WEBVTT 00:00.940 --> 00:06.560 Before that, on BBC4, Richard Holloway smashes some myths about John Knox in part 00:06.560 --> 00:08.580 two of The Sword and the Cross. 00:12.790 --> 00:18.550 It's the 19th of August, 1561, and a delegation of Edinburgh worthies is 00:18.550 --> 00:20.430 making its way to Holyrood Palace. 00:22.690 --> 00:28.110 Inside the palace, Mary, Queen of Scots, is preparing to spend her first night in 00:28.110 --> 00:28.510 Scotland. 00:29.390 --> 00:34.770 Brought up at the French court, Mary, still only 19, is beautiful and 00:34.770 --> 00:37.910 highly educated, but she's also a Catholic. 00:39.790 --> 00:45.170 For John Knox, the radical voice of Scottish Protestantism, the presence of a 00:45.170 --> 00:47.050 Catholic Queen is intolerable. 00:53.600 --> 00:58.440 The psalms which he and his delegation have come to sing to Mary are not a 00:58.440 --> 00:59.860 welcome, but a warning. 01:01.220 --> 01:07.400 O, still contrive a thing that is but vain. 01:07.880 --> 01:19.240 The kings and rulers of the earth conspire and are all bent against the Lord. 01:19.260 --> 01:23.880 But just how accurate is this image of John Knox, the preacher who challenged a 01:23.880 --> 01:27.920 Queen and tore Scotland from the grasp of medieval Catholicism? 01:56.480 --> 02:02.440 The trouble with characters like Knox is that it's now so difficult to separate the 02:02.440 --> 02:03.580 man from the myth. 02:04.520 --> 02:10.120 Was he the heroic figure of the Protestant myth, who fearlessly challenged authority 02:10.120 --> 02:14.720 and single-handedly rescued Scotland from the clutches of Rome? 02:15.500 --> 02:20.780 Or was he the heretic of the Catholic myth, who destroyed forever the unity of 02:20.780 --> 02:22.080 the one true church? 02:22.600 --> 02:28.120 Was he the misogynistic killjoy who pulled the plugs on pleasure, as the humanist 02:28.120 --> 02:29.320 myth portrays him? 02:30.300 --> 02:34.920 Well, the figure who emerges from behind all these myths is more complex, 02:35.140 --> 02:38.240 frail and fascinating than we might have imagined. 02:38.900 --> 02:43.000 But getting to that real human Knox isn't going to be easy. 02:51.240 --> 02:54.940 Knox certainly didn't start out as a rebel with a cause. 02:55.480 --> 03:00.540 He was ordained as a Catholic priest in the late 1530s, precisely at the moment 03:00.540 --> 03:05.600 when the revolutionary Protestant thinking of Martin Luther was sweeping continental 03:05.600 --> 03:06.100 Europe. 03:11.780 --> 03:16.740 In order to understand the enormous significance of Luther's ideas, 03:17.140 --> 03:22.060 we have to keep in mind the momentous claim that Christianity made for itself. 03:22.660 --> 03:28.080 It offered men and women the possibility of eternal bliss or eternal damnation. 03:28.840 --> 03:33.840 The only question was, how was heaven to be achieved and hell avoided? 03:34.940 --> 03:41.840 As Martin Luther agonised over whether or not he would be saved, he had an epiphany. 03:42.900 --> 03:48.380 We were not saved by our prayers or pilgrimages, by our masses or indulgences, 03:48.580 --> 03:49.680 as the church proclaimed. 03:50.280 --> 03:53.600 We were not even saved by our own good works. 03:54.280 --> 03:56.880 We were saved only by the grace of God. 03:57.960 --> 04:03.360 We were not justified by anything in our humanity, but only by our faith in the 04:03.360 --> 04:04.220 mercy of God. 04:04.800 --> 04:09.040 And by the 1540s, these ideas were convulsing Europe. 04:10.200 --> 04:15.540 Roman Catholic Scotland was to encounter Luther's Protestant ideas at first hand 04:15.540 --> 04:20.740 when a young man named Patrick Hamilton preached in St Andrews, the town where 04:20.740 --> 04:22.220 John Knox was educated. 04:24.500 --> 04:28.480 Hamilton was immediately branded a heretic by the church and executed. 04:37.020 --> 04:41.840 Hamilton's martyrdom is now commemorated every year by students in the town. 04:42.140 --> 04:46.440 He was arrested, charged with heresy, found guilty and sentenced to death. 04:47.100 --> 04:51.220 On the last day in February 1528, he was burned at the stake on the spot now 04:51.220 --> 04:52.220 marked with his initials. 04:52.760 --> 04:54.620 He died after six hours of burning. 04:55.600 --> 04:59.940 Today we remember Patrick Hamilton and all martyrs with the laying of a wreath on his 04:59.940 --> 05:00.400 initials. 05:03.380 --> 05:08.240 But if the church believed the execution would put an end to the preaching of the 05:08.240 --> 05:12.000 Protestant heresy in Scotland, they couldn't have been more wrong. 05:14.740 --> 05:20.720 Hamilton's death sent shockwaves round Scotland, and St Andrews itself was 05:20.720 --> 05:23.480 buzzing with talk about these new ideas. 05:24.260 --> 05:30.020 It was said that the reek of Mr Hamilton infected all it blew upon, with the 05:30.020 --> 05:32.740 notable exception, it would seem, of John Knox. 05:35.420 --> 05:39.220 Knox took up work within the church as a notary and a tutor. 05:39.660 --> 05:44.520 He showed no signs of agreeing with the new heresy that was slowly infiltrating 05:44.520 --> 05:48.300 Scotland until the day the preacher came to town. 05:50.400 --> 05:53.220 George Wishart was an unlikely revolutionary. 05:54.100 --> 05:59.020 Gentle and serious, while still a student at Cambridge, he regularly gave food and 05:59.020 --> 06:00.080 clothing to the poor. 06:00.880 --> 06:05.760 It was said that he even donated the sheet from his bed every time he changed it. 06:06.600 --> 06:11.360 But Wishart had come to believe that the Roman Catholic Church had lost its way, 06:11.780 --> 06:14.500 and he wasn't afraid to make his views known. 06:15.440 --> 06:20.880 In 16th century Scotland, it was dangerous to believe in anything that might be 06:20.880 --> 06:26.640 described as heretical, but it was downright suicidal to try to persuade 06:26.640 --> 06:28.440 other people to believe it with you. 06:29.280 --> 06:34.440 So it took enormous courage for George Wishart to agree to an extensive preaching 06:34.440 --> 06:37.480 tour of Scotland in 1544. 06:44.540 --> 06:49.420 Wishart is unauthorised, he is not part of the church establishment at all, 06:49.740 --> 06:55.140 and he is coming to spread his message, a dangerous message, a heretical message. 06:55.540 --> 06:59.720 Christ only is our Lord and King. 06:59.840 --> 07:06.940 We refuse utterly all other means of life and salvation except by Christ only. 07:07.820 --> 07:09.900 Knox was electrified. 07:10.640 --> 07:16.160 Here was a young man, almost exact to the same age as himself, speaking directly and 07:16.160 --> 07:21.600 passionately about a personal relationship with God and risking everything to do so. 07:22.320 --> 07:24.980 Except by Christ only. 07:26.160 --> 07:31.400 Fired with the excitement of his newfound convictions, Knox threw in his lot with 07:31.400 --> 07:37.100 Wishart, and sometime around January 1546 went on the road with him. 07:40.900 --> 07:45.740 Knox is a great enthusiast for Wishart, almost like a groupie, so he becomes a 07:45.740 --> 07:51.560 semi-bodyguard, the famous image of Knox carrying the big double-handed sword, 07:51.820 --> 07:52.700 the original Claymore. 07:53.860 --> 08:00.320 You get this image of Knox being as proud as anything to be a bodyguard for Wishart. 