Holyrood Abbey is a ruined abbey of the Canons Regular in Edinburgh, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1128 by David I of Scotland. During the 15th century, the abbey guesthouse was developed into a royal residence, and after the Scottish Reformation the Palace of Holyroodhouse was expanded further. The abbey church was used as a parish church until the 17th century, and has been ruined since the 18th century. The remaining walls of the abbey lie adjacent to the palace, at the eastern end of Edinburgh's Royal Mile. The site of the abbey is protected as a scheduled monument.
George Wishart was a Scottish Protestant Reformer and one of the early Protestant martyrs burned at the stake as a heretic.
John Hill Burton FRSE was a Scottish advocate, historian and economist. The author of Life and Correspondence of David Hume, he was secretary of the Scottish Prison Board (1854–77), and Historiographer Royal (1867–1881).
The Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 was an Act of the British Parliament which made it a criminal offence for anyone outside the established "United Church of England and Ireland" to use any episcopal title "of any city, town or place ... in the United Kingdom". It provided that any property passed to a person under such a title would be forfeit to the Crown. The act was introduced by Prime Minister Lord John Russell in response to anti-Roman Catholic reaction to the 1850 establishment of Catholic dioceses in England and Wales under the papal bull Universalis Ecclesiae. The 1851 act proved ineffective and was repealed 20 years later by the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1871. Roman Catholic bishops followed the letter of the law but their laity ignored it. The effect was to strengthen the Catholic Church in England, but also it felt persecuted and on the defensive.
Archibald Johnston, Lord Wariston was a Scottish judge and statesman.
James Begg was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland who served as Moderator of the General Assembly 1865/66.
Thomas M'Crie was a Scottish biographer and ecclesiastical historian, writer, and preacher born in the town of Duns, and educated at the University of Edinburgh. He became the leading minister of the United Secession Church. His Life of Knox (1813) ranks high among biographies for the ability and learning which it displays, and was the means of vindicating the great Reformer from a cloud of prejudice and misunderstanding in which he had been enveloped. It was followed by a Life of Andrew Melville (1819), Knox's successor as the leader of the Reformers in Scotland, also a work of great merit. M'Crie also published histories of the Reformation in Italy and Spain. He received an honorary degree of D.D. in 1813, the first Secession minister, to receive such an award.
Thomas M'Crie was a Presbyterian minister and church historian. He was a Scottish Secession minister who joined the Free Church of Scotland and served as the Moderator of the General Assembly to that church 1856/57.
John Durie (1537–1600) was one of the first Presbyterian ministers in Edinburgh after the Reformation in Scotland.
The Palace of Holyroodhouse, commonly referred to as Holyrood Palace or Holyroodhouse, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyroodhouse has served as the principal royal residence in Scotland since the 16th century, and is a setting for state occasions and official entertaining.
Alexander Ferrier Mitchell was a Scottish ecclesiastical historian and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1885.
Henry Soames was an English clergyman and ecclesiastical historian.
Michael Russell was the first Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway from 1837 to his death in 1848.
Walter Balcanquhall (1548–1617), was one of the first Presbyterian ministers in Edinburgh after the Reformation in Scotland.
Mackenzie Edward Charles Walcott (1821–1880) was an English clergyman, known as an ecclesiologist and antiquarian.
Thomas Lathbury was an English cleric known as an ecclesiastical historian.
Sir Archibald Alison, 1st Baronet, was an England-born Scottish advocate (attorney) and historian. He held several prominent legal appointments. He was the younger son of the Episcopalian cleric and author Archibald Alison. His elder brother was the physician and social reformer William Alison.
Francis Garden (1810–1884) was a Scottish theologian and religious author. When in England he generally served in the Anglican church, but in Scotland he served in the Episcopalian church.
John Kid was an outlawed minister of the Covenant. He was seized by Claverhouse among the insurgents after the affair at Drumclog. He was released by the insurgents but recaptured in a bog a few miles from Bothwell Bridge with a sword in his belt. Kid was taken to Edinburgh along with another preacher named John King. They were each subjected to torture, condemned to death, and executed. Following his death King's head and limbs were displayed at the Netherbow Port on Edinburgh's Royal Mile beside James Guthrie's skull.
James King Hewison was a church of Scotland minister and author.
