Keep Scotland Catholic

Is there any plausible way to keep the Scots Catholic?

Have James IV win the Battle of Flodden, make up with the Pope so as to lift James's excommunication, and have him go for an act of tolerance that allows Protestants to live in coëxistance with Catholics. There - that could help to keep Scotland officially Catholic whilst tolerating Protestantism.
 
A simple way (though one the Scots won't like) is by having the Lowlands go to England or something, the Highlanders were still Catholic for ages (and quite a few still are I believe.) Without Lowlands with a high English influence then you could keep them as Catholics.

Though this is rather implausible.
 
Kill off John Knox. That should help.
Maybe have him die as a kid; smallpox or something. That ought to be fun.
 
Make the Catholic Church a bit less corrupt and decadent in the 16th century. The Scots will rally around it in the face of Protestant incursion. In particular, make Protestantism (in all its shades) a religion particularly associated with England.

Or, easier still, as someone has suggested, kill off John Knox.
 
Killing Knox wouldn't help, he was just the reformer who happened to rise to prominence. Without him someone else would.
And giving England the Lowlands...This would probably have to be done a few hundred years prior to the reformation and likely butterfly it away.

The trouble with Scotland is the population in the cities is too educated, and thats just the kind of place protestantism tends to take hold. Especially given the surrounding nations.
Maybe if you mess up Scotland quite a bit? Make it a lot more impoverished and as said associate protestantism with England.
 
Tyr said:
Killing Knox wouldn't help, he was just the reformer who happened to rise to prominence.

Therein lies the rub: the guy who takes up the mantle might not be as charismatic, forceful, smart or fanatical as Knox: John Knox got away with so much because he was quite an exceptional individual. Entrust the success of the Protestant cause to someone missing any one of these attributes, and the whole version of Protestantism as a religion is going to be radically different, and possibly less appealing to the average Scot. There was something about Knox's brutalistic approach to religion which appealed to us dour Jocks :D

As I say, though, the best way is to have the Catholic Church regarded as a useful social institution, and not a corrupt financial leech bringing nothing but papal dictates. Some sort of internal reformation which preserves the Catholic heirarchy and abolishes the most obvious misuses of power is the best bet for keeping Protestantism out of Scotland.
 
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