There is a thrill of hope
through the persecuted Churches of the Continent. Calvin
writes to Cecil, washing his hands of Knox and his political
heresies. The sale of the "First Blast" is prohibited in
Geneva; and along with it the bold book of Knox's colleague,
Goodman - a book dear to Milton - where female rule was
briefly characterised as a "monster in nature and disorder
among men." (2) Any who may ever have doubted, or been for a
moment led away by Knox or Goodman, or their own wicked
imaginations, are now more than convinced. They have seen
the accidental star. Aylmer, with his eye set greedily on a
possible bishopric, and "the better to obtain the favour of
the new Queen," (3) sharpens his pen to confound Knox by
logic. What need? He has been confounded by facts. "Thus
what had been to the refugees of Geneva as the very word of
God, no sooner were they back in England than, behold! it was
the word of the devil." (4)
(1) It was anonymously published, but no one seems to have
been in doubt about its authorship; he might as well have set
his name to it, for all the good he got by holding it back.
(2) Knox's Works, iv. 358.
(3) Strype's AYLMER, p. 16.
(4) It may interest the reader to know that these (so says
Thomasius) are the "ipsissima verba Schlusselburgii."
Now, what of the real sentiments of these loyal subjects of
Elizabeth? They professed a holy horror for Knox's position:
let us see if their own would please a modern audience any
better, or was, in substance, greatly different.
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