A Struggle Worth Remembering - The Master's Trumpet

Records of revival and reformation are precious to the believer. Themes that gladden the heart fill every page: the glory of God, the holy law of God, sinners crying out for salvation, and gospel freely offered to sinners. These accounts of history fill the heart with holy longings. The names associated with these outpourings awaken the desire for such days to return. Among those names, we find John Knox.

In our own circumstances what stands out is the great contrast between those days and our own. The accounts of revival elicit scenes of spiritual life and power. The ministers and elders who labored seemed indomitable. The gospel preached appeared as a great net, full to overflowing with the souls of men believing on Jesus.

Today we see the plague of death over the face of the earth. Churches dot the landscape, but apparent lifelessness seems common. The word of God is readily available, but ignorance seems to reign. The most profitable of books, second to the Bible, are easily accessible, but abominable heresy blankets the earth. One can hardly avoid the thought, “Oh, that I lived in the days of Knox.”

When such a thought arises, our minds betray a misconception, an error of judgment. The truth is that the days we currently experience have much in common with almost every great era of revival and reformation. The error of judgment is not that we reckon the days of Knox as blessed days, for God truly owned his word and blessed the land with revival. The error consists in a type of oversight – overlooking the struggle that led up to the days of revival and continued in the days of reformation. Our days are very much like the days of Knox. In 1559, he characterized his day:

Our captain Christ Jesus, and Satan his adversary, are now at plain defiance. Their banners be displayed, and the trumpets blow upon either party, for assembling of their armies. Our Master calleth upon his own, and that with vehemency, that they depart from Babylon; yea, severely he threateneth death and damnation to such as, either in forehead or in hand, bear the mark of the Beast. And a portion of his mark are all these dregs of Papistry which were left in your great Book of England, and joy whereof will I never counsel any man to use…¹

Plain defiance, banners, trumpets, and armies: these are descriptive of war. There is no question of the violence of the battles and conflicts in the political realm in Knox’s day. However, he is here addressing the age-old conflict, a continuous struggle worthy of remembrance, between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan. It is that struggle as experienced in Knox’s life that we often ignore in our consideration of the revival. We somehow skip past the setbacks, delays, disappointments, and agony, when we read of the parliament embracing the Reformed doctrine and the churches purged from error. By this, we lose a helpful lesson for our day: revival and reformation are the fruit of many tears and much labor.

The whole of Knox’s life and labor edifies anyone who is willing to consider it. There are lessons to learn from almost every stage of his ministry. Understandably, many give attention to that season of life marked from 1560, the year Scotland publicly embraced the Reformation, to the year 1572, when Knox died. This season is a rich feast for the soul and powerfully instructive. However, there is immense help in considering the preceding period, roughly 1545-1560. This season marks a time of great trial, faith, setback, revival, and instruction. This is not to say that from 1560 onward, the church simply experienced ease. Indeed, Knox himself saw great difficulties that year. In December of 1560, his wife died, leaving their two boys, two and three years old, with him. This came in the midst of his labors to set up and realize the Reformation that had been formally enacted. Idealizing the days of reformation is a false witness. But the false witness is heightened in our minds when we think the much-desired days of gospel blessing simply arrive without struggle. We are ready to consider success. We take up Knox’s prayer in our own mouths, “Lord, give me Scotland, else I die.” Indeed, the Lord granted much success in the gospel to Knox. Yet a study of this period prior to 1560 shows that he first endured tumultuous trials.

Whose heart does not thrill to think of Christ’s kingdom coming? Certainly, we long for the return of our King. However, we also eagerly desire his current and increasing reign in the church this side of heaven. As the Larger Catechism teaches in question and answer 191, when we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” we ask:

That the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel propagated throughout the world, the Jews called, the fullness of the Gentiles brought in, the church furnished with all gospel-officers and ordinances, purged from corruption, countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate: that the ordinances of Christ may be purely dispensed, and made effectual to the converting of those that are yet in their sins, and the confirming, comforting, and building up of those that are already converted…

Knox’s life shows us prayer for the coming of Christ’s kingdom is not meant merely to be repeated with a degree of intellectual consent. It is meant to be believed, sought, and pursued by faith – especially when it seems that setbacks are prevailing. By considering the struggles faced by Knox, we may awake from our slumber, sober to our circumstances, and made newly diligent in seeking Christ’s kingdom. To help order our thoughts, we can trace the persistent struggles that Knox faced sequentially while in Scotland, then exiled in England, Frankfurt, and Geneva. In doing so, we note the Lord worked his purpose to reform the church in Scotland while testing, refining, and training one of his primary agents. By this Knox persevered in his commitment to labor for the reform of the church according to the mind of Christ.

