well as that of John Knox. As this was a public document, and was no doubt written by the Clerk of the General Assembly, we may infer that Knox's amanuensis, in 1566, was either John Gray, who was Scribe or Clerk to the Assembly from 1560 till his death in 1574, or one of the other Scribes whom Knox mentions, in his interview with Queen Mary, in 1563, as having implicit confidence in their fidelity. But this is no very important point to determine, since the Manuscript itself bears such unequivocal proofs of having passed through the Author's hands. Two short extracts, (corresponding with pages 109 and 115 of this volume,) are also selected on account of the marginal notes, both of which I think are in Knox's own hand. Further specimens of such notes or corrections will be given in the next volume. At fol. 249, four leaves are left blank to allow the form of "The Election of the Superintendant" to be inserted; but this can be supplied from either the Glasgow MS. or the early printed copies. A more important omission would have been the First Book of Discipline, but this the MS. fortunately contains, in a more genuine state than is elsewhere preserved; and it will form no unimportant addition to the next volume of the History.

The volume consists of 388 folios, chiefly written, as already stated, in the year 1566. No trace of its earlier possessors can be discovered; but the name of "Mr. Matthew Reid, Minister of North-Berwick" (from 1692 to 1729,) written on the first page, identifies it with a notice, which is given by the Editor of the 1732 edition: "There is also a complete MS. copy of the first four Books of this History belonging now to Mr. Gavin Hamilton, Bookseller in Edinburgh, which formerly belonged to the late Reverend Mr. Matthew Reid, Minister of the Gospel at North-Berwick; it is written in a very old hand, the old spelling is kept, and I am informed that it exactly agrees with the Glasgow MS., with which it was collated, during the time this edition was a printing." (page liii.)

This MS., came into the possession of the Rev. John Jamieson, D.D., probably long before the publication of his Etymological Dictionary in 1808, where he mentions his having two MSS. of Knox's History, (this, and the one marked No. VIII.) in his list of authorities; but neither of them was known, and consequently had never been examined by Dr. MʻCrie. At the sale of Dr. Jamieson's library in 1839, both MSS. were purchased by the Editor.

In the firm persuasion that this MS. must have been written not only during the Reformer's life, but under his immediate inspection, and that all the existing copies were derived from it, more or less directly, I should have held it a most unprofitable labour to have collated the other MSS., for no other purpose than to notice the endless variations, omissions, and mistakes of later transcribers. The reader may think I have paid too much regard in this respect to the various readings or errors in Vautrollier's suppressed edition, and in the Glasgow Manuscript; but these copies being the only ones referable to the sixteenth century, are deserving of greater attention than those of a more recent age, while the variations pointed out frequently serve to account for the mistakes in the later transcripts.

But before explaining the manner in which this edition has been printed, it may be proper to enumerate the other Manuscripts which are known to be preserved; and I may take this opportunity of expressing to the several Proprietors my grateful acknowledgments for the free use of the copies specified.

II.—Vautr. Edit.—Printed at London in 1586 or 1587.

This edition, described at page xxxix, is here introduced as representing an intermediate MS., from which some of the existing copies were apparently derived. Thomas Vautrollier the printer, a native of France, came to England in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign. He retired to Scotland in the year 1584, and printed several works at Edinburgh in that and the following year. In 1586, he returned to London, carrying with him a manuscript copy of Knox's History, which he put to press; but all the copies were seized before the[Pg xxxiii] work was completed. The manuscript copy which he had obtained is not known to be preserved; but there is no reason to doubt that it was taken directly from the MS. of 1566. This appears from the marginal notes and a variety of minute coincidences, perceptible on collating the printed portion. We may likewise conclude, that from it several of the later transcripts were taken of the introductory portion, and the Fourth Book, to complete the text of the unfinished printed volume.

III. MS. G.—In the University Library, Glasgow.

In folio, containing 242 leaves, written before the end of the sixteenth century. This MS. was long considered to be the earliest and most authentic copy of the History, and consequently no small degree of importance was attached to it.

Many years ago, (before I was aware of the existence of the MS. of 1566,) I obtained, through the Rev. Dr. MʻTurk, late Professor of Ecclesiastical History, the use of this Manuscript for the purpose of collation; but I found that the text was so faithfully given in the Edinburgh edition 1732, folio, with the single exception of omitting such marginal notes as the MS. contains, that an entire collation of the text might only have exhibited slight occasional changes in orthography. At that time the MS. formed two volumes, in the old parchment covers, with uncut leaves; it has since been half-bound in one volume, and the edges unmercifully cropped.

At the beginning of the volume there is inserted a separate leaf, being the title of a distinct work, having the signature of "M. Jo. Knox," in 1581, probably the nephew of the Reformer, who became Minister of Melrose. It has no connexion with the volume in which it is preserved; but it led to some vague conjectures that the writer of the History itself may have been "the younger Mr. Knox, seeing the former died in the year 1572, and the other was alive nine years after;" or else, "that the latter Mr. Knox had perfected the work, pursuant to the order of the General Assembly in the year 1573 or 1574, so far as it was to be found in this MS."[5] Respecting the time of transcription, one minute circumstance is worthy of notice: Knox in one place introduces the words, "as may be, &c., in this year 1566," the copier has made it, "in this year 1586," an error not likely to have been committed previously to that year. But the hand-writing is clearly of a date about 1590, although the Fourth Book may have been a few years earlier. The absence of all those peculiar blunders which occur in Vautrollier's edition, evinces that the Glasgow MS. was derived from some other source; while the marginal notes in that edition are a sufficient proof that the MS. in question was not the one employed by the English printer. It is in fact a tolerably accurate copy of the MS. of 1566,