in the way of perdition," characterises him as "worthy of hell,"
and threatens him, if he be not found simple, sincere, and fervent in
the cause of Christ's gospel, that he shall "taste of the same cup that
politic heads have drunken in before him." This is all, I take it, out
of respect for the Reformer's own position; if he is going to be
humiliated, let others be humiliated first; like a child who will not
take his medicine until he has made his nurse and his mother drink of it
before him. "But I have, say you, written a treasonable book against the
regiment and empire of women.... The writing of that book I will not
deny; but prove it treasonable I think it shall be hard.... It is hinted
that my book shall be written against. If so be, sir, I greatly doubt
they shall rather hurt nor (than) mend the matter." And here come the
terms of capitulation; for he does not surrender unconditionally, even
in this sore strait: "And yet if any," he goes on, "think me enemy to
the person, or yet to the regiment, of her whom God hath now promoted,
they are utterly deceived in me, _for the miraculous work of God,
comforting His afflicted by means of an infirm vessel, I do acknowledge,
and the power of his most potent hand I will obey. More plainly to
speak, if Queen Elizabeth shall confess, that the extraordinary
dispensation of God's great mercy maketh that lawful unto her which both
nature and God's law do deny to all women_, then shall none in England
be more willing to maintain her lawful authority than I shall be. But if
(God's wondrous work set aside) she ground (as God forbid) the justness
of her title upon consuetude, laws, or ordinances of men, then"--Then
Knox will denounce her? Not so; he is more politic nowadays--then, he
"greatly fears" that her ingratitude to God will not go long without
punishment.

His letter to Elizabeth, written some few months later, was a mere
amplification of the sentences quoted above. She must base her title
entirely upon the extraordinary providence of God; but if she does this,
"if thus, in God's presence, she humbles herself, so will he with tongue
and pen justify her authority, as the Holy Ghost hath justified the
same in Deborah, that blessed mother in Israel."[77] And so, you see,
his consistency is preserved; he is merely applying the doctrine of the
"First Blast." The argument goes thus: The regiment of women is, as
before noted in our work, repugnant to nature, contumely to God, and a