r- 



KNOX, JOHN. 



KNOX, JOHN. 



740 



The Reformed doctrines hmd made considerable progress in Scotland 

 before this time. Knox was uot tlio first reformer, there were many 

 penon*. *' earU, baront, gentlemen, honest burgess-*, and craftsmen," 

 who already professed the new creed though they durst not avow it ; 

 it wai to thrt avowal, extension, and eatabluhment of the Reformed 

 religion that his zeal and knowledge so powerfully contributed. His 

 reprehension of the prevalent corruptions made him regarded as a 

 heretic ; for which reason he could not safely remain in St. Andrews, 

 which was wholly in the power of Cardinal Beaton, a determined 

 supporter of the Church of Rome, and he retired to the south of Scot- 

 land, where he avowed his apoitacy. He was condemned as a heretic, 

 degraded from the priesthood, and it is said by Beza that Beaton 

 employed Mention to waylay him. He now for a time frequented the 

 preaching of the Reformed teachers, Williams and \Viahart, who gave 

 additional strength to opinions already pretty firmly rooted; and 

 having relinquished all thoughts of officiating in the Roman Catholic 

 Church, he became tutor to the sons of Hugh Douglas of Languiddrie, 

 a gentleman of East Lothian, who had embraced the Reformed 

 doctrines. After the murder of Cardinal Beaton, Knox removed with 

 his pupils from Langniddrie to St. Andrews (1547), where he conducted 

 their education iu bis accustomed manner, catechising and reading to 

 them in the church belonging to the city. There were many hearers 

 of these instructions, who urged him and finally called upon him to 

 become a public preacher. Diffident and reluctant at first, upon 

 consideration he consented to their request. In his preaching, far 

 more than the reformed teachers who had preceded him, he struck at 

 the very foundations of popery, and challenged his opponents to 

 argument, to be delivered either in writing or from the pulpit, and so 

 suoessful were his labours that many of the inhabitants were converted 

 to his doctrines. 



It was not long before an event took place by which his efforts 

 received a temporary check. The murder of Cardinal Beaton had given 

 great offence, and created great excitement through the kingdom. It 

 was a severe blow to the Roman Catholic religion and the French 

 interest in Scotland, both of which he had zealously supported, and 

 vengeance was loudly called for upon the conspirators by whom he 

 had been murdered. These conspirators had fortified St. Andrews, and 

 the art of attacking fortified places was then so imperfectly understood 

 in Scotland that for five months they resisted the efforts of Arrau, the 

 Regent From their long wars in Italy and Germany, the French hod 

 become as experienced in the conduct of sieges as the Scotch were 

 ignorant. The French were allies of Scotland ; to France therefore 

 Arran sent for assistance. About the end of June 1547 a French fleet, 

 with a considerable body of land forces, appeared before the town. 

 The garrison capitulated, and Knox, among many others, was taken 

 pritoner, and conveyed to Rouen, where he was confined on board the 

 galleys. After nineteen months' dose imprisonment he was liberated, 

 with his health greatly injured by the rigour with which he had been 

 treated (1549). 



Knox now repaired to England, and though he had never received 

 ordination as a Protestant, Cranmer did not hesitate to send him from 

 London to preach in Berwick. In Berwick and the North of 

 England he followed his arduous undertaking of conversion until 1551, 

 when he was made one of King Edward's chaplains, with a salary of 

 401. a year. While his friends in the English administration offered 

 him further preferment, which he declined, his enemies brought 

 charges against him before the council, of which he was soon after- 

 wards acquitted. He was in London at the time of King Edward's 

 death, but thought it prudent to fly the kingdom as soon as Mary's 

 policy towards the Protestants became apparent. In January 1554, 

 he landed at Dieppe; from Dieppe he went to Geneva; and from 

 Geneva to Frankfurt, where Calvin requested him to take charge of a 

 congregation of English refugees. In consequence of some disputes 

 he returned from Frankfurt to Geneva, and, after a few months' 

 residence there, to Scotland, where he again zealously promulgated 

 his doctrines. The English congregation at Geneva having appointed 

 him their preacher, he thought right to make another journey to the 

 Continent (1666), which he quitted finally in 1559. During these 

 the quietest years of his life he published ' The First Blast of the 

 Trumpet against the monstrous Regiment of Women,' in which he 

 vehemently attacked the admission of females to the government of 

 nations. Its first sentence runs thus : " To promote a woman to bear 

 rule, superiority, dominion, or empire, above any realm, nation, or 

 city, is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, a thing most con- 

 trarious to his revealed will and approved ordinance, and finally it is 

 the subversion of all equity and justice." This inflammatory compo- 

 sition, as might have been expected, excited fresh hostility against its 

 author. At the time of its publication both England and Scotland 

 were governed by females; Mary of Guise, the queen-dowager of 

 Scotland, was likewise regent of that kingdom, while the Princess 

 Mary wu heiress of ita throne : and in England Mary was queen, end 

 her sister Elizabeth the next in succession to the crown. It hardly 

 admits of wonder then that when, in 15,19, Knox was desirous of return- 

 ing to England, Queen Elizabeth's ministers would not permit him 

 to do so, and he was compelled to land at Leith. 



