade- ma Joannis Knoxii manibus capiti regie impositum." Archibaldus Simso- nus, Annales Eccles. Scotican. p. 9. MS. in the possession of Thomas Thomson, Esq. II Keith, 439. Keith expresses his surprise at Knox's taking instruments in tlie name of the estates, as he " could properly belong to no estate at all." Hist. p. 440. But the record does not say that he took instruments in the name of the estates. It is evident that he acted in the name of the Church, which was considered as having an interest in the transaction, as, by one clause of the coronation oath, the king engaged to maintain the reformed religion, and the privileges of the Protestant Church. Ibid. p. 438. 296 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. The chief ground upon which they insisted for this, was not her maladministration in the government, or the mere safety and peace of the commonwealth ; which were the reasons upon which the parhanient of England, in the following century, proceeded to the execution of her grandson. But they founded their opinion upon the personal crimes with which Mary was charged. Murder and adultery, they reasoned, were crimes to which the punishment of death was allotted by the law of God and of nations. From this penalty persons of no rank could plead exception. The ordinary forms of judicial procedure made no provision for the trial of a supreme magistrate, be- cause the laws did not suppose that such enormous crimes could be committed by him ; but extraordinary cases required ex- traordinary remedies, and new offences gave birth to new laws. There are examples in Scripture of the capital punishment of princes, nor are precedents of it wanting in the history of Scotland.* Upon these grounds, Knox scrupled not publicly to maintain, that the estates of the kingdom ought to bring Mary to a trial ; and, if she was found guilty of the murder of her husband, and an adulterous connection with Bothwell, that she ought to be put to death. Throkmorton, the English ambassador, held a conference with him, with the view of mitigating the rigour of this judgment ; but though he acquiesced in the resolution adopted by the nobility to detain her in prison, he retained his own sentiments, and, after the civil war was kindled by her escape from confinement, repeatedly said, that he considered the nation as sufl'ering for their criminal lenity.t Though the Earl of Murray, after his return from banish- ment, had been pardoned, and re-admitted to his place in the privy council, he did not regain the confidence of her majesty. Perceiving the ruinous tendency of the course on which she was bent, and despairing of being able to prevent it by his ad- vice, he declined taking any active part in the management of public affairs, and appeared very seldom at court. Soon after the king was murdered, he obtained liberty to leave the king- dom, and retired to France, where he remained till recalled by a message from the confederated lords, after Mary had sub- scribed the instruments by which she resigned the crown, and appointed liim regent during the minority of her son. Having arrived in Scotland, he was formally invested with the regency, on the 22d of August 1567. No sooner was he confirmed in the government, than he exerted himself with great zeal and * Keith, 421, 422, 423. Throkmorton's Letters, 14th and 18th July. Rob- ertson, Append. No. 21. " 'J'lie women," says tlie ambassador, " be most tlirious and impudent against the queen, and yet tlie men be mad enough." t Cald. MS. ii. 73. Bannatyne's Journal, p. 113. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 297 prudence to secure the peace of the kingdom, and settle the uftairs 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 commission- ers of boroughs, to consult upon and digest such overtures as were proper to be laid before that assembly. With these he joined Knox, and four other ministers, to assist in matters which related to the Church. This committee met in the be- ginning 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 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 ministers, were to account to the ex- chequer for the surplus. And the funds of provostries, pre- bendaries, and chaplainries, were appropriated to maintain bur- sars in colleges.t In the act ratifying the jurisdiction of the Church, Knox was appointed one of the commissioners for drawing out the parti- cular points which pertained to ecclesiastical judgment, to be presented to next meeting of parliament. The General Assem- bly, 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 ecclesi- astical questions as might occur after their dissolution. He was also appointed to assist the superintendent of Lothian in his * See Note KKK. t Act. Pari. Scot. iii. pp. 14—25. Cald. MS. ad ann. 1567. N2 298 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. visitation, and afterward to visit the churches in Kyle, Carrick, and Cunningham.* During the regency of Murray tliere were no jars between the Clunch and the Court, nor any of those unpleasant com- plaints which had been made at every meeting of the General Assembly before that period, and which were renewed under the succeeding regents.! All the grievances of which they complain.ed were not, indeed, redressed ; and the provision made by law was still inadequate for the support of such an ecclesias- tical estabUshment as the nation required, includiiig the semina- ries of education. But the regent not only received the ad- dresses of the General Assemblies in a " manner very different from that to which they had been accustomed ;" but shewed a disposition to grant their petitions, whenever it was in his power. It was chiefly through his influence that the favour- able arrangement concerning the thirds of benefices was made ; and he endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to obtain the con- sent of parliament to the dissolution of the prelacies, and the appropriation of their reveimes to the common fund of the Church, t Our Reformer had now reached the point from which he could take a calm and deliberate view of the bustling scene through which he had passed, and of the arduous struggle which he had been so long engaged in, and had at length brought to a happy termination. Papal superstition and tyranny were suppressed and abolished by law ; the Protestant religion was established ; the supreme government of the na- tion was in the hands of one in whose wisdom and integrity he had the greatest confidence ; the Ciiurch was freed from many of those grievances under which she had hitherto groaned, and enjoyed the prospect of obtaining the redress of such as still re- * Cald. ut supra. Keith, 585, 586. f Dr. Robertson says, that the regulation respecting the thirds, made by the parliament in December loGT, did not produce any considerable cliange in the situation of the clergy, and speaks of them as still " groaning under ex- treme poverty, unable to obtain any thing but fair words and liberal pro- mises." History of Scotland, ii. 2.50, 312. London, 1809. But the law which gave power to the collectors appointed by the Church to uplift the thirds, and to pay the stipends, before any thing was allowed to the court, was certainly a very considerable benefit. The Church herself viewed it in this liiiht. Calderwood says, that " the ministers were now refreshed with the allowance made by last parliament." MS. ad ann. 1567. And the Assembly, in their letter inviting Willock to return from England, express- ly say, " Our enemies, praised be God, are dashed ; religion established ; sufficient provision made for ministers," &ic. Keith, ."i90. The account which I have given in the text is, 1 think, supported by the register of the five General Assemblies which were held during the regency of Murray. I Letter from the Regent to the General Assembly, ult. June, 1569, in Appendix. Uuik of Universal Kirk, pp. 45 — 47. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 299 mained. The work on which his heart had been so ardently set for such a long period, and for the success of which he had so often trembled, had prospered beyond his utmost expectation. He now congratulated himself on the prospect of being released from all burden of public affairs, and of spending the remainder of his days in religious meditations, and in preparation for that event of whose near approach he was daily admonished by the increasing infirmities of his body.* He even secretly cherished the wish of resigning his charge in Edinburgh, and of retiring to that privacy from which he had been di'awn at the com- mencement of the Scottish Reformation, Speaking of the congregation of which he had been pastor at Geneva, he says, in one of his confidential letters, " God comfort that dispersed little flock, among whom I lived with quietness of conscience and contentment of heart ; and amongst whom I would be content to end my days, if so it might stand with God's good pleasure. For, seeing it hath pleased his majesty, above all men's expectations, to prosper the work for the performing whereof I left that company, I would even as- gladly return to them, if they stood in need of my labours, as ever I was glad to be delivered from the rage of mine enemies. I can give you no reason that I should so desire, other than that my heart so thirsteth."t But " the way of man is not in himself." Providence had allotted him further trials of a public nature ; he was yet to see the security of the reformed religion endangered, and the coun- try involved in another civil war, even more distressing than the former, inasmuch as the principal persons on both sides were professed Protestants. From the time that the queen was imprisoned, and the go- vernment transferred to the young prince under the regency of Murray, a considerable number of the nobility had withheld their approbation of these proceedings. The Popish party were decidedly attached to Mary, and inimical to a revolution, which crushed the hopes which they had all along cherished of accomplishing the restoration of the ancient religion. Others, though professed Protestants, were induced by various motives to oppose the new government. Argyle was at this time alien- ated from Murray by a family quarrel. J The house of Hamil- ton ibllowed that line of narrow and interested policy which they had adopted on former occasions of a similar kind. They were jealous lest t\\e late settlement of the crown should in- validate the right of their chief, the Duke of Chastelherault, to * Cald. MS. ii. 108. t Letter to John Wood, 14th of February, 1.568 ; Cald. MS. ii. 91. i Throkmorton to Elizabeth, 22d August 1567 : Keith, 450. 300 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. the succession ; and they were ofTended that the regency which they considered as due to him, should have been con- ferred on Murray.* No governor can gratify the expectations of all ; and some of those who were early friends of the regent, or had contributed to his advancement, thought that they were not sufficiently rewarded. The very means which he found it necessary to employ, to restore tranquillity and order to the kingdom, created him enemies. During the late confusions, many parts of the country had fallen into a state of anarchy ; and the northern counties and the borders presented nothing but scenes of rapine and bloodshed. It was impossible to repress these disorders without making severe examples of the most guilty ; and the turbulent and licentious naturally sought the overthrow of a government by which they felt themselves overawed and restrained.! But the abilities of the regent enabled him to overcome these difficulties ; and he was daily receiving submissions from the most powerful of the opposite party, when, on the 2d of May 156S, the queen escaped from her confinement in Lochleven. The discontented nobles im- mediately joined her standard, and, having mustered a large force, avowed their determination to restore her to the exercise of that authority which she had renounced by constraint. This formidable insurrection was defeated by the promptitude of the regent ; and, in consequence of the battle of Langside, Mary was driven into England, and her party broken. Eliza- beth having procured herself to be chosen umpire between the two parties, the conferences were protracted during so long a period, and the conduct of the English court was so equivocal and contradictory, that the friends of Mary were encouraged to renew their attempts to restore her by force of arms. But al- though the Duke of Chastelherault returned from France with a large sum of money contributed by the Popish princes, and came into Scotland in the character of lieutenant of the queen,:^ the regent, by liis vigilance, and his vigorous measures, prevented * Throkmorton's letters of 14th, 16th, 18th, and 19th July 1567 ; Robert- son, Append. No. 21. Laing, ii. Appen. No. 81, p. 125. Keith, p. 423. The protestation taken at tlie coronation of James VI. by Arthur Hamilton of Meriton, in the name of the duke, is confined to the point of his succession to the crown, and does not allude, in the slightest degree, to tiie right of the queen. Keith, 487. Of the same strain was the protest which was intend- ed to have been made at the parliament held in December 1567 ; a copy of which, and a minute of a conversation on the subject between the regent and Arthur Hamilton, are preserved among the Hamilton MSS. t Buchanan, Oper. i. 84G. Keith, 407. t Spotswood, 216. Letter, Knox to Wood, 10th September 1-568, pub- lished in the Appendix. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 301 any insurrection, and preserved the kingdom in obedience to the young king's authority. Despairing to accoraphsh their darhng object during his Hfe, the partisans of Mary resolved to cut oti' Murray by private means. During the year 1568, two persons were employed to assassinate him ; but the design was discovered and pre- vented.* This did not hinder new machinations. Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, a nephew of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, undertook to perpetrate the deed. He was one of the prison- ers taken at the battle of Langside ; but, after being arraigned, condemned, and brought out to execution, he had his life given him by the regent, and was soon after set at liberty along with the other prisoners.! It is said that he was actuated by re- venge, on account of an injury which he had received, by de- taining one of his forfeited estates, or by the cruel manner in which his wife had been dispossessed of it.J Whether this was really the case, or whether it was afterwards alleged to diminish the odium of his crime, and turn it away from his party, can- not perhaps be now certainly determined. But it does not ap- pear that any part of the regent's conduct towards him was such as to afford the slightest alleviation of a crime, in the commission of which he burst the ties of gratitude, as well as of humanity and justice. On the other hand, there is ample proof that lie was incited to make the attempt by the political party with which he was connected. § Having formed his res- * The Hist, of James the Sext, p. 48. Birrel's Diary, 17 in Dalyell's Frag-ments of Scottish History. Laing, ii. 269. See also Letter, Knox to Wood, 10th September 1568, ut supra. f Hist, of King James the Sext, pp. 43, 63. I This story is related in very different ways. One account makes the revenge to turn solely upon the treatment of his wife, who, expecting to be allowed to remain in her house of Woodislie, was " uncourtouslie and un- mercifuUie put thairfra, all her gudis tane fra hir, and schoe left stark naked. The gentilwoman, quhat for grief of mynd and exceeding cald, that schoe had then contractit, conceaved sic madness as was almost incredible." His- toric of King James the Sext, p. 74. Spotswood's account is different. He says, that Bothwellhaugh had redeemed his life by yielding up the lands of Woodhouselie, which were given to the Justice-Clerk, and he refusing to part with them, Bothwellhaugh " made his quarrel to the regent [i. e. re- venged himself upon the regent], who was most innocent, and had restored him to life and liberty." Spotsw. Hist. 233. Crawfurd, in his Memoirs of the affairs of Scotland, p. 140, 1st edit, says, that " Murray sent some officers to take possession of the house, who not only turned the gentlewoman out of doors, but," &c. This is the authority which lias been relied upon by all those writers who have charged the regent with cruelty in this transaction ; yet it is now discovered that the interpolation of Murray's name in this place is one of those forgeries by which that work is disgraced from begin- ning to end. Hist, of King James the Sext, preface, and p. 74. 5 This is clear from many considerations. Within a few days afler the 26 302 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. olution, he deliberately followed the regent in his progress to Glasgow, Stirling, and Linlithgow ; and, finding an opportnnity in the last of these places, shot him through the body with a musket-ball. The wound proved mortal, and the regent died the same evening. While some of his friends, who stood round his bed, lamented the excessive lenity which he had shown to his enemies, and particularly to his murderer, he replied, with a noble and Christian spirit, that nothing would ever make him repent of an act of clemency.* The consternation which is usually produced by the fall of a distinguished leader, was absorbed in the deep distress which the tidings of the regent's murder spread through the nation. The common people, who had experienced the beneficial effects of his short administration, to a degree altogether unprecedent- ed in the country, felt as if each had lost a father, and loudly demanded vengeance upon the authors of the parricide. Many who had envied or hated him during his life, were now forward to do justice to his virtues. Those who had not been able to conceal their satisfaction on the first intelligence of his death, became ashamed of the indecent exultation which they had so imprudently expressed. The Hamiltons were anxious to clear themselves from the imputation of a crime which they saw to be universally detested. They dismissed the murderer, who was glad to escape from ignominy by condemning him- self to perpetual banishment. The only one of his crimes for which the Archbishop of St. Andrews afterwards expressed contrition before his execution, was his accession to the mur- der of the regent.t Nor were these feelings confined to Scot- land ; the sensation was general through England, and the expressions of grief and condolence from that country evin- ced the uncommon esteem in which he was held by all ranks. regent's assassination, his secretary, Mr. John Wood, was murdered in Fife. Anderson's Col. iii. 84. The house in whicli Bothwellhaugh concealed him- self, while he committed the murder, belonged to the Archbishop of St. An- drews, wlio acknowledged that he was privy and accessory to the deed. Historie of King James the Sext, p. 117. The horse on which the mur- derer escaped belonged to John Hamilton, Abbot of Arbroath, one of the duke's sons. Cald. ad ann. 1570. He rode hnmediately to Hamilton, where he was " received with great applause." Ibid. Nay, grounds are not wanting for strong suspicion, tiiat Maitland, and even Kircaldy of Grange, who liad long been the bosom friend of the regent, was acquainted with the conspiracy against his life. Ibid. Bannatyne's Journal, p. 429. Bu- chan. i. :i84. * Cald. ut supra. Buchanani Oper. i. 385. Spotswood, 233. t Bannatyne, p. 121. " To the thrid Iiead" (his participation in the mur- der of the regent) the archbishop " answerit thus : That he not only knew thairof, and wald not stopp it, bot rather furtherit the deed thairof, quhilk he LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 303 It was the happiness of the regent, that, in his youth, he fell into the company of men, who cultivated his vigorous un- derstanding, gave a proper direction to his activity, and instil- led into his mind the principles of religion and virtue. His early adoption of the reformed sentiments, the steadiness with which he adhered to them, the uniform correctness of his mor- als, his integrity, sagacity, and enterprising but cool courage, soon placed him in the first rank among those who embarked in the struggle for the reformation of religion, and the main- tenance of national liberties, and secured to him their cordial and unbounded confidence. The honours which Mary confer- red on him were not too great for the services which he per- formed ; and had she continued to act by his advice, those measures would have been avoided which brought on her ruin. He was repeatedly placed in a situation which would have tempted the ambition of persons possessed of far inferior abili- ties ; yet he shewed no disposition to grasp at the supreme authority. When he accepted the regency, it was in compli- ance with the decided and uncorrupted choice of the acting majority in the kingdom, pointing him out as the person for occupying that high station ; and his conduct, in one of the most delicate and embarrassing situations in which a governor was ever placed, shewed that his countrymen were not mista- ken in their choice. He united, in no ordinary degree, those qualities, which are rarely combined in the same individual, and which form the character of an accomplished prince. Excel- ling equally in the arts of war and peace, he reduced the coun- try to obedience by his military skill and valour, and preserved it in a state of tranquillity and order by the wise and impartial administration of justice. Successful in all his warlike enter- prises, he never once tarnished the laurels of victory by cruelty or unnecessary rigour to the vanquished. He knew how to maintain the authority of the laws, and to bridle the licentious, by salutary severity, and at the same time to temper the rigour of justice by the interposition of mercy. He used to sit person- ally in the courts of judicature, and exerted himself to obtain for all the subjects an easy and expeditious decision of litigated repentit, and askit God mercie for the same." Hist, of .Tames the Sext, p. 117. " Jhon Hamilton, Bishop of Sanctandros, enemie to thy kirk and to the kingis autoritie, confossit at his daith of the knawledge of Erie of Morray regrent's murther, and that he myght half stayit the same gifF he plesit." MS. Papers of the Laird of Lochleven. Yet an author, in the nineteenth century, can write of this deed in tiie following terms : — " The heiress of Woodliouselie fell a sacrifice to tlie corrupt tyranny of the regent Murray. Her husband, Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, put the guilty tyrant to death as 'base-born Murray rode through old Linlithgow's crowded town.' " Chalmers's Caledonia, ii. 571. 304 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. causes. His hospitality, his unostentatious charity, his uncom- mon liberality to the learned, and the anxiety he shewed to confer his fovours in the manner least calculated to hurt their feelings, have been celebrated by one who had the best opportunities of becoming acquainted with these amiable traits of his character.* Nor has the breath of calumny, which has attempted in many ways to blast his reputation, ever insinuated that he oppressed or burdened the public, during his regency, in order to enrich himself or his family. Add to all these qual- ities, his exemplary piety, the only source of genuine and exal- ted virtue. His family was so regulated as to resemble a church rather than a court. Not a profane or lewd word was to be heard from any of his domestics. A chapter of the Bible was always read at table after dinner and supper; and it was his custom on such occasions, to require his chaplain, or some learned man present, to give his opinion upon the passage, for his own instruction and that of his family. " A man truly good," says Archbishop Spotswood, "and worthy to be ranked among the best governors that this kingdom hath enjoyed, and, therefore, to this day honoured with the title of The Good Regent."! This may perhaps be deemed by some readers an improper digression. But though it had been less connected with the subject of this work than it is, and though the familiarity and co-operation between the regent and the Reformer had been less intimate and cordial than they really were, I could not have denied myself the satisfaction of paying a small tribute to the memory of one of the greatest men of his age, who has been traduced and vilified in a most unjustifiable manner, and whose character has been drawn with unfavourable, and, in my opinion, with unfair colours, by the most moderate and impartial of our historians. All that I have attempted, is to sketch the more prominent features of his character. That he was faultless, I am far from wishing to insinuate ; but the principal charges which have been brought against him, I consider as either irrelevant, or unproved, or greatly exaggerated. That his exaltation to the highest dignity in the state which a subject could enjoy, produced no untavourable change on his temper and behaviour, is what none can be prepared to affirm; but I have not seen the contrary established. The confidence which he reposed in his friends was great, and he was in- clined to pay nnich deference to their advice ; but tliat he be- came the dupe of worthless Aivourites, and fell by listening to their flattery, and refusing to hearken to wholesome advice, and not by the treachery of his friends and the malice of his enemies, * Buchanan. Oper. i. 385. t History, 234. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 305 are assertions which have been repeated upon the authority of a single witness, unsupported by facts, and capable of being dis- proA'^ed.* The regent died on the evening of Saturday, the 23d of Jan- uary 1570; and the intelligence of his murder was conveyed early next morning to Edinburgh. It is impossible to describe the anguish which the Reformer felt on this occasion. The loss of a noble and endeared friend was the least evil which he had to deplore. Of all the Scottish nobility, he placed the greatest confidence in Murray's attachment to religion ; and his conduct after his elevation to the regency, had served to heighten the good opinion which he formerly entertained of him. He looked upon his death as the greatest calamity which could befall the nation, and as a forerunner of many evils.t When the shock produced by the melancholy tidings had subsided, the first thought that rushed into his mind was, that he had himself been the instrument of obtaining, from his clemency, a pardon to the man who had become his murderer ; a thought which naturally produced a very different impression on him from what it did on the mind of the dying regent. | In his sermon that day, he introduced the melancholy sub- ject ; and after saying, that God in his great mercy raised up pious rulers, and took them away in his displeasure, on account of the sins of a nation, he thus poured out the sorrows of his heart : « 0 Lord, in what misery and confusion found he this realm ! To what rest and quietness now by his labours, sud- denly he brought the same, all estates, but especially the poor commons, can witness. Thy image, 0 Lord, did so clearly shine in that personage, that the devil, and the people to whom he is prince, could not abide it ; and so to punish our sins and our ingratitude (who did not rightly esteem so precious a gift), thou hast permitted him to fall, to our great grief, in the hands of cruel and traitorous murderers. He is at rest, 0 Lord ; we are left in extreme misery."§ Only a few days before this, and after the plan of the mur- * See Note LLL. f Smetoni Responsio ad Hamiltonii Dialogum, p. 116. \ " Upon the 22 of Maii, the Sherife of Linlithgow, the Laird of Inner- week, James Hamilton of Bothelhaugh, and six others, were put to an as- syse ; their hands boimd ; and pardoned at the request of Mr. Knox, whereot he sore repented ; for Bothwelhaugh killed the regent shortlie after." Cald. MS. ad ann. 1563. 5 Cald. MS. ii. 150. He is said to have added this to his usual prayers after dinner and supper. But in a volume of Calderwood's History, in the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh (which lias been transcribed more early, than any copy which I have seen), these words are scored out ; and it is introduced as the prayer which he offered up in public, on the day on which he was informed of the regent's death. 26 * 0 2 30G LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. der was fully concerted, Gavin Hamilton, Abbot of Kilwinning, applied to Knox to intercede with the regent in behalf of some of ins kinsmen, who were confined for practising against the government. He signified his readiness to do all in his power for the relief of any of that family who were willing to own the authority of the king, but entreated the abbot not to abuse him by employing his services, if his relations intended to do any mischief to the regent;* for "I protest," said he "before God, who is the only witness now betwixt us, that if there be any thing attempted, by any of that surname, against the per- son of that man, in that case I discharge myself to you and them for ever." After the assassination, the abbot sent to de- sire another interview ; but Knox refused to see him, and de- sired the messenger to say, " I have not now the regent to make suit unto for the Hamiltons."t At this time there was handed about a fabricated account of a pretended conference held by the late regent with Lord Lind- say, Wishart of Pittarrow, the tutor of Pitcur, James Macgill, and Knox ; in which they were represented as advising him to set aside the young king, and place the crown on his own head. To give it the greater air of credibility, the modes of expression peculiar to each of the persons were carefully imitated in the speeches put into their mouths. The evident design of circu- lating it at this time, was to lessen the odium of the murder, and the veneration of the people for the memory of Murray ; but it was universally regarded as an impudent and gross for- gery. The person who fabricated it was Thomas Maitland, a young man of talents, but corrupted by his brother the secretary, who had previously engaged himself to the queen's party, and was suspected of having had a deep hand in the plot for assas- sinating the regent. I On the day on which the weekly conference was held in Ed- inburgh, the same person slipped into the pulpit a schedule, con- taining words to this effect : " Take up now the man whom you accounted another God, and consider the end to which his am- bition hath brought him." It was Knox's turn to preach that day. On entering the pulpit he took up the paper, supposing it to be a note requesting the prayers of the congregation for a sick person, and having read it, laid it aside without any appar- ent emotion. But towards the conclusion of his sermon; after deploring the loss which the Church and commonwealth had recently sustained, and declaring the account of the conference, which had been circulated, to be false and calumnious, he said * Groat apprehensions of this were entertained by the regent's friends. Bannatyne, 428 — 9. t Cald. MS. ad ann. 1570. t Ibid. ii. 151—157. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 307 that there were persons who rejoiced at the treasonable murder, and scrupled not to make it the subject of their merriment ; and particularly, there was one present who had thrown into the pulpit a paper exulting over an event which was the cause of grief to all good men : " that wicked man, whosoever he be, shall not go unpunished, and shall die where there shall be none to lament him." Maitland, after he went home, said to his sis- ter, that the preacher was raving, when he spake in such a man- ner of a person who was unknown to him ; but she, suspecting that her brother had written the line, reproved him, saying with tears, that none of that man's denunciations were wont to prove idle. Spotswood (who had his information personally from the mouth of that lady) says, that Maitland died in Italy, " having no known person to attend him."* On Tuesday the 14th of February the regent's corpse was brought from the palace of Holyroodhouse, and interred in the south aisle of the collegiate Church of St. Giles. Before the funeral, Knox preached a sermon on these words, " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Three thousand persons were dissolved in tears before him, while he described the vir- tues of the regent, and bewailed his loss.t Buchanan paid a tribute to the memory of his deceased patron, by writing the inscription placed on his monument, with that expressive sim- plicity and brevity which are dictated by genuine grief J A convention of the nobility was held after the funeral, at which it was resolved to avenge his death ; but different opinions were entertained as to the mode of doing this, and the commons com- plained loudly of the remissness with which the resolution was prosecuted. The General Assembly, at their first meeting, testi- fied their detestation of the crime, by ordering the assassin to be publicly excommunicated in all the chief towns of the kingdom, and by appointing the same process to be used against all who should afterwards be convicted of accession to the murder. § * Spotswood, p. 234. Mackenzie labours to discredit the archbishop's narrative of this affair. Lives of Scottish Writers, iii. 195, 196. But what- ever opinion we may form about the prediction, it cannot be doubted that Spotswood had the best means of information respecting the facts which he relates. Nor has Mackenzie any other authority for what he says about the death of Maitland than the archbishop's. t Cald. MS. ii. 157. I The inscription, engraved on brass, is yet preserved ; and a copy of it will be found in Note MMM. But Buchanan has, in his History, reared to the regent " a monument more durable than brass," which will preserve his memory as long as the language in which it is written shall continue to be understood, and as long as a picture taken from life shall be pretl>rred to the representations of fancy or of prejudice. Nor has he neglected to celebrate him in his verses. Epigram, lib. ii. 29, iii. 7, 9, 18. \ Spotswood, 235. 308 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. During the sitting of the convention, Knox received a number of letters from his acquaintancesinEngland, expressive of their high regard for the character of the regent, and their sorrow at so grievous a loss.* One of these was from Christopher Good- man, and another from John Willock, who either had not com- plied with the invitation of the General Assembly, or had again returned to England.! The other letters were from English- men, who had no immediate connexion with Scotland. Dr. Laurence Humphrey | urged Knox to write a memoir of the de- ceased. Had he done this, his intimate acquaintance with the regent would, no doubt, have enabled him to communicate many particulars of which we must now be content to remain ignorant ; but though he had been disposed to undertake this task, the state of his health would have prevented its execu- tion. The grief which he indulged on account of this mournful event, and the confusions which followed it, preyed upon his spirits, and injured his health. § In the month of October, he had a stroke of apoplexy, which afiected his speech to a consid- erable degree. On this occasion his enemies exulted and circu- lated the most exaggerated tales respecting his disorder. The report ran through Scotland and England, that John Knox would never preach or speak more, — that his face was turned into his neck, — that he was become the most deformed creature * Cald. ut supra. f A late author has very wantonly attempted to load the memory of this excellent man with a capital crime. He gives the following extract from the Paper Office, 22d April 1590 : — " Twa men, the ane namyt Johnne Gib- sone, Scottishman, preacher, and the other Johnne Willokis, now baith lying in prison at Leicester, were convicted by a jury of robbery." Tlie last of these convicts, says he, was " tlie reforming coadjutor of Knox." Chalmers's Life of Ruddiman, p. 207. What evidence has the author for saying so] Nothing but the sameness of the name ! Just as if a person, on reading in the public papers of one George Clialmers who was convicted of a robbery (no unlikely thing) should immediately take it into his head that this was, and could be, no other than the author of the Life of Ruddiman, and Cale- donia ! It is evident tliat the second convict was no preaclier, else this designation would have been added to his name, as well as to that of the first. It is probable that Willock, who was a preacher as early as L540, was not alive in 1590 : it is utterly incredible that he sliould then have been in a condition to act as a robber. But it is paying too much regard to such a cliarge to bring exculpatory proof. I In the copy of Cald. MS. belonging to the Church of Scotland, the name is written Win/rid ; but in the copy in the Advocates' Library, it is Umfrede. The person meant is evidently Dr. Laurence Humphrey (Um- fredius) Professor of Divinity, and Head of one of the colleges, in the Uni- versity of Oxford. Tliis learned man was a puritan, but enjoyed the pa- tronage of Secretary Cecil. Strype's Annals, i. 421, 430 — 432. 5 Smetoni Respons, ad Hamilt. p. 116. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 309 ever seen, — that he was actually dead ;* a most unequivocal proof of the high consideration in which he was held, which our Reformer received in common with other great men of his age.t * Bannatyne's Journal, p. 54. Cald MS, ii. 206. Bannatyne, says, " the disorder was a kynd ofapoplexia, called by the pliisitiones resolutione ;" probably a more gentle stroke of the disorder, attended with relaxation of the system. t In 1556, Calvin was suddenly seized in the pulpit with a fever, v.'hich coniined him to his bed for a considerable time, and from which it was not thought he would recover. On hearing this, the Popish clergy of Noyon, his native city, met, and rather prematurely gave public thanks to God for his death. Melch. Adam. Vitte. Exter. Theol. p. 93. — " Plusieurs grands hommes (says Senebier) ont partage cet honneur avec Calvin, et ont eu comme lui, la satisfaction de connoitre la profonde estime qu' on avoit concuo pour eux." Histoire Litteraire de Geneve, torn, i. p. 228. Luther, having received in 1545 a copy of an account of his own death, printed at Naples, caused it to be reprinted with this note : " I, Doctor Martin Lutlier, attest that I received this frantic fable on this 21st of March, and am delighted be- yond measure to understand that the devil and his spawn the pope and pa- pists, hate me so heartily." Seckendorf Hist. Lutheran, lib. iii. p. 581. 310 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. PERIOD IX. FROM OCTOBER 1570, WHEN HE WAS STRUCK WITH APOPLEXY, TO HIS DEATH, IN NOVEMBER 1572. Those who flattered themselves that the Reformer's disorder was mortal were disappomted ; for he was restored to the use of his speech, and was able, in the course of a few days, to re- sume preacliing, at least on Sabbath days.* He never recover- ed, however, from the debility which was produced by the apoplectic stroke. The confusions which he had augured from the death of the good regent soon broke out, and again spread the flames of civil discord through the nation. The Earl of Lennox, who was the natural guardian of his grandson, was advanced to the regency ; but he was deficient in the talents which were requisite for so difficult a station, and the knowledge of his weakness embolden- ed and increased the party which was attached to the queen. The Hamiltons openly raised her standard, and were strength- ened by the influence and abilities of Maitland. William Kir- caldy of Grange, whom Murray had made governor of the cas- tle of Edinburgh, after concealing his defection for some time under the flag of neutrality, declared himself on the same side, and became a principal agent in attempting to overturn that government which he had been so zealous in erecting. Mait- land's tergiversation surprised nobody ; but the defection of Kircaldy was deeply felt by those with whom he had been so long associated. It proved a source of the keenest distress to Knox, The acquaintance which they had formed in the castle of St. Andrews,? grew into intimacy during their confinement in the French galleys ; and Knox could never forget the services which Kircaldy performed during the subsequent struggle for reformation, and continued to the last to cherish the hope * Bannatyne's Journal, p. 55. t James Kircaldy of Granrre was restored to his lands, &c. at the request and special desire ot" Henry II. of France, by letters under the signet and privy seal of Queen Mary, dated at Paris, 2fith February l.'>")6. William Kircaldy of Grantee, son and heir to the former, was restored by letters dated the l^th of February 1561. Reg. Seer. Sig. Lib. xxxi. f. 16. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 311 that he was at heart a friend to religion. Under the influence of these feelings, he spared no pains in endeavouring to prevent him from renouncing his fidelity to the king, and afterwards to reclaim him from his apostasy. But in both attempts he was unsuccessful. In the end of the year 1570, he was personally involved in a disagreeable quarrel with Kircaldy. One of the soldiers belong- ing to the castle having been imprisoned by the magistrates on a charge of murder, the governor sent a party from the garrison, who broke open the tolbooth, and carried oif the prisoner. In his sermon on the following Sabbath, Knox condemned this riot, and violation of the house of justice. Had it been done by the authority of a bloodthirsty man, or one who had no fear of God, he would not, he said, have been so much moved at it ; but he was affected to think that one of whom all good men had formed so great expectations, should have fallen so far as to act such a part ; one too, who, when formerly in prison, had refused to purchase his own liberty by the shedding of blood.* An erroneous and exaggerated report of this censure being conveyed to the castle, the governor, in a great rage, made his complaint, first to Knox's colleague, and afterwards formally to the kirk-session, that he had been calumniated as a murderer, and required that his character should be vindicated as publicly as it had been traduced. Knox, understanding that his words had been misrepresented, embraced the first opportunity of explaining and vindicating them from the pulpit. On a sub- sequent day, Kircaldy, who had absented himself from church nearly a whole year, came down to St. Giles's accompanied with a number of the persons who had been active in the murder and riot. Regarding this as an attempt to overawe the author- ities, and set public opinion at defiance, the Reformer dwelt particularly, in his discourse, upon the sinfulness of forgetting benefits received from God, and warned his hearers against confiding in the divine mercy, while they were knowingly trans- gressing any of the commandments, or proudly defending their transgression. Kircaldy was much incensed at this admonition, which he considered as levelled at him, and made use of very threatening language in speaking of the preacher. The report spread that the governor of the castle was become a sworn enemy to Knox, and intended to kill him. Upon this, several noblemen and gentlemen of Kyle and Cunningham sent a letter to Kircaldy, in which, after reminding him of his former appear- ances for religion, and mentioning the reports which had reached their ears, they warned him against doing any * See above, p. 60. 312 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. thing to the hurt of that man, whom " God had made the first planter and chief waterer of his dmrch among them," and protested that " his death and hfe were as dear to them as tlieu* own."* Knox was not to be deterred from doing what he considered to be his duty. He persisted in warning his hearers to avoid all participation with those who prevented the punishment of atrocious crimes, by supporting the pretensions of the queen, and who exposed the reformed religion to the utmost hazard, by opposing the king's authority. When the General Assem- bly met in March 1571, anonymous libels were thrown into the house where they were sitting, and placards affixed to the church doors, accusing him of seditious railing against their sovereign, the queen, refusing to pray for her welfare and con- version, representing her as a reprobate whose repentance was hopeless, and uttering imprecations against her. One of the placards concluded with a threat that, if the Assembly did not restrain him by their authority from using such language the complainers would themselves apply a remedy to the evil "with greater unquietness." The Assembly having, by public intimation, required the complainers to come forward and sub- stantiate their charges, another anonymous writing appeared, promising that accusers should not be wanting against next As- sembly, if the preacher continued his otiensive speeches, and was " then law-byding, and not fugitive, according to his ac- customed manner." Several of his friends dealt with him to pass over these unau- thenticated libels in silence, but he refused to comply with this advice considering that the credit of his ministry was implicated. Accordingly, he produced them in the pulpit, and returned a particular answer to the accusations which they contained. That he had charged the late queen with the crimes of which she had been notoriously guilty, he granted, — that he had railed against her, he denied ; nor would they be able to substantiate this charge against him, without at the same time proving Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other inspired writers, to have been rail- ers. " From them he had learned plainly and boldly to call wickedness by its own terms, a fig, a fig, and a spade, a spade." He never called the queen reprobate nor said that her repent- ance was impossible ; but he had affirmed that pride and re- pentance could not remain long together in one heart. He had prayed, that God, for the comfort of his Church, would oppose his power to her pride, and confound her and her assistants in their impiety : this prayer, let them call it imprecation or exe- cration as they pleased, had stricken, and would yet strike, * Bannatyne's Journal, pp. G7 — 87. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 313 whoever supported her. To the charge of not praying 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 sil- ver, or favour of the world."* What title she now had, or ever had to the government, he would not dispute ; the estates had deprived her of it, and it belonged to them to answer for this : as for him, he had hitherto hved in obedience to all lawful authority within the kingdom. To the threatening against his life, and the insinuation that he might not be " law-b^'ding, but fugitive," against next Assembly, he replied, that his life was in the custody of Him who had hitherto preserved him from many dangers, that he had reached an age at which he was not apt to flee far, nor could any yet accuse him of hav- ing left the people committed to his charge, except at their own command. After these answers, his enemies fled, as their last resort, to an attack upon his Blast of the Trumpet, and accused him of inconsistency in writing against female government, and yet praying for Qneen Elizabeth, and seeking her suj^port against his native country. This accusation he also met in the pulpit, and refuted with great spirit. After vindicating his consisten- cy, he concluded in the following manner : — " One thing in the end I may not pretermit, that is, to give him a lie in his throat that either dare or will say, that ever I sought support against my native country. What I have been to my country, albeit this unthankful age will not know, yet the ages to come will be compelled to bear witness to the truth. And thus I cease, requiring of all men that has to oppose any thing against me, that he will do it so plainly as I make myself and all my doings manifest to the world ; for to me it seems a thing most unreasonable, that in my decrepit age, I shall be com- pelled to fight against shadows, and howlets that dare not abide the light."t The conduct of our Reformer at this period affords a striking display of the unextinguishable ardour of his mind. Previous to the breaking out of the late disturbances, he had given up at- * Crawford in his Memoirs of Scotland (p. 186, Edin. anno 1706), among other things disgraceful to our Reformers, says that they openly avowed on this occasion, " That to pray for, or forg-ive our real or reputed enemies, was no part of a Cliristian's duty." It is sufficient to say, that there is not one word of this in the " authentick MS.." from which he profesess that his Memoirs were " taithfully published. " See History and Life of King James the Sext, pp. 11:3, il4. The public are under great obligations tc Mr. Malcolm Laing, for exposing this literary forgery, which had continued so long to impose upon our most acute and industrious historians. t The accusation and defence may be seen at full lengtli in Bannatyne's Journal, pp. 190—210. 27 P2 314 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. tendance on church courts. He never went abroad except on Sabbath-day, to preach in the forenoon. He was so debilita- ted as to be unable to go to the pulpit without assistance.* He had weaned his heart from the world, and expressed his resolu- tion to take no more part in public atfairs. In answer to a letter of his esteemed friend, Sir William Douglas of Lochleven, who had informed him of an intended attempt on the castle of St Andrews by Archbishop Hamilton, and requested his good offices for certain preachers, we find him, on the 31st of March 1570, writing as follows : — " How such troublers may be stayed in their enterprises, I commit to God, to whose counsels I com- mit you in that and all other causes worldly, for I have taken my good-night of it ; and therefore bear with me, good sir, al- beit I write not to the superintendent of Fife in the action that ye desire, t" But whenever he saw the church and common- wealth seriously in danger, he forgot his infirmities and his re- solutions, and entered into the cause with all the keenness of his more vigorous days. Whether the public proceedings of the nation, or his own conduct, were arraigned, — whether the attacks upon them were open or clandestine, he stood prepared to repel them, and convinced the adversaries, that they could not accomplish their designs without opposition, as long as he was able to move or speak.J His situation became very critical in April 1571, when Kir- caldy received the Hamiltons, with their forces, into the castle. Their inveteracy against him was so great, that his friends were obliged to watch his house during the night. They pro- posed forming a guard for the protection of his person when he went abroad ; but the governor of the castle forbade this, as implying a suspicion of his own intentions, and otlered to send Melvil, one of his oflicers, to conduct him to and from the church. " He wold gif the woulf the wedder to keip," says Bannatyne. Induced by the importunity of the citizens, Kir- caldy applied to the duke and his party for a protection to Knox ; but they refused to pledge their word for his safety, be- cause " there were many rascals and others among them who loved him not, that might do him harm without their know- ledge." § Intimations were often given him of threatenings * Bannatyne, p. 77. t Letter to the Laird of Lochleven, in the Appendix. X The lively interest which he continued to take in public affairs, is appa- rent from the letters of his correspondents. Captain Crawford of Jordanhill sent him, at iiis desire, a minute account of tlie taking- of Dumbarton castle, with an inventory of the arms, annnunition, and provisions, which were found in it. Bannatyne, 123. There are also two letters to him from Alexander Hay, clerk of the privy council, informinn^ him of the most important trans- actions in England, and on tlie Continent. Ibid. 294 — 30:2. } Bannatyne, 132 — 3, 145. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 315 against his life ; and one evening a musket-ball was fired in at his window, and lodged in the roof of the apartment in which he was sitting. It happened that he sat at the time in a difier- ent part of the room from that which he had been accustomed to occupy, otherwise the ball, from the direction it took, must have struck him.* Alarmed by this occurrence, a deputation of the citizens, accompanied by his colleague, waited upon him, and renewed a request which they had formerly made, that he would remove from Edinburgh, to a place where his life would be in greater safety, until the queen's party should evacuate the town. But he refused to yield to them, apprehending that his enemies wished to intimidate him into flight, that they might carry on their designs more quietly, and then accuse him of cowardice. Being unable to persuade him by any other means, they had recourse at last to an argument which pre- vailed. They told him that if he was attacked, they were deter- mined to risk their lives in his defence, and if blood was shed in the quarrel, which was highly probable, they would leave it on his head. Upon this he consented to remove from the city " sore against his will." t He left Edinburgh on the fifth of May 1571, and crossing the Frith at Leith, travelled by short stages to St. Andrews, which he had chosen as the place of his retreat. | His pulpit was filled by Alexander Gordon, Bishop of Galloway, who preached and prayed in a manner more acceptable to the queen's party than his predecessor, but little to the satisfaction of the people, who despised him on account of his weakness, and disliked him for supplanting their favourite pastor.§ A number of the most respectable inhabitants were driven from the capital by violence, while others were induced to quit it, and retire to Leith, that they might not be understood as even practically submitting to the queen's authority. The Church of Edinburgh was for a time dissolved. The celebration of the Lord's Supper was sus- pended. And, whereas formerly scarce a day passed without some public exercise of religion, there was now, during a whole week, " neither preaching nor prayer ; neither was there any * Cald. MS. ad ann. 1572. Life prefixed to History, anno 1644. t Bannatyne, 144 — 146. I Ibid, Historie of King James the Sext. p. 123. 5 Keith's Scottish Bishops, 166. The principles upon which the bishop vindicated the authority of the queen, and the duty of praying for her in the pulpit, show the strong and universal opinion entertained of her guilt at that time. He did not venture to insinuate her innocence, although the town was full of armed men, who were enlisted under her banners. Bannatyne, 181, 182. 316 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. sound of bell heard in all the town, except the ringing of tlie cannon."* The kingdom was now subjected to all the miseries of civil war and intestine faction. In almost every part of the country there were adherents to the king and to the queen, who exas- perated each other by reciprocal reproaches and injuries. The regent fortified Leith, while the queen's party kept possession of the castle and town of Edinburgh. As the two armies lay at a small distance from one another, and neither of them was sufficiently strong for undertaking to dispossess the other, they were daily engaged in petty skirmishes ; and several acts of disgraceful retaliation, which rarely happen in the open field, were committed on both sides. The evidence which the queen's friends gave of their personal antipathy to the Refor- mer, clearly shewed that his life would have been in imminent danger, if he had remained among them. An inhabitant of Leith was assaulted and his body mutilated, because he was of the same name with him. A servant of John Craig, being met one day by a reconnoitring party, and asked who was his master, answered, in his trepidation, Mr. Knox ; upon which he was seized, and, although he immediately corrected his mis- take, they desired him to " hold at his first master," and drag- ged him to prison. Having fortified St. Giles's steeple to over- awe the inhabitants, the soldiers baptized one of the cannons by the name of Knox, which they were so fond of firing, that it burst, killed two of the party and wounded others, t They cir- culated the most ridiculous tales respecting his conduct at St. Andrews. John Law, the letter-carrier of that city, being in the castle of Edinburgh, " the ladie Home and utheris wald neidis thraip in his face, that" John Knox " was banist the said toune, becaus that in the yarde he had reasit sum Sanctis, amongis whome thair came up the devill with hornis, which when his servant Richard sawe, [he] ran woode, and so died."t Although he was now free from personal danger, Knox did not find St. Andrews that peaceful retreat which he had ex- pected. The friends of Kircaldy, and of Sir James Balfour,§ resided in the neighbourhood, and the Hamiltons had their re- lations and partisans both in the university and among the ministry. Tliese were thorns in the Reformer's side, and made * Bannatyne, 144, 169, 170. Hist, of King James the Sext, 123, 124. Knox's Epistle to his Brethren of the Churcli of Edinburgh, now dispersed. Strevelinir, 1571. t Bannatyne, 1.51, 240, 322. I Bannatyne, :W9, 310. " Gif this had been their first inventit lie," sayg the same Richart, " I wald never have blackit paper for it." 5 See above, p. 57. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 317 his situation very uneasy, as long as he resided among them. Having left Edinburgh, because he could not be permitted to disburden his conscience, by testifying against the designs of persons whom he regarded as conspirators against the legal government of the country, and favourers of a faction who in- tended nothing less than the overthrow of the reformed religion, it was not to be expected that he would preserve silence on this subject at St. Andrews. Accordingly, in the discourses which he preached on the eleventh chapter of Daniel's prophecy, he frequently took occasion to advert to recent transactions, and to inveigh against the murder of the late king, and of the regent. This was very grating to the ears of the opposite faction, particularly to Robert and Archibald Hamilton, the former one of the ministers of the city, and the latter a professor in one of the colleges. Irritated by the censures which Knox pro- nounced against his kinsmen, Robert Hamilton attempted to injure his reputation, by circulating in private that it did not become him to exclaim so loudly against murderers ; for he had seen his subscription, along with that of the Earl of Murray, to a bond for assassinating Darnley at Perth. When this came to the Reformer's ears, he immediately wrote a letter to Hamilton, desiring him to say, whether he was the author of the slander- ous report. Not receiving a satisfactory answer, he communi- cated the matter to Douglas, rector of the university, and Ruth- erford, provost of St. Salvator's College, requesting them to converse with their colleague on the subject, and to inform him, that if he did not give satisfaction for the slander which he had propagated, a complaint would be lodged against him before the Church. Upon this he came to Knox's room, and denied that he had ever given any ground for such a scandal- ous surmise.* Archibald Hamilton being complained of for withdrawing * Bannatyne. 380 — 3. Goodall, after relating this story, attempts, but with his usual imbecility of argument, to deduce from it, that Murray had really conspired to murder Darnley, and that Knox was one of his accom- plices, "They all talk of it," says he, "as a known uncontroverted matter of fact. And Knox's waving all prosecution, and hushing up the business, is more than a tacit acknowledgment that he was in the plot, and a sub- scriber." Examination, i. 211. According to this doctrine, if a person shall rest satisfied with a private apology for a slander which a weak and irritable man had imprudently circulated to his prejudice, and if he shall decline a public prosecution, this must be regarded as good proof of his guilt, and of the truth of the report ! With respect to Murray having conspired against Darnley at the time of his marriage, it is true that such a thing was reported ; but it is not mentioned in the proceedings against that nobleman, nor is there the least allusion to it in any of the proclamations which the queen issued against him, although Murray publicly accused Darnley of a plot against his hfe. If the court had credited that report, and possessed any evidence of its truth, it will not be easy to account for this silence. 27* 318 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. from Knox's sermons, and for accusing him of intolerable rail- ing, endeavoured to bring the matter under the cognizance of the masters of the university, among whom he possessed con- siderable intiuence.* Knox did not scruple to give an account of his conduct before the professors for tlieir satisfaction ; but he judged it necessary to enter a protest, that his appearance before them should not invalidate the liberty of the pulpit, nor the authority of the regular church courts, to which, and not to any university, the judgment of religious doctrine belonged.t This incident accounts for the zeal with which he expresses himself on this subject, in one of his letters to the General Assembly ; in which he exhorts them, above all things, to pre- serve the Church from the bondage of the universities, and not to exempt them from ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or allow them to become judges of the doctrine taught from the pulpit.J The military operations during the civil war were chiefly distinguished by two enterprises, which claim our notice from the influence which they had upon the affairs of the Church. The one was the taking of Dunbarton Castle, which was sur- prised, on the 2d of April 1571, by a small party of the regent's forces, led by Captain Crawford of Jordanhill. Archbishop Hamilton having fallen into the hands of the captors, was soon after condemned, and ended his life on the gibbet. The execu- tion of prisoners, although chargeable with crimes which merit death, is ordinarly avoided in civil contests, because it produces reprisals from the opposite party ; but in every other respect the fate of Hamilton is not a subject of regret or of censure. Of all the queen's adherents, his motives for supporting her cause ap- pear to have been the most unworthy ; and his talents and rank hi the Church ought not to be pleaded in extenuation of the vices which stained his private character, or the crimes of which he had been guilty.§ The death of Hamilton gave oc- * Archibald Hamilton, a short time after this, left Scotland ; and going to France made a recantation of the Protestant religion. As an evidence of the sincerity of his conversion to popery, he published De Confusione Calvin- iancs Sectoa apud Scotos Dialogus) a book which I have frequently referred to, and which strikingly exemplifies the adage, Omnis apostuta osor acerri- mus sui ordiiiis. In the copious abuse of Knox with which it teems, we are reminded of the present quarrel. Thomas Smeton, principal of the Univer- sity of Glasgow, published an elegant and masterly answer to this Dialogue. Hamilton replied in a work entitled, Calviniance Confiisinnis Dc7n(mslratio; Parisiis, 1581. Of this treatise, which is rarer than his first, specimens will be found in the notes at the end of this volume. t Hamiltonii Dialog, p. 61. Smetoni Responsio ad Hamiltonii Dialogum, pp. 90, 91. Bannatyne, 383—385. I Bannatyne, 361. 5 Arclibishop Spotswood is displeased that a bishop, and one of his prede- cessors in the see of St. Andrews, should have suffered so disgraceful a LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 319 casion to a change in the ecclesiastical government, of which I shall speak immediately. An enterprise equally bold with Crawford's but less success- ful, was planned by Kircaldy. While the Regent Lennox was holding a parliament at Stirling, which was numerously?- attend ed, a party of soldiers suddenly entered the town early on the morning of September 3, 1571, seized the regent and the nobil- ity who were along with him, and carried them away prisoners. The alarm having been given, the Earl of Mar sallied from the castle, and with the assistance of the townsmen, dispersed the assailants, and rescued the noblemen.