Publisher's Introduction

In 1559, John Knox returned to his homeland, marking a new effort in the battle to reform Scotland. Throughout the nation, Protestants joined together in a solemn covenant, pledging their lives and fortunes for the cause of Christ.

The Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, was a hardened Papist, and she opposed all endeavours to reform Scotland. The Queen Regent died in 1560, and the Scottish Parliament convened in Edinburgh in August, to address many issues confronting the restless nation.

In the History of the Reformation in Scotland, Knox gives a record of the drama which unfolded. A supplication was laid before the Parliament by the Protestant nobility, decrying the corruptions of Roman Catholicism, and seeking the abolition of Popery. The petition of the Protestants exclaimed, "We offer ourselves to prove, that in all the [rabble of the clergy] there is not one lawful minister, if God's word, the practice of the apostles, and their own ancient laws shall judge of lawful election. We further offer ourselves to prove them all thieves and murderers: yea, rebels and traitors to the lawful authority of empires, kings, and princes; and therefore unworthy to be suffered in any reformed commonwealth."¹¹ John Knox, History of the Reformation in Scotland, in Knox's Works (Edinburgh, 1895), Vol. 2, p. 91.

In response, the Parliament directed the Protestant noblemen and ministers to draw up "in plain and several heads, the sum of that doctrine which they would maintain, and would desire that present Parliament to establish as wholesome, true, and only necessary to be believed and received within that realm."²²John Knox, History, in Works, Vol. 2, p.92.

Over the next four days, the Scottish Confession was drafted by six ministers: John Winram, John Spottiswoode, John Willock, John Douglas, John Row, and John Knox. On 17 August 1560, the document was read twice, article by article, before the Parliament; and the Protestant ministers stood ready to defend the cause of truth, in the event that any article of belief was assailed.

When the vote was taken, the Confession was ratified, with only a few dissenting voices, who "yet for their dissenting could produce no better reason but, 'We will believe as our fathers believed.' The bishops (papistical, we mean), spake nothing."³³John Knox, History, in Works, Vol. 2, p.121-22, 28.

The Scottish Confession of 1560 is a lively testimony to the truth. The Church of Scotland approved the Westminster Standards over 80 years later; but the ratification of the Westminster Standards was in no way a repudiation of the previous testimony of the Church. Rather, the combined documents present a united testimony respecting the doctrinal landmarks of the Protes tant Reformation. And since the latter standards are among the offspring of the former Confession, all persons of the Reformed faith should find it profitable to study the Scottish Confession of 1560.