Heretics in the Pulpit, Inquisitors in the Pews: The Long Reformation and The Scottish Enlightenment

Reformation scholars have identified Calvinism with urban elites, but by 1700 many rural Scots had appropriated the Reformation for themselves. In the same century many Scottish clergymen were abandoning Reformation piety and doctrines as outdated relics, in a process that Richard Sher has described as an enlightenment within the established church, not against it. When clerical enlightenment and parish piety clashed, "enlightened" clergymen might be rejected by congregations, even accused by parishioners of heresy. Such cases indicate a long-term success of the Reformation message in the region, but one not accompanied by deference to clerical authority.