![Statue of John Knox in New College quadrangle, Edinburgh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Statue_of_John_Knox_in_New_College_quadrangle%2C_Edinburgh.jpg)
The Scottish Reformation was the process by which
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
broke with the
Papacy
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
and developed a predominantly
Calvinist
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
national
Kirk
Kirk is a Scottish and former Northern English word meaning "church". It is often used specifically of the Church of Scotland. Many place names and personal names are also derived from it.
Basic meaning and etymology
As a common noun, ''kirk' ...
(church), which was strongly
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
in its outlook. It was part of the wider European
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...
that took place from the sixteenth century.
From the late fifteenth century the ideas of
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and Agency (philosophy), agency of Human, human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical in ...
, critical of aspects of the established
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, began to reach Scotland, particularly through contacts between Scottish and continental scholars. In the earlier part of the sixteenth century, the teachings of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
began to influence Scotland. Particularly important was the work of the Lutheran Scot
Patrick Hamilton, who was executed in 1528. Unlike his uncle
Henry VIII in England,
James V avoided major structural and theological changes to the church and used it as a source of income and for appointments for his illegitimate children and favourites. His death in 1542 left the infant
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...
as his heir, allowing a series of English invasions later known as the
Rough Wooing
The Rough Wooing (December 1543 – March 1551), also known as the Eight Years' War, was part of the Anglo-Scottish Wars of the 16th century. Following its break with the Roman Catholic Church, England attacked Scotland, partly to break the ...
. The English supplied books and distributed Bibles and Protestant literature in the
Lowlands
Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland.
Definitions
Upland and lowland are portions of p ...
when they invaded in 1547. The execution of the
Zwingli
Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system. He attended the Univ ...
-influenced
George Wishart
George Wishart (also Wisehart; c. 15131 March 1546) was a Scottish Protestant Reformer and one of the early Protestant martyrs burned at the stake as a heretic.
George Wishart was the son of James and brother of Sir John of Pitarrow, ...
in 1546, who was burnt at the stake on the orders of Cardinal
David Beaton
David Beaton (also Beton or Bethune; 29 May 1546) was Archbishop of St Andrews and the last Scottish cardinal prior to the Reformation.
Career
Cardinal Beaton was the sixth and youngest son of eleven children of John Beaton (Bethune) of Bal ...
, stimulated the growth of these ideas in reaction. Wishart's supporters, who included a number of
Fife lairds, assassinated Beaton soon after and seized St. Andrews Castle, which they held for a year before they were defeated with the help of French forces. The survivors, including chaplain
John Knox, were condemned to serve as
galley slaves
A galley slave was a slave rowing in a galley, either a convicted criminal sentenced to work at the oar (''French'': galérien), or a kind of human chattel, often a prisoner of war, assigned to the duty of rowing.
In the ancient Mediterranean ...
. Their martyrdom stirred resentment of the French and inspired additional martyrs for the Protestant cause. In 1549, the defeat of the English with French support led to the marriage of Mary to
Francis II of France, the
French dauphin, and a regency over Scotland for the queen's mother,
Mary of Guise.
Limited toleration and the influence of exiled Scots and Protestants in other countries, led to the expansion of Protestantism, with a group of
laird
Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...
s declaring themselves
Lords of the Congregation
The Lords of the Congregation (), originally styling themselves "the Faithful", were a group of Protestant Scottish nobles who in the mid-16th century favoured a reformation of the Catholic church according to Protestant principles and a Scotti ...
in 1557 and representing Protestant interests politically. The collapse of the French alliance and the death of the regent, followed by English intervention in 1560, meant that a relatively small but highly influential group of Protestants had the power to impose reform on the Scottish church. The
Scottish Reformation Parliament
The Scottish Reformation Parliament was the assembly commencing in 1560 that claimed to pass major pieces of legislation establishing the Scottish Reformation, most importantly the Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1560; and Papal Jurisdictio ...
of 1560 approved a Protestant confession of faith, rejecting papal jurisdiction and the Mass. Knox, having escaped the galleys and having spent time in
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
, where he became a follower of Calvin, emerged as the most significant figure. The Calvinism of the reformers led by Knox resulted in a settlement which adopted a
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
system and rejected most of the elaborate trappings of the Medieval church. When Francis II died in 1560, the Catholic Mary returned to Scotland to take up the government. Her six-year personal reign was marred by a series of crises, largely caused by the intrigues and rivalries of the leading nobles. Opposition to her third husband
James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell
James Hepburn, 1st Duke of Orkney and 4th Earl of Bothwell ( – 14 April 1578), better known simply as Lord Bothwell, was a prominent Scottish nobleman. He was known for his marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots, as her third and final husband ...
, led to the formation of a coalition of nobles, who captured Mary and forced her abdication in favour of her son, who came to the throne as
James VI
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
in 1567. James was brought up a Protestant, but resisted Presbyterianism and the independence of the Kirk.
The Reformation resulted in major changes in Scottish society. These included a desire to plant a school in every parish and major reforms of the university system. The Kirk discouraged many forms of plays, as well as poetry that was not devotional in nature; however, significant playwrights and poets did nevertheless emerge, such as
George Buchanan
George Buchanan ( gd, Seòras Bochanan; February 1506 – 28 September 1582) was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth century Scotland produced." ...
and the
Castalian Band
The Castalian Band is a modern name given to a grouping of Scottish Jacobean poets, or makars, which is said to have flourished between the 1580s and early 1590s in the court of James VI and consciously modelled on the French example of the P ...
of James VI's reign. Scotland's ecclesiastical art paid a heavy toll as a result of Reformation iconoclasm. Native craftsmen and artists turned to secular patrons, resulting in the flourishing of
Scottish Renaissance painted ceilings
Scottish renaissance painted ceilings are decorated ceilings in Scottish houses and castles built between 1540 and 1640. This is a distinctive national style, though there is common ground with similar work elsewhere, especially in France, Spain ...
and walls. The Reformation revolutionised church architecture, with new churches built and existing churches adapted for reformed services, particularly by placing the pulpit centrally in the church, as preaching was at the centre of worship. The Reformation also had a severe impact on church music, with song schools closed down, choirs disbanded, music books and manuscripts destroyed, and organs removed from churches. These were replaced by the congregational singing of psalms, despite attempts of James VI to refound the song schools and choral singing. Women gained new educational possibilities and religion played a major part in the lives of many women, but women were treated as criminals through prosecutions for
scolding, prostitution, and
witchcraft
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...
. Scottish Protestantism was focused on the Bible, and starting in the later seventeenth century there would be efforts to stamp out popular activities viewed as superstitious or frivolous. The Kirk became the subject of national pride and many Scots saw their country as a new Israel.
Pre-Reformation Scotland
Pre-Reformation Church
Structure
Christianity spread in Scotland from the sixth century, with evangelisation by Irish-Scots missionaries and, to a lesser extent, those from Rome and England. The church in Scotland attained clear independence from England after the
Papal Bull of
Celestine III
Pope Celestine III ( la, Caelestinus III; c. 1106 – 8 January 1198), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 March or 10 April 1191 to his death in 1198. He had a tense relationship with several monarchs, ...
(, 1192), by which all Scottish bishoprics except
Galloway
Galloway ( ; sco, Gallowa; la, Gallovidia) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway.
A native or ...
became formally independent of
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
and
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...
. The whole , with individual Scottish bishoprics (except Whithorn/Galloway), became the "special daughter of the see of Rome". It was run by special councils made up of all the Scottish bishops, with the bishop of St Andrews emerging as the most important figure. The administration of parishes was often given over to local monastic institutions in a process known as
appropriation. By the time of the Reformation in the mid-sixteenth century 80 per cent of Scottish parishes were appropriated, leaving few resources for the parish clergy.
In 1472
St Andrews became the first archbishopric in the Scottish church, to be followed by
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
in 1492. The collapse of papal authority in the
Papal Schism (1378–1418) allowed the Scottish Crown to gain effective control of major ecclesiastical appointments within the kingdom. This ''de facto'' authority over appointments was formally recognised by the Papacy in 1487. The Crown placed clients and relatives of the king in key positions, including
James IV
James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauch ...
's (r. 1488–1513) illegitimate son
Alexander Stewart, who was nominated as Archbishop of St. Andrews at the age of 11. This practice strengthened royal influence but it also made the Church vulnerable to criticisms of
venal
Venality is a vice associated with being bribeable or willing to sell one's services or power, especially when people are intended to act in a decent way instead. In its most recognizable form, venality causes people to lie and steal for their own ...
ity and
nepotism. Relationships between the Scottish Crown and the Papacy were generally good, with James IV receiving tokens of papal favour.
