This article is a companion piece to the earlier piece Blood in the Fields and Burghs: Seventeenth Century Violence and examines whether the Reformation was a violent event in our area. There is a contention among some historians that the transfer of belief from Catholicism to Protestantism in Scotland was generally more peaceful than elsewhere is believed among modern academics. There was no large-scale slaughter on either side of the ideological divide, it was true, but some familiar figures in Angus became associated with martyrdom, violence, either dispensing or receive undue punishment for the hue of their spiritual convictions. Cardinal Beaton has put in several appearances in previous pieces and others like George Wishart and Walter Myln will be considered fully in the future.
Modern post Christian scholars can look down from a lofty secular perspective and judge that religion and violence have always gone hand in hand, and this is partly true. Examples can be readily plucked from the records, even though the lack of surviving detail robs us of the necessary context. One of the earliest recorded events was also the most bloody, the massacre in the bishop's residence at Coupar Angus Abbey in 1186. But this was a fundamentally secular event which just happened to occur in a religious setting. (Details can be found in my post Monastic Settlement in Strathmore - Coupar and Kettins.) One notable later event occurred in 1435 when John de Crannach, Bishop of Brechin, was violently assaulted by his own archdeacon, Gilbert Forrester. The attack happened in the cathedral and Forrester was excommunicated by the cathedral chapter in February 1435. The dispute may have been complicated by ecclesiastical jealousy or a false sense of entitlement for Forrester's uncle Walter had been the previous bishop.
Did the change from a Roman Catholic religious society to a Protestant one arrive with a tide of violence. Any upheaval which resulted seems overwhelmingly concentrated on the destruction of property rather than violence against individuals.
According to Mackenzie E.C. Walcott in Scoti-Monasticon, The Ancient Church in Scotland (1874), 'A nun of Dundee was killed during the violence which attended the demolition of the convent.' What incident this refers to is not particularly clear. The Convent of Franciscan Gray Sisters in the burgh stood upon ground between Bank Street and the Methodist Close in the old Overgate. Part of the convent survived a considerable time, being altered in the 17th century and only entirely demolished in 1870. So the identity of the nun and the reasons behind her sad, unfortunate demise can only be guessed at. I have not been able to discover the identity of this lady.
In the same burgh there was deliberate violence against the property and contents of religious houses, sometimes politically as well as religiously motivated. One of the aims was doubtless the sacrilegious humiliation and intimidation of those occupying such premises. The town records of Dundee record this event:
Ironically, perhaps, the greatest material damage to Dundee's religious houses was not done by reformers but by the occupying English army of 1548, though they perhaps had accomplices in the town's Protestant zealots. Before the English troops evacuated the town they set fire to the steeple and burned all the idols, also carrying off all the copper and brass inside. The church plate was hidden away, but the finery of the building and its many small chapels was never fully restored. Lindores Abbey funded a part restoration in 1552.
The violent riots of Dundee in September 1543 spread at the same time to Arbroath. The 16th century Diurnal of Occurrents notes that the abbey was saved by the defence of a local nobleman:
But the physical decline and depredations at Arbroath Abbey was begun some decades before the Reformation when, in 1514, Ochterlonie of nearby Kelly castle set the monastery on fire following a presumably heated argument with the prior. Catholic writer Alexander Baillie, writing in A True Information (1628), certainly blamed Protestant mobs for ruining the abbey, though how much of this was hearsay or personal religiously tinted prejudice is unknown. Although he was an exile of the continent, he seems to have known about the abbey in an earlier period (possibly the beginning of the second decade of the seventeenth century), when he reminisced:
Brechin Cathedral was purged around 1559-60 and its choir was reduced to ruin. The Blackfriars' convent in Montrose was also sacked.
In the early years of the Reformation there were sporadic incidents of local violence which involved the new regime, and it's interesting to speculate how much of this - if any - was rotted in the struggle of Protestant ministers to demonstrate authority as they took over, plus whether the lay population had any residual resentment against them. In the year 1579 the Privy Council recorded trouble involving the minister of Fearn parish, Mr William Gray. A man named Robert Lennox of Schanfurd is reported to have arrived:
The Rev Durie of Forfar was involved as the victim of violence not many years after being transferred from the parish of Logie. In 1602 Thomas Bruce, a servant of John Scrymgeour of Kirkton, was hauled before the magistrates of Forfar and received the following punishment after being found guilty of assaulting the minister:
After this public ritual he was to be bound in the stocks until a caution of £500 was delivered, then he was to be banished for an indefinite period.
