\fUtUti* 

 
 JOHN KNOX
 
 JOHN KNOX 
 
 HIS IDEAS AND IDEALS 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 JAMES STALKER, D.D., 
 
 Proft**or of Chrch Hiitory, Unittd 
 Fnt Colltgt, Atxrdttn 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 , C. ARMSTRONG & SON 
 
 3 AND 5 WEST EIGHTEENTH STREET 
 
 LONDON : HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 1904
 
 Pnnttd by Haatll, Watson & Vinty, Ld., London and Aylesbury, England.
 
 TO MY STUDENTS 
 
 2022C17
 
 PREFACE 
 
 T N 1905 not only Scotland but her sons and 
 -* daughters in distant lands will be celebrating, 
 amidst the sympathy of the world, the Quatercen- 
 tenary of the birth of the greatest of Scotsmen ; and 
 this volume is offered as a contribution to this event. 
 What has specially guided me, in addition to the 
 interest of the occasion, has been the desire to 
 make the Reformer's own sentiments better known. 
 These are contained in volumes which are read by 
 few ; and they are concealed beneath a repellent 
 orthography; but there is virtue in them which 
 ought to be felt ; and I have endeavoured to 
 release it. I do not pretend to have given a 
 complete collection of Knox's good things ; but 
 at least I have creamed them and furnished enough 
 to familiarise the reader not only with his ideas 
 but with the remarkable phraseology in which these 
 were expressed ; and my hope is that the following 
 pages may help to make it true that "he, being 
 dead, yet speaketh."
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 Ample acknowledgments are due not only to 
 the standard work of Dr. M'Crie and the solid 
 volumes of Dr. Hume Brown, but also to the 
 slighter sketches by Mrs. M'Cunn, Mr. Taylor Innes, 
 and the late Dr. W. M. Taylor of New York, 
 each of which has its own special charm. Upon 
 John Knotfs House and the translation into modern 
 English of The History of the Reformation much 
 affectionate and successful labour has been bestowed 
 by Mr. Charles J. Guthrie. The lecture in Carlyle's 
 Heroes, though brief, was epoch-making ; there is a 
 fine touch in the late R. W. Harbour's chapter in 
 The Evangelical Succession ; and R. L. Stevenson's 
 essays in Men and Books is fresh and suggestive. 
 But it is to Dr. David Laing's six volumes of Knox's 
 Works that the reader must turn who desires to see 
 Knox face to face ; and it is to this conscientious 
 editor's immortal labours that I have to express the 
 deepest debt of gratitude. 
 
 ABERDEEN, 20 October, 1904.
 
 CONTENTS 
 BOOK FIRST 
 
 JOHN KNOX 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY YEARS 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EXILE 25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SCOTTISH REFORMATION 53 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CLOSING YEARS . 82
 
 vii i CONTENTS 
 
 BOOK SECOND 
 
 HIS IDEAS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 HIS BOOKS . 97 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HIS POLITICAL OPINIONS 
 
 1 66 
 
 BOOK THIRD 
 HIS IDEALS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SCOTS CONFESSION OF FAITH ..... 193 
 
 CHAPTER^ II. 
 
 THE BOOK OF COMMON ORDER 21 4 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE 22 5
 
 BOOK FIRST 
 JOHN KNOX
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY YEARS 
 
 JOHN KNOX was born at Haddington in the 
 year 1505. Neither place nor date is, indeed, 
 absolutely beyond dispute ; and the slight 
 uncertainty has afforded ample room for the con- 
 flicts of antiquarians. The place may have been 
 the village of Gifford, two or three miles from 
 Haddington, but was more probably Gifford-gate, 
 a portion of Haddington itself ; and the date 
 may have been a few years later, even as much 
 as ten years, as one keen investigator in such 
 matters has recently suggested ; but the variations 
 from the received date are less likely to have 
 been due to exceptional knowledge and care than 
 to carelessness, which in regard to such points 
 was common in those days. Some people even 
 in our day do not know the exact date of their 
 own birth. 
 
 In the sixteenth century Haddington appears 
 to have occupied a more outstanding position than
 
 4 JOHN KNOX 
 
 it now does among the towns of Scotland, and, 
 lying on the route of armies advancing from England, 
 it had suffered much in the wars with which during 
 the preceding centuries that part of the country 
 was incessantly harassed. In Knox's time it 
 contained two monasteries and an abbey ; so that 
 he had constantly before his eyes, in the years 
 when impressions penetrate most deeply, the system 
 of religion which he was destined to destroy ; 
 and, besides, there were several chapels and 
 churches, one of which, on account of its prominence 
 in the landscape, bore the title of the Lamp of 
 Lothian. The town also possessed a school of 
 note, in which, it may be presumed, the future 
 reformer received the elements of education, as 
 no fewer than three other Scottish worthies had 
 done before him Bower, Wyntoun and Major. 
 
 The name of Knox was not scarce in Scotland in 
 that age, or confined to one district of the country ; 
 so that it is impossible to infer with any degree 
 of certainty a connection with him every time 
 it turns up in the records of the period. The 
 most prominent Knoxes in the country were those 
 of Ranfurly in Renfrewshire, but no connection 
 between them and the Reformer has been 
 established. In an interview with the Earl of 
 Bothwell, who had estates in Haddingtonshire, Knox
 
 JOHN KNOX 5 
 
 said, as he has himself recorded in his History 
 of the Reformation in Scotland : " My grandfathers, 
 paternal and maternal, and my father have served 
 your lordship's predecessors, and some of them 
 have died under their standards " ; * which appears 
 to indicate that he was a farmer's son with an 
 attachment to the soil and to the feudal superior. 
 His father's name was William, as was also that 
 of his brother, who figures here and there in his 
 writings as a substantial merchant, trading in 
 his own ship with England, and as a sincere 
 adherent of the Reformed faith. His mother was 
 a Sinclair a name which he himself sometimes 
 employed in signing his letters, when it was 
 dangerous to make use of his own. Thus it will 
 be seen that he belonged, by birth and upbringing, 
 to the lower order of the middle class, which he 
 was to do so much to educate and elevate ; although 
 he was destined to be associated in a remarkable 
 degree with the nobility of his native country ; 
 while for the masses of the community, which in 
 our day bulk so largely in the thoughts of religious 
 leaders, he had, apart from his faith in the 
 uplifting influences of the Gospel, very little of 
 the sympathy of the democrat, his commonest 
 name for this class being "the rascal multitude." 
 1 History, ii. 343.
 
 6 JOHN KNOX 
 
 Of how Knox came to be set apart for the 
 priesthood, whether by his own choice or by the 
 desire of his parents, we have received no 
 information. But, after being educated at the 
 high-school of his native town, he entered the 
 University of Glasgow in 1522, when he was 
 seventeen years of age. As Haddington lay in 
 the diocese of St. Andrews, it might have been 
 expected that he would have connected himself 
 with the university of that place ; but he may 
 have been attracted to the city of the West by 
 the fame of John Major, a Haddingtonshire man 
 like himself and at that date the most renowned 
 professor in the country. It is generally believed 
 that Knox owed not a little to this teacher, 
 especially in the formation of his political views, 
 as did also George Buchanan, who was a student 
 under the same professor a little later at St. 
 Andrews, to which Major had been transferred. 
 Although a bold and progressive thinker, Major 
 never severed himself from the old Church. 
 Buchanan became the foremost Humanist of his 
 age in Scotland and won a European celebrity 
 for the elegance of his Latinity. In this direction 
 Knox achieved no special distinction. His scholar- 
 ship never .was worn as an ornament. But it was 
 ample for the needs of the day, for which he
 
 JOHN KNOX 7 
 
 employed it. He could refer with facility to the 
 writings of the Fathers and to the incidents of 
 Church History, so far as he. needed them. He 
 had of course the mastery of Latin, this being 
 the language in which the intercourse of the 
 learned was carried on and the instructions of 
 universities delivered. Circumstances led to his 
 familiar use of the French language. But, above 
 all, he threw himself on the study of the Holy Bible, 
 which he read in the original tongues, having 
 acquired Hebrew when he was over forty. He 
 was concerned in the translation of the Bible into 
 English which goes by the name of the Geneva 
 Version ; and it is from this that his own quotations 
 are generally made ; these having for the modern 
 reader, on this account, an odd and uncouth sound. 
 It is in the use of his native tongue, however, 
 that he is a master, his words being, in comparison 
 with those of ordinary writers, like hail to rain, 
 or like bullets in comparison with arrows. His 
 spelling, which is very arbitrary, gives to his 
 writings a foreign and repulsive look ; but, in 
 reality, it is quite easy to read them ; and it is 
 useless to continue printing them in the old 
 orthography. 
 
 As has been remarked, it was in the year 1522, 
 when he was seventeen years of age, that he
 
 8 JOHN KNOX 
 
 entered the University of Glasgow. Thereafter he 
 lived fifty years, dying in 1572. But for exactly 
 the half of this period namely, from 1522 to 1546 
 we have next to no information about him ; 
 except that a document has been discovered in 
 which he signs himself, in Latin, "John Knox, 
 minister of the Sacred Altar, of the diocese of St. 
 Andrews, notary by Papal Authority," which 
 betokens that he had become a priest and employed 
 himself, either occasionally or regularly, in notarial 
 business, which would in our day be done by lawyers 
 but in those days was included among the multi- 
 farious employments of the priesthood. When again 
 he emerges into visibility, he is engaged in the 
 work of tuition in a noble family in the neighbour- 
 hood of his birthplace. Such employment has 
 always been among those in which men educated 
 for the sacred office might be found engaged ; but 
 it is extraordinary to find Knox still occupied with 
 it at the age of two-and-forty. This gives colour to 
 the idea that the date of his birth is too early. 
 But of course there may have been other reasons 
 for the anomaly, such, for example, as scruples 
 about engaging in the regular work of the priest- 
 hood. From the time when, in 1547, he comes 
 clearly into view as a public character, we can follow 
 him with full intelligence to the close of his life.
 
 JOHN KNOX 9 
 
 Indeed, his own writings, which abound with 
 autobiographical material, continue from this point 
 to the end without any considerable break. But 
 the mind of the student of Knox lingers wistfully 
 over the unrecorded interval between his seventeenth 
 and his forty-second year. It reminds us of the 
 long period of silence in the biography of our Lord, 
 which is broken only by the incident of His first 
 visit to Jerusalem. Though destitute of the delight- 
 ful garrulity of Luther about himself, Knox is not 
 particularly reticent ; yet there are certain parts of 
 his own biography where we cannot but keenly wish 
 that he had told more ; and this is one of them. 
 We are left to infer back from his subsequent life, 
 which is known, to this part, which is unknown. 
 Of one thing we may be certain, that he obtained 
 in those years a precise and extensive knowledge 
 of the religious system which it was to be the 
 work of his life to pull down. Of this he always 
 speaks in the most uncompromising terms, like 
 one whose mind is made up and whose knowledge 
 is so ample and detailed that it is of no use for 
 anyone to argue with him. In Luther's mind we 
 are permitted to see the doubts and hesitations 
 of one who had been trained to venerate the 
 authority and the institutions of the ancient faith 
 and who, when first he began to perceive that he
 
 io JOHN KNOX 
 
 must oppose the traditional system, felt all the 
 horror of a sacrilege. Those conflicts of his with 
 the Devil, which excite so different emotions in 
 different minds, were, in reality, only the imagin- 
 ative equivalents of very real and just fears, 
 haunting a private man, who was not only departing 
 himself but leading multitudes away from the 
 customs of the fathers, lest he should be leading 
 them to their eternal ruin. Of such timidity 
 there is in Knox no trace ; and this may be due 
 to the fact that he had had so long to observe 
 and to think before he came forward as a public 
 guide ; though it may be also attributed to the 
 fact mentioned by Dr. McCrie, whose statement 
 has been censured as unpatriotic but never dis- 
 proved, that the corruption of the Roman Catholic 
 Church had reached a greater height in Scotland 
 than in any other country of Europe. Knox 
 always refers to the old Church as a system past 
 redemption, in defence of which it is useless and 
 impossible to speak. The secularity and rapacity 
 of the higher clergy, who lived as nobles and 
 occupied themselves with everything except religion ; 
 the numbers and the viciousness of the friars, who 
 swarmed like locusts in the country and corrupted 
 the morals of the population through the con- 
 fessional, imperilling the purity of every household
 
 JOHN KNOX ii 
 
 by the fury of their passions ; the ignorance of 
 the parish priests and their neglect of preaching, 
 whilst they performed the routine of public worship 
 in an unknown tongue these and suchlike features 
 of the actual condition of the Church were palpable 
 and notorious, crying to Heaven for a reformation 
 in root and branches. 
 
 In Luther's case we know the steps by which 
 the Reformer himself was led into the light ; and 
 the affecting story belongs to the romance of 
 Church History. But in the case of Knox we 
 possess no such autobiographical details. On his 
 deathbed he asked his wife to read to him the 
 seventeenth chapter of St. John, " in which," said he, 
 " I first cast anchor"; but, when this crisis took 
 place, he did not indicate, and he has not indicated 
 it in any of his writings. That there was a crisis 
 there can, however, be little doubt ; and the 
 practised skill with which he deals with cases of 
 spiritual upheaval in other souls suggests what had 
 been its nature. In the account of his first 
 preaching in Edinburgh in the year 1555 there is a 
 singular little notice, which will be of significance 
 in this respect to those who have any acquaintance 
 with such matters. To himself it was evidently 
 very notable ; for he introduces this morsel of 
 personal history at the very commencement of his
 
 I 2 JOHN KNOX 
 
 account of a great public movement. " At last came 
 John Knox in the end of the harvest, in the year of 
 God 1555, who, first being lodged in the house 
 of that notable man of God, James Syme, began 
 to exhort secretly in that same house ; whereto 
 repaired the Laird of Dun, David Forres, and some 
 certain personages of the town, among whom was 
 Elizabeth Adamson, then spouse of James Barron, 
 burgess of Edinburgh, who, by reason that she 
 had a troubled conscience, delighted much in the 
 company of the said John, because that he, 
 according to the grace given unto him, opened 
 more fully the fountain of God's mercies than did 
 the common sort of teachers that she had heard 
 before (for she had heard none except friars), and 
 did with such greediness drink thereof that at her 
 death she did express the fruit of her hearing to 
 the great comfort of all those that repaired to 
 her ; for, albeit that she suffered the most grievous 
 torment in her body, yet out of her mouth was 
 heard nothing but praising of God, except that 
 sometimes she would lament the troubles of those 
 that were troubled by her. Being sometimes de- 
 manded by her sisters what she thought of that 
 pain which she then suffered in her body, in respect 
 of that wherewith sometimes she was troubled in 
 spirit, she answered : ' A thousand years of this
 
 JOHN KNOX 13 
 
 torment, and ten times more joined unto it, is not 
 to be compared to the quarter-of-an-hour that I 
 suffered in my spirit. I thank my God through 
 Jesus Christ, that has delivered me from that most 
 fearful pain ; and welcome be this, even so long 
 as it pleases His godly Majesty to exercise me 
 therewith.' A little before her departure, she 
 desired her sisters and some others that were 
 beside her to sing a psalm ; and, among others, she 
 appointed the ciii. Psalm, beginning, ' My soul, 
 praise thou the Lord alway,' which ended, she said : 
 ' At the teaching of this psalm began my soul 
 first effectually to taste of the mercy of my God, 
 which now to me is more sweet and precious than 
 if all the kingdoms of the earth were given me to 
 possess them a thousand years.' The priests urged 
 her with their ceremonies and superstitions ; to 
 whom she answered : ' Depart from me, ye sergeants 
 of Satan ; for I have refused, and in your own 
 presence do refuse, all your abominations. That 
 which ye call your sacrament and Christ's body 
 (as ye have deceived us to believe in times past) 
 is nothing but an idol, and has nothing to do with 
 the right institution of Jesus Christ ; and, therefore, 
 in God's name, I command you not to trouble me.' 
 They departed, alleging that she raved and wist 
 not what she said. And she, shortly thereafter,
 
 I 4 JOHN KNOX 
 
 slept in the Lord Jesus, to the no small comfort of 
 those who saw her blessed departing. This we 
 could not omit of this worthy woman, who gave 
 so notable a confession, before that the great light 
 of God's Word did universally shine through this 
 realm." 1 In scenes like this Knox was quite at 
 home ; in these the Reformation properly consisted, 
 although they are little heard of ; and Knox's 
 familiarity with them not only separates him by 
 the whole breadth of the heavens from the mere 
 ecclesiastic, who is concerned only with public 
 meetings and Church courts, but affords an in- 
 teresting glimpse into his own spiritual history. 
 
 Knox was not, indeed, a reformer in the same 
 sense as Zwingli or Luther men in whom the con- 
 ception of a new Church and a new world arose as 
 an original inspiration and who fought their way 
 to clear apprehensions of the truth by the force 
 of their own spiritual genius. He belonged to 
 the second generation ; and his merit lay in the 
 thoroughness with which he grasped ideas which 
 were already in the air, in the force with which he 
 drove these into the mind of his country, and in 
 the institutions by which he provided for their conser- 
 vation. In the first book of his History of the 
 Reformation, he has himself lovingly commemorated 
 1 History, i. 245.
 
 JOHN KNOX 15 
 
 those who were his predecessors. The stirrings of 
 dissatisfaction with the actual condition of things 
 and of aspiration after a better time came originally 
 from England, as many as thirty persons of 
 condition being tried for being followers of Wycliffe 
 as early as 1494 in Ayrshire, which in the subse- 
 quent period remained a centre of reforming activity. 
 Even before this, a spar from the wreck of the 
 reforming efforts of Huss in Bohemia was thrown 
 up on the East coast of Scotland, in the person of 
 Paul Craw, a Bohemian physician, who was burnt 
 to death at St. Andrews in 1431. As the Reforma- 
 tion blazed forth in Germany through the teaching 
 of Luther, the sparks began to fall even in Scotland. 
 " At this time," says Knox, " the knowledge of 
 God did wondrously increase within this realm, 
 partly by reading, partly by brotherly conference, 
 which in those dangerous days was used to the 
 comfort of many ; but chiefly by merchants and 
 mariners, who, frequenting other countries, heard 
 the true doctrine affirmed, and the vanity of the 
 papistical religion openly rebuked ; among whom 
 Dundee and Leith were principals." l The truth 
 penetrated the cloisters, and its presence was sus- 
 pected even in the court. When James V. died, 
 in 1543, there was, in the pocket of his coat, a list 
 1 History, i. 61.
 
 16 JOHN KNOX 
 
 of no fewer than a hundred another report says, 
 a hundred and sixty persons, some of them be- 
 longing to the highest nobility of the realm, whom 
 the ecclesiastical authorities accused of heresy and 
 were urging the king to cut off. 
 
 But the two men, to whom, in the highest sense, 
 the title of Reformer belongs in Scotland are un- 
 doubtedly Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart ; 
 and on both Knox bestows, in his History, ample 
 and affectionate commemoration. The former of the 
 two had learned the doctrines of the Reformation at 
 the feet of Luther and Melanchthon themselves 
 and, in imitation of the latter, whose principal theo- 
 logical work bears the name of Common Places a 
 term signifying heads or subjects under which the 
 contents of a book are arranged had given them 
 to his countrymen in their native tongue in a 
 brief volume popularly known as Patrick's Places 
 and printed in full by Knox in the History. He 
 had to die for his opinions at St. Andrews in 1527 ; 
 but the charm of his youth and noble lineage, his 
 sweetness of disposition, the cruelty of his martyr- 
 dom, and the constancy of his faith in the hour 
 of death so penetrated the heart of the country 
 with ruth and inquiry, that it was commonly said 
 that the smoke 1 of Master Patrick had infected all 
 1 "reek."
 
 JOHN KNOX 17 
 
 on whom it had blown. A striking evidence of 
 the rapidity with which the new opinions were 
 spreading was afforded by the passing of an Act 
 of Parliament in 1543, giving permission to all to 
 read the Scriptures in their own tongue and abolish- 
 ing all acts to the contrary. "This," says Knox, 
 " was no small victory of Christ Jesus, fighting 
 against the conjured enemies of His verity. 
 Then might have been seen the Bible lying on 
 almost every gentleman's table. Thereby did the 
 knowledge of God wondrously increase, and God 
 gave His Holy Spirit to simple men in great 
 abundance." * 
 
 But the most distinguished of the martyrs of the 
 Reformation was George Wishart Of his life 
 Knox gives, in his History, an account that is 
 classic in its condensed completeness. " A man," 
 he calls him, " of such grace as before him was 
 never heard within this realm, and are rare yet to 
 be found in any man, notwithstanding this great 
 light of God that since his days has shined unto us." 
 He was brother of the Laird of Pitarrow, in Forfar- 
 shire, and first fell under the suspicion of the 
 ecclesiastical authorities through teaching the Greek 
 Testament in Montrose. The chief scene of his 
 labours was Dundee, from which, however, he was 
 1 History, i. 100. 
 
 2
 
 !8 JOHN KNOX 
 
 banished through the machinations o the hierarchy. 
 Passing to the West country, he received a hearty 
 welcome there. But, hearing that the plague had 
 broken out in Dundee, he returned ; and, preaching 
 from the town-wall to the diseased on the one side 
 and the healthy on the other, he exhibited such 
 courage and intrepidity in grappling with the terrible 
 visitation that he became the idol of the inhabitants, 
 among whom the Reformation in subsequent years 
 possessed a numerous following. Nevertheless, he 
 was hounded from the place by the agents of the 
 Church and had to flee to Edinburgh. The last 
 place in which he preached was Haddington, Knox's 
 native town. On 16 January 1 546 he was ar- 
 rested at the neighbouring House of Ormiston ; and 
 on I March he suffered at the stake in St. Andrews. 
 The contriver of this judicial murder, as well as 
 the instigator for many years of all the measures 
 taken against the spread of the Reformed doctrines 
 in the country, was Cardinal Beaton, the Primate 
 of Scotland, who, surrounded by other proud prelates, 
 lounged out of a window in his palace, to watch 
 the sufferings of the martyr, after giving orders that 
 all the guns of the Castle should be pointed to the 
 place of execution, lest there should be any attempt 
 at a rescue. This man was a typical ecclesiastic of 
 the time. He was of noble family and had filled
 
 JOHN KNOX 19 
 
 numerous political offices, as member of parliament, 
 ambassador, and the like. On the death of James 
 V., he produced a will of the deceased monarch, by 
 which he was constituted Regent of the kingdom ; 
 but his claims were set aside for those of the Earl 
 of Arran, over whom, however, he soon acquired 
 complete ascendency. Meantime he had been rising 
 from stage to stage of ecclesiastical dignity, till, in 
 1538, he obtained the hat of a cardinal. He was a 
 man of towering ambition and great energy, which 
 was directed with special vigour towards clearing 
 the Church of heresy. But his character was wholly 
 unworthy of his sacred office : he was acknowledged 
 to be the father of a number of sons and daughters, 
 the latter of whom he married into the noble families 
 of the country. When such was the record of the 
 highest dignitary of the Scottish Church, what was to 
 be expected of the rest of the clergy ? And this 
 was the man who was hunting to death people as 
 virtuous a he was vicious. Blunted as the con- 
 science of the country had become through the long 
 prevalence of such abuses, there were not awanting 
 those now who were sensible of the glaring incon- 
 sistency ; and the martyrdom of Wishart wrought 
 up their indignation to fever heat. They re- 
 solved that the murder of their beloved teacher 
 should be avenged ; and five of them not ignorant
 
 2 o JOHN KNOX 
 
 fanatics, but all persons of repute, including Norman 
 Leslie, brother of the Earl of Rothes, and Kirkcaldy 
 of Grange surprised the Cardinal in his own palace 
 on 29 May 1546 and stabbed him to death, after 
 assuring him that their only motive was to avenge 
 the death of Wishart and remove an obstinate 
 enemy of the holy Evangel. 1 Of course they knew 
 themselves to be outlaws ; but they seized the 
 Castle of St. Andrews and defied the Government, 
 while there gathered round them a band bearing 
 some resemblance to that which gathered round 
 David in the Cave of Adullam, yet including 
 also such men as Henry Balnaves, a Lord of 
 Session, and Sir David Lindsay, the poet. For 
 months they held out against all the power that the 
 Government was able to bring against them by 
 land ; but at length their stronghold was captured 
 by ships summoned by the Queen Regent from 
 France ; and in the same vessels the Castillians, as 
 they were called, were borne away to that country, 
 to be imprisoned there in fortresses or condemned 
 to the galleys. 
 
 It is in connection with these stirring events that 
 
 Knox emerges from the obscurity in which he had 
 
 been enveloped for five-and-twenty years. When 
 
 Wishart came from Dundee to Eastlothian, Knox 
 
 1 HERKLESS, Cardinal Beatgn.
 
 JOHN KNOX 21 
 
 "waited upon him carefully," as he narrates him- 
 self; and he was with him during his activity in 
 Haddington. It was at the house in which Knox 
 was acting as tutor that the martyr was arrested ; 
 and Knox desired to accompany him ; but the ser- 
 vant of God replied : " Nay, return to your pupils ; * 
 and God bless you ! one is sufficient for a sacrifice." 
 Unwillingly Knox yielded, giving up a two-handed 
 sword which he had been bearing before the Re- 
 former a means of protection to which the latter 
 had had to resort, and for the use of which, in 
 spite of the unwarlike nature of his employments 
 hitherto, Knox was not perhaps ill adapted. 
 
 But Knox was now a marked man, and the 
 myrmidons of the hierarchy were on his track. At 
 all events he felt himself insecure ; and he betook 
 himself to the Cave of Adullam at St. Andrews. 
 The parents of his pupils were also suspected 
 persons ; and, either for this reason or because they 
 put a high value on the instructions of their tutor, 
 they permitted their boys to accompany him. 
 " Besides their grammar and other human authors," 
 says Knox, speaking of himself, " he read unto them 
 a catechism, account whereof he caused them to 
 give publicly in the parish Church of St. Andrews. 
 He read, moreover, unto them the Evangel of John, 
 1 "bairns."
 
 22 JOHN KNOX 
 
 proceeding where he left off at his departing from 
 Longniddry, where before his residence was ; and 
 that lecture he read in the chapel within the Castle 
 at a certain hour." l By these prelections the 
 attention of the Castillians was directed to the 
 gifted newcomer ; and they began to urge him 
 to favour them with the exercise of his talents 
 in the pulpit. But to this he was entirely averse, 
 till, instigated by Sir David Lindsay, they resorted 
 to a pious ruse to overcome his scruples. One 
 Sunday their preacher, John Rough, after dis- 
 coursing on the election of ministers, there and 
 then addressed to Knox a call in the name of all 
 present, proceeding in these moving terms : " In 
 the name of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, 
 and in the name of those here present who call 
 you by my mouth, I charge you that ye refuse 
 not this holy vocation, but that 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 with the multitude of labours, that you 
 take upon you the public office and charge of 
 preaching, even as you look to avoid God's heavy 
 displeasure and desire that He shall multiply His 
 
 1 History, i. 186.
 
 JOHN KNOX 23 
 
 graces with you." Then, addressing himself to the 
 congregation, he demanded, " Was not this your 
 charge to me ? and do you not approve this voca- 
 tion ? " They answered : "It was ; and we approve 
 it." Abashed and terrified, Knox fled to his 
 chamber, as Saul, in similar circumstances, hid 
 himself among the stuff. For days his distress 
 continued ; but, when he came forth from his 
 privacy and ascended the pulpit, it was to deliver 
 a sermon which made all who heard it aware that 
 a prophet had risen up amongst them. Some of 
 the listeners said : " Others lop off the branches of 
 the papacy, but he strikes at the root, to destroy 
 the whole " ; others said : "If the doctors and 
 magistri nostri defend not now the Pope and 
 his authority which in their own presence is so 
 manifestly impugned, the Devil have my part of 
 him and of his laws likewise " ; others said : " Master 
 George Wishart spoke never so plainly, and yet 
 he was burnt ; even so will he be." * Thus were 
 the lips unsealed which had been kept dumb so 
 long and the sluices opened to let out the waters 
 of thought and conviction which had so long been 
 accumulating. In the weeks that followed there 
 began to blossom in the heart of Knox that peculiar 
 
 1 History, i. 192.
 
 24 JOHN KNOX 
 
 affection which knits the minister of the Gospel 
 to those for whom he has travailed in birth till 
 Christ be formed in them ; and to the end of his 
 life he cherished towards St. Andrews that first 
 love which a pastor feels for the first place in which 
 he has exercised his ministry.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 EXILE 
 
 WHEN the garrison of St. Andrews had to 
 surrender, Knox, like the rest of the 
 Castillians, was carried off to captivity in France ; 
 and it was his hard lot to be sent to the galleys. 
 These things took place in 1547, when he was 
 two-and-forty years of age. He was a man rather 
 under the middle height, with broad shoulders, 
 swarthy face, black hair, and a beard of the same 
 colour a span-and-a-half long. He had heavy 
 eyebrows, beneath which the eyes were deeply sunk, 
 while the cheekbones were prominent and the cheeks 
 ruddy. The mouth was large, and the lips full, 
 especially the upper one. The whole aspect of 
 the man was not unpleasing ; and, in moments of 
 emotion, it was invested with an air of dignity 
 and majesty. So he is described by a con- 
 temporary, writing carefully for the purpose of 
 instructing an engraver engaged on a portrait of 
 the subject. The late Thomas Carlyle, in an 
 25
 
 26 JOHN KNOX 
 
 essay which he wrote in old age on the portraits 
 of Knox, expressed strong scepticism as to the 
 accuracy of the traditional bearded portraits, as 
 being too sensational, his preference being given, 
 on internal grounds, to what is known as the 
 Somerville Portrait, which is that of an extremely 
 Scotch, sensible, good-humoured, but beardless face. 
 It has, however, since been proved by Dr. Hume 
 Brown, through the recovery of the document above 
 quoted, that the traditional portrait is the genuine one. 1 
 The face is more that of a French or Swiss pastor 
 than of an ordinary Scot ; and the copious beard 
 supplies a feature which in any age must have 
 been peculiar. After the date at which Knox 
 entered so dramatically holding the two-handed 
 sword in front of Wishart on the stage of public 
 life, he was to live other five-and-twenty years ; 
 and this period falls into two halves of almost 
 equal length the first from 1547 to 1559, during 
 which he was out of his native country, save for 
 one somewhat prolonged visit in 1555-6, and the 
 second from 1559 to his death in 1572, during 
 which he was hardly ever out of Scotland and 
 never out of the island of Britain. 
 
 His twelve years of exile commenced with about 
 1 HUME BROWN, John Knox, ii. 320.
 
 JOHN KNOX 27 
 
 a year-and-a-half in the French galleys, where he 
 was the companion of convicts, and the whip of 
 the slave-driver cracked over his head. The galley 
 in which he was confined, Nostre Dame by name, 
 sailed on the rivers of France, and, in addition to 
 the hardness of their toil, the victims of justice 
 were galled by its uselessness. Dr. Hume Brown 
 has drawn, from official sources, a picture of the 
 life of the galley-slaves appalling in its realism ; 
 but there is room to hope that, in Knox's case 
 at least, there may have been some mitigation of 
 its horrors ; for during this time he edited, annotated 
 and sent home to the friends of the Reformation 
 in Scotland a treatise which a fellow-prisoner, 
 Henry Balnaves, already mentioned, had written 
 in the prison of Rouen ; and such literary activity 
 would hardly have been compatible with a rigour of 
 discipline as unmitigated as Dr. Hume Brown assumes 
 to have prevailed. Knox tells a story of a priest, 
 who ministered to the prisoners, carrying round, on 
 one of the festivals of the Church, the image of 
 some saint, to be kissed ; whereupon one of the 
 prisoners stoutly refused and, when the holy man 
 insisted, seized the painted piece of wood and, 
 flinging it overboard, exclaimed : " Let us see if she 
 can swim ; she is light enough." Of this adventure 
 Knox is generally supposed to have been himself
 
 28 JOHN KNOX 
 
 the hero ; but, if so, the fact that such an act of 
 
 insubordination could be performed with impunity 
 
 seems to indicate that the discipline was not very 
 
 rigorous. Another sign of lax discipline is that 
 
 four of the Castillians managed to escape from 
 
 Mont St. Michel ; and it is an indication of the 
 
 position held by Knox among his fellow-exiles that, 
 
 before carrying out their design, they consulted him 
 
 as to its lawfulness. His reply was that, if they 
 
 could escape without shedding any man's blood, 
 
 the attempt might lawfully be made. And made 
 
 it was with success ; but so many vicissitudes had 
 
 the runaways to encounter that Knox was in England 
 
 before them. On one occasion the galley in which 
 
 he was chained happened to sail round Scotland ; 
 
 and it passed so near to the Fife coast that the 
 
 spires of St. Andrews could be seen in the distance. 
 
 Knox happened at the time to be so ill that his 
 
 recovery was despaired of ; but, when a comrade 
 
 pointing towards the land, asked him if he 
 
 recognised it, "Yes," replied the invalid, raising 
 
 himself on his elbow, " I know it well ; for I see 
 
 the steeple of that place where God first in public 
 
 opened my mouth to His glory ; and I am fully 
 
 persuaded, how weak soever I now appear, that 
 
 I shall not depart this life, till that my tongue shall 
 
 glorify His godly name in the same place." This
 
 JOHN KNOX 29 
 
 prophecy was destined to be remarkably fulfilled ; 
 and it was only one of many instances which 
 caused the character of seer or prophet to be 
 attributed to Knox, both by others and himself, as 
 it had previously been to Wishart and was after- 
 wards to Peden and others of the Scots Worthies. 
 The comrade who succoured Knox on this occasion 
 was James Balfour, who lived to be Lord President 
 in his native country, but became to Knox an 
 object of abhorrence, because he appeared to him 
 to have become a backslider from the faith and 
 profession of his youth ; and this was not the only 
 one of the Castillians who subsequently rose high 
 in the world but, in the course of so doing, lost 
 the ardour of his youthful convictions. 
 
 Such are the fragmentary notices which can be 
 gleaned from this painful portion of Knox's life. 
 In subsequent years he did not like to speak of it ; 
 the iron had entered too deeply into his soul. Never- 
 theless he derived from it one invaluable lesson ; 
 for it taught him to pray. In A Declaration of 
 tli True Nature and Object of Prayer one of the 
 tenderest things he ever wrote he observes : 
 " Trouble and fear are very spurs to prayer ; for, 
 when man, compassed about with vehement calam- 
 ities and vexed with continual solicitude, having 
 by help of man no hope of deliverance, with sore
 
 3 o JOHN KNOX 
 
 oppressed and punished heart, fearing also greater 
 punishment to follow, from the deep pit of tribula- 
 tion doth call to God for comfort and help, such 
 prayer ascendeth to God's presence and returneth 
 not in vain. For I, the writer hereof, (let this be 
 said to the laud and praise of God alone) in anguish 
 of mind and vehement tribulation and affliction 
 called to the Lord, when not only the ungodly 
 but even my faithful brethren, yea, and my own 
 self judged my cause to be irremediable. And yet 
 in my greatest calamity, and when my pains were 
 most cruel, would His eternal wisdom that my 
 hands should write far contrary to the judgment 
 of carnal reason, which His mercy hath proved 
 true, blessed be His name! And, therefore, dare 
 I be bold, in the verity of God's Word, to promise 
 that, notwithstanding the vehemency of trouble, the 
 long continuance thereof, the desperation of all men, 
 the fearfulness, danger, dolour and anguish of 
 our own hearts, if we call constantly to God, that 
 beyond expectation of all men, He shall deliver ! " 
 although he adds, with touching brevity, a little 
 later : " How hard this battle is, no man knoweth 
 but he who in himself hath suffered trial." l 
 
 So shy is he of speech on the subject of his 
 1 Works, iii. 90, 100.
 
 JOHN KNOX 31 
 
 imprisonment that he has not informed us how 
 it came to an end. But in February 1549 he 
 was in England ; and all the Castillians had also 
 been set free. At that date King Edward VI. 
 had already been for two years on the throne 
 of England ; and under his godly encouragement 
 the work of reformation, which had proceeded 
 so slowly and dubiously during the reign of his 
 father, was going on apace. At the head of 
 ecclesiastical affairs was Cranmer, whose views were 
 broad and statesmanlike. The Church of England 
 had not then taken up the isolated position which 
 it has since adopted among the Churches of the 
 Reformation, but frankly recognised its unity with 
 all branches of the Church which had separated 
 from Rome ; and Archbishop Cranmer did not 
 scruple to lay hold of men of talent, professing 
 the Reformed opinions, wherever he could find them, 
 and to send them forth as labourers into the harvest, 
 the harvest being truly great and the labourers 
 few. From the Continental Churches he introduced 
 professors to the theological chairs in the uni- 
 versities ; and he was only too glad to secure for the 
 pulpit a preacher of the calibre of Knox from the 
 Scottish Church. Accordingly Knox found immediate 
 employment ; and he continued in the service 
 of the Church of England for the next five
 
 32 JOHN KNOX 
 
 years. 1 No question about his orders was ever 
 raised ; his ability to do the work was the only 
 qualification needed ; for the spirit of power and of 
 love and of a sound mind was then breathing 
 over the Churches of the Reformation from end 
 to end, imparting to them a catholicity very different 
 from the sentiment which has sometimes since 
 borne that name falsely, because its purpose is to 
 exclude and not to include. 
 
