ministerial office, and exciting sedition among the people. The trial was appointed to take place on the 10th of May 1559.

Such was the critical state of affairs, when an individual suddenly appeared on the stage, the report of whose arrival in Scotland spread a panic among the Popish clergy from which they never recovered, and who was destined to do more for the cause of the Reformation than all the nobles of Scotland, with their armed followers, could have effected: need I say, that individual was JOHN KNOx.

resolutions, John Knox was the man, and almost the only man of his time, who seemed to be expressly cut out by the hand of Providence for achieving the lofty and adventurous enterprise to which he now consecrated himself, spirit, and soul, and body. His arrival in Scotland was not long concealed from the clergy. On the morning after he landed at Leith, a person came to the monastery of the Greyfriars, where the provincial council was sitting, with the information that John Knox was come from France, and had slept the last night in As the life of this Reformer forms the subject of Edinburgh. The clergy were panic-struck with a work with which many of you may be familiar, the intelligence, the council was dismissed in conand of which any sketch of mine can be little fusion, a messenger was despatched to the queen, more than an abridgment, I need not dwell on his and within a few days Knox was proclaimed an previous history. Suffice it to say, that John outlaw and a rebel. Undismayed by this denunKnox was born at Gifford, a village near Hadding- ciation, he did not hesitate a moment on the ton, in the year 1505; that he was a fellow-student course he should pursue. He determined to preof the famous George Buchanan, who was classical sent himself voluntarily at Stirling, where the tutor to James VI., and one of the most learned Protestant ministers had been summoned to stand men of his age; and that it was not long before their trial. Having remained only a single day both Buchanan and Knox embraced the reformed in Edinburgh, he hurried to Dundee, where he religion, with all the ardour of youth, and the found the principal Protestants already assembled firmness of strong and cultivated minds. Knox had with the intention of accompanying their minisformed a strong attachment to George Wishart, ters to the place of trial, and avowing their waited constantly on his person, and bore the adherence to the doctrines for which they were sword which was carried before him, from the accused. Having accompanied them to Perth, time that the attempt was made to assassinate him Knox preached a sermon in that town, in which at Dundee. When Wishart was apprehended, he exposed the idolatry of the mass and image Knox insisted for liberty to accompany him; but worship. The audience had peaceably dismissed, the martyr dismissed him with this reply, "Nay, when one of the priests, as if in contempt of the return to your bairnes, (meaning his pupils ;) and doctrine that had been delivered, began to celeGod bless you; ane is sufficient for a sacrifice." brate mass. A boy, having uttered some mark of After the assassination of Cardinal Beaton, he re- disapprobation, was struck by the priest; the boy treated for safety to the castle of St. Andrews, retaliated by throwing a stone at his aggressor, which was then held by the conspirators. Knox which happened to break one of the images. This, had, before his conversion, entered into priests' in the excited state of the public mind, operated orders; and while he remained in the castle, he as a signal to some of the people who lingered on was unexpectedly called upon to officiate to the the spot; and in a few minutes the altar, images, Protestants, who had there sought refuge. But and all the ornaments of the church, were torn the castle having surrendered, he was sent, with down and trampled under foot. The noise soon other prisoners, to the galleys. Upon regaining collected a mob, who flew, by a sudden and irrehis liberty, he repaired to England, where he re-sistible impulse, on the monasteries, and, notwithmained till the death of that good Prince, Edward VI, when the fires of persecution, kindled by the bloody Mary, compelled him to flee to Geneva, and he accepted the charge of the English congregation in that city. But during all his wanderings, his heart was fixed on his native country. With the friends of the Reformation there he kept up a constant correspondence; and, after various unsuccessful attempts, he at last resolved to devote himself, at all hazards, to the work of emancipating it from the darkness and thraldom of Popery. He arrived, as we have already seen, at a period when his presence was most required, and at à crisis to meet which his character was Nothing was further at this time from the admirably adapted. Possessing firm and high-minds of the Reformers than to excite rebellion, toned principle, the foundations of which were or to gain their purpose by violent and unconstideeply laid in sincere piety and profound acquaint- tutional means. "Cursit be they," was their ance with the Scriptures; endowed with talents language to her majesty, "that seek effusion of of no common order, and an eloquence popular blood, war, or dissention. Lat us possess Christ and overwhelming; ardent in his feelings, indefa- Jesus, and the benefite of his evangill, and nane tigable in his exertions, daring and dauntless in his within Scotland sall be mair obedient subjectis

standing the interposition of the magistrates, and the entreaties of Knox and the other ministers, the fury of the people could not be restrained till' these costly edifices were reduced to a heap of smoking ruins. This tumult was quite unpremeditated, and confined to the lowest of the inhabitants, or, as Knox calls them, "the rascal multitude." The Queen Regent, however, glad of a pretext to crush the Reformation, magnified this accidental riot into a dangerous and designed rebellion, and imputing the whole blame to the Protestants, assembled an army to avenge the insult.

