Resumen de Poverty or Prosperity? The Economic Fortunes of Ministers in Post-Reformation Fife, 1560–1640
One of the many areas in which there is a lack of knowledge of the post-Reformation Scottish clergy is their economic status. This article uses the county of Fife as a case study to examine the finances of post-Reformation ministers. Stipends improved gradually during the decades after the Reformation, especially for ministers paid in kind, but there were still serious problems in many parishes well into the seventeenth century. Ministers' testaments show few signs of real poverty, however, and it appears that most ministers lived modestly and within their means, rather than acting as major economic actors in the parish.
