[47] In Vautrollier's editions, and in the later MSS. (A., E., I., L 2, &c.) the whole of this paragraph is omitted, and also the following Letter from Knox to Cecil, written from Dieppe in April 1559. The free strain of the letter was not calculated to conciliate the favour of the English statesman; and we need not be surprised to find Cecil, in a letter dated "from the Court," on the last of October, saying to Sadler, "Of all others Knoxees name, if it be not Goodman's, is most odious here; and therefore I wish no mentioun of hym hither."—(State Papers, vol. i. p. 532.)
[48] In MS. 1566, "grevous matter."
[49] In MS. 1566, "holylie."
[50] In MS. 1566, &c., "that you, wourthie of."
[51] Sir William Cecil, the eminent statesman, had been Secretary of State in the reign of Edward VI. Under Queen Mary, he acted with so much caution, although known to be a Protestant, that he remained unmolested, professing, among other reasons, "that he thought himself bound to serve God first, and next the Queen; but if her service should put him out of God's service, he hoped her Majesty would give him leave to chuse an everlasting rather than a momentary service." From the strain of Knox's letter to him, it might be inferred he had complied more ostensibly with the Romish party; but immediately upon Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne, Cecil became a Privy Councillor, and was reinstated in his office of Secretary. He was afterwards raised to the peerage as Lord Burghley, and was appointed Lord High Treasurer. He died in 1598.
[52] In MS. G, "what you hard proclamed in the chapell."—This probably refers to a discourse by Knox himself, in 1553, when preaching as one of the King's chaplains, before Edward the Sixth.
[53] In MS. 1566, "how contemp that iver."
[54] This desire of Knox, repeated so frequently in subsequent letters, to be allowed to visit England, was ungraciously refused, or allowed for many months to pass unnoticed. On the 9th of July, after Knox had reached Scotland, but still expressing the same anxious desire to see his brethren in the North of England, Cecil wrote to Sir Nicholas Throkmorton: "Knoxe desireth to come hyther: if he might come secretly, I wold allow it; otherwise not." On the 13th of June, Throkmorton, in a letter to Queen Elizabeth, had mentioned that Knox's wife and his mother-in-law were then in Paris, intending to return through England, and that he had promised letters in their favour to Secretary Cecil; and he entreated her Majesty to overlook "his former faultes." On the 19th of July, after stating "of what importance the successe of thinges touching religion in Scotland is for us," Throkmorton strongly urges upon Cecil the expediency "that Knokes have liberty to repair into England, how short soever his abode be there." (Forbes's State Papers, vol. i. pp. 129, 155, 167.) From Cecil's own letter, on the 28th of July, (see page 34,) it appears that he had requested Knox to meet him at Stamford; but the course of events, as related at page 32, prevented his travelling beyond Berwick.
[55] In MS. G. "imprisonment."
[56] In the MS. of 1566, "thei counsall."