L'éducation et le Livre : controverses religieuses en Ecosse au XVIIIe

Abstract

While for Roman Catholics, the Bible was but one of the foundations of faith, it was the Protestants' "only safe guide." This essential disctinction made for different approaches to literacy which, in turn, induced Presbyterians to regard ignorance as the sine qua non for the survival of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. Therefore they deemed the schooling of all Scottish children the most efficient weapon in order to annihilate the Church of Rome. In the eighteenth century, Scotland was extolled for her achievements in the field of education. However, it was clear that the system devised by the Reformers had let the Highlands down and it was considered as no coincidence that there remained a number of Catholic strongholds in this region. Charity schools were established with a view to getting rid of both evils but as the years wore on, the growing lukewarmness of the Presbyterians' zeal had far-reaching consequences on their attitudes to education as they seemed to have forsaken the inheritance passed down from the sixteenth-century Reformers.