SOURCE: "Calvinism, Democracy, and Knox's Political Thought," in Theology and Revolution in the Scottish Reformation: Studies in the Thought of John Knox, Christian University Press, 1980, pp. 169-82.

In the following excerpt, Greaves finds certain of Knox's writings to have some, albeit unintended, democratic implications.

In the course of the long-standing debate on the possibility of democratic tendencies in the thought and practice of John Calvin and his followers, recent attention has focused on limited case studies. Certain of these studies have a direct relevance to understanding the role of John Knox in the history of Calvinism. It is [my] purpose… to reexamine Knox's position, in part by the use of these studies, in order to clarify that position and to add a further dimension to the broader debate. It is not, however, [my] purpose… to engage in an exercise of comparative government to determine whether or not Knox's...