Medieval popular religion
Traditional Protestant historiography tended to stress the corruption and unpopularity of the late Medieval Scottish church. Since the late twentieth century, research has indicated the ways in which it met the spiritual needs of different social groups. Historians have discerned a decline of monastic life in this period, with many religious houses maintaining smaller numbers of monks. Those remaining often abandoned communal living for a more individual and secular lifestyle. The rate of new monastic endowments from the nobility also declined in the fifteenth century. In contrast, the burghs saw the flourishing of
mendicant orders of
friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...
s in the later fifteenth century, who, unlike the older monastic orders, placed an emphasis on preaching and ministering to the population. The order of
Observant Friars were organised as a Scottish
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
from 1467, and the older Franciscans and the
Dominicans were recognised as separate provinces in the 1480s.
![Mid-16thC Adoration of the Magi panel, Dundee](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Mid-16thC_Adoration_of_the_Magi_panel%2C_Dundee.JPG)
In most Scottish
burghs there was usually only one parish church, in contrast to English towns where churches and parishes tended to proliferate. As the doctrine of
Purgatory
Purgatory (, borrowed into English via Anglo-Norman and Old French) is, according to the belief of some Christian denominations (mostly Catholic), an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. The process of purgatory ...
gained importance in the late Middle Ages, the number of chapelries, priests, and masses for the dead prayed within them, designed to speed the passage of souls to Heaven, grew rapidly. The number of altars dedicated to saints, who could intercede in this process, also increased dramatically.
St. Mary's in Dundee had perhaps 48 such altars and
St Giles' in Edinburgh more than 50. The number of saints celebrated in Scotland also proliferated, with about 90 being added to the
missal used in
St Nicholas church in Aberdeen. New cults of devotion related to Jesus and the
Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
began to reach Scotland in the fifteenth century, including the
Five Wounds, the
Holy Blood, and the
Holy Name of Jesus. New religious
feasts
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival con ...
arose, including celebrations of
the Presentation,
the Visitation, and
Mary of the Snows.
In the early fourteenth century, the Papacy managed to minimise the problem of clerical
pluralism, by which clerics held two or more
livings, which elsewhere resulted in parish churches being without priests, or served by poorly trained and paid vicars and clerks. However, the number of poor clerical
livings and a general shortage of clergy in Scotland, particularly after the
Black Death, meant that in the fifteenth century the problem intensified. As a result, parish clergy were largely drawn from the lower ranks of the profession, leading to frequent complaints about their standards of education or abilities. Although there is little clear evidence that standards were declining, this was expressed as one of the major grievances of the Reformation. Heresy, in the form of
Lollard
Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catho ...
ry, began to reach Scotland from England and
Bohemia in the early fifteenth century. Lollards were followers of
John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of ...
(c. 1330 –84) and later
Jan Hus
Jan Hus (; ; 1370 – 6 July 1415), sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as ''Iohannes Hus'' or ''Johannes Huss'', was a Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and the insp ...
(c. 1369 –1415), who called for reform of the Church and rejected its doctrine on the
Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
. Despite evidence of the burning of heretics and some popular support for its anti-sacramental elements, it probably remained a small movement.
Pressure to reform
Humanism
![HectorBoece](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/HectorBoece.jpg)
From the fifteenth century,
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and Agency (philosophy), agency of Human, human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical in ...
encouraged critical theological reflection and calls for ecclesiastical renewal in Scotland. As early as 1495 some Scots were in contact with
Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...
(1466–1536), the Netherlands-born leading figure in the northern humanist movement. They were also in contact with
Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples
Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples ( Latinized as Jacobus Faber Stapulensis; c. 1455 – c. 1536) was a French theologian and a leading figure in French humanism. He was a precursor of the Protestant movement in France. The "d'Étaples" was not part of ...
(c. 1455 – 1536), a French humanist and scholar who like Erasmus argued strongly for reform of the Catholic Church by the elimination of corruption and abuses. Scottish scholars often studied on the Continent and at English universities. Humanist scholars trained on the Continent were recruited to the new Scottish universities founded at
St Andrews,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, and
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
. These international contacts helped integrate Scotland into a wider European scholarly world and were one of the most important ways in which the new ideas of humanism entered Scottish intellectual life. By 1497 the humanist and historian
Hector Boece
Hector Boece (; also spelled Boyce or Boise; 1465–1536), known in Latin as Hector Boecius or Boethius, was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and the first Principal of King's College in Aberdeen, a predecessor of the University of Abe ...
, who was born in Dundee and studied at Paris, returned to become the first principal at the new university of Aberdeen.
The continued movement of scholars to other universities resulted in a school of Scottish
nominalists at Paris by the early sixteenth century, the most important of whom was
John Mair John Mair may refer to:
*John Major (philosopher)
John Major (or Mair; also known in Latin as ''Joannes Majoris'' and ''Haddingtonus Scotus''; 1467–1550) was a Scottish philosopher, theologian, and historian who was much admired in his day ...
, generally described as a
scholastic. His Latin ''History of Greater Britain'' (1521) was sympathetic to the humanist social agenda. In 1518 he returned to become Principal of the University of Glasgow. Another major figure was Archibald Whitelaw, who taught at St. Andrews and Cologne, becoming a tutor to the young
James III and
royal secretary in 1462–1493.
Robert Reid,
Abbot of Kinloss and later
Bishop of Orkney
The Bishop of Orkney was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Orkney, one of thirteen medieval bishoprics of Scotland. It included both Orkney and Shetland. It was based for almost all of its history at St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall.
Th ...
, was responsible in the 1520s and 1530s for bringing the Italian humanist Giovanni Ferrario to teach at
Kinloss Abbey
Kinloss Abbey is a Cistercian abbey at Kinloss in the county of Moray, Scotland.
The abbey was founded in 1150 by King David I and was first colonised by monks from Melrose Abbey. It received its Papal Bull from Pope Alexander III in 1174, ...
. Ferrario established an impressive library and wrote works of Scottish history and biography. Reid was to leave sufficient endowment in his will, for the foundation of Edinburgh University. James McGoldrick suggests that there was a circle of "Erasmian-type scholar-reformers" at the royal court in the first decade of the sixteenth century.
Lutheranism
![Martyrs monument](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Martyrs_monument.jpg)
From the 1520s the ideas of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
began to have influence in Scotland, with Lutheran literature circulating in the east-coast burghs. In 1525 Parliament banned their importation. In 1527, the English ambassador at
Antwerp noted that Scottish merchants were taking
William Tyndale
William Tyndale (; sometimes spelled ''Tynsdale'', ''Tindall'', ''Tindill'', ''Tyndall''; – ) was an English biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execu ...
's
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...
to Edinburgh and St. Andrews. In 1528 the nobleman
Patrick Hamilton, who had been influenced by Lutheran theology while at the universities of
Wittenberg
Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north o ...
and
Marburg
Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approxima ...
, became the first Protestant
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
in Scotland; he was
burned at the stake
Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment f ...
for
heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
outside
St Salvator's College at
Saint Andrews
St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourt ...
. Hamilton's execution inspired more interest in the new ideas. The Archbishop of St Andrews was warned against any further such public executions as "the reek
mokeof Maister Patrik Hammyltoun has infected as many as it blew upon".
Political background (1528–1559)
James V
After entering his personal reign in 1528,
James V avoided pursuing the major structural and theological changes to the church undertaken by his contemporary
Henry VIII in England. In exchange for his loyalty to Rome, who became a Cardinal in 1538 and Archbishop of Saint Andrews in 1539. James increased crown revenues by heavily taxing the church, taking £72,000 in four years. The results of such appointments and taxation undermined both the status and finances of the Church. The Church was also divided by jurisdictional disputes between
Gavin Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow and
James Beaton
James Beaton (or Bethune) (1473–1539) was a Roman Catholic Scottish church leader, the uncle of David Cardinal Beaton and the Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland.
Life
James Beaton was the sixth and youngest son of John Beaton of Balfour ...
, Archbishop of St. Andrews until his death in 1539. As a result, in 1536 the first provincial church council called since 1470 failed to achieve major reforms or a united front against heresy. After the execution of
Patrick Hamilton, the Crown prosecuted some men and a small number of executions followed in the 1530s and 1540s, but there was no systematic persecution, as the king was not interested in wide-scale bloodletting. An increasing number of lairds and nobles began to favour reform, particularly in
Angus,
the Mearns
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
,
Fife and within the University of St Andrews. Leading figures included
Alexander Cunningham, 5th Earl of Glencairn and
John Erskine of Dun
John Erskine of Dun (1509–1591) was a Scottish religious reformer.
Biography
The son of Sir John Erskine, Laird of Dun, he was educated at King's College, University of Aberdeen. At the age of twenty-one Erskine was the cause — probably b ...
