449 JOHN KNOX.* [1505-1572.] JOHN KNOX, the intrepid father of the Refor mation of the Scottish church, a man of apostolical zeal and sanctity, considerable learning, and eminent accomplishments, was descended from an ancient and respectable family. He was born at Gifford, near. Haddington in Scotland, in 1505: about 1524, was placed at the University of St. Andrew's under the tuition of Mr. John Mair, better known by his Latin name, Major; and applied with so much diligence * AUTHORITIES. M'Crie's Life of Knox, Biographia Britannica, Mackenzie's Lives of the Scotch Writers, and Robertson's History of Scotland. His mother's name was Sinclair; and by this name, in times of persecution or of war, he used to subscribe his letters. He was the preceptor, also, of Buchanan. He had acquired not only learning, but liberality, at the University of Paris (where he had resided, for some time, as Professor) in witnessing the struggles of the Gallican Church against the des potism of the Romish Pontiff. What important influences are often exercised over the minds of young men, and their subsequent train of thinking, by the master under whom they are educated! And how carefully, therefore, ought he by a parent to be selected! In the opinions of Mair upon the temporal supremacy of the Pope, the origin of tithes, the secularity of the court of Rome, the derivation of civil power from the people, 2 G VOL. I. to the academical studies then in vogue, that while still very young, he obtained the degree of M. A. His inclination leading him strongly to the clerical profession, he quickly became eminent for his attainments in scholastic theology: so that he took priest's orders before the period usually allowed by the canons, and at an early age began to teach his beloved science with considerable applause. After some time however, upon a careful perusal of the Fathers of the church, more especially the writings of St. Jerome and St. Austin, his sentiments were entirely altered. By the writings of the former he was led to the Scriptures, as the only pure fountain of divine truth, and instructed in the utility of studying them in the original languages: in the works of the latter, he found religious sentiments very opposite to those inculcated in the Romish church; who, while she retained his name as a saint in her calendar, had banished his doctrine, as heretical, from her pulpits. He quitted the cobweb subtilty of the schools, and embraced the study of a more plain, solid, and rational divinity. Though this change, however, commenced about the year 1535, it does not appear that he professed himself a Protestant before the death of James V. in 1542. Having once adopted the scriptural doctrines of and the responsibility of rulers, may be distinctly traced the principles afterward avowed by Knox, and defended by the classical pen of Buchanan. Yet in many respects was he so feeble and superstitious, and his stile so harsh and forbidding, that the latter pupil, borrowing his own words, has not unjustly (with whatever apparent ingratitude, though perhaps it is rather to be deemed non tam hominis vitium, quàm poeta) pronounced him solo cognomine Major. Christianity, he attended only such preachers, as he knew to be of a kindred way of thinking; among others Guillaume (or Williams) a Dominican, from whose anti-papal sermons he derived great advantage. This friar, as Calderwood informs us, was Provincial of his order in 1543, when the Earl of Arran, at that time Regent of Scotland, favoured the Reformation: and Mr. George Wishart, another celebrated Reformer, arriving from Cambridge with the Commissioners sent by Henry VIII. in the ensuing year, through him the inquisitive Knox imbibed still more deeply the new principles; with which he was so much delighted, that he renounced all thoughts of officiating in the Romish church, and became tutor to the sons of the Lairds of Ormiston and Langniddrie,* both favourers of the Reformed doctrines. His ordinary residence was now at Langniddrie, where he not only instructed his pupils in the different branches of academical learning, but was also particularly careful to instil into their minds the principles of the Protestant faith. This reaching the ears of Cardinal Beatoun, Archbishop of St. Andrew's, that prelate prosecuted him with such severity, that he was frequently obliged to abscond. Upon which, exhausted by his continual alarms, he resolved to re * John Cockburn, and Hugh Douglas. †This was so managed, as to allow the rest of the family, and the people of the neighbourhood, to reap advantage from it. He catechised the young men publicly in the chapel, and read to them also at stated times a chapter of the Bible, accompanied with explanatory remarks, in the same place. The memory of the fact has been preserved by tradition; and the chapel, the ruins of which are still apparent, is popularly called John Knox's Kirk.' tire to Germany, where the new opinions were rapidly spreading; as he perceived that in England, though the Pope's authority was disavowed, the greater part of the Romish tenets still prevailed, and enjoyed indeed the full sanction of the royal authority.