order in all ecclesiastical matters in their the Church was at once rescued from didioceses; and, That none should pre-rect persecution; but the lords were more sume, in private or public, in sermons, intent on securing their own interests with or familiar conferences, to censure the the capricious and yet obstinate monarch, conduct of the king, his council, and pro- than on restoring the rights and priviceedings, under the penalties of treason- leges of which the Church had been deable offences, to be executed with all prived by Arran's infamous parliament. rigour. These BLACK ACTS, containing They excused themselves by the comthe very essence of despotism, were pas- mon plea of temporising insincerity, that sed on the 22d of May, publicly pro- it was not expedient yet to annoy the claimed on the 25th, and basely submit- king by pressing the abolition of Prelacy, ted to by the nobility, barons, and gentry, to which he was so much attached. being opposed alone by the ministers, And, at the same time, the Church was the dauntless guardians of civil and reli- somewhat divided, in consequence of gious liberty. "There was a spirit some ministers having been induced to awakened in Scotland, mightier far than subscribe the servile bond of the Black acts of parliament or the influence of the Acts. Animadversions, supplications, The spirit of her ministers was and declarations, passed between the king not crushed: they fought on steadily to and the Assembly, which met in Decemthe end." ber; but nothing of a definite nature was concluded.

court.

Great was the sufferings and protracted the struggle of the Church. Up- [1586.] In April, 1586, the synod of wards of twenty ministers were compel- Fife excommunicated Adamson, pretendled to save their lives by a flight to Eng-ed archbishop of St. Andrews; and Adland. A bond was drawn up by Adam- amson retaliated by excommunicating son, to be subscribed by all ministers Andrew Melville, his nephew James, within forty days, obliging themselves to and some other ministers. This matter submit to the king's power over all es- was brought before the Assembly in May, tates, spiritual and temporal, and to the and after long and sharp controversy, bishops, under the pain of losing their the king used every method to gain his stipends; with certification, that they purpose, by intimidation, by flattery of who did not submit within the given individuals, and by deceptive promises, time shoud not be received afterwards, the sentence was held to be regarded as but underlie the penalty without relief. not pronounced, many protesting against The most of them refused to subscribe; this deliverance. The king was pecubut an ambigious and deceptive clause liarly urgent with the Assembly to have was introduced by Adamson, by which the pre-eminence of bishops over their several were beguiled into subscription. brethren recognized, if not on the ground [1585.] But as the arrogance and ty- of jurisdiction, yet on that of order; ranny of Arran were boundless, and as but the utmost he could obtain was the the kingdom in general sympathized answer, "That it could not stand with with the suffering ministers, and as even the word of God; only they must tolerJames himself began to grow weary of ate it, if it be forced upon them by the his domineering favourite, it became evi- civil authority.* dent that a change of administration must speedily ensue. The banished lords returned from England in October 1585; crowds of supporters flocked to them from all quarters; they advanced towards Stirling, where the king and Arran then were; and entering the town, Arran fled, and the king received them into favour, and deprived his unworthy minion of all his previous ill-got power and honours. By this new change of administration

* Dean of Faculty Hope-Speech, Auchterarder Case, p. 205.

in

[1587.] Scarcely anything of marked importance occurred during the year 1587. Some slight contests there were, deed, between the king and the ministers, respecting praying for Queen Mary, who was still alive, but her life placed in the most imminent peril, in consequence of the jealousy of Elizabeth and the plots of the Papists. By a parliament held in July, such lands of the Church as had not been already bestowed inalienably upon the nobles or landed gentry, were

