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diff --git a/22106-h/22106-h.htm b/22106-h/22106-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec715d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/22106-h/22106-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6629 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of John Knox, by A. Taylor Innes</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 65%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + hr.short {width: 40%;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + +.pagenum {/* left-margin page numbers */ + display: inline; /* set to "none" to make #s disappear */ + font-size: 70%; /* tiny type.. */ + text-align: right; /* ..right-justified.. */ + position: absolute; + right: 95%; /* ..in the right margin.. */ + padding: 0 0 0 0 ; /* ..very compact */ + margin: 0 0 0 0; + font-weight: 400; /* normal weight */ + font-style: normal; + text-decoration: none; + color: silver; + text-indent: 0; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + a {text-decoration: none; } + + .space {margin-top: 50px;} + + .totoc {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} /* Table of contents anchor */ + + div.trans-note {border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; + margin: 3em 15%; padding: 1em; } + + div.index { /* styles that apply to all text in an index */ + font-size: 90%; /*small type for compactness */ + } + ul.IX { + list-style-type: none; + font-size:inherit; /* i.e. from the div class="index" container */ + } + .IX li { /* list items in an index: compressed vertically */ + margin-top: 0; + } + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i5 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i13 {display: block; margin-left: 13em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i3 {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 0em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + border: solid black; + height: 5px; } + pre {font-size: 75%; } + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, John Knox, by A. Taylor Innes</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: John Knox</p> +<p>Author: A. Taylor Innes</p> +<p>Release Date: July 19, 2007 [eBook #22106]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN KNOX***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Jordan, Thomas Strong,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/cover.jpg" height="650" width="450" alt="BOOK COVER" /></p> + +<hr /> + +<h1>JOHN:KNOX</h1> +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>A: TAYLOR INNES</h2><br /><br /> +<h3>FAMOUS SCOTS: SERIES</h3><br /><br /> +<h4>PUBLISHED BY<br /> +OLIPHANT ANDERSON<br /> +&<br /> +FERRIER EDINBVR<br /> +AND LONDON</h4> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/illus-001.jpg" height="650" width="400" alt="TITLE PAGE" /></p> + +<hr /> + +<p style="margin-left: 13.5em;">The designs and ornaments of this<br /> +volume are by Mr Joseph Brown,<br /> +and the printing from the press of<br /> +Messrs Turabull & Spears, Edinburgh.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 15em;"><i>May</i> 1896.</p> + +<hr /> + +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a> +<h2 class="space">CONTENTS</h2><br /> + +<p class="center">CHAPTER I<br /></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents" style="width: 80%;"> + <tr> + <td align='left' style="width: 70%;"><span class="smcap">The Scholar and Priest: His Environment</span></td> + <td align='right' style="width: 30%;"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">9</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<br /> +<p class="center">CHAPTER II</p><br /> + +<br /> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents" style="width: 80%;"> + <tr> + <td align='left' style="width: 70%;"><span class="smcap">The Crisis: Single or Two-fold</span>?</td> + <td align='right' style="width: 30%;"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">25</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<br /> + +<p class="center">CHAPTER III</p><br /> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents" style="width: 80%;"> + <tr> + <td align='left' style="width: 70%;"><span class="smcap">The Inner Life: His Women Friends</span></td> + <td align='right' style="width: 30%;"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">48</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<br /> + +<p class="center">CHAPTER IV</p><br /> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents" style="width: 80%;"> + <tr> + <td align='left' style="width: 70%;"><span class="smcap">The Public Life: To the Parliament Of 1560</span></td> + <td align='right' style="width: 30%;"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">65</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<br /> + +<p class="center">CHAPTER V</p><br /> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents" style="width: 80%;"> + <tr> + <td align='left' style="width: 70%;"><span class="smcap">The Public Life: Legislation and Church Plans</span></td> + <td align='right' style="width: 30%;"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">95</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<br /> + +<p class="center">CHAPTER VI</p><br /> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents" style="width: 80%;"> + <tr> + <td align='left' style="width: 70%;"><span class="smcap">The Public Life: The Conflict with Queen Mary</span></td> + <td align='right' style="width: 30%;"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">117</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<br /> + +<p class="center">CHAPTER VII</p><br /> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents" style="width: 80%;"> + <tr> + <td align='left' style="width: 70%;"><span class="smcap">Closing Years and Death</span></td> + <td align='right' style="width: 30%;"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">144</a></td> + </tr> +</table><br /> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center">THE SCHOLAR AND PRIEST: HIS ENVIRONMENT</p><br /> + +<p>The century now closing has redeemed Knox from +neglect, and has gathered around his name a mass of +biographical material. That material, too, includes +much that is of the nature of self-revelation, to be +gleaned from familiar letters, as well as from his own +history of his time. Yet, after all that has been brought +together, Knox remains to many observers a mere hard +outline, while to others he is almost an enigma—a blur, +bright or black, upon the historic page.</p> + +<p>There is one real and great difficulty. For the first +forty years of his life we know absolutely nothing of the +inner man. Yet at forty most men are already made. +And in the case of this man, from about that date onwards +we find the character settled and fixed. Henceforward, +during the whole later life with its continually +changing drama, Knox remains intensely and unchangeably +the same. It is the contrast, perhaps the crisis, +which is worth studying. The contrast, indeed, is not +unprecedented. More than one Knox-like prophet, in +the solemn days of early faith, 'was in the desert until +the time of his shewing unto Israel'; and not the +polished shaft only, but the rough spear-head too, has +remained hid in the shadow of a mighty hand until the +very day when it was launched. But each such case impels<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +us the more to inquire, What was it after all which +really made the man who in his turn made the age?</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>Knox was born in or near Haddington in 1505. Of +his father, William Knox, and his mother, whose maiden +name was Sinclair, nothing is known, except that the +parents of both belonged to that district of country, and +had fought under the standard of the House of Bothwell. +We shall never know which of the two contributed the +insight or the audacity, the tenacity or the tenderness, +the common-sense or the humour, which must all have +been part of Knox's natural character before it was +moulded from without. His father was of the 'simple,' +not of the gentle, sort; possibly a peasant, or frugal +cultivator of the soil. But he saved enough to send one +of his two sons, John, now in the eighteenth year of his +age, and having, no doubt, received his earlier education +in the excellent grammar school of Haddington, to the +University of Glasgow. Haddington was in the diocese +of St Andrews, but a native of Haddington, John Major, +was at this time Regent in Glasgow. He had brought +from Paris, four years before, a vast academical reputation, +and Knox now 'sat as at his feet' during his last +year of teaching in Glasgow. In 1523, however, Major +was transferred to St Andrews, and there he taught +theology for more than a quarter of a century, during +the latter half of which time he was Provost or Head of +St Salvator's College. Whether Knox at any time followed +him there does not appear. Beza, Knox's earliest +biographer, thought he did. But Beza's information +as to this portion of the life, though apparently derived +from Knox's colleague and successor,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> is so extremely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +confused as to suggest that the Reformer was equally +reticent about it to those nearest him as he has chosen +to be to posterity. For nearly twenty years of manhood, +indeed, Knox disappears from our view. And when, +in 1540, he emerges again in his native district, it is as +a notary and a priest. 'Sir John Knox' he was called +by others, that being the style by which secular priests +were known, unless they had taken not only the bachelor's +but also the master's degree at the University.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Knox +in after years never alluded to his priesthood, though his +adversaries did; but so late as 27th March 1543 he +describes himself in a notarial deed in his own handwriting +as 'John Knox, minister of the sacred altar, of +the Diocese of St Andrews, notary by Apostolical authority.' +Apostolical means Papal, the notarial authority +being transmitted through the St Andrews Archbishop; +and Knox at this time does not shrink from dating his +notarial act as in such a year 'of the pontificate of our +most holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord Paul, +Pope by the Providence of God.' Only three years +later, in 1546, he was carrying a two-handed sword +before Wishart, then in danger of arrest and condemnation +to the stake at the hands of the same Archbishop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +Beaton under whom Knox held his orders. And in the +following year, 1547, Knox is standing in the Church of +St Andrews, and denouncing the Pope (not as an individual, +though the Pope of that day was a Borgia, but) +as the official head of an Anti-Christian system.</p> + +<p>This early blank in the biography raises questions, +some of which will never be answered. We do not +know at all when Knox took priest's orders. It was +almost certainly not before 1530, for it was only in +that year that he became eligible as being twenty-five +years old. It may possibly have been as late as 1540, +when his name is first found in a deed. In that and +the two following years he seems to have resided at +Samuelston near Haddington, and may have officiated +in the little chapel there. But he was also at this time +acting as 'Maister' or tutor to the sons of several +gentlemen of East Lothian, and he continued this down +to 1547, the time of his own 'call' to preach the +Evangel. Nor do we know whether the change in his +views, which in 1547 was so complete, had been sudden +on the one hand or gradual and long prepared on the +other. Knox's own silence on this is very remarkable. +A man of his fearless egoism and honesty might have +been expected to leave, if not an autobiography like +those of Augustine and Bunyan, at least a narrative of +change like the <i>Force of Truth</i> of Thomas Scott, or the +<i>Apologia</i> of John Henry Newman. He has not done +so; indeed, the author who preserved for us so much +of that age, and of his own later history in it, seems for +some reason to have judged his whole earlier period +unworthy of record—or even of recal. For we find no +evidence of his having been more confidential on this +subject with any of his contemporaries than he has +been with us. This certainly suggests that the change +may have been very recent—determined, perhaps, +wholly through the personal influence of Wishart, whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +Knox so affectionately commemorates. Or, if it was +not recent, it is extremely unlikely that it can have been +detailed, vivid, and striking, as well as prolonged. Knox +was not the man to suppress a narrative, however +painful to himself, which he could have held to be in a +marked degree to the glory of God or for the good +of men. But whatever the reason was, the time past of +his life sufficed this man for silence and self-accusation. +We may be sure that it would have done so (and perhaps +done so equally), no matter whether those twenty years +had been spent in the complacent routine of a rustic in +holy orders; in the dogmatism, defensive or aggressive, +of scholastic youth; in fruitless efforts to understand the +new views of which he was one day to be the chief +representative; or in half-hearted hesitation whether, +after having so far understood them, he could part +with all things for their sake. Which of these positions +he held, or how far he may have passed from one to +another, we may never be able to ascertain. But there +is one too clear indication that Knox disliked, not only +to record, but even to recal, his life in the Catholic +communion. His greatest defect in after years, as a +man and a writer, is his inability to sympathise with +those still found entangled in that old life. He +absolutely refuses to put himself in their place, or to +imagine how a position which was for so many years +his own could be honestly chosen, or even honestly +retained for a day, by another. This would have been +a misfortune, and a moral defect, even in a man not +naturally of a sympathetic temper. But Knox, as we +shall see, was a man of quick and tender nature, and +had rather a passion for sympathising with those who +were not on the other side of the gulf he thus fixed. +And this one-sided incapacity for sympathy must certainly +be connected with his one-sided reticence as to the +earlier half of his own autobiography.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>Incapacity to sympathise with persons entangled in a +system is one thing, and disapproval of that system, +or even violent rejection of it, is another. Knox, as +is well known, broke absolutely with the church system +in which he was brought up. What was that system, +and what was Knox's individual outlook upon the +Church—first, of Western Europe, and secondly of +Scotland?</p> + +<p>We know at least that Knox, before breaking with the +church system of mediæval Europe, was for twenty years +in close contact with it. And his was no mere external +contact such as Haddington, with its magnificent churches +and monasteries, supplied. It commenced with study, +and with study under the chief theological teacher of the +land and the time. Major was the last of the scholastics +in our country. But the energy of thought of scholasticism, +marvellous as it often was, was built upon the lines +and contained within the limits of an already existing +church system. And that system was an authoritative +one in every sense. The hierarchy which governed the +Church, and all but constituted it, was sacerdotal; that +is, it interposed its own mediation at the point where the +individual meets and deals with God. But it interposed +correspondingly at every other point of the belief and +practice of the private man, enforcing its doctrine upon +the conscience, and its direction upon the will, of every +member of the church. Nor was the system authoritative +only over those who received or accepted it. Originally, +indeed, and even in the age when the faith was digested +into a creed by the first Council, the emperor, himself +an ardent member of the Church, left it free to all his +subjects throughout the world to be its members or not +as they chose. But that great experiment of toleration +lasted less than a century. For much more than a +thousand years the same faith, slowly transformed into +a church system under the central administration of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +Popes, had been made binding by imperial and municipal +law upon every human being in Europe.</p> + +<p>Major, not only by his own earlier writings, but as the +representative in Scotland of the University of Paris, +recalled to his countrymen the great struggle of the +Middle Age in favour of freedom—and especially of +church freedom against the Popes. That struggle +indeed had Germany rather than France for its original +centre, and it was under the flag of the Empire that +the progressive despotism of Hildebrand and his successors +over the feudal world was chiefly resisted. The +Empire, however, was now a decaying force. Europe +was being split into nationalities; and national churches—a +novelty in Christendom—were, under various pretexts, +coming into existence. For the last two centuries +France had thus been the chief national opponent of the +centralising influence of Rome, and the University of +Paris was, during that time, the greatest theological +school in the world. As such it had maintained the +doctrine that the church universal could have no +absolute monarch, but was bound to maintain its +own self-government, and that its proper organ for this +was a general council. And in the early part of the +fifteenth century, when the schism caused by rival Popes +had thrown back the Church upon its native powers, the +University of Paris was the great influence which led the +Councils of Constance and of Basle, not only to assert +this doctrine, but to carry it into effect.</p> + +<p>But Major, when Knox met him, represented in this +matter a cause already lost. Even in the previous +century the decrees of the reforming Councils were +at once frustrated by the successors of the Popes +whom they deposed, and in this sixteenth century a +Lateran Council had already anticipated the Vatican +of the nineteenth by declaring the Pope to be supreme +over Council and Church alike. Even the anti-Papal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +Councils themselves, too, were exclusively hierarchical, +and accordingly they opposed any independent right on +the part of the laity, as well as all serious enquiries into +the earlier practice and faith of the Church. So at +Constance the Chancellor of Paris, <i>Doctor Christianissimus</i> +as well as statesman and mystic, compensated +for his successful pressure upon Rome by helping to +send to the stake, notwithstanding the Emperor's safe-conduct, +the pure-hearted Huss. The result was that, +even before the time of Major, the expectation, so long +cherished by Europe, of a great reform through a great +Council had died out. And the University of Paris, +instead of continuing to act in place of that coming +Council as 'a sort of standing committee of the +French, or even of the universal, Church,'<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> had become +a reactionary and retarding power. It opposed +Humanism, and was the stronghold of the method of +teaching which the new generation knew as 'Sophistry.' +It opposed Reuchlin, and was preparing to +oppose Luther, and to urge against its own most +distinguished pupils the law of penal fire. It continued +to oppose the despotism of the Pope, but it +did so rather from the standpoint of a narrow and +nationalist Gallicanism, based largely upon the counter-despotism +of the King. This selfish policy attained in +Major's own time its fitting result and reward. The +despotic King and despotic Pope found it convenient +for their interests to partition between them the +'liberties' of the Gallican Church; and by the Concordat +of Bologna in 1516, Leo gained a huge revenue +from the ecclesiastical endowments of France, while +Francis usurped the right of nominating all its bishops. +The University, as well as the Parliaments, resisted, and +Major, who now lectured in the Sorbonne as Doctor in +Theology, and had become famous as a representative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +of the anti-Papal school of Occam, took his share in +the work. He was preparing for publication a Commentary +on the Gospel of Matthew, and he now added +to it four Disputations against the arbitrary powers of +Popes and Bishops, and especially against the authority +of Popes in temporal matters over Kings, and in +spiritual matters over Councils. It was all in vain. +In 1517 the University was forced by the Crown to +submit, after a protest of the broadest kind;<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and in +1518 Major returned to his native country a famous +teacher, but a defeated churchman. Yet the grave fact +for Scotland was that Major and his old University, and +the Western hierarchy everywhere, henceforward practically +acquiesced in their own defeat. A greater question +had arisen, and one which they were unwilling to face. +On the other side of the Rhine, Luther and his friends +now claimed for the individual Christian the same kind +of freedom against Councils and Bishops which the +previous century had claimed for Councils and Bishops +against Popes. Paris took the lead in opposition to the +new Evangel by its Academic decrees of 1521. And +when Major, in 1530, republished his Commentary, he +not only omitted from it his Disputations against Papal +absolutism, but dedicated it to Archbishop James Beaton<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +as the 'supplanter' and 'exterminator' of Lutheranism, +and, above all, as the judge who, amid the murmurings +of many, had recently<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and righteously condemned the +nobly-born Patrick Hamilton.</p> + +<p>It may be well thus to represent to ourselves what +must have been the outlook into the Western Church of +Major, or of any one who looked through Major's eyes, in +that year 1523. But I think it very unlikely that Knox +could have derived from such an outlook, or from Major +in any aspect, a serious impulse to his career as Reformer. +Knox no doubt learned from him scholastic logic, and +turned it in later days with much vigour to his own +purposes. Major, too, may have unconsciously revealed +to his pupils with how much hope the former generation +had looked forward to a council. We find afterwards +that Knox and his friends, like Luther in his earlier +stages, when appealing against the hierarchy, sometimes +appealed to a General Council. But neither side regarded +this as serious. It would have been more important +if we could have shown that Major transmitted to +his pupil the opposition maintained for centuries by his +university to an ultramontane Pontiff as the hereditary +opponent of all Church freedom and all Church reform. +But Luther and the German Reformers had already +exaggerated this view, so far as to suggest that the +usurping chief of the Church must be the scriptural +Antichrist. And their views, brought direct to Scotland +by men like Hamilton, had, as we have seen, +immensely increased the reaction in the mind of Major, +which was begun abroad before 1518. It is, indeed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +curious to notice how in his later writings the old +university feeling against tyranny in the Church almost +disappears, while the equally old and honourable feeling +of the learned Middle Age, and especially of its universities, +against the tyranny of kings and nobles, finds +expression alike in his history and his commentaries. +Buchanan, who proclaimed to all Europe the constitutional +rights, even against their sovereign, of the +people of Scotland, and Knox, the 'subject born within +the same,' who was destined to translate that Radical +theory so largely into fact, were both taught by Major. +And they may well have been much influenced on this +side by a man who had long before written that 'the +original and supreme power resides in the whole of a +free people, and is incapable of being surrendered,' insomuch +that an incorrigible tyrant may always be 'deposed +by that people as by a superior authority.'<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> For +even Fergus the First, he narrates, 'had no right' other +than the nation's choice, and when Sir William Wallace was +yet a boy, he was taught by his Scottish tutor to repeat +continually the rude inspiring rhyme, '<i>Dico tibi verum +Libertas optima rerum</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> These views as to the rights +of man, and of Scottish men, may well have fanned, or +even kindled, the strong feeling of independence in +secular matters and as a citizen, which burned in the +breast of Knox. But as to spiritual matters and +the Church universal, the only feelings which we can +imagine Major, on his return from abroad, to have +impressed upon the younger man from Haddington +are a despair of reform, and a disbelief in revolution.</p> + +<p>Let us turn, therefore, from abroad to the Church at +home. It is admitted on all hands that the clergy of +this age in Scotland were extraordinarily corrupt in life,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +a reproach which applied eminently to the higher ranks +and the representative men. But corruption of churchmen +is always a symptom of deeper things. It does not +appear that Scotland was much influenced by the spirit +of the Renaissance, whether you apply that term to the +intellectual passion for both knowledge and beauty which +spread over most parts of Europe during the three previous +centuries, or to the more specific and half-Pagan culture +which in some parts of Europe was the result. It may +be more important to observe that the Church in Scotland +had not enjoyed any period of inward religious +revival—any which could be described as native to it +or original. On the contrary its great epoch had been +its transformation, through royal and foreign influence, +into the likeness of English and continental civilisation, +as civilisation was understood in the Middle Age. And +that transformation in the days of Queen Margaret and +her sons was accompanied, and to a large extent compensated, +by a less desirable incorporation into the +western ecclesiastical system. The later 'coming of +the Friars' had not the same powerful effect in the +remote north which it had in some other realms. And +in any case that impulse too had long since yielded to a +strong reaction, and the preachers were now regarded +with the disgust with which mankind usually resent the +attempt to manipulate them by external means without +a real message. But there were two great sources of +ruin to the Scottish church, both connected with its +relation to a powerful aristocracy. One was the extraordinary +extent to which its high offices were used as +sinecures for the favourites, and the sons of favourites, +of nobles and of kings. This did not tend to impoverish +the church; on the contrary, it made it an object to all +the great families to keep up the wealth on which they +proposed that their unworthy scions should feed. 'In +proportion to the resources of the country the Scottish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +clergy were probably the richest in Europe.'<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> But the +wealth, accumulated in idle and unworthy hands, was +now a scandal to religion, and a constant fountain of +immorality. Still worse was the extent to which that +wealth was in Scotland diverted from its best uses to the +less desirable side—the monastic side—of the mediæval +church. In the revival which came from England before +the twelfth century, a great impulse had been given to +the parochialising of the country, and to keeping up +religious life in every district and estate. But a prejudice +running back to very early centuries branded the parish +priests as seculars, and gradually drew away again the +devotion and the means of the faithful from the parishes +where they were needed, and to which they properly +belonged. It drew them away, in Scotland, not only to +rich centres like cathedrals, with their too wasteful retinue, +but far more to the great monasteries scattered over the +land. Kings and barons, who proposed to spend life so as +to need after its close a good deal of intercession, naturally +turned their eyes, even before death-bed, to these wealthy +strongholds of poverty and prayer; and of a hundred +other places besides Melrose, we know 'That lands and +livings, many a rood, had gifted the shrine for their +soul's repose.' But the transfer, to such centres, of +lands (which were supposed, by the feudal law, to +belong to chiefs rather than to the community), was not +so direct an injury to the people of Scotland, as the +alienation to the same institutions of parochial tithes—sometimes +under the form of alienating the churches to +which the tithes were paid. These parochial tithes all +possessors of land in the parish were bound by law to +pay, whether they desired it or not. And, strictly, they +should have been paid to the pastor of the parish and +for its benefit. But by a scandalous corruption, often +protested against by both Parliament and the Church, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +Lords of lands were allowed to divert the tithes, which +they were already bound to pay, to congested ecclesiastical +centres, sometimes to cathedrals, more often to +religious houses of 'regulars.' After this was done the +monastery or religious House enjoyed the whole sheaves +or tithes of the land in question; the local vicar, if the +House appointed one, being entitled only to the 'lesser +tithes' of domestic animals, eggs, grass, etc. This +robbery of the parishes of Scotland—parishes which +were already far too large and too scattered, as John +Major points out—was carried on to an extraordinary +extent. Each of the religious houses of Holyrood and +Kelso had the tithes of twenty-seven parishes diverted +or 'appropriated' to it. In some districts two-thirds of +the whole parish churches were in the hands of the +monks, and no fewer than thirty-four were bestowed on +Arbroath Abbey in the course of a single reign. When +we remember that the Lords of these great houses +were generally members—often unworthy members—of +the families which were thus enriching them to the +detriment of the country, we can imagine the complicated +corruption which went on from reign to reign. +Unfortunately the nepotism and simony which resulted +had direct example and sanction in the relation to +Scotland of the Head of the Church at Rome.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> The +most ardent Catholics admit this as true in relation to +Europe generally in the time with which we deal;<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> and +the Holy See had been allowed some centuries before +to claim Scotland as a country which belonged to it in +a peculiar sense, and the Church of Scotland as subject +to it specially and immediately. The jealousy of an +Italian potentate which was always powerful in England, +and which had now, under Henry the Eighth, made it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +possible to reject the Romish supremacy while retaining +the whole of Roman Catholic doctrine, had little influence +farther north. Scotland followed the Pope, even +when he went to Avignon, and when England had +accepted his rival or Anti-Pope. And while in this +it sympathised with France, it had little of that +traditional dislike to high Ultramontane claims which +we saw to have been so strong in Paris. The Pope +remained the centre of our church system, and there +were in Scotland no projects of serious reform except +those which went so deep as (in the case of the Lollards +and other precursors of the Reformation) to break with +the existing ecclesiastical machine as a whole, and so to +challenge the deadliest penalties of the law.</p> + +<p>For it is a mistake to suppose that heresy, in the +modern misuse of the word (as equivalent to false +doctrine), was greatly dreaded in the Roman Catholic +Church, or savagely punished by our ancient code. In +Scotland, as elsewhere, the fundamental law was that of +Theodosius and the empire, that every man must be a +member of the Catholic Church, and submit to it. That +law was indeed the original establishment of the Church, +and for many centuries there had been in Scotland no +penalty for breaking it except death. But the Church, when +its authority was thus once for all sufficiently secured, +was, in the early Middle Age, rather tolerant of theological +opinion. And not until error had been published and +persisted in, in face of the injunctions of authority—not +until the heresy thus threatened to be internal schism, +or repudiation of that authority—was the secular power +usually invoked. Unfortunately Western Europe as a +whole, ever since its intellectual awakening three or +more centuries ago, was moving on to precisely this +crisis; and the very existence of the Church, in the +sense of a body of which all citizens were compulsorily +members, was now felt to be at stake. The Scottish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +sovereign had long since been taken bound, by his +coronation oath, to interpose his authority; and the +present King, delivered in 1528 from the tutory of the +Douglases by the Beatons, had thrown himself into the +side of those powerful ecclesiastics. A statute, the first +against heresy for nearly a century, was passed two years +after Knox went to college. When he was twenty-three +years old, England was preparing to reject the Pope's +supremacy; but Scotland was so far from it that this year +Patrick Hamilton was burned at St Andrews. When he +was thirty-four years old, the English revolution had +been accomplished by the despotic Henry; but his +Scottish nephew had refused to follow the lead, and in +that year five other heretics were burned on the Castle-hill +of Edinburgh, the popular 'Commons King' looking +on. On James V.'s death there was a slight reaction +under the Regent, and Parliament even sanctioned the +publication of the Scriptures. But Arran made his +peace with the Church in 1543, and Beaton, the able +but worldly Archbishop of St Andrews, and as such +Knox's diocesan, became once more the leader of Scotland. +He had already instituted the Inquisition throughout +his see; he was now advanced to be Papal Legate; +and he was fully prepared to press into execution the +Acts which a few years before he and the King had persuaded +the Parliament to pass. Not to be a member of +the Church had always meant death. But now it was +death by statute to argue against the Pope's authority; +it was made unlawful even to enter into discussion on +matters of religion; and those in Scotland who were +merely <i>suspected</i> of heresy were pronounced incapable of +any office there. And, lastly, those who left the country +to avoid the fatal censure of its Church on such crimes +as these, were held by law to be already condemned. +The illustrious Buchanan was one of those who thus +fled. Knox remained, and suddenly becomes visible.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Knox's later biographer, Dr Hume Brown, has given to the +world a letter from Sir Peter Young to Beza, transmitting a +posthumous portrait of Knox, which is thus no doubt the original +of the likeness in Beza's Icones, and makes the latter our only trustworthy +representation of him. The letter adds, 'You may look for +(expectabis) his full history from Master Lawson'; and this raises +the hope that Beza's biography, founded upon the memoir of Knox's +colleague, James Lawson, as the <i>icon</i> probably was upon the Edinburgh +portrait, would be of great value. In point of fact Beza's +biography does give great prominence to Knox's closing pastorate +and last days, as his newly-appointed colleague might be expected +to do. But about his early years it is hopelessly inaccurate, to say +the least.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> So, in Shakespeare, Sir Hugh, who is 'of the Church'; Sir +Topas the curate, whose beard and gown the clown borrows; Sir +Oliver Martext, who will not be 'flouted out of his calling;' and Sir +Nathaniel, who claims to have 'taste and feeling,' and whose female +parishioners call him indifferently the 'Person' or the 'Parson.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Rashdall's 'Universities of Europe,' i. 525.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The Act of Appeal of the University lays down principles which +apply far beyond the bounds of Gallicanism; that 'the Pope, +although he holds his power immediately from God, is not prevented, +by his possession of this power, from going wrong'; that +'if he commands that which is unjust, he may righteously be resisted'; +and 'if, by the action of the powers that be, we are +deprived of the means of resisting the Pope, there remains one +remedy, founded on natural law, which no Prince can take away—the +remedy of appeal, which is competent to every individual, by +divine right, and natural right, and human right.' And, accordingly, +the University, protesting that the Basle Council's decrees of +the past have been set aside, Appeals to a Council in the future.—Bulaeus' +'Hist. of the University of Paris,' vol. viii. p. 92.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This uncompromising preface took the place of one in which +Major, on his arrival in Scotland in 1518, praised the same Archbishop, +then in Glasgow, for his many-sided and 'chamaelon-like +mildness.' It is generally recognised that the stern policy latterly +carried on under the nominal authority of James Beaton was really inspired +by his nephew and coadjutor, David Beaton, the future cardinal.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> 'Expositio Matt.' fol. 71. (Paris.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> 'I tell the truth to thee, there's nought like Liberty!'—Major's +'History of Greater Britain.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Hume Brown's 'Knox,' i. 44.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See Scots Acts, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1471, c. 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> An Petrus Romae fuerit, sub judice lis est:<br /> +Simonem Romae nemo fuisse negat.</p></div></div> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center">THE CRISIS: SINGLE OR TWO-FOLD?</p><br /> + +<p>On this dark background Knox for the first time +appears in history. But we catch sight of him merely +as an attendant on the attractive figure of George +Wishart. At Cambridge Wishart had been 'courteous, +lowly, lovely, glad to teach, and desirous to learn'; +when he returned to Scotland, Knox and others found +him 'a man of such graces as before him were never +heard within this realm.' He had preached in several +parts of Scotland, and was brought in the spring of +1546 by certain gentlemen of East Lothian, 'who then +were earnest professors of Christ Jesus,' to the neighbourhood +of Haddington. On the morning of his last +sermon in that town he had received (in the mansion-house +of Lethington, 'the laird whereof,' father of the +famous William Maitland, 'was ever civil, albeit not +persuaded in religion') a letter, 'which received and +read, he called for John Knox, who had waited upon +him carefully from the time he came to Lothian.' +And the same evening, with a presentiment of his +coming arrest, he 'took his good-night, as it were for +ever,' of all his acquaintance, and</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'John Knox pressing to have gone with the said Master +George, he said, "Nay, return to your bairns, and God bless +you! One is sufficient for one sacrifice." And so he caused a +two-handed sword (which commonly was carried with the said +Master George) be taken from the said John Knox, who,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +although unwillingly, obeyed, and returned with Hugh Douglas +of Longniddrie.'<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p></div> + +<p>The same night Wishart was arrested by the Earl of +Bothwell, and afterwards handed over to the Cardinal +Archbishop, tried by him as a heretic, and on 1st March +1546 burned in front of his castle of St Andrews. +Ere long this stronghold was stormed, and the Cardinal +murdered in his own chamber by a number of the +gentlemen of Fife, whose raid was partly in revenge +for Wishart's death. They shut themselves up in the +castle for protection, and we hear no more of John +Knox till the following year. Then we are told that, +'wearied of removing from place to place, by reason +of the persecution that came upon him by the Bishop +of St Andrews,' he joined Leslie's band in their hold in +St Andrews, in consequence of the desire of his pupils' +parents 'that himself might have the benefit of the +castle, and their children the benefit of his doctrine +[teaching].' It is plain that by this time what Knox +taught was the doctrine of Wishart. Indeed he had not +been long in St Andrews when, urged by the congregation +there, he consented to become its preacher. And his +very first sermon in this capacity rang out the full note +of the coming reform or rather revolution in the religion +of Scotland.