 He was employed first at Berwick and subse- 
 quently at Newcastle-on-Tyne ; and he could after- 
 wards say of his ministry there : " God is witness, 
 and I refuse not your own judgments, how simply 
 and uprightly I conversed and walked amongst you. 
 Though in His presence I am nothing but a mass 
 of corruption, rebellion and hypocrisy, yet, as con- 
 cerning you and the doctrine taught amongst you, 
 as then I walked, so now do I write in the presence 
 of Him who only knoweth and shall reveal the 
 secrets of all hearts, that neither for fear did I spare 
 to speak the simple truth to you, neither for hope 
 of worldly promotion, dignity or honour did I 
 willingly adulterate any part of God's Scripture, 
 whether it were in exposition, in preaching, conten- 
 tion or writing, but that simply and plainly, as it 
 pleased the merciful goodness of God to give unto 
 1 LORIMER : John Knox and the Church of England.
 
 JOHN KNOX 33 
 
 me the utterance, understanding and spirit, I did 
 distribute the bread of life (I mean God's most holy 
 Word) as of Christ Jesus I had received it. I 
 sought neither pre-eminence, glory nor riches. My 
 honour was that Christ Jesus should reign, my glory 
 that the light of His truth should shine in you, and 
 my greatest riches that in the same ye should be 
 constant." 1 
 
 But higher promotion was in store for him. In 
 1551 he was appointed one of the six Chaplains-in- 
 Ordinary to the King, of whom two in turn should 
 always be resident at court, while the other four, 
 when not thus employed, were to itinerate in destitute 
 parts of the country. Thus it fell to Knox's lot to 
 be preacher to the most distinguished and influential 
 audience in England ; and this position involved 
 him in delicate operations, which were at that time 
 in course of being performed. Thus, in 1552 he 
 had a hand in the compilation of the Book of 
 Common Prayer ; and he is known to have procured 
 the insertion of a rubric explaining that by the act 
 of kneeling at the reception of the sacrament no 
 adoration of the elements is intended, " for that were 
 idolatry, to be abhorred of all faithful Christians." 
 " A runnagate Scot," complained a controversialist 
 in the reign of Mary Tudor, "did take away the 
 Works, iii. 165. 
 
 3
 
 34 JOHN KNOX 
 
 adoration or worshipping of Christ in the sacrament ; 
 so much prevailed that one man's authority at 
 that time." In like manner an edition of the 
 Articles of the Church of England, issued in this 
 reign, was delivered to the six Royal Chaplains, of 
 whom Knox was one, to make a report of their 
 opinion touching the same, and, although nothing 
 can be pointed out in the Articles which indubitably 
 came from his hand, he was not the man to let 
 such an opportunity pass without making the most 
 of it. 
 
 If he did not remain in the Church of England, 
 it was not because that body was unwilling to 
 retain him, but because he was unwilling to commit 
 himself unreservedly to it. His appointment to the 
 See of Rochester is known to have been discussed 
 in the highest quarters, and it was probably due to 
 his own disinclination that it did not take place. 
 At all events it is certain that he was offered the 
 living of All Hallows, in Bread Street, London. 
 Indeed, his refusal of this preferment caused him 
 to be called before the Privy Council, where were 
 present the Bishops of Canterbury and Ely, my Lord 
 Treasurer, the Marquis of Northampton, the Earl of 
 Bedford, the Earl of Shrewsbury, Master Comptroller, 
 my Lord Chamberlain, both the Secretaries, and other 
 inferior Lords. He was asked three questions why
 
 JOHN KNOX 35 
 
 he refused the benefice provided for him ; whether 
 he thought that no Christian might serve in the 
 ecclesiastical ministration according to the rites 
 and laws of the realm of England; and whether 
 kneeling at the Lord's Table was not indifferent. 
 To the first he answered that he could be of more 
 use elsewhere than in London ; to the second, that 
 many things were worthy of reformation in the 
 ministry of England, without the reformation whereof 
 no minister did discharge or could discharge his 
 conscience before God ; for no minister in England 
 had authority to divide the lepers from the sound, 
 though this was a chief point of his office ; yet 
 did he not refuse such office as might appear to 
 promote God's glory in utterance of Christ's Gospel 
 in a mean degree, where more he might edify by 
 preaching of the true Word than hinder by suffer- 
 ance of manifest iniquity, seeing that reformation of 
 manners did not appertain to all ministers. To 
 the third he answered, that Christ's action in itself 
 was most perfect, and Christ's action was done 
 without kneeling ; that kneeling was man's addition 
 or imagination ; that it was most sure to follow 
 the example of Christ, whose action was done sitting 
 and not kneeling. It is strange to think of such 
 principalities and powers listening to such replies 
 or asking such questions. Yet, after long reasoning,
 
 36 JOHN KNOX 
 
 it was said unto him, that he was not called of any 
 evil mind ; they were sorry to know him of a 
 contrary mind to the Common Order. He answered 
 that he was more sorry that a Common Order 
 should be contrary to Christ's institution. With 
 some gentle speeches he was dismissed. 1 But he 
 continued after this to discharge his functions as 
 before ; and we find him itinerating, not only in 
 the North, but in Buckinghamshire and Kent. 
 
 Of Edward VI. Knox had formed the very 
 highest opinion. " We had," says he, " a king of 
 so godly disposition towards virtue and the truth 
 of God, that none from the beginning passed him, 
 and to my knowledge, none of his years did ever 
 match him." But of the courtiers and statesmen 
 by whom the youthful monarch was surrounded his 
 estimate was very different ; and he prophesied 
 distinctly what a backsliding there was likely to be 
 in England, if a Romanist should come to the throne 
 and the wind of persecution begin to blow upon the 
 religion which had sprung up like the gourd of 
 Jonah in the sunshine of the court. Already Knox 
 had acquired the habit, of which no injunctions to 
 the contrary could ever cure him, of introducing into 
 his sermons allusions of the most uncompromising 
 character to current events. In the very last sermon 
 1 Works, iii. 87.
 
 JOHN KNOX 37 
 
 which he preached before the King, taking for his text 
 the words, " He that eateth bread with me hath lifted 
 up his heel against me," he proceeded to observe 
 that commonly the most godly princes had officers 
 and chief councillors most ungodly. Were David 
 and Hezekiah, he asked, princes of great and godly 
 gifts and experience, abused by crafty councillors 
 and dissembling hypocrites ? " What wonder is it, 
 then, that a young and innocent King be deceived 
 by crafty, covetous, wicked and ungodly councillors ? 
 I am greatly afraid that Achitophel be councillor, 
 that Judas bear the purse, and that Shebna be scribe, 
 comptroller, and treasurer." l And there could be 
 no doubt to which persons in the auditory these 
 terms applied. 
 
 In July 1553 the precocious but delicate monarch 
 sank into the grave ; and, the following month, his 
 sister Mary came to the throne. A few months of 
 grace were allowed to the Protestants ; but, before 
 the end of the year, the Roman Catholic reaction 
 had set in with irresistible force ; and it was 
 dangerous for prominent professors of the Reformed 
 religion to be seen on the soil of England. Knox 
 lingered as long as he dared, still prosecuting the 
 work of preaching the Gospel after the time of 
 grace had expired ; and he went out of the country 
 1 Works, iii. 282
 
 3 8 JOHN KNOX 
 
 only with compunction ; but at length the per- 
 suasions of his friends prevailed ; and in March 
 1554 he found himself at Dieppe, facing a new 
 period of exile on the Continent, which was to last 
 as long as the reign of the Queen. 
 
 He had no place to go to ; and, in spite of 
 his incessant labours in the service of the Church 
 of England, he was so poor that he was under the 
 necessity of appealing almost immediately to private 
 friends in England for the means of procuring daily 
 bread. After some uncertain movements from place 
 to place, in the course of which he came into personal 
 relations with several eminent Continental Reformers, 
 he arrived in Geneva, where he had the privilege of 
 forming the acquaintance of Calvin, then near the 
 height of his influence. By his advice he accepted 
 an invitation to become the pastor, or rather one 
 of the pastors, of the English congregation at 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main ; and in this position he was 
 settled before the end of the year. 
 
 This English congregation in a foreign city was 
 composed of exiles and their families, who had fled 
 from England to escape from the persecution of the 
 reigning monarch. Settlements of similar character 
 had at the same time been formed at other places 
 on the Continent, such as Zurich and Strasbourg ;
 
 JOHN KNOX 39 
 
 but Frankfort proved the favourite place of resort, 
 because the use of a church had been granted to 
 the exiles by the magistrates. The use of the 
 same building had been previously obtained by 
 a Walloon congregation, which had fled from 
 England on the accession of Mary, and to the 
 English the privilege was granted on condition that 
 they employed the service of this French congrega- 
 tion a condition which was understood to be 
 sufficiently fulfilled by the employment of the 
 English Prayer Book, with the litany and the 
 responses left out and a few other slight modifica- 
 tions introduced. Such alterations suited Knox 
 well enough, the portions left out being precisely 
 those to which he had already in England expressed 
 conscientious objections ; and there were other 
 persons in the congregation to whom this modified 
 Prayer Book was more acceptable than the original. 
 On the other hand, there was a party who would 
 have preferred the book unaltered. All, however, 
 was going with tolerable smoothness, till a further 
 party of exiles from England arrived on the scene, 
 certain aggressive members of which, the first 
 Sunday they were in church, gave the responses 
 at the points at which they had been accustomed 
 to do so in England ; and, the following Sunday, 
 they contrived to have the litany read. Knox, in
 
 40 JOHN KNOX 
 
 preaching, represented to them the disorderliness 
 of their conduct in interfering with an arrangement 
 agreed to before their arrival and laid down by 
 the magistrates as the condition on which the use 
 of the church had been allowed. But there was 
 an element in the congregation favourable to the 
 Prayer Book as it was ; and the newcomers carried 
 things with a high hand. They were not yet, indeed, 
 members of the congregation, and, by keeping them 
 out, Knox might have had a majority favourable 
 to his own views. He, however, disdained to make 
 use of this advantage ; and they were no sooner 
 in the majority than they proceeded to use their 
 strength against him and his supporters. Then 
 ensued a storm in a teapot, the minute details of 
 which are still traceable, if it were worth while ; l 
 and it has been said that the contest was the entire 
 Puritan Period in miniature. In the end Knox's 
 opponents resorted to the use of an equivocal 
 measure by which the controversy was ended as 
 far as he was concerned : carrying to the magistrates 
 a copy of a pamphlet which he had recently 
 published, entitled A Faithful Admonition to 
 England, they pointed out several references to the 
 Queen of England and to her husband, Philip of 
 Spain, of a character so unparliamentary that the 
 1 Works, iv. i ff.
 
 JOHN KNOX 41 
 
 City of Frankfort might, it was suggested, become 
 obnoxious to these potentates, if it was known to 
 be harbouring the man who had made them. This 
 device was successful, the magistrates requesting 
 Knox to quit the city. 
 
 He returned to Geneva ; and with him went 
 such of those who had been on his side in the 
 controversy as were in a position to change their 
 residence. By these was formed at Geneva a 
 refugee congregation, which grew till it numbered 
 over two hundred members. Of this body Knox 
 became pastor, or rather one of the pastors ; for he 
 had as colleague Christopher Goodman, who was to 
 be closely associated with him in more phases than 
 one of his subsequent history. Hardly had Knox, 
 however, commenced his labours in this new sphere 
 when he was called away to visit his native country, 
 in which he stayed from September 1555 to 
 July 1556. 
 
 Six years had elapsed since he had left Scotland ; 
 and in the interval events had been marching at a 
 rate of which Knox himself had had no conception ; 
 the result being that he received a welcome far 
 beyond his expectations. Partly the change was 
 due to the growing intelligence of the country and 
 to the utter inability of the Catholic Church, as it
 
 4 2 JOHN KNOX 
 
 then existed, to stand the least inquiry. Of this a 
 pathetic proof had been given in the year in which 
 Knox had left the country, when a Provincial Synod 
 passed no fewer than sixty-eight statutes of a re- 
 formatory character, in which it was confessed that 
 the root and cause of the troubles and heresies 
 which afflicted the Church were the corruption, the 
 profane lewdness, the gross ignorance of churchmen 
 of almost all ranks, particulars being added too un- 
 savoury for quotation. Partly it was due to the 
 influx into Scotland, on the accession of Mary in 
 England, of Protestants who might hope for less 
 inquisition there into their beliefs ; among whom 
 were such ministers as Harlaw and Willock, who 
 became extremely useful in the North. From 
 Edinburgh, on 9 November, Knox writes : " Albeit 
 my journey toward Scotland was most contrary 
 to my own judgment, yet this day I praise God 
 for them whom he made the instrument to draw 
 me from the den of my own ease, to contemplate 
 and behold the fervent thirst of our brethren, 
 night and day sobbing and groaning for the bread 
 of life. If I had not seen it with mine eyes in my 
 own country, I could not have believed it." And a 
 little later he writes : " The trumpet blew the old 
 sound three days together, till private houses of in- 
 different largeness could not contain the voice of it.
 
 JOHN KNOX 43 
 
 Oh, sweet were the death that should follow such 
 forty days in Edinburgh as here I have had 
 three ! " It is not to be forgotten that Knox 
 returned to his native land surrounded with a 
 halo of prestige due to his association with the 
 leaders of thought and action in other countries ; 
 but more is required to explain a success like this. 
 
 Among his hearers in Edinburgh were many 
 solid and excellent citizens, the names of some of 
 whom he gives, though they are now forgotten, and 
 honourable women not a few. Of figures more 
 notable were young Maitland of Lethington, whose 
 subsequent course was to be so ambiguous, and 
 Erskine of Dun, who was always faithful and con- 
 tinued throughout the subsequent years to be an 
 ornament to the cause to which he was attached. 
 By the latter Knox was taken to his residence in 
 Forfarshire, where he entered into the labours of his 
 predecessor Wishart with much success. Later his 
 headquarters were at Calder House, near Midcalder, 
 where not only did Sir James Calder and his sons 
 espouse the cause, but round the preacher were 
 gathered young men destined to rise to positions 
 of the greatest influence in their native country 
 Lord Erskine, the future Earl of Mar ; Lord Lorn, 
 afterwards Earl of Argyle ; and Lord James Stewart, 
 afterwards the Regent Moray. From here he passed
 
 44 JOHN KNOX 
 
 to Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, where the ground had 
 been prepared by the Lollards of Kyle, already 
 mentioned ; and here, among other men of distinction, 
 the Earl of Glencairn joined him, proving to be of 
 inestimable value to the cause in subsequent years. 
 By Glencairn another great noble, the Earl Marischal, 
 was brought into contact with Knox, whom he 
 persuaded to write a letter to the Queen Regent ; 
 for they were at the stage when young converts 
 believe that the truth has only to be set forth in its 
 naked simplicity to win universal assent. Knox 
 penned the letter, putting into it not only the pith 
 of his reasoning power but the utmost courtesy of 
 which he was capable. But they were to learn the 
 lesson that Old Adam is too strong for young 
 Melanchthon ; for Mary of Lorraine, having perused 
 it, handed it to the Archbishop of Glasgow, who 
 was standing by, with the remark : " Please you, 
 my lord, to read a pasquil " a remark which, when 
 Knox heard of it, entered like iron into his soul. 
 Thus was Knox permitted for months to go 
 unchallenged up and down the country, by the 
 attraction of his personality and the persuasion of 
 his preaching winning adherents of great weight 
 and in surprising numbers to the cause. But at 
 length the sleeping enemy awoke ; and he was 
 summoned to answer for himself in the Church of
 
 JOHN KNOX 45 
 
 the Black-friars in Edinburgh. Though well aware 
 that the fate of Patrick Hamilton and George 
 Wishart was probably in store for him, he 
 answered the summons, appearing at the appointed 
 day and hour. But the opposite party took fright 
 and deserted the diet ; whereupon he went on 
 preaching in Edinburgh to still larger audiences. 
 But the situation could not have lasted much longer 
 as it was ; and it was well that, at the critical 
 juncture, he received a summons, which he did not 
 feel himself entitled to disobey, to return to his 
 charge at Geneva. 
 
 The value of this visit to his native country 
 had been incalculable. The men and women whom 
 he was privileged to bring to decision proved to 
 be those on whom the whole weight of the cause 
 was subsequently to rest, and they felt for him 
 the affection and devotion due to the man to 
 whom they owed themselves. Wherever he had 
 gone, he had dispensed the Lord's Supper in 
 the simple form of the Reformed Church ; and 
 people, long accustomed to the wearisome celebra- 
 tion of the Mass in a strange tongue, felt the 
 charm of the unadorned function and entered into 
 the communion of saints. He strongly dissuaded 
 them from attending Mass ; and, from this time 
 forward, this became the mark of thorough and
 
 4 6 JOHN KNOX 
 
 entire religious decision. He did not, however, 
 merely enjoin this, but argued the question out 
 with such disputants as Maitland of Lethington, 
 so that they might have a reason in themselves 
 for the line of conduct they pursued.- '; He left 
 behind him directions for conducting the devotional 
 meetings in which they were to search the Scriptures 
 and edify one another. He was even implored by 
 the female portion of his adherents to guide them 
 as to the garments it would be proper for women 
 professing godliness to wear ; and this responsibility 
 he did not decline, his opinion on this ticklish 
 subject being still accessible. 1 
 
 There had been another reason for this visit 
 of Knox to his native country besides the public 
 one. While engaged as a preacher in Northumber- 
 land five years before, he had formed the acquaint- 
 ance of the family of Richard Bowes, Captain of 
 Norham Castle. With this man's wife, who was 
 the daughter of Roger Aske, of Aske in Yorkshire, 
 he had formed a close intimacy, acting to her as 
 spiritual guide, she being of a rare intelligence 
 but of a scrupulous conscience and, for this reason, 
 making constant demands upon the sympathy of 
 her friend, who responded to them in a correspon- 
 dence which forms one of the most characteristic 
 1 Works ; iv. 225 ff.
 
 JOHN KNOX 47 
 
 portions of his literary legacy. In the course of 
 his intercourse with the mother, he formed an 
 attachment for her daughter Marjory ; and, in spite 
 of the opposition of her father and some other 
 members of the family, they were engaged to be 
 married before he left England ; and now, as he 
 quitted Scotland, to return to Geneva, they were 
 wedded ; and he took back with him not her 
 only but Mrs. Bowes as well. This event in 
 Knox's life did not cause the same amount of 
 scandal as did the marriage of Martin Luther, the 
 world having become accustomed to the spectacle 
 of the marriage of men who had once, as priests 
 or friars, taken the vow of celibacy. He was to 
 give more cause for the derision of the profane 
 when, Marjory Bowes having died in 1560, he 
 married again in 1564, at the age of fifty-nine, 
 his bride being a girl of sixteen or seventeen. By 
 his first wife he had two sons, one of whom 
 became a clergyman in the Church of England, 
 and by the second three daughters, one of whom 
 became the heroic Mrs. Welsh of Ayr. 
 
 For the next three years Knox was minister 
 of the English congregation of Geneva ; and this 
 was the most tranquil period of his life. Of the 
 sublime scenery of the Alps he never, indeed,
 
 48 JOHN KNOX 
 
 says a word ; but such silence was the custom of 
 the age ; and he must have felt the influences of 
 nature whether he was conscious of them or not. 
 Of other advantages of his place of abode he was 
 well aware. " I neither fear," he remarks, " nor 
 ashame to say that Geneva 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 
 so truly reformed I have not yet seen in any 
 other place." l Such was the result of the vision 
 of a city of God on earth which had formed itself 
 in the mind of Calvin and of the force of will 
 with which that great man had impressed his own 
 ideas on the minds of his fellow-citizens. Knox, 
 along with his colleague Goodman, was admitted 
 to citizenship in 1558. Of actual intercourse of 
 his own with Calvin we have comparatively little 
 record ; but the two were so near of kin in spirit 
 and aims that their fellowship must have been 
 close and cordial ; and it is delightful to think of 
 these two pacing the margin of the lovely Lake, 
 absorbed in conversation on the highest themes. 
 Though the elder of the two, Knox always speaks 
 with veneration of his friend, as "that singular 
 instrument of Christ Jesus in the glory of His 
 1 Works, iv. 240.
 
 JOHN KNOX 49 
 
 Gospel." " From him," he adds, " we must confess, 
 except that we would, in concealing the truth, 
 declare ourselves to be unthankful, that we all 
 have received comfort, light and erudition." 1 Of 
 other persons of culture the city at that time 
 contained not a few ; such, for example, as those 
 who were engaged in translating the Geneva Bible ; 
 and in Knox's own congregation there were persons 
 of honour, quality and estate, many of them divines 
 and students of divinity, besides merchants, trades- 
 men and husbandmen. 
 
 In intercourse with friends like these his mind 
 was stimulated, and he had leisure both to read 
 and think. Hence it is not surprising that it is 
 to these three years that the fullest statements of 
 his opinions, both theological and political, belong. 
 His longest theological production, a treatise on 
 Predestination, was a task imposed on him by the 
 divines with whom he was associated at Geneva, 
 and it was sanctioned by the authorities of that 
 city. The discussion of the subject of which it 
 treated had waxed hot in Switzerland a little 
 earlier ; and the author of the English work which 
 Knox was appointed to answer had borrowed his 
 arguments from the opponents of Calvin in that 
 country Servetus, Bolsec and Castellio. The most 
 1 Works, v. 169. 
 
 4
 
 50 JOHN KNOX 
 
 notorious political treatise of Knox, on the contrary, 
 The Monstrous Regiment of Women, was written 
 without consultation with Calvin, and was vigorously 
 repudiated by that divine, when it became apparent 
 how much it was fitted to injure the cause of the 
 Reformation. It was directed against Mary of 
 Lorraine and Bloody Mary ; but the latter died 
 immediately after its publication ; and Elizabeth, 
 who succeeded, though a Protestant, disliked not 
 only the book itself but the man who had written 
 it, and the city from which it had been issued, almost 
 as much as Mary, had she lived, could have done. 
 
 It was actually written at Dieppe, where Knox 
 had arrived in 1557, intending to proceed to Scot- 
 land, from which an invitation to return had reached 
 him, signed by several of the most influential of 
 the adherents of the Reformation. But they changed 
 their minds and intercepted him with an order 
 not to come any further, the time being not yet 
 ripe. . For weeks he stayed with impatience in the 
 seaport, waiting for further orders ; while he waited, 
 the fire burned, and he threw off this unfortunate 
 pamphlet, to relieve his feelings. It brought him 
 subsequently a world of trouble, and he had to 
 try to explain it away both to Queen Elizabeth 
 and Mary Queen of Scots ; but as to the main 
 positions of the book he died impenitent.
 
 JOHN KNOX 51 
 
 It is more pleasant to remember that during 
 the weeks he stayed at Dieppe he preached in the 
 town and may almost be called the founder of 
 the vigorous Protestant Church which subsequently 
 flourished there. He also visited, before returning 
 to Geneva, Rochelle and other Protestant centres 
 in the West of France. Indeed, he was thoroughly 
 familiar with the condition of the French Church, 
 and he translated into English an official account, 
 which the Huguenots had issued, of a cruel massacre 
 of which they had been the victims in Paris. We 
 may close this section of his life with a moving 
 story from this little-known document, or rather 
 from an editorial addition, made by Knox himself: 
 " Among others, God now of late days hath so 
 triumphed in the death of a tender child of sixteen 
 years of age, that the very blind people are compelled 
 to confess that the mighty power of God worketh 
 above nature with the sufferers, and openly fighteth 
 against our enemies. This young gentleman, con- 
 demned to be burnt quick, was laid upon a manner 
 of a wheel l above the fire, his face upward ; but, 
 as God's good pleasure and providence was, his 
 tongue was not cut out, but a great piece of wood 
 was put in his mouth, bound with a cord behind 
 his neck. When the fire had so long burnt that
 
 52 JOHN KNOX 
 
 the cord was consumed, and so the stick fell forth 
 of his mouth, he began, when no life appeared to 
 have remained, most comfortably to sing the Fortieth 
 Psalm of David, having this beginning : ' Patiently 
 have I abidden the Lord, who is eternal, and He 
 hath inclined Himself unto me and hath heard 
 my cry. He hath delivered me from the horrible 
 pit, yea, from the pit of dolour, and hath placed my 
 feet upon a sure rock. He hath put a new song in 
 my mouth, yea, a thanksgiving unto our God. 
 Many, seeing this, shall fear the Lord and put their 
 trust in Him. Blessed is the man that setteth his 
 hope on the Lord and turneth not unto the proud 
 and unto such as go about with lies.' And did so 
 proceed unto the end of the psalm, at the last verse 
 whereof he rendered his spirit, as it had been with- 
 out pain, to the great and most singular comfort of 
 all faithful, and to the fear, confusion and shame of 
 those cruel tyrants." l 
 
 1 Works, iv. 301.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SCOTTISH REFORMATION 
 
 MARY, QUEEN OF ENGLAND, having died 
 on 17 November 1558 the exiles who were 
 dispersed over the Continent, trooped home ; and in 
 Geneva Knox had no longer a congregation to 
 which to minister. Accordingly he left that city for 
 good in the following January. But, for the reason 
 already mentioned, he was not permitted to set foot 
 in England, even for the purpose of passing through 
 it to Scotland ; and it was not till the month of 
 May that he arrived in Edinburgh. On his voyage, 
 however, he became privy to a secret, which he 
 hoped, not without reason, might yet open his way 
 to the favour of Queen Elizabeth, which for the time 
 he had forfeited. In the vessel in which he sailed 
 there was a great seal, graven with the arms of 
 France, England and Scotland, and with a style for 
 the French king and queen, naming them king and 
 queen of these three countries. Of this jewel, as he 
 53
 
 54 JOHN KNOX 
 
 calls it, Knox procured a sight, and he treasured 
 this as a state secret of importance, to be divulged 
 at some favourable opportunity. The king and 
 queen who thus made pretentions to the throne of 
 England, in rivalry to Elizabeth, were the Dauphin, 
 afterwards Francis II. of France, and Mary Stuart, 
 afterwards the Queen of Scots, who had been wedded 
 in 1558. 
 
 Knox's arrival in his native country took place 
 at a critical moment ; indeed, it proved to be so 
 well-timed that devout students of history have 
 recognised in this the special providence of God. 
 
 Three years had elapsed since his last visit ; and 
 in the interval the tide had been flowing strongly in 
 favour of the Reformation. Mary of Lorraine, who 
 had been Regent since 1554, had found it expedient 
 in her own interest to encourage the Protestant 
 nobles. These, in the year 1557, had formed an 
 agreement among themselves, called the Band, in 
 which they vowed to employ their whole power, 
 substance and very lives to maintain, set forward 
 and establish the blessed Word of God and of His 
 congregation. From this time they were denominated 
 the Lords of the Congregation, the Congregation 
 being the name by which those who favoured the 
 new religion were known. They were even so bold 
 as to approach the Regent with a petition for the
 
 JOHN KNOX 55 
 
 right of public and private prayer in the vulgar 
 tongue, of explaining and expounding the Scriptures, 
 and of communion in both kinds ; and they humbly 
 required that means should be taken for the reform 
 of the wicked, slanderous and detestable lives of 
 prelates and the state ecclesiastical. In 1559 
 another Council met, which passed many resolutions 
 for reform, the very terms of which are the best 
 evidence of the charges made by Protestants against 
 the old Church ; these measures, however, proved, 
 like others which had preceded them, to be only 
 reforms on paper, the Church being too corrupt to 
 reform itself. Meanwhile the preachers of the 
 Gospel were so multiplying in numbers and growing 
 so bold that more than once the Regent summoned 
 them to her presence, with the intention of silencing 
 them ; but, when they appeared, they were accom- 
 panied by so many supporters that she was fain 
 to dismiss them with nothing done. 
 
 At heart, however, she was a thorough papist, 
 her secret determination being to subject the 
 country religiously to the see of Rome and 
 politically to the power of France. She had filled 
 the country with French soldiers, who devoured it 
 unmercifully and perpetrated every insolence ; and 
 at length, after the crown matrimonial had been 
 bestowed on her son-in-law, she considered that the
 
 5 6 JOHN KNOX 
 
 hour had come for throwing off the mask. Accord- 
 ingly the preachers were summoned to appear 
 before her at Stirling on 10 May 1559. They 
 prepared to obey the summons ; but the men of 
 Montrose and Dundee, with others from the sur- 
 rounding parts of Forfarshire and Fife, accompanied 
 them in arms as far as Perth ; and in the Dundee 
 contingent John Knox made his appearance, having 
 arrived in Edinburgh on the second of the month. 
 
 The Regent had, in fact, evoked civil war, which 
 went on without intermission till her death. Its 
 first centre was Perth, between which place and 
 Stirling, where the Queen Regent lay, complex 
 negotiations went on. Meantime Knox was preach- 
 ing in the Fair City, his voice rising like a trumpet 
 over the confusion of the times ; and in connection 
 with his preaching there broke out the spoliation 
 of the holy places of the old religion, which has 
 been so often made a serious charge against him. 
 According to his own account, this began accident- 
 ally. After a sermon against idolatry, a priest 
 commenced to say Mass ; whereupon a boy used 
 some abusive language ; whereat the priest struck 
 him a blow ; then the lad threw a stone, which 
 struck the altar at which the priest was ministering ; 
 whereupon confusion broke loose, and none could 
 stop it. Thus were the houses of the Grey and
 
 JOHN KNOX 57 
 
 the Black Friars and the Charterhouse Monks 
 destroyed " by the hands," says Knox, " not of the 
 gentlemen, neither of them that were earnest 
 professors, but of the rascal multitude." He and 
 others, a little later, attempted to stop similar 
 proceedings at the Abbey and the Palace of Scone, 
 refusing to speak to the rioters from Dundee 
 who had done the violence. But similar acts of 
 desecration accompanied his preaching soon after- 
 wards at St. Andrews ; and the destructive mania 
 spread far and wide to other places. Knox would 
 have preferred an orderly destruction of the symbols 
 of idolatry by the action of lawful authority ; but 
 it would, it is to be feared, be too much to say 
 that, in case of its not being done in this way, he 
 would have preferred that it should not be done 
 at all. The saying, often attributed to him, that 
 the nests must be pulled down if the rooks are 
 to be got rid of, cannot be traced to any document 
 emanating from him ; but it has internal verisimili- 
 tude. His aesthetic sense was imperfectly developed. 
 He probably saw that the buildings and their 
 ornaments were well adapted for the worship which 
 it was his business to abolish ; and, if buildings 
 better adapted to Protestant worship and yet 
 conforming to the laws of good taste were not 
 substituted for these, this may be less his fault
 
 5 8 JOHN KNOX 
 
 than that of the careless generations of Protestants 
 that have succeeded him. 
 
 The war shifted from Perth to Fife, where the 
 insurgents gained a decisive advantage at Cupar 
 Muir ; and, thereafter, they drove the Regent and 
 her troops out of Stirling and Edinburgh to 
 Haddington, where they rallied. Then the tide of 
 fortune turned ; and the Congregation were severely 
 beaten at Leith and driven, in a sorely shattered 
 condition, to Stirling. 
 
 It was a strange war ; for the combatants were 
 less the Scots themselves than the French on the 
 one side and the English on the other ; and the 
 issue seemed to depend on the number of auxiliaries 
 the one foreign power or the other could be induced 
 to furnish. Knox had an extraordinary part to 
 play in it ; because he was not only the army 
 chaplain, whose voice, as Randolph, the English 
 ambassador, said, was able to put more life into 
 men than five hundred trumpets continually bluster- 
 ing in their ears, but he was, besides, the secretary 
 of the Congregation, issuing manifestoes and penning 
 despatches ; and he was negotiator and almost spy, 
 going on a secret mission to England and haggling 
 with the English Government about the sums of 
 money they were to pay to the various Scottish 
 nobles for their services, It was all necessary, he
 
 JOHN KNOX 59 
 
 believed, in the sacred cause, and with his whole 
 heart and mind he approved of the English alliance, 
 while he was certainly politically right in seeking 
 to deliver his country from the presence of the 
 French, who were intolerable oppressors of the 
 people ; but we are almost glad that Knox did 
 not shine in such negotiations. He was perfectly 
 well known to the enemy at Berwick, when he 
 thought he was going about incognito ; once, when 
 he suggested that the English soldiers who lent 
 their swords to Scotland should make an equivocal 
 explanation of their conduct, he was sharply rebuked 
 by the English agent with whom he was dealing ; 
 and once, when he had secured a large sum of 
 money from the English Government, it was sur- 
 prised and seized by the enemy on its way North. 
 He was himself weary of this business before he 
 had had it long in charge ; and it was well when 
 it was taken out of his hands by young Lethington. 
 But he endured incredible labours and sufferings 
 in those eventful months. Often he was sick in 
 body and sicker still in spirit Yet he was the life 
 and soul of the whole movement ; and in moments 
 of despair, which happened not rarely, he was able 
 to pour energy into the veins of his comrades and 
 inspire them with fresh faith in God and in their 
 enterprise.
 
 60 JOHN KNOX 
 
 What might have been the issue of the struggle, 
 had it been prolonged, it is impossible to say ; 
 but, while it still hung in the balance, Mary of 
 Lorraine died on 10 June 1660 ; and, immediately 
 thereafter, by the Treaty of Edinburgh, it was 
 settled that Francis and Mary should give up using 
 the arms of England ; that the French troops should 
 depart from Scotland and no office of importance 
 be held any more by a Frenchman ; and that a 
 parliament should be forthwith assembled, the acts 
 of which should be as valid as if it had been 
 summoned by the King and Queen. Thus the 
 Congregation triumphed all along the line ; and 
 the way was clear for realising all the hopes with 
 which Knox had returned to his native country. 
 
 On i August 1560 began the sittings of the 
 most important parliament that ever met in Scot- 
 land. It was numerously attended ; the presence 
 of many of the barons or lairds being especially 
 noteworthy an estate of the realm which had long 
 had the right of sitting in parliament but had made 
 little or no use of the privilege till now, when 
 it was stirred with religious impulses and perceived 
 how political power might be wielded as a weapon 
 in the war of righteousness. " I never," reported 
 Randolph, the English ambassador, to his master,
 
 JOHN KNOX 6 1 
 
 " heard matters of so great import neither sooner 
 dispatched nor with better will agreed to." Religion 
 had the first place ; and a committee of ministers, 
 of whom Knox was one, were called on to draw 
 up a confession of faith, as a basis for all that 
 was to follow. In four days the First Scottish 
 Confession was put together ; and it was adopted 
 by parliament article by article ; the opposite party 
 having nothing to say for themselves beyond a feeble 
 dissent from a very few. It was resolved that 
 the spiritual estate, on account of false doctrine 
 and dishonoured sacraments, should be henceforth 
 excluded from voting in parliament. All doctrines 
 and practices contrary to the new creed were 
 condemned. The jurisdiction of the Pope within 
 the realm was abolished. Finally, the celebration 
 of the Mass was forbidden under penalty of 
 confiscation for the first offence, banishment for 
 the second, and death for the third. 
 
 Thus, at one swoop, was the structure, which 
 it had taken hundreds of years to rear, brought 
 to the ground ; and, although to the end of 
 his life Knox was kept in constant anxiety as 
 to the possible raising up again of what he would 
 have called the spiritual Babylon, the work was 
 never undone. This was the end of the papacy 
 in Scotland ; and with it an era of darkness,
 
 62 JOHN KNOX 
 
 superstition and spiritual tyranny passed away. 
 Whatever might be the shape which the New 
 Scotland might assume, at all events the misshapen 
 fabric of Papal Scotland had perished of its own 
 corruption and gone down, unhonoured and unwept, 
 into the abyss of oblivion. Never was there a 
 system which was more utterly unable to offer 
 for itself any rational defence. When the bishops, 
 who were present in parliament, held their peace, 
 the Earl Marischal uttered a word worthy of repeti- 
 tion. " It is long," remarked he, " since I have 
 had some favour unto the truth and since that 
 I have had a suspicion of the papistical religion ; 
 but, I praise my God, this day has fully resolved 
 me in the one and the other. For, seeing that 
 my Lord Bishops, who for their learning can, and 
 for the zeal that they bear to the verity would, 
 as I suppose, gainsay anything that directly repugns 
 to the verity of God ; seeing, I say, that the Lord 
 Bishops here present speak nothing to the contrary 
 of the doctrine proponed, I cannot but hold it to 
 be the very truth of God, and the contrary to be 
 deceivable doctrine. And, therefore, as far as in 
 me lieth, I approve the one and damn the other. 
 And yet more, I must vote, by way of protestation, 
 that, if any persons ecclesiastical shall after this 
 oppose themselves to this our Confession, they
 
 JOHN KNOX 63 
 
 have no place nor credit, considering that they, 
 having had long advisement and full knowledge 
 of this our Confession, none is now found, in lawful, 
 free and quiet assembly, to oppose themselves to 
 that which we profess." l 
 
 But much still required to be done to provide 
 a substitute for the system which had been abolished 
 and to supply to Scotland what Knox was fond 
 of calling " the face of a Church." Ministers of 
 the right stamp were scarce ; and much care had 
 to be taken in distributing them to the best 
 advantage over the country. Knox was appointed 
 to Edinburgh, or rather reappointed ; for he had 
 been appointed the year before amidst the troubles 
 of the civil war, and it was still felt that he was the 
 man for this centre. Adam Heriot was sent to 
 Aberdeen, William Christison to Dundee, John 
 Row to Perth, Christopher Goodman to St. Andrews ; 
 and so on. Five ministers of distinguished ability 
 were appointed Superintendents, to be over extensive 
 districts, in which they were " to plant and erect 
 churches, to set order and appoint ministers ; " and 
 these were John Spottiswood for Lothian, John 
 Wynram for Fife, John Willock for Glasgow, 
 Erskine of Dun for Angus and Mearns, John 
 Carswell for Argyll and the Isles. For the support 
 1 History, ii. 122.
 
