FROM HIS RELEASE FROM THE FRENCH GALLEYS TO HIS DEPARTURE OUT OF ENGLAND Upon regaining his liberty, Knox immediately repaired to England. The objections which he had formerly entertained against a residence in that kingdom were now in a great measure removed. Henry VIII. died in the year 1547; and Archbishop Cranmer, released from the severe restraint under which he had been held by his tyrannical and capricious master, exerted himself with much zeal in advancing the Reformation. In this he was cordially supported by those who governed the kingdom during the minority of Edward VI. But the undertaking was extensive and difficult, and in carrying it on, he found a great deficiency of ecclesiastical coadjutors. The greater part of the incumbent bishops, though they externally complied with the alterations introduced by authority, remained attached to the old religion, and secretly thwarted, instead of seconding the measures of the Primate. The mass of the people were sunk in wretched ignorance of religion, and from ignorance were addicted to those superstitions to which they had been always accustomed: while the inferior clergy, in general, were as unwilling as they were unable to undertake their instruction. Cranmer, with the concurrence of the Protector, had invited learned Protestants to come from Germany into England, and placed Peter Martyr, Martin Bucer, Paul Fagius, and Emanuel Tremellius, as professors in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This was a wise measure, as it secured a future supply of useful preachers, trained up by these able masters. But the necessity was urgent, and demanded immediate provision. For this purpose, it was judged expedient, instead of fixing a number of orthodox and popular preachers in particular charges, to employ them in itinerating through different parts of the kingdom, where the clergy were most illiterate or disaffected, and the inhabitants most addicted to superstition.

In these circumstances, our zealous countryman did not remain long unemployed. The reputation which he had gained by preaching at St.

Andrews was not unknown in England, and his late sufferings recommended him to Cranmer and the Privy Council. He was accordingly, soon after his arrival in England, sent down from London, by their authority, to preach in Berwick; a situation the more acceptable to him, as it afforded him an opportunity to ascertain the state of religion in his native country, to correspond with his friends, and impart to them his advice. The Council had every reason to be pleased with the choice which they had made of a northern preacher. He had long thirsted for the opportunity which he now enjoyed. His captivity, during which he had felt the powerful support which the Protestant doctrine yielded to his mind, had inflamed his love to it, and his zeal against popery. He spared neither time nor bodily strength in the instruction of those to whom he was sent. Regarding the worship of the popish Church as grossly idolatrous, and its doctrine as damnable, he attacked both with the utmost fervor, and exerted himself in drawing his hearers from them, with as much eagerness as in saving their lives from a devouring flame or flood. Nor were his labors fruitless: during the two years that he continued in Berwick, numbers were, by his ministry, converted from error and ignorance, and a general reformation of manners became visible among the soldiers of the garrison, who had formerly been noted for turbulence and licentiousness.

The popularity and success of a Protestant preacher were very galling to the clergy in that quarter, who were, almost to a man, bigoted papists, and enjoyed the patronage of the bishop of the diocese. Tonstal, Bishop of Durham, like his friend Sir Thomas More, was one of those men of whom it is extremely difficult to give a correct idea, qualities of an opposite kind being apparently blended in their character. Surpassing all his brethren in polite learning, he was the patron of bigotry and superstition. Displaying, in private life, that moderation and suavity of manners which liberal studies usually inspire, he was accessory to the public measures of a reign, disgraced throughout by the most shocking barbarities. Claiming our praise for honesty, by opposing in Parliament innovations which, in his judgment, he condemned, he again forfeited it by the most tame acquiescence and ample conformity; thereby maintaining his station amidst all the revolutions of religion during three successive reigns. He had paid little attention to the science immediately connected with his profession, and most probably was indifferent to the controversies then agitated; but living in an age in which it was necessary for every man to choose his side, he adhered to those opinions which had been long established, and were friendly to the power and splendor of the ecclesiastical order. As if anxious to atone for his fault in forwarding those measures which produced a breach between England and the Roman See, he opposed in Parliament all the subsequent changes. Opposition awakened his zeal; he became at last a strenuous advocate for the popish tenets; and wrote a book in defense of transubstantiation, of which, says Bishop Burnet, “the Latin style is better than the divinity”.

