70 John Welsh, the Irongray Covenanted. 



of poor old Bernard Sanderson of Irongray. Lauderdale's 

 indulgence allowed " outed " ministers to return to their 

 parishes on a vacancy occurring, provided they had lived 

 " peaceable and orderly." They were not to be entitled to 

 the stipend unless they were collated by the bishop, only the 

 manse and glebe. They were to be paid a yearly maintenance 

 by the Council, who now collected the stipend. They were 

 debarred from keeping presbytery unless collated by the 

 bishop. They were also required to confine their energies to 

 their own parish, and avoid preaching to the times, i.e., poli- 

 tical sermons. Only 42 accepted the indulgence, and when 

 the second indulgence was granted in 1672 only 80 came in. 

 Those who came in and those who accepted the ministrations 

 of the indulged ministers probably were weary of ecclesiastical 

 strife, and thought that as the Governmerit were trying to 

 recede from a false position they were bound to meet them 

 half-way. The Government, however, were not going to 

 allow Presbyteries to rule the country. Indeed, Lauderdale 

 in the very Parliament which granted the first indulgence, 

 introduced an Act which declared the King supreme in all 

 causes, civil and ecclesiastical. Such had been and is the law 

 in England, but never till then in Scotland. 



Had Lauderdale intended to injure the Kirk of Scotland 

 — and I don't think he did — he could have taken no more 

 effective way than by the indulgences. As Mr Andrew Lang 

 puts it : — " The indulgences did more to split the Kirk into 

 hostile parties than the sword of Claverhouse did to break the 

 spirit of Presbyterianism " (Hist, of Scot., iii., 318). Hence- 

 forth there were three parties in the Church : (i) The indulged 

 ministers and those who accepted their ministrations, regard- 

 ing it as the best they could, make out of the circumstances. 

 (2) Those who utterly refused to have anything to do with 

 indulged preachers, refusing even to hear them — men like 

 Cameron, for instance; and (3) Those who though not in- 

 dulged themselves, or even desiring indulgence, refused to 

 separate themselves from those who were, but left it to their 

 own consciences how they would act — men like John Welsh, 

 for instance. 



Welsh, of course, was not indulged; could not be 



