Scottish Clergy Research Articles

The role of the Church during the First War of Scottish Independence

The work examines the actions taken by the Scottish Church during the First War of Scottish Independence (1296– 1328), as well as the preliminary period starting from 1286. The main objectives are to determine the direct role of the Scottish clergy in diplomatic and political activities, to assess the impact on the national liberation movement, as well as to study the position of the Scottish Church in the Christian world at the end of the First War of Independence. Great attention is given to the propaganda activities of the bishops, as well as the relationship of the secular and spiritual authorities with the Roman Church before and after 1302. The transformation of the position and structure of the Scottish Church in relation to the Roman See and the entire Christian world, both legally and spiritually, is analyzed.

Moderation in the Scottish Enlightenment: the case of Robert Wallace

ABSTRACT Robert Wallace (1697–1771) was a leading minister of the Church of Scotland, but he remains a largely overlooked figure in the literature. Nevertheless, his participation in philosophical and theological debates offers a glimpse of the complex positions of the Scottish clergy – and of Scottish moderation on its own terms. Wallace’s moderation was evident, for example, in his opposition both to radical deism and orthodox dogmatism. Yet what makes Wallace’s case particularly interesting is that he described himself as a ‘moderate freethinker’ in a letter to David Hume, while distinguishing elsewhere the ‘moderate’ and ‘sober’ freethinkers from the dangerously sceptical ones. Exploring his consistent statements on this issue in various writings throughout his career, this article investigates the self-identified moderation of Wallace – in opposition, for example, to his rival freethinker William Dudgeon – and thus the clergy’s attempt to use this category in the shaping of their vision of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Scots Afrikaners

Scots Afrikaners

The Revival of Music in the Post-Reformation Catholic Church in Scotland

This article presents a narrative description of the state of music in the Scottish Catholic Church from the Reformation up to the publication of George Gordon’s collection of church music c.1830. For the first two hundred years after the Reformation, Scottish Catholics worshipped in virtual silence owing to the oppressive penal laws then in force. In the late eighteenth century religious toleration increased and several members of the clergy and other interested parties attempted to reintroduce singing into the worship of the Scottish Catholic Church. In this they were thwarted by the ultra-cautious attitude of the Vicar-Apostolic for the Lowland District, Bishop George Hay, who refused to allow any music in Catholic churches in case it should inflame Protestant opinion. Only after his retirement could the reintroduction take place, and the speed at which it was achieved bears witness to the enthusiasm and commitment of Scottish clergy and laity for church music. Research in this area is long overdue, and it is hoped that this article will form a basis for further investigations.

Poverty or Prosperity? The Economic Fortunes of Ministers in Post-Reformation Fife, 1560–1640

One of the many areas in which there is a lack of knowledge of the post-Reformation Scottish clergy is their economic status. This article uses the county of Fife as a case study to examine the finances of post-Reformation ministers. Stipends improved gradually during the decades after the Reformation, especially for ministers paid in kind, but there were still serious problems in many parishes well into the seventeenth century. Ministers' testaments show few signs of real poverty, however, and it appears that most ministers lived modestly and within their means, rather than acting as major economic actors in the parish.

Lay Religiosity, Piety, and Devotion in Scotland c. 1300 to c. 1450

In recent Scottish historical research on issues of ecclesiastical renewal and reform, the chief academic focus has rested on three strands: the radical restructuring of the twelfth century, popular devotion in the immediate pre-Reformation period, and the dramatic events of the sixteenth-century Reformation. This does not mean that other aspects of medieval Church history have been neglected, for there has been much new research into its institutions, personnel, and properties. Access to papal records, published as the Calendars of Papal Letters and the Calendars of Scottish Supplications to Rome, has not only shed light on issues of papal provision to benefices, clerical celibacy, illegitimacy and education, and the continuing role and nature of lay patronage and benefaction of the secular and regular Church but has transformed scholarly understanding of the operation of the secular Church in Scotland, the organization and functioning of its governmental structures, and the exercise of canon law, and has given fresh insight into the influence which the clergy wielded over the lives of the lay population. Research founded on these and earlier papal record sources has borne much fruit in the last twenty years, with major studies of Scoto-papal relations and the government of the Scottish Church by, for example, Paul Ferguson for the pre-1286 period, Andrew Barrell for the mid-fourteenth century, and Donald Watt for the period down to 1472 stimulating a general reassessment of interactions between the Scottish clergy and the papal curia and offering insights into the development and functioning of the legal and judicial structures and mechanisms which characterized the later medieval Church in Scotland. More recently, both Irene Furneaux’s and Jennifer McDonald’s doctoral research into the Scottish material in the records of the Sacred Penitentiary has begun to be published. The full impact of their research is yet to be felt, but the evidence which they present for the level of ecclesiastical influence on routine aspects of the daily lives of both clerical and lay populations in the period after 1470, the volume of communication between Scotland and the Sacred Penitentiary, and fundamental elements of religious practice and belief will undoubtedly trigger a radical reassessment of sacred and profane behaviour and belief among the lay population and the composition, character, and quality of the clergy.