The Protestants in Scotland were by this time nearly equal to the 

 Roman Catholics, both in power and in number ; but their condition 

 had lately been changed somewhat for the worse. The queen-regent 



who from motives of policy h.i 1 found it desirable to conciliate and 

 unphold them, from similar motives had become their opponent and 

 oppressor ; ami many of the preachers of the ' Congregation ' (the 

 name by which the body of Protestants was then called) were 

 summoned for various causes to take their trial. It was on a day not 

 long previous to these trials that Knox returned to his country to 

 resume the labours of bis ministry ; hearing of the condition of his 

 associates, " he hurried instantly " (says Robertson, I 375) " to IVrth, 

 to share with his brethren in the common danger, or to assist them 

 in the common cause. While their minds were in that ferment which 

 the queen's perfidiousness " [she had broken a promise to stop the 

 trial], " and their own danger occasioned, he mounted the pulpit, and, 

 by a vehement harangue, against idolatry, inflamed the multitude with 

 the utmost rage." The indiscretion of a priest, who, immediately after 

 Knox's sermon, was preparing to celebrate mass, caused a violent tumult 

 The churches in the city were broken open, altars were overturned, 

 pictures defaced, images destroyed, and the monasteries levelled with 

 the ground. The insurrection, which was not the effect of any concert 

 or previous deliberation, was censured by the Reformed preachers; and 

 it affixes no blamo to the character of Knox. The queen-regent sent 

 troops to quell this rebellion ; troops were also raised by the Pro- 

 testant*, but a treaty was entered into before any blood was shed. 



The promotion of the Reformation in his own country was now 

 Knox's sole object : he was reinstated in his pulpit at St Andrews, 

 and preached there in his usual rough, vehement, zealous, and power- 

 ful manner, until the Lords of the Congregation took possession of 

 Edinburgh, where he was immediately chosen minister. His efforts 

 gave great offence and alarm to the Roman Catholic clergy, especially 

 during a circuit that he made of Scotland. Armies were maintained 

 and sent into the field by both parties, for treaties were no sooner 

 made than they were violated ; French troops again came to succour 

 the Roman Catholic clergy ; and to oppose them Knox entered into 

 correspondence with Cecil, and obtained for his party the assistance 

 of some forces from England. The ' Congregation ' however had many 

 difficulties and disasters to struggle with. A messenger whom tli-'y 

 had sent to receive a remittance of money from the English was inter- 

 cepted and rifled; their soldiers mutinied for want of pay; their 

 numbers decreased, and their arms were unsuccessful. Under these 

 circumstances it required all the zeal and the courage of Knox to 

 sustain the animation of his dispirited colleagues ; his addresses from 

 the pulpit were continual and persevering. As the treaty by which 

 the civil war was concluded made no settlement in religion, the 

 reformers found no fresh obstacle to the continuance of their efforts ; 

 and Knox resumed his office of minister iu Edinburgh. In this year 

 (1560) the queen-regent died, and in the following Queen Mary took 

 possession of the throne of Scotland; her religious opinions were 

 Roman Catholic, but she employed Protestant counsellors. The 

 preaching of Knox and his denunciations of her religious practice 

 attracted her attention. At different times he had interviews with 

 her (which at first gave rise to much speculation), but neither her 

 artifices produced much effect, nor his arguments ; so stern was he, 

 and so rough in his rebukes, that ho once drove her into tears. At 

 her instigation Kuox was accused of treason, and was tried, but the 

 whole convention of counsellors, excepting the immediate dependants 

 of the court, pronounced that he had not been guilty of any breach 

 of the laws (1563). 



Knox continued his exertions, with difficulties of different kinds 

 constantly besetting him. At one time he was prohibited from preach- 

 in, at another he was refused entrance into Edinburgh after a tem- 

 porary absence, but on the whole his influence was little impaired, and 

 his opposition to Popery successful. His health however was affected 

 by continual exertion : in 1570 he was struck with apoplexy, from 

 which he so far recovered as to renew his labours for more than a 

 year ; but in 1572 his exhausted constitution gave way, and he died 

 ou the 24th of November. He was buried iu Edinburgh, in the church 

 then called St Giles's, now the Old Church. 



Knox was twice married; first in 1553, to Marjory, daughter of Sir 

 Robert Bowes ; afterwards, in 1564, to Margaret Stewart, daughter of 

 Lord Ochiltree; he had sons only by his first marriage; they all died 

 without issue. He had three daughters by his second wife ; the 

 youngest, Mrs. Welch, appears to have been a remarkable person. 



The doctrines of Knox wore those of the English reformers, impreg- 

 nated to a considerable extent with Calvinism. His opinions respecting 

 the sacraments coincided with those of the English Protestants : he 

 preached that all sacrifices which men offered for sin were blasphem- 

 ous ; that it was incumbent to make an open profession of the doctrine 

 of Christ, and to avoid idolatry, superstition, and every way of worship 

 unauthorised by the Scriptures ; he was altogether opposed to Epis- 

 copacy. His views were more austere than those promulgated in 

 England ; and there can be little doubt that the present greater severity 

 of the Scotch Presbyterians, compared with that of the English Pro- 

 testants, is greatly attributable to this reformer. 



The opposition of Knox as well to Episcopacy ns to Papacy has 

 caused his reputation to be severely dealt with by many writers of 

 contrary opinions on these points. A most elaborate character of him 

 has been drawn at some length by Dr. M'Crie, in his ' Life of Knox,' 

 and though it may perhaps be well to inform the reader that Dr. M'Crie 

 was a rigid Presbyterian, we think it on the whole a j us t representation. 



