pose the doctrine which had just been received, they should be entitled to no credit, seeing, after full knowledge of it, and ample time for deliberation, they had allowed it to pass without the smallest opposition or contradiction. On the 24th of August, the parliament abolished the papal jurisdiction, prohibited, under certain penalties the celebration of mass, and rescinded all the laws formerly made in support of the Roman Catholic Church, and against the Reformed faith.”* urgent necessities of the case, another expedient was devised. It was resolved to divide the counties into departments, and appoint one of the Protestant party to take the general charge of religious matters throughout each of these departments, and to bear the name of Superintendents, as indicative of the general charge which they were to take of the interests of religion in their respective districts. These superintendents were, John Spotswod for the Lothians; John Winram for Fife John Willock for Glasgow; John Erskine of Dun for Angus and Mearns; and John Carsewell for Argyle. It was intended by the reformers to have divided Scotland into ten districts, and to have appointed a superintendent for each; but the difficulty of obtaining suitable persons prevented the appointment of any more than the abovenamed five. With these acts Sir James Sandilands of Torphichen was sent to France, in order to obtain, if possible, their ratification by the king and queen. This, however, they refused to give, trusting to the possibility of yet restoring the Romish Church in Scotland; but as their hostility was known, their refusal gave little disturbance to the reformers, by whom indeed it seems to have been expected. As in the treaty of Edinburgh it had From the fact of the appointment of been expressly agreed that, in the parlia- these superintendents, Episcopalian wri ment which was to be held in August, ters have striven to represent the Scottish the religious matters in dispute should be reformers as favourable to diocesan Preconsidered and grievances redressed, the lacy. The utter absurdity of this notion reformers held themselves entitled to re- has been demonstrated so conclusively by gard all the decisions of that parliament many authors, that we need not expend as in reality ratified by anticipation; and our time in its refutation; it is enough to accordingly their next care was to devise refer to Calderwood, Stevenson, and what steps should now be taken for the M'Crie, or to the First Book of Discicomplete diffusion and establishment of pline, in which it manifestly appears that the Reformation throughout the kingdom. the superintendents had no one thing in Previous to the meeting of parliament, common with prelates, except the charge and during the calm which intervened of religious matters in an extensive disbetween the treaty of Edinburgh and the trict, a charge by the one class of men later period, a temporary arrangement laboriously executed, and by the other had been made, by which the chief of made a source of honour and emolument ; the reformed ministers were appointed to thus, even in this apparent similarity, reside in the most populous and impor- proving their inherent and essential diftant towns. John Knox was appointed ference. It may be added, that not only to Edinburgh; Christopher Goodman was there no essential difference between (who had been Knox's colleague at Ge- the ordination of the superintendent and neva, and had of late come to Scotland) the minister, but Erskine of Dun filled. was appointed to St. Andrews; Adam the office of a superintendent before he Heriot to Aberdeen; John Row to Perth; Paul Methven to Jedburgh; William Christison to Dundee; David Ferguson to Dumferline; and David Lindsay to Leith. But as the country parts of the kingdom were at least equally in need of ministers and instruction, and there were not yet any thing like a sufficient number of reformed ministers to supply the * M'Crie's Life of Knox, p. 203; see also Knox p. 253; Spotswood, p. 150. Calderwood, p. 14. was ordained at all; and farther, that when it was proposed to make the bishop of Galloway superintendent over Galloway, the proposal was rejected, lest the appointment of one who had been a bishop should give some colour to the idea that the office was Prelacy under a different name.† Soon after the parliament had finished Knox, p. 236; Spotswood, p. 149. + Knox, Historie, p. 263; Calderwood, p. 32. its labours and been dissolved, the civil rulers, preventing the vitiating influreformed ministers and the leading Pro-ence of worldly policy from interfering testants determined to meet and deliber- with and warping the views of our re ate respecting the measures to be next formers, who were thus not only left, adopted. On the 20th day of December | but even constrained, to follow the guid1560, they met accordingly, in Edin-ance of the sacred Word of God alone; burgh, "To consult upon those things while in almost every other country, which are to forward God's glory, and England for example, the Reformation the weil of his Kirk, in this realme." was either biassed in its course, or arAnd this was the first meeting of the rested at that stage of its progress in FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH which worldly statesmen conceived it OF SCOTLAND.' could be rendered more subservient to their own designs. But this, which is the glory and excellency of the Church of Scotland, we shall find to have been the cause of nearly all the perils wherewith she has been encompassed, and the sufferings through which she has passed, from the Reformation to the present day. 11* We have thus briefly traced the