The labors of Knox within his diocese, who exerted himself to overthrow what the bishop wished to support, must have been very disagreeable to Tonstal. As the preacher acted under the sanction of the Protector and Council, he durst not inhibit him; but he was disposed to listen to and encourage informations lodged by the clergy against the doctrine which he taught. Although the town of Berwick was Knox’s principal station during the years 1549 and 1550, it is probable that he was appointed to preach occasionally in the adjacent country. Whether, in the course of his itinerancy, he had, in the beginning of 1550, gone as far as Newcastle, and preached in that town, or whether he was called up to it, in consequence of complaints against his sermons delivered at Berwick, does not clearly appear. It is, however, certain, that a charge was exhibited against him before the bishop, for teaching that the sacrifice of the mass was idolatrous, and a day appointed for him publicly to assign his reasons for this opinion. Accordingly, on the 4th of April 1550, a great assembly being convened in Newcastle, among whom were the members of the Council, the Bishop of Durham, and the learned men of his cathedral, Knox delivered, in their presence, an ample defense of the doctrine, against which complaints had been made. After an appropriate exordium, in which he stated to the audience the occasion and design of his appearance before them, and cautioned them against the powerful prejudices of education and custom in favor of erroneous opinions and practices in religion, he proceeded to establish the doctrine which he had taught. The mode in which he treated the subject was well adapted to his auditory, which was composed of the unlearned as well as the learned. He proposed his arguments in the syllogistic form, according to the practice of the schools, but illustrated them with a plainness level to the meanest capacity among his hearers. Passing over the more gross notions, and the shameful traffic in masses, extremely common at that time, he engaged to prove that the mass, “in her most high degree, and most honest garments”, was an idol struck from the inventive brain of superstition, which had supplanted the sacrament of the Supper, and engrossed the honor due to the person and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. “Spare no arrows,” was the motto which Knox wore on his standard; the authority of Scripture, and the force of reasoning, grave reproof, and pointed irony, were in their turn employed by him. In the course of this defense, he did not restrain those sallies of raillery, which the fooleries of the popish superstition irresistibly provoke, even from those who are deeply impressed with its pernicious tendency. Before concluding, he adverted to certain doctrines which had been taught in that place on the preceding Sabbath, the falsehood of which he was prepared to demonstrate; but he would, in the first place, he said, submit to the preacher the notes of the sermon which he had taken down, that he might correct them as he saw proper; for his object was not to misrepresent or captiously entrap a speaker, by catching at words unadvisedly uttered, but to defend the truth, and warn his hearers against errors destructive to their souls.

This defense had the effect of extending Knox’s fame through the north of England, while it completely silenced the bishop and his learned suffragans. He continued to preach at Berwick during the remaining part of this year, and in the following was removed to Newcastle, and placed in a sphere of greater usefulness. In December 1551, the Privy Council conferred on him a mark of their approbation, by appointing him one of King Edward’s chaplains in ordinary. “It was appointed,” says His Majesty, in a journal of important transactions which he wrote with his own hand, “that I should have six chaplains in ordinary, of which two ever to be present, and four absent in preaching; one year two in Wales, two in Lancashire and Derby; next year two in the marches of Scotland, and two in Yorkshire; the third year two in Norfolk and Essex, and two in Kent and Sussex. These six to be Bill, Harle, Perne, Grindal, Bradford, and --.” The name of the sixth has been dashed out of the journal, but the industrious Strype has shown that it was Knox. “These it seems,” says Bishop Burnet, “were the most zealous and readiest preachers, who were sent about as itinerants, to supply the defects of the greatest part of the clergy, who were generally very faulty.” An annual salary of £40 was allotted to each of the chaplains.

In the course of the year, Knox was consulted about the Book of Common Prayer, which was undergoing a review. On that occasion it is probable that he was called up to London for a short time. Although the persons who had the chief direction of ecclesiastical affairs were not disposed, or did not think it yet expedient, to introduce that thorough reform which he judged necessary, in order to reduce the worship of the English Church to the Scripture model, his representations were not altogether disregarded.

He had influence to procure an important change on the communion office, completely excluding the notion of the corporeal presence of Christ in the sacrament, and guarding against the adoration of the elements, too much countenanced by the practice of kneeling at their reception, which was still continued. Knox speaks of these amendments with great satisfaction, in his “Admonition to the Professors of Truth in England”. “Also God gave boldness and knowledge to the court of Parliament to take away the round clipped god, wherein standeth all the holiness of the papists, and to command common bread to be used at the Lord’s table, and also to take away most part of superstitions (kneeling at the Lord’s table excepted) which before profaned Christ’s true religion.” These alterations gave great offense to the papists. In a disputation with Latimer, after the accession of Queen Mary, the Prolocutor, Dr. Weston, complained of our countryman’s influence in procuring them. “A runagate Scot did take away the adoration or worshipping of Christ in the sacrament, by whose procurement that heresy was put into the last communion book; so much prevailed that one man’s authority at that time.” In the following year, he was employed in revising the Articles of Religion previous to their ratification by Parliament.

During his residence at Berwick, Knox had formed an acquaintance with Miss Marjory Bowes, a young lady who afterwards became his wife. She belonged to the honorable family of Bowes, and was nearly allied to Sir Robert Bowes, a distinguished courtier during the reigns of Henry VIII. and his son Edward. Before he left Berwick, he had paid his addresses to this young lady, and met with a favorable reception. Her mother was also friendly to the match; but, owing to some reason, most probably the presumed aversion of her father, it was deemed prudent to delay the consummating of the union. But having come under a formal promise to her, he considered himself as sacredly bound, and, in his letters to Mrs.

