in august 1560 the parliament of scotland agreed to reform the religion of the country. to enable them to decide what the reformed faith was to be, they set john knox as the superintendent over john winram, john spottiswoode, john willock, john douglas, and john row, to prepare a confession of faith. this they did in four days. the 25 chapters of the confession spell out a contemporary statement of the christian faith as understood by the followers of john calvin during his lifetime. although the confession and its accompanying documents were the product of the joint effort of the six johns, its authorship is customarily attributed to john knox.