<h2 class="space"><SPAN name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></SPAN>CHAPTER IV</h2>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</SPAN></span></p>
<p class="center">THE PUBLIC LIFE: TO THE PARLIAMENT OF 1560</p>
<br/>
<p>Knox had preached only for a few months in St Andrews
in 1547, when the castle capitulated to the foreign fleet,
and he and his companions were flung into the French
galleys. There for nineteen months he toiled at the oar
under the lash, and through the cold of two winters, and
the heat of the intervening summer, had leisure to count
the cost of the choice so recently made. It is a tribute
to his constancy that men chiefly remember this dark
time by its spots of colour—as when, at Nantes, he flung
Our Lady's image into the Loire—'She is light enough:
let her learn to swim!' And when off St Andrews they
pointed out to him the steeple of the kirk, the emaciated
prisoner replied, 'Yes, I know it well: and I am fully
persuaded, how weak that ever I now appear, that I shall
not depart this life till that my tongue shall glorify His
godly name in the same place.' But this first apprenticeship
to sorrow went deep into the man. It was when
he was 'in Rouen, lying in irons, and sore troubled by
corporal infirmity, in a galley named <i>Notre Dame</i>,' that
he sent a letter to his St Andrews friends. And in it he
asks them to 'Consider'—his countrymen have scarcely
as yet considered it sufficiently—'Consider, brethren, it
is no speculative theologue which desireth to give you
courage, but even your brother in affliction, which partly
hath experience what Satan's wrath may do against the
chosen of God.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</SPAN> His spirit indeed was in no wise<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</SPAN></span>
broken: on his escape from France he became again a
garrison preacher, and gained over King Edward's rude
soldiers in Berwick an ascendancy, even greater than he
had held in St Andrews over the young lairds of Fife.
But, though not broken, it was chastened. It was during
the following years, and especially in 1553, that he wrote
the deeply sympathetic letters from which we have already
quoted. And in 1554, when he left England to escape
Mary Tudor, he introduces into a short but admirable
treatise on Prayer some autobiographical references, which
seem to date back to the extreme suffering of his captivity,
'when not only the ungodly, but even my faithful brethren,
yea, and my own self, that is, all natural understanding,
judged my cause (case) to be irremediable.'</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'The frail flesh, oppressed with fear and pain, desireth deliverance,
ever abhorring and drawing back from obedience giving. O
Christian brethren, I write by experience ... I know the grudging
and murmuring complaints of the flesh; I know the anger,
wrath, and indignation which it conceiveth against God, calling all
his promises in doubt, and being ready every hour utterly to fall
from God. Against which rests [remains] only faith.'</p>
</div>
<p>Knox's faith sprang readily to whatever active duty
was set before it. On his escape from France he spent,
as we have seen, five years in England, and at the close
of that period we have his own assurance that he had
become almost an Englishman.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'Sometime I have thought that impossible it had been, so to
have removed my affection from the realm of Scotland, that any
realm or nation could have been equally dear to me. But God I
take to record in my conscience that the troubles present (and
appearing to be) in the realm of England are doubly more dolorous
unto my heart than ever were the troubles of Scotland.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</SPAN></p>
</div>
<p>He had laboured incessantly in many parts of England,
first as licensed preacher and then as King's chaplain,
and this of course brought him in contact with<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</SPAN></span>
church politics as well as the Evangel. It was owing to
Knox's remonstrances that, when King Edward's Council
put kneeling at the Sacrament into the Prayer-Book,
they accompanied it with the Rubric, which is still retained,
and which testifies 'that thereby no adoration is
intended or ought to be done.' So far his position was
reasonable, and even conciliatory. But as early as 1550,
when requested, perhaps by the Council of the North,
to 'give his confession' in Newcastle as to the Mass,
he repeated the Puritan view of his first St Andrews
sermon, but now in his favourite form of a syllogism,
and with its major clause dangerously enlarged.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'All worshipping, honouring, or service invented by the brain of
man in the religion of God, without his own express commandment,
is <i>Idolatry</i>.<SPAN name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</SPAN> The Mass is invented by the brain of man without any
commandment of God, therefore it is idolatry.'</p>
</div>
<p>To Knox's five years in England now succeeded five
years which may be said to have been spent on the
Continent. He first drifted to Frankfort, and was put
in charge of the English congregation there. Very soon
the two parties, which have ever since divided the
Church of England, made their appearance in this
representative fragment of it. Knox, of course, took
the Puritan side as to the form of worship; but a large
part of his congregation insisted on the full service of
King Edward's book. The matter was brought to a
close in rather an unfortunate way by two of Knox's
opponents lodging an accusation against him before the
Magistrates, of treason against the Emperor, the English
Queen, and her Spanish husband. Frankfort was an imperial
city, and Knox was thus no longer safe there. He
went to Geneva, which was then, under Calvin's influence,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</SPAN></span>
an illustrious centre of the reformed faith; and was at
once called to be co-pastor there (along with Goodman)
of the English-speaking congregation. Knox's later
biographer points out the historic importance of this
'the first Puritan congregation.' It was the source of
Elizabethan Non-conformity, and 'it is in the writings
of Knox and Goodman that those doctrines were first
unflinchingly expounded which eventually became the
tradition of Puritanism.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</SPAN> The Church Order, too,
which they adopted became afterwards that of worship
in Scotland; their Psalms were the model for the English
and Scotch versions; and, above all, the Genevan
Bible, prepared by the members of Knox's congregation
at the very time he was their minister, continued for
three-quarters of a century thereafter to be 'the household
book of the English-speaking nations.' It is called
the happiest and most peaceful time of Knox's life.
