The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 | Page 5

on the 15th of May.
June 15. Bothwell fled from Carberry-hill to Dunbar; and the Queen was brought to Edinburgh, and afterwards confined in Lochleven Castle. About the same time, Knox returned from England.
July 29. At the King's Coronation at Stirling, Knox preached an inaugural sermon on these words, "I was crowned young."
August 22. James Earl of Murray was appointed Regent of Scotland.
December 15. Knox preached at the opening of Parliament; and on the 20th, the Confession of Faith, which had been framed and approved by Parliament in 1560, with various Acts in favour of the Reformed religion, was solemnly ratified.
[SN: 1568.]
May 2. Queen Mary escaped from Lochleven; but her adherents, who had assembled at Langside, being defeated, she fled into England, and was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth for the rest of her life; having been beheaded at Fotheringay on the 8th of February 1586-7.
[SN: 1569.]
January 23. The Earl of Murray was assassinated at Linlithgow; and on occasion of his funeral, Knox preached a sermon on these words, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." (Rev. xiv. 13.)
[SN: 1570.]
July 12. Matthew Earl of Lennox was elected Regent of Scotland; but was assassinated on the 4th of September. On the following day, John Earl of Mar was chosen Regent.
October. Knox had a stroke of apoplexy, but was enabled occasionally to resume his ministerial labours.
[SN: 1571.]
May 5. The troubles which then agitated the country induced Knox to quit the metropolis, and to retire to St. Andrews.
September. The news arrived of the massacre of the Protestants on St. Bartholomew's Eve, 24th of August, at Paris, and in other parts of France.
[SN: 1572.]
July. On the cessation of hostilities, at the end of this month, a deputation from the citizens of Edinburgh was sent to St. Andrews, with a letter to Knox, expressive of their earnest desire "that once again his voice might be heard among them." He returned in August, having this year published, at St. Andrews, his Answer to Tyrie the Jesuit.
The Earl of Mar died on the 29th of October; and James Earl of Morton, on the 24th of November, was elected Regent of Scotland.
On the same day, the 24th of November, having attained the age of sixty-seven, Knox closed "his most laborious and most honourable career." He was buried in the church-yard of St. Giles; but, as in the case of Calvin, at Geneva, no monument was erected to mark the place where he was interred.
* * * * *
Knox left a widow, and two sons by his first marriage, and three daughters by the second. In the concluding volume will be given a genealogical tree, or notices of his descendants.
$THE HISTORY$
OF THE
$REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND$.
[Illustration]

$INTRODUCTORY NOTICE TO THE HISTORY$.
In the long series of events recorded in the Annals of Scotland, there is unquestionably none of greater importance than those which exhibit the progress and establishment of the Reformed Religion in the year 1560. This subject has accordingly called forth in succession a variety of writers of different sentiments and persuasions. Although in the contemporary historians, Lesley, Buchanan, and their successors, we have more or less copious illustrations of that period, yet a little examination will show that we possess only one work which bears an exclusive reference to this great event, and which has any claims to be regarded as the production of an original historian. Fortunately the writer of the work alluded to was of all persons the best qualified to undertake such a task, not only from his access to the various sources of information, and his singular power and skill in narrating events and delineating characters, but also from the circumstance that he himself had a personal and no unimportant share in most of the transactions of those times, which have left the character of his own mind so indelibly impressed on his country and its institutions. It is scarcely necessary to subjoin the name of JOHN KNOX.
The doubts which were long entertained respecting Knox's share in the "History of the Reformation," have been satisfactorily explained. Such passages as were adduced to prove that he could not have been the author, consist of palpable errors and interpolations. Without adverting to these suspicions, we may therefore attend to the time when the work was actually written.
* * * * *
The necessity of leaving upon record a correct account of their proceedings suggested itself to the Reformers at an early period of their career, and led to this History being commenced. Knox arrived in Scotland in May 1559; and by his presence and counsels, he served to animate and direct their measures, which were attended with so much success. In a letter dated from Edinburgh 23d October that year, while alluding to the events which had taken place during their contentions with the Queen Regent and her French auxiliaries,