John Knox | Page 7

were
burned on the Castle-hill of Edinburgh, the popular 'Commons King'
looking on. On James V.'s death there was a slight reaction under the
Regent, and Parliament even sanctioned the publication of the
Scriptures. But Arran made his peace with the Church in 1543, and
Beaton, the able but worldly Archbishop of St Andrews, and as such
Knox's diocesan, became once more the leader of Scotland. He had
already instituted the Inquisition throughout his see; he was now
advanced to be Papal Legate; and he was fully prepared to press into
execution the Acts which a few years before he and the King had
persuaded the Parliament to pass. Not to be a member of the Church
had always meant death. But now it was death by statute to argue
against the Pope's authority; it was made unlawful even to enter into
discussion on matters of religion; and those in Scotland who were
merely suspected of heresy were pronounced incapable of any office
there. And, lastly, those who left the country to avoid the fatal censure
of its Church on such crimes as these, were held by law to be already
condemned. The illustrious Buchanan was one of those who thus fled.
Knox remained, and suddenly becomes visible.
[1] Knox's later biographer, Dr Hume Brown, has given to the world a
letter from Sir Peter Young to Beza, transmitting a posthumous portrait
of Knox, which is thus no doubt the original of the likeness in Beza's
Icones, and makes the latter our only trustworthy representation of him.
The letter adds, 'You may look for (expectabis) his full history from
Master Lawson'; and this raises the hope that Beza's biography,
founded upon the memoir of Knox's colleague, James Lawson, as the
icon probably was upon the Edinburgh portrait, would be of great value.
In point of fact Beza's biography does give great prominence to Knox's
closing pastorate and last days, as his newly-appointed colleague might
be expected to do. But about his early years it is hopelessly inaccurate,
to say the least.

[2] So, in Shakespeare, Sir Hugh, who is 'of the Church'; Sir Topas the
curate, whose beard and gown the clown borrows; Sir Oliver Martext,
who will not be 'flouted out of his calling;' and Sir Nathaniel, who
claims to have 'taste and feeling,' and whose female parishioners call
him indifferently the 'Person' or the 'Parson.'
[3] Rashdall's 'Universities of Europe,' i. 525.
[4] The Act of Appeal of the University lays down principles which
apply far beyond the bounds of Gallicanism; that 'the Pope, although he
holds his power immediately from God, is not prevented, by his
possession of this power, from going wrong'; that 'if he commands that
which is unjust, he may righteously be resisted'; and 'if, by the action of
the powers that be, we are deprived of the means of resisting the Pope,
there remains one remedy, founded on natural law, which no Prince can
take away--the remedy of appeal, which is competent to every
individual, by divine right, and natural right, and human right.' And,
accordingly, the University, protesting that the Basle Council's decrees
of the past have been set aside, Appeals to a Council in the
future.--Bulaeus' 'Hist. of the University of Paris,' vol. viii. p. 92.
[5] This uncompromising preface took the place of one in which Major,
on his arrival in Scotland in 1518, praised the same Archbishop, then in
Glasgow, for his many-sided and 'chamaelon-like mildness.' It is
generally recognised that the stern policy latterly carried on under the
nominal authority of James Beaton was really inspired by his nephew
and coadjutor, David Beaton, the future cardinal.
[6] 'Expositio Matt.' fol. 71. (Paris.)
[7] 'I tell the truth to thee, there's nought like Liberty!'--Major's 'History
of Greater Britain.'
[8] Hume Brown's 'Knox,' i. 44.
[9] See Scots Acts, A.D. 1471, c. 43.
[10]

An Petrus Romae fuerit, sub judice lis est: Simonem Romae nemo
fuisse negat.
CHAPTER II
THE CRISIS: SINGLE OR TWO-FOLD?
On this dark background Knox for the first time appears in history. But
we catch sight of him merely as an attendant on the attractive figure of
George Wishart. At Cambridge Wishart had been 'courteous, lowly,
lovely, glad to teach, and desirous to learn'; when he returned to
Scotland, Knox and others found him 'a man of such graces as before
him were never heard within this realm.' He had preached in several
parts of Scotland, and was brought in the spring of 1546 by certain
gentlemen of East Lothian, 'who then were earnest professors of Christ
Jesus,' to the neighbourhood of Haddington. On the morning of his last
sermon in that town he had received (in the mansion-house of
Lethington, 'the laird whereof,' father of the famous William Maitland,
'was ever civil, albeit not persuaded in religion')