HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 IN SCOTLAND 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES DOWN TO 
 THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN MACPHERSON, M.A, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS,' 
 "CHRISTIAN DOGMATICS," ETC. 
 
 ALEXANDER GARDNER, 
 
 ^ubltstjer to %t'9 tflajestp ti)f ittng, 
 PAISLEY ; AND 26 PATEENOSTEE SQUAEE, LONDON. 
 
 1901.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IN this volume an endeavour has been made to render a 
 comprehensive account of ecclesiastical and religious move- 
 ments in Scotland from the original planting of Christianity 
 down to the close of the nineteenth century. Avoiding as 
 far as possible details of civil history, attention has been 
 given to Acts of Parliament and contrivances of statesmen 
 only in so far as these have affected the interests of the 
 Church in regard to its government and constitution. In 
 so wide a field it is perhaps too much to expect that the 
 attempt to maintain a fair proportion in the narrative, and 
 strict impartiality of statement, has been altogether suc- 
 cessful. But the author has not intentionally passed over 
 anything that should have been told to the credit of any of 
 the denominations that have existed or may yet exist in the 
 Scottish ecclesiastical world; and he has sought to deal 
 faithfully and generously with the memories of the great 
 men who in all the various divisions of the Church in Scot- 
 land have contributed to the theological literature and to 
 the religious life of the country. 
 
 It has been to the writer an unfeigned pleasure to be 
 able to close his history with a record of a great Church 
 union, and he trusts that he may have the opportunity 
 granted him ere long of adding the story of a union still 
 more comprehensive and complete. 
 
 JOHN MACPHERSON. 
 
 POETOBELLO, February, 1901.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. (400-1050). 
 
 EARLY DAYS ST. NINIAN TO COLUMBA AND THE 
 
 CELTIC CHURCH, - - Page 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. (1050-1433). 
 
 ROMANIZING REFORMS AND EARLY PREACHING OF 
 
 REFORMED DOCTRINES, - 30 
 
 CHAPTER III. (1433-1546). 
 
 BEGINNING OF REFORMATION TO THE DEATH OF 
 
 BEATON, - 61 
 
 CHAPTER IV. (1546-1572). 
 
 KNOX AND THE REFORMATION, - 92 
 
 CHAPTER V. (1572-1625). 
 ANDREW MELVILLE TO THE DEATH OF JAMES VI., 130 
 
 CHAPTER VI. (1625-1648). 
 
 STRUGGLES AGAINST PRELACY, AND THE ESTABLISH- 
 MENT OF PRESBYTERY, - 175 
 
 CHAPTER VII. (1648-1688). 
 THE COVENANTERS, - 202 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. (1688-1712). 
 THE CHURCH OF THE REVOLUTION, 285 
 
 CHAPTER IX. (1712-1761). 
 MARROW CONTROVERSY AND SECESSIONS, - - 307
 
 Vlll. CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. (1761-1796). 
 ASCENDANCY OF THE MODERATES, Page 336 
 
 CHAPTER XL (1797-1843). 
 VOLUNTARY AND NON-INTRUSION CONTROVERSIES, - 351 
 
 CHAPTER XII. (1843-1900). 
 
 RECENT ECCLESIASTICAL DEVELOPMENTS AND RE- 
 LIGIOUS MOVEMENTS, - 399 
 
 INDEX, 443
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Early Days Ninian to Columba and the Celtic Church.* 
 A.D. 4001050. 
 
 THE Romans entered Scotland in A.D. 80, and found there 
 a people rude and wild in their mode of life, yet with 
 institutions of a political, social, and religious kind which 
 marked them off from the class of untutored savages. What 
 the religious faith of the inhabitants of North Britain was, 
 it is quite impossible to tell. There is absolutely nothing 
 to suggest the notion that the Druidism described by Caesar 
 as the prevailing religion of Gaul and of the parts of Britain 
 with which he was acquainted, was known and practised in 
 the northern portion of the island. It is scarcely a probable 
 conjecture that at this early date the Scandinavian mytho- 
 logy had found a footing among the people inhabiting the 
 country which we now call Scotland. We may, however, 
 assume that with a warlike race, like the ancient inhabitants 
 
 * Literature : Skene, Celtic Scotland, Edin. 1887, Vol. II. ; Grub, 
 Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, Edin. 1861, I. 1-187 ; Maclauchlan, 
 Early Scottish Church, Edin. 1865, 1-320 ; Cunningham, Church 
 History of Scotland, Edin. 1882, I. 1-66 ; Bellesheim, History of 
 Catholic Church of Scotland, Edin. 1887, I. 1-239 ; Adamnan, Life 
 of Columba, ed. by Reeves, Dubl. 1887. Also, in Historians of 
 Scotland : Lives of Ninian and Kentigern, and Adamnan's Life of 
 Columba, 2 vols., Edin. 1874. For General History: Dr. Hume 
 Brown, History of Scotland, Cambr. 1899, vol. I., pp. 1-55. 
 
 A
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IX SCOTLAND. 
 
 
 of North Britain, their religious notions and practices would 
 in many points resemble those of the Gauls and of the 
 Norsemen, though probably their gods had names and 
 genealogies, and moral and physical characteristics peculiar 
 to themselves. 
 
 Agricola's movements in the North were in the interests 
 of the Roman colony in the South. In order to put a stop 
 to the raids of the independent tribes of which the Roman 
 colonists were being constantly harassed, the general in his 
 capacity as governor and statesman pushed his way with his 
 troops as far as the Firths of the Forth and the Clyde, and 
 erected between the two a line of forts, by means of which 
 he thought to prevent the northern tribes from pillaging 
 the more fertile south, and threatening the lives of those 
 who had settled down in peace under the pledge and promise 
 of imperial protection. This conquest was but temporary, 
 for, some forty years later, Hadrian was content to fortify 
 from the Tyne to the Solway, abandoning the territory 
 which he could not hold, the inhabitants of which had 
 never been really subdued. In A.D. 140, Sollius Urbicus, 
 the captain of Antoninus Pius, seemed to accomplish what 
 Agricola had attempted. But when, in the beginning of the 
 third century, the Emperor Septimius Severus made a 
 punitive expedition against certain peaceful tribes, which 
 had defied the Roman power, and pushed his way as far 
 north as the Moray Firth, he managed only to keep the 
 road open for his return, but was so persistently attacked 
 by sudden onslaughts from the woods and hill sides that, 
 though he found no enemy with whom he could engage in 
 a pitched battle, he is said in that march to have lost as 
 many as fifty thousand men. The numerous independent 
 tribes north of the Firths were now apparently combined 
 into two great nations, the Maeatae living immediately 
 north of the wall, occupying the lower lands, as their name 
 implies, and the Caledonians, whose territory lay further to 
 the North. Throughout the whole of the third century, 
 Britain was left very much to itself, and the northern tribes 
 generally, now known by the common name of Picts, em-
 
 THE ROMAN OCCUPATION. 3 
 
 bracing those living between the walls of Hadrian and 
 Antoninus, as well as those living beyond the northern wall, 
 aided by Scots from the West or by Saxons from the East, 
 ravaged the Roman province and slaughtered its inhabitants 
 at their will. In three campaigns, in A.D. 368 under 
 Theodosius, and in A.D. 396 and A.D. 406 under Stilicho, 
 assistance was given to the wretched provincials, but on 
 each occasion as soon as the campaign was over the situation 
 of the Romanized Britons was as bad as ever. The conquest 
 of Rome by Alaric and his Gothic warriors in A.D. 410, 
 ended the Roman occupation of Britain, and the inhabitants 
 of the north and of the south were left to settle for them- 
 selves their relations to one another as best they could. 
 
 Though for three hundred years the Romans were more 
 or less in North Britain, the country was never really theirs. 
 Sometimes they were out of it entirely, but even when they 
 held for a time the southern half the part between the 
 walls it was at best but a military occupation, and the 
 inhabitants of that district, when left to themselves, always 
 joined with the independent northern tribes in harrying the 
 provincials of the south, never seemingly regarding them- 
 selves as their fellow provincials under the same imperial 
 rule. Absolutely nothing remains to indicate any particular 
 influence exerted upon the native races by the Romans 
 during their occupation. No Scottish place name is of un- 
 doubted Roman origin. A few remains of what must have 
 been intended as permanent camps, such as those at Ardoch 
 in Perthshire, and at Birrens in Dumfriesshire, and some 
 traces of temporary encampments, and here and there a few 
 coins and common utensils, tell only of the presence of the 
 army, and not of any moral or civilizing influence which the 
 residence of the Romans in the country might have wrought 
 upon the people. But apart from any direct particular 
 proof, a comparison, even on the basis of the scanty reports 
 which we possess, of the condition of the native inhabitants 
 in the end of the first and in the end of the third centuries, 
 will show us that such a people as the Romans could not be 
 in the land without influencing to some extent their institu-
 
 4 HISTOEY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 tions and their habits. The presence of a common enemy 
 must have led the separate tribes hitherto hostile to one 
 another to combine for the purpose of self-defence. Nego- 
 tiations for such a union, consideration of each other's 
 opinions and the deliberation necessary in order to come to 
 an agreement, and consultation and planning in view of 
 joint action, must have proved very important means 
 of culture, and must have very effectively promoted that 
 consolidation of the tribes into a nation, which is the result 
 of an elementary civilization, and the indispensable condition 
 of any advance to the higher stages of culture. It is a mere 
 supposition, but by no means an improbable one, that during 
 those years there may have been among the natives of North 
 Britain some converts to Christianity. It can scarcely be 
 doubted that Christian men would be found in the ranks of 
 the legions which, for a longer or shorter period, were resi- 
 dent among the tribes north of the province. We know 
 how zealous these Christian soldiers proved in other countries 
 in preaching to the people with whom they came in contact, 
 and we cannot suppose that Christian legionaries in Britain 
 would be less earnest and active in the propagating of their 
 faith. It is more than likely that among Roman settlers in 
 the province of Britain and among Romanised natives, there 
 may have been a considerable number of avowed and faithful 
 followers of Christ. But what success Christian soldiers and 
 Christian provincials may have had in converting any of the 
 Northerners, whose whole interest was in war, and that 
 against both soldiers and provincials, we cannot tell, only it 
 can scarcely be expected that it ever was very great. When 
 the Romans left Britain in A.D. 410, no doubt North Britons 
 had heard the name of Christ, but those who professed that 
 name, if any did so, must have been very few, and their 
 reputation and influence very small. 
 
 Until late in the fourth century, we have no information 
 whatever of the religious condition of Britain ; but, though 
 left here to conjecture, we may be sure that the beliefs and 
 worship of those who may have been more or less influenced 
 by the Christian life and teaching of Roman soldiers or con-
 
 EARLY ACCOUNTS OF ST. NINIAN. O 
 
 verted provincials must have been of a very simple and un- 
 developed kind. No outstanding man seems to have arisen 
 in these communities, who, by his strong individuality and 
 by the warm enthusiasm of an intense nature, might have 
 commended the new faith to his fellow-countrymen. And 
 so we may very well suppose that, wanting any one central 
 authority, any person looked up to for guidance in thought 
 and life, whose utterances and example would mould the 
 forms of belief and the religious ritual, many irregularities 
 would be allowed to creep into their practice and much 
 crudeness of expression show itself in their presentation of 
 Christian truth. 
 
 Ninian is commonly spoken of as the earliest Scottish 
 missionary, and this designation is correct, if we understand 
 by the phrase the first whose name and story have come 
 down to us. He was born somewhere about A.D. 360. Our 
 primary authority with regard to Ninian is the Venerable 
 Bede, who wrote his Ecclesiastical History exactly three 
 hundred years after the death of the early Scottish mis- 
 sionary. His notice of Ninian is very brief, introduced 
 parenthetically in his account of the mission of Columba, 
 more than a hundred and fifty years later. While Columba 
 went to preach to the Northern Picts, Ninian had evange- 
 lized the Southern Picts. Bede rather inaccurately 
 ascribes to Ninian the conversion of these Southern Picts, 
 affirming that under his preaching they forsook idolatry 
 and embraced the truth. He describes Ninian as a most 
 reverend bishop and holy man of the British nation, who 
 had been instructed in Rome, and who founded an epis- 
 copal see, dedicating his church to St. Martin of Tours. 
 This church was called the White House, Whitherne or 
 Candida Casa, because built of stone, and not of wattles, 
 as was customary among the Britons. Ailred, writing in 
 the twelfth century, considerably amplifies this statement, 
 but in all probability had no authorities except Bede and 
 his own somewhat exuberant imagination. 
 
 It would seem that Ninian was by descent a Briton, his 
 parents being natives of North Wales, though he himself
 
 O HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IX SCOTLAND. 
 
 was born in the valley of the Solway. He is represented by 
 tradition as of noble birth, his father being an officer in the 
 Roman army. It is evident that his parents were Chris- 
 tians, and that from his earliest childhood he was trained 
 up in the Christian faith. We have no report as to his 
 early years, but it would seem that as a youth he resolved 
 to devote himself to the work of the church as a missionary 
 in the immediate neighbourhood of his native district. 
 With the intention of qualifying himself for this task, and 
 obtaining the rank and authority necessary for its successful 
 prosecution, he went to Rome. This visit was made in all 
 probability during the period when Siricius was Pope that 
 is to say, not earlier than A.D. 385. If he went as early as 
 this, it would seem that he must have spent at least ten or 
 twelve years in the holy city. We can quite understand 
 that, brought up as he had been among a very simple race, 
 in a region so isolated as to be little influenced by the 
 educational and ecclesiastical institutions of the age, the 
 young Briton stood in need of instruction in the very 
 elements of church doctrine, government, and worship. 
 Siricius was a powerful ruler, and his ecclesiastical polity 
 was pronouncedly high, and there can be no doubt that 
 Ninian would be taught to yield absolute submission to the 
 teaching of the Holy See, and would be required to pledge 
 himself to bring the doctrine and practice of the British 
 Christians into strict conformity with that which he had 
 learned in Rome. Before leaving to return to his native 
 land to engage in his lifework, he received from the Pope 
 episcopal ordination. He does not seem to have been con- 
 secrated as bishop of any strictly-defined district or diocese, 
 but to have had conferred upon him episcopal authority in 
 any part of the country where he might be led to carry on 
 his missionary labours. On his homeward journey he went 
 out of his way to visit St. Martin of Tours. This great 
 bishop was undoubtedly the most celebrated ecclesiastic of 
 the West, his fame resting mainly on the reputation which 
 he had obtained as a worker of miracles. His personal 
 piety was everywhere acknowledged, and the devoutness and
 
 XIXIAX S EARLY WORK IX GALLOWAY. 7 
 
 reverence which characterised his conduct all through life 
 gave him the first place among the counsellors of the more 
 ardent youths who were consecrating themselves to God's 
 service. 
 
 Ninian's visit to St. Martin of Tours supplies us with 
 one of the few dates by which we can fix the period of this 
 great missionary's ministry. It would seem that imme- 
 diately after this visit, which was evidently of brief dura- 
 tion, Ninian proceeded to Galloway to begin there his 
 regular evangelistic labours. One of his first works was the 
 building of the church at Whithorn, with which his name 
 has ever since been so closely associated. Before this build- 
 ing was completed, Ninian received the news of the death 
 of St. Martin, and he accordingly dedicated the church in 
 memory of the great miracle-working saint. The death of 
 St. Martin took place on the eleventh of November, A.D. 
 397, a day which, under the name of Martinmas, has been 
 fixed as one of the quarterly terms in Scotland. The mis- 
 sionary labours of Ninian in Galloway are thus made to 
 begin in the closing years of the fourth century. He was 
 thus the younger contemporary of Jerome, the older con- 
 temporary of his fellow-Briton Pelagius, while his life almost 
 exactly synchronizes with that of the great Augustine. 
 
 The people among whom Ninian began to labour were a 
 branch of the Pictish nation which had settled on the nor- 
 thern bank of the Solway. They had proved violent and 
 troublesome neighbours to the British tribes inhabiting the 
 north of England. To distinguish them from the Pictish 
 tribes of the north, they were called by early Roman writers 
 Novantae, and by later writers Niduari, as occupying the 
 district round about the Nith. That these Picts were 
 spread over all the parts of Scotland south of the Forth 
 appears from the presence of their name in that of the 
 Pentland Hills. But the tribes with which Ninian, at least 
 primarily, had to do dwelt between the Nith on the east 
 and the Irish Channel on the west the district being, 
 generally speaking, coextensive with the present counties of 
 Kirkcudbright and Wigtown.
 
 8 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Ninian, we may believe, had a very useful and pleasant 
 ministry among the people round about the church which 
 he had built; and not only his careful teaching of Scripture, 
 but also his gentle and godly life, must have powerfully in- 
 fluenced the community favoured with his presence. But 
 besides this, his labours as a teacher were very fruitful. He 
 gathered around him a company of monks, some of them 
 trained under Martin of Tours, who, under his direction, 
 devoted themselves to the education of young men ; and 
 his monastery long maintained its fame as a seminary for 
 training in the knowledge of the holy scriptures, and of 
 theological studies, as understood and pursued in those days. 
 He made good use of his leisure, especially in the later 
 years of his life, in writing commentaries on several books 
 of the Bible, and in compiling books of extracts from the 
 writings of the Fathers for the use of his students. 
 
 The labours of Ninian were by no means confined to the 
 district with which his name has been more immediately 
 associated. As we have seen, Pictish tribes were at this 
 period to be found scattered over all the region which 
 stretched from the one Roman wall to the other, and we 
 have traces all through this extensive country of Ninian's 
 presence and evangelistic activity. Notwithstanding the 
 building of the northern wall by Antoninus, on the assump- 
 tion that the barbarians who refused to be subject to the 
 Romans were all outside of it, there is no doubt that, in the 
 later years of the fourth century, either by incursions from 
 the north, or by revolt among those who had previously 
 given in their submision, there were large numbers of bar- 
 barians, in the Roman sense, violently hostile to the Romans, 
 and determined to resist and reject all Roman institutions 
 and usages, within the district bounded on the north by that 
 wall. At the period of Ninian's mission, too, the Roman 
 authority in Britain was already far down towards its de- 
 cline. By A.D. 410 all the Roman legionaries had been 
 withdrawn from Britain. The whole country was in a state 
 of confusion, and this must account for the obliteration of 
 almost all definite traces of localities and churches in which
 
 NIXIAX AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 
 
 Ninian did the work of a pioneer. During his missionary 
 travels in Strathclyde, Ninian consecrated a cemetery on the 
 site now occupied by Glasgow Cathedral. When Kentigern 
 came to that district, about a century and a half later, he 
 found the name of Ninian still associated with the burying- 
 ground, and held in highest reverence. 
 
 From these missionary tours Ninian returned to his own 
 quiet monastery. Here he continued the work with which 
 he had begun his noble apostolic career. From his seminary 
 he sent out young preachers, who carried on the work of 
 evangelization in their master's spirit, and inspired by his 
 example. And there at last, full of years and worn out by 
 his self-denying labours, he passed away to enter on a better 
 and a higher life. His death took place on the sixteenth 
 of September, A.D. 432. 
 
 For somewhere about thirty-five years this great mission- 
 ary was enabled to continue his work among the people to 
 whose conversion and upbuilding in the faith he had con- 
 secrated his life. On the foundation laid by him, later 
 workers Palladius, Ternan, Servan, Kentigern, Columba 
 carried on the work which has now grown into the church 
 of God in Scotland as we see it at this day. Although the 
 incidents of Ninian's life have completely passed from view, 
 yet surely that man deserves to be held in remembrance, 
 who shed light as he did on his own generation, and sowed 
 seeds the harvest of which labourers who followed him were 
 allowed to reap. 
 
 It is difficult to speak with anything like confidence of 
 the followers of Ninian. Most of them are names to us and 
 little more. Even in regard to the periods in which they 
 lived and the consequent relation which the life and mission 
 of one bore to the life and mission of another, there is 
 much confusion and uncertainty in the scanty records which 
 have come down to us in the form of traditionary legends. 
 The earliest Christian individual born in what we now call 
 Scotland, whose name and story have been transmitted to 
 us, is Patrick, son of a local councillor under the Roman rule 
 (decurio), stationed at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton. Patrick
 
 10 HISTOKY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 was born somewhere about A.D. 372. His parents were 
 Christians, and at baptism he received the name of Succat, 
 Patrick being the name which he assumed when he was 
 ordained. But although of Scottish birth and nationality, 
 his life and work lay not in Scotland but in Ireland. The 
 story of his life, therefore, does not concern us here, only we 
 must note that, even when he began his missionary career in 
 Ireland, there was already a considerable Christian com- 
 munity in that country, just as his own birth of Christian 
 parents in Scotland told of the existence of a Christian 
 community in that land. 
 
 After seven years of servitude in Ireland, Patrick escaped 
 and went to Gaul, where he is supposed to have remained 
 with Germanus of Auxerre for over thirty years. His Irish 
 mission proper began in A.D. 433, but already in A.D. 431 
 Germanus had sent his archdeacon Palladius, consecrated 
 by the Pope as a missionary bishop to Ireland. Palladius 
 was in all probability a Gaul, and no doubt this would be 
 regarded as fitting him in a very special way for his work 
 among a Celtic race. It is now almost unanimously ad- 
 mitted that the Scots among whom Palladius ministered 
 were the Scots of Ireland, that his success among them was 
 small and that he was soon driven away to Britain. Local 
 tradition in the Mearns maintains that the seat of his 
 ministerial activity was Fordoun, and the memory of this 
 tradition is preserved by the attaching of the name of Paldy 
 to a well in the neighbourhood and to the annual fair of the 
 district. The associating of the name of Palladius with 
 Fordoun, however, may have arisen from the fact that the 
 church founded here about the fifth century bore his name. 
 But the church may have been so designated simply because 
 it was founded by some disciple of Palladius or by some one 
 who had taken that saint as his patron. Had this legend 
 prevailed in Argyleshire, where at that time there un- 
 doubtedly was a colony of Dalriad Scots, we might have 
 claimed Palladius as a missionary to our country, but as the 
 Mearns was undoubtedly inhabited not by Scots but by
 
 PALLADIUS, SERVANUS, KENTIGERN. 11 
 
 Picts, we can only conclude that Palladius has no claim to 
 be regarded as a Scottish missionary. 
 
 If there has been confusion with regard to the locality in 
 which Palladius conducted his mission, a no less serious con- 
 fusion prevails as to the date of the life and labours of St. 
 Servan or St. Serf. So inexplicable does the confusion 
 seem, that several distinguished antiquarian scholars in their 
 despair have maintained the necessity for assuming the 
 existence of two saints of the same name, whose stories got 
 inextricably mixed up together. His whole active life is 
 connected with Culross, in a portion of Perthshire lying 
 on the northern bank of the Forth. He has been popularly 
 associated with Palladius, who is said to have sent him on a 
 mission to instruct the ignorant and savage people of the 
 Orkney Islands. The legend which connects him with Loch- 
 leven assumes that he lived in the time of Adamnan towards 
 the close of the seventh century, Adamnan and Germanus 
 being represented as joint-founders of the monastery, or at 
 least of the colony of hermits at that place. The only St. 
 Serf that can reasonably claim a place in Scottish Church 
 History is the fifth century missionary of Culross, who, 
 though not associated with Palladius in a ministry in the 
 East of Scotland, may very well have been a disciple of the 
 older saint, carrying his master's work and name into regions 
 which he himself had never visited. In his later days he 
 seems to have lived the life of a hermit, and to have died at 
 Culross in extreme old age. 
 
 When already a very old man, Servan found upon the 
 shore near his hermit residence, a frail boat or scallop, con- 
 taining a young infant, whom he reared tenderly and trained 
 with assiduous care. The child was said to be of princely 
 parentage, and was named by Servan Kentigern, which means 
 ** chief lord," but also Mungo, a term of endearment, mean- 
 ing apparently " my dear." The young disciple made 
 remarkable progress under his saintly and kindly master, 
 whom, however, he left when he had come to man's estate, 
 moving westward through Stirling till he came to a place 
 which is now called Glasgow. The name of Ninian, as we
 
 12 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 have seen, still lingered there in connection with a cemetery 
 which he had consecrated, and we may suppose that Kenti- 
 gern would find there a small Christian community as a 
 living witness to the spiritual work which the older saint 
 had performed. He was consecrated bishop in his twenty- 
 fifth year, and the date generally accepted is A.D. 540. He 
 spent a great part of his time in training young men for 
 the service of God, and in travelling throughout the wide 
 district of Strathclyde preaching the gospel and teaching 
 the principles of the faith to those who had lapsed into 
 error or fallen into sin. According to a prevalent tradition, 
 Kentigern was driven out of Strathclyde by the temporary 
 triumph of the pagan party in A.D. 543, when he retired into 
 Wales, founding a great monastery at what is now St. Asaph, 
 and continuing his laborious work there for a period of about 
 thirty years. At last, in A.D. 573, the overthrow of his 
 heathen persecutors in Strathclyde allowed him to return 
 to his own proper diocese. For a period of eight years, 
 however, after leaving Wales, his residence was at Hoddam 
 in Dumfries, and not till A.D. 581 did he return to his old 
 home in Glasgow on the banks of the Mollendinar Burn, 
 near where the nobie cathedral now stands. Here the 
 famous meeting took place between Mungo and his 
 slightly younger contemporary Columba, the distinguished 
 and saintly abbot of lona. The work on which these two 
 great men had been engaged was very much the same, and 
 we can imagine the warm interest which each would take in 
 the story which the other had to tell. St. Mungo lived to 
 a good old age, probably about eighty-four years, and died 
 in A.D. 603. 
 
 This brings us to the greatest, and certainly the best 
 known of all the early Scottish saints, Columba or Colum- 
 cille. It was among the Scots of Ulster that Columba was 
 born. His birthplace was Gartan in the wilds of Donegal, 
 not far from Letterkenny, somewhat over twenty miles to 
 the west of Londonderry. The most probable date of his 
 birth is 7th December, A.D. 521. His father belonged to 
 the distinguished Dalriad family which reigned in Ireland
 
 EARLY DAYS OF ST. COLUMBA. 13 
 
 and the West of Scotland, while his mother was descended 
 from the kings of Leinster. Both parents were Christians, 
 as were the Scots generally, converted by Patrick a century 
 earlier. The child was baptised under the name of Colum. 
 He was sent to the school at Moville in County Down, near 
 Newtonards, where he had as his teacher the famous St. 
 Finnian. In this seminary he remained several years, and 
 there he received ordination as deacon. Our knowledge of 
 this period of his life is derived from the biography written 
 by the most celebrated of all his successors in lona, Adam- 
 nan, who wrote in A.D. 697, exactly one hundred years after 
 Columba's death. A glance at Adamnan's Life of Columba 
 is instructive as showing the radical difference between a 
 mediaeval biography and a memoir of modern times. From 
 a biographer we naturally expect a systematic narrative of 
 the youth, manhood, and age of the individual whose story 
 is to be told. But this was by no means the conception of 
 his duty entertained by the monkish historian of the lives 
 of the saints. For dates he had a profound contempt, and 
 the chronological arrangement of his materials had not the 
 remotest interest for him. A modern life of St. Columba 
 might be divided thus: 1, His birth and early youth; 
 2, his education ; 3, his work in Ireland ; 4, his settlement 
 in lona, etc. But not so Adamnan. His three books 
 observe no order of time, but are entitled respectively : 
 Of his prophetic revelations ; of his miraculous powers ; of 
 his visions of angels. And he begins his story, not with an 
 account of Columba's birth, but with the enumeration of 
 miracles wrought before King Brude at Inverness, when 
 Columba was already forty-three years old. It is indeed 
 extremely provoking to find an intelligent and accomplished 
 writer like Adamnan, who was immediately and personally 
 associated with Columba, and who must therefore have 
 been familiar with all the leading facts of the great mission- 
 ary's life, scorning to put these on record, which we would 
 so heartily appreciate, and unweariedly recording miracles, 
 prophecies, and visions, which we well could want. Yet 
 from the mass of incredibles we gather here and there some-
 
 14 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 thing reliable, and altogether Adamnan's work is one of the 
 most respectable of that class to which it belongs. 
 
 In A.D. 544 the community residing in a monastery near 
 Dublin, of which he had been an inmate, was broken up by 
 a devastating plague, and then he moved northward again, 
 and in A.D. 546 founded the church of Londonderry. From 
 this time onward for fifteen years he continued to labour 
 unweariedly up and down throughout his native district. 
 The closing years of this period are of special interest 
 as showing us the reasons which led him to leave 
 his native land and to seek a new home and a new 
 sphere of labour upon our Scottish shores. During 
 these years Columba had deeply involved himself in 
 more than one bloody feud. It would seem indeed to be 
 beyond dispute that, at least upon three different occasions, 
 Columba was the cause of immense bloodshed and of de- 
 vastating wars, and that, though one of these occurred a few 
 years before his departure from Ireland, the other two 
 happened in the closing days of his residence in his native 
 country, showing that his earlier experience of the miseries 
 of war did not suffice to make him forsake the use of carnal 
 weapons, or the disputes which led to their use. Finnian 
 of Moville, who belonged to the domain of Diarmit, a 
 prince who had already offended Columba by disregarding 
 his right of sanctuary, had in his possession a beautiful 
 Psalter which Columba, who was a skilful penman and a 
 lover of fine manuscripts, had copied without its owner's 
 permission. Finnian resented Columba's conduct, and 
 claimed as rightfully his the copy that had been made. The 
 decision was referred to Diarmit, who gave sentence thus : 
 that as to any cow belongs its calf, so to any book belongs 
 its copy. This was regarded as a casus belli by the irascible 
 clansmen, and Columba, instead of seeking to compose the 
 difference, inflamed the quarrel, and urged on the bloody 
 conflict which it would rather have become the minister of 
 Christ to stay. Moved by remorseful feelings, when he be- 
 held the sad results of his unholy passion, rather than driven 
 forth, as some authorities would have it, by the censure of
 
 COLUMBA REMOVES TO ION A. 15 
 
 his church, Columba imposed upon himself a voluntary exile 
 from the land where his conduct had made men doubt how 
 they should regard him, whether as the warrior or as the 
 priest. 
 
 In A.D. 563 Columba sailed from Ireland in order 
 to undertake the arduous and hazardous task of preaching 
 Christ among the Picts of North Britain. It was customary 
 with churchmen founding monasteries and with missionaries 
 starting a great enterprize for the conversion of a kingdom 
 or a province, to associate with themselves twelve like- 
 minded companions or disciples, after the example of their 
 divine Master. Columba, therefore, chose twelve men to be 
 with him, some of them relations of his own, all of them 
 well known to him as capable and reliable, a goodly band to 
 bear the hardships and the dangers of their new vocation. 
 They sailed from Loch Foyle in one of those primitive 
 vessels, which to modern eyes would seem much too frail for 
 even a quiet ferry traffic. The curragh was constructed of 
 wicker work covered with hides, and was used by the hardy 
 seamen of those days for long voyages out on the open sea. 
 In such a vessel Columba and his twelve companions em- 
 barked, and steered their course for the capital of the Irish 
 King in Britain. The Irish or Dalriad Scots had now held 
 possession of what we call Argyleshire for a period of about 
 sixty years. These Scots, whether by conquest, or with the 
 permission of the sparse native population, had, during the 
 first half of the sixth century, secured a wide territory ex- 
 tending as far north as Ballachulish on Loch Leven, and 
 going so far west as to include part of Morven, Mull, and 
 the island of lona. The reigning princes were kinsmen of 
 Columba. They were professedly Christians and had Chris- 
 tian priests of a sort, but their pagan surroundings and 
 their isolation from their co-religionists had exercised a cor- 
 rupting and debasing influence upon them. Just three years 
 before Columba undertook his mission, King Brude of In- 
 verness felt strong enough to endeavour to reclaim what his 
 predecessor had lost, and in battle in A.D. 560 completely 
 defeated the Scots and slew their king, so that under the
 
 16 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Scottish prince who succeeded their territories were narrowed 
 down to Kintyre and Cowal. As a churchman and a Scot, 
 Columba sought to stem the onward rush of paganism, 
 which would inevitably follow the victories of the Picts. 
 His first residence was with King Conall, at a place lying 
 somewhere about what is now the western end oftheCrinan 
 Canal. But so soon as he had thoroughly informed himself 
 as to the position of affairs, he chose for his permanent 
 dwelling-place the little island of lona, from which the Scot- 
 tish settlers must have been driven out by the Pictish army, 
 while, owing to its remoteness and insignificance, no new 
 colony of the conquerors had as yet taken possession. This 
 island lay upon the very frontier, and no more suitable spot 
 could have been chosen by one who had in view the execu- 
 tion of the twofold task of pastoral work among the Chris- 
 tian Scots and aggressive missionary work among the pagan 
 Picts. I or Hy, as the little island was then called, is about 
 three and a half miles in length and one and a half in 
 breadth, and though on the first glance not imposing, it is 
 found on closer inspection wonderfully rich in varied beauty. 
 Besides the advantage of a frontier position, it afforded the 
 hardy and skilful boatmen who followed Columba easy access 
 to a number of large inhabited islands, the churches of which 
 could be superintended from the central foundation estab- 
 lished there. The erection of the necessary buildings was no 
 doubt immediately proceeded with. These were of the 
 simplest description. Within a rude enclosure the church 
 and the wooden huts of the missionaries were put up, while 
 the kitchen, refectory, and lodging house for strangers were 
 probably built of wattles daubed with clay. No traces of 
 the Columban structures have survived the wreck and wear 
 of centuries. The ruins now visited are those of the Bene- 
 dictine Abbey of the beginning of the thirteenth century. 
 
 No sooner had Columba secured a settlement in his island 
 home, than he proceeded to carry out his plans for the con- 
 version of King Brude, upon the success of which the fate of 
 his undertaking in large measure depended. The journey 
 that lay before him was in those days peculiarly difficult and
 
 COLUMBA'S MISSION TO KING BRUDE. 17 
 
 dangerous. Partly by sea and partly by land, over stormy 
 sounds and firths, and across wild and wooded and moun- 
 tainous country with scarcely a track to guide them, these 
 daring Christian adventurers had to travel a distance of at 
 least one hundred and fifty miles. At every step they were 
 in danger of falling into the hands of hostile and savage 
 tribes, that would show no mercy and give no quarter. 
 Nevertheless, they reached in safety the capital of Brude, 
 some miles west of the present Inverness, at the end of Loch 
 Ness. Here, too, Columba had to encounter difficulties of 
 no ordinary kind. Tradition, as recorded by Adamnan, 
 describes King Brude as surrounded by his Druid priests, 
 skilled in the black arts, and prepared to engage in a life 
 and death struggle with the missionary of the cross. The 
 king, too, partly influenced by the arguments of his priests, 
 and partly prejudiced against anything coming from the 
 kinsman of his foes, refused to open his gates to Columba, 
 who, nothing daunted, after singing of psalms and prayer, 
 made the sign of the Cross, and walked into the city un- 
 hindered, as Peter once walked out of prison. This miracle 
 naturally made a deep impression on the mind of the king, 
 and after Columba had fairly baffled and outwitted the 
 Druid magicians in several encounters, the king was con- 
 verted, and the people, as people did in those good old 
 times, obediently followed their chief. 
 
 Of the followers of Columba who carried on the work 
 begun by their master and founded churches in influential 
 centres in the north, the one whose name is now most widely 
 known is Machar, the patron saint of Aberdeen. He was 
 sent out on his mission by Columba with twelve companions, 
 and told to travel on until he should find a river describing 
 in its windings the figure of a bishop's staff. This descrip- 
 tion seemed to him to be fulfilled in the River Don, and 
 there, near the river's mouth, he built a church on the spot 
 now occupied by St. Machar's church in Old Aberdeen. 
 
 The early success gained by Columba and his disciples seems 
 to show that heathenism had been already losing its hold 
 upon the people. The instruction of the Druids had ceased 
 
 B
 
 18 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 to satisfy. They had been in the habit of teaching their 
 scholars how to distinguish lucky and unlucky days, the 
 significance and value of dreams, the power of their gods to 
 bring on rain and darkness and storm, and, by the use of 
 magical arts, the secret of which they carefully concealed, 
 they struck such terror in the hearts of their pupils as 
 secured their reverential obedience for all time to come. 
 When these men were encountered by Christian apostolic 
 missionaries like Columba, they were not charged with im- 
 posture and made ridiculous by exposure. It was rather 
 assumed that their miracles were real but diabolical, that 
 their gods were not nonentities but demons, and that, 
 therefore, their proceedings could not be ignored, their in- 
 cantations treated as old wives'" tales, but that they must be 
 counteracted by the immediate interposition of the true 
 God and his holy angels. And thus the Celtic missionaries 
 contributed to the survival of superstition among their con- 
 verts, in whose eyes Christ was made to appear as the great 
 Druid, who had outwitted and overmastered the Druids of 
 the ancient faith. 
 
 Meanwhile Columba continued to consolidate and develop 
 his monastic establishment at lona. The life of the monks 
 within the settlement was primitive and simple. The daily 
 religious services occupied a considerable part of their time, 
 and the better educated among them applied themselves 
 diligently to the copying of books of scripture, service books 
 for the church and writings of the Fathers. Careful atten- 
 tion was given to the cultivation of the land. They led 
 their cows to the pasture, and carried home the milk in 
 skin bottles or wooden pails. The level stretch of land on 
 the west of the island they tilled and sowed, and in harvest 
 time they carried home the sheaves on their backs, and 
 ground the com in the mill which they had built outside 
 the enclosure that sheltered and protected their huts. 
 Their dress was rough in texture and simple in form, and 
 their shoes of untanned skins were put aside when they 
 gathered in to their meals. The Columbites, too, were 
 skilful boatmen, and constructed for their own use vessels
 
 VOYAGES OF COLUMBA^S FOLLOWERS. 19 
 
 of all sorts for various purposes. The curragh was the 
 favourite for lengthy voyages, but boats of wood were built 
 for carrying cargoes of timber and other bulky commodities 
 when these were required. The mode of life prevailing in 
 lona was pre-eminently social, monastic simplicity of fare, 
 but no monastic obliviousness to the dictate of common- 
 sense that union is strength. Though each had his separate 
 hut to which he retired at night, they wrought together, 
 ate together, and went forth together on their evangelistic 
 missions. The more devout among them often felt the 
 need of longer and more complete retirement for seasons of 
 meditation and prayer than the arrangement of their insti- 
 tution afforded, and so we hear of voyages undertaken in 
 search of solitudes and deserts. In Rona, forty miles north 
 of Lewis, in the Flannen Isles, far out to the west, Ronan 
 and Flann found suitable retreats, and in later times, isolated 
 little islets in Orkney obtained from a tradition of such 
 temporary visits the name of Papa. In these remote spots 
 they erected little huts in which they knelt at their devo- 
 tions, and on these hallowed spots small oratories were 
 afterwards built for the accommodation of those who thought 
 to be made holy by visiting spots where holy men had 
 been. 
 
 But these holy men of lona did not isolate themselves, 
 even for a season, with purely selfish intentions or for per- 
 sonal ends. They sought to become more holy in prospect of 
 some arduous work which they had projected. When they 
 returned from their seclusion, they were strengthened and 
 emboldened to engage upon daring and hazardous enterprises 
 from which they might otherwise have shrunk. And 
 Columba was ever ready to use his influence among the 
 Pictish chiefs, so as to secure for his followers a favourable 
 reception in the more distant districts. One of the most 
 venturous of all the Columbites was Cormac, who received 
 the designation of the navigator. Moved by a strong desire 
 to find some uninhabited island on which he might live for 
 a time a hermit life, he, on the fourth attempt, animated 
 by a pure desire, made a long voyage in the northern seas
 
 20 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 to seek first a quiet retreat, and then from it to go forth 
 to spread among the heathen the knowledge of Christ. 
 After he had started, Columba happened to meet at the 
 court of Brude an Orcadian chief, and he made this request 
 of the king : " Some of our brethren have lately set sail 
 and are anxious to discover a desert in the pathless sea ; 
 should they happen, after many wanderings, to come to the 
 Orcadian islands, do thou carefully instruct this chief, whose 
 hostages are in thy hand, that no evil befall them in his 
 dominions." And so it happened by Columba's wise politic 
 arrangement that Cormac was treated with respect and 
 received with favour. 
 
 The incessant war that was urged between hostile neigh- 
 bouring clans and rival nations broke up once again the 
 recently-formed and still feeble Christian communities. 
 Undaunted by such disappointment, Columba and his 
 followers persevered in their work. Monasteries were 
 founded in Tyree, the Garveloch islands, Lismore, Kingarth 
 in Bute, and in Eigg, during Columba's lifetime. In the 
 north two companions of Columba founded the churches of 
 Mortlach, Rosemarkie, and Kildonan. The unhappy feuds, 
 which Brude's conversion did not by any means bring to an 
 end, though they did not prevent the heroic missionaries 
 from planting churches in remote regions where the influence 
 of the distant king was overshadowed by that of 
 the present local chief, led in several recorded cases, 
 and we may suppose in many more unrecorded, to in- 
 dividual martyrdoms and wholesale massacres. Donnan was 
 a younger contemporary of Columba, who in his missionary 
 enthusiasm resolved to make a settlement in the island of 
 Eigg, in sight of lona, but at least forty or fifty miles to the 
 north, and quite within the region of the wild robber tribes 
 of the north-western highlands. He and his company took 
 up their abode in a place where the sheep of .the queen of 
 the country were kept. This was told the queen. " Let 
 them be killed," said she. " That would not be a religious 
 act," said her people. But they were murderously assailed. 
 At this time the priest was at mass. " Let us have respite
 
 COLUMBA AXD THE SOUTHERN PICTS. 21 
 
 till mass is ended," said Donnan. " Thou shalt have it," 
 said they. And when it was over they were slain every one 
 of them. Now this took place on the 17th April, A.D. 617. 
 But Donnan had asked Columba's blessing on his way to 
 Eigg somewhere about A.D. 570, so that his labours in Eigg 
 and neighbourhood must have extended over forty-five years, 
 and the fifty-two companions, who met martyrdom along 
 with the saint, represented the fruit of his labours in that 
 district. 
 
 Such were the men who accompanied Columba and received 
 impulse from him, and such was the work that they did. 
 He was himself the moving spirit of the whole enterprize, 
 all through life a man of action as well as a man of prayer, 
 and like the great missionary Apostle " in journey ings oft." 
 He seems to have very frequently visited King Brude in his 
 northern capital and to have exercised a powerful and 
 wholesome influence over that mighty chief. In A.D. 584 
 Brude died, after a prosperous and useful reign of thirty 
 years. For twenty-two years the king had been a Christian, 
 and during all that time Columba was his most trusted 
 counseller. It might seem disastrous that such a prop 
 should be removed, but, like many seeming disasters, it 
 eventually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. 
 The succession passed to a prince of the Southern Picts, 
 who had his principal residence at Abernethy, near Perth. 
 The Christianity of the Picts around the Tay, originally 
 introduced by Ninian, had by this time well-nigh dis- 
 appeared, and now Columba found a new mission field on 
 the death of his patron Brude at the court of his successor, 
 Gartnaidh of Abernethy. The ancient chronicles of the 
 Picts and Scots speak of Columba as the teacher of tribes 
 around the Tay, and the founder of the churches there 
 among the Southern Picts. Two years previously, on the 
 death of Conall, a powerful king was consecrated by Columba 
 in lona, Aidan, who became the mightiest and most impor- 
 tant of all the Scottish kings. Under these two very 
 capable monarchs, the Columbites had unrestricted access to 
 all Scotland north of the Forth and the Clyde, and lona was
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 the ecclesiastical capital for all this extensive region. But 
 even south of this, among the Britons of south-west Scot- 
 land, we find traces of Columba's influence, and it is more 
 than probable that the saint who visited Kentigern or 
 Mungo at Glasgow and sent missionary teachers to the Isle 
 of Man, was not himself by any means a stranger among 
 the churches, or Christian communities, throughout the 
 region now called Ayrshire and Galloway. Thus were the 
 closing years of Columba's life filled up with long fatiguing 
 journeys, heroic missionary enterprises, and unwearied and 
 incessant preaching of the Cross, and, even in his island 
 home, he took no rest, for there lay upon him ever a burden 
 from which only death would free him the care of all the 
 churches. 
 
 Columba seems to have been a man of a strong robust 
 constitution, for we never hear of illnesses interfering with 
 his apostolic labours. He had begun his Scottish work in 
 his forty-second year, and not till A.D. 593, when he was 
 seventy -two years of age, do we find any indication of bodily 
 infirmity. During that year he was visited with sore 
 trouble, and in his own poetic style he tells us that the 
 angels had been sent to bear his spirit hence, but had their 
 services postponed for five years. In common prose, a 
 severe sickness had brought him to the gates of death. 
 The end came at last, and the saint was ready. He sat in 
 his cell copying the psalter. He had reached the thirty- 
 fourth Psalm, and wrote " They that seek the Lord shall 
 not want any good thing." He stopped there, knowing 
 that his work was done, and said " I think I can write no 
 more, let Baithen write what follows." He retired for the 
 night to his couch, a bare flag with a pillow of stone. The 
 midnight bell called him to prayers, and before the rest of 
 the brethren he entered the dark church, and lay down upon 
 the stone floor in front of the altar. There in the darkness 
 he was found by his companions, and in their arms he 
 breathed forth his spirit, after he had raised his hands in 
 blessing over those whom he was leaving behind. 
 
 Thus, on the 9th of June, A.D. 597, passed away a saint
 
 COLUMBA HIS CHARACTER AND AIMS. 23 
 
 and hero to whom, more perhaps than to any other single 
 individual, we are indebted for the wide dissemination of the 
 Christian faith and of the principles of Christian culture in 
 our land. His character has been variously estimated, be- 
 cause there was in it that unusual combination of qualities 
 that made him, at one and the same time, and by one and 
 the same individuals, loved and feared. His natural dis- 
 position was warm and passionate ; born to command, he 
 was impatient of contradiction, and, resolute of purpose, he 
 would allow no obstacle to interfere with the achievement 
 of that which he had determined to do. But self was never 
 in his thoughts. He aimed not at self-aggrandizement. 
 He sought no kingdom, though he anointed kings. He 
 visited king's courts, but he took from them no treasure nor 
 patent of noble rank. The only recompense which he desired 
 was the winning of souls for Christ ; and in the devoted lives 
 of missionaries trained by him in his island seminary, and 
 in the triumphs which they won, he had his reward. For 
 two centuries at least, lona continued to be the great 
 religious and educational centre for Scotland, and from it 
 went forth those who spread the love of learning and the 
 knowledge of gospel truth, even in other lands. Kings, 
 bishops, priests, and missionaries, received their training 
 there, and won the inspiration of their lives from the 
 memory of the holy man who, in the institution for which 
 he toiled, even when he was dead was heard still speaking. 
 The horrors of invasion and the barbarities of civil war did 
 much to overlay the work of God's servant ; but the seed 
 sown still holds the soil, and Scotland is what she is to- 
 day because Columba, the saint and hero, lived and wrought 
 upon her shores. Not the Celtic Church only, but much 
 rather the Scottish Church, can justly claim him as her 
 own. 
 
 The church of Columba was purely monastic, and in its 
 constitution it was precisely the same as the parent church 
 in Ireland. The head of the establishment was the Abbot 
 who, though a simple Presbyter, exercised supreme authority 
 within the institution. The arrangement, however it may
 
 * HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 have originated, was quite anomalous, and does not by any 
 means afford a pattern for an Episcopal or for a Presby- 
 terian system. In the Celtic or Columban monasteries 
 there were bishops, that is, among the monkish brethren 
 there was at least one who had received Episcopal consecra- 
 tion. The Episcopal order was recognised as an order 
 superior to that of the Presbyter, but only in the discharge 
 of functions proper to that order. Ordination was a func- 
 tion which the bishop alone could discharge, and in the 
 celebration of the eucharist we find Columba giving prece- 
 dence to a bishop so soon as his rank was discovered. But 
 in other respects the jurisdiction of the Abbot was supreme, 
 and in othei matters the bishop was in no way distinguished 
 from his brother monks. 
 
 The two special points on which Columba and his 
 followers, in common with the Celtic Church, were in 
 essential conflict with the Roman teaching and practice, 
 seem to have been those of the manner of the clerical ton- 
 sure and of the time for the observance of the Easter 
 festival. 
 
 In regard to the clerical tonsure, the Celtic Church fol- 
 lowed what was called the tonsure of St. John or St. James, 
 although by its opponents, who wished to brand it as here- 
 tical, it was sometimes called the tonsure of Simon Magus. 
 The practice of distinguishing members of the clerical orders 
 from mere laymen by the shaving of the head was not 
 generally introduced before the sixth century. Before this 
 the shaving of the head had been enjoined upon penitents 
 as a token of humility, and in the same symbolical sense 
 had been gradually adopted by monks. In the early years 
 of the sixth century, however, the tonsure had become a 
 distinguishing mark of the clergy throughout the whole 
 church. Though the practice was universal, the form and 
 shape which it took was not uniform. Down to the eighth 
 century there were three different shapes in which the ton- 
 sure was made. We have the Roman usage, called the ton- 
 sure of St. Peter or the corona, according to which the top 
 of the head was shaved, leaving a complete circle of hair
 
 THE TOXSURE AXD BASTES. 25 
 
 around the shaven portion. We have also the Greek ton- 
 sure, or that of St. Paul, according to which all the front 
 part of the head was completely shaven. And further we 
 have the tonsure of St. John, according to which the fore- 
 head was shaved back to a line stretching from ear to ear. 
 In the Irish and Scottish churches, this last form of the 
 tonsure was almost universally adopted in the sixth cen- 
 tury. Abbot Ceolfrid of Jarrow, writing to Nectan, king 
 of the Picts, in A.D. 710, tells how Adamnan, in A.D. 688, 
 had been convinced that his Celtic tonsure was wrong, so 
 that he adopted the Roman style and commended it to all 
 whom he could influence. Gradually the old form was 
 abandoned, and by the middle of the eighth century the 
 Roman practice was almost universally adopted. 
 
 In regard to the Scottish mode of calculating the time for 
 the observance of Easter, Columba simply brought with him 
 to lona the practice of the church in which he had been reared. 
 The Irish Church had received from its first missionary 
 teachers the calculation of the date of Easter made on the 
 basis of the eighty-four year cycle which the old Roman 
 Church had adopted from the Jewish practice. It was not 
 till at least thirty years after St. Patrick had begun his 
 mission in Ireland that Pope Hilary, in A.D. 463, intro- 
 duced the calculation of the date of Easter according to a 
 new cycle of five hundred and thirty-two years. We may 
 well suppose that for a long period the Christians of Ire- 
 land were unaware of any difference between the Roman 
 practice and their own, and that, when they had their 
 attention called to it, they preferred to hold by the primi- 
 tive practice rather than adopt what must have seemed a 
 needless and unwarrantable innovation. In those times 
 papal authority was not so absolute as afterwards it be- 
 came, and determined conservators of early usages could 
 maintain before an innovating Pope that the old was better. 
 So far as we know, it was not until the arrival of Augustine 
 in England about A.D. 600, that the question about the 
 differences between the British Churches and Rome in the 
 observing of Easter was raised. When representatives of
 
 JilO HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 the Irish Church were investigating the matter at Rome in 
 A.D. 631, it was found that the Iro-Scottish calculation was 
 exactly four weeks in advance of that of Rome. The 
 Columban monks keenly opposed the Roman practice, 
 which, by the middle of the seventh century, had been gene- 
 rally accepted in the southern province of Ireland and also 
 in the Irish mission in Northumbria. In A.D. 664, at the 
 Conference of Whitby, Wilfrid, as the representative of 
 Rome against Colman, the champion of the Columban 
 practice, won a favourable judgment from the king, and 
 Colman returned to Ireland, where, as well as in Scotland, 
 the old Celtic usage in the observance of Easter was con- 
 tinued for half-a-century more. One community after 
 another submitted, until at last, in A.D. 716, the monks of 
 lona themselves gave way, and uniformity in practice among 
 the united Scots and Picts was at length secured. Only in 
 Strathclyde did the people continue attached to the old 
 Celtic rites, while on the wild hordes of Galloway the 
 influence of the Christian religion was even yet very slight. 
 
 Columba's immediate successor was Baithen, his own 
 cousin, aud one of the twelve disciples who had accompanied 
 him from Ireland. It was to him that the dying saint com- 
 mitted the finishing of his transcription of the Psalter on 
 which he was working when death overtook him. He 
 ruled the community of lona for three years, and died on 
 the anniversary of the death of Columba, in A.D. 600. The 
 seventh abbot was Cummen the Fair, who came from 
 Ireland to the monastery of lona during the presidency of 
 his uncle, Segine, and succeeded Suibhne in the abbacy in 
 A.D. 657. He wrote the first biography of Columba, and 
 died in A.D. 669. The most distinguished of all Columba's 
 successors was the ninth Abbot, Adamnan, a native of 
 Donegal, and of the same family as Columba. He went to 
 lona about the same time as Cummen. After serving, with 
 a great reputation for piety and ability, under four suc- 
 cessive Abbots, he was himself raised to the presidency in 
 A.D. 679. On two occassions he went to the court of 
 Aldfrid of Northumbria on important missions, and on the
 
 DUNKKLD THE ECCLESIASTICAL CAPITAL. 27 
 
 second occasion, in A.D. 688, convinced by the arguments of 
 Ceolfrid of Jarrow, he renounced the peculiarities of the 
 Celtic church, and gave in his personal adhesion to the faith 
 of the Roman church. He failed, however, to obtain the 
 assent of the Columban monks either in Ireland or in lona, 
 and after paying lengthened visits to Ireland, he died in his 
 own monastery, A.D. 704. He was regarded as one of the 
 most learned and accomplished men of his time. He wrote 
 at least two works, which have been received with favour : 
 1. De Locis Sanctis, the main facts having been derived from 
 a Gallican bishop, Arculf, who had himself, in A.D. 690, 
 visited the holy places ; and 2. The Life of St. Columba, 
 one of the most valuable of the memoirs of the saints that 
 we possess, written by him between A.D. 692 and 697, on 
 the basis of Cummen's life, and other memoirs and tradi- 
 tions which were within his reach. 
 
 In A.D. 802 the Northmen burned the ecclesiastical 
 building of lona, and returning four years later they slew 
 sixty-eight of the inhabitants of the island. The church- 
 men of lona were already one with the church of Rome in 
 their rites and observances. As there was no longer the 
 same prestige attaching to this remote island, and as it was 
 now exposed to hostile attacks, the proposal of King Con- 
 stantine I. to remove the religious capital and ecclesiastical 
 centre for the kingdom of the united Scots and Picts from 
 lona to Dunkeld was regarded generally as a measure of 
 prudence, and awakened little opposition. Some thirty or 
 forty years later, in A.D. 851, Kenneth, the King of the 
 Picts, transferred the relics of Columba to Dunkeld. The 
 Columban clergy had been driven out of Pictland by 
 Nectan, nearly a century and a half before, and the ban 
 was now removed by the foundation of Dunkeld, whose 
 abbot was placed at the head of the Pictish church. 
 
 The constitution of the Columban church had by this 
 time been greatly changed. Not only had the successors of 
 Columba abandoned the peculiar practices of the Celtic 
 church with regard to the tonsure and the calculation of the 
 date of Easter, but the bishop was now given the first place
 
 20 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 which previously had been assigned to the abbot. Tuathal, 
 abbot of Dunkeld, who died in A.D. 885, was the first 
 bishop of Fortrenn, that is, of the southern half of the 
 kingdom of the Picts. During the interval between A.D. 
 865 and A.D. 906, Skene supposes that the primacy was 
 transferred from Dunkeld to Abernethy, and that there 
 were three bishops of Abernethy who in succession held the 
 primacy before the erection of the bishopric of St. Andrews 
 in the latter year. What is certain in regard to this is, that 
 during the interval between the death of Tuathal and the 
 appearance of a bishop of St. Andrews, the abbacy of Dun- 
 keld had fallen into the hands of lay proprietors, so that as 
 early as A.D. 873, the abbot is designated princeps Dunkeldi, 
 and in the beginning of the eleventh century, we find 
 Crinan, abbot of Dunkeld, a great landowner, and a terri- 
 torial magnate, in possession of large tracts of country in 
 Athol and elsewhere, marrying a daughter of the king and 
 seeing his own son placed on the throne. In A.D. 906, we 
 hear of Cellach as bishop of St. Andrews, or bishop of 
 Alban, which bishopric continued for a time to be the only 
 one in Scotland, and in all subsequent periods continued to 
 be the seat of the primate of the Scottish church. 
 
 In the lifetime of Columba, and afterwards, throughout 
 the whole period of the Columban supremacy, we find one 
 member of the monastic institution after another retiring 
 for a longer or shorter space of time into solitude for 
 meditation and prayer, and the discipline of the spiritual 
 life. In those quiet retreats the Columban monks, who 
 usually lived a communal and social life in their village-like 
 monastic establishments, imitated the earlier saints whose 
 legendary memoirs they had read, and applied to themselves 
 the ascetic rules and practised the austerities which had 
 rendered those saintly solitaries famous to all ages. In this 
 way they came to entertain a fondness for such a career, 
 and in consequence many of them withdrew from the 
 monasteries to live permanently by themselves in isolated 
 cells. Then Culdees, Keledei, cultores del, worshippers or 
 friends of God, made their appearance after the Columban
 
 THE CULDEES OF LOCHLEVEN. 29 
 
 clergy had been expelled by King Nectan from the land of 
 the Picts. It is said, indeed, in the Chartulary of St. 
 Andrews, that Brude, the King of the Picts, who died in 
 A.D. 706, gave the isle in Lochleven to the omnipotent God, 
 and to St. Servanus, and to the Keledei hermits dwelling 
 there, who are serving, and shall serve God in that island. 
 We can only suppose that it speaks of the gift to St. Serf 
 on the assumption that he lived at the beginning of the 
 eighth century, and that in later years Culdee hermits 
 occupied the place which at an earlier date had been given 
 to him. Those who were originally solitaries, living in 
 rude cells remote from human habitations, came in time to 
 form communities and monastic establishments, such as those 
 at Lochleven, at Deer, and at St. Andrews. Ultimately 
 they were brought under the canonical rule of the secular 
 clergy. Being now scarcely distinguishable from secular 
 canons, it was an easy matter for those princes who were deter- 
 mined upon the Romanizing of the Scottish church to find 
 positions for the Culdee monks in the Cathedral chapters, and 
 to have them all merged in the one hierarchical system under 
 the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop. After three cen- 
 turies of useful service to the church and nation, the 
 Culdees as a class had lost their fervour and spirituality, and 
 so they gave way before an organization wrought by men of 
 warm enthusiasm and fresh energies, just as the Columban 
 monks had yielded place to them. Each had its own 
 mission to fulfil, each had its own contribution to the up- 
 building of the church and religion of the land to make 
 Columban, Culdee, Catholic of the regular hierarchial type. 
 The church in Scotland of to-day is all the richer for the 
 reflection in it of all that is good in each of those various 
 types.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Eomanizing Reforms and Earliest Preaching of the Reformed 
 Doctrines. * 
 
 A.D. 10501433. 
 
 A NEW era in the ecclesiastical history of Scotland begins 
 with the accession of Malcolm III., usually called Canmore 
 or Bighead, in A.D. 1057. The influence of the Celtic 
 church had long been on the wane. The want of sufficient 
 organization, and consequent indolence and indifference on 
 the part of the officials and ordinary representatives of the 
 church throughout the country, had lessened everywhere the 
 respect and reverence in which all ecclesiastical persons and 
 institutions had previously been held. The appropriation 
 of the Abbey revenues by powerful and rapacious laymen 
 had impoverished the church treasury to such an extent 
 that the priors, who took the place of the old abbots, had, 
 in many cases, only a bare and somewhat precarious living. 
 It would seem that the degenerate church was past being 
 restored from within. The very elements essential to a 
 strong church, that would command the respect and obedi- 
 ence of a nation, were no longer existing in the church of 
 the Culdees. 
 
 * Turgot, Vita S. Margaretce. Life of St. Margaret, Queen of 
 Scotland, translated by W. Forbes Leith : Edinburgh, 1884. Skene, 
 Celtic Scotland: Edinburgh, 1887, II. 344-418 ; see also I. 411-497. 
 Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotland : Edinburgh, 1861, I. 188- 
 371. Maclauchlan, Early Scottish Church : Edinburgh, 1865, pp. 
 320-441. Bellesheim, History of the Catholic Church of Scotland: 
 Edinburgh, 1887, I. 240-373; IT. 1-70. Cunningham, Church 
 History of Scotland: I. 66-137. For the general history of the period : 
 Hume Brown, History of Scotland, I. 56-220. 
 30
 
 MALCOLM AND THE SAXON DYNASTY. 31 
 
 During the earlier years of Malcolm's reign influences 
 were at work which, without the violent overthrow of the 
 old and the sudden introduction of practices and orders 
 altogether new, such as we find in periods that are usually 
 styled revolutionary, led to to the ultimate displacement of 
 institutions that no longer served their purpose, and the 
 gradual establishment of an ecclesiastical organization better 
 suited to the requirements of the country and the age. For 
 many years Malcolm had been resident at the court of 
 Edward the Confessor. This king, a pious man but a weak 
 ruler, was largely under the influence of Norman adven- 
 turers, and during his reign of over twenty years, the rivalry 
 and antagonism of Saxon and Norman within the Southern 
 kingdom became exceedingly bitter, and their relations to 
 one another more and more strained. The Scottish prince 
 must have been impressed, on the one hand, with the per- 
 sonal devoutness of the king, and, on the other, by the dis- 
 cipline and order which characterized the organization of the 
 English church, and the effect which this had in furthering 
 the interests of civil government. When he entered upon 
 his kingdom, on the defeat and death of the usurper, he 
 soon showed how powerfully these influences had told upon 
 him by his profession of personal faith and of interest in the 
 matters of religion and worship, and by his vigorous en- 
 deavour to reconstruct the ecclesiastical institutions of his 
 country after the model of that church in which he had 
 grown up. It may well be supposed that Malcolm's sym- 
 pathies must all along have been with the Saxons rather 
 than with the Norman aggressors. An early opportunity 
 was given him of showing kindness to those among whom 
 he had found refuge and a home. Within a year of 
 Edward's death, the Normans, to whom he had been only 
 too favourable, overthrew his brother-in-law and successor, 
 Harold, in the decisive battle of Hastings, and at once 
 began to treat the Saxon inhabitants of England as a con- 
 quered race. Flying from the oppression of their con- 
 querors many of the Saxon nobility, as well as the braver 
 and more independent of spirit among the people, betook
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 themselves to the northern parts of England, where the 
 more powerful barons were in sympathy and interest 
 attached to the cause of the dispossessed and persecuted. 
 It was evidently good policy on the part of Malcolm to 
 cultivate friendship with these, and to support every en- 
 deavour to detach them from allegiance to the Conqueror. 
 On five different occasions Malcolm invaded and plundered 
 the northern districts of England, and while in this he was 
 instigated undoubtedly to some extent by a desire for 
 plunder, the deeper policy which underlay all such ruthless 
 raiding was the endeavour to convince the rulers and in- 
 habitants of these regions that it would be wise for them to 
 seek his protection and associate themselves in closer friend- 
 ship with him. Even during the earlier portion of his 
 reign, in the later years of Edward's life, considerable num- 
 bers of Saxon refugees had found their way across the 
 Scottish border, and several had found a residence at the 
 court of the Scottish King. In A.D. 1068, Agatha, the 
 widow of Edward Atheling, with her children, Edgar, Mar- 
 garet, and Christina, along with several of the most distin- 
 guished of the Saxon nobles who had been resident in 
 Northumbria, sought Malcolm's protection, and were re- 
 ceived with honour and affection by the king. In the 
 spring of A.D. 1069 Malcolm was married to Margaret at 
 Duufermline. He thus became allied to the royal house of 
 the Saxons, and obtained as his consort one who was to 
 prove a most efficient co-adjutor in his work of social and 
 ecclesiastical reform. 
 
 Malcolm and Margaret reigned jointly for a period of 
 nearly twenty-five years, and each possessed very high 
 qualities, which were freely and wisely exercised in the ser- 
 vice of church and state. In treatises on Scottish church 
 history it has been too common to attribute to the Queen 
 the introduction of all the social and ecclesiastical reforms 
 that were made in Scotland during this age, and to re- 
 present Malcolm as making no pretension to the under- 
 standing of these things, but as simply acquiescing in them 
 and hasting to carry them out for the love that he bore to
 
 MARGARET, HER CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE. 33 
 
 his devout and talented consort. This is certainly the im- 
 pression left upon reading Turgofs life of his royal mistress ; 
 but it is evident that the estimate of the Queen's confessor, 
 written by order of her daughter, must be taken with some 
 reservation and abatement. From the part played by 
 Malcolm in the civil and political development of the nation, 
 it is clear that he was a strong man, who did his own 
 thinking, and must have been convinced of the wisdom and 
 justice of measures to which he gave his sanction. Nor was 
 he the man, from what we otherwise know of him, to leave 
 altogether in the hands of another, even if the other were 
 his own beloved wife, the solution of problems of church 
 government or organization, which, he very well knew, were 
 most intimately and vitally associated with questions of 
 civil government, and the economical and social advance- 
 ment of his people. At the same time, we may well believe 
 that academical discussions with the churchmen were 
 altogether outside of the province of a prince who could not 
 even read, and that consequently, even in matters which 
 interested him personally and in regard to which he had 
 himself formed an intelligent and positive opinion, he 
 looked to his more highly cultured partner to give them a 
 more accurate and correct expression. It should also be 
 noted that Margaret was by no means the guileless, un- 
 worldly saint that her monkish biographer represents her to 
 be. She was, unquestionably, a woman of great personal 
 devoutness, and was characterised throughout her whole life 
 by a passionate love for the practice of a severe ascetical 
 piety ; but she was, at the same time, a high-spirited, am- 
 bitious woman, who could enter into all the political 
 schemes and patriotic enterprises of her husband. As a 
 member of the dispossessed royal line of the Saxons, her 
 sympathies were thoroughly Avith her husband in his un- 
 ceasing opposition to all English encroachments on his 
 southern frontier, while as representative of the higher and 
 wider culture to which the southern kingdom had attained, 
 she did much to soften the harshness, and even savagery, 
 that marked many of the prevailing customs of the north 
 
 c
 
 34 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 in war and peace. Her Anglicizing, therefore, of manners 
 and institutions was not of the unpatriotic sort which it 
 might have been had she been a princess of the reigning 
 Norman house. In matters of church and state alike, the 
 policy of King and Queen seems to have been the same. 
 Their domestic life, and generally their relations with one 
 another, were simply perfect, and their example must have 
 done at least as much as their statutes for the advancement 
 of civilization and the humanizing of manners throughout 
 the land. 
 
 In A.D. 1063, some six years before his marriage, Mal- 
 colm showed his interest in the establishment and spread of 
 the Christian faith throughout his kingdom by the founding 
 of the church and monastery of Mortlach, in the province of 
 Moray. This northern district had been ruled by powerful 
 chiefs, who maintained practical independence of the 
 Scottish kings. It was only in the later years of his reign 
 that Malcolm succeeded in finally crushing the power of 
 these territorial magnates, who were often even styled 
 kings of Moray, and in bringing the province really within 
 the limits of his kingdom and into subjection to his laws. 
 The establishment at so early a date of a Scottish bishopric 
 in the midst of this lawless district shows that even at this 
 period, before he had come under the influence of, or even 
 had personal acquaintance with, the Saxon princess Mar- 
 garet, Malcolm had already decided upon the line of policy 
 which all through his life he steadily pursued. The founda- 
 tion at Mortlach seems to have been something more than 
 a Culdee college, and something less than a diocesan 
 bishopric in the full Roman sense. It marks the transition 
 character of the age. However, when, some sixty years 
 later, the bishopric of Aberdeen was founded by David, the 
 monastery of Mortlach and the lands attached to it were 
 included in the possessions secured to the new see, and no 
 authentic reference to the bishopric of Mortlach has come 
 down to'us to show, whether it had simply ceased to exist, or 
 had been transferred to the new episcopal see. 
 
 The Culdee establishments were still the recipients of
 
 THE CULDEE MONASTERIES. 95 
 
 valuable grants from the King and from many of the 
 wealthier territorial nobles. Monasteries, some of them 
 very ancient, some of them of a comparatively recent 
 foundation, continued to flourish at lona, Abernethy, Dun- 
 keld, Deer, Turriff, Brechin, St. Andrews, and Loch Leven. 
 The members of these ecclesiastical houses were Scottish 
 monks, many of whom were distinguished for the pastoral 
 fidelity and energy which characterized the immediate dis- 
 ciples of Columba, while among them were to be found all 
 the teachers of youth which Scotland in those ages pos- 
 sessed. Thus, undoubtedly, many individual monks, and, 
 in certain districts, all the members of the ecclesiastical 
 community, were endeared to the people among whom they 
 lived by the pious and useful lives they led, by their kind- 
 ness to the poor, their assiduity in training the children, 
 and their concern for the spiritual well-being of all. But 
 along with much that was excellent in the character and 
 conduct of these monks, there were clearly in the constitu- 
 tion and practices of the Columban church elements of 
 weakness, which called for the immediate introduction of 
 large measures of reform, and the exercise of a firm control 
 in discipline and organization. Although a certain primacy 
 was ascribed, first to the abbot, and, in later times, to the 
 bishop presiding over the leading ecclesiastical establish- 
 ment, successively in lona, Abernethy, and St. Andrews, it 
 was, in regard to most of the religious houses, merely 
 nominal, and the head of each monastery conducted his 
 house on principles, lax or severe, determined by his own 
 individual disposition and personal views. In some places 
 practices were allowed to creep in which in others were 
 vehemently condemned and strictly forbidden, and there 
 was no one rule binding and applied universally. These 
 scattered monastic institutions, therefore, were not so much 
 representatives of the one Catholic church as congregational 
 societies independent of any effective central control. That 
 occasionally at least some of those communities became 
 secularized in their mode of life to such an extent as to lose the 
 sympathy and confidence of the more devout and religious
 
 36 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 among them, would seem to be a reasonable conclusion from 
 the fact that grants, such as that of an island in Loch Leven, 
 are found to have been from time to time given to Culdee 
 hermits. Some of the abbots had grown into powerful terri- 
 torial magnates, with a large retinue of trained warriors 
 among their dependents chiefs with whom the King found 
 it necessary to come to terms, with whom they associated as 
 with persons of princely rank, and with whom they formed 
 marriage alliances. To men with anything of the spirit of 
 St. Ninian, St. Mungo, or St. Columba, the state of things 
 indicated by such worldly ambitions and political and 
 martial activities must have been utterly intolerable. 
 What, perhaps more than anything else, led to this 
 abandonment of religious functions and devotion to secular 
 pursuits, was the prevalence of the practice of hereditary 
 transmission of the headship of the principal monasteries, 
 so that in such institutions as those of Dunkeld, St. 
 Andrews, etc., son succeeded to father in the abbacy and 
 other offices from generation to generation. This, cer- 
 tainly, was one evil result of an attempt to combine two 
 incompatible ideas in one organization, a married clergy 
 and a collegiate or monastic institution. Utterly per- 
 nicious as the prescription of the celibacy of the clergy is, it 
 is evident that the monastic system cannot be worked with- 
 out it. Whatever advantages might attach to the collegiate 
 establishment of the Culdees when presided over by 
 apostolic and saintly men, these disappear when succession to 
 office is made to depend upon a birth qualification. The 
 door was opened wide for all manner of corruptions when one 
 with no call to or fitness for the clerical life might be given, 
 by right of primogeniture, the presidency of what was, at least 
 nominally, a great religious house. 
 
 In presence of all this, the desire of the Queen to bring 
 about uniformity of practice in all the churches and 
 religious institutions of her adopted country, and her 
 thought that this would be best secured by introducing and 
 enforcing the rules that had prevailed in the church in 
 which she herself had been reared, were very natural. But
 
 MARGARET, HER CHURCH REFORMS. 37 
 
 after all, the matters on which, according to the report of 
 her biographer, she succeeded after elaborate discussion in 
 effecting a unifying change are few, and not of supreme 
 importance. The Scottish ecclesiastics in their observance 
 of Lent followed the old custom of beginning the fast on 
 Monday, and including in their reckoning of the forty days 
 the Sundays, though on these days they did not fast. Our 
 Lord's forty days 1 fast was evidently continuous, and the 
 Scottish practice, as those observing it contended, was in 
 harmony with the divine example. The Queen, however, 
 insisted upon their conforming to the custom which then 
 prevailed in the Roman Church, according to which Lent 
 began on the Wednesday previous to the Monday with 
 which the Scottish churchmen had been wont to begin. 
 The second point to which she called attention was the 
 desecration of the Lord's Day by the carrying of burdens 
 and the doing of servile work. Dr. Skehe explains what at 
 first sight seems a very extraordinary state of matters in so 
 primitive a community, and in part much more like the lax 
 practices prevailing in Romish communities to-day, by 
 showing that the Scotch probably followed a custom of 
 which traces are found in the monastic church of Ireland, 
 according to which Saturday was regarded as the day of 
 rest, and Sunday as the day on which the resurrection was 
 celebrated by service in the church. The third particular 
 in which the Queen took offence at the practice of the 
 Scottish Church was the abstaining from communion on 
 Easter Day, which evidently resulted from a superstitious 
 regard for the day, as though eating and drinking un- 
 worthily on that day more than any other would bring con- 
 demnation upon them. She very properly insisted that 
 what was needed was due preparation by the confession of 
 sins, fasting and prayer. But besides this, the queen had 
 observed that in some places the eucharist was celebrated 
 " with barbarous rites," which she determined to have every- 
 where abolished. What rites these were is not clear, but 
 the suggestion of Dr. Skene is highly probable that the 
 reference cannot be to the introduction of any peculiar forms
 
 8 HISTOEY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 or ceremonies, but rather to the use, in the more remote dis- 
 tricts, of the language of the country, and not of Latin, 
 which was now in universal use throughout the church. 
 Besides this, her biographer assures us, many other reforms 
 were introduced and abuses suppressed by the energetic and 
 zealous queen. Some of the objectionable customs, how- 
 ever, which she put a stop to, such as marriage with a step- 
 mother or ^nth a deceased brother's wife, seem to have been 
 irregularities which never had received church sanction. 
 But all the while there were undoubtedly other abuses pre- 
 vailing of a very much more serious description than those 
 to which reference have been made, in regard to which her 
 hands were so tied that it was evidently beyond her power 
 even to attempt to correct them. Her own position and 
 family connections prevented her from venturing upon the 
 removal of those crying abuses of hereditary succession to 
 ecclesiastical offices and lay appropriation of church 
 benefices. Her husband was himself the grandson of Crinan, 
 the warrior abbot of Dunkeld, and to this abbacy one of 
 her own sons in his early boyhood had succeeded. Perhaps 
 the queen's own personal life of piety, with its exaggerated 
 asceticism, and the feverish anxiety which it showed in the 
 accumulation of works of merit in almsgiving, serving of 
 the poor, and pilgrimages to the retreats of saintly hermits, 
 did more than any of her formal discussions and legislative 
 measures for the introduction of doctrines and usages into 
 Scotland such as had not been known there before. The 
 practices recommended by her own religious life were all 
 those of Rome brought to England by Augustine as con- 
 trasted with the more primitive customs of the Scottish 
 Church. 
 
 All the sons of Margaret who occupied successively the 
 throne exhibited their mother's love for the church, while 
 they were for the most part in a position to grant more 
 liberal endowments and to carry out in detail the unifying 
 reforms of which she had made a very small beginning. 
 Under Alexander I. we meet with the earliest introduction 
 into Scotland of clearly defined and unmistakable diocesan
 
 CONSECRATION OF SCOTTISH BISHOPS. 39 
 
 Episcopacy. For about two centuries there had been Culdee 
 bishops in St. Andrews ; but they were not bishops of the 
 diocese of St. Andrews, but simply bishops of the Scots. 
 In A.D. 1107, however, the king appointed to the see of St. 
 Andrews, Turgot, the English Confessor and confidential 
 adviser of his mother, under whose influence her principal 
 reforms had been carried out and the course of her religious 
 life directed. For six years the first bishop continued to 
 occupy his seat, but it was a time of conflict and discord 
 between bishop and king. Trouble arose at the very be- 
 ginning over the question of the bishop's consecration. 
 The Archbishop of York maintained that his primacy 
 extended over Scotland, but Alexander felt that to admit 
 this claim would be to go a long way towards admitting the 
 claim for homage so often and in so irritating a way 
 advanced by the English king. At length, in A,D. 1109, 
 Turgot was consecrated by the Archbishop of York, but it 
 was expressly and emphatically stated that it was to form 
 no precedent, so as to effect the rights either of York or of 
 St. Andrews. The position of the new bishop was by no 
 means a pleasant one. Of an alien race, and the first repre- 
 sentative of a new order, he had to encounter the opposition 
 of the local clergy at least their want of sympathy and 
 confidence, if not their active and organized hostility. At 
 the same time the king, to whom he owed his elevation, 
 was jealously watchful of every sort of hierarchical assump- 
 tion on the bishop's part, which might possibly prove pre- 
 judicial to the rights of the throne and of the people. Be- 
 fore coming to Scotland as Queen Margaret's Confessor, and 
 all through the period of his residence at the royal court, 
 Turgot held the rank of a simple monk of St. Cuthbert's 
 monastery in Durham. He seems to have retained a strong 
 affection for the old monastery, and to have cherished a 
 warm affection for his brethren who remained there. And 
 so we find that, after holding his Scottish bishopric for some 
 six years,and feeling himself still among strangers, he resolved 
 to pay a visit to his old friends and to seek their advice on 
 matters that were troubling him. He never returned to
 
 40 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 St. Andrews, but died in Durham on 31st August, A.D. 
 1115. The see now remained vacant for a period of five 
 years. The Scottish . king, wishing to rid himself of the 
 pretensions of York, at once applied to the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury asking him to aid him in obtaining a new 
 bishop, and declaring that the bishops of St. Andrews 
 should have consecration from Canterbury or the Pope, 
 and not from York. Only after five years, in A.D. 1120, did 
 the Archbishop, in answer to a further appeal from the 
 Scottish king, send one of his monks, Eadmer, a man of 
 character and learning, but most conscientiously devoted to 
 the interests, and a zealous vindicator of the privileges, of 
 the English primacy. Submitting at first to accept the 
 ring from the hands of the king and to take up the pastoral 
 staff from the altar in presence of the other two Scottish 
 bishops, who had been appointed by Alexander, the bishops 
 of Moray and Dunkeld, he soon began to scruple about the 
 question of consecration, and at last asked leave of the king 
 to return to Canterbury to obtain counsel from the arch- 
 bishop. This the king angrily refused. After consulting 
 various authorities, some of whom advised him to repudiate 
 the English claims, whether of Canterbury or of York, and 
 to assert his independence as the primate of an independent 
 country, while others counselled him to retire, as reconcilia- 
 tion with the king was hopeless without the renunciation of 
 the legitimate claims of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, Eadmer 
 returned the ring to the monarch, laid down the staff upon 
 the altar, and thus, demitting his Episcopal rank and office, 
 went back to Canterbury as a simple monk. When, 
 eighteen months later, he repented of his hasty conduct and 
 wrote to the king, offering to resume his ecclesiastical 
 functions, the king refused to listen to him, although his 
 request was supported by the archbishop. Eadmer died in 
 1124. During the incumbency of these first two bishops, 
 the episcopal authority was evidently little more than 
 nominal. In Moray the unsettled condition of the district 
 prevented the titular bishop from exercising any real per- 
 sonal authority, and though Gregory, the first incumbent,
 
 DAVID, HIS ABBEYS AND BISHOPRICS. 41 
 
 was appointed as early as 1115, it was not till 1203 that 
 the sixth bishop for the first time secured a regular episco- 
 pal residence within the limits of his diocese. In Dunkeld 
 the rich revenues of the powerful lay abbots seem to have 
 been abundantly sufficient for the founding of the bishopric 
 with its full equipment, and these had probably passed into 
 the hands of the crown on the death of Ethelred, the king's 
 brother, who had held the abbacy. Thus was Alexander at 
 once able to establish the bishopric in place of the old 
 primatial abbacy of Dunkeld. A very important step in 
 the ecclesiastical organization of the country was taken by 
 the king when, in 1116, he founded at lona a priory of 
 Canons Regular of St. Augustine, and, in later years, other 
 priories for the same black canons in the diocese of Dunkeld 
 and on the island of Inchcolm. On the death of Eadmer, 
 Alexander bestowed the bishopric of St. Andrews on Robert, 
 the prior of the monastery at lona, and in the same year 
 gave a grant to the see of the lands called The Boar's Chase, 
 which had belonged to the older Culdee clergy. The king 
 died at Stirling on the 24th April, 1124, and was succeeded 
 on the throne by his brother David. 
 
 On the death of his brother Edgar in 1107 David, with 
 the title of Earl, received possession of the Scottish territory 
 south of the Forth and Clyde, with the exception of the 
 district round about Edinburgh, which, together with all 
 the country north of the firths, were under the sway of 
 Alexander. In 1115 he appointed John, his tutor, bishop 
 of Glasgow, applying to the support of the see all the lands 
 that had belonged to the successors of St. Kentigern or 
 Mungo, and putting under the jurisdiction of the bishop all 
 the churches and foundations that had previously been 
 under authority to them. The diocese as then marked out 
 extended from the Clyde to the Solway, and eastward as far 
 as the western border of Lothian. In later years the 
 bishopric of Ross was founded, and in 1137 the bishopric of 
 Aberdeen, with a wide jurisdiction extending from the Dee 
 to the Spey. David had inherited in a much larger measure 
 than Alexander his mother's love of the church and interest
 
 42 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 in its organization. We find in him also the two-sided 
 character which was so conspicuously present in Margaret. 
 During his long reign of thirty years, he showed himself a 
 vigorous ruler, an ambitious and not too scrupulous 
 politician, and a warrior who at least availed himself of the 
 services of cruel and ruthless marauders. On the other 
 hand, his grants to the church were liberal beyond anything 
 that had ever been seen in Scotland before. The churches 
 throughout the land were grouped under the jurisdiction of 
 bishops, and in every considerable district well endowed 
 religious houses, with monks transferred from some of the 
 best ecclesiastical institutions of England and France, were 
 established as centres of religious instruction and of civiliz- 
 ing influences, which told more than any other agency 
 could have done on the consolidation of the nation. The 
 abbeys of Kelso, Jedburgh, Melrose, Dryburgh, Newbottle, 
 Holyrood, Cambuskenneth, and Kinloss were all founded by 
 this generous supporter of the church; and besides Glasgow, 
 Ross, and Aberdeen, he established the bishoprics of Caith- 
 ness, Brechin, and Dunblane, and added to the endowments 
 of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Moray. The see of Galloway 
 was still claimed as an Anglic bishopric under the Arch- 
 bishop of York, and the bishop of Orkney still acknow- 
 ledged his dependence on the archbishop of Drontheim. 
 Not till 1471 were these Episcopal sees of the furthest 
 north and the furthest south formally and organically 
 attached to the Scottish church. The bishop of the Isles 
 was also under Drontheim till 1430, when his see was united 
 with the abbacy of lona. The bishopric of Argyll was 
 founded about 1200 out of the dioceses of the Isles and 
 Dunkeld. 
 
 The example thus set by King David was followed by 
 many of his wealthier nobles, so that in Scotland, before the 
 end of the twelfth century, there were founded or re-estab- 
 lished no less than twelve bishoprics, including Galloway, 
 Argyll and the Isles, but not Orkney, seventeen abbeys, five 
 priories, and various smaller ecclesiastical institutions. This 
 represented a complete change in the organizations of the
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL BURDENS. 43 
 
 Scottish churches. Before the close of David's reign in 1153 
 the last remnant of the Culdee church as a separate and 
 distinct organization had disappeared, and the lands, 
 wealth, and foundations belonging to them had been distri- 
 buted among the new episcopal and conventual establish- 
 ments. In some respects, no doubt, the prelates and other 
 dignitaries introduced by David compared unfavourably 
 with apostolic men such as St. Ninian, St. Mungo, St. 
 Columba, and others, founders of the early Scottish church, 
 as the majority of the monks and friars in the Anglicized- 
 Romanized church of Scotland did with the zealous mission- 
 aries of the old Columbite church. In certain parts of the 
 country, at least, the contrast was painfully evident to the 
 common people. Too many of the higher ecclesiastics were 
 mere worldlings, mere self-seeking politicians, grasping, 
 greedy, and ambitious, while a large number of the rank and 
 file of the monastic orders which swarmed over the country, 
 were vicious, ignorant, and indolent. But for generations, 
 if not for centuries, the Columbite church had been declin- 
 ing. It was out of touch with the church catholic, and the 
 older and purer faith, which in some articles it still main- 
 tained in theory, was held as a mere tradition, powerless to 
 affect or influence the life of the people. And, notwith- 
 standing its many doctrinal corruptions, and often notorious 
 inconsistences in the life and practice of its official represen- 
 tatives, the church of England and Rome was alive and 
 moving, so that the introduction of its organization and its 
 agents into Scotland by the king must be ranked as a 
 genuine reformation, which constituted an important 
 step onward in the civil and spiritual development of the 
 nation. In the lavish abundance of his gifts, however, the 
 king unwittingly sowed the seeds which produced in time 
 for the church which he meant to favour a very bitter har- 
 vest. The ecclesiastical endowments in Scotland at the 
 close of David's reign, in the middle of the twelfth century, 
 were out of all proportion to the civil and industrial 
 revenues of the country. By and by, the nobles, who had 
 vied with the king in enriching cathedral chapters and
 
 44 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 monastic foundations, came to look with covetous eyes on 
 ecclesiastical corporations which had grown rich in the 
 generations during which they had grown poor. With the 
 common people King David's clergy never found much 
 favour. They were heavily burdened for their support, and 
 this, no doubt, largely contributed to intensify the dislike 
 they naturally felt toward incomers, with whose interests 
 and modes of thought they had little in common. And 
 thus the way was gradually prepared for the singular com- 
 bination of the people and the barons against king and 
 church which brought about the great movement in favour 
 of civil and religious liberty which culminated in the Refor- 
 mation of the sixteenth century. 
 
 Throughout the period that has now been described, the 
 division of the country into parishes was gradually taking 
 place. It was brought about in this way. A noble or 
 gentlemen owning a estate, regarding himself charged with 
 the spiritual care of those living upon it, appointed a priest 
 to discharge religious duties on their behalf, erected a 
 church, and marked off a portion of ground as a burying- 
 place. The district served by this church and priest was 
 called a parish, and in the earliest times commonly coincided 
 in extent with the boundaries of the landlord's property. 
 From time to time, as pieces were added to the laird's pos- 
 sessions, these, whether apart from the old or contiguous, 
 would be added to the parish. But more frequently those 
 parishes which had originally been very large came to be 
 subdivided, either on these being split up into smaller 
 estates, or in consequence of the increase of population in 
 certain parts of the original parish. The parish priests 
 were appointed by the owner of the land which formed the 
 parish, and their endowments consisted in the tithes of the 
 revenue derived from the soil. Naturally, the parochial 
 clergy were subject to the bishop within whose diocese their 
 parishes lay. If this simple arrangement had been allowed 
 to continue, it would probably have proved in a large 
 measure an effective means of christianizing and civilizing 
 the rude population, and the parish clergy, through their
 
 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLK. 45 
 
 alliance with the landed estate, would have opposed the 
 rapacity and resisted the proud claims of the higher clergy 
 of an alien race. Very soon, however, the parochial system 
 was interfered with and encroached upon by the monastic 
 institutions which came to enjoy ever increasing favour 
 throughout the land. When a nobleman wished to add to 
 the revenues of a Monastery or Abbey, he found it an easy 
 and inexpensive expedient to attach to that institution one 
 or more of the parishes under his patronage. When a new 
 Abbey was erected, sometimes the whole or nearly the whole 
 of the endowments necessary for its maintenance would be 
 secured by appropriating the revenues of a sufficient number 
 of parishes. In A.D. 1178, William the Lion founded the 
 Abbey of Arbroath, dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, and 
 he provided its endowment by attaching it to no fewer than 
 thirty-three parish churches. The consequence was that 
 either members of the institution were made the nominal 
 holders of the parochial appointments, without any decent 
 pretence of performing parish duties, or the actual parish 
 priest was stripped of his principal revenues, and left with 
 a miserable pittance utterly inadequate to the requirements 
 of his position. 
 
 Unfortunately, we are altogether without any detailed 
 information as to the domestic life and habits of the people 
 which might aid us in reaching a definite conclusion as to 
 the state of religion throughout the country during this 
 period. It would seem that, speaking generally, the condi- 
 tion of the people was one of poverty and dependence, and 
 except in parishes where they were singularly favoured with 
 a pious, intelligent, and industrious priest, they could have 
 no means of instruction, even the most elementary, and no 
 prospect of advancement. Probably none of the common 
 people could read, and the education of most of the barons 
 was equally deficient. The only way whereby a scanty 
 knowledge of Scripture was obtained, was by the preaching 
 of the itinerant friars and by the more familiar recitals of 
 the parish priests. These teachers, however, were them- 
 selves grossly ignorant. Very few among them knew more
 
 46 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 of Scripture than the portions found in the Church services, 
 and in their preaching they generally gave more place to 
 ecclesiastical tradition and legend than to the Word of God. 
 It is sad to find that almost all that goes by the name of 
 Scottish Church history for the long period of two hundred 
 years, embracing the whole of the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries, concerns itself, not with the spread of religious 
 knowledge and the growth of the religious life among the 
 people, but with the intrigue of churchmen, who were en- 
 grossed with the crooked and sinuous diplomacy of civil and 
 ecclesiastical statecraft, their ecclesiastical schemes being 
 every whit as worldly as the schemes of politicians, who 
 frankly confessed that their kingdom was of this world. 
 The higher clergy were immersed in politics, and the 
 ordinary monks and friars, and the great majority of parish 
 priests, with too little education to be able to appreciate 
 the books which were being gathered into the libraries of 
 the cathedrals and principal monasteries, and devoid of per- 
 sonal piety or any religious enthusiasm that could have 
 made them go forth to instruct and evangelize the people, 
 sank down into sluggish indolence and selfish, often vicious, 
 indulgence, until the very name of religion, though out- 
 wardly reverenced, came to be inwardly hated and despised 
 by the people. During these two centuries, from a religious 
 point of view, things were steadily going on from bad to 
 worse. 
 
 The records of those centuries, which are so sterile in 
 incidents interesting and of importance to the church 
 historian, are full of stirring episodes in the political history 
 and civil development of the country. Under a succession of 
 powerful kings, William the Lion, Alexander II., Alexander 
 III., and Robert Bruce, Scotland, which had already been 
 consolidated into a great nation, was able to assert its inde- 
 pendence of England, and, by means of one struggle after 
 another, took rank alongside of the larger southern king- 
 dom. As we have seen, the Scottish kings were exceedingly 
 jealous of any ecclesiastical claims on the part of England, 
 naturally fearing lest any admission of ecclesiastical depen-
 
 REJECTION OF ENGLISH PRIMACY. 47 
 
 dence might strengthen the claim of political supremacy, 
 which they were determined never to yield. In this way, 
 William and his Scottish clergy, no longer satisfied with 
 Alexander's scheme of fighting York by Canterbury, de- 
 clared that the Scottish Church was independent of the 
 English Church, and only subject to the bishop of Rome. 
 The question was formally debated in a council held at 
 Northampton in A.D. 1176 by a papal legate, in the pre- 
 sence of King Henry of England and King William of 
 Scotland. Canterbury and York contested with one 
 another, each claiming the right of primacy in the Scottish 
 church, and this dispute led the king and the cardinal to 
 dissolve the meeting without adjudging superiority to either. 
 But even Kome itself was not to obtain unquestioned ab- 
 solute authority in the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland. 
 In A.D. 1178 the king and the pope opposed each other 
 in the selection of a bishop of St. Andrews. The pope, 
 through his legate, consecrated the man whom the king 
 opposed. The king defied the pope, and in A.D. 1181 
 was excommunicated and had his country placed under an 
 interdict. The death of Pope Alexander III. and the ac- 
 cession of Lucius III. occasioned the removal of the excom- 
 munication and interdict, and the settlement of the king's 
 favourite in St. Andrews. In A.D. 1188 Clement III. of 
 Rome, by a bull, finally set aside the English claims in 
 favour of direct and immediate dependence on Rome. A 
 much more serious collision between king and pope occurred 
 in the third year of the reign of Alexander II., A.D. 1216. 
 John of England was the vassal of Rome, and when Alexander, 
 induced by the offer of the three northern countries, agreed 
 to get the help of the barons against the king, the Papal 
 legate solemnly excommunicated the Scottish monarch and 
 again laid his country under the ban. Scotland lay under 
 the interdict for a whole year. All the churches were closed, 
 no religious service of any kind was held, and the dying and 
 the dead got no help from the church, and in every possible 
 way the people were made to feel that they lay under the 
 wrath of an offended God. Even when at last Alexander,
 
 48 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 in consequence of the desertion of the French king, was 
 obliged to seek reconciliation with Rome, and obtained the 
 removal of the interdict, the granting of this favour was 
 made conditional upon large payments from the parish 
 priests, which were exacted with unscrupulous rapacity by 
 the representatives of the Papal legate and their deputies. 
 Here and there over the country stories are told of revolts 
 against the unbridled greed of individual prelates. Of John, 
 bishop of Caithness, who, in A.D. 1199, was mutilated and 
 blinded by the Earl, Boece says that he was evil of conscience 
 and full of vice. In A.D. 1222, the people of Caithness rose 
 against their bishop, Adam, who had been taking for every 
 ten cows the amount of butter which he had a legal right to 
 only for every twenty, and after treating him very bar- 
 barously, roasted him before his own kitchen fire in his house 
 at Halkirk. 
 
 The position of the Scottish church was all this while 
 anomalous in this respect, that none of its episcopal sees had 
 any regular jurisdiction over the others. The churches of 
 England, and those of the other western nations, had their 
 own metropolitans ; but in Scotland, though St. Andrews, 
 and next in order Glasgow, had a certain precedence of rank, 
 as for example in the crowning of the kings, none had any 
 ecclesiastical authority over the rest. In A.D. 1225, Pope 
 Honorius III. issued a bull which allowed the bishops, abbots, 
 priors, and representatives of cathedral chapters, and of col- 
 legiate and conventual institutions to meet annually as a 
 provincial synod under the presidence of one chosen by the 
 bishops from their own number, to deal with matters affect- 
 ing the interest of the national church. But not till A.D. 1472 
 was St. Andrews made a metropolitan see, and all the other 
 Scottish bishops made suffragans of the archbishop. Still 
 even the privilege of holding synods under a president who 
 was one of themselves, gave to the ecclesiastics of the Scot- 
 tish church an official who practically wielded the influence 
 and exercised the functions of a primate. The Scottish 
 clergy, as represented by this Synod, steadily supported the 
 king in resisting Papal encroachments and refusing to allow
 
 REFUSING PAPAL EXACTIONS. 4y 
 
 contributions to be carried away out of the country by the 
 Papal legate or his deputies. Once and again sturdy op- 
 position was offered even to demands made by the Pope. 
 The cardinal legate, Ottobone dei Fieschi, was in England 
 seeking to bring about peace between Henry III. and his 
 barons ; and he took the opportunity of his sojourn there 
 in A.D. 1267 to visit Scotland, and insisted on taxing the 
 cathedrals and parishes for the expenses of his visitation. 
 This exaction king and clergy unanimously refused to 
 submit to, and instead of gathering to a full council in 
 the following year to meet him, only four Scottish eccle- 
 siastical dignitaries went, not to acquiesce in his demands, 
 but to maintain the freedom of their church. Even 
 when the cardinal changed his tactics, and persuaded the 
 Pope, Clement IV., in A.D. 1268, to make a grant of a 
 tenth of the ecclesiastical revenues of Scotland for the sup- 
 port of a company of crusaders led by the English prince, 
 Edward, the Scottish king sturdily refused the contribution, 
 but undertook to send a company and share in the risks and 
 glories of the holy war. When next a claim was made it 
 was advanced directly by the Pope, without the intermediary 
 of the prince of another country. In A.D. 1275, Pope Gre- 
 gory X. was making a great effort to raise a powerful force 
 for another attempt to win back the holy sepulchre. He 
 sent down to Scotland Benemund de Vicci, usually known 
 as Bagimont, to collect a tax for this purpose. The whole 
 of the Scottish clergy assembled in Council at Perth, and 
 evidently showed themselves very reluctant to comply with 
 this demand, for the Papal messenger found it necessary to 
 threaten them with the ban of the church, if they did 
 not agree to pay a tenth of all their revenues. Under 
 pressure of this threat they submitted. On one point, how- 
 ever, they held out for a time. Bagimonfs Roll, as it was 
 called, was a schedule in which all the ecclesiastical seats 
 and benefices were entered at their true and full value. The 
 clergy pleaded that the old valuation of clerical property 
 should be made the basis of their taxation, but the Pope
 
 50 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 refused to yield, and so this higher standard continued to 
 be that upon which all future taxing was determined. 
 
 During the struggle for national independence against 
 England, which filled up the first quarter of the fourteenth 
 century, the Scottish churchmen were found loyal to their 
 country, and, in a truly enlightened and practical fashion, 
 patriotically ready to contribute liberally of their wealth 
 and their influence and skill, in aiding the cause of the people 
 and their rightful king. Lamberton was bishop of St. 
 Andrews during the whole period, and he proved one of the 
 staunchest and most helpful supporters of Robert Bruce. In 
 the administration of his episcopal office he seems to have 
 been animated by a wise and generous spirit. The large 
 resources of his see were used to secure rich endowments for 
 the strengthening and further establishment of the church. 
 The same spirit seems also to have possessed the other Scot- 
 tish bishops and the clergy generally, so that not only did 
 they unanimously and heartily support the king in his 
 military and diplomatic measures for the civil independence 
 of the people, but they vigorously supported him in his re- 
 sistance of Papal aggression, especially in the matter of in- 
 terference in ecclesiastical appointments. In A.D. 1317, 
 Pope John XXI. ventured to interfere in the strife 
 between Scotland and England by sending two cardinals to 
 proclaim a truce, and in case of the Scottish King being 
 obstinate, to pronounce excommunication against him. 
 These cardinals sent two messengers to Bruce to inform him 
 of the will of the pontiff, but in their letters he was not 
 addressed as King of Scotland, so he declined to acknow- 
 ledge himself as the person for whom they were intended. 
 And even when a friar was sent by the cardinals to pro- 
 claim the truce in Scotland, the King refused to see him, 
 because the bull did not recognize his royal title. In A.D. 
 1320, a great national assembly meeting in Arbroath 
 appealed directly to the Pope for acknowledgment of their 
 independence, showing that Scotland always had been a free 
 country, that she had a lawful king of her own, that they 
 would never be subject to England, and that he, as head of
 
 FAITHFUL TO ROMISH DOCTEINE. 51 
 
 Christendom, ought to support them in the assertion of 
 their righteous contention. The fear of England, and the 
 influence of English gold, delayed a favourable reply, but 
 at last, in A.D. 1336, the Pope formally recognized Bruce's 
 title. 
 
 But while king and clergy were completely at one in re- 
 sisting all encroachments of the ecclesiastical authority of 
 Rome, it must not be supposed that either king or clergy 
 would encourage or even tolerate any departure from the 
 creed or discipline of the church as taught and practised in 
 Rome. It was the policy of Albany, a powerful ruler, who 
 held the regency A.D. 1406-1420, to avoid all occasion of 
 hostility between himself on the one hand, and the barons 
 and clergy on the other. The battle of Harlaw, which, in 
 A.D. 1411, put a final stop to all serious racial conflicts in 
 Scotland, would never have been won had not the barons 
 been thoroughly in sympathy with the government, and it 
 would have been impossible to preserve peace with foreign 
 powers unless the regent secured the hearty and unanimous 
 support of the wealthy and influential dignitaries of the 
 church. In England during the same period, Henry IV. 
 purchased the goodwill of the church by persecuting all who 
 fell under its ban. The followers of Wickliff were spreading 
 rapidly through the country, clergymen were leaving their 
 parishes to become itinerant Lollard preachers, and laymen 
 were everywhere active in proclaiming the doctrines of 
 the new evangelicalism. In A.D. 1401, the infamous act 
 called the Statute of Heretics, was passed, enjoining all 
 magistrates to put to death by burning such persons as were 
 given up to them by the bishops for teaching heresy or 
 having heretical books, or refusing to abjure heretical 
 opinions. In that same year William Sawtre and others 
 were put to death at the stake. In A.D. 1406 or 1407 one 
 of the English priests of the school of Wickliff, called 
 James Resby, made his appearance in Scotland. An 
 eloquent man, full of zeal for the dissemination of evan- 
 gelical truth, and much admired by the common people for 
 his preaching, he soon attracted the attention of the official
 
 52 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 representatives of the church. He was summoned to the 
 bar of an ecclesiastical council, over which Lawrence of 
 Lindores presided a learned canonist and scholastic theo- 
 logian, and at the same time a severe and strict inquisitor. 
 The charge against him was made up of some forty counts, 
 but of these only two are on record. He denied that the 
 pope is the vicar of Christ, and that any one could be pope 
 or vicar of Christ who was not personally holy. Though 
 the prosecution was conducted by the most acute and 
 learned theologian in Scotland, Resby defended his doctrine 
 in so powerful a way that he could be answered only by 
 miserable quibbles and a torrent of hard names and de- 
 nunciatory epithets. He was condemned in due form, the 
 inquisitor, as the old chronicler tells us, confuting the 
 writings as well as the author, and reducing them both to 
 ashes in the flames. The reproach of this first Scottish 
 martyrdom for the protestant faith lies equally upon the 
 representatives of the church and of the state. Condemned 
 by the ecclesiastics, the victim of their intolerance was 
 handed over to the secular arm and sent to the stake. The 
 regent, Albany, is celebrated by contemporary authors for 
 his hatred towards all Lollards and heretics, and for the 
 zeal with which he defended the purity and all other privi- 
 leges of the church. But Henry Wardlaw, bishop of St. 
 Andrews, and his clergy, took the initiative, and were the 
 interested parties in this prosecution, the regent's zeal being 
 in no proper sense religious, but simply a means of meeting 
 a political exigency, and securing the support of an impor- 
 tant party in the state. 
 
 From A.D. 1309 to A.D. 1377 the popes, under French in- 
 fluence, were living at Avignon. Benedict XII., a French 
 pope, was, in A.D. 1 341 , residing there when David II. of 
 Scotland and Philip VI. of France recommended to him for 
 the bishopric of St. Andrews, William Landels, provost of 
 Kinkell. During a long episcopate of forty-four years, 
 Landels maintained the good and honourable traditions of 
 the Scottish church, steadily resisting all encroachment on 
 the independence of the national church, and supporting
 
 RESISTANCE TO PAPAL INTERFERENCE. 53 
 
 the king on the field and in the council chamber. He and 
 fellow churchmen showed their patriotism by seeking and 
 obtaining papal sanction to divert one tenth of the ecclesi- 
 astical revenues of the kingdom for three years for the pay- 
 ment of the ramsom demanded by the English for the 
 restoring of the Scottish king. In the interests of his order 
 the energetic prelate opposed the exactions of the king, as 
 well as of the pope, when these seemed unjust. It had pre- 
 viously been customary for the king, on the death of a 
 bishop, to lay claim, as heir, to all his moveable estate. 
 Landels, however, succeeded in passing a measure which 
 allowed bishops to will their goods as they pleased. 
 
 In behalf of the independence of the church, the inter- 
 ference of the pope in making ecclesiastical appointments 
 had for a long while been resisted by the king and patriotic 
 churchmen. As far back as A.D. 1262, about the middle of 
 the reign of Alexander III., the pope, Urban IV., in order to 
 secure as much money as possible from those appointed to 
 the richer ecclesiastical benefices, issued an injunction that 
 all bishops and abbots should repair for consecration to 
 Rome. Whether the person nominated was ever actually 
 invested would depend ordinarily on his ability to find 
 money sufficient for bribes to win the favour of the pontiff. 
 In this way the election of bishops by the cathedral chapters, 
 and of abbots by the monks of the abbey, was often quite 
 indecisive, as refusal or delay on the part of the pope to 
 consecrate, might keep the bishop or abbot indefinitely 
 absent from the diocese or monastery, and might ultimately 
 necessitate the election of another, who would be better 
 able to secure the favour of the pope. Ambitious church- 
 men were wont to frequent the papal court in order to 
 obtain influence that would help their promotion to coveted 
 posts as they became vacant. Henry Wardlaw, nephew of 
 Walter Wardlaw, bishop of Glasgow, who, in A.D. 1384, 
 had been created cardinal, and made legate a latere for 
 Scotland by Urban VI. in A.D. 1384, was sent by his uncle 
 on a mission to Avignon, and while there he was promoted 
 to the bishopric of St. Andrews in A.D. 1404 by Pope Bene-
 
 54 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 diet XIII. Though he had thus stooped to obtain his pre- 
 ferment by the personal favour of the Pope, and had taken 
 advantage of an exercise of Papal patronage against which 
 kings and clergy of Scotland had long protested, Wardlaw 
 proved an enlightened and energetic prelate, busying him- 
 self with the correction of abuses and removing the re- 
 proach of dissoluteness and ignorance that with too much 
 truth had been brought against the clergy and monks of 
 his diocese. Twenty years later, King James L, whose 
 tutor Wardlaw had been, had a measure passed in his first 
 parliament forbidding any cleric to obtain any pension out 
 of a secular or religious benefice by purchase, and a later 
 enactment made it illegal to go over the seas without per- 
 mission, or to carry with them out of the country suspicious 
 quantities of gold. 
 
 Wardlaw owed his preferment to Benedict XIII. Bene- 
 dict was one of the ablest and certainly one of the most 
 famous of the anti-Popes who, from A.D. 1378 to A.D. 1714*, 
 in Avignon assumed the Papal rank in opposition to the 
 representatives of the Italian Cardinals in Rome. Scotland 
 had been with France a consistent supporter of the Popes 
 of Avignon ; and even after France had withdrawn, she con- 
 tinued along with Spain to assert the claims of Benedict. 
 But at last the Council of Constance, after seeking in vain 
 to persuade Benedict to resign, as Gregory XII. had done, 
 deposed him as well as John XXIII., and sent to Scotland 
 a message to secure her concurrence in this measure which 
 all the other Catholic Powers had approved. A council or 
 parliament was held at Perth, and there the arguments for 
 and against Benedict were discussed. The Regent Albany 
 was inclined to support the Pope to whose fortunes Scotland 
 had hitherto been faithful, and the case for Benedict was 
 stated and defended by an English Franciscan friar, Robert 
 Harding. But the rector of the University of St. Andrews, 
 and John Fogo, monk and afterwards Abbot of Melrose, 
 along with other eminent divines, convicted him of ten 
 dangerous errors. The clergy and ecclesiastical teachers of 
 Scotland were now unanimously opposed to the man whose
 
 FAMOUS SCOTTISH SCHOLARS. 55 
 
 obstinacy was the only cause for the schism which had so 
 long been the reproach of Christendom. The nation now 
 listened to the voice of her churchmen and joined the party 
 of Martin V., in whom the Christian world were agreed to 
 find a common head. 
 
 One of the most notable events that occurred during the 
 Regency of Albany was the founding of the first Scottish 
 University. Up to this time all the education attainable 
 for those preparing for office in Church or State had to be 
 sought either in the monastic establishments of the country 
 or in foreign universities. For well-nigh two centuries 
 there had been fairly well-equipped schools in Oxford and 
 Cambridge, but, owing to the unsettled relations between 
 England and Scotland, the English schools had hitherto 
 attracted few of the Scottish students. These, for the most 
 part, went to Paris, where a Scotch college had been estab- 
 lished in A.D. 1326 by the Bishop of Moray, for students 
 from his own diocese, but opened subsequently to all 
 scholars from this country. In Oxford, Baliol College had 
 been founded in A.D. 1263 by the Scoto-Norman John de 
 Baliol, the father of Bruce's rival as claimant of the Scot- 
 tish throne, and a century later it was presided over by the 
 great reformer Wickliff, whose scholars were now spreading 
 into all countries, and had already made their appearance 
 in Scotland. There were already several Scottish scholars 
 who were teaching with distinction in foreign schools. In 
 the middle of the thirteenth century, John Holywood or 
 Joannes de Sacrobosco, the famous author of De sphaera 
 mundi, a native of Nithsdale, taught mathematics in the 
 University of Paris. And most famous of all was John 
 Scotus of Duns, the great Franciscan, who stands alongside 
 Aquinas, as one of the greatest of all the schoolmen. He 
 received his own training at Oxford, and after teaching 
 there for a time, proceeded to Paris about the beginning of 
 the fourteenth century, where he proved the most popular 
 exponent of the scholastic theology. Besides these, Scot- 
 land had many admirable representatives of her scholarship 
 among professors of theology, philosophy, and law, in English
 
 56 HISTOEY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 and continental universities during the thirteenth and four- 
 teenth centuries. When Henry Wardlaw returned to 
 Scotland as Bishop of St. Andrews, he was fired with an 
 honourable ambition to provide for his country in his own 
 episcopal city a native university where Scottish statesman 
 and churchmen might be trained without having to go to 
 England or to France. There were now, thanks to the 
 training they had received in those foreign schools, a very 
 considerable number of learned men in the monastic institu- 
 tions of Scotland who were thoroughly qualified to act as 
 university professors. Accordingly in A.D. 1410 lectures 
 began to be read in St. Andrews under the patronage of 
 the Bishop. The lecturers chosen were all men of high 
 repute. Laurence of Lindores, Abbot of Scone, and one of 
 Scotland's most learned theologians, who has already 
 appeared before us in the less attractive figure of a perse- 
 cuting inquisitor, began by reading lectures on the fourth 
 book of Sentences ; Dr. Richard Corvel, Archdeacon of 
 Lothian, taught the canon law ; Sir John Litster, canon of 
 St. Andrews and licentiate of Decretals, John Scheves, 
 official of St. Andrews, and William Stephenson, afterwards 
 Bishop of Dunblane, lectured on divinity. Besides these 
 there were three lecturers on philosophy and logic : John 
 Gyll, William Fowlis, and William Crosier. In order that 
 the institution thus originated might be constituted as a 
 regular university, application was made to Pope Bene- 
 dict XIII. ; and on the 3rd of February, 1414, Henry 
 Ogilvy, M.A., arrived in St. Andrews, carrying with him 
 the Papal Bull and letter of privilege founding the univer- 
 sity. The whole clergy took part in a solemn service of 
 thanksgiving, at which the Te Deum was sung, and all the 
 citizens celebrated the event with festivities and rejoicings 
 as one of the highest importance in the history of the 
 nation. From the very first it was largely frequented by 
 the Scottish youth, and the ability of its earliest teachers 
 secured for it a rank alongside of those other institutions 
 upon which its constitution and organisation had been 
 modelled. It ought to be recorded to the credit of those
 
 EAKLY SCOTTISH HISTORIANS. 57 
 
 first teachers in the oldest Scottish university that they 
 received no income beyond that of their ecclesiastical bene- 
 fices which they held independently of those gratuitously 
 performed labours. At the same time literary distinction 
 brought preferment sooner or later. One of the earliest 
 enquiries of James I., when in A.D. 1424 he came to the 
 throne, was respecting men who had distinguished them- 
 selves in their studies that he might promote them to 
 offices of honour and responsibility, and thus at once the 
 university became a nursery to supply well-qualified officials 
 for the civil and ecclesiastical government of the country. 
 
 Those who distinguished themselves during the fourteenth 
 century as writers were, so far as known to us now, all of 
 them churchmen. The earliest of all our Scottish historians 
 is the chronicler John of Fordun. He was born, in all 
 probability, at Fordun in the Mearns, about the beginning 
 of the fourteenth century, became a secular priest and canon 
 of the cathedral of Aberdeen, and apparently lived on till 
 A.D. 1385. He wrote his Scotichronicon in Latin, having 
 gathered the materials for it by extensive travels through 
 Scotland and Ireland. He lived only to complete five books 
 of his chronicle, in which he brings the history down to the 
 death of David L, in A.D. 1153. But besides his finished 
 work, he left behind him for the benefit of any successor who 
 might take up the task at the point where he broke off, a 
 large number of valuable notes recording historical occur- 
 rences reaching down as far as A.D. 1385, which shows that 
 his life extended at least to this date. The record of facts 
 given in these notes constitutes the most valuable part of 
 his work from the historian's point of view. These notes 
 were made use of by his continuator, Walter Bower, abbot 
 of the monastery of canons regular at Inchcolm, who carried 
 the narrative down to A.D. 1437. A younger contemporary 
 of Fordun, but evidently unacquainted with him, was the 
 chronicler Andrew Wyntoun, canon regular of the priory of 
 St. Andrews, and from A.D. 1395, prior of St. Serf's Inch, 
 Loch Leven. He was born somewhere about the middle of 
 the fourteenth century, and lived till sometime after A.D.
 
 58 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 1420, to which date his last historical note refers. Nothing 
 is known about his personal life. He writes a rhyming 
 chronicle in the vernacular Scotch, in lines of four feet, 
 varied occasionally by lines sometimes of six, sometimes of 
 ten syllables. He names his work Orygynale Cronykil of 
 Scotland. It is divided into nine books, of which the first 
 four treat of ancient history, beginning with the creation of 
 the world, and the other five deal with his proper subject, 
 the history of Scotland. It is Avritten in a bright, flowing 
 style, with remarkable impartiality and with an evident en- 
 deavour to state accurately the facts which he had laboriously 
 gathered. The only other Scottish writer of this period 
 deserving of mention is our first great Scottish poet, John 
 Barbour, the well-known and far-famed author of The 
 Bruce. He was born, probably in the neighbourhood of 
 Aberdeen, in A.D. 1316, was archdeacon of Aberdeen in 
 A.D. 1357, and died in A.D. 1395. On at least two occasions 
 he visited Oxford in company with three scholars for pur- 
 poses of study, and on a similar errand journeyed twice to 
 France. His great work is a heroic poem in which he nar- 
 rates the main incidents in the stirring and eventful life of 
 Robert Bruce, with many realistic descriptions of life and 
 manners among the Scottish people of that age. As a poet 
 many critics allow that he compares favourably with his 
 contemporary, Chaucer. In these works then, of Fordun, 
 Wyntoun, and Barbour, we have a beginning of a national 
 literature in prose and verse, remarkable for the age in which 
 it was produced, and creditable to the church in which its 
 authors were reared and lived. 
 
