Bowes seems to
have lived with her family upon the matter of religion, and
the countenance shown by Knox to her resistance. Talking of
these conflicts, and her courage against "her own flesh and
most inward affections, yea, against some of her most natural
friends," he writes it, "to the praise of God, he has
wondered at the bold constancy which he has found in her when
his own heart was faint." (6)
(1) Works, vi. 514.
(2) IB. iii. 338.
(3) IB. iii. 352, 353.
(4) Works, iii. 350.
(5) IB. iii. 390, 391.
(6) Works, iii. 142.
Now, perhaps in order to stop scandalous mouths, perhaps out
of a desire to bind the much-loved evangelist nearer to her
in the only manner possible, Mrs. Bowes conceived the scheme
of marrying him to her fifth daughter, Marjorie; and the
Reformer seems to have fallen in with it readily enough. It
seems to have been believed in the family that the whole
matter had been originally made up between these two, with no
very spontaneous inclination on the part of the bride. (1)
Knox's idea of marriage, as I have said, was not the same for
all men; but on the whole, it was not lofty. We have a
curious letter of his, written at the request of Queen Mary,
to the Earl of Argyle, on very delicate household matters;
which, as he tells us, "was not well accepted of the said
Earl." (2) We may suppose, however, that his own home was
regulated in a similar spirit.
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