Man liveth not by bread or corporal feeding only, And all his offspring made miserable and mortáll. And holp in the desert the children of Israél. Satan Tentator. I had rather nay, considering your feeblenéss, For ye are but tuly,2 ye are no strong person doubtless. Iesus Christus. Well, it is not the bread that doth a man uphold, There spoke the Reformer who desired a Church based upon Bible rule, and Christian lives obedient to the teaching of Christ and his Apostles. When Scripture is still insisted on, Satan is made to answer: Scriptures I know none, for I am but an hermit I; It longeth to Doctors. Howbeit I may say to yow, Then Satan suggests to Christ to wander to Jerusalem, there tempts him to throw himself from the pinnacle of the Temple, saying: Tush, Scripture is with it, ye cannot fare amiss. In no wise ye ought the Scriptures to deprave, 1 Sprete, spirit. Tuly. In Halliwell's "Dictionary of Provincial and Archaic Words," tully is given as Yorkshire for "a little wretch." Cymric "tuli" is a shroud; "tul" an outer covering only. In that sense "tully" would be equivalent to "skinny." No more take ye here than serve for your vain purpose, Satan is shown that he has wrested Scripture from its sense for his own purpose, and Christ says: To walk in God's ways it becometh mortal man, Satan Tentator. What is it to tempt God, after your judgemént? Iesus Christus. To take of His Word an outward experiment Satan Tentator. What persons do so? Make that more evident. Iesus Christus. All such as forsake any grace or remedý As they that do think God shall fill their belly Satan Tentator. Little good get I by this communication. Still by reference to God's Word all the temp tations are resisted. Then says Satan : Well, then it helpeth not to tarry here any longer, I defy thee therefore; and take thy words as wynde, 3 Slee, slay. Iesus Christus. Thy cruel assaults shall hurt neither me nor mine, Then Angels come with heavenly food and minister to Christ; at the close of the Interlude both Christ and the Angels turn to the people, urging them to follow Christ; and the piece ends with a sweet singing of the Angels before Christ. John Bale adds then an Epilogue in his own person, bidding all men resist the devil, and lay fast hold on the Scriptures: Resist, saith Peter, resist that roaring lion- It is interesting to observe how Bale draws from the Temptation in the Wilderness a lesson for the days of Henry VIII., when the battle was for a Bible in the hands of every Englishman. He makes it his whole object to insist on the fact that Christ prevailed because he rested on the Word of God. In a later day we shall find Milton in his "Paradise Regained" applying the same narrative with equal precision and far higher power to the maintenance of faith during another critical stage of the life of England. John Knox was born in 1505, at Gifford, in Lothian. He was taught first at the Haddington Grammar School, and then at the University of St. Andrews. He was ordained priest at the age of twenty-five, in 1530. This was two years after the burning of Patrick Hamilton, a young Scottish gentleman, who had visited Luther, and had then taught Lutheran opinions in Scotland. The martyrdom of Hamilton. gave impulse to the movement for Reform, and other burnings, between 1530 and 1540, helped it much. Knox, teaching philosophy at St. Andrews, advanced in the boldness of his opinions, and attacked corruptions of the Church. Cardinal Beatoun being then supreme at St. Andrews, Knox went to the south of Scotland, and in 1542 declared himself a Protestant. He was then sentenced by Beatoun as a heretic, and expelled from the priesthood of the Roman Church. In 1544 George Wishart returned to Scotland with the commissioners who had been sent to negotiate a treaty with Henry VIII. George Wishart, a brother of the Laird of Pittarow, in Mearns, had been banished by the Bishop of Brechin for teaching the Greek Testament in Montrose, and he had been living for some years at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. One of his pupils there sent to John Fox, who published it in the "Book of Martyrs," the following CHARACTER OF GEORGE WISHART. About the yeare of our Lord, a thousand, five hundreth, fortie and three, there was, in the universitie of Cambridge, one Maister George Wischart, commonly called Maister George of Bennet's Colledge, who was a man of tall stature, polde headed,' and on the same a round French cap of the best. Judged of melancholye complexion by his phisiognomie, blacke haired, long bearded, comely of personage, well spoken after his country of Scotland, courteous, lowly, lovely, glad to teach, desirous to learne, and was well trauelled; hauing on him for his habit or clothing, neuer but a mantell friso gowne to the shoes, a blacke Millian fustain dublet, and plaine blacke hosen, coarse new canuasse for his shirtes, and white falling bandes and cuffes at the hands. All the which apparell he gaue to the poore, some weekly, some monethly, some quarterly, as hee liked, sauing his Frenche cappe, which hee kept the whole yeare of my beeing with him. Hee was a man modest, temperate, fearing God, hating couetousnesse: for his charitie had neuer ende, night, noone, nor daye. Hee forbare one meale in three, one day in foure for the most part, except something to comfort nature. Hee lay hard upon a pouffe of straw: coarse new canuasse sheetes, which, when