Background: The Protestant Reformation In Europe

By the beginning of the sixteenth century the Christianity of Roman Catholicism had become the religious belief of millions throughout Western Europe. This process had taken hundreds of years during which time the church had developed an elaborate administrative organisation. This enabled it to wield enormous political power and play an active part alongside monarchs in the government of kingdoms.

The medieval Roman Catholic church was essentially an empire; and empires are expensive to build and maintain. The church's main source of income came from taxing those who lived and worked on church lands. In theory, these taxes were intended to pay the clergy and to finance religious work; in practice, this was now rarely the case. Far too much wealth was going amiss, usually transferred up from the bottom of the system and into the coffers of those at the top. Whilst money was lavished on elaborate cathedral building projects for the church hierarchy (not to mention other far less elevated activities) at a local level parishes were starved of resources. As a result, poorly paid and ill-trained priests neglected their duties, church property fell into disrepair, and corruption proliferated.

Years of endemic corruption fostered cynicism amongst church congregations who now hooted and catcalled throughout what should have been sombre rituals. The people were clearly losing faith in the church; but, crucially, they had not lost faith in God. To the medieval mind God remained very real – and so too did the Hell into which He would cast those who did not find salvation through worship in this life. Where were people to turn for salvation if the church failed them?

This question greatly troubled men of conscience in the church and wider society. From the early sixteenth century onwards there emerged a growing movement openly campaigning for reform. Citing biblical authority, the reformers demanded sweeping theological changes in the church, administrative restructuring to eliminate corruption, and adequate financing for parish priests to minister to their flocks.

This was the Protestant Reformation and it had revolutionary consequences even if revolution was the last thing most reformers intended. Violent conflict and civil war broke out between those who demanded Protestant reforms and those who defended the old Catholic faith. For generations Europe was convulsed by this political and religious struggle. It would change Scotland irreversibly.

Illustration: Early stone cross carving in the National Museum of Scotland.

 

The Reformation Upheaval: 1514-1567

 

Martin Luther and the Origins of the Reformation Upheaval: 1517

In a sense, the Scottish Reformation began not in Scotland but in Germany in October 1517 when an unknown monk called Martin Luther published a protest against corrupt practices in the Catholic church. His actions encouraged others to voice their misgivings. Soon similar ideas were circulating throughout Europe despite desperate efforts to suppress them by church and state leaders who feared this challenge to the existing order. As early as 1523 in Scotland the rector of an Aberdeen school was reprimanded for teaching Luther's ideas, and in 1525 the Scottish parliament was sufficiently alarmed at their proliferation to pass an act banning the import of books advocating them.

The Martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton: 1528

Forbidden fruit is invariably the sweetest and attempts to proscribe the new ideas only increased their appeal. Soon travelling preachers emerged throughout Scotland spreading Protestantism by word of mouth. Prominent amongst these was Patrick Hamilton, a brilliant, earnest young man who studied in Paris before returning to Scotland in 1527 to preach Protestant reform to growing crowds. This religious fervour did not go unnoticed. Persecuted and expelled from the country at one point Hamilton persisted with his preaching until in 1528 he was seized by the authorities and burned as an example to others. The Scottish Protestant reform movement had its first martyr.

A Nation Divided

Government persecution forced the reform movement underground; but it would not go away. Protestant ideas continued to spread and it became increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that Scottish society, like wider Europe, was dividing into Protestant and Catholic factions. The reformers found a sympathetic audience amongst a population fed up with church corruption yet still hungry for spiritual sustenance. Before long some of the nobility also found themselves in sympathy with the Protestant reform movement. Yet progress was far from straightforward. The years after 1530 saw various members of the Scottish ruling class continually switch between supporting and opposing Protestant reform.

Intrigue and Conspiracy

As well as being a time of great religious upheaval the Reformation century was also a period of great political instability in Scotland. This can be traced back to the death of King James V in 1542. When the king died he left as heir to the Scottish throne a daughter, Mary Stuart, destined to become Mary Queen of Scots. Unfortunately, Mary was barely a week old.

As with the Independence Struggle of the thirteenth century, the absence of a strong monarch to impose order led to much squabbling amongst the nobility. Religious division further complicated this already unstable political situation. In the mid sixteenth century it was still far from clear if Scotland would remain Catholic or embrace Protestantism. This political and religious uncertainty was reflected in the endless machinations of the Scottish nobility as they flitted back and forth between Catholicism and Protestantism, from one power group to the next. Sometimes this was due to genuine conviction; more often it was in response to changing circumstances that made it politically and financially advantageous to support first one politico-religious faction and then another.

Scotland in Europe

The religious dispute also placed Scotland centre stage in the wider European political struggles of the age. Throughout this period both religious factions sought support from other countries: Catholics looked to France; Protestant sympathisers to newly-converted England. Meanwhile, throughout Europe  powerful figures observed developments in the remote northern kingdom of Scotland.  In the mid sixteenth century it was still far from clear if Scotland would remain Catholic or embrace Protestantism. In the bitter religious struggle that was convulsing Europe any country that could be won over to either faith could be claimed as a significant victory for the winning side. In this context, even small states like Scotland now assumed an importance in international politics that far exceeded their actual size.

For both the state leaders and the general populace of mid-sixteenth century Scotland this was an era in which they were forced to grapple with unprecedented religious challenges and dangerous political instability: the stakes were high, the plot complicated, the future uncertain. The last thing the Scots needed now was a war with their "Auld Enemy", England. And this was exactly what was about to break out.

Bungled Diplomacy: Scotland and England at War Again: 1543

Across the border, the formidable King Henry VIII was in power. Like most of the medieval English monarchs, he was always alert for any opportunity to bring the unruly Scottish kingdom under greater control. His chance seemed to arrive with the death of James V. In 1543 Henry concluded a deal by which the infant Mary Queen of Scots would marry his son, Edward, and their children would inherit the separate kingdoms of Scotland and England. The Scots convinced themselves that this deal would placate the ambitious Henry VIII and guarantee Scottish independence; the English hoped that it would give them some influence over Scottish affairs.

Too much influence, perhaps? The ink had scarcely dried on the Treaty before the Scots, belatedly waking up to the possible long-term consequences, repudiated it. This was shoddy diplomacy by any standards. To a man like Henry VIII, unused to being denied his own way, it was an outrage.

His response was characteristically savage. He commanded his armies to invade the northern kingdom. If he could not control Scotland through diplomacy, he would do so by force. The Rough Wooings had begun.

The Rough Wooings: 1543-1551

Between 1543 and 1551 English forces pillaged and devastated the Scottish borderlands in a conflict that came to be known as the Rough Wooings. The borders of Scotland are still littered with ruined abbeys, crumbling testament to this prolonged and ferocious assault. This was a merciless conflict by any standards. Henry VIII's direct orders to his generals have survived and even in a modern era which has witnessed some of the worst atrocities in human history they make chilling reading:

"Beat down and overthrow the Castle, sack Holyrood House and as many towns and villages about Edinburgh as you may conveniently do. Light and burn and subvert it and all the rest, putting man, woman and child to fire and sword without exception where any resistance is made against you."

The Scots fought back but by 1548 it was obvious that they could not win the war alone. Desperate for support, the Scots invoked the "Auld Alliance" and appealed to the French for help. A deal was hammered out: France would send troops to help the Scots defeat the English; in return the Scots agreed to send their child Queen Mary to France to be married to the French king's son. In June 1548 French troops landed in Scotland and over the next two years the French and Scottish armies drove the English out.

By 1551 Henry VIII was dead and the Rough Wooings had died with him. An uneasy peace existed between England and Scotland once again, but the conflict had poisoned Anglo-Scottish relations. There was another significant legacy of the Rough Wooings: a strong French presence in Scotland. The political circumstances now favoured a pro-French Catholic figurehead: Mary of Guise.

Mary of Guise and the French Connection: 1554-1560

Mary of Guise was the French-born widow of James V and the mother of Mary Queen of Scots. A formidable political strategist and a devout Catholic she was strongly opposed to Protestant reform and worked hard to maintain Scotland's long-standing connections with France. In the years after James' death she had struggled with Scotland's other prominent nobles to maintain her power and position but had often found herself sidelined. But now, with a strong French military and political presence in Scotland, and with most of her rivals discredited by their part in the debacle of the Rough Wooings, her moment had arrived. By 1554 she had manoeuvred herself  into power and would rule Scotland for the next six years.

 

Occupation and Unrest

Whilst Mary's tenacity earned widespread respect amongst the Scottish nobility and general populace, her policies incurred their ire. She gave powerful positions in government to Frenchmen causing widespread resentment amongst Scots nobles; and she introduced new taxes, a sure-fire way for any leader in any era to make themselves unpopular with the people.

The French military presence was also becoming a source of tension. Welcomed during the Rough Wooings, the French troops were now viewed with increasing hostility by the Scots: the army of liberation had become an army of occupation. The pro-French, pro-Catholic rule of Mary of Guise was becoming tainted by association. This only strengthened the hand of the Protestant faction and their ever more strident assertion that only Protestant reforms could now prevent Scotland from being turned into a Catholic French satellite state. Sensing the growing unrest in the country, the Protestant faction sought once again to seize power, this time under the Lords of the Congregation.