This book sets out the importance of charity in Scottish Reformation studies. Based on extensive archival research involving more than thirty parishes, it sheds new light on the practice of poor relief in the century following the Reformation.

John McCallum challenges the assumption that charitable activity was weak and informal in Scotland by uncovering the surviving records of welfare work carried out by the church. And he skilfully demonstrates that kirk sessions were key welfare providers in early modern Scotland and provided effective relief to a range of people who struggled in poverty. In addition to the analysis of specific parish activities, readers gain a rare insight into the lives of the poor Scots who looked to the church for assistance in the early modern era.