. In 1541 Parliament passed legislation to protect the honour of the Mass, prayer to the
Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
, images of the saints, and the authority of the pope.
Rough Wooing
![Cardinal David Beaton](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Cardinal_David_Beaton.jpg)
James V died in 1542, leaving the infant
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...
as his heir, with the prospect of a long minority. At the beginning of the Mary's reign, the Scottish political nation was divided between a pro-French faction, led by Cardinal Beaton and by the Queen's mother,
Mary of Guise; and a pro-English faction, headed by Mary's prospective heir
James Hamilton, Earl of Arran. Initially Arran became Regent, backed by the small "evangelical party" at court, who favoured religious reform. The Parliamentary Act of 1543 removed the prohibition against reading the Bible in the
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
. A planned marriage between Mary and
Edward, the son of Henry VIII of England, which had been agreed under the
Treaty of Greenwich
The Treaty of Greenwich (also known as the Treaties of Greenwich) contained two agreements both signed on 1 July 1543 in Greenwich between representatives of England and Scotland. The accord, overall, entailed a plan developed by Henry VIII of E ...
(1543), led to a backlash in Scotland and a coup led by
Cardinal Beaton
David Beaton (also Beton or Bethune; 29 May 1546) was Archbishop of St Andrews and the last Scottish cardinal prior to the Reformation.
Career
Cardinal Beaton was the sixth and youngest son of eleven children of John Beaton (Bethune) of Bal ...
. He repudiated the reforming policies, and all consideration of an English marriage for the Queen, angering the English. They invaded in order to enforce the match, an action later known as the "rough wooing", which devastated south-east Scotland.
In 1546,
George Wishart
George Wishart (also Wisehart; c. 15131 March 1546) was a Scottish Protestant Reformer and one of the early Protestant martyrs burned at the stake as a heretic.
George Wishart was the son of James and brother of Sir John of Pitarrow, ...
, a preacher who had come under the influence of Swiss reformer
Huldrych Zwingli
Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system. He attended the Univ ...
, was arrested and burnt at the stake in St. Andrews on the orders of Cardinal Beaton. Wishart's supporters, who included a number of Fife lairds, assassinated Beaton soon after and seized St. Andrews Castle, which they held for a year while
under siege
''Under Siege'' is a 1992 American action thriller film directed by Andrew Davis, written by J. F. Lawton, and starring Steven Seagal as a former Navy SEAL who must stop a group of mercenaries, led by Tommy Lee Jones, after they commandeer the ...
, before they were defeated with the help of French forces. The survivors, including chaplain
John Knox, were condemned to be galley slaves, helping to create resentment of the French and martyrs for the Protestant cause.
In 1547, the English under
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (150022 January 1552) (also 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp), also known as Edward Semel, was the eldest surviving brother of Queen Jane Seymour (d. 1537), the third wife of King Henry VI ...
renewed their invasion and defeated the Scots at
Pinkie, occupied south-east Scotland with forts at
Lauder
The former Royal Burgh of Lauder (, gd, Labhdar) is a town in the Scottish Borders in the historic county of Berwickshire. On the Southern Upland Way, the burgh lies southeast of Edinburgh, on the western edge of the Lammermuir Hills.
Etymo ...
,
Haddington and an outpost at
Dundee. This occupation (1547–1549) encouraged the reforming cause; the English supplied books and distributed Bibles and Protestant literature in the
Lowlands
Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland.
Definitions
Upland and lowland are portions of p ...
. Several earls pledged themselves 'to cause the word of God to be taught and preached'. To counter the English, the Scots secured French help, the price of which was the betrothal of the infant Queen to the French
dauphin, the future
Francis II; she departed to France in 1548, where she was to be raised and educated. At this point, "the policy of Henry VIII had failed completely". French ascendancy was made absolute over the next decade. In 1554, Arran was given the title
Duke du Châtellerault and removed from the regency in favour of Mary of Guise (the Queen Mother).
Regency of Mary of Guise
![Arms of Mary of Guise, Magdalen Chapel, Edinburgh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Arms_of_Mary_of_Guise%2C_Magdalen_Chapel%2C_Edinburgh.JPG)
During her regency (1554–1560), the Queen's mother ensured the predominance of France in Scottish affairs. She put Frenchmen in charge of the treasury and
the Great Seal, and the
French ambassador Henri Cleutin sometimes attended the
Privy Council. At first Mary of Guise cultivated a policy of limited toleration of Protestants, hoping to gain their support for her pro-French policies and against England, which from 1553 was under the rule of the Catholic
Mary Tudor, who married the future
Philip II of Spain in 1554. Hopes for reform of the existing church helped keep the political nation unified. But the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the dauphin in 1558 heightened fears that Scotland would become a French province. Reformers were given hope by the accession, in England, of the Protestant
Queen Elizabeth in 1558, which created a confessional frontier in Great Britain.
Reforming Councils
The Church responded to some of the criticisms being made against it.
John Hamilton,
Archbishop of St Andrews
The Bishop of St. Andrews ( gd, Easbaig Chill Rìmhinn, sco, Beeshop o Saunt Andras) was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of St Andrews in the Catholic Church and then, from 14 August 1472, as Archbishop of St Andrews ( gd, Àrd-easbaig ...
, instigated a series of provincial councils (in 1549, 1552, probably in 1556, and in 1559), modelled on the contemporaneous
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described a ...
. These blamed the advance of the Protestant heresies on "the corruption of morals and the profane lewdness of life in churchmen of all ranks, together with crass ignorance of literature and of the liberal arts". In 1548, attempts were made to eliminate
concubinage
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive.
Concubin ...
,
clerical pluralism, clerical trading, and non-residence, and to prohibit unqualified people from holding church offices. Further, the clergy were enjoined to scriptural reflection, and bishops and parsons instructed to preach at least four times a year. Monks were to be sent to university, and theologians appointed for each monastery, college, and cathedral. But in 1552, it was acknowledged that little had been accomplished. Attendance at Mass was still sparse and "the inferior clergy of this realm and the prelates have not, for the most part, attained such proficiency in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures as to be able by their own efforts rightly to instruct the people in the Catholic faith and other things necessary to salvation or to convert the erring."
Expansion of Protestantism
![James Stewart Earl of Moray](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/James_Stewart_Earl_of_Moray.jpg)
Protestantism continued to expand in this period and became more distinct from those who wanted reform within the existing church. Originally organised as conventicles that consisted of members of a laird's family, or kin group and social networks, who continued to attend the Catholic Church, Protestants began to develop a series of privy kirks (secret churches), whose members increasingly turned away from existing church structures. Their organisation was sufficient in 1555 for Knox to return to Scotland. He administered a Protestant communion and carried out a preaching tour of the privy kirks. He urged the members to reject
Nicodemism, by which they held Protestant convictions, but attended Catholic services. Despite being offered protection by the
Earl of Argyll
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form '' jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particula ...
, he returned to Geneva in 1556. In the absence of a leading clerical figure, the leadership of the movement was taken by the few nobles who had embraced Protestantism and a new generation that included Argyll's son
Lord Lorne, the illegitimate son of the late King James V, Lord James Stewart (later the Earl of Moray), and
Lord John Erskine. In 1557 a "first bond" was signed by Argyll, Glencairn, Morton, Lorne, and Erskine, for mutual support against "Sathan and all wicked power that does intend tyranny and truble against the foresaid congregation." This group, which eventually became known as 'the
Lords of the Congregation
The Lords of the Congregation (), originally styling themselves "the Faithful", were a group of Protestant Scottish nobles who in the mid-16th century favoured a reformation of the Catholic church according to Protestant principles and a Scotti ...
', was a direct challenge to the existing regime.
Reformation crisis (1559–1560)
On 1 January 1559 the anonymous ''Beggars' Summons'' was posted on the doors of friaries, threatening friars with eviction on the grounds that their property belonged to the genuine poor. This was calculated to appeal to the passions of the populace of towns who appeared to have particular complaints against friars. Knox returned to Scotland and preached at the church of St. John the Baptist's at
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
on 11 May on Christ
cleansing the temple. The congregation responded by stripping the shrines, images and altars of the church and then sacked the local friaries and Carthusian house. The regent responded by sending troops to restore order and Glencairn led a force to defend the town's new Protestant status. A royal delegation, including Argyll and James Stuart persuaded the burgh to open its gates, but the heavy handed treatment by the regent's forces led to a breakdown in negotiations. Argyll and Stuart changed sides and the Lords of the Congregation now began raising their followers for an armed conflict.
