If the version given to Mrs. Locke be accurate, Knox had sufficient reasons for producing a different account in that portion of his “History” (Book ii.) which is a tract written in autumn, 1559, and in purpose meant for contemporary foreign as well as domestic readers.  The performances attributed to the brethren, in the letter to the London merchant’s wife, were of a kind which Calvin severely rebuked.  Similar or worse violences were perpetrated by French brethren at Lyons, on April 30, 1562.  The booty of the church of St. Jean had been sold at auction.  There must be no more robbery and pillage, says Calvin, writing on May 13, to the Lyons preachers.  The ruffians who rob ought rather to be abandoned, than associated with to the scandal of the Gospel.  “Already reckless zeal was shown in the ravages committed in the churches” (altars and images had been overthrown), “but those who fear God will not rigorously judge what was done in hot blood, from devout emotion, but what can be said in defence of looting?”

Calvin spoke even more distinctly to the “consistory” of Nimes, who suspended a preacher named Tartas for overthrowing crosses, altars, and images in churches (July-August, 1561).  The zealot was even threatened with excommunication by his fellow religionists. {113a} Calvin heard that this fanatic had not only consented to the outrages, but had incited them, and had “the insupportable obstinacy” to say that such conduct was, with him, “a matter of conscience.”  “But we” says Calvin, “know that the reverse is the case, for God never commanded any one to overthrow idols, except every man in his own house, and, in public, those whom he has armed with authority.  Let that fire-brand” (the preacher) “show us by what title he is lord of the land where he has been burning things.”

Knox must have been aware of Calvin’s opinion about such outrages as those of Perth, which, in a private letter, he attributes to the brethren:  in his public “History” to the mob.  At St. Andrews, when similar acts were committed, he says that “the provost and bailies . . . did agree to remove all monuments of idolatry,” whether this would or would not have satisfied Calvin.

Opponents of my view urge that Knox, though he knew that the brethren had nothing to do with the ruin at Perth, yet, in the enthusiasm of six weeks later, claimed this honour for them, when writing to Mrs. Locke.  Still later, when cool, he told, in his “History,” “the frozen truth,” the mob alone was guilty, despite his exhortations and the commandment of the magistrate.  Neither alternative is very creditable to the prophet.