When was scotland christianized

It came to Scotland in , where it soon gathered momentum. John Knox was a fierce campaigner for Protestant principles.

He was famous for arguing with Mary Queen of Scots , a devout Catholic , over Roman beliefs and practices that he believed were idolatrous. Knox and his colleagues wrote an important declaration of faith, known as The Scots Confession.

The document was accepted by the Scottish Parliament in Attempts were made to impose the same episcopal form of church government that was used in England on the Church of Scotland during the reigns of both Charles I and Charles II , but these were successfully resisted.

In , under William of Orange who had supported and promoted the Reformation on the continent of Europe, Presbyterianism was recognised as the official form of government in the Scottish Church. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Church suffered major internal disruption and schism which led to the formation of new Scottish churches. In , some who objected to ministers being appointed by patrons rather than by congregations broke away to form the Original Secession Church.

This ultimately became a four-way split as members disagreed over such matters as the taking of oaths and whether secular magistrates could have any say in the affairs of the church. In further disputes about patronage led to the formation of the Relief Church.

In these two groups came together to form the United Presbyterian Church. The Free Church of Scotland was an evangelical Presbyterian Church which was formed in , when approximately one third of the Church of Scotland's congregations broke away. Many felt that because the Church of Scotland was an 'established' church, political and legislative interference could take place.

This showed itself for example in the appointment of ministers where the rights of a congregation to choose a minister could be over-ridden by the patron of the parish. Today's Free Church of Scotland is a continuation of this denomination after a major union in , taking a more conservative position. It is found mainly in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

This denomination split from the Free Church in because of changing attitudes to the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Westminster Confession had been adopted in by the Churches of Scotland and England together as a 'subordinate standard', helping to interpret Holy Scripture.

It enshrined Puritan beliefs of the time and not all felt they could affirm it completely. The Assembly was being asked to make allowance for 'diversity of opinion'. The Westminster Confession remains the 'subordinate standard' of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church, together with the allowance for 'liberty of opinion' where a belief is not any more seen as agreeing with the Bible.

Today's United Free Church is a continuation of the former denomination when the majority of its members united with the Church of Scotland in It is Presbyterian and evangelical. The United Free Church remains opposed to the idea of an established church. They believe this promotes inequality between churches and damages inter-church relationships.

Although 'established', the Church of Scotland today emphasises the place of other churches in Scotland and seeks to co-operate with them. The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian in its structure, governed by a system of local, regional and national 'courts' or councils. Both are ordained for their special tasks. The national council is known as the General Assembly and convenes each year in Edinburgh.

This meeting establishes the laws which govern the church and the priorities for the coming year. The Assembly represents all presbyteries. In between meetings its work is carried out by several councils covering such areas as mission, education, social services, worship, doctrine and finance. Media debate about sectarianism has often focused on the 'Old Firm', given the historical relationship between Glasgow Rangers and Protestantism and Glasgow Celtic with Catholicism.

The sectarian character of songs and chants heard at some Scottish football matches has been a focus of recent legislation under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Scotland Act But amongst those who do, those who support either Celtic or Rangers predominate. In each case, while around half the club's support comes from the religion with which they are historically associated, the relationship with religion is far from clear-cut.

Meanwhile, neither club is very successful at securing the support of those who identify with the religious tradition of their 'Old Firm' rivals. Home Publications. Supporting documents. Contents Close. The proportion claiming belonging to the Catholic church barely changed over the same period. People's willingness to acknowledge a religious affiliation is clearly affected by how they are asked and in what context.

More people consider themselves to be Protestant, Catholic or Christian than say they 'belong' to any Christian church. Religious identity appears to matter more to those who consider themselves to be Catholic compared with those who identify as Protestant.

Catholics are also more likely to claim to attend church more regularly. The majority have a close friend of the other faith.

While just over half of each of these club's support comes from people of the religion they have been historically associated with, they also gain support from people of other religions or none. However, relatively few Catholics support Rangers or Protestants Celtic. Kintigern, St. Ninian, etc. It was part of the Catholic Church for its entire Christian history up until the turbulent times of the s.