annexed to the crown. This act, detach- | picion respecting his own stability on the ing the Church lands from all connec- Scottish throne, in case of his mother's tion with ecclesiastical persons, was a liberation, induced him to desire to keep fatal blow to the order of bishops, ren- on favourable terms with the popish dering the subsequent endeavours of sovereigns, and that party in his own James and his successors to restore them realm. While the death of Mary relieved to their pristine dignity and authority ut him from one cause of his embarrassterly hopeless. It might have proved a ment, it tended to throw him into another fertile source of revenue to the crown, line of policy scarcely more favourable had not the facile disposition of James to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. led him to bestow the titles to these lands Keeping in view his succession to the lavishly on almost any one who requested English throne, he thought it necessary them; as, being generally held at that to conciliate the English Church as far time by annuitants, he could not himself as possible, by making known his deciimmediately obtain possession, and little ded preference to a prelatical form of valued property in prospect. But he ac- church government. To this, indeed, companied his own prodigal act with one his own despotic principles naturally inof injustice, in conferring, along with clined him, having found by experience these Church lands, the patronages which how much more easily a bench of bishops, had formerly belonged to their ecclesias- seated among the temporal lords, might tical proprietors, and which he thus ar- be brow-beaten or cajolled, than a free bitrarily converted into lay patronages. Assembly of high principled and fearOf this arbitrary conduct even Sir George less Presbyterian ministers. Mackenzie says, "There could be no- The same considerations led him to thing so unjust as these patronages." concur readily in the political schemes of Against them the Church promptly and Elizabeth. And as Philip of Spain, after strongly protested, in the Assembly long preparation, was now putting in mowhich met in August the following year.* tion the whole power of his vast empire [1588] The year 1588 was one of for the dethronement of the English great importance for Scotland and for queen, the Scottish monarch consented to Europe. We have had occasion to refer make common cause with her against to the leagues of the popish sovereigns the common enemy of the Protestant for the utter destruction of Protestantism, faith. Nobly did the Scottish Church in which both the queen-regent and exert herself in this dark and threatening Queen Mary were deeply implicated, and period. An extraordinary meeting of on account of which they were continu- the Assembly was called, to deliberate ally the objects of jealousy and distrust what steps ought to be taken in this omito their Protestant subjects. Nor did nous aspect of public affairs. A deputaKing James escape similar suspicion and tion was sent to the king, to rouse him to distrust. In the early part of his reign, due activity; and though he at first when guided by his favourites Lennox seemed inclined to resent this, as an inand Arran, it was currently believed terference with his administration, yet that the former was in correspondence the formidable nature of the impending with the popish sovereigns on the Conti- danger induced him to name a committee nent, and that the proceedings of James of the privy council, to co-operate with against the Church were chiefly intended the commissioners of the Church in proeither to overthrow the Church of Scot- viding for the public safety. A solemn land, and reintroduce Popery, or at least bond of allegiance and mutual defence to secure the support of the great Conti- was framed, approved by his majesty, nental powers in his pretensions to the zealously promoted by the ministers of throne of England on the death of Eliz- the Church, and sworn by all ranks, abeth. And although there is no rea- knitting the kingdom together by a sason to suppose that James did really in-cred and patriotic tie. The Spanish artend the overthrow of the reformed religion in this country, yet a certain sus

mada, fondly termed invincible, was soon after checked and baffled by the determined courage and persevering energy of the English fleet, then smitten and

scattered over the stormy ocean by the | What have they for them? they have no avenging hand of Omnipotence. institution. As for our neighbour Kirk in England, their service is an evil-said mass in English; they want nothing of the mass but the liftings. I charge you, my good people, ministers, doctors, elders, nobles, gentlemen, and barons, to stand to your purity; and I, forsooth, so long as I brook my life and crown, shall maintain the same against all deadly." This speech was received by the Assembly with a transport of joy, "there was nothing heard for a quarter of an hour, but praising God, and praying for the king."

[1589.] This signal deliverance, and the zeal and energy displayed by the Church in the hour of danger, produced a beneficial influence upon both the king and the nation. An insurrection attempted by the popish party, of whom the Earls of Huntly, Errol, and Crawford | were the leaders, was speedily put down; and the king was earnestly urged to suppress Popery, and especially to expel from the kingdom the jesuit emissaries of the king of Spain. And the Church, putting forth its own powers, excommunicated Patrick Adamson, for performing the ceremony of marriage, uniting the popish Earl of Huntly to a lady of the Lennox family.

