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CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
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See also: The terrible See also:power of See also:excommunication is claimed for the church; but the See also:council of the See also:realm also is called to use the power given them by God to put down all religion but the reformed, and to further the aims and carry out the sentences of the church . It was a See also:matter of course that See also:saints' days and church festivals were abolished as having no See also:warrant in Scripture; See also:Sunday alone remained, as the See also:principal See also:day of preaching . In towns a See also:week-day was to be set apart for the " exercise " or public See also:interpretation of Scripture, in which all qualified persons in the neighbourhood were to take See also:part, as if the whole country were a school of the See also:Bible . The First Book of Discipline does not set forth any complete See also:scheme of church government . Its arrangements are in part provisional . In addition to the minister, who is its most definite figure and proved to be the most permanent, it recognizes the See also:superintendent, the See also:lay See also:elder and the reader . Ten or twelve superintendents were to be appointed, " a thing most expedient at this See also:time." They were See also:parish ministers and subject like their brethren to church courts; their added See also:function was to plant churches, and See also:place ministers, elders and deacons where required . This was also the See also:duty of " commissioners " who were superintendents over smaller territories and for a shorter See also:term . Whether the superintendents were meant to be permanent in the church is not clear . The lay elder was very much what he is still . The reader was to conduct service when nominister was available, See also:reading the Scriptures and the See also:Common See also:Prayer . When there was preaching, it was accompanied by free prayer; the liturgy was not then called for .
Of church courts the See also:assembly is taken for granted, having existed from the first; the See also:minor church courts are not yet defined, though the elements of each of them are See also:present
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A See also:noble scheme of See also:education was sketched for the whole country, but neither this nor the See also:provision made for ministers' stipends was carried out, the revenues of the old church, from which the expenses of both were to be paid, being in the hands of the barons
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The system naturally took time to get into working order
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The old See also:clergy, bishops, abbots and priests were still on the ground, and were slow to take service in the new church
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In 1574 there were 289 ministers and 715 readers; in the See also:district of the See also:presbytery of Auchterarder, which now has fifteen parishes, there were then four ministers and sixteen readers
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As the ranks of the clergy slowly filled, questions arose which the Reformation had not settled, and it was natural that the old system with which the country was See also:familiar should creep in again
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Presbytery was never much in favour with the See also:crown—this was the See also:case in other countries as well as in Scotland—and when the crown, so weak at the Reformation, gained strength, encroachments were made on the popular See also:character of the kirk; while the barons also had obvious reasons for not wishing the kirk to be too strong
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The first parliament of the See also:Regent See also: To this See also:declaration, however, the church soon came . See also:Andrew See also:Melville (q.v.) came to Scotland at this time, and became the See also:leader of the church in place of Knox, who died in 1572 . He brought with him from Geneva, where he had been the colleague of See also:Beza, a fervent hatred of ecclesiastical tyranny and a clear grasp of the Presbyterian church system . The Scottish church, hitherto without a definite constitution, soon espoused under his able leadership a logical and thorough Presbyterianism, which was expressed in the Second Book of Discipline, adopted by the assembly in 1577, and was never afterwards set aside by the church when acting freely . The-SBooecond k of assembly of 1575 decided that all ministers were Discipline. bishops; that of 1578 abolished the name of bishop as denoting an office in the church, and that of 158o in spite of a royal remonstrance abolished Episcopacy, a See also:decree to which all the bishops except five submitted . The Second Book of Discipline recognizes four kinds of office in the church, and no' one can lawfully be placed in any of them except by being called to it by the members . Pastor, bishop and minister are all titles of the same office, that of those who preach the word and administer the sacraments, each to a particular congregation . The See also:doctor is a teacher in school or university; he is an elder and assists in the See also:work of government . Elders are rulers; their function also is spiritual, though practical and disciplinary . The See also:fourth office is that of the deacons, who have to do with 1 " Tulchan," a See also:calf-skin filled with See also:straw, supposed to induce the cow to give See also:milk freely; hence a term of contempt for one who is used as a dummy for the See also:advantage of another . matters of See also:property and are not members of church courts . Neither superintendent nor reader now appears; all the functions of bishops and superintendents are vested in the elderships, or church courts, and it is urged that the parts which still remain in Scotland of the old system should be cleared away and the See also:sole jurisdiction of the kirk, as then constituted, recognized .