* But this was not ac- complished without the loss of the regent, who was slain by the orders of Lord Claud Hamilton, in revenge for the death of the Archbishop of St. Andrews. Lennox was succeeded in the regency by the Earl of Mar, a noblemen of great moderation, who, during the short time that he held that office, exerted himself to restore peace to the kingdom, and brought the negotiations for this purpose very near to a successful termi- nation. During these transactions the courtiers were devising a scheme for securing to themselves the prhicipal part of the ecclesiasti- cal revenues, which led to an alteration of the policy of the Church. We have repeatedly had occasion to notice the aver- sion of the nobility to the Book of Discipline, and the princi- pal source from which the aversion sprung. While the Earl of Murray administered the government, he prevented any new enroachments upon the rights of the Church ; but the suc- ceeding regents were either less friendly to them, or less able to check the avarice of the more powerful nobles. Several of the richest benefices having become vacant by the death or by the forfeiture of the Popish incumbents who had been permitted punishment. History, p. 252. Even Dr. Robertson seems to have felt the esprit du corps on this occasion. It is surprising that this accurate historian sliould say, that the accusations against Hamilton, as " accessory to the mur- der both of the king and regent were supported by no proof," and that his enemies, by " imputing to him such odious crimes," merely " sought some colour" for the sentence which they pronounced against him. History of Scotland, ii. 334. Hamilton confessed his accession to the regent's murder. See above, p. 302. As the record of the trial has not been preserved, we cannot determine what evidence was brought forward ; but there are good grounds for believing that he was also concerned in the murder of the king. Keith, 4i7. Spotswood, 252. * Dr. Robertson seems to regret the failure of this expedition, and says, that if Kircaldy's plan had succeeded, it would have " restored peace to his country." History of Scotland, ii. 339. It would certainly have given a very dangerous blow to the king's party ; but it is not easy to conceive how it could have produced a desirable or lasting peace, when we consider the dispositions of the great body of the nation, the situation of the queen, and the temper and views of her adherents. 320 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. to retain them, it was necessary to determine in what manner they should be disposed of. The Church had uniformly re- quired that their revenues should be divided, and applied to the support of the religious and literary establishments ; but with this demand the courtiers were as much indisposed to comply as ever. At the same time, the secularization of them was deemed too bold a step ; nor could laymen, with any shadow of consistency, or by a valid title, hold benefices which the law declared to be ecclesiastical. The expedient resolved on was, 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. This plan, which was concerted under the regency of Lennox, was carried into execution during that of Mar, chiefly by the influence of the Earl of Morton. Morton having obtained from the court a gift of the arch- bishopric of St. Andrews, vacant by the execution of Hamihon, entered into a private agreement respecting its revenues with John Douglas, rector of the university, whom he presented to that see. At the meeting of parliament in Stirling, August 1571, the commissioners of the General Assembly protested against this transaction ; but through the interest of Morton, Douglas, though not yet elected, was admitted to a seat in par- liament, and the new scheme for seizing on the ecclesiastical livings was confirmed, notwithstanding the Avarm remonstrances of the ministers of the Church, and the strenuous opposition of the more zealous and disinterested barons.* Bishoprics and other great benefices were now openly conferred on noblemen, on persons totally unqualified for the ministry, and even on mi- nors. Pluralities were multiplied ; the ecclesiastical courts were hindered in the exercise of their jurisdiction ;t and the collectors of the Church were prohibited from gathering the thirds, until some new regulation was adopted for supplying the necessities of the court. J These proceedings having created great dissatisfaction through the nation, the regent and council called an extraordinary as- sembly of superintendents and other ministers to meet at Leith in January 1572, to consult about an order which might prove more acceptable. Through the influence of the court, this con- vention consented that the titles of archbishop, and other ecclesi- astical dignitaries should be retained ; that the bounds of the ancient dioceses should not be altered during the king's minor- ity ; and that qualified persons from among the ministers should * Bannatyne, 24G, 250, 255, 257, 260, 285. t See Note NNN. I Ibid. 253, 278, 312, 367. Cald. MS. ii. 284, 295. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 321 be advanced to these dignities. They, however, allotted no greater power to archbishops and bishops than to superintend- ents, with whom they were to be equally subject to the As- semblies of the Church.* These regulations were submitted to the ensuing General Assembly at St. Andrews, but as that meeting was thinly attended, it came to no determination re- specting them. The Assembly held at Perth, in August 1572, resumed the subject, and came to the following resolution : — That the regulations contained certain titles, such as archbishop, dean, archdean, chancellor, and chapter, which savoured of Po- pery, and were scandalous and offensive to their ears ; and that the whole Assembly, including the commissioners which had met at Leith, unanimously protested that they did not approve of these titles, that they submitted to the regulations merely as an interim arrangement, and that they would exert themselves to obtain a more perfect order from the regent and council.t Such was the origin and nature of that species of Episcopacy which was introduced into the Reformed Church of Scotland during the minority of James VI. It was disapproved of by the ministers of the Church ; and on the part of the courtiers and nobility, it does not appear to have proceeded from predi- lection to hierarchical government, but from the desire which they felt to obtain possession of the revenues of the Church. This was emphatically expressed by the name of tulchan bish- ops,+ which was commonly applied to those who were at that time admitted to the office. Knox did not fail from the beginning to oppose these en- croachments on the rights and property of the Church, Being unable to attend the General Assembly held at Stirhng in Au- gust 1571, he addressed a letter to it, warning the members of the new contest which he foresaw they would have to maintain, and animating them to fidelity and courage. " And now, brethren," says he, "because the daily decay of natural strength threateneth my certain and sudden departing from the misery of this life, of love and conscience I exhort you, yea, in the fear of God, I charge and command you, that ye take heed unto yourselves, and to the flock over which God hath placed you pastors. Unfaithful and traitorous to the flock shall ye be be- fore the Lord Jesus Christ, if, with your consent directly, ye * Records of Privy Counci], January 16, 1571. Cald. MS. ii. 310—325. Calderwood, De Reg. Eccl. Scotic. relatio, p. 8, anno 1618; and Epist. Philad. Vind. apud Altare Damasc. pp. 727—729. Lugd. Batav. 1708. Petrie, part ii. pp. 372 — 374. t Buik of the Universal Kirk, p. 55. Matthew Crawford's History of the Church of Scotland, MS. vol. i. p. 80. I A tulchan is a calf's skin stuffed with straw, set up to make the cow give her milk freely. Q2 322 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. suffer unworthy men to be thrust into the ministry of the Church, under whatever pretence it shall be. Remember and judge be- fore whom we must make our account, and resist that tyranny as ye would avoid hell-fire. This battle will be hard, but in the second point it will be harder ; that is, that with the like up- rightness and strength in God, ye gainstand the merciless de- vourers of the patrimony of the Church. If men will spoil, let them do it to their own peril and condemnation, but communi- cate ye not with their sins, of whatsoever estate they be, by consent nor by silence ; but with public proclamation make this known unto the world, that ye are innocent of robbery, where- of ye will seek redress of God and man. God give you wis- dom and stout courage in so just a cause, and me an happy end."* In a letter which he afterwards wrote to Wishart of Pittarrow, he also expresses himself in a strain of honest but keen indignation at the avarice of the nobility.t It has been insinuated that Knox gave his approbation to the resolutions of the convention at Leith to restore the episco- pal office ; and the articles sent by him to the General Assembly, in August 1572, have been appealed to as a proof of this. But all that can be fairly deduced from these articles is, that he de- sired the conditions and limitations agreed upon by that conven- tion to be strictly observed in the election of bishops, in opposi- tion to the granting of bishoprics to laymen,^ and to the sim- oniacal pactions which the ministers made with the nobles on receiving presentations. Provided one of the propositions made by him to the Assembly had been enforced, and the bishops had been bound to give an account of the whole of their rents, and either to support ministers in the particular places from which they derived these, or else to pay into the funds of the Church the sums requisite for this purpose, it is evident that the mer- cenary views both of patrons and presentees would have been defeated, and the Church would have gained her object, the use of the episcopal revenues. The prospect of this induced some honest ministers to agree to the proposed regulations, at the con- vention held in Leith. But it required a greater portion of dis- interested firmness than falls to most men, to act upon thisprin- * Bulk of the Universal Kirk, p. 53. Cald. JMS. ii, 280, 281. Petrie, part ii. :370. Spotsw. 2ri8. Collier says, that, in Knox's Letter to the Assembly at Stirling, " there are some passages not unbecoming a person of integrity and courage." Hist. ii. 53:?. Those who are acquainted with the spirit of this historian, will think this high praise from such a quarter. t See this Letter in the Appendix. I One glaring instance of this had just taken place, in giving tlie bishop- ric of Ross to Lord Methven. Bannatyne, 366. Robertson's History of Scotland, ii. 358, 359. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 823 ciple ;* and the nobles were able to find, even at that period, a sufficient number of pliant, needy, or covetous ministers to be the partners or the dupes of their avarice. Though our Reformer was of opinion, that, in certain cir- cumstances of the Church, a power might be delegated to some ministers to inspect the congregations within a particular dis- trict, and accordingly recommended the appointment of super- intendents at the first establishment 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 presbyters. His sentiments were not more favourable to diocesan Episcopacy in his latter, than they had been in his earlier days. Writing to a corres- pondent 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." t 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 under the deceitful pretext of preserving unity. J He had an opportunity of publicly de- claring his sentiments on this subject, at the installation of Douglas as Archbishop of St Andrews. Having preached as usual on Sabbath, February 13. 1572, the Earl of Morton, who was present, desired him to inaugurate Douglas ; but he posi- tively 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 con- ferred 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 * I have read somewhere (though I cannot at present find my authority) that Robert Pont, when offered a bishopric, took the advice of the General Assembly as to accepting it, and professed his readiness to apply its lands to the support of the ministry within the diocese. t Letter to Mr. John Wood, Feb. 14, 1568, in the Appendix. I In this letter, Beza commends Knox for establishing, not merely the purity of doctrine in the Scottish Church, but also discipline and good order, without which the former could not be preserved for any time. Bezae Epistol. Theol. ep. Ixxxix. pp. 344 — 355, edit. 1572. J Meaning Edward VI. of England and his council. See above, pp. 74, 75. 324 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. Church of Scotland might not be subject to that order, especi- ally after a very dilferent one had been settled in the Book of Discipline, subscribed by the nobility, and ratified by parlia- ment. 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. And- rews in the following month, he not only entered a protest against the election of Douglas,! but also " opponed himself directly to the making of bishops."+ While he was engaged in these contests, his bodily strength was every day sensibly decaying. Yet he continued to preach, although unable to walk to the pulpit without assistance ; and, when warmed with his subject, he forgot his weakness, and electrified the audience with his eloquence. James Melville, afterwards minister of Anstruther, was then a student at the College, and one of his constant hearers. The account which he has given of his appearance is exceedingly striking ; and, as any translation would enfeeble it, I shall give it in his own words. " Of all tlie benefits that I had that year [1571], was the coming of that maist notable profet and apostle of our na- tion, Mr. Johne Knox, to St. Andrews, who, be the faction of the queen occupeing the castell and town of Edinburgh, was compellit to remove therefra, 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 half 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 mar- ticks about his neck, a stafie in the ane hand, and gude, godlie Richart Ballenden, his servand, halden up the uther oxter, IT from the abbey to the parish kirk, and, by the said Richart, and another servand, lifted up to the pulpit wliar he behovit to lean ^at his first entrie ; bot, ere 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." tt * Bannatyne, 321, 325, 375. Cald. MS. ii. 269, 338, 340. Douglas, after he was made bishop, was continued in his offices of rector of the university, and provost of St. Mary's College. James Melville says, that he was, "a good upright-hearted man, but ambitious and simple ; ' and that Knox spoke against him " bot sparinglie, because he loved the man." MS. Diary, p. 27. t Bannatyne, 331. I Slelville's MS. Diary, p. 26. Ij i. e. thrill. |1 i. e. slowly and warily. IT i. e. arm-pit. ** i. e. it appeared as if he would beat the pulpit in pieces. ft Melville's Diary, pp. 23, 28. It is not without reason that I have added LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 325 The persons with whom the Reformer was most familiar at St. Andrews, were the Professors of St. Leonard's College, who often visited him at his lodging in the abbey. This college was distinguished by its warm attachment to the doctrines of the Reformation, which it had embraced at a very early period ; * while the two other colleges were disaffected to the authority of the king, and several of their teachers suspected of leaning to Popery. The Reformer was accustomed to amuse himself by walking in St. Leonard's Yard, and to look with peculiar com- placency on the students, whom he regarded as the rising hope of the Church. He would sometimes call them to him, and bless them, and exhort them to be diligent in their studies, to attend to the instructions of their teachers, and imitate tlie good example which they set before them, to acquaint themselves with God, and with the great work which he had lately perfor- med in their native country, and to cleave to the good cause. These familiar advices, from a person so venerable, made a deep impression on the minds of the, young men. He even condescended to be present at a college exercise performed by them at the marriage of one of their regents, in which the siege and taking of Edinburgh Castle was dramatically represented.t During his stay at St. Andrews, he published a vindication of the reformed religion, in answer to a letter written by Tyrie, a Scottish Jesuit. The argumentative part of the work was finished by him in 1568 ; but he sent it abroad at this time, with additions, as a farewell address to the world, and a dying testi- mony to the truth which he had long taught and defended. J the above explanation of some phrases in this extract, as the reader will per- ceive from the follovvinof version of it, by a modern Frencli writer, in the Journal des Debats : — " A presbyterian fanatic named Knox, stirred up the people by his violent preaching. Nothing proves the coarseness of that people so much, as the ascendency which such a madman possessed over them ; old and broken down, and so helpless, as to be hardly able to crawl along-, he was raised to his pulpit by two zealous disciples, where he began his sermon with a feeble voice, and. slow action; but soon heating himself by the force of his passion and hatred, he bestirred liimself like a mad- man; he broke his pulpit, and jumped into the midst of his auditors (sautoit au milieu des auditeurs), transported by his violent declamation, and words still more violent." For this morceau I am indebted to the Editor of " The Poetical Remains of Mr. John Davidson, Edinburgh, 1829." * See above, p. 34. t See Note 000. |; Tyrie published a reply to this, under the title of " The Refutation of ane Answer made by Schir Joline Knox to ane Letter, send be James Tyrie to his vmquhyle brother. Set furth be James Tyrie, Parisiis, 1.573. Cvm Privilegio." H. fol. 57. 12mo. It includes Tyrie's first letter, and Knox's answer, but not the other papers originally printed along with that answer, " Mr. Knox," siys Keith, " makes some good and solid observations, from which, in my opinion, the Jesuit (in his reply) has not handsomely extricated himself." History, Append, p. 25o. 28 326 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. Along with it he published one of the religious letters which he had formerly written to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Bowes ; and, in an advertisement prefixed to this, he hiforms us that she had lately departed this life, and that he could not allow the oppor- tunity to slip of acquainting the public, by means of this letter, with the intimate Christian friendship which had so long sub- sisted between them. The ardent desire which he felt to be released by death from the troubles of the present hfe, appears in all that he wrote about this time. " Weary of the world," and " thirsting to de- part,"" are expressions frequently used by him. The dedication of the above-mentioned work is thus inscribed : — " John Knox, the servant of Jesus Christ, now wearie of the world, and day- lie luiking for the resolution of this my earthly tabernakle, to the faithful that God of his mercie shall appoint to fight after me." In the conclusion of it, he says," Call for me, deir breth- ren, that God, in his mercy, will pleis to put end to my long and panefull battel. For now being unable to fight, as God sum- tymes gave strength, I thirst an end befoir I be more trouble- sum to the faithfull. And yet. Lord, let my desyre be moder- ate be thy Holy Spirit." In a prayer subjoined to the dedica- tion, are these words : "To thee, 0 Lord, I commend nty spirit. For I thirst to be resolved from this body of sin, and am assur- ed that I shall rise agane in glorie ; howsoever it be that the wicked for a tyme sail trode me and others, thy servandes under their feit. Be merciful, 0 Lord, unto the kirk within this realme ; continew with it the light of thy evangell ; augment the number of true preicheris. And let thy mercifull providence luke upon my desolate bedfellow, the fruit of hir bosome, and my two deir children, Nathanael and Eleazar.* Now, Lord, put end to my miserie." The advertisement " to the faithful reader," dated at St. Andrews, 12th July 1571, concludes in the tbllow- ing manner : — " I hartly salute and take my good night of all the faithful of both realms, earnestly desyring the assistance of their prayers, that, without any notable slander to the evangel of Jesus Christ, I may end my battel ; for, as the worlde is wearie of me, so am I of it." * Tyrie, in his reply, scoffs at this amiable expression of piety ; and in doing 60, the Jesuit discovers that he was as great a stranger to conjugal and parental feelings, as he was to the rules of logic. " He (Knox) sais, tliat of tuay propositionis quhilkis ar verray trew, I collect ane conclusione maist false and repugnant to all vcritie. Ane Dialectitian wald answer that Schir Johne Knox lies nocht weill considderit the rewlis of Dialectik, to affirme ane fals conclusion to follow of trew premissis. Botbecaus 1 knaw liisgreit occupationis, and solicitude he hes of his wyf and cliildrine, that he culd nocht take tent to sic trifflis, I will pas this with silence." Refutation, ut supra, fol. 4, a. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 327 The General Assembly being appointed to meet at Perth on the 6th of August, he took his leave of them in a letter, along with which he transmitted certain articles and questions which he recommended to their consideration. The Assembly return- ed him an answer, declaring their approbation of his propositions, and their earnest desires for his preservation and comfort* The last piece of public service which he performed at their request, was to examine and approve of a sermon which had been late- ly preached by David Ferguson, minister of Dunfermline. His subscription to this sermon, hke every thing which proceeded from his mouth or pen about this time, is uncommonly striking : " John Knox, with my dead hand, but glaid heart, praising God, that of his mercy he levis such light to his kirk in this desola- tion."! From the rapid decline of his health, in the spring of 1572, there was every appearance of his ending his days at St, An- drews ; but it pleased God that he should be restored once more to his flock, and allowed to die peaceably among them. In con- sequence of a cessation of arms, agreed to in the end of July, between the regent and the adherents of the queen, the city of Edinburgh was abandoned by the forces of the latter, and se- cured from the annoyance of the garrison in the castle. As soon as the banished citizens returned to their houses,^ they sent a deputation to St. Andrews, with a letter to Knox, expres- sive of their earnest desire " that once again his voice might be heard among them," and entreating him immediately to come to Edinburgh, if his health would at all permit ; for, said they, " loath we are to disease or hurt your person any ways, but far loather to want you."§ After reading the letter, and conver- sing with the commissioners, he expressed his willingness to re- turn, but under the express condition, that he should not be * Bannatyne, 364—369. Cald. ii. 355, 366. f " Ane sermon prechit before the regent and nobilitie upon a part of the third chapter of Malaclii (verses 7, 12), in the kirk of Leith, at the time of the General Assemblie, on Sonday the 13 of Januarie, Anno Do. 1571. Be David Fergusone, minister of the evangel] at Dunfermline. Imprentit at Sanctandrois, be Robert Lekpreuik, Anno Do. MDLXXII." The dedica- tion to the regent Mar is dated 20th August 1-572. I Previous to the cessation of arms, the banished citizens (who had taken up their residence chiefly in Leith) entered into a solemn league, by which they engaged, " in the fear of God the Father, of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holie Spirit, tackand to witness his holie name," that they would, with their lives, lands, and goods, promote the gospel professed among them, maintain the authority of the king and regent, assist and con- cur with others against their enemies in the castle, defend one another if attacked, and submit any variances which might arise among themselves to brotherly arbitration, or to the judgment of the town-council. Bannatyne, 361—364. 5 Bannatyne, 370 — 373. « 328 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 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." He, therefore, desired them to acquaint their constituents with this, lest they should afterwards repent of his austerity, and be ap- prehensive of ill-treatment on his account. The commissioners assured him, that they did not mean to put a bridle in his mouth, but wished him to discharge his duty as he had been accus- tomed to do. He repeated this intimation, after his arrival at Edinburgh, to the principal persons of his congregation, and received the same assurance from them, before he would resume preaching.* On the 17th of August, to the great joy of the queen's faction, whom he had overawed during his residence among them, the Reformer left St. Andrews, along with his family. He was accompanied so far on his journey by the principal persons of his acquaintance in the town, who sorrowfully took their leave of him, in the prospect of seeing his face no more. Being obliged by his weakness to travel slowly, it was the 23d of the month before he reached I^eith, from which, after resting a day or two, he came to Edinburgh. The inhabitants enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing him again in his own pulpit, on the first Sabbath after he arrived ; but his voice was now so enfeebled that he could not be heard by the half of the congregation. Nobody was more sensible of this than himself. He therefore requested his session to provide a smaller house, in which he could be heard, if it were only by a hundred persons ; for his voice, he said, was not able, even in liis best time, to extend over the multitude which assembled in that large church, much less now when he was so greatly debilitated. This request was readily complied with by the session.! During his absence, a coolness had taken place between his colleague and the parish, who found fault with him for tempo- rizing during the time that the queen's party retained possession of the city. In consequence of this, they had nuitually agreed to separate. J After preaching two years in JMontrose, Craig removed to Aberdeen, where he acted as visitor of the churches in Buchan and Mar ; and was afterwards chosen minister to the royal household, a situation which he held until his death in 1600, at the advanced age of eighty -eight.§ Being deprived of * Bannatyne, 372, 373. t Ibid. pp. 373, 385. Smetoni Respons. pp. 117, 118. t Ibid. 150, 370. 5 Spotswood, 464. When informed tliat liis majesty had made choice of Craig, the CJeneral Assembly, July 1580. " blessed the Lord, and praised the king for his zeal." Row, Hist. o£the Kirk, 47. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 329 both their pastors, and having no prospect that Knox, although he should return, would be capable of performing the public service among them, the kirk-session of Edinburgh had in- structed their delegates to the General Assembly lately held at Perth, to petition that court for liberty to choose from the min- istry a colleague to the Reformer. The Assembly granted their request, and ordained any minister (those of Perth and Dundee excepted) who might be chosen by Knox, the superintendent of Lothian, and the church of Edinburgh, to comply with their invitation, and remove to the capital.* When the commis- sioners came to St. Andrews, they found the superintendent along with Knox, and having consulted with them, it was agreed to nominate and recommend James Lawson, sub-prin- cipal of the university of Aberdeen, a man eminent for his piety, learning, and eloquence.t Perceiving, on his return to Edin- burgh, that he could not long be able to endure the fatigue of preaching, and that he was already incapacitated for all other ministerial duties, Knox was extremely solicitous to have this business speedily settled, lest the congregation should be left " as sheep without a shepherd," when he was called aAvay. The session and the superintendent having sent letters of invi- tation to Lawson, the Reformer wrote him at the same time, urging his speedy compliance with their requests. This letter is very descriptive of the state of his mind at this interesting period. " All worldlie strenth, yea ewin in thingis spirituall, decayes; and yet sail never the work of God decay. Belovit brother, seeing that God of his mercie, far above my expectatione, has callit me ones againe to Edinburgh, and yet that I feill nature so decayed, and daylie to decay, that I luke not for a long con- tinewance of my battell, I wald gladlie anes discharge my con- science into your bosome, and into the bosome of utheris, in whome I think the feare of God remanes. Gif I hath had the habilitie of bodie, I suld not have put you to the pane to the whilk I now requyre you, that is, anes to visite me, that we may conferre together on heavinlie thingis ; for into earth there is no stability, except the kirk of Jesus Christ, ever fightand vnder the crosse, to whose myghtie protectione I hartlie commit you. Of Edinburgh the vii of September 1572. Jhone Knox. " Haist, leist ye come too lait." % In the beginning of September, intelligence reached Edin- * Smetoni Respons. 118. Bannatyne, 370. "f Smeton, ut supra. Bannatyne, 372. James Melville thus describes Lawson : — " A man of singular learning, zeal, and eloquence, whom I never hard preaclie hot he meltit my hart with teares." MS. Diary, 23. See also Note PP, at the end of the volume. I Bannatyne, 388. 2b* R2 330 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. burgh, that the Admiral of France, the brave, the generous, the pious Coligui, was murdered in the city of Paris, by the orders of Charles IX. Immediately on the back of this, tidings arrived of that most detestable and unparalleled scene of barbarity and treachery, the general massacre of the Protestants throughout that kingdom. Post after post brought fresh accounts of the most shocking and unheard-of cruelties. Hired cut-throats and fanatical cannibals marched from city to city, paraded the streets, and entered into the houses of those that were marked out for destruction. No reverence was shown to the hoary head, no respect to rank or talents, no pity to tender age or sex. Infants, aged matrons, and women upon the point of their delivery, were trodden under the feet of the assassins, or dragged with hooks into the rivers ; others, after being thrown into prison, were instantly brought out and butchered in cold blood. Seventy thousand persons were murdered in one week. For several days, the streets of Paris literally ran with blood. The savage monarch, standing at the windows of the palace, with his courtiers, glutted his eyes with tlie inhuman spectacle, and amused himself with firing upon the miserable fugitives who sought shelter at his merciless gates.* The intelligence of this massacre (for which a solemn thanks- giving was offered up at Rome by order of the popet) produced the same horror and consternation in Scotland as in every other Protestant cour^try.J It inflicted a deep wound on the exhausted spirit of Knox. Besides the blow struck at the reformed body, he had to lament the loss of many individuals, eminent for piety, learning, and rank, whom he numbered among his acquaintance. Being conveyed to the pulpit, and summoning up the remainder of his strength, he thundered the vengeance of Heaven against "that cruel murderer and false traitor, the King of France," and desired Le Croc, the French ambassador, to tell his master, that sentence was pronounced against him in Scotland, that the divine vengeance would never depart from him, nor from his house, if repentance did not ensue ; but his name would remain * Memoires de Sully, torn. i. 16. Paris, 1664. Brantosme Memoires, apud Jurieu, Apolosjie pour la Reformation, torn. 420. Smetoni Respons. ad Hamilt. Dial. p. 117. Bannatyne's Journal, pp. 388 — 396. t The papal bull for the jubilee may be seen in Strype's Life of Archbishop Parker. Append. No. 68, p. 108. I The resrent Mar issued a proclamation on this occasion, summoning a general convention of deputies from all parts of the kingdom, to deliberate on the measures proper to be adopted for defence against the cruel and trea- sonable conspiracies of the Papists. Bannatyne, 397 — 401. Strype has inserted the preamble, and one of tiie articles, of a supplication presented by this ctMivention to the regent and council. Annals, ii. 180, 181. This may bo compared with tlie more full account of their pPoceedings, in Bannatyne, 406—41. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 331 an execration to posterity, and none proceeding from his loins should enjoy his kingdom in peace. The ambassador com- plained of the indignity offered to his master, and required the regent to silence the preacher ; but this was refused, upon which he left Scotland.* t Lawson having received the letters of invitation, hastened to Edinburgh. He had the satisfaction to find that Knox was still able to receive him ; and, having preached to the people, gave universal satisfaction. On the following Sabbath, the 21st of September, Knox began to preach in the Tolbooth Church, which was now fitted up for him. He chose for the subject of his discourses, the account of our Saviour's crucifixion, as re- corded in the twenty-seventh chapter of the gospel according to Matthew, a theme with which he had often expressed a wish to close his ministry. On Sabbath, the 9th of November, he presided at the installation of Lawson as his colleague and suc- cessor. The sermon was preached by him in the Tolbooth Church ; after which he removed, with the audience, to the large church, where he went through the accustomed form of admission, by proposing the questions to the minister and peo- ple, addressing an exhortation to both, and praying for the divine blessing upon their connection. On no former occasion did he give more satisfaction to those who were able to hear him. After declaring the respective duties of pastor and people, he protested, in the presence of Him to whom he expected soon to give an account, that he had walked among them with a good conscience, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in all sincerity, not studying to please men, nor to gratify his own affections ; he praised God, that he had been pleased to give them a pastor in his room, when he was now unable to teach ; he fervently prayed, that any gifts which had been conferred on himself might be augmented a thousand fold in his successor ; and, in a most serious and impressive manner, he exhorted and charged the whole assembly to adhere steadfastly to the faith which they had professed. Having finished the service, and pronounced the blessing with a cheerful but exhausted voice, he descended from the pulpit, and leaning upon his staff and the arm of an attendant, crept down the street, which was lined with the au- dience, who, as if anxious to take the last sight of their beloved pastor, followed him until he entered his house, from which he never again came out alive. t On Tuesday following, the 11th of November, he was seized * Bannatyne, 401, 402. ■(• Smetoni Responsio, 118. The house which the Reformer possessed is situated near tlie bottom of the High Street, a little below the Fountain welL These three words are inscribed on the wall, oeos, Deus, God. 332 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. with a severe cough, which gi'eatly afiected his breathing.* When his friends, anxious to prolong his hfe, proposed to call in the assistance of physicians, he readily acquiesced, saying that he would not neglect the ordinary means of health, although he was persuaded that death would soon put an end to all his sor- rows. It had been his ordinary practice to read every day some chapters of the Old and New Testament ; to which he added a certain number of the Psalms of David, the whole of which he perused regularly once a-month. On Thursday the 13th, he sickened, and was obliged to desist from his course of reading; but he gave directions to his wife and his secretary, Richard Bannatyne, that one of them should every day read to him, with a distinct voice, the seventeenth chapter of the gospel ac- cording to John, the fifty-third of Isaiah, and a chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. This was punctually complied with during the whole time of his sickness ; and scarcely an hour passed in which some part of Scriptm'e was not read in his hearing. Besides the above passages, he, at different times, fixed on certain Psalms, and some of Calvin's French sermons on the Ephesians. Thinking him at times to be asleep, when they were engaged in reading, they inquired if he heard them, to which he answered, " I hear, (I praise God) and understand far better ;" words which he uttered for the last time, within four hours of his death. The same day on Avhich he sickened, he desired his wife to discharge the servants' wages ; and wishing next day to pay one of his men-servants himself, he gave him twenty shillings above his fee, saying, " Thou wilt never receive more from me in this life." To all of them he addressed suitable exhortations to walk in tlie fear of God, and as became Christians who had lived in his family. On Friday, the 14th, he rose from bed at an earlier hour than usual ; and thinking that it was Sabbath, said, that he meant to go to church, and preach on the resurrection of Christ, upon which * As it is unnecessary to repeat the quotations, the reader may be informed, once for all, that the Account of the Reformer's last illness and death is taken from the following authorities : — " Eximii viri .Toannis Knoxii, Scoticanae Ecclesia3 instauratoris, Vera extreme vitae et obitus Historia," published by Tliomas Smeton, principal of the university of Glasgow, at the end of his " Responsio ad Hamiltonii Dialogum. Edinburgi, apud Johannem Rosseum. Pro Henrico Cliarteris. Anno Do. 1579. Cum Privilegio l^egali:" — "Jour- nal of the Transactions in Scotland, (Annis) 1570 — 1573, by Ricliard Ban- natyne, secretary to John Knox," 41:^ — 429, edited from an authentic MS. by J. Graham Dalyell, Esq. Anno 180fi : — Spotswood's History, pp. 2(i5 — 267. Anno 1()77: and Calderwood's MS. History, ad ann. 1572; copy in Advocate's [library, Edinburgh, transcribed anno 1631. The two first of these works contain tlie most ancient and authentic narratives, both being written at the time of the event, and by persons who were eye and ear wit- nesses of what they relate. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 333 he bad been meditating tbrongh tbe night. Tliis was the sub- ject on which he should have preached in his ordinary course. But he was so wealc, that he needed to be supported from his bedside by two men, and it was with great difficulty that he could sit on a chair. Next day, at noon, John Durie, one of the ministers of Leith, and Archibald Steward, who w-ere among his most intimate acquaintance, came into his room. Perceiving that he was very sick, they wished to take their leave, but he insisted that they should remain, and having prevailed with them to stay dinner, he rose from bed, and came to the table, which was the last time that he ever sat at it. He ordered a hogshead of wine which was in his cellar to be pierced for them ; and, with a hilarity which he delighted to indulge among his friends, desired Steward to send for some of it as long as it lasted, for he would not tarry until it was all drunk. On Sabbath, the 16th, he kept his bed, and mistaking it for the first day of the fast appointed on account of the French mas- sacre, refused to take any dinner. Fairley of Braid, who was present, informed him that the fast did not commence until the following Sabbath, and sitting down, and dining before his bed, prevailed on him to take a little food. He was very anxious to meet once more with the session of his church, to leave them his dying charge, and bid them a last farewell. In compliance with this wish, his colleague, the elders, and deacons, with David Lindsay, one of the ministers of Leith, assembled in his room on Monday the 17th, when he addressed them in the following words, which made a deep and lasting impression on the minds of all : — " The day approaches, and is now before the door, for which I have frequently and vehe- mently thirsted, when I shall be released from my great labours and innumerable sorrows, and shall be with Christ. And now, God is my witness whom I have served in the spirit in the gos- pel of his Son, that I have taught nothing but the true and solid doctrine of the gospel of the Son of God, and have had it for my only object to instruct the ignorant, to confirm the faithful, to comfort the weak, the fearful, and the distressed, by the pro- mises of grace, and to fight against the proud and rebellious by the divine threatenings. I know that many have frequently complained, and do still loudly complain, of my too great severity ; but God knows that my mind was always void of hatred to the persons of those against whom I thundered the severest judgments. I cannot deny that I felt the greatest ab- horrence at the sins in which they indulged, but still I kept this one thing in view, that, if possible, I might gain them to the Lord. What influenced me to utter whatever the Lord put into my mouth, so boldly, and without respect of persons, was 334 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX: a reverential fear of my God, who called and of his grace ap- pointed me to be a steward of divine mysteries, and a belief that he will demand an account of the manner in which I have discharged the trust committed to me, when 1 shall stand at last before his tribunal. I profess, therefore, before God, and before his holy angels, that I never made merchandise of the sacred word of God, never studied to please men, never indulged my own private passions or those of others, but faithfully distributed the talents intrusted to me for the edification of the church over which I watched. Whatever obloquy wicked men may cast on me respecting this point, I rejoice in the testimony of a good conscience. In the mean time, my dear brethren, do you per- severe in the eternal truth of the gospel : Avait diligently on the flock over which the Lord hath set you, and which he redeem- ed with the blood of his only begotten Son. And thou, my dearest brother Lawson, fight the good fight, and do the work of the Lord joyfully and resolutely. The Lord from on high bless you, and the whole church of Edinburgh, against whom, as long as they persevere in the word of truth which they have heard of me, the gates of hell shall not prevail." * Having warned them against countenancing those who disowned the king's authority, and made some observations on a complaint which Maitland had lodged against him before the session, he became so exhausted as to be obliged to desist from speaking. Those who were present were filled both with joy and grief by this affecting address. After reminding him of the warfare which he had endured, and the triumph which awaited him, and joining in prayer, they took their leave of him, drowned in tears. When they were going out, he desired his colleague and Lindsay to remain behind. " There is one thing that greatly grieves me," said he to them. " You have been witnesses of the former courage and constancy of Grange in the cause of God ; but now, alas ! into what a gulf has he precipitated him- self! 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 con- fides, nor the carnal prudence of that man [Maitland] whom he esteems a demi-god, nor the assistance of strangers, shall pre- serve him ; but he shall be disgracefully dragged from his nest to punishment, and hung on a gallows before the face of the * This speech is translated from the Latin of Smeton, which accounts for the difference of style which the attentive reader must have remarked. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 335 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 exe- ciUe this commission ; and going up to the castle, they obtained an interview wjth the governor, and delivered their message. He at first exhibited symptoms of relenting, but having con- sulted 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 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 astonished 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 conversation with the latter was very particular, as afterwards related by the earl himself. He asked him, if he was previously acquainted with the desing to murder the late king. Morton having answered in the negative,t 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.J And, therefore, in the name of God, I charge you to use all these benefits aright, and better in * After the castle surrendered, and Kircaldy was condemned to die, Lind- say attended him at his earnest desire, and received much satisfaction from conversation with him. When he was on the scaffold, he desired the min- ister to repeat Knox's last words respecting him, and said that he hoped they would prove true. James Melville had this information from Lindsay. MS. Diary, pp. 29, 30. See also Spotswood, 266, 272. f Morton afterwards acknowledged that he did know of tlie murder ; but excused himself for concealing it. " The quene," he said, " was tlie doare tharoof;" and as for the king, he was "sic a bairne, that there was nothing tauld him but he wad reveUl it to hir agane." Bannatyne, 494, 497. ■f The regent Mar died on the 29th of October preceding. The nobility were at this time assembled at Edinburgh to choose his successor, and it was understood that Morton would be raised to that dignity. He was elected regent on the day of Knox's death, Bannatyne, 411, 412, 427. The author of the Historic of King James the Sext says, that the regent died October 18, and adds, " efter him dyed Johne Knox in that same moneth," p. 197. But he has mistaken the dates, »■ 336 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. time to come than ye have done in times bypast ; first to God's glory, to the furtherance of the evangel, the maintenance of the Church of God, and his ministry ; next for the weal of the king, and his realm and true suhjects. 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 end shall be ignominy and shame."* On Thursday, the 20th, Lord Lindsay, the Bishop of Caith- ness, and several gentlemen, visited him. He exhorted them to continue in the truth which they had heard, for there was no other word of salvation, and besought them to have nothing to do w-ith 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." A religious lady of his acquaintance desired him to praise God for what good he had done, and was beginning to speak in his commendation, when he interrupted her. " Tongue ! tongue ! lady ; flesh of itself is over-proud, and needs no means to esteem itself." He put her in mind of what had been said to her long ago, " Lady, lady, the black one has never trampit on your fute ;" and exhorted her to lay aside pride, and be clothed with humility. He then protested as to himself, as he had often done before, that he relied wholly on the free mercy of God, mani- fested to mankind through his dear Soi© Jesus Christ, whom alone he embraced for wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifi- cation, and redemption. The rest of the company having taken their leave of him, he said to Fairley of Braid, " Every one bids me good-night ; but when will you do it ? I have been greatly indebted unto you ; for which I shall never be able to recom- pense you ; but I commit you to one that is able to do it, to the eternal God." On Friday the 21st, 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 com- monwealth.— Raise up faithful pastors who will take the 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 * Morton gave this account of his conference with the Reformer to the ministers who attended him before his execution. Being asked if he had not found Knox's admonition true, he replied, " I have fand it indeid." Morton's Confession. Bannatyne, 508, "';09. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 337 meditations, he often addressed those who stood by, in such sentences as these : — " 0 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 23d (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, Bannatyne sent to the Church for Johnston of Elphing- ston. 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 called to God for her, and have committed her to her head, Jesus Christ. I have fought against spiritual wick- edness in heavenly things, and have prevailed. I have been in heaven, and have possession. 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. Perceiving 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 em- ployed 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 commonwealth, with godly rulers and magistrates. — Once, Lord, make an end of my trouble." Then, stretching his hands towards heaven, he said, " Lord, I commend my spirit, soul, and body, and all, into thy hands. Thou knowest, 0 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 alone, rose between nine and ten o'clock, and put on his stockings and doublet. Being con- ducted 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 Kinyeancleuch, Johnston of Elphingston, and Dr. 29 S2 338 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. Preston, three of his most intimate acquaintance, sat by turns at his bedside, Kinyeancleuch asked him if he had any pain. " It is no painful pain, but such a pain as shall soon, I trust, put end to the battle. I must leave the care of my wile and chil- dren 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 de- sired his wife to read the fifteenth chapter of the first epistle to tlie Corinthians. " Is not that a comfortable chapter ?" said he, when it was finished. " 0 what sweet and salutary consola- tion the Lord has 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, 0 Lord." About five o'clock, he said to his wife, " Go, read where I cast my first anchor ;" upon which she read the seven- teenth chapter of John's Gospel, and afterwards a part of Cal- vin's sermons on the Ephesians. After this he appeared to fall into a slumber, interrupted by heavy moans, during which the attendants looked every mo- ment for his dissolution. But at length he awaked, as if from sleep, and being asked the cause of his sighing so deeply, re- plied,— " 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 de- vour, 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 blessed- ness by the faithful 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 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 vanquislied, he left me. Wherefore I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ, who has been pleased to give me the victory ; and I am persuaded that the tempter shall not again attack me, but, within a short time, I shall, with- out any great pain of body or anguish of mind, exchange this mortal and miserable life for a blessed immortality through Jesus Christ." He tlien 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. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 339 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 up, and Kin- yeancleugh 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 comfortable promises of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which he had so often declared to others ; and, perceiving that he was speech- less, requested him to give them a sign that he heard them, and died in peace. Upon this he lifted up one of his hands, and, sighing twice, expired without a struggle.* He died in the sixty-seventh year of his age, not so much oppressed with years, as worn out and exhausted by his extra- ordinary labours of body and anxieties of mind. Few men were ever exposed to more dangers, or underwent greater hardships. From the time that he embraced the reformed re- ligion till he breathed his last, seldom did he enjoy a respite from trouble ; and he emerged from one scene of difficulty and danger, only to be involved in another still more distressing. Obliged to flee from St Andrews to escape the fury of Cardinal Beatoun, he found a retreat in East-Lothian, from which he was hunted by Archbishop Hamilton. He lived for several years as an outlaw, in daily apprehension of falling a prey to those who eagerly sought his life. The few months during which he enjoyed protection in the castle of St Andrews, were succeeded by a long and rigorous captivity. After enjoying some repose in England, he was again driven into banishment, and for five years wandered as an exile on the Continent. When he re- turned to his native country, it was to engage in a struggle of the most perilous and arduous kind. After the Reformation was established, and he was settled in the capital, he was in- volved in a continual contest with the court. When he was relieved from this warfare, and thought only of ending his days m peace, he was again called into the field ; and although scarcely able to walk, was obliged to remove from his flock, and to avoid the fury of his enemies by submitting to a new banishment. He was repeatedly condemned for heresy, and proclaimed an outlaw ; thrice he was accused of high treason, and on two of these occasions he appeared and underwent a trial. A price Avas publicly set on his head; assassins were employed to kill him ; and his life was attempted both with the * " Maniim itaque, quasi nouas vires jamjam moriturus concipiens, coslum versus erigit, duobusque emissis suspiriis, e mortali corpore emigrauit, citra vllum aut pedum aut aliarum partium corporis motum, vt potius dormire quam occidisse videretur." Sinetoni Responsio p. 123. 340 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. pistol and the dagger. Yet he escaped all these perils, and finished his course in peace and in honour. No wonder that he was weary of the world, and anxious to depart ; and with great propriety might it be said, at his decease, that " he rested from his labours." On Wednesday, the 26th of November, he was interred in the churchyard of St, Giles.* His funeral was attended by the newly elected regent, Morton, by all the nobility who were in the city, and a great concourse of people. When his body was laid in the grave, the regent emphatically pronounced his eulo- gium in these words, " There lies he, who never feared the face of man." t The character of this extraordinary man has been drawn in opposite colours, by different writers, and at different times. And the changes which have taken place in the public opinion about him, with the causes which have produced them, form a subject neither uncurious, nor unworthy of attention. The interest excited by the revolutions of Scotland, eccle- siastical and political, in which he acted so conspicuous a part, caused his name to be known throughout Europe, more exten- sively than those of most of the reformers. When we reflect, that the Roman Catholics looked upon him as the principal instrument in overthrowing their religious establishment in this country, we are prepared to expect that writers of that per- suasion would represent his character in an unfavourable light ; and that, in addition to the common charges of heresy and apostasy, they would describe him as a man of a restless, turbu- lent spirit, and of rebellious principles. We will not even be greatly surprised though we find them charging him with whoredom, because, being a priest, he entered into wedlock, once and a second time ; and imputing his change of religion to a desire of releasing himself from the bonds by which the Popish clergy were professionally bound to chastity. But all this is nothing to the portraits which they have drawn of him, in which, to the violation of all credibility, he is unblushingly represented as a man, or rather a monster, of the most profligate * Cald. MS. ad ann 1572. Bannatyne, 429. Spotswood, 267. The area of the Parliament Square was formerly the churchyard of St. Giles. Some think that he was hurled in one of the aisles of his own church. The place where the Reformer preached is that which is now called tlie Old Church. It has, however, undergone a great change since his time. The space now occupied by the pulpit and the greater part of tlie seats, was then an aisle ; and the church was considerably more to the north of the building than at present. The small church fitted up for him a few weeks before his death is called by Bannatyne, the Tolbooth. Whether it was exactly that part of the building now called the Tolbooth Church, I do not know. f Some verses to the Reformer's memory may be seen in Note PPP. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 341 character, who gloried in depravity, who avowedly indulged in the most vicious practices, and upon whom Providence fixed the most evident marks of reprobation at his death, which was accompanied with circumstances that excited the utmost horror in the beholders.* This might astonish us, did we not know, from undoubted documents, that there were at that time a class of writers, who, by inventing or retailing such malignant calumnies, attempted to blast the fairest and most unblemished characters among those who appeared in opposition to the Church of Rome ; and that, absurd and outrageous as the accu- sations were, they were greedily swallowed by the numerous slaves of prejudice and credulity. The memory of no one was loaded with a greater share of this obloquy than our Reformer's. But these accounts have long ago lost every degree of credit ; and they now remain only as a proof of the spirit of lies or of strong delusion, by which these writers were actuated, and of the deep and deadly hatred which they had conceived against the object of their calumny, on account of his strenuous and successful exertions in overthrowing the fabric of papal super- stition and despotism. Knox was known and esteemed by the principal persons among the reformed in France, Switzerland, and Germany. We have had occasion repeatedly to mention his friendship with the reformer of Geneva, Beza, the successor of Calvin, was also personally acquainted with him ; the letters which he wrote to him abound with expressions of the warmest regard, and highest esteem ; and, in his Images of Illustrious Men, he after- wards raised an affectionate tribute to our Reformer's memory. This was done, at a subsequent period, by the German biogra- pher, Melchior Adam, the Dutch Van Heiden, and the French La Roque. The late historian of the literature of Geneva, (whose religious sentiments are very different from those of Calvm and Beza,) although he is displeased with the philippics which Knox sometimes pronounced from the pulpit, says, that " he immortalized himself by his courage against Popery, and his firmness against the tyranny of Mary ; and that though a violent, he was always an open and honourable, enemy to the Catholics," t The affectionate veneration in which his memory continued to be held in Scotland after his death, evinces that the influence which he possessed among his countrymen during his life was not constrained, but founded on the high opinion which they entertained of his virtues and talents, Bannatyne has drawn his character in the most glowing colours; and, although allow- * See Note QQQ, t Senebier, Hist. Lit. de Geneve, i. 377. 29 '^ 342 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. ances must be made for the enthusiasm with which a favourite servant* wrote of a beloved and revered master, yet, as he Uved long in the Reformer's family-, and was himself a man of re- spectability and learning, his testimony is by no means to be disregarded. In a speech which he delivered before the Gene- ral Assembly hi March 1571, when, in his master's name, he craved justice against the calumnies circulated by the queen's party, he said, " It has pleased God to make me a servant to that man John Knox, whom I serve, as God bears me witness, not so much in respect of my worldly commodity, as for that integrity and uprightness which I have ever known, and pre- sently understand, to be in him, especially in the faithful admin- istration of his office, in teaching of the word of God : and if I understood, or knew that he was a false teacher, a seducer, a raiser of schism, or one that makes division in the Church of God, as he is reported to be by the former accusations, I would not serve him for all the substance in Edinburgh."! And, in his journal, after giving an account of Knox's death, he adds : — " In this manner departed this man of God : the light of Scotland, the comfort of the Church within the same, the mirror of godliness, and pattern and example to all true minis- ters, in purity of life, soundness of doctrine, and boldness in re- proving of wickedness ; one that cared not the favour of men, how great soever they were. What dexterity in teaching, bold- ness in reproving, and hatred of wickedness was in him, my ignorant dulness is not able to declare, which if I should preis± to set out, it were as one who would light a candle to let men see the sun ; seeing all Iris virtues are better known and notified to the world a thousand fold than I am able to express." § Principal Sme ton's character of him, while it is less liable to the suspicion of partiality, is equally honourable and flattering. " I know not," says he, " if ever so much piety and genius were lodged in such a frail and weak body. Certain I am, that it will be difficult to find one in whom the gifts of the Holy Spirit shone so bright, to the comfort of the Church of Scotland. None spared himself less in enduring fatigues, bodily and men- tal ; none was more intent on discharging the duties of the pro- vince assigned to him." And again, addressing his calumniator * Tlie reader should observe, that the word servant, or servitor, was then used with greater latitude than it is now, and in old writinj^s often signitiea the person whom we call by the more honourable names of clerk, secretary, or man of business. As the drawing of the principal ecclesiastical papers, and the compiling of the liistory of public proceedings, were committed to our Reformer, from the time of his last return to Scotland, he kept a person of this description in his family, and Banna tyne held the situation. t Journal, 104, 105. \ i. e. labour. } Bannatyne, 427, 429. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 343 Hamilton, he says, " This ilUistrioiis, I say illustrious servant of God, John Knox, I shall clear from your feigned accusations and slanders, by the testimony of a venerable assembly rather than by my own denial. This pious duty, tliis reward of a well- spent life, all its members most cheerfully discharge to their ex- cellent instructor in Christ Jesus. This testimony of gratitude they all owe to him, who, they know, ceased not to deserve well of all till he ceased to breathe. Released from a body exhausted in Christian warfare, and translated to a blessed rest, where he has obtained the sweet reward of his labours, he now triumphs with Christ. But beware, sycophant, of insulting him when dead ; for he has left behind him as many defenders of his repu- tation as there are persons who were drawn by his faithful preaching, from the gulf of ignorance to the knowledge of the gospel." * The divines of the Church of England, who were contem- porary with Knox, entertained a great respect for his character, and ranked him along with the most eminent of their own re- formers.! I have already produced the mark of esteem which Bishop Bale conferred on him, and the terms of approbation in which he was mentioned by Dr. Fulke, one of the most learned of the English divines in the sixteenth century.f Aylmer, in a work written to confute one of his opinions, bears a voluntary testimony to his learning and integrity.§ And Ridley, who stickled more for the ceremonies of the Church than any of his brethren in the reign of Edward VI. and who was displeased with the opposition which Knox made to the introduction of the English hturgy at Frankfort, expressed his high opinion of }iim, as " a man of wit, much good learning, and earnest zeal." |[ Whatever dissatisfaction they felt at his pointed reprehension of several parts of their ecclesiastical establishment, the English dignitaries, under Elizabeth, rejoiced at the success of his exer- tions, and without scruple expressed their approbation of many of his measures, which were afterwards severely censured by their successors.!! I need scarcely add, that his memory was', held in veneration by the English Puritans. Some of the chief * Smetoni Resp. ad Hamilt. Dial. pp. 95. 115. t Calf hill's Answere to the Treatise of the Crosse ; Preface to the Readers, fol. 18, a Lond. 1565. This writer was cousin to Toby Matthews, Arch- bishop of York ; and in the Convocation which met in 1572, sat as a repre- sentative of the cleroy of London, and the canons of Oxford. Strype, An- nals, i. 289,292—3.'' J See above, p. 153, and note N. 5 Harborowe for Faithful and Trewe Subjects, B. B. 2. C. C. 2. Strype's Life of Aylmer, p. 238. II Strype's Life of Grindal, pp. 19, 20. IF Burnet, vol. ii. Appendix, part iii. B. vi. pp. 351, 352. 