08:02.100 --> 08:08.420 It was only a matter of time before this unlikely Protestant roadshow came to the 08:08.420 --> 08:13.460 attention of the Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews, Cardinal David Beaton. 08:14.960 --> 08:18.120 Cardinal Beaton is a career churchman. 08:18.540 --> 08:24.200 He's a statesman, he's also Archbishop of St Andrews, the primate of Scotland. 08:24.740 --> 08:26.780 He's, therefore, the man at the top. 08:32.280 --> 08:37.580 St Andrews was the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland and a tourist hotspot, 08:38.000 --> 08:38.980 then as now. 08:39.960 --> 08:44.640 Thousands of people poured into the town every year, not to play golf, but to 08:44.640 --> 08:47.480 worship at the shrine of Scotland's patron saint. 08:51.370 --> 08:56.230 And this medieval tourist trade helped to make Beaton richer even than the monarch. 08:57.230 --> 09:04.370 He's not himself particularly interested in church reform, and so he sees these 09:04.370 --> 09:09.370 heretical threats as just that, a threat to the authority of the church. 09:17.350 --> 09:24.090 Heretics cannot defy the church authorities or even the state authorities. 09:24.490 --> 09:28.030 And, therefore, they must be dealt with and dealt with severely. 09:29.910 --> 09:34.430 Wishart was arrested and incarcerated in the dungeon of St Andrews Castle, 09:35.090 --> 09:40.290 but he refused to allow Knox to share in his martyrdom, telling sympathisers to 09:40.290 --> 09:41.250 keep Knox away. 09:42.510 --> 09:45.210 Wishart was tried and duly sentenced to death. 09:45.850 --> 09:50.910 When invited by the church to make a last confession, he gave no sign of recanting. 09:58.650 --> 10:04.910 Next day, March the 1st, 1546, Wishart was brought under guard from his 10:04.910 --> 10:08.830 cell in the sea tower to the forecourt of St Andrews Castle. 10:13.610 --> 10:19.650 His pockets and sleeves were stuffed with gunpowder before he was tied to a stake 10:19.650 --> 10:20.650 and set alight. 10:25.850 --> 10:31.650 Some said the gunpowder was to create a fireworks display for Cardinal Beaton, 10:31.990 --> 10:35.310 who watched the whole thing from the window of his private apartment. 10:35.850 --> 10:37.630 The truth is more banal. 10:38.650 --> 10:43.250 The executioners, it turned out, weren't very good at burning heretics. 10:43.730 --> 10:47.630 They didn't get enough practice, so they stuffed Wishart's pockets with 10:47.630 --> 10:52.670 gunpowder in case they botched the job and the poor guy burned too slowly. 10:56.830 --> 11:00.170 Christ only is our Lord and King. 11:00.490 --> 11:07.690 We refuse all other means of life and salvation except through Christ only. 11:14.010 --> 11:19.550 As well as enormous courage, it takes a deeply rooted faith to die for an idea. 11:20.690 --> 11:25.470 Wishart's martyrdom proved how deeply rooted his Protestant faith had become, 11:26.070 --> 11:28.950 too deep for any mere cardinal to uproot. 11:34.140 --> 11:39.960 Wishart's martyrdom was to make a huge impact on Knox, but his immediate concern 11:39.960 --> 11:41.500 was to evade capture. 11:42.280 --> 11:47.740 Knox was forced into hiding, but some more militant Protestants had other ideas. 11:48.320 --> 11:49.840 They wanted revenge. 11:51.420 --> 11:56.140 Early in the morning of May the 29th, just three months after Wishart's 11:56.140 --> 12:01.600 execution, a small band of Protestant sympathizers gained entry to St. Andrew's 12:01.600 --> 12:01.920 Castle. 12:03.020 --> 12:08.320 The conspirators surprised the cardinal in his bedchamber, and ignoring his pleas not 12:08.320 --> 12:09.980 to kill him because he was a priest, 12:15.540 --> 12:17.240 they stabbed him to death. 12:19.740 --> 12:24.560 As soon as the word got out, people from the town came running to find out what was 12:24.560 --> 12:30.040 happening, and to prove that the cardinal really was dead, they hung his mutilated 12:30.040 --> 12:34.420 corpse from the very window from which he'd watched Wishart burn. 12:36.900 --> 12:41.940 With Beaton now dead, the conspirators found themselves at the centre of a 12:41.940 --> 12:43.740 growing camp of Protestant rebels. 12:44.440 --> 12:46.620 The castle was well defended. 12:47.160 --> 12:49.720 A great deal of money had been spent on it in recent times. 12:50.440 --> 12:52.600 It occupied this superb promontory. 12:53.420 --> 12:55.240 It seemed to be impregnable. 12:56.440 --> 13:01.800 And when they stayed there, perhaps they were surprised by the numbers who flocked 13:01.800 --> 13:02.180 to it. 13:02.780 --> 13:06.860 It's a bit like in a revolution, you capture the palace of the president, 13:07.540 --> 13:09.360 and it becomes a symbol of defiance. 13:11.840 --> 13:16.800 The conspirators had struck a blow for Protestantism right at the heart of the 13:16.800 --> 13:17.820 Catholic regime. 13:19.880 --> 13:22.560 And the government was quick to retaliate. 13:28.600 --> 13:31.120 Troops were sent to besiege the castle. 13:31.960 --> 13:34.720 You then get this rather weird siege. 13:35.480 --> 13:41.160 One of the odd things for us about 16th century warfare in Scotland is the Scots' 13:41.320 --> 13:46.660 habit of both talking and fighting at the same time, which they do quite frequently. 13:47.360 --> 13:52.580 And so this sort of constant negotiation going on with people coming in and out of 13:52.580 --> 13:55.420 the castle, and yet officially it's under siege. 13:58.140 --> 14:03.440 As time went by, the castle became the focus for religious debate. 14:04.220 --> 14:08.260 The first congregation of the Protestant church was formed within its walls. 14:09.420 --> 14:13.880 Gradually, its occupants were joined by other dissidents and malcontents, 14:14.440 --> 14:16.240 among them John Knox. 14:16.240 --> 14:27.500 In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word 14:27.500 --> 14:29.240 was God. 14:30.220 --> 14:35.320 As the siege continued outside, inside, Knox resumed his duties as a 14:35.320 --> 14:35.560 tutor. 14:36.500 --> 14:40.980 While lecturing on a passage from St John's Gospel, he was overheard by the 14:40.980 --> 14:42.420 castle's resident preacher. 14:43.360 --> 14:49.480 And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. 14:50.760 --> 14:55.260 Deeply impressed by his skills as a communicator, the preacher immediately 14:55.260 --> 14:59.020 tried to sign him up as an apologist for the Protestant cause. 15:00.020 --> 15:01.660 Knox refused point blank. 15:02.080 --> 15:02.480 Why? 15:03.100 --> 15:08.100 Well, the reason he gave was that he would not run where God had not called him. 15:08.640 --> 15:12.440 He just didn't feel cut out to be a preacher. 15:12.440 --> 15:18.240 He had no desire to raise his head above the parapet quite so soon after his recent 15:18.240 --> 15:19.200 brush with danger. 15:19.940 --> 15:24.640 But the castle preacher is going to have the last word, and he does the dirty on 15:24.640 --> 15:28.360 Knox in actually calling him in a sermon. 15:28.820 --> 15:34.520 So publicly, he points to Knox and says, you must accept this call. 15:35.080 --> 15:35.860 Knox is overcome. 15:36.580 --> 15:40.200 He bursts into tears, rushes out, and goes to his room. 15:40.920 --> 15:43.700 He clearly does not want this call. 15:51.620 --> 15:53.480 And that might have been that. 15:54.020 --> 15:58.640 We might never have heard of John Knox at all, had it not been for another John, 15:59.160 --> 15:59.900 John Winram. 