In the end, the preacher said to those that were present, "Was not this your charge to me? And do ye not approve this vocation?" They answered, "It was; and we approve it." Thereat the said John, abashed, burst forth in most abundant tears, and withdrew himself to his chamber. His countenance and behaviour, from that day until the day that he was compelled to present himself in the public place of preaching, did sufficiently declare the grief and trouble of his heart. No man saw in him any sign of mirth, nor yet had he pleasure to accompany any man, for many days together. [Sidenote: John Knox denounces the Roman Kirk: his Challenge.] Another necessity caused him to enter the public place, besides the vocation foresaid. Dean John Annan, a rotten Papist, had long troubled John Rough in his preaching: and the said John Knox had fortified the doctrine of the preacher by his pen, and had beaten the said Dean John from all defences, so that he was compelled to fly to his last refuge, that is, to the authority of the Church, "which authority," said he, "damned all Lutherans and heretics; and therefore he needed no further disputation." John Knox answered, "Before we hold ourselves convicted, or ye can sufficiently prove us so, we must define the Church, by the right notes of the true Church given to us in God's Scriptures. We must discern the immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ from the Mother of Confusion, spiritual Babylon, lest imprudently we embrace a harlot instead of the chaste spouse; yea, to speak it in plain words, lest we submit ourselves to Satan, thinking that we submit ourselves to Jesus Christ. For, as for your Roman Kirk, as it is now corrupted, and the authority thereof, wherein stands the hope of your victory, I no more doubt that it is the synagogue of Satan, and the head thereof, called the Pope, that man of sin of whom the Apostle speaks, than do I doubt that Jesus Christ suffered by the procurement of the visible Kirk of Jerusalem. Yea, I offer myself to prove, by word or writing, that the Roman Church is this day further degenerate from the purity which was in the days of the Apostles than was the Church of the Jews from the ordinance given by Moses, when it consented to the innocent death of Christ." These words were spoken in open audience, in the parish Kirk of Saint Andrews, after the said Dean John Annan had spoken as it pleased him, and had refused to dispute. The people, hearing the offer, cried with one consent, "We cannot all read your writings, but we may all hear your preaching; therefore we require you, in the name of God, that ye let us hear the probation of that which ye have affirmed; for if it be true, we have been miserably deceived." And so, the next Sunday was appointed to the said John to express his mind in the public preaching place. [Sidenote: The first Public Sermon of John Knox is made in the Parish Kirk of St. Andrews.]