Bowes, always addressed her by the name of Mother.

Without derogating from the praise justly due to those worthy men, who were at this time employed in disseminating religious truth through England, I may say that our countryman was not behind the first of them, in the unwearied assiduity with which he labored in the stations assigned to him. From an early period, his mind seems to have presaged, that the golden opportunity enjoyed would not be of long duration. He was eager to “redeem the time”, and indefatigable both in his studies and teaching. In addition to his ordinary services on Sabbath, he preached regularly on week days, frequently on every day of the week. Besides the portion of time which he allotted to study, he was often employed in conversing with persons who applied to him for advice on religious subjects. The Council were not insensible to the value of his services, and conferred on him several marks of approbation. They wrote different letters to the governors and principal inhabitants of the places where he preached, recommending him to their notice and protection. They secured him in the regular payment of his salary, until such time as he should be provided with a benefice. It was also out of respect to him, that, in September 1552, they granted a patent to his brother William Knox, a merchant, giving him liberty, for a limited time, to trade to any port of England, in a vessel of a hundred tons burden.

But the things which recommended Knox to the Council, drew upon him the hatred of a numerous and powerful party in the northern counties, who remained addicted to popery. Irritated by his boldness and success in attacking their superstition, and sensible that it would be vain, and even dangerous, to prefer an accusation against him on that ground, they watched for an opportunity of catching at something in his discourses or behavior, which they might improve to his disadvantage. He had long observed with great anxiety, the impatience with which the papists submitted to the present government, and their eager desires for any change which might lead to the overthrow of the Protestant religion; desires which were expressed by them in the north, without that reserve which prudence dictated in places adjacent to the seat of authority. He had witnessed the joy with which they received the news of the Protector’s fall, and was no stranger to the satisfaction with which they circulated prognostications as to the speedy demise of the King. In a sermon preached by him about Christmas 1552, he gave vent to his feelings on this subject; and, lamenting the obstinacy of the papists, asserted that such as were enemies to the gospel, then preached in England, were secret traitors to the crown and commonwealth, thirsted for nothing more than His Majesty’s death, and cared not who should reign over them, provided they got their idolatry again erected. This free speech was immediately laid hold on by his enemies, and transmitted, with many aggravations, to some great men about court, secretly in their interest, who therefore preferred a charge against him, for high offenses, before the Privy Council.

In taking this step, they were not a little encouraged by their knowledge of the sentiments of the Duke of Northumberland, who had lately come down to his charge as warden-general of the northern marches. This ambitious and unprincipled nobleman had employed his affected zeal for the Reformed religion, as a stirrup to mount to the highest preferment in the state, which he had recently procured by the ruin of the Duke of Somerset, the Protector of the kingdom. Knox had offended him by publicly lamenting the fall of Somerset, as threatening danger to the Reformation, of which he had always shown himself a zealous friend, whatever his other faults might have been. Nor could the freedom which the preacher used, in reproving from the pulpit the vices of great as well as small, fail to be displeasing to a man of Northumberland’s character. On these accounts, he was desirous to have Knox removed from that quarter, and had actually applied for this, by a letter to the Council, previous to the occurrence just mentioned; alleging, as a pretext, the great resort of Scotsmen unto him: as if any real danger was to be apprehended from this intercourse with a man, of whose fidelity the existing government had so many strong pledges, and who uniformly employed all his influence to remove the prejudices of his countrymen against England.

In consequence of the charges exhibited against him to the Council, he received a citation to repair immediately to London, and answer for his conduct. The following extract of a letter, addressed, “to his sister”, will show the state of his mind on receiving the summons: “Urgent necessity will not suffer that I testify my mind to you. My Lord of Westmoreland has written to me this Wednesday, at six of the clock at night, immediately thereafter to repair unto him, as I will answer at my peril. I could not obtain license to remain the time of the sermon upon the morrow. Blessed be God who does ratify and confirm the truth of His Word from time to time, as our weakness shall require! Your adversary, sister, doth labor that you should doubt whether this be the Word of God or not. If there had never been testimonial of the undoubted truth thereof before these our ages, may not such things as we see daily come to pass prove the verity thereof? Doth it not affirm, that it shall be preached, and yet contemned and lightly regarded by many; that the true professors thereof shall be hated by father, mother, and others of the contrary religion; that the most faithful shall be persecuted? And cometh not all these things to pass in ourselves? Rejoice, sister, for the same word that forespeaketh trouble doth certify us of the glory consequent. As for myself, albeit the extremity should now apprehend me, it is not come unlooked for. But, alas! I fear that yet I be not ripe nor able to glorify Christ by my death; but what lacketh now, God shall perform in His own time. Be sure I will not forget you and your company, so long as mortal man may remember earthly creature.”

