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The Coming of the Reformation to Edinburgh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

W. Stanford Reid
W. Stanford Reid
Affiliation:
Professor of history in the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
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Extract

That towns and townspeople played an important part in the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century is obvious even to those with a superficial knowledge of the movement. In the case of Scotland, however, this has not always been recognized as true since many writers on the subject have believed that the movement was primarily baronial in character. Yet as one looks closely into the Scottish Reformation the names of Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee and Edinburgh fill important places in the story of the rise of Scottish Protestantism. Edinburgh in particular held a strategic position as Knox, recently appointed minister of St. Giles, recognized in 1561. When Thomas Randolph reported to Sir William Cecil on the appointment of superintendents he stated: “Mr. Knox thinks his state honorable enough if God give him strength to persist in that vocation that he hath placed him in, and will receive no other.” To understand the Scottish Reformation, therefore, it is necessary to see what happened in the principal burgh of the country.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , March 1973 , pp. 27 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1973

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References

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29. Ibid., 1, p. 59.

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31. Ibid., 1, p. 323, no. 662.

32. Ibid., 1, p. 386, no. 756; Edin. Recs., 3, p. 63.

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42. Ibid., 3, p. 129.

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57. Wood, op. cit., p. 29; C.S.P., 2, P. 217, no. 273; Edin. Recs., 3, pp. 48, 63, 207, 228.

58. Ibid., 3, pp. 248, 250, 259, 271.

59. Ibid., 3, pp. 65, 68, 79.

60. Ibid., 3, pp. 82, 85; Angus, op. cit., p. 35.

61. Edin. Recs., 3, pp. 79–81.

62. Ibid., 3, pp. 89f; Knox, op. cit., 1, p. 355; Wood, op. cit., p. 3.

63. Ibid., 3, p. 89; Edin. Recs., 3, p. 215.

64. Ibid., 3, pp. 101, 125ff; Diurnal, p. 69; C.S.P., 1, p. 569, no. 1041.

65. Ibid., 1, p. 555, no. 1023; Edin. Recs., 3, p. 148.

66. Ibid., 3, pp. 140f.

67. Ibid., 3, pp. 207, 212, 219ff.

68. Ibid., 3, pp. 252, 264.

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70. Wood, op. cit., pp. 5f.

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72. Ibid., 3, p. 68.

73. Marwick, op. cit., p. 50; Knox, op.cit., 2, pp. 331f.

74. See R.S.S., 5, nos. 1956, 1980, 2009, 2381.

75. Ibid., 5, no. 3334.

76. Ibid., 5, nos. 2296, 3146; 6, no. 39.

77. Ibid., no. 3368; Paton, H. M. and Smith, J., “St. Leonard's Lands and Hospital,” B.O.E.C., 23, pp. 111ff.Google Scholar

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79. Mss. Co. Records, fo. 125v.; Edin Recs. 3, pp. 30, 40, 42–44. On two occasions members of the council loaned money to the burgh to meet demands of the Congregation, retaining the sacred items committed to them: the arm bone of St. Giles and the silver chandelier, as security (Ibid., 3, pp. 59, 64).

80. Ibid., 3, p. 45; Angus, op. cit., pp. 32f.

81. Edin. Recs., 3, pp. 59, 64, 70, 85, 96, 98, 104, 115.

82. Ibid., 3, pp. 62, 63, 65, 114.

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85. Wood, op. cit., pp. 6f.

86. Edin. Recs., 3, pp. 135–137.

87. Ibid., 3, pp. 161, 174, 177.

88. Ibid., 3, p. 210; R.P.C., 1, pp. 487, 494.

89. Edin. Recs., 3, pp. 229, 277–279.

90. Angus, op. cit., pp. 39–40. St. Paul's Work in Edinburgh provides a good example of the use to which a charitable foundation might be put. By 1560 most of the bedesmen seem to have come from burgess families (Wood, M., “St. Paul's Work,” B.O.E.C., (1930), 18, p. 49).Google Scholar

91. Lang, op. cit., p. 170; Wood, “Domestic Affairs,” pp. 6–7.

92. Edin. Recs., 2, pp. 73, 77, 80, 213, 232, 246, 261f; 3, p. 102; Wood, op. cit., pp. 6f.

93. Marwick, op. cit pp. 44f, 50; R.S.S., 5, p. 1, no. 1275; Bryce, op. cit., p. 69; Edin. Recs., 3, p. 246. This was strongly supported by a resolution of the St. Giles Kirk session (see Edinburgh and Leith Documents, Scottish Record Office, R.H. 9/14/8).

94. R.G.S, no. 1802; Edin. Recs., 3, p. 243.

95. Ibid., 3, pp. 180, 192f. It would seem that Adam Fullarton, one of the burgesses and one of Knox's strongest supporters, had brought the order from the Queen and threatened to complain to the Privy Council if the burghal authorities did not take action (pp. 191f).

96. Ibid., 3, pp. 247, 256.

97. Ibid., 2, pp. 48, 179, 185, 192, 210, 218, 241; Anderson, H. M., “The Grammar School of the Canongate,” B.O.E.C., (1935), 20, P. 3.Google Scholar

98. Edin. Recs., 3, p. 66.

99. R.S.S., 6, no. 487.

100. Ibid., no. 589; Edin. Recs., 3, pp. 131f, 149f, 250f.

101. R.S.S., 6, pp. 857, 983, 2824, 2595.