In Scotland – The Struggle Begins

Unlike many ministers today who found their ordination during times of great peace, great troubles surrounded Knox’s beginnings. In 1546, a group of Protestants found refuge in the walls of the castle in St. Andrews. Earlier that year, George Wishart, whom Knox accompanied, received a martyr’s crown for his public preaching of Reformed doctrine. Knox continued tutoring some young men in the rudiments of the Christian faith, and this gained the notice of John Rough, the preacher to this congregation. What Rough heard and saw in Knox impressed him, and soon Knox received a call to serve as Rough’s assistant. Rough, having taught on the Scriptural principles of calling a minister, turned to Knox and said:

In the name of God and his Son Jesus Christ, and in the name of those that presently calls you by mouth, I charge you that you refuse not his holy vocation; but that as you tender the glory of God, the increase of Christ’s kingdom, the edification of your brethren, and the comfort of me…, that you take upon you the public office and charge of preaching…²

What happened next seems contrary to our notions of this mighty instrument of God. The congregation giving their affirmation heightened the solemnity, such that Knox ran out with many tears streaming down his face. When he returned and accepted this call, it was with attending circumstances that would mark the rest of his ministry – immediate and constant struggle.

On the heels of his entrance of this pastoral ministry, one Roman Catholic, Dean Ammand, tried to show that the Reformed church was a false church under God’s condemnation. Knox responded as follows:

Before we hold ourselves, or that you can prove us sufficiently convicted, we must define the church, by the right notes give to us in God’s scriptures, of the true church. We must discern the immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ from the mother of confusion, spiritual Babylon, lest that we imprudently embrace a harlot, instead of the chaste spouse…For, as for your Roman kirk, as it is now corrupted, and the authority therefor, wherein stands the hope of your victory, I no more doubt but that it is the synagogue of Satan; and the head thereof, called the pope, to be that man of sin, of whom the apostle speaks…Yea, I offer myself, by word or writing, to prove the Roman church this day farther degenerated from the purity which was in the days of the apostles, than was the church of the Jews from the ordinances given by Moses, when they consented to the innocent death of Jesus Christ. ³

After preaching the next Sunday on Daniel 7:24-25 to prove his case, he further brought his argument in a debate by stating:

the kirk ought to do nothing but in faith, and ought not to go before, but is bound to follow, the voice of the true Pastor…if that anything proceeds from faith, it must have the word of God for the assurance…Now, if you will prove that your ceremonies proceed from faith, and do please God, you must prove that God in expressed words has commanded them; or else you shall never prove that they proceed from faith, nor yet that they please God…⁴

This did little to bring a sentimental peace to the war that was clearly in progress. Additionally, Scotland did not turn immediately to embrace this message. In fact, many were persuaded that Knox would be put to death. Though he evaded such an end he was soon captured with the remaining Protestants and made a galley slave on a French ship.

Serving as galley slave for over a year, he suffered horrendous conditions. His health was so weakened that many felt his death was imminent. In such circumstances, he was far from free of trials. He suffered the taunts and jeers of unbelievers. One of the men from the ship took an image of the Virgin Mary and thrusting it upon Knox, commanded him to show reverence to her. Knox refused. Again it was placed before him. This time, seizing the image, he threw it into the water, saying, “Let our Lady now save herself: she is light enough: let her learn to swim.”⁵ Though this scene may elicit a smile today, it pictures the kind of direct opposition the cause of God faced in the lives of those who labored for the glory of Christ. At such a moment, could any have imagined what the future held for his labor?

In England – The Struggle Develops

In 1549 Knox’s imprisonment as a French galley slave ended, and he immediately traveled to England in February of that year.⁶ Since he could not labor in Scotland due to the Roman Catholic control, he took up ministry in Berwick in northeast England.⁷ Knox immediately set his hand to the gospel ministry and continued his labor for the reform of worship. His clear preaching against Roman Catholic corruptions angered the Bishop of Durham who remained Roman Catholic at heart.

Called by the Council of the North to defend his assertions against the Mass,⁸ Knox delivered a direct blow against the same in what is now known as A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Idolatry. This he delivered on April 4, 1550. It is here, that we find his continued faithfulness to his Master’s call. We can imagine how many temptations were before him to compromise, to soften his words, and yet he stood faithful.

