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KNOX, holding these
views, found himself in very congenial surroundings when, in 1549,
he was appointed by the Privy Council of England, as one of their
licensed preachers, to minister to the garrison and people of
Berwick. Henry viii. had been two years dead, and those who were
responsible for the government of the Church held much more drastic
views regarding the reform of religion than he had ever entertained.
The English monarch was content for the most part to break with the
Church of Rome, and to apportion between himself and his favourites
among the nobility the wealth and lands of the Church. He did not
interfere much with its doctrine or ritual, but since his death
these had been taken in hand, and the signs were auspicious for a
thoroughgoing religious revolution.
It is true that the
bulk of the people loved the old ways, and clung, as their custom
is, to use and wont; but London, whose influence was very
predominant in this and other matters at that time, was strongly in
favour of the Reformation, and the aristocracy, who had shared in
the property of the Church, were not only loth to give up what they
had already grabbed, but were very anxious to secure as large a
share as possible of the remaining spoils.
Knox accordingly experienced great
freedom in his ministry at Berwick, and it would seem that he
discharged his duties entirely according to his own light and
convictions. Proof of this is found in a letter written by him at a
later date, in which he declares that he dispensed the Communion in
exactly the same fashion as he did in St. Andrews. We know that on
that occasion the manner in which he administered the sacred rite
was in accordance with Scriptural simplicity, and it may be taken
for granted that in conducting the service on the Sundays, and in
the general discharge of his duties, he adhered to the forms which
had received the approval of Zwingli, Calvin, and the other leaders
of the Reformed Church on the Continent.
His great desire was to remove every
obstacle that might stand between the soul of the believer and his
God. He was anxious that nothing should intervene between the
suppliant and his Maker; and it must have been his public insistence
on this which brought him under the unfavourable notice of Tunstall,
Bishop of Durham, and others in that diocese, who in their hearts
still clung to the old ways. In any care, as has already been
indicated, he was asked to give an account to the Bishop of the
doctrine which he taught, and he himself
in somewhat triumphant terms describes the occasion, when before a
notable gathering at Newcastle on the 4th of April 1550 he proved to
his own satisfaction, at least, that the sacrifice of the Mass is
idolatry. So pleased was he with this performance that he afterwards
published it as a separate work, under the title, A Vindication of
the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Idolatry. This being
the first independent work which he gave to the world, it may not be
unfitly regarded as his manifesto.
Knox was not allowed to remain long in
Berwick. In 1551 he was removed, presumably by the order of the
Privy Council, to Newcastle. During the two years he was in the
Border town he had proved himself to be one of the outstanding
champions of the new religion. He would feel himself on safer ground
in Newcastle, for not a little progress had been made in putting
into force the views which he himself advocated. An Act of
Parliament, for instance, had recently been passed ordering the
removal of images and paintings from the churches. Altars also were
being condemned, and Cranmer and his household had celebrated the
season of Lent in 1550 by eating meat.
Knox, however, was not by any means
satisfied with what had been accomplished, and he was looking
forward with eagerness to the appearance of the Second Prayer Book
of Edward vi., which he hoped would put a true face on the Church of
England, and in this he was not to be altogether disappointed. He
was riot, however, blind to the existing condition of affairs in the
country, but clearly saw that before a thoroughgoing Reformation
could be accomplished in England, if indeed it ever would be
accomplished, those who advocated the new ways would have to pass
through a fiery furnace.
On this, as on other occasions, he had a
vigilant eye for the signs of the times, and his capacity to
understand current events and the trend of affairs gave him, in the
eyes of contemporaries, the character of a prophet. He indeed was no
prophet in the vulgar acceptance of the term, but if penetration,
shrewdness, and absence of cant and humbug, go to the making of a
prophet, then he certainly was one. It was because of his singular
power of detachment, and ability to see things as they really were,
that he was able to forecast coming events and earn for himself a
reverence and a notoriety which stood him in very good stead, and
helped not a little to give divine sanction to his words and
actions. He
saw, for one thing, that the Reformation in England depended on
young King Edward's life, that the statesmen who for the time being
advocated it were governed purely by selfish motives, and that even
the two men, Somerset and Northumberland, who were all powerful in
the Councils of the nation, were not the inspired religionists which
some imagined, but—especially the latter — calculating schemers, who
managed the popular movement for their own ends. Somerset, who a
year earlier had fallen into disfavour, was in January 1552, shortly
after Knox came to Newcastle, beheaded, and the Reformer, who was
far from being whole-hearted in his admiration of the Protector, yet
openly lamented his death, and was "compelled of conscience to
condenin" the means invented by Northumberland "to take away his
innocent friend."
