Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/274

334 of his eloquence and the influence of his doctrine, that both the inhabitants and the civil authorities agreed to set up the reformed worship in the town. The monasteries were demolished and the church stripped of all images and pictures. The example of St Andrews was soon after followed in many other parts of the kingdom. At the latter end of the month, Knox arrived with the forces of the Congregation in Edinburgh, and on the same day on which he entered the city, he preached in St Giles's, next day in the Abbey church, and on the 7th of July, the inhabitants met in the tolbooth, and appointed him their minister, there being then only one place of worship in Edinburgh, viz. St Giles's church. In this charge, however, he was not long permitted to remain. The forces of the regent soon after obtained possession of the city; and, although against his own inclination, his friends prevailed upon him to retire from the town. On leaving Edinburgh, he undertook a tour of preaching through the kingdom; and in less than two months had gone over the greater part of it, disseminating with the most powerful effect the doctrines of the reformed religion. He next retired to St Andrews, where he officiated as minister for several months; and on the conclusion of the civil war, which the determination of the Congregation to establish, the reformed religion and the regent's efforts to suppress it, had created, he returned to Edinburgh. In 1560, after an arduous struggle and many vicissitudes, the faith for which Knox had fought such a "good fight," seemed to be securely established in the land. The queen-regent was dead, and by the assistance of England, an assistance which Knox had been the chief instrument in procuring, the arms of the forces of the Congregation were completely triumphant.

The accession, however, of Mary, who was known to be strongly attached to popery, to the actual government, again excited the fears of the protestants, and of no one more than Knox, who insisted that the invitation sent to France to that princess to ascend the throne of her ancestors should be accompanied by the stipulation, that she should desist from the celebration of mass; and when the rest of the council urged that she ought to be allowed that liberty within her own chapel, he predicted that "her liberty would be their thraldom."

A few days after the queen's arrival at Holyrood she sent for Knox, and taxed him with holding political opinions at once dangerous to her authority and the peace of her realm, and with teaching a religion different from that allowed by its princes. Knox entered at great length into these subjects, defending himself and his doctrines with his usual ability and boldness. His language, at no time very courtly, is said to have been so harsh in some instances on this occasion as to drive the young queen to tears; but whether this, if true, ought to be considered as a proof of the severity of his expressions, or of the queen's irritability of temper, is questionable, since it is probable that she may have wept without sufficient cause. The arrival of the dinner hour broke off this interesting interview, and Knox retired from the presence with some expressions of good wishes for the queen's happiness. Frequent conferences of a similar nature with this took place afterwards between the reformer and Mary, but with little increase of regard on either side. On one of these occasions, when he had spoken with even more than his usual boldness, and just as he was about to retire, he overheard some of the queen's popish attendants say, "He is not afraid."—"Why should the pleasing face of a gentlewoman frighten me?" replied the stout reformer, turning round upon them; "I have looked in the faces of many angry men, and yet have not been afraid beyond measure." Knox's ministerial duties were in the mean time exceedingly laborious. His charge, as already mentioned, was St Giles's church, where he had discharged these duties since the year 1560. He preached twice every Sabbath, and thrice on other