But it was a time of incessant preparation for still greater
things, and in this short biography we must confine ourselves
to what bears either on the man himself or on his
supreme work for his native country.</p>
<p>For during all Knox's life on the Continent he seems
to have kept in view the problem of how the Evangel
could be set free in Scotland. He never had any
doubt as to the duty of the individual to confess it in
the teeth of the Magistrate and of the law. But how
could men combine together to do so, against authority
otherwise lawful? On this and similar points he proposed
questions on his first arrival in Switzerland to the
leading theologians. Bullinger, with the approval of
Calvin, gave an answer which may have suggested to
Knox the idea that a people (the Armenians are specially
instanced) may revolt against 'their legitimate
magistrate' who persecutes the truth, provided they<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</SPAN></span>
have an inferior magistrate to lead them.<SPAN name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</SPAN> And next year,
1555, Knox made a memorable visit to Scotland. There
James the Fifth's widow, Mary of Lorraine, was now
Regent, and so chief 'Magistrate.' She was during all
those years not disposed to be intolerant, and the prospect
was everywhere encouraging. From Edinburgh Knox
writes to Mrs Bowes (still in Northumberland), thanking
her for being</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'the instrument to draw me from the den of my own ease (you
alone did draw me from the rest of quiet study) to contemplate and
behold the fervent thirst of our brethren, night and day sobbing
and groaning for the bread of life. If I had not seen it with my eyes
in my own country, I could not have believed it. Depart I cannot,
unto such time as God quench their thirst a little.' And accordingly
later on he adds, 'The trumpet blew the old sound three days
together, till private houses of indifferent largeness could not contain
the voice of it. God for Christ his Son's sake grant me to be mindful
that the sobs of my heart have not been in vain, nor neglected
in the presence of his Majesty. O sweet were the death that
should follow such forty days in Edinburgh as here I have had
three!'<SPAN name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</SPAN></p>
</div>
<p>It was in the midst of this glowing enthusiasm that
Knox attended an Edinburgh supper party in the house
of Erskine, the Laird of Dun, where the question was
formally discussed whether those who believed the
Evangel could countenance by their presence the celebration
of the Mass? Knox maintained the negative,
and as young Maitland of Lethington and other acute
doubters were there, all views were well represented. But
in the end the Reformer's zeal prevailed, and another
step was taken to making Protestantism a public if not
a permitted thing in Scotland. From Edinburgh he
took journeys to Forfarshire, to West Lothian, to Ayrshire,
and to Renfrewshire; and after half a year spent
in incessant preaching, followed occasionally by admin<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</SPAN></span>istering
the Sacraments, he was at last cited to appear
before the bishops in the Blackfriars Church, Edinburgh.
He went, but attended by so many friends that nothing
was attempted against him for the time. And now, at
the suggestion of Glencairn and Marischal, two of the
lords who were favourable to the new doctrine, Knox sat
down to write a letter to the Queen Dowager, as Regent of
Scotland. It had hitherto been Mary of Lorraine's policy
to play off the Protestant party, which had leanings to
England, against the Catholic side, which was faithful to
France. Knox accordingly blesses 'God, who by the dew
of his heavenly grace, hath so quenched the fire of displeasure
in your Grace's heart,' and with unprecedented
courtesy apologises 'that a man of base estate and condition
dare enterprise to admonish a Princess so honourable,
endued with wisdom and graces singular.' Those
whom Knox represented were a small minority of Scotchmen;
but that did not prevent him demanding of the
Regent far more than mere neutrality or 'indifferency'
between the contending parties. He demands of her
the reform of both religion and the church. He admits
that 'your Grace's <i>power</i> is not so free as a public Reformation
perchance would require'; you 'cannot hastily
abolish superstition, ... which to a public Reformation
is requisite and necessary. But if the zeal of God's
glory be fervent in your Grace's heart, you will not by
wicked laws maintain idolatry, neither will you suffer
the fury of Bishops to murder and devour.' The Queen
Regent was not disposed to go very far with the bishops,
but still less was she fervent for God's glory and public
Reformation. Accordingly, on the first Court day she
handed Knox's letter, perhaps unread, to the Bishop of
Glasgow, with the words, 'Please you, my Lord, to read
a Pasquil.' The unwise jest came to Knox's ears, and
some years after he published his letter with resentful
additions and interpolations. In these he assumed<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</SPAN></span>—much
too soon—that there was no longer hope of the
Regent becoming personally convinced of the Evangel.
But he at the same time modified his 'Petition' on
behalf of his party to this, 'that our doctrine may be
tried by the plain word of God, and that liberty be
granted to us to utter and declare our minds at large in
every article and point which are now in controversy';
and on his own behalf and 'in the name of the Lord
Jesus, that with <i>indifferency</i> I may be heard to preach,
to reason, and to dispute in that cause.'</p>
<p>But now, in July 1556, letters came to Knox in
Edinburgh from his congregation in Geneva, 'commanding
him in God's name, as he was their chosen
pastor, to repair unto them for their comfort.' He at
once complied, sending before him from Norham to
Dieppe his wife and her mother. Scotland was not yet
ripe. The lay professors of the Evangel indeed were
not seriously molested after his departure. But on the
other hand Knox himself was at once cited to appear in
Edinburgh, condemned in absence as a contumacious
heretic, and burned at the Cross in the High Street—in
effigy. Neither this, nor his daily work in Geneva,
had the effect of withdrawing him for a day from his
solicitude for his native country. On leaving it he wrote
an admirable 'Letter of Wholesome Counsel'<SPAN name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</SPAN> urging
the continual study of the word of God in families and
in congregations.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'Within your own houses, I say, in some cases, ye are bishops
and kings; your wife, children, servants, and family are your
bishopric and charge; of you it shall be required how carefully and
diligently ye have always instructed them in God's true knowledge,
how that ye have studied in them to plant virtue and repress vice.
And therefore, I say, ye must make them partakers in reading, exhorting,
and in making common prayers, which, I would, in every
house were used once a day at least.'</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>And for each congregation he urged an order of procedure
much nearer that of apostolic times than that
which the Reformed Church, at his own instance, afterwards
instituted in Scotland.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'I think it necessary that for the conference [comparing] of
Scriptures, assemblies of brethren be had. The order therein to be
observed is expressed by St Paul,' ... after 'confession' and
'invocation,' 'let some place of Scripture be plainly and distinctly
read, so much as shall be thought sufficient for one day or time,
which ended, if any brother have exhortation, question, or doubt,
let him not fear to speak or move the same, so that he do it with
moderation, either to edify or to be edified. And hereof I doubt
not but great profit shall shortly ensue; for, first, by hearing reading
and conferring the Scriptures in the Assembly, the whole body
of the Scriptures of God shall become familiar, the judgments and
spirits of men shall be tried, their patience and modesty shall be
known, and finally their gifts and utterance shall appear.'</p>
</div>
<p>If any difficulty of interpretation occurs, it should be
'put in writing before ye dismiss the congregation,'
with the view of consulting some wise adviser. Many,
he hopes, would be glad to help them.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'Of myself I will speak as I think; I will more gladly spend
fifteen hours in communicating my judgment with you, in explaining
as God pleases to open to me any place of Scripture, than half an
hour in any matter beside.'</p>
</div>
<p>Before six months had passed, however, Knox, who
was again abroad, had become troubled by the too great
freedom of opinion and the dangers of consequent freedom
of life even in the Protestant community, and his
letter 'To the Brethren'<SPAN name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</SPAN> in Scotland from Dieppe,
against Anabaptists and Sectarians, foreshadows the
more rigid form which was to be one day impressed upon
Church doctrine and life in his native land.</p>
<p>During the ensuing year, 1557, everything was peaceful
and hopeful. The Protestants kept their worship<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</SPAN></span>
private, but it spread from town to town, and from the
land of one friendly baron to his neighbours' territory.
