KNOX. 



477 



Knar, that he was seized with a fever, which reduced him to 

 mf ^f^ the greatest extremity. But even in this state of de- 

 pression, his fortitude of mind remained unsubdued, 

 and he comforted his fellow prisoners with the most 

 animating hopes of release. When free from fever, he 

 relieved the tedious hours of captivity, by committing 

 to paper a confession of his faith, which he found means 

 to convey to his religious friends in Scotland, accompa- 

 nied with an earnest exhortation, to persevere undaunt- 

 ed in the faith which they had professed. 



After enduring a severe and tedious imprisonment of 

 nineteen months, he was at length set at liberty, in the 

 month of February, 1549, according to the modern 

 computation ; and immediately repaired to England, 

 where he was immediately noticed by the English 

 council, and sent down as a Protestant preacher to Ber- 

 wick. During the two years that he continued in this 

 place, he gained numerous converts from the errors of 

 1'opery ; and triumphantly maintained, before Bishop 

 Tonstal of Durham, his charge of idolatry against the 

 sacrifice of the mass. In 1551, he was removed to 

 Newcastle j and, about the end of the same year, was 

 appointed by the privy council one of king Edward's 

 chaplains in ordinary. About this time he was consult- 

 ed respecting the Book o/ Common Prayer, which was 

 undergoing a revisal ; arid was employed also in revi- 

 sing the Article* o/ Religion, previously to their ratifi- 

 cation by parliament. In this commission he had the 

 influence to procure an important change in the com- 

 munion office, by completely excluding the notion of 

 the corporeal presence of Christ in the sacrament, and 

 guarding against the adoration of the elements, which 

 was so much countenanced by the practice of kneeling 

 at their reception. About the end of the year 1554, he 

 was summoned to London, in consequence of certain 

 charges against him by the popish faction ; but was 

 honourably acquitted by the council, and employed to 

 preach before the court. He acquired much favour 

 with the young king, who first procured for him a pre- 

 sentation to the vacant living of All-Hallo**, in the 

 city, and afterwards, with the concurrence of the privy 

 council, offered him a bishopric ; but he declined both 

 of these promotions, in consequence of his disapproval 

 of many points in the worship and government of the 

 English church. Alter the accession of Mary, he con- 

 tinued to preach for some time in the southern coun- 

 ties ; bat wa* at length reduced to the necessity of 

 jsehlna safety by flight ; and, having procured a vessel 

 through the good offices of his friends, he landed at 

 Dieppe, on the 28th of January, 1554. A short time 

 liefore his departure from England, he married Miss 

 Marjory Bowes; a young lady of honourable family, to 

 whom he had become attached during his first resi- 

 dence at Berwick, but whom he was obliged to leave 

 behind him in that city, with her mother. 



( >ne of his first eves, after arriving at Dieppe, was 

 to employ hi* pen in writing suitable advices to those, 

 whom he could, no longer instruct by his sermons or 

 conversation ; and, with this view, he transmitted to 

 England a practical exposition of the sixth psalm, and 

 long letter addressed to his former hearers in Lon- 

 don, and other parts of the kingdom. He then travel- 

 led through France towards Switzerland, without any 

 settled plans or prospect* ; and spent some time in con- 

 ferring with the most eminent divines of the Helvetic 

 dMrcnes, by whom he was treated with the most af- 

 fectionate hospitality. After a short visit to Dieppe, 

 he purpose of receiving information from England, 

 he repaired to Geneva, where he speedily formed an 



intimate friendship with Calvin, and fixed his ordinary 

 residence during the continuance of his exile. About 

 the end of the year, he published his Admonitions to 

 England ; and, though now nearly 50 years of age, ap. 

 plied himself to the study of the Hebrew language, 

 which he had not previously enjoyed any opportunity 

 of acquiring. While thus engaged in the prosecution 

 of his studies at Geneva, and supported principally by 

 remittances from his friends in England and Scotland, 

 he was invited to become one of the pastors of a con- 

 gregation of English refugees in Frankfort on the 

 Maine, who had been permitted to use the place of 

 worship allotted to the French Protestants in that city, 

 upon condition of their conforming, as much as possi- 

 ble, to the mode of worship used by the French re- 

 formers. But a short time after his settlement in that 

 office, Dr. Cox, who had been preceptor to Edward VI. 

 having arrived at Frankfort with some other English 

 exiles, they insisted upon introducing their own liturgy 

 into the congregation ; and employed such crafty ma- 

 chinations to render our reformer obnoxious to the Ger- 

 man government, that he was obliged again to seek a 

 refuge in Geneva. Soon after his return, he received 

 such information from Scotland, as encouraged him to 

 revisit his native country, where he landed in the 

 month of August, 1555; and, after remaining some 

 time with his wife and her mother at Berwick, he set 

 out secretly to visit the Protestants in Edinburgh. 

 Here he found a number of the reformers assembled 

 from different parts of the country, with whom he con- 

 tinued longer than he had intended, preaching in a 

 private house to successive assemblies with little inter- 

 mission. He particularly exerted himself, and not 

 without success, to accomplish a formal separation from 

 the Popish church, by persuading the reformers to ab- 

 stain from attendance on its public rites, to which they 

 had hitherto confornud. He accompanied several of 

 the Protestant gentlemen to their country residences, 

 where he preached almost daily to the neighbouring 

 nobility anil gentry ; and was, particularly, the guest of 

 Sir James Sandilands, at Calder House of the Earl of 

 (ilcncaim, at Finlayston and of Erskine of Dun, in 

 Angus-shire ; where the greater part of the gentlemen 

 of the M earns made profession of the reformed religion, 

 and entered into a mutual bond, or covenant, for its 

 furtherance and support. In consequence of these pro- 

 ceedings, he was summoned to appear before a conven- 

 tion of the clergy at Edinburgh ; whither he repaired, 

 before the day appointed, accompanied by Erskine of 

 Dun, and several other friends of distinction ; but his 

 adversaries, afraid to encounter a meeting which they 

 did not expect he would dare to give them, deserted 

 the diet, and left him undisturbed in his daily instruc- 

 tions to large audiences, in the midst of the city. While 

 he was thus employed in Scotland, he received letters 

 from the English congregation at Geneva, urging him 

 to become one of their pastors ; and, alter visiting his 

 Protestant friends in the dillcrvnt places where he had 

 preached, he repaired to that place with his wife and 

 mother-in-law, in the month of July, 1556. 



Here he spent two of the most peaceful years of his 

 life ; and enjoyed all the comforts of literary society, 

 domestic happiness, and ministerial success. All these 

 personal advantages he sliev. ,-d himself ready to forsake, 

 upon receiving encouraging letters from Scotland ; and 

 actually set out, in the autumn of 1557, on his way to 

 that country, when he was met on his journey by such 

 unfavourable accounts, as determined him to remain 

 some time longer on the continent. By his letters 



Knos. 



