John Knox's House--History of the Reformer--His
Character--Carlyle's View--Testimony of John Milton.
Let us now descend from the Castle, and, passing down High Street, turn
to the left, at the head of the Nether-bow, where we shall see the house
of that stern but glorious old reformer, John Knox. There it is, looking
mean enough now among those miserable gin-shops, paint-shops, and so
forth; yet hallowed by the recollections of the past. Over the door is
an inscription, invisible from the numerous sign-boards that cover it,
containing the spirit and essence of that lofty Puritanism which Knox
preached:
"LUFE . GOD . ABOVE . ALL . AND . YOUR . NICHBOUR . AS . YOURSELF."
In this house Knox lived many years; here also he died in holy triumph;
and from that little window he is said frequently to have addressed the
populace. A rude stone effigy of the Reformer may be seen at the corner,
and near it, cut in the stone, the name of God, in Greek, Latin, and
English. It is gratifying to know that measures have recently been taken
to erect a monument to Knox, near this spot, which shall be worthy of
his memory.
The character of Knox has been terribly blackened by heartless and
infidel historians, and especially by sickly sentimentalists of the
Werter school. Nevertheless, he was a noble-hearted, truth-loving,
sham-hating, God-fearing, self-sacrificing man; a hero in the proper
sense of the word, a minister of righteousness, an angel of Reform. Not,
indeed, a soft, baby-faced, puling sentimentalist; but a lofty,
iron-hearted man, who "never feared the face of clay," and did God's
will, in spite of devils, popes, and kings. His history possesses the
deepest and most romantic interest. It is one of the most magnificent
passages in Scottish story. Bruce battled for a crown; Knox battled for
the truth. Both conquered, after long toils and struggles; and conquered
mainly by the might of their single arm. But the glory which irradiates
the head of the Reformer far outshines that of the hero of Bannockburn,
for the latter is earthly and evanescent; the former celestial and
immortal.
John Knox was born in Haddington, not far from Edinburgh, of poor but
honest parents, in the year 1505; grew up in solitude; was destined for
the church; received a thorough collegiate education; became an honest
friar; wore the monk's cowl for many years; adopted silently and
unostentatiously the principles of the Protestant Reformation; spent
much of his time in teaching, and in the prosecution of liberal studies,
of which he was considered a master; was suddenly and unexpectedly
called, at St. Andrews, by the unanimous voice of his brethren, to the
preaching of the Word, and the defence of their religious liberties;
after a brief struggle with himself yielded to the call, nobly threw
himself into the breach, at the hazard of his life, attacked "Papal
idolatry" with unsparing vigor, was seized by the authorities, and sent
a prisoner to France in 1547, where he worked in the galleys as a slave,
but evermore maintaining his lofty courage and cheerful hope; was set at
liberty two years afterwards; preached in England in the time of Edward
the Sixth; refused a bishopric from the best of kings; retired to the
continent at the accession of Mary, residing chiefly at Geneva and
Frankfort; returned to Scotland in 1555; labored with indomitable
perseverance to establish Protestantism; rebuked the great for
immorality, profaneness and rapacity, and succeeded in greatly
strengthening the cause of truth and freedom. At the earnest
solicitation of the English congregation in Geneva, he went thither a
second time; there he published "The First Blast of the Trumpet against
the Monstrous Regiment (Government) of Women," directed principally
against Mary, Queen of England, and Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland,
two narrow-minded miserable despots; returned to Scotland in 1559;
continued his exertions in behalf of Christ's truth; did much to
establish common schools; finally saw Protestantism triumphant in
Scotland; and died in 1572, so poor that his family had scarce
sufficient to bury him, but with the universal love and homage of his
countrymen, a conscience void of offence, and a hope full of
immortality. "He had a sore fight of an existence; wrestling with popes
and principalities; in defeat, contention, life-long struggle; rowing as
a galley-slave, wandering as an exile. A sore fight, but he won it.
'Have you hope?' they asked him in his last moment when he could no
longer speak. He lifted his finger, 'pointed upwards with his finger,'
and so died. Honor to him! His works have not died. The letter of his
work dies, as of all men's; but the spirit of it never."[13]
[Footnote 13: Carlyle--"Hero Worship," p. 174.]
Knox has been much abused for his violent treatment of Queen Mary. His
addresses and appeals to her have been characterized as impudent and
cruel; but, thoroughly inspected, they will be found the reverse. Strong
and startling they were, but neither impudent nor cruel. Doubtless they
fell upon her ear like the tones of some old prophet, sternly rebuking
sin, or vindicating the rights of God. Mary was a woman of matchless
beauty; and had she been educated differently, might have blessed the
world with the mild lustre of her Scottish reign; but she was the dupe
of bad counsels, in spirit and practice a despot, the plaything of
passion, and the reckless opposer of the best interests of her country.
Her beauty and sufferings have shed a false lustre over her character;
above all, have aided in concealing the terrible stain of infidelity to
her marriage vows, and the implied murder of her wretched husband,
charges which her apologists can extenuate, but not deny. But, forsooth,
it is an insufferable thing for a plain honest-hearted man like John
Knox to tell the truth to such an one! She was young, beautiful,
fascinating; and however recklessly, madly, ruinously wrong, he must
not advise her--above all, must not warn her! Now, such a notion may
possibly commend itself to your "absolute gentlemen, of very soft
society, full of most excellent differences and great showing; indeed,
to speak feelingly of them, who are the card and calendar of gentry;"
but it cannot be imposed upon our plain common sense. Mary was a queen,
however, and John Knox a poor plebeian! Aye, aye! that is a difficulty!
