The Influences of Robert Burns

The Church

When Burns was alive Scotland was a very religious country. Most Lowland Scots were Protestants who attended the Church of Scotland regularly. In fact, in some places, people were fined if they did not attend all three church services on Sunday! People were also expected to hold religious services in their house every day.

Pupils in school were taught to read the Bible. They were also taught the catechism, which was a long list of questions and answers about the beliefs of the Church of Scotland. Everyone was expected to know the answers to these questions by heart. Ministers used to visit people's houses to make sure that everyone knew the catechism and to explain its meaning.

Ministers were helped in these duties by elders who were religious men elected by church-goers to help them. Each elder regularly visited a group of families to discuss the catechism and the minister's sermons.

The elders also kept an eye on people. They made sure that they attended the church regularly and that they lived religious lives and did not break any of the Ten Commandments.

They were particularly keen to find out why people missed church services and to catch anyone who worked on sundays

The Church, at this time was very strict, but there were arguments about how strict it should be. One group, called the 'Auld Lights', was much stricter than the 'New Lights' and there were terrible arguments between the two groups. The Auld Lights for example, did not approve of dancing and dance music and they wanted people to sing only religious music

Of course, Robert Burns was aware of these arguments and, although he liked some people who were Auld Lights, he usually supported the New Lights

He had a special dislike for people who claimed to be very religious but who, in fact, were not as good as they said. Robert Burns said that these people were hypocrites. Burns's poem 'Holy Willie’s Prayer' pokes fun at these religious hypocrites.

Burns was often in trouble with the Church. In particular he was very fond of 'the lassies' and often fell in love - even although he was married to Jean Armour.