Part 35

It has been objected, that archbishop Grindal was at this time under sequestration, and that the license was granted, not by him, but by Dr Aubrey, as vicar general. To this it is sufficient to reply, that Mr Strype is of opinion that the sequestration was taken off from the time that the writs and instruments run in the name of Aubrey alone, without any mention of Clark, (Life of Grindal, p. 271;) that, even during the period of the sequestration, “all licenses to preach, &c. were granted by these two civilians, with a deference to the archbishop, and consultation with him in what they did,” (Ibid. p. 240;) and that the license in question bears, that it was granted “with _the consent and express command_ of the most reverend father in Christ, the lord Edmund, by the divine providence, archbishop of Canterbury, _to us signified_;”――“de consensu et expresso mandato reverendiss. in Christo patris domini Edmundi, &c. nobis significato.” Ibid. p. 271. Append. p. 101.

82 ― Ninian Winzet, apud Keith’s History, App. p. 212, 213. Burne’s Disputation, p. 128. Parise, 1581.

83 ― In the former editions, I had spoken of Annand as probably a friar, who, according to the custom of the times, had assumed the honorary title of dean. But I have since ascertained, that he was a person of great note in the university. It appears from the Records, that he was principal of St Leonard’s College in 1544, and continued to hold that office during several years subsequent to that period.

84 ― The doctrine which the preacher delivered at this time was afterwards put into “ornate meeter,” by one of his hearers, Sir David Lindsay, who, in his “Monarchie,” finished in 1553, has given a particular account of the rise and corruptions of popery, under the name of the “fifth spiritual and papal monarchie.” Chalmers’s Lindsay, iii. 86‒116.

85 ― “Sum said, utheris hued the branches of papistry, bot he straiketh at the rute, to destroye the whole. Utheris said, gif the doctors and magistri nostri defend not now the pope and his authoritie, which in their owin presence is so manifestlie impugnit, the devill have my part of him and his lawes bothe. Utheris said, Mr George Wischeart spak never so planelie, and yet he was brunt; even so will he be in the end. Utheris said, the tyrannie of the cardinal maid not his cause the better, neither yet the suffering of Godis servand maid his cause the wors.――And thairfoir we wald counsail yow and thame to provyde better defences than fyre and sword; for it may be that allis ye shall be disappointed: men now have uther eyes than they had then. This answer gave the laird of Nydrie.” Knox, Historie, p. 70.

86 ― Knox, Historie, p. 70‒74. “Alexander Arbuckylle” was made Bachelor of Arts, Nov. 3, 1525. Act. Fac. Art.

87 ― Knox, Historie, 74, 75.

88 ― Buchanan, Hist. lib. xv. Oper. tom. i. 293, 294. Pitscottie, 189, folio edit.

89 ― Buchan. Oper. i. 296. Pitscottie, 191. Knox, 76.

90 ― Rough continued to preach in England until the death of Edward VI. when he retired to Norden in Friesland. There he was obliged to support himself and his wife (whom he had married in England) by knitting caps, stockings, &c. Having come over to London in the course of his trade, he heard of a congregation of protestants which met secretly in that city, to whom he joined himself, and was elected their pastor. A few weeks after this, the conventicle was discovered by the treachery of one of their own number, and Rough was carried before bishop Bonner, by whose orders he was committed to the flames, on the 22d of December 1557. An account of his examination, and two of his letters breathing the true spirit of a martyr, may be seen in Fox, p. 1840‒1842.

91 ― Balnaves’s Confession, Epist. Dedic. Archibald Hamilton says that he was condemned to work at the oar;――“impellendis longarum navium remis, cum reliquis adjudicatur.” Dialogus de Confusione Calvinianæ Sectæ, p. 64, b.

92 ― Knox, Historie, p. 83.

93 ― MS. Letters, p. 53.

94 ― One of his most bitter adversaries has borne an involuntary but honourable testimony to his magnanimity at this time. “Ubi longo maris tædio, et laboris molestia extenuatum quidem, et subactum corpus fuit; sed animi elatio eum subinde rerum magnarum spe extimulans, nihilo magis tunc quam prius quiescere potuit.”――Hamiltonii Dialogus, p. 64, b.

