of the order of Dominicans, or Blackfriars, in Scotland.
But a late author informs us, that the chartulary of the
Blackfriars’ monastery at Perth mentions John Grierson as
having been provincial from the year 1525, to the time of
the Reformation. Scott’s History of the Reformers, p. 96.
60 ― See Note L.
61 ― Chalmers’s Caledonia, ii. 526. comp. Knox. Historie, 67.
62 ― In his progress through the kingdom with the governor, he
instigated him “to hang (at Perth) four honest men, for
eating of a goose on Friday; and drowned a young woman,
because she refused to pray to our lady in her birth.”
Pitscottie, 188. Knox says, that the woman, “having an
soucking babe upon hir briest, was drounit.” Historie, 40.
Petrie’s History of the Church of Scotland, part ii.
p. 182. He had planned the destruction of the principal
gentlemen of Fife, as appeared from documents found after
his death. Knox, 63, 64.
63 ― Sadler’s State Papers, i. 264, 265. comp. p. 128. Sir John
Borthwick (who fled to England in the year 1540) ridicules
the Scottish clergy for making it an article of accusation
against him, that he had approved of “all those heresies,
commonly called the heresies of England;” “Because,” says
he, “what religion at that time was used in England, the
like the whole realm of Scotland did embrace; in this
point only the Englishmen differed from the Scottes, that
they had cast off the yoke of Antichrist, the other not.
Idols were worshipped of both nations; the prophanating of
the supper and baptisme was like unto them both.――Truly,
it is most false that I had subscribed unto such kinde of
heresies.” Fox, 1149, 1150.
64 ― Knox, Historie, p. 67.
65 ― Ibid.
66 ― Act. Parl. Scot. ii. 471, 477‒9. Keith, 50, 51. Knox,
66, 67. Buchanan, i. 296.
67 ― This is done in a book, entitled, “The Image of both
Churches, Hierusalem and Babell, Unitie and Confusion,
Obedience and Sedition, by P. D. M.” (supposed to be
Sir Tobie Matthews,) p. 139, 140, Torney, 1623. In p. 136,
the author says, “Yet there is one aduise of Knox which
is to be recorded with admiration, ‘It wear good, that
rewards wear publicklie appointed by the peopl for such
as kill tyrants, as well as for those that kill wolfs.’”
In proof of this he refers to Knox’s Historie, p. 372.
The reader, who chooses to give himself the trouble,
will probably search in vain (as I have done) for such
a sentiment, either in that or in any other part of the
History.
68 ― “Quorum se societate, non multo post, implicaret
Joannes Knoxus, Calvinistarum minister, qui se evangelicæ
perfectionis cumulum assecutum non arbitrabatur nisi in
cardinalis ac sacerdotis sanguine ac cæde triumphasset.”
Leslæus de rebus gestis Scotorum, lib. x. The bishop
should have recollected, that the violence of his
popish brethren drove “the Calvinistic minister” to this
“pinnacle of evangelical perfection.”
69 ― Principal Baillie’s Historical Vindication of the
government of the church of Scotland, p. 42. A. 1646.
Cald. MS. ad an. 1590.
70 ― Historie, 86.
71 ― See Note M.
72 ― Spotswood says, that “seven-score persons entered into
the castle the day after the slaughter” of the cardinal.
History, p. 84.
73 ― The coarseness of the age, and the strong temptation
which he was under to gratify a voluptuous prince, will
not excuse the gross indelicacies of Lindsay; and still
less will the desire of preserving the ancient dialect
of Scotland, and of gratifying an antiquarian passion,
apologise for giving to the modern public a _complete_
edition of his works, accompanied with a glossary and
explanatory notes.
74 ― Heroes ex omni Historia Scotica lectissimi: Auctore Johan.
Jonstono Abredonense Scoto, p. 27, 28. Lugduni Batavorum,
1603. 4to. Chalmers’s Life of Lindsay, Works, vol. i.
75 ― Cald. MS. i. 119.
76 ― Lord Hailes, Catalogue of the Lords of Session, p. 2. Act.
Parl. Scot. ii. 353.
