Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/41

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

KtfOX KNOXVILLE 35 the queen regent while the English troops were investing Edinburgh, led to a truce and to the summons of the parliament to settle differences. Parliament assembled in August, 1560, and the reformed religion was establish- ed, and Roman Catholicism interdicted by law in Scotland. Knox retained the office of min- ister in the metropolis, and soon after the arri- val of the young Queen Mary (Aug. 21, 1561) he was summoned to her presence. Six in- terviews are recorded between him and the queen, and the questions which she raised were discussed by him with a freedom and rigor which once drove her to tears. She caused his arrest on a charge of treason in 1563, but all the councillors except the immediate de- pendants of the court voted for his acquittal. The vehemence of his public discourses led him into frequent difficulties. In 1562 he disputed publicly for three days with Abbot Quentin Kennedy at Maybole; in 1565 he quoted cer- tain texts which gave offence to the queen's consort (Darnley), and was for a short time prohibited from preaching ; he fled from Edin- burgh when Mary returned from Dunbar after the death of Rizzio ; and he preached a sermon at the coronation of the infant James VI. at Stirling, July 29, 1567. Under the brief re- gency of Moray the work of Knox seemed to be completed, and he thought of retiring to Geneva to end his days in peace. After the assassination of Moray, civil and religious con- fusion returned under the regency successively of Lennox and Mar. Weakened by a stroke of apoplexy in 1570, Knox yet reappeared in the pulpit, while Kirkaldy of Grange and others of his friends were forsaking the cause of the reformation, and while he differed from his brethren in the assembly about praying for the queen. So violent was the enmity excited by his animadversions, that, following the ad- vice of his friends, he left Edinburgh for St. Andrews, May 5, 1571. He returned in the following year, and his last energies were put forth in denunciations of the perpetrators of the massacre of St. Bartholomew's. The doc- trines of Knox embraced a Oalvinistic creed and a Presbyterian polity. The " Order of Geneva," a liturgy which he shared in prepar- ing for the use of the church at Frankfort, and subsequently employed in his congregation at Geneva, was introduced into Scottish Protes- tant churches in 1565. He introduced the Puritan element into those churches. The office of bishop he declined, disapproving what he regarded as unscriptural ceremonials. Chief- ly through his influence the adoration of the sacrament was abolished in the Book of Com- mon Prayer, which, by desire of the govern- ment, he aided in preparing under Edward VI. His character was marked by a stern realism, which could be beguiled by no social preten- sions, no conventional dignities, no pompous traditions. From this sprang his scornfyl bit- terness and his insensibility to the social graces and refinements which Mary exhibited person- ally, and sought to transplant from Paris to her native land. His preaching was distinguished for a headlong and vehement energy, which, as the English ambassador said, " put more life into him than 600 trumpets." Earnest and in- tense in every practical direction, his mind was not at all of a reflective or speculative cast, and as a thinker, save perhaps on political subjects, he takes no rank; his political views rather sprang from an instinctive sense than from the development of fundamental principles. The best known of his writings is the " Historie of the Reformation of Religion within the Realm of Scotland" (1584; mutilated ed. by David Buchanan, London and Edinburgh, 1644; com- plete ed., Edinburgh, 1732; after the most trustworthy manuscript, with other writings of Knox, by MacGavin, Glasgow, 1831). The collected edition of his works edited by David Laing is probably the most correct (6 vols., Edinburgh, 1846-'56). The principal biography of Knox is that by Thomas McCrie (1812 ; 6th ed., 1839). His biography in the 10th volume of Brandes's Leben und ausgewdhlte Schriften der Vdter und Begrunder der reformirfen Kirche (Elberfeld, 1862) is a valuable study. KNOX, Vicesimus, an English clergyman, born at Newington Green, Middlesex, Dec. 8, 1752, died in Tunbridge, Kent, Sept. 6, 1821. He was educated at St. John's college, Oxford. In 1778 he was elected master of Tunbridge school, and continued there for 33 years, and then settled in London. He is best known as the editor of the compilation entitled "Elegant Ex- tracts." His " Christian Philosophy " has passed through numerous editions. His works, with a biographical preface, were published in Lon- don in 1824 (7 vols. 8vo), including "Essays, Moral and Literary." KNOXVILLE, a city and the county seat of Knox co., Tennessee, situated at the head of steamboat navigation on the right or N. bank of the Holston river. 4 m. below the mouth of the French Broad, and 165 m. E. of Nashville; pop. in 1870, 8,682, of whom 2,609 were col- ored; in 1874, including suburbs, about 12,- 000. It is built on a healthy and elevated site, commanding a beautiful view of the river and surrounding country, and is the point of intersection of the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia railroad with the Knoxville and Ohio and Knoxville and Charleston lines. It is the principal commercial place of East Ten- nessee, and has a large wholesale trade in dry goods, hardware, boots and shoes, drugs, gro- ceries, <fec., with that part of the state and with the neighboring portions of the adjoining states. The chief manufactures are of iron, embracing nails, bar iron, car wheels, &c. There are also sash and blind factories, flour- ing and saw mills, and four banks with an ag- gregate capital of $270,000. It is the seat of East Tennessee university, with which is con- nected the state agricultural college, and which in 1873 had 14 professors and instructors, 325 students (125 collegiate), and a library of 1,200