Scottish religion in the seventeenth century
The 16th century Reformation created a Church of Scotland, popularly known as the kirk, predominantly Calvinist in doctrine and Presbyterian in structure, to which James VI added a layer of bishops in 1584.
The addition of an Episcopalian system in 1584 resulted in a situation where bishops presided over Presbyterian structures, while local lairds or heritors controlled the appointment of clergy in their districts.
She was replaced by her one-year-old son James VI who was brought up as a Protestant; by the 1630s, Catholicism was largely restricted to members of the aristocracy and remote Gaelic-speaking areas of the Highlands and Islands.
[8] In 1618, the General Assembly reluctantly approved the Five Articles of Perth; these included forms retained in England but largely abolished in Scotland and were widely resented.
The 1625 Act of Revocation cancelling all grants of land made by the Crown since 1540 was done without consultation and alienated large parts of the Scottish nobility and clergy.
[9] Despite the small number of Scottish Catholics, fear of 'Popery' remained widespread, partly due to the close cultural and religious links between Scots and French Huguenots.
[10] Increasing restrictions by the French state led to a series of Huguenot rebellions, while many Scots also fought in the 1618 to 1648 Thirty Years' War, a religious conflict that caused an estimated 8 million deaths.
[12] Followed in 1637 by a Book of Common Prayer, it led to widespread anger and rioting, allegedly sparked by Jenny Geddes during a service in St Giles Cathedral.
[17] The Scots remained neutral at first but sent troops to Ulster to support their co-religionists in the Irish Rebellion of 1641; the bitterness of this conflict radicalised views in Scotland and Ireland.
In December 1647, Charles agreed to impose Presbyterianism in England for three years and suppress the Independents but his refusal to take the Covenant himself split the Covenanters into Engagers and Kirk Party fundamentalists or Whiggamores.
The English military commander in Scotland Robert Lilburne used the excuse of Resolutioner church services praying for the success of Glencairn's insurrection to dissolve both sessions.
[28] Broghill accordingly sought to encourage the kirk's internal divisions, such as having Gillespie appointed Principal of Glasgow University against the wishes of the James Guthrie and Warriston-led Protestor majority.
[31] This period was later viewed as very positive for religion, since being barred from politics meant ministers spent more time with their congregations and emphasised preaching that emulated the sects.
This removed the Covenanter reforms of 1638-1639 although another Act renewed the ability of kirk sessions, presbyteries and synods to impose civil penalties, suggesting some compromise was possible.
[35] The government responded by alternating persecution and toleration; in 1663, a Parliamentary Act declared dissenting ministers 'seditious persons' and imposed heavy fines on those who failed to attend the parish churches of the "King's curates".
In 1666 a group of men from Galloway captured the government's local military commander and marched on Edinburgh but were defeated at the Battle of Rullion Green.
Eight Episcopal clergy and James Dalrymple, Lord President of the Court of Session resigned and the leading nobleman Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll was forced into exile.
In 1684, the remaining Society People posted an Apologetical Declaration on several market crosses, threatening retaliation against government officials; In response to this new element of outright political sedition, the Scottish Privy Council authorised extrajudicial field executions of those caught in arms or those who refused to swear loyalty to the King.
[40] This more intense phase of persecution, later known in Protestant historiography as "the Killing Time", led to dissenters being summarily executed by the dragoons of James Graham, Laird of Claverhouse or sentenced to transportation or death by Sir George Mackenzie, the Lord Advocate.
'[42] At the same time, the 1681 Scottish Test Act required all public officials to swear unconditional loyalty to the king, but with the crucial qualifier they 'promise to uphold the true Protestant religion'.
[43] Despite his Catholicism, James became king in April 1685 with widespread support in Scotland due to fears of civil war if he were bypassed, while the rapid defeat of Argyll's Rising in June 1685 stemmed from opposition to re-opening past divisions within the kirk.
[50] In Edinburgh, key Royal officials fled the capital leaving a power vacuum during which rioters stormed Holyrood Abbey, destroyed its Catholic chapel and damaged the tombs of the Stuart kings, while others took down the heads of executed Covenanters from above the city gates.
[41] While a large majority of the English Parliament agreed Mary should replace her father, William's demand he be made joint monarch and sole ruler if she died was only narrowly approved.
In Scotland, the split within the kirk made William more important because his Calvinism meant Presbyterians saw him as a natural ally, while the Episcopalian minority could only retain control with his support.
[60] 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, penny weddings and dancing.
[63] The system was largely able to cope with general poverty and minor crises, helping the old and infirm to survive and provide life support in periods of downturn at relatively low cost, but was overwhelmed in the major subsistence crisis of the 1690s, known as the seven ill years.
With the exception of local outbreaks in East Lothian in 1678 and 1697 at Paisley, the numbers declined as trials were tightly controlled by the judiciary and government, and evidence made less reliant on torture.
[10] Some were to convert to Roman Catholicism, as did John Ogilvie (1569–1615), who went on to be ordained a priest in 1610, later being hanged for proselytism in Glasgow and often thought of as the only Scottish Catholic martyr of the Reformation era.
[72] A small number of Jesuits were active in Strathgrass from the 1670s; in 1694, Thomas Nicolson was appointed as the first Vicar Apostolic over the mission in 1694 and the situation of Catholicism improved marginally.