Knox had been formally condemned, but those he left
behind were not molested, and in March four of the
Lords wrote him to Geneva asking him to return to
Scotland. They accompanied this with assurances that
though 'the Magistrates in this country' were in the
same state as before, the Churchmen there were daily in
less estimation. After consulting Calvin, Knox said
farewell to his congregation, and had got as far homewards
as Dieppe, where he was much disappointed to
receive 'contrary letters.' His reply, indignantly acquiescing,
indicates the plan which by this time he had
formed in order to solve the combined difficulties in theory
and practice which beset Scotland. He reminded his
correspondents—Glencairn, Lorne, Erskine, and James
Stewart—in very memorable words, that they were themselves
magistrates, or at least representatives of the
people, and had duties accordingly.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'Your subjects, yea, your brethren, are oppressed, their bodies
and souls holden in bondage; and God speaketh to your consciences
(unless ye be dead with the blind world) that you ought to hazard
your own lives (be it against kings and emperors) for their deliverance.
For only for that cause are ye called Princes of the people,
and ye receive of your brethren 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 utmost of your
power.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</SPAN></p>
</div>
<p>The effect of this and other encouragements was to
bring matters to a point in Scotland. The Protestant
party, which had now been joined by Argyll and
Morton, entered into the kind of engagement which
was then called a 'Band,' and afterwards became widely<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</SPAN></span>
known in Scotland as a 'Covenant.' This document,
dated 3rd December 1557, bound the signatories to
'apply our whole power, substance, and our very lives,
to maintain, set forward, and establish the most blessed
Word of God and his congregation ... unto which
holy word and congregation we do join us, and also do
forsake and renounce the congregation of Satan.' This
important step, which seems to have been represented
by rumour in Dieppe as something like rebellion in
Scotland, apparently startled Knox. A fortnight after
it took place he writes the 'Lords of the Congregation,'
as they were henceforth called, a letter of caution, urging
them to</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'seek the favour of the Authority, that by it, if possible be, the
cause in which ye labour may be promoted, <i>or at the least not persecuted</i>,
which thing after all humble request if ye can not attain,
then, with open and solemn protestation of your obedience to be
given to the Authority in all things not plainly repugning to God,
ye lawfully may attempt the extremity, which is to provide,
whether the Authority will consent or no, that Christ's Evangel
may be duly preached, and his holy Sacraments rightly ministered
unto you, and to your brethren the subjects of that realm.'</p>
</div>
<p>The Lords of the Congregation were disposed to be
at least as cautious as Knox, and during the following
year, 1558, there was a remarkable approximation to a
possible settlement in Scotland on the basis of toleration.
The 'Band' of the congregation does not at all
suggest that the Barons who joined in it, and thereby
bound themselves to defend their religion against the
pressure and tyranny of outsiders, would think it right
themselves to exercise a counter pressure and tyranny
upon their own vassals within their own lands. And
Knox's intimation that the Authority—<i>i.e.</i>, the Regent
and Parliament—though refusing to promote the Evangel,
ought to be asked at least <i>not to persecute it</i>, was most
timely. He held, indeed, at this time, that such a con<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</SPAN></span>cession,
if granted, ought to bar not only insurrection,
but even a partial and divided establishment of religion.
The state of matters was reflected in two resolutions
which the Congregation came to immediately after the
Band. By the first, common prayers were to be read on
Sundays in the churches—which must mean in the
churches where the innovators had influence—by the
curates, 'if qualified,' and, if not, by those of the
parishioners who were. But the second provided that
preaching be, in the meantime, 'had and used privately
in quiet houses,' great conventions being avoided 'till
God move the Prince to grant public preaching.' And
another influence now entered into the history. Knox
had initiated an aristocratic revolution. But the Burghs
of Scotland had been there, as in every other country of
Europe, fortresses of freedom and the advance-guard of
constitutional civilisation. And it was now resolved,
that the brethren in every <i>town</i> 'should assemble
together. And this our weak beginning did God so
bless, that within few months the hearts of many were so
strengthened, that we sought to have the <i>face of a church</i>
among us.'... And the town of Dundee in particular
'began to erect the face of a public church reformed.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</SPAN>
Henceforward the great towns became more and more
prepared to be the centres of the future struggle.
Meantime, however, early in 1558, the 'First Petition
of the Protestants of Scotland' was presented to the
Regent. It protested against the existing tyranny, and
craved, in general and cautious terms, a 'public Reformation,'
laying stress on church services in the vulgar
tongue, and offering to submit differences to be publicly
decided, not only by the New Testament, but by the
writings of the Fathers and the laws of Justinian. The
offer seems to have been at once accepted. But, according
to the account of Knox, who, of course, was still<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</SPAN></span>
abroad, the proposed public discussion came to nothing,
because both parties fell back upon other conditions of
arbitration; the Protestants now demanding that the Scriptures
alone should decide all controversy, the Catholics
insisting on Councils and Canon Law. The next step
was a proposal by the Bishops of 'Articles of Reconciliation,'
according to which the Old Church was to
remain publicly established, while the Protestants might
privately pray and baptise in the vulgar tongue. This
the innovating party declined, and pressed for 'reformation.'
