The Scottish Reformation Part 6

Knox, who does not seem to have been one of the translators, appears to have left Geneva among the earliest. In February 1558-59 we find that he had gone to Dieppe, whence, while a.s.sisting in the French Protestant services, he sent a request to Cecil for leave to pa.s.s through England on his way to Scotland, and to converse with him on some matters which deeply concerned the welfare of the Protestants in both realms.[95] But his 'First Blast of the Trumpet' was an insult which Elizabeth could not brook, and so, after waiting in vain for the desired permission for a reasonable time, he set sail from Dieppe for Scotland, and arrived in Edinburgh on the 2nd of May 1559, much to the consternation of the popish council then a.s.sembled in the city. It dissolved forthwith; but care was taken to get Knox's name, as that of an already condemned heretic, added to the list of Protestant preachers then under summons to appear before the queen regent and her council to answer for their persistence in preaching.[96] Knox at once resolved to throw in his lot with his brethren, and went north to Dundee where the zealous Protestants of Fife, Angus, and Mearns were already a.s.sembling, determined to make common cause with their preachers, and to go forward in peaceful form to Stirling in order that they might do so, and leave the queen and her council in no doubt as to the position which they were henceforth to occupy towards her and them. They accordingly marched forward from Dundee to Perth, and sent on Erskine of Dun to Stirling to apprise the queen and council of their att.i.tude and intentions. It is said that she promised Erskine that the prosecution of the preachers would be abandoned, but they were condemned in absence and outlawed, and the breach between the two parties thus became irrevocable. Nothing remained for the queen, from her point of view, but to prosecute the matter to the bitter end, if thereby she might succeed in silencing and repressing the Protestants.

[Sidenote: Preaches in St Andrews.]

After the regent's falsehood to Erskine and persistence in her fatal policy, the reformers proceeded at once to set about such reform as they desired, and commenced rather roughly at Perth, where they had the majority of the population in their favour. Knox, along with Moray, went to Fife as soon after as it became apparent that forcible measures must be taken to secure toleration for the Protestants. After a few brief visits to other towns he presented himself at the public preaching-place in St Andrews. Modern historians will not allow us to say that it was in that city that he had received his university training, or had first listened to the preaching of the reformed doctrines, or been brought to a personal knowledge of the truth; but they leave untouched, as previously stated, the more important facts that it was there, when in charge of his pupils at the university, that he had first ventured at the hazard of his life openly to make known to others that which had been blessed of G.o.d to the quickening of his own soul, and publicly to exert in the cause of the Reformation those rare gifts of telling argument and persuasive speech which were destined so signally to contribute to its ultimate and permanent triumph throughout the land. It was there, probably in the old parish church, that he had been first solemnly called to the ministry of the Word in the reformed church; and there, in the chapel of the old and now ruined castle, that he had first celebrated the Lord's Supper with the same purity and simplicity with which it was afterwards observed in the fully reformed Church of Scotland.[97] Even in exile and working as a slave in the galleys his heart had turned with special pleasure to the scene of his first labours, and he had cherished the confident expectation that G.o.d would again bring him to the place where he had first opened his mouth, and permit him again to preach from its pulpit the precious truths of His Holy Word.[98]

[Sidenote: The Victory.]

This expectation he believed that G.o.d had then fulfilled, and neither the threats of adversaries could make him quail from his purpose, nor the counsels of timid friends move him to let slip the opportunity which he believed G.o.d had then given him of bearing full and faithful testimony to the truth of G.o.d in that important city.[99] He therefore boldly proclaimed before the dignitaries of the church, the doctors of the university,[100] and the magistrates of the burgh, as well as before more humble citizens, that doctrine of the grace of G.o.d which had long been his own solace and support, and was then being more generally recognised and embraced by his countrymen. Having thus seized the opportunity and improved it to the utmost, his efforts were so abundantly blessed by G.o.d that the cause of truth and right finally triumphed there. The reformed worship was by general consent peaceably set up, and the authority of the archbishop was virtually ended in the very stronghold of his power. That which, with the divine blessing, the reformer's preaching then accomplished in St Andrews, was by the same or similar means effected in the chief cities of the kingdom, and throughout the greater part of the lowlands, almost within the compa.s.s of a single year. In fact, four months after his arrival, he could write to his friends: "Nothwithstanding the fevers have vexed me, ... yitt have I travelled through the most part of this realme where (all praise be to His blessed Majestie) men of all sorts and conditiouns embrace the Truthe.... We doe nothing but goe about Jericho, blowing with trumpets as G.o.d giveth strenth, hoping [for the] victorie by His power alone."[101] The reformer's expectation of victory, and of victory by the persuasive means which Bishop Hooper affirmed were alone legitimate and in accord with Christ's will, was neither disappointed nor long deferred. The great body of the nation, with unexampled rapidity and unanimity, embraced the truth, and submitted to the discipline of their teacher, and under its salutary influence, as Stahelin in his 'Johannes Calvin' affirms, from being one of the rudest, most ignorant, indigent, and turbulent peoples, grew to be one of the most civilised, educated, prosperous, and upright which our family of nations can show.