he changed, he gaue away. Hee had commonly by his bedside a tubbe of water, in the which (his people being in bed, the candle put out, and all quiet) hee used to bathe himselfe, as I being very yong, being assured offen heard him, and in one light night discerned him. Hee loved me tenderly, and I him, for my age, as effectually. Hee taught with great modestie and grauitie, so that some of his people thought him seuere, and would haue slain him, but the Lord was his defence. And hee, after due correction for their malice, by good exhortation amended them, and hee went his O that the Lord had left him to mee his poore boy, way. that hee might haue finished that hee had begunne! For in his Religion hee was as you see heere in the rest of his life when he went into Scotland with diuers of the Nobilitie, that came for a treaty to King Henry the eight. His learning was no less sufficient than his desire, alwayes prest and readie to do good in that hee was able, both in the house priuately, and in the schoole publickly, professing and reading divers authours. If I should declare his loue to mee and all men, his charitie to the poore, in giuing, relieuing, caring, helping, prouiding, yea infinitely studying how to do good unto all, and hurt to none, I should sooner want words than just cause to commend him. All this I testifie with my whole heart and trueth of this godly man. Hee that made all, gouerneth all, and shall judge all, knoweth I speake the troth, that the simple may be satisfied, the arrogant confounded, the hypocrite disclosed. τέλος 2 EMERY TYLNEY. George Wishart preached Church Reform in Scotland, and had many adherents, none more devoted than John Knox, who was then a tutor in the family of Hugh Douglas of Langniddrie, in East Lothian, who had become a Protestant. The son of a neigh bouring gentleman, John Cockburn of Ormiston, was also taught by him. When Wishart visited Lothian, Knox stood by him at his preaching with the sword that was carried to defend the preacher 1 Polde-headed, with shaven head. 2 Teλos, the end. after an attempt had been made to assassinate him at Dundee. When Wishart was arrested, Knox desired to go with him, but his friend said, Nay, return to your bairnis" (his pupils); "ane is sufficient for a sacrifice." Wishart was burnt on the 28th of March, 1546, Cardinal Beatoun looking on. Of Cardinal Beatoun's use of extreme penalties against heresy it was said that he caused the Governor of Perth to hang four honest men for eating a goose on Friday. Beatoun's own life was conspired against, not without privity of the English court; his Castle of St. Andrews was seized by surprise; and he was put to death on the 29th of May, two months after the burning of George Wishart. It was at Easter, in 1547, that John Knox with his pupils, the sons of the Lairds of Langniddrie and Ormiston, went into the Castle, which was held, after Beatoun's assassination, by those who had seized it. They were besieged by the Regent and helped by England. Scottish Reformers joined them. John Knox taught his boys, and catechised them publicly in the Castle as he had done at Langniddrie in a chapel of which the ruin is still called John Knox's Kirk. But the regular preacher to the St. Andrews garrison was John Rough, a reformer about five years younger than Knox. Knox was urged to share his work, and refused to intrude on the regular ministrations. But on a fixed day Rough preached a sermon on the right of a congregation, however small, to elect a minister, and the responsibility incurred by one who had fit gifts if he refused the call. Then in the name of the congregation he publicly turned to Knox and said, "Brother, you shall not be offended, although I speak unto you that which I have in charge, even from all those that are here present, which is this: In the name of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, and in the name of all that presently call you by my mouth, I charge you that you refuse not this holy vocation; but as you tender the glory of God, the increase of Christ's kingdom, the edification of your brethren, and the comfort of me, whom you understand well enough to be oppressed by the multitude of labours, that you take the public office and charge of preaching, even as you look to avoid God's heavy displeasure, and desire that He shall multiply his graces unto you." Then the preacher, turning to the congregation, said, "Was not this your charge unto me? and do ye not approve this vocation?" They all answered, "It was; and we approve it." Knox, overwhelmed with emotion, burst into tears and left the assembly. He shut himself in his chamber, and records in his own History that "his countenance and behaviour from that day till the day that he was compelled to present himself in the public place of preaching did sufficiently declare the grief and trouble of his heart; for no man saw any sign of mirth from him, neither had he pleasure to accompany any man for many days together." Among those reformers besieged in the Castle of St. Andrews who called upon Knox to preach was one 1 John Rough was burnt, by sentence of Bishop Bonner, on the 22nd of December, 1557. 