 64 JOHN KNOX 
 
 of these and their successors provision had to be 
 made ; but, for this and for the preparation of a 
 comprehensive scheme for the government of the 
 new Church, there was not time in the Parliament 
 of 1 560 ; and so to the same committee which had 
 drawn up the Confession of Faith it was remitted 
 to draw up a Book of Discipline, embodying all 
 these things in preparation for a Parliament to be 
 held the following year. Accordingly, at this task 
 Knox and his comrades laboured with assiduity 
 and soon had their report ready. But it met with 
 unexpected opposition and was refused the sanction 
 of Parliament, its outline being too ambitious for 
 that generation, whose leaders characterized its 
 proposals as " devout imaginations." Its purpose 
 was to employ the property of the old Church for 
 the support of the new, and for the equipment 
 of a national scheme of education and poor relief; 
 but this was wrecked upon the compensation which 
 it was supposed necessary to give to the actual 
 holders of the property, many of whom were 
 members of the nobility or related to the noble 
 families of the land, on which their support would 
 have fallen, had they been dispossessed. 
 
 But there was a motive behind of a still more serious 
 kind. The example set in England of the spolia- 
 tion of the monasteries had not been lost on Scotland ;
 
 JOHN KNOX 65 
 
 and there was a keen thirst, especially in the upper 
 classes, for the property, which was acknowledged 
 to be in excess of the needs of the preachers. The 
 longer a settlement was delayed, the easier would 
 it be for the landed proprietors to absorb into 
 their own estates the possessions of the Church, 
 as the incumbents, one by one, slipped away. By 
 the avarice of the Scottish nobility the patriotic 
 plans of Knox were to a large extent frustrated ; 
 and by the struggle with these landgrabbers, many 
 of whom were professors of the Reformed religion, 
 the rest of his life was embittered. The preachers 
 were starved, some of them, it is alleged, actually 
 dying of cold and hunger ; young men were dis- 
 couraged from entering the ministry ; and the 
 whole fabric of the new Church was stunted. It 
 was well that an ecclesiastical body was called into 
 existence as a counterpoise to Parliament, the first 
 General Assembly being held in December 1560, and 
 consisting of six ministers and forty-two elders. 
 Many attempts were made to wreck this institution 
 in its early years, one of these evoking from Knox 
 the famous saying : " Take from us the freedom 
 of Assemblies and take from us the Evangel " ; but 
 the General Assembly was destined to outlive the 
 Scottish Parliament itself and nearly every other 
 national institution then in existence. 
 
 5
 
 66 JOHN KNOX 
 
 Whilst, however, these sweeping changes were 
 taking place, there was one power with which the 
 revolutionists were not sufficiently reckoning. This 
 was the sovereign of the country. Mary Stuart, 
 the only child of James V. and Mary of Guise, 
 was born in sorrow, as her father was dropping 
 into his grave a broken-hearted man. But she grew 
 up gay and beautiful, with all the cleverness of 
 the Stuart race in her brain and all its waywardness 
 and passion in her blood. Scarcely had she come 
 into the world when there was talk of marrying her ; 
 and about this there was far too much talk, for 
 her comfort, all her days. First, she was to be 
 the bride of the son of the King of England ; and 
 self-willed Harry the Eighth ravaged Scotland with 
 fire and sword because this agreement was departed 
 from, destroying, as he did so, not a few of those 
 beautiful houses of religion on the Borders, the 
 destruction of which is often credited to John Knox. 
 Mary of Guise brought it about that her child was 
 espoused to the Dauphin of her own native land ; 
 and in 1548, at the age of six, the little maid was 
 accordingly carried to France, to be educated for 
 her great destiny under the eye of her future 
 mother-in-law, the renowned Catherine de' Medici. 
 It was an evil school ; for the French court was 
 unspeakably corrupt. " She was sold," says Knox.
 
 JOHN KNOX 67 
 
 " to go to France, to the end that in her youth 
 she should drink of that liquor that should remain 
 with her all her lifetime, for a plague to this realm 
 and for her final destruction." 1 In 1558 she was 
 married, at the age of sixteen, to a husband six 
 weeks her junior, and she signed a secret deed, 
 making over her country and crown, in the event of 
 her death, to France, this compact to hold good 
 notwithstanding any declaration to the contrary 
 she might make in public, a fact which proves how 
 exactly she had been taught in the same school of 
 political morality as her mother, who declared at a 
 critical moment in her own life that princes ought 
 not to be bound by their promises any longer than 
 was compatible with their own convenience. The 
 Dauphin, Mary's husband, succeeded to the French 
 throne the year after their marriage ; he was, how- 
 ever, but a sickly boy entirely under the thumb of 
 his ambitious mother ; and he died the following 
 year, in November 1560. Thus was taken away 
 one large portion of the glory apparently destined 
 for Mary, who at one time seemed likely to be Queen 
 at once of France, England and Scotland. It will be 
 remembered that her mother had died the same year ; 
 and now, after the double bereavement, the time 
 seemed ripe for her to return to her native country. 
 1 History, i. 218.
 
 68 JOHN KNOX 
 
 On 19 August, 1561 .accompanied by her four 
 Maries and a brilliant retinue, she landed at Leith ; 
 but it was one of those dismal days of rain, mist 
 and darkness for which the Scottish climate is 
 unrivalled ; and prophets after the event said that 
 it was a presage of all the misery which was 
 coming to the country and to her. The climate, 
 political and religious, into which she had come, 
 was scarcely less dismal for one born and bred 
 as she had been ; and, without treachery to the 
 cause of Knox, it is surely possible to extend 
 to the illfated princess a tribute of sympathy. 
 Hardly had she set foot on the soil of her country 
 when she became involved in the religious quarrel ; 
 for, the Sunday after her arrival, Mass was said 
 in the chapel of Holyrood. This acted on the 
 community like a spark on gunpowder, and the 
 flames of religious excitement enveloped the land. 
 Some stuck by the fact that she had broken the law 
 and incurred its penalty. Others said that she 
 could not avoid what had been done, having so 
 many French visitors at the palace. A rumour 
 spread that, if she were interfered with, she would 
 take ship and sail back to the place whence she 
 had come. Sanguine Protestants said that, if 
 she were treated with generosity, she might be won 
 to their side. Knox, from his pulpit in St. Giles',
 
 JOHN KNOX 69 
 
 declared that one Mass inspired him with more 
 terror than would the landing in the country of 
 ten thousand men. 
 
 Hearing of this sermon, Mary sent for the 
 preacher to the palace, and interviewed him in the 
 presence of the future Regent Moray. She re- 
 proached him with his book on female government ; 
 but he skilfully parried this attack by declaring that 
 it had always been the privilege of the learned to 
 emit theories of government differing widely from 
 the customs of their own day, as Plato had done in 
 his Republic \ but yet they had lived quietly under 
 the constitutions of their time and country. She 
 then drew out of him his political views, the upshot 
 of which appeared, she said, to be that her subjects 
 were to obey him instead of her. But out of this 
 conclusion also he extricated himself by the observa- 
 tion that the whole end of his preaching was to 
 lead subjects and princes both to obey God. From 
 this she drifted into the true papist's question, how 
 she was to know whether he or the teachers of her 
 youth had the divine authority ; to which his reply 
 was that she was to trust neither the one nor the 
 other, but God speaking in his Word. He left her 
 with the benediction : " I pray God, Madam, that 
 you may be as blessed within the commonwealth of 
 Scotland, if it be the pleasure of God, as ever
 
 70 JOHN KNOX 
 
 Deborah was in the commonwealth of Israel." 
 What she thought of her visitor we have not been 
 informed ; but his opinion of her was, "If there be 
 not in her a proud mind, a crafty wit, and an in- 
 durate heart against God and His truth, my judg- 
 ment faileth me." 
 
 It is difficult to know what attraction there was 
 in Knox which made Mary wish to see him any 
 more ; but she did send for him again and again ; 
 and it is evident from his accounts of these inter- 
 views that the attraction was not all on one side. 
 Mary appears to have hoped to subdue this son of 
 thunder. He, perhaps, did not hope enough to sub- 
 due her ; for he seems early to have spoken strongly 
 of the hopelessness of her conversion. But he 
 enjoyed the encounter of wits with so keen a mind. 
 It was not an entirely unequal contest ; for, while 
 he had the advantage of age and experience, she 
 had the advantage of being a woman and a 
 queen. 
 
 The second occasion of his being summoned to 
 the monarch's presence was a sermon he had preached 
 against an outbreak of persecution in France, where 
 the Huguenots had been attacked by the Guises, in 
 celebration of which the Queen was supposed to 
 have held a ball at Holyrood. This time the 
 preacher was in a humorous mood, and hinted to
 
 JOHN KNOX 71 
 
 Mary that the ordinary fate of people who do not 
 go to Church had befallen her, in that she had 
 heard ill of herself, and did not know whether or 
 not it was true. If she would come to the sermon, 
 she would not be misinformed as she had been. 
 Or, if she appointed time and place, he would come 
 and preach his sermon over again to her. So he 
 departed " with a reasonable merry countenance ; 
 whereat some papists offended, said : ' He is not 
 afraid.' Which heard of him, he answered, ' Why 
 should the pleasing face of a gentlewoman make 
 me afraid ? I have looked in the faces of many 
 angry men, and yet have not been afraid above 
 measure.' " l 
 
 It was Mary who was in a pleasant humour 
 at their next interview, which took place at 
 Lochleven, where she had invited him to attend 
 her. The occasion was one of national interest 
 The Queen's example, as a papist and hearer 01 
 Mass, was rapidly telling on the country. People 
 of high degree came up from the provinces hot 
 against the ceremony which the law of the land 
 condemned,, but the atmosphere of the court cooled 
 them, and they went home thinking the Mass was 
 not so dangerous after all. Wherever Mary made 
 her progresses, of which she was fond, as they were 
 1 History, i. 335.
 
 72 JOHN KNOX 
 
 A 
 
 very popular, the Mass went with her ; and the 
 nobility with whom she had been staying were 
 tempted to continue it after she had left. Knox's 
 best friends, like the future Regent Moray, had 
 dissented from his views, maintaining that the Queen 
 had the right to the exercise of her own religion ; 
 and Calvin had even been appealed to against his 
 disciple. Many, of whom Lethington was one, had 
 gone completely over to the Queen's side, and were 
 her uncompromising apologists. At length the priests 
 of the old Church beginning to bestir themselves, 
 the Mass was celebrated here and there. But the 
 gentlemen of the West, ever the most resolute and 
 jealous Protestants in the country, taking the law 
 into their own hands, suppressed the unlawful 
 practice by force. Of this Knox approved, and 
 Mary summoned him to answer for it. They had 
 an angry interview in the evening ; but next 
 morning, as she went out to the hawking, she 
 summoned him to her side and entered into the 
 most confidential conversation on matters con- 
 cerning both his and her welfare ; no allusion being 
 made to the subject of the preceding evening's dis- 
 cussion, till, at the moment of parting, she whispered 
 that all should be done as he had desired : 
 to which he replied : " I am assured then that 
 you shall please God and enjoy rest and tran-
 
 JOHN KNOX 73 
 
 quillity within your realm ; which to your Majesty 
 is more profitable than all the Pope's power can 
 be." 1 
 
 Very different was the next interview, which 
 took place in June 1563, when it was rumoured 
 that the Queen was about to marry the son of the 
 King of Spain, of course a Catholic. On this 
 report Knox had commented in the pulpit with 
 such energy as to displease his own friends, and 
 flatterers were not slow to carry his words to the 
 court. On his arrival there he found the Queen in 
 a towering passion, which lasted throughout the entire 
 interview ; every attempt of his to explain himself 
 being met with the question : " But what have you to 
 do with my marriage " ? "I have borne with you," 
 she exclaimed through her tears, " in all your 
 rigorous manner of speaking; yea, I have sought 
 your favours by all possible means, and yet I cannot 
 be quit of you. I vow to God, I shall be revenged." 
 He pleaded that he was not his own master in the 
 pulpit, but had to utter what was given him. But 
 the same angry rejoinder burst from her ; and she 
 added the contemptuous question : " And what are 
 you within this realm ? " But it was now his turn 
 to score ; and he replied : " A subject born within 
 the same ; and, albeit I be neither earl, lord 
 1 History, i. 376.
 
 74 JOHN KNOX 
 
 nor baron, yet has God made me, how abject I 
 ever be in your eyes, a profitable member thereof." 
 Erskine of Dun, who stood by, attempted to soothe 
 the enraged princess, but her tears and sobs re- 
 doubled; and Knox was dismissed with an injunction 
 to wait in the ante-chamber till the royal pleasure 
 should be announced to him. There he was avoided 
 by the courtiers, as if he had been a leper; but 
 he turned him to the ladies of the court and said, 
 not in the tones of a terrified man : " O fair ladies, 
 how pleasant were this life of yours, if it should 
 ever abide, and then in the end you might pass 
 to heaven with all this gear. But fye upon that 
 knave Death, that will come whether we will or 
 not." And so on he moralised, availing himself of 
 the best company to be had in the circumstances, 
 till the storm in the inner chamber was allayed and 
 he was permitted to depart. 1 
 
 From this time onwards, there can be no doubt 
 that Knox was in deadly peril ; and it was not 
 long before Mary thought she had caught him 
 in a corner from which escape was impossible. 
 In her absence from the city, Mass was said at 
 Holyrood in a peculiarly offensive manner during 
 the celebration of the Lord's Supper in the churches 
 of the town ; whereat Knox's party sent certain 
 1 History, i. 389.
 
 JOHN KNOX 75 
 
 of their number to take note of the persons who 
 attended the service in the chapel. Out of this 
 sprang some disorder, which was greatly magnified ; 
 and two of the citizens of Edinburgh were arrested. 
 When they were about to be brought to trial, 
 Knox took it upon him to convene a number 
 of friends from different parts of the country, 
 to stand by the prisoners. His letter falling into 
 the hands of Mary, who regarded it as treason- 
 able, Knox was called to answer for this crime 
 before the Privy Council in December 1563. His 
 best friends counselled him to make his submission 
 to the Queen beforehand, as they could perceive 
 no way of escape. But Knox disdained to use 
 any artifice, saying : " I praise my God, through 
 Jesus Christ, I have learned not to cry conjuration 
 and treason at everything that the godless multitude 
 does condemn, neither yet to fear the things that 
 they fear." The Queen came in and occupied 
 the chair with no little worldly pomp ; " But," adds 
 Knox, " her pomp lacked one principal point, to 
 wit, womanly gravity ; for, when she saw John 
 Knox standing at the other end of the table, bare- 
 headed, she first smiled, and then burst into laugh- 
 ter, saying : " Know ye whereat I laugh ? Yon 
 man made me weep, 1 and wept never a tear himself. 
 1 " gart me greit."
 
 7 6 JOHN KNOX 
 
 I will see whether I can make him cry." The 
 Queen entered into the argument, and Secretary 
 Lethington did his very best to fasten the halter 
 round the neck of the culprit. But never was Knox 
 more cool and astute. They were assuming that 
 to convene the Queen's lieges without her permission 
 was manifestly a crime ; but Knox boldly denied 
 it, arguing that he did so every Sabbath, when 
 he invited people to Church ; he proved that he had 
 commission from the General Assembly to call 
 the friends of the Church together whenever public 
 necessity required it ; and there were those in 
 the Council who had answered such summonses 
 from his pen in days gone by. A stupor of 
 admiration seized the Council, like that which fell 
 on the tribunal of the beasts when Reineke Fuchs 
 made his defence, and they unanimously acquitted 
 the prisoner. So incensed was Lethington that 
 he recalled the Queen, who had left the chamber, 
 and caused the vote to be taken over again in 
 her presence. But Scottish nobles were not to 
 be thus intimidated ; and they gave the same votes 
 over again with the emphasis of indignation. 1 There 
 is not in history a scene more creditable to the 
 Scottish nobility ; but it robbed John Knox of 
 the martyr's crown. 
 
 1 History, 1.412,
 
 JOHN KNOX 77 
 
 Still he might well have felt like David, when 
 he said : " I shall one day fall into the hands of 
 Saul." Mary's blandishments were slowly under- 
 mining the virtue of the Protestant nobility ; behind 
 whom there was a considerable body of nobles still 
 Catholic ; and, by serious riots in Edinburgh, it 
 was made manifest that the common man resented 
 the yoke of discipline imposed by the new system. 
 Mary and Knox stood out more and more clearly 
 as rival champions ; and an indifferent spectator 
 of the struggle might have predicted with consider- 
 able confidence that the beautiful Queen would win 
 in the long run. But by a sudden and over- 
 mastering impulse Mary flung her chances away, 
 and the game was left in the hands of her grim 
 antagonist. 
 
 There is nothing in the annals of romance more 
 dramatic than the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, 
 from her marriage to Darnley till her flight into 
 England, from which she was never to return. 
 The dates are eloquent, and ought to be carefully 
 noted ; because they reveal the headlong haste 
 with which the various stages of this veritable 
 Prodigal's Progress were evolved. 
 
 After innumerable schemes for her second marriage 
 had been discussed, Mary made a choice of her own, 
 wedding her cousin, Henry Darnley, on 29 July
 
 7 8 JOHN KNOX 
 
 1565, she being then twenty-three and he nineteen 
 years of age. This step cost her the loss of her 
 best counsellors, such as the future Regent Moray 
 and Maitland of Lethington, and made Queen 
 Elizabeth and the statesmen of England her enemies. 
 But her cousin had a handsome person and a fair 
 face, and without regard for consequences she obeyed 
 the impulse of her heart. Love, however, which 
 swelled like the Solway, ebbed like its tide. Darnley 
 was a fool, and she was soon disgusted with him, 
 making no more secret of her dislike than she had 
 previously done of her favour. On Rizzio, an 
 Italian, who had come to Scotland in the train of 
 the ambassador of Savoy and stayed as a secret 
 agent of the Pope, she allowed her affections to 
 decline, and she loaded him with promotions, which 
 rendered him so obnoxious to the Scottish nobility 
 that several of its members, in conjunction with 
 the jealous Darnley, stabbed him to death in the 
 Queen's ante-chamber on 9 March, 1566. Such an 
 act was not likely to bring back to her husband 
 Mary's wandering affections : and now she fell under 
 the spell of another and still more dangerous 
 lover, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, whom 
 Throgmorton, a keen observer, had, years before, 
 described to Queen Elizabeth as " a glorious, rash 
 and hazardous young man." At the baptism of
 
 JOHN KNOX 79 
 
 her son, the future James VI., in the June of this 
 year, Bothwell was allowed to take a prominent 
 part, while Darnley, the father of the child, was 
 banished from the ceremony. In October Mary 
 paid Bothwell a romantic visit at Hermitage Castle 
 on the Border, riding so far and so fast for the 
 purpose as to bring on a dangerous illness. On 
 9 February of the following year Darnley was 
 foully murdered by an explosion of gunpowder at 
 Kirk-o'-Field, a spot on which the University of 
 Edinburgh now stands but then outside the city ; 
 and Bothwell was universally believed to be the 
 leader of the conspirators, although he was acquitted 
 at a mock trial. Three months afterwards, on 
 15 May 1567, Mary married him, after creating 
 him Duke of Orkney ; he having in the beginning 
 of the month, through the shameful connivance 
 of the head of the Roman Catholic Church, 
 obtained a divorce from his wife. Mary was 
 ready to launch forth on a new career, youth 
 at the prow and pleasure at the helm ; but she 
 had miscalculated the temper of a Protestant 
 population. By a common impulse the country 
 rose up in an access of disgust and horror. The 
 troops which she summoned to her assistance 
 melted away on Carberry Hill. She was separated 
 forever from her paramour and brought a prisoner
 
 8o JOHN KNOX 
 
 to the capital, amidst the most humiliating out- 
 breaks of popular execration. She had to sign her 
 own demission of the crown ; her infant son was 
 crowned king ; Moray was appointed regent of 
 the kingdom ; and she was imprisoned in Lochleven 
 Castle. Thence she managed to make her escape 
 in May 1 568 ; but, although three-fourths of the 
 nobility flocked to her standard, she was so de- 
 cisively beaten in a single battle at Langside that 
 she had to flee to England, where, for nearly twenty 
 years, she remained in confinement, till in 1587, in 
 Fotheringay Castle, she laid her head on the 
 block and terminated her tragic career. 
 
 During all these proceedings Knox took the worst 
 possible view of Mary, not scrupling to apply to 
 her terms unfit for ears polite ; and in his opinion 
 a grave iniquity was committed when she was 
 not tried and executed for murder and adultery, 
 instead of being imprisoned in Lochleven Castle ; 
 for, in his eyes, birth or rank was no excuse for 
 crime. But, as by the death of Mary of Lorraine 
 his cause was saved from impending danger, so by 
 the frailties of Mary Stuart it secured its second 
 great deliverance and victory, at a juncture when it 
 appeared to be in imminent peril. Knox preached 
 at the coronation of the infant King at Stirling and 
 again at the opening of Parliament at the close
 
 JOHN KNOX 8 1 
 
 of the year. The Regent Moray, from whom he 
 had long been alienated on account of their 
 differing views as to the extent to which the Queen 
 should be tolerated in the exercise of her own 
 religion, was now his intimate friend again ; and 
 they laboured with one mind and heart for the 
 best interests of the kingdom. As early as December 
 1567, the General Assembly could write to John 
 Willock, whom it was recalling from England, 
 that he might help in forwarding the good work in 
 Scotland : " Our enemies, praised be God, are 
 dashed ; religion established ; sufficient provision 
 made for ministers ; orders taken, and penalty 
 appointed for all sort of transgressions and 
 transgressors ; and, above all, a godly magistrate, 
 whom God, of His eternal and heavenly providence, 
 hath reserved to this age, to put in execution 
 whatever He by His law commandeth."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CLOSING YEARS 
 
 ON the accession of Moray to the regentship, 
 Knox was sent by the Assembly to visit 
 the congregations between Stirling and Berwick to 
 foster in the population a spirit favourable to the 
 new government. And this was not the first 
 occasion on which he had been absent for a con- 
 siderable time from his own pulpit, impressing his 
 personality on the country at large. More than 
 once during Mary's reign he had been silenced in 
 Edinburgh or banished from the city ; and these 
 opportunities were utilised for far-extended visitations 
 in different parts of the country. Once he even 
 went into England ; but this was for the purpose of 
 seeing his two sons, who were being brought up by 
 the relatives of their mother. But the Church of St. 
 Giles was still his watchtower, from which he took a 
 keen and wide survey of the political and religious 
 horizon ; and the numbers of his devoted disciples 
 grew ever greater in the capital. They looked 
 82
 
 JOHN KNOX 83 
 
 carefully after his temporal interests and, when 
 the court endeavoured to silence or banish him, they 
 made vigorous protest. Even from distant parts of 
 Scotland, when his life was in peril, warnings came 
 to the authorities from bodies of men, who made it 
 manifest that they were not to be trifled with. 
 
 The Good Regent, however, as Moray came to 
 be called, had many enemies, and he was well aware 
 that he was carrying his life in his hand. At length 
 he was assassinated at Linlithgow on 23 January 
 I57O. 1 This was the most shattering trial of Knox's 
 life ; and, although at the funeral he preached 
 so as to move three thousand persons to shed tears 
 for the loss of such a good and godly governor, 
 he felt that his share in the affairs of this world 
 was drawing to an end ; and, before the close of 
 the year, he experienced a shock of apoplexy. 
 
 Queen Mary still had a strong party in the 
 country, who desired her return to the throne ; 
 and of course the removal of the Good Regent 
 encouraged their designs. Among them the most 
 prominent were Maitland of Lethington and Kirk- 
 caldy of Grange the one the ablest lawyer and 
 the other the strongest soldier of the age. Both 
 had at one time been disciples of Knox ; but now 
 the old man looked on them as backsliders and 
 
 1 SIR THOMAS GRAINGER-STEWART : The Good Regent.
 
 84 JOHN KNOX 
 
 denounced them in very plain terms from the pulpit 
 Both, at different times, took the constitutional 
 course of complaining of these attacks to the Kirk 
 Session ; Kirkcaldy's letter of complaint being one 
 of great spirit and earnestness. 1 But they were not 
 likely to gain more by this means than did the 
 French Ambassador, who, on one occasion, having 
 complained to the Town Council of the freedom 
 with which Knox had, in the pulpit, handled the 
 name of his royal master, was informed by that 
 body that, so far from being able to assist him, 
 they were not always able to prevent John Knox 
 from denouncing themselves ! Kirkcaldy, however, 
 held Edinburgh Castle ; and he managed to make 
 the city so hot for Knox, through whose window 
 a shot was fired one night, the ball lodging in 
 the part of the wall in front of which he usually 
 sat, that the friends of the preacher persuaded 
 him, though with great difficulty, to remove for 
 a time to St. Andrews. 
 
 Kirkcaldy's attacks were, however, coarse in com- 
 parison with the skilful thrusts of Lethington, which, 
 for many years, were a source of constant irritation 
 and pain to theReformer ; who, however, in dealing 
 with them, revealed the gladiatorial skill of which 
 he was capable, even in old age. Thus, in March 1571, 
 1 Works, vi. 577.
 
 JOHN KNOX 85 
 
 in answer to an anonymous libel, with which it 
 is too probable Lethington was connected, Knox 
 replies : " I am not a man of the law, to have my 
 tongue to sell for silver or favour of the world." 
 " Railing and sedition," he remarks, " they are never 
 able to prove in me, till that first they compel Isaiah, 
 Jeremiah and Ezekiel, St. Paul, and others to recant ; 
 of whom I have learned plainly and boldly to call 
 wickedness by its own name, a fig a fig, and a 
 spade a spade." And he winds up with this 
 memorable outburst : " 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 who have anything to object against me 
 that they will do it as plainly as that I make 
 myself and all my doings manifest to the world ; 
 for to me it seems a thing most unreasonable that, 
 in this my decrepit age, I should be compelled to 
 fight against shadows and howlats 1 that dare not 
 abide the light." 2 
 
 Maitland probably treated with contempt the 
 solemn warnings hurled by the Reformer against 
 himself and Kirkcaldy. But less than a year had 
 elapsed after the last of these utterances before 
 the earthly career of both had been ignominiously 
 i owls. Works, vi. 596.
 
 86 JOHN KNOX 
 
 ended ; Lethington dying in prison, not without 
 leaving behind the suspicion that he had released 
 himself " the Roman way " from the complications 
 in which he had become hopelessly entangled ; and 
 Kirkcaldy perishing on the scaffold, after confessing 
 that it would have been good for him if he had 
 followed the counsel of John Knox, whose prophecies 
 had been fulfilled. 
 
 Knox was an old man when he was driven from 
 Edinburgh to sojourn in St. Andrews ; and of his 
 venerable appearance at this time we have received 
 from James Melville, then a student there, a 
 description which is one of the gems of biography : 
 "Of all the benefits that I had that year (1571) 
 was the coming of that most notable Prophet and 
 Apostle of our nation, Master John Knox, to St. 
 Andrews. I heard him teach the Prophecy of 
 Daniel. I had my pen and my little book, and 
 took away such things as I could comprehend. 
 In the opening up of his text he was moderate 
 the space of half-an-hour. But, when he entered 
 to application, he made me so to grue and tremble 
 that I could not hold the pen to write. He would 
 sometimes come in and repose himself in our College 
 Yard. He would call us scholars unto him and 
 bless us, and exhort us to know God and His 
 work in our country, and to stand by the good
 
 JOHN KNOX 87 
 
 cause. I saw him every day of his doctrine go 
 hulie and fear, with a furring of martricks about 
 his neck, a staff in the one hand, and good, godly 
 Richard Bannatyne, his servant, holding up the 
 other oxter from the Abbey to the Parish Church. 
 Then, by the same Richard and another servant, 
 he was lifted up to the pulpit, where he behoved 
 to lean at his first entrance ; but, ere he had done 
 with his sermon, he was so active and vigorous that 
 he was like to ding the pulpit in blads 1 and fly 
 out of it." To all the inhabitants of the ancient 
 seat of learning, however, the presence of Knox was 
 not so acceptable ; he became involved there in more 
 than one of those disputes with which small uni- 
 versity towns are incessantly agitated ; and his 
 experience made him leave to the Church, as a 
 solemn legacy, the advice : " Above all things pre- 
 serve the Kirk from the bondage of the Universities." 
 It was here that he was brought into momentary 
 contact with a movement which was to have 
 enduring importance for the Church, but of which 
 even his penetration did not at the time foresee 
 the issues. The Government, under the regency of 
 the Earl of Mar, was pressed for money ; and again 
 the plan of squeezing it out of the Church was 
 resorted to. It was in the brain of the Earl of 
 1 break in pieces.
 
 88 JOHN KNOX 
 
 Morton, subsequently Regent, that the device of 
 Tulchan Bishops was fabricated that is, of reviving 
 the office of bishop, but only for the purpose of 
 allowing the Government with a show of legality 
 to draw the salary, while the incumbent contented 
 himself with a small moiety of the same. One 
 of these new prelates was appointed Archbishop 
 of St. Andrews while Knox was there ; but 
 the aged Reformer refused to bear any part 
 in the proceedings. He is said to have had no 
 conscientious objections to the office itself; but, at 
 all events, Beza, with whom he was corresponding 
 on the subject, gave no uncertain warning of the 
 danger which, in no long time, was to become 
 manifest enough in Scotland. 
 
 In August 1572 Knox returned to Edinburgh; 
 and, the same month, came from France the 
 news of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Once 
 more all the fire of his nature blazed up in 
 a denunciation which he pronounced from the 
 pulpit of St. Giles' against the latest act of that 
 bloody House, which he looked upon as the worst 
 enemy of Scotland and of Protestantism. But 
 this was almost the last effort of his declining 
 strength. They had to partition off a little space 
 in his great church, where he could still preach 
 to a few, when his voice was too weak to overtake
 
 JOHN KNOX 89 
 
 the multitude. He had the felicity of seeing a 
 colleague James Lawson from Aberdeen settled 
 over his old congregation ; and his own very last 
 appearance in public was at the induction of Lawson 
 on 9 November. 
 
 At length he who had encountered so many 
 adversaries was called upon to meet the last enemy ; 
 and it was given him to do so not only so as to 
 enjoy comfort himself but to leave also to his 
 friends and to posterity the assurance that he had 
 obtained the victory. 1 Two days after the induction 
 of Lawson, he was taken with a sore cough, which 
 annoyed and enfeebled him. Paying his servant, 
 Jamie Campbell, his wages that day, he added : 
 " Thou wilt get no more of me in this life " ; and 
 so he gave him twenty shillings extra. On Friday 
 he rose about his accustomed hour, but was unable 
 to stand ; and, when asked for what purpose he 
 rose, he said that he was going to Church to preach, 
 for he thought it had been Sunday ; all night he 
 had been meditating on the resurrection of Christ, 
 on which he was to discourse after doing so on 
 His death ; many times he had prayed that he 
 might end his ministry by preaching on that doctrine. 
 On Saturday he was able to sit down at table for 
 1 Narratives by Bannatyne and Lawson in Works, vi.
 
 9 o JOHN KNOX 
 
 the last time ; two acquaintances, John Durie and 
 Archibald Stewart, dining with him. He caused 
 pierce a hogshead of wine which was in the cellar, 
 "and willed the said Archibald to send for the 
 same as long as it lasted ; for he would not tarry 
 till it was drunken." On Sunday he kept his bed 
 but desired the office-bearers of the Church to 
 come and see him. This they did next day ; 
 and he was able to speak, reviewing his ministry 
 among them and exhorting them so tenderly that 
 they departed with tears. But, retaining Lawson 
 and Lindsay, he directed them to carry a last 
 message of warning to Kirkcaldy of Grange in the 
 Castle ; " For," said he, " the man's soul is dear unto 
 me, and I would not have it perish, if I could save 
 it." He was the worse of the effort to address the 
 representatives of the congregation and could not 
 afterwards speak without pain. Still he had an 
 apt word for everyone who came to visit him ; and, 
 many did so, among them Lord Boyd, Lord Morton, 
 Lord Lindsay, Lord Ruthven and Lord Glencairn. 
 
 When a pious gentlewoman began to praise God 
 for what he had been, he turned on her with, 
 " Tongue ! tongue ! lady ; flesh of itself is over- 
 proud and needs no means to esteem itself." On 
 another occasion, coming out of a fit of abstraction, 
 in which he had exhibited signs of deep distress,
 
 JOHN KNOX 9I 
 
 he said : " I have before this sustained many conflicts 
 in this frail life and many assaults from Satan, but 
 at this time that roaring lion hath most furiously 
 attacked me and put forth all his strength, that 
 he might devour and make an end of me at once. 
 Often before hath he placed my sins before my 
 eyes, often tempted me to despair, often has he 
 endeavoured to entangle me with the allurements 
 of the world ; but, these weapons being broken 
 by the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of 
 God, he could accomplish nothing. But now he 
 has attacked me in another way ; for the cunning 
 serpent has endeavoured to persuade me that I 
 have merited heaven itself and a blessed immortality 
 by the faithful discharge of the ministerial office 
 committed to me. But blessed be God, who 
 suggested m to me those passages of Scripture by 
 which I was able to grapple with him and ex- 
 tinguish this fiery dart ; among which were these, 
 " What hast thou that thou hast not received ? ' and, 
 " By the grace of God I am what I am ; " and, " Not 
 I, but the grace of God in me " ; and, thus being 
 vanquished, he went away ; wherefore I give thanks 
 to my God by Jesus Christ, who was pleased to 
 grant me the victory. I am firmly persuaded that 
 he will not attack me further, but that, in a short 
 time, without any great bodily pain and without
 
 92 JOHN KNOX 
 
 any distress of mind, I shall exchange this mortal 
 and miserable life for an immortal and blessed life, 
 through Jesus Christ." 
 
 On Friday he gave orders to Richard Bannatyne, 
 his secretary, to get his coffin made ready. One 
 more Sunday he was spared, and, when most of the 
 family were at Church, he lay thinking, till he burst 
 out to a friend who had continued beside him : 
 " These two last nights I have been in meditation 
 on the Kirk of God, the Spouse of Jesus Christ, 
 despised of the world but precious in His sight, I 
 have called to God for her, and committed her to 
 her Spouse, Jesus Christ. I have been righting 
 against Satan, who is ever ready to assault ; yea, I 
 have fought against spiritual wickedness in heavenly 
 things and have prevailed. I have been in heaven 
 and have possession, and I have tasted of the 
 heavenly joys, where presently I am." After 
 Church many came in to see him ; and, when 
 asked if he had any pain, he replied : " No more 
 pain than he that is now in heaven. I am content, 
 if God so please, to lie here for seven years." 
 
 Monday, 24 November, was his last day on 
 earth. He rose and put on some of his clothes, 
 but was persuaded to go to bed again in the fore- 
 noon. To an old friend, Robert Campbell of 
 Kinzeancleugh, he said : " I must leave the care of
 
 JOHN KNOX 93 
 
 my wife and bairns unto you, to whom you must 
 be a husband in my room." Daily those around 
 his bed had been wont to read to him favourite 
 passages of Scripture, such as Isaiah liii. and the 
 Epistle to the Ephesians, together with portions 
 of the Psalter, and certain sermons of Calvin. 
 This last day, he caused his wife to read i Corin- 
 thians xv. and, when it was ended, exclaimed : 
 " Is not that a comfortable chapter ? " At five 
 o'clock he said to her again : " Go read where I 
 cast my first anchor," meaning John xvii. It was 
 late at night before the last struggle set in. Hearing 
 him give a long sigh and a sob, his servant Richard 
 sat down before the bed and said : " Now sir, the 
 time that you have long called to God for, to wit, 
 an end of your battle, is come. And, seeing all 
 natural power now fails, remember upon those 
 comfortable promises which oftentimes you have 
 shown us of our Saviour Jesus Christ And, that we 
 may understand and know that you hear us, make 
 us some sign." And so he lifted up one hand and 
 immediately thereafter rendered his spirit, sleeping 
 away without pain about eleven at night. 
 
 " On this manner," as the faithful Richard remarks, 
 " departed this man of God, the light of Scotland, 
 the comfort of the Kirk within the same, the mirror 
 of godliness, and a pattern and example to all true
 
 94 JOHN KNOX 
 
 ministers in purity of life, soundness of doctrine, and 
 boldness in reproof of wickedness." No better 
 inscription could have been placed on his tombstone ; 
 but the sentence of the Regent Morton, uttered at 
 the side of his open grave, is the epitaph which 
 has caught the fancy of posterity and sums up the 
 veneration and gratitude of his fellow-countrymen : 
 " Here lies one who never feared the face of man."
 