In his Vindication, he upheld the Lord’s word by means of several syllogisms. The first had the following as its main premise. “All worshipping, honouring, or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God, without his own express commandment, is idolatry.”⁹ Thus, as one has summarized, “Knox’s bottom-line, his fundamental principle on matters of worship: nothing was to be allowed in the Church of God that was not warranted by his word.”¹⁰

Instead of softening his resolve, Knox’s commitment to reform the church hardened in the furnace of affliction. His labor silenced, at least publicly, his detractors. Knox gained increased popularity with the public as well as with the reforming party in the Church of England. Moreover, his popularity as a faithful and fiery preacher gained him the appointment as one of six royal chaplains to King Edward in December of 1551.¹¹ Significantly, this placed him alongside several well-known Reformers of the English Church. Though he gained the support of some, we ought not to think that he now entered into a time of ease. In 1552, the version of The Book of Common Prayer, originally published in 1549, was to be revised. As a Royal Chaplain, he did not cater to the prevailing opinion, nor did he defer to a more passive approach. Instead, he testified against error and preached against kneeling to receive the sacrament in October of 1552, even though it was a practice defended by fellow Reformers.¹² He did so because he believed this practice promoted adoration of the bread and wine as a holdover from Roman Catholic theology and practice, and, most importantly, was out of accord from the pattern instituted in Scripture.¹³

This did not please Archbishop Cranmer. And this, perhaps, is a most significant point. None of us would deny Cranmer a place in the hall of worthies who labored for reform in difficult days. However, Knox was not one willing to compromise the will of Christ, even to a dear friend and fellow believer. In the Lord’s providence, Knox’s labor was crowned by order of the king, and the following compromise was added to the Book of Common Prayer in 1552 as a witness against idolatrous superstition:

Although no order can be so perfectly devised, but it may be of some, either for their ignorance and infirmity, or else of malice and obstinacy, misconstrued, depraved, and interpreted in a wrong part: And yet because brotherly charity willeth, that so much as conveniently may be, offences should be taken away: therefore we willing to do the same. Whereas it is ordained in the book of common prayer, in the administration of the Lord’s Supper, that the Communicants kneeling should receive the holy Communion: which thing being well meant, for a signification of the humble and grateful acknowledging of the benefits of Christ, given unto the worthy receiver, and to avoid the profanation and disorder, which about the holy Communion might else ensue: lest yet the same kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise, we do declare that it is not meant thereby, that any adoration is done, or ought to be done, either unto the sacramental bread or wine there bodily received, or to any real and essential presence there being of Christ’s natural flesh and blood. For as concerning the sacramental bread and wine, they remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored, for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians. And as concerning the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ, they are in heaven and not here. For it is against the truth of Christ’s true natural body, to be in more places than in one at one time.¹⁴

In Exile – The Struggle Shifts

Though there was a gain, the struggle continued. Upon Edward’s death in July of 1553, his half-sister, Mary Tudor, was now able to ascend the throne. Though she gave many fair promises to leave the progress of reformation unchanged, it was not long until Mary would gain that most tragic, but fitting title, “Bloody Mary.” Knox was forced to flee to the continent with others. He landed in Dieppe, France on January 20, 1554.¹⁵ Knox eventually made his way to Geneva and was well-received by Calvin and others in that city of refugees. Knox would regularly make the journey to Dieppe in order to gain news regarding England, Scotland, and his fiancé, Marjory Bowes, who resided still in Berwick. Yet, while in Geneva, he gave himself to further study.

It is here we ought to take note of what is easily missed. Knox was distant from his home. He was distant from his betrothed, and it was not a chosen absence. Rather he was forbidden to set foot in his mother country for the sake of his stance for the gospel.

While Knox remained on the continent, chiefly in Geneva, the Marian persecution began increasing. Due to this, more Englishmen who embraced the Reformation fled England and took up refuge in various cities on the continent. Among these cities the principal were Geneva, Zurich, Strasbourg, Basel, and Frankfurt. Frankfurt was an Imperial city in Germany influenced by both Lutheran and Reformed theology and practice. In the 1550’s the Reformed party held the majority, and there was already a French speaking Reformed congregation present. Valérand Poullain, who himself had spent time in England, pastored this congregation. The French had secured the use of the White Ladies’ Chapel in April of 1554.¹⁶

On June 27, 1554, a group of roughly 40 refugees, including William Whittingham, arrived in Frankfurt.¹⁷ The French pastor, Poullain, was among the first to greet them. He hospitably received the refugees and labored to gain them permission to settle and use the chapel for their worship.¹⁸ It is this action that established the English-speaking congregation in Frankfurt, which would become the scene of tremendous, albeit relatively brief, conflict.

The use of this building by the English congregation was conditioned upon their acceptance of the French Reformed Order.¹⁹ This order of worship, with minor revision, consisted of the following: general confession, a metrical psalm, prayer by the minister for the Spirit, the sermon, prayer for all men and England, the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, a metrical psalm, and the benediction.²⁰ Importantly, this order differed significantly from the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. Most notably, it dropped the litany and responses of the congregation.²¹ In addition, the surplice and other details were removed.