progress of the Reformation in Scotland, from its first scarcely perceptible beginning, struggling against the opposition of powerful, treacherous, and merciless antagonists, until," strong only in the Lord and in the power of His might," it surmounted all obstacles, and the ministers and elders of the Church of Scotland convened and held their General Assembly, in the name and by the sole authority of Him by whom they had been so mightily upheld, and whom alone they recognized as Head and King of the Church of Scotland. We have seen how long the early Church of Scotland, the Culdees, resisted the encroachments and the corruptions of Prelacy and Popery; with what difficulty these adherents of primitive Christianity were overborne ; how pertinaciously the people of Scotland clung to their early belief; and how readily the tenets of Wickliffe and other early reformers were received in those districts where the Culdee system had most prevailed. The dying declarations of the Scottish martyrs have called forth our admiration, and touched our sympathies; and we have traced the steady unswerving course of the undaunted Knox, as he bore right onward to the accomplishment of his one great aim,-the establishment of the blessed gospel of Christ in his native land. And we must have traced the course of these great events with unperceiving eye indeed, if we have not marked the hand of Providence guiding them all in a most peculiar manner. Even circumstances the most seemingly adverse were so overruled as to contribute to the purity and completeness of the Scottish Reformation. The alternating direct hostility and alien intrigues of the court and the CHAPTER III. FROM THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMLLY, IN 1560, TER OF THE CHURCH. First Book of Discipline-Opposition of the Nobility to its Regulations-Queen Mary's Return to ScotlandContests respecting the Mass, and respecting the Liberty of the Assembly, and the Patrimony of the Church-Proceedings against the Popish BishopsTrial of Knox for convening the Ministers-Defence by Knox of the Freedom of the Pulpit-Marriage of the Queen to Darnley-Patronage-Death of RizzioFirst National Fast-Murder of Darnley-Marriage of the Queen to Bothwell-Flight of Bothwell, and Mary's Imprisonment-Act of Parliament 1567, re cognising the Church-Powers and Jurisdiction of the Church, and its Condition at this time-The Regent Murray-his Assassination-The Regent Morton -Attempts for the Restoration of Prelacy-Convention of Leith, 1572-Tulchan Bishops-Death of John Knox-Continued Struggles of the Church against the Tulchan Bishops-Andrew Melville comes to Scotland-Commission to draw up a System of Ecclesiastical Polity and Jurisdiction-Patrick Adamson-Opposition of Melville-Morton resigns the Regency, and King James assumes the Government -The Second Book of Discipline-Conference respecting it-Its Ratification evaded-Condemnation of Episcopacy by the Assembly-Erection of Presbyteries, and Engrossment of the Second Book of Discipline in the Records of the Assembly-First National Covenant subscribed by the King-Robert Montgomery-Proceedings of the Church in his case -The Raid of Ruthven-Proceedings of the King against Melville--The Black Acts of 1584-Sufferings of the Church--Change of Measures for the betterAct of Annexation-Alarm on account of the Spanish Armada-The King sails to Norway-Peaceful State of the Church and Kingdom-The King returns and eulogizes the Church-Collision between the Court of Session and the Church-Act of Parlia ment of 1592, called the Great Charter of the Church of Scotland. THE act of the Scottish parliament, passed on the 24th August 1560, in accordance with the petition of the Scottish reformers, abrogated and annulled the pa pal jurisdiction, and all authority flowing | whom the Confession of Faith had been therefrom; but it enacted no ecclesias- composed were appointed to undertake tical jurisdiction whatever in its stead. the new and scarcely less important task. This it left the reformed Church to de- This, indeed, they had been previously termine upon and effect by its own in- desired to do by the privy council, as aptrinsic powers. And this is a fact of the pears from the preamble of their producutmost importance, which cannot be too tion. They applied themselves to their well known and kept in remembrance. task in the same spirit as before, having It is, indeed, one of the distinctive char- respect, indeed, to the circumstances and acteristics of the Church of Scotland, the exigencies of the time, but looking to that it owes its origin, its form, its juris- Divine direction and authority alone. diction, and its discipline, to no earthly "They took not their example," says power. And when the ministers and Row, "from any Kirk in the world; no, elders of the Church of Scotland resolved not from Geneva;" but their plan from to meet in a General Assembly, to delib- the sacred Scriptures. Having arranged erate on matters which might tend to the the subject under different heads, they promotion of God's glory and the wel- divided these among them; and, after fare of the Church, they did so in virtue they had finished their several parts, they of the authority which they believed the met together and examined them with Lord Jesus Christ had given to His great attention, spending much time in Church. The parliament which abol- reading and meditation on the subject, ished the papal jurisdiction made not the and in earnest prayers for Divine direcslightest mention of a General Assembly. tion. When they had drawn up the In that time of comparatively simple and whole in form, they laid it before the Genhonest faith, even