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 JOHN KNOX 145 10 be noted, both favorably disposed to the new opinions in religion now making their way in Scotland. Through these families he was brought into contact with George Wishart, who had lately returned from travelling in Germany and Eng- land, with the burning zeal to gain his country to the Lutheran reformation. From this period the future direction of Knox's life was decided, and thencefor- ward, with an intensity and self-devotion never surpassed, he is the apostle of the cause with which his name is forever identified the establishment in Scotland of what he deemed the only true conception of the primitive church as based on the teaching of Christ and the apostles. We have reason to believe that, even before this date, his sympathies were on the side of reform in religion ; but the teaching and example of Wishart seem first to have brought to him the clear conscious- ness of his mission. Knox identified himself with Wishart with all the impet- uosity of his character, and was in the habit, he tells us, of carrying a two-handed sword before the preacher. When Wishart was seized by the emissaries of Cardinal Beaton, Knox would willingly have attended him to the last ; but Wishart, who knew the fate in store for him, rejected the offer. " Return to your bairns " (meaning Knox's pupils), he said, "and God bless you. One is sufficient for one sacrifice." Wishart was burned in St. Andrews in March, 1546, and in May of the same year Cardinal Beaton was murdered. The cardinal's murderers held possession of the castle of St. Andrews ; and, as Knox was known to be the enemy of Beaton (though he had no share in his assassination), he was forced (1547) for his own safety to join them with his pupils. Here his zeal and theological at- tainments made him so conspicuous that, at the instance of the leaders of the re- forming party (Sir David Lyndsay among the rest), he was formally called to the ministry, and preached with much acceptance in the castle and parish church of St. Andrews. A few months later the castle surrendered to the French ; and, in the teeth of the express terms of capitulation, the more prominent of the be- sieged party were sent as prisoners on board the French galleys. For eighteen months Knox remained a captive, his first winter being spent in a galley on the Loire, the second in prison in Rouen. His constitution was not naturally ro- bust, and his hard experience during these two years seriously impaired his health for the rest of his life. The breach of faith on the part of the French, and the ignominy to which he was subjected, were never forgotten by Knox, and must in part explain and justify his life-long conviction that no good thing could come of French policy or French religion. In February, 1549, on the express intercession of Edward VI., Knox re- gained his liberty. As it was still -unsafe for him to return to Scotland, for the next four years, till the death of Edward VI., he made his home in Eng- land. From all that is known of him during these years, it is clear that he made himself a person to be reckoned with by those at the centre of authority in the country. By his preaching at Berwick he gave such offence to the Bishop of Durham that he was removed to Newcastle, where it was supposed his influence would be less mischievous. In 1551 he was appointed one of six chaplains to Edward VI., and in 1552, at the suggestion of the Duke of Northumberland, he 1.0