344 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. men among them were personally acquainted with him during his residence in England and on the Continent ; and others of them corresponded with him by letter. They highly esteemed his writings, sought for his manuscripts with avidity, and pub- lished them with testimonies of the warmest approbation.* Towards the close of the sixteenth century, there arose another race of prelates, of very different principles from the English reformers, who began to maintain the divine right of diocesan Episcopacy, with the intrinsic excellency of a ceremo- nious worship, and to adopt a new language respecting other reformed churches. Dr. Bancroft, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first writer among them, who spoke disre- spectfully of Knox,t after whom it became a fashionable prac- tice among the hierarchical party. This was resented by the ministers of Scotland, who warmly vindicated the character of their Reformer,^ ai the expense of incurring the frowns and resentment of their sovereign. Though educated under the greatest scholar of the age, and one who was a decided friend to popular liberty, James, in spite of the instructions of Buchanan, proved a pedant, and cowardice alone prevented him from be- coming a tyrant. His early favourites flattered his vanity, fos- tered his love of arbitrary power, and inspired him with the strongest prejudice against the principles and conduct of those men who, during his early years, had been the instruments of preserving his life, and supporting his authority. To secure his succession to the English crown, he entered into a private correspondence with Bancroft, and concerted with him the scheme of introducing Episcopacy into the Church of Scotland. The Presbyterian ministers incurred his deep and lasting dis- * In a dedication of Knox's "Exposition of the Temptation of Christ," John Field, the publisher, says: "If ever God shall vouchsafe the Church so greate a benefite ; when his infinite letters, and sundry other treatises shall be gathered together, it shall appear what an excellent man he was, and what a wonderful losse that Cluirch of Scotland susteined when that worthie man was taken from them. If, by yourselfe or others, you can pro- cure any other his writings or letters here at home, or abroad in Scotland, be a meane that we may receive them. It were great pittic that any the least of his writinges should be lost; for he evermore wrote both godly and diligently, in questions of divinitie, and also of church policie; and his letters being had togeather, would togeather set out an whole historic of the churches where he lived." t In a sermon preached by him at Paul's Cross, before the Parliament of England, Feb. 9, 1588, on 1 John iv. 1, printed in 1588, and reprinted in 168(). He enlarged on the subject in two posterior treatises, tlie one en- titled. " Dangerous Positions ; or Scottish Conevating, and English Scotti- zing;" the other "A Survey of the Pretended Holy Discipline." I John Davidson, minister first at Libherton, and afterwards at Prcston- pans, answered Bancroft in a book entitled, " Dr. Bancroft's Rashness in kayling against the Church of Scotland ;" printed at Edinburgh, 1590. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 345 pleasure by their determined resistance to this design, and by the united and firm opposition which they made to the illegal and despotic measures of his government. He was particularly displeased at the testimony which they publicly bore to the characters of Knox, Buchanan, and the regent Murray, who " could not be defended," he said, " but by traitors, and sedi- tious theologues." Andrew Melville told him that they were the men who had set the crown on his head, and deserved bet- ter of him than to be so traduced. James complained that Knox had spoken disrespectfully of his mother ; to which Patrick Galloway, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, replied, "If a king or a queen be a murderer, why should they not be called so ?" Walter Balcanquhal, another minister of the city, having, in one of his sermons, rebuked those who disparaged the Reformer, the king sent for him, and in a passion protested that " either he should lose his crown, or Mr. Walter should recant his words." Balcanquhal " prayed God to preserve his crown ; but said, that if he had his right wits, the king should have his head, before he recanted any thing he spake." * James carried his antipathies to the Presbyterian Church and reformers along with him to England, and he found it an easy matter to infuse them into the minds of his new subjects. Incensed at the freedom which Buchanan had used in his his- tory of the transactions during the reign of Mary, he had, before leaving Scotland, procured the condemnation of that work by an act of parliament. And now he did not think it enough that he had got Camden's history of that period manufactured to his mind, but employed agents to induce the French historian, De Thou, to adopt his representations ; and because that great man scrupled to receive the royal testimony respecting events which happened before James was born, or when he was a child, in opposition to the most credible evidence, his majesty was pleased to complain that he had been treated disrespectful] y.t Charles I. carried these prejudices even further than his father had done. During his reign, passive obedience, arminianism, and semi- popery, formed the court religion ; Calvinism and presbytery were held in the greatest detestation, and proscribed both as political and religious heresies. In the reign of the second Charles, the court, the bench, the pulpit, the press, and the stage, united in loading Presbyterians with every species of abuse, and in holding them forth as a gloomy, unsocial, tur- * Cald. MS. ad an, 1570 ; quarto copy in Advocate's Library, vol. ii. pp. 260, 261. t De Thnani Histor. Successu apud Jacobum I. Mag. Brit. Reafem ; Thuani Hist. torn. vii. pars v. edit. Buckley, 1733. Laing's Hist of Scot- land, i. 228—241. 2d edit. T2 346 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. bulent, and fanatical race. And a large share of these con- tumelies uniformly fell on the head of Knox, who, it was alleged, had brought the obnoxious principles of the sect from Geneva, and planted them in his native country, from which they had spread into England. The revolution was etlected in England by a coaUtion of parties of very different principles, some of which were not of the most liberal kind. Though this event abated the force of the prejudices alluded to, it by no means removed them ; and a considerable time after it took place, the great, the fashionable, and even the learned, among the English, regarded the Scots as only beginning to emerge from that inelegance and barbarism which had been produced by the peculiar sentiments of Knox and his followers. The great body of his countrymen, however, continued long to entertain a just sense of the many obligations which they were under to Knox. After the government of the Church of Scotland was conformed to the English model, the Scottish pre- lates still professed to look back to their national Reformer with sentiments of gratitude and veneration ; and Archbishop Spots- wood describes him as " a man endued with rare gifts, and a chief instrument that God used for the work of those times." * For a considerable time after the revolution, the Presbyterians of Scotland treated with deserved contempt the libels which English writers had published against him ; and blushed not to avow their admiration of a man to whose labours they were indebted for an ecclesiastical establishment, more scriptural and more liberal than that of which their neighbours could boast. The Union first produced a change in our national feelings on this subject. The short-lived jealousy of English predominance, felt by many of our countrymen on that occasion, was succeed- ed by a passion for conformity to our southern neighbours ; and so fond did we become of their good opinion, and so eager to secure it, that we were disposed to sacrifice to their taste and their prejudices, sentiments which truth, as well as national honour, required us to retain and cherish. Our most popular writers are not exempt from this charge ; and even in works professing to be executed by the united talents of our literati, the misrepresentations and gross blunders of which English writers had been guilty in their accounts of our Reformation, and the false and scandalous accusations which they had brought against our reformers, have been generally adopted and widely circulated, instead of meeting with the exposure and reproba- tion which they so justly merited. The prejudices entertained against our Reformer by the friends of absolute monarchy, were taken up, in all their force, * History, 261. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 347 subsequently to the Revolution, by the adherents of the Stuart family, whose religious notions, approximating verj'- nearly to the Popish, joined with their slavish principle respecting non- resistance to kings, led them to disapprove of almost every mea- sure adopted at the time of the Reformation, and to condemn the whole as a series of disorder, sedition, and rebellion against lawful authority. The spirit by which the Jacobitish faction was actuated, did not become extinct with the family which had. so long been the object of their devotion; and while they trans- ferred their allegiance to the house of Hanover, they retained those principles which had incited them repeatedly to attempt its expulsion from the throne. The alarm produced by that revolution which of late has shaken the thrones of so many of the princes of Europe, has greatly increased this party ; and with the view of preserving the present constitution of Britain, prin- ciples have been widely disseminated, which, if they had been generally received in the sixteenth century, would have per- petuated the reign of Popery and arbitrary power in Scotland. From persons of such principles, nothing favourable to our Re- former can be expected. But the greatest torrent of abuse poured upon his character, has proceeded from those literary champions who have come forward to avenge the wrongs, and vindicate the innocence, of the peerless and immaculate Mary, Queen of Scots ! Having conjured up in their imagination the image of an ideal goddess, they have sacrificed to the object of their adoration all the characters, which, in that age, were most estimable for learning, patriotism, integrity, and religion. As if the quarrel which they had espoused exempted them from the ordinary laws of controversial warfare, and conferred on them the absolute and indefeasible privilege of calumniating and defaming at pleasure, they have pronounced every person who spoke, wrote, or acted against that queen, to be a hypo- crite or a villain. In the raving style of these writers, Knox was " a fanatical incendiary — a holy savage — the son of vio- lence and barbarism — the religious Sachem of religious Mo- hawks.". * I cannbt do justice to the subject without adverting here to the influence of the popular histories of those transactions writ- ten by two distinguished individuals of our own country. The political prejudices and sceptical opinions of Mr. Hume are well known, and appear prominently in every part of his History of England. Regarding the various systems of religious belief * Whitaker's Vindication of Queen Mary, passim. The same writer designs Buclianan " a serpent — daring calumniator — leviathan of slander the second of all human forgers, and tiie first of all human slanderers." Dr. Robertson he calls " a disciple of the old school of slander' — a liar and one for whom bedlam is no bedlam." 348 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. and worship as distinguished from one another merely by dif- ferent shades of falsehood and superstition, he has been led, by a strange but not inexplicable bias, almost uniformly to show the most marked partiality to the grosser and more corrupt forms of religion; has spoken with greater contempt of the Pro- testants than of the Roman Catholics, and treated the Scottish with greater severity than the English reformers. Forgetting what was due to the character of a philosopher, which he was so ambitious to maintain in his other writings, he has acted as the partisan and advocate of a particular family ; and, in vin- dicating some of the worst measures of the Stuarts, has done signal injustice to the memory of the most illustrious patriots of both kingdoms. Though convinced that the Queen of Scotland was guilty of the crimes laid to her charge, he has laboured to screen her from the infamy to which a fair and unvarnished statement of facts must have exposed her character, by fixing the attention of his readers on an untrue and exaggerated re- presentation of the rudeness of Knox and the other reformers by whom she was surrounded, and by absurdly imputing to their treatment of her the faults into which she was betrayed. No person who is acquainted with the writings of Dr. Robert- son will accuse him of being actuated by such improper mo- tives. But the warmest admirers of his History of Scotland cannot deny, that he has been misled by the temptation of making Mary the heroine of his story, and of thus interesting his readers deeply in his narrative, by blending the tender and romantic with the more dry and uninteresting detail of public transactions. By a studious exhibition of the personal charms and accomplishments of the queen, by representing her faults as arising from the unfortunate circumstances in which she was placed, by touching gently on the errors of her conduct, while he dwells on the cruelty and the dissimulation of her rival, and by describing her sufferings as exceeding the tragical distresses which fancy has feigned to excite sorrow and commiseration, he throws a veil over those vices which he could not deny ; while the sympathy which his pathetic account of her death naturally awakens in the minds of his readers, effaces the im- pressions of her guilt which his preceding narrative had pro- duced. However amiable the feelings of the author might be, the tendency of such a representation is evident. The Disser- tation on the murder of King Henry has, no doubt, convinced many of Mary's accession to the perpetration of that deed ; but the History of Scotland has done more to prepossess the public mind in favour of that princess, than all the defences of her most zealous and ingenious advocates, and consequently, to excite prejudice against her opponents, who, on the supposition of her LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 349 guilt, acted a most meritorious part, and are entitled, in other respects, to the gratitude and veneration of posterity. The increase of infidelity and inditference to religion in mo- dern times, especially among the learned, has contributed, in no small degree, to swell the tide of prejudice against our Re- former. Whatever satisfaction persons of this description may express or feel at the reformation from Popery, as the means of emancipating the world from superstition and priestcraft, they natm-ally despise and dislike men who were inspired with the love of religion, and in whose plans of reform the acquisition of civil liberty, and the advancement of literature, held a subordi- nate place to the revival of primitive Christianity. Nor can it escape observation, that prejudices against the characters and proceedings of our reformers are now far more general than they formerly were among those who still profess to adhere to their doctrine and system of church government. Impressed with a high idea of the illumination of the present age, and entertaining a low estimate of the attainments of those which preceded it ; imperfectly acquainted with the enormity and extent of the corrupt system of religion which existed iu this country at the era of the Reformation -, inattentive to the spirit and principles of the adversaries with whom our reformers were obhged to contend, and to the dangers and difficulties with which they had to struggle, — they have too easily lent an ear to the calumnies which have been circulated to their prejudice, and rashly condemned measures which will be found, on examina- tion, to have been necessary to secure and to transmit the in- Valuable blessings which we now enjoy. Having given this account of the opinions entertained re- specting our Reformer, I shall endeavour to sketch, with as much truth as I can, the leading features of his character. That he possessed strong natural talents is unquestionable. Inquisitive, ardent, acute ; vigorous and bold in his conceptions, he entered into all the subtilties of the scholastic science then in vogue ; yet, disgusted with its barren results, sought out a new course of study, which gradually led to a complete revolution in his sentiments. In his early years he had not access to that finished education which many of his contemporaries obtained in foreign universities, and he was afterwards prevented, by his unsettled and active mode of life, from prosecuting his studies with leisure ; but his abilities and application enabled him in a great measure to surmount these disadvantages, and he remained a stranger to none of the branches of learning which in that age were cultivated by persons of his profession. He united, in a high degree, the love of study, with a disposition to active em- ployment. The truths which he discovered, he felt an irresisti- ble impulse to impart to others, for which he was qualified by 30 350 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. a bold, fervid, and impetuous eloquence, singularly adapted to arrest the attention, and govern the passions of a fierce and un- polished people. From the time that he embraced the reformed doctrine, the desire of propagating it, and of delivering his countrymen from the delusions and thraldom of Popery, became his ruling pas- sion, to which he was always ready to sacrifice his ease, his interest, his reputation, and his life. An ardent attachment to civil liberty held the next place in his breast to love of the re- formed religion. That the zeal with which he laboured to ad- vance these objects, was of the most disinterested kind, no candid person who has paid attention to his life can doubt for a moment, whatever opinion may be entertained of some of the means which he employed for that purpose. He thought only of advancing the glory of God, and promoting the welfare of his country. Intrepidity, independence, and elevation of mind, indefatigalDle activity, and constancy which no disappointments could shake, eminently qualified him for the hazardous and difficult post which he occupied. His integrity was above the' suspicion of corruption ; his firmness proof equally against the solicitations of friends and the threats of enemies. Though his impetuosity and courage led him frequently to expose himself to danger, we never find him neglecting to take prudent pre- cautions for his safety. The confidence reposed in him by his countrymen, shows the high opinion which they entertained of his sagacity as well as of his honesty. The measures taken for advancing the Reformation, were either adopted at his sugges- tion, or sanctioned by his advice ; and we must pronounce them to have been as wisely planned as they were boldly executed. His ministerial functions were discharged with the greatest assiduity, fidelity, and fervour. No avocation or infirmity pre-, vented him from appearing in the pulpit. Preaching was an employment in Avhich he delighted, and for which he was quali- fied, by an extensive acquaintance with the Scriptures, and by the happy art of applying them, in the most striking manner, to the existing circumstances of the Church and of his hearers. His powers of alarming the conscience, and arousing the pas- sions, have been frequently celebrated ; but he excelled also in unfolding the consolations of the gospel, and in calming the breasts of those who were agitated by a sense of guilt, or suffer- ing under the ordinary afflictions of life. When he discoursed of the griefs and joys, the conflicts and triumphs, of genuine Christians, he described what he had himself known and expe- rienced. The letters which he wrote to his familiar acquaintances breathe the most ardent piety. The religious meditatior)s in which he spent his last sickness, were not confined to tliat period of his life ; they had been his habitual employment from the LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 351 time that he was brought to the knowledge of the truth, and his solace amidst all the hardships and perils through whicli he had passed. With his brethren in the ministry he lived in the utmost cor- diality. We never read of the slightest variance between him and any of his colleagues. While he was dreaded and hated by the licentious and profane, whose vices he -never spared, the religious and sober part of his countrymen felt a veneration for him, which was founded on his unblemished reputation, as well as his popular talents as a preacher. In private life, he was beloved and revered by his friends and domestics. He was subject to the illapses of melancholy and depression of spirits, arising partly from natural constitution, and partly from the mala- dies which had long preyed upon his health ; which made him (to use his own expression) churlish, and less capable of pleasing and gratifying his friends than he was otherwise disposed to be. This he confessed, and requested them to excuse ;* but his friendship was sincere, affectionate, and steady. When free from this morose affection, he relished the pleasures of society, and, among his acquaintances, was accustomed to unbend his mind, by indulging in innocent recreation, and in the sallies of wit and humour, to which he had a strong propensity, notwith- standing the graveness of his general deportment. In the course of his public life, the severer virtues of his character were more frequently called into exercise ; but we have met with repeated instances of his acute sensibility ; and the unaffected tenderness which occasionally breaks forth in his private letters, shows that he was no stranger to any of the charities of human life, and that he could " rejoice with them that rejoiced, and weep with them that wept." Most of his faults may be traced to his natural temperament, and to the character of the age and country in which he lived. His passions were strong ; he felt with the utmost keenness on every subject which interested him ; and as he felt he expressed himself, without disguise and without affectation. The warmth of his zeal was apt to betray him into intemperate language ; his inflexible adherence to his opinions inclined to obstinacy ; and his independence of mind occasionally assumed the appearance of haughtiness and disdain. In one solitary instance, the anxiety which he felt for the preservation of the great cause in which he was so deeply interested, betrayed him into an advice which was not more inconsistent with the laws of strict morality, than it was contrary to the stern uprightness, and undisguised sincerity, which characterized the rest of his conduct. A stranger to com- * See Extracts from his Letters to " Mrs. Locke, 6th April 1559," and to ♦* A Friend in England, 19th August 1569 ;" published in the Appendix. 35-2 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. plimentary or smooth language, little concerned about the man- ner in which his reproofs were received, provided they were merited, too much impressed with the evil of the ofience to think of the rank or character of the offender, he often "uttered his admonitions with an acrimony and vehemence more apt to irritate than to reclaim." But he protested, at a time when persons are least in danger of deception, and in a manner which should banish every suspicion of the purity of his motives, that, in his sharpest rebukes, he was influenced by hatred of vice, not of the vicious ; that his great aim was to reclaim the guilty, and that in using those means which were necessary for this end, he frequently did violence to his own feelings. Those who have charged him with insensibility and inhu- manity, have fallen into a mistake very common with superfi- cial thinkers, who, in judging of the character of persons who lived in a state of society very different from their own, have pronounced upon their moral qualities from the mere aspect of their exterior manners. He was austere, not unfeeling ; stern, not savage ; vehement, not vindictive. There is not an instance of his employing his influence to revenge any personal injury wiiich he had received. Rigid as his maxims respecting the execution of justice were, there are numerous instances on record of his interceding for the pardon of criminals ; and, unless when crimes were atrocious, or when the welfare of the state was in the most imminent danger, he never exhorted the execu- tive government to the exercise of severity. The boldness and ardour of his mind, called forth by the peculiar circumstances of the times, led him to push his sentiments on some subjects to an extreme, and no consideration could induce him to retract an opinion of which he continued to be persuaded ; but his be- haviour after his publication against female government, proves that he satisfied himself with declaring his own views, without seeking to disturb the public peace by urging their adoption. His conduct at Frankfort evinced his moderation in religious differences among brethren of the same faith, and his disposition to make all reasonable allowances for those who could not go the same length with him in reformation, provided they abstain- ed from imposing upon the consciences of others. The liberties which he took in censuring from the pulpit the actions of indi- viduals of the highest rank and station, appear the more strange and intolerable to us, when contrasted with the reserve and timidity of modern times ; but we should recollect that they were then common, and that they were not without their utility, in an age when the licentiousness and oppression of the great and powerful often set at defiance the ordinary restraints of law. In contemplating such a character as that of Knox, it is not LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 353 the man so much as the reformer, that ought to engage our attention. The talents which are suited to one age and station would be ahogether unsuitable to another ; and the wisdom dis- played by Providence, iiu'aising up persons endowed with quali- ties singularly adapted to tlie work which they have to perform for the benefit of mankind, demands our particular consideration. We must admire the austere and rough reformer, whose voice once cried in the wilderness, who was clothed with camel's hair, and girt about the loins with a leathern girdle, who came neither eating nor drinking, but, laying the axe to the root of every tree, warned a generation of vipers to flee from the wrath to come, saying even to the tyrant upon the throne, " It is not lawful for thee." And we must consider him as fitted for " serving the will of God in his generation," according to his rank and place, as well as his Divine Master, whose advent he announced, who '» did not strive, nor cry, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets, nor break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax." To those who complain, that they are disappointed at not find- ing, in our national Reformer, courteous manners, and a win- ning address, we may say, in the language of our Lord to the Jews concerning the Baptist : " What went ye out into the wil- derness for to see ? A reed shaken with the wind ? What went ye out for to see ? A man clothed in soft raiment ? Be- hold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts. But what went ye out for to see ? A prophet ? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet." To the men of this generation, as well as to the Jews of old, may be applied the parable of the children sitting in the market-place, and call- ing one to another, saying, " We*liave piped unto you, and ye have not danced ; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not wept." Disaflectionto the work often lurks under cavils against the instruments by which it is carried on ; and had Knox been softer and more yielding in his temper, he would have been pronounced unfit for his ofllce by the very persons who now censure his harshness and severity. "But wisdom is justified of all her children." Before the Reformation, superstition, shielded by ignorance, and armed with power, governed with gigantic sway. Men of mild spirits, and of gentle manners, would have been as unfit for taking the field against this enemy, as a dwarf or a child for encountering a giant. What did Eras- mus in the days of Luther ? What would Lowth have done in the days of Wickliffe, or Blair in those of Knox .^ It has been justly observed concerning our Reformer, that " those very qualities which now render his character less amiable, fitted him to be the instrument of Providence for advancing the Reforma- tion among a fierce people, and enabled him to face danger, and surmount opposition, from which a person of a more gentle 30* U2 354 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. spirit would have been apt to shrink back." * Viewing his character in this light, those who cannot regard him as an amia- ble man, may, without hesitation, pronounce him a great Re- former. The most disinterested of the nobility, who were embarked with him in the same cause, sacrificed on some occasions the public good to their private interests, and disappointed the hopes which he had formed of them. The most upright of his asso- ciates in the ministry relaxed their exertions, or suffered them- selves at times to be drawn into measures that were unsuitable to their station, and hurtful to the reformed religion. Goodman, after being adopted by the Church of Scotland, and ranked among her reformers, yielded so far to the love of country as to desert a people who were warmly attached to him, and return to the bosom of a less pure Church, which received him with coldness and distrust. Willock, after acquitting himself honoura- bly from the commencement of the interesting conflict, witlidrew before the victory was completely secured, and, wearied out with the successive troubles in which his native country was involved, sought a retreat for himself in England. Craig, being left without the assistance of his colleague, and placed between two conflicting parties, betrayed his fears by having recourse to temporizing measures. Douglas, in his old age, became the dupe of persons whose rapacity impoverished the Protestant Church. And each of the superintendents was, at one time or another, complained of for neglect or for partiality, in the dis- charge of his functions. But from the time that the standard of truth was first raised by him in his native country, till it dropped from his hands at (feath, Knox never shrunk from danger — never consulted his own ease or advantage — never entered into any compromise with the enemy — never was bribed or frightened into cowardly silence ; but, keeping his eye singly and steadily fixed on the advancement of religion and of liberty, supported throughout the character of the Re- former of Scotland. Knox bore a striking resemblance to Luther in personal in- trepidity and in popular eloquence. He approached nearest to Calvin in his religious sentiments, in the severity of his manners, and in a certain impressive air of melancholy which pervaded his character. And he resembled Zuinglius in his ardent attach- ment to the principles of civil liberty, and in combining his exer- tions for the reformation of the Church with uniform endeavours to improve the political state of the people. Not that I would place our Reformer on a level with this illustrious triumvirate. There is a splendour which surrounds the great German re- * Robertson, Hist, of Scotland. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 355 former, partly arising from the intrinsic heroism of his character, and partly reflected from the interesting situation in which his long and doubtful struggle with the court of Rome placed him in the eyes of Europe, which removes him at a distance from all who started in the same glorious career. The Genevese reformer surpassed Knox in the extent of his theological learn- ing, and in the unrivalled solidity and clearness of his judgment. And the reformer of Switzerland, though inferior to him in masculine elocution, and hi daring courage, excelled him in self-command, in prudence, and in that species of elocpience which steals into the heart, convinces without irritating, and governs without assuming the tone of authority. But although « he attained not to the first three," I know not, among all the eminent men who appeared at that period, any name which is so well entitled to be placed next to theirs as that of Knox, whether we consider the talents with which he was endowed, or the important services which he performed. There are perhaps few who have attended to the active and laborious exertions of our Reformer, who have not been insen- sibly led to form the opinion that he was of a robust constitu- tion. This is, however, a mistake. He was of small stature, and of a weakly habit of body f a circumstance which serves to give us a higher idea of the vigour of his mind. His por- trait seems to have been taken more than once during his life, and has been frequently engraved.t It continues still to frown in the antechamber of Queen Mary, to whom he was often an ungracious visiter. We discern in it the traits of his character- istic intrepidity, austerity, and keen penetrati-^n. Nor can we overlook his beard, which, according to the custom of the times, he wore long, and reacliing to his middle ; a circumstance which I mention the rather, because some writers have gravely assured lis, that it was the chief thing which procured him reverence among his countrymen. J A Popish author has informed us, that he was gratified with having his picture drawn, and has expressed much horror at this, seeing he had caused all the images of the saints to be broken. § * " Haud scio an unquam — majus ingenium in fragili et imbecillo cor- pusculo collocarit." Smetoni Respons. ad Dialog. Hamilt. p. 115. t A print of him, cut in wood, was inserted by Beza, in his Icones. There is another in Vcrheideni Imagines. See also Grainger's Biographical His- tory of England, i. 164. I Henry Fowlis, apud Mackenzie's Lives of Scottish Writers, ii. 132. The learned Fellow of Lincoln College had perhaps discovered that the magical virtue which the Popish writers ascribed to Knox, resided in his beard. § "Audivi mente captos hereticos Scotos co etiam insanise aliquando venisse, quod sceleratissimi, atque omnium literarum iraperitissimi nebulonis Knox, pessimi, haeretici, qui omnes imagines sanctorum frangi prseceperat, 356 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. One charge against him has not yet been noticed. He has been accused of setting up himself for a prophet, of presuming to intrude into the secret counsel of God, and of enthusiastically confounding the suggestions of his own imagination, ajid the eftusions of his own spirit, with the dictates of inspiration, and immediate communications from Heaven. Let us examine this accusation a little. It is proper, in the first place, to hear his own statement of the grounds on which he proceeded in many of those warnings which have been denominated predictions. Having, in one of his treatises, denounced the judgments to which the inhabitants of England exposed themselves, by re- nouncing the gospel, and returning to idolatry, he gives the fol- lowing explication of the warrant which he had for his threat- enings. " Ye would know the groundis of my certitude. God grant that, hearing thame, ye may understand, and steadfastlie believe the same. My assurances are not the mervalles of Merlin, nor yit the dark sentences of prophane prophesies ; but the plane treuth of Godis word, the invincibill justice of the everlasting God, and the ordinarie course of his punismentis and plagis frome the beginning, are my assurance and groundis. Godis word* threatneth destructioun to all inobedient ; his im- mutabill justice must requyre the same ; the ordinarie punish- ments and plaguis schaw exempillis. What man then can ceise to prophesie ?"* We find him expressing himself in a similar way, in his defence of the threatenings which he uttered against those who had been guilty of the murder of King Henry and the Regent Murray. He denies that he had spoken " as one that entered into the secret counsel of God," and insists that he had merely declared the judgment which was pronounced in the divine law against murderers, and which had often been exempUfied in the vengeance which overtook them, even in this life.t In so far then his threatenings, or predictions (for so he repeatedly calls them), do not stand in need of an apology. Though sometimes expressed in absolute or indefinite language, it is but fair and reasonable to understand them, like similar declarations in Scripture, as implying a tacit condition. There are, however, several of his sayings which, perhaps, imaginem suam non tam fabricari passum fiiisse, quam jam fabricatam non paruin probasse." Laingaais de Vita et Moribus IIa?retic. pp. 65, 65. The same writer tells us, as a proof of Calvin's vain-glory, that he allowed his picture to be carried about on the necks of men and women, like that of a God ; and that when reminded tliat tiio picture of Christ was as precious as his, he returned a profane answer ; " Fertur eum hoc tantum respondisse, Qui huic rei invidet crepet medius." Ibid. * Letter to the Faithful! in London, Newcastell, and Barwick ; in MS. Letters, p. 113. t Bannatyne, 111, 112, 420, 421. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 357 cannot be vindicated upon these principles, and which he him- self seems to have rested upon different grounds.* Of this kind are the assurances which he expressed, from the beginning of the Scottish troubles, that the cause of the Congregation would ultimately prevail ; his confident hope of again preaching in his native country and at St. Andrews, avowed by him during his imprisonment on board the French galleys, and frequently re- peated during his exile ; with the intimations which he gave respecting the death of Thomas Maitland and Kircaldy of Grange. It cannot be denied that his contemporaries considered these as proceeding from a prophetic spirit, and have attested that they received an exact accomplishment. Without entering on a particular examination of these instances, or venturing to give a decisive opinion respecting any of them, I shall confine myself to a few general observations. The most easy way of getting rid of this delicate subject is to dismiss it at once, and summarily to pronounce that all preten- sions to extraordinary premonitions, since the completing of the canon of inspiration, are unwarranted, and that they ought, with- out examination, to be discarded, and treated as fanciful and visionary. Nor would this fix any peculiar imputation on the character or talents of our Reformer, when it is considered that the most learned persons of that age were under the influence of a still greater weakness, and strongly addicted to the belief of judicial astrology. But I doubt much if this method of deter- mining the question would be doing justice to the subject. Est vericttlum, ne, ant neglectis his impia fraude, ant susceptis anili super stitione^ obligeniurA On the one hand, the dispo- sition which mankind discover to pry into the secrets of futu- rity, has been always accompanied with much credulity and superstition ; and it cannot be denied, that the age in which Knox lived was prone to credit the marvellous, especially as to the infliction of divine judgments on individuals. A judicious person, who is aware of this, will not be disposed to acknow- ledge as preternatural whatever was formerly regarded in this light, and will be on his guard against the illusions of imagina- tion as to impressions which may be made on his own mind. Nor would it be difficult to produce instances in which writers of a subsequent age, through mistake, or under the influence of prepossession, have given a prophetical meaning to words, which originally were not intended to convey any such idea. But, on the other hand, is there not a danger of running into scepticism, and of laying down general principles which may * See the Epistle to the Reader, prefixed to his Sermon, Append, to His- tory, p. 113. Edin. 1644, 4to. \ Cicero de Divinat, lib. i. 4. 358 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. lead us obstinately to contest the truth of the best authenticated facts, if not also to limit the operations of Divine Providence ? This is the extreme to which the present age inclines. That there are instances of persons having had presentiments as to events which afterwards did happen to themselves and others, there is, I think, the best reason to believe. Those who laugh at vulgar credulity, and exert their ingenuity in accounting for such phenomena on ordinary principles, have been exceedingly puzzled with some of these facts — a great deal more puzzled than they have confessed ; and the solutions which they have given are, in some cases, as mysterious as any thing included in the intervention of superior spirits, or in preternatural and divine intimations.* The canon of our faith, as Ciiristians, is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments ; we must not look to impressions or new revelations as the rule of our duty ; but that God may, on particular occasions, forewarn persons of some things which shall happen, to testify his appro- bation of them, to encourage them to confide in him in circum- stances of peculiar difficulty, or to serve other important pur- poses, is not, I think, inconsistent with the principles of either natural or revealed religion. If to believe this be enthusiasm, it is an enthusiasm into which some of the most enlightened and sober men, in modern as well as ancient times, have fallen. t The reformers were men of singular piety ; they were exposed to uncommon opposition, and had uncommon services to per- form ; they were endued with extraordinary gifts, and why may we not suppose that they were occasionally favoured with ex- traordinary premonitions, with respect to certain events which concerned themselves, other individuals, or the Church in gene- ral ? But whatever intimations of this kind they received, they * This is acknowledged by one wlio had attempted this more frequently, and with greater acuteness, than any of them. " De tels faits, dont TunivcTS est tout plein, embarrassent plus les esprits forts qu'ils ne le temoignent." Bayle, Dictionnaire, Art. Maldonat, Note G. Wliat he says, elsewhere, of dreams, may be applied to this subject ; " they contain infinitely less mystery than the multitude believe, and a little more than sceptics believe ; and those who reject them wholly, give reason either to suspect their sincerity, or to charge them with prejudice and incapacity to discern the force of evidence." Ibid. Art. Majus, Note D. t " Setting aside these sorts of divination as extremely suspicious," says a modern author, who was not addicted to enthusiastic notions, " there remain predictions by dreams, and by sudden impulses, upon persons who were not of the fraternity of impostors ; these were allowed to bo sometimes preter- natural by many of the learned pagans, and cannot, I think, lie disproved, and should not be totally rejected." Dr. Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p. 93. Sec also pp. 45, 77. Lond. 180."). 'J'he learned reader may also consult the opicrisis of Witsius on this question ; the whole disser- tation, intended chiefly to expose the opposite extreme, is well entitled to a perusal. Miscellanea Sacra, torn. i. p. 391. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 359 never proposed them as a rule of action to themselves or others, nor rested the authority of their mission upon these, nor ap- pealed to them as constituting any part of the evidence of those doctrines which they preached to the world. Our Reformer left behind him a widow and five children. His two sons were born to him by his first wife, Marjory Bowes. We have already seen, that, about the year 1566, they went to England, where their mother's relations resided. Tiiey received their education at St. John's college, in the university of Cam- bridge ; their names being enrolled in the matriculation-book only eight days after the death of their father. Nathanael, the eldest of them, after obtaining the degrees of bachelor and mas- ter of arts, and being admitted fellow of the college, died in 1580. Eleazer, the youngest son, in addition to the honours attained by his brother, was created bachelor of divinity, ordained one of the preachers of the university, and admitted to the vicarage of Clacton-Magna. He died in 1591, and was buried in the chapel of St. John's college.* It appears that both sons died without issue, and the family of the Reformer became extinct in the male line. His other children were daughters by his second wife. The General Assembly testified their respect for his memory by assigning his stipend, for the year after his death, to his widow and three daughters, and this appears to have been continued for some time by the regent Morton, who, though charged with avarice during his administration, treated them with uniform attention and kindness.! Margaret Stewart, his widow, was afterwards married to Sir Andrew Ker of Fadoun- side, a strenuous supporter of the Reformation. J The names of his daughters were Martha, Margaret, and Elizabeth,^ The first was married to James Fleming, a minister of the Church of Scotland ;|| the second, to Zachary, son of the celebrated Robert Pont ;1[ and the third to John Welch, minister of Ayr. Mrs. Welch seems to have inherited no inconsiderable portion of her father's spirit, and she had her share of similar hardships. Her husband was one of those patriotic ministers who resisted the arbitrary measures pursued by James VI. for overturning * Newcourt's Report. Londin. ii. 154. Communications from Mr. Thomas Barker, apud Life of Knox, prefixed to Historie of the Reformation, edit. 1732, pp. xli. xlii. t Melville's MS. Diary, p. 39. See also Note RRR. I Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, p. 522. 5 The Testament of John Knox, in the Appendix. II He was the grandfather of Mr. Robert Fleming, minister in London, and author of the well known book, The Fulfilling of the Scriptures. But Mr. Robert's father was of a different marriage. Fleming's Practical Dis- course on the Death of King William, preface, p. 14. Lond. 1702. T See Note SSS. 360 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. the government and liberties of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Being determined to abolish the General Assembly, James had, for a considerable time, prevented the meetings of that court by successive prorogations. Perceiving the design of the coiu't, a number of the delegates' from synods resolved to keep the diet which had been appointed to be held at Aberdeen in July 1605. They merely constituted the Assembly, and ap- pointed a day for its next meeting, and being charged by Lau- rieston,the king's commissioner, to dissolve, immediately obeyed; but the commissioner, having ante-dated the charge, several of the leading members were thrown into prison. Welch and five of his brethren, when called before the privy council, declined that court, as incompetent to judge the offence of which they were accused, according to the laws of the kingdom ; on which account they were indicted to stand trial for treason at Linlith- gow. Their trial was conducted in the most illegal and unjust manner. The king's advocate told the jury that the only thing which came under their cognizance was the fact of the declina- ture, the judges having already found that it was treasonable ; and threatened them with an "assize of error," if they did not proceed as he directed them. After the jury were empannelled, the justice-clerk went in and threatened them with his majesty's displeasure, if they acquitted the prisoners. The greater part of the jurors being still reluctant, the chancellor went out and consulted with the other judges, who promised that no punish- ment should be inflicted on the prisoners, provided the jury brought in a verdict agreeable to the court. By such disgrace- ful methods, they were induced, at midnight, to find, by a ma- jority of three, that the prisoners were guilty, upon which they were condemned to suffer the death of traitors.* Leaving her children at Ayr, Mrs. Welch attended her hus- band in prison, and was present at Linlithgow, with the wives of the other prisoners, on the day of trial. When informed of the sentence, these heroines, instead of lamenthig tlieir fate, praised God who had given their husbands courage to stand to the cause of their Master, adding, that, like him, they had been judged and condemned under the covert of night.t The sentence of death having been changed into banishment, she accompanied her husband to France, where they remained * Matthew Crawflird's History of the Church of Scotland, MS. vol. i. 258 — 283. The Reformation of Religion in Scotland, written by Mr. John Forbes, MS. pp. 131 — 151. The copy of this last work, which is in my pos- session, was transcribed " ex Authoris autographo," in the year 172(). The autlior was one of the condemned ministers. His narrative properly begins at the year IHSO, but is chiefly occupied m detailing the transactions whicli preceded and followed the Assembly at Aberdeen. t Row's MS. Ilistorie, pp. HI, 122. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 361 for sixteen years. Mr. Welch applied himself with such assidu- ity to the acquisition of the language of the country, that he was able, in the course of fourteen weeks, to preach in French, and was chosen minister to a Protestant congregation at Nerac, from which he was translated to St. Jean d'Angeiy, a fortified town in Lower Charente. War having broken out between Lewis XI IL and his Protestant subjects, St. Jean d'Angeiy was be- sieged by the king in person. On this occasion, Welch not only animated the inhabitants of the town to a vigorous resistance by his exhortations, but he appeared on the walls, and gave his assistance to the garrison. The king was at last admitted into the town in consequence of a treaty, and being displeased that Welch preached during his residence in it, sent the Duke d'Es- pernon with a company of soldiers, to take him from the pulpit. When the preacher saw the duke enter the church, he ordered his hearers to make room for the marshal of France, and de- sired him to sit down and hear the word of God. He spoke with such an air of authority that the duke involuntarily took a seat, and listened to the sermon with great gravity and atten- tion. He then brought Welch to the king, who asked him how he durst preach there, since it was contrary to the laws of the kingdom for any of the pretended reformed to officiate in places where the court resided. " Sir," replied Welch, " if your ma- jesty knew what I preached, you would not only come and hear it yourself, but make all France hear it ; for I preach not as those men you use to hear. First, I preach that you must be saved by the merits of Jesus Christ, and not your own ; and I am sure your conscience tells you that your good works will never merit heaven. Next, I preach, that, as you are king of France, there is no man on earth above you ; but these men whom you hear, subject you to the pope of Rome, which I will never do." Pleased with this reply, Lewis said to him, " He bien, vous serez mon ministre ;" * and addressing him by the title of Father, assured him of his protection. And he was as good as his word ; for St. Jean d'Angeiy being reduced by the royal forces in 1621, the king gave directions to De Vitry, one of his generals, to take care of his minister, in consequence of which, Welch and his family were conveyed, at his majesty's expense, to Rochelle.t * " Very well ; you shall be my minister." fHistory ofMr. John Welch, pp. 31— 33. Edinburgh, 1703. Character- istics of Eminent Ministers, subjoined to Livingston's Life : Art. John Welch. Mr. Livingston received his account of the above transactions in France, from Lord Kenmure, who resided in Mr. Welch's house. The author of the History of Welch, says, that he received his information from the personal acquaintances of that minister. That work was drawn up by Mr. James Kirkton, who married a descendant of Knox, and consequently a relation of 31 V2 362 LIFEOFJOHNKNOX. Having lost his health, and the physicians informing him that the only prospect which he had ofrecoverhig it, was by return- ing to his native country, Mr. Welch ventured, in the year 1 622, to come to London. But his own sovereign was incapable of treating him with that generosity which he had experienced from the French monarch ; and, dreading the influence of a man who was far gone with a consumption, he absolutely refused to give him permission to return to Scotland. Mrs. Welch, by means of some of her mother's relations at court, obtained access to James, and petitioned him to grant this liberty to her hus- band. The following singular conversation took place on that occasion. His majesty asked her, who was her father. She replied, " John Knox." — " Knox and Welch !" exclaimed he, " the devil never made such a match as that." — " It's right like, sir," said she, " for we never speired* his advice." He asked her how many cliildren her father had left, and if they were lads or lasses. She said three, and they were all lasses. " God be thanked !" cried the king, lifting up both his hands ; « for an they had been three lads, I had never bruikedt my three king- doms in peace." She again urged her request, that he would give her husband his native air. " Give him his native air !" replied the king, "give him the devil !" — " Give that to your hungry courtiers," said she, offended at his profaneness. He told her at last, that if she would persuade her husband to sub- mit to the bishops, he would allow him to return to Scotland. Mrs. Welch, lifting up her apron, and holding it towards the king, replied, in the true spirit of her father, " Please your ma- jesty, I'd rather kepj his head there."§ Welch was soon after released from the power of the despot, and from his own sufferings. "This month of May 1622,'\ says one of his intimate friends, "' we received intelligence of the Mrs. Welch. See the article concerning Knox's descendants in Additions. The life of Welch contains an account of an extraordinary occurrence relating to the first Lord Castlestewart, (ancestor of Lord Castlereagh,) who, when a young man, lodged with Mr. Welch in France. * Asked. f Enjoyed. | Receive. 5 I met with the account of this conversation in a MS. written by Mr. Robert Traill, minister in London, entitled, " An Acconipt of several pas- sages in the lives of some eminent men in the nation, not recorded in any history." It is inserted in the heart of a common-place book, containing notes of Sermons, &lc. written by him when a student of divinity at St. An- drews, between 1659 and 1663. He received the account from aged per- sons, and says, that the conference between King James and Mrs. Welch " is current to this day in the mouths of many." I have since seen the same story in Wodrovv's MS. Collections, vol. i. Life of Welch, p. 27, Bibl, Coll. Glass. James stood in great awe of Mr. Welch, who often reproved him for his habit of i)rof!ine swearing. If he had, at any time, been swearing in a public place, he would have turned round, and asked if Welch was near. Traill's MS. ut supra. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 363 death of that holy servant of God, Mr. Welch, one of the fathers and pillars of that church, and the light of his age, who died at London, an exile from his native country, on account of his opposition to the re-establishment of episcopal government, and his firm support of the presbyterian and synodical discipline, received and established among us ; and that after eighteen years' banishment — a man full of the Holy Spirit, zeal, charity, and incredible diligence in the duties of his office." The death of his wife is recorded by the same pen. " This month of Janu- ary 1625, died at Ayr, my cousin, Mrs. Welch, daughter of that great servant of God, the late John Knox, and wife of that holy man of God, Mr. Welch, above mentioned ; a spouse and daugh- ter worthy of such a husband, and such a father." * The account of our Reformer's publications has been partly anticipated in the course of the preceding narrative. Though his writings were of great utility, it was not by them, but by his personal exertions, that he chiefly advanced the Reformation, and transmitted his name to posterity. He did not view this as the field in which he was called to labour. " That I did not in writing communicate my judgment upon the Scriptures," says he, " I have ever thought myself to have most just reason. For, considering myself rather called of my God to instruct the igno- rant, comfort the sorrowful, confirm the weak, and rebuke the proud, by tongue and lively voice, in these most corrupt days, than to compose books for the age to come (seeing that so much is written, and by men of most singular erudition, and yet so little well observed), I decreed to contain myself within the bounds of that vocation whereunto I found myself especially called." t This resolution was most judiciously formed. His situation was very different from that of the first Protestant reformers. They found the whole world in ignorance of the doctrines of Christianity. Men were either destitute of books, or such as they possessed were calculated only to mislead. The oral instructions of a few individuals could extend but a small way ; it was principally by means of their writings, which cir- culated with amazing rapidity, that they benefited mankind, and became not merely the instructors of the particular cities and countries where they resided and preached, but the reformers of Europe. By the time that Knox appeared on the field, their translations of Scripture, their judicious commentaries on its dif- ferent books, and their able defences of its doctrines, were laid * Obituary of Robert Boyd of Trochrig, in Wodrow's MS. Collections, vol. V. pp. 14.5, 148. Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. i. pp. 291, 293. See Mrs. Welch's Testament, in the Appendix. t Preface to his Sermon, apud History, p. 113. Edin. 1644. 364 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. open to the English reader.* What was more immediately required of him was to use the peculiar talent in which he ex- celled, and, " by tongue and hvely voice," to imprint the doc- trines of the Bible upon the hearts of his countrymen. When he was deprived of an opportunity of doing this during his ex- ile, there could not be a more proper substitute than that which he adopted, by publishing familiar epistles, exhortations, and admonitions, in which he briefly reminded them of the truths which they had embraced, and warned them to flee from the abominations of Popery, These could be circulated and read with far more ease, and to a far greater extent, than large treatises. Of the many sermons preached by him during his ministry, he published but one, which was extorted from him by peculiar circumstances. It aflbrds a very favourable specimen of his talents ; and shows, that if he had applied himself to writing, he was qualified for excelling in that department. He had a ready command of language, and expressed himself with great per- spicuity, animation, and force. Though he despised the tinsel of rhetoric, he was acquainted with the principles of that art, and when he had leisure and inclination to polish his style, wrote with propriety, and even with elegance. Those who have read his Letter to the Queen Regent, his Answer to Tyrie, or his papers in the account of the dispute with Kennedy, will be satisfied of this. During his residence in England, he ac- quired the habit of writing the language according to the man- ner of that country ; and in all his publications which appeared during his lifetime, the English and not the Scottish orthogra- phy and mode of expression are used.t In this respect, there is a very evident difterence between them and the vernacular writings of Buchanan. His practical treatises are among the least known, but most valuable, of his writings. In depth of religious feeling, and in power of utterance, they are superior to any works of the same kind which appeared in that age. The thoughts are often original, and always expressed in a style of originality, pos- * Tliose who have not directed their attention to this point cannot easily conceive to what extent the translation of foreign theological books into our language was carried at that time. There was scarcely a book of any celebrity published in Latin by the continental reformers, that did not appear in an English version. Bibliographers, and the annalists of printing, are very defective in the information which they commucicate on this branch. I It is to this that Ninian Winget refers in one of his letters addressed to Knox. "Gif ye, throw curiositie of novationis, hes forzet our auld plane Scottis, quliilk zour mother lernit zow, in tymos coming I sail wrytt to zow my mynd in Latin, for I am nocht acquyntit with zour Sout/ieroun." Keith, Append. 254. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 365 sessing great dignity and strength, without affectation or ex- travagance.* The freedoms which have been used in the republication of such of liis works as are best known, have contributed to injure his hterary reputation. They were translated into the language commonly used in the middle of the seventeenth century, by which they were deprived of the antique costume which they formerly wore, and contracted an air of vulgarity which did not originally belong to them. Besides this, they have been re- printed with innumerable omissions, interpolations, and altera- tions, which frequently affect the sense, and always -enfeeble the language. The two works which have been most read, are the least accurate and polished, in point of style, of all his writings. His tract against female government was hastily published by him, under great irritation of mind at the increas- ing cruelty of Mary Queen of England. His History of the Reformation was undertaken during the confusions of the civil war, and was afterwards continued by him at intervals snatched from numerous avocations. The collection of historical mate- rials is a work of labour and time ; the digesting and arranging of them into a regular narrative require much leisure and undi- vided attention. The want of these sufficiently accounts for the confusion that is often observable in that work. But, notwith- standing this, and particular mistakes from which no work of the kind can be free, it still continues to be the principal source of information as to ecclesiastical proceedings in that period ; and although great keenness has been shown in attacking its authenticity and accuracy, it has been confirmed, in all the lead- ing facts, by an examination of those ancient documents which the industry of later times has brought to iight.t His defence of Predestination, the only theological treatise of any extent which was published by him, is rare, and has been seen by few. It is written with perspicuity, and discovers his controversial acuteness, with becoming caution, in handling that delicate question. A catalogue of his publications, as complete as I have been able to draw up, will be found in the notes. ± * Knox's practical writings have been lately collected and reprinted. This, so far as it may have arisen, even indirectly, from what I have done in illus- trating the events of his life, I regard as one of the most pleasing fruits of my labour ; nor do I regret (though I did regret it) that the work has issued from the press of London, instead of Edinburgh. t See Note TTT. I See Note UUU. It may be proper to notice that our Reformer's writings had the honour of being marked in the Index Expurgatorius of Rome. *' Joannes Chnoxus Scotus" occurs in Index Librorum Prohibitorum, p. 49. Rothomagi, 1625. 