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JOHN KNOX (c. 1505–1572)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 882 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN See also:KNOX (c. 1505–1572)  , Scottish reformer and historian . Of his See also:early See also:life very little is certainly known, in spite of the fact that his See also:History of the See also:Reformation and his private letters, especially the latter, are often vividly autobiographical . Even the See also:year of his See also:birth, usually given as 1505, is See also:matter of dispute . See also:Beza, in his Icones, published in 158o, makes it 1515; See also:Sir See also:Peter See also:Young (See also:tutor to See also:James VI. of See also:Scotland), See also:writing to Beza from See also:Edinburgh in 1579, says 1513; and a strong See also:case has been made out for holding that the generally accepted date is due to an See also:error in transcription (see Dr See also:Hay See also:Fleming in the Bookman, See also:Sept . 1905) . But See also:Knox seems to have been reticent about his early life, even to his contemporaries . What is known is that he was a son of See also:William Knox, who lived in or near the See also:town of See also:John Rough, who spoke it, died a few years after in the flames See also:Haddington, that his See also:mother's name was See also:Sinclair, and that his forefathers on both sides had fought under the banner of the Bothwells . William Knox was " See also:simple," not " See also:gentle "—perhaps a prosperous See also:East See also:Lothian See also:peasant . But he sent his son John to school (no doubt the well-known See also:grammar school of Haddington), and thereafter to the university, where, like his contemporary See also:George See also:Buchanan, he sat " at the feet " of John See also:Major . Major was a native of Haddington, who had recently re-turned to Scotland from See also:Paris with a See also:great academical reputation . He retained to the last, as his History of Greater See also:Britain shows, the repugnance characteristic of the university of Paris to the tyranny of See also:kings and nobles; but like it, he was now alarmed by the revolt of See also:Luther, and ceased to urge its See also:ancient protest against the supremacy of the See also:pope . He exchanged his " regency " or professorship in See also:Glasgow University for one in that of St See also:Andrews in 1523 .

If Knox's See also:

college See also:time was later than that date (as it must have been, if he was See also:born near 1515), it was no doubt spent, as Beza narrates, at St Andrews, and probably exclusively there . But in Major's last Glasgow session a " Joannes Knox " (not an uncommon name, however, at that time in the See also:west of Scotland) matriculated there; and if this were the future reformer, he may thereafter either have followed his See also:master to St Andrews or returned from Glasgow straight to Haddington . But till twenty years after that date his career has not been again traced . Then he reappears in his native See also:district as a See also:priest without a university degree (Sir John Knox) and a See also:notary of the See also:diocese of St Andrews . In 1543 he certainly signed himself " See also:minister of the sacred See also:altar " under the See also:arch-See also:bishop of St Andrews . But in 1546 he was carrying a two-handed See also:sword in See also:defence of the reformer George See also:Wishart, on the See also:day when the latter was arrested by the See also:archbishop's See also:order . Knox would have resisted, though the See also:arrest was by his feudal See also:superior, See also:Lord See also:Bothwell; but Wishart himself commanded his submission, with the words " One is sufficient for a See also:sacrifice," and was handed over for trial at St Andrews . And next year the archbishop himself had been murdered, and Knox was See also:preaching in St,Andrews a fully See also:developed Protestantism . Knox gives us no See also:information as to how this startling See also:change in himself was brought about . During those twenty years Scotland had been slowly tending to freedom in religious profession, and to friendship with See also:England rather than with See also:France . The Scottish See also:hierarchy, by this time corrupt and even profligate, saw the twofold danger and met it firmly . James V., the " See also:Commons' See also:King " had put himself into the hands of the Beatons. who in 1528 burned See also:Patrick See also:Hamilton .

On James's See also:

