was executed upon his effigj'. In Geneva he spent near- ly three years, the happiest and most tranquil of his life. He counted it " the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the apostles." He was surrounded by Ids family, and lived in the great- est harmony with his colleague, Goodman, and the small flock under his charge. During his stay he took part in the preparation of what is called the Geiuva Bible. He also wrote a muuber of letters and apjieals which were forwarded to Scotland, and had great influence in guiding the counsels of the friends of the Reformation. His most singular treatise was a volume entitled The First Blast of the Tnnrqwt cir/ainst the monstrous Regi- tnent of Women. Although undoubtedly honest in liis opinions, it is certain that he was led to them bj' his ab- horrence of Bloody ISIary, who was then wearj-ing Eng- land by her cruelties. But it was an unfortunate pub- lication, for it subjected him to the resentment of two queens, during whose reign it was his lot to live ; the one his native princess, Marj-, queen of Scots, and the other Elizabeth, exercising a sway in Scotland scarcely ini'erior to that of any of its own sovereigns. Although his residence at Geneva was so agreeable in many ways, yet duty to Scotland was always uppermost in his mind, and when a summons came from the leading Protestants there for his return, he j-ielded at once.
HI. His Life-icork in Scoilmul. — The inducement for him to return was the concession of liberty of worship promised by the queen regent, but upon his arrival at Leith in May, 1559, he foimd that she had thrown off all disguises (she had just stipidated to assist the Guises in their plans against Elizabeth), and was deter- mined to suppress the Reformation by force. Not only did she refuse the demands of the Protestants, but even summoned a number of the preachers for trial at Stir- ling. But Knox was not disheartened. He wrote to his sister, " Satan ragcth to the uttermost, and I am come, I praise my God, even in the brunt of the battle." The regent, alarmed at the attitude of the Protestants, promised to put a stop to the trial, and induced the ac- cused to stay awaj', and then outlawed them for not ap- pearing. The news of this outrage came to Perth on the day when Knox preached against the idolatrv' of the mass and of image worship. At the conclusion of the service, an encounter between a boy and a priest who was preparing to celebrate mass led to a terrible riot. The altar, the images, and all the ornaments of the church were torn down and trampled under foot; nor did the "rascall multitude," as Knox called them, stop till the houses of the Gray and Black Friars and the Car- thusian Monastery were laid in ruins. Treating this tumult as a designed rebellion, the regent r.dvanced upon Perth with a large force, but finding the Protestants pre- pared to resist, made an accommodation. Henceforth the latter came to be distinguished as the Congregation, and their leaders as the lords of the Congregation. Un- der the advice of Knox, they reformed the worship wherever their power extended, and the iconoclasm of Perth was repeated at St. Andrew's and many other parts of the kingdom, not. however, by a riotous proceeding, but by the harmonious action of the authorities and the people. The briefest and best defence of this course is the reformer's pithy saying, that -'the rookeries were demolished that the rooks might not return." The con- test between the two parties went on for a year, during part of which Knox prosecuted a flaming evangelism in the Southern and eastern counties, while at otlier times he acted as chief agent in securing foreign help for liis oppressed countrj-men. In this occuiTcd the only seri- ous blot on his fair fame. He wrote to the ICnglish governor of Berwick that England might send troops to their aid, and then, to escape reproach from France, might disown, them as rebels. The rebuke -which he received from Sir James Croft was well deserved. The civil war was at length terminated by the entrance of an English army, wliich invested Edinburgh, and by the death of the queen regent. These events led to a truce,
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and the calling of a free Parliament to settle religious dilTerences.