A new honour awaited Knox about this
time. The Privy Council in1551 determined that six King's chaplains
should be appointed, and the following year Knox was chosen one of
them. Edward vi., in the private diary which he kept, explains the
nature of the duties which these chaplains were expected to
discharge. Two of them had to be in attendance at the Court, and the
other four were to act as itinerant preachers, covering the whole
country by their peregrinations and ministrations. Knox in due time
was summoned to preach before the Court in the order and in virtue
of his office, but previous to that he received a singular and
additional mark of distinction by being offered the Bishopric of
Rochester. The
proposal that he should be appointed to that See came from
Northumberland. Some are at a loss to know whether it was his
admiration for, or dislike of, Knox that prompted him.
Northumberland, in virtue of his position as General Warden of the
Marches, was brought in 1552 into close touch with Knox, and the
Reformer was not slack to take advantage in his preaching on public
affairs to drive home the truths which he felt commissioned to
declare. He testifies himself to the nature of his utterances at
this time, and some of them cannot have been very pleasing to
Northumberland. The latter accordingly, wishing to get rid of Knox,
made the proposal to which we have referred. The reasons with which
he backed up the suggested appointment were that Knox would "whet
Cranmer's appetite," put the Anabaptists to rout, get himself out of
the north, and at the same time rid Newcastle of the Scots who had
gathered round him.
But Northumberland did not know the man
with whom he had to deal. Knox refused the Bishopric. It is not
unfrequently alleged in this connection that the reason why he
declined the See of Rochester was because he did not believe in
bishops. He himself does not say so. It should not be forgotten that
at this time the Church of England was not only in sympathy, but in
communion with the Reformed Churches everywhere. The divine right of
Episcopacy was not a part of its creed, and John Knox and other
preachers, whose Orders were genuine but not hierarchical, were
freely recommended and cordially welcomed, not only to the ministry
but to the very highest positions in its command. It was only in
later years, during the time of Laud, that the Anglican Church began
to air those pretensions which have gradually alienated from it the
other Churches of the Reformation with which in early times it was
in communion.
Knox, it must be admitted, was never particularly in love with the
office of a bishop. He knew what it had led to in the Romish Church.
The wealth and the arrogance, the tyranny and the moral corruption
of bishops, were largely due, he knew, to their office. This must
have weighed with him no doubt in coming to a decision, but the real
reason lay in the unreality and insecurity of the Reformation in
England. Shortly after this he confessed as much. When in exile he
wrote: "What moved me to refuse, and that with displeasure of all
men, those high promotions ? Assuredly the foresight of troubles to
come. How oft have I said that the time would not be long that
England would give me bread."
In the autumn of 1552 Knox took his turn
as Court preacher, and his first sermon created a sensation. In a
letter, dated London, 12th October 155, received by Bullinger from a
friend, there is the following passage: "Some disputes have arisen
within these few days among the Bishops in consequence of a sermon
of a pious preacher, chaplain to the Duke of Northumberland,
preached by him before the King and Council, in which he inveighed
with great freedom against kneeling at the Lord's Supper, which is
still retained here by the English. This good man, however, a
Scotsman by nation, has so wrought upon the minds of many persons
that we may hope some good to the Church will at length arise, which
I earnestly implore the Lord to grant."
To Knox the question of kneeling at the
Lord's Supper was the question of the hour. At this very time the
Second Prayer Book of Edward vi. was on the eve of being published,
and the rubric on kneeling was the one to which Knox took most
exception. Ridley and Peter Martyr supported him in his objection,
but Cranmer could see no harm in the practice. Knox's protest,
however, was so strong that in the end deference was paid to it. The
publication of the book was stopped, a leaf was inserted into those
already in type stating that no adoration was intended by kneeling,
and in subsequent issues this declaration formed a part of the book,
and has ever since been known as the "black rubric." That this
concession was due to Knox is rendered almost certain by the
statement of one Dr. Weston, a Catholic opponent, who in a dispute
with Latimer at Oxford in 1554 said: "A renegade Scot did take away
the adoration or worshipping of Christ in the Sacrament, by whose
procurement it was put into the last Prayer Book."
It would almost seem as if for the
moment Knox overlooked the great victory which he had gained, for
this very question of kneeling was one of the main articles in
dispute between the Church of Rome and the Reformed Churches,—so
concerned was he as to the effect which the Prayer Book would have
upon the worship of his old congregation at Berwick. We have seen
the extreme simplicity of the ritual which he observed while
ministering to them, and the new Prayer Book, although he admits
that "at one time he had a good opinion of it," necessarily in some
respects broke through that simplicity. He himself had determined to
submit to it, and in the end he counselled them to do the same.
