ork. He was the author of a
ballad, _The Welsh Harper_, which had great popularity, and gained for
him the notice of Hazlitt and others. For some years he studied medicine,
which, however, he abandoned for literature, and produced several plays,
including _Caius Gracchus_ (1815), _Virginius_ (1820), _The Hunchback_
(1832), and _The Love Chase_ (1837), in some of which he acted. He gave
up the stage in 1843, became a preacher in connection with the Baptist
communion, and enjoyed great popularity. He _pub._ two polemical works,
_The Rock of Rome_, and _The Idol demolished by its own Priests_.

KNOX, JOHN (1505?-1572).--Reformer and historian, was _b._ near
Haddington, and _ed._ at the Grammar School there and at Glasgow. He is
believed to have had some connection with the family of K. of Ranfurly in
Renfrewshire. The year of his birth was long believed to be 1505, but of
late some writers have found reason to hold that he was really _b._ some
years later, 1510 or even 1513. At Glasgow he was the pupil of John Major
(_q.v._), and became distinguished as a disputant. He is believed to have
been ordained a priest about 1530, after which he went to St. Andrews and
taught. About this time, however, there is a gap of 12 years or more,
during which almost nothing is known of his life. About 1545 he came
under the influence of George Wishart, who was burned as a heretic at
St. Andrews in the following year, and embraced the Reformation
principles, of which he became a champion on the Continent, in England,
and finally and especially in Scotland. He joined the reforming party in
St. Andrews in 1547, and was, much against his will, elected their
minister. The next year he was made prisoner, sent to France, and
condemned to the galleys, where he remained for nearly two years. For the
next five years he was in England, chiefly at Newcastle and Berwick,
where he was zealously engaged in propagating and defending the reformed
doctrines. On the accession of Mary in 1553 K. escaped to the Continent,
where he remained--at Dieppe, Frankfort on the Maine, and Geneva--until
1559. During this period, in addition to his pastoral and ecclesiastical
activities, he wrote copiously, the best known of his works of that time
being his _First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment
[government] of Women_. The first, it proved also the last, as he never
produced the other two which he promised or threatened. He finally
returned to Scotlan