K N O X. 



however, and various publications, transmitted to his 

 '' native country, he greatly contributed to encourage his 

 friends, and to extend the reformed opinions ; and, 

 about the end of the year J558, he received another, 

 and more animating invitation from the Protestant 

 lords of Scotland, to join them in their struggle for the 

 religious liberties of the nation. In the beginning of 

 the following year, our reformer took leave of Geneva 

 for the last time; and, having spent some time in France, 

 landed at Leith on the 2d of May. 



His arrival struck terror into the hearts of the Po- 

 pish clergy, who instantly informed the queen-regent 

 of the event, and procured the publication of a sentence 

 of outlawry against him, which had been pronounced 

 after his former departure from the kingdom. He ne- 

 vertheless hastened, without a moment's hesitation, to 

 present himself voluntarily at Stirling, and to share in 

 the defence and danger of the Protestant preachers, 

 who were summoned to stand trial in that city. On 

 his way, he preached at Perth against the idolatry of 

 the mass, and of image- worship; when a priest having 

 imprudently attempted, as soon as the audience was 

 dismissed, to exhibit his images, and celebrate mass, the 

 indignation of the mob was excited, and, in spite of all 

 the exertions of Knox and the other preachers, the or- 

 naments of the church were trampled under foot, and 

 the monasteries of the place laid in ruins. The Pro- 

 testant lords, having resolved to commence publicly the 

 reformed worship wherever their authority extended, 

 invited Knox to meet them at St. Andrew's for this 

 purpose ; and there, in defiance of the archbishop's 

 threatening to cause the soldiers to fire upon him in the 

 pulpit, he boldly preached in the cathedral several suc- 

 cessive days, and engaged the magistrates and inhabi- 

 tants harmoniously to abolish the Popish service and 

 ceremonies. Accompanying the forces of the congre- 

 gation, he soon appeared also in the churches of Edin- 

 burgh, where a similar reformation had taken place ; 

 and accepted the invitation of the Protestant inhabi- 

 tants, assembled in the Tolbooth church, to become 

 their minister. Being soon after obliged to leave the 

 metropolis, in consequence of its occupation by the re- 

 gent's army, he undertook a tour of preaching through 

 the kingdom ; and, within less than two months, tra- 

 velled over the greater part of Scotland, diffusing the 

 knowledge, and strengthening the interests, of the Pro- 

 testant principles wherever he went. He greatly ex- 

 erted himself, by letters to Secretary Cecil, and even to 

 Queen Elizabeth, to procure assistance from England ; 

 and was invited to meet the agents of that court upon 

 the important business. He received their dispatches 

 at Berwick, and hastened to lay them before a meeting 

 of the Protestant leaders at Stirling ; whom he was the 

 principal means of urging to such a renewal of their 

 applications, as at length proved successful in securing 

 the powerful support of the English government. The 

 management of this political correspondence devolved, 

 for a time, chiefly upon his hands ; but this was a task 

 for which he had: no relish, and he expressed great sa- 

 tisfaction when he was relieved from the burden, by 

 the accession of the younger Maitland to the party of 

 the reformers. " His zeal and activity exposed him to 

 the deadly resentment . of the Papists and the queen- 

 regent. A reward was publicly offered to any one who 

 should apprehend or assassinate him ; and not a few, 

 actuated by hatred or avarice, lay in wait to seize his 

 person. But all this did not deter him from appearing 

 in public, and from travelling through the country, in 

 the discharge of hit duty. His exertions at this period 



were incredibly great. By day he was employed in 

 preaching ; by night, in writing letters on public busi- 

 ness. He was the soul of the congregation,; was al- 

 ways found at the post of danger ; and by fcis presence, 

 his public discourses, and private advices, animated the 

 whole body, and defeated the schemes employed to cor- 

 rupt and disunite them." 



He had a principal share, along with some other mi- 

 nisters, in drawing up the Confession of Faith and First 

 Book of Discipline ; and one of the six ministers who 

 assisted in the first General Assembly, in the year 1 560. 

 About the close of the year, he sustained a heavy do- 

 mestic loss by the death of his valuable wife ; and, in 

 addition to his other cares, was left with the charge of 

 two young children. By the arrival of Queen Mary, 

 he was called to new vigilance and vigour in support of 

 the reformed cause ; and had even been personally de- 

 nounced by his sovereign as the ringleader of her fac- 

 tious subjects, whom she would not fail to call to a 

 strict account. A few days after her landing, she re- 

 quired his attendance in the palace ; and held a long 

 conversation with him, in the presence of her brother 

 the prior of St. Andrew's, apparently with the hope of 

 awing him into submission by her authority, if not of 

 confounding him by her arguments. "The bold freedom, 

 however, with which he replied to all her charges, and 

 vindicated his own conduct, convinced her that the one 

 expectation was not more vain than the other ; and th 

 impression which she wished to make on him was left 

 on her own mind." It required all his energy to coun- 

 teract the influence of her arts upon the Protestant 

 nobles, and to keep alive the zeal of the nation ; and 

 some idea of his pulpit-orations may be formed from 

 the words of the English ambassador, who said of him 

 to Cecil, " the voice of one man is able, in an hour, to put 

 more life in us than aix hundred trumpets continually 

 blustering in our ears." His influence appears also 

 from his having been frequently employed in " com- 

 posing differences of a civil nature among the Protes- 

 tant nobility, and acting as mediator with the town- 

 council in behalf of the inhabitants who. had incurred 

 their displeasure. In the church of St. Giles, at that 

 time the only place of worship in Edinburgh, he per- 

 formed all the parts of ministerial duty, with the as- 

 sistance only of a reader." He preached twice every 

 Sabbath, and thrice on the other days of the week. He- 

 met regularly once every week with the kirk-session 

 for discipline, and with the assembly in the neighbour- 

 hood for the exercise on the scriptures. He attended, 

 besides, the meetings of the provincial synod and gene- 

 ral assembly ; and, at almost every meeting of the lat- 

 ter, he received an appointment to visit and preach in 

 some distant part of the country." As he did not in- 

 dulge in extemporaneous effusions, but devoted a part 

 of every day to study, those labours must have been 

 oppressive to a constitution already much impaired ; 

 and on this account the town council, with the appro- 

 bation of the assembly, appointed the Rev. John Craig', 

 minister of the Canongate, to be his colleague. Hi 

 public services daily became more extensive and im- 

 portant, and he seemed to fill the office of a Protestant 

 premier in the state, as much as the situation of a Pres- 

 byterian pastor in the church. During the rebellion 

 excited by Huntly in 1562, he contributed most essen- 

 tially by his journies, preaching, and letters, to pre- 

 serve the southern counties in a state of peace, while 

 the vigorous measures of the council crushed the insur- 

 rection in the north. He maintained a public dispu- 

 tation in the course of the same year, in the town of 