death there was a slight reaction, but the See also:cardinal-archbishop took See also:possession of the weak See also:regent See also:Arran, and in 1546 burned George Wishart . England had by this time rejected the pope's supremacy . In Scotland by a See also:recent See also:statute it was death even to argue against it; and Knox after Wishart's See also:execution was fleeing from See also:place to place, when, See also:hearing that certain gentlemen of See also:Fife had slain the cardinal and were in possession of his See also:castle of St Andrews, he gladly joined himself to them . In St Andrews he taught " John's See also:Gospel " and a certain See also:catechism—probably that which Wishart had got from " Helvetia " and translated; but his teaching was supposed to be private and tutorial and for the benefit of his See also:friends' " bairns." The men about him however—among them Sir See also:David See also:Lindsay of the See also:Mount, " See also:Lyon King " and poet—saw his capacity for greater things, and, on his at first refusing " to run where See also:God had not called him," planned a See also:solemn See also:appeal to Knox from the See also:pulpit to accept " the public See also:office and See also:charge of preaching." At the See also:close of it the See also:speaker (in Knox's own narrative) " said to those that were See also:present, ' Was not this your charge to me ? And do ye not approve this vocation?' They answered, `It was, and we approve it.' Whereat the said Johnne, abashed, burst forth in most abundant tears and withdrew himself to his chamber," remaining there in " heaviness " for days, until he came forth resolved and prepared . Knox is probably not wrong in regarding this See also:strange incident as the See also:spring of his own public life . The St Andrews invitation was really one to danger and death; at Smithfield . But it was a See also:call which many in that ardent See also:dawn were ready to accept, and it had now at length found, or made, a statesman and See also:leader of men . For what to the others was chiefly a promise of See also:personal salvation became for the indomitable will of Knox an assurance also of victory, even in this See also:world, over embattled forces of ancient wrong . It is certain at least that from this date he never changed and scarcely even varied his public course . And looking back upon that course afterwards, he records with much complacency how his earliest St Andrews See also:sermon built up a whole fabric of aggressive Protestantism upon Puritan theory, so that his startled hearers muttered, " Others sned (snipped) the branches; this See also:man strikes at the See also:root." Meantime the See also:system attacked was safe for other thirteen years . In See also:June 1547 St Andrews yielded to the See also:French See also:fleet, and the prisoners, including Knox, were thrown into the galleys on the See also:Loire, to remain in irons and under the lash for at least nineteen months .

Released at last (apparently through the See also:

influence of the young See also:English king, See also:Edward VI.), Knox was appointed one of the licensed preachers of the new faith for England, and stationed in the great See also:garrison of See also:Berwick, and afterwards at See also:Newcastle . In 1551 he seems to have been made a royal See also:chaplain; in 1552 he was certainly offered an English bishopric, which he declined; and during most of this year he used his influence, as preacher at See also:court and in See also:London, to make the new Bnglish See also:settlement more See also:Protestant . To him at least is due the See also:Prayer-See also:book See also:rubric which explains that, when kneeling at the See also:sacrament is ordered, " no See also:adoration is intended or ought to be done." While in See also:Northumberland Knox had been betrothed to See also:Margaret Bowes, one of the fifteen See also:children of See also:Richard Bowes, the See also:captain of Norham Castle . Her mother, See also:Elizabeth, co-heiress of See also:Aske in See also:Yorkshire, was the earliest of that little See also:band of See also:women-friends whose See also:correspondence with Knox on religious matters throws an unexpected See also:light on his discriminating tenderness of See also:heart . But now See also:Mary Tudor succeeded her See also:brother, and Knox in See also:March 1554 escaped into five years' See also:exile abroad, leaving Mrs . Bowes a See also:fine See also:treatise on " Affliction," and sending back to England two See also:editions of a more acrid " Faithful Admonition " on the crisis there . He first drifted to See also:Frankfort, where the English See also:congregation divided as English Protestants have always done, and the party opposed to Knox got rid of him at last by a complaint to the authorities of See also:treason against the See also:emperor See also:Charles V. as well as See also:Philip and Mary . At See also:Geneva he found a more congenial pastorate . See also:Christopher See also:Goodman (c . 152o-,6o3) and he, with other exiles, began there the Puritan tradition, and prepared the earlier English version of the See also:Bible, " the See also:household book of the English-speaking nations " during the great See also:age of Elizabeth . Here, and afterwards at See also:Dieppe (where he preached in French), Knox kept in communication with the other Reformers, studied See also:Greek and See also:Hebrew in the See also:interest of See also:theology, and having brought his wife and her mother from England in 1555 lived for years a peaceful life . But even here Knox was preparing for Scotland, and facing the difficulties of the future, theoretical as well as See also:practical .

In his first year abroad he consulted See also:

