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The Two John Knoxes: England, Scotland and the 1558 Tracts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

Jane E. A.
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Extract

The tracts which John Knox wrote in 1558 are regarded as the core of his political writings and the key to his entire political thought.1 The most famous - and infamous - of his works, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, was published in the spring and was followed in July by The Letter to the Regent [Augmente], The Appellation and The Letter to the Commonalty of Scotland These tracts have suffered from two serious misconceptions. The first is the natural tendency to link all the 1558 material together and in particular to treat the First Blast and the July tracts .as a unified whole. This has distorted the meaning of all the pamphlets and led to vain efforts to mould them into a composite unit which can then be labelled ‘Knox's political thought’. In fact, it is extremely important to separate them and to make a sharp distinction between their intended audiences and purposes. Crucially, the First Blast was written primarily for an English audience and the July tracts intended for a Scottish one.

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Articles
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The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , October 1991 , pp. 555 - 576
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

1 For example, the latest collection of Knox's writings: The Political Writings of John Knox, ed. M. A., Breslow, Cranbury, NJ 1985.Google Scholar

2 As Breslow does not print any of the original sidenotes to the text, the best edition remains The Works of John Knox, ed. D., Laing, 6 vols, Edinburgh 1846–1864 (hereinafterWorks). Vol.iv contains all the 1558 tracts.Google Scholar

3 This phrase has been borrowed from Burns, J. H., ‘John Knox and Revolution’, History Today viii 566. The perceptive points which Professor Burns made in this article and his other writings on Knox (see below nn. 6, 44, 60) have not been properly appreciated.Google Scholar

4 The standard biographies of Knox cover his movements, though none of them produces a full and accurate itinerary of his exile: Percy, E., John Knox, London 1937 sections 3, 4;Google ScholarReid, W. S., Trumpeter of God, New York 1974, chs. 6-viii;Google ScholarRidley, J., John Knox, Oxford 1968 chs. 6-xvi.Google Scholar

5 These were his Declaration of the True Nature of Prayer; Exposition upon the Sixth Psalm; Godly Letter of Warning; Two Comfortable Epistles; and A Faithful Admonition, written between Jan. and Aug. 1554: Works, iii.

6 Knox had addressed a series of questions to Bullinger and Calvin on the matter of resistance: Works, iii. 217–26; Burns, J. H., ‘Knox and Bullinger’, Scottish Historical Review 35 1955, 90–91.Google Scholar

7 ‘Knox to Mrs Bowes, 4 Nov. 1555, Works, iv. 217-18.Google Scholar

8 John Knox–s History of the Reformation in Scotland, ed.W. C., Dickinson 2 vols, Edinburgh 1949 1123Google Scholar

9 ibid i. 131–6, at p. 133.

10 Works, iv. 297–347.

11 For the debate see Jordan, C. ‘Women's rule in sixteenth-century British political thought’, Renaissance Quarterly 40 (1987)Google ScholarPhillips, J. E., –The background to Spenser's attitude toward women rulers’, Huntington Library Quarterly 1941–1942), 5–32; Scalingi, P. L., ‘The scepter and the distaff: the question of female sovereignty, 1516–1607’, The Historian 41 (1978), 59–75;Google ScholarGreaves, R. L., Theology and Revolution in the Scottish Reformation, Washington 1980, ch. viii and Mandy Shephard's forthcoming thesis.Google Scholar

12 The ‘application’ of a text to the contemporary political situation was a feature of many Protestant sermons, particularly in King Edward's reign. See King, J. N., English Reformation Literature, Princeton 1982.Google Scholar

13 John Knox's History, ii. 15 and see below n. 74. In the 1550s when Knox used the Old Testament example of Jezebel it was always with reference to Mary Tudor.Google Scholar

14 Knox also wrote directly to Queen, Elizabeth, 20 07. 1559: Works, vi. 47–50. His letter was taken, carefully annotated and its main points refuted: BL Add. MS 32,091, fos 167–9.Google Scholar

