JOHN KNOX by John Nevins Andrews

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 10, 1881

JOHN KNOX.

By John Nevins Andrews

BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.

THERE is no evangelical denomination but what can point to their founders as men of God, possessing much of the spirit of Christ; men who did not count their lives dear to themselves if they could serve Christ in advancing what they believed to be the truth and work of God. Notwithstanding their devotion and willingness to sacrifice all to the work in which they were engaged, they yet possessed many peculiarities. It will be seen that God calls men, not because they are perfect, but because they have a willing heart. Scotland has furnished men and women, of noble souls and moral worth, to the cause of reform.

John Knox was one of these. He was born in Scotland in 1505. A difference of opinion is expressed by different authors respecting his parentage, and the place of his nativity. He, however, received a liberal education, a circumstance not usual in those times. Although there were undoubtedly learned Scotchmen in the early part of the sixteenth century, the most of them owed their chief acquirements to a foreign education. The Greek language remained unknown in this country long after it had become a fixed branch of education in the neighboring kingdom. This language, however, Knox acquired before he had reached middle age, and also, at a later date, during his exile from Scotland, the Hebrew language.

While Knox was a student in the University at Glasgow, we can begin to trace, in the opinions of his preceptor, faint glimmerings of the light which was in after years to shine forth with so much clearness through his instrumentality. This man taught that a General Council was superior to the Pope, and might judge, rebuke, restrain, and even depose, him from his dignity; he denied the temporal supremacy of the bishop of Rome, and his right to inaugurate or dethrone princes; and maintained that papal censures, and even excommunications, had no force if pronounced on invalid or irrelevant grounds, etc.

Passing through the avenues of secular learning, Knox devoted himself to the study of divine truth, and the labors of the sacred ministry, having been ordained priest before arriving at the age fixed by the canons of the church. Not satisfied with the extracts from ancient authors found in the writings of scholastic divines, he resolved to have recourse to the original works. Here he found that which caused a complete revolution in his religious sentiments. Among the Christian Fathers, Jerome and Augustine attracted his particular attention. By the writings of the former, he was led to the Scriptures as the only pure fountain of divine truth, and instructed in the utility of studying them in the original language. In the works of the latter, he found religious sentiments very opposite to those taught in the Romish church, which, while she retained his name as a saint in her calendar, had banished his doctrines, as heretical, from her pulpits. This was about the year 1535, but it does not appear that he professed himself a Protestant until 1542. Previous to this, the reform doctrine had made considerable progress in Scotland. In 1525 an act passed Parliament, prohibiting ships from bringing any of Luther's books into that country, which had always "bene clene of all sic filth and vice." It is supposed, from this circumstance, that these books had already found their way there.

Between the years 1530 and 1540, many innocent and excellent men suffered the most cruel death, and others escaped to England, and the Continent. But these violent measures could not arrest the progress of truth. By means of the merchants who carried on trade in Scotland with other countries, many Protestant books were imported, and circulated throughout the country. Poets, under the cover of wit and satire, lashed the vices of the clergy, and exposed to ridicule many of the absurdities and superstitions of Popery. Plays, professing to correct the abuses of all classes, although principally directed against those of the church, were acted before the royal family, the court, and vast assemblies of people, to the great mortification and still greater damage of the clergy. Enactments of law were repeatedly procured against the circulation of "seditious rhymes and blasphemous ballads," but still they were everywhere disseminated and read with avidity.

From 1540 to 1542 the number of reformers increased rapidly. Twice an attempt was made by the clergy to cut them off by one desperate blow, but they failed in the execution of their design. In this state of affairs, Knox did not remain long unaffected, and, having aroused the suspicions of the clergy, he left the university and retired into the south of Scotland. He was then pronounced a heretic, deprived of priestly orders, and assassins were employed to waylay him.

The government from time to time favored the Reformation to some extent, so that at one time it became lawful to read the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue. The errors of Popery were then attacked by the Scottish press, and many who had fled the country returned. Among these was George Wishart, a person of great learning, eloquence, piety, zeal, and meekness. To this teacher Knox attached himself, and for a time before his imprisonment, waited constantly on his person. Of the future usefulness of Knox and his own martyrdom, Wishart had strong presentiments. On the night in which he was apprehended he would not permit Knox to accompany him, but dismissed him with the reply "Nay, returne to you bairnes (pupils), and God blis you; ane is sufficient for a sacrifice."

After this, Knox entered a private family as tutor; but managed to conduct the religious education of the youth under his charge in so public a manner as to benefit the whole neighborhood. He was soon, however, obliged to conceal himself, and remove from place to place, to provide for his safety.