Believing that we have no cause to be ashamed of the great revolution which was thus effected, or of aught which has legitimately followed from it, but that we need to have our pure minds stirred up by way of remembrance of the great things the Lord has done for us, I proceed to direct attention to the distinctive characteristics of the Scottish Reformation in respect of doctrine, worship, government, discipline, and church life, and the lessons which such a review should tend to rivet on the hearts of those who still hold fast its principles and long to see them more fully carried out.

FOOTNOTES:

[82] D'Aubigne's Reformation in the Time of Calvin, vi. 17.

[83] Calderwood's History, i. 155, 156, 160; Laing's Knox, i. 95, 96, 105. [Calderwood says that Williams was born "beside Elstonefurde, in East Lothiane."]

[84] Lorimer's Scottish Reformation, pp. 155, 156.

[85] [Though these lines are continually attributed to Lindsay, I do not remember to have ever seen them in any edition of his works, or quoted as his by any earlier writer than Wodrow.]

[86] [According to Knox, though "called b.a.s.t.a.r.d brother to the governour," many deemed him to be a son of "the old Bischope of Dunkelden, called Crychtoun" (Laing's Knox, i. 105). Buchanan says he was "first callid _Cuningham_, estemit _Cowane_, and at last Abbot _Hamiltoun_" (Admonition to the trew Lordis). In a transcript used by Ruddiman, _Givane_ occurs instead of _Cowane_.]

[87] [Laing's Knox, i. 186. Though the Lyon King was then in St Andrews, he was not one of those who were sheltering in the castle (Laing's Lindsay's Poetical Works, 1879, vol. i. pp. x.x.xix, xli).]

[88] [Knox says that the castle was rendered "upone Setterday, the last of Julij" (Laing's Knox, i. 205); Bishop Lesley says "the xxix of Julij"

(Lesley's History, 1830, p. 195). In 1547, the last of July fell not on Sat.u.r.day but on Sabbath.]

[89] Laing's Knox, vi. 104.

[90] [The negotiations for the release of the captives seem to have dragged their weary length along very slowly. So early as the 29th of March 1548, Huntly wrote thus to Somerset: "The governor has agreed to exchange the men in the castle of St Andrews with Scots prisoners conform to your desire, and has sent me commission therein, as I shall show you at my coming to London: or if you send your mind to my Lord Warden, I shall appoint with him. The governor has written to the king of France to send the men taken in St Andrews to Rouen, to be ready for the exchange" (Bain's Calendar, 1543-67, p. 104).]

[91] [Edward died July 6, 1553.]

[92] [The first edition of the Genevan version was printed at Geneva by Rouland Hall in 1560. "The changes made in the Geneva Bible were the adoption of Roman type instead of the black letter, in which all English Bibles had previously been printed, and the division of the chapters into verses. These changes were the princ.i.p.al cause of the wonderful popularity of this version, of which about 200 editions are known. From 1560 to 1616 no year pa.s.sed without one or more editions issuing from the press, in folio, quarto, or octavo. In 1599 no less than ten distinct editions were printed, each of which consisted of a large number of copies. The last quarto printed in England is dated 1615, and the last folio 1616. After this time a great many editions were printed at Amsterdam by Joost Broerss and other Dutch printers; the last folio bears the imprint of Thomas Stafford, and the date 1644.... 150,000 copies were imported from Holland after this version had ceased to be printed in England.... Owing to the vast number of copies in circulation during the three-quarters of a century that this version was the household Bible of England, it is now the most common of all early printed Bibles.... The singular rendering of the 7th verse of the third chapter of Genesis in every edition of the Genevan version has caused it to be commonly known as the 'Breeches' Bible" (Dore's Old Bibles, 1888, pp. 203, 204).]

