Churches – Roman Catholics in Scotland
The Roman Catholic system of church governance is based on apostolic succession, where church leaders, known as bishops, are consecrated by existing bishops, themselves previously consecrated by bishops, so that all are in the line of succession from the original apostles of Christ. The most senior bishop is the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope. Bishops are appointed by the Pope. Bishops are usually responsible for a geographic area, known as a diocese, have the authority to ordain priests, and usually are responsible for giving confirmation to church members (a sacrament where baptised persons are confirmed in their faith by anointing). Priests are usually appointed by bishops as pastors to congregations of local people and have the authority to conduct Holy Communion (also known as mass or eucharist), baptisms, marriages, anointing of the sick, confession and give confirmation. Priests may also be appointed to other roles within a diocese.
Alongside the diocesan and parish structure of the church, there are also male and female religious orders, who have a variety of rules and charisms, led by the head of their order, who is usually accountable to authorities in Rome, and ultimately the Pope.
Until the Reformation, there was one church in Scotland which had been recognised in the 12th century by the papal bull ‘Filia Specialis’.[1] Under this, Scottish bishops, apart from the bishops of Galloway, were independent of the archbishops of York and directly accountable to the pope. The bishops of Sodor (Western Isles) and Orkney were subject to the Archbishop of Nidaros (Trondheim) until 1472, when the bishop of St Andrews was elevated as an archbishop and given metropolitan status for Scotland. However, in 1492 the bishop of Glasgow was also made an archbishop and the Scottish dioceses were divided between these two archbishoprics, and although there were subsequent adjustments to boundaries and considerable disputes, this arrangement remained in place until 1560.[2]
In common with the church across western Europe, the Scottish church was organised into geographical parishes, within dioceses each led by a bishop. In theory, each parish was served by a priest, called a rector, who worked under the authority of the bishop, and who was supported by the teinds from the parish. In practice the teinds of many parishes were appropriated to religious orders who supplied a vicar to minister to parishioners, while other parishes were served by vicars or curates because the priest had charge of more than one parish.[3] The administration of the dioceses was entrusted to one or two archdeacons, who supervised parish clergy, and deans who heard the confessions of parish clergy and collected taxes.[4]
In the 1520s, reformed theology began to reach Scotland and in 1525 an act preventing the importation of works by ‘the heretic Luther and his disciples’ was passed by the Scottish parliament.[5] The executions of the reformers, Patrick Hamiton in 1528, Henry Forrest in 1533 and George Wishart in 1546 were followed by the murder of Cardinal Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews, in 1546, and Protestantism developed through secret meetings and the work of Scottish exiles in Geneva, including John Knox. A rebellion in 1559-60 led by Lord James Stewart and the Earl of Argyll, against the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, resulted in the Reformation parliament which abolished Catholic worship.
