he often irritated by the plainness and severity of his language,
the letter to the queen regent is very far from being uncourtly or
inelegant. It seems to have been written with great care, and in
point of style may be compared with any composition of that period,
for simplicity and forcible expression.[274] Its strain was well
calculated for stimulating {186} the enquiries, and confirming
the resolutions, of one who was impressed with a conviction of
the reigning evils in the church, or who, though not resolved in
judgment as to the matters in controversy, was determined to preserve
moderation between the contending parties. Notwithstanding her
imposing manners, the regent was not a person of this description.
The earl of Glencairn delivered the letter into her hand; she glanced
over it with a careless air, and gave it to the archbishop of Glasgow,
saying, “Please you, my lord, to read a pasquil.”[275] The report
of this induced Knox, after he retired from Scotland, to publish the
letter, with additions. The style of the additions is more spirited
and sharp than that of the original letter; but there is nothing
even in them which is indecorous, or which will warrant the charge
which has been brought against him of being accustomed to treat
crowned heads with irreverence and disrespect. “As charitie,” says
he, “persuadeth me to interpret thinges doubtfully spoken in the best
sence, so my dutie to God (who hath commanded me to flatter no prince
in the earth) compelleth me to say, that if no more ye esteme the
admonition of God nor the cardinalles do the scoffing of pasquilles,
then he shall schortly send you messagers, with whom ye shall not be
able on that maner {187} to jest.――I did not speak unto you, madame,
by my former lettre, nether yet do I now, as Pasquillus doth to the
pope, in behalf of such as dare not utter their names; but I come,
in the name of Jesus Christ, affirming that the religion which ye
maintain is damnable idolatrie: the which I offre myselfe to prove
by the most evident testimonies of Goddis scriptures. And, in this
quarrelle, I present myself againste all the papistes within the
realme, desireing none other armore but Goddis holie word, and the
libertie of my tonge.”[276]
While he was thus employed in Scotland, he received letters from the
English congregation at Geneva, stating that they had made choice
of him as one of their pastors, and urging him to come and take the
inspection of them.[277] He judged it his duty to comply with this
invitation, and began immediately to prepare for the journey. His
wife and mother‑in‑law had by this time joined him at Edinburgh; and
Mrs Bowes, being now a widow, resolved to accompany Mrs Knox and her
husband to Geneva. Having sent them before him in a vessel to Dieppe,
Knox again visited and took his leave of the brethren in the different
places where he had preached. He was conducted, by his friend Campbell
of Kineancleuch, to the earl of Argyle, and preached for some days
at {188} his seat of Castle Campbell.[278] That aged nobleman appears
to have received durable impressions from the instructions of the
Reformer. He resisted all the arts which the clergy afterwards
employed to detach him from the protestant interest, and on his
death‑bed laid a solemn charge upon his son to use his utmost
influence for its preservation and advancement. Argyle, and Glenorchy,
who was also a hearer of Knox, endeavoured to detain him in Scotland,
but without success. “If God so blessed their small beginnings,” he
said, “that they continued in godliness, whensoever they pleased to
command him, they should find him obedient. But once he must needs
visit that little flock, which the wickedness of men had compelled him
to leave.” Accordingly, in the month of July 1556, he left Scotland,
and having joined his family at Dieppe, proceeded along with them to
Geneva.[279]
No sooner did the clergy understand that he had quitted the kingdom,
than they, in a dastardly manner, renewed the summons against him
which they had deserted during his presence, and, upon his failing to
appear, passed sentence against him, adjudging his body to the flames,
and his soul to damnation. As his person was out of their reach, they
caused his effigy to be ignominiously burned at the cross of Edinburgh.