15 Aylmer, J., An Harborowe for faithfull and trewe subiectes, Strasbourg 1559.Google Scholar sig. B2. The refutations of Knox fell into two categories, those written by contemporaries and fellow exiles within a few years of the appearance of the First Blast and those written considerably later, usually with the defence of Mary Queen of Scots in mind. Most of the first group defended Knox personally whilst attacking his views on female rule. Aylmer's book was written in the ‘more in sorrow than in anger’ style and he was at pains not to criticise Knox himself: Harborowe, sig. Lawrence, Bi. Humphrey also strove to exonerate Knox: De religionis conservation et reformatione vera, Basle, 1559, 100,Google Scholar trans, in Knappen, M., Tudor Puritanism, Chicago 1970 ed., 176–177.Google ScholarJohn, Foxe's letter to Knox is now lost, but the reply gives some indication of the criticism which he made of the First Blast: Works, 5. 5–6. John Jewel was rather harsher on Knox when he was defending the Protestant cause from Harding's attack in his Defence of the Apology in The Works of John Jewel, ed. J., Ayre, 4 vols, Cambridge 1845–, iv. 664–665. The most interesting refutation was by Richard Bertie, BL Add. MS 48,043, fos 1–9. I am most grateful to Mandy Shephard for discussions with her on the Bertie manuscript and for allowing me to read the relevant portions of her thesis in advance.Google Scholar

16 Although he valued Elizabeth as a person, Aylmer was not particularly complimentary about the capacity of women to rule. He argued that England was safe in female hands because it enjoyed a mixed monarchy and was governed by the laws and not solely by the monarch; Harborowe, sig. H3.Google Scholar

17 The joint statement of faith presented by the exiles to Elizabeth also declared that the principle of female rule was consonant with Scripture: Knappen, Tudor Puritanism, 172. However, despite the mild attacks, Knox wrote to Mrs Anne Locke on 6 Apr. 1559, ‘my First Blast hath blowne from me all my friends in England’: Works, vi. 14.. Calvin and Beza both felt that they were unfairly associated with the English exiles’ views and that in consequence Queen Elizabeth was suspicious of all their friendly gestures towards her: Zurich Letters, ed. Robinson, H., 2 vols, Cambridge 1842–1845, ii. 34–36, 131.Google Scholar

18 Works, vi. 48, and n. 14 above.Google Scholar

19 For a general discussion of these see Bowler, G., ‘Marian Protestants and the ideal of violent resistance to tyranny’, in Lake, P. and Dowling, M. (eds), Protestantism and the National Church, London 1987, 124–143.Google ScholarFor the way in which events in England affected the exiles see Peardon, B., ‘The politics of polemic: John Ponet's Short Treatise of Politic Power and contemporary circumstance, 1553–6’, Journal of British Studies 22 (1982), 35–49.Google Scholar

20 For a full discussion of this pressure see Dawson, J., ‘Revolutionary conclusions: the case of the Marian exiles’, History of Political Thought xi (1990), 257–272.Google Scholar

21 For an example of some of the difficulties which might arise see Levin, C.‘Queens and claimants: political insecurity in sixteenth-century England’, in Sharistanian, J. (ed.), Gender, Ideology, and Action, New York, 1986, 41–66.Google Scholar

22 Stimulated by his dislike of Mary and her Catholic policies, Knox had been mulling over the question of female rule since 1554. It had been the subject of One of the famous questions which he had asked of Bullinger and Calvin that year. See above n. 6.Google Scholar

23 For the consequences of Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain see Loades, D. M., The Reign of Mary Tudor (London, 1979), chs iv, 7.Google Scholar

24 On 18 May 1559 Knox wrote to Foxe, ‘to me it is yneugh to say that black is not whit, and man's tryannye and foolishnes is not Goddes perfite ordinance’: Works, v. 5. For this general approach see Mason, R., ‘Knox, resistance and the moral imperative’, History of Political Thought i (1980), 411–36.Google Scholar

25 Skinner, Q., ‘The origins of the Calvinist theory of revolution’, in Malament, B. C. (ed.), After the Reformation, Manchester 1980, 309–30.Google Scholar

26 For Knox's polemical style see Murison, D., ‘Knox the writer’, in Shaw, D. (ed.), John Knox, Edinburgh 1975, 33–50.Google Scholar

27 Works, iv. 473. There are assorted modern editions of the ‘First Blast’, none of which is as satisfactory as Laing's edition.Google Scholar

28 Greaves, , Theology and Revolution, ch. 1;Google ScholarKyle, R., The Mind of John Knox, Lawrence, Kansas 1984, ch. ii.Google Scholar

20 For example, Works, vi. 374–6, 383–4.Google Scholar

30 396.

