Scotland/Scots > Life of John Knox ; and, The life of Alexander Henderson

LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.
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of God, or a just retribution in Providence for the crimes
of which the Cardinal had been guilty, without approv¬
ing the conduct of those who were the instruments
of punishing him. The just judgment of heaven is, I
acknowledge, the chief thing to which he directs the
attention of his reader ; at the same time, I think no one
who carefully reads what he has written on this subject,
can doubt that he justified the action of the conspirators.
The truth is, he held the opinion, that persons who, by
the commission of flagrant crimes, had forfeited their
lives, according to the law of God, and the just laws of
society, such as notorious murderers and tyrants, might
warrantably be put to death by private individuals;
provided all redress, in the ordinary course of justice,
was rendered impossible, in consequence of the offenders
having usurped the executive authority, or being system¬
atically protected by oppressive rulers. This was an
opinion of the same kind with that of tyrannocide, held
by so many of the ancients, and defended by Buchanan
in his dialogue, De jure regni apud Scotos. It is a prin¬
ciple, I confess, of dangerous application, extremely lia¬
ble to be abused by factious, fanatical, and desperate
men, as a pretext for perpetrating the most nefarious
deeds. It would he unjust, however, on this account,
to confound it with the principle, which, by giving to
individuals a liberty to revenge their own quarrels, legi¬
timates assassination, a practice which was exceedingly
common in that age. I may add, that there have been
instances of persons, not invested with public authority,
executing punishment upon flagitious offenders, as to
which we may scruple to load the memory of the actors
with an aggravated charge of murder, although we can¬
not approve of their conduct.
Knox entered the castle of St. Andrews, at the time
of Easter, 1547, and conducted the education of his
pupils after his accustomed manner. In the chapel
within the castle, he read to them his lectures on the
Scriptures, beginning at the place in the gospel accord-