At the Passover†1 after, came to the Castle of St. Andrews John Knox, who, wearied of removing from place to place, by reason of the persecution that came upon him by this Bishop of St. Andrews, was determined to have left Scotland, and to have visited the schools of Germany, (of England then he had no pleasure, by reason that the Pope’s name being suppressed, his laws and corruptions remained in full vigour.) But because he had the care of some gentlemen’s children, whom certain years he had nourished in godliness, their fathers solicited him to go to St. Andrews, that himself might have the benefit of the Castle, and their children the benefit of his doctrine; and so, (we say,) came he the time aformentioned to the said place, and, having in his company Francis Douglas of Langnuddry, George his brother,†2 and Alexander Cockburn, eldest son then to the Lord of Ormiston,†3 began to exercise them after his accustomed manner. Besides their grammar, and other humane authors, he read unto them a catechism, a account whereof he caused them give publicly in the parish Church of St. Andrews. He read moreover unto them the Evangel of John, proceeding where he left at his departing from Langnuddry, where before his residence was; and that lecture he read in the chapel, within the Castle, at a certain hour. They of the place, but especially Master Henry Balnaves and John Rough, preacher, perceiving the manner of his doctrine, began earnestly to travail with him, that he would take the preaching place upon him. But he utterly refused, alleging “That he would not run where God had not called him;” meaning, that he would do nothing without a lawful vocation.
Whereupon they privately amongst themselves advising, having with them in counsel†4 Sir David Lyndesay of the Mont, they concluded, that they would give a charge to the said John, and that publicly by the mouth of their preacher. And so upon a certain day, a sermon had of the election of ministers, What power the congregation (how small that ever it was, passing the number of two or three) had above any man, in whom they supposed and espied the gifts of God to be, and how dangerous it was to refuse, and not to hear the voice of such as desire to be instructed. These and other heads, (we say,) declared, the said John Rough,†1 preacher, directed his words to the said John Knox, saying, “Brother, ye shall not be offended, albeit that I speak unto you that which I have in charge, even from all those that are here present, which is this: in the name of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, and in the name of these that presently call you by my mouth, I charge you, that ye refuse not this holy vocation, but that as ye tender the glory of God, the increase of Christ his kingdom, the edification of your brethren, and the comfort of me, whom ye understand well enough to be oppressed by the multitude of labors, that ye take upon you the public office and charge of preaching, even as ye look to avoid God’s heavy displeasure, and desire that he shall multiply his graces with you.” And in the end, he said to those that were present, “Was not this your charge to me? And do ye not approve this vocation?” They answered, “It was; and we approve it.” Whereupon the said John†1 abashed, burst forth in most abundant tears, and withdrew himself to his chamber. His countenance and behavior, from that day till the day that he was compelled to present himself to the public place of preaching, did sufficiently declare the grief and trouble of his heart; for no man saw any sign of mirth of him, neither yet had he pleasure to accompany any man, many days together.
The necessity that caused him to enter in the public place, besides the vocation aformentioned, was: Dean†2 John Annan,†3 (a rotten Papist,) had long troubled John Rough in his preaching: the said John Knox had fortified the doctrine of the Preacher by his pen, and had beaten the said Dean John from all defenses, that he was compelled to fly to his last refuge, that is, to the authority of the Church, “Which authority, (said he,) damned all Lutherans and heretics; and therefore he needs no further disputation.” John Knox answered, “Before we hold ourselves, or that ye can prove us sufficiently convicted, we must define the Church, by the right notes given to us in God’s Scriptures of the true Church. We must discern the immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ, from the Mother of confusion, spiritual Babylon, lest that imprudently we embrace a harlot instead of the chaste spouse; yea, to speak it in plain words, least that we submit ourselves to Satan, thinking that we submit ourselves to Jesus Christ. For, as for your Roman Church, as it is now corrupted, and the authority thereof, wherein stands the hope of your victory, I no more doubt but that it is the synagogue of Satan, and the head thereof, called the Pope, to be that man of sin, of whom the Apostle speaks, then that I doubt that Jesus Christ suffered by the procurement of the visible Church of Jerusalem. Yea, I offer my self, by word or write, to prove the Roman Church this day further degenerated from the purity which was in the days of the Apostles, then was the Church of the Jews from the ordinance given by Moses, when they consented to the innocent death of Jesus Christ.” These words were spoken in open audience, in the parish Church of St. Andrews, after that the said Dean John Annan had spoken what it pleaseth him, and had refused to dispute. the people hearing the offer, cried with one consent, “We can not all read your writtings, but we may all hear your preaching: Therefore we require you, in the name of God, that ye will let us hear the probation of that which ye have affirmed; for if it be true, we have been miserably deceived.”
