favourable disposition of the queen regent towards the protestants,
and the directions which he sent them to cultivate this, he appears to
have always entertained suspicions of the sincerity of her professions.
Since he left Geneva, these suspicions had been confirmed; and the
information which he had procured, in travelling through France,
conspired with intelligence which he had lately received from Scotland,
to convince him, that the immediate suppression of the Reformation in
his native country, and its consequent suppression in the neighbouring
{241} kingdom, were intended. The plan projected by the gigantic
ambition of the princes of Lorrain, brothers of the queen regent of
Scotland, has been developed, and described with great accuracy and
ability, by a celebrated modern historian.[355] Suffice it to say here,
that their counsels had determined the French court to set up the
claim of the young queen of Scots to the crown of England; to attack
Elizabeth, and wrest the sceptre from her hands, under the pretext
that she was a bastard and a heretic; and to commence their operations
by suppressing the Reformation, and establishing the French influence,
in Scotland, as the best preparative to an attack upon the dominions
of the English queen. In the course of his journeys through France,
Knox had formed an acquaintance with certain persons about the court,
and, by their means, had gained some knowledge of this plan.[356] He
was convinced that the Scottish reformers {242} were unable to resist
the power which France might bring against them; and that it was no
less the interest than the duty of the English court to afford them
the most effectual support. But he was afraid that a selfish and
narrow policy might prevent them from doing this until it was too late,
and was therefore anxious to call their attention to the subject at
an early period, and to put them in possession of the facts that had
come to his knowledge. The assistance which Elizabeth granted to the
Scottish protestants in the year 1560, was dictated by the soundest
policy. It baffled and defeated the designs of her enemies at the
very outset; it gave her an influence over Scotland, which all
her predecessors could not obtain by the terror of their arms, nor
the influence of their money; and it secured the stability of her
government, by extending and strengthening the protestant interest,
the principal pillar on which it rested. And it reflects not a little
credit on our Reformer’s sagacity, that he had conceived this plan at
so early a period, was the first person who proposed it, and persisted,
in spite of great discouragements, to urge its adoption, until his
endeavours were ultimately crowned with success.
Deeply impressed with these considerations, he resolved, although he
had already been twice repulsed, to brook the mortification, and make
another attempt to obtain an interview with some confidential agent
{243} of the English government. With this view, he, on the 10th
of April, wrote a letter to secretary Cecil, with whom he had been
personally acquainted during his residence in London. Adverting to the
treatment of the exiles who had returned from Geneva, he exculpated
them from all responsibility as to the offensive book which he had
published, and assured him that he had not consulted with any of
them previous to its publication. As for himself, he did not mean to
deny that he was the author, nor was he yet prepared to retract the
leading sentiment which it contained. But he was not, on that account,
less friendly to the person and government of Elizabeth, in whose
exaltation he cordially rejoiced; although he rested the defence of
her authority upon grounds different from the common. This was the
third time that he had craved liberty to pass through England. He had
no desire to visit the court, nor to remain long in the country; but
he was anxious to communicate to him, or some other trusty person,
matters of great importance, which it was not prudent to commit to
writing, or intrust to an ordinary messenger. If his request was
refused, it would turn out to the disadvantage of England.[357]
The situation in which he stood at this time with the court of
England was so well known, that it was not without great difficulty
that he could find a messenger to carry his letter;[358] and, either
despairing of {244} the success of his application, or urged by
intelligence received from Scotland, he sailed from Dieppe on the
22d of April, and landed safely at Leith on the 2d of May, 1559.[359]
{245}
PERIOD VI.
FROM MAY 1559, WHEN HE FINALLY RETURNED TO SCOTLAND,
TO AUGUST 1560, WHEN HE WAS SETTLED AS MINISTER OF EDINBURGH,
AT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REFORMATION.
ON his arrival, Knox found matters in the most critical state in
Scotland. The queen regent had thrown off the mask which she had
long worn, and avowed her determination forcibly to suppress the
Reformation. As long as she stood in need of the assistance of the
protestants, to support her authority against the Hamiltons, and
to procure the matrimonial crown for her son‑in‑law, the dauphin
of France, she courted their friendship, listened to their plans of
reform, professed her dissatisfaction with the ecclesiastical order,
and her desire of correcting its corruption and tyranny as soon as
a fit opportunity offered, and flattered them, if not with the hopes
of her joining their party, at least with assurances that she would
shield them from the fury of the clergy. So completely were they duped
by her consummate address and dissimulation, that they complied with
all her requests, restrained their preachers from teaching in public,
and desisted from presenting to the parliament a petition which they
had prepared; nor {246} would they believe her to be insincere, even
after different parts of her conduct had afforded strong grounds for
suspicion. But, having accomplished the great objects which she had in
view, she at last adopted measures which completely undeceived them,
and discovered the gulf into which they were about to be precipitated.