![Siege of Leith map, 1560](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Siege_of_Leith_map%2C_1560.jpg)
A series of local reformations followed, with Protestant minorities gaining control of various regions and burghs, often with the support of local lairds and using intimidation, while avoiding the creation of Catholic martyrs, to carry out a "cleansing" of friaries and churches, followed by the appointment of Protestant preachers. Such reformations occurred in conservative Aberdeen and the ecclesiastical capital of St. Andrews together with other eastern ports. In June, Mary of Guise responded by dispatching a French army to St. Andrews to restore control, but it was halted by superior numbers at
Cupar Muir and forced to retreat. Edinburgh fell to the Lords in July, and Mary moved her base to
Dunbar
Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecc ...
. However, the arrival of French reinforcements of 1,800 men forced the Lords onto the defensive and they abandoned the capital.
The Lords appealed for help from England and Mary from France. English agents managed the safe return of
Earl of Arran, the eldest son and heir of Chatelherault, allowing him to accept the leadership of the Lords. In October the regent was declared "suspended" and replaced by a "great council of the realm". However, Mary of Guise's forces continued to advance, once again threatening St. Andrews. The situation was transformed by the arrival of the English fleet in the
Firth of Forth in January 1560, and the French retreated to the stronghold of
Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by ''Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world.
The earliest ...
near Edinburgh. The English and the Lords agreed further support by the
Treaty of Berwick in February 1560 and an English army crossed the border to
lay siege to the French in Leith. Mary of Guise fell ill and died in June. With no sign of reinforcements, the French opened negotiations. Under the
Treaty of Edinburgh
The Treaty of Edinburgh (also known as the Treaty of Leith) was a treaty drawn up on 5 July 1560 between the Commissioners of Queen Elizabeth I of England with the assent of the Scottish Lords of the Congregation, and the French representatives ...
(5 July 1560) both the French and English removed their troops from Scotland, leaving the Protestant Lords in control of the country. The Lords accepted Mary Queen of Scots and her husband, now
Francis II of France, as monarchs and were given permission to hold a parliament, although it was not to touch the issue of religion.
Reformation Parliament
The
Scottish Parliament met in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
1 August 1560. Fourteen earls, six bishops, nineteen lords, twenty-one abbots, twenty-two burgh commissioners, and over a hundred lairds, claimed the right to sit. Ignoring the provisions of the Treaty of Edinburgh, on 17 August, Parliament approved a Reformed Confession of Faith (the
Scots Confession
The Scots Confession (also called the Scots Confession of 1560) is a Confession of Faith written in 1560 by six leaders of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. The text of the Confession was the first subordinate standard for the Protestant ch ...
), and on 24 August it passed three Acts that abolished the old faith in Scotland. Under these, all previous acts not in conformity with the Reformed Confession were annulled; the sacraments were reduced to two (
Baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
and
Communion) to be performed by reformed preachers alone; the celebration of the Mass was made punishable by a series of penalties (ultimately death) and Papal jurisdiction in Scotland was repudiated. The Queen declined to endorse the acts that Parliament had passed and the new kirk existed in a state of legal uncertainty.
''First Book of Discipline''
The Lords had intended Parliament to consider a ''Book of Reformation'', which they had commissioned and was largely the work of Knox. However, they were unhappy with the document and established a committee of "six Johns", including Knox,
John Winram
John Winram (1492 - 1582) was a 16th-century Scottish priest and ecclesiastical reformer. He was born in 1492, the son of one James Winram of Ratho and his wife Margaret Wilkie. He obtained a Bachelor's Degree (1515), a Master's Degree (x 1532 ...
,
John Spottiswood
John Spottiswoode (Spottiswood, Spotiswood, Spotiswoode or Spotswood) (1565 – 26 November 1639) was an Archbishop of St Andrews, Primate of All Scotland, Lord Chancellor, and historian of Scotland.
Life
He was born in 1565 at Greenbank in ...
,
John Willock,
John Douglas, and
John Row
John Row (1568 – 26 June 1646) was a Scottish ecclesiastical historian and one of the Scottish Reformers. As minister of Carnock in Fife, he was a leading opponent of Episcopacy. Row's '' Historie of the Kirk of Scotland'' (1558–1637), ...
, to produce a revised version. The result of the delay was that the document, known as the ''First Book of Discipline'', was considered not by the full Parliament, but only by a thinly attended convention of nobles and about 30 lairds, in January 1561 and then only approved individually and not collectively. The ''Book'' proposed a programme of parish-based reformation that would use the resources of the old Church to pay for a network of ministers, a parish-based school system, university education, and poor relief. However, this proposal for the use of church wealth was rejected. Instead, an Act of Council kept two-thirds of the Church's assets in the hands of its existing holders, while the remaining third was divided between the Crown and the reformist measures. The educational programme, was abandoned, ministers remained poorly paid, and the Church was underfunded.
Post-Reformation church
Confession of faith
![Scots Confession](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Scots_Confession.jpg)
The ''Scots Confession'' was produced by Knox and five colleagues in four days. Its structure parallels that of the
Apostles' Creed
The Apostles' Creed (Latin: ''Symbolum Apostolorum'' or ''Symbolum Apostolicum''), sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is a Christian creed or "symbol of faith".
The creed most likely originated in 5th-century ...
, with 25 chapters based around themes of the Father, Son, Church and Consummation. It remained the standard of the Kirk until it was replaced by the
Westminster Confession
The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the " subordinate standard ...
, negotiated with English Parliamentary allies during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
and adopted by the Kirk in 1647. The Confession was strongly
Calvinist
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
in tone. It emphasised the "inscrutable providence" of God, who had determined all things. It stressed the extreme depravity of mankind, who deserved eternal damnation and the mercy of God in selecting a portion of humanity for salvation through grace alone. It denied
transubstantiation
Transubstantiation (Latin: ''transubstantiatio''; Greek: μετουσίωσις '' metousiosis'') is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of ...
, but retained the
real presence
The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is the Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, not merely symbolically or metaphorically, but in a true, real and substantial way.
There are a number of Christian denomin ...
in the
Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
. It largely avoided negative emotive condemnations of Catholicism, focusing on setting out the new faith in simple language. It saw the Kirk as a "catholik" community of, "the elect of all nations, realms, nations, tongues, Jews and Gentiles". In 1581, as part of a reaction to the perceived threat of Catholicism, the court signed a ''King's'', or ''Negative Confession'', probably commissioned by James VI, that much more harshly denounced Catholicism.
Liturgy and worship
The Reformation saw a complete transformation of religious observance. In the place of the many holy days and festivals of the Catholic Church and the occasional observance of the Mass, the single surviving holy day was Sunday and regular attendance and participation was required of the laity. Latin was abandoned in favour of the vernacular. Congregational psalm singing replaced the elaborate
polyphony
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, ...
of trained choirs. An emphasis was put on the Bible and the sermon, which was often longer than an hour, although many parishes, which had no minister, would have had only a "readers service", of psalms, prayers and Bible readings. The
Geneva Bible was widely adopted. Protestant preachers fleeing
Marian persecutions
Protestants were executed in England under heresy laws during the reigns of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and Mary I (1553–1558). Radical Christians also were executed, though in much smaller numbers, during the reigns of Edward VI (1547–155 ...
in England had brought with them
Edward VI
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...
's second
Book of Common Prayer
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
(of 1552), which was commended by the Lords of the Congregation. Knox too initially supported it, however, before leaving Geneva, and with the encouragement of Calvin, he had written his own ''
Book of Common Order
The ''Book of Common Order'' is the name of several directories for public worship, the first originated by John Knox for use on the continent of Europe and in use by the Church of Scotland since the 16th century. The Church published revised ed ...
'' and it was this that was printed and approved by the
General Assembly
A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company.
Specific examples of general assembly include:
Churches
* General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presb ...
of 1562. Enlarged, it was reprinted with the Confession and the
Psalms in metre in 1564, and it remained the standard until replaced with the
Westminster Directory in 1643. A Gaelic translation of the ''Book of Common Order'' was produced in 1563, the first book printed in Gaelic, but there would be no Gaelic Bible until the eighteenth century.
Church polity
![St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/St._Andrews_from_the_ruined_Cathedral_-_geograph.org.uk_-_101422.jpg)
The ''First Book of Discipline'' envisaged the establishment of reformed ministers in each of approximately 1,080 parishes. By the end of 1561, 240 of these places had been filled. By 1567 there were about 850 clergy and by 1574 there were just over 1,000. These were mainly concentrated in the south and east. In the Highlands there were shortages and very few spoke the Gaelic of the local population. The universities were unable supply sufficient trained ministers over a generation and many, over three-quarters in 1574, were holders of the junior post of readers, rather than qualified ministers. The bulk of these were former Catholic clergy. The untidy system of thirteen
medieval dioceses was to be replaced by ten more rational districts, each to be overseen by a
superintendent
Superintendent may refer to:
*Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank
*Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator
*Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...
