Hiya, my name is Bruce Fummey. Today's question is, 'Can I condense the life of a man born a commoner, who
became possibly the most influential Scotsman ever into 10 minutes?' Let's find out as I tell you the
story of John Knox, and by the way, don't think for a minute that John Knox is boring. If you live half
the life that he lived, you'll never need to ride a roller coaster again. If you're interested in the
people, places and events in Scottish history, then click the subscribe button at the bottom
right hand side of the screen at anytime during this video. If you'd like to support the channel
I'd love you until the end of time! That's with other information in the description
below. In the meantime, let me tell you a story. Now, our story starts with a murder
here in St Andrew's Castle, the motive? Well over the centuries, kings and nobility had donated to
the Church to save their eternal souls. Now, the Church held most of Scotland's wealth. Cardinals
were richer than Monarchs, the Church owned as much land as the Crown, and priests were as corrupt as
anyone. Piety, learning and all that stuff, were just quaint old customs. Then there was this German guy
called Martin Luther who suggested some reforms and a way back to God, but the corrupt, rich, licentious
Cardinal who was a victim in this murder, had been determined to stamp out the flame of revival
by setting fire to reformers. Now, if you want to know more about the murder of Cardinal Beaton
here, then I'll leave a link at the end about my video to that. The point is, that for a while after
his murder, this became a kind of free state Within Scotland. The besieged were supported by Europe's
new Protestant Monarch Henry the Eighth, and the man who came from East Lothian to minister to them
was John Knox. The Catholic Queen Regent was Mary de Guise, widow of James the Fifth and mother of Mary
the child Queen of Scots. She called on her French homeland to help break the stalemate, and when the
French arrived, the besieged proto-Protestant enclave inside the castle collapsed. Watch the video.
John Knox hadn't been involved in the murder itself, but he still ended up on a French ship as
a galley slave. Now this academic, this children's tutor come preacher, was in no fit state to survive
as a galley slave. Which of us would be? Relentless rowing on an empty stomach in the belly of a boat.
Hard labour like that would kill a strong man, but strength isn't just physical. Imagine being in that
rowing seat detested so much by the French guards that they brought you a picture of the Virgin Mary
to kiss. To you this was idolatry, to them it was praise and punishment all rolled into one,
but the little life left in your body is in their hands. Knox took the idol and he threw it into
the sea. He survived and neither he, nor the other Scottish oarsmen were asked to kiss an idol again.
His hope was in God, but his legs were still in chains. "I will lift up mine eyes to the hills,
from whence cometh my help?" God's help didn't cometh from the hills, it came from England.
At the time, Scotland was still ruled by the Catholic, Mary de Guise, on behalf of her daughter
Mary, who was off to marry the Dauphin of France, but in England, Henry the Eighth had been succeeded by another
child Monarch, Edward the Sixth. England gained Knox's release and England gave him a safe Protestant
home. Now after 18 months at that back breaking oar, you can imagine how this Scotsman appreciated
the English, in fact Knox was a prominent preacher in Berwick upon Tweed and Newcastle.
As the Church of England was finding its feet, he was involved in developing the ritual,
rights and observance of that English Church. He was a valuable advisor to the young King, and then
in 1553, the boy King suffered a fever, a cough, and a shortness of breath.
Maybe Covid didnae come fae China! After a few months of suffering, he died at the age of 15.
Now there was a power struggle in England with greed and religious rivalry all rolled into one.
It ended up with the decapitation of Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Days Queen, and the Catholic Mary
Tudor sitting on the throne. She became known as Bloody Mary because of her persecution
and execution of reformers. Once again reformers had lit a spark and Mary burned them in retribution.
John Knox managed to escape to the Continent and made his way to Geneva. There he studied to gain
a deeper understanding and pastored churches for English Protestants exiled from Bloody
Mary's reign, and it was there that the reformist caterpillar transformed into the Presbyterian
butterfly. Now depending on your opinion of the man, it might have been a moth rather than a butterfly.
I'll be honest, I don't really know the difference between the two, maybe somebody will tell me
in the comments section below. Actually, it might have been a tadpole into a frog,
or a maggot into a fly, the point is that we see John Knox as the father of austere
Scottish Presbyterianism, but what we forget is that whilst the caterpillar was Scottish,
and the butterfly was Scottish, the chrysalis in which the transformation took place was England.
John Knox is often criticized for his attitudes towards women, now I'm not about to defend misogyny,
check out my videos on 'Women in Scottish History'. I mean some of my best friends
and at least one of my sexual partners have been women! The question is was he better or worse than
the misogynistic times in which he lived? His reputation comes from a book that he wrote
when he was on the Continent 'The First Blast of the Trump against the Monstrous Regiment of Women'.
In my house I just play the triangle, however here was a man who'd spent a year and a half as a
galley slave because of Mary de Guise in Scotland, and now he'd fled to the Continent as other
Protestants were burned at the hands of Bloody Mary in England. Was it not just people called
Mary didn't like? They certainly seemed to be mounting up an accumulation of martyrs. Bloody Mary
died and she was replaced by a Protestant sister Elizabeth. Ah now Knox headed back to England and
tried to arrange an audience with the new Queen so as to pass intelligence of plots against her
across the channel, but she'd read his book and she was in no mind to listen his trumpet.