* But from this step he was dissuaded by both the fathers of his pupils and Cardinal Beatoun having been assassinated in 1546 by Norman and John Leslie,† in * Henry VIII. had, at this time, invested himself with the ecclesiastical supremacy of his dominions. In the arrogant and violent exercise of this power, which he had wrested from the Bishop of Rome, the English Pope was scarcely exceeded by any of the pretended successors of St. Peter. Having signalised himself, (Dr. M'Crie observes, in his animated and accurate Life of Knox') as a literary champion against Luther, he was anxious to demonstrate, that his breach with the Romish court had not alienated him from the Catholic Faith; and he would suffer none to proceed a step beyond the narrow and capricious line of reform, which he was pleased to prescribe. Hence the motley system of religion which he established, and the contradictory measures by which it was supported. Statutes against the authority of the Pope, and against the tenets of Luther, were enacted in the same parliament; and Papists and⠀ Protestants were, alternately, dragged to the same stake. + Writers unfriendly to Knox have endeavoured to implicate him in this murther. In the Image of both Churches, Hierusalem and Babell, Unitie and Confusion, Obedience and Sedition' by P. D. M. (supposed to be Sir Tobie Matthews) it is ignorantly asserted, that he was one of the conspirators.' Bishop Lesly, in his De Rebus Gestis Scotorum,' argues that he made himself accessary to their crime, by taking shelter among them.' Others, more plausibly, have deduced from his writings, that he vindicated the deed, if not as laudable, as innocent. And this he appears to have done on the principle of tyrannicide' avowed by many of the ancients, and defended by Buchanan in his Dialogue De Jure Regni apud Scotos.' Hume has, however, not very philosophically inferred the savageness of Knox's temper from the evident satisfaction, with which he wrote of the assassination in question: for what, upon that consequence of his having burnt their relation Wishart for heresy,* he took shelter in the Castle of St. An principle, must we conclude of the Christian Fathers, from their modes of expressing themselves on the deaths of the persecutors of the church? What of the mild Erasmus, from his exultation over the ashes of Zuinglius and Ecolampadius? The unbecoming pleasantry, indeed, mingled by Knox with his narrative of the Cardinal's death and burial, must be ascribed to the propensity which he had to indulge his vein of humour: a propensity so powerful, that even in relating the trial and execution of his friend and instructor Wishart, he could not abstain from inserting a truly ludicrous description of the quarrel, which arose upon that occasion between the Archbishops of St. Andrew's and Glasgow; adding, "if we interlace merrines with ernest matters, pardon us, gude reidare: for the fact is sa notable, that it deserves long memorie." * When Wishart was apprehended by Bothwell, at the instigation of the Cardinal, he directed the sword to be taken from Knox (who had constantly borne it before him, from the time that an attempt had been made to assassinate him at Dundee), and, upon his entreating permission to accompany him to Ormiston, dismissed him with this reply; "Nay, return to your bairnes (meaning his pupils) and God blis, you: ane is sufficient for a sacrifice." Buchanan calls him 'Sophocardius,' as if his name were 'Wiseheart; but from Gerdes we learn, that the original appellation was Guiscard, a name common in France, from which country the Wischards (for so Knox writes it) originally came to Scotland. The following graphic description of this interesting Martyr is contained in a letter written by a person, who had been one of his disciples at Cambridge, and transmitted by him to Fox the Martyrologist. About the year of our Lord 1543, there was in the University of Cambridge one Master George Wischart, commonly called Master George of Ben'et College, who was a man of tall stature, polled-headed, and on the same a round French cap of the best. Judged of melancholy complexion by his physiognomy, black-haired, long-bearded, comely of personage, well spoken after his country of Scotland, courteous, lowly, lovely, glad to teach, desirous to learn, and well travailed, having on him |