16:03.600 --> 16:08.740 Winram was to have a profound influence on both the life of Knox and the progress of 16:08.740 --> 16:09.900 the Scottish Reformation. 16:10.980 --> 16:15.720 As a leading churchman, Winram had taken charge in St. Andrews following Beaton's 16:15.720 --> 16:18.660 murder until a new archbishop could be appointed. 16:19.600 --> 16:23.800 But unlike Beaton, he was already convinced of the need for reform. 16:24.600 --> 16:28.800 To encourage debate on the issue, he agreed to a series of public sermons in 16:28.800 --> 16:29.800 the parish church. 16:30.720 --> 16:34.160 It was here that Knox took to the pulpit for the first time. 16:35.280 --> 16:40.020 Whether the pressure from his fellows finally proved irresistible, or whether 16:40.020 --> 16:45.240 God had finally called him, John Knox eventually had to preach. 16:45.880 --> 16:52.620 And in his sermon, here in Holy Trinity, St. Andrews, we hear for the first time 16:52.620 --> 16:58.700 the wrathful incantatory voice that was to change the history of Scotland. 16:59.880 --> 17:07.680 I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered to make war 17:07.680 --> 17:15.820 against him that sat on the horse and his army and the beast was taken and with him 17:15.820 --> 17:23.060 the false prophet these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with 17:23.060 --> 17:30.120 brimstone The first sermon that Knox preaches is very characteristic of Knox. 17:30.280 --> 17:35.940 Full of fire, full of and linking it up with the imagery in the book of 17:35.940 --> 17:42.680 Revelation, the Apocalypse, and talking about the Roman Catholic Church in terms 17:42.680 --> 17:43.700 of anti-Christ. 17:44.640 --> 17:49.080 So this is just Knox as he appears for the rest of his life. 17:49.740 --> 17:54.960 Anti-Catholic, going straight for the heart of the matter, and full, 17:55.060 --> 17:58.560 as I said, of violent language and vehemence. 18:05.740 --> 18:11.140 The 16th century was a period of great upheaval both in Scotland and on the 18:11.140 --> 18:11.540 continent. 18:12.180 --> 18:16.780 With wars and religious persecution tearing Europe apart, it must have seemed 18:16.780 --> 18:20.500 to many people that the end of the world was truly nigh. 18:21.320 --> 18:25.040 Knox certainly seems to have interpreted his own age in this way. 18:25.640 --> 18:29.040 It probably accounts for the increasing ferocity of his language. 18:29.820 --> 18:33.180 Judgment was coming upon the world and people had to take sides. 18:34.020 --> 18:36.960 As far as Knox was concerned, there could be no compromise. 18:37.600 --> 18:41.460 He were either for God and the Protestant cause or against him. 18:44.960 --> 18:48.100 It's a kind of thinking that's still common currency. 18:49.000 --> 18:53.400 Islamic fundamentalists and some of the politicians in the West who oppose them 18:53.400 --> 19:00.580 often speak in apocalyptic terms of light versus darkness, of good versus evil. 19:04.840 --> 19:09.440 In this great spiritual battle, Knox was convinced he was on the side of 19:09.440 --> 19:10.000 the angels. 19:10.900 --> 19:15.020 The dangers and difficulties he had suffered in the 18 months since he 19:15.020 --> 19:19.500 disposed the Protestant cause only made him more certain that he was right. 19:20.520 --> 19:25.060 He believed that he had found his vocation as a Protestant preacher and given 19:25.060 --> 19:30.100 encouraging developments in St. Andrews, it must have seemed to him as if reform of 19:30.100 --> 19:32.920 the whole Scottish church was just around the corner. 19:34.020 --> 19:38.600 But then the French fleet showed up and everything ground to a halt. 19:43.580 --> 19:45.360 Why the French? 19:46.020 --> 19:51.000 Well, St. Andrews Castle might be in the hands of the reformers, but Scotland was 19:51.000 --> 19:53.020 still very much a Catholic country. 19:53.920 --> 19:58.740 The widowed Scottish Queen, the French-born Mary of Guise, had called on 19:58.740 --> 20:02.540 her countrymen to help her deal with these troublesome Protestants. 20:03.780 --> 20:08.580 Mary's marriage to the Scottish King James V had cemented an alliance between the 20:08.580 --> 20:08.580 two. 20:08.580 --> 20:13.800 An alliance between Catholic France and Catholic Scotland, symbolized by the birth 20:13.800 --> 20:16.960 of their daughter Mary, the future Queen of Scots. 20:17.500 --> 20:22.760 But her eventual accession was now under threat from the growing momentum of the 20:22.760 --> 20:23.760 Protestant rebellion. 20:26.080 --> 20:29.700 The French fleet bombarded the castle into submission. 20:30.660 --> 20:33.960 Now it was time to deal with these Protestant rebels. 20:35.080 --> 20:39.440 It's a strange fate for these Castilians who had all bonded together as fellow 20:39.440 --> 20:40.220 revolutionaries. 20:40.860 --> 20:43.660 They're divided up rather into gentlemen and players. 20:44.600 --> 20:47.520 The gentlemen are treated almost like honored house guests. 20:48.460 --> 20:51.700 The riffraff, including Knox, are sent to the galleys. 20:54.100 --> 20:57.680 Nothing in Knox's life had prepared him for this. 20:58.600 --> 21:02.740 French galley ships of this time were about a hundred to a hundred and fifty 21:02.740 --> 21:05.460 feet long, and about thirty feet wide. 21:06.260 --> 21:10.660 They were equipped with sails, but when the winds died, they relied on 21:10.660 --> 21:11.340 the rowers. 21:11.860 --> 21:18.160 Six men fettered to each oar, who ate, slept, and relieved themselves where they 21:18.160 --> 21:18.600 sat. 21:20.760 --> 21:26.160 Under the watchful eye of his French Catholic guards, Knox could only seethe in 21:26.160 --> 21:26.640 silence. 21:27.260 --> 21:32.480 The firebrand preacher was reduced to sly and solitary acts of defiance. 21:32.980 --> 21:38.800 He tells us, for example, of him being given an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary 21:38.800 --> 21:43.740 to kiss, which he refuses to do, and then, having checked very quietly, 21:44.260 --> 21:47.940 looked from side to side to make sure no one was looking, throws it overboard. 21:48.380 --> 21:51.980 But he certainly checks beforehand to make sure he's not being watched. 21:54.930 --> 22:00.310 Although Knox would defy authority, he clearly had little appetite for 22:00.310 --> 22:03.130 physical danger, no martyr complex. 22:03.690 --> 22:08.390 He was never reckless enough to put himself in the way of pain or death. 22:09.130 --> 22:11.710 Nevertheless, his spirit was not broken. 22:12.510 --> 22:17.510 Through even these darkest days, when it looked as though Satan had won, 22:18.290 --> 22:21.430 he believed that in the end he would be defeated. 22:24.420 --> 22:32.460 Knox was finally freed from the galleys in February 1549, after 19 punishing months. 22:33.440 --> 22:37.040 By now, Scotland had been heavily reinforced by the French. 22:37.740 --> 22:42.680 So, unwilling to risk returning to Scotland, Knox settled in England, 22:43.180 --> 22:45.580 in the border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. 22:52.980 --> 22:57.580 England had become a refugee camp for reformers fleeing persecution. 22:58.500 --> 23:02.700 Here, the Reformation was flourishing under the young King Edward VI, 23:03.380 --> 23:07.180 and sandwiched between the two Catholic powers of Scotland and France, 23:07.760 --> 23:10.780 Edward's England was a thorn in both their sides. 23:11.680 --> 23:14.100 It was here that Knox sought sanctuary. 