statesmen seem instinc-eral Assembly, by whom it was approved, tively to have perceived, that to interfere after they had caused some of its articles in matters of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, to be abridged. At the close of the brief so as to appoint ecclesiastical tribunals, specify their nature, and assign their limits, was not within their province. It had been well for the kingdom if statesmen of succeeding times, certainly not their superiors in talent and in judgment, had been wise enough to follow their example. records of the first General Assembly, there is an intimation that the next meeting was to be held on the 15th day of January following ;* but no record appears to have been kept of that meeting; yet, as we find the Book of Discipline referred to in the next meeting of May the same year, we may conclude that it was The first meeting of the General in January that it was approved and ratiAssembly of the Church of Scotland was fied by the Assembly. It was also subheld, as has been already stated, on the mitted to the privy council; but although 20th of December 1560. The number many of the members highly approved that convened was but small, it con- of the plan, it was keenly opposed by sisted of forty members, only six of whom others. "Every thing," says Knox, were ministers; but they were men of "that repugned to their corrupt affecgreat abilities, of deep piety, and of emi- tions was termed, in their mockery, 'denent personal worth, fitted and qualified vout imaginations.' The cause we have by their Creator for the work which he before declared some were licentious, had given them to do. The very next some had greedily gripped the possesstep which was taken proved both their sions of the Church, and others thought qualifications and their zeal. It was very that they would not lack their part of clearly seen by the reformers, that the Christ's coat." This points out clearly power of discipline was essential to the enough the cause of the opposition made well-being of a Church, since without it to the Book of Discipline,-partly averpurity could not be maintained, either sion to the strict discipline which it apamong the people or the ministers them-pointed to be exercised against vice, and selves. They determined, therefore, to partly from reluctance to comply with its draw up a book in which there should be requisition for the appropriation of the a complete system of ecclesiastical government; and the same eminent men by Booke of the Universall Kirk, p. 5. revenues of the Popish Church to the support of the new religious and literary establishments. But though not formally ratified by the privy council, it was subscribed by the greater part of the nobility and barons, members of the council, and thereby virtually ratified. The document deserves to be recorded : "At Edinburgh, 17th January 1561. doctor or teacher, whose province it was to interpret Scripture and confute errors, including those who taught theology in schools and universities; the ruling elder, who assisted the minister in exercising ecclesiastical discipline and government and the deacon, who had the special charge of the revenues of the Church and the poor. To these permanent office "We, who have subscribed these pres-bearers there were added two others, of ents, having advised with the articles a temporary character. It has been herein specified, as is above mentioned, already stated, that, in the arrangement from the beginning of this book, think entered into previous to the first General the same good, and conform to God's Assembly, there were only twelve reWord in all points,-conform to the notes formed ministers to preach the gospel and additions hereto eiked; and promise throughout the whole kingdom; and to set the same forward to the uttermost that, to accomplish the utmost possible of our powers. Providing that the amount of duty by so small a number, bishops, abbots, priors, and other prelates seven were placed in the chief towns, and beneficed men which else have ad- and large country districts were assigned joined themselves to us, bruik [enjoy] to each of the remaining five. These the revenues of their benefices during five were called superintendents; and their lifetimes; they sustaining and up- their duty was, to travel from place to holding the ministry and ministers, as place throughout their districts, for the herein is specified, for the preaching of purpose of preaching, planting churches, the Word, and ministering of the sacra- and inspecting the conduct of the coun ments." try ministers, where there were any, To this, termed by several writers and of another temporary class of men "An act of the secret council," which in- termed Exhorters and Readers. This deed it was, being subscribed by a large latter class consisted of the most pious majority, there were affixed the names persons that could be found, who, having of the Duke of Chatelherault, the Earls received a common education, were able of Arran, Argyle, Glencairn, Rothes, to read to their more ignorant neighMarischal, Monteith, and Morton, Lords bours, though not qualified for the minisJames Stewart, Boyd, Yester, Ochiltree, try. When the readers were found to Lindsay, Sanquhar, St. John of Torphi- have discharged their duty well, and to chen, the Master of Maxwell, the Master have increased in their own knowledge, of Lindsay, Drumlanrig, Lochinvar, they were encouraged to add a few plain Garlies, Balgarnie, Cunninghamhead, exhortations to the reading of the ScripAlexander Gordon, bishop of Galloway, tures; and then they were termed ExAlexander Campbell, dean of Murray, horters. If they still