John Knox and the British Reformations ed. by Roger A. Mason (review)

BOOK REVIEWS123 fohn Knox and the British Reformations. Edited by Roger A. Mason. [St Andrews Studies in Reformation History.] (Brookfield, Vermont: Ashgate. 1998. Pp. xvi, 297. $86.95.) The essays in this volume are the product of a conference held at St. Andrews University in 1997 to mark the 450th anniversary ofJohn Knox's first public appearance as a Protestant preacher. The collection is uneven, as almost all such collections are. The major problem the contributors faced is that historians over the years have written a great deal about Knox, almost as much as they have about thatJezebel with whom he so famously argued during her brief and troubled reign in Scotland. Furthermore, as James Kirk points out in his excellent introductory piece on Knox and the historians, no significant new evidence on Knox has been unearthed since 1875. So the contributors either provide new interpretations of familiar evidence or use Knox's career as a peg on which to hang a discussion of a problem that interests them—Michael Graham 's analysts of the records of early kirk sessions, for example. There is little connection between the essays. Roger Mason, the editor, has divided them into three general groups: Early Years and Exile, Political and Theological Thought, and The Scottish Reformation—a gallant attempt to impose a pattern that is not there. No matter: each essay stands on its own merits, and some are very interesting indeed. Knox's great gifts were those of the preacher and polemicist. He was not much interested in theology. David Wright argues that he got his knowledge of the ideas of the early Church fathers from compilations rather than from reading the originals. On the other hand J. H. Burns argues that he did have firsthand knowledge of canon law, probably from his training as a notary. Knox was vehemently anti-Papal from the beginning—or at least from the time of the martyrdom of his hero, George Wishart—but the nature of his Protestantism changed over the years. Carol Edington points out the Lutheran elements in his thought in the 1540's. According to Euen Cameron, the famous quarrel between Knoxians and Coxians during the Marian exile was tactical rather than substantive. They were all loyal adherents of the defunct Edwardian church, and they all wanted to alter the Prayer Book; Cox was a gradualist and Knox was not. Not until his immersion in Calvin's Geneva after his departure from Frankfurt did Knox become a thoroughgoing Calvinist. Even then, however, he retained his independence of mind; as is well known,he broke with Calvin on the issue of the legitimacy—nay, the necessity—of resistance to idolatrous rulers. Jane Dawson, drawing on her unrivaled knowledge of the views of Knox's friend and colleague Christopher Goodman, shows very clearly that Goodman's resistance theory was developed earlier than Knox's, and was more radical; Knox got the attention of contemporaries—and historians—because of the vehemence of his rhetoric. Roger Mason argues that Knox also adopted, as a corollary of his resistance theory, the doctrine of the "two kingdoms" normally associated with Andrew Melville. Knox experienced great difficulty in his attempts to implement his theories during the personal rule of the idolatrous Mary, however. Mary resolutely refused to persecute; so his attempts to portray 124BOOK REVIEWS her as a Popish tyrant fell flat. As both Jenny Wormald and Michael Lynch point out, in those years Knox was a liability to his cause. There was a Catholic resurgence in Edinburgh in the mid-1 560's, while Protestant politicians like Moray and Lethington regarded him as a counter-productive nuisance. In a very real sense Knox's work was done by the end of 1560. What was left for him was to write his wonderful History, telling the story of the Reformation in Scotland, and his role in it, as he wished the world to see it. It is one of the most successful Advertisementsfor Myselfever written. Because of it there will, I am sure, be another Knox conference in St. Andrews in 2047. I'm sorry I'll miss it. Maurice LeeJr. Rutgers University Noble Power during the French Wars ofReligion...