Chapter I: Appendix

No. I.--INTERPOLATIONS AND VARIOUS READINGS IN BOOK
FIRST AND SECOND IN BUCHANAN'S EDITIONS OF
THE HISTORY, IN 1644, 477

No. II.--ON THE LOLLARDS IN SCOTLAND, DURING THE
FIFTEENTH CENTURY, 496

No. III.--PATRICK HAMILTON, ABBOT OF FERNE, 500

No. IV.--ON THE ROYAL PILGRIMAGES TO THE SHRINE OF
ST. DUTHACK, AT TAIN, IN ROSS-SHIRE, 515

No. V.--FOXE'S ACCOUNT OF HENRY FORREST, AND OTHER
MARTYRS IN SCOTLAND, DURING THE REIGN OF
KING JAMES THE FIFTH, 516

No. VI.--NOTICES OF THE PROTESTANT EXILES FROM SCOTLAND,
DURING THE REIGN OF KING JAMES THE FIFTH, 526

No. VII.--ALEXANDER SEYTON, 531

No. VIII.--SIR JOHN BORTHWICK, 533

No. IX.--GEORGE WISHART, 534

No. X.--JOHN ROUGH, 537

No. XI.--NORMAN LESLEY, 541

No. XII.--ADAM WALLACE, 543

No. XIII.--WALTER MYLN, 550

No. XIV.--ON THE TITLE OF SIR APPLIED TO PRIESTS, 555

No. XV.--ON THE TUMULT IN EDINBURGH, AT THE PROCESSION
ON ST. GILES'S DAY, 1558, 558

No. XVI.--PROVINCIAL COUNCILS IN SCOTLAND, 1549-1559, 561

No. XVII.--LETTER OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS TO LORD
JAMES, PRIOR OF THE MONASTERY OF ST. ANDREWS.
JULY 1559, 562

No. XVIII.--DAVID FORREST, GENERAL OF THE MINT, 563

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

No. I. IOANNES CNOXVS.

_From_ THEOD. BEZÆ ICONES, etc.,
M.D.LXXX. xii

No. II. HANDWRITTEN PREFACE _facing page_ xxxi

No. VII. SIGNATURE OF M JO. KNOX. xxxiv
augusti 18 a^o 1581

$ADVERTISEMENT$.

This publication of the Works of JOHN KNOX, it is supposed, will extend to Five Volumes. It was thought advisable to commence the series with his History of the Reformation in Scotland, as the work of greatest importance. The next volume will thus contain the Third and Fourth Books, which continue the History to the year 1564; at which period his historical labours may be considered to terminate. But the Fifth Book, forming a sequel to the History, and published under his name in 1644, will also be included. His Letters and Miscellaneous Writings will be arranged in the subsequent volumes, as nearly as possible in chronological order; each portion being introduced by a separate notice, respecting the manuscript or printed copies from which they have been taken.

It may perhaps be expected that a Life of the Author should have been prefixed to this volume. The Life of Knox, by DR. M'CRIE, is however a work so universally known, and of so much historical value, as to supersede any attempt that might be made for a detailed biography; and none of the earlier sketches of his life is sufficiently minute or accurate to answer the purpose intended. In order to obviate the necessity of the reader having recourse to other authorities, I have added some chronological notices of the leading events in his life; reserving to the conclusion of the work any remarks, in connexion with this publication, that may seem to be requisite.

I was very desirous of obtaining a Portrait of the Reformer, to accompany this volume. Hitherto all my inquiries have failed to discover any undoubted original painting, among several which have either been so described, or engraved as such.[1] In the meantime, a tolerably accurate fac-simile is given of the wood-cut portrait of Knox,[2] included by Theodore Beza, in his volume entitled "ICONES, _id est_, Veræ Imagines Virorum Doctrina simul et Pietate illustrium," &c., published at Geneva, in the year 1580, 4to. It is the earliest of the engraved portraits, and, so far as we can judge, it ought to serve as a kind of test by which other portraits must be tried. A similar head engraved on copper, is to be found in Verheiden's "Præstantium aliquot Theologorum, &c., Effigies," published at the Hague, in 1602, folio; but this, I apprehend, is merely an improved copy from Beza, and not taken from an original painting. It does not retain the expressive character of the ruder engraving, although the late Sir David Wilkie, whose opinion in such matters was second to none, was inclined to prefer this of Verheiden to any at least of the later portraits of the Reformer.[3]