And now the Regent, whom Knox afterwards
came to regard as 'crafty and dissimulate,' and who, no
doubt, even now desired to please and 'make her profit
of both parties,' announced to the Congregation her
decision. 'She gave to us permission <i>to use ourselves</i>
godly, according to our desires, provided that we should
not make public assemblies in Edinburgh or Leith'—<i>i.e.</i>,
in the capital. The Queen went so far as to promise
positive 'assistance to our preachers,' the assistance no
doubt being rather private and personal, and the whole
arrangement being an interim one, 'until some uniform
order might be established by a Parliament.' It was a
great step in advance; indeed, Knox says, 'we departed
fully contented with her answer;'<SPAN name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</SPAN> and it is impossible
not to speculate on what the result might have been had
the order finally established by Parliament been that
both parties should permanently 'use themselves godly
according to their desires,' with a publicly acknowledged
right of proselytism or persuasion.</p>
<p>But from both sides there still came some things
hostile to the advent in Scotland of that toleration
which the modern conscience has approved. In April
1558 Walter Myln, a priest eighty-two years of age, was
seized by order of the Archbishop of St Andrews, condemned
for heresy, and burned there amid the general<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</SPAN></span>
but ineffectual resentment of the people. The sentence
was quite legal under the laws which still enforced
membership of the Catholic Church upon all Scotchmen.
But the last man who had been so condemned
was Knox; and he no longer delayed to publish in
Geneva an Appellation or appeal against his sentence,
directed to the nobles, the estates and the commonalty
of Scotland. His demand for a return to the primitive
Gospel under the Divine authority is powerful and
eloquent. His reasons, on the other hand, for 'appeal
from the sentence and judgment of the visible Church
to the knowledge of the temporal magistrate' are difficult
to reconcile with the position which Knox afterwards
took up when that Church was on his own side;
and they are indeed chiefly drawn from the Old Testament.
It is not until we observe from his re-statement
of the case farther on, that his was an appeal 'against
a sentence of death,' that the argument once more
straightens itself out so as to suit the lips even of Paul.
But Knox declines now to remain on the defensive.
He accuses his accusers of heresy and idolatry, and
calls upon the nobles of Scotland to decide against
them according to God's Word. Here, again, the
appeal, so long as it is made to the conscience of all
men and of nobles alike, is very cogent. Nor is it
less so as addressed specially to the most representative
and intelligent Scotchmen of the time, for such the
Lords of the Congregation undoubtedly were. It becomes
doubtful only when it insists on the right of
these temporal 'Princes of the people' to reform the
Church—apparently even without the consent of its
majority; and it becomes worse than doubtful when
he urges their duty as magistrates to repress false religion
and to punish idolatry with death. Along with
this, however, was published a shorter letter 'To his
Beloved Brethren the Commonalty of Scotland.' To<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</SPAN></span>
these subjects born within the same, their brother
John Knox wishes in it 'the spirit of righteous judgment;'
and that in a tone of independence which must
have sounded to Scottish peasants and burghers like a
call to a new life. For in this treatise, unlike the last,
each private Scottish man is urged to judge of what
claimed to be the original truth, even against an admittedly
ancient system. And 'If that system was an
error in the beginning, so it is in the end, and the
longer that it be followed, and the more that do receive
it, it is the more pestilent, and more to be avoided.'</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'Neither would I that ye should esteem the Reformation and
care of religion less to appertain to you, because ye are no kings,
rulers, judges, nobles, nor in authority. Beloved brethren, ye are
God's creatures, created and formed to His own image and similitude,
for whose redemption was shed the most precious blood of
the only beloved Son of God.... For albeit God hath put and
ordained distinction and difference between the king and subjects,
between the rulers and the common people, in the regimen and
administration of civil policies, yet in the hope of the life to come
He hath made all equal.... And this is the equality which
is between the king and subjects, the most rich or noble, and between
the poorest and men of lowest estate; to wit, that as the
one is obliged to believe in heart, and with mouth to confess, the
Lord Jesus to be the only Saviour of the world, so also is the
other.'</p>
</div>
<p>And by this time Knox has reasoned out for himself
the right of the people to maintain the true Church, and
to band in defence of it—though that right he even now
recognises only when they cannot do better.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'And if in this point your superiors be negligent, or yet pretend
to maintain tyrants in their tyranny, most justly ye may provide
true teachers for yourselves, be it in your cities, towns, or villages:
them ye may maintain and defend against all that shall persecute
them, and by that means shall labour to defraud you of that most
comfortable food of your souls, Christ's evangel truly preached.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</SPAN></span>
Ye may, moreover, withhold the fruits and profits which your false
Bishops and clergy most unjustly receive of you, unto such time as
they be compelled faithfully to do their charge and duties.'</p>
</div>
<p>These appeals by Knox can only have made their
way in Scotland gradually and privately. But as the
year 1558 went on, the prospect of union became more
hopeful. The Queen Regent acted as if 'the duty of
the Magistrate' were to prevent majorities and minorities
from laying hands on each other. And, then at least,
this was not an easy work. The Bishops tyrannised in
details in localities where the barons were still on their
side; but Myln was the last Protestant martyr in Scotland.
On the other hand, the adherents of the congregation
became so bold, especially in the towns, that
(as Knox tells us) 'the images were stolen away in all
parts of the country, and in Edinburgh was that great
idol called St Gile first <i>drowned</i> in the North Loch, and
after burned.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</SPAN> This was too much, and the Regent
allowed the Bishops to summon the iconoclast preachers
for the 19th of July. But a party of Western lairds
heard of it on their way from the army of the Border,
and insisted on interviewing the Queen. Knox's vivid
account of what followed must be quoted. It includes
a delicious phonograph of the Scots speech of Mary of
Lorraine, who, to the desire to please all men which was
common to her with her more famous daughter, seems
to have added real good nature and kindliness of heart.
James Chalmers of Gadgirth, a rough Ayrshireman,
burst out against the Bishops—</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'"Madam, we vow to God we shall make one day of it. They
oppress us and our tenants for feeding of their idle bellies; they
trouble our preachers, and would murder them and us: shall we
suffer this any longer? No, madam, it shall not be." And therewith
every man put on his steel bonnet. There was heard nothing
of the Queen's part but "My joys, my hearts, what ails you? Me<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</SPAN></span>
means no evil to you nor to your preachers. The Bishops shall do you
no wrong. Ye are all my loving subjects. Me knew nothing of this
proclamation. The day of your preachers shall be discharged, and
me will hear the controversy that is betwixt the Bishops and you.
