Knox, << noks, >> John (1514?-1572), led the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. His strong personality and fiery preaching made him one of the most powerful Scots of his day. Under his leadership, the Church of Scotland adopted a declaration of faith, a form of government, and a liturgy. The Church reflected the teachings of the reformer John Calvin, who greatly influenced Knox.
Early years.
Knox was born near Haddington, east of Edinburgh. Little is known of his early life, except that he probably attended the University of St. Andrews. He became a Catholic priest in 1536. In those days, Scotland was one of the poorest, most backward countries of Europe. For many years, Scottish kings had been weak. Some had been children controlled by regents. The country was often torn by conflict between nobles. The church owned much of the nation’s wealth, and the kings and nobles controlled the church. Politically, Scotland was merely one small part of the rivalry between France and England.
During Knox’s early years, a few Scots tried to become Protestant reformers, though they had little hope for reform in either church or government. In the early 1540’s, Knox became a follower of the Protestant reformer George Wishart. Early in 1546, Wishart was arrested on the orders of Cardinal Beaton of St. Andrews, and was burned at the stake on a charge of heresy. In revenge, a group of Protestants assassinated the cardinal later that year and seized the castle of St. Andrews, his residence. Knox did not take part in the assassination, but he joined the Protestants in the castle. Mary of Guise, the Roman Catholic pro-French regent of Scotland, asked for assistance from France. The French fleet captured the castle of St. Andrews in July 1547, and Knox and several others were taken to France as galley slaves.
Later career.
In 1549, the English government obtained the release of Knox and his associates. The government wanted them to build a pro-English Protestant party in Scotland. However, the pro-French Catholics in Scotland were too strong, and so Knox went to England as a minister. He preached in Berwick for two years and became known as a radical Protestant reformer. In 1553, Mary Tudor became Queen of England and made Roman Catholicism the state religion again. Knox was one of the Marian Exiles—Protestants who fled to the European continent as religious refugees. While there, Knox met John Calvin in Geneva.
Late in 1554, Knox became pastor of a church of English refugees in Frankfurt (am Main), Germany. He was forced to leave Frankfurt after a conflict with moderate Protestants. He returned to Geneva with most of the English radicals from Frankfurt, and founded a new refugee church. In Geneva, Knox corresponded secretly with Protestants in England, Scotland, and France. He also wrote pamphlets justifying the rights of persecuted people to rebel against tyrannical rulers.
Queen Mary died in 1558, and her successor, Queen Elizabeth, restored England’s independent state religion. Many Marian Exiles returned, and Knox arrived in Scotland in 1559. The English government helped him and his associates establish Protestantism as Scotland’s national religion. Under Knox’s leadership, the Scottish Parliament established a Reformed Protestant national church in 1560.
From 1560 until his death on Nov. 24, 1572, Knox was Scotland’s most powerful political and religious leader. He was appointed minister of Edinburgh and preached at St. Giles’s Cathedral, which became the political and religious center of Scotland. Knox’s History of the Reformation in Scotland (published in the 1580’s, after his death) is a dramatic autobiographical account of the Scottish Reformation to about 1564.
See also Calvin, John ; Presbyterians ; Reformation .
