Page:Sketches of the History of the Church of Scotland.djvu/10

 Calvin, the great Continental authority among the Reformed, and from whom they confessedly imbibed their peculiar doctrinal views, and who is popularly supposed to have been a Presbyterian and a minister, whereas he was neither, gives forth a maxim which strikes at the root of Presbytry:—"Parity," he says, "or equality in the government of the Church, breedeth strifes." For fully fifteen years after the establishment of the Reformation in Scotland, no such principle as that of the unlawfulness of any superiority of office in the Church above presbyters, which was the standpoint and contention among the first Presbyterians, was either professed or insisted on.

Again, it is the all but universal belief in Scotland that the Reformer Knox was a Presbyterian, whereas the fact is he maintained the system of Superintendency, or the nominal Episcopacy with which the Reformation began; he was offered an English Bishopric, which he declined; his mission, as he thought, being to purify and consolidate his native Church; and two of his sons held benefices in the Church of England. It is better known that John Knox and the Reformed Church of Scotland used a Liturgy or Public Common Prayer. As a proof that the Church's Days of Holy Remembrance were celebrated under the system in which Knox ministered, we remark that after his death, and while the new development of Presbytry was working its way, a petition was presented to the Regent praying "that all days which heretofore have been kept holy, such as Christmas Day, or Yule, Saints' days, and Lent, may be abolished, and a civil penalty," i.e., fine or imprisonment, "be appointed against the keepers thereof, by ceremonies, banquetings, playings, fastings, and other like vanities."

The same General Assembly distinguished itself by an ordinance on the subject of the dress of ministers and ministers' wives, on which we suspect its successors at the present day would hardly venture. The ladies, as well as their husbands, were put under such stringent regulations as would now go far to create a female rebellion. "We think," said these grave divines, "all kind of broidering unseemly; all begares of velvet [coloured stripes or slashings sewed on the dress] in gown, hose, or coat; and all superfluous and vain cutting out; steeking with silks; all kind of costly sewing on passments [fringes or trimmings], or variant hues in sarks; all kind of light and variant hues in clothing, as red, blue, yellow, and such like; all wearing of rings, bracelets, buttons of silver, gold, or other metal, be interdicted;" and much more to the same effect. Presbyterianism has, indeed, continued the abolition of Yule as a religious festival, but the popular feeling has always been too strong to permit its abolition as a time for merry-makmg and good cheer. Symptoms of rebellion, however, are of late cropping up in favour of its restoration as a day of religious observance. Places of worship, both Established and Free, are being opened in increasing numbers