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

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LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.
and repeatedly demanded as their right. The other acts
made to please the more zealous reformers were express¬
ed with such studied and glaring ambiguity, as to offer
an insult to their understandings.
Our Reformer was thunderstruck when first informed
of the measures which were in agitation, and could
scarcely believe them serious. He immediately procured
an interview with some of the principal members of
parliament, -to whom he represented the danger of
allowing that meeting to dissolve without obtaining the
ratification of the acts of the preceding parliament, or at
least those acts which established the Reformation.
They alleged ■ that the queen would never have agreed
to call this meeting, if they had persisted in these de¬
mands ; but there was a prospect of her speedy marriage,
and on that occasion they would obtain all their wishes.
In vain he reminded them that poets and painters had
represented Occasion with a bald hind-head ; in vain he
urged, that the event to which they looked forward
would he accompaniedJ with difficulties of its own,
which would require all their skill and circumspection.
Their determination was fixed. He now perceived the
full extent of the queen’s dissimulation; and the selfish¬
ness and servility of the protestant leaders affected him
deeply.
So hot was the altercation between the Earl of Murray
and him on this subject, that an open rupture ensued.
He had long looked upon that nobleman as one of the
most steady and sincere adherents to the reformed cause;
and therefore felt the greater disappointment at his con¬
duct. Under his first irritation he wrote a letter to the
earl, in which, after reminding him of his condition at
the time when they first became acquainted in London,
and the honours to which providence had now raised
him, he solemnly renounced friendship with him as one
who preferred his own interest and the pleasure of his
sister to the advancement of religion, left him to the
guidance of the new counsellors which he had chosen,