 But amid much that was attractive and imposing in her 
 outward organization, there were already evil influences at 
 work within the Scottish church which laid her open to the 
 attacks that now began to be made upon her from without. 
 The idle and dissolute lives of the great majority of the 
 monks, the ignorance and contemptible habits of the secular 
 clergy, and the rapacity and cruelty with which all classes 
 of churchmen exacted their dues on all manner of pretexts, 
 had produced among the people distrust and dislike that
 
 PAUL CRAW FBOM BOHEMIA. 59 
 
 only waited a fit opportunity to obtain expression. In 
 earlier times, under David, William, and the Alexanders, 
 the money and lands so freely given to the church were well 
 applied to an institution which helped very efficiently to build 
 up the national fabric and supplied the culture and disci- 
 pline then required. But this wealth was now in many cases 
 sadly abused, and was bringing a curse alike on church and 
 people. The old Scottish historian, John Major, has aptly 
 said : " It was primitive sanctity that brought forth wealth, 
 but the mother has been strangled by her wanton 
 daughtei-s." Protests were raised against false and unscrip- 
 tural doctrines, many of which, such as those of absolution, 
 purgatory, masses for the dead, were indispensable means 
 for the enforcing of these exactions which only people 
 wrought upon by fear of judgment or by confidence in 
 priestly power could be induced continuously to pay. Wick- 
 lifTs exposure of the creed and conduct of the priests had 
 been influencing men, learned and unlearned, in England 
 and on the Continent for well-nigh fifty years. An English 
 disciple of the reformer was the first on Scottish soil to give 
 his life in defence of a purer faith and a holier life. The 
 second witness for protestantism was Paul Craw, a Bohemian, 
 who had learnt Wickliffism from Hus. He was a physician 
 of great eminence in his profession, but he came to St. 
 Andrews in A.D. 1433 to spread the knowledge of the gospel. 
 For this he was well qualified by his remarkable familiarity 
 with scripture, and his singular skill and readiness in debate. 
 But the aged inquisitor and theologian, Lawrence of Lin- 
 dores, who a quarter of a century before had secured the 
 condemnation of James Resby, was still to be reckoned 
 with. Craw had insisted that the Scriptures should be put 
 into the hands of the people, that the doctrines of priestly 
 absolution and of purgatory were human inventions, and 
 that churchmen should be subject to the civil government 
 like other men. He made a powerful defence, but he had 
 really been condemned before he began to speak. From the 
 scene of his trial he was hurried to the stake, on 23rd July, 
 A.D. 1483. Undoubtedly a considerable number of the
 
 60 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 people must have been secretly in sympathy with the 
 Lollard doctrines. Sixty years later the Lollards were 
 found to be somewhat numerous in Ayrshire. The 
 Bohemian doctor had evidently been sent over by the 
 Husites to secure a mutual understanding with the Wick- 
 liffites of Scotland, and to stir up their missionary zeal. 
 It was indeed with them the day of small things. There 
 was not even one amongst them strong enough to show in- 
 terest in the heroic foreigner. But the seed sown was 
 growing secretly, and by and by, though not speedily, the 
 good fruit will appear.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Beginning of Reformation to the Death of Beaton* 
 A.D. 14331546. 
 
 DURING the long minority of James II., the church sinks 
 entirely out of view, and Scottish history presents a sad, 
 and almost unrelieved spectacle of plots and counterplots, 
 by which one ambitious and crafty statesman sought the 
 overthrow of another of a similar description, and of the 
 alternating of self-seeking and unscrupulous rivals. But 
 though civil affairs bulked much more prominently in the 
 public view than ecclesiastical matters, yet at least in some 
 districts good work was being done in the teaching of the 
 people, which bore fruit in a most unexpected manner by 
 and by in the response which they were able to make to the 
 preaching of ecclesiastical and religious reformers. For 
 while the widespread ignorance and indolence of the monks 
 and parochial clergy as a whole, and the worldliness and 
 ambition of the majority of the dignitaries of the church, 
 and the rapacity and cruel exactions of churchmen high and 
 low, alienated the people and gave occasion to endless sneer- 
 ing and satirical reflections on the proceedings of priests 
 and prelates, we must remember that mere annoyance at 
 grievances, and even the perception of gross inconsistencies 
 
 * Literature. Knox, History of Reformation of Church of Scot- 
 land (1534), ed. Laing, Vol. I., Edin. 1846 ; Bp. Lesley, History of 
 Scotland from Death of James I. to 1561 ; Lindsay of Pitscottie, 
 History of Scotland from 1436 to 1565 (eminently readable, but not 
 always reliable) ; Lorimer, Patrick Hamilton, Edin. 1887 ; Herk- 
 less, Cardinal Beaton, Priest and Politician, Edinburgh 1891 ; Hume 
 Brown, History of Scotland, 1, 211-401. 
 
 61
 
 62 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 in the lives of their spiritual advisers, might lead to a revolu- 
 tion, but not to a religious reformation. The indispensable 
 condition of such a movement is the spreading of a know- 
 ledge of evangelical truth among a considerable portion of 
 the inhabitants of the country, and this, on the other 
 hand, implies the presence of faithful priests who have been 
 quietly teaching the people the truth of the Word of God, 
 and training them in the faith and life of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Bishop Wardlaw, of St. Andrews, died on 6th April, A.D. 
 1446, and was succeeded by James Kennedy. This dis- 
 tinguished prelate was born in A.D. 1405, son of Sir James 
 Kennedy of Dunure, his mother being a daughter of King 
 Robert III. He was thus cousin to James II. in whose 
 reign he was, in A.D. 1444, transferred from the bishopric of 
 Dunkeld to that of St. Andrews. The great power in 
 Scotland which now threatened to rival the authority of the 
 king and the royal party was that of Douglas, which em- 
 braced many of the most powerful nobles of the land. 
 Kennedy at once took up an attitude of determined opposi- 
 tion to Douglas, and in order to make his opposition effec- 
 tive, he joined the party of ex-Chancellor Crichton. When 
 in A.D. 1450 James began to reign in person, the Crichtons 
 were his favourites, and Kennedy his principal statesman 
 and most trusted counsellor. It was not to be wondered at 
 that the young king, when he came to understand how 
 numerous and influential the party of Douglas was, how 
 many and great were the branches of the Douglas family 
 itself, and what powerful alliances had been made with 
 families scarcely less powerful than their own, began to feel 
 that he had little more than the name of a king, and that 
 the Douglas held the dictatorship in his own hand. To 
 undertake the reduction of the Douglas faction seemed like 
 undertaking the conquest of the half, and perhaps the better 
 half, of the kingdom. In his perplexity he had recourse to 
 his sage adviser, the Bishop of St. Andrews. The story is 
 told with rare dramatic power by Pitscottie. The Bishop 
 led the King into his oratory, calling on him to join with 
 him in prayer to God that He might give him strength and
 
 BISHOP KENNEDY OF ST. ANDREWS. 63 
 
 wisdom to face boldly and overcome the daring rebels who 
 had defied the laws of God and man, and were bringing 
 confusion upon the country and misery among the people. 
 He then conducted him back into his house, and put into 
 his hands a bundle of arrows tied very firmly together, and 
 required him to break it. This the young king found to be 
 far beyond his strength. The arrows were too many and 
 too firmly bound together. The bishop then took the 
 arrows apart, and the king easily broke them one by one 
 and two by two. " Thus," said the wise counsellor to the 
 perplexed monarch, " must you deal with your dangerous 
 and disloyal nobles. The Douglas and his numerous 
 adherents are too many to be overthrown together at one 
 blow ; their firm alliance must be broken ; a free pardon 
 should be offered to those who have been offenders, if they 
 undertake to become true and faithful servants of the king 
 in all time coming. 1 ' And so the king proceeded to act upon 
 this good advice, winning over by conciliatory measures one 
 and another of the adherents of the Douglas, and falling 
 upon others in places and at times where and when help 
 could not be brought them, until at last, but not until five 
 years had been spent in the work, the power of the party 
 that had threatened the very existence of the Stewart 
 dynasty was utterly broken, and the Douglas himself was a 
 fugitive over the English border. 
 
 Bishop Kennedy was undoubtedly the ablest and by far 
 the most patriotic statesmen of his age. But though he was 
 so much occupied in state affairs, he was one of the most 
 religious and devout men of all those who ever held a posi- 
 tion of authority in the Scottish Church, and he did more 
 than any of his predecessors in the way of supervising the 
 work of the clergymen in his diocese. He insisted upon all 
 the parsons and vicars living constantly in their parishes 
 and attending to the instruction and edification of their 
 flocks, to the preaching of the Word of God among the 
 people, and to the visiting of the sick. He regularly visited 
 each kirk within his diocese four times every year, preaching 
 himself and making enquiry as to the instructions given by
 
 64 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 the vicar and his diligence generally in his work. He also 
 carefully enquired as to the training of the young, and the 
 support given to the poor. Where he discovered negligence 
 and wrong doing, he inflicted exemplary punishment, while 
 he gave all encouragement and help to faithful priests who 
 sought the temporal and spiritual good of their people. 
 He also showed his interest in the higher education by his 
 founding in A.D. 1150 the College of St. Salvator in St. 
 Andrews. He appointed three divinity professors and four 
 masters of arts, all in priests 1 orders, besides six poor 
 scholars or clerks. The whole number of incumbents was 
 thus thirteen, after the pattern of our Saviour and the 
 twelve apostles, by whose name the new institution was 
 called. For the support of the three divinity professors, 
 the bishops appropriated the ecclesiastical revenues of three 
 parishes, which, after providing for the stipends of the 
 vicars, supplied salaries for the college teachers. He called 
 John Athelmer from the University of Paris to be provost 
 or principal of his college, and Thomas Logy, who had been 
 rector of the university, and James Ogilvy, a learned man 
 highly praised by the Council of Basel in A.D. 1440, and 
 afterwards Professor of Theology in Aberdeen, were his 
 colleagues in the first regular faculty of divinity in Scot- 
 land. 
 
 Whether as a churchman or a politician, Kennedy stands, 
 morally and intellectually, at the head of all who had 
 hitherto served in church and state in this country. He 
 was bishop of St. Andrews for twenty-one years, and has 
 been recognised by all Scottish historians as the greatest 
 and best man of his age. He took, as we have seen, a very 
 prominent and useful part in Scottish politics during the 
 reign of James II., and, surviving that monarch's death for 
 five years, he was all that time the most influential and 
 trustworthy of those who were responsible for the govern- 
 ment of the country during the minority of the young 
 prince. He died in July, A.D. 1465, and it was immediately 
 felt that his loss was irreparable. He was mourned as a 
 father, says Buchanan, by all good men.
 
 FOUNDING OF GLASGOW UNIVERSITY. 65 
 
 For about forty years the University of St. Andrews was 
 the only university in Scotland. There had always been a 
 considerable amount of rivalry between the bishops of St. 
 Andrews and Glasgow, and when, in A.D. 1448, William 
 Turnbull, archdeacon of St. Andrews, was consecrated 
 bishop of Glasgow, he soon directed his energies to the 
 erection of a university at his episcopal seat in the capital 
 of the west. It was fortunate for the Scottish bishop that 
 the reigning pope, himself a distinguished scholar, a 
 humanist, and a supporter of humanist studies, was ready 
 to become a patron and active furtherer of all well-con- 
 ceived schemes for the foundation of seminaries of learning 
 in all parts of his dominion. When, therefore, bishop 
 Turnbull applied to Pope Nicholas V. in A.D. 1450 for per- 
 mission to establish a university in Glasgow, he immediately 
 obtained the warm approval of the pontiff. In his petition 
 on behalf of his scheme, the bishop was supported by the 
 king, who had just then entered personally on the govern- 
 ment of his country, and it was represented that Glasgow 
 enjoyed a salubrious climate, was conveniently situated for 
 the securing of all necessary supplies, and was a suitable 
 centre for the dissemination of Catholic truth and the 
 spread of the Catholic faith. The papal bull of A.D. 
 1451 conferred upon the new university all the privileges 
 and immunities that had been granted to the most favoured 
 old continental seats of learning, and in A.D. 1453 the king 
 gave it his protection and freed its members from all dues 
 and taxes and services imposed on other citizens. Notwith- 
 standing all these advantages, the university long suffered 
 from the scantiness of its endowments, and was often re- 
 duced to the verge of extinction. Many of the best 
 Scottish students continued to go to Paris and other con- 
 tinental universities, residence at which was supposed to 
 confer a superior distinction for scholarship and culture. 
 Among the earlier professors in the university of Glasgow 
 was the famous John Mair or Major, student of Cambridge 
 and Paris, and, in A.D. 1523, after leaving Glasgow, pro- 
 fessor in St. Andrews. One of the students who matricu-
 
 66 HISTOEY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 lated in A.D. 1451 was William Elphinston, afterwards 
 bishop of Aberdeen, and founder of the third Scottish 
 university. Some sixty or seventy years later, during the 
 term of Major's professorship, two men enrolled as students 
 of the western university, whose names figure in Scottish 
 history as representatives of the old religion and the new, 
 David Beaton and John Knox. 
 
 The successor of Kennedy in the see of St. Andrews was 
 his half-brother, the Hon. Patrick Graham. He was 
 elected by the chapter on 4th November, 1465, but his 
 election was opposed by the Boyds, who, during the minority 
 of James III., had assumed, after the death of Kennedy, 
 absolute power in the government of the kingdom. Sir 
 Thomas Boyd was made Earl of Arran, and married the 
 eldest sister of the young king. The Boyds were bitterly 
 hostile to the Kennedy family, and though the parliament 
 had passed laws enacting that no appointment to ecclesias- 
 tical offices should be made either by king or pope, but 
 only by the ecclesiastical persons with whom the election 
 properly lay, Graham was refused permission to go to Rome 
 to have his appointment confirmed, or to assume the office 
 to which he had been regularly elected. Accordingly, he 
 withdrew at his own risk to Rome, where Pope Paul II. 
 readily upheld his appointment as regular and legitimate, 
 and treated him personally with much honour and respect. 
 Meanwhile Graham continued to reside at the papal court. 
 During the absence of the new bishop, the archbishop of 
 York renewed his claim upon the primacy of the Scottish 
 church, and on 17th August, A.D. 1472, Sixtus IV., who had 
 just succeeded Paul II. in the papal chair, declared in favour 
 of the Scots, and erected the bishopric of St. Andrews into 
 an Archbishopric, with metropolitan powers over the twelve 
 bishops of Scotland. Graham was a man of high character 
 and distinguished scholarship, and had been for a few years 
 bishop of Brechin. The state of the clergy in Scotland had 
 been going from bad to worse. Notwithstanding the 
 institution of native universities, and the occasional pre- 
 sence of good and able churchmen among the bishops and
 
 OPPOSITION TO ARCHBISHOP GRAHAM. 67 
 
 higher clergy, the character and qualifications of the 
 bishops, and especially of the monks, who were now in 
 swarms all over the country, and the vicars and secular 
 clergy, were low beyond anything that it is possible in these 
 days to conceive. Ignorance and vice were rampant among 
 the lower orders, and ambition and worldliness, and all 
 forms of irreligion, pervaded the ranks of those enjoying 
 the richer benefices. It was well known that Graham was 
 determined to use all his influence in order to check and 
 correct such abuses. He had evidently succeeded in con- 
 vincing the pope that the stability of the church in Scotland 
 was being seriously endangered by the wide-spread corrup- 
 tion of the clergy, and by the appointment on political 
 grounds of incompetent and irreligious persons to bishoprics 
 and the richer abbacies. And so, in order that the new 
 primate of Scotland might have all the greater influence in 
 putting down irregularities in the churches under his rule, 
 the pope gave him for three years the rank of legate, or 
 papal nuncio, and thus, in carrying out his reforms, he 
 could act with the authority of the pope himself. 
 
 The disgrace and overthrow of the Boyds in A.D. 1469 
 did not make things any smoother in Scotland for the re- 
 forming prelate. When, towards the end of A.D. 1473, 
 Graham, having at least twelve months before this sent on, 
 and caused to be published in Scotland, the papal bull of 
 his appointment, ventured himself to return to take posses- 
 sion, of his archiepiscopal see, he found king, nobles, and 
 clergy all banded against him, prepared to dispute his 
 authority, and to resist his reforms to the uttermost. The 
 king, who was already beginning to show that inordinate 
 greed for money which characterised him throughout his 
 whole life, saw that Lhe royal patronage of the richer bene- 
 fices might be made the means of securing great wealth to 
 himself. He might use it to reward services for which 
 otherwise he would have been obliged to pay out of the 
 treasury, or he might considerably augment his revenues by 
 obtaining large sums of money from the presentee or his 
 friends. The nobles had younger sons to provide for or
 
 68 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 other dependants, and they did not wish to impoverish the 
 family by dividing the estates. Nothing could suit them 
 better than the privilege of appointing such to a rich 
 church living, a bishopric, or the presidency of a well- 
 endowed abbey or priory, the occupant of which would have 
 the means supplied him that would enable him to take his 
 place on equal terms alongside of his noble brother and 
 cousin. And while thus the king and his nobles, for mer- 
 cenary and purely selfish reasons, dreaded the entering into 
 power of a primate who had declared himself determined to 
 put an end at once to practices which were really equivalent 
 to the secularization of ecclesiastical offices and functions, 
 the clergy, high and low, \vere equally alarmed at the 
 prospect of having a primate armed with legatine powers, 
 whose avowed aim and mission was to prevent all unjust 
 and exorbitant exactions on their part, and to exercise a 
 strict discipline over incompetent, indolent, and vicious 
 priests, whether in parishes, or monasteries, or cathedral 
 chapters. 
 
 So eager were the clergy in their opposition, so evi- 
 dently did they regard their attitude toward Graham as 
 involving a life and death struggle, that they gave to the 
 king the amazingly large sum of 12,000 merks, to make 
 sure of having him with them. This gift of theirs would 
 show the king what they could do for him, and how they 
 could make it worth his while to support them against re- 
 forming zealots. Their chief agent and representative was 
 one William Scheves, a physician of the old school of 
 marvel -mongers, who professed to be skilled in the mys- 
 terious art of astrology, and had thus won the ear and good 
 will of a credulous and superstitious prince, who coquetted 
 with science, especially in its more fantastic forms, favoured 
 by the somewhat juvenile taste of that age. This man, an 
 adventurer and a charlatan, who had during GrahanTs 
 absence been appointed archdeacon of St. Andrews, gave 
 voice to the hatred of the clergy toward Graham, and con- 
 cocted with the king and his courtiers plausible grounds for 
 accusation against the pure and high-minded bishop. It
 
 CONDEMNATION OF GRAHAM. 69 
 
 would seem that the court affected to take offence at 
 Graham for going to Rome without the royal permission, 
 and obtaining there, without first having a commission 
 from the crown, confirmation of his election to the highest 
 dignity in the national church. It was an easy thing for 
 such a powerful combination as that formed by king, 
 nobles, and clergy, which represented the entire wealth of 
 the kingdom, to purchase from Rome a bull giving effect 
 to their wishes. Such a bull was published on 9th January, 
 A.D. 1478. When we consider what sort of a man Sixtus 
 IV. was, we need not be surprised to find that the same 
 pope who, five years before, after giving him for at least 
 two years his intimate friendship and manifold evidences of 
 esteem, sent Graham to Scotland as his legate to do the very 
 things which his enemies now sought to prevent him doing, 
 should so soon and suddenly discover that he had been 
 guilty of serious offences against the church, that he must 
 be deposed from his office, and confined for the rest of his 
 days in a monastery. Of all the Popes, Sixtus IV. was 
 perhaps the one most glaringly and most frequently guilty 
 of nepotism, and to secure promotions to his relatives he 
 entered once and again on costly wars, the expenses of 
 which had to be paid by taxing the prelates and selling 
 benefices. In the case of such a rapacious, needy, and un- 
 principled man, the granting of a bull in A.D. 1478 in 
 flagrant contradiction of his own sayings and doings in A.D. 
 1473, was simply conditioned upon the offer of a sufficiently 
 large price. The archbishop was placed under the supervision 
 of Scheves, and having been pronounced mentally incapable, 
 the mean, cunning intriguer who had brought about his fall, 
 was appointed his coadjutor. Meantime the revenues of 
 the bishopric of St. Andrews were appropriated by the king, 
 and it was only on the death of Graham, which took place 
 at Lochleven in A.D. 1478, that Scheves entered on the en- 
 joyment of the full rank and emoluments of the archiepis- 
 copal office. 
 
 Although the actual obtaining of a metropolitan see 
 for Scotland was not at the instance of the king, the
 
 70 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 settlement of the dispute regarding primacy, so often 
 raised by York, must have been highly acceptable to the 
 civil as well as to the ecclesiastical government of the king- 
 dom. But just as some of the earlier Scottish kings found 
 it convenient to play off Canterbury against York, one 
 primate against another, so it soon came to be seen by 
 James that it would be of advantage to him to have two 
 archbishops in his country rather than one. In appealing 
 to the Pope, he compares his own country to England, and 
 suggests that if a second archbishopric were erected, St. 
 Andrews would correspond to Canterbury and Glasgow to 
 York. He commends Glasgow strongly as worthy of such 
 distinction. Archbishop Scheves, as we might suppose, 
 keenly opposed this proposal. In the beginning of A.D. 
 1492, however, Pope Innocent VIII. yielded to the entreaties 
 of the king, and erected Glasgow into an archbishopric. 
 Robert Blackadder, who had been before Bishop of Aber- 
 deen, and from A.D. 1483 Bishop of Glasgow, was the first 
 to enjoy the new dignity in the capital of the west. He 
 was evidently a zealous upholder of the doctrines and practices 
 of the church, quick to discover traces of heresy and relent- 
 less in his persecution of those in whom he suspected the 
 presence of a heretical taint. 
 
 Sixty years had passed since the burning of Paul Craw 
 at St. Andrews. But Resby and Craw had not preached 
 and died in vain. The simple evangelical doctrines of 
 Wickliff had spread in various districts of the country, 
 and in no place so widely as the central part of Ayrshire 
 called Kyle. In A.D. 1494 the Archbishop of Glasgow 
 summoned to appear before the king in the town of Ayr 
 as many as thirty suspected persons, against whom he laid 
 a charge containing thirty-four counts. They denied that 
 the Pope is the successor of Peter, that there is any value 
 in Papal bulls, pardons or indulgences, that the Virgin, 
 images or relics, should be worshipped, that masses can 
 avail for the dead, that the bread and wine in the sacrament 
 are made by transubstantiation the very body and blood of 
 Christ. They maintained also the universal priesthood of
 
 FOUNDING OF ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY. 71 
 
 believers. These " Lollards of Kyle " numbered among 
 them men and women of good social position, such as Camp- 
 bell of Cessnock, Shaw of Polkemmet, Reid of Barskimming, 
 Lady Stair, and Lady Pollkillie. They were fortunate, 
 too, in their chief spokesman Reid, who answered with great 
 readiness of wit, which pleased the king, so that much to 
 Blackadder's annoyance they were dismissed. From the 
 prelate's point of view, however, the making light of such 
 opinions was a serious matter. They were the real pro- 
 genitors of the great reformation which, in little more than 
 half a century, was to raze to the ground the whole struc- 
 ture of the Romish Church in Scotland. 
 
 One of the most beneficent enactments of the reign of 
 James IV. was an Act passed in A.D. 1496 ordaining that 
 all barons and wealthier freeholders must send their eldest 
 sons, when they reached the age of eight or nine years, 
 to the Grammar School, to remain there until they had 
 gained a sufficient knowledge of Latin, and then for 
 three years to one of the universities to attend a course 
 of arts and law. By such a training they would qualify 
 themselves for their position as administrators of justice 
 among their own people. This king had also, in the 
 pursuit of an enlightened policy, made application, at 
 Bishop Elphinston's request, to Pope Alexander VI. in 
 A.D. 1495, and obtained from him permission for the found- 
 ing of a university at Aberdeen. The excellent bishop gave 
 largely during his lifetime, and bequeathed at his death a 
 very large sum for the building and endowment of King's 
 College. From the first, unlike St. Andrews and Glasgow, 
 this college was supplied with handsome and suitable build- 
 ings, and with adequate salaries for its professors. The first 
 principal was the well-known Scottish historian, Hector 
 Boece, whose great work, though full of legend and of no 
 authority, is genuine literature, and the earliest Scottish 
 history that we have written in the vernacular. His con- 
 temporary, Major of St. Andrews, wrote in Latin a really 
 critical history in which the legendary tales of romance, which 
 made the early histories and chronicles so popular, were
 
 7 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 rigidly excluded, and only statements admitted which seemed 
 supported by evidence as the record of what had actually 
 occurred. The site of King's College is close by that of St. 
 Machar's Cathedral which was begun in A.D. 1357, the cen- 
 tral tower of which was built by Bishop Elphinston in A.D. 
 1489, various additions being made to the edifice by later 
 bishops down to A.D. 1532, when the Chapter House was 
 erected by Bishop Stewart. The great central tower, which 
 was an important sea mark, being 150 feet high, fell in A.D. 
 1688, undermined by the dilapidation of the surrounding 
 structures. 
 
 In A.D. 1507, the first printing press was set up in Edin- 
 burgh by two burgesses of the city, Walter Chapman and 
 Andrew Millar. These printers under royal patronage 
 enjoyed a monopoly, so that they alone were empowered to 
 print Acts of Parliament, law books, ecclesiastical books, 
 and other necessary works. It was, perhaps, possible only 
 under such encouragement for any one to undertake so 
 considerable and costly an adventure. The demand for 
 books in Scotland, and the number of those capable of 
 using them, must then have been very limited. A much 
 more doubtful restriction, which could not easily be justi- 
 fied, was the prohibition against importing or selling books 
 printed abroad. The first publication sent forth from this 
 earliest Scottish Press in A.D. 1508 was a volume containing 
 seven poems of William Dunbar. Not very much of value, 
 nor indeed much of anything, was issued from this Press, 
 for it would appear that nothing was printed in Edinburgh 
 between A.D. 1510 and A.D. 1530. From A.D. 1511 onwards, 
 we have David Cranstoun, George Lockhart, William 
 Manderstone, John Major, John Vans, and Hector Boece, 
 all printing their works, philosophical, grammatical, and 
 historical, at foreign Presses, such as those of Paris and 
 Leyden. Before the middle of the sixteenth century there 
 were printing presses in Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and Aber- 
 deen. The introduction of this important art into Scotland 
 was most opportune. Not only had brilliant writers arisen 
 but there was also a large reading class among the people,
 
 CONTEST FOR SEE OF ST. ANDREWS. 73 
 
 a class so large that, even at the dawn and during the early 
 years of the Reformation, the Scottish Press was unable to 
 meet the demand for books. 
 
 The primacy of the Scottish Church had fallen upon evil 
 days. The first Archbishop, Patrick Graham, who was an 
 honour to his church and country, had been cruelly and 
 violently put aside by a corrupt court and priesthood. His 
 bitter enemy Scheves, who represented all that was degraded 
 and obscurantist in the age, held the primacy for about 
 twenty- three years, and the fact that his immediate successors 
 were a brother of James IV. and that monarch's illegitimate 
 son, reveals in a striking manner how secularised the prin- 
 cipal ecclesiastical office in the kingdom had become. The 
 young Archbishop of St. Andrews fell alongside of his 
 royal father on the disastrous field of Flodden. And so in 
 A.D. 1513 the richest prize of ecclesiastical ambition was 
 vacant, and the patronage of it was eagerly claimed by the 
 three contending interests of Pope, crown and chapter. The 
 Pope nominated Andrew Forman, bishop of Moray and 
 legate a latere in Scotland, a crafty traitorous politician, who 
 had ingratiated himself at every court he visited ; and ob- 
 tained everywhere gifts and rich benefices to himself in 
 return for his treacherous betrayal one after another of all 
 interests but his own. The canons of the Cathedral 
 nominated John Hepburn, prior of St. Andrews, a bold, 
 greedy, and unprincipled man, whose only recorded good 
 deed, the founding of St. Leonard's College, cost him nothing, 
 as he simply appropriated the revenues of a hospital for pil- 
 grims. The Queen Regent nominated Gavin Douglas, abbot 
 of Arbroath, a scion of the great house of Douglas, and 
 uncle to the young Earl of Angus who was the Queen's 
 second husband. Distinguished as a poet, and occupying a 
 high rank among the great literary men of Scotland, he was 
 yet an intriguing politician, and an unscrupulous supporter 
 of the Douglas faction. The castle of St. Andrews had 
 been taken possession of by Gavin Douglas and his friends, 
 but Hepburn, having obtained the support of Lord Chan- 
 cellor Hume, one of the most powerful of the Scottish barons
 
 74 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 of that age, drove out his rival and garrisoned the castle as 
 if preparing for the warlike attacks of his opponents. 
 Douglas now retired from the conflict, and as Hume was 
 mainly instrumental in expelling the Queen Regent from the 
 government, it was necessary that the new regent, Albany, 
 should afford him satisfaction. Accordingly, while the 
 Pope's nominee, Forman, secured the primacy, the very rich 
 benefice of the abbey of Coldingham was given to Lord 
 Hume's brother, and Hepburn, Hume's client, had a number 
 of remunerative appointments bestowed upon him, while 
 two years later Gavin Douglas was made bishop of Dunkeld. 
 The contention for the primacy had been a most unseemly 
 one, and none of the candidates gave any indication of fit- 
 ness for the position, and certainly none of them showed 
 appreciation of the responsibilities of a great spiritual office. 
 They were mere worldly adventurers, and not high even as 
 such. 
 
 In the archbishopric of Glasgow, Blackadder was succeeded 
 in A.D. 1508 by James Beaton, a supporter of the Hamiltons 
 against the Douglases, whose life was an eventful one, alter- 
 nately on the height or in the depths, according to the 
 fortunes of his party. In the famous street fight in Edin- 
 burgh of 30th April, A.D. 1520, commonly called " Cleanse 
 the Causeway," he was present as a partisan of the Hamil- 
 tons, and was only rescued from death at the hand of the 
 victorious Douglases by the intervention of the bishop of 
 Dunkeld. The leader of the unfortunate Hamiltons on this 
 occasion was Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavel, near Lin- 
 lithgow, an illegitimate son of the first Lord Hamilton, 
 married to a grand-daughter of James II., whose fame had 
 spread in all lands as that of a very ideal knight of chivalry. 
 Though the Douglas wished to spare Sir Patrick, this proved 
 impossible, as he had advanced far ahead of his party, and 
 was cut down at the beginning of the fray. The second son 
 of this brave knight, as chivalrous a man as his father, was 
 fated to have an equally tragical career, though his contests 
 were to be fought in very different lists. His father's 
 zealous supporter, Beaton, was to prove his steady and un-
 
 TRAINING OF PATRICK HAMILTON. 75 
 
 relenting foe. Patrick Hamilton was born in A.D. 1504, 
 not probably as usually supposed at Kincavel, but either at 
 Glasgow or somewhere within the diocese of Glasgow. 
 When he went to Paris as a student in A.D. 1520, he was 
 enrolled Patricius Hamelto, Glasguensis, Nobilis. He had 
 been appointed while a mere boy, probably soon after the 
 death of Andrew Stewart, the bishop of Caithness, in A.D. 
 1517, to the abbacy of Feme, which that bishop had held, 
 and the revenues of this titular office would provide for the 
 expenses of his foreign residence and university training. In 
 Paris young Hamilton came under the spell of Erasmus. 
 He rebelled against the bondage of the old scholasticism, 
 the sophistry which had taken the place of true dialectics, 
 the barbarous travesty of Aristotleism which had supplanted 
 the teaching of a liberal and genuine philosophy. He put 
 Plato before the Aristotle of the schools. His special at- 
 tainments were in the knowledge of the Greek language and 
 love of its literature. And so, when he returned to Scot- 
 land, and was incorporated in or became a member of the 
 university of St. Andrews, in A.D. 1523, he read in the 
 original Greek what his teachers knew only in a barbarous 
 Latin rendering. 
 
 It was during Patrick Hamilton's residence in Paris that 
 Luther's disputations with Eck were published and the doc- 
 tors of the Sorbonne sat in judgment on the new doctrines. 
 And though after long deliberation that tribunal declared 
 Luther a heretic, and his works worthy to be burned, many 
 of the students sympathized with the reformer in his views 
 and read eagerly the brilliant defence of young Melanchthon 
 of Wittenberg. Hamilton was an ai'dent sympathizer with 
 the liberal views of the young scholar, and a warm admirer 
 of his generous humanistic culture. After spending a year 
 or two at Louvaine and Basel, he returned to St. Andrews, 
 and in A.D. 1524 became a member of the Faculty of Arts. 
 The teaching here was all after the antiquated scholastic 
 method ; but in the year of Hamilton's incorporation, Gavin 
 Logic, a liberal-minded man, became principal of St. 
 Andrews College, and drew about him a number of fresh,
 
 76 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 open hearted young men thirsting after knowledge, and 
 eager to hear about the new ideas which were causing such 
 a stir in academical circles abroad. To all such the coming 
 of Hamilton must have been a source of the highest plea- 
 sure. His linguistic attainments, his liberal culture, his 
 free doctrinal sympathies must have made him a centre of 
 attraction to all the members of the college possessed of the 
 inspiring enthusiasms of true students. Continued study 
 had brought him into much closer spiritual contact with the 
 profounder religious and theological views of Luther. And 
 evidently throughout Scotland such doctrines were spread- 
 ing, for in A.D. 1525 an Act was passed in Parliament 
 at the instance of the bishops, in which it was or- 
 dained that no one should bring into the country 
 any of Luther's heretical books, nor dispute about 
 his heresies on pain of losing his goods and suffering 
 imprisonment. Gavin Douglas of Dunkeld made himself 
 conspicuous for his zeal in publishing this act, and having it 
 applied to native Scots as well as to strangers. But all 
 such attempts at prohibition were in vain. Traders brought 
 in to Leith, Dundee, and Montrose copies, not only of 
 Luther's work, but also of Tyndale's English New Testa- 
 ment, and even into St. Andrews were they brought under 
 the very walls of the archbishop's castle. All the while 
 Hamilton was sorely exercised by what he saw every day 
 around him of the corruptions of the church, and at 
 length his spirit was so stirred within him that he could 
 not but speak out. In A.D. 1527, Archbishop Beaton, who 
 had been transferred from Glasgow to St. Andrews in A.D. 
 1522, having heard rumours against Hamilton, and having 
 satisfied himself of their truth, summoned him to appear 
 before him and answer to the charge of heresy. Hamilton 
 immediately fled to Germany, and at Wittenberg enjoyed 
 the friendship of Luther, and afterwards, at Marburg, that 
 of Melanchthon and Francis Lambert of Avignon, and also 
 of the Englishmen, William Tyndale and John Frith. It 
 was during his stay at the latter place, that Hamilton wrote 
 a set of Theses, which were translated by Frith, and are
 
 PREACHING OF PATRICK HAMILTON. 77 
 
 usually called "Patrick's Places." This little treatise, 
 which is given completely in Frith's translation in Fox's 
 Acts and Monuments, is the very earliest literary production 
 of the Scottish Reformation, and in it we have a fair reflec- 
 tion of the special type of Christian evangelical doctrine 
 developed in the preaching and writing of Luther and 
 Melanchthon. Residence with such men, however, not only 
 aided Hamilton in attaining unto a stable and consistent 
 system of doctrinal belief, it also stimulated his courage, 
 and made him resolute in his purpose to profess without 
 fear or flinching among his own people the truth which he 
 had learnt to treasure as the saving truth of God. And so, 
 after p short absence of six months, Hamilton returned to 
 Scotland, and, in the autumn of A.D. 1 527, he is found in 
 the old family mansion of Kincavel, where his mother, eldest 
 brother, and sister still remained. His first preaching was 
 in the parish church of Binny, now joined to Linlithgow, in 
 which Kincavel was situated, and here he had, in his own 
 relatives and in many of the other parishioners, devout and 
 interested listeners. The influence of the Lutheran doc- 
 trines spread all around, and the young preacher from day 
 to day, in all the districts round about Linlithgow, pro- 
 claimed the gospel message of salvation by faith in Christ, 
 and not by any magical power in the sacraments or by the 
 merit of good works. It would seem that during this 
 period, somewhere about the close of A.D. 1527, Hamilton 
 married a young lady of noble rank. He had always re- 
 fused to become a monk, and though titular abbot of 
 Feme, and drawing the revenues of that benefice, he was in 
 a position which allowed him legally to marry. We find 
 the name of a daughter, born after her father's death, men- 
 tioned in A.D. 1543 as that of one of the ladies of the court of 
 the regent, the Earl of Arran. 
 
 Archbishop Beaton, residing at Dunfermline, heard of 
 the preaching of Hamilton and the success which attended 
 it. Owing to the powerful connections of the bold young 
 reformer, the zealous prelate was obliged to proceed warily. 
 He invited Hamilton in a seemingly friendly manner to a
 
 78 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 conference in St. Andrews, apparently admitting the need 
 of reformation in the church. Neither Hamilton nor his 
 friends were in the least deceived by this measure. He had 
 himself the conviction that he had not long to live, and all 
 the members of his family pleaded with him not to trust 
 himself to his crafty and relentless enemy. Yet he felt it 
 his duty to go, that in St. Andrews he might have an 
 opportunity of effectively proclaiming the truth, though 
 this should be done by his death. He reached St. Andrews 
 in the middle of January, A.D. 1528, and had a lodging pro- 
 vided for him by the archbishop. The conference went on 
 calmly and quietly from day to day, and in order that 
 Hamilton might be entrapped into saying what would give 
 ample occasion of charge against him, every facility was 
 given him for conversation and discussion. He taught and 
 disputed openly in the university about matters of doctrine 
 and worship which he deemed to be in need of reformation. 
 Monks visited him and pretended anxiety on certain points, 
 in order that they might act as informers at his trial. 
 Among these the most prominent was Alexander Campbell, 
 prior of the Dominican monastery, who afterwards acted as 
 his principal assailant. One of the canons of the priory, 
 however, Alexander Alane or Alesius, who began to come 
 to Hamilton with the honest purpose of convincing him 
 of his errors, was himself so impressed with the truth 
 of scripture as presented by Hamilton that he embraced the 
 Lutheran faith, and afterwards, with great difficulty escaping 
 from St. Andrews, became a much valued teacher of theo- 
 logy in the universities of Germany. For a whole month 
 Hamilton was allowed to preach in public, and to hold 
 private interviews without restriction. At last he was 
 summoned to appear before the primate on a charge of 
 holding and teaching certain heresies. His friends urged 
 him to fly, and it would seem that the archbishop wished 
 that he would do so. All such counsels he calmly and de- 
 liberately laid aside. He had come to confirm the hearts of 
 the godly, and his flight would be a stumbling block to 
 them. His elder brother, who seems to have been with him
 
 TRIAL OF PATRICK HAMILTON. 
 
 79 
 
 up to this time, seeing what was in store, retired to 
 Kincavel, and used his authority as sheriff and captain of 
 one the royal castles to assemble a force for the rescue of 
 the prisoner, but was too late, owing to a storm that raged 
 in the Firth. Beaton, on the other hand, was sure of the 
 support of the young king, who, besides, was at this time in 
 the far north, at Tain, on a pilgrimage, and of the Earl of 
 Angus, for both the king and the earl were in need of his 
 help. An accusation under thirteen heads, mostly of a 
 doctrinal character, was brought against him, and after ex- 
 amination, he was allowed to continue at liberty. When, 
 however, Beaton learnt that Sir James Hamilton had armed 
 his men at Kincavel, and was preparing to deliver his 
 brother by force, he saw that it was necessary to hasten 
 matters. One night the castle guard surrounded Hamilton's 
 lodging, and he was carried off to prison. The primate, 
 with his nephew, David Beaton, abbot of Arbroath, Hep- 
 burn, prior of St. Andrews, a notoriously vicious man, and 
 a host of church dignitaries and doctors round about him, 
 took his seat on the tribunal, and the process began. Friar 
 Campbell read over his accusation, and sought to confute 
 article by article. Hamilton answered successfully all the 
 friar's questions and sophistries. His accuser then, denoun- 
 cing him as a heretic, brought a great number of miscel- 
 laneous charges against him. In the minds of all zealous 
 Romanists there could be no doubt of the guilt of heresy in 
 one who refused to pray to Virgin and saints, condemned the 
 use of images and denied the doctrine of purgatory. In due 
 form the primate, with the consent of all his assessors, found 
 him guilty of teaching divers opinions of Luther and wicked 
 heresies that children incontinent after their baptism are 
 sinners, that no man is justified by works but by faith only, 
 that good works make not a good man, but that a good man 
 doth make good works, etc. and that he obstinately main- 
 tained them, and therefore pronounced him a heretic to be 
 condemned and punished. He was therefore sentenced to be 
 deprived of all offices and benefices, and to be delivered over 
 to the secular power to be punished, and to have his goods
 
 80 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 confiscated. This sentence was pronounced on the last day 
 of February, A.D. 1528. Warrant for execution was imme- 
 diately obtained, the stake was prepared at the gate of St. 
 Salvator's College, and about noon on the same day on which 
 he was tried, the martyr walked forth to his doom. Through 
 the bungling of the executioners, the fire burned irregularly, 
 and death did not take place till about six o'clock in the 
 evening, the execution having lasted for about six hours. 
 
 The martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton, instead of striking 
 terror everywhere as the persecutors hoped, awakened sym- 
 pathy and enquiry. Knox quotes the saying of a com- 
 panion of the Archbishop, " If ye will burn them, let them 
 be burnt in hollow cellars, for the smoke of Mr. Patrick 
 Hamilton hath infected as many as it blew upon." Even 
 in St. Andrews men began to enquire why Hamilton was 
 burnt, whether his articles might not be defended, and in 
 the university itself, chiefly through the influence of Gavin 
 Logy and Wynram, the sub-prior, the vanity of superstition 
 and the evil life of the bishops began to be discussed, and 
 when a certain friar spoke against cursing and pretending 
 to work miracles, the famous John Major declared that his 
 doctrine could be well defended. Thus rapidly did the 
 good seed, watered by a martyr's blood, bear fruit. 
 
 One of the Blackfriars of St. Andrews, Alexander Seaton, 
 began to preach against the church traditions which had 
 obscured the true word of God. He maintained that Christ 
 Jesns is the end and perfection of the law, that there is no 
 sin where God's law is not violated, and that to satisfy for 
 sins lies not in men's power, but remission is through un- 
 feigned repentance and by faith of God in Jesus Christ. 
 Having severely censured the lives of the bishops, he aroused 
 their bitter hatred and was saved only by the king's favour 
 for him and his reputation for learning and holiness among 
 the people. But when the king, offended at the friar's 
 counsels about purity of life, was induced to sign his accusa- 
 tion, he fled to Berwick, and after in vain seeking from the 
 king a safe conduct, and offering to return to stand a fair 
 trial before His Majesty, he fled into England, and as chap-
 
 FORREST, STRAITON, AND GOURLAY. 81 
 
 lain to the Duke of Suffolk, preached the doctrines of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 Henry Forrest, a Benedictine friar of Linlithgow, was 
 suspected of heresy because he expressed sympathy with 
 Patrick Hamilton and approval of his writings, and because 
 he was found to have an English New Testament in his 
 possession. He was seized soon after Patrick Hamilton's 
 death and burnt at a stake erected at such a point that the 
 fire could be seen from the opposite shores of Angus. 
 Meanwhile the country was convulsed with civil wars be- 
 tween Douglas and Buccleugh, the Hamiltons and Lennox, 
 the king and the Douglas. Hence it was not for about ten 
 years, in A.D. 1534, that further victims for the truth of God 
 were brought to the stake. David Straiten, of a good family 
 in the Meams, had been roused against the Scottish ecclesi- 
 astics and their arrangements by the greed of the Bishop of 
 Moray, prior of St. Andrews, in claiming every tenth fish he 
 caught, so that he threw all such fish back into the sea, say- 
 ing that the bishop might fish them out for himself. He 
 had learned the truth of the gospel from Erskine of Dun, 
 and had frequently spoken against the corruptions of the 
 church. Norman Gourlay, a secular priest, had married, 
 had denied the doctrine of purgatory, and declared that the 
 Pope was no true bishop, and had no jurisdiction in Scot- 
 land. These two men were condemned and put to death by 
 burning in Greenside, at the foot of the Calton Hill, toward 
 Leith, and in view of the opposite coasts of Fife, on 27th 
 August, A.D. 1534. 
 
 In A.D. 1539, James Beaton died, and was succeeded in 
 September of that year by his nephew, David, Abbot of 
 Arbroath and Cardinal, who had long acted as his assistant 
 and adviser. The new Primate inaugurated his accession by 
 a vigorous persecution of heretics. Of those seized in the 
 end of February, A.D. 1540, five were burned on the Castle 
 Hill of Edinburgh. John Keillor, a Blackfriar, had produced 
 a dramatic piece in which it was evident that under the 
 figures of the Pharisees he had satirized the churchmen of 
 the day, and Dean Thomas Forrest of Dollar had preached
 
 82 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 every Sunday to the confusion of the idle bishops and had 
 been remiss in claiming the dues which others had been 
 greedily exacting. The easy, good-natured Bishop of Dun- 
 keld counselled the Dean in a very kindly fatherly way not 
 to be righteous over much to his own loss, and when he 
 declared that he found nothing in the Old Testament or in 
 the New that did not afford a good text for preaching, the 
 bishop thanked God that he never knew what the Old 
 Testament and the New Testament were, and that he knew 
 nothing beyond his breviary and mass book. The Cardinal 
 had something to do to stimulate the zeal of the prelates. 
 Archbishop Gavin Dunbar of Glasgow, though not perhaps 
 so easy as Crichton of Dunkeld, had no wish to be a perse- 
 cutor ; and so, in order to deal with heretics in the West, 
 Beaton had to send to Glasgow to urge on the reluctant 
 Archbishop, three of his own assistants, whom Knox 
 fittingly calls " sergeants of Satan."" Only under the threat 
 of the ill-will of the cardinal and all the bishops if he 
 refused, did Dunbar give his reluctant consent to the con- 
 demnation of Jerome Russel, a Greyfriar, and a young man 
 of poetic genius, Thomas Kennedy from Ayr. In May of 
 the same year, Beaton summoned a great gathering of nobles 
 and churchmen to meet in the Cathedral Church of St. 
 Andrews. From an elevated throne he addressed the large 
 assembly on the danger suffered by the church from 
 the spread of heresy. He pointed out one as an 
 example of those who had been receiving far too much con- 
 sideration at court and in high places. This was Sir John 
 Borthwick, whose father had fallen at Flodden, and himself 
 a favourite officer in the king's service. He is also said to 
 have been provost of Linlithgow, and so he, as well as 
 Henry Forrest, may have come personally under the influence 
 of Patrick Hamilton at Kincavel. A bill of thirteen counts 
 was presented against him as charge of heresy. He had 
 declared against the Papal supremacy, indulgences, clerical 
 celibacy, and said that the orders of monks and friars should 
 be abolished. He was also charged with having in his 
 possession and use the New Testament in English, and the
 
 DEATH OF JAMES V. 8j> 
 
 writings of Melanchthon, Erasmus, CEcolampadius, etc. 
 Well aware of the danger by which he was beset, he failed 
 to appear and fled to England, and was employed by Henry 
 VIII. in negotiations with the Protestant princes of Ger- 
 many. In his absence he was condemned and his property 
 confiscated ; should he be caught he was to be burned, in 
 the meantime he was burned in effigy. In A.D. 1561 this 
 sentence was reversed, and the presiding judge on this occa- 
 sion was John Wynram, the old sub-prior of St. Andrews, 
 now superintendent, who had been one of the judges on the 
 occasion of his condemnation. 
 
 The last two years of the life of King James V. were full 
 of national disasters. His uncle, Henry VIII. of England, 
 had now cast off the Papal authority, and once and again 
 endeavoured to win over the Scottish king to deal as he 
 himself had done with the ecclesiastical institutions and 
 their remedies. To James, who was chronically in need of 
 money, this, no doubt, was a very sore temptation. But he 
 had thrown in his lot with the churchmen, and his whole 
 policy was to depend upon the help of his clergy against his 
 nobles. The crafty cardinal made it his business to 
 strengthen the king's attachment to the Church, and to 
 make himself indispensable in the royal counsels. Beaton 
 was the sworn foe of England, and mainly under his in- 
 fluence James rejected all advances on the part of the 
 English monarch, and refused to listen to any of the schemes 
 proposed by Henry's ambassador. The humiliating and 
 shameful defeat of the Solway Moss on 25th November, A.D. 
 1542, was the final blow which utterly broke the heart of 
 the king, already crushed by misfortune and disappoint- 
 ment. In three weeks after the king was dead. He left the 
 country much more seriously and dangerously divided than 
 it had ever been before. The great majority of the nobles 
 were in favour of an alliance with England, and it was only 
 the power of the clergy, who felt that such an alliance would 
 sooner or later bring about the overthrow of their church, 
 that prevented its being effected. The struggle, therefore, 
 immediately began between the nobles and the clergy.
 
 84 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Beaton was with the king in his dying hours, and at once 
 after his death produced a document signed by the dying 
 monarch, which declared that the government of the country 
 during the infancy of the princess was to be in the hands of 
 a regency consisting of four, of whom Beaton was to be the 
 chief, having the Earls of Huntly, Argyll, and Moray 
 associated with him. But notwithstanding all the efforts of 
 the cardinal, the estates of the realm recognised the claims 
 of the Earl of Arran, and acknowledged him as regent. 
 Beaton was for a time put in prison, but soon by means of 
 bribes he secured his restoration to his former place in St. 
 Andrews. In the first parliament under the regent an impor- 
 tant measure was passed making it lawful for any man to 
 have a translation of the Old and New Testament and any 
 other treatises containing sound doctrine. Negotiations were 
 immediately entered into with England, and for a time it 
 seemed as if the evil ascendancy of Beaton and his party had 
 been overthrown. Unfortunately, however, Arran proved a 
 weak man. He was overawed by the threatenings of the 
 cardinal and the faction of the nobles attached to him, and 
 was wrought upon especially by superstitious fears of eccle- 
 siastical censure. He secretly withdrew himself from his 
 own party at Holyrood, joined the cardinal at Stirling, ob- 
 tained absolution, and promised to break with England and 
 enter again into league with France. The regent was now 
 a mere cipher, and the dominant figure in the whole govern- 
 ment was Beaton, whose influence soon showed itself in the 
 renewal of persecution. A proclamation was issued in the 
 name of the governor, declaring that heresy was spreading 
 to a dangerous extent, calling on prelates to make careful in- 
 quisition after heretics in their own dioceses, and promising 
 to deal promptly with any cases that might be reported. In 
 order to stimulate the energies of the churchmen, the car- 
 dinal, accompanied by the governor and other nobles and 
 bishops, made an ecclesiastical progress to Perth where five 
 persons, four men and one woman, the woman being the 
 wife of one of the men, were cited to answer for ridiculing 
 the saints of the church and refusing their worship and such
 
 BEATON GAINS ASCENDANCY. 85 
 
 like practices. The men were hanged and the woman was 
 drowned. This took place on 25th January, A.D. 1544. 
 By such acts, as well as by his persistent harassing of all 
 suspected of sympathy with the English party, Beaton had 
 become the object of bitter hatred on the part of many, and 
 these were already consulting as to how they might rid 
 themselves of so dangerous an enemy. To none was he more 
 obnoxious than to the king of England, and Henry seems to 
 have directly encouraged plots against his life. Meantime, 
 Henry did serious injury to his own cause by sending a well- 
 appointed fleet of two hundred ships into the Forth, which 
 landed troops at Leith on 3rd May, A.D. 1544. The English 
 soldiers burned a great part of Edinburgh, and ravaged the 
 country indiscriminately for miles round about, so that the 
 retainers and property of the supporters of the English 
 alliance suffered just as much as the party of the governor 
 and cardinal. The consequence was that Angus, with many 
 powerful noblemen and gentlemen of his faction, at once 
 attached himself to Beaton, and as most of those who still 
 adhered to the English league were known to be pensioners 
 of Henry, the followers of the cardinal, who leant on the 
 help of France, came to be regarded as the patriotic party. 
 And thus in a very short time the hopes of the Protestants 
 were blasted, and their persecutors were again in power, all 
 the more anxious, because of the progress recently made by 
 the professors of evangelical religion, to stamp out vigor- 
 ously and without delay every trace of heresy. Beaton now 
 took the opportunity of strengthening his castle of St. 
 Andrews, and made himself thus to some extent independent 
 both of England and of France. 
 
 The idea of removing the cardinal was not meanwhile 
 lost sight of. One of the staunchest friends of England 
 among the Scottish nobles was the earl of Cassilis. It 
 would seem that he offered to kill the cardinal, if Henry 
 would say that he wished it done and would promise a re- 
 ward to him for doing it. This was what the English king 
 wished above anything, but he scrupled to have his name 
 associated with the deed as the instigator of it. As it was.
 
 86 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 he preferred to try open war, which resulted only in 
 temporarily strengthening the hands of those who had 
 opposed his policy and the progress of the protestant refor- 
 mation. And if only Beaton had been less savage in his 
 treatment of those suspected of heresy, and had been con- 
 tent to exercise his powers as a politician, which undoubtedly 
 were great, and for a time at least had remitted his zeal as 
 a religious persecutor, he might probably have postponed 
 the revolution which swept the Roman Catholic Church out 
 of Scotland, and would almost certainly have escaped the 
 tragical fate which was so soon to cut him off. 
 
 In May, A.D. 1544, Crichton of Brunston, in Midlothian, 
 acting along with others, conceived a plot for the assassina- 
 tion of Beaton, and according to the record of the State 
 Papers of Henry VIII., sent "a Scottishman named 
 Wysshart " with letters to the Earl of Hertford and the 
 king, revealing the plot, and seeking the protection of the 
 English king to the conspirators. The suggestion that this 
 conspirator was the famous martyr, George Wishart, though 
 insisted upon by fanatical Romanists, and by Tytler and 
 Hill Burton, is now emphatically set aside by all reputable 
 historians. There is nothing in common between the two 
 but the name, which at that very period was not an uncom- 
 mon one in Scotland. If there had been any feasibility in 
 it, it would certainly have been made prominent among the 
 charges brought against the evangelical preacher ; but on 
 the occasion of his trial it was not even hinted at. The 
 story of the school life of George Wishart will prove the 
 best refutation of such a calumny. 
 
 Sprung from an old French family which had settled in 
 the Mearns in the twelfth century, several members of 
 which had held the highest positions in the state, George 
 Wishart was born probably at Pitarrow, near Fordun, in 
 A.D. 1513.* His father was Sir James Wishart of Pitarrow, 
 a distinguished lawyer, and at the time of George's birth, 
 
 One of the best and fullest accounts of Wishart may be seen in 
 Scott, The Martyrs of Angus and Mearns, Paisley, 1885, pp. 99-209.
 
 WISHART IN ENGLAND. 87 
 
 Lord Justice Clerk. Young Wishart studied at Aberdeen 
 University under Hector Boece. But it was in the Gram- 
 mar School of Montrose, under Pierre de Marsiliers, brought 
 there by the liberal patron of learning, Erskine of Dun, 
 that George Wishart learnt Greek. It was in this school 
 and by this teacher that the Greek language was first taught 
 in Scotland. This was the study to which Wishart gave 
 his whole thought, and in A.D. 1538 we find him acting as 
 colleague to his old master ; and while he taught the lan- 
 guage with enthusiasm, he also sought to inspire his pupils 
 with a love for the evangelical doctrines of the New Testa- 
 ment, as he read with them the original text. This story 
 reaching the ears of the cardinal, he caused Hepburn, 
 bishop of Brechin, to summon the young schoolmaster on 
 charge of heresy. Instead of answering the summons, 
 Wishart quietly withdrew into England, and during A.D. 
 1539 he was resident in Bristol, where, under the patronage 
 of Bishop Latimer of Worcester, who had given him license 
 and some ecclesiastical appointment, he preached, and by 
 his preaching attracted considerable attention. Strangely 
 enough he fell into doctrinal error, declaring that Christ 
 could not merit for us. It was, no doubt, the result of a 
 violent recoil from the externalism of the Romish teaching, 
 and the utterance of a strong ethical sense which had been 
 outraged by the pernicious doctrine that righteousness 
 could be bought and put on as something from without. 
 Wishart was tried and convicted of this heresy in a court 
 presided over by Archbishop Cranmer, and being convinced, 
 he recanted, and henceforth preached according to the truth 
 of the New Testament. His establishment in evangelical 
 truth was largely brought about by his residence during the 
 year 1540 on the continent, where he enjoyed the society of 
 Bullinger and Calvin, and the influence upon him of the 
 teaching of the Genevan reformer is shown by this, that he 
 translated the First Helvetic Confession into his native lan- 
 guage. In A.D. 1542 Wishart returned to England, and 
 settled in Cambridge, where he exerted a powerful influence 
 as a teacher. In the following year he went to London,
 
 88 ' HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 and returned to Scotland with the Commissioners who had 
 been treating with the king for the marriage of his son to 
 the Scottish Queen, one of these commissioners being a near 
 relative of his own. In Montrose he immediately began to 
 preach, expounding the ten commandments, the Lord's 
 Prayer, and the Apostles 1 creed. He then proceeded to 
 Dundee, where he expounded the Epistle to the Romans, 
 and his lectures caused great excitement, so that, in their 
 zeal against the abuses of the church, the people destroyed 
 some of the monasteries, and drove out the greedy indolent 
 monks. The governor, Arran, who was now completely 
 under the power of Beaton, ordered Wishart to leave Dun- 
 dee, but still the reformer preached on. He was shielded 
 by Sir John Scrymgeour, the provost, but when at last, in 
 the name of the queen and the governor, he was formally 
 inhibited, the preacher left the town, and went into Ayr- 
 shire, where the Wickliffites had so long found shelter and 
 security. Here he enjoyed the friendship and protection of 
 the Earl of Glencairn, and with great success preached in 
 Ayr, Galston, Mauchline, and other parishes in Kyle. Soon 
 after Wishart had left Dundee the plague broke out in that 
 town, and when, in August, A.D. 1545, the young preacher 
 heard that thousands were dying there of pestilence and 
 famine, he hastened at once to the post of danger, 
 which he felt to be the post of duty. The sick lay 
 in booths outside the walls, and those not yet affected 
 resided within. The preacher accordingly took his stand on 
 the Portal of the East Gate or the Cowgate Port, so that 
 he could address at once those within and those without. 
 Taking as his text the words of the Psalmist, " He sent His 
 word and healed them,*" he discoursed to the suffering and 
 terrified people of God's mercy toward those who receive 
 His word, and his judgments upon those who reject it. 
 From day to day he visited the sick, brought comfort to 
 them, and ministered to the needy of his means. Once at 
 the close of his sermon a priest waited for him, clutching 
 a dagger under his cloak, but Wishart seized his hand and 
 prevented the murder which he had contemplated. With
 
 ARREST OF WISHART. 
 
 great difficulty Wishart protected the wretched man from 
 the rage of the multitude. Leaving Dundee the reformer 
 made a short stay in Montrose, where he narrowly escaped 
 falling into a trap devised by Beaton for his murder, and 
 then passed on to Edinburgh to meet some of his Ayrshire 
 friends who wished to bring about a public disputation be- 
 tween Wishart and the bishops. On his arrival he found 
 that they had not come, and so under the protection of 
 the lairds of Brunston, Longniddry, and Ormiston, he 
 preached in several of the churches round about Edinburgh. 
 Here he made some important additions to his following, 
 especially Sir George Douglas of Pittenreich, brother of the 
 Earl of Angus. When, however, he went to Haddington, 
 the Earl of Both well, Beaton's friend, prevented the people 
 from going to his preaching. Disappointed in his audience, 
 Wishart was comforted by the counsel and sympathy of 
 John Knox, tutor in the house of Douglas of Longniddry, 
 whom he now met for the first and last time. As he went 
 to Ormiston, the preacher was overpowered by a presenti- 
 ment of impending evil. Knox wished to accompany him, 
 but he bade him return to his pupils, saying " one is 
 sufficient for a sacrifice." During the night, Bothwell, who 
 had five hundred armed men in Elphinstone Tower in 
 readiness if they should be needed, knocked at the gate of 
 Ormiston House and demanded Wishart. The laird would 
 have stoutly refused, but Wishart, trusting BothwelPs assur- 
 ances that he would deliver him back to his friends in safety, 
 insisted upon surrendering. After he had been for some 
 little time moved hither and thither, he was at last given 
 over into the hands of the cardinal, and in the end of 
 January, A.D. 1546, he was committed to the dark gloomy 
 dungeon of the Sea Tower at St. Andrews, where for four 
 or five weeks he lay in irons awaiting his trial and the in- 
 evitable doom. 
 
 The proceedings against Wishart in the Abbey Church 
 of St. Andrews on 28th February, A.D. 1546, began with a 
 sermon by John Wynram, the sub-prior, already half-protes- 
 tant. The accusation against Wishart consisted of eighteen
 
 90 HISTOEY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 counts, in reply to which, so long as he was allowed to speak, 
 the prisoner answered with moderation and conspicuous 
 ability to the great annoyance and confusion of his enemies. 
 He was immediately adjudged by the cardinal, the arch- 
 bishop of Glasgow and the other dignitaries assembled, to 
 be a heretic worthy of death, and was sentenced to be burned 
 on the day following. The sub-prior conferred with him in 
 his dungeon, and ventured his life by pleading with Beaton 
 for his release. Refused by the cardinal the sacrament 
 which Wynram would have dispensed to him, he himself dis- 
 pensed it, and partook of the sacred elements with the 
 Captain of the Castle and other well-disposed gentlemen. 
 He spent the night in prayer and devout meditation. On 
 the morning of 1st March, A.D. 1546, he was led forth to 
 the stake, with a rope round his neck and his hands tied 
 behind his back. The cannons of the castle were loaded 
 and directed upon the place of execution in case a rescue 
 might be attempted. The cardinal and the archbishop 
 lolled on cushions laid upon the wall head, and feasted their 
 eyes with the dying tortures of the martyr. It is commonly 
 said that Wishart, looking to the cardinal, said " He who 
 in such state, from that high place, feedeth his eyes with my 
 torments, within a few days shall be hanged out at the same 
 window, to be seen with as much ignominy as he now leaneth 
 there in pride." And it has been argued by those who bear 
 the martyr no good will that he must have been cognisant 
 of a plot to assassinate his cruel persecutor. But it is 
 noticeable that this statement does not appear in the earliest 
 editions of Knox's history, nor in Foxe's Acts and Monu- 
 ments, nor in the writings of Sir David Lindsay. The 
 words have evidently been put into his mouth by some later 
 writer, and were never uttered by him. All that he did say 
 in this direction was that if the prelates were not converted 
 from their wicked error, the wrath of God which they shall 
 not eschew shall hastily come down upon them. When the 
 fire was lighted a violent blast of wind drove the flames up 
 around the victim, whose body was soon consumed to
 
 DEATH OF CARDINAL BEATON. 91 
 
 powder. Unlike his predecessor, Patrick Hamilton, he was 
 not long tormented in the fire. 
 
 By the burning of Wishart, and by his heartless and 
 haughty conduct in the management of the trial and execu- 
 tion, Beaton, in the eyes of all sympathisers with the work of 
 reformation, and of all lovers of national independence, had 
 filled up the measure of his sins. Men now spoke out against 
 him who had not spoken out before. On the morning of the 
 28th May, A.D. 1546, John Leslie, brother of the Earl of 
 Rothes, Norman Leslie, son and heir of the Earl, William 
 Kirk caldy, younger of Grange, James Melville, and Peter Car- 
 michael, secured entrance to the castle of St. Andrews, sur- 
 prised the cardinal before he had left his room, and denounc- 
 ing him as the murderer of God's servant, George Wishart, 
 thrust him through with their swords, while he cried out 
 " I am a priest, I am a priest ; fie, fie, all is gone." 
 
 Thus perished the first and last cardinal which Scotland 
 has ever had, a man of great talents, but immoral and un- 
 scrupulous, and wanting in all the higher qualities of a lead- 
 ing statesmen. Had his own life been noble and pure, had 
 his influence been directed to the reforming of abuses within 
 the church, his memory would have been embalmed in the 
 history of his country as that of a good churchman and a 
 true patriot. Being what he was and doing what he did, 
 he wrecked ruinously the church that he sought to save, and 
 left his country rent by discords deep and long enduring, and 
 the legacy of a lifetime of evil doing for which 
 his violent death was but a poor atonement.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Knox and the Reformation* 
 A.D. 15461572. 
 
 AFTER the death of Beaton the conspirators, twelve in num- 
 ber, remained in the castle of St. Andrews. Some of these 
 men were undoubtedly actuated by the purest and most 
 unselfish motives, fanatical, perhaps, but genuinely religious 
 and patriotic ; others were mere political adventurers and 
 desperadoes, whose conduct was not restrained by any 
 sanctions either of morality or religion. They were joined 
 soon afterwards by a company of one hundred and forty men 
 of the same mixed character, mostly from Fife, and they had 
 as their chaplain John Rough, originally a Dominican friar, 
 who had been one of the chaplains of the Regent Arran 
 during the time that he professed attachment to the Pro- 
 testant faith. 
 
 Meanwhile John Hamilton, Abbot of Paisley and Bishop 
 of Dunkeld, an illegitimate son of the late Earl of Arran, and 
 therefore brother of the regent, was in 1547 elected arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews and metropolitan of Scotland. His 
 character was at least as infamous as that of his predecessor. 
 Though evidently devoid of all moral and religious principle, 
 he was a skilful intriguer, consistently devoted to the in- 
 terest of the Church, and determined vigorously to suppress 
 
 * Literature : Knox, History of the Reformation in Scotland, in 
 Works, Edin. 1846, Vols. I. and II. ; M'Crie, Life of John Knov, 
 (1811), Edin. 1S54 ; Hume Brown, John Knox a Biography, 2 vols., 
 Edin. 1895 ; Taylor Innes, John Knox, Edin., 1896 ; Lee, Lectures 
 on History of Church of Scotland, Edin. 1860, Vol. I. ; Narratives of 
 Scottish Catholics under Mary Stewart and James 1., ed. by W. 
 Forbes-Leith, Edin. 1885. 
 
 92
 
 BEHAVIOUR OF CONSPIRATORS. 
 
 every movement in favour of reform either in Church or in 
 State. In order that he might fully exercise his archie- 
 piscopal functions, it was necessary that he should reside in 
 St. Andrews, but the dislodgment of those who now held 
 the Castle was found to be a task that could not easily or 
 speedily be executed. 
 
 The leading conspirators received rewards in money from 
 the king of England, and as the castle could be approached 
 from the sea, English ships were sent to supply the garrison 
 with provisions. This enabled those within the castle to 
 hold out till the end of the year. It would seem that the 
 castle party had soon dominated the town population, and 
 that those composing the garrison by no means confined 
 themselves to their fortifications, but went out and mingled 
 freely with the citizens. Many of them gave loose reins to 
 their passions, and behaved in such a violent and licentious 
 way as to bring the whole company to which they belonged 
 into disrepute. So recklessly wicked and riotous did their 
 behaviour become, that Rough, finding his exhortations 
 scoffed at and all his labours in vain, left the castle and 
 devoted himself to the evangelizing of the town's folk. A 
 truce had been agreed to between the Regent's party and 
 those in the castle, and in the meantime the one was looking 
 to France and the other to England for help. During the 
 early months of A.D. 1547, Rough was engaged in discussion 
 with Dean Annand, a narrow-minded bigoted Papist, but 
 one who in dialectical subtlety and skill as a debater was 
 more than a match for the zealous and true-hearted, but not 
 thoroughly educated preacher. 
 
 At this time the holders of the castle received a most 
 important addition to their number. According to his own 
 account, it was at Easter A.D. 1547, that John Knox, along 
 with his pupils, two sons of the laird of Longniddry and a 
 son of the laird of Ormiston, entered the castle, and threw 
 in his lot with those who were holding it against the Govern- 
 ment. Wearied with the constant persecution which he 
 had endured from the archbishop of St. Andrews and with 
 incessant moving from place to place, he had intended to
 
 94 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND, 
 
 leave Scotland and visit the schools of Germany, but was 
 entreated by the parents of his pupils to go to St. Andrews 
 and in the shelter afforded by the castle continue the in- 
 struction of the youths. Knox was now in his forty-second 
 year, having been born in A.D. 1505, probably in the small 
 parish of Morham, in the immediate vicinity of Haddington. 
 He was sent in his seventeenth year to Glasgow, where in 
 A.D. 1522 he matriculated in the university and studied 
 under the famous John Major, whose severely scholastic 
 method had a lifelong influence upon him. Knox continued 
 to be much more of the schoolman than any of the other 
 great reformers. After teaching for a time with success in 
 St. Andrews, he was ordained, probably not later than A.D. 
 1530. By and by his lectures began to show the influence 
 of evangelical teaching, so that for a number of years he 
 lay under the suspicion of heresy, and was watched by 
 Beaton, until he found it necessary to withdraw to the south 
 of Scotland. The cardinal now degraded him and stripped 
 him of his priest's orders, and employment and protection 
 were afforded him by his reception into the house of the 
 laird of Longniddry as teacher of his sons. Here in the 
 immediate neighbourhood of his own native place, Knox 
 met with Wishart in the beginning of A.D. 1546, and was 
 already so firmly established in the truth of the reformed 
 faith that he was with difficulty dissuaded from accompany- 
 ing the victim marked out for martyrdom and sharing his 
 fate. During the time of his residence at Longniddry, he 
 was in the habit of giving publicly in the church of Had- 
 dington the religious instruction and expositions of Scripture 
 which he had prepared for his scholars. 
 
 When Knox entered the castle of St. Andrews he con- 
 tinued his regular course of instruction with his boys, and 
 gave the public the privilege of hearing his catechising and 
 expounding of the divine word. He found that Rough was 
 overweighted in his discussions with Annand, and so he 
 came to the aid of the reformer by publishing elaborate and 
 crushing rejoinders to the subtle and plausible statements of 
 the Popish champion. Rough and the other leaders of the
 
 KNOX CALLED TO THE MINISTRY. 95 
 
 reformed party in St. Andrews, including Henry Balnaves 
 and Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, at once perceived that 
 they had among them a man of no ordinary stamp. Acting 
 upon the commission of the rest, Rough preached on Sabbath 
 on the nature and sacredness of the call to the ministry by 
 a congregation, and concluded by an appeal to Knox to 
 accept the call which there and then the people of God 
 worshipping in the church of St. Andrews were prepared 
 unanimously to give him. With great reluctance, under a 
 deep sense of responsibility, and after days of prayer and 
 meditation in solitude, Knox felt that he dared not 
 refuse the call. In his first sermon on Daniel vii., 
 24-27, he defined the true church, and showed what 
 its notes or characteristics are, and then pointed out 
 the corruptions of antichrist, which is contrary to 
 Christ in life, doctrine, laws and subjects. In con- 
 clusion, he appealed to all present, among whom were 
 John Major, the sub-prior John Wynram, many canons and 
 priors, both Franciscan and Dominican, to say whether any 
 of his proofs from Scripture and the fathers were not strictly 
 accurate. At the instigation of the archbishop, who had 
 sharply reproved the sub-prior, now acting as vicar-general, 
 for his remissness in tolerating such heretical preaching, 
 Wynram was obliged to summon Rough and Knox to a 
 convention at which he proposed to discuss certain articles 
 with them. He summed up in nine articles the proposi- 
 tions which Knox was said in his preaching to have main- 
 tained in opposition to the teaching of the Catholic church. 
 The doctrine of Knox was set forth under these nine heads : 
 1, No mortal man can be head of the Church ; 2, The Pope 
 is an antichrist, and so is no member of Christ's mystical 
 body ; 3, Man may neither make nor devise a religion that 
 is acceptable to God, but man is bound to observe and keep 
 the religion that from God is received, without chopping or 
 changing thereof; 4, The sacraments of the New Testament 
 ought to be administered as they were instituted by Christ 
 Jesus, and preached by his Apostles : nothing ought to be 
 added to them, nothing ought to be diminished from them;
 
 96 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 5, The mass is abominable idolatry, blasphemous to the 
 death of Christ, and a profanation of the Lord's Supper ; 6, 
 There is no purgatory, in the which the souls of men can 
 either be pined or purged after this life, but heaven resteth 
 to the faithful, and hell to the reprobates and unfaithful ; 
 7, Praying for the dead is vain and to the dead is idolatry ; 
 S, There is no bishop, except he preach ever by himself, 
 without any substitute ; 9, The tithes by God's law do not 
 appertain of necessity to the churchmen. On these points 
 of doctrine, which indicate very clearly what the Scottish 
 reformers repudiated and what they maintained, a discussion 
 was carried on under Wynram's direction by Arbuckle, a 
 Greyfriar. Among other foolish things, the friar declared 
 that the gold, silver and precious stones built on the good 
 foundation were the Church ceremonies, and explained the 
 absence of all reference to these ceremonies in the Apostolic 
 Epistles by the strange hypothesis that when the Apostles 
 wrote the Epistles they had not received the Spirit, and 
 that after receiving the Spirit they ordained the ceremonies. 
 This astounding statement called forth the rebuke of the 
 superior, who cried ; " Father, what say ye ? God forbid 
 that ye affirm that ; for then farewell the ground of our 
 faith." 
 
 Terrified by the success of the Protestant preach- 
 ing, the Romish party determined to have the pulpit of the 
 parish church occupied every Sabbath by learned men of the 
 Abbey and University so as to exclude Knox and other 
 preachers of the new doctrines. But Knox was all the busier 
 preaching every week day, so that he gathered a great con- 
 gregation and dispensed the communion not only to those 
 within the castle but to a large number of the town's people 
 as well. The Queen and her party were enraged and roused 
 by what they heard of these proceedings, and urged their 
 French allies to come speedily to their help. On the 29th 
 of June there appeared before St. Andrews twenty-one 
 French gallies, which made no impression on town or castle, 
 and themselves sustained serious loss, until on 23rd July the 
 Regent's land forces joined the fleet, and the castle was be-
 
 KXOX IN THE GALLEYS. 97 
 
 sieged on every side. All the while Knox spoke to them 
 after the manner of Jeremiah. He felt convinced that be- 
 cause of their corrupt life and licentiousness God would not 
 help them, their thick walls would be like egg shells, 
 England would fail them, and they would be carried away 
 into a strange country. After a violent cannonade on July 
 30th, beginning at five in the morning and lasting till about 
 eleven o'clock, the defences of the castle were found to be so 
 utterly destroyed and so many of the garrison slain, that on 
 the following day a surrender was made on the condition 
 that all lives should be saved, that they should be sent to 
 France, and that, should they not be satisfied with the 
 terms of service offered them by the king, they should be 
 sent to any country, other than Scotland, which they might 
 desire. They were all thus taken on board the French gal- 
 leys, and in November, after a long voyage, during which 
 they encountered many dangers, they reached Fecamp, and 
 sailed up the Seine to Rouen. In this city, instead of free- 
 dom, imprisonment was the lot of the chief of the Scottish 
 gentlemen, while those kept in the galleys were barbarously 
 used. John Knox was in the galleys all the winter. The 
 King of France and the Regent of Scotland were thanked 
 by the pope for the way in which they had avenged the 
 cardinal's death, and urged to continue with rigour and 
 severity as they had begun. 
 
 From Rouen the galleys went to Nantz, and lay in the 
 river Loire all winter. Some of the prisoners ashore were 
 afterwards taken to Mont St. Michel, and were subjected 
 to much hardship and to many sufferings because they re- 
 fused to go to mass. Those in the galleys were asked on one 
 occasion to kiss a painted lady, the picture of the Virgin on a 
 board, "and a Scotsman," says Knox, probably himself, 
 " when the board was violently thrust into his hands, threw 
 it into the river, saying, Let our Lady now save herself, 
 she is light enough, let her learn to swim." We do not 
 wonder to hear that after this no Scotsman was urged to take 
 part in that idolatry. The prisoners on land managed to 
 make their escape, and after long wandering in disguise, 
 
 G
 
 98 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 and after manifold adventures, they reached England early 
 in A.D. 1549, where they found Knox, who, with others of 
 the galley slaves, had that winter, after eighteen months of 
 exile, been set at liberty. He remained in England five 
 years, busily engaged in assisting the reformers with the 
 preparation of their church services, and preaching the 
 gospel in Berwick and Newcastle, and afterwards in London 
 and Kent. In A.D. 1551 he was appointed one of the royal 
 chaplains, and in the end of A.D. 1552 he was offered and, 
 much to Cecil's annoyance, declined the bishopric of 
 Rochester. Some months after the beginning of Queen 
 Mary's reign in A.D. 1553, he was obliged to leave England 
 and to pass over to Geneva. After living there privately 
 for a while, pursuing his studies under the eyes of John 
 Calvin, he received a call from the English congregation 
 meeting at Frankfort in the autumn of A.D. 1544, which, 
 with considerable reluctance, he accepted. The Protestant 
 community there, however, suffered greatly from contro- 
 versies about ritual and ceremonies, and the Puritan party,, 
 to which Knox had attached himself, and of which he was 
 the recognised leader, were beaten, and Knox was driven 
 away by the cowardly device of the ritualistic minority. 
 Knox was accused of treason against the Emperor and the 
 English sovereign Queen Mary, for having said of the one 
 that he was little better than Nero, and of the other that 
 she was more cruel than Jezebel. The magistrates of Frank- 
 fort, fearing that they might not be able to defend him, 
 urged his withdrawal from the city. His principal Puritan 
 coadjutors left Frankfort for Geneva, where they established 
 a congregation, but Knox himself in August, A.D. 1555, 
 paid a visit to Scotland, travelling from Geneva by way of 
 Dieppe. 
 
 The ignorance and degradation of the Romish priests 
 had now become notorious. Many of them scarcely knew 
 the alphabet. It was felt by the more intelligent of the 
 prelates that something must be done to rescue if possible 
 the church services from the contempt into which they had 
 fallen. Archbishop Hamilton seemed to think that the
 
 PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 99 
 
 dangers which threatened the church would pass away if 
 only some of the more patent faults of the churchmen were 
 removed. Accordingly he published in 1552 a Catechism 
 for the guidance of the clergy. It was written in the 
 Scottish dialect, and was appointed to be recited, when 
 there was no competent priest present, for half an hour be- 
 fore Mass. It was to be read through consecutively without 
 omission or addition, and without comment of any kind, 
 and no controversy was on any account to be allowed. In 
 order to avoid making themselves ridiculous by blundering, 
 the priests were to read it over carefully beforehand. It 
 was not to be communicated to laymen, except in a few 
 special cases at the discretion of the bishops. This work, 
 however, does not seem to have exerted any considerable 
 influence, and soon every trace of the book disappeared. * 
 
 In the meantime some progress was being made in the 
 work of reformation in Scotland. During the reign of 
 Edward VI. several Scottish protestants had sought refuge 
 in England, and on his death in A.D. 1553, many of these 
 returned to their native country to escape the violence of 
 his successor. Among these were William Harlaw and John 
 Willock, the former not very learned, but able and zealous, 
 and a most eifective preacher of the gospel ; the latter a 
 man of great learning and talent, who greatly assisted Knox 
 in drawing up the first Scottish Form of Church Government. 
 These two did much in the way of building up little protes- 
 tant congregations, and encouraging those who loved the 
 gospel. They were warmly supported by John Erskine of 
 Dun, a landed proprietor in Forfarshire, afterwards a 
 Superintendent in the Reformed Church, and a life-long 
 earnest and intelligent supporter of the evangelical cause. 
 
 When Knox arrived in Edinburgh he gave exhortations 
 in the house in which he lodged, which were attended by 
 the laird of Dun, Maitland of Lethington, John Willock, 
 
 * See, The Catechism of John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, 
 1552, edited by T. Graves Law, Librarian of Signet Library, Oxford, 
 1884, with Prefatory Note by Mr. Gladstone.
 
 100 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 and others. He found that many of those who were zealous 
 and sincere in their profession of the evangelical faith did 
 not scruple to go to mass, using, among other pleas, the 
 case of Paul, who, at the bidding of James and the elders, 
 went to the temple and feigned the keeping of a vow. 
 Knox maintained that the mass was idolatry, and not like a 
 vow which might be of God, but further, he did not scruple 
 to say that he did not regard James" 1 advice and Paul's con- 
 duct as proceeding from the Spirit, but as a scheme of their 
 own which brought Paul afterwards into trouble. This led 
 Erskine and his friends boldly to avoid from this time on- 
 ward giving any countenance to Romish doctrines and 
 ceremonies. Knox now went with Erskine to Dun, and 
 spent a month in preaching the gospel throughout the sur- 
 rounding district. After this he was in Calder and other 
 places round about Edinburgh, where several noblemen, and 
 among them the young prior of St. Andrews, afterwards the 
 good Earl of Moray, listened to his teaching, and wished to 
 have it made public. He was also busily engaged, especi- 
 ally in Ayrshire, preaching and dispensing the sacrament of 
 the Lord's Supper., in the houses of Campbell of Kinyean- 
 cleugh, Lord Ochiltree, the Earl of Glencairn, and other 
 gentlemen attached to the interests and principles of the 
 gospel. 
 
 The success of Knox was so great that the clergy became 
 alarmed, and persuaded the Queen Regent to summon him 
 to appear at the church of the Black Friars on the loth of 
 May to answer a charge of heresy. This Knox was very 
 willing to do, but as his friends marshalled in large numbers 
 in Edinburgh, the court was never held, and on the day on 
 which he should have been tried he preached openly in 
 Edinburgh to a more than usually crowded assembly. At 
 the suggestion of some of the well-affected nobles, he put 
 the arguments, which they had thought unanswerable in his 
 preaching, in an epistle, and sent it to Mary of Guise, under 
 the title : The Letter to the Queen Dowager. After reading 
 it she handed it to James Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow, 
 with the mocking words : " Please you, my lord, to read a
 
 KNOX IN GENEVA AND DIEPPE. 101 
 
 pasquil." This treatment of his letter only led Knox to 
 write it again with additions, in which he spoke his mind 
 very freely as to what the end would be of the wicked and 
 crafty policy which she was then pursuing. 
 
 While everything seemed promising, and success was 
 attending the ministry of Knox everywhere, he surprised his 
 friends by announcing his intention of at once returning to 
 Geneva. The little congregation there had written him in- 
 sisting that as their pastor he should come to them immedi- 
 ately for their comfort. Accordingly, he left Scotland for 
 Geneva in July, A.D. 1556. He was no sooner gone than 
 his enemies summoned him, and, in his absence, condemned 
 him as a heretic, and burned his effigy at the stake. This 
 afforded Knox an opportunity, of which he soon availed 
 himself, of writing one of his most important works : " The 
 Appelation of John Knox from the cruel and most unjust 
 sentence pronounced against him by the false bishops and 
 clergy of Scotland, with his supplication and exhortation to 
 the Nobility, States, and Commonality of the same realm. 
 1558." He appealed to a General Council lawfully sum- 
 moned and constituted after the ancient manner. Mean- 
 while his friends in Scotland had written him to Geneva 
 urging his speedy return. On the advice of Calvin and 
 other godly friends, he resolved to obey this call, and 
 accordingly, in September, A.D. 1557, he left Geneva and 
 went to Dieppe, but while waiting here for a vessel to carry 
 him home, he received a letter from the leaders of the 
 Scottish reformed party urging him to wait where he was. 
 They had become afraid lest, by pushing matters hastily, 
 they might lose the advantages and liberties which they 
 possessed. On 27th October he answered by a letter in 
 which he expresses himself with some natural indignation 
 about their faintheartedness. This had a good effect upon 
 the nobles and friends of the gospel in Scotland in stirring 
 them up and arousing enthusiasm, and so, on 3rd December, 
 1557, Argyle, Glencairn, Morton, Erskine of Dun, and a 
 great number of influential and earnest men in Edinburgh, 
 signed a Covenant, promising continually to apply their
 
 102 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 whole power, substance, and their very lives to maintain, set 
 forward, and establish the most blessed word of God and 
 his congregation, and to forsake and renounce the congrega- 
 tion of Satan, with all the superstitions, abominations, and 
 idolatry thereof, and to declare themselves manifestly enemies 
 thereto. 
 
 The archbishop of St. Andrews, having tried diplomacy 
 with the nobles who favoured reformation, and having failed 
 in his endeavours, had recourse once more to those violent 
 methods which have made his name well-nigh as infamous 
 as that of his predecessor. His victim was an aged priest, 
 Walter Miln of Lunan,* on the Forfarshire coast, between 
 Arbroath and Montrose. He was already in his fiftieth 
 year, when, in A.D. 1526, he was presented to the vicarage 
 of Lunan by David Beaton, abbot of Arbroath. Suspected 
 of heresy by his patron, he was driven into exile shortly 
 before the cardinal's death in A.D. 1546, after serving in his 
 cure for about twenty years. After residing for a time 
 among the Lollards of Kyle, he went to Germany, returning 
 to Scotland in A.D. 1556, He was now married and had 
 several children. The temporary clemency of the Regent, 
 and the toleration extended to the reformed preachers in 
 other parts of the land, so far deceived Miln that he ven- 
 tured too near the seat of the archbishop in St. Andrews. 
 While at Dysart his movements were watched by popish 
 spies, and he was apprehended on the charge of heresy, and 
 thrown into the dungeon of the castle of St. Andrews. On 
 the 20th of April, A.D. 1558, this blameless man, now in his 
 eighty-second year, was brought forth in the Abbey Church 
 to answer the charge, before the archbishop, the bishops of 
 Moray, Brechin, Caithness, and Galloway, the abbots of 
 Lindores, Dunfermline, Balmerino, and Cupar, Wynram, 
 doctor of theology, and other dignitaries and friars. He 
 answered the bullying interrogations of his accuser in a 
 clear voice, and with great decision and evident conviction. 
 
 * The best and fullest account of Walter Miln is to be found in 
 Scott : Martyrs of AngvA and Mearns, Paisley, 1885, pp. 210-271.
 
 SCOTTISH COMMISSIONERS IN FRANCE. 103 
 
 When condemned to the stake, he said : " Ye shall know 
 that I will not recant the truth. I am corn, I am no chaff; 
 I will not be blown away with the wind, nor burst with the 
 flails, but I will abide both." At the stake he said : " I 
 am four score and two years old, and cannot live long by 
 the course of nature ; but a hundred better than I shall 
 arise out of the ashes of my bones. I trust in God I shall 
 be the last that shall suffer death in Scotland for this 
 cause. 11 Thus, on the 28th April, A.D. 1558, died the last 
 Scottish martyr put to death in the struggle between 
 Romanism and Protestantism. His blameless character, his 
 firm resolution amid the frailties of extreme old age, his 
 calm confidence in God, and his simple faith in holy scrip- 
 ture, so impressed the people that his execution was mightily 
 helpful in promoting the cause of the gospel. 
 
 About the middle of December, A.D. 1557, commissioners 
 were appointed to go to Paris to represent the government 
 and the country at the marriage of the young Queen to the 
 Dauphin of France. The marriage was celebrated on the 
 24th April, A.D. 1558. The commissioners would not go in 
 the least beyond the letter of their instruction, and appar- 
 ently gave offence to the uncles of the young Queen. At 
 Dieppe, on their way home, Robert Reid, bishop of Orkney, 
 the Earls of Cassilis and Rothes, and Lord Fleming, died, 
 " whether it was by an Italian posset, or French figs, or by 
 the pottage of their apothecary, 11 no man can tell ; and only 
 the archbishop of Glasgow, Lord Seton, Erskine of Dun, 
 and Lord James, afterwards Earl of Moray, returned 
 home. 
 
 Meanwhile in Scotland the cause of reform became so 
 popular that men with no heart for the gospel began to 
 preach in an evangelical way. John Sinclair, whom Knox 
 characterizes as a perfect hypocrite, and whom he describes 
 as blind of one eye in the body, but of both in the soul, 
 dean of Restalrig, and afterwards Lord President and bishop 
 of Brechin, preached so that the godly had a good opinion 
 of him, but when the friars began to murmur, he renounced 
 all the evangelical doctrines he had taught, and affirmed all
 
 104 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 the corruptions and superstitions of the Romish Church. 
 An attempt was even made to reform the church from 
 within. But it came too late, and it was neither thorough 
 nor sincere. At a Provincial Synod in Edinburgh, which 
 began its sittings in March, 1558, and continued till April, 
 1559, a petition was presented in favour of very moderate 
 reforms, and canons were passed against clerical immorality, 
 requiring that priests be decently attired, that bishops 
 preach at least four times a year, parish priests oftener if 
 able, and if not, those under fifty must go to school to 
 learn, and those above fifty must provide a substitute, that 
 instruction be given in doctrine, especially about the 
 sacraments. In fulfilment of this last-named provision, a 
 little manual in the form of a four page tract, A Godly 
 Exhortation on the Eucharist, to be read before the ad- 
 ministration of the sacrament by the priest, commonly 
 called the " TwoPenny Faith, 11 containing a short explana- 
 tion of the commandments, the creed, and the Lord's 
 Prayer, was brought into general use. The decision come 
 to by this synod, however, was in effect a stubborn refusal 
 to make any real concession to the demands of the Con- 
 gregation., as the reforming party was then called, and the 
 Queen Regent followed this up by a proclamation demand- 
 ing uniformity in worship, and insisting that all should 
 resort daily to the mass or confession. The principal 
 preachers of the protestants were summoned to appear at 
 Stirling on 10th May, 1559, to answer a charge of heresy, 
 and in obedience to this summons, John Willock, William 
 Harlaw, and the other ministers, accompanied by a large 
 number of gentlemen friendly to the cause from Fife and 
 Angus, gathered together in Perth. There they remained, 
 while Erskine of Dun went forward to hold conference with 
 the Queen Dowager in Stirling, and to assure her that the 
 multitude of the company did not mean any menace to her, 
 but only encouragement to the ministers. But she, fearing 
 the numbers and influential character of the party, urged 
 the laird of Dun to prevent them going to Stirling, and 
 gave him the assurance that gentler measures would be de-
 
 RIOT BY MOB IN PERTH. 105 
 
 vised. Completely deceived by her fair words, Erskine 
 advised the ministers not to appear, and to this advice they 
 very reluctantly consented. When on the day appointed 
 the ministers did not appear, though acting on the Queen 
 Regent's counsel, they were outlawed and declared guilty of 
 treason. In consequence of the treatment which he had 
 thus received, Erskine of Dun withdrew from his position at 
 court, and returned to his friends to consider what should 
 be done. 
 
 While the ministers and their friends were at Dundee, 
 preparing to go to Perth, they were joined by John Knox, 
 whose presence greatly strengthened their counsels. He 
 had reached Edinburgh on the 2nd May, 1559, and now he 
 went forward with the company to Perth, where he con- 
 tinued preaching until the decree of outlawry against the 
 ministers was published. The irritation caused by the de- 
 ceitful and cruel conduct of the Regent inflamed the 
 passions of the people to such a degree that neither preachers 
 nor magistrates could restrain them from destroying build- 
 ings and throwing out vessels and implements which had 
 been used in idolatrous rites. While the people were in 
 this inflammable condition, a priest was foolhardy enough, 
 immediately after a sermon by John Knox, to proceed to 
 the celebration of mass, opening up a glorious tabernacle 
 that stood on the high altar. A boy threw a stone at the 
 priest, which broke an image ; whereupon the whole crowd 
 began to shower stones, till the building itself had been 
 completely wrecked. Having thus begun, they rushed 
 forth, not the gentlemen nor the earnest professors, but the 
 rascal multitude, to the monasteries of the Black and Grey 
 Friars, which were stored with an amazing supply of pro- 
 visions and rich furnishings, and having demolished the 
 buildings, they distributed the spoil among the poor, and 
 so little were they actuated by covetous motives that they 
 even allowed the mqnks to carry off what valuables they 
 could take. 
 
 The Regent was greatly enraged when she heard what had 
 been done in Perth, and resolved that she would raze the
 
 106 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 city to the ground and sow it with salt in sign of perpetual 
 desolation. And this was no mere idle threat of an angry 
 woman. She took measures for carrying out her purpose. 
 The congregation addressed letters to the Regent and her 
 counsellors, assuring them that if oppression was continued 
 they would resist to the uttermost, and that they would 
 maintain their liberty with their lives. But it was only 
 when she found that Perth was well defended and that 
 Glencairn and Ochiltree, with other gentlemen from the 
 West, had brought a well trained force of 2500 men, that 
 the Queen Regent sent Argyle and Lord James, prior of St. 
 Andrews, with offers of conciliation. The conditions of the 
 treaty were these : No person should be charged for changing 
 his religion or being engaged in the recent destruction of 
 ecclesiastical buildings ; no obstacle should be placed against 
 the progress of the reformed religion, and when she left 
 Perth no French soldiers should be left behind. Meanwhile 
 all the members of the congregation, including Argyle and 
 Lord James, bound themselves together under a solemn 
 covenant to act in harmony should the terms of this treaty 
 be violated to the injury of the party or of any individual 
 adherent of the partv. As many had feared, the treaty was 
 not kept ; the service of the mass was restored, and soldiers 
 in the pay of France were left to garrison the city on the 
 Regent's departure. The queen boldly declared that princes 
 must not be strictly tied to the keeping of their promises. 
 In consequence of this, Lord James, the Earls of Argyle and 
 Monteith, Lord Ruthven, and the laird of Tullibardine left 
 Perth with their followers, and told the Queen plainly that 
 they did so because of her tyrannical proceedings. 
 
 Knox had meanwhile proceeded to Crail and Anstruther. 
 In both these places, and in Cupar, the people had begun 
 the demolition of altars and images. It was arranged that 
 Knox should preach in St. Andrews on Sunday, and already 
 Argyle, Lord James, the lairds of Dun and Pitarrow, 
 the provost of Dundee, and other leading members of the 
 congregation had assembled in that city. The archbishop, 
 hearing of Knox's intentions, and fearing the result upon
 
 KNOX AND QUEEN ELIZABETH. 107 
 
 the people, tried to intimidate him. He sent this message : 
 that should Knox attempt to preach, he would be saluted 
 with a dozen of culverins whereof the most part should 
 light upon his nose. The gentlemen were unsupported by 
 retainers, and therefore hesitated to expose Knox to such 
 danger, but the intrepid preacher declared his determination 
 in the face of all threatenings to deliver the message which 
 he had received. Accordingly he preached, discoursing on 
 the ejection of the buyers and sellers from the temple, mak- 
 ing application of his subject very pointedly to the circum- 
 stances of the time, and insisting upon the duty of magis- 
 trates to remove monuments of idolatry. It is not to be 
 wondered at that an excited multitude went beyond what 
 was required, and wrecked buildings which might have been 
 reserved for a better use. It was certainly necessary that 
 altars, images, and such like things, that were in their very 
 nature abhorrent to all who were possessed of the evan- 
 gelical spirit, should be utterly destroyed ; but as for the 
 reckless destruction of architectural masterpieces, the 
 English in the previous generation and Philistines in much 
 later ages have much more to answer for in that . way than 
 even the rascal multitude, let alone John Knox and the 
 other leaders, lay or clerical, in the Reformation age. 
 
 After this the churchmen and the Regent formed a close 
 combination and obtained large reinforcements from France, 
 and it became necessary for the lords of the congregation to 
 secure substantial help from England. The English Queen 
 Mary had died in November A.D. 1558, and her successor, 
 the Protestant princess Elizabeth, was naturally inclined to 
 favour the Scottish Protestants, especially in their antagon- 
 ism to the French, whose policy it was, in combination with 
 the Catholics of Scotland, to oust her from the throne. 
 Knox, however, by his Blast of the Trumpet against the 
 Monstrous Regiment of Women, had given great offence, so 
 that when he was waiting at Dieppe, and had asked a pass- 
 port that he might travel to Scotland through England, it 
 was refused. The Blast was indeed intended to apply to 
 Mary of Guise, but undoubtedly it contained a vehement
 
 108 HISTOUY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 denunciation of all female government, and Knox's attempt 
 to prove to Elizabeth that it by no means applied to her, 
 though cleverly done, must be pronounced rather sophis- 
 tical, and no doubt, at this particular juncture, he and his 
 friends devoutly wished that this blast of the trumpet had 
 never been sounded. 
 
 Important accessions were now made to the ranks of the 
 congregation. The Earl of Arran, returning through 
 England from France, joined the Protestant party, and with 
 him his father the Duke of Chastelherault. Notwithstand- 
 ing the Regent's endeavours to breed jealousy between the 
 Duke and Lord James, by representing to each that the 
 other was an aspirant to the throne, the party continued to 
 grow and prosper, and on 21st October, 1559, a meeting of 
 the nobles, barons and burgesses was held in Edinburgh for 
 the purpose of deposing Mary from the regency. Her de- 
 position was unanimously agreed to, and she was required, 
 with all her French soldiers, to leave Leith within twenty- 
 four hours. The army of the congregation, which had to 
 endeavour to enforce these conditions, was quite inadequate 
 to the enterprise. Though it numbered some twelve 
 thousand men, pay was far in arrears, and there were 
 traitors among them, and divided counsels made the task of 
 leading the motley crew an impossible one. The attempt 
 to dislodge the French from Leith signally failed, and the 
 conflict was transferred to Fife. While engaged in doubtful 
 skirmishing, an English fleet appeared in the Frith on 23rd 
 January, 1560, and by the 6th of April the English army 
 had effected a conjunction with the army of the Congrega- 
 tion, and Leith was invested by sea and land. By the 7th 
 of May it seemed as if victory was within the grasp of the 
 combined forces. The French had been driven from the 
 walls, but, when the scaling ladders went up, they were 
 found to be too short. The garrison soon rallied, and beat 
 off their assailants with terrible slaughter. The Queen 
 Regent had meanwhile withdrawn into the Castle of Edin- 
 burgh, and looked upon the defeat of the English and 
 Scottish soldiers with exuberant delight. When the French-
 
 MEETING OF SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT. 109 
 
 men in the garrison barbarously hung out the naked bodies 
 of their enemies on the walls of Leith, the Regent looked 
 on with pleasure and said : " Yonder is the fairest tapestry 
 that ever I saw ; I would that the whole fields betwixt this 
 place and yonder were strewed with the same stuff." 
 
 On the 10th of June, Mary of Guise died in Edinburgh 
 Castle, after expressing to the Lords of the Congregation 
 her sorrow for having allowed herself to be misled and 
 alienated from her best friends. All parties were now 
 desirous of peace, and a treaty was concluded and peace 
 proclaimed at Edinburgh on 8th July, 1560. During the 
 following week the French and English armies withdrew, 
 and on 19th July a public thanksgiving was held in St. 
 Giles, when Knox and other reformed preachers gave voice 
 to the national gratitude for the deliverances which they 
 had experienced. 
 
 The great event of this eventful period was the convening 
 of parliament, which, meeting on 16th July, was adjourned 
 till 1st August, in the hope that by that time a commission 
 might have arrived from the Queen. On its assembling after 
 this adjournment, it was found that no commission had 
 come, yet it was resolved to proceed on the ground that the 
 treaty afforded sufficient warrant for this meeting. A 
 petition from the barons, gentlemen, and burgesses was pre- 
 sented to the nobility and states of parliament assembled, 
 craving the abolition of idolatry and punishment of trans- 
 gressors, that remedy should be found against the wrong 
 administration of sacraments, and those who had misused 
 the discipline of the church, and that the hitherto mis- 
 appropriated patrimony of the church should be applied to 
 the support of the true ministry of the word of God, the 
 providing of schools, and the relief of the poor. This last 
 point, which was rather alluded to than distinctly demanded 
 as a reform, would certainly be unpalatable to the needy 
 nobles and barons, who meant to replenish their exhausted 
 treasuries from the rich revenues of the church. Mean- 
 while, it was resolved that a summary of the evangelical 
 doctrine, under distinct heads, should be drawn up, and a
 
 110 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 committee, of whom, evidently, Knox was the leading spirit, 
 proceeded with the preparation of a Confession of Faith. 
 This was a subject upon which they were all agreed, and 
 four days was all the time found necessary for the composi- 
 tion of this important document. It consists of twenty-five 
 articles, and is based solely on the Word of God, so that in 
 the preface a challenge is given to anyone who finds anything 
 in it contrary to Scripture, and a promise either to disprove 
 the charge or make correction. The Confession was read 
 first of all in the audience of the Lords of the Articles, a 
 committee which prepared matters for coming before the 
 House, and then, in the audience of the whole parliament. 
 The bishops present said nothing in opposition to the 
 articles, as one by one they were again laid before the 
 House, though the protestant ministers were present to 
 answer any objections which might be offered. Only the 
 Earl of Athol and the Lords Somerville and Borthwick said, 
 " We will believe as our fathers believed. " The silence of 
 the bishops led the Earl Marischal, and probably others as 
 well, to throw in their lot with the Congregation, and to 
 accept the form of doctrine represented by the Confession as 
 the truth of Scripture, seeing that the most learned and 
 skilful of the opposite party could not gainsay it. 
 
 The arrangement of topics in this old Scottish Confession 
 is simple, and determined more by historical sequence than 
 by any logical or systematic principle. It may be divided 
 into two general portions. The first division embraces 
 twelve chapters, and in the arrangement of these a purely 
 historical order is observed : 1. Of God ; 2. Of the Crea- 
 tion of Man ; 3. Of Original Sin (treating of Adam's fall, 
 hereditary guilt, and regeneration by the Spirit of God) ; 
 4. The Revelation of the Promises ; 5. The Continuance of 
 the Church ; 6. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ ; 7. The 
 Mediator very God and very Man ; 8. Election (our elec- 
 tion in Christ, His brotherhood with man, what the man- 
 hood and Godhead in our Saviour, severally and combined, 
 effect) ; 9. Christ's Death, Passion, and Burial ; 10. Resur- 
 rection; 11. Ascension; 12. Faith in the Holy Ghost. The
 
 THE SCOTTISH CONFESSION OF FAITH. Ill 
 
 second division embraces thirteen chapters, and here the 
 arrangement or order is doctrinal rather than historical, and 
 is dominated by a polemical attitude towards Romanism : 
 13. The Cause of Good Works ; 14. What Works are re- 
 puted good before God; 15. The Perfection of the Lord 
 and the Imperfection of Man ; 16. Of the Church ; 17. Of 
 the Immortality of the Soul (evidently suggested by what 
 was said of the Church triumphant) ; 18. Of the Notes by 
 which the true Church is discerned from the false, and who 
 shall be Judge of the Doctrine (owing to the circum- 
 stances of the nation and age, this subject is treated with 
 great care and unusual minuteness) ; 19. The Authority of 
 the Scriptures ; 20. Of General Councils, of their power, 
 authority, and cause of their convention ; 21-23. Of the 
 Sacraments, of their right administration, of those to whom 
 they appertain ; 24. Of the Civil Magistrates ; 25. Of the 
 Gifts freely given to the Church.* 
 
 This Confession of Faith was ratified by Parliament on 
 17th August, 1560. It is in harmony with the formularies 
 of the continental Reformed Churches, but is remarkable 
 for its avoidance of abstract technical theological terms. 
 Its style was, no doubt, determined largely by the fact that 
 it had to be presented to and accepted by an assembly of 
 noble and dignified, but comparatively illiterate men, and 
 that simplicity and directness were necessary to ensure its 
 being understood and approved. 
 
 The next important task assigned to the ministers was 
 the drawing up of a constitution for the new church. The 
 parliament had, by a decree of 24th August, abolished the 
 mass and renounced the authority and jurisdiction of the 
 pope. It was necessary, therefore, to define the authority 
 
 * For a very full and interesting exposition of the Scottish Con- 
 fession, see Principal Lee's Lectures on the History of the Church of 
 Scotland, Edinburgh, 1860 : Vol. I., pp. 106-135. It has also been 
 discussed in a most thorough and instructive manner by the late 
 Professor Mitchell in his recent Baird Lectures, The Scottish Refor- 
 mation : its Epochs, Episodes, Leaders, and Distinctive Characteristics. 
 Edinburgh, 1900 : Chap, vi., pp. 99-122.
 
 112 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 and jurisdiction of the Protestant Church as now consti- 
 tuted. Six ministers were appointed to prepare a Book of 
 Church Order John Knox, John Wynram, John Spottis- 
 woode, John Willock, John Douglas, and John Row. The 
 Parliament having been dissolved, the committee had its 
 commission from the Privy Council, and this commission was 
 dated 29th April, 1560. The document which they drew 
 up is called " The First Book of Discipline. 11 It was ready 
 on 20th May, and was then shown to some of the nobles and 
 carefully read by them. Some of them were willing and 
 anxious that it should be ratified by Parliament, that so it 
 might obtain legal sanction. Very many of the nobles, 
 however, had already appropriated, or had marked out for 
 future appropriation, large portions of church lands and 
 revenues, and so they could not brook the proposal to dis- 
 tribute the wealth among the ministers, the schoolmasters, 
 and the poor. Some too were licentious, and feared to have 
 their carnal liberty restricted. All such denounced the 
 proposals of the book as devout imaginations. It was never 
 formally approved by Parliament, but was signed by the 
 Duke of Chastelherault, the Earls of Arran, Argyle, Rothes, 
 Morton, Glencairn, Lord James, and a large number of the 
 reforming nobles and gentlemen. It was finally approved 
 by the General Assembly of A.D. 1581, and placed among 
 the Acts of the Kirk. 
 
 The First Book of Discipline consists of sixteen chapters : 
 1. Of Doctrine, enjoining the preaching of the Gospel 
 and the repressing of all that is contrary to it. 2. Of 
 the sacrament. 3. Of abolishing idolatry i.e.^ the mass, 
 invocation of saints, adoration of images, etc. 4. Of 
 ministers and their lawful election. 5. Provision for the 
 ministers and distribution of rents and possessions justly 
 appertaining to the church. Here we have a most 
 remarkable and enlightened scheme for the sustenance 
 of ministers and provision for their widows and orphans ; 
 also a scheme for relief of the poor, not for idle and 
 stubborn beggars who make a craft of their begging, 
 whom the magistrate should compel to work or punish, but
 
 FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 118 
 
 for the widow or fatherless, the aged, impotent or lamed, 
 and such as have honestly fallen into decay and poverty ; 
 and further, salaries must be given to the teachers of youth. 
 It was this appropriation of ecclesiastical revenues for truly 
 national purposes that the needy and greedy nobles could 
 not brook. 6. Of superintendents the difference betwixt 
 preachers was to be only for a time, because qualified mini- 
 sters were few, and the men itinerating gave many places 
 the benefit of their ministry, while also they might advise 
 and encourage those whose knowledge and experience were 
 small. There were ten districts or dioceses over which 
 superintendents were to be appointed : (1) Orkney, Shet- 
 land, Caithness, Strathnaver, with residence at Kirkwall ; 
 (2) Ross, Sutherland, Moray, Skye, and Uist, with residence 
 at Chanonry; (3) Argyle, embracing the Southern Hebrides, 
 Bute, and Arran ; (4) Aberdeen, extending from the Dee to 
 the Spey, with residence in Old Aberdeen; (5) Brechin, com- 
 prising Angus and Mearns, with residence at Brechin ; (6) 
 Fife, extending to Stirling and embracing Perth, with resi- 
 dence at St. Andrews ; (7) Edinburgh, embracing the 
 Lothians and extending to Stirling south of the Forth, with 
 residence at Edinburgh ; (8) Jedburgh, including Teviotdale 
 and all the border country of the Merse and Lauderdale, with 
 residence at Jedburgh ; (9) Glasgow, including Clydesdale, 
 Renfrew, Menteith, Lennox, Kyle, and Cunningham, with 
 residence in Glasgow ; (10) Dumfries, embracing Carrick, 
 Galloway, Nithsdale, and Annandale, with residence at 
 Dumfries. Only five persons, however, were appointed 
 superintendents John Wynram to Fife, John Willock to 
 Glasgow, John Carswell to Argyle, John Erskine of Dun to 
 Brechin, and John Spottiswoode to Edinburgh. Besides 
 these, John Row was appointed to a similar office for Dumfries 
 under the name of Commissioner. As the number of com- 
 petent ministers soon increased, it was not found necessary 
 to appoint successors to the first race of superintendents, 
 and the last of them, Erskine of Dun, died in A.D. 1591. 
 7. Of schools and universities necessity of schools, time 
 appointed to every course, the erection of universities, viz., 
 
 H
 
 114 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 three, at St. Andrews, at Glasgow, and at Aberdeen of 
 stipends and privileges. 8. Of the rents and patrimony of 
 the Church, and indicating in detail how the provision for 
 ministers, teachers, and the poor, is to be secured, and what 
 revenues are available for those uses. 9. Of ecclesiastical 
 discipline. 10. The election of elders and deacons, and 
 censure of ministers, elders, and deacons. 11. The policy 
 of the kirk what services are to be observed and how they 
 are to be conducted. 12. Of prophesying or interpreting 
 the Scriptures. 13. Of marriage. 14. Of burial. 15. For 
 reparation of the kirks. 16. For punishment of those that 
 profane the sacraments, and contemn the word, and who 
 presume to administer them, not being thereunto lawfully 
 called. The whole document concludes with a prayer that 
 God would so illumine the hearts of rulers and counsellors 
 that they may bow to his obedience, prefer his revealed will 
 to their own affections, and boldly punish vice and maintain 
 virtue within the realm. * 
 
 There was yet another important document of the Scottish 
 Reformation, The Book of Common Order, which, though 
 prepared before The First Book of Discipline, and referred 
 to in it as The Order of Geneva and The Book of our Com- 
 mon Order, did not receive official sanction till A.D. 1564. 
 It is now usually styled Knoafs Liturgy. In 1554 Rnox 
 and others in Frankfort drew up the first draft of this book 
 in the form of a revision of FarePs and Calvin's services, and 
 this is the book that was used by the English exiles from 
 Frankfort who obtained from Calvin a home in Geneva, so 
 that it is commonly called The Order of Geneva. At this 
 time the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. was being used 
 wholly or in part in the services of reformed congregations 
 in Scotland, but in no case did Knox or his associates 
 
 * A very full and interesting account of this document, with an 
 examination and explanation of its provisions, is given in Lee's 
 Lectures on the History of tJie Church of Scotland, Vol. I., 
 pp. 149-218. See also an admirable exposition of the Book in Prof. 
 Mitchell's Scottish Reformation, Edin. 1900, chap, via., pp. 144-183.
 
 NEGOTIATION'S FOE MARY^S RETURN. 115 
 
 acquiesce in the compulsory enforcement of a liturgy. The 
 prayers and services of the Anglican liturgy were to be em- 
 ployed at the discretion of the ministers. In 1556 Knox 
 urged the use in fully organized congregations of a simpler 
 service, resembling the Genevan rather than the Anglican. 
 The First Book of Discipline of 1560 indicates a preference 
 for the Book of Common Order, and the General Assembly 
 of 1562 enjoined its use in the administration of the sacra- 
 ments and the celebration of marriage, and in 1564 it 
 ordered every minister and reader to provide himself with a 
 copy, and to use its Order in prayers, marriage and minis- 
 tration of the sacraments. The book continued authorita- 
 tively to hold this place in the Church of Scotland until, in 
 1637, after the failure of the attempt to introduce Laud's 
 Liturgy, it was enjoined that no liturgy new or old should 
 meantime be used.* 
 
 The death of Mary's husband, Francis II. of France, in his 
 seventeenth year, on 4th December, 1560, loosened the tie 
 by which Scotland was bound to France, and gave its 
 deathblow to the plots of the Guises for the union and 
 catholicizing of Scotland and England, and their attachment 
 to the French Crown. By the middle of January following, 
 a convention of nobles in Edinburgh sent Lord James to 
 France to urge Mary speedily to return to Scotland. He 
 travelled by way of England, where the idea of a bigoted 
 Catholic who had been trained by the Guises succeeding to 
 the Scottish throne was regarded as a doubtful experiment. 
 On 15th April he had audience of the Queen of the Scots, 
 but he had been anticipated by one day by John Lesley, 
 afterwards Bishop of Ross, who had been sent as the emissary 
 of the Popish party to prejudice the Queen against Lord 
 
 * Mitchell, The Scottish Reforrriation, Edin. 1900, chap. vii. , pp. 
 123-143. See also : John Knox's Liturgy ; The Book of Common 
 Order, and The Directory for Public Worship of the Church of Scotland, 
 edited with Introduction and Notes by Dr. Sprottand Dr. Leishman, 
 Edin. 1868. Lorimer, John Knox and the Church of England, 
 London, 1875.
 
 116 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 James and the congregation. He had advised her either to 
 have Lord James detained in France, or to make her landing 
 at Aberdeen, where an army of twenty thousand men 
 attached to the Romish cause would accompany her to 
 Edinburgh, and enable her to make her own terms with the 
 Council. To this most mischievous advice she was wise 
 enough to give no definite answer, simply declaring her in- 
 tention of returning to her own country. Recoiling from 
 these violent proposals, she received her brother with great 
 cordiality, and commissioned him to act on her behalf until 
 her return, though speedily, under the evil counsel of her 
 bigoted French relatives, she revoked this commission. He 
 consequently waited in England, and had several important 
 conferences with Elizabeth. When he reached Scotland he 
 found De Noailles, the French ambassador, already there with 
 the demand that the league with France should be renewed, 
 and that with England broken, and that the prelates should 
 be restored to their charges and revenues. The Privy 
 Council sternly refused all these demands, and ordered a 
 systematic destruction of all remaining monuments of idol- 
 atry. The queen now hastened her departure from France. 
 Refused a conduct through England by Elizabeth, she sailed 
 from Calais on 14th August, and after narrowly escaping 
 capture by the ships of the English queen, she arrived in 
 Leith on the 19th, and received a warm welcome from her 
 loyal people. 
 
 Knox and the queen came almost at the very first into col- 
 lision with one another. On the first Sabbath after her 
 arrival, she attended mass celebrated in her own chapel, in 
 face of most vigorous opposition and protests ; and on the 
 following Sabbath, Knox inveighed in the strongest terms 
 against idolatry and denounced judgment against all who 
 had shared in or countenanced the idolatrous service of the 
 previous Sabbath. He feared one mass more than ten 
 thousand armed enemies. There was no influence in all 
 Scotland so powerful as the preaching of Knox. Mary 
 clearly perceived this, and directly sought to silence him. 
 She first tried conciliation that had been so successful with
 
 EARLY GENEIIAL ASSEMBLIES. 117 
 
 some of the Lords of the Congregation. Summoned to her 
 presence, he was charged first of all with stirring up rebel- 
 lion, writing a book against female government, but the 
 chief accusation was that he had been teaching the people 
 to receive a religion different from that of their princes. 
 Knox boldly denied the right of princes to prescribe their 
 religion to the people ; and when asked whether subjects 
 when they have the power may resist their princes, this 
 pioneer of popular liberty fearlessly declared that when 
 princes exceeded their bounds and demanded from their 
 subjects what they are not required to obey, resistance by 
 force becomes a duty. Paralysed with anger and astonish- 
 ment, she was silent for quarter of an hour, and then, after 
 Knox had urged the duty of princes to nourish the church, 
 she answered, " Ye are not the Kirk that I will nourish ; I 
 will defend the Kirk of Rome, for I think it is the true 
 Kirk of God." " Your will, madam," answered Knox, " is 
 no reason, neither does your thought make that Roman 
 harlot to be the immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ." This 
 beginning of controversies is a fair specimen of the many 
 conversations and discussions between these two. 
 
