Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/764

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KNTJT


684


EOBERGER


occasionally, notwithstanding his infirmities, with his old fire and vehemence. In August, 1572, Mary's adherents having left Edinburgh, Knox was persuaded to return thither. The news of the massacre of St. Bartholomew had just reached Scotland, and Knox thundered from his pulpit (to which he had almost to be carried), in the presence of the French ambassa- doi;, denunciations of "that cruel murderer and false traitor, the King of France". On 9 November he took part in the induction-services of Mr. Lawson as minister of St. Giles's in his place; and fifteen days later, on 24 November, 1572, he died in his house at Edinburgh. Contemporary narratives of his last illness and death (by Richard Bannatyne and Thomas Smeton) are printed by Laing in his edition of Knox's "Works" (vol. VI). At his burial, two days later, the Regent Morton uttered the well-known words, " Here lieth a man who in liis life never feared the face of man." The facts of his life perhaps hardly justify these laudatory words. " Knox", says his learned and sympathetic biographer and editor. Dr. Laing, "can- not be said to have possessed the impetuous and heroic boldness of a Luther. . . . On more than one occasion he displayed a timidity or shrinking from danger scarcely to have been expected from one who boasted of his willingness to suffer death in his mas- ter's cause." On his own showing he was courageous enough in his personal encounters with his unfortu- nate queen ; but, according to another of lus Protestant biographers, " he was most valiant when he had armed men at his back, and the popular idea of liis personal courage, said to have been expressed by the Regent Morton, is entirely erroneous".

As to Knox's religion, it is sufficient to say, with- out questioning the sincerity of his convictions, that the reaction from the CathoUcism of his youth seems to have landed him outside the pale of Chris- tianity altogether. Permeated with the spirit of the Old Testament and with the gloomy austerity of the ancient prophets, he displays neither in his volumi- nous writings nor in the record of iiis public acts the slightest recognition of the teachings of the Gospel, or of the gentle, mild, and forgiving character of the Christian dispensation. Genial, amiable, and kind- hearted he may have been in private life, though it is difficult to see from what premises his panegyrists deduce his possession of those quahties; but the ferocity and unrestrained violence of his public utter- ances stand out, even in the rude and lawless age in which he lived, as surpassing almost everything recorded of his contemporaries, even those most closely in sjinpathy with his political and ecclesiasti- cal views. It is to his credit that he died, as he had lived, a poor man, and that he never enriched himself with the spoils of the Church which he had abandoned — a trait in which he contrasts singularly with the Protestant lords and lairds who were his friends and adherents. Of his ability and his power of influencing those among whom he lived antl laboured, there is no room to doubt. His gifts as a speaker and a preacher we have to take on the evidence of his contemporaries, whose testimony there is no need to question; of his command of his native tongue we have abundant proof in his writings, in particular in his "History", by far the most remarkable specimen of the vernacular Scots of the sixteenth century which has come down to us. The best edition of it is in his collected "Works", edited by David Laing in six volumes.

The best-known likeness of Knox (of whom no con- temporary portrait exists) is the woodcut of him in Beza's "Icones", published at Geneva in 15S0, and often since reproduced. Lord Torphichen possesses a portrait of him painted a century later, probably from Beza's. The so-called Somerville portrait, main- tained by Carlyle to be the only authentic likeness of Knox, apparently represents a divine of the seven- teenth century. Knox was survived by his widow,


who married again, and by two sons of his first mar- riage (who both died childless), and three daughters of his second. Descendants of his youngest daughter still exist.

Laing, Works of John Knox, with introductory and chrono* logical notes (6 vols., Edinburgh, 1895); McCrie, Life of Knox (2 vols., Edinburgh, 181.3); Hume Brown, John Knox (2 vols., London, 1845) ; Lang, John Knox and the Reformation (London, 1905); Miller. Jo/in Knox, the Hero of the Scottish Reformation (London, 1905) ; Gosse, Life and Times of John Knox (London, ISSS) ; Rogers, Genealogical Memoirs of John Knox (Grampian Club, 1S79); Taylor Innes, John Knox (Famous Scota Series. Edinburgh. 1896); Wilmot, John Knox and the Scottish Ref- ormation (Glasgow, Catholic Truth Society, s. d.); Mackat in Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v. (London, 1892); Carlyle, Essay on the Portraits of John Knox in Collected Works (London, 1885); Brown, The Life Star;/ of John Knox (London, 1905).

D. O. Hunter-Blair. Enut. See Canute.

Eober, Franz Quirin von, German canonist and pedagogist, b. of simple coimtryfolk on 6 March, 1S21, at Warthausen, Biberach, Wiirtemberg; d. at Tubingen, 25 January, 1897. He first attended the Latin school in the neighbouring town of Biberach, and subsequently, in accordance with the course pre- scribed for Catholic theologians of the Diocese of Rottenburg, entered the preparatory seminary at Ehingen on the Danube. From 1S4() to 1844 he pur- sued his studies in the .seminary (Wilhelmsstift) of Tu- bingen, and on 4 September, 1845, was ordained priest in Rottenburg. After only half a year's activity in the cure of souls at Ulm, Franz Kober tecame a tutor in the seminary at Tubingen, and lectured on philology and the Pauline Epistles. From 1S4S he taught canon law, to counteract the evil influence of the Josephinist professor Warnkonig, of the faculty of law, on which Catholic theological students even in Wiir- temberg had depended for their training in canon law according to a custom existing in Austria since Joseph II. On 28 January, 1851, Kober became professor extraordinary in the faculty of Catholic theology, teaching pedagogy, didactics, and the Pauline Epistles. He was appointed professor ordinary of canon law and pedagogy on 8 September, 1857, having been profeesor extraordinary since 19 April, 1853. As such he wrote with good historico-legal method some ex- cellent works: "Der Kirchenbann" (1857); "Die Suspension der Kirchendiencr" (1862); "Die Deposi- tion und Degradation" (1867). He ahso treated vari- ous ecclesiastico-criminal subjects ("Das Interdikt"; "Die kbrperliche Ziichtigung als kirchliches Straf- mittel gegen Kleriker und ilonche" ; "Die Gefangnis- strafe gegen Kleriker und Monche"; "Die Geldstrafen im Kirchenrecht") in a series of essays, the majority being lengthy treatises, published in the " Archiv fur katholisches Kirchenrecht" and especially in the "Theologische Quartalschrift" of Tubingen. In the last-named periodical appeared other essays on canon law ("Der Llrsprung und die reciitliehe Stellung der Generalvikare" ; "Der Eiutluss der Kirche und ihrer Gesetzgebung auf Gesittung, Iluinanitat und Ziyilisa- tion"; "Medizin und Kirchenrecht"; " Die Residenz- pflicht der Kirchendiencr bei feindliehen Verfol- gungen und ansteckenden Krankhciten") and many book-reviews. Kober was also a frequent contrib- utor to the first and second edition of the Freiburg " Kirchenlexikon ".

SAGMi'LLEH, Theoloo. QuartaUchr.. LXXX (1897). 569 sqq.

Johannes Baptist SAGMtJLLER.

Koberger (Koburger, Coberger), Anthony, German printer, publisher, and bookseller, b. about 1445; d. at Nuremberg, 3 October, 1513. He was de- scended from an old family of skilful artisans who had belonged to the town council as early as 1350, and was a goldsmith before he became a printer. After the completion of the first dated volume (.\lcinous, 24 Nov., 1472), Koberger's printing-house quickly devel- oped an activity reaching out in all directions, and about 200 works appeared before the year 1500,