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2 Conversion to Protestantism 3 Ministry at St. Andrews 4 Confinement in the French Galleys |
His father was William Knox, of fair, though not distinguished, descent, who fought at the Battle of Flodden, and had his home in the county of Haddington. His mother's name was Sinclair. He received the elements of a liberal education in Haddington, which possessed an excellent grammar school-- one of those schools originally monastic and due to the public spirit which, at least as regards education, animated the Scottish Church even before the Reformation.
Thence he proceeded either to the University of Glasgow, where the name "John Knox" occurs among the incorporati in 1522, or to St. Andrews, where he is stated to have studied under the celebrated John Major, a native, like Knox, of East Lothian and one of the greatest scholars of his time.
Major was at Glasgow in 1522 and at St. Andrews in 1531. How long Knox remained at college is uncertain. He certainly never made any pretense to be such a scholar as his contemporaries George Buchanan and Alesius; nor is there evidence that he even graduated. That he was a fair Latinist, and accustomed to study, appears from the fact, which seems to be well attested, of his familiarity with the writings of St. Augustine and St. Jerome. He acquired the Greek and Hebrew languages at a later period, as his writings indicate.
He was ordained to the priesthood at some date prior to 1540, when his status as a priest is first mentioned. It that in 1543 Knox had not yet divested
himself of Roman orders; at any rate, in his character as a priest, he signed a notarial instrument dated Mar. 27 of that year, the original of which is still to be found in the charter-room at Tyninghame Castle.
Up to this time, however, he seems to have employed himself in private tuition, rather than in parochial duties; and, at the moment when he last signed his name as a priest, he was probably already engaged in the office -- which he held for several years -- of tutor in the family of Hugh Douglas of Longniddry, in East Lothian, with the further charge of the son of a neighbouring gentleman, John Cockburn of Ormiston. Both of these lairds, like Knox himself, had even at this time a leaning to the new doctrines.
Knox first publicly professed the Protestant faith about the end of 1545. His mind had in all probability been directed to that faith for some time before the change was avowed. According to Calderwood, Thomas Guillaume, a native of East Lothian, the order of Blackfriars and for a short time chaplain to the Regent Arran in 1543, was the first "to give Mr. Knox a taste of the truth." His original change of opinion has been attributed to the study in early manhood, as already stated, of Augustine and Jerome.
The immediate instrument of his actual conversion was probably the learned and amiable George Wishart, who, after a period of banishment, returned to his native country in 1544, to perish, within two years, at the stake, as the last and most illustrious of the victims of Cardinal Beaton. Among other places where he preached the Reformed doctrines Wishart had come to East Lothian in Dec., 1545, and there made Knox's acquaintance.
The attachment which Knox formed for the person as well as for the doctrine of Wishart, must be described as of the nature of a youthful enthusiasm. Knox followed the Reformer everywhere, and constituted himself his body-guard, bearing, it is said, a two-edged sword, that he might be prepared to defend him against the cardinal's emissaries, who were known to be seeking Wishart's life.
On the night of Wishart's apprehension, Knox was hardly restrained from sharing his captivity, and consequently, in all probability, his fate. The words of Wishart's remonstrance are well known:
Knox was first called to the Protestant ministry at St. Andrews, which was throughout his life intimately associated with the Reformer's career. There appears to have been no regular ordination. Of course, he had been already ordained as a priest in the Church of Rome. But imposition of hands and other forms were not regarded by Knox as of more than secondary importance. A graphic account of the whole proceedings connected with his call to the ministry, together with a report of the first sermon he delivered in St. Andrews, will be found in his History of the Reformation.
At this time he was residing in the castle of St.Andrews. After Beaton's death, this stronghold became a place of refuge for many of the Protestants. Along with his pupils, the sons of the lairds of Longniddry and Ormiston, already mentioned, Knox passed there some comparatively peaceful months. His repose was rudely interrupted by the investiture and capitulation of the castle in the end of July, 1547, succeeded, as regarded Knox and some of the rest of the efugees, by confinement in the French galleys.
He spent nineteen months as a galley-slave, amid hardships and miseries which are said to have permanently injured his health.
