Ebook: The Spiritual Jurisdiction in Reformation Scotland: A Legal History

Re-evalutes the medieval Church in Reformation Scotland from the perspective of legal history

• Offers a substantial re-interpretation of several major elements of the Scottish Reformation
• Includes the Wars of the Congregation; the Reformation Parliament; the legitimacy of the Scottish government from 1559 to 1561; the courts of the early Church of Scotland; and the legal significance of Mary Stewart’s personal reign
• Considers neglected aspects of the Reformation, including the roles of the Court of Session and of the Court of the Commissaries of Edinburgh
• Re-evaluates the actual impact in law of key events in the history of the Scottish Reformation
• Studies jurisdiction in matrimonial disputes during a period of revolution

This book examines the Scottish Reformation from a new perspective – that of the legal system and lawyers. For the leading lawyers of the day, the Scottish Reformation presented a constitutional and jurisdictional crisis of the first order. In the face of such a challenge moderate judges, lawyers and officers of state sought to restore order in a time of revolution by retaining much of the medieval legacy of Catholic law and order in Scotland.