John Knox

Portrait of Knox from the original in the possession of Lord Torpichen at Calder House.

For other people named John Knox, see John Knox (disambiguation).

John Knox (c. 1514 – November 24, 1572) was a Scottish clergyman and a leader of the Protestant Reformation. He was born a peasant and educated at the University of St Andrews. Influenced by early church reformers such as Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart, he was caught up in the ecclesiastical and political maelstrom of that period, taken prisoner by the French, and exiled to England, Germany, and Switzerland.

He was licenced to work in the Church of England where he quickly rose in the ranks eventually to serve the King of England, Edward VI as a royal chaplain. After gaining the trust of English Protestants, he was able to influence the text of the Book of Common Prayer. He was forced to resign his position when Mary Tudor ascended the throne. While in England, he met and married his first wife, Marjorie, of English noble origin.

Knox fled to Geneva, Switzerland and Frankfurt, Germany. In Frankfurt he headed the English refugee church, but he was forced to leave due to differences concerning the liturgy, thus ending his association with the Church of England. While in Geneva he gained experience and knowledge from John Calvin with regards to theology and church polity and he formed a new order of service.

On his return to Scotland, he led the Protestant Reformation in Scotland, assisted by the Scottish Protestant nobility. The movement was, in effect, a revolution, as the queen regent Mary of Guise was ousted. Knox participated in writing the confession of faith and the ecclesiastical order for the newly created reformed church, the Kirk. He continued to serve as the religious leader of the Protestants during the reign of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. In interviews with the queen, he admonished her support of Catholic practices. Eventually, he openly attacked her in sermons while she was imprisoned and James VI was enthroned. He continued to preach until his dying days.

Early life

Until 1904, John Knox's accepted date of birth was 1505. An eminent historian of Scotland, Hay Fleming, made an exhaustive study of the evidence and concluded that Knox's birth should be placed between 1513 and 1515. Most modern scholars accept this range as his date of birth. His place of birth is not known for certain. It was originally thought to be the village of Gifford in East Lothian, while more recent sources state that it is Haddington, the county town of East Lothian. His father, William Knox, was a peasant. All that is known of his mother is that her maiden name was Sinclair and that she died when John Knox was a child.

Knox was educated in grammar school in Haddington. At that period of time, the priesthood was the only path for those whose inclinations were studious rather than mercantile or agricultural. Early biographies have stated that Knox proceeded to further studies in the priesthood at the University of Glasgow noting that a “John Knox” is recorded to have enrolled there in 1522. However, that name is quite common and the identification of the Glasgow student with the reformer cannot be made with certainty. Modern biographies state that Knox enrolled at the University of St Andrews and studied under John Major, one of the greatest scholars of his time. He never took a degree as evidenced by records that refer to him as "Sir John Knox", the designation of a nongraduate priest.

Knox first appeared in public records as a priest and a notary in 1540. He still served in these capacities as late as 1543. In a notarial deed dated 27 March, he writes in his own handwriting, "John Knox, minister of the sacred altar, of the Diocese of St Andrews, notary by Apostolical authority". Rather than taking up parochial duties in a parish, he became a tutor to two sons of Hugh Douglas of Longniddry. John Cockburn of Ormiston, a neighbor, also put his son under his tuition. Both of these lairds had embraced the new religious ideas of the Reformation sweeping Europe at this time.

From a priest to a defender of reformers

Knox did not record when or how he was converted to the Protestant faith. He wrote about the early reformers of the Reformation in Scotland such as Patrick Hamilton who was executed by the Archbishop of St Andrews, James Beaton. Another convert that influenced Knox was Thomas Guillaume, a fellow native of East Lothian and a former member of the order of Black Friars. His sermons supposedly convinced Knox of the truthfulness of reformed doctrines. Perhaps his greatest influence, however, was George Wishart. Wishart was banished to England by the Bishop of Brechin in 1538 and had returned to Scotland in 1544 preaching in favour of the reformation. Knox became one of Wishart's closest associates. He acted as Wishart's body-guard, bearing a two-handed sword in order to defend Wishart against supporters of Cardinal David Beaton, the nephew of James Beaton and the leader of the anti-Protestant movement within the Scottish church.

