The arrival of the youthful Queen Mary, in the course of 1561, brought many forebodings to the reformer; he apprehended dangers to the re formed cause from her character and her well known devotion to the Catholic Church. The re former's apprehensions scarcely permitted him to he a fair, certainly not a tolerant, judge of Mary's conduct. Misunderstandings very soon sprang up between them, and Knox relates. with a somewhat harsh bitterness, his several interviews with her. At length he came to en open rupture with the Queen's party, including Murray and Maitland, and many of his former friends. Ile took up an attitude of unyielding opposition to the Court, and in his sermons and prayers indulged freely in the expression of his feelings. The result was his temporary alienation from the more moderate Protestant Party, who tried to govern the coun try in the Queen's name. For a while, from 1563 to 1565, he retired into comparative privacy. In 1560 his first wife had died, and on Palm Sun clay. 1564. he married Margaret Stewart, daugh ter of Lord Stewart of 06HO-cc, a girl of six teen.
The rapid series of events which followed Mary's marriage with Darnley served once more to bring Knox into the field. He was recon ciled with Murray, and strongly abetted him in all his schemes of policy during his regency. Further reforms were effected by the Parliament \ Odell convened under his sway in the close of 1567. Some provision, although still an imper fect one, was made for the support of the Protes tant clergy. Knox seemed at length to see his great work accomplished. and is said to have en tertained the idea of retiring to Geneva. But the bright prospect on which he gazed for a little was soon overcast—Murray's assassination (Jan uary 23. 1570). and the confusion and discord whiell sprang out of it, plunged the reformer into profound grief. Ile once more became an object of suspicion and hostility to the dominant nobles, and misunderstandings even sprang up between him and sonic of his brethren in the General Assembly. He retired to Saint Andrews (1571) for a while. to escape the danger of assassination. with which he had been threatened. There. although suffering from extreme debility, he roused himself to preach once more, and, in the parish church where he had begun his ministry, made his voice heard again with something of its old power. Assisted by his servant, the "gond,
godly Richard Ballenden," into the pulpit. "he oehoved to lean upon it at his first entry; but ere he was done with his sermon, he was so active and vigorous that he was lyke to ding the pulpit in binds and the out of it." In the end of 1572 he returned to Edinburgh to die; his strength was exhausted; lie was 'weary of the world,' he said: and on November 24th he died.
Knox's character was distinguished by firm ness and decision. and a plain. severely harsh sense of reality. lle was a man of strong, and even stern convictions. and he felt no scruples, and recognized no dangers in carrying out his aims. He was shrewd. penetrating, inevitable in his perceptions and purposes, and his language is always plain. hoinely, and often harsh. lie had learned, he himself says. "to call wickedness by its own terms—a fig. a fig: a spade, a spade." Above all, be was fearless: nothing daunted him: his spirit rose high in the midst of danger. In Scotland Knox Wits the leading spirit in the Reformation. To him above all others may he attributed this result. His violent methods, however, do him little credit. and recent histo rians condemn him severely on this score.
Knox wrote his own biography in his History of the Reformation of Religion in the Realmr of seothind, begun about 1560, and completed as far 1564. The first three books were printed in London in 1584; the entire five in 1664: the 'modernized' edition by Guthrie (London. 1898) is abridged and incomplete. His Works have been well edited by Laing (Edinburgh. 1846-64), and his life written by M'Crie (Edinburgh, 1813; 7th ed. 1872). Both Laing and 111'Crie give full bibliographical data concerning his writings. Consult, also, his life by W. M. Taylor (New York, I S85) ; by P. Hume Brown (London, 1895) ; Lorimer, John Knox and the Church of England (London. 1875) ; Carriek, John. Knox and his Land (Glasgow, 1902). Knox's liturgy, The Book of Common Order of the Church of Scotland, has been edited by Sprott (London, 1901).