Against this sentence he drew up his Appellation, which he afterwards
published, with a {189} supplication and exhortation, directed to the
nobility and commonalty of Scotland. It may not be improper here to
subjoin the summary which he gave in this treatise of the doctrine
taught by him during his late visit to Scotland, which the clergy
pronounced so execrable, and deserving of such horrible punishment. He
taught, that there is no other name by which men can be saved but that
of Jesus, and that all reliance on the merits of others is vain and
delusive; that the Saviour having by his one sacrifice sanctified and
reconciled to God those who should inherit the promised kingdom, all
other sacrifices which men pretend to offer for sin are blasphemous;
that all men ought to hate sin, which is so odious before God that
no sacrifice but the death of his Son could satisfy for it; that they
ought to magnify their heavenly Father, who did not spare him who is
the substance of his glory, but gave him up to suffer the ignominious
and cruel death of the cross for us; and that those who have been
washed from their former sins are bound to lead a new life, fighting
against the lusts of the flesh, and studying to glorify God by good
works. In conformity with the certification of his Master, that he
would deny and be ashamed of those who should deny and be ashamed
of him and his words before a wicked generation, he further taught,
that it is incumbent on those who hope for life everlasting, to make
an open profession of the doctrine of Christ, and to avoid idolatry,
superstition, vain religion, and, in one word, every way of worship
which is destitute of authority from the word of God. {190} This
doctrine he did believe so conformable to God’s holy scriptures,
that he thought no creature could have been so impudent as to deny
any point or article of it; yet had the false bishops and ungodly
clergy condemned him as a heretic, and his doctrine as heretical, and
pronounced against him the sentence of death, in testimony of which
they had burnt his effigy: from which sentence he appealed to a lawful
and general council, to be held agreeably to ancient laws and canons;
humbly requesting the nobility and commons of Scotland, to take him,
and others who were accused and persecuted, under their protection,
until such time as these controversies were decided, and to regard
this his plain appellation as of no less effect, than if it had been
made with the accustomed solemnity and ceremonies.[280]
The late visit of our Reformer was of vast consequence. By his labours
on this occasion, he laid the foundations of that noble edifice which
he was afterwards so instrumental in completing. The friends of the
protestant doctrine were separated from the corrupt communion to which,
in a certain degree, they had hitherto adhered; their information in
scriptural truth was greatly improved; and they were brought together
in different parts of the nation, and prepared for being organized
into a regular church, as soon as providence should grant them
external liberty, and furnish them with persons qualified for acting
as overseers. Some may be apt to blame him {191} for abandoning with
too great precipitation the undertaking which he had so auspiciously
begun. But, without pretending to ascertain the train of reflections
which occurred to his mind, we may trace, in his determination, the
wise arrangements of that providence which watched over the infant
Reformation, and guided the steps of the Reformer . His absence was
now no less conducive to the preservation of the cause, than his
presence and personal labours had lately been to its advancement.
Matters were not yet ripened for a general reformation in Scotland;
and the clergy would never have suffered so zealous and able a
champion of the new doctrines to live in the country. By retiring
at this time, he not only preserved his own life, and reserved his
labours to a more fit opportunity, but he also averted the storm of
persecution from the heads of his brethren. Deprived of teachers,
they became objects of less jealousy to their adversaries; while
in their private meetings, they continued to confirm one another in
the doctrine which they had received, and the seed lately sown had
sufficient time to take root and spread.
Before he took his departure, Knox gave his brethren such directions
as he judged most necessary, and most useful to them, in their
present circumstances. Not satisfied with communicating these orally,
he committed them to writing in a common letter, which he either left
behind him, or sent from Dieppe, to be circulated in the different
quarters where he had preached. In this letter, he warmly recommends
to every one the frequent and careful perusal of the {192} scriptures.