. This plan was complicated by the conversion of three bishops to Protestantism, who were allowed to remain in their posts. Few superintendents were appointed and temporary commissioners were nominated to fill the gaps. In 1576, when the
General Assembly
A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company.
Specific examples of general assembly include:
Churches
* General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presb ...
considered the structure of the Kirk, it recognised five offices: archbishops, bishops, superintendents, commissioners, and visitors.
Beside these posts was a system of church courts of
kirk sessions and
presbyteries, which dealt with discipline and administration. Some local sessions had existed before 1560,
moderators emerged in 1563, but the
presbytery not until 1580. By the 1590s Scotland was organized into about fifty presbyteries with about twenty ministers in each. Above them stood a dozen or so synods and at the apex the general assembly. The system of kirk sessions gave considerable power within the new kirk to local lairds, who were able to take on the dignity and authority of an
elder.
Continued reformation
![Mary Stuart James](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Mary_Stuart_James.jpg)
In the 1560s the majority of the population was probably still Catholic in persuasion, and the Kirk would find it difficult to penetrate the Highlands and Islands, but began a gradual process of conversion and consolidation that, compared with reformations elsewhere, was conducted with little persecution. The monasteries were not dissolved but allowed to die out with their monks, and before 1573 no holders of benefices were turned out, even for refusing to conform. The focus on the parish church as the centre of worship meant the abandonment of much of the complex religious provision of chapelries, monasteries, and cathedrals, many of which were allowed to decay or, like the Cathedral at St Andrews, were mined for dressed stone to be used in local houses.
Second Reformation crisis (1567)
When her husband Francis II died in 1560, Mary, now 19, elected to return to Scotland to take up the government. She gained an agreement that she would be the only person to partake legally in Catholic services and did not attempt to re-impose Catholicism on her subjects, thus angering the chief Catholic nobles. Her six-year personal reign was marred by a series of crises, largely caused by the intrigues and rivalries of the leading nobles. The murder of her secretary,
David Riccio
David Rizzio ( ; it, Davide Rizzio ; – 9 March 1566) or Riccio ( , ) was an Italian courtier, born in Pancalieri close to Turin, a descendant of an ancient and noble family still living in Piedmont, the Riccio Counts di San Paolo e Solbrito ...
, was followed by that of her unpopular second husband
Lord Darnley
Lord Darnley is a noble title associated with a Scottish Lordship of Parliament, first created in 1356 for the family of Stewart of Darnley and tracing a descent to the Dukedom of Richmond in England. The title's name refers to Darnley in Sco ...
, father of her infant son, and her abduction by, and marriage to, the
Earl of Bothwell, who was implicated in Darnley's murder. Opposition to Bothwell led to the formation of a coalition of nobles, who styled themselves as the Confederate Lords.
Michael Lynch describes the events of 1567 as "second Reformation crisis". Mary and Bothwell confronted the Lords at
Carberry Hill on 15 June 1567, but their forces melted away. He fled and she was imprisoned in
Loch Leven Castle
Lochleven Castle is a ruined castle on an island in Loch Leven, in the Perth and Kinross local authority area of Scotland. Possibly built around 1300, the castle was the site of military action during the Wars of Scottish Independence (1296–13 ...
. Ten days after the confrontation at Carbury Hill, the General Assembly met in Edinburgh with the aim of rooting out "superstition and idolatry". The Reformation settlement of 1567 was much more firmly Calvinist than that of 1560. The Assembly set out a programme of reform that included the ratification of the legislation of 1560, better provision of the ministry, new resources and manpower for the parishes, a purge of the teachers in the universities and schools, and a closer relationship with parliament. A parliament was called in December, which allowed the acts passed by the Reformation Parliament to be ratified. The subsequent religious settlement would be worked out over the 1570s against a background of civil war and unstable regencies.
Reign of James VI (1567–1625)
![Regent Morton](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Regent_Morton.jpg)
In July 1567, Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of her 13-month-old son
James VI
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
. James was to be brought up a Protestant and the government was to be run by a series of regents, beginning with Moray, until James began to assert his independence in 1581. Mary eventually escaped and attempted to regain the throne by force. After her defeat at the
Battle of Langside
The Battle of Langside was fought on 13 May 1568 between forces loyal to Mary, Queen of Scots, and forces acting in the name of her infant son James VI. Mary’s short period of personal rule ended in 1567 in recrimination, intrigue, and disast ...
in May 1568, by forces loyal to the King's Party, led by Moray, she took refuge in England, leaving her son in their hands. In Scotland the King's Party
fought a civil war on behalf of the regency against Mary's supporters. This ended, after English intervention, with the surrender of
Edinburgh Castle in May 1573. In 1578 a Second Book of Discipline was adopted, which was much more clearly Presbyterian in outlook.
In England, Mary became a focal point for Catholic conspirators and was eventually executed for treason in 1587 on the orders of her kinswoman Elizabeth I. James was Calvinist in doctrine, but strongly supported episcopacy and resisted the independence, or even right to interfere in government, of the Kirk, which became associated with the followers of
Andrew Melville
Andrew Melville (1 August 1545 – 1622) was a Scottish scholar, theologian, poet and religious reformer. His fame encouraged scholars from the European continent to study at Glasgow and St. Andrews.
He was born at Baldovie, on 1 August 154 ...
, known as the Melvillians. He used his powers to call the General Assembly where he wished, limiting the ability of more radical clergy to attend. He paid for moderate clergy to be present, negotiated with members, and manipulated its business in order to limit the independence of the Kirk. By 1600 he had appointed three parliamentary bishops. By the end of his reign there were 11 bishops and diocesan episcopacy had been restored, although there was still strong support for Presbyterianism within the Kirk.
Catholic survival
Although officially illegal, Roman Catholicism survived in parts of Scotland. The hierarchy of the Church played a relatively small role and the initiative was left to lay leaders. Where nobles or local lairds offered protection it continued to thrive, as with
Clanranald on
South Uist
South Uist ( gd, Uibhist a Deas, ; sco, Sooth Uist) is the second-largest island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. At the 2011 census, it had a usually resident population of 1,754: a decrease of 64 since 2001. The island, in common with the ...
, or in the north-east where the
Earl of Huntly
Marquess of Huntly (traditionally spelled Marquis in Scotland; Scottish Gaelic: ''Coileach Strath Bhalgaidh'') is a title in the Peerage of Scotland that was created on 17 April 1599 for George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly. It is the oldest existin ...
was the most important figure. In these areas Catholic sacraments and practices were maintained with relative openness. Members of the nobility were probably reluctant to pursue each other over matters of religion because of strong personal and social ties. An English report in 1600 suggested that a third of nobles and gentry were still Catholic in inclination. In most of Scotland, Catholicism became an underground faith in private households, connected by ties of kinship. This reliance on the household meant that women often became important as the upholders and transmitters of the faith, such as in the case of Lady Fernihurst in the Borders. They transformed their households into centres of religious activity and offered places of safety for priests.
Because the Reformation took over the existing structures and assets of the Church, any attempted recovery by the Catholic hierarchy was extremely difficult. After the collapse of Mary's cause in the civil wars in the 1570s, and any hope of a national restoration of the old faith, the hierarchy began to treat Scotland as a mission area. The leading order of the
Counter-Reformation, the newly founded
Jesuits
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
, initially took relatively little interest in Scotland as a target of missionary work. Their effectiveness was limited by rivalries between different orders at Rome. The initiative was taken by a small group of Scots connected with the
Crichton family, who had supplied the bishops of
Dunkeld
Dunkeld (, sco, Dunkell, from gd, Dùn Chailleann, "fort of the Caledonians") is a town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The location of a historic cathedral, it lies on the north bank of the River Tay, opposite Birnam. Dunkeld lies close to t ...
. They joined the Jesuit order and returned to attempt conversions. Their focus was mainly on the court, which led them into involvement in a series of complex political plots and entanglements. The majority of surviving Scottish lay followers were largely ignored.
Impact
Education
![Andrew melville](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Andrew_melville.jpg)
The humanist concern with widening education was shared by the Protestant reformers, with a desire for a godly people replacing the aim of having educated citizens. The ''First Book of Discipline'' set out a plan for a school in every parish, but this proved financially impossible. In the burghs the old schools were maintained, with the song schools and a number of new foundations becoming reformed grammar schools or ordinary parish schools. Schools were supported by a combination of kirk funds, contributions from local
heritor
A heritor was a privileged person in a parish in Scots law. In its original acceptation, it signified the proprietor of a heritable subject, but, in the law relating to parish government, the term was confined to such proprietors of lands or house ...
s or burgh councils and parents that could pay. They were inspected by kirk sessions, who checked for the quality of teaching and doctrinal purity. There were also large number of unregulated "adventure schools", which sometimes fulfilled a local need and sometimes took pupils away from the official schools. Outside of the established burgh schools, masters often combined their positions with other employment, particularly minor posts within the Kirk, such as clerk. At their best, the curriculum included
catechism,
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
,
French,
Classical literature and sports.
