When I was in school, I memorized a song that covered the thirty-two history lessons for that year. I never actually made it to “Number Thirty-two: John Knox and the Reformation in Scotland,” but he’s stayed with me all these years as the last item in that song. Unfortunately, I still hadn’t gotten around to reading about him until recently. I returned to a series on Scottish history by the famous Victorian novelist Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe) and found that John Knox featured in the account of Mary Queen of Scots and the Reformation period in Scotland. To help keep at least some of what I’d learned inside the confines of my memory, I picked up a book that had been haunting my shelves for a number of years: For Kirk and Covenant: the Stalwart Courage of John Knox by Douglas Wilson (Leaders in Action series). I also finally purchased Douglas Bond’s The Thunder to round out my picture of Knox with some historical fiction. 

Knox’s story surprised me at nearly every turn. Sir Walter Scott touches on Knox’s interactions with Queen Mary, his plan for using formerly Catholic lands to pay the ministers in the new Presbyterian church system he promoted, and the famous words of the current regent upon Knox’s death (see below). But Scott speaks little of Knox’s life. Of course, I knew almost nothing about him anyway, but what I would have imagined would have been something relatively tame. Similarly to Calvin and Luther, Knox began as an academic and priest. After his conversion, his life included everything from bodyguard duties for an itinerant preacher, to tutoring, to a year and a half as a galley slave, to pastoring, debating, preaching at the coronation of James the VI (James the I of England), and promoting the Reformation wherever he went. 

One fact that shocked me the most: what do you suppose John Knox did with his “free time” aboard the galley on which he was an enslaved rower? He edited a paper on justification. (For real?!?) As a writer and aspiring editor, I appreciate this feat. I guess if I ever find myself complaining, I can always remember: John Knox carried out a similar task in far more arduous circumstances.

“Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light” (Charles Wesley).*

Reformation Day (October 31st) is past already for 2025. But I continue to marvel at God’s work in the Reformation. Jesus will never stop building his church, no matter how much she may stray. In the Reformation, God reached down into the darkness of error and revealed himself through his word. The Holy Spirit illuminated the truth and empowered men to preach it and people to hear with faith. Men like John Knox loved the gospel—the true gospel—so much, that it was literally worth more than life to them!

“Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you” (Psalm 63:3 ESV).**

I’m grateful to be living the latest chapter of the legacy God gave the church through the Reformation and the men he raised up to lead it.

John Knox’s funeral was held on November 26th, 1572. That’s 453 years ago. If I may quote from Sir Walter Scott:  

“[Knox] had more than once bitterly rebuked the Regent Morton; but when this remarkable man died, the Regent, who attended his funeral, pronounced over his coffin an eulogium never to be forgotten. ‘There lies he,’ said Morton, ‘who never feared the face of man.’ “***

* Charles Wesley, Hymns for the Living Church, “And Can It Be,” (Hope Publishing Company, 1974), hymn number 248

** Scripture taken from the ESV Bible App, downloadable at esv.org

***Sir Walter Scott, From Gileskirk to Greyfriars: Mary Queen of Scots, John Knox, and the Heroes of Scotland’s Reformation, Tales of a Scottish Grandfather Vol. 2 (Cumberland House Publishing, 2001), 63