It may not here be superfluous to mention, that this publication was projected by the Editor many years ago, and that some arrangements had been entered into for having it printed in England. When the WODROW SOCIETY, therefore, expressed a willingness to undertake the work, I proposed as a necessary condition, that I should have the privilege of causing a limited impression to be thrown off, for sale, chiefly in England; and the Council, in the most liberal manner, at once acquiesced in this proposal. Instead however of availing myself to the full extent of their liberality, which some circumstances rendered less desirable, but in order to avoid throwing, either upon the Society or the Editor, the extra expenses which have been incurred in various matters connected with the publication, it was finally arranged that a much more limited impression than was first proposed, should be thrown off on paper to be furnished by the BANNATYNE CLUB, for the use of the Members of that Institution.

NOVEMBER, 1846.

$CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES$.

IOANNES CNOXVS.

$CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES

OF

THE CHIEF EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF JOHN KNOX$.

[SN: 1505.]

Knox was born this year, at the village of Gifford, near the town of Haddington, in East-Lothian. His father is said to have been descended from the Knoxes of Ranferly, in the county of Renfrew; and the name of his mother was Sinclair. Knox himself, in describing an interview with the Earl of Bothwell, in 1562, mentions that his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, had all served his Lordship's predecessors, and that some of them had died under their standards; which implies that they must have been settled for a considerable period in East-Lothian, where the Hepburns, Earls of Bothwell, had their chief residence.

[SN: 1522.]

After being educated at Haddington, Knox was sent to the University of Glasgow; where John Major was Principal Regent or Professor of Philosophy and Divinity. The name "Joh[=a]nes Knox," occurs in the Registers of the University, among those of the students who were incorporated in the year 1522. There is no evidence to shew that he afterwards proceeded to St. Andrews, as is usually stated, either to complete his academical education, or publicly to teach philosophy, for which he had not qualified himself by taking his degree of Master of Arts. If he ever taught philosophy, it must have been in the way of private tuition.

[Sidenote 1530.]

About this time Knox took priest's orders; and he was probably connected, for upwards of ten years, with one of the religious establishments in the neighbourhood of Haddington. It is generally supposed, that between the years 1535 and 1540, in the course of his private studies, the perusal of the writings of Augustine and other ancient Fathers, led him to renounce scholastic theology, and that he was thus prepared, at a mature period of life, to profess his adherence to the Protestant faith.

[SN: 1541.]

March 8. The name of "Schir John Knox" occurs among the witnesses to a deed concerning Rannelton Law, in a Protocol-book belonging to the borough of Haddington; and there is no reason to doubt that this was the Reformer.

[SN: 1544.]

Knox entered the family of Hugh Douglas of Longniddry, as tutor of his sons Francis and George Douglas; and also of Alexander Cockburn, son of John Cockburn of Ormiston.

[SN: 1545.]

In this year he attached himself as an avowed adherent of George Wishart, from the time of his first visit to East-Lothian.

[SN: 1546.]

George Wishart suffered martyrdom at St. Andrews, on the 1st of March 1545-6; and on the 29th of May that year, Cardinal Beaton was murdered.

[SN: 1547.]

April 10. Knox, with his young pupils, entered the Castle of St. Andrews, as a place of safety from the persecution of the Popish clergy.

May. At the end of this month, or early in June, he received a public call to the ministry, which he obeyed with great reluctance; but having undertaken the office, he continued, along with John Rough, to preach both in the parish Church, and in the Castle until its surrender.

