John Knox

by William M. Taylor

FIRST DAYS OF EXILE, 1554.

From England Knox went to Dieppe, where he sojourned at this time for a month, and finished his exposition of the sixth Psalm, the first instalment of which he had sent to Mrs. Bowes just before leaving the shores of Britain. This production was primarily designed for the consolation and encouragement of that lady, who, as we have already hinted, seems to have been afflicted with religious melancholy. Apparently she was one of those, of whom every pastor has had some experience, who believe that God has cast them off, and who while "fearing the Lord," yet "walk in darkness and have no light." Her life was one constant wrestle with spiritual depression, by which her intimate friends were afflicted almost as much as she was herself. Knox dealt with her most tenderly, and under the influence of his wise words she regained her comfort for a time, but after a little she was in the depths again, and the whole process had to be gone over with her anew. Had she lived in modern days, a prudent friend would have counselled her to consult a skilful physician, and would have sought to combine medical treatment with religious advice. We cannot wonder, however, that we have nothing in this tractate bearing on that aspect of the matter. The writer deals throughout with the malady as spiritual, but he treats it most wisely, and the great well of tenderness in his heart reveals itself to the reader in such a passage as the following:[[1]] "These things put I you in mind of, beloved mother, that albeit your pains sometimes be so horrible that no release nor comfort ye find neither in spirit nor yet in body, yet if the heart can only sob unto God, despair not, you shall obtain your heart's desire, and destitute you are not of faith. For at such time as the flesh, natural reason, the law of God, the present torment, and the devil at once do cry God is angry, and therefore is there neither help nor remedy to be hoped for at His hands; at such time, I say, to sob unto God is the demonstration of the secret seed of God which is hid in God's elect children, and that only sob is unto God a more acceptable sacrifice than, without this cross, to give our bodies to be burned even for the truth's sake." Very comprehensive also is this expansion of the second petition of the Lord's Prayer in the same treatise.[[2]] "We are commanded daily to pray, 'Thy kingdom come,' which petition asketh that sin may cease, that death may be devoured, that transitory troubles may have an end, that Satan may be trodden under our feet, that the whole body of Christ may be restored to life, liberty, and joy, that the powers and kingdoms of this earth may be dissolved and destroyed, and that God the Father may be all in all things, after that His Son Christ Jesus, the Saviour, hath rendered up the kingdom for ever." And in these days when so much is written, both wise and otherwise, on the subject of eschatology, some interest may be felt in the following "bit" of exposition. "'For there is no remembrance of Thee in death; who laudeth Thee in the pit?' As (if) David would say, 'O Lord, how shall I pray and declare Thy goodness when I am dead, and gone into the grave? It is not the ordinary course to have Thy miracles and wondrous works preached unto men by those that are buried and gone down into the pit. Those that are dead make no mention of Thee in the earth, and therefore, O Lord, spare Thy servant, that yet for a time I may show and witness Thy wondrous works unto mankind.' These most godly affections in David did engender in him a vehement horror and fear of death, besides that which is natural and common to all men, because he perfectly understood that by death he shall be lettit (hindered) any further to advance the glory of God. Of the same he complaineth most vehemently in the 88th Psalm, where apparently he taketh from them that are dead, sense, remembrance, feeling, and understanding, alleging that God worketh no miracles by the dead, that the goodness of God cannot be preached in the grave, nor His faith in perdition, and that His marvellous works are not known in darkness. By which speeches we may not understand that David taketh all sense and feeling from the dead, neither yet that they who are dead in Christ are in such estate that by God they have not consolation and life. No; Christ Himself doth witness the contrary. But David so vehemently depresses their estate and condition, because that after death they are deprived from (of) all ordinary ministration in the Kirk of God. None of those that are departed are appointed to be preachers of God's glory unto mankind. But after death they cease any more to advance God's holy name here among the living on earth, and so shall even they in that behalf be unprofitable to the congregation as touching anything that they can do, either in body or soul after death. And therefore most earnestly desired David to live in Israel for the further manifestation of God's glory."[[3]]

