This thesis examines the impact of the Reformation on the estates of ecclesiastical institutions and officials based in St Andrews. It argues that land and wealth were redistributed and power structures torn apart, as St Andrews changed from Scotland's Catholic ecclesiastical capital to a conspicuously Protestant burgh. The rapid dispersal of the pre-Reformation church's considerable ecclesiastical lands and revenues had long-term ramifications for the lives of local householders, for relations between religious and secular authorities, and for St Andrews' viability as an urban community. Yet this major redistribution of wealth has had limited attention from scholars. The first part of this study considers the role played by the Catholic Church in St Andrews before the Reformation, and the means by which it was financed, examining the funding of the city's pre-Reformation ecclesiastical foundations and officials, and arguing that (contrary to some traditional assumptions) the Catholic Church in St Andrews was on a reasonably sound financial footing until the Reformation. The second section considers the immediate disruption to St Andrews' religious lands and revenues caused by the burgh's public conversion to Protestantism, and then explores the more planned reorganisation of the 1560s. The disputes and difficulties triggered by the redistribution of ecclesiastical wealth are examined, as well as the longer term impact on St Andrews of the treatment of church revenues at the Reformation. Evidence for this study is chiefly drawn from the extensive body of manuscripts concerning St Andrews held by the National Library of Scotland, the National Records of Scotland, and the University of St Andrews Special Collections.

In the years following the Religious Worship Census of 1851, there was a general increase in anxiety about the state of working-class churchgoing. Many prominent church leaders and social commentators believed that rapid industrialisation and urbanisation had led to the ‘alienation’ of the working classes from the practice of religious worship. The working classes were largely seen as ‘irreligious’ and not interested in aligning themselves to the customs of the rising middle classes who were seen as the stalwarts of the churches. The later nineteenth century was a time of anxiety for many clergy, and prominent social investigators, such as Charles Booth, carried out studies into the extent of poverty amongst various sections of society. A growing recognition of the problem of poverty led to some considering that financial disadvantage was a barrier to the churchgoing habits of the working classes. However, these ‘pessimistic’ perceptions of working-class churchgoing could originate from very different interpretations of the new industrial world, and from different conceptions of human nature. A large part of Karl Marx’s legacy has been his linking of ‘irreligion’ to the oppression of the ‘proletariat’ under industrial capitalism and Frederick Engels legitimised Marx’s theories with his 1845 book on the Condition of the Working Classes in England. However, part of the problem of interpreting Victorian affiliation to the churches is that so much effort has gone into either supporting or refuting the Marxist view amongst historians that the actual purpose of the enquiry has been somewhat lost. There has developed in recent years a rather disconnected debate with the ‘revisionist’ case the strongest and the belief that churches were middle-class institutions overturned by a recourse to ‘social composition analysis’. In effect, the revisionists have employed the use of the occupational analysis of churchgoers from which to discern the social ‘class’ make up of individual churches, which has provided evidence for widespread and significant working-class churchgoing. However, when this methodology is investigated, it is not hard to find critics of the use of occupational titles as a guide to nineteenth-century social ‘class’. This study is an attempt to look at churchgoing from a point of view that does not rely on occupational labels as the indicator of the social make-up of churches. Rather, it employs the use of the Scottish valuation rolls, which provided the official rented value of all properties, as a tool from which to develop a wide-ranging analysis of churchgoing, work and status in a nineteenth-century industrial town. It is, in large part, a study of housing and employment structures as gauged from a systematic analysis of the valuation rolls, the results of which are then measured against the four main Presbyterian churches of the town. The subject of the research is Falkirk because it experienced the transition from a traditional to industrial economy needed to evaluate the impact of industrialisation on working-class churchgoing. The study spans 1860 to 1890 and evaluates both points in time. It is effectively a historical investigation into the social and occupational structure of Falkirk town householders and how the main Presbyterian churches of the area reflected this societal formation. It naturally includes a large component of how social ‘status’ was ordered amongst the core householder population in terms of work, social relations, property and churchgoing. In addition, the methodology employed in the form of property valuations has produced a critique of the traditional system of classification by occupation and somewhat challenged its reliability.

This thesis reassesses the nature and importance of the Scottish Episcopal Church in Edinburgh and more widely. Based on a microstudy of one chapel community over a twenty-four year period, it addresses a series of questions of religion, identity, gender, culture and civic society in late Enlightenment Edinburgh, Scotland, and Britain, combining ecclesiastical, social and economic history. The study examines the congregation of Charlotte Episcopal Chapel, Rose Street, Edinburgh, from its foundation by English clergyman Daniel Sandford in 1794 to its move to the new Gothic chapel of St John's in 1818. Initially an independent chapel, Daniel Sandford's congregation joined the Scottish Episcopal Church in 1805 and the following year he was made Bishop of Edinburgh, although he contined to combine this role with that of rector to the chapel until his death in 1830. Methodologically, the thesis combines a detailed reassessment of Daniel Sandford's thought and ministry (Chapter Two) with a prosopographical study of 431 individuals connected with the congregation as officials or in the in the chapel registers (Chapter Three). Biography of the leader and prosopography of the community are brought to illuminate and enrich one another to understand the wealth and business networks of the congregation (Chapter Four) and their attitudes to politics, piety and gender (Chapter Five). The thesis argues that Daniel Sandford's Evangelical Episcopalianism was both original in Scotland, and one of the most successful in appealing to educated and influential members of Edinburgh society. The congregation, drawn largely from the newly-built West End of Edinburgh, were bourgeois and British in their composition. The core membership of privileged Scots, rooted in land and law, led, but were also challenged by and forced to adapt to a broad social spread who brought new wealth and influence into the West End through India and the consumer boom. The discussion opens up many avenues for further research including the connections between Scottish Episcopalianism and romanticism, the importance of India and social mobility within the consumer economy in the development of Edinburgh, and Scottish female intellectual culture and its engagement with religion and enlightenment. Understanding the role of enlightened, evangelical Episcopalianism, which is the contribution of this study, will form an important context for these enquiries.

