John Knox (1514- 1572)

John Knox was an ordained minister successively for 3 Christian churches -
Roman Catholic, Church of England and Church of Scotland. And for 19 months he was a galley slave.

John in turn became a tutor, preacher at St. Andrews, galley-slave in French bondage and chaplain to the young English king- Edward VI.

In the 1540s John came under the influence of converted reformers… He became the bodyguard for fiery Protestant preacher George Wishart. In 1546 Cardinal David Beaton had Wishart arrested, tried ,strangled and burned. 3 months later Beaton was murdered by Protestant conspirators. John was not ‘privy’ to the murder but did approve of it.

In 1547 the occupants of St. Andrew Castle, including John, were put under siege. Some occupants were imprisoned; John was sent to the galleys as a slave. Released after 19 months he spent 5 years in England where his reputation for preaching quickly blossomed.

During the reign of Mary Tudor (1553-8),when England reverted back to being Roman Catholic, John was exiled in Europe. Whilst there he helped originate the Puritan tradition and worked on an English version of the Bible.

In 1559 he returned to Scotland to be proclaimed an outlaw by the Roman Catholic queen regent. The English ambassador, Randolph said, The voice of one man is able in one hour to put more life in us than 500 trumpets continually blustering our ears.

Queen Mary arrived in Scotland in 1561. . When Mary was contemplating Don Car;os of Spain John sounded the Protestant alarm bell. John was charged with treason but the privy Council refused to convict him. Aged 50 John married
17 year old Margaret Stewart a distant relative of the queen - that completed the queen’s ‘cup of bitterness’.

The Reformation finally came to Scotland. John laid down the right foundations. He aimed at support for the poor, equality of men before God and the advancement of education by having a school in every parish. He and his fellow ministers went to great pains to establish sound doctrine.

Parliament ordered John and 5 colleagues to write a Confession of faith, the First Book of Discipline and *The Book of Common Order * .

He ended up as preacher in Edinburgh church where he wrote
History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland

His power as a preacher lay in his capacity to fuse reason with emotion and to be a passionate logican in the pulpit. He was considered one of the most powerful preachers of his day. John was a minister of the Christian gospel who advocated a violent but bloodless revolution.He was a key figure in the formation of modern Scotland.

Sources used
*Great Leaders of the Christian Church editor Woodbridge
content by J.D. Douglas
Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Christianity Today