As this discovery of the regent’s duplicity produced consequences of
the greatest importance; as it completely alienated from her the minds
of the reformers, and aroused that spirit of determined and united
opposition to her insidious policy, and her violent measures, which
ultimately led to the establishment of the Reformation; and as the
facts connected with it have not been accurately or fully stated in
our common histories,[360] the reader may not be displeased at having
the following more circumstantial detail laid before him.
A mutual jealousy had long subsisted between the queen regent and that
able but unprincipled prelate, archbishop Hamilton, whose zeal for the
church was uniformly subordinated to personal ambition, and the desire
of aggrandizing his family. While he exerted the influence which his
station gave him over the clergy to embarrass the administration of
the regent, she employed the protestants as a counter‑balance to his
power. But amidst the jarring excited by rival interests, both parties
beheld the rapid progress {247} of the reformed sentiments with equal
concern; and intelligent persons early foresaw, that their differences
would finally be compromised, and a coalition formed between them to
accomplish the ruin of the protestants.[361] It does not appear that
the primate ever entertained the slightest suspicion that the regent
was friendly to the cause of the reformers. Independently of her
own sentiments, he was well acquainted with the influence which her
brothers possessed over her, and with their devoted attachment to the
Roman catholic church. Had he not had good reasons for presuming upon
her connivance and secret approbation, his known prudence would not
have allowed him to venture upon the invidious measure of putting
Mill to death. As early as July 1558, she had held consultations
with him on the course which should be adopted for checking the
Reformation.[362] In consequence of these, steps were taken to bring
to trial certain individuals who had given great offence to the clergy
by expounding the scriptures in private meetings, and contemning
the laws of the church.[363] And immediately after the meeting
of parliament in November, at which the regent obtained, by the
assistance of the protestants, all the objects which she wished to
carry, the primate received positive assurances of her support in his
exertions for maintaining the authority of the church. Accordingly,
in the end of December, he summoned the reformed {248} preachers to
appear before him in St Andrews, on the 2d of February following,
to answer for their conduct in usurping the sacred office, and
disseminating heretical doctrines.[364]
Upon this, a deputation of the protestants waited on the regent,
and informed her, that, after what had recently taken place in the
instance of Mill, they were determined to attend and see justice done
to their preachers; and that, if the prosecution went forward, there
would be a greater convocation at St Andrews than had been seen at
any trial in Scotland for a long period. Dreading the consequences
of a concourse of people in a place adjacent to counties in which
the protestants were numerous, the queen wrote to the archbishop to
prorogue the trial. She, at the same time, summoned a convention of
the nobility, to be held at Edinburgh on the 7th of March, to advise
upon the most proper measures for settling the religious differences
which had so long agitated the nation.[365] And the primate, at her
request, called a provincial council of the clergy to meet in the same
place on the first of March.[366]
When our Saviour was condemned to be crucified, it was observed,
that, “on the same day, Pilate and Herod were made friends together,
for before they were at enmity between themselves.” The determination
which was at this time formed to crush the protestant interest in
Scotland, seems to have brought {249} about the reconciliation of
more than the queen regent and the primate. A rivalship had long
subsisted between those who occupied the two Scottish archbishoprics;
the bishops of Glasgow insisting on the independence of their see,
and boasting of the priority of its erection, while the bishops of
St Andrews claimed an authoritative primacy over all the clergy in the
kingdom, as belonging to that see from the time of its foundation.[367]
Hamilton, in the mandate issued for assembling this council, had
asserted his primacy in very formal terms, founding upon it, as well
as upon the authority with which he was invested as papal legate, his
right to convocate the clergy.[368] Beatoun, archbishop of Glasgow,
seems to have resented this claim of superiority, and declined for
some time to countenance the council by his presence, or to cite his
suffragans and the clergy of his diocese to attend. This dissension,
which might have proved highly injurious to the Roman church at this
critical period, was got accommodated, and Beatoun, with the western
clergy, at length joined the council.[369]
{250} In the mean time, the protestants, having assembled at Edinburgh,
appointed commissioners to lay their representations before the
convention of the nobility, and the council of the clergy.[370] The
commissioners gave in to the latter certain preliminary articles of
reformation, in which they craved, that the religious service should
be performed in the vulgar tongue; that such as were unfit for the
pastoral office should be removed from their benefices; that, in time
coming, bishops should be admitted with the assent of the barons of
the diocese, and parish‑priests with the assent of the parishioners;
and that measures should be adopted for preventing immoral and
ignorant persons from being employed in ecclesiastical functions.[371]
But there was another paper laid before the council, which, it is
probable, gave them more uneasiness than the representation of the
protestants. This was a remonstrance by certain persons attached
to the Roman catholic faith, “craving redress of several grievances
complained of in the ecclesiastical administration of Scotland.”
