Chapter XXII: Appendix: B: Forgery Procured by Mary of Guise

In the writer's opinion several of Knox's accusations of perfidy against the Regent, in 1559, are not proved, and the attempts to prove them are of a nature which need not be qualified. But it is necessary to state the following facts as tending to show that the Regent was capable of procuring a forgery against the Duke of Chatelherault. A letter attributed to him exists in the French Archives, {280a} dated Glasgow, January 25, 1560, in which the Duke curries favour with Francis II., and encloses his blank bond, un blanc scelle, offering to send his children to France. {280b} _On January_ 28, the Regent writes from Scotland to de Noailles, then the French Ambassador to England, bidding him to mention this submission to Elizabeth, and even show the Duke's letter and blank bond, that Elizabeth may see how little he is to be trusted. Now how could the Regent, on January 28, have a letter sent by the Duke to France on January 25? She must have intercepted it in Scotland. {280c} Next, on March 15, 1560, the Duke, writing to Norfolk, denies the letter attributed to him by the French. {280d} He said that any one of a hundred Hamiltons would fight M. de Seurre (the French Ambassador who, in February, succeeded de Noailles) on this quarrel. {280e}

There exists a document, in the cipher of Throckmorton, English Ambassador in France, purporting to be a copy of a letter from the Regent to the Duc and Cardinal de Guise, dated Edinburgh, March 27, 1560. {280f} The Regent, at that date, was in Leith, not in Edinburgh Castle, where she went on April 1. In that letter she is made to say that de Seurre has "very evil misunderstood" the affair of the letter attributed to Chatelherault. She had procured "blanks" of his "by one of her servants here" (at Leith) "to the late Bishop of Ross"; the Duke's alleged letter and submission of January 25 had been "filled up" on a "blank," the Duke knowing nothing of the matter.

This letter of the Regent, then, must also, if authentic, have been somehow intercepted or procured by Throckmorton, in France. It is certain that Throckmorton sometimes, by bribery, did obtain copies of secret French papers, but I have not found him reporting to Cecil or Queen Elizabeth this letter of the Regent's. The reader must estimate for himself the value of that document. I have stated the case as fairly as I can, and though the evidence against the Regent, as it stands, would scarcely satisfy a jury, I believe that, corrupted by the evil example of the Congregation, the Regent, in January 1560, did procure a forgery intended to bring suspicion on Chatelherault. But how could she be surprised that de Seurre did not understand the real state of the case? The Regent may have explained the true nature of the affair to de Noailles, but it may have been unknown to de Seurre, who succeeded that ambassador. Yet, how could she ask any ambassador to produce a confessed forgery as genuine?

Footnotes

{0a} Inventories of Mary, Queen of Scots, p. cxxii., note 7.

{0b} Hume Brown, John Knox, ii. 320-324.

{2a} Probably Mrs. Knox died in her son's youth, and his father married again. Catholic writers of the period are unanimous in declaring that Knox had a stepmother.

{2b} Knox, Laing's edition, iv. 78.

{4} See Young's letter, first published by Professor Hume Brown, John Knox, vol. ii. Appendix, 320-324.

{5} Laing, in his Knox, vi. xxi. xxii.

{6} Knox, i. 36-40. The facts are pointed out by Professor Cowan in The Athenaeum, December 3, 1904, and had been recognised by Dr. Hay Fleming.

{7} Beza, writing in 1580, says that study of St. Jerome and St. Augustine suggested his doubts. Icones Virorum Doctrina Simul ac Pietate Illustrium.

{9} Pollen, Papal Negotiations with Mary Stuart, 428-430, 522, 524, 528.

{10} Knox, vi. 172, 173.

{12} Letter of Young to Beza. Hume Brown, John Knox, ii. 322-24.

{15a} Cf. Life of George Wishart, by the Rev. Charles Rodger, 7-12 (1876).

{15b} Maxwell, Old Dundee, 83, 84.

{17} M'Crie's Knox, 24 (1855).

{18a} "Letter to the Faithful," cf. M'Crie, Life of John Knox, 292.

{18b} Knox, vi. 229.

{19} M'Crie, 292.

{20} Dr. Hay Fleming has impugned this opinion, but I am convinced by the internal evidence of tone and style in the tract; indeed, an earlier student has anticipated my idea. The tract is described by Dr. M'Crie in his Life of Knox, 326-327 (1855).

