Part 37

302 ― Strype’s Mem. of Parker, p. 205. This translation was often reprinted in Britain. The freedom of remark used in the notes gave offence to queen Elizabeth, and her successor James; the last of whom said, that it was the worst translation which he had seen. Notwithstanding this expression of disapprobation, it is evident that the translators appointed by his authority made great use of it; and if they had followed it still more, the version which they have given us would, upon the whole, have been improved. The late Dr Geddes had a very different opinion of it from the royal critic.

I pretend not to know the versions referred to in the following passage of a foreign critic:――“Nec vero melius operā suæ factioni, vel astuta vulpecula illa Joannes Cnoxius Scotus, vel ōes magnæ & celebris Anglicanæ veridictianæ reformationis authores, cum in suis Bibliis eodem capite, ita reponunt: Scoti primi quia proprius Calvinisimo accedunt: ‘Thou ar Piter, and vpon that rok I wil buld my kirk,’ id est, tu es Petrus, & super istam rupē ego volo ædificare meā Ecclesiā. Videmus ‘that rok’ non esse id quod Petrum Cnoxius vocauit, atque Dominus Petrum affatur, et de eodem intelligit fore ipsum Ecclesiæ suæ columen. Angli nihil habent discriminis, nisi quod dicunt ‘churk’ pro ‘Kirk.’” Paradigma De Quatuor Linguis Orientalibvs Præcipvis. Petro Victore Caietano Palma Avthore, p. 115. Parisiis, 1595.

303 ― _i.e._ heathen.

304 ― Appellation, apud Historie, p. 431‒140, 453, 454.

305 ― _i.e._ regimen, or government.

306 ― First Blast, apud Historie, p. 478.

307 ― MS. Letters, p. 318, 319.

308 ― Ibid. p. 322, 323.

309 ― Tacitus has expressed his contempt of those who submit to female government with his usual emphatic brevity, in the account which he gives of the Sitones, a German tribe. “Cætera similes, uno differunt, quod fœmina dominatur; in tantum, non modo a libertate, sed etiam a servitute degenerant.” De Mor. Germ. c. 45.

310 ― Warner’s Eccles. History of England, ii. 308.

311 ― Christopher Goodman adopted the sentiment, and commended the publication of his colleague, in his book on “Obedience to Superior Powers.” Whittingham and Gilby declared themselves on the same side of the question. I might also mention countrymen of his own, who agreed with Knox on this subject; as James Kennedy, the celebrated archbishop of St Andrews, and Sir David Lindsay. Buchanani Hist. lib. xii. tom. i. 221‒24, edit. Rudim. Chalmers’s Lindsay, iii. 175.

312 ― Strype’s Annals, i. 127. Fox’s letter was written before the death of queen Mary. Knox’s answer to it, from the original in the British Museum, will be found in the Appendix.

313 ― The heads of the intended second Blast are subjoined to his Appellation, which was published some months after the first Blast.

314 ― “An Harborowe for Faithful and Trewe Subjectes, against the late blowne Blaste, concerning the Government of Wemen,” &c. anno MD. lix. At Strasborowe the 26. of Aprill. The Blast drew forth several other defences of female government, two of which were written by natives of Scotland. Bishop Lesley’s tract on this subject was printed along with his defence of queen Mary’s honour. David Chalmers, one of the lords of session, published his “Discours de la légitime succession des Femmes,” after he retired from Scotland. Lord Hailes’s Catal. of the Lords of Session, note 23. Mackenzie’s Lives, iii. 388, 392.

315 ― Strype’s Life of Aylmer, p. 16.

316 ― Harborowe, sig. B. Strype says, contrary to the plain meaning of the passage, that Aylmer speaks here of “the _Scotch_ queen Mary.” Life of Aylmer, p. 230.

317 ― The same suspicion seems to have been entertained by some of Elizabeth’s courtiers. Strype’s Aylmer, p. 20.

318 ― See Note BB.

319 ― The editions of the Blast printed along with Knox’s History, are all extremely incorrect: whole sentences are often omitted.