Upon reaching London he found that his enemies had been uncommonly industrious in exciting prejudices against him, by transmitting the most false and injurious information. But the Council, after hearing his defenses, were convinced of their malice, and honorably acquitted him. He was employed to preach before the court, and gave great satisfaction, particularly to His Majesty, who contracted a favor for him, and was very desirous to have him promoted in the Church. It was resolved by the Council that he should preach in London, and the southern counties, during the year 1553; but he was allowed to return for a short time to Newcastle, either to settle his affairs, or as a public testimony of his innocence. In a letter to his sister, dated Newcastle, 23rd March 1553, we find him writing as follows: “Look further of this matter in the other letter, written unto you at such a time as many thought I should never write after to man. Heinous were the delations laid against me, and many are the lies that are made to the Council. But God one day shall destroy all lying tongues, and shall deliver His servants from calamity. I look but one day or other to fall in their hands; for more and more rageth the members of the devil against me. This assault of Satan has been to his confusion, and to the glory of God. And therefore, sister, cease not to praise God, and to call for my comfort; for great is the multitude of enemies, whom every one the Lord shall confound. I intend not to depart from Newcastle before Easter.”

The vigor of his constitution had been greatly impaired by his confinement in the French galleys, which, together with his labors in England had brought on a gravel. In the course of the year 1553 he endured several violent attacks of this acute disorder, accompanied with severe pain in his head and stomach. “My daily labors must now increase,” says he, in the letter last quoted, “and therefore spare me as much as you may. My old malady troubles me sore, and nothing is more contrarious to my health than writing. Think not that I weary to visit you; but unless my pain shall cease, I will altogether become unprofitable. Work, O Lord, even as pleaseth Thy infinite goodness, and relax the troubles, at Thy own pleasure, of such as seeketh Thy glory to shine. Amen.” In another letter to the same correspondent, he writes: “The pain of my head and stomach troubles me greatly. Daily I find my body decay; but the providence of my God shall not be frustrate. I am charged to be at Widrington on Sunday, where I think I shall also remain Monday. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus rest with you. Desire such faithful as with whom ye communicate your mind, to pray that, at the pleasure of our good God, my dolor both of body and spirit may be relieved somewhat; for presently it is very bitter. Never found I the Spirit, I praise my God, so abundant where God’s glory ought to be declared; and therefore I am sure there abides something that yet we see not.” “Your messenger,” says he in another letter, “found me in bed, after a sore trouble and most dolorous night; and so dolor may complain to dolor when we two meet. But the infinite goodness of God, who never despiseth the petitions of a sore troubled heart, shall, at His good pleasure, put end to these pains that we presently suffer, and in place thereof shall crown us with glory and immortality for ever. But, dear sister, I am even of mind with faithful Job, yet most sore tormented, that my pain shall have no end in this life. The power of God may, against the purpose of my heart, alter such things as appear not to be altered, as He did unto Job; but dolor and pain, with sore anguish, cries the contrary. And this is more plain than ever I spake, to let you know ye have a fellow and companion in trouble, and thus rest in Christ, for the head of the serpent is already broken down, and he is stinging us upon the heel.”

About the beginning of April 1553, he returned to London. In the month of February preceding, Archbishop Cranmer had been desired by the Council to present him to the vacant living of All-Hallows in that city.

This proposal, which originated in the personal favor of the young king, was very disagreeable to Northumberland, who exerted himself privately to hinder his preferment. His interference was, however, unnecessary on the present occasion; for when the living was offered to him, Knox declined it, and when questioned as to his reasons, readily acknowledged, that he had not freedom in his mind to accept of a fixed charge, in the present state of the English Church. His refusal, with the reason assigned, having given offense, he was, on the 14th of April, called before the Privy Council. There were present the Archbishop of Canterbury, Goodrick, Bishop of Ely and Lord Chancellor, the Earls of Bedford, Northampton, and Shrewsbury, the Lords Treasurer and Chamberlain, with the two Secretaries. They asked him, why he had refused the benefice provided for him in London. He answered, that he was fully satisfied that he could be more useful to the Church in another situation. Being interrogated, if it was his opinion, that no person could lawfully serve in ecclesiastical ministrations, according to the present laws of that realm, he frankly replied, that there were many things which needed reformation, without which ministers could not, in his opinion, discharge their office conscientiously in the sight of God; for no minister, according to the existing laws, had power to prevent the unworthy from participating of the sacraments, which was a chief point of his office. He was asked, if kneeling at the Lord’s table was not indifferent. He replied that Christ’s action was most perfect, and in it no such posture was used; that it was most safe to follow His example; and that kneeling was an addition and an invention of men. On this article there was a smart dispute between him and some of the Lords of the Council. After long reasoning he was told, that they had not sent for him with any bad design, but were sorry to understand that he was of a contrary judgment to the common order. He said he was sorry that the common order was contrary to Christ’s institution. They dismissed him with soft speeches, advising him to endeavor to bring his mind to communicate according to the established rites.