77 ― Act. Parl. Scot. ii. 409. Sadler’s State Papers, i. 83.
Knox, 35.
78 ― Fox, p. 1840. He was born A.D. 1510.
79 ― Fox, p. 1840. Knox, Historie, p. 33, 36, 67.
80 ― Knox, Historie, p. 68.
81 ― Whittingham, dean of Durham, was ordained in the English
church at Geneva, of which Knox was pastor; and Travers,
the opponent of Hooker, was ordained by a presbytery
at Antwerp. Attempts were made by some highflyers to
invalidate their orders, and induce them to submit to
re-ordination; but they did not succeed. Strype’s Annals,
vol. ii. 520‒4.
In the year 1582, archbishop Grindal, by a formal deed,
declared the validity of the orders of Mr John Morrison,
who had been ordained by the synod of Lothian, “according
to the _laudable_ form and rite of the reformed church
of Scotland,” says the instrument, “per generalem
synodum sive congregationem illius comitatus, juxta
laudabilem ecclesiæ Scotiæ Reformatæ formam et ritum,
ad sacros ordines et sacrosanctum ministerium per
manuum impositionem admissus et ordinatus.――Nos igitur
formam ordinationis et præfectionis tuæ hujusmodi, modo
præmisso factam, quantum in nos est, et de jure possumus,
approbantes et ratificantes,” &c. Strype’s Life of
Grindal. Append. Book ii. Numb. xvii. p. 101.
It has been objected, that archbishop Grindal was at this
time under sequestration, and that the license was granted,
not by him, but by Dr Aubrey, as vicar general. To this
it is sufficient to reply, that Mr Strype is of opinion
that the sequestration was taken off from the time that
the writs and instruments run in the name of Aubrey alone,
without any mention of Clark, (Life of Grindal, p. 271;)
that, even during the period of the sequestration,
“all licenses to preach, &c. were granted by these
two civilians, with a deference to the archbishop, and
consultation with him in what they did,” (Ibid. p. 240;)
and that the license in question bears, that it was
granted “with _the consent and express command_ of the
most reverend father in Christ, the lord Edmund, by
the divine providence, archbishop of Canterbury, _to us
signified_;”――“de consensu et expresso mandato reverendiss.
in Christo patris domini Edmundi, &c. nobis significato.”
Ibid. p. 271. Append. p. 101.
82 ― Ninian Winzet, apud Keith’s History, App. p. 212, 213.
Burne’s Disputation, p. 128. Parise, 1581.
83 ― In the former editions, I had spoken of Annand as probably
a friar, who, according to the custom of the times, had
assumed the honorary title of dean. But I have since
ascertained, that he was a person of great note in the
university. It appears from the Records, that he was
principal of St Leonard’s College in 1544, and continued
to hold that office during several years subsequent to
that period.
84 ― The doctrine which the preacher delivered at this time was
afterwards put into “ornate meeter,” by one of his hearers,
Sir David Lindsay, who, in his “Monarchie,” finished
in 1553, has given a particular account of the rise
and corruptions of popery, under the name of the “fifth
spiritual and papal monarchie.” Chalmers’s Lindsay,
iii. 86‒116.
85 ― “Sum said, utheris hued the branches of papistry, bot
he straiketh at the rute, to destroye the whole. Utheris
said, gif the doctors and magistri nostri defend not now
the pope and his authoritie, which in their owin presence
is so manifestlie impugnit, the devill have my part of
him and his lawes bothe. Utheris said, Mr George Wischeart
spak never so planelie, and yet he was brunt; even so
will he be in the end. Utheris said, the tyrannie of the
cardinal maid not his cause the better, neither yet the
suffering of Godis servand maid his cause the wors.――And
thairfoir we wald counsail yow and thame to provyde better
defences than fyre and sword; for it may be that allis ye
shall be disappointed: men now have uther eyes than they
had then. This answer gave the laird of Nydrie.” Knox,
Historie, p. 70.
86 ― Knox, Historie, p. 70‒74. “Alexander Arbuckylle” was made
Bachelor of Arts, Nov. 3, 1525. Act. Fac. Art.
87 ― Knox, Historie, 74, 75.
