The Church in its various forms dominated Scottish social life well into the twentieth century. It is hard to exaggerate the extent of coverage of church affairs that filled the Scottish newspapers between the 1840s and the early 1900s. It is probably the most striking contrast with comparable papers in England. The fact that by 1850 there were three Presbyterian churches of roughly equal size meant there were frequent meetings of clergy and lay members, all expecting equal coverage of their activities. Kirk sessions, presbyteries, assemblies were reported in detail, and clerical letters, speeches, profiles, publications and even sermons were assured of many columns. Ecclesiastical issues, more often than not, were what shaped politics. In some cases, editors saw themselves as secular voices challenging clerical domination. James Annand, reminiscing about his time as editor of the Buchan Observer in the 1860s, wrote:

The extent to which a national identity was tied up with Protestantism was amply illustrated by reactions to the restoration of a Roman Catholic hierarchy and the accompanying Ecclesiastical Titles Bill of 1851. To many Protestants the decision to restore in England the hierarchy of bishops attached to particular territories was ‘Papal aggression’. The change did not cover Scotland, which was to retain only Vicars Apostolic attached to no particular diocese, but this did not reduce the column inches of Scottish press comment devoted to the subject. The Stirling Observer called for unity against such ‘Papal aggression’, ‘to cast out the canker which is attempting to fasten itself upon us’. The Elgin Courant, generally sympathetic to the established Church, hoped that it might lead to a reunion with the Free Kirk, ‘to resist the aggression of Romanism and infidelity’.