sometimes produced. Knox himself in one letter to her admits that he was also on one occasion oppressed by a doubt whether he was one of the elect. This was for him the rarest experience. A complete conviction that his sins were forgiven, and that he and those who believed with him were the chosen people, accompanied him through life. As Mrs. Bowes subsequently left her husband and joined Knox and her daughter at Geneva, the connection gave rise to unwarranted scandal (cf. Knox, Answer to a Letter of a Jesuit named Tyrie, 1572, advertisement). Just as he was leaving Dieppe in the end of February 1554, he sent home two tracts: ‘An Exposition of the Sixth Psalm,’ in a letter addressed to Mrs. Bowes signed, ‘at the very point of my journey, your Son, with sorrowful heart, J. K.,’ part of which had been written in London. A longer letter was entitled ‘A Godly Letter sent to the Faithful in London, Newcastle, and Berwick;’ of this there are two editions, one with the colophon ‘from Wittemberg, by Nicholas Dorcaster, anno 1554, the 8th of May,’ and the other with the fictitious imprint, ‘In Rome, before the Castel of St. Angel, at the signe of Sanct Peter, in the month of July in the year of our Lord 1554,’ and the device of Hugh Singleton. A manuscript copy has the postscript, ‘The peace of God rest with you all, from ane sore-troubled heart upon my departure from Diep 1553, whither God knoweth.’ It is a vehement denunciation of the mass. In the spring (1554) he journeyed through France and Switzerland, and at Geneva met Calvin for the first time. Calvin gave him an introduction to Bullinger, the reformer of Zurich. Knox sent, on 10 and 30 May, epistles to his afflicted brethren in England after returning to Dieppe to learn the position of affairs in England and Scotland. ‘Since the 28th of January,’ he wrote in the earlier letter, ‘I have travelled through all the congregations of Helvetia, and reasonit with all the pastours and many other learned men upon sic matters as now I cannot submit to writing.’ The matters were indeed dangerous, and involved the questions ‘whether a female can rule a kingdom by divine right, and transfer the right to her husband;’ ‘whether obedience is to be rendered to a magistrate who enforces idolatry;’ and ‘to which party must godly persons attach themselves in the case of a religious nobility resisting an idolatrous sovereign.’ Bullinger reported to Calvin the cautiously vague replies that he made to Knox. In the same year Knox published ‘A Faithful Admonition to the Professors of God's Faith in England, 1554,’ which was printed on 20 July at ‘Kalykow,’ perhaps a pseudonym for Geneva or Dieppe. He there directs the whole force of his attack against the Spanish marriage of Mary Tudor.
In the summer of 1554 Knox returned to Geneva, and remained there till November, when he accepted the call which the English congregation at Frankfort-on-Maine had sent him on 24 Sept. to be one of their pastors. He accepted it unwillingly, he says in his ‘History,’ ‘at the commandment of that notable servant of God, John Calvin.’ The difficulties which he had foreseen soon arose. The English congregation at Frankfort had been formed in the end of July 1554 by a few refugees from the Marian persecution. The magistrates, with the friendly co-operation of a French protestant congregation already established, allowed the English the use of the French church. The English subscribed the French confession of faith, and were allowed the English order of service, with some modifications, the omission of the responses, the litany, and parts of the sacramental liturgy which were deemed superstitious. Soon after Knox's arrival, the English exiles in Strasburg offered to join their fellow-countrymen in Frankfort, but first inquired what parts of the English service book were sanctioned at Frankfort. Knox and other members of his congregation answered (3 Dec.) that whatever in that book could be shown to stand with God's word was admissible. It was agreed to submit the English service book, of which Knox and Whittingham and others made a summary in Latin, to Calvin. Calvin, while counselling moderation, recommended a new order for a new church. Knox, Whittingham, and three others were directed by the congregation to draw up ‘some order meant for their state and time,’ and accordingly compiled the liturgy, afterwards published in 1556, and known as ‘The Order of Geneva.’ But the work proved unsatisfactory to many, and Knox, Whittingham, and two others were invited to make a second attempt. Some modification was agreed upon; Knox counselled concessions, and it was determined that the new ‘order’ should be observed till the end of April 1555. If any further dispute arose, it was to be referred to Calvin, Martyr, and Bullinger, and two other divines. A reconciliation followed, and ‘the holy communion was upon this happy agreement ministered.’ But the cessation of hostilities was temporary. On 13 March Dr. Richard Cox [q. v.] came with others from England. The small band of protestant exiles were thereupon divided into Coxians and Knoxians. At church the newcomers insisted on making responses after the minister, although Knox and the seniors