88 ― Buchanan, Hist. lib. xv. Oper. tom. i. 293, 294.
Pitscottie, 189, folio edit.
89 ― Buchan. Oper. i. 296. Pitscottie, 191. Knox, 76.
90 ― Rough continued to preach in England until the death of
Edward VI. when he retired to Norden in Friesland. There
he was obliged to support himself and his wife (whom he
had married in England) by knitting caps, stockings, &c.
Having come over to London in the course of his trade, he
heard of a congregation of protestants which met secretly
in that city, to whom he joined himself, and was elected
their pastor. A few weeks after this, the conventicle was
discovered by the treachery of one of their own number,
and Rough was carried before bishop Bonner, by whose
orders he was committed to the flames, on the 22d of
December 1557. An account of his examination, and two of
his letters breathing the true spirit of a martyr, may be
seen in Fox, p. 1840‒1842.
91 ― Balnaves’s Confession, Epist. Dedic. Archibald
Hamilton says that he was condemned to work at the
oar;――“impellendis longarum navium remis, cum reliquis
adjudicatur.” Dialogus de Confusione Calvinianæ Sectæ,
p. 64, b.
92 ― Knox, Historie, p. 83.
93 ― MS. Letters, p. 53.
94 ― One of his most bitter adversaries has borne an
involuntary but honourable testimony to his magnanimity
at this time. “Ubi longo maris tædio, et laboris molestia
extenuatum quidem, et subactum corpus fuit; sed animi
elatio eum subinde rerum magnarum spe extimulans, nihilo
magis tunc quam prius quiescere potuit.”――Hamiltonii
Dialogus, p. 64, b.
95 ― Knox, Historie, p. 74.
96 ― Psalm xlii.
97 ― See Note N.
98 ― Knox, Historie, p. 74. This Treatise appears to have been
lost.
99 ― MS. Letters, p. 40.
100 ― The manuscript, there is reason to think, was conveyed
to Scotland about that time, but it fell aside, and was
long considered as lost. After the death of Knox, it
was discovered by his servant, Richard Bannatyne, in the
house of Ormiston, and was printed, anno 1584, by Thomas
Vaultrollier, in 12mo, with the title of “Confession of
Faith, &c. by Henry Balnaves of Hallhill, one of the Lords
of Council and Session of Scotland.”――David Buchanan,
in his edition of Knox’s History, anno 1644, among his
other alterations and interpolations, makes Knox to say
that this work was published at the time he wrote his
History; which may be numbered among the anachronisms
in that edition, which, for some time, discredited the
authenticity of the History, and led many to deny that
Knox was its author. But in the genuine editions, Knox
expresses the very reverse. “In the presoun, he (Balnaves)
wrait a maist profitabill treatise of justificatioun, and
of the warkis and conversatioun of a justifyed man: ‘but
how it was suppressit we knaw not.’” Historie, p. 83, Edin.
anno 1732. See also p. 181, of the first edition, in 8vo,
printed at London by Vaultrollier in the year 1586.
101 ― I have not adhered to the orthography of the printed work,
which is evidently different from what it must have been
in the MS.
102 ― It is “perfection” in the printed copy, which is evidently
a mistake.
103 ― _i.e._ beyond.
104 ― Rouen, not Roanne, is the place meant.
105 ― _i.e._ genius or knowledge.
106 ― See Note O.
107 ― This is the man whom a high-church historian has
represented as holding the principles of the ancient
Zealots or Siccarii, and teaching that any person who met
a papist might kill him! Collier, Eccles. Hist. ii. 545.
108 ― Knox, Historie, p. 84, 85.
109 ― In one of his letters, preserved by Calderwood, Knox says,
that he was _nineteen_ months in the French galleys. Cald.
MS. vol. i. 256. In the printed Calderwood, the period
of his confinement is limited to _nine_ months, a mistake
which has been copied by several writers. It is proper
that the reader of that book should be aware, that it is
an abridgement of a larger work, still in manuscript; and
though there is reason to believe that it was drawn up
by Calderwood himself, yet, having been printed after his
death, and in a foreign country, it is often incorrect.
