He returned to Dieppe in May, 1554, and remained there until the end of July in order that he might gain accurate information concerning his brethren in England, and might learn whether he could do anything in their behalf. To these weeks must be assigned the preparation and transmission of his "Faithful Admonition unto the Professors of God's Truth in England," which caused him so much trouble in the Frankfort episode of his history. For that reason, therefore, it may be well to give a brief account of this trenchant production. It is evidently the expansion of a discourse formerly preached by him on the experience of the disciples in the storm, when they "toiled in rowing" because "the wind was contrary unto them," with a pungent and sometimes not very prudent, application of its lessons to the circumstances which then existed in England. It was his habit to preach his sermons before he wrote them, and indeed, so far as appears, he did not often write them out, even after they had been delivered, but usually contented himself with speaking from a few notes, which were made in the margin of his Bible, and which remained the sole memoranda of the discourse. In the present case the note was to the effect "Videat Anglia"—"Let England beware!" and the matter written in his book in Latin was this: "Seldom it is that God worketh any notable work to the comfort of His Church but that trouble, fear, and labour cometh upon such as God hath used for His servants and His workmen; and also tribulation most commonly followeth that Church where Christ Jesus is most truly preached." In his exposition he goes on to explain why, after the miracle of the feeding of the multitude, Christ sent both the people at large and His disciples away; and dwells on the danger to which the apostles were exposed, the manner of their deliverance through the coming and the word of Christ, the zeal of Peter in seeking to meet the Lord on the waves, and his fear in sinking in the waters, and the mercy of the Master in permitting neither Peter nor the rest of the disciples to perish, but gloriously delivering them all. Into his treatment of these several things he introduces plentiful allusions to the state of affairs in England, and the object which he has before him as a whole is two-fold—first, to encourage those who had made a profession of the Reformed Faith to maintain the beginning of their confidence steadfast unto the end; and second, to give warning of the dangers which were to be apprehended if the kingdom should come under the dominion of strangers, as it would infallibly do when Mary became the wife of Philip of Spain. The admonition bears the imprint "20th day of July, 1554." Now the marriage of Mary to Philip was celebrated on the 25th day of that same month, and it was provided by the treaty for that alliance, and confirmed by Act of Parliament, that Philip, as the husband of Mary, "should have and enjoy, jointly with the Queen his wife, the style, honour, and kingly name of the realm and dominions unto the said Queen appertaining, and shall aid her Highness, being his wife, in the happy administration of her realm and dominions." This helps us to understand one of the questions which Knox had proposed to Bullinger, and explains at least, if it cannot justify, the vehemence of his feelings and the violence of his words in the "admonition." He speaks of "Stephen Gardiner and his black brood;" calls the wafer of the host "the round clipped God;" declares that "the devil rageth in his obedient servants, wily Winchester, dreaming Durham, and bloody Bonner, with the rest of their bloody, butcherly brood;" avers that Jezebel "never erected half so many gallows in all Israel as mischievous Mary hath done within London alone;" denounces Mary as a "breaker of promises;" calls her that most unhappy and wicked woman;" and foretells evil for England if she—i.e. England—contract marriage, confederacy, or league with such princes as do maintain and advance idolatry (such as the Emperor, which is no less an enemy here to Christ than ever was Nero)." All this is dreadful enough. But let us bear in mind that Mary, on her accession, had publicly declared that she "meant graciously not to compel or strain other men's consciences otherwise than God should, as she trusted, put in their hearts a persuasion of the truth, through the opening of His word unto them," and that, by her subsequent conduct she had utterly falsified that word; let it be remembered that at the very time of Knox's writing, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer had been prisoners for seven or eight months in the Tower, first under the charge of treason, and latterly under that of heresy; let it be considered that reports were continually coming to Knox's ears of the daily increasing sufferings of the Protestants in England, and then some allowance will be made for the outburst of his indignation in these passionate utterances. Still, when we have made all such allowance, we must admit that a more cautious man would have foreseen that a probable effect of such a bitter onslaught would be the increase of the persecutor's fury, and would not have gone out of his way to irritate the German Emperor by comparing him with Nero. But caution never was one of Knox's distinctive excellences. If it had, he would not have become a Reformer, for your merely cautious men are of very little service either to their generation or to the world. Boldness is necessary for progress, and where the boldness is, we must reconcile ourselves as best we may to its attendant shadow. In the present instance Knox paid dearly enough for his imprudence, as we shall shortly see, and we may therefore content ourselves with this simple reference to it.
[[1]] "Works," vol. iii. p. 137.
[[2]] Ibid., p. 128.
[[3]] "Works," vol. iii. pp. 151-2.
[[4]] "Works," vol. iii. pp. 187-8.
[[5]] "Works," vol. iii. pp. 219, 226.