31 The aphorism from Lewis, C. S. is cited in Rupp, E. G., ‘The Europe of John Knox’, in Shaw, Knox, 6–7.Google Scholar

32 Jordan, ‘Women's rule’, 426; and above n. 15.Google Scholar

33 Kyle, R., ‘John Knox's methods of biblical interpretation: an important source of his intellectual radicalness’, Journal of Religious Studies 12 (1986), 57–70.Google Scholar

34 Jordan, , ‘Women's rule’, 436.Google Scholar

35 Works, iv. 416.Google Scholar

36 Christopher Goodman had said, ‘it is lawful for the people, yea it is their duty to do it [punishment] themselves, as well as upon their own rulers and Magistrate as upon other of their brethren’: How Superior Powers Oght to Be Obeyd, Geneva 1558, 189–90;Google ScholarDawson, J. ‘Resistance and revolution in sixteenth-century thought: the case of Christopher Goodman’, in Berg, J. van and Hoftijzer, P. (eds.), Church, Change and Revolution (Publications of the Sir Thomas Browne Institute New Series, XII), Leiden 1991, 69–79.Google Scholar

37 For the situation in Scotland see Donaldson, G., The Scottish Reformation, Cambridge 1960, ch. 2;Google ScholarCowan, I., The Scottish Reformation, London 1982, chs 5 vi;Google Scholar and for the composition of the Lords of the Congregation, Donaldson, G., All the Queen's Men, London 1983, chs. 2-iii.Google Scholar

38 The First Band was signed on 3 Dec. 1557: John Knox's History, 1. 136–7.Google Scholar On the regent see Marshall, R., Mary of Guise, London 1977, chs 9-xi.Google Scholar

39 The burning of Walter Myln (28 Apr. 1558) provoked Knox to harsh criticism of the regent and the archbishop of St Andrews: John Knox's History, i. 153 and the ‘Additions’ revealed a much sharper edge to his comments than in his original Letter to the Regent, Works iv, 431–460. Myln's execution was part of the hardening of the regent's attitude made possible by the celebration of Mary Queen of Scots’ marriage to the French dauphin on 24 Apr. 1558:Google ScholarWormald, J., Mary Queen of Scots, London 1988, 89.Google Scholar

40 Works, iv. 284-5. At the end of 1557 Knox wrote three letters to the Scottish Lords: 27 Oct., John Knox's History, i. 133-6; 1 Dec, Works, iv. 261-75; 17 Dec, ibid 276-86.

41 ibid 524. In the Appellation Knox even set out the rules for the disputation, 518–19.

42 John Knox's History, 1. 249–56.Google Scholar

43 Works, 4. 285.Google Scholar

44 See Burns, J. H., ‘The political ideas of the Scottish Reformation’, Aberdeen University Review 26 (1955-6), 256–8.Google Scholar

45 Works, 4. 480f.Google Scholar

46 John Knox's History, 1. 138, ii. 246–254.Google Scholar

47 Works, 4. 523. Knox addressed ’his beloved brethren the Communaltie of Scotland’: p. 523.Google Scholar

48 534.

49 526–7Google Scholar

50 534.61Google Scholar

53 For a full discussion of the covenant argument see Dawson, , –Resistance and revolution’ and idem, ‘The Early Career of Christopher Goodman and his place in the development of English Protestant Thought’, unpubl. PhD diss., Durham 1978.Google Scholar

52 Kingdon, R. M., Geneva and the Coming of the Wars of Religion in France, 1555–63, Geneva 1956;Google ScholarEire, C., ‘Prelude to sedition? Calvin's attack on Nicodemism and religious compromise’, Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte 77 (1985), 120–45.Google ScholarThe setting up of a national synod in 1558 was an important step, especially as the Huguenots felt able to hold it in Paris where in the previous September there had been the incident at the Rue St Jacques. It had provoked a pamphlet war of which Knox's Apology was part: B. Diefendorf, ‘Prologue to massacre: popular unrest in Paris, 1557–1572’, American Historical Review xc (1985), 1067–91;Google ScholarKelley, D., The Beginning of Ideology, Cambridge 1981, ch. iii.Google Scholar

63 For example in Knox's An Apology for the Protestants who are holden in Prison at Paris, Works, 4. 324-5.Google Scholar

54 Mason, R., ‘Covenant and commonweal’, in Macdougall, N. (ed.), Church, Politics and Society, Edinburgh 1983, 97–126.Google ScholarI am grateful to Dr Mason for our discussions on this point. On Knox's obsession with idolatry seeGoogle ScholarR. Kyle, ‘John, Knox and the purification of religion: the intellectual aspects of his crusade against idolatry’, Archiv fiir Reformations-geschichte 77 (1986), 265–80. The general links between iconoclasm and resistance theories are discussed in Eire, C. M. N., War Against the Idols, Cambridge 1986, ch. 7.Google Scholar

