SCOTLAND (CHURCH HISTORY) 



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supersede the Book of Common Prayer in England, 

 and indirectly the Book of Common Order in 

 Scotland. It laid down certain general rules in 

 regard to public worship and the administration of 

 the sacraments, but left very much to the discre- 

 tion of the particular ministers and congregations. 



The union between the Scottish and English 

 Puritans was dissolved by the ascendency of tlie 

 Independents. Scotland, distracted by civil and 

 ecclesiastical dissension, was unable to defend 

 it -.I'll" against Cromwell. It was conquered and 

 kept thoroughly under subjection by trie English 

 army, which forbade the meetings of the General 

 Assembly, but left the other courts and the rest of 

 the church system as they were before. At the 

 Restoration the higher classes generally, who had 

 suffered under the ecclesiastical tyranny of the 

 ministers, were zealous for the re-establishment of 

 Episcopacy. The greater part of the nation, except 

 in the south-western provinces, was indifferent, and 

 tlie king experienced no difficulty in restoring the 

 bishops to their former rights both in church and 

 state. But Episcopacy alone was restored ; there 

 was no attempt to introduce a liturgy, or even to 

 enforce the observance of the Perth Articles. The 

 new primate, Archbishop Sharp, was an able man 

 of good moral character, but ambitious and over- 

 bearing, and the Covenanters never forgave his 

 change from Presbyterianism, though he had 

 always belonged to the more moderate of the two 

 parties into which the church was divided. He 

 was almost the only one of the bishops who en- 

 joyed political influence ; and, unfortunately for 

 himself and the hierarchy, that influence was 

 generally used to encourage, not to restrain, the 

 severe measures of the government. When the 

 primate was assassinated that severity became a 

 cruel tyranny, and many who had no predilection 

 for any particular ecclesiastical opinions were 

 ready to welcome the change which took place at 

 the Revolution. 



When the Scottish Estates met in 1689 to 

 consider what course was to l>e adopted in the 

 northern kingdom the bishops declined to al>andon 

 King James. Whatever might have been the con- 

 sequences had they taken an opposite course, this 

 resolution was fatal to the Episcopal establishment. 

 William and Mary were called to the throne, 

 and Prelacy was declared to be an insupportable 

 grievance and wan abolished. In the following 

 year Presbyterianism was re-established, and the 

 Westminster Confession of Faith was ratified as 

 the national standard of belief, and the right of 

 patrons to nominate to ecclesiastical Itenefices was 

 taken away. In the end of the same year a 

 General Assembly was held, the first which had 

 been allowed to meet since its dissolution by the 

 order of Cromwell. It was composed as before of 

 ministers and elders from the various presbyteries 

 and of elders from the burghs and universities, and 

 was presided over by a lay commissioner named by 

 the crown and a minister elected by the members 

 as imxlerator. With the exception of some years 

 in the reign of William, the Assembly has con- 

 tinued to meet annually since the Revolution and 

 to transact business during the periods when it 

 was not in session by a commission named by 

 itself for the purimse. The other chief ecclesi- 

 iistical events of William's reign were a series of 

 vain attempts on the jiart of the sovereign to bring 

 about a comprehension of the Episcopal clergy 

 with those of the Establishment and the pacing 

 by the Assembly in 1697 of what was called the 

 ' Barrier Act,' which guarded against sudden 

 legislation by providing that no |>eriiianent act 

 should Ix; passed until it had received the appro- 

 bation of the majority of the presbyteries. 



During the reign of Queen Anne and in the year 



1707 England and Scotland were united into one 

 kingdom. A special statute was passed for the 

 security of the Protestant religion and Presby- 

 terian church government in the latter country ; 

 providing that these should continue without any 

 alteration in time to come, and confirming the act 

 of William and Mary which ratified the Confession 

 of Faith and settled the Presbyterian form of 

 church government. 



In the year 1712 an act was passed by the 

 British parliament which restored to patrons in 

 Scotland their right of presentation to benefices. 

 This statute excited great discontent among the 

 members of the Established Church, and for many 

 years attempts were made to obtain a repeal of it. 

 These attempts were unsuccessful, but its provi- 

 sions were long practically disregarded. When at 

 length the General Assembly began to act upon it 

 the dissatisfaction increased among those who held 

 the divine right of the jieople to choose their own 

 ministers. The leader of the discontented party 

 was a minister named Ehenezer Erskine, and he 

 with his adherents in the year 1733 finally separ- 

 ated from the Establishment and formed a com- 

 munion which took the title of the Associate 

 Presbytery, though its members were popularly 

 known as the Seceders. The Seceders themselves 

 were soon divided by a dispute as to whether it 

 was consistent with principle to take the Burgher's 

 oath of allegiance into two bodies, called the 

 Burgher and Anti-burgher Synods. In the year 

 1761 another secession from the Establishment 

 took place in connection with the law of patron- 

 age : and the separated body assumed the name of 

 tlie Presbytery of Relief. 



There were no further secessions for nearly a cen- 

 tury ; but the church was divided into two parties, 

 known as the Moderates and Evangelicals, the 

 former of whom were favourable, the latter hostile, 

 to the law of patronage. For many years the 

 Moderates, headed by Dr RolierUion the historian 

 and others of his school, and supported by the 

 influence of the government, maintained an ascend- 

 ency in the General Assembly and throughout the 

 country. In the later years of George III. and 

 during the reign of George IV. this ascendency 

 began to decrease. The political excitement which 

 prevailed in the lieginning of the reign of William 

 IV. strongly affected the Scottish Establishment, 

 which from its very constitution is peculiarly liable 

 to be moved by the impulses of popular feeling. 

 The two parties in the General Assembly engaged 

 in a struggle more fierce than any in which they 

 had yet met ; and the subject of dispute as before 

 was immediately connected with the law of patron- 

 age. Dr Chalmers, the most distinguished minister 

 in Scotland, added the whole weight of his influ- 

 ence to the popular party, and in 1834 an interim 

 act of Assembly was passed, known as the Veto 

 Act, which declared it to be a fundamental law of 

 the church that no pastor should be intnided on 

 any congregation contrary to the will of the people, 

 and laid down certain rules for carrying out this 

 principle. The legality of this act was doubted ; 

 and in connection with a presentation to the parish 

 of Auchterarder the presentee, on being rejected by 

 the presbytery in terms of the Veto Act, appealed, 

 with concurrence of the patron, to the Court of 

 Session the supreme civil court in Scotland. 

 That court decided that the conduct of the presby- 

 tery in rejecting the presentee was illegal, and 

 their judgment was affirmed by the House of 

 Lords. Other cases of a similar nature followed, 

 and something like a conflict took place between 

 the civil and ecclesiastical courts, the former en- 

 forcing their sentences by civil penalties, the latter 

 suspending and deposing the ministers who obeyed 

 the injunctions of the Court of Session. In the 



