Misplaced Pages

List of collegiate churches in Scotland

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "List of collegiate churches in Scotland" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Bothwell Parish is the only Collegiate church where worship is still held. It is thought that the first Collegium of canons with its own chapel was formed in St. Andrews in the 13th century, and it is thought that by the Reformation there were more than 50 secular religious houses. The proscription of the Catholic faith in 1567 meant that these houses had to close. Although Scotland endured the Iconoclasm of the Reformation, there are still some handsome structures extant. Some Collegiate churches were converted into local parish Kirks, whilst others have fallen to ruin, some a mixture of the two.

As a response to the power of medieval monastiscm, the rulers of Scotland—in common with many other Northern European states—tried to control the power of the church by encouraging local magnates to commission secular houses of worship within their lands and often within their own fortalices.

These churches were often considered as private fiefdoms within certain families as a means to ensure prayers for their souls and for the glory and immortality of their lines. Establishing previous monastic establishments as Collegia of Canons helped to "temporalise" authority over large areas of valuable land and increase the power of the crown.

Aberdeen

Ayrshire

Dumfries & Galloway

East Lothian

Edinburgh

Fife

Glasgow

Highland

Midlothian

Moray

Perth and Kinross

Scottish Borders

Stirling

West Dunbartonshire

To be sorted:

Churches in Scotland
By council area
Related lists
Categories:
List of collegiate churches in Scotland Add topic