[BBC List] Marjorie

Fri May 25 08:32:58 EAST 2007

Reformed <http://www.reformedperspectives.org>  Perspectives Magazine,
Volume 9, Number 19, May 6 to May 12, 2007

Marjorie Bowes
Wife of Knox

J.
<http://thirdmill.org/magazine/search.asp/keyword/jh_alexander/category/maga
zine/site/iiim/searchtype/articles/allarticles/1>  H. Alexander

Form many years, members of the Alexander family were renowned as talented
Christian writers. J.H. Alexander became well known through her More Than
Notion - almost a Christian classic! This current article is taken from
Ladies of the Reformation, possibly her last work on account of failing
eyesight.

What an honoured place is given to godly women in the New Testament! And
throughout the history of the church of God there has been a succession of
women who have been shining examples in their life and witness. We think of
some who have suffered martyrdom for Jesus' sake, others who have been
devoted Christian wives and mothers, and yet others whose poetic gifts have
been made such a blessing.

The Reformation period was marked by a number of gracious women whom God
raised up. The word 'ladies' (rather than 'women') is specially used as so
many of them were titled ladies, ladies of royal or noble blood. We are
reminded of how the eminent Countess of Huntingdon used to refer to the
text, 'Not many noble are called' (1 Cor. 1. 26): and say, 'I thank God it
does not say, "Not any."'

MRS. BOWES and her daughter, Marjorie, were among the gentry of
Berwick-upon-Tweed at the time when John Knox was posted there by Archbishop
Cranmer in 1548. Knox was forty-four and only on the threshold of his great
career. His appointment as an itinerant preacher was a new one. It arose in
this way. Cranmer had been given authority under King Edward VI and his
Protector to spread the Reformation throughout England, but how could this
be achieved in practice? English Bibles were put in the churches and there
was much interest in the Reformed doctrines, but there was also great
ignorance and secret animosity in bishops and people alike. To place godly
ministers in appropriate pulpits did not seem enough. Then they hit upon the
excellent plan of inviting learned Protestants from the Continent and
placing them, some as professors at the universities to raise a body of
enlightened young men, and some as itinerant preachers. Knox had, two years
before this, been captured at St. Andrews by the French and put to the
galleys. On his release he dared not show himself in Scotland because of his
outspoken sermons there just before his capture. But he had hardly arrived
in London before he was recommended to the council for this work of
teacher-preacher, and was very soon allocated to Berwick, an important
garrison town. The work appealed greatly to him. He threw himself into it
with zeal and love, soon causing a remarkable change of heart in the
district as well as an improvement in manners, notably in the garrison.

Mrs. Bowes had already been drawn from popery towards the Reformed doctrines
but now 'received from his sermons much instruction and pleasure. She highly
esteemed his talents and character' and became as a mother to him. During
those two years a mutual attachment sprang up between Knox and Marjorie
Bowes, and before he left Berwick he 'made faithful promise to her before
witnesses'. However, Mr. Bowes, Sir Robert his elder brother, and some other
relations were opposed to the match, partly through family pride and partly
from lack of sympathy with the Reformation. On this account the marriage was
postponed and sorrowful letters reveal the wounded feelings on the part of
Knox and Marjorie towards their relations. By this time Knox had become one
of King Edward's royal chaplains (Latimer, Bradford, and Grindal were other
names), vested with more authority but still itinerating, sometimes in
London, sometimes in the West Country, sometimes North again. But 1553 came.
The young king died. Queen Mary came to the throne. Knox, up in Berwick, now
married his Marjorie, though her father still disliked the union. The ladies
were anxious that Knox should live permanently in the district, out of
danger's way, and Mrs. Bowes earnestly pleaded for her husband to use some
of his ample means to settle them in a suitable home, but nothing would
persuade him to it. Nor would Knox give up his work, which now held grave
danger. Poor Marjorie had to live under the constant frown of her father and
great anxiety for her husband. Courtiers and learned men who had had to
tolerate the bold words of the royal chaplains now turned on them and the
lives of these godly men were in jeopardy. Knox, back in London, narrowly
escaped death and fled to France.