If honors and emoluments could have biased the independent mind of our countryman, he must have been induced to become a full conformist to the English Church. At the special request of Edward VI., and with the concurrence of his council, he was offered a bishopric; but the same reasons which prevented him from accepting the living of All-Hallows, determined him to reject this more tempting offer. The fact is attested by Beza, who adds, that his refusal was accompanied with a censure of the Episcopal office, as destitute of divine authority, and not even exercised in England according to the ecclesiastical canons. Knox himself speaks in one of his treatises of the high promotions offered to him by Edward; and we shall find him at a later period of his life expressly asserting that he had refused a bishopric.

It may be proper, in this place, to give a more particular account of Knox’s sentiments respecting the English Church. It is well known that the reformation of religion was conducted in England in a very different way from what was afterwards adopted in Scotland, both as to worship and ecclesiastical polity. In England, the papal supremacy was transferred to the prince; the hierarchy being subjected to the civil power, was suffered to remain, and the principal forms of the ancient worship, after removing the grosser superstitions, were retained; whereas, in Scotland all of these were discarded, as destitute of divine authority, unprofitable, burdensome, or savoring of popery; and the worship and government of the Church were reduced to the primitive standard of Scriptural simplicity. The influence of Knox in recommending this establishment to his countrymen, is universally allowed, but, as he officiated for a considerable time in the Church of England, and on this account was supposed to have been pleased with its constitution, it has been usually said that he contracted a dislike to it during his exile on the Continent, after the death of Edward VI., and having then imbibed the sentiments of Calvin, carried them along with him to his native country, and organized the Scottish Church after the Genevan model. This statement is inaccurate. His objections to the English liturgy were increased and strengthened during his residence on the Continent, but they existed before that time. His judgment respecting ecclesiastical government and discipline was matured during that period, but his radical sentiments on these heads were formed long before he saw Calvin, or had any intercourse with the foreign reformers. At Geneva he saw a Church, which, upon the whole, corresponded with his idea of the divinely authorized pattern; but he did not indiscriminately approve, nor servilely imitate either that, or any other existing establishment.

As early as the year 1547, he taught, in his first sermons at St. Andrews, that no mortal man could be head of the Church; that there were no true bishops, but such as preached personally without a substitute; that in religion men are bound to regulate themselves by divine laws, and that the sacraments ought to be administered exactly according to the institution and example of Christ. We have seen that, in a solemn disputation in the same place, he maintained that the Church has no authority, on pretext of decorating divine service, to devise ceremonies, and impose significations upon them. This position he also defended in the year 1550 at Newcastle, and in his late appearance before the Privy Council at London. It was impossible that the English Church, in any of the shapes which it assumed, could stand the test of these principles. The ecclesiastical supremacy, the various orders and dependencies of the hierarchy, crossing in baptism, and kneeling in the eucharist, with other ceremonies; the theatrical dress, the mimical gestures, the vain repetitions used in religious service, were all cashiered and repudiated by the cardinal principle to which he steadily adhered, that in the Church of Christ, and especially in the acts of worship, every thing ought to be arranged and conducted, not by the pleasure and appointment of men, but according to the dictates of inspired wisdom and authority.

He rejoiced that liberty and encouragement were given to preach the pure Word of God throughout the extensive realm of England; that idolatry and gross superstition were suppressed; and that the rulers were disposed to support the Reformation, and even to carry it farther than had yet been done. Considering the character of the greater part of the clergy, the extreme paucity of useful preachers, and other hindrances to the introduction of the primitive order and discipline of the Church, he acquiesced in the authority exercised by a part of the bishops, under the direction of the Privy Council, and endeavored to strengthen their hands, in the advancement of the common cause, by painful preaching in the stations which were assigned to him. But he could not be induced to contradict or conceal his decided sentiments, and cautiously avoided coming under engagements, by which he would have approved what he was convinced to be unlawful, or injurious to the interests of religion.

Upon these principles, he never submitted to the unlimited use of the liturgy, during the time that he was in England, refused to become a bishop, and declined accepting a fixed charge, when he perceived that progress in reformation was arrested, by the influence of a popish fiction and the dictates of a temporizing policy; that abuses which had formerly been acknowledged, began to be vindicated and stiffly maintained; above all, when he saw, after the accession of Elizabeth, that a retrograde course was taken, and a yoke of ceremonies, more grievous than that which the most sincere Protestants had formerly complained of, was imposed and enforced by arbitrary statutes, he judged it necessary to speak in a tone of more decided and severe reprehension.

Among other things which he censured in the English ecclesiastical establishment, were the continuing to employ a great number of ignorant and insufficient priests, who had been accustomed to nothing but saying mass, and singing the litany; the general substitution of the reading of homilies, the mumbling of prayers, or the chanting of matins or evensong, in the place of preaching; the formal celebration of the sacraments, unaccompanied with instruction to the people; the scandalous prevalence of pluralities; and the total want of ecclesiastical discipline. He was of opinion that the clergy ought not to be entangled, and diverted from the duties of their offices, by holding civil places; that the bishops should lay aside their secular titles and dignities; that the bishoprics should be divided, so that in every city or large town, there might be placed a godly and learned man, with others joined with him for the management of ecclesiastical matters; and that schools for the education of youth should be universally erected through the nation.