In December 1545, Wishart was seized on Beaton's orders by Patrick Hepburn and taken to the Castle of St Andrews. Knox was present on the night of Wishart's arrest and he was prepared to follow him into captivity, but Wishart persuaded him against this course however, saying, "Nay, return to your bairns [pupils] and God bless you. One is sufficient for one sacrifice." Wishart was subsequently prosecuted by Beaton's Public Accuser of Heretics, John Lauder and on 1 March 1546 at a well-recorded heresy trial, he was burnt at the stake at St Andrews in the presence of Cardinal Beaton.

It is not known exactly what happened to Knox immediately after Wishart's arrest. He may had gone into hiding or taken refuge in Longniddry. However, several months later Knox was still in charge of the pupils, the sons of Douglas and Cockburn, who wearied of moving from place to place while being pursued. A change of fortune occurred when on 29 May 1546, Cardinal Beaton was murdered by a gang of five persons claiming vengeance for Wishart.

The Castle of St Andrews, Cardinal Beaton's former residence, became a place of refuge for many Scottish Protestants. Knox, being a marked man, toyed with the idea of fleeing to Germany taking his pupils with him. However, their fathers sent word to him to bring them to the relative safety of castle to continue their religious instruction in reformed doctrine. He arrived at the castle on 10 April 1547. Knox's powers as a preacher came to the attention of the chaplain of the garrison, John Rough. While Rough was preaching in the parish church on the Protestant principle of the popular election of a pastor, he proposed Knox to the congregation for that office. Knox clearly did not relish the idea. According to his own account, he burst into tears and fled to his room. Within a week, however, he was giving his first sermon to a congregation that included his old teacher, John Major.

Confinement in the French galleys

Portrait titled "The Somerville Knox"

On 29 June 1547, twenty-one French galleys approached St Andrews under the command of Leo Strozzi, prior of Capua. Using land and sea operations, the French forces proceeded to siege the castle. On 31 July, the castle garrison surrendered. The Protestant nobles and others including Knox were taken prisoner and forced to row in the French galleys. The galley-slaves were chained to benches and rowed throughout the day without a change of posture while an officer watched over them with a whip in hand. They sailed to France and navigated up the Seine to Rouen. The nobles, some of whom would have an impact later in Knox's life such as William Kirkcaldy and Henry Balnaves, were sent to various castle-prisons in France. Knox and the other galley-slaves continued to Nantes and stayed on the Loire throughout the winter. They were threatened with torture if they did not give proper signs of reverence when Mass was performed on the ship. Knox recounted an incident in which one Scot was required to show devotion to a picture of the Virgin Mary. It is probable that Knox, himself, was the one involved. The prisoner was told to give it a kiss of adoration. He refused and when the picture was pushed up to his face, the prisoner seized the picture and threw it into the sea, saying

Let our lady now save herself; for she is light enough; let her learn to swim.

From then on, the Scottish prisoners were no longer forced to show further devotions.

In summer of 1548, the galleys returned to Scotland to scout for English ships. Knox's health was now at its lowest point due to the severity of his confinement. He was ill with a fever and others on the ship were afraid for his life. Even in this state, his mind remained sharp and he comforted his fellow prisoners with hopes of release. While the ships were lying offshore between St Andrews and Dundee, the spires of the parish church where he preached appeared in view. James Balfour, a fellow prisoner, asked Knox whether he recognised the landmark. He replied,

Yes, I know it well; for I see the steeple of that place where God first in public opened my mouth to glory; and I am fully persuaded, how weak soever I now appear, that I shall not depart this life, till that my tongue shall glorify his godly name in the same place.

