Wherever the Sundays fall in your tour, we would aim to incorporate pre-arranged visits to United Reformed Churches in that area, if possible also incorporating performances.

This is a suggested itinerary to provoke discussion. Please ask us to make any amendments that you wish so that we may offer you a tour to suit your group's needs exactly..

A Brief Biography of John Knox

John Knox was born in Haddington in East Lothian, Scotland in about 1505. He attended Glasgow University where he was influenced by Dr.John Majors who was the professor of philosophy and theology and one of the leading theologians of the time. He left  after becoming disillusioned with some of the teaching and taught in some capacity at St.Andrews University. It is thought that he took Catholic orders in about 1530 and returned to Haddington where he worked for a  religious establishment for about 10 years. 

At about the time that Knox was at St.Andrews, a man called George Wishart was preaching Protestantism. He later fled to England to avoid the Catholic persecution in Scotland but got into trouble with King Henry VIII of England (possibly for being too puritanical) and returned to Scotland. He toured Scotland preaching Protestantism despite the fact that he had foretold his own arrest and burning. By this time many landowners in Scotland were Protestant and they gave him a group of men to help his safe passage. John Knox was one of these men, despite still being a Catholic priest. This group dwindled as it became increasingly dangerous to be associated with Wishart until only Knox remained. Despite Knox’s wish to remain until the end, Wishart dismissed him, was duly arrested and burnt in St.Andrews in1536.  Wishart’s martyrdom was the turning point in Knox’s life, causing him to denounce Catholicism and to take up the Protestant faith.

The man principally responsible for Wishart’s arrest and martyrdom was Cardinal Beaton and Scottish Protestants sought revenge. On May 29, 1546, after killing the sentry at St.Andrew’s Castle, they brutally killed Beaton before draping his body over the walls of the castle for all to see. Knox seems to have fully approved of this treatment. St.Andrews was then held by Protestants and he withdrew to the castle for safety. The French and Scots formed a Catholic  alliance and besieged the town. The citizens were spared on condition that they went to live in France and Knox was soon on a ship for Rouen. He and others were sentenced to life as galley slaves but, despite great hardship, none of them recanted their faith.

In 1549, Knox  was released, probably as part of Edward VI of England’s policy of exchanging French prisoners for English and Scottish Protestants. He came to London, was favourably received by Archbishop Cranmer and appointed preacher first at Berwick and then Newcastle. Whilst at Berwick , he first introduced the Puritan practice of using ordinary bread instead of wafers and sitting at communion instead of kneeling. He gradually gained favour with King Edward and was one of six chaplains consulted on what became “the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England. Knox  spent a year in London where he gained the trust of  King Edward. However, Edward was sickly and Knox returned to Newcastle where he preached a strong sermon warning about the dangers of Edward’s heir and half-sister, Mary (later “Bloody Mary”.)

Once Mary had the throne, she tried to re-introduce Catholicism to England by force and Knox, outspoken as always, had to flee England for his own safety in 1554. He wrote extensively and spent a season in Geneva in the congregation of John Calvin. He was impressed and, on Calvin’s advice, accepted an invitation to pastor an English-in-exile congregation in Frankfurt. Various disputes occurred about the liturgy and he returned to Geneva and acted as a pastor for an English refugee community there. This is considered by many the birth of English Puritanism.

In 1555 he made a visit to Scotland where he preached extensively against attending Mass and offered the Reformed Communion in private homes.  During this visit he was married to Marjorie Bowes before returning to Geneva.

He returned to Scotland to stay in 1559, having upset the queens of both Scotland and England (now ruled by Protestant Elizabeth I) with a strong article against female government. He returned to a Scotland on the verge of civil war and he spoke strongly against the idolatory of Catholicism. As a result, many churches were vandalized and looted and he has been criticized for not speaking out against it as Martin Luther did in similar circumstances in Germany.

In 1560 the Regent Queen Mary died (her daughter and heir Mary Queen of Scots was still out of the way in France) leaving the way open for the Reformers (the Congregation) to draw up a document rejecting Catholicism. This document was duly passed by the Scottish Parliament and Protestantism became the national religion as it was in England. On Mary’s return in 1561, despite being a devout Catholic, she agreed to allow Protestantism as the national religion but was allowed to attend her own private Mass. During this time she had five separate one to one discussions with Knox at her home in Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.

John Knox became pastor of St.Giles’ in Edinburgh when Protestantism was ratified in 1560 and he was at the height of his powers during this period. His wife died soon after, leaving him two sons, Nathanael and Eleazer.

Knox’s refusal to compromise in his dealings with Queen Mary resulted in her contriving to have him tried for treason in 1562, the evidence being a circular letter that he had written supporting men indicted for riot in the Chapel Royal. Despite Mary herself being chief prosecutor, he was acquitted by a majority of the noblemen present.

In 1564 Knox married his second wife Margaret Stewart of Ochiltre. This was controversial partly because he was 50 and she was 17 and partly because he was of humble birth and she of noble birth.

Knox continued to preach through his later life whilst Scotland went through a painful period of infighting resulting in Mary, Queen of Scots fleeing to England seeking the protection of Elizabeth (who ultimately had her executed in 1587).  Her infant son James became King James VI of Scotland and, on Elizabeth’s death in 1603, also James I of England.  Knox died on November 24, 1572. He is said to be buried under Parliament Square which was once the burial ground for St.Giles’ Kirk.

Places to visit associated with John Knox:

Haddington.

There is a statue of John Knox on the tower of the old Knox Academy

Edinburgh.

St. Giles’ Cathedral where he was pastor from 1560

John Knox’ House, reputedly the manse of Knox when he was minister of St.Giles’

Holyrood House, royal palace where Knox had his religious debates with Mary Queen of Scots

St.Andrews

Castle, where Cardinal Beaton was killed and where Knox took refuge.

Eton

The chapel at Eton College, England’s foremost school, was built by Edward VI and intended as his Cathedral. Knox would certainly have spent time here whilst at the Court of King Edward.

Geneva

John Knox International Reformed Centre http://geneva.intl.ch/gi/egi/egi251.htm

Reformation Monument, monument to the four reformers, Farel, Calvin, Beze and Knox

Temple de l’Auditoire, situated next to St.Peter’s Cathedral, this is where John Knox preached and supervised the production of the Geneva Bible.