Scottish Reformation
The Scottish Reformation was the process whereby Scotland broke away from the Catholic Church, and established the Protestant Church of Scotland. It forms part of the wider European 16th-century Protestant Reformation.
From the first half of the 16th century, Scottish scholars and religious leaders were influenced by the teachings of the Protestant reformer, Martin Luther. In 1560, a group of Scottish nobles known as the Lords of the Congregation gained control of government. Under their guidance, the Scottish Reformation Parliament passed legislation that established a Protestant creed, and rejected Papal supremacy, although these were only formally ratified by James VI in 1567. The kirk itself became the subject of national pride, and many Scots saw their country as a new Israel.
Directed by John Knox, the new Church of Scotland adopted a Presbyterian structure and largely Calvinist doctrine. The Reformation resulted in major changes in Scottish education, art and religious practice.
Pre-Reformation Scotland
Pre-Reformation church
Structure
Christianity spread in Scotland from the 6th 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, by which all Scottish bishoprics except Galloway became formally independent of York and Canterbury. The whole Ecclesia Scoticana, with individual Scottish bishoprics, 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 to local monastic institutions in a process known as appropriation. By the time of the Reformation in the mid-16th century 80% 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 in 1492. The collapse of papal authority in the Papal Schism 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's 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 venality 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 20th 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 15th century. In contrast, the burghs saw the flourishing of mendicant orders of friars in the later 15th 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 from 1467, and the older Franciscans and the Dominicans were recognised as separate provinces in the 1480s.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 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 began to reach Scotland in the 15th century, including the Five Wounds, the Holy Blood, and the Holy Name of Jesus. New religious feasts arose, including celebrations of the Presentation, the Visitation, and Mary of the Snows.
In the early 14th 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. The number of poor clerical livings and a general shortage of clergy in Scotland, particularly after the Black Death, meant that in the 15th 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 Lollardry, began to reach Scotland from England and Bohemia in the early 15th century. Lollards were followers of John Wycliffe and later Jan Hus, who called for reform of the Church and rejected its doctrine on the Eucharist. 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
From the 15th century, Renaissance humanism encouraged critical theological reflection and calls for ecclesiastical renewal in Scotland. As early as 1495 some Scots were in contact with Desiderius Erasmus, the Netherlands-born leading figure in the northern humanist movement. They were also in contact with Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, 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, and Aberdeen. 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, 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 16th century, the most important of whom was John Mair, generally described as a scholastic. His Latin History of Greater Britain 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, was responsible in the 1520s and 1530s for bringing the Italian humanist Giovanni Ferrario to teach at Kinloss Abbey. 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.