'So Strange a Monster as a Jesuite': The Society of Jesus in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: 'So Strange a Monster as a Jesuite': The Society of Jesus in Sixteenth-Century Scotland Jane E.A. Dawson 'So Strange a Monster as a Jesuite': The Society of Jesus in Sixteenth-Century Scotland. By Michael J. Yellowlees. Pp xi, 228. ISBN 1 899863 88 5. Isle of Colonsay: House of Lochar. 2003£18.99. This is the story of the Jesuit mission in Scotland and of Scottish Jesuits in the sixteenth century. Copious details of individual Jesuits who came to Scotland or who were born here are combined with a discussion from the Jesuit perspective of the preservation of Roman Catholicism within Scotland following the Reformation. The twin themes of the book make it difficult to focus clearly on either of them and occasionally blur the overall picture. This volume fills a gap because there has been no specific study of the Jesuits in Scotland. The author has brought together manuscript material from the Jesuit archives in Rome and those of the British Province and drawn upon the recently published Monumenta Angliae of the Society of Jesus. The maps of places in Scotland and in Europe are helpful, with the Scottish map demonstrating clearly that the Jesuit mission was to be found in certain regional pockets, the significant Perthshire/Dunkeld one, the area dominated by the earl of Huntly around Speyside, and Dumfries and the immediate environs linked to Lord Maxwell, as well as the area close to Seton associated with that Lord and a few others spots in the Central Belt. Curiously, the interesting map made by William Crichton in 1595, which adorns the cover and one of the plates and is transcribed in Appendix 6, is under utilised and not fully explained. Dr Yellowlees is at his strongest when describing individuals, and especially those who formed the 'Crichton' circle who all had some connexion to the diocese of Dunkeld and Perthshire and to the Crichton family who had provided the bishops for that diocese in the pre-Reformation period. This builds upon his doctoral work on Dunkeld and on his previously published articles. The 'Crichton' group was seven strong; led by William Crichton (1535-1617); Edmund Hay (c.1534-93); James Tyrie (c.1543-97); Robert Abercrombie; James Gordon (1541-1620); John Hay; and William Murdoch (1539-1616). One [End Page 350] member, James Gordon, the fifth son of the 4th Earl of Huntly, was drawn from the Scottish peerage, the rest from the level of middle-ranking lairds. Their social origins were significant because, although Roman Catholicism retained important aristocratic adherents, such as the earls of Huntly, or converts, such as Lord Maxwell, Jesuit recruitment came predominantly from the lower nobility rather than from the aristocracy. Their relatively inferior social status made the mission's goal of gaining influence at the royal court and attempting to convert the King and high-ranking courtiers that bit harder. As the Crichton group demonstrated so well, personal and kin links were crucial to recruitment and to the Jesuits' functioning within Scotland. Although family support usually brought benefits, it also had its drawbacks within the small world of the Catholic nobility. The personal tensions between William Crichton and Lord Seton, the most steadfast of the Catholic nobles, had a direct impact upon the achievements and smooth running of the whole mission. That mission also had to contend with the obstacle that at various points during the later sixteenth century neither the General of the Order nor the Pope were convinced that a Jesuit presence in Scotland would actually help Scottish Catholics. Such scepticism at the highest levels meant that the drive and resources needed to sustain the mission were not always forthcoming. At times it is not easy to navigate one's way through the maze of detail concerning the Jesuits themselves to the analysis of the aims and structure of the mission and their chances of success. In this context the brief comparison with the Jesuit campaign in Poland, where the royal family and significant sections of the nobility were converted to Roman Catholicism, could usefully have been expanded. The main achievement of the Jesuits' mission was their contribution (along with those from the other regular orders...