Note 181 — MR. FROUDE'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.[177] SECOND ARTICLE.

He had previously denounced his sovereign from the pulpit as an incorrigible idolatress and an enemy whose death would be a public blessing. Randolph writes to Cecil February, 1564, "They pray that God will either turn her heart or send her a short life;" adding, "of what charity or spirit this proceedeth, I leave to be discussed by the great divines." And yet we must not hastily condemn Knox, although a man fifty-eight years of age, of indiscriminate sourness and severity to all young women. He was at that very time paying his addresses to a girl of sixteen.