The assembly is to have the right to See also:fix its own time of See also:meeting, and its decision in matters ecclesiastical is not to be subject to any See also:review
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Kirk-sessions and presbyteries are not named, but the principles are clearly laid down on which these institutions were to See also:rest
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By committing herself to this system the Church of Scotland established between herself and the Church of See also:England a See also:division
which became more and more apparent and was the Presby" cause of much of her subsequent sufferings
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It is no pp,%iple. doubt See also:strange that she should have endured so much
not for any great See also:Christian principle, but for a question of church government
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On the other See also:hand, Presbyterianism stood in Scottish history for freedom, and for the rights of the See also:middle and See also:lower classes against the crown and the See also:aristocracy; and it might not have been held with such tenacity or proved so incapable of See also:compromise but for the opposition and persecution of the three See also:Stuart See also:kings
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The history of the Scottish church for a century after the date of the Book of Discipline is that of a religious struggle between the See also:people and the crown
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For some years after its inception Presbyterianism carried all before it
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The presbyteries came quickly into existence; that of See also:Edinburgh See also:dates from 1580
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In that See also:year it was found that there were 924 parishes in Scotland, but not nearly all supplied with ministers; it was proposed that there should be 5o presbyteries (in 1910 there are 84) and 400 ministers
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A great part of the country, especially in the See also:north and See also:west, had not yet been reached by the Reformation
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At this time began the See also:long See also:series of attempts made by See also: The bishops were to do what had hitherto been done by the assembly and presbyteries, and no attacks were to be made at religious meetings on the king or council . Other acts followed by which the episcopate was strengthened, though the act of 1587 annexing the temporalities of the bishops to the crown, while fatal to the old episcopate, made the prospects of the new more doubtful . In 1588 a See also:change took place . A Roman Catholic rising threw James into the arms of the kirk; in 1592 the acts of 1584 were abrogated, the Second Book of Discipline legalized and Presbytery established . The church was at the time very powerful, the people generally sympathizing with her system, and her assemblies being attended by many of the nobles and the foremost men .. Discipline was strict; the See also:temper of the church was in accordance with the Old rather than the New Testament . Another sudden change took place a few years later, James falling out of See also:humour with the church on the question of the restoration of the Roman Catholic lords and angered by the free See also:criticism of some of the ministers . His Basilicon Down, published in 1599, shows a determination to make the church episcopal . With this end assemblies, from which Melville was excluded, and which were otherwise tampered with and terrorized, were got to agree that a number of ministers should sit in parliament, and to surrender the assembly's right of meeting . On his See also:accession to the See also:throne of England in 1603 James entered on a new set of attempts to assimilate the Scottish church to that of England . Melville was brought to See also:London, imprisoned and sent abroad; other ministers who had acted or spoken too freely were banished . The See also:powers of the bishops were increased, and their brethren brought in various ways under subjection to them, and in 1609 two courts of high See also:commission were set up by the royal authority with plenary powers to enforce conformity to the new arrangements . In 1610 three ministers were calledto London to be consecrated as bishops, as if there had till now been no bishops in Scotland; these on their return consecrated ten others . In 1612 the act of 1592 which established Presbytery was rescinded, and Episcopacy became the legal church system of Scotland . In all this it was the position and rights of the clergy that were assailed; and James showed kindness to the church in seeking to secure that stipends should be paid and that new churches should be provided where required. of See also:Perth . A The people had been less interfered with; the change of church government involved no change in the conduct of worship . But the articles passed by the packed assembly of Perth in 1618 touched on the religious habits and postures of the people, and in this it soon appeared that a crisis had been reached . These famous articles were: (1) That the communion should be received kneeling; (2) That it might be administered in private; (3) That See also:baptism might be in the See also:home; (4) That See also:children of eight should be taken to the bishop for examination and his blessing; (5) That See also:Christmas, See also:Good See also:Friday, See also:Easter and See also:Whitsunday should be observed . These articles were opposed in parliament and were strongly resented throughout the country . When Charles became king in 1625 he at once let it be known that the Articles of Perth were not to be abrogated, and that no meeting of the assembly was to be allowed . During the first years of his reign he was occupied in other directions; but when he came to Scotland in 1633 to be crowned, See also:Laud came with him, and though like his See also:father he showed himself kind to the clergy in matters of stipend, and adopted See also:measures which caused many See also:schools to be built, he also showed that in the matter of worship the policy of forcing Scotland into uniformity with England was to be carried through with a high hand . A book of canons and constitutions of the church