Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/706

Rh 682 PRESBYTERIANISM [SCOTLAND. plans, the parliament s and the church s, James greatly preferred the former ; to induce the church to agree to it he held a conference previous to the general assembly at Montrose in 1GOO, but in vain. At Montrose the assembly put limitations to the plan of the Falkland convention by insisting that their representatives should sit but for one year, and that at the end of that year they should resign and account for their conduct to the assembly, which might depose them. They were to be called commissioners only. Six were to be nominated for each province, from whom the king was to choose one. The commissioner was to have no power above that of other ministers, was to perform full pastoral work, and was to lose his vote in parliament if deposed from the ministry. Victory James at length took a decisive step. On 14th October of James 1600 he summoned a convention of commissioners from the various synods, and by some means secured its consent to the appointment of three bishops in addition to those formerly nominated and still living. They took their seats and voted in parliament next November ; but the church, disowning the authority of the convention, refused to ac knowledge the appointment as valid, and assigned them no place in her own organization. The quarrel became intensified when James was master of the power of corrup tion with English money. The proposals for union between the kingdoms at once brought out the views of the church. &quot;The realmes,&quot; said Melville, &quot;could not be united with out the union of the kirk; neither could the kirkes be united in discipline, the one being Episcopal and the other Presbyterian, unless one should surrender to the other.&quot; When James twice prorogued the meeting of the general assembly nine presbyteries met at Aberdeen in defiance. The Government at once struck hard : eight ministers were banished to remote charges and six to France. Next followed the alienation of church lands and revenues and their erection into temporal lordships, the re-establishment of seventeen prelacies, and the restoration of the bishops. The immense step was taken of recognizing the king as &quot;absolute prince, judge, and governor over all estates, persons, and causes, both spiritual and temporal.&quot; In 1606 another packed assembly declared for constant moderators of presbyteries and for the supremacy of the bishops in their own presbytery and provincial synod. In 1609 the bishops gained the right of fixing ministers stipends. In 1610 courts of high commission with most arbitrary powers were erected at Glasgow and St Andrews ; and in June the general assembly placed the whole ecclesi astical power in the king s hands. In 1618, under threats of violence, the general assembly of Perth passed the Five Acts, which enforced kneeling at communion, observance of holy days, Episcopal confirmation, private baptism, and private communion. These were ratified by parliament on Black Saturday, 4th August 1621. Thus matters remained until the death of James. Almost the first act of Charles I. was to proclaim the strict observance of the articles of Perth. In November 1625 he revoked all the Acts of his father prejudicial to the crown, as a first step toward the resumption of the church lands. This, of course, met with the vehement opposition of the nobility, and the scheme in the end had to be given up. In 1630 Maxwell, in Laud s confidence, was sent to Scotland to try to force upon the people the English liturgy. It is significant of the change in feeling that a paper of grievances sent in by ministers was sup ported by several of the nobility. Their hatred was always directed to the nearest enemy, against the crown before the Reformation and during its early stages, against the Reformed Church of late years, now against the crown again. In 1633 Charles came to Edinburgh and forced through the convention the &quot; Act anent his Majesty s Pre rogative and Apparel of Churchmen,&quot; a combination of two Acts passed in 1606 and 1609 respectively. All pro tests were disregarded and the whole nation was thrown into a state of anger and disappointment. The attack on Balmerino still further alienated the lords. In 1635 dio cesan courts were erected Avith the most vexatious powers, and the Book of Canons, subversive of Presbyterianism and insulting in language, was distributed ; and in 1636 the people were ordered to adopt Laud s book of public wor ship ; while in July 1637 the prelates obtained an order of outlawry against ministers who should be backward in re ceiving the liturgy. As Baillie said, they were like to go &quot; to Rome for religion, to Constantinople for policy.&quot; On 23d July, however, the outburst of St Giles s took place. Final The history of the great rising cannot be traced here. The success National Covenant, which was its outcome, drawn up by^ e , Alexander Henderson and Johnston of Warriston, consisted of the Second Book of Discipline, a recapitulation of the Acts of Parliament condemning Popery and ratifying the acts of the general assembly, and the application of the whole to present times. After some months of trickery and evasion, frustrated with firmness and ability by the Covenanters, the general assembly met on Wednesday, 21st November 1638. When they determined to sit in judgment on the prelates, Hamilton, the king s commissioner, dissolved the assembly. It, however, continued its sitting, refused to acknowledge the assemblies which had introduced prelacy, condemned the Acts of Perth and all the late innovations, and abjured all Episcopacy different from that of a pastor over a parti cular flock. Baillie alone made a stand for not rejecting Episcopacy as represented by the superintendents of Knox s time. Eight prelates were excommunicated, four deposed only, two reduced to the simple pastorate. All church assemblies were restored, and the principle that the con sent of the congregation was necessary to a minister s appointment was re-enacted. Schools and schoolmasters were at once to be provided. In August 1639 an Act was passed, called the Barrier Act, that no change should be made in the laws of the church until the proposal had been submitted to all provincial synods and presbyteries. The church was now secure. She had gained the day, because on this occasion the zeal of her ministers and the interests of the nobles had been both enlisted in her service. The victory had been won in her name and the influence of her ministers was vastly increased. For the spiritual tyranny which they introduced the reader should refer to Mr Buckle s famous chapter ; or, if he think those statements to be partial or exaggerated, to original records, such as those of the presbyteries of St Andrews and Cupar. The arrogance of the ministers pretensions and the readi- Rule &amp;lt; ness with which these pretensions were granted, the appal- niin i st ling conceptions of the Deity which were inculcated and the j iur( ?] absence of all contrary expression of opinion, the intrusions on the domain of the magistrate, the vexatious inter ference in every detail of family and commercial life and the patience with which it was borne, are to an English reader alike amazing. &quot;We acknowledge,&quot; said they, &quot; that according to the latitude of the word of God (which is our theame) we are allowed to treate in an ecclesiastical way of greatest and smallest, from the King s throne that should be established in righteousness, to the merchant s ballance that should be used in faithfulness.&quot; The liber ality of the interpretation given to this can only be judged of after minute reading. Up to this point the Kirk had worked out her own salvation ; the problem had been purely Scottish ; hence forward her history is in close connexion with that of England and assumes a different complexion. Her first difficulties, however, arose in her own midst. L T nder the