THE BRITISH REFORMERS

After the success at Stirling in May 1559, the Protestant Lords decided to introduce the Reformation in Scotland in those places over which they had control. St. Andrew’s was the first place they chose. It was arranged for Knox to preach there at the Abbey Church. There was opposition from the Catholics, but in the face of threats to his life, he preached on the subject of the ejecting of the buyers and sellers from the temple by Christ. He continued to preach on the three following days with the result that the Provost and inhabitants of St. Andrew’s agreed to introduce the Reformed worship in their town. The Church was stripped if its images and monasteries were pulled down. This took place on 14th June, 1559, and the example of St. Andrew’s was quickly followed in other parts of Scotland. The Queen Regent was forced to treat with the Protestants who took over Perth, Stirling and Edinburgh, while she retired to Dunbar. Knox next went on a tour of Scotland for two months and returned eventually to St. Andrew’s. In writing about this journey he said “For now forty days and more hath my God used my tongue in my native land to the manifestation of His glory.” In another letter dated 2nd September, he wrote, “Enemies we have many, by reason of the French who lately arrived, of whom our Papists hope golden hills. As we be not able to resist, we do nothing but go about Jericho, blowing with trumpets, as God giveth strength, hoping victory by His power alone.” In September 1559 his wife and family joined him in Scotland after being granted a safe-conduct through England by Queen Elizabeth, who felt more favourable to Knox. With them came Christopher Goodman, a former colleague of Knox at Geneva. He became minister at Ayr and later at St. Andrew’s. Previous to September, 1559 eight towns in Scotland had ministers, while the scarcity was severely felt in other places.

Help was now sought from England, Knox going in person to Stamford in Lincolnshire to meet the English Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, Lord Cecil. England did not wish to see the Scottish Protestants suppressed; on the other hand she did not want to have to send an army to Scotland. So the English Government offered the Scots a monetary subsidy to finance their own forces. By this it was hoped the Scots would expel the French Army and establish the Protestant Faith in Scotland. The Scots barons met in October 1559 to see if they could remove the Queen Regent from her power. The minors to the throne (Francis and Mary) were in France. In the present state of the country it was impossible to have a properly convened Parliament, but an Assembly of nobles and barons met in Edinburgh on 21st October and suspended the Queen from her authority as Regent and elected a Council to administer the country until a free Parliament should meet. Then the Protestants suffered a setback when the subsidy sent from England was captured by Catholic supporters of the Queen before it reached Edinburgh. Some of the soldiers of the Protestant Lords mutinied for lack of pay; an attack by the Protestant forces on the port of Leith was repulsed by French troops and finally the Protestants decided to abandon Edinburgh on 5th November, 1559, and retreat to Stirling. In a sermon preached at Stirling soon after then-arrival, Knox told the Reformed Party that the Lord had allowed this reverse to make them more dependent on Him and take to Himself all the glory of any future success. He felt sure that eventually they would prevail. The Council of nobles met after the service and decided to send to England for more support. While waiting for its arrival they also decided to divide into two groups, one half to stay at St. Andrew’s the other to remain at Glasgow. Knox was appointed to stay at St. Andrew’s and act as preacher there. The Protestant disaster aroused the English to send their navy and an army to Scotland, after concluding a Treaty with the Scots in February 1560. The Army entered Scotland in April and joined forces with the Scots Protestants. After an attack on Glasgow in March the French troops had retired to Leith which was fortified for a seige and invested by land and sea. During the seige the Queen Regent died and the French were forced to agree to a Treaty by which they were to evacuate all their troops from Scotland and an amnesty was to be granted to all Protestants engaged in resisting the Queen, and a free Parliament to be called. Though the treaty made no mention of religious differences, Roman Catholic worship was largely given up in Scotland except for places occupied by the Regent’s supporters and her French troops.

