The Verdict of the Privy Council.
John Knox being departed, it was demanded of the Lords and others that were present, every man by his vote, whether John Knox had not offended the Queen's Majesty. The Lords voted uniformly that they could find no offence. The Queen had retired to her cabinet. The flatterers of the Court, and Lethington principally, raged. The Queen was brought again, and placed in her chair, and they were commanded to vote over again. This highly offended the whole Nobility, who began to speak in open audience. "What! shall the Laird of Lethington have power to control us: or shall the presence of a woman cause us to offend God, and to condemn an innocent against our conscience, for pleasure of any creature?" And so the whole Nobility absolved John Knox again, and praised God for his modesty, and for his plain and sensible answers. Yea, before the end, it is to be noted that, among so many placeboes, we mean the flatterers of the Court, there was not one that plainly durst condemn the poor man that was accused, this same God ruling their tongue, as once He ruled the tongue of Balaam, when he would gladly have cursed God's people.
The Displeasure of the Queen.
When this was perceived, the Queen began to upbraid Mr. Henry Sinclair, then Bishop of Ross, and said, hearing his vote to agree with the rest, "Trouble not the bairn: I pray you trouble him not; for he is newly wakened out of his sleep. Why should not the old fool follow the footsteps of them that have passed before him." The bishop answered coldly, "Your Grace may consider that it is neither affection to the man, nor yet love to his profession, that moves me to absolve him; but the simple truth, which plainly appears in his defence, draws me after it, albeit others would have condemned him." This said, the Lords and whole assisters arose and departed. That night was neither dancing nor fiddling in the Court; for Madam was disappointed of her purpose, which was to have had John Knox at her disposal by vote of her Nobility.
John Knox, absolved by the votes of the greatest part of the Nobility from the crime intended against him, even in the presence of the Queen, she raged, and the placeboes of the Court stormed. And so began new assaults to be made upon the said John, to confess an offence, and to put himself in the Queen's will, they promising that his greatest punishment should be to go within the Castle of Edinburgh, and immediately return to his own home. He answered, "God forbid that my confession should condemn those noble men who for their conscience' sake, and with the displeasure of the Queen, have absolved me. And, further, I am assured that ye will not in earnest desire me to confess an offence, unless ye would desire me to cease from preaching: for how can I exhort others to peace and Christian quietness, if I confess myself an author and mover of sedition?"
The General Assembly: December 1563.
At the General Assembly of the Kirk, the just petitions of the ministers and commissioners of kirks were despised at the first, with these words, "As ministers will not follow our counsels, so will we suffer ministers to labour for themselves, and see what speed they come." And when the whole Assembly said, "If the Queen will not provide for our ministers, we must; for both Third and Two-part are rigorously taken from us, and from our tenants." "If others," said one, "will follow my counsel, the gaird[225] and the Papists shall complain as long as our ministers have done." At these words the former sharpness was coloured,[226] and the speaker alleged that he did not refer to all ministers, but to some to whom the Queen was no debtor; for what Third received she of burghs? Christopher Goodman answered, "My Lord Secretary, if ye can show me what just title either the Queen has to the Third, or the Papists to the Two-part, then I think I should solve whether she were debtor to ministers within burghs or not." But thereto he received this check for answer, "Ne sit peregrinus curiosus in aliena Republica;" that is, "Let not a stranger be curious in a strange commonwealth." The man of God answered, "Albeit I be a stranger in your polity, I am not so in the Kirk of God; and its care does no less appertain to me in Scotland than if I were in the midst of England."
John Knox demands the Judgment of his Brethren.
Many wondered at the silence of John Knox; for in all those quick reasonings he opened not his mouth. The cause thereof he himself expressed in those words: "I have travailed, right honourable and beloved Brethren, since my last arrival within this realm, in an upright conscience before my God, seeking nothing more, as He is my witness, than the advancement of His glory, and the stability of His Kirk within this realm; and yet of late days I have been accused as a seditious man, and as one that usurps to myself power that becomes me not. True it is that I have given notification to the Brethren in divers quarters concerning the extremity intended against certain faithful men for looking at a priest going to Mass, and for observing those that transgressed just laws; but that therein I have usurped further power than is given to me, until I be condemned by you, I utterly deny.