In February 1549, after spending a total of nineteen months in the galley-prison, Knox was released. It is uncertain how he obtained his liberty. It is probable that he was released because the French court no longer had any reason to fight the Scots. In April 1548, Mary Stuart, the queen of Scotland, married the Dauphin François, the future King of France, Francis II, hence there was no longer any advantage to seek quarrels with the Scottish clergy.

Exile in England

On his release Knox found that he could be of little use in Scotland in its existing state. Like many of his Protestant countrymen in that troubled time, he therefore submitted to voluntary exile in England. In Knox's day, England was considered hostile territory for the Scots. However, Knox found that England to be a very congenial place and felt sympathy for the English in their troubles. He found much work that needed to be done and the English were receptive to his ideas. Hence on 7 April 1549, he was licenced to work in the Church of England. His first commission was in Berwick. He was obliged to use the recently released Book of Common Prayer which was mainly a translation of the Latin Mass into English and was largely left intact and unreformed. However, he modified its use along Protestant lines. In the pulpit he preached Protestant doctrines with great effect.

It was in England where Knox met his wife, Marjorie Bowes. Her father, Richard, was the younger brother of Sir Robert Bowes, a descendant of an old Durham family, the Bowes of Streatlam and her mother, Elizabeth, was a heiress of a Yorkshire family, the Aske in Richmondshire. Elizabeth Bowes presumably met Knox when he was in Berwick and established a close friendship with him, the record of which has been preserved in several letters of correspondence. It is not recorded when Knox's marriage to Marjorie Bowes occurred. Knox attempted to obtain the consent of the Bowes family, but Robert and Richard remained opposed to the marriage. It is assumed for this reason that Richard does not mention his daughter or Knox in his own will.

St Nicholas in Newcastle where John Knox was based from 1550 to 1553

Towards the end of 1550, Knox was appointed a preacher of Newcastle at St Nicholas' Church. The following year he was appointed one of the six royal chaplains serving the king. On 16 October 1551, John Dudley overthrew Edward Seymour, the Lord Protector or regent of King Edward VI. Knox condemned the coup d'etat in a sermon on All Saints Day. When Dudley visited Newcastle and listened to his preaching in June 1552, he had mixed feelings about the fire-brand preacher but he saw Knox as a potential asset. Knox was asked to come to London to preach before the Court. In his first sermon, he advocated a change in the second edition of the Book of Common Prayer. The liturgy required worshippers to kneel during communion. Knox and the other chaplains considered this to be idolatry. This triggered a debate where the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was called upon to defend the practice. The end result was a compromise in which the famous Black Rubric that declared that no adoration is intended while kneeling was included in the second edition.

Shortly thereafter, Dudley offered Knox the bishopric of Rochester. Dudley still saw Knox as an useful political tool, but Knox refused the position. He returned to Newcastle, although not in disgrace and he was asked to come back to London several times in 1553. On 12 April, he gave his last sermon before the King at Westminster. Knox was in London when Edward VI died on 6 July. When Mary Tudor ascended the throne, England was no longer a safe place for Protestants. On the advice of friends, Knox fled the country in January 1554 and began another exile, this time to Europe. Despite the difficult final years, the time he spent in England was probably the happiest up to this point in his life. On the eve of his flight to the Continent, he wrote,

Sometime I have thought that impossible it had been so to have removed my affection from the realm of Scotland that any realm or nation could have been equally dear to me. But God I take to record in my conscience that the troubles in the realm of England are double more dolorous unto my heart than ever were the troubles in Scotland.

From Geneva to Frankfurt and Scotland

The Reformation Wall in Geneva. From left: William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, and Knox

Knox disembarked in Dieppe, France and continued on to Geneva, Switzerland where John Calvin had established his authority in the city. When Knox arrived, however, Calvin was in a difficult position. Michael Servetus had just been executed and the event had discredited Calvin among his peers. All the cities of Switzerland were against him. Given this precarious position, when Knox came to him with certain political questions on whether people should resist rulers that do not advocate true religion, Calvin sent him on to Heinrich Bullinger, the Swiss reformer in Zürich, for counsel. Bullinger gave careful responses to his questions, but Knox had already made up his mind and in 20 July 1554 he published a pamphlet attacking Mary Tudor and the bishops who had brought her to the throne. He also made an attack on the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, calling him "no less enemy to Christ than was Nero". This pamphlet was to have a fateful effect in his relationship with the Church of England.