With the embarkation of the French troops, the Reformed Religion began to be peacefully introduced all over Scotland. Ministers were appointed in various areas; Knox to Edinburgh, Goodman to St. Andrew’s, Heriot to Aberdeen, Row to Perth and others to Jedburgh, Dundee, Dunfermline and Leith. Parliament met to legally sanction the change from Roman Catholic to Protestant worship. It opened on the 1st August, 1560, to establish the Reformation in Scotland. On 17th August it sanctioned “a Confession of Faith” drawn up by Knox and his fellow Reformers, embodying reformed doctrine and using in many instances the very words of the Apostle’s Creed and the Articles of the Church of England, as established in the reign of Edward VI in England. This was followed on 24th August by three Acts of Parliament. The first abolished for ever the jurisdiction of the Pope in Scotland. The second repealed all former statutes passed in favour of the Roman Catholic Church. The third ordained that all who said Mass or who dared to hear Mass should, for the first offence, be punishable by confiscation of goods, for the second be banished from Scotland and for the third offence be put to death. So the Reformed Faith advanced in Scotland from small beginnings and in the face of great opposition until it received Parliamentary assent.

Knox was now appointed by the Lords of the Privy Council together with five other ministers to produce a system of administration for the new Protestant Church. The result was what is known as “The First Book of Discipline.” Though this was never officially accepted by the Council, due to differences of opinion, it formed the acceptable basis for the organization of the Scottish Protestant Church. It laid down basically four offices in the Church — Ministers, doctors or teachers, ruling elders, and deacons. The Ministers were to preach the Gospel and administer the ordinances. The teachers or doctors were usually men in the Universities and they were to interpret the Scriptures and refute error. The ruling elders were to assist the minister in the discipline and government of the Church. The deacons were to have the oversight of the revenues of the Church and look after the poor. There was also a special group of men called readers who were to help the minister in large parishes in reading the Scriptures, saying prayers and exhorting. Ministers were appointed to large towns. Others in charge of country areas were called superintendents. Admission to these offices in the Church was by the free election of the people after examination of the candidates by the minister.

The affairs of each Congregation were managed by Ministers, elders and deacons who constituted the Kirk-Session which met once a week. The weekly Exercise of Prophesying was held in every large town, consisting of ministers, exhorters and learned men of the vicinity, for expounding the Scriptures. This was afterwards converted into the Presbytery. Twice a year the Superintendent and delegated elders met with the Ministers in a Provincial Synod. Twice or three times a year the General Assembly met, composed of Ministers and Elders from the various parts of the country. Services were held twice on Sundays and Catechising in the afternoon. In towns there was a regular weekday sermon and daily prayers and reading the Scriptures. The Lord’s Supper was administered four times a year in the towns. The sign of the cross in baptism, kneeling at the Lord’s table and religious festivals for saints were abolished. Besides dealing with all these points “the First Book of Discipline” also touched on an education system for the whole country, but this was never adopted. The first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland met in Edinburgh on 20th December, 1560. It consisted of forty members, only six of whom were ministers. Knox was one of these. A Moderator was chosen at each meeting and the doctrinal and administrative affairs of the new Church were discussed.

But while the affairs of the Reformation were proceeding satisfactorily in Scotland, there was still opposition to it. There were serious divisions among the Lords of the Council as to how to spend the money appropriated from the Catholic Church. Knox wished it to be used to support the Reformed Churches, set up schools in towns and villages and help the Universities. But some members of the Council wished to retain these vast resources for their own pockets, and add to their estates the lands of the monasteries. This was what was behind the dissension over “The First Book of Discipline”, that many of its requirements required financial support. Also a new army was being prepared in France to invade Scotland and it seemed that probably Queen Elizabeth of England would not intervene a second time to support the Reformed Cause. Then a change of events took place with the death of the King of France. The Protestant nobility of Scotland invited their young Queen Mary (Mary Queen of Scots) to return to Scotland which she did on 19th August, 1561, a move which exposed the Reformation in Scotland to more subtle dangers than open warfare, for the young Queen was a confirmed Roman Catholic, though the legitimate heir to the throne, which she had been unable to occupy while a minor. Now it was her determined policy to reduce Scotland once more to the Papacy. But since, for the time, the Protestants were in power, initially, she was forced to temporise, though she antagonised them by having solemn Mass performed on the first Sunday after her arrival at Holyrood Palace.

