"John Knox, Scotland's Reformer" by William Taylor

I have to confess to a certain amount of ignorance about the Scottish Reformation. I’m more than familiar with the English Reformation, and how it was tied up in European politics and the line of succession in the House of Tudor. And I’ve read about what came after, with the translation of the King James Version of the Bible and, a little later, the Westminster Confession.  

But as for what happened in Scotland, what I knew was through the lens of Mary Queen of Scots. I knew one name – John Knox (1514-1572). But what I knew about John Knox was limited to a few scenes in the 1971 movie “Mary Queen of Scots,” starring Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, Patrick McGoohan, Timothy Dalton, Nigel Davenport, Trevor Howard, and Ian Holm. The character of John Knox, played by the Scottish actor Robert James (1924-2004), was limited to a few scenes where he would harangue Mary as she rose by with her retinue.

 

Robert James as John Knox

That’s how the movie portrayed it. But it didn’t actually happen that way.

 

Knox was a minister and theologian who played a critical role in the Scottish reformation. He was the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and renowned for his sermons and speaking ability. Because Scotland’s queen regent (Mary of Guise) and her daughter Mary Queen of Scots were Catholic, Knox often found himself at odds with the ruling authorities. 

 

At one point, he was taken prisoner by the French; when Henry VIII’s daughter Mary became queen of England, Knox, who had been a royal chaplain to her brother, Edward, was forced to flee the country and live in exile. (Mary had a number of his contemporaries and fellow reformers, like Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, burned at the stake.) His choice of exile was Geneva, where John Calvin was living and preaching. When Mary died and her sister became Elizabeth I of England, Knox returned.

 

The Protestant Reformation in Scotland became a political revolution, ousting Mary of Guise. It was then that Knox criticized Scotland’s Mary for continuing to practice the Catholic faith, but he did so from the church pulpit. Eventually, Mary Queen of Scots sought refuge in England and the protection of her cousin Elizabeth. Knox was known and lauded for his sermons, but very few have survived. 

 

William Taylor

In the last decade, a renewed interest in Knox has led to both a few new biographies and reprints of older works. GLH Publishing has reprinted John Knox, Scotland’s Reformer by William Mackergo Taylor, first published in 1885. It’s a 19^th century biography, but it is still very readable and provides a succinct account of Knox’s life and work as a reformer. What Taylor makes clear is that Knox is one of the most influential figures in Scottish history, helping to shape the country and its faith in the tumultuous 16^th century.

 

But he didn’t sit by the roadside, waiting for Mary Queen of Scots to ride by so he could tell her she was a wanton heretic. The movie is highly entertaining; Taylor’s 1885 biography is more factual.

Top illustration: John Knox.

Riccardo Bruni’s “The Lion and the Rose”

It is Venice, 1502. Matthias Munster, a monk in trouble with his order over his teaching is asked to return to Venice to help the Doge solve a horrific series of crimes: the bodies of three men have been found floating in the Grand Canal. They endured horrible torture before they were killed. Only one can be identified – a printer of books.

Matthias wants to return to his native Germany, to teach in a new school being established in Wittenberg. The winds of reform are blowing through his soul, and one of the reasons is the Venetian woman he’s in love with. He agrees to investigate the murders for the Doge, only to find himself increasingly sucked into power politics involving the Venetian merchant nobility, the church, and Pope Alexander VI, formerly known as Rodrigo Borgia, who is maneuvering to bring Venice under his control.

At the heart of Riccardo Bruni’s The Lion and the Rose (translated by Aaron Maines) is the true story the Donation of Constantine, by which the Emperor Constantine supposedly transferred authoring over Rome and the Western Roman Empire to the pope. It was by this document that the popes claimed political authority over much of Western Europe. A 15^th century monk, Lorenzo Valla, undertook textual analysis of the document and proved that it was a forgery. He assembled his proof in a manuscript.

In Bruni’s novel, it is this manuscript that has made its way to Venice to be secretly printed. And it is this manuscript that a group of Venetian nobles and the pope will stop at nothing to find and destroy. And someone has employed that the people of Venice consider can only be a demon to murder printers and others to find Valla’s manuscript.

The Lion and the Rose is a well researched tale, with a pace filled with increasing tension. Side stories involving the woman Matthias loves, the nephew of one of the murdered printers who’s in love with a young novitiate nun, and a young Jewish man who hates the nephew are skillfully woven into the larger story.

Riccardo Bruni

Venice itself becomes almost a character in the story as the characters move across its narrow streets, canals, alleyways, palaces, inns, and warehouses. Gondolas, familiar today as boat rides for tourists, were used in the early 16th century as as transportation, movement of cargo like trade imports, and, in this story, scenes for clandestine meetings and the movement of terrified victims.

Bruni is a journalist and writer for webzines, magazines, press agencies, and the author of five novels. This story is the first to be translated into English (and also German).

The Lion and the Rose is an intriguing story, combining both a fictional story with actual events. (And in reality, Valla’s manuscript does eventually get published – in 1517, the same year Martin Luther nails his 95 theses to the door of the cathedral at Wittenberg.) 

Photograph of the Ponte Di Rialto in Venice by Eliska Nikodemova via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.