And so the next Sunday was appointed to the said John, to express his mind in the public preaching place. Which day approaching, the said John took the text written in Daniel, the seventh chapter, beginning thus: “And an other king shall rise after them, and he shall be unlike unto the first, and he shall subdue three kings, and shall speak words against the Most Heigh, and shall consume the saints of the Most Heigh, and think that he may change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hands, until a time, and times, and dividing of times.” [The first public sermon†1 of John Knox made in the Parish Church of St. Andrews.]
1. In the beginning of his sermon, he showed the great love of God towards his Church, whom it pleaseth to fore warn of dangers to come so many years before they come to pass. 2. He bravely†1 entreated the estate of the Israelites, who then were in bondage in Babylon, for the most part; and made a short discourse of the four Empires, the Babylonian, the Persian, that of the Greeks, and the fourth of the Romans; in the destruction whereof, rose up that last Beast, which he affirmed to be the Roman Church; for to none other power that ever has yet been, do all the notes that God hath shown to the Prophet pertain, except to it alone; and unto it they do so properly appertain, that such as are not more than blind, may clearly see them. 3. But before he began to open the corruptions of the Papistry, he defined the true Church, showed the true notes of it, whereupon it was built, why it was the pillar of verity, and why it could not err, to wit, “Because it heard the voice of the own pastor, Jesus Christ, would not hear a stranger, neither yet would be carried about with every kind of doctrine.”
Every one of these heads sufficiently declared, he entered to the contrary; and upon the notes given in his text, he showed that the Spirit of God in the New Testament gave to this king other names,†2 to wit, “the Man of Sin,” “the Antichrist,” “the Whore of Babylon.” He showed, that this man of sin, or Antichrist, was not to be restrained to the person of any one man only, no more than by the fourth beast was to be understood the person of any one Emperor. But by such means†3 the Spirit of God would forewarn his chosen of a body and a mul

titude, having a wicked head, which should not only be sinful himself, but that also should be occasion of sin to all that should be subject unto him, (as Christ Jesus is cause of justice to all the members of his body;) and is called the Antichrist, that is to say, one contrary to Christ, because that he is contrary to him in life, doctrine, laws, and subjects. And then began he to decipher the lives of diverse Pope’s, and the lives of all the shavelings for the most part; their doctrine and laws he plainly proved to be opposed directly to the doctrine and laws of God the Father, and of Christ Jesus his Son. This he proved by conferring the doctrine of justification, expressed in the Scriptures, which teach that man is “justified by faith only;” “that the blood of Jesus Christ purges us from all our sins;” and the doctrine of the Papists, which attributeth justification to the works of the law, yea, to the works of man’s invention, as pilgrimage, pardons, and others such baggage. That the Papistical laws are opposed to the laws of the Evangel, he proved by the laws made of observation of days, abstaining from meats, and from marriage, which Christ Jesus made free; and the forbidding whereof, Saint Paul called “the doctrine of devils.” in handling the notes of that Beast given in the text, he willed men to consider if these notes, “There shall one arise unlike to the other, having a mouth speaking great things and blasphemous,” could be applied to any other, but to the Pope and his kingdom; for “if these, (said he,) be not great words and blasphemous, ‘the Successor of Peter,’ ‘the Vicar of Christ,’ ‘the Head of the Church,’ ‘most holy,’ ‘most blessed,’ ‘that can not err;’ that ‘may make right of wrong, and wrong of right;’ that ‘of nothing, may make somewhat;’ and that ‘hath all verity in the shrine of his breast;’ yea, ‘that hath power of all, and none power of him:’ Nay, ‘not to say that he does wrong, although he draw ten thousand million of souls with himself to hell.’ If these, (said he,) and many other, able to be shown in his own Canon Law, be not great and blasphemous words, and such as never mortal man spoke before, let the world judge. And yet, (said he,) is there one most evident of all, to wit, John, in his Revelation, says, ‘That the merchandise of that Babylonian harlot, amongst others things, shall be the bodies and souls of men.’ Now, let the very Papists themselves judge, if ever any before them took upon them power to relax the pains of them that were in Purgatory, as they affirm to the people that daily they do, by the merits of their Mass, and of there other trifles.” In the end he said, “If any here, (and there were present Master John Major,†1 the University, the Superior,†2 and many Canons, with some Friars of both the orders,) that will say, That I have alleged Scripture, doctor, or history, otherwise than it is written, let them come unto me with sufficient witness, and by conference I shall let them see, not only the original where my testimonies are written, but I shall prove, that the writers meant as I have spoken.”