Calvin and See also:Bullinger as to the right of the See also:civil " authority " to prescribe See also:religion to his subjects—in particular, whether the godly should obey "a See also:magistrate who enforces See also:idolatry and condemns true religion," and whom should they join " in the case of a religious See also:nobility resisting an idolatrous See also:sovereign." In See also:August 1555 he visited his native See also:country and found the See also:queen-mother, Mary of See also:Lorraine, acting as regent in place of the real " sovereign," the youthful and better-known Mary, new being brought up at the court of France . Scripture-See also:reading and the new views had spread widely, and the regent was disposed to wink at this in the case of the " religious nobility." Knox was accordingly allowed to preach privately for six months throughout the See also:south of Scotland, and was listened to with an See also:enthusiasm which made him break out; " O sweet were the death which should follow such See also:forty days in Edinburgh as here I have had three!" Before leaving he even addressed a See also:letter to the regent, urging her to favour the Evangel . She accepted it jocularly as a " pasquil," and Knox on his departure was condemned and burned in effigy . But he See also:left behind him a " Wholesome Counsel " to Scottish heads of families, reminding them that within their own houses they were "bishop and kings," and recommending the institution of something like the early apostolic See also:worship in private congregations . Of the Protestant barons Knox, though in exile, seems to have been henceforward the See also:chief adviser; and before the end of 1557 they, under the name of the " Lords of the Congregation," had entered into the first of the religious " bands " or " covenants " afterwards famous in Scotland . In 1558 he published his " Appellation " to the nobles, estates and commonalty against the See also:sentence of death recently pronounced upon him, and along with it a stirring appeal " To his beloved brethren, the Commonalty of Scotland," urging that the care of religion See also:fell to them also as being " God's creatures, created and formed in His own See also:image," and having a right to defend their See also:conscience against persecution . About this time, indeed, there was in Scotland ' remarkable approximation to that See also:solution of the See also:toleration difficulty which later ages have approved; for the regent was understood to favour the demand of the "congregation " that at least the penal statutes against heretics " be suspended and abrogated," and " that it be lawful to us to use ourselves in matters of religion and conscience as we must See also:answer to God." It was a consummation too ideal for that early date; and next year the regent, whose daughter was now queen of France and there mixed up with the persecuting policy of the Guises, forbade the reformed preaching in Scotland . A rupture ensued at once, and- Knox appeared in Edinburgh on the 2nd of May 1559 " even in the brunt of the See also:battle." He was promptly " blown to the See also:horn " at the See also:Cross there as an outlaw, but escaped to See also:Dundee, and commenced public preaching in the chief towns of central Scotland . At See also:Perth and at St Andrews his sermons were followed by the destruction of the monasteries, institutions disliked in that age in Scotland alike by the devout and the profane . But while he notes that in Perth the See also:act was that of " the See also:rascal multitude," he was glad to claim in St Andrews the support of the civic " authority "; and indeed the burghs, which were throughout See also:Europe generally in favour of freedom, soon became in Scotland a See also:main support of the Reformation . Edinburgh was still doubtful, and the queen regent held the castle; but a truce between her and the lords for six months to the 1st of See also:January 156o was arranged on the footing that every man there " may have freedom to use his own See also:con-See also:science to the day foresaid "—a freedom interpreted to let Knox and his brethren preach publicly and incessantly . Scotland, like its See also:capital, was divided .

Both parties lapsed from the freedom-of-conscience solution to which each when unsuccessful appealed; both betook themselves to arms; and the immediate future of the little See also:

kingdom was to be decided by its See also:external alliances . Knox now took a leading See also:part in the great transaction by which the friendship of France was ex-changed for that of England . He had one serious difficulty . Before Elizabeth's See also:accession to the English See also:crown, and after the queen mother in Scotland had disappointed his hopes, he had published a treatise against what he called " The Monstrous See also:Regiment (regimen or See also:government) of Women"; though the despotism of that despotic age was scarcely appreciably worse when it happened to be in See also:female hands . Elizabeth never for-gave him; but See also:Cecil corresponded with the Scottish lords, and their answer in See also:July 1559, in Knox's See also:handwriting, assures England not only of their own constancy, but of " a charge and commandment to our posterity, that the amity and See also:league between you and us, contracted and begun in See also:Christ Jesus, may by them be kept inviolated for ever." The league was promised by England; but the See also:army of France was first in the See also:field, and towards the end of the year drove the forces of the " congregation " from See also:Leith into Edinburgh, and then out of it in a midnight rout to See also:Stirling—",that dark and dolorous See also:night," as Knox See also:long afterwards said, "wherein all ye, my lords, with shame and fear left this town," and from which only a memorable sermon by their great preacher roused the despairing multitude into new See also:hope . Their leaders renounced See also:allegiance to the regent; she ended her not unkindly, but as Knox calls it " unhappy," life in the castle of Edinburgh; the English troops, after the usual Elizabethan delays and evasions, joined their Scots See also:allies; and the French embarked from Leith . On the 6th of July 156o a treaty was at last made, nominally between Elizabeth and the queen of France and Scotland; while Cecil instructed his See also:mistress's plenipotentiaries to agree " that the government of See also:Scot-See also:land be granted to,the nation of the land." The revolution was in the meantime See also:complete; and Knox, who takes See also:credit for having done much to end the enmity with England which was so long thought necessary for Scotland's See also:independence, was strangely enough destined, beyond all other men, to leave the See also:stamp of a more inward independence upon his country and its history . At the first See also:meeting of the Estates, in August 156o, the Protestants were invited to present a See also:confession of their faith . Knox and three others drafted it, and were present when it was offered and read to the See also:parliament . The statute-book says it was " by the estates of Scotland ratified and approved, as wholesome and See also:sound See also:doctrine grounded upon the infallible truth of God's word." The Scots confession, though of course See also:drawn up independently, is in substantial See also:accord with the others then springing up in the countries of the Reformation, but is Calvinist rather than Lutheran . It remained for two centuries the authorized Scottish creed, though in the first instance the faith of only a fragment of the See also:people . Yet its approval became the basis for three acts passed a See also:week later; the first of which, abolishing the pope's authority and See also:jurisdiction in Scotland, may perhaps have been consistent with toleration, as the second, rescinding old statutes which had established and enforced that and other See also:catholic tenets, undoubtedly was .