 The first General Assembly of the Reformed or Protestant 
 Church of Scotland met in Edinburgh on 20th December, 
 1560. There were forty-two members present, of whom 
 only six were ministers, or at least sat as ministers, although 
 many of those who were there as commissioners of kirks 
 afterwards became ministers. The constitution of the 
 earlier Assemblies was in several respects irregular. Large 
 districts were sometimes unrepresented, while there might be 
 two or three commissioners from one kirk, nor in any of the 
 first six Assemblies was there any appointment of moderator 
 made. Their meetings were conducted in the manner of 
 easy and familiar conferences. A large number of applica- 
 tions from churchmen who wished to be received as mini- 
 sters into the Protestant Church was dealt with, most of 
 them from men who had been connected with the abbey, 
 colleges and university of St. Andrews. A resolution was 
 also passed to recommend the parliament to declare that,
 
 118 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 contrary to the law of the Romish church, marriage could 
 be contracted between parties in the second, third or fourth 
 degrees of consanguinity and affinity, thus cutting off a rich 
 source of ecclesiastical revenue obtained for dispensations. 
 
 It was understood that there should be two Assemblies in 
 the year, and accordingly the second Assembly met on 26th 
 May. 1561. A petition to the Privy Council was drawn up, 
 demanding the suppression of idolatry, provision for mini- 
 sters, punishment of despisers of the sacrament and of such 
 as purchase or execute papal bulls. The third Assembly, 
 held in December, 1561, was the first after the arrival of 
 Queen Mary. Some trouble was made about it being con- 
 vened without the consent of the queen, but Knox stoutly 
 maintained that the church must not depend upon the will of 
 the sovereign for her calling of Assemblies. " Take from 
 us," he said, " the freedom of Assemblies and take from us 
 the gospel, for without Assemblies how shall good order and 
 unity in doctrine be kept ? " Knox here also expressed his 
 indignation at the way in which the ecclesiastical revenues 
 were distributed. Two-thirds of the church rents were 
 assigned to the old Popish holders of them, all this ulti- 
 mately going into the hands of the local nobility and lairds, 
 and only one-third apportioned to the uses for which all 
 had been claimed, out of which, after paying the ministers, 
 it was expected that a considerable revenue would go to the 
 crown. This third was thus preyed upon under one pre- 
 text or another, so that the pittance left for the ministers 
 was miserably small. The largest stipend, it would seem, 
 that any one received was three hundred marks, about six- 
 teen guineas, but the common stipend was about one-third 
 of that, which would be equivalent to salaries in the present 
 day varying from 70 to 200. It is often now said that 
 the violent speech of the ministers was largely the occasion 
 of their receiving such scant pecuniary support, but surely 
 they deserve to have it recorded to their lasting honour that 
 for personal advantage and even for securing the very neces- 
 saries of life, they scorned to flatter the base or to speak 
 smooth things to those who wrought wickedness.
 
 KNOX'S SECOND MARRIAGE. 119 
 
 In March, 1564, Knox, now in his fifty -ninth year, and a 
 widower for three years, married a daughter of Lord Ochil- 
 tree, a young lady not more than twenty years of age. His 
 enemies venomously ascribe his success in winning this young 
 bride of so distinguished a family to witchcraft and the help 
 of the devil. Nicol Burne, in his Disputation on the Con- 
 troverted Heads of Religion, published in Paris in 1581, de- 
 scribes Knox as riding to Lord Ochiltree 1 s in great state on 
 a trim gelding, not like a prophet and an old decrepit priest, 
 as he was, but as if he had been one of the blood royal, with 
 bands of taffety fastened with golden rings and precious 
 stones. He further says that it is commonly reported in the 
 country, that by sorcery and witchcraft, he did so allure that 
 poor gentlewoman, that she could not live without him. 
 This he thinks could only have been effected by the devil, 
 who sometimes transforms himself into an angel of light, 
 causing Knox to appear one of the most noble and lusty 
 men that could be found in the world. He had two sons by 
 his first wife, Marjory Bower, who went to England, were 
 educated at Cambridge University, and died in the prime of 
 life, the one a Fellow of his College, and the other Vicar of 
 a parish in the English Church. Margaret Stewart, his 
 second wife, survived her husband, and afterwards married 
 Sir Andrew Ker, Fadounside, an ardent Protestant, and 
 each of her three daughters by Knox were married to a 
 minister, one of them to the famous John Welsh of Ayr. 
 
 At the fourth General Assembly, which met in June, 
 1562, it was enacted that ministers should not leave their 
 charges to attend the Assembly unless they have complaints 
 to make or to answer, or were summoned there by their 
 superintendent. It is evidently an altogether erroneous 
 conclusion to assume that superintendents had the electing 
 of members of Assembly. The summons, we may suppose, 
 was addressed to those whose presence the superintendent 
 regarded as of importance for the discipline and government 
 of the church. This Assembly, however, remitted certain 
 cases to the superintendent of the district, giving him powers 
 for the disposal of the matter after enquiry and examina-
 
 120 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 tion. The next Assembly met on 25th December, 1562, 
 their meeting on Christmas day and the withdrawal of 
 ministers from their charges, being evidently intended to 
 discourage special services in the celebration of that day as a 
 festival. Though John Knox opened the meeting with 
 prayer he does not seem to have been elected moderator. 
 The superintendents were put upon their trial, and against 
 at least three of them, Wynram, Erskine of Dun and Spottis- 
 woode several serious charges of neglect and irregularity were 
 brought. In the trial of ministers that followed no special 
 charge seems to have been brought against any of them. 
 The seventh Assembly, meeting at Edinburgh on 25th 
 December, 1563, was the first General Assembly regularly 
 constituted under a moderator. The first occupant of the 
 moderator's chair was John Willock, superintendent of the 
 West, and he was unanimously elected by the Privy Council 
 and the members of the Assembly conjointly. He was also 
 continued moderator by the next Assembly of June, 1564, 
 the two half yearly meetings being apparently regarded as 
 practically one Assembly. 
 
 In the records of the General Assembly of 1564, we first 
 meet with the name of George Buchanan as a member of a 
 church court. This distinguished Scottish scholar was born 
 at Killearn in Stirlingshire in February, 1506. After 
 spending two years in study at Paris, he entered the New 
 College of St. Andrews under John Major in 1525, return- 
 ing, after two years' study there, to the Scottish College in 
 Paris, and obtaining two years later a professorship in the 
 College of Ste. Barbe. In 1535 he returned to Scotland as 
 tutor to the son of the Earl of Cassilis, and was soon after- 
 wards appointed by James V. instructor of one of his ille- 
 gitimate sons. The writing of two satires, the Sommum 
 and the Franciscanus, led to his imprisonment at the instiga- 
 tion of Beaton in the castle of St. Andrews, from which, 
 however, he escaped into England, and from thence passed 
 over into France. In 1547 he was professor in Coimbra in 
 Portugal, and soon after being confined in a monastery 
 under suspicion of heresy, he began his famous Latin para-
 
 QUEEN MARY AND BOTHWELL. 121 
 
 phrase of the Psalms. After occupying various positions, 
 he returned to Scotland about the time of Queen Mary's 
 arrival, to whom he was appointed classical tutor, and to 
 whom he dedicated his Latin Psalms. From this time for- 
 ward he was a firm supporter of the Protestant party, eccle- 
 siastically and politically. He became principal of St. 
 Leonard's College, St. Andrews, in A.D. 1566, and moderator 
 of the General Assembly held in Edinburgh in June, 1567. 
 It is sometimes maintained that we have here an instance 
 of the appointment as moderator of one who was not a 
 minister. Principal Lee, after showing that the irregularity 
 of the procedure in these early Assemblies prevents us from 
 regarding this as a precedent, even if it had been as 
 suggested, gives reasons in support of the view that 
 Buchanan was in orders. Principals of colleges took their 
 turn in the weekly exercise of scripture exposition, and his 
 immediate successors in the principalship were ministers of 
 the parish in which the college was situated. 
 
 Four months before the meeting of this Assembly, Darnley 
 had been murdered, and Both well, an unprincipled desper- 
 ado of profligate life, and now chief favourite of the queen, 
 was regarded by everyone as the murderer. The queen 
 herself was suspected of complicity in the plot, a suspicion 
 now practically made certain by the evidence of the Casket 
 Letters, the genuineness of which can no longer be doubted. 
 Only three months after the murder, the public conscience 
 was shocked by news of the marriage of the murderer and 
 the victim's widow. When the Assembly met Mary had 
 been defeated at Carberry Hill, and had been already ten 
 days a prisoner in Lochleven Castle. Shortly before this, 
 Buchanan had written the Detectio Maries Regince, a strong 
 indictment of Mary, and at the conference of York in the 
 following year, he showed himself a firm believer in the 
 queen's guilt. It would seem that Knox and others among 
 the ministers were in favour of Mary's death. On the 20th 
 of July, to which day the General Assembly had been pro- 
 rogued, the Lords, in order to get the assistance of its mem- 
 bers in the disposal of the queen, promised to make good all
 
 122 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH DC SCOTLAND. 
 
 the articles which they might think fit to resolve upon. 
 The Lords, therefore, undertook to fulfil the Acts of 1560 
 abolishing the Pope's authority, promised that two-thirds at 
 least should be given for the maintainance of the ministers, 
 that only qualified men should be allowed as instructors in col- 
 leges and schools, that offences should be punished according 
 to God's Word, that all persons found guilty of the murder 
 of the king should be brought to condign punishment, that 
 the young prince be carefully protected, that the nobles, 
 barons, etc., do all in their power to abolish Popery and 
 further the true religion, and that all princes and kings 
 hereafter in this realm before their coronation shall swear 
 to maintain the true religion now professed in the Church of 
 Scotland, and suppress everything contrary to it. " How 
 they performed their promises," says Knox, " God knows." 
 The Assembly after this dissolved, and a commission con- 
 sisting of Lords Lindsay and Ruthven was sent to Lochleven, 
 and yielding to the advice of Athol and Lethington, the 
 queen signed a paper renouncing the crown in favour of her 
 infant son, and on the 29th July, the young prince, only 
 thirteen months old, was solemnly crowned as King James 
 VI. of Scotland. Another writ, which Mary signed on the 
 same occasion, ordained that Moray should be regent during 
 the prince's minority, assisted and advised by a Council con- 
 sisting of the Duke of Chastelherault, Earls of Lennox, 
 Argyle, Athol, Morton, Glencairn and Mar. 
 
 On 25th December, 1567, the General Assembly met, and 
 the chief matter of interest with which it dealt was the 
 conduct of Adam Bothwell, bishop of Orkney, who had 
 married the queen and the Earl of Bothwell, and the case of 
 John Craig, the colleague of John Knox in Edinburgh, who 
 had published the banns. This John Craig had a remark- 
 able and indeed a romantic history. Born in A.D. 1512 and 
 educated at St. Andrews, he became a Dominican friar 
 and resided for a time in a monastery at Bologna, where, 
 after reading Calvin's Institutes, he embraced the doctrines 
 of Protestantism. His heretical views being discovered, he 
 was sent to Rome, and after suffering nine months' imprison-
 
 ELECTION OF REPRESENTATIVES FOR ASSEMBLY. 123 
 
 ment, he was sentenced to be burnt at the stake. All 
 arrangements had been made for leading him forth from the 
 prison of the Inquisition on the morning of 18th August, 
 1559, but during the preceding night, Pope Paul IV. died, 
 and the people of the city rising in a tumult, opened the 
 prison, and let the prisoners free. Craig immediately took 
 to flight, suffering many privations and meeting with many 
 exciting adventures by the way. He preached in Vienna, 
 and the new Pope demanded of Ferdinand that he should 
 surrender him. The Archduke Maximilian, however, 
 secured for him a safe conduct, and he reached Scotland 
 unhurt in A.D. 1560. He was appointed colleague to Knox 
 as minister in Edinburgh in A.D. 1563. When charged by 
 the Assembly of 1567 with proclaiming the banns for the 
 royal marriage, he defended himself by saying that he did 
 so at the request of the parties themselves, giving to all 
 warning to bring objections, and solemnly protesting against 
 the marriage as odious and scandalous. 
 
 In the Assembly that met in July, 1568, presided over by 
 John Willock, the inconvenience arising from the want of 
 any system of choosing representatives as members was felt, 
 and measures were taken to remedy matters. The number 
 of ministers in the country had greatly increased, and it was 
 necessary that the membership of the Assembly should be 
 fixed according to some definite principle. An Act was 
 therefore passed providing that only ministers, and com- 
 missioners elected by the ministers and gentlemen convened 
 in the synod of the bounds, and commissioners of burghs 
 chosen by the town council and kirk session of each town, 
 be received as members of Assembly, and none without a 
 commission, and, to prevent the perpetual election of a few, 
 that the persons be changed from Assembly to Assembly. 
 
 Considerable trouble was caused in several places, especi- 
 ally in the North, by adherents of the old Romish party 
 holding positions and putting an arrest upon the progress of 
 the Reformation. The Assembly of 1568 took steps to deal 
 with such cases. In response to the Assembly's demand, the 
 regent in 1569 visited Aberdeen, summoned the principal
 
 124 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 and other officials of the University to appear before the 
 Privy Council, and demanded of them that they should sign 
 the Reformed Confession of Faith, and promise to submit 
 to the jurisdiction and discipline of the church. Refusing 
 to do this, the Regent and Council pronounced them unfit 
 for the care of the instruction of youth, and, by reason of 
 their refusal to join the true Kirk, deprived of all right to 
 teach within the realm, and of all functions within the col- 
 lege. This sentence was announced to them by the Superin- 
 tendent of Angus, and the place of principal and sub-prin- 
 cipal assigned to Alexander Arbuthnot and James Lawson, 
 men of high qualifications and excellent character. 
 
 Meantime Mary, having escaped from Lochleven, and 
 having been utterly defeated in a battle with the Regent 
 and his following, upon which she had hazarded all, was 
 now a fugitive in England in the hands of the jealous and 
 hard-hearted English queen. Moray had before him a task 
 of supreme difficulty. Quickly, however, he showed him- 
 self possessed, not only of the highest and purest patriotism, 
 but also of the rarest political genius. His whole procedure 
 was characterized by wise moderation and skilful discrimina- 
 tion. He quickly earned the title of the Good Regent, and 
 never has a title of rank been more honourably and fairly 
 won. As might be expected, he had enemies among the 
 nobility who were jealous of his position and could not 
 brook submission to his authority. But his chief difficulty 
 arose from the plotting of the queen's party, and most of 
 all from the opposition of the Hamiltons. On the 25th 
 January, 1570, as he was passing through Linlithgow, in the 
 crowded street he was shot from a window, and soon after 
 died from his wound. The murderer was Hamilton of 
 Bothwellhaugh, and the murder was a premeditated one, in 
 which the archbishop of St. Andrews and others of that 
 faction and family were implicated. He was buried in St. 
 Anthony's Aisle in the church of St. Giles in Edinburgh on 
 14th February, 1570, the funeral sermon being preached by 
 John Knox from the text, " Blessed are the dead that die 
 in the Lord, 11 before an audience of three thousand people.
 
 EXECUTION OF ARCHBISHOP HAMILTON. 125 
 
 On the monument erected to his memory, still standing 
 over his grave, is written the Latin epitaph prepared by his 
 friend George Buchanan: "To James Stewart, Earl of Moray, 
 Regent of Scotland, by far the best man of his age, trea- 
 cherously cut off by enemies of most detestable memory, 
 his grieving country hath erected this monument, as to a 
 common father." 
 
 The castle of Dumbarton was the only fortress held by 
 the queen's party, and at last a singularly bold attempt was 
 made to obtain possession of it, with the approval of the 
 new regent, the Earl of Lennox. The rock and ramparts 
 were scaled and the garrison taken, the most important 
 prisoner being the archbishop of St. Andrews. He was tried 
 on the charge of being guilty of four capital offences ; of 
 having made an attempt to seize Stirling Castle and the 
 person of the young king immediately after Moray's assas- 
 sination ; of having taken part as an accomplice in the 
 murder of Darnley ; of having been involved in the plot for 
 the assassination of the regent ; and of having planned the 
 murder of Lennox and having lain in wait for him. He 
 seems to have been in every plot from the time of the death 
 of James V. While denying the other charges, he confessed 
 that he knew beforehand of the plan for assassinating 
 
 T ti 
 
 Moray, and did nothing to hinder, but rather to help it. 
 He was sentenced to be hanged, and the sentence was almost 
 immediately executed in April, 1571, the prelate being 
 hung in the coat of mail which he wore when seized in the 
 castle. 
 
 The Earl of Morton, who had been greatly enriched by 
 the spoils of the church, was now the determined opponent 
 of any consideration being given to the claims of the minis- 
 ters for more adequate support. This selfish, intriguing 
 statesman, possessed great influence under Lennox and 
 Mar, and after the death of the latter in October, 1572, he 
 succeeded to the regency. For some time back Morton had 
 supported the introduction of a modified Episcopacy, in 
 order that he and his friends might, by the appointment of 
 their creatures as titular bishops, secure the main part of
 
 126 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 the revenues to themselves. At the Convention of the 
 Kirk held in Leith in January, 1572, a form of church 
 government was allowed very different from that of the 
 First Book of Discipline. Bishops and archbishops were 
 to be appointed to the dioceses of the pre-reformation 
 church, with the jurisdiction of superintendents. John 
 Douglas, provost of the New College, probably a relative of 
 Morton's, and a member of the powerful house of Angus, 
 was appointed archbishop of St. Andrews. Knox, who was 
 then residing in St. Andrews, expressed his strong disap- 
 proval of the appointment, and clearly perceived that it was 
 designed to facilitate the further robbery of the church. It 
 was meanly insinuated by John Rutherford, principal of St. 
 Salvator's college, that Knox was fretting because he had 
 expected the office himself. This called forth a spirited re- 
 joinder on the following Sabbath. " I have refused," said 
 Knox, " a greater bishopric than ever this one was, which I 
 might have had by the favour of greater men. 1 ' Glasgow, 
 Dunkeld and Dunblane were soon after filled by James 
 Boyd, John Paton and Andrew Graham. All this caused 
 great dissatisfaction among the ministers generally. The 
 titular bishops obtained little favour among their brethren, 
 and only Boyd ever obtained the honour of moderatorship 
 of the Assembly. The church sullenly acquiesced in the 
 arrangement, simply because it had not the power to with- 
 stand the tyranny of its promoters. 
 
 The queen's party regarded Knox as the main strength 
 of the opposition. Among the leaders of that party were 
 renegade reformers Lethington and Kirkaldy. Maitland of 
 Lethington was one of the most gifted men of the age, ac- 
 complished, courteous, singularly agile and quick witted, 
 but utterly selfish and unscrupulous, without religion, 
 though no one could use religious phraseology more effec- 
 tively when occasion served, and without patriotism, though 
 none could more powerfully play upon the feelings of the 
 people in speeches that sparkled with the semblance of 
 patriotic fervour and enthusiasm. He had served all 
 parties in the state, and betrayed them all. For a long
 
 LETHINGTON AND KIEKALDY. 127 
 
 time Knox had known him well, and had no faith in him. 
 Kirkaldy of Grange was a man of altogether a different 
 stamp. He was among those who put the cardinal to 
 death. Unlike Lethington, he had been heart and soul 
 with the reformers, and was greatly loved by Knox, and 
 indeed by all who knew him. He was one of the bravest of 
 soldiers and a skilful military commander. He is commonly 
 described as the ideal knight of chivalry, courteous, brave, 
 humane. He became closely attached to Lethington, and 
 gradually became involved in the endless and perplexing 
 plots of that restless schemer. Maitland was his evil 
 genius, and in companionship with him the character of 
 Kirkaldy rapidly deteriorated. It was only after Regent 
 Moray's death that Kirkaldy avowedly joined the queen's 
 party. As captain of the Edinburgh castle, he was guilty 
 of many cruel and violent actions. Of him Knox had ex- 
 pected better things, and he mourned bitterly over his 
 declension. The estimate which Knox had made of these 
 two men may be learnt from his words about them as he 
 lay on his death bed. " I have been earnest with my God," 
 he said, "anent these two men. For the one, I am sorry that 
 so should befall him, yet God assures me there is mercy for 
 his soul. For the other I have no warrant that ever he 
 shall be well." It was the enmity of these two men that 
 drove Knox out of Edinburgh. He had denounced them 
 vigorously and his life was threatened, but he left only when 
 it seemed that his presence might occasion slaughter and 
 loss among the people. In St. Andrews he occupied him- 
 self with public preaching, and privately he was constantly 
 engaged in counselling and encouraging those who were 
 anxious and perplexed about church and commonwealth. 
 On the 24th of August, 1572, Knox returned to Edin- 
 burgh. He was now in his sixty-seventh year, but the 
 many hardships and excitements of his eventful life had 
 left him a decrepit, worn out man, and his public career was 
 over. There had been trouble in his congregation during 
 his absence. It was thought by many of the more staunch 
 and decided of the king's party that John Craig had not
 
 128 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 maintained his testimony to the truth as he should have 
 done during the temporary domination of the queen's party 
 in Edinburgh. Craig was therefore sent first to Montrose, 
 and in 1574 to Aberdeen, where for a time he acted as an 
 inspector of the churches of Mar and Buchan. 
 
 On Knox"s return to Edinburgh, his people proceeded at 
 once to the election of another as his colleague. Their choice 
 fell upon James Lawson, sub-principal of the University of 
 Aberdeen. For some Sabbaths before the coming of Lawson, 
 Knox preached, not, however, in the large church of St. Giles, 
 where he used to declaim so vigorously, but in the smaller 
 church of the Tolbooth. His voice was gone, and much of 
 his physical vigour, but there was no diminishing of his fiery 
 and zealous spirit. His last public act was his presiding at 
 the induction of his new colleague, on Sabbath, 9th Nov- 
 ember. The sermon was in the Tolbooth church, the rest 
 of the service in St. Giles. " Having finished the service," 
 to use the words of Dr. M'Crie, "and pronounced the blessing 
 in a cheerful but exhausted voice, he came down from the 
 pulpit, and, leaning upon his staff, crept down the street, 
 which was lined with the audience, who, as if anxious to take 
 the last sight of their beloved pastor, followed him until he 
 entered his house, from which he never again came out 
 alive."" 
 
 Day after day during his sickness, he was visited by many 
 of the leading statesmen and more notable ministers, as well 
 as by many earnest religious people of obscurer rank. His 
 personal faith in Christ was firm and unshaken. He 
 mourned the civil strife that was waged now between men 
 who once had struggled side by side. He sent solemn 
 warnings, tenderly expressed, to Kirkaldy, and to the Earl 
 of Morton, who visited him, he spoke earnestly and affec- 
 tionately, and besought him, as he was soon to have the 
 government of the realm, that he would use his benefits better 
 in time to come than in time past, to God^s glory and the fur- 
 therance of the gospel, and for the weal of the king and his 
 realm and true subjects. " If you do so," 1 * said Knox, " God 
 will bless you and honour you ; if not, He shall spoil you of
 
 DEATH OF KNOX. 129 
 
 these benefits, and your end shall be ignominy and shame." 
 On the night of the 24th of November, 1572, Knox died, 
 and on the 26th he was buried in the churchyard of St. 
 Giles, now the paved court of Parliament Square. 
 
 On the day on which Knox died, Morton was raised to the 
 office of regent. A capable statesman and a vigorous 
 administrator, he was avaricious and self-seeking, and his 
 ecclesiastical legislation had in view, not the well-being of 
 the church and the advancement of religion, but the 
 aggrandisement of himself and the strengthening of his 
 party. Yet, little as he was disposed to carry out the policy 
 which Knox had consistently maintained all his life long and 
 sought to have enforced, he was able thoroughly to appre- 
 ciate the Reformer's greatness and the inflexible righteous- 
 ness of his character. Over Knox's grave the new regent 
 pronounced the oft-repeated and well deserved eulogy : 
 " Here lieth a man, who in his life never feared the face of 
 man, who hath often been threatened with dag and dagger, 
 but yet hath ended his days in peace and honour. 1 '
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Andrew Melville to Death of James VI* 
 A.D. 15721625. 
 
 VERY shortly before the death of Knox, the Earl of Morton 
 determined to have titular appointments made to the digni- 
 ties of the old Roman hierarchy in Scotland, so that there 
 might be more bearing the rank of archbishops and bishops, 
 who would occupy the place of the old prelates in the house 
 of parliament, and who would vote there as members of the 
 spiritual estate. The excuse made for this proposal was 
 that the constitution required that the three estates should 
 be present in the parliament, and that this could be main- 
 tained only if there were men of spiritual rank to take their 
 place alongside of the lords and barons and the burgesses. 
 The real reason, as the reformers clearly perceived, was that 
 the nobles and barons might secure the appointment of men 
 who would appear to draw the revenues of the benefices, 
 while really accepting a pittance, and allowing the temporal 
 lords to retain by far the greater part of the income. It was 
 soon made very plain what the intention was and of 
 what sort the new bishops were, and the popular wit styled 
 
 * Literature : M'Crie, Life of Andrew Melville, Edin. (1819), 
 1856 ; Morrison, Andrew Melville, Edin. 1899 ; Lee, Lectures on 
 History of Church of Scotland, II., 9-219; James AJelvil's Diary, 
 Edin. 1842 ; Calderwood, History of Kirk of Scotland (1678), 8vols., 
 Edin. 1842-1849 ; Row, History of the Kirk of Scotland from 1548 to 
 1639, Edin. 1842 ; Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland, 
 (1655), Vols. II. and III., Edin. 1851 ; Young, Life of John Welsh, 
 Edin. 1866 ; Wodrow, Life of Robert Bmce, 1583-1631, prefixed to 
 Bruce's Sermons, Edin. 1843 ; Scot, Apologetical Narration of the 
 State of the Kirk of Scotland from 1558 to 1633, Edin. 1846. 
 
 ISO
 
 CttAIG AND THE NATIONAL COVENANT. 131 
 
 them Tulchan bishops, a tulchan being a calf's skin stuffed 
 with straw to cause the cow to give milk. Patrick Adam- 
 son, who afterwards himself, and to his own ultimate con- 
 fusion and overthrow, accepted one of these dignities, and 
 became archbishop of St. Andrews, in a sermon preached in 
 that city on 8th February, 1572, described three kinds of 
 bishops : My lord bishop, my lord's bishop, and the Lord's 
 bishop. " My lord bishop," said he, " was the bishop of the 
 time of popery ; my lord's bishop is now, when iny lord 
 getteth the benefice and the bishop serveth for a portion, 
 with a title to make my lord's right secure ; and the Lord's 
 bishop is every true minister of the gospel." The bishops 
 who were appointed under this arrangement do not impress 
 us favourably. John Douglas, made archbishop of St. 
 Andrews, was an old man, not distinguished for any great 
 scholarship or ability, and very frail and infirm in body. He 
 was appointed in A.D. 1571, and in the following year and 
 in the next he was charged before the Assemblies with ne- 
 glect of duty and irregularities of various kinds. He died 
 in A.D. 1574. The other bishops were dealt with by the 
 General Assembly year after year for offences of a more or 
 less serious character. But even when charges were brought 
 against the bishops, those who brought them were careful 
 to state that their doing so was not to be understood as 
 carrying with it any recognition on their part of the lawful- 
 ness of the Episcopal office. 
 
 In the beginning of A.D. 1581, a second Confession of 
 Faith, commonly called the King's Confession, and known 
 by the name of the National Covenant, was signed by the 
 king and his household. It was drawn up by John Craig, 
 minister in Edinburgh. In its opening clause it ratifies the 
 old Scottish Confession of 1560, and what is added here is of 
 a negative description, condemning in detail all popish errors, 
 and renouncing all doctrines contrary to the true Protestant 
 faith, about sin, the sacraments, the mass, purgatory, prayers 
 for the dead, etc., and all episcopal theories of church 
 government, all rites and traditions of the church without or 
 against the Word of God. This Confession was approved
 
 132 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 by the General Assembly, Avhich enjoined subscription of it 
 upon all ministers and commissioners, and ministers were 
 required to obtain the subscription of their parishioners 
 under severe penalties. From time to time this Confession 
 was renewed as a Covenant by General Assemblies, and used 
 as a touchstone to distinguish Papists from Protestants, and 
 in later years it was made use of by those opposed to the 
 introduction of prelatical novelties in such a way as was by 
 no means acceptable to the king. 
 
 John Craig had returned to Edinburgh in September, 
 1579, after a residence of six years in Aberdeen. He was 
 now in a position of great influence and honour as one of 
 the King's chaplains. His presence in Edinburgh at this 
 time was of great advantage to the church. An admirable 
 business man and deeply versed in church law, he was in 
 great request in Assemblies, so that we find him out of 
 thirteen Assemblies a member of twelve. He was an ex- 
 cellent preacher and a good theologian. He wrote the first 
 catechism in the language of the people issued by the 
 Reformed Church of Scotland. This was the treatise en- 
 titled A Short Sum of the Whole Catechism, printed at 
 Edinburgh by Henry Charteris in 1581. Of the first edi- 
 tion of this work only two copies are known to exist, one 
 in the Advocates 1 Library and one in the private collection 
 of Sir James Gibson Craig.* From a later edition a reprint 
 has been included by Dr. Bonar in his Catechisms of the 
 Scottish Reformation. In it the Apostles 1 Creed is made 
 the basis of the main part of its doctrinal teaching. It is 
 somewhat larger than the Westminster Shorter Catechism, 
 but simpler in form and less abstruse in construction, and 
 in doctrine of the purely Calvinistic type. In 1592 the 
 General Assembly issued under its authority an abridge- 
 ment of this Catechism, prepared by Craig, and entitled A 
 Form of Examination before the Communion. 
 
 * A facsimile reprint of the first edition has been issued, with an 
 admirable introduction by Thomas Graves Law, Librarian of the 
 Signet Lib., under the title : A Morie Summe of the Whole Cate- 
 chisme, by John Craig, Edin., 1883.
 
 SECOND BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 133 
 
 Up to this time there had been no regular arrangement 
 of presbyteries, because of the insufficient number of mini- 
 sters. But now that the number of ministers had increased 
 so that the several parishes were fairly well provided for, the 
 bounds of the presbyteries were settled, and these arranged 
 in groups of two and three under the provincial synods. 
 Apart from the province of Argyle and the Isles, for which 
 no rental had as yet been given in, it was found that there 
 were altogether in Scotland nine hundred and twenty-five 
 kirks. Some of these parishes were so large that it was im- 
 possible, or at least extremely inconvenient, for the inhabi- 
 tants to meet in the parish church, while others were of 
 small extent and with a very limited population. It was 
 resolved to rearrange the parishes, to reduce the number to 
 six hundred, to divide these into fifty presbyteries, under 
 eighteen provincial synods. The moderator of presbytery 
 was to remain in office till the next provincial synod, and 
 each presbytery was to have in its possession a copy of The 
 Book of Policy, signed by all the ministers within its 
 bounds. 
 
 The Book of Policy, or as it is commonly called, The 
 Second Book of Discipline, had been for some time in pre- 
 paration. In the Assembly of April, 1576, a commission 
 was appointed to deliberate and draw up a scheme of polity 
 and church government. This commission consisted of 
 several companies, which were to sit separately in Glasgow, 
 Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Montrose, and Aberdeen, and to 
 meet conjointly or by representatives in Stirling, and then 
 to report to the next Assembly. At the October meeting 
 of Assembly the heads of the policy were read over and dis- 
 cussed, and a committee was appointed to revise and arrange 
 and put it in good form. In the Assembly of April, 1577, 
 some dispute arose over certain heads of the policy, and 
 these were re-committed, with the result that in the October 
 Assembly objection was made by a few only on one head, 
 that referring to the deaconship. The book was thereupon 
 approved by the Assembly, which now sent a copy to the 
 king and another to the council with a supplication that the
 
 134 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 book might be considered and formally ratified. The next 
 Assembly, which met in June, 1578, received what was re- 
 garded as a satisfactory answer from the king, who had just 
 himself assumed the government. The parliament, how- 
 ever, would do no more than promise to consider the heads 
 of the book. Parliamentary sanction being thus withheld, 
 it was ordained at the April meeting of Assembly, 1581, 
 that, though the book had not such good success as good 
 men wished, it should be inserted in the register of the 
 Acts of the Assembly. This important document consists 
 of thirteen chapters, and is considerably less than one half 
 of the length of The First Book of Discipline. The subjects 
 of which it treats are these : 1. Of the Kirk and Policy 
 thereof in general, and wherein it is different from the civil 
 policy ; 2. Of the Parts of the Policy of the Kirk, and Per- 
 sons or Office-bearers to whom Administration is committed; 
 3. How the Persons that bear Ecclesiastical Functions are 
 admitted to their Office ; 4. Of the Office-bearers in par- 
 ticular, and first of the Pastors or Ministers ; 5. Of Doctors 
 and their Office, and of the Schools ; 6. Of Elders and their 
 Office ; 7. Of the Elderships, and Assemblies, and Discipline ; 
 8. Of the Deacons and their Office, the last ordinary func- 
 tion in the Kirk ; 9. Of the Patrimony of the Kirk, and the 
 Distribution thereof; 10. Of the Office of the Christian 
 Magistrate in the Kirk ; 11. Of the present Abuses remain- 
 ing in the Kirk, which we desire to be reformed ; 12. Cer- 
 tain special Heads of Reformation which we crave; 13. The 
 Utility that shall flow from this Reformation in all estates. 
 " So to conclude,'' thus the document ends, " all being will- 
 ing to apply themselves to this order, the people suffering 
 themselves to be ruled according thereto, the princes and 
 magistrates not being exempted, and those that are placed 
 in the ecclesiastical estate rightly ruling and governing, God 
 shall be glorified, the kirk edified, and the bounds thereof 
 enlarged, Christ Jesus and His Kingdom set up, Satan and 
 his kingdom subverted, and God shall dwell in the midst of 
 us to our comfort through Jesus Christ, who, together with 
 the Father and the Holy Ghost, abides blessed in all eter-
 
 ANDREW MELVILLE BEGINS HIS WORK. 135 
 
 nity. Amen."" The scheme of church government set forth 
 in this document is in the main that which determines the 
 constitution of the Presbyterian churches down to the pre- 
 sent time. Those who framed it, and those who adopted it, 
 maintained that it is agreeable to the Word of God, but 
 they nowhere claim for it a divine right as though it were 
 expressly warranted by divine authority. They held that 
 practices which they condemned are either not according to 
 God's Word or are directly opposed to it, and they were 
 convinced that their conclusions are consistent with the 
 Word, though they never pretended that particulars of 
 legislation, which the circumstances of the church demanded, 
 are to be found already anticipated in the Scripture revela- 
 tion. They were content with asserting that the principles 
 upon which their scheme is built are those of God's Word. 
 
 In A.D. 1574, some eighteen months after the death of the 
 great Scottish Reformer, Andrew Melville, the greatest of 
 all the Protestant reformers of Scotland after Knox, began 
 his work for education and religion in his native land. He was 
 born at Baldovy, near Montrose, on the 1st of August, 1545, 
 and was brought up, after his father's and mother's death, 
 in the family of his eldest brother, Richard, who was minister 
 of Maryton. One of his brother's sons, James Melville, be- 
 came afterwards his uncle's faithful companion and friend, 
 and to the wonderfully vivid descriptions of his Diary ^ we 
 are indebted for much of the information which we possess 
 about the life and pursuits of the great scholar and reformer. 
 At the Grammar School of Montrose, young Andrew Mel- 
 ville gave special attention to the study of Greek, the know- 
 ledge of which was a very rare accomplishment in those 
 days, and when he went to the University of St. Andrews in 
 1559, he was the only one among professors and students 
 who could read Aristotle in the original. From St. Andrews, 
 Melville passed in 1564 to the Continent, where the next ten 
 years of his life were spent. At Paris he continued the study 
 of Greek, and acquired a knowledge of Hebrew, and studied 
 philosophy under Peter Ramus. After spending some years 
 as student and tutor at Poitiers, he went to Geneva, where
 
 136 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 he was warmly received by Beza, the successor of Calvin, and 
 during his five years 1 residence there, Melville was treated 
 with great consideration, received an appointment to the 
 chair of Humanity, and was regarded as one of the most 
 distinguished ornaments of the learned society of the city. 
 For several years nothing had been heard of Melville in 
 Scotland, and when now it was discovered that he was still 
 alive, urgent invitations reached him to repair to his native 
 country, that he might undertake the task of restoring the 
 reputation of the Scottish Universities, which had in these 
 days fallen very low. 
 
 Arriving in Edinburgh in July, 1574, Melville was offered 
 a court chaplaincy by the Earl of Morton. Declining this, 
 he waited for some short time seeing his friends at Baldovy, 
 and in October he went to Glasgow as principal of the Uni- 
 versity. This institution had become practically defunct for 
 want of funds, so that on his appointment as principal, Mel- 
 ville himself constituted the whole ofihesenatusAcademicus. 
 During six years he laboured indefatigably, first of all training 
 regents to teach classics, mathematics and philosophy, him- 
 self teaching all the classes of theology. When he had a 
 sufficient number of men trained for the work, he classified 
 the subjects, so that one teacher had not to undertake the 
 whole curriculum, but only his own special subject. In 1580 
 he went to St. Andrews as principal of St. Mary's College, 
 and in that office, and also in that of Rector of the Univer- 
 sity, he introduced most important reforms in the distribu- 
 tion of the subjects taught and in the method of teaching. 
 By means of Melville's labours in Glasgow and St. Andrews, 
 the Scottish Universities obtained a great reputation, so that, 
 not only they retained native students, but attracted many 
 from Continental countries. Morton had at once recognized 
 Melville's power, and saw that he was the leader with whom 
 hereafter he must reckon. He would have bestowed the 
 highest dignities upon him, but finding it impossible to win 
 him over by gifts, he proceeded to try whether he might not 
 intimidate him by threats. He soon found that any attempt 
 of that kind was equally vain. The Earl had one day broken
 
 ADAMSON, ARCHBISHOP OF ST. ANDREWS. 137 
 
 out in a violent rage, denouncing men who had come from 
 over the sea to set up the Genevan discipline, and declaring 
 that there would be no peace in the land until half a dozen 
 of the ministers had been hanged or banished. "Tush, 
 sir," answered Melville, " make these threats to your cour- 
 tiers. It is all one to me whether I rot in air or in the 
 ground. The earth is the Lord's. Patria est ubicunque est 
 bene. I have been ready to give my life where it would not 
 have been half so well wared at the pleasure of my God. I 
 lived out of your country ten years as well as in it. Let 
 God be glorified. It will not lie in your power to hang or 
 exile His truth." 
 
 On the death of John Douglas, the archbishopric of St. 
 Andrews, which it is understood Melville had refused, was 
 offered and accepted by Patrick Adamson or Constance, 
 minister in Paisley. He had been a decided opponent of 
 these sham episcopal appointments, but, being of a vain and 
 ambitious disposition, though a brilliant scholar and an 
 eloquent speaker, he accepted first of all a royal chaplaincy, 
 and then, in October, 1576, he was made archbishop. In 
 the Assembly held in April following he was charged with 
 having entered on the bishopric, usurped the office of visitor 
 in Fife and deserted his regular ministry. He made a formal 
 submission, but he soon showed how hollow his professions 
 had been by voting in parliament as bishop, making an ap- 
 pointment to a vicarage, and in his place in parliament 
 opposing the adopted policy of the church. Throughout 
 his whole career his conduct was tyrannical and oppressive 
 in the extreme. Before he became archbishop, he had 
 sought the favour and friendship of Melville, but afterwards 
 he missed no opportunity of injuring him personally and 
 seeking to thwart his ecclesiastical measures. For a time 
 he lent himself freely as a tool in the hands of the king and 
 court in concerting plans for the overthrow of presbytery. 
 He also spent some time in England consulting with leading 
 prelatists there as to the subversion of the presbyterian 
 polity. Learned and accomplished as he undoubtedly was, 
 it would appear that he was not wholly emancipated from
 
 138 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 the thraldom of the most vulgar superstition. Being 
 afflicted with some serious and persistent disease, he was said 
 to have consulted one Aleson Pierson, a witch, who professed 
 to obtain her skill in conference with a deceased physician. 
 This woman had, after examination, been committed to the 
 care of the bishop, who, having sought her advice, allowed 
 her to escape, only, alas ! to be caught again and put to 
 death in Edinburgh. Adamson was charged before the 
 presbytery in 1583 with having sought cure from this 
 woman. Such superstition, however, he shared with the 
 most enlightened of those times. Even James Melville, in 
 the charge against Adamson of consulting with witches, tells 
 how it was reported to him by many honest men that saw 
 it with their eyes, that a hare, understood to be a witch who 
 had assumed that form, burst out from the midst of a com- 
 pany which on a certain occasion was escorting the bishop 
 home. 
 
 What has been called the Bassandyne Bible, the first edi- 
 tion of the Scriptures that issued from a Scottish printing 
 press, appeared in the year 1579. This work had been 
 begun in 1575 by Bassandyne and Arbuthnot, printers in 
 Edinburgh, and though the former died in 1577, the Bible 
 came to be known by his name. Before the issuing of this 
 Bible, Scottish readers were obliged to get their Bibles as 
 well as their other books from England or from the Con- 
 tinent. This Scottish edition was a reprint of the transla- 
 tion or revision issued under the care of the English Pro- 
 testant refugees in Geneva in 1554, and commonly called 
 the Genevan Bible. It reproduces this Bible with all its notes, 
 woodcuts and maps. It was brought out under the direc- 
 tion of the church, the Assembly of March, 1575, supplying 
 the printers with the authentic copy and appointing certain 
 of their own number to supervise the printing and revise the 
 proofs. Already, however, the Scriptures in the English 
 tongue were widely circulated among the people, and at 
 foreign presses Bibles with the Psalms and Catechisms were 
 printed specially for sale in Scotland. The bargain of the 
 Assembly with the Scottish printers was that the Bibles
 
 FOUNDING OF EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY. 139 
 
 should be sold for 4< 13s. 4d. each in Scottish money. The 
 Assembly also secured a license for the work from the Privy 
 Council in 1576. An Act of Parliament passed in the same 
 year enacted that every householder worth 300 merks 
 rental or yeoman with ^500 of stock, must possess a Bible 
 and Psalm Book under a penalty of ten pounds. 
 
 In 1580 the town council of Edinburgh made inquiries 
 about a bequest of Robert Reid, bishop of Orkney and abbot 
 of Kinloss, which he had made in 1558 for the endowment 
 of a University in Edinburgh, of which they had been named 
 the patrons. Strangely enough, after twenty years the 
 patrons agreed to accept, instead of the original 8000 
 merks with the interest due, 4000 merks for the pur- 
 poses of the trust. Even this fraction of the bequest 
 seems to have been largely misapplied. On 14th April, 
 1582, King James gave a charter for the erection of the 
 university, making the provost, magistrates and councillors 
 curators for the election and control of professors. It is 
 curious to find that out of the thirty-three patrons of the 
 University thirteen could not sign their own names. Robert 
 Rollock, a regent of St. Salvator's College, St. Andrews, a 
 man of great ability and learning and of high Christian char- 
 acter, was appointed first principal in 1583, in his twenty- 
 eighth year, holding the office till his death in 1599. The 
 class taught by Rollock was conducted by him all through 
 the curriculum, and for the second, third and fourth years 
 other regents were appointed. During the first and second 
 sessions special attention was given to classical studies, and 
 in the later months to philosophy, in the third session along 
 with philosophy natural history and physics were studied 
 with the elements of Hebrew ; in the fourth session, ethics, 
 physics and metaphysics, with practice in disputation. The 
 regents superintended the students in their home life and 
 recreation ; and the principal presided at worship daily and 
 conducted services with the students in college every Lord's 
 day. 
 
 On the death of James Boyd, archbishop of Glasgow, 
 Robert Montgomery, minister of Stirling, was appointed to
 
 140 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 the vacancy by the Duke of Lennox. After repeated ad- 
 monition and promises of submission, which he failed to 
 fulfil, he was excommunicated by the Presbytery of Edin- 
 burgh under the direction of the Assembly in 1582. Ulti- 
 mately he gave in his submission in such a form as was 
 acceptable, and it was resolved in 1588 that he might be 
 admitted to a flock where he had not been scandalous, pro- 
 viding he be found qualified in life and doctrine. He seems 
 to have been a weak man, under the influence of Adamson, 
 and held in contempt by the people wherever he appeared. 
 
 On the 28th September, 1582, died George Buchanan, one 
 of the greatest and most brilliant of Scotland's scholars. 
 Besides the Satires, which have already been referred to, 
 Buchanan published in 1579 his De Jure Regm apud Scotos, 
 a dialogue concerning the rights of the crown in Scotland, 
 dedicating it to his old pupil James VI. In it he firmly 
 maintained the doctrine that kings exist by the will and for 
 the good of the people. He had been appointed Keeper of 
 the Privy Seal in 1570, and this office he held until he re- 
 signed it in 1578. From that time onward he devoted 
 himself to the writing of his History of Scotland, an exten- 
 sive work in which he retails many of the legendary stories 
 of the earlier periods, but makes a valuable contribution in 
 the narrative of events occurring in his own day. He was 
 distinguished not only for his singularly wide and accurate 
 scholarship, but also for great integrity and uprightness of 
 character. He died poor, and was buried at the public ex- 
 pense in Greyfriars Churchyard. 
 
 In February, 1581<, Andrew Melville was summoned before 
 the Council on a charge of u'sing treasonable language in his 
 preaching. He boldly denied the jurisdiction of the court, 
 and refused to answer there as to the discharge of his 
 spiritual functions. He was sentenced to imprisonment in 
 Blackness Castle, but his friends assuring him that his life 
 was threatened, he withdrew to Berwick over the English 
 border. For nearly two years he remained in voluntary 
 exile in England. 
 
 Shortly after Melville's withdrawal, a meeting of parlia-
 
 THE BLACK ACTS OF 1584. 141 
 
 merit was held at which measures were passed, usually called 
 the Black Acts, at the instigation of Adamson, for the over- 
 throw of the Presbyterian discipline and the destruction of 
 the liberties of the church. In this parliament, the meet- 
 ings of which were held within closed doors, Adamson and 
 Montgomery sat as bishops. These famous Acts pronounced 
 those guilty of treason who should decline the judgment of 
 the king or council in any manner whatsoever, as also those 
 who impugned or sought to diminish the power and autho- 
 rity of the three Estates of parliament. Thus, the refusal to 
 acknowledge the office and rank of the bishops was construed 
 as a treasonable offence. These Acts also prohibited all 
 conventions, except the ordinary courts, for consulting about 
 matters civil or ecclesiastical without the king's special 
 license. According to this enactment no church court could 
 meet except when convened directly by royal authority. 
 These Acts further ordained that the bishops should be 
 commissioned by the king to make all ecclesiastical ap- 
 pointments and arrangements in their diocese. It was also 
 enacted, in view immediately of the well known practice of 
 all the leading Protestant ministers, that no one should pre- 
 sume in sermons or in less public conferences, to censure the 
 king^s conduct or the proceedings of the Council under pain of 
 prosecution with the utmost rigour for a treasonable offence. 
 It is little wonder that, among all the tyrannical measures 
 that have been passed and put into execution, these should 
 have been singled out by the designation of " the Black 
 Acts of 1584 " for marked reprobation as infamous in the 
 uttermost degree. It is humiliating enough for a patriotic 
 Scotsman to record that they were passed and publicly pro- 
 claimed without any objection being taken by the nobles, 
 barons and burgesses, who basely gave their votes as they 
 were bidden. It is to the undying honour of the ministers 
 that they stoutly opposed these high-handed acts of pure 
 despotism by which not only their rights but those of 
 the people were assailed, so that if they were submitted to no 
 one would dare to utter his thoughts, but must receive un- 
 questioningly whatever the king and his few favourites
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 might say. More than twenty of the best and ablest minis- 
 ters were obliged to follow Melville and seek safety in 
 flight. Lawson, Balcanquhal and Pont, ministers of Edin- 
 burgh, publicly protested against these Acts, and then fled 
 to England. For those who remained a bond was prepared 
 which they were required to sign within forty days. By 
 this they bound themselves, under pain of losing their sti- 
 pends, to submit to the king as supreme over all estates, 
 civil and ecclesiastical, and to recognise the bishops. As 
 most of the ministers refused to sign this bond, a clause 
 was added at the suggestion of Adamson, to the effect that 
 they conformed only " according to the Word of God." The 
 clause was ambiguous, and meant really nothing, so far as 
 the obligation was concerned, but it proved a snare and many 
 by it were entrapped into signing the bond. The extreme 
 severity with which the penalties of disobedience to these 
 hateful laws were enforced, and the examples of such men 
 as John Dury, John Craig and Erskine of Dun, led to a very 
 general defection, so that in a short time almost all the 
 ministers who were not in exile had given in their sub- 
 mission. The exiled ministers, however, found support 
 from those noblemen and barons who had left the country 
 over the trouble caused by the Raid of Ruthven, and both 
 nobles and ministers knew that they were backed up to a 
 large extent by popular sentiment, and that many in Scot- 
 land were groaning under the despotism of Arran, who ruled 
 both king and people. Accordingly, when, in October, 
 1585, the banished lords and ministers returned from Eng- 
 land, the strength of their party was such that Arran fled, 
 and the king at Stirling received them into his favour. 
 Instead of considering the interests and liberties of the church, 
 those lords who had now regained royal favour attended 
 exclusively to their own affairs. One minister after another 
 whose preaching offended the king, was sent to Blackness. 
 Still more grievous was the countenance given to Popery. 
 Maxwell, who had now been created Earl of Morton, one of 
 the chief opponents of Arran, was a Roman Catholic, and in 
 Dumfries a procession was made with lighted tapers and
 
 ADAMSON LENIENTLY TREATED. 143 
 
 mass performed. For quarter of a century such a sight had 
 not been seen in Scotland. As open encouragement given 
 to the Popish party would prove peculiarly offensive to 
 England, it was necessary that the complaint of the minis- 
 ters against this bold demonstration should be listened to, 
 and at least the appearance of a check be given to such dis- 
 plays of Popish zeal ; and so the principal offenders were 
 imprisoned for three months in Edinburgh Castle, and a 
 proclamation issued against all Popish intrigues. Another 
 source of trouble was the divided state of feeling among the 
 members of the Presbyterian party. Naturally enough re- 
 criminations passed between those who had gone into exile 
 and those who had signed the bond. There was not the 
 same unanimity and heartiness in rejecting all proposals of 
 compromise as characterized the proceedings of earlier years. 
 
 Notwithstanding his peace-loving disposition, which led 
 him to sign the bond and to make compromises which the 
 more staunch and consistent Covenanters persistently de- 
 nounced, John Craig vigorously opposed the Black Acts of 
 1584. When Arran angrily shouted, "Who dare find 
 fault with Acts of Parliament ? " Craig fearlessly answered : 
 " We do and shall find fault with everything that is repug- 
 nant to the Word of God. 11 
 
 In April, 1586, the synod of Fife passed the sentence of 
 excommunication upon Archbishop Adamson, because, not- 
 withstanding his sentence of suspension by the General 
 Assembly, he had continued to preach, had declined the 
 authority of the church courts, and had refused to stand 
 trial for various offences with which he had been charged. In 
 consequence of the very urgent entreaties of the king, who 
 tried eagerly to get an admission of the superiority of the 
 bishops in respects of order, if not jurisdiction, the Assembly 
 held in May, 1586, agreed, notwithstanding the protest of 
 Andrew Melville and other wise and far-seeing men, to treat 
 the sentence of synod as unpronounced, in the hope of se- 
 curing the king's good will and obtaining the archbishop^ 
 submission. The Assembly seems to have been of a singu- 
 larly temporizing disposition. The majority of the minis-
 
 144 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 ters, who had been subscribers to the bond, showed them- 
 selves weak and inconsiderate, and too ready to yield to the 
 fear and flattery of the court. A sort of mixed government 
 was agreed to. The bishop was recognised as having power 
 by reason of order, but, while his rank was acknowledged, it 
 was maintained that the name and office of bishop is common 
 to all pastors, that the titular bishop may visit the bounds 
 prescribed to him and make presentations only with consent 
 of the presbytery, that in doctrine and life he shall be sub- 
 ject to the censures of presbytery, synod and assembly, and 
 that whatever would deprive an ordinary minister of his 
 oifice shall also serve to deprive a bishop of his. These con- 
 clusions of a conference at Holyrood were homologated at 
 this Assembly. As Adamson subscribed the conditions 
 proposed by the Assembly, he was absolved. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1587 the king came into 
 conflict with some of the ministers over a request which he 
 made of them to make public prayer on behalf of his mother, 
 as she now lay under sentence of death. This some of them 
 declined to do, and their refusal has subjected them to a 
 great deal of ill-considered and undeserved abuse. The 
 king's own conduct with regard to this matter was the most 
 heartless conceivable. Between her sentence and its execu- 
 tion there was an interval of three months, and during that 
 period there was no abatement of the merriments of the 
 court. The king simply sent a verbal message to the minis- 
 ters of Edinburgh five days before the execution, requiring 
 them to pray for her spiritual illumination, and that God 
 would save her from the apparent danger into which she 
 was cast. The ministers declared themselves ready to pray 
 for the salvation of her soul, but not in such a way as would 
 imply that they regarded her as guiltless in regard to the plots 
 against the life of Elizabeth and for the subversion of the 
 Protestant religion. In the High Church of Edinburgh on 
 the 3rd of February, 1587, John Couper preoccupied the 
 pulpit, although the king had arranged that Archbishop 
 Adamson should preach that day and say the prayers for his 
 mother in the manner required. The king ordered the
 
 ADAMSON MUTILATES CHURCH RECORDS. 145 
 
 regular minister to come down and allow Mr. Patrick 
 Adamson to preach. But the archbishop's appearance was 
 the occasion of a great disturbance, most running out of the 
 church after their minister, and leaving few besides those 
 around the king, to hear him discourse on the duty of pray- 
 ing for all men. When the king complained of the conduct 
 of the minister, the Assembly declined to censure him, but 
 in the interests of peace removed him to Glasgow. 
 
 A serious charge was brought against Adamson of having 
 mutilated the records of the Assembly. As these books had 
 been forcibly taken away by the Archbishop of St. Andrews, 
 the Assembly applied to the Privy Council to have them 
 restored, and that Adamson should be made to appear to 
 answer for their removal and other misdeeds. The secre- 
 tary of the Council brought to the Assembly five volumes of 
 their records, with leaves torn out of them and other mutila- 
 tions, so that they asked to have thereafter the custody of 
 their own books. As the king insisted on having the in- 
 spection of them as often as he liked, though promising to 
 send them back, the Assembly wisely determined to have its 
 register produced in duplicate. In his confession afterwards, 
 Adamson acknowledged that he had torn out leaves from 
 the book in which anything was found against the order of 
 bishops. 
 
 Several Acts of Parliament were passed in 1587 which, 
 though not directly favourable to Presbyterianism, were 
 certainly hurtful to the cause of Episcopacy in Scotland. In 
 particular one Act, on the ground that the king had now 
 attained his majority, and that all alienations of property 
 during his minority should be void, annexed all the church 
 lands to the crown, reserving always the tiends for the pay- 
 ment of the ministers. This was no doubt expected to afford 
 a large revenue to the king, which would save him from im- 
 posing taxes upon a people unaccustomed to pay such dues 
 and not likely to submit to any such imposition. Mean- 
 while, however, those in possession had to be allowed to 
 draw the revenues, and as thus the income was not imme- 
 diately available, the king recklessly gave away these tern-
 
 146 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 poralities as gifts to his favourites, and the seizure of church 
 property benefited neither the church nor the king. 
 
 During all this time the adherents of the Romish faith, 
 especially in the north, had never abandoned their intrigues 
 in favour of a restoration of the power of the Roman 
 Catholic Church and the overthrow of the Protestant re- 
 ligion and government. Among them there was a consider- 
 able amount of sympathy with Philip of Spain, the great 
 champion of the Romish Church in that day among the 
 princes of Europe. He was now engaged fitting out his 
 great Armada against Elizabeth, and the Protestant lords 
 and ministers in Scotland represented to the king the danger 
 in which the country lay in consequence of the presence in 
 their own land of those who favoured the enemy. Jesuit 
 priests and Papal emissaries, under various disguises, were 
 spreading everywhere all over the country, assiduously seek- 
 ing to advance the interests of the old church and stir up 
 the enthusiasm of those who were supposed to be favourers 
 of the cause. An Act was accordingly passed which ratified 
 all the laws that had been made against the enemies of Pro- 
 testant truth and against those who seek to seduce the 
 people from their allegiance to the Reformed religion, and 
 denounced death and forfeiture upon any papist or seminary 
 priest found in the country forty days after the passing of 
 the Act. The circulating of erroneous books was also made 
 a crime. Besides this, in answer to the warnings addressed 
 him, the king in the following year raised an army and put 
 himself at the head of his troops, and effectually quelled the 
 turbulent Popish barons who had threatened to revolt. 
 
 In connection with the passing of the Act of Annexation 
 by which the ecclesiastical lands were attached to the crown, 
 the Assembly complained that the king had transferred the 
 right of patronage of the several benefices from himself to 
 lords and others to whom the lands had been made over, and 
 that in some cases the patronage of church livings had been 
 conferred upon parties who had not obtained possession of the 
 lands. It was maintained that this was fraught with serious 
 danger to the church. The Assembly, therefore, entreated
 
 ROBERT BRUCE OF KINNAIRD. 147 
 
 the king to annul those gifts of patron rights at next par- 
 liament, and meanwhile to make no more gifts of that kind, 
 and also to prohibit those new patrons from exercising their 
 patronage till the next General Assembly had met. No 
 definite proposal was as yet made with regard to the party 
 or parties to whom the right and privilege of election should 
 be given. In most parts of the country the common people 
 were still in a degraded condition, living in ignorance and 
 vice. At an Assembly in Perth in 1596, it was resolved, in 
 answer to a question by the king, that the election of pastors 
 should be made by those that are lawfully called pastors and 
 doctors, and who can try the gifts necessarily belonging to 
 pastors by the Word of God, and that to such as are so 
 chosen the flock and the patron should give their consent and 
 protection. 
 
 At this time there appears upon the scene, as one of the 
 ministers of Edinburgh, Mr. Robert Bruce, destined to 
 figure prominently in the history of the church and nation 
 for many years to come. A son of the laird of Airth, 
 Robert Bruce was born in 1559, and as it was originally in- 
 tended that he should follow a legal career, he had bestowed 
 upon him by his father the lands and barony of Kinnaird. 
 Turning his attention afterwards, however, to the church, he 
 studied under Andrew Melville in St. Andrews, and visiting 
 Edinburgh in 1587 with his teacher, he was urged to enter 
 upon the ministry in that city. Before this he had preached 
 and administered the sacraments, and now he continued to 
 do so at the call of the church, but without formal ordina- 
 tion by the imposition of hands. The unsettled character 
 of the times and the urgency of the call which was first pressed 
 upon him may account for this irregularity, together with 
 the fact that, though the laying on of hands is enjoined in 
 The Second Book of Discipline, it was disapproved of in the 
 First. Mr. Bruce came to be regarded as one of the most 
 popular preachers that Scotland had ever produced. He 
 became a great favourite with the king and his most trusted 
 counsellor. The great confidence which his majesty had in 
 the minister's wisdom and ability is shown by this, that when
 
 148 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 he determined to go to Norway to meet his bride in 
 November, 1589, he entrusted to Mr. Bruce the management 
 of the kingdom in his absence. During the six months that 
 elapsed before the king's return, the papists sought to foment 
 troubles and produce feuds among the nobles, but Bruce, in 
 conjunction with the Protestant nobles and ministers, 
 managed affairs admirably, so as to preserve peace and 
 maintain order throughout the realm. The king wrote him 
 from Upsala thanking him for the care he had taken of his 
 country, and declaring him worthy of the quarter of it. The 
 king and queen landed at Leith on 1st May, 1590, and the 
 queen was crowned in the Abbey Church on 17th May, Mr. 
 Bruce anointing her, Andrew Melville reciting a magnificent 
 coronation ode in Latin called " The Stephaniskion," greatly 
 admired by all the learned men of Europe. For at least 
 five years after this Mr. Bruce continued to stand high in 
 the favour and estimation of the king. 
 
 The General Assembly met in August, and the king 
 attended in person one of the services, and was apparently 
 in excellent humour and most favourably inclined toward 
 the ministers in consideration of their loyal help during his 
 absence and since his return. In delivering his speech he 
 made quite a theatrical display, and his audience was com- 
 pletely carried away by the appearance of sincerity and 
 hearty goodwill. The king uncovered his head, stood up 
 with his eyes and hands raised to heaven, and began to 
 praise God that he had been born in such a time as king in 
 a country with such a church, the sincerest in the world. 
 " The kirk of Geneva," said he, " keeps Christmas and 
 Easter. What have they for them ? They have no insti- 
 tution for them. As for our neighbour kirk in England, 
 their service is an ill said mass in English. They want 
 nothing of the mass but the liftings. I charge ye, my good 
 people, ministers, doctors, elders, nobles, gentlemen and 
 barons, to stand to your purity and to exhort the people to 
 do the like ; and I, forsooth, so long as I brook my life and 
 crown, shall maintain the same against all deadly." So de- 
 lighted were the ministers with this strong pronouncement
 
 ADAMSON IN DISGRACE. 149 
 
 of the king in favour of the church and presbyterian polity 
 that we are told that there was nothing heard for quarter 
 of an hour but praising of God and praying for the king. 
 The Assembly afterwards proceeded to make request of the 
 king that he would ratify the liberties of the kirk, purge 
 the land of papists and popery, and have the kirks provided 
 with pastors and provision. The king assented to these pro- 
 posals, and asked that commissioners should be appointed 
 to present these matters before the Council. 
 
 Archbishop Adamson had by this time fallen into dis- 
 favour with the king. He is said to have had extravagant 
 habits, and probably was fond of making a display and 
 maintaining a large and expensive following. At the same 
 time, the income which was allowed to reach him was pro- 
 bably at no time adequate to the style which he was expected 
 to maintain. Consequently he was drowned in debt, and 
 was in such dire straits that his household furniture was 
 seized and sold, and he was left without the means of pro- 
 viding the ordinary necessaries of life. The revenues of the 
 bishopric had been given by the king to the Duke of Lennox. 
 In his extreme destitution his health gave way, and the 
 treatment he now received from those whom he had served, 
 and in whose service he had incurred such odium, preyed 
 upon his mind, as did also the excommunication of the 
 church, under which he still lay. In his neediness and misery 
 he was driven to seek help from Andrew Melville, whom he 
 had often treated so badly. He had certainly been a most 
 grievous troubler of the church, and had often condescended 
 to the meanest manoeuvres to cause annoyance and produce 
 irritation among those who had formerly been his brethren. 
 But after all, he seemed to be at heart too good for the 
 position he had sought to fill. A more utterly unscrupulous 
 man would have succeeded better. He went too far, but 
 his conscience and better nature would not let him go far 
 enough. Only in this way can we explain his intense 
 anxiety for the removal of the church excommunication, 
 when he was already in a dying state, so that restoration to 
 the communion of the church and the favour of the brethren
 
 150 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 could no longer benefit his temporal condition. He en- 
 treated in an eager, almost abject, manner that he might be 
 absolved from ecclesiastical censure, and in order to obtain 
 this absolution he gave in an elaborate and detailed con- 
 fession or recantation. He received liberal help from Andrew 
 Melville, and was visited pastorally by David Black, minister 
 of St. Andrews. They do not seem to have put any pressure 
 upon him in the way of urging his recantation, only it was 
 necessary, before absolution could be granted, that sorrow 
 for the conduct that had occasioned the excommunication 
 should be clearly and exactly expressed. The Assembly of 
 1591 agreed to absolve the penitent, and Black made public 
 intimation of this from the pulpit of St. Andrews. Shortly 
 before his death, which took place on 19th February, 1592, 
 Adamson made a notable confession, which makes one think 
 of Wolsey's memorable words. " I gloried over much," he 
 said, " in three things, and God has now justly punished me 
 in them all : 1st. I gloried in my riches and great living, 
 and now I am so poor that I have no means to entertain 
 myself; 2nd. I gloried in my eloquence, and now few can 
 understand what I speak ; 3rd. I gloried in the favour of 
 my prince, and now he loves any of the dogs of his kennel 
 better than me.' 1 
 
 Nothing is more noticeable than the lively interest which 
 the ministers in their preaching and in their Assemblies took 
 in the political affairs and in the social interests of the 
 nation. It was not that they were busybodies meddling with 
 matters outside their province, but for the most part by 
 taking to do with the actions of the king or his failure to 
 act, they were, in accordance with a sound instinct, recog- 
 nizing the inseparable connection between life and doctrine, 
 and the need that existed for the lovers of God's Word 
 seeing to the realization in the community of God's will. If 
 they reproved the king sharply for his want of faith in his 
 dealings with the church, they were no less faithful in con- 
 demning anything like connivance on his part with those 
 who had been guilty of crimes against the good order of the 
 commonwealth. To all straightforward, right thinking men
 
 MURDER OF THE BONNIE EARL OF MORAY. 151 
 
 the crookedness of the policy of James and his vacillation, 
 caused often by his excessive timidity, must have been beyond 
 measure provoking, and must have made them feel almost 
 hopeless in the battle for liberty and righteous govern- 
 ment. The Earl of Moray, commonly known as the 
 Bonnie Earl, had been murdered in broad daylight at 
 Donibristle by his enemy the Earl of Huntly, who had per- 
 suaded the king of Moray's being accomplice of Bothwell in 
 the plot against his majesty. It was an atrocious outrage 
 on one of the most popular of Scottish noblemen, but James, 
 by one excuse after another, so managed affairs that Huntly 
 escaped unpunished. A few days after the murder Mr. 
 Patrick Simson was preaching before the king on the text : 
 " The Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother ? " 
 and in the hearing of the whole congregation he addressed 
 the king : " Sir, I assure you, in God's name, the Lord will 
 ask of you, 'Where is the Earl of Moray your brother?' 1 ' 
 The king replied before all the people : " Mr. Patrick, my 
 chamber door was never steeked upon you ; ye might have 
 told me any thing ye thought in secret." " Sir," he 
 answered, " the scandal is public." And the old historian 
 tells us that, being sent for to the castle, the minister went 
 up with the Bible under his arm, saying, that could plead 
 for him. 
 
 The Assembly of 1592 petitioned for the repeal of those 
 Acts of Parliament which were against the liberties and 
 privileges of the church, and again asked that the policy of 
 the church should be recognised and ratified. The horror 
 awakened throughout the country hy the murder of Moray, 
 and the widespread indignation caused by the king's evident 
 reluctance to pursue the man suspected of the crime, and the 
 consequent unpopularity that had fallen upon the king and 
 the chancellor, Maitland, made the court party anxious by 
 all means to conciliate the ministers and to pass measures 
 favourable to the church. A meeting of parliament was 
 therefore held immediately after the rising of the Assembly. 
 Two of the demands of the Assembly were refused that 
 the Act of Annexation should be cancelled and the patrimony
 
 152 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 of the church restored, and that abbots and priors should 
 not be permitted to vote in parliament or any other con- 
 vention in name of the church. But the other two, that the 
 presbyterian government and discipline should be ratified, and 
 that the Acts in favour of popery should be abrogated, were 
 agreed to. The Act of Parliament of date 15th June, 1592, 
 may be regarded as the constitutional charter of the Pres- 
 byterian Church government in Scotland. It ratified all 
 previous Acts favourable to the church, confirmed all the 
 privileges these had bestowed upon it, approved the General 
 Assemblies that had been appointed by it, made yearly 
 Assemblies lawful, as also the meetings of provincial synods 
 and presbyteries ; it indicated the business proper to each of 
 these church courts ; it abrogated all pre-Reformation Acts 
 recognizing the pope's authority and tolerating or enforcing 
 superstitious observances ; and it also annulled the Act of 
 1584 granting commission to bishops and other judges in 
 ecclesiastical causes to receive the king's presentation to 
 benefices, and ordained that all such presentations be by the 
 particular presbyteries, providing that these presbyteries be 
 bound to receive any qualified minister presented by his 
 majesty or lay patron. This Act was passed grudgingly. 
 It was extorted under dread of further loss of popularity at 
 a crisis when this could not be ventured upon. It was, how- 
 ever, a great gain to the church to have all the main heads 
 of her policy and her popular constitution thus legally 
 established and confirmed. So far as James was concerned, 
 he hated the democratic principles that constituted the 
 foundation of the Presbyterian polity, and was determined 
 that so soon as opportunity was afforded him, he would re- 
 pudiate all his fair promises, and re-establish the hierarchy in 
 Scotland, and the Episcopal form of government and worship 
 in the Scottish church. 
 
 For many years following the passing of this Act the 
 Presbyterian Church in Scotland \vas in a flourishing con- 
 dition, and its ministers knew how to take advantage of this 
 period of prosperity to strengthen the institutions of the 
 church and extend its benefits throughout the land. Among
 
 POPISH SYMPATHY WITH SPAIN. 153 
 
 many evils introduced by the avarice of the Regent Morton, 
 and kept up by the parsimony or poverty of subsequent 
 rulers, one of the most injurious to the interests of the church 
 was the practice of combining several large and populous 
 parishes under the care of one minister, so that instead of 
 three or four stipends only one was paid. James Melville, 
 the nephew of Andrew, after being regent in Glasgow Uni- 
 versity, and from 1580 professor of Hebrew in St. Andrews, 
 was in 1586 called to the parish of Anstruther, to which 
 was attached the three neighbouring parishes of Kilrenny, 
 Pittenweem and Abercrombie. He brought with him an 
 assistant, Robert Dury, to whom he gave over Anstruther 
 with all its endowments. Through time he secured means 
 of planting ministers in Pittenweem and Abercrombie, while 
 he himself retained the pastoral charge of Kilrenny. He 
 built a manse mainly at his own expense, and himself raised 
 money for the permanent endowment of the parish. He 
 also paid the parochial teacher's salary and kept an assistant, 
 so that the parish might not suffer from his frequent 
 absences on the business of the church. In the thoroughly 
 unselfish and laborious way in which James Melville dis- 
 charged his duties as a parish minister, we have, no doubt, a 
 specimen of the character and of the style of work that was 
 being done in hundreds of obscure country parishes by noble 
 self-sacrificing men through the length and breadth of the 
 land. 
 
 The Popish party in Scotland, though considerably 
 daunted by the failure of their hopes through the defeat of 
 the Armada, had never altogether ceased from their plots 
 and schemes for the subversion of the Protestant faith and 
 their intrigues for the obtaining of an ascendancy in the 
 councils of the king. During this period the most notorious 
 of the king's enemies was the desperado Bothwell. This 
 unscrupulous man, in order to gain favour among the people, 
 did not hesitate to circulate a report that he had the good- 
 will of the principal preachers, and that there was a good 
 mutual understanding between him and them. The king 
 readily believed, or professed to believe, this story against
 
 154 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 the ministers, which the friends of the Popish lords took 
 care to have carried to him, and put before him in a way 
 the most damaging to the character of the Protestant 
 leaders. Not only was this statement made with reference 
 to the Melvilles, but even Robert Bruce, who had done so 
 much for the king and been such a favourite at court, was 
 charged by the fickle monarch with conspiring to have the 
 crown put upon BothwelPs head. It was also maintained 
 that James Melville, who had been collecting money for the 
 state of Geneva, impoverished by a war with the Duke of 
 Savoy, had paid over the money to Bothwell to enable him 
 to raise an army against the king. This calumny was dis- 
 proved by Melville, who was able to produce receipts to show 
 that the money had been paid to those for whom it was in- 
 tended, and a special letter of thanks from Beza. There 
 cannot be a shadow of doubt as to the stedfast loyalty of the 
 ministers. Andrew Hunter of Carnbee had taken part with 
 Bothwell, and when the king asked that Hunter should be 
 excommunicated as the first open traitor against his natural 
 sovereign and a king of his own religion, and as one who had 
 brought a scandal on his own profession, it was found that 
 the church had not waited the call of the king, but that 
 before this, at the church's own instance, he had been ex- 
 communicated. That in the king's conduct which caused 
 special annoyance to the ministers was his reluctance to 
 punish Popish intrigues, and his readiness to receive the 
 Popish lords into favour. Some allowance must no doubt 
 be made for the difficulties of the king's position, with so 
 many powerful nobles, supported, especially in the North, by 
 a large portion of the people, who were firmly attached to 
 the Romish church. Also that statecraft upon which he 
 valued himself so highly seemed to require that, in view of 
 the English succession, he should endeavour to conciliate all 
 classes and all varieties of belief among his subjects. His 
 mistake lay in the method which he adopted for accomplish- 
 ing this, making friends with one party by deceiving and 
 misleading the other. 
 
 Towards the end of 1592 a serious plot was discovered, in
 
 HUNTLY AND THE POPISH LORDS. 155 
 
 which the Earls of Huntly, Angus, and Errol were involved. 
 These and several of less degree had been intriguing with 
 Philip of Spain about an invasion of the country in the in- 
 terests of the Romish faith. The ministers had been largely 
 instrumental in its discovery. Andrew Knox, minister in 
 Paisley, headed a party which apprehended the accredited 
 agent of the traitors before he sailed for Spain, with papers 
 called the Spanish Blanks, to which were appended the sig- 
 natures of the leading rebels. At first James was inclined 
 to resent the interference of the ministers, but at last he was 
 compelled to raise an army to go after Huntly, who had 
 fled to his stronghold in the North. On the approach of 
 the royal army, Huntly fled to Caithness, and, as the weather 
 was extremely severe, the king returned south from Aber- 
 deen, and that expedition was at an end. After this the 
 king trifled with the matter, and showed that he had no 
 wish to prosecute the business any further. The Synod of 
 Fife, under the influence of the Melvilles, excommunicated 
 the Popish lords, but the king was greatly displeased at this, 
 and got the Parliament to pass an Act of Oblivion, assuring 
 the lords of indemnity in regard to all that had passed. 
 Notwithstanding this evidence of the king^s disposition, the 
 Assembly of May, 1594, confirmed what the Synod of Fife 
 had done. In vain the king sought to win over James Mel- 
 ville by flattery aud favour. The ministers stood firm 
 though the parliament had given way. Urged at last to 
 action by the determined stand taken by the ministers, and 
 by the taunts of the English queen, a parliament was con- 
 vened in June, 1594, which almost unanimously voted for 
 the forfeiture of the lords. Argyle, who first attempted to 
 reduce Huntly to obedience, was defeated in Glenlivet, and 
 at last an army under the king himself, who was accompanied 
 and advised by Melville, destroyed Huntly's castle of Strath- 
 bogie, and that troublesome nobleman and his friends sought 
 refuge in other lands. 
 
 The death of Chancellor Maitland was a serious loss to 
 the cause of the Presbyterian church, and in 1595 the king 
 began again to show himself unfavourable to the ministers.
 
 156 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Taking advantage of this change in the king's temper, 
 Balfour of Burley, in revenge for a claim made by David 
 Black, the minister of St. Andrews, upon a house held by 
 him which was rightfully the manse, brought a charge 
 against the minister of using violent language in the pulpit 
 and defaming the memory of the king's mother. The parties 
 had been summoned before the king at Falkland. While 
 the case was proceeding Andrew Melville appeared upon the 
 scene, and speaking on the question of jurisdiction, uttered 
 one of his memorable speeches. He let the king know 
 plainly what he had often before dinned into his ear, that 
 there are two kings in Scotland, two kingdoms and two 
 jurisdictions : There is Christ Jesus, etc. ; and if the king of 
 Scotland, civil King James VI., had any judicature or cause 
 there presently it should not be to judge the faithful mes- 
 senger of Jesus Christ the king, etc., but (turning him to 
 the laird of Burley standing there) this traitor, who has 
 committed divers points of high treason against his majesty's 
 civil laws, to his great dishonour and offence of his good sub- 
 jects, namely, taking of his peaceable subjects in the night out 
 of their houses, ravishing of women, and resetting within his 
 house of the king's rebels and forfault enemies. When now 
 Burley fell on his knees and called for justice : "Would to 
 God," cried Melville, " that you had it ; you would not then 
 be here to bring a judgment from God upon the king and 
 thus falsely and unjustly vex and accuse the faithful servants 
 of God." The trial was thereupon suddenly ended, and the 
 chancellor, at James Melville's entreaty, counselled the king, 
 so that he had a private and friendly interview with Mr. 
 Black, and all ended pleasantly. 
 
 Great fears were awakened in the church by the appoint- 
 ment in 1596 of eight statesmen as financial officers, com- 
 monly called Octavians, who came to exercise almost com- 
 plete control of state affairs ; " of whom," says James 
 Melville, " the one half were suspected papists and the 
 other half little better." The maintenance of ministers 
 and the supplying of ministers to the several parishes were 
 burning questions at this time. Commissioners were ap-
 
 THE ASSEMBLY ON MINISTERIAL CHARACTER. 157 
 
 pointed by parliament to meet with the General Assembly, 
 and in the end the secretary, John Lindsay, produced an 
 excellent scheme for church planting throughout Scotland. 
 But Melville tells us that the clerk register, Alexander Hay, 
 thought it impossible to devise a proper scheme, or if it were 
 devised, to carry it out, and that the secretary, though he 
 thought the devising of a scheme possible, and so actually 
 prepared it, acknowledged before he died that it was impos- 
 sible, in the circumstances in which Scotland was, to carry 
 out its provisions. This elaborate scheme for providing 
 fixed stipends for the ministers, which is given in full in 
 James Melville's Diary, could not be carried out because in 
 that very year the tiends, which this measure hoped to re- 
 sume possession of on behalf of the church, had been assigned 
 to the old lessees on a perpetual lease and were thus made 
 for all time to come heritable to them. 
 
 The General Assembly which met in April, 1596, was 
 mainly occupied with a consideration of the corruptions 
 among ministers in respect of the office and in respect of 
 their persons and lives. It was urged that great care be 
 taken to see that no one uses improper means to obtain an 
 appointment, and that every candidate be required to declare 
 on his conscience that a desire to serve God and win souls 
 to Christ, and not the gaining of worldly means and prefer- 
 ment is the motive which has led him to accept office. 
 Attention was also called to this, that many were intruded 
 on congregations whose after ministry showed that they were 
 not called of God, and so it was insisted upon that none 
 seek presentation to benefices without advice of the presby- 
 tery within whose bounds the benefice lies. It was also re- 
 solved that the trials of those to be admitted to the minis- 
 try be not only as to their learning and ability to preach, 
 but also in conscience and feeling and spiritual wisdom, in 
 doctrine and discipline, and also in suitability for the par- 
 ticular parish or district. It was also resolved that those 
 should be censured who were " not given to their book and 
 study of scripture, not careful to have books, not given to 
 sanctification and prayer, that study not to be powerful and
 
 158 HISTOEY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 spiritual in doctrine, that are obscure and over scholastic be- 
 fore the people, cold and wanting spiritual zeal, negligent in 
 visiting the sick and caring for the poor, indiscreet in choosing 
 parts of the Word not meet for the flock," etc. In regard to 
 faults of life, all lightness of behaviour, profanity of speech, 
 keeping of inns, taking usury, keeping up victuals to sell 
 them in time of dearth, not residing among their flocks, 
 waiting on the court without leave of their presbytery, 
 neglect of family worship and catechising, worldly and un- 
 spiritual talk in company, were to subject the offender to 
 admonition, and, in case of continuance, to deposition. The 
 meeting at which these solemn matters were dealt with was 
 a very impressive and affecting one, each member standing 
 with uplifted hands and renewing his covenant with God. 
 The Assembly set the example to the other courts. This 
 solemn act of covenanting was repeated at the Synod of Fife 
 in the following month, and thereafter by several presby- 
 teries and particular congregations throughout the kingdom. 
 The Assembly and the church generally were still greatly 
 exercised over the question of the return of the popish lords 
 and the evident favour shown toward them by the king. 
 Alexander Seton, president of the Court of Session, a papist, 
 urged upon the king at Falkland, that if he did not receive 
 back these lords, they might in despair be led to join their 
 country's enemies as Coriolanus and Themistocles had done. 
 The king called a convention of the ministers, choosing, 
 however, only such as he thought might be favourable to 
 his own wishes. Andrew Melville was not called, but 
 appeared as a commissioner from the General Assembly 
 appointed to see to the dangers of the kirk on all occasions. 
 The ministers came into the assembly as their names were 
 called, and Melville went in among the first though his name 
 was not called. He was challenged sharply by the king, and 
 this gave him his opportunity. " Sir," said he, " I have a 
 calling to come here from Jesus Christ the king and His 
 kirk, who has special interest in this matter, and against 
 which directly this Convention is met, charging you and 
 your Estates in His name and of His Kirk, that ye favour not
 
 ANDREW MELVILLE AND THE KING. 159 
 
 his enemies whom He hates, and go not about to call home 
 and make citizens those that have treacherously sought to 
 betray their city and native country to the cruel Spaniard, 
 with the overthrow of Christ's kingdom, from which they 
 have been therefore most justly cut off as rotten members ; 
 certifying that if they should do to the contrary, they shall 
 feel the dint of the wrath of that King and his Estates."" He 
 was ordered out by the king, and went, rejoicing that he 
 had had the opportunity of there delivering his message. 
 The conclusion reached by this meeting with the king was, 
 that seeing the king and the kirk were agreed, it would be 
 best that the popish nobles should be called home, and that 
 the king should receive them and hear what promises of 
 service and loyalty they would make. 
 
 Against this resolution of the Estates the best men in the 
 church protested, and the Melvilles and others were sent by 
 the Assembly which met in September in Cupar to confer 
 with the king at Falkland, so as to get this proposal for 
 the return of the popish lords cancelled. James Melville 
 began speaking calmly of the dangers that in such a time 
 would result from carrying out such a measure ; but when 
 the king interrupted, asking in a cross and querulous manner 
 how they dared act in such a seditious and interfering way, 
 Andrew Melville broke in with violent speech. He called 
 the king " God's silly vessel,'' and taking him by the sleeve, 
 said : " Sir, we will reverence your majesty always, namely, 
 in public, but since we have this occasion to be with your 
 majesty in private, and the truth is, you are brought into 
 extreme danger both of your life and crown, and with you 
 the country and kirk of Christ is like to be wrecked, for not 
 telling you the truth and giving you a faithful counsel, we 
 must discharge our duty therein or die traitors to both 
 Christ and you. And therefore, sir, as divers times before, 
 so now again, I must tell you, there are two kings and two 
 kingdoms in Scotland. There is Christ Jesus the king, and 
 His kingdom the kirk, whose subject King James VI. is, 
 and of whose kingdom not a king nor a lord, nor a head, 
 but a member. . . . And, sir, when you were in your
 
 160 HISTOEY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 swaddling clothes, Christ Jesus reigned freely in this land 
 in spite of all His enemies, and his officers and ministers 
 convened and assembled for the ruling and weal of His 
 kirk, which was ever for your welfare, defence, and preserva- 
 tion also, when these same enemies were seeking your de- 
 struction and cutting off," etc. The king now dissembled, 
 dismissing them pleasantly and assuring them that he knew 
 not of the lords coming until they had arrived. He pro- 
 mised that he would not receive their offers of submission 
 until they had again gone forth from the country ; and that 
 no offers would be received, nor grace and favour shown 
 them until they had satisfied the kirk. 
 
 Notwithstanding the express promise of the king the 
 popish lords were allowed to enter the country. Meanwhile 
 a tumult occurred in Edinburgh which was made use of by 
 the king as an excuse for dealing severely with the leaders of 
 the church. A false cry of a massacre had been raised and 
 the people rose, not knowing whether the ministers or the 
 king had been slain. It is understood that this cry was 
 made by some one employed to do so by the Cubkulars, 
 the members of the king's household, who were at feud with 
 the Octavians, and sought their overthrow. The monarch, 
 in great terror, went out to Linlithgow. He accepted the 
 resignation of the Octavians, whose popish leanings made 
 them generally suspected. On 1st January, 1597, the king 
 entered Edinburgh with great pomp and surrounded by a 
 large military force. The magistrates were overawed, pro- 
 mised to seek out the ringleaders in the riot, gave power to 
 the king to interdict the ministers from preaching and church 
 courts from meeting. The king, feeling that he had gained 
 important concessions, summoned by his own authority the 
 Assembly to meet at Perth on the 1st of March, and pro- 
 duced a set of fifty-five questions, mainly concerning church 
 polity and discipline, to be answered there. 
 
 During the weeks that intervened, the king, by his 
 commissioner, Sir Patrick Murray, was busy in the North, 
 in order that large numbers of the ministers of Angus, 
 Aberdeen and Moray might attend and be of a disposition
 
 ASSEMBLIES DOMINATED BY THE KING. 161 
 
 to favour the projects of the monarch. Sir Patrick, whom 
 Melville calls the Apostle of the North, made much of the 
 Northland ministers, introduced them to the king and 
 flattered them, spoke of the ministers of Fife and Lothian 
 as arrogating all power to themselves and making themselves 
 popes in the church. When the first meeting took place it 
 was debated whether it could be held a lawful Assembly, and 
 at last, by a majority, it was declared that it might be called 
 an extraordinary Assembly. Its lawfulness has been 
 generally denied. No less than thirteen reasons are given 
 by James Melville for this view of it. It was not convened 
 by the former Assembly, but by the king against the advice 
 of the kirk ; it was not in favour of, but against the estab- 
 lished discipline ; it was not opened with prayer and preach- 
 ing by the moderator of the former Assembly, no moderator 
 was chosen, but one was put to preside by the king, the clerk 
 of last Assembly having died no new clerk was solemnly and 
 regularly appointed, almost half of the commissioners of 
 presbyteries dissented and protested against it, even the 
 small majority, after delay, only named it an extraordinary 
 Assembly, there was want of orderly proceeding, there was no 
 proper discussion, but matters were brought in prepared and 
 ready, no voting, no concluding, what was approved by the 
 open Assembly was afterwards altered by the unchosen 
 moderator and clerk. This was the first of a series of cor- 
 rupt Assemblies in which the conclusions were determined 
 by the will of the king and his council, and for the long 
 period of twenty years the Assemblies, convened occasionally 
 and not annually, were all of this description. 
 
 The last free Assembly had announced the next meeting 
 to be held at St. Andrews on 27th April, 1597. It was dis- 
 allowed by the king, and though constituted by the retiring 
 moderator, Robert Pont, with a very small attendance, no 
 business was done. The king called an Assembly to meet 
 at Dundee on 1st May, which was followed by another at 
 the same place in March, 1598, and at these meetings, and 
 also at the next Assembly, similarly called, meeting at Aber- 
 deen in July, 1599, and at another in Montrose in March, 
 
 L
 
 162 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 1600, the proceedings of the Perth Assembly were ratified, 
 and the articles left over at that meeting discussed, and for 
 the most part agreed to. It was resolved that a certain 
 number of ministers should have a seat in parliament, and 
 that their number should be fifty-one, to correspond with 
 that of the bishops, abbots and priors who held that posi- 
 tion under the old regime. One venerable minister pro- 
 tested against this, John Davidson of Prestonpans, who 
 previously in the Synod of Fife had said of such a repre- 
 sentative of the ministry in parliament : " Busk, busk, busk 
 him as bonnily as ye can, and bring him in as fairly as ye 
 will, we see him well enough ; see how he setteth up the 
 horns of his mitre." Ferguson of Dunfermline had com- 
 pared the king's proposal to Sinon's gift of the horse to the 
 city of Troy. But the king, with his usual duplicity, de- 
 clared that he had no intention of bringing in papistical or 
 Anglican bishops, but only to have the best and wisest of 
 the ministers appointed by the General Assembly to sit upon 
 their own matters, and have place to vote and advise in the 
 Council and Parliament. 
 
 The king's relations with Mr. Robert Bruce, who for a 
 long time had been his favourite minister and his most 
 trusted counsellor, now became severely strained. Bruce 
 had often spoken plainly of the conduct of the king in 
 associating with those who were known to favour popery, 
 and gradually the cleft between the two had been widening. 
 The king complained that the ministers inveighed against 
 Huntly and the other popish lords, and said little against 
 Bothwell. At last he brought the charge against Bruce of 
 favouring Bothwell and being in league with him against 
 the king. In consequence of the riot in Edinburgh on 17th 
 December, 1596, Bruce had written a perfectly straightfor- 
 ward innocent letter to Lord Hamilton, asking him to head 
 the noblemen who could represent the Presbyterian party 
 among the councillors. Hamilton shrank from doing so, and 
 sent a mutilated or adulterated copy of the letter to the king, 
 who made it the occasion of a charge of disloyalty against 
 Bruce. Ultimately, through the malice of the king, and the
 
 THE KING'S TltEATMENT OF ME. BRUCE. 163 
 
 weakness of the other ministers who feared the king's ill will, 
 Bruce was deprived of his ministry in Edinburgh, on the 
 pretext that he had not been ordained with the imposition 
 of hands. After a fortnight's extremely bitter cavilling on 
 the part of the king and his associates, the hands of the 
 presbytery were laid on Mr. Bruce, and he was restored. 
 In February, 1599, the king meanly deprived Bruce of a 
 pension that he had for life from the rents of the Abbey of 
 Arbroath, which he now gave to Lord Hamilton. Bruce ap- 
 pealed to the Court of Session. The king endeavoured to 
 coerce the judges, but they nobly and boldly declared that 
 they would resign their office before they would give judg- 
 ment otherwise than according to justice, and with only one 
 dissentient voice they declared in favour of Brace. The 
 king's hatred against Bruce knew no bounds. He said he 
 hated him more than Both well. A further occasion of attack 
 upon Mr. Bruce was found in connection with that minister's 
 attitude with regard to the Gowrie Conspiracy of 5th August, 
 1600. A public thanksgiving for the king's escape was en- 
 joined, but as many doubted the correctness of the repre- 
 sentations made by the king, they refused to express them- 
 selves in the manner prescribed by the king's demand. For 
 this refusal Bruce and other ministers were banished, and 
 forbidden to preach in the king's dominions under pain of 
 death. After a stay of six months in France, Mr. Bruce 
 returned to Berwick in May, 1601, and in October following 
 was allowed to go to his own home at Kinnaird. After 
 repeated proposals to restore Bruce to his ministry in Edin- 
 burgh, the minister asked the king how long he should 
 continue with his flock. " Even as I find ye," said the king, 
 " to favour or disfavour me in your preachings." And so 
 Bruce never preached again in Edinburgh. For some 
 twenty years, with a short interval, he was in banishment in 
 Inverness, returning in 1624 to Kinnaird, where he remained 
 till his death in 1631. 
 
 At the close of a church convention held by the king at 
 Holyrood in October, 1600, when the king had got rid of 
 James Melville and other two whose opposition he feared^
 
 164 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 by appointing them a committee on some other business, 
 three ministers were nominated to bishoprics, Mr. David 
 Lindsay to Ross, Mr. Peter Blackburn to Aberdeen, and 
 Mr. George Gladstanes to Caithness. 
 
 The last General Assembly held by the king in Scotland 
 met at Holy rood in November, 1602. It was protested 
 against as held at a different time and in a different place 
 from those fixed by the previous Assembly. Its whole busi- 
 ness consisted in establishing the powers and position of 
 the visitors of provinces as bishops. Opposition was shown 
 to the renewal of Gladstane's commission, but this was 
 overcome. The next Assembly was appointed to be held 
 on the last Tuesday of July, 1604. 
 
 Meanwhile, the call came to the king for which he had 
 been eagerly looking. Queen Elizabeth died on 24th 
 March, 1603, and on 3rd April the king went to St. Giles 
 for the last time to hear sermon. At the close of the ser- 
 vice he made a speech, thanking God that before leaving he 
 had been able to settle both the kirk and the kingdom of 
 Scotland. It was now in that state, he said, which he 
 meant not to alter or hurt in any way ; and in order to 
 see that all went peaceably and quietly he would revisit his 
 Scottish kingdom once every three years. He also sent back 
 a message with some of the ministers who met him on the 
 way to urge the people to keep unity and peace, for his 
 purpose was not to alter anything. 
 
 As the time approached for the meeting of the General 
 Assembly in July, 1604, the king sent a communication by 
 Lord Scone postponing the meeting until the following 
 year. The presbytery of St. Andrews, nevertheless, sent its 
 commissioners, one of whom was James Melville, who went 
 to the place of meeting at the hour appointed, and pro- 
 tested formally and solemnly against the conduct of the 
 king. A largely attended meeting of the Synod of Fife 
 was held at St. Andrews in September, where it was agreed 
 that an Assembly could be convened without the king's 
 leave, but while admitting this was so, the king's commis- 
 sioner advised them not to risk displeasing the king, and so,
 
 FORBES AND WELSH SENT TO BLACKNESS. 165 
 
 after an extraordinary meeting of Synod had been held at 
 Perth, they agreed to wait till 2nd July, 1605, to which 
 time the Assembly had been prorogued, and then to meet in 
 Aberdeen. In June word was sent to the Presbyteries to 
 keep their representatives from going forward. In July only 
 nineteen ministers ventured to appear in Aberdeen, and 
 John Forbes of Alford, younger brother of Bishop Patrick 
 Forbes of Aberdeen, and uncle of the famous Professor 
 John Forbes of King's College, commonly called Forbes of 
 Corse, was appointed moderator. When Straiten of Lauri- 
 ston, the royal commissioner, read the king's letter com- 
 manding the Assembly to be immediately dissolved 
 without appointing a day for its next meeting, the 
 Assembly immediately adjourned, but not without ap- 
 pointing a day of meeting, which they fixed as the 
 last Tuesday of the following September. Other 
 brethren, having commissions as members of Assembly, 
 reached Aberdeen on 5th July, detained by the weather or 
 by mistake as to day of meeting, and they heartily approved 
 of what had been done three days before. The Commis- 
 sioner, who had protested against the lawfulness of the 
 Assembly, reported the case to the Privy Council in Edin- 
 burgh, which immediately summoned before them John 
 Forbes of Alford and John Welsh of Ayr, who was one of 
 those who came too late, and sent them to Blackness on 
 August 3rd, there to wait the king's pleasure. On 10th 
 January, 1606, six ministers, who had been at Aberdeen, 
 including Forbes and Welsh, were by the king's orders put 
 on their trial for treason under the Black Acts of 1584. It 
 was decided that refusal to own the jurisdiction of the 
 Council was treason, and a packed jury, brow-beaten by 
 judge and advocate, by a majority found them guilty. 
 After an imprisonment in Blackness of some fifteen 
 months, they embarked in November, 1606, from Leith for 
 France. Forbes never returned to his native land, because 
 he could not accept the conditions on which alone James 
 could give his permission. He laboured as minister to 
 Reformed congregations in Holland, first at Middleburg till
 
 166 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 1621, and afterward in Delft. He died in Holland in 1634. 
 He had published in 1616 at Middleburg A Treatise tend- 
 ing to the Clearing of Justification. The most distinguished 
 man alongside of Forbes of those banished at this time from 
 Scotland was John Welsh. Born in Dumfriesshire about 
 1568, he was successively minister of Selkirk, Kirkcudbright, 
 and Ayr. He was charged before the Privy Council in 
 January, 1597, with having said, in a sermon preached in the 
 High Church of Edinburgh, that the king was possessed with 
 a devil, and that on the outputting of that devil seven other 
 devils had entered, and that as it was lawful for sons to bind 
 a frantic father, it was lawful for subjects to bind the king 
 in a like case. Not appearing to answer to the summons, he 
 was outlawed and his estate forfeited. After six months he 
 was allowed to resume his ministry, which was a remarkably 
 fruitful one. On his subsequent banishment along with Mr. 
 Forbes, he was obliged to move from one place to another 
 in France till at last he settled down in St. Jean d'Angely. 
 In broken health and evidently dying, he was allowed to 
 come to London, where he died in 1622. Shortly before 
 this his wife, a daughter of John Knox, vainly entreated 
 permission from the king to have him taken down to Scot- 
 land. After treating her with great rudeness, the king said 
 that if she could persuade her husband to submit to the 
 bishops, he would grant her request. Lifting her apron, 
 the heroic woman answered " Please your Majesty, I would 
 rather keep his head there." 
 
 The treatment which James gave to the Puritan ministers 
 of England, who met him on his arrival with their Millenary 
 Petition, that is, a petition signed by a thousand subscribers, 
 gave a very clear indication of the course which he intended 
 to pursue in his ecclesiastical policy. It was clear that he 
 meant to support episcopacy, to do all in his power to 
 secure conformity, and to crush in the most ruthless way 
 every movement and endeavour of the nonconformists. He 
 addressed a meeting of such, embracing some of the most 
 cultured and scholarly of their generation, men whose names 
 were known all over Europe, mentioned everywhere with
 
 THE MELVILLES SUMMONED TO LONDON. 167 
 
 reverence and honour, even by their opponents, as though 
 they had been the most disreputable ingredients of an ignor- 
 ant and ill-conditioned mob. Such, too, was the king's 
 treatment of honourable and learned men in the Hampton 
 Court Conference of 14th January, 1604. He who had 
 declared in Scotland that the Presbyterian discipline was the 
 purest in Christendom, now declared that the Scotch Pres- 
 bytery agreed with Monarchy as well as God and the devil. 
 He said " I will have one doctrine, one discipline, one 
 religion in substance and ceremony," and he declared he 
 could listen to no one discussing how far he was bound to 
 obey. " I will make them conform ," he said, " or I will 
 harry them out of the land." 
 
 In May, 1606, the two Melvilles, and six other Scottish 
 ministers who had been present at the Aberdeen Assembly, 
 and had declared themselves in sympathy with the holding 
 of it and the maintenance of the Presbyterian principles 
 which this implied, were summoned to appear before the 
 king in London to confer upon the affairs of the Church in 
 Scotland. They were compelled to listen to four preten- 
 tious, but really ridiculous, sermons, which they must have 
 regarded as a very travesty of preaching, the most absurd 
 of all being that of bishop Andrewes on the two trumpets of 
 Numbers x. 2. At the conference one after another of the 
 eight Scottish ministers was required to state his opinion of 
 the Aberdeen Assembly. Andrew Melville was the first to 
 be examined. " He talked all his mind," says his nepheAv, 
 " in his own manner, roundly, soundly, fully, freely, and 
 fervently, for almost the space of an hour, not omitting any 
 point he could remember. The other ministers maintained 
 the same view, and spoke firmly and decidedly in favour of 
 all that they and their friends had done. As the king 
 closed that session and was going out, he turned round and 
 asked what remedy they could propose for the healing of 
 the wounds of the kirk ; and they all answered a free 
 Assembly. Another service which the Scottish ministers 
 were forced to attend was so offensive in the obtrusive use 
 of popish ornaments and articles of ritual, that Andrew
 
 168 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Melville could not refrain lampooning the affair in a set of 
 Latin verses. These falling into the hands of the king, 
 were made an excuse for summoning him to Whitehall. 
 Archbishop Bancroft presided at the examination, and had 
 the hardihood to denounce the author of the lampoon as 
 guilty of treason. Melville at once broke out upon the un- 
 fortunate prelate, declaring that he had never given occasion 
 to be branded as a traitor, but that he threw the charge 
 back upon him who ventured to make it against him. He 
 charged Bancroft with treason against his Majesty, and 
 drew from his breast a book which the unhappy author no 
 doubt with all his heart wished to be in oblivion. This 
 book, entitled Scotizing Generating Discipline, written dur- 
 ing Elizabeth"^ reign, opposing the king of Scotland's title to 
 the English Crown. And when bishop Barlow intervened 
 to hide the archbishop's confusion, the fearless Scottish 
 minister turned upon him for having unchurched the king, 
 and having made him of no religion, by saying that the king 
 was in the kirk of Scotland, but not of it. Melville was 
 ordered to wait the king's pleasure in the house of the dean 
 of St. Paul's. After waiting there for four months, and 
 spending other two months with his own friends, he was 
 summoned before the Council and committed to the Tower. 
 There he remained from the beginning of May, 1607, till 
 the 19th of April, 1611, when he was released at a request 
 made through the English Ambassador in France, in order 
 that he might accept a Divinity Chair in the university of 
 Sedan. Here he continued to teach during the remaining 
 years of his life. He died in 1622, in his seventy-seventh 
 year. He was distinctly the man needed to fight the battles 
 of his church in such an age. Uncompromising and incor- 
 ruptible, absolutely fearless and gifted with a wonderful 
 command of clear and forcible language, he invariably suc- 
 ceeded in uttering his opinions in sayings of the most 
 memorable kind. His temper was fiery no doubt. It was 
 a prophet of fire that was needed then. " If my anger go 
 downward," said he, " set your foot on it and put it out ; 
 but if it go upward, suifer it to rise to its place."
 
 THE KING AND THE CHUECH COURTS. 169 
 
 James Melville was sent to Newcastle, under strict orders 
 not to go ten miles out of the town. He was afterwards 
 allowed to go to Berwick, where he died in 1614. The other 
 six ministers were ordered to confine themselves to certain 
 towns in Scotland. Thus were all the leading supporters of 
 Presbytery removed or silenced, while, by means of his crea- 
 tures in the Parliament and among the ministers, James 
 carried out his despotic measures, and introduced one by one 
 into the Scottish Church all those offices and ceremonies 
 which her best members had so long and so zealously 
 opposed. 
 
 The Scottish Parliament held in Perth in July, 1606, 
 restored the estate of bishops, giving them their old privi- 
 leges, rank and revenues, and their right to sit and vote in 
 parliament. A General Assembly sat in Edinburgh on 
 10th December, consisting of nobles and statesmen and 
 ministers selected by the king as favourable to his views. 
 It was resolved to appoint perpetual or constant moderators 
 for Presbyteries, to make the resident bishop or his vicar 
 constant moderator of the Provincial Synod and of the 
 Presbytery, and to make refusal to receive such moderator 
 a charge of rebellion. This injunction was generally dis- 
 regarded. At the Synod of Perth which met in the spring 
 of 1607, Lord Scone, the king's commissioner, insisted that 
 Lindsay, bishop of Brechin, should be held moderator, but 
 the retiring moderator, notwithstanding the outrageous and 
 indecent violence of the commissioner, called the roll for the 
 free election of a moderator, and Mr. Henry Livingston was 
 elected and duly constituted at the meeting. At the close 
 of the first sederunt, the doors of the church were locked 
 against the Synod, which held its second session in the open 
 air. Through time most of the Presbyteries submitted, and 
 as the Synods were generally obstinate, their meetings were 
 suspended. The Linlithgow Assembly of 1608 appointed 
 a Conference to meet at Falkland on 4th May, 1609, at 
 which twenty commissioners from the Assembly, five bishops 
 and five of their adherents, with ten anti-prelatical minis- 
 ters, met with the Earl of Dunbar, Lord Scone, and several
 
 170 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 barons. The result of this conference was so far favourable 
 to the prelatical party. It was resolved that no protest 
 against the bishops should be presented to next parliament 
 in July, and consequently measures in their favour were 
 passed in that parliament without question. Seeing, how- 
 ever, that little real progress could be made by means of 
 conferences, the bishops applied to the king and obtained 
 from him, by letter of date 10th February, 1610, Courts of 
 High Commission, one for St. Andrews, another for Glas- 
 gow, which, on Spottiswoode's translation to St. Andrews 
 in December, 1615, were merged into one. This court was 
 invested with power to suspend and depose ministers and 
 outlaw the contumacious. The full court numbered over 
 forty members, but the archbishop and four others made a 
 quorum, and against their decision there was no appeal. In 
 ecclesiastical matters this court had the power which the 
 Privy Council had in civil matters, and, alike in constitution 
 and in procedure, it was arbitrary and oppressive, and offen- 
 sive to all the traditions of a free people. 
 
 The king now summoned Spottiswoode of Glasgow, 
 Hamilton of Galloway, and Lamb of Brechin to London, 
 where they were duly consecrated by a commission of four 
 English bishops. On their return to Scotland, they con- 
 secrated Gledstanes of St. Andrews, and others who had 
 been designated to Scottish bishoprics. 
 
 The Assembly of 1616 met in Aberdeen in August, and 
 was presided over by Spottiswoode, archbishop of St. 
 Andrews. During the first four days nothing was done be- 
 yond listening to sermons, eight being preached in that time, 
 renewing old acts and framing new ones against papists. But 
 when most of the south country ministers, wearied out by 
 this routine, had left, a commission was appointed to frame 
 a new liturgy, a new catechism, a new book of canons for 
 discipline, and a revision of the Confession that was to take 
 the place of the King's Confession. This Aberdeen Confes- 
 sion is not only meagre in its utterances on church govern- 
 ment and discipline, but even on doctrinal points was 
 sufficiently vague to leave room for those of prelatical and
 
 DAVID CALDERWOOD, THE HISTORIAN. 171 
 
 popish tendencies. Thus its statement on justification 
 might be accepted by holders of the Romish doctrine which 
 makes it consist in the infusion of righteousness. As an 
 evasive, trimming document, hollow and untrue, it was quite 
 unsuccessful, and never exercised any real influence in the 
 church. 
 
 After an absence of fourteen years, James remembered his 
 promise to visit Scotland once every three years, and in May, 
 1617, he came to Edinburgh, and attended divine service 
 conducted after the English fashion. He had attempted an 
 elaborate decoration of Holyrood Chapel with pictures and 
 statues, and only with a bad grace desisted when he found 
 himself opposed by a strong public opinion which might 
 have expressed itself in a disagreeable manner. At a par- 
 liament held in June, a protest against innovations was 
 read> signed by over fifty ministers. This gave great offence 
 to the king, and the ministers who had been chiefly active 
 in drawing it up were arraigned before the High Court of 
 Commission and severely punished. The one on whom the 
 king's wrath fell most severely was David Calderwood of 
 Crailing, near Jedburgh. Born in 1575, and ordained in 
 1604, he ranked very high as a controversial author and 
 historian. He was treated with great severity by the king, 
 who was present at his trial in the court, and sentenced to 
 perpetual banishment. The weather was stormy and severe, 
 but the king said that if he drowned in the seas he might 
 thank God that he had escaped a worse death. The most 
 urgent entreaty of his friends could only at last secure a 
 postponement till 29th August, 1619, when he sailed for 
 Holland. In his exile he wrote his famous treatise : Altare 
 Damascenum. When one of the bishops jauntily declared 
 that he would answer it: " Answer what, man ?" said the 
 king, " There is nothing here but scripture, reason and the 
 fathers.' 1 His voluminous History of the Church of Scotland 
 is a most valuable storehouse of facts and documents. Re- 
 turning to Scotland in 1624, he became in 1638 minister of 
 Pencaitland, near Haddington, and died in 1651. At this 
 parliament the king wished to legalise other ceremonial
 
 172 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 innovations, but the bishops dissuaded him from doing so, and 
 this further aggression was reserved for the Assembly of the 
 following year. 
 
 The finishing touch was given to the work of overthrowing 
 presbytery in Scotland and conforming the church in disci- 
 pline and worship to that of England by the Assembly at 
 Perth in 1618, the last that was held during the reign of 
 James. Calderwood wrote an account of it, condemning its 
 decisions, and Lindsay, then minister of Dundee, afterwards 
 bishop, first of Brechin, and next of Edinburgh, wrote 
 another narrative, defending its articles. Spottiswoode, the 
 moderator, bullied and threatened the minister, who seemed 
 unwilling to agree with the king's demands. Bishop Patrick 
 Forbes preached the opening sermon, and after that Spottis- 
 woode himself preached for two hours on the necessity of 
 ceremonies and the propriety of those proposed to be intro- 
 duced. It was declared by the moderator that only minis- 
 ters with commissions could vote, but all noblemen and 
 barons sent by the king would have that right. A letter 
 from the king was read by the Dean of Winchester, main- 
 taining that the articles presented must be accepted as they 
 stood, and that he claimed the right of disposing of all things 
 external in the church as he pleased. Spottiswoode said 
 that every minister not consenting to the articles would be 
 banished or deprived of office. The famous Five Articles of 
 Perth were as follows; 1. Kneeling at the Communion ; 
 2. Private Communion for the Sick ; 3. Baptism to be on 
 the next Lord's day after the birth, and in case of need in 
 private houses ; 4. Episcopal Confirmation of the young ; 
 and 5. The Observance of Holidays, especially days com- 
 memorating the birth, passion, resurrection, and ascension 
 of our Lord and his sending down of the Spirit. These 
 articles were voted on as a whole, and not singly, as the king 
 had so insisted. The question put was, whether the Assembly 
 would obey his majesty in admitting the articles or would 
 refuse to do so. Notwithstanding all the management exer- 
 cised in the choice of members, and the persistent threats that 
 were used, one nobleman, one doctor, and forty-five ministers
 
 THE KING OPPRESSES PRESBYTERIANISM. 173 
 
 voted in opposition, while others declined to vote. The 
 people of Scotland were strongly opposed to these inno- 
 vations, deserted the churches where ministers conformed, 
 and crowded the churches where the old forms of worship 
 were continued. A parliament in 1621 ratified the Articles 
 of Perth ; but even here there was opposition, and fifteen 
 noblemen and forty-four commissioners from counties and 
 burghs voted in the minority, and the majority of twenty- 
 seven was obtained only after a promise had been given that 
 no further innovations would be proposed by the king. The 
 High Court of Commission prosecuted rigorously all noncon- 
 formists, lay and clerical. But the more these severities were 
 practised, the more determined did the people become to 
 resist, and the bishops became the objects of almost universal 
 hatred and scorn. In 1615 the king induced Robert Boyd of 
 Trochrig, son of the first protestant archbishop of Glasgow, 
 to leave Saumur, and become principal of Glasgow Univer- 
 sity and minister of Govan. During the seven years of his 
 stay there he had under him such men as Blair, Livingston, 
 and Baillie. He was one of the most learned men of his 
 day. Being firmly opposed to the ecclesiastical policy of 
 James, he resigned his office and retired to his estate in 
 Ayrshire. He was appointed principal of the University of 
 Edinburgh, and minister there in 1622, but after two months 
 he was removed by the king. He died in June, 1627, and 
 is now remembered by his colossal Latin Commentary on 
 Ephesians. John Cameron, who succeeded Boyd in Glas- 
 gow, was a very famous scholar, but the story of his literary 
 and theological activity belongs to the history of the French 
 church and the universities of Sedan and Saumur. 
 
 The king persisted in his endeavours to reduce the minis- 
 ters and the people of Scotland to conformity in worship ; 
 but this led only to the banishment or flight of the best of 
 the ministers and to the setting up of private conventicles, 
 where the people worshipped who could no longer conscien- 
 tiously worship in the church. Assemblies no longer were 
 called, and the bishops usurped the functions of the presby- 
 teries. In the end of November, 1624, special injunctions
 
 174 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 were issued by the king to the lords of Council and Session 
 to appoint the Commission for the 25th of December, so 
 that there might be a solemn observance of Christmas day. 
 The outbreak of a plague was made the excuse for not ful- 
 filling this command. The king was greatly enraged at 
 this. The plague was of short duration and the mortality 
 was extremely small, so that he regarded the action of the 
 magistrates as dictated not by fear of the pest, but rather by 
 reluctance to enforce unpopular ceremonies. He therefore 
 resolved that the ceremonial should be observed with all due 
 form on Easter day of 1625. He announced that any one 
 who should refuse to give the communion that day, or to 
 kneel on the receiving of it, or to conform in all particulars, 
 should be deposed from the ministry. But before that day 
 arrived both he who threatened and he who would have been 
 the executioner of the threatening had been themselves 
 summoned to the tribunal of the Judge of all. The Mar- 
 quess of Hamilton died in the beginning of March, and on 
 the 27th of March, 1625, the king died. And now to the 
 weary and persecuted Scottish ministers there came a very 
 brief breathing time.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Struggles against Prelacy and the Establishment of Presbytery.* 
 A.D. 16251648. 
 
 THE young prince who now succeeded to the throne as 
 Charles I. was in his twenty-fifth year. Though Scotch 
 born and baptized by a Presbyterian minister, he was but 
 three years old when he went with his father to England, 
 and all his tastes and habits had been formed under the 
 influence of English surroundings. When a deputation 
 of the Scottish ministers waited upon him to urge the 
 relaxation or withdrawal of the obnoxious Articles of Perth,, 
 they found that not only had he grown up in love with all 
 the ceremonial and ritual of the English Church, but that 
 he had inherited in the full measure his father's despotic 
 ideas, and that like him he was determined that his personal 
 will should be the determining principle in the government 
 both of Church and State. Instead of listening to the 
 grievances of the ministers, the young king wrote to Arch- 
 bishop Spottiswoode to proclaim publicly that he was deter- 
 
 * Literature : Peterkiu, Records of the Kirk of Scotland, Edin. 
 1838, pp. 1-192 ; Stevenson, History of the Church and State of Scot- 
 land, Edin. 1783 ; Lee, Lectures on the History of the Church of Scot- 
 laud, Edin. 1860, Vol. II., pp. 220-267 ; Row, History of the Kirk 
 of Scotland from 1558 to 1639, Edin. 1842 ; Autobiography of Robert 
 Blair and Life by William Row to A.D. 1666, Edin. 3848 ; Baillie, 
 Letters and Journals, ed. by Laing, 3 vols., Edin. 1841 ; Spalding, 
 History of Troubles and Memorable Transactions in England and 
 Scotland, 1624-1645, Edin., 2 vols., 1830; Aiton, Life and Times of 
 Alexander Henderson : History of Second Reformation and the Cove- 
 nanters, London, 1836; Mitchell, The Westminster Assembly : its 
 History and Standards, London, 1883 ; Terry, Life and Campaigns 
 of Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, London, 1899. 
 
