John Knox Biography Quotes 3 Report mistakes

Early Life and Formation
John Knox was born around 1513, 1514 in or near Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. Little is known with certainty about his family, but he likely received a solid Latin education before studying under the noted scholastic John Major at St Andrews, where rigorous logic and a concern for Scripture left a lasting impression. He was ordained a Catholic priest and worked as a notary by the mid-1530s, serving in the established church while deepening his knowledge of the Bible and the writings of early reformers. Scotland in these years was marked by tension between traditional Catholic authorities and growing reforming influences coming from the Continent and from England, creating the religious landscape into which Knox would step as a leading voice.

Turn to Reform and the Influence of George Wishart
Knox's decisive turn toward Protestant reform is closely linked to the charismatic preacher George Wishart, whom Knox accompanied and guarded in the early 1540s. Wishart's arrest and execution in 1546 at the order of Cardinal David Beaton hardened Knox's resolve. After a band of reformers assassinated Beaton and seized St Andrews Castle, Knox joined them, first as a tutor and soon as a preacher, delivering sermons that attacked what he saw as idolatry and defended the authority of Scripture. The French crown intervened on behalf of the Scottish regency, and in 1547 the castle fell; Knox was taken prisoner and forced to serve in the French galleys, an ordeal of roughly nineteen months that tested but did not break his conviction.

Ministry in England under Edward VI
Released around 1549, Knox went to England during the reign of Edward VI, where reform was advancing under Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and other evangelical leaders. Licensed to preach, he served in Berwick-upon-Tweed and Newcastle, gaining a reputation for plain, forceful sermons. He became one of the king's chaplains and, while reportedly declining promotion to a bishopric, contributed to debates that helped shape the 1552 Book of Common Prayer, especially on the posture at Communion, which led to the so-called Black Rubric. His preaching emphasized the sufficiency of Scripture, the centrality of preaching in worship, and disciplined congregational life.

Exile on the Continent: Frankfurt and Geneva
The accession of Mary I in 1553 brought a Catholic restoration and drove many English and Scottish reformers into exile. Knox traveled to the Continent, pausing in Frankfurt to minister to an English congregation. There, disputes over liturgy with figures such as Richard Cox made reconciliation difficult, and Knox moved to Geneva. In Geneva he found an intellectual and pastoral home alongside John Calvin and Theodore Beza. He served the English-speaking congregation, embraced a simple, Scripture-saturated worship, and helped craft what became known as the Book of Common Order. During this period he wrote several polemical works, including The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558), a vehement critique of female monarchy directed at rulers such as Mary I and Mary of Guise. The tract later complicated his relations with Elizabeth I, whose Protestant settlement he otherwise supported in principle.

Return to Scotland and the 1560 Settlement
In 1559 Knox returned to Scotland amid a volatile political and religious crisis. The regency of Mary of Guise confronted a coalition of nobles known as the Lords of the Congregation, including the Earl of Argyll, the Earl of Glencairn, and Lord James Stewart (later the Earl of Moray), who sought Protestant reform and political autonomy. Knox's preaching in Perth, St Andrews, and Edinburgh galvanized support and, at times, sparked iconoclastic outbursts against religious images and monastic houses. English diplomacy under William Cecil and military intervention against French forces shifted the balance. The death of Mary of Guise and the Treaty of Edinburgh in 1560 opened the way for Scotland's Parliament to repudiate papal authority and approve a Reformed confession of faith.

Confession, Discipline, and the Shape of the Kirk
Knox and fellow ministers John Winram, John Willock, John Spottiswood, John Row, and John Douglas drafted the Scots Confession (1560), a brisk statement of Reformed doctrine adopted by Parliament. They also produced the First Book of Discipline, proposing a national system of parish churches, schools, and poor relief funded from ecclesiastical revenues. Although only partially implemented, these texts outlined the Presbyterian character of the emerging Kirk: rule by elders and ministers, stress on preaching and catechesis, and worship stripped of images and centered on the Word. Knox's Book of Common Order provided liturgical forms, while his tireless preaching and pastoral visitation consolidated congregations. As minister of St Giles' in Edinburgh, he became the most visible face of the Scottish Reformation.

Confrontations with Mary, Queen of Scots
The return of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1561 set the stage for a dramatic contest. Knox believed the Mass violated God's law even in private; Mary insisted on her right to worship as a Catholic in her chapel. Their famous interviews displayed two incompatible visions: Mary appealed to conscience and royal prerogative; Knox to Scripture and the rights of the realm under God. He denounced court policies he saw as favoring Catholicism and spoke sharply against Mary's marriages, first to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and later to James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. The murder of the king's secretary, David Rizzio, Darnley's own mysterious death, and the scandal of Bothwell's rise accelerated Mary's political collapse. When Mary abdicated in 1567 in favor of the infant James VI, Knox supported the ensuing Protestant regency led by Lord James Stewart, now the Earl of Moray.

Strain, Violence, and the Last Years
The period after Mary's abdication remained turbulent. Moray's assassination in 1570 plunged Scotland into factional strife between supporters of the king's regents and partisans of the deposed queen. Knox, increasingly frail after a stroke, continued to preach with intensity. Violence surrounding the civil conflict, including the stand of William Kirkcaldy of Grange at Edinburgh Castle against the regency and the intervention of figures such as the Earl of Morton, kept the capital unsettled. For safety Knox spent time in St Andrews before returning to Edinburgh in 1572, where he resumed preaching at St Giles'. He delivered a moving final sermon on John 17, emphasizing Christ's prayer for the Church. John Knox died in Edinburgh on 24 November 1572 and was buried beside St Giles'. At his graveside, the Earl of Morton is said to have declared that there lay a man who never feared the face of any man.

Family and Writings
Knox married Marjorie Bowes during his English ministry; they had two sons. After her death he married Margaret Stewart of Ochiltree in 1564, with whom he had daughters. His writings include tracts and letters urging reform, the polemical First Blast, the Book of Common Order, and the multi-volume History of the Reformation in Scotland, a partisan but indispensable narrative that preserves speeches, letters, and portraits of key actors such as Mary of Guise, Mary, Queen of Scots, the Earl of Moray, and fellow ministers. He corresponded with leaders across Britain and the Continent, including John Calvin and English reformers, and influenced later Puritan and Presbyterian thought.

Legacy
Knox's legacy lies in the enduring Presbyterian form of the Church of Scotland, the powerful place he gave to preaching and parish discipline, and the ideal of a godly commonwealth shaped by Scripture. His confrontations with powerful figures, from Cardinal Beaton to Mary, Queen of Scots, made him controversial in his own day and ever since. Yet even critics recognized his courage and his ability to rally a nation at a turning point. Through allies like the Earl of Moray and colleagues such as Willock and Spottiswood, and through the opposition of rulers like Mary I of England and Mary of Guise, Knox forged an identity for the Scottish Kirk that would influence religious and political life far beyond his lifetime.

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Other people realated to John: John Calvin (Theologian)