Encouraged by this kind gesture and providence, the English exiles began appealing to their fellow countrymen dispersed throughout the continent. They wrote letters to the main centers of refugees on August 2nd.²² The purpose seems to have been to gather as many of the English as possible in order to continue the Reformation, which had recently stalled in England. In other words, the group in Frankfurt considered the Lord to be directing them to improve the time they had to continue what had been earlier begun. However, the Englishmen in Zurich and Strasbourg seemed disinclined to embrace a different form of worship than what they had in England. In the meantime, on September 24, 1554, the English in Frankfurt had sent word to John Knox that they had elected him to be one of their ministers.²³ He was away from Geneva at the time, but later, after Calvin’s exhortation, Knox would accept the call.

In Frankfurt – The Struggle Matures

Zurich provided their response to the Frankfurt request. It proved less than encouraging. Dated October 13, 1554, the English of Zurich wrote:

…If…we may all together serve and praise GOD as freely and as uprightly (wherefore private Letters received lately from Frankfort make us much to doubt) as the Order last taken [the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI.] in the Church of England permitteth and prescribeth—for we are fully determined to admit and use no other…with one consent we agree to join ourselves to you, and most willingly to do such service there as our poor condition and calling doth permit.²⁴

In response to another letter from Frankfurt, the English in Zurich wrote, “We…will not deny to remove from hence unto you, so that you…certainly assure us that we, with you, may, and shall, use the same Order of Service concerning Religion which was in England last set forth by King EDWARD…”²⁵

After considering these letters, Frankfurt sent word to the English in Zurich on November 15, 1554 as follows.²⁶

…As touching the effect of the Book, we desire the execution thereof as much as you, so far as GOD’s Word doth commend it: but as for the unprofitable Ceremonies, as well as by his consent as ours, are not to be used. And although they were tolerable, as some are not; yet, being in a strange common-wealth, we could not be suffered to put them in …[use]: and better it were, they should never be practiced; than they should be the subversion of our Church, which should fall in great hazard by using them.

The concern stated in a letter on November 28th by the English of Strasbourg in response was that in using any but the Book of Common Prayer, they would “seem to condemn the chief Authors thereof (who, as they now suffer; so are they most ready to confirm that fact with the price of their blood); and should also give occasion to our adversaries to accuse our doctrine of imperfection and us of mutability…”²⁷ Edmund Grindal, later Archbishop of Canterbury, delivered the letter. Grindal’s express purpose in coming was to lead Knox and the congregation of Frankfurt to a more thorough adopting of the “substance and effect” of the Book of Common Prayer.²⁸

Grindal’s letter was received and answered by Knox, John Foxe, William Whittingham and others with these words as their conclusion, “…we have a Church freely granted to preach GOD’s Word purely, to minister the Sacraments sincerely, and to execute Discipline truly. And as touching our Book, we will practice it so far as GOD’s Word doth assure it, and the state of this country permits…”²⁹

The folk in Strasbourg denied the request to join with those in Frankfurt under such circumstances, and the matter was concluded. The Frankfurt congregation then moved to accept The Form of Common Prayers Used in the Churches of Geneva as their order of worship, “which then was already printed in English, and some copies there among them, should take place, as an Order most godly, and farthest off from superstition.”³⁰

However, and perhaps surprisingly, Knox would not consent to its adoption, for, as is recorded:

he could not consent that the same Order should be practiced till the Learned Men of Strasburg, Zurich, Emden, etc., were made privy. Neither yet would he minister the Communion by the Book of England; for that there were things in it places, as he said, ‘only by warrant of Man’s authority, and no ground in GOD’s Word for the same; and had also a long time very superstitiously in the Mass been wickedly abused.’³¹

In other words, Knox wanted reform, not schism. Knox was laboring for Reformation, not Independency. He considered the English church to be in an exiled state, but a church nonetheless needing, what might be called catholic support.

It was then that Thomas Lever, the other elected minister, arrived and moved for an Order much closer to the Book of Common Prayer, but the congregation rejected this.³² So the matter was at an impasse.

Discerning this, and trying to continue the work, Knox and Whittingham composed a summary of the Book of Common Prayer in Latin and submitted it to Calvin in Geneva, requesting his judgment.³³ To this Calvin responded on January 20, 1555, sharing his grief that a contention should arise among banished brethren. He regretted the fact that there was an obstacle to fellowship over ceremonies.³⁴ However, he goes on to state:

In the Liturgy of England, I see that there were many tolerable foolish things. By these words I mean, that there was not that purity which was to be desired. These vices, though they could not, at the first day, be amended; yet seeing there was no manifest impiety [in them], they were, for a season, to be tolerated…If godly Religion had flourished till this day in England; there ought to have been a thing better corrected, and many things clean taken away. Now, when these principles be overthrown, a Church must be set up in another place; where ye may freely make an Order again…I cannot tell what they mean which so greatly delight in the leavings of Popish dregs…³⁵

