A Royal Subject
During 1560 rumors spread throughout all Scotland about the Queen’s intended marriage. Her first husband, the King of France, as Francis the second, had been dead for some time. The fears of the friends of liberty were aroused, and, above everything, the reformed Christians feared Mary’s marriage to a Roman Catholic prince. The Queen, hearing that Knox had made some reference to this subject in his sermon, sent for him to speak with her yet again in the palace.
“I want to know why you think you have anything to say about my marriage! Who are you in this commonwealth?” she asked, in a tone of strong contempt.
“I’m a subject born within the same, madam,” replied Knox, irritated at her glance of scorn. “And although I am neither earl, lord, nor baron in it, I know that God has made me a profitable member of the same, in spite of your low opinion of me.”
The Queen now began to sob bitterly, as she usually did when someone opposed her will. One of the bystanders praised her beauty and accomplishments in an attempt to stop her crying: “There is not a prince in Europe, madam,” he said, “who would not count himself happy to gain your smile.”
Knox kept quiet until the Queen had sobbed her passion away, and then in a firm tone said, “Madam, I have never yet rejoiced in the distress of any living creature. When my boys cry it gives me great pain, and I am not pleased to see your grace weep. But I had rather tell you the truth and make you weep than wrong my conscience and betray the commonwealth of Scotland by silence.”
“Leave now, rude man, and wait in the next room for my royal pleasure,” screamed the Queen, stamping her foot.
Knox walked at once into the ante-chamber. His friends that had come with him were now afraid to speak to him for fear of further offending the Queen. The court ladies in the ante-chamber mocked him, too, and tittered witty sneers at his expense.
Unafraid, Knox spoke to them too. “Oh fair ladies,” said the reformer earnestly, “how pleasing this life of yours would be if it could only last forever! How happy you fair butterflies would be if it wasn’t for the cold fact of death! Wouldn’t you like to carry your fine dresses to heaven? But, alas, you cannot!”
So Knox bore witness to the truth in the Queen’s court. But in spite of his warnings, the Queen went ahead and married Lord Darnley, whose religion merely reflected the popular opinion of his environment, being either a Protestant or a Roman Catholic as his circumstances demanded. At the time, he was the latter.
Soon after this interview, while Queen Mary was away, some unfortunately overzealous Protestants forced their way into her private chapel and threatened the Roman Catholic priest while he was performing the Mass. We will find throughout history that those acting thus in zealous violence, though perhaps well-intentioned, always do more to hinder the advance of the truth than to promote it, forgetting the Lord’s warning that those who take up the sword shall themselves die by the same (Matthew 26:5252Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. (Matthew 26:52)). Nevertheless, when the Queen brought these men to trial for an invasion of her palace, Knox, at the suggestion of the Protestants of Edinburgh, wrote a circular letter detailing the circumstances of the alleged crime and defending the perpetrators. The Privy Council declared this letter treason, thereby hoping to please the Queen. She, who regarded human life as a very unimportant thing, now resolved to use this opportunity to get rid of the troublesome preacher whom neither threats nor entreaties could induce to neglect his duty.
As she saw him standing alone at his trial, she burst into a fit of loud laughter.
“That man has made me weep many times by his obstinate disobedience,” she shouted. “I will see now if I cannot make him weep!”
One of the lords who was of her party shouted harshly to John Knox, “Don’t think, sir, that you are now in the pulpit! Remember where you are.”
“I am in the place where I am demanded of conscience to speak the truth; therefore, I will speak the truth, no matter what others may think,” retorted Knox.
In the end, Knox’s able defense won out over the Queen’s accusations, and her threats and entreaties proved utterly useless before the Council. Knox was therefore acquitted in spite of the Queen’s attempt to destroy him.
By 1564, Knox’s late wife Marjory had been with Christ for three years. He decided then to marry Margaret Stewart, the daughter of his friend Andrew Stewart, 2nd Lord Ochiltree. They eventually added three daughters, Martha, Margaret, and Elizabeth, to John’s two sons, Nathaniel, and Eleazar.
Queen Mary forbade Knox’s preaching while the Court remained in Edinburgh, and her new husband, Lord Darnley, declared himself a Roman Catholic to please her. The Roman Catholic method of worship was then publicly restored, and the civil and religious liberties of Scotland once again began to disappear. But the roots of the Reformation were by then too deep to be so easily removed.
