The action of the informers was most embarrassing to the magistrates, who abhorred the malice by which they were evidently actuated, but at the same time feared that the matter might come to the ears of the emperor's council then sitting at Augsburg, and that they might be compelled to give Knox up to them or to the Queen of England; and as the best means of extricating themselves from the difficulty, they suggested that he should privately withdraw from the city. Accordingly on the evening of the 25th of March, 1555, he delivered a most consolatory address to about fifty of the members of the Church in his own lodgings; and "the next day," to borrow the words of the author of the Brief Discourse, "he was brought three or four miles on his way by some of these unto whom the night before he had made that exhortation, who, with great heaviness of heart and plenty of tears, committed him to the Lord." The sequel is soon told. Cox, by falsely representing that the congregation was now unanimous, obtained an order from the senate for the unrestricted use of the English Prayer-Book, and then procured in the Church the abrogation of the code of discipline, and the appointment of a superintendent or bishop over the other pastors. The result was that a considerable number of the members left the city, and the remainder continued a prey to strife, which Cox and his friends did not stay to compose, for they also soon took their departure to other places. The Church was thus virtually broken {92} up; and it is not without significance that, in seeking afterwards to be excused from performing service before a crucifix in the chapel of Queen Elizabeth, Cox employed the very argument which Knox had urged without effect upon himself, for he said, "I ought to do nothing touching religion which may appear doubtful, whether it pleaseth God or not; for our religion ought to be certain, and grounded upon God's word and will."