The Manuscript of the HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION which has been followed
in this edition, fully confirms the preceding statements regarding the
period of its composition. It also serves to shew that no suppressions
or alterations had been made by his friends, after his death, in these
Four Books. Such an intention is alluded to, in a letter, dated from
Stirling, 6th August 1572, and addressed to Randolph, by George
Buchanan:--"As to MAISTER KNOX, his HISTORIE is in hys freindes handes,
and thai ar in consultation to mitigat sum part the acerbite of certain
wordis, and sum taunts wherein he has followit too muche sum of your
Inglis writaris, as M. Hal. et suppilatorem ejus Graftone, &c." The
Manuscript contains Four Books, transcribed by several hands, and at
different intervals. Notwithstanding this diversity of hand-writing,
there is every reason to believe that the most considerable part of the
volume was written in the year 1566, although it is not improbable that
in the Second and Third Books a portion of the original MS. of 1559 may
have been retained. The marginal notes, which specify particular dates,
chiefly refer to the years 1566, or 1567, and they leave no doubt in
regard to the actual period when the bulk of the MS. was written, as
those bearing the date 1567 are clearly posterior to the transcription
of the pages where they occur. Some of these notes, as well as a number
of minute corrections, are evidently in Knox's own hand; but the latter
part of Book Fourth could not have been transcribed until the close of
the year 1571. This is proved by the circumstance that the words, "BOT
WNTO THIS DAY, THE 17. OF DECEMBER 1571," form an integral part of the
text, near the foot of fol. 359, in "The Ressonyng betuix the Maister of
Maxwell and John Knox." The whole of this section indeed is written
somewhat hastily, like a scroll-copy, probably by Richard Bannatyne, his
Secretary, from dictation; but whether it was merely rewritten in 1571,
or first added in that year to complete Book Fourth, must be left to
conjecture.