though he had now some knowledge of both tongues, but he preached
to the men who did the work. The perfections of Genevan Church
discipline delighted him. "Manners and religion so sincerely reformed I
have not yet seen in any other place." The genius of Calvin had made
Geneva a kind of Protestant city state [Greek text]; a Calvinistic
Utopia--everywhere the vigilant eyes of the preachers and magistrates
were upon every detail of daily life. Monthly and weekly the magistrates
and ministers met to point out each other's little failings. Knox felt
as if he were indeed in the City of God, and later he introduced into
Scotland, and vehemently abjured England to adopt, the Genevan
"discipline." England would none of it, and would not, even in the days
of the Solemn League and Covenant, suffer the excommunication by
preachers to pass without lay control.

It is unfortunate that the ecclesiastical polity and discipline of a
small city state, like a Greek [Greek word polis], feasible in such a
community as Geneva at a moment of spiritual excitement, was brought by
Knox and his brethren into a nation like Scotland. The results were a
hundred and twenty-nine years of unrest, civil war, and persecution.

Though happy in the affection of his wife and Mrs. Bowes, Knox, at this
time, needed more of feminine society. On November 19, 1556, he wrote to
his friend, Mrs. Locke, wife of a Cheapside merchant: "You write that
your desire is earnest to see me. Dear sister, if I should express the
thirst and languor which I have had for your presence, I should appear to
pass measure. . . . Your presence is so dear to me that if the charge of
this little flock . . . did not impede me, my presence should anticipate
my letter." Thus Knox was ready to brave the fires of Smithfield, or,
perhaps, forgot them for the moment in his affection for Mrs. Locke. He
writes to no other woman in this fervid strain. On May 8, 1557, Mrs.
Locke with her son and daughter (who died after her journey), joined Knox
at Geneva. {73}

He was soon to be involved in Scottish affairs. After his departure from
his country, omens and prodigies had ensued. A comet appeared in
November-December 1556. Next year some corn-stacks were destroyed by
lightning. Worse, a calf with two heads was born, and was exhibited as a
warning to Mary of Guise by Robert Ormistoun. The idolatress merely
sneered, and said "it was but a common thing." Such a woman was
incorrigi