I'm going to gloss over pages 55 through 75. You should not skip over them: they are important if you are to understand the religious climate when we finally begin our tour. These pages cover in some detail the missteps of the Scottish government which led to the Kirk becoming a potent independent political power. My reasons for not dealing with these transactions in detail are that the mistakes in government are the same we have seen James make in the past and that he will make in the future; that the causes are not nearly as important as the results; and that in hindsight, the results are easy to foresee.
Gardiner comes to three important conclusions about this period, which spans approximately 1594-1601:
- That the General Assembly of the Kirk was in a way a substitute for the exercise of political influence by the non-titled wealthy classes.
- That this political influence served as a curb on the tendency of the nobility to preserve their feudal dominance.
- That liberty of speech from the pulpit was a key factor in the development of a politically sound and unified Scotland.
We will need to keep in mind that these results occurred in spite of King James.
Because this is such a big span of pages, I'll delay the next post to let you digest it. I will be at Microsoft Management Summit next week, anyway, so another blog post in April in unlikely.
The portrait above is of James Beaton, the Archbishop of Glasgow during the period covered by today's post.
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