Nor did the principal persons who were active in effecting the English Reformation differ widely from Knox in these sentiments; although they might not have the same conviction of their importance, and the expediency of reducing them to practice. We will mistake exceedingly, if we suppose that they were men of the same principles and temper with many who succeeded to their places, that they were satisfied with the pitch to which they had carried the Reformation of the English Church, and regarded it as a paragon and perfect pattern to other Churches. They were strangers to those extravagant and illiberal notions which were afterwards adopted by the fond admirers of the hierarchy and liturgy.

They would have laughed at the man who would have seriously asserted, that the ceremonies constituted any part of “the beauty of holiness”, or that the imposition of the hands of a bishop was essential to the validity of ordination; they would not have owned that person as a Protestant who would have ventured to insinuate, that where this was wanting, there was no Christian ministry, no ordinances, no Church, and perhaps — no salvation! Many things which their successors have applauded they barely tolerated, and they would have been happy if the circumstances of their time would have permitted them to introduce alterations, which have since been cried down as puritanical innovations. Strange as it may appear to some, I am not afraid of exceeding the truth when I say, that if the first English Reformers, including the Protestant bishops, had been left to their own choice, if they had not been held back by the dead weight of a large mass of popishly-affected clergy in the reign of Edward, and restrained by the supreme civil authority on the accession of Elizabeth, they would have brought the government and worship of the Church of England nearly to the pattern of the other Reformed Churches.

Such, in particular, was the earnest wish of His Majesty Edward VI., a prince who, besides his other rare qualities, had an unfeigned reverence for the Word of God, and a disposition to comply with its prescriptions in preference to custom and established usages, who showed himself uniformly inclined to give relief to his conscientious subjects, and sincerely bent on promoting the union of all the friends of the Reformed religion at home and abroad. Of his intentions on this head, there remain the most unquestionable and satisfactory documents. Had his life been spared, there is every reason to think that he would have accomplished the rectification of those evils in the English Church, which the most steady and enlightened Protestants have lamented. Had his sister Elizabeth been of the same spirit with him, and prosecuted the plan which he laid down, she would have united all the friends of the Reformation, the great support of her authority; she would have weakened the interest of the Roman Catholics, whom all her accommodating measures could not gain, nor prevent from repeatedly conspiring against her life and crown; she would have put an end to those dissensions among her Protestant subjects which continued during the whole of her reign, which she bequeathed as a legacy to her successors, and which, being fomented and exasperated by the severities employed for their suppression, at length burst forth to the temporary overthrow of the hierarchy, and of the monarchy, which, patronized its exorbitancies, and resisted a reform, which had been previously attempted upon sober and enlightened principles; dissensions which subsist to this day, and, though softened by the partial lenitive of a toleration, have gradually alienated from the communion of that Church a large proportion of the population of the nation, and which, if a timeous and salutary remedy be not applied, may ultimately undermine the foundations of the English establishment.

During the time that Knox was in London, he had full opportunity for observing the state of the court; and the observations which he made filled his mind with the most anxious forebodings. Of the piety and sincerity of the young king, he entertained not the smallest doubt. Personal acquaintance heightened the idea which he had conceived of his character from report, and enabled him to add his testimony to the tribute of praise, which all who knew that prince have so cheerfully paid to his uncommon virtues and endowments. But the principal courtiers by whom he was at that time surrounded, were persons of a very different description, and gave proofs, too unequivocal to be mistaken, of indifference to all religion, and readiness to fall in with and forward the re-establishment of the ancient superstition, whenever this might be required upon a change of rulers. The health of Edward, which had long been declining, growing gradually worse, so that no hope of his recovery remained, they were eager only about the aggrandizing of their families, and providing for the security of their places and fortunes.

The royal chaplains were men of a very different stamp from those who have usually occupied that place in the courts of princes. They were no time-serving, supple, smooth-tongued parasites; they were not afraid of forfeiting their pensions, or of alarming the consciences, and wounding the delicate ears of their royal and noble auditors, by denouncing the vices which they committed, and the judgments of Heaven to which they exposed themselves. The freedom used by the venerable Latimer is well known from his printed sermons, which for their homely honesty, artless simplicity, native humor, and genuine pictures of the manners of the age, continue still to be read with interest. Grindal, Lever, and Bradford, who were superior to him in learning, evinced the same fidelity and courage.

They censured the ambition, avarice, luxury, oppression, and irreligion which reigned in the court. As long as their sovereign was able to give personal attendance on the sermons, the preachers were treated with exterior decency and respect; but after he was confined to his chamber by a consumptive cough, the resentment of the courtiers vented itself openly in the most contumelious speeches and insolent behavior. Those who are acquainted with our countryman’s character, will readily conceive that the sermons delivered by him at court, were not less bold and free than those of his colleagues. We may form a judgment of them, from the account which he has given of the last sermon which he preached before His Majesty, in which he directed several piercing glances of reproof at the haughty premier, and his crafty relation, the Marquis of Winchester Lord High Treasurer, both of whom were among his hearers.

