1707, 2007, and the Unionist turn in Scottish history

This article reviews the latest research on the making of the Anglo-Scottish parliamentary union of 1707 and unionism in modern Scotland. Stimulated by the tercentenary of the union, but running counter to the popular mood at the time of that anniversary, many of the recent publications exhibit a novel and sympathetic interest in principled support for union. Using Christopher Whatley's The Scots and the union (2006) and Colin Kidd's Union and unionisms (2008) as starting points, the article shows how the new histories differ from earlier work, while also identifying the interdisciplinary roots of the ‘unionist turn’ in Scottish history

The three careers of the Solemn League and Covenant:Presbyterianism and Scottish religious diversity, 1643–1800

This article examines the changing significance of the Solemn League and Covenant in the century and a half following its negotiation by the parliamentary regimes of England and Scotland in 1643. The Solemn League had three careers. Until the late 1640s, it was the basis for an Anglo-Scottish alliance. But by the 1660s, Scottish Presbyterians conceived of the Solemn League’s religious commitments as binding particularly in Scotland, rather than across the three Stuart kingdoms. Well into the eighteenth century, the Solemn League continued to constrain the attitudes and behaviour of large numbers of conscientious Scottish Presbyterians. In its third career, however, Scots understood the Solemn League more historically than constitutionally. They revered its seventeenth-century adherents, even as they criticised the Solemn League’s terms and objectives. Though previous scholars have explored each of the Solemn League’s three careers, the transitions between them are not well understood. This article reconstructs the ways in which Scots rethought the Solemn League from the late 1640s to the early 1660s, to explain how its first career gave way to its second. The article then analyses a series of mid- and late eighteenth-century debates about the Solemn League. The more historical and critical perspectives on the Solemn League associated with its third career emerged from disputes within the Church of Scotland and rivalry between its ministers and members of new dissenting Presbyterian Churches. By tracing changes in how the Solemn League was understood, therefore, the article comments on the growth of religious diversity in Scotland

Wodrow's news:Correspondence and politics in early 18th-Century Scotland

This article examines the creation and consumption of scribal news by the early 18th‐century Scottish Presbyterian minister Robert Wodrow (1679–1734). It argues that Scottish news culture depended on the interaction of printed newspapers, professionally produced newsletters from London, personal letters and oral communication. For Wodrow, at least, personal letters were the most important source. No widely circulated commercial newsletter was produced in Scotland, and personal letters were vital for communicating information about the Scottish parliament, the church courts and the Westminster parliament after the Anglo–Scottish Union. News provided as a gift, rather than a commodity, served social functions. The article explores two moments at which Wodrow paid particular attention to parliamentary news: the ratification of the Union in 1706–7, and the passage of the Episcopalian Toleration, Patronage and Yule Vacation Acts in 1712

James VI and I after 400 years

This review article assesses recent publications concerning the life and rule of King James VI and I. The quatercentenary of the king’s death in 1625 has stimulated much new work, including biographies by Steven Reid and Alexander Courtney, a study of James’s accession to the English throne by Susan Doran and a collection of essays edited by Alexander Courtney and Michael Questier. The article examines how recent scholars have rehabilitated James’s once-poor reputation, while continuing to express doubts about his effectiveness in the last years of his reign.</p

Petitioning in the Scottish church courts, 1638–1707

This article explores the use of petitions in, and by, the courts of the Church of Scotland. It distinguishes between routine petitions and addresses concerning matters of national significance. The former were submitted to the church courts by individuals or groups, and requested that the courts take decisions or perform particular actions. These petitions reveal much about the exercise of discipline, poor relief and ecclesiastical administration, and provide rich evidence of the engagement of ordinary people with the church courts. The second type of petition was usually addressed to parliament or another secular body by one of the higher church courts. In studying petitions on national affairs, we can identify how the formulae of humble supplication were adapted for the purpose of protest, and thus comment on the tensions between the ecclesiastical and civil authorities of early modern Scotland