June. The French fleet appeared in St. Andrews Bay, to lay siege to the Castle, which surrendered on the 30th of July; but in defiance of the terms of capitulation, the chief persons in the place were sent as prisoners on board the French galleys.

During this winter, the vessel on board of which Knox was confined, remained in the river Loire.

[SN: 1548.]

The vessel returned to Scotland, about the time of the siege of Haddington in June; and when within sight of St. Andrews, Knox uttered his memorable prediction, that he would yet survive to preach in that place where God had opened his mouth for the ministry.

During this winter, he was kept prisoner at Rouen, where he wrote a Preface to Balnaves's Treatise of Justification, which was sent to Scotland, and until some years after his death, was supposed to be lost.

[SN: 1549.]

February. Knox obtained his liberty, after an imprisonment of nineteen months. He came to England, and soon afterwards was appointed by the English Council to be a preacher in the town of Berwick.

[SN: 1550.]

April 4. Knox was summoned to appear at Newcastle before Dr. Tonstall, Bishop of Durham, to give an account of his doctrine.

At the close of this year he was removed from Berwick to Newcastle, where he continued his ministerial labours.

[SN: 1551.]

December. Knox was appointed by the Privy Council of England one of six Chaplains to Edward the Sixth. This led to his occasional residence in London during 1552 and 1553.

[SN: 1552.]

October. He received an offer of the Bishopric of Rochester; but this preferment he declined.

[SN: 1553.]

In or about February, Knox was summoned before the Privy Council of England, upon complaints made by the Duke of Northumberland; but was acquitted.

April 14. He also declined accepting the vacant living of All-Hallows, in London, and, on account of his refusal, was again summoned before the Privy Council.

Edward the Sixth died on the 6th of July, and the persecution of the Protestants being revived during the reign of Queen Mary, most of the Reformed ministers and many of the laity made their escape, and sought refuge in foreign countries, in the course of that year.

[SN: 1554.]

January 28. Knox was at Dieppe, where he remained till the end of February. He then proceeded to Geneva, but was again at Dieppe in July, "to learn the estate of England."

April 10. The Queen Dowager, Mary of Guise, was installed Regent of Scotland.

On the 4th of September, he received a call from the English Congregation at Frankfort on the Maine, to become their minister. He accepted the invitation, and repaired to that city in November.

[SN: 1555.]

In consequence of the disputes which arose in the English Congregation at Frankfort, in regard to the use of the Book of Common Prayer, and the introduction of various ceremonies. Knox was constrained to relinquish his charge; and having preached a farewell discourse on the 26th of March, he left that city, and returned to Geneva. Here he must have resumed his ministerial labours; as, on the 1st of November that year, in the "Livre des Anglois, à Geneve," it is expressly said, that Christopher Goodman and Anthony Gilby were "appointed to preche the word of God and mynyster the Sacraments, _in th' absence of John Knox_." This refers to his having resolved to visit his native country.

Knox proceeded to Dieppe in August, and in the following month landed on the east coast of Scotland, not far from Berwick. Most of this winter he spent in Edinburgh, preaching and exhorting in private.

[SN: 1556.]

In the beginning of this year Knox went to Ayrshire, accompanied with several of the leading Protestants of that county, and preached openly in the town of Ayr, and in other parts of the country. He was summoned to appear before a Convention of the Popish Clergy, on the 15th of May, at Edinburgh. About the same time, he addressed his Letter to the Queen Regent.

Having received a solicitation for his return to Geneva, to become one of their pastors, Knox left Scotland in July that year. Before this time he married Marjory Bowes. Her father was Richard, the youngest son of Sir Ralph Bowes of Streatlam; her mother was Elizabeth, a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Roger Aske of Aske.

On the 13th September, Knox, along with his wife and his mother-in-law, were formally admitted members of the English Congregation. At the annual election of Ministers, on the 16th of December, Knox and Goodman were re-elected.

[SN: 1557.]

Having received a pressing invitation from Scotland, which he considered to be his duty to accept, Knox took leave of the Congregation at Geneva, and came to Dieppe; but finding letters of an opposite tenor, dissuading him from coming till a more favourable opportunity, after a time he returned again to Geneva.

