This body met in August, 1560, and, carrying out what was undoubtedly the wish of the greater part of the people, established the Reformed religion, and interdict- ed by law any performance of lioman Catholic worship. In all this Knox was not only an active agent, but the agent above aU others. The Confession of Faith and tlie First I?ook of Discipline both bear the impress of his mind. Thus a great step was taken, from which there never afterwards was any serious recession. Knox did not attain all that he desired, especially in respect to the jirovision for the support of the Church and of educa- tion throughout the country. 8till he accomplished a radical work, of which all that followed was only the expansion and consolidation. Tlie arrival in the next year (1501) of the youthful queen Mary, who had high notions of prerogative, as well as an ardent attachment to liomanism, occasioned new dilHculties, in which Kuox, as minister in the metropolis, was actively engaged. He had iirolonged interviews witli her, in which she exert- ed all her wiles to win him to her side, but in vain. He was always uncompromising, and once drove her into tears, for which he has often been censured ; but his own statement to Mary at the time was that he took no de- light in any one's distress, that he could hardly bear to see his own boys weep when corrected for their faults, but that, since he had only discharged his duty, he was constrained, though unwillingly, to sustain her majesty's tears rather than hurt his conscience and betray the commonwealth through his silence. Meanwhile his ac- tivity in the pulpit was unabated. In the Church of St. Giles, where sometimes as many as three thousand hearers were gathered, he jireached twice on Sundays, and thrice gn other days of the week. To these were added other services in the surrounding country. The effect of these prodigious labors was immense, as we learn from what the English ambassador wrote to Cecil : " Where your honor exhorteth us to stoutness, I assure you the voice of one man is able in an hour to put more life in us than six hundred trumpets continually blus- tering in our ears." The vehemence, however, oi' his public discourses offended some of his friends, and his unyielding opposition to the court led to his alienation from the more moderate party who tried to govern the country in the queen's name; so that from 15G3 to 15G5 he retired into comjjarative privacy, but he continued his labors in the pulpit and in the assembl}' of the kirk. The rapid series of events which followed Clary's mar- riage with Darnley in July, 15G5, tlic murder of liizzio in the next year, the murder of Darnley in 15G7, and the queen's marriage with Bothwell, brought Knox again to the front. ]Mary was compelled to abdicate in favor of her son, and Murray, Aug. 15G7, became regent. Fiu- ther reforms were effected by the Parliament of 15G7. The sovereign was bound to be a Protestant, and some better jirovlsion w'as made for the support of the clerg}'. Knox and ISIurray were in complete accord, and the af- fairs of religion seemed so settled that the former deem- ed his work done, and thought of retiring to Geneva to end his days in peace. But in 1570 Jlurray was as- sassinated. Knox shared in the general grief, and this event, with the confusions that followed, led to a stroke of apoplexy, which affected his speech considerably. He recovered in part, and was able to resume preaching, but misunderstandings sprang up between him and the nobles, and even some of his brethren in the General Assembly. His life having been threatened, he, in 1571, by the advice of his friends, who feared bloodshed, re- tired to St. Andrew's, where ho preached with all his for- mer vigor, although unable to walk to tlie pulpit with- out assistance. In the latter part of 1572 he was re- called to Edinburgh, and came back to die, " weary of the world," and " thirsting to depart." One of his last public services was an indignant denunciation of the in- human massacre of St. Bartholomew's. On the 24th of November he quietly fell asleep, not so much oppressed
with years as worn out by his incessant and extraordi- nary labors of body and mind. In an interview with the session of his Church a few days before, he solemnly protested the sincerity of his course. Many had com- plained of his severity, but God knew that his mind was void of hatred to those against whom he had thundered the severest judgments, and his only object was to gain them to the Lord. He had never made merchandise of God's word, nor studied to please men, nor indulged his own or others' private passions, but had faithfidly used whatever talent was given to him for the edification of the Church.