Riches and Reform: Ecclesiastical Wealth in St Andrews, c.1520-1580

Bess Rhodes, MA 2008, MLitt, 2009, PhD 2013

In 1559 St Andrews witnessed a revolution. A popular uprising transformed Scotland's Catholic religious capital (once praised as the second Rome) into a proudly Protestant community. Yet religious change was accompanied by economic crisis. With the removal of the wealth and bureaucracy of the Catholic hierarchy St Andrews rapidly sank into ‘poverty and decay’.

In 'Riches and Reform' Dr Bess Rhodes considers the unintended financial consequences of the Scottish Reformation, exploring how an apparently thriving city could tear itself apart within a generation.

ISBN: 978-90-04-34798-4