Appended to this tract there is the date "upon the very point of my journey, the last of February, 1553(4), so that Knox left Dieppe about the beginning of March, but before his departure he finished and transmitted the first of that series of admonitions and consolatory epistles which during his exile on the continent he addressed to his friends in England, and from which we have already quoted so many passages throwing light upon his labours among them. This earliest of the series is entitled "A Godly Letter of Warning or Admonition to the Faithful in London, Newcastle, and Berwick," and is written in a strain of burning and impassioned expostulation. It is mainly founded on the sermon preached by Jeremiah to the princes and all the people of Judah in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, as recorded in the 26th chapter of his prophecies. Knox runs a skilful parallel between the circumstances of the Jews before the destruction of their capital by Nebuchadnezzar, and those of the people of England under Mary, and with the presage of coming judgment darkening his spirit, he exhorts the "remnant" to fidelity and earnestness. One extract will give the reader some slight idea of its style and purport. [[4]]"Hitherto have I recited the estate of Judah before the destruction of Jerusalem and subversion of that commonwealth. Now I appeal to the conscience of any indifferent (i.e. impartial) man in what one point differ the manners, estate and regiment (i.e. government) of England this day from the abuse and estate rehearsed of Judah in these days, except that they had a king, a man of his own nature (as appeared), more facile than cruel, who sometimes was entreated in the prophet's favour, and also in some cases heard his counsel; and ye have a queen, a woman of a stout stomach (i.e. of a haughty spirit), more stiff in opinion than flexible to the truth, who no wise may abide the presence of God's prophets. In this one thing you disagree; in all other things as like as one bean or nut is like to another, (1) Their king was led by pestilent priests; who guides your queen, it is not unknown. (2) Under Zedekiah and his council the idolatry which by Josiah was suppressed, came to light again; but more abominable idolatry was never in the earth than is that which of late is now set up again by your pestilent papists among you. (3) In Jerusalem was Jeremiah persecuted and cast into prison for speaking the truth and rebuking their idolatry; what prison in London tormenteth not some true prophet of God for the same causes? And O thou dungeon of darkness, where that abominable idol of late days was first erected (thou Tower of London, I mean), in thee are tormented more Jeremiahs than one, whom God shall comfort according to His promise, and shall reward their persecutors even as they have deserved; in which day also shalt thou tremble for fear, and such as pretend to defend thee shall perish with thee, because thou wast first defiled with that abominable idol."

The letter concludes with the following touching sentences:—"The peace of God rest with you all. From one sore troubled heart upon my departure from Dieppe—1553(4)—whither God knoweth. In God is my trust, through Jesus Christ His Son; and therefore I fear not the tyranny of man, neither yet what the devil can invent against me. Rejoice, ye faithful, for in joy shall we meet where death may not dissever us."

At the time when he wrote these words he seems to have had no definite purpose as to his immediate destination, but we have now no difficulty in tracing his movements, for in a letter addressed to his afflicted brethren in England, and dated Dieppe, 10th May, 1554, we find the following words:—"My own estate is this: since the 28th of January I have travelled through all the congregations of Helvetia (Switzerland), and have reasoned with all the pastors and many other excellent learned men upon such matters as now I cannot commit to writing; gladly I would by tongue or by pen utter the same to God's glory." What these things were may perhaps be inferred from the words of Bullinger to Calvin in a letter dated 26th March, 1554, to this effect: "I have enclosed in this letter the answer I made to the Scotsman whom you commended to me; you will return it to me when you have opportunity."[[5]] Now as Knox visited Geneva in that month of March, and obtained from Calvin a letter of introduction to Bullinger, there can be no doubt, as Dr. Laing has shown, that the reference is to him. The questions which he submitted to Bullinger were the following, and we give them entire, with a brief summary of the answer to each, that we may make plain the gravity and importance of the matters which were at this time engrossing his attention:—(1) "Whether the son of a king, upon his father's death, though unable by reason of his tender age to conduct the government of the kingdom, is nevertheless by right of inheritance to be regarded as a lawful magistrate, and as such to be obeyed as of Divine right?" This, illustrating his statement by a reference to King Edward the Sixth of England, Bullinger answers in the affirmative. (2) "Whether a female can preside over and rule a kingdom by Divine right, and so transfer the right of sovereignty to her husband?" To this Bullinger replies, that, though the law of God ordains the woman to be in subjection, yet as it is a hazardous thing for godly persons to set themselves up in opposition to political regulations, and in the gospel does not seem to unsettle hereditary rights, the people of God may rejoice in a female sovereign if she be like Deborah; and if she be of a different character, they may have an example and consolation in the case of Athaliah; but with respect to the right of transferring the government to her husband, only those persons who are acquainted with the laws and customs of the realm can give a proper answer. (3) "Whether obedience is to be rendered to a magistrate who enforces idolatry and condemns true religion; and whether those authorities who are still in military occupations of towns and fortresses are permitted to repel this ungodly violence from themselves and their friends?" No definite or categorical answer is given to this inquiry, on the ground that it is difficult to pronounce on every particular case; but while there is need of wisdom, lest by rashness and corruption much mischief may be occasioned to many worthy persons, it is unequivocally asserted that death itself is far preferable to the admission of idolatry. (4) "To which party must godly persons attach themselves in the case of a religious nobility resisting an idolatrous sovereign?" This is left by the Swiss Reformer to the judgment of the individual conscience. Between the lines of these questions we can easily read that Knox was pondering questions which lie near the foundation of civil and religious liberty; and that, foreseeing the occasion which he might soon have for dealing practically with them, he availed himself of the opportunity furnished by his exile for consulting the most eminent Swiss Protestant divines regarding them.