"How long I continued prisoner," he said at St. Andrews, in 1559, "what torments I sustained in the galleys, and what were the sobs of my heart, is now no time to recite." He adds, however, that he always continued to hope for a return to his native country. In the History (vol, i., p. 228), the same confidence of a return is referred to as never having forsaken him; and he gives a curious testimony to the fact by mentioning how, on one occasion, "lying
betwixt Dundee and St. Andrews, the second time that the galleys returned to Scotland, the said John [Knox] being so extremely sick that few hoped his
life, Maister [afterwards Sir] James [Balfour, one his fellow prisoners] willed him to look to the land, and asked if he knew it.
He answered,
It is to be remembered that, during the whole reign of Edward VI., the Church of England was in a transition state; some of its most marked peculiarities (to which Knox himself and others in Scotland and abroad afterward objected) were then in abeyance, or at least not insisted upon as terms of communion. Thus the use of the prayer-book was not enforced, neither was kneeling at the communion. Episcopal government was of course acknowledged; but Knox held his commission, as a Reformed preacher, directly from the privy council, and was virtually independent of diocesan jurisdiction. Moreover, he seems to have had no strong objection to episcopacy
itself, although he disapproved of "your proud prelates' great dominions and charge, impossible by one man to be discharged;" and on this, along with
other grounds, he declined the bishopric of Rochester in 1552.
The offices he held in the Church of England are briefly indicated in the History, which says, "He was first appointed preacher to Berwick, then to Newcastle; and last he was called to London and to the southern parts of England, where he remained till the death of King Edward VI of England" (Works,i., p. 280).
From other sources it appears that in 1551 he was appointed one of the six chaplains in ordinary to the king; and in this capacity there was submitted to him, and, after revisal, he joined the other chaplains in sanctioning, The Articles concerning an Uniformity in Religion of 1552, which became the basis of the Thirty-nine Articles (q. v.) of the Church of England.
From England, after the death of Edward, Knox proceeded to the continent, traveling for a time from place to place in some uncertainty. In Sept.
1554, while living at Geneva, he accepted in accordance with Calvin's counsel a call to the English Church at Frankfurt. Here controversies in connection with vestments, ceremonies, and the use of the English prayer-book met him, and, notwithstanding the great moderation which he showed from first to last, led, in Mar., 1555, to his resignation of his charge (cf. his treatise, A Brief Narrative of the Troubles which Arose at Frankfurt,
reprinted in Laing's edition of his works). He returned to Geneva, where he was invited to become minister of the refugee English congregation.
In August, however, he was induced to set out for Scotland, where he remained for nine months preaching Evangelical doctrine in various parts of
the country, and persuading those who favored the Reformation to cease from attendance at mass, and to join with himself in the celebration of the Lord's
Supper according to a Reformed ritual.
In May, 1556, he was cited to appear before the hierarchy in Edinburgh, and he boldly responded to the summons; but the bishops found it expedient not to
proceed with the trial. In July an urgent call from his congregation at Geneva, along, probably, with the desire to prevent the renewal of persecution in
Scotland, caused him to resume his Genevan ministry. His marriage to Marjorie Bowes, daughter of Richard Bowes, captain of Norham Castle, had meanwhile taken place, and his wife along with her mother accompanied him to Geneva, where they
arrived in September
The church in which he preached there (called the ''Eglise de Notre Dame la
Neuve'') had been granted, at Calvin's solicitation, for the use of the English and Italian congregations by the municipal authorities. Knox's life in Geneva
was no idle one. To preaching and clerical work of an exacting kind he added a large correspondence; and he was constantly engaged in literary work. His publications at Geneva included his First Blast against the Monstrous Regiment [Rule] of Women; and his long and elaborate treatise on
predestination (published 1560) was composed in Geneva.
With the exception of some months spent at Dieppe (1557-58) when he was contemplating a return to Scotland, he continued to officiate in Geneva (while deeply interested in his native land and in constant communication with the reform party there) till Jan., 1559, when he finally left for home.
