The rise and fall of the Ryal Kirk

IRL, the medieval Church in Scotland was corrupt. And by corrupt I mean "corrupt by the standards of medieval Catholicism." Come the 16th century Scotland swept away almost every trace of it converting to Presbyterianism, and there were compelling reasons why.

This poses a problem for me, because in Andalusada England doesn't break with Rome. And before the Great Realignment gets underway, before the Imperial Union of England-Scotland, there is Scotland-Norway - and Norway, in Andalusada as per IRL, does break with Rome and become Güntherite.

I know enough about Stuart England to know that the marriage of Reformed Scotland and Anglican England was volatile already, and they were both Protestant. A marriage of Catholic Scotland and Güntherite Norway during the *Reformation period itself is unimaginable - but the Imperial Union is foreordained. And given how recent and contingent ecumenism has been IRL, would the union of *Protestant Scotland and Catholic England really be any more plausible, or functional, than that of Catholic Scotland and Güntherite Norway? I don't think so.

Last night, I found a solution, which I'm going to derp out here. You heard it first, Engel.

The rise of the Ryal Kirk

Because I'm lazy, and because the forces at work aren't going to change that radically, Scotland's medieval Church is just as corrupt as it was IRL. By the early modern era, it's reached the point that there are a number of devout Catholic reformers [who?] with their hearts set on cleaning that Augean stable.

It's a classic and heartwarming story of the reformers making headway against a formidable and foul institution. The only problem is that once they're off to a good start, the events that lead to the union of Scotland and Norway start unfolding. And Norway, by that point, has already heard the good news of John George Günther. Its church has already declared itself Holy.

And for reasons as cynically and blatantly political as Henry VIII's break with Rome, the king of Scotland [who?] decides to join them, with the support of several villains in the reform story.

The reformers are torn about what to do; there are definitely twice-removed alternate histories of Andalusada, in which they join the king's camp and continue their efforts from within. Those, however, are the twice-removed alternate histories: in the end, they stay loyal to Rome and denounce the king to his face. Your church is a house of whoredom, they say. You can make that whoredom legal, but no man can ever make it holy. Renounce the Norse and return to Rome or you will burn for all eternity, and all of Scotland with you.

The first to burn are, of course, the reformers themselves. Their martyrdom is still honored in the Catholic roll of saints to this day. And with the scratch of a quill, that most rotten of medieval churches becomes the single most corrupt Güntherite church overnight.

The fall of the Ryal Kirk

By the time the pyres have burned to embers, the official narrative has been established. "The martyred reformers," it says, "were the good men with the bad luck." Catholicism is suppressed, uneasily (the rebellions are supported by England), and Scotland-Norway settles into discomforted high church *Lutheranism and an endless religious standoff with its neighbors.

Then the French Wars of Religion come, and with them the rise of the House of Guise, and the doom of "the church called Holy" becomes inevitable.

The gist of how that doom plays out is like this:

• Early in their suppression, the Scottish Catholics start forming ties with the Sodality of the Most Holy Savior. Those ties remain in its suppression, and allow dystopian Catholic France to exert an enormous amount of covert influence over the evolution of the hidden church.
• Caught in constant war with England (and Ireland), Scotland-Norway becomes increasingly tied to the Auld Alliance - and over time, the terms of the Auld Alliance are modified, forcing Scotland to take an increasingly liberal policy towards its domestic Catholic minority.
• Norway was unhappy about the corruption of the Kirk "wrangly call'd Haly" from the very beginning. They see quite clearly where the Guises are going with this, and they do not approve. Their response? They become increasingly uncompromising and revivalist, shifting their own ornate churchmanship toward the modified Gonzalan Rite used in Pomerania, and start pushing for the Ryal Kirk's reformers to follow their example. There will be no tolerance in Norway. None at all.
• You might think that the reemergence of Scoto-Catholicism would be well-received in the British Isles itself. It isn't. As the Güntherites lose ground, the Sodalites regain it, and those Sodalite ties never go away. "Sodalistic" is the new "Jesuitical" for a reason: the same movement that's working so hard to create a restored and righteous Catholicism north of the Border Marches is doing everything in its power to subvert the state south of them, and everybody knows it. (That this actively interferes with pan-Catholic solidarity, and in turn prevents pan-British solidarity, delights the foul and ultramontane heart of the Most Christian King.)

The net result is that Scotland is caught in an ugly, unwinnable situation: as long as they remain Güntherite, nothing they can do will please anybody. They try, of course; oh how they try. But after the rebellions, after the broken bonds and severed ties that come from Scotland's kings trying to navigate a via media, after the final futile efforts of the Scottish Decadence - they ultimately fail.

Scottish Güntheritism after the Ryal Kirk

At the start of the end, the Scottish royal family converts back to Catholicism, and the disestablishment of the Ryal Kirk begins. Where the story goes from there is still uncertain, but I do have some general thoughts:

• The disestablishment of the Holy Church in Scotland is ripe for resulting political upheaval, especially because the restored Catholic Church is still (at this point) openly in bed with dystopian Catholic France.
• In particular, Lowland/Highland tensions along religious lines would be a perfectly plausible way to reinvent the enclosures. More generally, depending on who took which sides, it'd color which parts of Scottish culture are emphasized afterwards, if only because one or the other is associated with political trouble.
• Especially overseas, I could also see the troubles of churchmanship building up to the fact that a fair part of the Atlantic seaboard is, by canon, made of unstable republics.
• On a more positive note, even post-Kirk Scotland isn't in any political position to criminalize Güntheritism. The Ryal Kirk may have been wrongly called holy, but at the very least it leaves behind a precedent for religious coexistence.