3 who has been called the Poet of the Scottish Reformation, Sir David Lindsay of the Mount; and Lindsay's latest and longest poem, "The Monarchie," finished in 1553, may have been suggested by a sermon that Knox preached in this year 1547, against the Church of Rome. Dean John Annand having in public controversy sheltered himself behind authority of the Church, Knox replied that authority of the Church depended on acceptance of her as the lawful spouse of Christ. "For your Roman Church," he said, "as it is now corrupted, wherein stands the hope of your victory, I no more doubt that it is the synagogue of Satan, and the head thereof, called the Pope, to be that Man of Sin of whom the Apostle speaks, than I doubt that Jesus Christ suffered by the procurement of the visible church of Jerusalem. Yea, I offer myself, by word or writing, to prove the Roman Church this day farther degenerate from the purity which was in days of the Apostles than was the church of the Jews from the ordinances given by Moses when they consented to the innocent death of Jesus Christ." Called upon to make good his challenge, Knox preached next Sunday in the parish church, and interpreting Daniel's Vision of Four Beasts as a vision of the Four Empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, he took for his text "The Fourth Beast shall be the Fourth Kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall rise after them, and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time." This king John Knox identified with him who is elsewhere called the Man of Sin, the Antichrist, describing not a single person, but a body of people under a wicked headship held by a succession of persons. He argued that the Papal rule was Antichristian by describing it under the three heads of life, doctrine, and law. Of the effect of this sermon Knox wrote himself in his History, "Some said, 'Others hewed the branches of Papistry, but he striketh at the root to destroy the whole.' Others said, 'If the doctors and magistri nostri defend not now the Pope and his authority, which in their own presence is so manifestly impugned, the Devil have my part of him and his laws both.' Others said, 'Mr. George Wishart spake never so plainly, and yet he was burnt; even so will he be in the end.' Others said, 'The tyranny of the Cardinal made not his cause the better, neither yet the suffering of God's servant made his cause the worse. And therefore we would counsel you and them to provide better defences than fire and sword, for it may be that always ye shall be disappointed. Men now * See the volume of this Library illustrating "Shorter English Poems," pages 145-151. 3 Daniel vii. 23-25. have other eyes than they had then.' This answer gave the Laird of Niddrie." Lindsay's poem of "The Monarchie, a Dialogue between Experience and a Courtier of the Miserable Estate of the World," began with a religious prologue, and was then divided into four books, which went through the four great Monarchies, Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, Roman, to dwell especially upon that which grew out of the last, namely, the Fifth, spiritual and Papal, which, after the triumph over Antichrist, was to be followed by the true Monarchy of Christ. These lines from the section of Lindsay's "Monarchie" which treats of the Fifth or Papal Monarchy, touch the self-seeking of THE SPIRITUALTIE. The seilye1 Nun wyll thynk gret schame, Without scho callit be Madame; The pure Preist thynkis he gettis no rycht, As "schir Thomás" and "schir Wilzame." The proude Persone, I thynk trewlye, And, als, the Vicar, as I trow, And vmaist claith, thoucht babis thame ban, And hes thre ky, withouttin mo, The Vicare moist haue one of tho, With the gay cloke that happis the bed, I hard thame say, onder confessioun, At At the end of June, 1547, the Reformers in St. Andrews Castle were, with the help of a French fleet and French soldiers, beset by land and sea. the end of July they capitulated, and Knox became a chained prisoner in a French galley, under conditions that brought on dangerous fever. After nineteen months of imprisonment he was set free, in February, 1549. Edward VI. was then King of England, and John Knox, welcomed by the Privy Council, was at once sent to preach in Berwick. In April, 1550, John Knox, cited to appear at Newcastle, justified himself for preaching that the mass, at its best, was an idolatrous substitute for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In 1551 he preached chiefly at Newcastle, and in December of that year he was made one of King Edward's six chaplains in ordinary, each paid with a salary of forty pounds. Two of them were to be always present with the king, and four to preach elsewhere in appointed districts. Knox's influence produced modifications of the form of administering the Communion as set forth in King Edward's first service-book, modifications planned to shut out the Roman doctrine of real presence. At Berwick, John Knox engaged himself to Miss Marjorie Bowes, whom he married in 1553, after the death of Edward VI., under whom his scruples as to the constitution of the English Church caused him to refuse first the living of All Hallows, and afterwards a bishopric. After the change of reign Knox at first hoped to live quietly in the north. of England, but it was soon made evident to him 11 Lindsay here repeats what he had expressed between the two parts of his "Satire of the Three Estates" in a tragi-comic episode of a poor man ruined by church claim on his scanty goods after each death in his household. Here the poor husbandman dies, leaving widow and children. The church claims his counterpane (upmost