[93] [Mary Tudor died on the 17th of November 1558.]

[94] Troubles at Frankfort, Petheram's reprint, pp. cxci, cxcii.

[95] [After making two requests by messengers, Knox wrote to Cecil from Dieppe on the 10th of April 1559, and on the 22nd sent from the same town a duplicate of that letter with a postscript added (Laing's Knox, ii. 15-22, vi. 15-21).]

[96] [The Provincial Council is said to have closed on the 10th of April (Robertson's Concilia Scotiae, ii. 151, 176; Lesley's History, p. 271); but Knox says that it sat until he arrived in Scotland (Laing's Knox, i.

291); and that the date of his arrival was the 2nd of May (Ibid., i.

318, vi. 21); and an anonymous writer alleges that the council broke up when a.s.sured that Knox had come (Wodrow Miscellany, pp. 56, 57). M'Crie suggests that, although the Acts were concluded on the 10th of April, the council may not have then closed (Life of Knox, 1855, p. 126, n.).]

[97] [While it is apparent from Knox's own narrative that his first public sermon was delivered in the parish church of St Andrews (Laing's Knox, i. 189), it is not quite so clear whether Rough addressed the call to him in that church or in the chapel of the castle, though it rather appears to have been in the former (Ibid., i. 186-188); and the precise building in St Andrews in which he first celebrated the Lord's Supper seems to me to be also uncertain (Ibid., i. 201).]

[98] Laing's Knox, i. 228.

[99] Ibid., i. 348, 349; vi. 25.

[100] [Many members of the university became Protestants. The twenty-one men in St Andrews, whom the first General a.s.sembly deemed qualified "for ministreing and teaching," were with few exceptions professors, or regents. For the number of the ecclesiastics who joined the congregation at St Andrews in the early months of the Reformation, see _supra_, p.

13. In September, 1566, St Andrews was emphatically declared to be "the most flourishing city as to divine and human learning in all Scotland"

(Laing's Knox, vi. 546).]

[101] Laing's Knox, vi. 78.

CHAPTER VI.

THE OLD SCOTTISH CONFESSION OF 1560.

[Sidenote: Alleged Omission of a Chapter.]

Knox, in his 'History of the Reformation,' has stated that the preparation of this Confession was entrusted to the same six ministers who were commissioned to draw up the Book of Discipline--viz., Wynram, Spottiswoode, Willock, Douglas, Row, and himself.[102] It has been frequently taken for granted that the Confession was prepared and revised within four days after the formal charge to frame it was issued by the Parliament, and that the Book of Discipline was not ordered to be prepared till after the Parliament of 1560 was adjourned. It is evident, however, from the dates specified in the Introduction, and at the conclusion of the copy of the Book of Discipline engrossed by Knox,[103]

that the original charge to frame it had been granted on the 29th April 1560, or just two days after the n.o.bles and barons signed one of those "G.o.dly bands" or covenants[104] by which they pledged themselves to stand by each other in setting forward the Reformation of religion according to G.o.d's Word; and it can hardly be supposed that that book should have been taken in hand some months before the Parliament met, and that no attempt should have been made in this interval to prepare materials for the 'Confession of Faith.' Besides, Knox has not stated that within four days after the charge was formally issued the Confession was _prepared_, but only that it was _presented_, so that we may hold with Dr M'Crie that "the ministers were not unprepared for this task," which was then formally devolved on them by the Parliament. Knox has further stated that the Confession was accepted by the Parliament in the form in which it was laid before them _without change of a single sentence_.[105] Others supplement his statement by explaining that before it was publicly presented it was submitted privately to certain lords of Parliament, and by their direction was handed for revision to the rather time-serving Wynram and the anon time-serving and vacillating Laird of Lethington, who softened many harsh expressions in it, and even recommended the omission of a chapter or part of a chapter from it. This they say was a chapter bearing the t.i.tle, "Of the obedience and disobedience due from subjects to magistrates."[106] But the chapter on the "Civil Magistrate" still found in the Confession treats so fully and expressly of the obedience due to magistrates, that it is difficult to see how place could ever have been sought for an additional chapter on the same subject. There may possibly at first have stood in the chapter still retained some such clause or sentence regarding the _limits_ of obedience as we find in the corresponding chapter of some of the Genevan symbolical books,[107] and this may have been the matter deemed unfit to be "entreated of" at that time, and recommended by the revisers to be omitted; or it may be that, after all, their recommendation and the suggestions of the English amba.s.sador on the subject were not followed in this instance, and that we have the chapter still as it was originally framed by Knox and his a.s.sociates.[108]

In endeavouring to form an estimate of the real merits of this Confession, we must make due allowance for the circ.u.mstances in which it was composed. Even though we suppose that the materials of it had been collected beforehand, only four days seem to have been allowed to the committee to put them into final shape.

