nd.

The dominie of the school at Linlithgow, Ninian Winzet by name, had lost
his place for being an idolater. In February he had brought to the
notice of our Reformer and of the Queen the question, "Is John Knox a
lawful minister?" If he was called by God, where were his miracles? If
by men, by what manner of men? On March 3, Winzet asked Knox for "your
answer in writing." He kept launching letters at Knox in March; on March
24 he addressed the general public; and, on March 31, issued an appeal to
the magistrates, who appear to have been molesting people who kept
Easter. The practice was forbidden in a proclamation by the Queen on May
31. {219a} "The pain is death," writes Randolph. {219b} If Mary was
ready to die for her faith, as she informed a nuncio who now secretly
visited her, she seems to have been equally resolved that her subjects
should not live in it.

Receiving no satisfactory _written_ answer from Knox, Winzet began to
print his tract, and then he got his reply from "soldiers and the
magistrates," for the book was seized, and he himself narrowly escaped to
the Continent. {219c} Knox was not to be brought to a written reply,
save so far as he likened his calling to that of Amos and John the
Baptist. In September he referred to his "Answer to Winzet's Questions"
as forthcoming, but it never appeared. {219d} Winzet was Mary's chaplain
in her Sheffield prison in 1570-72; she had him made Abbot of Ratisbon,
and he is said, by Lethington's son, to have helped Lesley in writing his
"History."

On June 29 the General Assembly, through Knox probably, drew up the
address to the Queen, threatening her and the country with the wrath of
God on her Mass, which, she is assured, is peculiarly distasteful to the
Deity. The brethren are deeply disappointed that she does not attend
their sermons, and ventures to prefer "your ain preconceived vain
opinion." They insist that adulterers must be punished with death, and
they return to their demands for the poor and the preachers. A new
rising is threatened if wicked men trouble the ministers and disobey the
Superintendents.

Lethington and Knox had one of their usual disputes over this manifesto;
the Secretary drew up another. "Here be many fair words," said the Queen
on reading it; "I cannot tell what the hearts are." {220a} She later
found out the nature of Lethington's heart, a pretty black one. The
excesses of the Guises in France were now the excuse or