Thomas M’Crie
Upon retiring from Frankfurt, Knox went directly to Geneva. He was cordially welcomed back by Calvin. As his advice had great weight in disposing Knox to comply with the invitation from Frankfurt, he felt much hurt at the treatment which had obliged him to leave it. In reply to an apologetic epistle which he received from Dr Cox,2 Calvin, although he restrained himself from saying anything which might revive or increase the flame, could not conceal his opinion that Knox had been used in an unbrotherly, unchristian manner, and that it would have been better for the accuser to have remained at home than to have brought a firebrand into a foreign country to inflame a peaceable society.
It appeared from the event, that Providence had disengaged Knox from his late charge, to employ him on a more important service. From the time that he was carried prisoner into France, he had never lost sight of Scotland, nor relinquished the hope of again preaching in his native country. His constant employment, during the five years which he spent in England, occupied his mind, and lessened the regret which he felt, at seeing the great object of his desire apparently at as great a distance as ever. Upon leaving England, his attention was more particularly directed to his native country; Scotland, and, soon after returning from Frankfurt, he was informed that matters began to assume a more favourable appearance there than they had worn for a number of
1An extract from M’Crie’s Life of John Knox, (paperback, 216 pages, £6.50) which is available from Free Presbyterian Publications (through the Free Presbyterian Bookroom and elsewhere). Many have written lives of Knox since M’Crie, but none of them have understood him spiritually and ecclesiastically to the same extent.
2The leader of the Anglican faction in Frankfurt, who made it impossible for Knox to continue there, opposing Knox’s Reformed worship.
years. After the surrender of the castle of St Andrews, and the banishment of the Protestants who had taken refuge in it, an irrecoverable blow seemed to have been given to the Reformed cause in Scotland.
The clergy triumphed in their victory, and flattered themselves that they had stifled the voice of opposition. There were still many Protestants in the kingdom; but they satisfied themselves with retaining their sentiments in secret, without exposing their lives to certain destruction by avowing them, or exciting the suspicions of their enemies by private conventicles. An event which threatened the extinction of the Reformation in Britain proved the means of reviving it in Scotland. Several of those who were driven from England by the persecution of Mary, took refuge in this country, and were overlooked, in consequence of the security into which the Scottish clergy had been lulled by success. Travelling from place to place, they instructed many, and fanned the latent zeal of those who had formerly received the knowledge of the truth.
William Harlow, whose zeal and knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel compensated for the defects of his education, was the first preacher who came. After him arrived John Willock, in summer 1555, being charged with a commission from the Duchess of Embden to the Queen Regent. Willock became afterwards the chief co-adjutor of Knox, who entertained the highest esteem and affection for him. The union of their talents and peculiar qualities was of great advantage to the Reformation. Willock was not inferior to Knox in learning; and although he did not equal him in intrepidity and eloquence, surpassed him in affability; prudence and address; by which means he was sometimes able to maintain his station and accomplish his purposes; when his colleague could not act with safety or success. He was a native of Ayrshire, and had worn the monastic habit; but, at an early period, he embraced the Reformed opinions, and fled into England. During the severe persecution for the six articles, he was, in 1541, thrown into the prison of the Fleet. He was afterwards chaplain to the Duke of Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane Grey; and upon the accession of Queen Mary, he retired to East Friesland.
Although Knox did not know what it was to fear danger, and was little accustomed to consult his personal ease, when he had the prospect of being useful in his Master’s service, none of his enterprises were undertaken rashly, and without serious deliberation upon the call which he had to engage in them. On the present occasion, he felt at first averse to a journey into Scotland, notwithstanding some encouraging circumstances in the intelligence which he had received from that quarter. He had been so much tossed about of late that he felt a peculiar relish in the learned leisure which he at present enjoyed, and was desirous to prolong. His anxiety to see his wife, after an
absence of nearly two years, and the importunity with which his mother-in-law, in her letters, urged him to visit them, determined him at last to undertake the journey.
Setting out from Geneva in the month of August 1555, he came to Dieppe, and sailing from that port, landed on the east coast, near the boundaries between Scotland and England, about the end of harvest. He repaired immediately to Berwick, where he had the satisfaction of finding his wife and her mother in comfortable circumstances, enjoying the happiness of religious society with several individuals in that city, who, like themselves, had not “bowed the knee” to the established idolatry, nor submitted to “receive the mark” of Antichrist.
Having remained some time with them, he set out secretly to visit the Protestants in Edinburgh, intending, after a short stay, to return to Berwick. But he found employment which detained him beyond his expectation. In Edinburgh he lodged with James Syme, a respectable and religious burgess, to whose house the friends of the Reformed doctrine repaired, to attend his instructions, as soon as they were informed of his arrival. Among these were John Erskine of Dun, and William Maitland, younger of Lethington, afterwards Secretary to Mary Queen of Scots. John Willock was also in Edinburgh at this time. Those who heard him, being exceedingly gratified with his doctrine, brought their friends and acquaintances along with them, and his audiences daily increased. Being confined to a private house, he was obliged to preach to successive assemblies; and was almost unremittingly employed, by night as well as by day, in communicating instruction to persons who demanded it with extraordinary avidity. The following letter written by him to Mrs Bowes, [his mother-in-law] to excuse himself for not returning so soon as he had purposed, will convey the best idea of his employment and feelings on this occasion.