Kings and queens may do what they please. The people are made for them,
not they for the people. And sure enough it is a vulgar thing to oppose
them in their ambitious schemes, or to tell them the honest truth
be-times! Poor John Knox! thou must fall down and worship "a painted
bredd" after all. A beautiful queen must be spared, if Scotland should
perish. But looking at the matter from the free atmosphere of New
England, we maintain that John Knox was of higher rank than Mary Queen
of Scots. He was more true, more heroic, more kingly, than all the race
of the Stuarts. He had a right, in God's name, to speak the truth, "to
reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all long-suffering." Hence, though his
words were stern and appalling, they were uttered with a kind and
generous intention. "Madame," said Knox, when he saw Mary burst into
tears from vexation and grief, "in God's presence I speak; I never
delighted in the weeping of any of God's creatures, yea, _I can scarcely
well abide the tears of mine own boys_, when mine own hands correct
them, much less can I rejoice in your Majesty's weeping; but seeing I
have offered unto you no just occasion to be offended, I must sustain
your Majesty's tears, rather than I dare hurt my conscience, or betray
the commonwealth by silence."
Yes, he was a stern old puritan, a lion of a man, who made terrible
havoc among the "painted bredds" of Popery, and turned back the fury of
wild barons and persecuting priests. "His single voice," says Randolph,
"could put more life into a host than six hundred blustering trumpets."
Single handed, he met the rage of a disappointed government and an
infuriated priesthood, and conquered by the silent might of his
magnanimous audacity. In the wildest whirl of contending emotion, he
never lost sight of the great end of his being, as a servant of God, nor
swerved a hair's breadth from truth and right.
Yet this stern old Covenanter was not without a touch of gentleness and
even of hilarity. He loved his home, his children, and his friends. An
honest, quiet laugh often mantled his pale earnest visage. "They go far
wrong," says Carlyle, whose thorough appreciation of such men as Luther,
Cromwell, and Knox, is truly refreshing amid the vapid inanities or
coarse prejudices of ordinary historians, "who think that Knox was a
gloomy, spasmodic, shrieking fanatic. Not at all. He is one of the
solidest of men. Practical, cautious, hopeful, patient; a most shrewd,
observing, quietly discerning man. In fact, he has very much the type of
character we assign to the Scotch at present: a certain sardonic
taciturnity is in him; insight enough; and a stouter heart than he
himself knows of. * * An honest-hearted, brotherly man; brother to the
high, brother also to the low; sincere in his sympathy with both."
Knox, doubtless, had his faults; and what of that? He made some
mistakes! and what, too, of that? Was he not a true man, and a true
minister of God's Word? Did he not accomplish a great and beneficial
work of Reform; and, having done this, did he not die a sweet and
triumphant death? God has set his seal upon him, and upon his work; and
that is enough for us.
We hesitate not, with Carlyle, to name the Reformation under Knox as the
great era in Scottish history, as the one glorious event which gave life
to the nation. Thence resulted freedom, activity, purity of morals,
science, national and individual greatness. Previous to this event
Scotland possessed only a rough, tumultuous physical life; her
politics--dissensions and executions; her religion--a puerile
superstition;--her literature--ballads and monkish legends; her
joy--hunting, fighting, and drinking! But the Reformation breathed into
her the breath of a spiritual existence. Her national prosperity dates
from that era. Thence proceeded faith and order, education, industry,
and wealth. "It was not a smooth business; but it was welcome surely,
and cheap at that price, had it been far rougher. On the whole, cheap at
any price, as life is. The people began to _live_; they needed first of
all to _do that_, at what cost and costs soever. Scottish literature and
thought, Scotch industry, James Watt, David Hume, Walter Scott, Robert
Burns. I find Knox and the Reformation acting in the heart's core of
every one of these persons and phenomena; I find that, without the
Reformation, they would not have been. Or what of Scotland? The
Puritanism of Scotland became that of England, of New England. A tumult
in the High Church of Edinburgh spread into a universal battle and
struggle over all these realms; and there came out of it, after fifty
years' struggling, what we all call 'the Glorious Revolution,' a Habeas
Corpus Act, Free Parliaments, and much else."
It has become fashionable of late, in certain quarters, to undervalue
the Reformation, and contemn those great and rugged spirits by whom it
was accomplished. A sentimental, baby-hearted, superstition-smitten
generation, cannot appreciate those mighty men, and mightier reforms of
the olden time. But how well and worthily does the large-hearted and
ethereal Milton speak of it: "When I recall to mind, at last, after so
many dark ages, wherein the huge over-shadowing train of error had
almost swept all the stars out of the firmament of the church; how the
bright and blissful Reformation, by Divine power, struck through the
black and settled night of ignorance and anti-Christian tyranny,
methinks a sovereign and reviving joy must needs rush into the bosom of
him that reads or hears, and the sweet odor of the returning Gospel
imbathe his soul with the fragrancy of Heaven. Then was the sacred Bible
sought out of the dusty corners, where profane falsehood and neglect
had thrown it, the schools opened, divine and human learning raked out
of the embers of forgotten tongues; the princes and cities trooping
apace to the new-erected banner of salvation; the martyrs, with the
unresistible might of weakness, shaking the powers of darkness, and
scorning the fiery rage of the red old dragon."[14] A noble testimony
like this far outweighs all the cant of a whining sentimentalism. Its
truth, as well as its eloquence, all must admit.
[Footnote 14: "Of Reformation in England." By John Milton.]