As one has summarized, “On January 20 the oracle replied, deprecating the contention on ceremonial matters in such serious times, but supporting the Puritan party. In the English liturgy he saw many foolish things which could be tolerated for a time, but should be put away with ripening judgment.”³⁶

In response Knox, Whittingham, Foxe, and others presented the Genevan order to the Congregation.³⁷ However, the minority who supported the Book of Common Prayer raised contention, and thus a compromise order was called for. Knox’s group drew up an order to end the strife and contention.³⁸ Some parts were drawn from the Book of Common Prayer and others from the Genevan order. Once accepted, there was consent that this should continue from February 6, 1555 through the end of April 1555. Additionally, they agreed that if any disturbance should arise in the interim, the dispute would be submitted to Calvin, Musculus, Martyr, Bullinger, and Viret for their determination. This was put in writing, agreed to, and subsequently brought forth great joy, brotherly reconciliation, and the observance of the Lord’s Supper.³⁹

This peace continued roughly one month until March 13, 1555, when Dr. Richard Cox, former Chancellor of Oxford and compiler of the Prayer Books of 1549 and 1552, arrived with others in Frankfurt. The disturbance broke forth in a series of two waves. First Cox and others began responding congregationally as the Book of Common Prayer prescribed. The elders of the congregation admonished them, to which Cox resolutely stated “that they would do as they had done in England; and that they would have the face of an English Church.”⁴⁰ The second wave crashed on Sunday, March 17th, when John Jewel entered the pulpit without the consent of the Congregation and read the litany with Cox and friends answering.⁴¹

In God’s providence, it was Knox’s appointed time to preach that same Sunday afternoon. Following the Reformed practice of preaching through books, he had made his way to the end of Genesis 9 wherein Noah’s sons dishonor their father. Knox stated, “As diverse things ought to be kept secret; even so such things as tend the dishonor of GOD, and disquieting of His Church ought to be disclosed and openly reproved!”⁴² He proceeded to point out how the newcomers had broken the agreement. Additionally, he declaimed heavily against the Book of Common Prayer:

Alleging…that like as by the Word of GOD, we must seek our warrant for the establishing of Religion; and, without that, to thrust nothing into any Christian Congregation: so (forasmuch as in the English Book were things both superstitious, unpure, and unperfect; which he offered to prove before all men) he would not consent that, of that Church it should be received…He farther affirme, That, among many things which provoked GOD’s anger against England, slackness to reform Religion, when time and place was granted, was one…⁴³

Cox sharply reproved Knox, and the troubles were in full force.

Knox provides an interesting comment in his recounting of the matter. This, indeed, gets to the very point of difference between the two views held by Cox and Knox, and what would later be the Anglican and Puritan parties. Further, it displays the turmoil and trials faced in the labor for reformation. It demonstrates how the struggle had matured or deepened. In his Narrative of the Proceedings of the English Congregation at Frankfurt, he wrote:

For they [Cox’s group] were admonished not to murmur aloud when the minister prayed; but they would not give place, but quarreled, and said, They would do as they had done in England; and their Church should have an English face. The Lord grant it to have the face of Christ’s Church, which is the only matter that I have sought, God is my record; and therefore I would have had it agreeable in outward rites and ceremonies with Christian Churches reformed.⁴⁴

“The Lord grant it to have the face of Christ’s Church, which is the only matter that I have sought.” Here is the key matter. Knox’s labor was to see Christ’s Church rightly appear according to the mind of God revealed in the word. He was not interested in an English Church or a Scottish Church as such. He was interested that the churches in these nations, and everywhere, be set up according to Christ’s will – reformation according to the Scriptures.

The quarrel did not last long, for on that Tuesday, March 19th, pressure was made to have Cox and his group made members of the congregation, against which the majority resisted. However, Knox, in an effort to promote unity and brotherly love, argued that they should be added. Persuading the congregation to receive them, Cox and his group immediately became the majority. Unforeseen by Knox, the newly received men instantly moved and forbade Knox from preaching.⁴⁵

Whittingham and the side opposing Cox, approached the Senate appealing to them to help settle the dispute. The Senate then determined that the English Congregation should revert back to their agreement with the French Church in doctrine and order. Cox accepted the same. However, at the next service, Knox was present for worship. Cox became upset, and put into play a further move against Knox.

