JOHN KNOX (c.1514-1572) Few figures have had such an impact upon their native land as John Knox upon Scotland. He was born at Haddington near Edinburgh and after education at St Andrews was ordained a priest in 1536. He was converted to Protestantism through the influence of a Thomas Gwilliam. Other powerful forces in shaping the beliefs and character of Knox included the martyr George Wishart. After the death of Wishart in March 1546 and fearing the same fate, Knox sought refuge with the Protestant lairds who had occupied St Andrews castle. Called by the people to preach to them, Knox reluctantly accepted, at first refusing ‘to run where God had not called him’. There in April 1547 he preached his first Protestant sermon. An experience was to follow which would help to fit him for his life’s work. Paul exhorted Timothy to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:3). Knox’s ‘hardness’ began when St Andrews was raided by the French and he was taken captive. He was to spend nearly two years as a galley slave. During this time Knox was to embrace Luther’s doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone. He was released in March 1549. On gaining his liberty Knox was to labour as a preacher and reformer – in four different lands. During the reign of the Protestant monarch Edward VI of England (1537-1553), who was known as the ‘boy king’, Knox was much involved in the work of reforming the national Church of England. As a preacher at Berwick in the north of England, Knox denounced the Romish mass as idolatrous. In 1550 he wrote: “So odious and abominable I know the mass to be in God’s presence, that unless ye decline from the same, to life can ye never attain.” His authority was such that some progress was made in purging the liturgy of the Church of England of its popish and ritualistic features, such as the worship of the elements in the Lord’s Supper. The untimely death of the young Edward was followed by the accession to the throne of his half-sister Mary Tudor (1516-1558), a devout Romanist. With other prominent Reformers Knox fled to the Continent for safety. His lot was cast in the German city of Frankfurt, where he ministered to the English exiles. Knox was more radical (and biblical) in his conception of reformation than others and this led to a dispute which resulted in his departure to the Swiss city of Geneva in 1555. There he had interviews with reformers such as Calvin and Bullinger and observed what to him was “the most perfect school of Christ” since the days of the apostles. Many of the reformers in England and those who followed Luther believed that whatever was not specifically disallowed by the Word of God was permissible in the worship of the church. In contrast the Reformed Church in Switzerland accepted the ‘regulative principle’, the rule that only what is prescribed in Scripture has place in the worship that is to be offered to the Most High. In the same year Knox returned to his homeland and in autumn 1555 married the Englishwoman Marjory Bowes. After a brief period preaching to congregations assembled in the houses of sympathetic brethren he returned to Geneva to pastor the English congregation there. In 1558 he wrote one of his most famous works, The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regimen of Women, in which he argued that female sovereignty (Mary was presently queen) was opposed to both natural and divine law. Urged by Protestant lords to return again to Scotland to lead the growing Reformation movement, Knox arrived in May 1559. In conjunction with others Knox, by now the minister of St Giles, Edinburgh, authored the Scots Confession which was speedily ratified by the Scots Parliament. This Calvinistic creed would be the doctrinal standard of the Reformed Church in Scotland until superseded by the Westminster Confession of Faith in 1647. In addition the Book of Common Order and the First Book of Discipline (1567) directed the worship, government and discipline of the church and also made provision for their vision of a truly Christian nation. When Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587) returned to Scotland in August 1561 from her exile in France Knox was vehement in denouncing the masses which were conducted illegally in her private chapel. His three interviews with Mary are a model of faithfulness to the cause of Christ. Mary declaimed to him: “I will defend the Kirk of Rome, for I think it is the true Kirk of God.” Knox replied boldly: “Your will, Madam, is no reason; neither doth your thought make that Roman harlot to be the true and immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ.” From the pulpit Knox advocated Mary’s execution as an idolater. Her later reign was marked by intrigue and allegations of adultery: she abdicated in 1567. Knox subsequently preached at the coronation of her son, James VI of Scotland and I of England (1566-1625). Quite remarkably for one whose life had been so turbulent and filled with controversy, Knox died peacefully, in 1572. A section from The History of the Reformation of Religion within the Realm of Scotland (first complete edition published in 1644): “In the former Books, Gentle Reader, thou mayest clearly see how potently God hath performed, in these our last and wicked days, as well as in the ages before us, the promises made to the Servants of God by the Prophet Esaias, ‘They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall lift up the wings as the eagles: they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.’ What was our force? What was our number? What wisdom or worldly policy was in us, to have brought to a good end so great an enterprise?