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 church would not willingly be led into prosecutions for heresy. After this, however, there was a revival on the part of some of

the clergy of High Church and orthodox sentiment. The Scottish Church Society was founded in 1892 with Dr John Macleod of Govan as president, “to defend and advance catholic doctrine as set forth in the ancient creeds and embodied in the standards of the Church of Scotland.” In 1897, however, Alexander Robinson of Kilmun was deposed by the presbytery of Dunoon acting under the orders of the Assembly on account of the views contained in his book The Saviour in the Newer Light, in which the results of modern criticism of the Gospels were set forth with some ability. The National Church Union, of which Professor A. Menzies was president, was formed after this event by ministers and elders who feared that the cause of free theological inquiry was in peril in the church. This body at once raised the question of the relaxation of subscription, which was in a few years seriously taken up by the church, and the National Church Union, feeling that in this, as well as in the growth of liberal opinion in the church its object had been attained, discontinued its operations. The Scottish Church Society still carries on its work.

The question of subscription has been more or less before the church for many years. The formula adopted by the assembly of 1711 had still to be signed by ministers, and was felt to be much too strict. After debates extending over many years, the assembly of 1889 fell back on the words of the act of parliament 1693, passed to enable the Episcopalian clergy to join the establishment, in which the candidate declared the Confession of Faith to be the confession of his faith, owned the doctrine therein contained to be the true doctrine and promised faithfully to adhere to it. This was accompanied by a Declaratory Act in which the church expressed its desire to enlarge rather than curtail the liberty hitherto enjoyed. Ten years later the assembly was again debating the question of subscription. A committee appointed in 1899 to inquire into the powers of the church in the matter reported that the power of the church was merely administrative—it was in her power as cases arose to prosecute or to refrain from prosecuting, but that she had no power to modify the confession in any way. Here the matter might have remained, but that the approach to parliament of the United and the Free Churches after the decision of the House of Lords in 1904 (see and ) offered an opportunity for asking parliament to remove a grievance the church herself had no power to deal with. The Scottish Churches Bill of 1905 afforded relief to all the Presbyterian churches. It did not do what the Church of Scotland asked, viz. allow the words of the act of 1690 to be used as the formula; but it removed that of 1693 and left it to the church to frame a new formula for her ministers and professors, an undertaking to which she is seriously addressing herself.

The agitation for disestablishment sprang up afresh after the passing of the Church Patronage Act (Scotland); each

assembly of the Free Church passed a resolution in favour of it, and the United Free Church continued this testimony. In 1890 Mr Gladstone declared for disestablishment, and under his government of 1892 a Disestablishment Bill was introduced in the House of Commons by Sir Charles Cameron, in two successive sessions, 1893-1894. After the defeat of the Liberal government in 1895, the church was for ten years relieved from this anxiety, nor had the attack been renewed up to 1911. A counter-movement was represented by a bill introduced into parliament in 1886 in order to declare the spiritual independence of the Church of Scotland, in the hope that the way might be opened to a reunion of the Presbyterian bodies. The act of 1905 has altered the circumstances of the churches in this regard. During the agitation the church was much occupied with the question of her own defence, and after it died down, various schemes were entertained for the improvement of her position without and within. She more than once expressed her willingness to confer with the daughter Presbyterian churches, with a view to their sharing with her the benefits of her position.

Since 1908 the subject of the union of the churches has been much spoken of. The quarter-centenary of the birth of Calvin occurring at the time of the Church assemblies of 1909 brought the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church assembly together for a memorial service in St Giles's; and a committee on union, consisting of 105 representatives from each assembly, was appointed.