He inculcates the duty of attending to religious instruction and
worship in each family. He exhorts the brethren to meet together once
every week, if practicable, and gives them directions for conducting
their assemblies, in the manner best adapted to their mutual
improvement, while destitute of public teachers. They ought to begin
with confession of sins, and invocation of the divine blessing. A
portion of the scriptures should then be read; and they would find it
of great advantage to observe a regular course in their reading, and
to join a chapter of the Old and of the New Testament together. After
the reading of the scriptures, if an exhortation, interpretation, or
doubt, occurred to any brother, he might speak; but he ought to do
it with modesty, and a desire to edify or to be edified, carefully
avoiding “multiplication of words, perplexed interpretation, and
wilfulness in reasoning.” If, in the course of reading or conference,
they met with any difficulties which they could not solve, he advised
them to commit these to writing, before they separated, that they
might submit them to the judgment of the learned; and he signified his
own readiness to give them his advice by letter, whenever it should
be required. Their assemblies ought always to be closed, as well as
opened, by prayer.[281] There is every reason to conclude, that these
directions were punctually complied with; this letter may therefore
be viewed as an important document regarding the state of the {193}
protestant church in Scotland, previous to the establishment of the
Reformation, and shall be inserted at large in the notes.[282]
Among his subsequent letters are answers to questions which his
countrymen had transmitted to him for advice. The questions are such
as might be supposed to arise in the minds of pious persons lately
made acquainted with scripture, puzzled with particular expressions,
and at a loss how to apply some of its directions to their situation.
They discover an inquisitive and conscientious disposition; and at
the same time, illustrate the disadvantages under which ordinary
Christians labour when deprived of the assistance of learned
teachers.[283] Our Reformer’s answers display an intimate acquaintance
with scripture, and dexterity in expounding it, with prudence in
giving advice in cases of conscience, so as not to encourage a
dangerous laxity on the one hand, or scrupulosity and excessive
rigidness on the other.
{194}
PERIOD V.
FROM THE YEAR 1556, WHEN HE RETURNED TO GENEVA, AFTER VISITING
SCOTLAND, TO MAY 1559, WHEN HE RETURNED TO SCOTLAND
FOR THE LAST TIME.
KNOX reached Geneva before the end of harvest, and took upon him the
charge of the English congregation there,[284] among whom he laboured
during the two following years. This short period was the most quiet
of his life. In the bosom of his own family, he experienced that
soothing care to which he had hitherto been a stranger, and which his
frequent bodily ailments now required. Two sons were borne to him in
Geneva. The greatest affection to him, and cordiality among themselves,
subsisted in the small flock under his charge. With his colleague,
Christopher Goodman, he lived as a brother; and he was happy in the
friendship of Calvin and the other pastors of Geneva. So much was he
pleased with {195} the purity of religion established in that city,
that he warmly recommended it to his religious acquaintances in
England, as the best Christian asylum to which they could flee. “In
my heart,” says he, in a letter to his friend Mr Locke, “I could
have wished, yea, and cannot cease to wish, that it might please
God to guide and conduct yourself to this place, where, I neither
fear nor eshame to say, is the most perfect school of Christ that
ever was in the earth since the days of the apostles. In other places
I confess Christ to be truly preached; but manners and religion to
be so sincerely reformed, I have not yet seen in any other place
beside.”[285]
But neither the enjoyment of personal accommodations, nor the
pleasures of literary society, nor the endearments of domestic
happiness, could subdue Knox’s ruling passion, or unfix his
determination to revisit Scotland, as soon as an opportunity should
offer, for advancing the Reformation among his countrymen. In a
letter written to some of his friends in Edinburgh, March 16, 1557,
he expresses himself in the following manner: “My own motion and daily
prayer is, not only that I may visit you, but also that with joy I may
end my battle among you. And assure yourself of this, that whenever
a greater number among you shall call upon me than now hath bound me
to serve them, by his grace it shall not be the fear of punishment,
neither yet of the death temporal, that shall impede my coming to {196}
you.”[286] A certain heroic confidence, and assurance of ultimate