In a letter dated 24 September 1554, Knox received an invitation from a congregation of English exiles in Frankfurt, Germany to become one of their ministers. He accepted the call with Calvin's blessing. But no sooner had he arrived than he found himself in a conflict. The first set of refugees that had arrived in Frankfurt subscribed to a reformed liturgy and used a modified version of the Book of Common Prayer. Recently arrived refugees, however, including Edmund Grindal, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, favoured a stricter application of the book. Knox and a supporting colleague, William Whittingham, wrote to Calvin for advice who responded that any contention should be avoided. Hence, Knox agreed on a temporary order of service based on a compromise between the two sides. The delicate balance was disturbed when a new batch of refugees arrived that included Richard Cox, one of the principal authors of the Book of Common Prayer. He had a copy of the pamphlet that Knox wrote which attacked the Holy Roman Emperor and he used it to malign Knox by bringing it to the attention of the Frankfurt authorities. The magistrates were concerned about the pamphlet's impact, but they did not prosecute Knox. Instead, they persuaded Knox's friends to advise him that he should leave. He left Frankfurt on 26 March 1555, the final breach between Knox and the Church of England.

After his return to Geneva, the refugee English congregation petitioned Calvin on 10 June for a place to worship. Knox was to be the minister. However, in the meantime, Elizabeth Bowes wrote to Knox about her husband's death and asked him to return to Scotland to join Marjorie. He did so at the end of August and although he had initial doubts about the state of the country in supporting the Reformation, he found that the country had significantly changed since he was carried off in the galley in 1547. He went to various parts of Scotland preaching the reformed doctrines and liturgy and he was welcomed by many of the nobility including two future regents of Scotland, James Stewart and John Erskine.

News of his activities reached the queen regent, Mary of Guise. Although she had no intention of taking action against Knox, the bishops of Scotland, aware of the potential danger to their authority, summoned Knox to appear in Edinburgh on 15 May 1556. He came accompanied by many influential persons and so the bishops found it expedient not to proceed with the trial. Knox was now able to preach openly in Edinburgh. One of those who heard him, William Keith, the Earl Marischal, was so impressed that he urged Knox to write a letter to the queen regent. He wrote a respectful and uncommonly polite letter urging her to support the Reformation and overthrow the church hierarchy. Mary took the letter as a joke and ignored it.

Perfect school of Christ

Shortly after Knox sent the letter to the queen regent, he suddenly announced that he felt his duty was to return to Geneva. Historians have puzzled over this as he was at the height of his influence with the Scottish nobility. A seemingly obvious excuse was that in the previous year on 1 November 1555, the congregation in Geneva had elected Knox as their minister. However, the congregation was already well-served by another minister, Christopher Goodman, and Whittingham, Knox's friend from Frankfurt, served as elder. It may had been that he sensed personal danger or that he had realised that true reform would never occur under the power of a weak queen regent. He wrote a final letter of advice to his supporters and left Scotland with his wife and mother-in-law. He arrived in Geneva on 13 September 1556.

The Auditoire de Calvin where Knox preached while in Geneva, 1556-1558

For the next two years, he lived a happy life in Geneva. He recommended to his friends in England that Geneva was the best place of asylum for Protestants to which they could flee. In one letter he wrote,

In my heart, I could have wished, yea, and cannot cease to wish, that it might please God to guide and conduct yourself to this place, where I neither fear nor eshame to say, is the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the apostles. In other places I confess Christ to be truly preached; but manners and religion to be so sincerely reformed, I have not yet seen in any other place beside.

