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1. Discord and Reform Scotland’s Reformation Parliament signalled an unmitigated rupture with the papacy in 1560. The overall legacy of the Reformation is still hotly debated, but its escalation is often considered a vindication against the perceived faults and excesses of the Catholic Church, the Roman hierarchy and most notably, the papacy. It was a phenomenon which fundamentally altered the religious and political landscape of Scotland, culminating in the re-establishment of the Church along reformed lines. These changes included, amongst other things, the outright repudiation of the Pope’s authority, the banning of the Catholic Mass and the promulgation of an approved Confession of Faith. Traditional analyses of the Reformation tend to view it as a single, momentous period in the history of the Church, highlighting key aspects of the Catholic-Protestant divide. As a result, a host of uncompromising and partisan views have littered pages of Reformation historiography, and perceptions of the Scottish Reformation have been vulnerable to half-myths and distorted facts. But, thankfully, advances in rigorous scholarship, particularly since the 1950s, have shed light on conflicting interpretations in a more even-handed manner. In order to gain a clearer understanding of St John Ogilvie’s life, we must be aware
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