They shall do you no wrong. My Lords," said she to the Bishops,
"I forbid you either to trouble them or their preachers." And
unto the gentlemen, who were wondrously commoved, she turned
again and said, "O, my hearts, should ye not love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your mind? and should ye not
love your neighbours as yourselves?" With these and the like fair
words she kept the Bishops from buffets at that time.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</SPAN></p>
</div>
<p>Her daughter Mary, the celebrated Queen of Scots,
had been married in April to Francis, the Dauphin of
France, and the Regent, rejoicing in this long hoped-for
alliance, had one thing more at heart. The Scots Parliament
was to meet in November, and she hoped that it
would confer the crown 'Matrimonial' of Scotland upon
her son-in-law, thus consolidating the two kingdoms. In
view of this meeting the Lords of the Congregation prepared
a petition, the leading prayer of which would have
practically freed Scotland from the intolerance of existing
legislation in the matter of religion—</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'We most humbly desire that <i>all such Acts of Parliament</i>, as in
the time of darkness gave power to the churchmen to execute their
tyranny against us, by reason that we to them were delated as
heretics, may be <i>suspended and abrogated</i>.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</SPAN></p>
</div>
<p>Here again was a proposal which, if taken by itself,
would have satisfied the modern view of liberty of conscience.
But the petitioners went on to say that they
did not object to a <i>temporal</i> judge of heresy, provided
he judged according to the Word of God; and they
looked forward to a decision of 'all controversies in
religion,' not however by Parliament, but by a General
Council. This proposal was first handed to the Queen
Regent, who 'spared not amiable looks and good words<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</SPAN></span>
in abundance, but always she kept our Bill close in her
pocket.' Both parties in Parliament being thus pleased,
the Crown Matrimonial was consented to, and before
the Session closed, the Protestant Lords read an important
protest, repeating the positions which they had
already taken up.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>1. 'We protest, that seeing we cannot obtain a just reformation,
according to God's word, that it be lawful to us <i>to use ourselves</i> in
matters of religion and conscience, as we must answer unto God.</p>
<p>2. 'That we shall incur no danger in life or lands, or other
political pains, for not observing such Acts as heretofore have passed
in favour of our adversaries.'</p>
</div>
<p>They added a protest that if any tumult should arise
'for the diversity of religion,' and if any abuses should
be 'violently reformed,' it should not be imputed to
them, who desired a reformation in matters of religion by
the Authority. From that Authority, however, they, in
closing—somewhat inconsistently but most rightfully—demanded
once more the 'indifferency' which becometh
God's Lieutenant.</p>
<p>Parliament declined to record the Protest, but the
Queen Regent said in her confidential way to the Lords,
'Me will remember what is protested; and me shall put
good order after this to all things.' Knox was delighted,
and in writing to Calvin commended her 'for excellent
knowledge in God's word, and good will towards the
advancement of his glory.' There is no reason to
suppose that Mary of Lorraine had attained to much
more than a kindly appreciation of all parties around
her, and to that general sense of justice which is strong
in rulers and other men so long as they have no personal
interest to the contrary. Yet under this feminine
'regimen' Scotland was now within measurable distance
of being, alone among the commonwealths of Europe,
the home of liberty of worship and freedom of conscience.
But that great time was not come; and the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</SPAN></span>
small northern land was now caught up again into the
whirl of European politics. On the 17th November
1558 Mary of England, the unhappy wife of Philip,
died; and her Protestant sister Elizabeth, the daughter
of Anne Boleyn, succeeded. It became at once the
chief point in the policy of Catholic Europe that France
and Scotland should be fast bound together in religion
and turned, along with Spain, as one force for the
restoration or re-conquest of England. For if the
English queen was an illegitimate heretic, then Mary
Stuart, already Queen of Scotland and Dauphiness
of France, was now Queen of England too; and
without delay the French king quartered the arms of
England with those of Mary's own country and that of
her adoption. The magnificent bribe of a third crown
for that fair 'daughter of debate' was too much for her
mother in Scotland, who in any case would have found
a continued toleration there irreconcileable with the
traditions of their House of Guise. The Regent now,
in her mild way, joined the cruel Catholic crusade of
the French Court, and from the beginning of 1559 the
conciliatory policy which had distinguished the previous
year in Scotland was at an end.</p>
<p>But its results were not ended. They had spread
through all ranks, and had gone down to the foundations
of society. On New Year's Day of 1559 there was
found affixed to the door of every religious house in
Scotland the following document—the most extraordinary
imitation of a legal writ that Scotland has seen.
It is probably not written by Knox, but by some other
strong pen. It bears to be a notice or 'summons' of
ejectment for the ensuing Whitsunday, and is called</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">THE BEGGARS' WARNING.</p>
<p>The Blind, Crooked, Bedrels [bedfast], Widows, Orphans, and
all other Poor, so visited by the hand of God as they may
not work,</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">TO</p>
<p>The Flocks of all Friars within this realm, we wish restitution of
wrongs bypast, and reformation in time coming, for salutation.</p>
<hr class="short" />
<p>Ye yourselves are not ignorant, and though ye would be it is now,
thanks to God, known to the whole world, by His infallible word,
that the benignity or alms of all Christian people pertains to us
allanerly [exclusively]; which ye, being hale of body, stark, sturdy,
and able to work, what [partly] under pretence of poverty (and
nevertheless possessing most easily all abundance) what [partly]
through cloaked and hooded simplicity, though your proudness is
known, and what [partly] by feigned holiness, which now is declared
superstition and idolatry, have these many years, express against
God's word and the practice of His Holy Apostles, to our great torment
alas! most falsely stolen from us. And as ye have, by your false
doctrine and wresting of God's word (learned of your father Satan),
induced the whole people high and low, into sure hope and belief,
that to clothe, feed, and nourish you is the only acceptable alms
allowed before God, and to give one penny or one piece of bread
once in the week, is enough for us; Even so ye have persuaded
them to build to you great hospitals, and maintain you therein by their
purse, which only pertains now to us by all law, as builded and
doted [given] to the poor—of whose number ye are not, nor can be
repute, neither by the law of God, nor yet by no other law proceeding
of nature, reason, or civil policy.... We have thought
good, therefore, before we enter with you in conflict, to warn you,
in the name of the great God, by this public writing, affixed on your
gates, where ye now dwell, that ye remove forth of our said hospitals
betwixt this and the feast of Whitsunday next, so that we the
only lawful proprietors thereof may enter thereto, and afterward
enjoy these <i>commodities of the Kirk</i>, which ye have hereunto
wrongously holden from us: Certifying you, if ye fail, we will at the
said term, in whole number (with the help of God and the assistance
of His saints in earth, of whose readie support we doubt not), enter
