241 



SCOTLAND (CHURCH HISTORY) 



anil to appoint ministers within the Ixiiinds of thrir 

 jurisdiction. 



The chief governing an well as legislative and 

 judicial power ill tin- Krfuniii.il Church was en- 

 trusted to a General Assembly, which met hull 

 yearly or yearly, and was eompoited of the super- 

 intendent*, ministers, and lay commissioners, and 

 which gradually, by the introduction of I In- -\ M.-m 

 of representation, assumed the form and more than 

 the power of a parliament. 



The wondiip of the Reformed Church was 

 modelled on that established by Calvin at Geneva. 

 It 'a embodied in a formulary called the Book of 

 < ''11111111)11 Order, which for nearly a century con- 

 tinued to be generally 11*11 1. It contained forms for 

 the ordinary worship Ixith on Sunday.* and week- 

 days, and for the administration of the sacrament-, 

 and for certain other occasions. The minister was 

 not absolutely restricted to these forms. Except 

 in the singing of I'-alm-, the people took no direct 

 part in oniinary worship, and there was no dis- 

 tinction of ecclesiastical seasons, all holydays what- 

 ever except Sunday lieing altolished. 



Tin* form of church government established at 

 tli" Iteformatiori ili>l not remain Ion;; iunlistur!>ed. 

 S nrie of tin- most zealous Protestant* thought the 

 danger to which the church was exposed from state 

 tyranny and aristocnitic.il oppression could best be 

 met by restoring the bishops to their ancient posi- 

 tion both in the church ami in the parliament ; 

 while others of equal zeal and sincerity saw in this 

 only the commencement of a plan for bringing 

 hack all the errors of popery. A scheme of this 

 kind was actually established for some time, and 

 the sees were tilled with Protestant bishops set 

 apart for the office by their brethren of the ministry. 

 It was almost immediately attacked by some of 

 the ministers, who soon found a leader in Andrew 

 Melville, a scholar of considerable eminence, who 

 returned to Scotland in 1574, after n residence in 

 Geneva, during which he had ardently embraced 

 the new opinions as to ecclesiastical government 

 maintained by lie/a. 



The straggle continued for some years, the 

 bishop* being encouraged by the sovereign and 

 his advisers, whose support was frequently of little 

 real advantage to them, and Melville receiving 

 the zealous assistance of many of the ministers, 

 and of the great |M|V of the common people, who 

 sympathised with him in his democratic theories 

 of civil and ecdc-ia-tical government. Melville 

 was at last entirely successful. His opinions were 

 emlxidied iii what was .-ailed the Second Book of 

 I'i-cipline, which received the formal sanction of 

 the General Assembly in 1581. This formulary 

 differed very much from the First Book. It laid 

 down authoritatively those principles in regard to 

 ecclesiastical authority which the English I'uiitans 

 were vainly striving to establish in the southern 

 kingdom, and was in reality an attempt to make 

 the civil power subordinate to the ecclesiastical, 

 even in matters secular. It recognis.-d four orders 

 of nllice Iwarers in the church, the Pastor, Minister, 

 or Hishop, the Doctor, the Presbyter or Elder, and 

 the Deacon. These were to be set apart by 

 ordination and the imposition of the hands of the 

 eldership, but no one was to be intruded into any 

 office contrary to the will of the congregation or 

 without the voice of the eldership. Four sorts of 

 ' hiirch conrU, each rising above the other, were 

 sanctioned ; first, of particular congregations one 

 or more; second, of a province or what was after- 

 ward* called the Provincial Synod: third, of a 

 whole nation : nnd fourth, of the universal church. 

 What is generally regarded as the most essential 

 feature of the Presbyterian system the Presbytery 

 WM not yet introduced in its proper form, the 

 1 ' court being a combination of what were 



afterwards known as the Presbytery and the Kirk- 

 session . It was, however, introduced before the 

 year 1592, when the privileges of general and pro- 

 \incial assemblies, preslc, leries, and parochial 

 sessions weie ratified by parliament, though the 

 Hook of Discipline itself did not receive any formal 

 sanction. 



King James had agreed to the establishment of 

 Presbyterian ism, but personally and as a sovereign 

 he disliked its discipline, and he soon endeavoured 

 to overthrow it. His accession to the crown of 

 England enabled him to do this with more 

 authority. He gradually obtained from the 

 General Assembly a recognition of the civil rights 

 of the bishops, and this led to the restoration of 

 their ecclesiastical privileges. His changes \ v ,.|e 

 sanctioned by n General Assembly which met at 

 Glasgow in 1610, and in the course of the fame 

 year Episcopacy was restored in reality, as well a 

 in name, by the consecration of three Scottish 

 prelates by four of the English bishops at London. 



The king wished to assimilate the Scottish 

 Church as Far as possible to that of England, and 

 his next important movement was the establish- 

 ment of what are called the Five Articles of Perth 

 (see PERTH). 



These various changes excited great dissatis- 

 faction in Scotland, particularly in the southern 

 counties, but it gradually abated to a considerable 

 extent, and might have altogether ceased had not 

 further innovations been attempted. It was the 

 wish of James to introduce a prayer-book like that 

 of the English Church in place of the Book of 

 Common Order, but he saw the danger with which 

 the proposal was attended, and gave it up or post- 

 oned it. His son Charles was as infenor to his 



father in prudence ns he excelled him in 

 t iousness and religions zeal. During his first visit 

 to Scotland he added another bishopric that of 

 Edinburgh to the dioceses of tin- Scottish Church. 

 Most unwisely and most improperly he endeav- 

 oured by his royal authority to introduce into that 

 church a Book of Canons and a Liturgy framed on 

 the model of those of England. The king had 

 many loyal supporters in all parts of Scotland, and 

 in the north Episcopacy was preferred by the 

 people to Preshyterianism. But the storm of 

 popular indignation which was now roused swept 

 everything before it. The king's opponents banded 

 themselves together by the National Covenant, 

 and at a (General Assembly held at Glasgow 

 abolished the Perth Articles and Episcopacv and 

 re established Presbyterianism. Charles attempted 

 to maintain his claim by the sword, but was unsuc- 

 cessful, and obliged to ratify in parliament all that 

 hod been done by his opponents. 



Had the Covenanters been satisfied with the 

 victory which they hail won Presbyterianism 

 might have remained the established religion of 

 the Scottish kingdom. But they could not resist 

 the entreaties for aid from the English Puritans, 

 or rather they yielded to the delusion of extending 

 their own discipline over the churches of England 

 and Ireland. They just attempted, in an opposite 

 direction, what James and Charles had failed to 

 accomplish. For a time their policy seemed to 

 triumph. The Solemn League and Covenant 

 of the three kingdoms, after having been approved 

 by the General Assembly in Scotland, was signed 

 by the Assembly of Divines which the parliament 

 had summoned to meet at Westminster and by the 

 parliament itself. The ecclesiastical documents 

 which were afterwards drawn up originated with 

 the Assembly of Divines, but were sanctioned by 

 the Assembly in Scotland. The principal of these 

 were a Directory for Public Worship, a Confession 

 of Faith, and a Larger and Shorter Catechism. 

 The first of these document* was intended to 



