John Knox

by William M. Taylor

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MINISTRY AT GENEVA, 1555-1559.

On his departure from Frankfort Knox made his way to Geneva, whither he was followed by a considerable number of those who had adhered to him in the former city. There it seems evident that he was invited by them, and probably also by others who had joined them, to resume his pastoral labours; for at the solicitation of Calvin, the Lesser Council of Geneva granted for the joint use of the English and Italian congregations the church called the Temple de Nostre Dame la Nove; and it is recorded that on the first of November, 1555, when the English Church was formed, Christopher Goodman and Arthur Gilby were "appointed to preach the word, in the absence of John Knox." This indicates that Knox was already recognised as one of the permanent pastors of the Church, and that just at that time he was for some reason or other, away for a long season from the scene of his labours.

Where he was and what he was doing we have ample means of tracing, for in the September of that year we find him back again in Scotland, for the first time since he had been taken prisoner by the French. But much as he cared for the spiritual interests of his native land, it is probable that his return to Great Britain at this time was more immediately prompted by feelings of a personal nature. We have already referred to his attachment to Marjory Bowes, daughter of Richard Bowes, and of Elizabeth Aske, of Aske, near Berwick, and Dr. Laing has given strong reasons for believing that he came now for the purpose of making her his wife. The precise date of his marriage, indeed, is uncertain. Dr. McCrie has put it in 1553, before he left England on the ground that after that date Knox invariably addressed Mrs. Bowes as his "mother" and spoke of Marjory as his "wife." The truth, however, seems to have been that owing to the strong opposition of her father and other relatives to the alliance, and also, perhaps, to the very uncertain position of the Reformer himself, in these times of unsettlement and peril, they contented themselves in 1553 with formally pledging themselves to each other "before witnesses." But now, immediately on his landing, at a point on the east shore not far from the boundary between England and Scotland, he repaired to Berwick, where he found Marjory and her mother enjoying the happiness of religious society. After this, he visited Scotland, where he laboured for some months, and the marriage may not have taken place until the time when, preparatory to their setting out for Geneva, Mrs. Bowes resolved to leave all her relatives and cast in her lot with her son-in-law.

The visit of Knox to Scotland, at this juncture, was of immense service to the cause of the Reformation. The clergy, unable or unwilling to discern the signs of the times, had sunk into supineness, under the belief that what they called heresy had been well-nigh banished from the land. Arran, now Duke of Chatellerault, had given place as Regent to Mary, the mother of Mary Queen of Scots, whose policy it was just then to temporize with the Protestant nobles, and to disguise for a season her deep-rooted and undying hatred of their cause. In the good providence of God, also, a number of the leading adherents of the new faith, like Erskine of Dun, Maitland of Lethington, and others, had come to Edinburgh to confer with and enjoy the ministrations of John Willock, who had been sent over by the Duchess of East Friesland, ostensibly on a commercial mission to the Scottish court, but really to see "what good work God would do by him to his native land;" and the private meetings which he held with the Protestants in Edinburgh for prayer and the exposition of the word, may have suggested to Knox that he should follow a similar plan. That at least was the course which he determined to pursue. He was received into the houses of certain burgesses whose names he has enshrined in his history, and though the number of meetings and the necessity of holding them in secret kept him busy night and day, he was greatly encouraged by the results. Writing to Mrs. Bowes, he says that "the fervent thirst of his brethren, night and day, sobbing and groaning for the bread of life, was such, that if he had not seen it with his own eyes he could not have believed it;" and again that "the fervency here did far exceed all others that he had seen;" and "did so ravish him, that he could not but accuse and condemn his slothful coldness."

