Three humanist scholars, alumni of the Scottish Catholic college of St Andrew in the Spanish Netherlands, were recruited into the spy service of King James VI/I as intelligencers and couriers. As members of the ‘Republic of Letters’ Thomas Dempster, Thomas Reid and Thomas Seget were well placed to travel throughout Europe as well as correspond with fellow humanists at all the major courts. In doing so they were able to provide intelligence which helped James in his ambitions of becoming king of England and obtaining dynastic marriages for his children but they also pandered to his vain belief that he was a scholar of distinction. This paper attempts to show how their relationships to the King developed and what benefits these scholars derived from their service.

The Stuart artefacts described in this article have not previously been examined as an entity, and many are relatively unfamiliar to scholars. This paper will consider this unique collection of relics and discuss their significance within the personal as well as national and international contexts of their origins. That significance rests largely in their royal provenance, which was valued by the custodians at the English Jesuit College of St Omers, the predecessor of Stonyhurst College, founded to educate English Catholic boys in 1593. The Stuart cause, from Mary Queen of Scots to Charles Edward Stuart represented the best hope of English Catholics for a formal restoration of the faith. Relics, such as Mary Queen of Scots’ Thorn, were powerful symbols of tenacity and hope, providing an unbroken thread from the Passion of Christ to the martyred Queen, the more valued as the College gained its own seventeenth-century martyrs. Artefacts which arrived at Stonyhurst College after 1794 were valued for their romantic association with the failed Stuart cause. The creation of the Stuart Parlour in 1911and the adoption of the Borrodale tartan as part of the girls’ uniform in the 1990s demonstrate the significance these objects possess well into the twentieth century.

The story of the relationship between Ulster and Scotland during the seventeenth century has long been dominated by the flow of people and ideas from Scotland to the north of Ireland. This, however, belies the prominent role that Ireland had in the social and cultural history of the Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland during that century. This paper argues that of even greater importance to the resurgence of Catholicism in the Scottish Gaidhealtachd than a Rome driven Counter-Reformation were the financial support and personnel provided by Ulster Catholics. In the face of aggressive Stuart policies, Catholicism was rejuvenated and became an ideological justification for asserting traditional rights in the face of government sanctioned, Protestant blessed, incursions in the Western Isles. Moreover, in the face of historiography that has argued for the continual disintegration of ClanDonald throughout the seventeenth century, this article explores the ways the clans and their neighbours inspired, funded and facilitated the revival of Catholicism in the Gaidhealtachd.

Provost Skene’s House, Aberdeen, is home to a painted ceiling depicting scenes from the lives of both Christ and the Virgin. This decoration has intrigued scholars and visitors alike for around sixty years since it was renovated and unveiled to the public in the early 1950s. The ceiling, painted in the seventeenth century, has suffered a considerable amount of damage. Unfortunately, half of the original decorative scheme has been lost. In addition to this, panels that do survive have been modified slightly during restoration. This article examines some of the early-modern continental prints used as sources by the original painters in order to determine that they were Scottish, and not travelling artists from the Low Countries. It also reconstructs the majority of the historic layout of the ceiling, by examining pre-restoration photographs of lost details in conjunction with further early-modern print sources. The article will attempt to identify some of the images which have been lost from the ceiling and argue that the original cycle of images depicted The Mysteries of the Rosary. It will also examine how the painted ceiling, created in the aftermath of the Reformation, survived both the effects of anti-Catholic legislation in Scotland and time. Finally, the relationships between the patron and his local recusant community are discussed in conjunction with the significance of the deliberate inclusion of the IHS monogram within the ceiling’s design.

The lives and work of eighteenth-century Scottish artists John and Cosmo Alexander, father and son, were dedicated to the Jacobite cause. They were men of a culture that was distinct to their own region, that of the north-east of Scotland, which from the late fifteenth century had been centred on the university circles of Aberdeen. In microcosm, the experiences of those in these circles reflected the oscillating tests of faith and fealty of that era. Assumed to be Catholics, and from a family which numbered at least one priest among its number, between them the Alexanders survived the turbulent times of the eighteenth-century Jacobite Risings. Both were wanted men after the 1746 Battle of Culloden. Drawing on local evidence, this paper explores the religious, political and social landscape surrounding the works with an Aberdeen connection produced by both John and Cosmo Alexander. All can be seen to demonstrate that the enduring bonds of faith and fealty, which, perforce, may not always have been openly displayed, could be reinforced through the subtle deployment of the painted image.

This article presents a narrative description of the state of music in the Scottish Catholic Church from the Reformation up to the publication of George Gordon’s collection of church music c.1830. For the first two hundred years after the Reformation, Scottish Catholics worshipped in virtual silence owing to the oppressive penal laws then in force. In the late eighteenth century religious toleration increased and several members of the clergy and other interested parties attempted to reintroduce singing into the worship of the Scottish Catholic Church. In this they were thwarted by the ultra-cautious attitude of the Vicar-Apostolic for the Lowland District, Bishop George Hay, who refused to allow any music in Catholic churches in case it should inflame Protestant opinion. Only after his retirement could the reintroduction take place, and the speed at which it was achieved bears witness to the enthusiasm and commitment of Scottish clergy and laity for church music. Research in this area is long overdue, and it is hoped that this article will form a basis for further investigations.

This article will consider the mismanagement during the years 1865–1885 of the benefaction made by Thomas Mitchell, a convert and one-time military man, to the Catholic Church in Scotland, as well as a number of other financial difficulties that beset the Church during this period. In doing so, it will reveal how the Scottish bishops, under enormous pressures because of Irish migration, acted in ways not only unbecoming of their offices, but also beyond the scope of both civil and canon law. Yet, as will be seen, the Church was developing as an institution and, in many ways, the difficulties of these years were necessary if it was to re-develop as a fully-fledged and autonomous national Church.