Scotland's universities underwent a series of reforms associated with Andrew Melville, who returned from Geneva to become principal of the
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
in 1574. A distinguished linguist, philosopher and poet, he had trained in Paris and studied law at
Poitiers, before moving to Geneva and developing an interest in Protestant theology. Influenced by the anti-Aristotelian
Petrus Ramus
Petrus Ramus (french: Pierre de La Ramée; Anglicized as Peter Ramus ; 1515 – 26 August 1572) was a French humanist, logician, and educational reformer. A Protestant convert, he was a victim of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.
Early life
...
, he placed an emphasis on simplified logic and elevated languages and sciences to the same status as philosophy, allowing accepted ideas in all areas to be challenged. He introduced new specialist teaching staff, replacing the system of "regenting", where one tutor took the students through the entire arts curriculum.
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
were abandoned and Greek became compulsory in the first year, followed by
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
,
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
and
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
, launching a new fashion for ancient and biblical languages. Glasgow had probably been declining as a university before his arrival, but students now began to arrive in large numbers. He assisted in the reconstruction of
Marischal College
Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has acted as the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. However, the building was constructed for and is on long- ...
,
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
, and in order to do for St Andrews what he had done for Glasgow, he was appointed Principal of
St Mary's College, St Andrews
(In the Beginning was the Word)
, established =
, type = College
, endowment =
, staff =
, faculty =
, rector =
, chancellor =
, principal = Oliver D. Crisp
, free_label = Teaching staff
, free = 20
, ...
, in 1580. The
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
developed out of public lectures that were established in the town in the 1540s on law, Greek, Latin and philosophy, under the patronage of
Mary of Guise. The "Tounis College" become the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
in 1582. The results of these changes were a revitalisation of all Scottish universities, which were now producing a quality of education the equal of that offered anywhere in Europe.
Literature
![George Buchanan by Arnold van Brounckhorst](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/George_Buchanan_by_Arnold_van_Brounckhorst.jpg)
Medieval Scotland probably had its own
Mystery play
Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represe ...
s, often performed by craft
guilds, like one described as ' and staged at Aberdeen in 1440 and 1445 and which was probably connected with the feast of
Corpus Christi, but no texts are extant. Legislation was enacted against folk plays in 1555, and against liturgical plays ("clerk-plays or comedies based on the canonical scriptures") in 1575 by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. However, attempts to ban folk plays were more leniently applied and less successful that once assumed. They continued into the seventeenth century, with parishioners in Aberdeen reproved for parading and dancing in the street with bells at weddings and Yule in 1605,
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...
and May plays at Kelso in 1611 and Yuletide guising at Perth in 1634. The Kirk also allowed some plays, particularly in schools, when they served their own ends for education, as in the comedy about the
Prodigal Son permitted at St. Andrews in 1574.
More formal plays included those of
James Wedderburn, who wrote anti-Catholic tragedies and comedies in Scots around 1540, before he was forced to flee into exile. These included the ''Beheading of Johne the Baptist'' and the ''Historie of Dyonisius the Tyraonne'', which were performed at Dundee.
David Lyndsay
Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount (c. 1490 – c. 1555; ''alias'' Lindsay) was a Scottish herald who gained the highest heraldic office of Lyon King of Arms. He remains a well regarded poet whose works reflect the spirit of the Renaissance, speci ...
(c. 1486 –1555), diplomat and the head of the
Lyon Court
The Court of the Lord Lyon (the Lyon Court) is a standing court of law, based in New Register House in Edinburgh, which regulates heraldry in Scotland. The Lyon Court maintains the register of grants of arms, known as the Public Register of All ...
, was a prolific poet and dramatist. He produced an interlude at
Linlithgow Palace for the king and queen thought to be a version of his play ''
The Thrie Estaitis'' in 1540, which satirised the corruption of church and state, and which is the only complete play to survive from before the Reformation.
George Buchanan
George Buchanan ( gd, Seòras Bochanan; February 1506 – 28 September 1582) was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth century Scotland produced." ...
(1506–1582) was major influence on Continental theatre with plays such as ''Jepheths'' and ''Baptistes'', which influenced
Pierre Corneille and
Jean Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...
and through them the neo-classical tradition in French drama, but his impact in Scotland was limited by his choice of Latin as a medium. The anonymous ''The Maner of the Cyring of ane Play'' (before 1568) and ''Philotus'' (published in London in 1603), are isolated examples of surviving plays. The later is a vernacular Scots comedy of errors, probably designed for court performance for
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...
or James VI. The same system of professional companies of players and theatres that developed in England in this period was absent in Scotland, but James VI signalled his interest in drama by arranging for a company of English players to erect a playhouse and perform in 1599.
The Kirk also discouraged poetry that was not devotional in nature. Nevertheless, poets from this period included
Richard Maitland
Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington and Thirlstane (1496 – 1 August 1586) was a Senator of the College of Justice, an Ordinary Lord of Session from 1561 until 1584, and notable Scottish poet. He was served heir to his father, Sir William Maitl ...
of Lethington (1496–1586), who produced meditative and satirical verses;
John Rolland John Rolland ( fl. 1560), Scottish poet, appears to have been a priest of the diocese of Glasgow, and to have been known in Dalkeith in 1555.
He is the author of two poems, the ''Court of Venus'' and a translation of the ''Seven Wise Masters''. T ...
(fl. 1530–1575), who wrote allegorical satires and courtier and minister
Alexander Hume (c. 1556 –1609), whose corpus of work includes nature poetry and
epistolary verse.
Alexander Scott's (?1520–82/3) use of short verse designed to be sung to music, opened the way for the
Castalian poets of James VI's adult reign.
Art
![Royal Arms of Scotland, Magdalen Chapel, Edinburgh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Royal_Arms_of_Scotland%2C_Magdalen_Chapel%2C_Edinburgh.jpg)
Scotland's ecclesiastical art paid a heavy toll as a result of Reformation
iconoclasm
Iconoclasm (from Greek: grc, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, εἰκών + κλάω, lit=image-breaking. ''Iconoclasm'' may also be conside ...
, with the almost total loss of medieval stained glass and religious sculpture and paintings. The only significant surviving pre-Reformation stained glass in Scotland is a window of four roundels in the
Magdalen Chapel of
Cowgate
The Cowgate ( Scots: The Cougait) is a street in Edinburgh, Scotland, located about southeast of Edinburgh Castle, within the city's World Heritage Site. The street is part of the lower level of Edinburgh's Old Town, which lies below the ele ...
,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
, completed in 1544.
[T. W. West, ''Discovering Scottish Architecture'' (Botley: Osprey, 1985), , p. 55.] Wood carving can be seen at
King's College, Aberdeen
King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, the full title of which is The University and King's College of Aberdeen (''Collegium Regium Abredonense''), is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and now an integral part of the Universi ...
and
Dunblane Cathedral
Dunblane Cathedral is the larger of the two Church of Scotland parish churches serving Dunblane, near the city of Stirling, in central Scotland.
The lower half of the tower is pre- Romanesque from the 11th century, and was originally free-standi ...
. In the West Highlands, where there had been a hereditary caste of monumental sculptors, the uncertainty and loss of patronage caused by the rejection of monuments in the Reformation meant that they moved into other branches of the Gaelic learned orders or took up other occupations. The lack of transfer of carving skills is noticeable in the decline in quality when gravestones were next commissioned from the start of the seventeenth century.
According to N. Prior, the nature of the Scottish Reformation may have had wider effects, limiting the creation of a culture of public display and meaning that art was channelled into more austere forms of expression with an emphasis on private and domestic restraint. The loss of ecclesiastical patronage that resulted from the Reformation, meant that native craftsmen and artists turned to secular patrons. One result of this was the flourishing of
Scottish Renaissance painted ceilings
Scottish renaissance painted ceilings are decorated ceilings in Scottish houses and castles built between 1540 and 1640. This is a distinctive national style, though there is common ground with similar work elsewhere, especially in France, Spain ...
and walls, with large numbers of private houses of burgesses, lairds and lords gaining often highly detailed and coloured patterns and scenes, of which over a hundred examples survive. These were undertaken by unnamed Scottish artists using continental pattern books that often led to the incorporation of humanist moral and philosophical symbolism, with elements that call on heraldry, piety, classical myths and allegory. The earliest surviving example is at the Hamilton palace of
Kinneil, West Lothian, decorated in the 1550s for the then regent the
James Hamilton, Earl of Arran. Other examples include the ceiling at
Prestongrange House
Prestongrange House is a historic house at Prestongrange near Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotland, UK. It is situated near to two other historic houses, Hamilton House and Northfield House.