</p> + +<p>Now, this is a startlingly sudden transition. The +change from the position of a nameless notary under +Papal authority, who is in addition a minister of the +altar of the Catholic Church, to that of a preacher in +the whole armour of the Puritan Reformation, is great.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +Was the transition a public and official one only? Was +it a change merely ecclesiastical or political? Or was it +preceded by a more private change and a personal crisis? +And was that private and personal crisis merely intellectual? +Was it, that is, the adoption of a new dogma +only, or perhaps the acceptance of a new system? Or if +there was something besides these, was it nothing more +than the resolve of a very powerful will—such a will as +we must all ascribe to Knox? Was this all? Or was there +here rather, perhaps, the sort of change which determines +the will instead of being determined by it—a personal +change, in the sense of being emotional and inward as +well as deep and permanent—a new <i>set</i> of the whole +man, and so the beginning of an inner as well as of an +outer and public life?</p> + +<p>The question is of the highest interest, but as we +have said, there is no direct answer. It would be easy +for each reader to supply the void by reasoning out, +according to his own prepossessions, what must have +been, or what ought to have been, the experience of +such a man at such a time. It would be easy—but +unprofitable. Far better would it be could we adduce +from his own utterances evidence—indirect evidence +even—that the crisis which he declines to record really +took place; and that the great outward career was +founded on a new personal life within. Now there is +such an utterance, which has been hitherto by no means +sufficiently recognised. It is 'a meditation or prayer, +thrown forth of my sorrowful heart and pronounced by +my half-dead tongue,' on 12th March, 1566, at a +moment when Knox's cause was in extremity of danger. +Mary had joined the Catholic League and driven the +Protestant Lords into England, and their attempted +counter-plot had failed by the defection of Darnley. Knox +had now before him certain exile and possible death, +and on the eve of leaving Edinburgh he sat down and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +wrote privately the following personal confession. Five +years later, when publishing his last book, after the +national victory but amid great public troubles, he prefixed +a preface explaining that he had already 'taken +good-night at the world and at all the fasherie of the +same,' and henceforward wished his brethren only to pray +that God would 'put an end to my long and painful +battle.' And with this preface he now printed the old +meditation or confession of 1566. It is therefore autobiographical +by a double title. And it is made even +more interesting by the striking rubric with which the +writer heads it.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">JOHN KNOX, WITH DELIBERATE MIND, TO HIS GOD.</p> + +<p>'Be merciful unto me, O Lord, and call not into judgment my +manifold sins; and chiefly those whereof 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 impatient, tending to desperation; and in the +mean [middle] 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 do I delight; but that with them I am +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 clame [cry] 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 Jesus Christ. +In whom, by Thy mere grace, I doubt not myself to be elected to +eternal salvation, whereof Thou hast given unto me (unto me, O +Lord, most wretched and unthankful creature) most assured signs. +For being drowned in ignorance Thou hast given to me knowledge +above the common sort of my brethren; my tongue hast Thou used +to set forth Thy glory, to oppugne idolatry, errors, and false doctrine. +Thou hast compelled me to forespeak, as well deliverance to the +afflicted, as destruction to certain inobedient, the performance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +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 unto my heart remission of my sins, which I acknowledge +and confess myself to have received by the precious blood of Jesus +Christ once shed; in 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, remaining in the same by true +faith, which is the only victory that overcometh the world.'<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p></div> + +<p>This window into the heart of a great man is not less +transparent because it opens upwards. Its revelation of +an inner life, with the alternations proper to it of struggle +and victory, will receive confirmation as we go on. +As we go on too we shall be arrested by the intense +personal sympathy which Knox showed in helping those +around him who were still weaker and more tempted +than himself—a sympathy in which many will find a +surer proof of the existence of a life within, than even +in this record of his deliberate and devotional mind. +What this record now suggests to us is that the personal +life which it reveals had a foundation in some personal +and moral crisis. The truth and light came to him when +he was 'drowned in ignorance,' and the change cannot +have <i>originated</i> in any fancy as to his own predestination, +or in any foresight by himself of his own public +services. The foundation, as it is put by Knox, was +deeper, and was, in his view, common to him with all +Christian men. It is a transaction of the individual +with the Divine, in which the man comes to God by +'true faith.' And this faith is, or ought to be, absolute +and assured, simply because it is faith in the offer and +promise of God himself in his Evangel. This was the +teaching of Wishart, as it had been of Patrick Hamilton +before him. It was the teaching which Hamilton had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +derived from Luther, and Wishart from both Luther and +the Reformers of Switzerland. Later on, when the minor +differences between the two schools of Protestantism +had declared themselves, it might fairly be said that +Knox, and with him Scotland, founded their religion +not so much (with Luther) on the central doctrine of +immediate access to God through his promise, as (with +Calvin) on the more general doctrine of the immediate +authority of God through his word. But the former—the +Evangel—was the original life and light of the +Reformation everywhere, and its glow as of 'glad confident +morning' now flushed the whole sky of Western +Europe.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Knox himself always preached it, and on the +day before his death he let fall an expression which +indicates that his acceptance of it had rescued him +at this very date from the tossings of an inward sea. +'Go, read where I cast my first anchor!' he said to his +wife. 'And so she read the seventeenth of John's +Gospel.' Now the ' Evangel of John' was what Knox +tells us he taught from day to day in the chapel, within +the Castle of St Andrews, at a certain hour; and when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +on entering the city he took up this book of the New +Testament, he took it up at the point 'where he left +at his departure from Longniddry where before his +residence was,' and whither Wishart had sent him back +to his pupils a year before. And of all parts of this +Evangel the rock-built anchorage of the seventeenth +chapter may surely best claim to be that commemorated +in Knox's stately and deliberate words.</p> + +<p>But these conjectures must not make us forget the +fact that Knox himself places an undoubted and great +crisis at the threshold of his public life. His teaching +in 1547 of John's Gospel, and of a certain +'catechism,' though carried on within the walls, sometimes +of the chapel, and sometimes of the parish kirk, +of St Andrews, was supposed to be private or tutorial. +Soon, however, the more influential men there urged him +'that he would take the preaching place upon him. But +he utterly refused, alleging that he would not run where +God had not called him.... Whereupon, they privily +among themselves advising, having with them in council +Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, they concluded that +they would give a charge to the said John, and that +publicly by the mouth of their preacher.' And so, after a +sermon turning on the power of the church or congregation +to call men to the ministry,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The said John Rough, preacher, directed his words to the said +John Knox, saying, "Brother, ye shall not be offended, albeit that +I speak unto you that which I have in charge, even from all those +that are here present, which is this: In the name of God, and of +His Son Jesus Christ, and in the name of these that presently call +you by my mouth, I charge you that you refuse not this holy vocation, +but ... 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 graces with you." And in the +end, he said to those that were present, "Was not this your charge +to me? And do ye not approve this vocation?" They answered, +"It was: and we approve it." Whereat the said John, abashed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +burst forth in most abundant tears, and withdrew himself to his +chamber. His countenance and behaviour, from that day till the +day that he was compelled to present himself to the public place +of preaching, did sufficiently declare the grief and trouble of his +heart; for no man saw any sign of mirth in him, neither yet had he +pleasure to accompany any man, many days together.'<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p></div> + +<p>There is no reason to think that Knox exaggerates the +importance of this scene in his own history. A man has +but one life, and the choosing even of his secular work +in it is sometimes so difficult as to make him welcome +any external compulsion. But the necessity of an +external and even a divine vocation, in order to +justify a man's devoting his life to handling things +divine, has long been a tradition of the Christian +Church—and especially of the Scottish church, which +in its parts, and as a whole, has been repeatedly convulsed +by this question of 'The Call.' And in +Knox's time, as in the earliest age of Christianity, +what is now a tradition was a very stern fact. The +men who were thus calling him knew well, and Knox +himself, more clear of vision than any of them, knew +better, that what they were inviting him to was in all +probability a violent death. Rough himself perished in +the flames at Smithfield; and four months after this +vocation Knox was sitting chained and half-naked in +the galleys at Rouen, under the lash of a French slave-driver. +He did not perhaps himself always remember +how the future then appeared to him. Old men looking +back upon their past are apt 'to see in their life the +story of their life,' and the Reformer, after his later +amazing victories, sometimes speaks as if these had +been his in hope, or even in promise, from the outset +of his career. But it is plain to us now, as we study +his letters in those early years, that he was repeatedly +brought to accept what we know to have been the real<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +probability—viz., that, while the ultimate triumph of the +Evangel would be secure, it might be brought about only +after his own failure and ruin. Such were the alternatives +which Knox—a man of undoubted sensitiveness +and tenderness, and who describes himself as naturally +'fearful'<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>—had to ponder during those days of seclusion +at St Andrews. Of one thing he had no doubt. The +call, if once he accepted it, was irrevocable;<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> and he +must thenceforward go straight on, abandoning the many +resources of silence and of flight which might still be +open to a private man.</p> + +<p>But this was not all. It would be doing injustice to +Knox, and to our materials, to suppose that personal +considerations were the only ones which pressed upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +him in this crisis. He never, in any circumstances, +could have been a man of 'a private spirit,' and his +present call was expressly to bear the public burden. +But the burden so proposed was overwhelming. Was +it by his mouth that his countrymen were to be urged +to expose themselves, individually, to certain danger and +possible ruin? Was it upon his initiative that his country +was to be divided, distracted, and probably destroyed—deprived +of its old faith, severed from its old alliances, +and hurled into revolt from its five hundred years of +Christian peace?<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> The risk to his country was extreme. +And if, by some marvellous conspiration of providences, +Scotland passed through all this without ruin, was +Knox prepared to face the more tremendous responsibilities +of success? Did he hear in that hour the +voice by which leaders of Movements in later days have +been chilled, 'Thou couldst a people raise, but couldst +not rule?' For if we assume that he felt entitled to +back this weight of leadership upon God and +Evangel, the question still remained, Was even the +Evangel strong enough to bear this burden of a nation's +future? That it was able to guide and save the individual +man, through all changes and chances of this life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +and the life beyond, Knox may have been assured. But +the questions which rose behind were those of Church +organisation and social reconstruction. Was it possible, +and was it lawful, to accept the existing Church system, +in whole or in part, and to build upon that? And if this +was impossible, if Christ's Church must go back to the +Divine foundation in His new-discovered Word, was +that Word sufficient, not for foundation merely, but for +all superstructure—for doctrine, discipline, and worship +alike? Or would the Church be entitled to impose its +own wise and reasonable additions to the recovered +statute-book of Scripture? Lastly, if such a new Church +shone already in 'devout imagination' before Knox, he +must have also had some forecast of its new relations +to feudal and royal Scotland. Was he to plead merely +for freedom, under a neutral civil authority? Or in +the event of the chiefs of the nation, or some of them, +individually adopting the new faith, were they to +adopt it for themselves alone; or for subjects and +vassals too, as under the former regime? And were +they to enforce it, by feudal or royal or even legislative +authority, on unwilling subjects and unwilling +vassals too?</p> + +<p>I think it clear that all these questions must have +passed before the mind of Knox during that week of +agitated seclusion within the castle walls. Not only so. +There is evidence in his own writings that when at the +close of that time he came forth to take up the public +work, he had already formed his conclusions as to all the +main principles on which it was to proceed. And from +these he never afterwards varied. Thirteen years were +still to elapse before they resulted in Scotland in a +religious revolution; and during those years of wandering +and exile Knox learned much from the wisest and +best of the new leaders—much from them; and much, +too, from his own experience, which he was in the future<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +to reduce to details of practice. But his principles were +the same from the first. He believed fundamentally in +the gracious Word of God revealed to man, as overriding +and over-ruling all other authorities. His first +sermon denounced the whole existing church system as +an Anti-Christian substitute, interposed between man +and that original message. But, strange to say, the part of +the discourse which at once aroused controversy was his +sweeping denial of the Church's right to institute ceremonies, +the ground of denial being that 'man may +neither make nor devise a religion that is acceptable to +God.' He was thus Protestant and Puritan<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> from the +first, as his master Wishart was before him, and his choice +had now to be made according to his convictions. We, +looking back upon the past at our ease, may recognise +that on some of these matters he was too hasty in his +conclusions—especially in his conclusions as to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +opponents, and the duty towards them which the party +now oppressed would have, in the unlikely event of its +coming into power. But we are bound to remember—Knox +himself insists upon it—that he did not take up +the function of guide to his people at his own hand, or +accept it at his own leisure. He was suddenly called +upon in God's name to accept or refuse an almost hopeless +task, but one in which success and failure involved +the greatest alternatives to him. That preaching the +Gospel to which he was called, if it meant on the one +hand, in the event of failure, exile or death, meant on +the other, in case of success, the salvation of a whole +people now sitting in darkness. But he had to accept +the task as a whole or to refuse it; and his conclusions +as to what that task involved were fused into unity—in +some respects into premature unity—in the glow of a +supreme moral trial. For the week of deliberation before +he emerged as the teacher of the Congregation was +certainly not spent upon detailed difficulties either of +future legislation or present consistency. It prolonged +itself rather in poise and struggle against the more +obvious and tremendous obstacles, reinforced no doubt +by a thousand more remote behind them. But the +ultimate question was whether the gigantic strain of all +of these combined would be too much for an anchor +dropped by one strong hand into the depths of the +Evangel.</p> + +<p>And so that week saved a nation—perhaps a man.</p> + +<p>For I think it quite a possible thing that this crisis +in St Andrews, the only one recorded or even suggested +by Knox himself, may have been the one personal crisis +of his life. I cannot indeed say with Carlyle, that +before this Knox 'seemed well content to guide his +own steps by the light of the Reformation, nowise unduly +intruding it on others ... resolute he to walk +by the truth, and speak the truth when called to do it;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +not ambitious of more, not fancying himself capable of +more.'<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> Of all men living or dead, this is the one +whom it is most impossible to think of as acquiescing +in such an easy relation to those around him, or even +as attempting so to acquiesce—at least without inward +self-question and torture. We must remember that +Knox had undoubtedly before this time embraced the +doctrinal system of the Reformation, no doubt in the +form taught by Wishart. And a catechism of that doctrine, +perhaps founded upon or identical with that which +Wishart brought from Basel, he gave to his East Lothian +pupils. Long before his external 'call' at St Andrews, +the inward impulse to preach the message to his +fellow-men, and to champion their right to receive +it, must have pressed upon his conscience. Was +this pearl worth the price of selling all to buy it? +And was such a price demanded of him individually? +If these questions were still unanswered—for +that they had been put, and put incessantly, I have no +doubt—then the Knox whom we know was still waiting to +be born, and the representative of Scotland was like Scotland +itself, 'as yet without a soul.'<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> He had carried a +sword before Wishart, and he and the gentlemen of East +Lothian would have defended their saintly guest at the +peril of their lives. He had been followed thereafter +by the persecution of his bishop, until he made up his +mind for exile in Germany (rather than in England, +where he heard that the Romish doctrine flourished +under Royal Supremacy). And after the 'slaughter of +the Cardinal,' he took refuge within the strong walls of +the vacant castle, like other men whose sympathies made +them, in the quaint words of the chronicler<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>, 'suspect +themselves guilty of the death' of Beaton, though they +might not have known of it before the fact. But all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +this Knox might conceivably have done, and still have +borne about with him a troubled and divided mind, until +the address of Rough flashed out upon his conscience +his true vocation, and sent him in tears and solitude to +make proof of the Evangel—and of the Evangel in that +form which takes hold of both eternities. This final crisis +may thus have been the only one. And if it were so, +Knox would not be the first man who has found in self-consecration +a new birth; nor the first prophet whose +'Here am I' has been answered by fire from the altar +and the assurance that iniquity is purged.</p> + +<p>But even if we assume, what is more probable, that +the crisis in St Andrews was not the first, but the second, +in Knox's religious life, the result for the purposes of +critical biography is the same. For the later crisis resumed +and gathered up into itself, on a higher plane, +and with more intensity, the elements of the change +which went before. It was, on this assumption, a new +call; and a call to higher and public work. But it was +a call in the same name, and to the same man, to do +new work on the strength of principles and motives to +which he had already committed himself. It was, in +short, a greater strain, but upon the first anchor.</p> + +<p>This point has acquired more importance since Carlyle, +and so many of us who follow him as admirers of Knox, +have adopted the modern trick of speech of calling him +a Prophet to his time. It is assumed that Knox took +the same view,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> and that he held himself to have had,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +if not a prophet's supernatural endowment and vocation, +at least a special mission and an extraordinary call. +The question is complicated by other things than the +special and extraordinary work which he, in point of +fact, achieved. We find that, in the course of that +work, Knox, a man of piercing intuitions in personal +and public matters, repeatedly committed himself to judgments, +and even predictions, which were unexpectedly +verified. And some of these he himself regarded, as we +have seen already in his deliberate Meditation, as not +intuitions merely, but private intimations given by God +to his own heart and mind. Naturally, too, a man of +Knox's devout and yet passionate temper was disposed +to lay as much stress upon these incidents as they would +bear; while the marvel-mongers around him, and in the +next generation, went farther still. But the main fact +to remember is, that Knox all his life insisted that such +incidents, whatever their occasional value, were no part +of his original mission, and were outside the bounds of +his life-long vocation. The passage in which he is disposed +to make most of them is the following; and it is +worth quoting also, because of the striking terms in +which he incidentally describes his real work and permanent +call. He is explaining why, after twenty years' +preaching, he has never published even a sermon, and +now publishes one with nothing but wholesome ad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>monitions +for the time. (This wholesome sermon was +the one which so much offended Darnley.)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Considering myself rather called of my God to instruct the +ignorant, comfort the sorrowful, confirm the weak, and rebuke the +proud, by tongue and lively voice in these most corrupt days, than +to compose books for the age to come: seeing that so much is +written (and that by men of most singular condition), and yet so +little well observed; I decreed to contain myself within the bonds +[bounds?] of that vocation, whereunto I found myself specially +called. I dare not deny (lest that in so doing I should be injurious +to the giver), but that God hath revealed to me secrets unknown to +the world; and also that he hath made my tongue a trumpet, to +forewarn realms and nations, yea, certain great personages, of +translations and changes, when no such things were feared, nor yet +were appearing; a portion whereof cannot the world deny (be it +never so blind) to be fulfilled, and the rest, alas! I fear shall follow +with greater expedition, and in more full perfection, than my sorrowful +heart desireth. Those revelations and assurances notwithstanding, +I did ever abstain to commit anything to writ, contented only +to have obeyed the charge of Him who commanded me to cry.'<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p></div> + +<p>And when he did 'cry,' from the pulpit or elsewhere, +he was careful to found his claim to be heard, not on +private intimations, but on God's open word. As early +as 1554 he denounces judgment to come upon England +(which, by the way, was not fulfilled in the sense which +he expected), but he adds immediately—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'This my affirmation proceedeth, not from any conjecture of +man's fantasy, but from the ordinary course of God's judgments +against manifest contemners of his precepts from the beginning;'<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p></div> + +<p>and more fully in another contemporary document—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'But ye would know the grounds of my certitude: God grant +that hearing them ye may understand and steadfastly believe the +same. My assurances are not the marvels of Merlin, nor yet the +dark sentences of profane prophesies; but, 1. the plain truth of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +God's word, 2. the invincible justice of the everlasting God, and 3. +the ordinary course of his punishments and plagues from the beginning, +are my assurance and grounds.'<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p></div> + +<p>This was early in his career. At its close Knox, now +very frail, was deeply aggrieved by the troubles caused +by Lethington and Kirkaldy, who held the castle of +Edinburgh. His verbal predictions of their coming end, +as reported (after the event however) by those around +his death-bed, and his assurance at the same time of +'mercy to the soul' of the chivalrous Kirkaldy, are +among the most striking incidents of this kind in his +life. But in his Will, written contemporaneously on +13th May 1572, he says,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I am not ignorant that many would that I should enter into +particular determination of these present troubles; to whom I +plainly and simply answer, that, as I never exceeded the bounds of +God's Scriptures, so will I not do, in this part, by God's grace.'<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p></div> + +<p>This did not prevent him from freely describing his old +friends in the Castle as murderers, and predicting their +destruction, especially as they seemed now to be planning +a counter-revolution in the interest of the exiled Queen +of Scots. They retorted by accusing him, among other +things, of prejudging her and 'entering into God's secret +counsel.' Knox roused himself to answer the charges +in detail. But there remained, he adds,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'One thing that is most bitter to me, and most fearful, if that my +accusers were able to prove their accusation, to wit, that I proudly +and arrogantly entered into God's secret counsel, as if I were called +thereto. God be merciful to my accusators, of their rash and ungodly +judgment! If they understood how fearful my conscience is, +and ever has been, to exceed the bounds of my vocation, they +would not so boldly have accused me. I am not ignorant that the +secrets of God appertain to Himself alone: but things revealed in +His law appertain to us and our children for ever. What I have +spoken against the adultery, against the murder, against the pride,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +and against the idolatry of that wicked woman, I spake not as one +that entered into God's secret counsel, but being one (of God's +great mercy) called to preach according to His blessed will, revealed +in His most holy word.'<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p></div> + +<p>The old man's irritation was most natural. For, +on the one hand, his accusers had hit a blot. He +was sometimes extremely dogmatic, imperious, and +rash in his application of 'God's revealed will' both +to persons and things. But the form in which they +put it—that he posed as a prophet, as one having a +special message from God's secret counsel, instead of +a general commission to proclaim that revealed will—was +not only false, but struck at the roots of his whole +life and work. It is demonstrable that from Knox's +first teaching in East Lothian and first preaching in St +Andrews onwards, the meaning of both teaching and +preaching was a call to the common Scottish man, and +to every man, to go to God direct without any intermediation +except God's open word.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> And I think it +plain that this direct and divine call <i>to all</i> was not only +the meaning but the strength of the message in Scotland +as elsewhere. It seems to us now as if the burden +which it laid on the individual—on frail and feeble +women, for example, in that time of persecution—was +overwhelming. It is most pathetic to find Knox, when +sitting down to write tender and consoling messages to +those in such circumstances, pre-occupied with urging +the obligation of each one of them individually to hold +fast, against possible torture or death, that which each +one had individually received. But he never shrank +from it, or from pointing out that such relation to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +God himself was the noblest privilege. And the evidence +is plain that all over the Europe of that age +this reception of a Divine message direct to the individual, +in the newly opened Scriptures, was, not a +burden, but a source of incomparable energy and exhilaration—alike +to men and women, to the simple and +the learned, to the young and—stranger still—to the old. +Knox knew it; and he knew that his claiming a special +message or ambassadorship would be, not so much +'exceeding the bounds' of his vocation, as denying it +altogether. He was imperious and dogmatic by nature; +and he took these natural qualities with him into his +new work. But he would have shuddered at the idea of +formally interposing his own personality between the +hearers of that time and the message which they received. +And he would have regarded the office of a +mere prophet—the bearer, that is, of a special message, +even though that message be divine—as a degradation, +if, in order to attain it, he had to lay down the preaching +of 'that doctrine and that heavenly religion, whereof it +hath pleased His merciful providence to make <i>me, among +others, a simple soldier and witness-bearer unto men</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>Does it follow that Knox—who thus rejected strongly +the idea of being a prophet to his time, and insisted +instead upon his merely receiving and transmitting the +one message which was common to all—that this man +was therefore little more to his age than any other +might be? By no means. The same message comes +to all men in an age, and is received by many, but it +is received by each in a different way.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> And the way +in which this message was then received by one man in +East Lothian made all the difference to Scotland, and +perhaps to Europe. It must not be forgotten, indeed, +that the result of it upon Knox himself was to transform +him. So certain is this that some have felt as if this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +were the case of one who, up to about his fortieth year, +was an ordinary, commonplace, and representative Scotsman, +and was thereafter changed utterly, but only by +being filled with the sacred fire of conviction. This is +only about half the truth, though it is an important half—to +Knox himself by far the more important. But it is +not the whole, and it is far from the whole <i>for us</i>. The +author who has enabled us to see his own confused and +changing age under 'the broad clear light of that wonderful +book'<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> the 'History of the Reformation in Scotland,' +and who outside that book was the utterer of many an +armed and winged word which pursues and smites us to +this day, must have been born with nothing less than +genius—genius to observe, to narrate, and to judge. +Even had he written as a mere recluse and critic, +looking out upon his world from a monk's cell or from +the corner of a housetop, the vividness, the tenderness, +the sarcasm and the humour would still have been there. +But Knox's genius was predominantly practical; and the +difference between the transformation which befell him, +and that which changed so many other men in his time, +was that in Knox's case it changed one who was born +to be a statesman. He probably never would have become +one, but for the light which for him as for the others +made all things new. But in the others it resulted in a +self-consecration whose outlook was chiefly upon the +next world, and in the present was doubtfully bounded +by possible martyrdom and possible evasion or escape. +In the case of Knox the instinctive outlook was not for +himself only, but for others and for his country. And +while he saw from the first, far more clearly than they, +the embattled strength of the forces with which they all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +had to contend, the unbending will of this man rejected +all idea of concession or compromise, evasion or escape. +And his native sagacity (made keener as well as more +comprehensive now that it looked down from that remote +and stormless anchorage), revealed to him that +there was at least the possibility of the mightiest earthly +fabric breaking up before him in unexpected collapse.</p> + +<p>Our conclusion then must be that the call which +Knox received was one common to him with every man +and woman of that time—to accept the Evangel—and +common to him with every preacher of that time—to +preach the Evangel; but that this man's large conception +of what such a call practically meant, not for +himself alone, but for all around him and for his +country, made it from the first for him a public call, +and compelled him to hear in the invitation of the St +Andrews congregation the divine commission for his +life-long work. From the first, and in conception as +well as execution, that work was great and revolutionary. +And from the first, and in its very plan, it involved +serious errors. But Knox himself, in this and every +stage of his career, claimed to be judged by no lower +tribunal than that Authority whose dread and strait +command he at the first accepted. And if there are +some things in that career which his country has simply +to forgive, we shall not reckon among these the original +resolve of that day in St Andrews—a resolve which +has made Knox more to Scotland 'than any million of +unblameable Scotchmen who need no forgiveness.'</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>But there are few who will doubt the sincerity, or the +strength, of the impulse which launched Knox upon his +public career. There are many however who, recognising +that he was a great public man, doubt persistently +whether he was anything more. They are not satisfied +with the evidence of trumpet-tones from the pulpit, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +of solemn and passionate prayer at some crisis of a +career. These are part of the furniture of the orator, +the statesman, and the prophet. Was there a private +life at all, as distinguished from the inner side of that +which was public? And was that private life genuine and +tender and strong? Have we another window into this +man's breast—opening in this case, not upwards and Godwards, +but towards the men—or women—around him? +We have: and it is fortunate that the evidence on this +subject is found, not at a late date in Knox's life, as is +the Meditation of <a href="#TN">1563</a>, but close to the threshold of +his career.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The quotations are from Knox himself—in the +first book of his 'History of the Reformation in Scotland.' +</p><p> +When quoting from any part of Knox's 'Works' (David Laing's +edition in six volumes), I propose to modernise the spelling, but in +other respects to retain Knox's English. It will be found surprisingly +modern.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 483</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> 'The end and intent of the Scripture,' according to the +translation by George Wishart, Knox's earliest master, of the First +Helvetic or Swiss Confession, is, 'to declare that God is benevolent +and friendly-minded to mankind; and that he hath declared that +kindness in and through Jesu Christ, his only Son; the which +kindness is received by faith; but this faith is effectuous through +charity, and expressed in an innocent life.' And even more +strikingly, the very first question of the famous Palatinate Catechism +for Churches and Schools, though that catechism is Calvinistic in its +conception rather than Lutheran, and came out so late as 1563, +bursts out as follows:— +</p><p> +'What is thy only comfort in life and death? +</p><p> +'<i>Ans.</i> That I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am +not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ, who +with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and +redeemed me from all the power of the Devil.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> 'Works,' i. 187.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> On his death-bed. The Regent Morton's famous epitaph spoken +by Knox's grave, is an imperfect echo of what the Reformer ten +days before, in bidding farewell to the Kirk (Session) of Edinburgh, +had said of his own past career:—'In respect that he bore God's +message, to whom he must make account for the same, he (albeit he +was weak and an unworthy creature, <i>and a fearful man</i>) feared not +the faces of men.'—'Works,' vi. 637.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> One of the most eloquent documents of the time is the address +in 1565 to the half-starved ministers of the Kirk (inspired and +perhaps written by Knox), urging that having put their hands to the +plough, they could not look back:— +</p><p> +'God hath honoured us so, that men have judged us the messengers +of the Everlasting. By us hath He disclosed idolatry, by us are the +Wicked of the world rebuked, and by us hath our God comforted the +consciences of many.... And shall we for poverty leave the flock +of Jesus Christ before that it utterly refuse us?... The price of +Jesus Christ, his death and passion, is committed to our charge, the +eyes of men are bent upon us, and we must answer before that Judge.... +He preserved us in the darkness of our mothers' bosom, He +provided our food in their breasts, and instructed us to use the same, +when we knew Him not, He hath nourished us in the time of blindness +and of impiety; and will He now despise us, when we call +upon Him, and preach the glorious Gospel of His dear Son our +Lord Jesus?'—'Works,' vi. 425.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Seven years after this time, Knox, writing from abroad to 'his +sisters in Edinburgh,' tells of the 'cogitations' which God permitted +Satan even at that late date to put into his mind—</p> + +<p>'Shall Christ, the author of peace, concord, and quietness, be +preached where war is proclaimed, sedition engendered, and tumults +appear to rise? Shall not His Evangel be accused as the cause of +all calamity which is like to follow? What comfort canst thou have +to see the one-half of the people rise up against the other; yea, to +jeopard the one to murder and destroy the other? But above all, +what joy shall it be to thy heart to behold with thine eyes thy native +country betrayed into the hands of strangers, which to no man's +judgment can be avoided, because they who ought to defend it and +the liberties thereof are so blind, dull, and obstinate that they will +not see their own destruction?'—'Works,' iv. 251.