320 ― In his answer to Knox’s argument, from Isaiah, iii. 12, he concludes thus: “Therefore the argumente ariseth from wrong understandinge. As the vicar of Trumpenton understode _Eli, Eli, lamazabatani_, when he read the passion on Palme Sonday. When he came to that place, he stopped, and calling the churchwardens, saide, ‘Neighbours! this gear must be amended. Here is Eli twice in the book: I assure you if my L. [the bishop] of Elie come this waye, and see it, he will have the book. Therefore, by mine advice, we shall scrape it out, and put in our own towne’s name, _Trumpington, Trumpington, lamah zabactani_.’ They consented, and he did so, because he understode no grewe.” Harborowe, G. 3. G. 4.

321 ― 1 Tim. ii. 11‒14.

322 ― Harborowe, G. 4. H.

323 ― See Note CC.

324 ― Harborowe, sig. G. 3. Life of Aylmer, p. 279.

325 ― Life of Aylmer, p. 269.

326 ― Knox, Historie, p. 101.

327 ― Ninian Winget says, that “sum lordis and gentilmen” ministered the sacrament of the supper “to their awn household servandis and tenantis.” If only one instance of this kind occurred, the papists would exaggerate it. The same writer adds, “that Knox blamed the persons who did it, saying, that they had ‘gretumlie failzeit.’” Winzet’s Buke of Fourscoir Three Questions, in Keith, Append. p. 239. Comp. Knox, p. 217.

328 ― Cald. MS. i. 257. “The Electioun of Eldaris and Deaconis in the church of Edinburgh,” in Dunlop’s Confessions, ii. 635, 636. Calderwood places his account of this under the year 1555; but I think that date too early. It was rather in the end of 1556, or in the course of 1557. The names of the first elders in Edinburgh were George Smail, Michael Robertson, Adam Craig, John Cairns, and Alexander Hope. There were at first two assemblies in Edinburgh; but Erskine of Dun persuaded them to unite, and they met sometimes in the houses of Robert Watson and James Barron, and sometimes in the abbey.

329 ― Knox, Historie, p. 94‒5.

330 ― See Note DD.

331 ― Knox, 101.

332 ― Spotswood, p. 117.

333 ― Ibid. Knox, p. 102.

334 ― How the bishop’s conscience stood affected as to these points we know not; but it is certain that his practice was very far from being immaculate. Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 209, Knox, Historie, p. 104. Keith, p. 208.

335 ― Endure.

336 ― Need.

337 ― Knox, Historie, p. 106‒7.

338 ― Lindsay of Pitscottie’s History, p. 200‒1. Knox, 122. Spotswood, 95‒7. Petrie, Part ii. 191.

339 ― Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 216. Besides the persons above named, the council mention (in the place here referred to) “Johannes Patritz, et alii complures, catholicæ fidei et ecclesiasticæ unitatis desertores.” Who this Patritz was I do not know. The reformed preachers were obliged to assume feigned names on particular occasions, to escape apprehension. Thus Douglas went by the name of Grant. Comp. Knox, Historie, p. 103, 106.

340 ― Historie of the Estate of Scotland from 1559 to 1566, p. 1. MS. belonging to Thomas Thomson, Esq. Advocate. This MS., which I had not seen when I published the first edition of this work, contains a number of minute particulars not mentioned in other histories. It would have been extremely valuable if it had been complete, but the copy which I have used stops short in the middle of the year 1560.

341 ― Ibid.

342 ― See Note EE.

343 ― Knox, Historie, p. 122. Bishop Bale, who was then at Basle, inserted, in a work which he was just publishing, a letter sent him at this time by Thomas Cole, an English refugee residing at Geneva, communicating this information. “Heri enim,” says Cole, “D. Knoxus ex Scotia nova certissima de immutata religione accepit: Christum publice per totum illud regnum doceri; et ita demum hominum corda occupasse, ut omni metu posito audeant publicis precibus interesse sua lingua celebratis, et sacramenta quoque habeant rite administrata, impuris antichristi ceremoniis abjectis.――Nunc regina cogitat Reformationem religionis, indicto die quo conventus fiat totius regni, &c.” Scriptor. Illustr. Major. Britanniæ Poster. Pars. Art. _Knoxus._ Basil, 1559.

344 ― “God would not suffer her to reign long,” says a catholic writer, “either on account of the sins of her father, or on account of the sins of her people, who were unworthy of a princess so holy, so pious, and endued with such divine and rare dispositions.” Laing, de Vita Hæretic. fol. 28.

345 ― Troubles at Franckford, p. 189, 190.

346 ― Cald. MS. i. 380.

