It is fashionable in our comfortable age to verbally attack the Scottish reformers, accusing them of being fanatics, or extremists, akin to the Islamic State. But were they really? David Hume, the celebrated Edinburgh sceptical philosopher of the Enlightenment, once wrote that ‘Of all modes of Christianity Popery is the best, and the reformation from thence was only the work of madmen and enthusiasts [fanatics].’ It is interesting to note however, that after the Reformation settlement of 1560, the Romanists braced themselves for revenge killings because of the thousands of Protestants who had been slaughtered in Europe, but there were none. Even the fervent Romanist bishop of Ross had to admit that ‘the clemency of the heretic nobles must not be left unmentioned, since at that time they exiled few Catholics on the score of religion, imprisoned fewer, and put none to death.’ It is true that the Protestant leaders outlawed the Romanists’ Mass as idolatry, with a punishment of confiscated goods for the first offence, banishment for the second, and execution for the third, but in reality, it was never fully carried out. The Romanist priests and monks were pensioned off and treated decently.
It is true that the reformers purged the church of pagan idolatry, which included the removal of all glass windows and statues of the saints, because the people had been praying to them and worshipping them. We may decry this as an act of vandalism against our precious artistic heritage, but for the reformers it was a return to proper biblical worship for the church, free of paganism, which was of far greater worth to Scotland. As such, they said they were following an Old Testament precedent. It has been also said that the reformers pulled down churches all over Scotland in their puritanical zeal. The reality is not so exciting however, as historians realise that most of the Scottish church buildings were either falling down through neglect before the Reformation, or had been burnt down by invading armies. A few buildings were demolished by the reformers, but they were exceptions. The church at Restalrig in Edinburgh was mentioned in the Minutes of the first Assembly of 1560, and it was agreed that the chapel dedicated to St Triduana should be pulled down because it had become a major place of pilgrimage for her worshippers.
Indeed, the benefits of the Reformation far outweighed any negatives. This has been shown in previous articles and videos in this series, but thanks to the reformers we saw a Scotland emerging out of a tyrannical system to develop democracy, national education, healthcare and welfare, based on a more Christian foundation. A.M. Renwick, former Professor of Church History, had this to say about the fruit of the Reformation: ‘In the year 1800, there were 1000 students in Oxford and Cambridge combined, the only universities in England… in Edinburgh alone [a university which came out of the Scottish Reformation] there were 993 students. In 1830, the English universities had less than 3,000 students, while the Scottish universities had 4,400 in spite of the fact that the population of England was eight times that of Scotland.’ Professor Renwick continues: ‘The truth [of Christ’s gospel] moreover, was making men free, and a strong democratic nation was emerging after centuries of dictatorial oppression and spiritual darkness.’ Thus, rather than the reformers being extremists or fanatics, they were the pioneers of many of the benefits we have inherited today.
‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people’ (Proverbs 14:34, NKJV).
Image: A reformer pulling down a statue of St Andrew, from the museum at St Andrews, Paul James-Griffiths