John Knox

b. c.1514 (1505); d. 24 Nov 1572, Mon, 11pm.

While religious reformation, by its very nature, must be the work of many persons, the one person most attributed with the success of the Scottish reformation and the founding of the Presbyterian Church there is John Knox.

Little is known about Knox's early life; it remains uncertain exactly when or where he was born. About 1514 in the region of Lothian is about as close as historians are able to come. He apparently studied at St. Andrew's University and became a papal notary (lawyer) suggesting that he may have been ordained a Roman Catholic clergy. Nor do we know exactly how he came into the evangelical faith. What is certain is that by 1543, when Knox was a tutor to the two sons of a Protestant-leaning laird, he had become a convinced evangelical. The following year he had volunteered to be bodyguard to the fiery preacher George Wishart

Further Reading & Resources :

John Knox & the Scottish Reformation. Christian History Issue 46 (1995).

Douglas Wilson, For Kirk and Covenant: The Stalwart Courage of John Knox. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 2000.

©ALBERITH