The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women

The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women is a polemical work by the Scottish reformer John Knox, published in 1558.

[citation needed] John Knox was a Scottish Protestant preacher and notary born in 1514 who was involved in some of the most contentious religious and political debates of the day.

Exiled from Scotland for his evangelism by the Catholic government of Mary of Guise (mother of and regent for the child monarch Mary, Queen of Scots), he was allowed to preach in Northern England starting in 1549, which at the time was under the Protestant regime of King Edward VI.

His preaching built Knox a congregation of followers who stayed loyal to him even after he had to flee to the Continent after the accession of the Catholic Mary Tudor to the English throne.

Knox believed that he was an authority on religious doctrine and frequently described himself as "watchman" [citation needed], drawing similarities between his life and that of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jehu and Daniel.

[1][2] But his views were not popular with Mary Tudor, the new Catholic monarch, so in 1554 Knox fled to mainland Europe.

While waiting in Dieppe, the frustrated Knox anonymously wrote The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women.

[3][4][5] The bulk of The First Blast contained Knox's counterarguments to Calvin's viewpoints on gynarchy that they had discussed previously.

Building on his premise that, according to Knox's understanding of the Bible, "God, by the order of his creation, has [deprived] woman of authority and dominion" and from history that "man has seen, proved, and pronounced just causes why it should be", he argued the following with regard to the specific role of women bearing authority: For who can denie but it repugneth to nature, that the blind shal be appointed to leade and conduct such as do see?

That the weake, the sicke, and impotent persones shall norishe and kepe the hole and strong, and finallie, that the foolishe, madde and phrenetike shal gouerne the discrete, and giue counsel to such as be sober of mind?

For their sight in ciuile regiment, is but blindnes: their strength, weaknes: their counsel, foolishenes: and judgement, phrenesie, if it be rightlie considered.Knox had three primary sections in The First Blast.

[8] Furthermore, God's anger against Eve for taking the forbidden fruit had continued and all women were therefore punished by being subjected to men.

[4] The First Blast concluded by using a biblical metaphor to call the nobility to action and remove the queen from the throne.

[12] In a letter to Anna Locke on 6 April 1569, John Knox said, "To me it is written that my First Blast hath blown from me all my friends in England."

[6] Others individuals including Jean Bodin, George Buchanan, Francois Hotman, and Montaigne also agreed with Knox, but their works were less known.

[13][14] While Knox believed that the Bible held absolute authority on everything, including politics, Alymer disagreed.

As Richard Lee Greaves, a professor of History at Florida State University, said, "John Knox has gained a certain degree of notoriety in the popular mind as an antifeminist because of his attack on female sovereigns in The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558).

"[10] Susan M. Felch, director of Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship and a Professor of English, believed that Knox was not misogynistic but just passionate about maintaining the natural order of things.

[16] Rosalind K. Marshall, a historian and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, believed that the tone in The First Blast was defensive not aggressive.

Additionally, Marshall believed that Knox was in a "religious fervour" when he wrote The First Blast and would not have normally written such cruel things when he held women in such high esteem.

[12] Jane E. Dawson, a professor of Reformation History at the University of Edinburgh, pointed out that Knox did not always have antagonism toward Mary Queen of Scots since they previously worked well together.