The news of his arrival spread among the Reformers in all parts of the country, and his presence was so eagerly desired everywhere that he was obliged to postpone his return to Berwick, and enter upon a series of evangelistic journeys through different districts of the land. But we will allow him to describe his work at this time himself. Thus he writes in his "History": "John Knox, at the request of the Laird of Dun, followed him to his place of Dun, where he remained a month, daily exercised in doctrine, whereunto resorted the principal men of that country. After his returning, his residence was most in Calder, where repaired unto him the Lord Erskine, the Lord Lorn, and Lord James Stuart, Prior of St. Andrews (half-brother to Mary Stuart), where they heard and so approved his doctrine, that they wished it to have been public. That same winter he taught commonly in Edinburgh; and after the Yule (Christmas) by the conduct of the Laird of Barr, and Robert Campbell of Kinzeancleugh, he came to Kyle, and taught in the Barr, in the house of the Carnell, in the Kinzeancleugh, in the town of Ayr, and in the houses of Ochiltree and Gadgirth, and in some of them ministered the Lord's Table. Before the Pasch (Easter) the Earl of Glencairn sent for him to his place of Finlaston, where, after doctrine, he likewise ministered the Lord's Table; whereof, besides himself, were partakers his lady, two of his sons, and certain of his friends. And so returned he to Calder, where divers from Edinburgh, and from the country about, convened as well for the doctrine as for the right use of the Lord's Table, which before they had never practised. From thence he departed the second time to the Laird of Dun, and teaching them in greater liberty, the gentlemen required that he should minister likewise unto them the Table of the Lord Jesus; whereof were partakers the most part of the gentlemen of the Mearns, who professed that they refused all society with idolatry and bound themselves to the uttermost of their power to maintain the true preaching of the Evangel of Jesus Christ, as God should offer to them preachers and opportunity." Well done, ye men of the Mearns, and ye worthy descendants of the Lollards of Kyle! Often in the history of Scotland have the dwellers in these parts stood up manfully for the truth, but never was a nobler thing done in either locality, than when ye thus received and welcomed the apostle of your country's Reformation!

Such labours were sure sooner or later to attract the attention of the bishops; and accordingly while he was in the Mearns he was summoned to appear before them at Edinburgh, in the Church of the Blackfriars, on the 15th May, 1556. They probably imagined that this mere "show of force" on their part would suffice to frighten him into silence. If they did, they reckoned without their host; for encouraged by his friends he came to Edinburgh to meet and face his accusers. But when it came to the pinch, they shrank from the encounter; and so it was that on the very day on which he had been summoned to stand before them, he preached, of all places, in the very lodging of the Bishop of Dunkeld, to a greater audience than he had hitherto addressed in Edinburgh. For ten days he continued morning and afternoon at this work, and so thoroughly was his heart refreshed by it that he writes of it thus to Mrs. Bowes: "O sweet were the death that should follow such forty days in Edinburgh as here I have had three."

But the boldest, if we should not call it the most audacious thing, which he did in this visit, was to address a letter to the Queen Regent, wherein he vindicated himself from the charges made by his enemies against him, and exhorted her to hear the word of God, and regulate her government by its principles. The suggestion to send such an epistle came from the Earl Mareschal and Henry Drummond, who had been brought to hear him by Lord Glencairn, and who declared, on what they said they knew of the queen's mind, that she was in a mood to be propitious. But though the letter is correctly described by Lorimer as one "which for its courtesy of phrase, and faithfulness of counsel, was equally suitable to her dignity as a queen, and to his character as a minister of God," it met with only a mocking reception. "Please you, my lord, to read a pasquil," said Mary of Guise, after it had been put into her hands, and while she was giving it to the Archbishop of Glasgow, and that was all the notice of it which she condescended to take. This treatment of his expostulation being reported to Knox, revealed to him how little he had to expect from Mary of Guise; and as just at this time letters arrived from Geneva "commanding him, in God's name, as he that was their chosen pastor, to repair unto them for their comfort," he made immediate preparations for his departure thither. He took leave of the several congregations to whom he had preached, and sent on his wife and his mother-in-law to Dieppe before him, there to await his arrival. He reached them in the month of July, and shortly after went with them to Geneva; for in the "Livre des Anglois" there is an entry to the effect that on the 13th of September, 1556, John Knox; Marjory, his wife; Elizabeth, her mother; James ——, his servant; and Patrick, his pupil, were received and admitted members of the English Church and congregation there.