Knox, John, approximately 1514-1572; Reformation -- Scotland
On July 29 Knox preached at the Coronation of James VI. at Stirling,
protesting against the rite of anointing. True, it was Jewish, but it
had passed through the impure hands of Rome, as, by the way, had Baptism.
Knox also preached at the opening of Parliament, on December 15. We know
little of him at this time. He had sent his sons to Cambridge, into
danger of acquiring Anglican opinions, which they did; but now he seems
to have taken a less truculent view of Anglicanism than in 1559-60. He
had been drawing a prophetic historical parallel between Chatelherault
(more or less of the Queen's party) and Judas Iscariot, and was not loved
by the Hamiltons. The Duke was returning from France, "to restore Satan
to his kingdom," with the assistance of the Guises. Knox mentions an
attempt to assassinate Moray, now Regent, which is obscure. "I live as a
man already dead from all civil things." Thus he wrote to Wood, Moray's
agent, then in England on the affair of the Casket Letters (September 10,
1568).
He had already (February 14) declined to gratify Wood by publishing his
"History." He would not permit it to appear during his life, as "it will
rather hurt me than profit them" (his readers). He was, very naturally,
grieved that the conduct of men was not conformable to "the truth of God,
now of some years manifest." He was not concerned to revenge his own
injuries "by word or writ," and he foresaw schism in England over
questions of dress and rites. {258a}
He was neglected. "Have not thine oldest and stoutest acquaintance"
(Moray, or Kirkcaldy of Grange?) "buried thee in present oblivion, and
art thou not in that estate, by age, {258b} that nature itself calleth
thee from the pleasure of things temporal?" (August 19, 1569).
"_In trouble impatient, tending to desperation_," Knox had said of
himself. He was still unhappy. "Foolish Scotland" had "disobeyed God by
sparing the Queen's life," and now the proposed Norfolk marriage of Mary
and her intended restoration were needlessly dreaded. A month later,
Lethington, thrown back on Mary by his own peril for his share in
Darnley's murder, writes to the Queen that some ministers are
reconcilable, "but Nox I think be inflexible." {259a}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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