It consisted of thirteen articles, in which, among other points of
reformation, they required that the exacting of corpse‑presents and
Easter offerings should be abolished; that, for the more effectual
instruction of those who partake of the sacraments, “there should be
an {251} godlie and faithful declaration set forth in Inglis toung, to
be first shewin to the pepil at all times,” when any of the sacraments
are administered; and that the common prayers and litanies should
also be read in the vulgar language. At the same time, they desired
that none should be permitted to speak irreverently of the mass, make
innovations upon the ceremonies of the church, or administer divine
ordinances without authority from the bishops.[372]
The council were not disposed to agree to the proposals either of
the protestant or the popish reformers. After making certain partial
regulations relating to some of the grievances complained of by the
latter,[373] and renewing the canons of former councils respecting
the lives of the clergy and public instruction,[374] they refused
to allow any part of the public service to be performed in the vulgar
language;[375] they ratified in the strongest terms all the popish
doctrines which were controverted by the protestants;[376] and
they ordained, that strict inquisition should be made after such as
absented themselves from the celebration {252} of mass,[377] and that
excommunications should be fulminated against those who administered
or received the sacraments after the protestant forms, and against
parents and sponsors who had presented children for baptism to the
reformed preachers, and did not bring them to the priests to be
re‑baptized.[378]
The council were emboldened to take these decisive steps in
consequence of a secret treaty which they had concluded with the
regent, and in which they had stipulated to raise a large sum of money
to enable her to suppress the reformers.[379] This arrangement could
not be long concealed from the protestant deputies, who, perceiving
that they were mocked by the clergy, and abandoned by the court, broke
off the fruitless negotiations in which they had been engaged, and
left Edinburgh. They were no sooner gone than a proclamation was made
at the market cross, by order of the regent, prohibiting any person
from preaching or administering the sacraments without {253} authority
from the bishops, and commanding all the subjects to prepare to
celebrate the ensuing feast of Easter, according to the rites of the
catholic church. Understanding that her proclamation was disregarded,
she determined on taking decisive steps to enforce obedience, by
bringing the preachers to justice.[380] Accordingly, Paul Methven,
John Christison, William Harlow, and John Willock, were summoned to
stand trial before the justiciary court at Stirling, on the 10th of
May, for usurping the ministerial office, for administering, without
the consent of their ordinaries, the sacrament of the altar in a
manner different from that of the catholic church, during three
several days of the late feast of Easter, in the burghs and boundaries
of Dundee, Montrose, and various other places in the sheriffdoms of
Forfar and Kincardine, and for convening the subjects in these places,
preaching to them, seducing them to their erroneous doctrines, and
exciting seditions and tumults. As the preachers were resolved to
make their appearance, George Lovell, burgess of Dundee, became surety
for Methven, John Erskine of Dun for Christison, Patrick Murray of
Tibbermuir for Harlaw, and Robert Campbell of Kinyeancleugh for
Willock.[381]
To prevent matters from coming to extremity, the earl of Glencairn,
and Sir Hugh Campbell of Loudon, sheriff of Ayr, waited on the
queen, and remonstrated against these proceedings; but she told them
haughtily, {254} that, “in spite of them, all their preachers should
be banished from Scotland.” They reminded her of the promises she
had repeatedly made to protect them; upon which she unblushingly
replied, that “it became not subjects to burden their princes with
promises, farther than they pleased to keep them.” Surprised, but not
intimidated, at this language, Glencairn and Loudon told her, that, if
she violated the engagements which she had come under to her subjects,
they would consider themselves as absolved from their allegiance to
her. After they had remonstrated with her very freely, and pointed
out the dangerous consequences that might result from adopting such
a line of conduct, she began to speak in a milder tone, and promised
to suspend the trial of the preachers, and take the whole affair
into serious consideration[382] But receiving intelligence soon after
that peace was concluded between France and Spain, by a treaty in
which these two powers had agreed to unite their endeavours for the
extirpation of heresy, and being irritated by the introduction of
the reformed worship into the town of Perth, she ordered the process
against the preachers to go on, and summoned them peremptorily to
stand their trial at Stirling on the appointed day.[383]
The state of our Reformer’s mind, upon receiving this information,
will appear from the following letter, hastily written by him on the
day after he landed in Scotland.
{255} “The perpetual comfort of the Holy Ghost for salutation.
These few lines are to signify unto you, dear sister, that it hath
pleased the merciful providence of my heavenly father to conduct me
to Edinburgh, where I arrived the 2d of May: uncertain as yet what
God shall further work in this country, except that I see the battle
shall be great. For Satan rageth even to the uttermost, and I am
come, I praise my God, even in the brunt of the battle. For my fellow
preachers have a day appointed to answer before the queen regent, the
10th of this instant, when I intend (if God impede not) also to be
present; by life, by death, or else by both, to glorify his godly
name, who thus mercifully hath heard my long cries. Assist me, sister,
with your prayers, that now I shrink not, when the battle approacheth.