Knox's life in Geneva was a busy one. He preached three sermons a week, each lasting well over two hours. The services used a liturgy that was derived by Knox and other ministers from Calvin's Formes des Prières Ecclésiastiques. The church in which he preached, the Église de Notre Dame la Neuve — now known as the Auditoire de Calvin — had been granted, at Calvin's solicitation, for the use of the English and Italian congregations by the municipal authorities. His two sons, Nathaniel and Eleazar, were born in Geneva with Whittingham and Myles Coverdale being their respective godfathers.

The title page of The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women from an eighteenth century edition

In the summer of 1558, Knox published his best known pamphlet, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. In calling the "regiment" or rule of women "monstrous", he meant that it was "unnatural." The women rulers that Knox had in mind were Mary Tudor, the queen of England, and Mary Stuart, the queen of Scotland. Knox's prejudices against women were not unusual in his day, however, even he was aware that the pamphlet was dangerously seditious. Hence, he published it anonymously and Calvin was not told of its origins. Calvin disclaimed any knowledge of it until a year after its publication. In England, the document was officially condemned by royal proclamation. The impact of the document was to be felt a year later. Although Knox did had not intended to target Elizabeth I, the queen of England after Mary Tudor, Elizabeth was deeply offended and never forgave him for it. She refused to issue a passport to Knox so that he could pass through England on his eventual return to Scotland the following year. In addition to The First Blast, Knox wrote three other documents addressed to the queen regent, the Scottish nobility, and the common people of Scotland.

With the death of Mary Tudor in November 1558 and the coronation of her Protestant sister, Elizabeth I, the English refugees in Geneva made preparations to return to England. Knox, himself, planned on returning to Scotland. Before his departure, various honours were conferred on him, including the freedom of the city of Geneva. This honour from the municipal authorities is a high mark of respect to which Calvin himself did not receive until a year later. Knox left Geneva in January 1559, but he did not arrive in Scotland until 2 May due to the refusal of Elizabeth I to issue him a transit passport.

Reformation in Scotland

Two days after Knox arrived in Edinburgh, he proceeded to Dundee where a large number of Protestant sympathisers had gathered. Knox was declared an outlaw and the Protestants were summoned by the queen regent to Stirling. Fearing the possibility of a trial and execution, the Protestants proceeded to Perth which was a walled town and could easily be defended in case of a siege. At the church of St John the Baptist, Knox preached a fiery sermon and a small incident precipitated into a riot. The queen regent summoned her supporting nobles and a small French army. Knox contacted his supporters bringing in reinforcements to Perth. Two nobles, Archibald Campbell and James Stewart, were dispatched by the queen regent in order to offer Knox terms and to avert a war. She offered that no French troops would enter the town if the Protestants would evacuate Perth. The Protestants agreed, but when the queen regent entered the town, she broke the spirit of the agreement by garrisoning the town with Scottish soldiers on the French pay roll. This was seen as treacherous by Campbell and Stewart and they switched sides. They joined Knox who was by now based in St Andrews. Additional Protestant reinforcements continued to arrive from neighbouring counties. Reflecting on this turn of events, the queen regent retreated to Dunbar and by 30 June the Protestants occupied Edinburgh although they were only able to hold the city for only a month. On the 1 July, Knox was at the pulpit of St Giles', the premier church of Scotland's capital.

Knox preaching to the Scottish nobles in a painting by Sir David Wilkie

Knox knew the queen regent would ask for help from France. So he negotiated with the English government to secure its support. Given his First Blast pamphlet, he was clearly unable to influence Elizabeth I, so instead he dealt with William Cecil, her chief advisor. Knox even sailed to an island off the English northeast coast for the negotiations. When additional French troops arrived in Leith, Edinburgh's seaport, the Protestants were galvanized to retake Edinburgh and this time on 24 October, the Scottish nobility formally deposed Mary of Guise from the regency. The queen regent's secretary, William Maitland, defected to the Protestant side bringing his administrative skills. From then on, Maitland took over the political tasks of the revolution thus freeing Knox for the role of the religious leader. Knox retired to St Andrews. The English eventually sent a fleet to the Firth of Forth. Mary of Guise took refuge in Edinburgh Castle where she died on 10 June 1560. Her death opened the way to a cessation of hostilities, the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh, and the withdrawal of French and English troops from Scotland. The peace settlement effectively left ecclesiastical matters in the control of the Scottish nobility. On 19 July, Knox gave a National Thanksgiving Service at St Giles'.

