Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 5, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume II

JOHN KNOX
not because Elizabeth can ' reply to eight ambassa-
dors in one day in their different languages,' but
because she represents for the moment the political
future of the Reformation. The exiles troop back
to England with songs of praise in their mouths.
The bright occidental star, of which we have all read
in the Preface to the Bible, has risen over the dark-
ness of Europe. There is a thrill of hope through
the persecuted Churches of the Continent. Calvin
writes to Cecil, washing his hands of Knox and his
political heresies. The sale of the * First Blast' is
prohibited in Geneva ; and along with it the bold
book of Knox's colleague, Goodman — a book dear to
Milton — where female rule was briefly characterised
as a 'monster in nature and disorder among men.'^
Any who may ever have doubted, or been for a
moment led away by Knox or Goodman, or their
own wicked imaginations, are now more than
convinced. They have seen the occidental star.
Aylmer, with his eye set greedily on a possible
bishopric, and ' the better to obtain the favour of the
new Queen,' ^ sharpens his pen to confound Knox
by logic. What need ? He has been confounded
by facts. ' Thus what had been to the refugees of
Geneva as the very word of God, no sooner were
they back in England than, behold ! it was the word
of the devil.' ^
Now, what of the real sentiments of these loyal
^ Knooc's Works, iv. 858. 2 Strype's Aylmer, p. 16.
^ It may interest the reader to know that these (so says Thomasius)
are the ' ipsissima verba Schlusselburgii.'