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                            [Illustration]

                       Engraved by J. Cochran.

                              JOHN KNOX

            FROM THE ORIGINAL PICTURE IN THE POSSESSION OF

                           LORD TORPHICHEN.

       _Published by W. Blackwood, Edinburgh, April 10, 1831._




{i}
                                 LIFE

                                  OF

                              JOHN KNOX:

                              CONTAINING

                   ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HISTORY OF

                     THE REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND.

        WITH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE PRINCIPAL REFORMERS,
            AND SKETCHES OF THE PROGRESS OF LITERATURE IN
                SCOTLAND DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY;

                                 AND

                             AN APPENDIX,

                    CONSISTING OF ORIGINAL PAPERS.

                                  BY

                         THOMAS M‘CRIE, D.D.

                          THE FIFTH EDITION.

                               VOL. I.


                  WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH; AND
                      T. CADELL, STRAND, LONDON.
                              MDCCCXXXI.




{ii}
                              EDINBURGH:
                  PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY,
                       PAUL’S WORK, CANONGATE.




{iii}
                               PREFACE
                                TO THE
                            FIRST EDITION.


The Reformation from Popery marks an epoch unquestionably the most
important in the History of modern Europe. The effects of the change
which it produced, in religion, in manners, in politics, and in
literature, continue to be felt at the present day. Nothing, surely,
can be more interesting than an investigation of the history of that
period, and of those men who were the instruments, under Providence,
of accomplishing a revolution which has proved so beneficial to
mankind.

Though many able writers have employed their talents in tracing the
causes and consequences of the Reformation, and though the leading
facts respecting its progress in Scotland have been repeatedly stated,
it occurred to me that the subject was by no means {iv} exhausted.
I was confirmed in this opinion by a more minute examination of the
ecclesiastical history of this country, which I began, for my own
satisfaction, several years ago. While I was pleased at finding that
there existed such ample materials for illustrating the history
of the Scottish Reformation, I could not but regret that no one had
undertaken to digest and exhibit the information on this subject
which lay hid in manuscripts, and in books which are now little known
or consulted. Not presuming, however, that I had the ability or the
leisure requisite for executing a task of such difficulty and extent,
I formed the design of drawing up memorials of our national Reformer,
in which his personal history might be combined with illustrations of
the progress of that great undertaking, in the advancement of which he
acted so conspicuous a part.

A work of this kind seemed to be wanting. The name of KNOX, indeed,
often occurs in the general histories of the period, and some of our
historians have drawn, with their usual ability, the leading traits
of a character with which they could not fail to be struck; but it was
foreign to their object to detail the events of his life, and it was
not to be {v} expected that they would bestow that minute and critical
attention on his history which is necessary to form a complete and
accurate idea of his character. Memoirs of his life have been prefixed
to editions of some of his works, and inserted in biographical
collections, and periodical publications; but in many instances their
authors were destitute of proper information, and in others they were
precluded, by the limits to which they were confined, from entering
into those minute statements, which are so useful for illustrating
individual character, and which render biography both pleasing and
instructive. Nor can it escape observation, that a number of writers
have been guilty of great injustice to the memory of our Reformer, and
from prejudice, from ignorance, or from inattention, have exhibited a
distorted caricature, instead of a genuine portrait.

I was encouraged to prosecute my design, in consequence of my
possessing a manuscript volume of Knox’s Letters, which throw
considerable light upon his character and history. The advantages
which I have derived from this volume will appear in the course of the
work, where it is quoted under the general title of _MS. Letters_.[1]

{vi} The other manuscripts which I have chiefly made use of are
Calderwood’s large History of the Church of Scotland, Row’s History,
and Wodrow’s Collections. Calderwood’s History, besides much valuable
information respecting the early period of the Reformation, contains
a collection of letters written by Knox between 1559 and 1572, which,
together with those in my possession, extend over twenty years of
the most active period of his life. I have carefully consulted this
history as far as it relates to the period of which I write. The copy
which I most frequently quote belongs to the Church of Scotland. In
the Advocates’ Library, besides a complete copy of that work, there
is a folio volume of it, reaching to the end of the year 1572. It
was written in 1634, and has a number of interlineations and marginal
alterations, differing from the other copies, which, if not made by
the author’s own hand, were most probably done under his eye. I have
sometimes quoted this copy. The reader will easily discern when this
is the case, as the references to it are made merely by the year under
which the transaction is recorded, the volume not being paged.

