Church and People on the Eve of the Reformation: Patterns of Social and Religious Change in Lowland Scotland

Kitzler, Jan-Christoph (1998) Church and People on the Eve of the Reformation: Patterns of Social and Religious Change in Lowland Scotland. MPhil(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The Reformation in Scotland is understood as primarily caused by social changes. In this dissertation we firstly describe the general conditions of the social system on the eve of the Reformation. Thus the importance of the Church for the everyday life of the people is analysed, and we analyse a growing influence of laymen on the local church. The Church is, as we will see, in an institutional and in a practical way deeply interwoven with the everyday reality of the common man and the communities in both rural and urban areas. The focus of the analysis of social changes are the changes within the religiousness of the people on the eve of the Reformation. We firstly investigate general means of religious education, the way in which the common man got his religious knowledge. Secondly we deal with changes within the system of religious instruction in order to analyse the changes in popular conceptions of religion. The changes within the religiousness of the people express the changes within society as a whole, and only a changed religiousness amongst the people made the Reformation in its events possible.

• Item Type: Thesis (MPhil(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Additional Information: Adviser: James Kirk
• Keywords: Religious history
• Date of Award: 1998
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1998-75956
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2019 09:15
• Last Modified: 19 Dec 2019 09:15
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/75956