 175
 
 176 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 mined that the ordinances and injunctions of his father in 
 regard to church policy and forms of worship should be 
 strictly carried out. The bishops were now in a position to 
 assert their most extravagant claims without restraint. They 
 had no longer the check of General Assemblies. These 
 meetings, even when the method of choosing their members 
 was most objectionable, exercised a certain amount of con- 
 trol upon the hierarchical pretensions of the episcopate. 
 But for the long period of twenty years, from 1618 to 1638, 
 no Assembly whatsoever was convened. Presbyterianism as 
 an organisation had ceased to exist in Scotland. The only 
 courts continuing regularly to sit were the provincial and 
 diocesan Synods, and there the whole work was done by the 
 delegates of the bishops and the constant moderators. No 
 one could obtain admission to any office of trust unless the 
 bishops certified him as one who had conformed to the epis- 
 copal government of the church. Even the Town Council 
 of Edinburgh was ordered by the king to elect only such 
 magistrates as had agreed to the Articles of Perth. In one 
 important particular the young king showed that he was 
 prepared to go further even than his father. He nomin- 
 ated some of the Scottish bishops to the highest offices of 
 state, and assigned to the Court of High Commission, in 
 which four of the bishops sat, the cognizance of all manner 
 of offences against acts of parliament, with authority to fine 
 and imprison in the most arbitrary way without any proper 
 legal process, and with absolute authority. Even James 
 had refused to play fast and loose with his word to the 
 extent which Laud would have had him do. He would not 
 force the English liturgy and canons upon the stubborn 
 kirk. He knew the stomach of that people better. But 
 Charles did not understand these things as his father did. 
 He at once yielded to the influence of Laud, whom his 
 father had the good sense to distrust as a restless and reck- 
 less innovator. At the suggestion of his ecclesiastical coun- 
 sellor, a new Scottish diocese was founded in Edinburgh, the 
 archbishop of St. Andrews was made Lord Chancellor, and 
 a book of canons was published on the sole authority of the
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF CHARLES I. 177 
 
 king ignoring presbytery and assembly, and assuming that 
 the presbyterian system had no existence. A new liturgy 
 took the place of Knox's Liturgy or the Book of Common 
 Order. It was the composition of Laud himself, and in 
 several respects it is distinctly more hierarchical and sacra- 
 mentarian in its bearings than the authorised books of the 
 English Church. 
 
 The marriage of the prince with Henrietta Maria, 
 daughter of Henry of Navarre, and sister of the reigning 
 monarch, immediately after his accession, gave rise to 
 serious misgivings as to the future policy of the king. 
 Sprightly and fascinating as the young queen was, she was 
 known to be fanatically attached to the Romish religion, 
 and she soon showed herself an uncompromising asserter of 
 the divine right and despotic authority of kings. By the 
 marriage articles the king was pledged to allow the queen 
 and all her domestics the free exercise of the Roman 
 Catholic religion, and the upbringing of her children till 
 they reached the age of thirteen. She came accompanied 
 by a bishop and twenty-nine priests, and a following of over 
 four hundred male and female attendants. There had also 
 been a secret treaty securing that Roman Catholics in 
 England should not be sought out or persecuted for their 
 religion. In view of this we cannot wonder that when a 
 proclamation was made in Scotland against papists and 
 nonconformists, it was soon observed that while the prose- 
 cution against the nonconformists was rigorously executed, 
 enactments against papists were allowed to remain practi- 
 cally a dead letter. 
 
 Still nonconformity continued to prevail in Scotland. On 
 Easter day, 25th March, 1627, communion was dispensed 
 in the High Church in Edinburgh, according to the king's 
 ordinance, but in all the towns there were not above six or 
 seven that kneeled, and even some of the ministers did not 
 kneel. And on the following Easter, in April, 1628, the 
 Communion was not given in Edinburgh, but a general 
 meeting was convened of all the ministers, together with two 
 from each session that had conformed, and twelve or sixteen 
 
 M
 
 178 HISTOEY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 of such as had not conformed, to consult together to see 
 how the divisions could be healed. At this meeting it was 
 admitted that one-half of the people of Edinburgh had not 
 come to the communion during the last year, and so the 
 archbishop of St. Andrews was asked that the ministers, 
 who were all agreeable to this, should be allowed to give 
 the communion in the good old way without kneeling. 
 But to this he would not consent. This meeting therefore 
 resolved to send a letter from all the ministers to the king 
 asking him to allow the celebration of the communion with- 
 out kneeling; and while doing this they promised the 
 people that even should the king refuse, they would neither 
 require them to kneel nor yet kneel themselves. The king 
 was enraged on receiving this letter. He would not deign to 
 recognise the ministers, but he wrote to the archbishop of 
 St. Andrews, characterizing their conduct as presumption, 
 and ordering him to summon them before him and to inflict 
 condign punishment upon the chief authors of the letters, 
 so as to intimidate others from attempting the like. And 
 so communion was not given that year. In February, 1629, 
 however, the ministers resolved to give the communion, but 
 it was given amid much confusion, some of the ministers 
 kneeling, some sitting, some standing, and similar confusion 
 also among the people. Pulpit was set against pulpit, the 
 same opinion being upheld eagerly in one and as eagerly 
 contested in another. On Christmas day Mr. John Maxwell 
 in the Little Kirk in Edinburgh inveighed against those 
 who refused to keep such holy days, and in Leith on the 
 same day Mr. David Forrester as vigorously denounced all 
 those who paid any regard to such days of human appoint- 
 ment. 
 
 The influence of Laud was felt in doctrine as well as in 
 discipline. He was as fanatical in his Arminian propaganda 
 as he was in the dissemination of his hierarchical and high 
 church ritual. He was bent on hounding Calvinism out of 
 all the colleges and pulpits, and those who sought prefer- 
 ment knew that that was attainable only on condition of 
 doctrinal agreement with the king's ecclesiastical guide.
 
 EVANGELICAL WORK IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 179 
 
 The doctors of Aberdeen and St. Andrews, Forbes and 
 Wedderburn, courting the patronage of the king and the 
 bishop of London, seemed anxious to appear equally zealous 
 in their support of the five Points of Arminianisra and of 
 the Five Articles of Perth. 
 
 Some of the best of the Presbyterian ministers were now 
 in Ireland, where their labours were signally blessed. One 
 of the most famous of these was Robert Blair. After 
 teaching for some years in Glasgow, he was obliged by the 
 rigorous enforcement of royal prelatical injunctions to leave 
 Scotland ; and, at the invitation of a liberal-minded patron, 
 went to the north of Ireland, where he was presented to the 
 ministerial charge at Bangor. The bishop waived the 
 question of episcopal ordination, and allowed him to be 
 ordained by neighbouring presbyters. Under the primacy 
 of archbishop Ussher, great latitude was given to ministers 
 and people who scrupled at ceremonies and orders. Other 
 Scottish ministers, such as the younger Welsh and the well- 
 known Livingston, found in Ireland not only a refuge, but 
 a field wherein they were able to labour with most encourag- 
 ing success. 
 
 Another very eminent and popular minister who was 
 greatly harassed and troubled in his work was David Dick- 
 son of Irvine. Born in Glasgow in 1583, he became a 
 teacher of philosophy there under Boyd, was ordained 
 minister in Irvine in 1613, and continued there for twenty- 
 three years. Summoned early in 1622 by Archbishop Law 
 of Glasgow to answer before the Court of High Commis- 
 sion for his objections made against the Five Articles of 
 Perth, he was deprived of his ministry and banished to 
 Turriff. In the place of his banishment he preached for 
 the resident minister. Meantime the Earl of Eglinton and 
 the people of Irvine persistently petitioned for his return, 
 and he was allowed without condition to go back to his 
 flock in the end of July, 1623. The result of his preaching 
 all round Irvine was a great and widespread work of grace, 
 accompanied by occasional outbursts of excitement, which 
 in mockery was called the Stewarton sickness. In this work
 
 180 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 he was assisted, after their return from Ireland, by Blair, 
 Livingston, and others, all eminent at once as profound 
 scholars, popular preachers, and most skilful and wise coun- 
 sellors in all cases of spiritual anxiety and difficulty. 
 Livingston, whose preaching was the means of a very memor- 
 able revival in Shotts in 1630, was with Blair in Ireland till 
 deposed and excommunicated by the bishop of Down. They 
 then had a vessel built for themselves and sailed for America, 
 but, being nearly lost on the banks of Newfoundland, they 
 returned to Ireland, and soon after to Scotland, and assisted 
 Dickson in his work. 
 
 In 1633 Charles paid his first visit to Scotland, and was 
 solemnly crowned at Holy rood on the 18th of June. That 
 day week following a parliament was held, and the ministers 
 prepared a petition setting forth their grievances to be pre- 
 sented by Mr. Thomas Hogg, the deprived minister of 
 Dysart. This petition set forth that the votes in parliament 
 of prelates who had no commission from the kirk vitiated 
 all laws passed in these parliaments regarding church affairs, 
 that measures passed by Assemblies instead of being ratified 
 by Parliament had been added to, curtailed and changed, 
 that the kirk had been deprived of annual Assemblies 
 secured by Act of Parliament in 1592, that the Articles of 
 Perth had been formerly rejected by the kirk, that new 
 oaths different from the old ones authorised by the kirk were 
 now imposed on entrants to the ministry, that ministers 
 were censured and suspended by a judicature other than that 
 provided by the constitution of the kirk on each of these 
 points relief was craved. As the Clerk Register, to whom 
 such petitions were to be given in, was evidently disaffected, 
 Mr. Hogg sought to present them directly to the king, 
 who, on receiving the documents, without reading them, 
 handed them over to some one beside him. As no notice 
 was taken of the petition in the Parliament, some noble- 
 men went with a copy to the king, to which, after con- 
 sulting the bishops, he gave little heed. The Lords of 
 the Articles were preparing a supplication, but before 
 it could be signed by all who were willing to subscribe
 
 LAUD AS KING^ COUNSELLOR. 181 
 
 their names, the parliament suddenly ended on 28th 
 June. When the vote was called upon the measures pro- 
 posed by the king, anent the royal prerogative and anent 
 apparel of churchmen, his Majesty himself marked the names 
 that objectors might be overawed. The Earl of Rothes, 
 with fifteen earls and lords and several barons, and forty- 
 four commissioners of counties and burghs, boldly voted 
 against the measure. The Clerk Register claimed a majority 
 for the king, which Rothes disputed. The king declared 
 that the objector must go to the bar, charge the clerk with 
 falsifying the note, with a sentence of death hanging on him 
 should he fail to substantiate the charge. The earl 
 declined the responsibility and risk, and in these circum- 
 stances the vote was allowed to pass. Yet this Act itself, 
 and the manner in which it was passed, caused much offence 
 and dissatisfaction to many of the Lords as well as to the 
 people. 
 
 The evil counsellor of the king all this while was Laud, 
 who was this year, on the death of Archbishop Abbot, raised 
 to the primacy as Archbishop of Canterbury. Restless, 
 narrow-minded, and despotic, he acted toward all who 
 differed from him in an intolerably haughty and intolerant 
 manner. It was said of him that if his religion were parted 
 in four, it would be found that two parts were Arminian, 
 a third part Popish, and scarce a fourth part Protestant. 
 He so ruled the king that he was primate, patriarch, or 
 cardinal of all Britain and Ireland. He was with the king 
 during the whole of his visit to Scotland, and is largely 
 responsible for the severe and uncompromising measures 
 taken with the church. 
 
 The first bishop appointed to the new diocese of Edin- 
 burgh was Mr. William Forbes, one of the Aberdeen doctors, 
 and author of Considerationes Modestce et Pacificce. He was 
 accused of seeking to reconcile the Protestant and the Romish 
 doctrines. When appointed to Edinburgh he was in ex- 
 tremely weak health and did not survive his elevation three 
 months. It is curious to find a man of his ecclesiastical 
 leanings charged with prolixity in preaching. He preached,
 
 182 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 it is said, for five or six hours. He took up a very deter- 
 mined position in demanding conformity to all the require- 
 ments of the Perth Articles. He was succeeded in Septem- 
 ber, 1634, by Mr. David Lindsay, who had been minister in 
 Dundee, and since 1616 Bishop of Brechin. He is best 
 known for his violent and unscrupulous defence of the pro- 
 ceedings of the Perth Assembly of 1618 against David 
 Calderwood. 
 
 The younger Scottish bishops were completely under the 
 influence of Laud. They sought, therefore, to introduce 
 without reserve all the innovations proposed by the English 
 primate. Only in the matter of the liturgy they urged 
 that the introduction of the English liturgy would be 
 unpopular, as implying dependence upon another nation, 
 and so they advised the preparation of a new form for 
 the Scottish church. First of all the Book of Canons 
 was prepared by the Scottish bishops, and revised and 
 amended by Laud. This document pronounced all 
 excommunicate who would not recognise the king's ab- 
 solute prerogative, and who regarded the government of the 
 church by bishops, or the worship contained in the Book of 
 Common Prayer as corrupt. It obliged all the clergy to use 
 the liturgy yet to be issued, branded all presbyteries and 
 kirk sessions as irregular conventicles, prohibited all Assem- 
 blies not called by the king, imposed observances held by 
 many to be superstitions, and by prescribing silence regard- 
 ing confessions made by penitents seemed to pave the way 
 for the practice of auricular confessions, employed expres- 
 sions which apparently assumed that ordination is a sacra- 
 ment. 
 
 In 1635 the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Kinnoul, having 
 died, Spottiswoode, Archbishop of St. Andrews, was pro- 
 moted to that high office. For the purpose of carrying out 
 the requirements of the Book of Canons, Courts of High Com- 
 mission were set up in every diocese, so that any bishop, by 
 associating with himself any six ministers whom he might 
 choose, could sit in judgment on any person, without giving 
 him the benefit of any legal process. It was in such a court
 
 INTRODUCTION OF SCOTTISH LITURGY. 18S 
 
 that Sydserf of Galloway pronounced sentence of banish- 
 ment against Gordon of Earlston, and prosecuted the great 
 Samuel Rutherfurd of Anwoth. The character of the new 
 Book of Canons was soon understood, and awakened through- 
 out Scotland feelings of bitter resentment against the 
 government and the bishops, so that many of the nobles, 
 who were furious at the grasping ambition of the prelates, 
 secretly rejoiced at the irritating severity of the book. 
 
 In the end of 1613, the new liturgy, prepared and revised 
 as the Book of Canons had been, was ready, and means were 
 taken for immediately enforcing its adoption. It is based 
 mainly on the Book of Common Prayer, drawn up by Max- 
 well, Wedderburn, Sydserf, and Bellenden, four Scottish 
 bishops, under the supervision of Laud. Where it differed 
 from the English service it was by approaching nearer to 
 that of Rome. Thus in the consecration prayer phrases are 
 introduced to favour the doctrine of the real presence. It 
 was enjoined that the water in baptism should be conse- 
 crated, and the sign of the cross used in its administration, 
 and that in the prayer for the Catholic Church there should 
 be a thanksgiving for departed saints. Each priest was to 
 possess at least two copies by Easter, and by some it was 
 then used. Many objected to the book before they saw it, 
 on the ground that nothing of this kind should be imposed 
 without having been considered and approved by a General 
 Assembly. An Act of Privy Council was obtained by the 
 bishops, loth June, 1637, ordering ministers under pain of 
 outlawry to secure copies within a fortnight. So soon as 
 there was time for examination, dissatisfaction with the 
 substance of the book was freely expressed by all classes, 
 nobles, ministers, and people. The archbishops of Edin- 
 burgh and Glasgow are said to have been doubtful about it. 
 The king and his advisers, however, were determined that it 
 should at once be introduced. The announcement was made 
 from the pulpit of Edinburgh on 16th July, that the new book 
 was to be read next Lord's day. And notwithstanding the 
 ominous outcries and denunciations that were heard every- 
 where throughout all the week, the bishop and dean, sup-
 
 184 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 ported by the Scottish primate and other two bishops, de- 
 cided to make a start with it in St. Giles. At the very 
 outset the disturbance began ; sticks and stones were thrown 
 freely about. Jenny Geddes threw her stool at Dean 
 Hanna, crying out indignantly ; " False loon, dost thou say 
 mass at my lug."" The dean fled in terror from his desk, 
 and the bishop, who had gone to the pulpit, failed to make 
 a word heard, and was saved only by the protection of the 
 magistrates. Similar riots took place in other churches and 
 all over Scotland. These outbursts were quite spontaneous, 
 and not organised by the ministers as some have supposed. 
 It really was the only effective way in which cammon people 
 then could express their indignation against an outrageous 
 infringement of their rights and liberties, and an intolerable 
 tyranny in matters that touched their conscience deeply and 
 affected what concerned them more than life itself. 
 
 All classes of the community were now roused against 
 illegal impositions. Petitions to the Privy Council crowded 
 in from all sides, and the council informed his majesty that 
 it could not be denied that even those who had hitherto 
 shown themselves willing to conform were manifesting a 
 strong aversion to the new liturgy. Under the influence of 
 Laud, the king gave no heed to the representations of the 
 council. The nobility and gentry joined with the corpora- 
 tions in drawing up an accusation against the bishops for 
 causing trouble between the king and the people. The 
 most prominent and most highly respected citizens of Edin- 
 burgh spoke in threatening tones to the magistrates and 
 Privy Council, and petitioners poured into the city from the 
 country all round. The indignant people opposed to these 
 innovations appointed commissioners to represent them, and 
 to act for them. They were divided into four classes called 
 Tables first of all, the nobles who chose to attend ; second, 
 two gentlemen from every county ; third, one minister from 
 every presbytery ; and fourth, one or two representatives 
 from every burgh. Each Table sat separately and con- 
 sulted by itself, and a committee composed of four deputies
 
 SIGNING THE NATIONAL COVENANT. 185 
 
 from each, called a General Table, resided in Edinburgh to 
 act on behalf and in name of the whole body. 
 
 In a proclamation issued by the Tables, they protested 
 that the Book of Canons and the liturgy contain the seeds of 
 superstition and idolatry, are full of novelties that violate 
 their liberties, laws and established religion, prevent the 
 accusing of bishops who could be proved guilty, support the 
 Court of High Commission which is unconstitutional and 
 tyrannical, that the Tables reject the bishops as highest 
 judges, and that they cannot desist from meeting to defend 
 purity of worship and the liberty of the church. Thirty of 
 the principal of the nobility of Scotland joined this movement. 
 The combination was now formidable, and attempts were 
 made to introduce divisions among them and cause aliena- 
 tion. Delusive promises were made on condition of their 
 dispersing. In order, therefore, to bind them all together 
 in firmer bonds, the Tables at Edinburgh summoned a meet- 
 of petitioners at which they might renew the National Cove- 
 nant. A fast was appointed, and held on the 26th Febru- 
 ary, 1638, and the ministers urged the people to gather and 
 solemnly sign the Covenant. The document was drawn up 
 by Alexander Henderson and Johnston of Warriston, and 
 revised by the Earls of Rothes and Loudon and Lord Bal- 
 merino. On the 28th February it was signed in Greyfriars 
 Churchyard, Edinburgh. The first to sign it was the Earl 
 of Sutherland, followed by multitudes of all ranks and 
 classes. It was done with great solemnity. The action had 
 the sanctity of a sacred oath. Some in their enthusiasm 
 opened a vein in their arms and signed the Covenant with 
 their blood. It was a comparatively short and simple de- 
 claration. It called on its subscribers to resist popery, it 
 defended the presbyterians against the charge of rebellion, 
 and held all solemnly bound to be true to the reformed re- 
 ligion, to their allegiance to the king and to the liberties 
 and laws of the kingdom. In all parts of the country the 
 people flocked out to sign it. Even in the North large 
 numbers subscribed it, and Aberdeen was the only place of 
 note in which it was not well received.
 
 186 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Spottisvvoode, when he heard of what was done, was com- 
 pletely overcome. " Our work of thirty years," he cried, 
 " is overthrown at a single stroke." He fled to London, and 
 died there, 26th November, 1639, in his seventy-fifth year. 
 He was undoubtedly the ablest and most statesmanlike of 
 all the post-reformation bishops in Scotland. As the son 
 of the good superintendent of the age of Knox, he was re- 
 garded as a renegade and a degenerate. He was naturally 
 hated and distrusted by those whose cause he had betrayed. 
 There is scarcely any trace of personal religion in his life. 
 He was not scrupulously truthful either in his speech or in 
 his writings. His Sunday travelling and the general worldly 
 tone of his life were offensive to good men. He seems to 
 have had an intense dislike of all pious and spiritually- 
 minded men. He was, however, a shrewd, capable man, 
 and a good administrator. It was against his will that 
 the Book of Canons and the Liturgy were imposed. He 
 understood the people better than the younger bishops and 
 Laud. He had wrought hard, but his life was a failure, and 
 his work perished with him. 
 
 The leader of the Covenanters, who had taken the field 
 determined to resist and overthrow all the work of royal and 
 prelatic tyranny, was Alexander Henderson. Born at 
 Creich, in Fifeshire, in 1583, graduated at St. Andrews in 
 1603, while Andrew Melville was still teaching there, and 
 presented to the parish of Leuchars in 1612 by Archbishop 
 Gledstanes, he belonged to the unpopular but state favoured 
 party, won his settlement in opposition to the wishes of the 
 people, and had to enter the church by one of the windows. 
 A sermon by the apostolic Robert Bruce in 1615 on the text : 
 " He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but 
 climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a 
 robber," was the turning point in his career. At the Perth 
 Assembly of 1618, of which he was a member, Henderson 
 vigorously opposed the passing of the obnoxious Articles. 
 That in the course of the next eighteen years, in respect of 
 which we have no record of his labours, Henderson had risen 
 to high esteem and eminence in the church is evident from this,
 
 MARQUESS OF HAMILTON AS COMMISSIONER. 187 
 
 that Spottiswoode made the trial with him as to the enforcing 
 of the use of the liturgy. Evidently it was assumed that if 
 he were persuaded to yield much was won. By sheer force 
 of talent and character, this country minister stepped in to 
 the first rank among his countrymen. He was the most 
 influential man in organizing the Tables and arranging for 
 the signing of the Covenant. He was now in his fifty-fourth 
 year, his views matured, his reputation established. Every- 
 one had confidence in his wisdom. He was calm and cour- 
 teous, yet unflinching in his adherence to his convictions, the 
 very man needed to deal with the artifices of the king. 
 
 When word was brought to Charles of what had been 
 done, he quickly perceived that a crisis had arisen which 
 called for energetic, but at the same time very wise and 
 careful statesmanship. He immediately sent down the 
 Marquess of Hamilton as his commissioner. In his private 
 instructions the Marquess was told that he might make any 
 promises he pleased to the Covenanters if only he could hold 
 them back and give him time to prepare to crush them. He 
 therefore sought to conciliate them, only to find that vague 
 general assurances were of no account. Nothing would 
 satisfy them short of a free Assembly, and a parliament to 
 ratify its measures. When this was refused and something 
 less offered, it was ominously hinted that an Assembly might 
 be held without the king's call or approval. At last, when 
 it was known that preparations had been made to resist 
 force by force, and that already General Leslie, that old 
 crooked soldier, had been recalled from the Low Countries, 
 to take command in a campaign if need be, the king yielded 
 all that his Scottish subjects demanded. A General 
 was summoned by the king, through the Privy Council, to 
 meet in Glasgow on the 21st November, 1638, and a par- 
 liament at Edinburgh on 15th May, 1639. 
 
 A declaration by the king was publicly proclaimed which 
 prohibited the enforcement of the Book of Canons, the 
 liturgy, and the Five Articles of Perth, abolished the Court 
 of High Commission, cancelled the new oath imposed on 
 entrants to the ministry, granted a general pardon of
 
 188 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 offences committed during the late contentions, appointed a 
 fast in view of the distractions in church and state, and en- 
 joined subscription to the Confession and Covenant of 1581. 
 This declaration not only came too late, but it contained 
 elements in it with which keen sighted defenders of spiritual 
 independence could not be satisfied. 
 
 About this time a commission was sent by the Tables, 
 consisting of Messrs. Henderson, Dickson and Cant, together 
 with several nobles, to Aberdeen to discuss with the doctors 
 and people there the meaning and purpose of the Covenant, 
 and to secure, if possible, their adhesion to it. Andrew 
 Cant had been minister of Alford, and then of Pitsligo, 
 and through his influence most of the presbyterians 
 of Alford and Deer had subscribed, but in Aberdeen and 
 its neighbourhood comparatively few signatures could be 
 got. Cant was minister of Aberdeen from 1640, but, shortly 
 before his death, was deposed by the bishop of Aberdeen in 
 1663. 
 
 The memorable Glasgow Assembly met on the day for 
 which it had been summoned, 21st November, 1638. The 
 Marquess of Hamilton was the king's commissioner, and 
 Alexander Henderson was almost unanimously elected 
 moderator, and Archibald Johnston, afterwards Lord 
 Warriston, was elected clerk. There was, it is said, one 
 hundred and forty-three ministers present, these being sent 
 from most of the fifty-three presbyteries, also professors 
 from the universities, and ninety-five ruling elders. An 
 attempt had been made to impose a condition preventing 
 the election of lay representatives, but this could not on any 
 account be yielded by the Covenanters. The presence of 
 these lay elders was made a pretext by the bishops for 
 declining the jurisdiction of the Assembly. The covenant- 
 ing lords and barons, including all the noblemen of note in 
 Scotland, were there also, and took an important part in the 
 proceedings. It was most fortunate for this Assembly that 
 it had so cool and capable a moderator as Henderson. The 
 commissioner sought eagerly to sow dissension among the 
 members, but the moderator's tact never failed him. At
 
 THE GKNERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1638. 189 
 
 last it became evident to Hamilton that it was impossible for 
 him to ferment bad feeling or introduce internecine strife, 
 and so, over the Assembly^ refusal to accept the declaration 
 of the bishops, the Commissioner demanded the dissolution 
 of the Assembly. Henderson, and the Earls of Rothes and 
 Loudon, said that they would regret the departure of the 
 Commissioner, but even should he go, they would not dis- 
 solve. In the exercise of the royal prerogative, the Com- 
 missioner called on the moderator to close the Assembly. 
 Henderson refused. All the nobles and ministers and repre- 
 sentative elders there were with him, and he knew that he 
 had the country at his back. The Marquess then dissolved 
 the Assembly in the king's name, and went out. The 
 Assembly sat on and proceeded with the business that they 
 had on hand. " Seeing we perceive his Grace," said the 
 moderator, " to be zealous of his royal master's commands, 
 have not we as good reason to be zealous toward our Lord, 
 and to maintain the liberties of His kingdom."" The sessions 
 of this Assembly lasted for about a month, and the work 
 was very thoroughly and deliberately done. The Assemblies 
 held under James were declared to be unfree, unlawful, and 
 null ; prelacy was declared to be contrary to the principles 
 of the Scottish Church, and the presbyterian government 
 was restored. The prelates were solemnly deposed, the 
 Articles of Perth, the Book of Canons, and the Liturgy 
 were renounced. At the close of the Assembly on the 20th 
 December, 1638, after he had pronounced the benediction, 
 Henderson said : " We have now cast down the walls of 
 Jericho ; let him that rebuildeth them beware of the curse 
 of Hiel, the Bethelite."" We have a list of seventy-two Acts 
 passed by this Assembly, many of them referring to matters 
 of detail and arrangement. Among them is one removing 
 Henderson from his ministry at Leuchars to Edinburgh, 
 where he continued to minister till his death in 1646. 
 
 Many of the best men testify to the spiritual awakening 
 that accompanied and sprang from this conflict for civil and 
 spiritual liberty. Pastors and people felt in a singular 
 manner the presence of the Lord among them and his favour
 
 190 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 toward them. " Over a great part of the country," says 
 Kirkton, " you could hardly lodge in a family where there 
 was not family worship. You could ride far without hear- 
 ing the sound of an oath. I verily believe there were more 
 souls converted to Christ in that short period of time than 
 in any season since the Reformation, though of treble its 
 duration. Nobody complained of our church government 
 more than the taverners, whose ordinary lamentation was 
 that their trade was broken, the people had become so 
 sober." The records of kirk sessions of the period, if rightly 
 read, tell the same tale. They present certainly many a 
 dark page, but this simply shows the faithfulness and minute- 
 ness, sometimes an overminuteness amounting to inquisi- 
 torial prying into the details of private and family life, 
 which characterised the supervision taken by ministers and 
 kirk sessions of those under their care. The elder visited 
 his district monthly, and reported to the session everything 
 that he regarded as wrong or questionable. 
 
 Even before the meeting of the Assembly of 1638 both 
 the king and the covenanters had been making preparations 
 for war. The dissolution of that Assembly by the Commis- 
 sioner, and the defiance of the king's authority by the 
 Assembly, which continued to sit for three weeks after the 
 Marquess's departure, and the character of the measures 
 passed during these sessions, made the king resolve to pro- 
 ceed to extremities. Hamilton had suffered seriously in 
 health, and it was not till the 5th of January that he 
 reached London and explained fully to the king how matters 
 had gone. Charles was greatly enraged, and at once pushed 
 forward his preparations for war. He had gathered from 
 various sources a considerable amount of money, and had 
 raised an army of some thirty thousand horse and foot. He 
 summoned his forces to meet at York on the 1st of April. 
 The covenanters had been well informed about the king's 
 secret preparations. They had got from the continent not 
 only their commander, General Leslie, but also quantities of 
 arms and ammunition. On the 7th of March a Committee 
 of Estates, consisting of twenty-six men chosen from nobles,
 
 BALCANQUAL'S LARGE DECLARATION 191 
 
 barons, and burgesses, and two senators of the College of 
 Justice, was formed, to be an intelligence department, to levy 
 troops, raise money, and make all other necessary arrange- 
 ments. During that same month, Leslie and his officers 
 took Edinburgh and Dumbarton Castles, as well as several 
 castles in Lanark and Fife, while Stirling was held by Mar, 
 one of their own party. Montrose had raised an army in 
 the North, and held Aberdeen. In the West, too, Argyll 
 had a considerable force. Leith was put into a state of 
 defence, and something was done to protect the villages on 
 the Fife coast. 
 
 A book forming a large folio volume of four hundred 
 and thirty pages was published in the king's name about the 
 middle of March. It was written by Dr. Balcanqual, Dean 
 of Durham, son of a good faithful minister of Edinburgh. 
 It is entitled A Large Declaration concerning the late 
 Tumults in Scotland, and presents a very partial and one- 
 sided statement of the king's policy, and a distorted and 
 false view of the proceedings of the Scottish presbyterian 
 and popular party. It was put forward by the king as a 
 manifesto justifying his recourse to arms. The troops that 
 reached York in the beginning of April moved northward 
 to Newcastle in the beginning of May, and from thence to 
 a point near Berwick. He now discovered that there was a 
 considerable amount of disaffection spreading in the army, 
 and that in the present state of feeling it would be dangerous 
 to bring them into conflict with a thoroughly unani- 
 mous and united enemy. Meanwhile the Marquess 
 of Hamilton was moving northward with his fleet of twenty 
 vessels, and entered the Firth of Forth and cast anchor in 
 Leith Roads on the 1st of May. When he found how 
 matters were with the land troops, he was glad to get away 
 in safety. The king was indisposed to fight, and began 
 issuing a series of proclamations. His army was weak and 
 wavering, there was no heart in it for the conflict, his 
 treasury was nearly exhausted ; whereas the Scottish troops 
 gathered round their general at Dunse Law were full of 
 enthusiasm and eager for the fight, but anxious, owing to
 
 192 HISTORY OF THE CHUKCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 their limited means, to make the campaign as short as 
 possible. Understanding the mind of the king, the leaders 
 of the Scottish army sent a supplication to the king, and on 
 the 18th June, Articles of Pacification were signed. The 
 king agreed that all ecclesiastical matters should be deter- 
 mined by an Assembly of the Kirk, and civil matters in a 
 Parliament, and that Assemblies be held once a year, or as 
 determined at next General Assembly ; that a free General 
 Assembly be kept at Edinburgh on the 6th August next, 
 and a Parliament on 20th August to ratify the proceedings 
 of the Assembly. In consideration of this arrangement, the 
 Scots were to disband their forces, restore to the king the 
 castles, forts, regalia, etc., desist from meetings not sanc- 
 tioned by Parliament ; all which the Covenanters agreed to 
 do by the 20th of June. But while they did all this most 
 heartily, they had so many painful experiences of the king's 
 duplicity and changeableness, that they took the precaution 
 to retain the services of their officers by putting them on 
 half pay. 
 
 Charles only yielded to necessity, and had evidently no 
 intention of allowing episcopacy to be overthrown in Scot- 
 land. He sought, therefore, to ignore the proceedings of 
 the Assembly of the former year, and hoped that he might 
 so manipulate the coming Assembly that the Presbyterian 
 polity would be overthrown and Episcopacy restored. On 
 the 6th day of August the Earl of Traquair had his com- 
 mission signed, and on the 12th August, 1639, the 
 Assembly met in Edinburgh. Mr. David Dickson of 
 Irvine was elected moderator. Though the king had in- 
 sisted that the previous Assembly should not be referred to, 
 this Assembly refused in any way to repudiate the last, and 
 Acts were passed at this Assembly which secured precisely 
 the same results reached by the one objected to. It was 
 ordained that the Service Book, Book of Canons, and Court 
 of High Commission should be rejected, that the Articles of 
 Perth be not enforced, that episcopal government and civil 
 work and office for churchmen are unlawful, that the pre- 
 tended Assemblies of Linlithgow in 1606 and 1608, of
 
 ASSEMBLY AND PARLIAMENT CONDEMN EPISCOPACY. 193 
 
 Glasgow in 1610, of Aberdeen in 1616, and of Perth in 
 1618, be regarded as null, and that for the future General 
 Assemblies be regularly convened yearly, and oftener pro re 
 nata, that kirk sessions, presbyteries, and synods be consti- 
 tuted according to the order of the kirk. Special notice 
 was taken of the Large Declaration, and the Committee 
 drew up an elaborate report upon it. It was pronounced 
 dishonourable to God, to the king's majesty, to this 
 National Kirk, and to be stuffed full of lies and calumnies, 
 and to have miserably wrested their intentions, words, and 
 actions. These several charges were proved in detail and 
 illustrated by quotations from the offensive document. The 
 Assembly resolved to represent to his Majesty that he 
 might be pleased to call in the book and suppress it, so as 
 to show his dislike to it, that he should give commission to 
 cite all persons known or suspected to be the authors of it, 
 and especially Dr. Balcanqual, well known to have a princi- 
 pal hand in its preparation, and by this exemplary punish- 
 ment to deter others from such dangerous and seditious 
 courses. The Commissioner assented to all the measures 
 passed by the Assembly. The Parliament which had been 
 promised to follow the Assembly, met on the 31st of 
 August. It is evident that the king's Commissioner 
 hoped that the Estates would refuse to ratify the measures 
 passed in the Assembly, and so, when it became evident 
 that Parliament was ready to confirm these Acts, renounce 
 Episcopacy, and not insist upon the royal prerogative, after 
 vainly protracting the meeting till the middle of November, 
 he at last prorogued the Parliament to the 2nd of June, 
 1640. Before the Parliamentary Commissioners sent to pro- 
 test against the prorogation and to defend the proceedings of 
 Parliament reached London, hostilities had been renewed, 
 and war had been again proclaimed. 
 
 The repudiation by Charles of the Articles of Pacification 
 and his denunciation of his Scottish subjects as rebels did 
 not find the Covenanters unprepared. Their officers were 
 still on pay, and they were in a position very speedily to 
 find arms and men. The Scottish Parliament had been
 
 194 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 prorogued to meet on the 2nd of June, 1640, and on that 
 day the members convened, declared themselves a lawful 
 parliament, and, in the absence of the Royal Commissioner, 
 chose Lord Burley as their president. Several important 
 Acts were passed bishops and ecclesiastics were to be ex- 
 cluded from all subsequent parliaments, the Acts of the last 
 General Assembly were ratified, and the sole power of juris- 
 diction in the church was declared to lie in the general, 
 provincial, and presbyterial assemblies. On 24th August a 
 Scottish army of 23,000 foot and 3,000 horse crossed the 
 English border and advanced to the Tyne. After meeting 
 and putting to flight the English army, they took possession 
 of Newcastle and Durham, obtaining large supplies of arms 
 and provisions. Having been thus far victorious they pre- 
 sented a petition to the king for repairing of their wrongs. 
 A treaty was begun at Ripon and negotiations were then 
 transferred to London, the Earls of Rothes and Dunfermline, 
 Mr. Henderson, and others, being commissioners. They 
 demanded the publication of the Acts of the late Parliament 
 in the king's name, that Scottish fortresses should be kept 
 by Scotsmen, that their countrymen in England and Ireland 
 should not be forced to take oaths inconsistent with their 
 covenant, that the nation should be indemnified for the loss 
 by the war, that public incendiaries should be punished, 
 and that the religion and liberty of the nation should be 
 secured by a permanent peace. These concessions having 
 been at last wrung from Charles, accusations were made 
 against Laud and Stafford. 
 
 The Covenanters now lost two adherents whose names 
 and performances had up to this time been very much in 
 evidence. The Earl of Rothes, eloquent and able, and 
 hitherto most helpful, though not in life and conduct sym- 
 pathetic with the religious men of his party, now joined 
 the king, tempted by the prospect of a rich marriage and 
 the promise of a high office of state. His change of front, 
 however, affected no party for good or evil, for he died 
 suddenly almost immediately after. The other renegade 
 was the Marquess of Montrose. He ought to have been a
 
 SCHEME FOR UNIFORMITY IN CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 195 
 
 Royalist from the first. Wounded pride at what he re- 
 garded as a cold reception from the king when he first 
 appeared at court, led him to cast in his lot with the 
 Covenanters, to whom he rendered brilliant service in the 
 North. Disappointed that the chief command should have 
 been given to Leslie, and also at the favour shown to Argyll, 
 he opened up a secret correspondence with the king. When 
 Charles paid his visit to Scotland, Montrose's perfidy had 
 been discovered, and he had been thrown into prison, while 
 a letter of his to the king which had been intercepted 
 proved most damaging to the king's reputation, as an evi- 
 dence of his insincerity. The Scottish Parliament of 1641 
 was opened by the king on the 17th of August, and he 
 showed himself as conciliatory as possible. The parliament 
 insisted on having the appointment to offices of state, which 
 the king reluctantly surrendered. In the struggle for office 
 that ensued, dissensions first began to arise among the cove- 
 nanting nobles. 
 
 Shortly before the king's arrival in Scotland a General 
 Assembly had met in St. Andrews, and was transferred to 
 Edinburgh. Here it was for the first time proposed to draw 
 up a model of church government that might apply to 
 England as well as Scotland, and thus secure uniformity of 
 worship and discipline throughout the united kingdom. A 
 great interest had been awakened in England in the Scottish 
 Presbyterian services, and a considerable number of the more 
 pious and evangelical of the English ministers and people 
 seemed disposed in large measure to approve of the Confession 
 and forms of worship of the Scottish Church. This subject 
 received much attention at the Assembly of 1642, which met 
 at St. Andrews on the 27th July. In answer to a declara- 
 tion sent from the parliament of England on behalf of a 
 firm and stable union, this Assembly declared that, as religion 
 is not only the means of the service of God and the saving 
 of souls, but is also the base and foundation of kingdoms 
 and estates, so for securing lasting union there should be 
 one Confession of Faith, one directory of worship, one public 
 catechism, and one form of kirk government. It seemed as
 
 196 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 if this pious wish might be realised, when on the 7th of 
 August, 1643, Commissioners from both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment reached Leith, and on the llth were presented to the 
 Assembly. These Commissioners were Mr. Marshall and 
 Mr. Nye, with Sir Henry Vane, the younger, and other three 
 gentlemen. They were commissioned to ask that the Scottish 
 Church should send representatives to assist them in their 
 work of reformation. This the Assembly heartily granted, 
 and nominated and elected Alexander Henderson, Robert 
 Douglas, Samuel Rutherfurd, Robert Baillie, George 
 Gillespie, ministers ; and the Earl of Cassillis, Lord Mait- 
 land, and Johnston of Warriston, elders. As a bond of 
 union the Solemn League and Covenant was drawn up by 
 Henderson, and on 17th August adopted by the Assembly 
 and ratified by the Convention of the Estates of the realm. 
 The full title of this document was " A Solemn League 
 and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion, the 
 Honour and Happiness of the King, and the Peace and 
 Safety of the Three Kingdoms of Scotland, England, and 
 Ireland." This covenant was to be carried up by the 
 Scottish Commissioners that it might be received and 
 approved by the Parliament of England and the Assembly 
 of Divines. With the exception of Douglas and Cassilis, 
 all the commissioners proceeded to Westminster and took 
 an important part in the labours of the Assembly meeting 
 there. Messrs. Henderson and Gillespie and Lord r.l&il^and 
 were received on the 15th of September, and Rutherfurd 
 and Baillie on 20th November. Members of Parliament and 
 Assembly took the covenant on 25th September. Maitland, 
 afterwards known as the Duke of Lauderdale, became one of 
 the most heartless and profane of the persecutors, Johnston 
 of Warriston one of the noblest sufferers for the cause of 
 the gospel. The clerical members were the most dis- 
 tinguished for scholarship and churchmanship among all 
 the ministers of the church in that age. 
 
 Robert Douglas, described as a silent, sagacious, master- 
 ful man, was required as a leader at home when so many 
 great men were away. As their constant correspondent,
 
 SCOTTISH DIVINES AT WESTMINSTER. 197 
 
 he kept them in touch with the Church of Scotland while 
 they were at Westminster. He preached a memorable 
 sermon at the coronation of Charles II. 
 
 Alexander Henderson had already played an important 
 part in the history of the church, and, as distinctly the first 
 and greatest man in the Second Reformation that culmin- 
 ated in the Assembly of 1638, deserves to rank with Knox 
 and Melville as one of the three greatest reformers in the 
 Scottish Church. His later years were years of incessant 
 toil. He acted as chaplain to Charles, and his great abilities 
 and statesmanlike qualities were clearly recognised by the 
 monarch. Within five years he was three times moderator 
 of the General Assembly. When in sore straits in May, 
 1646, the king invited Mr. Henderson to go to him. They 
 had several interviews, and a correspondence was carried on 
 between them on points of difference between prelatists and 
 presbyterians. Henderson wrote calmly and courteously, 
 but as might be expected nothing came of it all. He went 
 home in sore sickness, and died 19th August, 1646, in his 
 sixty-third year. 
 
 Samuel Rutherfurd is in some respects the greatest of all 
 the great men of his time. As violent, to say the least of 
 it, as any of them, verging often on the very extreme of 
 fanaticism, yet profoundly learned and thoroughly up-to- 
 date in scholarship ; a subtle controversialist in all sorts of 
 scholastic minutiae, and at the same time a fervent and fervid, 
 many would say perfer v id, preacher of the love of Christ. He 
 was born somewhere about 1600, near Jedburgh, graduated 
 at Edinburgh 1621, and was ordained at Anwoth 1627. He 
 was soon recognised as the greatest preacher and the most in- 
 fluential minister in the south of Scotland. He was a hard 
 student and a faithful pastor, beginning his day at three 
 o'clock in the morning and continuing till a late hour at 
 night, reading, writing, catechising, and caring for his flock. 
 He entered into learned controversy with the Arminians, 
 wrote against the Articles of Perth, maintained presby- 
 terianism against all its impugners, demolished Antinomians 
 and Independents, and vindicated civil and religious liberty
 
 198 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 in his Lex Rex : a Plea Jor the People's Rights. From 
 September, 1636, to February, 1638, he was in banishment 
 in Aberdeen, and from that city he wrote most of his famous 
 Spiritual Letters. After returning from the Westminster 
 Assembly, where he took a very active part in the com- 
 mittee work, as well as in the debates, he carried on his 
 work as professor of divinity at St. Andrews, to which office 
 he had been appointed in 1639, preached regularly in the city 
 as colleague to Mr. Blair, and held the office of Principal of 
 the New College and Rector of the University. He strongly 
 opposed the admission of malignants into office under 
 Charles II., and was one of the most violent of the Pro- 
 testers. Lex Rex had the honour of being burned in Edin- 
 burgh, London, and St. Andrews. He died on the 20th of 
 March, 1661, answering from his deathbed the summons to 
 appear at Edinburgh on a charge of high treason, " I behove 
 to obey my first summons." " He had a higher tribunal to 
 appear before, 11 says Wodrow, " where his Judge was his 
 friend. 11 
 
 George Gillespie, a ministers son, was born in Kirkcaldy 
 in 1613, and studied at St. Andrews, but as churches were 
 then reserved for those who would conform, he spent some 
 time in the house of Lord Kenmure, and then in that of the 
 Earl of Cassilis, as domestic chaplain. He made his first 
 appearance in public as an author by the publication in 
 1637 of a work entitled, A Dispute against the Endish 
 Popish Ceremonies obtruded on the Church of Scotland. He 
 was ordained to the Church of Wemyss on 26th April, 1638, 
 much against the will of Archbishop Spottiswoode, and 
 was the first in these times admitted by a presbytery with- 
 out regard to the bishops. He was a member of the great 
 Glasgow Assembly of 1638. In 1642 he was translated 
 from Wemyss to be one of the ministers of Edinburgh. His 
 great services in the Westminster Assembly are recognized 
 by all. " None of all the company did reason more, 11 says 
 Baillie, " and more pertinently than Mr. Gillespie. That is 
 an excellent youth : my heart blesses God in his behalf." 
 In 1646 he issued his great work, entitled : Aaron s Rod
 
 GILLESPIE AND BAILLIE AT WESTMINSTER. 199 
 
 Blossoming: or The Divine Ordinance of Church Govern" 
 ment Vindicated, dedicating it to the Assembly, and on the 
 30th July presenting copies to the Prolocutor and members 
 then present, for which the Prolocutor thanked him in the 
 name of the Assembly. He was one of the chief hands in 
 framing the Directory for Worship and the Form of Church 
 Government, documents bound up with the Confession of 
 Faith. He took his leave of the Assembly on July 16th, 
 1647, and returned home. He was moderator of the 
 General Assembly of 1648, which began its sittings on the 
 12th of July and closed on the 12th of August. His health 
 was completely shattered. He was dying of consumption. 
 He spent his last days in retirement in Kirkcaldy, where he 
 died on the 17th of December, 1648, in his thirty-sixth 
 year. Principal Lee says of his work, An Assertion of the 
 Government and Discipline of the Church of Scotland,, pub- 
 lished in 1641, that it is incomparably the best account of 
 the constitution of our National Church which has ever 
 appeared. 
 
 Robert Baillie, the journalist and chronicler of the 
 Assembly, was born in Glasgow 1599, educated there, and 
 episcopally ordained in 1622, and settled at Kilwinning. 
 Rejecting Laud's Service Book, he was a member of the 
 Assembly of 1638, and distinguished himself for his 
 moderation and prudence. He was present at Duns Law 
 in 1639, acting as chaplain to the Scottish Covenanting 
 army. In 1642 he was appointed professor of divinity in 
 Glasgow, alongside of David Dickson. His somewhat loose 
 and garrulous style has concealed from many the fact of his 
 deep and varied learning. In the Westminster Assembly 
 he was more of an observer than a debater, but the records 
 show that on all important questions he had his own 
 opinions and could express them. He took his leave of the 
 Assembly and returned to Scotland on 25th December, 
 1646. His Letters and Journals form by far the most 
 important source of information we possess regarding the 
 proceedings of the great Assembly. In 1649 he went to 
 Holland to invite Charles to take the covenant and to
 
 200 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 accept the crown of Scotland, and after the Restoration he 
 was appointed Principal of Glasgow University in place of 
 Patrick Gillespie. He died at Glasgow in 1662. 
 
 These great men were conspicuous in the service which they 
 rendered to their church and country. When they returned 
 from their labours at Westminster, they brought with them 
 carefully constructed documents, which embody the best 
 thoughts of the age on doctrine and discipline from the 
 standpoint of Calvinistic Presbyterianism. The Assembly 
 of 1645 sanctioned the Form of Church Government and 
 the Directory for Public Worship, while the Confession of 
 Faith was adopted and the Metrical Version of the Psalms 
 now used was approved, by the Assembly on 27th August, 
 1647. The Estates of Parliament ratified the adoption of 
 the Catechism and Confession on 7th February, 1649. 
 
 So far as legislation could go the triumph of presby- 
 terianism was complete. Political complications soon led to 
 divisions and disasters. It is often said that the ministers 
 of Scotland in this age mixed themselves up far too much 
 with civil and political controversies. In the circumstances 
 in which they were placed, there was no possibility of 
 neutrality. Not to take the part they did would have 
 simply meant to give to the popish unreforming party all 
 their own way. Peace loving men were drawn into the very 
 front ranks of the battle. The civil and the ecclesiastical 
 were inextricably mixed up together. The head of the civil 
 government intruded himself into the ecclesiastical sphere, and 
 sought from one point of view or another to make the church 
 a department of the state. The great men of the church 
 were sturdy loyalists, so far and so long as the king himself 
 would allow them. They carried this loyalty too far. They 
 remained loyal after the king had proved himself time after 
 time untruthful and insincere. They continued to accept 
 the king's word after he had clearly shown that it was 
 worthless. When they agreed to surrender him to the 
 English parliament, it was not because for any consideration 
 they would give him up to death, but simply because they 
 could not keep him without bringing about war with
 
 INTOLERANCE OF THE COVENANTERS. 201 
 
 England, and because they believed that he ought to satisfy 
 his English parliament as he professed to satisfy them. The 
 grand mistake they made was in entertaining the idea that 
 by urging the adoption of the Covenant they could secure 
 uniformity in worship and belief, descending to particulars 
 and details in regard to which a certain amount of difference 
 must always exist. It is wrong to say that the Covenanters 
 secured adhesion to the Covenant by the use of physical 
 force. The only one acting in their name who did this was 
 Montrose in Aberdeen. But in many cases they certainly 
 brought very strong pressure to bear upon those whom they 
 sought to unite under this common bond. It should be 
 remembered too that toleration as now understood and 
 practised had not then been conceived of by any party. The 
 time was not ripe for it. The principles of liberty could 
 not be asserted and acted upon until certain constitutional 
 safeguards had been erected against despotic arbitrariness 
 on the one side, and whimsical individualism running out 
 into licentiousness on the other. It is easy to sneer at the 
 Covenanters as men who were intolerant against those whose 
 intolerance toward them they had so vigorously denounced 
 and condemned. It was only after the smoke and dust 
 which the violent and long continued conflict raised had 
 passed away that it became possible for men spiritually in 
 earnest to see how they might rightly distinguish between 
 fundamentals and non-fundamentals, how they might seek 
 eagerly unity in the one, while learning not only to tolerate, 
 but even to appreciate, diversity in the other.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Covenanters* 
 A.D. 16481688. 
 
 THE leaders of the Covenanting party were convinced and 
 earnest supporters of monarchy. Their allegiance to the 
 king had been strained to the very utmost by his persistent 
 faithlessness and utter disregard of his most solemn pro- 
 mises. They had abundant proof from the painful experi- 
 ence of many years that the concessions which Charles made 
 to them were meant to be kept only till he found himself, 
 or thought himself, strong enough to repudiate them. And 
 yet, time after time they accepted his worthless assurances, 
 and once and again they withdrew from advantageous posi- 
 tions which by hard struggles they had won, vainly clinging 
 to the hope that the royal word might be better than a lie, 
 or that the king, whom they loyally served, would rule over 
 them in righteousness. But the most serious result to the 
 
 Literature : Grub, Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, Edin. 1861, 
 Vol. III., pp. 138-292 ; Mackenzie, History of tlie Affairs of Scot- 
 land from 1660 to 1677; Wodrow, History of the Sufferings of the 
 Church of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution (1720), 4 
 vols. , Glasgow, 1828 ; Baillie, Letters and Journals (1775), edited by 
 David Laing, 3 vols., Edin., 1841 ; Lee, Lectures on the History of 
 the Church of Scotland, Vol. II., 296-343 ; Dodds, Fifty Tears' 
 Struggles of the Scottish Covenanters, London, 1871 ; Bayne, Chief 
 Actors in the Puritan Revolution, London, 1878 ; Masson, Life and 
 Times of John Milton, Vols. IV. -VI., London, 1877 ; Napier, 
 Memoirs of Montrose (1613-1615), 2 vols., Edin., 1840; Napier, 
 Memorials and Letters of Grahame of Claverhouse (1650-1693), 3 vols. 
 Edin. 1859 ; Howie, Scots Worthies (1781), edited by W. H. Cars- 
 law, Edin. 1870; M'Crie, Memoirs of William Veitch and others 
 (important sketches of Covenanting history), Edin. 1825 ; Gardiner, 
 History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate (1649-1660), 2 vols., 
 London, 1897. 
 202
 
 THE ENGAGEMENT. 203 
 
 Covenanters of their attachment to the cause of the king 
 was the division introduced into their ranks on account of 
 the views taken by parties or individuals among them as to 
 the length which they might go, and the concessions which 
 they might make, in order to continue giving countenance 
 to his government. Those of the party of the Covenanters 
 inclined to go as far as possible in the direction of meeting 
 the royal proposals, headed by the Duke of Hamilton and 
 the Earls of Lanark and Loudon, entered into an Engage- 
 ment with the king, in the autumn of 1647, under which he 
 agreed to give parliamentary sanction to the Solemn League 
 and Covenant, to establish presbyterianism in England for 
 three years, the royal household being allowed to observe 
 their own form of worship, and to call a meeting of divines 
 at the end of the three years to determine upon a scheme 
 of ecclesiastical polity in accordance with the Word of God. 
 Only a few of the Scottish presbyterian ministers, of whom 
 Baillie was the most distinguished, could be induced to join 
 this party. The principles upon which they acted were 
 throughout political rather than religious. 
 
 When the terms of the Engagement came to be under- 
 stood, all the clear-sighted among those who had supported 
 the principles of the Covenant in Scotland, and almost all 
 who had attached themselves to the party from personal 
 conviction and on distinctly religious grounds, assumed an 
 attitude of determined opposition to it, and denounced 
 those who had accepted it as traitors to the cause and 
 aiders and abbetors of the malignants. The controversies 
 over this document led to an immediate and utter breach 
 between the parliament of Scotland and the Scottish Church. 
 The presbyterian divines, as we see from the writings of 
 Rutherfurd and all that school, had a strong dislike and 
 dread of all sectaries, and on this account they were ex- 
 tremely unwilling to be associated in any way with the 
 Independents as led by Cromwell. But now they clearly 
 perceived that for them to join with the Malignants in 
 order to destroy the Sectaries was to choose of two evils the 
 one which was by far the worse. Consequently, the Com-
 
 204 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 mission of Assembly, and afterwards the Assembly itself, 
 condemned the action of the Parliament which ratified the 
 Engagement. It is easy to ridicule this repudiation of par- 
 liamentary procedure by the church courts, or to stigma- 
 tise it as an exaggerated Hildebrandism. But to represent 
 the conduct of the Scottish churchmen as ultramontane is 
 to be guilty of a serious misrepresentation of the facts of 
 the case. The Engagers had professed to be the conser- 
 vators of the principles which the Covenanters had declared 
 to be dearer to them than life, and it was the bounden duty 
 of the church to protest against and expose a compromise 
 proposed in their name, which sacrificed all that they had 
 so earnestly contended for. The Engagers had surrendered 
 religious principle for political ends, and the churchmen 
 rightly refused to give the sanction of religion to the pro- 
 ceedings of men with whom the interests of God's cause was 
 evidently a very secondary consideration. It was a case of 
 politics and politicians intruding into the ecclesiastical 
 sphere rather than of the church seeking to domineer over 
 the state. 
 
 The parliamentary party now assumed a defiant attitude 
 toward the church and the stricter Covenanters. The Duke 
 of Hamilton was put at the head of the army, and with 
 40,000 men, poorly armed, and imperfectly drilled, he ven- 
 tured to face the well-equipped troops of Cromwell, at 
 Preston, only to suffer a humiliating and disastrous defeat. 
 He was himself taken prisoner by the English, and died 
 upon the scaffold at Westminster in March, 1649. His 
 brother, the Earl of Lanark, associated with him in the 
 leadership of the party, succeeded him in the dukedom, and 
 died from wounds received in battle some two years later. 
 Loudon, who at first acted along with Hamilton and 
 Lanark, when he saw the firm determination of his old 
 Covenanting associates, repented of his fault, and made 
 confession of it before the church, and under Argyll 
 became one of the leaders of the strict and consistent 
 Covenanters. 
 
 The ministers of the church, and the Christian people
 
 THE ACT OF CLASSES. 205 
 
 throughout the country warmly supported Argyll, not only 
 with their sympathy but also with their active help, and a 
 large number of peasants from the south-western counties 
 of Scotland, fired with pious enthusiasm, and inspired by a 
 genuine religious zeal, flocked to the standard of the 
 Covenanting leader, and so by this sudden wave of popu- 
 larity, Argyll was carried at once to the front, head of the 
 government and commander of the army. Encouraged by 
 the news of the defeat of the Engagers in England, the 
 Covenanters under Argyll advanced upon Edinburgh, and 
 encountered no opposition. The members of the govern- 
 ment fled at the approach of the Whiggamores, and the new 
 government immediately came to an understanding with 
 Cromwell, and proceeded without delay to deal with those 
 who had in any way become implicated in the affair of the 
 Engagement. The new parliament passed a measure called 
 the Act of Classes, which was intended to exclude from 
 office all who had in any degree favoured the policy of the 
 Malignants. This act received its name because of its dis- 
 tinguishing different groups or classes of individuals who, 
 by conduct of a more or less aggravated character, had ren- 
 dered themselves unworthy of public confidence. Not only 
 were those who had shown themselves hostile to the 
 covenant debarred from holding any place in the civil 
 government or in the army, but ministers who had proved 
 faithless were deposed and deprived of their livings. The 
 putting of offices of command and influence, whether civil 
 or military, into the hands of thoroughly reliable men, was 
 undoubtedly a wise and reasonable policy ; but it must be 
 admitted that the immediate effect of this sweeping measure 
 was to tempt and encourage many to make hypocritical 
 professions of attachment to the covenant, who were in 
 spirit and life as far as possible removed from the truth and 
 purity of the Christian faith. The attachment of the 
 government and people of Scotland to Cromwell, and 
 especially that of the ministers of the church, was by no 
 means hearty or very sincere. It was only because the other 
 possible alternative of adherence to the king had become
 
 206 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 impossible, that meanwhile, seeing that as yet no third 
 choice had emerged or seemed practical, they made their 
 peace with the great leader of the English parliamentary 
 party. The death of Charles on the scaffold on 30th 
 January, 1649, seemed to those who had the direction of 
 public affairs in Scotland to afford an opportunity of break- 
 ing with Cromwell and making another attempt to secure 
 for the covenant an authoritative and national recognition. 
 The king's execution was not approved in Scotland, not 
 because the covenanters denied the right of a nation to 
 bring their king to trial and death for tyranny and the sub- 
 version of the liberties of the people, but because they were 
 determinedly opposed to the anti-monarchical principles of 
 those who had brought about this great catastrophe. Con- 
 sequently, so soon as the tidings of the tragedy reached 
 Scotland, the leaders both of church and state began at once 
 to take steps in the direction of securing a successor to the 
 throne. Within a few days of the death of the king, his 
 son was proclaimed as Charles the Second. In February, 
 the Scottish Parliament ratified the Confession of Faith, 
 and in the following month it abolished patronage in the 
 church, and called upon the General Assembly to make rules 
 with regard to the appointment and settlement of ministers. 
 In the political movements of the times, the church took an 
 active and prominent part. The covenanters were deter- 
 mined that the king and his government should individually 
 declare their acceptance of the covenant, and undertake to 
 secure the enforcement of its principles and requirements 
 throughout the land. They insisted that the new king 
 should solemnly promise to admit no malignant to office, 
 and that he should regard all who had given their adhesion 
 to the engagement as disqualified. Even before any effec- 
 tual steps had been taken by the Parliament of Scotland 
 towards entering into a treaty with the young prince, now 
 in exile in Holland, the General Assembly addressed him 
 by letter, urging upon him their views as to his duty in 
 accepting the covenant, and putting away from his presence 
 and counsels those whose prelatic and despotic principles
 
 COVENANTERS TREAT WITH CHARLES. 207 
 
 had already produced so much evil and confusion in the 
 land. 
 
 It may be right to notice here that the Church of Scot- 
 land had recently lost her most able and her most trust- 
 worthy leaders. Alexander Henderson, by far the ablest 
 ecclesiastic since the time of Knox, had died in the autumn 
 of 1646, and George Gillespie, who by special learning and 
 personal qualities was best fitted to take his place, was 
 called away in the end of 1648. Great men were with them 
 still ; Rutherfurd, renowned as a theologian, controversialist, 
 preacher, and subtle ingenious schemers like Patrick Gillespie, 
 but no outstanding statesmanlike divine, who could lead the 
 church temperately and wisely in circumstances of great 
 delicacy, and along ways beset with pitfalls at every turn. 
 Probably it was on account of this absence of any one 
 recognised guide among themselves that the ministers 
 seemed so ready to accept the leadership of a nobleman like 
 the Marquess of Argyll, who became in large measure the 
 representative of the church as well as of the state in all the 
 negotiations for the restoration of the king. 
 
 Early in 1650, the parliament sent commissioners to treat 
 with Charles at Breda in Holland, and to invite him to take 
 possession of the Scottish throne on condition of his signing 
 the covenant and undertaking to govern in accordance with 
 its requirements. These conditions were evidently unpalat- 
 able to the young prince, and the commissioners could be 
 in no way deceived as to his frivolous and vicious disposi- 
 tion, and his utter disregard of every obligation moral and 
 religious. Meantime, with the duplicity and wickedness of 
 all the later Stewarts, Charles had been listening to coun- 
 sels of violence, and had been seeking to seize by force upon 
 his ancestral possessions without submitting to any of those 
 conditions which were now being diplomatically pressed 
 upon him. Montrose, who, out of personal pique, had 
 deserted the late king and joined the covenanters, and had 
 now again fallen back to his former place, was already in 
 Scotland with a commission from Charles to raise troops 
 and to conquer the country by force of arms. Various
 
 208 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 attempts have been made to represent Montrose as a chiv- 
 alrous knight whose character and career were singularly 
 pure and noble, but it should be remembered that while 
 associated with the covenanters, he far outdid the most 
 fanatical of that party in the violence which he used in 
 forcing the covenant upon the reluctant inhabitants of Aber- 
 deen, that he personally instigated and arranged for the 
 murder of the English Ambassador at the Hague, that 
 before his crushing defeat at Philiphaugh, he was guilty of 
 many and needless cruelties upon defenceless people. The 
 Scottish Parliament, on discovering the faithlessness of the 
 prince, resolved to recall their commissioners, and had not 
 their communication been detained by an over-zealous mem- 
 ber of the commission, who urged Charles, in view of the 
 state of feeling in Scotland, to immediate acceptance of the 
 conditions demanded, the Scottish history, ecclesiastical and 
 civil of thirty or forty years, and that also of England, 
 might have been very different from what it actually was. 
 
 An interesting account of the negotiations carried on with 
 Charles is given in the autobiography of John Livingston 
 of Ancrum,* who, along with James Wood and George 
 Hutcheson, and with the Earl of Cassillis and Brodie of 
 Brodie, ruling elders, had been sent along with the Parlia- 
 mentary representatives by the commission of the church. 
 He had little faith in the commissioners. Lothian was 
 simply the creature of Argyll, and Liberton had given evi- 
 dence of his desire to have the king on any terms. Of Sir 
 John Smith, who had been in league with James Graham, 
 Livingston says " he was a man of no great ability, and what 
 ability he had I suspected would not be well employed." 
 From the very first Livingston had little hope of any good 
 coming out of these negotiations, and he says that many of 
 the well affected, whose judgment he reverenced, had great 
 fears of the issue of the treaty. He observed that the prince 
 granted nothing that was not wrung out of him, also that 
 
 * Select Biographies, edited by Wodrow Society, Vol. I., Edin. 
 1845, pp. 168-185.
 
 THE COVENANTERS AT DUNBAR. 209 
 
 malignants like Lauderdale and Hamilton, were consulted, 
 that some of the prince's demands were allowed for which 
 the commission had no authority and that from the condi- 
 tions imposed upon him essential particulars were left out. 
 It is very much to the credit of Livingston that when he saw 
 how utterly devoid Charles was of all conscience and truth 
 he opposed as strongly as he could the pressing upon him 
 of covenant obligations which he had no intention of ob- 
 serving and the tempting of him to make solemn protesta- 
 tions of beliefs which he neither entertained nor understood. 
 He was even unwilling to join the ship in which Charles and 
 his company were, feeling as though they were taking the 
 plague of God to Scotland. This same feeling was also very 
 freely expressed by many of the wisest and best ministers of 
 the church. All those, however, churchmen and statesmen, 
 who were under the influence and in the service of Argyll, 
 were determined at all hazards to have the prince crowned 
 with the name at least of a covenanting king. And so even 
 before the vessel in which he sailed had reached the Scottish 
 shores, he signed the covenant, the sudden readiness with 
 which he did so notwithstanding his previous reluctance, 
 rendering his whole conduct more suspicious than ever. He 
 landed at Garmouth, at the mouth of the Spey, on 16th 
 June, 1650. 
 
 The English parliamentary party regarded the proceed- 
 ings of the Scots in recognising the young prince as an 
 occasion of war, and accordingly Cromwell marched with his 
 army into Scotland. Finding Edinburgh strongly defended, 
 he retired to Dunbar, but was unable to make his escape 
 further, for David Leslie had drawn up his forces on high 
 ground, and had secured for them an impregnable position, 
 while he effectually barred the southward march of the 
 English. Much against his will and better judgment, but 
 yielding to the clamour of the more fanatical of the nobles 
 and ministers in his company, who in their impatience de- 
 clared that longer waiting would be dishonouring to God 
 and would imply want of faith in His help, he surrendered 
 the advantages of his well-chosen entrenchments and de-
 
 210 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 scended to the lower ground where the enemy lay encamped. 
 When Cromwell with surprise beheld this movement he 
 cried out exultantly, " The Lord hath delivered them into 
 our hands.' 1 The covenanting army, large in numbers, but 
 raw and undisciplined, and for the most part poorly 
 equipped, proved utterly unfit to cope with the experienced 
 and well drilled troops of the Commonwealth leader. The 
 Covenanters sustained a crushing defeat, and made a hasty 
 retreat northward toward Stirling, hotly pursued bv their 
 conquerors. 
 
 Meantime, the conduct of Charles had alienated some of 
 the most ardent supporters of the Covenant. The strictness 
 of those in whose keeping he now was, had become irksome 
 to the frivolous and licentious youth beyond all endurance, 
 so that he sought to make his escape from them by flight, 
 and had to be pursued and taken back. His own personal 
 friends, who were all like-minded with himself, urged upon 
 the rest of the royalist party the necessity for relaxing their 
 rules and practice, but the concessions made only convinced 
 those who were already dissatisfied that it was utterly vain 
 to expect from such a king the realization of their hopes. 
 Some of the worst of the malignants, whose recantation was 
 as evidently formal and insincere as the prince's own pro- 
 testations, had been allowed to return, and were already in- 
 fluencing the counsels of those interesting themselves in the 
 restoration of the monarchy. It was becoming evident to 
 clear sighted men that the occupancy of the throne by such 
 a faithless prince, ill disposed toward all good measures and 
 all good men, could only be disastrous to the nation and 
 must lead to the overthrow of all true religion. They began 
 to see that in comparison with Charles, Cromwell was not 
 their enemy, but their friend. Patrick Gillespie of Glasgow, 
 brother of George Gillespie, James Guthrie, minister of 
 Stirling, Colonel Strachan, a brave soldier who had defeated 
 Montrose, headed the party which had resolved to break 
 away from the malignants who were dominant among the 
 supporters of the king, and to seek the favour and help of 
 Cromwell and the English commonwealth. The western
 
 CHARLES CROWNED AS COVENANTING KING. 211 
 
 army under their control protested against the treaty of 
 Breda, denounced the favour shown to malignants, re- 
 nounced allegiance to the prince, and refused to take any 
 part in further hostilities against the English. Argyll 
 vigorously opposed this movement, but it was favoured by 
 Johnston of Warriston and other prominent leaders of the 
 Covenanters. The Scottish parliament, however, in the end 
 of 1650, by a majority, resolved to make use of all who were 
 not open and obstinate enemies of the Covenant, and so lost 
 the confidence and sympathy of the more zealous and faith- 
 ful ministers. 
 
 It was during this period of divided counsels and prevail- 
 ing confusion, that those attached to the person of the 
 prince determined without further delay to have Charles 
 formally proclaimed king of Scotland. On the first of 
 January, 1651, he was crowned at Scone, the Marquess of 
 Argyll placing the crown upon his head and the Earl of 
 Crawford putting the sceptre into his hand, after a sermon 
 had been preached by Kobert Douglas and the coronation 
 oath sworn to by which the prince bound himself to main- 
 tain the principles of the National Covenant and the Solemn 
 League and Covenant, undertaking to support and establish 
 the Presbyterian government, the Directory of Worship, the 
 Confession of Faith and Catechisms, as agreed on by the 
 Assembly and Parliament, promising to observe these in his 
 own practice and family, and never to do anything in 
 opposition to them. The churchmen who took part in this 
 ceremonial sought to make their position clear by maintain- 
 ing that they repudiated on the one hand the error of those 
 who had embraced anti-monarchical principles, and on the 
 other hand that of those who, like the Engagers, surrendered 
 the interests of Christ's kingdom to a godless zeal for the 
 king. 
 
 As might have been expected, the proceedings only tended 
 to the intensifying of the mutual suspicion and dislike be- 
 tween the two parties in the church. The commission of 
 Assembly in December, 1650, had signed the resolutions of 
 parliament in regard to the admission of those who had been
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 malignants, and in spite of vigorous protests from several of 
 the presbyteries, the commission maintained its position, de- 
 posed Colonel Strachan and reponed General Middleton. 
 In the Assembly of July, 1651, held first in St. Andrews, 
 and afterward in Dundee, several leading ministers, Ruther- 
 furd, Gillespie, Guthrie, Cant and Menzies, protested 
 against the lawfulness of the Assembly ; but Guthrie and 
 Gillespie were deposed and the commission''s proceedings 
 approved. The result was a serious breach among the 
 ministers and members of the church. Those who 
 supported the resolutions of the parliament and com- 
 mission were called Resolutioners and those who op- 
 posed the resolutions were called Protesters. The 
 final and crushing defeat of Charles at Worcester in 
 September, and his subsequent flight to the Continent, 
 followed as it was by the complete subjection of Scotland 
 under the English parliamentary army, made no change in 
 the way of bringing those two parties to a better mutual 
 understanding. The General Assembly met in July, 1652, 
 with David Dickson as moderator, but sixty-five ministers, 
 including Rutherfurd, Gillespie, and Cant, and a large 
 number of elders, including Johnston of Warriston, pro- 
 tested against its meeting as unlawful and unfree, and 
 sought the protection of the Commonwealth government, 
 though not themselves professed republicans, but only 
 feeling compelled as Christian men who honour truth and 
 decency to refuse to promote the worthless, false, and dis- 
 solute Charles to the throne. 
 
 The meeting of the Assembly of 1653 was violently 
 broken in upon by Colonel Cotterel, an officer of Cromwell, 
 and dispersed by force before the roll was called. But while 
 in the following year no General Assembly was allowed to 
 sit, synods, presbyteries, and sessions continued their meet- 
 ings and business as usual. This expulsion of the members 
 of Assembly, who were all Resolutioners, and the refusal to 
 allow them to meet again as an Assembly, prevented them 
 from going to extremities against the Protesters, and in 
 other ways favoured that party. Their influence through-
 
 PROTESTERS AND RESOLUTIONERS. 213 
 
 out the church must also have been greatly extended 
 through the appointment of Patrick Gillespie to the princi- 
 palship of Glasgow University, and through the teaching of 
 Samuel Rutherfurd, the professor of theology in St. 
 Andrews. And backed as they were by the authority of 
 Cromwell and his government, the Protesters, though in 
 the minority, were the dominant party in the church, and 
 Baillie and others among the Resolutioners complain that 
 sometimes efficient and useful ministers were deprived of 
 their charges for no other reason than their belonging to 
 the opposite party, and their places filled by less useful and 
 less capable men. Yet it must be admitted that by far the 
 strongest and best men of the time belonged to the party 
 of the Protesters. Almost all the ablest writers among the 
 Scottish divines were on that side. The personal sym- 
 pathies of the peace-makers, Blair and Durham, were evi- 
 dently with men like Rutherfurd and Guthrie. The 
 Protesters formed the party of high, unflinching devotion 
 to principle ; the Resolutioners the party of expediency, for 
 the most part serving and seeking at all hazards to be on 
 good terms with the court. David Dickson and Robert 
 Baillie were perhaps the best of the Resolutioners, and 
 both of these, before they passed away, taught by painful 
 experience, confessed that the Protesters had understood the 
 men they had to deal with better than they. It would 
 have been better for the church and for the state if all the 
 good and religious men of Scotland had stood together on 
 the foundation of the Protesters' 1 principles. The opposi- 
 tion between the two parties led to exaggerations on both 
 sides the Protesters carried their protest to a needless ex- 
 treme, and the Resolutioners gave way more and more to 
 unworthy and unprincipled compromises. It was in the 
 bosom of the Resolutioners that James Sharp grew up, and 
 it was while doing their business and furthering their secret 
 designs that he began the practice of that crooked diplo- 
 macy which brought such disaster not only on himself, but 
 also on the whole church and nation. 
 
 In estimating the service or disservice rendered to the
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 country by the Protesters, it is well to remember how they 
 cultivated the art of preaching, so that from their ranks 
 sprang almost all the great popular preachers of the age. 
 Hugh Binning appears to have been the most accomplished 
 orator of his time in Scotland, not surpassed in eloquence 
 even by the greatest of the English preachers, his matter 
 profound, his diction clear and elegant. Durham, who was 
 himself not only a man of a beautiful, peace-loving spirit, 
 but also as a preacher held in high esteem, says of Binning 
 that there was no speaking after him, so great was the 
 impression produced by all his discourses. He, as well as 
 Andrew Gray, another youthful preacher in Glasgow of the 
 same age and party, is specially deserving of mention for 
 the new departure which he made in discarding the 
 scholastic method of endless divisions and minute distinc- 
 tions in favour of the freer method of reflection and declama- 
 tion, which Baillie describes depreciatingly as a high 
 romancing and unscriptural style. The fervency of the 
 preaching of the leading men among the Protesters, which 
 more or less characterized the work of all the members of 
 that party, was shown conspicuously on the occasion of the 
 dispensation of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. It 
 was this party which first took advantage of communion 
 seasons for great gatherings of the people to hear sermons 
 before and after the administration of the ordinance. 
 However great the abuses may have been which crept in as 
 years went on, so as to make such gatherings fit subjects for 
 the scourge of the satirist's tongue, it cannot be denied that 
 in those days of trouble and confusion, those great preachers 
 at communion gatherings did more than any other agency 
 to keep alive the flame of genuine religion among the 
 people, and to prevent the universal spread of cold indiffer- 
 ence which the godlessness of ambitious and worldly men in 
 church and state so strongly fostered. The Protesters were 
 the evangelicals of their age, and while among the Resolu- 
 tioners there were some evangelically minded men, their 
 policy, as a whole, was in the direction of religious modera- 
 tism.
 
 CROMWELL'S ASCENDANCY IN SCOTLAND. 215 
 
 Notwithstanding the divisions among the churchmen, it 
 must be remembered that the sympathies even of the 
 keenest of the Protesters were still with the monarchy, if 
 only a king could be found who would honestly and heartily 
 support the principles of the Covenant. Many of the 
 ministers continued to preach against Cromwell as a 
 usurper, and all of them were strongly opposed to the 
 ecclesiastical lawlessness of the sectaries in the Common- 
 wealth army, who insisted on preaching when they felt 
 called to do so, and often engaged in disputations with the 
 regular preachers on points of doctrine and church govern- 
 ment. When Patrick Gillespie publicly prayed for the 
 Protector, he stood almost, if not altogether, alone among 
 the members of his party. The political ascendancy of 
 Cromwell in Scotland, however, after the battle of 
 Worcester, was practically complete, and General Monk 
 was absolutely successful in suppressing every royalist 
 movement throughout the whole extent of the land. 
 After the violent dismissal of the Assembly in 1653, the 
 history of Scotland, civil and ecclesiastical, for some five or 
 six years is comparatively uneventful. The Commonwealth 
 rule in Scotland was, upon the whole, peaceable and fair, 
 and in spite of the continuance of considerable rancour and 
 bitterness between the parties within the chnrch, the work 
 of pacification was carried on with commendable zeal and 
 encouraging success. The English soldiers were, for the 
 most part, genuine and true-hearted men, and their influ- 
 ence among the people was in the interests of religion and 
 morality. The period of peace, however, was too short for 
 the fusion of parties and for the overcoming of religious 
 prejudices and the strength of ancestral traditions. Before 
 party differences had been finally laid at rest, the great re- 
 publican leader died on 3rd September, 1658, and the ques- 
 tion of the restoration of the prince was once again awakened 
 to disturb the peace of church and state, and to revive in an 
 intensified form all the bitter disputes by which churchmen 
 and statesmen had been before so disastrously divided. 
 
 Naturally the turn that events were now taking in England
 
 216 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 brought the party of the Resolutioners in the Scottish church 
 anew into prominence. They were themselves forward to 
 play as notable a part as possible in the movement in favour 
 of the restoration of the prince, and sought to make it appear 
 that they only were aggressive and ardent in their attach- 
 ment to the royalist cause. They did not indeed forget the 
 obligation under which they lay to put the claims and re- 
 quirements of the Covenant in the forefront of their nego- 
 tiations, but they sent up as their commissioner one on whom 
 they could rely as certain not to endanger the success of 
 their political schemes by any excess of loyalty to the 
 spiritual rights and ideals of the church. At a meeting of 
 ministers held in Edinburgh on 6th February, 1660, James 
 Sharp, minister of Crail, was sent up to London under the 
 care and patronage of General Monk, with instructions to 
 endeavour to secure to the church her privileges, to testify 
 against the late sinful toleration, obtain for ministers the 
 benefit of the abolition of patronage, and generally to ad- 
 vance the interests of the presbyterian church of Scotland in 
 the counsels of the government in view of any settlement 
 that might be effected. 
 
 James Sharp was born in May, 1618, at Banff, where his 
 father was sheriff-clerk. He studied at King^s College, 
 Aberdeen, where he had the advantage of the teaching of 
 some of the famous Aberdeen doctors. He does not seem 
 to have been in any respect a distinguished student, and he 
 never, throughout his whole career, gained any reputation 
 either as a scholar or as a writer. He was a man of very 
 ordinary abilities, but possessed of a certain shrewdness in 
 managing business and in the contriving and executing of 
 intrigues. In 1640 he was appointed one of the regents in 
 St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, where he taught philo- 
 sophy, and in 1648 he became minister of Crail. Going up 
 to London with General Monk in 1660, he kept up a regular 
 correspondence with Robert Douglas, the recognised leader 
 of the party of the Resolutioners, by whom he had been 
 sent. This interesting collection of letters has been printed 
 by Wodrow in the introduction to his great work on The
 
 SHARP AS AGEXT OF THE RKSOLUTIOXERS. 217 
 
 Stifferings of tlie Church of Scotland Jrom the Restoration to 
 tlie Revolution. In his early letters he informs Douglas that 
 the English presbyterians were anxious for the recognition 
 of the Westminster Confession, but that the supporters of 
 the hierarchy were also busy seeking to promote their own 
 views, and that they already had such a measure of encour- 
 agement that they were entertaining the hope that the king 
 would consent to the establishment of episcopacy in Eng- 
 land. In reply Douglas dwelt upon the seriousness of the 
 loss that would come to Scotland from the establishment of 
 episcopacy in England, even in a modified form, and main- 
 tained that the Scottish church and people, though zealous 
 for the king, could consent to his restoration only on the 
 ground of his acceptance of the terms of the covenant. The 
 honest covenanter, however, had to confess that in Scotland 
 there had grown up a race that knew little about the 
 significance of the covenant and cared less. "There are 
 three parties here, v he says, " who have all their own fears 
 in this great crisis : the Protesters fear that the king come 
 in ; those above mentioned that if he come in upon covenant 
 terms they be disappointed ; and those who love religion 
 and the liberty of the nation, that if he come not in upon 
 the terms of the league and covenant, his coming in will be 
 disadvantageous to religion and the liberty of the three 
 nations."" In a subsequent letter Douglas, while deploring 
 the prospect of England repudiating her covenant obliga- 
 tions and breaking away from the accepted basis of uni- 
 formity in worship by agreeing to the introduction of 
 episcopacy, maintained that they must not in Scotland 
 endeavour after uniformity by following the English and 
 their acceptance of the episcopal form of government, and 
 instructed Sharp, on behalf of the Scottish Church, that 
 when he met the prince at Breda he should insist upon hav- 
 ing the presbyterian government of the Church of Scotland 
 established as of old without alteration or modification. 
 Writing from Breda toward the end of May, the delegate 
 of the Scottish presbyterians wrote their leader assuring him 
 that he had laid before his Majesty the letters which he had
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 written him, that he had also urged upon him the desira- 
 bility of restoring to the Scottish nation its civil indepen- 
 dence and preserving to the church that form of government 
 to which the people had all along been attached, and that 
 he had received an encouraging and gracious answer from 
 the king. Sharp's letters to Douglas from this time onward 
 are full of protestations of his anxiety lest any countenance 
 should be given to episcopacy. He declared over and over 
 again that he had been using his utmost endeavour in the 
 interest of the cause for which he was sent up, and at last 
 in the beginning of June he complains of the over-bearing 
 carriage of the episcopalians. He urges that he should be 
 recalled after his hard toil ; he would retire home and look 
 to God, from whom our hope alone can come." " I am not 
 of their mind,' 1 he says, " who would not have you preach 
 for presbyterian government, holding up the covenant, and 
 keeping out prelacy from Scotland, but I am still of the 
 opinion that there is no necessity nor advantage to meddle 
 with the settlement, whether civil or ecclesiastic, in England. 11 
 He returned to Scotland in August, bearing with him a letter 
 from Charles to Douglas, in which the king assured the 
 covenanter of his determination to protect and preserve the 
 government of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 While making such profession of attachment to the 
 cause of presbytery and retaining his position as the 
 accredited representative of the presbyterian church, there 
 is every reason to suppose that Sharp had already betrayed 
 the interests which he had solemnly promised to further, and 
 had been using his opportunities for his own advancement 
 by means of the ruin of those who had trusted him. Mr. 
 Douglas had placed implicit confidence in him, had no more 
 suspicion of him in regard to prelacy than he had of himself, no 
 more than the other disciples had of Judas. But he declares 
 that afterward he had cause to believe that in Holland and 
 afterwards in London he was secretly plotting against the 
 presbyterians, that he kept the king in ignorance of the 
 true state of feeling in Scotland, and assured him that, with
 
 ARGYLL SENT TO THE TOWER. 219 
 
 a firm administration, he might do what he pleased both 
 in the civil and in the ecclesiastical government. 
 
 Charles II. entered London in triumph on 29th May, 
 1660, and three weeks later the Restoration was celebrated 
 in Edinburgh by a day of thanksgiving, with sermons from 
 the pulpits and with drinking and fireworks throughout the 
 city. So far as England was concerned the king was received 
 without conditions or pledges of any kind, and Scotland had 
 not long to wait to find, that whatever promises she had re- 
 ceived as to the protection and preservation of civil and 
 religious liberty were vain and unmeaning words. 
 
 Argyll lost no time in making his way to London, and, 
 along with other Scottish nobles, he hastened to the court to 
 pay homage to the new king. He had gone up quite un- 
 suspectingly, but immediately on his presenting himself at 
 Whitehall, to seek an interview with his sovereign, he was 
 seized and committed to the Tower on a charge of high 
 treason. Some of his friends in Scotland, notably Robert 
 Douglas, who had so much to do with the negotiations which 
 led to Charles' return, sought to dissuade him from venturing 
 into the king's presence, but it is understood that he had 
 been invited to go, and that he trusted the royal word and 
 went up without fear or misgiving. The prominent part, 
 however, which he had so long taken in state affairs brought 
 him many enemies, and though he had indeed placed the 
 crown on the head of Charles in 1651, it would be easy for 
 those who bore no goodwill to the marquess to convince the 
 king that he was mainly responsible for all the movements 
 of the Covenanting party in Scotland which were, or seemed 
 to be, hostile to himself and to the malignant party with 
 which he was associated. In the king's own recollection of 
 his residence in Scotland, Argyll would be associated with 
 all those restrictive measures of the Covenanters which had 
 proved so irksome and intolerable to him then, and which 
 were no more palatable to him in his maturer age than they 
 were some ten years before. There was evidently some ele- 
 ment of personal animosity, some rankling feeling of private 
 hate, which occasioned the hasty and peremptory committal
 
 220 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 to prison of a nobleman who had come without delay to give 
 a loyal welcome to his king. It is also said that Middleton 
 and other needy courtiers, thinking that the estates of the 
 condemned nobleman would be confiscated and might fall 
 into their hands, sought to inflame the passions of the king 
 against his loyal subject, and gave currency at court to false 
 reports as to the honesty and trustworthiness of Argyll's 
 professions. Anyhow, he was not allowed as much as to 
 see the king, but was at once committed to close and rigorous 
 confinement. After remaining in prison in the Tower for 
 about five months, he was sent in a man-of-war to Scotland, 
 and reached Edinburgh on the 21st of December, 1660. In 
 order to induce the Scottish parliament to deal severely with 
 him, charges were brought against the prisoner of cruel and 
 barbarous conduct which certain neighbours of his in the 
 West had been induced to make, and on the 13th of Sep- 
 tember the marquess was brought before parliament, and a 
 detailed accusation, charging him with several acts of treason 
 against the king's majesty, were read by Sir John Fletcher, 
 the king's advocate. He was refused every privilege in 
 pleading which any prisoner so situated might rightfully and 
 legally claim. The indictment consisted of fourteen counts, 
 in which a distorted recital was given of the various exploits 
 in which he had engaged since 1638, and especially of alleged 
 dealings with Cromwell and the Commonwealth govern- 
 ment. It was in vain that Argyll gave satisfactory answers 
 to all the charges. Most of the judges had beforehand de- 
 cided upon their judgment. Sharp and others had been 
 sent up to London to nullify any influence that might be 
 used in favour of the presbyterian and covenanting noble- 
 man, and messages from day to day came from the court 
 urging parliament to hasten proceedings and issue the sen- 
 tence as soon as possible. Monk, now Duke of Albemarle, 
 who had gained his rank and reputation as a general under 
 the republican government, and who had been Cromwell's 
 trusted representative and commander in Scotland at the 
 time when those charges of favouring the Commonwealth 
 government were brought against Argyll, had the effrontery
 
 ARGYLL SENTENCED TO DEATH. 
 
 to hand over to the prosecution private letters which he had 
 received from Argyll during that period. To use the words 
 of Charles James Fox * : "In the trial of Argyll he pro- 
 duced letters of friendship and confidence to take away the 
 life of a nobleman, the zeal and cordiality of whose co-oper- 
 ation with him, proved by such documents, was the chief 
 ground of his execution ; thus gratuitously surpassing in 
 infamy those miserable wretches, who, to save their own 
 lives, are sometimes persuaded to impeach, and swear away 
 the lives of their accomplices." Some of the most zealous 
 opponents of Argyll, such as Glencairn and Rothes, had 
 been before his comrades in council and field in defenceof the 
 Covenant, but now they sought to ingratiate themselves with 
 the king and the new government by obsequious compliance 
 with what they found to be the royal pleasure. Lauder- 
 dale, another old associate of the covenanting nobleman, 
 sought to interfere on his behalf, but was soon persuaded 
 into silence by Middleton and Rothes. On Saturday, the 
 25th of May, 1661, Argyll was summoned to the bar of 
 parliament to receive sentence. He asked that he might be 
 allowed ten days between the pronouncing of the sentence 
 and its execution, in order that he might acquaint the king. 
 But this was refused, and he was ordered to receive the par- 
 liament's sentence kneeling. The sentence then pronounced 
 ran thus : That he was found guilty of high treason and 
 adjudged to be execute to death as a traitor, his head to be 
 severed from his body at the cross of Edinburgh upon Mon- 
 day, the 27th instant, and affixed in the same place where 
 the Marquess of Montrose's head was formerly, and his arms 
 torn before the parliament at the cross. After this sentence 
 had been pronounced he said : " I had the honour to set the 
 crown upon the king's head, and now he hastens me to a 
 better crown than his own." He then addressed the Com- 
 missioner and parliament : " You have the indemnity of an 
 earthly king among your hands, and have denied me a share 
 
 * History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II. London, 
 1803, p. 20.
 
 222 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 in that, but you cannot hinder me from the indemnity of the 
 King of kings, and shortly you must be before His tribunal, 
 I pray you He mete not out such measure to you as you 
 have done to me, when you are called to account for your 
 doings, and this among the rest." His lady stayed with 
 him and tenderly ministered to him till Sabbath night. 
 Of the ministers,his intimate friends Robert Douglas, George 
 Hutcheson, and David Dickson were with him to the end. 
 His conduct and speech during all this time were those of a 
 very brave, noble and true-hearted Christian man. As he 
 was leaving the prison for the scaffold he said : " I could die 
 like a Roman, but choose rather to die as a Christian." 
 James Guthrie of Stirling, whom he called to him and 
 tenderly embraced as he was passing out, said : " My lord, 
 God has been with you, God is with you, and God will be with 
 you ; and such is my respect for your lordship that if I were 
 not under the sentence of death myself, I could cheerfully 
 die for your lordship." He spoke from the scaffold for about 
 half an hour, giving a calm, dignified, well ordered address, 
 concluding with these noble, generous, Christian words : 
 " I desire not that the Lord should judge any man, nor do 
 I judge any but myself; I wish that as the Lord hath 
 pardoned me so may He pardon them for this and other 
 things, and that what they have done to me may never 
 meet them in their accounts. I have no more to say but 
 beg the Lord, that since I go away He may bless them that 
 stay behind. As he approached the Maiden, Mr. Hutcheson 
 said : " My lord, hold now your grip sicker." " Mr. 
 Hutcheson," he answered, " you know what I said to you in 
 the chamber, I am not afraid to be surprised with fear." 
 When the physician touched his pulse he found that it was 
 beating at the usual rate, calm and sbrong. 
 
 The Marquess of Argyll must undoubtedly be regarded 
 as a martyr to Covenanting principles. The charges against 
 him in regard to political offences were utterly unreal, or in 
 any case all that he was accused of was covered by the in- 
 demnity under which his judges themselves were finding 
 shelter. The heroism of his last hours did much to cheer
 
 RESOLUTIONERS HOLD APART FROM PROTESTERS. 223 
 
 and strengthen his compatriots in the dark days that 
 followed. 
 
 The Protesters and the Resolutioners were now anxious 
 to come to a good understanding with one another. There 
 was no longer any reason why they should maintain separa- 
 tion, seeing that the occasion of the division had long since 
 disappeared. This, however, did not suit the purposes of 
 Sharp, who perceived that if this schism were healed the 
 combined force of the presbyterian party would seriously 
 interfere with the success of his plans for the overthrow of 
 presbyterianism in Scotland. Accordingly he represented 
 to the leaders of the Resolutioners the keenness of the king's 
 opposition to the Protesters, and assured them, speaking as 
 one of themselves, that they would become involved in quite 
 needless odium, and make their case all the more difficult 
 and dangerous by any associations with such obnoxious per- 
 sons. Hence Douglas and other leaders of the party of 
 the Resolutioners refused to have anything to do with 
 James Guthrie and others known to belong to the Pro- 
 testers. In these circumstances, seeing that there was 
 neither Assembly nor Commission of Assembly and that 
 the synods did not meet until October, it was absolutely 
 necessary that the Protesters should meet and prepare a 
 statement by which they might make their sentiments and 
 attitude known to the king. Accordingly, on the 23rd of 
 August, 1660, James Guthrie and nine other ministers with 
 two ruling elders, all belonging to the Protester party, met 
 in a private house in Edinburgh and drew up an address to 
 the king, congratulating him on his return, assuring him of 
 their loyalty and reminding him of his Covenant engage- 
 ment. By order of the Chancellor and parliament, the 
 house where they met was entered, all the papers found 
 were seized, and before the day closed all who were present 
 at the meeting, with the exception of one of the elders who 
 escaped, were committed to prison. 
 
 It may be convenient at this point to report the passing 
 of a measure in the first Scottish Parliament of Charles II. 
 in January, 1661, usually called the Act Recissory, which
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 rescinded all Acts of Parliament, Conventions of Estates, 
 and other deeds contrary to the doctrine of the sovereign 
 supreme authority to make leagues, etc., and dissolving 
 all obligations under which any may have entered by 
 Covenant or Treaty to endeavour by arms a reformation 
 of religion in the kingdom of England. Another act 
 of a similar kind rescinded and annulled the pretended 
 parliaments kept in the years 1640 and 1641, and from 
 1644 to 1648. These measures and another that had 
 been passed by the Committee of Estates in the preceding 
 August in reference to what was called unlawful meetings 
 and seditious papers, were necessary in order that any toler- 
 able pretext might be afforded to judges in the new courts 
 and to the public prosecutor for dealing with those who 
 might have sheltered themselves behind Acts of Parliament. 
 Mr. James Guthrie, who was apprehended in Edinburgh 
 as a Protester, was a son of the Laird of Guthrie in Forfar- 
 shire, reared an episcopalian and converted to presbyterian- 
 ism at St. Andrews, where he taught philosophy, under the 
 influence of Rutherfurd. In 1638 he was settled as a presby- 
 terian minister at Lauder, and in 1649, after having served 
 for some time with the king at Newcastle, he was appointed 
 minister of Stirling. From the very beginning of the divisions 
 in the church he was a prominent and determined member 
 and leader of the party of the Protesters. In 1650, he had 
 publicly announced the excommunication of Middleton, who 
 was now the all powerful royal commissioner. Most pro- 
 bably on this account Middleton entertained a feeling of 
 bitter hostility toward the undaunted minister. It seemed 
 now to be forgotten that Guthrie in public debate had main- 
 tained the cause of the king in opposition to Hugh Peters, 
 Cromwell's chaplain. In the beginning of 1661, Guthrie 
 was arraigned before parliament charged with writing and 
 publishing a book entitled The Causes of God's Wrath upon 
 the Nation. He made a singularly able defence, so that 
 even the most distinguished advocates were astonished at 
 his minute and thorough knowledge of Scots law. Wod- 
 row says that in his estimation nothing in our modern
 
 CONTINUED PERSECUTION OF PRESBYTERIANS. 225 
 
 martyrologies approached so nearly the apologies of the 
 primitive martyrs and confessors as do the able defences and 
 eloquent pleadings of James Guthrie. As in the case of 
 Argyll, so also in his case, the judges had been from the first 
 resolved to condemn him. According, on the 28th of May, 
 1661, he was sentenced to be hanged at the Cross of Edin- 
 burgh on Saturday, the 1st of June, his head to be cut off 
 and affixed to the Nether Bow, and his estate to be con- 
 fiscate and his arms torn. Bishop Burnet, who was present 
 at his execution, says that he showed no fear, but spoke 
 upon the ladder for an hour with the composedness of one 
 who was delivering a sermon, justifying all that he had done 
 and exhorting all the people to adhere to the covenants, 
 which would yet be the means of the reviving of Scotland. 
 Guthrie was a man of great ability and many accomplish- 
 ments, and though most resolute in his adherence to principle, 
 was of a singularly gentle and peace-loving disposition. 
 
 As might be expected from the temper of the parliament, 
 all the true-hearted presbyterian ministers of the party of the 
 Resolutioners fared little better than the Protesters. Robert 
 Douglas and James Wood, preaching before parliament, 
 spoke out their mind in such a way that they were not 
 so employed again. There was now a widespread fear 
 throughout the church that a violent change in the govern- 
 ment of the church was imminent, and that some of the 
 ministers were prepared to take advantage of the change in 
 order to secure their own personal advancement. Several of 
 the synods met and resolved to censure by deposition any 
 minister who should comply with prelacy ; but their meet- 
 ings were generally interrupted by noblemen or magistrates 
 bearing the authority of the commissioner. The Synod of 
 Lothian when making this proposal, was under threat of 
 violence from the commissioners, most reluctantly compelled 
 to suspend all the Protesters belonging to it, comprising 
 some of its very best and most highly-respected members. 
 In the Synod of Ross, Mr. Hog of Kiltearn was asked 
 whether he regarded the Protest as just and reasonable, and 
 on his refusal to disown it, he was deposed from the ministry.
 
 226 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Everywhere throughout the country faithful ministers were 
 suspended, if not deposed. Those who were James Guthrie's 
 associates at the Edinburgh meeting were detained in 
 prison, some for four, some for seven months, when some 
 were banished and others liberated on the payment of 
 heavy fines. 
 
 Of the party of Protesters, Patrick Gillespie was even 
 more forward and conspicuous in his public actings than 
 James Guthrie, and had certainly gone far beyond any of 
 the ministers in his professions of adherence and attachment 
 to Cromwell and the Commonwealth Government. Com- 
 paring him with Guthrie, Sir George Mackenzie * says that 
 he " was guilty of the same and greater crimes, having 
 courted the Protector, whom Guthrie really hated ; nor had 
 his Majesty so great aversion for any minister as for him, 
 because he behaved himself so insolently in his own presence 
 and toward his own person ; yet upon a humble submission 
 he was brought off by the Lord Sinclair ; yet his Majesty 
 retained so far his former resentments that he would never 
 allow him to be brought into the ministry, notwithstanding 
 of many intercessions." He was minister of Glasgow, and by 
 Cromwell was made principal of Glasgow University. After 
 his trial he was deprived of the principalship, which was 
 given to Robert Baillie. His submission, which saved his 
 life, gave great pain to those who had been associated with 
 him, and had looked upon him as a brave and bold witness- 
 bearer for the truth. " Hath he suffered so much in vain," 
 said James Guthrie, " if it be yet in vain." He was an 
 accomplished scholar and an able theologian, as is shown 
 by his published work on The Covenants of Grace and 
 Redemption. 
 
 Meanwhile, the veteran Samuel Rutherfurd of St. 
 Andrews was not likely to be overlooked. During the 
 sitting of the Westminster Assembly he had published 
 several works in ecclesiastical and polemical theology : 
 A Peaceable and Temperate Plea for Paul's Presbytery in 
 
 * History of the Affairs of Scotland from 1660 to 1677, p. 51.
 
 SHARP A TRAITOR TO HIS PARTY. 227 
 
 Scotland ; The Due Right of Presbyteries, or a Peaceable 
 Plea for the Government of the Church of Scotland ; The 
 Divine Right of Church Government and Excommunication ; 
 A Free Disputation against pretended Liberty of Conscience ; 
 but the work which gave most offence to the king and those 
 around him was Lex Rex or The Law and the Prince, A 
 Dispute for the Just Prerogative oj King and People, pub- 
 lished in 1644. He was, no doubt, by far the ablest man 
 of the age in the Scottish church. " Such as knew him 
 best," says Wodrow, "were in a strait whether to admire 
 him most for his sublime genius in the school, and peculiar 
 exactness in matters of dispute and controversy, or his 
 familiar condescensions in the pulpit, where he was one of 
 the most moving and affectionate preachers in his time, or 
 perhaps in any age of the church. 1 ' But the hand of death 
 was clearly upon him before the summons of the court had 
 reached him, and all that his enemies could do was to burn 
 Lex Rex in St. Andrews and Edinburgh. 
 
 James Sharp was already making himself notorious, and 
 was generally suspected of instigating the Commissioner to 
 the disturbing of synod meetings and the persecution of 
 faithful ministers. He was also now secretly urging upon 
 the king and his advisers the statement that the best of the 
 old presbyterian ministers were not against prelacy, or at 
 least a modified episcopacy. He had already obtained the 
 divinity professorship at St. Andrews, of which Mr. James 
 Wood had been deprived. And now he sought to win over 
 some of the more respectable members of the party of the 
 Resolutioners. He visited Robert Douglas in his own house, 
 and, after discussing on other things, he mentioned that it was 
 the resolution of the king to introduce bishops into the 
 Church of Scotland, and that on account of his respect for 
 him, Mr. Douglas, it was his Majesty's wish that he should 
 be archbishop of St. Andrews. Douglas at once said that 
 he would have nothing to do with it. After vainly urging 
 him, Sharp rose to go. At the door before parting, 
 Douglas said, " James, I see you will engage. I perceive
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 you are clear, you will be bishop of St. Andrews. Take it 
 and the curse of God with it." 
 
 When the Marquess of Argyll was seized in London and 
 committed to the Tower, warrants were sent down to Scot- 
 land for the apprehension of Sir Archibald Johnston of 
 Warriston and two other gentlemen. Warriston escaped 
 to the Continent. A proclamation of outlawry was at once 
 issued, offering a reward of 5000 merks for his apprehen- 
 sion, and forbidding all to render him any shelter or help. 
 He had been, as we have seen, a prominent Protester, and 
 was clerk of the General Assembly of 1638. In February, 
 1661, the indictment against him was read in parliament. 
 He was charged, among other offences, with active opposi- 
 tion to the Engagement, raising forces against the Duke of 
 Hamilton, having dealings with Cromwell, assisting in the 
 murder of Montrose, consenting to the " Western Remon- 
 strance " and " The Causes of God's Wrath," and, finally, 
 with sitting in parliament and holding office under the 
 Usurper. Meantime, the object of all this hateful spite 
 was wandering about in Holland and Germany, staying for 
 the most part in Hamburg. Having fallen sick, he was 
 attended by a certain Dr. Bates, one of Charles's physicians, 
 who is supposed to have been bribed to give something that 
 would either kill him or deprive him of his reason. He re- 
 ceived as physic some deleterious drug and had sixty ounces 
 of blood taken from him. He was, in consequence, brought 
 to the gates of death, and when at last he was able to move 
 about it was found that his memory was utterly gone, and 
 that both physically and mentally, he was a complete 
 wreck. Having gone to France in the end of 1662, the news 
 came to England that he was there, and an informer or 
 detective, Alexander Murray, was sent over to seek him out. 
 After considerable search, he was found in Rouen, and, 
 after some hesitation, the magistrates were prevailed upon 
 to deliver him up. Reaching London in January, 1663, he 
 was at once committed to the Tower, and in the beginning 
 of June he was sent down to Edinburgh, where he was kept 
 in the Tolbooth. On the 8th of July he was brought be-
 
 FURTHER EVIDENCE OF SHARP^ DUPLICITY. 229 
 
 fore the Parliament. Warriston had been a man of subtle 
 intellect and of singular dialectic skill, but now he could 
 not utter a series of connected sentences. Though some 
 basely mocked and seemed to enjoy the sad decay of a great 
 man, the general sentiment seems to have been one of pity. 
 At first a majority voted for delay of his execution, but 
 Lauderdale interfered with a threatening speech, and so the 
 sentence was pronounced that he should be hanged at the 
 Cross of Edinburgh on the 22nd of July, that thereafter his 
 head should be cut off and put up on the Nether Bow. 
 Weak as he was, he was able constantly to affirm his assur- 
 ance of his eternal well-being. " I dare never question my 
 salvation," he said, " I have so often seen God's face in the 
 house of prayer." 
 
 In the summer of 1661 Sharp returned from London, 
 where he and two others had been carrying on negotiations 
 for the establishment of episcopacy in Scotland. He was 
 still wearing the mask of a presbyterian minister. But the 
 Commissioner and Chancellor were eager for the change as 
 gratifying to the king, while Sharp had secretly been work- 
 ing in the same direction harder than any of them. In Sep- 
 tember, 1661, the Chancellor read to the Privy Council a 
 letter from the King. Charles acknowledged that he had 
 promised to maintain the government of the Church of 
 Scotland as established by law, but seeing that since then 
 parliament had rescinded all acts of pretended parliaments 
 since the troubles began, he, after mature reflection, resolved 
 to restore the government of the church as it existed before 
 1638, under his grandfather and father. By this despicable 
 equivocation, more contemptible than downright lying, the 
 promise to establish presbyterianism was converted into a 
 promise to restore and establish episcopacy. Cunningham 
 well says : " The whole transaction gives a full revelation 
 of the unprincipled character of the man." 
 
 In December, Sharp, now that this announcement had 
 come from the king, threw off the mask, and proceeded to 
 London with three other ministers like-minded with him- 
 self, that they might receive consecration from the English
 
 230 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 bishops. Of the old bishops who held sway before 1638 
 none survived but Sydserf, who had been bishop of Gallo- 
 way, and was now a very old man. The three who went up 
 to London with Sharp were Fairfoul, Leighton, and 
 Hamilton. Andrew Fairfoul had been presbyterian minister 
 first at I^eith, and afterwards at Duns, a man apparently of 
 some ability, but light and frivolous, described as a " pleas- 
 ant, facetious man, insincere and crafty, his life scarce free 
 from scandal and eminent in nothing that belonged to his 
 own functions."" * Burnet quotes Sharp as lamenting that 
 within a month of his consecration Fairfoul's faculties failed, 
 so that he was utterly useless to his party. James Hamilton, 
 brother of Lord Belhaven, was presbyterian minister at 
 Cambusnethan, of very ordinary gifts, but cunning and 
 time serving. He made no considerable figure in his future 
 career. Robert Leighton, son of Dr. Alexander Leighton, 
 who had suffered terrible tortures, indignities and loss under 
 Laud, was the only one of the four of whom even the most 
 partial in favour of the bishops can say that his talents and 
 learning were considerable and his character that of a sincere 
 and high principled Christian man. These four Scottish 
 ministers presented themselves for episcopal ordination in 
 order that they might reconstruct a hierarchy for Scotland. 
 They had already been nominated for particular sees, Sharp 
 and Fairfoul to the archiepiscopal sees of St. Andrews and 
 Glasgow, and Hamilton and Leighton to the bishoprics of 
 Galloway and Dunblane, Sydserf having been transferred to 
 the diocese of Orkney. Fairfoul and Hamilton had been 
 ordained by the old Scottish bishops during the period of 
 episcopal ascendancy in Scotland, but Sharp and Leighton 
 had received only presbyterian ordination. Dr. Sheldon, 
 Bishop of London, insisted that those who had not been 
 episcopally ordained should submit to ordination to deacon's 
 and presbyter's orders before receiving consecration. Leigh- 
 ton took the matter lightly. He was thoroughly satisfied 
 as to the validity of his previous ordination, but he regarded 
 
 * Burnet, History of His Own Times. Vol. L, p. 192.
 
 THE NEW BISHOPS IN SCOTLAND. 231 
 
 reordination in the episcopal church as nothing more than a 
 conforming to the rules of that church. Sharp said that 
 such submission involved the admission of the invalidity of his 
 orders, and scrupled at making this surrender. He appealed 
 to the precedent in the case of Archbishop Spottiswoode in 
 1610, whose presbyterian orders had been recognised. The 
 English bishop, however, regarded the case cited as an irre- 
 gularity which could not be made a precedent. When it 
 was evident that no concession would be made, Sharp 
 yielded, giving occasion to the sarcastic remark of Bishop 
 Sheldon that it was the Scots 1 fashion to scruple at every- 
 thing and to swallow anything. Sharp and Leighton were 
 privately ordained deacons and presbyters, and thereafter on 
 the same day the four designate bishops were solemnly con- 
 secrated by four English bishops according to the ritual of 
 the English church. After spending some months in London, 
 the new bishops returned to Scotland. Leighton, in accord- 
 ance with his retiring habits and modest disposition, entered 
 Scotland by himself unattended and unrecognised. The 
 other three were publicly received as they approached Edin- 
 burgh, and were escorted to the capital with great pomp and 
 ceremony. 
 
 The first duty devolving upon the new Scottish bishops was 
 the consecrating of those ministers who had been nominated 
 to the other Scottish dioceses. It is said that Sharp was 
 authorized to offer the bishopric of Edinburgh to Robert 
 Douglas, and that he had the effrontery to make this offer to 
 a man who had so vigorously refused to have anything to do 
 with that higher dignity which Sharp had now won to him- 
 self. As might have been expected, it was declined with in- 
 dignation by the incorruptible and staunch old presbyterian. 
 It was then offered to and accepted by George Wishart, 
 at that time episcopal minister of Newcastle. Before this he 
 had been a minister in St. Andrews, but was deposed in 1639 
 for refusing to take the Covenant. He had associated himself 
 with Montrose, and on his overthrow he had withdrawn 
 to the continent. Wodrow says that he could not refrain 
 from profane swearing even in the streets of Edinburgh, that
 
 232 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 he was a known drunkard, and had published poems that 
 were scandalously indelicate. He is remembered only as the 
 historian of the wars of Montrose. The other sees were 
 filled by men of no repute, so that the catalogue of their 
 names would be of no interest to anyone. They had all 
 been members of the party of the Resolutioners, and all of 
 them evidently owed their promotion to a reputation for 
 ready submission to authority and for the absence of any 
 great scrupulousness in regard to principle. The most en- 
 thusiastic patron of episcopacy and defender of its introduc- 
 tion into Scotland at the Restoration would not venture to 
 say that in the whole list of these first bishops there was one 
 really great man ; and of the whole band, with the solitary 
 exception of Leighton, there is not one whom any ordinarily 
 fair historian would ever think of characterizing as saintly. 
 
 In preparation for the rule of the new prelates a letter 
 was sent by the king to the Scottish council at the begin- 
 ning of 1662 prohibiting all ecclesiastical meetings in synods, 
 presbyteries and sessions until these be authorised by the 
 bishops. In the former episcopacy under James VI. the 
 presbyteries continued to meet, though under the presidency 
 of constant moderators, but now it was left wholly to the 
 discretion and will of the bishops whether they should be 
 called and constituted or not. When matters reached this 
 pitch, and it was seen that presbytery was utterly over- 
 thrown, Douglas, Dickson, Wood and all the best of the 
 Resolutioners acknowledged that they had been blind and 
 that the Protesters had had their eyes open and had been 
 much truer prophets than they. 
 
 Douglas and Hutcheson, two of the most respected minis- 
 ters of Edinburgh, and prominent members of the party of 
 the Resolutioners, on refusing to recognise the authority of 
 the bishops, were by the parliament of 1662 deprived of their 
 office and forbidden to officiate as ministers. The state of 
 matters in the West of Scotland was particularly serious. 
 There a large number of the old presbyterian ministers were 
 Protesters, and most of them, as zealous and apostolic men, 
 had won the affection and confidence of their people.
 
 MINISTERS DEPRIVED FOR NONCONFORMITY. 233 
 
 Middleton, on the invitation of the Archbishop of Glasgow, 
 had gone to the western capital, accompanied by the mem- 
 bers of the council. He issued a proclamation on the 1st of 
 October, 1662, forbidding all ministers, who had not applied 
 to the bishops for presentation, to preach or exercise any 
 ministerial function, and requiring them to remove them- 
 selves and their families from their parishes by the 1st of 
 November, and not to reside within the bounds of their 
 presbyteries. But instead of securing submission, as the 
 commission had expected, this proclamation found the Pro- 
 testers ready to acquiesce in the sentence, promptly ceasing 
 from all duties, while steadfastly refusing any compliance 
 with the episcopally constituted church. Sharp, thinking 
 that such peremptory procedure had driven some into 
 opposition whose submission might have in time been secured 
 by more patient and wily tactics, induced the council to 
 issue an indulgence dated 23rd December, which allowed 
 ministers meanwhile to discharge their duties and to make 
 application for presentation and collation up to the 1st of 
 February following. Many took advantage of the indul- 
 gence and resumed their work in their several parishes. But 
 when the day arrived which ended the privileges allowed by 
 the Act a large number, representing almost all the Pro- 
 testers and the most distinguished and most highly respected 
 of the Resolutioners, refused to submit to the conditions 
 imposed, and either resigned or were ejected from their 
 parishes. The number of ministers deprived by means of 
 these measures has been variously stated, but may be fairly 
 estimated at from three hundred and fifty to four hundred. 
 Their places were filled by young unqualified men, most of 
 them illiterate, and many of them of low breeding and in- 
 different character. Succeeding as they did for the most part 
 men of great capacity and undoubted piety, men who had 
 endeared themselves to their people by their faithful 
 ministry and by their profound scriptural teaching, it is not 
 to be wondered at that the Curates, as they were called, 
 were commonly treated with at least neglect and contempt. 
 Robert Baillie, to whom reference in another connection
 
 234 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 has already been made, died in the end of August, 1662. He 
 was one of the ablest and wisest of the Resolutioners, and had 
 received the principalship of Glasgow University when Patrick 
 Gillespie, the Protester, had been displaced. His elevation 
 brought him no satisfaction or comfort. He died broken- 
 hearted when he beheld the overthrow of the presbyterian 
 church and the persecution of good men with whom he had 
 enjoyed long and happy fellowship. Baillie, the son of a 
 respectable merchant, was born in the Saltmarket of Glas- 
 gow on the 30th of April, 1602. He studied at Glasgow 
 University arts and theology under Robert Boyd and John 
 Cameron, and in 1625 he was appointed one of the regents. 
 Towards the close of 1631 he was inducted minister of Kil- 
 winning, having shortly before this received orders from 
 James Law, archbishop of Glasgow. Though not originally 
 opposed to a moderate episcopacy, he revolted against the 
 imposition of the new book of canons and the liturgy, and 
 in the great reforming Assembly of 1638, of which he was 
 a member, he took a decided though moderate position. In 
 June, 1642, he was appointed colleague of David Dickson as 
 divinity professor of Glasgow University, and in his chair 
 he treated of controversial theology, the oriental languages 
 and chronology in a course extending over four years. 
 Having been appointed one of the commissioners of the 
 Church of Scotland to the Westminster Assembly, Baillie, 
 along with Rutherfurd, was received and welcomed by the 
 divines on the 20th of November, 1643. The fullest and 
 most entertaining account of this great Assembly is that 
 given in Baillie^s Letters and Journals. He remained in 
 London till January, 1647, when he returned to Edinburgh 
 and presented to the Commission of Assembly the Confes- 
 sion of Faith and the new metrical version of the psalms. 
 Bailie supported the Engagers, and was a member of the first 
 commission which visited Prince Charles at Breda in 1649. 
 Naturally, Baillie was much opposed to Gillespie's appoint- 
 ment as principal, and his position under such a head would 
 not be a pleasant one, and for three years, during the 
 supremacy of Cromwell, Baillie ceased to attend the meet-
 
 ROBERT BAILLIE AND DAVID DICKSON. 235 
 
 ings of the college or of the church judicatories. He hailed 
 the Restoration, believed the promises of Charles, and was 
 thoroughly deceived by Sharp. He was promoted to the 
 principalship in 1661, but had much trouble, partly from 
 Gillespie himself, and partly from the burden of debt upon 
 the college which his predecessor had incurred. His health 
 began to fail ; these changes in the church, he said, are 
 hastening me to my grave. He wrote to Lauderdale con- 
 demning in manly and vigorous terms the passing of the Act 
 Recissory. When Lord Chancellor Glencairn introduced 
 Andrew Fairfoul, the new archbishop, Baillie entertained 
 them handsomely, but refused to give the prelate his titles. 
 " Mr. Andrew," he said, " I will not call you, my lord ; 
 King Charles would have made me one of those lords; but I do 
 not find in the New Testament that Christ has any lords in 
 his house." Though calm and cautious in his disposition, 
 Robert Baillie, the Covenanter, proved himself to be a man 
 of sterling principles and of inflexible integrity. 
 
