John Knox
9781465554222
pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
EARLY LIFE AND CALL TO THE MINISTRY, 1505-1547. On the sixteenth day of January, 1546, George Wishart delivered a remarkable sermon in the church of Haddington. Two things had combined to produce special depression in his heart. Shortly before he entered the pulpit a boy had put into his hands a letter informing him that his friends in Kyle would not be able to keep an appointment which they had made to meet him in Edinburgh. This news so saddened him that he expressed himself as weary of the world, because he perceived that men began to be weary of God. Nor was his despondency removed when he rose to preach, for instead of the crowds that used to assemble to hear him in that church, there were not more than a hundred persons present. It was thus made apparent to him that the efforts of his enemies for his overthrow were now to be successful, and so instead of treating the second table of the law as he had been expected to do, he poured forth a torrent of warning and denunciation, not unlike some of the fervid utterances of the old Hebrew prophets. The effect produced was all the more solemn, because he evidently felt that he was bearing his last public testimony against the evils of his times. The good man’s presentiment was all too surely realized. Before midnight the house in which he slept was surrounded by a band of which the Earl of Bothwell was the head, and he was given up by his host to that nobleman, only however on the receipt of a pledge, over which hands were struck, to the effect that his personal safety should be secured, and he should not be delivered into his enemies' power. But promises in these days were not of much account, and Bothwell was easily prevailed upon to give him up to Cardinal Beaton, who took him first to Edinburgh Castle, and afterwards to St. Andrews. There, in defiance of the protest of the Regent, he was hurriedly subjected to the form of a trial by the cardinal, and being, of course, found guilty, he was executed at the stake on the first of March. Before proceeding to tell the stirring story of his life, however, it may be well to take a brief survey of the condition of Scotland at the moment when he stepped into the arena of its national strife. Little more than three years before the date of Wishart’s execution, the Queen of Scotland had given birth to that Mary Stuart, whose character has been the puzzle of historians, and whose chequered career has been the theme of poets almost ever since. Her father, James V., broken-hearted by the utter defeat of his army by the English at the battle of Solway Moss, died only a few days after his daughter’s birth. Thus it came about, that in a critical time which tested the statesmanship of the world’s strongest rulers, alike in England, France, Germany, and Spain, Scotland had a baby sovereign, and the controlling of its affairs became an object of keen competition between contending parties. The queen-mother, Mary of Guise, a woman of marked ability, of much cunning, and of little principle, was, both from national and religious leanings, on the side of the Catholic party. Of that party the head at this time was David Beaton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, and a Cardinal of the Church. This artful prelate, the nephew of his uncle, was possessed of eminent talents, but was characterized by cruelty, licentiousness, and unscrupulousness. He had prevailed on James V. to violate the promise which he had made to his uncle, Henry VIII., to meet him at Newcastle. The haughty Tudor had now broken with the Romish see, and was anxious, if possible, to induce his nephew to follow his example. But the cardinal, as great a master of intrigue as was the English king himself, had succeeded in keeping the Scottish monarch from putting himself under the spell of his uncle’s influence, and Henry, exasperated at his defeat, sent into Scotland an army, whose success at Solway Moss led indirectly, as we have seen, to the death of James. When that event occurred, Beaton produced a forged will, purporting to be the last testament of the king, and nominating him as Regent with three of the nobles as his assistants. On the strength of that document he had himself proclaimed as Regent at the Cross of Edinburgh. But the validity of the instrument was annulled by the Scottish Parliament; and in the spring of 1543, James, Earl of Arran, heir presumptive of the crown, was appointed to the dignity which the cardinal had so eagerly, and so unrighteously sought to make his own
