838 K N 
was determined to obey, having received a promife of 
fupport from feveral noblemen and gentlemen of diftinc- 
tion; but, when the bilkops perceived how formidable the 
party was which refolved to ftand by him, they thought 
proper to drop the profecution. However, Knox went to 
Edinburgh on the day appointed in the fummons, and 
preached to a more numerous audience than had ever at¬ 
tended him there before ; and this he continued to do 
twice a-day, for ten days fucceffively. In the courfe of 
this month he wasperfuaded to write to the queen regent 
an earned letter, to perfuade her, if poffible, to hear the 
proteftant dodtrine. The queen read the letter, and then 
gave it to James Beaton, archbifhop of Glafgow, with this 
larcafm : “ Pleafe you, my lord, to read a pafquil ?” 
This gave occalion to Mr. Knox to make fome additions 
to his letter, which were printed with it at Geneva in 
1558. 
While our reformer was thus occupied in Scotland, he 
received letters from the Englilh congregation at Geneva, 
earneftly foliciting him to return to them; and having re¬ 
folved, after ferious deliberation, to comply with their re- 
queft, he left Scotland, on his paffage to Dieppe, in July 
1556. No fooner had he taken his departure, than the 
biffiops l'ummoned him to appear before them; and, upon 
liis non-appearance, they palled a lentence of death upon 
him as a heretic, and burnt him in effigy at the crofs of 
Edinburgh. Againft this fentence he drew up, and af¬ 
terwards printed at Geneva, in 1558, his “Appellation 
from the cruel and moll: unjuft Sentence pronounced upon 
him by the falfe Biihops and Clergy of Scotland; with his 
Supplication to the Nobility, Eftates, and Commonality, 
of the faid Realm;” which contains a mafterly defence of 
religious independence, and is diftinguiflied for elegance 
and purity of ftyle. In the year 1557, feveral of the lead¬ 
ers of the proteftants in Scotland, conlidering their caufe 
to be in a good polture, and fenfible of the uiefulnefs and 
weight of Mr. Knox in promoting it, fent him an exprefs, 
earneftly defiring him to return home. Elaving confulted 
with Calvin, and other worthy minifters, who gave it as 
their decided opinion that his duty to God and to his 
country demanded his acceptance of their invitation, he 
•wrote word back by the fame meffengers who brought the 
letter, that he would come to them with all reafonable 
expedition; and, after providing for his congregation at 
Geneva, he proceeded as far as Dieppe on his way to 
Scotland. At this place, however, he met with other 
letters from the fame parties, informing him that they had 
entered into new confultations, and advifing him to ftay 
at Dieppe till the conclufion of them. At the fame time 
be was given to underftand, through another channel, 
that many of thofe who had joined in the invitation to 
him, had fhown figns of irrefolution and timidity, which 
afforded f'mall hope of their firm fupport in any arduous 
crifis. Upon receiving this information, Mr. Knox wrote 
to the lords who had invited him, expoftulating with them 
«n their precipitancy in calling upon him to abandon his 
charge at Geneva, and to proceed fo far homewards, only 
to fill him with grief and ftiame at their want of courage 
and conftancy in the caufe of God and of their country; 
and at the fame denouncing the fevere judgments of God 
on all who fliould contribute to betray it by their weak- 
nefs or apoftacy. He alfo wrote letters to feveral others 
of the nobility, and to profeffors of the reformed religion 
in inferior ranks of life, exhorting them to fteadinels and 
perfeverance in maintaining the principles which they 
bad avowed, and in contending for their complete deli¬ 
verance from idolatry and fpiritual tyranny. Thefe let¬ 
ters produced fuch an impreffion on thofe to whom they 
were addreffed, that they, one and all, entered into a refo- 
lution, “that they would follow forth their purpofe, and 
commit themfelves, and whatever God had given them, 
into his hands, rather than fuffer idolatry to reign, and the 
fubjefts be defrauded of the only food of their fouls.” To 
fecure each other’s fidelity to the proteftant caufe, a com¬ 
mon bond, or covenant, was entered into by them, dated 
O X. 
at Edinburgh, December 3, 1357: and from this period 
they were diftinguilhed by the name of the Congrega¬ 
tion. 