 Another eminent minister of the Scottish Church, David 
 Dickson, a member of the same ecclesiastical party and in 
 different places and circumstances closely associated with 
 Baillie, was soon after called away by death. He also died, 
 broken in spirit by the sight of the disasters which had be- 
 fallen his church, in the close of the year 1662. David 
 Dickson, of whose earlier career we have already spoken, 
 was born in Glasgow about 1583, and studied in the 
 university of his native city, in which he was afterwards 
 appointed regent for the teaching of philosophy, under Prin- 
 cipal Boyd, and with Robert Blair as one of his colleagues. 
 After serving in the university for a term of eight years, he 
 received license to preach, and was in 1618 ordained minister 
 of Irvine. In that charge he continued for the long period 
 of twenty- three years. In 1622 archbishop Law of Glas- 
 gow summoned him to appear and answer for his opposing 
 the Five Articles of Perth, when, after having been railed 
 upon in a most scurrilous manner by Archbishop Spottis- 
 woode, he was sentenced to be deprived of his ministry and 
 banished to Turriff. After an exile of eighteen months, he
 
 236 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 was allowed to return to his flock and to his pastoral 
 duties. At Irvine Dickson's ministry was remark- 
 ably fruitful. Communion seasons especially were occa- 
 sions of rich spiritual blessing to many. Large num- 
 bers came to his preaching from surrounding parishes, and 
 his week-day services on Monday, the market day, were 
 thronged with eager crowds, as numerous, at least, as those 
 attending on the Sabbath. He was sent in 1637, as one of 
 the Commissioners, to Aberdeen to endeavour to obtain the 
 adhesion of the celebrated doctors to the Covenant, and 
 carried on debates there with Dr. Forbes, Dr. Baron, Dr. 
 Sibbald, and others. Having taken a prominent and useful 
 part in the discussions of the great Assembly of 1638, 
 especially in the debate about Arminianism, he was chosen 
 moderator of the Assembly of the following year. In 1641 
 he was translated to Glasgow as professor of divinity at the 
 University where he exercised a powerful influence on the 
 young men who were being trained for the ministry. 
 Among his students was James Durham, who afterwards 
 occupied a prominent position as a popular preacher and an 
 able theologian. Durham and Dickson were joint authors 
 of The Sum of Saving Knowledge^ a very admirable little 
 work, of which Robert Murray M'Cheyne says that it first 
 of all wrought a saving change in him. This work, as well 
 as his Latin lectures on the Confession of Faith (Praelec- 
 tiones in Confessionem Fidei), was published about 1650, in 
 which year he was transferred from the divinity professorship 
 in Glasgow to a similar chair in the University of Edinburgh. 
 An English translation of the Latin work was published in 
 1684 under the title : Truth's Victory over Error ; of which 
 a new edition was issued by Wodrow in 1790. Dickson is 
 now perhaps best known by his Therapeutica Sacra, or 
 Cases of Conscience, published first in Latin in 1656, and 
 afterwards in English. He was also the author of several 
 commentaries on books of scripture, in a projected series of 
 expositions of the Old and New Testament to which 
 Hutcheson, Fergusson, Durham and others contributed. 
 Dickson's Commentaries on The Psalms, Matthew, The
 
 ROBERT BLAIR OF ST. ANDREWS. 237 
 
 Epistles, and Hebrews, have been published and are well 
 known. His hymn, O Mother Dear, Jerusalem ! is still 
 occasionally sung. On the restoration of Charles II., he 
 refused to take the oath of supremacy, which gave the king 
 supreme authority in the affairs of the church as well as in 
 those of the state, and was ejected from his professorship. 
 He was sorely distressed on account of the disastrous state 
 of the church and country, and died at a good old age in 
 the last days of the year 1662. He said to Livingston, 
 his dear and faithful friend of fifty years, as he lay upon his 
 death-bed : " I have taken all my good deeds and all my 
 bad deeds, and cast them through each other in a heap 
 before the Lord, and fled from both, and betaken myself to 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him I have sweet peace." 
 
 Robert Blair of St. Andrews was one against whom 
 Sharp seems to have entertained a peculiarly bitter ani- 
 mosity. Mr. Blair was born at Irvine in 1593, studied at 
 Glasgow, and while Regent there, had a considerable doc- 
 trinal controversy with the principal, John Cameron. He 
 was deprived of his office of regent in Glasgow University 
 on his refusal to agree to the Perth Articles, when he went 
 to Ireland, and was ordained minister at Bangor in 1623. 
 Soon after this Livingston was also settled in Ireland, and 
 these two like-minded men had much pleasant and profit- 
 able fellowship with one another. After his return to 
 Scotland he was, by the Assembly of 1639, sent to St. 
 Andrews, and during the period of his ministry there, he 
 took a very active part in the affairs of church and state 
 under Charles I. and Cromwell. In the dispute between Re- 
 solutioners and Protesters he tried to maintain an inter- 
 mediate position and to be, if possible, a peacemaker between 
 the two parties. He was deprived of his ministry in the 
 beginning of 1662, and after residing in retirement in various 
 places, died in August, 1666. An Englishman who heard 
 Blair preach, in characterizing him along with Rutherfurd 
 and Dickson, describes him as a sweet, majestic looking 
 man who showed him the majesty of God. 
 
 The Court of High Commission under James VI. and
 
 238 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Charles I. had been used as an instrument of intolerable 
 tyranny, and its appointment under Charles II. was evi- 
 dently and undoubtedly used to secure the certain execution 
 of the king's will in matters which, if left to the ordinary 
 course of justice in the civil and ecclesiastical tribunals, 
 might sometimes have been decided otherwise than was de- 
 sired. Its proceedings were arbitrary, and such evidence as 
 was led before it seems to have been obtained by a contemp- 
 tible system of espionage. This court was erected at the 
 instigation of Archbishop Sharp, who was dissatisfied with 
 what he regarded as the remissness of the Lord Chancellor 
 and the Privy Council. It was composed of the archbishop 
 of St. Andrews and all the members of the Privy Council, 
 with others added on whose zeal Sharp thought he could 
 depend ; but any five of them might constitute a court pro- 
 vided that an archbishop or a bishop were one of them. The 
 powers of this court and the range of its jurisdiction were 
 almost unrestricted. It was to deal with all who write, speak, 
 preach or print anything to the detriment of the govern- 
 ment of the church. During 1664 great numbers of pres- 
 byterian ministers and those who showed sympathy with 
 them, were harassed by ruinous fines and banishment or 
 transportation. The council also continued to punish by 
 fine and imprisonment those who were known to conduct or 
 frequent conventicles. 
 
 One of the most distinguished of the sufferers under the 
 persecutions of this time was the Rev. William Guthrie, 
 minister of Fenwick, in Ayrshire. He was the eldest son of 
 the laird of Pitforthy in Forfarshire, was born there in 
 1620, and studied at St. Andrews, in arts under his relative, 
 James Guthrie, and in divinity under Samuel Rutherfurd. 
 He was called to the ministry at Fenwick, and ordained 
 there in 1644. He found the people in a lament- 
 able state of ignorance, but by assiduous attention and labour 
 he succeeded in persuading most of them to attend his ser- 
 vices, and his labours proved remarkably successful. He 
 was a popular preacher and an admirable catechizer. He 
 took an active part in the work of the church courts, and in
 
 WILLIAM GUTHRIE OF FENWICK. 239 
 
 the discussion over the public resolutions he joined the side 
 of the Protesters. After the Restoration the favour of the 
 Earls of Eglinton and Glencairn led to Mr. Guthrie's con- 
 tinuing in his parish being connived at. During the early 
 years of the king's reign, when many of the most excellent 
 ministers had been silenced, Mr. Guthrie carried on a sin- 
 gularly fruitful ministry in Fenwick and throughout the 
 surrounding district. The jealousy of the prelates, how- 
 ever, would not suffer this good work to continue. Not- 
 withstanding the personal intercession of Glencairn, the 
 Chancellor, Archbishop Burnet of Glasgow had him sus- 
 pended, interdicted him from conducting services, and 
 ordered his removal from the parish. This was done on 
 24th July, 1664. He was, however, allowed to remain in 
 the manse for another year, and during that time he was 
 most useful in the district, though now only in a private 
 way. On business connected with family matters he went 
 on a visit to his native place, and being there seized with a 
 violent and painful disease, he died on the 10th of October, 
 1665, in his forty-fifth year. Though an excellent scholar, 
 he had been much averse to commit anything that he had 
 written to the press. His only published work is The 
 Christian's Great Interest, published in 1658, in order to 
 take the place of a very imperfect edition drawn up without 
 his knowledge from the notes of a hearer. It is well known 
 to all students of Scottish theology as one of the great 
 classics in practical divinity. The excellent little work en- 
 titled A Treatise on Ruling Elders and Deacons, and some- 
 times attributed to him, is more likely the work of Mr. 
 James Guthrie. 
 
 The ambition of Archbishop Sharp was inordinate. In 
 the beginning of 1664 he procured a letter from the king 
 giving him first place in the Council, even before the chan- 
 cellor. This was very galling to the chancellor and the rest 
 of the nobility, but even this was not enough to satisfy the 
 aspiring prelate. His heart was set upon receiving himself 
 the office of chancellor. To the king he said that he wanted 
 a chancellor who would be a churchman in heart but not in
 
 240 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 habit, and for himself that he would sooner go to the plan- 
 tations than have such an office. At the same time he 
 eagerly urged Archbishop Sheldon to press his claims to the 
 chancellorship with the king. When it became evident that 
 the king would not agree to this, Sharp suggested that 
 Rothes should be made chancellor. This proposal was ex- 
 ceedingly agreeable to Charles, who allowed Rothes to 
 gather under his own hand all the principal offices of state. 
 As the new chancellor abandoned himself to a life of 
 pleasure, all the real power fell into the hands of Sharp. 
 
 In the end of 1665 the Council, which was now taking 
 the place of the Court of High Commission, issued a de- 
 claration extending the Acts of 1662 and 1663 so that 
 they should operate against ministers who had been 
 ordained before 1649. These old ministers, if they 
 declined to seek new presentations and admissions, were 
 now to be proceeded against and driven from their 
 homes, heritors and householders were forbidden to give 
 them any countenance, and all magistrates were em- 
 powered to imprison them if they appeared within the 
 bounds prohibited. Another proclamation was issued 
 against all withdrawing and ceasing to attend the services of 
 the established church and prohibiting all conventicles or 
 meetings for religious worship other than those allowed by 
 law, and requiring magistrates, justices, constables and other 
 public officers to search for and apprehend all suspected 
 persons and to commit them to the nearest prison till they 
 should be further tried. These enactments pressed very 
 heavily upon those whose conscientious convictions prevented 
 them either disowning the presbyterian ministers and their 
 services, or countenancing the services conducted by those 
 who had accepted the places from which those good men 
 had been ejected. Even the most severely partisan of the 
 episcopalian historians acknowledge that many of the new 
 clergy were sadly deficient both in grace and in endowments, 
 but they maintain that there was not a larger number of 
 such incapables than may be regarded as inevitable on any 
 such occasion where a sudden change of policy all at once
 
 REFUSING TO HEAR THE CURATES. 
 
 threw hundreds of charges vacant, all requiring immediate 
 and simultaneous supply. But there is clear evidence to 
 show that this is an under-estimation of the general, almost 
 universal, unworthiness and unfitness of the new clergy under 
 the episcopal regime. Bishop Burnet,* a contemporary, who 
 had all along himself been an episcopalian, says of them : 
 " They were the worst preachers I ever heard : they were 
 ignorant to a reproach, and many of them were openly 
 vicious. They were a disgrace to their orders, and to the 
 sacred functions ; and were indeed the dregs and refuse of 
 the northern parts." We can easily understand how in- 
 tolerable it must have been for serious and experienced 
 Christian people who had enjoyed the thoroughly able and 
 richly scriptural preaching of great men and profound 
 scholars like John Livingston, David Dickson, William 
 Guthrie, and many others of that order, to submit to 
 sit down and listen to those wretched drivellers who 
 had been intruded into these parish churches. Such 
 objection might to many seem of itself enough, but 
 in addition to this many had conscientious convictions in 
 regard to those very matters on account of which their old 
 ministers had been deprived. For them to countenance 
 episcopacy by recognising the Curates as their ministers 
 would have been as much a violation of their principles as 
 it would have been a renunciation of their convictions on 
 the part of Presbyterian ministers had they accepted presen- 
 tations from the bishop of the diocese. They were not mere 
 fanatics who made martyrs of themselves by scrupling over 
 trifles, nor were they wrong-headed people who refused to 
 do certain things simply because they had been told to do 
 them by those in authority. They were law-abiding, loyal 
 hearted subjects of the king, who would obey and serve him 
 in all that they might dare to do, and who refused service 
 only when it conflicted with the homage and duty which 
 they owed to God. 
 
 These unpopular intruders into the Scottish parishes in- 
 
 * Burnet, History of His Own Times. London, 1724, Vol. I., p. 229. 
 
 Q
 
 242 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 creased their unpopularity by the severities which they 
 practised in putting into force the oppressive enactments 
 against those who refused to conform. Burnet, as well as 
 Wodrow, reports many instances of quite needless persecu- 
 tion and irritating interferences on the part of those small- 
 minded and malicious creatures. Endless stories are current 
 of petty annoyances, and mean, vindictive, and spiteful 
 conduct by which these men made themselves utterly 
 odious to the people. Many of them, too, accepted at 
 their own instance the contemptible role of informers, 
 and prowled about through their parishes as spies, ferret- 
 ing out the secrets even of family life, and reporting 
 to the bishops 1 courts all that they had overheard, with, 
 as may quite fairly be assumed in their case, considerable 
 gratuitous additions. It was also notorious that instead of 
 seeking to restrain the violence of the brutal soldiers and 
 the ferocity of the military officers employed in the persecu- 
 tion, the curates goaded them on to extremities, and 
 threatened, and often fulfilled their threats, to complain to 
 the bishops or Council of what they regarded as indifference 
 or remissness. The archbishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow, 
 Sharp and Burnet, seemed always eager to exaggerate rather 
 than to mitigate sentences proposed to be passed on non- 
 conformists, and they were always ready to put the severest 
 possible interpretation upon the terms of any persecuting 
 measure. 
 
 A number of the covenanting ministers had been banished 
 or had retired to Holland. In 1665 John Brown, formerly 
 minister of Wamphray in Dumfriesshire, but now resident 
 in Utrecht or Rotterdam, published a book entitled An 
 Apologetic Narration of the Particular Sufferings of the 
 Faithful Ministers and Professors of the Church of Scotland 
 since August, 1660. The mother of this John Brown was 
 one to whom Samuel Rutherfurd addressed some of his 
 Letters. He was probably settled in Wamphray about 
 1638, and remained there till dispossessed by the measures 
 passed after the Restoration. Though expelled from his 
 parish, he continued to make use of his gifts wherever any
 
 JOHN BROWN OF WAMPHRAY. 243 
 
 opportunity was afforded. Active persecution began in 
 May, 1762, and in November of that year he was called 
 before the Council and sentenced to be imprisoned in the 
 Tolbooth till further orders should be given. Judgment was 
 finally given against John Brown, after John Livingston and 
 others had received sentence on December llth, according 
 to which he was allowed to leave the Tolbooth on condition 
 that he should immediately remove from the king's 
 dominions, and not return without liberty from the king and 
 Council under pain of death. He then went to Holland, 
 where he continued to reside till his death in 1679. He 
 was one of the ablest of our Scottish divines, and wrote many 
 profound theological works both in Latin and English. In 
 the work to which we have above referred, Brown discusses 
 the question of the king's prerogative over parliaments and 
 people, the lawfulness of defensive war, the supreme magis- 
 trate's power in church affairs, the hearing of the curates, 
 and several other matters which it was dangerous to deal 
 with in these lines. On 8th February, 1666, a proclamation 
 was issued against this book declaring that on the fourteenth 
 day of that month it should be burnt by the hangman at 
 the market cross in the High Street of Edinburgh, and that 
 all possessors of the book must bring in their copies within 
 a prescribed number of days, and that, if after the time 
 determined any be found to have copies they will be fined 
 in 2000 pounds Scots. Such proceedings, as might have 
 been expected, only made people all the more curious and 
 anxious to know what was in the book which created such a 
 panic in high places. 
 
 Complaints were now being made by some of the 
 curates of ministers who had been connived at, that 
 the people were attending meetings held by them in 
 houses and occasionally in the fields. Among the pre- 
 lates archbishop Burnet was particularly forward, pro- 
 secuting all who were complained against, and encourag- 
 ing the making of such complaints. One of the most 
 ruthless of the persecutors of the presbyterians in the 
 West was Sir James Turner, a soldier of fortune who had
 
 244 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 served as a mercenary on the continent and whose mode of 
 life had deadened in him every feeling of humanity and pity. 
 His orders were to follow the directions of the curates, and 
 levy fines, and, by any means he chose to employ, to secure 
 the submission of the people. The barbarities of which the 
 brutal followers of such a leader were guilty passes all 
 description. During the presence of Turner and his 
 dragoons in Galloway and Dumfries a reign of terror pre- 
 vailed throughout the whole district. This lasted for more 
 than half-a-year. The country had become impoverished by 
 the huge fines imposed and paid, and by the expense and 
 costs incident to the quartering of the soldiers on the people. 
 Gentlemen were made responsible for their dependents, 
 wives, children, tenants. No complaints would be listened 
 to. The soldiers were becoming more bold and violent, and 
 where their spirit had not been crushed, the exasperation of 
 the people had reached the very utmost pitch. One par- 
 ticular incident of barbarous cruelty on a helpless victim, 
 not probably worse than many that had been enacted in that 
 neighbourhood, proved the match applied to the well-stored 
 magazine of combustibles, and immediately the whole 
 country was aflame. In the village of Dairy among the hills 
 of Galloway, on the 13th of November, 1666, four outlawed 
 countrymen, who had been hiding from the enemy, heard 
 that a few soldiers in a neighbouring cottage were inflicting 
 barbarous cruelties on an old man from whom they had been 
 seeking to extort a fine. As they rushed in upon the 
 scene, they heard the soldiers threaten their victim, whom 
 they had bound naked hand and foot, that they would stretch 
 him on a red-hot gridiron. A fight immediately ensued, in 
 which one soldier was wounded and the others disarmed. 
 Feeling that they had already passed beyond the point at 
 which they could recede, and the other villagers recognising 
 their position as equally serious with that of those who had 
 actually participated in the fray, a larger company soon 
 mustered, and coming suddenly on a small party of soldiers 
 in the vicinity, they killed one and made prisoners of the 
 rest. The little band thus encouraged moved onward, grow-
 
 DALZIEL EOYALIST COMMANDER. 245 
 
 ing rapidly as it advanced. In Dumfries they came unawares 
 upon Sir James Turner himself, and surprising him while 
 yet in bed, they made him prisoner and disarmed his troops. 
 They now publicly declared themselves loyal to the king, 
 and with what many would call mistaken clemency, they 
 even spared the life of Turner, who had never shown any 
 pity toward those who had fallen into his power. Their 
 hope now lay in a general rising in the West, and giving the 
 command to Colonel Wallace, they marched into Argyle- 
 shire, and sought to induce the covenanters to make com- 
 mon cause with them in the defence of their religion and 
 their homes. The success of the insurgents in securing 
 accession to their ranks was not great. The Ayrshire Cove- 
 nanters were not only impoverished but they were also 
 dispirited. To many who were honest hearted enough the 
 enterprise seeme hopeless. Yet everywhere they found a few 
 resolute men who believed that this rising was of God, and 
 who were therefore determined to give their testimony and 
 stand by the cause, however well assured they might be that 
 defeat and even death awaited them. Meanwhile Sharp, 
 who in the absence of the Commissioner, was at the head of 
 the governing body in Scotland, summoned the Council, and 
 immediately declared a state of war, and appointed Dalziel 
 of Binns commander of the army charged with the suppres- 
 sion of the rebellion. This general was a man admirably 
 suited for the work to which he was called, and prepared to 
 execute the cruel purposes of Sharp without compunction 
 and without pity. He had served in the Muscovite army 
 in the wars against the Tartars and the Turks. He was now 
 about sixty-seven years of age, of fierce aspect, with a sharp, 
 keen face, and long white hair, which he had not cut from 
 the day of Charles' death. He was a fanatic, as fanatical 
 as any Covenanter, only his allegiance was not to God but 
 to an earthly tyrant. 
 
 The Covenanters, who were now in arms, lost much time 
 and many advantages by moving about hither and thither, 
 taking the covenant and issuing declarations. They mustered 
 in Lanark, but they were little better than a nondescript
 
 246 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 mob. Colonel Wallace was a skilful officer, but a few days 1 
 drill could not convert this formless mass into an army. 
 Had they remained in Lanark, with friends around them and 
 in a good strategical position, they might for a time at least 
 have held their own, and success at the outset might have 
 induced others to venture in the holy cause. A report had 
 reached them, however, that the people in Edinburgh and 
 the surrounding district were ready to rise if they only ap- 
 peared among them. Amid a deluge of rain and all through 
 a dark night, they marched on for Edinburgh by way of 
 Bathgate. On the way many of their followers, weary and 
 heartless, deserted, and when they had passed on to Colinton, 
 they found that the capital was in the hands of their enemies 
 and already well defended. They halted at Rullion Green on 
 the slope of the Pentland Hills, and immediately Dalziel and 
 his troops, which had closely pursued them, were approach- 
 ing ready for the attack. The little Covenanting army, 
 numbering some nine hundred men, fought bravely and for 
 a time had some advantage, but soon the fortune of battle 
 turned against them, and they were completely routed and 
 driven from the field. This first regular battle between the 
 Covenanters and the government took place on the 28th of 
 November, 1666. Forty-five of the Covenanters were left 
 dead upon the battlefield, and somewhere about a hundred 
 were taken prisoners. But this by no means represents the 
 extent of the calamity. It was only the beginning of sor- 
 row. Whether as the result of wild panic, or the outcome 
 of deliberate malice on the part of the leading members of 
 the Council, it is impossible to say, a report became current 
 and was widely believed to the effect that this rising was an 
 incident in a projected general rebellion, and that those en- 
 gaged upon it had been in correspondence with and acted as 
 the emissaries of the Dutch. This rumour, which was un- 
 supported by any evidence and is now universally discredited, 
 was made a pretext for subjecting certain of the prisoners 
 to torture in order to elicit information that might incul- 
 pate others and give apparent ground for the prosecution of 
 parties suspected by or obnoxious to the government. It
 
 MARTYRDOM OF HUGH M'KAIL. 247 
 
 was also seen that the persistent reiteration of such charges 
 would increase the public odium against the Covenanters 
 and awaken a wider sympathy with their persecutors. Many 
 would join eagerly in the outcry against rebels and traitors 
 to the national cause from a purely patriotic feeling, who 
 would look with indifference, if not with a certain kindli- 
 ness of feeling, upon those who were risking all for the sake 
 of their religion. For thirty years the barbarous practice 
 of trial by torture, worthy only of the darkest years of the 
 dark ages, had been unknown in Scotland. 
 
 Of the prisoners, who vainly pleaded that quarter had 
 been promised them when they surrendered, between thirty 
 and forty were put to death. John Neilson of Corsack, 
 and Hugh M'Kail, a young preacher, were subjected to ex- 
 cruciating tortures. It was Neilson who, with quite an un- 
 worldly generosity, had pleaded for the life of his enemy who 
 had most grievously wronged him, Sir James Turner. This 
 did not save him from the agonies of the boot. As stroke 
 after stroke was applied, under the eye and at the direction of 
 the cruel and callous Earl of Rothes, the bones of his limbs 
 were crushed into a mass of pulp. It must be said to the 
 credit of Turner, to whose credit so little can be given, that 
 in remembrance of his great personal indebtedness to Neil- 
 son, he interceded earnestly for him, but the curate of the 
 parish, Dalgleish, whose name ought to be handed down in 
 infamy, clamantly insisted that only Neilson's death could 
 make his position sure. He was accordingly executed in the 
 second group of five. 
 
 The story of Hugh M'Kail is one of peculiar interest. 
 He was a young man of twenty-six years of age, and 
 had already been for five years a licensed preacher. He 
 had given great offence to Sharp by a sermon which he 
 had preached immediately before the silencing of the 
 ministers of Edinburgh, in which he had spoken of a 
 Pharoah on the throne, a Haman in the State, and a 
 Judas in the church. After this he spent some time in tra- 
 velling on the continent. Ten days before the skirmish at 
 Rullion Green, he had joined the party which had mustered
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 under Colonel Wallace. He was, however, of a somewhat 
 delicate constitution, so that the hardships of the march left 
 him utterly worn out and unfit for any sendee. At Cramond, 
 on the day before the battle, he left the army, and was mak- 
 ing his way by the Braids Crags to Liberton Tower, the 
 home of his uncle by whom he had been brought up, when 
 he was seized by some countrymen who had been sent to 
 scour the district in search of any stragglers leaving 
 or seeking to join the band of the Covenanters. He was 
 subjected to torture similar to that inflicted on Neilson, but 
 had no confession to make or secret plot to reveal. He was 
 now sentenced to death by hanging. "The fear of my 
 neck," said he to some one who asked him about his shattered 
 limb, " makes me forget my leg." On the 22nd of December 
 he was led forth to the scaffold. There he behaved with 
 remarkable fortitude. His dying words of farewell are often 
 quoted as a perfect specimen of pathetic eloquence. " And 
 now I leave off to speak to creatures, and turn my speech to 
 thee, O Lord. And now I begin my intercourse with God 
 which shall never be broken off. Farewell, father and 
 mother, friends and relations ; farewell the world and all 
 delights ; farewell meat and drink ; farewell sun, moon and 
 stars. Welcome God and Father ; welcome sweet Jesus, 
 the Mediator of the New Covenant ; welcome blessed Spirit 
 of grace and God of all consolation ; welcome glory ; wel- 
 come eternal life ; and welcome death." 
 
 The death of these men lies on the head of Sharp. It is 
 reported that Burnet, the archbishop of Glasgow, brought 
 down a letter from the king in which it was said that it 
 seemed to him that enough blood had been shed, and that 
 now all who promised to be peaceful should be discharged 
 and the obstinate sent to the plantations. It was assumed 
 that Burnet had communicated this letter to Sharp as head 
 of the Council, and that together they connived at the sup- 
 pression of it till the executions were over. This vindic- 
 tiveness and bloodthirstiness, with which Sharp was gener- 
 ally credited, told heavily against him when his own day of 
 reckoning came.
 
 COVENANTERS TO SIGN THE BOND. 249 
 
 Throughout the rest of the year 1666, General Dalziel 
 continued his ruthless barbarities in Ayrshire. The gentle- 
 men of the West were now impoverished by repeated and 
 enormous exactions, and the whole population was dis- 
 spirited and destitute. Worn out with the struggle many 
 reluctantly enough went to the curate's services, and for a 
 time it seemed as if the policy of persecution had been a suc- 
 cess. The agents now employed, however, were, in their mad 
 ferocity, fast pushing things to an extremity. In this exe- 
 crable work Dalziel far surpassed Turner in his barbarities, 
 but even he was in some respects outdistanced by Sir 
 William Bannatyne, who was now largely used in thi& 
 service. Chapters might be filled with stories of diabolical 
 cruelties perpetrated by Dalziel, who quartered himself in 
 Kilmarnock and made havoc of the district round about. 
 Bannatyne, as well as Dalziel, was almost constantly drunk, 
 and by his own example and practice, as well as by refusing 
 to exercise any restraint upon his men, encouraged the most 
 hideous outrages upon women, and the most cowardly inflic- 
 tion of suffering on the weak and helpless. Even those who 
 had fought in the Royalist army at the Pentlands were 
 harassed and treated with indignity if they showed any sym- 
 pathetic feeling for the oppressed. 
 
 The fall of Clarendon, whose influence had hitherto been 
 supreme, led to the introduction of a less severe policy in 
 the government of Scotland. The Scottish nobles had long 
 been writhing under the haughty dictation of the prelates. 
 " Woe^s me ! "" cried Chancellor Glencairn, after archbishop 
 Burnet had disdainfully refused to spare William Guthrie 
 of Fenwick at his earnest request, " we have advanced these 
 men to be bishops, and they will trample upon us all." The 
 most capable statesmen now plainly perceived that personal 
 ambition and not patriotic fervour was the moving prin- 
 ciple with Sharp and all his crew. Notwithstanding the 
 hysterical appeals of the archbishops for the continued 
 application of severe measures, the new ministry resolved to 
 disband the army of the West and no longer to insist upon 
 the abjuring of the covenant, but only to require that the
 
 250 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 suspected should enter into bonds. " Now that the army is 
 disbanded," said the archbishop of Glasgow, " the gospel 
 will go out of my diocese." Rothes, the cruel Commissioner, 
 who had become a tool of the prelates, was dismissed, and 
 Sharp was commanded to confine himself to his own ecclesi- 
 astical province. Lauderdale, though resident in London, 
 was now at the head of the Scottish government, and while 
 as a courtier he was determined to please the king, he had 
 no intention of serving the will of the bishops. The Earls 
 of Teviotdale and Kincardine, and Sir Robert Murray, as 
 members of the new government, advocated milder measures 
 and the presbyterians enjoyed a short breathing time. Sir 
 James Turner and Sir William Bannatyne were found to 
 have made exactions beyond their commission, and were both 
 dismissed his Majesty's service. No abatement, however, was 
 made in the restrictions put upon ministers, and the enact- 
 ments against conventicles were made rather stricter and 
 more severe. The bond itself was too comprehensive to be 
 satisfactory. The person taking it bound himself to keep 
 the peace and not take up arms against his Majesty or with- 
 out his authority, and gentlemen were bound also for their 
 tenants and servants under penalty of a full year's rent. 
 Many were inclined to scruple at the obligation as involv- 
 ing consent to existing forms of government in the church 
 as well as in the state. At the same time advantage was 
 taken of the withdrawal of the Western army, for the hold- 
 ing of conventicles with comparative boldness throughout 
 the country. Ministers conducting such meetings and 
 people attending them were liable to prosecution as before, 
 but fines could not be collected now as they had been for- 
 merly by the soldiers. Tweeddale was earnestly seeking 
 a satisfactory basis for an indulgence or an accommodation, 
 and the king and Council were distinctly in favour of such 
 an attempt being made. 
 
 These negotiations on behalf of a mutual good under- 
 standing, which were being honestly pursued on both sides, 
 were suddenly brought to an end by a singularly unfortun- 
 ate and inopportune occurrence. Mr. James Mitchell was
 
 ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF SHARP. 251 
 
 a young preacher of very moderate gifts, but of great zeal 
 and undoubted piety. He had been at the Pentland rising 
 and was excluded from the benefit of the indemnity. He 
 seems to have been of a rash disposition, and his sufferings 
 and privations seem to have somewhat unhinged his mind. 
 It occurred to him that he might serve the cause of religion 
 by ridding the world of one whom he regarded as the prime 
 cause of all the miseries inflicted upon himself and his 
 friends. He accordingly waited for Sharp one day in July, 
 1668, as he was entering his coach at the head of Black- 
 friar's Wynd in Edinburgh, and discharged a pistol at the 
 primate when he had taken his seat. Honeyman, bishop of 
 Orkney, happened at the moment to be stepping into the 
 coach after Sharp, and the shot struck his wrist and shattered 
 his arm. Mitchell quietly walked away, reached his lodg- 
 ings, and after changing his coat walked out boldly among 
 the crowd, and for the time escaped observation. Sharp, 
 who knew well that it was he who had been aimed at, 
 was in a state of great excitement and terror, and the 
 Council was indignant that such an attempt at violence 
 should have been made. The deed was the impulsive act 
 of an individual, but the prelate and his party thought, 
 or pretended to think, that it was part of an organised 
 plot. Numerous arrests were now made of parties who 
 had allowed outed ministers to preach in their houses or 
 who had attended such meetings, and every effort was 
 made to find out if any of them had knowledge of the man 
 who had sought the archbishop's life. Many gentlemen 
 and gentlewomen were heavily fined, and many were trans- 
 ported to the plantations. 
 
 After this delay caused by the panic that arose over the 
 attempt on the archbishop's life, the measure which Tweed- 
 dale and others had been endeavouring to draft was at last 
 brought forward. In July, 1669, the first Indulgence 
 granted to Presbyterians was published. The chief mischief 
 which this and subsequent indulgences wrought was the 
 dissensions which they occasioned among the brethren, and 
 Sharp seems to have done his utmost to make this indul-
 
 252 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 gence a bone of contention among the presbyterians. This 
 indulgence allowed those ejected ministers who had behaved 
 in an orderly manner to resume work in their former parishes 
 if vacant, or to accept new presentations and to receive the 
 stipends, if they would accept collation and attend presby- 
 teries and synods, and even if they declined to do this 
 they would be allowed to officiate in the parishes to 
 which they might be appointed, with possession of 
 manse and glebe, and a certain specified stipend. This 
 arrangement was offensive both to the prelates and to the 
 more rigid presbyterians ; but forty ministers, including 
 Robert Douglas and George Hutcheson, immediately took 
 advantage of the concession. The stern Covenanters 
 charged the indulged with submitting to an Erastian 
 arrangement, and called them king's curates, who undertook 
 to avoid reference to subjects which might call forth the 
 royal displeasure. It was not, however, altogether a dis- 
 advantage, that they should cease preaching to the times, 
 as it was called, and should give their attention exclusively 
 to spiritual and truly scriptural teaching. 
 
 The opposition offered to this measure of Indulgence by 
 Archbishop Burnet and his clergy called forth from the 
 Council an order that the archbishop should retire to Glas- 
 gow, while they condemned his remonstrance and reported 
 the matter to the king. A royal letter was received laying 
 Archbishop Burnet aside from acting as archbishop of Glas- 
 gow, and so, on 6th January, 1670, the Council finds that 
 the archbishop has demitted his office and declares his name 
 removed from the roll of Council. Burnet thus for once 
 stands alongside of the strictest of the Covenanters as a 
 sufferer for his protest against the royal supremacy. Bishop 
 Leighton of Dunblane was persuaded to accept the arch- 
 bishopric in commendam, until, in the end of 1672, he re- 
 signed the bishopric of Dunblane, and was appointed arch- 
 bishop of Glasgow, which office he continued to hold till 
 Archbishop Burnet was restored to his see in 1674. 
 
 Archbishop Leighton used his new position to make an 
 earnest endeavour to bring about an accommodation between
 
 LEIGHTON'S PROPOSED ACCOMMODATION. 253 
 
 the episcopal and presbyterian ministers. He chose six ex- 
 cellent clergymen, of whom Gilbert Burnet, the well-known 
 historian and afterwards bishop of Salisbury, and Lawrence 
 Charteris, afterwards Professor of Divinity in Edinburgh, 
 were the most distinguished, to preach in vacant churches 
 throughout the western counties in favour of his scheme of 
 union. They found the people wonderfully well informed 
 upon all questions in dispute, and as they were followed in 
 this circuit by some of the most extreme of the presbyterian 
 ministers, their mission was attended with very little success. 
 At a Conference held in December, 1679, in Paisley, 
 Leighton, with two clergymen and two laymen of his diocese, 
 met thirty presbyterian ministers, and laid before them the 
 terms of the proposed accommodation referred to in these 
 six propositions : " 1. That, if the dissenting brethren will 
 come to presbyteries and synods, they shall not only not be 
 obliged to renounce their own private opinions about church 
 government, and swear or subscribe anything thereto, but 
 shall have the liberty, at their entry to the said meeting, to 
 declare and enter it in what form they please ; 2. That all 
 church affairs shall be managed in presbyteries and synods, 
 by the free vote of presbyters or the major part of them ; 
 3. If any differences fall out in the diocesan synods betwixt 
 any of the members thereof, it shall be lawful to appeal to 
 a provincial synod or their committee ; 4. The entrants 
 being lawfully presented by their patron, and duly tried by 
 the presbytery, there shall be a day agreed on by the 
 bishop and presbytery for their meeting together for their 
 solemn ordination and admission, at which there shall be 
 one appointed to preach, and that it shall be at the parish 
 church where he is to be admitted, except in the case of 
 impossibility or extreme inconveniency ; and if any differ- 
 ence fall out touching that affair, it shall be referable to the 
 provincial synods or their committee, as any other matter ; 
 5. It is not to be doubted but the Lord Commissioner will 
 make good what he offered regarding the establishment of 
 presbyteries and synods ; and we trust his Grace will procure 
 such security to those brethren for declaring their judgment,
 
 254 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IX SCOTLAND. 
 
 that they may do it without any hazard in contravening any 
 law ; and that the bishops shall humbly and earnestly re- 
 commend this to his Grace ; 6. That no entrant shall be en- 
 gaged to any canonical oath or subscription to the bishop, 
 and that his opinion regarding that government shall not 
 prejudice him in this, but that it shall be free for him to 
 declare. 1 " In January, 1671 the two parties met, in order 
 that the presbyterians might say how they viewed these 
 propositions. Mr. Hutcheson, speaking for the rest, said 
 that they could not in their consciences accept them ; and 
 though Leighton expressed his astonishment, as well as deep 
 disappointment, it is evident that their acceptance would 
 have involved the practical abandonment of presbyterianism. 
 Such modified episcopacy would soon have reverted to full 
 blown prelacy. As to the practicability of the proposal 
 there must be different opinions, but there can be only one 
 opinion of the purity of Leighton's motives and the admir- 
 able peace-loving disposition which he manifested through- 
 out the whole negotiations. 
 
 Lauderdale's parliament of 1670 passed severe measures 
 against ministers and others who took part in or frequented 
 meetings held either in houses or in the fields outside of the 
 services of the established clergy, and of the ministers who 
 had accepted the Indulgence. Even reading or exposition 
 of Scripture in a house to a company embracing others than 
 the members of the family was regarded as illegal ; and field 
 meetings, including services at which some gathered to listen 
 to preaching or lecturing outside of the house in which it 
 was given, were treated as acts of rebellion. The fine 
 exacted of those attending field conventicles was double of 
 that levied from those who had been convicted of holding 
 or attending a house conventicle. The reason given for the 
 hasty passing of this severe law was the terror occasioned by 
 a field conventicle held at Hill of Beith in Fife, at which 
 Mr. John Blackadder preached, while armed guards secured 
 the meeting against interruption. At a later session of 
 parliament in 1672 an Act was passed forbidding un- 
 authorised persons to ordain, and declaring ordinations that
 
 THE SECOND INDULGENCE. 255 
 
 were conferred since 1661 null and void, and ordering that 
 those so ordaining and those s>o ordained should be fined and 
 banished. Some explain the passing of such severe measures 
 by the supposition that Lauderdale had the sinister pur- 
 pose of rendering the clergy odious and those persecuting 
 enactments inoperative on account of their excessive charac- 
 ter. Much more probably they are to be explained as evi- 
 dencing the bitterness and malice of a renegade, who sought 
 at once to stifle the reproaches of his own conscience by the 
 rigour and impetuosity of his procedure, and to give assur- 
 ance to the king that, notwithstanding his earlier asso- 
 ciation with the Covenanters, he would extend to them no 
 favour and show no pity. In September, 1672, the Coun- 
 cil issued what is called the Second Indulgence* the terms of 
 which are given in three acts : (1) Somewhere about eighty 
 presbyterian ministers are assigned to fifty-eight parishes in 
 the south and west of Scotland, to which they are con- 
 fined ; (2) it is enacted that such indulged ministers per- 
 form marriages and baptisms only in the parishes in which 
 they are confined or in neighbouring vacant parishes, that 
 all those in one diocese celebrate the communion on one and 
 the same day, and receive none without certificates from 
 their ministers, that they preach only within their churches, 
 that they do not go out of their parish without license from 
 the bishop, that cases of discipline formerly referable to 
 presbyteries be still so dealt with, and that the ordinary 
 dues to bursars and clerks of presbyteries and synods be paid 
 by the ministers ; (3) it is also enacted that all ministers 
 not thus indulged forbear exercising any ministerial func- 
 tion, and that all outed ministers attend ordinances in the 
 churches of the parishes in which they reside. This Indul- 
 gence with its manifestly Erastian limitations was the cause 
 of wide and deep divisions among the presbyterians. Many 
 argued that it was right to resume work in a place from 
 
 * See a very full account of these indulgences from the point of 
 view of the ministers in Holland in Brown (of Wamphray), History 
 of the Indulgence.
 
 256 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 which they had been iniquitously ejected, when the oppor- 
 tunity was given them of returning. They maintained that 
 they took the good in the liberty granted, and meddled not 
 with the evil of it. Others held that if they accepted the 
 privilege they would be guilty of what was evil in the grant- 
 ing of it, that the indulged would be rightly regarded as 
 homologating and approving of the assumptions which 
 underlay the act of indulgence. The accepting or rejecting 
 of the indulgence, however, was not to be considered a cause 
 for separation. Some of the exiled ministers in Holland 
 would have charged those who did not preach against the 
 indulgence with unfaithfulness, but the more prudent minis- 
 ters at home, however little they liked the terms of the 
 new measure, maintained that there were times Avhen in- 
 sistence from the pulpit on certain truths was unseasonable. 
 Thus for a time peace was maintained between indulged and 
 non-indulged, and those who could not themselves accept 
 the indulgence still regarded the indulged as Christian 
 brethren and acknowledged their ministry. 
 
 This indulgence did very little in the way of reducing the 
 number or frequency of conventicles. Not only did those 
 ministers who declined the indulgence and those who sym- 
 pathised with them continue to hold meetings in houses and 
 in the fields, but even the indulged ministers refused to hold 
 themselves bound by all the restrictions which the enact- 
 ment laid upon them. In order, therefore, to pacify the 
 prelates it was necessary to pass in April, 1673, another 
 measure against conventicles, in which good subjects are 
 called upon to assist in putting them down by turning in- 
 formers. If they fail to give information, then for each 
 conventicle not reported on they are to be fined in one- 
 fourth of their yearly rent, one-third of which goes to the 
 sheriff as his hire and another third to the informer against 
 the heritor who had failed to inform. Another measure of 
 the same kind passed in the following year required masters 
 to dismiss from their service any who frequented such meet- 
 ings and heritors to require tenants in their tacks to abstain 
 from conventicles. A subsequent Act of Council gives to
 
 JOHN WELSH OF IRONGRAY. 257 
 
 those who seize persons at such gatherings the fines exacted 
 of them on conviction ; while any one who apprehends a 
 minister who is conducting or has conducted such services 
 gets one thousand merks, or two thousand merks if the party 
 arrested is Welsh, Semple, or Arnot, three noted con- 
 venticlers. 
 
 John Welsh, for whose apprehension the large reward of 
 2000 merks was offered, was the grandson of the famous John 
 Welsh of Ayr. He was ejected from his church of Irongray 
 in Dumfriesshire in 1662. " He was," says Kirk ton,* " the 
 boldest undertaker that ever I heard of as a minister in 
 Christ's church, old or late ; for notwithstanding all the 
 threats of the state, the great price set upon his head, the 
 spite of the bishops, the diligence of the blood hounds, he 
 maintained his difficult post of preaching upon the moun- 
 tains of Scotland many times to many thousands for near 
 twenty years ; and yet was always kept out of his enemies 1 
 hands. It is well known that Bloody Clavers, upon intelli- 
 gence that he was lurking in some secret place, would have 
 ridden forty miles in a winter night, yet when he came to 
 the place he had always missed his prey. I have known 
 him ride three days and two nights without sleep, and 
 preach upon a mountain at midnight in one of these nights." 
 Welsh had been present at Rullion Green, and succeeded in 
 escaping from the field along with Colonel Wallace. At a 
 Court of Assize in August, 1667, Welsh, along with a large 
 number of distinguished men, laymen and ministers, was de- 
 clared fugitive and forfeited in life and fortune. He was 
 thus all through his subsequent career an outlaw, with this 
 sentence of death pronounced against him. In July, 1674, 
 we find three gentlemen of Fife fined in large sums, in addi- 
 tion to fines for attending conventicles, because of their har- 
 bouring and protecting John Welsh. The occasion on 
 which these gentlemen rendered themselves amenable to the 
 barbarously unjust laws of that time, was the holding of a 
 conventicle at Torwood, a place 'famous for such meetings. 
 
 * Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland, p. 219. 
 
 R
 
 258 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 In 1676 Welsh was living quietly on Tweedside, just over 
 the English border, where the country gentlemen were more 
 or less favourable, and connived at the residence there 
 throughout the winter of several persecuted Scottish pres- 
 byterians. Along with other like minded men, Welsh did 
 much splendid work through Cumberland and Northumber- 
 land, and in 1677 he returned to Scotland and held field 
 meetings in the southern and western districts. Being an 
 outlaw, with a large price upon his head, he was carefully 
 guarded by his friends, and travelled everywhere with a 
 company of young men armed for their own and his 
 defence. 
 
 Reports of an exaggerated character were circulated as to 
 the numbers of armed men present at the gatherings of the 
 Covenanters, and several of the councillors seem to have 
 fallen into an excitement of terror as to their personal 
 safety. This was especially the case with Sharp, who was 
 naturally of a cowardly and timid disposition. Ever since 
 the attempt to assassinate him in Edinburgh, the escape and 
 survival of the would-be assassin lay upon him like the bur- 
 den of a nightmare. He could have no rest till the culprit 
 was found, and put beyond the possibility of repeating the 
 attempt. He thought that he recognised the face of the 
 man who fired the pistol at him in a shopkeeper's near the 
 house in which he lodged in Edinburgh. According to 
 Burnefs story, Sharp sent to this man, and under solemn 
 promise of immunity, persuaded him to make confession. 
 In February, 1674, Mitchell was called before the Council, 
 and having been warned against trusting to promises of 
 pardon, he refused to make confession, and demanded that 
 proof should be produced of the charges against him. As 
 there was no proof forthcoming, and the Council seemed un- 
 willing to make the confession given under privilege the sole 
 ground of condemnation, the case was departed from and 
 the prisoner sent to the Bass. After enduring imprisonment 
 for two years he was again summoned before the Council 
 and put to the excruciating torture of the boot in order to 
 extort a confession against himself of being at Pentland.
 
 TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF MITCHELL. 259 
 
 His accusers could get nothing out of him, and after he had 
 fainted under the torture, he was carried out to the Tol- 
 booth. It is told in Robert Law's Memorials of Remark- 
 able Things that when it was reported that Mitchell was to 
 be tortured in the other leg, some of his friends sent a letter 
 to Sharp assuring him that if this were done he should have 
 a shot from a steadier hand, and that thereupon he was left 
 alone, but still kept in prison. In the beginning of January, 
 1678, he was again indicted before the court. It would 
 seem that in the meantime Sharp had overcome the scruples 
 of those who had given their word for his safety on the 
 score of his confession. The confession was now produced 
 as evidence against him. Rothes, Lauderdale, Sharp, on 
 oath denied that any promise of immunity had been given 
 to Mitchell, which must be regarded as a most deliberate 
 act of perjury on the part of all of them. The record of this 
 promise was found signed by Rothes, and though the coun- 
 cillors sought to discredit the record and blame Sir John 
 Nisbet, this official was able to show that his entries in the 
 book afforded a true report of what had been done. Mitchell 
 was accordingly sentenced to be hanged at the Grassmarket on 
 18th January, and his death, wholly due to the unrelenting 
 vengefulness of Sharp, and brought about by such unscru- 
 pulous proceedings, did more than any other single occur- 
 rence to bring about and exasperate that bitter antipathy 
 to the archbishop, which issued in his tragical death. As to 
 Mitchell's case, Sir Walter Scott* very fairly estimates the 
 feelings which it awakened in the community : " The man 
 was executed," he says, " with more disgrace to his judges 
 than to himself, the consideration of his guilt being lost in 
 the infamous manoeuvres used in bringing him to punish- 
 ment." 
 
 The failure of all the severe laws passed against conven- 
 ticles had now become notorious, and the government 
 seemed to feel keenly the humiliation of failure. The 
 largest rewards offered for information about well-known 
 
 * Tales of a Grandfather, vol. II., p. 252.
 
 260 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 preachers, had not secured their apprehension. Accord- 
 ingly, a further attempt was made to intimidate those who 
 might be inclined to favour the outlaws. In 1675, letters 
 of Intercommuning were issued against certain individuals 
 obnoxious to the government. This was a barbarous 
 stretching of the sentence of outlawry. It required that 
 the nearest relatives should refuse shelter or any sort of help 
 to the intercommuned. Having any intercourse with such 
 an one, though he might be husband, brother, son, was now 
 made an offence, and the attempt was thus made to drive 
 all sympathizers with the Covenanters beyond the pale of 
 human society. These letters were issued against about a 
 hundred individuals ministers, landed proprietors, ladies. 
 Whoever gave them food or clothing or shelter, fell 
 immediately into the same condemnation with themselves. 
 Such proscribed persons had, in many cases, to betake them- 
 selves to wild and inaccessible places, where they were 
 hunted down like beasts of prey, and driven to concert to- 
 gether schemes of self-defence and retaliatory vengeance. 
 
 It is evident that the measures taken by the persecutors 
 measures which every year increased in severity were 
 goading men on to the very madness of despair, and driving 
 many against their will to enter upon violent and desperate 
 courses. The determination of Sharp, even in cases where 
 other members of the Council were strongly disinclined to 
 proceed, to secure conviction and sentence of death against 
 his victims, rendered him, more than any other individual 
 in the country, the object of intense dislike and popular 
 abhorrence. For being present at a conventicle near North 
 Berwick, James Learmont was sentenced to be beheaded, 
 and was executed at the Grassmarket on 27th October, 
 1678. Lord Castlehill strongly opposed such a sentence, 
 and when it was passed immediately drove home from the 
 Court in displeasure. On the report of this he was de- 
 prived of his office as a Lord of Session for three or four 
 years. It was notorious that on all occasions Sharp opposed 
 every proposal to show clemency to any one on trial for his 
 life.
 
 RAVAGES OF THE HIGHLAND HOST. 261 
 
 The exasperation rapidly spreading was greatly increased 
 by the bringing down into the western and south-western 
 country of the Highland Host, a mob or rabble of wild, un- 
 civilized hillsmen, about 8,000 or 10,000 in number, who 
 were allowed to plunder without restraint the houses and 
 estates of all gentlemen under suspicion, and to commit 
 unspeakable atrocities wherever they went. These ruthless 
 savages were directed by the curates, and the odium of their 
 barbarities rightly fell on those who made use of them. In 
 his drunken ravings Lauderdale had said, in answer to those 
 who complained of the devastation of the fine lowland 
 country, that " it were better that the west bore nothing 
 but windle straws and sandy laverocks, than that it should 
 bear rebels to the king." But even he, with all his mad in- 
 fatuation, was beginning to see that the people would stand 
 no more. And so, after two months of unrestrained 
 pillage, the Highlanders retired, laden with booty as from 
 a foreign campaign. The speedy disbanding of the Host 
 has been ascribed to the disappointment of Lauderdale, 
 who had looked for such a resistance on the part of the 
 west country gentlemen as would give a fair colour of 
 reason for organizing a standing army to suppress rebellion, 
 and for confiscating their estates to his own and his associ- 
 ates 1 advantage. The patience with which those gentlemen, 
 well aware of his sinister purpose, endured the injustice and 
 violence to which they were subjected, spoiled his plot, and 
 showed that only the rough Highlanders, and not Lauder- 
 dale and his fellow courtiers, would be enriched by the con- 
 tinued presence of the marauders. 
 
 In order the more successfully to deal with the preachers 
 at conventicles and their hearers, who had not been in the 
 least deterred by the severity of past measures, an order was 
 obtained from the king for the calling of a Convention to 
 deliberate upon steps to be taken for the more effectual 
 suppression of field conventicles, which were represented as 
 rendezvouses of rebellion. The Convention met on the 10th 
 July, 1678. Great care had been taken that only parties 
 who could be trusted to carry out the will of the persecu-
 
 262 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IX SCOTLAND. 
 
 tors should be elected members. A cess or assessment of 
 ^150,000 was imposed upon the country for the purpose of 
 raising an army for putting a stop to these meetings. This 
 proposal immediately gave occasion to differences among 
 the Covenanters. While some argued that as a tax im- 
 posed by authority they ought to pay it, and others that it 
 must be yielded to as a necessity seeing that their refusal 
 would only lend a plea to the enemy for taking more, the 
 stricter and thoroughly consistent Covenanters maintained 
 that as a tax levied for the avowed purpose of persecution, 
 they dare not yield to pay it. By means of the revenue 
 which this tax supplied, a force of five thousand foot and 
 five hundred horse was raised, to be used wholly for perse- 
 cution, and for the extorting of ruinous fines from those 
 who refused on conscientious grounds to abstain from 
 attendance at meetings conducted by the ministers whom 
 they loved and trusted. 
 
 Sharp had been extremely indignant at those who in the 
 immediate vicinity of his residence continued fearlessly and 
 frequently to hold meetings for worship and to refuse coun- 
 tenance to the curates. At this time Fife seems to have 
 been the favourite haunt of those whom the archbishop 
 sought to destroy. A creature of his, a profane and pro- 
 fligate wretch, called Carmichael, bankrupt in fortune and 
 character, had been appointed by Sharp to act for him 
 throughout the country. He was entrusted with ample 
 powers to deal at his discretion with all who absented them- 
 selves from church or were suspected of attending conven- 
 ticles. He had used his license in a thoroughly unprincipled 
 way. His lust and cruelty knew no bounds. He was in the 
 habit of subjecting servants, men and women, to the most 
 horrid tortures in order to extort information from them 
 about their masters and mistresses. The tyranny and op- 
 pression of this scoundrel had become altogether intolerable. 
 A plot was, therefore, concocted for his apprehension. Hav- 
 ing been informed that he was to be hunting one day in a 
 particular part of the shire, a number of gentlemen who had 
 been outlawed by recent enactments agreed to lie in wait for
 
 DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 263 
 
 him, and rid the county of a pest, and themselves and their 
 families of one who had often caused them fears much worse 
 than death. Warned by a shepherd lad who told him that 
 he had been enquired for, Carmichael got out of the way. 
 Disappointed in the object they had in view, the party were 
 about to separate and return severally to their homes, when 
 a report suddenly reached them that Sharp himself was on 
 the road only a little way ahead of where they stood. 
 
 The unexpected nearness of the archbishop seemed to 
 to these men a call from God in His providence to deal u ith 
 the prime mover in the wrongs of their church and country 
 rather than with an underling. David Hackston of Rath- 
 illet opposed the proposal to pursue and cut off their per- 
 secutor, but he stood alone in his objection, and so he re- 
 solved not to part company with the rest. The only other 
 man of distinction in the group was John Balfour of Kinloch, 
 commonly called Burley. The primate was returning from 
 Edinburgh, where he had been engaged in urging the Council 
 to pass an act against the carrying of arms, aimed at secur- 
 ing more effectually the suppression of conventicles. He 
 was travelling homeward in his carriage, along with his 
 daughter, and had halted at Kennoway over night and 
 rested for a little at Ceres. He was now on the road be- 
 tween Ceres and St. Andrews when his pursuers, mounted on 
 horses, came in view. The archbishop's servants were soon 
 overpowered and the traces of the coach were cut. They 
 were only about two miles from St. Andrews, at a place 
 called Magus Muir. As he refused to leave the coach, they 
 fired in upon him, but his wounds seem not to have been 
 mortal. When he was at last induced to come out, he 
 pled with his assailants, promising them remission and offer- 
 ing them money, if they would spare his life. On his en- 
 treating for mercy, the leader of the band said that as he 
 had never showed mercy so no mercy would be shown to 
 him. He was at last put to death with their swords. A 
 search was made in the luggage which he carried for papers 
 and arms, and these only were taken. This was done on the 
 3rd of May, 1679. There were soldiers stationed at four
 
 264 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 different points round about where this tragedy was enacted, 
 and yet, though all was done about midday, no one appeared 
 to prevent the escape of those who had taken part in this 
 wild deed. 
 
 Few mourned over the archbishop's death. He was dis- 
 liked by the nobles for his overbearing conduct in the Coun- 
 cil, and among all ranks of presby terians he was held in utter 
 detestation. Only a comparatively small number of the 
 more fanatical amongthe Covenanters approved of the doings 
 of those who slew him. All moderate men condemned the 
 act as at once unwise and unchristian. Hackston had sought 
 to dissuade his comrades from engaging in the enterprise, 
 showing them how surely it would be used as a pretext for 
 the passing of severer measures against those whose suffer- 
 ings were already hard enough. Those of the presby terian 
 party whose personal piety was most intense felt that it was 
 a vain thing to seek by the wrath of man to work out the 
 righteousness of God. As for the archbishop himself, the 
 contemporary view of his character has become the verdict 
 of posterity. An ecclesiastic with little trace of personal 
 religion, cold-hearted and callous, so that he could look on 
 unmoved at the tortures of his victims ; timid and cowardly, 
 so that he shrank from the prospect of pains much less 
 severe than those he inflicted without compunction on others ; 
 faithless and regardless of his word, so that even a solemn 
 oath was not allowed to interfere with the attainment of 
 his ambition ; a renegade who had made himself infamous 
 to those he betrayed, and without respect among those 
 whom, for selfish ends, he now professed to serve, he had 
 lived much too long for his own honour and for the good of 
 the nation. 
 
 The news of the primate's death was received by the 
 Council with outward signs of indignation, and a large re- 
 ward was offered for the apprehension of those who had 
 been active in the tragedy. They were, however, already in 
 the West among their friends and sympathizers, and their 
 presence there fanned the smouldering fire of discontent into 
 a full blaze of rebellion. The Act, which Sharp in his last
 
 PERSECUTION AFTER SHARP'S DEATH. 265 
 
 / 
 
 appearance at the Council had with difficulty passed, against 
 the carrying of arms, was now issued. But the men of Ayr- 
 shire and the West were already in such a fever of excite- 
 ment as no edicts of Council could any longer restrain. The 
 idea of resisting by force the tyranny that had become in- 
 tolerable was now with many a fixed and settled conviction. 
 Of the intercommuned ministers, Donald Cargill, Richard 
 Cameron and Thomas Douglas enthusiastically advocated 
 this course. Robert Hamilton, a pious man, but one with 
 a violent and domineering temper, gathered round him a 
 group of ardent and zealous young men, who were deter- 
 mined no longer to submit to the suffering of indignity and 
 loss, nor yet to the signing of bonds by which their con- 
 sciences were ensnared. In order to make a public testimony 
 on behalf of their views, they formed themselves into a com- 
 pany consisting of some eighty armed men, and on the 29th 
 May, 1679, the anniversary of the Restoration, they marched 
 in to Rutherglen, extinguished the bonfires, burned the Acts 
 of Council and Parliament which embodied the persecuting 
 edicts, and affixed to the market cross the testimony which 
 they had publicly read. This is usually called the Ruther- 
 glen Declaration. In this paper that section of the Cove- 
 nanters, calling themselves the true presbyterian party in 
 Scotland, gave testimony against the Act Rescissory, the 
 Acts enacting prelacy, enforcing renunciation of the Cove- 
 nant, ousting of faithful ministers, imposing the anniversary 
 of the Restoration, the royal supremacy and the usurping of 
 power in offering the indulgence. 
 
 The news of this daring deed soon reached Glasgow. One 
 of the recently levied troops commanded by John Graham 
 of Claverhouse was stationed in that city. Graham imme- 
 diately undertook the pursuit of those who had so boldly 
 thrown down the gauntlet. At Hamilton, on Saturday 
 night, he came upon a small company of Covenanters and 
 an intercommuned minister, Mr. John King, who had pro- 
 bably gathered with the intention of attending a meeting on 
 the following day. They did not belong to the Rutherglen 
 party, but they were seized by Claverhouse, some fifteen in
 
 266 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 number, and carried along as prisoners. On Sabbath morn- 
 ing, June 1st, he marched from Hamilton to Strathaven, 
 and hearing of a conventicle that was to be held at London 
 Hill, at which Thomas Douglas was to preach, a few miles 
 further on, he hastened on in that direction carrying his 
 prisoners with him. After the service had begun, the news 
 of Graham's approach spread among the congregation. 
 The armed men among them gathered together, forty 
 horseman and one hundred and fifty on foot. They 
 went forward, and taking up a strong position waited the 
 advance of the troopers. The place where Claverhouse and 
 the Covenanters met was called Drumclog. The country- 
 men led by Hamilton and Colonel Clelland behaved with 
 great valour, and after answering the first onslaught of the 
 enemy with a well-directed fire, Hackston and Balfourmade 
 a sudden dash forward. Somewhere about forty of the 
 troopers were slain and several wounded, and others who 
 were taken prisoners were disarmed and sent away. The 
 commander's horse was shot under him, and he himself 
 narrowly escaped. The humiliation of this defeat was 
 keenly felt by Claverhouse, and his return in such a plight 
 spread dismay among the troops in Glasgow. Had the 
 conquerors now pressed on to the city without delay, it is 
 probable that they would have found the soldiers in con- 
 fusion, and would have gained such an advantage as would 
 have encouraged many waverers to attach themselves to 
 their cause. They went back, however, to the meeting which 
 they had left, and when on the following day they advanced 
 upon Glasgow, they found the city barricaded and put into 
 a state of defence. The little army had received consider- 
 able accessions by the way, and in their attack displayed 
 great gallantry ; but Hamilton's generalship was bad, while 
 he seemed in a cowardly fashion to avoid all personal risk. 
 They were obliged at last to withdraw, after having lost six 
 or eight men. 
 
 The fanaticism and wrong-headedness of some who arro- 
 gated the leadership brought utter ruin upon this enter- 
 prise. Instead of sinking all minor differences and securing
 
 DISSENSIONS AMONG COVENANTERS. 267 
 
 the hearty co-operation of all true and honest presbyterians, 
 Hamilton and his party raised the question of the Indul- 
 gence, condemning those who had taken it and paid cess, 
 and also resolved to renounce allegiance to the king for his 
 breach of the covenant and many acts of tyranny. It is 
 often said that these disputes were started or fomented by 
 the ministers. But it is only common justice to the memory 
 of those good men to record that out of eighteen who were 
 with the army only two, Cargill and Douglas, were in sym- 
 pathy with these fanatical views. These sixteen, just as 
 well as the two, had refused themselves to take the Indul- 
 gence, and had suffered heavily for their refusal. But they 
 were broad-minded enough and had sufficient common sense 
 to see that those who differed from them on this question 
 were as true presbyterians as they were, and that they were 
 quite as ready as themselves to do what they could for the 
 deliverance of their church and nation. They were treated 
 by the domineering Hamiltonian party, as base traitors to 
 the cause, and men who had for years risked their lives for 
 the spiritual independence of the church were branded as 
 worldly-minded, time-serving Erastians. The leader of this 
 liberal and enlightened party was John Welsh of Irongray, 
 on whose head a much higher reward was placed than on 
 that of any other. He and his compatriots who had all these 
 years taken their lives in their hands, and had been hunted 
 as outlaws on the mountains, were now pleading for toler- 
 ance and moderation. 
 
 The Covenanting army, which had grown to considerable 
 dimensions, was unfortunate in its officers. Hamilton was 
 incompetent, self-willed, and inexperienced. He was besides 
 recognised as the prime mover in the counsels of thenarrowest 
 and most extreme party, and so was wholly distrusted and 
 disliked by the rest. They were not yet agreed about their 
 officers, when the royal army, commanded by Monmouth, 
 the king's son, marched toward them from Edinburgh, and 
 encamped within a mile or two of where they lay. Both 
 armies were in the vicinity of Hamilton, only the river 
 Clyde separating the one from the other. It was well known
 
 268 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IX SCOTLAND. 
 
 that Monmouth was of a gentle and generous disposition, 
 and most averse to cruelty and persecution. The more 
 moderate of the Covenanters, therefore, were disposed to 
 treat with him in order if possible to come to terms and 
 thus escape the horrors and miseries of war. After long 
 discussions and violent altercations, the form of a supplica- 
 tion to the duke was agreed upon, and on Sabbath morn- 
 ing, the 22nd of June, John Welsh and another appeared 
 before the royalist camp and had an interview with the 
 commander. Monmouth received them in a kindly manner, 
 expressed his personal wish to avoid extremities, and assured 
 them that he had every reason to believe that he could pre- 
 vail upon the king to grant all reasonable concessions. He 
 said, however, that an essential condition of entering on 
 treaty negotiations was their immediate laying down of 
 their arms and their surrendering themselves to his mercy. 
 He asked them to return to their company and lay these 
 terms before them, which if they did not within half-an- 
 hour agree to accept, hostilities would commence. Hamil- 
 ton and his party angrily opposed all overtures of peace, and 
 the half-hour was spent in furious debate and denunciation 
 of all moderate proposals. The royal troops now advanced 
 on Both well Bridge. A small company of countrymen under 
 Hackston of Rathillet had been sent to keep the bridge 
 about the centre of the narrow defile. They maintained 
 
 / 
 
 their post with great intrepidity, inflicting serious loss upon 
 the enemy, until their ammunition failed. They sent to 
 Hamilton for supplies, or to have their place taken up by 
 a well-equipped company. Instead of receiving supplies or 
 relief, they were ordered to retire ; and so, with heavy 
 hearts, those brave men when they had fired their last shot, 
 withdrew, and the royal troops without resistance marched 
 regularly and leisurely across the bridge. It is impossible 
 to find language adequately to characterise the conduct of 
 Hamilton. His incompetence is patent, but his withdraw- 
 ing the men from the bridge, and afterwards preventing 
 those who were willing to venture their lives from 
 taking up again the position that a mere child might
 
 SUFFERINGS AFTER BOTHWELL BRIDGE. 269 
 
 have seen must be held at all hazards, his standing 
 aside by himself and keeping his troop all the while 
 idle, and his early flight from the field, can be ex- 
 plained only by assuming that with all his obstinacy he 
 was an arrant coward, and that he would rather see his 
 compatriots slaughtered and their cause lost than success by 
 the hands of those who would not in all things submit to 
 his narrow and peremptory dictation. When Monmouth's 
 troops had crossed the bridge and formed in orderly ranks 
 behind their cannon, the field was practically secured, and 
 after the slightest pretence of resistance the Covenanters 
 rushed away in all directions in disorder and confusion. 
 Granted a leader with the slightest spark of common sense 
 the battle of Both well Bridge might have been a brilliant 
 and decisive victory for those who fought for their liberty 
 and their religion. As it was, the defeat was absolutely 
 disastrous. Few fell in action there was little action to 
 fall in but four hundred perished in the flight, and some- 
 where about a thousand were taken prisoners. 
 
 The prisoners taken at Bothwell Bridge had before them 
 a long period of sore suffering and privation. Several hun- 
 dreds of them were huddled together in Grey friars' Church- 
 yard. They were kept there exposed to the inclemency of 
 the weather for some four or five months. They were 
 scantily clad and scantily fed, their heartless guards stealing 
 from them any warm clothing they might have and a 
 considerable share of the provisions that were brought to 
 them. Two hundred and fifty were shipped at Leith for 
 Barbadoes to be sold there as slaves. Crowded together in 
 the narrow hold of a miserable little vessel, they must have 
 regarded death a merciful relief when they were wrecked on 
 the Orkney coast and over two hundred of them found a 
 watery grave. A considerable number obtained release upon 
 their taking a bond promising that they would not again 
 appear in arms against or without the authority of his 
 Majesty. But even these after they returned to their 
 homes were subjected to endless troubles and interferences 
 on account of their having been present at Bothwell Bridge.
 
 270 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 During his residence in Edinburgh, Monmouth did what 
 he could to ameliorate the condition of the prisoners, but 
 on his leaving all such concessions were recalled. 
 
 Two ministers, Mr. John King and Mr. John Kid, who 
 were among the prisoners, were put on trial. King was a 
 prisoner of Claverhouse, liberated at Drumclog ; Kid had 
 been at Bothwell Bridge, and confessed to having conducted 
 conventicles at which armed men kept guard. Kid was 
 cruelly tortured in order that he might reveal the secrets of 
 a general plot, but he had no revelations to make. They 
 were both found guilty on their own confession, and sen- 
 tenced to be hung at the Grassmarket on 14th August, 
 1679, to have their property forfeited, and their heads and 
 right arms cut off and disposed of according to the orders 
 of the Council. 
 
 It was thought well to improve the occasion by having an 
 execution carried out on the scene of the death of arch- 
 bishop Sharp. Five men who had been at Bothwell, 
 against whom, however, nothing could be brought that was 
 not common to all the rest, were sentenced to be carried to 
 Magus Muir, where his grace the archbishop of St. 
 Andrews was murdered, on the 18th of November, and 
 there to be hanged till they are dead, and their bodies to 
 be hung in chains until they rot, and all their lands, goods, 
 and gear to fall to his Majesty's use. It does not appear 
 that even one of these men had anything to do with the 
 primate^s death. 
 
 Meanwhile, Claverhouse with his troops was ravaging and 
 pillaging all throughout the western and south-western 
 districts who might be suspected, even on the flimsiest of 
 pretexts, to have in any way favoured the rising. The in- 
 demnity which many had accepted proved of little use, and 
 the so-called third Indulgence, which allowed ministers who 
 had sought the benefit of the indemnity to preach in houses 
 but not in the fields, was not largely taken advantage of, 
 and was soon withdrawn. The soldiers used torture freely, 
 and committed all sorts of atrocities wherever they went. 
 The inhumanity of Claverhouse and Dalziel, and their in-
 
 DONALD CARGILL. 271 
 
 discriminate harassing of all who were not out and out with 
 them, drove many who had been inclined to moderate 
 courses into the ranks of those who cast off their allegiance 
 to the king, and renounced all attempts at compromise. 
 The most extreme party of the Covenanters recognized the 
 orders of only two ministers, Donald Cargill and Richard 
 Cameron, and came to be known by the name of Camer- 
 onians or Society People. 
 
 Donald Cargill was at this time a man of about seventy 
 years of age, born in Rattray and educated in Aberdeen 
 and St. Andrews, and afterwards minister of the Barony 
 Church in Glasgow. From the time of the Restoration he 
 lived the life of an outlaw, and was hunted from place to 
 place. He was severely wounded at Both well Bridge, and 
 afterwards wandered hither and thither, preaching and 
 encouraging the people to be true to the strictest require- 
 ments of the Covenant. On the 3rd June, 1680, he was at 
 Queensferry, along with Henry Hall of Haughhead. Being 
 attacked by the governor of Blackness Castle, Hall was 
 killed and Cargill was seriously wounded, but managed to- 
 escape. A document found on the body of Hall, commonly 
 called The Queensferry Declaration, renounced allegiance to 
 the Covenant-breaking king, and proposed to set up a 
 republic in place of monarchy, which seemed so readily to 
 lead to tyranny. The Society People never homologated 
 all the expressions used in this paper, and some of the best 
 of them scrupled at the resolve to withdraw from ministers 
 who did not join in the public testimony. Cargill escaped to 
 the south country, and there joined Richard Cameron and 
 others of the party. Cameron, a young man born in Falk- 
 land in Fife, had just returned from Holland, where he had 
 enjoyed the teaching of John Brown, and had been ordained 
 by the ministers there. He at once took a prominent part 
 in the councils of the stricter sect of Covenanters. In com- 
 pany with Cargill and Douglas and a little band of twenty 
 men, he entered Sanquhar, in the north-west of Dumfries- 
 shire, on the 22nd of June, 1680, read a paper that they 
 had drawn up, and nailed a copy of it to the market cross.
 
 272 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 This document, entitled " The Declaration and Testimony 
 of the True Presbyterian, Anti-Prelatic and Anti-Erastian, 
 and Persecuted Party in Scotland, 11 is usually called The 
 Sanquhar Declaration. It renounces allegiance to the king 
 as a perjured tyrant and persecutor, homologates the 
 Rutherglen Declaration, and protests against the reception 
 that had been given in Scotland to the Duke of York, and 
 against the succession of an avowed papist to the throne. 
 Many who have never read these papers denounce them in 
 terms that imply that they are violent programmes of 
 socialists or anarchists, or the intemperate ravings of men 
 Avhose hardships had driven them mad. As a matter of 
 fact they are comparatively brief and carefully composed 
 statements of principles which prevailed within eight years 
 of their publication, and their sentiments are in no respect 
 wilder than those of the men who accomplished the happy 
 revolution. 
 
 The publication of these papers, however, was probably 
 inopportune, and was not approved of by the general body 
 of presbyterians throughout the country. Those, however, 
 who mustered around Cameron and Cargill were truly the 
 heroes of the Covenant, and to them, narrow and bigotted 
 as in some things they undoubtedly were, we owe the 
 liberty, civil and religious, which we enjoy to-day. 
 
 Large rewards were now offered for the apprehension of 
 Cargill and Cameron. They were constantly among the 
 peasantry, hid by them in their houses, preaching to them 
 on the moors, but there was no base informer among them 
 willing to enrich himself at the price of blood. They had 
 with them Hackston and Balfour, outlaws on account of the 
 incident of Magus Muir. In little companies they moved 
 about through the more remote and secluded districts, 
 armed for self-defence. Such a company was surprised on 
 the 20th of July, at a place called Airsmoss, in the parish of 
 Auchenleck. They were about sixty-five in number, com- 
 prising twenty-three horse and a little over forty foot, and 
 including Richard Cameron and his brother Michael, and 
 Hackston of Rathillet. Tidings reached them of the
 
 THE BATTLE OF AIRSMOSS. 273 
 
 approach of the enemy, and before they had time to com- 
 plete their arrangements for fighting, Bruce of Earlshall, 
 with a company more than double theirs in number, was 
 upon them. Hackston took command, and in the first 
 onset a number of the soldiers fell, but the commander's 
 horse was bogged, and he himself dismounted covered with 
 wounds. Those of the Covenanter's force who were on foot 
 were unable to advance upon the horse soldiers, and were 
 saved from attack by the bog, into which the soldiers could 
 not follow. One half of the horsemen of their party were 
 killed, overpowered by superior numbers, and others died of 
 the wounds which they had received. At least twenty- 
 eight of the soldiers were killed. Richard and Michael 
 Cameron were both left dead upon the field. Cameron was 
 heard to pray in view of the battle : " Lord, spare the 
 green and take the ripe." His head and hands were cut off, 
 and sent to Edinburgh to be affixed to prominent places in 
 the city. Hackston, sorely wounded, was carried prisoner 
 to Edinburgh. On the scaffold his right hand was cut off, 
 and, after a considerable pause, his left. He was then hung 
 up by the neck, and while struggling in agony, his breast 
 was cut open and his heart taken out and shown by the 
 executioners as the heart of a traitor. Such barbarities 
 may have struck terror into the minds of some, but in many 
 more, and these the very ones that it was most important to 
 affect, they only awakened horror and hot indignation, that 
 those who were capable of such deeds should be ranked among 
 the rulers of the land. 
 
 In the month of October, 1680, Donald Cargill, at a 
 large meeting at Torwood, in Stirlingshire, pronounced the 
 sentence of excommunication against the king, the Dukes of 
 York, Monmouth, Lauderdale and Rothes, Dalziel and 
 Mackenzie, the Lord Advocate. This he did on his own 
 responsibility, without concert with any of the other 
 preachers. In July of the following year he was brought 
 before the Council, having been apprehended in the middle 
 of May previous at Covington Mill, by Irvine of Bonshaw. 
 He confessed to having preached at Torwood, but required
 
 274 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 that on other matters they should prove what they charged 
 against him. Along with other four men, who acknow- 
 ledged the justice of the excommunication and refused to 
 own the king's authority, he was sentenced to be hanged on 
 the following day, 27th July, 1681, and to have his head 
 placed on the Nether Bow Port. 
 
 Another notable sufferer during this year was James 
 Fraser of Brea, who was born of a good family in Ross-shire. 
 He had been named among the inter-communed in 1675, 
 two years later he was sent to the Bass for preaching at 
 conventicles, and he continued there for two years and a 
 half. In July, 1679, he and certain other ministers were 
 liberated on giving security to appear when called for. 
 During another period of two and a half years he led a 
 wandering life, preaching whenever he had the opportunity, 
 until, in November, 1681, he was again summoned to 
 appear before the Council. He was then charged with con- 
 tinuing to preach, and was sentenced to imprisonment in 
 Blackness Castle. From this prison in about four months' 
 time he was liberated on undertaking to quit the country. 
 While living in London he was apprehended on suspicion of 
 being engaged in a plot, and after an easy imprisonment of 
 six months, he returned to Scotland after the Revolution 
 and became minister of Culross. He is well known to 
 readers of Scottish theology and church history by his 
 Autobiography and a singularly able and interesting 
 treatise on Justifying or Saving Faith. 
 
 On the 31st of August, 1681, the parliament passed an 
 infamous measure, called The Test Act. In this act papists 
 and fanatics were cunningly joined' together, and it was 
 resolved that an oath should be sworn by all who should 
 enter upon offices of trust, civil, ecclesiastical, and military, 
 and by all members of parliament, lords of session, bishops, 
 and all preachers of the gospel whatsoever. This oath, 
 which was of great length, required, in the most 
 absolute fashion, the acknowledgement of the king^s supre- 
 macy in things ecclesiastical as well as civil, and demanded 
 blind submission in all things to the king. The Earl of
 
 
 THE TEST ACT. 275 
 
 Argyll, whose vote had turned the scale in favour of the 
 death rather than the imprisonment of Cargill, now argued 
 strongly against enforcing more oaths, declaring the oath 
 of allegiance already in use abundantly sufficient. The en- 
 forcing of this test was keenly opposed by some of the best 
 of the episcopal clergy. Burnet says that eighty of the 
 most learned and pious of the clergy left all rather than 
 take the oath. The most distinguished of these was 
 Lawrence Charteris, a friend of Leighton, whom he 
 resembled in his spirit and in the type of his piety, pro- 
 fessor of Divinity in Edinburgh. Argyll scrupled at the 
 taking of the Test except with an explanation that he did 
 so only in so far as it was consistent with itself and with 
 the protestant religion, and that it did not debar him from 
 seeking alterations in a lawful way in church and state. 
 He was accordingly charged with treason, and although 
 ably defended, was found guilty. Sentence was not pro- 
 nounced until the will of the king should be declared ; but 
 meanwhile, Argyll, fearing the worst, managed to effect his 
 escape to Holland. He was thereupon sentenced to death. 
 In this way one who had wronged his own conscience, and 
 acted contrary to his better judgment in the service of the 
 king, was driven into open rebellion. 
 
 Of all the prelates of the Scottish Church the most 
 respectable in regard to religious character was bishop 
 Scougal of Aberdeen. He opposed the enforcing of the 
 Test Act, and secured some mitigation in the form of sub- 
 scription. He died in 1682, but his very eminent and 
 promising son, Henry Scougal, had already died in 1678 in 
 his twenty-eighth year. The younger Scougal was in 
 character and as an author something like the saintly Leigh- 
 ton, and his Life of God in the Soul of Man deserves to rank 
 with the archbishop's Commentary on Peter. 
 
 The Test Act had been passed under the influence of the 
 Duke of York, who at this time dominated the government 
 of Scotland. Its enactments were rigorously enforced against 
 Presbyterians, but not against Papists ; and the members of 
 the royal family were expressly excluded from its application.
 
 276 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Unpopular before, his personal presence in Scotland made the 
 duke, detested by many even of the royalist party. He was 
 notoriously harsh and callous. In the torture chamber he 
 continued to sit unmoved, when the writhing agony of the 
 victims of their barbarous cruelty made those who were by 
 no means sensitive or tender hurry away as from a sickening 
 scene of horror. His presence, however, did not terrorise 
 the Cameronians. In the beginning of 1682 a company of 
 these staunch, unflinching presbyterians, numbering fifty 
 armed men, entered Lanark, burned the Test and Succession 
 Acts, and published a new declaration. This declaration, 
 prepared in the end of the previous year enumerates in a 
 calm and dignified manner the acts of tyranny and uncon- 
 stitutional practices by which Charles had forfeited his right 
 to their allegiance. They had long endured, but matters 
 had now gone beyond endurance. u Is it then any wonder,"" 
 they proceed to say, " considering such dealings and many 
 thousands more, that true Scotsmen (though we have been 
 always, and even to extremity sometimes, loyal to our kings) 
 should after twenty years 1 tyranny break out at last, as we 
 have done, and put in practice that power which God and 
 nature hath given us, and we have reserved to ourselves ? 
 As our engagements with our princes, having been always 
 conditional as other kingdoms are implicitly, but ours 
 explicitly/' 
 
 In retaliation for this indignity done to Acts of parlia- 
 ment, the government solemnly and with great pomp burned 
 at the Cross of Edinburgh the Solemn League and Covenant, 
 the Rutherglen and Sanquhar Declarations, CargilPs Cove- 
 nant, and the Lanark Declaration. Much more serious to 
 the Covenanters were the commissions given to Claverhouse 
 and Dalziel, empowering them to ravage Galloway and the 
 Western Counties. 
 
 The Society People had been for sometime without a 
 minister, but in September, 1683, James Ren wick returned 
 from Holland and took the place left vacant by the death 
 of Cameron and Cargill. He was then a young man in his 
 twenty-second year, and had previously associated with
 
 IMPLICATED IN THE RYE HOUSE PLOT. 277 
 
 those who issued the Lanark Declaration. He had gone to 
 Holland to prosecute his studies at Groningen, and before 
 leaving had been ordained by the presbytery there. On his 
 return to Scotland he was avoided by the other presbyterian 
 ministers, who regarded him as a spreader of schism. 
 About a year afterwards letters of intercommuning were 
 issued against him, and he and his followers were subjected 
 to terrible privations and driven into the remote moun- 
 tainous parts of the country. On the 5th November, 1684, 
 his party prepared and published a declaration, entitled 
 The Apologetic Declaration and Admonitory Vindication of 
 the true Presbyterians of the Church of Scotland, especially 
 anent Intelligencers and Informers, in which they claimed 
 the right, according to the principles of the reformers, to 
 execute extraordinary judgments on the murdering beasts 
 of prey who persecuted them. 
 
 The Covenanting leaders who suffered during 1684 were 
 for the most part charged with having been in some way or 
 other implicated in the Rye House Plot. The principal 
 victims of tyranny during the year were Robert Baillie of 
 Jerviswood, who was put to death, and William Carstares, 
 who,' along with other patriotic Scotsmen, was subjected to 
 torture and to great privations. 
 
 The Rev. William Carstares, who was destined to fill so 
 prominent a place in the history of the Revolution, was the 
 son of a very eminent presbyterian minister, born in Cath- 
 cart on llth February, 1649, educated at Edinburgh and 
 afterwards in the theological schools of Holland. At 
 Utrecht he studied under the great Hebraist Leusden and the 
 famous theologian Witsius. As there is no indication any- 
 where of his having received licence or ordination in Scotland, 
 it is most probable that he received presbyterian orders from 
 the Dutch Church, and in 1681 he obtained a certificate from 
 a company of English and Scottish presbyterian ministers 
 that to their knowledge he was a lawfully ordained minister 
 of the gospel. While at Utrecht, Carstares had been pre- 
 sented to William of Orange, and soon became the intimate 
 and trusted friend of the Prince. The young Scotsman
 
 278 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 entered warmly into the plots and schemes of his fellow- 
 exiles. He had gone to London in the autumn of 1674, 
 and was arrested there on suspicion, and in February, 1675, 
 was sent down to Scotland and imprisoned in the Tol- 
 booth of Edinburgh. He was released in July, 1679, and 
 went to England, where, in the neighbourhood of London, 
 he officiated as a presbyterian clergyman. While here he 
 married Miss Kekewich, a Cornish lady, and soon after the 
 marriage, as the position of non-conformists had become 
 precarious, he returned to Holland. We find him again at 
 Utrecht early in 1683, where also Argyll, Stair, Melville, 
 Pringle of Torwoodlee, and several other Scots who could 
 no longer live in Scotland, were gathered. He crossed over 
 to London on the business of the Revolutionists, and was 
 arrested in July of that same year. Soon afterwards he was 
 sent down to Scotland in order that he might be examined 
 under torture, a barbarity which would not be tolerated 
 in England. After an imprisonment of several months, he 
 was brought before the court and subjected to the excruci- 
 ating torture of the thumbkins. The cruel and unprincipled 
 Earl of Perth, the Lord Chancellor, who had been a pres- 
 byterian and had turned episcopalian, and ultimately under 
 James VII. became a Roman Catholic, was enraged at 
 Carstares when he refused to say that he knew anything of 
 designs against the king and his government, and cried out, 
 " Before God, there shall not be a joint of you left whole. 11 
 After making certain depositions, but withholding all im- 
 portant secrets, he was sent first to Dumbarton and after- 
 wards to Stirling. He was at last set at liberty, and in 
 February, 1684, again returned to Holland. 
 
 Robert Baillie of Jerviswood had been in Holland along 
 with Carstares and Argyll. He was apprehended in England 
 in consequence of his name being mentioned in those de- 
 positions which led to the execution of Lord William Russel. 
 An attempt was made to obtain a confession from him, on 
 the promise of saving his own life, that might implicate some 
 of the others. "They who can make such a proposal to me," 
 he answered, " know neither me nor my country." He was
 
 DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. 279 
 
 brought to Scotland along with Carstares, and on 22nd Dec- 
 ember, 1685, he was brought before the Council. He was 
 now an old man, bowed down with trouble, greatly aggra- 
 vated by his rigorous confinement, and had evidently but a 
 few days to live. The Lord Advocate, contrary to promise, 
 made use of Carstares' deposition against the prisoner, and 
 pressed hard for his condemnation. Baillie looked hard at 
 Mackenzie, and reminded his lordship that in prison he had 
 told him that he did not believe him guilty of these things. 
 " Jerviswood," replied the advocate, " I own what you say. 
 My thoughts were then as a private man, but what I say here 
 is by special direction of the Privy Council." Seeing how 
 things stood, Baillie answered " My lords, I trouble your 
 lordships no further." He was sentenced and executed on 
 the same day, having in his weakness to be assisted up the 
 ladder. He was a man of wide learning and rich culture. 
 He was a true patriot, and firmly attached to the presby- 
 terian cause. 
 
 In this same year, 1684, died Archbishop Leighton, who 
 already for ten years had been withdrawn from the tumult 
 and strife which were so abhorrent to his heavenly and peace- 
 loving nature. From his natural constitution and disposi- 
 tion he was altogether unfitted for taking an active part in 
 the affairs of these troubled times. He could only suggest 
 compromises to men who were not in the mood, nor yet, in- 
 deed, in the position to accept such expedients. He was 
 not understood in his own day. There were few, if any, of 
 those about him capable of appreciating what was best in 
 him. Men of his own party who had no personal saintli- 
 ness of their own, were willing to make use of his piety for 
 their own party ends. The Covenanters, not unnaturally, 
 looked askance at one who allowed himself to be mixed up 
 with the proceedings of such a godless and faithless crew. 
 
 Charles II. died on the 6th February, 1685. He is 
 almost universally acknowledged to have been one of the 
 very worst kings that ever reigned in England. He was in 
 the pay of France and sold Dunkirk for money, and was 
 willing to subject his country to any indignity, if only no
 
 280 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 restrictions were put upon his expensive pleasures. During 
 his reign he was nominally a protestant, but on his death- 
 bed he sought reconciliation with Rome, to whose church 
 he had always belonged, if this can be said of a man who 
 never had any religion. The accession of James VII., a 
 professed papist, only led to a more open and direct perse- 
 cution of the same persons as had suffered under the 
 previous reign. The papists, who before had been secretly 
 encouraged, were now promoted to office in the church and 
 in the universities. 
 
 Among those who had taken active steps toward the 
 overthrow of the reigning prince, and especially toward the 
 prevention of the succession of the Duke of York, the most 
 distinguished, alike in respect of rank and of devotion to the 
 cause, was the Earl of Argyll. He and the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth arranged together their ill-starred enterprise, and 
 Argyll, who had been in Holland since his escape from 
 Edinburgh, sailed for Scotland on 1st May, 1685. The 
 whole plan miscarried. Monmouth delayed too long 
 his descent on England, and when Argyll reached Scotland 
 he was disappointed by many on whom he had counted 
 refusing to join him, and some even treacherously giving 
 information to the government. At last, after a series of 
 disasters, Argyll was caught in Renfrewshire, seeking to 
 escape in disguise to his own country. He was brought to 
 Edinburgh, but it was resolved that he should die in fulfil- 
 ment of the old sentence that had been passed upon him, 
 and not on the charge of invading the king's territory. The 
 Cameronians had not joined him, remembering how he and 
 others of the officers associated with him had aided in the 
 persecution. He was beheaded on 30th June, 1685. His 
 bearing on the scaffold was that of a good and brave man, 
 and a true Christian. He said : " I die not only a true 
 Protestant, but with a heart hatred of Popery, Prelacy, and 
 all superstition whatsoever. 
 
 Throughout the districts most largely frequented by the 
 hunted Cameronians, Claverhouse, with other cruel mon- 
 sters like Sir Robert Grierson of Lagg, carried on their work
 
 MARTYRS AT PRIESTHILL AND WIGTOWN. 281 
 
 of brutal outrage on the weak and unprotected. The story 
 of John Brown of Priesthill is one that will be always re- 
 membered and often told to the infamy of Claverhouse. 
 Nothing was charged against this honest countryman but 
 his failure to attend the curate's preaching and his shelter- 
 ing of intercommuned ministers and other homeless wan- 
 derers. Early one morning in May, 1685, Claverhouse and 
 his troops suddenly swooped down upon his house. The 
 man was already at work on the hill, but was soon brought 
 home. After the usual questions had been put, the merci- 
 less captain of dragoons told him to prepare to die. After 
 prayer he took farewell of his wife and children. The six 
 soldiers who had been ordered to fire refused. Rough as 
 they were and inured to scenes of blood, this was too much 
 for them. With his own hand, then, Claverhouse shot him 
 down, and turning to the weeping wife, asked, in cruel 
 mockery, " What thinkest thou of thy husband now, 
 woman ? " " How wilt thou answer," she said, " for this 
 morning's work ? " " To man I can be answerable," he re- 
 plied, " and as for God, I will take him in my own hand." 
 
 During this same month another piece of hideous cruelty 
 was enacted, one that appeals peculiarly to popular sym- 
 pathy, because the victims were women. The children of 
 a farmer called Wilson, living near Wigtown, who with his 
 wife had regularly attended the curate's services, objected 
 to follow the course taken by their parents, and were 
 obliged to leave their home and join the persecuted Coven- 
 anters in the mountains. Margaret, the eldest of them, was 
 only eighteen years of age. Venturing into Wigtown, she 
 was staying with a pious old woman, Margaret M'Lauchlan, 
 when both women were informed upon, and were brought 
 before Lagg for trial. They were charged with having 
 been at conventicles, and when the proof failed they were 
 required to take the abjuration oath. On refusing to do 
 so, they were sentenced to death by drowning in the Bled- 
 noch river. The older woman was tied to a stake nearer 
 the advancing tide than that to which Margaret Wilson 
 was bound. Undeterred by the sight of her friend's dying
 
 282 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 struggle, the young woman persisted in her Christian con- 
 fession. She still refused to take the oath, and calmly 
 waited till the advancing waters rose over her head.* 
 
 A large number of those who had been captured by 
 Claverhouse and other persecutors on their refusal to join 
 the royalist party or to recognise the authority of James 
 VII. , were in the Edinburgh jails, and in order to make 
 room for the convicts caught in ArgylPs rebellion, were sent 
 for safe keeping and rigorous treatment to Dunnottar Castle, 
 on the Kincardine coast, near Stonehaven. On the 24th of 
 May, about one hundred and seventy men and women, after 
 a weary journey on foot from Edinburgh, were thrust down 
 together into a narrow and loathsome dungeon, the mire 
 ankle deep upon the floor and light admitted only from a 
 small window high up in the wall. Food of a very inferior 
 quality was sold to them at most exorbitant rates. On the 
 80th of July, those who persisted in refusing to take the 
 oath, were banished to the plantations. In their voyage to 
 New Jersey they endured dreadful sufferings, and many died 
 at sea, but those who reached their destination were kindly 
 treated, the magistrates giving them their liberty so that in 
 better times some returned to their native land. Among 
 
 * The stories of John Brown and the Wigtown martyrs are no 
 longer disputed by any respectable or trustworthy historian. Recent 
 writers of all schools join in testifying to the accuracy and fairness 
 of Wodrow's History. Mr. Grub almost forfeits his claim to be re- 
 garded as a capable and reliable historian by his note on pp. 281 and 
 282 of Vol. III. of his work, in which he seeks to belittle both stories 
 on the utterly worthless authority of Mr. Aytoun and Mr. Mark 
 Napier. Principal Story's admirable note on Mark Napier's Case for 
 the Crown (against the truth of the Wigtown story, admirably and 
 conclusively answered by Dr. Stewart of Glasserton) is well worth 
 quoting. " Any student, anxious to catch a last glimpse of all the 
 ugliest features of Scotch Jacobitism and Episcopacy, should nerve 
 himself to read Mr. Mark Napier, although the bluntness of moral 
 discernment, the unconscious brutality of sentiment, and the ela- 
 borate f riskiness of style, are very trying to one's patience." 
 William Carstares. London, 1874, p. 146.
 
 ALEXANDER PEDKN THE COVENANTER. 288 
 
 these was the Rev. John Fraser of Alness, the father of the 
 well-known author of A Treatise an Sanctificatwn. 
 
 Early in 1686 Alexander Peden died, one of the most 
 remarkable and interesting characters among the later 
 Covenanters. An Ayrshire man, he had been ordained 
 shortly before the Restoration at Glenluce in Galloway, and 
 after suffering much persecution for holding conventicles and 
 baptizing children in other parishes, he was outlawed in 
 1667, and after spending some time in Ireland he returned 
 to Scotland, and having been arrested in 1673, was sent to 
 the Bass. In 1678 he was sentenced to be banished, but 
 when he reached London, he and his fellow prisoners were 
 set at liberty. He again spent a considerable time in Ire- 
 land, and returning to Scotland in 1685, he had many 
 wonderful deliverances from the enemy that hunted him 
 ceaselessly from place to place. The story of Peden as 
 given in the Scots Worthies is full of his prophecies and re- 
 markable providences. He was undoubtedly a far-seeing, 
 observant man, but there is evidently much exaggeration 
 and superstition in the popular record of his life. 
 
 The king now sought to secure advantage to the Roman 
 Catholics by repealing the penal laws against them. This 
 was strongly opposed as contrary to the constitution. The 
 majority of the bishops were against it, and the council 
 only promised to consider the matter. The king then of his 
 own authority abrogated the persecuting laws against non- 
 conformists on condition that the ministers then relieved 
 would preach loyal doctrines. This toleration of presby- 
 terians by a popish prince was evidently granted only as a 
 temporary measure in order to secure liberty to papists, and 
 would, no doubt, when convenient, be just as arbitrarily with- 
 drawn. The Cameronians were not deceived by this man- 
 reuvre, and continued their field conventicles in defiance of 
 the government. They would not undertake to preach 
 loyal doctrines, nor be dictated to in any way by the state 
 as to what doctrines they should preach. James Renwick 
 continued to be their preacher. He drew up a Testimony 
 to a Covenanted Reformation and in defence of continuing
 
 284 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 to preach in the fields and against anti-christian toleration. 
 This was published on the 17th January, 1688. He was 
 arrested in Edinburgh on 31st January and charged with 
 preaching against the payment of the cess. He was at last 
 charged with disowning the king^s authority, the lawfulness 
 of paying the cess and the unlawfulness of carrying arms. 
 He was sentenced to death, and on 17th February he was 
 hanged at the Grassmarket, the last victim in this country 
 called to seal his testimony to his religious convictions 
 with his blood. Alexander Shields, who had been in Hol- 
 land, returned and continued the work of Renwick as 
 preacher among the Societies, and was assisted by two young 
 ministers, Lining and Boyd. Persecution continued more 
 or less severe, but relief was at hand, and before the end of 
 the year William, Prince of Orange, had landed at Torbay, 
 and the government of the tyrant and persecutor was over- 
 thrown.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Church of the Revolution* 
 16881712. 
 
 THE relief afforded to all those in England and Scotland 
 who had been persecuted on account of their political and 
 religious opinions under the crushing tyranny of the past 
 eight-and-twenty years was instantaneous and complete. 
 Those who had been the tools of the despot either dropped 
 entirely out of view, or with chameleon-like agility assumed 
 a form befitting the changed circumstances of the age. So 
 far as Scotland was concerned, the most brutally violent 
 measures of the government had failed to secure for prelacy 
 a place in the hearts of the people. As Macaulay puts it, 
 the logical process of torture by the boot had failed to 
 teach the doctrine of apostolical succession and ordination, 
 and the edifying divinity lectures of the Grassmarket failed 
 to recommend the principles of episcopacy. The historian 
 describes the contest between the Scottish nation and the 
 Anglican Church as thirty years of the most frightful mis- 
 government ever seen in any part of Great Britain. " If 
 
 * Literature : Burnet, History of his own Times, London, 1883 
 (1724) ; Story, William Carstares : a Character and Career of the 
 Revolutionary Epoch (1 649-1715), London, 1874 ; Hutchison, The 
 Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland : its Origin and History, 
 1680-1876, Paisley, 1893, pp. 81-172 ; Luttrell, A Brief Historical 
 Relation of Mate A/airs (1678-1714), 6 vols., London, 1857; 
 Macaulay, History of England, London, 1849 ; Grub, Ecclesiastical 
 History of Scotland, Edin., 1861, Vol. III., pp. 293-371 ; M'Crie, 
 The Public Worship of Presbyterian Scotland, Edin., 1892, pp. 241- 
 275. 
 
 285
 
 286 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 the Revolution, 11 he continues,* "had produced no other 
 effect than that of freeing the Scotch from the yoke of an 
 establishment which they detested, and giving them one to 
 which they were attached, it would have been one of the 
 happiest events in our history. 11 
 
 Naturally there was a tendency throughout Scotland on 
 the part of those who had been oppressed to a somewhat 
 violent overthrow of what they regarded as the monuments 
 of idolatry. In Glasgow the effigies of the pope and of the 
 archbishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow were burned, and 
 in Edinburgh images in a popish chapel were destroyed. 
 The Earl of Perth and some others who had become 
 specially obnoxious were roughly treated, and made their 
 escape with some difficulty. Some of the prelatical clergy 
 were reduced to poverty, and had to obtain relief for them- 
 selves and their families by charity. The rabbling of the 
 curates, especially in the districts in which their presence 
 had long been the occasion of bitter resentment, was some- 
 times carried out rather ruthlessly, and of necessity often 
 entailed considerable suffering. Hill Burton, however, 
 admits that the presbyterians were signally moderate in 
 their treatment of the enemy at their feet. " The curates," 
 he says,f " were no doubt rabbled, and this was an unpleasant 
 ordeal to those who had been accustomed to hunt the 
 rabble. 11 It is highly creditable to the presbyterians that 
 in their hour of triumph, even the most extreme among 
 them, and those who had suffered intolerable cruelties and 
 had long been treated as outcasts and outlaws, did in so few 
 cases inflict more suffering on their enemies than was inevit- 
 able, and that they did in no case proceed to the extremity 
 that was so easily within their power. 
 
 William, though bred a presbyterian, was what was 
 then called a latitudinarian. In doctrinal belief he was 
 
 * Essay on Sir James Macintosh's History of the devolution, in 
 one Vol. ed., London, 1883, p. 341. 
 
 + History of the British Empire during the reign of Queen Anne, 
 Edin. 1880, Vol. I., p. 100.
 
 EPISCOPACY AND PRESBYTEEIANISM IN SCOTLAND. 287 
 
 Calvinistic, to the extent at least of being a firm believer in 
 predestination; but in regard to forms of church government, 
 his choice of one rather than another was determined wholly 
 by expediency. On arriving in England, he at once saw 
 that episcopacy was in the ascendancy there, and at once he 
 recognised the church of the bishops as the Established Church 
 of England. In regard to Scotland he had been assured by 
 his trusted friend Carstarcs that presbyterianism was in the 
 ascendant, and was enthusiastically supported by the great 
 mass of the people. There were those, however, now around 
 him who told him that the presbyterians were mainly of the 
 lower ranks, and that the noblemen and county gentlemen 
 were for the most part in favour of episcopacy. Probably 
 also a desire for securing uniformity in the ecclesiastical 
 constitution of the two kingdoms, inclined the new king to 
 consider favourably the idea of establishing episcopacy in 
 Scotland, if that could be done without weakening his 
 civil government. He therefore gave an audience to Bishop 
 Rose of Edinburgh, to see how far he could trust the 
 prelates and the church they represented to act the part of 
 loyal supporters of his rule and active promoters of his 
 interests in the country. He knew that he had the presby- 
 terians, and that there was no one else to whom they could 
 turn, and if now he could secure the detachment of the 
 episcopalians from the cause of the late monarch, he would 
 have undivided and undisputed authority throughout his 
 whole dominions. Bishop Rose, however, like most of his 
 party, was a devoted Jacobite, and so he could only promise 
 to help the king "so far as law, reason, or conscience " should 
 allow him. The king at once saw that this meant a refusal 
 of allegiance, and immediately turned away without saying a 
 word. 
 
 The Convention of the Estates met in Edinburgh on the 
 14th of March, 1689, and was attended by many of the 
 prelates and a large number of the royalist nobles. Some 
 of the supporters of James, feeling that they were the re- 
 presentatives of a lost cause, soon ceased their attendance, 
 and the Duke of Hamilton, who was elected president, had
 
 288 HISTORY OF THE CHU11CH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 a thoroughly sufficient majority to support the claims and 
 advance the interests of the Prince of Orange. On the 
 llth of April, the crown, which had been previously declared 
 to have been forfeited by James, was offered to William and 
 Mary. In the Claim of Rights, which was then dra\vn up, 
 it was declared that " prelacy and superiority of any office 
 in the church above presbyters is, and hath been, a great 
 and unsupportable grievance and trouble to this nation and 
 contrary to the inclinations of the generality of the people 
 ever since the Reformation, they having been reformed from 
 popery by presbyters, and therefore ought to be abolished." 
 To this Claim the sovereigns did not formally bind them- 
 selves, but they took the coronation oath, according to which 
 they promised to maintain the true religion then received 
 in Scotland. The presbyterian interests were meanwhile 
 carefully attended to by Carstares. William was now more 
 than ever convinced that his Scottish chaplain was not only 
 sagacious but also thoroughly well informed, and the direc- 
 tion of Scottish affairs was henceforth practically in the 
 hands of this presbyterian clergyman. From him William 
 learned that the Scottish prelates were determined Jacobites, 
 and that their following, though considerable in the north, 
 was exceedingly small and uninfluential in all the district 
 south of the Tay. 
 
 When it was found that the parliament of Scotland had a 
 decided majority in favour of the new king and the revolu- 
 tion, Claverhouse, or Dundee, as he was now called, after he 
 had failed to induce the royalist members to constitute a 
 rival convention, retired from the meeting, and went to the 
 north to raise the Highland clans to fight on behalf of the 
 fugitive king. On the other hand the Cameronians, who 
 were out and out opponents of the late king, found con- 
 siderable difficulty in acquiescing in the movement for the 
 recognition of the claims of William. They were bitterly 
 opposed to Claverhouse, so that this man, so recently the 
 proud and all-powerful persecutor, found it necessary to 
 apply to the Council for protection from the Westland 
 Whigs now boldly marching up and down through
 
 CAMERONIAN REGIMENT FORMED. 289 
 
 the streets of Edinburgh. This protection was refused, 
 and the Viscount rushed precipitately away to the 
 mountain fastnesses of the north. Meantime, the 
 Cameronians gave in a conditional adhesion to the 
 cause of William. They persisted in requiring that their 
 king should sign the Covenant and should undertake to 
 secure and promote the establishment of covenanted religion 
 in the land. It was evident that William would not be 
 persuaded to bind himself under any such obligations. But 
 the country had to face the danger of an onslaught by 
 Claverhouse and his wild Highland clansmen. The ruthless 
 atrocities of the Highland Host were vividly present to the 
 minds of the Covenanters of the West. They were anxious 
 to do something in the way of meeting the threatened 
 attack. But how could they serve under General Mackay, 
 who had been appointed commander-in-chief, and under his 
 officers, whose principles they did not know ? At last, 
 William Clelland, who had fought at Bothwell Bridge, and 
 was recognised as a brave and skillful officer, and a faithful 
 son of the Covenant, undertook to raise a regiment from 
 among the members of the party to which he belonged. 
 His task was indeed a difficult one. The Cameronians met 
 in Douglas on the 29th April, and resolved that they could 
 have no fellowship in the army with malignants, as this 
 would be a sinful association. Shields, their minister, how- 
 ever, preached on the text : " Curse ye, Meroz ; curse ye 
 bitterly the inhabitants thereof ; because they came not to 
 the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the 
 mighty." It was afterwards resolved that under certain 
 conditions they might, in present circumstances, accept 
 military service. Extraordinarily stringent rules were laid 
 down as to the character and principles of those who alone 
 could be admitted to the regiment. They were to have the 
 choice of their own officers, arrangements were to be made 
 for daily service under their own minister, an elder was to 
 be in each company, and many other such minute and exact 
 enactments were proposed. Clelland declared that enlist- 
 ment hampered in this way and the enforcement of hard
 
 290 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 and fast regulations like these would make military discip- 
 line impossible. At last it was agreed that the making of 
 a declaration against popery, prelacy, and arbitrary power 
 would suffice. A paper containing such a declaration was 
 read by Clelland to company after company, and solemnly 
 sworn to by the men. Thus was formed the famous 
 Cameronian Regiment, now the Twenty-Sixth, in which 
 Clelland was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel, and Alexander 
 Shields, Chaplain. 
 
 General Mackay, leading William's army, met the High- 
 landers, under Dundee, at the Pass of Killiecrankie on 27th 
 June, 1689, and though the king's army was defeated, the 
 rebel leader was slain, and with his death the best hopes of 
 the Jacobite party perished. The Cameronian regiment, un- 
 popular with those who had previously cherished any Jacobite 
 sympathies, and also with many of the military officials, 
 whose lukewarmness in the cause of religion they had very 
 boldly reproved, was now sent on to Dunkeld, with reduced 
 numbers and with scanty provisions and ammunition. It was 
 evidently the hope of some treacherous managers to bring 
 about the annihilation of that brave company. The regi- 
 ment numbered now not more than seven hundred men. 
 When attacked by Captain Cannon, who had taken Dun- 
 dee's command, and who was at the head of four thousand 
 men, the Cameronians sheltered themselves among the 
 houses, and when their bullets were spent, they made more 
 from lead stripped from the roofs of the buildings. The 
 fight continued with terrific fury for sixteen hours, and 
 ended in the complete rout of the rebel army. The 
 Cameronians sang psalms of praise, and offered thanks- 
 givings to the Lord of Hosts who had given them the 
 victory. The hour of rejoicing was saddened by the loss of 
 their brave commander. Colonel Clelland, at the early age 
 of eight-and-twenty, had fallen under two mortal wounds 
 as he was encouraging his men in the battle amid the houses 
 of Dunkeld. 
 
 The rebellion in arms, so far as Scotland was concerned, 
 was now at an end, and opposition to the king and to the
 
 THE REVOLUTION SETTLEMENT. 291 
 
 establishment of presbyterianism was henceforth confined to 
 diplomatic manoeuvres and court intrigues. 
 
 The Scottish parliament met in April, 1670, in order to 
 determine the constitution of the Church of Scotland. 
 Under the presidency of Lord Melville, it repealed the Act 
 of 1669, which had declared the king's supremacy in matters 
 civil and ecclesiastical, restored their parishes to those 
 ministers who had been ejected in 1661, and removed the 
 present incumbents, while those thus removed, who agreed to 
 take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary, were 
 appointed to other vacancies. There was still a remnant of 
 some sixty surviving the twenty-eight years of episcopal 
 occupation, and not only were these at once received, but 
 also all those who had been licensed and ordained by them. 
 At a later session, and after some hesitation, the West- 
 minster Confession of Faith was accepted as the standard of 
 doctrinal belief in the church, and the presbyterian form of 
 church government and discipline was approved and 
 adopted in accordance with the legislation of 1592. The 
 question of patronage was reserved for future settlement. 
 A General Assembly was summoned to meet in October for 
 the settlement of kirks and the general regulation of ecclesi- 
 astical affairs. All holding office in universities, colleges, 
 and schools were to be required to subscribe the Confession 
 of Faith, and to take the oath of allegiance, and a com- 
 mission of visitation was empowered to deprive of office 
 those who refused to submit to these conditions. When at 
 last the question of patronage was taken up, it was resolved, 
 on payment of a certain compensation, to deprive patrons 
 of their power, and give the right of election to the elders 
 and all heritors, being protestants, with the approval of the 
 congregation ; and in case of the congregation disapproving 
 the person nominated, the presbytery must consider the 
 grounds given for disapproval, and finally decide the matter. 
 In royal burghs the election was to be vested in the magis- 
 trates, town council, and kirk-session. The Cameronians, 
 and not only they, but also many of those who had been 
 hearty supporters of the revolution, regretted that no men-
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 tion was made in the settlement of the National Covenant 
 and the Solemn League and Covenant. 
 
 The General Assembly of October, 1690, was the first 
 that had been held since the violent dismissal, by order of 
 Cromwell, of the Assembly of 1653. Hugh Kennedy, one 
 of the ministers of Edinburgh, was moderator, and three 
 Cameronian ministers, Shields, Lining, and Boyd, were re- 
 ceived and recognised as ministers of the Church of Scot- 
 land. The members of the Societies, however, to which 
 these ministers had belonged, refused in large numbers to 
 go with them, because the Assembly rejected the memorial 
 which they had addressed to it, and showed a determination 
 to avoid as far as possible discussion of matters which might 
 cause division or prevent the inclusion of different parties. 
 The more rigid Covenanters had as their leader Sir Robert 
 Hamilton, whose obstinacy and wrongheadedness at Both- 
 well and elsewhere were still remembered with bitterness by 
 all moderate and level-headed men. In the endeavour, after 
 a wide and generous comprehension, all the decisions came 
 to by Resolutioners and Protesters against one another 
 were rescinded, and it was hoped that all genuine presby- 
 terians, on the basis of their common presbyterianism, might 
 be brought together tinder a workable and harmonious 
 union. The petition of the Societies to the Assembly, 
 which practically insisted that compliances such as most of 
 its members had made should be enumerated among the sins 
 to be confessed and lamented at an appointed Fast, was re- 
 jected, since it would of necessity prevent many from joining 
 the church, and would seriously endanger its establishment 
 under William's government. Notwithstanding every effort 
 to satisfy them, the Societies pronounced the Causes of the 
 Fast stated by the Assembly lame and defective. They 
 were even offered an opportunity of easing their conscience 
 by handing in a protest to the session of the congregation 
 or the presbytery of the bounds, so that their joining would 
 not imply their approval of what they condemned. But there 
 were some who objected to this reasonable and conciliatory 
 proposal. Headed by Hamilton, they disowned the Revolu-
 
 CAMERONIAN MINISTERS JOIN THE CHURCH. 293 
 
 tion government, and persistently maintained that they 
 could recognise no prince except on the basis of the 
 Covenant. Hence the repudiation of William's govern- 
 ment and the refusal to pay taxes, the payment of which 
 involved recognition of his royal authority, were made 
 essential terms of membership in the Societies. 
 
 Of the three ministers who refused to take up this ex- 
 treme position, Lining and Boyd became ministers of the 
 revolution church in Lesmahagow and Dairy, in Galloway, 
 respectively, and Shields, after continuing for a time to hold 
 the chaplaincy of the Cameronian regiment, became one of 
 the ministers of St. Andrews. Alexander Shields was one 
 of the very ablest of the ministers in Scotland at this time. 
 He had been licensed and ordained by the presbyterians in 
 London, where he had acted as amanuensis to the famous John 
 Owen. He afterwards suffered imprisonment in London and 
 in Edinburgh, and in 1686 he joined Renwick, and laboured 
 with him among the Society people. Besides assisting in 
 drawing up the Informatory Vindication, he wrote, while in 
 Holland, a large work in justification of the con tendings of 
 his party, well known under the title of The Hind Let 
 Loose. In a work on Church Communion, posthumously 
 published by Lining, Shields vindicated his conduct in 
 joining the revolution church. In 1699 he was sent out to 
 Darien as one of the chaplains to that unfortunate expedi- 
 tion, and, after a disappointing and seemingly fruitless 
 ministry among a worldly and godless set of people, he died 
 at Jamaica in June, 1700. 
 
 Meantime the attitude of the Societies was uncompro- 
 mising to the utmost degree. Even in regard to marriages, 
 no recourse was to be had to civil authorities, and there was 
 no minister recognised as qualified to perform the cere- 
 mony. Efforts to secure a regular ministry failed. Mr. 
 Hepburn of Urr was deposed for his sympathy with the 
 principles of the Cameronians, but he was not prepared to 
 acquiesce in the renunciation of allegiance to the revolution 
 government. The Dutch church might have trained 
 students for their ministry, but it was now largely in
 
 294< HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 sympathy with the established church. The members of 
 this most exclusive party were tightly bound by a document 
 drawn up by Hamilton, usually called The Tinwald Paper, 
 in which the procedure, civil and ecclesiastical, since the re- 
 volution, was contrasted with that of earlier times, and the 
 most rigid views maintained in earlier testimonies were 
 extended and enforced as affording the necessary basis 
 of membership in the Societies. 
 
