Calvin is regarded as the clearest thinker and most
able administrator among the leaders of the Reformation. Pastors and magistrates joined forces to
supervise every aspect of the lives of the citizens. Adultery was punishable by death and dancing
and taverns were banned. Opponents
coined the word Puritan to describe the regime.
Knox returned from Geneva to Scotland when Civil War broke out in 1559
AD. By 1560 AD the Protestants were in
control of Edinburgh and Knox drafted the Articles of Religion passed by the
Parliament in 1561 AD.
Mary Queen of Scots returned to Scotland from
France where she had married the heir to the French throne. In 1559 AD the Dauphin succeeded to the
throne as Francis II but he died the following year. So Mary returned to Scotland at the age of
nineteen and a widow. Her hold on the
throne of Scotland was decidedly precarious.
She was a Catholic but the government and parliament were thoroughly
Protestant. John Knox dominated the
religious landscape. Before seeking
refuge in Geneva, Knox had spent a year and a half as a galley slave for his
role in a Protestant uprising. Now,
though Mary was on the throne, effective power was in the hands of Knox and all
Catholic expressions of Christianity were outlawed. Mary however refused to toe the line and in
the power struggle between the queen and parliament, the queen lost. In 1567 AD she was forced to abdicate in
favour of her one-year old son who became James VI of Scotland. During the six years of Mary’s reign there
was open antagonism between Knox and Mary.
The celebration of Mass in Holyrood Chapel first aroused his anger and
it never diminished and was constantly refuelled. Mary fled to England seeking the protection
of her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. James
remained in Scotland to be brought up by Scottish Calvinists.
Knox’s first wife, Marjory Bowes, died in 1560 AD
leaving him two sons. In 1564 AD he
married Margaret Stewart who was only sixteen and by whom he had three
daughters. In 1566 AD they went to live in Ayrshire where he wrote his ‘History
of the Reformation in Scotland’. He
earlier wrote a rather jollier sounding book entitled ‘First Blast of the
Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women’. In it he says: ‘To promote a woman to bear
rule, superiority, dominion or empire above any realm, nation or city is
repugnant to nature, contumely to God, a thing most contrarious to his revealed
will and approved ordinance, and finally it is the subversion of good order, of
all equity and justice.’ John Knox is,
of course, the founder of the Church of Scotland and Queen Elizabeth II is head
of the Church of Scotland. I hope that
Knox is happy with that arrangement. But
apparently he did combine a shrewd worldly sense with wit and native humour.
When James VI of Scotland also became King of
England, English Puritans were delighted.
They thought that someone raised by John Knox and his friends was bound
to look favourably on them. They saw his
accession as the opportunity to ensure that the changes to the Church that
Elizabeth had refused would now take place.
While making his way south to London from Scotland
James was met by a deputation asking for church services to be modified. He agreed to meet them at Hampton Court. There they called for a new translation of
the Bible – hoping that the Geneva Bible would be officially adopted. James said: ‘I could never yet see a Bible
well translated in English, but I think that of all, that of Geneva is the
worst.’ He did suggest a translation
should be done ‘by the best learned of both universities’ but it should be done
without commentary ‘for in the Geneva translation some notes are partial,
untrue, seditious and savouring of traitorous conceit.’ He had in mind the note on Exodus 1:17 which
suggested that the Hebrew midwives were right to disobey the Pharaoh’s command:
‘Their disobedience herein was lawful’ the note said. But James felt that disobedience to a royal
command was something he could not commend.
He believed in the Divine Right of Kings. So the Puritans were dismayed to learn that
all clergy should declare their approval of bishops and the entire contents of
the Book of Common Prayer. The New Bible
– The King James Bible – was completed in 1611 and is regarded as one of the
greatest achievements of English Literature.