success, have often been displayed by those whom providence has raised
up to achieve great revolutions in the world; by which they have been
borne up under discouragements which would have overwhelmed men of
ordinary spirits, and emboldened to face dangers from which others
would have shrunk appalled. Knox possessed no inconsiderable portion
of that enthusiastic heroism which was so conspicuous in the German
reformer. “Satan, I confess, rageth,” says he, in a letter written
at this time; “but potent is he that promiseth to be with us, in all
such enterprises as we take in hand at his commandment, for the glory
of his name, and for maintenance of his true religion. And therefore
the less fear we any contrary power; yea, in the boldness of our God,
we altogether contemn them, be they kings, emperors, men, angels, or
devils. For they shall be never able to prevail against the simple
truth of God which we openly profess; by the permission of God they
may appear to prevail against our bodies, but our cause shall triumph
in despite of Satan.”[287]
Soon after the above letter had been written, two citizens of
Edinburgh, James Syme and James Barron, arrived at Geneva with a
letter and credentials, from the earl of Glencairn, and lords Lorn,
Erskine, and James Stewart; informing him, that the professors of
the reformed doctrine remained steadfast, that its adversaries were
daily losing credit in the nation, {197} and that those who possessed
the supreme authority, although they had not yet declared themselves
friendly to it, continued to refrain from persecution; and inviting
him, in their own name, and in that of their brethren, to return to
Scotland, where he would find them all ready to receive him, and to
spend their lives and fortunes in advancing the cause which they had
espoused.[288]
Knox, at the same time that he laid this letter before his
congregation, craved the advice of Calvin and the other ministers
of Geneva. They gave it as their opinion, “that he could not refuse
the call without showing himself rebellious to God, and unmerciful to
his country.” His congregation agreed to sacrifice their particular
interest to the greater good of the church; and his own family
silently acquiesced. Upon this, he returned an answer to the letter
of the nobility, signifying that he meant to visit them with all
reasonable expedition. The congregation chose as his successor
William Whittingham,[289] a learned Englishman, with whom he had been
long united by the ties of friendship and congeniality of sentiment.
Having settled his other affairs, he took an affectionate leave of his
friends at Geneva, and went to Dieppe, in the month of October. But
on his arrival there, he received letters from Scotland, written in a
very different strain from the former. By these he was informed, that
new consultations had been held among the protestants in that country;
that some of them began {198} to repent of the invitation which they
had given him to return; and that the greater part seemed irresolute
and faint‑hearted.
This intelligence exceedingly disconcerted and embarrassed him. He
instantly dispatched a letter to the nobility who had invited him,
upbraiding them for their timidity and inconstancy. The information
which he had just received, had (he said) confounded him, and pierced
his heart with sorrow. After taking the advice of the most learned
and godly in Europe, to satisfy his own conscience and theirs as
to the propriety of this enterprise, the abandonment of it must
reflect disgrace either on him or them――it argued either that he had
been marvellously forward and vain, or that they had betrayed great
imprudence and want of judgment in the invitation which they had
given him. To some it might appear a small matter that he had left
his poor family destitute of a head, and committed the care of his
little but dearly‑beloved flock to another; but, for his part, he
could not name the sum that would induce him to go through that
scene a second time, and to behold so many grave men weeping at his
departure. What answer could he give to those who enquired, why he
did not prosecute his journey? He could take God to witness, that
the personal inconveniences to which he had been subjected, and the
mortification which he felt at the disappointment, were not the chief
causes of his grief. He was alarmed at the awful consequences which
would ensue――at the bondage and misery, spiritual and temporal,
which they would entail on themselves {199} and their children,
their subjects and their posterity, if they neglected the present
opportunity of introducing the gospel into their native country. In
his conscience, he could exempt none that bore the name of nobility
in Scotland from blame in this affair. His words might perhaps appear
sharp and indiscreet; but charity would construe them in the best