95 ― Knox, Historie, p. 74.

96 ― Psalm xlii.

97 ― See Note N.

98 ― Knox, Historie, p. 74. This Treatise appears to have been lost.

99 ― MS. Letters, p. 40.

100 ― The manuscript, there is reason to think, was conveyed to Scotland about that time, but it fell aside, and was long considered as lost. After the death of Knox, it was discovered by his servant, Richard Bannatyne, in the house of Ormiston, and was printed, anno 1584, by Thomas Vaultrollier, in 12mo, with the title of “Confession of Faith, &c. by Henry Balnaves of Hallhill, one of the Lords of Council and Session of Scotland.”――David Buchanan, in his edition of Knox’s History, anno 1644, among his other alterations and interpolations, makes Knox to say that this work was published at the time he wrote his History; which may be numbered among the anachronisms in that edition, which, for some time, discredited the authenticity of the History, and led many to deny that Knox was its author. But in the genuine editions, Knox expresses the very reverse. “In the presoun, he (Balnaves) wrait a maist profitabill treatise of justificatioun, and of the warkis and conversatioun of a justifyed man: ‘but how it was suppressit we knaw not.’” Historie, p. 83, Edin. anno 1732. See also p. 181, of the first edition, in 8vo, printed at London by Vaultrollier in the year 1586.

101 ― I have not adhered to the orthography of the printed work, which is evidently different from what it must have been in the MS.

102 ― It is “perfection” in the printed copy, which is evidently a mistake.

103 ― _i.e._ beyond.

104 ― Rouen, not Roanne, is the place meant.

105 ― _i.e._ genius or knowledge.

106 ― See Note O.

107 ― This is the man whom a high-church historian has represented as holding the principles of the ancient Zealots or Siccarii, and teaching that any person who met a papist might kill him! Collier, Eccles. Hist. ii. 545.

108 ― Knox, Historie, p. 84, 85.

109 ― In one of his letters, preserved by Calderwood, Knox says, that he was _nineteen_ months in the French galleys. Cald. MS. vol. i. 256. In the printed Calderwood, the period of his confinement is limited to _nine_ months, a mistake which has been copied by several writers. It is proper that the reader of that book should be aware, that it is an abridgement of a larger work, still in manuscript; and though there is reason to believe that it was drawn up by Calderwood himself, yet, having been printed after his death, and in a foreign country, it is often incorrect. Knox, in a conference with Mary of Scotland, told the queen that he was five years resident in England (Historie, p. 289). Now, as he came to England immediately after he obtained his liberty, and left it (as we shall afterwards see) in the end of January or beginning of February, 1554, this accords exactly with the date of his liberation, which is given above from Calderwood’s MS.

110 ― This is mentioned in a MS. in my possession; but little credit can be given to it, as it is written in a modern hand, and no authority is produced.

111 ― Petrie’s Church History, part ii. p. 184.

112 ― Hamiltonii Dialog. p. 64.

113 ― Peter Martyr, in a letter, dated Oxford, 1st July, 1650, laments the paucity of useful preachers in England, “Doleo plus quam dici possit, tanta ubique in Anglia verbi Dei penuria laborari; et eos qui oves Christi doctrina pascere tenentur, cum usque eo remisse agant, ut officium facere prorsus recusant, nescio quo fletu, quibusve lachrymis deplorari possit. Verum confido fore ut meliora simus visuri.” Martyri Epist. apud Loc. Commun. p. 760. Genevæ, 1624.

114 ― Burnet’s Hist. of the Reformation, II. 24. The suppression of the chantries, in the reign of Edward VI. was attended with similar effects. Strype’s Memorials of the Reformation, ii. 446.

115 ― I omitted mentioning in the proper place, that the biographer of Sir David Lindsay has stated, from the minutes of the English council, that Knox was in the pay of England as early as the year 1547. Chalmers’s Lindsay, i. 32. I cannot suppose that the learned author would confound the salary which Knox received during his residence in England, with a pension allotted to him when he was in his native country. But, on the other hand, I think it very unlikely that he should have been known to the English court before he entered the castle of St Andrews, and am inclined to suppose that any pension which he received from them did not commence until that period at soonest. Mr Chalmers’s language conveys the idea, that he was pensioned by England before he went to the castle.

