Native Lords and the Church in Thirteenth-Century Strathearn, Scotland

Abstract

The thirteenth century in Scotland witnessed a determined effort on the part of the crown and its ecclesiastical officials to initiate a series of reforms comparable to those that had so deeply altered the social and religious life of England and continental Europe. An important aspect of the transformation that occurred in Scotland was the consolidation of a network of parish churches throughout the kingdom. Scottish authorities, however, encountered several obstacles in their attempts to create parishes, and especially to assign sufficient revenues to them. In the lordships controlled by old Celtic families in particular the Church's designs sometimes clashed with the interests of great native land-holders and their kinsmen. In many of these lordships the process of parish formation was ultimately the result of negotiation and litigation which saw the Church forced to accommodate the claims of Celtic landowners. This article examines, in the context of the native lordship of Strathearn, the struggles that marked the creation and consolidation of some parishes in thirteenth-century Scotland.