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SCOTLAND (CHURCH HISTORY) 



General Assembly of 1843 the dUpnte came to a 

 emu. A large number of ministers and elders of 

 the popular party left the Assembly and met apart 

 in a similar Irady, of which Dr Chalmers won 

 chosen moderator. They formed themselves into 

 a separate communion under the title of ' The Free 

 rimrrli ( Scotland,' and gave np their lienefices in 

 the Established Church and all connection what- 

 ever with that body. The Free Church carried off 

 about one-half of the members of the Establish- 

 ment and became a rival communion in most of 

 tin' parishes. By an act of parliament in 1H74 

 patronage wan abolished in the Established Church 

 and the right of choosing the minister transferred 

 to the congregation. 



In 1820 the Burgher and Anti-burgher Seceders 

 were united under the name of the Associate 

 Synod of the Secession Church; and in 1847 this 

 Associate Synod and the Relief Synod were united 

 under the name of 'The United Presbyterian 

 Church.' Negotiations for a union of the United 

 Presbyterian Church and the Free Church have led 

 to no practical result ; but the desirableness of a 

 union lietween the three Presbyterian churches is 

 constantly discussed, though the agitation for the 

 disestablishment of the Church of Scotland has 

 embittered the relations between the mother- 

 church and her daughters. 



Spitcopal Church in Scotland. It is a common 

 bat erroneous opinion that almost all the Episco- 

 pal clergy were Jacobites from the time of the 



;n ,!,, ii ,,l William ;in.l Mary. Tin- bishops uric 



so (see NOXJURORS) ; but a large number, probably 

 a considerable majority of the clergy, had at firs't 

 no objection to take the oath or allegiance to 

 the new government. During the reign of Queen 

 Anne the Episcopal clergy were well disposed to 

 the government, knowing the queen's good wishes 

 to their communion. They were frequently harassed 

 by the court* of the Establishment ; but all who 

 were willing to take the oaths obtained an ample 

 protection for their worship on the passing of the 

 Toleration Act of 1712. On the death of the 

 queen almost all the clergy and most of the laity 

 were involved directly or indirectly in the attempt's 

 to overthrow the Hanoverian dynasty, and it was 

 this which finally made the names of' Episcopalian 

 and Jacobite for many years to be convertible 

 terms. 



In the meantime the succession of bishops had 

 been kept np by new consecrations, and after some 

 years the dioceses, though diminished in number, 

 were regularly filled. An important change took 

 place in the forms of worship. No longer trammelled 

 by their connection with the state, they adopted 

 liturgical forms similar to those in the English 

 Prayer-book, and in almost all cases identical, 

 except that many of the congregations usied an 

 Office for the communion modelled on that of the 

 BaottUl Liturgy of King Charles I. The Episco- 

 palians took no such oiM'ii part in the insurrection 

 of 1743 as they did in that of 1715, but their 

 sympathies were known t<. ! with the House of 

 Stewart; and the government carried through 

 parliament some intolerant acts, which were put 

 . iitinii with great harshness, and which fur 

 many years suppressed all public worship in the 

 Kpi-cop.il communion. It was only after the 

 eoewiion of ( ieorge 1 1 1. that these statutes ceased 

 to l>e actively enforced ; and it was not till 1792 

 that the Episcopalians, who from the death of 

 Prince Charles hail acknowledged the reigning 

 dynoMy, were relieve! from the |-nal laws. The 

 act which gave this relief im|>osed restriction- on 

 their clergy officiating in England and prohibited 

 their holding bDAowia the English Church. In 

 IHO4 the bishops and clergy agreed to adopt the 

 Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, and 



in 1863 the Prayer-book was adopted as the author- 

 ised service-book of the Episcopal Church, permis- 

 sion being given in certain cases to use the Scottish 

 I Communion otlice. The restrictions imposed on 

 1 the Scottish clergy by the Act of 1792 were modi- 

 lied by an act passed in 1840; and in 1864 they 

 ! were entirely removed, the right being reserved in 

 bishops in England and Ireland to refuse institution 

 to a Scottish clergyman without assigning an\ 

 reason, on lib first presentation to a benence in 

 England or Ireland, out not after he should ha\e 

 once held such benefice. 



The dioceses of the Scottish Episcopal Church 

 are seven in number vi/. Moray, Aberdeen, 

 Hrecliin, Argyll, St Andrews, Edinburgh, and 

 Glasgow. The bishops are chosen by the clergy 

 of the diocese and by representatives of the lay 

 communicants, a majority of both orders being 

 necessary to a valid election. One of the bishops, 

 under the name of Primus, chosen by the other 

 bishops, presides at all meetings of the bishops, 

 and nas certain other privileges, but possesses 

 no metropolitan authority. The highest judicial 

 body is the Episcopal College, composed of all the 

 bishops. The highest legislative body is a General 

 Synod, composed of two houses, the one of the 

 bishops, the other of the deans and the representa- 

 tives of the clergy. There is also a Church Council, 

 composed of the bishops, clergy, and representatives 

 of the laity, which meets yearly, and is recognised 

 as the organ of the church in matters of finance. 



Roman Catholic Church. The ecclesiastical 

 revolution of 1560 by no means extinguished the 

 Roman Catholic Church. An act of parliament 

 was indeed passed making the saying or hearing 

 of mass a crime punishable by confiscation of goods 

 and imprisonment for the first offence, banishment 

 for the second, and death for the third. Under 

 its provisions Archbishop Hamilton and some 

 few other prieste were thrown into prison in lf>i',:t. 

 The bishops for the most part were cowed and help- 

 less, and a number of priests fled the country. 

 Nevertheless, many noblemen and a large part of 

 the population, especially in the north, remained 

 faithful at heart to the old religion, and were till 

 the end of the century a formidable political power 

 upon which the partisans of Queen Mary in Eng- 

 land, the Guises, and the king of Spain could rely 

 in their projects against the throne of Elizabeth. 

 Missionaries, chiefly Jesuits, came into the country 

 to keep alive as best they could the decaying 

 faith. The sufferings of both prieste and people 

 were extreme, yet notwithstanding the bitter hos- 

 tiliiy displayed by the kirk with whom the 

 coercive jxjwer lay, it is notable that only one 

 priest, Jolin Ogilvy the Jesuit, suffered the penalty 

 of death ( 1615), and this not on the ground of ln- 

 piiestly office, but for language which was, not 

 unnaturally, judged to be treasonable. 



The Scottish j toman Catholics suffered also for 

 a long time from the want of any regular ecclesias- 

 tical organisation. In 1598 the secular clergy were 

 placed under the jurisdiction of the new ly -appointed 

 archpriest of England, George Black well, and in 

 like manner continued to be subject to Dr \\ illiam 

 Itishop, the first vicar-apostolic of England and 

 Scotland, in 1623. It was not until nearly a 

 century after the Reformation (1653) that tin \ 

 wen- granted a 'prefect' of the mission in the 

 person of William Ballantyne. Meanwhile 

 measures were taken to keep up the snpjdy of 

 missionary priests by the foundation of seminaries 

 abroad. Clement VlII. founded the Scots college 

 at Rome in 1600. In 1612 a seminary originally 

 set up at Tournai, after many wanderings, was 

 finally established at Douai. A college waa 

 opened at Madrid in 1633, and subsequently trans- 

 ferred to Valladolid. Another seminary was 



