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In the Footsteps

Factual: Life Stories

Well known Scots go in search of their Scottish heroes

In the Footsteps: of John Knox

John Knox

of John Knox

BBC Radio Scotland - In the Footsteps, of John Knox

Richard Holloway discovers the life of Scotland's most famous preacher.

John Knox - job description: prophet of God. What exactly does that mean? Why did Scotland’s most famous ever preacher think he was something a bit more than an ordinary minister? Richard Holloway wouldn’t claim to be a prophet, but he has faced some of the more ordinary tasks of pastoring, preaching, and praying which give him a foothold to think about Knox. It’s now roughly 500 years since the controversial cleric was born in Haddington, he isn’t anything like the great hero he was to Victorian Scots except to an elect few. But he still looms large in the popular mind, people think he was anti-women, that he made Mary Queen of Scots weep, that he vandalised Scotland’s medieval Catholic heritage in an almost Taliban-like manner, but how much truth is there in the stereotype? Helped by historians Professors Jane Dawson, Roger Mason and William Naphy, Richard tries to get to grips with how Knox thought and felt. Archaeologist Peter Yeoman of Historic Scotland looks at what we’ve lost and maritime historian Eric Graham helps us imagine Knox’s life as a galley slave.

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