Any society is by nature coercive and its institutions are no exception. This was true of mission institutions in South Africa. While acknowledging the invaluable contribution of mission education to the development of black South Africans predominantly, it is clear that Lovedale Missionary Institution exemplifies the concept and reality of a ‘total institution’ which was as susceptible to the problems of power relations as any institution, secular or religious. Idris Shah’s concept of ‘coercive agency’ is apposite for this study. Lovedale’s foundation was laid and developed by the first two Principals. In a very real sense, it was perfected by the third Principal of Lovedale, James Henderson who, like his predecessors, emphasised the ultimate aim of conversion through a thorough process of character formation which infiltrated every aspect of life at Lovedale, especially discipline and the programme of industrial education. Those who studied there internalised its ethos in a manner which could not simply be discarded on leaving the Institution for it had become part of their identity, their indigenous personality and traditional life-style having been largely obliterated and reconstructed according to the ideological ideals of western Christian civilisation and European colonialism. Coercive agency was successful in that it effectively encouraged adaptation to missionary ideology. However, this was not an irreversible process for many Lovedale students came to reject the mores of the religion and education they received both during their stay at Lovedale and in later life in a variety of ways as they challenged and resisted the effects of the coercive agency of internalisation. Institutionalisation is, by nature, resistant to change as can be seen in the policies of the respective Principals. Yet, Henderson was able to initiate change while maintaining essential continuity of purpose. Consequently, black people were alienated by a process of ‘exclusion’. The Christian principles of justice, love and peace have a universal application and are appropriate tools for the development of a new model of education in South African society whose mission is to work towards reconciliation between individuals, within society and with the God who wishes to ‘embrace’ the totality of creation. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

Throughout the seventeenth century, numerous Scots became convinced that the major political and religious upheavals of their age signified the fulfillment of, or further unfolding of, the vivid prophecies described in the Book of Revelation which foretell of the final consummation of all things. To date, however, an in-depth analysis of the evolution of Scottish apocalyptic belief during the seventeenth century has never been undertaken. This thesis utilizes a wide variety of source material to demonstrate the existence of a cohesive, persistent, and largely conservative tradition of apocalyptic thought in Scotland that spanned the years 1588 to 1688. Chapter One examines several influential commentaries on the Book of Revelation published by notable Scots during the decades either side of the Union of Crowns. These works reveal many of the principal characteristics that formed the basis of the Scottish apocalyptic tradition. The most important of these traits which became a consistent feature of the tradition was the rejection of millenarianism. In recent years, historians have exaggerated the influence of millenarian ideals in Scotland during the Covenanting movement which began in 1638. Chapter Two argues that Scottish Covenanters consistently denounced millenarianism as a dangerous, subversive doctrine that could lead to the religious radicalism espoused by sixteenth-century German Anabaptists. Chapter Three looks at political and religious factors which led to the general decline of apocalyptic expectancy in Scotland during the Interregnum. It also demonstrates how, despite this decline, Scottish apocalyptic thinkers continued to uphold the primary traits of the apocalyptic tradition which surfaced over the first half of the century. Lastly, Chapter Four explains how state-enforced religious persecution of Scottish Presbyterians during the Restoration period led to the radicalisation of the tradition and inspired the violent actions of Covenanter extremists who believed they had been chosen by God to act as instruments of his divine vengeance in the latter-days.

Any society is by nature coercive and its institutions are no exception. This was true of mission institutions in South Africa. While acknowledging the invaluable contribution of mission education to the development of black South Africans predominantly, it is clear that Lovedale Missionary Institution exemplifies the concept and reality of a ‘total institution’ which was as susceptible to the problems of power relations as any institution, secular or religious. Idris Shah’s concept of ‘coercive agency’ is apposite for this study. Lovedale’s foundation was laid and developed by the first two Principals. In a very real sense, it was perfected by the third Principal of Lovedale, James Henderson who, like his predecessors, emphasised the ultimate aim of conversion through a thorough process of character formation which infiltrated every aspect of life at Lovedale, especially discipline and the programme of industrial education. Those who studied there internalised its ethos in a manner which could not simply be discarded on leaving the Institution for it had become part of their identity, their indigenous personality and traditional life-style having been largely obliterated and reconstructed according to the ideological ideals of western Christian civilisation and European colonialism. Coercive agency was successful in that it effectively encouraged adaptation to missionary ideology. However, this was not an irreversible process for many Lovedale students came to reject the mores of the religion and education they received both during their stay at Lovedale and in later life in a variety of ways as they challenged and resisted the effects of the coercive agency of internalisation. Institutionalisation is, by nature, resistant to change as can be seen in the policies of the respective Principals. Yet, Henderson was able to initiate change while maintaining essential continuity of purpose. Consequently, black people were alienated by a process of ‘exclusion’. The Christian principles of justice, love and peace have a universal application and are appropriate tools for the development of a new model of education in South African society whose mission is to work towards reconciliation between individuals, within society and with the God who wishes to ‘embrace’ the totality of creation. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)