On the 22d of October, the same year, the king set sail for Norway, to meet the princess of Denmark, to whom he had been previously contracted; and their marriage was solemnized at Upsal, on the 24th of November. Before he departed he had appointed a provisional government to conduct public affairs during his absence; nominating Robert Bruce, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, an extraordinary member of the privy council; and declaring that he reposed more confidence in him and his brethren, for preserving the country in peace, than he did in all his nobility. Nor was he disappointed. During the six months that the king was absent, the kingdom exhibited a scene of unwonted tranquillity; and the king was so sensible of the valuable services of the Church, that in his letters to Bruce, he declared that he was "worth the quarter of his kingdom."

[1590.] When the king returned in May 1590, he took the earliest opportunity of acknowledging his grateful sense of the valuable services rendered to him by the Church, and gave promise of removing all remaining grievances, and providing better measures for the future. In the Assembly which met in August, he pronounced his celebrated panegyric on the purity of the Church of Scotland. "He praised God that he was born in such a time as in the time of the light of the Gospel, and in such a place as to be king in such a Kirk, the sincerest Kirk in the world." "The Kirk of Geneva," continued he, "keepeth Pash and Yule.

[1591.] Nothing of public importance occurred in the year 1591, except the recantation of Patrick Adamson, whose dissolute life had at length so disgusted the king, that he ceased to protect and support him; and the miserable victim of ambition was reduced to such extremities, as to be supported by the charity of Andrew Melville, the man whom he had so often maligned and persecuted; and who, in his time of distress, pitied, relieved, and forgave him. The unhappy man, tortured by remorse, and wasted by immorality, sunk into dotage, and died early in the following year.†

An incident took place the same year, which we should not have deemed of sufficient importance to mention, had it not been for the reflex value given to it by the occurrence of modern times. It was a collision between the judicatories of the Church and the Court of Session. The transaction was of a somewhat complicated nature. Graham of Hallyards, it appears, had corrupted a notary public to authenticate by his signature a forged instrument, by means of which Graham intended to defraud the feuars of some property belonging to his wife. The matter becoming suspected, the notary was imprisoned, and during his confinement confessed to Patrick Simpson of Stirling, the minister by whom he was visited, that he had been guilty of the crime. Graham accused Simpson of having suborned the poor notary; and the Assembly took up the case, as impli cating the character of the minister. The Lord President, and two other Lords of Session, appeared before the Assembly, requiring them not to proceed with a cause which was within the jurisdiction

*

Calderwood, p. 286.

† Ibid., pp. 259-264,

of the Court of Session, and already be- ing them, with the jurisdiction and disfore that court. The Assembly declared cipline belonging to them, to be in all that they had no intention to interfere time coming most just, good, and godly, with any civil matter; but that, as the notwithstanding whatsoever statutes, acts, case in question related to the character and laws, canon, civil, or municipal, of a minister, and to his discharge of his made to the contrary. It ratified and empastoral functions, it was ecclesiastical, bodied also some of the leading proposi and belonged primario to the jurisdiction tions in the Second Book of Discipline, of the Church. Another attempt was relating to the power of these judicatories. made by the Court of Session to set aside It appointed General Assemblies to be this determination; but the Lord Justice held once every year, or oftener, pro re naClerk being "demanded if he acknow- ta, as occasion should require; the time and ledged the judgment and jurisdiction of place of next meeting to be appointed by the Kirk or not?" he answered, "that he his majesty or his commissoner, or, proacknowledged with reverence the judg- v ded neither of them should be present, ment of the Assembly in all causes ap- by the Assembly itself. It declared that pertaining to them; objecting, however, the act of the parliament 1584, respecting that this was a civil cause, and that there- the royal supremacy, should be in nowise fore the Lords were primario judices." prejudicial to the privileges of the officeThe Assembly repelled the objection, bearers of the Church concerning heads found themselves judges in the first in- of religion, matters of heresy, excommustance, and, notwithstanding the protest nication, the appointment or deprivation of the Lord Justice Clerk, proceeded to of ministers, or any such essential centry and determine the case. The civil sures, warranted by the Word of God. court thought proper to relinquish any And it declared the act of the same parfarther direct interference, but tried the liament, granting commission to bishops cause in their own way, and left the and other judges appointed by his majesChurch to do the same; which seems, ty in ecclesiastical causes, to be null, and indeed, to be the proper mode of avoiding of no avail, force, or effect in time comcollisions between co-ordinate jurisdic-ing; and ordained presentations to be ditions.*