In May, his son Nathaniel was born at Geneva, and was baptized on the 23d, William Whittingham, afterwards Dean of Durham, being god-father.

On the 16th of December, Knox and Goodman still continued to be ministers of the English Congregation at Geneva.

[SN: 1558.]

April. Mary Queen of Scots was married, at Paris, to Francis, Dauphin of France.

In this year Knox republished, with additions, his Letter to the Queen Regent; and also his Appellation from the cruel sentence of the Bishops and Clergy of Scotland; and his First Blast of the Trumpet against the Regiment of Women.

In November, his son Eleazar was born at Geneva, and was baptized on the 29th, Myles Coverdale, formerly Bishop of Exeter, being witness or god-father.

November 17. Upon the death of Mary Queen of England, Elizabeth ascended the throne.

On the 16th December, Knox and Goodman were again re-elected ministers of the English Congregation.

[SN: 1559.]

January 7. Knox took his final departure from Geneva, in consequence of an invitation to return to Scotland; and was on that occasion honoured with the freedom of the city.

In March, he arrived at Dieppe, and finding that the English Government refused to grant him a safeconduct, on the 22d April he embarked for Leith, and reached Edinburgh on the 2d May. During that month, the Queen Regent published a Declaration against the Protestants, and the Lords of the Congregation sent a deputation to remonstrate; but their remonstrance being despised, they took arms in self-defence.

June 11. Knox preached in St. Andrews; and at Perth on the 25th, when the populace defaced several of the Churches or Monasteries in that city.

July 7. He was elected Minister of Edinburgh. Owing to the troubles, within a brief space he was obliged to relinquish his charge; but he continued his labours elsewhere for a time, chiefly at St. Andrews.

July 10. On the death of Henry II. of France, his son Francis, who had espoused Mary Queen of Scots, and had obtained the Matrimonial Crown of Scotland in November 1558, at the age of sixteen, ascended the throne of France.

August 1. The Protestants assembled at Stirling, and having resolved to solicit aid from England, on the 3d of that month Knox proceeded to Berwick to hold a conference with Sir James Crofts. In this month, he sent Calvin a favourable report of his labours since his arrival in Scotland: Calvin's answer to this communication is dated in November.

September 20. Knox's Wife and children, accompanied by Christopher Goodman, arrived in Edinburgh.

October 18. The Protestants entered Edinburgh, while the Queen Regent retired to Leith, with the French troops which had come to her aid.

[SN: 1560.]

February 27. A treaty concluded between England and the Lords of the Congregation. The English fleet blockaded the port of Leith, and furnished reinforcements, their troops at the same time having entered Scotland.

April. At the end of this month, Knox had returned to Edinburgh. His work on Predestination was published this year at Geneva.

June 10. The Queen Regent died in the Castle of Edinburgh. Articles of Peace were concluded in July.

August 1. The Scotish Parliament assembled; and, on the 17th, the Confession of Faith was ratified, and the Protestant religion formally established.

December 5. Francis II. of France, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots, died.

December 20. The first meeting of the General Assembly was held at Edinburgh.

At the end of this year, Knox's Wife died, leaving him the two sons above mentioned.

[SN: 1561.]

An invitation having been sent by the Protestant Nobility to their young Queen, to revisit Scotland, she arrived from France, and assumed the Government, on the 19th of August.

[SN: 1562.]

May. Knox engaged in a dispute at Maybole, with Quintin Kennedy, Abbot of Crossragwell; of which dispute he published an account in the following year.

December. He was summoned to appear before the Privy Council, on account of a circular letter which he had addressed to the chief Protestants, in virtue of a commission granted to him by the General Assembly.

[SN: 1563.]

The town of Edinburgh formed only one parish. Knox, when elected Minister, had the assistance of John Cairns as Reader. John Craig, minister of the Canongate or Holyrood, had been solicited to become his colleague, in April 1562; but his appointment did not take place till June 1563.