and take possession of <i>our said patrimony</i>, and eject you utterly
forth of the same.</p>
<p><i>Let him therefore that before has stolen, steal no more; but rather
let him work with his hands that he may be helpful to the poor.</i></p>
<p class="center">FROM THE WHOLE CITIES, TOWNS, AND VILLAGES OF SCOTLAND,<br/>
THE FIRST DAY OF JANUARY, 1558 {1559}.<SPAN name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</SPAN></p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>As it turned out, this summons was in some cases
literally fulfilled, and a revolutionary ejectment carried
out by Whitsunday 1559. But now from another side
came another warning to put the house of the Church
in order. The Catholic barons presented a petition for
its reform, and the Regent called a Provincial Council
on 1st March. It dealt, however, almost exclusively with
the lives and duties of the clergy, and leaving untouched
the central grievance—the legal authority of the Church
and of the Pope over all subjects—had no effect
whatever on the public. Immediately after, all 'unauthorised'
preaching was forbidden. The Protestants,
astonished, waited on the Regent and reminded her of
her promises. She replied, in words which were often
recalled during the reigns of her Stewart descendants,
that 'it became not subjects to burden their Princes
with promises, farther than it pleaseth them to keep the
same,' and the preachers were ordered to appear before
her at Stirling. But now Knox, who had kept up constant
communication from Geneva with his friends,
suddenly appears on the scene. On 2d May he writes
from Edinburgh to Mrs Locke:</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'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, where 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.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</SPAN></p>
</div>
<p>The day after this letter was written, Knox was 'blown
loud to the horn,' <i>i.e.</i>, declared an excommunicated outlaw:
but he had meantime left for Dundee, where he
was received with acclamation, and from thence departed
to Perth, now the centre of Protestantism. There, day
by day, he preached to excited multitudes in the Parish<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</SPAN></span>
Church; and it was after a sermon there, 'vehement
against idolatry,' that a foolish priest, attempting to
perform mass in the same building, was set upon by
the mob of Perth, who had an old feud with the
clergy. From the church the multitude streamed
away to the magnificent Religious Houses which had
adorned the town, and sacked and burned them so
thoroughly that only the walls were left standing. It
wanted yet four days to that Whitsunday, for ejection
on which the 'rascal multitude' had last New Year's
Day warned the Friars! The Queen Regent resented
this outrageous violence, but was forced to come to an
interim agreement with the Lords of the Congregation.
On her entry into Perth they moved into Fife, and Knox
having preached in Crail and Anstruther, resolved to do
so also in the Parish Church of St Andrews on Sunday.
But the St Andrews populace had not yet declared themselves;
the Regent's hostile army was only twelve miles
off; and the Archbishop—who had occupied the town
with a hundred spears and a dozen of culverins—now
threatened his life if he attempted it. It was a moment
for a bold man. At the hour fixed Knox made his
appearance. No one ventured to attack him. He
preached with his usual impetuous eloquence on
'casting the buyers and sellers out of the temple,'
and at its close the magistrates and council permitted
the majority of the people to destroy most of the
monasteries, and strip the churches and cathedral of
their apparatus of 'idolatry.' Knox was always more
comfortable where he could say that such proceedings
were countenanced by the local authority, or by the
majority of a civic community. In Edinburgh, to
which the Congregation next moved, the majority had
hitherto been hostile to them; and now, on the Queen
Regent's departure, the pulpits were for the first time
opened to what was the legitimate glory of the new move<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</SPAN></span>ment—free
and unfettered preaching. Knox, church-statesman
though he was, threw himself into this work
with a delight that lifted him above calculation of
consequences.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'The long thirst of my wretched heart is satisfied, in abundance
that is above my expectation; for now, forty days and more hath
God used my tongue in my native country to the manifestation of
His glory. Whatever now shall follow, as touching my own carcase,
His Holy Name be praised.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</SPAN></p>
</div>
<p>The castle, however, still remained faithful to the
Regent, and on her forces approaching Edinburgh,
both parties agreed to a truce till January, which, as
respects the town and its religion, provided that—</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'The town of Edinburgh shall, without compulsion, use and choose
what religion and manner thereof they please, to the said day; <i>so
that every man may have freedom to use his own conscience</i> to the day
foresaid.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</SPAN></p>
</div>
<p>The truce was to be for six months, to January 1560,
and it was employed by both parties in preparing for a
renewed struggle, and, on the side of the Congregation,
in negotiations with Elizabeth and her ministers. Politically,
this last step was of the highest importance. For
the first time for centuries, it healed the breach with 'our
auld enemies of England,' as the Scots statutes had so<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</SPAN></span>
often described them, and founded an alliance between
the two kingdoms, which has since that date been only
changed in order to become a union. And in this
negotiation the agent and secretary was Knox.<SPAN name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</SPAN> He
corresponded with the Queen's great minister Cecil
(Elizabeth herself would not hear Knox's name). And
it says not a little for the self-command and honesty of
the English statesman, that he trusted so fully a man
whose first letter, written several years before—a letter,
too, asking a favour—commenced by Knox's 'discharging
his conscience' in this way:—</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'In time past, being overcome with common iniquity, you have
followed the world in the way of perdition: for ... to the
shedding of the blood of God's dear children have you, by
silence, consented and subscribed. Of necessity it is, that carnal
wisdom and worldly policy, (to both which, you are bruited to be
much inclined) give place to God's simple and naked truth.'</p>
</div>
<p>Cecil had made no answer to this or to similar
subsequent remarks, but he now wrote asking the
Congregation,</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'if support should be sent hence, what manner of amity might
ensue betwixt these two realms, and how the same might be
hoped to be perpetual, and not to be so slender as heretofore hath
been, without other assurance of continuance than from time to
time hath pleased France.'</p>
</div>
<p>And the answer, in Knox's handwriting, is signed
by the Protestant lords, and assures England</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'of our constancy (as men may promise) till our lives end; yea,
farther, we will divulgate and set abroad a charge and commandment
to our posterity, that the amity and league between you and
us contracted and begun in Christ Jesus may by them be kept
inviolated for ever.'</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>There was to be in the future a still more Solemn
League and Covenant between the two nations, it too
having for its object the deliverance (and, alas! also
the uniformity) of religion in both kingdoms. But
that public, and this private, league were alike disavowed
by the Sovereign, and both became the badge
of rebellion. The Queen Regent, indeed, had now
fortified Leith, and was filling it with French soldiers.