 The inclusion, as far as possible, of the episcopalians 
 within the Church of Scotland was an idea that was never 
 lost sight of by William. In order to accomplish this the 
 government made repeated representations to the Assembly 
 urging the reception of all who in the most general way 
 would express their readiness to conform. The most 
 earnest presbyterians, on the other hand, were afraid lest 
 large numbers of the old episcopal clergy should tender a 
 nominal submission, only that they might have the power 
 from within to dominate the counsels of the church, and 
 ultimately reintroduce episcopacy. Accordingly, the com- 
 mission appointed to deal with the several parishes and 
 their ministers proceeded in a manner that was by no 
 means acceptable to the king. Expostulations from the 
 court had no effect, and the commission continued to reject 
 all ministers and university professors who failed to take the 
 oath of allegiance, to subscribe to the Confession of Faith, 
 and to submit to the presbyterian government of the 
 church. William still thought that by including within 
 the church all who would consent to do so on conditions of 
 the vaguest and most general sort, he could win a large 
 number of waverers, and secure his position throughout the 
 whole country. When the Assembly's Commission proved 
 stubborn, the king postponed the meeting of Assembly 
 from the 1st of November, 1691, to the 15th of January, 
 1692. When at last it met, the king's commissioner pro- 
 duced a schedule containing a formula and declaration for 
 admission of episcopal ministers, requiring only concurrence 
 with the presbyterian government and subscription of the 
 Confession. Applications for admission were made, but
 
 IMPOSITION OF OATH OF ASSURANCE. 295 
 
 only one applicant was received. The chief officers of state, 
 who were true presbyterians, were dismissed, and their 
 places taken by men who had been Jacobites and perse- 
 cutors. After the Assembly had sat for about a month 
 without making any considerable progress, the Commissioner 
 dissolved it in the king's name, without appointing a day 
 for its next meeting, merely intimating that the king would 
 give notice when another Assembly should be called. The 
 moderator thereupon named the third Wednesday of 
 August, 1693, as the day to which the Assembly was 
 adjourned. To save the dignity of the crown, and at the 
 same time avoid a collision with the church, which was 
 more than the king could venture upon, a day was fixed 
 for the meeting of the Assembly, not the same as that fixed 
 by itself, but not far removed from it. 
 
 In consequence of the spread of Jacobite disaffection and 
 the unpopularity of William in the north, which had been 
 considerably aggravated by the atrocity of the Glencoe 
 massacre, it was resolved by parliament to add to the oath 
 of allegiance what is usually called the oath of assurance, 
 which declared William king not only de facto but also de 
 jure. Naturally enough, the Jacobite episcopal clergy, who 
 might have acquiesced in the government of William as an 
 accomplished fact, scrupled to homologate the principle on 
 which it was established. But even the presbyterians rose 
 against the imposition of this oath. The Commissioner, 
 when he arrived in Edinburgh in order to preside at the 
 Assembly summoned to meet on the 29th March, 1694, 
 found that the ministers, who petitioned to be relieved of 
 this oath, were as determined as ever to refuse it. He 
 accordingly sent a special message to the king showing him 
 how matters stood, and asking for instructions. Under the 
 evil influence of Tarbet and Stair, the king had despatches 
 prepared insisting that the oath must be taken. Carstares 
 had been absent from court and only returned that evening 
 to find letters from the Scottish presbyterian ministers 
 waiting him, in which the critical state of matters was laid 
 before him, and to learn that the despatches had already
 
 296 HISTOUY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 been handed to the messenger, who was on the eve 
 of returning to Scotland. He immediately sought out the 
 messenger and demanded from him, in the king^s name, the 
 despatches with which he had been entrusted. Carrying 
 these documents in his hand, he made his way to the royal 
 apartments, but already the king had retired to rest. 
 Going into the royal bed chamber, he found the king 
 asleep in bed. He knelt down and awakened the king, and 
 presented a humble supplication for his life. William 
 looked in utter astonishment at his chaplain and trusted 
 counsellor, wondering what offence worthy of death he 
 could possibly have committed. When Carstares told him 
 what he had done, the king frowned severely, and showed 
 signs of violent resentment ; but knowing his friend so well, 
 he listened to the explanation which he made. As Car- 
 stares showed him that the presbyterians in Scotland were 
 his most reliable supporters, and that now, by the imposi- 
 tion of this oath, those who were not well-wishers of his 
 government hoped to cement episcopalians and presby- 
 terians in a common bond of union against the interests of 
 the king. His majesty gave careful attention to Carstares 1 
 statement, and when his adviser had done speaking, he told 
 him to throw the despatches which he had in his hand into 
 the fire and to prepare others in such form as he thought 
 best in the circumstances. Carstares accordingly prepared a 
 paper, which the king signed, dispensing with the oath. The 
 messenger reached Edinburgh on the morning of the day 
 on which the Assembly met, and to the joy of all, it was 
 found that the king had given way, and that the threatened 
 rupture was avoided. 
 
 The principal difficulties which the church courts encoun- 
 tered at this period were connected with the supply of pres- 
 byterian ministers for vacant churches and with the settling 
 of ministers in places where episcopacy was still in power. 
 Especially in the north resistance was frequently offered, when 
 those commissioned by the Assembly sought to dislodge the 
 old episcopalian clergy whose claims were supported by mobs 
 from other districts led and encouraged by local gentlemen
 
 EXECUTION OF THOMAS AIKENHEAD. 297 
 
 and landowners. But a further trouble threatened from the 
 spread of sceptical views and deistical opinions in different 
 parts of the country. Attention was called to this danger 
 in the Assembly of 1695. It would seem that there had 
 been cause for anxiety, and faithfulness to the cause of evan- 
 gelical truth demanded that some warning should be given, 
 and that some enquiry should be made. In one unhappy 
 case recourse was had to extreme measures, and a persistent 
 severity shown which reflects very seriously upon the Chris- 
 tian character and temper of the leading churchmen of the 
 day. A young man, Thomas Aikenhead, a student at the 
 university, was, by the direction of the Privy Council, 
 charged before the Court of Session with using unbecoming 
 and blasphemous language and scoffing at holy scripture. 
 He sought to prevent the case coming to trial by presenting a 
 petition representing his youth and inexperience, he was only 
 twenty-one years of age, declaring that there were exaggera- 
 tions of statement in the charge against him, and renouncing 
 the errors into which he had fallen. The petition was rejected, 
 and the trial proceeded, with the result that he was unani- 
 mously declared guilty, and sentenced to death. He now 
 besought delay in the execution of the sentence, that he 
 might be better prepared for his end. It is said that the 
 Council was inclined to listen to this pathetic and reason- 
 able request, but that the ministers, instead of interceding 
 on his behalf, were for the most part opposed to .delay. The 
 poor lad was accordingly executed on the day appointed. 
 Such conduct on the part of the ministers may be perhaps 
 explained by the supposition that they had been seized with 
 a foolish panic and that they dreaded lest the floodgates 
 were being opened and that the country was about to be 
 swept with a deluge of infidelity and godlessness. But 
 neither this nor anything else can be an excuse for the cal- 
 lousness of their proceeding. 
 
 An important measure, known as the Barrier Act, was passed 
 by the Assembly of 1697. It enacts that before any law is 
 passed that will affect the whole church, it must be sent 
 down by the Assembly to presbyteries in the form of an over-
 
 298 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 ture for their opinion, so that every presbytery may have an 
 opportunity of reporting to the next Assembly either in 
 approval or in disapproval of the proposal, and that it can 
 be passed by the Assembly into law only if it has received the 
 approbation of a majority of presbyteries. This check upon 
 hasty legislation on the part of the supreme court must be 
 recognised as a very desirable arrangement in view of the 
 fact that the composition of any one Assembly may be such, 
 that a measure originating in it, and finally disposed of by 
 it, may not at all be in accordance with the general senti- 
 ment of the church. 
 
 The cases with which General Assemblies hitherto had to 
 deal turned for the most part on the question of church 
 government and discipline, and on doctrinal matters only in 
 a secondary degree. It was not till 1751 that the Assembly 
 was called to deal with a charge against one of the ministers 
 of the church of a purely doctrinal kind. In that year Mr. 
 George Garden, formerly of St. Nicholas 1 Church, Aberdeen, 
 was charged with being the author of a book entitled An 
 Apology for Madame Antonia Bourignon, which the Assem- 
 bly condemned. The previous Assembly had questioned 
 him about the authorship, which he did not disown, and 
 about the works which it reviewed, for which he expressed 
 his profound admiration. The lady, whose writings and 
 opinions have long passed out of public view, had died only 
 some twenty years before her Scottish disciple was brought 
 into trouble on her account. Her works, which were elo- 
 quently written, related visions and revelations which she pro- 
 fessed to have had, and set forth a system of religious mysti- 
 cism. She condemned all outward rites and made religion 
 consist wholly in inward and spiritual processes. Dr. Garden 
 failed to appear to answer to the charge, and was deposed 
 for contumacy and for the entertaining of erroneous 
 opinions. He seems to have been wearied with the con- 
 troversies of the age, and to have sought refuge in the quiet 
 contemplativeness so much commended in this dreamy and 
 mystical system, in which unfortunately many serious heresies 
 were also concealed.
 
 ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE. 299 
 
 The death of King William on the 8th of March, 1702, 
 in his fifty-second year, after a brief reign of thirteen years, 
 raised for a little while the hopes of the Jacobites, and en- 
 couraged the episcopalians, who thought that the new 
 government might prove more favourable to their party. 
 Queen Anne, sister to the late Queen Mary and daughter of 
 the deceased exiled King James, as the next heir in the pro- 
 testant succession entered on the unquestioned and undis- 
 turbed possession of the throne. It was well known that 
 she strongly favoured episcopacy as established in the church 
 of England. In her first letter to the Scottish parliament, 
 she called attention to the importance of the negotiations in 
 favour of the union of the two kingdoms, which William, if 
 he had been spared, would certainly have insisted on carry- 
 ing out. The parliament appointed commissioners with 
 powers to treat for the union as advantageous for the defence 
 of the true protestant religion and for the establishment of 
 the peace and safety of both kingdoms. A dispute soon 
 arose in reference to the proposal to pass an act for protect- 
 ing the protestant succession by abjuring the so-called Prince 
 of Wales, son of the late exiled King James VII. Owing to 
 threatened opposition, this proposal was not put to the vote 
 and the parliament adjourned. The commissioners of both 
 kingdoms for treating of the union met at Whitehall in 
 November, 1702, and continued their sittings till February, 
 1703. They unanimously agreed that the succession to the 
 throne should be in the family of Sophia, electress of 
 Hanover, being protestants. The Scottish parliament met 
 on the 6th of May, 1703, Lords and Commons sitting to- 
 gether, and the members were required to vote in regard to 
 the union by a simple yea or nay. Meantime, in consequence 
 of a cry that had been raised that the church was in danger, 
 an act was passed, after considerable discussion, ratifying, 
 establishing and confirming presbyterian church government 
 and discipline by kirk sessions, presbyteries, provincial 
 synods and general assemblies, as agreeable to the Word of 
 God, and the only government of Christ's church within 
 the kingdom ; while another denounced as high treason any
 
 300 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 attempt to alter the Claim of Right Several plots were 
 hatched by various parties opposed for some reason or other 
 to the projected union, the details of which are of interest only 
 to the civil historian. After all the difficulties thus thrown 
 in the way of the movement had been got rid of, the union 
 was at last consummated and came into operation on the 
 1st of May, 1707. For a considerable time the union was 
 unpopular in Scotland and was regarded by the people as 
 unfavourable to their independence. The Jacobites, as 
 might have been expected, opposed it, as frustrating their 
 cherished design of restoring the succession to the male line 
 of descent from the Stewart kings. The Cameronians, and 
 to some extent even the more moderate presbyterians, feared 
 that the closer relations with England which it occasioned 
 would increase the influence of the prelatic form of church 
 government as established in the sister country. 
 
 In 1701, the Rev. John M'Millan was ordained minister 
 of Balmaghie in Kirkcudbrightshire. Himself a Galloway 
 man, and then in his thirty-second year, he was already 
 mature in his convictions, and with strong evangelical sym- 
 pathies, he soon secured a powerful influence in his parish 
 and throughout the surrounding district. He had been for 
 a time during his undergraduate course connected with the 
 Societies. On the occasion of the accession of Queen Anne, 
 he scrupled about the imposition of the oath. Along with 
 two of his brethren, Mr. M'Millan appeared before his 
 presbytery with a list of grievances, in which the defects in 
 the Revolution Settlement objected to by the Societies was 
 insisted upon, the overlooking of the attainments of the 
 Second Reformation, the ignoring of the Solemn League 
 and Covenant, submitting to state interference in regard to 
 the constitution of the church, and the imposition on the 
 ministry of political oaths. The only notice which the 
 presbytery took of the petition was a vindication of the 
 procedure of the church on all the questions referred to. 
 Soon after this Mr. M'Millan, feeling himself out of sympathy 
 with the presbytery, ceased to attend its meetings, and though 
 he was afterwards persuaded to resume attendance, his pulpit
 
 DEPOSITION OF MR. M*MILLAN. 301 
 
 utterances against the defections of the church led to his 
 being served with a libel. In this document he is charged 
 with failing to keep his promise to abstain from agitating 
 troublesome questions. The presbytery, finding proof 
 difficult, offered to drop the libel if he would promise sub- 
 mission. At last Mr. M'Millan declined the authority of 
 the presbytery, and appealed to the first free and lawfully 
 constituted General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. 
 The presbytery found the libel proven, and proceeded to 
 depose Mr. M'Millan. Two of his chief opponents were 
 men originally belonging to the Societies Alexander 
 Cameron, minister of Kirkcudbright, brother of Richard 
 Cameron, the famous covenanter who fell at Airsmoss, and 
 Mr. Boyd of Dairy, who had joined the Revolution church 
 with Mr. Lining and Mr. Shields. The people of Balmag- 
 hie were enthusiastically attached to their minister. They 
 refused to allow the representative of the presbytery to 
 intimate the sentence of that court, and Mr. M'Millan 
 continued to occupy his old pulpit. Before the Commission 
 of Assembly in Edinburgh on the 9th of June, 1704, he 
 acknowledged his fault in refusing submission to the sentence 
 of a regular church judicatory, and promised to maintain 
 unity and concord in accordance with presbyterian prin- 
 ciples. Subsequently he made a similar confession, accom- 
 panied with a supplication to the presbytery to be restored 
 to his ministerial charge. In his appeal to the Assembly of 
 1705, however, he declares his sentence unjust and not to 
 be submitted to, and states his determination to resume 
 preaching. For three years, in defiance of the law, his 
 parishioners refused admission to ministers appointed to 
 preach, and during that time they kept Mr. M'Millan in 
 possession of church and manse. 
 
 Mr. Hepburn of Urr, who had been deposed in 1696, 
 because of views similar to those of Mr. M'Millan, itiner- 
 ated as a gospel preacher through several parishes, and 
 formed societies, after the model of those of the Camer- 
 onians. He did not disown the civil government, nor pro- 
 claim any separation from the church. These two deposed
 
 302 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 ministers corresponded with one another, but failed to find 
 a common ground for union or co-operation. Probably Mr. 
 M'Millan was from the first more in sympathy with the 
 Cameronian separatists than Mr. Hepburn was ever inclined 
 to be. 
 
 An attempt was made by Mr. M'Millan as early as 1704 
 to obtain a conference with the Society people, and soon 
 after he was present at the General Meeting, and having 
 expressed his regret for his submission, he declared himself 
 willing to join their party. Repeated conferences were held, 
 but his testimony was pronounced unsatisfactory, as he 
 scrupled about their views regarding the civil magistrate. 
 On this point, however, he at last gave in, and after pro- 
 tracted negotiations his testimony was accepted as satisfac- 
 tory on the 18th of August, 1706. He then received what 
 was designated a joint call, and from that day forward he 
 continued to travel up and down through the country, 
 preaching and baptising children among the societies, 
 which from the Revolution up to that time had no ordained 
 minister to dispense the sacrament among them. 
 
 Since the union of the kingdoms had become an accom- 
 plished fact, Englishmen resident in Edinburgh who were 
 members of the Established Church of England naturally 
 enough wished to have services instituted similar to those 
 which they had been accustomed to in their own country. 
 This privilege they felt they might enjoy without associat- 
 ing themselves with the Scottish episcopalians, who lay 
 under disabilities because of their having been so largely 
 mixed up with Jacobite plots and disloyal associations. 
 In 1709 one James Greenshields, encouraged probably by 
 English residents, but without any recognition by the 
 Scottish episcopal bishop, opened a chapel in the Canon- 
 gate, and conducted services, in which the Church of 
 England ritual was used. After he had been driven by 
 the Magistrates from one meeting place to another, he was 
 summoned by the presbytery, and though he denied the 
 jurisdiction of the court, he was found guilty of exercising 
 an unlicensed ministry within their bounds contrary to the
 
 CASE OF REV. JAMES GREENSHIELDS. 305 
 
 uniformity of worship established by law. The magistrates 
 were called upon to see that he ceased from holding these 
 services, and on his refusing to do so he was committed to 
 prison. On appeal the Court of Session sustained the 
 proceedings of presbytery and magistrates on the ground 
 that having been ordained by a deprived bishop, Green- 
 shields 1 ordination was not valid. This was a position as 
 unsatisfactory to presbyterians as to episcopalians, for the 
 deprivation which was said to make his ordination invalid 
 had been carried out not by the church courts but by the 
 parliament. When the case came before the House of 
 Lords, the Tory Government had just entered upon office,, 
 and although the ministers of the Crown would gladly have 
 avoided giving offence, and wished to have the case with- 
 drawn, yet when pressed for a judgment they were obliged 
 to overturn the Scottish sentence, and give a decision in 
 favour of toleration. From the standpoint of modern times 
 the decision was right, but the raising of the question just 
 then was unfortunate politically and ecclesiastically, and it 
 would have been much the wiser course for the presbytery 
 to have taken no notice of Greenshields' services which, if 
 they had been left to be judged of on their own merits, 
 would have received no mention on the page of history. 
 
 The immediate result of the decision in the Greenshields 
 case was the introduction of a bill into the House of Com- 
 mons to secure toleration for episcopalians in Scotland. 
 The Act of Toleration was passed in March, 1712. It 
 secured to episcopalians in Scotland the right of exercising 
 worship after their own manner and by pastors ordained by 
 a protestant bishop, not established ministers of a church 
 or parish, who might use if they pleased the Liturgy of the 
 Church of England. It required, however, that such 
 ministers should take the oaths of allegiance and abjura- 
 tion, and pray for the Queen and the Hanoverian princes. 
 The presbyterian ministers, who were also required to take 
 these oaths, were naturally offended at the Erastianism by 
 which the taking of them was enforced. 
 
 Another Act was passed at this time, which for a long
 
 304 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 period exercised a most disastrous influence upon the Church 
 of Scotland. Immediately after the passing of the Tolera- 
 tion Act, a bill was introduced into the House of Commons, 
 and passed almost unopposed, by which it was resolved to 
 restore to patrons the right of presentation to the parish 
 churches. When it reached the House of Lords, a deputa- 
 tion from the Established Church of Scotland, including 
 Carstares, now principal of Edinburgh University, appeared 
 to oppose its progress. They showed from its history that 
 patronage had always been regarded as a grievance in the 
 Scottish Church. It had been abolished in 1649 as 
 obnoxious to presbyterianism, and only restored with the 
 introduction of episcopacy in 1660. At the Revolution 
 it had been again abolished, and the patrons had been on 
 that occasion compensated for any loss they might be sup- 
 posed to have sustained. They had therefore no longer any 
 claim to these patronages. Besides, the Act of Security, 
 which formed so important a condition in the Union, pro- 
 vided that the constitution of the church as established at 
 the Revolution would be maintained. In spite of all these 
 thoroughly sound arguments urged against it, the bill was 
 passed by a majority, and received the royal assent on the 
 22nd of April. The church to which this legislation was to 
 be applied had been allowed no voice in the matter, and 
 seems to have unanimously reprobated the measure. The 
 Assembly of that year, meeting immediately after the pass- 
 ing of the Act, complained of it in very emphatic language 
 in the address to the Crown ; but there is little doubt that 
 if the Assemblies of that time had been more resolute and 
 heroic in the attitude they assumed toward the government 
 such mischievous legislation would never have been ventured 
 upon. 
 
 Outside the Church of Scotland the Cameronians, under 
 the ministry of Mr. M'Millan and the Rev. John M'Neil, 
 a probationer of the Established Church who had joined 
 their Societies, continued to maintain their protest against 
 the civil and ecclesiastical government. It was now 
 resolved, in order to confirm and establish their own mem-
 
 COVENANTING AT AUCHINSAUGH. 305 
 
 bers and in order to give forth a testimony before the 
 people of Scotland, to have a great united meeting of the 
 Societies for the renewing of the Covenant. This meeting 
 was held in August, 1712, at Auchinsaugh, in the Lanark- 
 shire parish of Crawfordjohn. Immense crowds gathered, 
 and the services lasted two days. On the first day an 
 Acknowledgment of Sins was read, which occupied forty-one 
 pages quarto in small type, and on the following day the 
 Engagement to Duties, a shorter paper. The Covenant was 
 read article by article, and solemnly sworn to. Wherever 
 mention is made of the king, it is altered to read " The 
 lawful supreme magistrate," " The lawful supreme magis- 
 trate when obtained.' 1 In regard to civil duties, the Cove- 
 nanters declare of existing magistrates that they " should 
 not corroborate their unjust authority by paying them cess 
 and supply for upholding their corrupt courts and armies 
 employed in an unjust and anti-Christian quarrel, or by 
 compearing before their judicatories either to defend or 
 pursue lawsuits, or upon any other account." After the 
 renewing of the Covenant, the Lord's Supper was cele- 
 brated for the first time since the formation of the Societies, 
 and it is surprising and saddening to learn that this holy 
 ordinance was not again dispensed among them for more 
 than thirty years. When it is remembered that Mr. 
 M'Millan's ministry extended over the long period of 
 forty-seven years, and that he was able Sabbath after 
 Sabbath to address congregations larger or smaller at which 
 members of the Societies were present, it cannot be that the 
 wideness of the district over which they were scattered 
 constitutes the reason for the strange neglect of so precious 
 a Christian ordinance. It is probable that some of the 
 more spiritually-minded among them were deterred by 
 a superstitious view of the sacrament and an oppressive 
 sense of their own unworthiness, but also that a large num- 
 ber were more occupied with political and ecclesiastical 
 polemics than with devout thoughts and spiritual exercises. 
 It must at the same time be remembered that, as respects 
 individuals, many of those who most warmly interested 
 
 u
 
 306 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 themselves in the ecclesiastical and ecclesiastico-political 
 questions of the day were personally most profoundly exer- 
 cised in matters of religious experience. Some of the 
 keenest controversialists were among the humblest of saints, 
 and the most devout and reverent of worshippers.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Marrow Controversy and Secessions* 
 17121761. 
 
 THE death of Queen Anne and the succession of the Hano- 
 verian, George L, in the autumn of 1714 tended upon the 
 whole to the advancement of the interests of presbyterianism 
 in Scotland. A series of Acts, some of them good in them- 
 selves, some evil, but all of them, from the time and cir- 
 cumstances in which they were issued, inimical to Scottish 
 presbyterianism, had been passed in the closing years of the 
 Queen's reign. Episcopalian historians, like Dr. Grub, are 
 confidently of opinion that had she only lived a few years 
 longer other measures would have been passed conferring 
 further advantages on the episcopal church in Scotland. 
 Considerable trouble was occasioned by the imposition on 
 presbyterian ministers of the abjuration oath. Those who 
 consented to take it, the so-called Jurants, headed by Car- 
 stares, sought to relieve themselves by making a protest 
 and indicating the interpretation which they put upon it. 
 
 * Literature : Memoirs of the Life, Times and Writings of the 
 Reverend and Learned Thomas Boston (1776), ed. by Morrison, Edin. 
 1899 ; M'Kerrow, History of the Secession Church, Edin., 1839 ; 
 Struthers, History of the Rdief Church, Glasgow, 1843; M'Ewen, 
 The Erskines (Fam. Scots Series), Edin., 1900 ; Dr. John M'Ewan, 
 Studies, Historical, Doctrinal and Biographical, Edin., 1900 (contain- 
 ing artt. on Boston, Scottish Episcopacy, Marrow Controversy, etc.) ; 
 Morren, Annals of the Assembly (1739-1766), 2 vols., Edin., 1838, 
 1840 ; Wodrow's Correspondence, Vols. II. and III., ed. by Dr. 
 M'Crie (1715-1731), Edin., 1843 ; Hutchison, The Reformed Presby- 
 terian Church in Scotland, Paisley, 1893, pp. 172-214 ; Robe, Narra- 
 tive of the Extraordinary Work of God at Cambuslang, Kilsyth, etc. 
 
 307
 
 308 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 The more rigid declined to take the oath even with an ex- 
 planation, and were called Nonjurants. The latter formed 
 practically a covenanting party within the church, and 
 there was considerable friction and bitterness between the 
 two parties. This unpleasant state of matters continued 
 for several years, until in 1719 an Act was passed modifying 
 the terms of the oath so that no longer any mention was 
 made of the obligation of the English sovereign to belong 
 to the episcopal church of England, while on the other hand 
 an episcopal minister officiating where more than nine persons 
 besides the members of the household were present must 
 pray for King George and the royal family by name and 
 subscribe the abjuration oath, under penalty of six months 1 
 imprisonment, and the closing of his chapel during that 
 period. 
 
 The Jacobite insurrection of 1715 under the Earl of Mar 
 proved highly injurious to the interests of the Scottish 
 episcopalians. They had in large numbers taken part in or 
 expressed sympathy with the rebellion. " The disappoint- 
 ment of their hopes," says Dr. Grub, "ecclesiastical and 
 political, and the succession of George the First, and the 
 certainty that a peaceful restoration of the ancient line was 
 no longer possible, united almost all the friends of the hier- 
 archy in attachment to the cause of James. The most dis- 
 tinguished of the Jacobite leaders were zealous supporters 
 of the episcopacy. . . . Treasonable acts of the most 
 overt character took place on the part of some of the clergy. 
 , . . An address was laid before James bearing to pro- 
 ceed from the episcopal clergy of the diocese of Aberdeen 
 and probably signed by most of their number. 11 In these 
 circumstances it is not to be wondered at that the govern- 
 ment looked with suspicion and disfavour upon a church with 
 such pronounced political leanings. 
 
 In the last days of the year 1715 the great churchman to 
 whom the present presbyterian Church of Scotland largely 
 owes her constitution and establishment passed away. On 
 the death of King William it was no longer necessary that 
 his chaplain should remain in London. Although Queen
 
 DEATH OF PRINCIPAL CARSTARES. 309 
 
 Anne showed her respect for Carstares by continuing him 
 in the office of royal chaplain, as a staunch episcopalian she 
 did not require his personal services, and accordingly he 
 soon resolved to take up his residence in Edinburgh. On 
 the death of Gilbert Rule in 1703, the town council ap- 
 pointed Carstares Principal of Edinburgh University. The 
 salary had been 4H 13s., but it was now increased to 9%, 
 and when some time after he was appointed minister of 
 Greyfriars Church, his stipend for the double office 
 amounted to about .127. He proved a most efficient and 
 energetic principal, and he also took an active part in teach- 
 ing as primarius professor of divinity. In 1707 he was ap- 
 pointed minister of St. Giles. The leading statesmen of the 
 day acknowledged that without Carstares the union of the 
 two kingdoms could scarcely have been accomplished. As 
 leader of the church he was not able to prevent the passing 
 of those Acts of the Queen's government which were so ob- 
 jectionable to presbyterians, but his moderation and pru- 
 dence did much to prevent a collision between the civil and 
 ecclesiastical powers, which would have been ruinous to the 
 interests of the Scottish church. In the Assembly of 1715 
 he held the moderatorship for the third time, for it was to 
 his wise guidance that his fellow-churchmen looked in seasons 
 of difficulty and danger. He was laid to rest in the church- 
 yard of Greyfriars, near the remains of Alexander Hender- 
 son, who in a different way suited to his own age had fought 
 the same battle for truth and liberty. 
 
 In this last Assembly of Carstares he was called upon to 
 deal with the first charge of heresy that had ever been pre- 
 ferred against a minister of the Church of Scotland. The 
 party charged with this offence was John Simson, professor 
 of divinity in the university of Glasgow. Rumours had 
 prevailed as to the unsoundness of his teaching, but his own 
 presbytery declined to take the initiative in investigating 
 the matter. This disagreeable duty was at last undertaken 
 by Mr. Webster, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, who 
 brought the subject under the notice of his synod and then 
 before the Assembly. In 1715 the Assembly appointed a
 
 810 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 committee to consider the charges which Mr. Webster might 
 be able to formulate against the professor, with instructions, 
 however, to hear all the explanations which the accused 
 might make and to give him every opportunity to modify un- 
 fortunate or objectionable statements. This committee re- 
 ported to the Assembly of 1717. Simson had been charged 
 with teaching Arminian and Pelagian doctrines. He sought 
 to show that in some cases he had been misunderstood, and 
 that what had been represented as his own views were simply 
 those of others which he referred to in order to confute. 
 Yet after all possible deductions of that sort, it was quite 
 evident that several of the statements of his own opinions 
 were altogether irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Con- 
 fession. The great maj ority of the members of the Assembly 
 were evidently in sympathy with the professor and prepared 
 to judge him leniently. The conclusion come to was that 
 he had been guilty of using expressions capable of being 
 understood in an unsound sense, and so he was reproved and 
 enjoined to be careful not to use such expressions in future. 
 This decision gave great offence to the more earnest and 
 evangelical ministers throughout the church. And from this 
 time onward the cleft between a moderate and an evangeli- 
 cal party in the church became more and more clearly 
 marked. The controversy now begun was continued through 
 many generations of the church's history. 
 
 The panic created throughout the church by Simson's 
 case while it was pending, is well illustrated by the conduct 
 of the presbytery of Auchterarder. In examining a student, 
 William Craig, who presented himself to be taken on trials 
 for license, the presbytery, fearing that he might be infected 
 with heresy, were not satisfied with the ordinary formula, 
 but required him to answer certain questions and subscribe 
 to certain statements which they had devised for the occa- 
 sion. One of the new articles of what was contemptuously 
 called The Auchterarder Creed, in regard to which the 
 young man's statement was considered particularly unsatis- 
 factory, ran thus : That I believe it is not sound and ortho- 
 dox to preach that we must forsake sin in order to our
 
 THOMAS BOSTON OF ETTRICK. 311 
 
 coming to Christ and instating us in covenant with God. 
 On the young man's appeal to the Assembly the presbytery 
 was reproved for requiring subscription to any formula other 
 than that prescribed by the church. For such a decision 
 much may be said, but when the Assembly proceeded to 
 condemn the proposition, it is evident that they attached a 
 neaning to it altogether different from that intended by the 
 presbytery. It simply meant that in coming to Christ we 
 come with all our sins that they may be forgiven, without 
 th? presupposition of any meritorious preparation on our 
 part. This decision again gave great offence to the evan- 
 gel cal ministers and members of the church. 
 
 There was now in the Church of Scotland a considerable 
 nunber of ministers warmly in sympathy with the views of 
 divhe truth expressed in the so-called Auchterarder Creed. 
 Whle they characterised the dominant party in the 
 Assanbly as Neonomians, affirming that they represented 
 the ospel as a new law which conferred salvation upon 
 certan terms, they were themselves styled by their oppo- 
 nents Antinomians, as depreciating the importance of 
 obedsnce and good works by maintaining that faith alone 
 was lecessary. By far the most distinguished and best 
 remenbered of those who contended against what they re- 
 garded as the Neonomian tendency of the views prevailing 
 in tht church was Thomas Boston. This great Scottish 
 divine was a native of Duns, where he was born in 1676. 
 He wis ordained at Simprin, in Berwickshire, the smallest 
 parisi in Scotland in respect of population, in 1699, and 
 was translated in 1707 to the parish of Ettrick in Selkirk- 
 shire where he remained till his death in 1732. He pub- 
 lishel in 1720 his well-known and widely read Fourfold 
 Stati, which, as delivered first of all as a course of sermons, 
 attncted thoughtful men to hear them, and induced some 
 to valk fifty miles from their home and back again Sabbath 
 after Sabbath during the delivery of the whole series. And 
 sucl men, too, felt that they were well rewarded for their 
 pans. His Crook in the Lot is one of the Scottish sacred 
 classics. He was the best Hebrew scholar of his day in
 
 312 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Scotland, and wrote a work on the Hebrew Accents which 
 continental orientalists recognized as highly valuable. As 
 an ecclesiastic he took a prominent part in the debates of 
 the church courts, and was spoken of as a peculiarly able 
 and efficient presbytery clerk. He was a vigorous defender 
 of the church's independence, but though in spiritual sym- 
 pathy with the Cameronians, he very strongly opposed their 
 attitude toward the church and the civil government *s 
 that of separatists and schismatics. 
 
 While minister in Simprin, Boston, when visiting toe 
 house of one of his parishioners, found a book writen by an 
 English puritan, entitled The Marrow of Modern Divmiy. 
 This work was the production of an Oxford graduite, 
 Edward Fisher, and was originally published in 1616. 
 Boston was greatly interested in the book, which in dialogue 
 form discusses the questions raised by Neonomianism and 
 Antinomianism from the evangelical standpoint. In the 
 Auchterarder and Simson cases Boston was strongly opposed 
 to the decisions of the Assembly, condemning what he 
 considered evangelical and scriptural teaching. He found, 
 as he thought, in the Marrow an admirable exposition of 
 what he regarded as the truth, and while the discussim in 
 the Auchterarder case was going on he showed the bok to 
 Mr. Drummond of Crieff, who on studying it becam* en- 
 thusiastic in his admiration of it. As the book was now 
 out of print and scarce, Boston and Drummond arrangtd to 
 bring out a new edition, which was published in 1718, with 
 a recommendatory preface by Mr. Hog of Carnock. In 
 consequence of misunderstandings and misrepresentations 
 of the character and tendency of the doctrine of the w>rk, 
 Mr. Hog in the following year published an explanation 
 of the passages objected to. Thereupon Principal Hadiow 
 of St. Andrews, an able theologian and a good man, bit a 
 member of the party regarded by Boston and his friends as 
 Neonomians, preached and published a synod sermon in 
 which the doctrine of the Marrow was criticised and cm- 
 demned. The Assembly of 1719, without actually namhg 
 the Marrow, instructed the Commission " to inquire irto
 
 CONDEMNATION OF "THE MARROW." 313 
 
 the publishing and spreading of books and pamphlets tend- 
 ing to the diffusing of the condemned proposition of 
 Auchterarder, and promoting a system of opinions relative 
 thereto which are inconsistent with our Confession of Faith, 
 and that the recommenders of such books or pamphlets or 
 the errors therein contained, be called before them to 
 answer for their conduct in such recommendations. 11 The 
 Commission appointed a committee at St. Andrews to 
 examine the Marrow, which was regarded as the mani- 
 festo of the so-called heretical party. This committee 
 set forth under five heads the doctrines of this book 
 which they condemned : 1. That saving faith is a man's 
 persuasion that Christ is his and died for him ; 2. That the 
 atonement is universal ; 3. That holiness is not necessary 
 to salvation ; 4. That fear of punishment and hope of re- 
 ward are not motives of a believer's obedience ; 5. That the 
 believer is not under the law as a rule of life. Several 
 paradoxical sentences are quoted, without consideration of 
 any modifying or qualifying context. The Assembly of 
 1720 received this committee's report, and resolved, only 
 four members dissenting, to prohibit ministers recommend- 
 ing the book, and to require them to preach and warn their 
 people against reading or using it. At next Assembly, 
 twelve ministers, including Boston and Ralph and Ebenezer 
 Erskine, with other highly respected theologians, made a 
 representation in favour of the book, with a request for the 
 repeal of its condemnation, and after various delays this 
 memorial came up for discussion before the Assembly of 
 1722. By a large majority it was decided that the twelve 
 defenders of the Marrow should be admonished and re- 
 buked. These men, however, and an ever increasing com- 
 pany of the most trusted ministers of the church, continued 
 to hold and spread their doctrines ; and in 1727 Boston 
 published a new edition of the repudiated work, with 
 voluminous notes in which its teachings were explained and 
 defended. 
 
 The discussions which had taken place on doctrinal 
 questions resulted in the bringing together of the more
 
 314 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 earnest and evangelical ministers of the church, and binding 
 them in a confederacy with one another for the defence of 
 the truth, and the exposure of what they regarded as serious 
 departures from orthodox or scriptural teaching. The 
 decision of the Assembly in the case of Professor Simson 
 had produced widespread dissatisfaction, and his utterances 
 were now considered and scrutinized with more than ordi- 
 nary attention. The slight and partial censure passed upon 
 him by the supreme court of the church was not likely to 
 deter him from pursuing the line of thought that had been 
 complained of, and so in 1727 a charge was brought against 
 him of not only continuing to teach Arminian and 
 Pelagian doctrines as before, but of holding and proclaim- 
 ing Arian views in regard to the Trinity and the Person of 
 Christ. He had said that the persons in the godhead were 
 not the same in substance, and that supreme deity might 
 be regarded as the personal property of the Father and not 
 of the Son. The evangelical party had now grown in num- 
 bers and in influence, and so the Assembly of 1728 found it 
 necessary to suspend the professor while the complaints 
 against him were being investigated. He now braced him- 
 self up to a vigorous and elaborate defence. He stoutly 
 maintained his full and hearty acceptance of all the doc- 
 trines of the Confession of Faith, and sought by means of 
 subtle, and as many thought, sophistical, philosophical dis- 
 tinctions to explain away the appearance of incongruity 
 between his utterances and the statements of the standards 
 of the church. It had, however, become quite evident that 
 Professor Simson could no longer command the confidence 
 of the church, or be any longer entrusted with the training 
 of the students. The whole proceedings in the case and the 
 conclusion come to, was not such as to reflect any credit 
 either on the Professor or on the Assembly. Although a 
 majority of presbyteries had called for the deposition of the 
 accused, the Assembly simply continued his suspension. It 
 was declared unfitting that he should be henceforth em- 
 ployed in teaching divinity, but he was allowed to retain 
 his status and draw the emoluments of his office. There
 
 DISPUTES OCCASIONED BY PATRONAGE. 315 
 
 was evidently considerable dissatisfaction with this lame 
 conclusion, but Thomas Boston was the only one bold enough 
 to enter his dissent against the inadequacy of the sentence. 
 Boston was henceforth recognised as the leader of the 
 advanced wing of the evangelical party in the church. 
 
 Instead of being roused to greater watchfulness against 
 the encroachments of error, the church seemed to become 
 more and more indifferent with regard to doctrinal defec- 
 tion. The Professor of Church History in St. Andrews, 
 Mr. Campbell, published certain treatises in which prin- 
 ciples were inculcated of a purely rationalistic type. In 
 these books he taught that the light of nature is incapable 
 of discovering the existence of God and the immortality of 
 the soul, but that, nevertheless, the laws of nature are to be 
 regarded as a sufficient rule to guide men to happiness, that 
 self-love is the chief motive to religious actions, and that 
 we cannot act from a higher principle than our self-interest. 
 For years no notice of these purely pagan positions was 
 taken in the church courts, and when at last in 1736 com- 
 plaints from without compelled the Assembly to make some 
 appearance of enquiry, the most unsatisfactory explanations 
 and evasions were accepted, and the professor was sent 
 back to his chair without censure or admonition of any 
 kind. 
 
 Meantime disturbances had broken out in various parts 
 of the country on account of the intrusion of unacceptable 
 ministers on reluctant and resisting congregations. In 
 several of these cases, the sympathy of the presbytery was 
 with the people, and the presbyters refused to act at the 
 bidding of a patron in forcing an unsuitable or unpopular 
 man upon an unwilling people. Patronage, which had 
 always been disliked by the people and Church of Scotland, 
 was now working very badly. The patrons were often men 
 who had no understanding of the religious or spiritual 
 needs of those whose ministers they were empowered to 
 choose. They often selected the presentee on grounds of 
 personal favour, or with a view to obliging some one 
 interested in the promotion of a particular individual. In
 
 316 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 some cases, the man presented was manifestly of mean 
 abilities or of doubtful character; in other cases, he was 
 simply unsuitable for the special sphere to which he was 
 assigned. The call of the people was a mere formality, and 
 was not allowed to override what were styled the rights of 
 the patron. On the occasion of a presentation of a Mr. 
 Hay to the parish of Peebles in 1717, the presbytery re- 
 fused to proceed with his settlement in the face of a strong 
 popular opposition. The Assembly, failing to bring the 
 majority of the presbytery to consent to carry out the in- 
 duction, appointed certain of their own members as assessors 
 to the presbytery, what came to be called a, riding committee, 
 to secure the settlement of the patron's nominee against the 
 wish both of the people and of the presbytery. At Bath- 
 gate, in November of this same year, the aid of the soldiers 
 had to be obtained to protect the minister who was to serve 
 the edict for the ordination of one whom the people would 
 not have as their minister. The form of a call was still, 
 however, insisted upon, and various opinions were enter- 
 tained as to its importance, and different Assemblies came 
 to different conclusions as to the parties entitled to give 
 their votes. Some insisted that the Act of 1690 had not 
 been repealed by that of 1712, and that consequently the 
 introduction of patronage did not interfere with the right 
 of the elders and heritors to give the call. Others main- 
 tained that this right belonged to heads of families accord- 
 ing to the legislation of 1649. Tt seems very evident that 
 any real call is inconsistent with patronage, and would re- 
 duce presentations to nothing better than mere nomina- 
 tions. 
 
 The conflicts occasioned by the rival claims of call and 
 presentation led to the bringing up of an overture to the 
 Assembly of 1731, which proposed that in all cases where 
 the settlement of vacancies devolved on presbyteries, they 
 should give heed to a call from elders and heritors being 
 protestants. In order to prevent patrons keeping parishes 
 long vacant, it had been decreed that if no presentation 
 were made within six months, then jure devoluto the pres-
 
 EBENEZEE ERSKINE. 317 
 
 bytery must proceed to fill the vacancy. But besides this, 
 it would seem that many patrons made no presentation, but 
 left the matter in the hands of the presbytery. The reform 
 proposed by this overture would have been somewhat far- 
 reaching in its extent. Yet it would not affect any case in 
 which the patron chose timeously to exercise his rights. 
 This overture was sent down under the Barrier Act in order 
 that presbyteries might report approval or disapproval to 
 next Assembly. In defiance of all constitutional law, a 
 statement accompanied the overture to the effect that if 
 presbyteries failed to send up their opinion, it would be 
 brought before the Assembly to be passed into a standing 
 law or not as the vote might go. When the Assembly met 
 in May, 1732, it was found that eighteen, some say only six, 
 approved, while thirty-one disapproved. In glaring opposi- 
 tion to all law, it was agreed that twelve presbyteries which 
 suggested alterations in the terms of the overture, and eigh- 
 teen which made no return, should be added to those favour- 
 able, and in this way a majority was secured for the over- 
 ture. It was thus illegally declared a law of the church. 
 One of the Marrow men, Ebenezer Erskine of Portmoak, 
 objected to the unchristian principle of showing respect to 
 persons, which limited the right of calling a minister to 
 those who were the possessors of land. Thus began the 
 agitation in favour of popular election, the right of those 
 who are to be ministered to to choose who shall minister to 
 them, which was destined soon to become the most promi- 
 nent and the most persistent ecclesiastical question in 
 Scottish history. 
 
 Ebenezer Erskine, son of a minister who had been ejected 
 as a nonconformist minister in England in 1662 and after- 
 wards in Scotland suffered imprisonment and exile, was born 
 at Dryburgh in 1680. He was ordained as a minister of 
 the Church of Scotland at Portmoak in Kinross-shire, 
 near Lochleven, in 1703, and in 1731 he was translated to 
 the more important charge of Stirling. He was a pronounced 
 evangelical and a defender of popular rights. As we have 
 seen, he identified himself with the Marrow men, and pro-
 
 318 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 tested against the limitation of the right of voting for a 
 minister in a vacancy to heritors and elders. His reputation 
 as a preacher was very high ; his deportment grave and 
 dignified. An opportunity was given him in 1732 of issuing 
 a notable protest against the legislation of the previous 
 year. As retiring moderator of the synod of Perth and 
 Stirling, it was his duty and privilege to preach the opening 
 sermon. He resolved to take advantage of his position to 
 address to an unwilling audience a vigorous protest against 
 the defections of the church and age. Some ignorantly 
 condemn him for making what they regard as an illegitimate 
 use of the place which his brethren had assigned to him. 
 But it ought to be remembered that the Assembly of 1730 
 had passed a most important measure depriving members of 
 their proper right of entering a dissent against any decision 
 of a church judicatory. Being in this way prevented from 
 having his dissent duly recorded, there was no other means 
 open to him of exonerating his conscience, but by giving 
 public expression to his convictions in such a way as this 
 occasion provided. In that synod sermon of 1733, preaching 
 from the text, The stone which the builders rejected, the same 
 is made the headstone of the corner , Mr. Erskine said : " There 
 is a twofold call necessary for a man who meddles as a 
 builder in the church of God : there is the call of God and 
 of the church. The call of the church lies in the free choice 
 
 and election of the Christian people Shall we 
 
 suppose that ever God granted to any set of men, patrons, 
 heritors, elders, or whatever they be, a power to impose ser- 
 vants on his family, without their consent, being the freest 
 society in the world. ... A cry and complaint came 
 in before the last Assembly for relief and redress of these 
 and many other grievances, both from ministers and people ; 
 but instead of a due regard had thereto, an Act is passed 
 confining the power of election unto heritors and elders, 
 whereby a new wound is given to the prerogative of Christ 
 and the privilege of his subjects. Whatever church autho- 
 rity may be in that Act, yet it wants the authority of the 
 Son of God. ... By this Act the corner stone is
 
 ERSKINE'S SYNOD SERMON. 319 
 
 receded from, He is rejected in His poor members, 
 and the rich of this world put in His room.'' The 
 synod were greatly moved and offended by the plain 
 speaking of these and other similar passages in the 
 sermon, and passed a vote of condemnation, requiring the 
 preacher to submit to rebuke. Mr. Erskine refused to 
 make his submission, and appealed against the sentence to 
 the General Assembly. In his protest he was joined by 
 Mr. Alexander Moncrieff of Abernethy, Mr. William Wilson 
 of Perth, and his son-in-law, Mr. James Fisher of Kinclaven, 
 along with other ten ministers and two ruling elders. At 
 the Assembly of 1733, only three of the ministers protesting 
 Monci'ieff, Wilson, and Fisher, appeared as adhering to their 
 protest, but they were refused a hearing. After discussion, 
 the Assembly found the expressions used in the sermon 
 offensive and tending to disturb the peace and good order 
 of the church, approved of the decision of the synod, and 
 appointed that Mr. Erskine should appear at the bar and be 
 rebuked by the moderator. Mr. Erskine refused to submit 
 in silence, and declared his adherence to what he had said 
 in his sermon. To this declaration the other three recorded 
 their adherence. As the Assembly declined to allow him to 
 read his declaration, he laid it on the table, and, along with 
 his three supporters, he left the house. The paper was after- 
 wards taken up and read by a member to the Assembly, and 
 the four offenders were immediately summoned to appear and 
 answer for their audacious conduct. When they appeared 
 next day a committee was appointed to confer with the re- 
 fractory brethren, with the result that the Assembly, acting 
 on its committee's report, ordered the four ministers to appear 
 before the August commission, which was empowered, in case 
 they refused to express sorrow and retract, to suspend them 
 from the exercise of their ministry. The November commis- 
 sion was instructed, in case the brethren continued obstinate, 
 to proceed to a higher censure. The August commission, 
 before which they duly appeared, refused to allow any papers 
 to be read, but ordered them to answer such questions as 
 might be proposed, and this was to be done by them
 
 620 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 separately and viva vocc. Each on being questioned refused 
 to retract, and at last Mr. Erskine was allowed to read his 
 paper. After a committee had dealt with them for several 
 hours, it was found that they could not be induced to with- 
 draw their protest or express sorrow for having made it. 
 Finally, by a majority the sentence of suspension was carried. 
 At the November commission, the four protesting ministers 
 were asked if they had obeyed the previous commission's 
 sentence of suspension, and they answered that they had not. 
 The decision of the commission to inflict the higher censure 
 was carried by the casting vote of the moderator, Mr. John 
 Gowdie of Edinburgh. The four brethren were accordingly 
 loosed from their charges, declared no longer ministers of 
 the church, and all ministers were forbidden to employ them 
 in any ministerial function. Their churches were declared 
 vacant, and presbyteries to which they had belonged 
 were notified of the sentence that had been passed. A pro- 
 test against the sentence, with a claim for liberty to com- 
 plain to the next General Assembly was tabled by Mr. 
 Gabriel Wilson of Maxton, and adhered to by Mr. Ralph 
 Erskine of Dunfermline, Mr. Thomas Mair of Orwell, Mr. 
 Thomas Nairn of Abbotshall, and other three ministers. On 
 intimation of sentence, the four brethren handed in a formal 
 protest and appealed to the first free, faithful and reforming 
 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. It is contended 
 that the secession was made not from the Church of Scotland, 
 but from a party in the church which was then dominating 
 her counsels. The seceders also declared that their action 
 was not taken in view of violent intrusions, nor on account 
 of the obnoxious Act of 1732, but as a protest against the 
 whole course of defection in respect of doctrine, government 
 and discipline of which the judicatories of the church had 
 been guilty and from which they refused to withdraw. 
 
 On the fifth of December the four brethren met at 
 Gairney Bridge, near Kinross, and constituted the first 
 Associate Presbytery. Their meetings, however, were only 
 for prayer and conference, and they did not for about two 
 years longer proceed to what are called acts of judicature.
 
 JUDICIAL TESTIMONY OF SECEDERS. 321 
 
 Meantime the Assembly of 1734 sought to open the door 
 for the seceders' return. They authorized the Synod of 
 Perth and Stirling to restore the seceding ministers to their 
 charges, while declaring all former proceedings and decisions 
 of the Assembly to stand as they were, and prohibiting the 
 Synod from referring to the past. Tne Seceders, after care- 
 ful deliberation, declined to be reponed by the Synod, on 
 the ground that the objectionable acts which they still re- 
 fused to recognize were unrepealed, and that on their return 
 to the church they would find themselves in the unhealthy 
 atmosphere from which they had escaped. Mr. Wilson of 
 Perth hesitated for a while, but the further proceedings of 
 the church courts convinced him that his brethren were 
 right in continuing in the position into which they had 
 been driven outside the Church of Scotland. Though Mr. 
 Wilson was not yet quite clear on the subject, it was agreed 
 in August, 1735, to proceed to regular presbyterial business. 
 Occasional supply of ordinances was given to parties in 
 various parishes who made request for help. As such 
 applications increased in number and came in from all parts 
 of the country, the question arose as to the training of 
 young men for the Secession ministry, and in the end of 
 1736, Mr. Wilson was appointed professor, his classes to be 
 conducted during three months of the year. This accom- 
 plished, scholarly, and thoroughly efficient man, delivered his 
 lectures and conducted all his intercourse with his students 
 in Latin. 
 
 In December, 1736, the presbytery issued its Judicial 
 Testimony. It was the purpose of this document to make a 
 statement of the truths regarded as in accordance with the 
 word of God and the church standards, and to point out 
 and condemn the errors which the church had accepted con- 
 trary to these standards. It was not a new confessional 
 standard, but only a declaration of the sense of the old 
 standards which had been departed from by a corrupt and 
 unfaithful church. One fault is candidly pointed out by 
 the historian of the Secession Church. The compilers of 
 this Testimony went out of their way to condemn the union 
 
 w
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 of Scotland and England, and the repeal of laws against 
 witches. Several of the evangelical ministers within the 
 church, who had previously been sympathetic toward the 
 Seceders, became vigorous assailants of the Testimony, and 
 so the breach between the Church and the Secession was 
 widened. 
 
 Ralph Erskine of Dunfermline, brother of the leader of 
 the Secession, and Mr. Thomas Mair of Orwell, had been 
 present when the Associate Presbytery was constituted, but 
 they did not then attach themselves to the seceding 
 brethren. The accession of these two ministers, however, 
 took place in February, 1737. Ralph Erskine was born in 
 1685, studied at Edinburgh, and was ordained at Dunferm- 
 line in 1711. Like his brother, he identified himself with 
 the Marrow men, and proved an eminently useful and 
 popular evangelical preacher. The Associate Presbytery 
 was further strengthened by the admission in October, 
 1737, of Mr. Thomas Nairn of Abbotshall, and of Mr. 
 James Thomson of Burntisland, in June, 1738. 
 
 Within the Church of Scotland there was meanwhile 
 exhibited a very remarkable inconsistency and inconse- 
 quence between theory and practice. Measures were 
 passed by the Assembly of 1736 declaring intrusion into 
 the office of the ministry against the will of the people to 
 be contrary to the principles of the Scottish Church, and 
 injunctions were addressed to presbyteries to have regard to 
 this in planting vacant congregations. During 1737, how- 
 ever, there were no less than four cases of disputed settle- 
 ments, in all of which the Assembly forced reluctant 
 presbyteries to proceed with the settlement of presentees 
 against whom a large number of the people had vigorously 
 protested. In his life of Dr. Erskine, Sir H. Wellwood 
 Moncrieff says distinctly that the popular enactments of 
 1 736 were made with a view to soothing the discontent of 
 the people by conciliatory language, without any intention 
 of following it up by authoritative decisions. It was conduct 
 like this that made Ralph Erskine see at last how vain it
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF SECESSION CHUECH. 323 
 
 was to wait longer in the hope of the church reforming 
 itself from within. 
 
 The Associate Presbytery was now composed of eight 
 members, and preparations were being made for increasing 
 the number of ministers so as to meet the calls that were 
 addressed them from all parts of the land. In the end of 
 1757 two students who had been in the divinity hall for 
 two sessions were put on trial for licence, and thus the 
 presbytery was gradually assuming the position of a regu- 
 larly organized church. Taking notice of this, the Assembly 
 of 1738 resolved to call upon their ministers, and especially 
 members of synods and presbyteries in which any of the 
 seceding brethren reside, to use their diligence by confer- 
 ence and persuasion, to induce them to return to the 
 communion of the church, and to use all proper means to 
 reclaim those poor deluded people who had been carried 
 away by the division. These ministers were also to report 
 to the commission, which was empowered to receive reports 
 and prepare a case for the Assembly, and, if necessary, to 
 take steps for citing the separating brethren before the 
 Assembly to answer for their irregular conduct. The 
 November commission prepared a libel, which was served 
 on all the members of the presbytery in March, 1739, sum- 
 moning them to the bar of the Assembly, and charging 
 them with making an unwarrantable secession from the 
 church, with forming themselves into a presbytery and 
 exercising judicial presbyterial power, with emitting a 
 Testimony in which the church and its judicatories were 
 condemned, dispensing ordinances outside of their own 
 parishes, ordaining elders and appointing fasts in various 
 parts of the country, taking parties on trial and licensing 
 them as preachers, together with other particular acts of 
 offence. The members of the presbytery resolved to 
 decline the jurisdiction of the Assembly, on the ground of 
 its not being a rightly constituted church court, as having 
 among its members unlawfully intruded ministers, as having 
 tolerated error and imposed new and unwarrantable terms 
 of ministerial and Christian communion, and as having
 
 324 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IX SCOTLAND. 
 
 subordinated themselves in their ecclesiastical practices to 
 the civil government. This declaration they presented 
 before the Assembly in May, 1739, before which they 
 appeared as a fully constituted presbytery. Having done 
 so they withdrew to their own place of meeting. The 
 Assembly passed a motion which, after commenting 
 severely upon the boldness and obduracy of the separating 
 brethren, and indicating the slenderness of any hope of 
 their relenting, resolved to delay action till next Assembly, 
 when the case should be finally disposed of. At the 
 Assembly of 1740, the brethren, though summoned, did 
 not appear, and the sentence of deposition was carried by a 
 large majority. 
 
 During all this time the Seceders were busying them- 
 selves as evangelists, and great spiritual quickening took 
 place throughout the country. It cannot be doubted that 
 their fervid evangelistic preaching did much to prepare the 
 people for that remarkable period of revival in the years 
 immediately following. Strange to say these movements 
 when they came about found in those very men whose work 
 had led up to them, their most bitter and persistent 
 opponents. The great English Evangelist, George White- 
 field, came to Scotland in the summer of 1741 in response 
 to a warm and urgent invitation from the Erskines. Un- 
 doubtedly in giving this invitation the Secession fathers 
 had primarily in view the spiritual reviving of the people, 
 but, unfortunately, they sought to bind down their guest 
 to work exclusively in co-operation with them. Whitefield, 
 after consideration, declared this impossible, and when it 
 was found that the evangelist was ready to preach in any 
 pulpit that would open to him, the rigid Seceders drew off 
 from him and denounced him as a Latitudinarian in severe 
 and altogether indefensible terms. Mr. Whitefield con- 
 tinued his work as an evangelist throughout various parts 
 of Scotland during 1742. The evangelical ministers 
 of the Church of Scotland opened their pulpits to him 
 and gave him a hearty welcome and ready assistance. 
 In Cambuslang the warm-hearted and earnest-minded
 
 LOYALTY OF THE PRESBYTERIANS. 325 
 
 minister, Mr. M'Culloch, had awakened spiritual interest 
 in his people by circulating among them accounts of 
 revival work in other places, and preached a long series of 
 sermons on the nature and necessity of the new birth. A 
 great excitement was produced, daily services were insti- 
 tuted, immense crowds flocked to the place, and hundreds 
 after sermon waited on the minister for instruction under 
 deep spiritual concern. Mr. Whitefield took part in this 
 work, and he declares that thousands were there brought 
 under the influence of the truth. At the communion dis- 
 pensed there in August, three thousand sat down at the 
 table and a crowd of some thirty thousand attended the ser- 
 vices conducted on that occasion. Secession leaders, Ralph 
 Erskine, Adam Gib and James Fisher wrote bitterly against 
 the Cambuslang- work as one of Satan's delusions, while it 
 was defended and sympathetically reported by Robe of Kil- 
 syth, Willison of Dundee, and Webster of Edinburgh. The 
 good work spread to Kilsyth, Stevenston, Shotts, and many 
 other places, and Mr. M'Culloch was able to testify to the 
 enduring and satisfactory character of the movement after 
 nine years' observation of those who professed to have under- 
 gone the great spiritual change. 
 
 During the rebellion of 1745, just as in that of thirty 
 years before, the Scottish episcopalians almost to a man 
 showed themselves determined Jacobites. This was un- 
 doubtedly true in regard to the episcopal ministers, whereas 
 so far as appears, only one presbyterian minister showed any 
 sympathy with the Pretender. Mr. James Man, minister 
 of Dunkeld, was charged before the Assembly of 1747 with 
 having failed to pray for the royal family and having prayed 
 for the King, Duke and Princess of Wales, with having pro- 
 posed the health of the King, Prince and Duke, with saying 
 that if they do not succeed Scotland will be ruined, and that 
 it was hard that a young gentleman should suffer for the 
 faults of his ancestors. He tried to explain away some of 
 his utterances, and otherwise pled the threatening attitude 
 of the Marquess of Tullibardine and other rebels. Notwith- 
 standing all these excuses, he was put under suspension for
 
 326 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 six months. In consequence of their sympathy with the 
 rebels, Scotch episcopalians were forbidden to preach, bap- 
 tise, or administer the Eucharist under pain of imprisonment. 
 
 In the Secession Church the peace and harmony which had 
 characterised the earlier years of their separate existence 
 was doomed soon to be broken. During the first twelve 
 years of their denominational existence they had prospered 
 and their numerical increase was encouraging. Though Mr. 
 Nairn left them in 1743, having adopted the views of the 
 Old Dissenters or Cameronians, they had so increased in 
 number and their business had developed to such an extent, 
 that they resolved in October, 1744, to form a synod con- 
 sisting of three presbyteries to be named the presbyteries 
 of Dunfermline, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The first meet- 
 ing of the Associate Synod was held on the first Tuesday of 
 March, 1745. There were now twenty-six ordained minis- 
 ters in the body, while there were besides sixteen or seven- 
 teen vacant congregations. During the rebellion the seceders 
 proved themselves ardent royalists, and a company of three 
 hundred belonging to the congregation of Edinburgh and 
 neighbourhood had themselves drilled and put in readiness 
 for the defence of the city. It was so throughout the de- 
 nomination generally, and Mr. Erskine at Stirling received 
 thanks from the Duke of Cumberland for the zeal which he 
 had shown in the king's cause. 
 
 Trouble arose among the Seceders over the burgess oath. 
 It had been brewing for a year or two, but at last broke 
 out in 1747. The clause specially objected to ran as 
 follows : Here I protest before God and your Lordships 
 that I profess and allow with my heart, the true religion 
 presently professed within this realm, and authorised by the 
 laws thereof: I shall abide thereat, and defend the same to 
 my lifers end, renouncing the Roman religion called papistry. 
 The question arose as to what was meant by " true religion 
 presently professed within this realm."" Some held that this 
 implied approbation of the corruptions then prevailing in 
 the Established Church ; while others argued that it did 
 not imply approbation of the manner in which religion was
 
 BURGHERS AND ANTI-BURGHERS. 327 
 
 professed, but only of the true religion itself. During 
 1745, 1746, and 1747, several meetings of synods were held, 
 at which various questions of procedure were angrily and 
 tediously debated. The story of these discussions as given 
 by Mr. M'Kerrow in his history in some fourteen pages form 
 the dreariest reading and about the most bewildering to be 
 found anywhere in the English language. At the meeting 
 of synod in April, 1747, it was moved that the decision of 
 the synod of April, 1746, against the taking of the oath 
 should not be held a term of communion till presbyteries 
 and sessions had been consulted. Twenty-three who had 
 voted against putting this question did not vote, and of 
 the fifty-five present only twenty voted, and all of them in 
 favour of the motion here referred to. The vote was thus 
 really against the majority, who therefore now withdrew 
 from the synod. The Secession Church was by means of 
 this vote broken up into two divisions, each claiming to be 
 the Associate Synod; but for distinction's sake those 
 belonging to the larger body which gave an out and out 
 opposition to the Burgess Oath were called " The Anti- 
 Burghers, 1 ' and those belonging to the smaller body which 
 declined to regard the taking of the oath as sinful were 
 called the " Burghers." The leader of the Anti-Burghers was 
 Adam Gib, and of the Secession fathers Alexander Moncrieff 
 of Abernethy went with him. On the side of the Burghers 
 were found the Erskines and Mr. James Fisher. In 
 August, 1749, the Anti-Burgher Synod passed sentence of 
 the greater excommunication upon all the ministerial mem- 
 bers of the Burgher Synod. There was henceforth con- 
 fusion and trouble everywhere. Friends who had been as 
 brothers no longer recognised one another as Christian 
 ministers; congregations were divided, and lawsuits were 
 entered upon to determine to which party in cases of 
 division the property might be assigned. 
 
 Within the Established Church this period was especially 
 remarkable for the number of disputed settlements. Be- 
 tween 1740 and 1750 more than fifty such cases had to be 
 disposed of by the Assembly. In some instances parishes
 
 328 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 remained long vacant, and contentions of a most embittered 
 character prevailed. The decisions of the Assembly were 
 determined by no definite rule, and were variable and un- 
 certain. " In some instances, 11 says Dr. Cunningham, " the 
 patron was begged to withdraw his presentation, as the 
 concurrence of the people could not be obtained ; in others, 
 the presentee was forced upon the parish in spite of its 
 opposition ; in others, a numerously signed call was pre- 
 ferred to a presentation backed by a call with only a few 
 names attached to it." This want of uniformity in the 
 Assembly's decisions was felt to be a very great evil. 
 
 The case of Torphichen deserves to be specially noted. 
 The patron had given a presentation in favour of a Mr. 
 Watson, in behalf of whom only five or six out of an 
 examinable population of a thousand could be got to sign a 
 call. Against him, therefore, the opposition was practically 
 universal. The presbytery of Linlithgow, though ordered 
 to proceed with the ordination by the Synod of 1749 and 
 the Assembly of 1750, refused to do so. The Assembly of 
 1751, after long discussion, voted on the question whether 
 to suspend the refractory members of presbytery or simply 
 rebuke them. The motion for suspension, moved and 
 seconded, in maiden speeches, by John Home of Athel- 
 staneford (afterwards known as author of the play Douglas) 
 and William Robertson of Gladsmuir (afterwards Principal 
 and historian), secured only eleven votes ; while the motion 
 for rebuke secured two hundred votes. After the rebuke 
 was administered, a riding commission, the last ever 
 appointed in the Church of Scotland, was named to act 
 with or for the presbytery so as to carry out the ordination 
 of the unpopular presentee. 
 
 The next important case of intrusion, that of Inverkeith- 
 ing, was in some respects very similar, but in consequence of 
 the determination of some of the resisting members of pres- 
 bytery and the dogged resolution of the leaders of the church 
 in the Assembly to enforce the law regardless of what the 
 immediate results might be, the issue was more directly and 
 conspicuously disastrous. A Mr. Richardson of Broughton
 
 THE INVERKEITHING CASE. 329 
 
 in Peeblesshire was presented by the patron to the parish of 
 Inverkeithing in 1749, and certain heritors, elders and town 
 councillors, joined in a call to him, which, after having been 
 refused by the presbytery, was referred by the synod of Fife 
 to the Assembly of 1750. The Assembly referred the case 
 to the Commission, which sustained the call. Some of the 
 promoters of Mr. Richardson's settlement appeared before 
 the Presbytery and declared that they had reason to believe 
 that many who had opposed the call would acquiesce in the 
 settlement after it had been effected. The presbytery 
 accordingly appointed a committee to meet with the elders 
 and town councillors, but after this committee gave in their 
 report, the presbytery declared that it would be hurtful ta 
 the interests of religion to admit Mr. Richardson to Inver- 
 keithing and requested the Commission to give them relief. 
 The synod of Fife to whom the case went by appeal ex- 
 pressed dissatisfaction with the presbytery for not obeying 
 the Commission's injunction, and ordered them forthwith to 
 proceed with Mr. Richardson's settlement. The presbytery 
 thereafter by a majority resolved to delay procedure and to 
 make a representation to the Commission. The case then 
 went by appeal to the November Commission 1751, which 
 ordered the presbytery under the presidency of the moder- 
 ator, Mr. Spence of Orwell, to proceed to the admission of 
 Mr. Richardson under pain of very high censure in case of 
 disobedience. At the March Commission, 1752, a motion 
 was carried by a small majority that the presbytery be not 
 censured. A considerable party headed by Mr. Robertson 
 of Gladsmuir dissented from this decision, and their Reasons 
 of Dissent, the first recorded specimen of Robertson's 
 ecclesiastical work, form a document which is regarded as 
 the Moderate Manifesto, just as the Answers to the Reasons 
 of Dissent, supposed to be the production of Dr. Webster, 
 is regarded as the manifesto of the Popular Party. The 
 Assembly of 1752 resolved that the Commission of March 
 had exceeded its powers, and appointed the presbytery of 
 Dunfermline to meet at Inverkeithing on the following 
 Thursday to admit Mr. Richardson, that all the members
 
 330 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 be present, that the quorum be five ministers, and that each 
 of the ministers appear at the bar of the Assembly on 
 Friday to give an account of his conduct. This decision 
 was strongly dissented from by a large number of ministers. 
 At the bar of the Assembly on Friday, Mr. James Thom- 
 son of Dunfermline told how he had gone to Inverkei thing 
 on Thursday, and found Messrs. Listen of Aberdour, and 
 Bathgate of Dalgety, but they being only three, and the 
 Assembly having raised the quorum to five, they could not 
 proceed. Six members of the presbytery presented a state- 
 ment indicating that they felt that they could not take part 
 in the settlement of Mr. Richardson knowing that this 
 would have the effect of scattering the flock of Christ, and 
 that such settlements must result in fatal consequences to 
 our happy civil constitution. As they refused to recede 
 from their statement, it was resolved that one of the six 
 should be deposed, and this was earned by ninety-three 
 votes to five. On the following day one vote each was given 
 against Mr. Stark, Mr. Baling, Mr. Fernie, and Mr. 
 Spence, and fifty-two against Mr. Gillespie of Carnock, one 
 hundred and two members declining to vote. Mr. Gilles- 
 pie was accordingly deposed from the office of the holy 
 ministry, and prohibited from exercising the same or any 
 part of it within this church in all time coming. The 
 parish of Carnock was declared vacant from the day and 
 date of the sentence. Mr. Gillespie listened to this sen - 
 tence with gravity and respect, and answered " Moderator, 
 I desire to receive this sentence of the General Assembly of 
 the Church of Scotland pronounced against me with real 
 concern, and awful impressions of the divine conduct in 
 it ; but I rejoice that to me it is given in behalf of Christ 
 not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." 
 It seems difficult to give any reason for the Assembly's 
 singling out of Mr. Gillespie as their victim from among the 
 six. Almost all the others had taken a more active part in 
 the opposition to the Commission's injunction than he. He 
 had probably fewer personal friends among the ministers of 
 the church. As a divinity student he had gone to Mr.
 
 THE PRESBYTERY OF RELIEF FORMED. 331 
 
 Wilson's class in the Secession Hall at Perth, but stayed 
 only ten days, as he was not satisfied with the principles of 
 the Seceders. Thereafter he studied in England, and was 
 licensed and ordained by English Dissenters, Dr. Dodd- 
 ridge being moderator. On his appointment to Carnock he 
 had been allowed to sign the Confession of Faith and 
 Formula, with an explanation of his views regarding the 
 civil magistrate. He never occupied church or manse after 
 his deposition, but he avoided saying anything against the 
 church which had cast him out. Efforts were made to have 
 him restored, and it was only by the small majority of three 
 that the Assembly of 1753 refused to open the door for this 
 good and loyal-hearted man's return. 
 
 A vacancy having occurred in the parish of Jedburgh in 
 1755, the elders resolved unanimously to stand together in 
 an effort to secure a free election of a minister by the 
 majority of the parishioners. The minister upon whom 
 the choice of the people fell was Thomas Boston of Oxnam, 
 son of the famous minister of Ettrick ; but the patron gave 
 the presentation to Mr. Bonar of Cockpen, grandson of 
 another of the Marrow men, Bonar of Torphichen. When 
 the presentee found how matters stood he withdrew, but the 
 patron instead of yielding to the wishes of the people pre- 
 sented another who had no scruples in asserting his claims. 
 The Assembly to whom the case was referred ordered the 
 presbytery to proceed with the settlement of Mr. Douglas, 
 though only five signatures to his call had been secured. 
 The congregation proceeded to build a chapel ; Mr. Boston 
 demitted his charge, and accepted the call of the people of 
 Jedburgh. Mr. Boston and Mr. Gillespie met at a com- 
 munion service in Jedburgh, and in October, 1761, these 
 two ministers along with two elders met at Colinsburgh in 
 the parish of Kilconquhar, Fif'eshire, where an unpopular 
 presentee had been intruded on the people, and inducted 
 Mr. Collier, an English Presbyterian, whom the dissenters 
 had chosen as their minister. These three Messrs. 
 Gillespie, Boston, and Collier thereupon constituted them- 
 selves into a Presbytery of Relief, for the relief of Christians
 
 332 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 oppressed in their religious privileges. They were soon 
 afterwards joined by Mr. Bain of Paisley, and they con- 
 tinued to grow in numbers and in influence. The Relief 
 Church thus formed was from the first distinguished from 
 the other seceders by their readiness to admit as occasional 
 communicants members of other religious denominations, 
 but in their evangelical sympathies and beliefs they were 
 always closely related to their brethren who had gone out 
 before them. 
 
 The Burgher denomination had meanwhile sustained a 
 heavy loss through the death of their two great leaders, the 
 Erskines. Mr. Ralph Erskine died at Dunfermline on 16th 
 November, 1752, in his sixty-eighth year. He had served 
 in the ministry for the long period of forty years, and had 
 proved a faithful pastor and a useful preacher. He was a 
 genial and thoroughly true-hearted man, and though now 
 little read, his Gospel Sonnets, in which the truths of Scrip- 
 ture and of Christian experience were put into rhyme that 
 is scarcely poetry, were remarkably popular in their day. 
 His elder brother, Ebenezer, died on 2nd June, 1754, in his 
 seventy-fourth year and in the fifty -first year of his ministry. 
 He was the most powerful and popular preacher among all 
 the Secession fathers. His only literary memorial consists 
 of sermons posthumously published, but from these no 
 adequate conception can be formed of that singular pulpit 
 power to which his contemporaries give unequivocal 
 testimony. 
 
 The Assembly of 1755 having had its attention called to 
 the prevalence of infidelity and immorality by an overture 
 in which the works of Lord Kames and David Hume were 
 specially referred to, unanimously passed an Act in which 
 abhorrence of such principles was expressed, and a recom- 
 mendation was addressed to all ministers to be diligent in 
 preventing the contagion of such views from spreading among 
 those under their charge. 
 
 In January, 1757, the Presbytery of Edinburgh had 
 before it the case of Mr. White of Liberton, who had 
 attended the theatre to witness the representation of the
 
 MINISTERS ATTENDING THE THEATRE. 333 
 
 tragedy of " Douglas," written by Mr. Home of Athel- 
 staneford. He pleaded that he had only gone once, and 
 that he had endeavoured to conceal himself in a corner 
 to avoid giving offence. He also expressed his deep sorrow 
 for what he had done, and promised to be more careful and 
 prudent in future. An effort was made to get him off with 
 a simple rebuke, but it was resolved by a large majority that 
 he should be suspended. His suspension, however, was 
 restricted to the period of three weeks, but was duly and 
 formally intimated by the moderator from the Liberton 
 pulpit. The Edinburgh presbytery also called the attention 
 of other six presbyteries to the conduct of members of these 
 courts who had attended and encouraged the performances 
 in the playhouse. In their letter to these presbyteries they 
 call attention to the fact that in 1727 they had addressed 
 an Admonition and Exhortation to those under their charge 
 against countenancing the playhouse, and also that by a 
 law passed in 1737 the acting of plays for hire and reward 
 within the city or suburbs was expressly prohibited, that 
 they had prosecuted and obtained convictions against 
 breakers of the law, and that support given to those who 
 sought to evade the law was most pernicious. The offenders 
 were then named and the hope expressed that the matter 
 would be considered and means taken for vindicating the 
 credit and reputation of the holy ministry. All of the 
 presbyteries rebuked those of their number who had 
 offended, and with one exception, approved of the proceed- 
 ing of the Edinburgh presbytery. The presbytery of Duns, 
 while rebuking two of the members who had attended the 
 play, wrote a most absurd letter charging the Edinburgh 
 Presbytery with assuming a jurisdiction over other presby- 
 teries to which they had no right. Mr. Home was duly 
 cited by his presbytery of Haddington, but after some delay 
 he tendered his resignation, which was accepted in June, 
 1757. The most interesting of all cases connected with this 
 theatrical representation was the case of Carlyle of Inveresk 
 before the presbytery of Dalkeith. The presbytery served 
 a libel on Mr. Carlyle consisting of three articles, charging
 
 334 HISTORY OF THE CHU11CH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 him with frequenting the company of players who by their 
 profession in the eye of the law are of bad fame, with 
 attending a rehearsal of the tragedy " Douglas " and assist- 
 ing or directing the players, and with appearing openly in 
 the playhouse in the Canongate, within a few miles of his 
 own parish, near to a university seat, and hard by that of 
 Edinburgh, where he was known from having often preached 
 there and assisted at the dispensation of the Lord's Supper. 
 It was further noted that the tragedy which was there per- 
 formed encouraged the crime of suicide, contained dreadful 
 oaths and mock prayers, so offensive that they had to be 
 struck out in later representations. Mr. Carlyle gave a full 
 report of what he had done, expressed his extreme sorrow 
 for having given offence, and declared that had he known it 
 would be so offensive, he would have been careful, as he resolved 
 to be hereafter, to avoid it. He then pleaded that the libel 
 should be withdrawn and the matter taken up as a question 
 of privy censures. The presbytery proceeded with the libel 
 and Mr. Carlyle appealed to the synod ; the presbytery also 
 referred the case to the synod so that it might go to the 
 Assembly and secure the censure of a higher court upon the 
 offender. The synod found fault with the presbytery for 
 prosecuting the libel, but expressed high displeasure with 
 Carlyle for what he had done and strictly enj oined him to 
 abstain from such conduct in all time to come. Mr. Carlyle 
 intimated that he received this censure with respect, was 
 sorry for his offence and promised never to give trouble to 
 any church court again on account of such conduct. The 
 Assembly, on 24th May, 1757, affirmed the decision of the 
 synod, and so the case ended. 
 
 On the 27th of May the Assembly considered overtures 
 relating to the stage which had come up from the Glasgow 
 presbytery and from the synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. 
 One overture, which extended the injunction not to attend 
 the theatre to members of the church as well as ministers, 
 was set aside, and the overture which was passed, while re- 
 commending presbyteries to take wise measures for preserv- 
 ing the purity and decorum of the ministerial character,
 
 ASSESSMENT FOR POOR BEGUN. 335 
 
 enjoins them to take care that none of the ministers of this 
 church do, upon any occasion, attend the theatre. 
 
 The Secession was beginning already to tell seriously to 
 the disadvantage of the Church of Scotland. In several 
 parish churches the numbers attending the services were 
 greatly reduced, and the contributions at the ordinary diets 
 of worship were so diminished that they were no longer 
 adequate to afford relief to the deserving poor. Up to 
 1755 there had been no fixed and continuous assessment for 
 the poor in any Scottish parish ; but from this time on- 
 ward, because of the reduction in the weekly collections, 
 mainly occasioned by the increase of secessions, it became 
 necessary in most districts to have the parishes regularly 
 assessed.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Ascendancy of the Moderates* 
 17611796. 
 
 CONSIDERABLE excitement had arisen in the church and 
 throughout the country over the publication of what were 
 considered dangerous and sceptical doctrines in the writings 
 especially of David Hume and Henry Home, Lord Kames. 
 An attempt was made to deal with them by the presbytery 
 of Edinburgh ; but Hume was not a member of the church 
 nor in any way under the jurisdiction of the presbytery, and 
 Lord Kames, though a member and an elder of the church, 
 could vindicate his position by reference to distinguished 
 Calvinistic divines who had maintained the doctrine of 
 philosophical necessity. In a much more effectual way than 
 by church censures, the objectionable theories of such writers 
 were met by exhaustive argumentative treatises on the sub- 
 ject under dispute from the orthodox point of view. Dr. 
 George Campbell, principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen, 
 published in 1762 his Dissertation on Miracles, in answer to 
 the doctrine of Hume as to the relative value of evidence 
 from experience and from testimony. The author treats his 
 subject in a thoroughly philosophical manner, and, very 
 much in the way of those philosophers who came to be called 
 the Scottish school, he examines the grounds of knowledge 
 
 * Literature : Stewart, Account of the Life and Writings of 
 William Robertson, D.D., London, 1802 (in which is included a 
 " Sketch of Principal Robertson's Ecclesiastical Policy " by Dr. 
 Hill) ; Cook, Life of George Hill, D.D., Principal of St. Mary's Col- 
 lege, St. Andrews, Edin., 1820 ; Autobiography of Dr. Alexaiider 
 Carlyle of Inveresk, ed. by J. Hill Burton, Edin. , 1860 ; Sir H. 
 Moncrieff Well wood, Life of Dr. John Erskine, Edin., 1818. 
 
 S36
 
 THE OVERTURE ON SCHISM. 337 
 
 and the principles of belief. Another still more distinguished 
 philosophical writer arose within the Church of Scotland. 
 Dr. Thomas Reid, who had been minister in New Machar in 
 Aberdeenshire, was made professor of philosophy in Aber- 
 deen in 1752, and was transferred to Glasgow in 1768, as 
 successor to Adam Smith in the Moral Philosophy chair. 
 He had been greatly stirred by Hume's Treatise on Human 
 Nature, which drove him out of the Berkleian idealism which 
 up till that time he had professed, and led him to elaborate 
 and develop that doctrine of self-consciousness which pre- 
 supposes principles working in the mind independent of our 
 experience. These views he set forth in An Inquiry into the 
 Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense, published 
 in 1764. The principles of this philosophy were afterwards 
 brilliantly restated and expanded by Sir William Hamilton. 
 The progress of the Secession occasioned considerable 
 anxiety to the leaders of the church, and accordingly an 
 overture was transmitted to the General Assembly of 1765, 
 calling attention to the spread of schism in the church and 
 asking the Assembly to provide such remedies against this 
 great evil as in their wisdom they may judge most proper. 
 A committee was appointed to consider the overture and 
 report to next Assembly. This committee reported that it 
 was said that no fewer than one hundred and twenty meet- 
 ing houses had been erected, and recommended that this be 
 enquired into ; and also that, seeing the abuses of the right 
 of patronage have been a chief occasion of secession, the 
 Assembly be overtured to consider what means may be em- 
 ployed to remedy so great an evil ; and finally, that a com- 
 mittee be appointed to correspond with presbyteries and 
 report. The Assembly of 1766, after a long debate, rejected 
 the overture. The charge of schism was keenly resented by 
 the Seceders. Adam Gib, the leader of the Anti-Burghers, 
 maintained on behalf of all his brethren that they did not 
 secede from the Church of Scotland, but only from the cor- 
 ruption which then prevailed in the church. " Let the 
 Seceders," he says, " whom I am speaking of be once satisfied 
 about proper entertainment being given to Christianity in
 
 338 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 the Established Church, they will then most humbly crave 
 to be entertained in her communion." In so speaking the 
 Seceders showed that they had served themselves heirs to the 
 best traditions of the Scottish Church, but how on these 
 principles they could pass upon their brethren of the 
 Burgher Synod, and still more arbitrarily on the members 
 of the Reformed Presbytery, who were never within their 
 jurisdiction, the Greater Excommunication, declaring them 
 cast out of the communion of the church of Christ, to be 
 regarded by all the faithful as heathens and publicans and 
 delivered over to Satan, is one of those psychological puzzles 
 produced by the inconsistencies and iniquities that blur the 
 lives of good and conscientious men. 
 
 Within the Church of Scotland a new policy was inaugu- 
 rated by Dr. William Robertson, who in 1672 was made 
 principal of the University of Edinburgh. He had from the 
 first been strongly opposed to granting any concessions to 
 the scruples of presbyters who declined to implement the 
 injunctions of the Assembly in cases of disputed settlement. 
 His leadership of the Moderate party was characterized by 
 the rigid enforcement of the law. Especially he insisted 
 upon the supremacy of the General Assembly, and the 
 absolute necessity of having its decisions carried out by 
 the inferior courts. Under Dr. Robertson's administration 
 the law of patronage received a regular and uniform sup- 
 port. There was distinctly this advantage in the new 
 system of government, that the people knew exactly what to 
 expect. The decisions in such cases previously had been 
 uncertain, and were determined by no principle. Now the 
 call was treated invariably as of no consequence, and on no 
 account was the presentation of a patron set aside. It does 
 indeed seem that the right of patronage and the people's 
 right to give a call were absolutely inconsistent with one 
 another, and yet they were both recognized by the law. 
 In earlier years sometimes the one principle, sometimes the 
 other, was given effect to ; under Dr. Robertson's direction 
 the one was consistently and invariably ignored. 
 
 Mr. Adam Gib, of Edinburgh, a leading member of the
 
 ADAM GIB'S OVERTURE. 339 
 
 Anti-Burgher synod, gave very considerable trouble to his 
 brethren. In May, 1769, he brought forward an over- 
 ture, in which he proposed to consolidate in one document 
 as many as twenty separate Acts. This overture he in- 
 tended as a vindication and justification of the Secession 
 Testimony from the attempts to defame and destroy it 
 made by those whom he called the separating brethren. 
 But the principal act of doctrinal defection took its rise in 
 the dissent by Mr. Thomas Mair of Orwell against state- 
 ments in the overture on doctrine passed by the Anti- 
 Burgher Synod in 1754 with reference to the extent of the 
 atonement procured by Christ's death. Mr. Mair regarded 
 these statements as directed against the book of Mr. Fraser 
 of Brea, entitled Justifying Faith. In the following year 
 Mr. Mair was suspended, and in April, 1757, as he still 
 continued obdurate, he was deposed. In the following 
 year the synod issued a pamphlet entitled A Solemn Warn- 
 ing. And though in 1766 and in 1767 Mr. Mair applied 
 to be restored, his petition was refused because he declined 
 to withdraw his dissent against the overture on doctrine. 
 He desired the synod to rest satisfied with their authorised 
 standards without adding the further burden of this over- 
 ture ; but they would not make this concession, and so Mr. 
 Mair continued to live and work outside of the Anti- 
 Burgher Synod. Mr. Gib, however, was by no means in- 
 clined to rest satisfied with what had thus been done. He 
 brought forward his overture, and when the synod, after 
 expressing their approval of its contents, declined to pass 
 it on the ground that there was no special necessity for it 
 being issued at that time, he absented himself from all meet- 
 ings of synod, and it was only in 1780 that he agreed to 
 forget all personal grievances and to resume his place among 
 his brethren. 
 
 Dr. Robertson's management of church affairs was ex- 
 tolled by many of his contemporaries and immediate suc- 
 cessors, but by more recent critical historians of the church 
 and period, it has been almost unanimously condemned. 
 His churchmanship may be compared to the statesmanship
 
 340 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 of Strafford. In church and state the " thorough " method 
 is extremely simple, and for a certain period the administra- 
 tion, backed up by the required majority, carried every- 
 thing before him. The period, however, can in no case be 
 very long, and the longer it lasts the greater is the accumu- 
 lation of evils and grievances for which a reckoning must 
 be paid. The method triumphs only by the use of brute 
 force. Reluctant presbyters were driven to violate their 
 consciences under dread of the infliction of professional and 
 pecuniary loss, and a resisting people, if they carried their 
 resistance dangerously far, were either held in check by the 
 presence of police and soldiers, or violently thrust back by 
 the officers of the law, while men whom they were resolved 
 never to recognise were being ordained as ministers in those 
 churches in which they had been wont to listen to the 
 preaching of God's word. Every forced settlement was a 
 victory which brought all the disasters of a defeat. Several 
 of the cases of violent intrusion of unpopular presentees 
 were of a kind which not only drove into revolt the parti- 
 cular individuals who felt themselves grievously wronged, 
 but also loosened the feeling of attachment to the Church 
 of Scotland among the people throughout the country 
 generally. It is surprising and disappointing to find even 
 such an ordinarily fair and liberal minded man as Sir H. 
 Wellwood Moncrieff, in his Life of Dr. John Erskine, com- 
 mending the churchmanship of Robertson, even to the 
 extent of approving of his support of the annual appeal for 
 the abrogation of patronage as a sop to the popular 
 agitators, though on the part of the petitioner there was 
 no wish that the terms of his petition should be listened to. 
 The crookedness of such policy is now regarded as its 
 severest condemnation. The people, however, were not 
 deceived by the sham petition, but rather irritated by the 
 mockery and evident insincerity of the whole proceeding. 
 
 A good illustration of the treatment to which the people 
 of Scotland were subjected, and the ruinous effects which 
 such treatment produced, may be found in the history of 
 the St. Ninians case. In 1767 an aged and infirm man,
 
 THE ST. NTNIANS CASE. 341 
 
 Mr. David Thomson of Gargunnock, was presented to the 
 parish of St. Ninians. In his earlier years he had a good 
 record as an orthodox and evangelical preacher. He had 
 been minister of the English Reformed Church first at 
 Amsterdam and then at Rotterdam, and had been for some 
 years in Gargunnock. He had been a respected friend and 
 correspondent of Dr. John Erskine. Only a few episco- 
 palians and non-resident heritors, friends of the patron, 
 could be got to sign the call, while all resident heritors, 
 with all the elders and people were actively and vehemently 
 opposed. By one means or another the presbytery delayed 
 settlement for seven years, but the obstinacy of patron and 
 presentee frustrated all attempts at compromise or concilia- 
 tion. At last the Assembly of 1773 commanded the 
 presbytery of Stirling to proceed to the settlement without 
 delay, ordering all the members of the presbytery to be 
 present on the occasion. On the day appointed the presby- 
 tery met at St. Ninians, and Mr. Findlay of Dollar, the 
 Moderator, presided. After praise and prayer, instead of 
 preaching a sermon as is usual, Mr. Findlay at once called 
 upon Mr. Thomson to stand up, and, without any pre- 
 liminaries, addressed him as follows : " Sir, we have met 
 here this day in obedience to the General Assembly to 
 admit you minister of St. Ninians. There has been a for- 
 midable opposition made against you by six hundred heads 
 of families, sixty heritors, and all the elders of the parish 
 except one. The opposition has continued for seven years 
 by your own obstinacy ; and if you should this day be 
 admitted you can have no pastoral relation to the souls of 
 the parish ; you will never be regarded as the shepherd to 
 go before the sheep, they know you not and they will never 
 follow you. You will draw misery and contempt upon 
 yourself, you will be despised, you will be hated, you will be 
 insulted and maltreated. One of the most eloquent and 
 learned ministers of the church told me lately that he would 
 go twenty miles to see you deposed ; and I do assure you, 
 Sir, that I and twenty thousand more, friends to our church, 
 would do the same. In the course of this opposition your
 
 342 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 conduct and behaviour has been altogether unworthy and 
 unbecoming a minister of the gospel. You maintained a 
 good character and reputation till your unhappy and 
 obstinate adherence to this presentation. Now bending 
 under the weight of years and infirmities of old age, what 
 happiness can you propose to yourself, in this mad, this 
 desperate attempt of yours, without the concurrence of the 
 people, and without the least prospect of usefulness in this 
 parish ? Your admission into it, therefore, can only be re- 
 garded as a sinecure, and you yourself as stipend lifter of 
 St. Ninians ; for you can have no further relation to this 
 parish. Now, Sir, I conjure you by the mercies of God, 
 give up this presentation. I conjure you, for the sake of 
 the great number of souls of St. Ninians, who are like sheep 
 going astray without a shepherd to lead them, and who will 
 never have you, will never submit to you, give it up. I 
 conjure you by that peace of mind which you would wish in 
 a dying hour, and that awful and impartial account which 
 in a little you must give to God of your own soul and of 
 the souls of this parish at the tribunal of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, give it up." This address, which expressed in very 
 direct and plain language what most of the audience must 
 have had in their minds, had been listened to with breath- 
 less excitement. Every eye was now fixed on the man who 
 had placed himself in so miserable a position. He alone 
 seemed to have preserved an appearance, outwardly at least, 
 of cool indifference. He simply answered : " I forgive you, 
 Sir, for what you have now said; may God forgive you; pro- 
 ceed to obey the orders of your superiors."" Mr. Findlay at 
 once, without putting to him the questions usually asked of 
 those who are being inducted into the ministry of a con- 
 gregation, addressed the presentee : " I, as moderator of 
 the presbytery, admit you, Mr. David Thomson, to be 
 minister of the parish of St. Ninians, in the true sense and 
 spirit of the late sentence of the General Assembly, and you 
 are hereby admitted accordingly. 1 " 
 
 Such a conclusion to a long-drawn out case like this, fol- 
 lowing as it did upon such instances of violent intrusion,
 
 ROBERTSON'S LEADERSHIP OF THE MODERATES. 343 
 
 under the protection of military escorts, as those of Shotfcs 
 and Eaglesham, which took place since the St. Ninians dis- 
 pute began, did more to help and encourage the cause of 
 the Secession than any propaganda carried on outside of the 
 church. The Moderate policy as enunciated by Robertson 
 was also popularly charged with a leniency in its treatment 
 of moral delinquents proportionate to the severity and 
 rigidness of its assertion of the rights of the patron. In 
 maintaining the claims of presentations against all manner 
 of objections to the presentee, there was undoubtedly a 
 danger of becoming unconsciously inclined to minimise the 
 importance of defects or deficiencies of a moral, as well as of 
 an intellectual and spiritual, kind. But the principle upon 
 which Robertson acted, who was himself a man of high 
 principle and irreproachable character, was that of requir- 
 ing in every j udicial process the same precision and atten- 
 tion to the laws of evidence as is insisted upon in courts of 
 law. If there was a legal flaw in the process, he would 
 rather let a culprit escape than have him convicted under 
 conditions that would not have secured a conviction before 
 one of his Majesty's judges. That some scandalous 
 offenders were allowed to escape through what seemed no 
 better than a legal quibble, and that others on conviction 
 received very inadequate sentences, and that these proceed- 
 ings looked suspicious as the acts of a party so strict and 
 severe in its enforcement of the law of patronage, were facts 
 which no one can deny. It was also charged against the 
 Moderate policy that it failed to encourage and promote 
 orthodox teaching and evangelical religion. It should, 
 indeed, be remembered that there were several instances 
 of individuals who were decided Moderates in matters of 
 church policy, and yet warmly evangelical in their doctrine 
 and preaching. But it is undoubtedly true that during the 
 Moderate regime under Robertson, views inclining more 
 or less to Socinianism were proclaimed from many of the 
 parish pulpits, and the characteristic doctrines of the church 
 standards were criticised or sneered at with impunity. The 
 sermons, again, of a large section of those who formed the
 
 344 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 immediate following of the great ecclesiastical leader were 
 defective rather than positively heterodox, consisting of 
 ethical essays in which the essential doctrines of Christianity 
 had no place. The most popular of all the preachers of that 
 school was Dr. Hugh Blair, minister of the High Church 
 in Edinburgh and professor of Rhetoric in the University. 
 He was a man of no critical acuteness or originality of 
 thought, and his sermons, highly commended by Johnson 
 and other critics of that age for their polished style, are 
 mere moral essays inculcating the common virtues, with 
 scarcely any savour of doctrinal or experimental truth. Yet 
 even those who preached what was practically Socinian 
 doctrine, and those who avoided all definite statements as 
 to the divinity of Christ and His atoning work, not only 
 signed the Westminster Confession of Faith, but made no 
 public demand for any relaxation of subscription. There 
 was now, however, a considerable uneasiness among the 
 more advanced members of that school, and many were 
 privately expressing themselves in favour of some modifica- 
 tion of the formula. Dr. Robertson was determinedly op- 
 posed to any movement of this kind, and it is thought that 
 his resignation of the leadership in 1780, when he was still 
 in full vigour physically and intellectually, was largely caused 
 by his unwillingness to lead in this direction those with 
 whom he had been accustomed to associate. 
 
 Among the theologians to whom the training of students 
 for the ministry among the Seceders had been entrusted, the 
 first who calls for special mention, on account of his genius 
 and scholarship, is Dr. John Brown of Haddington. The 
 difficulties in the way of his obtaining an elementary educa- 
 tion were very great, and in large measure he was in the 
 strictest sense of the word self-taught. At the time when 
 he was entering the Divinity Hall, his scholarly attainments 
 were so remarkable, that one of the presbyters, not emanci- 
 pated from the prejudices of vulgar superstition, objected to 
 him on the ground that such learning could only have been 
 acquired by the help of the devil. Ralph Erskine answered 
 on the young man's behalf : " I think the lad has a sweet
 
 LIFTERS AND ANTI-LIFTERS. 345 
 
 savour of Christ about him.' 1 He was ordained as Burgher 
 minister at Haddington in 1751 , and is said to have begun 
 his studies at four or five o'clock in the morning and con- 
 tinued till eight o'clock at night. He was an able and in- 
 structive preacher and a faithful pastor. "That is the man 
 for me," said David Hume, after hearing Brown, " he means 
 what he says ; he speaks as if Jesus Christ was at his elbow." 
 In 1768 he was appointed professor, and honourably occupied 
 this position for twenty years till he died in 1787. His 
 Dictionary of the Bible (1769), though not characterized by 
 any particular freshness or critical power, was a useful work 
 in its day, and he was long known in the pious homes of 
 Scotland as the author of The Self-Interpreting Bible (1778). 
 A very curious little controversy disturbed the Anti- 
 Burgher Synod in 1782 and during the folio wing years. An 
 aged and much respected minister, Mr. David Smytpn of 
 Kilmaurs, was one of those who in the administration of the 
 Lord's Supper were accustomed solemnly to lift the elements 
 in their hands before the consecration prayer, and a second 
 time after that prayer when they gave them to the com- 
 municants. This was the prevailing order observed, but 
 some ministers, of whom Adam Gib was one, did not "lift" 
 before the prayer. Mr. Smyton, considering this ritual 
 a matter of importance, and anxious to secure uniformity of 
 practice, brought up the question in the Glasgow presby- 
 tery, and that court referred for advice to the Synod. Very 
 sensible advice was given by the Synod to the effect that the 
 question was one on which mutual forbearance should be 
 shown, and when the presbytery acquiesced in and recom- 
 mended obedience to the advice of the Synod, Mr. Smyton 
 appealed again to the Synod. He regarded the toleration 
 granted as a wound to their testimony and as a laying aside 
 of the command and example of our Lord in the administra- 
 tion of the solemn ordinance of the Supper. Several congre- 
 gations and sessions interested themselves in the question and 
 supported Mr. Smyton in his contention. In addition to 
 their former advice to practice mutual forbearance, the Synod 
 now rebuked the appellants for attempting to impose their
 
 34)6 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 judgment on others and exhorted them to guard against 
 reflections upon others whose practice in this matter was 
 different from their own. As the Synod of 1783 would not 
 reverse the judgment in favour of mutual forbearance, Mr. 
 Smyton renounced the authority of the Synod, and at a sub- 
 sequent diet he was suspended from the exercise of his 
 ministry. In the following year a petition came before the 
 Synod from a Glasgow congregation asking for a review of 
 their act of forbearance. To this a careful and detailed 
 answer, explaining the meaning of that decision, was given, 
 and the controversy gradually ceased to interest and excite 
 the churches. 
 
 The tendency towards Socinianism which had prevailed 
 among the ministers belonging to the Moderate party in the 
 church during this period assumed in some cases a very open 
 and offensive form. Ministers who simply preached such 
 doctrines from their pulpits or omitted from their delivered 
 sermons all reference to the distinctive truths of Chris- 
 tianity, might be currently spoken of as Socinianizing or 
 moralizing, but there was ordinarily in such circumstances 
 nothing tangible upon which any objection might be built 
 in constructing a specific charge of heresy. It was quite a 
 different matter when the heretical preacher had the temerity 
 to print and publish his discourses, or to compose and issue 
 a dissertation. In 1786 Dr. William M'Gill, one of the 
 ministers of Ayr, published a book entitled, A Practical 
 Essay on the Death of Jesus Christ. The work is in itself of 
 no importance as a literary performance or as a theological 
 discussion. It was of interest on its appearance simply as a 
 bold and offensive manifesto of a party in the church which 
 seemed to think itself strong enough to flaunt its heresies 
 before a feeble and uninfluential minority who clung to the 
 antiquated views of the so-called standards of the church. 
 The doctrine of Christ taught in this essay is purely Arian. 
 He is not equal with the Father, but one of our own order, 
 invested with authority by God for the discharge of the 
 duties of a special office. The atonement is explained in a 
 purely Socinian fashion. Christ's death is not substitution-
 
 DR. M'GILL OF AYR. 347 
 
 ary, the description of his office as a priesthood and his 
 death as a sacrifice is purely figurative, he came to reveal to 
 us in his life the rule of our obedience and to assure us of 
 God's acceptance of us if we repented and undertook sin- 
 cerely to render obedience. The presbytery of Ayr refused 
 to take up the case at the command of the Synod, but after- 
 wards agreed to do so on the recommendation of the 
 the Assembly, a committee was appointed which brought a 
 charge of heresy under five heads against Dr. M'Gill, and 
 the whole case was referred to the Synod which met in April, 
 1790. The trial was regarded by the New Light party as 
 that not of an individual but of the whole school. Recourse 
 was had to all sorts of manoeuvres in order to secure an 
 acquittal, or at least to avoid the condemnation of any of the 
 particular statements which had been styled heretical. At 
 last Dr. M'Gill submitted an explanation of a vague and 
 general description, in which, while protesting the goodness 
 of his intentions and the purely practical character of the 
 essay, he withdrew nothing and scarcely modified any state- 
 ment. This was accepted and approved of by the Synod, 
 with the little more than murmured disapproval of two or 
 three members. An ineffectual attempt was made by some 
 evangelical ministers to get the case reopened in the follow- 
 ing year, and throughout the country this decision of the 
 Synod gave occasion to deep dissatisfaction and weakened 
 the confidence of many in the sincerity of the professions of 
 those within the church who claimed to be evangelical. 
 
 The teachings of the minister of Ayr may be regarded as 
 affording a fair sample of the matter and method of the 
 preaching of a large number of the ministers of the Estab- 
 lished Church in the closing years of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. Religion throughout the country was at a low ebb. 
 Even those within the church who were reckoned evangelical 
 had little sympathy with or appreciation of anything that 
 could be called aggressive work. Scarcely anything was 
 done in the way of attempting the reclamation of the masses 
 in the large cities who had drifted away from attendance on 
 ordinances, and who had given up even the outward form
 
 348 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 of religion. In regard to Foreign Missions, the Church of 
 Scotland had taken no step. A society of earnest men, 
 without the church's imprimatur, had organised in 1709 a 
 Scottish Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, 
 which in 1744 sent David Brainerd to labour among certain 
 tribes of American Indians. The Seceders had also done 
 something in the way of meeting the needs of our colonists 
 in New England, and other parts. They objected, however, 
 to the constitution of missionary societies because in their 
 boards laymen, who had not been set apart to rule in the 
 church, were allowed to judge of the qualifications of mis- 
 sionary agents. 
 
 In the Assembly of 1796, overtures in favour of some- 
 thing being done by the church toward the diffusion of the 
 gospel over the world, were presented from the synods of 
 Fife and Moray. Dr. John Erskine of Edinburgh and Dr. 
 Balfour of Glasgow were presidents of missionary societies 
 in their respective cities, and the members of the evangelical 
 party were for the most part anxious that some step of a 
 definite character should be taken. The Moderates, how- 
 ever, stood firmly together in their opposition to the move- 
 ment. Mr. Hamilton, Dr. Robertson^ successor in Glads- 
 muir, moved the rejection of the overtures, and was fitly 
 seconded by Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk. While admitting 
 generally that the diffusion of the knowledge of the gospel 
 was a good thing and that it should be prayed for, Mr. 
 Hamilton contended that to attempt to spread the know- 
 ledge of Christianity among barbarous and heathen nations 
 was highly preposterous, as a reversing of the order of 
 nature. Men, he said, must be polished and refined in their 
 manners before they can be properly enlightened in religious 
 truths ; philosophy and learning must in the nature of 
 things take the precedence. He eulogised the simple 
 virtues of the untutored Indian, and declared that the 
 engrafting of our religion upon him would not refine his 
 morals or ensure his happiness. But even if a civilised 
 heathen nation were found, Mr. Hamilton would object to 
 missionary expenditure so long as there remains at home a
 
 CONGREGATIONAL SERVICE OF PRAISE. 349 
 
 single individual without the means of religious knowledge. 
 Dr. Hill proposed a similar but more cautiously drafted 
 motion, which was accepted by his party. Dr. John 
 Erskine then rose, and addressing the clerk, said, " Rax me 
 that Bible." Having read from the Acts of the Apostles 
 the narrative of Paul's intercourse with the barbarians of 
 Melita, he asked, could any one suppose that he failed to 
 take advantage of his opportunity to tell them the story of 
 Christ and His salvation. The evangelical leader moved 
 that the overtures be considered and action taken in the 
 direction suggested by them. The motion for the rejection 
 of the overtures, however, was carried by a vote of fifty- 
 eight against forty-four. 
 
 During this period little attention seems to have been 
 paid to the devotional part of the public services of the 
 church. The prayer was usually of inordinate length, and 
 given in the form of one continuous, unbroken supplicatory 
 address. In a large number of churches there was but one 
 portion of scripture read, and that often only a very short 
 passage. As to the service of praise, the singing was that of 
 the metrical psalms, the use of which had been sanctioned by 
 the Assembly. The authorised metrical version of the 
 Psalms, the same as that presently in use in the Scottish 
 Presbyterian Churches, was based upon the rendering of 
 Francis Rous, a member of Cromwell's parliament. Almost 
 every stanza, however, had been more or less altered by 
 the introduction of renderings from the versions of 
 Zachary Boyd and Mure of Rowallan. Many of the leaders 
 of culture in the church began to think that the version in 
 use was too rugged in form and antiquated in expression. 
 Accordingly Sir Walter Scott and other men of taste were 
 consulted as to the propriety of endeavouring to secure a 
 smoother versification and more modern finish for their 
 psalm version. Scott, however, dissuaded them from the 
 attempt, as he deemed mere elegance a poor exchange for 
 the force and rude majesty of the old rendering. 
 
 In addition to the Book of Psalms, a selection of sacred 
 songs in the form of Translations and Paraphrases was
 
 350 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 gradually coming into use. A committee appointed in 
 1742 prepared a collection, which was printed in 1745. 
 The troubles connected with the Jacobite Rebellion pre- 
 vented attention being given to these matters, and so 
 practically nothing more was done until, in 1781 , a com- 
 mittee reported to the Assembly, which, acting on the 
 Committee's recommendation, ordered these Translations and 
 Paraphrases to be transmitted to the several presbyteries, in 
 order that they might report their opinion of them to the en- 
 suing General Assembly. In the meantime it was announced 
 that ministers would be allowed to make use of this collection 
 of sacred poems in the public services of the church wherever 
 they might find it for edification. The Assembly also 
 ordered the printing of the collection for the consideration 
 of presbyteries and for public use. Considerable alterations 
 were made upon the earliest edition of 1745, and it has been 
 suggested that smoothness in most cases was secured at the 
 cost of vigour and spirituality. " Upon the whole, 11 says 
 Dr. Julian, in his Dictionary of Hymnology^ " the collection 
 is hardly what might have been expected from the gifts and 
 graces of the ministers of the Church of Scotland from 1741 
 to 1751.'" No subsequent Assembly ever resumed the dis- 
 cussion with regard to the Paraphrases, except in the way 
 of making arrangements with the printer; and so the use of 
 the collection simply rests upon what was meant as a tem- 
 porary permission, while the collection itself has never been 
 formally authorized.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Voluntary and Non-Intrusion Controversies.* 
 17971843. 
 
 THE immediate result of the coldness of the Moderate 
 majority in the Church of Scotland and of the narrowness 
 and suspiciousness of the Seceders was to encourage and open 
 a field for earnest Christian workers who were not restricted 
 or restrained by any such trammels. During the summer of 
 1796 the famous evangelical preacher, Charles Simeon of 
 Cambridge, made a holiday trip through the Highlands of 
 Scotland, preaching as he had opportunity and distributing 
 religious tracts wherever he went. Although we have no 
 record of any definite fruits of the wayside labours of this 
 evangelist, there can be no doubt that godly people would 
 be stirred up to a higher sense of their Christian duty and 
 that they would see the way pointed out along which they 
 should seek to promote the evangelisation of their country. 
 
 * Literature : M'Crie, Statement of the Difference between the 
 Profession of the Reformed Church of Scotland as adopted by Seceders 
 and that of the New Testimony of General Associate Synod, particularly 
 on power of Civil Magistrates respecting Religion, Edin. 1807 (re- 
 printed 1832 and 1871) ; Inglis, Vindication of Ecclesiastical 
 Establishments, Edin., 1834 ; Wardlaw, National Establishments 
 Examined, London, 1839 : Scott, Annals and Statistics of Original 
 Secession Church, Edin., 1886 ; Ross, A History of Congregational 
 Independency in Scotland, Glasgow, 1900 ; Haldane, Memoirs of the 
 Lives of the Hdldanes, Edin., 1852; Oliphant, Life of Edward Irving, 
 London, 1862 ; Story, Life of Robert Story of Rosneath, London, 
 1862 ; Hanna, Memoirs of Thomas Chalmers, Edin., 1852 ; Buchanan, 
 The Ten Years' Conflict, Glasgow, 1852 ; Bayne, The Free Church of 
 Scotland, its Origin, Founders, and Testimony, Edin., 1893; Lord 
 Cockburn's Journal, (1831-1843)2 vols., Edin., 1874 
 
 351
 
 352 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IX SCOTLAND. 
 
 Most important of all was the influence exerted on James 
 Haldane, who was his travelling companion throughout 
 this tour. The brothers Haldane for at least twenty or 
 
 9/ 
 
 thirty years from this date onward were the central movers 
 in a great spiritual revival. 
 
 The Haldanes, sons of the laird of the beautiful Perth- 
 shire estate of Airthrey, were sailors, Robert an officer of the 
 Royal Navy, James the commander of a ship in the East 
 India Company's service. Some years before this both 
 brothers had become earnest and devout Christians, and 
 having withdrawn from their profession, and being possessed 
 of abundant means, they resolved to dedicate their lives to 
 the service of God and the spread of the gospel. In the 
 Assembly of 1796 men who never raised a finger to help in 
 carrying the knowledge of Christ to the neglected and 
 ignorant at home made the existence of such persons an ex- 
 cuse for vehemently denouncing the proposal to do something 
 for the savage and superstitious heathen. On the contrary, we 
 find the Haldanes just as warmly interested in the one cause 
 .as in the other, enthusiastic in their devotion to the work 
 alike in the Foreign Mission and in the Home Mission field. 
 "When Robert Haldane sold his paternal estate, in order to 
 have at his disposal the means for carrying on the Christian 
 work and maintaining the Christian agencies which he had 
 planned, it was his intention to devote himself to the work 
 of God in India. Dr. Bogue, a Presbyterian minister at 
 Gosport and Mr. Greville Ewing, one of the chapel ministers 
 of Edinburgh, had agreed to join him in his enterprise. 
 This door, however, was shut upon them by the refusal of 
 the East India Company to allow Christian missionaries to 
 enter their territories. " Rather a troop of devils, 11 said an 
 enlightened director, who no doubt called himself, and ex- 
 pected to be called by others, a Christian. His interest in 
 the heathen had not made Robert Haldane indifferent to the 
 claims of the ignorant and vicious at home. So soon as he 
 found India closed against him, he turned his attention to 
 the religious condition of Scotland, and he and his brother 
 found here their life work.
 
 PROPOSALS FOR CHAPELS OF EASE. 353 
 
 It would seem that Robert Haldane had a wonderful 
 faculty for organizing and also for imparting religious in- 
 struction by means of conferences and conventions. James 
 Haldane was the preacher, and in company with other like 
 minded men, he travelled from place to place, and. especially 
 in districts where the semi-Socinianismof the New Light party 
 was being proclaimed from the pulpit, he addressed the 
 people in the open air in a warm evangelical style that was 
 in too many parts of our country at that time altogether 
 strange and hew. This itinerant work was carried on for 
 many years, and in many remote and spiritually neglected 
 parishes and villages chapels were built and independent 
 ministers installed. It is said that in fifteen years Robert 
 Haldane had spent somewhere about ,70,000 on the carry- 
 ing out of this work, and somewhere about %0,QQQ more in 
 the training and equipping of men to serve as ministers in 
 the chapels which he had built. Alongside of these chapels, 
 and often in places where no chapels had been erected, 
 Sabbath schools were opened, and thus throughout the land 
 Christian work of a warmly evangelical character was 
 vigorously prosecuted among young and old. 
 
 The increase in immorality and crime in various parts of 
 the country was now being observed with alarm, and the 
 attention which this called forth to the condition of the 
 people revealed the terrible spiritual destitution which pre- 
 vailed, especially in cities and in the more populous towns 
 and villages. Local circumstances led to the sudden gather- 
 ing of a considerable population in what had been a remote 
 and sparselv peopled corner of a large parish. The church 
 and manse were many miles away, and the people were 
 growing up without spiritual instruction or guidance of 
 any kind. In many cases such communities were realising 
 the disadvantages of their position, and were crying out to 
 the church for help. Several presbyteries overtured the 
 Assembly year after year in favour of a scheme for erecting 
 Chapels of Ease in populous parishes, in which, without 
 separating from the Church of Scotland, those who could not 
 conveniently worship in the parish church might enjoy the
 
 354 HISTORY OF THE CHUKCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 preaching of a minister of their own and have the adminis- 
 tration of ordinances and other privileges, under the super- 
 vision of the parish minister and his session. At last, on the 
 report of a committee, which had been appointed to enquire 
 into the subject, the presbyteries were consulted under the 
 terms of the Barrier Act, but as only thirty presbyteries 
 approved of the proposal, while there were thirty-four which 
 disapproved, the overture was rejected by the Assembly of 
 1797. It was, however, by a more than doubtful straining 
 of the constitution, re-transmitted to presbyteries, a majority 
 of which now voted in favour of the overture, so that in 1798 
 it was passed into a law of the church. The evangelical 
 party, which was warmly in favour of the general movement,, 
 opposed this particular overture mainly on account of a 
 provision in it to this effect, that no presbytery should pro- 
 nounce judgment on any petition in favour of sanctioning 
 a Chapel of Ease until they have first obtained special direc- 
 tions from the Assembly in regard to the particular case. This 
 was resented by presbyteries as an infringement of their con- 
 stitutional rights. Besides, it is evident that the presbytery 
 must of necessity be much better able to judge of the spiritual 
 needs of a district within its bounds than the members of 
 Assembly who have no such local knowledge. This clause 
 in the Act was evidently suggested by the suspicion that in 
 some cases a presbytery, sympathising with a section of the 
 parishioners disaffected toward their minister, might sanc- 
 tion the erection of a chapel to relieve tension in a disturbed 
 and distracted parish. Apart from this clause, no doubt the 
 Act could be wrought by the evangelical majority of a 
 presbytery so as to secure evangelical preaching for those 
 who desired it in a parish presided over by a Moderate and 
 Socinianizing minister. If the Assembly had been far-seeing 
 enough, it might not have refused to leave this power in the 
 hands of presbyteries. 
 
 Meanwhile, outside of the Church of Scotland, the Hal- 
 danes and others were seeking to promote the interests of 
 evangelical religion, and preaching, though in a somewhat 
 narrow spirit, a simple and straightforward gospel message.
 
 THE HALDANES AND THEIR FRIENDS. 355 
 
 A large building, called The Tabernacle, was erected in 
 Edinburgh by Robert Haldane for his brother James, and 
 in the summer of 1798 it was opened for worship by Row- 
 land Hill. This eccentric and popular evangelist was in 
 deacon's orders in the Church of England, and was minister 
 of Surrey Chapel, London, which he had built at his own 
 cost. While at Oxford he had come under the influence of 
 Whitefield and the Wesleys. He put no restraint upon 
 himself in the pulpit, and his odd sayings and humorous 
 sallies not only gave great offence to the staid and sober 
 presbyterians of Scotland, but also caused him to occupy an 
 almost isolated position in his own church. While in Scot- 
 land he preached in vai'ious places during the week, some- 
 times in parish churches, sometimes in the open air. On 
 one occasion he addressed a huge assemblage on the Calton 
 Hill. He formed a very unfavourable opinion of the re- 
 ligious state of the Scottish people, and in his Journal, 
 published on his return home, he inveighed in severe and 
 unmeasured terms against the false and defective doctrine 
 preached in parish church pulpits, and against the narrow- 
 ness and bigotry manifested by the Seceders. Such sweeping 
 charges as these were bitterly resented by those against 
 whom they were made. 
 