[Sidenote: Character of the Confession.]

We must not look either on the one hand for an exhaustive and logical elaboration of the several doctrines of the system and nicely balanced statement of complementary truths, or on the other for a careful avoidance of incidental expressions which seem dogmatically to determine points not fully or directly handled in the places where we should have expected them to be so. Yet, if we make such due allowance, look at it from the proper point of view, and peruse the work not only in the now obsolete Scotch, but also in the neat Latin version which often accompanies it, and is said to have been the work of Archbishop Adamson,[109] we shall not hesitate to own that it holds a distinguished place among the Confessions of that age, and is a credit to our reformer and his a.s.sociates. Coinciding not infrequently in expression and agreeing generally in its definitions of doctrine with the other Reformed or Calvinistic Confessions (an agreement which its framers explicitly testified by inserting among the subordinate standards of their church, first Calvin's Catechism, and a few years after the Later Helvetic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism), the Scottish Confession of 1560 had characteristics of its own,--a framework rather historical than dogmatic, and a liberal and manly, yet reverent and cautious spirit. It probably contributed to mould the early Scottish theology into a form somewhat less minute and rigid than the Swiss, yet considerably less vague and indefinite than the earlier English.

The first topic deserving of notice, from the place it holds both in the preface and in the body of this treatise, is the distinct and hearty acknowledgment of the supreme authority of the written Word of G.o.d, or "the buiks of the Auld and New Testamentis," which books are briefly but sufficiently defined as those "quhilk of the ancient have been reputed canonicall."[110] In these they affirm "that all thingis necessary to be beleeved for the salvation of mankinde is sufficiently expressed,"

and to these they desire in all things to conform, protesting that, if any man should note any article or sentence in their Confession contrary to the Scriptures, and should "of his gentleness" admonish them of the same, they "do promise unto him satisfactioun fra the mouth of G.o.d, that is, fra His Haly Scriptures, or else reformation of that quhilk he sal prove to be amisse."[111]

[Sidenote: The Fall and the Remedy.]

In the opening chapter the unity and attributes of G.o.d, and the trinity of persons in the G.o.dhead, are briefly but definitely treated of.[112]

In subsequent chapters the divinity of our blessed Lord is fully a.s.serted, and the "heresies of Arius, Marcion, Eutyches, Nestorius, and sik uthers as either did denie the eternitie of His G.o.dhead, or the veritie of His humaine nature, or confounded them or zit devided them,"

are specifically rejected.[113] The second chapter treats of the creation and fall of our first parents, while the third treats of the effects of the fall in language no less explicit than that of the other Protestant Confessions, Lutheran and Reformed; and as it not only clearly embodies the teaching of our reformers on this subject, but gives a brief summary of their views regarding the application of the Gospel remedy, it may be as well I should quote it at length. It is as follows: "Be quhilk transgressioun, commonlie called original sinne, _wes the image of G.o.d utterlie defaced in man_, and he and his posteritie of nature become enimies to G.o.d, slaves to Sathan, and servandis unto sin.[114] In samekle that deith everlasting hes had and sall have power and dominioun over all that have not been, ar not, or sall not be, regenerate from above: quhilk regeneratioun is wrocht be the power of the Holie Gost, working in the hartes of the elect of G.o.d ane a.s.sured faith in the promise of G.o.d reveiled to us in His Word, be quhilk faith we apprehend Christ Jesus with the graces and benefites promised in Him."[115]

[Sidenote: The Eternal Decree.]

[Sidenote: Alasco's Influence.]

After this follow several chapters on the history of the promises of redemption, the preparation for the coming of the promised Redeemer, the dignity and const.i.tution of His person, His incarnation, sufferings, and death, His resurrection and ascension, and the blessed effects resulting from them to His people. In another of these chapters distinct reference is made to "the eternall and immutable decree" from which the appointment of the G.o.d-man as our Redeemer, and "al our salvatioun springs and depends";[116] and in another all that is good in us is traced up to that decree of the eternal G.o.d who of mere grace elected us in Christ Jesus His Son before the foundation of the world was laid. The same mysterious subject is again referred to in the sixteenth chapter, which treats of the church, and, like the earlier Confession used by Knox's congregation at Geneva and our later Confession, identifies that invisible but real church, which is "the bodie and spouse" of Christ Jesus, with the elect of all ages, nations, and tongues, so that "as without Christ Jesus there is nouther life nor salvation, so sal there nane be partic.i.p.ant therof bot sic as the Father hes given unto His Sonne," and who in time come unto Him.[117] Many individual expressions occurring in these chapters can be clearly traced to one or other of Calvin's Confessions, or to the earliest edition of his Inst.i.tutes;[118] but the only Confession I can remember in which a similar, though shorter, history of the preparation for the coming Redeemer is given, is the 'Summa Doctrinae' of John Alasco,[119] which may be regarded as the Confession of Faith, not only of the ministers but also of the members of the church of the foreigners in London. Knox was brought into contact with them both in London and in Frankfort, agreed with them generally in opinion, and largely adopted their forms and arrangements in matters of worship and discipline.

[Sidenote: Justification.]

A group of chapters[120] treats of the nature and work of the Holy Spirit, the cause of good works, the works which are reputed good, the perfection of the Law of G.o.d, and the imperfection of man. Those who have overlooked the explicit statement in the third chapter concerning the depravity of man have generally overlooked or failed to perceive the full significance of the emphatic statements in the twelfth chapter regarding our entire dependence for spiritual renovation, and all good, on the Holy Spirit. The words are: "Of nature we are so dead, so blind, and so perverse, that nether can we feill when we ar p.r.i.c.ked, see the licht when it shines, nor a.s.sent to the will of G.o.d when it is reveiled, unles the Spirit of the Lord Jesus quicken that quhilk is dead, remove the darknesse from our myndes, and bowe our stubburne hearts to the obedience of His blessed will;"[121] and again, "As we willingly spoyle ourselves of all honour and gloir of our awin creation and redemption, so do we also of our regeneration and sanctification."[122] These statements, however they may be viewed by others, seem to me no less explicit than those of the later Confession, which have been sometimes contrasted with them. "This effectual call is of G.o.d's free and special Grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether pa.s.sive therein _until_, being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the Grace offered and conveyed in it."[123] The last of this group of chapters contains the fullest and most direct exposition the Confession embodies of the views of its framers in the article of Justification. It is as follows: "It behovis us to apprehend Christ Jesus with His justice and satisfaction, quha is the end and accomplishment of the Law, be quhome we ar set at this liberty that the curse and malediction of G.o.d fall not upon us, albeit we fulfill not the same in al pointes. For G.o.d the Father, beholding us in the body of His Sonne Christ Jesus, acceptis our imperfite obedience as it were perfite, and covers our warks, quhilk ar defyled with mony spots, with the justice of His Sonne."[124] To the same effect it is said in chapter xxv. that "albeit sinne remaine and continuallie abyde in thir our mortall bodies, zit it is not imputed unto us, bot is remitted and covered with Christ's justice."[125] It has been questioned, however, whether we have in these statements the doctrine taught generally in the reformed churches regarding the _articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae_. This can be a question only with those who forget that the church which received this Confession, and required her adult members to a.s.sent to the heads of it, appointed for the instruction of her youth the Catechism in which this doctrine of Calvin is stated in his own words; and that the very men[126] who in 1560 drew it up, in 1566, along with their brethren of the General a.s.sembly, declared of the _Later Helvetic Confession_--which is admitted to contain what has been termed "the Lutherano-Calvinian view"

of justification--that therein was "most faithfully, holily, piously, and indeed divinely explained" what they themselves had for eight years been constantly teaching, and still by the grace of G.o.d continued to teach, and that in consequence they felt constrained not only to express their approval, but their "exceeding commendation of every chapter and of every sentence," save the one relating to holidays.[127] It may be taken for granted that they knew their own meaning, and that of their Swiss brethren;[128] the more especially as in our day Stahelin, whose impartiality and historical reputation will not be challenged, has adduced the statement in chapter xv. as one of his proofs that Calvin himself could not have framed the Scotch Confession otherwise than Knox has done.[129]

[Sidenote: Notes of the True Church.]