ABSTRACT
In the early part of the reign of Mary Stuart, the poor, the needy and the sick were still cared for by the monasteries, although there was certainly a tendency for each monastery to look after its own men. The burgh authorities seem to have veered between temporary measures, showing a primitive kind of social justice, and great cruelty. In 1562, the Glasgow Kirk Session asked Queen Mary for ‘some public relief to be provided for the poor within the burghs’. The dignitaries of the Church were not considered to be free of the disease, and Mary Stuart even remarked about the baptism of her son, James, that she would not have a poxy priest spitting in her child’s mouth. The impact of the Reformation on the universities caused a great deal of disruption. But in 1563, Mary Stuart granted the university some land, houses, and rents which had been the property of the friars. .