 BOOK SECOND 
 HIS IDEAS 
 
 95
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HIS BOOKS 
 
 T N the preface to the only sermon of his ever 
 published Knox says : " Wonder not, Christian 
 reader, that of all my study and travail within the 
 Scriptures of God these twenty years I have set 
 forth nothing in expounding any portion of Scripture 
 except this only rude and indigested sermon, 
 preached by me in the public audience of the 
 Church of Edinburgh the day of the year above 
 mentioned. That I did not, in writing, communicate 
 my judgment upon the Scriptures, I have ever 
 thought and yet think myself to have most just 
 reason. For, considering myself rather called of 
 my God to instruct the ignorant, comfort the 
 sorrowful, encourage 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 that 
 
 97 7
 
 98 JOHN KNOX 
 
 by men of most singular condition, and yet so little 
 observed, I decreed to contain myself within the 
 bounds of that vocation whereunto I found myself 
 especially called." In spite, however, of this modest 
 disclaimer, Knox is a fairly voluminous author ; his 
 works, in the classical edition of David Laing, filling 
 six considerable volumes. Many of them were, 
 indeed, so occasional, called forth by the demands 
 of the hour, that he may hardly have thought of 
 them as serious efforts in literature ; but the 
 character thus impressed upon them of casts 
 taken straight from events lends to them for 
 posterity a peculiar value ; and, together, they at 
 the same time afford a tolerably sufficient image 
 of the author's mind. 
 
 Let us run through the list of Knox's works, 
 adding a few words of description and quoting a few 
 brief passages especially characteristic of the mind 
 by which they were produced. 
 
 I. An Epistle to the Congregation of the Castle 
 of St. Andrews, with a Brief Summary of Balnaves 
 on Justification by Faith. 1548, written on board 
 the galley of Notre Dame. 24 pages. 
 
 " That ye may plainly know," he remarks in the 
 preface, " whereby are Satan and the world over- 
 come, and which are the weapons against which 
 they may not stand, ye shall read diligently this
 
 HIS IDEAS 99 
 
 work following ; which, I am sure, no man having 
 the Spirit of God shall think tedious or long, 
 because it contains ' nothing except the very 
 Scriptures of God and meditations of His law ; 
 wherein is the whole study of the godly man both 
 day and night, knowing that therein are found only 
 wisdom, prudence, liberty and life. And, therefore, 
 in reading, talking or meditation thereof he is never 
 satiate. But, as for the ungodly, because their 
 works are wicked, they may not abide the light. 
 And therefore they abhor all godly writings, thinking 
 them tedious though they contain not the length of 
 the Lord's Prayer." 
 
 2. A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Sacrifice 
 of the Mass is Idolatry. 1550, delivered at Durham, 
 in the presence of Bishop Tonstall and other 
 principalities and powers. A highly characteristic 
 utterance, clothed in the form of a scholastic dis- 
 putation. 37 pages. 
 
 3. A Summary, according to the Holy Scriptures, 
 of t/ie Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Same date. 
 A supplement to the preceding treatise, setting 
 forth what the Lord's Supper is, after it has been 
 proved what it is not. 3 pages. 
 
 4. A Declaration of the True Nature of Prayer. 
 1553, before Knox had quitted England, after the 
 death of King Edward VI., to whom a pathetic
 
 loo JOHN KNOX 
 
 reference is made in a prayer at the end for the 
 new Queen. 20 pages. 
 
 5. An Exposition upon the Sixth Psalm of David. 
 Addressed to Mrs. Bowes. 1554, written at Dieppe, 
 when Knox was escaping from England. The 
 hold which England had taken of his heart during 
 the years he had been a preacher there is indicated 
 in the following sentences : " My daily prayer is 
 for the sore afflicted in those quarters. Sometimes 
 I have thought that impossible it had been so to 
 have removed my affection from the realm of 
 Scotland that any realm or nation could have been 
 equally dear unto me. But God I take to record 
 in my conscience, that the troubles present and 
 appearing to be in the realm of England are doubly 
 more dolorous unto my heart than ever were the 
 troubles of Scotland." 37 pages. 
 
 6. A Godly Letter of Warning or Admonition to the 
 Faithful in London, Newcastle and Berwick. 1554, 
 dated " upon my departure from Dieppe, whither 
 God knoweth." This is an affectionate message 
 to those among whom he had laboured in England, 
 and contains many interesting references to his 
 own life there. Its aim is to warn against the 
 idolatry of the Mass, and it contains a sustained 
 comparison between the condition of England and 
 that of Judah in the days of Jeremiah. 5 1 pages.
 
 HIS IDEAS 101 
 
 7. Certain Questions concerning Obedience to 
 Lawful Magistrates, with Answers by Bullinger. 
 1554. Extracted from the correspondence of 
 Bullinger, the Reformer of Zurich, with whom Knox 
 became acquainted during his wanderings abroad, 
 after he had been exiled from England. 6 pages. 
 
 8. Two Comfortable Epistles to his Afflicted Brethren 
 in England. 1554, written from Dieppe, to which 
 he had returned in the hope of hearing news from 
 across the Channel. " My own estate is this," says 
 he in the first of these documents : " since the 28 
 January I have travelled through all the congregations 
 of Helvetia, and have reasoned with all the pastors 
 and many other excellently learned men upon such 
 matters as now I cannot commit to writing ; gladly 
 I would by tongue or by pen utter the same to 
 God's glory." 18 pages. 
 
 9. A Faithful Admonition to the Professors of 
 Gods Truth in England. 1554, written from Dieppe, 
 where Knox was still sojourning, in the hope of 
 receiving news from the opposite side of the 
 Channel. 67 pages. 
 
 This is one of his most slashing productions. 
 One item of news that had been wafted across from 
 England to Dieppe was the impending marriage of 
 the Queen to Philip of Spain, the head of the 
 Catholic party in Europe. To both husband and
 
 102 JOHN KNOX 
 
 wife he refers in terms the reverse of parliamentary, 
 saying of the latter that " under an English name 
 she beareth a Spanish heart." But the following 
 outbreak against Gardiner, the persecuting Bishop 
 of Winchester, may be quoted as a classical example 
 of what Knox was able to do in the way of 
 invective : 
 
 " And what is the cause that Winchester, and 
 the rest of his pestilent sect, so greedily would 
 have a Spaniard to reign over England ? The 
 cause is manifest. For, as that whole nation 
 surmounteth all others in pride and whoredom, 
 so for idolatry and vain papistical and devilish 
 ceremonies they may rightly be called the very 
 sons of superstition. And therefore are they found 
 and judged by the progeny of Antichrist most apt 
 instruments to maintain, establish and defend the 
 kingdom of that cruel beast, whose head and wound 
 is lately cured within England, which, alas for pity ! 
 must now be brought into bondage and thraldom, 
 that pestilent papists may reign without punishment. 
 But, O thou beast ! I speak to you, Winchester 
 more cruel than any tiger, shall neither shame, 
 neither fear, neither benefits received bridle thy 
 tyrannous cruelty? Art thou not ashamed, bloody 
 beast, to betray thy native country and the liberties 
 of the same ? Fearest thou not to open such a door
 
 HIS IDEAS ,03 
 
 to all iniquity, that whole England shall be made 
 a common stew to Spaniards ? Wilt thou recompense 
 the benefits which thou hast received of that noble 
 realm with such ingratitude? Rememberest thou 
 not that England hath brought thee forth? that 
 England hath nourished thee? that England hath 
 promoted thee to riches, honour and high promotion ? 
 And wilt thou now, O wretched caitiff! for all 
 these manifold benefits received, be the cause 
 that England shall not be England ? Yea, verily, 
 for so wilt thou gratify thy father the Devil and 
 his lieutenant the Pope, whom with all his baggage 
 thou labourest now, with tooth and nail, to flourish 
 again in England. Albeit, like a dissembling 
 hypocrite and double-faced wretch, thou, being 
 thereto compelled by the invincible verity of God's 
 holy Word, wrotest long ago thy book, entitled True 
 Obedience, against that monstrous whore of Babylon 
 and her falsely usurped power and authority, now 
 to thy perpetual shame thou returnest to thy vomit, 
 and art become an open arch-papist again. Further- 
 more, why seekest thou the blood of Thomas, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, of good Father Hugh 
 Latimer, and of that most earnest and discreet 
 man, Doctor Ridley, true Bishop of London ? Dost 
 thou not consider that the lenity, the sincere doctrine, 
 pure life, godly conversation and discreet counsel
 
 104 JOHN KNOX 
 
 of these three is notably known in more realms 
 than England ? Shamest thou not to seek the 
 destruction of those who laboured for the safeguard 
 of thy life and obtained the same, when thou 
 justly deservedst death ? O thou son of Satan, well 
 declarest thou that nothing can mollify the cruel 
 malice nor purge the deadly venom of him in 
 whose heart the Devil beareth dominion. Thou 
 art brother to Cain and fellow to Judas, the traitor ; 
 and therefore canst thou do nothing but thirst the 
 blood of Abel and betray Jesus Christ and His 
 eternal verity." l 
 
 It was this tract that was employed for the 
 purpose of chasing Knox from Frankfort, as has 
 been mentioned above ; and his opponents on that 
 occasion made the following extraordinary statement 
 about the effects it produced in England : " This 
 we can assure you, that that outrageous pamphlet 
 of Knox's added much oil to the flame of perse- 
 cution in England. For, before the publication of 
 that work, not one of our brethren had suffered 
 death ; but, as soon as it came forth, we doubt 
 not but that you are well aware of the number of 
 excellent men who have perished in the flames ; 
 to say nothing of how many other godly men 
 besides have been exposed to the risk of all their 
 1 Works, iii. 297-9.
 
 HIS IDEAS 105 
 
 property, and even life itself, upon the sole ground 
 of either having had this book in their possession 
 or having read it ; who were perhaps rescued from 
 the sword at greater cost and danger of life than 
 the others offered their necks to it." But it is not 
 to be forgotten that this statement comes from 
 partisans, whose notions, as their own last words 
 appear to prove, were not as clear as their prejudices 
 were emphatic. 
 
 The whole treatise, it may be added, is in the 
 form of a commentary on the miracle of Christ 
 walking on the water ; and its purpose is to warn 
 professing Christians against the sin of attending 
 Mass, " under pretence that they may keep faith 
 secretly in the heart and yet do as idolaters do, 
 begin now to fall before that idol." 
 
 I o. A Letter to the Queen Dowager, Regent of Scot- 
 land. 1 556, written during Knox's momentous visit to 
 Scotland on the occasion of his marriage. It was 
 republished in 1558, in an augmented but certainly 
 not improved version. In its original form it might 
 be quoted as a good example of Knox's style, 
 when he wrote under the restraint of good sense 
 and good feeling ; but he marred it in the second 
 edition by giving way to angry passion. 10 pages. 
 
 II. An Exposition upon Matthew iv., concerning 
 the Temptation of Christ in t/ie Wilderness. 15 56,
 
 106 JOHN KNOX 
 
 delivered as a sermon in Scotland and written out 
 subsequently at the request of some hearer. It 
 is an unfinished production, these words beginning 
 the last paragraph : " Sundry impediments now do 
 call me from writing in this matter ; but, by God's 
 grace, at convenient leisure, I purpose to finish and 
 to send unto you. I grant, the matter that pro- 
 ceedeth from me is not worthy your labour and 
 pains to read it ; yet, seeing it is a testimony of 
 my good mind towards you, I doubt not but you 
 will accept it in good part." 20 pages. 
 
 12. Answers to some Questions concerning Baptism. 
 1556, apparently also connected with the same visit 
 to Scotland. The question is whether baptism in 
 the Roman Church is valid, or whether Protestants 
 require to be rebaptized. There are also questions 
 about the eating of blood and about tithes. 10 pages. 
 
 13. A Letter of Wholesome Counsel, addressed to 
 his Brethren in Scotland. 1556, as he was leaving 
 the country. 8 pages. 
 
 14. The Form of Prayers and Ministration of the 
 Sacraments used in the English Congregation at Geneva. 
 1556, Knox being then minister there. 57 pages. 
 
 1 5. Letters to his Brethren and the Lords professing 
 ttie Truth in Scotland. 1557, written from Dieppe, on 
 the occasion of a false start for Scotland. Refers 
 to two new dangers to the cause false teachers
 
 HIS IDEAS 107 
 
 and dissolute preachers even among Protestants. 
 26 pages. 
 
 1 6. An Apology for the Protestants who are holden 
 in Prison at Paris ; translated from the French with 
 Additions. 1557, written at Dieppe, where Knox 
 was waiting for news from Scotland. The Additions 
 are in his liveliest manner. 49 pages. 
 
 1 7. The First Blast of the Trumpet against the 
 Monstrous Regiment of Women. 1558. " Regiment " 
 means Government 60 pages. 
 
 1 8 The Appellation from the Sentence pronounced 
 by the Bishops and Clergy : addressed to tJte Nobility 
 and Estates of Scotland, 1558, written before his 
 final return to Scotland. At the close of his previous 
 visit, the Romanists had burnt him in effigy, after 
 degrading him from the priesthood and consigning 
 his soul to hell and his body to the tender mercies 
 of the secular arm. Knox appeals first, as Luther 
 had done, to a General Council, but also to the 
 nobility of his native land, against the machinations 
 of " false prophets, flattering friars, and other such 
 venomous locusts." 53 pages. 
 
 19. A Letter addressed to tlie Commonalty oj 
 Scotland. 1558, same occasion. 15 pages. 
 
 20. An Epistle to the Inhabitants of Newcastle and 
 Berwick. 1558, written from Geneva; seems to 
 indicate that the persecutions of Mary Tudor had
 
 io8 JOHN KNOX 
 
 nearly obliterated the work of the Reformation in 
 the North of England. 19 pages. 
 
 21. A Brief Exhortation to England, for the Speedy 
 Embracing of the Gospel. 1558, same occasion. 
 Subjoined is a list of the names of the martyrs 
 who had suffered during the reign of Bloody Mary. 
 20 pages. 
 
 22. An Answer to the Cavillations of an Adversary 
 respecting the Doctrine of Predestination. 1 560. 448 
 pages. 
 
 23. The Reasoning betwixt the Abbot of Crossraguel 
 and John Knox concerning the Mass. 1562. This 
 disputation took place at Maybole in September 
 of this year, and the Abbot of Crossraguel was 
 Quentin Kennedy, son of the Earl of Cassilis, born 
 1520, died 1564. He was the author of several 
 works in defence of the old Church ; but on this 
 occasion he behaved like a sulking salmon, which 
 no skill of the angler can move ; for he dived to the 
 bottom at the very commencement of the argument, 
 alleging that the Mass was typified by the bread 
 and wine offered by Melchizedec to Abraham ; and 
 Knox endeavoured in vain to broaden the scope 
 of the discussion. 48 pages. 
 
 24. A Sermon on Isaiah xxvi. 1 3-2 1, preached 
 in St. Giles Church, Edinburgh, 19 August 1565. 
 For preaching this sermon, which gave offence to
 
 HIS IDEAS 109 
 
 Darnley, who heard it, Knox was silenced ; and 
 he printed it in self-vindication. 44 pages. 
 
 25. The Book of Common Order ; or the Form of 
 Prayers and Ministration of the Sacraments approved 
 and received by the Church of Scotland. \ 564. 
 
 26. The Order of the General Fast and the Form 
 of Excommunication approved by the General Assembly 
 of the Church of Scotland. 1566. 78 pages. 
 
 27. An Answer to a Letter written by James Tyrie, 
 a Scottish Jesuit. 1572. Tyrie had endeavoured to 
 convert his own brother, a Protestant, to the old 
 faith, " with all the dog eloquence that Satan can 
 devise for suppressing the free progress of the Evangel 
 of Jesus Christ " ; and the brother requested Knox 
 to write an answer. 40 pages. 
 
 28. Letters by, to, and about Knox. These 
 extend from 1553 to 1572. The majority of them 
 are addressed to female correspondents and reveal a 
 side of Knox's personality which Mr. Taylor Innes 
 has delineated with inimitable sympathy and insight 
 in a chapter of his John Knox entitled " His Women 
 Friends." 230 pages. 
 
 29. The History of the Reformation of Religion 
 within the Realm of Scotland. This is Knox's 
 masterpiece, and forms vols. i. and ii. of his Col- 
 lected Works. He was moved to undertake it 
 by the Lords of the Congregation, who desired a
 
 no JOHN KNOX 
 
 vindication of their conduct towards Mary of Lorraine 
 to be placed on record. In fulfilment of this instruc- 
 tion he penned Books II. and III., which supply 
 an account by a keen eye-witness of the most 
 momentous years of Scottish history that is to say, 
 from the commencement of the struggle with Mary 
 of Lorraine to the arrival of Mary Queen of Scots 
 in the country ; the author printing verbatim the 
 documents on both sides, in which the very soul 
 of the struggle was embodied. He was afterwards 
 persuaded to add Book I., in order to explain the 
 historical origin of the Reformation, by going back 
 to the earliest efforts towards reform, and especially 
 to the fortunes of his own predecessors, Hamilton 
 and Wishart In 1556, when Queen Mary had 
 upset her own throne, Knox added Book IV., the 
 most interesting of all, in which occur his interviews 
 with the Queen ; the story being brought down to 
 1564. Book V. is a compilation by an editor, who 
 made use of papers left by Knox in an unfinished 
 state ; it brings the story down to 1 566. 
 
 As Dr. Hume Brown has well observed, the most 
 prominent characteristic of Knox as a historian is 
 his abounding vitality. " From the ' meary bourds ' 
 with which he enlivens his narrative we may infer 
 that his daily conversation was not always of 
 justification and predestination ; but that he could
 
 HIS IDEAS in 
 
 tell his story and exchange his jest as time and 
 place were fitting. What distinguishes him from 
 men like Calvin or Savonarola is precisely that 
 sense of a humorous side of things, which made him 
 at once a great writer and a great leader of men. 
 Of the value of this quality in the conduct of 
 human affairs he was himself perfectly conscious, 
 and deliberately employed it, both in his writings and 
 in his dealings with his fellows. ' Melancholius 
 ressouns,' he said in one of his debates with 
 Lethington, ' wald haif sum myrth intermixed.' 
 Studied anticlimax, grim irony, humorous exaggera- 
 tion are as distinctively his characteristics as they 
 are those of Carlyle, in whom also these are 
 relieving qualities to narrow intensity and an over- 
 bearing temper. With humour is usually found 
 pity and the power of pathos ; and in Knox, more 
 than once, his harsh austerity softens into a mood 
 the more impressive that it comes so seldom." l He 
 has the power, which someone has ascribed to Dante, 
 of seizing a character by the scalp, bending back 
 the head, and imprinting on the brow an ineffaceable 
 brand. The instinct for documents, the power of 
 vision and the power of expression, with a patriotism 
 which enables him to sympathize with the fortunes 
 of the country the history of which he is narrating, 
 1 HUME BROWN : John Knox, ii. 224.
 
 H2 JOHN KNOX 
 
 may be mentioned among his prominent qualities 
 as a historian. Of the last-mentioned quality a 
 little trait occurs to me, in which Knox describes 
 the treatment of " a born Scottish man," by one of 
 the French soldiery imported by Mary of Lorraine : 
 " There was a poor craftsman, who had bought for 
 his victuals a grey loaf, and was cutting a morsel 
 of it, and was putting the rest of it in his bosom. 
 The tyrant came to him and, with the poor caitiffs 
 own whinger, first struck him in the breast and, 
 after, cast it at him ; and so, the poor man staggering 
 and falling, the merciless tyrant ran him through 
 with his rapier, and thereafter commanded him to 
 be hanged over the stair. Lord, Thou wilt yet 
 look, and recompense such tyranny, how con- 
 temptible that ever the person was." 
 
 One or two specimens may be given of the 
 author's most characteristic vein ; and in the second 
 of these it will be noticed that he is dealing with 
 a subject the martyrdom of Wishart in which, 
 it is certain, his deepest feelings were engaged ; 
 and yet he cannot refrain from giving way to 
 a derisive and sarcastic style. 
 
 " At last at God's good pleasure arrived John 
 Willock the second time from Embden ; whose 
 return was so joyful to the brethren that their zeal 
 and godly courage daily increased. And, albeit he
 
 HIS IDEAS 1,3 
 
 contracted a dangerous sickness, yet he ceased not 
 from labours, but taught and exhorted from his 
 bed : some of the nobility (of whom some are 
 fallen back, amongst whom the Lord Seaton is 
 chief), with many barons and gentlemen, were his 
 auditors, and by him were godly instructed and 
 wondrously comforted. They kept their conven- 
 tions and held counsels with such gravity and 
 closeness that the enemies trembled. The images 
 were stolen away in all parts of the country ; and 
 in Edinburgh was that great idol called Saint Giles 
 first drowned in the North Loch, afterwards burnt, 
 which raised no small trouble in the town. For, 
 the friars croaking * like ravens upon the bishops, 
 the bishops ran upon the Queen, who to them was 
 favourable enough, but that she thought it could 
 not stand with her advantage to offend such a 
 multitude as then took upon them the defence of 
 the Evangel and the name of Protestants. And yet 
 consented she to summon the preachers ; whereat 
 the Protestants, neither offended nor yet thereof 
 afraid, determined to keep the day of summons ; as 
 that they did. Which perceived by the prelates 
 and priests, they procured a proclamation to be 
 publicly made, that all men who were come to 
 the town without commandment of the authority 
 1 " rowping."
 
 H4 JOHN KNOX 
 
 should with all diligence repair to the Borders and 
 there remain fifteen days ; for the Bishop of 
 Galloway, in this manner of rhyme, said to the 
 Queen : 
 
 Madame, because they are come without order, 
 I red ye, send them to the Border. 
 
 " Now so had God provided that the quarter of 
 the West-land (in the which were many faithful 
 men) was that same day returned from the Border ; 
 who, understanding the matter to proceed from 
 the malice of the priests, assembled themselves 
 together, and made passage to themselves, till they 
 came to the very privy chamber, where the Queen 
 Regent and the bishops were. The gentlemen 
 began to complain upon their strange entertainment, 
 considering that her Grace had found in them so 
 faithful obedience in all things lawful. While the 
 Queen began to craft, a zealous and a bold man, 
 James Chalmers of Gadgirth, said : ' Madam, we 
 know that this is the malice and device of these 
 knaves and of that bastard (meaning the Bishop 
 of St. Andrews) that stands by you. We avow 
 to God, we shall make a day of it. They oppress 
 us and our tenants for feeding of their idle bellies ; 
 they trouble our preachers and would murder 
 them and us. Shall we suffer this any longer ? 
 No, Madam, it shall not be.' And therewith every
 
 HIS IDEAS 115 
 
 man put on his steel bonnet. There was heard 
 nothing of the Queen's part but ' My joys, my 
 hearts, what ails you ? Me l means no evil to you 
 or your preachers. The bishops shall do you 
 no wrong. Ye are all my loving subjects. Me 
 knew nothing of this proclamation. The day of 
 your preachers shall be discharged, and me will 
 hear the controversy that is between the bishops 
 and you. They shall do you no wrong.' ' My 
 lords,' she said to the bishops, ' I forbid you 
 either to trouble them or their preachers.' And 
 unto the gentlemen, who were wonderfully corn- 
 moved, she turned again and said, ' O my hearts, 
 should ye not love the Lord your God with all 
 your heart, with all your mind, and should ye 
 not love your neighbours as yourselves ? ' With 
 these and the like fair words she kept the bishops 
 from buffets at that time. 
 
 " And so, the day of summons being discharged, 
 began the brethren universal to be further en- 
 couraged. But yet could the bishops in no sort 
 be quiet ; for, Saint Giles' day approaching, they 
 gave charge to the Provost, Baillies and Council 
 of Edinburgh, either to get again the old Saint 
 Giles or else upon their expense to make a new 
 image. The Council answered that to them the 
 1 Frenchwoman's pigeon English.
 
 n6 JOHN KNOX 
 
 charge appeared very unjust ; for they understood 
 that God in some places had commanded idols 
 and images to be destroyed ; but where He had 
 commanded images to be set up they had not 
 read, and desired the bishop to find a warrant 
 for his commandment Whereat the bishop 
 offended, admonished under pain of cursing ; which 
 they prevented by a formal appellation, appealing 
 from him, as from a partial and corrupt judge, 
 unto the Pope's Holiness ; and so, greater things 
 shortly following, that passed into oblivion. 
 
 "Yet would not the priests and friars cease to 
 have that solemnity and manifest abomination 
 which they usually had upon Saint Giles' day ; 
 to wit, they would have that idol borne ; and, 
 therefore, was all preparation necessary duly made. 
 A marmoset idol was borrowed from the Grey 
 Friars (a silver piece of James Carmichael was 
 laid in pledge). It was fast fixed with iron 
 nails upon a barrow called the fertor. There 
 assembled priests, friars, canons, and rotten 
 papists, with tabrets and trumpets, banners and 
 bagpipes ; and who was there to lead the 
 ring but the Queen Regent herself with all her 
 shavelings for honour of that feast ! West about 
 goes it and comes down the High Street, and 
 down to the Canoncross. The Queen Regent
 
 7/75 IDEAS 117 
 
 dined that day in Sandie Carpetyne's house be- 
 tween the Bows ; and so, when the idol returned 
 back again, she left it and passed in to her dinner. 
 " The hearts of the brethren were wonderfully 
 inflamed, and, seeing such abomination manifestly 
 maintained, were decreed to be revenged. They 
 were divided into several companies, whereof not 
 one knew of another. There were some temporisers 
 that day (amongst whom David Forres, called the 
 General, was one), who, fearing the chance to be 
 done as it fell, laboured to stay the brethren. 
 But that could not be ; for, immediately after that 
 the Queen was entered in the lodging, some of 
 those that were of the enterprise drew near to the 
 idol, as willing to help to bear him, and, getting 
 the fertor upon their shoulders, began to shudder, 
 that thereby the idol should have fallen. But that 
 was prevented by the iron nails, as we have said ; 
 and so began one to cry, ' Down with the idol ! 
 down with it!' And so without delay it was 
 pulled down. Some brag made the priests' patrons 
 at the first ; but, when they saw the feebleness 
 of their god for one took him by the heels, and, 
 thumping ' his head to the causeway, left Dagon 
 without head or hands, and said, ' Fie upon thee, 
 thou young Saint Giles, thy father would have 
 i "dadding."
 
 1 18 JOHN KNOX 
 
 tarried for such ' this considered (we say) the 
 priests and friars fled faster than they did at Pinkie 
 Cleuch. There might have been seen so sudden 
 a fray as seldom has been seen among that sort 
 of men within this realm ; for down go the crosses, 
 off go the surplices. The Grey Friars gaped, the 
 Black Friars blew, the priests panted and fled, and 
 happy was he that first got to the house ; for such 
 a sudden fray came never amongst the generation 
 of Antichrist within this realm before." l 
 
 The second extract also deals with a tumult of 
 the old religion : 
 
 " How the servant of God was entreated, and 
 what he did from the day that he entered within 
 the Sea-tower of Saint Andrews, which was in the 
 end of January in the year of God 1546, unto the 
 first of March the same year, when he suffered, we 
 cannot certainly tell, except we understand that 
 he wrote somewhat being in prison ; but that was 
 suppressed by the enemies. The Cardinal delayed 
 no time, but caused all bishops, yea, all the clergy 
 that had any preeminence to be called to Saint 
 Andrews against the penult of February, that con- 
 sultation might be had on that question which in 
 his mind was no less resolved than Christ's death 
 1 History, i. 256 ff.
 
 ffJS IDEAS 119 
 
 was in the mind of Caiaphas ; but, that the rest 
 should bear the like burden with him, he would 
 that they should before the world subscribe what- 
 soever he did. In that day was wrought no less 
 a wonder than was at the accusation and death 
 of Jesus Christ, when that Pilate and Herod, who 
 before were enemies, were made friends by con- 
 senting of them both to Christ's condemnation ; 
 differing nothing except that Pilate and Herod 
 were brethren, under their father the Devil, in the 
 estate called temporal, and these two of whom we 
 are to speak were brethren, sons under the same 
 father the Devil, in the estate ecclesiastical. If we 
 interlace merriness with earnest matters, pardon us, 
 good reader ; for the fact is so notable that it 
 deserveth long memory. 
 
 " The Cardinal was known proud ; and Dunbar, 
 Archbishop of Glasgow, was known a glorious fool ; 
 and yet, because he was called sometimes the King's 
 Master, he was Chancellor of Scotland. The 
 Cardinal comes even this same year, in the end 
 of harvest before, to Glasgow ; upon what purpose 
 we omit. But, while they remain together, the one 
 in the town the other in the Castle, question rises 
 for bearing of their crosses. The Cardinal alleged, 
 by reason of his cardinalship, that he was Legatus 
 Natus and Primate within Scotland in the kingdom
 
 I2o JOHN KNOX 
 
 of Antichrist, that he should have the preeminence, 
 and that his cross should not only go before, but 
 that also it should only be borne wheresoever he 
 was. Good Gukstoun Glaikstour, the foresaid Arch- 
 bishop, lacked no reasons, as he thought, for 
 maintenance of his glory : he was an Archbishop 
 in his own diocese and in his own cathedral-seat 
 and church, and therefore ought to give place to 
 no man. The power of the Cardinal was but begged 
 from Rome, and appertained but to his own person 
 and not to his bishopric ; for it might be that his 
 successor should not be cardinal ; but his dignity 
 was annexed with his office, and did appertain to 
 all that ever should be Bishops of Glasgow. How- 
 soever these doubts were resolved by the doctors 
 of divinity of both the prelates, yet the decision 
 was as ye shall hear. Coming forth (or going in, 
 all is one) at the choir-door of Glasgow Kirk, begins 
 striving for state between the two cross-bearers, 
 so that from glooming they come to shouldering ; 
 from shouldering they go to buffets, and from dry 
 blows to fists and fisticuffs ; and then, for charity's 
 sake, they cry, Dispersit, dedit pauperibus, and essay 
 which of the crosses was finest metal, which staff 
 was strongest, and which bearer could best defend 
 his master's preeminence ; and, that there should 
 be no superiority on that behalf, to the ground go
 
 HIS IDEAS i2l 
 
 both the crosses. And then began no little fray, 
 but yet a merry game ; for rochets were rent, 
 tippets were torn, crowns were knapped, and side- 
 gowns might have been seen wantonly wag from 
 one wall to the other. Many of them lacked 
 beards, and that was the more pity, and, therefore, 
 could not buckle other by the hair, 1 as bold men 
 would have done. But fie on the jackmen, that 
 did not their duty ; for, had the one part of them 
 rencountered the other, then had all gone right. 
 But the sanctuary, we suppose, saved the lives of 
 many. How merrily that ever this be written, it 
 was bitter mirth ~ to the Cardinal and his court. 
 It was more than irregularity ; yea, it might well 
 have been judged lese majestt to the son of perdition, 
 the Pope's own person ; and yet the other, in his 
 folly as proud as a peacock, would let the Cardinal 
 know that he was a bishop, when the other was 
 but Beaton, before he got Aberbrothock. This 
 enmity was judged mortal and without all hope 
 of reconciliation." 3 
 
 1 " byrse." 
 
 "bowrding." 
 
 History, i. 144 ff-
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS 
 
 HAVING enumerated the works of the Re- 
 former, we proceed to sketch the religious 
 and political principles embodied in them. 
 
 Much of the work he had to do was destructive. 
 He had to sweep out of the minds of men a whole 
 world of superstitions, and out of the country masses 
 of superstitious usages, founded on these false 
 opinions. This part of his task Knox performed 
 with zest, employing all the powers of sarcasm and 
 invective, of which he was a master, in turning the 
 old Church into ridicule. Of ecclesiastical lore he 
 cannot be claimed to have possessed very much ; 
 but his stores were ample to overwhelm the feeble 
 opponents who entered the field against him. In 
 his very first sermon at St. Andrews he boldly 
 maintained that the Pope was Antichrist. " And 
 then began he to decipher the lives of diverse popes 
 and the lives of all the shavelings for the most
 
 HIS IDE A3 ii 3 
 
 part ; their doctrine and laws he plainly proved 
 to repugn directly to the doctrine and laws of God 
 the Father and of Christ Jesus His Son." And, 
 in a petition to Parliament in 1 560, which he drew 
 up in the name of the barons, gentlemen, burgesses, 
 and others, professing the Lord Jesus Christ within 
 the realm of Scotland, he thus sketched in brief 
 but pregnant terms the evils of the time : 
 
 " And, first, seeing that God, of His great mercy 
 by the light of His Word, has manifested to no small 
 number of this realm, that the doctrine of the 
 Roman Kirk, received by the said clergy and 
 maintained through their tyranny by fire and sword, 
 contained in itself many pestiferous errors, which 
 cannot but bring damnation to the souls of such 
 as therewith shall be infected such as are the 
 doctrine of transubstantiation ; of the adoration of 
 Christ's body under the form of bread as they term 
 it ; of the merits of works, and justification that 
 they allege comes thereby ; together with the doctrine 
 of papistical indulgences, purgatory, pilgrimage, and 
 praying to departed saints ; which are all either 
 repugnant to the plain Scriptures or else have no 
 ground in the doctrine of our Master Jesus Christ, 
 His prophets nor apostles we humbly, therefore, 
 crave of your honours, that such doctrine and 
 idolatry as by God's Word are condemned, so may
 
 124 JOHN KNOX 
 
 they be abolished by act of this present parliament, 
 and punishment appointed for the transgressors. 
 
 " Secondly, seeing that the sacraments of Jesus 
 Christ are most shamefully abused and profaned 
 by that Roman harlot and her sworn vassals ; and 
 also because the true discipline of the ancient Kirk 
 is now utterly extinguished among that sect : for 
 who within the realm are more corrupt in life and 
 manners than are they that are called the clergy, 
 doing all abomination without fear of punishment ? 
 we humbly, therefore, desire your Honours to find 
 remedy against the one and the other. 
 
 " Thirdly, because that Man of Sin often most 
 falsely claims to himself the titles of ' the vicar of 
 Christ ' ; ' the successor of Peter ' ; ' the head of the 
 Kirk' ; ' that he cannot err' ; ' that all power is granted 
 unto him,' etc., by the which usurped authority he 
 takes upon him the distribution and possession of 
 the whole patrimony of the Kirk, whereby the true 
 ministers of the Word of God long time have been 
 utterly neglected, godly learning despised, schools 
 not provided, and the poor not only defrauded of 
 their portion, but also tyrannously oppressed ; we 
 likewise hereof desire remedy." l 
 
 The superstition of the age culminated in the 
 doctrine and practice of the Mass, against which 
 1 Works, ii. 90.
 
 HIS IDEAS 125 
 
 accordingly Knox directed the whole force of his 
 artillery. Early in his career, in a discourse already 
 mentioned, in the presence of the clergy of the 
 North of England, he maintained the thesis that 
 the Mass is idolatry ; and, throughout his subsequent 
 activity, he never hesitated to apply to this practice 
 all the fulminations against idolatry to be found 
 in the Scriptures. Thus, in the preface to his 
 report of his disputation with the Abbot of 
 Crossraguel, he paraphrases the ironical description 
 of the making of an idol found in the prophecy 
 of Isaiah, in the following terms : 
 
 "The prophet, in description of their vanities, 
 saith, ' The earth bringeth forth the tree, it groweth 
 by moisture and natural humidity, 1 it is cut down 
 by the hand of the hewer. A part thereof is burnt, 
 a part spent in uses necessary to man, another 
 part chosen to be made an idol. This is formed 
 to the likeness of man or woman, and then set 
 up and worshipped as a god.' All these and some 
 more shall we find to assist and concur in the 
 making of this great god of bread. The wheat 
 is sown and nourished in the earth ; rain, dew and 
 heat bring it to maturity ; the reaper or shearer 
 cutteth it down ; the cart or sledge, drawn by 
 horse or some other beast, draweth it to the barn 
 1 "wacknes."
 
 126 JOHN KNOX 
 
 or to the barnyard ; the tasker or the foot of the 
 ox treadeth it out ; the fan delivereth it from the 
 chaff; the miller and the millstones, by the help 
 of wind or water, make it to be meal ; the smith 
 maketh the irons that give to that god his length 
 and breadth, likeness and form ; the fine substance 
 of that god is neither wood, gold nor silver, but 
 water and meal made in manner of a bannock 1 ; 
 and then must the workmen take good heed to 
 their hand, for, if the fire be too hot, that god's 
 skin must be burnt ; if the irons be ill cleaned, 2 
 his face will be blacked ; if, in making the roundness, 
 the ring be broken, then must another of his fellows 
 receive that honour to be made a god ; and the 
 creased or cracked miserable cake, that once was 
 in hope to be made a god, must be given to a 
 baby to play him withal. And yet is not all the 
 danger past ; for, if there be not an anointed priest 
 to play his part aright, all the former artificers 
 have lost their labour, for without him that god 
 cannot be made : yea, if he have not intention to 
 consecrate, the fashioned god remaineth bread, and 
 so the blind people commit idolatry. 
 
