• Knox now repaired to England, and though he had never received ordination as a Protestant, Cranmer did not hesitate to send him from London to preach in Berwick. In Berwick and the North of England he followed his arduous undertaking of conversion until 1551, when he was made one of King Edward's chaplains, with a salary of 40/. a year. While his friends in the English administration offered him further preferment, which he declined, his enemies brought charges against him before the council, of which he was soon after wards acquitted. He was in London at the time of King Edward's death, but thought it prudent to fly the kingdom ss soon as Mary's policy towards the Protestants became apparent In January 1554, he landed at Dieppe; from Dieppe he went to Geneva; and from Geneva to Frankfurt, where Calvin requested him to take charge of a congregation of English refugees. In consequence of some disputes he returned from Frankfurt to Geneva, and, after a few months' residence there, to Scotland, where he again zealously promulgated his doctrines. The English congregation at Geneva having appointed him their preacher, he thought right to make another journey to the Continent (1556), which he quitted finally in 1559. During these the quietest years of his life he published ' The First Blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous Regiment of Women,' in which ho vehemently attacked the admission of females to the government of nations. Its first sentence rune thus: "To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire, above any realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, a thing most con trarious to his revealed will and approved ordinance, and finally it is the subversion of all equity and justice." This inflammatory compo sition, as might have been expected, excited fresh hostility against its author. At the time of its publication both England and Scotland were governed by females; Mary of Guise, the qneen-dowager of Scotland, was likewise regent of that kingdom, while the Princess Mary was heiress of its throne : and in England Mary was queen, and her sister Elizabeth the next in succession to the crown. It hardly admits of wonder then that when, in 1559, Knox was desirous of return ing to England, Queen Elizabeth's ministers would not permit him to do so, and he was compelled to land at Leith.
The Protestants in Scotland were by this timo nearly equal to the Roman Catholics, both in power and in number; but their condition had lately been changed somewhat for the worse, The queen•regent who from motives of policy had found it desirable to conciliate and unphold them, from similar motives had become their opponent and oppressor ; and many of the preachers of the ' Congregation ' (the name by which the body of Protentauts was then called) wero summoned for various causes to take their trial. It was on a day not long previous to these trials that Knox returned to his country to resume the labours of his ministry ; hearing of the condition of his associates„ "he hurried inetautly " (says Robertson, i. 375) "to Perth, to share with his brethren in the common danger, or to assist them in the common cause. While their minds were iu that ferment which thequeen's perfidiousness" (she had broken a promise to stop tho trial), "and their own danger occasioned, he mounted the pulpit, and, by a vehement harangue, against idolatry, inflamed the multitude with the utmost rage." The indiscretion of a priest, who, immediately after Knox's sermon, was preparing to celebrate mass, caused a violent tumult.
The churches in the city were broken open, altars were overturned, pictures defaced, images destroyed, and the mouastcries levelled with the ground. The insurrection, which was not the effect of any concert or previous deliberation, was censured by the Reformed preachers; and it affixes no blame to the character of Knox. The queen-regent sent troops to quell this rebellion ; troops were also raised by the Pro testants, but a treaty was entered into before any blood was shed.
The promotion of the Reformation in his own country was now Knox's sole object : he was reinstated in his pulpit at St. Andrewa, and preached there in his usual rough, vehement, zealous, and power ful manner, until the Lords of the Congregation took possession of Edinburgh, where he was immediately chosen minister. His efforts gave great offence and alarm to the Roman Catholic clergy, especially during a circuit that he made of Scotland. Armies were maintained and sent into the field by both parties, for treaties were no sooner made than they were violated; French troops again came to succour the Roman Catholic clergy ; and to oppose them Knox entered into correspondence with Cecil, and obtained for his party the assistance of some forces from England. The Congregation' however had many difficulties and disasters to struggle with. A messenger whom they had sent to receive a remittance of money from the English was inter cepted and rifled ; their soldiers mutinied for want of pay; their numbers decreased, and their arms were unsuccessful. Under these circumstances it required all the zeal and the courage of Knox to sustain the animation of his dispirited colleagues; his addresses from the pulpit were continual and persevering. As the treaty by which the civil war was concluded made no settlement in religion, the reformers found no fresh obetaele to the continuance of their efforts; and Knox resumed his office of minister in Edinburgh. In this year (1560) the queen-regent died, and iu the following Queen Mary took possession of the throne of Scotland; her religious opinions were Roman Catholic, but she employed Protestant counsellors. The preaching of Knox and his denunciations of her religious practice attracted her attention. At different times he had interviews with her (which at first gave rise to much speculation), but neither her artifices produced much effect, nor his arguments; so stern was he, and so rough in his rebukes, that he once drove her into tears. At her instigation Knox was accused of treason, and was tried, but the whole convention of counsellors, excepting the immediate dependants of the court, pronounced that he had not been guilty of any breach of tho laws (1563).
Knox continued his exertions, with difficulties of different kinds constantly besetting him. At one time he was prohibited from preach ing, at another he was refused entrance into Edinburgh after a tem porary absence, but on the whole his influence was little impaired, and his opposition to Popery successful. His health however was affected by continual exertion : in 1570 he was struck with apoplexy, from which he so far recovered as to renew his labours for more than a year; but in 1572 his exhausted constitution gave way, and he died ou the 24th of November. He was buried in Edinburgh, in the church then called St. Giles's, now the Old Church.