Popish accounts of Knox’s second marriage.—“Heaving laid aside al feir of the panis of hel, and regarding na thing the honestie of the warld, as ane bund sklave of the Devil, being kendillit with an unquenshible lust and ambition, he durst be sua bauld to enterprysethe sute of marriage with the maist honorabil ladie, my ladie Fleming, my lord duke’s eldest dochter, to the end that his seid, being of the blude royal, and gydit be thair father’s spirit, might have aspyrit to the croun. And because he receavit ane refusal, it is notoriouslie knawin how deidlie he haited the hail hous of the Hamiltonis.—And this maist honest refusal would nather stench his lust nor ambition; bot a lytel efter he did persew to have allyance with the honorabill hous of Ochiltrie of the kyng’s M. awin blude; Rydand thair with ane gret court, on ane trim gelding, nocht lyk ane prophet or ane auld decrepit priest, as he was, bot lyk as he had bene ane of the blude royal, with his bendes of taffetie feschnit with golden ringis, and precious stanes: And as is planelie reportit in the countrey, be sorcerie and witchcraft did sua allure that puir gentil woman, that scho could not leve without him; whilk appeiris to be of gret probabilitie, scho being ane damsel of nobel blud, and he ane auld decrepit creatur of maist bais degrie of onie that could be found in the countrey: Sua that sik ane nobil hous could not have degenerat sua far, except Johann kmnox had interposed the powar of his maister the Devil, quha as he transfiguris him self sumtymes in an angel of licht; sua he causit Johann kmnox appeir ane of the maist nobil and lustie men that could be found in the warld.” Nicol Burne’s Disputation, p. 143, 144. But the devil outwitted himself in his design of raising the progeny of the Reformer to the throne of Scotland, if we may believe another popish writer. “For as the common and constant brute of the people reported, as writeth Reginaldus him many years. James owed the safety of his crown to another cause. See above, [p. 274].
Of Christopher Goodman.—From the intimate and long friendship which subsisted between him and our Reformer, this divine deserves more particular notice in this work. The Goodmans were a family of respectability in Chester, and repeatedly held the office of magistrates in that city. In a pedigree of the family, preserved in the British Museum, “Adam Goodman a marchant, and Selay Linge,” have a son “Christoph. prcher.” Harl. MSS. No. 2038. 32. f. 99. During the reign of Edward VI. he read lectures on divinity in Oxford. Strype’s Annals, i. 124. At the accession of queen Mary, he retired first to Strasburg, and afterwards to Frankfort. When he was at Strasburg, he joined in a common letter, advising the exiles of Frankfort to alter as little as possible in the English service; but he became afterwards so much convinced of the propriety of alterations, and was so much offended at the conduct of the Coxian party, that he removed from Frankfort to Geneva, along with those who were of the same sentiments with himself, and was chosen by them joint minister with Knox. Troubles at Franckford, p. 22, 23, 54, 55, 59.
In 1558, he published the book which afterwards created him a great deal of trouble. Its title is, “How superior powers ought to be obeyed: of their subjects and wherein they may lawfully by God’s worde be disobeyed and resisted. Wherein also is declared the cause of all this present miserie in England, and the onely way to remedy the same. By Christopher Goodman. Printed at Geneva, by John Crispin, MDLVIII.” In this book he subscribed to the opinion respecting female government, which his colleague had published a few months before. He maintained that the power of kings and magistrates was limited, and that they might lawfully be resisted, deposed, and punished by their subjects, if they became tyrannical and wicked. These principles he applied particularly to the government of the English Mary. A copy of verses by WilliamKethe (who translated some of the Psalms into English metre) is added to the work, of which the following is a specimen:—
“Whom fury long fostered by suffrance and awe,
Have right rule subverted, and made will their law.
Whose pride how to temper, this truth will thee tell;