31* 366 LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. I have thus attempted to give an account of our national Re- former, of tlie principal events of his life, his sentiments, writings, and exertions in the cause of religion and liberty. If what I have done shall contribute to set his character in a more just light than that in which it has been generally represented, and to correct the erroneous views of it which have long been preva- lent ; or if it shall tend to elucidate the ecclesiastical history of the eventful period in which he lived, and be the means of illus- trating the superintendence of a wise and merciful Providence, in the accomplishment of a revolution of all others the most in- teresting and beneficial to this country, I shall not think any labour which I have bestowed on the subject to have been thrown away, or unrewarded. NOTES. Note A. page 17. Place of Knox's Birth, and his Parentage. — Although the question respecting Knox's birth-place is not of very great importance, 1 shall state the authorities for the different opinions which are entertained on the subject. Beza, who was contemporary, and personally acquainted, with our Reformer, designs him " Joannes Cnoxus, Scotus, Giffordiensis," evi- dently meaning that he was a native of the town of Gifford. Icones, seu Imagines lllustrium Virorum, Ee. iij. an. 1580. Spots wood, who was born in 1565, and could receive information from his father, and other persons intimately acquainted with Knox, says that he was " born in Gifford within Lothian." History, p. 265, edit. 1677. David Buchanan, in his Memoir of Knox, prefixed to the edition of his His- tory, and published in 1644, gives the same account; which has been followed in the Life written by Matthew Crawfurd, and prefixed to the edition of the History, 1732; and by Wodrow, in his MS. Collec- tions, respecting the Scottish Reformers, in Bibl. Coll. Glas. In a Genealogical Account of the Knoxes, which is in the possession of the family of the late Mr. James Knox, minister of Scoon, the Reformer's father is said to have been a brother of the family of Ranferhe, and " proprietor of the estate of Gifford." Scott's History of the Scottish Reformers, p. 94. On the other hand, Archibald Hamilton, who was his countryman, as well as his contemporary and acquaintance, says that Knox was born in the town of Haddington : " Obscuris natus parentibus in Had- intona oppido in Laudonia." De Confusione Calvinianas Sectae apud Scotos Dialogus, fol. 64, a. Parisiis, 1577. Another Scotsman, who wrote in that age, says that he was born near Haddington ; " prope Haddintonam." Laingaeus De vita, et moribus, atque rebus gestis Haereticorum nostri temporis, fol. 113, b. Parisiis, 1581. Dr. Barclay, late minister of Haddington, advanced an opinion which reconciles the two last authorities, (although it is probable that he never saw either of them,) by asserting that our Reformer was born in one of the suburbs of Haddington, called the Giffordgate. Transactions of^ the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland, pp. 69, 70. 367 368 NOTES. The testimony of Archibald Hamilton, is not altogether withoui weight ; lor, although he has retailed a number of gross falsehoods in the work referred to, there does not appear to be any reason for sup- posing tluit he would intentionally mislead his readers on sucii a cir- cumstance as the birth-place of the Reformer. But I consider Spots- wood's statement as going far to set aside Hamilton's; for, as the archbishop could scarcely be ignorant of it, and as he fixes Knox's birth at a different place, it is reasonable to suppose that he had good reasons for varying from a preceding authority. The grounds of Dr. Barclay's opinion are, that, according to the tradition of the place, the Reformer was a native of Haddington ; that the house in which he was born is still pointed out in the Giffordgate ; and that this house, with some adjoining acres of land, belonged for a number of generations to a family of the name of Knox, who claimed kindred with the Re- former, and who lately sold the property to the Eai'l of Wemyss. I acknowledge that popular tradition may be allowed to determine a point of this nature, provided it is not contradicted by other evidence. In the present case, it is not altogether free from this objection. As the sons of the Reformer died without issue, there is no reason to think that the family which resided in the Giffordgate was lineally descended from him. Still, however, the property might have be- longed to his elder brother, which is consistent with the supposition of his being born in the house which tradition has marked out. But I have lately been favoured with extracts from the title-deeds of that property, now in the possession of the Earl of Wemyss, extending from the year 1 598 downwards, which are not favourable to that sup- position. On the 18th of February, 1598, William Knox in Moreham, and Elizabeth Schortes his wife, were infeft in subjects in Nungate (of Haddington,) by virtue of a crown charter. This charter contains no statement of the warrants on which it proceeded, further than the lands formerly belonged to the Abbey of Haddington, and were an- nexed to the crown. Having communicated the names of the persons mentioned in the first charter and subsequent deeds to the Reverend Mr. Scott of Perth, with a request to be informed, if any such names occur in the genealogy of the Knox family which belonged to the late Mr. Knox, muiister of Scoon, I was favoured with an answer, saying, that neither the name of William Knox at Moreham, nor that of any other person answering to the description in my letter, is to be found in that genealogy. But, further, the charter expressly states, that the lands in question belonged to the Abbey of Haddington, and, as they must have been annexed to the crown subsequently to the Reforma- tion, they could not be the property of the family at the time of our Reformer's birth. The tradition of his having been born in the Gif^ fordgate is therefore supported merely by the possibility that his pa- rents might have resided in that house while it was the property of the Abbey. In opposition to this, we have the authorities already mentioned in support of the opinion that he was born in the village of Gifford. With respect to the parentosre of our Reformer, David Buchanan says that his " father was a brother's son of the house of Ranferlie." Life, prefixed to History of the Reformation, edit. 1644. In a conver- sation with the Earl of Bothwell, Knox gave the following account of his ancestors : " My Lord," said he, " my great grandfather, gudeschir and father, have served your Lordchip's predecessours, and some of them have dyed under their standards; and this is a pairt of the obli- gatioun of our Scottish kindness." Historie of the Rcformatioun, p. 306, edit. 1732. Matthew Crawfurd says, that '*■ these words .seem to import that Mr. Knox's predecessors were in some honourable station NOTES. 369 under the Eaiis of Bothwell, at that time the most powerful family in East-Lothian." Life of the Author, p. ii. prefixed to Historie, edit. 1732. The only thing which I would infer from his words is, that his ancestors had settled in Lothian as early as the time of his great- grandfather. I do not wish to represent the Reformer as either of noble or of gentle birth, and cannot place much dependence on the assertion in the preceding note, which makes his father " proprietor of the estate of Gifford." John Davidson, in the poem written in com- mendation of him, says, First he descendit hot of lineage small, As commonly God usis for to call The sempill sort his summoundis til expres. At the same time, the statement given by some authors of the mean- ness and poverty of his parents is not supported by good evidence, and can in part be disproved. Dr. Mackenzie says the Reformer was '* the son of a poor countryman, as we are informed by those who knew him very well : his parents, though in a mean condition, put^ their son to the grammar-school of Haddington ; where, after he had' learned his grammar, he served for some time the Laird of Langnid- drie's children, who being sent by their parents to the university of St. Andrews, he thereby had occasion of learning his philosophy." Lives of Scottish Writers, vol. iii. p. 1 11. As his authorities for these assertions, the Doctor has printed on the margin, " Dr. Hamilton, Dr. Bailie, and many others ;" Popish writers, who, regardless of their own character, fabricated or retailed such stories as they thought most discreditable to the Reformer, many of which Mackenzie him- self is obliged to pronounce " ridiculous stories, that are altogether improbable^" p. 132. "Dr. Bailie" was Alexander Bailie, a Benedic- tine monk in the Scottish monastery of Wirtsburgh ; and, as he pub- lished the work to which Mackenzie refers in the year 1628, it is ridi- culous to talk of his being well acquainted with either the Reformer or his father. Hamilton, (the earliest authority,) instead of supporting Mackenzie's assertions, informs us, as far as his language is intelligi- ble, that Knox was in priest's orders before he undertook the care of children : " quo victum sibi pararet magis quam ut deo serviret (Sim- onis illius magi hue usque sequutus vestigia) presbyter primum fieri de more, quamvis illiteratus, turn in privatis aedibus puerorum in vul- garibus literis formandorum curam capere coactus est." De Confu- sione Calv. Sectas, p. C4. The fact is, that Knox entered into the family of Langniddrie as tutor, after he had finished his education at the university; and so late as 1547, he was employed in teaching the young men their grammar. Historie, p. 67. Note B, p. 18. Of Knox^s Academical Education. — I have been a good deal puz- zled on the subject of the academical studies of our Reformer. De- pending on the testimony of the earliest and most credible writers, I stated, in the former editions of this worl^that he studied, and took the degree of Master of Arts, at St Andrews. After a minute exami- nation, however, I was unable to find his name in the records of that university. Still I did not feel warranted to drop the account which I had given on such respectable authority, and contented myself with mentioning the unsuccessful result of my investigations. But when en- gaged in examining the records of the university of Glasgow with a W2 370 NOTES. view to another work, I accidentally met with evidence which con- vinces me that the common statement is erroneous. Knox was educa- ted at the university, not of St Andrews, but of Glasgow. In the " Annales Universitatis Glasguensis," the name "Johannes Knox" occurs among the Incorporati, or those who weie matriculated, in the year 1522. In coming to the conclusion that this was our Re- former, I do not rest simply on his name occurring in the record. This opinion is confirmed by the two following circumstances. 1. The time answers to that at which he might be supposed to have entered the university ; for in 1522, he was seventeen years of age. 2. John Major was at that time Principal of the university of Glasgow; and all the ancient accounts agree that Knox studied under that celebrated profes- sor.— This circumstance may perhaps account for the mistake into which the old writers have fallen on this subject. They appear to have been ignorant of the fact that Major taught at that time in Glas- gow ; and being informed that Knox studied under him, they conclu- ded that he did so at St Andrews, where that professor was known to have resided for many years. , I take this opportunity of filling up a blank in the life of Major. Dempster, Dupin, and other writers, mention that, after being made Doctor of Divinity in 1505, he taught for some years at Glasgow, but that, owing to the confusions of his native country, he removed from it to Paris. I will not take upon me to say that this account is erro- neous ; but I have not been able to discover the name of Major in the records of the university of Glasgow at that period. Upon Major's return from France, the above-mentioned authors represent him as going directly to St Andrews. But from the subsequent extracts it will appear that he went first to Glasgow, and for several years held the situation of Principal and Professor of Divinity in the university of that city. In the old Register entitled " Annales Universitatis Glasguensis," are the following minutes relating to Major. The last of them contains the matriculation of Knox. " Electio Rectoris. " Congregatione generali alme Universitatis Glasguen. Citatione previa, &c. Die tertio mensis Novembris anno Dni. millesimo quin- gentesimo decimo octavo, &c. " Eodem die — Incorporati sub dictoDno.Rectore Egregius vir Magr. Johannes Majoris Doctor Parisiensis ac principalis regens Collegie et pedagogii dicte Universitatis Canonicusque Capelli regie, ac Yicarius de Dunlop, &c." (43 names follow.) There is no farther mention made of Major until 1521, when the fol- lowing minute is found ; " Electio Rectoris. • "Congregatione generali, &c. In festo sanctorum Marthirum Crls- pini et Crispiniani, anno Domi. millesimo quingentesimo vicesimo pri- mo. Pro Electione novi I^ctoris — In quaquidem Congregatione Electi fuerunt tres Intrantes, viz.*'Iagr. Mattheus Steward Decanus facultatis Johannes Majoris Theologie Professor, et nationis Albanie nulkis inter- fuit, et Willmus.CrechtounCanonicus Glasguensis — Qui remoti, matu- raque deliberatlone prehabita, unanimi eorum consensu, Venerabilem et egregium Virum Jacobum Steward Prepositum ecclesie Collegiate de Dunbertane, absentrm tanqunm presentem, in Rectorein elegerunt et electum pronunciarunt. Q,ul postea inclinatus supplicationibus suppos- NOTES. 371 itorum hujus modi onus in se acceptavit. Insuper in eadem Congrega- tione electi fuerunt quatuor Deputati ad consuJendum et assistendum dicto Dno. rectori in omnibus et singulis causis per ip.sum tractandis, viz. Magri. Johannes Majoris predictus, Willms. Ctirichtoun, Johannes Reid, Jacobus Neilsoun — Necnon Electus fuit in bursarium discretus vir Magr. Mattheus Reid, Magr. schole grammaticalis. Et in promo- torem Magr. Andreas Smyth. Et in Procuratorem Magr. Nicholaus Witherspuyne. " Die xxiiij mensis Maij anno Dni. millesimo quingentesimo xxij. " Congregatione generali Universitatis Glasguen. facta loco Capitu- lar! ecclesie metropolitane ejusdem die xxiiij mensis maij Anno Dni. Millesimo quingentesimo xxij, per Venerabilem Virum Mgrm. Jacobum Steward Prepositum ecclie Collegiate de Dunbertane ac Rectorem dicte Universitatis, Presentibus Ibidem Honorabilibus Viris, Magistris Johanne Majore, theologie professore, thesaurario Capelle regie Stirlin- gensis, Vicarioque de Dunlop, ac Principali regente dicte Collegie, Jo- hanne Doby Canonico Glasguensi ac prebendario de Ancrum, Jacobo Neilson Vicario de Colmanel, Johanne Spruele Vicario de Dundonald, Jacobo Lyndesay secundario regente, aliisque patribus, Magistiis, Stu- dentibus, ac suppositis, inibi Congregatis — In quaquidem Congrega- tione Idem Dnus. Rector Exposuit et Declaravit, &c. "Electio Rectoris. " Congregatione generali alme Universitatis Glass. Citatione previa per edictum publicum in Valvis ecclesie metropolitane affixum, Cele- brata loco Capitulari ejusdem. In festo Sanctorum Marthirum Crispin! et Crispiniani, Anno Dni. Millesimo quingentesimo Vicesimo secundo, Pro electione novi Rectoris. In quaquidem Congregatione electi fue- runt tres Intrantes, eoquod nuUus nationis albanie extunc interfuit, viz. Mgr. Thomas leiss Canonicus Dunblanensis, Johannes Majoris Prin- cipalis regens, et Johannes Reid Vicarius de Campsy — (iui remoti, ma- tura et digesta deliberatione prehabita, unanimi eorum Consensu, Venerabilem et egregium Virum Mgrm. Jacobum Steward prepositum Ecclesie Collegiate de Dunbertane, absentem tanquam presentem, in rectorem Continuarunt, elegerunt, et pronunciarunt — Q,ui postea sup- plicationibus magistrorum inclinatus hujus modi onus in se acceptavit. Insuper in eadem Congregatione electi fuerunt tres Deputati ad as- sistendum et consulendum dicto Dno. Rectori in omnibus et singulis causis dicte Universitatis per eundem tractandis, viz. Prescripti mag- istri, Johannes Majoris, Johannes Reid, et Mgr. Mattheus Steward Vicarius de Mayboile, et Continuatus fuit in bursarium Mgr. Mattheus Reid. Necnon electus fuit in procuratorem et promotorem Universita- tis Mgr. Nicholaus Vitherspuyne Vicarius de Straithawane — Incorpora- ti sub dicto Dno. Rectore, Andreas Cottis Alexr Dikke Johannes hereot Adam Kyngorne Nigellus Campbal Nigellus forguissone Willmus Steward Johannes huntar Johannes Hamyltoun Jacobus Mosman Johannes Knox Dnus Johannes Keyne presbiter Archibaldus Langsyd Patricius letryg Civis Glass." In the records of the university of Glasgow, Major is uniformly called Johannes Majoris. It appears from Dr Lee's extracts, published in the 372 NOTES. second edition of Dr. Irving's Memoirs of Buchanan, (p. 373,) that Major was incorporated into the university of St Andrews on the 9th of June 1523. He.is there designed " Doctor Theologus Parisiensis, et Thesaurarius Capellse Regioe ;" and in an instrument of seisin, l)elonging to that seminary, he is styled " Vicarius de Dunloppie Glasg." — Some may perhaps be inclined to suppose that Knox followed Major to St Andrews, and attended his lectures, though not formally incorporated into that university ; and consequently that the old writers had some foundation for their statement on this head. But if this was the case, it is not very probable that the truth of it can be now ascertained. I have only to add, that I cannot perceive, from the records of Glasgow, that Knox took any degree there, which confirms the doubt that 1 have already expressed on that subject. Note C, p. 20. Of the Early State of Grecian Literature in Scotland. — In this note I shall throw together such facts as I have met with relating to the introduction of "the Greek language into Scotland, and the progress which it made during the sixteenth century. They are scanty ; but I trust they will not be altogether unacceptable to those who take an interest in the subject. In the year 1522, Boece mentions George Dundas as a good Greek scholar. He was master of the Knights of St John in Scotland, and had, most probably, acquired the knowledge of the language on the Continent. "Georgius Dundas grecas atq; latinas literas apprime doctus, equitum Hierosolymitanorum intra Scotorum regnum magis- tratum multo sudore (superatis emuiis) postea adeptus." Boetii Vitas Episcop. Murth. et Aberdon. fol. xxvii. b. It is reasonable to suppose that some other individuals in the nation acquired it in the same way ; but Boece makes no mention of Greek among the branches taught at the universities in his time, although he is minute in his details. Nor do I find any other reference to the subject previous to the year 1534, when Erskine of Dun brought a learned man from France, and em- ployed him to teach Greek in Montrose, as mentioned in that part of the Life to which this note refers. At his school, George Wishart, the martyr, must have obtained the knowledge of the language, and he seems to have been assistant or successor to his master. The bishop of Brechin (\^'illiam Chisholm,) hearing that Wishart taught the Greek New Testament in Montrose, summoned him to appear before him on a charge of heresy, upon which he fled the kingdom. This was in 1538. Petrie, part ii.p. 1S2. It is likely that Knox was taught Greek by Wishart after the return of the latter from England. Buchanan seems to have acquired the language during his residence on the Con- tinent. Epist. p. 25. Oper. edit. Rudd. Lesley says, that James V. during his progress through the kingdom, in 1540, came to Aberdeen, and among other entertainments which were given him, the students of the university "recited orations in the Greek and Latin tongue, composed with the greatest skill" — " Ora- tiones in Greca Latinaque lingua, summo artificio instructa;." Les- lajus de rebus gestis Scotorum, lib. ix. p. 430. edit. 1G75. When we consider the state of learning at that period in Scotland, there is reason for suspecting that the bishop's description is highly coloured, yet as he entered that university a few years after, we may conclude from it that some attention was at that time paid to the study of Greek in Aberdeen. It might have been introduced by IJector Boece, the learned principal of that university. If the king was entertained with NOTES. ' 373 the great learning of the students of Aberdeen, the English ambassador was no less diverted, in the very same year, with the ignorance which our bishops discovered of the Greek tongue. The ambassador, who was a scholar as well as a statesman, had caused his men to wear on their sleeves the following Greek motto monh anakti aotaeto, "I serve the king only." This the Scottish bishops, whose knowledge did not extend beyond Latin, read Monachulus, " a little monk," and thereupon circulated the report that the ambassador's servants were monks, who had been taken out of the monasteries lately suppressed in England. To counteract this report, Sadler was obliged to furnish a translation of the inscription. " It appeareth (says he) they are no good Grecians. And now the effect of my words is known, and they be well laughed at for their learned interpretation." Sadler's Letters, i. 48, 49. Edinburgh, 1809. In a debate which occurred in the Parlia- ment which met in 1543, individuals among the nobility and other lay members discovered more knowledge of Greek than all the ecclesiasti- cal bench. Knox, Historie, 34. Foreign writers have been amused with the information, that many of the Scottish clergy affirmed, " that Martin Luther had lately com- posed a wicked book called the New Testament ; but that they, for their part, would adhere to the Old Testament." Perizonii Hist. Secuh xvi. p. 233. Gerdesii Histor. Reform, tom. iv. p. 314. Buchanani Oper. i. 291. Ignorant, howevei*, as our clergy were, they were not more illiterate than many on the Continent. A foreign monk, de- claiming one day in the pulpit against Lutherans and Zuinglians, said to his audience : " A new language was invented some time ago, called Greek, which has been the mother of all these heresies. A book is printed in this language, called the New Testament, which contains many dangerous things. Another language is now forming,, the He- brew ; whoever learns it immediately becomes a Jew." No wonder, after this, that the commissioners of the senate of Lucern should have confiscated the works of Aristotle, Plato, and some of the Greek poets, which they found in the library of a friend of Zuinglius, concluding that every book printed in that language must be infected witii Lutheran- ism. J. von. Mullers Schw. Gesch. Hess, Life of Ulrich Zuingle, p. 213. To return to the seminary at Montrose : it was kept up, by tlie pub- lic spirit of its patron, until the establishment of the Reformation. Some years before that event, the celebrated linguist, Andrew Mel- ville, received his education at this school, under Pierre de Marsiliers, a Frenchman. And he had made such proficiency in Greek, when he entered the university of St Andrew's, about the year 1559, that he was able to read Aristotle in the original language, " which even his mas- ters themselves understood not." Life of Andrew Melville, p. 2, in Wod- row's MSS. Bibl. Coll. Glas. vol. i. and James Melville's Diary, p. 32. For, although the logics, ethics, &c. of Aristotle, were then read in the colleges, it was in a Latin translation. " The regent of St Leonard's," says James Melville, "tauld me of my uncle Mr. Andro Melvill, whom he knew, in the time of his cours in the new collag, to use the Greik logicks of Aristotle, quhilk was a wonder to them, he was so fyne a scholar, and of sic expectation." MS. Diary, p. 25. By the First book of Discipline, it was provided, that there should " be a reader of CJreek" in one of the colleges of each university, who " shall compleat the grammar thereof in three months," and " shall in- terpret some book of Plato, together with some places of the New Tes- tament, and shall compleat his course the same year." Dunlop's Con- fessions, ii. 553. The small number of learned men, the deficiency of funds, and the confusions in which the country was afterwards involved, prevented, in a great decree, the execution of this wise mea- 32 374 NOTES. sure. Owing to the last of these circumstances, some learned Scots- men devoted their talents to the service ot" foreign seminaries, instead of returning to their native country. Buchanani Epist. pp. 7, 9, 10, 33. One of these was Henry Scrimger, celebrated for his Grecian literature. Some particulars respecting him ma)'- be seen in Senebier, Hist. Liter, de Geneve, torn. i. art. Scrimger. See also Teissier, Eloges. tom. ili. 383 — 'SS5. Leide, 1715. On account of the scarcity of preachers, it was also found necessary to settle several of tlie learned men in towns which were not the seat of a university. Some of these undertook the instruction of youth, along with tlie pastoral inspection of their par- ishes. John Row taught the Greek tongue in Perth. See Note PP. The venerable teaclier, Andrew Simpson, (see p. 19,) does not appear to have been capable of this task ; but he was careful that his son Pat- rick should not labour under the same defect. He was sent to the university of Cambridge, in which he made great proficiency ; and after his return to Scotland, taught Greek at Spot, a village in East Lothian, where he was minister for some time. Row's MS. p. 96 of a copy in the Divinity Lib. Edin. It is reasonable to suppose, that this branch of study would not be neglected at St Andrews during the time that Buchanan was principal of St Leonard's college, from 1565 to 1570. Patrick Adamson, to whom he demitted this office, and whom he recommended for his " literature and sufficiency," (Buch. Op. i. 10,) was not then in the kingdom ; and the state of education languished for some time in that university. James Melville, who en- tered it in 1570, gives the following account. "Our regent be goud, and teacheth us the a, b, c, of the Griek, and the simple declinationis, but went no farder." MS. Diary, p. 26. Gra-cuin est, non leg-itur, was at this time an adage, even with persons who had received a uni- versity education. Row's MS. ut supra. The return of Andrew Melville in 1574, gave a new impulse to literature in Scotlahd. That celebrated scholar had perfected himself in the knowledge of the languages during the nine years which he spent on the Continent, and had astonished the learned at Geneva by the fluency with which he read and spoke Greek. MS. Diary, ut sup. p. 33. He was first made Principal of the university of Glasgow, and afterwards removed to the university of St Andrews. Such was his celebrity, that he attracted students from England and foreign countries, whereas formerly it had been the custom for the Scottish youth to go abroad for their education. Spotswood, with whom he was no favourite, and Calderwood, equally bear testimony to his profound knowledge of this language. Soon after Melville, Thomas Smeton, another Greek scholar, returned to Scotland, and was made Principal of the university of Glasgow. I may mention here, although it belongs to the subject of typography, that there ap- pear to have been neither Greek nor Hebrew types in this country in 1579, when Smeton's Answer to Archil^ald Hamilton was printed; for blanks are left for all the phrases and quotations in these languages, which the author intended to introduce. In my copy of the book, a number of the blanks have been filled up with a pen by the author's own hand. Note D, p. 21. Of Major's Political Sentiments. — The following are some of the passages from which the account of these, given in the text, has been drawn. Similar sentiments occur in his History of Scotland ; but as it has been insinuated that he, in that work, merely coi^ied Boece, I shall quote from his otlier writings, which are more rarely consulted. xN 0 T E S . 375 "Ad policiam regalem non requiritur quod rex sit supra omnes sui regni tam regulariter quam casualiter — sed sat est quod rex sit supra unumqaemlibet, et supra totum regnum regulariter, et regnum sit supra eum casualiter et in aliquo eveatu." Again, " Similiter in regno ; et in toto populo libero est suprema fontalis potestas inabrogabilis ; in rege vero potestas mysteriaiis [ministeriulis /] honesto ministerio. Et sic aliquo niodo sunt duo potestates ; sed quia una ordinetur propter aliam, potest vocari una erFectualiter, et casu quo regnum rex in ty- rannidem convertat et etiam incorrigibilis, potest a populo deponi, tanquam a superiore potestate." Expos. Mattii. fol. 71, a. c. Paris. 1518. To the objection urged against tliis principle from tlie metaphorical designation of head given to a king, he answers : " Non est omnino simile inter caput verum et corpus verum, et inter caput mysticuni et corpus mysticum. Caput verum est supra reliquam partem sui corpo- ris, et tamen nego regem esse majoris potestatis quam reliquam par- tem sui regni, &c. Ibid. fol. G2, b. " Rex utilitatem reipublicas dissi- pans et evertens incorrigibilis, est deponendus a communitate cui prajest. Rex non habet robur et auctoritatem nisi a regno cui libere preeest." Ibid. fol. 69, c. Speaking of the excision of a corrupt mem- ber from the human body, in illustration of the treatment of a tyrant, he says : " Cum licentia totius corporis veri tollitur hoc membrum ; etiam facultate totius corporis mystici, tu, tamque minister comitatis, potes hunc tyrannum occidere, dum est licite condempnatus." Tert. Sentent. fol. 139, c, d. Paris. 1517. Note E, p. 23. Concerning the Popish Ordination of Knox. — Some have hesitated to admit that Knox was in priest's orders in the Church of Rome : I think it unquestionable. The fact is attested both by Protestant and Popish writers. Beza says, " Cnoxius, igitur, (ut manifeste appareat totum hoc admirabile Domini opus esse,) ad Joannis illius Majoris, celeberrimi inter Sophistas nominis, veluti pedes in Sanctandreas oppido educatus, atque adeo Sacerdos factus, apertaque celebri schola, quum jam videretur illo suo prfficeptore nihil inferior Sophista futurus, lucem tamen in tenebris et sibi et aliis accendit." Icones Illustr. Viror. Ee. iij. Comp. Spots wood's History, p. 265. Lond. 1677. Ninian Winget, in cer- tain letters sent by him to Knox in the year 1561, says, " Ye renunce andestemis that ordinatioun null or erar wikit, be the quhilk some- tyme ye war callit Schir Johne." And again : " We can persave, be your awin allegiance, na power that ever ye had, except it quhilk was gevin to you in the sacrament of ordination, be auctoritie of priesthed. Q,uhilk auctoritie give ye esteme as nochtis, be reasoun it was gevin to you (as ye speik) by ane Papist Bishope," »&.c. Winzet's Letteris and Tractatis : Keith Append, pp. 212, 213. Winget's drift was to prove, that Knox had no lawful call to the ministry ; consequently, he would not have mentioned his Popish ordination, if the fact had not been well known and undeniable. Nicol Burne, arguing on the same point, allows that Knox had received the order of priesthood from the Rom- ish Church. Disputation concerning the Controversit Headdis of Re- ligion, p. 123. Paris, 1581. And in a scurrilous poem against the min- isters of Scotland, printed at the end of that book, he calls him. that fals apostat priest, Enemie to Christ, and niamiis salvation. Your maister Knox. 373 NOTES. The objection of the Roman Catholics to the legality of oin* Reform- er's vocation, was, that although he had received the power of order, he wanted that of jurisdiction; these two being distinct according to the canon law. " The powere of ordere is not sufficient to ane man to preache, hot he man have also jurisdictione over thanie to whom he preaches. Johann Kmnox resavit never sic jurisdictione fra the Ro- man Kirk to preache in the realme of Scotland ; thalrfoir suppoise he receavit from it the ordere of priestheade, yet he had na pouar to preache nor to lauchfuliie administrat the Sacramentes." Nicol Burne's Disputation, p. 128. Note F, p. 27. dumber of Scottish Monks. — We have no good Mnnasiicon of Scot- land ; and it is now impossible to ascertain the exact number of regu- lar clergy, or even religious houses, that were in this country. The best and most particular account of the introduction of the different monastic orders from England and the Continent, is contained in the first volume of Mr. Chalmers's Caledonia. Dr. Jamieson, in his History of the Ancient Culdees, lately published, has traced, with much atten- tion, the measures pursued for suppressing the ancient monks, to make way for the new orders which were immediately dependent upon Rome. In Spotswood's Account, published at the end of Keith's Cata- logue of Bishops, 170 religious houses are enumerated ; but his account is defective. Mr. Dalyell, upon the authority of a MS., has stated the number of the monks and nuns in this country, as amounting only to 1 1 14, about the period of the Reformation. ' Cursory Remarks prefixed to Scottish Poems of the IGth century, vol. i. pp. 38, 39. Edin. ISOl. Taking tlie number of monasteries according to Spotswood's account, this would allow only seven persons to each house on an average, a number incredibly small. It will be still smaller, if we suppose "that there were 2G0 rehgious houses, as stated by Mr. Dalyell in another publication. Fragments of Scottish History, pp. 11,28. In the year 1542, there were 200 monks in Melrose alone. Ibid. The number in the aljbey of Dunfermline seems to have varied from 30 to 50. Dal- yell's Tract on Monastic Antiquities, p. 13. And Paisley, Elgin, and Arbroath, were not inferior to it in their endowments. In general it may be observed, that the passion for the monastic life appears not to have been on the increase even in the early part of the IGth century. But if we would form an estimate of the number of the monks, we must allow for a great diminution from 1538 to 1559. During that period, many of them, and especially the younger ones, embraced the reformed opinions, and deserted the convents. Cald. MS. i. 97, 100, 151. When the monastery of the Greyfriars at Perth was destroyed in 1559, only eight monks belonged to it. Knox, His- toric, p. 128. Note G, p. 29. Of the Corpse-present. — This was a forced benevolence, not due by any law, or canon of the Church, at least in Scotland. It was demand- ed by the vicar, and seems to have been distinct from the ordinary dues exacted fof the interment of the body, and deliverance of the soul from purgatory. This perquisite consisted, in country parishes, of the best cow which belonged to the deceased, and the uppermost cloth or covering of his bed, or'the finest of his body-clothes. It has been NOTES. 377 suggested, that it was exacted on pretext of dues which the person might have failed to pay during his hfetime. But whatever might afterwards l^e made the pretext, 1 tliinlc it most probable that the clergy borrowed the hint from the perquisites common in feudal times. The " cors-presant kow" answers to the "hereyield horse," which was paid to a landlord on the death of his tenant. The uppermost cloth seems to have been a perquisite belonging to persons occupying different offices. When Bishop Leslie was relieved from the Tower of London, a demand of this kind was made upon him. " The gentleman-porter of the Tower," says he, "retained my satin gown as due to him, because it was my upjyennost-cloth when I entered in the Tower." Negotia- tions, in Anderson's Collections, iii. 247. The corpse-present was not confined to Scotland, We find the English House of Commons complaining of it, in 1530. Fox, 907, edit. 1596. It was exacted with great rigour in Scotland ; and if any vicar, more humane than the rest, passed from the demand, he gave an un- pardonable offence to his brethren. Lindsay of Pitscottie's Hist. p. 151, folio edit. Edin. 1728. Fox, 1153, It was felt as a very galling oppression, and is often mentioned with indignation in the writings of Sir David Lindsay. Schir, be quliat law, tell me quharefor, or why, That ane vickar suld tak fra me three ky ? Ane for iny father, and for my wyfe ane uther, And the third kow he tuke for Maid my mother. Tliey half iia law, exceptand consuetude, Quhilk law to them is sutKcient and gude. ******* And als the vicar, as I trow, He will nocht fail to tak ane kow. And upmaist claith, thocht babis thame ban, From ane pure sehe husbandman; Quhen that he lyis for til de, Having small bairnis twa or thre, And lies thre ky withoutin mo. The vicar must have ane of tho. With the gray cloke that happis the bed, Howbeit that he be pureleye cled ; And gif the wyfe de on the morne, Thocht all the babis suld be forlorne. The uther kow he cliekis away. With hir pure cote of roplock gray; y And gif, within twa days or thre, The eldest chyld happinis to de, Of the third kow he will be sure, Quhen he hes all then under his cure. And father and mother baith ar deid, Beg mon the babis, without remeid. Chalmers's Lindsay, ii. 7, 8, iii. 105. When the alarming progress of the new opinions threatened the overthrow of the whole establishment, the clergy professed their wil- lingness to remit, or at least to moderate this shameful tribute. But they did not make this concession until a remonstrance on the subject was presented by a number of persons who were attached to the Ro- man Catholic faith. This remonstrance was laid before the Provincial Council in 1558 — 9, and contains the following article, which serves to corroborate the strong statement which the poet has given of the rigour of the clergy in extorting these benevolences. " Rem, Because yat ye corps presentes, kow, and finest claith, and the silver commonlie callit the kirk richts, and Pasch offrands, quhilk is taken at Pasch fra men and women for distribution of ye ^^iraments of ye blesslt body and blud of Jesus Christ, were at ye beginning but as offrands and 32 * X2 37S NOTES. gifts, at the discretion and benevolence of the givar only; and now be distance of tyni, ye kirkmen iisis to compell men to ye paying j'arof be authority and jurisdiction, sua that yai will not only fulminat yar sentence of cursing, but als stop and debar men and women to cum to ye rcddy using of ye sacraments of haly kirk, quhile yai be satisfiet 5'arof with all rigor : quhilk thing has na ground of j'e law of God, nor halie kirk, and als is veray sclandrous, and gives occasion to the puir to murmur gretymly againes ye state ecclesiastick lor the doing of ye premissis; and therefore it is thocht expedient yat ane reformation be maid of ye premissis, and that sic things be na mair usit in tymes to cum within this realm, at ye least yat na man be compellit be author- ity of haly kirk to pay ye premissis; but yat it shall onlie remain in the free will of the giver to gif and offir sic things be way of almous, and for uphalding of ye priests and ministers of the halie kirk, as his conscience and charitie moves him to : and quhair ye curatis and min- isters forsaids, has not eneuch of yar sustentation by the saids kirk richts, that ye ordinaries every man within his awin diocesie take order, that the persons and uplifters of ye other deutys perteining to the kirk, contributs to yar sustentation effeirindlie." Wilkins, Concilia Magnae Britannife, tom. iv. p. 208. Upon this, the council came to the following curious resolution on the subject: That to " take away the murmurs of those who spoke against mortuaries," when any person died, his goods, after paying his debts, should be divided into due portions, (debitas partes,) and if the ihiurs part, (defuncti pars) [see Note X] did not exceed ten pounds Scots, the vicar should compound ibr his mortuary and upper- most cloth by taking forty shillings ; if it was under ten pounds, and not below twenty shillings, that he should compound according to the above proportion, (pro rata quadraginta solidorum de decem libris ;) but if it was under twenty shillings, that the vicar should make no de- mand. With respect to barons ajid burgesses, and all persons whose portion exceeded ten pounds, the old custom was to remain in force ; and the ordinary remedy was to be used against those who should make wrong inventories ; /. e. they should be subjected to excommuni- cation and its penalties. With respect to pasch-offerings, and small tithes, the council decreed, that "for avoiding popular murmur, especi- ally at the time of Easter," the vicars should, a little before Lent, in the month of February, settle (or, make an agreement, rationem ineant) with their parishioners for their small tithes, both personal and mixed, and also for other offerings due to the Church (aliis quoque oblation- ibus ecclesifB debitis ;) and that there should be no exactions during Easter, although spontaneous oblations might still be received at that time. Can. Concil. 21. and 32: Wilkins, Concil. ut su2)ra, pp. 2J4, 216. It appears from this, how very cautious the clergy were in their plans of reform, and how eagerly they clung to the most illegal and invidious claims, at the very Ume when they were in the utmost dan- ger of being deprived of all their usurped prerogatives and possessions. Lord Hailes's words need explication, when he says, that " the 32d canon [of this council] abolishes oblations at Easter." Provincial Councils, p. 40. I need scarcely add, that all these exactions were abolished at the establishment of the Reformation. " The uppermost claith, corps- present, clerk maile, the pasche-ofTering, teind-aile, and all handlings upaland, can neither be required nor received of good conscience." First Book of Discipline, p. 4S. Printed anno 1G2L Dunlop's Confes- sions, ii. 563. % NOTES. 379 Note H, p. 34. Scoilish Martyrs, and Prosecutions for Heresy. — We are indebted to John Fox, the industrious English martyrologist, for a great part of the facts respecting our countrymen who suffered for the reformed doctrine. John Davidson, minister of Prestonpans, composed, in La- tin, an account of Scottish Martyrs, wliich, if it had been preserved, would have furnished us with more full information respecting them. Calderwood, however, had the use of it, when he compiled his history. A late author has said, that " most of those martyred seem to have been weak illiterate men ; nay, they appear even to have been defi- cient in intellect." Cursory Remarks, prefixed to Scottish Poems of IGth century, i. 24. I must take it for granted, that this author had not in his eye Patrick Hamilton, whose vigorous understanding dis- covered truth in the midst of darkness worse than Cimmerian, who obtained the praises of Luther, Melancthon, and Lambert of Avignon, and of whom a modern historian has said, that he received "the eter- nal fame of being the proto-raartyr of the freedom of the human mind." Nor George Wishart, whose learning, fortitude, and mild benevolence, have been celebrated by writers of every description. But even among those who suffered, from Hamilton to Wishart, there was scarcely one who was not above the ordinary class, both as to talents and learning. Henry Forrest, who suffered at St Andrews in 1530, for possessing a copy of the New Testament, and affirming that Patrick Hamilton \vas a true martyr, had been, though a young man, invested with the orders of Bennet and Colet. Fox, 895. Knox, 19. Spots wood, 65. David Straiton was a gentleman, and brother to the Laird of Lauris- ton. He was instructed in the Protestant principles by John Erskine of Dun, who had. newly arrived from his travels. In 1534, he was committed to the flames at Greenside, in the neighbourhood of Edin- burgh. His fellow-sufferer, Norman Gourlay, was in secular orders, and "a man of reasonabell eruditioun." He had been abroad, and had married upon his return, which was the chief offence for which he suffered. "For," says Pitscottie, "they would thole no priest to marry, but they would punish, and burn him to the dead; but if he had used then ten thousand whores, he had not been burnt." His- tory, pp. 150, 1.52. Fox, 896. Knox, 21, 22. Spotswood, 66. In 1533, two young men of the most interesting characters suffered, with the greatest heroism, at Glasgow. The one was Jerom Russel, a cor- delier friar, "a young man of a meek nature, quick spirit, and of good letteris ;" tlie other was a young gentleman of the name of Kennedy, only eighteen years of age, and " of excellent ingyne for Scottische poetry." Knox, 22. Spotsw. 67. Keith, 9. During'the same year, five persons were burnt on the Castle Hill of Edinburgh: Robert Forrester was a gentleman ; Sir Duncan Simson was a secular priest ; Beveridge and Kyllor were friars. The last of these had (according to the cus- tom of the times) composed a tragedy on the crucifixion of Christ, in which he painted, in a very lively manner, the conduct of the Popish clergy, under that of the priests. Ibid. The other person who suffered at that time was Thomas Forrest, commonly called the Vicar of Dollar. I shall add some particulars respecting this excellent man, which are not to be found in the com- mon histories. He was of the house of Forret, or Forest, in Fife, and his father had been master-stabler to James IV. After acquiring the rudiments of grammar in Scotland, he was sent abroad by the kind- ness of a noblewoman, and prosecuted his education at Cologne. Re- 380 NOTES. turning to his native country, he was admitted a canon regular in the monastery of St Colni's Inch. It happened that a dispute arose be- tween the al^bot and the canons, respecting the allowance due to them, and the latter got the boolv of foundation to examine into their rights. With the view of inducing them to part with it, the abbot gave them a volume of Augustine's works, wliich was in the monastery. " Oh, happy and blessed was that book to me," did Forrest often say, " by which I came to the knowledge of the truth !" Having applied himself to the reading of the scriptures, he was the means of conver- ting a number of the young canons : " but the old bottles," he used to say, " would not receive the new wine." The abbot frequently ad- vised him to keep his mind to himself, else he would incur punishment. " I thank you, my lord," was his answer, " ye are a friend to my body, but not to my soul " He was afterwards admitted to the vicarage of Dollar, in which situation he rendered himself obnoxious to his breth- ren, by his diligence in instructing his parish, and his benevolence in freeing them from oppressive exactions. When the agents of the pope came into his bounds to sell indulgences, he said, " Parishioners, I am bound to speak the truth to you ; this is but to deceive you. There is no pardon for our sins that can come to us, either from pope or any other, but only by the blood of Christ." He composed a short cate- chism. It was his custom to rise at six o'clock in the morning, and study till mid-day. He committed three chapters of the Bible to'mem- ory every day, and made his servant hear him repeat them at night. He was often summoned before the Bishops of Dunkeld and St And- drews. These facts were communicated by his servant Andrew Kirkie, in a letter to John Davidson, who inserted them in his account of Scottish martyrs. Cald. MS. i. 99, 100, 151. An amusing account of the vicar's examination before the Bishop of Dunkeld maybe seen in Fox, 1153 ; and an interesting account of his trial, in Pitscottie, 150 — 152. But both these authors are wrong as to the time of his martyrdom, the latter placing it in 1530, and thefor- mer in 1540, instead of 1538. Fox says, that three or four men of Stirling sufiered death at the same time, because they were present at the marriage of " the vicar of Twybode, [Tullybody,] near Stirling, and did eat flesh in Lent, at the said bridal." P. 1154. In consequence of a more diligent search into our ancient records, made since the former editions of this work appeared, I have discov- ered a number of additional facts respecting those who suffered for the reformed opinions in Scotland. I think it best to give these in the form, and in the order, in which they occur in the several records that I have consulted. It appears that the prosecutions for heresy from 1534 to 1540 were numerous. How many poor persons suffered during that period it is impossible to ascertain, as the names of those only who possessed property have a place in the documents to be quoted. •The following extracts are taken from the books kept by the lord treasurer, and preserved in the Register House, under the title of "Compot. Thesaur." The dates will be sufficient to guide those who wish to consult the original document.* Anno 1534. Item, for 16 sergis to thame to turss that was accusit of heresy lOs.Sd. Item, (Sept. 1536.) to James Bissat, mr. to pas with lettres to the * In nn parly part of the Record, is the followins; cntr\' : — Item, the l'2th of November. (151G,) to Margaret Cornewle for i buk takin fra her and gcven to my 1. of Sanct Andros, 33/. NOTES. 3S1 provost and bailies of Dunde and Sanct Jolinestoun to serche and seik John Biacat and George Lowett [Lovell .'] suspect of hanging of the image of Sanct Francis, and to his wage . . . 20s. Item, 28. (May, 1537.) to Cudde George, mr, to pas to summon the men of Aire, to compeir befoir the Lordis, anent the geir of theme quliillc was convict of heresy 205. Annis 1537, 1538. Et (onerat se) de 41. integre compositionis bonorum eschaetorum quondam Andres Alexandersoun, justificat. pro crimine heresis. Et de 14/. 6s. Sd. integre compositionis bonorum eschaetorum Gil- berti Wedderburne, et Johannis Patersoun, burgen. de Dunde, perti- nent, domino Regi, ratione quod ipsi convicti fuerint per judicium ecclesiffi, de crimine heresis eiisd. vendit. Annis 1538, 1539. Et (onerat se) de 10/. in completam solutionem compositionis bonorum eschaetorum Thome Kyd, Roberti Patersone, Alexandri Wannand, et Johannis Patersone, commoran. in oppido de Dunde, abiurat. de certis criminibus heresies eisdem concess. de mandato domini regis. Et de 6/. 13^. 4(1. in completam solutionem bonorum eschaetorum quondam domini Duncani Symsone capellani condemnati et ad mortem justificati pro certis criminibus hex'esios concess. Jacobo Menteith. Et de 20/. in completam solutionem compositionis vnius tenement! jacen. infra burgum de Dunde, pertinen. domino Regi per decessum David Straitoun in Q,uhitstoun, justificati ad mortem pro certis crimi- nibus heresios concess. Dauid Game et Mariote Erskyn. Et de 6/. I OS. 4d. in completam solutionem compositionis bonorum eschaetorum Roberti Cant, abiurati de certis criminibus heresios concess. dicto Roberto. Et de 20/. in completam solutionem compositionis bonorum eschae- torum Walteri Cowsland, burgensis de Striueling, abiurati de simili- bus criminibus concess. dicto Waltero. Et de 3/. in completam solutionem compositionis bonorum eschae- torum Johannis Robesone, pauperis, abiurati certis criminibus heresios eidem concess. Et de 20/. in completam solutionem compositionis unius partis bono- rum eschaetorum Jacobi Rollok, burgensis de Dunde, condainpnati de certis criminibus heresios concess. David Rollok, eius fratri. Et de 40,?. in completam solutionem compositionis bonorum eschae- torum magistri Johannis Wedderburn, convict, de certis criminibus heresios concess. Henrico Wedderburn eius fratri. Et de, &.C. Margarete Jamesone in Tulybod)"-, condampnate de certis criminibus heresios concess. Jacobo Murray, servitori domini regis. Et de, &c. Henrici Carnys, incole de Leith, fugitiui et condamp- nati de certis criminibus heresios concess. uxori et prolibus eiusdem de mandato domini Regis. Et de, &c. Willielmi Clerk fugitiui et condampnati de certis crimi- nibus heresios concess. Alexro. Urrok de Sillebanke. Et de, &c. Willielmi Foster abiurati de certis criminibus heresios concess. Johanni Cowane et Jonete Tenand, eius sponse. Item, idem onerat se de 40/. in completam solutionem compositionis bonorum eschaetorum domini Thome Coklaw, curati de Tulybody, condampnati de certis criminibus heresios concess. Jacobo Murray, seruitori domini regis. Marche (1533-9.) Item, deliuerit to Archibald Heriot, messinger, to pass and serche thair gudis, quhilkis war obiurit and declarit heri- tikis in Edinburt and Striueling Qs. 382 NOTES. Item, denuerit to Johnne Patersone Pursevant — to pass to Dnnde, and serche James RoIIokis gudis, and Maistei* Johnne Wedder- burn 20s. Annis 1539, 1540. (Non onerat se, &c.) Nee de 10^. in completam solutionem composifionis bonorum eschaetorum magistri Henrici Henderson convict, de crimine heresios ab antiqiio concess. Jacobo Rannattyne, ex eo quod dominus rex remisit eandem summam dicto Jacobo, in compensatione suorum laborum in officio thesaurarie. Anno 1542-3. Item, the 21st day of Marche, geven to William Champney, messinger, passand with lettres to proclame the act anent the having of the New Testament in Inglis in the Westland 40s. Similar letters to the Magistrates of Dundee, Aberdeen, Elgin, For- res, and Inverness ; and to Lanark, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Wigton. Item, the 23th day of Marche, geven to Johnne Cob, messinger, passand to Dumfermeling and Perth, to proclame twa letteris tuiching the having of the Scripture in Inglis, and with ane clois writting to the erle of Argyle 22^. Item, the 2Uth day of Februar, gevin to Carrick pursuivant, passand with lettres to proclame in Sanctandrois and Cowper the act tuiching the doing of devyne service, and lettres raisit thereupon . 22s. Annis 1543-1546. Et (onerat se) de 2001. compositionis bonorum eschaetorum Jacobi Huncan et Roberti Cant, convict, pro disputa- tione in Sacris Scripturis contra tenorem acti parliamenti, concess. Cristine Pipar. ■ Willielmi Anderson convict, ut supra ob causam suprascriptam, concess. Cristine Kerss, sponse dicti Willielmi. Et de 200/. compositionis remissionis concess. Johanni Elder,* bur- gensi de Perth, pro disputatione in Sacris Scripturis contra tenorem acti parliamenti. Et de 40/. compositionis remissionis concess. Laurencio Pillour, pro predicta causa.* Item, the 12th day of Januar 1543-4, after the aggreance maid be- twixt my lord governour and the saidis lordis, convenit in Leith, aganis his grace ^yrit liiij cart hors quhilk past agane to Striviling with the said artalze, and fra Striviling to Sanct Johnstoun, Dunde, for punissing of certane hereticks within the said townes, and paid the saidis hors eight days wages, &c. January 20. At my lord governoris departing toward Sanct John- estoun, for punishment as said is. Item, (16 March 1545-6,) to summons the laird of Ormistoun to underly the law in Edinburgh, the 12th day of Aprile nixt to cum, for resetting of Maister George Wischeart, he being at the home, &c. and for breaking ward. Item, 28th May, (154G,) to ane boy to pas to my lord Argyle with ane closit writting of my lord governours, to shew the slaughtar of the Cardinal 8s. November 24, 1546. For copying of the gret cui'sing raisit upon Normond Leslie, laird of Grange, and their complices, for the slauchter of my lord Cardinal], quhilk copie was sent to thame in the castell 55. December. For summonding Jonet Monnypennie, dochter of the laird of Pitmilly, for remaining in the castle, and assisting Leslie and his complices. December 1548. Summons of treason against the laird of Pitmilly, and Mr. Henry Balnaves. January 1551-2. Item, for the Inglis bukis to my lord governour * Comp. Knox, Historie, p. 40. NOTES. 3S3 viz. ane perraphrasis upoun the Evangelistis, and ane New Testament, and Hopper on the ten Commandementes . . . 3/. 15^. The extracts which follow are from the Register of Privy Seal, and contain grants of property which had been confiscated by sentences of the ecclesiastical courts for heresy, but which was afterwards be- stowed on certain individuals upon their paying a composition to the royal treasury. Ane letter maid to Andro, lord Vchiltre, of the gift of all eschete gudis movabill and vnmovabill, als wele of the byrun malis of parroche clerkschippis, as vtherwais pertenyng to vmqll Walter Stewart, sone to the said lord, and pertenis to our souerane lord, be resoun that the said Walter was abiurit of heresy, etc. At Linlithgow, the 29th day of December, the yeir of God 1537 yeris 201. [Reg. Sec. Sigilli, lib. xi. f 51.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to James Annand, George Annand, Robert Ander- soun, Johnne Flescheour, and Alexander Flescheour, burges of Dunde, makand mentioun that thai ar convict be ane sentence of the spirituale juge of heresy, of the quhilk thai wer dilatit and abiurit, quharthrow all thare gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, pertenis, and suld pertene, to our souei-ane lord, be resoun of eschete. And for thair gude, trew, and thankfull seruice, done be thame to his hienes, and compsitioun pait be thame to his thesaurer, his grace hes remittit and forgevin to thame the eschete of all thair gudis, movabill and vnmova- bill, and hes quitclamit and discliargit thaim thairof, and all that may follow thairvpoun, foreuer. And als his grace, of his speciale grace, autorite riall and kinglie power, hes rehabilit the saidis personis to stand in prief and witness, and to vse and exerce all lefull dedis in jugement, and outwith siclik and als frelie in all thingis, as thai myt haue done befor the tyme that thai wer convict of the said heresy, and incurrit thairthrow notam infamie. And hes restorit, reponit, and reintegrate thame to thare gude fame, heritage, landis, gudis, and warldie honouris, in all, and be all thingis, as thai wer befor the tyme thai wer convict of the said heresy, without ony reproche, murmur, detractioun, or blasphematioun, to be maid, said, or done to thame thairthrow, in word or deid, in onywys in tyme coming, &c. At Edinburgh, the 17th day of July, the yer of God 1533 yeris, lOOZ. Lib. xii. f. 23.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Dauid Wod, in the craig, his airis and assignais, of the gift of all gudis, movable and vnmovable, quhilkis pertenit to James Hay, burges of Dunde. And now ar decernit be ane sentence of the spirituale juge, to pertene to our souerane lord be resoun of eschete for heresy, of the quhilk he wes dilatit, &c. At Edinburgh, 27th day of July, the yeire of God forsaid (1538.) [Lib. xii. f 3.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Maister Laurence Young, his airis and assignais, ane or ma, of the gift of all gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, qlkis per- tenit to vmqll Andro Alexandersoun, and now pertenyng to our sou- erane lord be resoun of eschete, throw being of the said vmqle Andro convict of heresy, and justifyit to the deid for the samyn, with power, &.C. At Stirlino;, the 23d day of August, the yeir of God 1538 yeris 41. [Lib. xii. f 19.] Ane letter maid to Gilbei't Wedderburn, and Johne Patersoun, bur- gesses of Dunde, in forme aboue writtin, &c. At Linlithgow, the 8th day of September, the yer forsaid. 13/. 6s. 8d. [Lib. xii. f 23.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Richart Rollok, burges of Dunde, in forme follow- ing: James be the grace of God king of Scottis, to all and sindry our 384 NOTES. ofRclaris, liegis, and subditis, quham it efferis, quhais knawlege thir our letters sal cum, greting. fforsamekle as Richart Rollok, burges of our burgh of Dunde, wes dilatit of certane poyntis of heresy, and was abiurit and convict throf, quharthrow all his landis and gudis, &c. &c. [as above,] in tyme cuming. Q,u]iarfore we charge straitlie, and com- mandis you, all and sindry our officiaris, liegis, and subditis fbi'saidis, tliat nane of you tak apoun hand to do or attempt ony thing in contrar, violatioun, or breking of this our remit, and discharge, rehabilitatioun, restitutioun, and reintegratioun, in ony wyse in tyme cuming, vnder all the hieast pane, charge, and offence, that ye, and ilk. ane of you, may committ and inrin aganis our maiestie in that part, dischargeing you, all our officiaris present and tocum, of all intrometting, poynding, dis- trinyeing, and vptaking of the said Richartis gudis, as our eschete for the causs forsaid, and of your offices in that part, be thir our letteris for euer. Subscriuit with our hand, and vnder our priue sele, at Abirbrothok, the 13th day of October, the yere of God 1538 yeris. [Lib. xii. f 33, b.] Subscript per Regem, Ane letter maid to Thomas Kyd, Robert Patersoun, Alexander Van- nand, and Johne Duncane, burges of Dunde, in forme of the letter befor writtin, &c. At Linlithgow, the last day of September, the yer of God 1538 yeris. 10/. [Lib. xii. f. 33.] PeV Signaturam. Ane letter maid to maister Johne Porterfeild, his airis and assignais, ane or ma, of the gift of all gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, als weile of the birun proffittis of parroche-clerkschippis, as vtheris quhilkis per- tenit to vmqll Walter Stewart, sone to Andro, lord Vchiltre, and throw his abiuratioun of heresy, pertenyng to our souerane lord be resoun of eschete, &c. At Edinburgh, the loth day of December, the yeire of God 1538 yeris. [Lib. xiii. f. 18.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to the said James (Murray,) his airis and assignais, ane or ma, of the gift of the gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, quhilkis pertenit to Sr. Thomas Coklaw, curat of Tulibody, and now to our souerane lord, throw being of the said Sr. Thomas abiurit of heresy, &c. At Linlithgow, the 17th day of Januar, the yer of God 1538 yeris. 40/. [Lib. xii. f. 94.] Per Signaturam. Presentatio Alexandri Scott, super prebenda capelle regie Striuilin- gen. nuncupat. are quam Dominus Johannes Lambert prius habuit nunc vacan. ob inhabilitatem, ipsius Domini Johannis, ex eo quod ipse de suis ordinibus, sacerdotalibus, degradatus, extitit ad presenta- tionem domini regis, et collationem episcopi Candidecase et capelle regie pleno jure spectan. &c. Apud Edinburgh, vltimo Februarij, anno predict (1538.) [lb. f 71.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to James Menteith, his airis and assignais, of the gift of the eschete of all gudis, quhilkis pertenit to vmqll Sir Duncan Symsoun, chaplane, and pertenyng to our souerane lord be resoun of eschete, throw justifying of the said Sr. Duncane to the deid for cer- tane crymes of heresy, imjiut to him, &c. At Edinburgh, the first day of Marche, the yer forsaid (1538.) 6/. Ids. M. except takis and sted- ingis. [Lib. xii. f. 76.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Robert Cant, burges of Edinburgh, of the gift of Ills avne eschete guidis pertenyng to the king be resoun forsaid, &c. At Linlithgow, the 6th day of Marche, the yer forsaid (1538.) 6/. 13;?. 4d. [lb. f 80.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Walter Cowsland, burges of Striuiling, of the gift of his avne gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, pertening to the kingis grace be resoun of eschete throw being of the said Robert abiurit of heresy, &c. At Linlithgow, the aucht day of Marche, the yer forsaid (1538.) [lb. f 80.] Per Signaturam. Preceptum carte Davidis Gardin, burgen. de Dunde, et Mariote NOTES. 385 Erskin, sue sponse super toto et integro illo tenemento, cum pertinen. jacen. infra predictum burgum, ex parte boreali vici vulgo Murray gait eiusdem nuncupat. inter terras lieredum quondam Joliannis Barie ex parte oriental! et terras heredum quondam Roberti Ramsay ex occidentali. Quodquidem terre tenementum quondam Dauid Stratoun perprius hereditarie pertinuit et nunc Regi pertinet ratione eschaete ob tieresis punctus per ipsum commiss. de quibus accusatus et ad mortem justiticatus extitit, &c. Apud Linlithgow, decimo die mensis Martij, anno domini 1538. [Lib. xiii. f. 26.] Per Signetura. Ane letter maid to Martyne Ballesky, renunceand to him the eschete of ail his giulis, movabill and vnmovabill, and quitclamand and dis- chargeand him thairof, pertening to our souerane lord throw cumin in will of the said Martyne befor the justice, for breking of our soue- rane lordis proclamatioun, in having and vsing, efter the making thairof, of certane Inalis bukis contenit in the samyn, &c. At Linlith- gow, the 12th day of Marche, the yer forsaid (1538.) 2501. [Lib. xii. f. 8L] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Maister James Foulis of Colintoun, clerk of register, his airis and assignais, ane or ma, of the gift of all and sindry the gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, landis, rentis, possessionis, rever- sionis, dettis, obligationis, and contractis, with the advocatioun and donatioun of the chaplanrie foundit at Sanct Francis altar, within the college kirk of Sanct Gele, in Edinburgh, with all richt of the patron- age thairof, and all vther richtis quhatsumever quhilkis pertenit to Johne Broun, burges of Edinburgh, and now pertenis to our souerane lord, be resoun of eschete throw being of the said Johne dilatit, accu- sit, and abiurit of certane crymes and poyntis of heresy, as in the pro- ces and sentence led, deducit, and gevin aganis him thairupon at mair lenth, is contenit, with power, &c. At Linlithgow, the 13th day of Marche, the yeire of God 1538 yeiris, 100/. [lb. f. 83.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Andro Cunnynghame, sone to Wiltiam Cun- nynghame, knyt, maister of Glencarne, amittand and forgevand to the said Andro his eschete goods, movabill and vnmovabill, pertenying to our souerane lord, be resoun of eschete throw being of the said Andro abiurit of heresy before the spirituale juge, as the sentence gevin thairupoun beris, &c. At Linlithgow, the 15th day of Marche, the yer of God, 1538. [Lib. xiii. f 3. b.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Dauid Rollok, burges of Dunde, his airis and assignais, ane or ma, of the gift of the eschete of all gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, heretages, dettis, takkis, stedingis, cornis, cattale, money, gold, siluer, jowellis, and vtheris quhatsumever quhilkis per- tenit to James Rollok, burges of the said burgh, except the said James part of ane wynd-myln Hand within Dunde and now pertening to our souerane lord, be resoun of eschete throw being of the said James fugity ve fra the law for certane poyntis of heresy imput to him, &c. At Linlithgow, the 22d day of Marche, the yer forsaid (1533.) 