[SN: 1564.]

March. Knox married to his second wife, Margaret Stewart, daughter of Andrew Lord Ochiltree.

June 30. He was appointed by the General Assembly to visit the churches in Aberdeen and the North of Scotland. The following Assembly, 26th of December, gave him a similar appointment for Fife and Perthshire.

[SN: 1565.]

Knox was summoned before the Privy Council, on account of a sermon which, on the 19th of August, he had preached in St. Giles's Church.

[SN: 1566.]

In this year he appears to have written the most considerable portion of his History of the Reformation; having commenced the work in 1559 or 1560.

In consequence of the unsettled state of public affairs, after the murder of David Riccio, 9th of March, Knox left Edinburgh, and retired for a time to Kyle.

June 19. James the Sixth was born in the Castle of Edinburgh.

December. Knox obtained permission from the General Assembly to proceed to England, having received from the English Government a safeconduct, to visit his two sons, who were residing with some of their mother's relations.

[SN: 1567.]

February 10. Henry Lord Darnley was murdered.

April 24. Bothwell carried off Queen Mary to the Castle of Dunbar; and their marriage was celebrated on the 15th of May.

June 15. Bothwell fled from Carberry-hill to Dunbar; and the Queen was brought to Edinburgh, and afterwards confined in Lochleven Castle. About the same time, Knox returned from England.

July 29. At the King's Coronation at Stirling, Knox preached an inaugural sermon on these words, "I was crowned young."

August 22. James Earl of Murray was appointed Regent of Scotland.

December 15. Knox preached at the opening of Parliament; and on the 20th, the Confession of Faith, which had been framed and approved by Parliament in 1560, with various Acts in favour of the Reformed religion, was solemnly ratified.

[SN: 1568.]

May 2. Queen Mary escaped from Lochleven; but her adherents, who had assembled at Langside, being defeated, she fled into England, and was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth for the rest of her life; having been beheaded at Fotheringay on the 8th of February 1586-7.

[SN: 1569.]

January 23. The Earl of Murray was assassinated at Linlithgow; and on occasion of his funeral, Knox preached a sermon on these words, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." (Rev. xiv. 13.)

[SN: 1570.]

July 12. Matthew Earl of Lennox was elected Regent of Scotland; but was assassinated on the 4th of September. On the following day, John Earl of Mar was chosen Regent.

October. Knox had a stroke of apoplexy, but was enabled occasionally to resume his ministerial labours.

[SN: 1571.]

May 5. The troubles which then agitated the country induced Knox to quit the metropolis, and to retire to St. Andrews.

September. The news arrived of the massacre of the Protestants on St. Bartholomew's Eve, 24th of August, at Paris, and in other parts of France.

[SN: 1572.]

July. On the cessation of hostilities, at the end of this month, a deputation from the citizens of Edinburgh was sent to St. Andrews, with a letter to Knox, expressive of their earnest desire "that once again his voice might be heard among them." He returned in August, having this year published, at St. Andrews, his Answer to Tyrie the Jesuit.

The Earl of Mar died on the 29th of October; and James Earl of Morton, on the 24th of November, was elected Regent of Scotland.

On the same day, the 24th of November, having attained the age of sixty-seven, Knox closed "his most laborious and most honourable career." He was buried in the church-yard of St. Giles; but, as in the case of Calvin, at Geneva, no monument was erected to mark the place where he was interred.

* * * * *

Knox left a widow, and two sons by his first marriage, and three daughters by the second. In the concluding volume will be given a genealogical tree, or notices of his descendants.

$THE HISTORY$

OF THE

$REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND$.

$INTRODUCTORY NOTICE TO THE HISTORY$.