The Reformation in Scotland was formally established with the Confession of Faith Ratification Act, 1560, accompanied by the abolition of papal jurisdiction and the mass.[6] On the accession of James VI, a series of acts in 1567 further consolidated the new protestant church and aligned loyalty to the Crown with profession of ‘the true religion’.[7] While the form of church governance was not settled until 1690, the church in Scotland was firmly protestant from this point onwards.[8] Further legislation prohibited Roman Catholics from holding public office, becoming schoolmasters or teaching young people in any way, and from inheriting or purchasing heritable property.[9] The Roman Catholic Church no longer retained the diocesan and parochial systems for administrative purposes, while confiscation of Church property and restrictions on clergy meant that larger mission territories were created, which, with varying geographical areas in Scotland, meant that they were often difficult to visit and administer. Anti-Catholic persecution increased following the Jacobite rebellions. In the 1770s there was an attempt to repeal aspects of the penal laws, which succeeded in England but was prevented in Scotland by rioting.[10] By 1793, after a second Relief Act for England and Wales, attitudes had changed sufficiently to permit the passing of a Relief Act for Scotland which allowed Roman Catholics who took an oath of abjuration and allegiance to hold heritable and moveable property, and to teach young people (but not the children of protestant parents).[11] Catholic emancipation in 1829 removed most of the remaining obstacles to participation in civil and military life, enabling Roman Catholics to vote and to hold most public offices, on taking the oath of allegiance and abjuration.[12] The exceptions in Scotland were positions connected to the Church of Scotland and the Commissary Court of Edinburgh, and Jesuits and members of religious orders were required to register and could not wear clerical dress outwith places of worship and private houses. It took another century before the registration requirement and the prohibition on clerical dress in public were repealed.[13]
Although the Reformation abolished the institution of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland, many individuals and families continued to adhere to its beliefs and practices despite the penal laws. Anne of Denmark, spouse of James VI, was a Roman Catholic and permission was given to various nobles to maintain a Roman Catholic chaplain in their households.[14] Jesuits and other priests were regularly sent to Scotland while boys from wealthy Roman Catholic families were sent to the Scots Colleges in France, Spain and Italy for their education and some were trained as priests there.[15]
A Vicar Apostolic for England and Scotland was appointed in 1623 and for the first time after the Reformation, priests could be ordained in Scotland, lay people be given confirmation and the work of priests could be led and co-ordinated centrally.[16] In 1694 a separate Vicar Apostolic for Scotland was appointed and in 1727 Scotland was divided into two Vicariates, Highland and Lowland, with two Vicar Apostolics, with the division based primarily on language. In 1827, following a significant increase in Roman Catholics due to Irish immigration, Scotland was re-divided into Eastern, Western and Northern Vicariates.[17] In 1878 the hierarchy in Scotland was restored by Pope Leo XIII, with two archbishops (Glasgow, St Andrews & Edinburgh) and four bishops (Aberdeen, Argyll and the Isles, Dunkeld, Galloway). Parishes were not re-established in Scotland until 1937 in the Eastern Province and 1948 in the Western Province, and until the restoration of parishes, priests were designated ‘Mission Priests’ and while they had charge of geographical areas they were not tied to those boundaries and could minister to large parts of the country without impinging on the rights of fellow priests. Similarly, Catholics could choose to attend any service in any part of the country.
A key element of re-establishing the Roman Catholic church was provision for the training of priests. Most students completed their education in the Scots Colleges in Europe but from 1732 there was a succession of somewhat hidden highland and lowland colleges until after the Relief Act 1793 the lowland college moved to Aquhorties. From 1799 support was provided through British government grants as compensation for properties lost in France during the French Revolution, and in 1829 it moved to Blairs College, near Aberdeen.[18] Roman Catholic schools were set up from 1829 onwards, excluded from state provision in 1872 but included by the 1918 Education Act.[19]
Catholic parish records consist mainly of baptisms and marriages. They may also include records of individuals attending confession, registers of confirmation, registers of converts (although this information is more likely to be found in baptismal registers), death, burial and funeral records, seat rentals, registers of sick calls and ‘status animarum (‘state if the souls’) which are enumerations of all Catholics within a particular area at a particular time. Not all of these records were maintained in every parish or by every mission priest. The earliest records date from 1703 but few survive before 1800. Administrative and diocesan records including personal papers of priests and bishops and minutes of church bodies have also survived.
Roman Catholic records are held by the Scottish Catholic Archives (records mainly after 1878), the University of Aberdeen Special Collections (records mainly before 1878), and the Archdiocese of Glasgow Archives. Many parish and mission records have been digitised and details of what is available can be found on the National Records of Scotland research guide <https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/catholic-parish-registers/about-the-catholic-parish-registers> [accessed 30 Jun 2024].
Religious orders usually maintain their own archives. Records of Roman Catholic schools which are state funded should be transferred to the relevant local authority archives service. Records of private schools may be held in the school or may have been deposited in a local archives service.
Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2024)
Related Knowledge Base entries
Churches – Episcopalians in Scotland
Churches – Presbyterian churches in Scotland
Bibliography
Cowan, Ian B., ‘The development of the parochial system in medieval Scotland’ The Scottish Historical Review 40 No. 129-1 (1961) pp. 43-55.
