Articles

Reformation Achieved Mary’s insistence on retaining her right to hold Mass in her own chapel so provoked the people that only with great difficulty was a mob prevented from entering her chapel and disrupting the service. Today we would take […]

The Reformation Progresses The progress of the Reformation was now rapid throughout the Scottish lowlands, embracing Angus, Fife, Lanarkshire, Glasgow area, Ayrshire, the Lothian region, Dumfriesshire and elsewhere. As yet they had no preachers, meeting in places and at times […]

John Knox (1513-72) A native of Haddington, East Lothian, Knox was ordained a priest in 1536 after a liberal education at Glasgow University.  He was employed at first as an apostolic notary or church lawyer and then as a tutor […]

George Wishart (1513-46) From January 1543, a regent ruled Scotland, the Earl of Arran, acting for the infant Queen Mary whose father, James V, had died in 1542. At first the new regent was inclined to favour the protestant pro-English […]

Patrick Hamilton (1503-28) Patrick Hamilton was of noble lineage and connected to the royal family. While yet a child, the revenues of the Abbacy of Fearn in Ross-shire were given to him as the Commendator-Abbot – a common corrupt practice […]

Its Origin and Background The visible church in Scotland just before the Reformation was one of the most corrupt and degenerate in Europe. The prevailing vices of the clergy, their worldliness, covetousness, idleness, immorality and oppression of the poor merited […]