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John Knox and the Covenant Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Richard L. Greaves
Richard L. Greaves
Affiliation:
Florida State University, U.S.A.
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Extract

Modern scholarship on John Knox has tended to ignore his development of the covenant concept and his place in the covenant tradition. This is especially surprising because of the significance of the covenant idea for seventeenth-century Scottish history. The covenant, moreover, became a basic theme of English and American Puritan thought in the century following Knox's death. During the early years of the formulation of the covenant concept in English Puritanism, Knox was a revered figure. Following his various preaching activities in Edwardian England and his association with English exiles on the Continent during Mary's reign, he continued to maintain his interest in and contact with English Protestants, even while playing a major role in the establishment of the Reformed faith in Scotland. In 1568–9, for example, he was called upon to give advice respecting the question of separation from the Church of England. It is, thus, quite possible that his views on the covenant influenced English Puritan thought, as well as the thought of the Scottish Protestants. A study of Knox's views on the covenant is also important because of the place of the covenant in the development of his position on the legitimacy of active rebellion against tyrannical, idolatrous sovereigns. Finally, an examination of Knox's covenant thought is significant because it reveals that he was not as dependent on John Calvin as has been commonly supposed.

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Articles
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The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , January 1973 , pp. 23 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

page 23 note 1 The Works of John Knox, ed. Laing, David, Edinburgh 1895, iii. 74 Google Scholar.

page 23 note 2 Works, iii. 143.

page 24 note 1 There is an excellent study of this prophetic tradition by Little, Paul M., ‘John Knox and English Social Prophecy,’ The Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society of England, xiv (1970), 117–27Google Scholar.

page 25 note 1 Works, Hi. 190–1, 193, 195.

page 25 note 2 See Ridley, Jasper, John Knox, New York—Oxford 1968, 132, 141–3, 158Google Scholar.

page 25 note 3 Works, iii. 192.

page 26 note 1 Works, iii. 194. J. H. Burns interprets the phrase ‘Civill Magistrate’ to mean only the sovereign, in which case Knox would hot yet be thinking of active resistance in any form: ‘The Political Ideas of the Scottish Reformation,’ Aberdeen University Review, xxxvi (1956), 254 Google Scholar. Yet for Knox to write in 1553–4 that no one but sovereigns had the authority to slay idolaters would incriminate the Castilians, with whom he rebelled at St. Andrews in 1547, who executed cardinal Beaton.

page 26 note 2 Works, iii. 190–5.

page 26 note 3 Works, iv. 123–5.

page 26 note 4 Works, iv. 187, 189; Maxwell, W. D., John Knox's Genevan Service Book, 1556, Edinburgh-London 1931, 48 Google Scholar.

page 27 note 1 Works, iv. 489–90; John Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland, ed. Dickinson, W. C., London 1949, ii. 16–17 Google Scholar.

page 28 note 1 Works, iv. 500–1, 539–40; Knox's History, ii. 72.

page 28 note 2 Works, iv. 505–6, 527, 533–5; Knox's History, ii. 122. John Ponet discusses the execution of Athalia, following which ‘the people made a newe bade with God to serue him syncerely accordlg to his worde…’: A Shorte Treatise, 115, reprinted in Hudson, W. S., John Ponet: advocate of Limited Monarchy, Chicago 1942 Google Scholar. Cf. Little, Journal of the Pres. Hist. Soc, xiv. 121–6.

page 29 note 1 Burrell, S. A., ‘The Covenant Idea as a Revolutionary Symbol: Scotland, 1596–1637’, Church History, xxvii (1958), 339–41Google Scholar.

page 29 note 2 Knox's History, i. 122, 136–7; Register of the Ministers Elders and Deacons of the Christian Congregation of St. Andrews Comprising the Proceedings of the Kirk Session and of the Court of the Superintendent of Fife Fothrik and Strathearn, 1550–1600, Part First: 1559–1582, trans, and ed. D. H. Fleming, Edinburgh 1889, 6–7; Fleming, The Story of the Scottish Covenants in Outline, Edinburgh—London 1904, 8–17 Google Scholar; Lumsden, John, The Covenants of Scotland, Paisley 1914 Google Scholar; and cf. Calendar of the State Papers, Relating to Scotland, i. 115, where Knox is instructed by the Congregation to enter into a political league with England.

