Scotland's Religious Tensions

In ‘To the Reader’ Meldrum writes as follows ‘Scotland was being threatened by religious tensions’.  Meldrum then proceeds to take us quickly through four decades of religious tensions. This episode will explain the religious changes Scotland experienced during the early modern period. 

The Pre-Reformation Catholic Church

Before 1560 Scotland was a Catholic country and, as such, it was part of a wider European Catholic culture.  The monarch was the secular leader with some religious responsibilities towards their subjects but the head of the Catholic Church in all religious matters was the Papal See in Rome.

The Scottish Reformation

The interesting aspect of the Scottish Reformation, that is to say Scotland’s transition from a Catholic to a Protestant country was that it was mainly a legislative affair where conflict was limited. It also marked a move away from the Auld Alliance with France, a formal treaty which ended in 1560, and a move towards a more formal relationship with England.

Episcopacy and Presbyterianism

There was an emerging division over the form of discipline to be instilled within the church. Was the church to be run by Bishops or was there further need for reformation, similar to the Calvinist reformations in Europe? The stage was set for a battle between Episcopacy, which advocated a church run by Bishops with the oversight of the monarch and Presbyterianism which drew its inspiration from John Calvin in Switzerland and which advocated church discipline through a series of church courts.

What was life like for a Scottish minister, like Robert Meldrum, in the 1670s?

His primary roles within the church would have been the reading of scriptures to his congregation and the administering of communion and to perform the sacraments of baptism, marriage and funeral rites.

The next episode will explore Stuart London.

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