“The ways of man are not in his own power. Albeit my journey toward Scotland, beloved mother, was most contrary to my own judgement, before I did enterprise the same; yet this day I praise God for them who were the external cause of my resort to their quarters; that is, I praise God in you and for you, whom He made the instrument to draw me from the den of my own ease, (you alone did draw me from the rest of quiet study,) to contemplate and behold the fervent thirst of our brethren, night and day sobbing and groaning for the bread of life. If I had not seen it with my eyes, in my own country, I could not have believed it! I praised God, when I was with you, perceiving that, in the midst of Sodom, God had more Lots than one, and more faithful daughters than two. But the fervency here doth far exceed all others that I have seen. And therefore you shall patiently bear, although I
spend yet some days here; for I cannot depart until such time as God shall quench their thirst a little. Yea, mother, their fervency does so ravish me that I can not but accuse and condemn my slothful coldness. God grant them their heart’s desire; and I pray you advertise [me] of your estate, and of things that have occurred since your last writing. Comfort yourself in God’s promises, and be assured that God stirs up more friends than we be aware of. My commendation to all in your company. I commit you to the protection of the Omnipotent. In great haste; the 4th of November 1565. From Scotland. Your son, John Knox.”3
When he arrived in Scotland, he found that the friends of the Reformed doctrine, in general, continued to attend the Popish worship, and even the celebration of mass; principally with the view of avoiding the scandal which they would otherwise incur. This was very disagreeable to Knox, who, in his sermons and conversation, disclosed the impiety of that service, and the danger of symbolising with it. A meeting being appointed for the express purpose of discussing this question, Maitland defended the practice with all that ingenuity and learning for which he was distinguished; but his arguments were so satisfactorily answered by Knox, that he yielded the point as indefensible, and agreed with the rest of his brethren to abstain for the future from such temporising conduct. Thus was a formal separation made from the Popish church in Scotland, which may justly be regarded as an important step in the Reformation.
Mr Erskine prevailed on Knox to accompany him to his family seat of Dun, in Angus, where he continued a month, preaching every day. The principal persons in that neighbourhood attended his sermons. After he returned to the south, he resided for the most part in Calderhouse, with Sir James Sandilands. Here he was attended by Lord Lorn, afterwards Earl of Argyle, the Master of Mar, afterwards Earl of Mar, and Lord James Stewart, natural son of James V and prior of St Andrews, afterwards Earl of Murray; the two last of whom Knox lived to see Regents of Scotland. These noblemen were highly pleased with the doctrine which he taught. In the beginning of the year 1556, he was conducted by Lockhart of Bar, and Campbell of Kineacleugh, to Kyle [a district in Ayrshire], the ancient receptacle of the Scottish Lollards, where there were a number of adherents to the Reformed doctrine. He preached in the houses of Bar, Kineacleugh, Carnell, Ochiltree and Gadgirth, and in the town of Ayr. In several of these places, he also dispensed the sacrament of our Lord’s Supper. A little before Easter, the Earl of Glencairn sent for him to his manor of Finlayston, in which, after preaching, he also dispensed the sacrament; the Earl, his lady, and two of their sons, with
3This letter was written in Scots but is given here in English.
some friends assembled for that purpose, participating of the sacred feast.
From Finlayston he returned to Calderhouse, and soon after paid a second visit to Dun, during which he preached more openly than before. The most of the gentlemen of Mearns did at this time make profession of the Reformed religion, by sitting down at the Lord’s Table; and entered into a solemn and mutual bond, in which they renounced the Popish communion, and engaged to maintain the true preaching of the gospel, according as providence should favour them with opportunities. This seems to have been the first of those religious bonds or covenants, by which the confederation of the Protestants in Scotland was so frequently ratified.
The dangers to which Knox and his friends had been accustomed, had taught them to conduct matters with such secrecy that he had preached for a considerable time and in different places, before the clergy knew that he was in the kingdom. Concealment was, however, impracticable after his audiences became so numerous. His preaching in Ayr was reported to the Court, and formed the topic of conversation in the presence of the Queen Regent. Some affirmed that the preacher was an Englishman: “a prelate not of the least pride (probably Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow,) said, ‘Nay; no Englishman, but it is Knox, that knave'”. “It was my Lord’s pleasure,” says Knox, “so to baptize a poor man; the reason whereof, if it should be required, his rochet and mitre4 must stand for authority. What further liberty he used in defining things alike uncertain to him, that is, of my learning and doctrine, at this present I omit. For what hath my life and conversation been, since it hath pleased God to call me from the puddle of Papistry, let my very enemies speak; and what learning I have, they may prove when they please.” Interest was at this time made by the bishops for his apprehension; but the Queen Regent discouraged the application.
After his last journey to the north, the friars flocked from all quarters to the bishops, and instigated them to adopt speedy and decisive measures for checking the alarming effects of his preaching. In consequence of this, Knox was summoned to appear before a convention of the clergy, in the church of the black friars at Edinburgh, on the 15th of May. This diet he resolved to keep, and with that view came to Edinburgh, before the day appointed, accompanied by Erskine of Dun, and several other gentlemen. The clergy had never dreamed of his attendance; when apprised of his design, being afraid to bring matters to extremity, and unassured of the regent’s decided support, they met beforehand, cast the summons under pretence of some informality, and deserted the diet against him. On the day on which he should have appeared as a panel [an accused person], Knox preached in the Bishop
4Examples of non-Reformed attire worn during services.
of Dunkeld’s large lodging, to a far greater audience than had before attended him in Edinburgh. During the ten following days, he preached in the same place, forenoon and afternoon; none of the clergy making the smallest attempt to disturb him.