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The two sources which, next to his own report of this sermon, +best indicate his earliest standpoint, are (1) the (second) <i>Basel Confession</i>—better +known as the First Confession of Helvetia—which +Wishart had brought with him from the Continent, and before his +death had translated into English, and which Knox, therefore, must +have known and may have used; and (2) the treatise of his friend, the +layman and lawyer, Balnaves, written two years later, and which +Knox then sent from Rouen to St Andrews with his own approval +and abridgement. The former is distinctly 'Reformed' and Puritan, +and lays down that all ceremonies, other than the two instituted +sacraments and preaching, 'as vessels, garments, wax-lights, altars,' +are unprofitable, and 'serve to subvert the true religion'; while +Balnaves repeats the more fundamental principle of Knox's sermon +(that all religion which is 'not commanded,' or which is 'invented' +with the best motives, is wrong). And both treatises shew that +Knox must have had also before him from the first the thorny question +of the relation of the Church and the private Christian to the +civil magistrate—for both solve it, like Knox himself (but unlike +Luther in his original Confession of Augsburg), by giving the +Magistrate sweeping and intolerant powers of reforming alike the +religion and the Church.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> 'Lectures on Heroes: The Hero as Priest.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Carlyle, as above.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Lindsay of Pitscottie.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Thus, Mrs MʻCunn, in her charming volume on Knox as a +'Leader of Religion,' says that he 'constantly claimed the position +accorded to the Hebrew prophets, and claimed it on the same +grounds as they.' And even Dr Hume Brown, when narrating Knox's +refusal in the Galleys to kiss the 'Idol' presented to him, adds: +'It is in such passages as these that we see how completely Knox +identified his action with that of the Hebrew prophets' (vol. i. 84), +the passage founded upon being one in which Knox points out that 'the +same obedience that God required of his people Israel,' even +in idolatrous Babylon, was required by Him of the 'Scottish men' +in France, and was actually given by 'that whole number during +the time of their bondage,' not merely by the one unnamed prisoner +who flung the painted 'board' into the Loire. One reason why the +prisoner is unnamed is no doubt that here, as in a hundred other +places more explicitly, Knox would impress us with the feeling that +no other or higher obedience in such matters is required of minister +or prophet or apostle, than is required of the humblest man or the +youngest child in God's people.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 230.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 245.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 169.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. p. lvi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 592.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> The right of every man to do so, and his duty to do so, were +both there: the only question might be whether, of the two, the right +to do it (as with Luther), or the duty to do it (as with Calvin) was +first and fundamental.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 155.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Recipitur in modum recipientis.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> John Hill Burton's 'History of Scotland,' iii. 339. He adds, +'There certainly is in the English language no other parallel to it +in the clearness, vigour, and picturesqueness with which it renders +the history of a stirring period.</p></div></div> + +<hr /> +<h2 class="space"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center">THE INNER LIFE: HIS WOMEN FRIENDS</p><br /> + +<p>Before the age with which we are dealing there was, +throughout Europe, a certain barrier between the religious +life on the one hand and the domestic and private life—the +ordinary <i>vie intime</i>—on the other. Among the +men and women of the new era that barrier was broken +down. The religious was no longer a recognised class: +religion was no longer a luxury for the few, or to be +partaken of in sacred places and at fixed days and hours. +The common man, if a Christian man at all, was to be +so now in his common and daily life, living it out from +day to day on the deepest principles and from the +highest motives. And the Christian woman, having a +similar and an equal vocation, undertook the like responsibilities. +But her responsibilities were in that age of +transition very perplexing, and more than ever invited +friendly counsel and pastoral care. Now what was John +Knox's private life? He was twice married, and we +know from his correspondence that even before his first +marriage there were women of high position and character +to whom he sustained what may be called personal and +pastoral relations. Have we any documents from that +time by which to illustrate, and perhaps to test, the +principles of his inward and personal life, before we go +on to find these written large in the scroll of his country's +history?</p> + +<p>Norham Castle, near Berwick, is still a very striking +pile, especially to those who come upon it, as the writer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +did, after four days leisurely walking down the banks of +the great border river. Every curve of the stream had +its natural beauty intertwined with some association of +history or the poets, from the first morning on Neidpath +Fell, to the fourth evening when</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">'Day set on Norham's castled steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Tweed's fair river, broad and deep,<br /></span> +<span class="i5">And Cheviot's mountains lone.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The battled towers, the donjon keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The loophole grates where captives weep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The flanking walls that round it sweep'—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>are all still there, though the inmates are no longer +captives. Norham is, indeed, best known as the scene +of the whole of the first canto of 'Marmion.' In +that poem Sir Hugh the Heron is supposed to have +been Lord of it, while his wife is away in Scotland, +prepared to sing ballads of Lochinvar to the ill-fated +King on his last evening in Holyrood. But when +Knox, delivered from the galleys, preached in Berwick +in 1549, the Captain of the Hold of Norham, only +six miles off, was Richard Bowes. And his lady, born +Elizabeth Aske, and co-heiress of Aske in Yorkshire +(already an elderly woman and mother of <i>fifteen children</i>), +became Knox's chief friend, and after he left +Berwick for Newcastle his correspondent, chiefly as to +her religious troubles. Most of the letters of Knox to +her which are preserved are in the year 1553, and one +of the earliest of these acknowledges a communication +'from you and my dearest spouse.' This means that +Marjory Bowes, the fifth daughter in that large household, +had already been <i>sponsa</i> or betrothed, with her +mother's consent, to the Scottish preacher. Knox, +now forty-eight years old, had recently declined an +English bishopric, offered him through the Duke of +Northumberland, but was still chaplain to the King.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +A letter to Marjory, undated, follows, in which he explains +to his 'dearly beloved sister' some passages of +Scripture, and adds—'The Spirit of God shall instruct +your heart what is most comfortable to the troubled +conscience of your mother.' This communication ends +with the subdued or sly postscript, 'I think this be the +first letter that ever I wrote to you.'<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> In July, while +Knox was in London, Mary Tudor ascended the throne, +and everything began to look threatening. In September +Knox acknowledges the 'boldness and constancy' +of Mrs Bowes in pushing his cause with her +husband, who was as yet 'unconvinced in religion,' but +he urges her not to trouble herself too much in the +matter. He would himself press for the betrothal being +changed into marriage, or at least acknowledged. 'It +becomes me now to jeopard my life for the comfort and +deliverance of my own flesh, as that I will do by God's +grace; both fear and friendship of all earthly creature +laid aside.'<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> Mrs Bowes suggested that, in addition to +writing her husband, he should lay his case before an +elder brother, Sir Robert Bowes, Warden of the Marches, +who seems to have acted as head of the family. Sir +Robert turned out to be more hostile to the perilous +alliance proposed for his niece than even her father; +and Knox wrote that 'his disdainful, yea, despiteful +words have so pierced my heart that my life is bitter +unto me.' When Knox was about to have 'declared +his heart' in the whole matter, Sir Robert interrupted +him with, 'Away with your rhetorical reasons! for I +will not be persuaded with them.' Knox, indignant, +predicted to the mother of his betrothed that 'the days +should be few that England should give me bread,'<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> but +adds again, 'Be sure I will not forget you and your +company so long as mortal man may remember any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +earthly creature.'<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> He escaped from England very +soon, and not till September 1555 did he return, and +that on Mrs Bowes' invitation; and with the result that +he brought off to Geneva, where he was now pastor of a +distinguished English colony, not only his wife Marjory, +but his wife's mother too. Here his two sons, Nathaniel +and Eleazar, afterwards students at Cambridge and +ministers of the Church of England, were born. But in +1559 wife and mother-in-law accompanied or followed +him from the Continent to Edinburgh. During the +anxious and critical winter which followed, Mrs Knox +seems to have acted as her husband's amanuensis, but +'the rest of my wife hath been so unrestful since her +arriving here, that scarcely could she tell upon the +morrow what she wrote at night.'<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> Next year brought +victory and peace, but too late for her; for in December +1560, about the time when the first General Assembly was +sitting in Edinburgh, Knox's wife died. We learn this +from the 'History of the Reformation,' in which Knox +records a meeting of that date between himself and the +two foremost nobles of Scotland, Chatelherault and +Moray, upon public affairs, 'he upon the one part comforting +them, and they upon the other part comforting him, +for he was in no small heaviness by reason of the late +death of his dear bedfellow, Marjorie Bowes.'<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> And of +her we have no further record, except Calvin's epithet of +<i>suavissima</i>,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> and her husband's repetition years after, in +his Last Will, of the 'benediction that their dearest +mother left' to her two sons, 'whereto, now as then, I +from my troubled heart say, Amen.'<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>Four years passed, and Knox, still minister of Edinburgh, +and now in his fifty-ninth year, was seen riding +home with a second wife, 'not like a prophet or old +decrepit priest as he was,' said his Catholic adversaries,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +'but with his bands of taffetie fastened with golden +rings.' The lady for whom he put on this state was +Margaret Stewart, the daughter of his friend Lord Ochiltree, +and the same critics assure us that 'by sorcery and +witchcraft he did so allure that poor gentlewoman, that +she could not live without him.' Queen Mary was +angry when she heard of it, because the bride 'was of +the blood,' <i>i.e.</i> related to the Royal house; and even +Knox's friends did not like his union at that age with a +girl of seventeen. Young Mrs Knox seems, however, +to have played her part well, especially as mother of +three daughters; she tended their father carefully in his +last illness; and no one will regret that two years after +his death she made a more suitable marriage as to years +with Andrew Ker of Faudonside, one of the fierce band +whose daggers had clashed ten years before in the body +of David Rizzio.</p> + +<p>Knox's liking for feminine society, and his suspicion +that he had more qualifications for it than the world +has believed, come out sometimes in a casual way. After +one of his famous interviews with Queen Mary, he was +ordered to wait her pleasure in the ante-room.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The said John stood in the chamber, as one whom men had +never seen (so were all afraid), except that the Lord Ochiltree bare +him company; and therefore began he to <i>forge</i> talking of the ladies +who were there sitting in all their gorgeous apparel; which espied, +he merrily said, "O fair ladies, how pleasing were this life of yours +if it should ever abide, and then in the end that we might pass to +heaven with all this gay gear. But fye upon that knave Death, +that will come whether we will or not! And when he has laid on +his arrest, the foul worms will be busy with this flesh, be it never so +fair and so tender; and the silly soul, I fear, shall be so feeble, that +it can neither carry with it gold, garnassing, targetting, pearl, nor +precious stones." And by such means <i>procured he the company of +women</i>.'</p></div> + +<p>These moralities, however merrily intended and at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +the time successful, would have perhaps been more +appropriate in the Forest of Arden or the graveyard of +Hamlet, than among the four Maries in Holyrood; and +for anything that is to be of autobiographical value we +must go elsewhere and go deeper. His wives contribute +nothing; we may hope that they were as happy as the +countries which have no history. And if that is too much +to believe—or too little to hope—we shall find enough +in the next few pages to satisfy us that they had near +them in all their trials a strong and tender heart. But +of their inward troubles, and of the sympathy these +may have drawn forth, Knox is not the historian—he +refuses to be the historian even of his own inner life. +He unfolds himself in writing only to the women who +are in trouble, and at a distance. And the only concession +to domesticity is in the fact that his chief correspondent +is, if not a wife, a prospective mother-in-law.</p> + +<p>The letters to her are the most important of all, +and the following extract is from one published among +the letters of 1553 as 'The First to Mrs Bowes.' It +was by no means the first, even in that year; but it is +the one which Knox himself long afterwards selected as +the first for republication and as best illustrating the +original relation between himself and the lady recently +deceased. In it he had said, writing from London to +Norham:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Since the first day that it pleased the providence of God to bring +you and me into familiarity, I have always delighted in your company; +and when labour would permit, you know that I have not +spared hours to talk and commune with you, the fruit whereof I did not +then fully understand nor perceive. But now absent, and so absent +that by corporal presence neither of us can receive comfort of other, +I call to mind how that ofttimes when, with dolorous hearts, we +have begun our talking, God hath sent great comfort unto both, +<i>which for my own part I commonly want</i>. The exposition of your +troubles, and acknowledging of your infirmity, were first unto me a +very mirror and glass wherein I beheld myself so rightly painted forth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +that nothing could be more evident to my own eyes. And then the +searching of the Scriptures for God's sweet promises, and for his +mercies freely given unto miserable offenders—(for his nature +delighteth to shew mercy where most misery reigneth)—the collection +and applying of God's mercies, I say, were unto me as the +breaking and handling with my own hands of the most sweet and +delectable unguents, whereof I could not but receive some comfort +by their natural sweet odours.'<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p></div> + +<p>The sympathy that flows through this beautiful +passage comes out very strongly in another written in +bodily illness. His importunate correspondent had +proposed to call for him in Newcastle that very day. +Knox suggests to-morrow instead.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'This day ye know to be the day of my study and prayer unto +God; yet if your trouble be intolerable, or if ye think my presence +may release your pain, do as the Spirit shall move you, for you +know that I will be offended with nothing that you do in God's +name. And O, how glad would I be to feed the hungry and give +medicine to the sick! Your messenger found me in bed, after a +sore trouble and most dolorous night, and so dolour may complain +to dolour when we two meet.'<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p></div> + +<p>Another letter, also to Mrs Bowes, is from London, +and reveals a very remarkable scene. He acknowledges +receiving one letter from Marjory, and one from her +mother, the latter, as usual, full of complaint.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The very instant hour that your letter was presented unto me, was +I talking of you, by reason that three honest poor women were come +to me, and were complaining their great infirmity, and were showing +unto me the great assaults of the enemy, and I was opening the +cause and commodities thereof, whereby all our eyes wept at once; +and I was praying unto God that ye and some others had been +there with me for the space of two hours. And even at that instant +came your letters to my hands; whereof one part I read unto +them, and one of them said, "O would to God I might speak with +that person, for I perceive that there be more tempted than I."'<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<p>The persuasive ingenuity which would suggest to the +Lady of Norham that she was a source not only of comfort +but of strength to those troubled like herself, turns +out much to our advantage. For Knox puts <i>himself</i>, +first of all, in the place of those whom he would either +advise or console. And in the earliest dated letter of +his which we possess there is a vivid picture of what +took place between two people who were much in +earnest, three and a half centuries ago, about this life +and the next. Knox has written fully to Mrs Bowes, +and adds—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'After the writing of these preceding, your brother and mine, +Harry Wycliffe, did advertise me by writing that your adversary took +occasion to trouble you, because that <i>I did start back from you</i> rehearsing +your infirmities. I remember myself to have so done, and +<i>that is my common consuetude when anything pierceth or toucheth +my heart</i>. Call to your mind what I did standing at the cupboard +at Alnwick: in very deed I thought that no creature had been +tempted as I was. And when that I heard proceed from your +mouth the very words that he troubles me with, I did wonder and +from my heart lament your sore trouble, knowing in myself the +dolour thereof.'<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p></div> + +<p>What was the temptation which Knox thought no +creature shared with him, but which he found, as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +stood at the cupboard at Alnwick, had come to Mrs +Bowes in the same form, and even in the same words? +As it happens, we can answer with great certainty. It +was a temptation to infidelity or 'incredulity': the +adversary 'would cause you abhor that, and hate it, +wherein stands only salvation and life,' viz., the name, +as well as the whole message, of Jesus Christ. So it is +put in this letter; and in others, apparently later, we +read—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'That ye are of that foolish sort of men that say in their heart, +"There is no God," I wonder that the Devil shames not to allege +that contrary [to] you; but he is a liar, and father of the same. +For if in your heart ye said there is no God, why then should ye +suffer anguish and care by reason that the enemy troubles you with +that thought? Who can be afraid, day and night, for that which +is not?'<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p></div> + +<p>Again—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'He would persuade you that God's Word is of no effect, but +that it is a vain tale invented by man, and so all that is spoken of +Jesus, the Son of God, is but a vain fable.... He says the Scriptures +of God are but a tale, and no credit is to be given to them....<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> +Before he troubled you that there is not a Saviour, and now he +affirms that ye shall be like to Francis Spira, who denied Christ's +doctrine.'<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p></div> + +<p>In that age, which broke through the crust of mere +authority to seek some 'foundation of belief, 'there +must have been many of both sexes in this state of +mind; though each doubter might think that 'no +creature' shared it. The new doctrine of individual +faith and individual responsibility was one for women +as well as men, and they had a special claim on the +sympathy of their teachers when central doubts +attacked them. Whether these doubts in the case of +Mrs Bowes, <i>or in that of Knox</i>, arose in the line of any +particular enquiries does not appear. He treats them as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +if they were rather moral than intellectual, and born of +the feebleness of the soul under temptation. And in +this relation it says not a little for his estimate of Mrs +Bowes, whom he was leaving behind under the Marian +persecution, and with her husband and most of her +family hostile to her, that, instead of attenuating, he +rather magnifies the external difficulties she had to +meet.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Your adversary, sister, doth labour that ye should doubt whether +this be the Word of God or not. If there had never been testimonial +of the undoubted truth thereof before these our ages, may +not such things as we see daily come to pass prove the verity thereof? +Doth it not affirm that it shall be preached, and yet contemned +and lightly regarded by many; that the true professors thereof shall +be hated with [by] father, mother, and others of the contrary religion; +that the most faithful shall cruelly be persecuted? And +come not all these things to pass in ourselves?'<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p></div> + +<p>But sceptical or speculative doubts were not Mrs +Bowes' chief trouble. She writes Knox complaining +of her temptations—even temptations of sense. And +chiefly and continually she complained of past guilt and +present sin, by reason of which she felt as if 'remission +of sins in Christ Jesus pertained nothing to her.'<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> This +was not a case for the 'sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable +comfort' which the Church of England ascribes to the +doctrine of Predestination rightly used. Nor does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +Knox deal with it—at least in his letters—by the +simple and peremptory preaching of the Evangel. He +recognised it as a case calling for sympathy, and he does +not find the sympathy hard. Knox, indeed, like the +other Reformers, had parted for ever with the mediæval +idea of salvation by self-torture—even by self-torture for +sin. Like all the wisest of the human race, too—even +before Christianity came to sanction their surmise—he +held that religion must be an objective thing, and that +salvation lies in dealing, not with ourselves, but with +One outside of us and above. Yet it is a salvation from +sin, and the new life now springing up throughout +Europe was intensely a moral life. The faith, too, on +which the age laid so much stress as a 'coming' to +God, involved repentance as a 'turning' to God. And +while repentance no longer meant penance, whether of +body or mind, it meant—and as Knox puts it repeatedly—'it +<i>contains within itself</i> a dolour for sin, a hatred of +sin, and yet hope of mercy'; and it is renewed as often +as the occasion arises for renewed deliverance from the +evil. Accordingly, Knox now acts on the principle +which he announced years afterwards in a letter to +another friend,<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> and again and again tears open his +own heart to comfort others by shewing that he, with +hope or assurance in Christ, still felt the burden and +assault of sin.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I can write to you by my own experience. I have sometimes +been in that security that I felt not dolour for sin, neither yet displeasure +against myself for any iniquity in that I did offend. But +rather my vain heart did thus flatter myself, (I write the truth to my +own confusion, and to the glory of my heavenly Father, through +Jesus Christ), 'Thou hast suffered great trouble for professing of +Christ's truth; God has done great things for thee.'... O Mother!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +this was a subtle serpent who thus could pour in venom, I not perceiving +it; but blessed be my God who permitted me not to sleep +long in that estate. I drank, shortly after this flattery of myself, a +cup of contra-poison, the bitterness whereof doth yet so remain in +my breast, that whatever I have suffered, or presently do, I repute +as dung, yea, and myself worthy of damnation for my ingratitude +towards my God. The like Mother, might have come to you,' +&c.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p></div> + +<p>Mrs Bowes lived in her famous son-in-law's house till +close upon her death. By that time he had come to +recognise that her experience was an exceptional<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> and, +perhaps, a morbid one; and at a very early date he +manifestly felt the pressure of her constant applications +to him for help. Yet throughout the correspondence +his unfailing attitude to her is that of admirably tender +solicitude; and when he has to go into exile in the +beginning of 1554 he first sits down and writes—still +partly in the form of letters to her—a treatise on Affliction. +It is of great and permanent value, the subject +not being one which our race can as yet claim to have +outgrown: but I shall make no reference to its contents. +Even in his previous and ordinary letters, however, +Knox had reached the conclusion that her case was one +of inward Affliction, rather than, as she would have it, +of sin. And the treatment of this great subject of +'desertion,' by one who was a standard-bearer of the +new doctrine of faith and assurance, is remarkably +beautiful. 'It is dolorous to the faithful,' he writes +another friend, 'to lack the sensible feeling of God's +mercy and goodness (and the sensible feeling thereof he +lacketh what time he fully cannot rest and repose upon +the same). And yet as nothing more commonly cometh +to God's children, so is there no exercise more profitable +for his soldiers than is the same.' But to Mrs Bowes he +points out, what she certainly would not have observed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +that 'it doth no more offend God's Majesty that the +spirit sometimes lie as it were asleep, neither having +sense of great dolour nor great comfort, more than it +doth offend him that the body use the natural rest, +ceasing from all external exercise.' And again, varying +the figure, 'no more is God displeased, although that +sometimes the body be sick, and subject to diseases, +and so unable to do the calling; no more is he offended, +although the soul in that case be diseased and sick. +And as the natural father will not kill the body of the +child, albeit through sickness it faint, and abhor comfortable +meats, no more (and much less) will our +heavenly Father kill our souls, albeit, through spiritual +infirmity and weakness of our faith, sometimes we refuse +the lively food of his comfortable promises....<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> +'You are sick, dear sister,' he had said elsewhere, 'and +therefore,' alluding even to her confidences of scepticism +as to Christian doctrine, 'you abhor the succour of most +wholesome food.' 'Fear not,' he sums up in a subsequent +letter, 'the infirmity that you find either in +flesh or spirit. Only abstain from external iniquity'—which +he supplements elsewhere with the more positive +advice, 'Be fervent in reading, fervent in prayer, and +merciful to the poor, according to your power, and God +shall put an end to all dolours, when least is thought +[according] to the judgment of man.' And in the +meantime, 'Dear mother, he that is sorry for absence +of virtue is not altogether destitute of the same ... +our hunger cries unto God.' Knox himself, he assured +his troubled friend, never ceased to pray for her; but +'although I would cease, and yourself would cease, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +all other creature, yet your dolour continually cryeth +and returneth not void from the presence of our +God.'<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> + +<p>Mrs Bowes was not the only 'mirror and glass' in +whom Knox allows us to see his inner self 'painted,' +though the woman-hearted warrior is limned in the +letters to her more nearly at full length. Two ladies in +Edinburgh, one the wife of the Lord Clerk Register, +and the other of the City Clerk, were his friends and +correspondents, at a later date, but while he was still in +exile. And in a letter 'to his sisters' in that town, he +unbosoms himself as usual as to the principles of his +inner life, but adds—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Alas! as the wounded man, be he never so expert in physic or +surgery, cannot suddenly mitigate his own pain and dolour, no +more can I the fear and grief of my heart, although I am not altogether +ignorant what is to be done.'<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p></div> + +<p>The same sentiment is expanded in one of a number +of letters sent to a group of 'merchants' wives in +London,' which probably included the 'three honest +poor women'<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> of whom we have already heard. Of +this group the most remarkable was Mrs Anna Locke, +of the family which afterwards yielded the famous John +Locke. She, like Mrs Bowes, followed Knox to Geneva +amid the stream of exiles from London; and his letters +to her give the impression that she was not only wealthy +and energetic, but possessed of higher character and +more accomplishments than the well-born Elizabeth +Bowes. The letters to the latter were written chiefly in +1553. The following, to Mrs Locke, is sent from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +Scotland after Knox's return there, and is dated on +last day of 1559:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'God make yourself participant of the same comfort which you +write unto me. And in very deed, dear sister, I have no less need +of comfort (notwithstanding that I am not altogether ignorant) than +hath the living man to be fed, although in store he hath great substance. +I have read the cares and temptations of Moses, and sometimes +I supposed myself to be well practised in such dangerous +battles. But, alas! I now perceive that all my practice before was +but mere speculation; for one day of troubles since my last arrival +in Scotland, hath more pierced my heart than all the torments of +the galleys did the space of nineteen months; for that torment, for +the most part, did touch the body, but this pierces the soul and +inward affections. Then I was assuredly persuaded that I should +not die till I had preached Jesus Christ, even where I now am. +And yet having now my hearty desire, I am nothing satisfied, neither +yet rejoice. My God, remove my unthankfulness!'<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p></div> + +<p>Men of this expansive and confiding temperament +are attractive, and will occasionally get into trouble, +even in later life. We find Mrs Bowes ere long complaining +that she 'had not been equally made privy to +Knox's coming into the country with others,' and needing +to be assured that 'none is this day within the +realm of England, with whom I would more gladly +speak (only she whom God hath offered unto me, and +commanded me to love as my own flesh, excepted) than +with you.'<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> Mrs Locke, later on, points out that she +has not had a letter for a whole year. And this elicits +not only the assurance that it is not the absence of one +year or two 'that can quench in my heart that familiar +acquaintance in Christ Jesus, which half a year did +engender, and almost two years did nourish and confirm,' +but also the following striking general statement, which, +like many things from Knox, impresses us by a certain +straightforward and noble egotism:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Of nature I am churlish, and in conditions<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> different from +many: yet one thing I ashame not to affirm, that familiarity once +thoroughly contracted was never yet broken on my default. The +cause may be that I have rather need of all, than that any have need +of me.'<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p></div> + +<p>It may be true that Knox never broke a friendship +with either sex. But his friendships with men were +masculine and very reserved in tone; and we may be +quite sure that the memorable concluding sentence of +the above paragraph would never have been written +except to a woman. Most people will be delighted to +see already fallen under the 'regimen of women' the +very man who was to set the trumpet to his lips against +it. But those who study Knox's life are indebted to +his familiar correspondence, and especially to the earlier +part of it, for far more than the gratification of this not +unkindly malice. For these letters, I think, prove to +all—what the finer ear might have gathered with +certainty from many things even in his public writings—that +the main source of that outward and active career +was an inner life.</p> + +<p>We must part for ever with the idea of Knox as a +human cannon-ball, endowed simply with force of will, and +tearing and shattering as it goes. The views which at a +definite period gave this tremendous impulse to a nature +previously passive, are not obscure, and are perfectly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +traceable. They are views upon which Knox continually +insists as common to himself with all Christian men, +and which <i>were</i> common to him with the mass of Christian +men—and women—who were the strength of that time +and the hope of the age to follow. They were views +which, when received with full conviction by any +individual, led outwardly to suffering on the one +hand, or, on the other, to shattering the whole compacted +system of opposing intolerance. But they were +views which, when thus translated into convictions, not +only pressed outward with explosive force, but also, and +necessarily, spread inwards in reflux and expansion to +refresh and animate the man. They might have done so—in +the case of some men of that time they did—without +overflowing into the private life and into sympathetic +converse and confidence with others. But Knox was +so constituted as to need this also and to supply it. And +the fragments of his correspondence which are all that +remain to us, and which probably were all that an extraordinarily +busy public work permitted, are conclusive on +some things and instructive on others. They are conclusive +as to the existence, under that breastplate of +hammered iron with which Knox confronted all outward +opposition, of a private and personal life—a life inward, +secret, and deep, and a life also rich, tender, and eminently +sympathetic. They are conclusive also, I think, +of this inner life being the source and spring of the +life without, instead of being merely derived from it. +And they will thus be found instructive as to the influence +of that hidden life, in its strength and its limitations +alike, on the external career which we have now +to trace.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 395.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 376.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 378.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 358.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> 'Works,' ii. 138.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> 'Calvini Epistolæ,' Ep. 306.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. p. lvii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 352.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 379. Compare, or contrast, this scene of the +three poor women with another recorded by a still greater master of English. +The tinker had gone on business one day to Bedford:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'In one of the streets of that town, I came where there were +three or four poor women sitting at a door in the sun, and talking +about the things of God.... But they were far above, out of my +reach; for their talk was about a new birth, the work of God on +their hearts, also how they were convinced of their miserable +state.... And methought they spake as if joy did make them +speak; they spake with such pleasantness of Scripture language, +and with such appearance of grace in all they said, that they were +to me as if they had found a new world, as if they were people that +dwelt alone, and were not to be reckoned among their neighbours.'—Bunyan's +<i>Grace Abounding</i>.</p></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 350.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 360.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 366.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 368.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 357. Browning makes his good old Pope feel, in +the later Renaissance, as if Christian heroism had been</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i13">'so possible<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When in the way stood Nero's cross and stake,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So hard now'—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p style="margin-left:4em;">and, looking back almost regretfully to Nero's time, to ask—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">'How could saints and martyrs <i>fail</i> see truth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Streak the night's blackness?'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p style="margin-left: 9em;">'The Ring and the Book. The Pope,' line 1827.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 514.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> 'The examples of God's children always complaining of their +own wretchedness serve for the penitent that <i>they</i> slide not into +desperation.'—'Works,' vi. 85.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 386.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 513.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> It is of the letter from which the above is taken that Knox +in publishing it long after says apologetically, 'If it serve not for +this estate of Scotland, yet it will serve a troubled conscience, so +long as the Kirk of God remaineth in either realm.'—'Works,' +vi. 617.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 362.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> 'Works,' iv. 252.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> 'Honest' in that age meant something nearly equivalent +to 'honourable,' and that they were 'poor women' may refer +to troubles which they brought to him, other than want of +money.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 104.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 370.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> 'Conditions' refers to inward nature, not outward circumstances. +It may be explained by a letter written nine years later, +also to a friend in England, in which Knox apologises for not having +written him for years, during which the Reformer had been 'tossed +with many storms,' yet might have sent a letter, 'if that this my +churlish nature, <i>for the most part oppressed with melancholy</i>, had +not staid tongue and pen from doing of their duty.'