to so numerous an audience that the church cannot contain them The Anabaptists flock to the place, and give me much trouble with their opinions respecting the incarnation of the Lord, for they deny altogether that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary according to the flesh. . . . Although I am unable to satisfy their obstinacy, yet the Lord by his Word shuts their mouths, and their heresies are more and more detested by the people. How dangerously our England is afflicted by heresies of this kind God only knows; I am unable, indeed, from sorrow of heart, to express to your piety. ... On the other hand, a great portion of the kingdom so adheres to the Popish faction as altogether to set at nought God and the lawful authority of the magistrates, so that I am greatly afraid of a rebellion and civil discord. May the Lord restrain restless spirits, and destroy the counsels of Achitophel. Do you, my venerable father, commend our King and the council of the nation, together with our Church, to God in your prayers." In December of the same year he writes again to Zurich on the same subject: "Although our vessel is dangerously tossed about on all sides, yet God in his providence holds the helm, and raises up more favourers of his word in his Majesty's councils, who, with activity and courage, defend the cause of Christ. The Archbishop of Canterbury entertains right views as to the nature of Christ's presence in the Supper, and is now very friendly towards myself. He has some articles of religion, to which all preachers and lecturers in divinity are required to subscribe, or else a license for teaching is not granted them, and in these his sentiments respecting the Eucharist are pure and religious, and similar to yours in Switzerland. We desire nothing more for him than a firm and manly spirit. Like all the other bishops in this country, he is too fearful about what may happen to him. There are here six or seven bishops who comprehend the doctrine of Christ, as far as relates to the Lord's Supper, with as much clearness and piety as we could desire; and it is only the fear for their property that prevents them from reforming their churches, according to the rule of God's word. The altars are here in many churches changed into tables. The public celebration of the Lord's Supper is very far from the order and institution of our Lord. Although it is administered in both kinds, yet in some places the Supper is celebrated three times a day. Where they used, heretofore, to celebrate in the morning the Mass of the Apostles, they

now have the Communion of the Apostles; where they had the Mass of the Blessed Virgin, they now have the Communion which they call the communion of the Virgin; where they had the principal or High Mass, they now have, as they call it, the High Communion. They still retain their vestments and the candles before the altars; in the churches they always chant the hours and other hymns relating to the Lord's Supper, but in our own language; and that Popery may not be lost, the Mass-priests, although they are compelled to discontinue the use of the Latin language, yet most carefully observe the same tone and manner of chanting to which they were heretofore accustomed in the Papacy. God knows to what perils and anxieties we are exposed by reason of men of this kind."

A few weeks later, he sends a third sketch, as lively as the other two :-"Now, as to what is doing in England. The Bishops of Canterbury, Rochester (Ridley), Ely (Goodrich), St. David's (Farrar), Lincoln (Holbrook), and Bath (Barlow), are all favourable to the cause of Christ, and, as far as I know, entertain right opinions in the matter of the Eucharist. I have freely conversed with all of them upon this subject, and have discerned nothing but what is pure and holy. . . . The Marquis of Dorset, the Earl of Warwick, and the greater part of the King's Council, favour the cause of Christ as much as they can. Our King is such an one May the Lord preserve

for his age as the world has never seen. him. His sister, the daughter of the late King by Queen Ann, is influenced with the same zeal for the religion of Christ. She not only knows what the true religion is, but has acquired such proficiency in Greek and Latin that she is able to defend it by the most just arguments and the most happy talent; so that she encounters few adversaries whom she does not overcome. The people, however, that many-headed monster, is still wincing, partly through ignorance, and partly fascinated by the inveiglements of the bishops, and the malice and impiety of the Masspriests. Such, then, is the present state of things in England."

Once more, in March, he writes as follows: "We do not water and plant in vain. God has given a sufficiently large and glorious increase to the seed sown by Peter and Paul. There has lately been appointed a new Bishop of London (Ridley), a pious and learned man, if only his new dignity do not change his conduct. He will, I hope, destroy the altars of Baal as he did heretofore

...

