The prefixed portrait of Knox is engraved from a painting in the possession of the Right Honourable Lord Torphichen, with the use of which his Lordship, in the most obliging manner, favoured the publishers. There is every reason to think that it is a genuine likeness, as it strikingly agrees with the print of our Reformer, which Beza, who was personally acquainted with him, published in his _Icones_. There is a small brass medal, which has on one side a bust of Knox, and on the other the following inscription:――JOANNES KNOXUS SCOTUS THEOLOGUS {xii} ECCLESIÆ EDIMBURGENSIS PASTOR. OBIIT EDIMBURGI AN. 1572. ÆT. 57. It appears to have been executed at a period much later than the Reformer’s death. There is an error of ten years as to his age; and as Beza has fallen into the same mistake, it is not improbable that the inscription was copied from his _Icones_, and that the medal was struck on the continent. _EDINBURGH,_ _November 14, 1811._ {xiii} PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. In preparing this work for a second impression, I have endeavoured carefully to correct mistakes which had escaped me in the first, both as to matter and language. I have introduced accounts of the principal public transactions of the period, which a desire of being concise induced me formerly to exclude, but which serve to throw light on the exertions of the Reformer, and ought to be known by those who read his Life. And I have entered into a more full detail of several parts of his conduct than was practicable within the limits of a single volume. Such additional authorities, printed or manuscript, as I have had access to, since the publication of the former edition, have been diligently consulted; and I flatter myself that the alterations and additions which these have enabled me to make, will be considered as improvements. I have added to the Supplement a number of original Latin Poems on the principal characters mentioned in the course of the work, which may not be unacceptable to the learned reader. _EDINBURGH,_ _March 1, 1813._ {xv} ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIFTH EDITION. Besides the additional matter introduced into the Fourth Edition, the present contains a variety of new facts and documents, the most interesting of which will be found in the Note concerning Scottish Martyrs, at the end of the first volume. The portrait of the Regent Murray, now prefixed to the second volume, is taken from the original in Holyrood Palace. _EDINBURGH,_ _February 14, 1831._ {xvi} {xvii} CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIRST. PERIOD FIRST.