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

LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.
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smallest credit at the time, would scarcely have deserved
notice, had it not been revived, after the Reformer’s
death, by the Popish writers, who, having caught hold
of the report, and dressed it out in all the horrid colours
which malice, or credulity could suggest, circulated it
industriously, by their publications, through the contin¬
ent. Though I had not been able to trace these slanders
to their source, the atrocity of the imputed crimes, the
unspotted reputation which the accused uniformly main¬
tained among all his contemporaries, the. glaring self-
contradictions of the accusers, and, above all, the notour
spirit of slander and wanton defamation for which they
have long been stigmatized in the learned world, would
have been grounds sufficient for rejecting such charges
with detestation. Those who are acquainted with the
writings of that period will not think that I speak too
strongly.
The queen flattered herself that she had at last caught
the Reformer in an oflence, which would infallibly sub¬
ject him to exemplary punishment. During her resid¬
ence at Stirling, in the month of August, the domestics
whom she had left behind her in Holyroodhouse cele¬
brated the Popish worship with greater publicity than
had been usual when she herself was present; and at the
time when the sacrament of the Supper was dispensed in
Edinburgh, they revived certain superstitious practices
which had been laid aside by the Roman Catholics,,
since the establishment of the Reformation. This bold¬
ness offended the Protestants, and some of them went
down to the palace to mark the inhabitants who re¬
paired to the service. Perceiving numbers entering,
they burst into the chapel, and presenting themselves at
the altar, which was prepared for mass, asked the priest,
how he durst be so malapert as to proceed in that
manner, when the queen was absent ? Alarmed at this
intrusion, the mistress of the household dispatched a
messenger to the comptroller, who was attending sermon
in St. Giles’s church, desiring him to come instantly to