The Lords of the Congregation, founding on this
as a breach of faith, resolved to suspend her from
the regency, and did so by a proclamation, strangely
signed: 'By us, the nobility and commons of the
Protestants of the Church of Scotland.' The preachers
approved, Knox, however, demanding that a door be
still kept open for her restoration. War, of course, at
once followed, and it turned out to be very much a
fight between Edinburgh and Leith, then not unequally
matched.<SPAN name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</SPAN> Soon the Protestants got the
worst of it. On the last day of October the French,
pouring up Leith Walk, drove them back into the
Canongate, attacked Leith Wynd, and sent their
horsemen in headlong flight through the Netherbow
Port and up the High Street. Five days after,
the forces of the Congregation having advanced to
Restalrig, were enclosed by two advancing bodies of
the enemy, and so jammed in near Holyrood, between
the crags of the Calton on the one side and the
crags of Arthur Seat on the other, as to be extricated
only with most serious loss. Confusion and dismay<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</SPAN></span>
seized upon all, and at midnight they marched out of
Edinburgh, pursued by voices of reproach and execration
from the overhanging roofs. Next night they
gathered helplessly at Stirling. But on the following
day Knox entered the pulpit there, and preached a
memorable sermon. It recalled the despairing Congregation
to a mood of resolute trust and hope. And
yet his text was the Psalm which tells of the vine
brought from Egypt to be planted in the land, but
now wasted and broken down; and the preacher
throughout refused even to suggest to the shrinking
multitude any lower hope than the vouchsafed shining
again of the Divine countenance. There remains only,
he concluded,</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'that we turn to the Eternal our God, who beats down to death,
to the intent that he may raise up again, to leave the remembrance of
his wondrous deliverance, to the praise of his own name ... yea,
whatsoever shall become of us and of our mortal carcases, I doubt
not but that this cause, in despite of Satan, shall prevail in the
realm of Scotland.'</p>
</div>
<p>But his words were as life from the dead, and the
sermon, which Buchanan also commemorates, was long
after recalled by the preacher himself in St Giles, in
another great crisis of the Evangel.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'From the beginning of God's mighty working within this realm,
I have been with you in your most desperate tentations. Ask your
own consciences, and let them answer you before God, if that I—not
I, but God's Spirit by me—in your greatest extremity willed you
not ever to depend upon your God, and in His name promised unto
you victory and preservation from your enemies, so that ye would
only depend upon his protection and prefer His glory to your own
lives and worldly commodity. In your most extreme dangers I
have been with you: St Johnstone, Cupar Muir, and the Crags of
Edinburgh, are yet recent in my heart: yea, that dark and dolorous
night wherein all ye, my Lords, with shame and fear left this town,
is yet in my mind; and God forbid that ever I forget it!'</p>
</div>
<p>'The voice of one man,' it was afterwards said of<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</SPAN></span>
Knox by the English ambassador in Edinburgh, 'is able
in one hour to put more life in us than five hundred
trumpets continually blustering in our ears.' This day
in Stirling was the very lowest point of the fortunes
of the Congregation, and from this hour they began
to rise. There were reverses still; but Scotland was
sick of the French, and the end was to come with
the coming year. In April 1560, the English forces
surrounded Leith; the Queen Regent withdrew from
it into the Castle of Edinburgh; and the Lords of
the Congregation, stronger than they were originally
by the accession of the Duke of Hamilton and the
Earls of Morton and Huntly,<SPAN name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</SPAN> made one more
'Band' or Covenant. In it for the last time they fall
back on liberty of conscience; for all they bind themselves
to is,</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'with our bodies, goods, friends, and all that we may do, to set
forward the Reformation of Religion, according to God's word; and
procure, by all means possible, that the truth of God's word may
have <i>free passage within this realm</i>, with due administration of the
Sacraments, and all things depending upon the said word.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</SPAN></p>
</div>
<p>A copy of this Band, by which each subscriber also
bound himself not to make separate overtures to the
Regent, was brought to her in the Castle. Knox, who
by this time was become very hostile to Mary of
Lorraine, and reports much doubtful gossip as to her
rejoicing over the victories and cruelties of her soldiers,
says that when she read the Band, she spoke in quite
another and milder sense.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'The malediction of God I give unto them that counselled me to
persecute the preachers, and to refuse the petitions of the best part
of the true subjects of this realm.'</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>But the time was past for her co-operating for the
welfare of that realm. She had fallen into a dropsy,
and, becoming daily worse, sent for the Earls Argyll,
Glencairn, and Marischal, and the Lord James (her
husband's son). They came to her separately, and to
each she confessed that she had made a mistake, and
should have acceded to the arrangement they had proposed.
'They gave unto her both the counsel and the
comfort which they could in that extremity, and willed
her to send for some godly learned man, of whom she
might receive instruction.' They proposed Willock;
but even that gentle preacher did not set forth 'the
virtue and strength of the death of Jesus Christ,' without
touching also upon 'the vanity and abomination of that
idol, the mass.' The dying woman said nothing, good
or bad, of the form in which Christianity had been first
presented, long years ago, to her childish eyes. But
'she did openly confess "that there was no salvation
but in and by the death of Jesus Christ."' And Knox,
holding that in this 'Christ Jesus got no small victory'
over her, grudges extremely that to her approval of 'the
chief head of our religion, wherein we dissent from all
Papists and Papistry,' she added no condemnation of
opposing ways. But Mary of Lorraine had uttered the
last even of her good-natured 'maledictions,' and on the
10th of June the Regent of Scotland ended her 'unhappy
life'—a life, that is, which had pleased neither
party, though in its later years a great revolution, carried
through at the expense of comparatively little violence
or bloodshed, had narrowly missed attaining an even
ideal result.</p>
<p>And now those troubles were over. Nine months before,
her daughter had become Queen of France, and a
treaty was now concluded at Edinburgh, between the
Queen of England on the one part and the 'King and
Queen of France and Scotland' on the other, by which<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</SPAN></span>
the French troops and officials withdrew from Scotland,
and an indemnity was granted to the insurgent nobility
for all that the Congregation had done. Elizabeth still
looked on them as rebels; but Cecil, with more foresight,
instructed her plenipotentiaries to provide 'that
the government of Scotland be granted to the nation of
the land'; and the treaty provided for a Council of
Administration in the absence from Edinburgh of the
Sovereigns, and—more important still—for an immediate
meeting of the Estates, which was to be as valid as if
presided over by them.<SPAN name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</SPAN> The most important Parliament
which Scotland has ever seen sat on 1st August
1560, and was very largely attended by nobles, lairds, and
burgh representatives. Naturally, a petition was at once
laid before it for the abolition of the old Church system.