In 1554, Knox had written an Admonition unto the Professors of God’s Truth in England in which he likened Charles V to Nero and Mary Tudor to Jezebel. Cox and others charged Knox with high treason, which perplexed the Senate. Charles V, Knox’s “Nero,” was nearby at Augsburg. Cox and his men threatened to stir up strife which might create “a disturbance which threatened to reach the Emperor’s ears. Reluctantly, the magistrates sent word, through Whittingham and a colleague named William Williams, that Knox should leave the city. This he did for Geneva on Tuesday, March 26 [1555], less than two weeks after the arrival of Cox and his party.”⁴⁶

By March 25th, Knox was sent from Frankfurt, preaching his last sermon before friends, and leaving the city back to Geneva on March 26th.⁴⁷ His labor for reformation in Frankfurt met with a further trial of another exile.

In Geneva – The Struggle Quickens

Yet, the Lord, who does all well, provided for unexpected blessing. While in Geneva, Knox found a season of great encouragement. The reformed worship overturned in Frankfurt became settled in the English congregation to which Knox was called as minister in Geneva. He labored with others to produce the Geneva Bible, which would serve as the English translation even beyond the initial years of the Authorized Version. Additionally, Knox enjoyed a season of encouragement with likeminded men.

In spite of these blessings, Knox’s heart was for his native land. Back when serving as a galley slave, on the brink of death, his ship was near to St. Andrews. One asked Knox if he recognized the place, and he responded:

Yes, I know it well, for I see the steeple of that place where God first in public opened my mouth to his glory; and I am fully persuaded, how weak soever I now appear, that I shall not depart this life till my tongue shall glorify his name in the same place.⁴⁸

This conviction never left Knox. Instead he was always inquiring as to the state of things. He was regularly looking for a door to be opened that he might return and preach the gospel again in Scotland. Indeed, before taking on the responsibilities of pastor to the English congregation in Geneva, he visited Scotland to stir up the brethren there. When he was called back by his brethren in Geneva, he composed his Letter of Wholesome Counsel, Addressed to His Brethren in Scotland. In it he outlined a course of action to take when the brethren would gather in what would become known as privy kirks, we might call them today, preaching stations or church plants:

…I have thought good to communicate with you, in these few lines, my weak counsel, how I would you should behave yourselves in the midst of this wicked generation, touching the exercise of God’ s most holy and sacred word, without which neither shall knowledge increase, godliness appear, nor fervency continue amongst you. For as the word of God is the beginning of spiritual life, without which all flesh is dead in God’s presence…so it is also the only organ and instrument which God uses to strengthen the weak, to comfort the afflicted, to reduce to mercy by repentance such as have slidden, and, finally, to preserve and keep the very life of the soul in all assaults and temptations…And, therefore, if you desire your knowledge to be increased, your faith to be confirmed, your conscience to be quieted and comforted, or finally, your soul to be preserved in life, let your exercise be frequent in the law of your Lord God.⁴⁹

As he returned to Geneva, he labored more and more abundantly. Observing Calvin’s model, serving the English exiles, and yearning for the Lord’s blessing in Scotland, he continued to long for a return to his native land.

In May of 1557, he received a letter by visitors, signed by Scottish noblemen, calling Knox to labor in Scotland as a minister. We can, of course, imagine the mixture of solemn joy that ran through Knox. Calvin encouraged him to accept, and Knox did so, leaving for Scotland in October of 1557.⁵⁰

Tremendously encouraged by an open door, he left his wife and children behind in Geneva and set off for Scotland. En route, in Dieppe, France, he again found letters from Scotland. However, the letters now sounded a different tone. They indicated that the noblemen who had issued the call to Knox, now repented of their calling. Thomas M’Crie well characterizes the scene. “This intelligence exceedingly disconcerted and embarrassed him.”⁵¹

Knox wrote back to the noblemen, noting severe heartache:

To some it may appear a small and light matter, that I have cast off, and as it were abandoned, as well my particular care, as my public office and charge, leaving my house and poor family destitute of all head, save God only, and committing that small (but to Christ dearly beloved) flock, over the which I was appointed one of the ministers, to the charge of another. This, I say, to wordly men may appear a small matter, but to me it was, and yet is such, that more wordly substance that I will express, could not have caused me willingly to behold the eyes of so many grave men weep at once for my cause, as that I did, in taking of my last good night from them. To whom, if it please God that I return, and question be demanded, what was the impediment of my purposed journey? Judge you what I shall answer.⁵²

Other letters arrived, urging the work of the Reformation onward. He remained in Dieppe for a few months, and then returned to Geneva in 1558. And in Geneva, he continued to exhort the faithful in Scotland to press on for the reformation of Christ’s church.

Unknown to Knox was the fact that the Lord blessed his prayers and labors, and the leaders in Scotland received Knox’s letters, and covenanted together in December of 1557 to maintain the gospel. This “Godly Bond” continued to press the claims of Christ in all areas of life. This unknown labor, coupled with the death of Mary of Guise, opened the door for Knox to return finally to Scotland, which he did in 1559.

