An Exile for the Truth’s Sake
“When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another”
John Knox soon made his lonely way from Dieppe to Geneva, Switzerland. There, he briefly visited and conferred with the reformer John Calvin, who, like Knox, was working to oppose the Catholic Church’s influence and false teachings, and had likewise suffered for his opposition. A few months later, Knox left Geneva to serve as a minister to English Protestants living in Frankfurt who were religious exiles like himself, but he was soon forced out of that position and returned to Geneva to consult with Calvin. Again, spending only a brief time there, he cautiously made his way back to Scotland to be with his wife and mother-in-law, and then returned to Geneva for the third time, where he was to spend two years preaching the Word of God. It is this third visit to Geneva, in the year 1556, that we next find Knox in our history.
A group of gentlemen sat in a large apartment overlooking the beautiful Lake Geneva, enjoying the light and warmth of the late afternoon sun. But they were not thinking about the stunning scenery visible from the open window. One of them, almost a skeleton, lean and invalid, sat in a large chair listening attentively to a man whom we easily recognize as our friend John Knox. Worry furrowed his brow and the anxieties of the last two years had made him look older. Nonetheless, there was still a happy twinkle in his eye and a trill in his voice that made his northern accent the more musical as he told about his travels to the citizens and ministers that sat around John Calvin’s chair. For, the thin invalid was none other than Calvin, Knox’s friend and teacher. “Go on, friend,” he said, his eyes lit by a passion for the conquest of the truth. “I’ve heard people call you ‘The Bugle,’ and I think that suits you well. I love to hear about your work. It warms my heart to learn that God’s mercy is not restricted to our little town. Scotland must be a beautiful country. I only wish that its brave sons were Christ’s servants rather than the Pope’s. What a power for God Scotland would be if it devoted its wisdom and courage to advance the kingdom of God!”
“It is a wonderful land,” replied Knox. “Even the heather that grows there has far more beautiful flowers than any of the blooms I have seen on Europe’s mainland. When I first came from Dieppe and stayed here with you, you can’t imagine how I wished to see the heather of Scotland again. After my initial visit here in Geneva, I went to minister to the English exiles in Frankfurt, who had fled from Queen Mary’s persecution. It’s too bad that even some of these exiles felt they must disrupt our worship because we did not use the prayer book of King Edward the Sixth. Imagine! I’m sorry to say it, but they — some of them at least — even went to the magistrates to send me to prison, because, they said, I was a traitor! But the Lord will judge in the matter.”
“Amen! So He will. He who said, ‘Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm,’ will make the matter right,” said Calvin. “I have seen many persecute God’s ministers, and I have also seen how they themselves later suffered for it. Leave them to God, John.”
“I did, but when my wife wrote urging me to come to her now that her father was dead, I determined to make a secret visit to Scotland. I hadn’t seen my wife nor her mother for two years, but when I started for Dieppe in August, 1555, it seemed like it had been three times that long since I had left them. How happy they were to see me, and I to see them!”
“And how were they doing when you were with them?” asked Calvin.
“It was still a difficult time for them so soon after Sir Robert Bowes’s death. I fear that he loved the things of this world more than the things of Christ; just to say it breaks my heart,” said Knox, shaking his head. “He never had a spiritual knowledge of the Gospel, and he would get very angry at my reproofs and warnings about sin and its terrible consequences. But I knew that my tongue wasn’t my own, and that I was not a preacher to please men but to speak the whole counsel of God. When I heard of his death I was at least deeply thankful that his blood would not be required at my hand, because I had made sure to tell him about the way of truth.”
“True,” agreed Calvin, “I have felt the same. Pleasing men will secure temporary honor and gain in this world, but pleasing God yields a happy heart and lasting reward.”
“Sir Robert died a staunch Roman Catholic,” said Knox, drawing his hand over his eyes. “He, unfortunately, wanted to please the cruel Queen, but his conscience was never at peace. He would sit alone for long stretches of time, and would become moody and sullen in his speech. When people talked to him he was irritable and angry, but none dared to talk with him about the gloom that had overtaken his spirit. As much as he had loved sports, he lost all interest in archery and golf.
“Dame Bowes, who struggles herself with depression, tried to comfort him, but he wouldn’t listen to her. “No, no, don’t preach to me,” he would say. So she left her New Testament where he could see it, hoping that he might pick it up and read it. But sadly he never did. So beyond that, all Dame Bowes could do was pray for his soul and leave him with God. It happened one morning that when they went to get him up for breakfast they found him speechless, clasping the little New Testament in his hands. He never said another word on earth, and couldn’t respond to their frantic questions. He died soon after. We must leave him in the hands of God!”