His main reason for heading back to England was to reacquaint himself with his own lady love
back in Berwick upon Tweed. They'd had to wait to marry, because her dad disapproved of this
religious radical, but now the coast was clear. Of course Berwick was too close not to visit Scotland.
People tend to call this St Giles Cathedral it's more correctly called the High Church of Scotland.
Presbyterians don't really have cathedrals, but when John Knox visited in 1556, Scotland was still
a Catholic country, so he did his preaching more discreetly in rooms in country houses,
with like-minded friends. He did have some run-ins with the authorities, but he'd gained too
many influential supporters for the Catholic Church to act. The power and influence of
the Church and Mary de Guise was waning, but ultimately Knox had other responsibilities.
his English parishioners back in Geneva. Do you remember them? They were calling him
back to his duties. He was only supposed to have gone to England to get married.
Of course as soon as he was back in Geneva, the Scottish folk to whom he'd preached
were sending begging letters asking him to come back here. It's interesting, to me anyway. This
longing from both Scots and English to have him with them and hear his teachings doesn't quite fit
in with that picture of fire and brimstone, blood and thunder, that we normally have of John Knox.
It took a few years, but Knox arrived back in Scotland on the second of May
1559, and things happened very fast. If you're interested in the detail of what happened
immediately after his arrival, then go to my video 'Date that Changed Scotland'. The bottom line is that
within a month of Knox's return, Mary de Guise had died. Her daughter, Mary Queen of Scots was still
in France, and the people to whom Knox had preached discreetly a couple years before, the people who'd
called him back home to Scotland, were now the people who had the upper hand in Scottish politics.
In truth, to a large extent, the mob took over. This period saw some criminal wanton destruction
of anything that was seen as an idol of the Roman Church. If you go to France or Italy, you can see
beautiful cathedrals preserved through the ages. Here in Scotland we take you to ruins. The mobs
even destroyed the tomb of Robert the Bruce in Dunfermline Abbey. Reformation followed destruction.
The difference between the reformation in Scotland and what happened in England was
that in England, the national religion, its nature and practices were set out first by Henry the Eighth, then
his son Edward, then his sister Mary and finally their sister Elizabeth, and of course she was
followed by James the Sixth of Scotland, baptized by John Knox. He was the first King to be born and
grow up in a Presbyterian Church and would be the first British King. This wasn't like England
where the Monarch decreed a religion to filter down, the reigning cat was away from Scotland,
the cat's mother had just died and the mouse, who had been a butterfly or maybe a frog, was about
to make hay with more mixed metaphors than you can shake a stick at. I know it's deep theology
isn't it? In 1560, under John Knox, the Church of Rome was replaced by the Scottish Kirk.
This is John Knox House on the Royal Mile. Now they've been kind enough to let us come in to film,
but only on condition that you come and visit in person later, agreed? Okay let's go inside.
This is where John Knox lived when he came back to Edinburgh.
Do you get what I'm saying? He really lived and worked in this room and we could really visit it
today. He took up ministry in St Giles up the road. Now in England he'd given some input into
the ritual and liturgy of the nascent Church of England, but here in Scotland he was the driving
force that crafted Presbyterianism. He was a key player in writing the First Book of Discipline,
the rules of the Scottish Church. How Communion was taken, services held and the like, but in those days
the rules of the Church were pretty much the rules of Scotland. It's because of him that Scots
chose their ministers rather than have them appointed from above, it's because of him the
elders were elected to run the parish, it's because of him that there was an edict to have a school
in every parish, it's because of him that Scotland became the first truly literate nation, and by
accident, rather than design, saw the flourishing of the Scottish Enlightenment and Scotland's
disproportionate influence on the world, and where Presbyterianism went, it took the ideas of hard
work, individual thought, discipline and democracy with it. In the US it's what differentiates the
Scotch Irish from the Irish Irish on the island of Ireland it's ... well least said soon as mended.
Now coming back to Edinburgh and writing the rules of Scotland wasn't the end of the struggle.
There were still nobles devoted to the Roman Church, there was backsliding amongst the
people, when Mary Queen of Scots returned ... well maybe that's a story for another day.
This is where John Knox ended his days, so what had he achieved? He transformed a nation.
The world's perception of the Lowland Scot, and our perception of ourselves, right up to
the 20th Century came from the environment that he crafted in the late 16th Century.
He didn't plan the Enlightenment, but it was in large part a consequence of his actions. He's not
solely responsible for modern day democracy, but it is at least in part influenced by his priorities.
Without Protestant Monarchs north and south of the border, the United Kingdom would never
have happened. Now whatever the debate about Scotland's position in it, you've got to admit
that the UK changed the world, so why not come to Scotland and see where the modern world started.
If you need a tour guide, give me a call, oh and share this video.
I didn't manage to fit it into 10 minutes, bit like a John Knox sermon eh? Anyway go
and watch the video about Cardinal Beaton. Tha mi an dochas bum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.