John Knox is considered to be the greatest Reformer in the history of Scotland. The exact place and date of his birth is not known with certainty, but it is generally accepted to be Giffordgate, 16 miles east of Edinburgh, in 1513 to 1514.

The name “John Knox” is first recorded among the records of the University of Glasgow, where Knox enrolled in 1522. There, he is stated to have studied under John Major, one of the greatest scholars of his time. He was ordained to the priesthood at some date prior to 1540, when his status as a priest is first mentioned.

John Knox first publicly professed the Protestant faith about the end of 1545. “John Knox had turned away from the traditions and mysticisms of the church, to feed upon the truths of God’s word; and the teaching of Wishart had confirmed his determination to forsake the communion of Rome and join himself to the persecuted Reformers.” The Great Controversy, p. 250. George Wishart, who, after a period of banishment, returned to his native country in 1544, to perish, within two years, at the stake, as the last and most illustrious of the victims of Cardinal Beaton.

While residing in the castle of St. Andrews, a stronghold and place of refuge for many Protestants, in July of 1547, the castle was seized by outside forces and John Knox became a French galley-slave for nineteen months. There he experienced hardships and miseries which are said to have permanently injured his health.

When released early in 1549, through the intervention of the English government, he, for nearly ten years, remained in England. “Urged by his companions to take the office of preacher, he shrank with trembling from its responsibility, and it was only after days of seclusion and painful conflict with himself that he consented. But having once accepted the position, he pressed forward with inflexible determination and undaunted courage as long as life continued. This truehearted Reformer feared not the face of man. The fires of martyrdom, blazing around him, served only to quicken his zeal to greater intensity. With the tyrant’s ax held menacingly over his head, he stood his ground, striking sturdy blows on the right hand and on the left to demolish idolatry.” The Great Controversy, p. 250.  In England he then devoted himself to ministerial labors in connection with the Reformed Church. For the space of about five years he was employed as a minister of the English Church.

From England, Knox spent some time in Geneva, studying under Calvin.  In August of 1555 he returned to Scotland, preaching Evangelical doctrine in various parts of the country, and persuading those who favoured the Reformation to cease from attendance at mass, and to join with himself in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, according to the Bible.

At the very beginning of his labors as minister of Edinburgh, John Knox lost his much-loved and helpful young wife. She left two sons, one of whom, Nathanael, died at Cambridge in 1580; the other, Eleazer, became vicar of Clacton Magna in the archdeaconry of Colchester and died in 1591. In 1564 Knox remarried. He was 50, while she was a maiden of seventeen! The young lady was Margaret Stewart. She bore Knox three daughters, of whom the youngest, Elizabeth, became the wife of the famous John Welsh, minister of Ayr.

“When brought face to face with the queen of Scotland, in whose presence the zeal of many a leader of the Protestants had abated, John Knox bore unswerving witness for the truth. He was not to be won by caresses; he quailed not before threats. The queen charged him with heresy. He had taught the people to receive a religion prohibited by the state, she declared, and had thus transgressed God’s command enjoining subjects to obey their princes. Knox answered firmly:

“‘As right religion took neither original strength nor authority from worldly princes, but from the eternal God alone, so are not subjects bound to frame their religion according to the appetites of their princes. For oft it is that princes are the most ignorant of all others in God’s true religion. . . . If all the seed of Abraham had been of the religion of Pharaoh, whose subjects they long were, I pray you, madam, what religion would there have been in the world? Or if all men in the days of the apostles had been of the religion of the Roman emperors, what religion would there have been upon the face of the earth? . . . And so, madam, ye may perceive that subjects are not bound to the religion of their princes, albeit they are commanded to give them obedience.’

“Said Mary: ‘Ye interpret the Scriptures in one manner, and they [the Roman Catholic teachers] interpret in another; whom shall I believe, and who shall be judge?’

“‘Ye shall believe God, that plainly speaketh in His word,’ answered the Reformer; ‘and farther than the word teaches you, ye neither shall believe the one nor the other. The word of God is plain in itself; and if there appear any obscurity in one place, the Holy Ghost, which is never contrary to Himself, explains the same more clearly in other places, so that there can remain no doubt but unto such as obstinately remain ignorant.’ –David Laing, The Collected Works of John Knox, vol. 2, pp. 281, 284.” –The Great Controversy, pp.250–251

“John Knox never feared man because he never mistrusted God. His faith taught him, first of all, a fearless submission of his understanding to the Word of God. To this profound submission to the Bible we can trace all the noble and rare qualities which he displayed in his life.” –History of Protestanism, vol. 3, p. 515

Knox finished out his years as preacher of the Edinburgh church, helping shape the developing Protestantism in Scotland. He did not die a martyr’s death, but rather he continued to preach until his final days. John Knox died as he had lived—full of faith, but always ready for conflict. In his final days, he found a devoted nurse in his young wife. John Knox died at Edinburgh on November 24, 1572.