continued to imand others of less note. prove, they might finally be admitted to the ministry. To search out, employ, and watch over the conduct of such men, giving them instruction from time to time, was the chief duty of the superintendent, from which, indeed, he derived his name, so naturally expressive of his duty,-a duty the very nature of which shows it to have been temporary, and intended to expire whenever the necessities which called it into being should have been removed by a sufficiency of qualified ministers. As the Book of Discipline contains the deliberate opinions of the Scottish reformers respecting what they regarded as the fundamental principles of the Church which they were labouring to establish in Scotland, it seems necessary to give a brief abstract of those principles, that the reader may the better know what the Church of Scotland, from its beginning, has either been or striven to be. The ordinary and permanent officebearers of the Church were of four kinds: the minister or pastor, to whom the preaching of the gospel and administration of the sacraments belonged; the No person was allowed to preach, or to administer the sacraments, till he was regularly called to his employment. Ordinary vocation [calling] consisteth | In towns a sermon was regularly preachin election, examination, and admission." ed on one day of the week besides the "It appertaineth to the people, and to Sabbath: and on almost every day the every several congregation, to elect their people had an opportunity of hearing minister." "For altogether this is to be public prayers and the reading of the avoided, that any man be violently in- Scriptures. Baptism was never dispensed truded or thrust in upon any congrega- unless it was accompanied with preachtion; but this liberty, with all care, must ing or catechising. The Lord's Supper be reserved to every several church, to was administered four times a-year in have their votes and suffrages in election towns; the sign of the cross in baptizing, of their ministers." The examination and kneeling at the Lord's table, were was appointed to take place "in open forbidden; and anniversary holidays were assembly, and before the congregation," abolished. to satisfy the church as to his soundness in the faith; his "gifts, utterance, and knowledge" his willingness to undertake the charge; the purity of his motives; and his resolution to discharge the duties of his office with diligence and fidelity. Admission then took place by the person being solemnly set apart by prayer, at first without imposition of hands, which, however, was afterwards appointed to be done. Superintendents were admitted in the same way as other ministers, were tried by the same church courts, liable to the same censures, and might be deposed for the same crimes. The affairs of each congregation were managed by the minister, elders, and deacons, who constituted the kirk-session, which met regularly once a week, and oftener if business required. There was also a meeting, called the weekly exercise, or prophesying, held in every considerable town, consisting of the ministers, exhorters, and educated men in the vicinity, for expounding the Scriptures. This was afterwards converted into the presbytery, or classical assembly. The superintendent met with the ministers and delegated elders of his district twice a year, in the provincial Synod, which took cognizance of ecclesiastical affairs within its bounds. And the General Assembly, which was composed of ministers and elders commissioned from the different parts of the kingdom, met twice, sometimes thrice, in a year, and attended to the interests of the National Church. Public worship was attended to in such a manner, as to show the estimation in which it was held by our reformers. On Sabbath days the people assembled twice for public worship; and, the better to instruct the ignorant, catechising was substituted for preaching in the afternoon. Education was very justly regarded as of the utmost importance, and deserving every possible encouragement. It was stated as imperatively necessary, that there should be a school in every parish, for the instruction of youth in the principles of religion, grammar, and the Latin tongue; and it was farther proposed, that a college should be erected in every "notable town," in which logic and rhetoric should be taught, along with the learned languages. It was even suggested that parents should not be permitted to neg lect the education of their children; but that the nobility and gentry should be obliged to do so at their own expense; and that a fund should be provided for the education of the children of the poor, who discovered talents and aptitude for learning. To carry these important measures into effect, permanent funds were requi site; and for these they naturally looked to the patrimony of the Church. The hierarchy had been abolished, and the popish clergy excluded from all religious services, by the alterations which the parliament had introduced; and whatever provision it was proper to allot for the dismissed incumbents during life, it was unreasonable that they should continue to enjoy those emoluments which were attached to offices for which they had been found totally unfit. No successors could be appointed to them; and there was not any individual or class of men in the nation, who could justly claim a title to the rents of their benefices. The compilers of the Book of Discipline, therefore, pro posed that the patrimony of the Church should be appropriated, in the first instance, to the support of the new ecclesiastical establishment. Under this designation they included the ministry, the |