—our very enemies can bear witness. Yet in how great purity did God establish among us His True Religion, as well in doctrine as in ceremonies! As touching the doctrine taught by our Ministers, and as touching the Administration of Sacraments used in our Churches, we are bold to affirm, that there is no realm this day upon the face of the earth, that hath them in greater purity. Yea—we must speak the truth, whomsoever we offend—there is no realm that hath them in the like purity. All others—how sincere so ever the doctrine be that by some is taught—retain in their Churches, and in the Ministers thereof, some footsteps of Antichrist, and some dregs of Papistry; but we, all praise to God alone! have nothing within our Churches that ever flowed from that Man of Sin. This we acknowledge to be the strength given to us by God, because we esteemed not ourselves wise in our own eyes, but, understanding our own wisdom to be but foolishness before the Lord our God, we laid it aside, and followed only that which we found approved by Himself. In this point could never our enemies cause us to faint, for our First Petition was, ‘That the reverend face of the Primitive and Apostolic Church should be reduced (brought back) again to the eyes and knowledge of men.’ In that point, our God hath strengthened us till the work was finished, as the world may see.” The concluding part of The Letter to the Commonalty of Scotland (1558): Ye ought to prefer the glory of God, the promoting of Christ His Evangel and the salvation of your souls to all things that be in earth; and ye, although ye be but subjects, may lawfully require of your superiors, be it of your king, be it of your lords, rulers and powers, that they provide for you true preachers and that they expel such as under the names of pastors devour and destroy the flock, not feeding the same as Christ Jesus hath commanded. And if in this point your superiors be negligent, or yet pretend to maintain tyrants in their tyranny, most justly ye may provide true teachers for yourselves, be it in your cities, towns or villages; them ye may maintain and defend against all that shall persecute them and by that means shall labour to defraud you of that most comfortable food of your souls, Christ’s Evangel truly preached. Ye may moreover withhold the fruits and profits which your false bishops and clergy most injustly receive of you unto such time as they be compelled faithfully to do their charge and duties, which is to preach unto you Christ Jesus truly, rightly to minister His sacraments according to His own institution, and so to watch for the salvation of your souls, as is commanded by Christ Jesus Himself and by His Apostles Paul and Peter. If God shall move your hearts in His true fear to begin to practise these things and to demand and crave the same of your superiors, which most lawfully ye may do, then I doubt not but of His great mercy and free grace He shall illuminate the eyes of your minds that His undoubted verity shall be a lantern to your feet to guide and lead you in all the ways which His godly wisdom cloth approve. He shall make your enemies tremble before your faces, He shall establish His blessed Evangel amongst you to the salvation and perpetual comfort of yourselves and of your posterity after you. But and if (as God forbid) the love of friends, the fear of your princes and the wisdom of the world draw you back from God, and from His Son Christ Jesus, be ye certainly persuaded that ye shall drink the cup of His vengeance, so many I mean as shall contemn and despise this loving calling of your heavenly Father. It will not excuse you (dear Brethren) in the presence of God, neither yet will it avail you in the day of His visitation, to say: ‘We were but simple subjects; we could not redress the faults and crimes of our rulers, bishops and clergy. We called for reformation, and wished for the same, but lords’ brethren were bishops, their sons were abbots, and the friends of great men had the possession of the church, and so were we compelled to give obedience to all that they demanded.’ These vain excuses, I say, will nothing avail you in the presence of God who requireth no less of the subjects than of the rulers, that they decline from evil and that they do good, that they abstain from idolatry, superstition, blasphemy, murder and other such horrible crimes which His law forbiddeth and yet nonetheless are openly committed and maliciously defended in that miserable realm. And if ye think that ye are innocent because ye are not the chief authors of such iniquity, ye are utterly deceived. For God cloth not only punish the chief offenders, but with them doth He damn the consenters to iniquity; and all are judged to consent that knowing impiety committed give no testimony that the same displeaseth them. To speak this matter more plain, as your princes and rulers are injustly receive of you unto such time as they be compelled faithfully to do their charge and duties, which is to preach unto you Christ Jesus truly, rightly to minister His sacraments according to His own institution, and so to watch for the salvation of your souls, as is commanded by Christ Jesus Himself and by His Apostles Paul and Peter. If God shall move your hearts in His true fear to begin to practise these things and to demand and crave the same of your superiors, which most lawfully ye may do, then I doubt not but of His great mercy and free grace He shall illuminate the eyes of your minds that His undoubted verity shall be a lantern to your feet to guide and lead you in all the ways which His godly wisdom cloth approve. He shall make your enemies tremble before your faces, He shall establish His blessed Evangel amongst you to the salvation and perpetual comfort of yourselves and of your posterity after you. But and if (as God forbid) the love of friends, the fear of your princes and the wisdom of the world draw you back from God, and from His Son Christ Jesus, be ye certainly persuaded that ye shall drink the cup of His vengeance, so many I mean as shall contemn and despise this loving calling of your heavenly Father. It will not excuse you (dear Brethren) in the presence of God, neither yet will it avail you in the day of His visitation, to say: ‘We were but simple subjects; we could not redress the faults and crimes of our rulers, bishops and clergy. We called for reformation, and wished for the same, but lords’ brethren were bishops, their sons were abbots, and the friends of great men had the possession of the church, and so were we compelled to give obedience to all that they demanded.’ These vain excuses, I say, will nothing avail you in the presence of God who requireth no less of the subjects than of the rulers, that they decline from evil and that they do good, that they abstain from idolatry, superstition, blasphemy, murder and other such horrible crimes which His law forbiddeth and yet nonetheless are openly committed and maliciously defended in that miserable realm. And if ye think that ye are innocent because ye are not the chief authors of such iniquity, ye are utterly deceived. For God cloth not only punish the chief offenders, but with them doth He damn the consenters to iniquity; and all are judged to consent that knowing impiety committed give no testimony that the same displeaseth them. To speak this matter more plain, as your princes and rulers are criminal with your bishops of all idolatry committed, and of all the innocent blood that is shed for the testimony of Christ’s truth, and that because they maintain them in their tyranny, so are you (I mean so many of you as give no plain confession to the contrary) criminal and guilty with your princes and rulers of the same crimes, because ye assist and maintain your princes in their blind rage and give no declaration that their tyranny displeaseth you. This doctrine I know is strange to the blind world, but the verity I of it hath been declared in all notable punishments from the beginning. When the original world perished by water, when Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed by fire, and finally when Jerusalem was horribly destroyed, cloth any man think that all were alike wicked before the world? Evident it is that they were not if they shall be judged according to their external facts. For some were young and could not be oppressors, neither yet could defile themselves with unnatural and beastly lusts; some were pitiful and gentle of nature and did not thirst for the blood of Christ nor of His Apostles. But did any escape the plagues and vengeance which did apprehend the multitude? Let the Scriptures witness and the histories be considered, which plainly do testify that by the waters all flesh in earth at that time did perish (Noah and his family reserved), that none escaped in Sodom and in the other cities adjacent except Lot and his two daughters. And evident it is that in that famous city Jerusalem, in that last and horrible destruction of the same, none escaped God’s vengeance except so many as before were dispersed. And what is the cause of this severity, seeing that all were not alike offenders? Let flesh cease to dispute with God and let all man by these examples learn betimes to flee and avoid the society and company of the proud contemns of God if that they list not to be partakers of their plagues. The cause is evident if we can be subject without grudging to God’s judgements which in themselves are most holy and just. For in the original world none was found that either did resist tyranny and oppression that universally was used either yet that earnestly reprehended the same. In Sodom was none found that did againstand that furious and beastly multitude that did compass about and besiege the house of Lot. None would believe Lot that the city should be destroyed. And finally in Jerusalem was none found that studied to repress the tyranny of the priests who were conjured against Christ and His Evangel, but all fainted (I except ever such as gave witness with their blood or their flying that such impiety displeased them), all kept silence, by the which all approved iniquity and joined hands with the tyrants, and so were all arrayed and set as it had been in one battle against the Omnipotent and against His Son Christ Jesus. For whosoever gathereth not with Christ in the day of His harvest is judged to scatter. And therefore of one vengeance temporal were they all partakers. Which thing, as before I have touched, ought to move you to the deep consideration of your duties in these last and most perilous times. The iniquity of your bishops is more than manifest; their filthy lives infect the air; the innocent blood which they shed crieth vengeance in the ears of our God; the idolatry and abomination which openly they commit and without punishment maintain cloth corrupt and defile the whole land; and none amongst you cloth unfeignedly study for any redress of such enormities. Will God in this behalf hold you as innocents? Be not deceived, dear Brethren. God hath punished not only the proud tyrants, filthy persons and cruel murderers, but also such as with them did draw the yoke of iniquity, was it by flattering their offences, obeying their injust commandments or in winking at their manifest iniquity. All such, I say, hath God once punished with the chief offenders. Be ye assured, Brethren, that as He is immutable of nature, so will He not pardon in you that which so severely He hath punished in others; and now the less, because He hath plainly admonished you of the dangers to come and hath offered you His mercy before He pour forth His wrath and displeasure upon the inobedient. God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Father of glory and God of all consolation, give you the spirit of wisdom and open unto you the knowledge of Himself by the means of His dear Son, by the which ye may attain to the esperance and hope that, after the troubles of this transitorious life, ye may be partakers of the riches of that glorious inheritance which is prepared for such as refuse themselves and fight under the banner of Christ Jesus in the day of this His battle; that in deep consideration of the same ye may learn to prefer the invisible and eternal joys to the vain pleasures that are present. God further grant you His Holy Spirit, righteously to consider what I in His name have required of your nobility, and of you the subjects, and move you all together so to answer that my petition be not a testimony of your just condemnation when the Lord Jesus shall appear to revenge the blood of His saints and the contempt of His most holy Word. Amen. Sleep not in sin, for vengeance is prepared against all inobedient. Flee from Babylon if ye will not be partakers of her plagues. Be witness to my Appellation. Grace be with you. From Geneva. The 14 of July, I558. Your brother to command in godliness John Knox.