Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/237

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THE PORTRAITS OF JOHN KNOX. 227 would it be to know what Theodoras Beza made of the ' twa picturis ' when they reached him at Geneva ; and where, if at all in reriim nafurd, they now are ! All we can guess, if there be any possibiHty of con- jecturing so much in the vague is, That these twa picturis might be portraits of His Majesty and Johannes Cnoxus by an artist of some real ability, intended as a silent protest against the Beza Pepper- box and Figure-head, in case the Icones ever came to a second edition ; which it never did. Unknown to his Scottish Majesty, and before the

  • Adrianc Yaensoun ' pictures got under way, or at

least before they were paid for. Monsieur Simon Gou- lart had got out his French translation of Beza's Book ; and with sufficient emphasis contradicted one of the above two Icons, that of ' Jean Cnoxe de Gif- ford en Ecosse,' the alone important of the two. Goulart had come to Geneva some eight or nine years before; was at this time Beza's esteemed colleague and co-presbyter, ultimately Beza's successor in the chief clerical position at Geneva ; a man aheady distin- guished in the world ; * wrote twenty-one books,' then of lively acceptance in the theological or literary world, Q2