{22} Most of the gentry of Fife were in the murder or approved of it, and the castle seems to have contained quite a pleasant country-house party. They were cheered by the smiles of beauty, and in the treasurer's accounts we learn that Janet Monypenny of Pitmilly (an estate still in the possession of her family), was "summoned for remaining in the castle, and assisting" the murderers. Dr. M'Crie cites Janet in his list of "Scottish Martyrs and Prosecutions for Heresy" (Life of Knox, 315). This martyr was a cousin, once removed, of the murdered ecclesiastic.

{23a} Knox, Laing's edition, i. 180.

{23b} Knox, i. 182. "The siege continued to near the end of January." "The truce was of treacherous purpose," i. 183.

{24} Knox, i. 203-205.

{25a} Thorpe's Calendar, i. 60; Register Privy Council, i. 57, 58; Tytler, vi. 8 (1837).

{25b} State Papers, Scotland, Thorpe, i. 61.

{25c} Bain, Calendar of Scottish Papers, 1547-69, i. I; Tytler, iii. 51 (1864).

{26a} Bain i. 2; Knox, i. 182, 183.

{26b} For the offering of the papal remission to the garrison of the castle before April 2, 1547, see Stewart of Cardonald's letter of that date to Wharton, in Bain's Calendar of Scottish Papers, 1547-69, i. 4-5.

{27a} John Knox, i. 80.

{27b} State Papers, Domestic. Addenda, Edward VI., p. 327. Lord Eure says there were twenty galleys.

{27c} Odet De Selve, Correspondence Politique, pp. 170-178.

{28} Knox, i. 201.

{30a} Leonti Strozzio, incolumitatem modo pacti, se dediderunt, writes Buchanan. Professor Hume Brown says that Buchanan evidently confirms Knox; but incolumitas means security for bare life, and nothing more. Lesley says that the terms _asked_ were life and fortune, salvi cum fortunis, but the terms _granted_ were but safety in life and limb, and, it seems, freedom to depart, ut soli homines integri discederent. If Lesley, a Catholic historian, is right, and if by discederent he means "go freely away," the French broke the terms of surrender.

{30b} Knox, i. 206, 228.

{33a} Lorimer, John Knox and the Church of England, 261.

{33b} Ibid., 158.

{33c} Ibid., 156, 157.

{35} Compare the preface, under the Restoration, to our existing prayer book.

{36a} Lorimer, John Knox and the Church of England, 98-136.

{36b} Knox, iii. 122.

{37a} Knox, iii. 297.

{37b} Ibid., iii. 122.

{38a} Knox, iii. 280-282.

{38b} Lorimer, i. 162-176.

{39} But, for the date, cf. Hume Brown, John Knox, i. 148; and M'Crie, 65, note 5; Knox, iii. 156.

{40a} Knox, iii. 120.

{40b} Laing, Knox, vi. pp. lxxx., lxxxi.

{40c} Pollen, The Month, September 1897.

{43} Knox, iii. 366.

{45} Lorimer, John Knox and the Church of England, 259.

{47a} Original Letters, Parker Society, 745-747; Knox, iii. 221-226.

{47b} M'Crie, 65 (1855); Knox, iii. 235.

{48} Knox, iii. 184.

{49a} Knox, iii. 309.

{49b} Ibid., iii. 328, 329.

{49c} Ibid., iii. 194.

{54} cf. Hume Brown, ii. 299, for the terms.

{56} John Knox, i. 174, 175; Corp. Ref., xliii. 337-344.

{58} For the Frankfort affair, see Laing's Knox, iv. 1-40, with Knox's own narrative, 41-49; the letters to and from Calvin, 51-68. Calvin, in his letter to the Puritans at Frankfort, writes: "In the Anglican Liturgy, _as you describe it_, I see many trifles that may be put up with," Prof. Hume Brown's rendering of tolerabiles ineptias. The author of the "Troubles at Frankfort" (1575) leaves out "as you describe it," and renders "In the Liturgie of Englande I see that there were manye tollerable foolishe thinges." But Calvin, though he boasts him "easy and flexible in mediis rebus, such as external rites," is decidedly in favour of the Puritans.

{60} Knox i. 244.

{62a} Knox, i. 245, note I.

{62b} Ibid., iv. 245.

{66} I conceive these to have been the arguments of the party of compromise, judging from the biblical texts which they adduced.

{67} Knox, i. 247-249.

{71a} Knox, i. 92.

{71b} Ibid., iv. 75-84.

{73} Knox; iv. 238-240.

{74} We shall see that reformers like Lord James and Glencairn seem, at this moment, to have sided with Mary of Guise.

{76a} Knox, i. 267-270.

{76b} Corpus Reformatorum, xlvi. 426.

{77a} More probably by Calvin's opinion.

{77b} Knox, iv. 248-253; i. 267-273.