which appeared in 1636, instead of being a See also:digest of acts of assembly, was See also:English in its ideas, dealt with matters of church See also:furniture, exalted the bishops and ignored the kirk-session and elders . The liturgy was ordered to be used, which had not yet appeared, but which proved to be a version, with somewhat higher doctrine, of the See also:Anglican Common Prayer . The introduction of this service book in St See also:Giles's Church, Edinburgh, on the 16th of See also:July 1637, occasioned the tumult of which Jenny See also:Geddes will always figure as the heroine . The sentiment was echoed throughout Scotland . Petitions against the service book and the book of See also:National covenant . canons poured in from every See also:quarter; the tables or See also:committee formed to forward the See also:petition rapidly became a powerful government at the See also:head of a national See also:movement, the See also:action of the crown was temporizing, and on the 28th of See also:February the National Covenant was signed in the famous See also:scene in See also:Grey-friars church and See also:churchyard . This document consisted of three parts: (1) A covenant signed by King James and his See also:household in 158o, to uphold Presbyterianism and to defend the state against Romanism; (2) A See also:recital of all the acts of parliament passed in the reigns of James and Charles in pursuance of the same See also:objects; and (3) The covenant of nobles, barons, gentlemen, burgesses, ministers and See also:commons to continue in the reformed religion, to defend it and resist all contrary errors and corruptions . The Covenant was no doubt an act of revolt against legal authority, and can only be justified on the ground that the crown had for many years acted oppressively and illegally in its See also:attempt to coerce Scotland into a religious system See also:alien to the country, and that the subjects were entitled to free themselves from tyranny . The crown was unable either to check the popular movement or to come to any compromise with it, and the See also:Glasgow assembly of 1638, the first free assembly that had met for See also:thirty years, proceeded to make the church what the Covenant required . A clean sweep was made of the legislation of the preceding See also:period; the five articles of Perth, the service book and book of canons and the See also:court of high commission were all condemned . The bishops were tried not for being bishops but on exaggerated charges of false doctrine and loose living; and all were deposed from the See also:ministry . Many ministers were also deposed on the See also:charge of Arminianism . It was by an assembly that the second reformation was effected; but the assembly contained the most influential of the See also:nobility and gentry, and was carried on the See also:crest of a great national movement . The Covenant was accepted by parliament in 1639 . The succeeding decennium is the culminating period of Scottish Presbyterianism, when, having successfully resisted the crown, it not only was supreme in Scotland but exercised a decisive See also:influence over England . The causes which brought about this state of affairs are to be sought to a large extent in the See also:civil history of England . Presbytery was rapidly growing in that country, and the English parliament sought the See also:alliance of the assembly, while the See also:Independents, though in the event Presbytery was as little to their liking as Episcopacy, joined in the wish to get rid of the episcopal system . In its period of See also:triumph the Presbyterianism of Scotland displayed its character . After the injustice and persecution it had suffered it could scarcely prove moderate or tolerant; it showed a vehement determination to carry out the truth it had vindicated with such See also:enthusiasm, to the full extent and wherever possible . The Covenant, at first a See also:standard of freedom, was immediately converted into a test anyl made the See also:instrument of oppression and persecution . All policy was to be determined by the Covenant; the king and every See also:official was to be obliged to take it . The mind of the nation being so preoccupied with the Covenant, it naturally followed that those who carried their fanaticism farthest were • ready to denounce and to unchurch those who showed any inclination to moderation and See also:political sanity, and that the beginnings of See also:schism soon appeared in the ranks of the See also:Covenanters . In 1643, when the full legal establishment of Presbytery had just been consummated, the assembly, asked by the English wen- parliament to arrange a See also:league to be signed in both See also:minster countries for the furtherance of reformed religion, See also:con- agreed, but asked that the league should be a religious fesslon• one . The result was the See also:Solemn League and Covenant . The league did not mention Presbyterianism; but the assembly had refused to hear of any recognition of independency; if religion were thoroughly reformed, they considered the result must be Presbyterianism in England as in Scotland . In the See also:Westminster See also:Standards also, which were the See also:fruit of the Scottish See also:desire for a religious uniformity, Scotland did not obtain by any means all it desired in its church documents . The Scottish divines in the Westminster Assembly were only five in number, while the assembly contained effective parties of Erastians and Independents . The Confession of Faith contains no approval of any system of church government, and when she adopted it in 1647 the kirk gave up her old confession in which the principles at least of true church order are laid down . In accepting in 1645 the Westminster Directory of Public Worship she tacitly gave up her own liturgy which had been in use till recently, and committed herself to a bald and uninviting order of worship, in which no forms of prayer were allowed to be used . So much did Scotland for the See also:sake of uniformity accept from England . The metrical See also:psalms also, which are still sung in Scottish churches, were adopted at this time; they are based mainly on the version, which had been approved by the Westminster Assembly, of See also:Francis Rouse (1579-1659), a member of the English See also:House of Commons . The engagement made with Charles, then a prisoner