23:15.040 --> 23:16.800 Knox had learned a hard lesson. 23:17.660 --> 23:22.100 It must have seemed to him now that joining the rebels in the castle at St. 23:22.320 --> 23:27.820 Andrews, confident of their ultimate victory, had been a grave miscalculation 23:27.820 --> 23:29.760 for which he'd paid a heavy price. 23:30.500 --> 23:32.580 It was a mistake he'd never make again. 23:33.320 --> 23:36.080 From now on, Knox would be a cautious man. 23:36.760 --> 23:39.520 He would go only where he was made to feel welcome. 23:40.180 --> 23:43.340 And in Berwick, he was made to feel very welcome. 23:48.500 --> 23:55.780 As a charismatic preacher, the 35-year-old Knox soon attracted around him a coterie 23:55.780 --> 23:59.100 of devoted followers, many of them women. 24:01.060 --> 24:06.120 Shortly after his arrival in Berwick, Knox was introduced to Elizabeth Bowes, 24:06.760 --> 24:09.860 the wife of an English officer at Norham Castle. 24:10.440 --> 24:13.320 It was to be the beginning of an intimate, lifelong relationship. 24:20.840 --> 24:26.420 Although Elizabeth wasn't much older than Knox, she had already borne her husband 15 24:26.420 --> 24:26.920 children. 24:27.840 --> 24:31.680 She seems to have become a Protestant before Knox arrived in Berwick. 24:32.360 --> 24:35.160 But throughout her life, she struggled with doubts. 24:35.980 --> 24:39.460 It was to Knox she turned for reassurance and support. 24:40.000 --> 24:43.300 And Knox, who was so fierce and unyielding in his public life, was a man of many 24:43.300 --> 24:43.300 talents. 24:44.360 --> 24:45.540 He was a man of many talents. 24:45.540 --> 24:45.540 He was a man of many talents. 24:45.540 --> 24:46.040 He was a man of many talents. 24:46.980 --> 24:48.340 He was a man of many talents. 24:51.640 --> 24:57.540 In an age when most marriages were arranged, it was common for women to form 24:57.540 --> 25:02.440 close, emotional relationships with their parish priests, rather than with their 25:02.440 --> 25:06.100 husbands, who saw marriage as a purely contractual arrangement. 25:07.180 --> 25:11.320 And it was natural that they would do the same with Protestant ministers like Knox. 25:12.100 --> 25:15.840 From the beginning, there were accusations of sexual impropriety. 25:16.520 --> 25:20.060 It was the intensity of their relationship that set tongues wagging. 25:20.620 --> 25:26.000 She was deeply emotionally dependent on Knox, but he was just as committed to her. 25:27.260 --> 25:29.520 I have always delighted in your company. 25:30.480 --> 25:35.780 And when labors would permit, you know I would spend hours talking and communing 25:35.780 --> 25:36.200 with you. 25:37.420 --> 25:40.860 Was there a sexual subtext to their relationship? 25:41.580 --> 25:43.020 There may well have been. 25:43.740 --> 25:49.380 There is, after all, a dangerously fine line between pastoral affection and 25:49.380 --> 25:50.360 passionate love. 25:51.520 --> 25:55.080 In my body, you think I am no adulterer. 25:55.760 --> 25:56.540 Let that be. 25:57.200 --> 26:00.540 But the heart is infected with foul lusts. 26:01.340 --> 26:04.080 Externally, I commit no adultery. 26:04.720 --> 26:10.420 But my wicked heart loveth the self, and cannot refrain from vain imaginations. 26:11.480 --> 26:16.480 Nevertheless, their affection and need for each other was controlled by their sincere 26:16.480 --> 26:17.740 religious convictions. 26:18.960 --> 26:23.520 However, Knox's marriage to Elizabeth's daughter Marjorie would ensure that they 26:23.520 --> 26:25.000 never would be separated. 26:26.100 --> 26:31.160 As a poor preacher, Knox could never really have hoped to propose to Marjorie. 26:31.720 --> 26:35.500 And when she mentioned it to him, Captain Bowes opposed the match. 26:36.140 --> 26:39.720 But Elizabeth was determined to make it happen, and happen it did. 26:40.400 --> 26:42.680 Knox and Marjorie were betrothed. 26:43.260 --> 26:47.820 So Elizabeth managed to remain an intimate part of Knox's life till the day she died, 26:48.420 --> 26:50.740 even if it was as his mother-in-law. 26:52.280 --> 26:57.720 I don't think that we could see within Knox's relationship with his wife and his 26:57.720 --> 27:01.700 mother-in-law our normal picture of domestic bliss. 27:02.020 --> 27:06.020 But it is obviously a relationship which is intellectual, which is a meeting of 27:06.020 --> 27:08.260 minds as well as of spirits. 27:10.660 --> 27:13.300 England also took Knox to her heart. 27:14.000 --> 27:19.620 The Reformation there had the full backing of King Edward VI, and Knox's impressive 27:19.620 --> 27:23.100 and fiery preaching skills were soon noticed at court. 27:24.020 --> 27:27.420 Invited to become a royal chaplain, he accepted the post. 27:27.860 --> 27:33.380 But for Knox, change was being introduced too slowly, and the Edwardian church 27:33.380 --> 27:39.000 compromised by the continuing influence of some less than godly royal advisers. 27:40.740 --> 27:44.320 Knox could have been forgiven for feeling quite satisfied with his life. 27:44.320 --> 27:46.640 He had found acceptance in England. 27:47.160 --> 27:48.420 He had the ear of the king. 27:48.980 --> 27:52.060 He was surrounded by devoted followers and adoring women. 27:52.620 --> 27:56.300 He was engaged to be married, and he was financially secure. 27:56.960 --> 28:01.760 All was set fair, yet he was filled with a terrible sense of foreboding. 28:03.520 --> 28:10.800 If you, O England, for any respect delay your repentance and conversion unto God, 28:11.380 --> 28:15.840 if you shall retain in honour and authority such as have declared themselves 28:15.840 --> 28:21.100 enemies of God, then I and others who faithfully have warned you of your duty 28:21.100 --> 28:24.300 and of vengeance to come shall be clean of your blood. 28:26.140 --> 28:31.300 He believed that it was only a matter of time before God would wreak his vengeance 28:31.300 --> 28:32.740 on faithless England. 28:33.700 --> 28:37.760 Sure enough, the following month, the king died. 28:40.220 --> 28:42.240 Overnight, everything changed. 28:42.760 --> 28:47.220 Edward, the great Protestant hope, was succeeded by his half-sister Mary. 28:48.100 --> 28:51.480 But unlike her brother, Mary was a committed Catholic. 28:52.580 --> 28:57.860 Upon her accession, a campaign of terror was unleashed in her goal to restore 28:57.860 --> 28:59.740 England to Roman Catholicism. 29:00.920 --> 29:05.160 Protestant literature was destroyed and preachers burned as heretics. 29:09.140 --> 29:12.120 To Knox it looked like the end of the world. 29:13.600 --> 29:18.260 The new queen was to become known as Bloody Mary and for good reason. 29:18.960 --> 29:22.220 She set about expunging all evidence of Protestantism. 29:22.940 --> 29:26.140 These were dangerous times for Protestants in England. 29:28.140 --> 29:29.540 What did Knox do? 29:30.580 --> 29:31.660 What he always did. 29:32.160 --> 29:34.860 When the going got tough, he got out. 29:36.920 --> 29:42.460 As Protestants burned, Knox fled to the continent, leaving behind the people who 29:42.460 --> 29:44.160 had taken him to their hearts. 29:45.060 --> 29:49.820 He was insistent that they should remain true to their newfound convictions and 29:49.820 --> 29:54.560 defend the fledgling Protestant church, despite the dangers they now faced. 29:55.180 --> 29:59.980 But from his letters, it's clear that he felt uneasy about abandoning his beloved 29:59.980 --> 30:01.560 English sisters and brothers. 