But the point of
the distinction is plain. For Clerk-Register Mackgil was not
a faithful husband; displayed, indeed, towards religion a
"coldness which justly might be called infidelity." We shall
see in more notable instances how much Knox's conception of
the duty of wives varies according to the zeal and orthodoxy
of the husband.
(1) Works, iv. 244.
(2) Works, iv. 246.
(3) IB. iv. 225.
(4) Works, iv. 245.
(5) IB. iv. 221.
As I have said, he may possibly have made the acquaintance of
Mrs. Mackgil, Mrs. Guthrie, or some other, or all, of these
Edinburgh friends while he was still Douglas of Longniddry's
private tutor. But our certain knowledge begins in 1549. He
was then but newly escaped from his captivity in France,
after pulling an oar for nineteen months on the benches of
the galley NOSTRE DAME; now up the rivers, holding stealthy
intercourse with other Scottish prisoners in the castle of
Rouen; now out in the North Sea, raising his sick head to
catch a glimpse of the far-off steeples of St. Andrews. And
now he was sent down by the English Privy Council as a
preacher to Berwick-upon-Tweed; somewhat shaken in health by
all his hardships, full of pains and agues, and tormented by
gravel, that sorrow of great men; altogether, what with his
romantic story, his weak health, and his great faculty of
eloquence, a very natural object for the sympathy of devout
women.
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