116 ― Strype’s Memor. of the Reform. iii. 235. Knox, Hist. 85, 289.

117 ― Knox, Historie, p. 289.

118 ― Sir Thomas More, in one of his letters to Erasmus, gives the following character of Tonstal: “Ut nemo est omnibus bonis literis instructior, nemo vita moribusque severior, ita nemo est usquam in convictu jucundior.”

119 ― Besides the great council which managed the affairs of the kingdom under the protector, a number of the privy-councillors who belonged to that part of the country, composed a subordinate board, called “the council of the north.” The members here referred to probably belonged to this council, and not to the town council of Newcastle. If I am right in this conjecture, Knox might owe to them, and not to the bishop, the liberty of this public defence.

120 ― See Note P.

121 ― The compiler of the account of Knox, prefixed to the edition of his History printed in 1732, says, that the MS. containing the defence, bears that it “quite silenced” the bishop and his doctors. But that writer does not appear to have ever seen the MS., which contains nothing of the kind. The fact, however, is attested by the bishop of Ossory, who had good opportunities of knowing the truth, and who is accurate in his account of other circumstances relative to it. His words are, “Et 4 die Aprilis ejusdem anni [1550] aperiens in concione opinionem, ejus idolatrias et horrendas blasphemias, tam solidis argumentis, abominationem esse probabat, ut, cum omnibus sciolis, Saturnius ille somniator [Dunelmensis] refragare non possit.” Baleus, De Script. Scot. et Hibern. Art. Knoxus.

122 ― John Harle or Harley, was afterwards made bishop of Hereford, May 26, 1553. Strype’s Cranmer, p. 301. A late writer has confounded this Englishman with William Harlowe, who was minister of St Cuthbert’s church, near Edinburgh. Scott’s History of the Reformers in Scotland, p. 242.

123 ― King Edward’s Journal, apud Burnet, ii. Records, p. 42.

124 ― Memorials of the Reformation, ii. 297. Memor. of Cranmer, p. 292. Burnet, iii. 212. Records, 420, 422.

125 ― Burnet, ii. 171.

126 ― Strype’s Memor. of Reform. ut supra. Life of Grindal, p. 7. Mr Strype says, that the number of chaplains was afterwards reduced to four, Bradford and Knox being dropped from the list. But both of these preached in their turn before the court, in the year 1553. And in the council-book a warrant is granted, October 27, 1552, to four gentlemen, to pay to Knox, “his majesty’s preacher in the north, forty pounds, as his majesty’s reward.” Strype’s Cranmer, 292. This salary he retained until the death of Edward; for, in a letter written by him at the time he left England, he says: “Ather the queen’s majestie, or sum thesaurer, will be 40 pounds rycher by me, sae meikle lack I of the dutie of my patentis; but that littil trublis me.” MS. Letters, p. 286.

127 ― See Note Q.

128 ― Fox, p. 1326. Strype questions the truth of Weston’s statement, and says that Knox “was hardly come into England (at least any farther than Newcastle) at this time.” Annals, iii. 117. But we have already seen that he arrived in England as early as the beginning of 1549.

129 ― “October 2, (1552,) a letter was directed to Mess. Harley, Bill, Horn, Grindal, Pern, and Knox, to consider certain articles exhibited to the king’s majesty, to be subscribed by all such as shall be admitted to be preachers or ministers in any part of the realm; and to make report of their opinions touching the same.” Council-book, apud Strype’s Cranmer, p. 273. Their report was returned before the 20th of November, ibid. p. 301. Burnet says, the order was given Oct. 20. History, iii. 212. The articles agreed to at this time were forty-two. In 1562, they were reduced to thirty-nine, their present number.

130 ― See the pedigree of the family of Bowes among the original papers at the end of the work.