The conspicuous Catholic foundations of Arbroath, Coupar and Rescobie may not have suffered the whole scale violence waged against them by Protestant mobs, as was seen elsewhere. (Resobie, despite the incident of violence involving the minister recounted above, certainly survived almost intact and was used for a short period as Forfar's parish kirk.) Part of the ruinous condition of religious buildings can be accounted for by later secular plunder of masonry for building purposes. But the last word has probably not been written on this subject
Surely the last word relating to the perception of violence associated with the Reformation must go to the tale associated with the Mearns reformer George Wishart who played such a large part in the religious conversion of Angus. The 16th-17th century churchman and historian Spottiswoode relates the incident which happened in plague stricken, religiously divided Dundee in 1544:
Modern post Christian scholars can look down from a lofty secular perspective and judge that religion and violence have always gone hand in hand, and this is partly true. Examples can be readily plucked from the records, even though the lack of surviving detail robs us of the necessary context. One of the earliest recorded events was also the most bloody, the massacre in the bishop's residence at Coupar Angus Abbey in 1186. But this was a fundamentally secular event which just happened to occur in a religious setting. (Details can be found in my post Monastic Settlement in Strathmore - Coupar and Kettins.) One notable later event occurred in 1435 when John de Crannach, Bishop of Brechin, was violently assaulted by his own archdeacon, Gilbert Forrester. The attack happened in the cathedral and Forrester was excommunicated by the cathedral chapter in February 1435. The dispute may have been complicated by ecclesiastical jealousy or a false sense of entitlement for Forrester's uncle Walter had been the previous bishop.
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| A Godly place? Crest of the burgh of Brechin, 19th century. |
According to Mackenzie E.C. Walcott in Scoti-Monasticon, The Ancient Church in Scotland (1874), 'A nun of Dundee was killed during the violence which attended the demolition of the convent.' What incident this refers to is not particularly clear. The Convent of Franciscan Gray Sisters in the burgh stood upon ground between Bank Street and the Methodist Close in the old Overgate. Part of the convent survived a considerable time, being altered in the 17th century and only entirely demolished in 1870. So the identity of the nun and the reasons behind her sad, unfortunate demise can only be guessed at. I have not been able to discover the identity of this lady.
In the same burgh there was deliberate violence against the property and contents of religious houses, sometimes politically as well as religiously motivated. One of the aims was doubtless the sacrilegious humiliation and intimidation of those occupying such premises. The town records of Dundee record this event:
For art and part in the oppression committed on the Friars, Preachers and Minorites of Dundee, by coming to their Places within the said burgh with convocation of the Queen's lieges in great number, armed in warlike manner: and there breaking up the doors and gates of the Places and breaking and destroying the ornaments, vestments, images and candlesticks carrying off the silvering of the altars, and stealing the bed clothes, cowls, etc., victuals, meal, malt, flesh, fish, coals, napery, pewter plates, tin stoups, etc., which were in keeping in the said Places: in company with Mr. Henry Durham and his accomplices—rebels of Our Lady the Queen, and at the horn—on the last day of August, 1543.
Ironically, perhaps, the greatest material damage to Dundee's religious houses was not done by reformers but by the occupying English army of 1548, though they perhaps had accomplices in the town's Protestant zealots. Before the English troops evacuated the town they set fire to the steeple and burned all the idols, also carrying off all the copper and brass inside. The church plate was hidden away, but the finery of the building and its many small chapels was never fully restored. Lindores Abbey funded a part restoration in 1552.
The violent riots of Dundee in September 1543 spread at the same time to Arbroath. The 16th century Diurnal of Occurrents notes that the abbey was saved by the defence of a local nobleman:
In this tyme thair was ane greit heresie in Dundie; thair thai distroyit the kirkis and wald have destroyit Abirbrothok kirk, war not the Lord Ogilbie.
But the physical decline and depredations at Arbroath Abbey was begun some decades before the Reformation when, in 1514, Ochterlonie of nearby Kelly castle set the monastery on fire following a presumably heated argument with the prior. Catholic writer Alexander Baillie, writing in A True Information (1628), certainly blamed Protestant mobs for ruining the abbey, though how much of this was hearsay or personal religiously tinted prejudice is unknown. Although he was an exile of the continent, he seems to have known about the abbey in an earlier period (possibly the beginning of the second decade of the seventeenth century), when he reminisced:
And first as to that of Abbirbroth, surely when before a certaine (number of) years I had first seene it and had stayed a while before the great dore thereof, gazing sadly upon the deplorable state of the defaced and staggering steeples, the battered wals, broken doune pillars and the floore al overgrowne with grass and defiled with filth and excrements of unreasonable beasts; and judging of such faire steads and mines that it hath oncebene a most royal braue and gorgious church, I could not but sigh and bewaile it. . .