347 ― Histoire Littéraire de Geneve, par Jean Senebier, tome i. 375, Genev. 1786. It is somewhat singular, that Calvin did not obtain this honour until December 1559. “Il n’y a cependant point de citoyen,” says Senebier, “qui ait acheté ce titre honorable aussi chèrement que lui par ses services, et je ne crois pas qu’il y en ait beaucoup qui l’aient autant mérité, et qui le rendent aussi célébre.” Ibid. p. 230, 231.

Our Reformer obtained another public testimony of esteem at this time from bishop Bale, who dedicated his work on Scottish Writers to him and Alexander Aless. The praise which he bestows on him deserves the more notice, because the bishop had been one of his opponents at Frankfort. “Te vero, Knoxe, frater amatissime, conjunxit mihi Anglia et Germania, imprimis autem doctrinæ nostræ in Christo Domino fraterna consensio. Nemo est enim qui tuam fidem, constantiam, patientiam, tot erumnis, tanta persecutione, exilioque diuturno et gravi, testatum, non collaudet, et non admiretur, non amplectatur.” Balei Script. Illustr. Maj. Brit. Poster. Pars, p. 175, 176. Basiliæ, ex officina Joan. Operini, 1559. Mense Februario.

348 ― Knox, Historie, p. 205.

349 ― Knox, Historie, 206, 210.

350 ― In February 1559, the English exiles at Geneva published a prose translation of the book of Psalms, which they dedicated to Elizabeth; and in this dedication, their congratulations on her accession to the throne, and their professions of loyalty, are as warm as those of any of her subjects were. It is inscribed, “To the most Vertuous and Noble Queene Elizabeth, Queene of Englande, France, and Irelande, &c. your humble subjects of the English church at Geneva, wyth grace, &c.” After mentioning that they had employed the time of their exile in revising the English translation of the Bible, and endeavouring to bring it as near as they could to the pure simplicity and true meaning of the Hebrew tongue, they add: “When we heard that the almightie and most mercyfull God had no less myraculously preferred you to that excellent dignitie, than he had aboue all mens expectations preserued you from the furie of such as sought your blood: with most joyful myndes and great diligence we endeavoured our selves, to set foorth and dedicate this most excellent booke of the Psalmes vnto your grace as a speciall token of our seruice and good will, till the rest of the Byble, which, praysed be God, is in good readinesse, may be accomplished and presented.” Epistle, p. 3, prefixed to the Booke of Psalmes, Geneva, 1559, 16mo.

351 ― Haynes, State Papers, p. 295. Knox, Historie, p. 210.

352 ― Burnet, ii. 374, 396. Stow, Annals, p. 635, edit. 1631. When afterwards committed to the Marshalsea for refusing to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, Bonner was kept “under a very easy restraint.” Godwin de Præsulibus Angliæ, p. 251, edit. 1616. Stapleton, a popish writer, says that Tonstal was “cast into prison, as most of the bishops were, where he made a glorious end of a confessor, and satisfied for his former crime of schisme.”――“A prison!” exclaims Dr Jortin. “Lambeth palace, and the archbishop’s table, was a dreadful dungeon, to be sure; and as bad as those into which the righteous Bonner, and other saints of the same class, used to thrust the poor heretics! Will men never be ashamed of these godly tricks and disingenuous prevarications?” Life of Erasmus, i. 101.

353 ― He said, “that he saw nothing to be ashamed of or sorry for; wished that he had done more, and that he and others had been more vehement in executing the laws; and said that it grieved him that they laboured only about the young and little twigs, whereas they should have struck at the root;” by which he was understood to mean queen Elizabeth. Strype’s Annals, i. 79, 536.

354 ― Cald. MS. i. 384. See also Knox, Historie, p. 204‒207.

355 ― Robertson’s History of Scotland, b. ii. ad an. 1559.

356 ― Knox, Historie, p. 206, 214, 260. He had an opportunity of receiving a confirmation of this intelligence during his voyage to Scotland. In the same ship in which he sailed, there was sent by the French court to the queen regent, a staff of state, with a great seal, on which were engraved the arms of France, Scotland, and England. This was shown to him in great secrecy. The English court, after they were awakened from their lethargy, and convinced of the hostile designs of France, applied to Knox for the information which they might have had from him six months before. Cotton MSS. Caligula, b. ix. f. 38, 74. Sadler’s State Papers, i. 463, 688. Keith, Append. p. 38, 42. The English certainly suffered themselves to be amused during the treaty of Chateau‑Cambresis, while the courts of France and Spain concerted measures dangerous to England, and to the whole protestant interest. Dr Wotton, one of the commissioners, complains, in a letter to Cecil, of want of intelligence, and that the English had no spies on the continent. Forbes’s State Papers, i. 23.

