Scotland

… [John] Knox not only polarized his enemies but created schism with his own Protestant brotherhood.  Yet alienating Catholic enemies and Protestant friends alike was not problematic to Knox; although discouraging to the Reformer, he expected nothing less since God called him to be a prophet…

The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, by Matthew Barrett

In the 1520s, Luther’s writings were smuggled into Scotland.  While there was resistance, a hungry audience was found.  Luther’s writings were banned in 1525, and this ban continued well into the next decade.  Any Scotsman caught reading a work of Luther would be prosecuted in the most severe fashion; to be caught was potentially a death sentence.

Patrick Hamilton, who studied in Wittenberg, attempted to advance the cause.  His work was short-lived, burned at the stake in 1528.  On the way to his execution, he handed a young John Knox his garments.  Knox was about 15 years old at the time, and needless to say, the experience remained with him.  It was almost two decades later (March 1, 1546) when George Wishart also met this fate.

Before his end, it was Wishart who became a spiritual father to Knox, and Knox would become Wishart’s devoted follower.  Wishart would offer the idea of the invisible church, and there was no salvation outside of this church.  Hence, calling out the visible church in Scotland for its corruptions and idolatry was a necessary act for God’s elect.

Knox would also take on Wishart’s style of preaching.  It was an Old Testament prophet style: warn the nation that God’s judgment was imminent, then predict what the future had in store.  A fiery sermon, designed to move the affection as much as it was designed to teach the mind. 

Once exposed to this preaching, Knox was hooked – converted to the Reformation.  Knox would go public with his affection for Wishart in the weeks prior to Wishart’s execution.  After this, a stabbing of the cardinal and a taking by Reformers of St. Andrews castle.  Knox was not involved, but was relieved to hear of the cardinal’s death.  This relief did not last long; John Hamilton took up the baton to hunt down evangelicals.  Knox would also then take up refuge in the castle.

There was hope at this time that the English would come to their aid; this hope did not materialize at this time.  Instead, it was the French who conquered the castle.  Knox was captured, and was turned into an oarsman on Our Lady, Notre Dame.

His time on board was brutal, but came to an end in the spring of 1549, thanks to English negotiations with the French.  Knox would enter England during the time of Edward VI and Thomas Cranmer.  His arrival coincided with the first Book of Common Prayer.  Knox decided to not use the book at certain points in the liturgy, certainly during the Lord’s Supper.

While aligning with the center of the Reformation, Knox could always be counted on to represent the far-right edge.  He was always the one advocating for the most aggressive and inflexible strategy – his views were black or white; any disagreements were considered blasphemy.

Few instances demonstrate Knox’s radical approach more than his confrontation with Thomas Cranmer over the Second Book of Common Prayer. 

Knox had freedom to modify the book while he was in the north of England, but as he came closer to London, he would discover this freedom was unique.  Compliance with the book was expected, and, again, the issue remained the Lord’s Supper.  Knox took issue with the requirement of kneeling.

In the fall of 1552, Knox made his opinion known in a sermon.  Despite the Second Book having been approved by Parliament, in the wake of this critical sermon, printing stopped.  Cranmer would respond harshly, calling Knox and his followers unquiet spirits, concerned only with their own fancies.

Knox was a troublemaker and at the worst time, just when the country was achieving unprecedented peace and Protestant prosperity.

Cranmer addressed Knox’s case against kneeling, one argument at a time.  There are those who consider that Cranmer dismantled Knox’s arguments one by one.  In any case, the council supported Cranmer at the time, and Knox suffered a severe blow to his reputation.

Knox didn’t suffer defeat well, but he did instruct his previous churches to kneel rather than sit.  He remained bitter, focused on what was still to be done (in his view) as opposed to what had been accomplished in England at that time.  Many considered gradualism the best strategy to move the Reformation forward in England; Knox considered gradualism a sin. 