In the mean time, Knox had returned to Geneva, where, 
in 1558, he publiihed his treatife, entitled, “The firft 
Biaft of the Trumpet againft the monftrous Regiment of 
Women ;” in which he difplays more erudition, and a 
greater compafs of reading, than in any other of his pro¬ 
ductions, and endeavours to prove, that it was againft na¬ 
ture, and contrary to feripture and reafon, to entruft wo¬ 
men with the government of ftates or kingdoms. He was 
chiefly induced to write it, from his deteftation of the 
cruel and bloody government of queen Mary of England, 
and of the endeavours of the queen-regent of Scotland to 
eftablifh arbitrary government in that kingdom. He in¬ 
tended to have publiihed a fubfequent piece on the fame 
fubjeft, which was to have been called, “ The fecond 
Biaft:” but queen Mary dying, foon after the appearance 
of the firft, and he having great expectations of advantage 
to the proteftant caufe from the acceflion of Elizabeth to 
the throne, went no farther. That princefs, however, 
was fo difgufted with what he had written againft the go¬ 
vernment of women, that (lie embraced an early opportu¬ 
nity of difplaying her refentment againft him. In 1559, 
Knox determined to return to his native country ; and, 
being defirous of vifiting, in his way thither, thofe in 
England, to whom he had formerly preached, he applied 
to his old acquaintance fir William Cecil, then fecretary 
of ftate, to obtain leave for that purpofe. But, owing to 
the queen’s prejudices againft him, that requeft was fo far 
from being granted, that the perl'on whom he had em¬ 
ployed to lolicit the favour very narrowly efcaped impri- 
fonment. He made the belt of his way, therefore, to Scot¬ 
land, without landing in any part of England ; and ar¬ 
rived in that kingdom in May 1559. A Ihort time before 
this, the public exercife of the proteftant religion had 
been introduced into the town of Perth. This ltep fired 
the queen-regent with indignation; who, in fubferviency 
to the political plans of her brothers the princes of Lor¬ 
raine, had come to the refolution of extirpating the re¬ 
formed religion out of the kingdom. She, therefore, de¬ 
termined immediately to commence her meafures for that 
purpofe, and ill'ued a mandate fummoning all the proteft¬ 
ant preachers in the kingdom to a court of juftice, which' 
was to be held at Sterling on the 10th of May. Though 
this procedure alarmed, yet it did not intimidate, the pro¬ 
teftants; and they refoived not to abandon the men to 
whom they were indebted for the moll: valuable of all 
bleffings, the knowledge of the truth. In conformity, 
therefore, to a cuftom which prevailed at that time in- 
Scotland, of the friends and adherents to perfons accufed 
of any crime alfembling together from every part of the 
kingdom, and accompanying them to the place of trial * 
the reformed convened, in great numbers, to attend their 
pallors to Stirling. The queen dreaded their approach 
with fo numerous a train ; and in order to prevent them 
from advancing, (he empowered a perl'on of eminent au¬ 
thority with them, to promile in her name, that Ihe would; 
put a Hop to the intended trial, on condition that the 
preachers and their retinue advanced qo nearer to Stir¬ 
ling. The proteftants, averfe to proceeding to any a 61 of 
violence, liltened with pleafure to fo pacific a proposition ; 
and the great mafs of them retired to their own habita¬ 
tions, while only the preachers, with a few leaders of the 
party, remained at Perth. 
Notwithftanding the queen’s folemn promife, however, 
on the 10th of May file proceeded to call to trial the per¬ 
fons who had been fummoned, and, upon their non-ap¬ 
pearance, they w'ere pronounced outlaws. By this bafe 
and mean artifice, the queen forfeited the efteem and con¬ 
fidence of the whole nation; but at the fame time, by dif- 
covering to the proteftants the dangers which threatened 
them, inltead of terrifying them into tame fubmiffion, Ihe 
excited them to prepare boldly for their own defence. 
Knox had arrived in Scotland a few days before the trial 
appointed 