—'Works,' vi. +566. Knox in 1553 was suffering severely from gravel and dyspepsia; +one of these was already an 'old malady'; and both seem to have +clung to him during the rest of his life.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 11.</p></div></div> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center">THE PUBLIC LIFE: TO THE PARLIAMENT OF 1560</p><br /> + +<p>Knox had preached only for a few months in St Andrews +in 1547, when the castle capitulated to the foreign fleet, +and he and his companions were flung into the French +galleys. There for nineteen months he toiled at the oar +under the lash, and through the cold of two winters, and +the heat of the intervening summer, had leisure to count +the cost of the choice so recently made. It is a tribute +to his constancy that men chiefly remember this dark +time by its spots of colour—as when, at Nantes, he flung +Our Lady's image into the Loire—'She is light enough: +let her learn to swim!' And when off St Andrews they +pointed out to him the steeple of the kirk, the emaciated +prisoner replied, 'Yes, I know it well: and I am fully +persuaded, how weak that ever I now appear, that I shall +not depart this life till that my tongue shall glorify His +godly name in the same place.' But this first apprenticeship +to sorrow went deep into the man. It was when +he was 'in Rouen, lying in irons, and sore troubled by +corporal infirmity, in a galley named <i>Notre Dame</i>,' that +he sent a letter to his St Andrews friends. And in it he +asks them to 'Consider'—his countrymen have scarcely +as yet considered it sufficiently—'Consider, brethren, it +is no speculative theologue which desireth to give you +courage, but even your brother in affliction, which partly +hath experience what Satan's wrath may do against the +chosen of God.'<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> His spirit indeed was in no wise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +broken: on his escape from France he became again a +garrison preacher, and gained over King Edward's rude +soldiers in Berwick an ascendancy, even greater than he +had held in St Andrews over the young lairds of Fife. +But, though not broken, it was chastened. It was during +the following years, and especially in 1553, that he wrote +the deeply sympathetic letters from which we have already +quoted. And in 1554, when he left England to escape +Mary Tudor, he introduces into a short but admirable +treatise on Prayer some autobiographical references, which +seem to date back to the extreme suffering of his captivity, +'when not only the ungodly, but even my faithful brethren, +yea, and my own self, that is, all natural understanding, +judged my cause (case) to be irremediable.'</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The frail flesh, oppressed with fear and pain, desireth deliverance, +ever abhorring and drawing back from obedience giving. O +Christian brethren, I write by experience ... I know the grudging +and murmuring complaints of the flesh; I know the anger, +wrath, and indignation which it conceiveth against God, calling all +his promises in doubt, and being ready every hour utterly to fall +from God. Against which rests [remains] only faith.'</p></div> + +<p>Knox's faith sprang readily to whatever active duty +was set before it. On his escape from France he spent, +as we have seen, five years in England, and at the close +of that period we have his own assurance that he had +become almost an Englishman.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Sometime 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 to 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.'<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p></div> + +<p>He had laboured incessantly in many parts of England, +first as licensed preacher and then as King's chaplain, +and this of course brought him in contact with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +church politics as well as the Evangel. It was owing to +Knox's remonstrances that, when King Edward's Council +put kneeling at the Sacrament into the Prayer-Book, +they accompanied it with the Rubric, which is still retained, +and which testifies 'that thereby no adoration is +intended or ought to be done.' So far his position was +reasonable, and even conciliatory. But as early as 1550, +when requested, perhaps by the Council of the North, +to 'give his confession' in Newcastle as to the Mass, +he repeated the Puritan view of his first St Andrews +sermon, but now in his favourite form of a syllogism, +and with its major clause dangerously enlarged.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'All worshipping, honouring, or service invented by the brain of +man in the religion of God, without his own express commandment, +is <i>Idolatry</i>.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> The Mass is invented by the brain of man without any +commandment of God, therefore it is idolatry.'</p></div> + +<p>To Knox's five years in England now succeeded five +years which may be said to have been spent on the +Continent. He first drifted to Frankfort, and was put +in charge of the English congregation there. Very soon +the two parties, which have ever since divided the +Church of England, made their appearance in this +representative fragment of it. Knox, of course, took +the Puritan side as to the form of worship; but a large +part of his congregation insisted on the full service of +King Edward's book. The matter was brought to a +close in rather an unfortunate way by two of Knox's +opponents lodging an accusation against him before the +Magistrates, of treason against the Emperor, the English +Queen, and her Spanish husband. Frankfort was an imperial +city, and Knox was thus no longer safe there. He +went to Geneva, which was then, under Calvin's influence,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +an illustrious centre of the reformed faith; and was at +once called to be co-pastor there (along with Goodman) +of the English-speaking congregation. Knox's later +biographer points out the historic importance of this +'the first Puritan congregation.' It was the source of +Elizabethan Non-conformity, and 'it is in the writings +of Knox and Goodman that those doctrines were first +unflinchingly expounded which eventually became the +tradition of Puritanism.'<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> The Church Order, too, +which they adopted became afterwards that of worship +in Scotland; their Psalms were the model for the English +and Scotch versions; and, above all, the Genevan +Bible, prepared by the members of Knox's congregation +at the very time he was their minister, continued for +three-quarters of a century thereafter to be 'the household +book of the English-speaking nations.' It is called +the happiest and most peaceful time of Knox's life. +But it was a time of incessant preparation for still greater +things, and in this short biography we must confine ourselves +to what bears either on the man himself or on his +supreme work for his native country.</p> + +<p>For during all Knox's life on the Continent he seems +to have kept in view the problem of how the Evangel +could be set free in Scotland. He never had any +doubt as to the duty of the individual to confess it in +the teeth of the Magistrate and of the law. But how +could men combine together to do so, against authority +otherwise lawful? On this and similar points he proposed +questions on his first arrival in Switzerland to the +leading theologians. Bullinger, with the approval of +Calvin, gave an answer which may have suggested to +Knox the idea that a people (the Armenians are specially +instanced) may revolt against 'their legitimate +magistrate' who persecutes the truth, provided they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +have an inferior magistrate to lead them.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> And next year, +1555, Knox made a memorable visit to Scotland. There +James the Fifth's widow, Mary of Lorraine, was now +Regent, and so chief 'Magistrate.' She was during all +those years not disposed to be intolerant, and the prospect +was everywhere encouraging. From Edinburgh Knox +writes to Mrs Bowes (still in Northumberland), thanking +her for being</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'the instrument to draw me from the den of my own ease (you +alone did draw me from the rest of quiet study) 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 my eyes +in my own country, I could not have believed it. Depart I cannot, +unto such time as God quench their thirst a little.' And accordingly +later on he adds, 'The trumpet blew the old sound three days +together, till private houses of indifferent largeness could not contain +the voice of it. God for Christ his Son's sake grant me to be mindful +that the sobs of my heart have not been in vain, nor neglected +in the presence of his Majesty. O sweet were the death that +should follow such forty days in Edinburgh as here I have had +three!'<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p></div> + +<p>It was in the midst of this glowing enthusiasm that +Knox attended an Edinburgh supper party in the house +of Erskine, the Laird of Dun, where the question was +formally discussed whether those who believed the +Evangel could countenance by their presence the celebration +of the Mass? Knox maintained the negative, +and as young Maitland of Lethington and other acute +doubters were there, all views were well represented. But +in the end the Reformer's zeal prevailed, and another +step was taken to making Protestantism a public if not +a permitted thing in Scotland. From Edinburgh he +took journeys to Forfarshire, to West Lothian, to Ayrshire, +and to Renfrewshire; and after half a year spent +in incessant preaching, followed occasionally by admin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>istering +the Sacraments, he was at last cited to appear +before the bishops in the Blackfriars Church, Edinburgh. +He went, but attended by so many friends that nothing +was attempted against him for the time. And now, at +the suggestion of Glencairn and Marischal, two of the +lords who were favourable to the new doctrine, Knox sat +down to write a letter to the Queen Dowager, as Regent of +Scotland. It had hitherto been Mary of Lorraine's policy +to play off the Protestant party, which had leanings to +England, against the Catholic side, which was faithful to +France. Knox accordingly blesses 'God, who by the dew +of his heavenly grace, hath so quenched the fire of displeasure +in your Grace's heart,' and with unprecedented +courtesy apologises 'that a man of base estate and condition +dare enterprise to admonish a Princess so honourable, +endued with wisdom and graces singular.' Those +whom Knox represented were a small minority of Scotchmen; +but that did not prevent him demanding of the +Regent far more than mere neutrality or 'indifferency' +between the contending parties. He demands of her +the reform of both religion and the church. He admits +that 'your Grace's <i>power</i> is not so free as a public Reformation +perchance would require'; you 'cannot hastily +abolish superstition, ... which to a public Reformation +is requisite and necessary. But if the zeal of God's +glory be fervent in your Grace's heart, you will not by +wicked laws maintain idolatry, neither will you suffer +the fury of Bishops to murder and devour.' The Queen +Regent was not disposed to go very far with the bishops, +but still less was she fervent for God's glory and public +Reformation. Accordingly, on the first Court day she +handed Knox's letter, perhaps unread, to the Bishop of +Glasgow, with the words, 'Please you, my Lord, to read +a Pasquil.' The unwise jest came to Knox's ears, and +some years after he published his letter with resentful +additions and interpolations. In these he assumed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>—much +too soon—that there was no longer hope of the +Regent becoming personally convinced of the Evangel. +But he at the same time modified his 'Petition' on +behalf of his party to this, 'that our doctrine may be +tried by the plain word of God, and that liberty be +granted to us to utter and declare our minds at large in +every article and point which are now in controversy'; +and on his own behalf and 'in the name of the Lord +Jesus, that with <i>indifferency</i> I may be heard to preach, +to reason, and to dispute in that cause.'</p> + +<p>But now, in July 1556, letters came to Knox in +Edinburgh from his congregation in Geneva, 'commanding +him in God's name, as he was their chosen +pastor, to repair unto them for their comfort.' He at +once complied, sending before him from Norham to +Dieppe his wife and her mother. Scotland was not yet +ripe. The lay professors of the Evangel indeed were +not seriously molested after his departure. But on the +other hand Knox himself was at once cited to appear in +Edinburgh, condemned in absence as a contumacious +heretic, and burned at the Cross in the High Street—in +effigy. Neither this, nor his daily work in Geneva, +had the effect of withdrawing him for a day from his +solicitude for his native country. On leaving it he wrote +an admirable 'Letter of Wholesome Counsel'<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> urging +the continual study of the word of God in families and +in congregations.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'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.'</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>And for each congregation he urged an order of procedure +much nearer that of apostolic times than that +which the Reformed Church, at his own instance, afterwards +instituted in Scotland.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I think it necessary that for the conference [comparing] of +Scriptures, assemblies of brethren be had. The order therein to be +observed is expressed by St Paul,' ... after 'confession' and +'invocation,' '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 but 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.'</p></div> + +<p>If any difficulty of interpretation occurs, it should be +'put in writing before ye dismiss the congregation,' +with the view of consulting some wise adviser. Many, +he hopes, would be glad to help them.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'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 matter beside.'</p></div> + +<p>Before six months had passed, however, Knox, who +was again abroad, had become troubled by the too great +freedom of opinion and the dangers of consequent freedom +of life even in the Protestant community, and his +letter 'To the Brethren'<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> in Scotland from Dieppe, +against Anabaptists and Sectarians, foreshadows the +more rigid form which was to be one day impressed upon +Church doctrine and life in his native land.</p> + +<p>During the ensuing year, 1557, everything was peaceful +and hopeful. The Protestants kept their worship<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +private, but it spread from town to town, and from the +land of one friendly baron to his neighbours' territory. +Knox had been formally condemned, but those he left +behind were not molested, and in March four of the +Lords wrote him to Geneva asking him to return to +Scotland. They accompanied this with assurances that +though 'the Magistrates in this country' were in the +same state as before, the Churchmen there were daily in +less estimation. After consulting Calvin, Knox said +farewell to his congregation, and had got as far homewards +as Dieppe, where he was much disappointed to +receive 'contrary letters.' His reply, indignantly acquiescing, +indicates the plan which by this time he had +formed in order to solve the combined difficulties in theory +and practice which beset Scotland. He reminded his +correspondents—Glencairn, Lorne, Erskine, and James +Stewart—in very memorable words, that they were themselves +magistrates, or at least representatives of the +people, and had duties accordingly.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Your subjects, yea, your brethren, are oppressed, their bodies +and souls holden in bondage; and God speaketh to your consciences +(unless ye be dead with the blind world) that you ought to hazard +your own lives (be it against kings and emperors) for their deliverance. +For only for that cause are ye called Princes of the people, +and ye receive of your brethren honour, tribute and homage at God's +commandment; not by reason of your birth and progeny (as the +most part of men falsely do suppose), but by reason of your office +and duty, which is to vindicate and deliver your subjects and +brethren from all violence and oppression, to the utmost of your +power.'<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a></p></div> + +<p>The effect of this and other encouragements was to +bring matters to a point in Scotland. The Protestant +party, which had now been joined by Argyll and +Morton, entered into the kind of engagement which +was then called a 'Band,' and afterwards became widely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +known in Scotland as a 'Covenant.' This document, +dated 3rd December 1557, bound the signatories to +'apply our whole power, substance, and our very lives, +to maintain, set forward, and establish the most blessed +Word of God and his congregation ... unto which +holy word and congregation we do join us, and also do +forsake and renounce the congregation of Satan.' This +important step, which seems to have been represented +by rumour in Dieppe as something like rebellion in +Scotland, apparently startled Knox. A fortnight after +it took place he writes the 'Lords of the Congregation,' +as they were henceforth called, a letter of caution, urging +them to</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'seek the favour of the Authority, that by it, if possible be, the +cause in which ye labour may be promoted, <i>or at the least not persecuted</i>, +which thing after all humble request if ye can not attain, +then, with open and solemn protestation of your obedience to be +given to the Authority in all things not plainly repugning to God, +ye lawfully may attempt the extremity, which is to provide, +whether the Authority will consent or no, that Christ's Evangel +may be duly preached, and his holy Sacraments rightly ministered +unto you, and to your brethren the subjects of that realm.'</p></div> + +<p>The Lords of the Congregation were disposed to be +at least as cautious as Knox, and during the following +year, 1558, there was a remarkable approximation to a +possible settlement in Scotland on the basis of toleration. +The 'Band' of the congregation does not at all +suggest that the Barons who joined in it, and thereby +bound themselves to defend their religion against the +pressure and tyranny of outsiders, would think it right +themselves to exercise a counter pressure and tyranny +upon their own vassals within their own lands. And +Knox's intimation that the Authority—<i>i.e.</i>, the Regent +and Parliament—though refusing to promote the Evangel, +ought to be asked at least <i>not to persecute it</i>, was most +timely. He held, indeed, at this time, that such a con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>cession, +if granted, ought to bar not only insurrection, +but even a partial and divided establishment of religion. +The state of matters was reflected in two resolutions +which the Congregation came to immediately after the +Band. By the first, common prayers were to be read on +Sundays in the churches—which must mean in the +churches where the innovators had influence—by the +curates, 'if qualified,' and, if not, by those of the +parishioners who were. But the second provided that +preaching be, in the meantime, 'had and used privately +in quiet houses,' great conventions being avoided 'till +God move the Prince to grant public preaching.' And +another influence now entered into the history. Knox +had initiated an aristocratic revolution. But the Burghs +of Scotland had been there, as in every other country of +Europe, fortresses of freedom and the advance-guard of +constitutional civilisation. And it was now resolved, +that the brethren in every <i>town</i> 'should assemble +together. And this our weak beginning did God so +bless, that within few months the hearts of many were so +strengthened, that we sought to have the <i>face of a church</i> +among us.'... And the town of Dundee in particular +'began to erect the face of a public church reformed.'<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> +Henceforward the great towns became more and more +prepared to be the centres of the future struggle. +Meantime, however, early in 1558, the 'First Petition +of the Protestants of Scotland' was presented to the +Regent. It protested against the existing tyranny, and +craved, in general and cautious terms, a 'public Reformation,' +laying stress on church services in the vulgar +tongue, and offering to submit differences to be publicly +decided, not only by the New Testament, but by the +writings of the Fathers and the laws of Justinian. The +offer seems to have been at once accepted. But, according +to the account of Knox, who, of course, was still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +abroad, the proposed public discussion came to nothing, +because both parties fell back upon other conditions of +arbitration; the Protestants now demanding that the Scriptures +alone should decide all controversy, the Catholics +insisting on Councils and Canon Law. The next step +was a proposal by the Bishops of 'Articles of Reconciliation,' +according to which the Old Church was to +remain publicly established, while the Protestants might +privately pray and baptise in the vulgar tongue. This +the innovating party declined, and pressed for 'reformation.' +And now the Regent, whom Knox afterwards +came to regard as 'crafty and dissimulate,' and who, no +doubt, even now desired to please and 'make her profit +of both parties,' announced to the Congregation her +decision. 'She gave to us permission <i>to use ourselves</i> +godly, according to our desires, provided that we should +not make public assemblies in Edinburgh or Leith'—<i>i.e.</i>, +in the capital. The Queen went so far as to promise +positive 'assistance to our preachers,' the assistance no +doubt being rather private and personal, and the whole +arrangement being an interim one, 'until some uniform +order might be established by a Parliament.' It was a +great step in advance; indeed, Knox says, 'we departed +fully contented with her answer;'<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> and it is impossible +not to speculate on what the result might have been had +the order finally established by Parliament been that +both parties should permanently 'use themselves godly +according to their desires,' with a publicly acknowledged +right of proselytism or persuasion.</p> + +<p>But from both sides there still came some things +hostile to the advent in Scotland of that toleration +which the modern conscience has approved. In April +1558 Walter Myln, a priest eighty-two years of age, was +seized by order of the Archbishop of St Andrews, condemned +for heresy, and burned there amid the general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +but ineffectual resentment of the people. The sentence +was quite legal under the laws which still enforced +membership of the Catholic Church upon all Scotchmen. +But the last man who had been so condemned +was Knox; and he no longer delayed to publish in +Geneva an Appellation or appeal against his sentence, +directed to the nobles, the estates and the commonalty +of Scotland. His demand for a return to the primitive +Gospel under the Divine authority is powerful and +eloquent. His reasons, on the other hand, for 'appeal +from the sentence and judgment of the visible Church +to the knowledge of the temporal magistrate' are difficult +to reconcile with the position which Knox afterwards +took up when that Church was on his own side; +and they are indeed chiefly drawn from the Old Testament. +It is not until we observe from his re-statement +of the case farther on, that his was an appeal 'against +a sentence of death,' that the argument once more +straightens itself out so as to suit the lips even of Paul. +But Knox declines now to remain on the defensive. +He accuses his accusers of heresy and idolatry, and +calls upon the nobles of Scotland to decide against +them according to God's Word. Here, again, the +appeal, so long as it is made to the conscience of all +men and of nobles alike, is very cogent. Nor is it +less so as addressed specially to the most representative +and intelligent Scotchmen of the time, for such the +Lords of the Congregation undoubtedly were. It becomes +doubtful only when it insists on the right of +these temporal 'Princes of the people' to reform the +Church—apparently even without the consent of its +majority; and it becomes worse than doubtful when +he urges their duty as magistrates to repress false religion +and to punish idolatry with death. Along with +this, however, was published a shorter letter 'To his +Beloved Brethren the Commonalty of Scotland.' To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +these subjects born within the same, their brother +John Knox wishes in it 'the spirit of righteous judgment;' +and that in a tone of independence which must +have sounded to Scottish peasants and burghers like a +call to a new life. For in this treatise, unlike the last, +each private Scottish man is urged to judge of what +claimed to be the original truth, even against an admittedly +ancient system. And 'If that system was an +error in the beginning, so it is in the end, and the +longer that it be followed, and the more that do receive +it, it is the more pestilent, and more to be avoided.'</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Neither would I that ye should esteem the Reformation and +care of religion less to appertain to you, because ye are no kings, +rulers, judges, nobles, nor in authority. Beloved brethren, ye are +God's creatures, created and formed to His own image and similitude, +for whose redemption was shed the most precious blood of +the only beloved Son of God.... For albeit God hath put and +ordained distinction and difference between the king and subjects, +between the rulers and the common people, in the regimen and +administration of civil policies, yet in the hope of the life to come +He hath made all equal.... And this is the equality which +is between the king and subjects, the most rich or noble, and between +the poorest and men of lowest estate; to wit, that as the +one is obliged to believe in heart, and with mouth to confess, the +Lord Jesus to be the only Saviour of the world, so also is the +other.'</p></div> + +<p>And by this time Knox has reasoned out for himself +the right of the people to maintain the true Church, and +to band in defence of it—though that right he even now +recognises only when they cannot do better.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'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 yourselves, be it in your cities, towns, or villages: +them ye may 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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +Ye may, moreover, withhold the fruits and profits which your false +Bishops and clergy most unjustly receive of you, unto such time as +they be compelled faithfully to do their charge and duties.'</p></div> + +<p>These appeals by Knox can only have made their +way in Scotland gradually and privately. But as the +year 1558 went on, the prospect of union became more +hopeful. The Queen Regent acted as if 'the duty of +the Magistrate' were to prevent majorities and minorities +from laying hands on each other. And, then at least, +this was not an easy work. The Bishops tyrannised in +details in localities where the barons were still on their +side; but Myln was the last Protestant martyr in Scotland. +On the other hand, the adherents of the congregation +became so bold, especially in the towns, that +(as Knox tells us) 'the images were stolen away in all +parts of the country, and in Edinburgh was that great +idol called St Gile first <i>drowned</i> in the North Loch, and +after burned.'<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> This was too much, and the Regent +allowed the Bishops to summon the iconoclast preachers +for the 19th of July. But a party of Western lairds +heard of it on their way from the army of the Border, +and insisted on interviewing the Queen. Knox's vivid +account of what followed must be quoted. It includes +a delicious phonograph of the Scots speech of Mary of +Lorraine, who, to the desire to please all men which was +common to her with her more famous daughter, seems +to have added real good nature and kindliness of heart. +James Chalmers of Gadgirth, a rough Ayrshireman, +burst out against the Bishops—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'"Madam, we vow to God we shall make one 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 man put on his steel bonnet. There was heard nothing +of the Queen's part but "My joys, my hearts, what ails you? Me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +means no evil to you nor to 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 betwixt the Bishops and you. +They shall do you no wrong. My Lords," said she to the Bishops, +"I forbid you either to trouble them or their preachers." And +unto the gentlemen, who were wondrously commoved, 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.'<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a></p></div> + +<p>Her daughter Mary, the celebrated Queen of Scots, +had been married in April to Francis, the Dauphin of +France, and the Regent, rejoicing in this long hoped-for +alliance, had one thing more at heart. The Scots Parliament +was to meet in November, and she hoped that it +would confer the crown 'Matrimonial' of Scotland upon +her son-in-law, thus consolidating the two kingdoms. In +view of this meeting the Lords of the Congregation prepared +a petition, the leading prayer of which would have +practically freed Scotland from the intolerance of existing +legislation in the matter of religion—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'We most humbly desire that <i>all such Acts of Parliament</i>, as in +the time of darkness gave power to the churchmen to execute their +tyranny against us, by reason that we to them were delated as +heretics, may be <i>suspended and abrogated</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p></div> + +<p>Here again was a proposal which, if taken by itself, +would have satisfied the modern view of liberty of conscience. +But the petitioners went on to say that they +did not object to a <i>temporal</i> judge of heresy, provided +he judged according to the Word of God; and they +looked forward to a decision of 'all controversies in +religion,' not however by Parliament, but by a General +Council. This proposal was first handed to the Queen +Regent, who 'spared not amiable looks and good words<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +in abundance, but always she kept our Bill close in her +pocket.' Both parties in Parliament being thus pleased, +the Crown Matrimonial was consented to, and before +the Session closed, the Protestant Lords read an important +protest, repeating the positions which they had +already taken up.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1. 'We protest, that seeing we cannot obtain a just reformation, +according to God's word, that it be lawful to us <i>to use ourselves</i> in +matters of religion and conscience, as we must answer unto God.</p> + +<p>2. 'That we shall incur no danger in life or lands, or other +political pains, for not observing such Acts as heretofore have passed +in favour of our adversaries.'</p></div> + +<p>They added a protest that if any tumult should arise +'for the diversity of religion,' and if any abuses should +be 'violently reformed,' it should not be imputed to +them, who desired a reformation in matters of religion by +the Authority. From that Authority, however, they, in +closing—somewhat inconsistently but most rightfully—demanded +once more the 'indifferency' which becometh +God's Lieutenant.</p> + +<p>Parliament declined to record the Protest, but the +Queen Regent said in her confidential way to the Lords, +'Me will remember what is protested; and me shall put +good order after this to all things.' Knox was delighted, +and in writing to Calvin commended her 'for excellent +knowledge in God's word, and good will towards the +advancement of his glory.' There is no reason to +suppose that Mary of Lorraine had attained to much +more than a kindly appreciation of all parties around +her, and to that general sense of justice which is strong +in rulers and other men so long as they have no personal +interest to the contrary. Yet under this feminine +'regimen' Scotland was now within measurable distance +of being, alone among the commonwealths of Europe, +the home of liberty of worship and freedom of conscience. +But that great time was not come; and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +small northern land was now caught up again into the +whirl of European politics. On the 17th November +1558 Mary of England, the unhappy wife of Philip, +died; and her Protestant sister Elizabeth, the daughter +of Anne Boleyn, succeeded. It became at once the +chief point in the policy of Catholic Europe that France +and Scotland should be fast bound together in religion +and turned, along with Spain, as one force for the +restoration or re-conquest of England. For if the +English queen was an illegitimate heretic, then Mary +Stuart, already Queen of Scotland and Dauphiness +of France, was now Queen of England too; and +without delay the French king quartered the arms of +England with those of Mary's own country and that of +her adoption. The magnificent bribe of a third crown +for that fair 'daughter of debate' was too much for her +mother in Scotland, who in any case would have found +a continued toleration there irreconcileable with the +traditions of their House of Guise. The Regent now, +in her mild way, joined the cruel Catholic crusade of +the French Court, and from the beginning of 1559 the +conciliatory policy which had distinguished the previous +year in Scotland was at an end.</p> + +<p>But its results were not ended. They had spread +through all ranks, and had gone down to the foundations +of society. On New Year's Day of 1559 there was +found affixed to the door of every religious house in +Scotland the following document—the most extraordinary +imitation of a legal writ that Scotland has seen. +It is probably not written by Knox, but by some other +strong pen. It bears to be a notice or 'summons' of +ejectment for the ensuing Whitsunday, and is called</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">THE BEGGARS' WARNING.</p> + +<p>The Blind, Crooked, Bedrels [bedfast], Widows, Orphans, and +all other Poor, so visited by the hand of God as they may +not work,</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">TO</p> + +<p>The Flocks of all Friars within this realm, we wish restitution of +wrongs bypast, and reformation in time coming, for salutation.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>Ye yourselves are not ignorant, and though ye would be it is now, +thanks to God, known to the whole world, by His infallible word, +that the benignity or alms of all Christian people pertains to us +allanerly [exclusively]; which ye, being hale of body, stark, sturdy, +and able to work, what [partly] under pretence of poverty (and +nevertheless possessing most easily all abundance) what [partly] +through cloaked and hooded simplicity, though your proudness is +known, and what [partly] by feigned holiness, which now is declared +superstition and idolatry, have these many years, express against +God's word and the practice of His Holy Apostles, to our great torment +alas! most falsely stolen from us. And as ye have, by your false +doctrine and wresting of God's word (learned of your father Satan), +induced the whole people high and low, into sure hope and belief, +that to clothe, feed, and nourish you is the only acceptable alms +allowed before God, and to give one penny or one piece of bread +once in the week, is enough for us; Even so ye have persuaded +them to build to you great hospitals, and maintain you therein by their +purse, which only pertains now to us by all law, as builded and +doted [given] to the poor—of whose number ye are not, nor can be +repute, neither by the law of God, nor yet by no other law proceeding +of nature, reason, or civil policy.... We have thought +good, therefore, before we enter with you in conflict, to warn you, +in the name of the great God, by this public writing, affixed on your +gates, where ye now dwell, that ye remove forth of our said hospitals +betwixt this and the feast of Whitsunday next, so that we the +only lawful proprietors thereof may enter thereto, and afterward +enjoy these <i>commodities of the Kirk</i>, which ye have hereunto +wrongously holden from us: Certifying you, if ye fail, we will at the +said term, in whole number (with the help of God and the assistance +of His saints in earth, of whose readie support we doubt not), enter +and take possession of <i>our said patrimony</i>, and eject you utterly +forth of the same.</p> + +<p><i>Let him therefore that before has stolen, steal no more; but rather +let him work with his hands that he may be helpful to the poor.</i></p> + +<p class="center">FROM THE WHOLE CITIES, TOWNS, AND VILLAGES OF SCOTLAND,<br /> +THE FIRST DAY OF JANUARY, 1558 {1559}.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>As it turned out, this summons was in some cases +literally fulfilled, and a revolutionary ejectment carried +out by Whitsunday 1559. But now from another side +came another warning to put the house of the Church +in order. The Catholic barons presented a petition for +its reform, and the Regent called a Provincial Council +on 1st March. It dealt, however, almost exclusively with +the lives and duties of the clergy, and leaving untouched +the central grievance—the legal authority of the Church +and of the Pope over all subjects—had no effect +whatever on the public. Immediately after, all 'unauthorised' +preaching was forbidden. The Protestants, +astonished, waited on the Regent and reminded her of +her promises. She replied, in words which were often +recalled during the reigns of her Stewart descendants, +that 'it became not subjects to burden their Princes +with promises, farther than it pleaseth them to keep the +same,' and the preachers were ordered to appear before +her at Stirling. But now Knox, who had kept up constant +communication from Geneva with his friends, +suddenly appears on the scene. On 2d May he writes +from Edinburgh to Mrs Locke:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I am come, I praise my God, even in the brunt of the battle: +for my fellow-preachers have a day appointed to answer before the +Queen Regent, the 10th of this instant, where I intend, if God +impede not, also to be present: by life, by death, or else by both, +to glorify His godly name, who thus mercifully hath heard my long +cries.'<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p></div> + +<p>The day after this letter was written, Knox was 'blown +loud to the horn,' <i>i.e.</i>, declared an excommunicated outlaw: +but he had meantime left for Dundee, where he +was received with acclamation, and from thence departed +to Perth, now the centre of Protestantism. There, day +by day, he preached to excited multitudes in the Parish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +Church; and it was after a sermon there, 'vehement +against idolatry,' that a foolish priest, attempting to +perform mass in the same building, was set upon by +the mob of Perth, who had an old feud with the +clergy. From the church the multitude streamed +away to the magnificent Religious Houses which had +adorned the town, and sacked and burned them so +thoroughly that only the walls were left standing. It +wanted yet four days to that Whitsunday, for ejection +on which the 'rascal multitude' had last New Year's +Day warned the Friars! The Queen Regent resented +this outrageous violence, but was forced to come to an +interim agreement with the Lords of the Congregation. +On her entry into Perth they moved into Fife, and Knox +having preached in Crail and Anstruther, resolved to do +so also in the Parish Church of St Andrews on Sunday. +But the St Andrews populace had not yet declared themselves; +the Regent's hostile army was only twelve miles +off; and the Archbishop—who had occupied the town +with a hundred spears and a dozen of culverins—now +threatened his life if he attempted it. It was a moment +for a bold man. At the hour fixed Knox made his +appearance. No one ventured to attack him. He +preached with his usual impetuous eloquence on +'casting the buyers and sellers out of the temple,' +and at its close the magistrates and council permitted +the majority of the people to destroy most of the +monasteries, and strip the churches and cathedral of +their apparatus of 'idolatry.' Knox was always more +comfortable where he could say that such proceedings +were countenanced by the local authority, or by the +majority of a civic community. In Edinburgh, to +which the Congregation next moved, the majority had +hitherto been hostile to them; and now, on the Queen +Regent's departure, the pulpits were for the first time +opened to what was the legitimate glory of the new move<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>ment—free +and unfettered preaching. Knox, church-statesman +though he was, threw himself into this work +with a delight that lifted him above calculation of +consequences.