{78} Stevenson, Selected MSS., pp. 69, 70 (1827); Bain, i. 585; Randolph to Cecil, January 2, 1561.

{80a} Knox, iv. 255-276.

{80b} Ibid., i. 273, 274.

{81a} Knox, i. 275, 276.

{81b} Ibid., i. 273, 274.

{83} Knox, iv. 501, 502.

{84} Knox, iv. 358. Zurich Letters, 34-36.

{85} Knox, iv. 486, 488.

{87a} Wodrow Miscellany, vol. i.

{87b} Here the "Historie of the Estate" is corroborated by the Treasurer's Accounts, recording payment to Rothesay Herald. He is summoning George Lovell, David Ferguson (a preacher, later minister of Dunfermline), and others unnamed to appear at Edinburgh on July 28, to answer for "wrongous using and wresting of the Scriptures, disputing upon erroneous opinions, and eating flesh in Lent," and at other times forbidden by Acts of Parliament (M'Crie, 359, note G). Nothing is here said about riotous iconoclasm, but Lovell had been at the hanging of an image of St. Francis as early as 1543, and in many such godly exercises, or was accused of these acts of zeal.

{87c} "Historie of the Estate of Scotland," Wodrow Miscellany, i. 53-55.

{88a} Knox, i. 301.

{88b} Knox appears (he is very vague) to date Calder's petition _after_ Willock's second visit, which the "Historie of the Estate of Scotland" places in October 1558. Dr. M'Crie accepts that date, but finds that Knox places Calder's petition before the burning of Myln, in April 1559. Dr. M'Crie suggests that perhaps Calder petitioned twice, but deems Knox in the right. As the Reformer contradicts himself, unless there were two Calder petitions (i. 301, i. 307), he must have made an oversight.

{88c} Hume Brown, John Knox, ii. Appendix, 301-303.

{88d} Knox, i. 301-306

{89a} Knox, i. 294, 301-312. On p. 294 Knox dates the Parliament in October.

{89b} Knox, i. 309-312.

{90a} Knox, i. 312-314.

{90b} See Laing's edition, i. 320, 321.

{91} Wodrow Miscellany, i. 55.

{92a} M'Crie, Knox, 359, 360.

{92b} Knox, i. 306, 307.

{93a} Knox, i. 307.

{93b} "Historie," Wodrow Miscellany, i. 55, 56.

{93c} Knox, i. 312-314.

{94a} "Historie," Wodrow Miscellany, 56.

{94b} Melville, 76, 77 (1827).

But Professor Hume Brown appears to be misled in saying that Bettencourt, or Bethencourt, did not reach Scotland till June (John Knox, i. 344i note i), citing Forbes, i. 141. Bethencourt "passed Berwick on April 13" (For. Cal. Eliz., 1558-59, 214) to negotiate the Scottish part in the peace, signed at Upsettlington (May 31). Bethencourt would be with the Regent by April 15, and he may have confirmed her in summoning the preachers who defied her proclamations, though, with or without his advice, she could do no less.

{95a} Pitscottie, ii. 523.

{95b} State Papers, Borders, vol. i. No. 421 MS.

{96a} Affaires Etrangeres, Angleterre, vol. xv. MS.

{96b} Forbes, 97; Throckmorton to Cecil, May 18.

{96c} For. Cal. Eliz., 1558-59, 272.

{97} Melville, 80.

{98a} Statuta, &c. Robertson, vol. i. clv-clxii.

{98b} Book of Discipline. Knox, ii. 253, 254.

{99a} M'Crie, 360.

{99b} The Regent's account of the whole affair, as given by Francis and Mary to the Pope, is vague and mistily apologetic. (Published in French by Prof. Hume Brown, ii. 300-302.) The Regent wrote from Dunbar, July 1559, that she had in vain implored the Pope to aid her in reforming the lives of the clergy (as in 1556-57). Their negligence had favoured, though she did not know it (and she says nothing about it in 1556-57), the secret growth of heresy. Next, a public preacher arose in one town (probably Paul Methuen in Dundee) introducing the Genevan Church. The Regent next caused the bishops to assemble the clergy, bidding them reform their lives, and then repress heresy. She also called an assembly of the Estates, when most of the Lords, hors du conseil et a part, demanded "a partial establishment of the new religion." This was refused, and the Provincial Council (of March 1559) was called for reform of the clergy. Nothing resulted but scandal and popular agitation. Public preachers arose in the towns. The Regent assembled her forces, and the Lords and Congregation began their career of violence.