Knox, deeply conscious of the persecuting policy of the Catholic Church, watched the new young Queen closely. Mary particularly hated him because of his book “The First blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous regiment of Women,” which he had written in 1558. Soon after her arrival in Scotland, she sent for him to come to the Royal Palace at Holyrood and she interviewed him in the presence of her brother the Prior of St. Andrews. She accused him of raising her subjects against her mother and herself; of writing a book against her authority; of causing sedition and bloodshed when he was in England; and of accomplishing his purposes by magical arts. Knox answered the first three charges by showing how he was merely defending the truth and exposing error. To the last charge he replied that his Master, the Lord Jesus, had been accused of being in league with Beelzebub. When she went on to say, “Then I perceive my subjects shall obey you and not me,” Knox replied, “Both princes and subjects should obey God ... He craves of Kings, that they be foster-fathers of His Church and commands Queens to be nurses to His people.” “But you are not the Church I will nourish,” replied the Queen. “I will defend the Church of Rome, for it is, I think the true Church of God.” “Your will, madam,” replied Knox, “is no reason; neither doth your thought make the Roman harlot to be the true immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ. Wonder not, madam, that I call Rome an harlot, for that Church is altogether polluted with all kinds of spiritual fornication, both in doctrine and manners.” “My conscience is not so,” said the Queen. “Conscience, madam, requires knowledge, and I fear that right knowledge you have none”, replied Knox. “You interpret Scripture in one way and the Roman Catholic Church in another. Who shall be judge?” asked the Queen. “You will believe God, who speaketh plainly in His Word,” replied the Reformer, “and further than the Word teacheth 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 unto such as are obstinately ignorant.” So the interview progressed until the dinner hour put an end to their conversation.

As a result of this meeting Knox formed his opinion of Queen Mary, which he never afterwards altered, that she was proud, crafty, obstinately committed to the Catholic Church and adverse to all means of instruction. He therefore resolved to watch carefully and the more the Queen used her arts to win over the Protestant nobles or tried to cool the zeal for the Reformed Cause, the louder Knox sounded the alarm in his sermons. Sometimes he used rough, harsh language to admonish the Queen, for he was persuaded that the times required the utmost plainness. Soon the existence of the General Assemblies of the Scottish Church were challenged, as the Queen used her influence to get the courtiers to abstain from attending them and refused to ratify “The Book of Discipline.” “Take from us the liberty of Assemblies and take from us the Gospel”, said Knox. There then followed a decision of the Privy Council to divide the Church revenues into three parts; two to be given to the ejected Catholic clergy, and one to be divided between the Court and the Protestant ministers. When Knox spoke of “two parts being given to the Devil, and one part being divided between God and the Devil”, he was accused of ingratitude for royal generosity. He felt free to speak on this issue because his own salary came partly from friends and partly from the Town Council of the City of Edinburgh who paid him L200 a year.

In May 1562, Knox had another interview with the Queen. There had been a massacre of Protestants in France in March that year and on receipt of the news, Mary Queen of Scots had celebrated with a big dance at her Palace. Knox being told of the events at the Palace, referred to them in his sermon next Sunday at St. Giles Cathedral. This was reported to the Queen by informers. She called him to the Palace and questioned him, but he ably defended himself against having said anything except what was true and she was forced to accept his explanation, that he had not in fact slandered her. He pointed out that if she chose to attend his services, she could hear his doctrine for herself and would not have to rely on informers. In the Autumn of 1562 a Catholic Rising took place in Northern Scotland led by the Earl of Huntley, but with Knox’s help and influence the Protestant nobles quickly silenced it. Though nothing was proved, it was suspected that the Queen might have known something about it beforehand. She certainly hoped eventually to restore Catholicism in Scotland. In the same period as these events Knox had a public debate on the Mass with a Catholic theologian, named Quintin Kennedy. Like Luther’s debate with Dr. Eck at Leipzig, no clear victory was obtained by either side, both claiming to have won their case. On 20th May, 1562, the Queen held her first Parliament since coming to Scotland, and it was expected that this Parliament would ratify all the Acts passed concerning the Protestant religion. The Queen had often declared that all the Reformation Acts were invalid, since they had not been ratified by a Sovereign but only by a Council of State. So cleverly did she act, arresting leading Catholics on 19th May and making a very favourable impression in her speech to the Parliament, that they did not consider it necessary to ratify the Reformation Acts and so left open the Queen’s original contention that the Acts were illegal. Thus the Protestant Faith lacked the legal security necessary for its ratification as the Established Religion of Scotland. Knox quickly interviewed several members of Parliament but failed to make them realise the danger of leaving this matter unsettled. Before the end of the Parliament, Knox in preaching to a large number of the M.P.S, who had come to his Church, referred to the dangers of leaving the Reformation without a legal foundation and went on to mention another danger, the possibility of the Queen marrying a Roman Catholic, in which case he prophesied the banishment of Protestantism from Scotland. Protestants and Catholics resented Knox’s intrusion into the Queen’s private affairs. She summoned him to answer for mentioning the subject of her marriage and he had to go again to defend his statements. Though she actually wept in his presence, much of it in anger, he was unmoved since he believed that it was merely a device to embarrass him. She accused him of being ruthless, merciless and unkind, but history has vindicated him in his judgment of Queen Mary as a very clever, deceitful, and unprincipled woman. Eventually she ordered him out of her presence and discussed with her advisers whether to have him tried at law for his remarks. Many of his friends were cool to him in this crisis fearing that the royal displeasure might fall on them as well. But she did not proceed with the matter.

