Scottish Reformation

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 and I in 1567.

The Crown placed clients and relatives of the king in key positions, including James IV's (r. 1488–1513) illegitimate son Alexander Stewart, who was nominated as Archbishop of St. Andrews at the age of 11.

[2] 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.

They were also in contact with Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (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.

[14] 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.

[13] 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.

[20] 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, he was able to appoint his many illegitimate children and favourites to office in the Church, particularly David Beaton[citation needed] who became a Cardinal in 1538 and Archbishop of Saint Andrews in 1539.

[28] In 1546, George Wishart, a preacher who had come under the influence of Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli, 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, before they were defeated with the help of French forces.

[29] In 1547, the English under Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset renewed their invasion and defeated the Scots at Pinkie, occupied south-east Scotland with forts at Lauder, Haddington and an outpost at Dundee.

[37] 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".

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.

[40] 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."

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.

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.

[60] 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 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.

Influenced by the anti-Aristotelian Petrus Ramus, 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.

[78] Medieval Scotland probably had its own Mystery plays, often performed by craft guilds, like one described as ludi de ly haliblude and staged at Aberdeen in 1440 and 1445 and which was probably connected with the feast of Corpus Christi, but no texts are extant.

They continued into the 17th century, with parishioners in Aberdeen reproved for parading and dancing in the street with bells at weddings and Yule in 1605, Robin Hood and May plays at Kelso in 1611 and Yuletide guising at Perth in 1634.

[89] Scotland's ecclesiastical art paid a heavy toll as a result of Reformation iconoclasm, with the almost total loss of medieval stained glass and religious sculpture and paintings.

[93] 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.

One result of this was the flourishing of Scottish Renaissance painted ceilings 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 100 examples survive.

[90] 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.

[90] The Lutheranism 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, John and Robert Wedderburn.

[100] Because entire congregations would now sing these psalms, unlike the trained choirs who had sung the many parts of polyphonic hymns,[99] there was a need for simplicity and most church compositions were confined to homophonic settings.

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.

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.