We know what Calvin thought
desirable in a wife, "good humour, chastity, thrift, patience, and
solicitude for her husband's health," and so we may suppose that the
first Mrs. Knox fell not far short of this ideal. The actual date of the marriage is uncertain; but by the summer of 1554,
at the latest, the Reformer was settled in Geneva with his wife. There
is no fear either that he will be dull; even if the chaste, thrifty,
patient Marjorie should not altogether occupy his mind, he need not go
out of the house to seek more female sympathy; for behold! Mrs. Bowes is
duly domesticated with the young couple. Dr. M'Crie imagined that
Richard Bowes was now dead, and his widow, consequently, free to live
where she would; and where could she go more naturally than to the house
of a married daughter? This, however, is not the case. Richard Bowes did
not die till at least two years later. It is impossible to believe that
he approved of his wife's desertion, after so many years of marriage,
after twelve children had been born to them; and accordingly we find in
his will, dated 1558, no mention either of her or of Knox's wife. [102]
This is plain sailing. It is easy enough to understand the anger of
Bowes against this interloper, who had come into a quiet family, married
the daughter in spite of the father's opposition, alienated the wife
from the husband and the husband's religion, supported her in a long
course of resistance and rebellion, and, after years of intimacy,
already too close and tender for any jealous spirit to behold without
resentment, carried her away with him at last into a foreign land. But
it is not quite easy to understand how, except out of sheer weariness
and disgust, he was ever brought to agree to the arrangement. Nor is it
easy to square the Reformer's conduct with his public teaching. We have,
for instance, a letter addressed by him, Craig, and Spottiswood, to the
Archbishops of Canterbury and York, anent "a wicked and rebellious
woman," one Anne Good, spouse to "John Barron, a minister of Christ
Jesus, his evangel," who, "after great rebellion shown unto him, and
divers admonitions given, as well by himself as by others in his name,
that she should in no wise depart from this realm, nor from his house
without his licence, hath not the less stubbornly and rebelliously
departed, separated herself from his society, left his house, and
withdrawn herself from this realm. "[103] Perhaps some sort of licence
was extorted, as I have said, from Richard Bowes, weary with years of
domestic dissension; but setting that aside, the words employed with so
much righteous indignation by Knox, Craig, and Spottiswood, to describe
the conduct of that wicked and rebellious woman, Mrs. Barron, would
describe nearly as exactly the conduct of the religious Mrs. Bowes. It
is a little bewildering, until we recollect the distinction between
faithful and unfaithful husbands; for Barron was "a minister of Christ
Jesus, his evangel," while Richard Bowes, besides being own brother to a
despiser and taunter of God's messengers, is shrewdly suspected to have
been "a bigoted adherent of the Roman Catholic faith," or, as Knox
himself would have expressed it, "a rotten Papist." You would have thought that Knox was now pretty well supplied with
female society. But we are not yet at the end of the roll. The last year
of his sojourn in England had been spent principally in London, where he
was resident as one of the chaplains of Edward the Sixth; and here he
boasts, although a stranger, he had, by God's grace, found favour before
many. [104] The godly women of the metropolis made much of him; once he
writes to Mrs. Bowes that her last letter had found him closeted with
three, and he and the three women were all in tears. [105] Out of all,
however, he had chosen two. "_God_," he writes to them, "_brought us in
such familiar acquaintance, that your hearts were incensed and kindled
with a special care over me, as a mother useth to be over her natural
child_; and my heart was opened and compelled in your presence to be
more plain than ever I was to any. "[106] And out of the two even he had
chosen one, Mrs. Anne Locke, wife to Mr. Harry Locke, merchant, nigh to
Bow Kirk, Cheapside, in London, as the address runs. If one may venture
to judge upon such imperfect evidence, this was the woman he loved best. I have a difficulty in quite forming to myself an idea of her character. She may have been one of the three tearful visitors before alluded to;
she may even have been that one of them who was so profoundly moved by
some passages of Mrs. Bowes's letter, which the Reformer opened, and
read aloud to them before they went. "O would to God," cried this
impressionable matron, "would to God that I might speak with that
person, for I perceive there are more tempted than I. "[107] This _may_
have been Mrs. Locke, as I say; but even if it were, we must not
conclude from this one fact that she was such another as Mrs. Bowes. All
the evidence tends the other way. She was a woman of understanding,
plainly, who followed political events with interest, and to whom Knox
thought it worth while to write, in detail, the history of his trials
and successes. She was religious, but without that morbid perversity of
spirit that made religion so heavy a burden for the poor-hearted Mrs.
Bowes. More of her I do not find, save testimony to the profound
affection that united her to the Reformer. So we find him writing to her
from Geneva, in such terms as these:--"You write that your desire is
earnest to see me. _Dear sister, if I should express the thirst and
languor which I have had for your presence, I should appear to pass
measure.... Yea, I weep and rejoice in remembrance of you_; but that
would evanish by the comfort of your presence, which I assure you is so
dear to me, that if the charge of this little flock here, gathered
together in Christ's name, did not impede me, my coming should prevent
my letter. "[108] I say that this was written from Geneva; and yet you
will observe that it is no consideration for his wife or mother-in-law,
only the charge of his little flock, that keeps him from setting out
forthwith for London, to comfort himself with the dear presence of Mrs.
Locke. Remember that was a certain plausible enough pretext for Mrs.
Locke to come to Geneva--"the most perfect school of Christ that ever
was on earth since the days of the Apostles"--for we are now under the
reign of that "horrible monster Jezebel of England," when a lady of good
orthodox sentiments was better out of London. It was doubtful, however,
whether this was to be. She was detained in England, partly by
circumstances unknown, "partly by empire of her head," Mr. Harry Locke,
the Cheapside merchant. It is somewhat humorous to see Knox struggling
for resignation, now that he has to do with a faithful husband (for Mr.
Harry Locke was faithful).