He returned to Dieppe in May, 1554, and remained there until the end of July in order that he might gain accurate information concerning his brethren in England, and might learn whether he could do anything in their behalf. To these weeks must be assigned the preparation and transmission of his "Faithful Admonition unto the Professors of God's Truth in England," which caused him so much trouble in the Frankfort episode of his history. For that reason, therefore, it may be well to give a brief account of this trenchant production. It is evidently the expansion of a discourse formerly preached by him on the experience of the disciples in the storm, when they "toiled in rowing" because "the wind was contrary unto them," with a pungent and sometimes not very prudent, application of its lessons to the circumstances which then existed in England. It was his habit to preach his sermons before he wrote them, and indeed, so far as appears, he did not often write them out, even after they had been delivered, but usually contented himself with speaking from a few notes, which were made in the margin of his Bible, and which remained the sole memoranda of the discourse. In the present case the note was to the effect "Videat Anglia"—"Let England beware!" and the matter written in his book in Latin was this: "Seldom it is that God worketh any notable work to the comfort of His Church but that trouble, fear, and labour cometh upon such as God hath used for His servants and His workmen; and also tribulation most commonly followeth that Church where Christ Jesus is most truly preached." In his exposition he goes on to explain why, after the miracle of the feeding of the multitude, Christ sent both the people at large and His disciples away; and dwells on the danger to which the apostles were exposed, the manner of their deliverance through the coming and the word of Christ, the zeal of Peter in seeking to meet the Lord on the waves, and his fear in sinking in the waters, and the mercy of the Master in permitting neither Peter nor the rest of the disciples to perish, but gloriously delivering them all. Into his treatment of these several things he introduces plentiful allusions to the state of affairs in England, and the object which he has before him as a whole is two-fold—first, to encourage those who had made a profession of the Reformed Faith to maintain the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end; and second, to give warning of the dangers which were to be apprehended if the kingdom should come under the dominion of strangers, as it would infallibly do when Mary became the wife of Philip of Spain. The admonition bears the imprint "20th day of July, 1554." Now the marriage of Mary to Philip was celebrated on the 25th day of that same month, and it was provided by the treaty for that alliance, and confirmed by Act of Parliament, that Philip, as the husband of Mary, "should have and enjoy, jointly with the Queen his wife, the style, honour, and kingly name of the realm and dominions unto the said Queen appertaining, and shall aid her Highness, being his wife, in the happy administration of her realm and dominions." This helps us to understand one of the questions which Knox had proposed to Bullinger, and explains at least, if it cannot justify, the vehemence of his feelings and the violence of his words in the "admonition." He speaks of "Stephen Gardiner and his black brood;" calls the wafer of the host "the round clipped God;" declares that "the devil rageth in his obedient servants, wily Winchester, dreaming Durham, and bloody Bonner, with the rest of their bloody, butcherly brood;" avers that Jezebel "never erected half so many gallows in all Israel as mischievous Mary hath done within London alone;" denounces Mary as a "breaker of promises;" calls her that most unhappy and wicked woman;" and foretells evil for England if she—i.e. England—contract marriage, confederacy, or league with such princes as do maintain and advance idolatry (such as the Emperor, which is no less an enemy here to Christ than ever was Nero)." All this is dreadful enough. But let us bear in mind that Mary, on her accession, had publicly declared that she "meant graciously not to compel or strain other men's consciences otherwise than God should, as she trusted, put in their hearts a persuasion of the truth, through the opening of His word unto them," and that, by her subsequent conduct she had utterly falsified that word; let it be remembered that at the very time of Knox's writing, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer had been prisoners for seven or eight months in the Tower, first under the charge of treason, and latterly under that of heresy; let it be considered that reports were continually coming to Knox's ears of the daily increasing sufferings of the Protestants in England, and then some allowance will be made for the outburst of his indignation in these passionate utterances. Still, when we have made all such allowance, we must admit that a more cautious man would have foreseen that a probable effect of such a bitter onslaught would be the increase of the persecutor's fury, and would not have gone out of his way to irritate the German Emperor by comparing him with Nero. But caution never was one of Knox's distinctive excellences. If it had, he would not have become a Reformer, for your merely cautious men are of very little service either to their generation or to the world. Boldness is necessary for progress, and where the boldness is, we must reconcile ourselves as best we may to its attendant shadow. In the present instance Knox paid dearly enough for his imprudence, as we shall shortly see, and we may therefore content ourselves with this simple reference to it.

[[1]] "Works," vol. iii. p. 137.

[[2]] Ibid., p. 128.

[[3]] "Works," vol. iii. pp. 151-2.

[[4]] "Works," vol. iii. pp. 187-8.

[[5]] "Works," vol. iii. pp. 219, 226.