Knox next undertook a tour of preaching, and stimulated by the interesting situation in which he was placed, within less than two months traversed the greater part of Scotland. He sent likewise for his wife and family, whom he had left behind him at Geneva. Being now at Paris, they applied for passports to the English embassador, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton; who not only readily granted them, but from a conviction of the enmity of the court of France, and of Knox's actual and probable services (from his credit with the Lords of the Congregation) addressed a letter to his Sovereign, urging her to overlook the offence, which his publication had given her, and to treat his wife on her passage through the country with kindness and hospitality. The travellers, to Knox's great delight, were accompanied by Goodman,* his late collegue at Geneva.

6

• Had not yourself begun the weiris,
Your stepillis had been standard yet;
It was the flattering of your friers,
That ever gart Sanct Francis flit:
Ye grew sa superstitious

In wickednesses,

It gart us grow malicious

Contrair your messe.'

(Gude and Godly Ballates, &c.')

* Goodman had been a fellow-student with Cranmer at Cambridge, and was one of those, who were selected by Cardinal Wolsey for his new College at Oxford. He was, soon afterward, thrown into prison for heresy. During the reign of Edward VI., he read lectures on divinity at the latter University. Upon the accession of Mary, he retired to Strasburg, and subsequently to Frankfort; where he conceived so much offence at the conduct of Cox's party, that he removed to Geneva, and was there chosen joint minister with Knox.

In 1558, he published his treatise, How Superior Powers

He now wrote to Cecil, requesting permission to visit England, and in a letter which he inclosed to Queen Elizabeth attempted to apologise for his rude attack upon female government: but the ground upon which he advised her to found her title to the crown, and indeed the whole strain of his address, being more likely to aggravate than to extenuate his offence in the opinion of that high-minded Princess, the sagacious Secretary is supposed (by a practice not unfrequent with him) to have suppressed the communication, and to have influenced the Queen and Council in favour of the Scottish congregation by his own more powerful intercession.

Knox was selected to meet Cecil, incognito, at Stamford; but his journey being retarded by the danger of passing near the French, who lay at Dunbar, he was subsequently sent in company

ought to be obeyed, &c.' which at a later period occasioned him considerable trouble. As he subscribed in it to his collegue's opinion respecting female government, notwithstanding the intercession of the earls of Arran and Warwick with Elizabeth, she was so much displeased by his publication, that it was with great reluctance, and only after some years of comparative exile in Scotland, he was received into farther favour. Even then, in 1565, he was obliged to recant his offensive doctrines; and six years afterward he subscribed, in the presence of the Queen's ecclesiastical Commissioners, a more ample protestation of his obedience to that " good and godly" woman's sway. He was also harassed, on account of his non-conformity to the English ceremonies. He accompanied Sir Henry Sidney to Ireland, when he was employed to subdue the Popish rebels in that country. In 1580, he sent his salutations to Buchanan from Chester, where he then resided; and he died in that city in 1601.

His book was quoted, but for very different purposes, by Bancroft, Dangerous Positions,' II. 1., and by Milton, in his Tenure of Magistrates,' Prose Works, III. 196.

with Mr. Robert Hamilton, another Protestant minister, to manage the national concerns.

On reaching Berwick, they remained there some days with Sir James Crofts the Governor, who undertook to conduct their business for them, and advised them to return home. Cecil, also, transmitted an answer to the Protestant nobility and gentry (concerning their proposals to Queen Elizabeth) of so cool a description, that they had nearly resolved to break off the negotiation, had not Knox by his earnestness gained permission to address to the Secretary another letter. To this an answer was instantly returned, desiring that some persons of credit might be sent to confer with the English at Berwick,' and announcing, that a large sum was ready to be delivered for carrying on the common cause ;' with a farther assurance that, if the Lords of

In a letter to this officer, Knox by a species of casuistry, which furnishes perhaps the only instance of his recommending dissimulation (a practice very foreign to the openness of his na❤ tural temper, and his blunt and rigid honesty) advises him, notwithstanding the peace then subsisting between England and France, to send a thousand men or two to assist in an attack upon the fortifications of Leith ;" and "ye may declare them rebels to your realm," he adds, "when ye shall be assured that they be in our company." Croft, in his answer, repressed this impetuosity, commenting upon not only the iniquity but the grossness of the procedure; and Knox apologised for his unreasonable request.' So difficult is it to preserve Christian inte grity, and simplicity, amidst the crooked wiles of political intrigue! Sir Ralph Sadler's State Papers,' lately published in two vo lumes 4to., throw great light upon this interesting portion of Scottish history.

Cecil affected to blame this audacity' of Knox, and yet in the same letter he advises Croft to adopt in substance the very measure, which he reprehends!

the Congregation were willing to enter into a league with Queen Elizabeth upon honourable terms, they should want neither men nor money.'

The effect of these negociations was, the sending of an English army under the command of the Duke of Norfolk, to protect the Scottish Protestants against the persecutions of the Queen Regent, who was supported by the arms of France. But the invading forces being joined by almost all the great men in Scotland, a peace was concluded July 8, 1560. The subsequent intestine dissensions, which so long desolated France, may be regarded as having put an end to the French influence and the Roman Catholic religion in the latter country.

In the mean time, the zeal and activity of Knox in the cause of the Congregation exposed him to the deadly resentment of the Queen Regent and her party. A reward was publicly offered to any one, who should apprehend or kill him: and not a few, through hatred or avarice, attempted to gain it. But this did not deter him from traversing the country in the discharge of his duty. His exertions, indeed, were now incredibly great. By day he was employed in preaching, by night in writing letters on public business; so that in twenty-four hours (as hẹ himself says, in a letter " written with sleeping eyes") he had not four free to natural rest and ease of his wicked carcase.' He was the soul of the Congregation; always found at the post of danger, always employed in animating the whole body, and defeating the schemes concerted to corrupt or to disunite them.

In the close of this year, he suffered a heavy domestic loss by the death of his valuable wife; who

after having shared in the hardships of his exile was removed from him, just as he had obtained a comfortable settlement for his family, leaving him in addition to his other cares the charge of two young children. His mother-in-law, indeed, was still with him: but, though he took pleasure in her religious conversation, the dejection of mind to which she was subject, and which all his efforts could never completely cure, rather increased than lightened his burthen.

. Of the Scottish parliament, thus restored to it's independency, a considerable majority had embraced the Reformed opinions; and encouraged as they were by the zeal and the number of their friends, they were not backward in improving the favourable juncture to the overthrow of the whole fabric of Popery. By one act, they sanctioned the Confession of Faith'* presented to them through Knox and his brethren: by a second, they abolished the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts, and transferred the causes, previously subject to their cognisance, to civil decision; and by a third, they prohibited the exercising of religious

*This Confession' was read first before the Lords of Articles, and afterward before the whole parliament. The Protestant ministers attended in the House to defend it, if attacked, and to give satisfaction to the members respecting any point that might appear dubious. Those, who had objections to it, were formally required to state them; and the farther consideration of it was adjourned to a subsequent day, that none might pretend an undue advantage had been taken, or a matter of such importance precipitately determined. On the seventeenth of August, the parliament resumed the subject; and, previous to the vote, the Confession' was again read, article by article. The Bishops said nothing. The Earl of Athol, and Lords Somerville and Borthwick were the only persons of the temporal estate, who voted in the negative; assigning this reason, "We will believe, as our forefathers believed.??