ABSTRACT
John Knox's most extended doctrinal treatise was a defence of predestination against the attack of unnamed English 'Anabaptist' commonly identified as Robert Cooke. More typical of Knox is the basis for proceeding he lays down in his Appellation to the Nobility and Estates of Scotland against the ecclesiastical condemnation passed on him in his absence. Although Knox appears to have faithfully transmitted the French Protestants' catena, even he deems it necessary to add comments of his own which imply an attenuated sense of identification with the persecuted early Christians. Knox seeks to demonstrate the hollowness of the alleged antiquity of 'the tuo cheif groundis of thair kingdome', namely, papal supremacy and transubstantiation. He has perhaps expressed himself unguardedly in engaging with a writer for whom he knows that the Church teachers of the early centuries count for little. The former Knox himself acknowledges being a weak element, the latter were necessary to repel allegations of novelty.
