“…If God shall move your hearts in his true fear, to begin to practice these things, and to demand and crave the same of your superiors (which most lawfully you may do), then I doubt not but, of his great mercy and free grace, he shall illuminate the eyes of your minds, that his undoubted verity shall be a lantern to your feet, to guide and lead you in all the ways which godly wisdom does approve. He shall make your enemies tremble before your faces; he shall establish his blessed evangel amongst you, to the salvation and perpetual comfort of yourselves, and of your posterity after you. But if (as God forbid) the love of friends, and fear of your princes, and the wisdom of the world, draw you back from God, and from his Son Christ Jesus: be you certainly persuaded, that you shall drink the cup of his vengeance – so many, I mean, as shall contemn and despise this loving calling of your heavenly Father.
“It will not excuse you, dear brethren, in the presence of God, neither yet will it avail you in the day of his visitation, to say, ‘ We were but simple subjects; we could not redress the faults and crimes of our rulers, bishops, and clergy; we called for reformation, and wished for the same; but lords’ brethren were bishops, their sons were abbots, and the friends of great men had the possession of the church; and so we were compelled to give obedience to all that they demanded.’
“And, if you think that you are innocent, because you are not the chief actors of such iniquity, you are utterly deceived. For God does not only punish the chief offenders, but with them does he damn the consenters to iniquity; and all are judged to consent, who, knowing [the] impiety committed, give no testimony that the same displeases them. To speak this matter more plainly; as your princes and rulers are criminal (with your bishops) of all idolatry committed, and of all the innocent blood that is shed for the testimony of Christ’s truth, and that because they maintain them in their tyranny; so are you (I mean so many of you as give no plain confession to the contrary) criminal and guilty of the same crimes with your princes and rulers, because you assist and maintain your princes in their blind rage, and give no declaration that their tyranny displeases you…”
“…For in the original world none was found that either did resist [the] tyranny and oppression that universally were used, either yet that earnestly reprehended the same. In Sodom none was found who did stand against that furious and beastly multitude that did compass about and besiege the house of Lot; none would believe Lot, that the city should be destroyed. And, finally, in Jerusalem none was found that studied to repress the tyranny of the priests, who were conjured against Christ and his evangel; but all fainted (I except such as gave witness with their blood, or their fleeing, that such impiety displeased them), all kept silence; by the which all approved iniquity, and joined hands with the tyrants, and so were all arrayed and set, as it had been in one battle, against the Omnipotent, and against his Son Jesus Christ. For whosoever gathers not with Christ in the day of his harvest, is judged to scatter. And therefore they were all partakers of one temporal vengeance. Which thing, as before I have touched, ought to move you to the deep consideration of your duties in these last and most perilous times.
“The iniquity of your bishops is more than manifest; their filthy lives infect the air; the innocent blood which they shed cries [for] vengeance in the ears of our God; the idolatry and abomination, which they commit openly, and without punishment maintain, does corrupt and defile the whole land; and none amongst you does unfeignedly study for any redress of such enormities. Will God, in this behalf, hold you as innocents? Be not deceived, dear brethren, God has punished not only the proud tyrants, filthy persons, and cruel murderers, but also such as with them did draw the yoke of iniquity, [whether] it was by flattering their offences, obeying their unjust commandments, or in winking at their manifest iniquity. All such, I say, has God once punished with the chief offenders. Be you assured, brethren, that as he is immutable of nature, so he will not pardon in you that which he has punished so severely in others: and now the less, because he has plainly admonished you of the dangers to come, and has offered you his mercy, before he pours forth his wrath and displeasure upon the disobedient…”
Excerpt from Letter Addressed to the Commonalty of Scotland 1558 by John Knox.
