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

LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.
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over, at the death of Queen Mary; while those who re¬
mained at Frankfort, as if to expiate their offence against
Knox, continued a prey to endless contention. Cox and
his learned colleagues, having accomplished their favour¬
ite object, soon left them to compose the strife which
they had excited, and provided themselves elsewhere
with a less expensive situation for carrying on their
studies.
I have been the more minute in the detail of these
transactions, not only because of the share which the
subject of this memoir had in them, but because they
throw light upon the controversy between the conformists
and nonconformists, which runs through the succeeding
period of the ecclesiastical history of England. “ The
troubles at Frankfort” present, in miniature, a striking
picture of that contentious scene which was afterwards
exhibited on a larger scale in the mother-country. The
issue of that affair augured ill as to the prospect of an
amicable adjustment of the litigated points. It had been
usual to urge conformity to the obnoxious ceremonies,
from the respect due to the authority by which they
were enjoined. But here there was no authority enjoin¬
ing them, but rather the contrary. If they were urged
with such intolerant importunity in a place where the
laws and customs were repugnant to them, what was to
be expected in England, where law and custom were on
their side? The divines, who were advanced in the church
at the accession of Elizabeth, professed that they desired
the removal of those grounds of strife, but could not ob¬
tain it from the Queen: and I am disposed to give many
of them credit for the sincerity of their professions. But
as they shewed themselves so stiff and unyielding when
the matter was wholly in their own power; as some
of them were so eager in wreathing a yoke about the
consciences of their brethren, that they urged reluc¬
tant magistrates to rivet it; is it any wonder that their
applications for relief were cold and ineffectual, when
made to rulers who were disposed to make the yoke still