REFORMATION
BIBLE COLLEGE
THE LIFE AND
IMPACT OF SCOTTISH REFORMER JOHN KNOX
CHURCH HISTORY
102
PROF. ADAMSON
BY
THOMAS BOOHER
SANFORD, FLORIDA
23 FEBRUARY,
2012
John Knox was the preeminent Scottish reformer during the
16th century and helped bolster Protestantism in Scotland, earning
him the nickname “The Trumpet of the Scottish Reformation.”[1][2]
Little is known of his early life, but it is believed that Knox was born in
Haddington, which was seventeen miles from Edinburgh. Because he was not from a
rich family, Knox had few career options available to him. His choices were to
become a priest if he showed enough intellectual acumen, or to revert to
farming with his father.[3]
Fortunately, he showed that he was a quick learner and had a penchant toward
biblical studies.[4]
To earn a little money he worked as a priest at a young age and also helped
tutor the children of two wealthy noblemen.[5] He
went on to study reformed theology at St. Andrews, where reformers had recently
begun teaching.[6]
Precisely when Knox converted to Christianity is unclear,
though it is certain that he had done so by early 1543. Around that time he
began taking a more open stand for the Christian gospel and even became the
bodyguard for George Wishart.[7]
Some accused Wishart of trying to kill Cardinal Beaton, a ruthless prosecutor
of the reformers and emissary to Scotland.[8] Beaton’s
men eventually arrested Wishart, and Knox was prepared to go to death with him,
but Wishart refused, saying that one death would suffice for the cause. Then,
in March 1546, Wishart was burnt at the stake in the presence of Cardinal
Beaton.[9]
Knox went into hiding, but came out and took refuge in St. Andrew’s castle in
1547 after five men, outraged from Wishart’s murder, killed Cardinal Beaton.[10]
At this time, Knox was appointed preacher, something he
accepted begrudgingly. He preached his first sermon on Daniel 7:24-25 and
proved to all that he was ready to attack the Roman Catholic’s corrupt system
and teachings at its core.[11]This
is when he became the main mouthpiece for the reformation in Scotland.[12] For
a time Knox and the reformers in Scotland could teach and proclaim in relative
safety since England and France both were going through difficult times. Soon,
however, France was able to send a strong army to the castle and the
Protestants could not hold out. Knox and company surrendered, but France, in
violation of terms of surrender, sent Knox and his compatriots to the galleys
for nineteenth months of rigorous labor.[13]At
length King Edward VI of England released Knox, and Knox then became a pastor
and married Marjorie Bowes in England.[14]
Soon danger allayed comfort once more as Edward VI died
and Mary Tudor, “Bloody Mary,” took the throne of England.[15]
For five years she mercilessly persecuted Protestants, sending many to their
deaths. She also returned church to Roman Catholicism and re-instituted Mass,
much to the vexation of Knox.[16]
This made things unsafe for Knox, and he once again fled in January 1554 as
advised by his friends. Knox remarked that the troubles in England were twice
as severe as the troubles in Scotland.[17]
During
his exile, Knox wrote a work titled The
First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, and directed
it particularly at Mary Tudor, but she died soon after he wrote it and her less
austere sister, Elizabeth, took the throne. Nonetheless, Elizabeth took offense
to the book, since the anti-feminine sentiments applied equally to her, and
thus what should have been a natural alliance between Knox and Elizabeth was
squandered.[18]
Over
the next five years Knox dawdled between Frankfurt and Geneva. He first went to
Geneva to work with Calvin, but English refugees in Frankfurt soon summoned him
to be their minister. He did not stay long there either, for his views of
worship conflicted with the English, so he returned to Geneva, unsatisfied with
the reforms of England.[19] After
a brief return to Scotland in 1556, he became the minister of the English speaking
congregation in Geneva, and said that the church there was the most reformed
since the time of the last apostles.[20]
It is here and at this time that Knox wrote the aforementioned book against
Bloody Mary.