sense, and wise men would consider that a true friend cannot flatter,
especially in a matter which involves the salvation of the bodies and
souls, not of a few persons, but of a whole realm. “What are the sobs,
and what is the affliction, of my troubled heart, God shall one day
declare. But this will I add to my former rigour and severity; to wit,
if any persuade you, for fear or dangers to follow, to faint in your
former purpose, be he esteemed never so wise and friendly, let him be
judged of you both foolish and your mortal enemy.――I am not ignorant
that fearful troubles shall ensue your enterprise, as in my former
letters I did signify unto you. But, O! joyful and comfortable are
those troubles and adversities which man sustaineth for accomplishment
of God’s will revealed in his word. For how terrible soever they
appear to the judgment of natural men, yet are they never able to
devour nor utterly to consume the sufferers; for the invisible and
invincible power of God sustaineth and preserveth, according to his
promise, all such as with simplicity do obey him.――No less cause
have ye to enter in your former enterprise, than Moses had to go
to the presence of Pharaoh; for your subjects, yea, your brethren,
are oppressed――their bodies and {200} souls holden in bondage; and
God speaketh to your consciences (unless ye be dead with the blind
world), that ye ought to hazard your own lives, be it against kings
or emperors, for their deliverance. For only for that cause are ye
called princes of the people, and receive honour, tribute, and homage
at God’s commandment,――not by reason of your birth and progeny (as the
most part of men falsely do suppose), but by reason of your office and
duty; which is, to vindicate and deliver your subjects and brethren
from all violence and oppression, to the uttermost of your power.”[290]
Having sent off this letter, with others written in the same strain,
to Erskine of Dun, Wishart of Pitterow, and some other gentlemen of
his acquaintance, he cherished the hope that he would soon receive
more favourable accounts from Scotland, and resolved in the meantime
to remain in France.[291] The reformed doctrine had been early
introduced into that kingdom; it had been copiously watered with
the blood of martyrs; and all the violence which had been employed
by its enemies had not been able to extirpate it, or to prevent its
spreading among all ranks. The Parisian protestants were at present
smarting under the effects of one of those massacres, which so often
disgraced the Roman catholic religion in that country, before as well
as after the commencement of the {201} civil wars. Not satisfied with
assaulting them when peaceably assembled for worship in a private
house, and treating them with great barbarity, their adversaries, in
imitation of their pagan predecessors, invented the most diabolical
calumnies against them, and circulated the report that they were
guilty of abominable practices in their religious assemblies.[292] The
innocent sufferers had drawn up an apology, in which they vindicated
themselves from the atrocious charge; and Knox, having got this
translated into English, wrote a preface and additions to it, with
the intention of publishing it for the use of his countrymen.[293]
{202} Having formed an acquaintance with many of the protestants
of France, and being able to speak their language, he occasionally
preached to them in passing through the country. It seems to have been
on this occasion that he preached in the city of Rochelle, and having
alluded to his native country in the course of his sermon, told his
audience that he expected, within a few years, to preach in the church
of St Giles, in Edinburgh.[294]
It does not appear that there were any protestants in Dieppe when Knox
first visited it. But he had now the satisfaction of officiating in a
reformed church, recently {203} planted in that town. In the course of
the year 1557, a travelling merchant from Geneva, named John Venable,
had come to Dieppe, and by his conversation and the circulation of
books, imparted the knowledge of the protestant doctrine to some
of the inhabitants. At his request, they were visited by Delajonché,
pastor at Rouen, who applied to the ministers of Geneva to furnish
them with a preacher. They sent André de Sequeran, sieur d’Amont,
who, having removed in the course of a few months, was succeeded by
Delaporte, one of the pastors of the church of Rouen. Knox having
come to Dieppe at this time, was chosen colleague to Delaporte; and
under their ministry the Reformation was embraced by some of the
principal persons of the town, and among the rest by M. de Bagueville,
a descendant of Charles Martel. A surprising change was soon observed
on the morals of the inhabitants, which had formerly been very
dissolute; and the church at Dieppe continued long in a flourishing
condition.[295]