Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/69

KNO, and the priest struck him. The youth pitched a stone at his castigator, and it broke one of the images on the altar. The fracture of the image was as the spark that suddenly creates an explosion. The onlookers were roused, and without a moment's thought, rushed on altar and images and demolished them. The tumult grew as the mob maddened—religious houses were pulled down, and all pictures and images defaced. This demolition, so often misrepresented, Knox distinctly ascribes to the "rascal multitude." The queen regent looked on this riot as a serious rebellion, and mustered an army to quell it, but the protestants aware of her ultimate designs levied a host in self-defence. An opportune treaty prevented any hostile conflict. The "lords of the congregation," finding from various circumstances that the regent was not to be trusted, were alarmed into activity. Knox would not be silenced, and going to St. Andrews, he preached so effectively that the popish worship was peacefully abolished, and the churches stripped of what were held to be idols or idolatrous symbols. Other parts of the country imitated St. Andrews, but not so peacefully; many fine edifices were demolished, and many valuable works of art perished in the surge and fury of the popular revolution. When the army of the congregation with which Knox had been at Cupar Moor, where they lay face to face with the regent's forces, reached Edinburgh; the Reformer, who was still with them, preached on the day of their entrance in the church of St. Giles, and next day in the church of the Abbey. The inhabitants immediately met and elected him their minister, and Knox complying with the call commenced his labours in the city. On the approach of the regent's host Knox quitted Edinburgh, made an extensive tour through the country, and preached in many of the larger towns; "men," as he says, "of all sorts and conditions obeying the truth." During the negotiations for military assistance from England, Knox for a time conducted the greater part of the correspondence. These negotiations failed, and the party of the regent, on whom sentence of suspension had been passed by a convention, appeared for a season to triumph, and a price was set on the Reformer's head. But his eloquence cheered the despondent reformers. Queen Elizabeth at length favoured their cause, and a treaty was concluded. The French troops were dismissed from Scotland, and the English regiments that had been sent down marched back. The civil war, which had lasted a year, was thus concluded, and the congregation thronged the church of St. Giles, to offer hearty thanksgiving to God. Parliament met—a confession of faith was speedily drawn up, and on the 24th of August, 1560, the papal jurisdiction was formally abolished, and all penal laws in its favour rescinded. A book of discipline was compiled, and the compilers, says Row, "took not their example from any kirk in the world, no, not from Geneva;" pastors, doctors, elders, and readers were appointed, and five superintendents were set over various provinces. The patrimony of the church was to be allotted to the ministry, schools, and the poor, a scheme of division soon frustrated by the court and the greed of the nobility and gentry. The first meeting of the general assembly of the protestant church of Scotland was held at Edinburgh on the 20th of December, 1560.

No sooner had Queen Mary arrived from France in August, 1561, than she had a long interview with the stern reformer, after a sermon which had galled her. She accused him of many things, and even of effecting his ends by magical arts. With her majesty he had many meetings, and on one occasion which was rather stormy, as he was leaving the room he heard some one say, "He is not afraid"—at which, turning round, he said with a sarcastic smile—"Why should the pleasing face of a gentlewoman affray me? I have luiked in the faces of mony angry men, and yet have not been affrayed above measure." When the earl of Huntly took up arms for the old faith in the North, he was routed by the earl of Moray, and during this expedition Knox went into Nithsdale and Galloway, and laboured to spread and consolidate the protestant interest. At this time he was challenged by Quintin Kennedy, uncle to the earl of Cassilis, and abbot of Crossraguel. The abbot proposed that they should have "familear, formall, and gentill ressoning," to which Knox assented, saying, "for assuredly my lord—for so I style you by reason of blood, not of office—chiding and brawling I utterlie abhor." The disputation was held on the 28th September in the house of the provost of Maybole. It was tedious and devoid of much interest, turning chiefly upon the proof or disproof of the