 "These are the artificers and workmen that 
 travail in making of this god : I think as many 
 
 1 " drammock." 
 
 2 " evil dight."
 
 HIS IDEAS 127 
 
 in number as the prophet reciteth to have travailed 
 in the making of the idols ; and, if the power 
 of both shall be compared, I think they shall be 
 found in all things equal, except that the god of 
 bread is subject unto more dangers than were the 
 idols of the Gentiles. Men made them : men make 
 it. They were deaf and dumb : it cannot speak, 
 hear nor see. Briefly, in infirmity they wholly 
 agree, except that, as I have said, the poor god 
 of bread is most miserable of all other idols ; for, 
 according to their matter whereof they are made, 
 they will remain without corruption many years ; 
 but within one year that god will putrify, and then 
 he must be burnt. They can abide the vehemency 
 of the wind, frost, rain or snow ; but the wind will 
 blow that god to the sea, the rain or the snow 
 will make it dough again ; yea, which is most of 
 all to be feared, that god is a prey, if he be not 
 well kept, to rats and mice ; for they will desire 
 no better dinner than white round gods enough. 
 But oh then, what becometh of Christ's natural 
 body? By miracle it flies to the heaven again, 
 if the papists teach truly ; for, how soon soever 
 the mouse takes hold, so soon flieth Christ away 
 and letteth her gnaw the bread. A bold and 
 puissant mouse, but a feeble and miserable god! 
 Yet would I ask a question : Whether hath the
 
 128 JOHN KNOX 
 
 priest or the mouse greater power ? By his words 
 it is made a god ; by her teeth it ceaseth to be 
 a god : let them advise and then answer. 
 
 " If any think that I ought not to mock that which 
 the world so long hath holden, and great princes 
 yet hold in so great veneration, I answer, that not 
 only I, but also all godly ought not only to mock 
 but also to curse and detest whatsoever is not God 
 and yet usurpeth the name, power and honour of 
 God ; and also that we ought both to mock, gainsay 
 and abhor all religion obtruded on the people with- 
 out assurance of God and His Word, having neither 
 respect to antiquity, to multitude, to authority, 
 nor estimation of them that maintain the same." l 
 
 The language of Knox in controversy sounds 
 in our ears rude and exaggerated ; as, indeed, the 
 relics of bygone polemics are usually the reverse 
 of admirable to posterity. But the defence of 
 Luther is worth recalling : " Do not think," he 
 wrote to Spalatin, "that the Gospel can be advanced 
 without tumult, trouble and uproar. You cannot 
 make a pen of a sword ; and the Word of God is 
 a sword. It is war, overthrow, trouble, destruction, 
 poison. It meets the children of Ephraim, as Amos 
 says, like a bear on the road or like a lioness in 
 the wood." The state of Europe with which the 
 1 Works, v\. 171 ff.
 
 HIS IDEAS 129 
 
 Reformers had to contend is sheltered from modern 
 criticism by the very excess of its own corruption ; 
 and, even in the foregoing extracts, words and clauses 
 have had to be suppressed. Those who know 
 best what the moral condition of Scotland was 
 before the Reformation, as this is revealed in her 
 literature for example, in the writings of the poets 
 Dunbar and Lindsay are the most likely to be 
 thankful to Knox for the changes he introduced 
 into the country. Had he done nothing more than 
 what he did to promote decency, he would have 
 deserved the eternal gratitude of Scotsmen. 
 
 The weapon with which Knox fought this battle 
 was the Word of God. This was the fan with 
 which he " throughly purged " the floor of the 
 Church. In his first sermon at St Andrews he 
 showed that the Church is the pillar of the eternal 
 verity only because it hears the voice of its own 
 pastor, Jesus Christ, and will not listen to a stranger. 
 And, from this point onwards to the very close 
 of his career, he kept on repeating, in every form 
 in which it could be expressed, that nothing is 
 lawful in the Church which is not found in the 
 Word of God. This may be called his master 
 principle ; and he is never tired of repeating it. 
 Others were content with holding that nothing 
 
 9
 
 130 JOHN KNOX 
 
 could be admitted into the Church which was for- 
 bidden in the Bible ; but Knox went much farther, 
 demanding a positive sanction out of Scripture for 
 everything which he would admit. Not only did 
 this work havoc with the ecclesiastical system of 
 Rome, but it led him to attribute to the Church of 
 England a considerable share of what he called "the 
 dregs of papistry." "Man," he remarks, "always 
 thinks he can devise a more perfect honouring of 
 God than that which Himself hath commanded. 
 Witness the Israelites in the desert, the Ten Tribes 
 under Jeroboam, the Pharisees and the rest of the 
 sects in Christ's time; and the papists before and 
 in our own time. For, let any of them be demanded, 
 How know ye that these your works, rites and cere- 
 monies please God, seeing ye have not His com- 
 mandment to do the same ? straight they shall 
 answer, ' They are laudable, they are honest and 
 decent, they have good significations, they pleased 
 our fathers, and the most part of the world has 
 used the same.' And thus into idolatry the corrupt 
 children follow the footsteps of their fathers." 
 
 None of the other Reformers went so far in 
 confining the arrangements of the Church to what 
 is actually prescribed in the Scriptures. Even 
 Calvin was appealed to, on one occasion, against 
 Knox's severity ; and the Swiss Reformer wrote
 
 HIS IDEAS 131 
 
 to him : "In regard to ceremonies, I trust that 
 your strictness, although it may displease many, 
 will be regulated by discretion. We should, 
 indeed, do our endeavour that the Church may 
 be purged of all the defilements which flowed from 
 error and superstition. We should also earnestly 
 strive that the mysteries of God be not polluted 
 by absurd and unmeaning mixtures. With this 
 exception, you know well that certain things, though 
 not positively approved, must be tolerated." The 
 Westminster Confession of Faith, while frequently 
 laying stress on the principle that the Bible is 
 the sole authority in the Church, yet acknowledges 
 that " there are some circumstances concerning the 
 worship of God and government of the Church, 
 common to human actions and societies, which are 
 to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian 
 prudence, according to the general rules of the 
 Word, which are always to be observed " ; and 
 this could be converted into a pretty wide door 
 for the admission of innovations. The principle 
 laid down by Knox, although upon the whole a 
 wholesome one, is not easy to carry through ; and 
 it may be doubted if even he was invariably true 
 to it. Let anyone read the Order of the General 
 Fast, 1 appointed by the General Assembly in 1565, 
 1 Works, vi. 391.
 
 132 JOHN KNOX 
 
 and he will probably acknowledge that, in spite 
 of the appeals in it to Scripture, the ceremony there 
 so minutely prescribed had not only no direct 
 Scriptural warrant, but was contrary to the spirit of 
 the New Testament. 
 
 But the Bible was to Knox not only thus a law 
 to regulate ceremonies and a fan with which to 
 purge out the excesses of the Roman superstition : 
 he wielded it, besides, as a tool for building up the 
 spiritual Jerusalem ; and it was obviously from the 
 heart that he said, " I delight in nothing so much 
 as in the simple and native meaning of the Scrip- 
 tures, as they be alleged in their own places by the 
 Holy Ghost." l It is much to be regretted that 
 more of his sermons have not come down to us ; 
 because in them we should in all probability have 
 discovered the secret of the sway he exerted over 
 his countrymen, and especially over the citizens of 
 Edinburgh, who loved him because, like a good 
 shepherd, he led them week by week into the green 
 pastures and beside the still waters of the Word 
 of God. As far as the evidence available goes, 
 he seems to have been specially a preacher of the 
 Old Testament. We do not find him, like Luther, 
 wandering often among the flowery and fragrant 
 meadows of the Gospels, expounding the miracles 
 1 Works, v. 262.
 
 HIS IDEAS 133 
 
 and the parables of our Lord ; nor does he display 
 the exegetical precision of Calvin, who habitually 
 makes the historical and grammatical meaning of 
 a text the basis of the practical application. For 
 this Knox has not patience. He hurries quickly 
 from the exposition to the application ; the text 
 being only a point of departure for an expatiation 
 of his own ; and it does not seem to matter 
 much which text he chooses. Still, he possesses a 
 marvellous faculty for taking a book of the Old 
 Testament, or a portion of the Old Testament 
 history, and laying it alongside of the contemporary 
 history of his own country in such a way as to 
 bring out comparisons and contrasts, which illumi- 
 nate the situation and reveal the path of duty. He 
 indulges little in apologies for the authority of the 
 Bible. The business of his life was to break down 
 the authority of Rome ; but those against whom 
 his polemic was directed acknowledged as well as 
 he the authority of Scripture ; so that there was no 
 need to waste time on the proof of that which was 
 conceded. It was later in the history of the Church 
 before theologians found it necessary to buttress the 
 authority of the Bible with elaborate evidences. 
 Even for Calvin, a much more systematic thinker, 
 the necessity for proving the authority of the 
 Scriptures hardly exists ; at least, he is satisfied with
 
 134 JOHN KNOX 
 
 the witness of the Spirit in the Scriptures speaking 
 to the spirit in the minds of the godly. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that the attach- 
 ment of Knox to the Word of God was personal 
 and not merely professional. In the account of 
 his death-bed it comes out that he was in the habit 
 of reading the Book of Psalms once a month ; and 
 there breathes a heartfelt sincerity through his allu- 
 sions to the Word of God in general. Nowhere is 
 this more fully expressed than in a letter which he 
 left behind him to the friends of reform in Scotland, 
 when closing his momentous visit in 1556 ; and this 
 document throws so much light on the primitive 
 conditions in which Christianity then existed in 
 Scotland that I shall quote the whole, which might 
 almost be an extract from the Acts of the Apostles : 
 
 " A most wholesome counsel how to behave 
 ourselves in the midst of this wicked generation, 
 touching the daily exercise of God's most Holy 
 and Sacred Word. 
 
 " The Comfort of the Holy Ghost, etc., for 
 salutation. 
 
 " Not so much to instruct you as to leave with 
 you, dearly beloved brethren, some testimony of 
 my love, I have thought good to communicate with 
 you, in these few lines, my weak counsel, how I 
 would ye should behave yourselves, in the midst
 
 ///S IDEAS 135 
 
 of this wicked generation, touching the exercise 
 of God's most sacred and holy Word, without 
 which neither shall knowledge increase, godliness 
 appear, nor fervency continue amongst you. For, 
 as the Word of God is the beginning of life spiritual, 
 without which all flesh is dead in God's presence, 
 and the lantern to our feet, without the brightness 
 whereof all the posterity of Adam doth walk in 
 darkness, and as it is the foundation of faith, 
 without which no man understandeth the goodwill 
 of God, so it is also the only organ and instrument 
 which God useth to strengthen the weak, to comfort 
 the afflicted, to reduce to mercy by repentance such 
 as have erred, and, finally, to preserve and keep 
 the very life of the soul in all assaults and tempta- 
 tions. And thereof, if that ye desire your know- 
 ledge to be increased, your faith to be confirmed, 
 your conscience to be quieted and comforted or, 
 finally, your soul to be preserved in life, let your 
 exercise be frequent in the law of your Lord God. 
 Despise not 'that precept which Moses, who by 
 his own experience had learned what comfort lieth 
 hid within the Word of God, gave to the Israelites 
 in these words : ' These words, which I command 
 thee this day, shall be in thy heart : and thou shalt 
 exercise thy children in them. Thou shalt talk 
 of them when thou art at home in thy house, and
 
 136 JOHN KNOX 
 
 as thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest 
 down, and when thou risest up ; and thou shalt 
 bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall 
 be papers of remembrance between thine eyes ; and 
 thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house 
 and upon thy gates.' And Moses in another place 
 commandeth them to ' remember the law of the 
 Lord God, to do it, that it may be well with them 
 and with their children in the land which the Lord 
 their God should give them,' meaning, that, like 
 as frequent memory and repetition of God's precepts 
 is the means whereby the fear of God, which is 
 the beginning of all wisdom and felicity, is kept 
 recent in mind, so is negligence and oblivion of 
 God's benefits received the first degree of defection 
 from God. 
 
 " Now, if the Law, which by reason of our weakness 
 can work nothing but wrath and anger, was so 
 effectual that, remembered and rehearsed of purpose 
 to do it, it brought to the people a corporal 
 benediction, what shall we say that the glorious 
 Gospel of Christ Jesus doth work, so that with 
 reverence it be entreated ? St. Paul calleth it the 
 sweet odour of life to those that shall receive life, 
 borrowing his similitude of odoriferous herbs or 
 precious ointments, whose nature is, the more that 
 they be touched or moved, to send forth their odour
 
 HIS IDEAS I37 
 
 more pleasant and delectable. Even such, dear 
 brethren, is the blessed Evangel of our Lord Jesus ; 
 for, the more that it be entreated, the more com- 
 fortable and puissant it is to such as do hear, read 
 or exercise the same. I am not ignorant, that, as 
 the Israelites loathed the manna, because that every 
 day they saw and ate but one thing, so some there 
 be now-a-days (who will not be held of the worst 
 sort) that, after once reading some parcels of the 
 Scriptures, do commit themselves altogether to 
 profane authors and human lectures, because that 
 the variety of matters therein contained doth bring 
 with it daily delectation, where contrariwise within 
 the simple Scriptures of God the perpetual 
 repetition of one thing is troublesome and weari- 
 some. This temptation, I confess, may enter in 
 God's very elect for a time ; but impossible it is 
 that therein they continue to the end ; for God's 
 election, besides other evident signs, hath this ever 
 joined with it, that God's elect are called from 
 ignorance (I speak of those that are come to the 
 years of knowledge) to some taste and feeling of 
 God's mercy, of the which they are never so 
 satisfied in this life but from time to time they 
 hunger and they thirst to eat the bread that 
 descended from heaven and to drink the water that 
 springeth to life everlasting; which they cannot
 
 138 JOHN KNOX 
 
 do but by the means of faith, and faith looketh 
 ever to the will of God revealed by the Word, 
 so that faith hath both her beginning and con- 
 tinuance by the Word of God. And so I say, that 
 impossible it is that God's chosen children can 
 despise or reject the word of their salvation of any 
 long continuance, neither yet loathe it to the end. 
 
 " Often it is that God's elect are held in such 
 bondage and thraldom, that they cannot have the 
 bread of life broken unto them, neither yet free 
 liberty to exercise themselves in God's holy Word ; 
 but then God's dear children do not loathe, but most 
 gladly do they covet the food of their souls ; then 
 do they accuse their former negligence, then lament 
 they the miserable affliction of their brethren, and 
 then cry and call they in their hearts (and openly 
 where they dare) for free passage of the Gospel. 
 This hunger and thirst doth prove the life of their 
 souls. But, if such men as having liberty to read 
 and exercise themselves in God's holy Scriptures 
 yet begin to weary, because from time to time 
 they read but one thing, I ask, Why weary they 
 not also every day to eat bread? every day to 
 drink wine ? every day to behold the brightness 
 of the sun ? and to use the rest of God's creatures, 
 which every day do keep their own substance, 
 course and nature? They shall answer, I trust,
 
 HIS IDEAS I39 
 
 Because such creatures have a strength, as oft as 
 they are used, to expel hunger, to quench thirst, 
 to restore strength, and to preserve the life. O 
 miserable creatures! who dare attribute more 
 power and strength to the corruptible creatures in 
 nourishing and preserving the mortal carcase than 
 to the eternal Word of God in nourishment of the 
 soul, which is immortal ! To reason with their 
 damnable unthank fulness at this present it is not 
 my purpose : but to you, dear brethren, I write 
 my knowledge and do speak my conscience, that, 
 so necessary as the use of meat and drink is to 
 the preservation of life corporal, and so necessary 
 as the heat and brightness of the sun is to the 
 quickening of herbs, and to expel darkness, so 
 necessary is also to the life everlasting, and to the 
 illumination and light of the soul, the perpetual 
 meditation, exercise and use of God's holy Word. 
 
 "And therefore, dear brethren, if that ye look 
 for a life to come, of necessity it is that ye exercise 
 yourselves in the book of the Lord your God. 
 Let no day slip over without some comfort 
 received from the mouth of God. Open your ears, 
 and He will speak even pleasant things to your heart. 
 Close not your eyes, but diligently let them behold 
 what portion of substance is left to you within 
 your Father's testament. Let your tongues learn
 
 140 JOHN KNOX 
 
 to praise the gracious goodness of Him whose 
 mere mercy hath called you from darkness to 
 light, and from death to life. Neither yet may 
 ye do this so quietly that ye will admit no wit- 
 ness. No, brethren, ye are ordained of God to rule 
 your own houses in His true fear and according to 
 His Word. Within your own houses, I say, in some 
 cases, ye are bishops and kings ; your wife, children, 
 servants and family are your bishopric and charge ; 
 of you it shall be required how carefully and 
 diligently ye have always instructed them in 
 God's true knowledge, how that ye have studied 
 in them to plant virtue and repress vice. And 
 therefore, I say, ye must make them partakers in 
 reading, exhorting, and in making common prayers, 
 which I would in every house were used once a 
 day at least. But above all things, dear brethren, 
 study to practise in life that which the Word of 
 God commandeth, and then be assured that 
 ye shall never hear nor read the same without 
 fruit. And thus much for the exercises within 
 your house. 
 
 " Considering that St. Paul calleth the congregation 
 ' the body of Christ/ whereof every one of us is 
 a member, teaching us thereby that no member 
 is of sufficiency to sustain and feed itself without 
 the help and support of another, I think it
 
 HfS IDEAS I 4I 
 
 necessary, for the conference of Scriptures, assemblies 
 of brethren to be had. The order therein to be 
 observed is expressed by St. Paul, and therefore 
 need not I to use many words in that behalf ; only 
 expressing my wish, that, when ye convene or come 
 together which I would were once a week that 
 your beginning should be from confession of your 
 offences and invocation of the Spirit of the Lord 
 Jesus to assist you in all your godly enterprises. 
 And then let some place of Scripture be plainly 
 and distinctly read, so much as shall be thought 
 sufficient for one day or time ; which ended, if 
 any brother have exhortation, question or doubt, 
 let him not fear to speak or move the same, so that 
 he do it with moderation, either to edify or to be 
 edified. And hereof I doubt not great profit shall 
 shortly ensue ; for, first, by hearing, reading and 
 conferring the Scriptures in the assembly, the whole 
 body of the Scriptures of God shall become familiar, 
 the judgments and spirits of men shall be tried, their 
 patience and modesty shall be known, and, finally, 
 their gifts and utterance shall appear. Multiplication 
 of words, prolix interpretations, and wilfulness in 
 reasoning are to be avoided at all times and 
 in all places, but chiefly in the congregation, where 
 nothing ought to be respected except the glory 
 of God and comfort or edification of brethren.
 
 142 JOHN KNOX 
 
 " If anything occur within the text, or else arise 
 in reasoning, which your judgments cannot resolve 
 or your capacities apprehend, let the same be noted 
 and put in writing, before ye dismiss the congrega- 
 tion, that, when God shall offer unto you any 
 interpreter, your doubts, being noted and known, 
 may have the more expedient resolution ; or else 
 that, when ye shall have occasion to write to such 
 as with whom ye would communicate your judg- 
 ments, your letters may signify and declare your 
 unceasing desire that ye have of God and of His 
 true religion ; and they, I doubt not, according 
 to their talents, will endeavour and bestow their 
 faithful labours to satisfy your godly petitions. Of 
 myself I will speak as I think : I will more gladly 
 spend fifteen hours in communicating my judgment 
 with you, in explaining as God pleases to open 
 to me any place of Scripture, than half an hour 
 in any other matter. 
 
 " Further, I would, in reading the Scripture ye 
 should join some books of the Old and some of 
 the New Testament together, as Genesis and one of 
 the Evangelists, Exodus with another, and so forth ; 
 ever ending such books as ye begin (as the time 
 will suffer), for it will greatly comfort you to hear 
 that harmony and well-tuned song of the Holy 
 Spirit speaking to our fathers from the beginning.
 
 ff/S IDEAS U3 
 
 It shall confirm you in these dangerous and perilous 
 days to behold the face of Christ's loving Spouse 
 and Church, from Abel to Himself and from 
 Himself to this day, in all ages to be one. Be 
 frequent in the Prophets and in the Epistles of 
 St. Paul, for the multitude of matters, most comfort- 
 able therein contained, requireth exercise and good 
 memory. Like as your assemblies ought to begin 
 with confession and invocation of God's Holy Spirit, 
 so would I that they were finished with thanks- 
 giving and common prayers for princes, rulers and 
 magistrates ; for the liberty and free passage of 
 Christ's Evangel ; for the comfort and deliverance 
 of our afflicted brethren in all places now persecuted, 
 but most cruelly within the realms of France and 
 England ; and for such other things as the Spirit 
 of the Lord Jesus shall teach unto you to be 
 profitable either to yourselves or to your brethren, 
 wheresover they be. 
 
 " If thus (or better) I shall hear that ye exercise 
 yourselves, dear brethren, then will I praise God 
 for your great obedience, as for them that have 
 not only received the Word of grace with gladness 
 but that also, with care and diligence, do keep 
 the same as a treasure and jewel most precious. 
 And, because that I cannot suspect that ye will 
 do the contrary at this present, I will use no
 
 144 JOHN KNOX 
 
 threatenings ; for my good hope is, that ye shall 
 walk as the sons of light in the midst of this 
 wicked generation ; that ye shall be as stars in the 
 night season, who yet are not changed into darkness ; 
 that ye shall be as wheat among the cockle, and 
 yet that ye shall not change your nature, which 
 ye have received by grace through the fellowship 
 and participation which we have with the Lord 
 Jesus in His body and blood ; and, finally, that 
 ye shall be of the number of the prudent virgins, 
 daily renewing your lamps with oil, as they that 
 patiently do abide the glorious apparition and 
 coming of the Lord Jesus ; whose omnipotent Spirit 
 rule and instruct, illuminate and comfort your hearts 
 and minds in all assaults now and ever. Amen. 
 
 " The grace of the Lord Jesus rest with you. 
 
 " Remember my weakness in your daily prayers. 
 The ;th of July, 1556. 
 
 " Your Brother unfeigned, 
 
 " JOHN KNOX." l 
 
 While the authority of the Word of God is one 
 of the pillars of the Reformation, it is usually stated 
 that the doctrine of Justification by Faith is the 
 other. And it is worthy of note that Knox's very 
 first publication was a treatise on this important 
 1 Works, iv. 1 29 if.
 
 If/S IDEAS 145 
 
 subject, penned, however, not by himself, but by 
 a fellow-exile, during the period of his imprisonment 
 in France. Knox appears to consider it a com- 
 mendation of this production that it came from the 
 pen of "no speculative theologue," but from that 
 of a simple layman ; and at any rate the clearness 
 and force of the exposition are now interesting 
 evidences of the grip with which at that time this 
 doctrine had laid hold of the general mind. At 
 the request of the author, Henry Balnaves, Knox 
 digested it into chapters, to which he appended 
 summaries, together with a table of contents. This 
 was a friendly action, thoroughly well done ; al- 
 though even these additions of Knox fail to give 
 the work much distinction ; and we cannot help 
 regretting that he did not write on the subject 
 himself. 
 
 One qualification for so doing he possessed in a 
 remarkable degree. It is the poignant and in- 
 tolerable sense of sin that makes the soul cling 
 to the cross of Christ. It was by this experience 
 that both SL Paul and Luther were prepared for 
 appreciating the righteousness of God, after they 
 had realised that their guilt was too great to be 
 atoned-for by anything that they could do them- 
 selves. The conscience of Knox was preter- 
 naturally tender. How this peculiarity was originally 
 
 10
 
 146 JOHN KNOX 
 
 produced in him we do not know ; but the pro- 
 bability is, that it was due to experiences of 
 conviction of sin and of hopeless struggle after 
 righteousness, similar to those of St. Paul and 
 Luther, belonging to the early period of which 
 we possess no record ; and in his subsequent life 
 it can have been developed only by a careful walk 
 with God and a constant comparison of his own 
 conduct and character with the perfect model of 
 the Bible. 
 
 Often he accuses himself, in most touching terms, 
 of shortcomings in the discharge of his ministry, 
 and even of fear in the face of danger -the last 
 thing which any other person would have thought 
 of laying to his charge. Here is a searching review 
 of his ministry in England, which will be read by 
 everyone engaged in work of the same kind with 
 sympathy : 
 
 " The ministers who were the distributers of this 
 bread, the true Word of God, wherewith the 
 multitude within England was fed, lacked not their 
 offences, which also moved God to send us to the 
 sea. And, because the offences of no man are so 
 manifest unto me as are mine own, only of myself 
 I will be the accuser. 
 
 " It is not unknown unto many, that I (the most 
 wretched) was jone of that number whom God
 
 HIS IDEAS I47 
 
 appointed tc receive that bread, as it was broken 
 by Christ Jesus, to distribute and give the same to 
 such as He had called to this banquet, in that part 
 of His table where He appointed me to serve. It 
 is not in my knowledge nor judgment to define nor 
 determine what portion or quantity every man 
 received of this bread, neither yet how that which 
 they received agreed with their stomachs. But of 
 this I am assured, that the benediction of Christ 
 Jesus so multiplied the portion that I received of 
 His hands, that during that banquet (this I write 
 to the praise of His name and to the accusation 
 of mine own unthankfulness) the bread never failed 
 when the hungry soul craved or cried for food ; and 
 at the end of the banquet, mine own conscience 
 beareth witness, that my hands gathered up the 
 crumbs that were left in such abundance, that my 
 basket was full among the rest. 
 
 " To be plain, mine own conscience beareth 
 record to myself, how small was my learning, and 
 how weak I was of judgment, when Christ Jesus 
 called me to be His steward ; and how mightily, 
 day by day and time by time, He multiplied His 
 graces with me, if I should conceal, I were most 
 wicked and unthankful. 
 
 " But alas ! how blinded was my heart, and how 
 little I did consider the dignity of that office, and
 
 148 JOHN KNOX 
 
 the power of God that then multiplied and blessed 
 the bread which the people received of my hands, 
 this day mine own conscience beareth witness to 
 myself. God I take to record in my conscience, 
 that I delivered the same bread that I received of 
 Christ's hands, and that I mixed no poison with 
 the same ; that is, I taught Christ's Gospel without 
 any mixture of men's dreams, devices or fantasies. 
 But alas ! I did not with such fervency, with such 
 indifferency, and with such diligence, as this day 
 I know my duty was to have done. 
 
 " Some complained in those days, that the preachers 
 were indiscreet persons ; yea, and some called them 
 railers, and worse, because they spake against the 
 manifest iniquity of men, and especially of those 
 that were then placed in authority as well in the 
 court as in other offices universally throughout the 
 realm, both in cities, towns and villages. And 
 among other, peradventure, my rude plainness dis- 
 pleased some, who did complain that rashly I 
 did speak of men's faults ; so that all men might 
 know and perceive of whom I meant. But alas ! 
 this day my conscience accuseth me, that I spake 
 not so plainly as my duty was to have done ; 
 for I ought to have said to the wicked man expressly 
 by his name, ' Thou shalt die the death.' For 
 I find Jeremy the prophet to have done so to
 
 fffS IDEAS , 49 
 
 Pashur the high priest and to Zedekiah the king ; 
 and not only him, but also Elijah, Elisha, Micah, 
 Amos, Daniel, Christ Jesus Himself, and after Him 
 His Apostles, expressly to have named the blood- 
 thirsty tyrants, abominable idolaters and dissembling 
 hypocrites of their days. If that we the preachers 
 within the realm of England were appointed by 
 God to be the salt of the earth, as His other 
 messengers were before us, alas ! why held we back 
 the salt where manifest corruption did appear ? (I 
 accuse none but myself.) The blind love that I 
 did bear to this my wicked carcase was the chief 
 cause that I was not fervent and faithful enough 
 in that behalf; for I had no will to provoke the 
 hatred of all men against me, and therefore so 
 touched I the vices of men in the presence of the 
 greatest, that they might see themselves to be 
 offenders. I dare not say that I was the greatest 
 flatterer, but yet, nevertheless, I would not be seen 
 to proclaim manifest war against the manifest 
 wicked : whereof unfeignedly I ask my God mercy. 
 " As I was not so fervent in rebuking manifest 
 iniquity as it became me to have been, so was I 
 not so indifferent l a feeder as is required of Christ's 
 steward. For in preaching Christ's Gospel, albeit 
 mine eye (as knoweth God) was not much upon 
 1 Without respect of persons.
 
 i$o JOHN KNOX 
 
 worldly promotion, yet the love of friends and 
 carnal affection of some men with whom I was 
 most familiar allured me to make more residence 
 in one place than in another, having more respect 
 to the pleasure of a few than to the necessity of 
 many. That day I thought I had not sinned, if 
 I had not been idle ; but this day I know it was 
 my duty to have had consideration how long I had 
 remained in one place, and how many hungry souls 
 were in other places to whom, alas ! none took 
 pain to break and distribute the bread of life. 
 
 " Moreover, remaining in one place, I was not 
 so diligent as mine office required ; but some time, 
 by counsel of carnal friends, I spared the body ; 
 some time I spent in worldly business of particular 
 friends ; and some time in taking recreation and 
 pastime by exercise of the body. 
 
 " And, albeit men may judge these to be light 
 and small offences, yet I know and confess, that, 
 unless pardon should to me be granted in Christ's 
 blood, every one of these three offences aforenamed 
 that is to say, the lack of fervency in reproving sin, 
 the lack of indifferency in feeding those that were 
 hungry, and the lack of diligence in the execution 
 of mine office deserved damnation. 
 
 " And, beside these, I was assaulted, yea, infected 
 and corrupted with more gross sins ; that is, my
 
 HIS IDEAS I5 i 
 
 wicked nature desired the favours, the estimation 
 and praise of men ; against which, albeit that some- 
 time the Spirit of God did move me to fight, and 
 earnestly did stir me (God knoweth I lie not) to 
 sob and lament for those imperfections, yet never 
 ceased they to trouble me, when any occasion was 
 offered. 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 
 upperhand. 
 
 " O 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, 
 remove from me the burden of my sin ; for, of 
 purpose and mind to have avoided the vain dis- 
 pleasure of man, I spared little to offend Thy Godly 
 Majesty." 1 
 
 But the most pathetic of all such utterances is 
 contained in the last of his publications, his Answer 
 to a Letter of James Tyrie, a Scottish Jesuit, written 
 the year in which he died. It appears, indeed, to 
 have been penned at an earlier date; but we 
 cannot do wrong in looking upon it as expressing 
 the habitual attitude of his spirit to God all 
 through his life : 
 
 " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, and put an end 
 1 Works, iii. 268 ff.
 
 t52 JOHN 
 
 at Thy good pleasure to this my miserable life ; 
 for justice and truth are not to be found among 
 the sons of men. 
 
 "JOHN KNOX with deliberate mind to his God. 
 
 " Be merciful unto me, O Lord, and call not 
 into judgment my manifold sins, and chiefly those 
 of which the world is not able to accuse me. In 
 youth, mid-age, and now after many battles, I 
 find nothing in me but vanity and corruption. 
 For in quietness I am negligent, in trouble im- 
 patient, tending to desperation ; and in the mean 
 state I am so carried away with vain fantasies 
 that, alas ! O Lord, they withdraw me from the 
 presence of Thy Majesty. Pride and ambition 
 assault me on the one part, covetousness and malice 
 trouble me on the other ; briefly, O Lord, the 
 affections of the flesh do almost suppress the 
 operation of Thy Spirit I take Thee, O Lord, 
 who only knowest the secrets of hearts, to record, 
 that in none of the foresaid I do delight ; but 
 that with them am I troubled, and that sore against 
 the desire of my inward man, which sobs for my 
 corruption, and would repose in Thy mercy alone ; 
 to the which I claim, and that in the promise 
 that Thou hast made to all penitent sinners, of 
 whose number I profess myself to be one, in the 
 obedience and death of my only Saviour, our Lord
 
 fifS WE AS 153 
 
 Jesus Christ ; in whom by Thy mere grace I 
 doubt not myself to be elected to eternal salvation, 
 whereof Thou hast given unto me, O Lord, most 
 wretched and unthankful creature, most assured 
 signs. For, being drowned in ignorance, Thou hast 
 given unto me knowledge above the common sort 
 of my brethren ; my tongue hast Thou used to 
 set forth Thy glory, to oppugn idolatry, error and 
 false doctrine. Thou hast compelled me to forespeak 
 as well deliverance to the afflicted as destruction 
 to certain inobedient ; the performance whereof not 
 I alone, but the very blind world has already seen. 
 But above all, O Lord, Thou, by the power of Thy 
 Holy Spirit, hast sealed into my heart remission 
 of sins, which I acknowledge and confess myself 
 to have received by the precious blood of Jesus 
 Christ once shed ; by whose perfect obedience, I 
 am assured, my manifold rebellions are defaced, my 
 grievous sins purged, and my soul made the 
 tabernacle of Thy Godly Majesty ; Thou, O Father 
 of mercies, Thy Son our Lord Jesus my only Saviour, 
 Mediator and Advocate, and Thy Holy Spirit, re- 
 maining in the same by true faith ; which is the 
 only victory that overcometh the world. 
 
 "To Thee, therefore, O Lord, I commend my 
 spirit ; for I thirst to be resolved from this body 
 of sin, and am assured that I shall rise again in
 
 154 JOHN KNOX 
 
 glory, howsoever it be that the wicked for a time 
 shall tread me and others Thy servants under their 
 feet. Be merciful, O Lord, unto the Kirk within 
 this realm ; continue with it the light of Thy 
 Evangel ; augment the number of true preachers ; 
 and let Thy merciful providence look upon my 
 desolate bedfellow, the fruitof her bosom, and my 
 two dear children, Nathaniel and Eleazar. Now, 
 Lord, put end to my miseries ! " ] 
 
 In this extract it will be noted how, in spite 
 the depth and solemnity of the confession of sin, 
 the author nevertheless attains to the full assurance 
 of forgiveness ; and this truly evangelical note rings 
 out ever and anon in his writings, as it did no doubt 
 in his preaching. Yet justification by faith does not 
 sing and dance in the very blood of Knox as it 
 did in Luther's. In the German Reformer's company 
 we breathe an atmosphere of abounding freedom 
 and spiritual joy, to which the Scottish one only 
 occasionally attains ; and what held the latter down 
 was a conscience imperfectly emancipated. 
 
 The part of Balnaves' book which will probably 
 be most relished by the modern reader is the account 
 it gives of the life of justification, comprising plain 
 and sensible rules for the walk and conversation of a 
 Christian man. In the debt which the world owes to 
 1 Works, vi. 483.
 
 HIS IDEAS 155 
 
 the heroes of the religious revolution of the sixteenth 
 century there is no item which would be paid with 
 more gratitude, if it were thoroughly understood, 
 than the new conception of good works with which 
 they familiarised the mind of Europe. In preceding 
 centuries good works had come to be understood 
 more and more in an artificial sense. To go on 
 pilgrimage, to endow a religious house, to become 
 a monk, to fast or otherwise torture the body 
 these and the like were good works ; and the very 
 name "religious" was restricted, as it still is where 
 the Romish system prevails, to persons who had 
 left the world, with its every-day duties, and given 
 themselves up to a life of contemplation. But 
 Balnaves shows with quiet force that the good works 
 with which God is well pleased are such as these : 
 to be a good father, a good son, a good citizen, to 
 be diligent in business, and to be in all respects 
 a good specimen of manhood. This alteration of 
 the point of view may be said to lie at the bottom 
 of all the progress of the modern world. It is 
 a mistake to suppose that the Reformation was 
 mainly occupied with theological doctrines : it was 
 even more a revolution in morals ; and Knox is 
 excelled by none in honest zeal to enlighten the 
 public conscience. " It is not enough," he says, " to 
 justify us before God that civil laws cannot accuse
 
 tS<5 JOtiN KNOX 
 
 us. Nay, brethren, the eye of our God pierceth 
 deeper than man's law can stretch. The law of 
 man cannot convict the earl, the lord, the baron 
 or gentleman for oppressing the poor labourers of 
 the ground ; for his defence is ready, ' I may do 
 with my own as best pleaseth me. ' The merchant 
 is just enough in his own conceit, if before men 
 he cannot be convicted of theft. The artificer and 
 craftsman thinketh himself free before God, albeit 
 that he neither work sufficient stuff nor yet sell for 
 reasonable price. ' The world is evil,' saith he, ' and 
 how can men live if they do not as others do ? ' And 
 thus doth every man lean on the iniquity of another, 
 and thinketh himself sufficiently excused when that 
 he meeteth craft with craft, and repulseth back 
 violence either with deceit or else with open injury. 
 Let us be assured, dear brethren, that these be the 
 sins which heretofore have provoked God not only 
 to plague, but also to destroy and utterly overthrow 
 strong realms and flourishing commonwealths." l 
 
 It .was by the lowly pathway of the conviction 
 
 of sin that Knox, like the other Reformers, reached 
 
 the position that salvation must come from the 
 
 mercy of God, and not from his own works ; but 
 
 1 Works, vi. 413.
 
 HIS IDEAS 157 
 
 there was also another path a more imperial 
 one by which, again in common with the other 
 Reformers, he came to the same point. This was 
 the belief in Election. All the Reformers of the 
 sixteenth century were diligent students of Augustine, 
 from whom they learned more than from any other 
 source, with the exception of the Bible. From him 
 they imbibed their faith in the doctrine of predestina- 
 tion. But, indeed, the predestinarian system suits 
 well the exigencies of a time of change and struggle ; 
 because it supports the protagonists with a sense 
 that they are the instruments of a divine purpose, 
 and that they are immortal till their work is done. 
 It falls in, besides, with the experience of men who 
 have been awakened to a sense of true religion in a 
 catastrophic manner, as had been the case with the 
 Reformers. Such men are intensely conscious of 
 an immediate divine efficiency in their conversion ; 
 they think with amazement of the grace which has 
 made the difference between their former and their 
 present selves ; and with equal awe they think of 
 the difference between themselves and the rest of 
 the world. It seems to them that a special act 
 of divine discrimination has lifted them up out of 
 the horrible pit and the miry clay. 
 
