144 cnuncn unity 



Catholic unity with a Protestant unity, 

 and there was something catholic and 

 liberal in the way in which this was car- 

 ried out. Neither party was required to 

 renounce any essential doctrines. 1 



An irenic movement which has affected 

 the ecclesiastical life of Scotland, and 

 thence of the world, was that which 

 brought together the great churches, — the 

 United Secession Church of Scotland and 

 the smaller and yet influential church, the 

 Relief Church. 2 The spirit of the Re- 

 lief Church was eminently catholic. Its 

 founder, Gillespie, had been trained by 

 Doddridge, and he, Gillespie, could say, 

 " I hold communion with all that visibly 

 hold the Head, and with such only," a 

 sentiment which reminds one of the 

 famous declaration of his great contem- 

 porary, "Wesley, who said, "I desire to 

 form a league, offensive and defensive, 



1 Kurtz, Ch. Hist., Macpherson's tr. iii. 178 ff . ; Ha- 

 genbach, Ch. Hist., 18th and 19th Cents., Hurst's tr., ii. 

 350 ff. For later separations, see Kurtz, iii. 280 ff. 



2 It is not necessary now to go into the story of the 

 origin of these churches. Dr. William M. Taylor has 

 given a very clear statement in his article on the United 

 Presbyterian Church of Scotland in the Schaff-Herzog 

 Encyclopaedia, iii. 901 ff. 