The rest is, as they say, history. Not without struggles and continued troubles, yet the opened door “which no man shutteth,” brought the gospel and the land formally received the Reformation in 1560. Though it was John Knox who left and who returned to Scotland, he was a different man when arrived home. His faith confirmed, his thought matured, his heart prepared for his well-known labor that would continue to his dying day. God had used the struggle to prepare a vessel for his work.

Learning from the Struggles

Throughout this period of Knox’s life, we see the struggles which are common to all who would desire the reformation of the church of Christ. What upheld him; what motivated him to press on?

You know of Knox’s statement, “I love to blow my master’s trumpet…” He expressed this sentiment more fully when he wrote to some in Edinburgh in April of 1558:

Foolishness, presumption, and arrogance it were to me to compare myself with that most excellent instrument of the Lord Jesus Christ [Paul], in zeal towards the promoting of Christ’s glory, or yet, love towards the salvation and comfort of my brethren. No, alas! As my heart is corrupt, and the hypocrisy thereof, in many thousand cases, hid from myself, so is my zeal cold and my love nothing, if it shall be tried by the right touchstone. Only this dare I say, that sometimes (seldom, alas!) I feel a sob and groan, willing that Christ Jesus might openly be preached in my native country, with a certain desire that my ears might hear it, although it should be with the loss of this wretched life…⁵³

What compelled Knox to face the constant disappointments was not a natural virtue or strength of constitution. Rather, he longed for Christ to be honored.

Additionally, he found strength amid his constant weakness by drawing from the strength of the Lord. In 1556 he wrote of Geneva:

…to this place, where I neither fear nor am shamed to say is the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the Apostles. In other places, I confess Christ to be truly preached; but manners and religion so sincerely reformed, I have not yet seen in any other place; besides, Satan, I confess, rages against the one and the other, but potent is He that hath promised to be with us in all such enterprises as we take in hand at his commandment for the glory of his name and for maintenance of his true religion; and therefor the less we fear any contrary power, yea, in the boldness of our God we altogether contemn them, be they kings, emperors, men, angels, or devils, for they shall be never able to prevail against the simple truth of God which we openly profess.⁵⁴

He found a complementary motive in the love of his brethren. Writing to Mrs. Bowes in November of 1555, he shared, “I praise God in you, and for you, whom he made the instrument to draw me from the den of my own ease (you alone did draw me from the rest of quiet study) to contemplate and behold the fervent thirst of our brethren, night and day sobbing and groaning for the bread of life…”⁵⁵

He also possessed and encouraged a perspective that goes beyond the trials of this world. In 1556, he counseled:

…Remember, dear Sisters, the shortness and vanity of all that is in earth. Remember the promises made to those that obey God’s holy commandments. Lay before your eyes the horrible plagues that hath fallen upon idolaters, of whom none shall enter into the kingdom of God; and call first for grace by Jesus to follow that which is acceptable in his sight, and thereafter communicate with your faithful husbands, and then shall God, I doubt not, conduct your footsteps, and direct your counsels to his glory: So be it.⁵⁶

Similarly, he wrote, “In religion there is no middle: either it is the religion of God, and that in everything that is done it must have the assurance of his own Word, and then is his Majesty truly honoured, or else it is the religion of the Devil, which is, when men will erect and set up to God such religion as pleaseth them; and no doubt is the Devil honoured…”⁵⁷

Throughout his first 15 years of labor for the cause of Christ Jesus, Knox faced constant troubles. Yet, he was upheld and refined, that is, he was prepared for an equally trying, but fruitful season of labor. Knox survived to witness great change sweep across much of Scotland. Many did not. Several of his co-laborers in the cause of reformation received the martyr’s crown. Others died rather peaceful deaths never to witness the longed-for reform to take root. However, whether witnessing the desired change or dying before the change came, the struggles faced were worth the reform that came to pass.

There are many struggles to face today. We face an equally hostile world. Rulers still take counsel against the Lord and his anointed. Even those who identify as Reformed will stand at times opposing the very reformation needed. This can and does produce a temptation: will we hold fast? Is it worth it?

It is worth considering the way the Lord works in days of revival and reformation. Far from relieving the struggle, revival and reformation increase it. We read of Nehemiah’s success in rebuilding the walls, but do we remember the laborious struggles that preceded this? We read of the settlement of Canaan under Joshua, but do we remember the earlier battles waged by him. We read of the spread of the gospel through the apostles, but do we remember the blood spilled, the wrists chained in prison, and the opposition of Satan? Indeed, we read the resurrection of our Lord, but do we remember that he was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.

Knox’s life reminds us that the struggle is real, the pain hurts, the heartache throbs, the setbacks disappoint, and the tears fall. However, his life also testifies that the labor is not in vain. It is a struggle worth remembering today. Soon enough the struggle will give way to the coming of Christ’s kingdom.