than we sall be." If, therefore, any confusion | households," and fearing lest his appearance in ensued, if they were compelled to assume a hostile attitude, the blame must rest with those who reduced them to the alternative of either resisting their sovereign, or submitting to have themselves and their brethren massacred by foreign soldiers. Finding all their endeavours to obtain the peaceable enjoyment of their religion to be fruitless; perceiving that the queen, who had so often de-tunities. ceived and disappointed them, had now become their declared enemy, and was at the head of French troops sent into the country to suppress the Reformation, to enforce the ecclesiastical laws in all their vigour, and enslave the land, the leading Protestants, who now began to be called the Lords of the Congregation, found themselves under the necessity of arming and combining in self-defence. For this purpose, they drew up an engagement or bond, in which they renounced Popery, pledging themselves to mutual support in the defence and promotion of the true religion. This bond received numerous subscriptions. And now having taken their ground, and finding their numbers increasing daily, they saw that the only effectual method to prevent the odious chains of ecclesiastical tyranny from being rivetted on themselves and their posterity, was to make a united and determined effort to shake them off for ever. They demanded the reformation of the Church, and each of them engaged, in his own sphere, to take immediate steps for abolishing the Popish service, and setting up the Reformed religion in those places where their authority extended, and where the people were friendly to their design. St. Andrews was the place fixed on for commencing these operations.

In prosecution of this object, in the beginning of June 1559, the Earl of Argyle and Lord James Stewart, who was prior of the Abbey of St. Andrews, made an appointment with Knox to meet him on a certain day in that city. Travelling along the east coast of Fife, he preached at Anstruther and Crail, setting before the people the danger in which the civil and religious liberties of the nation were placed by the invasion of foreign and mercenary troops, sent to enslave them by a Popish faction in France, and bidding them prepare themselves either to die as men, or live victorious. Such was the effect of his exhortation, that altars, and images, and all monuments of idolatry in these places, were immediately pulled down and destroyed. The archbishop of St. Andrews, apprised of his design to preach in that town, and apprehending similar consequences, assembled an armed force, and sent information to the lords, that if John Knox dared to present himself in the pulpit of his cathedral, "he sould gar him be saluted with a dozen of culverings, (a species of fire-arms,) qubairof the most parte sould licht. on his nois."

The noblemen having met to con

sult what ought to be done, considering that the queen with her French troops was lying at Falkland, only twelve miles from St. Andrews, while they were only accompanied with their quiet

the pulpit should lead to the sacrifice of his life,
and the lives of those who were determined to
defend him from violence, agreed that Knox should
desist from preaching at this time, and urged him
very strenuously to comply with their advice.
The intrepid Reformer, however, disdained all
such fears, and would not listen to their impor-
"God is my witness," said he, "that I
never preached Christ Jesus in contempt of ony
man, or to the worldly hurt of ony creature. Bot
to delay to preiche to-morrow (unless the bodie
be violentlie withhaldin) I cannot of conscience:
for in this town and kirk began God first to call
me to the dignitie of a preichour, from the which
I was reft by the tyranny of France, and pro-
curement of the bishops, as ye all weill yneuch
knaw, and it is no time now to recite. This only
I cannot conceal, quhilk mae than ane have hard
me say, quhen the bodie was far absent fra Scot-
land, that my assurit hope was, in open audience,
to preiche in Sanct Androis, befoir I departit this
lyfe. And thairfor, my lords, seeing that God,
above the expectation of manie, has brought the
bodie to the sam place, I beseiche your honours
not to stop me to present myself unto my bre-
threin. And as for the fear of danger that may
come to me, let no man be solicitous; for my lyf
is in the custodie of Him whose glorie I seek;
and therefore I cannot so fear their boast nor
tyrannie, that I will ceis from doing my dewtie,
quhen God of his mercie offreth the occasioun.
I desyre the hand nor weapon of no man to de-
fend me: onlie I crave audience; quhilk, gif it
be denied heir unto me at this tyme, I must seik
farther quhair I may have it."

