(1) Knox to Mrs. Locke, 6th April 1559. Works, vi. 14.
(2) Knox to Sir William Cecil, 10th April 1559. Works, ii.
16, or vi. 15.
His letter to Elizabeth, written some few months later, was a
mere amplification of the sentences quoted above. She must
base her title entirely upon the extraordinary providence of
God; but if she does this, "if thus, in God's presence, she
humbles herself, so will he with tongue and pen justify her
authority, as the Holy Ghost hath justified the same in
Deborah, that blessed mother in Israel." (1) And so, you
see, his consistency is preserved; he is merely applying the
doctrine of the "First Blast." The argument goes thus: The
regiment of women is, as before noted in our work, repugnant
to nature, contumely to God, and a subversion of good order.
It has nevertheless pleased God to raise up, as exceptions to
this law, first Deborah, and afterward Elizabeth Tudor -
whose regiment we shall proceed to celebrate.
(1) Knox to Queen Elizabeth, July. 20th, 1559. Works, vi.
47, or ii. 26.
There is no evidence as to how the Reformer's explanations
were received, and indeed it is most probable that the letter
was never shown to Elizabeth at all. For it was sent under
cover of another to Cecil, and as it was not of a very
courtly conception throughout, and was, of all things, what
would most excite the Queen's uneasy jealousy about her
title, it is like enough that the secretary exercised his
discretion (he had Knox's leave in this case, and did not
always wait for that, it is reputed) to put the letter
harmlessly away beside other valueless or unpresentable State
Papers.
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