The Requests of Scottish Clergy in the Registers of the Sacra Penitenzieria Apostolica, 1449–1542

The Requests of Scottish Clergy in the Registers of the <i>Sacra Penitenzieria Apostolica</i>, 1449–1542

Attitudes and perceptions afifecting Scottish clergy in their care of the dying

This paper sheds further light on the education and training of Scottish clergy in the care of the dying. In particular, it examines the problems of interdisciplinary co-operation, the attitudes of clergy to other professionals, and the perceived reactions of doctors and nurses to clergy.

The education and training of Scottish clergy in the care of the dying

A randomized selection of Scottish clergy were sent questionnaires on the education and training they had received, before and after ordination, in the care of the dying. The results suggest that in recentyears such training has increased, but is still seen as inadequate, and the implications of these findings are discussed.

Gregor McGregor (1681-1740) and the Highland problem in the Scottish Catholic Mission

The 'chief trial' affecting the Scottish Catholic Mission in the first half of the eighteenth century was undoubtedly the accusation of Jansenist heresy which was laid against leading missioners, including bishops, by a section of the clergy.1 The factors involved in 'anti-Jansenism', arguably more significant than what it claimed to attack, have recently been clarified.2 The quarrel certainly went well beyond its ostensible focus, the Bull Unigenitus of 1713, which condemned the theology and narrow pastoral emphasis of Cornelius Jansen as reaffirmed by Quesnel. While an international view is in one sense appropriate for this issue, with French Gallicanism close to its heart, another concerns 'frontier' Catholicism,3 the implication for Scotland being that missionary priests were influenced by the Calvinism which they were trained to confront. The best specifically pastoral training was obtained in the Scots College, Paris, in comparison with the Jesuit education provided at the other 'abroad' colleges of Rome, Madrid and Douai.4 But the split was not simply a matter of Paris-trained against the rest. And although Jesuits and Benedictines lined up on the prosecution side the dispute was much more than an extension of the regularsecular issue which had been the chief trial hitherto—and which was eased when the Scottish clergy were placed under the episcopal jurisdiction of a vicar-apostolic, Thomas Nicolson. Within Scotland, the most significant factor in the quarrel over Jansenism, it has been acknowledged, was the division between Highland and Lowland Catholics.5 That is the broad theme of this paper too, but it seeks to explore the origins of that Highland/Lowland divide through the personal history of a leading actor in the drama. When the storm broke in 1731 it was Fr Gregor or Kilian McGregor, OSB, who laid charges of heresy against those who controlled the Mission. Under the pressure of events Bishop James Gordon then agreed to exact an anti-Jansenist oath from his priests, but in 1735 two leaders of the

The Non-Intrusion Controversy in Scotland, 1832–1943

The non-intrusion controversy in the Church of Scotland grew out of a demand of the evangelical group in that Church that the intrusion of ministers on unwilling congregations be stopped. The patrons, who had been accused of intruding unsatisfactory ministers on parishes, insisted that the presentee must be accepted by the parish unless valid objections were raised to his theology, literary style, or moral character. On the other hand, the more zealous of the Scottish clergy and laity vehemently insisted that the presentee, in addition to possessing those qualifications, must be personally “acceptable” to the congregation. In fact, many insisted that when the presbytery was moderating in the call, the question of the presentee's “acceptability” outweighed all other considerations.

Hume and the Scottish Shakespeare

DA VID HUME was proud of his ability to maintain close personal friendships among the Moderates of the Scottish clergy. As one of their numberi expressly testifies, He took much to the company of the younger clergy, not from a wish to bring them over to his opinions, for he never attempted to overturn any man's principles, but they best understood his notions, and could furnish him with literary conversation' The not undistinguished names of Hugh Blair, Alexander Carlyle, Adam Ferguson, John Home, William Robertson, and Robert Wallace were among those closely associated with his. This association of clergy and infidel was the more seemly in a day when the leading clergy were of letters, and when also it was a professed principle of Hume's that men of letters ought always to regard their sympathy of taste as a more powerful band of union, than any difference of party or opinion as a source of animosity:2 Yet it was Hume's intimacy with the Rev. John Home that involved him in a controversy surpassed in intensity only by the later, more famous one with Rousseau. The Rousseau quarrel, however, was purely personal and essentially trivial, while the Douglas affair, under a superficial frivolity, was national, religious, and essentially serious. The personal relationship that drew Hume into the Douglas controversy, nevertheless, must not be entirely overlooked, for it was deeply founded. The spirit of that intimacy has been caught in a vignette of Laurence Sterne's in A Sentimental Journey: A prompt French Marquis at our ambassador's table demanded of Mr.

On the Connexion between Scotland and the Council of Constance in the Fifteenth Century

This article discusses how the decisions of the Council of Constance, 1414-1418, were received by the Scottish religious authorities. The author describes how the declaration of this Council on the subject of who was the true Pope triggered a heated debate among the Scottish clergy. It is also noted that members of the Scottish church were broadly in favour of the treatment of Huss and Jerome (see pp.408-424), and even emulated this example on a heretical preacher in St Andrews in 1433.

Literary attainments of the Scottish clergy in the seventeenth century

Literary attainments of the Scottish clergy in the seventeenth century