Brechin Cathedral was purged around 1559-60 and its choir was reduced to ruin. The Blackfriars' convent in Montrose was also sacked.
In the early years of the Reformation there were sporadic incidents of local violence which involved the new regime, and it's interesting to speculate how much of this - if any - was rotted in the struggle of Protestant ministers to demonstrate authority as they took over, plus whether the lay population had any residual resentment against them. In the year 1579 the Privy Council recorded trouble involving the minister of Fearn parish, Mr William Gray. A man named Robert Lennox of Schanfurd is reported to have arrived:
in ane greit furie and reage, came to the said Maister Williame with ane drawin quhinzear in his hand, struik him thairwith, and had not faillit to have slayne him, gif God and the remaneut of the parichiners then present had not stayit the said Robert.
The precise nature of the dispute is not recorded in full.
Another incident of violence was recorded in substantially more detail in February 1580 by James Balfour, minister of Rescobie:
Upoun the tent day of Januar last bipast, bealld the Sabbot day, he wes passand to the said kirk of Roscoby, to have usit his office and charge in ministratioun of the Word of God to the parochineris and utheris convenit at dew tyme of sermon, believand , in respect thairof, and for the reverence that aucht to have been borne to Goddis Word, to have ressavit na stop nor impediment, meikle les injuria or invasioun be way of deid of any persoun. Notwithstanding, far by his expectatioun and without ony offence or injurie offerit be him to ony personis, Patrik Buttir in Gormok and Thomas Eroch servand to Johnne Buttir of Gormok, bodin with jakis, steilbonatis, and pistollettis, prohibit to be worn be Actis of Parliament and Secreit Counsale, upoun sett purpois unbellet the said Mr James way, and with ane of the said is pilltolettis fellit him to the ground, and, heand liand thairon, dischargit ane nther pistolet at. him; howbeit at Godis plesour he eschaipit the dangear thairof. Quhilk being persavit be thame, and that he was sumquhat recoverit of his formar hurt ressavit be the strek of the first pistolett, at last they pursewit him with drawn swirdis, hurt and wound it him in divers partis of his body, and specialie in his richt arme, to the effusione of his bluid in gret quantitie, and had not fallit to have slane him, war not the help of nychbours that stayit thame.
The Rev Durie of Forfar was involved as the victim of violence not many years after being transferred from the parish of Logie. In 1602 Thomas Bruce, a servant of John Scrymgeour of Kirkton, was hauled before the magistrates of Forfar and received the following punishment after being found guilty of assaulting the minister:
upoun Sunday Thomas should be presentit to the mercat croce of Forfar, with ane quhyte sark upoun him, and ane paper on his foirhead quhairon salbe writt,en the caus whairfoir he is thair presentit, and that. the said Thomas publictlie at the mercat croce upoun his kneis ask the said minister and the haill congregation forgivenes.
After this public ritual he was to be bound in the stocks until a caution of £500 was delivered, then he was to be banished for an indefinite period.
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| The Pends, Arbroath Abbey |
Surely the last word relating to the perception of violence associated with the Reformation must go to the tale associated with the Mearns reformer George Wishart who played such a large part in the religious conversion of Angus. The 16th-17th century churchman and historian Spottiswoode relates the incident which happened in plague stricken, religiously divided Dundee in 1544:
It happened, whilst he stayed there, that a priest, called Sir John Weighton, having a purpose to kill him as he descended from the place where he used to preach, was apprehended with a weapon in his hand. A tumult was there upon raised, the sick without the gate rushed in, crying to have the murtherer delivered to them; but he taking the priest in his arms, besought them to be quiet, saying, 'he hath done no harm, only he hath shewed us what we have to fear in time coming,' and so saved the wicked man by his intercession. [The History of the Church of Scotland, volume I, John Spottiswoode, Edinburgh, 1847, p. 152.]Wishart's Christian example, of course, was not shared by everyone; not least the Catholic authorities who eventually brought him to his own death.
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| The Wishart Arch, Dundee |
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