Page:Life of John Knox (2).pdf/12

12 give her subjects an early proof of her attachment to it. Mary gave instructions to celebrate mass in the chapel of Holyrood, on the first Sunday after her arrival. The Protestants were struck with horror when they found it was countenanced by the Queen, and the more zealous of them would have prevented the service by force, had not the leaders interfered. Knox, from regard to the public pence, used his influence to allay the tuumlt, but he was not less alarmed than his brethren, for in his sermon on the following Sabbath, he said, that "one mass is more fearful to me, than if ten thousand armed enemies were landed in any part of the realm, of purpose to suppress the whole religion." Soon after this he was sent for by the Queen, who accused him of raising her subjects against her mother and herself, of writing against her authority, and being the cause of sedition and bloodshed To these charges Knox replied, "If to teach the word of God in sincerity, if to rebuke idolatry, and to exhort a people to worship God according to his word, be to raise subjects against their princes, then cannot I be excused; for it hath pleased God in his mercy to make me one amongst many to disclose unto this realm the vanity of the Papistical religion- And touching that book, that seemeth so highly to offend your majesty, it is most certain that if I wrote it I am content that all the learned of the land should judge of it. My hope is, that, so long as ye defile not your hands with the blood of the saints of God, that neither I nor that book shall either hurt yon or your authority; for, in very deed, Madam, that book was written most especially against that wicked Mary of England." "Think you," said the Queen, "that subjects, having the power, may resist their princes?" He answered they might, "if princes do exceed their bonnds." The Queen who had hitherto maintained her courage, was overpowered by this