Phoenix-squares

But the third, inflicting heavy penalties, with death on a third conviction, on those who should celebrate See also:

mass or even be present at it, showed that the reformer and his friends had crossed the See also:line, and that their position could no longer be described as, in Knox's words, " requiring nothing but the See also:liberty of conscience, and our religion and fact to be tried by the word of God." He was prepared indeed to fall back upon that, in the event of the Estates at any time refusing See also:sanction to either See also:church or creed, as their sovereign in Paris promptly refused it . But the parliament of 1560 gave no See also:express sanction to the Reformed Church, and Knox did not wait until it should do so . Already " in our towns and places reformed," as the Confession puts it, there were See also:local or " particular kirks," and these See also:grew and spread and were provincially See also:united, till, in the last See also:month of this memorable year, the first See also:General See also:Assembly of their representatives met, and became the " universal See also:kirk," or " the whole church convened." It had before it the See also:plan for church government and See also:maintenance, drafted in August at the same time with the Confession, under the name of The Book of Discipline, and by the same framers . Knox was even more clearly in this case the chief author, and he had by this time come to See also:desire a much more rigid Presbyterian-ism than he had sketched in his " Wholesome Counsel " of 1555• In planning it he seems to have used his acquaintance with the " Ordonnances " of the Genevan Church under Calvin, and with the " Forma " of the See also:German Church in London under John See also:Laski (or A . Lasco) . Starting with "truth" contained in Scripture as the church's See also:foundation, and the Word and Sacraments as means of See also:building it up, it provides ministers and elders to be elected by the congregations, with a subordinate class of " readers," and by their means sermons and prayers each " See also:Sunday " in every See also:parish . In large towns these were to be also on other days, with a weekly meeting for See also:conference or " prophesying." The " See also:plantation " of new churches is to go on everywhere under the guidance of higher church See also:officers called superintendents . All are to help their brethren, "for no man may be permitted to live as best pleaseth him within the Church of God." And above all things the young and the ignorant are to be instructed, the former by a See also:regular gradation or See also:ladder of parish or elementary See also:schools, secondary schools and See also:universities . Even the poor were to be fed by the Church's hands; and behind its moral influence, and a discipline over both poor and See also:rich, was to be not only the coercive authority of the civil See also:power but its See also:money . Knox had from the first proclaimed that " the teinds (See also:tithes of yearly fruits) by God's See also:law do not appertain of See also:necessity to the kirkmen." And this book now demands that out of them " must not only the ministers be sustained, but also the poor and schools." But Knox broadens his plan so as to claim also the See also:property which had been really gifted to the Church by princes and nobles—given by them indeed, as he held, without any moral right and to the injury of the people, yet so as to be Church patrimony . From all such property, whether land or the sheaves and fruits of land, and also from the personal property of burghers in the towns, Knox now held that the See also:state should authorize the kirk to claim the salaries of the ministers, and the salaries of teachers in the schools and universities, but above all, the See also:relief of the poor—not only of the absolutely " indigent" but of " your poor brethren, the labourers and handworkers of the ground." For the danger now was that some gentlemen were already cruel in exactions of their tenants, " requiring of them whatever before they paid to the Church, so that the papistical tyranny shall only be changed into the tyranny of the lords or of the See also:laird." The danger foreseen alike to the new Church, and to the commonalty and poor, began to be fulfilled a month later, when the lords, some of whom had already acquired, as others were about to acquire, much of the Church property, declined to make any of it over for Knox's magnificent See also:scheme . It was, they said, " a devout See also: