Introduction: New Perspectives on John Ogilvie’s Martyrdom, the Society of Jesus, and Scottish Catholicism during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Abstract

The Society of Jesus’s mission in Scotland lasted from 1581 until the papal suppression of 1773, yet the Jesuits’ impact on religious life there during this period remains an underexplored aspect of Scotland’s early modern history. The articles in this special issue offer fresh perspectives on the mission, with particular attention paid to one of its most dramatic and controversial events—the trial and execution of John Ogilvie for treason in Glasgow during the autumn and winter of 1614–15. Fresh insights are provided here on Ogilvie’s martyrdom from the perspective of local and international politics and Jesuit theology. The familiar theme of the Jesuits’ attempted conversion of James vi and i is also revisited, and new research is presented on Catholicism in seventeenth-century Scotland in articles about the Jesuits’ work in the Highlands and their appeal to the memory of the medieval Queen Saint Margaret. Overall, this issue attests to historians’ enduring fascination with John Ogilvie’s martyrdom and what it can teach us about religion, politics and society in early modern Scotland, and the potential of the Jesuits’ activities there as a rich field for future research.