Knox's life from the time of his return to Scotland in 1559 is a part of the history of his country. When the Reformed Protestant religion was formally ratified by law in Scotland in 1560 he was appointed minister of the Church of St. Giles, then the main church of Edinburgh. He was at this time in the fullness of his powers, as is manifest abundantly in the style of his “History of the Reformation”, a work which appears to have been begun about 1559, and completed in the course of the next six or seven years. Knox’s “History”, if sometimes rough and even coarse in language, is written with a force and vigor not surpassed by any of his other writings, of all which it may be said that whatever their faults, they are works of true genius, and well worthy in their character of the great leader and statesman who wrote them.