While the Reformation swept Europe and Protestantism took hold in England, there was initially very little support for Protestantism in Scotland. This alliance was seen by many Scottish nobles as an unbalanced one, and it was a thorn in the side of the English, as we shall see later. When one reads of the Reformation in Scotland, the common complaints against the Church are that it was overly rich in its lands and overly corrupt in its clergy.

To have a balanced look, one must also consider that this is the church whose many religious orders in Scotland had no property, owned no land, and subsisted on donations only. These holy monks and friars tended to the lepers and plague ridden, many dying in the effort.

It was the Catholic Church that owned the only libraries in Scotland, and that ran the only grammar schools and universities in Scotland. As a whole, the people of Scotland had very little complaint against the Roman Catholic Church. What they did complain about was the clergy. Individual clergymen in the Church had become very corrupt by the 16th century. The reasons for this were plenty. The country was very thinly populated; the villages were far apart.

It was very hard to maintain parishes or to supply priests. The priests who were there were over worked, understaffed and undereducated. Scotland was far from Rome, even farther in the days prior to modern transportation and communication methods. Corrupt clergy found that they could get away with most anything they chose, and the devout clergymen could do little more than complain about it.

Catholics attempted many times to reform the Church in Scotland from within during the 16th century. The rise of the Protestant movement in Scotland, as it was in England, was not so much a movement from the people based on theological or ideological motives, as it was a movement spurned on by individuals with agendas that were political as well as theological.

Dictators ancient and modern have killed their opponents whenever they considered that this was expedient. Revolutionary mobs have killed oppressors out of a desire for vengeance and justice. But Knox and his Puritans are the only modern revolutionaries who proclaimed that it was sinful not to kill their enemies.

He delighted when the Scottish Cardinal Beaton was assassinated. His own admirers describe him as narrow, bigoted and humorless. But his sincerity was never doubted and he was a renowned charismatic speaker who could move entire audiences to his will. Knox first targeted the nobility of Scotland. As it had been in England, the Protestant movement began with the nobles, not the common man. There was a strong political movement among the nobility to end the alliance with France, who had so often used the Scottish soldiers to their benefit with seemingly little retribution, and encourage a strong alliance with England, thus consolidating the Isle of Britain.

One major obstacle was the fact that England was a Protestant nation while France remained Catholic. Of course, were Scotland to become Protestant, this would no longer be an issue. Plus, the nobility were tempted by the great church land holdings. If the church no longer had claims to those lands, who would get them? It would not be the common man. The boiling point came one Sunday in a local parish church in Perth at which Knox was speaking.

His speech so enflamed the gathered crowd that when a priest attempted to say mass afterwards, a riot broke out in which all of the statues of the church were destroyed. After ransacking that church, the mob moved out to other religious houses in the community. The Catholic Queen Mary responded to the mob riot by sending French troops in to quell it.

The Protestants in turn invited English troops in to assist them in the rebellion. This Protestant army succeeded in taking Edinburgh in October of A few days later, French troops were able to reclaim the city, although temporarily, with the inhabitants rejoicing. The citizen's opinion of the Protestant army was that it was a mob of heretics and traitors. All French troops were removed. In August of that year the Scottish Parliament abolished papal jurisdiction over Scottish churches and officially adopted a Calvinist confession drawn up by John Knox.

The mass was outlawed. The Presbyterian Church was now the official church of Scotland. While the Highlands of Scotland remained largely Catholic, being too remote, and the inhabitants being too stubborn and too hardy to be converted by force, the Lowlands of Scotland were now effectively, legally, Protestant.

Every adult was required by law to attend a Calvinist sermon on Sunday. The Presbyterian ministers were extraordinary preachers and public speakers. The Presbyterian Church was intent on changing the morals of the people. Puritanism had come to Scotland. But you knew the bargain he sold them, and freedom was only one part, for the price of their souls was a gospel so cold it would freeze up the joy in their hearts.