Equally naturally, this was met by a request for a statement
of the new Church doctrine—a confession of faith.
It was prepared by Knox and three others, and in four
days presented to the Parliament.</p>
<p>'I never heard,' says the English envoy to Cecil,
'matters of so great importance, neither sooner despatched
nor with better will agreed unto.' Knox's
narrative, which is borne out by the records of Parliament,
says that</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'This our Confession was publicly read, first in audience of the
Lords of the Articles, and after, in audience of the whole Parliament,
where were present, not only such as professed Christ Jesus,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</SPAN></span>
but also a great number of the adversaries of our religion, such as
the fore-named bishops, and some others of the temporal estate,
who were commanded, in God's name, to object, if they could,
anything against that doctrine.'</p>
</div>
<p>The ministers were present to defend it, but there
was no opposition, and a second day was appointed,
when the Confession was again read over, article by
article, and then a vote was taken. Three, or at the most
five, temporal peers voted against ratifying it; 'and yet
for their disassenting they produced no better reason
but, We will believe as our fathers believed.' Nor was
this strange, for the Bishops present, Knox says, 'spake
nothing,' Randolph explaining that the three who got to
their feet, headed by the St Andrew's primate, said the
doctrine was a matter new and strange to them, which
they had not examined, and which they could not
'utterly condemn,' or, on the other hand, quite consent
to. The vote on the side of the majority was largely a
rejoicing outburst of individual conviction. The Earl
Marischal indeed, took the obvious ground that</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'seeing that my Lords Bishops, who for their learning can, and
for that zeal they should bear to the verity, would (as I suppose)
gainsay anything that directly repugns to the verity of God—seeing,
I say, my Lords here present speak nothing in the contrary of the
doctrine proposed, I cannot but hold it to be the very truth of God,
and the contrary to be deceivable doctrine.'</p>
</div>
<p>The rest of the Lords, says Randolph, with common
consent, and 'as glad a will as ever I heard men speak,'
allowed the same.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>'Divers, with protestation of their conscience and faith, desired
rather presently to end their lives than ever to think contrary unto
that allowed there. Many also offered to shed their blood in defence
of the same. The old Lord of Lindsay, as grave and goodly
a man as ever I saw, said: "I have lived many years; I am the
oldest in this company of my sort; now that it hath pleased God to
let me see this day, where so many nobles and others have allowed
so worthy a work, I will say, with Simeon, <i>Nunc dimittis</i>."'</p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>It was the birthday of a people. For not in that
assembly alone, and within the dim walls of the old
Parliament House of Edinburgh, was that faith confessed
and those vows made. Everywhere the Scottish burgess
and the Scottish peasant felt himself called to deal, individually
and immediately, with Christianity and the
divine; and everywhere the contact was ennobling.
'Common man' as he was, 'the vague, shoreless universe
had become for him a firm city, and a dwelling-place
which he knew. Such virtue was in belief: in these
words well spoken, <i>I believe</i>.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</SPAN> But being a common
man in Scotland, his religion could not be isolated, or
his faith for himself alone. Wherever he dwelt, 'in our
towns and places reformed,' he was already a member of
a self-governing republic, a republic within the Scottish
State but not of it, and subject to an invisible King.
'The good old cause' was already born. It kindled
itself, as that son of the Burgher mason in Annandale
says again, 'like a beacon set on high; high as heaven,
yet attainable from earth, whereby the meanest man
becomes not a citizen only, but a member of Christ's
visible Church; a veritable hero, if he prove a true
man.'</p>
<hr class="short" />
<p>Day by day at this critical epoch Knox preached in
St Giles from the 'prophet Haggeus,' on what he called
The Building of the House. In one sense the foundation
was laid already. In another, Parliament might be
called upon to supply one. What foundation was Parliament
to lay, and what structure was promised for the
days to come?</p>
<hr />
<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES</h3>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' iii. 10.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' iii. 133.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' iii. 34. The rashness of the general proposition
here can only be appreciated when we remember Knox's view that it
was the duty of the Magistrate not only to suppress idolatry, but to
punish it with death.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></SPAN> Hume Brown, i. 203.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' iii. 224.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' iv. 217, 218.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' iv. 129.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' iv. 261.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' i. 272.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' i. 300.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' i. 307.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' i. 256.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' i. 258.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' i. 310.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' i. 320.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' vi. 21.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' vi. 26.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' i. 378. Knox objected to this unlimited freedom of
conscience being granted, even for a time; and actually succeeded
in retaining the public worship on the ground that Edinburgh <i>had</i>
chosen already, though under compulsion. The interest lies in the
fact that, at every turn of the open struggle which now took place
between the two parties, the true ultimate solution, that of toleration,
came to the front. But it was proposed, or suggested, by each
party only when that party was in the minority, and ignored as soon
as it regained the power to do wrong. See the following additional
pages in Knox's own History:—'Works,' i. 389, 390, 428 ('idolatry
<i>and</i> murder'), 432, 442 ('chief duty'), and 444.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></SPAN> Knox himself takes care in his History 'to let the posterity
that shall follow understand, by what instruments God wrought
the familiarity and friendship, that after we found in England.'—'Works,'
ii. 43.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></SPAN> 'It is not unknown to the most part of this realm, that there
has been an old hatred and contention betwixt Edinburgh and
Leith; Edinburgh seeking continually to possess that liberty which
by donation of kings they have long enjoyed, and Leith, by the
contrary, aspiring to a liberty and freedom in prejudice of Edinburgh.'—Declaration
of the Lords of the Congregation in 1559. 'Works,' i. 426.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></SPAN> Lesser barons sign too, from Cranstoun and Cessford on the
Borders, to Leslie of Buchan and John Innes of that Ilk in the
North.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></SPAN> 'Works,' ii. 61. It is dated 26 April 1560.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></SPAN> It does not say that all its acts were to be valid. On the contrary,
'certain Articles concerning religion' having been presented
on the part of the nobles and people of Scotland, and not meddled
with by the plenipotentiaries 'as being of such importance that
they judged them proper to be remitted to the King and Queen,'
it was provided that the Estates, on their meeting, should choose
some persons of quality 'to repair to their Majesties and remonstrate
to them the state of their affairs, particularly those last
mentioned.'</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></SPAN> Thomas Carlyle.</p>
</div>
</div>
<hr />
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