in his Church when he was Bishop of Rochester. I cannot scarcely express to you under what difficulties and dangers we are labouring and struggling that the idol of the Mass may be thrown out. It is no small hindrance to our exertions, that the form which our Senate or Parliament, as we commonly call it, has prescribed for the whole realm is so very defective, and of doubtful construction, and in some respects, indeed, manifestly impious. I am so much offended with that book, and that not without abundant reason, that, if it be not corrected, I neither can nor will communicate with the Church in the administration of the Lord's Supper. Many altars have been destroyed in this city since I arrived here. . . . I am now engaged upon the eighth chapter of the Gospel of St. John. I freely held forth upon the sixth chapter to my audience, as God enabled me, respecting the Lord's Supper, for the space of three months, and lectured once or twice every day, and it pleased God to bless my exertions. A wonderful and most numerous concourse of people attended me, and God was with them, for he opened their hearts to understand the things which were spoken by me. But I incurred great odium and no less danger from the sixth chapter. The better cause, however, prevails; and during this Lent (1550) I have plainly and openly handled the same subject before the King and the nobility of the realm. In this city an individual of the name of Crane, a man of excellent erudition and holiness of life, a doctor in divinity, is combating my opinions in a public discourse. The Bishops of Winchester, London, and Worcester (Gardiner, Bonner, and Heath) are still in confinement, and maintain the Popish doctrines with all their might."*

Such is Hooper's description of the strange and disordered condition of the religious affairs of the kingdom during the first year of Knox's ministry as one of Cranmer's licensed preachers; and we may be sure that if Knox himself had described it to us, he would have set it in the same light, and judged it by the same standard. Hooper and Knox were men of kindred spirit and principles. Directly or indirectly, they had both drunk deep at the same Helvetic fount.

* " 'Original Letters relative to the English Reformation" (Parker Society), pp. 65, 71, 76, 79, 80.

PART FIRST.

KNOX'S WORK AND INFLUENCE IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER I.

KNOX'S WORK IN BERWICK, A.D. 1549-51.

THE earliest notice in the Public Records of the presence of John Knox in England is the following brief entry in the Register of the Privy Council of Edward VI.:

"Sunday, the 7th Aprill, 1549.

"Warrant to the Receiver of the Duchy for 5 lib. to John Knock, preacher, by way of reward."

At that date he was already in the service of the Privy Council, as one of the Protestant ministers whom they employed to preach the doctrines of the Reformation throughout the kingdom. A list of these, containing eighty names-including many which afterwards became highly distinguished-has been preserved in the Record Office.* Knox's name appears among the rest-the sixtyfourth in chronological order--and not far from his stand the names of three other Scottish preachers who were closely associated with him at different periods of his public life-John Rough, John McBriar, and John Willock. The approximate date of his arrival in London from France was the preceding February or March; and in recommending him to the Privy Council for public

* This list may be seen in the Preface to the 6th vol. of Knox's Collected Works, edited by Dr. Laing, by whom it was first published.

employment, it is not improbable that Cranmer was influenced by what he had heard of the power and success of his short ministry at St. Andrews. *

In Knox's "History of the Reformation of Religion within the Realm of Scotland," which is to a considerable extent a history of his own life and work, he disposes of the English section of his life in less than half-a-dozen lines-"The said John was first appointed preacher to Berwick, then to Newcastle; last he was called to London, and the south parts of England, where he remained to the death of King Edward the Sixth." +

In one of the memorable dialogues, however, between him and the Scottish Queen, which he introduces into that history, there are some curious particulars preserved of the success of his work as a preacher in England, and of the deep but sinister impression which it had produced upon the minds of the English Papists. In an interview to which the Queen summoned him at Holyrood, in the autumn of 1561, she accused him, among other things, "that he had been the cause of great sedition and great slaughter in England, and that it was said to her that all which he did was by necromancy." To the which the said John answered, "Madam, it may please your Majesty patiently to hear my simple answers. . . I heartily praise my God, through Jesus Christ, that Satan, the enemy of mankind, and the wicked of the world, have no other crimes to lay to my charge than such as the very world itself knoweth to be most false and vain. For in England I was resident only the space of five years. The places were Berwick, where I abode two years, so long in the Newcastle, and a year in London. Now, Madam, if in any of these places, during the time that I was there, any man shall be able to prove that there was either battle, sedition, or mutiny, I shall confess that I myself was the malefactor, and the shedder of the blood. I ashame not, Madam, further to affirm that God so blessed my weak labours that in Berwick (where commonly before there used to be slaughter by reason of quarrels that used to arise amongst soldiers) there was as great quietness all the

* Henry Balnaves, who had had much to do with Knox's sudden call to the ministry in St. Andrew's, was twice sent to London during the siege, to communicate with the Privy Council with the object of obtaining aid for the besieged; and the conjecture may be allowed that it was in this way that Knox's name first became known in the English capital.

+ Works of Knox, vol. 1. p. 231.