mass, from Melchizedec's offering of bread and wine to Abraham. Knox had interviews with the queen on various occasions, but neither menace nor flattery could move him. Parliament met, but it had lost some of its earnest attachment to protestantism. The preaching of Knox became more stormy and vehement; his tongue was felt to be a match for Mary's sceptre. The queen having heard that he had preached about her marriage, summoned him into her presence, and in her petulant censure of him burst into tears. He was commanded to wait in the ante-room, and he talked a few words of quaint wisdom to the ladies-in-waiting. A riot having taken place in the chapel at Holyrood, and Knox having sent a circular to several gentlemen to attend at the trial of the rioters, he fell under the royal displeasure, and was summoned before an extraordinary meeting of the council and nobility. This act on his part can only be justified on the plea of necessity—for it virtually implies a species of double government, that is, anarchy. The queen would have him found guilty of treason, and could not but exult over one "who had made her weep." The nobility at once acquitted the reformer, and "madam was disappointed of her purpose." In March, 1564, Knox, who had been three years a widower, and was now on the verge of sixty, married Margaret Stewart, daughter of Lord Ochiltree—his lordship being a descendant of Robert, duke of Albany, second son of King Robert II. Popish writers aver that he gained the young lady's heart by witchcraft, for she was little more than twenty. Nicol Burne describes him as going to Lord Ochiltree's mansion "not lyke an auld decrepit priest, as he was, but lyke as he had been ane of the bluid-royal, with his bendis of taffetie feschnit with golden rings and precious stanes." The union appears to have been a happy one. The marriage of the queen with Darnley soon followed. Knox's tongue gave no little scandal on the occasion, and he was ordered in 1565 to desist from preaching. A secret league was formed in France by the duke of Alva and Catherine de Medici to extirpate protestantism, and the queen, at the instigation of her uncle the cardinal of Lorraine, had subscribed to it. These measures were counteracted, the unhappy Rizzio was assassinated, and Knox withdrew from Edinburgh. Tytler's assertion that Knox was "precognisant of the intended murder," rests on no sufficient proof. The murder of Darnley soon followed; Mary wedded Bothwell—resigned the crown in favour of her son, appointing the earl of Moray regent during his minority. On the 29th July Knox preached the sermon in Stirling at the coronation of James VI. Under the regency of Moray harmony subsisted between the church and the court, and Knox carried out as far as he could his various plans for strengthening the protestant interest, and securing a liberal income to the clergy. But the regent was shot in Linlithgow, and died 23rd January, 1570. The reformer was filled with anguish at the event. He had already obtained from the regent a pardon for the man who had become his assassin, and he preached the funeral sermon before three thousand persons dissolved in tears. The regent's death, and his numerous and pressing anxieties during that critical period, preyed upon his health, and in October of the same year he was struck with apoplexy. In a few days he recovered his speech, and was able to preach again, but not with his wonted vigour. The death of the regent produced disastrous results, and through the weakness of Lennox his successor, the abilities of Maitland, and the defection of Kirkaldy of Grange, the queen's party gained strength, and Knox was subjected to numberless annoyances. His life was often threatened, and an assassin fired into his house. But his vindications were open and honest; he would, he says, "call a fig a fig, and a spade a spade." He left Edinburgh, and took up his abode in St. Andrews, still carrying on by tongue, pen, and counsel, the great work to which his life had been devoted. His health was feeble, but he still preached. James Melville in his Diary gives the following graphic account of Knox's preaching and appearance at this time:—"In the opening up of his text, he was moderat the space of an half houre; but when he entered to application, he made me so to grew and tremble, that I could not hald a pen to wryt. He was very weik. I saw him, every day of his doctrine, go hulie and fear (slowly and cautiously), with a furring of marticks about his neck, a staffe in the ane hand, and gude, godlie Richart Ballenden, his servand, halden up the uther oxter, from the abbey to the parish kirk, and, by the said Richart, and another servand, lifted up to the pulpit, whar he behovit to lean at his first entrie; bot, er he haid done with his