The Reformation in Moray: Precursors and Initiation

Abstract

Evidence from Moray, an area outside the heartland of radical ‘fervencie’, argues that the reach of the reform movement in Scotland was indeed broad, and assists with an answer to the question as to ‘how this Protestant minority was able to impose such profound religous change so rapidly through the country.’ This article explores what is known of precursors to the reformation in the province, seeking to show that, while ambiguity must be acknowledged, the changes after 1560 were not entirely unheralded. It has long been recognised that ‘the determining factor in any area in promoting the reformed faith was the attitude of the local lairds’, so the connections – by kindred, bonding and marriage – between Moray's intricate networks of landowning families and the national brokers of power are explored. This article is concerned primarily with the lairds, the burgesses and the clergy of Moray rather than with the people of the rural parishes. Moray's history during the reformation period also illustrates the negotiation, both of contingencies and between factions, that the process of change involved.