On 1 August, the Scottish Parliament convened to settle religious issues. Knox and five other ministers were called upon to draw up a new confession of faith. Within four days, the Scots Confession was presented to Parliament, voted upon, and approved. A week later the Parliament passed three acts in one day: the first abolished the jurisdiction of the pope in Scotland, the second condemned all doctrine and practice contrary to the reformed faith, and the third forbade the celebration of Mass within Scotland. Before Parliament was dissolved, Knox and the other ministers were given the task on the organisation of the newly reformed church or kirk.

Knox's wife, Marjorie, died in December 1560. She left Knox with their two young sons aged three and a half and two years old. Calvin who had lost his own wife in 1549 wrote a letter of condolence.

Parliament reconvened on 15 January 1561 to consider the Book of Discipline, the document describing the organisation of the reformed Kirk, that Knox and the other ministers had prepared. It was organised on democratic lines. Each congregation was free to choose or reject their own pastor. However, once a pastor was chosen, the congregation could not fire him. Each parish was to be self-supporting as far as possible. The bishops were replaced by ten to twelve "superintendents". The plan included a system of national education based on universality as a fundamental principle. Certain areas of law were placed under ecclesiastical authority. Parliament did not approve of the plan mainly due to questions concerning the financing of the Kirk. It was to be paid by the patrimony of the former Roman Church in Scotland. However, much of the ecclesiastical wealth was already in the hands of the Scottish nobles and they were very reluctant to give up their possessions. In any case, a decision on the plan was delayed due to the impending return of Mary Stuart, the queen of Scotland.

Knox and Queen Mary

On 19 August Queen Mary returned to Scotland and cannons were fired in Leith to announce her arrival. She celebrated Mass in the royal chapel at Holyrood five days later and this prompted a protest. The next day she issued a proclamation that there would be no alteration in the current state of the religion and that her servants should not be molested or troubled. The effect of this was to maintain the status quo of the law of religion within the country, but to allow her to celebrate Mass within her household. Many in the nobility found this acceptable, but not to Knox. The following Sunday, he protested through the pulpit of St Giles'. This prompted Mary to summon Knox, just two weeks after her arrival. In this first exchange, Mary defended the Church of Rome while Knox expounded on reformed doctrine. When Knox finished his sermon, he respectfully took his leave.

Stained glass window of John Knox admonishing Mary Queen of Scots.

Before Christmas of that year, Mary approved an act that appropriated a quarter to a third of the ecclesiastical patrimony for the benefit of the nation which would include the support of the ministers of the Kirk. To Knox this was insufficient and he continued to fight for a complete settlement of the issues as he had expounded in the Book of Discipline. He did this throughout 1562 but to no avail. The nobles were weary of his tirades. On 13 December, in an open denunciation, he gave a sermon that alluded to a comparison of the queen with Nero. Mary immediately summoned Knox again. This time it was more like a trial as her advisors, James Stewart, William Maitland, and James Douglas were present. Knox explained the meaning of the sermon and asked if anyone present heard him say anything more than what he now presented. No one responded. Mary accepted the explanation and she stated that she did not blame Knox for the differences of opinion. She asked that he come to her directly if he heard anything about her that he disliked. Despite her friendly gesture, Knox simply insisted that he will continue to publically proclaim his differences in his sermons and that he will not wait upon her.

