1,752
edits
Changes
no edit summary
John Knox was born in Giffordgate, between 1507-1551. His father was a rather unsuccessful merchant. Knox is believed to have been educated at the University of St Andrews and worked as a notary-priest. At an early date, he was influenced by the early Scottish church reformers such as George Wishart, who was later executed as a heretic. His experience as a cleric had persuaded him that the church in Scotland had to be reformed. Soon, because of the force of his personality and his fiery sermons Knox became one of the leaders of the reform movement <ref>Dawson, Jane, John Knox, London: Yale University Press, 2015), p. 13</ref>. Knox was caught up in the ecclesiastical and political events that involved the murder of Cardinal David Beaton in 1546. He was not a party to the assassination of the Cardinal. In 1547 a French expeditionary force landed in Edinburgh and they ensured that a pro-French faction secured the government of the kingdom. Scotland Mary of Guise, a French noblewoman, became the regent to the future Mary Queen of Scots. Knox was taken prisoner by French forces. For over a year he was forced to serve as a galley slave and he almost died because of his terrible treatment. He was eventually released and exiled to England in 1549. Knox was licensed to work in the Church of England, because of his Protestant credentials. He became the Royal Chaplin to King Edward VI. He exerted a reforming influence on the text of the Book of Common Prayer. When Mary I (Bloody Mary) ascended the throne of England and re-established Roman Catholicism, Knox was forced to flee once more. Knox moved to Geneva and where, he met John Calvin, from whom he gained experience and knowledge of Reformed theology and Presbyterian polity<ref>Dawson, p. 198</ref>. Calvin was to change Knox’s view of religion and greatly influenced his theological thinking. The encounter between Calvin and Knox was crucial in the development of the Presbyterian Church. Later Knox broke with the Church of England and Anglicanism. Knox returned to Scotland and by now he was one of the leaders of the Scottish Reformation. He formed an alliance with the Scottish Protestant nobility and he openly challenged Mary Queen of Scots and denounced her Catholic faith<ref>Devine, p. 201</ref>. When the Queen was imprisoned for her alleged role in the murder of her husband Lord Darnley and King James VI was enthroned in her stead, he openly called for her execution. He continued to preach until his final days and remained one of the leaders of the Reformation in Scotland<ref>, Dawson, p. 167</ref>.
==Knox and the Scottish Reformation==
Knox was a man of the most extraordinary character. He was a man who believed he was on a divine mission to reform the church in Scotland. The reformer’s philosophy was that ‘a man with God was always in the majority’ <ref> Dawson, p. 189</ref>. Knox did not believe that he was an innovator but that he was restoring the Church. The power of his preaching and his writings did much to spread the Reformed faith in Scotland. Knox was a decisive influence on the Church of Scotland and he gave it, its distinctive character. He created a new order of service, which was eventually adopted by the reformed church in Scotland. Knox helped write the new confession of faith and the ecclesiastical order for the newly created reformed church, the Kirk. The Kirk was to be the most important social-religious institution in Scotland for many centuries. This was a congregation of elders and bishops who were entrusted with the government of the Church and with enforcing Christian teachings and morals in society. Knox published the First Book of Discipline, which set out the duties of clerics and enabled the transfer of property from the old Church to the new entity <ref>Laing, David, ed., The Works of John Knox (Edinburgh: James Thin, 55 South Bridge, 1895), p. 179</ref>. Under Knox, priests became ministers, bishops served as superintendents and new structures were put in place. The great Scottish reformer did not believe that he was creating a new Church but that he was rather reforming it. In reality he had changed the church beyond recognition and had transformed it. It was not until 1592 that a full Presbyterian system was adopted by the Scottish Church and Parliament. This was composed of courts made up of ministers and elders. Knox effort efforts to reform the Church in Scotland had created a new Church.
[[File: John Knox 2.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Mary Queen of Scots]]
==Knox and the overthrow of Catholicism==
Mary Queen of Scots, was a committed Catholic and like her namesake Mary I of England tried to restore Catholicism. As the monarch she was the divinely anointed ruler of the kingdom. Her support for Catholicism was a real threat to the continued growth of Protestantism in the realm. By this date the Church in Scotland was ‘reformed’ and Mary was its head. However, the Queen was openly sympathetic to Catholicism and openly held mass at her castle, which was contrary to the laws of the land. Knox publicly denounced her and her Catholic faith. In a series of interviews Mary tried to intimidate Knox and persuade him that she as Queen could practice her faith and that she was not a threat to the Church of Scotland. Knox was one of Mary’s chief critics during the controversy over the assassination of her husband, Lord Darnley<ref> Warnicke, Retha. M, Mary Queen of Scots, New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 134</ref>. He openly denounced the queen when she married the chief suspect the notorious Earl of Boothby. Knox continued to rouse the opposition to Mary and he helped to persuade the Protestant nobles to depose Mary and placed her son on the throne. This they eventually did, and Knox was granted the honor of preaching a sermon at the coronation of James VI <ref>Warnicke, p. 119</ref>. With the ascent of James VI, the Reformation in Scotland was secure, and Catholicism was marginalized and confined to the remote Highlands and Islands.
