In this series
EARLY YEARS IN SCOTLAND
1514 Probable date of birth in Haddington
1536 Graduates from University of St. Andrews and is ordained a priest
1540 Becomes a notary (minor legal official) and a tutor
1543 Converted to Protestantism
1545 Becomes associate and bodyguard to George Wishart
1546 Wishart martyred; Cardinal Beaton murdered; Protestants at St. Andrews Castle put under siege
1547 Knox flees to the Castle; preaches his first Protestant sermon; Castle falls; imprisoned as galley slave in France for 19 months
INTERLUDE IN ENGLAND
1549 Begins pastoring in Berwick, England; establishes his preaching reputation
1550 Meets Mrs. Elizabeth Bowes and her daughter Marjory
1552 Moves to London; disputes practice of kneeling at Communion; refuses to become bishop of Rochester
1553 Forced into hiding when Catholic Mary Tudor becomes queen
EXILE IN EUROPE
1554 Flees to France, then Zurich and Calvin’s Geneva; pastors an English congregation in Frankfurt
1555 Dispute over the liturgy forces him to Geneva; pastors an English congregation there; returns to Scotland secretly; weds Marjory Bowes and does missionary work
1556 Condemned for heresy in Scotland; returns to Geneva with wife and mother-in-law
1558 Writes The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, advocating rebellion against ungodly rulers
LATER YEARS IN SCOTLAND
1559 Returns to Scotland; preaches sermon condemning “idolatry”; it leads to a rebellion
1560 Reformation Parliament adopts Protestant “Scots Confession”; Knox’s wife, Marjory, dies
1561 Knox helps write First Book of Discipline; Catholic Mary Queen of Scots returns; Knox ministers at St. Giles’s in Edinburgh; first interview with Mary
1564 Marries Margaret Stewart
1566 Writes much of History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland
1572 Dies in Edinburgh; buried at St. Giles’s Cathedral
OTHER REFORMATION EVENTS
1516 Erasmus publishes Greek New Testament
1517 Luther posts 95 Theses
1518 Zwingli comes to Zurich and begins Swiss Reformation
1525 Anabaptist movement begins; Tyndale publishes English New Testament
1529–36 England’s Henry VIII gradually breaks with Rome
1530 Augsburg confession solidifies Lutheran movement
1534 Ignatius Loyola founds Jesuit Order to renew Roman Catholic Church
1536 Calvin publishes first edition of Institutes of the Christian Religion; Menno Simons baptized as an Anabaptist
1549 Cranmer’s first Book of Common Prayer
1558 Elizabeth I becomes English queen and solidifies Protestantism
1562-64 Council of Trent, to clarify Catholic beliefs, concludes
1563 Foxe writes Book of Martyrs
1572 St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France;
Roger Mason is professor of history at St. Andrews University in Scotland. He is editor of John Knox on Rebellion (Cambridge, 1994).
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