The Fortnightly Review: No. CCCCLXIII, New Series [‎621r] (132/239)

SCOTLAND AND JOHN KNOX.
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It is easier still to ascribe to the coarseness of the times all that
modern taste condemns as impure, and it is true that it was the
fashion to abuse one s enemies in foul language. Accusations
against Knox’s own moral character were not wanting ; vile accusa
tions which no one affects to believe, but which are just as well
authenticated as his own attacks upon Mary of Guise. It is also
true that no one could have written such a history without intro
ducing topics which it is generally agreed are not fitted for the
drawing-room. But, after all such allowances have been made,
the difficulty is not quite solved. It was possible to write a more
decent book on the subject. Knox’s contemporary and rival his
torian, Bishop Lesley, a weak creature whom it would be absurd
to compare to Knox in other ways, did write a book much less
coarse than that of Knox. That the Beformer wrote “ merrily”
of things shameful as well as of things which were bloody and
cruel, is not to be denied. Mr. Andrew Lang has dealt fully with
the credibility of the History,” and it is no sufficient answer
to abuse Mr. Lang. That kind of defence is an unfailing index
of a weak cause. Nor is Mr. Lang by any means the first icono
clast. That Knox could stoop to a mean trick has long been
known. In 1559, he urged the English to send men to help the
Scottish Protestants, in defiance of the recent peace between
England and France. After urging, on strange enough grounds,
that it was not really a breach of faith, he added : ” If ye fear that
such excuses shall not prevail, you may declare them rebels to
your Bealm when ye shall be assured that they be in our com
pany.” When Sir James Croft replied that honourable men do
not do this kind of thing, Knox retorted thus : ” Whether it may
stand with wisdom to have such respect to what some men do call
honour, that in the meantime I see my friend perish, both till his
destruction and mine, I refer to the judgment of the most honour
able.” The children of this world had nothing to learn from the
children of light in the way of sharp practice, but to do them
justice, they did not neglect the lesson. David Laing made no
attempt to condone his hero’s lapse from virtue, but he argued
that it is the only instance of the kind. Mr. Andrew Lang’s bril
liant criticism of Knox’s writings has shown that Knox the
politician is also Knox the historian.
W ho are really the true friends of Knox ? It is the unthinking
reverence with which the “ History ” has been regarded that is
responsible for the startling effect of Mr. Lang’s criticism. There
would be some reason for hesitating to accept to-day an historical
account of a recent controversy by one who had held, and continued
to hold, the position of a protagonist; and any such reason applies
a thousandfold to the sixteenth century. Some slight control over