The effective preaching and public education by the Presbyterian church in the Lowlands of Scotland left the Scots with a deep rooted suspicion for religious authority and a hatred of the old Catholic church that would effect their role in the Ulster plantation of the next century.

Move to Ulster People have always moved back and forth across the Irish Sea. The Scotti tribe from northern Ireland were the first Gaelic speaking settlers of Scotland. The great MacDonald clan at one time held Antrim, bringing northern Ireland under one rule with the Scottish west, in the Lordship of the Isles. Ecclesiastically speaking, the most important result of this union was elevation by Kenneth of the church of Dunkeld to be the primatial see of his new kingdom. Soon, however, the primacy was transferred to Abernethy, and some forty years after Kenneth's accession we find the first definite mention of the "Scottish Church", which King Grig raised from a position of servitude to honourable independence.

Grig's successors were styled no longer Kings of the Picts, but Kings of Alban, the name now given to the whole country between forth and the Spey; and under Constantine, second King of Alban, was held in the memorable assembly at Scone, in which the king and Cellach, Bishop of St. Andrews, recognized by this time as primate of the kingdom, and styled Epscop Alban, solemnly swore to protect the discipline of the Faith and the right of the churches and the Gospel.

In the reign of Malcolm I, Constantine's successor, the district of Cumberland was ceded to the Scottish Crown by Edmund of England ; and among the very scanty notices of ecclesiastical affairs during this period we find the foundation of the church of Brechin of which the ancient round tower, built after the Irish model, still remains. Iona had meanwhile, in consequence of the occupation of the Western Isles by the Norsemen, been practically cut off from Scotland, and had become ecclesiastically dependent on Ireland.

It suffered much from repeated Danish raids, and on Christmas Eve , , the abbey was devastated, and the abbot with most of his monks put to death. Not many years later the Norwegian power in Scotland received a fatal blow by the death of Sigurd, Earl of I Orkney, the Norwegian provinces on the mainland passing into the possession of the Scottish Crown. Malcolm II was now on the throne, and it was during his thirty years' reign that the Kingdom of Alban became first known as Scotia, from the dominant race to which its people belonged.

With Malcolm's death in the male line of Kenneth Mac Alpine was extinguished, and he was succeeded by his daughter's son, Duncan, who after a short and inglorious reign was murdered by his kinsman and principal general, Macbeth. Macbeth wore his usurped crown for seventeen years, and was himself slain in by Malcolm, Duncan's son, who ascended the throne as Malcolm III. It is worth noting that Duncan's father who married the daughter of Malcolm II was Crinan, lay Abbot of Dunkeld ; for this fact illustrates one of the great evils under which the Scottish Church was at this time labouring, namely the usurpation of abbeys and benefices by great secular chieftains, an abuse existing side by side, and closely connected with, the scandal of concubinage among the clergy , with its inevitable consequence, the hereditary succession to benefices , and wholesale secularization of the property of the Church.

These evils were indeed rife in other parts of Christendom ; but Scotland was especially affected by them, owing to her want of a proper ecclesiastical constitution and a normal ecclesiastical government. The accession, and more especially the marriage, of Malcolm III were events destined to have a profound influence on the fortunes of the Scottish Church, and indeed to be a turning-point in her history.

Second period: eleventh to sixteenth century The Norman Conquest of England could not fail to exercise a deep and lasting effect also on the northern kingdom, and it was the immediate cause of the introduction of English ideas and English civilization into Scotland.

The flight to Scotland, after the battle of Hastings, of Edgar Atheling, heir of the Saxon Royal house, with his mother and his sisters Margaret and Christina, was followed at no great distant date by the marriage of Margaret to King Malcolm, as his second wife. A great niece of St. Edward the Confessor , Margaret, whose personality stands out clearly before us in the pages of her biography by her confessor Turgot, was a woman not only of saintly life but of strong character who exercised the strongest influence on the Scottish Church and kingdom, as well as on the members of her own family.

