Escape to the Continent
On the accession of Mary Tudor, a Roman Catholic, to the throne in 1553, Knox was one of the last of the Protestant leaders to flee the country. He escaped to the Continent disturbed by the realization that the fate of “true religion” in England had turned on the religious opinions of one woman. He could see no security for the Reformation anywhere if the personal whim of a sovereign was permitted to settle the religion of a nation. Might it not be legitimate for Protestant subjects, in such circumstances, to resist—if necessary by force—the subversion of their religion by a Roman Catholic ruler? Knox formulated his fateful conclusion, later to be applied in Scotland, that God-fearing magistrates and nobility have both the right and the duty to resist, if necessary by force, a ruler who threatens the safety of true religion. Also in 1554 Knox published his Faithful Admonition to the Protestants who remained in England. Its extremism and intemperate language served to increase the sufferings of those to whom it was addressed; and, coming as it did from one who was in comparative safety, it alienated many in England from him.
In the same year, on the insistence of John Calvin, Knox became minister of a congregation of English refugees, mainly Puritan, in Frankfurt am Main; but he remained there for only a few months. He then became minister of the growing congregation of English exiles in Geneva, a pastorate that lasted until his final return to Scotland in 1559, but was interrupted at the outset by a visit (1555–56) to Berwick and a nine-month sojourn in Scotland, in the course of which he married Marjorie Bowes. She died, having borne him two sons, in 1560.
In Edinburgh Knox was astounded by the progress made by the Reformed cause and by the eager reception given to him by all classes in the community. To the nobility, in visits to their country houses, he propounded his doctrine of “justifiable resistance” to Roman Catholic rulers who attacked the faith of Protestant subjects and urged them to withdraw from all the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Church and to band themselves together for the defense of Protestantism in case that should prove necessary. A peremptory summons from his congregation called him back to Geneva; but he left to the faithful in Scotland an important Letter of Wholesome Counsel (1556) enjoining not only private family worship but also weekly meetings of believers for corporate Bible study and discussion. From these weekly meetings, Reformed congregations grew apace, and from the leaders of these congregations came the elders of the Reformed Church.
Geneva was to Knox a beloved city in which he spent the happiest years of his life, highly esteemed, in peace, and among kindred souls. From this period (1556–58) dates his elaborate and rather tedious treatise on Predestination as well as his first blast of the trumpet against the monstruous regiment [rule] of women, in which he states with uncurbed vehemence the common belief of his day that the exercise of authority by women is contrary to both natural law and revealed religion. The pamphlet was aimed at the three women who were holding the reins of government in England, France, and Scotland and were oppressing Protestantism; but, unfortunately for Knox, publication coincided with the accession in England of the Protestant Elizabeth I, who indignantly and permanently debarred the rash author from her realm.