Knox, in a conference with Mary of Scotland, told the
queen that he was five years resident in England (Historie,
p. 289). Now, as he came to England immediately after he
obtained his liberty, and left it (as we shall afterwards
see) in the end of January or beginning of February, 1554,
this accords exactly with the date of his liberation,
which is given above from Calderwood’s MS.
110 ― This is mentioned in a MS. in my possession; but little
credit can be given to it, as it is written in a modern
hand, and no authority is produced.
111 ― Petrie’s Church History, part ii. p. 184.
112 ― Hamiltonii Dialog. p. 64.
113 ― Peter Martyr, in a letter, dated Oxford, 1st July, 1650,
laments the paucity of useful preachers in England, “Doleo
plus quam dici possit, tanta ubique in Anglia verbi Dei
penuria laborari; et eos qui oves Christi doctrina pascere
tenentur, cum usque eo remisse agant, ut officium facere
prorsus recusant, nescio quo fletu, quibusve lachrymis
deplorari possit. Verum confido fore ut meliora simus
visuri.” Martyri Epist. apud Loc. Commun. p. 760. Genevæ,
1624.
114 ― Burnet’s Hist. of the Reformation, II. 24. The
suppression of the chantries, in the reign of Edward VI.
was attended with similar effects. Strype’s Memorials of
the Reformation, ii. 446.
115 ― I omitted mentioning in the proper place, that the
biographer of Sir David Lindsay has stated, from the
minutes of the English council, that Knox was in the pay
of England as early as the year 1547. Chalmers’s Lindsay,
i. 32. I cannot suppose that the learned author would
confound the salary which Knox received during his
residence in England, with a pension allotted to him
when he was in his native country. But, on the other
hand, I think it very unlikely that he should have been
known to the English court before he entered the castle
of St Andrews, and am inclined to suppose that any pension
which he received from them did not commence until that
period at soonest. Mr Chalmers’s language conveys the
idea, that he was pensioned by England before he went to
the castle.
116 ― Strype’s Memor. of the Reform. iii. 235. Knox, Hist.
85, 289.
117 ― Knox, Historie, p. 289.
118 ― Sir Thomas More, in one of his letters to Erasmus, gives
the following character of Tonstal: “Ut nemo est omnibus
bonis literis instructior, nemo vita moribusque severior,
ita nemo est usquam in convictu jucundior.”
119 ― Besides the great council which managed the affairs
of the kingdom under the protector, a number of the
privy-councillors who belonged to that part of the country,
composed a subordinate board, called “the council of the
north.” The members here referred to probably belonged to
this council, and not to the town council of Newcastle. If
I am right in this conjecture, Knox might owe to them, and
not to the bishop, the liberty of this public defence.
120 ― See Note P.
121 ― The compiler of the account of Knox, prefixed to the
edition of his History printed in 1732, says, that the MS.
containing the defence, bears that it “quite silenced” the
bishop and his doctors. But that writer does not appear to
have ever seen the MS., which contains nothing of the kind.
The fact, however, is attested by the bishop of Ossory,
who had good opportunities of knowing the truth, and who
is accurate in his account of other circumstances relative
to it. His words are, “Et 4 die Aprilis ejusdem anni
[1550] aperiens in concione opinionem, ejus idolatrias
et horrendas blasphemias, tam solidis argumentis,
abominationem esse probabat, ut, cum omnibus sciolis,
Saturnius ille somniator [Dunelmensis] refragare non
possit.” Baleus, De Script. Scot. et Hibern. Art. Knoxus.
122 ― John Harle or Harley, was afterwards made bishop of
Hereford, May 26, 1553. Strype’s Cranmer, p. 301. A late
writer has confounded this Englishman with William Harlowe,
who was minister of St Cuthbert’s church, near Edinburgh.
Scott’s History of the Reformers in Scotland, p. 242.
123 ― King Edward’s Journal, apud Burnet, ii. Records, p. 42.
124 ― Memorials of the Reformation, ii. 297. Memor. of Cranmer,
p. 292. Burnet, iii. 212. Records, 420, 422.
125 ― Burnet, ii. 171.