In the long series of events recorded in the Annals of Scotland, there is unquestionably none of greater importance than those which exhibit the progress and establishment of the Reformed Religion in the year 1560. This subject has accordingly called forth in succession a variety of writers of different sentiments and persuasions. Although in the contemporary historians, Lesley, Buchanan, and their successors, we have more or less copious illustrations of that period, yet a little examination will show that we possess only one work which bears an exclusive reference to this great event, and which has any claims to be regarded as the production of an original historian. Fortunately the writer of the work alluded to was of all persons the best qualified to undertake such a task, not only from his access to the various sources of information, and his singular power and skill in narrating events and delineating characters, but also from the circumstance that he himself had a personal and no unimportant share in most of the transactions of those times, which have left the character of his own mind so indelibly impressed on his country and its institutions. It is scarcely necessary to subjoin the name of JOHN KNOX.

The doubts which were long entertained respecting Knox's share in the "History of the Reformation," have been satisfactorily explained. Such passages as were adduced to prove that he could not have been the author, consist of palpable errors and interpolations. Without adverting to these suspicions, we may therefore attend to the time when the work was actually written.

* * * * *

The necessity of leaving upon record a correct account of their proceedings suggested itself to the Reformers at an early period of their career, and led to this History being commenced. Knox arrived in Scotland in May 1559; and by his presence and counsels, he served to animate and direct their measures, which were attended with so much success. In a letter dated from Edinburgh 23d October that year, while alluding to the events which had taken place during their contentions with the Queen Regent and her French auxiliaries, he uses these words, "Our most just requeastes, which ye shall, God willing, schortlie hereafter onderstand, together with our whole proceeding from the beginning of this matter, _which we ar to sett furth in maner of Historie_." That he had commenced the work, further appears from a letter, dated Edinburgh, 23d September 1560, and addressed to Secretary Cecil by the English Ambassador, Randolph, in which he says, "I have tawlked at large with MR. KNOX concerning his HYSTORIE. As mykle as ys written thereof shall be sent to your Honour, at the comynge of the Lords Embassadours, by Mr. John Woode. He hath wrytten only one Booke. If yow lyke that, he shall continue the same, or adde onie more. He sayethe, that he must have farther helpe then is to be had in thys countrie, for more assured knowledge of thyngs passed than he hath hymself, or can come bye here: yt is a work not to be neglected, and greatly wyshed that yt sholde be well handled."

Whether this portion of the work was actually communicated to Cecil at that time, is uncertain; as no such manuscript has been discovered among his papers, either in the British Museum or the State Paper Office. It could only have consisted of part of the Second Book; and this portion remains very much in its original state, as may be inferred from these two passages.--In July 1559, while exposing "the craftyness of the Queen Regent," in desiring a private conference with the Earl of Argyle and Lord James Stewart, with the hope that she might be able to withdraw them from their confederates, we read, "And one of hir cheaf Counsale in those dayis, (_and we fear but over inward with hir yit_,) said," &c. See page 368 of this volume. This must necessarily have been written during the Queen Regent's life, or previously to June 1560. During the following month, after noticing the Earl of Arran's escape from France, and the imprisonment of his younger brother, Lord David Hamilton, it is stated, "For the same tyme, the said Frensche King, seing he could not have the Erle him self, gart put his youngar brother ... in strait prisoun, _quhair he yitt remaneis, to witt, in the moneth of October, the yeir of God_ 1559." See page 383. In like manner, in a letter of intelligence, dated at Hamilton, 12th October 1559, and addressed to Cecil, Randolph says, "Since Nesbot went from hence, the Duke never harde out of Fraunce, _nor newes of his son the Lord David_."--(Sadler's State Papers, vol. i. p. 500.) We might have supposed that his restraint was not of long duration, as he is named among the hostages left in England, at the treaty of Berwick, 27th February 1559-60; a circumstance of which Knox could not have been ignorant, as he gives a copy of the confirmation of the treaty by the Duke of Chastelherault and the Lords of the Congregation; but it appears from one of the articles in the treaty of peace in July, that Lord David Hamilton, who was still a prisoner at Bois de St. Vincent, in France, then obtained liberty to return to Scotland; and he arrived at Edinburgh in October 1560. We are therefore warranted to infer that this portion of the Second Book of his History, must have been written towards the end of the year 1559.

