having commenced the work in 1559 or 1560.

In consequence of the unsettled state of public affairs, after the murder of David Riccio, 9th of March, Knox left Edinburgh, and retired for a time to Kyle.

June 19. James the Sixth was born in the Castle of Edinburgh.

December. Knox obtained permission from the General Assembly to proceed to England, having received from the English Government a safeconduct, to visit his two sons, who were residing with some of their mother's relations.

1567.

February 10. Henry Lord Darnley was murdered.

April 24. Bothwell carried off Queen Mary to the Castle of Dunbar; and their marriage was celebrated on the 15th of May.

June 15. Bothwell fled from Carberry-hill to Dunbar; and the Queen was brought to Edinburgh, and afterwards confined in Lochleven Castle. About the same time, Knox returned from England.

July 29. At the King's Coronation at Stirling, Knox preached an inaugural sermon on these words, "I was crowned young."

August 22. James Earl of Murray was appointed Regent of Scotland.

December 15. Knox preached at the opening of Parliament; and on the 20th, the Confession of Faith, which had been framed and approved by Parliament in 1560, with various Acts in favour of the Reformed religion, was solemnly ratified.

1568.

May 2. Queen Mary escaped from Lochleven; but her adherents, who had assembled at Langside, being defeated, she fled into England, and was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth for the rest of her life; having been beheaded at Fotheringay on the 8th of February 1586-7.

1569.

January 23. The Earl of Murray was assassinated at Linlithgow; and on occasion of his funeral, Knox preached a sermon on these words, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." (Rev. xiv. 13.)

1570.

July 12. Matthew Earl of Lennox was elected Regent of Scotland; but was assassinated on the 4th of September. On the following day, John Earl of Mar was chosen Regent.

October. Knox had a stroke of apoplexy, but was enabled occasionally to resume his ministerial labours.

1571.

May 5. The troubles which then agitated the country induced Knox to quit the metropolis, and to retire to St. Andrews.

September. The news arrived of the massacre of the Protestants on St. Bartholomew's Eve, 24th of August, at Paris, and in other parts of France.

1572.

July. On the cessation of hostilities, at the end of this month, a deputation from the citizens of Edinburgh was sent to St. Andrews, with a letter to Knox, expressive of their earnest desire "that once again his voice might be heard among them." He returned in August, having this year published, at St. Andrews, his Answer to Tyrie the Jesuit.

The Earl of Mar died on the 29th of October; and James Earl of Morton, on the 24th of November, was elected Regent of Scotland.

On the same day, the 24th of November, having attained the age of sixty-seven, Knox closed "his most laborious and most honourable career." He was buried in the church-yard of St. Giles; but, as in the case of Calvin, at Geneva, no monument was erected to mark the place where he was interred.

Knox left a widow, and two sons by his first marriage, and three daughters by the second. In the concluding volume will be given a genealogical tree, or notices of his descendants.

THE HISTORY

OF THE

REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND.

INTRODUCTORY NOTICE TO THE HISTORY.

ToC

In the long series of events recorded in the Annals of Scotland, there is unquestionably none of greater importance than those which exhibit the progress and establishment of the Reformed Religion in the year 1560. This subject has accordingly called forth in succession a variety of writers of different sentiments and persuasions. Although in the contemporary historians, Lesley, Buchanan, and their successors, we have more or less copious illustrations of that period, yet a little examination will show that we possess only one work which bears an exclusive reference to this great event, and which has any claims to be regarded as the production of an original historian. Fortunately the writer of the work alluded to was of all persons the best qualified to undertake such a task, not only from his access to the various sources of information, and his singular power and skill in narrating events and delineating characters, but also from the circumstance that he himself had a personal and no unimportant share in most of the transactions of those times, which have left the character of his own mind so indelibly impressed on his country and its institutions. It is scarcely necessary to subjoin the name of John Knox.

The doubts which were long entertained respecting Knox's share in the "History of the Reformation," have been satisfactorily explained. Such passages as were adduced to prove that he could not have been the author, consist of palpable errors and interpolations. Without adverting to these suspicions, we may therefore attend to the time when the work was actually written.

The necessity of leaving upon record a correct account of their proceedings suggested itself to the Reformers at an early period of their career, and led to this History being commenced. Knox arrived in Scotland in May 1559; and by his presence and counsels, he served to animate and direct their measures, which were attended with so much success. In a letter dated from Edinburgh 23d October that year, while alluding to the events which had taken place during their contentions with the Queen Regent and her French auxiliaries, he uses these words, "Our most just requeastes, which ye shall, God willing, schortlie hereafter onderstand, together with our whole proceeding from the beginning of this matter, which we ar to sett furth in maner of Historie." That he had commenced the work, further appears from a letter, dated Edinburgh, 23d September 1560, and addressed to Secretary Cecil by the English Ambassador, Randolph, in which he says, "I have tawlked at large with Mr. Knox concerning his Hystorie. As mykle as ys written thereof shall be sent to your Honour, at the comynge of the Lords Embassadours, by Mr. John Woode. He hath wrytten only one Booke. If yow lyke that, he shall continue the same, or adde onie more. He sayethe, that he must have farther helpe then is to be had in thys countrie, for more assured knowledge of thyngs passed than he hath hymself, or can come bye here: yt is a work not to be neglected, and greatly wyshed that yt sholde be well handled."

Whether this portion of the work was actually communicated to Cecil at that time, is uncertain; as no such manuscript has been discovered among his papers, either in the British Museum or the State Paper Office. It could only have consisted of part of the Second