Abstract
Attempting to gauge the character and levels of literacy in past ages, long before there were well-controlled and wideranging social surveys, opens up many problems. One predominant one is how literacy should be defined. Is it sufficient to have evidence ofability to read? Should those we call literate have to be able both to read and to write? Ifwe depend on evidence ofability to write, can we assume that that would somehow encompass ability to read too? Indeed, vital for historians is the major question ofwhat kinds ofevidence can be expected to give the best indications of the incidence of literacy (however defined) in any given population. The Scottish reformers, in promoting education, had as their prime purpose to provide instruction for all in reading
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