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

26th of December, gave him a similar appointment for Fife
and Perthshire.
[SN: 1565.]
Knox was summoned before the Privy Council, on account of a sermon
which, on the 19th of August, he had preached in St. Giles's Church.
[SN: 1566.]
In this year he appears to have written the most considerable portion of
his History of the Reformation; having commenced the work in 1559 or
1560.
In consequence of the unsettled state of public affairs, after the murder
of David Riccio, 9th of March, Knox left Edinburgh, and retired for a

time to Kyle.
June 19. James the Sixth was born in the Castle of Edinburgh.
December. Knox obtained permission from the General Assembly to
proceed to England, having received from the English Government a
safeconduct, to visit his two sons, who were residing with some of their
mother's relations.
[SN: 1567.]
February 10. Henry Lord Darnley was murdered.
April 24. Bothwell carried off Queen Mary to the Castle of Dunbar; and
their marriage was celebrated 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