Cowan, Ian B., The parishes of medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society, 1967)
Cowan, Ian, The Scottish Reformation (London, 1982)
Dowden, John, The medieval church in Scotland: its constitution, organisation and law (MacLehose & Co, 1910)
Johnston, Christine, Developments in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, 1789-1829 (John Donald, 1985)
Kehoe, Karly S., Creating a Scottish Church: Catholicism, Gender and Ethnicity in Nineteenth century Scotland (Manchester University Press, 2010)
Mason, Roger A., ‘Usable Pasts: History and Identity in Reformation Scotland’ in The Scottish Historical Review, 76 No 201 (1997), pp. 54-68
Szechi, Daniel, ‘Defending the True Faith: Kirk, State and Catholic Missoners in Scotland, 1653-1755’ The Catholic Historical Review, 82.3 (1996), pp. 397- 411
References
[1] R.K. Hannay ‘The date of the Filia Specialis’ Bull’ The Scottish Historical Review 23 No.92 (Apr. 1926), pp. 171-177
[2] John Dowden, The medieval church in Scotland: its constitution, organisation and law (MacLehose & Co, 1910), pp.12-17.
[3] Dowden, The medieval church in Scotland, pp. 113-114.
[4] Dowden, The medieval church in Scotland, pp. 213-217.
[5] Act against importation of Luther’s works, 1525 The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, (RPS) ed. by K.M. Brown and others (University of St Andrews, 2007-2021) 1525/7/32, <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1525/7/32 > [accessed 30 April 2024].
[6] Confession of Faith Ratification Act, 1560, RPS, A1560/8/3, <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1560/8/3 > [accessed 30 April 2024].
[7] Concerning the abolishing of the pope and his usurped authority, 1567, RPS, A1567/12/1 <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1567/12/1>; Concerning the annulling of the acts of parliament made against God, his word and maintenance of idolatry in any times past, 1567, RPS, A1567/12/2 <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1567/12/2>; The Confession of the Faith and doctrine believed and professed by the Protestants of the realm of Scotland, RPS, A1567/12/3 <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1567/12/3>; Concerning the abolition of the mass and the punishment of all that hears or says the same, 1567, RPS, A1567/12/4. < http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1567/12/4 >; Concerning the true and holy kirk and of them that are declared not to be of the same, 1567, RPS, A1567/12/5 <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1567/12/5>; Concerning the king’s oath to be given at his coronation RPS A1567/12/7 <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1567/12/7> [all accessed 9 March 2024].
[8] Confession of Faith Ratification Act, 1690 (c.7) <http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aosp/1690/7> [accessed 30 Mar 2021].
[9] Act for preventing the growth of popery, 1700 (aosp 8 & 9 Will III c.3).
[10] Relief Act 1778 (18 Geo. III c. 60).
[11] Relief Act, 1791, (31 Geo. III c.32); Relief Act (Scotland) 1793 (33 Geo. III c.44).
[12] Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 (10 Geo. IV c. 7).
[13] Roman Catholic Relief Act 1926 (16 & 17 Geo. V c.55).
[14] Alasdair F. B. Roberts, ‘The role of women in Scottish Catholic survival’ The Scottish Historical Review 70.2 No 190 (1991) pp 129-150 (p. 132).
[15] Daniel Szechi, ‘Defending the True Faith: Kirk, State and Catholic Missioners in Scotland, 1653-1755’ The Catholic Historical Review, 82.3 (1996), pp. 397- 411 (p.398).
[16] Christine Johnston, Developments in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, 1789-1829 (John Donald, 1985), pp. 33-34.
[17] Johnston, Developments in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland pp. 239-241.
[18] Johnston, Developments in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland pp.119-129, 198, 242.
[19] Education (Scotland) Act, 1872, (35 & 36 Vict. c. 62); Education (Scotland) Act, 1918 (8 & 9 Geo. V c. 48)