On the 6th of July 1553, Edward VI. departed this life, to the unspeakable grief of all the lovers of learning, virtue, and the Protestant religion; and a black cloud spread over England, which, after hovering a while, burst into a dreadful hurricane, that raged during five years with the most destructive fury. Knox was at this time in London. He received the afflicting tidings of His Majesty’s decease with becoming fortitude, and resignation to the sovereign will of Heaven. The event did not meet him unprepared: he had long anticipated it, with its probable consequences; the prospect had produced the keenest anguish in his breast, and drawn tears from his eyes; and he had frequently introduced the subject into his public discourses and confidential conversations with his friends.

Writing to Mrs. Bowes, some time after this, he says: “How oft have you and I talked of these present days, till neither of us both could refrain tears, when no such appearance then was seen of man! How oft have I said unto you, that I looked daily for trouble, and that I wondered at it, that so long I should escape it!

What moved me to refuse (and that with displeasure of all men, even of those that best loved me) those high promotions that were offered by him whom God hath taken from us for our offenses?

Assuredly the foresight of trouble to come. How oft have I said unto you, that the time would not be long that England would give me bread! Advise with the last letter that I wrote unto your brother-in-law, and consider what is therein contained.”

He remained in London until the 19th of July, when Mary was proclaimed queen, only nine days after the same ceremony had been performed in that city for the amiable and unfortunate Lady Jane Grey. He was so affected with the thoughtless demonstrations of joy given by the inhabitants at an event which threatened such danger to the religious faith which they still avowed, that he could not refrain from publicly testifying his displeasure, and warning them in his sermons of the calamities which they might look for. Immediately after this, he seems to have withdrawn from London, and retired to the north, being justly apprehensive of the measures which might be pursued by the new government.

To induce the Protestants to submit peaceably to her government, Mary amused them for some time with proclamations, in which she promised not to do violence to their consciences. Though aware of the bigotry of the Queen, and the spirit of the religion to which she was devoted, the Protestant ministers reckoned it their duty to improve this respite. In the month of August, Knox returned to the south, and resumed his labors. It seems to have been at this time that he composed the Confession and Prayer, which he commonly used in the congregations to which he preached, in which he prayed for Queen Mary by name, and for the suppression of such as meditated rebellion. While he itinerated through Buckinghamshire, he was attended by large audiences, which his popularity and the alarming crisis drew together; especially at Amersham, a borough formerly noted for the general reception of the doctrines of Wickliffe, the precursor of the Reformation in England, and from which the seed sown by his followers had never been altogether eradicated.

Wherever he went, he earnestly exhorted the people to repentance under the tokens of divine displeasure, and to a steady adherence to the faith which they had embraced. He continued to preach in Buckinghamshire and Kent during the harvest months, although the measures of government daily rendered his safety more precarious; and in the beginning of November, returned to London, where he resided in the houses of Mr.

Locke and Mr. Hickman, two respectable merchants of his acquaintance.

While the measures of the new government threatened danger to all the Protestants in the kingdom, and our countryman was under daily apprehensions of imprisonment, he met with a severe trial of a private nature. I have already mentioned his engagements to Miss Bowes. At this time, it was judged proper by both parties to avow the connection, and to proceed to solemnize the union. This step was opposed by the young lady’s father; and his opposition was accompanied with circumstances which gave much distress to Knox, Mrs. Bowes, and her daughter. His refusal seems to have proceeded from family pride; but I am inclined to think that it was also influenced by religious considerations; as from different hints dropped in the correspondence, Mr. Bowes appears to have been, if not inclined to Popery in his judgment, at least resolved to comply with the religion now favored by the court. We find Knox writing to Mrs. Bowes on this subject from London, in a letter, dated 20th September 1553: “My great labors, wherein I desire your daily prayers, will not suffer me to satisfy my mind touching all the process between your husband and you, touching my matter with his daughter. I praise God heartily, both for your boldness and constancy. But I beseech you, mother, trouble not yourself too much therewith. It becomes me now to jeopard my life for the comfort and deliverance of my own flesh, as that I will do, by God’s grace, both fear and friendship of all earthly creatures laid aside. I have written to your husband, the contents whereof I trust our brother Harry will declare to you and to my wife. If I escape sickness and imprisonment [you may] be sure to see me soon.”