 To persons theologizing in this mood salvation 
 seems all of God from first to last. He has planned
 
 158 JOHN KNOX 
 
 it from eternity ; He has worked it out in the 
 incarnation and passion of His Son and in the 
 institution and the ordinances of the Church ; and 
 He will see to it that in the receivers also all the 
 experiences shall come to pass which are necessary 
 to ensure that His own redeeming purpose is not 
 in vain. Thus arises a system like Calvinism, in 
 which the sovereign but glorious and loving will 
 of God holds sway from eternity to eternity, and 
 the drama of creation ends in the redemption of 
 a multitude which no man can number. But there 
 is a cooler religious mood in which facts and truths 
 come into prominence of which this fervid theology 
 takes little reckoning. To the latter it matters little 
 what difference there is between man and man ; 
 for all are condemned and all may equally be saved ; 
 but undoubtedly there are great differences between 
 one sinner and another, and for certain purposes 
 even in religion it is essential to bear this in mind. 
 To a system like Calvinism the difference between 
 one saint and another appears of very minor 
 importance ; indeed, the better saint of the two 
 may be the more conscious of his own shortcomings, 
 and in the end both will equally be saved. But, 
 from other points of view, the differences between 
 those who bear respectively thirty, forty and an 
 hundredfold are enormous, and to overlook these
 
 HIS IDEAS IS9 
 
 is to lose some of the most pathetic motives of 
 morality. In this cooler atmosphere a system like 
 Arminianism has its birth ; and undoubtedly such 
 a system has its own share of truth ; although 
 Calvinism is the purer expression of the religious 
 sentiment at its warmest when it is lost in God 
 and acknowledges that He must be all in all. 
 
 It was on this subject that Knox wrote his longest 
 theological work An Answer to the Cavillations of 
 an Adversary respecting the Doctrine of Predestination. 
 The adversary was the author of a book entitled 
 Careless by Necessity ; but no copy of this work 
 has been found, and the author is only doubtfully 
 identified with a certain Robert Cooke, known 
 to have been in those days a disseminator of the 
 opinions here assailed. These included not only 
 anti-Calvinism, but perfectionism, toleration, and 
 the miscellaneous heresies embraced within the 
 comprehensive name of Anabaptism. Knox had 
 known the author at an earlier stage of his career, 
 when he was a person of promise ; and he fre- 
 quently bewails his backsliding, once going so far 
 as to say that he would be willing to give his own 
 soul for his reclamation. It would appear that he 
 was a person of indifferent learning ; and Knox 
 occasionally talks down to him from the platform 
 of a thoroughly educated man, acquainted with the
 
 160 JOHN KNOX 
 
 tongues ; but, for all that, he must have been 
 a thinker of no little acuteness ; his book had 
 obviously created something of a panic in the circles 
 for whose benefit Knox wrote this refutation ; and 
 Knox has sometimes enough to do when attempting 
 to invalidate his arguments. 
 
 These he quotes in his antagonist's own words, 
 often at great length, and then subjoins a refutation. 
 This plan gives the book a clumsy appearance, 
 occasioning innumerable repetitions ; and the work 
 must be confessed to be more a collection of 
 fragments than a comprehensive or masterly treat- 
 ment of a great subject. Indeed, at the com- 
 mencement, the author writes in a singularly 
 helpless manner, as if he were engaged in handling 
 tools which he had not learned how to use. There 
 is an extraordinary contrast between the dulness 
 of this work and the piquancy of The History of 
 the Reformation. Obviously the one was written 
 invita Minerva and to order, the other straight from 
 the heart. Yet the book improves as it proceeds ; 
 and the author naively betrays his own consciousness 
 of getting on better ; saying, about the middle, 
 " Behold how smoothly God conducteth our tossed 
 boat through the raging waves of your furious 
 arguments " ; and, somewhat later, " Behold your 
 spider-webs with less labour dissolved and burst
 
 HIS IDEAS i6r 
 
 than, I am assured, you and your great captain 
 Castellio did spin, knit and weave the same." He 
 kindles into true warmth and eloquence when 
 refuting the slander, which has been so often 
 launched against Calvinism, that it encourages its 
 adherents to live as they please ; and he anticipates 
 Froude in repelling this argument by pointing to 
 the moral condition of the cities or countries 
 where Calvinism has been embraced. The instance 
 chosen by him is naturally Geneva ; and here is 
 his flattering description of that city: 
 
 " What maketh the poor city of Geneva poor, 
 I say, in man's eyes, but rich before God, by the 
 plentiful abundance of His heavenly graces what 
 maketh it, I say, so odious to the carnal men of this 
 world ? Assuredly not this doctrine wherewith ye 
 charge us ; for that could well please the carnal 
 man, to let him live at his pleasure without all 
 punishment. Is it not the right rigour of justice 
 and the severity of discipline executed therein, in 
 such sort that no manifest offender, wheresoever he 
 hath committed his offence, doth there escape 
 punishment ? Is not this it that so doth offend not 
 only the licentious of the world, but even you dis- 
 sembling hypocrites cannot abide that the sword 
 of God's vengeance shall strike the murderer, the 
 blasphemer, and such others as God by His Word 
 
 ii
 
 162 JOHN KNOX 
 
 commandeth to die ? Not so by your judgments : 
 he must live : he may repent. And those common- 
 wealths do ye highly praise where men may live as 
 they wish, be subject to no law nor order ; yea, 
 where the drunkard and such other abominable 
 persons are permitted to live quietly and find favour 
 to escape punishment and shame. But, because in 
 the streets of Geneva dare no notable malefactor 
 shew his face (all praise and glory be unto God) 
 any more than dare the owl in the bright sun, 
 therefore is it hated." l 
 
 All the usual arguments against Calvinism are 
 adduced in the words of the adversary, and then 
 refuted one by one. There is much quoting of 
 Scripture on both sides, with somewhat desperate 
 shifts occasionally to escape the force of texts 
 which seem to be hostile, and not infrequently 
 the use of texts as proofs which stand themselves 
 in need of explaining. The contention mainly turns 
 on the question whether human responsibility is 
 compatible with divine foreordination ; the adversary 
 holding that those who perish are not responsible 
 for being lost, if they were doomed to perish before 
 their birth, while Knox insists that they perish 
 justly for their sins ; for he is perfectly clear that 
 this is the correct statement of the case : " Most 
 1 Works, v. 211.
 
 HIS IDEAS 163 
 
 unjustly you accuse us, laying to our charge that 
 we burden God to be the cause of condemnation, 
 the which we all with one consent impute to man, 
 to sin, and to the Devil, the first solicitor to sin." 
 He refuses to be charged with holding that the 
 greater part of the human race are foredoomed to 
 perdition, as Calvinists do not profess to know 
 the numbers of the saved or the lost ; and he re- 
 jects with holy abhorrence the reproach that God, 
 according to his teaching, is the author of sin. 
 Towards the close he carries the war into the 
 enemy's country by an account of the origin and 
 tenets of the Anabaptists, and especially of the 
 vagaries of Peter Miinzer and the fanatics of 
 Miinster. 
 
 It is curious how in our own day this mysterious 
 subject should have been brought again to the 
 front through the decision pronounced in the House 
 of Lords on I August 1904, in the case between 
 the United Free Church of Scotland and the body 
 of its former members who did not enter the Union, 
 the Lord Chancellor declaring the Calvinism of 
 the Confession of Faith to be irreconcilable with 
 the free offer of the Gospel, as this is vindicated 
 in the Declaratory Act of 1892. This is an ob- 
 jection to Calvinism of similar character with many 
 brought against it in this book ; but it can scarcely
 
 1 64 JOHN KNOX 
 
 be said to be specifically dealt with by Knox ; 
 and I am not certain if he would have come 
 well out of an argument on such a theme ; for 
 the adversary did bring against him such texts 
 as the one which states that God delighteth not 
 in the death of the wicked, and the other which 
 asserts that He will have all men to be saved ; 
 and his manner of dealing with these is not 
 very satisfactory. He limits and minimises their 
 significance, instead of glorying in the magnanimity 
 of God, which they reveal. The truth is, the Church 
 has learned since Knox's time to welcome more 
 gladly and to preach more emphatically this side 
 of Scriptural truth. In the days of Knox there 
 were no foreign missions, and these have done 
 much to open the mind and heart of Christendom 
 to many aspects of divine revelation, and this 
 one among the rest. 
 
 Calvinists believe in election not only because 
 it is revealed in Scripture, but because it is 
 confirmed by experience. Every redeemed man 
 knows that he would never have thought of God 
 unless God had first thought of him. God can 
 say to all Christians, " Ye have not chosen Me, 
 but I have chosen you " ; and these answer, in 
 their turn, " We love Him because He first loved 
 us." But, on the other hand, even clearer and
 
 HIS IDEAS 165 
 
 ampler is the testimony of Scripture that God 
 is calling all, and that the Saviour is offered to 
 all without distinction. This also is not only 
 revealed by Scripture, but confirmed by experience ; 
 because, the more anyone is occupied in seeking 
 and saving the lost, the more sensible does he 
 become of entering into the very mind and heart 
 of God ; and, the more the Church carries out 
 the Saviour's command to preach the Gospel to 
 every creature, the more does it know itself to 
 be in harmony with the divine will. There is, it 
 must be confessed, a mystery in this subject which 
 we cannot now penetrate and which may be too deep 
 for the human faculties. But election and the free 
 offer of the Gospel are both manifestations of the 
 one redeeming love of God : they are portions 
 of one shining arc, the curve of which shows that 
 they are destined to meet, although the meeting- 
 point is shrouded in the clouds and thick darkness 
 of Deity.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 HIS POLITICAL OPINIONS 
 
 ONLY less important to his native land than 
 his religious views were the Scottish Re- 
 former's political opinions. To himself, in all 
 probability, the two appeared to be one ; and, ever 
 since, in the Scottish mind the waters of religious and 
 political conviction have been in close proximity, 
 with a constant tendency to mingle. Substantially 
 the same political ideas as his were propounded 
 at the same time by George Buchanan in his work, 
 De Jure Regni apud Scotos, but the renowned 
 Humanist wrote in a foreign tongue, whereas Knox 
 conveyed his message in the vernacular ; and, while 
 Buchanan addressed himself to the learned few, Knox 
 thundered his opinions into the ears of the multitude 
 with the force and passion of an orator. In the 
 generations which have intervened between his day 
 and our own, his ideas have been working like a 
 leaven in the mind of the Scottish people ; and 
 to him may in no small measure be ascribed the 
 
 166
 
 HIS IDEAS 167 
 
 type of political conviction, robust in character 
 yet tinged with reverence, which has been the 
 prevailing one north of the Border. 
 
 As early as 1554 we find Knox in correspondence 
 with Bullinger, the Reformer of Zurich, on the 
 following questions, which show how much his mind 
 was occupied with politics : i. Whether the son 
 of a king, upon his father's death, though unable 
 by reason of his tender age to conduct the govern- 
 ment of the kingdom, is nevertheless by right of 
 inheritance to be regarded as a lawful magistrate 
 and as such to be obeyed as of divine right ? 
 2. Whether a female can preside over and rule a 
 kingdom by divine right, and so transfer the right 
 of sovereignty to her husband ? 3. Whether 
 obedience is to be rendered to a magistrate who 
 enforces idolatry and condemns true religion, 
 and whether those authorities that are still in 
 military occupation of towns and fortresses are 
 permitted to repel this ungodly violence from 
 themselves and their friends? 4. To which party 
 must godly persons attach themselves in the case 
 of a religious nobility resisting an idolatrous 
 sovereign ? l Ten years later, in a committee of 
 the General Assembly, he debated topics of the 
 same kind, at great length and in high spirits, with 
 ' Works, iii. 221 ff.
 
 168 JOHN KNOX 
 
 Maitland of Lethington, the only man on the 
 opposite side who was able to stand up to him 
 in argument ; and the decision with which he then 
 summed up the debate proved that in the interval 
 he had made up his own mind on nearly every 
 point. 1 The ripening process may be seen going 
 on in such productions of his pen, between these 
 two dates, as his Appellation to the Nobility and his 
 Letter to the Commonalty of Scotland, issued on 
 the eve of his final return to his native land, and 
 especially in a series of proclamations which he 
 sent out, in the name of the Lords of the 
 Congregation, during the progress of the civil war 
 waged with Mary of Guise. 
 
 It cannot be considered a circumstance favourable 
 to Knox's political reputation that his best known 
 contribution to political doctrine is The First Blast 
 of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of 
 Women, in which he maintains the thesis that to 
 allow a woman to occupy a throne is contrary 
 to both reason and Scripture. This treatise was 
 published in the very year when the reign began 
 which it has been usual to consider the most 
 illustrious in British history, and this was the reign 
 
 1 History, ii. 425 ff.
 
 HIS IDEAS 169 
 
 of a woman ; and, if we read it now, it is with 
 the memory fresh in our minds of the only other 
 reign in our .annals which can compete with that 
 of Elizabeth the glorious reign of Queen Victoria. 
 Against such a refutation of facts no logic can 
 successfully contend ; and, therefore, it is scarcely 
 worth while to recall the arguments of the author. 
 Suffice it to say, that he unfolded no inconsiderable 
 learning in the quotation of authorities, both classical 
 and Christian, on his side, and that he wielded the 
 argument from Scripture with his usual copiousness 
 and ingenuity. Happily, he had left himself a 
 loophole of escape, by allowing that there might 
 be exceptions to the rule; but Queen Elizabeth 
 was not likely to be much mollified by his offer 
 to give her the benefit of this doubt, when it was 
 conveyed in the following terms : 
 
 " Nothing in my book contained is or can be 
 prejudicial to your Grace's just regiment, provided 
 that you be not found ungrateful unto God. 
 Ungrate you shall be proved in presence of His 
 throne, howsoever the flatterers justify your acts, 
 if you transfer the glory of that in which you 
 now stand to any other thing than to the dispensa- 
 tion of His mercies, which only maketh that 
 truthful to your Grace which nature and law 
 denieth to all women. Neither would I that
 
 170 JOHN KNOX 
 
 your Grace should fear that this your humilia- 
 tion before God should, in any case, infirm and 
 weaken your just and lawful authority before men. 
 Nay, Madam, such unfeigned confession of God's 
 benefits received shall be the establishment of the 
 same, not only to yourself but also to your seed 
 and posterity ; where, contrariwise, a proud conceit 
 and elevation of yourself shall be the occasion that 
 your reign shall be unstable, troublesome and short. 
 God is witness that unfeignedly I both reverence 
 and love your Grace ; yea, I pray that your reign 
 may be long, prosperous and quiet ; and that for 
 the quietness which Christ's members, before perse- 
 cuted, have received under you. Yet, if I should 
 flatter your Grace, I were no friend, but a deceitful 
 traitor ; and, therefore, of conscience I am compelled 
 to say, that neither the consent of people, process 
 of time, nor multitude of men can establish a law 
 which God shall approve ; but, whatsoever He ap- 
 proveth by His eternal Word that shall be approved, 
 and whatsoever He damneth that shall be con- 
 demned, though all men on earth should hazard the 
 justification of the same. And therefore, Madam, the 
 only way to retain and keep these benefits of God, 
 abundantly poured out of late days upon you and 
 your realm, is unfeignedly to render unto God's 
 mercy and undeserved grace the whole glory of this
 
 HIS IDEAS i 71 
 
 your exaltation. Forget your birth and all title 
 which thereupon doth hang, and consider deeply 
 how for fear of your life you did decline from 
 God and bow in idolatry. Let it not appear a 
 small offence in your eyes that you have declined 
 from Christ Jesus in the day of His battle. Neither 
 yet would I that you should esteem the mercy 
 to be vulgar and common which you have received, 
 to wit, that God hath covered your former offences, 
 hath preserved you when you were most unthankful, 
 and in the end hath exalted and raised you up 
 not only from the dust but also from the ports 
 of death to rule over His people for the comfort 
 of His Kirk. It appertaineth to you, therefore, to 
 ground the justness of your authority not upon 
 that law which from year to year doth change, 
 but upon the eternal providence of Him who, 
 contrary to nature and without your deserving, 
 hath thus 'exalted your head. If thus in God's 
 presence you humble yourself, as in my heart I 
 glorify God for that rest granted to His afflicted 
 flock within England under you, a weak instrument, 
 so will I with tongue and pen justify your authority 
 and regiment as the Holy Ghost hath justified 
 the same in Deborah, that blessed mother in Israel. 
 But, if these premises (as God forbid) be neglected, 
 and you shall begin to brag of your birth and
 
 172 JOHN KNOX 
 
 build your authority upon your law, flatter you 
 whoso list, your felicity shall be short. Interpret 
 my words in the best part, as written by him who 
 is no enemy to your Grace." 
 
 For government in the abstract Knox had the 
 profoundest veneration. He abhorred anarchy, 
 and, when he heard in Geneva that some of the 
 adherents of the Reformation in Scotland were 
 thinking of revolution, he wrote an earnest letter 
 of dissuasion, hinting to them that they were being 
 made the dupes of political adventurers. But 
 government must be good government that is to 
 say, it must be favourable to the happiness and 
 the virtue of the subjects this is the assumption 
 lying at the back of all Knox's political theories. 
 He regarded government as a divine arrangement 
 for preserving order in human affairs, and for making 
 it easy to live righteously and difficult to live un- 
 righteously, so that thereby the population should 
 grow up healthy and wealthy, and the resources 
 of the country be developed. For such a govern- 
 ment there is requisite in princes and those who 
 stand beside them at the head of affairs a serious 
 mind, because a great trust is committed to them 
 the welfare of tens of thousands. They have to 
 be parents and shepherds to the people, and their
 
 HIS IDEAS I73 
 
 honour lies in the prosperity and improvement of 
 those over whom they rule. 
 
 In our day such ideas are common property, 
 and their justice will be generally admitted. In 
 literature the king is represented to be 
 
 but as the hind 
 
 To whom a space of land is given to plough, 
 Who may not wander from the allotted field 
 Before his work be done; 
 
 and in speculations about the vocation of the states- 
 man he is always viewed as a servant of the public. 
 In short, the maxim of our Lord in the Gospel 
 is penetrating the general mind, that greatness is 
 measured by service. But it requires slight know- 
 ledge of history to be aware how little this has been 
 realised in the past, and especially how little favour 
 it has found in courts. There greatness has generally 
 been measured by a very different standard ; the 
 position of a prince being considered an opportunity 
 for indulgence, and even the Decalogue being 
 assumed to be relaxed in his favour. Not the duties 
 of kings, but their prerogatives have been the 
 favourite topics of court philosophers and court 
 preachers. In the century after that of Knox 
 the divine right of kings was the doctrine oftenest 
 heard-of at the court of the Stuarts ; and James the 
 First of England was well aware that John Knox
 
 174 JOHN KNOX 
 
 had been no friend of the supremacy to which he 
 laid claim. 1 
 
 But what was to happen if government should be 
 bad if, instead of promoting the welfare of the people, 
 it fastened on their necks a yoke of oppression, and 
 if, instead of promoting religion and virtue, it 
 fostered superstition and encouraged immorality ? 
 This was the question which Scotland had to face 
 in the evil days of Mary of Guise, when the country 
 was overrun with French soldiery, and in those 
 of Mary Stuart, when French manners were in- 
 troduced at court and the attempt was made to 
 overturn the Protestant Reformation ; and Scotland 
 looked for the answer to John Knox. 
 
 To him it was axiomatic that there must be some 
 remedy. It never occurred to him that a country 
 should put up with bad government on account of 
 the supposed rights of princes. To his mind the 
 supreme right was that of the country to enjoy good 
 order and to advance in the path of progress. 
 
 First, in such an event he would have recourse 
 to the nobility, who, he maintained, held their places 
 and honours for no other end than the benefit of the 
 citizens in general. " My petition," says he, " is, 
 that ye, whom God hath appointed heads in your 
 
 1 See, a remarkable utterance of his quoted by Laing in Works, 
 iv- 435-
 
 HIS IDEAS I75 
 
 commonwealth, with single eye do study to promote 
 the glory of God ; to provide that your subjects 
 be rightly instructed in His true religion ; that they 
 may be defended from all oppression and tyranny ; 
 that true teachers may be maintained and such as 
 blind and deceive the people, together with all idle 
 bellies, which do rob and oppress the flock, may be 
 removed and punished as God's law prescribeth. 
 And to the performance of every one of these do 
 your offices and names, the honours and benefits 
 which ye receive, the law of God universally given 
 to all men, and the examples of most godly princes 
 bind and oblige you." "Be not deceived, my 
 Lords," he adds, " ye are placed in authority for 
 another purpose than to flatter your king in his folly 
 and blind rage : to wit, that, as with your strength, 
 riches and wisdom ye are bound to assist and defend 
 him in all things which by your advice he shall take 
 in hand for God's glory, so by your gravities, counsel 
 and admonition ye are bound to correct and repress 
 whatsoever ye know him to attempt expressly 
 repugning to God's Word, honour and glory, or what 
 ye shall espy him to do, be it by ignorance or be it 
 by malice, against his subjects great or small." 1 
 
 But, if nobles as well as kings should turn out 
 to be impracticable, there was still a resource in 
 Works, iv. 480, 493-
 
 176 JOHN KNOX 
 
 the people themselves ; and to this body Knox did 
 not hesitate to appeal in these terms : " Although 
 ye be but subjects, ye may lawfully require of your 
 superiors, be it of your king, be it of your lords, 
 rulers and powers, that they provide for you true 
 preachers, and that they expel such as, under the 
 name of pastors, devour and destroy the flock, not 
 feeding the same as Christ Jesus has commanded. 
 And, if in this point your superiors be negligent, 
 or yet pretend to maintain tyrants in their tyranny, 
 most justly ye may provide true teachers for your- 
 selves, be it in your cities, towns or villages. Them 
 ye shall maintain and defend against all that shall 
 persecute them and by that means shall labour to 
 defraud you of that most comfortable food of your 
 souls, Christ's Evangel truly preached. Ye may, 
 moreover, withhold the fruits and profits which your 
 false bishops and clergy most unjustly receive of 
 you, until such time as they be compelled faithfully 
 to do their charge and duties, which is to preach 
 unto you Christ Jesus truly, rightly to minister 
 the sacraments according to His own institution, and 
 so to watch for the salvation of your souls." 
 
 In such words there are surely the seeds of things 
 which, since then, have grown in Scotland and the 
 world, although they have not even yet come to 
 full maturity ; as, indeed, in the Letter to the
 
 HIS IDEAS 177 
 
 Commonalty of Scotland, in which they occur, the 
 author rises to the highest pitch of eloquence of 
 which he is capable : " Neither would I," says he, 
 " that you should esteem the reformation and care 
 of religion less to appertain to you, because you 
 are no kings, judges, rulers, nobles, nor in authority. 
 Beloved brethren, you are God's creatures, created 
 and formed in His own image and similitude, for 
 whose redemption was shed the most precious blood 
 of the only beloved Son of God, to whom He hath 
 commanded His Gospel and glad tidings to be 
 preached, and for whom He hath prepared the 
 heavenly inheritance, so that you will not obstinately 
 refuse and disdainfully condemn the means which 
 He hath appointed to obtain the same : to wit, His 
 blessed Evangel, which He now offereth to you to 
 the end that you may be saved. For the Gospel 
 and glad tidings of the kingdom truly preached is 
 the power of God to the salvation of every believer, 
 which to credit and receive you, the commonalty, 
 are no less bound than are your rulers and princes. 
 For, albeit God hath put and ordained distinction 
 and difference betwixt the king and subjects, betwixt 
 the rulers and the common people, in the regiment 
 and the administration of civil policies, yet in the hope 
 of the life to come He hath made all equal. For 
 as in Christ Jesus the Jew hath no greater prerogative 
 
 12
 
 178 JOHN KNOX 
 
 than has the Gentile, the man than hath the woman, 
 the learned than the unlearned, the lord than the 
 servant, but all are one in Him, so is there but one 
 way and means to attain to the participation of His 
 benefits and spiritual graces, which is a lively faith 
 working by charity. And, therefore, I say, that 
 it doth no less appertain to you, beloved brethren, 
 to be assured that your faith and religion be 
 grounded and established upon the true and un- 
 doubted Word of God than to your princes or 
 rulers." l 
 
 The constitutional idea embodied in the title of 
 the treatise of Samuel Rutherford on Government, 
 which is one of the landmarks in the history of 
 politics Lex Rex was not unknown in the days 
 of Knox. At the meeting of the committee of the 
 General Assembly already mentioned, it was pro- 
 pounded by John Craig, the colleague of Knox 
 in Edinburgh, who said that, when attending the 
 University of Bologna, he had heard it stated in 
 a disputation in these terms " that all rulers, be 
 they supreme or be they inferior, may and ought 
 to be reformed and deposed by them by whom they 
 are chosen, confirmed or admitted to their office, 
 as oft as they break that promise made by oath 
 to their subjects ; because that their prince is no 
 1 Works, iv. 534, 526.
 
 HIS IDEAS I79 
 
 less bound by oath to the subjects than are the ' 
 subjects to their princes ; and, therefore, ought they 
 to be kept and reformed equally, according to the 
 law and condition of the oath that is made of either 
 party " ; and to this doctrine Craig signified his own 
 adherence. In Knox's mind regal authority was 
 not based on a contract like this, assumed to subsist 
 between rulers and subjects and liable to be dissolved 
 in case the ruler proved untrue to it, but rather 
 on a pledge assumed to be given by the prince 
 to God, who withdraws His support, when the pledge 
 is broken, and so lets the throne topple to the 
 ground. By committing capital crimes and it has 
 to be remembered that in Knox's estimation 
 adultery and idolatry are to be numbered among 
 these, and that in his eyes the Mass was idolatry 
 a king or queen was, just as much as a private 
 person, rendered liable to capital punishment ; and, 
 in places where such crimes are perpetrated by 
 princes, it is not only lawful to punish to the death 
 those who are guilty of them, " but the magistrates 
 and people are bound so to do, unless they will pro- 
 voke the wrath of God against themselves." " And, 
 therefore," he adds, " I fear not to affirm that it 
 had been the duty of the nobility, judges, rulers and 
 people of England, not only to have resisted and 
 gainstanded Mary, that Jezebel, whom they call
 
 i8o JOHN KNOX 
 
 their Queen, but also to have punished her to the 
 death, with all the sort of her idolatrous priests, 
 together with all such as should have assisted her, 
 what time that she and they openly began to 
 suppress Christ's Evangel, to shed the blood of the 
 saints of God, and to erect that most devilish idolatry, 
 the Pope's abominations, and his usurped tyranny, 
 that once most justly by common oath was banished 
 from that realm." 1 And the same principles are 
 explicitly stated in the following programme of 
 what was to be The Second Blast of the Trumpet : 
 " i. It is not birth only, nor propinquity of blood, 
 that maketh a king lawfully to reign above a people 
 professing Christ Jesus and His eternal verity ; but 
 in his election must the ordinance, which God hath 
 established in the election of inferior judges, be 
 observed ; 2. No manifest idolater nor notorious 
 transgressor of God's holy precepts ought to be 
 promoted to any public regiment, honour or dignity 
 in any realm, province or city that hath subjected 
 themselves to Christ Jesus and to His blessed 
 Evangel ; 3. Neither can oath nor promise bind 
 any such people to obey and maintain tyrants 
 against God, and against His truth known ; 4. But, 
 if either rashly they have promoted any manifest 
 wicked person or yet ignorantly have chosen such 
 1 Works, iv. 509.
 
 HIS IDEAS 181 
 
 an one as after declareth himself unworthy of regiment 
 above the people of God (and such be all idolaters 
 and cruel persecutors), most justly may the same men 
 depose and punish him that unadvisedly before they 
 did nominate, appoint and elect." l 
 
 Not only did Knox hold these principles in 
 theory, but he put them into practice. When he 
 arrived in Scotland in 1559, he found the country, 
 as we have seen, enveloped in the flames of civil 
 war, and he did not hesitate to plunge into the 
 revolution. On him fell the responsibility of 
 justifying the procedure of those with whom he 
 had identified himself ; and, from the camp of the 
 rebels, he issued manifesto after manifesto, expound- 
 ing the situation to his fellow-countrymen and 
 endeavouring to secure their co-operation in the 
 struggle. The most vivid and condensed, however, 
 of these productions of his pen at this crisis is 
 one which does not appear to have been published 
 with the authority of the Lords of the Congregation, 
 perhaps because it was too strong even for their 
 taste ; but it is a document essential to those who 
 wish to behold the very Knox as he really was ; 
 and, therefore, it shall be given in full : 
 
 "If it be seditious to speak the truth in all 
 sobriety, and to complain when they are wounded, 
 1 Works, iv. 537.
 
 1 82 JOHN KNOX 
 
 or to call for help against unjust tyranny before 
 that their throats be cut, then can we not deny 
 but we are criminal and guilty of tumult and 
 sedition. For we have said that our common- 
 wealth is oppressed, that we and our brethren are 
 hurt by the tyranny of strangers, and that we fear 
 bondage and slavery, seeing that multitudes of 
 cruel murderers are daily brought in our country 
 without our counsel, or knowledge and consent 
 We dispute not so much whether the bringing in 
 of more Frenchmen be violating of the Appointment 
 (which the Queen nor her faction cannot deny 
 to be manifestly broken by them, in more cases 
 than one) as that we would know, if the heaping 
 of strangers upon strangers above us, without our 
 counsel or consent, be a thing that may stand 
 with the liberty of our realm and with the profit 
 of our commonwealth. It is not unknown to all 
 men of judgment, that the fruits of our country 
 in the most common years are no more than 
 sufficiently reasonable to nourish the born inhabitants 
 of the same. But now, seeing that we have been 
 vexed with wars, taken upon us at the pleasure 
 of France, by which the most fruitful portion of 
 our country in corn has been wasted ; what man 
 is so blind but that he may see, that such bands 
 of ungodly and idle soldiers can be nothing else
 
 HIS IDEAS ,83 
 
 but an occasion to famish our poor brethren ? 
 And in this point we refuse not (which is the chief) 
 the judgment of all natural Scottish men. 
 
 " The Queen Regent alleged ' that although there 
 were a hundred Frenchmen for one in Scotland, 
 yet she is not minded to trouble any in his just 
 possession.' Whereto we answer, that we dispute 
 not what she intends (which, nevertheless, by 
 probable conjectures, is to be suspected) but always 
 we affirm, that such a multitude of Frenchmen is 
 a burden, not only unprofitable but also intolerable 
 to this poor realm ; for the poor commons of 
 this realm have sustained them with the sweat of 
 their brows, since the contracting of the peace 
 and somewhat before. What motherly affection she 
 has declared to this realm and to the inhabitants 
 of the same, her works have evidently declared 
 ever since the first hour that she has borne authority ; 
 and, albeit men will not this day see what danger 
 hangs over their heads, yet fear we, that ere it be 
 long, experience shall teach some that we fear 
 not without cause. The cruel murder and oppression 
 used by them whom now she fosters is to us a 
 sufficient argument, what is to be looked for, when 
 her number is so multiplied that our force shall 
 not be able to gainstand their tyranny. 
 
 " Where she complains of our preachers, affirming
 
 1 84 JOHN KNOX 
 
 that irreverently they speak of princes in general 
 and of her in particular, inducing the people thereby 
 to defection from their duty, etc., and, therefore, 
 that such a thing cannot be suffered, because this 
 occasion is had against God's true ministers, we 
 cannot but witness what tread and order of doctrine 
 they have kept, and yet keep on that point. In 
 public prayers they commend to God all princes 
 in general and the magistrates of this our native 
 realm in particular. In open audience they declare 
 the authority of princes and magistrates to be of 
 God ; and therefore they affirm that they ought 
 to be honoured, feared, obeyed, even for conscience' 
 sake ; provided that they command nor require 
 nothing expressly repugning to God's commandment 
 and plain will, revealed in His holy Word. More- 
 over, they affirm that, if wicked persons, abusing 
 the authority established by God, command things 
 manifestly wicked, that such as may and do bridle 
 the inordinate appetites of princes cannot be 
 accused as resisters of the authority which is God's 
 good ordinance. To bridle the fury and rage of 
 princes in free kingdoms and realms, they affirm 
 it appertains to the nobility, sworn and born 
 counsellors of the same, and also to the barons and 
 people, whose votes and consent are to be required in 
 all great and weighty matters of the commonwealth.
 
 HIS IDEAS 185 
 
 Which if they do not, they declare themselves 
 criminal with their princes, and so subject to the 
 same vengeance of God, which they deserve for that 
 they pollute the seat of justice and do, as it were, 
 make God author of iniquity. They proclaim and 
 they cry, that the same God who plagued Pharaoh, 
 repulsed Sennacherib, struck Herod with worms, 
 and made the bellies of dogs the grave and 
 sepulchre of despiteful Jezebel, will not spare 
 the cruel princes, murderers of Christ's members 
 in this our time. In this manner they speak of 
 princes in general and of your Grace in particular. 
 " This only we have heard one of our preachers 
 say, rebuking the vain excuse of such as flatter them- 
 selves, by reason of the authority: 'Many now-a- 
 days,' said he, ' will have no other religion or faith 
 than the Queen and the authority had.' But is it 
 not possible, that the Queen be so far blinded that 
 she will have no religion, nor no other faith, than 
 may content the Cardinal of Lorraine? And may 
 it not likewise be that the Cardinal be so corrupt 
 that he will admit no religion which does not 
 establish the Pope in his kingdom ? But plain it 
 is that the Pope is lieutenant to Satan and enemy 
 to Christ Jesus and to His perfect religion. Let 
 men, therefore, consider what danger they stand 
 in, if their salvation shall depend upon the Queen's
 
 1 86 JOHN KNOX 
 
 faith and religion. Further we have never heard 
 any of our preachers speak of the Queen Regent, 
 neither publicly nor privately. 
 
 " Where her Grace declares it will not be suffered 
 that our preachers meddle with policy, nor speak 
 of her nor of other princes but with reverence, we 
 answer that, as we will justify and defend nothing in 
 our preachers which we find not God to have justified 
 and allowed in His messengers before them, so dare 
 we not forbid them openly to reprehend that which the 
 Spirit of God, speaking in the prophets and apostles, 
 has reprehended before them. Elijah did personally 
 reprove Ahab and Jezebel of idolatry, of avarice, 
 of murder ; and, such like, Isaiah the prophet called 
 the magistrates of Jerusalem in his times companions 
 to thieves, princes of Sodom, bribe-takers and 
 murderers. He complained that their silver was 
 turned into dross, that their wine was mingled 
 with water, and that justice was bought and sold. 
 Jeremiah said that the bones of king Jehoiakim 
 should wither with the sun. Christ Jesus called 
 Herod a fox, and Paul called the High Priest a 
 painted wall, and prayed unto God that He should 
 strike him, because that against justice he commanded 
 him to be smitten. Now, if the like or greater 
 corruptions be in the world this day, who dare 
 enterprise to put silence to the Spirit of God,
 
 HIS IDEAS 187 
 
 which will not be subject to the appetites of wicked 
 princes ? " ] 
 
 It cannot be denied that the continual agitation 
 of such fundamental questions would be dangerous 
 to the tranquillity of any state. But the apology of 
 Knox would be, that his was an exceptional time, 
 and that the thorough discussion of the principles 
 applicable to such a period of transition tended 
 to prevent the recurrence of the evils against which 
 extreme measures had to be taken. 
 
 To the rights of bad rulers Knox turned an 
 ear as deaf as that of the adder ; but, it being 
 assumed that a ruler of the right stamp had been 
 secured, he would have entrusted him with very 
 comprehensive powers indeed. Even to Mary of 
 Lorraine, at a time when he still had hope of 
 winning her to the Protestant side, he suffered 
 himself to say : " You think, peradventure, that the 
 care of religion is not committed to magistrates, 
 but to the bishops and estate ecclesiastical, as they 
 term it. No, no, the negligence of bishops shall 
 no less be required of the hands of magistrates, 
 because they foster and maintain them in tyranny, 
 than shall the oppression of false judges, whom 
 kings maintain and defend." 2 And, in a similar 
 1 History, i. 409. ' Works > iv ' ^
 
 188 JOHN KNOX 
 
 strain, he says to the Scottish nobility in the Appella- 
 tion already quoted : " I am not ignorant that Satan 
 of old time, for maintenance of his darkness, hath 
 obtained of the blind world two chief points former, 
 he hath persuaded princes, rulers and magistrates 
 that the feeding of Christ's flock appertained 
 nothing to their charge, but that it is devolved upon 
 the bishops and estate ecclesiastical ; and, secondarily, 
 that the reformation of religion, be it ever so corrupt, 
 and the punishment of such as be sworn soldiers 
 in their kingdom, are exempted from all civil power 
 and are reserved to themselves and to their own 
 cognition. But that no offender can be justly 
 exempted from punishment, and that the ordering 
 and reformation of religion with the instruction of 
 subjects doth especially appertain to the civil 
 magistrate, shall God's perfect ordinance, His plain 
 Word, and the facts and examples of those that 
 of God are highly praised, most evidently declare." 
 