He arrived in Edinburgh May 2, 1559. The time
was a critical one. During his absence the reform
party had become more numerous, more self-reliant
and aggressive, and better consolidated. The queen
dowager, Mary of Lorraine, acting as regent for her
daughter, the young Mary I of Scotland, then in France, had become
more desirous to crush the Protestants
and determined to use force. Civil
war was imminent, but each side shrank
from the first step. Knox at once
became the leader of the Reformers. He preached
against "idolatry" with the greatest boldness,
and with the result that what he calls the "rascal
multitude" began the "purging" of churches and
the destruction of monasteries. Politics and religion
were closely intertwined; the Reformers were
struggling to keep Scotland free from the yoke of France,
and did not hesitate to seek the help of England.
Knox negotiated with the English government to
secure its support, and he approved of the
declaration of the lords of his party in Oct., 1559,
suspending their allegiance to the regent. The death
of the latter in June, 1560, opened the way to a
cessation of hostilities and an agreement leaving the
settlement of ecclesiastical questions to the
Scottish estates. The doctrine, worship, and government
of the Roman Church were overthrown by the
parliament of 1560 and Protestantism was established
as the national religion. Knox, assisted by five
other ministers, formulated the confession of faith
adopted at this time and drew up the constitution of the new
Church-- the First Book of Discipline
Queen Mary returned to Scotland in Aug., 1561,
thoroughly predisposed against Knox; while he and
the other Reformers looked upon her with anxiety
and suspicion. Fundamental differences of
character and training made a keen
encounter between the two inevitable. Five
personal interviews between Knox and
the queen are recorded (each at Mary's
invitation).
He found her no mean
opponent in argument, and had to acknowledge
the acuteness of her mind, if he could not commend
the qualities of her heart. His attitude for the
most part was unyielding and repelling, his
language and manner harsh and uncourtierlike. In
his preaching and other public utterances he was
sometimes even violent.
It must be remembered,
however, that the momentous issues at stake
required a plain-spoken prophet, not a
smooth-tongued courtier. Still it might have been wiser
as well as more Christlike for Knox, at the outset
of their intercourse, to seek to win rather than
repel. Perhaps the Reformer feared Mary's
well-known power of fascination and steeled himself
against it. Later his heart became wholly hardened
toward the adulterous accomplice, as be believed,
of her husband's murderer.
Knox's life from the time of his return to
Scotland in 1559 is a part of the history of his country and
its full story is to be sought in the histories of
Scotland. Only details which have a more personal
interest can be noted here. When the Reformed
religion was formally ratified by law in Scotland in
1560 he was appointed minister of the Church of
St. Giles, then the great parish church of
Edinburgh. He was at this time in the fulness of his
powers, as is manifest abundantly in the style of
his History of the Reformation-- a work
which appears to have been begun
about 1559, and completed in the course
of the next six or seven years.
The History, if sometimes rough and even
coarse in language, and not always
commendable in temper and spirit, is
written with a force and vigor not surpassed by
any of his other writings-- of all which it may be
said, that, whatever their faults, they are works of
true genius, and well worthy in their character,
upon the whole, of the great leader and statesman
who wrote them.
At the very beginning of his
labors as minister of Edinburgh, he had the
misfortune to lose his much-loved and helpful young
wife, whom John Calvin described as suavissima. She
left two sons, one of whom, Nathanael, died at
Cambridge in 1580; the other, Eleazer, became vicar of
Clacton Magna in the archdeaconry of Colchester
and died in 1591. In 1564 Knox made a second
marriage, which was greatly talked of at the time
because the bride was remotely connected with the
royal family and still more because she was a maiden
of seventeen while Knox was three times as old. The
young lady was Margaret Stewart, daughter of
Andrew, Lord Stewart of Ochiltree. She bore Knox
three daughters, of whom the youngest, Elizabeth,
became the wife of the famous John Welsh, minister
of Ayr.
At this time the Reformer lived a very
laborious life. He was much engrossed with the
public affairs of the national Church, and at the
same time devoted to his work as a parish minister,
to say nothing of his continual, and perhaps, in his
position, unavoidable controversies, more or less
personal, with the ecclesiastical and political factions
of the day, which he regarded as his country's
enemies. He was, however, not without social and
family enjoyments. A fair stipend of four hundred
marks Scots, equal to about forty-four pounds of
English money of that day, enabled him to exercise
hospitality and to advance money to a friend in
need. He had a good house, which was provided
and kept in repair by the municipality.