cloth) and one of his three cows. If next the widow dies, another cow is taken. If then the eldest of the orphans dies, the church takes the last cow, the little ones must beg, and the corpse go unburied until they can find surety for burial fees. that he must leave the country, and he crossed to Dieppe at the end of January, 1554. Returning to Dieppe from time to time for news from his wife and friends in England, John Knox presently found a friend in John Calvin-a man of his own age-in Geneva. In August, 1555, he used opportunity of paying a visit to his wife at Berwick, and went quietly to Edinburgh, where he preached to a small gathering of Protestants, who then showed a growing desire to be taught by him. He stirred some to enthusiasm, persuaded them against outward conformity to Roman forms, and established formal separation. In a hall at Calder House in West Lothian hangs a picture of John Knox, with an inscription on the back, saying that "the first sacrament of the supper given in Scotland after the Reformation was dispensed in this hall." The reference is to this visit to Scotland at the close of 1555. Knox was invited by Erskine of Dun to his home in Angus, and there for a month preached daily to the chief people of the neighbourhood. Then he went to Calder House, where his host was Sir James Sandilands, Chief of the Knights Hospitallers in Scotland. Among those who attended Knox's preachings at Calder House were Archibald, Lord Lorne, afterwards Earl of clergy that was to meet in the church of the Black Friars (Dominicans) of Edinburgh on the 15th of May, 1556. He went boldly and unexpectedly with Erskine of Dun and other gentlemen, but, as the Queen Regent discouraged action against him, the citation was set aside on ground of informality, and Knox, master of the situation, spent that 15th of May and the ten following days, forenoon and afternoon, in preaching to large audiences. In the midst of the enthusiasm of this work, on the third day of it, he wrote to his wife's mother at Berwick JOHN KNOX TO MRS. BOWES. Belovit mother, with my maist hartlie commendation in the Lord Jesus, albeit I was fullie purpoisit to have visitit yow before this tyme, yet hath God laid impedimentis, whilk I culd not avoyd. They are suche as I dout not ar to his glorie, and to the comfort of many heir. The trumpet blew the ald sound thrie dayis together, till privat houssis of indifferent largenes culd not conteane the voce of it. God, for Chryst his Sonis sake, grant me to be myndful, that the sobbis of my hart hath not been in vane, nor neglectit, in the presence of his Majestie. O! sweet war the death that suld follow sic fourtie dayis in Edinburgh, as heir I have had thrie. Rejoise, mother; the tyme of our deliverance approacheth for, as Sathan rageth, sa dois the grace of the Halie Spreit abound, and daylie geveth new testimonyis of the everlasting love of oure mercifull Father. I can wryt na mair to you at this present. The grace of the Lord Jesus rest with you. In haste this Monunday-your sone, JOHN KNOX. While thus busy in Scotland, Knox was made one of its pastors by the English congregation at Geneva. He accepted the call, and in the summer of 1556 went to Geneva with his wife and his wife's mother. He left behind him an organised body of Scottish Church Reformers, and he gave to them, for the encouragement and support of their faith, this Pastoral Letter JOHN KNOX. (From a Portrait at Calder House. Engraved for McCrie's "Life of Knox," 1811.) Next Argyle; John Lord Erskine, afterwards Earl of Mar; and Lord James Stewart, afterwards Earl of Murray. At the beginning of 1556 Lockhart of Bar and Campbell of Kineancleuch took Knox to Kyle, where there were many advanced Reformers. he was with the family of the Earl of Glencairn at Finlayston. Then he was at Calder House again, and then again at Dun, where many gentlemen received the Sacrament sitting at the Lord's Table, and entered into a Covenant binding themselves to renounce the Popish communion, and maintain the pure preaching of the Gospel as they had opportunity. Knox's preaching had by this time stirred so many that he was summoned before a convention of the JOHN KNOX TO HIS BRETHREN IN SCOTLAND. Not sa mekill to instruct you as to leave with you, dearlie belovit brethren, sum testimony of my love, I have thought gud to communicate with you, in theis few lynis, my weak consall, how I wald ye suld behave yourselves in the middis of this wickit generatioun, tuiching the exercis of Godis maist halie and sacred Word, without the whilk, nether sall knawledge incres, godlines apeir, nor fervencie continew amang yow. For as the Word of God is the begyning of lyfe spirituall, without whilk all flesche is deid in Godis presence, and the lanterne to our feit, without the bryghtnes whairof all the posteritie of Adame doith walk in darknes; and as it is the fundament of faith, without the whilk na man understandeth tha gud will of God; sa is it also the onlie organe and instrument whilk God useth to strenthin the weak, to comfort the afflictit, to reduce to mercie be repentance sic as have sliddin, and finallie to preserve and keip the verie lyfe of the saule in all assaltis and temptationis. And thairfoir yf that ye desyr your knawledge to be incressit, your faith to be confirmit, your consciencis to be quyetit and comfortit, or finallie your saule to be preservit in lyfe, lat your exercis be |