357 ― Knox, Historie, p. 204, 206.

358 ― The person whom he at last persuaded to take his letter was Richard Harrison. But the cautious spy, (for such was his employment at that time,) dreading that Knox had made him the bearer of another Blast, which, if it did not endanger the throne of Elizabeth, might blow up his credit with the court, prudently communicated the suspicious packet to Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, the English ambassador at the court of France, who conveyed it to London. Letter from Throkmorton to Cecil, 15th of May, 1559: Forbes’s State Papers, i. 90, 91.

359 ― Cald. MS. i. 392, 393. Knox, Historie, p. 127, 207.

360 ― Some remarks on the representation which Dr Robertson has given of the regent’s conduct will be found in Note FF.

361 ― Knox, Historie, p. 125.

362 ― MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, from 1559 to 1566, p. 1.

363 ― See Note GG.

364 ― MS. Historie, ut sup. p. 2.

365 ― Ibid. p. 2, 3.

366 ― Ibid. p. 3. Wilkins, Concilia, tom. iv. p. 205.

367 ― Act. Parl. Scot. ii. 342. Knox, p. 51. Spotswood, 24. Lord Hailes, Provincial Councils, 39, 40.

368 ― Wilkins, Concilia, iv. p. 204‒5.

369 ― The primate’s letter, summoning the archbishop of Glasgow to the council, is dated the last day of January. Wilkins, ut supra. The council met on the 1st of March. Ibid. p. 208. But the archbishop of Glasgow’s letter, calling his clergy to the council, is dated so late as the 18th of March, and he requires them to attend on the 6th of April. Ibid. p. 206. We may also observe that Beatoun, in his citation, takes no notice of the primate’s mandate. It is likely that the matter was settled by the good offices of the queen regent, whose favourable inclinations towards the church are warmly celebrated by the council. Ibid. p. 209.

370 ― MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 3.

371 ― Lesley, Hist. p. 546. Lord Hailes, Provincial Councils, p. 38.

372 ― Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 207‒8. Wilkins has inserted the Remonstrance at large, which he procured from the Records in the Scots college at Paris. It is surprising that this curious document should have escaped the inquisitive eye of Lord Hailes, who has not taken the slightest notice of it in his account of the Scottish councils.

373 ― Can. 21, 22, 24, 32: in Wilkins, 214‒16.

374 ― Can. 2‒20: ibid. p. 210‒14.

375 ― Lesley, Hist. p. 546. Lord Hailes, Prov. Coun. p. 38‒9.

376 ― Can. 16: in Wilkins, ut sup. p. 212‒13.

377 ― Can. 30. Ibid. p. 216.

378 ― Can. 33, 34. Ibid. p. 216‒17. The following is the form of words appointed by the council to be used by the priest in re‑baptization:――“Si tu es baptizatus, ego non te baptizo; sed si non es baptizatus, ego te baptizo, in nomine Patris,” &c. _i.e._ “If thou hast been baptized, I do not baptize thee; but if thou hast not been baptized, I do baptize thee, in the name of the Father,” &c. This was not, however, a new form.

379 ― MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 3. Knox, Historie, p. 122. According to the first of these authorities, the sum promised by the clergy was £15,000; but according to a chronicle written by the laird of Erleshall, and referred to by Knox, it was £40,000.

380 ― MS. Hist. of the Estate of Scotland, ut sup.

381 ― Justiciary Records, May 10, 1559.

382 ― Knox, 126.

383 ― Ibid. Spotswood, 120‒1. Buchanani Oper. i. 312‒3.

384 ― Letter to Mrs Anne Locke, apud Cald. MS. i. 393.

385 ― MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 3, 4. Knox, Historie, p. 109. In the preamble to the acts of this council, it is said to have been “finitum 10 die mensis Aprilis.” But in the conclusion of the acts, there is an expression which enables us to reconcile this with the two preceding authorities――”_finiendo seu finito_ die 10 mensis Aprilis:” from which it appears that, though the acts were concluded, it was not yet agreed to close the council on that day. Wilkins, iv. 209, 217.