But another triumph was in store for
Knox as showing the profound influence which he had not only upon
the ritual but upon the doctrine of the Church of England.
Archbishop Cranmer had been engaged for the last four years in
drawing up Articles of Belief, and had now all but finished his
task, and they were on the point of publication. At first forty-five
in number, they were afterwards reduced to forty-two, and finally to
thirty-nine. These . Articles were submitted to the chaplains for
their consideration, and Knox, among others, protested against the
thirty-eighth Article, which expressly stated that the ceremonies
enjoined in the new Prayer Book were in full accord with evangelical
liberty. One of these ceremonies, of course, was this one of
kneeling against which Knox had raised strong objections, and so
persistent was he in his opposition, and determined in his efforts,
that as in the case of the Prayer Book, so now in that of the
Articles, he triumphed, for when they appeared a short time
afterwards the obnoxious clause was omitted.
About this time he was offered the
Vicarage of of All-Hallows in Bread Street, London, but this second
offer of promotion he also declined. It would seem that the Council
were not a little annoyed at Knox's repeated refusals, and they
summoned him to state his reasons. On the 14th of April 1553 he
appeared before them, and they demanded of him three questions: (1)
Why he refused the benefice provided for him; (2) Whether he thought
that no Christian might serve in the evangelic ministration
according to the rights and laws of the realm of England; (3) If
kneeling at the Lord's 'fable was not indifferent. To the first he
answered that he thought he could be of more service in some other
place than in London; to the second that discipline in the Church of
England was lax, seeing that no minister had the power to separate
the lepers from the "heal"; and to the third he answered that Christ
dispensed the Communion without kneeling, and that His example ought
to be followed.
Nothing further came of this, and we
find him fulfilling his duties with a freedom and power which must
have won him respect and even admiration. Plainness of speech was
one of his great virtues, and we are not surprised to find that he
practised it when addressing even the highest in the land. This was
pretty much the fashion of the time among notable preachers in
England, and in their sermons before the Court they spared not the
proudest. In the last sermon which he himself preached before King
Edward we find a specimen of his style, and of the way in which he
attacked not only the corruptions but the corrupters of the time.
"I recited," he remarks, "the histories
of Achitophel, Shebna, and Judas. The two former had high offices
and promotions, with great authority, under the most godly princes
David and Hezekiah, and Judas was purse master with Christ Jesus . .
. Were David, said I, and Hezekiah, princes of great and godly gifts
and experience, abused by crafty counsellors and dissembling
hypocrites? What wonder is it, then, that a young and innocent king
be deceived by crafty, covetous, wicked, and ungodly counsellors. I
am greatly afraid that Achitophel be counsellor, that Judas bear the
purse, and that Shebna be scribe, comptroller, and treasurer."
Under this transparent veil he described
'the characters of Northumberland, Winchester, and others who at the
time were the leading councillors of Edward vi. Such boldness of
speech necessarily endangered Knox's life, but exaggeration in the
pulpit would seem to have been not only a habit of the time, but one
that was tolerated, and as the sermons of the Court preachers
usually lasted three or four hours it gave those who were being
attacked ample opportunity of leaving the church, a privilege of
which, we understand, they not unfrequently availed themselves.
Edward vi. died on the 6th of July 1553,
and the country was thrown into confusion. Knox at the time was in
Buckingham, and preaching on the 16th of July in Amersham Parish
Church, before a large and excited congregation, he burst forth into
one of the most eloquent passages that he ever spoke or penned. "Oh!
England, England," he exclaims, "wilt thou yet obey the voice of thy
God and submit thyself to His holy words? Truly if thou wilt thou
shalt find mercy in His sight, and the state of thy commonwealth
will be preserved." But the persecutions which marked the first year
of Mary's reign gave no hope of God's voice being listened to. Many
of the foreign divines were driven out of the country, and certain
of the Bishops were in prison. Cranmer, however, quailed not, but
remained steadfast at Lambeth, and so did others.
The 20th of December was the limit fixed
for toleration of the Reformed views. Knox at the time was in
Newcastle. He was poor and in ill health. He was being watched, and
his servant was seized and his letters taken possession of. His
friends implored him with tears to flee the country. He was loth to
do this, but at last he yielded to their solicitations and quitted
England at the beginning of the following year. "Some will ask," he
says, "why did I fly. Assuredly I cannot tell, but of one thing I am
sure, the fear of death was not the chief cause of my flying."
This we readily believe, and we must
also believe that a higher Hand was guiding his destiny. The time
was coming when Scotland would require him, and for the great work
that he was to accomplish there the training which he was now
undergoing was, under Providence, a necessary preparation. |
