The Manuscript of the History of the Reformation which has been followed in this edition, fully confirms the preceding statements regarding the period of its composition. It also serves to shew that no suppressions or alterations had been made by his friends, after his death, in these Four Books. Such an intention is alluded to, in a letter, dated from Stirling, 6th August 1572, and addressed to Randolph, by George Buchanan:—“As to Maister Knox, his Historie is in hys freindes handes, and thai ar in consultation to mitigat sum part the acerbite of certain wordis, and sum taunts wherein he has followit too muche sum of your Inglis writaris, as M. Hal. et suppilatorem ejus Graftone, &c.” The Manuscript contains Four Books, transcribed by several hands, and at different intervals. Notwithstanding this diversity of hand-writing, there is every reason to believe that the most considerable part of the volume was written in the year 1566, although it is not improbable that in the Second and Third Books a portion of the original MS. of 1559 may have been retained. The marginal notes, which specify particular dates, chiefly refer to the years 1566, or 1567, and they leave no doubt in regard to the actual period when the bulk of the MS. was written, as those bearing the date 1567 are clearly posterior to the transcription of the pages where they occur. Some of these notes, as well as a number of minute corrections, are evidently in Knox’s own hand; but the latter part of Book Fourth could not have been transcribed until the close of the year 1571. This is proved by the circumstance that the words, “Bot wnto this day, the 17. of December 1571,” form an integral part of the text, near the foot of fol. 359, in “The Ressonyng betuix the Maister of Maxwell and John Knox.” The whole of this section indeed is written somewhat hastily, like a scroll-copy, probably by Richard Bannatyne, his Secretary, from dictation; but whether it was merely rewritten in 1571, or first added in that year to complete Book Fourth, must be left to conjecture.
I.—Manuscript of 1566.—In the Editor’s possession.
The accompanying leaf exhibits an accurate fac-simile of part of the first page of the MS; and it is worthy of notice, that in the Wodrow Miscellany, vol. i. p. 287, a fac-simile of a paper entitled “The Kirkis Testimonial, &c.,” dated 26th December 1565, is evidently by the same hand.4 It has the signatures of three of the Superintendents, Erskine of Dun, John Spottiswood, and John Wynram, as well as that of John Knox. As this was a public document, and was no doubt written by the Clerk of the General Assembly, we may infer that Knox’s amanuensis, in 1566, was either John Gray, who was Scribe or Clerk to the Assembly from 1560 till his death in 1574, or one of the other Scribes whom Knox mentions, in his interview with Queen Mary, in 1563, as having implicit confidence in their fidelity. But this is no very important point to determine, since the Manuscript itself bears such unequivocal proofs of having passed through the Author’s hands. Two short extracts, (corresponding with pages 109 and 115 of this volume,) are also selected on account of the marginal notes, both of which I think are in Knox’s own hand. Further specimens of such notes or corrections will be given in the next volume. At fol. 249, four leaves are left blank to allow the form of “The Election of the Superintendant” to be inserted; but this can be supplied from either the Glasgow MS. or the early printed copies. A more important omission would have been the First Book of Discipline, but this the MS. fortunately contains, in a more genuine state than is elsewhere preserved; and it will form no unimportant addition to the next volume of the History.
The volume consists of 388 folios, chiefly written, as already stated, in the year 1566. No trace of its earlier possessors can be discovered; but the name of “Mr. Matthew Reid, Minister of North-Berwick” (from 1692 to 1729,) written on the first page, identifies it with a notice, which is given by the Editor of the 1732 edition: “There is also a complete MS. copy of the first four Books of this History belonging now to Mr. Gavin Hamilton, Bookseller in Edinburgh, which formerly belonged to the late Reverend Mr. Matthew Reid, Minister of the Gospel at North-Berwick; it is written in a very old hand, the old spelling is kept, and I am informed that it exactly agrees with the Glasgow MS., with which it was collated, during the time this edition was a printing.” (page liii.)
This MS., came into the possession of the Rev. John Jamieson, D.D., probably long before the publication of his Etymological Dictionary in 1808, where he mentions his having two MSS. of Knox’s History, (this, and the one marked No. VIII.) in his list of authorities; but neither of them was known, and consequently had never been examined by Dr. MʻCrie. At the sale of Dr. Jamieson’s library in 1839, both MSS. were purchased by the Editor.