John Knox: Scottish Religious Reformer

Martin Luther is synonymous with Protestantism in Germany. In France, John Calvin led the reform movement. Scotland, too, had its giant of ecclesiastical reform in John Knox. His opposition to the Roman Church and its rituals made him a controversial figure in his own day, and his writings, such as his First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, have earned him the scorn of many right down to the present. Not the least of his political and theological enemies were the Protestant Queen Elizabeth of England and the Catholic Queen Mary of Scotland.

It’s little wonder that John Knox grew to be such a troublemaker. His earlier days are a classic example of what parents and teachers like to call ‘associating with the ‘wrong’ sort.’ Ordained a Catholic priest, he came into contact with many of the leading reformers throughout Europe. His early years are not well documented, but he most probably attended St. Andrews University, where Patrick Hamilton taught before he was burned at the stake for heresy. However, while conservative churchmen might consider Hamilton and like-minded people the wrong sort, an increasing number of the common folk embraced their interpretation of biblical doctrines.

Knox, too, felt attracted to these views, and his curiosity was nourished by George Wishart, who had earlier fled Scotland, studied under reformers in England and on the Continent, and then returned to his native country, more passionate about reform than ever.

While Wishart’s preaching kept him in the forefront of the reform movement, Knox was content to live in his shadow, serving as tutor to the sons of Hugh Douglas and Alexander Cockburn, two influential Protestant noblemen, and as Wishart’s bodyguard. They must have made a rather incongruous-looking pair, Wishart with Bible in hand and Knox with a sword, but their fears were not unfounded. In a frenzy of violence that did neither faction any credit, Wishart was arrested, tried, and convicted of heresy for preaching against the Catholic Mass. On the 18th anniversary of Hamilton’s death, Cardinal Beaton, the nephew of the man who had burned Hamilton, sent Wishart to the same end. Knox reputedly offered to go to the stake with Wishart, who dissuaded him, saying, ‘One is sufficient for one sacrifice.’

Within weeks, Beaton himself was dead at the hands of vengeful Scottish Protestants, who then took refuge in the dead archbishop’s palace, St. Andrews Castle. Douglas and Cockburn instructed Knox to take their sons to the castle and to continue tutoring them under the protection of the rebels inside. Knox, seemingly holding a more realistic view of the castle’s potential as a long-term sanctuary, and less than eager to throw in his lot with a murderous mob at any rate, obeyed very grudgingly. Bereft of their former spiritual leader, the dissidents then invited Knox to play that role for them. It was not a calling Knox had looked for, and he is said to have shed tears over the prospect of taking up Wishart’s crusade in such a conspicuous way. However, he felt a divine calling to fill the role, and did so. His ‘parishioners’ may have wondered what they had gotten themselves into. Far from behaving as though he felt indebted to them, Knox, in his sermons, challenged the questionable morality of his own flock as much as they did the established Church.

The little kingdom within St. Andrews Castle did not retain its independence for long. The rebels appealed to Protestant England for aid, while the Scottish governor begged help from the French. Either the governor was more persuasive or the French Catholics were more zealous, for the French arrived first and retook the castle, capturing the rebels. They forced Knox to serve aboard a French slave galley for the next 19 months. His health was never the same afterwards.

The English ultimately intervened on Knox’s behalf and secured his release. The kingdom of Edward VI had embraced Protestantism and, much like the mob in St. Andrews Castle, used Knox to promote their own schemes. He was given a license to preach and sent north to Berwick-upon-Tweed, about as close to Scotland as he dared to venture. There he led a congregation and met his future wife, Marjorie Bowes. For the next two years he preached throughout various parts of England, playing an important role in shaping English Protestantism. But he grew to be an outspoken and politically volatile figure, beholden to no one and subservient only to his own conscience. He turned down high offices extended to him by the Duke of Northumberland after King Edward’s death, wary of the Duke’s motives and ambitions, and unwilling to settle for the reforms that had taken hold in England, which he believed did not go far enough. Instead, he devoted himself mostly to simple itinerant preaching.