The burgh of Perth in the 1690s by John Slezer. The tall spire of St John’s Church (where the riots started in May 1559) can be seen rising above the other buildings
On 11 May 1559, a religious riot broke out in Perth. At that time Scotland was still officially a Catholic country. However, a vocal minority was calling for change. For some months, Protestant preachers in the Tay Valley had been condemning Catholic practices, claiming they were ‘superstitious’ and ‘odious’ to God. Matters came to a head when a young boy shouted out in church that the mass was ‘damned idolatry’. Greatly ‘offended’, a Catholic priest ‘gave the child a great blow’. The watching crowd (already agitated by a spring of rising religious tension) responded forcefully.