[168] Even the editor of _M'Crie's Life of Knox_, Edinburgh, 1841, p. xxxv., notices 'the ill-timed merriment he displays in relating the foul deed' of Beaton's murder.
The influence of Knox in promoting the Reformation, has indeed been grossly exaggerated by historians, who are too apt to ascribe vast results to individual exertions; overlooking those large and general causes, in the absence of which the individual exertion would be fruitless. Still, he effected more than any single man;[169] although the really important period of his life, in regard to Scotland, was in and after 1559, when the triumph of Protestantism was already secure, and when he reaped the benefit of what had been effected during his long absence from his own country. His first effort was a complete failure, and, more than any one of his actions, has injured his reputation. This was the sanction which he gave to the cruel murder of Archbishop Beaton, in 1546. He repaired to the Castle of Saint Andrews; he shut himself up with the assassins; he prepared to share their fate; and, in a work which he afterwards wrote, openly justified what they had done.[170] For this, nothing can excuse him; and it is with a certain sense of satisfied justice that we learn, that, in 1547, the castle being taken by the French, Knox was treated with great severity, and was made to work at the galleys, from which he was not liberated till 1549.[171]
[169] Shortly before his death, he said, with honest and justifiable pride, 'What I have bene to my countrie, albeit, this vnthankfull aige will not knowe, yet the aiges to come wilbe compelled to bear witnes to the treuth.' _Bannatyne's Journal_, Edinburgh, 1806. p. 119. Bannatyne was Knox's secretary. It is to be regretted that no good life of Knox should have yet been published. That by M'Crie is an undistinguishing and injudicious panegyric, which, by provoking a reaction of opinion, has damaged the reputation of the great reformer. On the other hand, the sect of Episcopalians in Scotland are utterly blind to the real grandeur of the man, and unable to discern his intense love of truth, and the noble fearlessness of his nature.
[170] _Tytler's History of Scotland_, vol. iv. pp. 374, 375. _M'Crie's Life of Knox_, pp. 27, 28. _Lawson's Roman Catholic Church in Scotland_, p. 154. _Presbytery Displayed_, 1663, 4to, p. 28. _Shields' Hind let loose_, 1687, pp. 14, 39, 638. In his _History of the Reformation_, edit. Laing, vol. i. pp. 177, 180, he calls it a 'godly fact,' and says, 'These ar the workis of our God;' which, in plain language, is terming the Deity an assassin. But, bad as this is, I agree with M'Crie, that there is no trustworthy evidence for deeming him privy to the murder. Compare, however, _A Diurnal of Occurrents_ p. 42, with _Lyon's History of St. Andrews_, vol. ii. p. 364.