The Scottish Church, 1525-1559: A Study in Abortive Reform
The Catholic Reformation has been, until recent years, largely neglected by researchers of the period. Historians have felt, with little justification, that the Catholic Reformation was less interesting than the Protestant Reformation. And while political histories of the Reformation abound, and economic and social histories are becoming commonplace, the Catholic Reformation has remained pretty much unresearched. Protestants have written biographical and other studies on their founders, while Catholics tended only to react polemically. But now historians have turned to the Catholic Reformation as an area of research, more and more works are appearing on all aspects of the movement. But although scholars have touched upon Catholic reform throughout most of Europe, they have failed to treat Scotland. There are numerous works which treat Scotland after the fall of Catholicism, but few, if any, treat the period before the rise of Knox. Authors who do include the Catholic Reformation, limit themselves to a survey chapter in which they show how corrupt the Catholic Church was in Scotland, but fail completely to acknowledge the complexities of the situation. In most cases, they write only to give introduction to their own research, and not as scholars investigating the period for itself. A History of the Catholic Reformation in Scotland was needed, and the author has attempted to fill this gap in our historical knowledge.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations