Edinburgh. 8vo. Wodrow Club.
The same Two Volumes issued to this Society.
1854–1864. Edinburgh. 8vo.
The remaining Four Volumes published by Mr. T. G. STEVENSON. The First Blast &c. is at Vol. iv. 349.
Early Replies to the First Blast etc.
1. 26 Apr. 1559. Strasburgh. 4to. [JOHN AYLMER, afterwards Bishop of LONDON].
An Harborovve for faithfull and trewe subiectes, agaynst the late blowne Blaste, concerninge the Gouernmente of VVemen wherin he confuted all such reasons as a straunger of late made in that behalfe, with a breife exhortation to Obedience. Anno. M.D. lix.
[This calling John Knox a "stranger" sounds to us like a piece of impudence, but may bring home to us that Scotland was then to Englishmen a foreign country.]
2. 1565–6. Antwerp. 8vo. PETRUS FRARINUS, M.A.
Oration against the Vnlawfull Insurrections of the Protestantes of our time, under the pretence to refourme religion.
Made and pronounced in the Schole of Artes at Louaine, the xiiij of December. Anno 1565. And now translated into English with the aduise of the Author. Printed by JOHN FOWLER in 1566.
The references to KNOX and GOODMAN are at E. vj and F. ij. At the end of this work is a kind of Table of Contents, each reference being illustrated with a woodcut depicting the irightful cruelties with which the Author in the text charges the Protestants. One woodcut is a curious representation of GOODMAN and NOKES.
Doctor FULKE wrote a Confutation of this work.
3. 1579. Paris. 8vo. DAVID CHAMBERS of Ormond.
Histoire abregée de tous les Roys de France, Angleterre et Escosse, etc. In three Parts, each with a separate Title page.
The Third Part is dated 21 August 1573; is dedicated to CATHERINE DE MEDICI; and is entitled
Discours de la legitime succession des femmes aux possessions de leurs parens: et du gouernement des princesses aux Empires et Royaumes.
4. 1584. [Printed abroad]. 8vo. JOHN LESLEY, Bishop of ROSS.
A treatise towching the right, title and interest of the most Excellent Princesse MARIE, Queen of Scotland, And of the most noble King JAMES, her Graces sonne, to the succession of the Crowne of England. … Compiled ahd published before in Latin, and after in English. The Blast is alluded to at C. 2.
5. 1590. [Never printed.] Lord HENRY HOWARD [created Earl of NORTHAMPTON 13 March 1604.], a voluminous writer, but few of whose writings ever came to the press.
A dutifull defence of the lawfull Regiment of women deuided into three bookes. The first conteyneth reasons and examples grounded on the law of nature. The second reasons and examples grownded on the Ciuile lawes. The third reasons and examples grounded on the sacred lawes of god with an awnswer to all false and friuolous obiections which haue bene most vniustlie cowntenaunced with deceitfull coulores forced oute of theis lawes in disgrace of their approued and sufficient authorytie. Lansd. MS. 813 and Harl. MS. 6257.
INTRODUCTION.
At the time this tract was written the destinies, immediate and prospective, of the Protestant faith seemed to lay wholly in the laps of five women, viz:--
CATHERINE DE MEDICI, Queen of France.
MARIE DE LORRAINE, Queen Regent of Scotland, whose sole heir was her daughter MARY, afterwards Queen of Scots.
MARY TUDOR, Queen of England, having for her heir apparent the Princess ELIZABETH.
Of these, the last--also of least account at this moment, being in confinement--was the only hope of the Reformers. The other four, largely directing the affairs of three kingdoms, were steadfastly hostile to the new faith. Truly, the odds were heavy against it. Who could have anticipated that within three years of the writing of this book both MARY TUDOR and MARY DE LORRAINE would have passed away; that KNOX himself would have been in Scotland carrying on the Reformation; and that ELIZABETH would have commenced her marvellous reign. So vast a change in the political world was quite beyond all reasonable foresight.
Meanwhile there was only present to the vision and heart of the Reformer as he gazed seaward, from Dieppe, but the unceasing blaze of, the martyr fires spreading from Smithfield all over England. Month after month this horrid work was deliberately carried on and was increasing in intensity.
We se our countrie set furthe for a pray to foreine nations, we heare the blood of our brethren, the membres of Christ Iesus most cruellie to be shed, and the monstruous empire of a cruell women (the secrete counsel of God excepted) we knowe to be the onlie occasion of all the miseries: and yet with silence we passe the time as thogh the mater did nothinge appertein to vs. p. 3.
The vigour of the persecution had struck all heart out of the Protestants. Was this to go on for ever? Heart-wrung at the ruthless slaughter--as we, in our day, have been by the horrors of the Indian mutiny or of the Bulgarian atrocities---the Reformer sought to know the occasion of all these calamities. At that moment, he found it in the Empire of Woman. Afterwards he referred much of this book to the time in which it was written [pp. 58 and 61]. Shall we say that his heart compelled his head to this argument, that his indignation entangled his understanding on this subject? Just as MILTON was led to the discussion of the conditions of divorce, through his desertion by his wife MARY POWELL; so the fiery martyrdoms of England led KNOX to denounce the female sex in the person of her whom we still call "Bloody MARY" that was the occasion of them all.
If in the happiest moment of his happiest dream, JOHN KNOX could have foreseen our good and revered Queen VICTORIA reigning in the hearts of the millions of her subjects, and ruling an Empire wider by far than those of Spain and Portugal in his day; if he could have seen England and Scotland ONE COUNTRY, bearing the name which, as almost of prophecy, he has foreshadowed for them in this tract, "the Ile of greate Britanny;" if he could have beheld that one country as it now abides in its strength and its wealth, the most powerful of European states; if he could have realized free Italy with Rome, the Popes without temporal power, and modern civilisation more than a match for Papal intrigues; if he could have known that the gospel for which he lived had regenerated the social life of Great Britain, that it was tha confessed basis of our political action and the perennial spring of our Christian activities, so that not merely in physical strength, but in moral, force and mental enlightenment we are in the van of the nations of the world: if the great Scotch Reformer had but had a glimpse of this present reality, this tract would never have been written, and he would willingly have sung the paean of aged SIMEON and passed out of this life.
But this work was the offspring of the hour of darkness, if not of despair. Something must be done. A warrior of the pen, he would forge a general argument against all female rule that would inclusively destroy the legal right of MARY to continue these atrocities.
II.
