Scottish Reformation Society
A conference with the title "Scotland’s Debt to Martin Luther" was held in Edinburgh in April 2017. It was organised by the Scottish Reformation Society to mark the 500th anniversary of Luther’s posting of the Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in October 1517. The papers delivered at the conference are published here and include studies of Patrick Hamilton’s theology, John Gau, Alexander Alesius, Henry Balnaves, and The Gude and Godlie Ballatis.
Martin Luther’s contribution to the Scottish Reformation was immense. From the first record of Lutheran literature coming to Scotland in 1525, until the Swiss influence started to penetrate in the 1540s, it was to Luther that Scottish Protestants were looking. All the early martyrs of the Scottish Reformation died because they were “Lutherans”, or at least were regarded as such by the enemy. Luther was the instrument used by God to restore Gospel light to Scotland, and he is to be remembered with thankfulness for that reason.