6

This bold reply silenced all remonstrance; and the next day, being the Sabbath, 10th June 1559, Knox appeared in the pulpit, and preached before the Lords of the Congregation, and a numerous assembly, without experiencing the slightest interruption. He discoursed on the subject of our Saviour's ejecting the buyers and sellers from the temple, and overthrowing the tables of the moneychangers: Take these things hence: it is written, My Father's house shall be a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of theives.' From which he took occasion to expose the enormous corruptions which had been introduced into the Church under the Papacy, and to point out what was incumbent on Christians, in their different spheres, for removing them. On the three following days he preached in the same place; and such was the influence of his doctrine, that the provost, bailies, and inhabitants harmoniously agreed to set up the Reformed worship in the town; the church was stripped of images and pictures, and the monasteries were pulled down.

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knew the scenes of villainy and debauchery that had passed within these walls, they would "admire the judgments of heaven, in bringing such polluted buildings to such an end."

In

THE demolition of the monasteries and other | lamenting their destruction, exclaimed, that if they religious houses, which marked the commencement of the Reformation in our country, has furnished a rich topic for declamation to many who exclaim against the bigotry and barbarism of our Reformers. We allow they may have gone too far, under the There was, indeed, a striking difference between excitement of the moment; but let us do them the Scottish and the English Reformation. justice. Had the Queen Regent, instead of resort- England the reigning powers took the lead, and ing to violent measures to suppress the Reforma- the people followed, as they best might, in the tion, listened to the petitions of her noblemen for wake of royal authority. In Scotland, the people inquiry into the abuses of the Church, or even were converted to the Protestant faith, before the allowed her subjects liberty to profess the Gospel, civil power had moved a step in the cause; and these excesses would never have occurred. It when the legislature became friendly to the Reforwas only when this liberty was denied them, and mation, nothing remained for it to do, but to ratify they were required to submit unconditionally to the profession which the nation had adopted. The the will of the Popish clergy, that the people had consequence has been that the Church of England, recourse to this method of revenge. "After with all her excellencies, (and they are many,) which answer," says Sir James Balfour, "the con- has never ventured to advance beyond the limits gregation goes to the staitly monastry of Scone, prescribed to her by Queen Elizabeth; while the and pulls it doune, and solemnly burns all the Scottish Church, carrying the legislature along Roman trashe, as images, altars, and the lyke. with her, has made various steps in Reformation, Then proceed they fordward to Stirling, Cambus--has, on more than one occasion, improved her kenneth, and Linlithgow, and ther demolishe and pull doune all quhatsoever carried aney symboll of the Roman harlot."* The churches and cathedrals, be it observed, were generally spared; it was only the monasteries, and places identified with the reigning superstition, that fell a sacrifice to the popular fury. And when we consider that these formed the strongholds of Popery, now at war with the nation, there appears more good policy than some are willing to admit in the maxim which John Knox is said to have inculcated, that "the best way to keep the rooks from returning was to pull down their nests." Another view of the matter, equally capable of defence, is suggested by an anecdote which he relates of an old woman who, when the flames of the monasteries in Perth were ascending to heaven, and some were • Annales of Scotland, vol. i, p. 316. No. 11. MARCII 16, 1839.-14d.]

standards, has pointed her testimony to the times, and discarded from her creed and constitution every thing which seemed, even by implication, to symbolise with the apostasy of the Church of Rome.

In the month of August 1560, when, through the friendly aid of England, the French troops had been expelled from Scotland, and when, after the Queen Regent's death, a free Parliament was assembled, Popery, as a matter of course, was abolished, and the Protestant religion was substituted in its place. Considering the suddenness with which this change was effected, the business was amazingly well conducted. A petition was presented to the Parliament by the ministers and others in the name of the people, requesting them to secure, by legal enactments, the profession of the true religion. The Parliament then requested the [SECOND SERIES. VOL. I.

ministers to lay before them a summary of Christian doctrine, which they could prove to be agreeable to Scripture; and, in the course of a few days, the ministers presented a Confession, consisting of twenty-five articles, which the Parliament, after due examination, formally ratified and approved. This Confession agrees in all points with those of the other Reformed Churches, and is not materially different from the Westminster Confession now in use, which was afterwards adopted by the Church of Scotland. It is remarkable that when it was read over, in the audience of the whole Parliament, in which there were several lords and bishops known to be disaffected to the Reformation, only three of the noblemen voted against it, giving no other reason for their dissent than, "We will beleve as our forefatheris belevit;" "the bishops spak nathing." Upon which, the Earl Marishal, after declaring his own approbation of the articles, protested, "that if any ecclesiastics should after this oppose themselves to this our Confession, they should be entitled to no credit, seeing that, having lang advisement and full knowledge of it, none of them is fund, in lawful, free, and quiet Parliament, to vote against it."