126 ― Strype’s Memor. of Reform. ut supra. Life of Grindal,
p. 7. Mr Strype says, that the number of chaplains was
afterwards reduced to four, Bradford and Knox being
dropped from the list. But both of these preached in
their turn before the court, in the year 1553. And in the
council-book a warrant is granted, October 27, 1552, to
four gentlemen, to pay to Knox, “his majesty’s preacher
in the north, forty pounds, as his majesty’s reward.”
Strype’s Cranmer, 292. This salary he retained until the
death of Edward; for, in a letter written by him at the
time he left England, he says: “Ather the queen’s majestie,
or sum thesaurer, will be 40 pounds rycher by me, sae
meikle lack I of the dutie of my patentis; but that littil
trublis me.” MS. Letters, p. 286.
127 ― See Note Q.
128 ― Fox, p. 1326. Strype questions the truth of Weston’s
statement, and says that Knox “was hardly come into
England (at least any farther than Newcastle) at this
time.” Annals, iii. 117. But we have already seen that
he arrived in England as early as the beginning of 1549.
129 ― “October 2, (1552,) a letter was directed to Mess. Harley,
Bill, Horn, Grindal, Pern, and Knox, to consider certain
articles exhibited to the king’s majesty, to be subscribed
by all such as shall be admitted to be preachers or
ministers in any part of the realm; and to make report
of their opinions touching the same.” Council-book, apud
Strype’s Cranmer, p. 273. Their report was returned before
the 20th of November, ibid. p. 301. Burnet says, the order
was given Oct. 20. History, iii. 212. The articles agreed
to at this time were forty-two. In 1562, they were reduced
to thirty-nine, their present number.
130 ― See the pedigree of the family of Bowes among the original
papers at the end of the work.
131 ― From this appellation in the MS. letters, I concluded
that Knox was married to Miss Bowes before he left Berwick,
until I met with one of his printed works, to which a
letter from him to Mrs Bowes is added. On the margin
of this, opposite to a place in which he had called her
mother, is this note: “I had maid faithful promise, before
witnes, to Mariorie Bowes her daughter, so as she took
me for sone, I hartly embrased her as my mother.” Knox’s
Answer to Tyrie the Jesuit. F. ij.
132 ― MS. Letters, p. 265, 276.
133 ― Ibid, passim.
134 ― They wrote a letter in commendation of him, Dec. 9, 1552,
to Lord Wharton, deputy warden of the Borders. During the
following year, when he was employed in Buckinghamshire,
in order to secure greater acceptance and respect to him
in that county, the council wrote in his favour to lords
Russel and Windsor, to the justices of the peace, and to
several other gentlemen. Strype’s Cranmer, p. 292.
135 ― Strype’s Memor. of the Reformation, ii. 533.
136 ― Bishop Burnet, and Mr Strype, (Memor. of Reform, ii. 299,)
who have recorded this fact, conjectured that the patentee
was a relation of our Reformer. That he was his brother,
is evident from Knox’s letters, which mention his being
in England about this time. In a letter written in 1553,
he says: “My brother, Williame Knox, is presentlie with
me. What ye wald haif frome Scotland, let me knaw this
Monunday at nicht; for hie must depart on Tyisday.” MS.
Letters, p. 271. Perhaps the same person is referred to
in the following extract from another letter: “My brother
hath communicat his haill hart with me, and I persave the
mychtie operation of God. And sa let us be establissit in
his infinit gudnes and maist sure promissis.” Ib. p. 266.
William Knox afterwards became a preacher, and
was minister of Cockpen, in Mid-Lothian, after the
establishment of the Reformation in Scotland. No fewer
than fourteen ministers of the church of Scotland are
numbered among his descendants. Genealogical Account
of the Knoxes, apud Scott’s History of the Reformers in
Scotland, p. 152.
137 ― MS. Letters, p. 193. Knox’s Admonition to the Professors
of the Truth in England, p. 61, apud History, Edin. 1644,
4to.