20/. [Lib. xii. f.87, b.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Johnne Cowane, burges of Striueling, and Jonet Tennent, his spoils, thare airis and assignais, ane or ma, of the gift of all gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, landis, heretages, cornis, catale, tak- kis, stedingis, dettis, obligationis, jowellis, sovmes of money, and vtheris quhatsumever quhilkis pertenit to William Forester, sone and apper- and are to Johne Forester, burges of the said burgh, and now per- tenying to our souerane lord, be resoun of eschete throw abiuration of the said William for certane poyntis of heresy confessit be him in jugement, &c. At Linlithgow, the 24th day of Marche, the yer of God 1538 yeris. 9/. [Lib. xiii. f 40.] Per Signaturam. Preceptum carte Johannis Domini Erskin super vna dome cum per- 33 Y2 386 NOTES. tinen. jacen. ex parte australi vici public! burgi de Striueling inter vinellam pretorij eiusdem ex parte onentali etc. Q,uequidein domus quondam Roberto Forester perprius hereditarie pertinuit, et nunc regi pertinet ratione eschaete ob nojinulla heresis crimina per dictum quondam Robertum commiss., etc. Apud Linlithgow 24to die mensis Martij, anno, &c. 1538. [Lib. xiii. f. M.] Per Signetum. Ane letter maid to Richard Carmicliaell, remittand to him his eschete gudis pertenying to our souerane, throw being of the said Richard abiurit of heresy, &c. At Linlithgow, the 25th day of Marche, the yer of God 1539 yeris. [Lib. xii. f. 87.] Per signaturam. Ane letter maid to Walter Scrymgeour of Glaswell his airis and assignais, ane or ma, of the gift of all and haile the takkis and asseda- tionis quhilkis James Rollok, burges of Dunde, had of the common myln and wynd-myln of the said burgh of Dunde, now fallin and cumin into our souerane lordis handis, be resoun of eschete for cer- tane crymes of heresis committit be the said James, and he adjugit and condamnit thairintill, as the process led thairupon at mair lenth pro- portis, with power, &c. At Linlithgow, the 28th day of Marche, the yeir fbrsaid (1539.) [Lib. xii. f 93.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to James Murraj'-, maister of aile seller, his airis and assignais, ane or ma, of the gift of all gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, dettis, takkis, stedingis, sovmes of money, and vtheris quhatsumever, quhilkis pertenit to Margarete Jamesoun in Tulibody, and now per- tenying, or ony wis sail happin or may pertene to our souerane lord, be resoun of eschete, throw non fultilling of ceiiane pennance ordanit to be done be hir be the ordinar, for certane crymes of heresy com- mittit be hir, of the quhilkis scho wes convict in jugement, &c. At Stirling, the aucht day of April], the yer forsaid (1539.) 61. 13s. 4c?. [Lib. xii. f 93.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Charlis, James, Robert, George, Johnne, Andro, Archibald, Helene, Margai-et, Elizabeth, Isabell, and Agnes Carnis, sonis and dochteris to Henry Carnis in Leith, yair airis and assignais, ane or ma, off the gift of all gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, dettis, takkis, schip, obligationis, sovmes of money, and vtheris gudis quhat- sumever quhilkis pertenit to the said Henry, and now decernit to per- tene to our souerane lord, be resoun of eschete for heresy, of the quhilk the said Henry was abiurit be ane sentence gevin be the spirit- uale ju2;e aganis him for the samyn, &c. At Stii'Iinff, the 8th day of Aprilc^the yer forsaid (1539.) 10/. I2s. [Lib. xii. f. 94.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Alexander Orrok of Silliebawke, his airis and assignais, of the gift of all gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, cornis, cat- ale, dettis, takkis, stedingis, money, gold, siluer, and vtheris gudis qu- hatsumever quhilkis pertenit to William Clerk, clerk of the schip callit the Barge, and now pertenying to our souerane lord, be resoun of eschete throw beintr of the said William convict of heresy, &,c. At Stirling, the 8th day of Aprile, the yeire forsaid (1539.) 10/. [Lib. xii. f 94.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to James Lovell, of the gift of his awne eschete gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, pertenying to our souerane lord throw being of the said James abiurit of heresy, &c. At Sanctandros, the 11th day of May, the yer forsaid (1539.) [Lib. xiii. f 4.] Ane letter maid to Johnne Henry, his airis and assignais, ane or ma, of tlie gift of all gudis, movabill and vnmovabill, quhilkis pertenit to Johnne Cameroun^ burges of Perth, and now pertening to our soue- rane lord, be resoun of eschete throw being of the said johne declarit heretyke, etc. At Sanctandros, the 26th day of May, ye yer fnrsaid (1539!) [Lib. xiii. f. 26.] Per Signaturam. NOTES. 387 Ane letter maid to Johne Stewart, sone to Henry, Lord Methven, rehabilland him to stand in preif and witness, and to exerce all lefull dedis in jugement, and outwitii, and als frelie, in all thingis as he m5't have done befor tlie tyme he was convict of heresy, etc. At Edin- burgh, the 22d day of Februare, the yerforsaid (1539.) [Lib. xiii. f 65, b.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Oliuer Sinclar and his assignais, ane or maa, of the gift of all gudis, movable and vnmovable, dettis, takkis, obliga- tionis, sovmes of money, and vtheris gudis quhatsumever quhilkis per- tenit to Sir David Huchesone, prouest of Rosling, and now pertening, or ony wise sal happin or may pertene to ws, throw being of the said Sir Dauid abiurit of certane poyntis of heresy, of the quhilkis he was dilatit, and ane sentence of the spirituale juge gevin aganis him thair- upoun, as the same proportis, with power to the said Oliuer and his assignais, ane or maa, to intromet and tak vp ye saidis eschete gudis, etc. At Edinburt the 13th day of August, the yer foirsaid (1540.) [Lib. xiv. f 8, b.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid to Maister Williame Arthur, citinare of Sanctan- dross, his airis and assignais, of the gift of the escheit of all gudis, movable and vnmovable, dettis, takkis, steiddingis, rowmes, posses- sions, teyndis, cornis, catale, actiones, obligationis, sowmes of money, and vtheris gudis quhatsumevir, quhilkis pertenit to George Wyn- chister, cietinar of the said ciete, and now pertening to oure souerane lady, and being in hir hienes handis be resoun of escheit throw the said Georgeis noncomperance before ane maist reverand fader in God, Johnne, Archbishop of Sanctandros, his juge ordner, to half vnderlyne the law for certane crymes of herisie quhairof he was dilaittit and con- vict of the samyn, and yairfore declarit heretick, as at mair length is contenit in the sentence and proces led and gevin aganis him thair- vpone, with powar, &c. At Edinburh. the 14th day of September, the yeir of God, ane thousand, fyve hundreith, and fyfty yeiris. [Lib. xxiv. f 24, b.] Per Signaturam. Ane letter maid, makand mentioun. That yair was ane pretendit sentence of auld gevin againis Johnne Boirthwikt of Ciueray, knyt, declaring him to be ane allegit heretike, as the said sentence beiris, quhilk was gevin aganis him in his absence, without ony defence maid be him, and he yairby allegit to be depriuit of all honour, and dis- possessit of all his landes, rowmes, and possessionis ; Nochttlieles, oure .souerane lady, of hir auctorite royal, speciall grace, and fauour, rehab- illis the said Johnne, and restoiris him to all his landis, heretages, takkis, stedingis, rowmes, and possessionis, and to all and sindrie his gudis, movable and vnmovable, quhatsumevir, and to his honour, fame, and dignitie ; and reponis him agane in the same estait he was in befoir the leding and deducing of the said pretendit sentence aganis him, sua that he "may peaceabillie brouk, jo3's, occupy, labour, and manure his landis, rowmes, takis, stedingis, and possessionis, intro- met and vptak the mails, fermes, proffittis, and dewiteis yairof, off all yeiris and termes bigane, restand vnpayit sin the geving and dedu- ceing of the said pretendit sentence aganis him, and gif neid be, to convene, call, follow, and persew the detenaris yairof, befoir quhat- sumeuir juge or jugeis, spirituale or temporale, vnto the finall end and recovering of the samin vpoun yame, and to stand in jugement, beir witnes, and frelie vse and exerce all manner of offices or vther publict efferis in hir common -weill, in jugement, and outwith, and joys and brouk siclike priuilegeis as he did, or m5^t have done, befoir the leding and deduceing of the said pretendit proces aganis him, siclike as the samyn had neuer bene gevin or pronunceit, &c. With inhibitioun in the samyn to all and sindrie our gouerane lady's liegis and subdittis 388 NOTES. baith spiritual! and temporal!, of quliatsumeuir anctoritie or dignitie yai be of, that iiane of thame tak vpoun hand to molest, truble, or in- vaid the said Johnne in his person, fame, landis, gudis, or possessionis, for quhatsumevir caus or actioun bigane ; or to detract, ba!cbyte, sclander, or defame him, in ony manner of way, vnder all hieast pane, and charge, and oflence. That thai and ilk ane of thame may commit and inryn aganis her maiestie, in that parte, &c. At Sanctandrois, the last day of Februare, the yeir of God 1562 yeiris. [Lib. xxxi. f 79, b.] Per Signaturam.* Ane letter maid makand mention that thair wes ane pretendit sei> tence gevin and pronunceit againis James Hamiltoun of Kincavill, of lang tyme begane in his absence, for null defence, declaring him to be ane allegeit heretike, as the pretendit sentence gevin thairupone buir ; be the quhilk, he was allegit to be depryvit of all honoure, fame, and dignitie, and dispossessit of all his landis, heretages, rowmes, posses- sionis, teyndis, and vtheris pertening to him, quhilk pretended de- crete and sentence the said James hes gotten retretit and reducit, with all that followith thairupoune: Thairfore oure said souerane ladie, of her auetorite royall, speciale grace and favoiu-e, rehabillis the said James, and restoris him to all his landis, &c. [in similar terms with the preceding.] At Edinburgh, the lift day of Merche, the )^eir of God, 1563 yeris. [Lib. xxxi. f. 35, b.] Per Signaturam. Note I, p. 34. Protestant Exiles from Scotland. — I have not reckoned it necessary to insert in this work those particulars respecting Scottish refoi'mers before Patrick Hamilton, which have been repeatedly published in the Life of Andrew Melville. The reader may consult vol. i. pp. 8, 418 — 421 of the second edition, of that work. In this note, I shall state a few facts respecting those eminent men who were obliged to forsake their native country subsequently to Hamilton's martyrdom, in conse- quence of having expressed sentiments favourable to the Refor- mation, Gawin Logie, who, in his important stationof rector of St Leonard's College, was so useful in spreading the reformed doctrine, drew upon himself the jealousy of the clergy. More decided in his sentiments, and more avowed in his censure of the prevailing abuses, than the sub-prior of the abbey, (who maintained his situation until the estab- lishment of the Reformation,) Logie found it necessary to consult his safety by leaving the country in 1533. Cald. MS. i. 82. I have not seen anj^ notice of him after this. Robert Logie, a kinsman of Gawin, was a canon regular of Camlniskenneth, and employed in instructing the novices. Having embraced the reformed sentiments, he, in 153S, fled into England, and became a preacher there. Thomas Cocklaw, parish priest of Tullibody, seems to have accompanied him, and was also employed as a preacher in England. Ibid. p. 97. Alexander Seaton was confessor to James V. The cause of his flight from Scotland, his letter to the King, and his retiring to Eng- land, are recorded in our common histories. Fox (p. 1000) informs us that he was accused of heresy before Gardiner, bishop of Winches- ter, in 1541, and induced to recant certain articles which he had preached. Spotswood (p. G5) speaks of " the treatises he left behind him," and, among othei-s, his " Examination by Gardiner and Bon- ner," from whichit appears that " he never denied any point which * Comp. Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. i. p. 253 — 263. NOTES. 389 formerly he taught." Fox had not seen this. We learn from another quarter, that, -after his trial, he continued to preach the truths for which he had been accused. Bale says that he died in 1542, in the family of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, who retained him as his chaplain. Script. Brytan. Post. Pars. p. 224. Alexander Aless was a canon of the metropolitan church of St An- drews. His conversion to the Protestant faith was very singular. Being a young man of quick parts, and well versed in scholastic the- ology, and having studied the Lutheran controversy, he undertook to reclaim Patrick Hamilton from heresy, and held several conferen- ces with him for this purpose. But, instead of making a convert of Hamilton, he was himself staggered by the reasoning of that gentle- man. His doubts were greatly strengthened by the constancy v.'ith which he saw the martyr adhere to his sentiments to the last, amidst the scorn, rage, and cruelty of his enemies. Alesii Prasfat. Comment, in Joannem: Jacobi Thomasii Orationes, pp. 307, 303. Lipsice 1737. Bayle, Dictionnaire, Art. Ales. A sliort time after this, he delivered a Latin oration before an ecclesiastical synod, in which he censured the vices of the clergy, and exhorted them to diligence and a godly life. This was enough to bring him under the suspicion of heresy, and he was thrown into prison, from which after a year's confinement, he made his escape, and, getting into a vessel which lay on the coast, eluded his persecutors. He'escaped in 1532. Cald. MS. i. 76. On leaving his native country, Aless went to Germany, where he was virulently attacked by Cochlseus, whom the Scots bishops hired to abuse him.* On the invitation of Lord Cromwell and Archbishop Cranmer, he came to England in 1535, and was appointed Professor of Theology in the university of Cambridge. But he had scarcely commenced his lectures, when the Patrons of Popery excited such opposition to him that he resolved to rehnquish his situation. Having, at a former period of his life, applied to medical studies, he went to Dr. Nicol a celebrated physician in London, and, after remaining with him for some years, commenced practice, not without success. In 1537, Lord Cromwell having met him one day accidentally on the street, carried him to the convocation, and persuaded him to engage without preparation, in a dispute with the bishop of London on the subject of the sacraments ; of which Aless has given a particular ac- count in one of his publications. De Authoritate Verbi Dei Liber Alexandri Alesii, contra Episcopum Lundinensem, p. 13 — 31. Argen- torati, apud Cratonem Mylium, An. M.D.XLII. Archbishop Parker calls him, " virum in theologia perdoctum." In 1540, he returned to Germany, was made Professor of Divinity at Leipsic, assisted at seve- ral public conferences, and wrote many books, which were much esteemed. Strype's Cranmer, pp. 402, 403. Bayle, Diet, ut supra. He died on the 1 7th of March, 1565, in the 65th year of his age. (Vita Alex. Alesii, in Observ. Select, vol. v. p. 443. Halse Magd. 1702.) Bi- shop Bale was personally acquainted with him, and has enumerated his works. Ut supra, p. 176. John Fife fled from St. Andrews, accompanied Aless to Germany, and shared in his honours at Leipsic. " Francofurti ad Viadrum, Scotus quldam Joannes Fidelis, Theologiae Doctor et Professor fuit ; et anno 1551 rectoratum Academite gessit, ut in Actis Lipsiensibus Eruditorum anno 1684, p. 3S6, notatum est. Sed dubltari vix debet, Fidelem ilium eundem fuisse qui Fife, sive Fief, dlcebatur, cum ea vox feudum slgnifi- cet, ad quod alludit nomen Fidelis." Seckendorf Hist. Luth. lib. iii. sec. * In the Treasurer's Accompts, under the year 1534, is the followint^ entry : — " Iteni, to ane servarid of Cocleus, quhiik brot fra his maister aue buili intitulat , to his reward, lOt. 33* 390 NOTES. 25. Fife returned to Scotland, acted as a minister, and died in St. Leonard's College, soon after the establishment of the Reformation. Cald. MS. i. 78. Knox, 20. Strype's L'ranmer, 403. John Macbee, known on the continent by the name of Dr. Macca- bagus, fled to England in 1532, and was entertained by Bishop Shax- ton. He afterwards retired to Denmark, and was of great use to Christian III. in the settlement of the reformed religion in his domi- nions. He was made a professor in the university of Copenhagen. Gerdesii Historia Evang. Renovat. iii. 417 — 425. The Danish mon- arch held him in great esteem, and, at his request, wrote to Queen Mary of England, in behalf of his brother-in-law. Miles Coverdale, bishop of Exeter, and the venerable translator of the Bible, who was released from prison through his importunity. Bale, ut supra, p. 226. Fox, 1390. Maccabaeus was acquainted with the Danish and German languages, and assisted in the translation of the Bible into Danish (according to Luther's first German translation,) which was printed in folio at Copenhagen, in 1550, by Ludov. Diest, accompanied with a marginal index, parallel places, and plates. Maittaire, apud Chal- mers's Lindsay, i. 82. Gerdes. Hist. tom. iii. Prfefatio, * * 3. An edi- tion of Lindsay's " Monarchic" bears on the title-page, that it was " imprintit at the command and expensis off Dr. MachabKus, in Cap- manhouin." But the editor of Lindsay insists, that this is " a decep- tions title-page." Ut supra, 80, 8 i . That Maccabseus was alive in 1 5-57, appears from the following passage of a Danish literary work: "In facultate Theologica, Doctores creati sequentes in Academia Hafniae Ao. 1557, a D. Joh. Maccabeo, M. Nic. Hemmingius Theolog. Profes- sor," &c. Albert Thura, Idea Histor. Litej-ar. Danorum, p. 333. Hamburgi, 1723. This writer (p. 274) mentions " Annot. in Matth- aeum" as written by him, but does not say wlicther it was a MS. or a printed book. Bale mentions another work of his, entitled, " De vera et falsa Religione." Ut supra, p. 226. Those who have access to the Bibliotheca Danica, will find some of his writings inserted in that work. Part v. and viii. Gerdes. iii. 417. Among the MSS. bequeathed by Archbishop Parker to Corpus Christi College, is " De conjugio sa- , cerdotum, an liceat sacris initiatis contrahei'e matrimonium; affirmatur autore Johanne Macchabeo Scoto." We learn from Bale, that Maccab^eus was well born ("praclara familia;") and that, having discovered from his infancy a strong pro- pensity to learning, his parents ))rovided him with the best teachers. But I have an additional piece of information to communicate, which cannot fail to be gratifying to some readers: The proper name of this divine was neither Maccabaeus nor Macbee, but Macalpine, and he belonged to the noble and celebrated Clan Alpine. In what degree of kindred he stood to the noted Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, and whether he was obliged to change his name on account of the outrage which caused thatchieftain and his whole clan to be proclaimed rebels, I can- not determine, as I have met with no northern Scald, or Gaelish bard, who has touched on these circumstances. But the following are my authorities for the statement which I have given : " Ad docendas sac- ras literas acccrsivit [Dannise Rex] Johannem Maccabaeum, proprio nomine Macalpinum, Scotum, virum doctrina et pietate gravem, Re- gique ac bonis omnibus modestia longe carissimum. Vinding. Des- cript. Acad. Hafnice, p. 71 — 73. "Reliquerat is, qui ex nol^ili et anti- qua Macalpinorum in Scotia fimilia ortum trahebat, Religionis erga, Scotiam, et migraverat Witebergam, atque ibi cum Luthero et Me- lanchthone familiaritatem contraxerat, unde Ilafniam vocatus Aca- demice prfajuit per annos sedecim, mortuus d. 6. Decemb. 1-557." Gerdes. iii. p. 417. See also the verses on Maccabaeus in Supplement. NOTES. 391 Macdowal repaired to Holland, and was so much esteemed, that he was raised, though a stranger, to the chief magistracy in one of its borouglis. Knox, 20. John Mackbray, or Macbrair, a gentleman of Galloway, fled to Eng- land about 1533, and at the death of Edward VI. retii-ed to Frankfort whei-e he preached to the English congregation. Troubles at Frank- ford, pp. 13, 20, 25. Spotswood, 97. He afterwards became pastor of a congregation in Lower Germany, and wrote an account of the forma- tion and progress of that church. Balei Scriptores M. Brytan. p. 229. On the accession of Elizabeth, he returned to England, and officiated as a preacher in that country. He is called " an eminent exile," in Strype's Annals,!. 1-30. Grindal, p. 26. On the 13th of November, 1563, he was inducted to the vicarage of St. Nicholas, in Newcastle, and was buried there on November IQ, 1584. Dr. Jackson complains that " Mackbray, Knox, and Udale, had sown their tares in Nev/- castle." Heylin speaks in the same strain. Brand's Hist, of New- castle, p. 303. Bale (p. 229) mentions several works of Mackbray, and says that he " wrote elegantly in Latin." Spotswood also men- tions some of his works. Ut supra. The causes of Buchanan's imprisonment and escape from Scotland, and his reception and employments on the Continent, may be found in other publications which are accessible to the reader. See Irving's memoirs of Buchanan, and Chalmers's Life of Ruddiman. Some facts which have not been fully stated by his biographers, will be found in a subsequent part of this work. James Harrison was a native of the south of Scotland, and liberally educated, says Bale. He seems to have gone to England at a period somewhat later than the others mentioned in this note. He wrote a treatise, " De regnorum unione," in which he warmly recommended to his countrymen the advantages of a vmion with England. It was dedicated to the Duke of Somerset, in 1547. Bale (p. 225) gives the first words of it, " Comminiscens, ut soleo per ocium ;" and calls it " elegans ac mellitum opus." Robert Richardson was a canon of the monastery of Cambusken- neth, and fled to England in 1538. Cald. MS. i. 97. I suppose he is the person who is called " Sir Robert Richardson, priest," in Sadler's Letters. He was sent into Scotland in 1 543, by Henry VIll. with a recommendation to the regent Arran, who employed him in preaching through the kingdom, along with Guillaume and Rough. When the regent apostatized from the reformed cause, he withdrew his protec- tion from Richardson, who was obliged to flee a second time into England, to escape the cardinal's persecution. Sadler's State Papers, i. 210, 217, 344. Note K, p. 36. Influence of Poetry in promoting the Reformation. — ^As the influence which the poets and satirists of the age had upon the Reformation, is a subject curious in itself, and to which little attention has been paid, the following illustrations of what has been generally stated in the text, may not be unaccei:)table to some readers. Dante, Petrarch, Boccacio, and other Italian writers, by descanting on the ambition, luxury, and scandalous manners of the clergy, had contributed greatly to lessen the veneration in which they had been long held, and to pro- duce in the minds of men a conviction of the necessity of a reforma- tion. " There was," says John Gerson, chancellor of the university of Paris, " one called Johannes Meldinensis, who wrote a book called 392 NOTES. the Romaimt of the Rose, which book, if I only had, and that there were no more in the world, I would rather burn it than take five hundred pounds for the same; and if I thought the author tJiereofdid not repent of that book before he died, I would no more pray for him, than I would for Judas that betrayed Christ." Catal. MSS. in Adv. Lib. The writings of Chaucer, and especially those of Langland, had the same effect in England. When the religious struggle had actually commenced, and become hot, a diversion,"by no means inconsider- able, was made in favour of the reformers by the satirists and poets of the age. A pantomime, intended to degrade the court of Rome and the clergy, was acted before Charles V. at the Augsburg assembly. Lud. Fabricius de Ludis Scenicis, p. 231. Gerdcsii Historia Evangel. Renovat. torn. ii. Docum. No. vii. p. 48. In 1524, a tragedy was acted at Paris, in the presence of Francis I. in which the success of Luther was represented, and the pope and cardinals were ridiculed, by kind- ling a fire, which all their efforts could not extinguish. Jacob. Bur- chard, de Vita Ulrici Hutteni, pars ij. 293, pars iii. p. 296. Gerdes. Hist. iv. 315. As late as 1561, the pope's ambassador complained to the queen mother of France, that the young king, Charles IX. had assisted at a show, in which he had counterfeited a friar. Letters of the cardinal de St. Croix, prefixed to Aymons, Synodes Nationaux de France, torn. i. p. 7 — 11. In Switzerland, Nic. Manuel wrote certain comedies of this description in the year 1522, which were published under the title of Fastnachts Spielen, at Berne, in 1525. Gerdes. ii. 451. Tliere were similar compositions in Holland. Brand's Hist, of the Reformation, i. 127, 128. Lond. 1720. And also in England. Bur- net's Hist, of the Reform, i. 318. Nasmith, Catal. Libr. Manuscr. Col- leg. Corporis Christi, p. 93. In Scotland, the same weapons were employed in attacking the Church. The first Protestant books circulated iH Scotland came chiefly from England. Mr. Chalmers has mentioned " the very first reforming treatise which was, probably, written in Scotland," com- piled by " Johne Gau," and printed at Malmoe in Sweden, anno 1533. We would have been still more obliged to the learned author, if he had given us some idea of its contents, instead of dismissing it with the flourish, " Had all been like this !" which, whether he meant to apply to the elegance of the printing, or the orthodoxy of the senti- ments, it is difficult to say. Caledonia, ii. 616. Calderwood seems to say that books against popery began to be printed in this country in 1543. MS. ad h. ann. But, previously to that period, the reformed sentiments were diffused by metrical and dramactic writings. The satire of Buchanan against the Franciscan friars, for which he was thrown into prison, was elegant and pungent, but, being written in Latin, it could be felt only by the learned. The same may be said as to his " Baptistes." But a passion for Scottish poetry had been lately produced in the nation by the compositions of some of our ingenious countrymen, and this now began to be improved by the friends of the Reformation. Kennedy and Kyllor distinguished themselves in this line. See above, p. 379 Kyllor's Scripture drama was exhibited be- fore James V. at Stirling, about the year 1535; and the most simple perceived the resemblance between the Jewish priests and the Scottish clergy, in opposinfj tiie truth, and persecuting its friends. Knox, 22. Soon after this, Alexander, Lord Kilmanrs, wrote his Epistle from the Hermit of Lareit to the Greyfriars. Ibid. 24, 25. James Stewart, son of Lord Methven, composed poems and ballads in a similar strain, after the death of the vicar of Dollar; and Robert Alexander, advo- cate, published the earl of Errol's " Testament," in Scottish metre, which was printed at Edinburgh, Cald. MS. i, 103. James Wedder- NOTES. 393 turn, son of a merchant in Dundee, converted the history of the be- heading of Jolm the Baptist into a dramatic form, and also the history of the tyrant Dionysius,. which were acted at Dundee. In both of these, the Popish religion was attacked. Cald. MS. ad an. 1540. Dai- yell's Cursory Remarks, p. 31. But the poet who had the greatest influence in promoting the Re- formation was Sir David Lindsay. His " Satyre on the three Estates," and his " Monarchies," had this for their principal object. The former was acted at Cupar in Fife, in the year 1535 : at Linhthgow, before the king and queen, the court, and country, in 1540; and at Edinburgh, before the queen regent, a great part of the nobility, and a vast num- ber of people, in 1554. Chalmers's Lindsay, i. CO, 61. Row says, that it was also acted "in the amphitheatre of St. Johnstoun." MS. History of the Kirk, p. 3. It exposed the avarice, luxury, and profligacy of the religious orders; the temporal power and opulence of the bishops, with their total neglect of preaching ; the prohibition of the reading of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue ; the extolling of pardons, relics, &c. In his " Monarchies,''^ composed by him at a subsequent period, he traced the rise and progress of the papacy, and has discovered a knowledge of history, and of the causes that produced the corruption of Christianity, which would not disgrace any modern author. The poems of Lindsay were read by "every man, woman, and child." Row has preserved an anecdote, which serves to illustrate their influ- ence, and the manner in which the reformed sentiments were propa- gated at that period. Some time between 1550 and 1553, a friar was preaching at Perth in the church where the scholars of Andrew Simson attended public worship. In the coui'se of his sermon, after relating some of the miracles wrought at the shrines of the saints, he began to inveigh bitterly against the Lutheran preachers who were going about the country, and endeavouring to withdraw the people from the Ca- tholic faith. When he was in the midst of his invective, a loud hissing arose in that part of the church where the boys, to the number of three hundred, were seated, so that the friar, abashed and affi-ighted, broke off his discourse, and fled from the pulpit. A complaint having been made to the master, he instituted an inquiry into the cause of the disturbance, and to his astonishment found that it originated with the son of a craftsman in the town, who had a copy of Lindsay's " Monarchies," which he had read at intervals to his schoolfellows. When the master was about to administer severe chastisement to him, for the tumult which he had occasioned, and also for retaining in his possession such a heretical book, the boy very spiritedly replied, that the book was not heretical, requested his master to read it, and pro- fessed his readiness to submit to punishment, provided any heresy was found in it. This proposal appeared so reasonable to Simson, that he perused the work, which he had not formerly seen, and was convinced of the truth of the boy's statement. He accordingly made the best excuse which he could to the magistrates for the behaviour of his scholars, and advised the friar to abstain in future from extolling miracles, and from abusing the Protestant preachers. From that time Simson was friendly to the Reformation. MS. Historie of the Kirk, pp. 3, 4. In every Protestant country, a metrical version of the Psalms, in the vernacular language, appeared at a very early period. The French version, begun by Clement Marot, and completed by Beza, contributed much to the spread of the Reformation in France. The Psalms were sung by Francis I. and Henry II. and by their courtiers. The Catholics flocked for a time to the assemblies of the Protestants to listen to their psalmody, Bayle, Dictionnaire, art. Marot, Notes N, Z3 394 NOTES. O, P. At a later period, Cardinal Chastillon proposed to the Papal ambassador, as the best method lor cliecking the progress of heresy, that liis holiness should authorize some "good and godly" songs to be sung by the French, " cantar alcune cose in lingua I'rancese, le quali pero fossero parole buono et sante, et prima approvate de sua Beati- tudine." Lettres de St. Croix: Aymons, ut supra, tom. i. pp. 7, f, 11. It has been said, that there was a Scottish vei'sion of the Psalms at a very early period. Dalyell's Cursory Remarks, p. 35. It is more certain, that before the year 154G, a number of the Psalms were trans- lated in metre ; for George Wishart sung one of them in the house of Ormiston, on the night in which he was apprehended. Knox, Historie, p. 49. Tlie two lines quoted by Knox answer to the beginning of the second stanza of the 51st Psahn, inserted in Scottish Poems of the 16th Century, p. 111. They were commonly sung in the assemblies of the Protestants, in the year 1556. Knox, 96. John and Robert Wedderburn, brothers to the poet of that name mentioned above, appear to have been the principal translators of them. Cald. MS. i. 108, 109. The version was not completed; and at the establishment of the Reformation, it was supplanted in the churches by the version begun by Sternhold and Hopkins, and finished by the English exiles at Geneva. But the most singular measure adopted for circulating the reformed opinions in Scotland was the composition of "gude and godly ballates, changed out of prophaine sanges, for avoyding of sinne and harlotrie." John and Robert Wedderburn were the chief authors of this work also. Cald. ut supra. Row's Hist, of the Kirk, p. 4. The title sufficiently indicates their nature and design. The air, the measure, the initial line, or the chorus of the ballads most commonly sung by the people at that time, were transferred to hyinns of devo- tion. Unnatural, indelicate, and gross as this association appears to us, these spiritual songs edified multitudes in that age. We must not think that this originated in any peculiar depravation of taste in our reforming countrymen. Spiritual songs constructed upon the same principle, were common in Italy. Roscoe's Lorenzo de JVIedici, i. 309. 4to. At the beginning of the Reformation, the very same practice was adopted in Holland as in Scotland. " The Protestants first sung in their families and private assemblies, the psalms of the noblelord of Nievelte, which he published in 1540, ut homines ab amatoriis, baud raro obsccenis, aliisque vanis canticis, quibus omnia in urbibus et vicis personabant, avocaret. Sed quia modulationes vanarum cantionum (ahas enim homines non tenebant) adiiibuerat," &.C. Gisberti Voetii Politica Ecclesiastica, tom. i. p. 534. Amsta3]od. 1663, 4to. Florimond de Remond objected to the psalms of Marot, that the airs of some of them were borrowed from vulgar ballads. A Roman Catholic version of the Psalms in Flemish verse, printed at Antwerp by Simon Cock, in 1540, has the first line of a ballad printed at the head of every psalm. Bayle, Diet. art. Marot. Note N. The spiritual songs of Colletet, although composed a century after our '■Godly Ballates," were constructed on still more exceptionable models. " Et moy. Monsieur," says Mons. Jurieu, "je vous feray voir, quand il vous plaira, lescantiques spirituels de Colletet iraprimes a Paris, ches Antoine de Rafle avec privilege da Roy, de I'an 1660. Livre curieux, ou vous trouveres des Noels sur le chant de ce vaude- ville infiime qui commence, Ilfaxd chanter vne histoire de la fcmme (Vun manant, &c. le reste est un conte scandaleux autant qu'il y en ait dans le Satyricon de Petrone. Vous en trouveres un autre sur I'air de ces paroles libertines d'une chanson de I'opera: A quoy bon tant de raison, dans un bel aage. NOTES. 395 Un autre sur ce vaudeville impudent : AUis vous ...... Un galant lout nouveau,~^c. Des le temps de Henri II. parce que toute la Cour chantoit ies Pseau- mes de Marot, le Cardinal de Lorraine jugea que, pour arrester un si grand desordre, il seroit tres ediiiant de faire tourner des odes d'Horace en rime Francoise, pour nourrir la piete de cette cour si de- ' vote." Apologie pour Ies lietbrmateurs, &c. torn. i. 129. 4to. A Rot- terdam, lijdo. Note L, p. 41. Of George Wisliart. — Tlie following graphic description of this in- teresting martyr is contained in a letter written by a person who had been one of his pupils at Cambridge, and transmitted by him to John Fox, who inserted it in his work, p. ] 155. edit. 1596. "About the yeare of our Lord, a thousand, five hundreth, fortie and three, there was, in the universitie of Cambridge, one Maister George Wischart, commonly called Maister George of iSennet's Colledge, who was a man of tall stature, polde headed, and on the same a round French cap of the best. Judged of melancholye complexion by his phisiognomie, black haii'ed, long bearded, comely of personage, well spoken after his country of Scotland, courteous, lowly, lovely, glad to teach, desirous to learne, and was well traulled, hauing on him for his habit or clothing, neuer but a mantell frise gowne to the shoes, a blacke Millian fustain dublet, and plaine blacke hosen, course new canuasse for his shirtes, and white falling bandes and cuffes at the hands. All the which apparell, he gaue to thepoore, some weekly, some monethly, some quarterly, as hee liked, sauing his Frenche cappe, which hee kept the whole yeere of my beeing with him. Hee was a man modest, temperate, fearing God, hating couetousnesse : for his charitie had neuer ende, night, noone, nor daye : hee forbare one meale in three, one day in four for the most part, except something to comfort nature. [When accused, at his trial, of contemning fasting, he replied, ' My Lordis, I find that fasting is commend it in the Scriptur. — And not so only ; bot I have leirnit by experience, that fasting is gude for the healthe and conservation of the body.' Knox, GO.] Hee lay hard upon a pouffe of straw : course new canuasse sheetes, which, when he changed, he gaue away. Hee had commonly by his bedside, a tubbe of water, in the which (his people being in bed, the candle put out, and all quiet) hee used to bathe himselfe, as I, being very yong, being assured offen, heard him, and in one light night discerned him. Hee loved me tenderly, and I him, for my age, as effectually. Hee taught with great modestie and grauitie, so that some of his people thought him seuere, and would haue slain him, but the Lord was his defence. And hee, after due correction for their malice, by good exhortation amended them, and he went his way. O that the Lord had left him to niee his poore boy, that hee might haue finished that he had begunne ! For in his religion he was, as you see heere in the rest of his life, when he went into Scotland with diuers of the nobilitie, that came for a treaty to King Henry the eight. His learning was no less sufficient than his desire, alwayes prest and readie to do good in that hee was able, both in the house priuately, and in the schoole publickely, pro- fessing and reading divors authours, "If 1 snould declare his loue to mee and all men, his charitie to the 396 NOTES. poore, in gluing, relieuing, caring, helping, prouiding, yea infinitely studying how to do good unto all, and hurt to none, 1 should sooner want words than just cause to commend him. " All this I testifie, with my whole heart and trueth, of this godly man. Hee that made all, gbuerneth all, and shall iudge all, knowetJi I speake the throth, that the simple may be satisfied, the arrogant con- founded, the hypocrite disclosed. (^ Ttyo? Emery Tylney." A particular account of Wishart's trial and execution was published in England, apparently soon after the assassination of Beatoun. This very rare little book does not appear to have been seen by any of the writers who have mentioned it. The following account is taken from a copy, belonging to Richard Heber, Esq. whocommunicated it to me with that liberahty for which he is so eminently distinguished. The general title is, " The tragical death of Dauid Beato. Bishoppe of sainct Andrewes in Scotland; Whereunto is ioyned the martyrdom of maister George Wyseharte gentleman, for whose sake the aforesay- ed bishoppe was not longe after slayne. Wherein thou maist learne what a burnynge charitie they shewed not only towardes him : but vnto al suche as come to their handes for the blessed Gospels sake." On the next leaf begins, "Roberte Burrant to the reader," being a prefece extending to 12 leaves, ending on B. iiiii. After this is the following title of the Tragedy or Poem : " Here folio weth the Tragedy of the late moste reuerende father Dauid, by the mercie of God Car- dinall and archbishoppe of sainct Andrews. And of the whole realme of Scotland primate, legate and chauncelor. And administrator of the bishoprich of Merapois in Fraunce. And comendator perpetual! of the abbay of Aberbrothoke, compiled by sir Dauid Lindsaye of the mounte Knyghte. AHas, Lione, kyng of armes. Anno 1546. Ultimo Mali. The wordes of Dauid Beaton the cardinall aforesaied at his death. Alas alas, slaye me not, I am a priest." The poem begins on the reverse, and ends on the first page of C. vii. On the back of that leaf is, — " The accusation of maister George VVysehart gentleman, who suffered martyrdome for the faith of Christ Jesu, at S. Andrewes in Scotland the first day of Marche. In the yere of our Lorde, 1546, wyth the articles which he was accused of, and his swete answeres to the same, wherunto are ioyned his godly orations and praiers. — With most tendre affection and unfeyned herte considere," &c. The narrative ends on the first page of F. vi. with these words, " complayning of thys innocent lambes slaughter." — "Imprinted at London, by John Day, and William Seres, dwellynge in Sepulchres parish at the signe of the Resurrection, a little aboue Holbourne conduiet. Cum gracia et priuilegio ad imprimendum solum." In eights. The tragedy of Beatoun is printed in small, and the account of Wishart's trial in large black letter. The date of printing is not mentioned. Those who have fixed on the year 1546, have been influenced by the occurring of this date on the title of the tragedy, which evidently refers to the time of Beatoun's death. It is probable, however, from some expressions in the preface, as well as from other considerations, that it was printed soon after that event. Fox has embodied the whole account of Wis- hart's trial in his Acts and Monuments, pp. 1154 — 1158, " Ex Hislor. Imprcssci.'''' Knox has transcribed it from Fox. Historic, p. 72. Wishart had travelled on the Continent. Knox, ^^6. Lesly, p. 458, Buchanan calls him Sophorcn-diu.^, supposing his name to he Jl'ise- heart, a mistake which has been corrected by an intelligent foreign historian, who says that the original name was Grnsmrd, a name common in France, from which country the Wischardu (for so Knox writes it) originally came to Scotland. Gerdesii Hist. Reformat, torn. NOTES. 397 iv. p. 314. See also Ruddiman's Propriorum nominum Interpretation subjoined to Buchanan's History. Tlie following extract from the records of the city of Bristol has been obligingly sent me by Theodore Laurance, Esq. "30 Henry VIII. Tliat this yere the 15 Maya Scot named George Wysard sett forth his lecture in St. Nicholas Cliurch of Bristowe the most blasphemous heresy that ever was herd, openly declarying that Christ's motlier hath not nor coulde merite for him nor yett ibr us, wich heresy brought many of the commons of this towne into a greate error and dy vers of theym were persuaded by that hereticall lecture to heresy. Whereupon the said stiff necked Scot was accused by Mr. John Kerne deane of the said diocese and soon after he was sent to the moost reverend father in God the archebishop of Can- terbury bifore wiiom and others, that is to signilie, the bishops of Bathe, Norwhiche, and Chichester, with others, as doctors and he bifore theym was examyned convicted and condemned in and upon t!ie detestable heresy above mentioned, whereupon he was ejnoyned to here a fagot in St. Nicholas Church aforsaid and tlie parishe of the same the 13 July, and in Chi'iste church the 20 July abovesaid following, which was duely executed in the time aforesaid. This is extracted from the " Mayor's Kalendar," a vellum manuscript book of great antiquity, which is usually produced at the swearing in of the mayor, as it has a drawing of that ceremony, and refers to some old customs observed on the occasion. I have no doubt that the person referred to is George Wishart, the Scottish martyr. The facts related happened on the year after he left Scotland. In the course of that year John Lambert suffered martyrdom for denying transubstantiation, and Henry VIII. was using the severest measures against the Protestants. The circumstance of George Wysard having recanted what he had taught respecting the Virgin, is not sufficient to discredit this supposition. Whether hfs recantation proceeded from fear, or fi-om his being entangled by the sophistry of his judges, any stain which it affixed to his character was completely effaced by the fortitude and constancy with which he afterwards suffered. The following is the title of a very rare book, which appears to have been written by George Wishart during his travels on the Continent, and printed after his death. " The Confescion of the fayth of the Sweserlandes. " This Confescion was fyrste wrytten and set out by the ministers of the churche and congregacion of Sweuerland, where all godlyness is receyued, and the word hadde in most reuerence, and from thence was sent vnto the Emperours maiestie, then holdynge a grayt coun- sell or parliament in the yeare of our Lord God 1537^ in the moneth of February. " Translated out of Laten by George Vsher, a Scotchman, who was burned in Scotland, the yeare of oure Lorde 1546." Note M, p. 45. Of Knox^s Language respecting the Assassination of Cardinal Bea- toun. — Mr. Hume has, not very philosophically, inferred the savage- ness of Knox's temper from the evident satisfaction with which he wrote of Cardinal Beatoun's assassination ; and in this judgment he has been followed by several writers. If to express satisfaction at cutting off one wlio was regarded as a public enemy be viewed as an infallible mark of cruelty, we must pronounce this verdict upon many wlio were never before suspected of such a disposition. The manner 34 398 NOTES. in which the Christian fathers expressed themselves, respecting the death of the persecutors of the Church, is not unknown. See Julian the Apostate, chap. vii. viii. in Works of tiie Rev. Samuel Johnston, pp. 22 — 24. Bayle, Critique General de Tliistoire du Calvinisme, p. 295. Kven tlie mild and philosophic Erasmus could not refrain from declar- ing his joy at the violent death of two of the most learned and eminent Reformers. "Bene habet," says he, "quod duo Coryphaei perierunt, Zuinglius in acie, OecoJampadius paulo post febri et apostemate. Q,uod si illis favisset E:vu.ktc,c, actum est de nobis." Epist. 1205 ; Jortin's Life of Erasmus, ii. 28. ^ir Walter Scott, in his Cadyow Castle, (See Lyrical Pieces,) has lately exerted all his poetic powers to invest Ham- ilton of Bothwellliaugh with the character of a hero, in assassinating the Regent Murray, a person who is no more to be compared to Car- dinal Beatoun, than "Hyperion to a Satyr." I know the apology that will be made for the poet (althougli I think he might have found, in this, and in some other instances, a subject more worthy of his muse ;) but what shall we say of the historian who narrates the action of Bothwellhaugh "approvingly," celebrates the " happy pencil of the poet" in describing it, and insults over the fall of Murray, by quoting a sarcastic line from the poem, in the very act of relating his death I Chalmers's Caledonia, ii. 571. Yet the same writer is highly displeased that Sir David Lindsay, in his Tragedy of Beatoun, has " no burst of indignation" at the cardinal's murder; and twice in the same work he has related with triumph, that, on the margin of one edition of Knox's History, the part which James Melvin acted in that scene is called a " godly fact." And he pronounces the assassination of Beatoun to be "the foulest crime -which ever stained a country, except perhaps the similar murder of Archbishop Sharpe, within the same shire, in the subsequent century, by similar miscreants." Chalmers's Works of Lindsay, vol, i. 34, 35, ii. 231. How marvellously does prejudice distort the judgment even of learned men ! And how surprising to find the assassination of two sanguinary persecutors represented as more criminal than the murder of the generous Henry IV. the patriotic Prince of Orange, and the brave and pious Coligni ! There are not a few persons who can read in cold blood of thousands of innocent per- sons being murdered under the consecrated cloak of authority, but who " burst into indignation" at the mention of the rare fact (occurring once in a century) of a person, who goaded by oppression and reduced to despair, has been driven to the extremity of taking vengeance on the proud and tyrannical author of his own and his country's wrongs. I mention these things to sliow the need which certain writers liave to look at home, and to judge of characters and actions with a little more impartiality, or at least consistency. Honest Keith, whose personal feelings do not appear to have l)een violent, has expressed with much simplicity the feelings of his party, in the reflections which he makes on the cardinal's assassination. " What might have proved (says he) to be the issue of such proce- dure [Beatoun's severe measures against tlie Reformers,] had he en- joyed his life for any considerable time, I shall not pretend to judge ; Only this seems to be certain, that by his death the reins of the government were much loosened; and some persons came to be con- siderable soon after, who probably, if he had lived, had never got the opportunity to perpetrate such villainies under the cloak of religion, as 'tis certain they did ; he being at least no less a statesman than a clergyman." History, p. 45. This language needs no conmientary ; and the callousness to the interests of (I say not the Reformation, for that is entirely out of the fpiestion, but) humanity, imi)lied in the prospect that Keitli takes of tlie cruelties \\hich the Protestants must NOTES. 399 have suffered from the cardhia], if his life had been spared, is far more reprehensible than any satisfaction which Knox expressed at his death. " It is very horrid," says Hume, " but at the same time somewhat amusing, to consider the joy, alacrity, and pleasure which that histo- rian [Knox] discovers in his narrative of this assassination." History of England, vol. vi. chap. iv. Mr. Hume makes a partial apology for Knox by the description which he gives of his own feelings ; while he allows that what, in the main, excites horror, may produce some amusement. It is well known that there are writers who can treat the most sacred subjects with a levity bordering upon profaneness. Must we at once pronounce them profane? And is nothing to be set down to the score of natural temper inclining them to wit and humour] The Reformer rejoiced at the death of Beatoun ; and even those who could not approve of the act of the conspirators, were hap- py that he was taken away. As for the Cardinal, we grant, He was a man we weell might want. And we 'U forget him sone ; And yet I think, the sooth to say, Ahhough the lown is weell away, The deed was foully done. The pleasantry which Knox has mingled with the narrative of his death and burial is unseasonable and unbecoming. But it is to be miputed, not to any pleasure which he took in describing a bloody scene, but to the strong propensity which he felt to indulge his vein of humour. Those who have read his History with attention, must have perceived that he is not able to check this, even on very serious occasions. I shall at present refer to one instance only. None will doubt that his mind was deeply affected in relating the trial and exe- cution of his esteemed friend, and revered instructor, George Wishart. Yet, even in the midst of his narrative of this event, he could not abstain from inserting the truly ludicrous description of a quarrel which arose on that occasion between the Archbishops of St Andrews and Glasgow ; for which he apologizes thus : — " Gif we interlace mer- rines with ernest matters, pardone us, gude reidare, for the fact is sa notable that it deserves lang memorie." Historie, p. 51. Note N, p. 57. Knox in the French Galleys. — The following curious notice as to this event in our Reformer's life, will form an appropriate introduction to the extracts referred to in the text. It has been preserved by the learned Dr. Fulke, and is given as an answer to a Popish writer, who had said, in the way of detraction, "Knokes was a galley slave three yeares." — " The more wicked," replies Fulke, " those Papistes which betrayed him into the.galley. The master whereof was glad to be rid of him, because he never had good successe, so long as he kept that holy man in slaverie, whome also in danger of tempest,, though an errant Papiste, he would desire to commend him and his galley to God in his praiers." T. Stapleton and Martiall (two Popish heretics) confuted. By D. Fulke, master of Pembroke-hall, in Cambridge, p. 116. Lond. 15S0. I shall give Knox's own account of his feelings on that occasion from the M>S. copy of his Treatise on Prayer in my possession, pre- 400 NOTES. serving the original language, which is altered in the printed edition. Those who have access to the latter can compare the two. " I mene not," says he, " that any man, in extreamitie of.trubill, can be without a present dolour, and without a greater feir of trubill to follow. Trubill and feir are the very spurris to prayer. For when man, compassit about with vehement calamities, and vexit with con- tinewall solicitude, having by help of man no hope of deliverance, with soir oppressit and punissit hart, feiring also greater punisment to fol- low, from the deip pit of tribulation, doith call to God for comfort and support, such prayer ascendeth into Godis presence, and returneth not in vane." Having illustrated this from the exercise of David, as described in tlie 7th psalm, he proceeds, " This is not written for David onlie, but for all such as sail suffer tribulatioun to the end of the world. For I, the wryter hereof, (lat this be said to the laude and prais of God allone) in angusche of mynd, and vehement tribulatioun and afilic- tioun, called to the Lord, when not only the ungodlie, but evin my faithfuU brother, )^e and my awn self (that is, all natural understand- ing) judgeit my cause to be irremedeable ; and yit in my greatest calamitie, and when my panis wer most cruell, wold his eternall wis- dome that my handis suld wryt far contrarie to the judgement of car- nail reasone, whilk his mercie hath proved trew. Blessit be his halie najue.* And therefore dar I be bold in the veritie of Godis word, to promeis that, notwithstanding the vehemencie of trubill, tlie long con- tine wance thairof, the desperatioun of all men, the feirfulness, danger, dolour, and angusche of our awn hartis, yit, yf we call constantlie to God, that, beyound expectatioun of all men, hie sail delyver." pp. 52 — 54. After showing that prayers for temporal deliverance ought always to be offered up with submission to the divine will, that God often delays the deliverance of the body while he mitigates the dis- tress of the spirit, and sometimes permits his saints "to drink, before the maturity of age, the bitter cupe of corporall death, that thairby they may receave medicine, and cure from all infirmitie," he adds : "Albeit we sie thairfoir no appeirand help to our selves, nor yit to otheris afflictit, lat ws not ceis to call, (thinking our prayeris to be vane;) for whatsoever cum of our bodeis, God sail gif unspeakabill comfort to the spreit, and sail turne all to our comodities beyound our awn expectatioun. The cans that I am so lang and tedious in this matter is, for that I knaw how hard the batell is between the spreit and the flesche, under the heavie cros of afflictioun, whair no-warldlie defence, but present death dois appeir. I knaw the grudging and murmuring complaints of the flesche ; I knaw the anger, wrath, and indignatioun, whilk it consaveth aganis God, calling all his promissis in doubt, and being readie every hour utterlie to fall from God: aganis whilk restis onlie faith provoking us to call ernistlie, and pray for assistance of Godis spreit, whairin if we continew, our maist dis- perat calamiteis sail hie turn to gladnes, and to a prosperous end.f To thee, O Lord, allone be prais ; for with experience I wryt this, and speak." MS. Letters, pp. 65, 66. The edition was printed most probably in England, (Home is on the title-page,) during the persecution, from a MS. sent by Knox from Dieppe, and so incorrectly, that it is often impossible to make sense of it. T\\e following are specimens: — "Difiysed," fol. 2. "difficil," MS.— "A pure word "of God," fol. 2, "a puritie allowit of God," MS-— "Consent." fol. 3, "conceat," MS. — "May any other Jesus Christ, * TIic words in Italics are not in the printed copies. t The printed copies, instead of " end," liavc " fyne ;" a word sometimes used in the MS. Letters. NOTES. 401 except I, in these wordes, make intercession for sinners?" fol. II. " Mav any other (Jesus Christ except) in these wordes mak interces- sion for sinners 1" MS. ; the transcriber having mistaken the con- cluding: mark of parenthesis for the pronoun. — " Carkese slepe," fol. 16, " carleslie slepeth," MS. In quoting Isa. Ixiv. 5. the printed edition has employed a word which I have not seen in any old version of the Bible. "Thou art crabbid, O Lord, because we have sinned," fol. 4; and again in verse 9, " Be not crabbid, O Lord, remember not our iniquities for ever." In the MS. it is angrie, in both instances. In fol. 16, is a greater variation: " For with such as do aleage that God may not chaunge his sentence, and our prayers therefore to be vayne, can I no wyse agree." Instead of this the MS. has, " whilk thing if we do unfeanedhe, he will revoke his wrath, and in the middis of his furie think upon mercie." There are similar variations between the MS. and the printed copies of most of his other tracts. They show that the MS. which I possess has not been transcribed from these copies, according to a custom very common in that age. Note O, p. 59. Extracts from Balnaves's Confession of Faith, or Treatise on Jus- tijication.—ln reading the writings of the first reformers there are two things which must strike our minds. The first is the exact con- formity between the doctrine maintained by them respecting the jus- tification of sinners, and that of the apostles. The second is the sur- prising harmony which subsisted among them on this important doc- trine. On some questions respecting the sacraments, and the external gov-ernment and worship of the Church, they differed; but upon the article of free justification, Luther and Zuinglius, Melanchthon and Calvin, Cranmer and Knox, spoke the very" same language. This was not owing to their having read each other's writings, but because they copied from the same diVine original. The clearness with which they understood and explained this great truth is also very observ- able. More learned and able defences of it have since appeared ; but I question if it has ever been stated in more scriptural, unequivocal, and decided language, than in the writings of the early reformers. Some of their successors, by giving way to speculation, gradually lost sight of this distinguishing badge of the Reformation, and landed at last in Arminianism, which is nothing else but the Popish doctrine in a Protestant dress. Knox has informed us, that his design, in pre- paring for the press the treatise written by Sir Henry Balnaves, was to give, along with the author, his "confession of the article of justifi- cation therein contained." I cannot, therefore, lay before the reader a more correct view of our Reformer's sentiments upon this funda- mental article of faith, than by quoting from a book which was revised and approved by him. Having given the philosophical definition of justice or righteousness, and explained what is meant by civil and ceremonial justice, the au- thor proceeds as follows : — " The justice of the la we morall or Moses's lawe, which is the lawe of God, exceedeth and is far above the other two justices. It is the perfite obedience required of man, according to all the works and deeds of the same ; not only in externall and out- ward deeds, but also with the inward affections nnd motions of the hart, conforme to the commandement of the same (saying,) Thou shalt love thy Lord God with all thy hart, with all thy mind, with all thy power and strength, and thy neighbour as thyselfe. This is no other thing but the lawe of nature, prented in the hart of man, in the be- 34* A3 402 NOTES. ginning; nowe made patent by tlie mouth of God to man, to utter his sin, and to make his corrupted nature more patent to himselfe. And so is the lavve of nature and the law of Moses joyned together in a knot; which is a doctrine teaching all men a perhte rule, to know what he should do, and what he should leave undone, both to God and his neighbour. The justice of the la we, is to fulfill the lawe ; that is, to doo the perfite workes of the lawe as they are required, from the bottome of the hart, and as they are declared and expounded by Christ; and whosoever transgresscth the same, shall never be pro- nounced just of the lawe. But there was never man that fulfilled this lawe to the uttermost perfection thereof, except only Jesus Christ. Therefore, in the lawe can we not find our justice, because of the deedes of the lawe no flesh shall be made just before God." pp. 57, 58. " For transgression of the commandment of God, our forefather Adam was exiled and banished forth of paradise, and spoiled of the integrity, perfection, and all the excellent qualities, dignities, and god- lie vertues, with which he was endued by his creation, made rebell, and disobedient to God in his owne default. And therefore he might not fulfill the lawe to the perfection as the same required. For the lawe remaining in the owne perfection, just, holye, and good, requireth and asketh the same of man, to be indeed fulfilled. But all men pro- ceeding from Adam, by natural propagation, have the same imperfec- tion that hee had ; the which corruption of nature resisteth the will and goodness of the lawe, which is the cause that wee fulfill not the same, nor may not of our power and strength, through the infirmitie and weakness of our flesh, which is enemie to the spirit, as the apostle saith." pp. 79, 80. " Notwithstanding, after the fall of man, remained with our first parents some rest and footsteppes of this lawe, knowledge, and vertues, in the which he was created, and of him descended in us ; by the whicli of our free will and power, we may do the outward deeds of the lawe, as is before written. This knowledge deceaved and be- guiled the philosophers ; for they looked but to the reason and judge- ment of man, and could not perceave the inward corruption of nature, but ever supponed man to bee clean and pure of nature, and might, of his own free will and natural] reason, fulfill all perfection. And when they perceaved the wickedness of man from his birth, they judged that to be by reason of the planete under whom he was borne, ■or through evill noui"i.shing, upbringing, or other accidents, and could never consider the corrupted nature of man, which is the cause of all our wickednes ; and therefore they erred, and were deceaved in their opinions and judgements ; but the perfite Christian man should looke first in his corruption of nature, and consider what the law requireth of him, in the which he findeth his imperfection and sinnes accused, (for that is the office of the lawe, to utter sinne to man, and giveth him no remedy,) then of necessitie is he compelled either to despaire or seek Christ, by whom he shall get the justice that is of value before God, which can not be gotten by any lawe or workes, because by the deedes of the lawe no flesh shall be justified before God." pp. 81 — 83. " This proposition of the Holy Spirite is so perfite, tliat it excludeth (if ye will understande the same riglit) all the vaine foolish arguments of sophistrie made by the justifiers, of theniselfes, which perverte the words of S. Paule (as they doo tiie otlier Scriptures of God) to their perversed sencc and mind ; saying, that the apostle excludeth by these wordes the workes of the law ceremonial, and not the deeds of the lawe of nature, and morall lawe of Moyses. The which shameless sayings are expressly evacuat by the wordes of the apostle, insomuch that no man of righteous judgement can deny, but shall feel the same NOTES. 