Catholicism in Scotland was almost extirpated in the wake of the Reformation of 1560, banning Mass and abolishing the authority of the Pope. New laws changed a millennium of worship, and although the Presbyterian Church was not fully established until  1682, Scottish religious life was forever altered. Scottish universities were closed to Catholics and priestly training forbidden so noble Catholic families sent their sons to Scots Colleges in Europe, where many clerics had fled, and trained seminarians in France, Italy, and Spain. Additionally, there were Scottish monasteries (Schottenklosters) in Germany that effectively functioned as Scots Colleges, especially St. James Abbey in Regensburg.

In Scotland, young men also continued to train for the priesthood in secret colleges across the remote Highlands and Islands. These efforts were restricted by reprisals against several largely Catholic rebellions in the 17th and 18th centuries by supporters, known as Jacobites for the Latin version of the name of the exiled King James II (in England) and VII (in Scotland) and his descendants. Easing tensions and liberalization in the 19th century resulted in The Emancipation Act of 1829 that approved civil and political liberty to Scottish Catholics and three years later the first convent since the Reformation was founded in Edinburgh. The arrival of largely Catholic famine migrants from Ireland from the 1840s swelled the numbers of Catholics, especially in Glasgow. On 4th March 1878, Pope Leo XIII, who nine years later founded Catholic University in D.C., re-established the Scottish hierarchy of bishops. After centuries of persecution, Scotland was no longer classified as a missionary country and was once again administered by its own system of bishops.

Regarding Scotland, Catholic University’s Rare Books Department, part of Special Collections, houses various works related to the great medieval philosopher, John Duns Scotus, as well as national political history, such as published acts of the Scottish Parliament before the 1707 union with England, but there has been a scarcity of books on the post Reformation Scottish Catholic Church, especially titles dated prior to 1700. We are happy to announce that two recent acquisitions are a serious move in the direction of addressing this lamentable lacuna. In both cases we were fortunate to obtain the services of Italian rare book dealer Federico Orsi of Orsi Libraio Antiquario in Milan, Italy, who combines professional commercial book catalogs with an engaging willingness to barter, that is appreciated by non-profit university Rare Book collectors like us. (1)

The first book, purchased in October 2024 on good terms after polite wrangling with Mr. Orsi, is Il cappuccino scozese, or, The Scottish Capuchin, Rome, 1645, Second Edition, a life of the Scottish Capuchin friar George Leslie (d.1637) written by Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, Archbishop of Fermo.  Published in Italian by Gioseppe Corvo in contemporary vellum, this romanticized biography of Leslie, with a First Edition in 1644, became in effect a bestseller, with several continental editions in French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Archbishop Rinuccini, who became acquainted with Leslie in Rome, had also been Papal Nuncio to Ireland where he supported Irish rebels against English rule. Leslie, a son of James Leslie and Janet Wood of Peterstone, Aberdeenshire, was brought up Protestant but converted to Catholicism and was enrolled in 1608 in the Scots College at Rome. Later, as a Capuchin friar known as ‘Father Archangel’, he was a renowned preacher, particularly in Germany, and this work was not only a tribute to him but to Scotland, as well as Ireland, important albeit captive parts of the universal Roman Catholic Church.

The second rare book, purchased in March 2025, also from Orsi, is De duplici statu religionis apud Scotos, or, On the Dual State of Religion Among the Scots, Rome, 1628, First and only edition of a rare Vatican imprint regarding Catholic propaganda in Scotland, by George Conn. Published in Latin, printed on thick paper, and bound in modern brown sheepskin. Conn (d. 1640), a Scot from Aberdeen, was educated at the Scots colleges of Douay and Rome, and the University of Bologna, was also a papal agent of Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort of King Charles I, and namesake of my present home, the State of Maryland. Conn wrote on the coexistence of Catholicism and Protestantism in Scotland, promoting the Catholic faith in Britain and encouraging conversion. He argues the merits of Scotland as a Christian nation and includes the achievements of both Scottish and Irish saints while also extolling recent Catholic missionary events in Scotland and praising the contemporary Scottish writer, Thomas Dempster.

It is with no small sense of irony that I contemplate my career collecting, housing, and preserving the physical manifestations of Catholic History because I am a distant kinsman of John Knox, founder of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland, through our mutual distaff descent from the Clan Sinclair. Generations of my relatives, including cattle dealers, whisky distillers, cotton weavers, and, above all, coal miners, in both Scotland and America, would be and were mystified by my job as a library professional. One of my grandfathers asked me “What is it you do, again?” and “Who cares about that stuff?” I do, Grandpa, I do, and so do countless others. For more information on these and other items in our Rare Books Department, see our webpage or email us at lib-rarebooks@cua.edu

Notes:

(1) Thanks to Mr. Orsi, especially his catalogs that are a primary source for this blog post.

(2) Special thanks for their assistance to Sally Kendrick, Alexis Howlett, and Abigail Hibbs.