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The long thirst of my wretched heart is satisfied, in abundance +that is above my expectation; for now, forty days and more hath +God used my tongue in my native country to the manifestation of +His glory. Whatever now shall follow, as touching my own carcase, +His Holy Name be praised.'<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p></div> + +<p>The castle, however, still remained faithful to the +Regent, and on her forces approaching Edinburgh, +both parties agreed to a truce till January, which, as +respects the town and its religion, provided that—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The town of Edinburgh shall, without compulsion, use and choose +what religion and manner thereof they please, to the said day; <i>so +that every man may have freedom to use his own conscience</i> to the day +foresaid.'<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p></div> + +<p>The truce was to be for six months, to January 1560, +and it was employed by both parties in preparing for a +renewed struggle, and, on the side of the Congregation, +in negotiations with Elizabeth and her ministers. Politically, +this last step was of the highest importance. For +the first time for centuries, it healed the breach with 'our +auld enemies of England,' as the Scots statutes had so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +often described them, and founded an alliance between +the two kingdoms, which has since that date been only +changed in order to become a union. And in this +negotiation the agent and secretary was Knox.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> He +corresponded with the Queen's great minister Cecil +(Elizabeth herself would not hear Knox's name). And +it says not a little for the self-command and honesty of +the English statesman, that he trusted so fully a man +whose first letter, written several years before—a letter, +too, asking a favour—commenced by Knox's 'discharging +his conscience' in this way:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'In time past, being overcome with common iniquity, you have +followed the world in the way of perdition: for ... to the +shedding of the blood of God's dear children have you, by +silence, consented and subscribed. Of necessity it is, that carnal +wisdom and worldly policy, (to both which, you are bruited to be +much inclined) give place to God's simple and naked truth.'</p></div> + +<p>Cecil had made no answer to this or to similar +subsequent remarks, but he now wrote asking the +Congregation,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'if support should be sent hence, what manner of amity might +ensue betwixt these two realms, and how the same might be +hoped to be perpetual, and not to be so slender as heretofore hath +been, without other assurance of continuance than from time to +time hath pleased France.'</p></div> + +<p>And the answer, in Knox's handwriting, is signed +by the Protestant lords, and assures England</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'of our constancy (as men may promise) till our lives end; yea, +farther, we will divulgate and set abroad a charge and commandment +to our posterity, that the amity and league between you and +us contracted and begun in Christ Jesus may by them be kept +inviolated for ever.'</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was to be in the future a still more Solemn +League and Covenant between the two nations, it too +having for its object the deliverance (and, alas! also +the uniformity) of religion in both kingdoms. But +that public, and this private, league were alike disavowed +by the Sovereign, and both became the badge +of rebellion. The Queen Regent, indeed, had now +fortified Leith, and was filling it with French soldiers. +The Lords of the Congregation, founding on this +as a breach of faith, resolved to suspend her from +the regency, and did so by a proclamation, strangely +signed: 'By us, the nobility and commons of the +Protestants of the Church of Scotland.' The preachers +approved, Knox, however, demanding that a door be +still kept open for her restoration. War, of course, at +once followed, and it turned out to be very much a +fight between Edinburgh and Leith, then not unequally +matched.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> Soon the Protestants got the +worst of it. On the last day of October the French, +pouring up Leith Walk, drove them back into the +Canongate, attacked Leith Wynd, and sent their +horsemen in headlong flight through the Netherbow +Port and up the High Street. Five days after, +the forces of the Congregation having advanced to +Restalrig, were enclosed by two advancing bodies of +the enemy, and so jammed in near Holyrood, between +the crags of the Calton on the one side and the +crags of Arthur Seat on the other, as to be extricated +only with most serious loss. Confusion and dismay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +seized upon all, and at midnight they marched out of +Edinburgh, pursued by voices of reproach and execration +from the overhanging roofs. Next night they +gathered helplessly at Stirling. But on the following +day Knox entered the pulpit there, and preached a +memorable sermon. It recalled the despairing Congregation +to a mood of resolute trust and hope. And +yet his text was the Psalm which tells of the vine +brought from Egypt to be planted in the land, but +now wasted and broken down; and the preacher +throughout refused even to suggest to the shrinking +multitude any lower hope than the vouchsafed shining +again of the Divine countenance. There remains only, +he concluded,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'that we turn to the Eternal our God, who beats down to death, +to the intent that he may raise up again, to leave the remembrance of +his wondrous deliverance, to the praise of his own name ... yea, +whatsoever shall become of us and of our mortal carcases, I doubt +not but that this cause, in despite of Satan, shall prevail in the +realm of Scotland.'</p></div> + +<p>But his words were as life from the dead, and the +sermon, which Buchanan also commemorates, was long +after recalled by the preacher himself in St Giles, in +another great crisis of the Evangel.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'From the beginning of God's mighty working within this realm, +I have been with you in your most desperate tentations. Ask your +own consciences, and let them answer you before God, if that I—not +I, but God's Spirit by me—in your greatest extremity willed you +not ever to depend upon your God, and in His name promised unto +you victory and preservation from your enemies, so that ye would +only depend upon his protection and prefer His glory to your own +lives and worldly commodity. In your most extreme dangers I +have been with you: St Johnstone, Cupar Muir, and the Crags of +Edinburgh, are yet recent in my heart: yea, that dark and dolorous +night wherein all ye, my Lords, with shame and fear left this town, +is yet in my mind; and God forbid that ever I forget it!'</p></div> + +<p>'The voice of one man,' it was afterwards said of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +Knox by the English ambassador in Edinburgh, 'is able +in one hour to put more life in us than five hundred +trumpets continually blustering in our ears.' This day +in Stirling was the very lowest point of the fortunes +of the Congregation, and from this hour they began +to rise. There were reverses still; but Scotland was +sick of the French, and the end was to come with +the coming year. In April 1560, the English forces +surrounded Leith; the Queen Regent withdrew from +it into the Castle of Edinburgh; and the Lords of +the Congregation, stronger than they were originally +by the accession of the Duke of Hamilton and the +Earls of Morton and Huntly,<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> made one more +'Band' or Covenant. In it for the last time they fall +back on liberty of conscience; for all they bind themselves +to is,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'with our bodies, goods, friends, and all that we may do, to set +forward the Reformation of Religion, according to God's word; and +procure, by all means possible, that the truth of God's word may +have <i>free passage within this realm</i>, with due administration of the +Sacraments, and all things depending upon the said word.'<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></p></div> + +<p>A copy of this Band, by which each subscriber also +bound himself not to make separate overtures to the +Regent, was brought to her in the Castle. Knox, who +by this time was become very hostile to Mary of +Lorraine, and reports much doubtful gossip as to her +rejoicing over the victories and cruelties of her soldiers, +says that when she read the Band, she spoke in quite +another and milder sense.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The malediction of God I give unto them that counselled me to +persecute the preachers, and to refuse the petitions of the best part +of the true subjects of this realm.'</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the time was past for her co-operating for the +welfare of that realm. She had fallen into a dropsy, +and, becoming daily worse, sent for the Earls Argyll, +Glencairn, and Marischal, and the Lord James (her +husband's son). They came to her separately, and to +each she confessed that she had made a mistake, and +should have acceded to the arrangement they had proposed. +'They gave unto her both the counsel and the +comfort which they could in that extremity, and willed +her to send for some godly learned man, of whom she +might receive instruction.' They proposed Willock; +but even that gentle preacher did not set forth 'the +virtue and strength of the death of Jesus Christ,' without +touching also upon 'the vanity and abomination of that +idol, the mass.' The dying woman said nothing, good +or bad, of the form in which Christianity had been first +presented, long years ago, to her childish eyes. But +'she did openly confess "that there was no salvation +but in and by the death of Jesus Christ."' And Knox, +holding that in this 'Christ Jesus got no small victory' +over her, grudges extremely that to her approval of 'the +chief head of our religion, wherein we dissent from all +Papists and Papistry,' she added no condemnation of +opposing ways. But Mary of Lorraine had uttered the +last even of her good-natured 'maledictions,' and on the +10th of June the Regent of Scotland ended her 'unhappy +life'—a life, that is, which had pleased neither +party, though in its later years a great revolution, carried +through at the expense of comparatively little violence +or bloodshed, had narrowly missed attaining an even +ideal result.</p> + +<p>And now those troubles were over. Nine months before, +her daughter had become Queen of France, and a +treaty was now concluded at Edinburgh, between the +Queen of England on the one part and the 'King and +Queen of France and Scotland' on the other, by which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +the French troops and officials withdrew from Scotland, +and an indemnity was granted to the insurgent nobility +for all that the Congregation had done. Elizabeth still +looked on them as rebels; but Cecil, with more foresight, +instructed her plenipotentiaries to provide 'that +the government of Scotland be granted to the nation of +the land'; and the treaty provided for a Council of +Administration in the absence from Edinburgh of the +Sovereigns, and—more important still—for an immediate +meeting of the Estates, which was to be as valid as if +presided over by them.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> The most important Parliament +which Scotland has ever seen sat on 1st August +1560, and was very largely attended by nobles, lairds, and +burgh representatives. Naturally, a petition was at once +laid before it for the abolition of the old Church system. +Equally naturally, this was met by a request for a statement +of the new Church doctrine—a confession of faith. +It was prepared by Knox and three others, and in four +days presented to the Parliament.</p> + +<p>'I never heard,' says the English envoy to Cecil, +'matters of so great importance, neither sooner despatched +nor with better will agreed unto.' Knox's +narrative, which is borne out by the records of Parliament, +says that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'This our Confession was publicly read, first in audience of the +Lords of the Articles, and after, in audience of the whole Parliament, +where were present, not only such as professed Christ Jesus,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +but also a great number of the adversaries of our religion, such as +the fore-named bishops, and some others of the temporal estate, +who were commanded, in God's name, to object, if they could, +anything against that doctrine.'</p></div> + +<p>The ministers were present to defend it, but there +was no opposition, and a second day was appointed, +when the Confession was again read over, article by +article, and then a vote was taken. Three, or at the most +five, temporal peers voted against ratifying it; 'and yet +for their disassenting they produced no better reason +but, We will believe as our fathers believed.' Nor was +this strange, for the Bishops present, Knox says, 'spake +nothing,' Randolph explaining that the three who got to +their feet, headed by the St Andrew's primate, said the +doctrine was a matter new and strange to them, which +they had not examined, and which they could not +'utterly condemn,' or, on the other hand, quite consent +to. The vote on the side of the majority was largely a +rejoicing outburst of individual conviction. The Earl +Marischal indeed, took the obvious ground that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'seeing that my Lords Bishops, who for their learning can, and +for that zeal they should bear to the verity, would (as I suppose) +gainsay anything that directly repugns to the verity of God—seeing, +I say, my Lords here present speak nothing in the contrary of the +doctrine proposed, I cannot but hold it to be the very truth of God, +and the contrary to be deceivable doctrine.'</p></div> + +<p>The rest of the Lords, says Randolph, with common +consent, and 'as glad a will as ever I heard men speak,' +allowed the same.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Divers, with protestation of their conscience and faith, desired +rather presently to end their lives than ever to think contrary unto +that allowed there. Many also offered to shed their blood in defence +of the same. The old Lord of Lindsay, as grave and goodly +a man as ever I saw, said: "I have lived many years; I am the +oldest in this company of my sort; now that it hath pleased God to +let me see this day, where so many nobles and others have allowed +so worthy a work, I will say, with Simeon, <i>Nunc dimittis</i>."'</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was the birthday of a people. For not in that +assembly alone, and within the dim walls of the old +Parliament House of Edinburgh, was that faith confessed +and those vows made. Everywhere the Scottish burgess +and the Scottish peasant felt himself called to deal, individually +and immediately, with Christianity and the +divine; and everywhere the contact was ennobling. +'Common man' as he was, 'the vague, shoreless universe +had become for him a firm city, and a dwelling-place +which he knew. Such virtue was in belief: in these +words well spoken, <i>I believe</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> But being a common +man in Scotland, his religion could not be isolated, or +his faith for himself alone. Wherever he dwelt, 'in our +towns and places reformed,' he was already a member of +a self-governing republic, a republic within the Scottish +State but not of it, and subject to an invisible King. +'The good old cause' was already born. It kindled +itself, as that son of the Burgher mason in Annandale +says again, 'like a beacon set on high; high as heaven, +yet attainable from earth, whereby the meanest man +becomes not a citizen only, but a member of Christ's +visible Church; a veritable hero, if he prove a true +man.'</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>Day by day at this critical epoch Knox preached in +St Giles from the 'prophet Haggeus,' on what he called +The Building of the House. In one sense the foundation +was laid already. In another, Parliament might be +called upon to supply one. What foundation was Parliament +to lay, and what structure was promised for the +days to come?</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 133.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 34. The rashness of the general proposition +here can only be appreciated when we remember Knox's view that it +was the duty of the Magistrate not only to suppress idolatry, but to +punish it with death.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Hume Brown, i. 203.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> 'Works,' iii. 224.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> 'Works,' iv. 217, 218.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> 'Works,' iv. 129.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> 'Works,' iv. 261.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> 'Works,' i. 272.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> 'Works,' i. 300.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> 'Works,' i. 307.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> 'Works,' i. 256.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> 'Works,' i. 258.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> 'Works,' i. 310.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> 'Works,' i. 320.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> 'Works,' i. 378. Knox objected to this unlimited freedom of +conscience being granted, even for a time; and actually succeeded +in retaining the public worship on the ground that Edinburgh <i>had</i> +chosen already, though under compulsion. The interest lies in the +fact that, at every turn of the open struggle which now took place +between the two parties, the true ultimate solution, that of toleration, +came to the front. But it was proposed, or suggested, by each +party only when that party was in the minority, and ignored as soon +as it regained the power to do wrong. See the following additional +pages in Knox's own History:—'Works,' i. 389, 390, 428 ('idolatry +<i>and</i> murder'), 432, 442 ('chief duty'), and 444.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Knox himself takes care in his History 'to let the posterity +that shall follow understand, by what instruments God wrought +the familiarity and friendship, that after we found in England.'—'Works,' +ii. 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> 'It is not unknown to the most part of this realm, that there +has been an old hatred and contention betwixt Edinburgh and +Leith; Edinburgh seeking continually to possess that liberty which +by donation of kings they have long enjoyed, and Leith, by the +contrary, aspiring to a liberty and freedom in prejudice of Edinburgh.'—Declaration +of the Lords of the Congregation in 1559. 'Works,' i. 426.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Lesser barons sign too, from Cranstoun and Cessford on the +Borders, to Leslie of Buchan and John Innes of that Ilk in the +North.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> 'Works,' ii. 61. It is dated 26 April 1560.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> It does not say that all its acts were to be valid. On the contrary, +'certain Articles concerning religion' having been presented +on the part of the nobles and people of Scotland, and not meddled +with by the plenipotentiaries 'as being of such importance that +they judged them proper to be remitted to the King and Queen,' +it was provided that the Estates, on their meeting, should choose +some persons of quality 'to repair to their Majesties and remonstrate +to them the state of their affairs, particularly those last +mentioned.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Thomas Carlyle.</p></div></div> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center">THE PUBLIC LIFE: LEGISLATION AND CHURCH PLANS</p><br /> + +<p>The Confession presented to the Parliament of 1560 +was one of a group which sprang as if from the soil, in +almost every country in Europe. They had all a strong +family likeness; but not because one imitated the other. +They were honest attempts to represent the impression +made on the mind of that age by the newly discovered +Scriptures, and that impression—the first impression at +least—was everywhere the same. And everywhere it +was overwhelmingly strong. So far as Knox at least +is concerned, he plainly held the extreme view, not +only that no one could read the Scriptures without +finding in them the new doctrine, but that—as +he quite calmly observed on one memorable occasion +in St Giles—'all Papists are infidels,' either refusing +to consult the light, or denying it when seen. And, of +course, nothing was more calculated to confirm this view +than a scene like that which we have just described, and +which had been recently rehearsed in innumerable cases +in Scotland and elsewhere. But, in truth, the new light +dazzled all eyes. Later on, men had to analyse it, and +they found there were distinctions to be made as to its +value:—for example, between truth natural and truth +revealed, between the Old Testament and the New, +between the truths even of the New Testament and its +sacraments—distinctions which some among themselves +admitted, and which others refused. The very last +publication, too, of Knox in 1572 was an answer to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +Scottish Jesuit; for by that time a counter-Reformation, +which also was not without its convictions, had begun. +But, in the meantime, the energy and the triumph were +all on one side. And although only the first step had +been taken, it must be remembered that the first step was, +in Scotland, the great one. With the really Protestant +party, and, of course, with the Puritans, the confession +of truth was fundamental. Subsequent arrangements +as to the State, and even as to the Church, were +subordinate—they were, at the best, mere corollaries +from the central doctrine affecting the individual. In +every case truth comes first: and human authority a +long way later on. In this transaction, for example, of +the 17th August 1560, nothing is clearer than that the +Parliament did not adopt the doctrine in any way on +the authority of the new-born Church. All the forms +of a free and deliberate voting of the doctrine <i>as truth</i>—as +the creed of the estates, not of the Church, were +gone through. Still less, on the other hand, did the +Church really adopt it on the authority of the Parliament; +(though it must be confessed that this expression +of it—the written creed of 1560—had no formal sanction +other than that of the State). But it was the confession +'professed by the Protestants,' and exhibited by +them 'to the estates;' and it contained in itself abundant +and adequate foundation for that independence of the +Church which became so dear to Scotland in following +ages, and of which Knox himself has always been recognised +as, more than any other man, the historical +embodiment.</p> + +<p>The great confession in this creed that 'as we believe +in one God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—so do we +most constantly believe that from the beginning there has +been, now is, and to the end of the world shall be, one +Kirk,' is there so deduced from the everlasting purpose +and revelations of God, and is so concentrated upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +the duty and the privilege of the individual man, that +the church in Scotland, even had it never become +national, would have stood square and perhaps risen +high upon this one foundation. But it was by no means +intended to stand on that foundation alone, however +adequate. And it was with a view to further steps—not +all of them taken at this time—that clauses as to the +civil magistrate were introduced in the penultimate +chapter, assigning to him 'principally' the conservation +and purgation of the religion—by which, it is carefully +explained, is meant not only the 'maintenance' of the +true religion, but the 'suppressing' of the false. One +more remark may be made. Theoretically, the Church +could improve its creed. In France it was read aloud +on the first day of each yearly Assembly, that amendments +or alterations upon it might be proposed; +and in Scotland also the view was strongly held that +the only standard unchangeable by the Church was +Scripture. This theoretical view, however, was not to +have much immediate practical result; especially as the +Confession was now ratified by the Parliament. And +this was done without change or qualification, though +the preface prefixed to it by the Churchmen admits +its fallibility and invites amendment—a view in which +Knox had long since been encouraged by his earliest +teacher.<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + +<p>The congregation had confessed the doctrine to the +Parliament, and the Parliament had accepted and approved +it. Had the Parliament more to do?</p> + +<p>Some things were absolutely necessary. It had to +wipe out the previous legislation against the profession +of the new faith. The Evangel had to be set free by +statute. Once liberated from the ban of the law under +which its previous victories had been won, it could finish +its work independently, and without difficulty sweep the +whole of Scotland. And Knox had no doubt as to the +right of the Kirk to act independently, or as to its +duty to do so—if it could not do more and better. +Already, before the Parliament met, the members of it +who were Protestants had gathered together in Edinburgh, +and arranged for fixing this and that minister of +the word in the various centres of population. And +once the legal obstacles to proselytism were removed, +the way would be open for a more glorious advance than +they had yet seen. But such a work in the future, +though comparatively easy, and though in Knox's view<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +certain in its result, would be slow. Why not do it all +at a stroke? Instead of merely revoking the intolerant +laws, why not turn them against the other side?</p> + +<p>A very strong petition had been already presented +against the Romish Church, and exactly a week after +the ratification of the Confession, three Acts were +passed.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> These three Acts, with that ratification, constituted +the public 'state of religion' during the seven +years of Mary's reign, and they were re-enacted on her +abdication in 1567 as the foundation of the regime of +Protestantism. Of the three, the first was only ambiguously +intolerant, for though it ordained that the Pope +'have no jurisdiction nor authority within this realm,' +that might be held to reject mainly the Papal encroachment +upon civil power. The second was not intolerant +at all, and as being well within the power and duty of the +nation, it ought to have come first. By it all Acts bypast, +and especially those of the five Jameses, not agreeing +with God's Word and contrary to the Confession, and +'wherethrow divers innocents did suffer,' were abolished +and extinguished for ever. But the third, passed the +same day, proceeded on the preamble that 'notwithstanding +the reformation already made, according to +God's Word, yet there is some of the said Papist Kirk +that stubbornly persevere in their wicked idolatry saying +Mass and baptising.' And it ordained, against not only +them but all dissenters and outsiders for all time, 'that +no manner of person in any time coming administer <i>any</i> +of the Sacraments foresaid, secretly or any other manner +of way, but they that are admitted, or have power to +that effect.' And lastly, with regard to the large +minority (if, indeed, it was not a clear majority) of the +nation who still clung to their ordinary worship, it provided +that no one 'shall say Mass, nor yet hear Mass, +nor be present thereat,' under the pains, for the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +fault, of confiscation of goods and bodily punishment, +for the second, of banishment, and for the third, of +<i>death</i>.</p> + +<p>This has always remained the fundamental positive +ordinance among the statutes of the Reformation; though +it may be fair to take along with it the first of these +three Acts, and especially a positive clause in it which +forbids bishops to exercise jurisdiction by Papal authority. +No farther establishment of the Church was at +the time attempted; and there was indeed no farther +legislation till Mary's downfall in 1567. In that year +the three Acts of 1560 were anew passed; and they +were followed by the formal statement (more or less +implied even in the legislation of 1560) that the +ministers and people professing Christ according to +the Evangel and the Reformed Sacraments and Confession +are 'the only true and holy Kirk of Jesus Christ +within this realm.' An Act followed by which each +king at his coronation was to take an oath to maintain +this religion, and also, explicitly, to root out all +heretics and enemies 'to the true worship of God that +shall be convict by the true Kirk of God.' It seems +difficult for statutory religion to go farther: but the +solid system and block of intolerance was completed by +a group of statutes in 1572, the year of Knox's death. +They ordain that Papists and others not joining in +the Reformed worship shall after warning be excommunicated +by the Church (of which a previous Act, +somewhat inconsistently, had declared them not to be +at all members); and that 'none shall be reputed as +loyal and faithful subjects to our sovereign Lord or his +authority, but be punishable as rebels and gain-standers +of the same, who shall not give their confession, and +make their profession of the said true religion.'</p> + +<p>Scotland had taken the wrong legislative turning. +The only defence of these statutes, and it is a very inadequate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +one, is that they could not be fully enforced and +were not, and that perhaps they were not quite intended +to be enforced. In point of fact Scotland in the Reformation +time had little blood-shedding for mere religion +on either side to shew, compared to the deluge which +stained the scaffolds of continental Europe. That is no +answer to the criticism that the only law now needed +was one to 'abolish and extinguish' the persecuting +laws which had been enacted of old. But even to such +a critic, and on the ground of theory, there is something +to be said. It is not true that the new theory was worse +than the old. On the contrary, the old theory allowed +no private judgment to the individual at all; he was +bound by the authority of the Church, and it was no +comfort to him to know that the state was bound by it +too. On the Protestant theory neither the individual +nor the state were in the first instance so bound; both +were free to find and utter the truth, free for the first +time for a thousand years! It was this feeling—that +the state was free truthwards and Godwards—which accounted +for half of the enthusiasm in the Scots Parliament +a week before. And it was not at once perceived, +there or elsewhere, that for the state to make use of this +freedom by embracing a creed itself—even though it +now embraced it as the true creed and no longer as the +Church's creed—was perilous for the more fundamental +freedom of the individual. He would be sure to feel +aggrieved by his state adopting the creed which was not +his. And the state might readily be led into holding +that it had adopted it not for its officials only but for +its subjects, and might shape its legislation accordingly.</p> + +<p>Knox was more responsible for the result than any +other man, and for him also there is something to be +said. The view that the state must adopt a religion for +all its subjects and compel them all to be members of +its Church, was common ground in that age; both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +parties proclaimed it (except when they were in too +hopeless a minority), and the few Anabaptists and others +who anticipated the doctrine of modern times had not +been able to get it into practical politics. Knox too, in +his first contact with the Reformed faith (and the contact, +as we know, was a plunge), had found the tenet of +the magistrate's duty in an exaggerated form. And in +that form he now reproduced it. The statement of his +Confession of 1560 that 'To Kings, Princes, Rulers, +and Magistrates we affirm that chiefly and most principally +the conservation and purgation of the Religion +appertains,' is not at all stronger than that in the First +Confession of Helvetia which Wishart had brought with +him before 1545. Switzerland, taught by bitter experience, +exchanged it for a milder statement in its +Second Confession of 1566.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> But Calvin and Beza and +Knox's friends in the French Protestant Church generally +had held to the stronger view of the magistrate's duty, +even amid all his persecutions of them; and Knox's +passionate indignation against idolatry had led him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +even in his early English career, to maintain the duty +not only of the magistrate, but even of the subject in so +far as he had power, to punish it with death. Indeed +his only chance of escaping from the vicious circle of +that murderous syllogism<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> was by going back to the +right of the individual to stand against the magistrate, +and if need be to combine against him, in defence of +truth. On this side even that early Helvetic Confession +had proclaimed (in Wishart's words but in Knox's spirit), +that subjects should obey the magistrate only 'so long +as his commandments, statutes, and empires, evidently +repugn not with Him for whose sake we honour and +worship the magistrate.' And Knox in later years had +travelled so far on the road of modern constitutionalism +as to maintain the right of subjects to combine against +and overthrow the ruler whose intolerant statutes so +<i>repugned</i>. How far he had exactly gone would have +appeared had the chapter 'of the obedience or disobedience +that subjects owe unto their magistrates' +appeared in the Scottish Confession unrevised. Randolph +says that the 'author of this work' was advised +by Lethington and Winram to leave it out. Something, +if not a whole chapter, has been left out; and the consequence +is that the first Confession of the Scottish +Church and people is very much overweighted on the +side of absolute power. But had that chapter gone in, +it would have been difficult not to have recognised even +then, that there was an inconsistency between the +alleged high function of the magistrate as to religion, +and the <i>disobedience</i> which on that head his subjects +may 'owe unto him'—an inconsistency even in theory. +The inconsistency in practice Providence was to make +its early care.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>It had been necessary for Parliament to revoke its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +old persecuting statutes. And on that side it had gone +farther, proscribing the old religion and Church, and +setting up, if not a new church, at least a new religion. +But, on another side, and one with which Parliament +alone could deal, there was also something necessary. +What was to be done with the huge endowments of the +Church now abolished and proscribed? And what provision +was to be made by the State for that 'maintenance +of the true religion' to which it had bound +itself, and for its spread among a people, half of whom +were not even acquainted with it, though all of them +were already bound to it by law?</p> + +<p>The question of the endowments was a more difficult +one, theoretically and practically, than that of the yearly +tithes. For the former had been actual gifts, made to +the Church or its officials by kings, barons, and other +individuals, when there was no law compelling them +to give them. What right had the State now to +touch these? Two things are to be recalled before +answer. All these individual donors had been by law +compelled not only to be members of that Church, but +to accept it (whether they wished to do so or not) as the +exclusive receiver of whatever charities they might desire +to institute or to bequeath. For many centuries past in +Scotland the proposal to do otherwise would have been +not only futile, but a deadly risk to him who tried it. +Then, secondly, the same law which had bound the +individual to the Church as the exclusive administrator +of charities, had kept him in compulsory ignorance of +other objects of munificence than those which the +Church sanctioned; or if by chance that pious ignorance +was broken, it sternly forbade him to support them. +For reasons such as these the modern European state +has never been able to treat ancient endowments made +under the pressure of its own intolerance with the same +respect as if the donors had been really free—free to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +know, and free to act. The presumption that the donor +or testator, if he were living now, would have acted far +otherwise than he did, and that in altering his destination +the State may be carrying out what he really would +have wished, is in such cases by no means without +foundation. Knox and others reveal to us that this +feeling was overwhelmingly strong at the time with +which we are dealing, especially in the minds of the +descendants and representatives of the donors themselves. +And in the minds of the common people, and +of Knox as one sprung from them, there was lying, +unexpressed, the feeling which in modern times has +been expressed so loudly, that the claim of the individual, +whether superior or sovereign, to alienate for unworthy +uses huge tracts of territory which carry along with +them the lives and labours of masses of men—and of +men who have never consented to it—is a claim doubtful +in its origin and pernicious in its results. All over +Protestant Europe the conclusion even of the wise and +just was, that, subject to proper qualifications, the ancient +endowments of the Church were now the treasury of the +people.</p> + +<p>But there was another part of the patrimony of the +old Church on which Knox had a still stronger opinion—viz., +the yearly tithes or Teinds. To these, in his +view, that Church and its ministers had neither the +divine right which they had claimed, nor any right at +all. The 'commandment' of the State indeed had +compelled men, often cruelly and unjustly, to pay them +to the Church. But the State was now free to dispose +of them better, and it was bound to dispose of them +justly. And in so far as they should still be exacted at +all, they must now be devoted to the most useful and +the most charitable purposes—purposes which should +certainly include the support of the ministry, but should +include many other things too. One of the positions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +taken up by Knox in his very first sermon in St Andrews +(following the views which he reports as held by the +Lollards of Kyle), was, 'The teinds by God's law do not +appertain of necessity to the Kirkmen.'<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> And now the +Book of Discipline, under its head of 'The Rents and +Patrimony of the Kirk,' demanded that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Two sorts of men, that is to say, the ministers and the poor, +together with the schools, when order shall be taken thereanent, +must be sustained upon the charges of the church.'<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p></div> + +<p>And again—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'<i>Of the teinds</i> must not only the ministers be sustained, but also +the poor and schools.'