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The History of Catholic Intellectual Life in Scotland, 1918–1965 pp 171–198Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Breaking the Chain! Catholic Scholars and Scottish History

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Part of the book series: Histories of the Sacred and Secular, 1700-2000 ((HISASE))

Abstract

The incorporation of two chapters which take as their theme Catholic contributions to the study of history in Scotland into this work at first glance may seem unusual or out of place. However, a number of factors dictated that they would be valuable. First, a central aim of Pax Romana was to bring into the orbit of the Catholic Church all areas of intellectual endeavour. The Newman Association as the affiliated body in the United Kingdom of Pax Romana embarked on a series of initiatives to build a distinctively Catholic social science movement of which the Scottish Catholic Historical Committee was just one example. So in the first instance, historical study was important as a part of this movement to incorporate the Catholic intelligentsia. Second, the scale of historical work embarked upon stands out in contrast to the relative poverty of activity in other intellectual spheres.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    George Buchanan, Rerum Scoticarium Historia (Edinburgh, 1582).

  2. 2.

    Quoted in William Ferguson, The Identity of the Scottish Nation: A Historic Quest (Edinburgh, 1998), p. 112.

  3. 3.

    Colin Kidd, Subverting Scotland’s Past (Cambridge, 1993), p. 24.

  4. 4.

    For a recent study of the role of anti-Catholicism in Great Britain, see John Wolffe, ‘Change and Continuity in British Anti-Catholicism, 1829–1982’, in Catholicism in Britain and France since 1789 (F. Tallet and N. Atkin, eds) (London, 1996), pp. 67–86.

  5. 5.

    Ferguson, The Identity of the Scottish Nation, p. 106.

  6. 6.

    Malcolm Vivian Hay, A Chain of Error in Scottish History (London, 1927), p. 7.

  7. 7.

    S. J. Brown ‘Outside the Covenant: Scottish Presbyterian Churches and Irish Immigration, 1922–1938’, The Innes Review 42.1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 19–45; R. J. Finlay, ‘Nationalism, Race, Religion and the Irish Question in Inter-War Scotland’, The Innes Review42.1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 46–67.

  8. 8.

    Graham Walker, ‘Varieties of Scottish Protestant Identity’, in Scotland in the Twentieth Century (T. M. Devine and R. J. Finlay, eds) (Edinburgh, 1996), pp. 250–68.

  9. 9.

    See E. McFarland, Protestants First: Orangeism in Nineteenth Century Scotland (Edinburgh, 1990) and Gallagher, Glasgow, the Uneasy Peace.

  10. 10.

    Brown, ‘Outside the Covenant’, pp. 28–9.

  11. 11.

    The Church and Nation Committee was a special committee of the General Assembly with responsibility for home affairs and domestic policy initiatives.

  12. 12.

    Brown, ‘Outside the Covenant’, p. 28.

  13. 13.

    See S. McGhee, ‘Carfin and the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1926’, The Innes Review16.1 (Spring, 1965), pp. 56–77.

  14. 14.

    David Calderwood quoted in Ferguson, The Identity of the Scottish Nation, p. 113.

  15. 15.

    David McRoberts, ‘Scottish Catholic Archives 1560-1978’, The Innes Review. XXVII(2)

  16. 16.

    Hay, A Chain of Error in Scottish History, p. 68.

  17. 17.

    Hay, A Chain of Error in Scottish History, p. 67.

  18. 18.

    J. H. Baxter, ‘Review of A Chain of Error in Scottish History’, Scottish Historical Review 25 (1928), p. 206.

  19. 19.

    Hay, A Chain of Error in Scottish History, p. 192.

  20. 20.

    Ibid.

  21. 21.

    Ibid., p. 193.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., p. 192.

  23. 23.

    A. I. Hay, Valiant for Truth: Malcolm Hay of Seaton (London, 1971), p. 23.

  24. 24.

    See Hay, Valiant for Truth, pp. 52–7. Count Blucher was a descendant of the Duke of Wellington’s Prussian commander at Waterloo.

  25. 25.

    For an assessment of Major Hay’s contribution to military intelligence and counter-intelligence see D. Kahn, The Codebreakers (New York, 2nd edn., 1996), pp. 309–11.

  26. 26.

    For recollections of Major Hay’s wartime service see M. V. Hay, Wounded and a Prisoner of War (London, 1915) and Hay, Valiant for Truth, pp. 52–7.

  27. 27.

    Thomas Innes, The Civil and Ecclesiastical History of Scotland (Aberdeen, 1853) and A Critical Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of the Northern Parts of Britain or Scotland: 1729 (Edinburgh, 1879).

  28. 28.

    Hay, A Chain of Error in Scottish History, p. vii.

  29. 29.

    Ibid., p. 64.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., p. 66.

  31. 31.

    See R. H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (Harmondsworth, 1926); Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (London, 1930, English translation by Talcott Parsons).

  32. 32.

    Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, p. 120.

  33. 33.

    Ibid.

  34. 34.

    Hay, A Chain of Error in Scottish History, p. 1.

  35. 35.

    Ibid.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., p. 4.

  37. 37.

    Ibid.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., p. 6.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., p. 7.