Row, in composing the early part of his Historie of the Kirk,
had the assistance of Memoirs written {vii} by David Ferguson,
his father‑in‑law, who was admitted minister of Dunfermline at the
establishment of the Reformation. Copies of this History seem to have
been taken before the author had put the finishing hand to it, which
may account for the additional matter to be found in some of them.
I have occasionally quoted the copy which belongs to the Divinity
Library in Edinburgh, but more frequently a copy transcribed in 1726,
which is more full than any other that I have had access to see.

The industrious Wodrow had amassed a valuable collection of
manuscripts relating to the ecclesiastical history of Scotland, the
greater part of which is now deposited in our public libraries. In the
library of the University of Glasgow, there is a number of volumes in
folio, containing collections which he had made for illustrating the
lives of the Scottish reformers and divines of the sixteenth century.
These have supplied me with some interesting facts; and are quoted
under the name of Wodrow MSS. in Bibl. Coll. Glas.

For the transactions of the General Assembly, I have consulted the
Register commonly called the Book of the Universal Kirk. There are
several copies of {viii} this manuscript in the country; but that
which is followed in this work, and which is the oldest that I have
examined, belongs to the Advocates’ Library.

I have endeavoured to avail myself of the printed histories of the
period, and of books published in the age of the Reformation, which
often incidentally mention facts that are not recorded by historians.
In the Advocates’ Library, which contains an invaluable treasure
of information respecting Scottish affairs, I had an opportunity of
examining the original editions of most of the Reformer’s works. The
rarest of all his tracts is the narrative of his Disputation with the
Abbot of Crossraguel, which scarcely any writer since Knox’s time
seems to have seen. After I had given up all hopes of procuring a
sight of this curious tract, I was accidentally informed that a copy
of it was in the library of Alexander Boswell, Esq. of Auchinleck,
who very politely communicated it to me.

In pointing out the sources which I have consulted, I wish not to be
understood as intimating that the reader may expect in the following
work, much information which is absolutely new. He who engages in
researches of this kind, must lay his account with finding the result
of his discoveries reduced {ix} within a small compass, and should
be prepared to expect that many of his readers will pass over with a
cursory eye, what he has procured with great, perhaps with unnecessary
labour. The principal facts respecting the Reformation and the
Reformer, are already known. I flatter myself, however, that I have
been able to place some of these facts in a new and more just light,
and to bring forward others which have not hitherto been generally
known.

The reader will find the authorities, upon which I have proceeded in
the statement of facts, carefully marked; but my object was rather
to be select than numerous in my references. When I had occasion to
introduce facts which have been often repeated in histories, and are
already established and unquestionable, I did not reckon it necessary
to be so particular in producing the authorities.

After so many writers of biography have incurred the charge either
of uninteresting generality, or of tedious prolixity, it would betray
great arrogance were I to presume that I had approached the due
medium. I have particularly felt the difficulty, in writing the life
of a public character, of observing the line which divides biography
from general history. {x} Desirous of giving unity to the narrative,
and at the same time anxious to convey information respecting the
ecclesiastical and literary history of the period, I have separated a
number of facts and illustrations of this description, and placed them
in notes at the end of the Life. I am not without apprehensions that
I may have exceeded in the number or length of these notes, and that
some readers may think, that, in attempting to relieve one part of the
work, I have overloaded another.

No apology will, I trust, be deemed necessary for the freedom with
which I have expressed my sentiments on the public questions which
naturally occurred in the course of the narrative. Some of these are
at variance with opinions which are popular in the present age; but
it does not follow