re robbery and pillage, says Calvin, writing on May
13, to the Lyons preachers. The ruffians who rob ought rather to be
abandoned, than associated with to the scandal of the Gospel. "Already
reckless zeal was shown in the ravages committed in the churches" (altars
and images had been overthrown), "but those who fear God will not
rigorously judge what was done in hot blood, from devout emotion, but
what can be said in defence of looting?"

Calvin spoke even more distinctly to the "consistory" of Nimes, who
suspended a preacher named Tartas for overthrowing crosses, altars, and
images in churches (July-August, 1561). The zealot was even threatened
with excommunication by his fellow religionists. {113a} Calvin heard
that this fanatic had not only consented to the outrages, but had incited
them, and had "the insupportable obstinacy" to say that such conduct was,
with him, "a matter of conscience." "But _we_" says Calvin, "know that
the reverse is the case, for God never commanded any one to overthrow
idols, except every man in his own house, and, in public, those whom he
has armed with authority. Let that fire-brand" (the preacher) "show us
by what title _he_ is lord of the land where he has been burning things."

Knox must have been aware of Calvin's opinion about such outrages as
those of Perth, which, in a private letter, he attributes to the
brethren: in his public "History" to the mob. At St. Andrews, when
similar acts were committed, he says that "the provost and bailies . . .
did agree to remove all monuments of idolatry," whether this would or
would not have satisfied Calvin.

Opponents of my view urge that Knox, though he knew that the brethren had
nothing to do with the ruin at Perth, yet, in the enthusiasm of six weeks
later, claimed this honour for them, when writing to Mrs. Locke. Still
later, when cool, he told, in his "History," "the frozen truth," the mob
alone was guilty, despite his exhortations and the commandment of the
magistrate. Neither alternative is very creditable to the prophet.

In the "Historie of the Estate of Scotland," it is "the brethren" who
break, burn, and destroy. {113b} In Knox's "History" no mention is made
of the threat of death against the priests. In the letter to Mrs. Locke
he says, apparently of the threat, perhaps of the whole affair, "which
thing did so enrage the venom of the serpent's seed," that she decreed
death against man, woman, and child in Perth, after the