in the Isle of See also:Wight in 1647, which promised him support on See also:condition of his sanctioning the Solemn League and Covenant and pledging himself to set up after three years a church according to the Confession of Faith, was protested against by the assembly; and from this came the famous " Act of Classes " by which the Covenanters disqualified for public office and even for military service all who had been parties to the engagement . The rescinding of this act in 1651 led to a serious See also:breach in the ranks of the Scottish clergy . The Resolutioners, or supporters of the See also:resolution to rescind that act, were opposed by the Protesters, the rigid adherents to the strictest interpretation of the Covenant . The period of the See also:Commonwealth was filled with the strife between these two parties, its bitterness not lessened by the fact that the assembly dissolved in 1653 by See also:Cromwell's soldiers was notallowed to meet again in his See also:protectorate . The Protesters, who were in favour with the common people, are chargeable with having brought into Scottish church See also:life the observance of fast-days, and of the long and excited Communion services which were kept up for two and a See also:half centuries and may still be witnessed in the See also:Highlands . If the mismanagement of Scottish religious affairs under James and Charles I. is a See also:melancholy See also:story, what took place under Charles II. is infinitely sadder . A series of blunders struggle was committed in the attempt to compel Scotland to against submit to the religion the government prescribed, and Episcothe failure of each measure was followed by more in- p8O}' human severities . Detail is impossible here .
From the first Charles showed himself determined to force Episcopalianism on Scotland, and not too scrupulous in the choice of methods for securing his ends
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The attempt was nearly successful
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In the greater part of the country little change took place in the religious services
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The service book was not read nor kneeling at communion required, and it made no immediate difference to the people that the clergy should be under bishops
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The inferior church courts still sat, though not the assembly
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At the Restoration it was a question whether the bulk of the See also:population was in favour of Presbytery or of Episcopacy
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But the matter was handled in such a way in the west of Scotland that an extreme Covenanting spirit arose, nourished on intolerable grievances, and that the nation as a whole decided against the system which had been promoted by such means
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The Rescissory Act of 1661 swept away the legislation of the preceding twenty years, and so disposed of the Presbyterian polity of the church
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Episcopacy was restored by a See also:letter from the king on the 5th of See also:September 1661
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James See also:Sharp (q.v.), Fairfoul, James See also:
The attempts to suppress these, the harsh measures taken against those who attended them or connived at them, or refused to give See also:information against them, the military violence and the judicial severities, the confiscations, imprisonments, tortures, expatriations, all make up a dreadful narrative
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Indulgences were tried, and were successful in bringing back about See also:loo ministers to their parishes and introducing a new cause of division among the clergy
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On the other hand, the Covenanting spirit See also:rose higher and higher among the persecuted till the armed risings took place and the formal See also:rebellion of a handful of desperate men against the ruler of three kingdoms
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The story of See also:Richard See also:Cameron (q.v.) is one of the highest romantic heroism; his name was perpetuated in that of the Cameronian See also:body (" first-See also:born of the Scottish sects "), which, as the Reformed Presbyterian Church, kept up a See also:separate existence till 1876, when it See also:united with the Free Church, and in that of the Cameronian See also:regiment, originally formed from his followers after his See also:death and distinguished since in every part of the See also:world
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The See also:proclamation of See also:toleration in 1685 was intended mainly for Roman Catholics and excluded See also: The Revolution church contained from the first men of different views_ Its first assembly in 1690 received into the church the three remaining ministers of the See also:Cameronians, though their followers refused to come with them . With regard to Episcopalian ministers, by whom the See also:majority of parishes were served, there was more difficulty . The Presbyterians were not ready for See also:union with them, and many of them were put out of their livings, ostensibly by way of discipline . The king and his representatives at the assembly pressed hard for their reception, and in 1693 the " Act for settling the quiet and See also:peace of the Church " was passed, which provided for their admission on taking the oaths of See also:allegiance and assurance, subscribing the Confession of Faith and acknowledging Presbyterian government . This act fixed the See also:formula of subscription to be signed by all ministers . From this time forward the church, while jealously asserting her spiritual See also:independence, was on the See also:side of the crown against the See also:Jacobites, and became more and more an orderly and useful ally of the state . In 1697 the Barrier Act was passed, which provides that any act which is to be binding on the church is to come before the assembly as an See also:overture and to be transmitted to presbyteries for their approval . The difficulties which threatened to arise about the union were skilfully avoided; the Act of See also:Security provided that the Confession |