Knox himself in his general Preface, says, the intention was to have limited the period of the History from the year 1558, until the arrival of Queen Mary from France to assume the government in this country, in August 1561; thus extending the period originally prescribed beyond the actual attainment of the great object at which the Reformers aimed, in the overthrow of Popish superstition, and the establishment by civil authority of the Protestant faith, which was actually secured by the proceedings of the Parliament that met at Edinburgh on the 1st of August 1560. But he further informs us, that he was persuaded not only to add the First Book as an Introduction, but to continue the Narrative to a later period. This plan of extending the work he carried into effect in the year 1566, when the First and Fourth Books were chiefly written, and when there is reason to believe that he revised and enlarged the intermediate portion, at least by dividing it into two parts, as Books Second and Third. The Fourth Book extends to the year 1564; and he seems to intimate that he himself had no intention to continue the History to a later period; for alluding to the death of David Riccio, in March 1565-6, he says, "of whom we delay now farther to speik, becaus that his end will requyre the descriptioun of the whole, _and referris it unto suche as God sall rayse up to do the same_;" and a marginal note on this passage, written probably by Richard Bannatyne in 1571, says "_This ves never done be this Authour_."

Dr. M'Crie states, that "the First and Fourth Books were composed during the years 1566, 1567, and 1568," and that "some additions were made to the Fourth Book so late as 1571." The only evidence to support this supposition, is founded upon the circumstance of some marginal notes having been added in those years, and introduced by subsequent transcribers, as belonging to the text. Whether the Fifth Book, published by David Buchanan in 1644, was actually written by the Reformer, will be considered in the preliminary notice to that Book. Meanwhile it may be remarked, that the Author himself whilst occasionally engaged in collecting materials for a continuation of his History, felt the necessity of delaying the publication; and in a letter addressed to Mr. John Wood, 14th February 1567-8, he expresses the resolution he had formed of withholding the work from the public during his own life.

MANUSCRIPT COPIES OF THE HISTORY.

The Manuscript of the HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION which has been followed in this edition, fully confirms the preceding statements regarding the period of its composition. It also serves to shew that no suppressions or alterations had been made by his friends, after his death, in these Four Books. Such an intention is alluded to, in a letter, dated from Stirling, 6th August 1572, and addressed to Randolph, by George Buchanan:--"As to MAISTER KNOX, his HISTORIE is in hys freindes handes, and thai ar in consultation to mitigat sum part the acerbite of certain wordis, and sum taunts wherein he has followit too muche sum of your Inglis writaris, as M. Hal. et suppilatorem ejus Graftone, &c." The Manuscript contains Four Books, transcribed by several hands, and at different intervals. Notwithstanding this diversity of hand-writing, there is every reason to believe that the most considerable part of the volume was written in the year 1566, although it is not improbable that in the Second and Third Books a portion of the original MS. of 1559 may have been retained. The marginal notes, which specify particular dates, chiefly refer to the years 1566, or 1567, and they leave no doubt in regard to the actual period when the bulk of the MS. was written, as those bearing the date 1567 are clearly posterior to the transcription of the pages where they occur. Some of these notes, as well as a number of minute corrections, are evidently in Knox's own hand; but the latter part of Book Fourth could not have been transcribed until the close of the year 1571. This is proved by the circumstance that the words, "BOT WNTO THIS DAY, THE 17. OF DECEMBER 1571," form an integral part of the text, near the foot of fol. 359, in "The Ressonyng betuix the Maister of Maxwell and John Knox." The whole of this section indeed is written somewhat hastily, like a scroll-copy, probably by Richard Bannatyne, his Secretary, from dictation; but whether it was merely rewritten in 1571, or first added in that year to complete Book Fourth, must be left to conjecture.

I.--MANUSCRIPT OF 1566.--IN THE EDITOR'S POSSESSION.

