JOHN KNOX (1513?-1572)
Though the
Scottish poet, Robert Burns, did seem to warm towards “Daddie Auld”, a
Presbyterian minister in Machline, “Holy Willie” (a real man portrayed in a
poem by Burns) is a gross distortion of Calvinists such as John Knox. Holy
Willie is a straw-man argument that has served to help Calvinists like me get
verbally whacked in Scotland! Eg, on two different return trips to Scotland
from my adopted home of Australia, I have been verbally abused by militant
Atheists upon my being introduced to them as a Presbyterian minister. They must
have felt the need to declare their hatred for God while gnashing their teeth
and swearing at me – before I have even uttered a word!
While visiting
Scotland I have been amazed at the way some Scots spit at the mere mention of
the name “John Knox”. However, when pressed, they are unable to articulate why
they hate Knox, but only that they hate him! They may mumble something about
Knox tying up swings in the swing-park so that the kids couldn’t play on them
on Sundays!
For all that,
Calvinist Knox is still one of my Scottish heroes! I enjoyed reading “John
Knox” by Jane Dawson, a book kindly sent to me as a gift by a friend who
resides in Scotland. Therefore, there is at least one Scot I know who respects
Knox. Says Burk Parsons,
“Perhaps more than
anything else, John Knox is known for his prayer “Give me Scotland, or I die.”
Knox’s prayer was not an arrogant demand, but the passionate plea of a man
willing to die for the sake of the pure preaching of the gospel and the
salvation of his countrymen. Knox’s greatness lay in his humble dependence on
our sovereign God to save His people, revive a nation, and reform His church.”[1]
Knox, to say
the least did not have an easy life. However, God was preparing him along the
way, teaching him patience, toughening him. Knox was attached to the oar of a
boat for some nineteen months (1547-49). Says Steven J. Lawson,
“Lesser men and
servants, including Knox, were chained as galley-slaves. They lay at anchor in
Nantes on the Loire all winter ‘miserably entreated’. The cold in mid-stream
must have been intense. A galley slave’s shelter was his bench, his food the
barest rations above starvation: there was no question of privacy or sanitation.
The stench of the galleys was proverbial, and galley-fever prevalent. But
slaves were expendable.”[2]
It must have been a great relief to have
had the shackles removed, however, life was still a struggle for Knox. He did
emerge from the dark forest of imprisonment to enter into the sunny glade of
marriage. He married Marjory Bowes in 1555. Says Jane Dawson,
“Since clerical celibacy was a major issue within the polemical battles raging in print, some Protestant clerics turned their marriages into a declaration of anti-Catholic views rather than merely choosing a partner. However, Marjorie and Knox were deeply attached and, within the different understandings of the sixteenth century, theirs was a love match.”[3]
John and Marjory had two sons together,
Nathaniel and Eleazar. Happy days! But alas! Five or so years of marital bliss
was over all too soon. Marjorie died at twenty-seven years of age in December 1560.
Knox soldiered on.
Apart from some vague notion of Knox’s
desire for Scotland to have a weekly national day of rest, (hence the erroneous idea
of him being a killjoy, e.g., making sure the bairns don’t have any fun on the
Sunday Sabbath), some Scots will tell you that Knox married a child-bride with
the ominous hint of paedophilia left lingering in the air like a bad smell. (We are not sure of the exact year Knox's birth. Guesses range from 1505-14.) Says Steven J. Lawson,
“On Palm Sunday,
25 March 1564, Knox married his second wife, Margaret Stewart, the daughter of
his old friend Lord Ochiltree. Knox was aged fifty and Margaret just seventeen.
During the sixteenth century, this age discrepancy was not uncommon. But what
was surprising was the social mismatch, for Margaret was a member of the royal
house of Stewart, Queen Mary’s own family. She was a descendant of an earlier
king of Scotland, James II. Her uncle had married the sister of King Henry
VIII, and widow of James IV, Margaret Tudor. That the son of a Haddington
merchant should marry someone of the queen’s own family was bad enough, but
that he should be a renegade priest and her dreaded enemy was infuriating to
Mary, and she threatened to drive Knox out of Scotland once again.”[4]
Knox brought the Reformation of the Church
to Scotland. He is regarded as the father of the Scottish Reformation. (I
regularly listen to Felix Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” and his “Reformation”.
Stirring stuff!). Regarding Knox’s prayer life and relationship with God, says
Steven J. Lawson,
“So powerful was
Knox’s prayer life that Charles H. Spurgeon once remarked, ‘When John Knox went
upstairs to plead (with God) for Scotland, it was the greatest event in
Scottish history.’ Mary, Queen of Scots acknowledged the same: I am more afraid
of [Knox’s] prayers than an army of ten thousand men.’”[5]
The Reformation restored the authority of
Scripture and, with the previous invention of the printing press, it put the
written Word of God into the hands of the ordinary people in their own language. Not
only did the Reformation put the Scriptures into the hands of the common
people, but it also brought with it the Scripture’s own method of
interpretation. No longer was a corrupt church full of corrupt leaders the
authority for interpreting Scripture, but rather the Scriptures themselves
became that authority: Scripture was to be used to interpret Scripture.
We thank God for mightily using John Knox to this end in Scotland.
John Knox was a student of John Calvin.
Knox can be seen promoting the Reformational hermeneutic in an encounter with
the Roman Catholic Mary Queen of Scots,
‘You interpret the
Scriptures in one way,’ said the queen evasively, ‘and they in another: whom
shall I believe, and who shall be judge?’
‘You shall believe
God, who plainly speaketh in His Word,’ replied the Reformer, ‘and farther than
the Word teacheth you, you shall believe neither the one nor the other. The
Word of God is plain in itself; if there is any obscurity in one place, the
Holy Ghost, who is never contrary to Himself, explains it more clearly in other
places, so that there can remain no doubt, but as to such as are obstinately
ignorant.’[6]
There you have it. Scotland was set free
by having the Bible in their own language along with the key to interpreting it. No
longer were priests muttering services in Latin, but the Gospel was now being
proclaimed and understood. From here Scotland would go on to become the land of
literary giants, theological heavyweights, philosophers, engineers, inventors,
missionaries etc., heavily influencing the founding such places as Canada, Australia, and
the American Republic.
“Today [Knox] is
usually identified as a Scottish Reformer; the opponent of Mary, Queen of Scots,
and disparager of women; the anti-Catholic Presbyterian hero or villain according
to perspective; the personification of the Calvinist dourness and puritanism
that have blighted Scottish identity. In the caricature version, he has become
the ranting Scotsman with the long beard and preaching gown.”[7]
I recommend that all people,
especially Scots people, rediscover this founding father of modern Scotland,
the genius John Knox.
[1]
Burk Parsons, “Give Me Scotland, or I Die”, Ligonier Ministries, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/give-me-scotland-or-i-die/
[2] Elizabeth
Whitley, The Plain Mr. Knox,
Christian Focus Publications, Ross-shire, 2001, P. 34.
[3] Jane
Dawson, John Knox, Yale, 2016, p. 64.
[4]
Steven J. Lawson, John Knox: Fearless
Faith, Christian Focus, Ross-shire, 2014 (Reprinted in 2017), p. 88.
[5] Steven
J. Lawson, John Knox: Fearless Faith,
Christian Focus, Ross-shire, 2014 (Reprinted in 2017), p. 121.
[6] Rev. Thomas McRie, The Life of John Knox, Thomas Nelson
& Sons, London & Edinburgh, 1889, P. 175.
[7]
Jane Dawson, John Knox, Yale, 2016,
p. 321.
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