The Queen now waited her time to accuse Knox of a punishable offence and so imprison him and silence his ministry which she so deeply resented. In August while she was staying at Stirling, some of her servants at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, celebrated Mass in the Chapel there. Some Protestants entered and protested. When the Queen heard she asked for the prosecution of two of the leading Protestants. Fearing that this was the beginning of a widespread attack on Protestants, the Protestants in Edinburgh suggested to Knox that he send out a circular letter to the leading Protestant gentry in Scotland, requesting that they come to Edinburgh on the day of the trial. A copy of this letter fell into the hands of the Queen at Stirling and she showed it to her Privy Council, who considered it treasonable, the suspicion being that Knox was raising a rebellion. Knox was now summoned to appear in Edinburgh in December to stand trial before a Council of noblemen and royal counsellors at which the Queen was to be present herself. After a lengthy trial at which Knox justified his action in calling on these Protestant gentry to come to Edinburgh as a necessary means to protect the Protestants from the cruelty of the Catholics, and having pointed out that his fears were against the Catholic advisers of the Queen, and not against herself, he was asked to leave the Court while a decision was reached. By a majority vote the noblemen and counsellors found him not guilty of treason, recording their vote in the presence of the Queen who had herself cross-questioned Knox. Knox’s principal justification had been that as a minister he spent all his life calling men together to assemblies either for preaching or for Church business, such as the great Assemblies of the Church of Scotland. No evidence could be produced to show that he called this assembly of his followers for any other reason than to publicly support the men about to be tried. There was never any question of an armed rebellion. Thus the Lord protected Knox from the craft and envy of Mary Queen of Scots. And shortly afterwards the matter was dealt with by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland which by an overwhelming majority authorised Knox to warn at any time all their members of any danger he saw impending to the Protestant cause.

Knox’s first wife had died in 1561 and after three years he remarried in March 1564, Margaret Stewart, daughter of Lord Ochiltree, a nobleman who had consistently supported the Reformed Cause. In his preaching Knox continued to sound the alarm against the inroads of the Catholic Church. Many of the more lukewarm Protestant nobility would have liked to hush his voice a little and a move was made in 1564 to do this. Mary objected to his references to her in his public prayers at St. Giles. When referring to her he always asked the Lord, “Illuminate her heart, if Thy good pleasure be,’ and some of the nobles pointed out to him how offensive this was to the Queen. But Knox maintained that from her conduct toward himself, and her persistent attendance at Mass, he had no evidence that she was truly converted. In 1564 the Queen married Lord Darnley, who favoured the Catholic Cause, while sometimes attending Protestant services. On 19th August of that year Darnley, now king, attended St. Giles Cathedral for a solemn service to quieten the fears of the Protestants as to his loyalty to their cause. During the sermon Knox referred to Ahab not correcting his idolatrous wife Jezebel, and Darnley went back to the Palace at Holyrood in a rage, feeling that Knox was referring to him and Mary. That afternoon Knox was arrested and brought before the Privy Council to answer for his “attack” on the Royal Household. He was told that he was to stop preaching so long as the King and Queen were resident at Edinburgh. Knox refused to obey unless told to do so by a General Assembly of the Church and pointed out how the King had dishonoured God by attending the idolatrous Mass to please Mary. Knox added that “God in His justice would make her the instrument of his overthrow.” This proved true eventually, as there was every suspicion that the Queen was party to the death of her husband, and the remark was regarded, as under the Lord’s leading, to be a prophetic utterance of Knox. The Town Council of Edinburgh were roused at the royal interference in their preaching and requested the King and Queen to remove the ban. In fact the royal Household left Edinburgh before the next Sunday so that it did not last very long and when they returned they did not again enforce it.

J.R.B.

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