The Works of John Knox, Volume 1 (of 6)

Chronological Notes

Of

The Chief Events in the Life of John Knox

Knox was born this year, at the village of Gifford, near the town of Haddington, in East-Lothian. His father is said to have been descended from the Knoxes of Ranferly, in the county of Renfrew; and the name of his mother was Sinclair. Knox himself, in describing an interview with the Earl of Bothwell, in 1562, mentions that his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, had all served his Lordship’s predecessors, and that some of them had died under their standards; which implies that they must have been settled for a considerable period in East-Lothian, where the Hepburns, Earls of Bothwell, had their chief residence.

After being educated at Haddington, Knox was sent to the University of Glasgow; where John Major was Principal Regent or Professor of Philosophy and Divinity. The name “Johānes Knox,” occurs in the Registers of the University, among those of the students who were incorporated in the year 1522. There is no evidence to shew that he afterwards proceeded to St. Andrews, as is usually stated, either to complete his academical education, or publicly to teach philosophy, for which he had not qualified himself by taking his degree of Master of Arts. If he ever taught philosophy, it must have been in the way of private tuition.

About this time Knox took priest’s orders; and he was probably connected, for upwards of ten years, with one of the religious establishments in the neighbourhood of Haddington. It is generally supposed, that between the years 1535 and 1540, in the course of his private studies, the perusal of the writings of Augustine and other ancient Fathers, led him to renounce scholastic theology, and that he was thus prepared, at a mature period of life, to profess his adherence to the Protestant faith.

March 8. The name of “Schir John Knox” occurs among the witnesses to a deed concerning Rannelton Law, in a Protocol-book belonging to the borough of Haddington; and there is no reason to doubt that this was the Reformer.

Knox entered the family of Hugh Douglas of Longniddry, as tutor of his sons Francis and George Douglas; and also of Alexander Cockburn, son of John Cockburn of Ormiston.

In this year he attached himself as an avowed adherent of George Wishart, from the time of his first visit to East-Lothian.

George Wishart suffered martyrdom at St. Andrews, on the 1st of March 1545-6; and on the 29th of May that year, Cardinal Beaton was murdered.

April 10. Knox, with his young pupils, entered the Castle of St. Andrews, as a place of safety from the persecution of the Popish clergy.

May. At the end of this month, or early in June, he received a public call to the ministry, which he obeyed with great reluctance; but having undertaken the office, he continued, along with John Rough, to preach both in the parish Church, and in the Castle until its surrender.

June. The French fleet appeared in St. Andrews Bay, to lay siege to the Castle, which surrendered on the 30th of July; but in defiance of the terms of capitulation, the chief persons in the place were sent as prisoners on board the French galleys.

During this winter, the vessel on board of which Knox was confined, remained in the river Loire.

The vessel returned to Scotland, about the time of the siege of Haddington in June; and when within sight of St. Andrews, Knox uttered his memorable prediction, that he would yet survive to preach in that place where God had opened his mouth for the ministry.

During this winter, he was kept prisoner at Rouen, where he wrote a Preface to Balnaves’s Treatise of Justification, which was sent to Scotland, and until some years after his death, was supposed to be lost.

February. Knox obtained his liberty, after an imprisonment of nineteen months. He came to England, and soon afterwards was appointed by the English Council to be a preacher in the town of Berwick.

April 4. Knox was summoned to appear at Newcastle before Dr. Tonstall, Bishop of Durham, to give an account of his doctrine.

At the close of this year he was removed from Berwick to Newcastle, where he continued his ministerial labours.

December. Knox was appointed by the Privy Council of England one of six
Chaplains to Edward the Sixth. This led to his occasional residence in
London during 1552 and 1553.

October. He received an offer of the Bishopric of Rochester; but this preferment he declined.

In or about February, Knox was summoned before the Privy Council of England, upon complaints made by the Duke of Northumberland; but was acquitted.

April 14. He also declined accepting the vacant living of All-Hallows, in London, and, on account of his refusal, was again summoned before the Privy Council.

Edward the Sixth died on the 6th of July, and the persecution of the Protestants being revived during the reign of Queen Mary, most of the Reformed ministers and many of the laity made their escape, and sought refuge in foreign countries, in the course of that year.

January 28. Knox was at Dieppe, where he remained till the end of February. He then proceeded to Geneva, but was again at Dieppe in July, “to learn the estate of England.”

April 10. The Queen Dowager, Mary of Guise, was installed Regent of Scotland.

On the 4th of September, he received a call from the English Congregation at Frankfort on the Maine, to become their minister. He accepted the invitation, and repaired to that city in November.

In consequence of the disputes which arose in the English Congregation at Frankfort, in regard to the use of the Book of Common Prayer, and the introduction of various ceremonies. Knox was constrained to relinquish his charge; and having preached a farewell discourse on the 26th of March, he left that city, and returned to Geneva. Here he must have resumed his ministerial labours; as, on the 1st of November that year, in the “Livre des Anglois, à Geneve,” it is expressly said, that Christopher Goodman and Anthony Gilby were “appointed to preche the word of God and mynyster the Sacraments, in th’ absence of John Knox.” This refers to his having resolved to visit his native country.

Knox proceeded to Dieppe in August, and in the following month landed on the east coast of Scotland, not far from Berwick. Most of this winter he spent in Edinburgh, preaching and exhorting in private.

In the beginning of this year Knox went to Ayrshire, accompanied with several of the leading Protestants of that county, and preached openly in the town of Ayr, and in other parts of the country. He was summoned to appear before a Convention of the Popish Clergy, on the 15th of May, at Edinburgh. About the same time, he addressed his Letter to the Queen Regent.

Having received a solicitation for his return to Geneva, to become one of their pastors, Knox left Scotland in July that year. Before this time he married Marjory Bowes. Her father was Richard, the youngest son of Sir Ralph Bowes of Streatlam; her mother was Elizabeth, a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Roger Aske of Aske.

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