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Since the religious revolution of the sixteenth century, to no man has the Catholic Church in Scotland been so much indebted as to Bishop Hay. He is pre-eminently her bishop of the last three hundred years.

He appeared at a time when the prospects of religion in this country were the most gloomy — when Catholic interests and Catholic hopes had sunk to the lowest point. At present it is difficult, if not impossible, fully to realise what was then the position of Catholics in Scotland. The systematic work of depression which had been carried on for years by the grinding operation of the penal laws, seemed to be completed by the disastrous rising in favour of the Stuarts in 1745. With their cause all the Catholic families of wealth and influence in the kingdom had identified themselves, and the result was widespread ruin.

The Catholic body was left crushed and dispirited. Many fled to seek an asylum in foreign countries; and those who still clung to their native land were, with few exceptions, stripped of everything.

In their poverty and sufferings it was difficult for them