138 ― The earl of Warwick, now created duke of Northumberland,
was appointed warden-general of the northern marches in
Oct. 1551. But being occupied in securing his interest at
court, he got himself excused from going north until June
1552. Strype’s Memor. of the Reformation, ii. 282, 339.
139 ― MS. Letters, p. 112, 173. Admonition, p. 51, apud History,
Edinburgh, 1644. Knox considered that the papists had a
secret hand in fomenting those dissensions which led to
the condemnation and death of the protector. Nor were his
suspicions ill-founded. See Strype’s Memor. of the Reform.
ii. 306‒7.
140 ― The duke’s letter was dated Nov. 23, 1552. Haynes, State
Papers, p. 136. Brand’s History of Newcastle, p. 304.
Redpath’s Border History, p. 577.
141 ― A great number of his letters in the MS. are superscribed
“To his sister.” It appears from internal evidence, that
this was a daughter of Mrs Bowes; and, although I cannot
be positive, I am inclined to think that she was the young
lady whom he married. One letter has this superscription,
“To Mariorie Bowes, who was his first wife.” In it he
addresses her by the name of _Sister_, and at the close,
says, “I think this be the first letter that ever I wrait
to you.” MS. Letters, p. 335. But there is no date by
which to compare it with other letters.
142 ― Henry Nevyl, earl of Westmoreland, was, by the interest of
the duke of Northumberland, admitted a member of the privy
council in 1552. He was also a member of the council for
the north, and lord lieutenant of the bishopric of Durham.
His private character was indifferent. Strype’s Memor. of
the Reformation, ii. 401, 457‒9.
143 ― MS. Letters, p. 267‒9.
144 ― MS. Letters, p. 112. Melchior Adam, Vitæ Theolog. Ext.
p. 137.
145 ― The letter last quoted. MS. Letters, p. 273‒4, compared
with p. 268.
146 ― MS. Letters, p. 276.
147 ― MS. Letters, p. 260‒1.
148 ― Ibid. p. 262.
149 ― Strype’s Cranmer, p. 292.
150 ― The account of his examination before the council is taken
from a letter of Knox, the substance of which has been
inserted by Calderwood, in his MS. History, and by Strype,
in his Memorials of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 400.
151 ― Luther having rejected with disdain the great offers by
which Alexander, the papal legate, attempted to gain him
over to the court of Rome, “He is a ferocious brute,”
exclaimed the legate, equally confounded and disappointed,
“whom nothing can soften, and who regards riches and
honours as mere dirt; otherwise the pope would long ago
have loaded him with favours.”――Beausobre’s History of
the Reformation, i. 395, 6. Macaulay’s Translation.
152 ― Bezæ Icones, Ee iij. See also Verheideni Effigies,
p. 92, 93. Melch. Adam. p. 137.
153 ― MS. Letters, p. 73. The passage will afterwards be quoted.
154 ― History of Newcastle, p. 304. Surtees’s Durham, vol. i.
p. lxx.
155 ― The churches of Geneva and Scotland did not agree in
all points. Though holidays were abolished in Geneva at
the commencement of the Reformation, the observance of
a number of them was very soon restored, and has always
continued in that church; but this practice was wholly
rejected by the church of Scotland, from the very first
establishment of the Reformation, and its introduction has
always been vigorously resisted by her. Other things in
which they differed might easily be mentioned.
156 ― Knox, Historie, p. 72‒74, and this Life, p. 63, 64.
157 ― Cald. MS. i. 250. During the reign of Edward, and even
the first years of that of his sister Elizabeth, absolute
conformity to the liturgy was not pressed upon ministers.
Strype’s Annals, i. 419, 432. Burnet, iii. 305, 311.
Hutchinson’s Antiq. of Durham, i. 453. Archbishop Parker,
in the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, administered the
elements to the communicants standing, in the cathedral
church of Canterbury. Her majesty’s commissioners
appointed the communion to be received in the same posture
in Coventry; and the practice was continued in that town
as late, at least, as the year 1608. Certain demands
propounded unto Richard, archbishop of Canterbury, p. 45,
anno 1605. Removal of Imputations laid upon the ministers
of Devon and Cornwall, p. 51, anno 1606. Dispute upon the
question of Kneeling, p. 131, anno 1608.