With Poor Relief and the Church in Scotland, John McCallum has produced one of the most important books on the social history of early modern Scotland in the last twenty years. This is an essential piece of research for historians of poor relief and religious reform in Scotland and Europe. Since Margo Todd's seminal work, The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland (2002), on the impact of the Reformation on popular culture and the daily lives of ordinary people, much work has been done to widen our understanding of the ways in which the church altered governance and religious observance in the localities after 1560, including McCallum's first book, Reforming the Scottish Parish: The Reformation in Fife, 1560–1640 (2010). However, the provision of poor relief—a common way through which ordinary people engaged with the church—has received almost no attention. McCallum clearly lays out the purpose and importance of this work in the introduction: not only has there been very little research on poor relief during this period, but understanding the ideas and mechanisms of welfare provides a vital insight into the process of religious and social reform in Scotland. One of the biggest strengths of this work is the way in which McCallum integrates the purpose and findings with European historiography, showing that it is part of a wider discussion over the previously accepted backward nature of ecclesiastical systems of poor relief. McCallum contributes to this discussion by showing with exceptional clarity that the Scottish system was wide-ranging and effective. He challenges the negative assumptions made by the few Scottish historians who have considered the provision of poor relief, particularly Rosalind Mitchison, and instead highlights the lengths to which the kirk sessions went to ensure effective provision was made for those who fell on hard times due to ill health, poverty, disability, or a range of other issues. McCallum qualifies this by stressing that the Reformation in Scotland was not a clean break from the past and that poor relief was administered before 1560. The Scottish reformers did not create poor relief out of the blue, but rather improved its provision through utilizing the role of the kirk sessions.

It is the kirk session records, therefore, that form the bulk of McCallum's evidence base. Increasingly being used by historians of early modern Scotland, these records are invaluable for widening our understanding of local systems of governance and the experiences of people on the ground. McCallum selects twenty-five session records for detailed analysis, primarily covering the central belt and northeast, and supplements these with minutes from other sessions, as well as burgh and town council minutes, personal testimonies, and higher church court records. Although McCallum could be criticized for not including even more kirk session evidence in his analysis, it is likely that the level of detail would have been sacrificed as a result. The selection of a significant number of minutes that provide a good geographical spread of Lowland Scotland allows McCallum to provide a holistic overview of poor relief: from the ideas underpinning it to the mechanisms of relief in times of stability and crisis in urban and rural parishes.

The book benefits from an additional introductory chapter that provides details of the attitudes towards poor relief by the Scottish reformers. This is carefully handled to show that there was not a vital change in attitudes towards welfare after 1560, but rather the practice evolved and was supported by an effective system of church governance backed by nationwide legislation. The remainder of the study is organized into two parts. In part one McCallum examines the earliest surviving kirk session records in urban and rural parishes to show that the development of poor relief was gradual, but that fifty years after the Reformation there existed a strong system of provision from the church. By emphasizing the distinction between urban and rural parishes, McCallum demonstrates that effective systems for providing poor relief emerged slower in rural areas, thus adding to our understanding of the geographical practicalities of reform. Part two ends with an illuminating chapter on poor relief during times of crisis, such as the famines in the early 1620s, the civil war years, and local emergencies like fires and floods. Although the ability of the kirk to provide poor relief was affected by these crises, McCallum shows that, remarkably, welfare remained a priority for the sessions and provision did not crumble under pressure. In part two he explores the nature of poor relief, asking who was deemed worthy of receiving assistance and outlining the mechanisms for distributing support. This allows McCallum to highlight the responsive and wide-ranging nature of poor relief in early modern Scotland. No one was immune from falling on difficult times, and the kirk supported gentlemen, beggars, elderly people, children, the infirm and others in an “ecosystem of relief” (168).

These findings are important because they both broaden our understanding of an under-researched aspect of the Reformation in Scotland and provide invaluable insights into how people lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Anyone could find themselves in need of support, and this rigorously researched book eloquently shows how people could get assistance and highlights the ideas and approaches underpinning the system of poor relief in Scotland. McCallum has made a valuable contribution to international research on premodern forms of welfare, as well as offering up a groundbreaking analysis of a vital feature of early modern Scottish society.