 The Haldanes had begun their cry against what they re- 
 garded as the soul -destroy ing errors of the preaching current 
 in the National Church. Rowland Hill was supposed to have 
 got a good deal of his information from them. Throughout 
 the country a serious amount of irritation had been occa- 
 sioned, and in some parishes separations had taken place and 
 independent conventicles established. Complaints were 
 made of certain ministers encouraging and giving the use of 
 their pulpits to those evangelists who were causing trouble 
 and division in the congregations of their brethren. That 
 charges of this description were numerous and came from all 
 parts of the country is made perfectly evident from this, that 
 on the report of them to the Assembly of 1799 that court 
 suddenly proceeded to what can only be described as panic 
 legislation. The Assembly not only issued a Pastoral Letter
 
 356 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IX SCOTLAND. 
 
 warning the people against unauthorized preachers who 
 might come among them, but passed an Act which pro- 
 hibited the ministers of the church from opening their 
 pulpits to any others than the licentiates and ministers of 
 the church, and debarred them from holding ministerial 
 communion with any such unauthorized persons. That 
 some restriction as to the parties who might have the use of 
 the parish pulpit given them was desirable cannot well be 
 questioned. It is quite evident that some excitable and 
 injudicious minister might give his pulpit to unqualified 
 and unworthy men, who might so abuse their opportunity 
 as to bring reproach upon the church and upon the cause 
 of religion. That something needed to be done in this 
 direction was felt, not only in the Church of Scotland, but 
 also among the Seceders and in the Relief Church. The 
 Anti-Burghers went so far as to prohibit their members 
 going to hear any preacher not of their own body, and 
 actually deposed a minister who had listened to Rowland 
 Hill and James Haldane. The legislation was evidently of 
 a much too sweeping character, and was fouud to be such a 
 bondage that it had subsequently to be modified. 
 
 During several years the Burgher Synod had been occupied 
 with discussions as to the teaching of the Confession of Faith 
 with regard to the power of the civil magistrate in matters 
 of religion. Disputes arose as to whether the question was 
 one on which forbearance might be shown at least until 
 some decision was come to by the Synod. Several of the 
 brethren opposed the idea even of temporary forbearance, 
 but it was resolved to modify the Formula in such a way as 
 would make it evident that no countenance was given to 
 any persecution or coercion in matters of faith, and that 
 while they maintain the obligation of the Covenants on 
 posterity they do not interfere with the question of the 
 nature and kind of that obligation. A minority protested 
 against this decision and left the Synod, and in October, 
 1799, founded a separate presbytery. They assumed the 
 name of The Associate Presbytery, but were popularly 
 known as The Old Light or Original Burghers. Before
 
 THE LESLIE CONTROVERSY. 357 
 
 the end of the year the Presbytery embraced eight clerical 
 members. In the year 1805 the membership of the denomi- 
 nation had so increased that a Synod the Original Associate 
 (Burgher) Synod was formed, consisting of three presbyteries 
 and embracing fifteen ministers. 
 
 There had always existed a very close connection between 
 the University of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh Presbytery. 
 Several of the city ministers were professors in the univer- 
 sity. When a minister was a candidate for a chair in 
 opposition to a lay scholar he might ordinarily count upon 
 the hearty and influential support of his co-presbyters. In 
 1805 Professor Play fair had been appointed to the chair of 
 Natural Philosophy, and so the professorship of Mathematics 
 was vacant. Mr. MacKnight, one of the ministers of Edin- 
 burgh and a member of the Moderate party, was a candidate, 
 but he had a formidable rival in the person of Mr. John 
 Leslie. This distinguished man of science had begun his 
 divinity studies in the Edinburgh Hall, but had broken 
 them off in order to give his whole attention to scientific 
 pursuits. He had engaged in tutorial work in America and 
 London, had translated part of Buffon's Natural History and 
 invented several ingenious and useful scientific instruments. 
 He had written in 1804 an epoch-making work entitled An 
 Experimental Inquiry into the Nature and Propagation of 
 Heat, and for this the Royal Society had presented him with 
 a medal. He was now in his fortieth year and his reputa- 
 tion was clearly well established. The Moderate party in the 
 church, however, had pledged themselves to support Mr. 
 MacKnight, and as Mr. Leslie's claims as a man of science 
 were out of all comparison superior to those of their candi- 
 date, they had to look about for some charge that would 
 seriously damage the prestige of his rival. This they found 
 in the ever convenient cry of heresy. In his treatise on 
 Heat, Mr. Leslie had referred to Hume's theory of causation 
 as most philosophical, and the attempt was made, in spite of 
 Leslie's protests, to make him responsible for the whole 
 sceptical system of the philosopher. By their statement of 
 the extreme contrary doctrine of an active operating principle
 
 358 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 in the cause, the ministers laid themselves open to a charge 
 of heretical tendencies at least as dangerous as that which 
 they condemned. Notwithstanding the remonstrance of the 
 presbytery, the Town Council appointed Leslie to the chair. 
 The Remonstrance of the Presbytery was carried before the 
 Assembly of 1806. The moderates supported it, the evan- 
 gelicals repudiated it, and as an elder Dugald Stewart 
 addressed the Assembly in an impassioned speech in behalf 
 of Leslie. In the end it was resolved not to entertain the 
 Remonstrance, and so it was dismissed by a vote of ninety -six 
 against eighty-four. The reputation of the Moderates was 
 severely damaged by their unprincipled partisanship shown 
 in this case. They had hitherto posed as the patrons of 
 liberal culture, and now, oblivious to all their past profes- 
 sions, they sought to damage a good man by raising the 
 odious cry of heresy simply in order to further the interests 
 of one of their own party. 
 
 In the Anti-Burgher Synod discussions as to the civil 
 magistrate's right of interference in matters of religion were 
 begun in 1791 by the presentation of two overtures on the 
 subject. After protracted meetings of Synod and Commit- 
 tees, a Testimony and Narrative was drafted, and this 
 document, when printed, filled no less than two hundred 
 octavo pages. For eight years this ponderous work was 
 under the consideration of the Synod, paragraph by para- 
 graph it was carefully examined, and each minute point in 
 it was looked at from every conceivable point of view, doc- 
 trinal and historical. In regard to the civil magistrate they 
 took a more decided attitude than had ever before been 
 taken on this subject. They condemned the relation be- 
 tween church and state, and assumed the position of out and 
 out voluntaries. The church, they say, is a spiritual king- 
 dom, the members spiritual persons, and the same character 
 belongs to her doctrines, ordinances, and office-bearers. 
 The rulers of worldly kingdoms can have no spiritual power, 
 and while the church seeks the salvation of sinners, civil 
 government only seeks the temporal good of civil society. 
 Neither of these kingdoms has power over the other.
 
 DR. M'CRIE AND THE PROTESTERS. 359 
 
 Christian magistrates have no power to give laws to the 
 church, to appoint her office-bearers or dictate to them in 
 the discharge of their office, to prescribe a Confession of 
 Faith, or form of worship, to the church, or their subjects in 
 general. In matters purely religious, civil rulers have no 
 right to judge for any but themselves. In May, 1804, this 
 Narrative and Testimony was adopted, and five members, 
 including the celebrated Dr. Thomas M'Crie, entered their 
 protest. When the Synod met at Glasgow in August, 
 1806, the five protesting brethren met at Whitburn, the 
 residence of Professor Bruce, one of their number. They 
 formally constituted themselves a presbytery, under the 
 designation of The Constitutional Associate Presbytery. In 
 stating the grounds of their separation they complain that 
 " particularly, the duty and warrantableness of civil rulers 
 employing their authority in an active support of the in- 
 terests of religion and the kingdom of Christ, and in pro- 
 moting reformation, are by the new deeds set aside." Mr. 
 Why tock of Dalkeith died before the presbytery was consti- 
 tuted, and Mr. Hog of Kelso soon after, but Mr. Chalmers 
 of Haddington having joined them, there were still four 
 ministers members of the new denomination. All these 
 ministers were deposed by the Anti-Burgher Synod. The 
 Seceders had thus definitely and clearly taken up what is 
 now ordinarily called the Voluntary position, and the adop- 
 tion of it cost them the loss of only five ministers, with a 
 small following of their people. 
 
 It is curious to find in this small protesting community, 
 as one of the keenest and most determined of the party, 
 one who was almost immediately to secure a reputation to 
 himself as perhaps the very ablest writer and the most 
 painstaking historian in any of the Scottish Churches. In 
 the Christian Magazine, of which he was editor during 
 1805 and the following years, Mr. Thomas M'Crie had 
 written a large number of historical papers, chiefly illustra- 
 tive of the lives and labours of Reformers on the Continent 
 and in England and Scotland ; and he continued to contri- 
 bute similar articles to the Edinburgh Christian Instructor,
 
 360 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 begun in 1810 under the editorship of Dr. Andrew Thom- 
 son. In 1811 he published his Life of John Knox, for the 
 writing of which he had prepared himself by a very careful 
 study of all the sources, whether printed or in manuscript, 
 that were then available. It at once arrested the attention 
 of all literary circles and was everywhere most favourably 
 received. It is, perhaps, the highest tribute which can be 
 paid to this great work to say that, in the opinion of some 
 of the soundest and most careful critics, even the great work 
 of Dr. Hume Brown by no means supersedes that of Dr. 
 M'Crie, and that those two works musb be classed and read 
 together as the two standard biographies of our great 
 Scottish Reformer. The University of Edinburgh recog- 
 nised his ability by conferring upon him in 1813 the degree 
 of Doctor of Divinity. His other great work, the Life of 
 Andrew Melville, published in 1819, is in some respects an 
 abler work and a more important contribution to the 
 ecclesiastical history of Scotland than his earlier treatise. 
 His Melville., however, has never attained to the same 
 popularity as his Knox. There is, undoubtedly, much in 
 the history of Knox that appeals more powerfully to the 
 popular imagination, than the somewhat scholastic for- 
 malism which characterizes a good many of the episodes in 
 the life of the later reformer and scholar. In the interval 
 between the appearance of these two great works, Dr. 
 M'Crie had, in the Christian Instructor for 1817, made a 
 brilliant and thoroughly successful defence of the Coven- 
 anters against the caricatures and exaggerations of Sir 
 Walter Scott in Old Mortality. 
 
 In the early years of presbyterianism in Scotland one 
 clergyman sometimes held several livings, officiating himself 
 in one and discharging his duties in the others by means of 
 curates. And during the eighteenth century it was a very 
 common thing for a city minister to hold a professorship in 
 the university, and in some cases the university professor 
 was minister of a parish at some distance from his ordinary 
 residence. When Mr. George Hill, professor of Greek in 
 St. Andrews University, was appointed minister of one of
 
 THE STRUGGLE AGAINST PLURALITIES. 361 
 
 the city churches in 1779, some objection was raised, and 
 overtures against pluralities were sent up to the Assembly. 
 These overtures were dismissed, and though there was a 
 good deal of grumbling over the subject, no very serious 
 attempt was made for many years to deal with this evil. 
 The church was roused to a sense of her duty by certain 
 rather aggravated cases that occurred in the early years of 
 the new century. In 1800 Dr. Arnot, professor of divinity 
 in St. Andrews, was presented to a parish six miles distant 
 from the city. One of the professors in Edinburgh Univer- 
 sity was at the same time minister of Moffat. In 1813 Mr. 
 Ferric, professor of civil history in St. Andrews University, 
 was presented to the parish of Kilconquhar, twelve miles dis- 
 tant from his residence. On his refusing to resign his pro- 
 fessorship the presbytery refused to admit him to the charge, 
 but the Assembly, on appeal, by a majority of five reversed 
 the decision of the presbytery. Thomas Chalmers had him- 
 self lectured in St. Andrews while minister of Kilmany. 
 In 1813 he thought and felt differently. Many of the more 
 earnest-minded ministers declared that their parochial work 
 required all their attention, and that the holding of plural 
 offices should be pronounced illegal. The Assembly of 1814 
 passed an act declaring the holding of an office by a minister 
 that required his absence from his parish inconsistent with 
 the constitution of the church. The opponents of the 
 measure refused to regard it as a mere Declaratory Act, and 
 so at last, after considerable agitation, the Assembly of 
 1817, an overture to that effect having been approved by a 
 great majority of presbyteries, passed an Act declaring that 
 no professor can be allowed to hold a parish unless it is 
 quite near the university seat. Those opposed to pluralities, 
 however, were not satisfied with this measure of success. 
 They now resolved to have them done away with altogether. 
 In 1823 a case occurred which brought this question to a 
 point. Dr. Macfarlane, principal of Glasgow University, 
 was presented to the High Church of that city. Dr. M'Gill, 
 professor of divinity, and Dr. Chalmers, then one of the 
 city ministers, vigorously opposed the appointment. It was
 
 362 HISTOllY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 pointed out that such a parish required a minister's un- 
 divided and undistracted attention. The presbytery 
 decided that it was inexpedient and incompetent to proceed 
 to the settlement, but the Assembly of 1824, to which Dr. 
 Macfarlane appealed, reversed the decision of the presbytery 
 and ordered the admission of the presentee. Overtures were 
 sent up, but Assembly after Assembly threw them out. 
 At last the University Commission decided that such a 
 union of offices should not be allowed. 
 
 The subject of Foreign Missions, which had been so 
 summarily dismissed by the Moderates in 1796, was taken 
 up in the Assembly of 1824, and vigorously and successfully 
 advocated by Dr. John Inglis, a member of the same 
 ecclesiastical party. The proposal that the church should 
 directly engage in missionary work was now heartily 
 received on all sides. A committee was formed, the people 
 were exhorted and informed by means of a Pastoral Address 
 issued by the Assembly on the subject, and a fund was 
 raised by means of collections and subscriptions. In 1829 
 the church found itself in a position to send out a mis- 
 sionary, and Alexander Duff sailed for India, the first of a 
 noble band who have wrought with heroic zeal for the 
 spread of Christianity and civilisation in that great 
 continent. 
 
 One of the great spiritual forces of this period was Dr. 
 Andrew Thomson. He had come to Edinburgh as one of 
 its ministers in 1810, and in 1814, on St. George's Church 
 being built, he was transferred to it, and immediately 
 gathered around him a large and influential congregation. 
 Under his editorship the Christian Instructor became an 
 important vehicle of discussion on all the important 
 religious and social topics of the day. He interested him- 
 self in schemes for the improvement and spread of education 
 throughout the country. He denounced the institution of 
 slavery in the British colonies, and contributed largely to 
 the overthrow of the system. He also made use of the 
 pages of his magazine for attacks upon the abuses of lay 
 patronage and for the vindication of the rights of the
 
 UNION OF BURGHERS AND ANTI-BUUGIIERS. 363 
 
 Christian people. In 1825, he engaged in a somewhat 
 bitter and excited controversy about the printing of the 
 Old Testament Apocrypha in editions of the English Bible 
 published and circulated by the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society. The practice of including the Apocrypha was 
 contrary to the original constitution and purpose of the 
 Society, but had been introduced by the London Committee 
 in order to secure or promote the circulation of the Bible 
 among Roman Catholics and others who had been accus- 
 tomed to regard the Apocrypha as part of the Bible, and 
 who might refuse to receive a copy that did not contain 
 these works. Robert Haldane and Andrew Thomson were 
 the leaders of the movement against the practice, and the 
 controversy, by means of pamphlets and articles, continued 
 for some years. The Edinburgh Bible Society separated 
 from the great parent Society, but after a time the argu- 
 ments of those opposed to the issuing of the Apocrypha 
 with the Canonical scriptures prevailed. 
 
 Meanwhile, among the Seceders the two sections, the 
 Burghers and Anti-Burghers, had been drawing more closely 
 together. For several years the ministers and members of 
 both denominations had been heartily working together in 
 mission work, and associating together on public platforms 
 and in committee rooms in the arrangement of various evan- 
 gelical enterprizes and charitable institutions. Gradually 
 their differences had been sinking out of sight, and the 
 common element in their Christian faith and life was coming 
 to bulk more largely in their view. The first step in the 
 direction of union was taken at Mid Calder in August, 
 1818, where the Burgher and Anti-Burgher congregations 
 met together and discussed the desirableness and the practi- 
 cability of dissenting evangelical presbyterians uniting on a 
 common basis. Other congregations were stirred in the 
 same direction in consequence of the Mid Calder manifesto, 
 and so, when the two Synods met in April and May, 1819, 
 their tables were covered with petitions requesting them to 
 begin negotiations for the accomplishment of an incorpor- 
 ating union of the two churches. A joint committee was
 
 364 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 appointed, which, after long and careful deliberations, pre- 
 pared a Basis of Union on which they unanimously agreed. 
 This committee's report was received with great heartiness by 
 both Synods, and the ministers of both bodies exchanged pul- 
 pits with one another and fraternized at communion seasons 
 and other such occasions. The formal union of Burghers and 
 Anti-Burghers, under the designation of the United Secession 
 Church, was consummated on 8th September, 1820. The 
 Associate or Burgher Synod met in Portsburgh Church and 
 the General Associate or Anti-Burgher Synod in their hall in 
 Nicolson Street, and the Union Meeting was held in Bristo 
 Church, where the separation had taken place seventy-three 
 years before. There were at the time of the reunion, one 
 hundred and thirty -nine ministers belonging to the Burgher, 
 and one hundred and twenty-three to the Anti-BurgherSynod, 
 giving a total of two hundred and sixty-two for the united 
 church. Of the Burghers, all joined the union, but of the 
 Anti-Burghers there was a small number of protesters, who 
 refused to go with their brethren. Only seven ministers 
 persisted in refusing to enter the union, of whom the best 
 known were Professor Paxton and the Rev. George Steven- 
 son of Ayr. They protested against accepting the Basis of 
 Union because it did not recognize their connection with 
 the Covenanted Church of Scotland, gave up the Narrative 
 and Testimony, without providing another Testimony, did 
 not guard against free communion, put a bar in the way of 
 public covenanting, and because sufficient time for members 
 of the church forming an intelligent judgment on the ques- 
 tion had not been given. This protest, like that of M'Crie 
 and his party, was practically one against voluntaryism. 
 
 The Protesters constituted themselves into a court re- 
 taining the denomination of the Associate Synod. Three 
 presbyteries were formed, those of Perth, Ayr, and Aber- 
 deen. The members were almost all old men, and it was 
 difficult to keep up attendances at the meetings. They 
 soon began negotiations with a view to union with the 
 Constitutional Presbytery, consisting of Dr. M'Crie and his 
 friends. After somewhat protracted discussions, all of
 
 DR. CHALMEBS IN GLASGOW. 365 
 
 them, however, of the most friendly character, the union was 
 consummated on the 17th of May, 1827. The Constitu- 
 tional Anti-Burgher Presbytery had begun its separate 
 existence in 1806, and the Associate Synod of Protesters 
 (also Anti-Burgher) had originated in 1821. The new 
 body took the name of the Original Secession Synod. In 
 the very first year of their existence a conference was held 
 to endeavour to bring about a union with the Old Light 
 Burghers, but the negotiations failed, as did also a later 
 attempt in the same direction, originating with the Burgher 
 Synod in 1832. The Burgess Oath was still the occasion 
 of trouble. The stricter Anti-Burghers insisted that the 
 Burghers should be required to confess that in swearing this 
 oath they had committed sin, and this they were not pre- 
 pared to do. Dr. M'Crie and Dr. Stevenson of Ayr were 
 earnest pleaders for union, but Dr. Paxton was inflexible. 
 In 1828, the Original Secession Synod renewed the 
 Covenants, twenty-eight ministers and probationers and 
 eleven divinity students taking part in the solemn service. 
 It is interesting and curious to read that Mr. Andrew Lambie 
 and Mr. James Wright, who now sought admission, had 
 prescribed to them respectively, as themes for written exer- 
 cises, these subjects : " Is free communion consistent with 
 the Word of God and with the Scriptural Order of the 
 Church?" and " Is it consistent to attend upon any one 
 ordinance in a church with which we cannot hold fellowship 
 in all the ordinances of religion ? " Occasional hearing of 
 ministers of other denominations was an offence which sub- 
 jected the offender to church censure. 
 
 In November, 1823, Dr. Thomas Chalmers resigned his 
 church and parish of St. John's, in Glasgow, in order to 
 enter upon the professorship of Moral Philosophy in St. 
 Andrews University. His ministry in Glasgow had from 
 first to last been wonderfully successful. In July, 1815, he 
 left his quiet little Fifeshire parish of Kilmany, and was in- 
 ducted as minister of the Tron Parish in Glasgow. From 
 the very beginning of his work in the Western Metropolis, 
 his services were attended by immense crowds. In the fol-
 
 386 HISTORY- OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 lowing year the University of Glasgow conferred upon him 
 the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Once every eight weeks 
 it fell to his turn to preach a week-day sermon, and at these 
 Thursday services that came to him throughout 1816, he 
 delivered his famous Astronomical Discourses, which not 
 only attracted crowds to hear them, but, after publication, 
 proved perhaps the most popular of all his works. During 
 the early years of his Glasgow ministry, besides a faithful 
 and laborious visitation of his parish, he was specially active 
 in establishing Sabbath Schools and advocating their claims 
 against prevailing prejudices. He also gained prominence 
 as a defender of church establishments, and took a warm 
 interest in the question of pauper management. The 
 magistrates and town council of Glasgow, presented Dr. 
 Chalmers to the newly formed church and parish of St. 
 John's, in order that he might work out his ideas of 
 parochial administration, especially in relation to the relief 
 of the poor, congregational visitation, and the establishment 
 of schools. He entered upon his work in his new parish on 
 the 26th September, 1819. For a period of four years he 
 laboured unweariedly in this poor and populous parish, and 
 during that time he was the most prominent and the most 
 respected of Glasgow's citizens. Before leaving to take his 
 place in the senatus of his Alma Mater, he saw a Chapel of 
 Ease in his new parish thoroughly equipped and fully es- 
 tablished. 
 
 About the time he began his work in St. John's parish 
 Dr. Chalmers secured the assistance of Edward Irving, then 
 a licentiate of the church. Irving had acted as schoolmaster 
 in Haddington and afterwards, contemporaneously with 
 Thomas Carlyle, in Kirkcaldy. As a preacher he had been 
 at first unpopular, and had meditated going to Persia as a 
 missionary. He had taken to the study of literature. 
 Rejected, as he said, by the living, he was conversing with 
 the dead. Having been asked to preach before Dr. 
 Chalmers, he was chosen by him as his assistant, and for 
 two years shared the preaching and the pastoral work of 
 pulpit and parish with great devotion and success. There
 
 EDWARD IRVING. 367 
 
 i 
 
 were many who became enthusiastically attached to his 
 person and to his preaching. He was, however, more suc- 
 cessful as a visitor than as a preacher. " His preaching," 
 said Dr. Chalmers, " is like Italian music, appreciated only 
 by connoisseurs." Yet those who knew him in those earlier 
 days were wonderfully fascinated by him. " What the 
 Scottish uncelebrated Irving was," says Carlyle, " they that 
 have only seen the London celebrated (and distorted) one 
 can never know. His was the freest, brotherliest, truest 
 human soul mine ever came in contact with. I call him, on 
 the whole, the best man I have ever (after trial enough) 
 found in the world, or ever hope to find." When in 1822 
 Irvine: went to London as minister of Caledonian Church, 
 
 O 
 
 Hatton Garden, his success was at once brilliant and dazzling. 
 His popularity as a preacher was quite phenomenal, and 
 crowds, which embraced many of the highest ranks of the 
 aristocracy, the most distinguished orators and statesmen, 
 the most celebrated men of letters and the most popular 
 actors and actresses, flocked to hear the great Scottish 
 preacher. This continued for several years, but by and by 
 he seemed to be losing his mental balance. He began to 
 discuss the prophecies and to give strange interpretations of 
 the more obscure parts of scripture. He preached about the 
 Second Advent and the speedy coming again of Christ to 
 earth. His popularity began to wane, and men possessed of 
 strange views won a dominating influence over Irving. He 
 was himself absorbed in his studies of the Incarnation, and in 
 his endeavour to show that Christ's humanity was truly our 
 very own, he enunciated a theory of His person that seemed 
 to involve at least the possibility of sin. As intended by 
 Irving it was certainly no heresy, but some of his expressions 
 were crude and rash. Chiefly under the influence of those 
 who had gained an ascendancy over him, strange scenes 
 were enacted in the church. People under strong excite- 
 ment spoke in unknown tongues, and in the church painful 
 scenes of confusion and uproar became frequent. In 1830 
 the presbytery of London convicted Irving of heresy, and-in 
 1832 he was ejected from his new church in Regent's Square.
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 A large number of enthusiastic people still gathered around 
 him in a new place of worship. From the presbytery of 
 London Irving had appealed to the Synod, and that court 
 again referred the case to the presbytery of Annan, by 
 which he had been licensed. There in his native town he 
 made a noble and brilliant defence of his views and doings 
 before the presbytery, but all in vain. His opinions and 
 practices were condemned, and in 1833 he was deposed from 
 the ministry of the Church of Scotland. Once again in the 
 following year he came to Scotland, believing himself called 
 to undertake a mission, in which a prophecy had given him 
 abundant assurance of success. The hand of death, how- 
 ever, was upon him. Consumption had seized upon him, 
 and harassed and troubled in mind as he had been for many 
 years, disease soon made havoc of his originally powerful 
 constitution. At Glasgow on the 7th of December, 1834, 
 Edward Irving died in the forty-second year of his age, and 
 in the crypt of the Cathedral he lies buried, a brass tablet 
 in the floor marking the place of his interment, while above 
 it a beautiful stained glass window representing John the 
 Baptist forms a fitting memorial of his powerful and peculiar 
 career. 
 
 During the same period the Church of Scotland was 
 agitated by what has been called The Row Heresy Case. 
 John Macleod Campbell, son of the minister of Kilninver in 
 Argyllshire, and born there in 1800, had been minister of 
 the parish of Row on the Gareloch since 1825. He was an 
 earnest evangelical preacher, loved and trusted by all who 
 knew him as one of the saintliest and most devout of men. 
 In seeking a ground for the free offer of the gospel to all, 
 he proclaimed the doctrine of God's universal love. God's 
 forgiveness was for all, and the sinner's guilt lay in rejecting 
 what was already his in gift and offer. Some of his state- 
 ments also seemed to make assurance of salvation of the 
 essence of faith. In September, 1830, his case was brought 
 by libel before the presbytery of Dumbarton, and the libel 
 was found relevant. In February, 1831, the presbytery pro- 
 ceeded to proof and heard evidence at great length. Besides
 
 MACLEOD CAMPBELL AND ERSKINE OF LINLATHEN. 369 
 
 several elders, members and adherents of the congregation, 
 some who had occasionally heard him preach, including 
 Patrick Brewster and Dr. Robert Burns of Paisley, and 
 William Cunningham, then of Greenock, afterwards the 
 well-known college principal and theologian, were heard as 
 witnesses. On 29th March the presbytery found it proven 
 that he had entertained and promulgated the doctrine of 
 universal atonement and pardon through the death of 
 Christ, and also the doctrine that assurance is of the essence 
 of faith and necessary to salvation. Against this Mr. Story 
 of Rosneath and Mr. Campbell appealed to the Synod. From 
 the Synod the case went up to the Assembly of 1831, which 
 sustained the decision of the presbytery, and by an almost 
 unanimous vote, in which Moderates and Evangelicals joined, 
 deposed Mr. Campbell from the holy ministry. For many 
 years he ministered to a congregation of attached friends 
 and sympathizers in Glasgow. His theological writings 
 Christ the Bread of Life (1851) and Thoughts on Revelation 
 (1862) are beautiful spiritual treatises much in the style of 
 Maurice, whom in many ways he resembled. His work 
 which most powerfully influenced theological thinking was 
 The Nature of the Atonement and its Relation to Remission 
 of Sins and Eternal Life, which was published in 1856. His 
 later years, which were singularly peaceful and happy, were 
 spent at Rosneath, where he died on the 27th February, 
 1872. He was greatly beloved by a large circle of friends, 
 whom he powerfully influenced by his singularly interesting 
 and spiritual conversation and by the example of a 
 thoroughly consecrated and holy life. 
 
 Thomas Erskine of Linlathen was in many respects in 
 sympathy with Macleod Campbell. His works on The Un- 
 conditional Freeness of the Gospel (1828) and The Doctrine 
 of Election (1837) expressed theological views very similar to 
 those of the minister of Row. Mr. Erskine, though educated 
 for the bar, did not prosecute his profession, but gave himself 
 to a life of contemplation and study. He was a believer in 
 the doctrine of the final restoration of all men, and regarded 
 miracles as worthless for evidence of inspiration of the scrip- 
 
 z
 
 370 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 tures. As with Campbell, so with Erskine, much of his 
 influence resulted from the beauty and purity of his Chris- 
 tian life. He died at Linlathen, near Dundee, on 20th 
 March, 1870, in the eighty-second year of his age. 
 
 The passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill in 1829, 
 by which Romanists were freed from civil penalties and from 
 all inequalities as compared with other free citizens, and 
 the Reform Bill of 1831, conferring political power on 
 thousands who had no voice before in the government of 
 the country, had a liberalizing influence on the politics of 
 the churches, and gave a special impetus to what is called 
 the Voluntary Movement. The question of Voluntaryism 
 had been raised in the Secession Churches. The Erskines, 
 indeed, in the first Secession, and Gillespie and his associ- 
 ates in the Relief Secession, had no thought of moving in 
 that direction. They were as little inclined to favour 
 toleration, or what they called the pretended liberty of con- 
 science, as ever Samuel Rutherfurd or George Gillespie or 
 any of their compeers would have been. Independents and 
 Quakers were on principle, and from the first, thorough- 
 going Voluntaries. They denounced all connection between 
 church and state. Of these there were considerable num- 
 bers already in Scotland, and though they were everywhere 
 much spoken against, their attitude toward the state un- 
 doubtedly influenced those who found themselves, as a 
 matter of fact, shut out from deriving any benefit from the 
 state. Besides this, the writings of the great English Inde- 
 pendents were widely read and carefully studied by the 
 Scottish Dissenters. In the end of the eighteenth century, 
 the question was keenly discussed among the Burghers. 
 The great majority of the body adopted the Voluntary 
 position, and the small minority of dissenting Anti-Volun- 
 taries withdrew and formed a little sect by themselves. In 
 the beginning of the nineteenth century, the same contro- 
 versy disturbed the Anti-Burgher Synod, with a similar 
 result. And so, by 1804, Voluntaryism had become the re- 
 cognised creed of Burghers and Anti-Burghers alike, and
 
 THE VOLUNTARY CONTROVERSY. 371 
 
 especially after the union of 1820, the Voluntaries became a 
 power in Scotland that churchmen had to reckon with. 
 
 In 1832, the Edinburgh Voluntary Association was 
 formed, and in the beginning of the following year public 
 discussions were inaugurated between representatives of 
 Voluntaryism and of ecclesiastical establishments, and courses 
 of lectures were delivered by recognised champions of these 
 conflicting views. Leading men of the Secession Church 
 attacked the Established Church, and sought to show that 
 Erastian interference invariably accompanied and followed 
 the receiving of state aid. On the other hand, prominent 
 ministers of the Established Church defended state connec- 
 tion and the receiving of state endowments, and endeavoured 
 to prove that the spiritual independence of the church was 
 not impaired by association with the state. One of the 
 very ablest of the church defenders was Dr. Inglis, who has 
 also the distinction of having been the first to advocate suc- 
 cessfully in the church the cause of missions. His Vindica- 
 tion of Ecclesiastical Establishments is the ablest and most 
 thorough of all the works on this subject written from the 
 churchman's standpoint. He stoutly maintained the 
 spiritual independence of the church. Any attempt on 
 the part of a civil government to direct the proper affairs 
 of the church would make that government an adversary of 
 Christ and His cause. But it is the part of a Christian 
 government, while abstaining from intermeddling with such 
 matters, to aid the church in the outward support of 
 ordinances, to provide for the temporal wants of the 
 ministers, and help to extend the benefit of religious 
 teaching throughout the land. The Voluntary champion, 
 Dr. Mai-shall, in his reply sought to prove that this 
 spiritual independence claimed was not enjoyed in the 
 Established Church, quoting in support of his statement 
 some of the extreme Erastian views of the church's con- 
 stitution which had been set forth by Dr. Cook and other 
 thorough-going Moderates. 
 
 The discussion entered upon a new phase when, in 1838, 
 Dr. Chalmers, on the invitation of some of the most dis-
 
 372 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 tinguished public men of the day, delivered a course of 
 lectures in Hanover Square Rooms, London, in favour of 
 Church Establishments. He maintained that the arrange- 
 ment for the support of a Christian ministry had actually 
 been made without the slightest infringement of the 
 spiritual prerogatives of the church or the ecclesiastical 
 independence of her clergymen. The constitution of the 
 Church of Scotland was, he declared, a perfect illustration 
 of real ecclesiastical independence. " We have no other 
 communication with the state,"" he said, " than that of 
 being maintained by it, after which we are left to regulate 
 the proceedings of our great Home Mission, with all the 
 purity, and the piety, and the independence of any Mission- 
 ary Board."" The church's own inherent right to manage 
 and determine all things within her proper domain must be 
 insisted on by every church, established or non-established, 
 and it was Dr. Chalmers' contention that establishment did 
 not deprive the church of this absolutely essential indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 These lectures were replied to in a course delivered by 
 Dr. Wardlaw shortly afterwards. He maintained that 
 every endowed church surrendered part of her indepen- 
 dence in return for temporal benefits. This on the part 
 of the state is a fair demand, but compliance with it on the 
 part of the church is a shameful sacrifice of her rightful 
 heritage and a withdrawal of her allegiance to her Lord and 
 Master. He sought to show that the Church of Scotland 
 had allowed the state to interfere and dictate to her in 
 regard to her creed, the appointment of her ministers, and 
 the power of her courts. Dr. Wardlaw expressed his own 
 extreme Voluntaryism in the words : " The true and legiti- 
 mate province of the magistrate in regard to religion is to 
 have no province at all."" Within the Church of Scotland 
 all the most distinguished of the evangelical party were 
 vigorous and zealous opponents of Voluntaryism ; but it is 
 noted that their defence of Establishment invariably rested 
 upon the assumption that the constitution of the church 
 effectually excluded all Erastian interference on the part of
 
 BURGHERS UNITE WITH ESTABLISHED CHURCH. 373 
 
 the state. The Voluntary Controversy, therefore, eventually 
 prepared the way for the Non-Intrusion Controversy, by 
 which it was to be decided whether or not the state would 
 allow an endowed church that spiritual independence which 
 was claimed for it. 
 
 In the Voluntary Controversy the champions of the 
 Established Church were eventually aided by the Old 
 Light Burghers, who owed their existence to their protest 
 against Voluntaryism. Dr. Willis, their divinity professor, 
 wrote an able treatise in support of Church Establishments. 
 Meeting thus on common ground, the leaders of the Church 
 of Scotland and the leaders of the Old Light Burghers were 
 brought together as they never had been before, and the 
 result was that a fresh impetus was given to the negotia- 
 tions in favour of union which had been going on rather 
 languidly for some time. The Synod was naturally anxious 
 to make it as sure as possible that the practical evils, against 
 the presence of which in the national church they had pro- 
 tested, and because of which, on their failing to obtain their 
 removal, they had gone out of the church, were either alto- 
 gether abandoned, or at least in the course of being removed. 
 They were specially desirous of something more definite in 
 the way of rejecting patronage, which had been at the root 
 of most of the evils of which they had complained. For 
 three or four years discussions were carried on among the 
 Seceders over the question as to whether the Church of 
 Scotland had on these points advanced so far as to warrant 
 them in going back again into its fold. The Committees 
 appointed by the two negotiating bodies had their commis- 
 sions renewed from year to year, and at last, in the Burgher 
 Synod of 16th May, 1839, it was resolved by a majority 
 that, sympathising with the struggle in the Church of Scot- 
 land to establish the principle of non-intrusion, and being 
 convinced that a basis of warrantable reunion had been 
 found, they do not feel that they can recede from the con- 
 templated alliance with their brethren, and so appoint a 
 meeting of Synod to be held at an early date for the final 
 adjustment of the matter. With this resolution before
 
 374 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 them, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, on 
 25th May, on the motion of Mr. Candlish, came to a 
 deliverance agreeing to receive the Seceders and their 
 people as ministers and congregations of the Church. At 
 their meeting on 31st July of the same year, the Seceders 
 resolved by a majority to accompany them, and agreed that 
 their minority should be allowed to retain their old name 
 and to have the use of the books of synods and presbyteries. 
 "And the majority and minority, 1 " thus fittingly did the 
 motion conclude, " shall both be understood as pledging 
 themselves to encourage no violent proceedings affecting 
 the conscientious liberty of one another, nor litigations in 
 respect of civil property, and that in case of any difficulties 
 arising in questions of that kind, the same shall be settled 
 by Christian arbitration. 11 Of the forty-one ministers in 
 Scotland, twenty-nine at once joined the Church of Scot- 
 land, and other two joined soon afterwards. 
 
 On the 12th January, 1842, the Original Secession Synod, 
 which had been formed in 1827 by the union of the Old 
 Light Burghers and Old Light Anti-Burghers, agreed to 
 unite with the Remnant Burgher Synod, and only two 
 ministers, the Rev. James Wright and the Rev. Andrew 
 Lambie, refused to go into the union, and these two, along 
 with an elder, constituted The Associate Presbytery of 
 Original Seceders. These two, however, Mr. Wright and 
 Mr. Lambie, separated from one another in 1851, and from 
 that time onward continued to minister independently to 
 the congregations adhering to them respectively. On Mr. 
 Wrights death in 1879, his congregation again divided, 
 and each of the two sections worships as a distinct congre- 
 gation under its own minister. The moderator who pre- 
 sided on the occasion of the formation of the United 
 Original Secession Church was the Rev. J. A. Wylie, after- 
 wards well known as author of The Papacy, The History of 
 Protestantism , and other works, and Lecturer to the Pro- 
 testant Institute of Scotland. 
 
 A representation had been made to the General Assembly 
 of 1839, by certain clergymen and others, as to the existence
 
 CASE OF WRIGHT OF BO11THWTCK. 375 
 
 of a fama against the Rev. Thomas Wright, minister of 
 Borthwick, in the presbytery of Dalkeith, as to certain 
 seriously heretical statements which occurred in several 
 works written and published by him. The Assembly 
 accordingly instructed the presbytery to proceed to an 
 investigation, and that court served a libel upon Mr. 
 Wright. The case was brought up before the Assembly 
 of 1840, by appeal on the part of Mr. Wright against the 
 finding of the libel relevant, and by reference of the case on 
 its merits on the part of the presbytery. The Assembly 
 declared the libel relevant, but declined to deal with the 
 case on its merits, and remitted it to the presbytery to pro- 
 ceed to proof. The presbytery found the libel proven, and 
 reported the case, as required, to the Assembly of 1841. 
 The libel embraced thirteen charges against Mr. Wright of 
 teaching erroneous doctrines in his writings. He was 
 charged with maintaining that moral evil had no real 
 existence, that in man's present nature there exists native 
 good and tendencies to good, that man's present constitu- 
 tion is essentially religious, and that the evangelical graces 
 of faith and repentance are essential to it, that the heart of 
 man naturally loves divine truth and what is good, that all 
 men are equally objects of God's love and members of 
 Christ's body, that all are heirs of one blessed immortality, 
 that a man by his own merits may obtain future blessed- 
 ness, that death is not a penal consequence of sin, that there 
 is no imputation of Adam's guilt, that divine grace and the 
 Spirit's operation are not the only source of what is spiritu- 
 ally good in man, nor constitute an essential difference 
 between the regenerate and unregenerate, that the Word of 
 God is not the only authoritative and perfect rule of faith 
 and life, and that Jesus Christ did not give Himself a 
 voluntary sacrifice unto death for sin, or by his death make 
 any proper satisfaction to His Father for His people. In 
 support of these charges large extracts were made, mainly 
 from the The True Plan of a Living Temple. The 
 Assembly seemed unanimously to condemn the language 
 used in Mr. Wright's works, and Mr. Hill of Dailly and
 
 376 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Mr. Robertson of Ellon, who moved and seconded a motion 
 in favour of appointing a committee to deal with the 
 accused and to report to a subsequent diet, quite as 
 strongly as the most pronounced evangelical leaders, repudi- 
 ated all sympathy with the doctrines which it was proved 
 Mr. Wright had taught. By a large majority it was 
 resolved that Mr. Wright should be deposed ; the sentence 
 of deposition was pronounced, and the parish of Borthwick 
 declared vacant. It would seem that Mr. Wright was a 
 
 O 
 
 man of thoroughly devout spirit and of a reflective and 
 philosophical turn of mind. His works had attained con- 
 siderable popularity, and some of them had been much used 
 and prized in Christian families as devotional treatises for 
 about twenty years before the charge of heresy was raised. 
 The errors undoubtedly were very serious, but some of the 
 statements exhibit an unfortunate vagueness and want of 
 clearness of expression, and there is a considerable amount 
 of confusion and inconsistency between one utterance and 
 another. There was probably no conscious or deliberate 
 departure from the orthodox teaching of the church. 
 
 The Assembly of 1842 passed an important measure, 
 which rescinded the Act of Assembly of 1799, excluding 
 from the pulpits of the Church of Scotland all who were 
 not capable of receiving a presentation. The old Act had 
 been passed in order to prevent ministers giving their 
 pulpits to such evangelists as the Haldanes and Mr. 
 Simeon of Cambridge. It was now recognised on all 
 hands that it was an Act unworthy of the church. Several 
 members spoke of the need of caution and prudence on the 
 part of ministers, but inasmuch as they would be held 
 responsible for the doctrines preached from their pulpits, it 
 was admitted that no evil would result from the removing 
 of this extreme restriction, which many, indeed, had refused 
 to observe. The rescinding of this objectional Act was 
 agreed to by the Assembly unanimously. 
 
 The defence of Church Establishment against the Volun- 
 taries had brought into special prominence the question of 
 the spiritual independence of the church. The defenders
 
 ANTI-PATRONAGE MOVEMENT. 377 
 
 of the Established Church had, without exception, main- 
 tained that the fact of receiving endowments from the state 
 did not involve on the part of the church the admission of 
 any right of interference by the civil government in regard 
 to anything that properly belonged to the province of the 
 church. Attention was thus called to the evils of lay patron- 
 age and the intrusion of unacceptable ministers into parishes 
 by the aid of the secular authority. The non-intrusion con- 
 troversy was a necessary sequel to the voluntary controversy. 
 It was recognised on all hands that something must be done 
 to mitigate the evils of patronage, and the only difference 
 of opinion arose over the question of how far in the way of 
 reform they ought to go. 
 
 For several years petitions had been addressed to the 
 Assembly, some of them asking for the complete abolition 
 of patronage, and others, that some change should be made 
 in the way in which the right of patronage was carried out. 
 At a meeting of clergymen held previous to the sitting of 
 the Assembly of 1833, a proposal was made to enable the 
 will of the people to obtain effective expression without 
 altogether repudiating the right of the patron. This 
 proposal afterwards found expression in what is known 
 as the Veto Act. 
 
 The question in dispute concerned the value to be 
 attached to the call of the people by a presbytery which had 
 before it a presentee asking admission and ordination. 
 Apart from patronage, there could be no uncertainty about 
 the importance of the popular vote in warranting a presby- 
 tery to proceed with any settlement. It was the duty of 
 the presbytery to secure supply for the vacant pulpit, and 
 then to meet with the people and find if they were prepared 
 to address and subscribe a call to any one of the candidates. 
 But even patronage did not formally dispense with the call 
 of the people. Some indeed insisted that the Patronage 
 Act of Queen Anne did not abrogate the Act of 1690. If 
 that were so, the right of the patron was merely co-ordinated 
 with that of protestant heritors and elders. Others main- 
 tained that according to ecclesiastical law the enactment of
 
 378 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 1 649, which gave the right of election to heads of families, 
 was still in force. In any case, it was generally recognised 
 for at least twenty years after the re-enactment of the 
 patronage law that the rights of patrons were conditional, 
 and not absolute. The only point in dispute was as to the 
 electorate, and the decision of the Assembly of 1832 in 
 favour of heritors and elders rather than the heads of 
 families, was the immediate occasion of the first secession. 
 Up to the time of Robertson"^ leadership, even the Moderate 
 party recognised the necessity of the call, but sometimes a 
 call signed by a minority of heritors and elders was sustained. 
 Under Robertson the call was treated as a meaningless form, 
 which was invariably sustained, whether signed by many or 
 by few, so that the presentation was in every case upheld. 
 The more severely logical of the churchmen clearly per- 
 ceived that patronage and the right of election by the con- 
 gregation, either through heritors and elders or through the 
 heads of families, were absolutely inconsistent with one 
 another. Dr. Cook, who was Moderate leader when the 
 non-intrusion controversy was waged, plainly declared that, 
 if the law of patronage be continued, it is imperative and 
 admits of no limitation but the defined qualifications of 
 a presentee not existing in a particular individual, and that, 
 if it be repealed, then the Act of 1690, or some other means 
 of settling vacant parishes, must be substituted for it. Any 
 combination of the two, he held to be inadmissable. 
 
 Of the evangelical party there were many who were on 
 principle opposed to patronage. They felt that however 
 limited the exercise of patronage might be, it was in any 
 case an infringement upon the rights of the Christian people. 
 But some of the most attached and trusted members of the 
 party, of whom the great and powerful leader, Dr. Chalmers, 
 was one, declined to join the anti-patronage agitation, and 
 confined their attention to the securing of legislative 
 measures which would so restrict the exercise of patronage 
 as to preserve the rights of the people and make the call 
 effective and real. At this particular juncture the anti- 
 patronage men, without resiling from their position as
 
 THE VETO MEASURE. 379 
 
 thorough -going opponents of patronage, agreed to co-operate 
 with those who sought at least to minimise its evils. The 
 result of the fusion of the two sections of the evangelical 
 party was the introduction by Dr. Chalmers in the Assembly 
 of 1833 of the Veto measure. The whole meaning of the 
 proposal was, to use Dr. Chalmers's own words, to secure 
 " that the majority of dissentient voices should be a veto on 
 any presentation." He proposed the motion in the form of 
 a Declaratory Act, declaring that a dissent of a majority of 
 male heads of families, resident in the parish, members of 
 the congregation, and at least two years in communion with the 
 church, whether with or without reasons, unless corrupt and 
 malicious combination can be proved, ought to be conclusive 
 in setting aside the presentee. This motion was seconded 
 and ably supported by Lord Moncreiff. The amendment 
 moved by Dr. Cook recognised the growth of popular views, 
 and admitted the conditional character of patronage rights, 
 and that a presbytery in judging the qualifications of a pre- 
 sentee might take into consideration, not only his sufficiency 
 in literature, conduct and doctrine, but also his suitableness 
 for the particular congregation to which he was presented. 
 He maintained, however, that if the objections of a congre- 
 gation to a presentee were to be judged by a presbytery, the 
 objectors must assign reasons for their opposition. The 
 amendment of Dr. Cook was canned by 149 against 137, a 
 narrow majority of twelve. 
 
 The same subject engaged the attention of the Assembly 
 of 1834. In the absence of Dr. Chalmers, who was not a 
 member of Assembly, it devolved upon Lord Moncreiff to 
 re-introduce the Veto measure. The amendment proposed 
 by Dr. Mearns of Aberdeen was that proposed by Dr. Cook 
 in the previous Assembly, or rather the report of the Com- 
 mittee which by the passing of that motion had been formed. 
 The result of the vote was a victory for the liberal party and 
 the passing of the measure by 184 votes against 138, 
 giving a majority of forty-six. The promoters of this 
 measure still regarded it as a Declaratory Act, and as such 
 not requiring to be sent down to presbyteries, but on
 
 380 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 grounds of expediency, as some entertained doubts on the 
 subject, it was agreed to send it down under the Barrier Act 
 to presbyteries, and meanwhile to convert it into an interim 
 Act which would be .in force till the meeting of next 
 Assembly. The Assembly of 1835 passed the Veto 
 measure as a standing law of the church. 
 
 The question of Chapels of Ease was another matter 
 which came up for discussion before the Assembly of 1833. 
 The Court of Session as Court of Teinds could erect a new 
 parish only with the consent of heritors possessed of at least 
 three-fourths of the valued rent of the parish. But, as the 
 cost of the erection of the new parish would come out of the 
 unexhausted teinds in the possession of these heritors, it was 
 usually no easy matter to secure their concurrence. In order 
 to meet the spiritual necessities of populous districts, the 
 people themselves sometimes built chapels; and, if they failed 
 in obtaining recognition from presbytery and Assembly 
 those who erected them put themselves and their property 
 under the Relief or Secession churches. The chapel minis- 
 ters were not members of the church courts, nor had they 
 independent sessions of their own. Several presbyteries and 
 synods sent up overtures, which were presented to this Assem- 
 bly, asking that the disabilities of the chapel ministers should 
 be removed, and Alexander Murray Dunlop was heard in 
 support of them. Professor Brown of Aberdeen moved that 
 thev should be admitted to all the privileges of the regular 
 clergy of the Established Church. Dr. Cook opposed this 
 on the ground of a doubt of the power of the Assembly to 
 pass such a measure, and his amendment was carried by a 
 majority of four. The Assembly, however, unhesitatingly 
 admitted the claims of ministers of parliamentary churches, 
 forty churches in the Highlands which had recently been 
 erected under authority of an Act of Parliament. The 
 Assembly of 1834, on the motion of Professor Brown, passed 
 the measure usually called the Chapel Act by a majority of 
 forty-nine, admitting Chapels of Ease to the status of parish 
 churches, and a directory was prepared for carrying that Act 
 into effect.
 
 CHALMERS' CHURCH EXTENSION SCHEME. 381 
 
 A Royal Commission had been appointed to inquire about 
 religious instruction in Scotland. In order to lay before this 
 Commission reliable information, Dr. Chalmers made careful 
 investigations as to the attendances of the lowest and most 
 destitute classes of the community on religious ordinances 
 within certain localities. Considerable opposition was offered 
 to the proposals for church extension by the dissenters. It 
 was only after a period of eighteen months had been spent, 
 that the Commission in February, 1837, gave its first report. 
 In the Established and Dissenting Churches of Edinburgh 
 there was accommodation for a little over 48 per cent, of 
 the population, and there were 20,000 sittings unlet. It 
 was calculated that 40,000 or 60,000 persons capable of 
 attending were habitually absent. The report concluded 
 with the statement of a conviction that the means of religious 
 instruction and pastoral superintendence was inadequate. 
 The second report referred to Glasgow, where sittings were 
 provided for 39^ per cent, of the population, and upwards of 
 60,000 persons were habitually absent from ordinances. In 
 view of these reports the Government, after making some 
 unimportant suggestions as to providing for necessitous 
 districts in the Highlands, and the division of parishes and 
 distribution among them of the unexhausted teinds, de- 
 clined to do anything for the large towns. Disappointed in 
 his expectations of help from the Government, Dr. Chalmers 
 now resolved to make his appeal to the country. Having 
 obtained the sanction of the General Assembly of 1836, a 
 sub-committee on Church Extension began at once to make 
 arrangements for holding a series of meetings to be addressed 
 by delegates well instructed in the matter. The religious 
 necessities of the country were thus effectively brought under 
 the notice of the public, and the appeal thus made to the 
 people was at once wonderfully successful. In May, 1838, 
 Dr. Chalmers was able to report to the Assembly that about 
 two hundred additional churches had been built and their 
 cost of over two hundred thousand pounds had been met by 
 the contributions given in response to his committee's appeal. 
 During the following year he made an extensive tour
 
 382 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 through the North of Scotland, advocating the claims of 
 Church Extension in the larger and smaller towns, and the 
 result was that by 1841, when he resigned the convenership 
 of the committee, he could report that no less than 222 
 churches had been built and over 3Q5,QQQ collected for the 
 purposes of the scheme. 
 
 On the occasion of the passing of the Veto Law by the 
 Assembly of 1834, there had been considerable discussion as 
 to whether it would not have been a wiser measure to en- 
 deavour to restore the call to such a position as would 
 render it really effective, but the opinion of many of the 
 most distinguished lawyers, as well as of a large number of 
 the most prominent ecclesiastical leaders, was that the pass- 
 ing of the Veto was quite within the power of the Assembly. 
 The question of its legality was almost immediately raised 
 by what is known in history as The A uchterarder Case. On 
 the 14th of October, 1834, the Earl of Kinnoul, patron of 
 the living, presented a Mr. Young to the vacant parish of 
 Auchterarder. When the call was moderated in, after the 
 presentee had preached for two Sabbaths before the congre- 
 gation, only two members of the congregation and the 
 patron's factor, who was not a member, were found to sign 
 it, and 287 male heads of families, members of the congre- 
 gation, out of a total of 330, exercised their right of veto. 
 The presbytery was prepared, in accordance with the law 
 then in force in the church, to set the unpopular presentee 
 aside, and this was actually done by the presbytery in July, 
 1835, after an appeal to Synod and Assembly had been dis- 
 missed. The patron and the presentee now addressed a 
 petition to the Court of Session, asking that Court to find 
 the presbytery of Auchterarder bound to make trial of the 
 qualifications of the presentee, and if found qualified, to in- 
 duct him as minister of the parish, and also to find that their 
 refusal to take him on trial because of the veto of the 
 parishioners was adverse to the rights of the presentee and 
 contrary to the statute law. The case came before all 
 the judges in November, the counsel for the patron and 
 presentee being Mr. John Hope, afterwards Lord Justice
 
 THE AUCHTERARDER CASE. 
 
 Clerk, and the counsel for the presbytery, Mr. Rutherford^ 
 afterwards a distinguished judge. Their pleadings lasted 
 from 21st November till 12th December, 1837. The 
 opinions of the judges were delivered at the end of February, 
 and the delivery of them occupied seven days. Eight 
 judges gave their opinion in favour of the presentee, and 
 five (Lords Fullerton, Moncrieff, Glenlee, Jeffrey and Cock- 
 burn) in favour of the church. The judgment of the Court 
 as delivered on 8th March, 1838, found that the presbytery 
 in rejecting Mr. Young simply because he had been vetoed 
 by the parishioners was illegal and contrary to the pro- 
 visions of certain statutes libelled on. This deliverance 
 left it uncertain whether the veto was regarded as illegal 
 because a power belonging to the church which she could 
 not alienate had been transferred to the people, so that the 
 presbytery itself might find a presentee disqualified .because 
 unsuitable, and it was also uncertain whether the civil court 
 claimed authority over the church in all actings which 
 carried directly or indirectly civil consequences, or if still 
 some separate jurisdiction was left to ecclesiastical judica- 
 tories. In any case, it was evident that at least the Court 
 of Session claimed to have authority to determine the 
 appropriation of the stipend. In view of the equivocal 
 character of the judgment, the Assembly of 1838 appealed 
 to the House of Lords, which in the following year dismissed 
 the appeal and confirmed the decision of the Court of 
 Session. Lords Brougham and Cottenham held that the 
 presbytery's powers in dealing with a presentee were 
 limited to an inquiry into his life, literature and manners. 
 By this judgment all right on the part of presbyteries of 
 judging of the fitness of presentees for particular congrega- 
 tions, which Dr. Cook and the Moderate party had never 
 thought of questioning, was emphatically and categorically 
 denied. Immediately after the decision of the Lords had 
 been published, the Assembly of 1839 began its sittings. 
 Dr. Chalmers had only regarded the Veto as one of several 
 possible ways of dealing with the evils of patronage, and 
 had been quite prepared to consider any other proposal if
 
 384 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 that particular method of dealing with the question had 
 been declared illegal ; but the decision of the Lords made it 
 evident that any attempt whatever to restrict the arbitrary 
 action of patrons would be pronounced equally objection- 
 able. It was now declared that the presbytery had no more 
 power than the people to judge of a presentee's fitness for 
 the charge to which he was presented. Dr. Cook proposed 
 a motion requiring the Assembly to hold the Veto Law as 
 abrogated, and to proceed as if it had never been passed. 
 Dr. Chalmers moved for the appointment of a committee to 
 confer with the Government in order to prevent further 
 collisions between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. In 
 his motion he recognised and acquiesced in the loss of the 
 temporalities of the living of Auchterarder, but insisted 
 upon the maintaining of the principle of non-intrusion. Dr. 
 Chalmers spoke for three hours, and his speech was one of 
 the most brilliant ever delivered by this great orator. His 
 motion was carried by a majority of forty-nine. 
 
 Meanwhile another case had occurred in which certain 
 interesting and important points emerged peculiar to itself. 
 In 1835 the Crown as patron presented Mr. Clark to the 
 parish of Lethendy in the presbytery of Dunkeld as colleague 
 and successor to the aged and infirm minister. The people 
 exercised their veto against Mr. Clark, and though he 
 appealed against the presbytery's rejection of his claims to 
 the Court of Session in 1837, the Crown recognized the 
 validity of the veto, and on the death of the aged minister, 
 issued a new presentation to Mr. Kessen. The Court of 
 Session issued an interdict against the ordination of Mr. 
 Kessen by the presbytery. The Commission to which the 
 presbytery applied for advice, ordered the presbytery to 
 proceed at once notwithstanding the interdict. The motion 
 to this effect, moved and seconded by prominent members 
 of the Moderate party, was carried by a majority of fifty- 
 two to six, only one clergyman voting in the minority. It 
 was thus all but unanimously acknowledged that the Court 
 of Session had overstepped the limits of its jurisdiction in 
 interfering with the presbytery in the performance of the
 
 LETHENDY AND MARXOCH CASES. 385 
 
 purely spiritual act of ordination. The presbytery was 
 warned of the consequences of defying the civil court. The 
 Dean of Faculty had given his opinion to the presentee's 
 agent that the members of presbytery proceeding to ordain 
 Mr. Kessen in spite of the interdict of court would be liable 
 to imprisonment and would infallibly receive that punish- 
 ment. Nevertheless the presbytery proceeded with Mr. 
 Kessen's ordination. A complaint having been made 
 against them for breach of interdict, the presbytery were 
 summoned to appear at the bar of the Court of Session. 
 By a narrow majority, it has been said that it was only by 
 six votes against five, the court resolved not to imprison the 
 members of the presbytery, but to administer a sharp rebuke. 
 In conveying the censure, the president said that he had 
 been instructed to add the warning that should they or any 
 other presbytery afterwards commit a similar offence the 
 sentence of imprisonment would be inflicted. In addition 
 to all this, not only was the presbytery of Dunkeld found 
 liable in expenses, but Mr. Clark was awarded damages 
 amounting to several thousands of pounds, which but for 
 help given them, they could never have paid. Lord Cock- 
 burn speaks in his Journal of the action of the court in this 
 case as showing that " passion sometimes invades the bench." 
 " The majority of the Court," he says, " may have been 
 right at first and to a certain extent, but they soon got 
 rabid, in so much that there seemed to be no feeling except 
 that of pleasure at winging wild churchmen." 
 
 The parish of Marnoch, in the presbytery of Strathbogie, 
 having become vacant, the patron, in June, 1837, presented 
 to the living Mr. John Edwards, who had been previously 
 assistant for three years to the late minister, and whose ser- 
 vices had been dispensed with by him at the people's request. 
 There were three hundred parishioners qualified to vote, but 
 of these only one, the village publican, signed the call, and 
 two hundred and sixty-one exercised their right of veto. 
 The presbytery, under direction of the Assembly of 1838, 
 rejected Mr. Edwards, and the patron presented Mr. Henry. 
 The rejected presentee, however, sought and obtained an 
 
 A 2
 
 386 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 interdict from the Court of Session forbidding the presbytery 
 to proceed with the settlement of the other presentee. The 
 presbytery resolved to submit to the authority of the civil 
 court, but the Commission of Assembly of 1839, in reviewing 
 this judgment, enjoined the presbytery to take no farther 
 step till next General Assembly. In June, 1839, however, the 
 Court of Session issued a decree holding that the presbytery 
 was still bound to take Mr. Edwards on trial with a view to 
 ordination. Without being under any necessity of acting 
 hastily or going in opposition to the Commission's injunction 
 to delay action for a year, a majority of the presbytery, 
 consisting of seven out of ten, resolved to proceed at once 
 to the ordination and settlement of Mr. Edwards. At the 
 meeting of Commission in December, after all efforts had 
 been used in vain to induce the refractory members of pres- 
 bytery to delay proceedings, by a majority of one hundred 
 and twenty-one to fourteen, the seven Strathbogie ministers 
 were suspended and prohibited from exercising any of their 
 ministerial duties, and the minority, recognised as the pres- 
 bytery, was directed to take charge of their parishes and 
 secure for them suitable ministerial supply. Before the 
 Commission rose, a protest was served upon that court at 
 the instance of the suspended ministers. The seven pro- 
 ceeded at once to act as a presbytery as if no judgment 
 had been pronounced against them, and took Mr. Edwards 
 on trial. In answer to their application, the Court of 
 Session issued an interdict against ministers preaching, not 
 generally in their parishes, as they had demanded, but in 
 the churches, church-yards, or schoolrooms, as also against 
 their using the church bells. Many of the most distin- 
 tinguished evangelical preachers of the church went to these 
 parishes, preaching in the open air or in any unecclesiastical 
 edifice which was opened to them. The result was a very 
 general spiritual revival throughout the district. A further 
 application was made to the Court of Session, which, in 
 February, 1840, prohibited any Established Church minister 
 from preaching or administering ordinances in any of these 
 parishes. Interdicts were served personally on Dr. Chal-
 
 SETTLEMENT AT MARNOCH. 387 
 
 mers, Dr. Gordon, Dr. Guthrie, and other distinguished 
 ministers, but in spite of them they went and preached as 
 they had been appointed to do. But the bold and em- 
 phatic threat of imprisonment for breach of interdict was 
 never carried out. 
 
 The seven suspended ministers calling themselves the 
 presbytery of Strathbogie, having received Mr. Edwards on 
 trial, found him qualified. The Court of Session then, at 
 the instance of the presentee, ordered the presbytery recog- 
 nised by them to proceed to receive and ordain Mr. 
 Edwards as minister of Marnoch. Thursday, 21st Janu- 
 ary, 1841, had been fixed as the ordination day. The 
 country was deeply covered with snow, so that, in ordinary 
 circumstances, the roads would have been regarded as im- 
 passable, but a crowd of over two thousand men were 
 gathered round the church. Each of the carriages con- 
 veying the presbyters and their party had to be driven by 
 four horses. The church, as soon as it was opened, was 
 filled in every part : in the gallery were strangers and 
 onlookers, in the area the parishioners. One of the elders 
 demanded of the ministers by what authority they were 
 there. Was it by authority of the Assembly ? This they 
 refused to answer unless he would sist himself as a party at 
 the bar. Regarding this as an acknowledgment of their 
 authority, he declined to do so. Two protests were then 
 read, one by all the elders, the other by four hundred and 
 fifty communicants. At the call of their agent, after 
 tabling the protests, the people of Marnoch, gathering 
 their pew Bibles and psalm books, marched out of the 
 church, refusing to witness what they regarded as an 
 unconstitutional and sacrilegious act. All of them went 
 out but the occupants of one pew. The proceedings were 
 orderly, quiet, and dignified ; only when their places were 
 taken by the mob which curiosity had gathered from sur- 
 rounding districts, were scenes of disorder enacted. Against 
 the wish of the patrons, against the will of the people, with 
 a call signed by one parishioner, the suspended presbyters 
 ordained a minister in Marnoch.
 
 388 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 In consequence of their disregard of the suspension pro- 
 nounced upon them by the Commission, and especially of 
 their proceeding to ordain in defiance of the Assembly^ 
 prohibition, the Assembly of 1841, on the motion of Dr. 
 Chalmers, deposed the seven men who claimed to form the 
 presbytery of Strathbogie. Dr. Cook had moved that all 
 proceedings instituted against these men should be set 
 aside as incompetent, but the motion of deposition was 
 carried by a vote of two hundred and twenty-two against 
 one hundred and twenty -five. 
 
 An attempt was made by Lord Aberdeen to devise a 
 legislative measure which might have the effect of bringing 
 together the two opposing parties in the church, and pre- 
 venting further collisions between the civil and ecclesiastical 
 courts. On the 5th of May, 1840, he introduced a bill into 
 the House of Lords, which proposed to give power to the 
 presbyteries to judge of any reasons for opposing the settle- 
 ment of a presentee which the parishioners might lay before 
 them. Dr. Chalmers ennumerated three fatal objections to 
 the bill as it appeared to him and the non-intrusion party. 
 It obliged the presbytery to give judgment exclusively on 
 the reasons, and allowed them no discretionary power ; it 
 subordinated the church to the civil power in things 
 spiritual ; and it was equivalent to a proposal previously 
 made by Dr. Cook and rejected by the church. The char- 
 acter of the bill was discussed in the Assembly, and by a 
 majority of two hundred and twenty-one to one hundred 
 and thirty-four, it was condemned. It was a purely 
 declaratory measure. It only gave what the law as it 
 presently existed gave, and what all might have without 
 any such bill, by simply submitting to the enactments of 
 the civil courts. In the House of Lords the opposition to 
 the bill was led by the Marquess of Breadalbane, but the 
 motion for the second reading was carried by a considerable 
 majority. Before the third reading came on, however, the 
 bill was withdrawn. 
 
 Another effort was made to bring about a settlement of 
 the question of conflicting claims between the church and
 
 DUKE OF ARGYLLS BILL. 
 
 civil authority in Scotland by the Duke of Argyll, who, on 
 the 5th of May, 1841, introduced a bill with this purpose 
 in view into the House of Lords. It was practically an ex- 
 tension of the old Veto measure. It proposed to give the 
 right of veto to all male communicants above twenty-one 
 years of age, but provided that the veto should be set aside 
 in every case where it could be proved to have been due to 
 factious and causeless prejudice. This measure was warmly 
 approved of by the non-intrusionists, and after it had been 
 read a first time, it was heartily supported in the Assembly 
 of 1841, by a majority of two hundred and fifty against one 
 hundred and five. It was, however, keenly opposed by 
 Lord Aberdeen. In the following year it was introduced 
 into the House of Commons by Mr. Campbell of Monzie. 
 Sir James Graham seemed friendly, and the government 
 asked the postponement of the day for the second reading. 
 When, however, the Home Secretary explained the lines on 
 which the government were prepared to legislate, it was seen 
 that the proposal did not really go beyond the rejected and 
 discredited bill of Lord Aberdeen. 
 
 Hopes were for a time entertained that the government 
 might yet be induced to recognise in their legislation the 
 principle of non-intrusion. When the day arrived to which 
 the second reading of his bill had been postponed, Mr. 
 Campbell, having received no assurance that the govern- 
 ment measure would be satisfactory, was prepared to move, 
 but an objection was raised by the Speaker on the ground 
 that seeing the object of the bill was to modify patronage, 
 and that the crown holds the patronage of a number of 
 churches, it cannot be introduced into parliament till the 
 consent of the crown had been obtained. This objection 
 had not been raised in the House of Lords, nor on the 
 introduction of the bill into the House of Commons, but, 
 as Sir Robert Peel declined to use his prerogative to put it 
 aside, the technical objection necessitated the setting aside 
 of the bill. 
 
 The apparent hopelessness of all attempts to obtain 
 redress of what were very widely recognised as serious evils,
 
 390 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 by any measure securing legal protection against the 
 absolute and arbitrary exercise of patronage, led many 
 who would previously have been satisfied with the Veto, 
 to confess that nothing could avail but the complete over- 
 throw of patronage. In the Assembly of 1841, the Anti- 
 Patronage resolution proposed by Mr. Cunningham, was 
 lost only by three votes. In the following year Mr. Cun- 
 ningham carried his motion by a vote of two hundred and 
 sixteen against one hundred and forty-seven. 
 
 In the year 1841 another case of intrusion, in some res- 
 pects worse even than that of Marnoch, occurred in Aber- 
 deenshire. It had become necessary that an assistant and 
 successor should be appointed to the infirm minister of the 
 parish of Culsalmond, in the presbytery of Garioch, and the 
 patron presented an elderly probationer, Mr. Middleton, 
 who had been for some time the extremely unpopular 
 assistant of the minister. On the day when the call was to 
 be moderated in only forty-five signed the document, and 
 out of one hundred and thirty-nine male heads of families, 
 eighty-nine exercised their veto against the presentee. 
 Though the Veto Law had never been abrogated by the 
 church, the presbytery, without even referring to the 
 Assembly, and in face of dissents and protests of the 
 parishioners, resolved to proceed with the settlement. 
 They would not even listen to special objections when 
 these were offered. On the llth November, the day fixed 
 for the ordination, crowds made their way through deep 
 snowdrifts, and rushing into the church, prevented the con- 
 ducting of the ordination services in public. The presby- 
 tery, therefore, adjourned to the manse, and though the agent 
 of the parishioners, and afterwards a representative of the 
 press sought admission, they were told that the presbytery had 
 private business, and when at last the door was opened they 
 were told that the presbytery had adjourned. The Novem- 
 ber Commission received a petition from the objecting 
 parishioners, summoned parties to appear at the Commis- 
 sion in March, or if no Commission were held, at the 
 ensuing Assembly, and meanwhile prohibits Mr. Middleton
 
 SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR^ CLAUSE. 391 
 
 from officiating in the parish. Mr. Middleton applied for 
 an interdict, which was refused by Lord Ivory, as Lord 
 Ordinary, on the ground that there was nothing civil in the 
 case. This judgment was reversed on review by the first 
 division of the court, on the ground that a great stigma 
 was fixed on the presentee, and that this constituted a civil 
 injury. The Assembly of 1842 passed a resolution, without 
 a vote, rescinding the settlement, and finding that Mr. 
 Middleton had disqualified himself as minister to the parish, 
 and that he is accordingly rejected. 
 
 Sir George Sinclair, an elder of the Church of Scotland 
 and warmly interested in her well-being, proposed a clause, 
 by the introduction of which into Lord Aberdeen's bill, he 
 thought that bill might be made acceptable to those who 
 had hitherto repudiated it. It proposed to give to pres- 
 byteries the power to reject a presentee in view of the 
 soundness of the reasons advanced and of the number 
 of the objectors. It was, of course, an abandonment 
 of the veto, and a giving to presbyteries what had been 
 claimed for the people. Just as before the patron, so 
 un^er this clause the presbytery, might intrude an un- 
 popular minister on a reluctant people. Though for a time 
 Mr. Hope and Lord Aberdeen, on the one hand, and Mr. 
 Candlish and other non-intrusionists on the other, were 
 inclined to concur in supporting the clause, they found out 
 by and by that this agreement was founded on conflicting 
 and contradictory meanings, which they had read into the 
 clause. The attempt to popularise the bill by this means 
 was therefore abandoned. The discussion over this clause, 
 however, had the effect of drawing off from their allegiance 
 a small number of non-intrusionists. These declared them- 
 selves willing to be satisfied with what was called the 
 liberum arbitrium, the obtaining of power by the presbytery 
 to judge of objections made against a presentee. These 
 were members of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and one of 
 them, when expounding their views and wishing to show 
 the strength of his party, said, " We are forty." The
 
 392 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 nickname of " The Forty Thieves " was soon attached to 
 them. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 24th of May, 1842, the General 
 Assembly had before it a voluminous and most important 
 document, which is now popularly known as The Claim of 
 Right. It came before the Assembly in the form of an 
 Overture signed by a large number of prominent ministers 
 and elders, but was drawn up by Mr. Alexander Murray 
 Dunlop. It is acknowledged on all hands to be a masterly 
 production, composed in a thoroughly clear style and 
 setting forth its facts and arguments in an accurate and 
 well-balanced statement. It shows, from the church stan- 
 dards and from the statutes of the realm, that the doctrine 
 of Christ's Headship over the church had been always made 
 and recognised, it points out the degree in which this doc- 
 trine was infringed by the Patronage Act of Queen Anne 
 and the subsequent proceedings of the civil courts ; and 
 thus, in behalf of the nation and people of Scotland, the 
 church makes claim as of right " to possess and enjoy her 
 liberties, government, discipline, rights, and privileges 
 according to law, especially for the defence of the spiritual 
 liberties of her people, and that she shall be protected 
 therein from the unconstitutional and illegal encroach- 
 ments of the Court of Session. 11 The subscribers of this 
 document further declare that they cannot intrude minis- 
 ters or yield to the coercion of the Court of Session, but 
 must, at the risk of suffering the loss of secular benefits and 
 advantages of an establishment, refuse to do so. Further, 
 they protest against any alteration of the government and 
 discipline of the church without her consent, and that, while 
 promising obedience in all civil matters, they refuse to obey 
 sentences of courts that are in contravention of the rights 
 and privileges of the church. The adoption of the Over- 
 ture was moved by Dr. Chalmers, and seconded by Dr. 
 Gordon, and this motion was carried against a proposal by 
 Dr. Cook practically to set it aside, by a majority of two 
 hundred and forty-one against one hundred and ten. By 
 the issuing of this formal Claim, Declaration, and Protest,
 
 NON-INTRUSION MEETING. 
 
 the Assembly took a very important step. For the first 
 time the alternative was formally and clearly put before the 
 legislature and the people, of having their claim to spiritual 
 independence recognised and admitted by the civil govern- 
 ment, or agreeing to relinquish the advantages and emolu- 
 ments of an Establishment. 
 
 On the evening of the llth of August, 1841, the day on 
 which the Commission of Assembly had met, a very impor- 
 tant public meeting was held in St. Cuthbert's Church to 
 discuss the position of ecclesiastical affairs. Fourteen hun- 
 dred ministers and elders were crowded together in the area, 
 while the galleries were closely packed with a throng of 
 eager listeners. Dr. Chalmers called the attention of the 
 meeting to the alternative of separation from a state- 
 endowed and established church, which many of them 
 would feel bound to adopt should the state refuse to 
 satisfy their just and scriptural claims. He also gave an 
 indication of the method which he had contrived for secur- 
 ing the support of the ministry in case this alternative 
 would have to be faced. He gave them clearly to under- 
 stand that he scarcely entertained any hope of obtaining 
 redress from the legislature. Similar meetings were held in 
 other parts of the country, and peopled minds were thus 
 familiarised with the idea of disruption, and of the possi- 
 bility of its occurring at an early date. 
 
 When the House of Lords not only sanctioned the claim 
 of the presentee to Auchterarder for damages, but sustained 
 the Court of Session's judgment in giving decree requiring 
 the presbytery to take Mr. Young on trials, it was evident 
 that this was a decision which the church could not obey. 
 This was civil coercion to which the church could not sub- 
 mit. 
 
 In consequence of the critical position in which those 
 were placed who claimed independent jurisdiction for the 
 church, it was resolved that a meeting should be called of 
 all the ministers who had shown themselves favourable to 
 the non-intrusion cause. The meeting, usually called The 
 Convocation, commenced its sittings on the evening of Thurs-
 
 394 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 day, 17th November, 1842, the day immediately following 
 the meeting of the Commission, and concluded on Thursday, 
 the 24th. As the purpose of the gathering was to secure 
 the free interchange of opinions and feelings, a small church, 
 called Roxburgh Chapel, was chosen as the place of meeting. 
 The Times had anticipated that the meeting would prove 
 an utter failure, that few would attend, and that the dis- 
 sensions which would arise would break up the partv and 
 humble its leaders. But in both respects these evil prog- 
 nostications failed. No less than four hundred and sixty-five 
 ministers, representing even the remotest parts of north and 
 south, braved the inclemency of a severe winter to attend 
 this gathering. Two series of resolutions were adopted, 
 in which the encroachment of the civil courts was com- 
 plained of and repudiated, and the duty of the church to 
 show the government the extreme peril by which the estab- 
 lishment was beset was recognised. By order of the Con- 
 vocation an Address to the People of Scotland was drawn 
 up and widely circulated, and a Memorial to the Govern- 
 ment was prepared, in which it was plainly stated that they 
 could not submit to the interference of civil courts in the 
 discharge of their spiritual duties, and that rather than 
 prolong the conflict with the minority in the church who 
 were resolved to obey the law and defy ecclesiastical 
 authority, it might be their duty to retire from their posi- 
 tion as connected with the establishment. 
 
 In the same year in which the Veto Law had been passed, 
 another measure, as we have seen, known as the Chapel Act, 
 was also put on the statute book of the church. Though 
 the Veto measure had been repudiated by the law courts 
 almost as soon as it had been enacted, it was not until some 
 five years had passed away that any objection was brought 
 against the status given to chapel ministers by that Act. 
 In consequence of the reception of the Old Light Burghers 
 by the Church of Scotland in 1839, Quoad Sacra parishes 
 were marked off for these new members of presbyteries. 
 When, however, the Irvine presbytery proposed to assign a 
 parish of this sort to Mr. Clelland of Stewarton, certain
 
 SIR JAMES GRAHAM'S ANSWER. 395 
 
 heritors intimated their intention to oppose such an action, 
 and at last, on 20th January, 1843, the judges of the Court 
 of Session, by a majority of eight to five, decided that 
 " the Church had no right to allocate parishes quoad sacra, 
 to ordain ministers over them, and to invest these ministers 
 with the right of exercising discipline in their congregations, 
 of having kirk-sessions, or sitting in presbyteries or any 
 superior church courts.' 1 This decision had not only the 
 effect of withdrawing all chapel ministers from the courts 
 of the church, but of exposing to doubt the validity of 
 measures and sentences passed in courts where they had 
 been allowed to vote. 
 
 Meanwhile the Home Secretary, Sir James Graham, 
 had answered the Claim of Right by determinedly refusing 
 any modification of the law as it presently stood, at least 
 in any other way than by supporting the proposals of Lord 
 Aberdeen's bill. On the Commission meeting in the end 
 of January, 1843, to consider this reply, Dr. Cook proposed 
 that the names of the chapel ministers, as now disqualified 
 by a legal decision, should be removed from the roll. When 
 this was not agreed to, he and his party withdrew from the 
 meeting. In the House of Commons in February, Mr. Fox 
 Maule, moved for an enquiry into the grievances complained 
 of in the Church of Scotland, but this was refused. An 
 attempt by Lord Campbell, in the House of Lords, to pass 
 a series of conciliatory resolutions was equally unsuccessful. 
 It had now become evident that the non-intrusionists and 
 those who claimed spiritual independence for the church 
 could hope for nothing from the Government. Plainly they 
 must either abandon what they had so long and so eagerly 
 contended for, or they must secure and enjoy these privi- 
 leges outside of the Established Church. 
 
 Just on the eve of disruption, when the minds of the 
 inhabitants of Scotland, lay and clerical, who had interested 
 themselves in spiritual and ecclesiastical movements, were 
 strained to the utmost, the hearts of all devout and 
 religious people everywhere were grieved by the news of the 
 death of Robert Murray M'Cheyne. This greatly loved
 
 396 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 and highly honoured evangelist for somewhat over six years 
 had laboured in Dundee as minister of St. Peter's Church. 
 He had taken a warm interest in the Ten Years' Conflict, 
 and his presence and prayers at the Convocation had proved 
 helpful to many. On his return home in his pastoral visits 
 he had caught typhus fever, and died at the early age of 
 thirty on the 25th of March, 1843. His Memoir and 
 Remains, edited by his friend Andrew Bonar, and published 
 in Dundee, 1845, has proved one of the most popular books 
 of the century, and in Britain alone has passed through 
 something like a hundred and twenty editions. Two of his 
 hymns, " I once was a stranger to grace and to God," and 
 " When this passing world is done, 11 are found in almost all 
 modern collections. 
 
 Before the meeting of Assembly, preparations for what 
 now seemed an inevitable split were being diligently pushed 
 forward. A committee sent out communications to in- 
 form the people, and associations for the raising of funds 
 were formed in most parishes. Dr. Chalmers clearly 
 enunciated his proposals for raising a ministerial Sustenta- 
 tion Fund. He had in view specially the needs of ministers 
 and their families in remote and poor districts when they 
 would be no longer in receipt of the incomes provided by 
 endowments. At meetings held in St. Luke's Church, 
 Edinburgh, on the eve of the meeting of the Assembly, a 
 protest was prepared and signed to be presented to the 
 Assembly in which the responsibility of breaking up the 
 church was laid upon the supreme civil power. 
 
 The General Assembly began its sittings on Thursday, 
 18th May, 1843. The Marquess of Bute was the Lord 
 High Commissioner. After sermon in St. Giles by Dr. 
 Welsh, the retiring Moderator, the Assembly was opened in 
 St. Andrew's Church by prayer, and immediately the 
 Moderator proceeded to address the house. After stating 
 that owing to encroachments made upon their liberties they 
 could not constitute the court by the reading of the roll of 
 members, he proceeded to read the protest that had been 
 prepared, and which was signed by two hundred and three
 
 THE DISRUPTION. 397 
 
 members of the house. He then laid the document upon 
 the table of the Assembly, and, bowing to the Commis- 
 sioners, moved toward the door. He was immediately 
 joined by Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Gordon, Dr. Patrick Macfar- 
 lane, Dr. M'Donald of Ferintosh, and other venerable 
 ministers and church leaders, and then pew by pew was 
 emptied until one whole side and the cross benches were left 
 without occupants. Immense crowds waited their appear- 
 ing in the street, and opened a way for them as they passed 
 along in orderly procession to the northern suburb of 
 Canonmills, where a commodious hall had been prepared 
 for their reception. 
 
 Dr. Welsh opened the proceedings in Tanfield Hall with 
 prayer, and in a short speech proposed Dr. Chalmers as 
 Moderator of the Assembly. The protest, originally signed 
 by two hundred and three members of Assembly, was sub- 
 sequently signed by other ministers concurring, until the 
 list comprised four hundred and seventy-four names. On 
 the second day of the Assembly, a memorial was presented 
 by one hundred and ninety preachers or licentiates of the 
 church desiring that their names should be added to the list 
 of those adhering to the Free Church. 
 
 In St. Andrews Church, as soon as the last of the pro- 
 testers had passed out, Principal Macfarlane of Glasgow was 
 elected Moderator, the Marquess of Bute presented his com- 
 mission, and the Queen's letter was read. One after another 
 of those enactments passed by previous Assemblies which the 
 Court of Session had pronounced illegal, were rescinded. 
 The commissions of the deposed ministers of Strathbogie 
 were sustained. The Acts admitting ministers of Parlia- 
 mentary churches and of chapels of ease to the status of 
 parish ministers were repealed. On the 24th of May, the 
 Assembly appointed a Committee, with Mr. Milne (Home) 
 as convener, to answer the protest which had been left upon 
 the table. On the 29th, the Report of the Committee was 
 given in. A series of resolutions as to the protest had been 
 moved by the Procurator. The report and answer to the 
 protest prepared by Mr. Milne, and proposed by him to be
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 adopted by the Assembly, were also read. The Com- 
 mittee's report, the Procurator's resolutions, and Mr. Milne's 
 report and answer, were all engrossed in the record. The 
 Assembly thanked the Committee, without pledging them- 
 selves to adopt all the views set forth in any of these docu- 
 ments, enlarged the committee, and recommended the 
 whole case to their further consideration, and instructed 
 them to report to the Commission in August. On the 9th 
 of August, the Commission was occupied during a long day 
 with discussion on Lord Aberdeen's bill ; and when the 
 convener of the Assembly's Committee gave in his report in 
 answer to the protest, consideration of it was delayed till 
 their meeting on the following day. No quorum appeared 
 next day, nor was there a quorum in November, nor yet in 
 March; the report was never recorded, and no further 
 reference to the protest was ever made.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Recent Ecclesiastical Developments and Religious Movements* 
 18431900. 
 
 BEFORE the ecclesiastical movements in the Church of Scot- 
 land had resulted in the Disruption and the formation of 
 the Free Church, a controversy arose in the United Secession 
 Church which led to the creation of a new religious de- 
 nomination. In the beginning of October, 1842, Mr. James 
 Morison, son of the Secession minister of Bathgate, was in- 
 ducted to the pastoral charge of a Secession church in Kil- 
 marnock. He had previously laboured with great success 
 in the North, and he had entered on his work in Kilmarnock 
 with great spiritual energy and enthusiasm. He was soon 
 charged with preaching that modified Calvinism, which had 
 spread generally among the Independents of Scotland. 
 Within six months of his settlement he was arraigned before 
 his presbytery on the charge of heretical teaching. After 
 a long discussion he was, by a large majority, sentenced to 
 suspension from the ministry and fellowship of the church 
 until he should retract his errors and express sorrow for the 
 offence he had given to his brethren. On appealing to the 
 
 * Literature : Scott, ^Annals and Statistics of the Original Secession 
 Chuich doion to 1852, Edin., 1886 ; Charteris, Life of Professor 
 James Robertson, D.D., Edin., 1863; Story, Life and Remains of 
 Rev. Robert Lee, D.D., London, 1870 ; Maoleod, Memoirs of the Rev. 
 Norman Macleod, D.D., London, 1872; Wilson, Memorials of B. 
 S. Candlish, D.D., Edin., 1889 ; Walker, Chapters from the History 
 of the Free Church of Scotland, Edin., 1895 ; Cairns, Life of John 
 Brown, D.D., Edin., 1860; M'Ewen, Life and Letters of Dr. John 
 Cairns, D.D., London, 1896 ; Letters of Thomas Erskine ofLinlathen, 
 ed. by Dr. Hanna, 2 vols., London, 1877 ; Henderson, Erskine of 
 Linlathen, Selections and Biography, Edin., 1899.
 
 400 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Synod which met in Glasgow in May, 1841, he was declared 
 no longer connected with the United Secession Church, and 
 all the ministers of that church were prohibited from 
 preaching for him or employing him in any of their public 
 ministrations. His father, who sympathized with him, was 
 similarly dealt with by the Synod of the following year ; 
 and in 1843 like sentences were pronounced against Mr. 
 Rutherford of Falkirk and Mr. Guthrie of Kendal. They 
 soon advanced beyond the positions for which they incurred 
 church censure. " From Moderate Calvinism," says Mr. 
 Ross, " Mr. Morison and the others named advanced to the 
 doctrines of universal atonement, universal and resistable 
 grace of the Holy Spirit, conditional election and limited 
 predestination." * The " new views," as they were called, 
 spread rapidly among the people and maintained a lively 
 interest, especially in the West of Scotland. 
 
 On 16th May, 1843, a meeting of the expelled ministers 
 and representatives of their churches was held in the vestry 
 of Mr. Morison's church in Kilmarnock. The meeting lasted 
 for three days, and the brethren agreed to form an associa- 
 tion under the name of the Evangelical Union, the several 
 churches comprised in it to be formed on the Congregational 
 model. They issued a doctrinal basis, not as a church 
 standard nor a test of communion. Membership in the 
 church was offered to all who are at peace with God and 
 give evidence of being new creatures in Christ Jesus, and 
 who concur with them in regarding the Bible revelation (1) 
 of God's character as our sovereign governor; (2) of our 
 duty as the subjects of His government; (3) of our state and 
 character as rebels against the authority of His government; 
 (4) of the way of salvation by which we and all our fellow 
 rebels may be delivered from the penal and demoralizing 
 consequences of our rebellion. This Bible revelation is thus 
 described in terms of their own distinctive doctrinal views. 
 Soon after this the membership of the Union was increased by 
 
 * A History of Congregational Independency in Scotland, Glasgow, 
 1900, p. 140.
 
 PROGRESS OF THE FREE CHURCH. 401 
 
 the receiving of several ministers and students who had been 
 dissociated from the Congregational Union of Scotland be- 
 cause of their adoption of the " new views." Among them 
 were the Rev. John Kirk, the Rev. Fergus Ferguson and 
 his son of the same name, and Mr. William Bathgate, all of 
 whom afterwards rose to some distinction. 
 
 The leaders of the Established Church of Scotland were 
 willing to accept of the ecclesiastical reforms embodied in 
 Lord Aberdeen's bill. Previous to the Disruption, Dr. 
 Cook^s party, as distinguished from the non-intrusionists, 
 had always shown themselves satisfied with its provisions. 
 Accordingly, after having been formally approved by the 
 August Commission, it was again introduced in Parliament, 
 and before the close of the year it had become law. It was 
 now known as the Scottish Benefices Act. Another 
 measure was brought forward by Sir James Graham and 
 passed into law which practically gave Parliamentary sanc- 
 tion to the Chapels Act, which as a mere ordinance of the 
 church had been found to want legal validity. By means of 
 this law some three hundred chapels became quoad sacra 
 parish churches and their ministers received the status of 
 parish ministers, with independent kirk sessions and seats in 
 the church courts. 
 
 During the years that immediately followed the Disrup- 
 tion, rapid progress was made by the Free Church in every 
 direction. The two churches, indeed, had both of them to 
 face difficulties of the most serious character. The Estab- 
 lished Church had the revenues, the churches and the 
 manses, but they wanted the men. Some of the most im- 
 portant pulpits and parishes were vacant, and it was for a 
 time a matter of necessity to fill these with what material 
 they had. It can scarcely be wondered at that in the 
 majority of cases the new appointments were most unsatis- 
 factory, and that their introduction lowered for years to 
 come the tone and character of the ministry of the church. 
 On the other hand, the Free Church had the men, but she 
 had to find the stipends and the buildings. Wealthy sym- 
 pathisers here and there built churches and manses for par- 
 
 B 2
 
 402 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 ticular congregations in their own districts, and in many cases 
 congregations were able to erect their ecclesiastical buildings 
 at their own cost, but the great majority of the congrega- 
 tions were poor and needed large help from the central 
 fund. In some places it took a considerable time before 
 they were able to get buildings of any sort erected, and 
 many worshipped for months together in barns, wooden 
 sheds, gravel pits, stack yards and the road sides. In many 
 parts of the country the landed proprietors or their factors 
 were bitterly opposed to the new cause and refused sites or 
 any sort of accommodation over which they had any con- 
 trol ; and in some cases, where one or two such landlords 
 owned the whole parish, the church, when it came to be 
 erected, had to be placed outside of the parish boundaries. 
 Many of the ministers endured such privations for want of 
 proper residences and from being required to preach in cold 
 and damp places, that their health was shattered and in 
 some instances early death resulted from the exposure which 
 they endured. Notwithstanding all the difficulties that 
 were put in the way, amazing progress was made on every 
 side. Before two years had passed five hundred churches 
 were opened, and by the end of 1848 no less than seven 
 hundred were occupied. Over ^360,000 had been raised 
 for the Building Fund. 
 
 The great undertaking, however, which those who had 
 been prominent in counselling the ministers throughout the 
 country to take the step which severed them from all the 
 advantages of an endowed and established church felt them- 
 selves obliged to see at once carried out efficiently, was the 
 forming of a large and reliable fund to provide ministerial 
 support. It was seen that seat rents and church door col- 
 lections might be largely required for local and congrega- 
 tional purposes, and so Dr. Chalmers before the Disruption 
 had actually taken place indicated the outlines of a plan 
 which he had devised for raising a Sustentation Fund year 
 after year, by means of stated contributions gathered by col- 
 lectors appointed in all congregations for the purpose. In 
 the first year this fund reached to ^68,000 and gave an
 
 DR. GUTHRLE AND THE MANSE FUND. 403 
 
 equal dividend to each minister of ^105 ; fifty years later 
 it reached 1 75,000, affording an equal dividend of .160, 
 and a movement was recently set on foot to raise the mini- 
 mum stipend to d*200, with such a measure of success that 
 the end contemplated was nearly attained. The names of 
 Dr. Robert Buchanan and Dr. Ross Taylor of Glasgow are 
 honourably associated with the management of this great 
 scheme. 
 
 Thomas Guthrie of St. John's, Edinburgh, the most 
 popular preacher in the city, undertook to raise a fund for 
 the building of manses, and devoted a year to the work. 
 When he appeared before the Assembly of 1846 he was able 
 to report that over 1 16,000 had been raised for this pur- 
 pose, which allowed the committee to give %QQ in aid to 
 each congregation building a manse. The training of young 
 men for the ministry of the church called for immediate 
 attention. There were two theological professors already 
 available in the persons of Dr. Chalmers, who had been pro- 
 fessor of Divinity in Edinburgh University since 1828, and 
 Dr. Welsh, who had been professor of Ecclesiastical History 
 in the same university since 1831. Besides these, other two 
 were appointed by the Glasgow Assembly of November, 
 1843 : Dr. John Duncan, usually called the Rabbi, an 
 Aberdonian, but at this time missionary to the Jews at Pesth, 
 a marvellous linguist and orientalist, but eccentric to a degree 
 that made him practically useless as a teacher, was made 
 professor of Hebrew and Old Testament exegesis, and Dr. 
 William Cunningham, who after Chalmers's death became 
 the distinguished principal of the College, was appointed 
 professor of Apologetics. Regarding the subjects taught in 
 the Metaphysical and Ethical classes as closely allied to 
 theology, it seemed desirable to have them taught by men 
 in whom they had confidence. Accordingly the Revs. A. 
 C. Eraser and P. C. M'Dougal were appointed to teach these 
 subjects respectively. They were afterwards appointed to the 
 philosophical chairs in the University, and the Free Church 
 College has since continued to be simply a Divinity Hall. 
 The New College buildings on the Mound, Edinburgh, were
 
 404 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 opened in 1850, a handsome structure which cost over 
 *40,000, well endowed, with a very large and valuable 
 library. At Aberdeen there had been first one, and after- 
 wards two professors, whose classes were allowed to count as 
 part of a curriculum, but in 1855 suitable buildings were 
 provided and a fully equipped college established in the 
 northern city. Similarly in Glasgow, in 1856, two gifts, 
 amounting together to < J 45,000 having been offered, a third 
 Free Church College was founded with Dr. Patrick Fair- 
 bairn at its head. 
 
 All the foreign missionaries of the Church of Scotland 
 threw in their lot with the Free Church. In Calcutta Dr. 
 Duff had begun his great work in 1829, Dr. Thomas Smith 
 had joined him in 1839, and an educational institution had 
 been erected at great cost, largely through the personal 
 exertions and influence of Dr. Duff. In Bombay Dr. Wilson 
 had been working since 1828, and Dr. Murray Mitchell since 
 1838, and in Madras Mr. John Anderson had laboured since 
 1837, and in both places buildings of considerable value had 
 been erected. In all the three presidencies there were twelve 
 missionaries who were now with their work thrown upon 
 the young and struggling church for their support. In an 
 amazingly short time funds were raised which allowed these 
 missions to be carried on in an even more extensive and suc- 
 cessful way than before, and the work was soon extended to 
 other parts of India and to other heathen countries. 
 
 Dr. Robertson of Ellon succeeded Dr. Welsh as professor 
 of Church History in Edinburgh. He had proved a perfect 
 model parish minister, and though on the Moderate side of 
 church politics, and a churchman equal in grasp and debat- 
 ing power to Dr. Cook himself, he was an earnest and devout 
 Christian, with large evangelical sympathies and beliefs. 
 He was heartily devoted to the interests of the church, and 
 had all the enthusiasm and perseverance necessary for the 
 successful carrying out of any great church scheme. A 
 better appointment than that of Dr. Robertson as convener 
 of the Church's Committee for the Endowment of Chapels 
 could not be conceived. Dr. Chalmers had succeeded in
 
 UNION OF SECESSION AND RELIEF. 405 
 
 getting over two hundred chapels built, and it was now 
 proposed to raise money in order to get these chapels 
 endowed. It was necessary to secure an endowment of ,120 
 for a chapel before it could be in the terms of the Benefices 
 Act erected into a quoad sacra parish. A capital sum of 
 3000 was thus needed in order to endow a chapel, and 
 Robertson's scheme proposed to pay one half and allow the 
 other half to be raised locally. Between 1846 and 1854 
 thirty new parishes were erected and endowed. In 1854 a 
 Provincial Endowment scheme was started to suit poorer 
 localities where half the cost could not be secured in the 
 district. According to this scheme, when ,40,000 was 
 raised in any one of the four districts into which Scotland 
 was divided, 2000, or two-thirds of the whole, were given 
 to each of the first twenty chapels which should be ready 
 with its one thousand pounds. Before his death, in 1860, 
 two of the provinces had raised their 40,000, and alto- 
 gether sixty new chapels were added to the parishes of the 
 Church of Scotland. The work which Dr. Robertson in- 
 augurated so nobly went on prosperously after he was gone, 
 so that between 1847 and 1887, four hundred and four new 
 parishes had been erected, with a membership of over 
 200,000. 
 
 Besides the Established and Free Churches, there were in 
 Scotland other two which belonged to the Presbyterian 
 order in respect of church government and to the Evan- 
 gelical and Calvinistic in respect of doctrine the United 
 Secession and the Relief Churches. The United Secession 
 was constituted by the reunion of those who could trace 
 their descent to the secession of the Erskines, the Relief had 
 an unbroken descent from Thomas Gillespie and the younger 
 Boston. The earlier seceders had never looked with kindly 
 eye upon their followers in dissent. The Secession Church 
 was notoriously exclusive, and in its earlier days at least in- 
 tolerant of anything in the way of fraternising with other 
 communions ; but the Relief from the very outset invited 
 and warmly welcomed as occasional communicants evan- 
 gelical Episcopalians and Independents, and indeed any who
 
 406 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 professed love for the Lord Jesus Christ. In their earlier 
 days, and especially in some of the smaller divisions into 
 which for a time they split, the Seceders had made much of 
 covenanting and testimony bearing, while these exercises 
 were not practised or recognised in the Relief. Latterly, how- 
 ever, Secession and Relief were drawing much more closely 
 together. Negotiations with a view to effecting a union 
 were carried on for a time by means of committees appointed 
 by both churches. Among the Seceders it took some time 
 and a considerable amount of investigation and explanation 
 before all were satisfied. At last all difficulties were 
 removed, and on 13th May, 1847, the United Secession and 
 Relief Synods met as one in Tanfield Hall, Canonmills, 
 where the first Free Church Assembly had met, and assumed 
 the name by which they were afterwards known, The United 
 Presbyterian Church. One hundred and fourteen years be- 
 fore their churches numbered four, now they numbered four 
 hundred and ninety-seven. The Secession contributed 384, 
 the Relief 114, congregations. Though not so aggressive as 
 either of the other great Presbyterian churches of Scotland in 
 Home Mission work, the United Presbyterian Church has 
 been specially energetic and successful in certain of the 
 Colonies and in the Foreign Mission field. 
 
 In consequence of the Free Church Assembly of 1851 
 adopting an Act and Declaration which identified their 
 church with the historic Church of Scotland of the Reforma- 
 tion period, the majority of the Original Seceders found 
 themselves in a position to welcome and promote a union 
 with that body. The historian of Knox and Melville had 
 died in 1835, but the denomination was now headed by his 
 son of the same name. On the 24th April, 1852, the Synod 
 of United Original Seceders met in Glasgow and, by a 
 majority of one, agreed to union with the Free Church ; of 
 ministers, however, counting those who were absent from 
 the Synod, twenty-three joined the Free Church, while thir- 
 teen declined to unite. The union was consummated in the 
 Free Assembly Hall on the evening of Tuesday, 1st June, 
 1852.
 
 THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 407 
 
 The Reformed Presbyterian Church, the members of 
 which were popularly called Cameronians or MacMillanites, 
 found it from year to year increasingly difficult to enforce, as 
 a term of communion, the abstaining from the use of the 
 franchise, or accepting any civic office where an oath was im- 
 posed. The Synod of 1833 had condemned the use of the 
 franchise, yet it was certain that some had been disregarding 
 the injunction. The Synod of 1848 declared that Reformed 
 Presbyterians might petition the House of Commons, but 
 not the House of Lords, as that would imply recognition of 
 the bishops as Lords Spiritual. As there existed a con- 
 siderable amount of uncertainty, petitions were addressed to 
 the Synod asking for a deliverance on the whole subject of 
 oaths. At last, in 1858, a series of three Resolutions was 
 adopted to the effect that none of their members can hold 
 fellowship with the civil government by composing a part 
 of the legislature or by taking oaths for the maintenance of 
 the constitution, that they cannot sit in parliament them- 
 selves nor by their representatives, that there is no solid 
 reason to depart from this position, and that in these 
 matters practice should be brought into agreement with the 
 Testimony. The question as to whether discipline should 
 be exercised on those who voted, and refused to promise to 
 abstain from doing so in future, continued to be agitated for 
 some years. The Synod of 1862 sent down to presbyteries 
 an Overture to the effect that, considering the diversity of 
 opinion, while recommending members of the church to ab- 
 stain from exercising the franchise, they find no warrant in 
 the Word of God for suspending or expelling those who do 
 so, or who take the oath believing that in doing so they are 
 not giving approbation to the evils of the constitution. In 
 the following year an amendment for rejecting the overture 
 was moved. For the motion there voted 46, for the amend- 
 ment 11, while seven declined to vote. Altogether, four 
 ministers withdrew from the Synod with their congregations 
 and portions of others. The Minority Reformed Presby- 
 terian Synod has now nine congregations with seven minis-
 
 408 HISTORY OF THE CHUBCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 ters and a membership of over eleven hundred communicants. 
 It carries on a small but interesting mission in Syria. 
 
 In 1858 a case came before the Free Church Assembly 
 which was the occasion of infinite trouble. Mr. Macmillan 
 of Cardross had been charged before the presbytery of Dum- 
 barton with several acts of drunkenness, under a libel of 
 three counts, of which it held the first not proven, and the 
 second and the third partly proven. On appeal to the 
 Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, the second and third counts 
 were found not proven. The case was brought up by appeal 
 before the Assembly on 24th May, and after a long discus- 
 sion and motion was carried by 152 to 41, finding the 
 second and third counts proven, and not only overturning 
 the Synod's decision, but finding the whole charge in the 
 third count as in the original libel proven, part of which 
 had been passed from by the presbytery and not appealed 
 against. This was regarded by some as incompetent, and 
 by many as quite needless, seeing that there was quite 
 sufficient in the parts of the libel appealed upon to provide 
 material for the case. On the 28th of May, a member of 
 Assembly laid upon the table a copy of Note of Suspension 
 and Interdict for the Rev. John Macmillan against the 
 General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, 1858. 
 This being an application by Mr. Macmillan to a civil court 
 to suspend the sentence of Assembly just reported, and to 
 interdict its execution, the Assembly resolved to summon 
 Mr. Macmillan in regular form to appear at their bar on 
 Tuesday, 1st June, at noon. On his appearance there he 
 was asked by the Moderator whether the application for his 
 interdict was at his instance or by his authority. On his 
 admitting that it was, Dr. Candlish at once moved his 
 deposition, which was unanimously agreed to. A committee 
 was then appointed to watch over the interests of the 
 church in the progress of the case in the courts of law. 
 Immediately after his deposition, Mr. Macmillan raised an 
 action in the Court of Session against the General Assembly, 
 naming Dr. Candlish, who had made the motion, and some 
 others, for the reduction of sentence and damages. The
 
 NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 409 
 
 Court ordered the production of the sentence, resolutions, 
 and whole proceedings in the case. It was explained that 
 all that was sought was reliable information on the subject. 
 The church was represented by the ablest advocates of the 
 day, afterwards well known as Lord Moncrieff, Lord Young, 
 and Lord Rutherford Clark. The judges of the First 
 Division were unanimous in finding that it lay with 
 the Court of Session to set aside the sentence in so far as 
 it stood in the way of damages being accorded if these were 
 found due. The Lord President on a later occasion inti- 
 mated that as the Assembly of 1858 had ceased to exist, 
 money damages could be got only by a process against 
 individuals charging them with malice. Mr. Macmillan at 
 once abandoned his original case, and brought an action for 
 damages against individuals, but for some reason or other 
 he did not prosecute this case, and the whole affair thus 
 came to an end without having settled in any way the ques- 
 tion that originally had been raised. 
 
 From the time of the Reformation onwards church and 
 school had been most intimately associated in Scottish 
 history. The parish schools and General Assembly schools 
 under the Church of Scotland had been supplemented after 
 the Disruption by no fewer than seven hundred schools, 
 erected and managed by the Educational Committee of the 
 Free Church. In 1862, a bill was passed in parliament 
 which did away with the requirement that teachers of par- 
 ochial schools should be members of the Established Church, 
 but as the parish minister had the right of nominating to 
 certain parochial offices which the teachers usually held, his 
 influence over the teachers and in the school continued to 
 be very considerable. The schools were also still examined 
 and superintended by the local presbytery of the Church of 
 Scotland. From 1847 onwards attempts had been made by 
 government to introduce a method of fostering national 
 education by means of a system of grants in aid ; but diffi- 
 culties that arose, on the one hand, from the proposal to give 
 religious instruction of a denominational character, and, on 
 the other hand, from the fear of the introduction of a purely
 
 410 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IX SCOTLAND. 
 
 secular education, prevented the maturing of any successful 
 plan for about a quarter of a century. Many of the Free 
 Church leaders, like Dr. William Cunningham, argued in 
 favour of grants in aid from government for purely secular 
 subjects, to be enjoyed alike by members of all religious 
 communities. It is certain that the existence of the Free 
 Church schools, and the attitude of the Educational Com- 
 mittee of the Free Church, did much to hasten the passing 
 of the Education Act of 1 872. All the parochial schools 
 at once of necessity under this Act became National Schools, 
 and most of the Free Church Schools were immediately 
 transferred to the new boards, under which religious instruc- 
 tion is given at a special hour, and under the protection of 
 the conscience clause, which allows parents to keep back 
 their children from the Scripture lesson, without causing 
 them to suffer any disadvantage. 
 
 The Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church 
 had been gradually coming into closer relations with one 
 another, and many in the Free Church were feeling that the 
 very possibility of their resuming connection with the State 
 on any other than Erastian principles had now become 
 hopeless. In 1862, negotiations with a view to union be- 
 tween the two denominations were begun by each of the 
 two bodies appointing a committee to consider the question 
 and to propose, if possible, a basis of union. The Free 
 Church Committee, under the convenership of Dr. Robert 
 Buchanan of Glasgow, drew up a programme, naming as 
 points on which enquiry should be made, the relation of the 
 civil magistrate to the Church, doctrine, training of the 
 ministry, organization, worship, education, finance, admis- 
 sion to sealing ordinances, and relation to other churches 
 outside of Scotland. The question as to the amount of 
 agreement between the two churches on the first point 
 occupied the joint committee for a considerable time. 
 Each church maintained its own position, but, in opposi- 
 tion to Dr. Julius Wood of Dumfries, who held that he 
 could never consent to regard adhesion to the establishment 
 principle and voluntaryism as open questions, the Commit-
 
 UNION NEGOTIATIONS STOPPED. 411 
 
 tee passed on to consider how the churches stood in relation 
 to one another in respect of doctrinal belief. Here, again, 
 very serious objection was taken by several members of the 
 Free Church committee against what they regarded as the 
 prevailing doctrine of the Atonement in the United Presby- 
 terian Church. In order to have a fuller discussion of the 
 matter, Dr. Wood, by means of an overture from the 
 Synod of Dumfries, brought the subject before the Assem- 
 bly of 1869. He charged the United Presbyterian Church 
 with favouring or tolerating what is called the double refer- 
 ence of the atonement, that in a sense Christ died for all, 
 that His death had a general reference to all men, as well 
 as a special reference to the elect, and that in the general 
 reference lay the ground of the free and universal offer of 
 the gospel. At this Assembly a motion was carried to 
 pause, in opposition to one thah proposed to stop, negotia- 
 tions. 
 
 During the years following the cause of the union seemed 
 to be progressing, but the opposition appeared also to in- 
 crease in violence, and the excitement among the people of 
 the Free Church, especially in the north, was very great. 
 In 1872 a protest against taking any further steps toward 
 union was laid on the table of the Free Church Assembly, 
 signed by 60,000 persons. In face of determined resistance, 
 it was at last resolved that negotiations should be dropped, 
 and a motion to this effect, coupled with expressions of 
 keen disappointment and of the assurance that these 
 negotiations should afterwards be resumed, and success- 
 fully earned out, was made by Dr. Candlish in the Assem- 
 bly of 1873. The Mutual Eligibility Overture, however, 
 which had been approved by a majority of presby tries, was 
 now passed into law. It placed United Presbyterian 
 ministers in the same position as ministers in the English 
 and Colonial Presbyterian churches, so that Free Church 
 congregations might call United Presbyterian ministers and 
 United Presbyterian congregations Free Church ministers. 
 The United Presbyterian Church, under the leadership of
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Drs. Harper and Cairns, had been practically unanimous in 
 favour of union. 
 
 Among those in the Free Church who had opposed union 
 with the United Presbyterians, there were some who looked 
 hopefully toward union with the Established Church. 
 These hopes had been raised by a movement in favour 
 of the abolition of patronage which had begun within the 
 Establishment. The Benefices Act, which was a re-enact- 
 ment, with slight modifications, of Lord Aberdeen's bill of 
 1840, had not given satisfaction. Every disputed settle- 
 ment under this Act involved a law-suit, and occasioned 
 delay, expense, and heart-burning. The Assembly of 1869 
 condemned patronage, as the root of the whole evil, and 
 petitioned parliament for its abolition. An anti-patronage 
 committee was appointed, and in the end of June, Dr. Nor- 
 man Macleod and others waited on Mr. Gladstone in Lon- 
 don, and represented to him the views of the church. The 
 Prime Minister seems to have given no opinion regarding the 
 proposal, but asked how the other presbyterian communions 
 in Scotland would view it, and what effect its adoption might 
 have on their relations to the Established Church. It was 
 not until August, 1874, that Mr. Disraeli's government 
 passed the Church Patronage Act, which provides that the 
 right of appointing and electing ministers in future to 
 vacant churches and parishes shall vest in the congregations. 
 This has, undoubtedly, done much to popularise the church, 
 and has given her the means of working out many other 
 reforms and improvements. It has not, however, led to the 
 inaugurating of any serious movement toward union with 
 the Free Church, which could agree to enter upon nego- 
 tiations only upon the basis of the Claim of Rights. 
 
 A very considerable impetus was given to the Home 
 Mission and Church Extension work of the Church of Scot- 
 land by the munificent gift of Mr. James Baird of Cambus- 
 doon, in 1873, of ,500,000, to assist in providing the means 
 of meeting, or at least, as far as possible, promoting the 
 mitigation of spiritual destitution among the people of 
 Scotland. Many new churches have been built or largely
 
 FREE AND REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES UNITE. 413 
 
 aided by the Baird Trust, and in many cases local effort to 
 secure or increase the endowment of churches has been en- 
 couraged by the contributions given from this fund. 
 
 In the union negotiations of the Free Church and the 
 United Presbyterian Church, which were suspended in 1873, 
 these two churches had been joined by the Reformed Pres- 
 byterian Church, which was regarded as in many respects 
 very closely approximating to the position of the Free 
 Church. In the following year the joint union com- 
 mittee of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches gave 
 them an invitation, which was cordially accepted, to join in 
 the union proceedings. Their anti-voluntary position was 
 all that the opponents of union with the United Presby- 
 terians could desire. In 1874, after the suspension of 
 negotiations between the United Presbyterian and Free 
 Churches, the Reformed Presbyterians, under the leader- 
 ship of Dr. Goold, responded heartily to an invitation from 
 the Free Church to consider the question of union, and in 
 the following year the overture for union with the Reformed 
 Presbyterian Church was approved by the presbyteries of 
 the Free Church, to which it had been sent down under the 
 Barrier Act. In the Free Assembly of 1876 this overture 
 was, therefore, passed into an Act, and Uhe members of the 
 Reformed Presbyterian Synod were formally received into 
 union with the Free Church. Of the thirty-eight ministers 
 of the Synod, only one, the Rev. Thomas Easton of 
 Stranraer, refused to enter into the union. On the part of 
 the Free Church the union was unanimously and most 
 heartily approved, and the amalgamation of the two de- 
 nominations now became absolutely perfect. 
 
 During the last thirty years there has been throughout 
 all the Scottish churches a remarkable literary and scientific 
 awakening, accompanied by a considerable amount of un- 
 settlement and theological discussion. In almost all the 
 theological seminaries in Scotland there were influential and 
 inspiring teachers who, in various directions, gave stimulus 
 to their students, especially in critical and speculative 
 studies, and it had become customary for some of the best
 
 414 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 students to add to their home training a session or more at 
 a German university under distinguished philosophical and 
 theological professors. The younger ministers, too, as well 
 as the students at the various divinity halls, were giving 
 attention to the study of German theology, so that their 
 views, not only of doctrine, but also of questions connected 
 with the criticism of the Old and New Testament, were 
 widened, and the range of subjects in regard to which their 
 minds were exercised was greatly enlarged. 
 
 Prominent among the Scottish professors who most power- 
 fully influenced the scientific study of theology in the earlier 
 years of the period referred to were Principal John Caird of 
 Glasgow and Professor A. B. Davidson of Edinburgh. 
 These two great teachers, in different departments and each 
 in his own way, exercised a very remarkable influence upon 
 the students under their care, and put a special impress 
 on the character and attitude of a large number of the 
 younger ministers of their respective churches. Dr. Caird, 
 after a ministry of seventeen years, during which time he 
 served his church in the parishes of Newton-on-Ayr, Lady 
 Yesters, Edinburgh, Errol, and Park Church, Glasgow, and 
 earned the reputation of being one of the most eloquent 
 and accomplished preachers of Scotland, was appointed pro- 
 fessor of Divinity in Glasgow University in 1862. He had 
 made a very thorough study of philosophy, especially in its 
 relation to religion, and was largely influenced by Hegelian 
 theories. His teaching on the questions discussed in the 
 prolegomena to dogmatics was strongly coloured by the 
 formalism, as well as by the substantial contents, of Hegel's 
 Philosophy of Religion. His divinity lectures were mainly 
 critical and historical, and he took special pains to show the 
 philosophical grounds on which all the cardinal Christian 
 doctrines are based. His whole procedure, and the general 
 tone of his teaching, were living and fresh and inspiring, 
 and an altogether new interest and importance were given 
 to the study of theology in Scotland, as thus taught, when 
 contrasted with the dry, formal tabulating of doctrinal de- 
 finitions in terms of scripture and the symbolical books,
 
 LIBERAL THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. 415 
 
 which had previously prevailed in the Scottish theological 
 schools. Dr. A. B. Davidson, without having previously 
 engaged in any pastoral work, was appointed professor of 
 Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis in the Free Church 
 College of Edinburgh in 1862. He soon acquired a great 
 reputation as a teacher, and has been long recognised, not 
 only throughout Britain, but also among continental 
 Semitic scholars, as a master in his own department, and is 
 listened to as an authority in all matters pertaining to the 
 language and literature of the Old Testament. His com- 
 mentaries in the Cambridge Bible on Job, on Ezekiel, 
 on Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah, show his singular skill 
 as a critic and interpreter, as well as his admirable literary 
 power, while his Elementary Hebrew Grammar and Hebrew 
 Syntax show his practical ability as a teacher of the Hebrew 
 language. More than anything else, his lectures to his 
 students on the theology of the Old Testament, and 
 especially on prophecy and the messages of the prophets of 
 Israel, have opened up to many altogether new views of 
 divine revelation before Christ, and have given a freshness 
 and reality to the Old Testament history, which had not 
 been perceived or understood before. 
 
