K N O X. 



479 



Maybole, against Quintin Kennedy, uncle to the Earl 

 of C'assilis and Abbot of Crosraguel. He employed all 

 his influence, without success, to induce the Parliament, 

 which met in the summer of 1563, to ratify the treaty 

 made in July 15'JO, and to secure the establishment of 

 the Protestant religion. Having failed in this object, 

 he laboured to prevent any farther injury to the cause, 

 by publicly protesting against the queen's marriage with 

 any person of popish sentiments, and sustained unmoved 

 all her indignation on account of this interference. He 

 wrote a circular letter, (agreeable to his commission 

 from the church,) to the principal gentlemen of the 

 Protestant persuasion, requesting their presence in 

 Edinburgh to counteract the oppressive measures of 

 Mary against certain individuals, who had insulted her 

 priest at Hoiyrood-house during her absence. This 

 appli -ilion was pronounced by the privy-council to be 

 treasonable ; and Knox was summoned to stand trial 

 for the offence before an extraordinary convention of 

 the counsellors and other noblemen. In spite of all the 

 artifices employed to prevail upon him to acknowledge 

 his error, and throw himself on the queen's mercy, he 

 boldly determined to encounter the storm ; and wag 

 triumphantly acquitted of the charge, as well as com- 

 mended for his demeanour before the court. 



In March I5G4, he contracted a second marriage with 

 Margaret Stewart, daughter of Lord Ochiltree, a noble- 

 man of amiable dispositions, who had long been a fa- 

 miliar and stedfast adherent of the reformer. In the 

 same year, he defended, against all the acuteness of 

 Secretary Maitland, in a long conference before the 

 General Assembly, the liberties of the pulpit, and the 

 doctrine of the resistance to wicked and tyrannical 

 rulen ; and continuing, in full conformity with his avow- 

 ed principle*, to preach with the utmost freedom in 

 the church of St. Giles, he gave so much offence to the 

 king, (Lord Darnleyj that an attempt was made to 

 inhibit him from preaching as long as their majesties 

 resided in the capital. This was resolutely resisted by 

 the town-council ; but after the murder of Rizzio, and 

 the banishment of many of the Protestant lords, he was 

 obliged to withdraw from the violence of the queen's 

 resentment, and embraced this opportunity of pay ing a 

 visit to his two sons, who had been sent to reside with 

 their mother's relations in England. He endeavoured 

 to render this journey subservient to the great cause 

 which engaged his whole heart, by carrying a letter 

 from the Assembly to the bishops and miniiters of 

 England, interceding for lenity to such of their brethren 

 as scrupled to use the sacerdotal dress enjoined by the 

 laws. He returned to his charge about the time of the 

 queen's flight with Both well to Dunbar ; and was de- 

 legated by the General Assembly to repair to the west 

 country, for the purpose of persuading the Hamiltons 

 to join the confederated lords, in settling the distracted 

 affairs of the kingdom. On the 29th of July 1 567, he 

 preached the sermon at the coronation of James VI. in 

 the parish church of Stirling ; and was among the num- 

 ber of those, who strongly urged the trial of Mary for 

 the alleged murder of her husband, and adulterous con- 

 nection with BothwelL He did not fail, at the meeting 

 of parliament at the end of the year, to urge the ratifi- 

 cation of all the acts passed in 1560, in favour of the 

 Protestant religion ; and was appointed one of the com- 

 missioners for drawing out the particular points, which 

 pertained to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, to be presented 

 to next meeting of parliament " Our reformer had now 

 readied that point, from which he could take a calm 

 and deliberate tiew of the bustling scene through which 



he had passed, and of the arduous struggle, which he Knot. 

 had been so long engaged in, and which he had at """""V" 

 length brought to a happy termination." " He now 

 congratulated himself on the prospect of being released 

 from all burden of public affairs, and of spending the 

 remainder of his days in religious meditation." " He 

 even secretly cherished the wish of resigning his charge 

 in Edinburgh, and of retiring to that privacy from 

 which he had been drawn at the commencement of the 

 Scottish reformation." But he had yet to undergo far- 

 ther trials of a public nature, and to see the security of 

 the reformed religion endangered, and the peace of his 

 country disturbed, by a civil war among the Protestants 

 themselves. It is impossible to describe the anguish 

 which he experienced at the assassination of the good 

 regent Murray ; and the grief, which he indulged on 

 account of this mournful event, preyed so deeply on his 

 spirits, as to inflict a serious injury on his health. In 

 the month of October 1 .570, he had a stroke of apoplexy, 

 which affected his speech to a considerable degree; 

 and, though in a few days he was able to resume his 

 duty of preaching, he never recovered from the debility 

 produced by the attack. But, though so much weak- 

 ened in body, that he never went abroad except on 

 Sabbath days to the pulpit; yet, whenever he saw the 

 welfare of the church and commonwealth threatened, 

 he entered into the cause with all the keenness of his 

 more vigorous days. 



His situation became very critical in April 1571, when 

 Kirkcaldy, the governor of Edinburgh Castle, who had 

 gone over to the queen's party, received the Hamiltons 

 into the garrison ; and their inveteracy against him was 

 so great, that his friends were obliged to watch his 

 house during the night. Intimations were often given 

 him of threatening* against his life ; and, one evening, 

 a musket ball was fired into the window of the apart- 

 ment in which he was sitting. At the earnest entreaties 

 of his friends, who declared their determination, if he 

 ihould be attacked, to shed their blond in his defence, 

 he reluctantly withdrew to St. Andrew's ; where he con- 

 tinned with undiminished boldness to denounce tha 

 enemies of the reformed faith, and to withstand the 

 encroachments made by its false friends upon the po- 

 lity and revenues of the church. " While he was en- 

 gaged in these contests, his bodily strength was every 

 day sensibly decaying ; yet he continued to preach, al- 

 though unable to walk to the pulpit without assistance ; 

 and when warmed with his subject, he forgot his weak- 

 ness, and electrified the audience with his eloquence." 

 During bis stay at St Andrew's, be published a vin- 

 dication of the reformed religion, in answer to a letter 

 written to a Scots Jesuit, called Tyrie; and seemed to 

 have intended this work as a dying testimony to the 

 truth, which he had long taught and defended. From 

 the rapid decline of his health, in spring 1572, there 

 was every appearance of his ending his days at St. 

 Andrew's; but, in consequence of a cessation of hosti- 

 lities, he was invited to resume his charge at Edin- 

 burgh, where he arrived about the end of August, and 

 continued his public labours till the 9th of November 

 following. On that day, he presided at the installation 

 of Mr. Lawson as his colleague and successor, and ne- 

 ver again left his own house. On the 1 1th of the same 

 month, he was seized with a severe cough, which great- 

 ly affected his breathing ; but was able to see and ad- 

 dress his friends till within a few hours of his death. 

 Persons of every rank came in great numbers to visit 

 him during his illness, none of whom he suffered to go 

 away without exhortations, which he uttered with such 