 So far was he prepared to go, on the assumption 
 that the ruler was of the right character and on 
 his own side, that he sanctioned persecution and 
 spoke of toleration with scorn. Writing from 
 Geneva, he does not scruple to associate himself 
 with those who burnt Servetus, even saying that 
 that heretic's opinions deserved ten thousand deaths. 
 He was not without warning ; for the acute anta-
 
 HIS IDEAS !g 9 
 
 gonist against whom he wrote his treatise on Pre- 
 destination had shrewdly remarked of the Calvinists : 
 " They put forth books, affirming it to be lawful 
 to persecute and put to death such as dissent from 
 them in controversies of religion, whom they call 
 blasphemers of God. Notwithstanding they, afore 
 they came to authority, were of another judgment, 
 and did both say and write, that no man ought 
 to be persecuted for conscience" sake. Yet now they 
 are not only become persecutors, but also they have 
 given, as far as lieth in them, the sword into the 
 hands of bloody tyrants." l 
 
 It is indeed surprising that the mind of Knox 
 did not perceive this to be, in fact, the logical issue 
 of his principles. But his eyes were holden. For 
 such a man as he, it is not enough to plead 
 that intolerance was the doctrine of the age, and 
 even of generations after him ; because he ought 
 to have risen above his age. It would, indeed, 
 be unfair to blame him for not being able to 
 determine with accuracy at all points the relation 
 of Church and state ; for this involves problems 
 which have demanded the thought and experience 
 of centuries, and are not perfectly solved yet ; but 
 by his own sufferings and those of his friends he ought 
 to have been better instructed on the subject of 
 1 Works, v. 208.
 
 IQO JOHN KNOX 
 
 religious persecution ; and it is a blot on his 
 political memory that he did not judge more 
 charitably. Still more must it be reckoned to him 
 for unrighteousness, as an ecclesiastical statesman, 
 that he approved of the barbarous actions by which 
 the country got rid of Cardinal Beaton and David 
 Rizzio.
 
 BOOK THIRD 
 HIS IDEALS 
 
 191
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SCOTS CONFESSION OF FAITH 
 
 IT has already been remarked that, in his life- 
 time, John Knox was credited with being a 
 prophet ; and there is nothing which more tends 
 to attract to anyone the curiosity and veneration 
 of other human beings than the impression that 
 he is able to lift a corner of the curtain of futurity. 
 Perhaps he was not himself altogether averse to 
 the interest in his person excited by this vague 
 belief ; but, on the whole, his views on the subject 
 were perfectly sane : " My assurances," he said, 
 11 are not the marvels of Merlin nor yet the dark 
 sentences of profane prophecies. But, first, the 
 plain truth of God's Word, secondly, the invincible 
 justice of the everlasting God, and, thirdly, the 
 ordinary course of His punishments and plagues 
 are my assurance and grounds. God's Word 
 threateneth destruction to all inobedient ; His 
 immutable justice must require the same ; the 
 i 93 13
 
 194 JOHN KNOX 
 
 ordinary punishments and plagues show examples. 
 What man, then, can cease to prophesy ? " l To 
 prophecy of this sort it is evident that anyone 
 may attain in his degree who observes the course 
 of events with a watchful eye and, at the same 
 time, familiarises himself with the principles of 
 Providence, as these are revealed in the Holy 
 Scriptures. But it is in a more modern sense 
 that we now speak of Knox as a prophet, as 
 Carlyle has done in his remarkable estimate of 
 his fellow-countryman in Heroes and Hero- Worship. 
 By a prophet we mean one who has had a vision 
 of what his country might become by advancing 
 along a certain pathway, and who has with eloquence 
 and effect pointed this pathway out. In this 
 sense Knox holds a conspicuous place among 
 modern prophets ; for it is certain that he yearned 
 over his native country with an intense affection, 
 saw with unrivalled clearness what were the con- 
 ditions of its true welfare, and impressed these 
 in memorable words on the mind of Scotland. 
 
 When in those days a man of prophetic character 
 thus saw a vision of the future, it was apt to assume 
 the form of a structure of which the foundation 
 was a Confession of Faith, the walls a Book of 
 Discipline, and the roof or pinnacle a Book of 
 1 Works, iii. 168.
 
 HIS IDEALS , 95 
 
 Common Order. These were the products to which, 
 at the epoch of the Reformation, the efforts of 
 the foremost minds were directed ; and we have 
 now to see how far Knox succeeded in shaping 
 them for the use of his country. 
 
 Confessions of faith were peculiar products of 
 the Reformation era. In the Early Church, indeed, 
 immense labour had been expended on a few 
 brief documents of the same order, the best known 
 of which are the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene 
 Creed ; but the activity of the Church in this 
 direction had ceased for a thousand years when, 
 at the Reformation, it was resumed again ; and now 
 the creeds proved to be of much greater extent. 
 Every country in which the work of reformation 
 made any considerable progress had its own ; but 
 the most renowned were the German, entitled the 
 Augsburg Confession, the Swiss, called the First 
 Helvetic Confession, and the Articles of the Church 
 of England. 
 
 The primary object of them all was to make 
 known the new revelation of the truth of God 
 which had visited men's souls, the recently discovered 
 art of printing being made available for the purpose 
 of diffusing the message with which the minds of
 
 196 JOHN KNOX 
 
 those who issued the confessions were charged. 
 Creeds had originally arisen out of the practice 
 of permitting converts to bear witness at their 
 baptism, in the presence of the onlookers, to the 
 faith they had embraced, the Apostles' Creed being 
 nothing else than the formula in which this was done. 
 In the earliest times, there is reason to believe, 
 this was regarded as a privilege and an honour 
 by those who thus testified to the world what 
 the Saviour had done for them. Certainly at 
 the Reformation it was a strong religious impulse 
 that inspired the composition of confessions : they 
 were the spontaneous and irresistible expression 
 of strong convictions. And obviously this ought 
 to be a characteristic of such documents always, or 
 they have ceased to deserve their name. If a 
 Church is not proud of its confession, but only 
 endures it, it is manifest that the salt has lost its 
 savour. 
 
 Another object aimed at was the contradiction 
 of false doctrine. It may be due to the inherent 
 laziness of the human mind, which never does hard 
 work till it is compelled ; but it is an acknowledged 
 fact that the Church has never taken a firm grasp 
 of truth except when forced to do so by the emer- 
 gence of error. All the creeds bear marks of this, 
 for they abound in refutations of doctrines believed
 
 HIS IDEALS 197 
 
 to be false ; and against this foil the outline of the 
 truth is made distinct At the Reformation there 
 was a huge accumulation of error to be got rid of, 
 and the confessions of faith attacked it with energy. 
 In all of them the strongest possible language 
 is applied to the Pope and all his works ; and the 
 way of salvation by free grace is illustrated by 
 contrast with the ceremonies and legalism of the 
 old system. We may shrink now from the epithets 
 employed against opponents and, indeed, from the 
 argumentative and truculent. tone in which it was 
 customary at that time to write ; but it is short- 
 sighted not to perceive that this was to a large 
 extent only a fashion of the age, or to miss the 
 exquisite flower concealed within the hard and 
 prickly sheath of controversy. 
 
 The most questionable aspect of creeds is their 
 application as tests. Not only at the time were 
 they used to separate the sheep from the goats, 
 but they have been handed down from age to age, 
 often being made a condition of the holding even 
 of secular positions and always of the holding of 
 sacred offices. This is defended, at least for posi- 
 tions of the latter sort, on the ground that the 
 Scripture itself is not a sufficient test, as its words 
 can be assented to by those holding radically 
 opposite opinions. It is argued that to give a
 
 198 JOHN KNOX 
 
 Church compactness there must be an absolutely 
 definite ground on which all the members stand. 
 Money will not be given for the propagation of 
 a Church's tenets, unless the donors have a sufficient 
 guarantee for the teaching of what they believe to 
 be the truth. These reasons may be sufficient; 
 but there are certainly serious items on the opposite 
 side of the account. When thus employed, creeds 
 perpetuate the differences between denominations, 
 whereas these ought to learn from one another 
 and thus gradually approximate to one another's 
 standpoints. If they make truth permanent, they 
 make error permanent also ; as may be seen in 
 the case of the Church of Rome, which, provoked 
 by the activity of the Protestants in creed-con- 
 struction, gave to its own doctrines a confessional 
 form at the Council of Trent which has cut off 
 its return to the simplicity of the Gospel. By 
 all Protestants it is acknowledged that the Bible 
 is the supreme standard, but there is a constant 
 temptation to read the Scriptures by the light of 
 the creed, instead of vice versa. It is allowed that 
 the creed is fallible and that it ought to be changed, 
 if the Spirit of God, by means of the new light 
 of Providence, expands and purifies the Church's 
 apprehensions of the truth ; but, in point of fact, 
 such an acknowledgment is usually a mere formality,
 
 HIS IDEALS I99 
 
 no alteration actually taking place, and the creed 
 being virtually accorded the same immutability as 
 the Scriptures. In our own day a new terror has 
 been added to life by the discovery that churches 
 may, through their confessions of faith, be dragged 
 into courts of law, where the most sacred elements 
 of doctrine are handled, as if they were coal and 
 tallow, by judges whose acquaintance with the history 
 and contents of the confession has been extem- 
 porised and may be neither accurate nor sym- 
 pathetic. Actual revision, at intervals not too far 
 apart, alone can justify the use of creeds as tests 
 at all. 1 
 
 As has been already indicated, it was in 1560 
 that the First Scots Confession was drawn up, at 
 the request of Parliament, by Knox and five other 
 divines, all of whom, like himself, bore the name 
 of John Wynram, Spottiswood, Willock, Douglas 
 and Row. The time in which they completed their 
 task four days seems miraculously brief when 
 compared with that required in our day to effect 
 the slightest revision of any creed ; but it is not to 
 be forgotten that Knox at any rate was a practised 
 hand. He had co-operated in drawing up the 
 Articles of the Church of England ; in Geneva he 
 
 1 Cf., RAINY, The Delivery and Development of Doctrine, 
 ch. vi.
 
 200 JOHN KNOX 
 
 had made a rapid sketch of a creed for insertion 
 in the Prayer Book of the English congregation ; 
 and he was doubtless familiar with the other con- 
 fessions already adopted by the Protestant Churches 
 of the Continent. But, besides, the composition of 
 such manifestoes was a favourite occupation of the 
 age ; and the matter of which they were composed 
 was common property. 
 
 Still the work, which bears very manifestly the 
 stamp of the genius of its principal author, is a 
 thoroughly original composition, characterized in 
 a high degree by the spirit of conviction and en- 
 thusiasm, which must always be reckoned the 
 principal virtue of such productions. Thus, its 
 opening words are : " Long have we thirsted, dear 
 brethren, to have notified unto the world the sum 
 of that doctrine which we profess, and for the which 
 we have sustained infamy and danger." This is 
 the true tone of the confessor. And it was received 
 in a similar spirit by the Parliament which adopted 
 it ; great joy being expressed at the birth of such 
 a testimony, which, it was confidently believed, 
 would prove a blessing to the nation. 
 
 The style is polemical ; not only the Papists being 
 dealt with in Knox's trenchant manner, but Ana- 
 baptists and other contemporary troublers of Israel 
 being roughly handled, and even ancient heretics,
 
 HIS IDEALS 201 
 
 like Arius, Marcion and Nestorius, receiving a wipe 
 in the bygoing. But the two outstanding features 
 are the exaltation of the Spirit of God above the 
 authority of Fathers and Councils and the exaltation 
 of Christ above the means of grace. The individual 
 is summoned to hear himself the voice of God in 
 the Word, instead of waiting for the reports of 
 those who allege that they have heard it This 
 responsibility of private judgment lifted the Protestant 
 nations to a new level of manhood ; but its truly 
 religious character is never to be overlooked : it 
 is not that the individual is egged-on to place his 
 own opinions above all authority ; but he is en- 
 couraged to listen in humility to the promptings 
 of the Spirit of God in the way of His own appoint- 
 ment. In like manner it is assumed that there is 
 for the individual direct access to God through 
 Christ ; the notion that this can be mediated only 
 through the priest or the Church or the means 
 of grace being alien to this period of religious 
 intuition. Perhaps, indeed, means are placed too 
 much in the background ; but, if so, the Confession 
 errs on virtue's side ; for means of grace had been 
 put in Christ's place; and they always tend to 
 become obstructions instead of helps. 
 
 Knox would not have scrupled to impose the 
 Confession as a test on his own generation; but
 
 202 JOHN KNOX 
 
 he does not bear the responsibility of binding it on 
 subsequent ones. On the contrary, he set a flaming 
 example of loyalty to conscience in rejecting the 
 formulas of his predecessors, when these did not 
 agree with the present teachings of the Spirit of 
 God, and, in the Confession itself, occur the following 
 remarkable words, which deserve to be written in 
 letters of gold : "If any man shall note in this 
 our confession any article or sentence repugning 
 to God's Holy Word, may it please him of his 
 gentleness, and for Christian charity's sake, to 
 admonish us of the same in writing ; and we of 
 our honour and fidelity do promise unto him 
 satisfaction from the mouth of God (that is, from 
 His Holy Scriptures), or else reformation of that 
 which he shall prove to be amiss." l 
 
 In point of fact, this First Scots Confession 
 was superseded by the Westminster Confession, 
 after it had existed for less than a hundred years 
 a period which may be regarded as about the 
 right length of life for such a document. Some, 
 like Edward Irving, have been inclined to consider 
 it superior to that by which it was displaced ; but 
 with this I can by no means agree. Knox's pro- 
 duction is, indeed, characterized by a verve and a 
 swing which the Westminster Confession lacks ; but 
 1 History, ii. 96.
 
 IDEALS 203 
 
 the latter is far superior as a learned, comprehensive 
 and well-balanced statement 
 
 If asked, however, to produce a specimen of what 
 the Reformation Age in Scotland could do in the 
 way of doctrinal statement, I should select, not 
 any passage of the Confession of Faith, but the 
 following brief creed, found in the Book of Com- 
 mon Order the subject of the next chapter and 
 used in administering the ordinance of baptism ; 
 although it must be admitted that it may not be 
 from Knox's own pen ; and, if my instinct is not 
 mistaken, it reads too smoothly to be his in the 
 strictest sense. But at least he sanctioned and 
 used it ; and it may stand as a certificate of his 
 theological competency : 
 
 " The Christian faith, whereof now ye have briefly 
 heard the sum, is commonly divided into twelve 
 articles ; but, that we may the better understand 
 what is contained in the same, we shall divide it 
 into four principal parts. The first shall concern 
 God the Father, the second Jesus Christ our 
 Lord, the third shall express to us our faith in the 
 Holy Ghost, and the fourth and last shall declare 
 what is our faith concerning the Church, and of the 
 graces of God freely given to the same. 
 
 "First, of God we confess three things, to wit,
 
 204 JOHN KNOX 
 
 that he is our Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven 
 and earth. 
 
 " Our Father we call Him, and so by faith 
 believe Him to be, not so much because He 
 hath created us (for that we have common with 
 the rest of creatures, who yet are not called to 
 that honour to have God to them a favourable 
 Father) ; but we call Him Father by reason of 
 His free adoption, by the which He hath chosen 
 us to life everlasting in Jesus Christ. And this 
 His most singular mercy we prefer to all things 
 earthly and transitory ; for without this there is 
 to mankind no felicity, no comfort nor final joy ; 
 and, having this, we are assured that by the same 
 love by the which He once hath freely chosen 
 us He shall conduct the whole course of our life, 
 that in the end we shall possess that immortal 
 kingdom that He hath prepared for His chosen 
 children. For from this fountain of God's free 
 mercy or adoption springeth our vocation, our 
 justification, our continual sanctification, and finally 
 our glorification, as witness the Apostles. 
 
 " The same God our Father we confess Almighty, 
 not only in respect of that He may do, but in 
 consideration that by His power and godly wisdom 
 are all creatures in heaven and earth and under 
 the earth ruled, guided and kept in that order
 
 HIS IDEALS 205 
 
 that His eternal will and knowledge hath appointed 
 them. 
 
 " And that is it which in the third part we 
 do confess, that He is Creator of heaven and earth : 
 that is to say, that the heaven and the earth, 
 and the contents thereof, are so in His hand 
 that there is nothing done without His knowledge 
 neither yet against His will, but that He ruleth 
 them so that in the end His godly name shall be 
 glorified in them. And so we confess and believe, 
 that neither the devils nor yet the wicked of the 
 world have any power to molest or trouble the 
 chosen children of God but in so far as it pleaseth 
 Him to use them as instruments, either to prove 
 and try our faith and patience or else to stir 
 us to more fervent invocation of His name and 
 to continual meditation of that heavenly rest and 
 joy that abideth us after these transitory troubles. 
 And yet shall not this excuse the wicked, because 
 they never look in their iniquity to please God 
 nor yet to obey His will. 
 
 " In Jesus Christ we confess two distinct and 
 perfect natures to wit, the eternal Godhead and 
 the perfect Manhood joined together so that we 
 confess and believe, that that eternal Word, which 
 was from the beginning and by the which all things 
 were created, and yet are conserved and kept in their
 
 206 JOHN KNOX 
 
 being, did, at the time appointed in the counsel 
 of His heavenly Father, receive our nature of a 
 Virgin, by operation of the Holy Ghost. So that 
 in His conception we acknowledge and believe 
 that there is nothing but purity and sanctification ; 
 yea, even insomuch as He is become our brother. 
 For it behoved Him that should purge others from 
 their sins to be pure and clean from all spot of 
 sin even from His conception. And, as we confess 
 and believe Him conceived by the Holy Ghost, 
 so do we confess and believe Him to be born 
 of a Virgin named Mary, of the tribe of Judah 
 and of the family of David, that the promise of 
 God and the prophecy might be fulfilled, to wit, 
 'That the seed of the woman should break down 
 the Serpent's head,' and that ' a Virgin should 
 conceive and bear a child, whose name should 
 be Emmanuel, that is, God with us.' The name 
 Jesus, which signifieth a Saviour, was given unto 
 Him by the Angel, to assure us that it is He 
 alone that saveth His people from their sins. He 
 is called Christ, that is to say, Anointed, by reason 
 of the offices given unto Him by God His Father, 
 to wit, that He alone is appointed King, Priest 
 and Prophet King, in that all power is given 
 to Him in heaven and earth ; so that there is none 
 other but He in heaven nor earth that hath just
 
 HIS IDEALS 
 
 207 
 
 authority and power to make laws to bind the 
 consciences of men ; neither yet is there any other 
 that may defend our souls from the bondage of 
 sin, nor yet our bodies from the tyranny of man. 
 And this He doeth by the power of His Word, 
 by the which he draweth us out of the bondage 
 and slavery of Satan and maketh us to reign 
 over sin ; whilst that we live and serve our God 
 in righteousness and holiness of our life. A Priest, 
 and that perpetual and everlasting, we confess 
 Him, by reason that by the sacrifice of His own 
 body, which He once offered up upon the cross, 
 He hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father 
 in our behalf; so that whosoever seeketh any 
 means besides His death and passion, in heaven 
 or in earth, to reconcile unto them God's favour, 
 they do not only blaspheme but also, so far as in 
 them is, renounce the fruit and efficacy of that 
 His only one sacrifice. We confess Him to be 
 the only Prophet, who hath revealed unto us the 
 whole will of His Father in all things pertaining 
 to our salvation. 
 
 " This our Lord Jesus we confess to be the only 
 Son of God, because there is none such by nature 
 but He alone. We confess Him also our Lord, 
 not only by reason we are His creatures but 
 chiefly because He hath redeemed us by His
 
 208 JOHN KNOX 
 
 precious blood, and so hath gotten just dominion 
 over us, as over the people whom He hath delivered 
 from bondage of sin, death, hell and the Devil, and 
 hath made us kings and priests to God His Father. 
 
 " We further confess and believe, that the same our 
 Lord Jesus was accused before an earthly judge, 
 Pontius Pilate, under whom, albeit oft and divers 
 times He was pronounced to be innocent, He 
 suffered the death of the cross, hanged upon a tree 
 betwixt two thieves ; which death, as it was most 
 cruel and vile before the eyes of men, so was it 
 accursed by the mouth of God Himself, saying, 
 ' Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.' And 
 this kind of death sustained He in our person, 
 because He was appointed of God His Father 
 to be our pledge and He that should bear the 
 punishment of our transgressions. And so we 
 acknowledge and believe that He hath taken away 
 that curse and malediction that hanged on us by 
 reason of our sin. He verily died, rendering up 
 His spirit into the hands of His Father, after that 
 He had said, ' Father, into Thy hands I commend 
 my spirit.' After His death, we confess, His body 
 was buried, and that He descended into hell. But, 
 because he was the Author of life, yea, the very 
 Life itself, it was impossible that He should be 
 retained under the dolours of death ; and, therefore,
 
 HIS IDEALS 209 
 
 the third day He rose again victor and conqueror 
 of death and hell ; by the which His resurrection 
 He hath brought life again into the world, which 
 He, by the power of His Holy Spirit, communicateth 
 unto His lively members ; so that now unto them 
 corporal death is no death, but an entrance into that 
 blessed life wherein our Head, Jesus Christ, is now 
 entered. For, after that He had sufficiently proved 
 His resurrection to His disciples and unto such 
 as did constantly abide with Him to the death, He 
 visibly ascended to the heavens, and was taken from 
 the eyes of men and placed at the right hand of 
 God the Father Almighty, where presently He 
 remaineth in His glory, only Head, only Mediator, 
 and only Advocate for all the members of His 
 body ; of which we have most especial comfort ; 
 first, for that by His ascension the heavens are 
 opened unto us and an entrance made unto us, that 
 boldly we may appear before the throne of our 
 Father's mercy ; and, secondarily, that we know 
 that this honour and authority is given unto Jesus 
 Christ, our Head, in our name and for our profit 
 and utility. For, albeit that in body He now be 
 in the heaven, yet by the power of His Spirit He 
 is present here with us, as well to instruct us as 
 to comfort and maintain us in all our troubles and 
 adversities, from the which He shall finally deliver
 
 210 JOHN KNOX 
 
 His whole Church, and every true member of the 
 same, in that day when He shall visibly appear 
 again, Judge of the quick and the dead. 
 
 " For this, finally, we confess of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, that, as He was seen visibly to ascend, and 
 so left the world, as touching that body that suffered 
 and rose again, so do we constantly believe that 
 He shall come from the right hand of His Father, 
 when all eyes shall see Him, yea, even those that 
 have pierced Him ; and then shall be gathered as 
 well those that then shall be found alive as those 
 that before have slept. Separation shall be made 
 betwixt the lambs and the goats : that is to say, 
 betwixt the elect and the reprobate. The one 
 shall hear this joyful voice, * Come ye, the blessed 
 of My Father, possess the kingdom that is prepared 
 for you before the beginning of the world.' The 
 other shall hear that fearful and irrevocable sentence, 
 ' Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity, to the 
 fire that never shall be quenched.' And, for this 
 cause, this day in the Scriptures is called ' the day 
 of refreshing ' and ' of the revelation of ail secrets,' 
 because that then the just shall be delivered from 
 all miseries and be possessed in the fulness of 
 their glory. Contrariwise, the reprobate shall receive 
 judgment and recompence of all their impiety, be 
 it openly or secretly wrought.
 
 HIS IDEALS 2H 
 
 " As we constantly believe in God the Father and 
 in Jesus Christ, as before is said, so do we assuredly 
 believe in the Holy Ghost, whom we confess God, 
 equal with the Father and the Son, by whose working 
 and mighty operation our darkness is removed, our 
 eyes spiritual are illuminated, our souls and con- 
 sciences sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ, 
 and we retained in the truth of God, even to our 
 lives' end. And, for these causes, we understand 
 that this Eternal Spirit, proceeding from the Father 
 and the Son, hath in the Scriptures divers names. 
 Sometimes is He called water, by reason of His pur- 
 gation, and giving strength to this our corrupt nature 
 to bring forth good fruit; without whom this our 
 nature should utterly be barren, yea, it should utterly 
 abound in all wickedness. Sometimes the same 
 Spirit is called fire, by reason of the illumination 
 and burning heat of fire that He kindleth in our 
 hearts. The same Spirit also is called oil, or unction, 
 by reason that His working mollifieth the hardness 
 of our hearts and maketh us receive the print of 
 that image of Jesus Christ, by whom only we are 
 sanctified. 
 
 " We constantly believe, that there is, was and shall 
 be, even to the coming of the Lord Jesus, a Church, 
 which is holy and universal ; to wit, the Communion 
 of Saints. This Church is holy, because it receiveth
 
 212 JOHN KNOX 
 
 free remission of sins, and that by faith only in 
 the blood of Jesus Christ. Secondly, because, it 
 being regenerate, it receiveth the spirit of sanctifica- 
 tion and power to walk in newness of life and in 
 good works, which God hath prepared for His chosen 
 to walk in. Not that we think the justice of this 
 Church, or of any member of the same, ever was, 
 is, or yet shall be, so full and perfect that it needeth 
 not to stoop under mercy ; but, because the im- 
 perfections are pardoned and the justice of Jesus 
 Christ imputed unto such as by true faith cleave 
 unto Him. Which Church we call universal, because 
 it consisteth and standeth of all tongues and nations ; 
 yea, of all estates and conditions of men and 
 women whom of His mercy God calleth from dark- 
 ness to light and from the bondage and thraldom 
 of sin to His spiritual service and purity of life. 
 Unto whom also He communicateth His Holy Spirit, 
 giving unto them one faith, one head and sovereign 
 Lord, the Lord Jesus, one Baptism and right use 
 of Sacraments ; whose hearts also He kindleth 
 together in love and Christian concord. 
 
 " To this Church, holy and universal, we acknow- 
 ledge and believe notable gifts to be granted, to 
 wit, remission of sins, which by true faith must 
 be obtained in this life, resurrection of the flesh, 
 which all shall have, albeit not in equal condition ,
 
 HIS IDEALS 213 
 
 for the reprobate (as before is said) shall rise but 
 to fearful judgment and condemnation, and the 
 just shall rise to be possessed in glory. And this 
 resurrection shall not be an imagination, or that 
 one body shall rise for another ; but every man 
 shall receive in his own body as he hath deserved, 
 be it good or evil. The just shall receive the life 
 everlasting, which is the free gift of God given and 
 purchased to His chosen by Jesus Christ, our only 
 Head and Mediator, to whom with the Father and 
 the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and 
 ever. " l 
 
 Works,*. 317.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BOOK OF COMMON ORDER 
 
 THE prominence given by Knox and the Scot- 
 tish Parliament to the Confession of Faith 
 is an eloquent testimony to their belief in truth 
 as the force to change into its own image the 
 character of a nation. Perhaps, indeed, their con- 
 fidence that pure truth will, as a matter of course, 
 produce pure lives was too sanguine ; because the 
 history of Scotland may be quoted to prove that a 
 great deal of excellent truth may lie at the bottom 
 of a nation's mind in a condition far from operative. 
 On the whole, however, their belief in the power 
 of truth to produce conduct like itself is far more 
 respectable than the notion, not infrequently ven- 
 tilated nowadays, that, if only there be sincerity 
 in the heart, it does not much matter what are the 
 doctrines in the mind ; for this amounts to a 
 concession that, if the truth be not found, some- 
 thing else may answer just as well. Knox had a 
 214
 
 HIS IDEALS 215 
 
 profound belief that, if the truth about God and 
 man were planted in the intellect, it would bring 
 forth fruits of both religion and morality ; his aim 
 being to fashion a nation at once loyal towards God 
 and righteous towards man. In his hopes the 
 godward element had the priority ; and, therefore, 
 it will be best to begin with the provision which he 
 made for worship. 
 
 The practice of extemporaneous prayer in the 
 pulpit is so general in the Presby rian Churches, 
 and has prevailed so long, that many people are 
 unaware that it does not go back to the beginning. 
 But, at the Reformation, the Scottish Church pos- 
 sessed forms of worship no less than the other 
 Churches which sprang into existence at the same 
 time, and these must have been of special utility 
 in the prevailing scarcity of preachers ; because 
 Protestant worship was thereby rendered possible 
 in many places where a regular ministry was not 
 yet procurable. The Book of Common Order was 
 never, indeed, in the strict sense, a liturgy that 
 is, a prescribed form from which no departure was 
 permissible. On the contrary, it embodied in- 
 structions, at sundry places, that the printed prayer 
 should be used, " or another like it " ; and at certain 
 places the conductor of the worship was invited to
 
 2i6 JOHN KNOX 
 
 trust to his own inspirations at the moment and 
 to his acquaintance with the circumstances of the 
 case. Thus, its most appropriate name would have 
 been a Directory for Public Worship the title of 
 the book, compiled by the Westminster divines, by 
 which it was superseded. 
 
 It would appear, therefore, that from the first 
 a prayer-book was employed in Scotland more as 
 a help to those of meaner capacity, it being taken 
 for granted that, as competent men were secured, 
 the printed form would be dropped, those who 
 led the devotions of the congregations trusting to 
 their own knowledge of the situation and to the 
 fervour supplied at the moment. And, on the whole, 
 this has been the conception of public worship to 
 which Scotsmen have given their suffrages ever since. 
 The attempt of an English monarch in the seven- 
 teenth century to impose an alien form told heavily 
 against a liturgy in the popular mind ; and of 
 course during the period of the Covenant the 
 preachers on the moors were not likely to pray 
 by book. The question is, however, an open one, 
 and the Scottish Church is quite entitled, in this 
 as in other matters, to try experiments. Ministers 
 are often deeply dissatisfied with their own attempts 
 at public prayer ; and, as culture advances, the 
 lack of form and beauty in extemporaneous utter-
 
 HIS IDEALS 217 
 
 ances will probably be increasingly felt. In all the 
 larger Presbyterian Churches of Scotland efforts 
 have recently been made to supply ministers 
 with aids to public devotion ; but the fact that 
 these have proceeded from self-constituted committees 
 and not from the authoritative courts seems to 
 prove that the Church is not yet prepared to 
 move in the matter. It may eventually turn out 
 that the original practice is the one in which the 
 Church of the future will rest to have forms 
 which may be strictly adhered-to on occasions of 
 special dignity or solemnity, and may be resorted- 
 to by the officiating minister when he is so dis- 
 posed, but from which departure is not only allowed 
 but recommended, as often as special prayer is called 
 for by novel circumstances or as the tide of devotion 
 flows spontaneously in the preacher's heart. 
 
 There is some evidence that the English Book 
 of Common Order, issued in the reign of Edward VI., 
 was occasionally employed in the earliest stages of 
 the Reformation in Scotland ; and there is nothing 
 surprising in this taking place at a time when Knox 
 himself was officiating as a minister of the Church 
 of England. For the English congregation of which 
 he was minister at Frankfort, Knox prepared a 
 liturgy, or used one prepared by others ; and in his 
 congregation of exiles at Geneva he used this or a
 
 218 JOHN KNOX 
 
 modification of it ; it being printed with an express 
 intimation that it had obtained the sanction of John 
 Calvin, on whose own order of worship in the same 
 city it was, indeed, modelled. For some years after 
 Knox's final return to his native land this Order 
 of Geneva, as it was called from the circumstance 
 that it had been compiled and used in that city, 
 was adopted in Scotland ; and it formed the basis 
 of worship for a long time. In 1564 an enlarge- 
 ment took place, and every minister, exhorter 
 and reader was instructed by the General Assembly 
 to possess himself of a copy and use it in prayers, 
 marriage and administration of the sacraments ; and 
 this was frequently issued in subsequent years, with 
 slight modifications. 1 
 
 To the Order of Geneva, when thus published 
 in Scotland, two important appendices were added 
 Calvin's Catechism and the Psalms of David in 
 metre. 
 
 The practice of writing catechisms for the young 
 was general among the Churches of the Reformation, 
 going side by side with the composition of con- 
 fessions of faith ; and the greatest men of the age, 
 like Luther and Calvin, did not disdain to stoop 
 
 1 For full information on all such questions see C. G. McCRiE, 
 Public Worship of Presbyterian Scotland.
 
 HIS IDEALS 219 
 
 to this humble task ; herein showing their wisdom ; 
 for the influence is incalculable which religious truth 
 exerts on the subsequent life when it has been 
 imprinted on the mind in early years. Luther's 
 Catechism is one of the classics of Germany ; and 
 of Calvin's John Knox expressed the opinion that 
 it was the best which had ever been produced. 
 The Westminster Assembly's Catechism, which 
 displaced that of Calvin, is acknowledged to have 
 been for hundreds of years one of the principal 
 factors in the formation of the Scoto-Irish character, 
 not only in the native homes of the race, but in 
 the new countries which this race has helped 
 to build-up in distant parts of the world. 
 The general aim of all the catechisms of the 
 Reformation was to inscribe on the memory of 
 the young the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and 
 the Lord's Prayer, as embodying the sum of saving 
 knowledge. This arrangement does not appear so 
 palpably on the face of the Westminster Assembly's 
 Catechism ; but the question and answer for which 
 the latter is so famous, " What is man's chief end ? 
 Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy 
 Him for ever," are substantially borrowed from 
 Calvin's Catechism. 
 
 The use of singing in public worship was a point 
 on which opinions were divided at the period of
 
 220 JOHN KNOX 
 
 the Reformation ; but happily Knox and those who 
 followed him leaned to the positive side, though they 
 only went so far as to place it among the secondary 
 elements of worship. Naturally the Book of Psalms 
 was first turned-to for the materials ; and in the 
 congregation of the refugees at Geneva men of talent 
 were found, among whom the names of Sternhold 
 and Hopkins have survived, to translate the sacred 
 lyrics into singable verse. In the Order of Geneva, 
 as it was issued at Geneva in 1556, fifty-one Psalms 
 appeared, but, after this, the work of translation 
 went on, and the services of new versifiers were 
 secured, among whom William Kethe and John 
 Craig, Knox's colleague in Edinburgh, are deserv- 
 ing of mention, till in the edition, already referred to, of 
 the prayer-book published in 1 564 the whole hundred- 
 and-fifty appeared, each with its own fixed tune. 
 
 It would be difficult to exaggerate the value of 
 this contribution to Scottish religious life. In every 
 generation since, hundreds of thousands of Scotsmen 
 and their descendants in other countries have 
 practically known the Psalms by heart and thus 
 have had the opportunity of continually tasting the 
 literary charm and extracting the spiritual essence 
 of one of the choicest and most varied of the books 
 of the Bible. In the eighteenth century there were 
 added to the materials of praise, under the name of
 
 HIS IDEALS 221 
 
 the Paraphrases, sixty-seven translations from other 
 parts of Scripture ; and in the nineteenth century 
 the use of hymns was introduced on such an 
 extensive scale as to threaten to supersede the 
 Psalms. At present the Church is embarrassed 
 with its riches in the materials of praise ; and 
 measures of compression will no doubt require to 
 be taken in the future ; but a door of entrance will 
 still have to be kept open for the new births of 
 sacred poetical inspiration which time may bring 
 forth. Still the Psalms will not lose their position 
 of preeminence. At the time of the Westminster 
 Assembly the old version was largely superseded by 
 that of Rous ; and this, in its turn, will no doubt 
 have to give place to a better. Praise has of late 
 been securing an increasing proportion of the time 
 spent in public worship, the sermon being thereby 
 shortened ; but it is not to be forgotten that Psalms 
 and Paraphrases are replete with doctrinal instruction ; 
 the hymn-book being sometimes not inaptly called 
 the layman's confession of faith. 
 
 It cannot be denied that among the reasons why 
 the Scottish Book of Common Order lost its hold 
 so soon and so completely on the nation, while the 
 English one experienced precisely the opposite fate, 
 must be reckoned its own literary inferiority. It 
 was not composed with the same diligent use of
 
 222 JOHN KNOX 
 
 ancient material, gathered from the liturgies of the 
 pre-Reformation period ; its spirit is harsh and 
 denunciatory ; and its language is lacking in music 
 and felicity. The responses of the congregation are 
 deliberately excluded ; and many of the prayers 
 are wearisomely lengthy ; one prayer, for example, 
 to be used at the Visitation of the Sick, extending 
 to nearly six pages. On the other hand, there is 
 embodied in the Baptismal Service a brief sum of 
 Christian truth which is of rare literary and theo- 
 logical merit ; * and there are other materials not a 
 few to which it will be well to recur when any new di- 
 rectory for public worship is authoritatively undertaken. 
 One feature on which members of the Church of 
 England often dwell with fervour in their own 
 Prayer Book is the Christian Year ; but this is entirely 
 absent from the Scottish one. In making a clean 
 sweep of the saints' days of the old Church, Knox 
 and his coadjutors abolished also the scheme by 
 which the Church was reminded, by the revolution 
 of the seasons, of the great events in the life of 
 the Saviour, such as His Birth, His Passion, His 
 Resurrection and His Ascension. The motive of 
 this sacrifice may have been sufficient . at the time ; 
 but it is a question whether now, when the worship 
 of saints and angels is not likely to come back, this 
 1 Quoted in preceding chapter.
 