  40. 40.

    Ibid.

  41. 41.

    P. Hume Brown, A History of Scotland for Schools (Edinburgh, 1907), part 1, p. 35.

  42. 42.

    George Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1861), volume I, p. 39 quoted in Hay, A Chain of Error in Scottish History, pp. 58–9.

  43. 43.

    Hay, A Chain of Error in Scottish History, p. 58.

  44. 44.

    For an introduction to ‘dark age’ Christendom, see J. Herrin, The Formation of Christendom (London, 1987).

  45. 45.

    Hay, A Chain of Error in Scottish History, pp. 59–60. Just in case there was any room for doubt on this, Major Hay presented the statement in both English and in a footnote in Latin.

  46. 46.

    Ibid., p. 60.

  47. 47.

    Ibid.

  48. 48.

    Ibid.

  49. 49.

    Ibid.

  50. 50.

    Ibid.

  51. 51.

    Hay, Valiant for Truth, p. 121.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., p. 116.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., p. 120.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., p. 117.

  55. 55.

    Baxter, ‘Review of A Chain of Error in Scottish History’, p. 206.

  56. 56.

    Ibid.

  57. 57.

    McRoberts, ‘Scottish Catholic Archives’, p. 122.

  58. 58.

    Scottish Historical Review 26 (1928), p. 379.

  59. 59.

    Ibid.

  60. 60.

    McRoberts, ‘Scottish Catholic Archives’, p. 122.

  61. 61.

    Hay, Valiant for Truth, p. 92.

  62. 62.

    Ibid., p. 93.

  63. 63.

    Ibid., p. 94.

  64. 64.

    Ibid. In 1910, Ambrogio Ratti (Pius XI) was called to Rome to serve in the Vatican Library. Between 1918 and 1921 he was apostolic visitor to Poland.

  65. 65.

    Ibid.

  66. 66.

    C. Mackenzie, ‘Catholic Barra’, in The Book of Barra (J. L. Campbell, ed.) (London, 1936), p. 5.

  67. 67.

    P. Reilly, ‘You Are the People, Who Are We?’ in Out of the Ghetto: The Catholic Community in Modern Scotland (R. Boyle and P. Lynch, eds) (Edinburgh, 1998), pp.142–62. See also, P. Reilly, ‘Catholics and Scottish Literature, 1878–1978’, in Modern Scottish Catholicism (McRoberts, ed.), pp. 183–203.

  68. 68.

    Ruaraidh Erskine of Marr, founder of the Scottish National League and a host of other pan-Celtic and Scottish Nationalist groups. Robert B. Cunninghame Graham, Liberal MP, founder of the Scottish Labour Party in 1888, founder member of the National Party of Scotland and President of the Scottish National Party.

  69. 69.

    A. Marr, The Battle for Scotland (London, 1992), p. 82.

  70. 70.

    Ibid., p. 83.

  71. 71.

    C. Mackenzie, Catholicism and Scotland (London, 1936), p. 94.

  72. 72.

    W. Scott, Tales of a Grandfather (Edinburgh, 1869).

  73. 73.

    Mackenzie, Catholicism and Scotland, p. 72.

  74. 74.

    Ibid., p. 53.

  75. 75.

    M. Lynch, Scotland: A New History (London, 1992), p. 195.

  76. 76.

    Mackenzie, Catholicism and Scotland, p. 142.

  77. 77.

    Ibid., p. 73.

  78. 78.

    Ibid., p. 142.

  79. 79.

    P. F. Anson, Underground Catholicism in Scotland (Montrose, 1970).

  80. 80.

    See T. Gallagher, ‘Protestant Extremism in Urban Scotland 1930–1939: Its Growth and Contraction’, Scottish Historical Review 64.178, Part 2 (1985), pp. 143–67.

  81. 81.

    Mackenzie, Catholicism and Scotland, p. 184.

  82. 82.

    See Finlay, ‘Nationalism, Race, Religion and the Irish Question’; Gallagher, Glasgow, the Uneasy Peace, ch. 4.

  83. 83.

    J. Torrance, Scotland’s Dilemma: Province or Nation? (Edinburgh, rev. edn., 1939), p. 38.

  84. 84.

    This figure is based on a statement on the cover of the pamphlet. Ibid., p. 1.

  85. 85.

    See N. Milton, John Maclean (London, 1973), ch. 62.

  86. 86.

    See J. Brand, The National Movement and Scotland (London, 1978); R. J. Finlay, Independent and Free (Edinburgh, 1994); and Marr, The Battle for Scotland.

  87. 87.

    Mackenzie, Catholicism and Scotland, p. 184.

  88. 88.

    Ibid.

  89. 89.

    Ibid., p. 125n.

  90. 90.

    Ibid., p. 185.

  91. 91.

    Ibid.

  92. 92.

    Ibid.

  93. 93.

    Ibid.

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    Clifford Williamson

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Williamson, C. (2016). Breaking the Chain! Catholic Scholars and Scottish History. In: The History of Catholic Intellectual Life in Scotland, 1918–1965. Histories of the Sacred and Secular, 1700-2000. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-33347-6_8

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