The Reformed Kirk and the Local Community: The Evidence of Perth’s Kirk Session

The kirk session was established in Scotland by the Reformation Parliament of 1560 with the aim of ensuring conformity with the Scottish Reformation, primarily through their role in the exercise of moral discipline. This chapter explores the kirk session records of the burgh of Perth, one of the four ‘great burghs’ of early modern Scotland. Perth itself is important to the history of the Scottish Reformation in many ways, and has some of the earliest surviving and fullest kirk session records for the sixteenth century. The chapter first considers the practicalities of the records themselves, such as the formula by which disciplinary cases were often recorded and how the minutes were used, with evaluation of how this informs our use of such sources.

A question continuously considered by historians is whether ordinary people supported reformation, and to what extent reforms were rejected by local communities. It is a widely held view that the establishment of the Reformed kirk was successful; the chapter discussed how this can sometimes be evidenced by local support for kirk sessions and the relative lack of cases involving recusancy found within their records. More recently, historiographical focus has begun to shift from whether people were ‘for’ or ‘against’ the exercise of moral discipline, to how people’s relationships with the kirk were complex and multi-faceted. How did kirk sessions relate to their communities, both as institutions and local individuals, and also the complexities inherent in utilising these records? How can these cases can be utilised as evidence into ministers’ and elders’ interactions with their parishioners, and how kirk sessions were able to successfully implement reformed practices? Using Perth’s records, this chapter addresses the insights that kirk session records provide into the local nature of reform.