ABSTRACT
The events leading up to John Knox's dramatic emergence into public life are well known. The question of preaching - arguably the key issue of the pre-Reformation period - lay close to the hearts of Knox, Balnaves and Lindsay. Knox’s strongest links to the Lutheran tradition and his most explicit commendation of Lutheran ideas are suggested by his relationship with Henry Balnaves. In such a climate, the dramatic message preached by Knox in his first sermon found a receptive audience. When Knox later described his interrogation before John Winram, he explained that his answers were contained in 'a treatise that he wrate in the gallayis, conteanyng the some of his doctrin, and Confessioun of his fayth'. With typical lack of modesty, Knox was of the opinion that his brand of reformed apocalypticism offered the majority of Scots something new. In the short term, of course, the Castilian episode did nothing to further Knox's Scottish career.