In 1553, Mary Tudor took the throne and returned England to Catholicism.  Knox took this as God’s punishment against those who took the gradualist approach.  Knox, like other evangelicals, faced a choice: stay or flee. 

As he was accustomed in any case to be a roaming preacher, he would leave England – going from Calvin’s Geneva to Bullinger’s Zurich.  He would ask troubling questions: what do you think about a woman taking the throne?  Any answer that might tie these continental Reformers to rebel groups was of concern, so there was reluctance to engage on such matters.

Controversy regarding the Book of Common Prayer followed; as Knox was preaching to exiled English evangelicals, many of these held allegiance to the Book.  Further, with Cranmer now in a cell, any modification might be discouraging to those evangelicals still in England.  This spilt would turn ugly; name calling ensued. 

Knox attempted to draw Calvin to his side, however Calvin’s letter to the congregation was not supportive.  He rebuked both sides for creating such disunity.  Knowing of Knox’s inflexible demeanor and uncompromising demand for revision, he concluded that Knox was responsible for the harshness in dialogue. 

Knox was defeated, and had to leave Frankfurt.  He had created a host of enemies, and was considered a schismatic and a liability to the Reformation.  He would return to Scotland, and would start preaching again.  Many found his preaching abrasive – still struggling with how to understand Reform within the context of their old faith.  However, he would generate a sizeable following, and he became a coveted preacher throughout the country.

Not finding a permanent post in Scotland, when many of his former congregants in Frankfurt went to Geneva and invited Knox to follow, he accepted this call.  He was warned by Scottish Catholics not to return to Scotland – an effigy in his honor was burned.  The indication: if he returned, he would meet the same fate as Wishart.

Yet, after a short time, he decided he would return.  The persecution in Scotland of the Protestants was severe, and this only increased Knox’s venom against female rulers.  He would publish his First Blast against the Monstrous Regiment of Women.  He would write with vitriolic intensity. 

This tract opened:

“To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion or empire above any realm, nation, or city is repugnant to nature, contrary to God, a thing most contrarious to His revealed will and approved ordinance, and finally it is the subversion of good order, of all equity and justice.”

Tactically, this was a poor move.  Worse, it was very untimely for many Reformers.  The year of this tract 1558, was the same year that Protestants in England were relieved from the persecutions of Mary by the rise of Elizabeth to the throne.  Needless to say, she was not pleased.  This tract also had consequences for Calvin in Geneva, who was, prior to this, making some progress with England. 

Knox acted as if he could not understand why many of his fellow Reformers turned against him.  “My First Blast hath blowne from me all my friends in England.”  He would only dig in his heels even further.

Meanwhile, in 1558, Walter Mill was burned at the stake, infuriating Scottish Protestants.  Knox would return to Scotland the next year, and began to preach.  Idolatry could no longer be tolerated; the Scottish Reformation had begun – an iconoclastic riot followed.  France would enter the fight.

Knox was the prophet, the evangelical soldiers were Israel, and the French troops were the idolatrous nations who proved no match for Yahweh.

Queen Elizabeth threw the weight of England behind the Protestants.  An unexpected victory was realized.  Knox would preach to parliament: rebuild Scotland as Haggai rebuilt the temple.  Yet, Scotland would not change overnight; many hearts remained Catholic. 

Despite attempts to integrate Knox into the formal and official structures of Scotland’s religious and political institutions, he remained polarizing – never agreeing whenever compromise or gradualism was discussed. 

Knox never could transition from his prophetic warnings and rancorous judgments, which left some Reformers more inclined to call Knox a radical than a Reformer.

Conclusion

Yet, Barrett concludes that the Scottish Reformation would not have succeeded in the way it had if not for Knox’s rhetoric and forceful persistence:

Yet, a not-so-distant day did arrive when concord was achieved, and it is hard to imagine such an achievement was possible apart from the uprooting denunciations of Knox, reproofs that resulted in liturgy, confession, and form of discipline on which the Scottish kirk was built.