 HIS IDEALS 223 
 
 loss ought not to be recovered. In the service- 
 books of the Church of Rome there is embodied, 
 not only the Christian Year, but the history of 
 the Christian Church. This is associated with the 
 worship of saints, the notices of whom are full of 
 elements that are legendary and unhistorical. On 
 the other hand, the mind of the ordinary Protestant 
 is nearly a blank as regards the entire period from 
 the year 100 to 1500 A.D. ; and it is well worthy of 
 consideration in what way the examples of martyrs 
 and reformers can be brought to bear on the minds 
 of the people in the worship of the Church. Of the 
 lives of the heroes of religion to the close of the 
 Canon of Scripture worshippers obtain an extra- 
 ordinary grasp through the public reading of the 
 Old and New Testaments ; many a shepherd on 
 the hill and peasant in her cottage being more 
 familiar with every detail than is the best classical 
 scholar with the literature of Greece and Rome ; 
 but with the history of the twenty centuries created 
 by Christianity the average Presbyterian is woefully 
 ignorant ; and yet these also abound with figures 
 and scenes acquaintance with which would be 
 " profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
 in righteousness, that the man of God may be 
 perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." 
 Thus it will be seen that this comparatively
 
 224 JOHN KNOX 
 
 secondary portion of Knox's labours raises many 
 questions the solution of which belongs to the future 
 of our country. But this is characteristic of such a 
 spirit as he was ; and we cannot remind ourselves 
 often enough that the tasks of the Scottish Church 
 are still far from accomplished. They are, indeed, 
 only beginning ; and all forms of belief and practice 
 are subject to modification and development. The 
 supreme standard remains the same ; but it is not 
 a restricting and hampering but an emancipating 
 force. And all arrangements deduced from it are 
 subject to improvement under the teaching of 
 experience and the experiments of time. It would 
 be a poor way of honouring a man who grappled so 
 fearlessly with the problems of his own age and 
 dealt so courageously with the authority of the past 
 to erect him into an oracle from whose utterances 
 it is considered impious to depart ; but it is far 
 more foolish to make the mere negligence of sub- 
 sequent generations a reason for not attempting to 
 complete the tasks which he initiated but had not 
 time to perfect.
 
 CHAPTER III, 
 
 THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE 
 
 AS the fruits of the Confession of Faith towards 
 God were provided for in the Book of 
 Common Order, so were those towards man in the 
 Book of Discipline. As has been already remarked, 
 the latter document originated in the same year 
 as the Confession of Faith 1560 and proceeded 
 from the same authors, who, in their preface, 
 introduce themselves in the following terms : 
 
 " To the Great Council of Scotland, now admitted 
 to the regiment by the providence of God, and by 
 the common consent of the estates thereof, your 
 Honours' humble servitors and ministers of Christ 
 Jesus within the same wish grace, mercy and 
 peace from God the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, with the perpetual increase of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 " From your Honours we received a charge dated 
 at Edinburgh, 29 April, in the year of God 
 225 IS
 
 146 JOHN KNOX 
 
 1560, requiring and commanding us in the name 
 of the Eternal God, as we will answer in His 
 presence, to commit to writing and in a book to 
 deliver unto your Wisdoms our judgments touching 
 the reformation of religion, which heretofore in 
 this realm, as in others, has been utterly corrupted. 
 Upon the receipt thereof so many of us as were 
 in this town did convene, and in unity of mind 
 do offer unto your Wisdoms these heads subsequent 
 for common order and uniformity to be observed 
 in this realm concerning doctrine, administration 
 of sacraments, election of ministers, provision for 
 their sustentation, ecclesiastical discipline and policy 
 of the Kirk : most humbly requiring your Honours, 
 that, as ye look for participation with Christ Jesus, 
 that neither ye admit anything which God's plain 
 Word shall not approve, neither yet that ye shall 
 reject such ordinances as equity, justice and God's 
 Word do specify : for, as we will not bind your 
 Wisdoms to our judgments further than we be 
 able to prove the same by God's plain Scriptures, 
 so must we most humbly crave of you, even as 
 ye will answer in God's presence, before whom 
 both ye and we must appear to render account 
 of all our deeds, that ye repudiate nothing for 
 pleasure nor affection of men, which ye be not able 
 to improve by God's written and revealed Word."
 
 HIS IDEALS 227 
 
 The treatise thus introduced is in some respects 
 the most remarkable document of that age in 
 Scotland ; and to this day it remains readable 
 in the highest degree, being written with extra- 
 ordinary vivacity and directness. One would be 
 inclined to say that nothing else bears quite so 
 distinctly the impress of Knox's genius. It comes 
 away in a single gush, and it causes a dazzling 
 image of national prosperity to rise before the 
 mind. Unfortunately it was only an ideal, never 
 destined to be changed into actuality. But for 
 this Knox was not to blame. And ever since 
 it has remained, and it will remain, as a finger 
 pointing forward to possibilities still to be realised. 
 An omission which must strike every reader is 
 the almost total absence of the Presbyterian system 
 of Church government. But for this the conditions 
 were not yet ripe ; and this was amply provided 
 for in the Second Book of Discipline a monument 
 of the genius of Melville, dating from 1578 which 
 in some minor respects repealed the provisions of 
 this First Book of Discipline, but was in general 
 intended only to expand and confirm its principles. 
 
 The Book of Discipline is not a manual of 
 morals, as the Confession of Faith is of doctrine ; 
 although it deals largely with the character and 
 conduct of the members and especially the office-
 
 228 JOHN KNOX 
 
 bearers of the Church, as might be gathered from 
 its very name. On discipline proper, in the sense 
 of ecclesiastical censure, it contains two or three 
 chapters ; the contents of which signalise a prominent 
 feature of the order which Knox and his assistants 
 were setting up in Scotland. The ecclesiastical 
 officials were intended to take a very sharp oversight 
 of the morals of the community. " Blasphemy, 
 adultery, murder, perjury, and other crimes capital, 
 worthy of death, ought not properly to fall under 
 the censure of the Church ; because all such open 
 transgressors of God's law ought to be taken away 
 by the civil sword. But drunkenness, excess, be it 
 in apparel or be it in eating or drinking, fornication, 
 oppression of the poor by exactions, deceiving of 
 them in buying or selling by wrong weights or 
 measures, wanton words and licentious living tending 
 to slanders, do properly appertain to the Church of 
 God, to punish the same as God's Word com- 
 mandeth." 
 
 The handling of such offenders by the officials of 
 the Church was to be slow and circumspect, a door 
 of repentance being always left open as long as 
 possible ; but the punishments were intended to 
 be severe in case of obstinacy ; the culminating one 
 being excommunication ; " after which sentence may 
 no person, the wife and family of the culprit only
 
 HIS IDEALS 229 
 
 excepted, have any kind of conversation with him ; 
 except it be at the licence and commandment of 
 the ministry for his conversion ; that he, by such 
 mean confounded, seeing himself abhorred of the 
 faithful and godly, may have occasion to repent 
 and so be saved." These arrangements were in- 
 tended to extend to all ranks and conditions, no 
 respect of persons being allowed : " To discipline 
 must all estates within the realm be subject, if they 
 offend, as well the rulers as they that are ruled ; 
 yea, and the preachers themselves, as well as the 
 poorest within the Church." In another place it 
 is added : " Not only may the life and manners 
 of the ministers come under censure and judgment 
 of the Church, but also of their wives, children and 
 family : judgment must be taken that he neither 
 live riotously nor yet avariciously ; yea, respect 
 must be had how they spend the stipend appointed 
 to their living. If a reasonable stipend be appointed, 
 and they live avariciously, they must be admonished 
 to live so as they receive ; for, as excess and super- 
 fluity is not tolerable in a minister, so is avarice 
 and the careful solicitude of money and gear utterly 
 to be condemned in Christ's servants." 
 
 In addition to this censureship from other office- 
 bearers, the ministers were to hold a weekly meeting, 
 at which they were to review one another's conduct,
 
 230 JOHN KNOX 
 
 under warning that, if they spared from fear or 
 favour to point out one another's faults, they would 
 incur the righteous judgment of God. This idea 
 appears to have been borrowed from the Church of 
 Geneva ; and it suggests that the good men were 
 perhaps a little defective in the sense of humour. 
 With this entire section, indeed, of the Reformers' 
 plans there is connected to the modern mind a 
 suggestion of espionage and disregard of the rights 
 of personality. In practice it has long been curtailed 
 and modified. Yet it is impossible to look at the 
 state of the country at the present time without 
 seeing that we have gone to the opposite extreme 
 in the recognition of the freedom of the subject, 
 and this not to the country's advantage. There is 
 a large class not fit to make a good use of as much 
 personal liberty as is allowed. The members of this 
 class fill our prisons and workhouses at the expense 
 of the public or, if occupying lodgings that are 
 paid for, keep up habits of savage or nomadic life, 
 converting their houses into centres of disease and 
 infection both physical and moral. All who are 
 acquainted with the facts about this class are 
 aware that drastic measures, not unlike those 
 recommended by John Knox, are still required for 
 the protection of society. 
 
 It has been suggested that the proper name for
 
 HIS IDEALS 3 3I 
 
 the Book of Discipline would have been the Book 
 of Policy, 1 because its proposals extend far beyond 
 discipline proper to subjects for which " policy " is 
 now the proper term. In the book itself this word 
 appears, however, to be employed in a narrower 
 sense, to denote the external arrangements for the 
 various functions of the Church, such as worship, 
 marriage and the like. 2 Thus, not only was the 
 Sunday to be observed with preaching, the catechis- 
 ing of children and the administration of the 
 sacraments the Lord's Supper being celebrated four 
 times a year but on week-days in large towns there 
 was to be daily sermon, or else the reading of 
 Common Prayers with the Scriptures ; and in smaller 
 places at least one week-day service, during which 
 business was to be suspended. The Scripture was 
 to be read in church in order "that is, that some 
 one book of the Old and the New Testament be 
 begun and orderly read to the end. And the same 
 we judge of preaching, where the minister for the 
 most part remaineth in one place ; for this skipping 
 and divagation from place to place of the Scripture, 
 be it in reading or be it in preaching, we judge not 
 so profitable to edify the Church as the continual 
 following of one text." In private houses the heads 
 
 1 McCRiE, The Worship of Presbyterian Scotland, 
 1 History i 2 37-
 
 232 JOHN KNOX 
 
 of families were exhorted to use the Common Prayers 
 morning and evening ; and, under pain of discipline, 
 they were commanded to instruct the young beneath 
 their roof, in order that these might be fit for ad- 
 mission to the communion ; none being considered 
 fit for this ordinance who were not familiar with 
 at least the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, 
 and the Creed. Marriages were to take place in 
 Church and on Sunday ; and young people were 
 not permitted to marry without the consent of their 
 parents, although, if the parents' objections were 
 unreasonable, the young people could appeal to the 
 Church. Burials in Church were not permitted ; and 
 there was to be no religious service at funerals 
 an arrangement considered necessary to counteract 
 the superstitions of Popery, but surely erring itself 
 as far on the opposite side. One interesting service, 
 too soon allowed to fall into desuetude, was the weekly 
 Prophesying, at which all and sundry were encour- 
 aged to propound their difficulties or give their 
 comments on the passage selected. This was not 
 unlike a modern American prayer-meeting ; and 
 it revealed and developed the spiritual gifts of the 
 laity to the general advantage. " For no man may 
 be permitted to live as best pleaseth him within 
 the Church of God ; but every man must be con- 
 strained, by fraternal admonition and correction
 
 HIS IDEALS 233 
 
 to bestow his labours, when of the Church they 
 are required, to the edification of others." l 
 
 So much of the Book of Discipline is taken up 
 with the qualifications, the appointment and the 
 functions of the various office-bearers of the Church 
 that these may appear to be its principal topics. 
 
 Elders and deacons were to be elected by the 
 free votes of the members, but only for one year, 
 " lest that by long continuance of such officers men 
 presume upon the liberty of the Church. It hurts 
 not that one man be retained in office more years 
 than one, so that he be appointed yearly by 
 common and free election." But deacons could 
 be re-elected only after an interval of three years. 
 The office of the elders consisted in "judging and 
 decerning of causes ; in giving of admonition to 
 the licentious liver ; in having of respect to the 
 manners and conversation of all men within their 
 charge " ; of the deacons " to receive the rents and 
 gather the alms of the Church, to keep and dis- 
 tribute the same. They may assist in judgment 
 with the ministers and elders, and may be admitted 
 to read in the assembly, if they be required and 
 be found able thereto." 
 
 Naturally a large amount of space is devoted 
 1 History, ii. 245.
 
 234 JOHN KNOX 
 
 to ministers. " In a Kirk reformed or tending to 
 reformation none ought to presume either to teach 
 or minister the sacraments till that orderly they be 
 called to the same." Those who presumed to take 
 these functions, especially the latter of them, upon 
 themselves without such qualification were worthy 
 of death. 1 No doubt this severe judgment was 
 aimed first of all at sectaries, like the Anabaptists, 
 but it was extended also to those who had received 
 no licence but that of a corrupt Church : " The 
 papistical priests have neither power nor authority 
 to minister the sacraments of Christ Jesus ; because 
 that in their mouth is not the sermon of exhortation. 
 And, therefore, to them must straight inhibition 
 be made, notwithstanding any usurpation which they 
 have had in that behalf in the time of blindness. It 
 is neither the clipping of their crowns, the crossing 
 of their fingers, nor the blowing of the dumb dogs 
 called the bishops, neither yet the laying on of 
 their hands, that maketh them true ministers of 
 Christ Jesus. But the Spirit of God, inwardly first 
 moving the hearts to seek Christ's glory and the 
 profit of His Church, and thereafter the nomination 
 of the people, the examination of the learned and 
 public admission, as before is said, make men 
 lawful ministers of the Word and sacraments. We 
 1 History, i. 274,
 
 HIS IDEALS 235 
 
 speak of an ordinary vocation, where Churches are 
 reformed or at least tend to reformation, and not 
 of that which is extraordinary, when God, by Himself 
 and by His only power, raiseth up to the ministry 
 such as best pleaseth His wisdom." 
 
 Ample directions are given as to the calling, 
 examining and ordination of ministers. " It apper- 
 taineth to the people, and to every several con- 
 gregation, to elect their own minister." " For 
 altogether this is to be avoided that any man be 
 violently intruded or thrust in upon any congrega- 
 tion." Yet, in the event of the election not being 
 completed in forty days, the authority of the Church 
 could step in and carry out the appointment ; though 
 evidently even in such a case the feelings and wishes 
 of the people were to be considered. The ministers 
 of the neighbourhood were entitled to test the 
 qualifications of the man chosen by the people, and 
 public notice of the proceedings was widely spread, 
 lest anyone should have any complaint to bring 
 against the character of the minister-elect. But, 
 these ordeals being safely passed, he was ordained 
 without laying on of hands a restriction repealed 
 in the Second Book of Discipline. The appoint- 
 ment was ad vitam aut culpam, in the sense not 
 only that the congregation was not at liberty to 
 reject or change the pastor without being able to
 
 2 3 6 JOHN KNOX 
 
 convict him of crime worthy of deposition, but that he 
 was not at liberty to leave the flock at his pleasure 
 to which he had promised his fidelity and labours. 
 
 Ministers of the right stamp were scarce, yet 
 an earnest warning was given against allowing this 
 to interfere with the testing of the qualifications of 
 applicants : " We are not ignorant that the rarity 
 of godly and learned men shall seem to some a 
 just reason why that so straight and sharp ex- 
 amination should not be taken universally ; for so 
 it shall appear that the most part of the kirks 
 shall have no minister at all. But let these men 
 understand that the lack of able men shall not 
 excuse us before God, if by our consent unable 
 men be placed over the flock of Christ Jesus, as 
 also that among the Gentiles godly, learned men 
 were also rare as they be now among us when 
 the Apostle gave the same rule to try and examine 
 ministers which we now follow : and last, let them 
 understand that it is alike to have no minister at all 
 and to have an idol in the place of a true minister ; 
 yea, and in some cases it is worse ; for those that 
 be utterly destitute of ministers .will be diligent 
 to search for them ; but those that have a vain 
 shadow do commonly without further care content 
 themselves with the same, and so remain they 
 continually deceived, thinking that they have a
 
 HIS IDEALS 237 
 
 minister when in very deed they have none. For 
 we cannot judge him a dispenser of God's mysteries 
 that in no wise can break the bread of life to 
 the fainting and hungry souls ; neither judge we 
 that the sacraments can be rightly ministered 
 by him in whose mouth God has put no sermon 
 of exhortation." 
 
 To meet, however, the difficulties created by 
 the greatness of the field and the paucity of the 
 labourers two extra offices were recognised, neither 
 of which has maintained its place in the Presbyterian 
 system. Of these the first was that of Readers, 
 who were to read prayers and the Scriptures, but 
 were unable to exhort. They were, however, 
 encouraged to attempt a few words of exhortation 
 and instruction ; and, if these efforts succeeded, 
 they might look forward to ultimate promotion 
 to the superior office. The other was that of 
 Superintendents. These were to be ten in number, 
 and areas were allotted to them severally, not 
 unlike in extent to the sees of bishops, within 
 which they were to erect the fabric of the Reformed 
 Church, in so far as this had not been already 
 done, and watch over its development where it 
 already existed. They were not only to plant new 
 charges, but to examine the life, diligence and 
 behaviour of ministers, as also the order of their
 
 i 3 8 JOHN KNOX 
 
 churches and the manners of the people. " They 
 must further consider how the poor be provided ; 
 how the youth be instructed ; they must admonish 
 where admonition needeth ; redress such things as 
 by good counsel they may be able to appease ; 
 and, finally, they must note such crimes as be 
 heinous, that by the censure of the Church the 
 same may be corrected." 
 
 It is undeniable that such an official bore a 
 close resemblance to a bishop ; and it was this 
 that led to the speedy discontinuance of the office. 
 But a superintendent differed essentially from a 
 bishop in this respect, that he was not supposed 
 to belong to a third order above ministers and 
 elders. Besides, the most stringent measures were 
 taken that he should not act like the idle bishops 
 of preceding times, but be a harder worker than any 
 minister ; and it was expressly stipulated that he should 
 be liable to the censure of the elders and ministers, 
 who were at liberty to depose him in case of need. 
 
 It is not forgotten that a proposal to 
 revive this office was recently made by one of 
 the most eminent ministers of Scotland when 
 preaching before the General Assembly of his 
 Church ; his contention being that there are ministers 
 who require superintendence in order to make the 
 most of their talents but, without it, fall into habits
 
 HIS IDEALS 239 
 
 of idleness or vain and aimless energy. The 
 actual proposal did not take much hold of the 
 mind of the country ; but something was done 
 in his own denomination towards dealing with 
 inefficiency ; and a widespread impression was pro- 
 duced that in every Church there is requisite an 
 episcopal function, whether this is to be lodged in 
 a single person or in such a body as the presbytery. 
 
 There is another subject that occupies so much 
 space in the Book of Discipline that it also might 
 almost be designated the theme of the whole ; 
 and this is the disposal of the funds accruing 
 from the disestablishment and disendowment of 
 the old Church. These were of vast extent, 
 including the revenues of the abbeys, cloisters, 
 nunneries, chapels, chantries, cathedral churches, 
 canonries and the like, which were swept away by 
 the Reformation. It was the desire of Knox and 
 his fellow-labourers that these funds should flow into 
 the treasury of the new Church and be employed 
 first of all for the support of ministers and superin- 
 tendents. For these a rate of remuneration is fixed 
 in the Book of Discipline on a modest scale, but, 
 as the ministry was no longer to be celibate, a 
 more liberal allowance than formerly was required. 
 " Provision must be made not only for their own
 
 240 JOHN KNOX 
 
 sustentation during their lives but also for their 
 wives and children after them. For we consider it 
 a thing most contrarious to reason, godliness and 
 equity, that the widow and children of him who 
 in his life did faithfully serve the Kirk of God 
 and for that cause did not carefully make provision 
 for his family should after his death be left comfort- 
 less of all provision." Elders and deacons were 
 not to receive any monetary remuneration. 
 
 But the wealth proceeding from the old Church 
 ought far to have exceeded the necessities of the 
 ministry of the new body, on however liberal a 
 scale these had been calculated ; and accordingly 
 Knox and those who shared his ideas were able to 
 contemplate other objects of national importance 
 to which the surplus might be devoted. 
 
 One of these was provision for the poor ; and 
 such sentences as the following on this vital subject 
 have not yet lost their virtue : " Every several 
 kirk must provide for the poor within itself ; 
 for fearful and horrible it is that whom not only 
 God the Father in His law, but Jesus Christ in 
 His evangel, and the Holy Spirit speaking by St. 
 Paul hath so earnestly commended to our care, 
 are universally so contemned and despised. We 
 are not patrons for stubborn and idle beggars, who, 
 running from place to place, make a craft of their
 
 HIS IDEALS 241 
 
 begging, whom the civil magistrate ought to punish ; 
 but for the widow and fatherless, the aged, impotent 
 or lame, who neither can nor may travail for their 
 sustentation, we say that God commandeth His 
 people to be careful ; and therefore for such, as also 
 for persons of honesty fallen into decay and penury, 
 ought such provision to be made that of our 
 abundance should their indigence be relieved. How 
 this most conveniently and most easily may be done 
 in every city and other parts of this realm, God 
 shall show you wisdom and the means, so that your 
 minds be godly thereto inclined. All must not be 
 suffered to beg that gladly so would do ; neither 
 yet must beggars remain where they choose ; but 
 the stout and strong beggar must be compelled 
 to work, and every person that may not work must 
 be compelled to repair to the place where he or she 
 was born (unless of long continuance they have 
 remained in one place), and there reasonable provision 
 must be made for their sustentation as the Church 
 shall appoint. The order nor sums in our judgments 
 cannot be particularly appointed unto such time as 
 the poor of every city, town or parish be compelled 
 to repair to the places where they were born, or of 
 their residences, where their names and number must 
 be taken and put in roll ; and then may the wisdom 
 of the Kirk appoint stipends accordingly." 
 
 16
 
 242 JOHN KNOX 
 
 A further application of these wholesome senti- 
 ments is made in the following words to the poor 
 of another class those, namely, who, while not 
 receiving poor relief but paying teinds, were unable, 
 without a sense of oppression, to sustain the public 
 burdens they had to bear : 
 
 " We must crave of your Honours, in the name 
 of the Eternal God and of His Son Christ Jesus, 
 that ye have respect to your poor brethren, the 
 labourers and manurers of the ground ; who by 
 these cruel beasts the papists have been so oppressed 
 that their life to them has been dolorous and bitter. 
 If ye will have God author and approver of your 
 reformation, ye must not follow their footsteps ; but 
 ye must have compassion on your brethren, appoint- 
 ing them to pay so reasonable teinds that they may 
 find some benefit of Christ Jesus now preached unto 
 them. With the grief of our hearts we hear that 
 some gentlemen are now as cruel over their tenants 
 as ever the papists were, requiring of them whatsoever 
 before they paid to the Church ; so that the papis- 
 tical tyranny shall only be changed into the tyranny 
 of the lord or of the laird. We dare not flatter 
 your Honours, neither yet is it profitable for you 
 that so we do ; if ye permit such cruelty to be 
 used, neither shall ye, who by your authority ought 
 to gainstand such oppression, neither they that use
 
 HIS IDEALS 243 
 
 the same escape God's heavy and fearful judgments. 
 The Gentlemen, Barons, Earls, Lords and others 
 must be content to live upon their just rents, and 
 suffer the Church to be restored to her liberty, that 
 in her restitution the poor, who heretofore by the 
 cruel papists have been spoiled and oppressed, may 
 now receive some comfort and relaxation." 
 
 But the principal object on which the surplus was 
 to be expended was education. To every church 
 was to be attached a schoolmaster, able to teach 
 grammar and the Latin tongue, if the town were of 
 any reputation. In landward districts the work 
 might be undertaken by the minister or reader, and 
 the subjects might be more rudimentary, but the 
 thorough teaching of the Catechism must be included. 
 So much for elementary education. Then, in every 
 notable town, and especially in the town of the 
 superintendent, there was to be erected a college or, 
 as we should now term it, a high school, in which 
 the Arts, at least Logic and Rhetoric, together with 
 the tongues, should be read by sufficient masters, for 
 whom honest stipends must be appointed ; and 
 bursaries were to be provided not only for the poor 
 and clever boys of the place, but also for such from 
 the rural districts. This was the second stage 
 what we now call Intermediate Education and the 
 summit of the edifice was to be found in the three
 
 244 JOHN KNOX 
 
 universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen ; 
 Edinburgh not having yet advanced to the dignity 
 of a university city. In St. Andrews there were 
 three colleges, in Glasgow two, and in Aberdeen two, 
 with two or more chairs in each. 
 
 The Book of Discipline enters minutely into the 
 arrangements of these great seats of learning, 
 expatiating on the courses to be taken by the 
 students and the duties and emoluments of the 
 professors. The officials, from principals and rectors 
 down to porters and beadles, are carefully described, 
 and the relation of offenders to the civil powers in 
 the cities where the universities are situated nicely 
 discriminated. But here again the essential thing 
 is the search for talent among the poor and the 
 provision for free education, while the sons of the 
 nobility were required to pay according to their 
 several degrees. 
 
 The whole sketch, which is detailed and well- 
 informed in every direction, is accompanied with a 
 running comment on the desirability of learning for 
 its own sake and its utility to the commonwealth ; 
 and it winds up with the assurance to the nobles, to 
 whom the Book of Discipline was addressed : " If 
 God shall grant quietness and give your Wisdoms 
 grace to set forward letters in the sort prescribed, 
 ye shall leave wisdom to your posterity, a treasure
 
 HIS IDEALS 245 
 
 more to be esteemed than any earthly treasure you 
 are able to provide for them ! " 
 
 This is John Knox's famous scheme for national 
 education. Its outline was clear and imposing ; and 
 the eloquence with which it enforced the claims and 
 advantages of education appealed at once both to 
 the imagination and the common sense of the 
 country. Its accomplishment was delayed and its 
 beneficial results were permanently impoverished by 
 the avarice of the nobility ; but it has never ceased 
 to hold its place as an ideal in the public mind ; 
 and to it must be ascribed in no small degree the 
 reputation for education which Scotland has attained 
 in the world. Even yet, although the sum of 
 human knowledge has increased enormously in 
 extent, the efforts of educationists are absorbed into 
 Knox's scheme without completely filling it up ; and 
 the very latest developments, such as the Education 
 Bill of Lord Young and the munificent gift of Mr. 
 Carnegie, only serve to perfect the ladder which he 
 began to construct 
 
 The entire Book of Discipline may be called 
 Knox's vision of a Scotland religious, virtuous, 
 intelligent and happy ; and, if it be contended that 
 he laid less stress than is due on the last of these 
 adjectives, it may be replied that he in his own
 
 246 JOHN KNOX 
 
 person set an example of happiness, and that a 
 nation is more likely to come out all right at the 
 end of this series of adjectives by taking them in 
 his order than by taking them in the opposite 
 direction. It was not too proud a boast with 
 which the Book of Discipline closed when, after 
 praying the nobles to whom it was addressed to 
 receive its proposals with an open and favourable 
 mind, the authors added: "This our judgment shall 
 abide to the generations following for a monument 
 and witness, how lovingly God called you and this 
 realm to repentance, what counsellers God sent unto 
 you, and how ye used the same."
 
 INDEX 
 
 ABERDEEN, 63, 89, 244 
 
 Adamson, Elizabeth, 12 
 
 All-Hallows. London, 34 
 
 Alps, 48 
 
 Anabaptism, 159, 163, 200, 232 
 
 Arrninianism, 159 
 
 Assembly, General, 65, 76, 81, 
 
 109, 131, 167 
 Assurance, 154 
 Ayrshire, 1 5, 44 
 
 BALFOUR, JAMES, 29 
 Balnaves. Henry, 20, 27, 98, 
 
 14$, 154 
 Band, The, 54 
 
 Bannatyne, Richard, 87, 92, 93 
 Baptism, 106, 203 
 Bartholomew, Massacre of St., 
 
 88 
 
 Beaton, Cardinal, 18, 19, 190 
 Berwick, 32, 59, 82, 100, 107 
 Beza, 88 
 
 Bible, 17, 46, 55, 91, 93, 129, 198 
 Book of Common Order, 36, 
 
 109, 195, 215, 225 
 Book of Common Prayer, 33. 
 
 39.4<> 
 
 47 
 
 Book of Discipline, '64, 194, 225 
 Bothwell, Earls of, 4, 78, 79 
 Bowes, Marjory, 47 
 Bowes, Mrs., 46, 100 
 Brown, Dr. Hume, 26, 27, no 
 Buchanan, George, 6, 166 
 Bullinger, 101, 167 
 
 CALDER HOUSE, 43 
 
 Calvin, 38, 48, 49, 50, 72, 93, 
 
 130. 133, 218 
 
 Calvinism, 158, 161-3, 189 
 Calvin's Catechism, 218, 219 
 Carlyle, 25, 194 
 Carnegie, Mr., 245 
 Castellio, 49, 161 
 Castle of St. Andrews, 20, 21, 
 
 98 
 
 Chaplains-in-Ordinary, 33, 34 
 Church of England, 31-5, 38, 
 
 39, 130, 195, 199, 217, 224 
 Clergy, 11, 19, 42, 55. 61, 62, 
 
 123, 124 
 
 Confession, Scots, 61, 62, 199 
 Westminster, 131, 
 
 202 
 
 Confessions, 146
 
 INDEX 
 
 Congregation, Lords of the, 
 
 54. 58, 61, 109, 168, 181 
 Councils, 20 1 
 Craig, John, 178, 220 
 Cranmer, 31, 103 
 Craw, Paul, 15 
 
 Crossraguel, Abbot of, 108, 125 
 Cupar Muir, 58 
 
 DANTE, in 
 
 Darnley, 77-9, 109 
 
 Deacons, 233, 240 
 
 " Devout Imaginations," 64 
 
 Dieppe, 38, 50, 51, 100, 101, 
 
 105, 107 
 Directory for Public Worship, 
 
 216, 222 
 Discipline, 228 
 Dundee, 15, 17, 18, 56, 57, 63 
 
 EDINBURGH, 11, 12, 18, 42, 43, 
 
 45, 53, 60, 63, 75, 79, 82-4, 
 
 88, 115, 132,244 
 Education, 64, 124, 243 
 Edward VI., 31, 33, 36, 37, 66, 
 
 99, 217 
 
 Elders, 233, 240 
 Election, 157, 164 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 50, 53, 78, 
 
 169-72 
 England, 28, 31, 35, 53, 58, 59, 
 
 80, 100, 101, 103, 105 
 Erskine of Dun, 12, 43, 63, 74 
 Excommunication, 109, 228 
 
 FAST, GENERAL, 109, 131 
 
 Fathers, 201 
 
 Feminine attire, 46 
 
 France, 20, 25, 27, 51, 53, 58, 
 
 60, 66, 67, 70, 84, 88, 182 
 Francis II., 54, 55, 60, 67 
 Frankfort, 38-41, 104, 217 
 Friars, II, 12, 47, 107, 118 
 
 GALLEYS, 25, 27-9 
 
 Gardiner, 102 
 
 Geneva, 38, 41, 47-50, 53, 106, 
 
 107, 161, 162, 230 
 Geneva Bible, 7, 49 
 Gifford, 3 
 
 Glasgow, 6, 63, 120, 244 
 Glencairn, Earl of, 44, 90 
 Goodman, Christopher, 41, 48, 
 
 63 
 
 HADDINGTON, 3, 4, 6, 18, 20, 58 
 Hamilton, Patrick, 16, no 
 Harlaw, 42 
 Herkless, 20 
 
 History of the Reformation in 
 Scotland, 5, 14, 16, 109, 160 
 Holyrood, 70, 74 
 Humanism, 6 
 Huss, 15 
 Hymns, 221 
 
 IDOLATRY, 13, 33, 56,1 57, 99, 
 
 123, 125, 130, 179, 180 
 Innes, Mr. Taylor, 109 
 Irving, Edward, 202 
 
 JAMES V., 15, 19, 66
 
 INDEX 
 
 249 
 
 James VI., 79 
 
 Justification by faith, 98, 123, 
 144, 154 
 
 KETHE, WILLIAM, 220 
 Kings, 173, 179, 180, 184 
 Kirkcaldy of Grange, 20, 83, 
 
 84,9 
 
 Knox, Mrs., II 
 , William, 5 
 
 LAING, DR. DAVID, 98 
 
 Lamp of Lothian, 4 
 
 Lawson, 89, 90 
 
 Leith, 15, 58 
 
 Lex Rex, 178 
 
 Lindsay, Sir David, 20, 22, 129 
 
 Litany, 39 
 
 Liturgy, 215 
 
 Lochleven, 71, 80 
 
 Lollards of Kyle, 44 
 
 Lord's Supper, 35, 45, 55, 74, 
 
 99 
 
 Luther, 9-11, 14-16, 47, 128, 
 132, 154, 218 
 
 McCRiE, C. G., 218, 231 
 
 McCrie, T., 10 
 
 Maitland of Lethington, 43, 46, 
 
 59, 76-8, 83-6, 168 
 Major, John, 4, 6 
 Marriage, 232 
 Mary of Guise, 20, 44, 50, 
 
 54-6, 60, 66, 67, 105, no, 
 
 112, 113, 115, 116, 174, 183, 
 
 187 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, 50, 54, 
 60, 66-80, 83, no, 174 
 
 Mary Tudor, 33, 37, 40, 42, 50, 
 53, 100, 102, 107, 108, 179 
 
 Mass, 13, 34, 45, 56, 61, 68-70, 
 72, 74, 99, loo, 105, 108, 
 
 124,179 
 
 Melville, Andrew, 227 
 Melville, James, 86 
 Ministers, 229, 233 
 Montrose, 17, 56 
 Moray, Regent, 43, 69, 72, 78, 
 
 80-82,83 
 
 Morton, Earl of, 88, 90, 94 
 Multitude, " The rascal," 5, 57, 
 
 77 
 
 NEWCASTLE, 32, 100, 107 
 Nobility, 16, 64, 65, 72, 76, 80 
 107, 168, 174, 184, 186, 245 
 Non-intrusion, 233 
 
 ORDER OF GENEVA, 218, 220 
 Orders, 32 
 
 PARAPHRASES, 221 
 
 Paris, 107 
 
 Pauperism, 230, 241 
 
 Perfectionism, 159 
 
 Perth, 56, 63 
 
 Philip of Spain, 40, 101 
 
 Plato, 69 
 
 Poor, The, 64, 124, 240, 244 
 
 Pope, The, 23, 61, 78, 103, I22 ( 
 
 124, 185 
 Portrait, 26
 
 INDEX 
 
 Prayer, 29, 46, 55. 99. 2I 5 
 Predestination, 49, 108, 157, 
 
 162, 189 
 Priests, 13, 18, 27, 47, 50, 72, 
 
 124 
 
 Prophesying, 232 
 Psalms, 134, 218, 220 
 Puritanism, 40 
 
 RANFURLY, 4 
 Randolph, 58, 60 
 Readers, 237, 243 
 Reformation, 14, 31, 35, 42, 50, 
 
 54, 55,61, no, 197 
 Rizzio, 78, 190 
 Rochester, 34 
 Rous, 221 
 Row, John, 63, 199 
 Rutherford, Samuel, 178 
 
 ST. ANDREWS, 6, 15, 16, 18, 21, 
 22, 25, 28, 63, 84, 88, 1 1 8, 
 
 122, 129, 244 
 
 St. Giles, 82, 88, 108, 113 
 Scone, 57 
 Servetus, 49, 188 
 Spain, 73, 102 
 
 Spottiswood, 63, 199 
 Sternhold and Hopkins,t22o 
 Stirling, 56, 58, 80, 82 
 Superintendents, 237, 238 
 Synod, Provincial, 42, 55 
 
 TITHES, 106 
 
 Toleration, 159, 188, 190 
 Transubstantiation, 123 
 
 UNIVERSITIES, 87, 244 
 
 WELSH, MRS., 47 
 Westminster Confession of 
 
 Faith, 131, 202 
 Willock, 42, 63, 81, 112, 199 
 Wishart, George, 16, 17, 19, 
 
 20, 23, 26, 29, 43, no, 
 
 112 
 
 Women, 50, 69, 107, 167, 168 
 Wycliffe, 15 
 Wynram, John, 63, 199 
 
 YEAR, CHRISTIAN, 232 
 Young, Lord, 245 
 
 ZWING i, 14 
 
 Printed by Hasell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Ayksbury, England.
 
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