Footnotes

1
John Knox, “To Anna Lock, From Dieppe, April 6, 1559,” in The Works of John Knox, (ed. David Laing; Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1855; repr., New York: AMS Press, Inc., 1966), 4:12. ↩︎
2
As quoted in Kevin Reed, ed., Selected Writings of John Knox: Public Epistles, Treatises, and Expositions to the Year 1559 (Dallas: Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1995), 4. ↩︎
3
Reed, Selected Writings, 5-6. ↩︎
4
Ibid., 12-13. ↩︎
5
Thomas M’Crie, Life of John Knox; Containing Illustrations of the History of Reformation in Scotland: with Biographical Notices of the Principal Reformers, and Sketches of the Progress of Literature in Scotland During the Sixteenth Century; and an Appendix, Consisting of Original Papers (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1898), 56. ↩︎
6
Ibid., 60. ↩︎
7
Ibid., 63; Kenneth Brownell, “Worship and the Marian Exiles in Frankfurt,” in Spiritual Worship: 1985 Westminster Conference Papers (1985; repr., Stoke-on-Trent: Tentmaker Publications, n.d.), 1. ↩︎
8
Brownell, “Worship,” 2. ↩︎
9
John Knox, A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Idolatry, 1550, in Kevin Reed, ed. Selected Writings of John Knox: Public Epistles, Treatises, and Expositions to the Year 1559 (Dallas: Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1995), 23. ↩︎
10
Brownell, “Worship,” 2. ↩︎
11
M’Crie, Life of John Knox, 66-67. ↩︎
12
Brownell, “Worship,” 4-5. ↩︎
13
Douglas Bond, The Mighty Weakness of John Knox, (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2011), 12. ↩︎
14
Joseph Ketley, ed., The Two Liturgies, A.D., 1549, and A.D., 1552: with Other Documents Set forth by Authority in the Reign of King Edward VI (Cambridge: The University Press, 1844), 283. ↩︎
15
M’Crie, Life of John Knox, 86. ↩︎
16
Michael Springer, Restoring Christ’s Church: John a Lasco and the Forma ac ratio (Aldershot, UKL Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2007), 118. ↩︎
17
Brownell, “Worship,” 6. ↩︎
18
M. M. Knappen, Tudor Puritanism (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1939), 119. ↩︎
19
M’Crie, Life of John Knox, 98. ↩︎
20
Brownwell, “Worship,” 6. ↩︎
21
Knappen, Tudor Puritanism, 119-120. ↩︎
22
William Whittingham, A Brief Discourse of the Troubles at Frankfort, (Edward Arber, ed., London: Elliot Stock), 26-30. ↩︎
23
Whittingham, A Brief Discourse, 36; M. M. Knappen, Tudor Puritanism (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1939), 122. ↩︎
24
Whittingham, A Brief Discourse, 33. ↩︎
25
Ibid., 35. ↩︎
26
Ibid., 37. ↩︎
27
Ibid., 38. ↩︎
28
Ibid., 39. ↩︎
29
Ibid., 41. ↩︎
30
Ibid., 42. ↩︎
31
Ibid. ↩︎
32
Knappen, Tudor Puritanism, 126; Whittingham, A Brief Discourse, 43. ↩︎
33
Whittingham, A Brief Discourse, 44-49. ↩︎
34
Ibid., 50. ↩︎
35
Ibid., 51. ↩︎
36
Knappen, Tudor Puritanism, 126 ↩︎
37
Whittingham, A Brief Discourse, 52. ↩︎
38
Ibid. ↩︎
39
Ibid., 53. ↩︎
40
Ibid., 54. ↩︎
41
Ibid. ↩︎
42
Ibid. ↩︎
43
Whittingham, A Brief Discourse, 54-55. ↩︎
44
John Knox, Narrative of the Proceedings of the English Congregation at Frankfurt, in The Works of John Knox, (ed. David Laing; Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1855; repr., New York: AMS Press, Inc., 1966), 4:42. ↩︎
45
Whittingham, A Brief Discourse, 55-56. ↩︎
46
Knappen, Tudor Puritanism, 129. ↩︎
47
Whittingham, A Brief Discourse, 61. ↩︎
48
M’Crie, Life of John Knox, 57. ↩︎
49
Reed, Selected Works, 327-328. ↩︎
50
Works of John Knox, 4:257-258. ↩︎
51
Reed, Selected Works, 336. ↩︎
52
Ibid., 338. ↩︎
53
Works of John Knox, 4:250-251. ↩︎
54
Ibid., 4:241-242. ↩︎
55
Ibid., 4:217. ↩︎
56
Ibid., 4:221. ↩︎
57
Ibid., 4:232. ↩︎

biography first reformation John Knox