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→Knox and the overthrow of Catholicism
Under Knox, priests became ministers, bishops served as superintendents and new structures were put in place. Know did not believe that he was creating a new Church but that he was rather reforming it. In reality, he had changed the church beyond recognition and had transformed it. It was not until 1592 that a full Presbyterian system was adopted by the Scottish Church and Parliament. This was composed of courts made up of ministers and elders.
====John Knox and the overthrow Mary, Queen of CatholicismScots====Mary Queen of Scots was a committed Catholic and like her namesake Mary I of England tried to restore Catholicism. As the monarch, she was the divinely anointed ruler of the kingdom. Her support for Catholicism was a real threat to the continued growth of Protestantism in the realm. By this date , the Church in Scotland was ‘reformed’ and Mary was its head. However, the Queen was openly sympathetic to the Papacy and openly held mass at her castle, which was contrary to the laws of the land. Knox publicly denounced her and her Catholic faith. In a series of interviews , Mary tried to intimidate Knox and persuade him that she as Queen could practice her faith and that she was not a threat to the Church of Scotland.
Knox was one of Mary’s chief critics during the controversy over the assassination of her husband, Lord Darnley.<ref> Warnicke, Retha. M, [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415291836/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0415291836&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=5895d801467472265e647472b39f5077 Mary Queen of Scots], (New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 134</ref> He openly denounced the queen when she married the chief suspect the notorious Earl of Boothby. Knox continued to rouse the opposition to Mary and he helped to persuade the Protestant nobles to depose Mary and placed her son, James on the throne. This they eventually did, and Knox was granted the honor of preaching a sermon at the coronation of James, who became James VI of Scotland. <ref>Warnicke, p. 119</ref> With the accession of James, the Reformation in Scotland was secure, and Catholicism was marginalized and confined to the remote Highlands and Islands.