403 as it were in their hands, by this probation. The lawe speaketh to all, that is, accuseth all men that are under the lawe. All men are under the lawe of nature, or the lawe of Moyses, therefore the apostle speaketh of the lawe of nature, or the lawe of Moyses, and of all men which he comprehendeth under Jewe and Gentill, as he proveth by his argumentes in the first and second chap, to the Romans, and con- cludeth in the third chap, all men are sinners. If all men bee sinners, none is just ; if none bee just, none fulfill the lawe ; if none fulfill the lawe, the lawe can pronounce none just; therefore concludeth he, that of the deedes of the lawe no fleshe shall be fonde just before God. The same is proved by David in the 130 Psalme. Here ye see by the words of the apostle, he intends to prove and declare all men sinners ; that is, to stoppe all men's mouths, and to dry ve them to Christ by the accusation of the lawe. No lawe may make or declare all men sin- ners, and subdue the whole world to God, but the lawe of nature and Moyses ; therefore, under that word (lawe) the apostle comprehendeth the lawe morall, and not the lawe ceremonial only." pp. 84, 85. " But think not that I intende through these assertions to exclude good workes ; no, God forbid, for good workes are the gift of God, and his good creatures, and ought and should be done of a Christian, as shalbe showen hereafter at length in their place ; but in this article of justification, yee must either exclude all workes, or els exclude Christ from you, and make your selfes just ; the which is impossible to do. Christ is the end of the lawe (unto righteousness) to all that beleeve, that is, Christ is the consummation and fulfilling of the lawe, and that justice whiche the law requireth ; and all they which beleeve in him, are just by imputation through faith, and for his sake are re- pute and accepted as just. This is the justice of faith, of the which the apostle speaketh, Rom. the 10 chapter: therefore, if ye wilbee just, seeke Christ, and not the lawe, nor your invented workes, which are lesse than the lawe. Christ shall have no mixtion with the lawe, nor workes thereof, in this article of justification ; because the lawe is as contrarie to the office of Christ, as darknes to light, and is as farre different as heaven and earth. For the office of the lawe is to accuse the wicked, feare them, and condemne them, as transgressors of the same; the office of Christ is to preache mercy, remission of sinnes, freely in his bloode through faith, give consolation, and to save sin- ners ; for hee came not into this world to call them which ar just, or think themselves just, but to call sinners to repentance." pp. 100, 126, 127, 123. " This faith which only justifieth and giveth life, is not idle nor re- maineth alone ; nevertheless, it alone justifieth, and then it works by charitie ; for unfained faith may no more abyde idle from working in love, than the good tree may from bringing foortli her fruite in due time ; and yet ^he fruite is not the cause of the tree, nor maketh the tree good, but the tree is the cause of the fruite ; and the good tree bringeth forth good fruite, by the which it is knowen goode; even so it is of the faithfull man, the workes make him not faithfull nor just, nor yet are the cause thereof; but the faithfull and just man bringeth forth and maketh good workes, to the honour and glorie of God, and profit of his neighbour, which beare witnesse of his inward faith, and testify him to be just before man." pp. 131, 132. In the following part of the treatise, the author shows at large, that the doctriae of gratui- tous justification does not release Christians from obligation to per- form good works, and inculcates the duties incumbent upon them in the different spheres of life in which they may be placed. Confession of Faith ; conteining how the troubled man should seeke refuge at his 404 NOTES. Ood; compiled by M. Henry Balnaves of Halhill,* and one of the Lords of Session of Scotland, being- a priso7ier within the old pallaice of Roane, in the year 1548. T. VautroUier, Edin. 1584. Note P, p. 66. Extracts from Knox's Defence before the Bishop of Durham. — Since the publication of the first edition of this Life, I have seen a copy of this Defence in print. Its title will be found in the catalogue of Knox's works. (See Note UUU at the end of the volume.) The print- ed edition agrees more exactly with the MS. in my possession than any of liis other works which I have had the opportunity of compar- ing. The extracts given in this note are continued in their original form, to preserve the orthography of the MS. which constitutes almost the only difference between it and the printed edition. " The fourt of Apryle, in the yeir 155(3, was appoyntit to Johne Knox, preacher of the halie evangell of Jesus Chryst, to gif his confessioun why hie affirmed the mes idolatrie; whilk day, in presence of the con- sale and congregatioun, amangis whome was also present the bi- schope of Duram and his doctors, on this manner hie beginneth. " This day I do appeir in your presence, honourabill audience, to gif a reasone why so constantlie I do affirme the mes to be, and at all tymes to haif bene, idolatrie and abominatioun before God ; and be- caus men of great eruditioun, in your audience, affirmed the contra- rie, most gladlie wold I that heir thay wer present, either in prefer persone, or els by thair learnit men, to ponder and wey the causis moveing me thairto : for unles I evidentlie prufe myne intent be God- dis halie scriptures, I will recant it as wickit doctrine, and confes my self maist worthie of grevous punishment. How difficil it is to pull furth of the hartis of the pepill the thing whairin opinioun of holines standeth, declareth the great tumult and uprore moveit aganis Pauls by Demetrius and his fellowis, who by idolatrie gat great vantage, as our priestis have done l)e the mes in tymes past. The pepill, I say, heiring that the honor of thair great goddes Diana stude in jeopardie, with furious voces ciyit, ' Great is Diana of the Ephesians;' — and heir- unto wer thay moveit be lang custom and fals opinioun. I knaw, that in the mes hath not onlie bene estemit great holines and honoring of God, but also the ground and fundatioun of our religioun : so that, in opinioun of many, the mes taken away, thair resteth no trew wir- schipping nor honoring of God in the erth. The deiper hath it persit the hartis of men yat it occupyith the place of the last and mistical! supper of our Lord Jesus. I5ut yf I sal, be plane and evident scrip- tures, prove the mes, in hir mair honest garment, to haif been idola- trie befoire God, and blasphemous to the death and passioun of Cluyst, and contrarie to the supper of Jesus Chryst, than gude hope have I, honorable audience and belovit brethrene, that the feir, love, and obe- dience of God, who in his scriptures hath spokin all veritie necessarie for oure salvatioun, sail move yow to gif place to the same. O Lord eternal ! move and governe my toung to speak the veritie, and the • A charter of confirmation wa3 granted to Mr. Henry Ralnaves and Christian Scheves, liis spouse, of ihe lands of " Bister Cullessy vocat. Halhill," on the 10th of Au- gust, 1538. Re^. Seer. Sigil. lib. 13. f. 20. On the 12th of May, l;j62, a letter under the privy seal was s^ranted to Mr. Ilciiry Balnaves of Ilallyll. restoring him to his lands, iionours, &c. o( which he had been deprived " for ccrtane allcgit crymes of lese majestie imput to him." Ibid. lib. 31. f 16. NOTES. 405 hartis of thir pepill to understand and obey the same," MS. Letters, pp. 1, 2. In proof of his position, he laid down and defended two syllogisms. The tirst is thus stated : " All wirschipping, honoring, or service in- ventit by the brane of man in the religioun of God, without his awn expres commandement, is idolatrie : the mes is inventit, by the brane of man without any commandement of God : thairfoir it is idolatrie." The second syllogism is thus framed : "All honoring or service of God, whair- unto is addit a wickit opinioun, is abominatioan : unto the mes is addit a wickit opinioun : thairfoir it is abominatioun." pp. 3, 21. In support of the major proposition of his first syllogism, he argues from 1 Sam. xiii. 11—14. XV. 22, 23. Deut. iv. 2. xii. 8, 32. I Cor. xi. 23. Take the following as a specimen : — " We may not think ws so frie nor wyse that we may do unto God, and unto his honour, what we think expedient. No : the contrarie is commandit by God, saying, ' Unto my word sail ye ad nothing, nothing sail ye deminische thairfrome, that ye might ob- serve the preceptisof your Lord God.' Whilk wordis ar not to be un- derstand of the decalogue and law moral onlie, but of statutis, rytes, and ceremonyis ; for equall obedience of all his lawis requyreth God. And in witnis thairof, Nadab and Abihu offiring strange fyre, whairof God had geven unto thame na charge, wer instantlie, as thay offirit, punissit to death by fyre. — In the punisment of theis two afoirsaid is to be observit, that Nadab and Abihu wer the principal priestis nixt to Aron thair father, and that they were comprehendit neither in adul- terie, covetusnes, nor desyre of warldlie honor, but of a gud zeall and simpill intent wer making sacrifice, desyreing no profit of the pepill thairby, but to honor God, and to metigate his wraith. And yit in the doing of this self same act and sacrifice wer they consumit away with fyre ; whairof it is plane, that nether the preeminence of the per- sone or man that maketh or setteth up any religioun without the ex- press commandment of God, nor yet the intent whairof hie doith the same, is acceptit befoir God : for nothing in his religioun will hie ad- mit without his awn word, but all that is addit thairto doith hie abhor, and punisseth the inventoris and doeris thairof, as ye half hard in Na- dab and Abihu." pp. 6, 7. The following extracts will exemplify the irony with which he treated the Popish tenets : " Jesus Chryst sayeth, " I will lay upon yow none other burdene than I haif alreadie ;' and, 'that whilk ya half observe diligentlie.' O God eternal ! hast thow laid none uther burdene upon our backis than Jesus Chryst laid be his wordl Then who hath burdenit ws with all theis ceremonyis ] prescrybid fxsting, compellit chastitie, unlawfull vowis, invocatioun of Sanctis, and with the idolatrie of the mes? The divill, the divill, brethrene, inventit all theis burdenis to depress imprudent men to perditioun." p. 10. Speak- ing of the canon of the mass, he says, " I will preve, that thairin is indigest, barbarous, fMische congestioun of wordis, imperfectioun of sentences, ungodlie invocationis, and diabolicall conjurationis. And this is that holie canon whois autoritie precelleth all scriptures ! O ! it was so holie it might not be spoken planelie as the rest, but secreitlie it behoved to be whisperit ! That was not evil devysit ; for yf all men had hard it, sum wold have espyit the vanitie thairof — Thay say, Hoc est enim corpus meum. I pray thame schew, whair find thay enim') O ! heir mak thay a great matter; and heir lyeth a secreit misterie, and hid operatioun ! For in fyve wordis conceaved the virgin Marie, say thay, when sche conceavit the Sone of God. What yf sche had spo- ken sevin, ten, or twentie words ? or what yf sche had spokin thrie] Suld thairby the determinat consalle been impedit ? But, O 406 NOTES. papists! is God a juglar? Usetli he certane noumer of wordis in performing his intent !" pp. 18, 19. Q,uintui Kennedy, abbot of Crossraguel, in an Oration, composed by him in 15(J1, made some remarks on Knox's boolv against the Mass. " Shortly," says he, " will we call to remembrance a notable syllogis- me (or argument) sett furth be ane famouss preachour, callit John Knox, in his sermon againis the mess, in manner as efter followis." And having quoted the first syllogism, as already expressed in this note, he answers : " As to the first part of his syllogisme, quhar he dois affirme all worschipping of God inuentit be the biayne of manne without express command of God to be ydolatrie, it is als falss as Goddis wourd is trew; for quhyl did not Abel, Abraham, Noe, and diuerse vtheris of the aulde latheris, inuent meanis and ways to the worschipping of God, without expres commande of God, and wes ac- ceptable to the Lord God, as the Aulde Testament techis wsl Did not Cornelius centurio in likewise inuent meanis and ways to the worschipping of God, without expres commande of God, quhilk wes acceptable to God, as the New Testament plainly teachis wsl Thus nia we clearlie persaue that this wickit s)'llogisme aboue rehersit is express againis the Scripture of Almychtie God, bayth Aulde Testa- ment and New. Secundlie, to preve his fals and wickit syllogisme, impropirlie caillis he to remembrance the Scripture of Almychti God, quhare mentione is maid how King Saule made sacrifice unto God of his owne brayne, and wes nocht acceptable to the Lorde God. Mark this place of the scripture, and it sal be easely persavit that it is all wayis impropirlie appliit ; for quhy, his syllogisme makis mentione of the worschipping of God inuentit be the brayne of manne, without ex- pres commande of God ; and this place of Scripture testifeis plainly of the worschipping of God inuentit be the brayne of manne, express contrar to the connnande of God. And sua may we clearlie vnderstand that this first part of his syllogisme differis far fre the testimonie of Scripture, adducit be him for confirmatione of the samin ; bicaus thair is ane grete difference betuix the worschipping of God inuentit be manne, without express commande of God, and the worschipping of God inuentit be manne, express contrar to the commande of God ; the ane may neuer stand with the Scripture ; the vther aggreis with the Scripture, bayth Aulde Testament and New, as I half all reddy declarit." In fine the abbot insists that Saul " committit na ydolatrie," for " albeit the Scripture dois affirme that stubborness is as the wicketnes of ydol- atrie nochttheles stubbornes is nocht ydolatrie." Ane Oratioune set furth be Master Q,uintine Kennedy, Commendatour of Crosraguell, ye zeir of Gode 1561, pp. 5—8. Edinburgh, 1812. Note a. p. 67. Changes on the English Liturgij. — In the Communion-Rook, as set forth in 1548, the words pronounced by the minister at delivering the bread were, "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul into everlasting life ;" and at the delivery of the cup, " The blood of our Lord Jesus C'hrist. which was shed tor thee preserve," &c. As altered in the corrected Prayer Book of Edward VI. the words pronounced were, ' Take and eat this in re- membrance that Christ died for thee; and feed on him in thy heart by faith — Drink tiiis in remembrance Christ's blood was shed for thee, and bo thankful." A rubric was also added, to be rend at the cele- bration of the communion, declaring that, although the posture of kneeling was retained to signify our humble and grateful acknow- NOTES. 407 ledgment of the benefits of Christ, and to prevent profanation and disorder ; yet " no adoration is intended or ought to be done, eitlier to the sacramental bread and wine there bodily received, or unto any corporal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood ; for the bread and wine retained their natural substances, and Chi-ist's natural body was in heaven, and could not be in more places than one at the same time." Collier, ii. 310: Records, No. 70. In the settlement of religion, at the commencement of Elizabeth's reign, the old form of words at delivering the elements was superin- duced upon the new, which, like the patching of old and new cloth in a garment, marred the wliole, and pleased neither Protestants nor Papists; and the rubric, explanatory of kneeling, was thrown out. At the restoration of Charles II. " the Church thought fit," says Collier, "to condescend so far as to restore the rubric of King Edward's reign," to please " some people either of weak judgments or conten- tious humours." A piece of condescension, with which the historian pretty plainly intimates liis dissatisfaction. In the liturgy, which was attempted to be imposed upon the Scottish Church in 1637, all the qualifications and explications in the last prayer-book of Edward VI. were completely excluded, and various expressions, postures, and gestures, favourable to the Popish notions and superstitions, were un- blushingly borrowed from the mass-book. But the rulers of the Church in the three kingdoms were then posting fast to Rome, when they were overturned in their mad career. Note R, p. 78. Sentiments of English Reformers respecting the go%'>ernment and ivo7-ship of the Church. — I shall endeavour to compress the body of evidence which can be produced for the conformity between the pri- vate sentiments of the English reformers respecting worship and church-government, and those of Knox, along with the reformers of Switzerland and Geneva. Hooper, in a letter dated Feb. 8, 1550, in- forms Bullinger that " the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Rochester, Ely, St. David's, Lincoln, and Bath, were sincerely bent on advancing the purity of doctrine, agreeing in all things with the Helvetic churches," Burnet, iii. 201. Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, in a letter to Gualter, Feb. 4, 1573, fervently exclaims, "O! would to God, would to God, once at last, all the English people would in good earnest propound to themselves to follow the Church of Zurich as the most absolute pattern." Strype's Annals, ii. 286, 342. Cranmer expressed his opinion formally in writing, that "the bish- ops and priests were at one time, and were no two things, but both ONE OFFICE in the beginning of Christ's religion." — " The Bishop of St. David's, my lord elect of Westminster, Dr. Cox, Dr. Redman, say that at the beginning they were all one." Collier, ii. Records, No. 49, Burnet, i. Append, pp. 223 — 225. Thirteen bishops, with a great num- ber of other ecclesiastics, subscribed this proposition, " that in the New Testament there is no mention made of any degrees or distinc- tions in orders, bat only of deacons or ministers, and of priests or bish- ops." Burnet, ut supra, p. 324. Cranmer says, " In the New Testa- ment, he that is appointed a bishop or a priest needetli not consecra- tion, by the Scripture, for election or appointment thereto is suffi- cient." And of the same judgment was the Bishop of St David's. Ibid. 228, 230. Latimer and Hooper maintained the identity of bish- ops and presbyters, by divine institution. Voetii. Polit. Eccles. torn ii. p. 837. This was also the opinion of Pilkington, Bishop of Dur 408 NOTES. ham. Treatise on the burning of St Paul's, apud Cald. Altare Dam- ascenum, p. 204. Bisliop Jewel assents to it in his Answer to Har- ding, p. 121. And on the accession of Elizabeth, he expressed his hope, that " the bishops would become pastors, labourers, and watch- men, and that the great riclies of bishoprics would be diminished and reduced to mediocrity, that, being delivered from regal and courtly pomp, they might take care of the flock of Christ." Burnet, iii. 25=;:^. In the same yeai'. Dr. Aylmer addressed the right reverend bencli in these terms : " Come olT, you bishops, away with your superfluities, yield up your thousands, be content with hundreds, as they be in other reformed churches, where there be as great learned men as you are. Let your portion be priestlike and not princelike. Let the queen have tiie rest of your temporalities and other lands to maintain these war- res which you procured, and your mistresse left her; and with the reste builde and found scholes thorow out the realme : that every parishe church may have his preacher, every city his superintendent, to live honestly and not pompously ; which will never be onles your landes be dispersed and bestowed upon many which now feedeth and fatteth but one. — I would our countryman Wicliefe's boke which he wrote, De Ecclesia, were in print, and there should you see that your wrinches and cavillations be nothing worthie. It was my chaunce to happen of it in ones hand that brought it out of Bohemia." An Harbo- rowe for Faithful and Trevv Subjects, sig. O, 4. Cranmer expressed himself in a similar strain respecting the " glorious titles, styles, and pomps," which w^ere come into the C^hurch through tiie working of the spirit of Dioti'ephes, and professed his readiness to lay them aside. Strype's Cranmer, Append, p. 20. Burnet, iii. 105. Append, p. 83. In fact, the title o{ bishop was very generally disused in common speech during the reign of Edward VI. and that of superintendent substituted in its place. And this change of style was vindicated by Ponet, Bishop of Winchester, in an answer wliich he published to a Popish writer, Strype's Memorials of the Reformation, ii. 444, 445. It was proposed by Cranmer to erect courts similar to the kirk-ses- sions and provincial synods afterwards introduced into the Scottish Church. Burnet, iii. 214. Reformatio Leg. Eccles. cap. 8, 10. He ardently wished the suppression of prebendaries, "an estate," he said, "which St. Paule, reckoning up the degrees and estates allowed in his time, could not find in the Church of Christ." Burnet, iii. Ap- pend, pp. 157, 158. All the Protestant bishops and divines in the reign of Edward VI. were anxious for the introduction of ecclesiasti- cardiscipline. Dr. Cox (Oct. 5, 1552) complains bitterly of the opposi- tion of the courtiers to this measure, and says, that, if it was not adopted, " the kingdom of God would be taken away from them." Latimer's Sermons, fol. cix. b. Lond. 1570. Strype's Memor. of the Reform, ii. 3G6. Repository of Orig. p. 150. Cranmer and his colleagues were far from being satisfied with the purity of the last Common Prayer Book of Edward; and the primate had drawn up one which is said to have been "an hundred times more perfect." Troubles at Franckfort, p. 50. He and Ridley in- tended to procure an act for abolisiiing the sacerdotal habits; "for they only defended their lawfulness, but not their fitness." Burnet's Letters respecting Switzerland, &c. p. 52. Rotterdam, 1686. When Grindal was appointed to the bishopric of London, he " remained under some scruples of conscience about some things, especially the habits and certain ceremonies required to be used of such as were bishops. For the reformed in these times," says Strype, "generally went upon the ground, that, in order to the complete freeing of the Church of Christ from the errors and corruptions of Rome, every NOTES. 409 usage and custom practised by that apostate and idolatrous Church should be abolished, — and that the service of God should be most simple, stript of all that show, pomp, and appearance, that had been customarily used before, esteeming all that to be no better than super- stitious and anti-christian." Life of Grindal, p. 28. Horn and others had the same views and scruples. " By the letters," says Bishop Bur- net, " of which I read the originals, [in the archives of Zurich,] it ap- pears, that the bishops preserved the habits rather in compliance with the queen's inclinations, than out of any liking they had to them ; so far were they from liking, that they plainly expressed their dislike of them." Burnet's Letters, ut supra, p. 51. Before they accepted the office, they endeavoured to obtain the abrogation of the ceremonies ; and when the act enjoining them passed, they were induced to com- ply chiefly by their fears that Papists or Lutherans would be put into their places. Strype's Annals, i. 175. Burnet, ii. 37G, and his Sermon on Ps. cxiv. 15, preached before the House of Commons, Jan. 1688. Cox writes to Bullinger, 5th May, 1551, "I think all things in the church ought to be pure and simple, removed at the greatest distance from the pomps and elements of the world. But in" this our church what can I do in so low a station "!" Strype's Memor. of the Reform, ii. 305. Burnet, iii. 202. Jewel, in a letter to Martyr, Nov. 5, 1559, calls the clerical habits "a stage-dress," (;vestis scenica,) to which those alone were attached who " had nothing else to recommend them to the people, but a comical dress," — " stipites sine ingenio, sine doctrina, sine moribus, veste saltem comica volebant populo commendari." He engages that no exertions of his should be wanting to banish utterly these ridiculous trifles, "ludicris ineptiis," and relics of the Amorites, as his correspondent (he says) had well designed them. And, at a period still later, (Feb. 8, 1566,)he writes to Bullinger, that he " wished that the very sliglitest footsteps of popery might" be removed out of the church and minds of men ; but the queen would at that time suffer no change in religion." Burnet, iii. Append, p. 291. ii. Append, p. 351. Strype's" Annals, i. 174. Grindal and Horn wrote to Zurich, that they did not approve of, but merely suffered, kneeling in the eucharist, and sign- ing with the cross in baptism, with some other ceremonies, hoping that they would speedily obtain their abrogation. Burnet, ii. 310^ 314. As to Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, Pilkington of Durham, and Sands of Worcester, the non-conformists bear testimony, that these prelates discovered the greatest zeal in endeavouring to procure their abroga- tion. Ibid. iii. 316. The most respectable of the clergy in the lower house were of the same sentiments with the bishops on this subject. In the year 1562, the abrogation of the most offensive ceremonies was, afler long reasoning, put to the vote in the convocation, and carried by a majority of those present, but, when the proxies were included, there was found a majority of one for retaining them. The argu- ments used by Archbishop Parker's chaplains to prevail upon the house to agree to this, derived their chief force from their being un- derstood to be the sentiments of the queen. Burnet, ii. Append, pp. 319, 320. Strype's Annals, i. 298—300. From these facts (and a collection much more ample could easily be made) the reader will see who were the first puritans, and how very different the sentiments of the English reformers were from those of their successors. Those good men who had the direction of ecclesi- astical affairs in the reign of Edward VI. thought it most prudent to proceed gradually and slowly, in removing the abuses, and correct- ing the evils, which had overspread the Church; and to indulere the people for a season with those external forms to which they had been habituated, that they might draw them more easily from their super- 35 B2 410 NOTES. stitious notions and practices, and in due time perfect the rcfijrmation to tlie satisfaction of ail. Tlie plan was plausible; but its issue was very different from what was intended by those who proposed it. Nor was tliis unforeseen by persons who wished well to the Church of England. After the bishops had resolved to rest satisfied with the establishment which they obtained, and felt themselves disturljed by the complaints of the puritans, (as they were afterwards called,) they endeavoured to engage the foreign divines on tiieir side; and having, by partial representations, and tlu'ough the respect entertained for the government of England, obtained letters from them somewhat favourable to their views, they emplo3^ed these to bear down such as pleaded for a more pure reformation. Whitgift made great use of ttiis weapon in his controversy with Cartwright. Bishop Parkhurst wrote to Gualter, a celebrated Swiss divine, cautioning him on this head, adding, that he had refused to communicate some of Gualter's letters to Wliitgift; because, "if any thing made for the ceremonies, he presently clapped it into his book and printed it." Strype's Annals, ii. 286, 287. But these divines had formerly delivered their unbiassed judgment, disapproving of such temporizing measures. Cranmer having signified to the Genevese Reformer, that he " could do nothing more profitable to the church, than to write often to the king," Calvin wrote a letter to the archbishop in 1551, in which he lamented the procrastination used, and expressed his fears, that "a long winter would succeed to so many harvests spent in deliberation." Epist. p. 62; Oper. torn. ix. Strj^pe's Cranmer, p. 413. Peter Martyr, in June, 15.50, gave it as his opinion, that "the innumerable corruptions, infi- nite abuses, and immense superstition, could be reformed only by a simple recurrence to the pure fountain, and unadulterated original principles." And the prudential advice, that as few changes as pos- sible should be made, he called "a device of Satan, to render the re- gress to Popery more easy." Burnet, iii. Append, p. 200. Gualter, in a letter dated Jan. 16, 1559, says, that such advices, though "ac- cording to a carnal judgment full of modesty, and apparently condu- cive to the maintenance of concord," were to be ascribed to " the pub- lic enemy of man's salvation;" and he prophetically warns those who suffered abuses to remain and strengthen themselves in England, that " afterwards they would scarcely be able to eradicate them by all their efforts and struggles." Ibid. iii. 273. Append, p. 265. Fuller says, that theEnglish Reformers " permitted ignorant people to retain some fond customs, that they might remove the most danger- ous and destructive superstitions; as mothers, to get children to part with knives, are content to let them play with rattles.'" Very good ; but if children are suffered to play too long with I'attles, they are in great danger of not parting with them all their days. Note S, p. 79. Plan of Edward VI. for advancing' the Reformation of the Church of England. — A plan of improv^ements in the English Church, which Edward VI. drew with his own hand, may be seen in Strype's Me- morials of the Reformation, ii. 34] — 343. He was desirous of the establishment of ecclesiastical discipline, but sensible that the incum- bent bishops were in general of such a description as to be unfit for its exercise. " Some for papistry," says he, " some for ignorance, some for their ill-name, some for all these, are men unable to execute discipline." Accordingly, he adds, "as for discipline, I would wish no authority given generally to all iDishops ; but tiiat commission be given to those NOTES. ^ 411 of the best sort of them to exercise it in their dioceses.'.' King Ed- ward's Remains. Burnet, ii. Records, p. G9. Omitting other proufs of his intentions, I shall produce the decisive one of his conduct towai'ds the foreign churches settled in London under the inspection of John A Lasco. A Lasco was a Polish noble- man, who had forsaken his native country from love to the reformed religion. In his youth, he enjoyed the friendship of Erasmus, who, in oneof his letters, passes a high encomium on him. " Senex, juvenis convictu, factus sum melior; ac sobrietatem, temperantiam, verecun- diam, lingua? moderationem, modestiam, prudentiam, integritatem, quam juvenis a sene discere debuerat, a juvene senex didici." Erasmi Epist. lib. 28, ep. 3. He was offered two bishoprics, one in his native country, and another in Hungary ; but he rejected both, and, retiring into Friesland, became pastor of a Protestant congregation at Embden. Gerdes. Hist. Reform, iii. 145 — 150. The Protestant churches in the Low Countries being dissipated in consequence of the troubles pro- duced by the Jnterim, he came to England at the pressing invitation of Cranmer, and was chosen superintendent of the German, French, and Italian congregations erected in London, which consisted of be- tween 3000 and 4000 persons. Strype's Cranmer, pp. 234 — 241. Gerdes. ut sup. pp. 150, 235. A Lasco afterwards published an account of the form of government and worship used in these congregations, which greatly resembled that which was introduced into Scotland at the establishment of the Reformation. The aflairs of each congregation were managed by a minister, ruling elders, and deacons ; and each of these offices was considered as of divine institution. Ut infra, fol. i. 6, b. II. The im spection of the different congregations was committed to a superin- tendent, " who was greater only in respect of his greater trouble and care, not having more authority than the other elders, either as to the ministry of the word and sacraments, or as to the exercise of eccle- siastical discipline, to which he was subject equally with the rest" — "Cestu)' est appelle, au preuilege du Roy, Superintendant, lequel est plus grand que les autres, seulement en ce qu' il a plus de peine et de soing que tons les autres, non seulement au gouuernement de toute r Eglise, mais aussy a la defendre cutre les effortz de tons ses aduer- saires, et a retenir vn consentement vnanime de tous, aux differens de la doctrine. D'av^antage il n' a point plus d' autorite que les autres Ancles, au Ministere de la parole, et des sacremens, et en 1' usage de la discipline de 1' Eglise, a la quelle il est subiect cume tous les autres. Et comme il a soing des autres au cause de son IMinistere, parielle- ment il se soubmet au soing des autres, en 1' obeissance de la parole de Dieu, et obseruation de la discipline." Ut infra, fol. i. b. It is pro- per, however, to mention that A Lasco, although he allows no supe- riority of office or authority to superintendents, considers that they were of divine appointment, and tiiat Peter held this rank among the apostles. "Premierement que la Ministere de Superintendant, ou In- specteur, est vne ordonnance diuine en 1' Eghse de Christ, instituee du Seigneur lesus Christ etre les Apostres mesmes : quad il commanda a Pierre specialement, de confirmer ses autres freres en la foy. Et non pas qu' il luy ait donne autorite sur les autres Apostres: comme le Pape de Rome songe : mais qu' il failloit retenir en 1' Eglise vne puis- sance egalle de tous les Apostres, auec Pierre per vng certain ordre d' une solicitude, des vns pour les autres: ainsy que tres bien 1' enseigne sainct Ciprian martyr. Et aussy nous voyons manifestement, qu' un mesme Ministere est egalement attribue a tous les Anciens de 1' Eglise, qui sont nommez Inspecteurs, et en Grec Euesques. Nous entendons aussy lean et laques auoir tel honneur que Pierre en 1' Eglise de leru- 412 NOTES. salem. Majs a fin qu' il y ait quelque ordre, en vn mesme gouuerne- ment Ecclesiastique, entre tous les Anciens, et que tout soit faict par ordre et lionnestement, il le faut conimencer a vn. Or pour ce qu'il y a bien a faire de quelz, on doit cGmencer le gouuernement en toute r Eglise; ores que tous les Anciens ayent vne mesme puissance." Toute la forme et maniere de Ministere Ecclesiastique en 1' Eglise des estragers, dressee a Londres en Angleterre. Par M. Jean a Lasco, Baron de Polonie. Traduit de Latin en Francois et imprimee par Giles Clematius. 1556, t'ol. 8, b. 9, a. Imposition of hands was used in the ordination of superintendents, ministers, ruling elders, and deacons. Ibid. fol. 27, 31, 35. The communicants sat at the Lord's table, and A Lasco spends a number of pages in proving that this posture is prefer- able to kneeling. Fol. 80 — 88. In fine, he says, " We have laid aside all the relics of Popery, with its mummeries, and we have studied the greatest possible simplicity in ceremonies." Ibid. fol. 79, b. Notwithstanding these sentiments, and these pieces of disconfor- mity to the practice of the Church of England, A Lasco was held in the greatest esteem, and warmly patronized, not only by Cranmer, but also by the young king, who granted him letters patent, erecting him and the other ministers of the foreign congregations into a body corporate. The patent runs in these terms : "Edward, &c. We being specially induced, by great and weighty considerations, and par- ticularly considering how much it becomes Christian princes to be animated with love and care of the sacred gospel of God, and apos- tolical religion, begun, instituted, and delivered by Christ himself, without which policy and civil government can neither subsist long, nor maintain their reputation, unless princes and illustrious persons whom God hath appointed for the government of kingdoms, do first of all take care that pure and tmcorrupted religion be diffused thi'ou^h the whole body of the commonwealth, and that a Church, instituted in trull/ Christian and apostolical doctrines and rites, be preserved, &c. with this intent and purpose, that there may be an uncorrupted inter- pretation of the holy gospel, and administration of the sacraments, ac cording- to the ivord of God, and Apostolical observance, by the minis- ters of the Church of the Germans, &c. we command and strictly charge the mayor, &c. that they permit the said superintendent and ministers, freely and quietly to enjoy, use, and exercise their own pe- culiar ecclesiastical discipline, notwithstanding that they do not agree with the rites and ceremonies used in our kingdom," &c. The patent may be seen at large in Burnet, ii. Records, p. 202. But the ulterior design which the king intended to accomplish by the incorporation of this church, is what I have particularly in view. This is explicitly stated by A Lasco, in a book which he published in 1555. In his dedication of it to Sigismund, King of Poland, he says, "When I was called by that king, [Edward VI.] and when certain laws of the country stood in the way, so that the public rites of divine worship used under popery could not immediately be purged out (which the king himself desired ;) and when I was earnest for the foreign churches, it was at length his i)leasure, that public rites of the English churches should be reformed by degrees, as far as could be got done by the laws of the country ; but tliat strangers, who were not strictly bound to these laws in this matter, should have churches granted unto them, in which tliey should freely regulate all things ivholhj according to apos- tolical doctrine and practice, without any reganl to the rites of the country; tliat by this means the Enelish churches also might be ex- cited to embrace the apostolical purity, by the unnnimous consent of all the estates of the kingdom. Of this project, the kincr himself, from his great piety, was both the chief author and the defender. For, although NOTES. 413 it was almost universally acceptable to the king's council, and the Archbishop of Canterbury promoted it with all his might, there were not wanting some who took it ill, and would have opposed it, had not his Majesty checked them by his authority, and the reasons which he adduced for the design." Again, in the Appendix to the same book, p. 649, he says, " The care of our Church was committed to us chiefly with this view, that in the ministration thereof, we should follow the rule of the divine word and apostolical observance, rather than any rites of other churches. In fine, we were admonished, both by the king himself, and his chief nobility, to use this great liberty granted to us in our ministry, rightly and faithfully, not to please men but foe. the glory of God, by promoting the reformation of his worship." The fol- lowing are the original words of the author : — "Cum ego quoque per Regem ilium vocatus essem: et leges qusedam patriae obstarent, quo- minus public! potissimum cultus divini ritus sub papismo usurpati (pro eo ac rex ipse cupiebat) repurgari protinus possent ; ego vero peregrinorum ecclesiis sedulo instarem, ita demum placuit, ut ritus publici in Anglicis Ecclesiis per gradus quosdam (quantum per leges patrias omnino liceret) repurgarentur : Peregrinis vero hominibus (qui patriis hac alioqui in parte legibus non usque adeo tenerentur) ecclesise concederentur in quibus omnia libere, et nulla rituum patri- orum habita ratione (juxta doctrinam duntaxit atque observationera apostolicam) instituerentur, ita enim fore, ut Anglicce quoque ecclesiae ad puritatem apostolicam amplectendam unanimi omnium regni or- dinum consensu excitarentur. Ejus vero consilii rex ipsemet (pro sua pietate) praecipuus non autor tantum, sed etiam propugnator fuit. Etsi enim id in senatu regio omnibus propemodum placeret, ipseque Can- tuariensis archiepiscopus rem omnibus modis promoveret ; non dee- rant tamen qui id moleste ferrent, adeoque et reluctaturi fuerint huic instituto regio, nisi rex ipse, non tantum authoritate sua restitisset: sed productis etiam instituti hujus rationibus conatus eorum repres- sisset." De Ordinatione Ecclesiarum peregrinarum in Anglia. Epist. Dedicat. p. 649. Larger extracts from this work may be seen in Voetil Politica Ecclesiastica, tom. i. 420 — 422. Had Mr. Gilpin been acquainted with these facts, he would have spoken with a little more moderation and respect concerning this ac- complished reformer, than he has done in the following passage. " By the favour of Edward VI. he was allowed to open a church for the use of his own persuasion. But he made only a bad use of this indulgence ; interfering very impertinently in the controversies then on foot." Gilpin's Lives of Latimer and Gilpin, p. 243, Lond. 1780. Writers who, like Gilpin, deal in abridgments, should be very cautious and sparing in the reflections which they make on characters, as they are apt to mislead their readers, without furnishing them with the facts which would serve to correct their mistakes. Note T, p. 80. Chaplains of Edward VI. — The following account of the freedom used by the chaplains of Edward VI. in reproving the vices of the courtiers, is given by Knox, in his " Letters to the Faithful in London," &c. I quote from the MS. "How boldiie thair synis wer rebukeit, even in thair faces, sucheas wer present can witnes with me. Almost thair wes none that occupyit the place [pulpit] but he did prophesie, and planelie speake, the plaguis that ar l:)egun, and assuredlie sail end. Mr. Grindal planelie spak the deth of the kinajis maieste, complayning on hishoushald servandis and 35* 4,14 NOTES. officeris, who nether eschameit nor feirit to raill aganis Godis trew word, and aganis the preacheris of the same. The godlie and fervent man, maister Lever, planehe spak the desolatioun of the commoim weill, and the plaguis whilk sukl follow schortlie. Maister Bradfurde (whome God, for Chrystis his Sonis sake, comfort to the end) spared not the proudest, but boldlie declareit that Godis vengence suld schortlie stryke thame that than wer in autoritie, becaus they abhorrit and lotlied the trew word of the everlasting God. And amangis many uther willit thame to tak exempill be the lait duck of Somerset, who became so cald in hering Godis word, that the yier befoir his last ap- prehensioun, hie wald ga visit his masonis, and wald not dingyie* himself to gafrom his gallerie to his hall for heringof asermone. "God punnissit him (said the godlie preacher,) and that suddanlie; and sail hie spair you that be dowbill mair wickitl No; hie sail not.f Will ye, or will ye not, ye shall drink the cupe of the Lordis wrath. Judicium domini ! judicium domini ! the judgment of the Lord ! the judgment of the Lord ! lamentabillie cryit hie, with weipping teiris. Maister Had- den most learnedlie opinit the causis of tiie bypast plagis, affirmyng that the wors were to follow, unless repentance suld schortlie be found. Thir things, and mekill mair I hard planelie spokin, efter that the haill counsale had said, they wald heir no mo of thair sermonis ; they wer but indifferent fellowis ; ye, and sum of thame eschameit not to call them pratting knaves. But now will I not speik all that I knaw, for yf God continew my lyfe in this trubill, I intend to prepair ane dischefor suche as than led the ring in the gospell ; but now thay half bene at the scule of Placebo, and amangis laddis [ladies] hes learnit to dance, as the devill list to pype!" pp. 120, 121. With Knox's representation exactly agrees the affecting " Lamen- tation for the change of religion in England," composed in prison by Bishop Ridley, in which he names our countryman, along with Lati- mer, Lever, and Bradford, as distinguishing themselves by the faith- fulness and boldness with which they censured the vices which reigned at court. I would willingly make extracts from it, but must refer the reader to the paper itself, which he will find inserted at large in the account of the bishop's trial and martyrdom, by Fox, p. 1614 — 1620. Edit. anno. 1596. Grindal was an exile during the reign of Mary, and, under Eliza- beth, was made successively Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, and Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas Lever was a very learned man, and Master of St. John's College, Cambridge. He was Knox's colleague at Frankfort. Upon the accession of Elizabeth, he was ad- mitted to a prebend in the cathedral of Durham, but was afterwards deprived of it on account of non-conformity. He seems to have been allowed to preach through the country, and, in 1577, died Master of Sherburn Hospital. Some of his sermons are in print. Troubles of Franckfort. pp. 13 — 23. Strype's Parker, p. 212. App. 77. Grindal, 170. Annals, iii. 512 — 514. Hutchinson's Durham, ii. 594. John Bradford was in prison when Knox wrote the above account of him, and was soon afler committed to the fiames. James Haddon had been chaplain to the Duke of Suffolk, and went to Strasburg at the death of Edward VI. He was cliosen, along with Knox, to be one of the ministers of the English Church at Franckfort, but declined accepting the oflice. Troubles of Franckfort, 13, 16, 23. Strype's Annals, ii. Append, p. 46. * !. e. deifrn : in the printed copies it is " disease himself." t The printed copies are unintelligible here. NOTES. 415 Note U, p. 82. The Confession or Prayer, composed and used by Knox, after the death of Edward VI. and the accession of Mary, shows the state of his mind at that crisis, and refutes the unfounded charges of the Popish, and of some Episcopal writers, that he was guilty of stirring up rebel- lion against the queen. I extract it from his treatise on Prayer, printed in 1554, which is now exceedingly rare. " Omnipotent and everlasting God, father of our Lorde Jesus Chryste, who be thy eternal providence, disposeth kingdoms as best seameth to thy wisdom, we acknowledge and confesse thy judgmentis to be righteous, in that thou hast taken from us, for our ingratitude, and for abusinge of thy most holy word, our native king, and earthly com- forter. Justly may thou poure forth upon us the uttermoste of thy plagues ; for that we have not knowen the dayes and tymes of our merciful visitacion. We have contempned thy worde, and de- spised thy mercies. We have trangressed thy lawes : for deceitfully have we wrought everie man with our neighbours ; oppression and violence we have not abhorred ; charitie hath not appeared among us, as our profession requireth. We have little regarded the voices of thy prophets ; thy threatnings we have esteemed vanitie and wynd : so that in us, as of ourselfis, restis nothing worthy of thy mercies. For all are found frutless, even the princes with the prophets, as withered trees apt and mete toe be burnt in the fyre of thy eternal displeasure. But, O Lord, behold thy own mercy and goodness, that thou may purdge and remove the most filthy burden of oure most horrible offences. Let thy love overcome the severitie of thy judgmentis, even as it did in geving to the world thy onely Sonne Jesus when all man- kynde was lost, and no obedience was lefte in Adam nor in his sede. Regenerate our hartes, O Lord, bj' the strength of the Holy Ghost. Convert thou us, and we shall be converted. Work thou in us un- feigned repentance, and move thou our hartes too obey thy holy lawes. Behold our trobles and apparent destruction ; and stay the sword of thy vengeaunce, before it devoure us. Place above us, O Lord, for thy great mercies sake, such a head, with such rulers and magistrates, as feareth thy name, and willeth the glory of Christ Jesus to spred. Take not from us the light of thy euangely, and suffer thou no papistrie to prevail in this realme. Illuminate the harte of our soveraigne ladye, quene Marie, with prignant gifts of thy Holy Ghoste. And inflame the hartes of her counsayl with thy trew fear and love. Represse thou the pryde of those that wolde rebelle. And remove from all hartes the contempte of the worde. Let not our enemies rejoyce at our destruc- tion ; but loke thou too the honor of thy own name, O Lorde, and let thy gospell be preached with boldnes in this realme. If thy justice must punish, then punish our bodies with the rodde of thy mercy. But, O Lord, let us never revolte nor turne backe to idolatrie agayne. Mytigate the hartes of those that persecute us, and let us not faynte under the crosse of our Saviour ; but assist us with the Holy Ghoste, even to the end," Note V, p. 99. Call and Invitation to Kno.r from the English Congregation at Franckfort. — " We haue receiued letters from oure brethren off Strausbrough, but not in suche sorte and ample wise as we looked fur, wheruppon we assembled together in the H. Gonste we hope, and haue with one voice and consent chosen yovv so particulerly to be one 416 NOTES. off the ministers ofT our congregation here, to preache vnto vs the most Jiuely worde off God, accordinge to the gift that God hathegiuen you, for as much as we haue here throughe the merciful goodnes otF God achurche to be congregated togetlier in the name off Christe, and be all off one body, and also beinge of one natio, tonge, and countrie. And at this presente, hauing neede off suche a one as yow, we do desier yow, and also require yow in the name off God not to deny vs, nor to refuse theis oure requests, but that yow will aide, helpe, and assiste vs with your presence in this our good and godlie enterprise, which we haue take in hand to the glorie off God and the profit off his congregation and the poore sheepe off Christ dispersed abroad who withe your and like presences, woulde come hither and be of one folde, where as nowe they wander abroad as loste sheepe, without anie gide. We mistruste not that yow will ioifully accepte this callinge. Fare ye well from Franckford this 24. off September. " Your louinge brethern, lohn Bale Edmond Sutton lohn Makebraie. William VVhittingham Thomas wood Mighell Gill Thomas Cole lohn Stanton lohn Samford William Williams William Walton lohn Wood George Chidley Jasper swyft Thomas Sorby William Hammon lohn Geofrie Anthony Cariar Thomas Steward lohn Graie Hugh Alforde." A Brieff Discours off the Troubles begonne at Franckford in Ger- many Anno Domini 1554. Abowte the Booke of Common prayer and Ceremonies. Pag. xix. xx. Printed 1575. Note W. p. 105. Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes ? Knox was accused by the English exiles of High Treason, because he charged Queen Mary with cruelty, and said that the Emperor was as great an enemy to Christ as Nero. But his accusers, it might easily be shown, used stronger language on this subject than ever he did. Mr. Strype informs us that the Protestants who felt and outlived the persecution of Mary, used the very worst epithets in speaking of her character. Memorials of the Reform, iii. 472. We need no other proof of this than the Oration composed by John Hales, and pro- nounced by a nobleman before Q,ueen Elizabeth, at her entrance upon the government. Speaking of the late persecution under Mary, the orator exclaims, " O cruelty ! cruelty ! far exceeding all crueltys com- mitted by those ancient and famous tyrants, and cruel murderers. Pharaoh, Herod, Caligula, Nero, Domitian. Maximine, Dioclesian, Decius; whose names for their cruel persecution of the people of God, and their own tyranny practised on the people, have been, be, and ever shall be in perpetual hatred, and their souls in continual tor- ments in hell." The late Queen he calls '■'■ Athalia, mnlirious Mnrij, unnatural, woman ; no, no ivoman, but a monster, and the Devil of belU covered with the shape of a ivoman." See Works of the Rev. Samuel Johnston, p. 144. Nor did they speak in more civil terms of foreign princes. Take, NOTES. 417 for an example, the invective of Aylmer against the French king, Henry II. " Is lie a king or a devil, a Christian, or a Lucifer, that bi his cursed confederacie so encourageth the Turke 1 Oh ! wicked catife and lierebrand of hell, which, for th' increasing of his pompe and vayn glory, (which he shall not long enjoy,) wil betray Christ and his cross, to his mortal enemy. Oh, foolish Cermains! whicii see not their own undoing, which conspire not together with the rest of Christian prin- ces to pull such a traytour to God, and his kingdom, by the eares out of France, and hang him against the sonne a drying. The devill hath none other of his sede nowe but him, to maintain both the spiritual and the temporaJl antichryste, the Pope and the Turke. Wherefore seeing he hath forsaken God, lyke an apostata, and sold himself to the devil, let us not doubte but God will be with us against him, whenso- ever he shall seek to wrong us ; and I trust he will now, in the latter age of the worlde, show his myght in cuttynge of this proude Holo- iernes' head by the handes of our Judith. Oh ! blessed is that man that loseth his lyfe against such a Termagaunt ! Yea, more blessed shall they be that that spend their lyves against him than against his great maister, the Turke: for the Turke "never understode'the cross of Christ; but this Turkish apostata is named a devellis name, Chris- tianissimus, and is in the very heart of Christendome, and lyke a traiterous Saracene, is Christ's enemy." Harborowe for Faithful! Subjects, Q,. 1. Strasborowe, 1559. I do not find Collier, nor other high-church historians, quoting or commenting upon such language. On the contrary, Aylmer is praised, by them for " his handsome pen," while every opportunity is taken to inveigh against the virulence of our Reformer. We may safely chal- lenge them to prove that he ever indulged in language so intemperate, or so disrespectful to princes, as that which I have just quoted. Note X, p. 113. Canons of Scottish Councils. — " When a house is in flames," says Lord Hailes, " it is vain to draw up regulations for the bridling of joists or the sweeping of chimneys." Such was the situation of the Popish Church in Scotland, when the clergy began to speak of reforming abuses. The 21st canon of the council which met in 1549, ordains that there should be a reader of theolO; quam fugitiuus a lege pro dictis criminibus. Prefato die, Robertus Campbell de Kinzecluch per literas S D N regis et regine sepe voct. ad intrand. Joannem VViJlok coram dicto justitiaro deputato, dictis die et loco ad subeund. legem pro vsurpa- tione auctoritatis ministerij ecclesie ad manus suas proprias ipso io ministrum eiusdem minime legitime admisso existen. in festo Pasche, viz. 26to die mensis Martij ultimo elapso et quotidie per spatium trium dierum hujusmodi festum immediate preceden. &c. Et judicium red- ditum fuit quod dictus Joannes Willokad cornu S D N regis et regine denunr. Et quod omnia bona sua mobilia suis vsibus applicantur tanquam fugitiuus a lege pro dictis criminibus. Eodem die, prefati Paulus Methwen, frater Joannes Cristesoun, Wiliielmus Harlaw et Joannes Willok denunciati fuerunt rebelles S D N regis et regine, et ad cornu eorundem positi fuerunt per publi- cam proclamationem apud crucem foralem burgi de Striueling, per Joannem Duncane, seriandum et officiarium dicte curie demandato prefati justitiarij deputati, coram his testibus, Roberto Forrester de Calzemuke, Alex'andro Forrester alias Carrik signifero, WiJlielmo Symth, et Joanne Grahame, notario publico, cum diuersis aliis. [Jus- ticiary Records. Book extending from 14th February, 1558, to 22d May, 1559.] Note HH, p. 172. Lamentation over the demolition of the Religions Houses. — "Truely, among all their deeds and devises, the casting doune of the churches was the most foolish and furious worke, the most shreud and execra- ble turne that ever Hornok himself culd have done or devised. For out of al doubt that great grandfather of Calvine, and old enemie of mankind, not only inspired every one of those sacrelegious hellhounds with his flaming spirit of malice and blasphemie, as he did their fore- fathers Luther and Calvine: bot also was then present as maister of worke, busily beholding his servands and hirelings working his wil and bringing to pass his long desired contentment. — They changed the churches (which God himself called his house of prayer) into filthie and abominable houses of sensual men, yea, and of unreasonable beasts : when as they made stables in Halyrudhous, sheep-houses of S. Antoine, and S. Leonard's chapels, tolbooths of S. Gillis, &c. which this day may be seene, to the great griefe and soiTow of al good Chris- tians, to the shame and confusion of Edinburgh, and to the everkist- ing damnation of the doers thereof, the sedicious ministers, Knox 37* 438 NOTES. and his complices." After weeping over the ruins of " Abbirbroth," the writer returns to St. Giles, and represents our Saviour as lament- ing its profanation by the setting up of " the abomination of desola- tion," the courts of justice, within ttiat holy ground. " How wold he say, if he were now entering in at S. Giles, and looking to bare wals, and pillars al cled with dust, sweepings and cobwebs, instead of paint- ing and tapestrie; and on every side beholding the restless resorting of people treating of their worldly affaires, some writing and making of obligations, contracts and discharges, others laying countes or tell- ing over sowmes of money, and two and two walking and talking to and fro, some about merchandise or the lawes, and too many, alas! about drinking and courting of woeman, yea, and perhaps about worse nor I can imagine, as it is wont to be done al the day long in the common Exchanges of London and Amsterdam and other great cities? And turning him farther towards the west end of the church, which is divided in a high house for the Colledge of Justice, called the Session or Senat-house, and a lower house called the low Tolbooth, where the balives of the town used to sit and judge com- mon actions and pleas in the one end thereof, and a number of har- lots and scolds for flyting and whoredom, inclosed in the other. And these, I mean, if our Saviour were present to behold such abominable desolation, that where altars were erected, and sacrifices, with con- tinual praises and praiers, were wont to be offered up to the Lord, in remembrance of that bloody sacrifice of Christ on the crosse, there now are iioles for whores, and cages for scolds, where nothing is hard bot banning and swearing, and every one upbraiding another: O what grieve and sorrow wold our Lord tak at the beholding of such profanation and sacrilege !" Father Alexander Bailie's True Informa- tion of the unhallowed offspring, progress and impoison'd fruits of our Scottish-Calvinian Gospel and Gospellers, pp. 24, 25, 27, 28. Wirts- burg, 1628. Note II, p. 174. Alleged Excesses of the Reformers. — It would be endless to enter into an examination of the exaggerated accounts which have been given of the " pitiful devastation" committed by the reformers. I shall content myself with stating a few facts, which may satisfy the candid and considerate that no such great blame is imputable to them. The demolition of the monasteries, with their dependencies, will be found to comprehend the sum of what they can be justly charged with. And yet again, I would ask those who are most disposed to blame them for this, What purpose could the allowing of these buildings to stand have served, if not to cherish the hopes and excite the desires of the catho- lics, to regain possession of them ] To what use could the reformers possibly liave converted theniT Is it to be supposed that they could form the idea of preserving them for the gratification of a race of an- tiquaries, who were to rise up in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- turies? Have these gentlemen, with all their zeal, ever testified their regard for these sacred monuments, by associations and subscriptions to preserve the mouldering remains from going to their original dust ? The refirmed ministers had enough to do, in exciting the nobility and gentry to keep the parish churches in decent repair, without under- takinsr the additional task of supporting huge and useless fabrics. But enouLfh of this — Let not any distress themselves by supposing that the costly furniture of the monasteries and churches was all consumed by the flames. Fanatical as the reformers were, they " reservit the NOTES. 439 best part thairof unburnt," and converted it into money, some of which went into the pubhc purse, but the greater part into the private pocliets of the nobles. Winzet, apud Keith, Append. 245. The idols and images were indeed committed to the flames without mercy; but considering the example that their adversaries had set them of consigning the living images of God to this fate, tlie retaliation was certainly mode- rate; and that these were the only sacrifices which they offered up, we have the testimony of a Popish writer. Leslaeus, de Reb. Gest. Scotorum, lib. x. p. 537, edit. 1675. The act of privy council for demolishing idolatrous houses did not extend to cathedrals or to parish churches. Spotswood, pp. 174, 175. In the First Book of Discipline, indeed, cathedral-churches, if not used as parish-churches, are mentioned among the places to be suppressed ; but so far was this case from occurring, that it was found necessary to employ many of the chapels attached to monasteries, and collegiate churches, as places for the Protestant worship. That, in the first effervescence of popular zeal, some of the cathedrals and other churches should have suffered, is not much to be wondered at. " What you speak of Mr. Knox preaching for the pulling down of churches," says Mr. Baillie, in his answer to bishop Maxwell, " is like the rest of your lies. I have not heard that in all our land above three or foure churches were cast down." Historical Vindication of the Government of the Church of Scotland, p. 40. Mr. Baillie had the historical collec- tions of Calderwood in his possession when he composed that work. This statement is confirmed by the testimony of Cecil in the letter quoted above, (p. 430.) The churches were merely to be stripped of monuments of idolatry and instruments of superstition ; and in carry- ing this into effect, great care was ordered to be taken that the build- ings should not be injured. Lord .Tames Stewart (afterwards earl of Murray) was the person to whom the execution of the act in the northern part of the kingdom was committed; and we have an au- thentic document of the manner in which he proceeded, in an order issued by him, and written with his own hand, for purging the Cathe- dral church of Dunkeld.* The following is an exact copy of that order : " To our traist friendis, the Lairds of Arntilly and Kinvaid. " Traist friendis, after maist harty commendacion, we pray yow faill not to pass incontinent to the kyrk of Dunkeld, and tak doun the haill images thereof, and bring furth to the kyrkzayrd, and burn thaym oppinly. And siclyk cast down the altaris, and purge the kyrk of all kynd of monuments of idolatrye. And this ze faill not to do, as ze will do us singular empleseur; and so committis you to the protection of God. From Edinburgh, the xii. of August, 1560. " Faill not, bot ze tak'guid heyd (Signed) that neither the dasks, windocks, " Ar. Ergyll, nor durris, be ony ways hurt or broken eyther " James SxEwart. glassin wark or iron wark." " RUTHVEN." We may take it for granted that the same caution was used in the rest of the commissions. If it be asked, how it happened that the cathedrals, and many other churches, fell into such a ruined state, the following quotations may serve for an answer. They are taken from a scarce work written by Robert Pont, commissioner of Murray, and one of the lords of Session. " Yet, a great man)^ not onely of the raskall sorte, but sundry men of name and worldly reputation, joyned ♦ Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xx. p. 422. 440 NOTES. themselves with the congregation of the reformers, not so much for zeale of religion, as to reape some earthly commoditie, and to be en- riched by spoyle of the kirkes and abbey places. And when the preachers told them that such places of idolatrie should be pulled down, they accepted gladly the enterprise ; and rudely passing to worke, pulled down all, both idoles and places where they were found. Not making difference between these places of idolatrie, and many parish kirks, where God's word shuld have bin preached in many parts where they resorted, as in such tumultes and suddainties useth to come to passe; namelye, among such a nation as we are. Another thing fell out at that time, which may be excused by reason of neces- sitie; when as the lordes, and some of the nobilitie, principall enter- prysers of the Reformation, having to do with the Frenchmen, and many their assisters of our owne nation, enemies to these proceedings, were forced, not onely to ingage their owne landes, and bestowe whatsoever they were able to furnishe of their own patrimonie, for maintenance of men of warre, and other charges, but also to take the lead and belles, with other jewelles and ornaments of kirkes, abbayes, and other places of superstition, to employ the same, and the prises thereof, to resist the enemies. The most parte of the realme beand in their contrarie. This, I say, cannot be altogether blamed." Against Sacrilege, Three Sermons preached by Maister Robert Pont, an aged Pastour in the Kirk of God. B. 6, 7. Edinburgh, 1599. Comp. Keith, p. 463. But what shall we say of the immense loss which literature sus- tained on that occasion] " Bibliothecks destroied, the volumes of the fathers, councells, and other books of humane learning, with the regis- ters of the Church, cast into the streets, afterwards gathered in heaps, and consumed with fire." Spotswood's MS. Keith, Historic, p. 503. Does not such conduct equal the fanaticism of the Mahometan chief- tain who deprived the world of the invaluable Alexandrine li')rary ! As every one is apt to deplore the loss of that commodity upon which he sets the greatest value, I might feel more inclined to join in this lamentation, were I not convinced that the real loss was extremely trifling, and that it has been compensated ten thousand fold. Where and of what kind were these bibliothecks? Omneignotum magnifi- cum. The public was long amused with the tale of a classical library at lona, which promised a complete copy of Livy's works, not to be found in all the world beside; a miracle which Mr. Gibbon, in the abundance of his literary faith, seems to have been inclined to admit. Danes, and Reformers, and Republicans, were successively anathe- matized, and consigned to the shades of barbarism, for the destruction of what (for aught that appears) seems to have existed only in the brains of antiquarians. It has been common to say, that all the learn- ing of the times was confined to monasteries. This was true at a certain period; but it had ceased to be the fact in the age in which the Reformation took place. Low as literature was in Scotland at the beginning of the 16th century, for the credit of my country, I trust that it was not in so poor a state in the universities as it was in the monasteries. Take the accotmt of one who has bestowed much atten- tion on the monastic antiquities of Scotland. " Monkish amljition terminated in acquiring skill in scholastic disputation. If any thing besides simple theology was read, it might consist of the legends of saints, who were pictured converting infidels, interceding for offend- ers, and overreaching fiends; or of romances, recording the valour of some hardy adventurer, continually occupied in wars with pagans, or in vanquishing giants, foiling necromancers, and combating dra- gons. Some were chroniclers ; and books of the laws might be tran- NOTES. 