Verheidenii Imagines et Elogia, p. 69, 70.
Hagæ‑Comitum, 1725.
Davidson’s Poem, and Johnston’s Verses, to the memory of Knox, will be found in the Supplement.
Popish account of Knox’s death.—The slanders propagated by the popish writers against our Reformer’s character have been stated in [Note S]. After the specimen there given, it will not be expected that I shall dwell upon the equally extravagant and incredible narratives which they circulated concerning the manner of his death. I shall, however, translate the substance of Archibald Hamilton’s account, the original picture from which so many copies were afterwards taken. “The opening of his mouth,” he says, “was drawn out to such a length of deformity, that his face resembled that of a dog, as his voice also did the barking of that animal. The voicefailed from that tongue, which had been the cause of so much mischief, and his death, most grateful to his country, soon followed. In his last sickness, he was occupied not so much in meditating upon death, as in thinking upon civil and worldly affairs. When a number of his friends, who held him in the greatest veneration, were assembled in his chamber, and anxious to hear from him something tending to the confirmation of his former doctrine, and to their comfort, he, perceiving that his death approached, and that he could gain no more advantage by the pretext of religion, disclosed to them the mysteries of that Savoyan art (Sabaudicæ disciplinæ, magic) which he had hitherto kept secret; confessed the injustice of that authority which was then defended by arms against the exiled queen; and declared many things concerning her return, and the restoration of religion after his death. One of the company, who had taken the pen to record his dying sayings, thinking that he was in a delirium, desisted from writing, upon which Knox, with a stern countenance, and great asperity of language, began to upbraid him: ‘Thou good‑for‑nothing man! why dost thou leave off writing what my presaging mind foresees as about to happen in this kingdom? Dost thou distrust me? Dost thou not believe that all which I say shall most certainly happen? But that I may attest to thee and others how undoubted the things which I have just spoken are, go out all of you from me, and I will in a moment confirm them by a new and unheard‑of proof.’ They withdrew at length, though reluctantly, leaving only the lighted candles in the chamber, and soon returned, expecting to witness some prodigy, when they found the lights extinguished, and his dead body lying prostrate on the ground.” Hamilton adds, that the spectators, after recovering from their astonishment, replaced the dead body in the bed, and entered into an agreement to conceal what they had witnessed; but God, unwilling that such a document should be unknown, disclosed it, “both by the amanuensis himself, [Robertus Kambel a Pinkincleugh,] soon after taken off by a similar death, and by others who, although unwillingly, made clear confessions.” De Confusione Calvin. Sectæ apud Scotos, fol. 66, 67. Those who have not access to the work itself, will find the original words extracted, although with some slight inaccuracies, byMackenzie. Lives of Scottish writers, iii, 131, 132. “All the rest of the Romish writers,” says Mackenzie, “insist upon such like ridiculous stories that are altogether improbable.” Hamilton’s fabrications gave occasion, however, to the publication of that minute and satisfactory narrative of the last illness and death of Knox, drawn up by one who waited on him all the time, and added by principal Smeton to the answer which he made to that virulent writer. See above, [p. 219]. Yet the popish writers continued to retail Hamilton’s story until a late period. It was published by Knot in his Protestancy Condemned, Doway 1654; and in The Politician’s Catechism, printed at Antwerp, 1658, “permissu superiorum.” Those who wish to see the variations which it had undergone by that time, and who have not met with these writings, may be satisfied by looking into Strype’s Life of Archbishop Parker, p. 367.
“The miserable, horrible, detestable, and execrable deaths” of Luther, Calvin, and other heretics of that time, are particularly recorded by James Laing, in the work to which I have repeatedly referred.
Knox’s stipend.—The General Assembly held in March 1573, passed the following act:—“The Assemblie, considering that the travels of umqll Johne Knox, merits favourablie to be remembrit in his posteritie, gives to Margaret Stewart, his relict, and hir thrie daughters of the said umqll Johne, the pension qlk he himselfe had in his tyme of the kirk, and that for the year aproachand and following his deceis, of the year of God 1573, to their education and support, extending to five hundreth merks money, twa ch. quhait, sax ch. beir, four ch. aittes.” Buik of the Universall Kirk, p. 56.