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of Pharaoh, whose subjects they long were, I pray you, madam, what
religion would there have been in the world? Or if all men in the days
of the apostles had been of the religion of the Roman emperors, what
religion would there have been upon the face of the earth? ... And so,
madam, ye may perceive that subjects are not bound to the religion of
their princes, albeit they are commanded to give them obedience.”
Said Mary: “Ye interpret the Scriptures in one manner, and they
[the Roman Catholic teachers] interpret in another; whom shall I
believe, and who shall be judge?”
“Ye shall believe God, that plainly speaketh in His word,” answered
the Reformer; “and farther than the word teaches you, ye neither shall
believe the one nor the other. The word of God is plain in itself; and
if there appear any obscurity in one place, the Holy Ghost, which is
never contrary to Himself, explains the same more clearly in other
places, so that there can remain no doubt but unto such as obstinately
remain ignorant.”—David Laing, The Collected Works of John Knox,
vol. 2, pp. 281, 284.
Such were the truths that the fearless Reformer, at the peril of his
life, spoke in the ear of royalty. With the same undaunted courage he
kept to his purpose, praying and fighting the battles of the Lord, until
Scotland was free from popery.
In England the establishment of Protestantism as the national re-
ligion diminished, but did not wholly stop, persecution. While many
of the doctrines of Rome had been renounced, not a few of its forms
were retained. The supremacy of the pope was rejected, but in his
place the monarch was enthroned as the head of the church. In the
service of the church there was still a wide departure from the purity
and simplicity of the gospel. The great principle of religious liberty
was not yet understood. Though the horrible cruelties which Rome em-
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ployed against heresy were resorted to but rarely by Protestant rulers,
yet the right of every man to worship God according to the dictates
of his own conscience was not acknowledged. All were required to
accept the doctrines and observe the forms of worship prescribed by
the established church. Dissenters suffered persecution, to a greater or
less extent, for hundreds of years.
In the seventeenth century thousands of pastors were expelled
from their positions. The people were forbidden, on pain of heavy
fines, imprisonment, and banishment, to attend any religious meetings