His home, during the greater part of his ministry in
Edinburgh, stood on the site now occupied by the City
Council Chambers. Another house in Edinburgh,
still preserved with little change and known since
the eighteenth century at latest as "John Knox's
house," may have been occupied by him toward
the close of his life. With all his severity, there
must have been much sympathy in a man who was
repeatedly invited to reconcile the sundered,
husband with wife, friend with friend. He lived in
kindly relations with his neighbors, many of whom,
in every rank, were among his intimate friends,
and he was not indisposed to mirth and humor, of
which, as of other traits of his character, his
writings furnish abundant evidence.
An interesting description of Knox's appearance,
and especially of his style as a preacher, in his
later years, is furnished in the Diary of James
Melville (published by the Bannatyne Club,
Edinburgh, 1829, pp. 26, 33). Melville was at the time
a student in St. Andrews, and the
period he refers to is the year 1571, when
Knox, for his personal security, had,
not for the first time in his life, taken
refuge in that city.
"Of all the benefits I had that year," writes Melville,
"was the coming of that most notable
prophet and apostle of our nation, Mr. John Knox,
to St. Andrews, who, by the faction of the queen
occupying the castle and town of Edinburgh, was
compelled to remove therefrom, with a number
of the best, and chose to come to St. Andrews. .
Mr. Knox would sometimes come in, and repose him
in our college-yard, and call us scholars unto him, and
bless us, and exhort us to know God and his work
in our country, and stand by the good cause; to
use our time well, and learn the good instructions,
and follow the good example, of our masters. .
He was very weak. I saw him every day of his
doctrine go hulie and fear [slowly and warily], with a
furring of martriks about his neck, a staff in the one
hand, and good godly Richard Ballantyne, his
servant, holding up the other oxter [arm-pit], from
the abbey to the parish church; and by the said
Richard and another servant lifted up to the pulpit,
where he behoved to lean at his first entry; but ere
he had done with his sermon, he was so active and
vigorous that he was like to ding that pulpit in
blads and flee out of it."
A Latin epistle sent by Sir Peter Young to Beza in 1579, contains a
description of the Reformer's personal appearance in
later years. His stature was "a little under
middle height"; his "limbs were graceful"; his
head "of moderate size"; his face "longish";
his nose "beyond the average length"; his
forehead "rather narrow"; his brows "standing out
like a ridge"; his cheeks "somewhat full" as well
as "ruddy"; his mouth "large"; his
"complexion darkish"; his eyes dark blue (or bluish
grey) and his glance "keen"; his beard "black,
with white hairs intermingled" and a "span and
a half long." In his countenance, which was
"grave and severe," "a certain graciousness was
united with natural dignity and majesty."
John Knox died as he had lived-- full of faith,
but always ready for conflict. He found a devoted
nurse in his young wife; and all the noblest and
best men of Scotland hung about his house for
tidings of the progress of his malady, in the vain
hope of his being longer spared. His servant,
Richard Ballantyne, after detailing the incidents
of his last hours, says of him:
;"Here lyeth a man who in his life never feared the face of man, who hath been often threatened with dagge and dagger, but yet hath ended his dayes in peace and honour."
Early life
Conversion to Protestantism
Ministry at St. Andrews
Confinement in the French Galleys
On his release, which took place early in 1549, through the intervention, apparently, of the English government, Knox found that, in the existing
state of the country, he could be of little use in his beloved Scotland. For nearly ten years, accordingly, he submitted to voluntary exile, like many
of the worthiest of his countrymen in those troublous times. All these years, however, he devoted himself to ministerial labors in connection with the
Reformed Church. His first sphere of duty was provided for him in England, for the space of about five years as a minister of the English Church. On the Continent, 1554-59.
Organization of the Church in Scotland.
Knox and Queen Mary.
Ministry in Edinburgh and Private Life.
Personal Appearance and Manner.
Testimonies to his character.
A higher testimony to the worth of a man not
without faults was pronounced at his grave in the
churchyard of St. Giles by the Earl of Mortoun, the
regent of Scotland, in the presence of an immense
concourse, who had followed the body to its last
resting-place: