WRITING FRAME
The Reformation in Scotland
For Scotland, Michael Lynch argues that the Reformation was essentially:
 at first, a rapid Reformation from above
 then, a slow Reformation from above.
This list of points below can be edited and points can be pasted under rap id
Reformation and/or slow Reformation from above.
Rapid Reformation from above
Slow Reformation from above
 The Reformation parliament, despite the 100 lairds from various parts of
Scotland who attended it, was orchestrated by leading nobles. I t was their
kinsmen or dependants who filled it to overflowing.
 The Reformation was inextricably linked to the power of the nobles and a
vacuum in the power of the state.
 In the late 1580s, the General Assembly commissioned surveys of the
religious affiliations of the Scottish nobility. About one -third was reported
to be ‘papists’ or Catholics. These reports probably reveal as much about
the fears of the Kirk as they do about the persistence of Catholicism. But
they do suggest that conversion to Protestantism was not a once-and-forall process.
 It is possible to argue that the real hero of the Scottish Reformation,
defined in these terms, was not John Knox but Lord James Stewart, Earl of
Moray, and half-brother of Queen Mary.
 Control of politics rested, as before the Reformation parliament met, with
the nobles. Lairds would not attend another parliament in such numbers for
another 50 years.
 The elites saw retaining control as more important than religion, and they
succeeded – except for Perth, there is little evidence of popular unrest, still
less of significant popular Protestantism.
 The organisers of the Reformation in Scotland used the rhetoric of popular
protest simply as propaganda – such as the ‘Beggars’ Summons’ of 1559.
Instead, it was a Reformation pushed through and carefully controlled
from above, against a backcloth of nervousness about popular discontent
and riot.
THE AGE OF THE REFORMATION, 1542–1603 (H, HISTORY)
© Learning and Teaching Scotland 2009
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WRITING FRAME
 The Reformation began with a noble revolt in 1559 –60. It was
consolidated by a second revolt, in 1567, when Mary, Queen of Scots, was
unexpectedly deposed by a coup within a coup.
 At the end of 1561, Scotland had around 240 new Protestant ministers
installed; by 1567 the figure was about 750; and by 1574 about 1000 of the
country’s 1100 parishes had a Protestant clergyman in place. But until the
1590s, three out of four of the new Protestant ministry were only readers,
unable to preach or to administer communion.
 The Scottish Reformation came late and a magistrates’ reformation took
charge, with little or no role for the people.
 In Scotland, a ‘revolution’ took place in which virtually no one lost their
jobs, in government, the law courts or town councils.
 The leading nobles commissioned John Knox to draw up a Book of
Reformation to present to the parliament. But they were dissatisf ied with
it, especially with the section on their own role, as godly magistrates. They
told Knox to redraft it, and added five other advisers to help him.
 What was clear about the events of 1559–60 was that the nobles were
firmly in control. Looking at the radicals’ key demands, a test act did not
come until 1573; and an act of uniformity not until the 1580s; and the
wholesale inheritance of the lands and wealth of the Catholic Church never
happened.
 In many rural parishes in the 1590s, a sermon would have been heard only
once a month and communion was available only once a year – little
different from the situation before 1560.
 The Kirk progressed only at the pace allowed by the state (i.e. the king and
his parliament) which financed it.
 The Congregation which had pushed through the revolt that had stopped
short of being a revolution were the Lords of the Congregation; the initial
five signatories of the First Bond were all from the landed classes.
 The story of the Reformation in Aberdeen, as a top -down phenomenon, is
not complete until after the ruling Menzies faction lost control, at the end
of the 1580s. In effect, the Reformation in Aberdeen took 30 years to run
its course.
Any other relevant factors?
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THE AGE OF THE REFORMATION, 1542–1603 (H, HISTORY)
© Learning and Teaching Scotland 2009