Prestongrange House is now the site of Royal Musse ...
, undertaken in 1581 for Mark Kerr, Commendator of
Newbattle
Newbattle (from Neubotle, i.e. new dwelling) is a village and civil parish in Midlothian, in the ancient Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Andrews, about seven miles from Edinburgh. There was an abbey there founded about 1140, being the second of t ...
, and the long gallery at
Pinkie House
Pinkie may refer to:
Biology
* Pinky finger or little finger
* Pinkie, a baby mouse used as a food for exotic pets
* Bilby or pinkie, an animal in Southern Australia
* Pinkie, a rosemary cultivar
People
* Pinkie Barnes (1915–2012), English ...
, painted for
Alexander Seaton
Alexander Seaton or Seton (before 1626 – after 1649) was a Scottish soldier in Danish service during the Thirty Years' War. He briefly served as a governor in the Battle of Stralsund and as an admiral in the Torstenson War.
Biography
Neit ...
, Earl of Dunfermline in 1621.
Architecture
![Burntisland Parish Kirk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Burntisland_Parish_Kirk.jpg)
The Reformation revolutionised church architecture in Scotland. Calvinists rejected ornamentation in places of worship, seeing no need for elaborate buildings divided up for the purpose of ritual. This resulted in the widespread destruction of Medieval church furnishings, ornaments and decoration.
New churches were built and existing churches adapted for reformed services, particularly by placing the pulpit centrally in the church, as preaching was at the centre of worship. Many of the earliest buildings were simple gabled rectangles, a style that continued into the seventeenth century, as at
Dunnottar Castle
Dunnottar Castle ( gd, Dùn Fhoithear, "fort on the shelving slope") is a ruined medieval fortress located upon a rocky headland on the north-eastern coast of Scotland, about south of Stonehaven. The surviving buildings are largely of the ...
in the 1580s,
Greenock's
Old West Kirk
The Old West Kirk of the Church of Scotland, authorised by a 1589 Royal Charter and first opened in 1591, is noted as the first Presbyterian church built in Scotland following the Scottish Reformation, and the first approved by the Parliament of ...
(1591) and
Durness
Durness ( gd, Diùranais) is a village and civil parish in the north-west Highlands of Scotland. It lies on the north coast of the country in the traditional county of Sutherland, around north of Inverness. The area is remote, and the parish is ...
(1619). These churches often have windows on the south wall (and none on the north), which became a characteristic of Reformation kirks. There were continuities with pre-Reformation materials, with some churches using rubble for walls, as at
Kemback
Kemback is a village and parish in Fife, Scotland, located east of Cupar. The present village was developed in the 19th century to house those working the flax mills on the nearby Ceres Burn. From 1681 the minister for the parish was Alexander ...
in Fife (1582). Others employed dressed stone and a few added wooden steeples, as at
Burntisland (1592). The church of
Greyfriars, Edinburgh, built between 1602 and 1620, used a rectangular layout with a largely Gothic form, but that at
Dirleton
Dirleton is a village and civil parish in East Lothian, Scotland approximately east of Edinburgh on the A198. It contains . Dirleton lies between North Berwick (east), Gullane (west), Fenton Barns (south) and the Yellowcraigs nature reserve ...
(1612), had a more sophisticated classical style. A variation of the rectangular church developed in post-Reformation Scotland, and often used when adapting existing churches, was the "T"-shaped plan, which allowed the maximum number of parishioners to be near the pulpit. Examples can be seen at Kemback and
Prestonpans
Prestonpans ( gd, Baile an t-Sagairt, Scots language, Scots: ''The Pans'') is a small mining town, situated approximately eight miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Council area of East Lothian. The population as of is. It is near the si ...
after 1595. This plan continued to be used into the seventeenth century as at
Weem
WEEM-FM (91.7 FM) is a student-run high school radio station of Pendleton Heights High School in Pendleton, Indiana. It broadcasts in the CHR music format. The station is owned by South Madison Community School Corporation and is operated by s ...
(1600),
Anstruther Easter
Anstruther ( sco, Ainster or Enster ; gd, Ànsruthair) is a small coastal resort town in Fife, Scotland, situated on the north-shore of the Firth of Forth and south-southeast of St Andrews. The town comprises two settlements, Anstruther Eas ...
, Fife (1634–1644) and
New Cumnock
New Cumnock is a town in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It expanded during the coal-mining era from the late 18th century, and mining remained its key industry until its pits were shut in the 1960s. The town is southeast of Cumnock, and east of Ayr.
...
, Ayreshire (1657). In the seventeenth century a
Greek cross
The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a ''crucifix'' and the figure is often referred to as the ''corpus'' (La ...
plan was used for churches such as
Cawdor
Cawdor ( gd, Caladair) is a village and parish in the Highland council area, Scotland. The village is south-southwest of Nairn and east of Inverness. The village is in the Historic County of Nairnshire.
History
The village is the location o ...
(1619) and
Fenwick (1643). In most of these cases one arm of the cross would have been closed off as a laird's aisle, meaning that they were in effect "T"-plan churches.
Music
![Gude and Godlie Ballatis Cover 1600](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Gude_and_Godlie_Ballatis_Cover_1600.jpg)
The Reformation had a severe impact on church music. The song schools of the abbeys, cathedrals and collegiate churches were closed down, choirs disbanded, music books and manuscripts destroyed and organs removed from churches. The
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
that influenced the early Scottish Reformation attempted to accommodate Catholic musical traditions into worship, drawing on Latin hymns and vernacular songs. The most important product of this tradition in Scotland was ''The Gude and Godlie Ballatis'' (1567), which were spiritual satires on popular ballads that have been commonly attributed to brothers
James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguati ...
,
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
and
Robert Wedderburn. Never adopted by the Kirk, they nevertheless remained popular and were reprinted from the 1540s to the 1620s.
Later the Calvinism that came to dominate the Scottish Reformation was much more hostile to Catholic musical tradition and popular music, placing an emphasis on what was biblical, which meant the
Psalms
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
. The
Scottish Psalter of 1564 was commissioned by the
Assembly of the Church. It drew on the work of French musician
Clément Marot
Clément Marot (23 November 1496 – 12 September 1544) was a French Renaissance poet.
Biography
Youth
Marot was born at Cahors, the capital of the province of Quercy, some time during the winter of 1496–1497. His father, Jean Marot (c.& ...
, Calvin's contributions to the Strasbourg
Psalter of 1539 and English writers, particularly the 1561 edition of the Psalter produced by
William Whittingham
William Whittingham (c. 1524–1579) was an English Puritan, a Marian exile, and a translator of the Geneva Bible. He was well connected to the circles around John Knox, Bullinger, and Calvin, and firmly resisted the continuance of the English li ...
for the English congregation in Geneva. The intention was to produce individual tunes for each psalm, but of 150 psalms, 105 had proper tunes and in the seventeenth century, common tunes, which could be used for psalms with the same metre, became more frequent. Because whole congregations would now all sing these psalms, unlike the trained choirs who had sung the many parts of polyphonic hymns, there was a need for simplicity and most church compositions were confined to
homophonic
In music, homophony (;, Greek: ὁμόφωνος, ''homóphōnos'', from ὁμός, ''homós'', "same" and φωνή, ''phōnē'', "sound, tone") is a texture in which a primary part is supported by one or more additional strands that flesh ...
settings.
During his personal reign James VI attempted to revive the song schools, with an act of parliament passed in 1579, demanding that councils of the largest burghs set up "ane sang scuill with ane maister sufficient and able for insturctioun of the yowth in the said science of musik". Five new schools were opened within four years of the act coming into force, and by 1633 there were at least twenty-five. Most of those burghs without song schools made provision within their grammar schools.
Polyphony was incorporated into editions of the Psalter from 1625, but in the few locations where these settings were used, the congregation sang the melody and trained singers the
contra-tenor,
treble and
bass parts. However, the triumph of the Presbyterians in the
National Covenant of 1638 led to an end of polyphony, and a new psalter in common metre, without tunes, was published in 1650.
In 1666 ''The Twelve Tunes for the Church of Scotland, composed in Four Parts'' (which actually contained 14 tunes), designed for use with the 1650 Psalter, was first published in Aberdeen. It would go through five editions by 1720. By the late seventeenth century these two works had become the basic corpus of the psalmody sung in the Kirk.
