he English ambassador, in his letters to his Government, not
only admits that they were "lothe to remytte anie thing of that that
thei _have receaved_,"[156] but also leads us to conclude that the
practice of their leading ministers in public worship at this early date
was not very dissimilar to that of their successors in the next
century. "The Byshop of Athens," he says, "preacheth earnestly, and
prayethe hartely for the Queene's Majestie our Soveraigne, and greatly
extollethe her benefyttes; Mr Wyllocke specially by name prayethe both
for France and Englande; Mr Knox, universally for all Prynces lyvinge in
the feare of God, desyring Him to turne the hartes of other, and to
sende them in the rycht way."[157] About the same period, in one of his
letters to Mrs Lock, Knox links together "Mr Parson's _pattering of his_
CONSTRAINED _prayers_" and "the masse-munging of Mr Vicar and of his
wicked companions," in such a way as shows that he was no great admirer
of the one or the other.[158] In tolerating for a little the use of the
morning and evening services of the Prayer Book of Edward VI., our
reformers can be judged inconsistent only by those who do not know that
in the time of the good King Edward considerably greater latitude was
allowed in the celebration of those services than has ever since been
suffered in the sister church. The minister, for instance, was expressly
permitted to shorten them _according_ to his _discretion_ when a sermon
or other divine ordinance was to follow. He had a sort of sanction for
any neglect of minuter directions as to kneeling, crossing, &c., from a
general rubric which intimated that these things were to be left free
"as every man's devotion serveth." He had also a pretty full indulgence
practically conceded for deviating from the strict injunctions of the
book in regard to surplices and other ecclesiastical vestments,[159]
which were never adopted or tolerated by Knox and his associates, the
rigid enforcement of which in the days of Queen Elizabeth produced great
misery and discontent at the time, and paved the way for more and
greater in the days of James and Charles, her successors. It is by no
means so clear as some have recently asserted it to be, that Knox used
this liturgy habitually when he was in England, acting as one of the
court chaplains and special preachers in the time of Edward VI. The
observance of the liturgy was not enforced in the northern part of the
kingdom when Kno