In
1560 John Knox returned to Scotland. The Reformation was in full swing, but
tensions between Catholics and Protestants remained. In August Knox and a
handful of other men drew up the Scots confession of faith and presented it to
parliament, who approved it within a week. This brought three changes: the
abolition of the jurisdiction of the pope, the condemnation of all practice and
doctrine opposed to the reformed faith, and forbidding the celebration of the
Catholic Mass.[21]
Knox also helped form a National Reformed church in Scotland.[22]
Conflict
arose once again, as Mary Queen of Scots returned from France after her husband
had died on the condition that she would not re-institute the forbidden
Catholic Mass. She agreed not to, but went back on her word upon arrival and
did her best to promote Catholicism in Scotland.[23]Mary’s
downfall came from her secret marriage to the Earl of Bothwell, who had
murdered her husband Lord Darnley. Knox had five meetings with Mary Queen of
Scots, lambasting her marriages, which at one point caused Mary to cry in front
of him.[24] Mary
was then convicted of conspiring with Earl of Bothwell of the murder of her own
husband, and was forced to abdicate in 1567. She was put to death in London in
1587.[25]
From this time on, Knox was able to teach and preach in relative safety, with
none to harangue, until his death in 1572.
The
impact of John Knox cannot be over emphasized. His church polity laid the
groundwork for Presbyterianism.[26]
He established the Book of Discipline,
the Book of Common Order, and the Scots Confession in his new church.[27]
Knox even wrote a complete history of the reformation in Scotland in his book The Reformation in Scotland.[28]
We remember Knox for an unwavering resolve in the midst of danger, and fiery,
uncompromising preaching at an urgent time. Mary Queen of Scots said she feared
Knox’s prayers more than his blunt preaching.[29] Perhaps
Sherwood Eliot Wirt speaks most precisely of Knox when he said:
Gentler spirits have lived in
Christendom, More gracious messengers preached the Word of Christ without
a-dinging the pulpit, But God knew what He was doing when He chose you to build
His church. He knew the temptations to compromise, the dulcet voice pleading in
tears the soft hand of scheming sovereignty. You were keen as steel, as deaf as
ice: God’s man for God’s work in God’s time.[30]
New
Words Used:
(Definitions gathered from
thefreedictionary.com)
Penchant: A definite liking; a
strong inclination
Begrudgingly: To give or expend
with reluctance
Compatriot: 1.) A person from one’s
own country. 2.) A colleague.
Dawdle: To move aimlessly or
lackadaisically.
Allay: To reduce the intensity of;
relieve.
[1] Justo
L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day,
Prince Press ed ed. (Peabody: Prince Press, 1999), 81
[2] Professor
Adamson, “John Knox and the Scottish Reformation” (lecture, Reformation Bible
College, Sanford, FL, February 17, 2012).
[3]
Ibid.
[4]
Ibid.
[5] Justo
L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day,
Prince Press ed ed. (Peabody: Prince Press, 1999),, 81
[6] Biography
of John Knox: John Knox - (1514-1572), Scottish Reformer, in the Christian
Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/knox?show=biography
(accessed February 23, 2012).
[7]
Ibid.
[8]
Ibid.
[9] Professor
Adamson, “John Knox and the Scottish Reformation” (lecture, Reformation Bible
College, Sanford, FL, February 17, 2012).
[10]
Ibid.
[11] Biography
of John Knox: John Knox - (1514-1572), Scottish Reformer, in the Christian
Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/knox?show=biography
(accessed February 23, 2012).
[12] Justo
L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day,
Prince Press ed ed. (Peabody: Prince Press, 1999), 81
[13]
Ibid., 82
[14]
Ibid.
[15]
Ibid.
[16] Professor
Adamson, “John Knox and the Scottish Reformation” (lecture, Reformation Bible
College, Sanford, FL, February 17, 2012).
[17]
Ibid.
[18] Justo
L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day,
Prince Press ed ed. (Peabody: Prince Press, 1999), 82
[19] Professor
Adamson, “John Knox and the Scottish Reformation” (lecture, Reformation Bible
College, Sanford, FL, February 17, 2012).
[20]
Ibid.
[21]
Ibid.
[22] Biography
of John Knox: John Knox - (1514-1572), Scottish Reformer, in the Christian
Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/knox?show=biography
(accessed February 23, 2012).
[23]
Ibid.
[24] Professor
Adamson, “'For Christ's Crown and Covenant': The Scottish Presbyterians”
(lecture, Reformation Bible College, Sanford, FL, February 17, 2012).
[25]
Ibid.
[26] Justo
L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day,
Prince Press ed ed. (Peabody: Prince Press, 1999), 83
[27]
Ibid.
[28] Professor
Adamson, “'For Christ's Crown and Covenant': The Scottish Presbyterians”
(lecture, Reformation Bible College, Sanford, FL, February 17, 2012).
[29]
Ibid.
[30]
Ibid.
Comments
Post a Comment