{100} As to Knox's account of this reforming Provincial Council (Knox, i. 291, 292), Lord Hailes calls it "exceedingly partial and erroneous . . . no zeal can justify a man for misrepresenting an adversary." Bold language for a judge to use in 1769! Cf. Robertson, Statuta, i. clxii, note I.

{101} Knox, v. 15-17.

{102a} Knox, v. 207, 208.

{102b} Ibid., v. 229.

{102c} Ibid., v. 420, 421.

{102d} Ibid., v. 495-523. [This footnote is provided in the original book but isn't referenced in the text. DP.]

{104} John Knox and the Church of England, 215-218.

{105} Knox, ii. 460, 461. We return to this point.

{107} Bale, Scriptorum Illustrium Majoris Brit. Catalogus Poster., p. 219 (1559). Knox, i. 258-261.

{108a} Dieppe, April 10-April 22, 1559. Knox, vi. 15-21.

{108b} Desmarquets, Mem. Chronol. Jour. l'Hist, de Dieppe, i. 210.

{109a} Corp. Ref., xlv. (Calv., xvii.) 541.

{109b} Naissance de l'Heresie a Dieppe, Rouen, 1877, ed. Lesens.

{111} Knox, i. 321-323.

{112} Knox, vi. 23.

{113a} Corpus Reformatorum, xlvi. 609, xlvii. 409-411, August 13, 1561.

{113b} The learned Dr. M'Crie does not refer to this letter to Mrs. Locke, but observes: "None of the gentry or sober part of the congregation were concerned in this unpremeditated tumult; it was wholly confined to the lowest of the inhabitants" (M'Crie's Life of Knox, 127, 1855). Yet an authority dear to Dr. M'Crie, "The Historie of the Estate of Scotland," gives the glory, not to the lowest of the inhabitants, but to "the brethren." Professor Hume Brown blames "the Perth mob," and says nothing of the action of the "brethren," as described to Mrs. Locke by Knox. John Knox, ii. 8.

{117} Theses of Erastus. Rev. Robert Lee. Edinburgh, 1844.

{120} Knox, i. 341,342; vi. 24. Did the brethren promise nothing but the evacuation of Perth?

{121a} "Historie," Wodrow Miscellany, i. 58.

{121b} Knox, i. 343, 344. The Congregation are said to have left Perth on May 29. They assert their presence there on May 31, in their Band.

{122} Edinburgh Burgh Records.

{123a} But see Knox, i. 347-349. Is a week (June 4 to June 11) accidentally omitted?

{123b} Writing on June 23, Knox dates the "Reformation" "June 14." His dates, at this point, though recorded within three weeks, are to me inexplicable. Knox, vi. 25.

{124} Keith, i. 265, note.

{125a} Lesley, ii. 443, Scottish Text Society.

{125b} For. Cal. Eliz., 1558-59, 367.

{126a} Knox, vi. 26.

{126b} Ibid., i. 355.

{126c} Wodrow Miscellany, i. 60.

{127a} Knox, vi. 26.

{127b} See Scottish Historical Review, January 1905, 121-122, 128-130.

{131} Bain, i. 215.

{133a} For. Cal. Eliz., 1558-59, 278. Erroneously dated "May 24" (?).

{133b} Bain, i. 216-218; For. Cal. Eliz., ut supra, 335, 336.

{133c} Archives Etrangeres, Angleterre, vol. xv. MS.

{133d} For. Cal. Eliz., 336; Knox, i. 359, 360.

{134} Knox, i. 360-362.

{135a} Knox dates the entry of the Reformers into Edinburgh on June 29. But he wrote to Mrs. Locke from Edinburgh on June 25, probably a misprint. The date June 29 is given in the "Historie." Knox dates a letter to Cecil, "Edinburgh, June 28." The Diurnal of Occurrents dates the sack of monasteries in Edinburgh June 28.

{135b} Wodrow Miscellany, i. 62; Knox, i. 366, 367, 370.

{135c} Knox, i. 363; cf. Keith, i. 213, 214; Spottiswoode, i. 280, 281.

{136a} Knox, i. 363-365; For. Cal. Eliz., 337.

{136b} Teulet, i. 338-340.

{137a} Bain, i. 218; For. Cal. Eliz., 1558-59, 339. 340.

{137b} Knox, vi. 45.

{138} In Dr. Hay Fleming's The Scottish Reformation (p. 57), he dates the Regent's proclamation July 1. He omits the charge that, as proof of their disloyalty, "they daily receive Englishmen with messages, and send the like into England" (Knox, i. p. 364). "The narrative of the proclamation, Knox says, is untrue," Dr. Hay Fleming remarks; but as to the dealing with England, the Reformer confessed to it in his "History,"