THE INFLUENCE OF THE EARLY CHURCH

After the Reformation the church set about removing what it felt to have

been the neglect and abuses of the Roman Catholic Church. Their goal was to

establish a Godly Commonwealth, and they believed that only by living accord~

ing to a strict code of conduct, based on the Bible, could anybody have any

hope of attaining salvation.

The influence of the church extended over all aspects of people’s lives;

in the need to attend the Kirk to hear the word of God, to send their children

to school to learn the word of God, not to work on the Sabbath to spoil the

sanctity of the Lord’s Day, and to adhere to a code of conduct and morality

in all things.

There are instances recorded in the St. Andrews Kirk Session minutes

which show the importance people put on hearing ‘the word of God’ from the

pulpit. In 1775 there was trouble over the letting of seats in the Town Kirk

when several people were moved from their accustomed seats. Amongst these

were ‘Robert Richard’s wife from Strathkinness and Margaret Deas from the

Poffle’ who did not wish to ‘be deprived of hearing the word of God’. They

were given other seats until there were chairs vacant nearer the pulpit. St.

Mary’s Church on Market Street was built in 1849 because there was not room

for everybody in the Town Kirk (which was not as large as it is now).

However, not everybody went to church regularly, even though they were

under pressure to do so. After the establishment of the preaching station

in Strathkinness in 1836 it was reported in the Kirk Session minutes of St.

Andrews ‘Not a few in both extremities (Strathkinness and Boarhills) rarely

went to any place of worship at all. Now by regular services at these stations

many have been reclaimed to church going habits’. The same minutes said

that ‘many attended the Dissenting Chapel at Strathkinness’.

Discipline was meted out to the inhabitants of Strathkinness, as well as

other parts of the parish, by the St. Andrews Kirk Session prior to 1860,

after which discipline of people in Strathkinness became the duty of the newly

established quoad sacra Parish of Strathkinness. (Isabella Ogilvie had the

dubious distinction of being the first person to be transferred from St. Andrews

to Strathkinness for discipline.)

Working on the Sabbath was not allowed and could lead to discipline. In

1598 ‘Thomas Rodger in Strakynes and Barbara Wilsoun thair, being accusit,

confest thair wriking (working) on Sonday last, and thairfir ar ordanit to mak

humiliation Sonday next’.

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