Confessions, covenants and continuous Reformation in early modern Scotland

Cet article se penche sur la pratique des serments d'alliance religieuse (Covenants) dans l'Ecosse moderne. Les covenants étaient des serments d’alliance publics, prêtés en défense de la foi protestante et pour promouvoir une Réforme tant nationale qu'individuelle. Si ces serments avaient des points communs avec les confessions de foi que l'on trouve partout en Europe à cette époque, ils avaient la particularité d'être employés en temps de crise et centrés sur les doctrines qui étaient au cœur des controverses du moment. Cet article retrace les origines de cette tradition écossaise, puis en présente les principaux avatars: la Negative Confession de 1581, le National Covenant de 1638 et le Solemn League and Covenant de 1643. Ces covenants, prêtés de manière répétée et à l'échelle nationale propagèrent l'idée que l'Ecosse était une nation en alliance avec Dieu et que ces serments devaient être régulièrement renouvelés. Les covenants ont aussi ancré l'idée que la Réforme était un processus continu : une quête incessante de perfectionnement et la promotion d’un état de perpétuelle vigilance contre le pêché et l'erreur. Le covenant fut renouvelé en 1648 par la nation toute entière, puis par des groupes de plus en plus restreints de presbytériens radicaux en 1666, 1689, 1712 et 1743. Ces renouvellements successifs n'avaient pas de fonction commémorative mais constituent une réaffirmation de ces principes intemporels. La pratique des covenantaires en est alors venue à symboliser la résistance au contrôle du roi sur l'Eglise et à la mouvance libérale au sein de celle-ci.This article examines the swearing of collective religious covenants in early modern Scotland. Scotland’s Covenants were public oaths in support of protestant beliefs and in favour of national and individual Reformation. Though they shared some of the characteristics of the confessions of faith found across Europe, the Covenants were written in times of crisis and focused on doctrines of particular salience at the moment of composition. The article traces the origins of covenanting in the Scottish Reformation, before examining the Negative Confession of 1581, the National Covenant (1638) and the Solemn League and Covenant (1643). Because these oaths were sworn repeatedly, and on a national basis, they propagated the idea that Scotland was in covenant with God, and that this covenant should be periodically renewed. The Covenants also enshrined a notion of continuous Reformation: a process of constant striving for reform, and of perpetual vigilance against error and sin. When Scots again renewed the Covenants, nationally in 1648, and by a dwindling number of radical Presbyterians in 1666, 1689, 1712 and 1743, they were not commemorating the Reformation, but reaffirming its apparently timeless principles. Covenanting thus came to epitomize resistance to royal control over the church and then to the liberalizing tendencies within the Kirk

Archibald Pitcairne and Scottish heterodoxy, c. 1688-1713*

This article argues that the Edinburgh physician Archibald Pitcairne made a significant and original contribution to European religious heterodoxy around 1700. Though Pitcairne has been studied by historians of medicine and scholars of literary culture, his heterodox writings have not been analyzed in any detail. This is partly because of their publication in Latin, their relative rarity and considerable obscurity. The article provides a full examination of two works by Pitcairne: his Solutio problematis de historicis; seu, inventoribus (‘Solution of the problem concerning historians or inventors’) (1688); and the Epistola Archimedis ad Regem Gelonem (‘Letter of Archimedes to King Gelo’) (1706). As well as untangling their bibliographical and textual difficulties, the article places these tracts in the context of Pitcairne’s medical, mathematical, and religious interests. A range of readers deplored the sceptical implications of the pamphlets, but others, particularly in free-thinking circles in the Netherlands, admired Pitcairne’s work. And yet Pitcairne himself was no atheist. He doubted a priori proofs of God’s existence, but had been convinced by a version of the argument from ‘design’. The article concludes by relating Pitcairne’s complex religious attitudes to his background in late seventeenth-century Scotland

John Glas and the development of religious pluralism in Eighteenth-Century Scotland

This article discusses John Glas, a minister deposed by the Church of Scotland in 1728, to examine the growth of religious pluralism in Scotland. The article begins by considering why Glas abandoned presbyterian principles of Church government, adopting Congregationalist views instead. Glas’s case helped to change the Scottish church courts’ conception of deposed ministers, reflecting a reappraisal of Nonconformity. Moreover, Glas’s experiences allow us to distinguish between Church parties formed to conduct business, and those representing theological attitudes. Finally, Glas’s case calls into question the broadest definitions of the ‘Scottish Enlightenment’, drawing our attention to the emergence of pluralism