rected to presbyteries, who should have full power to give collation to benefices, and to manage all ecclesiastical causes within their bounds, provided they admitted such qualified ministers as were presented by his majesty or other lay pa

[1592.] On the 22d of May 1592, the General Assembly met at Edinburgh, Robert Bruce, moderator. As the king had appeared more favourable to the Church ever since he had experienced its power to promote the peace of the coun-trons. try during his absence in Norway, this was thought a fitting time to procure an amicable settlement of the protracted conflicts between the Church and the court. Articles, embodying the chief requests of the Church, were accordingly drawn up and presented to the king. When the parliament met in June, the same year, these articles were taken into consideration, and an act was passed, greatly through the influence of the Chancellor Maitland, not, indeed, granting all that the Church desired, but of a much more complete and satisfactory nature than any previous legislative enactment.

The act 1592 ratified the General Assemblies, Synods, Presbyteries, and particular Sessions of the Church; declar

Spotswood, p. 384; Booke of the Universall Kirk, pp. 354, 355; Baillie, Vindication, pp. 62, 63.

In another part of the same act it was provided, that in case a presbytery should refuse to admit a qualified minister presented by the patron, it should be lawful to the patron to retain the whole fruits of that benefice in his own hands. Such were the main provisions of the celebrated act 1592; and, notwithstanding several imperfections, both in what it enacts and in what it omits, it was then, and has ever since been regarded, as THE GREAT CHARTER OF THE CHURCHOF SCOTLAND.

*

It deserves to be peculiarly remarked, that some of the peculiarities of the act 1592, c, 116, are directly favourable to the Church in that very respect in which they have been thought unfavourable. No express mention is made of the Second Book of Discipline, but certain of its main topics are ratified, while others are apparently passed over. Hence it has been argued, that nothing has been ratified to the Church but what

is specifically mentioned in the act itself, and that every other proposition in the Book of Discipline must be held to have been rejected. The true reason of this peculiarity in the act appears to be the following:→

By this act of parliament the Church | would be, to secure to a spiritual Church of Scotland was placed in a much better the freest and fullest possible developeposition for promoting the public welfare, ment of its own sacred laws and disciwhich is the great end of any Church, pline, assured that they would thereby than she had previously occupied. Not best promote that which ought to be their that she regarded any parliamentary en- chief object, the true welfare of the actment as the basis of her religious con- nation. stitution, but as merely a legal recognition of those sacred and intrinsic powers, which she had always claimed as belonging to her by scriptural institution, and the gift of her Divine Head and King; and which she had already, in her Books

CHAPTER IV.