Other things I have to communicate with you, but travel after travel
doth so occupy me, that no time is granted me to write. Advertise my
brother, Mr Goodman, of my estate; as, in my other letter sent unto
you from Dieppe, I willed you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ rest
with you. From Edinburgh, in haste, the 3d of May.”[384]
His arrival in Scotland was not long concealed from the clergy. On
the morning after he landed at Leith, one came to the monastery of
the Greyfriars, where the provincial council was still sitting,[385]
and {256} informed them that John Knox was come from France, and had
slept last night in Edinburgh. The clergy were panic‑struck with the
intelligence, and foreboding the ruin of all the plans which they had
formed with so much care, they dismissed the council in great haste
and confusion. A messenger was instantly dispatched by them with the
information to the queen regent, who was at Glasgow; and within a
few days Knox was proclaimed an outlaw and a rebel, in virtue of the
sentence formerly pronounced against him by the clergy.[386]
Although his own cause was prejudged, and he knew that he was liable
to be apprehended as a condemned heretic, he did not hesitate a moment
in resolving to present himself voluntarily at Stirling, to assist
his brethren in their defence, and share their danger. Having remained
only a single day at Edinburgh, he hurried to Dundee, where he found
the principal protestants in Angus and Mearns already assembled, and
determined to attend their ministers to the place of trial, and avow
their adherence to the doctrines for which they were accused. The
providential arrival of such an able champion of the cause, at this
crisis, must have been very encouraging to the assembly; and the
liberty of accompanying them, which he requested, was readily granted.
{257} Lest the unexpected approach of such a multitude, though unarmed,
should alarm or offend the regent, the assembled protestants agreed
to stop at Perth, and sent Erskine of Dun before them to Stirling,
to acquaint her with the peaceable object and manner of their coming.
Apprehensive that their presence would disconcert her measures, the
regent had again recourse to dissimulation. She persuaded Erskine
to write to his brethren to desist from their intended journey, and
authorized him to promise, in her name, that she would put a stop
to the trial. The protestants testified their pacific intentions
by a cheerful compliance with this request, and the greater part,
confiding in the royal promise, returned to their homes. But when the
day of trial came, the summons was called by the orders of the queen,
the preachers were outlawed for not appearing, and all persons were
prohibited, under the pain of rebellion, from harbouring or assisting
them.[387] At the same time, the gentlemen who had given security for
their appearance, were fined.[388]
Escaping from Stirling, Erskine brought to Perth the intelligence
of this disgraceful transaction, which could not fail to incense the
protestants. It happened that, on the same day on which the news came,
Knox, who remained at Perth, preached a sermon, in which he exposed
the idolatry of the mass, and of image‑worship. The audience had
quietly dismissed, {258} and a few idle persons only loitered in the
church, when an imprudent priest, wishing to try the disposition of
the people, or to show his contempt of the doctrine which had just
been delivered, uncovered a rich altar‑piece, decorated with images,
and prepared to celebrate mass. A boy, having uttered some expressions
of disapprobation, was struck by the priest. He retaliated by throwing
a stone at the aggressor, which, falling on the altar, broke one of
the images. This operated as a signal upon the people present, who
had sympathized with the boy; and, in the course of a few minutes,
the altar, images, and all the ornaments of the church, were torn
down, and trampled under foot. The noise soon collected a mob,
which, finding no employment in the church, flew, by a sudden
and irresistible impulse, upon the monasteries; and although the
magistrates of the town and the preachers assembled as soon as they
heard of the riot, yet neither the persuasions of the one, nor the
authority of the other, could restrain the fury of the people, until
the houses of the grey and black friars, with the costly edifice of
the Carthusian monks, were laid in ruins. None of the gentlemen or
sober part of the congregation were concerned in this unpremeditated
tumult; it was wholly confined to the lowest of the inhabitants, or,
as Knox designs them, “the rascal multitude.”[389]
The demolition of the monasteries having been represented as the
first‑fruits of our Reformer’s labours on this occasion, it was
necessary to give this minute {259} account of the causes which
produced that event. Whatever his sentiments were as to the
destruction of the instruments and monuments of idolatry, he did
not wish the work to be accomplished in an irregular manner; he
was sensible that tumultuary proceedings, especially in present
circumstances, were prejudicial to the cause of the reformers; and,
instead of instigating, he exerted himself in putting a stop to, the
ravages of the mob. If this disorderly conduct must be traced to a
remote cause, we can impute it only to the wanton and dishonourable
perfidy of the queen regent.