30:02.260 --> 30:09.280 If I thought that I might have your presence, I would jeopardize my own life 30:09.280 --> 30:13.820 to let men see what may be done with a safe conscience in these dangerous days. 30:14.580 --> 30:19.060 But seeing that it cannot be done instantly, without danger to others than 30:19.060 --> 30:23.360 to me, I will abide the time that God shall appoint. 30:25.480 --> 30:28.240 You can almost hear him squirm, can't you? 30:28.560 --> 30:30.220 He knew how bad it looked. 30:30.740 --> 30:35.180 Here he was, telling them to stay and face the terrors of Mary's England, 30:35.680 --> 30:39.140 while he himself was writing to them from the safety of the continent. 30:44.910 --> 30:50.190 But although he was telling his friends to stay put in England, he did arrange for 30:50.190 --> 30:53.450 his wife and his mother-in-law to join him on the continent. 30:54.250 --> 30:59.270 And together, they made their way to what was to become Knox's true spiritual home, 30:59.750 --> 31:03.930 the Vatican of radical Protestantism, the Swiss city of Geneva. 31:07.830 --> 31:11.350 Geneva's internationalism was as strong then as it is today. 31:12.050 --> 31:17.970 In the 16th century, it was the center of a radical experiment presided over by John 31:17.970 --> 31:23.330 Calvin, and Protestants from all over Europe flocked to the city to be part of 31:23.330 --> 31:23.530 it. 31:25.750 --> 31:30.750 Martin Luther, the monk, may have agonized over whether he would be saved from the 31:30.750 --> 31:36.150 wrath of God, but Calvin, the lawyer, confidently reckoned that you could prove 31:36.150 --> 31:37.530 whom God had chosen. 31:38.390 --> 31:43.230 And once the faithful had that assurance of salvation, they could stop agonizing 31:43.230 --> 31:48.730 over their eternal destiny and get on with the job of creating a true reflection of 31:48.730 --> 31:50.250 heaven in this world. 31:52.130 --> 31:57.210 Under Calvin, this new city of God was established here on earth. 31:57.890 --> 32:02.930 This ancient cathedral, once vivid with its altars and images, was stripped bare 32:02.930 --> 32:07.530 of anything that might distract the soul from its pure encounter with God. 32:08.170 --> 32:11.770 It's a place of utter starkness and simplicity. 32:14.290 --> 32:15.830 Knox loved it. 32:16.570 --> 32:21.510 He claimed that Geneva was the most godly place on earth since the days of the 32:21.510 --> 32:21.890 apostles. 32:22.990 --> 32:27.770 The Reformers had a rooted fear of idolatry, the idea that anything humanly 32:27.770 --> 32:29.810 created could represent God. 32:30.490 --> 32:36.130 They seemed to miss the fact that theology itself was humanly created, and that a 32:36.130 --> 32:40.010 conceptual idol might be more dangerous than a physical one. 32:41.490 --> 32:47.310 Unlike the imperfect Protestant state that Knox had found in England, Geneva was a 32:47.310 --> 32:50.550 place where the state had been brought into line with the church. 32:51.110 --> 32:52.950 Here there had been no compromise. 32:54.670 --> 33:00.370 And as in Berwick, his charismatic preaching soon drew another loyal circle 33:00.370 --> 33:05.870 of female friends around him, women whom he actively encouraged to join him from 33:05.870 --> 33:06.210 England. 33:06.950 --> 33:11.490 Friends who had been suffering under the rule of Bloody Mary and who were longing 33:11.490 --> 33:12.370 for his company. 33:13.250 --> 33:19.210 To one woman he wrote, you write that your desire is earnest to see me. 33:20.550 --> 33:26.070 Dear sister, if I could express the thirst and languor I have had for your presence, 33:26.610 --> 33:28.230 I should appear to pass measure. 33:29.510 --> 33:35.690 Yea, I weep and rejoice in remembrance of you, but that would vanish by the comfort 33:35.690 --> 33:41.550 of your presence, which I assure you is so dear to me, that if the charge of this 33:41.550 --> 33:45.910 little flock did not impede me, I should be with you before this letter 33:45.910 --> 33:46.650 could reach you. 33:48.730 --> 33:52.350 The period he stays in Geneva is the happiest time of his life. 33:53.230 --> 33:57.170 As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters... 33:57.170 --> 33:59.490 He's married, his two sons are born. 33:59.990 --> 34:08.230 He also is in the comfort of a congregation who is entirely committed to 34:08.230 --> 34:09.630 the cause in his view. 34:10.230 --> 34:14.830 They provide him with that sense of being part of a godly community. 34:15.550 --> 34:21.150 And it is that total commitment of the whole congregation, all of whom of course 34:21.150 --> 34:27.070 have come into exile for their faith, that he sees as the ideal. 34:28.530 --> 34:30.230 But it was not to last. 34:33.150 --> 34:40.110 In March 1557, a group of reform-minded nobles invited Knox to come back to 34:40.110 --> 34:40.510 Scotland. 34:41.230 --> 34:45.630 Known as the Lords of the Congregation, they had signed a common bond, 34:45.750 --> 34:50.310 the first of many covenants, which bound them to work together against the Catholic 34:50.310 --> 34:53.550 state for the establishment of a reformed Kirk. 34:54.070 --> 34:59.390 The first bond is very, very important in terms of a stage in the Reformation, 34:59.630 --> 35:04.090 because it is the first public affirmation of noble support. 35:05.730 --> 35:10.950 These nobles are saying quite clearly that they are prepared to put, if you like, 35:11.390 --> 35:15.610 their money where their mouth is, or rather their power, even their military 35:15.610 --> 35:18.490 power, where their convictions lie. 35:20.630 --> 35:25.310 But even with this powerful support committing itself to the Protestant cause 35:25.310 --> 35:29.970 in Scotland, Knox had no intention of leaving this heaven on earth. 35:30.650 --> 35:35.430 It took Calvin to remind him that he'd come to Geneva in the first place to 35:35.430 --> 35:40.110 observe this great Protestant experiment and to export it to Scotland. 35:41.850 --> 35:46.090 Knox stayed around for another six months until Calvin finally booted him out. 35:46.810 --> 35:49.150 Reluctantly, he left his beloved Geneva. 35:49.930 --> 35:53.190 What he didn't know was that he was walking into history. 35:54.870 --> 35:57.250 The journey back was not to be easy. 35:57.830 --> 36:01.650 By the time he'd reached Dieppe, Knox received word again. 36:02.110 --> 36:05.110 He was now to hold fire and wait on the continent. 36:05.830 --> 36:07.090 Knox was furious. 36:08.050 --> 36:15.570 To some it may appear a small matter that I have abandoned my public office, 36:16.470 --> 36:21.570 leaving my poor family destitute and my beloved flock to the charge of another. 36:22.910 --> 36:27.530 But to me, it is no small matter. 36:30.350 --> 36:35.730 Knox accused the nobles of allowing politics to dictate their actions rather 36:35.730 --> 36:36.990 than the word of God. 36:37.590 --> 36:42.450 It was an unfair charge that revealed more of his own ambiguity about returning to 36:42.450 --> 36:45.930 Scotland than about the motives of the lords of the congregation. 36:48.130 --> 36:53.690 Hold up in Dieppe in a foul mood and hearing more and more stories of the 36:53.690 --> 36:57.370 terrible sufferings of his English brothers and sisters under the rule of 36:57.370 --> 37:03.110 Bloody Mary, Knox sat down to compose a text denouncing her tyrannical rule, 37:03.850 --> 37:08.730 the first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women. 37:10.050 --> 37:16.810 The first sentence of Knox's blast leaves us in no doubt as to the purpose of what 37:16.810 --> 37:17.250 he's written. 37:18.790 --> 37:24.890 To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion or empire above any 37:24.890 --> 37:31.690 realm, nation or city is repugnant to nature, consummally to God, a thing most 37:31.690 --> 37:36.970 contrarious to his revealed will and a subversion of good order, of all equity 37:36.970 --> 37:37.830 and justice. 37:38.870 --> 37:47.010 It is, of course, an attack upon the rule of women, not against women as such. 37:48.670 --> 37:54.210 Queen Mary was reigning in England at the time the book is written. 37:55.110 --> 38:01.450 Mary dies in November and is succeeded by her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I of 38:01.450 --> 38:06.630 England, the great hope for the English Protestants, the great hope of Knox 38:06.630 --> 38:07.170 himself. 38:09.010 --> 38:14.390 But the timing is disastrous because he has just written this book saying all 38:14.390 --> 38:16.130 women should not rule. 38:16.790 --> 38:19.850 So not surprisingly, Queen Elizabeth is not very chuffed. 38:21.870 --> 38:26.350 Elizabeth was incandescent, but Knox could hardly add an addendum. 38:26.730 --> 38:27.910 I didn't mean you, ma'am. 38:28.610 --> 38:30.830 And Elizabeth wasn't the only one who was furious. 38:31.730 --> 38:36.070 Knox's great hero and mentor, Calvin, described the first blast as a piece of 38:36.070 --> 38:37.170 thoughtless arrogance. 38:40.650 --> 38:43.090 But Knox felt he had no choice. 38:43.410 --> 38:45.330 He had to preach God's word. 38:45.670 --> 38:50.570 No matter how it was received, he saw himself as an Old Testament prophet 38:50.570 --> 38:55.030 sent to bring the bad news, the news no one wanted to hear. 38:58.300 --> 39:04.160 With no prospect now of ever returning to England, there was only one place to go – 39:04.160 --> 39:04.580 Scotland. 39:05.520 --> 39:10.220 In his ten years' absence, the Reformation had secretly been making slow and 39:10.220 --> 39:11.320 deliberate progress. 39:12.100 --> 39:16.440 Protestant nobles were plotting both the removal of the Catholic French and the 39:16.440 --> 39:17.860 Regent Mary of Guise. 39:19.580 --> 39:24.980 In St. Andrew's John Wyndham, the man who had first given Knox the opportunity to 39:24.980 --> 39:29.160 find his voice as a preacher had used the intervening years well. 39:29.740 --> 39:34.460 He had remained within the Catholic Church, but was stacking his priory with 39:34.460 --> 39:39.040 reform- minded priests who would provide the manpower for the new Protestant 39:39.040 --> 39:39.600 Church. 39:40.240 --> 39:44.980 And when on St. Giles' Day, a small band of rioters broke up a Catholic procession 39:44.980 --> 39:49.040 in Edinburgh, it was a sign that a Protestant revolution was gaining 39:49.040 --> 39:49.660 momentum. 39:50.660 --> 39:55.660 It's one thing for nobles to declare their support publicly, but ordinary people do 39:55.660 --> 39:56.740 it in different ways. 39:58.980 --> 40:03.500 A statue being carried through the town, as the St. Giles statue was in the 40:03.500 --> 40:10.500 procession in Edinburgh, was attacked and then of course smashed up. 40:13.380 --> 40:20.440 So a public demonstration, through action this time, of saying we don't want 40:20.440 --> 40:26.160 statues, we don't want the saints' cults, we want to attack this sort of thing. 40:27.220 --> 40:29.960 The situation was getting out of control. 40:30.540 --> 40:32.480 The French Regent had to act. 40:33.120 --> 40:38.640 She passed a decree in 1559, outlawing leading Protestant preachers. 40:39.300 --> 40:44.320 The final battle was approaching, and it was at this critical moment that 40:44.320 --> 40:46.460 John Knox returned to Scotland. 40:48.580 --> 40:52.260 As soon as Knox landed, he was thrust into the heart of it. 40:52.940 --> 40:57.760 His gifts as a charismatic preacher meant that he could be used to trigger events. 40:58.520 --> 41:03.400 Whether or not he knew it, he was being used as a rabble rouser, as a voice that 41:03.400 --> 41:04.640 got the mob moving. 41:06.520 --> 41:12.040 Knox was sent by the Protestant nobles to preach in the tinderbox town of Perth. 41:12.440 --> 41:16.700 I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies. 41:17.460 --> 41:22.380 Perth was a town riven by class tensions and barely contained violence. 41:23.240 --> 41:28.360 The response of the congregation was to tear down the statues and the altars and 41:28.360 --> 41:31.740 all the signs and symbols of Catholic spirituality. 41:32.180 --> 41:36.040 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet. 41:37.080 --> 41:42.220 And these both were cast into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone. 41:46.960 --> 41:53.580 Knox's sermon in Perth in May 1559 was the signal for armed confrontation with the 41:53.580 --> 41:58.420 forces of the regent Mary of Guise, who once again had called on the French to 41:58.420 --> 42:00.460 help her deal with the Protestant threat. 42:01.460 --> 42:04.720 Knox finally found the courage to throw himself into the fray. 42:05.300 --> 42:08.940 As chaplain and morale booster, with the odds stacked against them, 42:09.220 --> 42:10.980 he marched with the Protestant troops. 42:13.220 --> 42:18.660 And within a short period of time they had seized the strategically important town of 42:18.660 --> 42:19.440 St Andrews. 42:20.620 --> 42:24.540 The ecclesiastical capital of Scotland had fallen. 42:25.860 --> 42:27.640 This was the tipping point. 42:28.460 --> 42:32.000 This was the moment when the great breaking finally happened. 42:32.860 --> 42:37.240 In the autumn of that year, Knox was appointed Protestant minister of St 42:37.240 --> 42:41.900 Andrews, 12 years after he'd preached his first historic sermon. 42:43.180 --> 42:46.500 And in St Andrews, a new force was mobilizing. 42:47.060 --> 42:52.320 The reform-minded priests whom John Wynrom had attracted to his priory were now ready 42:52.320 --> 42:57.680 to go out into the parishes and take their places as the first generation of 42:57.680 --> 42:58.620 Protestant ministers. 42:59.380 --> 43:04.620 John Wynrom comes forward as a Protestant, and so do many, many other members of the 43:04.620 --> 43:09.400 clergy, many of them well-educated Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, 43:09.580 --> 43:10.360 parish priests. 43:10.360 --> 43:15.500 And we have to remember that these men were faced with a choice between joining 43:15.500 --> 43:17.360 the Protestant church or unemployment. 43:18.400 --> 43:23.280 And so many of them were able to see a place for themselves within Protestantism. 43:28.340 --> 43:34.640 The military conflict continued, but by June 1560, the French army had been 43:34.640 --> 43:37.140 driven back to Leith and placed under siege. 43:44.200 --> 43:47.980 And then, quite unexpectedly, it was all over. 43:48.800 --> 43:52.580 The Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, died at Edinburgh Castle. 43:53.440 --> 43:56.780 Overnight, the whole political landscape was changed. 43:57.540 --> 44:00.400 A treaty was signed between the Scots and the French. 44:01.120 --> 44:05.700 In return for a Protestant parliament, the Scottish nobles agreed to the 44:05.700 --> 44:10.860 accession of the Queen Regent's daughter Mary, now Queen of Scots, to the Scottish 44:10.860 --> 44:11.280 throne. 44:12.300 --> 44:14.160 But the conditions were clear. 44:14.740 --> 44:18.980 Although Mary was a Catholic, she would only be allowed to govern as the monarch 44:18.980 --> 44:20.400 of a Protestant people. 44:21.220 --> 44:28.080 The summer of 1560 is making everything not just public, but official. 44:28.560 --> 44:33.500 Making Protestantism the official religion of the realm. 44:33.840 --> 44:35.860 Doing this through parliament. 44:36.580 --> 44:42.920 So the key things are acts of parliament which abolish the mass and the other 44:42.920 --> 44:43.500 sacraments. 44:45.800 --> 44:51.120 The much more positive thing that you do is adopt the Scots Confession of Faith. 44:52.160 --> 44:58.320 The Scots Confession of Faith was drawn up by Knox, John Wyndham, and four other 44:58.320 --> 45:03.540 ministers, and outlined in clear, unambiguous language the key doctrines of 45:03.540 --> 45:04.620 the Protestant faith. 45:05.460 --> 45:10.580 To the rest of Europe, it made it absolutely plain that Scotland had adopted 45:10.580 --> 45:11.520 Protestantism. 45:12.400 --> 45:15.040 At last, Knox had achieved his goal. 45:15.720 --> 45:18.600 Scotland was now officially a Protestant country. 45:19.480 --> 45:20.980 This was his moment of triumph. 45:21.620 --> 45:25.060 He was made minister here at St Giles in the capital city of Edinburgh. 45:25.580 --> 45:28.580 The exile was once again at the heart of things. 45:29.360 --> 45:31.360 But his euphoria would be short-lived. 45:32.020 --> 45:35.940 After the revolution, there always comes the long process of bedding it in, 45:36.460 --> 45:41.480 of making the revolutionary ideas and insights work in the real lives of actual 45:41.480 --> 45:42.300 human beings. 45:42.780 --> 45:47.100 And that's a messy business, more shades of grey than black and white. 45:51.340 --> 45:55.080 It was not a job that Knox was suited to temperamentally. 45:55.080 --> 45:59.100 For him, there was only black and white, good and evil. 45:59.740 --> 46:04.080 In his theology, there was no middle ground, no room for compromise. 46:05.280 --> 46:09.280 Men like John Wyndham, who had lived and worked in Scotland all their lives, 46:09.640 --> 46:13.860 and knew the Scottish people and the Scottish church intimately, now took up 46:13.860 --> 46:14.420 the task. 46:15.060 --> 46:19.660 Without the abrasive certainty of Knox, Wyndham was able to carry people with him 46:19.660 --> 46:21.520 through the process of reformation. 46:22.220 --> 46:24.920 And Knox found himself gradually eased out. 46:26.400 --> 46:27.660 And worse was to follow. 46:28.360 --> 46:30.880 In November, his wife Marjorie died. 46:31.680 --> 46:33.240 Knox was devastated. 46:39.570 --> 46:41.430 Then the final straw. 46:42.190 --> 46:46.390 In the following August, Mary, Queen of Scots, returned from France to 46:46.390 --> 46:47.410 take up her throne. 46:48.310 --> 46:53.110 Knox was immediately fearful that she would attempt to reintroduce Catholicism. 46:53.750 --> 46:55.350 And he'd good reason to fear. 46:55.910 --> 47:00.930 He'd heard at first hand how Mary's uncles had persecuted French Protestants. 47:01.430 --> 47:04.750 There must be no compromise with this new Catholic queen. 47:07.800 --> 47:12.500 So when he heard that the nobles had agreed that Mary could continue to hear 47:12.500 --> 47:16.000 Mass in her private chapel, Knox was beside himself. 47:16.500 --> 47:21.560 He railed that the courtiers had declined from the purity of God's and begun to 47:21.560 --> 47:25.660 follow the world and so again to shake hand with the devil and with idolatry. 47:26.200 --> 47:28.980 For Knox, it was England all over again. 47:29.600 --> 47:34.220 Surely God would judge the Scots as he had judged the English for their faithlessness 47:34.220 --> 47:38.680 with a terrible persecution at the hands of a Catholic queen. 47:48.980 --> 47:55.480 This perfect church, as Knox will describe it later, suddenly is confronted by the 47:55.480 --> 47:57.100 return of a Catholic queen. 47:59.280 --> 48:04.100 There's the threat of the spreading of Catholicism from her household outwards. 48:10.340 --> 48:12.700 And probably Knox does anticipate that. 48:13.660 --> 48:18.420 He is a frightened man because, of course, she's landed in a town that is 48:18.420 --> 48:20.040 largely Catholic in sympathies. 48:21.240 --> 48:23.420 He's the one in the hostile environment. 48:24.060 --> 48:27.740 He's the one given the toughest job in Scotland, convert Edinburgh. 48:30.560 --> 48:35.480 Vulnerable and isolated, Knox led concerned Protestant supporters to 48:35.480 --> 48:39.260 Holyrood Palace to sing psalms outside Mary's window. 48:40.020 --> 48:44.900 But what at first sight might have looked like an act of triumphalism was in fact an 48:44.900 --> 48:45.980 act of desperation. 48:59.800 --> 49:04.220 To the Protestant nobles, Knox was now becoming an embarrassment. 49:04.760 --> 49:09.180 They had agreed to the queen's return as the price to be paid for a Protestant 49:09.180 --> 49:09.800 state. 49:10.320 --> 49:12.620 But for Knox, the price was too high. 49:13.060 --> 49:15.000 No good could come of such compromise. 49:15.860 --> 49:20.300 Mary would become the instrument of God's judgment as bloody Mary had in England. 49:20.860 --> 49:23.000 But he may well have misjudged her. 49:23.660 --> 49:27.860 In an effort to win Knox over, she summoned him to a meeting to discuss 49:27.860 --> 49:29.800 his violent opposition to her. 49:31.960 --> 49:37.340 Mary, Queen of Scots, asks him whether he will come to court, whether he will 49:37.340 --> 49:40.160 essentially be some sort of royal chaplain. 49:43.230 --> 49:47.470 Knox is very wary and will not take up that offer at all. 49:49.010 --> 49:55.110 It's almost as if he's afraid of her charm and also, not simply of her personal 49:55.110 --> 49:58.350 charm, of being sucked into court politics. 50:00.850 --> 50:06.950 Once more, the fear of compromising his hard-won Protestant beliefs led Knox to 50:06.950 --> 50:07.450 refuse. 50:08.050 --> 50:10.110 The meeting was a disaster. 50:10.770 --> 50:15.070 He was now more fearful than ever, but he couldn't get the nobles to listen. 50:16.210 --> 50:21.330 In desperation, Knox even briefly considered summoning the godly to arms. 50:22.170 --> 50:26.950 If you think that I or any other preacher within this realm may amend such 50:26.950 --> 50:29.370 enormities, you are deceived. 50:30.030 --> 50:34.910 For we have discharged our consciences, but remedy there appeareth none, 50:35.950 --> 50:40.810 unless we would arm the hands of the people in whom abideth yet some spark of 50:40.810 --> 50:41.590 God's fear. 50:42.350 --> 50:47.030 When Mary chose the young Catholic nobleman Lord Darnley as her husband, 50:47.210 --> 50:48.710 Knox was beside himself. 50:48.710 --> 50:54.430 What better evidence was there of a popish plot to reverse the hard-won achievements 50:54.430 --> 50:55.410 of the Reformation? 50:56.230 --> 51:01.270 His prophecies of doom seemed to be coming true, but what could he do about it? 51:02.950 --> 51:08.130 When Darnley attended the service in St. Giles on his first Sunday as the husband 51:08.130 --> 51:11.690 of Queen Mary, he probably meant it as a gesture of goodwill. 