Research Description:

The Kirk Before Knox: Reevaluating the Pre-Reformation Church in Scotland

My project involves an exploration and evaluation of the church in Scotland on the eve of the Reformation, pre-1560.  Ultimately, I hope to better understand the origin and nature of the Reformation within Scotland through this exploration and evaluation.

The Scottish Reformation has often been painted as the inevitable result of the church’s corruption and spiritual bankruptcy. Gordon Donaldson’s “The Scottish Reformation,” which still remains the standard overview of this period, maintains this thesis and posits the larger-than-life reformer John Knox as simply a man of charisma and fortunate circumstance. Knox came to dominate the religious landscape by 1560, pounding on pulpits, clamoring for radical reforms and dismissing voices of more moderate reform.  The Reformation soon became synonymous with Knox’s program, and an underlying assumption eventually emerged in the study of the Scottish Reformation that the Reformation was one-sided (Knox’s side) and fairly straightforward.  The simplicity of this assumption has left many questions about the origin and nature of the Reformation in Scotland unanswered.

My project questions this assumption by exploring the contributions of individuals who have long been overshadowed by Knox, especially the Catholic priest Ninian Winzet. My thesis is that the church was not as weak and corrupt as Donaldson and others have maintained and the origin and nature of the Reformation in Scotland is much more complex than has been argued.  In particular, I hope to show that Winzet’s more moderate, humanist program of reform demonstrates the variability of opinions regarding both the state of the pre-1560 church and the proper path to reformation. 

In my research, I hope to identify and acquire primary and secondary resources from Scotland and the United States, which will help me better understand the context of the Reformation and the particulars of the pre-1560 church and Winzet’s program.