And so he could put the proposition in the
form already mentioned: there was Christ's Gospel persecuted
in the two kingdoms by one anomalous power plainly, then, the
"regiment of women" was Antichristian. Early in 1558 he
communicated this discovery to the world, by publishing at
Geneva his notorious book - THE FIRST BLAST OF THE TRUMPET
AGAINST THE MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN. (3)
(1) Oeuvres de d'Aubigne, i. 449.
(2) Dames Illustres, pp. 358-360.
(3) Works of John Knox, iv. 349.
As a whole, it is a dull performance; but the preface, as is
usual with Knox, is both interesting and morally fine. Knox
was not one of those who are humble in the hour of triumph;
he was aggressive even when things were at their worst. He
had a grim reliance in himself, or rather in his mission; if
he were not sure that he was a great man, he was at least
sure that he was one set apart to do great things. And he
judged simply that whatever passed in his mind, whatever
moved him to flee from persecution instead of constantly
facing it out, or, as here, to publish and withhold his name
from the title-page of a critical work, would not fail to be
of interest, perhaps of benefit, to the world. There may be
something more finely sensitive in the modern humour, that
tends more and more to withdraw a man's personality from the
lessons he inculcates or the cause that he has espoused; but
there is a loss herewith of wholesome responsibility; and
when we find in the works of Knox, as in the Epistles of
Paul, the man himself standing nakedly forward, courting and
anticipating criticism, putting his character, as it were, in
pledge for the sincerity of his doctrine, we had best waive
the question of delicacy, and make our acknowledgments for a
lesson of courage, not unnecessary in these days of anonymous
criticism, and much light, otherwise unattainable, on the
spirit in which great movements were initiated and carried
forward.
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