Local and regional experiences of Reformation

This chapter synthesizes and evaluates the expansion in the understanding of regional aspects of the Scottish Reformation in the decades since Ian Cowan’s 1978 pamphlet: Regional Aspects of the Scottish Reformation. Explored here are the findings of the growing body of local studies that followed, focusing on themes around the distinctiveness of Scottish towns and counties in their respective contributions to, and experiences of, the Reformation. Although these specifically local studies play a central part, the chapter also draws on the major contributions made to our understanding of this subject by other studies of religious life, emphasizing that the regional question is far from a marginal or just parochial concern. As well as introducing and reflecting on the historiographical debates around regional patterns of Reformation, it introduces readers both to key types of sources that have been utilized and to currently emerging approaches.