THE REFORMATION.

1. The Necessity For It.

The conversion of Scotland to Christianity came about mainly through missionaries of the Celtic Church from the 4th to the 6th centuries AD. The Celtic Church, with its distinctive cross, came into being through the labours of Patrick in Ireland. It was a monastic-based church in which the Abbot was the head and Bishops were of secondary importance. The Church was intensely missionary-minded, and its missionaries were distinguished by their fervent Christianity, freedom from worldliness and purity of life. There were men in the Celtic Church like Ninian who set up his monastery at Whithorn on the Solway Firth, Columba who established his monastery at Iona, and Aidan who built his monastery at Lindisfarne in the North of England. These men and others like them had evangelized North Britain before the emissaries of Rome arrived at Canterbury at the end of the 6th century. Scotland did not come under the control of Rome until the 11th century. The widowed English queen fled to Scotland with her children after the battle of Hastings and the beginning of the Norman conquest (1066). Malcom Canmore, King of Scotland fell in love with her daughter, Margeret. They married in 1067 and Margeret, who was a devoted Roman Catholic, with her husband’s royal support, began the process of bringing the Celtic Church, which by this time had declined in piety and zeal, into conformity to Rome. It was left to her son David to complete her work. He was a devoted adherent of the Bishop of Rome. He brought the Celtic Church into what was called ‘Catholic Unity.’

From the 12th to the 16th centuries, Rome held sway in Scotland. It influenced greatly the religious, social and political life of the nation. The independent spirit of the Scottish people was not killed but it lay dormant for years. Roman church leaders served in high office in the State, the Roman clergy dominated society not only as spiritual lords but also as landlords. By the time of the Reformation the church owned half of the land in Scotland. Most of it came as bequests from kings, nobles and people. This was an assurance policy for the hereafter. All the education was in the hands of the clergy, together with most of the money in the country. Not only were the coffers of the church filled from bequests but from rents, from the sale of livings and important positions in the Church, from donations from the people, and from the death duty levied on every parishioner when someone died in the family. The local priest could take the most valuable commodity or animal in the household.

Wealth and power corrupt, and by the 16th century the Church was corrupt. By and large the ordinary clergy were ignorant, many hardly able to read and write and far less able to preach. (Not that this was encouraged.) Even the educated Bishops knew only the scriptures quoted in their Breviary. Greed and worldliness abounded as the higher clergy aspired to office in the State and lived like princes. The monks lived on the fat of the land though not ashamed to beg off the people. Immorality was rife. The Primate of the day had not a few children on the Birth Register in Edinburgh. (They can be seen today in Register House). The junior clergy were not slow to follow his example. Many priests had concubines. The illegitimate children of higher clergy were awarded livings in the church that would make their lot comfortable in life. A poorly paid curate would carry out the duties.

The Scottish people were sickened by the formality, greed, worldliness, ignorance and immorality of the clergy. Poets like Sir David Lyndsay parodied the vices of the clergy and held them up to ridicule.

In describing the state of the clergy we bear in mind that there were exceptions. There were men at all levels who were sincere and did their best to promote education, who cared for the poor and did all they could to better the people of Scotland. But they were exceptions. There was little or no Gospel even among the better clergy.

2. The Turn of Events

3. The Advent of John Knox

The queen mother, Mary of Guise, a French woman, was regent at this time (1546). The king had died and her daughter, Mary, heir to the Scottish throne, was in France for her education. She married the heir to the French throne in 1558. The queen mother exercised her power with the help of French troops stationed in Scotland. The French navy sailed up the Firth of Tay and bombarded St Andrew’s castle until the inmates surrendered. Knox along with others was sent to the French galleys where he worked as a rowing slave for eighteen months. When he was released he went to England and under the boy king Edward VI, a Protestant, he took a position in the Anglican Church but refused high office. With the accession of ‘Bloody Mary’, he had to flee to the continent and ultimately arrived at Geneva to assist John Calvin. In 1555, he went back to Scotland to encourage the Protestant nobles who were having a difficult time with Mary of Guise and her Frenchmen. The time was not ripe for him and he returned to Geneva. In 1559, he went back to Scotland at the request of the nobles. Under his strong lead and inspiring preaching, the Reformation went on apace. Town after town proclaimed for the Reformation. The Protestants had to resort to arms to defend their lives. With the help of the English army and navy, the French forces were bottled up in Leith the port of Edinburgh and were persuaded by treaty to leave Scotland. Elizabeth of England though offended by Knox’s strong pamphlet, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment (rule) of Women, had no desire to see a Roman/French state on her northern border and had sent help to the Scots.

Knox and his colleagues drew up a statement of faith which became known as The Scots Confession. It is strongly Reformed in its emphasis. It was presented to the Scots Parliament which in 1560 recognized it by law as the faith of the Scottish nation. Another document called the First Book of Discipline laid down the church’s polity. Its scheme is elementary Presbyterianism. For the first time in the Scottish Church’s history, laymen in the form of Elders were to play an important part in its administration and pastoral oversight. It was proposed in this document to use the wealth of the old Kirk to set up a church and minster, a school and school-master in every parish as well as a poor relief system. The vision of the Reformers was never realized in full. Much of the money was used to pension off the old Roman clergy, and the barons who had seized lands belonging to the old Church were not anxious to give them up especially if their forbears had given them to the Church in the first place. The First Book of Discipline was never ratified by Parliament.

In 1561, Mary the Regent died and her daughter, now a widow, returned to Scotland. Mary Queen of Scots was an ardent Roman Catholic and was imbued with the French concept of monarchy: namely, the Monarchy is absolute. The Reformers took the position that the monarch was subject to law - the Law of God and the law of the land. Mary’s natural beauty and charm and her pathetic situation as a young widow won over some gullible Protestant leaders. She kept a close secret her intention to return Scotland to the old Faith. They wanted her to have full freedom to celebrate the mass in her own chapel. Knox knew what she was up to and in some well-documented interviews he withstood both her charms and her threats. She could have been a real danger to the Reformed cause but her own follies undid her. Her intimate association with her private secretary the Italian Rizzio, aroused suspicion and resentment. Her marriage to a handsome but weak English Roman Catholic noble who was of royal descent aroused suspicion also. Darnley, jealous of the rival for his wife’s confidences, arranged the murder of Rizzio. It took place in Mary’s presence. Darnley in turn was assassinated in circumstances that led many to believe that Mary was involved. Certainly a so-called Protestant noble, named Boswell, was involved. Within three months, with Mary’s undoubted connivance, Boswell carried her off and they were married. She returned to the capital Edinburgh with her new husband to the cries of, ‘Burn the Whore.’ She rallied an army to defend her throne but was defeated and incarcerated in Loch Leven Castle. Here she renounced the throne in favour of her infant son James. He was to be brought up as a Protestant. Mary escaped from Loch Leven Castle and had enough support to raise another army. Again she was defeated. This time she fled across the Border and resigned herself to her jealous and suspicious cousin, Elizabeth of England. She was interned in Fothergay Castle and many years after perished on the block for alleged treason.

The next few years were not easy for John Knox. The church was established but the political situation was not. Mary still had her supporters and there was much rivalry and bitterness among aspirants to power in Scotland. A nasty civil war followed. Knox‘s last days were clouded by the desertion to Mary’s cause of one of his close friends and by the death by assassination of one of his sons in the faith, Regent Murray. As he lay dying, he asked his young wife to read for him John Chapter 17 where as he said, he had cast his first anchor. At his funeral in 1572, the current Regent paid him this tribute, ‘Here lies one who never feared or flattered flesh.’