51:12.330 --> 51:17.450 But Knox used the opportunity to preach a sermon about the Old Testament story of 51:17.450 --> 51:20.350 King Ahab and his wicked queen Jezebel. 51:21.050 --> 51:25.070 Ahab received many great benefits of God. 51:26.370 --> 51:30.830 And how did Ahab thank God for his great benefits received? 51:31.850 --> 51:34.330 Did he remove his idolatry? 51:35.610 --> 51:38.490 Did he correct his idolatrous wife Jezebel? 51:40.050 --> 51:43.170 No, we find no such thing. 51:43.750 --> 51:50.430 For the last visitation of God was that dogs lick the blood of one and eat the 51:50.430 --> 51:51.510 flesh of the other. 51:53.990 --> 51:56.870 It was obvious to everyone what he was on about. 51:57.450 --> 52:00.630 For Ahab and Jezebel read Darnley and Mary. 52:01.270 --> 52:03.190 This time he'd gone too far. 52:03.930 --> 52:07.670 Restrictions were placed upon when and where he might preach in future. 52:11.160 --> 52:14.840 The truth is that his Protestantism was becoming respectable. 52:15.300 --> 52:17.580 Knox was becoming more of an embarrassment. 52:18.300 --> 52:20.440 His outbursts more scandalous. 52:23.580 --> 52:27.600 Convinced that a Catholic conspiracy was going to overthrow the fledgling 52:27.600 --> 52:32.460 Protestant state, but unable to persuade the Protestant nobles to take action, 52:33.100 --> 52:37.900 Knox, as he had done on so many occasions before, simply got out. 52:38.720 --> 52:43.980 For the last eight years of his life, Knox turned his back on public affairs and 52:43.980 --> 52:46.800 focused his attention now on his private life. 52:48.700 --> 52:53.340 In 1564, he had remarried at the age of 50. 52:54.000 --> 52:57.420 His bride, Margaret Stuart, had been just 16. 52:58.260 --> 53:02.280 But it was his relationship with his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Bowes, 53:02.300 --> 53:04.160 that continued to cause comment. 53:05.260 --> 53:10.200 Dogged by accusations of sexual impropriety, after her death he felt 53:10.200 --> 53:12.400 compelled to refute the charges. 53:13.080 --> 53:18.380 I declare to the world what was the cause of our great familiarity and long 53:18.380 --> 53:25.120 acquaintance, which was neither flesh nor blood, but a troubled conscience upon her 53:25.120 --> 53:25.560 part. 53:30.600 --> 53:36.300 In his last remaining years, unable to make any real impact on public affairs, 53:36.680 --> 53:39.180 Knox was reduced to railing from the pulpit. 53:39.860 --> 53:41.880 In the end, even his voice failed. 53:42.400 --> 53:47.000 It was too weak to carry in the great church of St Giles, so he had to preach in 53:47.000 --> 53:48.760 its smaller, tall booth section. 53:49.580 --> 54:01.930 In the beginning was the what, and the what was with God, and the what 54:01.930 --> 54:03.510 was God. 54:11.010 --> 54:17.830 Knox preached his last sermon on the 9th of November, 1572, at the induction of his 54:17.830 --> 54:18.770 chosen successor. 54:19.690 --> 54:24.550 He'd known for some time that he was dying, and in his letters he seemed ready, 54:24.550 --> 54:26.030 almost eager to go. 54:27.630 --> 54:38.050 I heartily salute and take good night of the faithful in both the realms. 54:41.610 --> 54:49.070 For as the world is weary of me, so am I of it. 54:52.110 --> 54:56.570 The last two weeks of his life were spent privately at his home in Edinburgh, 54:57.210 --> 54:58.870 with his young wife and daughters. 55:00.050 --> 55:04.290 Towards the end, Knox asked his wife to read to him from the Gospel of John, 55:04.430 --> 55:10.090 chapter 17, the place, he said, where he had cast his first anchor. 55:11.830 --> 55:14.670 Father, I have shown your glory on earth. 55:15.690 --> 55:18.610 I have finished the work you gave me to do. 55:19.570 --> 55:23.110 Give me glory in your presence now. 55:29.860 --> 55:34.440 John Knox died on November the 24th, 1572. 55:35.560 --> 55:40.320 He's buried here in this parking lot outside St. Giles Cathedral. 55:40.640 --> 55:44.480 We don't know where exactly, but we think it's just beneath this site hut. 55:45.520 --> 55:50.940 At his funeral, the Earl of Morton described Knox as a man who never feared. 55:51.540 --> 55:56.900 The irony is that his last writings are filled with fear and foreboding for the 55:56.900 --> 55:57.260 future. 55:58.700 --> 56:05.220 He did not know that the Reformation, the Protestant Kirk in Scotland, 56:05.440 --> 56:08.780 would triumph and be the Kirk of the following centuries. 56:09.260 --> 56:15.060 As he looked around him, what he saw, particularly when he's old and depressed 56:15.060 --> 56:20.220 and ill, were the things that might go wrong, the things that were not working, 56:20.500 --> 56:21.780 rather than the things that were. 56:23.680 --> 56:30.040 But the fear that Protestantism was still fragile was very, very real. 56:31.720 --> 56:37.320 The canny Winram, on the other hand, lived to see the Reformation take root and 56:37.320 --> 56:37.780 flourish. 56:38.560 --> 56:44.480 From his base in St. Andrews, he oversaw his Protestant ministers as they imprinted 56:44.480 --> 56:46.140 the Reformation on Scotland. 56:47.440 --> 56:52.420 And after Knox's death, Mary's own tragic story would unfold. 56:53.120 --> 56:57.840 She would lose the support of the nobles and ultimately her life at the hands of 56:57.840 --> 57:00.620 her Protestant English cousin, Elizabeth I. 57:01.500 --> 57:06.320 And the Reformation that Knox had died believing a failure would be permanently 57:06.320 --> 57:07.180 secured. 57:20.680 --> 57:25.200 So in the end, what can we say about the man behind the myths? 57:26.100 --> 57:27.120 Doer woman hater? 57:27.620 --> 57:28.460 Far from it. 57:29.000 --> 57:34.160 Twice married, father to five children, Knox enjoyed close and loving 57:34.160 --> 57:36.620 relationships with women throughout his life. 57:37.380 --> 57:41.780 In fact, it's doubtful if he could have carried on his work at all without the 57:41.780 --> 57:47.280 emotional and psychological support of his network of women friends and supporters. 57:48.300 --> 57:50.580 Architect of the Scottish Reformation? 57:51.200 --> 57:51.720 Hardly. 57:52.320 --> 57:57.460 Knox didn't even live in Scotland for most of the decade leading up to 1560. 57:58.240 --> 58:02.420 And yes, his voice may have been the loudest when the final moment of 58:02.420 --> 58:06.580 revolution came, but it was only one voice among many. 58:08.200 --> 58:10.660 Champion of conscience in the face of oppression? 58:11.320 --> 58:13.720 Only if you agreed with his conscience. 58:14.720 --> 58:20.220 Knox shows how easy it is for one person's conscience to become another person's 58:20.220 --> 58:23.980 destroyer, as we see only too clearly today. 58:24.520 --> 58:28.620 But if the church struggles of 16th century Scotland teaches anything, 58:29.100 --> 58:34.700 it is that no human being, no human system, no church on earth is in 58:34.700 --> 58:38.020 possession of final and absolute truth about anything. 58:46.960 --> 58:50.020 And the Sword and the Cross is back next Thursday at seven. 58:50.180 --> 58:54.500 And on Tuesday, how faith has shaped the Welsh way of life in Bread of Heaven with 58:54.500 --> 58:55.960 Hugh Edwards at 8.30. 58:56.400 --> 58:58.860 Stay with BBC4 tonight for The World, next. 59:11.840 --> 59:13.140 Can you hear me? 59:20.420 --> 59:24.980 The artist who created this painting made some of the most precious masterpieces of 59:24.980 --> 59:25.720 northern Europe.