Knox College, University of Toronto

Knox College, Toronto

Motto	Verbum dat lucem (Latin)
Motto in English	The word gives light
Type	Federated theological college
Established	November 5, 1844
Affiliation	Presbyterian Church
Principal	J. Dorcas Gordon
Location	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	AUCC (full membership through the University of Toronto), ATS (accreditation), TST
Website	[3]

Knox College is a postgraduate theological college of the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1844 as part of a schism movement in the Church of Scotland following the Disruption of 1843. Knox is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in Canada and confers doctoral degrees as a member school of the Toronto School of Theology.

Controversy arising from the issue of state control in the Church of Scotland led to the Disruption of 1843 and the establishment of the Free Church of Scotland. In response, several Presbyterian ministers and congregations within the Canadian synod of the Church of Scotland switched their affiliation to the new denomination. Queen's College, a Presbyterian seminary in Kingston, decided in 1844 to remain affiliated with the Church of Scotland, prompting some of its students to defect and establish Knox College in Toronto. Named for Scottish Reformation theologian John Knox, the new college became affiliated with the Free Church.

The first class included 14 students and took place on November 5, 1844, in the home of Rev. Henry Esson on James Street, at the present site of Toronto Eaton Centre. For the next two years, Knox College transitioned to larger buildings acquired at Adelaide Street and later Front Street, at the present site of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. Scottish minister Rev. Dr. Michael Willis, the founding president of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada (1851), became the first principal of the college in 1857. Willis came to Toronto in 1846 from St. John's Renfield Church, Glasgow, where he followed Thomas Chalmers and took part in the Disruption of 1843. Knox was formally granted its charter from the colonial government in 1858, thereby possessing the authority to confer academic degrees.