“Yes, God is merciful, but He is also just,” said Calvin, “and His Spirit will not always strive with men. Beyond that, we cannot search into such questions that are too hard, perhaps, for mortal men to understand. ‘The Lord knoweth them that are His.’ And what about Scotland?”
“I found that most of the Protestants continued to attend the Roman Catholic services, even the mass! I pleaded with them, and they agreed to separate themselves from the ungodly,” replied Knox.
“Right! Right!” agreed Calvin. “In the Apostle John’s day the Lord said He would spit the lukewarm professing Christians at Laodicea out of His mouth because they were neither hot nor cold. We cannot serve God acceptably while obeying the devil even a little at the same time.”
“True, but now in Scotland the reformed believers have come out and joined themselves into congregations. I preached in several large houses to all who would come, and I’m happy to say that the meetings had great success. The saints are becoming bold in the Lord, and don’t fear to openly say that they are servants of Christ. Thank God that when the struggle and persecution come, there will be many to stand for Christ.”
“Thanks be to God,” said Calvin. “But didn’t the bishops and the Queen Regent of Scotland try to attack you?”
“News of my preaching did make it to the Court,” replied Knox, “and one said that the preacher was an Englishman. But one proud priest said, ‘No, no, it’s no Englishman, but that troublemaker Knox;’ that’s what he called a poor man who had done him no harm. The Lord forgive him for speaking against me! The clergy also summoned me to attend a meeting at Edinburgh to defend my preaching, not dreaming that I would actually show up. But when I came my adversaries would not appear, and so I was spared for the moment. But at some time I feel that I too shall be delivered up to the stake to be burned. God give me strength to be faithful if that’s the case!”
“As with all of us,” said Calvin. “Pure love for Christ makes a man willing to carry the Saviour’s cross and die for the Lord. But tell us more, John.”
“I sent a letter to the Queen hoping to somehow save her soul. But she threw it away in bitter contempt, so I don’t know if she benefitted from it at all. While I was preaching through the country, an invitation came from the English exiles here in Geneva to become their minister, so I returned with my wife and mother-in-law. It will be better for Scotland if I’m not there right now. The enemies of the Gospel hate me so much that they would persecute the Church just to harm me. There may be a lull in the storm while I’m away.”
“It is strange,” mused Calvin, “that while many love to hear the pure Word of God, people with evil consciences and secret sins can’t stand the faithful preaching of the Gospel, and to distract their consciences they persecute the preacher. Yet we must not change one word of our message in spite of all their hate.
“And what about England? We hear sad news about the persecuted saints there. I hear that nearly a thousand scholars have left that kingdom to avoid death, and that Queen Mary and her bishops burn all who will not accept the Pope and his teaching.”
“It is true, and though I don’t want to cause more trouble, I have spoken in their defense,” said Knox. “The royalty will be angry at my new book, The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, which I wrote to denounce the wicked rule of the Queen, and I believe I have God’s mind in this matter as well.”
“No wonder if they get angry!” chuckled Calvin, raising his eyebrows. “But, John, I can’t say that I entirely agree with you in this matter. A good woman may rule, I think, and promote the truth. Don’t be so sweeping in your remarks. You aren’t really so hard on women are you?”
“I am hard on all who do wrong,” replied Knox firmly. “Just because Queen Mary wears a crown, does that mean we should let her burn and kill God’s servants without saying anything? If she were fifty times more Queen than she is I would speak out to warn her of her sins.”
“Well, your mind won’t change quickly no matter what we say, so we’ll drop it for now,” said Calvin with a wry grin. “But come, let’s go visit Dame Bowes and Dame Knox to show that we at least believe in the government of women to some extent. You won’t blow your trumpet, Knox, against a woman ruling her own kitchen, will you?”
“Come on John,” said Knox, pretending to be upset. “You shouldn’t rile me, though I enjoy a pleasant joke as much as anyone else. But come, let’s go to my house.”
And so along the lovely lake the travelers went to the exile’s house in Geneva.
We must remember that in that time, true-hearted believers in Jesus like John Knox did not fully understand the believer’s heavenly citizenship, that we who confess Jesus as Lord need not become preoccupied with actively opposing or changing the misguided politics and governments under which we have been called by God to live. We are told in God’s Word to submit to the governmental powers that rule over us, however evil they may be, and that our rulers are ordained of God (Romans 13). Of course, if those in authority ask us to disobey God’s Word, we must always obey God rather than men, and then we must be willing to accept the consequences of faithfulness to the truth. We are promised that all those who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12), whether living in the year 1555 or in our current time.