Jesuits in the Highlands: Three Phases
The Jesuit mission to Scotland began with minimal numbers in the sixteenth century but built up with the support of Catholic nobles. Leading members of the Society had serious hopes of converting James vi to his mother’s religion although the king merely used them and their lay patrons as a counter to Presbyterian pressure. Apart from the show-piece victory at Glenlivet there was no Jesuit presence in the Highlands. John Ogilvie was not, as has been suggested, a Highlander. During most of the seventeenth century, gentry families in the Grampian mountains were served on a small scale from neighbouring Lowland bases. No knowledge of Gaelic was required. The final phase represented a change of approach, as Jesuits worked among some of Scotland’s poorest people in forbidding terrain and extreme weather. Setting themselves to learn the Gaelic language they achieved notable success in Braemar and Strathglass.