With him out of the way, Marjorie and her mother were now subjected to quite
a persecution from the father's side of the family, not so much for holding
the Reformed doctrines as for foolishness in not conforming to the ruling of
the moment. But neither of them would yield. In spite of a timidity of
character (indeed Mrs. Bowes was a women of deep abasement of spirit for
whose encouragement Knox wrote his 'Fort for the Afflicted', an exposition
of Psalm 6) they 'determined not to forsake upon any consideration the faith
which they had embraced from full conviction of its truth'. Knox confirmed
them in this by his letters '. . . Continue stoutly to the end and bow you
never before that idol, and so will the rest of worldly troubles be unto me
more tolerable. . . . Comforting myself I appear to triumph that God shall
never suffer you to fall in that rebuke.' Throughout this persecution they
were able secretly to meet a few like-minded persons, and although deprived
of preaching they regularly enjoyed a simple form of worship together.

There came a happy reunion 'at the close of harvest 1555' but Knox really
wished to make a secret journey into Scotland. Meeting his friends there he
found 'an ardent thirst for the Word' and could not tear himself away.
Eventually Marjorie and her mother, who was now a widow, joined him in
Edinburgh, moving about from friend to friend. It was too dangerous for him
to settle, and when the next year he received an invitation to become pastor
to the English congregation in Geneva he felt he should accept. Marjorie and
her mother bade adieu to their friends 'with no small dolour to their hearts
and unto many of us' says Knox, and set sail from Leith to Dieppe. After
visiting and taking farewell of the brethren in different places (like
Paul), Knox followed them.

For three years they lived peacefully in Geneva and two sons were born
there. Marjorie was beloved by all who knew her abroad, Calvin calling her
'a wife whose equal is not everywhere to be found'. (He had lost his
Idelette seven years previously.) The friendship of Calvin, a little younger
than himself, was precious to Knox, but all the time he felt to be in exile,
so that when he received an invitation from the Scottish Protestant nobles
he responded to it at once, and went home in January 1559, leaving his
family until he felt assured of their safety in Scotland. They were duly
sent for in June and made the tedious journey - licences and passports
needed, much like today. Marjorie did not long survive the settlement in
Scotland. Though he now had a regular ministry and a 'comfortable
establishment for her and her children' it was too late. She died at the
close of that year, leaving this blessing to her two sons, Nathaniel and
Eleazar, 'that God, for his Son Christ Jesus' sake, would of his mercy make
them his true fearers, and as upright worshippers of him as any that ever
sprang out of Abraham's loins'.

The two boys grew up to be worthy sons of their godly parents. Both trained
at St. John's College, Cambridge, one becoming a Fellow and the other a
preacher at the college.

It was about two years after the death of Marjorie that Mary, Queen of Scots
arrived at Edinburgh, so that she never knew of the great troubles and
conflicts between those two opposite characters, which is now almost all
that the modern reader knows of Knox; events which have been highlighted and
distorted in many a novel and television play.

Thanks.

Charis,

Mike Abendroth

 <http://www.bbcchurch.org> www.bbcchurch.org

Ephesians 3:21 auvtw/| h` do,xa evn th/| evkklhsi,a| 

2 Tim 1:2b  "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord."

"Faith is not our physician; it only brings us to the Physician ... Faith is
not our saviour. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on
Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us;
that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for
our sins.  It is a sin-bearer that we need, and our faith cannot be a
sin-bearer. Faith can expiate no guilt; can accomplish no propitiation; can
pay no penalty; can wash away no stain; can provide no righteousness. It
brings us to the cross, . but in itself it has no merit and no virtue.
Faith is not Christ, nor the cross of Christ. Faith is not the blood, nor
the sacrifice; . Our faith does not divide the work of salvation between
itself and the cross. It is the acknowledgment that the cross alone saves,
and that it saves alone. Faith adds nothing to the cross, nor to its healing
virtue. It owns the fulness, and sufficiency, and suitableness of the work
done there, and bids the toiling spirit cease from its labours and enter
into rest. Faith does not come to Calvary to do anything. It comes to see
the glorious spectacle of all things done, and to accept this completion
without a misgiving as to its efficacy. It listens to the "It is finished!"
of the Sin-bearer, and says, "Amen."   

NOT FAITH, BUT CHRIST 

by Horatius Bonar 
(1808-1889) 

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