'My conscience,' said she, 'is not so.'
'Conscience, Madam, requires knowledge, and I fear that right knowledge ye have none.'
'But,' said she, 'I have both heard and read.'
... 'Have ye heard,' said he, 'any teach, but such as the Pope and his Cardinals have allowed?'
The Queen avoided a direct answer,[106] but took the next point with unfailing acuteness.
'Ye interpret the Scriptures,' said she, 'in one manner, and they interpret in another; whom shall I believe? and who shall be judge?'
And Knox's answer is from his side perfect—
'Ye shall believe God, that plainly speaketh in His word; and farther than the word teacheth you, ye neither shall believe the one nor the other. The word of God is plain in itself; and if there appear any obscurity in one place, the Holy Ghost, who is never contrarious to Himself, explains the same more clearly in other places.'
The conference was long, and was ended with mutual courtesies. Both parties in the country suspected that the new sovereign might be gradually coming round to the new faith. No triumph could have been more glorious for Knox, and at the opening of the interview he had used every method of conciliation. But he never henceforth deceived himself as to the chances in this case. Outwardly, the Queen remained friendly, and he remained loyal; but his opinion as expressed privately, immediately after this first meeting, was recorded later on.