In a fateful landslide of events, the Queen’s husband deserted her and assisted some nobles in killing her secretary, David Rizzio, an act which Mary never forgave. Driven from Edinburgh by the Queen’s army in the upheaval of the aftermath, Knox then went to England, where his two sons were being educated. In 1567 the Queen’s husband was murdered, Mary herself being, upon strong evidence, suspected of complicity in the crime. A few months afterward she married the Earl of Bothwell, who also was deeply implicated in the murder of her late husband. She without doubt had married the murderer, and could scarcely disprove her own guilt.
When Mary fled with Bothwell to Dunbar, Knox returned to his pulpit. The Protestant lords then took up arms to secure the infant prince, Mary’s son by Darnley, from Bothwell. The Queen was captured, and compelled to resign in favor of her son, who was crowned King. His uncle, Lord James Stewart, previously the Earl of Moray, was appointed to rule as Regent during the infant King James VI’s minority.
Knox preached a sermon at the coronation of the young King in Stirling. He, with many of the Scottish nation, desired that the Queen should be brought to trial for the murder of her husband, and, if found guilty, demanded that she should be punished as any other criminal would be. This topic of judicial punishment unfortunately found its way into Knox’s sermons at that time. We would rather have heard that he spoke more of the pure gospel of the grace of God and less about political and judicial matters. But we must remember that those were dangerous days for believers in Jesus who wished to live according to God’s Word. As a result, many mistakenly felt they must actively oppose the rulers who attacked them, instead of leaving matters of earthly government and judgment and the protection of God’s people entirely in God’s hands.
The Earl of Moray, acting for the King, restored peace to the Kingdom. But before he had fully secured the civil and religious freedoms called for by the reformers, a man whom he had previously pardoned and spared from death basely assassinated him.
Knox was deeply distressed at the loss of his protector and friend, the dear Earl of Moray. One day soon after, while Knox was preaching, some wicked youth placed a paper in the pulpit, pretending to submit a prayer request. The note, however, referred to the murdered Earl, saying, “Consider now the man whom you held as another god, and consider the end to which his ambition has brought him.”
After his sermon, Knox spoke of the evil men who were glad for the death of the Earl of Moray, saying about the writing, “Whoever the wicked man may be who wrote this paper mocking the grief of the innocent, he shall not go unpunished. He shall die where there are none to grieve for him.”
“He is a madman and speaks nonsense,” said the man who had written the paper to those seated around him. “How can he talk like that about a man he doesn’t know?”
“O brother, that man’s predictions are well-known for their accuracy,” said his sister who overheard the remark. “Repent, if perhaps you may yet be forgiven.”
“Not I,” he laughed. “I will run the risk.”
In time the prophecy came literally true, and the mocker died alone and despised. Did he in his dying moments think of the salvation Knox had preached just before foretelling the unknown enemy’s doom? That, none can tell. To die without repentance toward God and without faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is a serious matter, for after death there is no more opportunity to be saved from the due reward of our deeds, and the destiny of the unrepentant soul is an eternity of suffering in the lake of fire, separated from the love of God. Have you looked to God for the forgiveness of sins that He freely offers? Have you turned in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ and received the salvation He purchased for you through His suffering, dying, and bleeding in your place before God?
“I knew and loved the Regent,” said Knox, as he sat with his family on the day before the funeral. “None of his servants ever heard him use profane language. He had his chaplain read and expound a chapter from the Bible at dinner or supper every day. How the poor loved him, and the rich appreciated him too, as he always acted so unassumingly! Isn’t it strange that just when we need him most, he is taken away from us? Where shall we find another like him to lead us?”
“Oh, John, what shall we do?” asked his wife Margaret, a note of fear creeping into her voice. “I’m afraid that the Roman Catholics will be emboldened by the Earl’s death to attack others who share his ideals!”
“I expect to fall someday by the dagger, or perhaps be poisoned. But, wife, the kingdom of God doesn’t depend on any single one of us. God can do without us all, and He may choose to do without us to humble us and to lead men to rely more steadfastly upon Himself.
“It’s just too bad that I obtained from Moray the pardon of the wretch who did the deed! God forgive me. I only meant to give a hardened man an opportunity of repentance and a fresh start in life. He had deeply injured me and I thought it might soften his heart if I completely forgave him.”
So is it sometimes that our kindnesses are not appreciated, and may even appear to yield the opposite result that we intended. But God has instructed us in His Word that we “not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:99And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (Galatians 6:9)). We must further remember that the ends of things are as yet concealed, and in this world we see only the beginning of actions, whether good or evil. It is a trial to faith, and sometimes a heavy burden, as we wait for the end result! In the meantime, we can rest assured that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:2828And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)).