 In both of the departments of study which the dis- 
 tinguished teachers referred to did so much to open up, eager 
 and zealous students had been working, and in some cases the 
 publication of their researches produced, if not a panic, at 
 least a considerable alarm and excitement, in the churches 
 and among the religious public of Scotland. In 1880 
 there appeared a volume of discourses, contributed by more 
 or less distinguished ministers of the Church of Scotland, 
 and entitled Scotch Sermons. For a time it awakened no 
 general interest, and failed even to secure any considerable 
 circulation. But when an outcry was raised against the 
 teaching of some of the discourses, the book was at once in 
 demand all over the country, and soon ran through several 
 editions. One of the sermons was regarded as specially ob- 
 jectionable, and its author was charged with heresy before 
 the Assembly of 1881. After explanations had been made,
 
 416 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 he was admonished to be more cautious in future so that 
 his statement of the opinions of others which he repudiated 
 might not be mistaken for his own. A much more extreme 
 position was assumed by Dr. William Mackintosh of the 
 parish of Buchanan, who, soon after he had retired from the 
 ministry, published an exceedingly able and elaborate work 
 entitled, The Natural History of the Christian Religion : 
 being a study of the Doctrine of Jesus as Developed from 
 Judaism and converted into Dogma (Glasgow, 1894), in 
 which the supernatural was wholly eliminated from Chris- 
 tianity. This work, however, stands alone as the solitary 
 instance of an attempt, by one who continued to regard him- 
 self as within the Christian church, to reconstruct the theory 
 of religion from the avowed standpoint of anti-superna- 
 turalism. 
 
 In 1878 the General Assembly of the Free Church had 
 brought before them by appeal from the presbytery of 
 Aberdeen the case of Professor Robertson Smith, who had 
 been libelled as having, in various publications, given expres- 
 sion to views in regard to the character, date and authorship 
 of certain Old Testament books, and also as having set forth 
 a general view of Old Testament revelation, contrary to the 
 Confession of Faith and to the recognised teaching of the 
 Church. He was charged with asserting that the Aaronic 
 priesthood, or at least a great part of the laws and ordinances 
 of the Levitical system, were not divinely instituted in the 
 time of Moses, and that those portions of Exodus, Leviticus 
 and Numbers bearing on their institution were inserted long 
 after that time ; that Deuteronomy is not a historical 
 document, but a record of later laws and institutions 
 dramatically represented as uttered by Moses ; that in the 
 inspired writings errors and incorrect explanations occur, that 
 fictitious speeches are assigned to historical characters, and 
 that some things were written under the influence of party 
 spirit and for party purposes ; that he described canonical 
 books as fictitious, attributed to them what is disparaging, 
 and stated discrediting opinions of others without indicating 
 his own dissent ; that Canticles is devoid of any spiritual
 
 CASE OF DR. ROBERTSON SMITH. 417 
 
 significance and only presents a high example of virtue, and 
 that only a mistaken allegorical interpretation happily pre- 
 vented its exclusion from the canon ; that he held opinions 
 which contradicted or ignored the testimony of our Lord 
 and his Apostles to the authorship of the Old Testament 
 scriptures ; that he represented prophecy as consisting only 
 in spiritual insight and excluding prediction of future events 
 by supernatural revelation ; and that belief in angels is 
 matter of assumption rather than of direct teaching, and 
 that the ascription of human-like qualities to them 
 is a popular superstition, not a doctrine of revelation. In 
 support of these charges the libel quoted from Professor 
 Smith's articles, Angel, Bible, Canticles, Chronicles, in the 
 ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, of which he 
 was then sub-editor and afterwards editor-in-chief. A few 
 quotations were also made from some of Mr. Smith's con- 
 tributions to periodical literature. The case occupied the 
 attention of presbytery, synod and assembly during three 
 years, and at last in the Assembly of 1880 the libel was 
 found ripe for probation, but instead of being sent down to 
 the presbytery of Aberdeen that it might proceed to proba- 
 tion, it was resolved that the Assembly at a later diet should 
 consider what course might be pursued in order to bring the 
 case to a conclusion with the least possible delay. On 
 Thursday, therefore, the 27th May, the Assembly, after a 
 discussion which occupied the whole of the morning and 
 evening sederunts, passed a motion by 301 to 292 withdraw- 
 ing the libel, but finding Professor Smith blameworthy for 
 the unguarded and incomplete statements of his articles, and 
 instructing the Moderator to admonish him, and declaring 
 that no opinion is given in favour of the truth or probability 
 of these critical views. 
 
 It was hoped that with this decision the case would really 
 end, and that Professor Smith would find some room within 
 the Free Church to continue his scientific studies, without 
 the church being regarded as committed to any particular 
 conclusion which he might reach. However, it so happened 
 that the new volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which 
 
 c 2
 
 418 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 appeared soon after the rising of the Assembly, contained 
 an article by Professor Smith on " Hebrew Language and 
 Literature," in which were many statements which those 
 who had objected to his earlier articles regarded as even 
 more objectional than anything he had written before. It 
 was thought by some that he should have referred to this 
 article as already beyond his control when, in response to 
 the Moderator's admonition, he expressed regret at having 
 given utterance to his views in so incomplete a measure as 
 to cause such division of opinion in the church. Professor 
 Smith, however, did not think that any apology of this sort 
 was necessary. He understood the decision of the Assembly 
 as declaring that the critical views for which he had been 
 libelled were not to be made matters of discipline, and that, 
 therefore, he was quite free to give utterance to the results 
 of his critical studies. The August Commission appointed 
 a committee to consider the article, and to report to a 
 special meeting of Commission in October. The report 
 submitted to the October Commission took a serious view 
 of matters, holding the treatment of scripture in the article 
 to be such as is fitted to discredit its authority, and to make 
 it appear as if the Bible is to be accounted for by the same 
 laws as determine the growth of any other literature, with- 
 out any adequate recognition of the divine element in its 
 production. 
 
 In the Assembly of 1881 a motion was proposed asking 
 that a committee should be appointed to consider the 
 writings in question, with power, if necessary, to prosecute 
 Professor Smith for heresy before the presbytery of Aber- 
 deen, and in any case to report to next Assembly. Another 
 motion, however, was proposed by Dr. Rainy, and was 
 carried by 428 to 245, declaring it no longer safe or advan- 
 tageous for the church that Professor Smith should continue 
 to teach in one of her colleges. On the ground declared in 
 this motion, not in the exercise of discipline, but in the 
 exercise of the church's power of administration, as a 
 measure required for the well-being and preservation of the 
 church, it was determined by a large vote, at a later diet of
 
 DR. ROBERTSON SMITH. 419 
 
 Assembly, that the Professorship of Hebrew in Aberdeen be 
 declared vacant. While by this decision Mr. Smith ceased 
 to be a professor, he retained his position as minister of the 
 Free Church, and, as a matter of fact, he sat as a member 
 in the Assembly of the following year, returned by a kirk- 
 session with an elder's commission. 
 
 In order to supply a popular exposition of the tendency 
 and ascertained results of Old Testament criticism, Mr. 
 Smith delivered in Edinburgh and Glasgow two courses of 
 twelve lectures each, in the beginning of 1881 and 1882 
 respectively, to very large and deeply interested audiences. 
 These lectures were immediately afterwards published under 
 the title : The, Old Testament in the Jewish Church (2nd 
 edition, 1892), and The Prophets of Israel and their Place in 
 History. In 1882 the University of Aberdeen, his alma 
 mater, conferred on Mr. Smith the honorary degree of 
 LL.D. His subsequent career was outside of Scotland and 
 the Scottish Church. The editing of the Encyclopedia 
 Britannica, as well as the writing of original articles for 
 that great work, occupied a good deal of his time. Mean- 
 while, his reputation as a scholar was becoming more and 
 more widely known. In 1883 he was appointed Lord 
 Almoner's Professor of Arabic in the University of Cam- 
 bridge. He held this post till 1886, continuing his oriental 
 studies, and issuing as the outcome of these, in 1885, his 
 work on Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, in which 
 evidence is gathered in favour of M'Lennan's theory of 
 primitive marriage. In 1886 he was elected to the impor- 
 tant and much prized position of Librarian to the Uni- 
 versity ; and in 1889 he became professor of Arabic as 
 successor to the famous Dr. William Wright. He had 
 been elected Fellow of Christ's College in 1885. In 1889 
 he delivered in Aberdeen the Burnett Lectures, which were 
 published under the title : Lectures on the Religion of the 
 Semites. After a long and heroic struggle with a painful 
 disease, he died on 31st March, 1894. 
 
 At this point it may be fitting to record the institution 
 of certain Lectureships on theological and religious subjects
 
 420 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 which have contributed largely to promote the cultivation 
 of theological studies in Scotland. In 1862, Dr. Webster, 
 a retired surgeon of the East India Company, founded a 
 Lectureship in memory of Dr. Cunningham and known by 
 his name, which is held by each lecturer for three years. 
 It has called forth besides many other able works, such 
 treatises as Candlish's Fatherhood of God (1865), Walker's 
 Theology and Theologians of Scotland (1870), Bruce's 
 Humiliation of Christ (1875), Smeaton's Doctrine of the 
 Holy Spirit (1882), and Salmond's Christian Doctrine of 
 Immortality (1895), most of which have got into third 
 editions, and have been accepted as most valuable contribu- 
 tions to theological science. In 1872, Mr. James Baird of 
 Cambusdoon endowed a Lectureship, bearing the name of 
 the donor, which has called forth the invaluable works of 
 Dr. Flint on Theism (1876) and Anti-Theistic Theories 
 (1877), Dr. Mitchell's Westminster Assembly (1882), and 
 Epochs in the History of the Reformed Church of Scotland 
 (1899), Dr. Dickson's St. PauTs Use of the Terms Flesh and 
 Spirit (1883), and Dr. Milligan's Revelation of St. John 
 (1885), and The Ascension and Heavenly Priesthood of our 
 Lord (1891). A few years later the Croall Lectureship was 
 founded, also in connection with the Established Church, 
 which has produced such substantial works as Caird's Intro- 
 duction to the Philosophy of Religion (1880) and Dr. John 
 Patrick's^. Clement o/ Alexandria (1900). In the Free 
 Church a Lectureship in memory of Dr. Chalmers and 
 called by his name, was founded in 1880 by Mr. Macfie of 
 Airds on the " Headship of Christ over his Church and its 
 independent Spiritual Jurisdiction," or, as widened in its 
 scope by the Committee, "some other aspect of the Reforma- 
 tion Doctrine of the Church and Kingdom of Christ." In 
 the United Presbyterian Church there is the Kerr Lecture- 
 ship, founded in 1886, which has produced the very able 
 and comprehensive work of Dr. Orr, entitled The Christian 
 View of God and the World (1893), and also Dr. Forrest's 
 The Christ of History and of Experience (1897). The 
 Gifford Lectureship in the four universities, though not
 
 CREED SOBSCRIPTION. 421 
 
 connected with any of the churches, has called forth, to 
 mention only works by Scotchmen belonging to one or 
 other of the churches, Professor Campbell Fraser, Philosophy 
 of Theism (1895), Dr. Edward Caird, Evolution of Chris- 
 tianity (1893), Professor A. B. Bruce, The Providential 
 Order of the World (1897), The Moral Order of the World 
 in Ancient and Modern Thought (1899), and Principal 
 Caird, The Fundamental Ideas of Christianity ', delivered in 
 1892 and 1895, but only published posthumously in 1899. 
 
 In all the Presbyterian churches of Scotland, complaints 
 were made from time to time of the difficulty experienced 
 in getting men to accept office as elders and deacons, who 
 were in every respect highly qualified for the position and 
 fitted to render admirable service to the church, who yet 
 scrupled at subscription to the Westminster Confession 
 without being allowed to give some explanation of the ex- 
 tent to which they felt bound by that subscription. 
 
 Repeated attempts were made by Dr. Story and others 
 before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to 
 secure some relaxation to the formula of creed subscription, 
 at least for the elders, who, as it was said, could not be ex- 
 pected to study in detail so elaborate a document as the 
 Confession of Faith, and who were not required to do so by 
 any statute law. No success, however, attended these efforts 
 for several years, until, in 1889, after the presbyteries had 
 given their approval, a new formula, affording relief both to 
 ministers and elders, was agreed to almost unanimously. 
 This movement in the Church of Scotland had been greatly 
 furthered by the literary labours and personal influence of 
 Principal Tulloch of St. Andrews. Born in Perthshire in 
 1823, and educated at St. Andrews and Edinburgh, he was, 
 after serving the church as parish minister, for some ten 
 years, appointed principal of St. Mary's, and professor of 
 St. Andrews in 1854, and senior principal of the Unirer- 
 sity in 1860. In the early years of his ministry, he had 
 studied in Germany and had come under the influence of the 
 liberal theology which, during the years previous to the 
 middle of the century, was attracting the attention of the
 
 422 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 younger theologians of Scotland. While essentially evan- 
 gelical, he maintained a free attitude toward the critical 
 school in history and philosophy. His Rational Theology 
 and Christian Philosophy (1872), and his Movements of 
 Religious Thought in Britain during the Nineteenth Century 
 (1885), though already well nigh forgotten, or at least 
 treated as antiquated and somewhat superficial, were in- 
 fluential in their day, and opened up to many new fields for 
 investigation, and gave a much-needed impetus to honest 
 and reverent enquiry. He died in 1885, but the liberal 
 movements which were soon after successfully carried out, 
 were accomplished by men who had been largely indebted 
 to his teaching and example, many of whom are proud to be 
 regarded as his scholars. 
 
 In the Free Church a Committee was appointed by the 
 General Assembly to consider the relations of the church to 
 the Confession of Faith, and after some years were spent in 
 careful consideration of the several points raised, a Declara- 
 tory Act was passed by the Assembly of 1892, embodying 
 the results of the Committee's deliberations, and stating 
 under several heads how it seemed that difficulties which 
 had been felt in regard to some of the sections of the Con- 
 fession might be explained without affecting the integrity 
 of the authorised standards of the church. A special dis- 
 claimer of all intolerant and persecuting principles was 
 made in view of certain statements of the Confession of 
 Faith, and it was declared that in subscribing the Confes- 
 sion, no one was committed to anything inconsistent with 
 liberty of conscience and the right of private judgment. 
 It was also declared very emphatically that the doctrine of 
 the love of God to sinners, especially in the gift of His Son 
 as propitiation for sin, stands in the forefront of the revela- 
 tion of grace, that all who hear the gospel are warranted 
 and required to believe, and that the loss of those who do 
 not believe and so perish is due to their rejection of this 
 offer, that the Confession is not held as teaching that any 
 who die in infancy are lost, or that God may not extend his 
 mercy for Christ's sake and by His Holy Spirit to those who
 
 CREED SUBSCRIPTION. 
 
 are beyond the reach of the ordinary means of salvation as 
 may seem good to him in the riches of His grace. And 
 finally, this Act declares that, while diversity of opinion is 
 recognised in this church on such points in the Confession 
 as do not enter into the substance of the Reformed Faith, 
 the church retains the full authority to determine in any 
 case which may arise, what points fall within this descrip- 
 tion, and thus to guard against any abuse of this liberty to 
 the detriment of sound doctrine, or to the injuring of her 
 unity and peace. Considerable objection was taken to the 
 passing of the Declaratory Act of the Free Church, 
 especially in the North, where a secession took place of a 
 large number of members and adherents, including two 
 ordained ministers and several students. The students 
 adhering to the secession were licensed, and some of them 
 ordained over seceding congregations throughout the High- 
 lands, and in Edinburgh and Glasgow over Highland 
 secessionists. Two of those ordained by the secessionists 
 have joined the Established Church, one carrying a part of 
 his congregation with him. On the other hand, the relief 
 afforded by the Declaratory Act has proved acceptable to 
 many, and has secured the services of some who, apart from 
 this, would have felt obliged to stand aside. 
 
 In the United Presbyterian Church, the movement in the 
 direction of determining the relation of the church to the 
 Confessional documents took rise earlier than in the other 
 denominations. The disruption of 1843 had influenced the 
 course of thought and action both in the Established 
 and the Free Church in an ecclesiastical direction, whereas 
 the period of purely ecclesiastical discussion was now past in 
 the Secession Church. While, therefore, in the other two 
 churches the ministers were largely occupied with questions 
 of church extension and organisation, the students and 
 younger ministers of the Burgher and Relief Churches had 
 more time and inclination for the study of theology and of 
 the philosophical problems connected with it. Some of 
 them were among the first to go from Scotland to study 
 under German teachers, and the leader among them of a
 
 424 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 more critical study of history and apologetics was John 
 Cairns. This great man, born in 1813 at Ayton in Ber- 
 wickshire, spent nearly twelve months in 1843-1844 study- 
 ing at Berlin and travelling over the Continent. When 
 between 1877 and 1879 discussions arose in regard to the 
 Confession, which some wished to treat as a merely historical 
 document, Cairns led his church in the direction of retain- 
 ing the Confession untouched, while appending an explana- 
 tory statement which would meet the case of those who 
 scrupled at some of its expressions. In contrast to the 
 course of matters in the other churches, the question was 
 forced upon the attention of the United Presbyterian 
 Church by the presentation of formal demands for the re- 
 vision of the standards before the Glasgow presbytery by 
 two of its members, Mr. David Macrae of Gourock and Mr. 
 Fergus Ferguson of Queen's Park. Mr. Macrae confined 
 his attention to the question of everlasting punishment. 
 He insisted that the statements of the Confession of Faith 
 were not in accordance with the teaching of scripture, and 
 were in conflict with Christian conviction and sentiment. 
 Mr. Ferguson made objection to the Confession as defective 
 at various points in its teaching about God, the world and 
 man, Christ, the church, etc. These complaints were 
 brought up before the Synod of 1877. It was resolved by 
 the Synod of 1878 that no alteration should be made on 
 the Confession, but that a Declaratory Act should be pre- 
 pared, which in the following year was adopted, in which 
 the love of God to men was emphasised, and a statement 
 made on the doctrine of predestination, on total depravity, 
 the destiny of the heathen and infants, etc. The case of 
 Mr. Ferguson was proceeded with, conferences with him 
 were held, and explanations asked and given, and those 
 being at last found satisfactory, the case was ended. He 
 continues to occupy an honourable position within the 
 church, but has never, beyond his own congregation, either 
 by writing or teaching, given expression to his theological 
 opinions. Mr. Macrae, however, persisted in urging his 
 objections to the church doctrine in the most violent and
 
 DESIRE FOR IMPROVED CHURCH SERVICE. 425 
 
 extreme way. He maintained that the church should 
 tolerate the acceptance and proclamation within her bounds 
 both of the theory of conditional immortality and of that 
 of universal restoration. This the church, under the lead- 
 ing of Dr. Cairns, refused to do, inasmuch as such views 
 are inconsistent with fundamental and essential doctrines of 
 the church's confession. Mr. Macrae then gave forth a 
 statement of his own beliefs, and the Synod of 1879 
 declared him no longer a minister of the United Presby- 
 terian Church. In that same year, he formed a congrega- 
 tion in Dundee, over which, as an unattached or indepen- 
 dent society, under the name of the Gilfillan Memorial 
 Church, he presided for twenty years. 
 
 Complaint had often been made of the baldness and form- 
 lessness of the service as ordinarily conducted in the presby- 
 terian churches. And this complaint was given expression 
 to by people of taste and culture who, without becoming in 
 the least degree disloyal to their presbyterian traditions, 
 had been attracted by the seemliness and solemnity of 
 certain of the services used in churches which had adopted 
 a liturgy or a Book of Common Order. Many regretted the 
 want of recognised forms of service for baptisms, marriages, 
 funerals, and many also felt that even in regard to public 
 prayer some assistance and guidance might be given to 
 ministers in the shape of models to be imitated, if not of 
 prescribed forms which they might use. Undoubtedly in 
 all the churches such feelings were spreading more or less 
 extensively among the members, and it began to be thought 
 by many of the ministers that some of the secessions to 
 episcopacy were due, not to a mere contemptible aping of 
 English customs and ways, still less to any preference for 
 the episcopal form of church government, but rather to dis- 
 appointment at the refusal of the presbyterian churches to 
 take any step toward the improvement of the church 
 services. 
 
 It was in the Church of Scotland that the first move- 
 ment was made in the direction of such reforms, and the in- 
 itiative was taken by Mr. Robert Lee of Old Greyfriars,
 
 426 HISTORY OF TIJE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Edinburgh. Dr. Lee was born at Tweedmouth in 1804, 
 and after studying at St. Andrews University was licensed 
 in 1832. He was minister successively in Arbroath and 
 Campsie, and was called to Greyfriars in August, 1843, the 
 church in which in 1638 the National Covenant was signed. 
 In 1844 he published a translation of The Theses of Eraslus 
 touching Excommunication, for the purpose of showing that 
 Erastus pleads that excommunication or punishment should 
 be by civil and not by ecclesiastical bodies. In 1847 he was 
 appointed professor of Biblical Criticism, the chair to which 
 Dr. Candlish had been nominated in 1841. On the restora- 
 tion of Old Greyfriars in 1887, after it had been long closed 
 in consequence of a destructive fire, he began to give very 
 careful attention to the study of the services in public 
 worship. He asked his congregation to kneel at prayer and 
 to stand at singing, and read his prayers from a book pre- 
 pared by himself. In consequence of these proceedings, he 
 was dealt with by the presbytery of Edinburgh in 1859, 
 and was found by a majority to be guilty of introducing 
 innovations. On appealing to the General Assembly of 
 that same year, he obtained a substantially favourable 
 verdict by a majority of 140 to 110, requiring him, how- 
 ever, to discontinue the reading of his prayers from a book. 
 After this he discontinued the use of the book, but read his 
 prayers from a manuscript. In 1864 he published The 
 Reform of the Church in Worship, Government, and Doc- 
 trine : Part /., Worship ; in which he gave a systematic 
 statement of his views on the liturgical question. The 
 Assemblies of 1865 and 1866 were more or less hostile. The 
 Assembly of 1867 were prepared once more to take up the 
 case, but on the 22nd May, the day before the meeting of 
 the Supreme Court, Dr. Lee on returning from a ride into 
 the country, was seen to fall from his horse. The illness that 
 ensued at once put an end to all intended proceedings. Dr. 
 Lee never rallied from the attack, or at least was never after 
 able for any work. He died on the 14th of March, 1868.* 
 
 * Story, Life and Remains of Dr. Lee, D.D., London, 1870, 2 vols.
 
 IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CHURCH SERVICE. 427 
 
 A number of the clergymen of the Church of Scotland 
 usually regarded as High Churchmen, with whom were 
 associated some Broad Churchmen like Dr. Tulloch and Dr. 
 Story, formed in 1867 "The Church Service Society." Dr. 
 Lee himself looked rather askance at this society, for though 
 its work was somewhat on the lines of his reforms, his liturgy 
 was not accepted, because of a certain suspicion of Socinian- 
 ism which hung over him, and because his interest had been 
 in what is aesthetic rather than in what the society regarded 
 as part of their Catholic inheritance. Its first important 
 work was the publication of the Euchologion, a book of 
 prayers. According to the constitution of this society, it 
 sought to promote the study of ancient liturgies and the 
 preparing of Offices for Public Worship. Professor Cooper 
 of Glasgow and Dr. John Macleod of Govan have taken a 
 prominent part in seeking to introduce forms of service 
 which they regard as modelled on the practice of the early 
 church, and a high doctrine of the church and sacraments, 
 which by many is regarded with a considerable amount of 
 suspicion. Although this movement has never received 
 formal sanction from the General Assembly, it has spread 
 very widely in the ranks of the ministers of the Church of 
 Scotland, and has influenced to a great extent the services 
 and teaching of the church. 
 
 At a conference of ministers and elders belonging to the 
 Free Church held in Edinburgh in 1891, it was resolved to 
 form a society under the title of " The Free Church Public 
 Worship Association. 1 ' The aim of this Association was to 
 draw attention to the importance of the subject of the 
 Public Worship of the Church, and on presbyterian lines 
 and on the basis of materials supplied by early Christian 
 liturgies and service books of the Reformation, to provide 
 models for the guidance of ministers in the conducting of 
 the devotional part of the public services of the church, and 
 forms that might be used or imitated in the administration 
 of the sacraments and in the performing of marriage and 
 burial services. After several years 1 labour this Association 
 issued in 1898 A new Directory for the Public Worship of
 
 428 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 God, which has already passed through three editions, and 
 has done much toward securing a more seemly and consis- 
 tent order of service in the Free Church congregations 
 throughout the length and breadth of the land.* 
 
 " The Devotional Service Association " of the United 
 Presbyterian Church was formed in 1883, as the result of a 
 Conference held in the previous year, and in 1891 it issued 
 Presbyterian Forms of Service, of which a third improved 
 edition was published in 1899. This volume consists mainly 
 of specimen services as distinguished from the previously- 
 mentioned work of the Free Church Association, which is 
 largely a collection of materials for devotional use. 
 
 An arrangement has now been made for the combination 
 of the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Associa- 
 tions to be called the Worship Association of the United 
 Free Church of Scotland. Attention is being given to the 
 preparation of a book of Children's Services for Church and 
 Sabbath School, and in all probability by and by a Revised 
 Directory may be drafted which will take the place of the 
 books which the two Associations separately have issued. 
 
 The general use of hymns in public worship in the Pres- 
 byterian Churches of Scotland is of very recent date. So 
 far back indeed as 1575 a small collection of five spiritual 
 songs was made, increased in subsequent years to ten, and 
 and afterwards to fourteen ; but these received no ecclesias- 
 tical sanction, and were not even put in the Psalter of 1650, 
 nor were they included among the Paraphrases of 1741 and 
 1781. In the earlier years of the nineteenth century several 
 proposals were made for the preparation of a collection of 
 spiritual hymns for use in public worship. Nothing, how- 
 ever, came of these proposals, until in 1 852 a committee was 
 nominated by the General Assembly of the Church of 
 Scotland, to prepare a collection of hymns. The draft 
 which this committee presented to the Assembly was not 
 approved, and another committee was appointed in 1855, 
 
 * M'Crie, The Public Worship of Presbyterian Scotland, Edin. 1892, 
 pp. 351-353.
 
 PRESBYTERIAN HYMN BOOKS. 429 
 
 which at last, in 1861, drew up a collection of 89 hymns and 
 32 other pieces, which was adopted and sanctioned for use 
 in the church. It soon became evident that a larger and 
 more varied selection was desirable, and in 1866 a new com- 
 mittee was formed which issued in 1870 the Scottish Hymnal, 
 containing 200 hymns. An enlarged and improved edition 
 was issued in 1884, containing 358 hymns, besides an ap- 
 pendix of 86 hymns for children, a collection admirably 
 selected and excellently arranged. 
 
 In the General Assembly of the Free Church discussions 
 were carried on from 1866 till 1869 as to the necessity and 
 advantage of having a book of praise supplementary to the 
 metrical Psalms, and in 1870 a committee was appointed, 
 which in 1873 issued a collection consisting of 123 hymns, 
 besides Psalm versions and a selection from the Paraphrases. 
 This book was soon found to be much too meagre, and in 1878 
 a new committee was formed, which in 1882 issued The Free 
 Church Hymn-book, containing 387 hymns. This collection 
 owes much of its excellence to the musical taste and devo- 
 tional genius of the late Dr. Bruce of Glasgow, and also to 
 the Rev. James Bonar, whose singularly wide knowledge of 
 hymns and hymn-writers was of the utmost service to the 
 committee. 
 
 In the Relief Church a collection of 231 Hymns and Para- 
 phrases was sanctioned in 1794. A new selection, remark- 
 ably good for its time, was adopted and issued in 1833. 
 After the union of the Secession and Relief Churches in 1847 
 a committee was appointed, charged with the task of pre- 
 paring a book of praise. This committee submitted a draft 
 collection which was accepted and issued with the approba- 
 tion of the Synod in 1852 as the Hymn-book of the United 
 Presbyterian Church, containing 468 hymns and 23 dox- 
 ologies. Many of the hymns in this book never became 
 popular and objections were raised to several unwarrantable 
 changes that had been made in the text of some of the 
 hymns. Consequently a revision committee was appointed 
 in 1870, and in 1876 The Presbyterian Hymnal was pre- 
 pared and issued by the authority of the church.
 
 430 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 It was now being felt by many throughout all the Pres- 
 byterian churches that any further revision of their hymn- 
 books should, if possible, be done in common by them all, 
 so as to secure one book of praise for the congregations of 
 the several churches. In 1892 a joint committee was 
 appointed, consisting of seven representatives from the 
 Church of Scotland, the Free Church and the United Pres- 
 byterian Church respectively. In 1894 this committee, with 
 which representatives of the Irish Presbyterian Church had 
 meanwhile been associated, and which had received com- 
 munications from the Canadian Presbyterian Church, had 
 prepared a draft copy of their proposed hymnal, The 
 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in 1896, by a 
 majority, resolved to retire from the committee, but the 
 General Assembly of 1897 reversed this resolution and de- 
 termined to resume their position on the joint committee. 
 After some further consultation and modification of the draft 
 or proof copy, the work was produced and received the 
 approbation of the several churches for publication in 1898. 
 In order to avoid the use of any name previously appro- 
 priated by any such manual of praise, the committee adopted 
 for their book the somewhat unusual name of The Church 
 Hymnary. It consists of 649 pieces, of which 92 are hymns 
 for the young. The book has already been introduced in a 
 large number of the congregations of the several Presbyterian 
 churches immediately concerned in its production, and it is 
 expected that it will also be widely used in the Presbyterian 
 churches of the Colonies. It has been very generally ap- 
 proved, in respect of the selection of hymns and of its 
 musical setting, as one of the best hymnals in the English 
 language. 
 
 Besides the three great Presbyterian denominations, which 
 bulk so largely in the ecclesiastical history of Scotland, there 
 were two Congregational or Independent Churches, the 
 Congregational Union and the Evangelical Union, both of 
 which had played an important part in the spiritual develop- 
 ment of the people. The Congregational Union, especially 
 since the time of the Haldanes, had done noble work in
 
 CONGREGATIONALISTS AND EVANGELICAL UNIONISTS. 431 
 
 many parts of the land in preserving and advancing the 
 warmth and vigour of Christian life. The members of the 
 Evangelical Union Church, brought into existence by the 
 movement of James Morison in 1843, had taken a perma- 
 nent place among the social and religious reformers of the 
 age, and had distinguished themselves particularly by their 
 zeal in promoting evangelistic work and in pressing upon 
 the notice of the public the need for temperance legislation 
 and reform. So long ago as in 1876, attention was called 
 to the possibility and duty of union between these two 
 bodies by Dr. William Pulsford of Glasgow, one of the most 
 distinguished ministers of the Congregational Union, and in 
 1877 the Congregational Union sent a delegate to the meet- 
 ings of the Evangelical Union, and in 1878 the brethren of 
 the Evangelical Union reciprocated the courtesy. But for 
 many years no regularly organised attempt was made to give 
 effect to these general indications of sympathy and spiritual 
 relationship. It was felt, however, by many that there was 
 no reason why two bodies so closely related should remain 
 apart. Their systems of church policy were practically the 
 same, and it did not appear as if there was any essential 
 difference between them in regard to doctrinal belief. A 
 joint committee of both denominations was formed in 1886, 
 but answers to queries made it appear that further informa- 
 tion by the people was needed before the churches would be 
 ready to take any definite step. In 1892 a joint committee 
 was appointed to consider the subject of union and to report. 
 This committee prepared an Explanatory Statement of facts 
 bearing on the proposed union, which was considered by the 
 congregations of the two churches. After considerable dis- 
 cussion in the Conferences of both churches held in Glasgow 
 in September and in October, 1896, the motion for union 
 was carried, in the Evangelical Union Conference by 140 to 
 14, and in the Congregational Union Conference by 93 to 
 17. A joint meeting of the pastors and delegates of the 
 Congregational and Evangelical Unions was held in Glas- 
 gow on 1st October, 1896, at which the union agreed to 
 by the two denominations separately was formally declared
 
 4)32 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 as taking effect on 1st January, 1897. It was also resolved 
 that the name of the united church should be The Congre- 
 gational Union of Scotland, comprising the Evangelical 
 Union and the Congregational Union as existing at 1896. 
 The united church comprises over one hundred and eighty 
 congregations, arranged under ten mission districts. Each 
 congregation is thoroughly independent in regard to the 
 management of its internal affairs, and the churches enter- 
 ing the union are not required to subscribe any formal creed. 
 To the Constitution agreed upon by the Union, a prefatory 
 note is attached which declares that this union is sought in 
 the belief that they agree in holding as the ground and 
 condition of church membership confession of personal faith 
 in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, in the desire to hold 
 fellowship with one another in the worship and service of 
 God, and in order to effective co-operation in extending the 
 kingdom of God and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
 through whose person and work in God Incarnate, and the 
 saving and sanctifying grace of God the Holy Spirit, God 
 the Father, in his love, has made provision for, and is seek- 
 ing the salvation of all men. 
 
 From about the middle of the century all the churches 
 began more vigorously than ever before to prosecute Home 
 Mission or directly aggressive work, especially among the 
 crowded masses of our large cities. Specially notable was 
 the work accomplished by the Free Church Missions in Glas- 
 gow and Edinburgh in the Wynds and Fountain bridge, and 
 from 1854 onward very remarkable success attended the 
 effort to reach the sunken and hitherto largely neglected 
 denizens of the squalid lanes and closes. A similar activity 
 soon spread among the other denominations, and Christian 
 workers other than ministers began to give evangelistic 
 addresses, and to interest themselves in various forms of 
 Christian service. The state of the religious community 
 was thus very different from that of 1839, when in 1859 the 
 revival and the revival spirit took possession of the churches 
 and of the people at large. It has been remarked by many 
 that in the earlier period, during the revival under William
 
 THE REVIVAL OF 1859. 433 
 
 Bums and M'Cheyne, the work was done exclusively by 
 ministers, and even afterwards, Christian laymen of the most 
 devoted character, and endowed with admirable qualifica- 
 tions as speakers, never seemed to think of giving themselves 
 to evangelistic work in organising or addressing religious 
 meetings. But when in 1859 the influence of that religious 
 revival which had been experienced so fully in America and 
 in Ireland, came to be felt in Scotland, there were already 
 in all our cities, and also in many country districts, gifted 
 men in all ranks of society able and willing to take their 
 full share in proclaiming the gospel message of salvation. 
 One prominent labourer in this field, one of the pioneers in 
 this sort of work, was Brownlow North. Converted in 1854, 
 he began at once to make known to others the truth by 
 which he himself had been blessed. He was recognised in 
 1859 by the General Assembly of the Free Church as a lay 
 evangelist, and was solemnly consecrated and set apart to 
 this work by the approbation and imprimatur of the church. 
 
 The spiritual work which began in 1859, and which con- 
 tinued to occupy a prominent place in the view of the 
 country during the years immediately following, spread over 
 the whole extent of Scotland, and in almost every part of 
 the country there are still to be found fruits of the great 
 awakening. It affected all ranks and classes of men. 
 Ministers of all the churches, many of whom had previously 
 gone to Ireland to see for themselves the work of which they 
 had heard, were mightily quickened and greatly stirred. 
 Men of culture in the various learned professions, and 
 educated men in businesses of all kinds came under the in- 
 fluence of the truth, and became zealous preachers of the 
 gospel of Christ. A very remarkable work of grace was 
 carried on among the fishing populations of the East Coast 
 villages, by means of which the life and character of whole 
 communities, especially along the Firth of Forth and along 
 the Moray Firth, were completely revolutionised. 
 
 From time to time there were religious movements in 
 various parts of the country. The next widespread revival 
 movement, however, affecting the whole land, owed its 
 
 D 2
 
 434 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 initiation and chief impetus to the visit of Messrs. Moody and 
 Sankey from America in 1873. These devoted and eminently 
 successful evangelists came to Edinburgh in November of that 
 year, and afterwards proceeded to Glasgow, in which impor- 
 tant centres their operations, extending over a period of nine 
 months, were chiefly carried on. They had associated with 
 them, on the platform and in the enquiry room, ministers of 
 all the protestant churches, and a very rich spiritual bless- 
 ing followed their labours in the cities both among church- 
 goers and non-church-goers. Large additions were made to 
 the membership of all Christian denominations, and many 
 of the most reliable and steadfast supporters of church and 
 religion in Scotland at the present time, look back to this 
 movement as the occasion of their first decision for Christ 
 and interest in His cause. After the departure of Mr. 
 Moody, the work was continued effectively by willing and 
 capable workers, and much spiritual quickening followed in 
 other towns and throughout the country. The second visit 
 of the American evangelists in 1881 was especially fruitful 
 in Glasgow. A third visit was paid to Scotland in 1890, 
 but on this occasion, avoiding the large cities, the evangelists 
 went up and down through the smaller towns and villages. 
 The time spent in each place was too short to awaken any 
 very deep interest in the work, and so its effect seems to 
 have been comparatively small. 
 
 Among the distinguished and effective workers whom 
 Moody influenced, and who were led by him to devote their 
 energies mainly to evangelistic work, Henry Drummond is 
 deserving of special mention. Known to many only as the 
 writer of religio-scientific works, the science and the theology 
 of which are both now regarded as more than questionable, 
 he was for years associated with Moody as a fellow worker 
 and as continuer of his work. Partly by his wonderfully 
 attractive personality, and partly by the fresh, natural and 
 manly way in which he presented the truth, he obtained an 
 access to young men, especially to university students, which 
 was almost, if not altogether, unprecedented. Appointed 
 in 1889 to the chair of Natural Science in the Free Church
 
 FREE CHURCH JUBILEE. 
 
 College of Glasgow, he published in 1883, Natural Law in 
 the Spiritual World, a work founded on religious addresses 
 which he had delivered. It obtained quite a phenomenal 
 popularity, so that in a few years it passed through over 
 thirty large editions. His most ambitious scientific work 
 was his Lowell Lectures delivered in America, The Ascent 
 of Man, published in 1894. As a religious teacher his 
 booklets, The Greatest Thing- in the World (1869), on the 
 thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and Pax Vobiscum 
 (1891), with a considerable number of other little treatises, 
 were very widely read, and created a great interest in reli- 
 gious thinking and reflection, especially among the fairly 
 educated and cultured youth. He was with Moody in 
 America in 1893, who, notwithstanding serious differences 
 in their way of viewing important truths, welcomed him 
 warmly as a trusted helper in the work. His early death in 
 1896, after a long and very painful illness, was mourned 
 over by large numbers in Scotland, England and America, 
 who had received spiritual quickening from his addresses 
 and writings. 
 
 In May, 1893, the jubilee of the Free Church of Scotland 
 was celebrated at the meeting of the Assembly of that year. 
 Honour was done to Dr. Walter C. Smith by calling him to 
 occupy the chair on that interesting occasion. Deputations 
 were received and communications read from many Foreign 
 and Colonial churches, and representatives were present from 
 the Presbyterian churches of Scotland, England, Ireland and 
 Wales. The Moderator, who had been ordained a minister 
 of the Free Church in 1850, shed lustre on the Assembly as 
 an ornament of his church, distinguished not only as an elo- 
 quent and spiritual preacher, but as a poet, and a man of 
 fine spirit and generous sympathies. He is well known far 
 beyond the bounds of Scotland by his poems, The Bishop's 
 Walk, Olrig Grange, Borland Hall, Hilda, Raban, A Heretic 
 and other Poems, etc. Those in charge of the various 
 schemes of the church were able to show a really splendid 
 development and growth in all directions during those fifty 
 years, and this review of work accomplished has afforded
 
 436 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 encouragement and a healthy stimulus during the years that 
 followed. 
 
 Throughout the last twenty years in all the Scottish 
 churches remarkable success has attended the organizing of 
 Christian work in congregations in all its various departments. 
 This has been in large measure secured by the formation of 
 guilds in which the members and adherents of the churches, 
 especially the young men and the young women, are banded 
 together by means of a common consecration to work for 
 the advancement of the spiritual and moral life of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1881 
 resolved that a Young Men's Guild should be constituted 
 under its sanction, and that its management should be en- 
 trusted to its Committee on Life and Work. The aim of 
 the Guild is the formation in every parish, under the control 
 of the minister and session, of a society of young men as a 
 centre of attraction to young men in the parish, and a 
 means of mutual improvement and healthful stimulus. All 
 local church societies are brought into touch with one 
 another by being recognised as integral parts of the great 
 comprehensive union of workers throughout the church. By 
 means of a system of intercommunication young men who 
 leave one district for another are cared for and receive a 
 brotherly welcome and companionship in their new home. 
 The progress made during the nineteen years of its existence 
 has been very remarkable. At the first Conference of the 
 Guild in Edinburgh in 1882, it was found that there were 
 sixty-seven branches with about two thousand members. 
 At the nineteenth annual Conference held in Dumbarton in 
 October, 1900, it was reported that there were six hundred 
 and three branches, with nearly twenty-seven thousand 
 members. The practical work accomplished by members of 
 the Guild is of the varied character. District and hospital 
 visitation, the conducting of children's churches, boys' 
 brigades, parish libraries and banks, originating and carry- 
 ing on temperance organizations, distribution of tracts, 
 assisting at missionary services and prayer meetings, engag-
 
 GUILDS IN THE SCOTTISH CHURCHES. 437 
 
 ing in Sunday school work in all these departments the 
 Guild has done great service in town and country throughout 
 the land. The societies under the Guild consist of Bible 
 classes, fellowship meetings, and literary associations, while 
 the Guild Missionary Council maintains a prosperous mission 
 in India under two ordained missionaries and a medical 
 missionary, supported by an efficient staff of native workers. 
 
 An important service has been rendered by the Guild 
 through the publication of a series of text books, and the 
 conducting of examinations on their contents. These text 
 books, edited by Professor Charteris and Dr. M'Clymont of 
 Aberdeen, most of them issued in a shorter and larger form, 
 and written by many of the most distinguished ministers of 
 the Church of Scotland, have been very widely used, and are 
 in quali ty and style of a very superior order. The study of 
 such manuals by the youth of the church cannot fail in pro- 
 ducing the best results. 
 
 In 1888 the Women's Guild in connection with the 
 Church of Scotland was formed, with the object of consoli- 
 dating and developing the work which women can best 
 forward in connection with the church in the several 
 departments of religious and social activity. At the first 
 annual conference in 1888 it was reported that there were 
 then thirty-two branches, with a membership of two 
 thousand ; and in 1900 it was shown that there were five 
 hundred and twenty-nine branches with over thirty-six 
 thousand members. 
 
 In the Free Church an important movement was in- 
 augurated in 1878 when Dr. Alexander Whyte, of Free St. 
 George's, Edinburgh, laid before the Assembly the scheme 
 which had been under consideration for some years, and is 
 known as the Welfare of Youth Scheme. A series of Hand- 
 books, biblical and theological, was issued under the editor- 
 ship of Dr. Whyte and Dr. Marcus Dods, and afterwards a 
 set of Primers on similar subjects, edited by Principal 
 Salmond of Aberdeen. These Primers have been very 
 largely used as text books in Bible classes formed in most of 
 the congregations of the Free Church. Members of these
 
 438 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 classes were examined by means of sets of questions on the 
 various subjects prescribed each year, and medals, prizes, 
 and certificates were awarded according to the marks gained 
 by the several candidates. This scheme was from the first 
 eminently successful in affording a stimulus to biblical and 
 doctrinal study in Bible classes and among private students. 
 It was not, however, till 1885 that a proposal was made in 
 the Free Church Assembly to establish a Free Church of 
 Scotland Guild, which, in a way somewhat similar to that 
 of the Church of Scotland Guild, should combine existing 
 agencies, and promote further organizations for the religious 
 and social well-being of the youth of the church. 
 
 When the negotiations for union between the Free and 
 United Presbyterian Churches were dropped in 1873, the 
 Synod of the United Presbyterian Church put on record a 
 declaration of its continued readiness to enter into union 
 with the Free Church on the ground of their common stan- 
 dards, and its unabated desire for such union. And so, 
 when in 1895 the Free Church reopened the question of 
 union by proposing the appointment of committees of both 
 churches for conference with regard to co-operation, the 
 United Presbyterian Synod of 1896 gave a hearty and 
 immediate response, approving of present co-operation, and 
 expressing a conviction that the time had come when steps 
 should be taken for bringing about an incorporating union 
 of the churches. After the two committees had considered 
 the subject, and had interchanged opinions and information, 
 the Free Church Assembly of 1897 formally agreed to con- 
 fer upon the pi-actical questions involved in union on the 
 basis of the standards. The committees having been re- 
 appointed, they held their meetings generally as a joint 
 committee, and were able to report to the superior courts of 
 their respective churches that in regard to doctrine, govern- 
 ment, discipline, and worship the two churches were in 
 thorough agreement with one another. In consequence of 
 this report, which was the unanimous deliverance of a large 
 and thoroughly representative committee, consisting of 
 about one hundred and fifty members, the General
 
 UNION OF FREE AND U. P. CHURCHES. 439 
 
 Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland and the Synod 
 of the United Presbyterian Church of 1898, agreed to 
 remit the report to presbyteries and, in the case of the 
 United Presbyterian Church, to sessions, that they might 
 express approval or disapproval, and make suggestions. 
 An Explanatory Statement was also issued by the Free 
 Church committee, in which it was shown that in the 
 United Church the present standards would be accepted by 
 each member in the sense in which he had accepted them 
 previous to the union, and that no change of principles 
 would be required of any one. The returns given in to the 
 Synod and Assembly of 1899 showed that all the sessions, 
 as well as the presbyteries, of the United Presbyterian 
 Church had reported either wholly or conditionally in 
 favour of union, and that of the seventy-five Free Church 
 presbyteries, seventy-one were in favour and four were 
 against union. In several of the presbyteries, however, 
 there was an anti-union minority. On 31st May, 1900, 
 the General Assembly of the Free Church declared in 
 favour of union by a majority of five hundred and ninety- 
 two against twenty-nine, and it was therefore resolved to 
 send down the terms of the uniting act in the form of an 
 Overture to presbyteries, whose answers would come before 
 a special Assembly which, at the closing diet, was appointed 
 to meet on the 30th of October. 
 
 On the day appointed, the General Assembly of the 
 Free Church met, with Dr. Ross Taylor of Glasgow as 
 Moderator, and the Uniting Act was finally adopted, a 
 small minority of ministers and elders protesting. Arrange- 
 ments had previously been made, and a large hall had been 
 fitted up in the Waverley Market, to which, in the forenoon 
 of Wednesday, the 31st October, 1900, the members of the 
 Free Church Assembly, who had mustered in front of the 
 Free Assembly Hall, and the members of the United 
 Presbyterian Synod, who had been marshalled in the 
 Synod Hall, marched in order, and in which they took their 
 places together. The Uniting Act was read, and Dr. Ross 
 Taylor, Moderator of the Free Church Assembly, and Dr.
 
 440 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 Alexander Mair, Moderator of the United Presbyterian 
 Synod, gave each other, on behalf of their respective 
 churches, the right hand of fellowship, and the two 
 churches had become one, under the name of the United 
 Free Church of Scotland. The Rev. Robert Rainy, D.D., 
 Principal of the Free Church College, Edinburgh, and long 
 the distinguished leader of the Free Church, was unani- 
 mously and by acclamation appointed Moderator of the first 
 Assembly of the United Church. To Dr. Rainy certainly 
 more than to any other the union of these two churches owes 
 its happy consummation. In the United Church as now 
 constituted there are eleven synods, sixty-five presbyteries, 
 and about sixteen hundred and fifty congregations. 
 
 At the time when the union was being carried out, the 
 Free Church Minority met in a hall, appointed a Moderator, 
 and proceeded with the work of an Assembly, claiming to 
 be the true Free Church of Scotland. An action on their 
 part is pending in the Court of Session, in which they lay 
 claim to the property of the Free Church, and in a few 
 cases churches are still occupied by ministers and their 
 adherents who have refused to join the union. Their 
 doctrinal and ecclesiastical position is in every respect 
 similar to that of those Secessionists who broke off' from 
 the Free Church on the occasion of its adopting the 
 Declaratory Act, and most of those composing it ought 
 in consistency to have gone out with that secession. They 
 are entirely out of touch with all the religious and intel- 
 lectual tendencies of the age. 
 
 Many of those who have most heartily rejoiced in the 
 union of those two important branches of the Presbyterian 
 Church of Scotland regard what has been accomplished as 
 merely a step toward a still more comprehensive union. 
 Not only in the United Free Church, but also in the Estab- 
 lished Church of Scotland, there is a widespread desire to 
 see a union effected between the two churches which now 
 stand side by side, so nearly equal to one another in numbers 
 and resources. Since the Disruption of 1843, many of the 
 reforms for which those who left the National Church con-
 
 HOPES OF LARGER UNIOX. 441 
 
 tended, have been conceded by the legislature. The mother 
 church, out of which all the several components of the 
 United Church originally sprang, is not only the same with 
 her children in doctrine, government, discipline and worship, 
 but also like them in large measure she depends upon the 
 free-will offerings of her people. The only serious difference 
 between them consists in her exclusive possession of certain 
 endowments secured to her by legislative enactments, and a 
 consequent special recognition of her status and jurisdiction 
 by the state. For the present it would seem as if these 
 differences constituted a serious, some would say an insuper- 
 able, bar to union. The leaders of the United Church and 
 majorities in that church say that as at present advised they 
 cannot see how such a union is practicable except on the basis 
 of the disestablishment of the Established Church; and 
 although no disestablishment committee has yet been ap- 
 pointed in the United Church, yet up to the eve of the union 
 the demand for disestablishment was distinctly made by both 
 of the churches now united into one. On the other hand, 
 all the leaders of the Established Church, even those most 
 favourable to the idea of union, have distinctly said that 
 they can never entertain the thought of relinquishing what 
 they have always regarded as their rightful heritage. The 
 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has formally 
 declared to all the Scottish Presbyterian churches her 
 " hearty willingness and desire to take all possible steps, 
 consistent with the maintenance of an establishment of 
 religion, to promote the union of such churches."" How 
 this difficulty is to be overcome does not yet seem very clear. 
 It may be that a wave of spiritual revival spreading over 
 the land, bringing higher realities into fuller prominence and 
 revealing more clearly what are the purely spiritual and re- 
 ligious purposes which all ecclesiastical organizations ought 
 to serve, will bring men in both churches to see, as at pre- 
 sent they do not see, that in all things essential they are 
 one, and that this essential oneness will allow, or rather 
 compel them, by mutual concessions that involve no dis- 
 honourable compromises, to repudiate and forget accidental 
 and traditional differences.
 
 INDEX.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aberdeen.foundingof University 
 of, 71 ; professors of, refuse 
 to sign Reformed Confession, 
 123 f. ; doctors of, Commis- 
 sion of Tables dispute with, 188 
 
 Aberdeen, Lord, his Bill, 388 ; 
 passed in 1843 4OI 
 
 Abernethy becomes ecclesiastical 
 capital, 28 
 
 Abjuration oath 307 
 
 Accommodation proposed by 
 Leighton, 252 rf. 
 
 Act of Classes, 205 
 
 Act of Parliament of 1592, char- 
 ter of presbyterian govern- 
 ment, 152 
 
 Act Rescissory, 223 f. 
 
 Adam, bishop of Caithness, 48 
 
 Adamnan, his life of Columba, 
 13; works written by, 27 
 
 Adamson, Patrick, describes four 
 kinds of bishops, 131 ; made 
 archbishop of St. Andrews, 
 137 ; aids in passing Black 
 Acts, 141 ; excommunicated, 
 
 143 ; restored, and preaches in 
 High Church, Edinburgh, 
 
 144 ; mutilates Assembly Re- 
 cords, 145; fall and miserable 
 death, 149 f. 
 
 Agricola in Scotland, 2 
 
 Aikenhead, Thomas, executed. 297 
 Ailred, his life of St. Ninian, ... 5 
 Airsmoss, Covenanters' battle 
 
 at, 272 f. 
 
 Albany, government of, as Re- 
 gent 55 f. 
 
 Aleson Pierson, a witch, 138 
 
 Alesius, Alexander Alane or, ... 78 
 Alexander III., Pope, excom- 
 municates William the Lion, 47 
 Alexander VI., Pope, grants 
 Bull for founding Aberdeen 
 
 University, 71 
 
 Alexander I., king of Scotland, 
 
 his ecclesiastical policy, 38 
 
 Andrews, St., first bishop of, 
 
 39 ; University of, founded, 
 55; College of St. Salvator 
 founded, 64 ; made an arch- 
 bishopric, 66 ; castle of, be- 
 sieged, 92 f. ; entered by John 
 Knox, 93; surrendered :. 97 
 
 Anne, Queen, accession of, 299 ; 
 favours Episcopacy, 299 ; 
 union of Scotland and England 
 effected under, 299 ; Act of, 
 in favour of Patronage, 304 
 
 Annexation Act, 146 
 
 Anti-Burghers and Burghers, ... 327 
 
 ,, prepare new Tes- 
 timony and Narrative, 358 
 
 Antinomianism, Marrow men 
 charged with, 311 
 
 Anti-Patronage movement, 378 f. ; 
 motion of Dr. Cunningham 
 carried, 390 ; Bill passed, 412 
 
 Apocrypha controversy, 362 f. 
 
 Apologetic Declaration, 277 
 
 Arbroath Abbey founded, 45 
 
 Arbuckle, friar, his discussion 
 with Knox, 96 
 
 Arbuthnot, Alexander, made 
 principal of Aberdeen, 124 
 
 Argyll, Earl of, joins Reformers 
 in 1559, 106 
 
 Argyll, Marquess of, joins Coven- 
 anters, 205 ; favours receiving 
 malignants, 211 ; crowns 
 Charles II. at Scone, 211; 
 goes to London and is arrested, 
 219; sent to Scotland, 220; 
 tried and sentenced, 221 f.; 
 his fortitude on the scaffold,.. 222 
 
 Argyll, Earl of, charged with 
 treason, 275 ; his expedition 
 and death, 280 
 
 Argyll, Duke of, his Bill for 
 Church of Scotland, 388 f. 
 
 Armada, Spanish, sympathy of 
 Scottish popish lords with, ... 153 
 
 Arran, Earl of, made Regent, 
 84; under influence ol Beaton, 
 85 ; joins protestant party,... 108
 
 446 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Articles, Five, of Perth, 172 ; 
 of Pacification signed, 192 ; 
 repudiated, 193 
 
 Assemblies of 1606, 1608, 1610, 
 1616, 1618, declared null and 
 void, 192 f. 
 
 Assembly, First Reformed Gen- 
 eral, of Scotland, 117 
 
 Assembly of 1577 approves Se- 
 cond Book of Discipline, 133 
 
 Assembly at Cupar opposes re- 
 turn of popish lords, 159 
 
 Assembly of Established Church 
 after Disruption, 397 f. 
 
 Associate Presbytery constituted, 
 320; issues judicial testimony, 
 321 ; takes students on trial 
 for licence, 323 ; members of, 
 finally deposed by Assembly, 324 
 
 Associate Synod constituted, 
 326; of Protesters, 364 ; Pres- 
 bytery of Original Seceders, ... 374 
 
 Auchinsaugh, renewing of Co- 
 venant at, 305 
 
 Auchterarder case, 382 ; creed, 310 
 
 Augustinian monks at St. Andrews, 49 
 
 Bagimont's Roll 49 
 
 Baillie, Robert, principal of 
 Glasgow, 234 ; Commissioner 
 to Westminster Assembly, 
 199 ; his letters and journals, 234 
 
 Baillie, Robert, of Jerviswood, 
 executed, 273 
 
 Baird, James, of Cambusdoon, 
 Bequest and Trust, 412 f. 
 
 Baird Lectureship, 420 
 
 Baithen, successor of St. Co- 
 lumba, 26 
 
 Balcanquhal, Dean, his Large 
 Declaration, 191, 193 
 
 Balfour of Burley accuses David 
 Black 156 
 
 Balfour of Kinloch or Burley, 
 assassin of Sharp, 263 
 
 Baliol College at Oxford 55 
 
 Bancroft, archbishop, answered 
 by Andrew Melville, 168 
 
 Bannatyne, Sir William, his 
 atrocities in west country, 
 249; dismissed the Service,.. 250 
 
 Barbour, John, poet and theo- 
 logian, 58 
 
 Barrier Act, 297 f. 
 
 Bassandyne Bible, 138 
 
 Beaton, David, {archbishop of St. 
 Andrews, Si ; persecution 
 under, 82 ; gains ascendancy 
 over Regent, 83 ; unpopularity 
 of, 85; assassination of, 91 
 
 Beaton, James, archbishop of 
 Glasgow, 74 ; archbishop of 
 St. Andrews, 76 f. ; death of, 81 
 
 Bede, his story of St. Ninian,... {5 
 
 Benedict XIII., anti-pope, patron 
 of bishop Wardlaw, 54 
 
 Benefices Act (Scottish) 401 
 
 Benemundus de Vicci, his roll, 49 
 
 Bible, first printed in Scotland, 138 
 
 Binning, Hugh, popular prea- 
 cher, 214 
 
 Bishops, Tulchan, I3of. ; con- 
 secrated in England, 231 ; 
 deposed, 189 
 
 Black Acts of 1584, 141 
 
 Black, David, accused by Balfour 
 of Burley, 156 
 
 Blackadder, bishop of Glasgow, 70 
 
 Blair, Dr. Hugh, popular prea- 
 cher, 344 
 
 Blair, Robert, of St. Andrews, 
 goes to Ireland, 179; sketch 
 of his career, 237 
 
 Boar's Chase, given to bishop of 
 St. Andrews, 41 
 
 Boece, Hector, principal of 
 Aberdeen 71 
 
 Bond, test under Black Acts,... 141 
 
 Book of Canons, 182; of Common 
 Order, 114; of Discipline, 
 First, 112 ff. ; Second, 133 ff. 
 
 Borthwick, Sir John, denounced 
 for heresy 82 
 
 Borthwick, Case of Wright of. 374 ff. 
 
 Boston, Thomas, of Ettrick, 
 311 ; finds Marrow of Modern 
 Divinity 312 
 
 Boston, Thomas, of Tedburgh,.. 331 
 
 Bothwell, Adam, bishop of Ork- 
 ney, performs marriage of 
 Mary and Bothwell, 122 
 
 Bothwell, Earl of, marries 
 Queen Mary, 121 ; pretended 
 to have support of ministers,. 153 
 
 Bothwell Bridge, Covenanters' 
 battle at, 268 f. 
 
 Bourignanism, Dr. Garden .de- 
 posed for, 298 
 
 Bower, chronicler of Scotland,. 57 
 
 Bower, Marjory, wife of John 
 Knox, 119 
 
 Boyd, Earl of Arran, 66 
 
 Boyd, James, Bishop of Glas- 
 gow, 126; death of, 139 
 
 Boyd, Robeit, principal of Glas- 
 gow, 173 
 
 Boyd, Cameronian minister, 
 joined Revolution Church,... 292 
 
 Boyd, Zachary, his Psalm Ver- 
 sion used in revising Rous, ... 349
 
 IKDEX. 
 
 447 
 
 Brown, John, of Priesthill, slain 
 by Claverhouse, 281 
 
 Brown, John, of Wamphray, 
 writes Apologetic Narrative, 
 242; sent to Holland, 243 
 
 Brown, John, of Haddington, 
 professor of Burgher Synod, 344 f. 
 
 Brown, Professor George, of 
 Aberdeen, moves Chapel Act, 380 
 
 Bruce, Robert, favourite minis- 
 ter of James VI., 147 ; regent 
 in King's absence, 148 ; charged 
 with favouring Bothwell, 154: 
 king becomes his bitter foe,. 162 f. 
 
 Brude, Pictish king, converted 
 by St. Columba, 16 f. ; death 
 of, 21 
 
 Buchanan, George, life of, 120 f. ; 
 writes epitaph on Regent 
 Moray, 125; death of, 140; 
 his writings, 140 
 
 Burgess Oath, 326 f. 
 
 Burghers and Anti-Burghers, 327 
 
 Burne, Nicol, his slanderous de- 
 scription of Knox, 119 
 
 Burnet, Alexander, archbishop 
 of Glasgow, persecutor, 243 ; 
 charged with keeping up letters 
 till after the death of M'Kail, 
 248 ; refuses to spare William 
 Guthrie at petition of Glen- 
 cairn, 248 ; deprived arch- 
 bishopric, and restored after 
 five years, 252 
 
 Burton, John Hill, on the Rab- 
 bling of the Curates, 286 
 
 Caird, Dr. John, principal of 
 Glasgow, influence as teacher, 414 
 
 Cairns, Dr. John, principal of 
 U.P. College, influence and 
 works, 424 
 
 Caithness, Adam, bishop of, 
 slain by people, 48 
 
 Caithness, John, bishop of, slain 
 by Earl, 48 
 
 Calderwood, David, historian,.. 171 
 
 Call, value to be given to the,... 377 
 
 Cambuslang, Revival at, 324 f. 
 
 Campbell, Alexander, friar, ac- 
 cuser of Patrick Hamilton,... 786 
 
 Campbell, Professor, case of,... 315 
 
 Campbell, Dr. George, Disser- 
 tation on Miracles, 336 
 
 Campbell, Dr. John Macleod, 
 minister at Row, 368 ; tried 
 for heresy by presbytery of 
 Dumbarton, 368 f. ; deposed 
 by Assembly, 367 
 
 Campbell, of Monzie, re-intro- 
 duces Argyll's Bill, 389 
 
 Campbell, Lord, moves resolu- 
 tions for liberty of Church of 
 Scotland, 396 
 
 Cameron, John, principal of 
 Glasgow, 173 
 
 Cameron, Richard, early life, 
 outlawed, 271 f. ; killed at 
 Airsmoss, 273 
 
 Cameronians, 293 ; with hesita- 
 tion join William of Orange, 288 f. 
 
 Cameronian Regiment formed, 
 289 f. ; at Dunkeld, 290 
 
 Candida Casa of Ninian, 5 
 
 Cannon succeeds Dundee and 
 defeated at Dunkeld, 290 
 
 Canonmills, meeting of Free 
 Assembly at, 397 ; meeting of 
 U.P. Synod, 406 
 
 Canons, Book of, introduced,... 182 
 
 Cant, Andrew, Covenanting 
 leader, 188 
 
 Canterbury claims primacy over 
 Scottish Church 46 
 
 Cardross Case, 408 f. 
 
 Cargill, Donald, sketch of, 271 ; 
 price set on his head, 272 ; 
 excommunicates Duke of York 
 at Torwood, 273 ; death of,. 274 
 
 Carlyle, Dr. Alexander, of In- 
 veresk, 333 f. 
 
 Carmichael, agent of archbishop 
 Sharp 262 
 
 Carstares, William, charged as 
 involved in Rye House plot, 
 277 ; put to torture, 277 ; 
 cares for interests of Presby- 
 terianism at Revolution, 288 ; 
 obtains possession of des- 
 patches, 295 f. ; made princi- 
 pal of Edinburgh, 309 ; death, 309 
 
 Cassilis, Earl of, constant sup- 
 porter of English alliance, 85 ; 
 offers Henry VIII. to remove 
 Beaton, 89 
 
 Catechism of John Craig, 132 
 
 Catechism of archbishop Hamil- 
 ton 99 
 
 Catechism, Shorter, 200 
 
 Cess, payment of, refused by 
 Covenanters, 262 
 
 Chalmers, Thomas, his minis- 
 try in Glasgow, 365 f. ; his 
 motion in favour of Veto, 379 ; 
 work of Church Extension, 381 ; 
 opposes Lord Aberdeen's Bill, 
 388; moves ad option of Closing 
 Right, 392 ; speech at meeting 
 in St. Cuthbert's Church, 393 ;
 
 448 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 proposes Sustentation Fund 
 scheme, 396 ; starts the Sus- 
 tentation Fund, 402 
 
 Chalmers Lectures 428 
 
 Chapel Act passed, 380 ; objected 
 to and pronounced illegal, 
 394 f. ; obtains parliamentary 
 sanction, 401 
 
 Chapels of ease, erection of,. ..353 f. 
 
 Chapman, Walter, first printer 
 in Scotland, 72 
 
 Charles I. succeeds to thtone, 
 175 ; marriage with Henrietta 
 Maria, 177 ; first visit to Scot- 
 land, 180 ; under influence of 
 Laud, 181 ; sends Marquess 
 of Hamilton as Commissioner, 
 187 ; prepares for war, 190 ; 
 proclaims his Scottish subjects 
 rebels, 193 ; death, not ap- 
 proved of by Scottish church, 206 
 
 Charles II. proclaimed king, 
 206 ; receives Scottish com- 
 missioners at Breda, 207 f. ; 
 negotiations with, as des- 
 cribed by Livingstone, 208 f. ; 
 his conduct offends Covenan- 
 ters, 2IO; restoration and 
 entry into London, 219 ; 
 death of, 219 
 
 Charteris, Lawrence, refuses 
 oath of supremacy, 275 
 
 Christianity, origin of, in Scot- 
 land, ...., 4 
 
 Church endowment scheme of 
 Robertson 404 f. 
 
 Church extension scheme of 
 Chalmers 381 
 
 Church Hymnary 430 
 
 Church of Scotland Hymnal,.. .428 f. 
 
 Church Service Society, 427 
 
 Claim of rights by non-intru- 
 sionists, 392 ; answered unfa- 
 vourably by Sir James Graham, 395 
 
 Claim of Rights at Revolution, 288 
 
 Classes, Act of, 205 
 
 Claverhouse at Drumclog, 266 ; 
 ravages west and south-west 
 of Scotland, 270 ; kills John 
 Brown of Priesthill, 281 ; 
 raises Highland clans against 
 William, 288 ; falls at Killie- 
 crankie, 290 
 
 Cleanse the Causeway, 74 
 
 Clelland, Colonel, forms Camer- 
 onian Regiment, 289 ; falls at 
 Dunkeld, 290 
 
 Clement III., Pope, makes Scot- 
 tish Church independent of 
 England, 47 
 
 Clement IV., Pope, chim to 
 Scottish ecclesiastical revenues 
 repudiated, 49 
 
 Colleges of Free Church founded, 403 
 
 Columba, birth and early days, 
 12 f. ; as described by Adam- 
 nan, 13; goes to lona, 15; 
 with King Conall, 16 ; goes 
 on mission to King Brude, 17, 
 21 ; life in lona, 18 ; journeys 
 of his disciples, 19 ; sickness 
 and death, 22 ; character, 23 ; 
 churches founded by, 23 f. ; 
 views about the tonsure, 24 ; 
 views on celebration of Easter, 25 
 
 Columbite Church, peculiar doc- 
 trines of, 24 ff. 
 
 Commission, High Court of, 182 ; 
 abolished, 187; restored, 238 
 
 Commissioner of William III. 
 dissolves Assembly, 295 
 
 Commissioners of English Par- 
 liament meet Assembly, 196 
 
 Commissioners from Assembly 
 to Westminster, 196 
 
 Common Order, Book of, H4f. 
 
 Commonwealth rule in Scot- 
 land, 215 f. 
 
 Communion, dispute about ad- 
 ministration of. 177 f. 
 
 Conference at Holyrood, 144 
 
 ,, at Paisley about Ac- 
 commodation, 253 
 
 Confession, the King's 131 
 
 Confession of Faith, Scottish,... no 
 ,, ,, Westminster, zoo 
 
 Congregation, Lords of the, 109 
 
 Constance or Adamson, arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews, 137 
 
 Constance, council of, 54 
 
 Constitutional Associate Presby- 
 tery 359 
 
 Conventicles, laws against, 254 256, 
 259 f., 261 f. 
 
 Convention of Estates of 1689, 287 f. 
 of Kirk at Leith, ... 126 
 ,, for suppressing con- 
 venticles, 261 f. 
 
 Convocation, The, before dis- 
 ruption, 393 f. 
 
 Cook, Dr. George, Moderate 
 leader, opposes Veto measure, 
 378 ; moves to put aside Claim 
 of Right, 392 ; moves ejection 
 of chapel ministers from pres- 
 byteries 395 
 
 Court of High Commission, 1 82 f. ; 
 abolished, 187 ; restored, 238 ; 
 displaced again by Council,... 240
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Covenant, first, 101 f. ; renewed 
 in 1638, 185 
 
 Covenant, National, 131 
 
 ,, Solemn League and, 196 
 
 Covenanters oppose " Engage- 
 ment," 203 ; treat with 
 Charles II., 207 ; at Dunbar, 
 209 ; crown Charles II. as a 
 covenanting king, 211 ; begin 
 to arm, 245 ; first skirmish at 
 Pentlands, 246 ; asked to sign 
 the Bond, 249 f. ; at Drum- 
 clog, 266 ; dissensions among, 
 267 ; at Bothwell Bridge, 268; 
 in Greyfriars churchyard, 269; 
 at Airsmoss, 272 f. ; form 
 Societies, 276 f. 
 
 Covenanting at Auchinsaugh, 304 f. 
 
 Council takes place of Court of 
 High Commission, 240 
 
 Craig, John, Short Catechism, 
 132 ; later history, 132 ; an- 
 swers Earl of Arran,.. 143 
 
 Craw, Paul, Bohemian reformer 
 and martyr, in Scotland, 59 
 
 Creed subscription, movement 
 for relaxation of, 421 f. 
 
 Crichton, bishop of Dunkeld,... 82 
 
 ,, of Brunston plots Bea- 
 ton's death, 86 
 
 Crinan, abbot of Dunkeld, 28 
 
 Croall Lectures 420 
 
 Cromwell's ascendancy in Scot- 
 land, 215 
 
 Cubiculars, their intrigues against 
 Octavians, 160 
 
 Culdees of Lochleven 28 f. 
 
 ,, decadence of, 34 ff. 
 
 Culsalmond case, 390 
 
 Cunningham, Dr. William, pro- 
 poses anti-patronage motion, 390 
 
 Cunningham Lectures, 420 
 
 Curates regarded with contempt, 
 234 ; of mean character and 
 gifts, 240 f. ; Burnet's account 
 of the, 241 ; by conduct in- 
 crease their unpopularity, 242 
 
 Dairy in Galloway, Covenanters 
 first conflict with soldiers at, 244 
 
 Dalziel, General, appointed by 
 Sharp to command of army 
 against Covenanters, 245 ; de- 
 feats Covenanters at Rullion 
 Green, 246 ; goes to West 
 C on n try 249 
 
 Darnley murdered, 121 
 
 David I. begins to reign, 41 ; his 
 ecclesiastical foundations, 42 ; 
 
 PACK 
 
 buidens country by gifts to 
 church, 43 
 
 Davidson, Dr. A. B., influence 
 as teacher, 415 
 
 Declaration, Large, 191, 193 ; 
 Rutherglen, 265 ; San- 
 quhar, 271 f. 
 
 Declaratory Act of Free Chnrch, 
 
 422 f. 
 
 Dickson, David, of Irvine, his 
 labours and sufferings, 179; 
 attempt to mediate between 
 Resolutioners and Protesters, 
 237 ; deprivation and death, 237 f. 
 
 Directory for Public Worship,... 200 
 
 Discipline, First Book of, H2ff.; 
 
 Second Book of, 1 33 ff. 
 
 Disruption, beginning of Free 
 Church, 396 f. 
 
 Donnan at Eigg, 20 
 
 Douglas, Gawin, nominated to 
 archbishopric of St. Andrews, 
 73 ; bishop of Dunkeld, 74 ; 
 enforces Act against Lutheran 
 books, 76 
 
 Douglas, John, appointed arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews, 131 ; 
 death of, 137 
 
 Douglas, Robert, seeks to dis- 
 suade Argyll from going to 
 London, 219 ; refuses arch- 
 bishopric of St. Andrews and 
 denounces Sharp, 227* f. ; a 
 leading Resolutioner, 223 ; 
 admits his short-sightedness, 
 232 ; deprived as non-Con- 
 formist, 232 f. 
 
 "Douglas," Tragedy of, per- 
 formed in Edinburgh, 334 
 
 Drumclog, Covenanters' battle 
 at 266 
 
 Drummond, Henry, as evangel- 
 ist and author, 434 f 
 
 Duff, Dr. Alexander, goes out 
 to India as missionary 404 
 
 Dumbarton taken by Reformed 
 Party, 125 
 
 Dumfries, Popish procession at, 142 
 
 Dunbar, Covenanters at, 209 ; 
 battle at, 210 
 
 Dunbar, Gawin, archbishop of 
 Glasgow, 82 
 
 Dunbar, William, poems, first 
 volume printed in Scotland, 72 
 
 Duncan, Dr. John, Free Church 
 professor of Hebrew, 403 
 
 Dunkeld becomes ecclesiastical 
 capital of Scotland, 27 ; ab- 
 bacy of, 28 
 
 Dunlop, A. Murray, pleads for 
 
 2
 
 450 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapel ministers, 380 ; draws 
 up Claim of Right, 392 
 
 Dunnottar Castle, Covenanters 
 imprisoned in, 282 
 
 Dunse Law, Covenanters gath- 
 ered at, 191 
 
 Durham, James, praises Binning's 
 preaching, 214; joint author 
 of Sum of Saving Knowledge^ 236 
 
 Dury, John, submits to sign the 
 Bond, 142 
 
 Dury, Robert, colleague of 
 James Melville, at Anstruther, 153 
 
 Eadmer, second bishop of St. 
 Andrews, 40 
 
 Easter, controversy about, 37 
 
 Edinburgh University founded, 139 
 
 Education, attempt at securing 
 national system of, 409 f. 
 
 Elphinstone, student of Glasgow 
 University, 66 ; bishop of 
 Aberdeen, founder of Univer- 
 sity, 71 ; builds tower of St. 
 Machar's Cathedral, 72 
 
 Endowment of Chapels Scheme, 404 f. 
 
 Engagement, The, 203 f. 
 
 Episcopacy favoured by Black 
 Acts, 141 ; openly supported 
 by James Vi., 166 f. ; set up 
 in Scotland, 170; in Scotland 
 condemned by Assembly of 
 1638, l88f. ; condemned by 
 Assembly and Parliament,... 192 f. 
 
 Episcopalian Curates, 233 ; de- 
 scribed as mean and unworthy, 241 
 
 Erskine, John, of Dun, brought 
 first teacher of Greek to Scot- 
 land, 87 ; aids Harlaw and 
 Willock, early reformers, 99 ; 
 one of the Superintendents, 
 113 ; deceived by Queen Re- 
 gent, 104 f.; takes the Bond, 141 
 
 Erskine, Ebenezer, one of the 
 Marrow men, 313; objects to 
 restricting call to heritors and 
 elders, 317; preaches Synod 
 sermon, 318 ; before Assem- 
 bly. 319 > loosed from his 
 charge, 320 ; constitutes a 
 presbytery, 320 ; loyalty dur- 
 rebellion, 326 ; holds by Bur- 
 gher section, 327 ; his death, 332 
 
 Erskine, Ralph, one of Marrow 
 men, 313 ; joins Associate 
 Presbytery, 322 ; opposes 
 Cambuslang revival, 325 ; his 
 death, 332 
 
 Erskine, Dr. John, advocates 
 cause of Missions. 349 
 
 Erskine, Thomas, of Linlathen, 369 
 Euchologion, publication of,.... 427 
 Evangelical Union Church foun- 
 ded, 400 
 
 Extension Church Scheme 381 
 
 Fairfoul nominated a bishop, 
 
 230 ; consecrated in England, 230 
 Faith, Confession of, Scottish, 
 
 no; Westminster, 200 
 
 Ferguson, Dr. Fergus, case of, 424 
 
 Finnian of Moville, 14 
 
 First Book of Discipline H2ff. 
 
 Forbes, John, of Alford, sent to 
 
 Blackness, 165 
 
 Forbes, William, bishop of Edin- 
 burgh 181 
 
 Forclun, John of, Chronicler,... 57 
 Forman, bishop of Moray, arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews, 73^ 
 
 Forrest, Henry, friar at Linlith- 
 
 gow 81 
 
 Forrest, Dean Thomas, martyr, 81 f. 
 
 Fortrenn, bishopric of, 28 
 
 Forty Thieves, The, 391 
 
 Fraser, James, of Brea, life and 
 
 sufferings, 274 
 
 Fraser, John, of Alness, banished, 283 
 Free Church of Scotland consti- 
 tuted, 396 f. ; progress of, 401 ; 
 union of with United Presby- 
 terian Church, 438 ff. ; Minor- 
 ity Assembly, 440 ; Jubilee 
 Assembly, 435 ; Public Wor- 
 ship Association, 427 ; hymn 
 book, 429 
 
 Garden, Dr. George, deposed 
 for Bourignonism, 298 
 
 General Assembly, First Re- 
 formed, in Scotland, 117 ; at 
 Perth, 172 ; of 1638, at Glas- 
 gow, i88f. 
 
 Gib, Adam, leader of Anti-Bur- 
 ghers, 327 ; writes against 
 Cambuslang revival, 325 ; ab- 
 sents himself from Synod 340 
 
 Gillespie, George, life and 
 works, 198 1. 
 
 Gillespie, Patrick, favours Crom- 
 well, 211 ; deposed by Assem- 
 bly of 1651, 212 ; principal 
 of Glasgow University, 213; 
 publicly prays for Protector, 
 215; deprived of principal- 
 ship, 226 
 
 Gillespie, Thomas, deposed by 
 Assembly, 330 ; forms Relief 
 Presbytery, 331 
 
 Glasgow, University, founding
 
 INDEX. 
 
 451 
 
 PAGE 
 
 of, 65 ; bishopric of, 41 ; arch- 
 bishopric, 70 ; Assembly at, 
 in 1638, 188; Free Church 
 College built, 404 
 
 Good Regent, title given to 
 Moray, 1 24 
 
 Gourlay, Norman, martyr, 51 
 
 Gowrie conspiracy, 163 
 
 Graham, Andrew, bishop of 
 Dunkeld, 126 
 
 Graham, John, of Claverhouse, 266 
 
 Graham, Sir James, answer to 
 Claim of Right, 395 ; passes 
 measure sanctioning Chapel 
 Act, 401 
 
 Graham, Patrick, bishop of St. 
 Andrews, at Rome, made 
 archbishop, 66 ; opposed by 
 Scheves, 68 ; deserted by 
 Pope Sixtus IV., 69 ; removed 
 from office, confinement, and 
 death, 69 
 
 Gray, Andrew, popular Coven- 
 anting preacher, 214 
 
 Greenshields, Rev. James, case 
 of, 302f. 
 
 Gregory, Pope, sends Bagimont 
 to Scotland, 49 
 
 Grierson ofLagg, persecuted, 280 f. 
 
 Guild in Church of Scotland 
 formed, 436 ; in Free Church, 437 
 
 Guthrie, James, of Stirling, de- 
 posed by Assembly of 1651, 
 212 ; holds meetings in Edin- 
 burgh with other Protesters, 
 223 f. ; apprehended in Edin- 
 burgh as Protester, 224 ; 
 charged with publishing 
 "Causes of God's Wrath," 
 225 ; sentenced to death and 
 hanged, 225 
 
 Guthrie, William, of Fenwick, 238 f. 
 
 Guthrie, Thomas, and Free 
 Church Manse Scheme, 403 
 
 Hackston, David, of Rathillet, 
 at Magus Muir, 263 ; at Both- 
 well Bridge, 268 ; at Airs 
 Moss, 273 ; torture and death, 273 
 
 Haddow, principal, conduct to- 
 wards the Marrow men, 312 
 
 Haldanes, The, begin evangelis- 
 tic work, 352 ; itinerant prea- 
 ching, 353 f - 
 
 Hamilton, John, archbishop of 
 St. Andrews, 92 ; publishes 
 Catechism, 99 ; execution of, 125 
 
 Hamilton, Sir Patrick, of Kin- 
 ca vel, 74 
 
 Hamilton, Patrick, birth and 
 
 PACK 
 
 early life, 74 f. ; residence in 
 Germany, 76 ; preaches in 
 Linlithgow, 77 ; invited by 
 James Beaton to St. Andrews, 
 78 ; accused by fiiar Camp- 
 bell, 79; execution of, 80 
 
 Hamilton, Robert, and the 
 Rutherglen Declaration, 265; 
 at Drumclog, 266 ; leader of 
 fanatical party, 266 f. ; at Both- 
 well Bridge, 268 ; head of 
 extreme Covenanters at Re- 
 volution, 292 ; prepares the 
 Tinwald paper, 294 
 
 Hamilton, Rev. Mr., of Glads- 
 muir, moves rejection of Fo- 
 reign Missions Overture, 348 
 
 Hamilton, Marquess of, Com- 
 missioner of King to Scot- 
 land, 187 f. ; seeks to dissolve 
 Assembly, 189 ; returns to 
 London, 190 ; enters Forth 
 with a fleet, 191 
 
 Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, as- 
 sassin of Moray, 124 
 
 Hampton Court Conference,.... 167 
 
 Harlaw, battle of, 51 
 
 Harlaw, William, reformed 
 preacher, 99, 104 
 
 Hay, Alexander, Clerk Register, 
 opposes scheme for ministers' 
 maintenance, 157 
 
 Hay, Rev. Mr., settlement at 
 Peebles disputed 316 
 
 Henderson, Alexander, leader 
 of Covenanters, i86f. ; mo- 
 derator of Assembly of 1638 
 at Glasgow, 188 ; continues 
 Assembly after commissioner's 
 departure, 189 ; commissioner 
 at Westminster, 197 ; death 
 of, 197 
 
 Hepburn, John, nominated arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews, 73 
 
 Hepburn, Rev. Mr., of Urr, 
 deposed, 293 ; works as evan- 
 gelist, 301 
 
 High Commission, Court of, 182, 
 [187, 238 
 
 Highland Host, its pillaging,... 261 
 
 Hill, Dr. George, prof, of Greek, 
 appointed minister of St. An- 
 drews, 360 ; proposes anti- 
 missionary motion 349 
 
 Hill, Rev. Rowland, in Scot- 
 land, 355 
 
 Hog, James, of Carnock, a Mar- 
 row man, 312 
 
 Hog, Thomas, of Kiltearn, de- 
 posed, 229
 
 452 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hogg, Thomas, of Dysart, peti- 
 tions Charles I., 180 
 
 Holland, exiled ministers in, on 
 the Indulgence, 256 
 
 Holyrood, Conference at, in 
 1586, 144 
 
 Holywood, John, Scottish scho- 
 lar, 55 
 
 Home, John, of Athelstaneford, 
 author of " Douglas," 333 
 
 Home, Henry, Lord Kames, 332, 
 
 [336 
 
 Home mission work in large 
 cities, 432 
 
 Honorius III., pope, issues bull 
 about Scottish bishops, 48 
 
 Hume, David, charged with 
 scepticism 332, 336 
 
 Hunter, Rev. Andrew, excom- 
 municated for favouring Both- 
 well 154 
 
 Huntly, Earl of, murders Bon- 
 nie Earl of Moray, 151 ; ex- 
 communicated and flies the 
 country, 155 
 
 Hutcheson, George, leading Re- 
 solutioner, deprived, 232 ; re- 
 jects the Accommodation 354 
 
 Hymnal, The Scottish, 428 f. 
 
 Hymnary, The Church, 430 
 
 Hymns, early collections of, .... 428 
 
 Independent Chapels founded 
 by the Haldanes, 353 
 
 Indulgence, The First, 251 f. 
 
 The Second, 255 
 
 Inglis, Dr. John, advocates cause 
 of missions, 362 
 
 Innocent VIII., Pope, issues 
 Bull for erection of Glasgow 
 University, 70 
 
 Instructor, Edinburgh Chris- 
 tian, edited by Dr. Andrew 
 Thomson, 359 f-, 362 
 
 Intercommuning, Letters of,.... 260 
 
 Interdict, Scotland laid under, 47 
 
 Intrusion, Assembly enactments 
 against, 322 
 
 Inverkeithing case, 328 f. 
 
 lona occupied by St. Columba, 
 16 ; Monastic life in, 18 
 
 Irving, Edward, in Glasgow, 
 366 ; his popularity in Lon- 
 don, 397 ; deposition at 
 Annan, 367 f. ; death in 
 Glasgow 368 
 
 Jacobite insurrection of 1715 
 injurious to Scottish Episco- 
 pacy, 308 
 
 Jacobite insurrection of 1745, 
 Seceders' loyalty on occasion 
 of, 322 
 
 James, Lord, afterwards Earl of 
 Moray, visits Mary in France, 115 
 
 James II., advice given him by 
 Bishop Kennedy, 56 
 
 James V., death of, 83 
 
 James VI. asks ministers to 
 pray for his mother. 144 ; 
 thanks ministers and pro- 
 claims attachment to presby- 
 terianism, 148 ; favours the 
 popish lords, 158 ; favours 
 episcopacy, 163 f. 
 
 James VII. succeeds to the 
 throne, 280 ; repeals penal 
 laws against Romanists, 283 ; 
 declared by Parliament to 
 have forfeited the throne, 288 
 
 John of Fordun, Chronicles, 87 
 
 John, first bishop of Glasgow,.. 41 
 
 John XXI., Pope, interferes be- 
 tween Scotland and England, 50 
 
 Johnston of Warriston, clerk of 
 Assembly of 1638, 188; draws 
 up Solemn League and Coven- 
 ant, 185 ; arrested in France, 
 228 ; injured by treatment 
 abroad, 228 ; brought to 
 Edinburgh and executed, 229 
 
 Jubilee of Free Church, 435 
 
 Judicial Testimony of Seceders 
 issued, 321 
 
 Jurants and Non-Jurants, 307 f. 
 
 Jurisdiction of church in spiritual 
 matters claimed by Andrew 
 Melville, 156 
 
 Keillor, John, Blackfriar, satir- 
 izes churchmen, 81 
 
 Kennedy, James, becomes 
 bishop of St. Andrews, 62 ; 
 seeks to reform the church, 
 63 ; opposes the Douglas 
 party, 62 ; his advice to 
 James II., 62 f. ; eminent 
 services to the state, 63 f. ; 
 founds St. Salvator's College 
 at St. Andrews, 64 
 
 Kennedy, Hugh, Moderator of 
 first Assembly of Revolution 
 Church, 292 
 
 Kentigern, or Mungo, birth and 
 early days, II ; work in 
 Strathclyde, 12 ; meeting 
 with St. Columba, 12 
 
 Ker seized with " Spanish 
 Blanks " in his possession,. ... 155 
 
 Kerr Lectureship, 421
 
 IXDEX. 
 
 453 
 
 Killiecrankie, Battle of, 290 
 
 King and Kid executed after 
 Bothwell Bridge, 270 
 
 King's Confession and National 
 Covenant, 131 
 
 Kirkcaldy of Grange among 
 assassins of Beaton, 91 ; cap- 
 tain of Edinburgh Castle,... 126 f. 
 
 Kirkton, James, description of 
 state of Scotland after 1638,.. 190 
 
 Knox, Andrew, of Paisley, ap- 
 prehends agent of traitors 
 going to Spain, 155 
 
 Knox, John, meets with George 
 Wishart, 89 ; in St. Andrews 
 Castle, 94 ; called to be 
 minister, 95 ; answers charge 
 of Wynram, 96; in the French 
 galleys, 97 ; returns to Eng- 
 land, 98 ; goes back to 
 Geneva, 98 ; goes to Frank- 
 fort, 98 ; returns to Edin- 
 burgh, 989, 99 f. ; again at 
 Geneva, 101 ; writes to Queen 
 Dowager, 100 ; writes his 
 Appelation, IOI ; returns to 
 Edinburgh, 101 f. ; preaches 
 at Perth, 105 ; " Blast against 
 monstrous regiment of wo- 
 men" offends Elizabeth, 107 f. ; 
 takes part in writing First 
 Book of Discipline, 112; 
 First Meeting with Mary, 
 116; Marriage with Lord 
 Ochiltree's daughter, 1 19 ; 
 sons of Knox, 119; his esti- 
 mate of Lethington and 
 Kirkaldy, 127 ; removes to 
 St. Andrews, 127 ; returns to 
 Edinburgh, his last sermon, 
 128 ; death of, 129 ; Eulogy 
 Morton, 129 ; Life of, by 
 M'Crie, 360 
 
 Lagg, Grierson of, persecutor,.. 281 
 Lamberton, bishop of St. An- 
 drews, supporter of Robert 
 
 Bruce, 50 
 
 Landels, bishop of St. Andrews, 
 resists papal encroachments, 
 52 f. ; resisted interference 
 
 of the king, 53 
 
 Large Declaration, 191, 193 
 
 Latimer assists George Wishart, 87 
 Laud, ecclesiastical adviser of 
 
 Charles 1 178, 181 
 
 Laud's Liturgy, 177, 183 
 
 Lauderdale becomes head of 
 
 Government, 250 
 
 Laurence of Lindores conducts 
 
 PAGE 
 
 prosecution of James Resby, 
 52 ; one of first lecturers in 
 St. Andrews University, 56 ; 
 prosecutor of Paul Craw, 59 
 
 Lawson, James, sub-principal at 
 Aberdeen, 124 ; colleague of 
 John Knox, 128 ; voluntary 
 exile under "Black Acts," ... 142 
 
 Learmont executed at Edin- 
 burgh, 260 
 
 Lectureships, Theological, in 
 Scotland, 420 f. 
 
 Lee, Dr. Robert, his Liturgy,.. 425 f. 
 
 Leighton, Dr. Robert, accepts 
 bishopric, 230 ; attempts Ac- 
 commodation between pre- 
 lacy and presbyterianism, 
 252 f. ; death of, 259 
 
 Leith, Convention at, 126 ; be- 
 sieged by congregation, 108 
 
 Lesley, Bishop, visits Mary in 
 France 115 
 
 Leslie Controversy, 357 
 
 Leslie, General, commander of 
 Covenanters, 1 90 f. 
 
 Lethendy case, 384 f. 
 
 Lethington joins the Queen's 
 Party in Edinburgh Castle, I26f. 
 
 Libttum arbitrium, 391 
 
 Lifting, Controversy about, 345 
 
 Lindsay, David, bishop of Edin- 
 burgh, 182 
 
 Lindsay, John, secretary, pro- 
 poses scheme for ministers' 
 maintenance, 1 57 
 
 Lining joins Revolution church, 
 292 ; minister of Lesma- 
 hagow, 293 
 
 Liturgy, Scottish, introduced,... 183 
 
 Livingston, John, in Ireland, 
 179 f. ; commissioner to Hol- 
 land, 208 f. ; objects to 
 Charles being urged to take 
 Covenant, 209 
 
 Lochleven Castle, Mary at, 
 121 ; Mary escapes from, 124 
 
 Logy, Gavin, principal of St. 
 Andrews, 75 ; favours Re- 
 formed teaching, 80 
 
 Lollard preaching in Scotland, 
 
 51, 60 
 
 Lollards of Kyle 70 f. 
 
 Lord's Supper seldom cele- 
 brated by the Macmillanites, 305 
 
 Lucius III, Pope, removes ex- 
 communication and sends rose 
 to William the Lion, 47 
 
 Macaulay on effect of Revolu- 
 tion in Scotland 285 f. 
 
 F 2
 
 454 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Mac Cheyne of Dundee, death 
 of, 385 f- 
 
 Mac Crie, Dr. Thomas, joins 
 protesting party of Seceders, 
 359 5 writes life of Knox, 360 
 
 Mac Culloch of Cambuslang,...324 f. 
 
 Macfarlane, Dr. Duncan, prin- 
 cipal of Glasgow University, 
 361 f. ; moderator of Assem- 
 bly after Disruption 397 
 
 Macgill, Dr., of Ayr, Case of, 346 f. 
 
 Machar, St., disciple of St. 
 Columba, 17 
 
 Machar's, St., Cathedral, Old 
 Aberdeen, 72 
 
 Macintosh, Dr. W., of Buc- 
 hanan, his book, 416 
 
 Mac Kail, Hugh, sermon offends 
 Sharp, 247 ; apprehended and 
 executed, 248 
 
 Mackay, General, at Killie- 
 crankie, 290 
 
 Mac Knight, Dr., rival of Sir 
 John Leslie, 357 
 
 Macmillan, Rev. John, deposed 
 for sympathy with the Coven- 
 anters, 301 ; joins the socie- 
 ties, 302 
 
 Macmillan of Cardross appeals 
 to civil courts, 408 
 
 Macrae, David, Case of, 424 f. 
 
 Magus Moor, scene of Sharp's 
 death, 263 ; executions there, 270 
 
 Mair, Rev. Thomas, of Orwell, 
 suspended by Anti-Burgher 
 Synod 339 
 
 Maitland of Lethington, 129 
 
 Maitland, John, Lord Chancel- 
 lor of Scotland, unpopular 
 over Mary's death, 151 ; death 
 
 of. 155 
 
 Maitland, John, Lord, after- 
 wards Lauderdale, commis- 
 sioner to Westminster Assem- 
 bly, 196 
 
 Major, John, professor in Glas- 
 gow, 65 ; at St. Andrews, 
 writes History of Scotland, 
 71 ; supports Reformed doc- 
 trine, So 
 
 Malcolm Canmore, 29 ; marries 
 Saxon Princess Margaret, 31 ; 
 his capable Government, 33 
 
 Malignants excluded from places 
 by Protesters, 205, 2IO f. 
 
 Man, Rev. James, of Dunkeld, 
 charged with disloyalty 325 
 
 Margaret, Queen, according to 
 Turgot's Life, 32 ; her real 
 character, 32 f. ; her ecclesi- 
 
 astical reforms, 35 ff ; her in- 
 fluence on her sons, 376 
 
 Marnoch case 385 ff. 
 
 Marrow Controversy, 312 f. 
 
 Marrow and Marrow Men con- 
 demned, 313 
 
 Marsiliers, Pierre de, first 
 Teacher of Greek in Scot- 
 land, 87 
 
 Martin V., Pope, accepted by 
 Scotland in place of Anti- 
 popes, 55 
 
 Martin of Tours visited by 
 Ninian, 5 ff. 
 
 Mary of Guise, Queen Regent, 
 96 ; passes Knox's letter to 
 archbishop Beaton, 100 ; de- 
 ceives Erskine of Dun at 
 Stirling;, 104 ; threatens to 
 destroy city of Perth, 105 f. ; 
 forms league with churchmen, 
 107; death of, 109 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, arrives in 
 Scotland, 116; sets up Mass 
 in her chapel, 116 ; opposed 
 by Knox, 116; imprisoned in 
 Lochleven Castle, 121; escapes 
 from Castle, 124 ; prayer for, 
 ordered by King James, 144 
 
 Maxwell, Earl of Morton, allows 
 Mass in Dumfries, 142 
 
 Mearns, Dr., opposes Veto 
 Measure, 379 
 
 Melville, Andrew, begins work 
 in Scotland, 135 ; offered 
 royal chaplaincy, 136 ; prin- 
 cipal of Glasgow University, 
 136; principal of St. Mary's, 
 St. Andrews, 136 ; answers 
 Morton's threats, 137 ; before 
 the Council, 140 ; writes 
 Stephaniskion, 146 ; defends 
 jurisdiction of church against 
 king, 156; appears at Falk- 
 land against king's wish, 158 ; 
 represents Cupar Assembly 
 before king at Falkland, 159 ; 
 at Hampton Court, 167 ; con- 
 fined in Tower, 168 ; profes- 
 sor at Sedan, 168 ; death of, 
 1 68 ; Life by Dr. M'Crie,.... 360 
 
 Melville, James, nephew of An- 
 drew, 135; his superstition, 
 138 ; minister at Kilrenny, 
 153 ; charged with raising 
 money for Both well, 154 
 
 Middleton, Rev. Mr., presented 
 to Culsalmond, 390 
 
 Middleton, head of Scottish 
 Government after Restoration, 233
 
 IXDEX. 
 
 455 
 
 Millar, Andrew, first printer in 
 Scotland, 72 
 
 Miln, Walter, last Protestant 
 martyr in Scotland, 102 f. 
 
 Missionaries of Church of Scot- 
 land join Free Church, 404 
 
 Missionary Societies outside the 
 Church, 348 
 
 Missions, Foreign, debated in 
 Assembly, 343 f- 
 
 Mitchell, James, attempted ass- 
 assination of Sharp, 251 ; 
 trial, torture, and death, 258 f. 
 
 Moderate party, ascendency of, 336 f. 
 
 Moderator, first, of General 
 Assembly, ... 117 
 
 Moncreiff, Lord, in 1834, moves 
 Veto Measure, 379 
 
 Monmouth at Bothwell Bridge, 267 f. 
 
 Montgomery, Robert, made arch- 
 bishop of Glasgow, I39f- 
 
 Montrose compels by force men 
 of Aberdeen to sign Covenant, 
 201 ; joins king's party, 194 f. ; 
 sent by prince from Holland 
 to Scotland, ... 208 
 
 Moody and Sankey, evangelists, 434 
 
 Moray, Lord James Stewart, 
 called Good Regent, 124; 
 assassination of, 124 
 
 Moray, Bonnie Earl of, mur- 
 dered by Huntly, 151 
 
 Morison, Rev. James, of Kil- 
 marnock, libelled for heresy, 
 399 f. ; forms the E. U. Church, 400 
 
 Mortlach, founding of church at, 33 
 
 Morton, Earl of, on Knox, 129 ; 
 made Regent, 129 ; creates 
 Tulchan bishops, 130 ; treat- 
 ment of Melville, 136 f. 
 
 Mungo, St., or Kentigern, n f. 
 
 Mure of Rowallan, his version 
 of Psalms, 349 
 
 Nairn, Rev. Thomas, protests 
 against sentence on Secession 
 fathers, 320 ; joins the Sece- 
 ders, 322 ; joins old Dissen- 
 ters or Cameronians, 326 
 
 National Covenant, 131 
 
 Natural History of the Christian 
 Religion, 416 
 
 Neilson of Corsack intercedes 
 for Sir James Turner, 245, 
 247 ; tortured and put to 
 death, 247 
 
 Neonomians as opponents of 
 Marrow men, 311 
 
 New College, Edinburgh, built, 403 f. 
 
 New Light party in Church of 
 Scotland, 347 
 
 Nicholas V., pope, issues bull 
 for founding Glasgow Univer- 
 sity, 65 
 
 Niduari Picts, 7 
 
 Ninian, St., first Christian mis- 
 sionary in Scotland, 5 
 
 Ninians, St., forced settlement 
 at, 342 f. 
 
 Noailles, De, French ambassa- 
 dor in Scotland, 116 
 
 Non-intrusion controversy begins, 377 
 
 North, Brownlow, evangelist,.. 433 
 
 Oath of Abjuration, 306 
 
 Oath of Assurance, 295 
 
 Ochiltree, Lord, defends Perth 
 against Queen Regent, 
 
 Octavians, members of financial 
 committee, 156, 160 
 
 Old Light Burghers formed. 
 356 ; join Church of Scotland, 373 
 
 Order, Book of Common,.; 114 f. 
 
 Original Burghers, 356 
 
 Original Secession Synod form- 
 ed, 364^ 
 
 Ormiston, Laird of, Wishart, 
 seized at his house 89 
 
 Ottobone dei Fieschi, cardinal 
 legate, 49 
 
 Pacification, Articles of, signed, 
 
 192; repudiated, 193 
 
 Paisley, conference at, about 
 
 accommodation, 253 
 
 Palladius, bishop to Ireland,.... 10 
 Paraphrases, introduction of, in 
 
 churches, 349 f. 
 
 Parishes, origin of, 44 
 
 Paton, John, bishop of Dunkeld, 126 
 
 Patrick's pUces, 77 
 
 Patrick, St., birthplace and early 
 
 life, 9f. 
 
 Patronage, beginnings of, 44; 
 restored under Queen Anne, 
 303 f. ; disputes occasioned by, 
 
 315 ff.; abolished, 412 
 
 Paul II., pope, favours bishop 
 
 Graham at Rome, 66 
 
 Peden, Alexander, covenanter, 283 
 Peebles, disputed settlement at, 316 
 
 Pentlands, battle of the, 246 
 
 Perth, Knox preaches at, 105 ; 
 threatened by Queen Regent, 
 106 ; wrecking of monastery 
 by mob, 105 ; five persons 
 martyred at, 84 ; five Articles 
 at Assembly in, 172 ; Articles 
 of, repudiated, 187, 192 f.
 
 456 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Philip of Spain favoured by 
 Scottish Popish lords, 145 
 
 Pierre de Marsiliers, teacher of 
 Greek in Scotland, 87 
 
 Pluralities, objections against, 360 ff. 
 
 Policy, Book of, 133 ff. 
 
 Popes, Alexander III., 47 ; 
 Alexander VI., 71 ; Benedict 
 XII., 52 ; Benedict XIII. 
 53. 54. 56; Clement III. 
 
 47 ; Clement IV., 49 ; Greg 
 ory X., 49 ; Honorius III. 
 
 48 ; Innocent VIII., 70 
 John XXL, 50; Lucius III. 
 47 ; Martin V., 55 ; Nicholas 
 V., 65 ; Paul II., 66; Sixtus 
 IV., 66, 69; Urban IV., 53; 
 Urban VI., 53 
 
 Presbyterian Forms of Service, 428 
 
 Presbyterian Hymnal, 429 
 
 Presbyteries, First, arrangement 
 
 of, 133 
 
 Preston, battle of, between 
 
 Hamilton and Cromwell, 205 
 
 Printing, first, in Scotland, 72 
 
 Protest of Non Intrusionists on 
 table of Assembly, 396 f. ; be- 
 fore Assembly of Established 
 
 Church, 397 f- 
 
 Protesters and Resolutioners, ... 212 
 Psalms, metrical version author- 
 ized, 349 
 
 Qualifications of ministers dis- 
 cussed at Assembly, 157 
 
 Queen Regent treats with Lords 
 of Congregation at Perth, 106 
 
 Queensferry Declaration, 271 
 
 Quoad Sacra Churches, . . . 
 
 Rabbling of the Curates, 286 f. 
 
 Rescissory Act, 223 f. 
 
 Reformed Presbyterian Church 
 at Revolution, 289 ; modifies 
 terms of Communion, 407 ; 
 minority synod, 407 ; joins 
 Free Church 413 
 
 Reid, Robert, bishop of Orkney, 
 endows Edinburgh University, 
 139 ; dies at Dieppe, 103 
 
 Reid, Thomas, stirred up by 
 Hume's writings, 337 
 
 Relief Church Hymn-book, 429 
 
 Relief, Presbytery of, formed,... 331 
 
 Relief of Poor, beginnings of 
 national scheme for, 335 
 
 Ren wick, James, early life, 276 ; 
 draws up testimony, 284 ; ex- 
 ecution of, 284 
 
 Resby, James, martyr at St. 
 Andrews, 51 
 
 Resolutioners and Protesters,... 212 
 
 Resolutioners in favour at Res- 
 toration, 216 ; refuse to asso- 
 ciate with Protesters, 223 f. ; 
 acknowledge their short-sight- 
 edness, 232 
 
 Revival of 1859, 432 ff. 
 
 Revivals of Religion, 324 f. 
 
 Revolution settlement 291 
 
 Riding Committees, first, 316 ; 
 last of them, 328 
 
 Robertson, Dr. James, professor 
 of ecclesiastical history, 404 ; 
 his endowment scheme, 404 f. 
 
 Robertson, Dr. William, of 
 Gladsmuir, first appearance 
 in Assembly, 328 ; prepares 
 Reasons of Dissent, 329 ; his 
 ecclesiastical policy 340 f. 
 
 Rollock, Robert, first principal 
 of Edinburgh University, 139 
 
 Roman Catholic Relief Bill, 370 
 
 Roman occupation of Scotland, 2 
 
 Romans quit Britain 3 
 
 Rose, bishop, his answer to 
 King William, 287 
 
 Rothes, Earl of, abandons cause 
 of Covenanters, 194; becomes 
 head of Scottish government, 
 240; dismissed from office, ... 250 
 
 Rough, John, Dominican friar 
 in St. Andrews, 92 ; argues 
 with Dean Annand, 93 ; along 
 with Knox argues with Ro- 
 manists in St. Andrews, 95 
 
 Rous' metrical version of Psalms, 349 
 
 Row heresy cafe, 368 f. 
 
 Rullion Green, Covenanters' 
 battle at, 246 
 
 Rutherford, John, of St. Andrews, 
 calumniates Knox, 126 
 
 Rutherfurd, Samuel, commis- 
 sioner to Westminster As- 
 sembly, 197 ; author of Lex 
 Rex. and Spiritual Letter.*, ... 198 
 
 Ruthven, Raid of, 142 
 
 Ryehouse Plot, Presbyterians 
 charged as accessories to, 277 
 
 Sacrobosco, Scottish scholar, ... 55 
 
 Sanquhar Declaration, 271 f. 
 
 Sawtree, martyr at St. Andrews, 51 
 Scheves lectures at St. Andrews, 
 57 ; supplants Graham as arch- 
 bishop, 68 ; opposes making 
 Glasgow an archbishopric, ... 70 
 Schism, seceders declare they 
 have no sympathy with, 337
 
 INDEX. 
 
 457 
 
 Scholars, famous Scottish 55 Society people, ... 292 f., 302, 304 f. 
 
 Scotch College of Paris, 55 Sol way Moss, defeat of James V. 
 
 Scotch Sermons 415 at, 83 
 
 Scottish Confession of Faith, ... no Spanish Blanks, treasonable 
 
 Scottish Hymnal, 428 f. papers signed by popish lords, 155 
 
 Scougal, Henry, 275 Spiritual independence, 376 f. 
 
 ,, Patrick, bishop of Aber- Spottiswoode," John, superin- 
 
 deen 275 tendent, 113 
 
 Seaton, Alexander, blackfriar at Spottiswoode, John, archbishop 
 
 St. Andrews, 80 of Glasgow, transferred to St. 
 
 Seceders, loyalty of, in 1745, ... 326 Andrews, 170; presides at 
 
 Secession of Erskine and others, 320 f. Assembly in Aberdeen, 170; 
 
 Secessionists from Free Church made Lord Chancellor, 182 ; 
 
 over Declaratory Act, 423 death of, 186 
 
 Second Book of Discipline,.... 133 ft. St. Andrews, a metropolitan see, 
 
 Serf, St., or Servanus, Scottish 48; founding of university of, 56 
 
 missionary, II St. Machar's cathedral, 72 
 
 Service, Improvement in St. Salvator's College at St. 
 
 Church, 425 ff. Andrews, 64 
 
 Sharp, James, a resolutioner, Stepheniskion by Andrew Mel- 
 
 214; early life, 216 f. ; sent ville, 146 
 
 to London by Resolutioners, Stewarton case, ooo 
 
 216 ; negotiates with Charles Straiten, David, martyr under 
 
 in London and Holland, 217; Beaton, , 81 
 
 correspondence with Robert Strathbogie case 385 ff. 
 
 Douglas, 217 f.; begins to act Superintendents in Scottish 
 
 traitor, 219 ; keeps up separa- Church, 113 
 
 tionof Resolutioners and Pro- Synod at Edinburgh in 1558, ... 104 
 testers, 223 ; made professor Sustentation Fund Scheme pro- 
 at St. Andrews, 227 ; throws posed by Chalmers, 396 ; sue- 
 off the mask, 230; consecrated cessfully started, 402 f. 
 
 bishop, 231 ; offers bishopric Sutherland, Earl of, first signs 
 
 of Edinburgh to Douglas, the Covenant in 1638, 185 
 
 231 f. ; given precedence in 
 
 Council, 239 f. ; attempted Tabernacle erected by Haldanes 
 
 assassination of, 251 ; assass- in Edinburgh, 355 
 
 ination at Magus Muir, 262 ff. Tables, Classification of Coven- 
 Shields, Alexander, encourages anting party, i84f. 
 
 forming Cameronian regiment, Tanfield Hall, meeting of Free 
 
 289 ; joins Revolution Church, Assembly there, 397 ; meet- 
 
 292; writes Hind let Loose,... 293 ing of U. P. Synod, 406 
 
 Shotts, revival movement at, ... 325 Test Act, 2 74^ 
 
 Simeon, Charles, of Cambridge, Thomson, Dr. Andrew, his in- 
 evangelistic work in Scotland, 351 fluence 362 f. 
 
 Simson, John, professor in Glas- Thomson, David, intruded at 
 
 gow, case of, 309 f. ; second St. Ninians, 342 f. 
 
 charge and suspension 314 f. Tinwald Paper, 294 
 
 Simson, Patrick, reproves King Toleration, Act of, 303 
 
 James for death of Moray 151 Tonsure, disputes about the,.... 24 f. 
 
 Sinclair, dean of Resalrig, 104 Torphichen case, 328 
 
 ,, Sir George, clause to Tor wood excommunication 273 
 
 be added to Lord Aberdeen's Tulchan bishops 1 30 f. 
 
 Bill, 391 Tulloch, Principal, his life and 
 
 SixtusIV., pope, makes Graham works, 421 f. 
 
 archbishop of St. Andrews, Turgot, first bishop of St. An- 
 
 66; takes part with Graham's drews, 38 
 
 enemies, 69 Turnbull, bishop of Glasgow, 
 
 Smith, Dr. Robertson, case of, 416 ff. founds University, 65 
 
 Smyton of Kilmaurs, contro- Turner, Sir James, his persecu- 
 
 versy about lifting, 345 f. tions, 244 f. ; apprehended by
 
 458 
 
 TKDEX. 
 
 Covenanters in Dumfries, 
 
 245 ; dismissed the service, 250 
 Two Penny Faith, 104 
 
 Uniformity of Church govern- 
 ment in England and Scot- 
 land, 195 
 
 Union of Burghers and Anti- 
 Burghers, 363 ; of Old Light 
 Burghers and Church of Scot- 
 land, 373 f. ; of United Se- 
 cession and Relict Churches, 
 405 f. ; of Original Seceders 
 and Free Church, 406 f. 
 
 Union of Congregational and 
 E.U. Churches, 430 ff. 
 
 Union, Hopes of larger 440 f. 
 
 Union negotiations between Free 
 and U.P. Churches, 410; 
 stopped owing to opposition, 41 1 
 
 Union of Reformed Presbyterian 
 and Free Church, 413 ; of 
 Free and United Presbyterian 
 Churches, 438 ff. 
 
 United Free Church formed,.... 439 
 
 United Original Seceders, 374 
 
 United Presbyterian Church,.... 406 
 
 United Secession Church, 364 
 
 University of Aberdeen, found- 
 ing of, 71 
 
 University of Edinburgh, found- 
 ing of, 139 
 
 University of Glasgow, found- 
 ing of, 65 
 
 University of St. Andrews, 
 founding of, 56 
 
 Urban IV., Pope, insists on 
 Scotch bishops and abbots 
 being consecrated at Rome, 53 
 
 Urban VI., Pope, makes bishop 
 Wardlaw legate for Scot- 
 land 53 
 
 Veto Law passed, 379 ; res- 
 cinded, 397 
 
 Voluntary Controversy, 370 ff. 
 
 Wallace, Colonel, leader of 
 Covenanters at Dumfries, 245; 
 drills Covenanters at Lanark, 
 
 246 ; leader at Rullion Green, 246 
 Wardlaw, Henry, bishop of St. 
 
 Andrews, 53 ; persecutor of 
 Lollards, 52 ; aids in found- 
 ing St. Andrews University, 55 
 
 Wardlaw, Ralph, lectures in 
 London against Establish- 
 ments, , 372 
 
 Warriston, draws up the Cove- 
 nant, 185 ; clerk of Assembly, 
 
 1 88 ; commissioner to West- 
 minster Assembly, 196 ; ap- 
 prehended in Irvine, 228 ; 
 brought to Edinburgh and 
 executed, 229 
 
 Welfare of Youth Scheme in 
 Free Church,. 437 
 
 Welsh, David, moderator of 
 Assembly of 1842, 396; opens 
 first Free Assembly, 397 
 
 Welsh, John, of Ayr, sent to 
 Blackness, 165 
 
 Welsh, John, of Irongray, 257 
 
 Westminster Assembly, prepar- 
 ation for, 195 f. ; Scottish 
 divines at, i g6ff . 
 
 Whitefield in Scotland, 324 f. 
 
 Wickliffites in Scotland 51 
 
 Wigtown Martyrs, 281 
 
 William the Lion excommuni- 
 cated by the Pope, 47 
 
 William of Orange, policy re- 
 garding Scottish church, 286f.; 
 struggle with General Assem- 
 bly, 295 f. ; death of, 298 f. 
 
 Willock, John, superintendent, 
 113 ; joint author of First 
 Book of Discipline, 112 ; first 
 moderator of Assembly, 117 
 
 Wilson, Margaret, Wigtown 
 martyr 281 f. 
 
 Wilson, Rev. William, appointed 
 professor of Associate pres- 
 bytery, 321 
 
 Wishart, George, early days, 
 86 f. ; charged with heresy in 
 England, 87; preaches in 
 Montrose and Dundee, 88 ; 
 meets with Knox, 89; brought 
 to St. Andrews and executed 
 there, 90 
 
 Wishart, George, appointed 
 bishop of Edinburgh, 232 
 
 Women's Guild in Church of 
 Scotland 437 
 
 Wright, Rev. Thomas, of Borth- 
 wick, case of, 374ff- 
 
 Wynram, John, sub-prior of St. 
 Andrews, favours Reformed 
 doctrine, 80 ; reverses sen- 
 tence against Sir John Borth- 
 wick, 83 ; deals kindly with 
 Wishart, 89 ; joint author of 
 First Book of Discipline, 1 12 ; 
 one of the superintendents,... 113 
 
 Wynton, Andrew, chronicler,. .. 57 f. 
 
 York, Duke of, cruelty and un- 
 popularity of, 275 f.

 
 JRr. William till, 
 
 EVANGELIST, 
 
 *.-> 
 
 T 
 
 21 iKorninqsi&r 
 
 [OVER.
 
 fUtoiu? 
 
 MAY BE MADE TO 
 
 Rev. GORDON B. WATT, M.A., 
 
 High Kirk Manse, Kilmarnock. 
 
 Rev. W. D. MOEFAT, M.A., 
 
 16 Forth Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 Mr. WILLIAM ROBERTSON, 
 Carrubber's Close Mission, Edinburgh. 
 
 Mr. ROBERT LOGAN, 
 
 Tent Hall, Steel Street, Glasgow. 
 
 Mr. A. MURDOCH, 
 
 Edengrove, Kilsyth 
 
 f Secretary. Kilsyth Evangelistic Association). 
 
 Cammen&ftt also by -^-^ 
 
 Rev. ANDREW MURRAY, D.D. 
 Rev. Dr. STEWART, Lovedale. 
 Bishop THOBURN, D.D., India. 
 And others. 
 
 [OVER.