In the latter part of 1560 Knox entered upon his ministry in Edinburgh, with the Cathedral of St. Giles as his parish church, and John Cairns as his assistant or reader. The city council provided for his lodging a house at the Netherbow Port, which had been that of the Abbot of Dunfermline, and which is now the property of the Free Church of Scotland, by whom it is preserved as a memorial of the Reformer. The council assigned him at first a stipend of £200, besides discharging his house rent. After the settlement by the Privy Council above alluded to, he received at least a part of his stipend from the common fund of the ministers--for there was an "equal dividend" of the portion given to the Protestant clergy--and the city council added to that what was necessary to bring it up to the sum originally given. An interesting illustration of their care for his comfort is furnished in the Act of council of date 30th October, 1561, which runs thus: "The same day the provost, bailies, and council ordains the Dean of Guild with all diligence to make a warm study of deals to the minister John Knox, within his house above the hall of the same, with light and windows thereunto, and all other necessaries." But before that time a dark shadow had fallen upon his dwelling, for toward the end of December, 1560, his wife died, leaving him with his two boys to mourn her loss. Public affairs just then also had a threatening aspect. {156} Mary and her husband, the King of France, persistently refused either to ratify the Treaty of Leith, or to confirm the settlement of the Reformed Church, and were preparing a French army for the invasion of Scotland; while agents of the Roman Catholic Church were sent over to rally the adherents of the old faith. But "man proposes and God disposes," for before the projected invasion could be carried out Francis II. died (on December 5th, 1560), and Lord James Stuart was sent by a convention of the nobility to France, not, as some have alleged, to invite Mary to Scotland, but as Lord James himself wrote to Cecil, "for declaration of our duty and devotion to her highness." Before his departure he was--we quote from Knox's "History"'--"plainly premonished that if ever he condescended that she should have mass publicly or privately said within the realm of Scotland, that then betrayed he the cause of God, and exposed the religion even to the uttermost danger that he could do. That she should have mass publicly, he affirmed that he never should consent, but to have it secretly in her chamber, who could stop her? The danger was shown, and so he departed." He left Edinburgh on the 18th of March, and on the 19th of August, 1561, Mary arrived in Scotland, where she was received with every demonstration of enthusiastic welcome. {157} CHAPTER XI. KNOX AND QUEEN MARY STUART, 1561-1563.