Women
![Agnes Douglas Countess of Argyll](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Agnes_Douglas_Countess_of_Argyll.jpg)
Early modern Scotland was a
patriarchal society, in which men had total authority over women. From the 1560s the post-Reformation marriage service underlined this by stating that a wife "is in subjection and under governance of her husband, so long as they both continue alive". In politics the theory of patriarchy was complicated by regencies led by
Margaret Tudor
Margaret Tudor (28 November 1489 – 18 October 1541) was Queen of Scotland from 1503 until 1513 by marriage to King James IV. She then served as regent of Scotland during her son's minority, and successfully fought to extend her regency. Ma ...
and
Mary of Guise and by the advent of a regnant queen in
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...
from 1561. Concerns over this threat to male authority were exemplified by
John Knox's ''
The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women'' (1558), which advocated the deposition of all reigning queens. Most of the political nation took a pragmatic view of the situation, accepting Mary as queen, but the strains that this paradox created may have played a part in the later difficulties of the reign.
Before the Reformation, the extensive marriage bars for kinship meant that most noble marriages necessitated a
papal dispensation
In the jurisprudence of the canon law of the Catholic Church, a dispensation is the exemption from the immediate obligation of law in certain cases.The Law of Christ Vol. I, pg. 284 Its object is to modify the hardship often arising from the ...
, which could later be used as grounds for annulment if the marriage proved politically or personally inconvenient, although there was no divorce as such. Separation from bed and board was allowed in exceptional circumstances, usually adultery. Under the reformed
Kirk
Kirk is a Scottish and former Northern English word meaning "church". It is often used specifically of the Church of Scotland. Many place names and personal names are also derived from it.
Basic meaning and etymology
As a common noun, ''kirk' ...
, divorce was allowed on grounds of adultery, or of desertion. Scotland was one of the first countries to allow desertion as legal grounds for divorce and, unlike England, divorce cases were initiated relatively far down the social scale.
After the Reformation the contest between the widespread belief in the limited intellectual and moral capacity of women and the desire for women to take personal moral responsibility, particularly as wives and mothers, intensified. In Protestantism this necessitated an ability to learn and understand the catechism and even to be able to independently read the Bible, but most commentators, even those that tended to encourage the education of girls, thought they should not receive the same academic education as boys. In the lower ranks of society, women benefited from the expansion of the parish schools system that took place after the Reformation, but were usually outnumbered by boys, often taught separately, for a shorter time and to a lower level. They were frequently taught reading, sewing and knitting, but not writing. Female illiteracy rates based on signatures among female servants were around 90 per cent from the late seventeenth to the early eighteenth centuries, and perhaps 85 per cent for women of all ranks by 1750, compared with 35 per cent for men. Among the nobility there were many educated and cultured women, of which Queen Mary is the most obvious example.
Church going played an important part in the lives of many women. Women were largely excluded from the administration of the Kirk, but when heads of households voted on the appointment of a new minister some parishes allowed women in that position to participate. In the post-Reformation period there was a criminalisation of women. Women were disciplined in kirk sessions and civil courts for stereotypical offences including
scolding and prostitution, which were seen as deviant, rather than criminal. These changing attitudes may partly explain the
witch hunts that occurred after the Reformation and in which women were the largest group of victims.
Popular religion
![North Berwick witches](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/North_Berwick_witches.jpg)
Scottish Protestantism was focused on the Bible, which was seen as infallible and the major source of moral authority. Many Bibles were large, illustrated and highly valuable objects. The
Genevan translation was commonly used until in 1611 the Kirk adopted the
Authorised King James Version and the first Scots version was printed in Scotland in 1633, but the Geneva Bible continued to be employed into the seventeenth century. Bibles often became the subject of superstitions, being used in
divination. Kirk discipline was fundamental to Reformed Protestantism and it probably reached a high-water mark in the seventeenth century. Kirk sessions were able to apply religious sanctions, such as excommunication and denial of baptism, to enforce godly behaviour and obedience. In more difficult cases of immoral behaviour they could work with the local magistrate, in a system modelled on that employed in Geneva. Public occasions were treated with mistrust and from the later seventeenth century there were efforts by kirk sessions to stamp out activities such as
well-dressing,
bonfires,
guising
Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween custom for children and adults in some countries. During the evening of Halloween, on October 31, people in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase "trick or treat". The ...
,
penny weddings, and dancing.
In the late Middle Ages there were a handful of prosecutions for harm done through witchcraft, but the passing of the
Witchcraft Act 1563 made witchcraft, or consulting with witches, capital crimes. The first major series of trials under the new act were the
North Berwick witch trials
The North Berwick witch trials were the trials in 1590 of a number of people from East Lothian, Scotland, accused of witchcraft in the St Andrew's Auld Kirk in North Berwick on Halloween night. They ran for two years, and implicated over seventy ...
, beginning in 1589, in which
James VI
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
played a major part as "victim" and investigator.
[J. Keay and J. Keay, ''Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland'' (London: Harper Collins, 1994), , p. 556.] He became interested in witchcraft and published a defence of witch-hunting in the ''
Daemonologie
''Daemonologie''—in full ''Daemonologie, In Forme of a Dialogue, Divided into three Books: By the High and Mighty Prince, James &c.''—was first published in 1597 by King James VI of Scotland (later also James I of England) as a philosophi ...
'' in 1597, but he appears to have become increasingly sceptical and eventually took steps to limit prosecutions. An estimated 4,000 to 6,000 people, mostly from the
Scottish Lowlands, were tried for witchcraft in this period; a much higher rate than for neighbouring England. There were major series of trials in
1590–1591,
1597
Events
January–June
* January 24 – Battle of Turnhout: Maurice of Nassau defeats a Spanish force under Jean de Rie of Varas, in the Netherlands.
* February – Bali is discovered, by Dutch explorer Cornelis Houtman.
* February 5 ...
, 1628–1631,
1649–1650 and
1661–1662. Seventy-five per cent of the accused were women and modern estimates indicate that over 1,500 people were executed.
National identity
The Kirk that developed after 1560 came to represent all of Scotland. It became the subject of national pride, and was often compared with the less clearly reformed church in neighbouring England. Jane Dawson suggests that the loss of national standing in the contest for dominance of Britain between England and France suffered by the Scots, may have led them to stress their religious achievements. A theology developed that saw the kingdom as in a
covenant
Covenant may refer to:
Religion
* Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general
** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible
** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...
relationship with God. Many Scots saw their country as a new Israel and themselves as a holy people engaged in a struggle between the forces of Christ and Antichrist, the latter being identified with the resurgent papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. This view was reinforced by events elsewhere that demonstrated that Reformed religion was under threat, such as the 1572
Massacre of St Bartholomew in France and the
Spanish Armada in 1588. These views were popularised through the first Protestant histories, such as Knox's ''
History of the Reformation
''The History of the Reformation in Scotland'' is a five-volume book written by the Scottish reformer, John Knox, between 1559 and 1566.
Knox and his ''History''
In 1559 during the Scottish Reformation, the leaders of the Protestant nobility, t ...
'' and
George Buchanan
George Buchanan ( gd, Seòras Bochanan; February 1506 – 28 September 1582) was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth century Scotland produced." ...
's ''Rerum Scoticarum Historia''. This period also saw a growth of a patriotic literature facilitated by the rise of popular printing. Published editions of medieval poetry by
John Barbour John Barbour may refer to:
* John Barbour (poet) (1316–1395), Scottish poet
* John Barbour (MP for New Shoreham), MP for New Shoreham 1368-1382
* John Barbour (footballer) (1890–1916), Scottish footballer
* John S. Barbour (1790–1855), U. ...
and
Robert Henryson
Robert Henryson (Middle Scots: Robert Henrysoun) was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots ''makars'', he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renai ...
and the plays of
David Lyndsay
Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount (c. 1490 – c. 1555; ''alias'' Lindsay) was a Scottish herald who gained the highest heraldic office of Lyon King of Arms. He remains a well regarded poet whose works reflect the spirit of the Renaissance, speci ...
all gained a new audience.
See also
*
English Reformation
*
History of Christianity in Scotland
The history of Christianity in Scotland includes all aspects of the Christianity in the region that is now Scotland from its introduction up to the present day. Christianity was first introduced to what is now southern Scotland during the Roman ...
*
History of Scotland
The recorded begins with the arrival of the Roman Empire in the 1st century, when the province of Britannia reached as far north as the Antonine Wall. North of this was Caledonia, inhabited by the ''Picti'', whose uprisings forced Rome ...
References
Primary sources
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Secondary sources
* Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004
online short scholarly biographies of all the major people
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Further reading
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External links
The Reformationat BBC.co.uk
{{Authority control
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
Protestantism in the United Kingdom
Anti-Catholicism in Scotland
1560 in Scotland
1559 in Scotland
16th century in Scotland
16th-century Christianity
Church of Scotland