386 ― MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 4.

387 ― Knox, Historie, p. 127. Spotswood, 121. Buchanani Oper. i. 313.

388 ― See Note GG.

389 ― Knox, Historie, p. 128. Buchanani Oper. i. 313.

390 ― Knox, Historie, p. 128‒9, 135, 137.

391 ― MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 5.

392 ― Buchanani Oper. i. 313. Knox, 128. A writer has given the name of “bellum _imaginarium_” to this war, undertaken by the regent to avenge the destruction of the _images_; and the crimes charged upon the protestants he denominates “mere _imaginaria_ seditio et rebellio.” Historie of the Church of Scotland to 1566. MS. Adv. Lib. A. 5, 43.

393 ― When the overtures were proposed to the protestants, they exclaimed with one voice, “Cursit be they that seik effusioun of blude, weir, or dissentioun. Lat us possess Christ Jesus, and the benefite of his evangell, and nane within Scotland sall be mair obedient subjectis than we sall be.” Knox, Historie, p. 137. The regent’s army consisted of 8000, that of the protestants amounted to 5000 men. This seems to have been the number of the latter previous to the arrival of the earl of Glencairn with a reinforcement from the west. Glencairn had joined them, before the conclusion of the treaty, with 2500 men, a circumstance which did not alter their pacific wishes. Cald. MS. i. 426. MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 5. Knox, Historie, 136.

394 ― MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 6. Knox, 135‒9. Buchanani Oper. i. 314‒5. Spotswood, 123.

395 ― Buchanani Oper. i. 311.

396 ― MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 8. Knox, Historie, 136, 138, 144.

397 ― Dr Robertson.

398 ― Knox, Historie, 141‒146. Buchanani Oper. i. 315‒6. Spotswood, 142‒6.

399 ― Letter written by Knox from St Andrews, 23d June, 1559: Cald. MS. i. 426, 428. Knox, Historie, p. 140, 141. MS. Historie of the Estate of Scotland, p. 6.

400 ― Gude and godly Ballates, in Dalyell’s Scottish Poems of the 16th century, ii. 192, 198.

401 ― The tolbooth of Musselburgh was built out of the ruins of the chapel of Loretto; on which account the good people of that town were, till lately, annually excommunicated at Rome. Sibbald’s Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, iii. 19. Those who wish to see a specimen of catholic declamation on this subject, may consult Note HH.

402 ― The reader may take one example, which I adduce, not because it is the strongest, but because it happens to be at hand. “This abbey [Kelso] was demolished 1569, in consequence of the enthusiastic Reformation, which, in its violence, was a greater disgrace to religion than all the errors it was intended to subvert. Reformation has hitherto always appeared in the form of a zealot, full of fanatic fury, with violence subduing, but through madness creating, almost as many mischiefs in its oversights, as it overthrows errors in its pursuit. Religion has received a greater shock from the present struggle to repress some formularies and save some scruples, than it ever did by the growth of superstition.” Hutchinson’s History of Northumberland, and of an Excursion to the Abbey of Melrose, i. 265.

403 ― “Alas! how little of its former splendour have time and the fanatic rage of the early Christians left to the Roman forum! The covered passage, with a flight of steps, founded by Tarquin the elder, is no more here to shelter us from bad weather, or to serve for the spectators to entertain themselves with mountebanks in the market‑place. ” A most deplorable loss, truly! This writer adds, that the statues of the twelve gods are yet standing: no great proof, one would imagine, of the fanatic rage of the Christians. Kotzebue’s Travels through Italy, vol. i. p. 200.

404 ― Edinburgh Review, vol. iv. p. 348, and Lord Lauderdale’s Observations on Edinburgh Review.

405 ― See Note II.

406 ― ――――――When we had quell’d The strength of Aztlan, we should have thrown down Her altars, cast her idols to the fire. ――――――The priests combined to save their craft; And soon the rumour ran of evil signs And tokens; in the temple had been heard Wailings and loud lament; the eternal fire Gave dismally a dim and doubtful flame; And from the censer, which at morn should steam Sweet odours to the sun, a fetid cloud Black and portentous rose.

Southey’s Madoc, part i. book ii.