55 Works, iii. 199. This is found in A Godly Letter of Warning or Admonition to the Faithful in London, Newcastle and Berwick [1554], Works, iii. 157-216, which contains Knox's basic treatment of the covenant in relation to England: see Greaves, Theology and Revolution, ch. vi. On Knox's views about Scotland and the covenant in this period see R. Mason, ‘Kingship and Commonweal: political thought and ideology in Reformation Scotland’, unpubl. PhD diss., Edinburgh 1983, 289.Google Scholar

56 Works, iv. 507.Google Scholar

67 This argument had been developed by Christopher Goodman, How Superior Powers.Google Scholar

58 Works, iv. 515.Google Scholar

59 I am grateful to Professor Cameron, J. K. for this important suggestion. Traditionally the nobility had a major part to play during a regency in Scotland: Wormald, Mary Queen of Scots, 44–6.Google Scholar

60 For the Scottish constitutional tradition see Mason, ‘Kingship’, pts 1 and n; Burns, J. H., ‘The Theory of Limited Monarchy in Sixteenth-century Scotland’, unpubl. PhD diss., Aberdeen 1952, and see above nn. 3, 44; Greaves, Theology and Revolution, sect. 3; Kyle, The Mind of John Knox. For the most comprehensive treatment of the European theory of inferior magistracy see R. Benert, ‘Inferior Magistrates in Sixteenth-Century Political Thought’, unpubl. PhD diss., Minnesota 1967, chs. i–iv.Google Scholar

61 Skinner, Q., The Foundations of Modem Political Thought, 2 vols, Cambridge 1978, . ch.;Google ScholarShoenberger, C., ‘The development of the Lutheran theory of resistance: 1523 – 1930’, Sixteenth-Century Journal viii (1977), 61–76;Google Scholar idem, ‘Luther and the justifiability of resistance to legitimate authority’, Journal of the History of Ideas xl (1979), 3–20;Google ScholarCargill-Thompson, W. D. J., Studies in the Reformation, London 1980, chs. 1-ii, and idem, The Political Thought of Martin Luther, Brighton 1984.Google Scholar

62 Hildebrandt, E., ‘The Magdeburg Bekenntnis as a possible link124 between German and English resistance theories in the sixteenth century’,Archiv fiir Reformationsgeschichte 71 (1980), 227–53;Google ScholarKingdon, R. M., ‘The first expression of Theodore Beza’s political ideas’, in Kingdon (ed.), Church and Society in Reformation Europe, London, 1985, ch. 10;Google ScholarGamble, R. C., ‘The Christian and the tyrant: Beza and Knox on political resistance theory’, Westminster Theological Journal 46 (1984), 125–39.Google Scholar

63 Works, 4. 480, 481–2.Google Scholar

64 Skinner, , Modern Political Thought, 2. 198–9.Google Scholar

65 Cargill-Thompson, , Political Thought, 104–5.Google Scholar

66 Skinner, , Modern Political Thought, 2. 201–38.Google Scholar

67 The full title ran ‘The Appellation of John Knox from the cruell and most iniust sentence pronounced against him by the false bishoppes and clergie of Scotland, with his supplication and exhortation to the nobilitie, estates and communaltie of the same realme’: Works, 4. 465.Google Scholar

68 John Knox's History, 1. 124.Google Scholar

69 Works, iv. 467–79.Google Scholar

70 469–72.Google Scholar

71 473.

72 472–9; Skinner, , Modem Political Thought, ii. ch. 1; Cargill-Thompson, Political Thought, ch. 6.Google Scholar

73 Goodman, How Superior Powers, 185.Google Scholar

74 John Knox's History, 2. 15, and above n. 13. As late at 1571 Knox's attempts at compromise encouraged his enemies to charge him with inconsistency in attacking female rule and later supporting and praying for Queen Elizabeth; D. Calderwood, The History of the Kirk of Scotland, 8 vols, Edinburgh 1842–9, 8. 51-4.Google Scholar

76 For the later developments of Knox's thought and their Scottish context see Mason, ‘Covenant and Commonweal’, and ‘Kingship and Commonweal’, nn. 54, 55 above.Google Scholar

78 Certain Tractates… by Ninian Winzet, , ed. Hewison, J. (Scottish Text Society), Edinburgh 1888, 1. 138; cf. Works,4. 439; Burns, J. H., ‘Catholicism in defeat: Ninian Winzet, 1519–92’, History Today 16 (1966), 788–95Google Scholar