The Scottish Parliament conveyed in Edinburgh after a petition was drawn up by reformers, condemning the Catholic religion and asking for the discipline of the church to be restored.
The Scottish Parliament adopted a Reformed confession of Faith, known as the Scot’s Confession. It was written up by six ministers including John Knox.
“The Scottish Lords regularised their religious situation. Parliament passed a series of acts authorising a new Protestant Confession of Faith, abolishing the Pope’s jurisdiction over Scotland and making both the saying and the hearing of Mass illegal. Scotland was indeed being ruled by its Protestant nobility.”
They also passed anti-Catholic laws inflicting capital punishment on those who dared to celebrate mass.
“Before it, Scotland had been a Catholic country with peculiarly close links to Rome for 500 hundred years. After it, the Scottish Parliament declared the country protestant and independent of Rome – and so it remained in following centuries.”
Reformers believed there was one state in Scotland, therefore there should only be one church and everyone in Scotland should be members. Those found celebrating mass would be punished by death at the hands of the law.
“Secondly, it was the duty of the state to govern strictly with “good laws and sharp execution of the same,” and in Godly Commonwealth it is also the duty of the state to listen when the church interprets the divine moral law.”
The church became the authorities as the power of discipline could not be totally left to the state.
The newly reformed church brought upon its own ideas of discipline that differed from those of the former Catholic church.
It worked to make former cathedrals and bishoprics maintained as universities, education was a very important issue of the reformed church. The church believed in a need for education as punishment would correct an adult and hopefully stop them from re offending but education would hopefully stop a child from committing the sin in the first place. They reorganised the church finances to support the Parish churches, schools and universities. They stopped the Nobles from pocketing the church money. They tried to appoint a schoolmaster to every church so that all children could be educated, so that even the poorest of children could attend. Even though schools were now free, poor families needed their children to work to help them survive. Most poor children couldn’t attend school but they would attend church were they would be educated. This was making good of the deficiencies because the Reformed church was making sure everyone got an education in hopes that it would make the future leaders and ministers but also stop people from committing crimes and sins as people would be educated into knowing it was wrong.
The Church also tries to help the unfortunate, those who were victims of old age and misfortune. They weren’t there to help anyone and everyone; they did not help idle beggars, who made a living out of begging but there to help, the widows, the fatherless, the aged, the impotent or the lame. They felt they should be given suitable help by the church in their own Parishes and not encouraged to go begging for help elsewhere. Those who were able to work would be given jobs but
“Landowners were warned of ‘God’s heavy and fearful judgements’ upon those who, possessing former church lands, were ‘as cruel over their tenants as ever were the papists.’ ”
Social obligation was a part of the policy of the reformed Kirk. The Parish was devoted to the establishment of schools, the support of its ministers and the help to the poor. The church helped everyone it could and felt needed it. They helped and made some peoples lives better with their help and support.
However, they brought on very different ideas of discipline, some of which have been criticised.
Harlotrie was a big problem especially in the towns such as Edinburgh. A number of brothels were discovered. The church was determined on punishing such sins. The men were usually brought to public penance, and the prostitutes banished.
However the Reformed church allowed misbehaviour to go by unnoticed until a child was on the way. They would then try to find the father, force a marriage if it could and then finally punish both parents by making them parade in front of the congregation.
Many couples were happy just to live with each other for the rest of their lives without marriage. This was seen not only to be wicked but also a threat to the holy sacrament of marriage. It was punished, the offenders were unaware that they were committing a crime but they complied because they feared their children would not be baptised. Fornication was punished by the reformed church by fining those who committed it.
However the effectiveness of this sort of punishment cannot be measured as it did not worry the poor or those living in the Highlands.
“In many rural areas it was still normal for the labourer’s first child to be born, or at least conceived out of wedlock.”
This sort of punishment also brought other problems. Overcome with dread and shame of having to parade before the church congregation because of giving birth to a fatherless child, some girls would kill their own baby. Many believed that these killings occurred as a result of the fear of the churches discipline. This was certainly not making any good of the deficiencies as the girls were so full of fear of their punishment that they would commit the murder of their own child.
Reformers were thought to concentrate on the prosecution of sexual offenders because it was more identifiable than other sins. For instance if an offender was caught in bed with a girl, or a fatherless baby was born, the whole community could see what had happened.
“The deadly sins of greed, pride, untruthfulness, self-righteousness and hypocrisy, on the other hand were not so easy to define and see.”
They only seemed interesting in sorting out the problems that everyone could see, whilst forgetting all about the other sins that were obviously causing problems within their society.
The newly Reformed church was not particularly concerned with enforcing a puritan mortality. It seemed to be more troubled about the issues such as idle slanderer within the congregation about blasphemy and a number of criminal acts such as murder, manslaughter and assault.
The church was also concerned in a general way about the forms of indulgence.
“ ‘The preachers’ Knox said in 1562, ‘were wondrous vehement in reprehension of all manner of vice, which then began to abound; and especially avarice, oppression of the poor, excess, riotous cheer, banqueting, immoderate dancing, and whoredom, that there ensues.’ ”
The Reformed church tried to make good of the deficiencies in education but it was hard for them to progress on the way the church before had done this. The newly Reformed church had planned to set up a school in every parish and a college in every burgh but they did not find it easy to advance beyond the former position.
“The Reformers’ plans to punish the adult for his sin were, form the start, intended to be supplemented by an ambitious scheme for education. They were fortunate in this respect to be able to build on earlier tradition, for Catholic Scotland had been generous in Scholastic foundation. Three universities – at St. Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen existed already.”
In many ways the newly Reformed church made good of the deficiencies of the late medieval church. It mane good by introducing education into their churches, it was very important to them as educated people meant less sins and crimes being committed. Discipline seemed to work and helped stop such sins.
On the other hand, not everything was made good. Their discipline was harsh and encouraged girls to kill their fatherless children because of their dread and fear of their punishment. Their education was also hard to improve on.
In conclusion however, the newly Reformed church seemed to make good of some of the deficiencies in the decades immediately after 1560, and with others it could not.
Bibliography
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Cowan, E.J & Finlay R.J. Scottish History – The Power of the Past. (2002) 1st edn., Edinburgh University Press, UK.
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Cowan, I.B & Shaw, D. The Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland. (1983) 1st edn., Scottish Academic Press, UK.
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Marshall, R.K. Queen of Scots. (1986) 1st edn., Crown Copyright, UK.
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Smout, T.C. A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830. (1985) 2nd edn., Fontana Press, UK.
Rosalind K. Marshall Queen of Scots (UK, 1986)
T.C Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830. (UK, 1969)
T.C Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830. (UK, 1969)
T.C Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830. (UK, 1969)
T.C Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830. (UK, 1969)
T.C Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830. (UK, 1969)
T.C Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830. (UK, 1969)
T.C Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830. (UK, 1969)
T.C Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830. (UK, 1969)
