Date of Award
Spring 2026
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Academic Program
Legal Studies BA
Department
Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs
First Advisor
William Newman
Advisor Department
Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs
Abstract
This thesis examines the legal and institutional mechanism that contributed to the decline in Catholicism in early modern England and Scotland during the Reformation period. By analyzing statutory developments, ecclesiastical court structures, and enforcement practices, it compares how each kingdom implemented religious reform and regulated religious conformity. Rather than focusing solely on theological differences, this study emphasizes the role of legal structure and legal institutions in shaping religious governance.
Chapter I outlines the historical and legal background of the English and Scottish Reformations. Chapter II examines prior literature, and Chapter III states the methodology used in this study. Chapter IV presents the results of my research, cataloging legal events and analyzing them to assess the degree of centralization and its impact on Catholicism to support the comparative analysis that follows. Chapter V is the comparative analysis focusing on judicial structures, authority, impacts, etc. The discussion sums up these findings and locates them within the larger argument about church-state debates in the United States. The project ultimately finds that England developed a highly centralized system in which the Crown and Parliament exercised direct control over religious governance and enforcement. Scotland relied on a decentralized network of ecclesiastical institutions that operated at the local level with significant discretion and limited oversight. These differences demonstrate that the structure of legal authority, particularly the distribution of enforcement power and legal discretion, played a decisive role in shaping religious conformity and the lived experience of Catholic communities.
Copyright
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Recommended Citation
Hanson, Erin, "A Comparative Legal Analysis of the English and Scottish Reformations" (2026). Honors Theses. 1125.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/1125