Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/684

 SCOTLAND

620

SCOTLAND

obtain her release, and her cruel death in 15S6 seemed to leave him singularly callous, though he attempted to appease the Catholic nobles, in their deep indigna- tion at Marj-'s execution, by restoring Bishop Leslie of Ross to his former dignities, and appointing Arch- bishop Beaton liis ambassador in France. There was at this time a distinct reaction in favour of CathoUcism in Scotland, and a number of missionaries, both secular and rehgious, were labouring for the preservation of the Faith. The Kirk, of course, took alarm, and urged on the king the adoption of the severest measures for the suppression of every vestige of Catholicism. James himself headed an armed expedition against the disaffected Cathohc nobles of the north in 1594, and after one severe rebuff put Huntly and ErroU, the Catholic leaders, to flight. They left Scotland forever in 1595, and thenceforward Catholicism, as a poUtical force to be reckoned with, may be said to have been extinct in Scotland. A large propor- tion of the people, however, still clung tenaciously to their ancient beliefs, and strenuous efforts were made, in the closing years of the sixteenth century, to pro\-ide for the spiritual wants of what was now a missionar>' country. In 1576 Dr. James ChejTie had founded a college to educate clergy for the Scotch Mission, at Toumai; and after being trans- ferred to Pont-a-Mousson. Douai, and Louvain, it was finally fixed at Douai. The Scots College at Rome was founded by Pope Clement VIII in 1600; and there was also a Scots College in Paris, dating from 1325. while the Scots abbeys at Ratisbon and Wiirzburg likewise became after the Reformation the nurserj' of Scottish missionaries.

In 1598 the secular clergy in Scotland were placed under the jurischction of George Blackwell, the newly- appointed archpriest for England. Many devoted Jesuits were labouring in Scotland at this time, not- ably Fathers Creighton, Gordon, Hay, and Aber- cromby, of whom the last received into the Cathohc Church Anne of Denmark, the queen of James VI, probably in 1600, and made other distinguished converts. James's succession to the Crown of England in 1603, on the death of Queen Ehzabeth, gave him much new occupation in regulating ecclesias- tical matters in his new kingdom, and also in intro- ducing, in the teeth of bitter opposition, the Epis- copalian system into Scotland. Pope Clement wrote to the king in 1603, urging him to be lenient and generous towards his Catholic subjects, and after long delay received a ci\al but vaguely-worded reply. James's real sentiments, however, were shown by his immediately afterwards decreeing the banishment of all priests from the kingdom, and returning to the pope the presents sent to his Catholic queen. The remainder of his reign, as far as his Catholic subjects were concerned, was simply a record of confiscation, imprisonment, and banishment, inflicted on all classes impartially; and one devoted missionary, John Ogilvie, suffered death for his Faith at Glas- gow in 1615. The negotiations for the marriage of James's heir, first to a daughter of Spain, and then to Henrietta Maria of France, occasioned a good deal of communication between Rome and the English Court, but brought about no relaxation in the penal laws. In 1623 William Bishop was appointed vicai Apostohc for England and Scotland; but the Scotch CathohcB were afterwards withdrawn from his jurisdiction, and subjected to their own missionary prefects. James VI died in 1625, after a reign which had brought only calamity and suffering to the Catholics of his native land.

The thirty-five years which elapsed between the Buccession of Charles I and the restoration of hie son Charles II, after eleven years of Republican govern- ment, were perhaps the darkest in the whole nistory of Scottish Catholicism. Charles I sanctioned the

ruthless execution of the penal statutes, perhaps hoping thus to reconcile the Presbyterians to his unwelcome liturgical innovations; and his policy was continued by Cromwell, apparently out of pure hatred of the Cathohc rehgion. Every effort was made to extirpate Catholicism by the education of the children of Catholics in Protestant tenets; and the imprisonment and petty persecution of the ven- erable Countess of Abercorn showed that neither age nor the highest rank was any protection to the detested Papists. Queen Henrietta Maria, whom Pope Urban VIII urged to intervene on behalf of the Scotch Catholics, was powerless to help them, though a few instances of personal clemency on the part of Charles may be attributable to her influence. Meanwhile the Presbyterians laboured to destroy not only what was left of the shrines and other buildings of Cathohc times, but to uproot every Catholic observance which still survived. In the height of the persecution we find steps taken in Rome to improve the organization of the Catholic body in Scotland; and in 1653 the scattered clergy were incorporated under William Ballantyne as prefect of the mission. They numbered only five or six at that date, the missionaries belonging to the re- ligious orders being considerably more numerous, and including Jesuits, Benedictines, Franciscans, and Lazarists. Missionaries from Ireland were also labouring on the Scotch mission, and a college for the education of Scots clergy had been opened at Madrid in 1633, and was afterwards moved to Val- ladolid, where it still flourishes.

Charles II, who succeeded his father in 1660, was undoubtedly well-disposed personally towards Catho- lics and their Faith; but his Catholic subjects in Scotland enjoyed little more indulgence under the episcopate restored by him in that country than they had done under the Presbyterians. The odious sep- aration of children from their parents for religious reasons continued unabated; and in the districts of Aberdeenshire especially, where Catholics were numerous, they were treated as rigorously as ever. We have detailed reports of this period both from the prefect of the clergy, Winster, and from Alexander Leslie, sent by Propaganda in 1677 as Visitor to the Scottish mission. Their view of the religious situa- tion was far from encouraging; but fresh hopes were raised among the Catholics eight years later by the accession of a Catholic king, James II, who at once suspended the execution of the penal laws, declaring himself in favour of complete liberty of conscience. He opened a Catholic school at Holyrood, restored Catholic worship in the Chapel Royal, and gave annual grants to the Scots Colleges abroad and to the secular and regular missionaries at home. But the Catholics had hardly time to enjoy this respite from persecution, when their hopes were dashed by the Revolution of 188, which drove James from the throne. William of Orange, notwithstanding his promises of toleration, did nothing to check the fanat- ical fury which now assailed the Catholics of England and Scotland. The scattered clergy of the north found themselves in a more difficult position than ever; and this perhaps induced Pope Innocent XII in 1694 to nominate a vicar Apostolic for Scotland in the person of Bishop Thomas Nicholson. His de- voted labours are manifest from the reports which he addressed to Propaganda; but neither during the reign of William and Mary, nor of Anne, who suc- ceeded in 1702, was there the slightest relaxation in the penal laws or their application. The Union of Eng- land and Scotland in 1707 made no change in this respect; and the first Jacobite rising, in 1715, en- tailed fresh sufferings on the Scottish CathoUcs, who were so virulently persecuted that they seemed in danger of total annihilation.