his sagacity and fidelity that the country was kept from being thrown by the minions of Elizabeth into the horrors of civil war. He soon found himself with many enemies, and the popish faction was headed by the Hamiltons. They loved to fish in troubled waters, and the coronation of James threatened to bar their succession to the throne. Attempts were made to assassinate the Regent, and he was at last shot (January 23, 1570) by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, a nephew of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, from a window in Linlithgow. There was forthwith a revulsion of feeling in his favour. The Archbishop at the end confessed his complicity in the deed, and of all his crimes it was the only one for which at his execution he expressed his contrition. Knox, on February 14, preached the sermon in St. Giles' before the funeral to a crowd of three thousand on the text, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord," and Buchanan wrote his epitaph. CHAPTER IX THE LAST DAYS OF KNOX THE Country was again in trouble, and Knox in October had a stroke of apoplexy. It affected his speech; and his enemies, according to the malicious superstition of the time, in which his friends unhappily shared, saw in it a judgment of God. He rallied somewhat, but unfortunately continued henceforth an invalid. His old friend, Kirkaldy of Grange, had, under the influence of Lethington, joined the party of the Queen and held the Castle. They quarrelled bitterly over some remarks made by the preacher. Knox was presumptuous enough to predict the manner of his death. Kirkaldy resented it, and it widened the estrangement. Knox never all the same lost his respect for the old soldier, and in the end thus distinguishes between him and Lethington: "For the an I am sorie that sa sould befall him, yit God assures me ther is mercie for his saul: for that uther I haif na warrand that ever he salbe weill."1 Feeling ran high between the factions. Knox became the subject of anonymous libels and absurd scandals. He refused to pray for Mary, and his excuse, though creditable, is not Christian. "I am not bound," he said, "to pray for her in this place, for sovereign to me she is not and I let them understand that I am not a man of law that has my tongue to sell for silver or favour of the world." He repelled the charge of having been unpatriotic enough to ask troops from Elizabeth to assist his cause by the prophetic words: "What I have been to my country, albeit this un2 M'Crie's Life, p. 254. 1 Melville's Diary, p. 35. Rise of Episcopacy thankful age will not know, yet the ages to come will be compelled to bear witness to the truth."1 His life was really in danger from the Hamiltons, and one evening a bullet was sent through his room. It was judged prudent for him to leave the city, and on May 5, 1571, he went to St. Andrews. It was while here that the Regent Lennox was killed at Stirling. He was succeeded by the Earl of Mar, who, under the inspiration of Morton, encouraged the idea of the nobles as patrons securing the bishoprics, and then bargaining with poor ministers to discharge the duties for a paltry stipend. James Melville tells of a sermon he heard about this time in St. Andrews, where reference was made to three kinds of bishops: 2 "My lord bischop, my lord's bischop, and the Lord's bischop. My lord bischop," said the preacher, "was in the Papistrie; my lord's bischope is now, now, when my lord getts 1 M'Crie's Life, p. 255. 2 Melville's Diary, p. 32. the benefice, and the bischope serves for na thing bot to mak his tytle sure; and the Lord's bischope is the trew minister of the Gospell." These poor hirelings sometimes went by the name of tulchan bishops from the figure of a calf used to induce the cows to give milk. The Church was naturally dissatisfied with this arrangement, and met at Leith in January 1572 to counteract it. They agreed, under the influence of the nobles, to maintain the old titles and the old dioceses. These were, however, to be held by properly qualified persons, with authority similar to that formerly enjoyed by the superintendents. This conclusion did not commend itself, and an Assembly held at Perth a few months afterwards (August) protested against it as popery. These movements worried Knox. He was indignant at the avarice of the nobility, and for this reason disposed to favour the proposal made at Leith, but cannot in consequence |