The character of Malcolm III has been depicted in very different colours by the English and Scottish chroniclers, the former painting him as the severe and merciless invader of England , while to the latter he is a noble and heroic prince, called Canmore Ceann-mor great head from his high kingly qualities.

All however agree that the influence of his holy queen was the best and strongest element in his stormy life. Whilst he was engaged in strengthening his frontiers and fighting the enemies of his country, Margaret found time, amid family duties and pious exercises, to take in hand the reform of certain outstanding abuses in the Scottish Church.

In such matters as the fast of Lent , the Easter communion, the observance of Sunday, and compliance with the Church's marriage laws she succeeded, with the king's support, in bringing the Church of Scotland into line with the rest of Catholic Christendom.

Malcolm and Margaret rebuilt the venerable monastery of Iona , and founded churches in various parts of the kingdom; and during their reign the Christian faith was established in the islands lying off the northern and western coasts of Scotland, inhabited by Norsemen.

Malcolm was killed in Northumberland in , whilst leading an army against William Rufus; and his saintly queen, already dangerously ill, followed him to the grave a few days later. In the same year as the king and queen died Fothad, the last of the native bishops of Alban, whose extinction opened the way to the claim, long upheld, of the See of York to supremacy over the Scottish Church — a claim rendered more tenable by the strong Anglo-Norman influence which had taken the place of that of Ireland , and by the absence of any organized system of diocesan jurisdiction in the Scottish Church.

Edgar, one of Malcolm's younger sons, who succeeded to his father's crown after prolonged conflict with other pretenders to it, calls himself in his extant charters "King of Scots", but he speaks of his subjects as Scots and English, surrounded himself with English advisers, acknowledged William of England as his feudal superior, and thus did much to strengthen the English influence in the northern kingdom.

During his ten years' reign no successor was appointed to Fothad in the primacy; but at his death when his brother Alexander succeeded him as king, the younger brother David obtaining dominion over Cumbria and Lothian, with the title of earl Turgot became Bishop of St. Andrews, the first Norman to occupy the primatial see. Alexander's reign was signalized by the creation of two additional sees ; the first being that of Moray, in the district beyond the Spey, where Scandinavian influence had long been dominant.

The see was fixed first at Spynie and later at Elgin, where a noble cathedral was founded in the thirteenth century. The other new see was that of Dunkeld , which had already been the seat of the primacy under Kenneth Mac Alpine, but had fallen under lay abbots. Here Alexander replaced the Culdee community by a bishop and chapter of secular canons.

Elsewhere also he introduced regular religious orders to take the place of the Culdees, founding monasteries of canons regular Augustinians at Scone and Loch Tay.

Even more than Alexander, his brother David, who succeeded him in , and who had been educated at the English Court his sister Matilda having married Henry I , laboured to assimilate the social state and institutions of Scotland, both in civil and ecclesiastical matters, to Anglo-Norman ideas.

His reign of thirty years, on the whole a peaceful one, is memorable in the extent of the changes wrought during it in Scotland, under every aspect of the life of the people.

A modern historian has said that at no period of her history has Scotland ever stood relatively so high in the scale of nations as during the reign of this excellent monarch. Penetrated with the spirit of feudalism , and recognizing the inadequacy of the Celtic institutions of the past to meet the growing needs of his people, David extended his reforms to every department of civil life; but it is with the energy and thoroughness with which he set about the reorganization and remodelling of the national church that his name will always be identified.

While still Earl of Cumbria and Lothian he brought Benedictine monks from France to Selkirk, and Augustinian canons to Jedburgh, and procured the restoration of the ancient see of Glasgow , originally founded by St. Five other bishoprics he founded after his accession: Ross, in early days a Columban monastery , and afterwards served by Culdees, who were now succeeded by secular canons; Aberdeen, where there had also been a church in very early times; Caithness, with the see at Dornoch, in Sutherland, where the former Culdee community was now replaced by a full chapter of ten canons, with dean , precentor , chancellor, treasurer, and archdeacon ; Dunblane, and Brechin, founded shortly before the king's death, and both, like the rest, on the sites of ancient Celtic churches, The great abbeys of Dunfermline , Holyrood, Jedburgh, Kelso, Kinloss, Melrose, and Dundrennan were all established by him for Benedictines , Augustinians, or Cistercians , besides several priories and convents of nuns , and houses belonging to the military orders.

