Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

principle, and no doctrine less broad than this
which Knox now proclaimed could have sustained
the weight of such a Reformation as Scotland
needed.
"Others sned [lopped] the branches of the
Papistrie," said some of his hearers, "but he strikes
at the root to destroy the whole."[1] Hamilton and
Wishart had stopped short of this. They had
condemned abuses, and pointed out the doctrinal
errors in which these abuses had their source, and
they had called for a purging out of scandalous
persons -- in short, a reform of the existing Church.
Knox came with the ax in his hand to cut down the
rotten tree. He saw at once the point from which he
must set out if he would arrive at the right goal.
Any principle short of this would but give him an
improved Papacy, not a Scriptural Church -- a
temporary abatement to be followed by a fresh
outburst of abuses, and the last end of the Papacy
in Scotland would be worse than the first. Greater
than Hamilton, greater than Wishart, Knox took
rank with the first minds of the Reformation, in the
depth and comprehensiveness of the principles
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