IN 1592, TO THE RATIFICATION OF THE FIVE
ARTICLES OF PERTH, IN THE YEAR 1621.

of Discipline, stated, proved, and put into FROM THE GREAT CHARTER OF THE CHURCH, execution on the sole authority of the Word of God. The attentive reader must have perceived how. steadily the Remarks on the Act 1592-Detection of the Conspiracy

Church pursued her course, amidst the ever-shifting phases of the political world; at one time countenanced and supported; at another, opposed, calumniated, and persecuted, according to the varying character and aims of successive civil administrations. But while politicians intrigued, rose into power, plunged into criminal excesses, fell, and perished, the Church displayed the calm grandeur of an institution resting upon the fixed principles of eternal truth, and, whether suffering or triumphant, maintaining her integrity, and following with firm, though bleeding steps, the path of right, of mercy, and of love to God and man. From this statesmen might have learned ---will they yet learn?—that the Church may be cast down, but cannot be destroyed; that their own devices against her will but issue, sooner or later, in their own ruin; that even sound political sagacity might warn them not to incur the hazard of shattering into fragments their own frail schemes of human expediency against the adamantine strength of sacred principles; and that their wisest measure

to government and jurisdiction by Assemblies, Synods, tion, whilst others were at once ratified. Now, on

of the Popish Lords-Duplicity of the King-Excommunication of the Popish Lords by the Synod of Fife-Act of Abolition-Secret Motives of the KingRatification of the Synod's Sentence by the Assembly-Support given to the King by the Church-Proposal of a regular arrangement for fixed and local Stipends-Reforming Assembly of 1596-Renewal of the National Covenant-Fresh Alarms from the Popish Lords-Deceitful conduct of the King-Interview between the King and Andrew Melville-Jealousy between the Court and the Church-Proceedings against David Black-He declines the Jurisdiction of the Civil Court, in the first instance-The Church addresses the King-A Tumult in Edinburgh -Proceedings of the Court-The Ministers of Edinburgh expelled-First Corrupt General Assembly held at Perth-Commissioners of the Church appointed to deliberate with the King-Proposal to admit Representatives from the Church into Parliament, 1697-Partially carried in 1598-Completed in 1600Three Ministers secretly appointed to Bishoprics— The Basilicon Doron-The Gowrie Conspiracy-Injurious Consequences to the Church-Robert Bruce banished by the King-The Covenant virtually renewed by the King-Assembly of 1602, the last free Assembly-Case of Semple-The Accession of James to the Throne of England-Hampton Court Conference-Proposals for a Union of Scotland and England-Alarm of the Church-Arbitrary Prorogation of the Assembly-Held at Aberdeen in 1605, notwithstanding the Royal Prorogation-Banishment of the Ministers-Parliament restores the Temporalities of Bishops in 1606-Andrew Melville summoned to London, imprisoned, and banished-Constant Moderators appointed-Parliament restores the Civil Jurisdic tion to Bishops in 1609-Court of High Commission in 1610-The Assembly restores the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Bishops in 1610-This Act ratified by Parliament in 1612-New Confession of Faith in 1616Calderwood banished-Five Articles of Perth in 1618 -Ratified by Parliament in 1621-Reflections.

ALTHOUGH the act of parliament passed in the year 1592, and commonly known When the Second Book of Discipline was laid before as the Great Charter of the Church of the privy council, certain articles, chiefly those relating Scotland, was then, and must always be, and Presbyteries, were referred to farther considera- regarded as a very important measure, comparing the copy of the Book of Discipline in Spots- giving legislative sanction to most of the wood, where the marginal comments of the privy chief principles of the government and that none of those marked "agreed" are contained in discipline of the Church, yet it was not are. From this the conclusion seems inevitable, that without several decidedly serious defects. having already agreed to these in the privy council, it It was evasive in its recognition of the had been left for future consideration, and, conse- Book of Discipline, as if leaving it open quently, that partly by the concurrence of the privy to dispute whether the engrossing of some bined, the whole of the Second Book of Discipline was of the provisions of that book, formerly "referred," was to be regarded as an im

council are given, with the act 1592, it is remarkable

the act, while the chief of those marked "referred"

was not held necessary to specify any but those which

council in 1578, and partly by the act 1592, thus com

ratified, and became the law of the land, as well as the law of the Church.