Born not far from Edinburgh, John Knox went to university there, briefly, before starting work as a lawyer. In 1546 he supported the murder of David Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews, and was imprisoned for 18 months on a French galley. After his release he travelled extensively, gaining favor at the English court of the Protestant King Edward VI. While in Geneva, he was influenced by the ideas of Calvin and in 1558 he published his "First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women". In it he wrote "to promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion or empire above any realm is repugnant to nature, contrary to God." This was aimed at Mary of Guise but Queen Elizabeth of England, who came to the throne in the same year, took it personally.

In 1559 and became minister at St. Giles in Edinburgh (where we visited yesterday). In 1560 the Scottish Parliament, with guidance from Knox, drew up the "Confession of Faith" which established Protestantism and government in the Church of Scotland along the lines he had learned in Geneva.

The Catholic Mary Queen of Scots returned from France in 1561 and she was subjected to an unrelenting onslaught from Knox. Around this time Knox married (for the second time - his first wife died in Geneva). His wife was just 16 and he was 51. A powerful orator with a dogmatic style, his belief in a rigorous discipline produced a bleak and joyless legacy. In later years he wrote a "History of the Reformation in Scotland" which immodestly portrayed Knox as the movement's only leader.