In this letter,[76] which
he kept back until the 22nd, still hoping that things would come right
of themselves, he censures the great secretary for having "followed the
world in the way of perdition," characterises him as "worthy of hell,"
and threatens him, if he be not found simple, sincere, and fervent in
the cause of Christ's gospel, that he shall "taste of the same cup that
politic heads have drunken in before him." This is all, I take it, out
of respect for the Reformer's own position; if he is going to be
humiliated, let others be humiliated first; like a child who will not
take his medicine until he has made his nurse and his mother drink of it
before him. "But I have, say you, written a treasonable book against the
regiment and empire of women.... The writing of that book I will not
deny; but prove it treasonable I think it shall be hard.... It is hinted
that my book shall be written against. If so be, sir, I greatly doubt
they shall rather hurt nor (than) mend the matter." And here come the
terms of capitulation; for he does not surrender unconditionally, even
in this sore strait: "And yet if any," he goes on, "think me enemy to
the person, or yet to the regiment, of her whom God hath now promoted,
they are utterly deceived in me, _for the miraculous work of God,
comforting His afflicted by means of an infirm vessel, I do acknowledge,
and the power of his most potent hand I will obey. More plainly to
speak, if Queen Elizabeth shall confess, that the extraordinary
dispensation of God's great mercy maketh that lawful unto her which both
nature and God's law do deny to all women_, then shall none in England
be more willing to maintain her lawful authority than I shall be. But if
(God's wondrous work set aside) she ground (as God forbid) the justness
of her title upon consuetude, laws, or ordinances of men, then"--Then
Knox will denounce her? Not so; he is more politic nowadays--then, he
"greatly fears" that her ingratitude to God will not go long without
punishment. His letter to Elizabeth, written some few months later, was a mere
amplification of the sentences quoted above. She must base her title
entirely upon the extraordinary providence of God; but if she does this,
"if thus, in God's presence, she humbles herself, so will he with tongue
and pen justify her authority, as the Holy Ghost hath justified the
same in Deborah, that blessed mother in Israel. "[77] And so, you see,
his consistency is preserved; he is merely applying the doctrine of the
"First Blast." The argument goes thus: The regiment of women is, as
before noted in our work, repugnant to nature, contumely to God, and a
subversion of good order. It has nevertheless pleased God to raise up,
as exceptions to this law, first Deborah, and afterward Elizabeth
Tudor--whose regiment we shall proceed to celebrate. There is no evidence as to how the Reformer's explanations were
received, and indeed it is most probable that the letter was never shown
to Elizabeth at all. For it was sent under cover of another to Cecil,
and as it was not of a very courtly conception throughout, and was, of
all things, what would most excite the Queen's uneasy jealousy about her
title, it is like enough that the secretary exercised his discretion (he
had Knox's leave in this case, and did not always wait for that, it is
reputed) to put the letter harmlessly away beside other valueless or
unpresentable State Papers. I wonder very much if he did the same with
another,[78] written two years later, after Mary had come into Scotland,
in which Knox almost seeks to make Elizabeth an accomplice with him in
the matter of the "First Blast." The Queen of Scotland is going to have
that work refuted, he tells her; and "though it were but foolishness in
him to prescribe unto her Majesty what is to be done," he would yet
remind her that Mary is neither so much alarmed about her own security,
nor so generously interested in Elizabeth's, "that she would take such
pains, _unless her crafty counsel in so doing shot at a further mark_." There is something really ingenious in this letter; it showed Knox in
the double capacity of the author of the "First Blast" and the faithful
friend of Elizabeth; and he combines them there so naturally, that one
would scarcely imagine the two to be incongruous. Twenty days later he was defending his intemperate publication to
another queen--his own queen, Mary Stuart. This was on the first of
those three interviews which he has preserved for us with so much
dramatic vigour in the picturesque pages of his History. After he had
avowed the authorship in his usual haughty style, Mary asked: "You
think, then, that I have no just authority?" The question was evaded. "Please your Majesty," he answered, "that learned men in all ages have
had their judgments free, and most commonly disagreeing from the common
judgment of the world; such also have they published by pen and tongue;
and yet notwithstanding they themselves have lived in the common society
with others, and have borne patiently with the errors and imperfections
which they could not amend." Thus did "Plato the philosopher": thus will
do John Knox. "I have communicated my judgment to the world: if the
realm finds no inconvenience from the regiment of a woman, that which
they approve shall I not further disallow than within my own breast; but
shall be as well content to live under your Grace as Paul was to live
under Nero. And my hope is, that so long as ye defile not your hands
with the blood of the saints of God, neither I nor my book shall hurt
either you or your authority." All this is admirable in wisdom and
moderation, and, except that he might have hit upon a comparison less
offensive than that with Paul and Nero, hardly to be bettered. Having
said thus much, he feels he needs say no more; and so, when he is
further pressed, he closes that part of the discussion with an
astonishing sally. If he has been content to let this matter sleep, he
would recommend her Grace to follow his example with thankfulness of
heart; it is grimly to be understood which of them has most to fear if
the question should be reawakened. So the talk wandered to other
subjects. Only, when the Queen was summoned at last to dinner ("for it
was afternoon") Knox made his salutation in this form of words: "I pray
God, Madam, that you may be as much blessed within the Commonwealth of
Scotland, if it be the pleasure of God, as ever Deborah was in the
Commonwealth of Israel. "[79] Deborah again. But he was not yet done with the echoes of his own "First Blast." In
1571, when he was already near his end, the old controversy was taken up
in one of a series of anonymous libels against the Reformer, affixed,
Sunday after Sunday, to the church door. The dilemma was fairly enough
stated.