441 scribed or deposited with monks. Some monks might be conversant in medicine and the occult sciences." Dalyell's Cursory Remarks, prefixed to Scottish Poems, 1. 17, 18. But we are not left to conjecture, or to general inferences, concern- ing the state of the monastic libraries. We have the catalogues of two libraries — the one of a monastery, the other of a collegiate church — which may be deemed fair specimens of the condition of the remain- der in the respective ages to which they belonged. The former is the catalogue of the library of the Culdean monastery at Lochleven in the twelfth century. It consisted of only seventeen books, all of them necessarily in manuscript. Among these were a pastoral, gra- duale, and missale, books common to all monasteries, and without which their religious service could not be performed ; the Text of the Gospels, and tlie Acts of the Apostles ; an Exposition of Genesis ; a Collection of Sentences ; and an Interpretation of Sayings. The rest seem to have consisted of some of the writings of Prosper, and per- haps of Origen and Jerom. Jamieson's Historical account of the ancient Culdees, pp. 376 — 8. It may be granted that this collection of books was by no means despicable in that age ; but certainly it con- tained nothing, the loss of which has been injmious to literature. I have no doubt that, if a copy of the Gospels, with the Lochleven seal or superscription, (whether authentic or fictitious,) were to occur, it would, with antiquarians, give as high a price as a Polyglot; without the smallest regard to its utility in settling the original text. From the twelfth to the sixteenth century, the monastic libraries did not im- prove. The catalogue of the library at Stirling exhibits the true state of learning at the beginning of the last mentioned period. It con- tained, indeed, a copy of the gospels and epistles in manuscript, most probably in Latin; the remainder of its contents was purely monkish. There were four missals, two psalters, four antiphonies. tlu-ee brevia- ries, two legends, four graduals, and ten processionals. Dalyell's Fragments of Scottish History, p. 11. I iiave occasionally met, in the course of my reading, with notices of volumes of the Fathers being in the possession of the Scottish mon- asteries, but nothing from which I could conclude that they had com- plete copies of any of their writings. The abbot of Crossraguel, indeed, speaks of his being in possession of a large stock of this kind, (Keith, Append. 193,) which some writers have been pleased to calcu- late at " a cart-load." It does not appear, however, that they belonged to the monastery over which he presided. But whatever books of this kind were to be found in them, the reformers would be anxious to preserve, not to destroy. The chartularies were the most valuable writings deposited in monasteries; and many of these have been transmitted to us. The reformers were not disposed to consume these records, and we find them making use of them in their writings. Knox, Historie, pp. 1, 2, 3. The mass-books were the most likely olijects of their vengeance ; and I have little doubt that a number of these were committed to the flames, in testimony of their abhorrence of the Popish worship. Yet they were careful to preserve copies of them, which they produced in their disputes with the Roman Catho- lics. Ibid. p. 261. But whatever literary ravages were committed, let them not be im- puted exclusively to the tumultuary reformation of Scotland, to the fanaticism of our reformers, or the barbarous ignorance of our nobles. In England, the same proceedings took place to a far greater extent, and the loss must have been far greater. "Another misfortune," says Collier, "consequent upon the suppression of the abbeys, was an igno- rant destruction of a great manv valuable books. The books, instead F3 448 NOTES. of being removed to royal libraries, to those of cathedrals, or the uni- versities, were frequently thrown in to the grantees, as things of slender consideration. Their avarice was sometimes so mean, and their ignorance so undistinguishing, that when the covers were some- what rich, and would yield a little, they pulled them off, threw away the books, or turned them to waste paper." — "A number of them which purchased these superstitious mansions," says Bishop Bale, "reserved of those library books, some to serve their jacks, some to scour their candlesticks, and some to rub their boots, and some they sold to the grocers and soap-sellers, and some they sent over the sea to bookbinders, not in small numbers, but at times whole ships full. Yea, the universities are not clear in this detestable fact; but cursed is the belly which seeketh to be fed with so ungodly gains, and so deeply shameth his native country. I know a merchant man (which shall at this time be nameless) that bought the contents of two noble libraries for forty shillings price; a shame it is to be spoken. This stuff hath he occupied instead of grey paper by the space of more than these ten years, and yet liath he store enough for as many years to come.'" Bale's Declaration : Collier's Eccles. Hist. ii. 1G6. Note KK, p. 183. Aversion of Queen Elizabeth to the Scottish War. — The personal aversion of Elizabeth to engage in the war of the Scottish Reforma- tion, has not, so far as I have observed, been noticed by any of our historians. It is, however, a fact well authenticated by state papers, whether it arose from extreme caution at the commencement of her reign, from her known parsimony, or from her high notions respect- ing royal prerogative. Cecil mentions it repeatedly in his con-espon- dence with Throkmorton. "God trieth us," says he, "with many difficulties. The queen's majestic never liketh this matter of Scotland; you knowe what hangeth thereuppon: weak-hearted men and flatter- ers will follow that way. — I have had such a torment herin with the queen's majestic, as an ague hath not in five fitts so much abated." Forbes, i. 454, 455. In another letter he says, " What will follow of my going towardes Scotlande, I know not; but I feare the success, quia, the queen's majestic is so evil disposed to the matter, which troubleth us all." Ibid. 4G0. It was not until her council had pre- sented a formal petition to her. that she gave her consent. Ibid. 390. Even after she had agreed to hostilities, she began to waver, and listen to the artful proposals of the French court, who endeavoured to amuse her until such time as they were able to convey more effectual aid to the Queen Regent of Scotland. Killigrew, in a letter to Throkmorton, after mentioninaing tells us. that he thoiiErht it beneath him to write in a language which was fit only for barbarians and heretics. " Tres sunt linguce elegantes NOTES. 459 et ingenuaB, Hebraica, Grseca, et Latina, quae nobilibus principibus — sunt dignae : cseteras linguas, cum sint barbaraj, barbaris et hrereticis tanquani propriis relinquo." De Vita Hajreticorum, Dedic. p. ult. et p, 31. Paris, 15::5i. Notwithstanding tiiis writei-'s boasting of iiis litera- ture, and tlie oj)portunities whicli he takes to display it, he did not know the top from the bottom of a Hebrew letter, if we may judge from his book, p. 94, b. Laing's objection to the literature of Fergu- son may, however, be thought as solid as that which another Popish writer has brought against his morals, by accusing him o^ using pepper instead of salt to his beef. "At hi quibus carnem accendant irritent- que, novas artes quotidie excogitant ;" and on the margin, he says, "Exemplo est David Ferguson ad macerandas cai-nes bubulas pipere pro sale utens." Hamilton, de Confus. Calvinianffi Sect£e, p. 76. But to do justice to Hamilton, it is proper to mention, that pepper was at that time so high priced as to be a morsel only for a pope or a cardi- nal, and very unfit for the mouths of barbers, cobblers, &c. of which rank he tells us the reformed preachers generally were. Principal Smeton, after saying that Ferguson had reared a numerous family on a very moderate stipend, adds : — " Undenam ergo illi, amabo te, tan- tum piperis ad carnes quotannis macerandas quantum sexcentis apud nos aureis nummis nemo unquam compararitl" Smetoni Responsio ad Hamilt. p. 95. The truth is, there was too much salt and pepper in the writings of Ferguson for the Papists. A number "of Ferguson's witty sayings are recorded by his son-in- law, John Row. James VI. who resided frequently at Dunfermline, used to take great delight in his conversation. "David," said James to him one day, " why may not I have bishops in Scotland as well as they hav^e in England "S" — " Yea, Sir," replied Ferguson, " ye may have bishops here; but remember ye must make us all bishops, else will ye never content us. For if ye set up ten or twelve lowns over honest men's heads, (honest men will not have your antichristian pre- lacies,) and give them more thousands to debauch and mispend than honest men have hundreds or scores, we wil never al be content. We ar Paul's bishopis, Sir, Christ's bishopis ; ha'd us as we are." — " The d — 1 haid. aills you," replied James, " but that ye would all be alike; ye cannot abide ony to be abone you." — "Sir!" said the min- ister, "do not ban." Row's Coronis to his Historie of the Kirk, p. 314. Ferguson seems to have amused himself with some of those incidents which were generally reckoned ominous. The king having once asked him, very seriously, what he thought was the reason that the Master-of-G ray's house shook during the night, he answered, " Why should not the devil rock his awin bairns ?" Having met at St. An- drews along with other commissioners of the church, to protest against the inauguration of Patrick Adamson as archbishop .of that see, one came in and told them, that there was a crow " crouping" on the roof of the church. "That's a bad omen," said he, shaking his head, "for inauguration is from avium garritu, the raven is omnimodo a black bii"d, and it cries corrupt, corrupt, corrupt^ Row's Historie, p. 40. It may not be improper to insert here the inscription on the tomb of John Row, the historian to whom I have so often been indebted, who was the third son of the learned minister of Perth, and married Grizzel, daughter to David Ferguson of Dunfermline. It is on his monument in the churchyard of Carnock. "Hie jacet M. Jo. Row, Pastor hujus Ecclesice fidelisslmus. Vixit acerrimus veritatis et foederis Scoticani assertor, Hierarchiaj pseudo- episcopalis, et Romanorum rituum, cordicitus osor, in frequenti sym- mystarum apostasia cubi instar constantissimus. — Duxit Gricellidam Fergusonam, cum qua annos 51 conjunctissime vixit. Huic ecclesiae 460 NOTES. annos 54 pracfuit. Obiit Junij 2Gto, anno domini 1646. ^tatis 7S. Obiit et ilia Januarij 30mo, 1659." Note SS, p. 218. Order of Procedm'e at the first Meetings of the General Assembly. — The first appointment of a moderator was in December, 1563. "It was proponit to the haiil assemblie yat ane moderator suld be ap- pointit for avoyding confusioun in reasoning." Buik of the Universal Kirk, p. 8. The Assembly which met at Perlh, August, 1 572, ordained, as a perpetual law, that no person, of whatever estate, take in hand to speak without licence asked and given by the moderator, that mo- deration should be kept in reasoning, and silence when commanded by the moderator, under pain of removal from the Assembly, and not to re-enter during that convention. Ibid. p. 55. In July 156S, to cor- rect evils, " be reason of the pluralitie and confusion of voices," it was enacted, that none should have power to vote but superintendents, commissioners appointed to visit kirks, ministers " brought with yame, presented as habile to reasone, and having knowledge to judge," and commissioners of burghs, shires, and universities. The ministers were to be chosen at the synodal convention of the diocese, by con- sent of the rest of the ministry and gentlemen that shall convene at the said synodal convention; commissioners of burghs by "the coun- sell and kirk of their awn townes." — " None to be admitted without sufficient commission or wreit." And to prevent a monopoly of power, they were to be changed from Assembly to Assembly. Ibid, p. 38. The Assembly, March 1569 — 70, settled the following order of procedure. After sermon and prayer by the former moderator, 1. A new moderator to be chosen. 2. Superintendents, commissioners, &c. to be tried. First, the superintendents being removed, inquiry was made of the ministers and commissioners of their bounds if they had any charges to lay against them as to neglect of duty, &c. If any charge was brought, it was examined, and sentence passed. The same order was observed in the trial of the other members of Assem- bly. 3. The case of penitents and persons under censure to be con- sidered. Lastly, The business left undecided by last Assembly, or brought before the present, to be taken up. Ibid. p. 47 Note TT, p. 219. Epistolary Correspondence between Knox and Calvin. — In a letter dated 28th August, 1559, Knox requests Calvin's opinion on the two following questions. 1. Whether bastards, the children of idolaters and excommunicated persons, should be admitted to baptism, before their parents gave satisfaction to the church, or they themselves were able to require it ] 2. Whether monks and Popish priests, who nei- ther serve the church, nor are capable of serving it, although they have renounced their errors, ought to have the annual rents of the church paid to them ? Knox had maintained the negative on the last question. The letter is said to be written r(//i//»/. " Plura scribere vetat fobris quacrucior, labnrum moles qua premor, et Gallorum bom- bardaj, qui, ut nos opprimant, ap]iulerunt." (Comp. Historic, p. Kvl.) Talvin, in a letter dated Nov. 8, 1559, answers, that it was his opinion, and that of his colleagues, on the first question, That the sacrament of baptism was not to he administered to those who were without the church, nor to any without proper sponsors; but the promise (upon NOTES. 461 which the right was founded) was not confined to the posterity in the first degree : and therefore those who were descended from godly pa- rents were to be viewed as belonging to the church, although their parents, or even grand-parents, had become apostates, and such chil- dren were not to be refused baptism, provided persons appeared as sponsors, engaging for their religious education. " Adde quod alia est nunc renascentis ecclesiae ratio, quam rite formatse et compositae." (Comp. Dunlop, ii. 573.) On the second question, he says, That al- though those who performed no service in the church had not a just claim to be supported by its funds, still, as the Popish clergy had brought themselves under engagements in times of ignorance, and had consumed a part of their lives in idleness, it seemed harsh to de- prive them of all support. He therefore advises a middle course to be adopted. Calvini Epistolse et Responsa, pp. 516 — 520. Hanovise, 1597. Ibid. pp. 201, 202, in Open torn. ix. Amsteelod, 1667. From another letter of Calvin to Knox, dated April 23, 1561, it ap- pears that the Genevese Reformer had been consulted by our coun- trymen on some other points of considerable difficulty, — most proba- bly those questions on which the nobility and the ministers differed. He wrote them accordingly, but soon afterwards was applied to a second time for his opinion on the same subject, as his first letter had miscarried. Knowing that his judgment was not altogether agreeable to some of his correspondents, he suspected that they wished to draw from him an answer more favourable to their own sentiments, and expressed his dissatisfaction at such conduct. Knox, who appears to have been employed in the correspondence, was grieved at this sus- picion, and vindicated himself from the imputation. Calvin, in his letter, apologises for his severity, and assures him that he never enter- tained any suspicion of his integrity. " Te vero dolose quicquam egisse, neque dixi, neque suspicatus sum. Ac mihi dolet, quod exci- derat ex ore meo, sic in animum tuum penetrasse, ut putares malae fidei aut astutise, a qua te remotum esse judico, fuisse insimulatum. Facessat igitur metus ille vel cura." In both letters, Calvin signifies his high satisfaction at the wonderful success of the Reformation in Scotland. The conclusion of the last is expressive of the unaffected piety of the writer, and his warm regard for his correspondent. " Hie versamur inter multa discrimina. Una tantum caslestis prcesidii fiducia nos a trepidatione eximit : quanvis non simus metu vacui. Yale, exi- mie vir, et ex animo colende frater. Dominus tibi semper adsit, te gubernet, tueatur, ac sustentet sua virtute." Ut supra, pp. 564 — 566, et in alter, edit. p. 150. These are the only parts of the correspondence between Calvin and our Reformer which have been pubhshed ; but Mons. Senebier, the librarian of Geneva, has informed us that there are a number of Knox's fetters to Calvin preserved in the public librar)' of that city. Histoire Litteraire de Geneve, torn. i. p. 380. During- his residence at Geneva, Knox became acquainted with Beza, who then acted as professor of Greek in the neighbouring city of Lausanne, froift which he was translated to Geneva, upon the erec- tion of the university there, the same year in which our Reformer returned to Scotland. An epistolary correspondence was afterwards maintained between them. Two letters of Beza to Knox, the one dated June 3, 1569, the other April 12, 1572, are inserted in Epistol. Theolog. Bezaj, pp. 333—336, 344—346. of the first edition ; and pp. 304—307, 314—316, of the second edition, Genevse, 1575. Both of them evince the writer's ardent regard for our Reformer, and his hich opinion of our reformation. The first letter is inscrilied, " To John Knox, the Restorer of the Gospel of God in Scotland," and begins 39* 462 NOTES. witli these words : " Gratiam et pacem tibi, mi frater, omnibusque vestris Sanctis ecclesiis opto a Deo et Patre Domini nostri Jesu Christi, cui etiam gratias ago assidue, turn de tanta ipsius in vos beneficentia, turn de vestra singulari in asserendo ipsius cultu constantia et aninii fortitudine. Euge, mi frater, quam recte illtid quod disciplinam simul cum doctrina conjungitis ? Obsecro et obtestor ut ita pergatis, ne vobis idem quod tam multis eveniat, ut qui in limine impegennt, pro- gredi non possint, imo etiam interdum ne velint quidem, quod lonse misserrimum est." The second letter, which behoved to be received by Knox only a iew months before his death, could not fail to be gra- tifying to him, even although he had then taken a formal " farewell of the world." It is addressed " To his dearest Brother and Colleague," and begins in the following lofty strain of affection: " Etsi tanto ter- rarum et maris ipsius intervallo disjuncti corporibus sumus, mi Cnoxe, tamen minime dubito quin inter nos semper viguerit, et ad extremum vigeat, summa ilia animorum conjunctio, unius ejuedemque spiritus fideique vinculo sancita." Note UU, p. 220. Evidence of Queen Mary's design to restore the Roman Catholic Religion in Scotland. — The reader who doubts that this was her uni- form object from the time that she left France, may consult the follow- ing authorities. Throkmorton's Conference with Mar)^ in Knox, Historic, 275—277. Keith, History, 164— 1G7. Life of Bishop Lesley, in Anderson's Collections, i. 4, iii. 9. The letters of the Cardinal de St. Croix, (ambassador from the pope to the court of France,) extracted from the Vatican library, afford a striking demonstration of the inten- tions of the queen. St. Croix writes to Cardinal Borromeo, that the grand prior of France (one of Mary's uncles) and Mons. Danville had arrived from Scotland on the 17th November, (1561,) and had brought information, that the queen was going on successfully in surmounting all opposition to her in that kingdom. Being informed one day that some heretics had extinguished the candles on her altar, she repaired to the chapel, and having ascertained the fact, commanded a baron, one of the most powerful and most addicted to Lutheranism, to re- light the candles, and place them on the altar: in which she was in- stantly obeyed. After relating another instance of her spirited con- duct against the magistrates of a certain borough who had banished the Popish priests, the cardinal adds : — " by these means she has acquired greater authority and power, for enabling her to restore the ancient religion;" "con che acquesta tutta via maggior autorita et forze, per j^osser restituer en quel regno 1' antica religione." A)'^mon, Synodes Nationaux des Eglises Reformecs de France, torn. i. pp. 17, 18. Note XX, p. 222. * Sanguinary spirit and. principles of Roman Catholics. — Bayle, Commentaire Philosophique, tome i. pref xiv. part ii. chap. v. pp. 343, 347, anno I6S6, and his Criti(iue Generale de I'Histoire du Calvinisnip, pp. 48G, .501 — 519. Hume's History of England, vol. vii. chap. i. p. 24. Lond. 1793, 12 mo. Robertson's History of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 62, 143, 352. Lond. 1809. " Les Papistes," says Bayle. in a treatise in which he pleads for tol- eration on a very extensive basis — " Les Papistes eux-menies sont les NOTES. 463 premiers en ce pais-ci a crier qu' il n'y a rien de plus injuste que de vexer la conscience. Pensee ridicule en leur bouciie ! et non seule- ment ridicule, mais traitresse, &c. i. e. The Papists tiiemselves are the first in this country [Britain] to exclaim that there is nothing more unjust than to distress conscience. A sentiment ridiculous in their mouth ! and not only ridiculous, but treacherous, and marked with that dishonesty which they have uniformly discovered for so many ages. For they would not fail, in three years, to burn and butcher all who refused to go to mass, if they acquired the power, and could avail themselves of the baseness of a sufficient number of court para- sites, men of venal souls, and unworthy of the Protestant name which they bear, to overturn the fundamental barriers which so salutarily restrain the royal power." Commentaire Philosophique, pref pp. xiii. xiv. The sentiments contained in the following passage are now become so antiquated and unintelligible, that I shall not risk my credit by venturing to translate it. " Les malheurs qui sont arrivez a nos freres de France tourneront, comme il y a apparence, a notre profit. 11 nous ont remis dans la necessaire defiance du Papisme, il nous ont fait voir que cette fausse religion ne s'amende pas par le long age, qu' elle est toujours, comme au terns jadis, animee de 1' esprit de fourbe et de cruaute, et que malgre la politesse, I'honnetete, la civilite, qui regne dans les manieres de ce siecle plus qu'en aucun autre, elle est toujours brutale et farouche. Chose etrange ! tout ce qu' il y avoit de grossier dans les mceurs de nos ancestres s'est evanouit ; a cet air rustique et sauvage des vieux tems a succede par toute 1' Europe Chretienne une douceur et une civilite extreme, II n'y a que le Papisme qui ne se sent point du changement, et qui retient toujours son ancienne et hab- ituelle ferocite. Nous nous imaginions nous autres Anglois, que c' etoit une bete apprivoisee, un loup et un tigre qui avoit oublie son naturel sauvage ; mais Dieu mei'ci aux Convertisseurs de France, nous nous sommes desabusez, et nous savons a qui nous aurions a faire si notre sort etoit entre leurs mains. Pesons bien cela et consid- erons quel malheur nous pendroit sur la tete, si nous laissions croitre le Papisme dans ce bien heureux climat. Je ne veux pas que cela nous porte a faire aucunes represailles sur les papistes ; non, je deteste ces imitations ; je souhaite seulement qu' ils n' aquierent pas la force d' executer sur nous ch qu' lis savent faii-e." Ibid. pp. xv. xviii. xix. Note YY, p. 233. The following extracts from the Records of the Town Council of Edinburgh, show the attention which they paid to the support and accommodation of their minister. May 8, 1560. The provost, bailies, and council ordain the treasurer to pay the sum of 40^. Scots for furnishing of the minister, John Knox, in his household ; and because he had been furnished on David For- rester's expenses since his coming to this town, for the space of fifteen days, ordains to receive David's accompts, and make payment. "Penultimo Octobris, 15G0. The quhilk day, the provost, baillies, and counsaill ordainis James Barroun to pay to John Knox the soulme of sax scoir poimds of the reddiest money of the solmes being in his hands, and sicklyk the soulme of 20/." This last sum seems to have been allotted for repah's on his house. " 12th Dec. 1560. The provost, baillies, and counsill ordanis James Barroun (dean of guild of last year) to pay and deliver to John Knox, minister, the soume of fiftie pound for supporting of his charges, and that incontinent after the sight heirof, 464 NOTES. and gif it beis funden that the said James be siiperexpendit, after the making of his accompt, precepts shall be given in maist strait forme commanding the treasurer to mak him gud and thankfull payment of his haill superexpensis, within aught days nixt thairafter." From the minutes of Dec. 22, 15G0, April 5, and May 28, 15GI, it appears that his fixed stipend was 200/. a year; for 50/. is ordered, each time, "for his quarter payment" or "dues." On Dec. 14, 15G0, it was agreed that his house rent should afterwards be "paid at the rate of fifteen merks a-j'ear." •'Penultimo Octobris, [15G1.] The samine day the provost, baillies, and counsail ordanis the dene of gyld, with all diligence, to mak ane warm stuydye of dailies to the minister, Johne Knox, within his hous, abone the hall of the same, with lyht and wyndokis thereunto, and all uther necessaris : and the expenciss disbursit be him salbe allowit to him in his accomptis." — "January, 1561, (?. e. 1562,) the provost, bail- lies, and counsale, understanding that the minister Jhone Knox, is j'equjq-it be the hale kirk to pass in the partis of Anguss and Mearnys, for electing of ane superintendent thare, to the quhilk they themselfs hes grantit, thairfoir ordains Alexander Guthrie, dene of gild, to pass in companie with him, for furnishing of the said ministeris charges, and to deburse and pay the same of the readeast of the townis gudis in his handis, quhilk salbe allowit in his accomptis : And fui'ther haist the said minister hame, that the kirk hear be not desolait." To these extracts respecting Knox, I may add one from the same records respecting Willock, who officiated in his place as minister of Edinburgh during the civil war. "29 August, 1560. The counsaill ordains their treasurer to deliver to John Willock twenty-two crownes of the sone for recompense of the greit traveill sustenit be him this haill yiere bygane, in preching and administring the sacramentis with- in this burgh, and ordanis ane member of the counsail to thank him for his greit benevolence, and for the greit travaill forsaid." Previous to this, they had remunerated John Cairns, with whom Willock had lodged. In the text I have mentioned, that, after the arrangement made by the privy council respecting the thirds of benefices, Knox seems to have received part of his stipend from the common fund. The ex- tracts which Keith has given from the books of assignation mention only two allowances made to him. " To John Knox, minister, wheat 2 c[halders,] bear* G c. meal o. oates 4 c." Whether this was for the year 1563, or not, Keith does not say. He adds in a note, "For the year 156S, I see 333/. 6s. 8d. given to Mr. Knox." History, Appendix, 183. His stipend at the time of his death will be stated in Note QQ,Ci. Keith has inserted, from the books of assignation, the prices of the principal articles of living at that time, from which an idea of the value ofmoneymay be formed. Ibid. 189. The following are a specimen. In Fyfe, Lothian, Merse, and Teviotdale, for 1573, wheat, 26/. ISs. id. the chalder; bear, 21/. 6^. Sd. ; meal, 16/.; oats, 20 merks. Or, ac- cording to another accomit, without expressing any county, wheat 1/. the boll; bear, 1/. 13s. 4 j. ; meal the same; oats, 10*.; malt, 2/. ; I'ye, and pease and beans, the same; mairts of Aberdeen, 2/. 13*. id. the piece; sheep, 9s.; poultry, 4s. the dozen; geese, Is. the piece; cheese, Gs. M. the stone. * i. e. barley. NOTES. 465 Note ZZ, p. 234. Protoco. — James Nicolson. Pro Johanne Knox. Knox's Protest in the affairs of the Earl of Angus. — Vigesimo quarto die mensis Octobris, anno Domini millesimo quingentesimo sexagesimo primo, in presence of me notair, and witnesses vnder- writtin, C'omperit Johnne Knox, minister of Edinburgh, and tlmir being requyrit be George Dowglas, sone naturall to vmquhile Arcbi- bald'erle of Angus that last deceissit, to deliuer agane to him the letter of renunciatioun maid be the said George of the landis, lordschip, and baronie of Abirnethy, and regalite thairof, with the maner, places, mylnis, multuris, woddis, fischingis, tennentis, tennandriys, service of free tennentis, aduocationis, donationis, and rychtis of patronages of the kirkis, benefices, collegis, and prebandarys thairof, &c., in fav- ouris of Archibald, now erle of Angus, of the daitt at Edinburgh, the 24th day of Jnnij the zeir of God 1500 threscoir ane zeiris; and con- signit and putt be him in the handis of the said Johnne, in hoip of ag- greance to half bene dressit betuix him the said erle and his tutouris. Ansuerit, that he granted the resaving of the said lettir, vnder condi- tioun foirsaid; and that he had bestowit his faithfull laubouris besyde the travellis tane zairin be diuers noble men to half had that mater aggreit. Be quham thair wes diuers reasonable offeria made to the said George, quhilkis he hes refusit, and thairfoir protestit gif that his refuis turne heirefter to his awin damnage, that the said Johne be in- nocent thairof Testifiand to the said George, in his awin presence and ouris, and also befoir God, that the offer maid is mair reasonable nor he belevis the said George is able to half ony proffet or gaynes vtherwyis thairbi. And thairupoun the said Johnne deliuerit to the said George his said lettir of renunciatioun, of the daitt foirsaid, vnder his seill and subscriptioun, quhilk the said George confessit and re- cognoscit to be the same quhilk he deliuerit, togidder also with his seiH in lead, quhilkis the said George resavit ancTdischargit the said Johnne thairof Q,uhairupoun the said Jon. askit instrumentis. Done in maister James M'giilis study, at 6 houris at even, or thairbi. Pre- sent thairat the said Maister James clerk of regri. ; Maister George Hay vicare of Eddilstoune ; Adam Wauchop, and I James Nicolson. J. Nicolson. Note AAA, p. 238. Minutes of the Toion Council of Edinburgh respecting a second Minister. — "10th April, 1562. The same day the counsale, under- standing the tedious and havie labours sufferit be the minister, Jhone Knox, in preiching thrise in the oulk, and twise on the Sounday, or- dains with ane consent to solist and persuade Maister Jhone Craigr, presentlie minister of the Canongait, to accept upoun him the half chargis of the preaching of the said kirk of Edinburgh for sic gud deidas they can agree on." That this measure was not carried into effect for some time after, appears from the following act of council. " ISth June, 1563. After lang reasoning upon the necessities of min- isters, finds that there salbe ane uther minister elected be the provost, baillies, and counsale, dekynes and elderis of this burgh, and addit to Johne Knox, minister." From the same act and subsequent mea- 13 466 NOTES. suros, it is evident that the want of necessary funds was the cause of tile delay. For the council resolved, that "for susteaning of thame baith, togidder with Johne Cairns reider," tlie deacons siiould meet with the Itrades and the merchants, to see what they would be willing to give. The reports made to the council bore that, if they would tix a particular stipend, the trades were willing to pay a fifth part of it, according to old custom. But although Craig had not been translated from the Canongate, he seems to have performed a part of the duty in Edinburgh; for, in the same month, I find the council appointing a number of persons " to go amang the faithfull who had communicate," and make a collection for " Johnne Craig and Johnne Cairns, who had received nathing for a lang time." This expedient they were oljliged afterwards to repeat. On the 2Gth September, 1561, the council had agreed to give "to John Cairns, lector of morning prayeris, lOOmerks a-year, in tyme to cum." Records of Town Council. Note BBB, p. 242. IVritings of Quintin Kennedy and George Hay. — Keith has inserted a letter which Kennedy wrote to the Archbishop of Glasgow, and the correspondence between him and Willock, in 1559. He has also given large extracts from his Compendious Tractive. History, Append, pp. 193—203. The following quotations may be added, for veritying the statement which 1 have made in the text. Having quoted Joim v. 39, Kennedy says, "Marke (gud redare) the Scripture to occupy the place of ane wytnes, and not the place of ane juge." A, iv. In a subsequent part of the work, he endeavours to qualify what he had stated respect- ing ttie church being judge of all matters in religion. " We never say in^all our lytil tractive, that the kirk is juge to the Scripture, hot yat the kirk is juge to discern quhilk is the trew Scripture of God, and to mak manifest to the congregation the trew understandyng of the samyn." Ibid. H, v. This explication does not much mend the mat- ter ; for certainly he who has the power of calling what witnesses he pleases, and of putting what sense he pleases upon their testimony, is to all intents and pui-poses the judge of the witnesses, and of their evidence. Having mentioned that there were persons " swa religious and clean fyngerit, that thair wil na thyng perswade thaim without testimony of Scripture," he adds, "All Christin men havand ane gen- erale understanding of the articles of our faith (conforme to the under- standing that the kirk hes teacheit ws) ; the ten commandements, the prayer of the Lord callit the Pater noster, it suffices to thame to quhame it does not appertene of thair office nor vocatioun, to occupy the place of the prechairis or techeairis in the congregatioun. As to the sacramentis, and all uther secretis of the Scripture, stand to the juge- ment of thy pasture, (without curious ressoning or cersing of the secretis of Godis word,) quha bciris thy burding in all materis doutsum abone thy knawledgp, conforme to the saying of the apostle, 'Obey unto your superioris,' &c. And in cais they be negligent, ressave doctryne of the kirk, as the tyme teicheis ws. Be this way (quhilk is conforme to Godis word and all veritie) it sail be asie to all men, quhat place or estait in the congregatioun that ever he occupy, to beir his awin bur- ding." Ibid. D, vii. Another work of Kennedy has lately been printed, from a MS. in the Auchinleck librarv, under the following title:— "Ane oratioune in fauouris of all thais (if the Congregatione. exhortand thaim to aspy how wonderfullie thai ar abusit be thair dissaitful prechouris, set furth be master (iuintine Kennedy, Commendatour of Corsraguell, ye zeir NOTES. 467 of Gode 1561." Edinburgh, 1812., Perhaps this oration was printed in the year mentioned in the title, although no copy is now to be found, and was one of " his books," referred to by the abbot in his dispute with Knox. I have already given extracts from this book, pp. 406, 431. It concludes in the following manner: — " Q,uharfor, with all my hart exhortis, prays, and but mercie appeilis thar pestilent prech- eouris," [on the margin, "Knox, Willock, V\ inrame, Gudmane, Dowg- lasse, Heriot, Spottiswoode, and all ye rest."] " puffiit vp with vane glore, quhilkis rackinnis thaimselfis of gretar knawlege nor C'hristis haill kirk, cumand but authoritie, subuertand, subornande, and cir- cumuenande the simple peple, cersande thair pray like the deuillis rachis, barkand bauldly like bardis, aganis the blissit sacrament of the altare, the sacrifice of the mess, and all vther godlie ordinance of Jhesus Christ and his kirk, to preiss their wittis and inginis, and to streik all thair pennis in my contrar, makande the congregatioun and all vtheris to vnderstande, gif I do propirly, truely, and godly, or nocht, invey againis thair deuillische doctrine and doyingis. Fail- yeande thaii'of, recant, for schame, recant (ye famouse precheouris) and cum in obedience to the kirk of God, quhilk ye haue stubbornlie misknawin this lang time bypast, (and that nocht without grete dan- gere to your avne saulis and mony vtheris,) thairfor recant, in tyme recant, as ye lufe your saluation, and cry God mercie : To quaham, with the Sone and Haly Gaist, be prayse, honour, and glore, for ever ande ever. Amen. Progenies viperarum fugite a ventura ira, nam securis ad radicem arboris posita est, penitentiam agite. Matth. iii." In his dispute with Knox, the abbot mentions his " books," and he refers particularly to a book which he had published in 1561, on the sacrament of the mass. There is in the library of Alexander Bos- well, Esq. of Auchinleck, a MS. by the abbot, entitled, " Ane familiar commune and ressoning anent the misterie of the sacrafice of the mess, betwixt twa brether, master Q,intin Kennedy, commendator of Crosraguell, and James Kennedy of . In the yeir of God ane thousand, five hundred, three scoir ane yeir." It was answered by George Hay, in a work entitled, " The Confutation of the Abbote of Crosraguels Masse, set furth be Maister George Hay. Imprinted at Edinbm-gh by Robert Lekpreuik, 1563." The dedication is inscribed, " To the most noble, potent, and godlie Lord James Earle of Murray." This is the book to which Winzet alludes on the margin of his Buke of Gluestionis, where he says, " Mr. George Hay, fy haist zow to recant." Keith, Append, pp. 236, 246. I have been favoured with the sight of a copy of this rare tract, belonging to Richard Heber, Esq. It would seem that the abbot's treatise was not printed, but that copies of it had been transcribed, and industriously circulated through the country in manuscript ; for Hay repeatedly makes the supposition that there might be variations in the different copies, and on one occa- sion confesses that he could not read a passage in the copy which he used. "Followeth, another objection made by James. Alwayes," says he, " all ze wha vses the Masse, dois not (this (not) is not in the text, that is come to my handes, but because the sentence requireth it, I haue added it) as Christ did in the latter supper," &c. He gives another quotation from the abbot in the following manner : " Trewly, brother, and ze be sa scrupulus Scripturares, that ze will nothing but (but is not in my text) as Christe did, towards the vse of the Sacra- mentes, ze will subiiert our halie Faith, and commend our awin doinges,* (so I ride it) (our owen doinges or commonly I can not tell * If IS probable that the words which puzzled Hay should be read, and condemn your awin doinges. NOTES. which should be red, or if there be any other thing yet,) for quhair finde ze that Christe euer appointed ane man to be baptised,"' &c. Fol. 36, b. 37, a, b. The following account of the abbot's talents and acquaintance with the Fathers may serve as a specimen of Hay's style. "Trewitis, that before this boke of the abbote of Crosraguel's was set furth and published, sindrie and diuers were the opinions of men concerning it. For the sorte of them that be comonly tearmed Papistes, aduersaries to all trew religion, thoght in verie deid that they should receaue such a comfort, yea, such a gun as no munition myght withstand, no strengthe I'esiste, nether "yet any maner of force repel. They were encuraged by the brute and fame of the man, who onely wolde ap- peare in these tymes to haue dexteritie of ingyne, helped and auanced by long progress of tyme spent in good letters, yea, ad besydes the Scriptures oYOod, will also appeare to haue the conference, judgment, and authoritie of the ancient Fathers and councils, which it may seme to the reader that he feadeth (not unlyke the nyne Muses) in his bosome. I my self hauing hade some tymes credit and acquentence of the man, loked for some what that might haue troubled the cus- ciences of waiklinges, and of such as stayed them seines vpon a glis- tering and semely ymagination of mans heart, rather then upon the written and reueiled treuth, by the spirite of God. For it was not vnknawen to me how familiare he hath bene with the scolastike sophisters, their thornie questions, and scabrus conclusions, yea and some of the ancient doctors, whose writinges, what by ignorance of tyme seduced, w^hat by affection carryed away, I thought wel he should wreist to his vngodly opinion." Fol. 3, a. Having pointed out a false quotation, which the abbot had made from Chrysostom, Hay adds, " Hereby it is easy to perceaue how vainely ye ascribe such reading of the ancientes vnto your self, as in your writinges ye take vpon you, that ye will seme in the eyes of the people, to be the onely he in this realme versed in antiquitie. And now to say my judgment frely, I truste ye haue no works of such men as ye draw your autho- rities out of, but onely hath, I can not tell what lytle scabbed treaties of Eccius, Cochleus, Hosius, Stanislaus youre new start up Campion, and of such others of your factio, and taketh out of them such thinges as ye think may serue to your wicked and blasphemus purpose. What credite now, or what authoritie oght to be given to such places, as thou draweth out of the doctors, who belyke neuer hath sene there workes, nether yet knoweth to what purpose they speak, if they speak of their owne mynde, or of their aduersaries, whither they speak by an interrogation or conclusiuely, and determinatly, whither they speak i-rppoXtK'j;* that is excessiuely, to extoll the dignitie of the mater they haue in hand (which is not rare in this author) or simplie. Thus the text it self is to be considered, that it that preceadeth being con- ferred with it that followeth, the mynde and sentence of the author may be knowen perfytlie. Not that I will hereby damne yong men, who ether excluded by tyme, or els lacking bookes, muste giue credite to good authorities, but in this man who will seme to be an other Anacharsis inter sordidos Scythas, it is intollerable, who is seques- trate frome the common societie of men, and trauell in the common wealth, hauing not else to do, but that he hath inioyned to iiim self, that is to ly by a pleasing bray, and cast in stones to trouble the faire and cleare rinning watter." Fol. 18, b. 19, a. Lepreuik, in an advertisement to the reader, apologizes for his want of Greek characters, which he was forced to have supplied by manu- • The Greek word is inserted with a pen. NOTES. 469 script. Herbert's edit, of Ames, p. 1487. This fact illustrates what 1 have mentioned in p. 374. Herbert questions Ames's statement, that they had no Hebrew or Greek types in Scotland in 1579, and he ap- peals to a book printed " at Edinburgh, be Leighe Mannenby, anno Domini 1578," in which Greek characters are Ibund. Ibid. pp. 1499, 1500. But this cannot overthrow Ames's statement, which is correct; for the impnnt of that book is undoubtedly fictitious, as no such Scot- tish printer as "Leighe Mannenby" seems to have ever existed. Note CCC, p. 249. Ordination of Eeformed Ministers. — In the prologue to the " Rea- soning betwixt Jo. Knox and the abbot of Crossraguell," Knox adverts to the cavils of the papists against the validity of the call of the re- formed ministers, and intimates his intention of returning an answer to the questions on this head which had been proposed to him by Ninian Winget, the " ProciUour for the Papists.'''' There are some general remarks on this subject in his answer to Tyrie's Letter, but I do not think that he ever published any thing professedly on the point. There is a ridiculous tale told by a Popish writer concerning a pre- tended convention held by the reformed ministers in Scotland to de- termine in what manner they should proceed in the admission of min- isters. Willock proposed as a weighty difficulty, that if they used imposition of hands, or any other ceremony commonly practised in the church, they would be asked to show, that they themselves had been admitted by the same ceremonies, and thus the lawfulness of their vocation w^ould be called in question. " Johann kmnox ansaerit maist resolutlie, 'Buf, buf, man, we ar anes entered, let se quha dar put us out agane ;' meaning that thair was not sa monie gunnis and pistollis in the countrie to put him out as was to intrud him with vio- lence. Sua Johann kmnox, to his awin confusion, entered not in the kirk be ordinar vocatione or imposition of hand is, but be imposition of ' bullatis and pouldir in culringis and lang gunnis;' sua ye mister not to trubill you farder in seiking out of Johann kmnox vocatione." — This story " I understude," says the author, "of ane nobil and hon- ourable man, quha can yit beir witnes gif 1 lea or not." He took care, however, not to give the name of the nobleman. Nicol Burne's Dis- putation, p. 129. Parise, 1581. Note DDD, p. 250. Strictness and Impartiality of Discipline.— The form of satisfaction enjoined in the case of Methven, was appointed for all who should be excommunicated for murder, adultery, incest, or other aggravated crimes. The murderer was to bear in his hand " the same or lyke weapoun whairwith the murther was committed." Bulk of the Univ. Kirk, p. 38. Other rules observed in cases of discipline may be seen in Knox's Liturgy, pp. 55—67, edit. IGll, and in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 704—756. Impartiality, as well as severity, distinguished the disci- pline of those times. " G)-7/t men offending in syc crymes as deserves seckclaith, they suld receave the same als weill as the pure. — Na su- perintendant nor commissioner, with advyce of any particular kirk of yair jurisdiction, may dispense with the extreamitie of sackcloth, prescrivit be the actes of the generall discipline, for any pecuiiiall sum or paine adpios usus.'' Bulk of the Univ^ Kirk, August, 1573. Dun- lop, ii. 753. This was not a mere theoretic proposition. For, in 15G3, 40 470 NOTES. we find the lord treasurer making public satisfaction, (Keith, 245, 529;) in I5G7, the Countess of Argyle, (13uik of the Univ. Kirk, p. 37;) and in 1508, the Bishop of Orkney, (Anderson's Collections, ii. 2S4.) Let not our modern fashionables and great ones be alarmed at hearing of such things. Those days are gone, and will not, it is likely, soon return. The parliament, or the magistracy of particular burghs, enacted punishments of a corporal kind against certain crimes wliich were ordinarily tried in the cliurch courts. Some of these existed before the Reformation, and some of them were posterior to it ; but the in- fliction as well as the enacting of them, pertained to the civil magis- trate. Knox, p. 269. In the jninutes of several kirk-sessions, how- ever, the sentences inflicting them are found recorded along with censures properly ecclesiastical. The following extract accounts for this in part. " \Vhat you bring" (says Mr. Baillie, in his answer to Bishop Maxwell) "of pecuniary mulcts, imprisonments, banishments, jogges, cutting of haire, and such like, it becomes neither you to charge, nor us to be charged with, any snch matters: No church assembly in Scotland assumes the least degree of power, to inflict the smallest civil punishment upon any person ; the Generall Assembly it selfe hath no power to fine any creature so much as in one groat: It is true, the lawes of the land appoint pecuniary mulcts, imprisonment, joggs, pillories, and banishment for some odious crimes, and the power of putting these lawes in execution is placed by the parliament in the hands of the inferior magistrates in burroughs or shires, or of others to whom the counsel table gives a speciall commission for that end ; ordinarily some of these civill persons are ruling elders, and sit with the eldership: So when the eldership have cognosced upon the scan- dall alone of criminall persons, and have used their spirituall censures only to bring the party to repentance, some of the ruling elders, by virtue of their civill office or commission, will impose a mulct, or send to prison or stocks, or banish out of the bounds of some little circuit, according as the act of parliament or counsel! do appoint it. But that the eldership should imploy its ecclesiastick and spirituall power for any such end, none of us doe defend. That either in Scotland or any where else in the world the haire of any person is commanded to be cut by any church judicatory for disgrace and punishment, is (as I take it) but a foolish fable. That any person truely penitent is threat- ened in Scotland, with church censures for non-payment of monies, is in the former category of calumnies." Historical Vindication of the Gtovernment of the Church of Scotland, pp. 17, IS. Lond. 164(3. I have in my possession (extracted from the records of a kirk session) a commission, granted in 1701, by the sheriff-depute of Berwickshire, constituting one of the elders session-bailie, for executing the laws against profaneness, agreeably to an act of parliament authorizing the appointment of such an officer in parishes within which no ordinary magistrate resided. I may add the following quotation from another able and strenuous assertor of the presbyterian discipline and government. " Ubi origi- nalis causa excommunicationis est delictum violans jura et libertates ecclesi;e, &.c. When the original cause of excommunication is an offenco violating the rights and liberties of the church, either in the way of loss being sustained or injury being done, 1 confess that the assistance of the secular arm may be implored, and the guilty person may be forced to repair the loss and to give civil satisfaction; or even if the person already excommunicated shall testify a disposition to disturl) the religious sei'vice, or to violate the rights and liberties of the church. But where no loss or injury to the rights and liberties of NOTES. 471 the church arises from the ofiTence or from the contumacy, but scandal alone is given, 1 know not vvliether any person is to belbrced to what is called penitential satisfaction, by imploring the assistance of the secular arm. For as the church has no coactive power in herself, so neither ought she to use it indirectly to extort confessions which are constrained, and consequently counterfeit." Calderwood, Altare Da- mascenum, pp. 312 — 3. edit. Lugd. Bat. 1708. Note EEE, p. 260. Mr. Hume's wisrepresentaiions of the behaviour of the Beformers to Queen Mary. — The whole account which this historian has given of the conduct of the Protestant clergy towards Mary, from her arrival in Scotland until her marriage with Darnley, is very remote from sober and genuine history. It is rather a satire against the Reformation, which he charges with rebellion ; against the Presbyterian Church, whose genius he describes as essentially productive of fiinaticism and vulgarity; and against his native country, the inhabitants of which, without exception, he represents as overrun with rusticity, strangers to the arts, to civility, and the pleasures of conversation. History, Reign of Eliz. chap. i. near the close. " II n'est rien de plus facile quand on a beaucoup d'esprit, et beaucoup d'experience dans I'art de faire des livres, que de composer une Histoire satyrique, des meme faits qui ont servi a faire une Eloge. Deux lignes supprimees, oupour ou centre, dans I'exposition d'un fait, sont capables de faire paroistre un homme ou fort innocent, ou fort coupable : et comme par la seule transposi- tion de quelques mots, on pent faire d'un discours fort saint un dis- cours impie ; de meme par la seule transposition de quelques circon- stances. Ton peut faire de Taction la plus criminelle. Taction la plus ver- tueuse." Bayle, Critique Generale de THistoire du Calvinisme, p. 13, 2de edition, 1683. To this charge the historian of England has ex- posed himself on more than one occasion. I cannot here expose all his misstatements in the passage to which I have referred. He keeps out of view the fixed resolution of the queen to re-establish the Romish religion, with all the perils to which the Pro- testants were exposed. He artfully introduces his narrative, by placing her proclamation against altering the Protestant religion before the symptoms of popular discontent at her setting up of mass ; whereas the proclamation was issued after these, and would never have ap- peared, had it not been found necessary to allay the apprehensions of the people. Knox, 285. Keith, 504, 505. As a proof that the preachers " took a pride in vilifying, even to her face, this amiable princess," he gives extracts from an address to her by the General Assembly, with- out ever hinting that this was merely a draught or overture ; that every offensive expression was erased from it before it was adopted by the assembly ; and that, when the address was presented by the superintendents of Lothian and Fife, the queen said, " Here are many fair words; I cannot tell what the hearts are." Knox, 315. Mr. H. goes on to say : " The ringleader in all these insults on Majesty, was John Knox. — His usual appellation for the queen was Jezebel." This is a mistake. Neither in his sermons, nor in his prayers, nor in con- versation, did he give this appellation to Mary, so long as she was queen ; but always honoured her before the people, as well as in her own presence, even when he lamented and condemned her errors. Afterwards, indeed, when for her crimes (of which no man was more convinced than Mr. H.) she was removed from the government, and he no longer acknowledged her as his sovereign, he did apply this 472 NOTES. name to her. It is so far from being true, that " the whole Hfe of Mary- was, from the demeanour of these men, filled with bitterness and sorrow," or that she " was curbed in all amusements by the absurd severity of these reformers,'' that she retained her " gaiety and ease," until, by her imprudent marriage with Darnley, she with her own hand planted thorns under her pillow ; while the i)reachers were most free in their sermons, she enjoyed all manner of liberty ; her mass was never taken from her ; slie was allowed to indulge her " feasting, finery, dancing, balls, and whoredom, their necessary attendant ;" nor was she ever interrupted in these amusements, except when her own hus- band deprived her of her favourite Italian fiddler, a loss for which she afterwards took ample vengeance. It is difficult to conceive how one acquainted with the history of that period, and the character of the queen, could impute the "errors of her subsequent conduct" to the " harsh and preposterous usage which she met with" from the refor- mers. Nor can there be a greater satire upon the general character of Mary, (previous to her first marriage,) than to say that "she found every moment reason to regret her leaving that country, from whose manners she had, in her early youth, received the first impressions." It is well known, that the court at which she received her education was most dissolute ; and the supposition that she carried away the innocent polish and refinement of their manners, without contracting their criminal contagion, is not only incredible, but contradicted by the confessions of her friends. Memoires de Chastelnau, augmentez par J. le Laboureur, Prieur de Juvigne, tom. i. p. 528. A Bru.velles, J73I. I have no desire, however, to dip into this subject, or to drag to light facts unfavourable to that unhappy princess ; although the un- warranted and persevering attacks which hav'e been made upon worthy men, in order to reconcile the " future conduct" of Mary with " the general tenor of her character," would justify far greater freedoms than have been lately used in this way. " We are too apt to figure to ourselves the reformers of that age, as persons of impolitic and inflexible austerity." This is the remark of one who was much better acquainted with their history than ^Ir. Hume. Lord Hailes, Historical Mem. of the Provincial Councils of the Scottish Clercy, p. 41. Comp. Knox, Historie, p. 310. See also Note 000. Mr. Hume's object, in the passage on which I have animadverted, was to blacken the reformers, rather than to exalt the queen, of whose character he had at bottom no great opinion. " Tell Goodall," says he, in a letter to Dr. Robertson, " that if he can but give up Q,ueen Mary, I hope to satisfy him in every thing else ; and he will have the pleasure of seeing John Knox, and the reformers, made very ridicu- lous." Indeed, Mr. Hume confessed to his confidential friends, that he had, in his History, drawn the character of that princess in too fa- vourable colours. " I am afraid," says he to the same correspondent, " that you, as well as myself, have drawn Mary's cliaracter with too great softenings. She was undoubtedly a violent woman at all times." Stewart's Life of Robertson, pp. 37, 38. Note FFF, p. 2G0. Proceedings of Town Council m a slander ag-ainst Knox. — '• ISmo Junii, !5G3. — The samyn day, in presence of the baillies and counsale, comperit Jhono Gray, scribe to the kirk, and presentit the sup!)lica- tione following, in name of the hnill kirk, bering that it was laitiie cummen to thair knawledge bi the report of faythfull bretherins, that NOTES. 473 within thir few dayis Eufame Dundas, in tiie presence of ane multir tude, iiad spokin divers injurious and sclandarous wordis baith of tlie doctrine and ministeris. And in especiall of Jlionne Knox, minister, sayand, that within tew dayis past, the said Jhonne Knox was appre- hendit and tane furth of ane lallogye with ane commoun hure ; and that he liad bene ane commone hariot ail his dayis. Q,uhairfore it was maist humblie desyrit tliat the said Eufame myt be cailit and ex- aminat upone the said supplicatione, and gif the wordis abone written, spoken bi hir, myt be knawin or tryit to be of veritie, that the said Jhonne Knox myt be punist with all rigour without favour: other- wyse to tak sic ordour with hir as myt stand with the glory of God, and that sciander myt be takin from the kirk. As at mair length is contenit in the said supplication. Uuhilk beand red to the said Eu- fame personallie present in judgment, scho denyit the samyn, and Fry- day the 25 day of Junii instant assignit to hir to here and see witness producit for preving of the allegiance abone expremit, and scho is warnyt apud acta." Records of Town Council of Edinburgh, of the above date. The minute of the 25th contains the account of the proof which Knox's procurator led to show that Eufame Dundas had uttered the scandal which she now denied, and the appointment that the parties should be " warnit lileratorie to hear sentence given in the said ac- tion." I have not observed any thing more respecting the cause in the minutes, and it is probable, that the Reformer, having obtained the vindication of his character, prevailed on the judges not to inflict punishment on the accuser. Note GGG, p. 261. Calumnies of the Popish writers against Knox and other Refor- mers.— "C'estrendre sans doute," says Bayle, " quelques services a. la memoire de Jean Knox, que de fair voir les extravagances de ceux qui ont dechire sa reputation." And, having referred to the gross and extravagant slanders" of one writer, he adds, "this alone is a suffi- cient prejudice against all which the Roman Catholic writers have pub- lished concerning the great Reformer of Scotland." Diet. art. Knox. If Mons. Bayle could speak in this maimer upon a quotation from one author, what conclusion shall we draw from the following quotations ? The first writer who attacked Knox's character after his death, was Archibald Hamilton, whose hostility against him was inflamed by a personal quarrel, as well as by political and religious considerations. (See above, p. 318.) His book shows how much he was disposed to recommend himself to the Papists, by throwing out whatever was most injurious to his former connections, But there were too many alive at that time to refute any charge which might be brought against the Reformer's moral character. Accordingly, when he aimed the most envenomed thrust at his reputation, Hamilton masked it under the name of an apprehension or surmise. Having said, that, on the death of Edward VI. "he fled to Genej^a with a noble and rich lady," (which, by the by, is also a falsehood,) he adds, in a parenthesis, "qua simul et filia matris pellice familiariter usus fuisse putubaiur.''' De Confusione Calvinianae Sectae, p. 65, a. Parisiis, 1.577. In 1570, Principal Smeton published his answer to Hamilton's book, in which he repelled the charges which he had brought against Knox, and pronounced the above mentioned surmise a malicious calumny, for which the accuser could not adduce the slightest proof, and which was refiited by the spotless character which the Reformer had main- 40* K3 474 NOTES. tained before the whole world. Smetoni Responsio ad Virulent. Dial. Hamiltonii, p. 95. Edinb. 1579. It now belioved Hamilton either to retract or to prove his injurious insinuation. But how did he act in his reply to Smetoni Under the pretence of repeating what he had said in his former book, he introduces a number of other slanders against Kno.x's character, of which he had not given the most distant hint before; and (incredible to be told!) he absolutely avers, that he had formei'ly specified all these crimes, and condescended upon the places, times, and other circumstances of their commission; although, in his former publication, he had not said one word on the subject except tiie general surmise which I have quoted above! I ! "Pueri- tiam prematura venere et polluto insuper patris thoro infamem notavi. Inde adolescentiam perpetuis assuetam adulteriis designavi. Post banc maturioris cetatis apostasin, &.c. descripsi: res ipsas ut gestae erant retuli : loca, tempora, et reliquas omnes circumstantias notavi." Calvinianas Confusionis Demonstratio, contra maledicam Ministrorum Scotioe responsionem ; per Archibaldum Hamiltonium, in Sancta Christi Ecclesia Presbyterurn. p. 253, Parisiis, 1531. Than this what can l^e a stronger mark of one who has "made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience," who " is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself !" After this v.^e cannot wonder at his casting off all shame, and asserting, — "Itane vero in maledictis ducitis, quae impurus homu- cio non vno, aut paucis, sed multis, et fere dicam omnibus atiestanti- bus, designavit ! patris thorum infami incestu poUutum, et tot com- niissa adulteria, quot in sedibus, intra quas admittebatur, relicta vesti- gia etianiiui recitant Laudonienses omnes nobiles, juxta et ignobiles." Ut supra, p. 253, b. We are not left to impute these slanders to personal malice, or to the miserable shifts of an unprincipled individual, who, having rashly committed himself by advancing a falsehood, attempts to maintain his credit by bold assertions and fresh calumnies. For, in the very same year in which Hamilton's last work appeared, we find another Popish author writing in the following terms: "Johne Kmnox your first apostel, quha caused ane young woman in my Lord Ochiltreis place fal amaist dead, because sche saw his maister Satthan in ane black mannis likenese with him, throuche ane bore of the dure: quha was also ane manifest adulterare bringand furth of Ingland baith the mother and the dochter whom he persuadit that it was lesum to leva her housband, and adhere unto him, making ane fleshe of himself, the mother, and the dochter, as if he wald conjoyne in ane religione, the auld synagogue of the Jeuis witii the new fundat kirk of the Gentiles." In another place he introduces the account of his second marriage with these words : " That renegat and perjurit priest schir Johane Kmnox, cjuha efter the death of his first harlot, quhilk he mareit in- curring eternal damnation be breking his vou and promise of chasti- tie, quhen iiis age requyrit rather that with tearis and lamentations he sould have chastised his flesh and bewaiht the breaking of his vou, as also the horribil incest with his gudmother in ane killogie of Had- dingtoun." Burne's Disputation concerning the Controversit Headdis of Religion, pp. 102, 143. Parise, 1581. But Burne, and even Hamil- ton, were outstripped in calumny by that most impudent of all liars, James Laing, who published in Latin an account of the lives and manners of the heretics of his time. There are few pages of his book in which he does not abuse our Reformer; but in (what he calls) his Life, he has exceeded any thing which was ever dictated either by personal malice, or by religious rancour. "Statim," says he, "ab initio suce pueritiaj omni genere tnrpissimi facinoris infectus fuit. Vi.