Page:Sketches of the History of the Church of Scotland.djvu/29

 would be to establish iniquity by law, and would bring upon the promoters thereof, and upon their families, the dreadful guilt of all those sins, and pernicious effects both to Church and State that may ensue thereupon." The principles embodied in this precious Document were systematically acted upon and carried out for nearly a century; and so successfully that the Church was all but exterminated.

The population north of the Tay was, as ever, for the most part Episcopalian, and largely Jacobite; and the newly established Presbyterianism had the utmost difficulty in collecting Congregations in the Parishes, and in forming Presbyteries. In the records of the Presbytery of Deer, which I have had an opportunity of examining, it appears that they had to import ministers from other districts to make up a quorum; and the Episcopal Incumbent of the Parish of Deer, Mr George Keith, a cadet of the noble house of Marischal, and a staunch Jacobite, like the head of the family, and all his name and race, kept possession of Kirk, manse, and benefice, and was upheld and supported by the body of the parishioners and landed gentry, almost to a man and woman,—indeed the women were the keenest partisans of the exiled King, and in their allegiance to the Church,—for nearly a quarter of a century after the Revolution. At Mr Keith's death in 1711, the Presbytery at length ventured on the attempt to settle a minister, but without success. The parishioners rose and resisted. The Parish Kirk was hemmed in by village houses, from the roofs of which stones and other missiles were hurled against the Presbytery. It was in fact deforced; and the ministers were compelled to depart, re infecta, and complete the formalities in the Kirk of a neighbouring parish, to which access was more easily procured. This incident is known historically as "the rabble of Deer." In other parishes of the Diocese of Aberdeen many of the parochial Clergy kept possession long after the '15,—down to 1725, and in some instances even later. Such is a specimen of what was alleged to be "the inclinations of the people," the Charter of the Presbyterian Establishment set up in 1689. During the entire reign of Queen Anne, who was personally favourable to the dispossessed Church, and showed her favour by the gift for distribution of a large Edition of the Book of Common Prayer, which was then coming into general use,—the Book, I may mention, was introduced by Mr Keith into the Parish Church of Deer the year after the Revolution,—the Church enjoyed the protection of the Civil Authorities against the ill-will of those who showed every inclination to harass and molest her. The Jacobites looked upon Anne, as probably she herself did, in the light of her brother's lieutenant; and so they forbore from any overt act in favour of the King's restoration during her lifetime. It was not until the Queen's death in 1715, and the accession of the Hanoverian dynasty, that active persecution began. There is no need to conceal the fact that the Rising in the '15 furnished the pretext. In the autumn of that year the Earl of Mar unfurled the Royal Standard at