It does not appear that he continued any time suspended from preaching. For the king and queen {138} left Edinburgh before next Sabbath[159] and the prohibition extended only to the time of their residence in the city. Upon their return, it is probable that they judged it advisable not to enforce an order which had already created much discontent, and might alienate the minds of the people still farther from the present administration. Accordingly, we find him exercising his ministry in Edinburgh with the same boldness as formerly. Complaints were made to the council of the manner in which he prayed for the exiled noblemen; but secretary Maitland, who had formerly found so much fault with his prayers, defended them on the present occasion, saying, that he had heard them, and they were such as nobody could blame.[160] Christopher Goodman had officiated, with much approbation, as minister of St Andrew’s, since the year 1560; but he was prevailed on, by the solicitations of his friends in England, to return, about this time, to his native country.[161] The commissioners from St Andrew’s were instructed to petition the General Assembly, which met in December this year, that Knox should be translated from Edinburgh to their city. They claimed a right to him, as he had commenced his ministry among them; and they might think, that the dissensions in which he was involved with the court would induce him to prefer a more retired situation. But their petition was refused.[162] This Assembly imposed on him several important {139} services. He was commissioned to visit the churches in the south of Scotland, and appointed to write “a comfortable letter,” to encourage the ministers, exhorters, and readers, throughout the kingdom, to persevere in the discharge of their functions, which many of them were threatening to abandon, on account of the non‑payment of their stipends; and to excite the people among whom they laboured to relieve their necessities.[163] He had formerly received an appointment to draw up The Form of Excommunication and of Public Repentance.[164] And he was now required to compose a Treatise of Fasting. The Assembly, having taken into consideration the troubles of the country, and the dangers which threatened the whole protestant interest, had appointed a general fast to be kept through the kingdom. The form and order to be observed on that occasion they left to be drawn out by Knox and his colleague; and as nothing had been hitherto published expressly on this subject, they were authorized to explain the duty, as well as to state the reasons which at that period called for this solemn exercise. This treatise does credit to the compilers, {140} both as to matter and form. It is written in a perspicuous and nervous style. In the grounds assigned for fasting, the critical state of all the reformed churches, the late decree of the council of Trent for the extirpation of the protestant name, the combination of the popish princes for