Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/708

Rh 684 PRESBYTERIANISM [SCOTLAND. Cameronians or Society People. Want of space prevents iis from giving even the names of a series of Acts which would disgrace any nation however barbarous, in any age however intolerant, and under which, it is asserted with grea,t probability, 18,000 persons died. In February 1687 James II. proclaimed indulgences to moderate Presby terians as far only as regarded private worship. By the same proclamation the profession of Koman Catholicism was made absolutely free. In March a more extended in dulgence and in June the suspension of all penal laws, except as regarded field -preaching, were granted. The party which had throughout refused compromise refused it still. In their Informatory Vindication they scouted the claim of the sovereign to &quot; indulge &quot; or to &quot; tolerate &quot; an inalienable right, and went on with their field-preaching as though nothing had happened. The death of Renwick, their leader, closes the awful story of the rule of the later Stuarts in Scotland. Presby- On 5th November 1688 William landed at Torbay ; the terian- bishops curates were ejected without violence ; no retri- more bution was taken, but Presbyterianism quietly reasserted supreme, itself as the form of church government natural to the Scottish mind. Presbyterianism, however, was not now what it had been in the days of Andrew Melville or in 1638. The last twenty-six years had thoroughly cowed a great part of the nation, and a new generation had come to manhood who could not even remember the time when Scotland was not Episcopal. The nobles had no interest to serve in re-establishing the old form ; the very ministers were those who had conformed or had accepted indulgence. Out of the 400 ejected in 1663 only sixty now survived. Moreover, Scotland had not escaped the wave of latitudi- narianism that had come over all forms of Protestant reli gion. Most of all, the character of William III. and his confidential adviser Carstares affected the nature of the settlement. William was above all a statesman, and a toler ant statesman, and he wished for union of the moderate parties in both kingdoms ; on taking the coronation oath he refused to swear the clause binding him to root out heretics and enemies of the true worship of God. The claim of right, too, avoids any assertion of the jus divinum of Presby terianism. But on 22d July 1689 its declaration that prelacy had been an insupportable grievance was made into an Act by the convention of estates, and all Acts in favour of Episcopacy were rescinded. In April 1690 the Act of Supremacy was also rescinded ; ministers ejected since 1661 were replaced, and the Presbyterian government of 1592 (thus avoiding all mention of the covenants) restored; lay patronage was abolished, but pecuniary compensation was granted. On 16th October 1690 the first general assembly since 1653 met, when the preliminary act was to receive into the national church the remaining three ministers of the Cameronians (Thomas Lining, Alexander Shields, and William Boyd). Their followers, however, regarded this as a compromise with Satan, and kept them selves aloof. 1 Episcopalian ministers who subscribed the confession and obeyed the Presbyterian government re tained their livings, and all sentences of Resoluticners and Protesters against one another were rescinded. Mi- Hether- 1 They remained without a minister until 1707, when they were joined by John M Millan, minister of the parish of Balmagaie, who had been summarily deposed for principles akin to those of thj Society People. The accession of Thomas Nairn, one of the ministers of the Secession Church, made a &quot; Reformed Presbytery&quot; possible in 1743 ; this became a synod of three presbyteries in 1811. The first &quot;Testi mony,&quot; published in 1761, was afterwards superseded by that of 1839, which thenceforward was regarded as one of the &quot;subordinate stand ards&quot; of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. In 1876 before tlae union with the Free Church (see vol. ix. p. 746) the denomination in Scotland numbered 6 presbyteries, 38 ministers, and 40 congregations. It also had six missionaries in the New Hebrides. For the fortunes of the Reformed presbyteries in Ireland and the United States, see below. ington well says, &quot;Without a clear conception of this point it is impossible to understand the subsequent history of the Church of Scotland. In consequence of the introduction of the prelatic party the church thenceforward contained within its pale two systems, that of the old and true Pres byterian, subsequently known as the evangelical, and that of the new and semi-prelatical, subsequently known as the moderate. - Thenceforward the history of the Church of Scotland is the history of the protracted struggle between these two systems, which were necessarily irreconcilable.&quot; In the first case of friction with the crown, which occurred in 1691, a compromise was effected, the church success fully asserting its autonomy by granting only part of the privileges which William desired for the Episcopal clergy. The critical dispute occurred when parliament imposed a new oath of allegiance, the taking of which was made a necessary qualification for sitting in the assembly. The church denied the right of the crown to impose a civil oath as a condition of spiritual office ; and a serious breach would have occurred but for the efforts of Carstares, who induced the king to give way at the last moment. Having thus asserted her independence, the church conceded to William nearly all he had asked for on behalf of the Episcopalians. In 1696 the parish schools were estab lished. In 1698, to vindicate the church from the charges of backsliding, the general assembly published the Season able Admonition, which claimed in emphatic language the dependence of the church on Christ alone, and repudiated the doctrine that the inclination of the people was the foundation of Presbyterianism. In 1701 the first con demnation of heresy took place. The spirit of watchfulness on the part of the church increased during Anne s reign. In naming commissioners for the Union the parliament forbade them to mention the church. The extreme section indeed regarded the Union itself as a violation of the Solemn League and Covenant. The Act of Security provided that the Con fession of Faith and the Presbyterian government should &quot;continue without any alteration to the people of this land in all succeeding ages,&quot; and the first oath taken by the queen at her accession was to preserve it. The Union, however, tended to Anglicize the upper classes and thus to increase the latitudinarianism which was finding its way within the church. Politically speaking, the settlement of the Scottish Church was of great importance to the Govern ment during the Jacobite intrigues, for its attitude was one of vigilance against all that was favourable to Prelacy, and its influence consolidated opinion against the Stuarts. The High- Church revival of 1710, however, had its effect upon the church. In 1711 an Episcopalian named Greenshields used the English liturgy in Edinburgh. He was condemned by the Court of Session ; but the House of Lords reversed the decision and imposed heavy damages on the magistrates who had closed his chapel. In 1712 a Bill of Toleration, which allowed Episcopalian dissenters to use the English liturgy, w y as hurried through both Houses, in spite of the urgent remonstrances of the Scottish commissioners, and on 22d April lay patronage was restoVed. This latter Act, as violating the Act of Security, has never been regarded as valid by the severer Presby terians. That no further resistance was made than by protests and petitions shows how far the &quot; moderatizing &quot; spirit had spread. The remnant of the Cameronians, who w r ere outside of and discouraged by the church, alone met and renewed the Covenant after solemnly acknowledging the sins of the nation. The progress towards Arminianism, due to the influence Schis of Baxter s writings and to the training of the young ministers in Holland, may be seen in the treatment of Professor Simson and in the Auchterarder case. It was