Anti-Catholic Strategies in Eighteenth-Century Scotland

This book analyses the relationship between Presbyterians and Catholics in eighteenth-century Scotland. The author considers the weapons wielded against the Scottish Catholic Mission by the state and by the Church of Scotland – penal laws, Royal Bounty missions and SSPCK schools. Once the government no longer saw Catholics as a threat to the safety of the state, Presbyterians were left to fight their crusade on their own. Convinced as they were that the best strategy in order to stamp out Catholicism was to eradicate ignorance, Presbyterians seemed to give pride of place to education. The author, however, argues that – for all their criticism of the attitude of the Church of Rome in Catholic countries – Presbyterians used similar strategies to try and improve their standing in the Highlands.