His wife and mother-in-law were very anxious that he should settle in Berwick, or the neighborhood of it, where he might perhaps be allowed to reside peaceably, although in a more private way than formerly. But for this purpose some pecuniary provision was requisite. Since the accession of Queen Mary, the payment of the salary allotted to him by government had been stopped. Indeed, he had not received any part of it for the last twelve months. His wife’s relations were abundantly able to give him a sufficient establishment, but their dissatisfaction with the marriage rendered them averse. Induced by the importunity of his mother-in-law, he applied to Sir Robert Bowes at London, and attempted, by a candid explanation of all circumstances, to remove any umbrage which he had conceived against him, and procure an amicable settlement of the whole affair. He communicated the unfavorable issue of this interview, in a letter to Mrs. Bowes, of which the following is an extract. “Dear Mother, so may and will I call you, not only for the tender affection I bear unto you in Christ, but also for the motherly kindness ye have shown unto me at all times since our first acquaintance, albeit such things as I have desired (if it had pleased God), and ye and others have long desired, are never like to come to pass, yet shall ye be sure that my love and care toward you shall never abate, so long as I can care for any earthly creature. Ye shall understand that this 6th of November, I spake with Sir Robert Bowes, on the matter ye know, according to your request, whose disdainful, yea despiteful words, have so pierced my heart, that my life is bitter unto me. I bear a good countenance with a sore troubled heart; while he that ought to consider matters with a deep judgment is become not only a despiser, but also a taunter of God’s messengers. God be merciful unto him. Among other his most unpleasing words, while that I was about to have declared my part in the whole matter, he said, ‘Away with your rhetorical reasons, for I will not be persuaded with them’. God knows I did use no rhetoric or colored speech, but would have spoken the truth, and that in most simple manner. I am not a good orator in my own cause. But what he would not be content to hear of me, God shall declare to him one day to his displeasure, unless he repent. It is supposed that all the matter comes by you and me. I pray God that your conscience were quiet, and at peace, and I regard not what country consume this my wicked carcase. And were [it] not that no man’s unthankfulness shall move me (God supporting my infirmity) to cease to do profit unto Christ’s congregation, those days should be few that England would give me bread. And I fear that, when all is done, I shall be driven to that end; for I cannot abide the disdainful hatred of those, of whom not only I thought I might have craved kindness, but also to whom God hath been by me more liberal than they be thankful. But so must men declare themselves. Affection does trouble me at this present: yet I doubt not to overcome by Him, who will not leave comfortless His afflicted to the end: whose omnipotent Spirit rest with you. Amen.”

He refers to the same disagreeable affair in another letter written about the end of this year. After mentioning the bad state of his health, which had been greatly increased by distress of mind, he adds, “It will be after the 12th day before I can be at Berwick; and almost I am determined not to come at all. Ye know the cause. God be more merciful unto some, than they are equitable unto me in judgment. The testimony of my conscience absolves me, before His face who looks not upon the presence of man.”

These extracts show us the heart of the writer; they discover the sensibility of his temper, the keenness of his feelings, and his pride and independence of spirit struggling with affection to his relations, and a sense of duty.

About the end of November, or beginning of December, he returned from the south to Newcastle. The Parliament had by this time repealed all the laws made in favor of the Reformation, and restored the Roman Catholic religion; but liberty was reserved, to such as pleased, to observe the Protestant worship, until the 20th of December. After that period they were thrown out of the protection of the law, and exposed to the pains decreed against heretics. Many of the bishops and ministers were committed to prison; others had escaped beyond sea. Knox could not however prevail on himself either to flee the kingdom, or to desist from preaching. Three days after the period limited by the statute had elapsed, he says in one of his letters, “I may not answer your places of Scripture, nor yet write the exposition of the 6th Psalm, for every day of this week must I preach, if this wicked carcase will permit”.

His enemies, who had been defeated in their attempts to ruin him under the former government, had now access to rulers sufficiently disposed to listen to their informations. They were not dilatory in improving the opportunity. In the end of December 1553 or beginning of January 1554, his servant was seized as he carried letters from him to his wife and mother-in-law, and the letters taken from him, with the view of finding in them some matter of accusation against the writer. As they contained merely religious advises, and exhortations to constancy in the faith which they professed, which he was prepared to avow before any court to which he might be called, he was not alarmed at their interception. But, being aware of the uneasiness which the report would give to his friends at Berwick, he set out immediately with the design of visiting them.

Notwithstanding the secrecy with which he conducted this journey, the rumor of it quickly spread; and some of his wife’s relations who had joined him, persuaded that he was in imminent danger, prevailed on him, greatly against his own inclination, to relinquish his design of proceeding to Berwick, and to retire to a place of safety on the coast, from which he might escape by sea, provided the search after him was continued. From this retreat he wrote to his wife and mother, acquainting them with the reasons of his absconding, and the little prospect which he had of being able at that time to see them. His brethren, he said, had, “partly by admonition, partly by tears, compelled him to obey”, somewhat contrary to his own mind; for “never could he die in a more honest quarrel”, than by suffering as a witness for that truth of which God had made him a messenger. Notwithstanding this state of his mind, he promised, if providence prepared the way, to “obey the voices of his brethren, and give place to the fury and rage of Satan for a time”.