</p></div> + +<p>The kirk was now powerful, and the poor and the +schools were weak; and Knox now as ever put forward +the strong to champion those who could not help themselves. +But he had long before come to the conclusion,<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> +that of the classes here co-ordinated as having a right +to the teinds, it was the right of the poor that was +fundamental, and the claim of the ministers was +secondary or ancillary, and perhaps only to be sustained +in so far as they preached and distributed to the poor, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +possibly only in so far as they were of, and represented, +the poor. Accordingly the Assembly of 1562, in a +Supplication, no doubt written by Knox, and certainly +breathing what had been his spirit ever since the early +days of Wishart, conjoins the cause of both in passionate +eloquence:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The Poor be of three sorts: the poor labourers of the ground; +the poor desolate beggars, orphans, widows, and strangers; and +the poor ministers of Christ Jesus His holy Evangel: which are <i>all</i> +so cruelly treated.... For now the poor labourers of the ground +are so oppressed by the cruelty of those that pay their Third, that +they for the most part <i>advance upon the poor</i> whatsoever they pay +to the Queen or to any other. As for the very indigent and poor, +<i>to whom God commands a sustentation to be provided of the Teinds</i>, +they are so despised that it is a wonder that the sun giveth light +and heat to the earth where God's name is so frequently called upon, +and no mercy, according to His commandment, shown to His +creatures. And also for the ministers, their livings are so appointed, +that the most part shall live but a beggar's life. And all cometh of +that impiety—'<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a></p></div> + +<p>The position that the 'patrimony of the Church' is +fundamentally rather the 'patrimony of the poor,' and +that ecclesiastics are merely its distributors, was anything +but new. It is a commonplace<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> among the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +learned of the Catholic Church—the difference was that +at this crisis it was possible for Scotland to act upon it, +and that the state was urged to remember the poor +by a man who, with all his devotion to God and to +the other world, burned with compassion for the hard +wrought labourers of his people. For it will be observed +that here, as elsewhere, Knox is concerned, not only for +the 'very indigent,' and the technically 'poor,'<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> but for +those especially whom he calls 'your poor brethren; the +labourers and manurers (hand-workers) of the ground.' +In the Book of Discipline, before entering upon its provisions +for dividing the tithe between the ministers, the +poor, and the schools, he urges that the labourers must +be allowed 'to pay so reasonable teinds, that they may +feel some benefit of Christ Jesus, now preached unto +them.' For</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'With the grief of our hearts we hear that some gentlemen are +now as cruel over their tenants as ever were the Papists, requiring +of them whatever before they paid to the Church, so that the +Papistical tyranny shall only be changed into the tyranny of the +lord or of the laird.'... But '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.'</p></div> + +<p>For Knox had now fully conceived that magnificent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +scheme of statesmanship for Scotland, which is preserved +for us in his book of Discipline, presented, after the +Confession, to the Estates of Scotland in 1560.<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> How +long this project may have been in incubation in his +mind, we do not know. But the germ of it may have +been very early indeed. It may have come into existence +simultaneously with his earliest hope for the +'liberty' and 'restitution' of the oppressed and captive +kirk. For I shall now for the last time quote a +passage from that early Swiss Confession which his +master Wishart had brought over with him to Scotland +so long ago; a passage which in its bold comprehensiveness +may well have been the original even in his +(Knox's) early East Lothian days, of his later 'devout +imagination.' The Church, said the Swiss Reformers, +as translated by the Scot (and translated, as there is +high authority for believing,<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> for the express purpose of +founding a Protestant Church in Scotland—or at least +in those burghs of Scotland which had received his +teaching), is entitled to call upon the magistrate for</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'A right and diligent institution of the discipline of citizens, and +of the schools a just correction and nurture, with liberality towards +the ministers of the Church, with a solicitate and thoughtful +charge of the poor, to which end all the riches of the Church [in +German, <i>die Güter der Kirche</i>] is referred.'<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> + +<p>Knox's 'Book' and scheme are an expansion of this +one sentence. It was statesmanship in the fullest sense, +including a poor-law and a system of education, higher +and elementary, for the whole country. But it was in +the first place a Book of the Church. And while its +'system of national education was realised only in its +most imperfect fashion, its <i>system of religious instruction</i> +was carried into effect with results that would alone +stamp the First Book of Discipline as the most important +document in Scottish history' (Hume Brown). +Even on the Church side it is somewhat too despotic. +The power of discipline and of exclusion which is +necessary to every self-governing society was rightly +preserved. But in its application it tended here, as +in Geneva, to press too much upon the detail of individual +life. So, too, the prominence now given to +preaching, and the duty laid down of habitually waiting +upon it, may seem inconsistent with the primitive Protestant +authority of the Word of God alone. This, +however, would have been modified, had the system +of 'weekly prophesyings' (which provided for not one +man only but for all who are qualified communicating +their views), taken root in Scotland, as it has so largely +done in Wales. And even as it was, this work of a +trained ministry, and especially the preaching, passed +in those early days like a ploughshare through the whole +soil and substance of the Scottish character, and left +enduring and admirable results.</p> + +<p>Had Knox been able to throw himself directly upon +the people, all would have been well. But the people +were to be approached through hereditary rulers, whose +consent was necessary for funds with which the Church +might administer, not the department of religion and +worship only, but those also of national education and +national charity. That the Church should be administrator +was not the difficulty. Whether, indeed, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +selection of one religion, to be by ordinance of Parliament +the religion of the subjects of the State, was +justifiable, will always be gravely questioned. But, +rightly or wrongly, that had already been done; and it +was clearly fitting that the body which was thus in a +sense made co-extensive with the nation, should undertake +national duties, of a kind cognate with those properly +its own. No one—except perhaps the Catholics—doubted +that the new Church, with both the new +learning and the new enthusiasm behind it, was better +fitted to administer alike education and charity than +either the Estates or the Crown. And Knox's great +scheme proposed that the Church, in addition to administering +its own religion and worship, should in +every parish provide—1. That those not able to work +should be supported; 2. that those who were able +should be compelled to work; 3. that every child +should have a public school provided for it; 4. that +every youth of promise should have an open way +through a system of public schools on to the Universities. +It was a great plan, but a perfectly reasonable +one. And there was abundance of money for it. For +the wealth of the Church now abolished, which the law +held to be, at least after the death of the existing life-renters, +at the disposal of the Crown,<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> and which was +indeed afterwards transferred to it by statute,<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> is generally +calculated to have amounted to nearly one half of +the whole wealth of the country. But the crowning sin +of the old hierarchy had been that on the approach of +the Reformation they commenced, in the teeth of their +own canons, to alienate the temporalities which they +had held only in trust, to the lords and lairds around +them as private holders. And the process of waste thus +initiated by the Church and the nobles was continued by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +the Crown and its favourites; the result being that the +aristocracy so enriched became a body with personal +interests hostile to the people and their new Church. +Even in the first flush of the Reformation all that the +Reformers could procure was an immediate 'assumption' +by the Crown of one-third of the benefices. And +even of this one-third, only a part was to go to the +Church, the rest being divided between the old possessors +and the Crown; or, as Knox pithily put it, 'two +parts are freely given to the devil, and the third must be +divided between God and the devil.' Even God's part, +however, was scandalously ill-paid during Mary's reign, +and in addition the Church objected to receiving by +way of gift from the Crown what they should have +received rather as due from the parishes and the people. +This came out very instructively in the Assembly of +December 1566. The Queen was now courting the +Protestants, and had signed an offer for a considerable +sum for the maintenance of the ministers. What was +to be said to her offer? The Assembly first requested +the opinion of Knox and the other ministers, as the +persons concerned. They retired for conference, and +'very gravely' answered—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'That it was their duty to preach to the people the Word of God +truly and sincerely, and to crave of the auditors the things that +were necessary for their <i>sustentation</i>, as of duty the pastors might +justly crave of their flock.'<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p></div> + +<p>This striking reversion to the Apostolic rule—all the +more striking because it is easily reconcilable with the +now accepted doctrine of toleration—was, no doubt, not +only in substance but in form the utterance of Knox. +But so also, if we are to judge by internal evidence, was +the formal answer of the Assembly. They accepted the +Queen's gift under the pressure of present necessity, +but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Not the less, in consideration [of] the law of God ordains the +persons who hear the doctrine of salvation at the mouths of his +ministers, and thereby receive special food to the nourishment of +their souls, to communicate temporal <i>sustentation</i> on [to] their +preachers: Their answer is, That having just title to crave the +bodily food at the hands of the said persons, and finding no others +bound unto them, they <i>only require at their own flock</i>, that they +will sustain them according to their bounden duty, and what it shall +please them to give for their sustentation, if it were but bread and +water, neither will they refuse it, nor desist from the vocation. +But to take from others contrary to their will, whom they serve +not, they judge it not their duty, nor yet reasonable.'<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></p></div> + +<p>The principle so admirably laid down by Knox has +become the principle of modern Presbyterianism throughout +the world. And even in that day it required nothing +to be added to it except the recognition that Catholics, +and others outside the 'flock,' who were merely statutory +'auditors,' were not bound to its pastor in the tithe, or +other proportion, of their means. Elementary as this +may now seem, it was of course too much for that age. +The same Assembly went on to declare that 'the teinds +properly pertain to the Kirk,' and while they should be +applied not only to the ministers, but also to 'the sustentation +of the poor, maintaining of schools, repairing +of kirks, and other godly uses,' such application should +be 'at the discretion of the Kirk.' It was all right, +provided the intolerant establishment were to remain. +For in that case the tithes as a State tax were the +proper means for the State maintaining church and +school and poor; and as the Church had already been +set by the State over both poor and school, it was the +fit administrator of all. And all this ascendancy was +about to be renewed; for two months after this Assembly +Bothwell murdered Darnley, and three months later<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +Mary married Bothwell and abdicated. And the great +Parliamentary settlement of 1567 commenced with the +long delayed ratification of the three old statutes of 1560; +two Acts being now added, one declaring that the Reformed +Church is the only Church within the realm, the +other giving it jurisdiction over Catholics and all +others. It was fit that between these two later Acts +should be interposed another,<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> giving the ministers a +first claim on the 'thirds' of benefices, 'aye and until +the Kirk come to the full possession of their proper +patrimony, which is the teinds.' The proper patrimony +of the ancient Church was, perhaps, rather the endowments +which had been gifted to it; yet Knox, who +abhorred the idea of inheriting anything from that old +Church, took a share of that money, even from the +State, with reluctance. But the tithes, to be enforced +yearly from Scotsmen by the law, he claimed freely, for +they were due to the poor, were due to learning and the +school, and were above all due to the Kirk, as entrusted +with these other interests no less than with its own.</p> + +<p>The battle was not over. The scheme of the Book +of Discipline remained, even after the statutes of +1567, a mere 'imagination,' all attempted embodiment +of it being starved by the nobility and the crown. +And in our own century the Church, retaining its +statutory jurisdiction over Catholics and Nonconformists, +has lost its statutory control over both the schools and +the poor, while it has never got anything like 'full possession' +or even administration of the teinds, in which +all three were to share, but of which it desired to be +sole trustee.</p> + +<p>It it easy for us, looking back—superfluously easy—to +see the fundamental mistake in Knox's legislation. +But taking that first step of intolerant establishment as +fixed, I see nothing in his proposed superstructure which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +was not admirable and heroic, and also—as heroic things +so often are—sane and even practicable. And it was all +conceived in the interest of the people—of those 'poor +brethren' of land and burgh, with whom Knox increasingly +identified himself. No doubt the Kirk had no +right to claim administration, even as trustee, of the +tenth of the yearly fruits of all Scottish industry. But +when we think of the objects to which these fruits were +to be applied, we shall not be disposed to deal hardly +with such a claim. It is not the divided and disinherited +Churches of Scotland alone—it is, even more, +the 'poor labourers of the ground'—who have reason, +in these later days, to join in the death-bed denunciation +by Knox of the 'merciless devourers of the patrimony +of the Kirk.'</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>Knox's statesmanship may have failed—partly because +an unjust and unchristian principle was unawares imbedded +in its foundation, and partly because the hereditary +legislators of Scotland could not rise to the level of +its peasant-reformer. But Knox's churchmanship did +not fail. It might well have been contended that the +freedom of the Church had been compromised by the +legislation which was granted or petitioned for. But +that was not the Church's view, and the internal organisation +which nobles and politicians refused to sanction, +the Church, claiming to be free, instantly took up as its +own work. In each town or parish the elders and +deacons met weekly with the pastor for the care of the +congregation. And these 'particular Kirks' now met +half-yearly representatively as the 'Universal Kirk' of +Scotland. From its first meeting in December 1560 +onwards, the General Assembly or Supreme Court of the +Church was convened by the authority of the Church +itself, and year by year laid the deep foundations of the +social and religious future of Scotland. It was a great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +work—nothing less than organising a rude nation into a +self-governing Church. And there were difficulties and +dangers in plenty, some of them unforeseen. The +nobles were rapacious, the people were divided, the +ministers leaned to dogmatism, the lawyers leaned to +Erastianism, the Lowlands were menaced by Episcopacy, +the Highlands were emerging from heathenism, and +between them both there stretched a broad belt of +unreformed Popery. There were a hundred difficulties +like these, but they were all accepted as in the long +day's work. For in Scotland the dayspring was now +risen upon men!</p> + +<p>What we have here to remember is, that of this huge +national struggle the chief weight lay on the shoulders of +Knox, a mere pastor in Edinburgh. And during the +first seven years of its continuance this indomitable man +was sustaining another doubtful conflict, in which the +issues not for Scotland only, but for Europe, were so +momentous that it must be looked at separately.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> The writers of the Scottish Confession in 1560 protest 'that if +any man will note in this our Confession any article or sentence +repugning to God's holy word, that it would please him of his +gentleness, and for Christian charity's sake, to admonish us of the +same in write; 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.'—'Works,' ii. 96. +</p><p> +Wishart, the translator in or before 1545 of the First Helvetic +Confession, adds to it this similar and very beautiful declaration:— +</p><p> +'It is not our mind for to prescribe by these brief chapters a certain +rule of the faith to all churches and congregations, for we +know no other rule of faith but the Holy Scripture; and, therefore, +we are well contented with them that agree with these things, +howbeit they use another manner of speaking or Confession, +different partly to this of ours in words; for rather should the +matter be considered than the words. And therefore we make it +free for all men to use their own sort of speaking, as they shall perceive +most profitable for their churches, and we shall use the same +liberty. And if any man will attempt to corrupt the true meaning +of this our Confession, he shall hear both a confession and a defence +of the verity and truth. It was our pleasure to use these words at +this present time, that we might declare our opinion in our religion +and worshipping of God.'—'Miscellany of Wodrow Society,' i. 23. +</p><p> +This 'declaration' is not in the original Confession, either in +Latin or German, and must have been written, probably by Wishart +himself, rather for the English readers or the Scottish churches +for whom the rest was translated. It is a remarkable legacy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> As now in the Statute Book, 1567, chaps. 2, 3, and 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> It may be interesting to read the statement of the First Helvetic +in Wishart's translation (though this is one of the paragraphs in +which that translation mangles the Latin and German originals). +It is given in the 'Miscellany of the Wodrow Society,' i. 21: +</p><p> +'Seeing every magistrate and high power is of God, his chief +and principal office is (except he would rather use tyranny) to defend +the true worshipping of God from all blasphemy, and to procure +true religion ... <i>then after</i> to judge the people by equal and godly +laws to exercise and maintain judgment and justice, &c.' (Sec. 26); +and (Sec. 24), 'They that bring in ungodly sects and opinions ... +should be constrained and punished by the magistrates and +high powers.' +</p><p> +The Second Helvetic Confession of 1566 rather inverts the order +put by the First. 'The magistrate's <i>principal</i> office is to procure +and preserve peace and public tranquillity. <i>And</i> he never can do +this more happily' than by promoting religion, extirpating idolatry, +and defending the Church.... For 'the care of religion belongs,' +not to the magistrate simply, but 'to the pious magistrate.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> See page <a href="#Page_67">67</a> and note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> 'Works,' i. 8, 194.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> 'Works,' ii. 221, 222.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Knox's opinion was asked upon the point in or before 1556, +and he answered ('Works,' iv. 127), 'Touching Tithes, by the law +of God they appertain to no priest, for now we have no levitical priesthood; +but by law, positive gift, custom, they appertain to princes, +and by their commandment to "men of kirk," as they would be +termed. In their first donation respect was had to another end, as +their own law doth witness, than now is observed. For first, respect +was had that such as were accounted distributors of those things +that were given to churchmen, should have their reasonable sustentation +of the same, making just account of the rest, how it was to be +bestowed upon the poor, the stranger, the widow, the fatherless, <i>for +whose relief all such rents and duties were chiefly appointed to the +church</i>. Secondly, that provision should be made for the ministers +of the church, &c.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> 'Works,' ii. 340.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> Thomassin, a very great authority, devotes no fewer than eight +chapters of his third folio <i>De Beneficiis</i> to proving from Councils +and the Fathers that 'Res Ecclesiae, res et patrimonia sunt pauperum. +Earum beneficiarii non domini sunt sed dispensatores.' +After voluminous evidence from all the centuries, he holds it superfluously +plain that all beneficed men are 'mere dispensers and +administrators, not proprietors nor even possessors, of what is truly +the patrimony of the poor,' and what is held as trustee for the +indigent by Christ Himself; so much so, that when this property of +the poor is diverted to support a bishop or other dignitary, he is not +entitled to enjoy his house, table, or garments, unless these have a +certain suggestion and savour of destitution—<i>necesse est paupertatis +odore aliquo perfundi</i>. Thomassin, of course, holds that the +Church has a divine right to tithes; but it is a divine right to administer, +not to enjoy, them. Knox and the Reformers denied +the divine right even to administer: they urged that the State +should make the Kirk <i>its</i> administrators.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> For them too, and even for the strong and sturdy and the Jolly +Beggars among them, he had a certain fellow-feeling; as is witnessed +by the zest with which he records their 'Warning' (p. <a href="#Page_82">82</a>). +The one point, indeed, at which Knox and Burns come together +is 'A man's a man for a' that!'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> 'Works,' ii. 183 to 260.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> I am indebted for this view to Dr. A.F. Mitchell, Emeritus +Professor of Church History in St Andrews, to whom all are +indebted who are interested in the historical learning of either the +Reformation or the Covenant.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> The 'end' to which or for which all the Church patrimony +is here said to be given, does not seem to be merely the 'charge +of the poor'; though Protestants as well as Catholics often urge +that as fundamentally true. It seems to be rather the whole group +of good objects which are gathered together. The Latin and +German originals must be consulted.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Stair's 'Institutions,' ii. 3, 36. Erskine's 'Institutes,' ii. 10, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> 1587, c. 29.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> 'Works,' ii. 538.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> 'Book of the Universall Kirk of Scotland,' p. 46. The significance +of this utterance was long ago pointed out by the Rev. J.C. +Macphail, D.D., of Pilrig Church, Edinburgh.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> 1567, c. 10.</p></div></div> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center">THE PUBLIC LIFE: THE CONFLICT WITH QUEEN MARY</p><br /> + +<p>Parliament had made a great and revolutionary change. +It had acted as if the government had been already +granted to it, or, in Cecil's phrase, to 'the nation of the +land.' And the change was on one side a breaking off +of the old alliance with Catholic France. But the +sovereigns of Scotland, now and for the last twelvemonth, +were no other than the King and Queen of +France. They, rather than Parliament, were the +'Authority,' which, according to the consistent theory +of that age, had the right to make and enforce changes +of religion; and which, according to the more puzzling +theory of Knox, had the right to do so—provided the +religion so to be enforced was the true one. Accordingly +the new Confession of Faith and the statutes passed by +the late Parliament, were sent to Paris by the Lord St +John. He waited there long, but, of course, brought +back no ratification. But that, says Knox, 'we little +regarded, nor yet do regard'; for, he adds, falling back +rather too late upon one of those great principles his +utterance of which has sunk into the hearts of his +countrymen,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'all that we did was rather to shew our dutiful obedience than to +beg of them any strength to our religion, which from God has full +power, and needeth not the suffrage of man, but in so far as man +hath need to believe it, if that ever he shall have participation of +the life everlasting.'<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p></div> + +<p>It was no wonder that the royal pair did not ratify +a Protestant Confession, for during their brief reign +over France they were the centre of a keen crusade +against Protestantism, conducted far more by Mary's +counsellors and uncles, the Guises, than by her feeble-minded +husband. Towards the end of 1560 this had +gone so far that secret preparations seem to have been +made for immediately anticipating the St Bartholomew +of twelve years later. But the sudden death of +Francis and the widowhood of Mary changed the +whole situation. The new King was in the power, +not of the Guises, but of his mother, Catherine de +Medici; and Mary of Scots would now have to accept +a second or a third place in Paris. But in Europe, +and in the politics of Europe, the beautiful young +widow sprang at once into the foremost rank, and +became the star of all eyes. Ex-Queen of France, +Queen-presumptive of England, and actual Queen of +Scotland, which had always been the link between the +other two, and to which she was now to return, the +marriage destiny of this girl of eighteen would probably +decide the wavering balance of Christendom.<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> + +<p>Mary understood her high part, and accepted it +with alacrity. Fascinating and beautiful, keen-witted +and strong-willed, she would have found herself at +home in this great game of politics, even if it had not +turned upon an element of intense personal interest +for herself. But while all men knew that her hand +was the chief prize of the game, almost the first man +to act on this knowledge, strange to say, was Knox.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +The Treaty of Edinburgh had acknowledged the right +of the Duke (Hamilton or Chatelherault), and of his +eldest son Arran, as the next in succession to the +Scottish crown after its present holder. And while +that present holder was still married to the King of +France, the Scottish nobles had urged Arran as a suitable +husband for Elizabeth of England. It would be +the best arrangement, they thought, for binding the two +countries together, and counteracting the inevitable pull +asunder from the Sovereigns in Paris. Elizabeth, however, +had replied, to the grave displeasure of the Estates, +that she was not 'presently disposed to marry.' And +now a new question was raised. Scotland was, of +course, still more deeply interested in the probable +second marriage of its own Queen. Arran, an extremely +flighty young man, was at this moment much +under the personal influence of the Reformer; and it +was with Knox's privity, and perhaps on his suggestion, +and certainly without the knowledge of the nobility +generally, that before Mary had been a widow for a +month, her young Protestant cousin sent her a ring and +a secret letter of courtship. It was again in vain. +When Elizabeth refused him, the Estates had been +offended, but Arran himself bore the loss with much +resignation. Now, however, the case was different; +and though Mary at all times treated her young kinsman +with kindness, Arran took her prompt rejection of +his present overtures grievously to heart, and his wits, +never very stable, were soon completely overturned. +Knox, however, had now fair warning that Mary Stuart +knew herself to be more than a mere Queen of Scots, +and that the infinitely difficult questions, which her +approaching return to Scotland must necessarily raise, +were not to be evaded on easy terms.</p> + +<p>There was among these one theoretical question which +<i>ought</i> to have been a difficulty for Knox, but of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +he was not now disposed to make much. According to +his view women should not be sovereigns at all. But, +in truth, this was but one branch of the general grievance +of arbitrary power in that age. The Reformation took +place, we must always remember, at a time when the +hereditary authority of kings was greater than either +before or since. And this arbitrary power of one man +became, if possible, a little more absurd when it happened +to be the power of one woman. In 1557, Knox +had found himself confronted with a Queen of England, +a Queen of Scotland, and a Queen-Regent in Scotland—all +of them ladies immersed in Catholicism, and each +in a position which, in his view, implied the duty of +selecting religion for all her lieges. We, in our time, +have a very simple way of getting rid of such an intolerable +difficulty. But in that age a man even of the +boldness of Knox was thankful to mitigate it. He +thought he found a mitigation in the view (held by +thinkers and publicists at the time commonly enough) +that women should not be entrusted with such a power; +and, in 1558, he published anonymously his 'First Blast +of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment [Regimen +or Rule] of Women.' Though anonymous, the +book was well known to be his; and being Knox's it +was founded not so much on theory as on Scripture +precedents, largely misread according to the exigencies +of the argument. But the publication was, in any case, +a practical mistake. Mary of England died immediately +after, and was succeeded by Elizabeth, who was rather +more of a woman than her sister, but to whom Knox +and Scotland looked as their only ally against Continental +Catholicism. Knox repeatedly tried to explain to the +new English Queen; but that very great but very +feminine ruler never forgave his book. Meantime he +came, as we saw, into more personal contact with the +Queen-Regent of Scotland, and had the highest hopes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +from her. Ultimately she disappointed these; but even +when she was deposed by the nobles, to whom he had +originally looked as the agents in the Reform, Knox +insisted on keeping open a door for her restoration, in +the event of her coming in the meantime to think with +himself. And now her daughter was come to her native +country as Queen in her own right. Knox, taught by +experience, had already taken part in private overtures +to her, and was no longer disposed to stand on any +theoretical difficulty as to the rule of a woman. The +practical difficulties were enough.</p> + +<p>And the practical difficulties were tremendous. Had +Mary ruled as a modern constitutional Queen, with +toleration of religion all around, things would have been +easy. She would have enjoyed the freedom which she +granted to the lowest of her subjects, and every one of +them would have supported her enthusiastically against +domestic and foreign aggression. But the reign of +religion which, according to her first proclamation, she, +on her arrival, 'found publicly and universally standing,' +was very different. It was one by which half the lieges +were forbidden the exercise of their own religion and of +their ordinary worship; and by which Scotland and all its +rulers were pledged to a faith she had been trained as a +child to detest, and as a Queen to suppress. The situation +was impossible from the first. The only question +was, how long it would last.</p> + +<p>Knox would have met it fairly by making her acknowledgment +of the Protestant Acts and Confession a condition +of her being acknowledged by Scotland. And +had the fact been known that Mary, by three secret +documents, executed just before her childless marriage to +the Dauphin, had already handed over her native kingdom, +in the event of her having no issue, to the King +of France, the crisis, which was to be postponed for so +many years, might have come at once. But an inter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>mediate +plan was arranged in Paris through 'the man +whom all the godly did most reverence,' and whose +weight of character was gradually giving him the foremost +place in Scotland—Lord James Stewart, the +Queen's natural brother. Mary, quick to understand +men, put herself under her brother's guidance, and the +result was that she was joyfully received in Edinburgh, +and a proclamation was issued forbidding, on the one +hand, any 'alteration or innovation of the state of +religion' as Her Majesty found it in the realm on her +arrival, and, on the other, any tumult or violence, +especially against Her Majesty's French domestics and +followers. So, on the first Sunday, while the Evangel +was publicly preached in St Giles in Edinburgh, and in +all the great towns and burghs of Scotland, mass was +privately celebrated in her chapel at Holyrood, the Lord +James with his sword keeping the door, to 'stop all +Scottish men to enter in,' whether to join in the worship +or to disturb it. It was drawing a different line from +that which had been fixed by the recent Parliament, +whose Acts also the new Queen had evaded ratifying. +Knox's passion against 'idolatry,' beyond all other forms +of false religion or irreligion, was fully shared by the +mass of his followers, and he tells us that, on this +occasion, he worked in private 'rather to mitigate, yea +to sloken, that fervency that God had kindled in others.' +But in the pulpit 'next Sunday' he said that 'one Mass was +more fearful to him than if ten thousand armed enemies +were landed in any part of the realm, of purpose to +suppress the whole religion'—an exaggeration of intolerance +which is unintelligible, until we remember that the +'one mass' which he was thinking of was that of the +ruler who might soon have the power, and perhaps had +already the intention, of suppressing religion.</p> + +<p>Mary had come to Scotland with the deliberate plan +of conciliating and capturing her native kingdom, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +she was not the woman to shrink from whatever seemed +to be necessary in the process. It may have been her +brother who suggested a meeting between two people +whom, in different ways, he certainly liked as well as admired. +In any case, Knox was now at once sent for to +the Court, and there followed the first of the famous +interviews between Knox and the Queen, recorded in +the Fourth Book of his History. The detailed truth of +these Dialogues is not to be inferred merely from their +vigour and verisimilitude. It results equally from the +fact that, throughout, Knox represents the young Queen +as meeting him with perfect intelligence, while on most +points she actually has the better of the argument. The +vindication of Knox has come, not so much from what +he has himself so faithfully recorded, as from the judgment +of history on the whole situation, and on the +relation to it of speakers who were also actors.</p> + +<p>The first is probably the most important of the +dialogues.<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> Mary and her brother received Knox +in Holyrood, two ladies standing in the other end of +the room. She commenced by taxing him with his +book against her 'regimen.' He explained that, if +Scotland was satisfied with a female ruler, he would +not object.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'But yet,' said she, 'ye have taught the people to receive another +religion than their Princes can allow: And how can that doctrine +be of God, seeing that God commands subjects to obey their +Princes?'</p> + +<p>Knox, in answer, ignored the article of his Confession which bears +closely on this point,<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> and fell back on the more fundamental +truth.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + +<p>'Madam, as right religion took neither original nor authority +from worldly princes, but from the Eternal God alone, so are not +subjects bound to frame their religion according to the appetites of +their Princes.'</p> + +<p>He easily illustrated this by instances of men in Scripture, who +resisted such commands of Princes, and suffered.</p> + +<p>'But yet,' said she, 'they resisted not with the sword.'</p> + +<p>'God,' said he, 'Madam, had not given unto them the power +and the means.'</p> + +<p>'Think ye,' quoth she, 'that subjects, having power, may resist +their Princes?'</p> + +<p>'If their Princes exceed their bounds,' quoth he, 'Madam, and +do against that wherefore they should be obeyed, it is no doubt but +they may be resisted, even by power.'</p> + +<p>That Princes should regulate the religion of subjects Knox held +to be within their 'bounds,' but only apparently if they regulated it +aright, and according to the Word. Otherwise, he now explained, +the prince might be restrained, like a father 'stricken with a +frenzy.' At this remarkable argument the Queen 'stood, as it +were, amazed more than the quarter of an hour.' Recovering +herself, she said—</p> + +<p>'Well, then, I perceive that my subjects shall obey you and not +me.'...</p> + +<p>'God forbid,' answered he, in words which really express his +fundamental view, 'that ever I take upon me to command any to +obey me, or yet to set subjects at liberty to do what pleaseth them. +But my travel is that both princes and subjects obey God, who,' he +added, 'commands queens to be nurses unto His people.'</p> + +<p>'Yea,' quoth she, 'but ye are not the Church that I will nourish. +I will defend the Kirk of Rome, for, I think, it is the true Kirk of +God.'</p> + +<p>'Your will,' quoth he, 'Madam, is no reason; neither doth your +thought make that Roman harlot to be the true and immaculate +spouse of Jesus Christ.' ...</p> + +<p>'My conscience,' said she, 'is not so.'</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>'Conscience, Madam, requires knowledge, and I fear that right +knowledge ye have none.'</p> + +<p>'But,' said she, 'I have both heard and read.'</p> + +<p>... 'Have ye heard,' said he, 'any teach, but such as the Pope +and his Cardinals have allowed?'</p> + +<p>The Queen avoided a direct answer,<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> but took the next point +with unfailing acuteness.</p> + +<p>'Ye interpret the Scriptures,' said she, 'in one manner, and they +interpret in another; whom shall I believe? and who shall be judge?'</p> + +<p>And Knox's answer is from his side perfect—</p> + +<p>'Ye shall believe God, that plainly speaketh in His word; and +farther than the word teacheth you, ye neither shall believe the one +nor the other. The word of God is plain in itself; and if there +appear any obscurity in one place, the Holy Ghost, who is never +contrarious to Himself, explains the same more clearly in other +places.'</p></div> + +<p>The conference was long, and was ended with mutual +courtesies. Both parties in the country suspected that +the new sovereign might be gradually coming round to +the new faith. No triumph could have been more +glorious for Knox, and at the opening of the interview +he had used every method of conciliation. But he +never henceforth deceived himself as to the chances +in this case. Outwardly, the Queen remained friendly, +and he remained loyal; but his opinion as expressed +privately, immediately after this first meeting, was +recorded later on.