Famous Renaissance Figures Report on John Knox

John Knox was a Scottish religious reformer and political activist who founded the new Scottish protestant religion of Presbyterianism.

He was probably born in 1513 or 1514 in Giffordgate, about 15 miles from Edinburgh, Scotland. Nothing is known about his childhood, but his parents were remarkable. His father fought at the Battle of Flodden, and his mother was an educated woman. This was unusual in the 1500's.

Knox attended the University of Glasgow in 1552 and St. Andrew's University. Although he was Catholic, some think he first became familiar with Protestantism at the University of Glasgow. By 1540, he was a Catholic priest.

John Knox was a remarkable man. Although he is best known for founding the Presbyterian religion, all the things he did building up to this are remarkable. He became a friend of the Protestant George Wishart, who was banished from Scotland for his beliefs. He returned to Scotland in 1544, and in 1546 was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church because of his religion (Greatsite). In 1545 John Knox publicly announced that he had converted to Protestantism, clearly a dangerous thing to do at the time. After Wishart's death, a group of Protestants murdered Cardinal David Beaton, who was responsible for Wishart's execution, and then took refuge in St. Andrew's Castle (Columbia, 2001). The Scottish and French joined together to attack the castle and captured the Protestants. Knox spent 19 months in a French prisoner ship until King Edward VI of England arranged for his release (Columbia, 2001).

John Knox lived through a period of religious and political turmoil where the safety of Protestants depended on the religion of the person on the English throne.

Nevertheless in August of 1555, Knox, who had been in Europe, returned to Scotland, where he began preaching all over the country. He urged those who favored the Reformation, or development of Protestant churches, to stop attending Catholic Mass. He held communion services where he used Reformed instead of Catholic rituals. This attacked the very heart of Catholic practices, and in 1556 he was ordered to appear before the hierarchy in Edinburgh. This was the same body of clerics who burned Wishart at the stake, but instead of running, Knox attended. The Bishops backed off, and Knox returned to Europe. Most likely neither the Catholic clergy nor Knox wanted to return to the previous pattern of persecution and executions over religion in Scotland (Greatsite).

Knox had some difficulty gathering sustained support for his views in Scotland. In 1557 he Protestant nobles of Scotland signed a covenant, or agreement, forming the "Lords of the Congregation." When Mary of Guise attacked them, the Lords asked Knox to return and lead them, which he did.

When Catholic Mary I became queen, Knox fled to Europe..Many of the Protestants deserted the "Lords of the Congregation," understandable given the fate of Wishart. Some even aligned themselves with the new queen. Knox became a minister for the Church of England and began to urge Protestants to overthrow "ungodly" monarchs. Particularly opposed to Mary I, he wrote a paper called "First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women," against not only Queen Mary I but also Mary of Guise, regent for the Scottish throne. He debated religion with Queen Mary not only regarding religion but what kind of loyalty a subject owes to his king or queen. He defied her authority and preached loudly against her religion.

This so upset the royals that it alienated not only the two Marys but later, Queen Elizabeth I as well. Although Elizabeth I was a Protestant, she did not like his vigorous insistence about the limits of obligations to remain loyal to a sovereign. However, more turmoil around the English thrown worked in Knox's favor. Queen Mary I was implicated in the murder of her first husband, and her quick marriage to another man increased that suspicion. Protestants, aided by the French, forced Mary of Guise out of Scotland. Mary I was forced to leave the English throne in 1567, and her son, James VI, became king. By 1560 Knox's new religion, Presbyterianism, was made the official religion of Scotland (Columbia, 2001).

John Knox wrote The History of the Reformation in Scotland, but according to some it is not completely accurate (Columbia, 2001), because his bias triggered misstatements and selective omissions. John Knox was a singularly focused man.