Persecution and Perseverance

The historiography of early-modern Scottish religion is dominated by the rise of Protestantism and the establishment of the Presbyterian Kirk. Catholicism has tended to be relegated to a secondary position, often only dealt with in relation to the institutions absorbed by the new protestant church, or specific groups such as the Highland clans or expatriates forced to flee abroad. In order to help redress the balance, this book explores lay Scottish Catholicism, its practice and function, its relationship to the disciplinary mechanisms of the Kirk, as well as its socially cohesive role. As well as contextualizing the particular situation in Scotland, the book also addresses several wide-reaching comparative issues, such as the complex strands of identity within Scottish Roman Catholicism for both laity and clergy; the diverse experiences of lay Catholics in different localities within Scotland; and the experience of lay Scottish Roman Catholics in relation to their co-religionists in England and Ireland. The study also looks at the experience of Scottish Catholics in Europe, and the role their faith played in the formation of the Scottish Catholic self-identity both within Scotland and the wider European context. While a flurry of new scholarship has done this for Catholics in England and Ireland, the historiography of Scotland has up until now lagged behind this trend. As such this book will be welcomed as the first overarching assessment of Catholicism as a religious as well as a socially and culturally cohesive phenomenon in early-modern Scotland.