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'If there be not in her a proud mind, a crafty wit, and an indurate +heart against God and His truth, my judgment faileth me.'</p></div> + +<p>Induration of heart was not a charitable judgment to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +pass against a young woman brought up in the worst +school of morals in Europe, but whom the speaker held +never to have met 'God and his truth' till that forenoon. +Yet, as usual, Knox's judgment was by no +means wholly wrong. There is a certain brilliant hardness +about the charm of Mary Queen of Scots, even +with posterity; and as to religion, whatever may have +been the case in the later years of her sad imprisonment, +there is no evidence in her early days in Scotland +of personal or earnest interest in the religion even of +her own church.<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> And a tender and serious interest in +religion was held by the whole Protestantism of that day +to be the one gate for the individual into 'God's truth.' +Had his Queen shown anything of this spirit of earnest +enquiry, our rough Reformer might have been precipitate +to help her steps, though they should be as yet on +the wrong side of the dividing line. But Mary made +no pretences on the subject, and it was her misfortune, +and that of all around, that her opinion on religion—a +matter in which she took no more interest than was +natural to her years—should have been all important to +her subjects. They at least were, or professed to be, in +earnest about it; and the man who in her presence now +represented that earnestness made no pretences either. +But we may be sure that Knox's judgment on a 'proud +mind' as to the more central and personal truths +of religion, would not be mitigated by that keen 'wit' +which played so freely round its external parts, and +transfixed so easily his own theory of Church and State. +We know from himself that Mary, having found the +weak point of the intolerant legislation, took care to +press upon it. She was 'ever crying conscience, conscience! +it is a sore thing to constrain the conscience;'<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +and she selected for her 'flattering words' the best of +the men around her, till from the question, 'Why may +not the Queen have her own Mass, and the form of her +religion? what can that hurt us or our religion?' +there came a formal discussion and a vote of the +Lords that they were not entitled to constrain her. +This state of matters continued during the year 1562. +But the real danger, of course, was from abroad, and +Knox had intelligence of all that was going on there. +In December 1562 a victory of the Guises in France had +been followed by dancing at Holyrood; and Knox +preached against 'taking pleasure for the displeasure of +God's people.' The Queen sent for him, and suggested +his speaking to herself privately rather than haranguing +publicly upon her domestic proceedings: a proposal +which he so promptly rejected that she at once turned +her back on him. It was on this occasion that, hearing +the whisper as he went out, 'He is not afraid,' he +replied, with a 'reasonably merry' countenance, 'Wherefore +should the pleasing face of a gentlewoman affray +me? I have looked into the faces of many angry men, +and yet have not been affrayed above measure.' But +the effect of that pleasing face upon others around may +be measured by a letter written next day to Cecil by +Randolph, who had for some time been Queen Elizabeth's +envoy in Edinburgh. He was an intelligent and +well-meaning man; but Mary was far more than a match +for him, as she had been in France for an abler diplomatist, +Throckmorton. Randolph tells the English +minister that Knox is still full of 'good zeal and affection' +to England. 'I know also that his travail and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +care is great to unite the hearts of the princes and +people of these two realms in perpetual love and hearty +kindness.' In the previous year Randolph had heard +an incident of Knox's first interview with Mary, which +we only know from his letter. Even then Knox +'knocked so hastily upon her heart that he made her +weep, as well you know there be of that sex that will do +that as well for anger as for grief.' But since that date +the Queen of Scots had turned her caressing courtesy +directly upon this Englishman, and even the golden cup +which she presented to him at Lord James Stewart's +marriage had perhaps less influence with Randolph than +the bright eyes of one of her 'four Maries' whom he +was now pursuing. So he adds now that Knox 'is so +full of mistrust in all the Queen's doings, words, and +sayings, as though he were either of God's privy counsel, +that know how He had determined of her from the +beginning, or that he knew the secrets of her heart so +well, that neither she did nor could have for ever one +good thought of God or of His true religion.' No criticism +could be more acute. And yet the research of +later times has shown that Knox's judgment, or information, +as to what Mary of Scots was now doing, was +superior to that of all around him. This was the +very close of 1562, and in the next month of January +she extended her Catholic correspondence, which had +hitherto been chiefly with the Guises and her Cardinal +uncle, by letters to the Pope.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> On the 31st she writes +Pius IV. assuring him of her devotion to the Church, +and that for it and for the restoration to it of her kingdom +she is ready to sacrifice her life.<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> The bearer, too, +of this secret missive was Cardinal Granvelle, from Madrid,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +and deep at this moment in the persecuting plans of +Alva and his master Philip. For a new and greater +danger was now rising for Scotland. Hitherto the chief +pretenders for the hand of the Queen of Scots had been +the Archduke Charles, and the Duke of Anjou. (The +new King of France was also supposed to be in love +with her.) But now the project was pressed of a marriage +between her and Don Carlos, the oldest son of Philip +and the heir of the mighty monarchy of Spain. And it +was with this full in her mind, and with the determination +to take a step forward in her own kingdom, that +Mary again sent for Knox—this time to Lochleven, +where she was hawking. The occasion was well chosen. +The Queen's mass was now tolerated: why should not +private subjects also be allowed to have it, provided they +worshipped privately? 'Who can stop the Queen's +subjects to be of the Queen's religion?' Already many +Catholics had acted upon this reasoning at Easter of +1563; but in the West the Protestant barons and magistrates, +instead of complaining to the Queen and her +Council, had apprehended the wrong-doers and proposed +to punish them. 'For two hours' the Queen urged him +to persuade the gentlemen of the West 'not to put hands +to punish any man for <i>the using of themselves</i> in their +religion as pleased them.' Nothing could be more +clearly right. But nothing could be more clearly against +the law; and Knox assured her that if she would enforce +that law herself her subjects would be quiet. But 'Will +ye,' said she, 'that they shall take my sword into their +hand?'</p> + +<p>'The sword of justice, Madam,' he answered, 'is +God's; and if the magistrate will not use it the people +must do so. And therefore it shall be profitable to +your Majesty to consider what is the thing your Grace's +subjects look to receive of your Majesty, and what it is +that ye ought to do unto them by mutual contract.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +They are bound to obey you, and that not but in God. +You are bound to keep laws unto them. You crave of +them service: they crave of you protection and defence +against wicked doers.'</p> + +<p>The Queen, 'somewhat offended, passed to her +supper,' and Knox prepared to return to Edinburgh. +But her brother, afterwards the Regent, had heard the +result of the conference, and Mary learned that matters +could not safely be left in this condition. Next morning +the Queen sent for Knox as she was going out +hawking. She had apparently forgotten all the keen +dispute of the evening before; and her manner was +caressing and confidential. What did Mr Knox think +of Lord Ruthven's offering her a ring? 'I cannot love +him,' she added, 'for I know him to use enchantment.' +Was Mr Knox not going to Dumfries, to make the +Bishop of Athens the superintendent of the Kirk in that +county? He was, Knox answered; the proposed +superintendent being a man in whom he had confidence. +'If you knew him,' said Mary, 'as well as +I do, ye would never promote him to that office, nor +yet to any other within the Kirk.' In yet another +matter, and one more private and delicate, she required +his help. Her half-sister, Lady Argyll, and the Earl, +her husband, were, she was afraid, not on good terms. +Knox had once reconciled them before, but, 'do this +much <i>for my sake</i>, as once again to put them at unity.' +And so she dismissed him with promises to enforce the +laws against the mass.</p> + +<p>Knox for once fell under the spell. He seems to +have believed that this most charming of women was +at last leaning to the side of her native land. And so +he sat down and wrote a long letter to Argyll. He +went to Dumfries, and on making enquiry, he found +that the Queen was right in her shrewd estimate of the +proposed superintendent, and took means to prevent the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +election. It turned out, too, that she had kept her +promise about citing offenders, and no fewer than +forty-eight persons, one of them an Archbishop, +had been indicted. The first Parliament since her +landing had been summoned for June, and Moray +and Lethington seem to have suggested to Knox that +the Queen would be glad then to ratify the Acts of +1560, in exchange for the approval by the estates of some +suitable marriage. Even now, it was these two heads +of the Protestant party whom Knox trusted rather than +Mary. But the young Queen had outwitted all of them +together. The prosecutions throughout the country +had pacified the Protestants, and they did not come up +to the Parliament. When it met, it did not even ask +that the 'state of religion' should be ratified. Meantime +the Cardinal of Lorraine had carried to the Council +of Trent the adhesion of the Queen of Scots, and a +special congregation was held by it for the private +reception of her letter. Worse still, the plan for a +Spanish marriage, and for setting a Scoto-Spanish queen +upon the throne of the Bloody Mary, was now actively +prosecuted. All this spring, while professing to carry +out her promises to Knox, Mary was negotiating with +Madrid, and 'already, in imagination, Queen of Scotland, +England, Ireland, Spain, Flanders, Naples, and +the Indies,' she was but little interested in the plans +which her Scottish nobility were proposing for her to +England. Knox had hoped that if not a Protestant +noble like Leicester or Arran, at least a royal Protestant +like the King of Denmark or the King of +Sweden, would, with Elizabeth's help, be a successful +suitor. But Queen Elizabeth, whom Knox pithily +describes as 'neither good Protestant nor yet resolute +Papist,' was not disposed to help any one to marry +before herself, least of all her lovely cousin. And the +Scottish statesmen, Moray and Maitland, like her own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +English advisers often, were now so driven to desperation +by Elizabeth's vacillations that they had actually—possibly +with the hope of frightening her—pressed both at +home and abroad the project of marrying the Queen of +Scots to the heir of Spain! This apparently came to the +knowledge of Knox along with the refusal to meet his +hopes on the part of the Scots Parliament; and now his +cup was full. Lord James Stewart, by this time the +Earl of Moray, son-in-law of the Earl Marischal, and +gifted with great estates of the forfeited Earl of Huntly, +had been his chief friend. But 'familiarly after that +time they spake not together more than a year and a +half; for the said John, by his letter, gave a discharge +to the said Earl of all farther intromission or care with +his affairs.' In this stately letter Knox recalled all their +past career in common, and added that, seeing his hopes +had been disappointed,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I commit you to your own wit, and to the conducting of those +who better please you. I praise my God, I this day leave you +victor of your enemies, promoted to great honours, and in credit +and authority with your sovereign. If so ye long continue, none +within the realm shall be more glad than I shall be; but if that +after this ye shall decay (as I fear that ye shall) then call to mind +by what means God exalted you.'</p></div> + +<p>But the pulpit remained to him, and the pulpit in +those days had sometimes to combine the functions of +free Parliament and free press. Knox went into St Giles', +and in a great sermon before the assembled Lords, from +whose retrospective eloquence we have already quoted,<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> +he drove right at the heart of the situation.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'And now, my Lords, to put end to all, I hear of the Queen's +marriage; dukes, brethren to emperors, and kings, all strive for the +best game. But this, my Lords, will I say—note the day, and bear +witness after—whensoever the nobility of Scotland, professing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +Lord Jesus, consent that an infidel (and all Papists are infidels) shall +be head to your Sovereign, ye do as far as in you lieth to banish +Christ Jesus from this realm; ye bring God's vengeance upon the +country, a plague upon yourselves, and perchance ye shall do small +comfort to your Sovereign.'</p></div> + +<p>That sovereign could scarcely be expected to take the +same view, and for the last time the Queen sent for +Knox. No one knew so well as she that he had laid +his finger on the true hinge of the political question, +and that her opponent would have a far stronger case +now than at any of their previous interviews. She burst +into tears the moment he entered. 'I have borne with +you,' she said most truly, 'in all your rigorous manner +of speaking; I have sought your favour by all possible +means.' 'True it is, madam,' he answered, 'your Grace +and I have been at divers controversies, in the which +I never perceived your Grace to be offended at me.' +Knox's complacency is sometimes thick-skinned: but +he was not wrong in thinking that Mary, a woman with +immensely more brains than the generality of her posthumous +admirers, had from the first understood and, +perhaps, half liked her uncompromising adversary, and +that she had at least enjoyed the dialectic conflicts in +which she had held her own so well. But the matter +was more serious now. 'What have you to do with my +marriage?' she demanded. Knox in answer hinted +that she had herself invited him to give her private +advice; but what he had said was in the pulpit, where +he had to speak to the nobility and to think of the good +of the whole commonwealth.</p> + +<p>'What have you to do,' she persisted, 'with my +marriage? or what are you within this commonwealth?'</p> + +<p>'A subject born within the same,' said he, 'Madam. +And albeit I neither be earl, lord, nor baron within it, +yet has God made me (how abject that ever I be in +your eyes) a profitable member within the same.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>Under the new discipline the preacher claimed a +right to utter opinions even as to private marriages, and +used it much beyond what the fundamental principles +of Protestantism could justify. But Knox was now +dealing with his Queen, and he felt himself well within +the line of his duty in repeating to herself the deadly +consequences to Scotland if its nobility ever consented +to her being 'subject to an unfaithful husband.' It was +unanswerable, except by a new passion of tears, under +which the Reformer stood at first silent and unmoved. +He broke silence at last with a clumsy attempt to explain +or to console; and Mary's indignation was not diminished +by Knox's quaint protest that he was really a tenderhearted +man, and could scarcely bear to see his own +children weep when corrected for their faults. She +broke with him finally; and Knox, dismissed to the +ante-chamber, found himself so solitary, though among +the ladies of the Court, that (as we have already seen) +he attempted to 'procure the company of women' by +moralisings which they too may have found impressive +rather than delightful.</p> + +<p>From this point—June 1563—the history slopes +steadily downwards. Mary's ambition was still to be +Queen of Spain. Messengers on the subject went to +Spain and came to Scotland. But her plans were +secretly counterworked by her old enemy Catherine +de Medici, the French Queen-mother, and Philip +changed his mind continually. In December an incident +happened which shewed Knox's new position. +A riot arose in the Queen's absence between Catholics +who wished to worship in her private chapel and Protestants +who wished to prevent or denounce it. The +latter were indicted for 'invading' the palace. Knox +instantly wrote a letter summoning the faithful to attend +in a body along with them; and he was cited to appear +before the Queen in Council on a charge of 'convoca<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>tion +of the lieges.' Once more he stood before Mary, +but now it was at her bar. Knox had the weakness of +listening to gossip, especially as to what his feminine +adversaries said; and he records not only what he saw, +that 'her pomp lacked one principal point, to wit, +womanly gravity,' but also that she was heard to observe—this +time apparently in admirable Scots—'Yon man +gart me greet, and grat never tear himself. I will see if +I can gar him greet.' Knox absolutely refused to withdraw +his letter or to apologise for it: and though the +Council did not desire to justify his conduct, they heard +with some sympathy his plea that Papists were not good +advisers of princes, being sons of him who was 'a +murderer from the beginning.' Lethington, the Secretary, +conducted the prosecution, and it was probably he +who at this point remarked—</p> + +<p>'You forget yourself: you are not now in the +pulpit.'</p> + +<p>'I am in the place,' said Knox—and again his word +has become memorable—'where I am demanded of +conscience to speak the truth, and therefore the truth +I speak, impugn it whoso list.'</p> + +<p>The votes were taken twice over; but the nobles +steadily refused to find Knox guilty, and 'that night +there was neither dancing nor fiddling in the palace.' +During the whole of 1564, however, Knox and the +General Assembly were divided from the Protestant +courtiers, who argued, with perfect justice, that the +attitude of the Reformer and his fellow preachers to +the Queen was one of scarcely veiled disloyalty. In a +long and formal conference upon the subject, Knox said +some things so plainly that Lethington answered—</p> + +<p>'Then will ye make subjects to control their princes +and rulers?'</p> + +<p>'And what harm,' said the other, 'should the Commonwealth +receive, if that the corrupt affections of ignorant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +rulers were moderated, and so bridled by the wisdom +and discretion of godly subjects that they should do +wrong nor violence to no man?'</p> + +<p>But even the leading men of the Court, themselves +Protestants, were now beginning to be disquieted by a +sense that they did not know what their queen was +planning, and that they could not be responsible for +her actions. During this year, 1564, she was making +herself more independent, both of them and of her old +advisers in France; one great step being the promotion +of the Italian, Rizzio, who was now her confidential +secretary. The Spanish marriage was becoming more +hopeless, and the eyes of Mary's Catholic friends were +now turning in another direction. The man at the +English court nearest to the English throne was young +Henry Darnley, and Elizabeth had herself jealously +suggested that 'yonder long lad' might possibly please +her Scottish cousin. Mary and he were both great-grandchildren +of Henry VII., and their union would +consolidate the Scottish claim to the English crown—a +dangerous result for the daughter of Ann Boleyn. +That was a sufficient reason for Darnley not being +encouraged to go to Scotland; but he was at last +allowed to leave London secretly in February 1565. +The young people met in Wemyss Castle, and it was soon +plain that Mary and her handsome cousin were on the +best terms. Archbishop Beaton, acting as her secretary +in Paris, was still pressing King Philip, and on the 15th +of March he warned the Spanish ambassador that unless +his master came to the rescue Mary would have to throw +herself away on her English relative. There was no +response, and between the 7th and 10th of April, Mary +of Scots and Henry Lord Darnley were privately married +in Rizzio's apartment in Holyrood. No one knew it; +and nearly two months after, the Archbishop again urges +the King of Spain to consent, for his Queen is not yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +married, and there is still time for the greater alliance. +Seven weeks more passed, and on the 29th June the +public marriage took place, and Mary gave her husband +the title of king.</p> + +<p>It was the downfall of Moray, and, as Knox points +out, of the whole temporising Protestant policy since the +Queen came to Scotland. Moray saw that clearly +enough, and confederating with a number of the other +Lords to protest against the marriage and the proposed +kingship, the whole party were within three months +driven out of Scotland by the energy of the Queen. In +the field, Knox confesses, 'her courage increased manlike +so much, that she was ever with the foremost.' And +in her proclamation she frankly made it her case against +the recalcitrant nobility</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'that the establishment of Religion will not content them, but +we must be forced to govern by Council, such as it shall please them +to appoint us; a thing so far beyond all measure, that we think +the only mention of so unreasonable a demand is sufficient ... for +what other thing is this but to dissolve the whole policy, and in a +manner to invert the very order of nature, to make the Prince obey +and subjects command?'</p></div> + +<p>For now the triumph of absolutism and of Rizzio, as +the Papal agent, was complete—more so than Moray or +Knox knew. France and Spain, long divided, seemed +at last to be working together for the faith. And the +greatest of European monarchs, though he declined to +wed his heir in Scotland, had by no means abandoned +the cause there. On the contrary, in this very spring of +1565, while the Darnley-marriage was preparing, the +savage Alva and Granvelle were laying down at Bayonne, +by Philip's authority, the first lines of the plan for sending +an Armada against Protestant England, in order to +place Mary on its throne: and the assurance to that +effect, given by Alva's own lips to Mary's envoy, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +carried by him to Scotland in time to swell the exultation +of her nuptials.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></p> + +<p>One man was left in Scotland, and he now had at +least the people of Edinburgh with him. Darnley, +though a Catholic, thought it prudent to come to Knox's +preaching on a Sunday very soon after the marriage, but +was so unfortunate as to hear a sermon on the text—'Other +lords than Thou have had dominion over us.' The +preacher explained that in very bad cases of ingratitude +of the people, God permitted such lords to be 'boys and +women,' and the weakness of Ahab was specially dwelt +upon in not restraining his strong-minded wife. Worse +than all, the service was an hour longer than he had +expected; and the king, characteristically, 'would not +dine, and with great fury passed to the hawking.' +Knox was summoned to the Council, and ordered not +to preach while the Court remained in town. He gave +the particularly cautious answer that '<i>if the Church</i> +would command him either to speak or abstain, he +would obey, <i>so far</i> as the Word of God would permit +him'; but times were changed, and in this matter the +Church had now to obey the Authority. The Lords of +the Congregation, for four years the Queen of Scots' +nominal advisers, were very soon in exile in England; +and Queen Elizabeth, in mortal dread of the apprehended +union of France and Spain in a Catholic +crusade against her own crown, received 'her sister's +rebels' with upbraiding and almost menace. Knox and +the General Assembly maintained a defensive warfare all +through the year 1565-6. But they had no representation +in the Court, and Rizzio succeeded so far that +Mary herself tells<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> how she had arranged for the +counter-revolution being commenced by a Parliament in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +April 1566, 'the spiritual estate being placed therein in +the ancient manner, tending to have done some good +anent restoring the old religion.' Two things prevented +this smooth programme being carried out. Mary's +rather weak fancy for Darnley seems to have only lasted +for a few weeks after her marriage. He turned out to +be a fool; and his wife and the nobility declined to +promise him the Crown-matrimonial, <i>i.e.</i>, to make him +successor to her in case there were no children. Darnley +now courted the banished lords, and made a 'Band' +with them according to the old Scots fashion, a fashion +which was to break out nearer home in more savage +survival still. For Mary's imprudent favouritism of +Rizzio had roused the deadly jealousy both of her husband +and of the nobles who remained at home. And +on the 9th of March a band of men headed by Morton +and Ruthven dragged the Italian out from her supper-table +at Holyrood, and stabbed him to death in the +ante-chamber; Darnley and the lords remaining in order +to make terms with their Queen. The outrage was unavailing; +in two days Mary had talked over her husband, +escaped with him from Holyrood to Dunbar, and summoned +her new favourite, Lord Bothwell, to her aid. +Years before, when fighting the Earl of Huntly in the +far North, she had expressed to Randolph her regret +'that she was not a man to know what life it was to lie +all night in the fields, or to walk on the causeway, with +a jack and knapschalle, a Glasgow buckler, and a broadsword.' +And now, as before, her energy swept the +field clear of her enemies, and she returned to Edinburgh +victorious. Knox may not have known of the formal +Band; but he was even more opposed to his Queen than +were those who signed it, and on 17th March 1566 he +'departed of the Burgh at two hours afternoon, with a +great mourning of the godly of religion.' Five days +before, on the very day, indeed, after Mary had ridden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +away through the night from Holyrood, he had penned, +'with deliberate mind to his God,' his retrospective confession,<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> +prefixing to it the prayer—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, and put an end, at thy good +pleasure, to this my miserable life; for justice and truth are not to +be found among the sons of men!'</p></div> + +<p>It was the old sigh, which has been breathed from +the most heroic hearts in times of crisis and failure; +'Let me now die, for I am not better than my fathers!' +And here once again it was premature. For the Queen, +now awakened to the whole situation, saw how rash had +been her recent aggressive policy. After the birth of her +son in June 1566, instead of framing Parliamentary enactments +against the new religion, she vaguely proposed to +make some provision for the ministers, and allowed the +banished lords, one by one, to come back. And though +they now found their unfortunate confederate, Darnley, +in neglect and disgrace, they found also their sovereign +passing rapidly under a new and more controlling influence; +and the Earl of Bothwell was a nominal Protestant. +Knox at first was forbidden to return to his +pulpit, and he visited the Churches in Ayrshire and Fife, +occupying himself among other things in revising the +first four books of his history—the only part which is +finished by his trenchant pen. But in December the +General Assembly met in Edinburgh, and Knox was +with them. We have already seen the striking answer sent +by this Assembly<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> as to the proposed gifts of the Queen. +But their attention was arrested at this moment by another +and very inconsistent order of the Crown restoring the +Archbishop of St Andrews, the head of the old hierarchy, +to his consistorial jurisdiction, contrary to the law +of 1560. It was either a very absurd, or a very alarming, +step; and Knox, at the request of the Assembly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +prepared a powerful manifesto on the subject. He then +went away, with their approval, on a long-meditated +visit to England, to visit his sons in Northumberland or +Yorkshire, and to strengthen his friends on the more +Puritan side of the English Church in their new troubles +under Elizabeth. Little is known of his proceedings +there; though he remained in England during the whole +time between the Assembly of December 1566 and +another which sat on 25th June 1567.</p> + +<p>But between these dates, and in Knox's absence, the +most amazing tragedy in the history of Scotland had +unrolled itself in Edinburgh. Week by week, the increasing +power of Lord Bothwell over the Queen, and +her increasing dislike of her husband, had attracted the +attention of men. But before February there was a +sudden reconciliation between her and Darnley. She +brought him to a house in Kirk of Field, near Edinburgh, +and at midnight of the 9th it was blown up with gunpowder +by the servants of Bothwell, the body of the +King being found in the garden. On 21st April Bothwell +waylaid and carried off Mary to Dunbar. But he was +still a married man, having wedded Lord Huntly's sister +fourteen months before. And now in May, came in +the new consistorial jurisdiction of the Archbishop, for +the only act which that prelate ever performed under it +was to confirm a sentence of nullity of this very marriage, +and that on the ground that Bothwell and his wife being +too nearly related, had not procured a Papal dispensation +(the Papal dispensation having not only been procured +before the marriage, but having been granted by the +hands of the Archbishop himself as Legate). Ten days +after this divorce, and in spite of dissuasions from her +friends at home and abroad, the ill-fated Queen publicly +married the murderer of her husband, and the strong +shudder of disgust that passed through the commons of +Scotland shook her throne to the ground. So upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +Mary's half-compulsory abdication, Moray became +Regent for the infant King, who was crowned at Stirling, +Knox preaching the coronation sermon. (There were +men present on this triumphal occasion before whom +he had preached once before in the same place, when +sunk in despair after that 'dark and dolorous' flight +from Edinburgh.) And now came that great winding +up already discussed in our last chapter, the Protestant +legislative settlement of Church matters in 1567.</p> + +<p>It was the second great climax of Knox's life; and +now his public work was done. We shall not find it +necessary to follow his later years in detail. They were +troubled by ineffectual attempts to reverse the verdict of +the people already given. For Mary had a majority of the +nobles still with her, and Elizabeth of England resented +the claim of a nation to judge its sovereign. An appeal +to arms followed: the Regent was victorious at Langside, +and the Queen of Scots fled to a long captivity in +England. But her claims threw Scotland into civil war +during most of the remaining life of Knox. Moray was +assassinated in 1570 by one of the Hamiltons whose life +he had spared upon Knox's intercession; and next +Sunday Knox, who had long since returned into friendship +with him, preached on 'Blessed are the dead,' and +'moved three thousand persons to shed tears for the +loss of such a good and godly governor.' But Lethington +had now gone over to the exiled Queen, and took +with him even Kirkaldy, who had fought with Moray at +Langside. Henceforth the Castle, where they resided, +was a danger to Edinburgh, and in July, 1571, Knox, +by agreement of both parties there, was sent for a +twelvemonth to St Andrews to be out of harm's way. +He had left Edinburgh in wholly broken health, after a +fit of apoplexy: he returned feebler still, and had a colleague +at once appointed. Yet when the news came from +Paris, in September, 1572, of the great massacre of St<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +Bartholomew, Knox himself took charge of organising +the protest of Scotland against the gigantic crime. But +that crime of France saved Scotland, and the voice of +Scotland's leader was no longer needed. The end was +now near, and while 'so feeble as scarce can he stand +alone' he sends a farewell message to 'Mr Secretary +Cecil' through Killigrew, the new English envoy.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'John Knox doth reverence your Lordship much, and willed me +once again to send you word, that he thanked God he had obtained +at His hands, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is truly and simply +preached throughout Scotland, which doth so comfort him as he +now desireth to be out of this miserable life.'<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a></p></div> + +<p>And with an explosion, equally characteristic, against +one who had anonymously accused Knox of 'seeking +support against his native country,' we may close our +notices of this great public life.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I give him a lie in his throat!... What I have been to my +country, although this unthankful age will not know, yet the ages to +come will be compelled to bear witness to the truth.... To me +it seems a thing most unreasonable, that, in this my decrepit age, +I should be compelled to fight against shadows and howlets, that +dare not abide the light!'<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a></p></div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> 'Works,' ii. 126.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> So much was this looked forward to, that two months <i>before +the death</i> of her husband King Francis, the English ambassador, +writing from Paris to London of the King's feeble health, says: +'There is much talk of the Queen's second marriage. Some talk +of the Prince of Spain, some of the Duke of Austrich, others of +the Earl of Arran.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> 'Works,' ii. 277.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> 'To Kings, Princes, Rulers, and Magistrates we affirm that, +chiefly and most principally, the reformation and purgation of the +Religion appertains, so that, not only are they appointed for civil +policy, but also for maintenance of the true Religion, and for suppressing +of idolatry and superstition whatsoever.... And, therefore, +we confess and avow that such as resist the supreme power +(doing that thing which appertains to his charge) do resist God's +ordinance, and therefore cannot be guiltless.'—'Works,' ii. 119.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> Mary may not have met a Protestant teacher before, except +those whom she and her husband had more than once viewed suffering +on the scaffold; but she had read books like the Colloquies of +Erasmus with keen appreciation, she was instructed in the great +controversy from the Catholic side, and one of the youthful exercises +which remain written in her girlish hand is a letter to John Calvin +in defence of purgatory.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> See Hume Brown, ii. 171, note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> 'Works,' ii. 276. Her answer to the General Assembly in +1565, was that 'she prays all her loving subjects, seeing they have had +experience of her goodness, that she neither has in times past, +nor yet means hereafter to press the conscience of any man, but that +they may worship God in such sort as they are persuaded to be best, +that they also will not press her to offend her own conscience.'—'Book +of the Universall Kirk,' p. 34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> The Pope had already, since her husband's death, sent her the +Golden Rose, with the suggestion that in Scotland she must be a +rose <i>among thorns</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> Labanoff's 'Lettres de Marie Stuart,' i. 177.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> <a href="#Page_89">Page 89</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> The dates are indicated generally in Hill Burton's ' History,' iv, +133.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> Labanoffs 'Lettres de Marie Stuart,' i. 342.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> Page 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> Page 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 633.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> 'Works,' vi. 596.</p></div></div> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Contents</a></span> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center">CLOSING YEARS AND DEATH</p><br /> + +<p>It is time to part from the public life of the greatest +public man whom Scotland has known. That side of +Knox's work, attractively presented to the world at first +in the memorable biography of Dr Thomas MʻCrie, has +been admirably restated by Dr Hume Brown for a later +age and from his own judicial standpoint. But Knox's +public life was not the whole of his work: in bulk, it +was a small part of it. When he became minister of +Edinburgh in 1560 there was only one church there; +St Cuthberts and Canongate were country parishes outside. +It was some years before he got a colleague; and, +as sole minister of Edinburgh, he preached twice every +Sunday <i>and three times during the week</i> to audiences +which sometimes were numbered by thousands. Once a +week he attended a Kirk Session; once a week he was a +member of the assembly or meeting of the neighbouring +elders for their 'prophesying' or 'exercise on Scripture.' +Often he was sent away to different districts of +the country on preaching visitations under the orders of +the Church. But when Knox was at home, his preparations +for the pulpit, which were regular and careful, and +his other pastoral work, challenged his whole time. And +this work was carried on in two places chiefly; in St +Giles, which now became the High Church of Edinburgh, +and in his house or lodging, which was always in or near +the Netherbow, a few hundred yards farther down the +High Street. The picturesque old building 'in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +throat of the Bow,' which attracts innumerable visitors as +the traditional house where Knox died, was not that in +which he spent most part of his Edinburgh life. From +1560 down to about the time of his second marriage he +lived in a 'great mansion' on the west side of Turing's +or Trunk Close; and thereafter for some years in a +house on the east side of the same close. Neither of +them now exists; but the entrance into the High Street +from both was under the windows of the third or Netherbow +house, which is shewn in modern times, and which +was probably ready for Knox's reception, if not earlier, +at least when he came back from his latest visit to St +Andrews. In these he kept his books, which constituted +much the larger part of his personal property—('you will +not always be at your book,' Queen Mary had said, as +she turned her back upon him in closing their second +interview). And with them, and with helps from the old +logic and the new learning (for while abroad he had +added Hebrew to his previous instruments of Greek +and Latin) he studied hour by hour for the sermons +which he delivered—and their delivery also lasted hour +after hour—in the great church. In that church there was +occasionally much to draw even the vulgar eye. One +day it was Huntly, the great Catholic Earl, the most +famous man in Knox's opinion among the nobility of +Scotland for three hundred years for 'both felicity and +worldly wisdom,' whose huge bulk as he had sat opposite +to the preacher (the year before he died 'without stroke +of sword' on the field of Corrichie) was afterwards, thus +vividly recalled.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Have ye not seen one greater than any of you sitting where +presently ye sit, pick his nails, and pull down his bonnet over his +eyes, when idolatry, witchcraft, murder, oppression, and such vices +were rebuked? Was not his common talk, When the knaves have +railed their fill, then will they hold their peace?'<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> + +<p>Or, again, it was the French Ambassador, Le Croc, +sitting in state on the first Sunday after the news of St +Bartholomew, who heard the preacher denounce his +master, King Charles, as a 'murderer,' from whom and +from whose posterity the vengeance of God would refuse +to depart. But these were incidents dramatic and +political. And noble as a political calling may be, there +have always been some to believe that drawing men and +women up to a higher moral life, especially when that life +is fed from an immortal hope, is nobler still. But Knox, +let us remember, was throughout his early ministry the +witness of a still more fascinating and indeed unexampled +spectacle—a whole generation suddenly confronted with +the moral call of primitive Christianity, and striving to +respond to it, no longer in dependence on Church +tradition, but by each man moulding himself directly +upon Christian facts and Christian promises in the very +form in which these were originally delivered by the +apostolic age. He was witness of it; and more than +witness, for beyond any other man in Scotland Knox was +its guide. And while the guidance of the great theological +leaders of that generation tended naturally—and +quite apart from their usurped statutory ascendency—to +press too heavily upon the recovered freedom of Scotland, +that danger was but little felt in those early days of +enthusiasm in the High Church of Edinburgh.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>What like was the man who was seen, almost every +day during all those years, pacing up and down between +the Netherbow and St Giles?</p> + +<p>Knox, as we are told by a surviving contemporary +(who enclosed a portrait of him along with the description), +was a man of slightly less than middle height, but +with broadish shoulders, limbs well put together, and +long fingers. He had a rather swarthy face, with black +hair, and a beard a span and a half long, also black, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +latterly turning grey. The face was somewhat long, the +nose decidedly so, the mouth large, and the lips full, so +that the upper lip in particular seemed to be swollen. +The chief peculiarity of his face was that his eyes—sunk +between a rather narrow forehead, with a strong ridge of +eyebrow, above, and ruddy and swelling cheeks, below—looked +hollow and retreating. But those eyes were of a +darkish blue colour, their glance was keen and vivid, and +the whole face was 'not unpleasing.' We can easily believe +that 'in his settled and severe countenance there +dwelt a natural dignity and majesty, which was by no +means ungracious, but in anger authority sat upon his +brow.'<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a></p> + +<p>This seems to be a true portraiture of Knox in the +days of his vigour; if we are to speak of vigour in the +case of a man with a small and frail body (one of his +early biographers speaks of him as a mere <i>corpuscle</i>), and +a man throughout his whole public life struggling with +disease. In the last year of his prematurely 'decrepit +age,' we have another description of him; and this time +it is taken in St Andrews. Edinburgh and Leith were +now again at war, and the quarter of Knox's house was +the most unsafe in the city. The 'King's Men' outside +were always attempting to force the Netherbow Port; and +their guns, planted close by on the Dow Craig,<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> and a +little farther off on Salisbury Crags, smote from either +side. They were crossed and answered, not only by +the great guns of the castle, held by the Queen's Men +under Kirkaldy, but by a nearer battery on the Blackfriars' +Yard, and by guns planted on the roof of St Giles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +(the biggest of which the soldiers of course christened +'John Knox'). In these circumstances Knox was safer +away; and from May 1571 to August 1572 his residence +was St Andrews. There the mild James Melville, a +student at St Leonards, watched the old man with the +wistful reverence of youth.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'I saw him every day of his doctrine go <i>hulie and fear</i>,<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> with a +furring of martricks about his neck, a staff in the one hand, and +good godly Richard Ballanden, his servant, holding up the other +oxter,<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> from the Abbey to the parish kirk; and by the said Richard +and another servant, lifted up to the pulpit, where he behoved to lean +at his first entry; but before he had done with his sermon, he was +so active and vigorous that he was like to <i>ding that pulpit in blads</i>,<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> +and fly out of it!'<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> And the impact on the mind of the youthful +Melville was scarcely less than that on the pulpit. He had his +'pen and little book,' and for the first half hour of Knox's sermon, +took down 'such things as I could comprehend'; but when the +preacher 'entered to the application of his text he made me so to +<i>grue</i><a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> and tremble that I could not hold a pen to write!'<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a></p></div> + +<p>But his day was rapidly moving to its close; and +Knox, without waiting for his return to Edinburgh, now +wrote his Will. In it, after an unexpectedly mild address +to the Papists, and a prophecy (which was not fulfilled) +that his death would turn out a worse thing for them +than his life, he turns to the other side, and in one striking +paragraph sums up the work that was now to close.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'To the faithful I protest, that God, by my mouth, be I never so +abject, has shewn to you His truth in all simplicity. None I have +corrupted; none I have defrauded; merchandise have I not made +(to God's glory I write) of the glorious Evangel of Jesus Christ. +But according to the measure of the grace granted unto me, I have +divided the sermon [word] of truth into just parts: beating down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +the pride of the proud in all that did declare their rebellion against +God, according as God in His law gives to me yet testimony; and +raising up the consciences troubled with the knowledge of their +own sins, by the declaring of Jesus Christ, the strength of His +death, and the mighty operation of His resurrection in the hearts of +the faithful.'</p></div> + +<p>When (still before leaving St Andrews) he publishes +his last book, he dedicates it to the faithful 'that God +of His mercy shall appoint to fight after me;' and he +adds, 'I heartily salute and take my good-night of all +the faithful of both realms ... for as the world is +weary of me, so am I of it.' In those darkening days, +even when he is merely to write his subscription, it is +'John Knox, with my dead hand but glad heart.' For +in this inevitable anti-climax of failing life, Knox found +his compensations not in the world, nor even in the +Church. When he returned to Edinburgh, he had become +unable for pastoral work. 'All worldly strength, +yea, even in things spiritual,' he writes to his expected +colleague, 'decays, and yet never shall the work of God +decay.... Visit me, that we may confer together on +heavenly things: for, in earth, there is no stability, +except in the Kirk of Jesus Christ, ever fighting under +the cross. Haste, ere you come too late.' His colleague +hurried from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, and at his induction +Knox appeared and spoke once more in public. +But it was the last time, and at the close of the service +the whole congregation accompanied the failing steps of +their minister down to the Netherbow. And from that +9th November 1572 he never left his house.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>We have at least two accounts of his death—one in +Latin from a colleague, one in Scots by his old servitor +and secretary; and the latter seems to have the merit of +admiring and indiscriminating faithfulness. It is often +said that such death-bed narratives are worthless, unless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +judged by the light thrown upon them from the previous +life. It is true. Yet Death, too, is a great critic; +and, at least when that previous life has included a +problem, (as we have thought to be the case here), it +may be well before we volunteer a verdict to listen to +<i>his</i> summing up. It may finally divide, or it may reunite, +the inward and outward elements which have +co-existed in the life. And it may at least reveal which +of them was the ruling and radical characteristic. For +while Knox had long been a beacon-light to Scotland, +we have had reason to think that the flame was first +kindled in this man's own soul. But now that the +fuel which fed it is withdrawn, will that flame sink +into the socket? Will it flicker out, now that the +airs which fanned it have become still? How will it +behave in the chill that falls from those winnowing +wings?</p> + +<p>The day after Knox sickened he gave one of his +servants twenty shillings above his fee, with the words, +'Thou wilt never get no more from me in this life.' Two +days after, his mind wandered; and he wished to go to +church 'to preach on the resurrection of Christ.' Next +day he was better; and when two friends called he +ordered a hogshead of wine to be pierced, and urged +them to partake, for their host 'would not tarry until it +was all drunk.' On Monday, the 17th, he asked the +elders and deacons of his church, with the ministers of +Edinburgh and Leith, to meet with him; and in solemn +and affectionate words, nearly the same with those above +quoted from his will, reviewed his ministry and took +leave of them all. But here too trouble from his past +awaited him. He had not long before accused from +the pulpit Maitland of Lethington, now in the Castle, +of having said that 'Heaven and hell are things I +devised to fray bairns;' and Maitland's demand for +evidence or apology was brought to him. Knox had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +never been able to bear contradiction, especially when +he was somewhat in the wrong; and those who wish to +acquire new virtues must not postpone them to their +last hours. His defence was roundabout and ineffectual; +and all were glad when he parted from these details of +his long life-struggle, so that his friends, with tears, +might take their last look of his worn and wearied face. +The effort had been too much for him, and henceforth +he never spoke but with great pain. Yet during the +rest of the week he had many visitors. One after +another the nobles in Edinburgh, Lords Boyd, Drumlanrig, +Lindsay, Ruthven, Glencairn, and Morton (then +about to be elected Regent) had interviews with him. +Of Morton he demanded whether he had been privy to +the murder of Darnley, and receiving an evasive +assurance that he had not, he charged him to use his +wealth and high place 'better in time to come than you +have done in time past. If so ye do, God shall bless +and honour you; but if ye do it not, God shall spoil +you of these benefits, and your end shall be ignominy +and shame.' When so many men pressed in, women, +devout and honourable, were of course also present. +One lady commenced to praise his works for God's +cause: 'Tongue! tongue! lady,' he broke in; 'flesh of +itself is overproud, and needs no means to esteem itself.' +Gradually they all left, except his true friend Fairley of +Braid. Knox turned to him: 'Every one bids me +good-night; but when will you do it? I shall never be +able to recompense you; but I commit you to One that +is able to do it—to the Eternal God.' During the days +that followed, his weakness reduced him to ejaculatory +sentences of prayer. 'Come, Lord Jesus. Sweet Jesus, +into Thy hands I commend my spirit' But Scotland +was still on his heart; and as Napoleon in his last hours +was heard to mutter <i>tête d'armée</i>, so Knox's attendants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +caught the words, 'Be merciful, O Lord, to Thy Church, +which Thou hast redeemed. Give peace to this afflicted +commonwealth. Raise up faithful pastors who will take +charge of Thy Church. Grant us, Lord, the perfect +hatred of sin, both by the evidences of Thy wrath and +mercy.' Sometimes he was conscious of those around, +and seemed to address them. 'O serve the Lord in +fear, and death shall not be terrible to you. Nay, +blessed shall death be to those who have felt the power +of the death of the only begotten Son of God.'</p> + +<p>On his last Sabbath a more remarkable scene occurred. +He had been lying quiet during the afternoon, +and suddenly exclaimed, 'If any be present let them +come and see the work of God.' His friend, Johnston of +Elphinstone, was summoned from the adjacent church, +and on his arrival Knox burst out, 'I have been these two +last nights in meditation on the troubled Church of God, +the spouse of Jesus Christ, despised of the world, but +precious in His sight. I have called to God for her, +and have committed her to her head, Jesus Christ. I +have been fighting 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. I have tasted of the +heavenly joys where presently I am.' Gradually this +rapture of retrospection and assurance wore itself down, +with the help of recitation by the dying man of the Creed +and the Lord's Prayer—Knox pausing over the clause +'Our Father,' to ejaculate, 'Who can pronounce so holy +words?'</p> + +<p>Next day, Monday, 24 November, 1572, was his last +on earth. His three most intimate friends sat by his +bedside. Campbell of Kinyeancleugh asked him if he +had any pain. 'It is no painful pain,' he said; 'but +such a pain as shall soon, I trust, put an end to the +battle.' To this friend he left in charge his wife, whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +later of the day he asked to read him the fifteenth +chapter to the Corinthians. When it was finished, +'Now for the last [time],' he said, 'I commend my +soul, spirit, and body' (and as he spoke he touched +three of his fingers) 'into Thy hands, O Lord.' Later +of the day he called to his wife again, 'Go read where I +cast my first anchor!' She turned to the seventeenth +chapter of John, and followed it up with part of a +sermon of Calvin on the Epistle to the Ephesians. It +seems to have been after this that he fell into a moaning +slumber. All watched around him. Suddenly he woke, +and being asked why he sighed, said that he had been +sustaining a last 'assault of Satan.' Often before had +he tempted him with allurements, and urged him to +despair. Now he had sought to make him feel as if +he had merited heaven by his faithful ministry. 'But +what have I that I have not received? Wherefore,<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> +I give thanks to my God, through Jesus Christ, who +hath been pleased to give me the victory; and I am +persuaded that the tempter shall not again attack +me, but that within a short time I shall, without +any great pain of body or anguish of mind, exchange +this mortal and miserable life for a blessed immortality +through Jesus Christ.' During the hours which +followed he lay quite still, and they delayed reading +the evening prayer till past ten o'clock, thinking he +was asleep. When it was finished, his physician asked +him if he had heard the prayers. 'Would to God,' +he answered, 'that you and all men had heard them as +I have heard them; I praise God for that heavenly +sound.' As eleven o'clock drew on he gave a deep +sigh, and they heard the words, 'Now it is come.' His +servant, Richard Bannatyne, drew near, and called upon +him to think upon the comfortable promises of Christ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +which he had so often declared to others. Knox was +already speechless, but his servant pleaded for one sign +that he heard the words of peace. As if collecting his +whole strength, he lifted up his right hand heavenwards, +and sighing twice, peacefully expired.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>Such a life had such a close.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> 'Works,' ii. 362.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> Sir Peter Young's letter to Beza, 13th Nov. 1579.—'Life of +Knox,' by Hume Brown, ii. 323.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> That is, the Craig Dhu or Black Rock. So the Calton Crags +were called, which now look green amid surrounding buildings, +but which then were a dark and frowning patch in a semicircle of +green hill that stretched from St Cuthberts to Holyrood.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> Slowly and warily.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> Armpit.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> Smite it into shivers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> 'Autobiography and Diary,' p. 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> To grue = to thrill and shudder.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> 'Autobiography and Diary,' p. 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> It will be recognised that this sentence is translated from the +Latin.</p></div></div> + +<hr /> + +<h2 class="space">INDEX</h2> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span><br /> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Acts of Parliament, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li> +<li>Affliction, Treatise on, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li>Alnwick, Cupboard at, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> +<li>Alva, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> +<li>Anabaptists, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> +<li>Anchor, Knox's first, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li> +<li>Apostolic Order of Worship, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> +<li>Appellation, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> +<li>Appropriations, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> +<li>Archbishop of St Andrews, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li>Argyll, Earl of, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li> +<li>Aristocracy, Scottish, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>-<a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> +<li>Armenians, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li>Arran, Earl of, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li> +<li>Assembly, General, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li> +<li>Assurance, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> +<li>Auditors bound to support, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> +<li>Autobiography, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Balnaves, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> +<li>Band, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> +<li>Bannatyne, Richard, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li> +<li>Bartholomew, St, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Beaton, David (Cardinal), <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> +<li>Beaton, James (Archbishop), <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> +<li>Beggars' Warning, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li> +<li>Benefices, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> +<li>Berwick, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> +<li>Beza, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> +<li>Bible, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> +<li>Bishopric offered Knox, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Bishops, The R.C., <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li> +<li>'Bishops and Kings,' <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li> +<li>Blast (against Women's Regimen), <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li>Books in Knox's Library, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li> +<li>Borgia, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> +<li>Bothwell, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li><a name="Both" id="Both"></a><a href="#TN">Bothwellhaugh</a>,</li> +<li>Bowes, Mrs, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>-<a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li> +<li>Bowes, Marjory, (Mrs Knox,) 49-<a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li>Bowes, Sir R., <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> +<li>Brown, Dr Hume, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li> +<li>Browning, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> +<li>Buchanan, George, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> +<li>Bullinger, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li>Bunyan in Bedford, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> +<li>Burghs, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Burton, J. Hill, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Calvin, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li>Campbell of Kinyeancleugh, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li> +<li>Cannon-ball, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li>Carlyle, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> +<li>Catechism Palatinate, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> +<li>Catholic system, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>-<a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li>Call, Knox's, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_II">Chap. II</a>. (25-47).</li> +<li>Cecil, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> +<li>Ceremonies, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li> +<li>Charities, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> +<li>Chatelherault, Duke of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li>Comfort, Knox's lack of, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> +<li>Commonalty, Letter to, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> +<li>'Common Man, The,' 43, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> +<li>Compensations, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li> +<li>'Conditions,' Knox's, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></li> +<li>Confession of 1560, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>-<a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> +<li>Confession of Wishart (First Helvetic), <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> +<li>Confession, Knox's personal, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li> +<li>Confessions, Change in, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li> +<li>Confessions of Protestantism, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li> +<li>'Congregation, The,' <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li> +<li>Conscience, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li> +<li>Constantine, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> +<li>Constitutionalism, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> +<li>Consuetude, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li> +<li>Conversion, Knox's, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_II">Chap. II</a>. (25-47).</li> +<li>Convocation of Lieges, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li> +<li>Coronation Oath, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> +<li>Coronation Sermon, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li> +<li>Corpuscle, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li> +<li>Council, General Church, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>-<a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> +<li>Council, Provincial Church, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> +<li>'Country, What I have been to my,' <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> +<li>Creed (<i>see</i> Confession).</li> +<li>Crisis in life, <a href="#CHAPTER_II">Chap. II.</a></li> +<li>Crock, Le, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Darnley, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>-<a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li>Death of Knox, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>-<a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> +<li>'Deliberate Mind,' 27-<a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li> +<li>Desertion, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li> +<li>Dialogues with Queen Mary, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-<a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li> +<li>Discipline, Book of, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>-<a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> +<li>Dispensation for Bothwell's Marriage, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li>Donations, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> +<li>Dow Craig, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li> +<li>Dundee, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Dyspepsia, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Edinburgh, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Chapter VII</a>. (144-154).</li> +<li>Edinburgh, Treaty of, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> +<li>Ejectment, Summons of, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> +<li>Eleazar Knox, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li>Elizabeth, Queen, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> +<li>Endowments, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>-<a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li> +<li>England, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li>Establishment, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> +<li>Evangel, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>-<a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> +<li>Excommunication, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Face, Knox's, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Fairley of Braid, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> +<li>'Familiarity,' never broken, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li>'Fearfulness' of Knox, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> +<li>Fergus the First, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li> +<li>France, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> +<li>Francis II., <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li> +<li>Frankfort, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Friars, The, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Galleys, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> +<li>Gallicanism, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> +<li>Geneva, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li> +<li>Genius, Knox's, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> +<li>Gentlewoman's face, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li> +<li>Gerson, Chancellor, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> +<li>Golden Rose, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> +<li>Granvelle, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> +<li>Gravel, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Haddington, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li> +<li>Hamilton, Patrick, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li> +<li>Hebrew, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li> +<li>Helvetic (First) Confession, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> +<li>'History of Reformation,' <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li> +<li>Hospitals, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> +<li>House, Knox's, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li> +<li>Humanism, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li>Huntly, Earl of, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Idolatry, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li> +<li>Independence of Church, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> +<li>'Indifferency,' <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li> +<li>Individualism, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li> +<li>Induration, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li>Infidelity, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> +<li>Inner Life, Knox's, <a href="#CHAPTER_II">Chapters II</a>. and <a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a>.</li> +<li>Intolerance, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>-<a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> +<li>Irrevocableness of Call, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>James V., <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li> +<li>Jesuit (Tyrie), <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +<li>Johnston of Elphinstone, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li> +<li>Jurisdiction, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li><a name="Kirk" id="Kirk"></a><a href="#TN">Kirk of Field</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +<li>Kirkaldy of Grange, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Laing, David, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li> +<li>Lawson, James, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> +<li>Leadership, Weight of, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> +<li>Legislation, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_V">Chap. V</a>. (95-116).</li> +<li>Leith, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li> +<li>Lethington, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> +<li>Letters of Knox (private), <a href="#CHAPTER_III">Chap, III</a>.</li> +<li>Lindsay, Sir David, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> +<li>Lindsay, Lord, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li> +<li>Locke, Mrs, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>-<a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li>Loire, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> +<li>Longniddry, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li> +<li>Luther, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>MʻCrie, Dr Thomas, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li> +<li>MʻCunn, Mrs, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> +<li>Macphail, Dr Jas. C, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> +<li>'Magistrate, The,' <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li> +<li>Mair (<i>see</i> Major).</li> +<li>Maitland (<i>see</i> Lethington).</li> +<li>Major, John, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>-<a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> +<li>Maries, The Four, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li>Marischal, The Earl, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li> +<li>Marmion, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li>'Marriage, My,' <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> +<li>Marvels, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>-<a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li>Mary of Lorraine, Queen Regent, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>-<a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li>Mary, Queen of Scots, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Chap. VI</a>. (117-143).</li> +<li>Mary, Queen of England, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li> +<li>Mass, The, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li>'Meditation or Prayer,' <a href="#Page_27">27-31</a>.</li> +<li>Melancholy, Knox's, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li>Melville, James, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> +<li>Mitchell, Dr A.F., <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> +<li>Moray, Earl of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li> +<li>Morton, Earl of, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> +<li>Movements, Leadership of, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Nathaniel Knox, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> +<li>National Churches, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>-<a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> +<li>'Need of all,' of Knox, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> +<li>Netherbow, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li> +<li>Norham Castle, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> +<li>Notary, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Ochiltree, Lord, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> +<li>Organisation of Church, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Palatinate Catechism, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li> +<li>Parentage of Knox, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> +<li>Paris, University of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>-<a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> +<li>Parishes, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>-<a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> +<li>Parliament, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> +<li>Pasquil, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> +<li>Patrimony of the Church, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> +<li>Patrimony of the Poor, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> +<li>Persecution, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>-<a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> +<li>Perth, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li> +<li>Poor, The, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>-<a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></li> +<li>Pope, The, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> +<li>Portraits, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> +<li>Prayer-Book, English, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +<li>Prayer, Treatise on, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li> +<li>Preaching, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> +<li>Predictions, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>-<a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li>Priest, Knox as, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> +<li>Principles, Fundamental, of Knox, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +<li>Private Life, <a href="#CHAPTER_III">Chap. III</a>.</li> +<li>'Prophesyings,' <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li> +<li>Prophet, Knox as, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>-<a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> +<li>'Proud Mind,' <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li> +<li>Puritanism of Knox, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Radicalism, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> +<li>Randolph (English Ambassador), <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li> +<li>Ratification of Creed, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li> +<li>'Reconciliation, Articles of,' <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li> +<li>Regimen of Women, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> +<li>Regular Priests, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> +<li>Renaissance, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li> +<li>Repentance, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> +<li><a name="Knox" id="Knox"></a><a href="#TN">Reticence of Knox</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li> +<li>Risks of the Reformation, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li> +<li>Rizzio, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> +<li>Rouen, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> +<li>Rough, John, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> +<li>Ruthven, Lord, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Sacerdotalism, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li> +<li>Sandilands, Sir James, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li> +<li>Scholasticism, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> +<li>Schools in Scotland, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li> +<li>Scriptures, The, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> +<li>Secrets of God's Counsel, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li> +<li>Self-torture, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li> +<li>Shakespeare, Priests in, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li> +<li>Simony, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> +<li>Sir John Knox, <a href="#Page_11">11</a> (<i>Note</i>).</li> +<li>Spain, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li> +<li>St Andrews, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> +<li>St Giles, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li> +<li>Statesman, Knox as, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> +<li>Statutes, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li> +<li>Stewart, Lord James (<i>see</i> Moray).</li> +<li>Stewart, Margaret (Mrs Knox), <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> +<li>Stirling, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li> +<li>Sustentation, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li> +<li>Sword, The Civil, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li>Syllogism, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li> +<li>Sympathy of Knox, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Testamentary Charities, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li> +<li>Thomassin, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> +<li>Teinds, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-<a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-<a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> +<li>Tithes (<i>see</i> Teinds).</li> +<li>Toleration, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>-<a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +<li>Trent, Council of, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li> +<li>Turing, or Trunk Close, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>'Use themselves Godly,' <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Vocation, Knox's, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_II">Chap. II</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Wallace, Sir William, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li> +<li>'Wholesome Counsel,' Letter of, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li> +<li>Will, Knox's, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li> +<li>Willock, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li> +<li>Window, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> +<li>Wishart, George, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li> +<li>Women Friends, <a href="#CHAPTER_III">Chap. III</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Young, Sir Peter, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<div class="trans-note"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a> +<div class="center">Transcriber's Notes:</div><br /> + +Obvious typographical and printer errors and misspellings +have been corrected. Archaic spellings have been retained.<br /> +<br /> +Footnotes are +placed at the end of the chapter in which they appear.<br /> +<br /> +In the Index, +page 1 as a reference for "<a href="#Knox"><b>Reticence of Knox</b></a>" has +been changed to page +11 since there is no page 1, but page 11 does refer to the subject of +Knox's reticence.<br /> +<br /> +Page 141, omitted in the Index as a reference for +"<a href="#Kirk">"<b>Kirk of Field</b>"</a>, has been added.<br /> +<br /> +Omission in the Index of a page +reference for "<a href="#Both">"<b>Bothwellhaugh</b>"</a> has been +retained as there is no mention +of "Bothwellhaugh" in the text.<br /> +<br /> +The date <b>1563</b> on page <a href="#Page_47">47</a> is a best +guess since the final number of the date is completely unreadable due +to an ink blot.<br /> +<br /> +The names Campbell of Kinzeancleuch and Kirkcaldy of +Grange have been changed to Campbell of Kinyeancleugh and Kirkaldy of +Grange in the Index to agree with spelling in the text</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN KNOX***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 22106-h.txt or 22106-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/1/0/22106">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/1/0/22106</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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