John Knox
- Lived
- c. 1514–1572
- Era
- Reformation
- Where
- Scotland
- Tradition
- Presbyterian
The Scottish Reformation
A Scottish priest turned preacher who spent nineteen months as a French galley slave after the fall of St Andrews castle, then years in England and in Calvin's Geneva, and returned in 1559 to lead the reformation that carried Scotland in a year.
Why it matters
The Scots Confession, the Book of Discipline and the reformed kirk's presbyterian government are largely his, and the Book of Discipline proposed a school in every parish and relief for the poor from church revenues — most of which the nobility declined to fund. His confrontations with Mary, Queen of Scots are the set piece. He also wrote a tract against female rulers so intemperate that it permanently soured Elizabeth I on him, having been aimed at Mary Tudor.
In the record
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1517 AD Reform
The Reformation begins
Led the Scottish reformation of 1560
All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.