During Easter in 1563, some of the Roman priests celebrated Mass thus defying the law. As the queen had done nothing on this matter, some Protestants tried to enforce the law themselves by apprehending some priests in Ayrshire. This prompted Mary to summon Knox for the third time. She asked Knox to use his influence to promote religious toleration. He defended their actions using Biblical examples and noted she is bound to uphold the laws and if she did not, others would. She broke off the conversation, but the very next day, she surprised Knox by agreeing that the priests be brought to justice. She kept her word and on 19 May, 48 priests including the former primate of Scotland were tried and placed in custody.

One week after this incident, Parliament met in the presence of Mary. Knox was expecting that Parliament would act on the Book of Discipline. He was told that nothing would be done because the Queen would soon be marrying and only afterwards would action be taken on the position of the Kirk. Maitland was trying to bring off a match between Mary and Don Carlos. Knox lashed out against the proposed marriage in a sermon on 6 June. This drew protests even from Knox's friends and it led to one of the most dramatic interviews in Scottish history between the twenty one year old queen and John Knox. Shortly after Mary started to scold Knox, she burst into tears. "What have ye to do with my marriage? Or what are ye within this commonwealth?" she asked. "A subject born within the same, Madam," Knox replied. He noted that though he was not born of noble origins, he, as a member of the realm, is just as responsible to warn of dangers to the land if he foresees such dangers. Mary started to cry again to which Knox said, "Madam, in God's presence I speak: I never delighted in the weeping of any of God's creatures; yea I can scarcely well abide the tears of my own boys whom my own hand corrects, much less can I rejoice in your Majesty's weeping." Mary commanded him to leave thus ending the interview.

Knox's final encounter with Mary was prompted by an incident at Holyrood. While Mary was absent from Edinburgh, the Mass was still being celebrated in the chapel and a crowd forced their way in. During the altercation, the priest's life was threatened. Two of the ringleaders, burgesses of Edinburgh were scheduled for trial on 24 October 1563. In order to defend these men, Knox sent out letters summoning the nobles to convene in order to discuss the matter. Mary obtained one of these letters and asked her advisors if this was not a treasonable act. The charge would be the unauthorised convocation of the queen's lieges. Stewart and Maitland did not want the incident to go to a public trial as they preferred to keep good relations with both the Kirk and the Queen. Knox was asked to admit he was wrong and to settle the matter quietly. He refused and he insisted on a public trial which took place a few days before Christmas. He defended himself in front of Mary and the nobles after which he was allowed to take his leave. The nobles were asked to vote on the charge against Knox and the result was unanimous. Knox was considered not guilty. Knox then presented himself before the General Assembly of the Kirk on Christmas Day and asked whether he acted rightly or not. The General Assembly fully endorsed his actions.

Final years in Edinburgh

St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh where Knox served as minister from 1560 to 1572

On 26 March 1564 Knox stirred controversy again, but this time not of a religious nature. He married the daughter of an old friend, Andrew Stewart, a member of the Stuart family and a distant relation to the queen, Mary Stuart. The marriage was extraordinary because he was a widower of fifty, while the bride, Margaret, was not yet seventeen. Very few details are known of their domestic life. They had three daughters, Martha, Margaret, and the youngest, Elizabeth who became the wife of John Welsh, a minister of the Kirk.

At this point in his life, Knox appears to have stopped his fight. For nearly fourteen months nothing is known of his activities. He was silent during Mary's change of policy as she married Henry Stuart, better known as Lord Darnley. He did not take an active role in the General Assembly. A possible explanation is that he was old and had worked himself out. His next appearance was almost a farewell sermon. On 19 August 1565, he preached in the presence of the new king consort. He made passing allusions about Darnley and Mary which caused Darnley to walk out of the sermon. Not surprisingly Knox was summoned and prohibited from preaching while the court was in Edinburgh.

On 9 March 1566, Mary's secretary, David Rizzio, was murdered. Mary escaped from Edinburgh but by 18 March, she returned with a formidable force. Knox fled to Kyle in Ayrshire. It was during his five months stay there that he did the bulk of the work on his magnum opus, History of the Reformation in Scotland.