The accompanying leaf exhibits an accurate fac-simile of part of the first page of the MS; and it is worthy of notice, that in the Wodrow Miscellany, vol. i. p. 287, a fac-simile of a paper entitled "The Kirkis Testimonial, &c.," dated 26th December 1565, is evidently by the same hand.[4] It has the signatures of three of the Superintendents, Erskine of Dun, John Spottiswood, and John Wynram, as well as that of John Knox. As this was a public document, and was no doubt written by the Clerk of the General Assembly, we may infer that Knox's amanuensis, in 1566, was either John Gray, who was Scribe or Clerk to the Assembly from 1560 till his death in 1574, or one of the other Scribes whom Knox mentions, in his interview with Queen Mary, in 1563, as having implicit confidence in their fidelity. But this is no very important point to determine, since the Manuscript itself bears such unequivocal proofs of having passed through the Author's hands. Two short extracts, (corresponding with pages 109 and 115 of this volume,) are also selected on account of the marginal notes, both of which I think are in Knox's own hand. Further specimens of such notes or corrections will be given in the next volume. At fol. 249, four leaves are left blank to allow the form of "The Election of the Superintendant" to be inserted; but this can be supplied from either the Glasgow MS. or the early printed copies. A more important omission would have been the First Book of Discipline, but this the MS. fortunately contains, in a more genuine state than is elsewhere preserved; and it will form no unimportant addition to the next volume of the History.

The volume consists of 388 folios, chiefly written, as already stated, in the year 1566. No trace of its earlier possessors can be discovered; but the name of "Mr. Matthew Reid, Minister of North-Berwick" (from 1692 to 1729,) written on the first page, identifies it with a notice, which is given by the Editor of the 1732 edition: "There is also a complete MS. copy of the first four Books of this History belonging now to Mr. Gavin Hamilton, Bookseller in Edinburgh, which formerly belonged to the late Reverend Mr. Matthew Reid, Minister of the Gospel at North-Berwick; it is written in a very old hand, the old spelling is kept, and I am informed that it exactly agrees with the Glasgow MS., with which it was collated, during the time this edition was a printing." (page liii.)

This MS., came into the possession of the Rev. John Jamieson, D.D., probably long before the publication of his Etymological Dictionary in 1808, where he mentions his having two MSS. of Knox's History, (this, and the one marked No. VIII.) in his list of authorities; but neither of them was known, and consequently had never been examined by Dr. M'Crie. At the sale of Dr. Jamieson's library in 1839, both MSS. were purchased by the Editor.

In the firm persuasion that this MS. must have been written not only during the Reformer's life, but under his immediate inspection, and that all the existing copies were derived from it, more or less directly, I should have held it a most unprofitable labour to have collated the other MSS., for no other purpose than to notice the endless variations, omissions, and mistakes of later transcribers. The reader may think I have paid too much regard in this respect to the various readings or errors in Vautrollier's suppressed edition, and in the Glasgow Manuscript; but these copies being the only ones referable to the sixteenth century, are deserving of greater attention than those of a more recent age, while the variations pointed out frequently serve to account for the mistakes in the later transcripts.

But before explaining the manner in which this edition has been printed, it may be proper to enumerate the other Manuscripts which are known to be preserved; and I may take this opportunity of expressing to the several Proprietors my grateful acknowledgments for the free use of the copies specified.

II.--VAUTR. EDIT.--PRINTED AT LONDON IN 1586 OR 1587.

This edition, described at page xxxix, is here introduced as representing an intermediate MS., from which some of the existing copies were apparently derived. Thomas Vautrollier the printer, a native of France, came to England in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign. He retired to Scotland in the year 1584, and printed several works at Edinburgh in that and the following year. In 1586, he returned to London, carrying with him a manuscript copy of Knox's History, which he put to press; but all the copies were seized before the work was completed. The manuscript copy which he had obtained is not known to be preserved; but there is no reason to doubt that it was taken directly from the MS. of 1566. This appears from the marginal notes and a variety of minute coincidences, perceptible on collating the printed portion. We may likewise conclude, that from it several of the later transcripts were taken of the introductory portion, and the Fourth Book, to complete the text of the unfinished printed volume.