reasurer, the earls
of Northampton, Shrewsbury, &c. the lord chamberlain and the
secretaries: After long reasoning with him, he was desired to take the
matter into farther consideration, and so was dismissed.
After the death of king Edward, he retired to Geneva, but soon left that
place and went to Francfort, upon the solicitation of the English
congregation there; their letter to him was dated September 24th, 1554.
While he was in this city, he wrote his admonition to England, and was
soon involved in troubles, because he opposed the English liturgy, and
refused to communicate after the manner it enjoined. Messrs Isaac and
Parry, supported by the English doctors, not only got him discharged to
preach, but accused him before the magistrates of high treason against
the emperor's son Philip and the queen of England, and to prove the
charge, they had recourse to the above-mentioned admonition, in which
they alledged he had called the one little inferior to Nero, and the
other more cruel than Jezebel. But the magistrates perceiving the design
of his accusers, and fearing lest he should some way or other fall into
their hands, gave him secret information of his danger, and requested
him to leave the city, for they could not save him if he should be
demanded by the queen of England in the emperor's name; and having taken
the hint, he returned to Geneva.
Here he wrote an admonition to London, Newcastle and Berwick; a letter
to Mary dowager of Scotland; an appeal to the nobility, and an
admonition to the commons of his own country; and his first blast of the
trumpet, &c. He intended to have blown this trumpet three times, if
queen Mary's death had not prevented him; understanding that an answer
was to be given to his first blast, he deferred the publication of the
second, till he saw what answer was necessary for the vindication of the
first.
While he was at Geneva, he contracted a close intimacy with Mr. John
Calvin, with whom he consulted on every emergency. In the end of harvest
1654, he returned home upon the solicitation of some of the Scots
nobility, and began privately to instruct such as resorted to him in the
true religion, among whom were the laird of Dun, David Forrest and
Elizabeth Adamson, spouse to James Baron burgess of Edinburgh; The
idolatry of the mass particularly occupied his attention, as he saw some
remarkable for zeal and godliness drawn aside by it; both in public and
private he exposed its impiety
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