To one venerable Celtic monastery , founded by St. Columba, that of Deer, we find David granting a charter towards the end of his reign; but his general policy was to suppress the ancient Culdee establishments, now moribund and almost extinct, and supersede them by his new religious foundations.

Side by side with this came the complete diocesan reorganization of the Church , the erection of cathedral chapters and rural deaneries, and the reform of the Divine service on the model of that prevailing in the English Church, the use of the ancient Celtic ritual being almost universally discontinued in favour of that of Salisbury. Two church councils were held in David's reign, both presided over by cardinal legates from Rome ; and in took place, at St. Andrews, the first diocesan synod recorded to have been held in Scotland.

David died in , leaving behind him the reputation of a saint as well as a great king, a reputation which has been endorsed, with singular unanimity, alike by ancient chroniclers and the most impartial of modern historians. David's grandson and successor, Malcolm the Maiden, was crowned at Scone — the first occasion, as far as we know , of such a ceremony taking place in Scotland.

His piety was attested by his many religious foundations, including the famous Abbey of Paisley; but as a king he was weak, whereas England was at that time ruled by the strong and masterful Henry II, who succeeded in wresting from Scotland the three northern English counties which had been subject to David.

Malcolm was succeeded in by his brother William the Lion, whose reign of close on fifty years was the longest in Scottish history.

It was by no means a period of peace for the Scottish realm; for in William, in a vain effort to recover his lost English provinces, was taken prisoner , and only released on binding himself, to be the liegerman of the King of England , and to do him homage for his whole kingdom. During a great part of his reign he was also in conflict with his unruly Celtic subjects in Galloway and elsewhere, as well as with the Norsemen of Caithness. The Scottish Church, too, was harassed not only by the continual claims of York to jurisdiction over her, but by the English king's attempts to bring her into entire subjection to the Church of England.

A great council at Northampton in , attended by both monarchs, a papal legate , and the principal English and Scottish bishops , broke up without deciding this question; and a special legate sent by Pope Alexander III to England and Scotland shortly afterwards was not more successful.

It was not until twelve years later that, in response to a deputation specially sent to Rome by William to urge a settlement, Pope Clement III in March, declared by Bull the Scottish Church, with its nine diocese, to be immediately subject — to the Apostolic See.

The issue of this Bull , which was confirmed by succeeding popes , was followed, on William subscribing handsomely to Richard Coeur de Lion's crusading fund, by the King of England agreeing to abrogate the humiliating treaty which had made him the feudal of superior of the King of Scots, and formally recognizing the temporal, as well as the spiritual independence of Scotland.

Thomas of Canterbury , with whom the king had been on terms of personal friendship. Even more noteworthy was the establishment of a Benedictine monastery in the sacred Isle of Iona by Reginald, Lord of the isles, whose desire, like that of the Scottish kings was to supersede the effete Culdees in his domains by the regular orders of the Church. In a tenth diocese was erected — that of Argyll, cut off from Dunkeld , and including an extensive territory in which Gaelic was as it still is almost exclusively spoken.

The Fourth Lateran Council was held in Rome in , the year-after William's death, under the great Pope Innocent III , and was attended by four Scottish bishops and abbots , and procurators of the other prelates ; and we find the ecclesiastics of Scotland, as of other countries, ordered to contribute a twentieth part of their revenues towards a new crusade , and a papal legate arriving to collect the money.

In the Scottish bishops met in council for the first time without the presence of a legate from Rome , electing one of their number, as directed by with a papal bull, to preside over the assembly with quasi-metropolitan authority and the title of conservator. The Scottish kings were regularly represented at these councils by two doctors of laws specially nominated by the sovereign. The thirteenth century, during the greater part of which the second and third Alexanders wore the crown of Scotland, is sometimes spoken of as the golden age of that country.

During that long period, in the words of a modern poet, "God gave them peace, their land reposed"; and they were free to carry on the work of consolidation and development so well begun by the good King David II.

Alexander II , indeed, when still a youth incurred the papal excommunication by espousing the cause of the English barons against King John, but when he had obtained absolution he married a sister of Henry III, and so secured a good understanding with England , The occasional signs of unrest among some of his Celtic subjects in Argyll, Moray, and Caithness were met and checked with firmness and success; and this reign with a distinct advance in the industrial progress of the realm, the king devoting special attention to the improvement of agriculture.

Many new religious foundations were also made by him, including monasteries at Culross, Pluscardine , Beuly, and Crossraguel; while the royal favour was also extended to the new orders of friars which were spreading throughout Europe , and numerous houses were founded by him both for Dominicans and Franciscans , the friars , however, remaining under the control of their English provincials until nearly a century later. David de Bernham of St.

Andrews and Gilbert of Caithness were among the distinguished prelates of this time, and did much for both the material and religious welfare of their dioceses. Alexander III , who succeeded his father in , was also fortunate in the excellent bishops who governed the Scottish Church during his reign, and he, like his predecessors, made some notable religious foundations, including the Cistercian Abbey of Sweetheart, and houses of Carmelite and Trinitarian friars.

An important step in the consolidation of the kingdom was the annexation of the Isle of Man, the Hebrides, and other western islands to the Scottish Crown, pecuniary compensation being paid to Norway , and the Archbishop of Trondhjem retaining ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the islands.

Nearly all the Scottish bishops attended the general council convoked by Gregory X at Lyons in , which, among other measures levied a fresh tax on church benefices in aid of a new crusade. Boiamund, a Piedmontese canon, went to Scotland to collect the subsidy, assessing the clergy on a valuation known as Boiamund's Roll, which gave great dissatisfaction but nevertheless remained the guide to ecclesiastical taxation until the Reformation.

With the death of Alexander in the male line of his house came to an end, and he was succeeded by his youthful granddaughter, Margaret, daughter of King Eric of Norway. Edward I, the powerful and ambitious King of England , whose hope was the union of the Kingdom of Scotland with his own, immediately began negotiations for the marriage of Margaret to his son. The proposal was favourably received in Scotland; but while the eight-year-old queen was on her way from Orkney, and the realm was immediately divided by rival claimants to the throne, John de Baliol and Robert Bruce, both descended from a brother of William the Lion.

King Edward, chosen as umpire in the dispute, decided in favour of Baliol; and relying on his subservience summoned him to support him when he declared war on France in The Scottish parliament, however entered instead into an alliance with France against England , whose incensed king at once marched into Scotland with a powerful army, advanced as far as Perth, dethroned and degraded Baliol, and returned to England , carrying with him from Scone the coronation stone of the Scottish kings, which he placed in Westminster Abbey , where it still remains.

The interposition of Pope Boniface VIII procured a temporary truce between the two countries in ; but Edward soon renewed his efforts to subdue the Scotch, putting to death the valiant and patriotic William Wallace, and leaving no stone unturned to carry out his object. He died, however, in ; and Robert Bruce grandson of Baliol's rival utterly routed the English forces at Bannockburn in , and secured the independence of Scotland.

After long negotiations peace was concluded between the two kingdoms, and ratified by the betrothal of Robert's only son to the sister of the King of England.

Robert died a few months later, and was succeeded by his son, David II, out of whose reign of forty years ten were spent, during his youth, in France , and eleven in exile in England , where he was taken prisoner when invading the dominions of Edward III. During the wars with England , and the long and inglorious reign of David, the church and people suffered alike. Bishops forgot their sacred character, and appeared in armour at the head of their retainers; the state of both of clergy and laity , was far from satisfactory and contemporary chronicles were full of lamentations at the degeneracy of the times.

Some excellent bishops there were during the fourteenth century, notably Fraser and Lamberton of St.