If, by yourself or others, you can procure any other of his writings or letters, here at home or abroad, in Scotland or in England, be a meane that we may receive them. It was great pitie that any, the least of his writings, should be lost, for he evermore wrote most godly and diligently in questions of divinitie, and also of church pollicie; and his letters, being had together, would together set out an whole history of the Churches where he lived." Such was the enthusiasm of esteem and love which was once felt in England for this grand old father and founder of English and Scottish Puritanism-for this man, so much above the common mould in head, heart, will, speech and action; for this hero of the pulpit and the pen, who never feared the face of man; this man of true, unsophisticated, undiluted manhood,—John Knox. Cura Dei: Romae pestis: Mundi horror, et Orci JOHANNES KNOXUS. Primus Evangelii Instaurator in Scotia, post superiora cruenta illa tempora, obiit placide Edinburgi. "xxiv. ix bris, hora undecima, 1572." Hic ille est Scotorum Knoxus Apostolus olim, Cui prior hos ingens Beza dedit titulos; Plurima venturi praescia signa dedit. * From John Johnston's Пept Erepavov-Sive De Coronis Martyrum in Scotia. MS. in Bibl. Facult. Jurid. Edin. A. PART SECOND. KNOX-PAPERS. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. "The Morrice Collection of Manuscripts" in Dr. Williams's Library, Grafton Street, London. THE valuable Collection of Manuscripts, in which the following Knox-Papers have been preserved, is described, in the Preface to the Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Dr. Williams's Library, drawn up by the late Mr. W. H. Black, in the following terms : "The Historical Collections of the Rev. Roger Morrice, M.A., one of the ejected ministers, appear to have been the labour of above forty years after his ejectment, and describe and illustrate the history of the Reformation, the persecutions endured by the Puritans, their holy and devout lives, the whole history of the times in which the writer lived; and appear to have been largely and freely used by Neal, in his "History of the Puritans," and perhaps by other writers, who have not acknowledged the source of their information. To this latter cause is owing the fact, that little is known of the writer. He died in 1701, and was buried in Bunhill Fields. By what means, or when this invaluable Collection was deposited here, has not been yet ascertained." The volume of this Collection, entitled "A Copy of the Second Part of a Register," and in which I first came in sight of the Knox-Papers, is described by Mr. Black, in his Catalogue, under the letter C, as follows: "A large and very thick volume, bound in rough calf, and by the name of the Rough Calf MS. referred to in some of Mr. Morrice's MSS. The contents of the volume consist of transcripts or entries of various tracts and documents, made by Mr. Morrice's amanuensis, in a neat and legible hand; and they bear references to the sources from which they were transcribed, written (with the word 'Finis') at the end of each separate article or entry. The title, 'A Copy of the Second Part of a Register,' is from the same hand as occurs in others of the Morrice MSS., where the Collection is referred to as 'The Rough Calf MS.'" Prefixed is a list of the quotations made from the MS. by Neal, amounting to 78. Prefixed, also, is "the inscription on Morrice's tombstone, in Bunhill Fields, flat on the ground:" "Here lyeth ye Body of Mr. Roger Morrice, M.A., and Chaplain to the late Honble. Denzil Lord Hollis, who departed ys life, ye 17th day of January, 1701, Ætat. 73.” Mr. Neal, in the preface to the first volume of his "History of the Puritans," dated February 1, 1731-32, has the following reference to this MS. volume as one of his principal sources : "I have cited my authorities in the margin, and flatter myself that I have had the opportunity of bringing many things to light, relating to the sufferings of the Puritans and the state of the Reformation in those times, which have hitherto been unknown. to the world, chiefly by the assistance of a large Manuscript Collection of Papers, faithfully transcribed from their originals in the University of Cambridge, by a person of character employed for that purpose, and generously communicated to me by my ingenious and learned friend Dr. Benjamin Grosvenor, for which I take this opportunity of returning him my own and the thanks of the publick." In Bishop Maddox's "Vindication of the Government, Doctrine, and Worship of the Church of England, against the injurious Reflections of Mr. Neal, etc.," 1740, he blames Mr. Neal, and not without reason, for not having given a more satisfactory account of a Manuscript upon which he had founded so extensively in his History." The passage occurs at p. 190 :— "It ought to be remarked that Mr. Neal's account of their sufferings, and behaviour that occasioned these sufferings, is chiefly taken from themselves; he has obtained, as he acquaints us in his preface, a copy of a large MS. Collection of Papers, the originals whereof are said to be lodged in the University of Cambridge, but he names no particular library or college; nor does he acquaint us when the Papers themselves were wrote, by whom, or who was the collector of them. In short, his account of this MS. Collection of Papers upon which he lays so great stress, is the most unsatisfac tory and unscholarlike that can be imagined. This gentleman says (p. 201), 'if we may believe Dr. Whitgift,' etc., and yet gives entire credit to anonymous MS. which ought to have been supported by some unquestionable authority, since, by his own account, it brings many things to light hitherto unknown to the world. This he quotes, upon all occasions, as substantial evidence, though it plainly appears to be a very angry and partial account. A MS. is not to be credited merely for being such; and this, in particular, may be convicted of great mistakes." Farther on Maddox speaks of it as "an unknown Manuscript." In Neal's "Review of the Principal Facts objected to in the first volume of the History of the Puritans," he has the following remarks, in reply to the above strictures of Maddox :— "Our author is pleased to pour great contempt on Mr. Neal's Manuscript Collection of Original Papers, because it brings to light some of those unjustifiable severities which the historians of those times had omitted; but its authority shall be left with the reader after he is acquainted that it was collected many years ago at the expense of the Rev. Mr. Humphrey (Roger) Morrice, some time Chaplain to Denzil Lord Hollis, who employed an amanuensis in the University of Cambridge for this purpose, whose name I could mention, if it were proper; but it is sufficient to say that at the foot of most of the Papers there are references to the places from whence they were copied; and the industrious Mr. Strype seemed so well satisfied of the authority of this MS. that, at his own request, he was permitted to transcribe from it several of those papers that are among his records." It is remarkable that Neal should not have been able to go beyond this small additional amount of information, in reply to the Churchman's challenge. No doubt he fell back upon his friend Dr. Grosvenor, who had lent him the MS., for fuller particulars of its history; but Dr. Grosvenor would not appear to have been able to give him even the correct Christian name of Mr. Morrice, and Mr. Neal remained silent on the subject of the library in Cambridge where "the originals" were to be found. In this unsatisfactory condition the question continued down to our own time, when much fresh light was thrown upon it by Mr. Black, in his Catalogue of the whole of the Morrice Collection of MSS., which had all, since Neal's time, found their way into Dr. Williams's Library. |