Of this sermon, which was the first that ever John Knox made in public, was there diverse brutes. Some said, “Others sned†3 the branches of the Papistry, but he strikes at the root, to destroy the whole.” Others said, “If the doctors, and Magistri nostri, defend not now the Pope and his authority, which in their own presence is so manifestly impugned, the Devil have my part of him, and of his laws both.” Others said, “Master George Wishart spoke never so plainly, and yet he was burned: even so will he be.” In the end, others said, “The tyranny of the Cardinal made not his cause the better, neither yet the suffering of God’s servant made his cause the worse. And therefore we would counsel you and them, to provide better defenses than fire and sword; for it may be that else ye will be disappointed: men now have other eyes than they had then.” This answer gave the Lord of Nydie,†1 a man fervent and upright in religion.
The bastard Bishop, who yet was not execrated, (consecrated†2 they call it,) wrote to the Superior of St. Andrews, who (Sede vacant) was Vicar General, “That he wondered that he suffered such heretical and schismatic doctrine to be taught, and not to oppose himself to the same.” Upon this rebuke, was a convention of Gray Friars and Black fiends appointed, with the said Superior Dean John Wynrame, in Saint Leonard’s yards, whereunto was first called John Rough, and certain Articles read unto him; and thereafter was John Knox called for. the cause of their convention, and why that they were called, was exposed; and the Articles were read, which were these:—
I. No mortal man can be the head of the Church.
II. The Pope is an Antichrist, and so is no member of Christ’s mystical body.
III. Man may neither make nor devise a religion that is acceptable to God: but man is bound to observe and keep the religion that from God is received, without chopping or changing thereof.
IV. The Sacraments of the New Testament ought to be ministered as they were instituted by Christ Jesus, and practiced by his Apostles: nothing ought to be added unto them; nothing ought to be diminished from them.
V. The Mass is abominable idolatry, blasphemous to the death of Christ, and a profanation of the Lord’s Supper.
VI. There is no Purgatory, in the which the souls of men can either be pined or purged after this life: but heaven rests to the faithful, and hell to the reprobate and unthankful.†1
VII. Praying for the dead is vain, and to the dead is idolatry.
VIII. There is no Bishops, except they preach even by themselves, without any substitute.
IX. The tenths by God’s law do not appertain of necessity to the Church-men.
“The strangeness, (said the Superior,) of these Articles, which are gathered forth of your doctrine, has moved us to call for you, to hear your own answers.; John Knox said, “I, for my part, praise my God that I see so honorable, and apparently so modest and quiet an audience. But because it is long since that I have heard, that ye are one that is not ignorant of the truth, I may crave of you, in the name of God, yea, and I appeal your conscience before that Supreme Judge, that if ye think any Article there expressed contrarious unto the truth of God, that ye oppose yourself plainly unto it, and suffer not the people to be therewith deceived. But, and if in your conscience ye know the doctrine to be true, then will I crave your patronage thereto; that, by your authority, the people may be moved the rather to believe the truth, whereof many doubts by reason of our youth.”
The Works of John Knox. Vol. 1:185-195