Scotland and the Papacy

It cannot be overly emphasized that the hostility and division in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was not due to divisions between highlanders and lowlanders, or royalists and parliamentarians, or kingsmen and the people.  The problems in England must be kept within the context of the Protestant Reformation and in such context it must be considered central to the issue that the once-entrenched power of the Roman Catholic church was desperately trying to destroy and erase any encroachments on it authority from the elements of the Prostestant Church, namely the Covenanters and Presbyterianism.

          From the death of Henry Viij in 1547, there was a precarious balance of power between the Papists in the king’s court and the Episcopals. The church of England at this time could not be considered a true “Protestant” church, but during the brief reign of Edward Vi, it gained some ground in that respect. Murder and intrigue was the rule of life and the quest for survival was far more political than spiritual.

          Though not insignicant, the small gains for the Reformation during Edward’s rule and the ever-so-brief tenure of Lady Jane Grey, were abruptly put on hold with the ascension of Mary I. A staunch Catholic, Mary set about immediately to restore the strength of her chosen faith. In 1553 she abolished Edward’s religious laws; her new husband, Philip of Spain, persuaded her to repeal all religious laws passed by her father, returning England to Papal authority; in 1554, with the approval of Pope Julius, the Heresy acts were passed. Under these abominable acts, nearly three hundred faithful Protestant leaders were burned at the stake in England, a period of horrible persecution that caused even her Catholic husband to flinch. She is remembered as “Bloody Mary.”

          With Mary’s death and Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne in 1553, religious tolerance was restored and Episcopacy was once more adopted as the faith of the court.

          Six years later, John Knox returned to Scotland and the following year the Scottish Parliament established Protestantism in Scotland. Knox and five colleagues wrote and published for the church The Book of Discipline and the Directory of Worship of the Church of Scotland. In the spirit of protest, the Scots made it clear against whom they were protesting.

          John Knox intended to abolish “that tyranny which the pope himself has for so many ages exercised over the church.” He further stated that the pope should be recognized as “the very antichrist, the son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks.”

          Knox’s mentor, John Calvin stated that “Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt…I shall briefly show that [Paul’s words in II Thess. 2] are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the papacy.”

http://www.remnantofgod.org/4fathers.htm

The realization of this fact must be considered at the heart of the Reformation movement in Scotland. Without this, an understanding of Scottish religious history is very difficult.