Knox made one final campaign against Mary which would stain his legacy, even more than the record of his private writings. When Knox returned from Kyle, he found the Protestant nobles to be divided and the cause of the division was Mary herself. Mary had abdicated and was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle and Knox's old friend, James Stewart, became the regent of James VI. The evidence of the division was that on Mary's side stood other old friends, Archibald Campbell and William Kirkcaldy. On 29 July 1567 during James' coronation, Knox led the sermon in the church in Stirling. Mary's life was spared and she escaped on 2 May 1568. During this period Knox thundered against Mary in his sermons, even to the point of clamouring for her death.

The fighting in Scotland continued. James Stewart was assassinated on 23 January 1570. The next two regents that followed him were also victims of violence. On 30 April 1571, the controller of Edinburgh castle, Kirkcaldy, ordered all enemies of the queen to leave the city. But for Knox, his former friend and fellow galley-slave, he made an exception. If Knox did not leave, he could stay in Edinburgh, but only if remained captive in the castle. Knox chose to leave and on 5 May he left for St Andrews with Richard Bannatyne, his attendant and secretary, and with his wife and three children. He continued to preach, spoke to students, and worked on his History. At the end of July 1572, after a truce was called, he returned to Edinburgh. Although he was exceedingly feeble and his voice faint, he continued to preach at St Giles'.

After inducting his successor, Lawson of Aberdeen, as minister of St Giles' on 9 November, Knox returned to his home for the last time. With his friends around him, some of the greatest nobles of the land of whom not all had supported his uncompromising positions, he asked that the Bible be read aloud to him. His young wife read to him from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians on his last day, 24 November 1572. A testimony to Knox was pronounced at his grave in the churchyard of St Giles' by James Douglas, the Earl of Morton and the newly elected regent of Scotland:

There lies he, who never feared the face of man.

References

Primary sources

• Laing, David, ed. (1895), The Works of John Knox, Edinburgh: James Thin, 55 South Bridge.
• Melville, James (1829), Diary of James Melville, Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club.
• Raine, James (1853), Wills and Inventories from the Registry of the Archdeaconry of Richmond: Extending Over Portions York, Westmorland, Cumberland, and Lancaster., Edinburgh: Blackwood and Sons, Last accessed 2007-07-28.
• Reed, Kevin, ed. (1995), Selected Writings of John Knox: Public Epistles, Treatises, and Expositions to the Year 1559, Dallas: Presbyterian Heritage Publications.

Secondary sources

• Brown, Peter Hume (1895), John Knox, London: Adam and Charles Black.
• Guy, John (2004), My Heart is my Own, London: Fourth Estate.
• Innes, A. Taylor (1905), John Knox (Quater-centenary ed.), Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier.
• MacGregor, Geddes (1957), The Thundering Scot, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
• Mackenzie, The Reverend James (1888), The History of Scotland, London: T. Nelson and Sons.
• McCrie, Thomas (1850), Life of John Knox (New ed.), Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons.
• Percy, Lord Eustace (1964), John Knox (2nd ed.), London: James Clarke & Co., Ltd..
• Ryrie, Alec (2006), The Origins of the Scottish Reformation, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Welsh, Graham T. (December 1980), "Genealogy of John Knox", The Scottish Genealogist, XXVII (4), Edinburgh: 148–151{{citation}}: CS1 maint: year (link).ISSN 0300-337X
• Whitley, Elizabeth (1960), Plain Mr. Knox, London: Skeffington & Son Ltd..
• Wilson, Douglas (2000), For Kirk and Covenant: The Stalwart Courage of John Knox, Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, ISBN 1-58182-058-5.

Tertiary sources

• Chisolm, Hugh, ed. (1911), [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition]], Cambridge University Press {{citation}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help).
• Schaff, Philip, ed. (1953), The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, vol. VI: Innocents - Liudger, Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Last accessed 2007-07-28.

External links

• Works by John Knox at Project Gutenberg
• A lot of Knox's works at www.swrb.com

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