131 ― From this appellation in the MS. letters, I concluded that Knox was married to Miss Bowes before he left Berwick, until I met with one of his printed works, to which a letter from him to Mrs Bowes is added. On the margin of this, opposite to a place in which he had called her mother, is this note: “I had maid faithful promise, before witnes, to Mariorie Bowes her daughter, so as she took me for sone, I hartly embrased her as my mother.” Knox’s Answer to Tyrie the Jesuit. F. ij.

132 ― MS. Letters, p. 265, 276.

133 ― Ibid, passim.

134 ― They wrote a letter in commendation of him, Dec. 9, 1552, to Lord Wharton, deputy warden of the Borders. During the following year, when he was employed in Buckinghamshire, in order to secure greater acceptance and respect to him in that county, the council wrote in his favour to lords Russel and Windsor, to the justices of the peace, and to several other gentlemen. Strype’s Cranmer, p. 292.

135 ― Strype’s Memor. of the Reformation, ii. 533.

136 ― Bishop Burnet, and Mr Strype, (Memor. of Reform, ii. 299,) who have recorded this fact, conjectured that the patentee was a relation of our Reformer. That he was his brother, is evident from Knox’s letters, which mention his being in England about this time. In a letter written in 1553, he says: “My brother, Williame Knox, is presentlie with me. What ye wald haif frome Scotland, let me knaw this Monunday at nicht; for hie must depart on Tyisday.” MS. Letters, p. 271. Perhaps the same person is referred to in the following extract from another letter: “My brother hath communicat his haill hart with me, and I persave the mychtie operation of God. And sa let us be establissit in his infinit gudnes and maist sure promissis.” Ib. p. 266.

William Knox afterwards became a preacher, and was minister of Cockpen, in Mid-Lothian, after the establishment of the Reformation in Scotland. No fewer than fourteen ministers of the church of Scotland are numbered among his descendants. Genealogical Account of the Knoxes, apud Scott’s History of the Reformers in Scotland, p. 152.

137 ― MS. Letters, p. 193. Knox’s Admonition to the Professors of the Truth in England, p. 61, apud History, Edin. 1644, 4to.

138 ― The earl of Warwick, now created duke of Northumberland, was appointed warden-general of the northern marches in Oct. 1551. But being occupied in securing his interest at court, he got himself excused from going north until June 1552. Strype’s Memor. of the Reformation, ii. 282, 339.

139 ― MS. Letters, p. 112, 173. Admonition, p. 51, apud History, Edinburgh, 1644. Knox considered that the papists had a secret hand in fomenting those dissensions which led to the condemnation and death of the protector. Nor were his suspicions ill-founded. See Strype’s Memor. of the Reform. ii. 306‒7.

140 ― The duke’s letter was dated Nov. 23, 1552. Haynes, State Papers, p. 136. Brand’s History of Newcastle, p. 304. Redpath’s Border History, p. 577.

141 ― A great number of his letters in the MS. are superscribed “To his sister.” It appears from internal evidence, that this was a daughter of Mrs Bowes; and, although I cannot be positive, I am inclined to think that she was the young lady whom he married. One letter has this superscription, “To Mariorie Bowes, who was his first wife.” In it he addresses her by the name of _Sister_, and at the close, says, “I think this be the first letter that ever I wrait to you.” MS. Letters, p. 335. But there is no date by which to compare it with other letters.

142 ― Henry Nevyl, earl of Westmoreland, was, by the interest of the duke of Northumberland, admitted a member of the privy council in 1552. He was also a member of the council for the north, and lord lieutenant of the bishopric of Durham. His private character was indifferent. Strype’s Memor. of the Reformation, ii. 401, 457‒9.

143 ― MS. Letters, p. 267‒9.

144 ― MS. Letters, p. 112. Melchior Adam, Vitæ Theolog. Ext. p. 137.

145 ― The letter last quoted. MS. Letters, p. 273‒4, compared with p. 268.

146 ― MS. Letters, p. 276.

147 ― MS. Letters, p. 260‒1.

148 ― Ibid. p. 262.

149 ― Strype’s Cranmer, p. 292.

150 ― The account of his examination before the council is taken from a letter of Knox, the substance of which has been inserted by Calderwood, in his MS. History, and by Strype, in his Memorials of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 400.

