by conspirators in his
stronghold, and cut off by "a fate as tragical and ignominious" as
almost "any that has ever been recorded in the long catalogue of human
crimes."[84] Only the deep feeling of relief thus given from merciless
oppression could prompt or excuse the lines of Sir David Lindsay--

"As for the Cardinal, I grant
He was a man we weill culd want,
And we'll forget him sune;
But yet I think the sooth to say,
Although the loon is weill away,
The deed was foully dune."[85]

When it became known that the conspirators who assassinated Betoun
meant to hold the castle of St Andrews, they were joined by a
considerable number of their friends from among the reforming gentry of
Fife, and gradually by others from a greater distance who were friendly
to the Reformation and the English alliance, and in consequence were
then being subjected to many annoyances at the hands of the regent and
his new following. Among these last, about Pasche 1547--in charge of his
pupils, the sons of certain lairds in East Lothian--came John Knox,
whose life, ever since he had cast in his lot with Wishart, had been
made so miserable to him by the regent's bastard brother[86]--the
aspirant to the vacant archbishopric--that, but for this refuge
unexpectedly opened to him, he would have found it necessary to leave
his native land and follow Alesius, Fyfe, and others to Germany or
Switzerland. At the time when he arrived in St Andrews there was a truce
between the regent and the occupants of the castle, and with the latter
the inhabitants of the city had pretty free intercourse. The reforming
citizens resorted at times to the services in the chapel of the castle;
and John Rough, the chaplain of the garrison, under the powerful
protection he enjoyed, occasionally forced his way into the parish
church and preached there to the assembled citizens.

[Sidenote: His Call to the Ministry.]

Knox was no sooner settled in St Andrews than he resumed the system he
had followed with good effect in East Lothian, causing his pupils to
give account of their catechism in public to all who chose to come, and
opening up in a plain and colloquial manner the Gospel of St John. His
great ability and success as a teacher, and his wonderful gift of
persuasive speech, thus became generally known. After private but
unsuccessful efforts had been made by Balnaves and others to induce him
to become colleague to John Rough, a formal call t