" (3) And this,
considering the source and the circumstances, may be held as
evidence of a very tender sentiment. He tells us himself in
his history, on the occasion of a certain meeting at the Kirk
of Field, that "he was in no small heaviness by reason of the
late death of his dear bed-fellow, Marjorie Bowes." (4)
Calvin, condoling with him, speaks of her as "a wife whose
like is not to be found everywhere" (that is very like
Calvin), and again, as "the most delightful of wives." We
know what Calvin thought desirable in a wife, "good humour,
chastity, thrift, patience, and solicitude for her husband's
health," and so we may suppose that the first Mrs. Knox fell
not far short of this ideal.
(1) Works, vi. 104.
(2) IB. v. 5.
(3) IB. vi. 27.
(4) IB. ii. 138.
The actual date of the marriage is uncertain but by September
1566, at the latest, the Reformer was settled in Geneva with
his wife. There is no fear either that he will be dull; even
if the chaste, thrifty, patient Marjorie should not
altogether occupy his mind, he need not go out of the house
to seek more female sympathy; for behold! Mrs. Bowes is duly
domesticated with the young couple. Dr. M'Crie imagined that
Richard Bowes was now dead, and his widow, consequently, free
to live where she would; and where could she go more
naturally than to the house of a married daughter? This,
however, is not the case.
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