^ excesserat jam ex ephebis, cum patris sui uxorem violarat, suam no- NOTES. 475 vercam vitiarat, et cum ea, cui reverentia potissimum adhibenda fue- rat, nefiarium stuprum fecerat." His bishop having, forsooth, called him to account for these crimes, he straightway became inflamed with the utmost hatred to the Catholic religion. " Deinde non modo cum profanis, sed ctiam cum quibuscunque sceleratissimis, perditissimis, et potissiumm omnium heereticis est versatus, et quo quisque erat imma- nior, sceleratior, crudelior, eo ei carior et gratior fuit. — Ne unum qui- dem diem sceleratissimus haei'eticus sine una et item altera meretrice traducere potuit. — Continuo cum tribns meretricibus, quaj videbantur posse sLiificere uni sacerdoti, in Scotia convolat. — Ceterum hie las- civus caper, quem assidue sequebatur lasciva capella, partim perpe- tiiis crapulis, partim vino, lustrisqueita confectus fuit, ut quotiescunq. conscendere suggestum ad maledicendum, velim precandum [vel im- precandum?] siiis, opus erat illi duobus aut tribus viris, a quibiis ele- vandus atq. sustentandus erat." De Vita et Moribus atque Rebus Gestis Haereticorum nostri temporis. Authore Jacobo Laingseo Scoto Doctore Sorbonico, fol. 113, b. 114, a, b. 115, a. Parisiis, 1581. Cum Privilegio. Nor were such accounts confined to that age. In the beginning of the following century, they were repeated by John Hamilton. Facile Traictise, contenand ane infallible reul to discern trew from fals religion, p. 60. Louvain, 1600. In 1623, an English ■writer refers to James Laing's work for an authentic account of Knox's private life. The Image of bothe Churches, Jherusalem and Babell, by P. D. M. p. 134. Tornay, 1623. And as late as 1628, we find Father Alexander Baillie retailing, in the English language, all the gi'oss tales of his predecessors, with additions of his own, in which he shows a total disregard to the best-known facts in the Reformer's life. " Jhon Knox," says he, " being chaplane to the laird of Balvurie, and accused for his vices and leecherie, was found so guiltie and cul- pable that to eschevie the just punishment prepared for him, he pre- sently fled away into Ingland." He afterwards says, that Knox, after the death of his second wife, [that is, twenty years at least after his own death,] " shamefully fell in the abominable vice of incestuous adultery, ps Archib. Hamilton and others doe witnesse;" and as a proof that Knox reckoned this vice no blot, Baillie puts into his mouth a gross defence of it, in the very words which Sanders, in his book against the Anglican Schism, had represented Sir Francis Brian as using in a conversation with Henry VIII. Baillie's True Information of the Unhallowed Offspring, Progress, and Impoison'd Fruits of our Scottish-Calvinian Gospel and Gospellers, pp. 14, 41. Wirtsburgh, 1628. It is evident that these outrageous and contradictory calumnies have been all grafted upon the convicted lie mentioned in the preceding note, and on the malignant insinuation of Archibald Hamilton. The characters of the foreign reformers were traduced in the very same manner by the Popish writers. Those who have seen Bolsec's Lives of Calvin and Beza, or others written in the same spirit, must be suflft- ciently convinced of this. Will it be believed that, in the middle of the seventeenth century, a book should have been published under the name of Cardinal de Richlieu, in which it is asserted that " Calvin being condemned for acts of incontinency, which he had carried to the utmost extremity of vice, [ses incontinences, qui le porterent jus- ques aux dernieres extremitez du vice,] retired from Noyon (his na- tive city) and from the Roman church, at the same timel" And that this should have been published after the cardinal himself had ex- amined the registers of Noyon, which stated facts totally inconsistent with the supposition of such a thing having ever been imputed to himl La Defence de Calvin, par Charles Drelincourt, pp. 10, 11, 33. Geneve, 476 ' NOTES. 1667. Our countrymen of the Popish persuasion were careful to retail all the calumnies against the foreign reformers, and they do so in a manner peculiar to themselves. JNlcol Burne most seriously asserts that Luther was begotten of the devil, as to his carnal as well as his spiritual generation ; and in order to prove that this was not impossible, he advances tlie most profane argument that ever pro- ceeded from the mouth or pen of a Christian. Disputation, p. 141. The same thing is asserted by James Laing. De Vita Hoeretic. fol. 1, b. In a pretended translation into Scots of a poem written by Beza in his youth, (which the Roman Catholics, after he left their commu- nion, were careful to preserve from oblivion,) Burne has unblushingly inserted some scandalous and disgraceful lines, for which he had not the slightest warrant from the original. Disputation, pp. 103, 104. John Hamilton says, that "'Calvin did ane miracle to mak ane quik man ane deid, quhilk miracle was done in Geneve to ane Brulseus of Ostune, with whome he contractit for a piece of money to fenzie him- self deid, and to ryse to lyfe at his pra}'ers, when he sulde chope thryse upon his biere: bot the compagnion forgot to ryse again, whilk come to Calvin's .schame." Facile Traictise, p. 412. But the following narrative is still more marvellous and lest his readers should doubt its truth, the author prays them to " suspend thair judgement, quhill they spere [until they inquire at] the maist affectionat Protes- tantis of Scotland quha has bene in Geneve. Surelie," continues he, "I ressavit the treuth of this be honorable gentilmen of our countrie, quha confessit to me before gud vitnes, that the devil gangis familiar- lie up and down the town, and speciallie cumis to pure and indigent men quha sells thair saullis to him for ten sous, sum for mair or less. The money is verie plesant quhen they ressave it ; bot putting hand to thair purse, quhen they vald by thair denner, thay find nathing but uther stane or stick." Hamilton's Catholik and Facile Traictise, fol. 50, b. Paris, 1581. Laing, in his Life of Calvin, (of which Senebier has justly said, " that it would be mipossible to believe that such a libel had been written, if it were not to be seen in print,") has raked together all the base aspersions which had been cast upon that re- former, and has spent a number of pages in endeavouring to show that he was guilty of stealing a sum of money. De Vita Hceret. fol. 76, b. — 79, b. Of Buchanan, whom he calls "homo sacrarura literarum imperitissimus, simulque impudentissimus," he relates a number of impieties, of which this is the last ; " plurimi etiam narrant ilium mis- errimum hominem quondam in sacro fonte, quo infantes aqua bene- dicta ablui solent, adsit reverentia dictis, oletum fecisse." Ibid. fol. 40, a. One example more, and I have done. " Te admonerem de quo- dam impio haeretico sacerdote Davidson, quem audivi his jam multis annis publice cum quadam meretrice scortatum esse, quam fertur pepei'isse prima nocte, qua cum ilia dormivit, quod hie doctores medici pro magno miraculo habent ; cum vix mulieres ante nonum mensem, vel octavum parere soleant." Ibid. fol. 3(3, b. 37, a. Persons must have had their foreheads, as well as their consciences, "seared with a hot iron," before they could publish such things to the world as facts. Yet Laing's book was approved, and declared worthy of put)liration, by two doctors of the university of Paris. Its grossest slanders against the Scottish reformers were literally copied, and cir- culaterl throuch the Continent as undoubted truths, by Reginaldus, Spondanus, Julius Breiaerus, and many other foreign Popish authors. Each of these added some fabrication of his own; and one of them is so ridiculously ignorant as to rail against our Reformer by the name of xNoptz. Bayle, Dictionnaire, art. Knox, Note G. Archibald Hamil- ton's two works had the same respectable recommendations with NOTES. 477 Laing's book, and one of them is declared to be " very orthodox, and worthy of being ushered into the light for the profit of the Church." And John Hamilton was chosen tutor to two cardinals, appointed pro- fessor of philosophy in the Royal College of Navarre, elected by the students of the Gei-man nation in Paris, to tlie cure of the parish of St. Cosmus and Damian, presented to it by the university, and confirmed in it by the parliament ; and, ifl fine, was chosen rector of the univer- sity of Paris ! ! ! So eager were foreigners to load with honours the most bigoted and fanatical of our Popish refugees. Sketch of the Life of JohnHamilton, pp. 2, 3, written by Lord Hailes.*- I know that it was common in that age for controversial writers of all descriptions to indulge themselves in a coarseness of invective against their antagonists, which would not be tolerated at present : but this is quite a different thing from what 1 have given examples of in this note. With respect to the complaints which Protestant writers made of the profligacy of the Popish clergy, the truth of these is incon- testably established by the testimony of Roman Catholic authors, and by the public documents of their own Church. Nor do I wish to in- sinuate that all the Popish writers were of the same description with those whom I have quoted, or that there were not many Roman Catholics, even at that time, who disapproved of the use of these dishonourable and impoisoned weapons; but the great number of such publications, the wide circulation which they obtained, and the length of time during which they continued to issue from the Popish presses, demonstrate the extent to which a spirit of lying and defamation was carried in the Roman Church. Petty dabblers 1n antiquity, and flippant orators, who have read a general history of those times, or a modern Roman Catholic pamphlet, must be allowed to repeat the trite maxim, of faults on both sides, and to conceal their ignorance under the veil of mode- ration, by representing these faults'as equal ; but I aver that no can- did person, who is duly acquainted with the writings of that period, will pretend to account for the above-mentioned calumnies, by im- puting them to a spirit of asperity and prejudice common to both parties. Note HHH, p. 270. Popish accounts of Knox'' s second tnarriage. — "Heaving laid aside al feir of the panis of hel, and regarding na thing the honestie of the warld, as ane bund sklave of the Devil, being kendillit with an un- quenshible lust and ambition, he durst be sua bauld to enterpryse the sute of marriage with the maist honorabil ladie, myladie Fleming, my lord duke's eldest dochter, to the end that his seid, being of the blude royal, and gydit be thair father's spirit, might have aspyrit to the croun. And'because he receavit ane refusal, it is notoriouslie knowin how deidlie he halted the hail house of the Hamiltonis. — And this maist honest refusal would nather stench his lust nor ambition; bot a lytel efter he did persew to have allyance with the honorabili hous of Ochiltrie of the kyng's M. a win blude. Rydand thair with ane gret court, on ane trim gelding, not lyke ane prophet or ane auld de- crepit priest, as he was, bot lyk as he had bene ane of the blude royal, with his bendes of taffetie feschnit with golden ringis, and precious .stanes : And as is planelie reportit in the countrey, be sorcerie and witchraft did sua allure that puir gentil woman, that scho could not leve without him ; whilk appeiris to be of gret probabilitie, scho being ane damsel of nobel bind, and he ane auld decrepit creatur of maist bais degrie of onie that could be found in the countrey: Sua that sik 478 NOTES. ane nobil hoiis could not have degenerat sua far, except Johann kmnox had interposed t!ie powar of his maister the Devil, quha as he trans- figuris him self sumtynies in an angel of licht ; sua he causit Johann kmnox appeir ane of the maist nobil and lustie men that could he found in the warld." Nicol Burne's Disputation, pp. 143, 144. But the devil outwitted himself in his design of raising the progeny of the Reformer to the throne of Scotland, if we may Believe another Popish writer. " For as the common and constant brute of the people reported, as writeth Reginaldus [a most competent witness!] and others, it chanced not long after the marriage, that she [Knox's wife] lying in her bed, and pei-ceiving a blak, uglie, il-favoured man busily talking with him in the same chamber, was sodainely amazed, that she took seikness and dyed ;" [nor does the author want honourable witnesses to sup- port this fact, for he immediately adds,] " as she revealed to two of her friends, being ladyes, come thither to visite her a little before her decease." Father A. Baillie's True Information, p. 41. It is unfor- tunate, however, for the credit of this "True Information," that the Reformer's wife not only lived to bear him several children, but sur- vived him many years. James owed the safety of his crown to an- other cause. See above, p. 3G2. Note III, p. 285. Of Christopher Goodman. — From the intimate and long friendship which subsisted between him and our Reformer, this divine deserves more particular notice in this work. The Goodmans were a family of respectability in Chester, and repeatedly held the office of magis- trates in that city. In a pedigree of the family, preserved in the British Museum, " Adam Goodman a marchant, and Selay Linge," have a son, "Christoph. prcher." Harl. MSS. No. 2033. 32. f 99. During the reign of Edward VI. he read lectures on divinity in Oxford. Strype's Annals, i. 124. At the accession of Q,ueen Mary, he retired first to Strasburg, and afterwards to Frankfort. When he was at Strasburg, he joined in a common letter, advising the exiles of Frankfort to alter as little as possible in the English service; but he became afterwards so much convinced of the propriety of alteration, and was so much offended at the conduct of the Coxian party, that he removed from Frankfort to Geneva, along with those who were of the same senti- ments with himself and was chosen by them joint minister with Knox. Troul-»les at Franckford, pp. 22, 23, 54, 55, 59. In 155S, he published the book which afterwards created him a great deal of trouble. Its title is, " How superior powers ought to be ol)eyed of their subjects and wherein they may lawfully by God's worde be disobeyed and resisted. Wherein also is declared the cause of all this present miserie in England, and the onely way to remedy the same. By Christopher Goodman. Printed at Geneva, by John Crispin, MDLVIII." In this book he subscribed to the opinion respecting lemale government, which his colleague had published a few months before. He maintained that the power of kings and magistrates was limited, and that they might lawftilly be resisted, deposed, and punish- ed by their subjects, if they became tyrannical and wicked. These principles he applied particularly to the government of the English Mary. A copy of verses by William Kethe (who translated some of the Psalms into English metre) is added to the work, of which the fol- lowing is a specimen : — NOTES. 479 Whom fury long foster'd by siiffrance and awe, Have right rule subvened, and made will their law. Whose pride how to temper, this truth will thee tell; So as thou resist may'st, and yet not rebel. Goodman came to England in 1559, but he found Queen Elizabeth so much displeased at his publication, that he kept himself private. Burnet, iii. Append. 274. On this account, and in compliance with the urgent request of our Reformer, he came to Scotland. When the loi-ds of the Congregation chose him one of the council for matters of religion, the Earl of Arran endeavoured to appease the resentment which the English queen still entertained against hirn. Sadler, i. 510, 511, 532. In 1562, the Earl of Warwick repeatedly interceded for him, and for his being recalled from Scotland ; " of whom," says he, " I have heard suche good commendation both of the lord James of Scotland and others, tliat it seemeth great pitie, that our countrye suld want so worthy and learned an instrument." Forbes's State Papers, ii. 235. Calvin urged Goodman not to leave Scotland until the Refor- mation was completely established. Epistolas, p. 506. Hannoviae, 1597. W^hen he did return to his native country in 1565, it was with great difficulty that he was I'eceived into favour, notwithstanding the friends he had at court. He was obliged to make a recantation of the offensive doctrines in his publication. He protested and professed that " good and godly women may lawfully govern whole realms and nations ;" but he qualified and explained, rather than recanted, what he had taught respecting the punishment of tyrants. Strype has in- serted the document in his Annals, i. 126; but he has certainly placed it under the wrong year. Collier calls it " a lame recantation." Eccl. Hist. ii. 440. In 1572, Goodman subscribed, in the presence of the queen's ecclesiastical commissioners, a more ample protestation of his obedience to Elizabeth. Strype's Annals, ii. 95, 96. He was also harassed on account of his non-conformity to the English ceremonies. Life of Grindal, 170. Life of Parker, 325, 326. Knox corresponded with him after he left Scotland ; and Calderwood has preserved a letter which he wrote to him in 1571, in which he alludes to the troubles which he understood his friend was exposed to. MS. ii. 270. Goodman accompanied Sir Henry Sidney to Ireland, when he was sent to subdue the Popish rebels in that country. Troubles at Franck- ford, p. 196. In 1580, he resided at Chester, from which he sent his salutations to Buchanan. Buchanani Epistolae, 30, 31. Oper. edit. Rud. He died at Chester, in 1601, according to verses to his memory in SupplemenL Goodman's book was quoted, but for very different purposes, by Bancroft, (Dangerous Positions, b. ii. chap, i.) and by Milton, (Tenure of Magistrates : Prose Works by Symmons, vol. iii. p. 196.) Goodman was not the only person belonging to the English Church who published free sentiments respecting civil government. About the same time with his book, there appeared another work on that subject, entitled, "A Short Treatise of Politique Pouuer, and of the True Obedience which Subjectes owe to Kynges." Its author was Dr. John Ponet, bishop, first of Rochester, and afterwards of Win- chester, under Edward VI. Ames, iii. 1.594. He discusses the ques- tions respecting the origin of political authority, its absolute or limited nature, the limits of obedience, and the deposition and punishment of tyrants. " This book,"' says Strype, " was not over favourable to princes. Their rigours and persecutions, and the arbitrary proceed- ings with their peaceable subjects in those times, put them upon exam- ining the extent of their power, which some were willing to curtail and straiten as much as they could. This book was printed again in 4S0 NOTES. the year 1642, to serve the turn of those times." Memorials of the Reformation, iii. 328, 329. In the second edition of the work, it is said to have been originally pubUshed in 1556. Collier (who was a keen Tory) calls if "a most pestilent discourse." He wished to believe that Bishop Ponet was not the author, but it is evident from what he says, that he could see no reason for departing from the common opinion. History, ii. 363. Ponet was a superior scholar. He read the Greek Lecture in the University of Cambridge about 1525, and was among the first who adopted the new method of pronouncing that language introduced by Sir Thomas Smith. He also wrote several books on mathematics and other subjects, which were greatly esteemed. Strype's Life of Sir Thomas Smith, pp. 26, 27. Ames, Typ. Antiq. i. 599. ii. 753, 1146. iii. 1537. Note KKK, p. 297. The proceedings of the committee appointed to prepare overtures to the parliament, Dec. 1567, are to be found in Robertson's Records of the Parliament of Scotland, and Act. Pari. Scot. vol. iii. Almost the only ecclesiastical propositions of the committee which were not adopt- ed by the parliament, were such as related to the patrimony of the church. I s^ll extract one or two respecting the commonwealth, ■which did not obtain a parliamentary sanction. " Als it is thoeht ex- pedient that in na tymes cuming ony women salbe admitit to the publict autoritie of the realme, or function in publict government witliin ye same." On the margin, opposite to this, is written, " Fund gude;" which is expressive, as I understand it, of the committee's approbation of the motion. As Knox, at a period subsequent to this, declared from the pulpit that he had never " entreated that argument in publict or in privat" since his last arrival in Scotland, (Bannatyne's Journal, p. 117,) it appears that this motion had been made by some other member of the committee. The late misconduct of Q,ueen Mary must have had a great effect in inclining them to give this advice. The 23d article does great honour to the enlightened views of the movers. It proposes that all hereditary jurisdictions throughout the kingdom should be abolished. On the margin is written, " Apprevit," and farther down, " Supercedis." A long time elapsed, before this measure, so necessary to the salutary administration of justice, was adopted in Scotland. The 30th article also is of great importance, as intended to prevent delay of justice, by shortening processes. The following was a proposed sumptuary law : " Item, that it be lauchfull to na wemen to weir abone yair estait except howres." On the mar- gin of this is written, " This act is verray gude." Act. Pari. Scot, vol. iii. pp. 3S — 40. Robertson's Rec. of Pari. pp. 795, 798. The ministers appointed on this committee, were " Maister Johne Spottiswood, Maister Johne Craig, Johne Knox, Maister Johne Row, and Maister David Lindsay." It will be observed that our Reformer is the only one who has not " Maister" prefixed to his name. This title was expressive of an academical degree. It was commonly given in that age to Masters of Arts, as well as Doctors of Law, and in their subscriptions they put the letter M. or the word " Maister," before their names. NOTES. 481 Note LLL, p. 305. Remarlcs on Dr. Robertson'' s character of the Regent Murray. — I am not moved with the unfavourable representations which the parti- sans of Mary have given of Murray, nor am I surprised at the cold manner in which Mr. Hume has spoken of him ; but I confess that it pains me to think of the way in which Dr. Robertson has drawn his character. The faint praise which he has bestowed on him, the doubt which he has thrown over his moral qualities, and the unqualified censures which he has pronounced upon some parts of his conduct, have, I am afraid, done more injury to the regent's memory, than the exaggerated accounts of his adversaries. History of Scotland, vol. ii. 315, 31(). Lond. 1809. Having said this much, it will be expected that I shall be more particular. In addition to those qualities which " even his enemies allow him to have possessed in an eminent de- gree," Dr. R. mentions his humanity, his distinguished patronage of iearning, and impartial administration of justice. " Zealous for reli- gion," he adds, " to a degree which distinguished him even at a time when professions of that kind were not uncommon." This is what every person must allow, but it certainly is far from doing justice to this part of the regent's character. His professions of religion were uniformly supported in all the different situations in which he was placed ; his strict regard to divine institutions was accompanied with the most correct and exemplary morals ; his religious principle tri- umphed over a temptation which proved too powerful for almost all the Protestant nobility. (See above, p. 452.) When there exist such proofs of sincerity, to withhold the tribute due to it is injurious not only to the individual, but to the general interests of religion. After bearing a decided testimony to the "disinterested passion for the liberty of his country," which prompted Murray to oppose the perni- cious system of the princes of Lorrain, and the " zeal and affection" with which he served Mary on her return to Scotland, the historian adds: — "But, on the other hand,, his ambition was immoderate; and events hapj^ened that opened to him vast projects, which allured his enterprising genius, and led him to actions inconsistent with the duty of a subject." That his ambition was " immoderate" does not, I think, appear from any evidence which has been produced. Dr. R. has de- fended him from the charge as brought against him at an earlier period of his life, and we have met with facts that serve to corroborate the defence. (See p. 433.) The " vast projects" that opened to him must be limited to the attainment of the regency; for I do not think that Dr. R. ever for a moment gave credit to the ridiculous tale, that he designed to set aside the young king, and scat himself upon the throne. His acceptance of the regency cannot be pronounced " inconsistent with the duty of a subject," without determining the question, Whether the nation was warranted, by the misconduct and crimes of Mary, to remove her from the government, and to crown her son. " Her bold- est advocates," says Mr. Laing, " will not venture to assert, that, on the supposition of the fact being fully proved, that she was notori- ously guilty of her husband's murder, she was entitled to be restored." History of Scotland, i. 137, second edition. Murray was fully satis- fied of her guilt before he accepted the regency. Never was any person raised to such a high station with less evidence of his having ambitiously courted the preferment. Instead of remaining in the country to turn the embroiled state of affairs to his personal advan- tage, he, within two months after the murder of the king, left Scot- land, not clandestinely, but after having asked and obtained leave. 41 L3 NOTES. And whither did he retire ] Not into England, to concert measures ■vvitli that court, or the more easily to carry on a correspondence with the friends whom he had left behind him; but into B'rance, where his motions could be watched by the friends of Mary. Ibid. pp. 59—61. The association for revenging the king's murder, and for preserving the young prince, the surrender of Mary, and her imprisonment in Lochleven, followed so unexpectedly and so rapidly, that they could not have proceeded from his direction. Nay, there is positive evi- dence that the lords who had imprisoned Mary, so far from having acted in concert with Murray, were suspicious that he would coun- teract their designs. " As yet theys lordes wyll not suffer Mr. Nycho- Jas Elveston, sent from the L. of Murrey, to have access to the queue, nor to send my L. of Murrey's letter unto her." Throkmorton's Let- ters to Cecil, and to Elizabeth, JGth July, 1567, apud Laing's History of Scotland, ii. Append. No. 13, pp. 121, 126. When he returned to Scotland, he found that the queen had executed formal deeds resign- ing the government, and appointing him regent during the minority of her son, and that the young prince was already crowned. Hume, vol. V. note K. " His treatment of the queen, to whose bounty he was so much indebted, was unbrotherly and ungrateful." To the charge of ingra- titude, I can only reply, by repeating what I have said in the text, that all the honours which she conferred on him were not too great a reward for the important services which he had rendered her. How often have persons been celebrated for sacrificing parental as well as brotherly affection to the public good ! The probable reasons for Murray's interview with the queen in Lochleven have been stated by Mr. Laing. History, i. 119 — 12L Were I to speak of what was in- cumbent on him as a Christian brother with the view of bringing her to a just sense of the iniquity of her conduct, I would use language which, I am afraid, would not be understood by many readers, and which many professed Christians seem to forget, when they talk on this subject. Any exertions which were neces.sary to save his sister's life were not wanting on the part of Murray. To restore her to the government, or even, as matters then stood, to restore her to liberty, he was not bound by any ties either of a public or private kind. Had he amused her with the hopes of this, he might have escaped the charge of harshness, but his conduct would have been more un- brotherly. " But he deceived and betrayed Norfolk with a baseness unworthy of a man of honour." To this harsh censure I oppose the opinion of Mr. Hume, who will not be suspected of partiality to the regent. "Particularly," says he, in a letter to Dr. Robertson, written after the publication of his History of Scotland, "I could almost undertake to convince you that the Earl of Murray's conduct with the Duke of Norfolk was no way dishonourable." Stewart's Life of Robertson : History, i. 1 58. See also, in confirmation of this, " Part of a letter fi-om the Earl of Murray to L. B." inserted in vol. ii. Appendix, No. xxxiii. "His elevation to such unexpected dignity [the reader will observe that it was unexpected] inspired him with new passions, with haughti- ness and reserve: and instead of his natural manner, which Avas blunt and open, he affected the arts of dissimulation and refinement. Fond, towards the end of his life, of flattery, and impatient of advice, his creatin-es. by soothing his vanity, led him astray, while his ancient friends stood at a distance, and predicted his approaching fall." Cer- tainly the facts stated by Dr. Robertson in the preceding part of his narrative, do not prepare the mind of his reader for these charges. NOTES. 483 The severity of the regent's virtues had, indeed, been mentioned, and it had been asserted that his deportment had become distant and haughty. The authority of Sir James Melvil was referred to in sup- port of this statement ; and I am satisfied that it was upon his testi- mony chiefly that the historian proceeded, when he gave the above account of Murray's conduct during the latter part of his life. I sub- mit to the reader the following remarks on the degree of credit due to the authority of Melvil. . In the first place, there is every reason to think, either that Melvil's Memoirs have been unfaithfully published by the editor, or that the narrative which the author of them has given of affairs, from the queen's marriage with Both well to the death of the Earl of Murray, is incorrect and unfaithful. I shall not take it upon me to detei-mine which of these is the most probable supposition, but am of opinion that either the one or the other must be admitted. The charge which was brought against Q,ueen Mary of participation in the nmrder of her husband, with all the proofs produced in support of it, is suppres- sed, and studiously kept out of view in the Memoirs. There is not one word in them respecting the celebrated letters to Both well, al- though they formed the grand vindication of the regent and his friends. The same inference may be drawn from the ridiculous account given of the appearance made by the regent before the commissioners at York, when he presented the nameless accusation against Mary (Me- moirs, 96, 07, Lond. 1683 ;) an account which is completely discredited by the journals of both parties, and which neither Hume or Robertson thought worthy of the slightest regard. It is observable, that Melvil could not be ignorant of the real transaction, as he was present at York; and that the design of this, as well as of the subsequent part of his narrative, is to represent the regent as weakly suffering himself to be duped and misled by designing and violent counsellors. Mr. Laing has adverted to both of these things as discreditable to the Me- moirs. History, ut supra, i. 118. I shall produce only one other in- stance of the same kind. Speaking of the queen's marriage with Bothwell, Melvil says : " I cannot tell how nor by what law he parted with his own wife, sister to the Earl of Huntly." Mem. 80. Is it cred- ible, that one who was in the midst of the scene, and acquainted even with the secrets of state at that time, could be ignorant of that which was proclaimed to all the world"! If it should be alleged that Melvil, writing in his old age, might have forgotten this glaring fact, (the excuse commonly made for his inaccuracies.) I am afraid that the apology will detract as much from the credibility of his Memoirs as the charge which it is brought to repel. 2. In estimating the degree of regard due to the censures which Melvil has passed on the regent's conduct, we must keep in view the political course which he himself steered. Sir James appears to have been a man of amiable dispositions, whose mind was cultivated by the study of letters; but those who have canj|fully read his memoirs must, I think, be convinced that his penetration was not great, and that his politics were undecided, temporizing, and inconsistent. He was always at court, and always tampering with those who were out of court. We find him exposing himself to danger by dissuading his mistress from marrying Bothwell, and yet countenancing the marriage by his presence ; acting as an agent for those who had imprisoned the queen, and yet intriguing with those who wished to set her at liberty ; carrying a common message from the king's lords to the Earl of Murray upon his return out of France, and yet secretly conveying another message tending to counteract the design of the former; sup- porting Murray in the "regency, and yet trafficking with those who 484 NOTES. wished to undermine his authority. I do not call in question the goodness of his intentions in all this : I am willing to believe that a desire for the peace of the country, or attachment to the queen, in- duced him to go between, and labour to reconcile, the contending parties. But wiien parties are discordant — when their interests, or the objects at which they shoot, are diametrically opposite, to perse- vere in such attempts is preposterous, and cannot fail to foster and increase confusions. Who believes that the Hamiltons were disposed to join with the king's party! or that the latter, when unassured of the assistance of England, were averse to a junction with the former? Yet Melvil asserts both of these things. Mem. 85, 86, 90. Who thinks that there was the smallest feasibility in what he pi'oposed to the re- gent as " a present remedy for his preservation !" or believes that Maitland would have consented to go into France and Kircaldy to deliver up the castle of Edinburgh] The regent heard him patiently; he respected the goodness of the man ; but he saw that he was the dupe of Maitland's artifices, and he followed his own superior judg- ment. For rejecting such advices as this (and not the I'eligious pro- verbs, and political aphorisms, which he quoted to him fi'om Solomon, Augustine, Isocrates, Plutarch, and Theopompus) has Melvil charged him with refusing the counsel of his oldest and wisest friends. Mem. 102—101. 3. What were the errors committed by the regent which precipita- ted his fall ] There are two referred to by Melvil, — the imprisonment of the Duke and Lord Herries, and the accusation of Maitland and Balfour. Mem. 100, 101. In vindication of the former step, I liave only to appeal to the narrative which Dr. Robertson has given of that affair. Vol. ii. p. 266—209. With respect to the latter. Sir James Balfour was " the most corrupt man of that age," (ibid. p. 367,) and Maitland was at that time deeply engaged in intrigues against the regent, ibid. p. 307. There is not a doubt that both of them were accessory to the murder of Darnley, (Laing, i. 28, 135, ii. 22;) they were arrested and accused at this time at the instance of Lennox, and in consequence of the re- cent confession of one of Both well's servants ; and Maitland was pre- served by the queen's friends assembling in arms for his rescue, which compelled the regent to adjourn his trial. Ibid. ii. 37. Appendix, No. 28, pp. 298-9. 4. Who were the unworthy favourites by whose flattery and evil counsel the regent was led astray? Dr. Robertson mentions "Cap- tain Crawford, one of his creatures." This is the same person whom he afterwards calls " Captain Crawford of Jordanhill, a gullnnt and enterprising officer," who distinguished himself so much by the sur- prise of the castle of Dumbarton. History, ii. 307, 331, comp. Laing, ii. 297, 29S ; and Douglas's Baronage of Scotland, 429. Morton, Lind- say, Wishart of Pittarow, Macgill of Rankeillor, Pitcairn, Abbot of Dunfermline, Balnaves of Hallhill, and Wood of Tilliedavy, were among the regent's counsellors. 5. Who were his old friends who lost his favour ? They could be no other than Balfour, Maitland, Kircaldy, and Melvil himself Of the two former I need not say a word. Kircaldy of Grange was a brave man, and had long been the intimate friend of the regent; but he was already corrupted by Maitland, and had secretly entered into his schemes for restoring the queen. Robertson, ii. 307. Of Melvil I have already spoken ; nay, he himself testifies that the regent continued to the last to listen to his good advices. " The most part of these sen- tences, (says he,) drawn out of the Bible, I used to rehearse to him at several occasions, and he took belter with these at my hands, roho he knew had no by-end, than if they had proceeded from the most learned NOTES. 485 philosopher. Therefore, at his desire, I promised to put them in writ- ing, to give him them to keep in his pocket ; but he was slain before 1 could meet with him." Mem. 104. How this is to be reconciled with other assertions in the Memoirs, I leave others to determine. It required no great sagacity in the ancient friends of the regent to " pre- dict his approaching fall," when repeated attempts had already been made to assassinate him, and when some of them were privy to the conspiracy then forming against his life ; and it says little for their an- cient friendship, that they "stood at a distance," and allowed it to be carried into execution. There are three honourable testimonies to the excellence of the re- gent's character, which must have weight with all candid persons. The first is that of the great historian De Thou. He not only examined the histories which both parties had published of the transactions in Scotland, which made so much noise through Europe, but he carefully conversed with the most intelligent and candid Scotsmen, Papists and Protestants, whom he had the opportunity of seeing in France. When that part of his history which embraced these events was in the press, he applied to his friend Camden for advice, acquainting him that he was greatly embarrassed, and apprehensive of displeasing King James, who, he understood, was incensed against Buchanan's History. "I do not wish (says he) to incur the charge of imprudence or malignity from a certain personage who has honoured me with his letters, and encouraged me to publish the rest of my history with the same can- dour and regard for truth." Camden, in reply, exhorted him to study moderation, and told him the story which he had received from his master, imputing the disturbances in Scotland chiefly to the ambition of Murray. Durand, Histoire du XVI. Siecle, tom. vii. contenant la Vie de Monsieur De Thou, pp. 226 — 231. But notwithstanding the re- spect which he entertained for Camden, and the desire which he felt to please James, De Thou found himself obliged, by a sacred regard to truth, to reject the above imputation, and to adopt in the main the nar- rative of Buchanan. I shall quote, from his answer to Camden, the character which he draws of Murray. Having mentioned the accu- sation brought against him, of ambitiously and wickedly aiming at the crown, he says, " This is constantly denied by all the credible Scots- men with whom I have had opportunity to converse, 7iot even except- ing those who otherivise were great enemies to Murray on a religious account ; for they affirm, that, I'eligion apart, he was a man without AMBITION, WITHOUT AVARICE, INCAFABLE OF DOING AN INJURY TO ANY ONE, DISTINGUISHED BY HIS VIRTUE, AFFABILITY, BENEFICENCE, AND INNOCENCE OP LIFE ; and that had it not been for him, those who tear his memory since his death, would never have attained that authority which they now enjoy." — " Res ipsa loquitur : nam demus, quod ab diversa tra- dentibus jactalur, Moravium ambitione ardentem scelerate regnum ap- petisse, quod tamen constanter negant omnes fide digni Scoti, quos- cunque mihi alloqui contigit, etiam ii quibus alioqui Moravius ob re- ligionis causam summe invisus erat; nam virum fuisse aiebant, extra religionis causam, ab omni ambitione, avaritia, et in quenquam injuria alienum, virtute, comitate, beneficentia, vitffi innocentia, prs-stantem ; et qui nisi fuisset, eos, qui tantopere mortuum exagitant, hodie minime rerum potiturns fuisse." Epistolae de Nova Thuani Histor. Editione Paranda. p. 40, in tom. i. Thuani Histor. et tom. vii. cap. v. p. 5. Buckley, 1733. A second testimony of a very strong kind in favour of the regent is that of Archbishop Spotswood. He must have conversed with many who were personally acquainted with Murray, he knew the unfavour- able sentiments which James entertained respecting him, which had 41* 486 NOTES. been published in Camden's Annals ; and he had long enjoyed the fa- vour of that monarch ; yet, in his history, he has drawn tlie character of the rcij^ent in as flatterinsr colours as Buchanan himself has done. The last testimony to which I shall appeal is the Vox Populi, strongly expressed by the title of The Good Regent, which it imposed on him, and by which his memory was handed down to posterity. Had he, elated by prosperity, become haughty and reserved, or, intoxicated with flattery, yielded himself up to unprincipled and avaricious fa- vourites, the people must soon have felt the effiects of the change, and would never have cherished his name with such enthusiastic gratitude and unmingled admiration. Note MMM, p. 307. Inscriptioji to the memory of the Regent Murray. — The regent's monument is yet entire and in good order. It stands in that part of St Giles, now called the 0/(/ Church, (the former aisle having been taken into the body of the church when it was lately fitted up,) at the back of the pulpit, on the east side. At the top is the figure of an eagle, and below it " 1570," the date of the erection of the monument. In the middle is a brass plate, on which the following ornaments and inscrip- tions are engraved: — The family arms, with the motto "Salus per Christum," (Salvation through Christ :) On one side of the arms, a female figure with a cross and Bible, the word " Religio" above, and below " Pietas sine vindice luget," (Piety mourns without a defender ;) on the other side, another female figure, in a mourning posture, with the head reclining on the hand, the word, " Justicia" above, and below " Jus exarmatum est," (Justice is disarmed.) Underneath is the fol- lowing inscription, composed by Buchanan : — 23 Janvaru 1569. jacobo • stovarto * moravia • comiti " scotke * proregi • viro • ^tatis ' sv.e * longe ' optimo ' ab • inimicis • omnis * memori.e ' deterrimi3 * ex • insidhs ' extincto " cev • patri * commvni • patria * moerens * p03vit ' The verses in which Buchanan celebrated the regent are accessible to every scholar. The following lines are less known : — Jacobus Stuartus, Moraviae Comes, Prorex pro Jacobo vi. rem Scoticam feliciter gessit, puree Religionis assertor acerrimus. Ab aemulis Limnuchi ex insidiis glande trajectus, magno omnium desiderio moritur ad d. xxiii. Janu- arii, Anno Christi 1570. Ter tua dictums'cum dicere singula conor, Ter numeri, et numeios destitiiere soni. Nobilitas, animus, probitas, sapicntia, virtus, Consilium, imperium, pectora sancta, fides, Cuncta niihi simul ha;c instant certamine magno: Ut sibi, sic certant viribus ista meis ," Ipsi adeo Aonidcs cum vellcnt dicere, cedunt Sponte sua numeris. Ikpc, Buchanano, tuis. Johannis Jonstoni Heroes, pp. 3], 32. Lugduni Batavorum, 1603, NOTES. 487 Knox, among others, warned the regent of the designs which his ene- mies had formed against his life. " When the Mr. of Grahame (says Bannatyne) come and drew him to Dumbartane, he [Knox] plainjie said to tlie regent tlien, that it was onlie done for a trane be that meanis to cut him off, as it came to pas ; also wlien he was in Stirvehng, being returned from Dumbartane, lie sent me to my ladie the regentis wyfe, tuo sundrie tymes, and desyrit her to signihe my lord her husband, that he suld not come to Lynlythgovv. So that gif his counsall had bene followed, he had not died at that tyme. And my ladie the last tyme sent Mr. Jhone Wood, to desyre him to avoid Lynlythgow. But God thought vs not worthy of sic a rewlare above vs, and also he wald thereby have the vvickitncs of vthers knawin, whilk then was hid; and therefore did God then tak him fra us. But lat the Hamiltonis, the Lard of Grange, with the rest of that factione, lay their compt and recken thair advantage and wining since." Bannatyne's Journal, pp. 428, 429. The intrepidity of Murray prompted him to despise tliese prudential admonitions, and defeated the precaution of his friends. Mr. Scott has, by a poetical licence, introduced the Reformer as present at Linlithgow, to grace the regent's fall. From the wild border's humbled side, In haughty triumph marched he, While Knox relax'd his bigot pride, And smiled the traitorous pomp to see. Ballads and Lyrical Pieces, p. 52. Edin. 1810. Note NNN, p. 320. Sentiments of Scottish Reformers on the difference between civil and ecclesiastical authority. — I may subjoin a few facts which ascertain the opinion of our reformers on this subject. — In common with other reformed churches, they allowed that civil rulers have a right to em- ploy their authority for the reformation of rehgion within their domin- ions, especially when, as was universally the case under the papacy, religious abuses and corruptions affect the state as well as the church, and are interwoven with the civil constitution and administration; they allowed them a power of making laws for the support and ad- vancement of religion ; and they held that, where a reformed church existed, there might be a co-operation between the civil and ecclesi- astical authorities about certain objects which came under the cogni- zance of both, each of them acting within its own line, and with a view to the proper ends of its institution. But, on the other hand, they maintained that civil and ecclesiastical authority were essentially distinct, and they refused that civil rulers had a supremacy over the church as such, or a right to model her government and worship, and to assume to themselves the internal management of her affairs. The Scottish reformers never ascribed or allowed to civil rulers the same authority in ecclesiastical matters which the English did. In particular, they resisted from the beginning the claim of ecclesiastical supremacy granted to the English monarchs. On the 7th July, 1,568, "It was delatit and fund that Thomas Bassinden, printer in Edin- burgh, imprintit an bulk, intitulat The Fall of the Roman Kirk, nam- insi our King and Soverane Supreme Head of the Primitive Kirk — The haill assemblie ordaint the said Thomas to call in agane all the foirsaidis buikis yat he hes sauld, and keip the rest unsauld, until he alter the forsaid title. Attotir, the assemblie appoyntit Mr. Alex. Ar- buthnot to revise the rest of tlie forsaid tractat, and report to the kirk quhat doctrine he finds thairin." Bulk of the Universall Kirk, pp. 38, 488 NOTES. 39. The Genera] Assembly were frequently occupied in settliniz the bounds between civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and in March, 1570, arranged the objects which pertained to the latter under six heads; including, among other things, the judgment of doctrine, ad- ministration of divine ordinances, the election, examination, admission, suspension, &c. of ministers, and all cases of discipline. The follow- ing is the concluding article: " And because the conjunction of mar- riages pertaineth to the ministrie, the causis of adherents and divorce- ments aucht also to perteine to thame, as naturallie annexit thairto." Bulk of the Universall Kirk, p. 51. Actes of the General Assemblies, prefixed to the First and Second. Booke of Discipline, printed in 1G21, pp. 3, 4. On occasion of some encroachments made on the liberties of the church in 1571, John Erskine of Dun, superintendent of Angus and Mearns, addressed two letters to the Regent Mar. They are written in a clear, spirited, and forcible style, containing an accurate state- ment of the essential distinction between civil and ecclesiastical juris- diction, and should be read by all who wish to know the eai'ly senti- ments of the Church of Scotland on this subject. See Bannatyne's Journal, pp. 279—290. It has always been a principle of the Presbyterian Church of Scot- land, that the ministers of religion ought not to be distracted from the duties of their office by holding civil places. The first General As- sembly (Dec. 1560) agreed to petition the Estates, to " remove minis- ters from civil offices, according to the canon law." Bulk of the Uni- versall Kirk, p. 2. At the request of the Regent Mar, the assembly, or convention, which met at Leith in January, 1571 — 2, allowed Mr. Robert Pont, on account of his great knowledge of the laws, to act as a Lord of Session. Bulk of the Universall Kirk, p. 54. But in March, 1572 — 3, the Regent Morton having laid before them a proposal for appointing some ministers Lords of Session, the Assembly " votit throughout that naine was able nor apt to bear the saides twa charges." They therefore prohibited any minister from accepting the place of a senator; from this inhibition they, however, excepted Pont. Ibid. p. 56. In 1584, Pont resigned his place as a Lord of Session, or rather was deprived of it, in consequence of the act of parliament passed that year, declaring that none of the ministers of God's word and sacraments "in time cuming sail in ony waies accept, use, or admin- istrat ony place of judicature, in quhatsumever civil or criminal causes, nocht to be of the Colledge of Justice, Commissioners, Advocates, court Clerkes or Notaris in ony matteris (the making of testamentes onely excepted.)" Skene's Acts, fol. 59, b. Edinburgh, 1597. Lord Hailes's Catalogue of the Lords of Session, p. 5, and note 34. Tlie name of Pont often occurs in the account of ecclesiastical trans- actions during the remainder of the sixteenth century. The writer of Additional Notes to Lord Hailes's Catalogue of the Lords of Ses- sion, calls him by mistake, " the first presbyterian minister of the West Kirk." p. 8. Edinburgh, 1798. William Harlaw preceded him in that situation, (Keith, 498,) and continued to hold it in August, 1571. See Letter to him from the duke and Huntly, in Bannatyne's Journal, 217. Pont was also commissioner of Murray, and provost of Trinity College, Edinburgh. Upon the death of the Earl of March, James Vf. offered him tlie P>ishopric of Caithness, but he declined accepting it. Keith's Scottish Bishops, 129. He was the author of several publica- tions, besides the sermons against Sacrilege, repeatedly mentioned. The time of his death, and his age, appear from the following in- scription on his tombstone, in St. Cuthbert's churchyard: NOTES. 489 ILLE EGO, ROBERTUS rONTA- NUS IN HOC PROPE SACRO CHRI3TI QUI FUERAM PASTOR GREGI3 AUSPICE CHRISTO ^TERN^ HIC EECUBANS EX- SPECTO RESURGERE VITiE, OBIIT DIEM JET. 81, MEN- SIS 8 MAII, A. D. 1606.* Note 000, p. 325. Particulars respecting Knox^s residence at St. Andrews. — The fol- lowing particulars are extracted from tlie MS. Diary of Mr. James Melville. " Ther wer twa in St. Androis wha war his aydant heirars, and wraitt his sermons, ane my condiscipule, Mr. Andro Yoimg, minister of Dumblane, who translated sum of them into Latin, and read thame in the hall of the collage insteid of his orations." The other "Was a servant of Mr. Robert Hamilton, but with what view he took notes Melville could not say. Diary, p. 28. — " Mr. Knox wald sum tymes cum in, and^-epast him in our colleage yeard, and call ws schollars unto him and bliss ws, and exhort ws to knaw God, and his vvark in our countrey, and stand be the guid caus, to use our tyme weill, and learn the guid instructiones and follow the guid example of our mais- ters. Our haill collag [St. Leonard's] maisters and schollars war sound and zelus for the guid caus, the uther twa colleges not sa." p. 23. " This yeir in the moneih of July, Mr. Jhone Davidsone, an of our regents, maid a pley at the marriage of Mr. Jhone Colvin, quhilk I saw playit in Mr. Knox presence, wharin, according to Mr. Knox doctrine, the castle of Edinburgh was besieged, takin, end the captin, with ane or twa with him, hangit in effigie." p. 24. This seems to have been an exercise among the students of the university. The following extract shows that the fine arts were not then uncultivated, and that the professors and students attended to them in their recrea- tions. " I lernit singing and pleying on instrumentis passing weill, and wald gladlie spend tyme, whar the exercise thairof was within the collag ; for twa or thrie of our condisciples pleyed fellin weill on the virginals, and another on the lute and githorn. Our regent had also the pinalds in his chalmer, and lernit sum thing, and I efter him." Melville adds, that his fondness for music was at one period, in danger of drawing away his attention from more important studies, but that he overcame the temptation, p. 25. I may add an extract from the same Diary, relating an incident in the life of one who entertained a high respect for Knox, and after- wards became a distinguished minister in the church. " The order of four kirks to a minister, then maid by the erle of Morton, now maid regent, against the quilk Mr. Johne Davidson, an of the regents of our collag, made a bulk called Tlie Conference betwi.vi the Clark and the Courtier ; for the quhilk he was summoned befor the Justice Air at Haddington this winter (1573) the lest of our course, and banished the countrey." p. 24. This dialogue, which is in verse, contains the following lines : — * History of the Church and Parish of St. Cuthbert, or West Kirk of Edinburgh, p. 38. Edin. 1829. M3 490 NOTES. Had gude John Knox not yit bene deid, It had not cum unto this held: Had thay niyndit till sic ane steir, He had maid hevin and eirth to heir. The General Assembly, in October 1577, presented a supplication to the Regent Morton, requesting him to allow Mr. Davidson to return home from England. Bulk of the Universall Kirk, p. 70. The editor of Davidson's Poetical Remains (lately printed) has furnished some interesting information concerning the author. I am indebted to hini for correcting a mistake into which I had fallen in the Life of Melville. Davidson returned to Scotland during the lifetime of the regent, though not until his fall. Hume of Godscroft, in his account of Mor- ton's behaviour before his execution, says, " There he embraced Mr. John Davidson, and said to him. You wrote a book, for which I was angry with you ; but I never meant any ill to you, — forgive me. Mr. Davidson was so moved herewith, that he could not refrain, from weep- ing." History of the House of Douglas and Angus, ii. 279, 12mo. Note PPP, p. 340. Verses to the memory of Knox. — Beza has inserted no yerses to the memory of our Reformer, in his Ic.ones, id est. Vera Imag-ines Viro- rum Dnctrina simul et Pietate Illusirium, published by him in Latin, anno 1580. But of this work, a French version was published under the title of Les Vrais Pourtraits des Hummes Jllustres en Piete et Doc- trine. Geneve, 1531, 4to. In this translation are inserted original verses on Knox, &c. Irving's Memoirs of Buchanan, 234. Having never seen this translation, I cannot say whether the verses which it contains coincide with those which I am about to quote. Jacobus Verheiden published " Prcestantium aliquot Theologorum, qui Romae Antichristum oppugnarunt. Effigies, quibus addita eorum Elogia, librorumque Catalogi. Hag. Comit. 1G02." A new edition of this was published by Fredericus Roih-Scholtz, under the title of "Jacobi Verheidenii Hagas-Comitis Imagines et Elogia, &c. Hagae- Comitum, 1725." In this work the following lines are placed under the portrait of Knox: — Scottorum primum te Ecclesia, Cnoxe, docentem, Audiit, auspiciis estque redacta tuis, Nam te cslestis pietas super omnia traxit, Atque Reformatse Rehgionis amor. To the account of his life and writings, in the same work, is added an Epigram in Greek and in Latin, which, according to a common practice in such compositions, consists of a play upon his name, and that of his country, in the way of contrast ; representing Knox as driving the nocturnal crows, or scoiican sophists, from Scotland. As the author informs us that the Batavian youth amused themselves in making these epigrams, and thinks that some of them will amuse the reader, 1 shall not withhold this specimen in both languages. fivKTcptiai, v, X 0/ 3 'crt 3 K (ii bD 0 S-i CUH m . bb . ^ S _ 3 -3 Sr ^i "3 13 O cd .«-> ^ H S-, 1> s-i p z: s 0X30 ►5'c 3 3 N 52 l>1 >4 ;3^i5i3 03 Oh 03 cS O ChCQO K o 52S APPENDIX. No. XX. The Testament of John Knox. (From the Commissary Records of Edinburgh.) Ye testamentare & Inventare of the guids geir sowmes of money &, dettis Ptenlg to vmqle Johnne Knox miister of ye evangell of Christ Jesus the tyme of his deceis quha deceissit vpoun ye xxiiii day of november The zeir of God 1572 zeiris ffliithfuUie maid & gevin vp be him self vpoun ye xiii day of May the zeir of God tbirsaid And Ptlie be mgaret Stewart his relict quhome wt. Martha mgaret & Elizabeth Knoxis his dochteris he vpoun ye xiii day of Mali in his Lattir will vnderwritten nofate his executors testa- metaris as the same of the dait foirsaid beiris. In the first the said vmqle Jhonne grantit him to half sih-'jari^ 157V ^^^ the tyme foirsaid Tim sylver drinking coupis mkit. with J. K. M. on ye ane syde and on the vthir syde with E. B. N. cotening xxv vnces or thairby Tua salt fattis of syluer of xiii vnces vecht and ane half Auchtene sylver spvnes contening XX vnce wecht & a quarter price of the vnce 26s. 8d. Summa ffoureskoir punds of the qlk syluer work abonewritten the airschip is to be deducit and takin of Item the said mgaret ane of the,-saids executours grantit that the said vmqle Johne had the tyme of his deceis foirsaid in pois ane hundet pundes. Item his buikis alsweill vpoun the Scriptures as vyer Pphane authors wort, vi score and x/. Item in vtensile & domicile the airschip being deducit to the avail of 30/. Suma Inventarii. 296Z. 6s. 8d. ffollowis the dettis awing to the deid. Item yair wes awing to the said umqle Johnne ye tyme of his deceis foirsaid be Andro lord Stewart of Vchiltree his guidfather the sowme of 80/. of Lent money. Item be Wm. Fiddes baxter 10/. restand awand to the said vmqle Johnne of quheit qlk he ressavit to gif breidfor. Item be Agnes Weymes relict of vmqle Andro Mernis cietener of St. An- drois 19/. Us. l\d. for the rest of beir qlk scho ressauit fra ye said vmqle Johnne to mak aill of Item be mgaret Spens Spous to Mr. Robertt Glen 18/. 15s. dd. for beir qlk scho ressauit fra the said vmqle to delyuer aill of Item restand awand to the said vmqle Johnne the tyme foirsaid for ane pairt of his pensioun qlk he had furth of the kirk of Haddingtoun be the Psones following the victualles underwritten of the zeiris and cropes rcsive underspecifeit viz. of the crope and zeir ofgod 1571 zeiris be James Fiddes for ane pairt of his teyndis of the Nuland Hand in the parochin of Haddingtoun Ane boll of quheit ane boll ane firlote beir vii bollis aitts. be Adame Ethingtoun in Q,uhitrig ane boll of quheit sex bollis aitts price of the boll of quheit the said zeir 50.?. price of the boll of beir the said zeir twa mkis. and price of the boll of aittis the same zeir 20s. Suma 19/. I3s. 4d. Item l)e the said James Fiddes for his teyndis of the saidis lands of Nuland of the crope & zeir of God 1572 zeiris ane boll of quheit ane boll ane firlote beir sevin Dollis aittis. Be James Oliphant & Robert Hepburne for yair teyndis of the landis of Stenestoun Hand within the said parochin ye said zeir sex bollis quheit sex bollis beir and xx bollis aittis. be ye said Adame Ethingtoun in Q,uhitrig for his teyndis of the saidis lands the said zeir ane boll of quheit aneboll of beir and sex bollis aittis. Be Johnne gulanis wyfe in Auldersoun for her teyndis yrof of ye zeir foirsaid twa bollis quheit twa bollis beir and viii bollis aittis Price of ye boll of quheit the said zeir 50s. price of the boll beir ye said zeir twa mkis. and APPENDIX. 529 price of the boll aittis ye same zeir 206-. Summa 79Z. 135. M. Item restand awand to the said umqle Johnne the tyme of his deceis foir- said be the Psons following the sowmes of money & victuale under- writtin as for ane Pt of Iiis stipende assignit to him for serulg. in the miistrie of the said crope & zeir of God, 1571 zeiris in the first be Mar- garet Haldane Lady Colingtoun for the larabes term in the said zeir 33/. 6s. M. Be Mr. Robert VVynrahame collector of Fyfe 32/. Ms. for ye said vmqle Johnnis victuale of the said pensioun sauld be him the said zeir. Be Robert Bennet thre firlottis quheit Pee of the boll 50s. Summa 32.*. 6(/. Item restand awand to the said vmqle Jhonne the victuale and underspecifeit as for ane Pt of his said stipend the crop & zeir of God 1572 zeiris. In the first be Williame mchingstoun. in Inneresk thre bollis tua firlottis tua peckis quheit. Be Williame Vernor yair tua bollis tua firlottis thre peckis quheit. Be George Forma yair thre bollis tua firlottis tua pectis quheit. Be Robert Dow- glas thre bollis tua firlottis tua peckis quheit. Be Johnne Cranistoun in Monktounhall thre bollis thre firlottis quheit. Be Johne Kerss yair thre bollis ane firlot tua pectis quheit. Be Thomas Thomsoun yair tua bollis tua firlottis tua pectis quheit. Be Adame wricht tua bollis ane firlit quheit. Be Williame Johnestoun foure bollis ane firlot quheit. Be Dauid Hill in Inneresk ane boll thre firlotts thre pectis quheit. ex- tenden. to tua chalder quheit price of ye boll of quheit the said zeir 50*. Suma 80/. Be helene Cowtis relict of umqle Richard Prestoun of quhithill ane chalder beir. Be Jonet Betoun in Litill Monktoun ellevin bollis beir. Be Williame Wauchop of Nudry mschell for the teyndis of the lands of Calcoittis thre bollis beir. Be Johnne Hill of that ilk tua bollis beir. Be the tennentis of the parochin of Kynglassie for. chalderis. beir as followis. Be Johnne Boswall in Gaitmylk ane chalder beir. Williame Swyne yair viii bollis beir. George Tod in Kyninmonth ane chalder beir. Helene Mertyne in Kynglassie and Wm. Boswall hir sone tuelf bollis beir. Wm. Boswall in Stintoun xii bollis beir exten- den. in ye haill to sex chalderis beir price of the boll orheid tua mkis. Sua ane hundret twentie aucht pundis. Be the tennetis of the paro- chin of Newbirnshyre in Fyffe foure chalder aittis as follows vizt Williame Dishingtoun in Ranelery fourtene bollis aittis. Thome Al- cheur yair xiiii bollis beir. Johnne Zoung in the Coittis sex bollis aittis. Be David Sympsoun yair sex bollis aittis and be Andro yair sex bollis aittis. Be David Johnesoun in Monc- turpie aucht bollis aittis. Be Sympsoun foure bollis aittis price of the boll ouerheid 20*. Summa 64/. Item restand awand to ye said umqle Johnne, the sowmes underspecifeit as for ane Pt of ye sylver of his said stipend of the said zeir of God 1572 zeiris. In the first be James Rig of Carberry for the half teynd of Cowsland 33/. Qs. 8d. Be lady Fidmestoun Spous to Andro Ker of hirsell knyt, for the vyr. half of the teyndis of the lands foirsaids 33/. 6;?. Sri. Be the said mgaret. Haldane Jady Colyngtoun for the teynd of Hailis 66/. I3s. 8d. Be Robert Bennet 33/. Qs. Sd. Be Mr. James Macgill of Rankelor, neyer for his males of the lands of Pinkie for the times of Witsonday and mtymes, In the said zeir of God 1572 zeiris 51/. 65. 8d. And als resting be him of the males of the landis foirsaids of the zeir of God 1570 zeiris 45s. 8cZ. Be the executirs of vmqle Gil- bert Edmestoun for the males of the lands of Wowmet of the tme. of mtymes. the said zeir of God 1572 zeiris 22/. 8s. Be Jonet betoun for the males of Litill Monktoun Nyne pundis. Be the said Lady Edmestone and Archibald Prestoun of Wallefeild for the males of Netoun 14/. lis. 6d. Be James Rig of Carberry for the Maill yrof. 20/. Item be of Nudry for the Males of Calcottes 45 R3 530 APPENDIX. thre pundes. Be Robert Douglas in Inneresk for his males 3/. 195. id. Be VV'ni. nichinston thair for his few mail) 27*. lOd. 8301. 19s. 6d. Siimma of the detis abone writtin awing to ye deid Na detis awing be deid Summaofyelnventare wt. ye detis ? jror; iq ri awmg to the deid ^ ^"^'■^'- ^^^- "'^• To be Diuidit in thre Ptis ye ^ o~r/ iq o/ deidis pairt yrof extendis to ^ '^'•5<- ^