Knox, John

Knox, John (c.1513–72), began preaching for the reformed religion in 1547 and became chaplain to Edward VI in 1551. He went abroad at the accession of Mary Tudor, wrote his ‘Epistle on Justification by Faith’ in 1548, met Calvin at Geneva in 1554, was pastor of the English congregation at Frankfurt am Main, 1554–5, and from 1556 to 1558 lived at Geneva. Thence he addressed epistles to his brethren in England suffering under the rule of Mary Tudor, and in Scotland under the regency of Mary of Lorraine. It was this situation which led to the publication of his First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558) of which the title, Saintsbury remarks, was the best part. (See also pamphleteering, origins of.) In 1559 appeared the First Book of Discipline, of which Knox was part-author, advocating a national system of education. His Treatise on Predestination was published in 1560. In 1572 he was appointed minister at Edinburgh, where he died. His History of the Reformation of Religion within the Realm of Scotland (1587) contains, in its fourth book, the notable account of the return of Mary Stuart to Scotland, of Knox's interviews with her, and his fierce denunciations from the pulpit of St Giles.