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to the grave a man whose life was as pure and ful as any man, however good and excellent, on the scroll of England's greatest worthies. Surely we shall conclude, with Dickens, who says: "Henry VIII. has been favoured by some Protestant writers, because the Reformation was achieved in his time. But the mighty merit of it lies with other men and not with him, and it can be rendered none the worse by this monster's crimes, and none the better by any defence of them. The plain truth is, that he was a most intolerable ruffian, a disgrace to human nature, and a blot of blood and grease upon the history of England."

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JOHN KNOX'S INTERVIEW WITH THE

LORDS.

THOSE persons," says Bacon, “which are of a

turbulent nature or appetite, do commonly pass their youth in many errors; and about their middle, and then and not before, they show forth their perfections; but those that are of a sedate and calm nature may be ripe for great and glorious actions in their youth." Certainly, Knox was not of a sedate, calm nature. Had, however, events so transpired, as they did in the after period of his life, doubtless, wisdom, judgment, and calmness would have been early manifested.

Knox, after receiving the elementary parts of a good education, was sent to the University of St. Andrews, where he applied himself with uncommon diligence to his studies, so that he obtained the degree of M.A. at a very early age. He was then admitted to priests' orders before the period usually allowed by the canons. He then commenced teacher, in which capacity he obtained great applause. But he was not long in discovering the errors in the system in which he had been educated, and which he had laboured to establish in the minds of the people. With this uncertainty in his thoughts, he preferred to

listen to others rather than preach himself. He frequently heard the discourses of Thomas Williams, a black friar, who publicly preached against the Pope's authority, and who was the first from whom Knox received any relish for the truth. About the same time, Mr. George Wishart, another celebrated reformer, coming from England with the commissioners sent by Henry VIII., Knox learned from him the principles of the reformed religion, which induced him to renounce Popery, and become a zealous Protestant. Then, when he had thus received the truth, he freely imparted it to others. The bishops and friars, however, raised up a great persecution against him, which was headed by David Beaton, Cardinal and Archbishop of St. Andrews, who caused him to be apprehended and cast into prison, doubtless intending to consign him to the flames. But the bishop himself came speedily to his death by the violence of six Scotch gentlemen, who were incited to the act by his intolerable haughtiness, and also from injuries they had received from him. They broke into his chamber on the 29th of May, 1546, and barbarously murdered him.

Knox, with that success which always accompanies a bold and popular eloquence, began his public ministry at St. Andrews in the year 1547. Without hesitation, he at once struck at the root of Popery, and attacked both the doctrine and discipline of the Established Church, with a vehemence peculiar to

himself, but well adapted to the temper and wishes of the age. In his first sermon, he proved that the doctrines of the Church of Rome were contrary to the doctrines of Christ and his apostles. The occupants of the Castle, to which he had fled for shelter, which was owned by the Leslies, became converts to his preaching, and determined friends of the Reformation. Many others in the city gladly heard his mission, and joined him at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

In July, 1547, however, he was interrupted in the work of teaching: owing to the surrender of the Castle to the French, he was, with the garrison, carried prisoner to France; where he remained confined in the galleys until the end of 1549, when he was permitted to return to England. On his arrival in London he was licenced preacher, first at Berwick, and then at Newcastle. In 1552, he was appointed one of the six chaplains of King Edward VI., who were employed to attend the court, and to preach throughout the kingdom the doctrines of the Protestant religion. He received for this service the sum of £40 per annum. When a bishopric was offered him he thought it right to reject it, as it savoured, so he thought, too much of Antichrist. When Queen Mary ascended the throne, he deemed it expedient to retire from the impending storm, to Geneva, where he was invited by the English refugees, at Frankfort, to become their minister; this

invitation he accepted, by the advice of Calvin, by whom he was held in high estimation.

In 1555, he was invited by several of the Scotch nobility to return to Scotland, where he found the Protestant religion greatly increased. Its professors he immediately formed into a society, and commenced preaching, with his accustomed warmth and vehemence. Hamilton, the archbishop, "the cruel beast, the Bishop of St. Andrews," as Knox styled him, raised a hundred spearmen, and on the Saturday previous to the Sunday on which Knox had intimated that he would preach, sent word to the lords, who had only their households about them, "that if John Knox offered to preach the next day, he should be saluted with a dozen of culverins (muskets), whereof the most part should light on his nose.' on his nose." The lords, after long deliberation, sent for Knox, to hear his opinion; advising him to forbear for his own safety, and not to preach that day, in contempt of the bishop. The zealous and bold preacher was not thus to be deterred from his purpose. He felt that the time was a critical one, and he determined that it should be a compensation and a triumph for all his previous sufferings. To the lords, in reply to their kind importunities, he addressed these remarkable words: "God is my witness, that I never preached Christ Jesus in contempt of any man; neither do I now intend to present myself in that place for my own commodity, or for the hurt of any creature; but as

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