page 29 note 3 Meyer, C. S., Elizabeth I and the Religious Settlement of 1559, St. Louis 1960, 132 Google Scholar.

page 30 note 1 Clebsch, W. A., England's Earliest Protestants, 1520–1535, New Haven—London 1964, 199 Google Scholar, who over-reacts in rejecting Continental influence on Tyndale.

page 30 note 2 Trinterud, L.J., ‘The Origins of Puritanism,’ Church History, xx (1951), 37, 40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 30 note 3 Tyndale, Doctrinal Treatises and Introductions to Different Portions of the Holy Scriptures, ed. Walter, H., Cambridge 1848, 403 Google Scholar; Expositions and Notes on Sundry Portions of the Holy Scriptures, ed. Walter, H., Cambridge 1849, 87 Google Scholar, 95–6, 108; cf. go, 109–10. For Tyndale's views on the covenant see Clebsch, England's Earliest Protestants, 114, 158, 161, 172–4, 181–4, 188, 197, 203, 317; Trinterud, Church History, xx. 39; Møller, J. G., ‘The Beginnings of Puritan Covenant Theology,’ Journal of Ecclesiastical History, xiv (1963), 50–4Google Scholar; Greaves, , ‘The Origins and Early Development of English Covenant Thought,’ The Historian, xxxi (1968), 26–7Google Scholar.

page 30 note 4 Clebsch, England's Earliest Protestants, 193; Mozley, J. F., Coverdale and his Bibles, London 1953, 22 Google Scholar.

page 31 note 1 Early Writings of John Hooper, D.D., ed. Carr, S., Cambridge 1843, 255–6Google Scholar. For Hooper on the covenant see West, W. M. S., ‘John Hooper and the Origins of Puritanism,’ The Baptist Quarterly (1954), 356–9Google Scholar; Meller, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, xiv. 55–6. For Bullinger's views on the covenant see Moller, xiv. 48; Greaves, Historian, xxxi. 24–5.

page 31 note 2 Greaves, Historian, xxxi. 24; Trinterud, Church History, xx. 41. The possibility of Oecolampadius's views influencing Knox must remain highly tentative. In May 1540, Sir John Borthwick was charged with possessing heretical books by such authors as Oecolampadius, Melanchthon, and Erasmus, but no titles for these authors were specified: The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, ed. Pratt, Josiah, London 1877, v. 620 Google Scholar.

page 32 note 1 Works, iii. 201; Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Battles, F. L. and ed. McNeill, J. T., Philadelphia 1960, in, xvii. 5 Google Scholar. Cf. Calvin: Commentaries, ed. Haroutunian, J. and Smith, L. P., London 1958, 61–2, 84, 100–1Google Scholar; Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, trans. King, J., Grand Rapids 1948, i. 450–2Google Scholar. For Calvin's views on the covenant see Trinterud, Church History, xx. 45; Moller, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, xiv. 49–50; Greaves, Historian, xxxi. 25–6; Emerson, E. H., ‘Calvin and Covenant Theology,’ Church History, xxv (1956), 136–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Niesel, Wilhelm, The Theology of Calvin, trans. Knight, H., Philadelphia 1956, chap, viGoogle Scholar; McDonnell, Kilian, John Calvin, the Church, and the Eucharist, Princeton 1967, 286–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 32 note 2 Cf. Calvin, Institutes, iv, xx. 32; and Allen, J. W., A History of Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century, and ed., London 1941, 57–60 Google Scholar. Ultimately Knox probably influenced Calvin, for in the aftermath of the Scottish Reformation Calvin adopted a position of active resistance by the people in his commentary on Daniel. See Commentaries on the Prophet Daniel, trans. Myers, T., Grand Rapids 1948, i. 382 Google Scholar.

page 32 note 3 Cf., e.g., Dodge, G. H., The Political Theory of the Huguenots of the Dispersion, New York 1947, 99 Google Scholar; Shirley, F. J., Richard Hooker and Contemporary Political Ideas, London 1949, 23, 31, 113Google Scholar; Murray, R. H., The Political Consequences of the Reformation, New York, reprinted 1960, 105 Google Scholar; Hill, Christopher, Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution, Oxford 1965, 2, 285Google Scholar.