of the intolerance of that Church from which they had so lately escaped. Our Reformers, however, had no idea of converting their creed into a penal code, or of punishing all who departed from it as heretics. The truth is, they would not allow the mass to be a point of religion at all; they regarded it as manifest idolatry; and having, we think, erroneously conceived that the Mosaic law against idolaters was still binding on Christian nations, they applied the statute to it as a civil crime. Whatever may be thought of this interpretation of the civil law, it was obviously a very different thing from the spirit of Popery, which, stamping the whole of its creed with the attribute of infallibility, and denying all hope of salvation to those who are beyond its pale, enforces all its dogmas with civil pains on those who are accounted heretics. And that the object of our Reformers was not to punish the persons of heretics, but to stay the plague of idolatry and profaneness in the country, appears from two facts which we shall now state. The first is that the penalties actually inflicted on "massmongers," as they were termed, were entirely of the ignominious kind, usually allotted to persons convicted of infamous crimes, and intended to brand the practice condemned as disreputable.* And the other fact, to which we refer with pride, (because England, with all her boasted liberality, cannot say so much,) is, that not a single Papist suffered death in Scotland for the sake of his religion. We hear of four priests condemned to death for saying mass in Dumblane; but the sentence was remitted, and they were merely set in the pillory. Charity would ascribe this as much to the lenity and liberality of our Protestant an

This amounted, you perceive, to a national establishment of the Protestant religion. The nation, by its rulers and representatives, passed from Popery to Protestantism; and, in its civil capacity, ratified (not the Gospel indeed, which no acts of Parliament can ratify, but) the profession of the Gospel, which the people, in their religious capacity, had already embraced. And thus it appears that there was a civil establishment of the true religion in Scotland, before there was even an Established Church, for the Reformed Church of Scot-cestors, as to the reluctance of the Popish clergy land was not as yet regularly organized, much less endowed. The legal recognition of the Presbyterian Church as an organized society, was a subsequent step, and indeed not fully obtained till many years after this; the settlement of regular stipends on the ministers, was still later. And yet, by the act of the State, to which we have referred, the Protestant religion became the national religion of Scotland. These are the plain facts; and we leave every one to form his own judgment on them. But if the principle of civil establishments of religion is to be debated at all, at this point must the battle begin; and the question to be decided is, whether it was right or wrong for the nation of Scotland to declare, by an act of its Parliament, that Popery was abolished, and that Protestantism was henceforth the national religion.

By the same Parliament which established the Protestant religion, another Act was passed, which has been severely blamed, even by friends of the Reformation, prohibiting the celebration of mass, under severe penalties, which amounted in extreme cases, even to death. The only apology which some can find for this dubious act of policy, is that the principles of religious liberty were not then so fully understood, and that it is no wonder that our ancestors carried with them a portion

to suffer martyrdom for conscience' sake. Very few of them, indeed, appear to have had much conscience in the matter, except on the point of their worldly emoluments; and the only instance on record of their taking the Reformation to heart, is that of a poor priest in Cupar of Fife, who was so much distressed at seeing his altars and images demolished by the crowd, that on the following night he hanged himself.

The first meeting of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was held at Edinburgh, on the 20th of December 1560. It consisted of forty members, only six of whom were ministers; and its deliberations were conducted at first with great simplicity and unanimity. As a proof of this it may be mentioned, that seven different meetings of Assembly were held without a moderator or president. It may appear still more extraordinary to some to be told that none were

Upon the secund day of October 1561, Archibald Dowglas, provost of Edinburgh, with the baillies and counsale, causit ane proclamation be proclameit at the Croce, commanding and charging all and sundry monks, freris, priestis and all utheris papists and profane persons, to pas furth of Edinburgh within twenty-four hours next efter following, under the pane of burnying of disobeyaris

upon the cheik, and harling of thame throw the toun in ane cart: and the samyn day, Mr Thomas Macalyean was chasin provest of at the quhilk proclamatioun the quenis grace was very commovit. Edinburgh, and Archibald Dowglas dischargit, for making of the proclamatioun forrsaid without the quenis avyise, togidder with all the baillies."- Diurnal of Occurrents in Scotland, p. 69., † Life of Knox, vol. ii,, p. 18.