151 ― Luther having rejected with disdain the great offers by which Alexander, the papal legate, attempted to gain him over to the court of Rome, “He is a ferocious brute,” exclaimed the legate, equally confounded and disappointed, “whom nothing can soften, and who regards riches and honours as mere dirt; otherwise the pope would long ago have loaded him with favours.”――Beausobre’s History of the Reformation, i. 395, 6. Macaulay’s Translation.

152 ― Bezæ Icones, Ee iij. See also Verheideni Effigies, p. 92, 93. Melch. Adam. p. 137.

153 ― MS. Letters, p. 73. The passage will afterwards be quoted.

154 ― History of Newcastle, p. 304. Surtees’s Durham, vol. i. p. lxx.

155 ― The churches of Geneva and Scotland did not agree in all points. Though holidays were abolished in Geneva at the commencement of the Reformation, the observance of a number of them was very soon restored, and has always continued in that church; but this practice was wholly rejected by the church of Scotland, from the very first establishment of the Reformation, and its introduction has always been vigorously resisted by her. Other things in which they differed might easily be mentioned.

156 ― Knox, Historie, p. 72‒74, and this Life, p. 63, 64.

157 ― Cald. MS. i. 250. During the reign of Edward, and even the first years of that of his sister Elizabeth, absolute conformity to the liturgy was not pressed upon ministers. Strype’s Annals, i. 419, 432. Burnet, iii. 305, 311. Hutchinson’s Antiq. of Durham, i. 453. Archbishop Parker, in the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, administered the elements to the communicants standing, in the cathedral church of Canterbury. Her majesty’s commissioners appointed the communion to be received in the same posture in Coventry; and the practice was continued in that town as late, at least, as the year 1608. Certain demands propounded unto Richard, archbishop of Canterbury, p. 45, anno 1605. Removal of Imputations laid upon the ministers of Devon and Cornwall, p. 51, anno 1606. Dispute upon the question of Kneeling, p. 131, anno 1608.

158 ― This statement of his sentiments is drawn from his Brief Exhortation to England for the speedy embracing of Christ’s gospel, printed at Geneva, anno 1559, and at the end of his History, Edinburgh, 1644, 4to; and from his letters to Mrs Locke, dated 6th April, and 15th October, 1559, in Cald. MS. i. p. 380, 491.

159 ― See Note R.

160 ― See Note S.

161 ― “We had,” says he in his Letter to the Faithful in London, Newcastle, and Berwick, “ane king of sa godlie disposition towardis vertew, and the treuth of God, that nane frome the beginning passit him, and (to my knawledge) none of his yeiris did ever mache him in that behalf; gif hie myght haif bene lord of his awn will.” MS. Letters, p. 119. He has passed a fuller encomium on this prince, in his Historie, p. 89.

162 ― See Note T.

163 ― MS. Letters, p. 175‒177, and Admonition, p. 52, 54, apud History, Edin. 1644, 4to.

164 ― One of his letters to Mrs Bowes is dated London, 22d June, 1553. MS. Letters, p. 249. And from other letters it appears that he was there in the following month.

165 ― We have already seen (p. 101‒103) that this was not his sole reason for refusing preferment in the English church.

166 ― MS. Letters, p. 73, 74, also p. 250.

167 ― In his “Letter to the Faithful in London,” &c. he puts them in mind of the premonitions which he had given on different occasions, and, among others, of “what was spoken in Londone in ma places nor ane, when fyreis of joy and ryatous banketting wer at the proclamation of Marie your quene.” MS. Letters, 112, 113.

168 ― One of his letters is dated Carlisle, 26th July, 1553. MS. Letters, p. 270.

169 ― See Note U.

170 ― Fox, 718, 748‒9, 751‒766. Knox, Admonition, p. 67, appendix to History, Edin. 1644, 4to.

171 ― MS. Letters, p. 289, 291.

172 ― His wife.

173 ― MS. Letters, p. 290, 291.

174 ― Ibid. p. 196.

175 ― MS. Letters, p. 293, 294.

176 ― Ibid. p. 265.

177 ― MS. Letters, p. 265.

178 ― MS. Letters, p. 284.